TNA and NXT’s Partnership, New Creative in AEW, and Files Not Found — WWE, AEW July 14-20

Brad and Tyler discuss the recent success of TNA's partnership with WWE following Sunday's Slammiversary pay-per-view, including the return of AJ Styles. They also discuss Bayley versus Lyra Valkyria, Stephanie Vaquer's week, and more. Later, Brad wants to know where we should rank Stokely Hathaway, and Tyler asks which member of the AEW roster will break out post-All In.

Other topics include:

• Campus Clean-Up
• Epstein Files
• Shane Gillis at the ESPYs

Follow the show for exclusive updates.
Social: @gipod19
Web: gimmickinfringementpod.com, 19mediagroup.com
Goods: https://19-media-group.myspreadshop.com

0:00 Intro15:50 What Happened Here 
23:10 Steph Watch
24:52 WWE — TNA and NXT’s Partnership, AJ Styles, and Asuka’s Thougts
48:09 It’s a Work — The Epstein Files
53:10 AEW — New Creative for AEW and Big Stoke’s Place in the Pantheon
1:09:53 What We Missed
1:13:29 Closing

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
And now Jammage Infringemen.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Welcome everybody to the Gimmick Infringement Podcast. I am Brad
Winchester and with me is always is my tag team
partner Tyler McDowell, Blake and Tyler. I missed countdown today.
I didn't see the countdown. I started yammering and then
I saw a countdown. We're on a different platform now
and this is our first recording there. Before we start,
before I get an up date from you, I have
to give an update based on GI at the movie

(00:31):
Superman Edition. My mom and dad went today, and right
before we started recording, I had a text message pop up.
My mom does not like sci fi or superhero movies
at all. She went absolutely loved the movie. Thought it
was great. She's like, the special effects alone were great,
but I just loved the movie. That is a glowing, glowing,

(00:53):
glowing recommendation, if ever I had one. If people were
on the fence about going seeing to see this movie
liked it, you have to go.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
That's that's it. How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:03):
First of all, I see you, Sherry. That's a that's
a huge update. That's really a pivotal endorsement. Brad Okay
that's I still have not seen it. Admittedly, this is
the moment where I would say, oh, Brad, you know
I saw it, and I agree with you all. It
was great. You've been busy, Yes, the first week at
a new job. I think our audience knows how this goes,
regardless of career field, especially in education, the onboarding process,

(01:25):
the the policies, the new faces, the new names, the
where do you get this? Who do you go do
for that? Yeah, it was. It was a very informative week,
a blessed week as well, and I'm excited for for
what's to come the school year.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
How you been been good?

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Ben?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Been busy? This week?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Was was a weird week, you know, Monday, Monday morning.
Now is back in the auditorium and getting set up
for a four day long presentation. Yesterday I went back
in there, actually yesterday and Friday, I went back in
and did a lot of work, a lot of leaning.
Had had a student with me the whole time helping out,

(02:03):
had an extra hand. Yesterday we moved a server cart
up the light booth stairwell, which that stairwell is not
It's just ninety degree turns and really short landings and
it was a lot, man, it was a lot.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
It was who stands on the on the.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Staircase side, because that's the person that's most likely gonna
die if something goes awry. So of course I had
the students down there because I wasn't gonna risk it.
So we got the cart up to the top and
it was It was a lot of work and felt
really felt really good. It felt really accomplished. I felt

(02:44):
really accomplished afterward. There's miles to go, so much more
work to do. I don't think I'll ever get all
of it done at the start of the school year,
but I just feel like it. It was a good
start and I'm happy that we're rolling on now. I
haven't talked to you about any of these things yet.
I haven't talked to you about your thoughts, but maybe

(03:06):
I'll save it for what do we miss? But did
you catch the sps? Did you catch the w NBA
All Star Game?

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Tyler? Yes? I caught Yes. With an asterisk, I caught
the beginning of the sp So I saw Shane James
MONOLOGUEA Okay, where are we at with Shane Gillis? There
are two very different sides the Shane Gillis experience on
the timeline Now, unlike you know many other famous people,
Where's Brad Winchester. Rat with Shane Gilliss? What what did

(03:33):
you think of the sp monologue?

Speaker 2 (03:34):
I wrote this in my what did We Miss for
the Week? Shane Gillis has met with the kind of
reaction you'd assume would happen from a Shane Gillis performance.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah, that's overrat.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
I think I think people that's very familiar with like,
I can't believe he would say something like that, like
the waffle house comment. Most of the people that I
saw online that were outraged, we were white folks about
that particular comment. The I thought, I thought the WNBA
comment was was hilarious, being like shout out to WNBA

(04:06):
star whoever it was. It's like, I'm just kidding, that's
my friend. I knew none of you would know who
these people are. Was probably not the best thing in
the world to say. Uh for the w NBA, I
didn't love that, but also, I mean it was kind
of funny.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
It was it was a funny joke. With how many people.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Clapped, I just feel like it felt.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Like an indictment joke, and I didn't like that part.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
And was the critique about the w and his players
or was it about people on the timeline and other
places who claimed to be about the WU and about supporting,
you know, women in sports, but don't know, don't know
that athletes or don't really follow as close as they
would portray themselves. He's a very tantalizing, is the right word.

(04:54):
But he's divisive and he.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Lives on that line though, and I think he dies
that line.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Really.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
I don't think the the.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
I don't know of throwing out the gay joke was
the best thing in the world. The hay girl thing
bugged me and rubbed a bunch of athletes the wrong way.
I know Lebron was pretty upset about it too. That
that was the only one where I went like, now,
I wouldn't have done that one the other ones. I
thought the Caitlyn Clark joke was hilarious.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
I'm not gonna lie to you. I laughed. That one
got me. That one popt me.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
But it also made me go like, how do people
feel about him giving that joke? And that's the part
that I that I wonder about. But I think I
think sometimes I think sometimes we try to read into it,
especially the two of us who come from a background
of analyze the words. I think we try to find

(05:48):
the subtext and try to find all of these different
things and motivation and historical rationale and all of the
reasons for the joke instead of well, maybe it was
just a funny basketball joke. And I don't know if
that's where it is either. I felt like I needed
permission to laugh at some of it, and I think
that's where I am with it, And hopefully that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Oh, it does. And it's a reflection of where we're
at with comedy as well, particularly now with again the
advent and social media playing such a critical role in entertainment.
What's that line that you've referenced, Brad, that comedians have
to have to kind of, you know, do that push
him pull between? Okay, comedy should always be edgy, but

(06:30):
I think now we have a lot of heightened sensitivities
toward if you're mocking a certain demographic of people, that's okay.
Let's say Richard Pryor could get away with that decades ago,
but now it's a different landscape. And how do you
He's very interesting, I will say, and you know this
I've said it on air before. Actually, I do enjoy Tires,

(06:51):
the show he I believe co created and stars in
on Netflix. Season one was pretty much missed for me,
but season two was awesome. Really enjoyed it. When I
watch it, I just it's Shane Gillis to the max.
So to your point, I think I think I was
prepared for his style. So yeah, I was pretty indifferent
about it. It's what I expected it to be. Some

(07:12):
of the jokes I did find funny, and it just
his delivery and his brand is different than historically what
I'm used to in comedy. So for him, it's a
big look to be on that stage, a new name,
at least for me in the comedy business. To your point,
I know there was a lot of critique online, which
is perhaps unsurprising. Admittedly, I need to watch the rest

(07:33):
of the show. I caught the beginning and then I
want to say, I went to Big Brother or maybe
Dynamite or something else.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
So it wasn't that.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, it wasn't. I didn't want to watch the rest
of the show, but you know how it goes. Wednesday's
a stack night of television here in Glendale. In terms
of the WNBA All Star Game. I thought it was
a downgrade from last year. Brad, I was really disappointed
the game itself. Team fee absolutely stacked, not surprising that

(08:03):
they would be up by twenty at halftime. However, what
did surprise me was the lack of defense in the game.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Oh my goodness, thank you and.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
How do I want to phrase this? Okay, Glorilla love.
I love supporting a Memphis artist. She is Memphis to
the max, shout out to nine oh one. I have
a lot of affinity for the city. When I watched
her halftime performance, I felt every bit of thirty two

(08:33):
that I am even I even hit up a friend
of mine that this is a Kim Thompson moment. Kim
a former dear colleague who whose family has been a
longtime fans of the wn of the Mercury since its
inception in the nineties. She's a real one. I even
hit up Kim, who's older than me, and we agreed, oh,
we have no idea what Glorilla is saying. And then

(08:55):
so I kind of We did some research on Memphis,
and when you listen to more Memphis accents, you start
to get a little bit more. But anyway, shout out
to Glorilla and her success. What do I know, Brad,
I'm a thirty something single dude to co host a podcast.
Glorilla is one of the emerging artists of hip hop.
But the halftime performance the game, it just didn't resonate

(09:20):
with me the way I thought it would. Last year's
All Star Weekend was awesome. With this one, you also
had Caitlin Clark being injured and she was supposed to
be a central figure in all this. But love seeing
Natasha Cloud when the skills contest. I love seeing her
teammates Sabrina and Enescu win the three point contest. So

(09:41):
Friday to me was better, a better viewing experienced than Saturday,
And I actually thought it was probably going to be
more equal, if not flipped around heading into this All
Star break Let's say you.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
I popped in at the end of the first at
the start of the second quarter, I was like, Oh, shoot,
I can't watch this. I can't watch this live. Then
I realized it was on Disney Plots and I could
just emit. And because I went to the app and
I was like, oh, certainly League Pass is going to
have this on the app.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
But nope.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
So I had to get because it was nationally broadcast.
But luckily ABC was doing it through Disney Plus, so
I was able to watch it. And I picked up
at the start of the second quarter and I saw
the score and it was like forty nine points?

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Are they trying?

Speaker 2 (10:20):
I wrote down in my notes, Tyler, the WNBA All
Star Game made me miss Kobe Bryant. I need they
need somebody to come out in the All Star Game
and just defensively floor somebody and set the tone.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Early, because that's our critique of the men's game. That's
why I just I watched the player intros. But in
terms of the NBA All Star Weekend.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
It was like it was like the Pro Bowl.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
It was just like they've been down bad for a while.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
It's like watching it's like watching Summer League, but with
stars in it.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
I don't want to watch.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
This is bad. I mean, it's it's a glorified exhibition.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah, and it is an exhibition, but like, you know,
give give me surpride, go like I want to win,
not just I want to Yeah, it's.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Like a practice. It's like practice. I think practice is
maybe the better word than exhibition. There's just no defense.
I'm a practice man, not a game practice. Yeah, it
was kind of a downer. I'm sure the league will
make it up come post season time. But when I
found more interesting Ben Shane gillis or than the actual
WNBA All Star Game itself was and continues to be,

(11:25):
the ongoing labor negotiations and the CBA of it all.
Big ups to Desmond pal Fellow NTY Team media group
teammate host of itif to the Games for joining us
last week for our WNBA special. If you haven't checked
that out, please do so. We love having Dez on
so Brad. The CBA of it all, with the players
wearing pay us what You Owe Us t shirts, that

(11:46):
being acknowledged on the broadcast, that's what really piqued my interest.
At The WNDA is as popular as it's ever been.
And they're also coming up on this watershed moment of
how is Kathy Engelbert and company in the league office
going to handle this? Because WNBA players, when you look
at those salaries, Brad.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
That's pathetic.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
It's salaries.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Kaitlyn. Yeah, Kaitlyn Clarks is making seventy thousand dollars last year.
The calculus people may say Oh, well, the WNB isn't
you know, they're not bringing a consistent revenue in this,
that and the other. I just more obviously, I find
that hard to believe. Man. It's it's the league is
on fire right now, and I'm grateful that you and

(12:29):
I are living in the time where we have GI
and we we know so many people in our lives
who rock with the WNBA across gender lines, and I
think it's only going to get bigger and better from here,
So that that part really is what I was focusing
on as well. They're not shying away from from the
CBA of this, because it was it was constantly brought
up on the broadcast. The women seem very much united,

(12:51):
and I'm curious to see heading into next year, heading
into the postseason and the off season and next season,
how this is all going to play out, because I
would hate for the league to potentially halt some of
this momentum. But at the same time, I am completely
pro player and completely in love with the idea of
players banding together and and you know, demanding demanding better

(13:16):
facilities and pay.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Well, I hope they get bigger and better, but I
hope that they build an a legacy plan for people that
have had lead pass before they blow up. If they
increase prices.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Because that thirty four dollars for a year, is that
is so nice?

Speaker 1 (13:30):
We got to enjoy that well last yeah, yea, yeah,
I have advantage of that. Yeah, I have a feeling that.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
This might be the last year that that's happening. But
even if it goes to fifty bucks, it's worth it,
Like it's that's a steal, Oh my god. But I
also hope they expand the season and give us some
more games than that. There's really not very many games.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
What is a sixty game forty forties? Currently it's about forties.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Oh yeah, yeah that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, we don't we don't need we don't need eighty two.
But I think there's definitely a design to increase the
regular season. So, like you said, maybe let's even say fifty.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, because when you're looking at it and it's like
we're at the halfway point and the you know, there's
the number one team has fifteen wins or fourteen wins,
it's like fourteen Wait, is that number seems wrong?

Speaker 1 (14:15):
If there's that number, yes, but.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Watching the girls play too, if you've if anybody. Last
thing I'll say here on this is people that have
watched the league know how how physically the women play.
I think that having a longer season might also result
in more injuries and and other things. But as we see,
you know Caitlin Clark struggling with groin injury, well, groin's injury.

(14:40):
What do we do when it's when it's one side
or the other, because is it tyler?

Speaker 3 (14:44):
Is it one groin? When it's one side of one groin?
Is it groins?

Speaker 2 (14:49):
I don't know what the singular plural of it all.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Is, but the academic because if you if you twak.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Your right side, it's not the whole groin. It's just
the right side of the groin. But like if you
get kicked in the groin, you think the whole thing.
So I don't really understand what the what the terminology
is there if if you're listening, if you're like an
anatomy expert, groin groins, what's happening? It's kind of like
scissors I have, but one I don't have a pair

(15:18):
of scissors because otherwise I just have knives.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
So I don't understand. Help me out.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
I never thought about this. You might you might be
honest with pants.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
It's it's I have pant I don't have pants. Did
that you still only put like one leg on and
then another leg on, and like time at the crotch.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
I don't understand.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
So anyway, same thing. You can go British and call
them trousers all you want. It's still plural, uh, Tyler.
I don't know what happened here? And I have a
what happened here today? So I think we should get
into it. What happened here? Theater edition?

Speaker 1 (16:01):
What happened here?

Speaker 3 (16:06):
Tyler?

Speaker 2 (16:07):
I've sent pictures. I don't know if I think I
sent you the video right that I sent you the
video the Little Live Tour. I'm pretty sure I said,
like ignore my dutything through my respirator, right. I didn't
listen to it, but I could hear myself just through
the whole thing, because I was hoffing and puffing around
that shop. I had just moved a bunch of stuff.
We moved the fire cabinet. And the fire cabinet is

(16:29):
a solid metal box. It is I don't know how
much it weighs, probably around three hundred pounds, maybe more.
And then you have the top box that goes on
top of it, that's probably one point fifty. Actually, I
take that it's probably more than that.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
I have no idea. We kind of levered it onto
the top.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
We certainly were going to try to pick it up
or we would have hurt ourselves, so we.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
Didn't move that around.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
Before we did, we had moved all of this stuff out. Now,
for those of you at home, I want to make
a couple of things clear. When you are in a
shared space where nobody really has a clear idea of
who's responsible for.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
What, bad things can happen.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Because we let this and we including myself here, let
this area go a little bit neglected with cleanup because
we tore the whole place apart planning to rebuild it
in our kind of like our most fluent way possible.
We want everything to sort of flow from one thing
to another, and if we need to move things around,

(17:35):
we can, and that was always the idea. We have
one shop, no storage anywhere, so if we build something,
it's got to go in the shop, and we can't
then use it as a shop if it's also storing things,
So making things mobile is important. That said, when you
start pulling out furniture, and looking behind it for the
first time in years, maybe decades, you can find some horrors.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
And I found.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Horror the sheer volume of mouse feces and pack wrap
feces embedded in sawdust and nesting material that used to
be paper towel, toilet paper. We have a lot of
toilet paper around there. It's not because we have a
bathroom nearby, but we use it to make props and
do paper machee projects and stuff with for our plays.

(18:26):
If somebody leaves a lid just cracked open, it's now
open access. You've you've one hundred percent experienced this because
I remember one day we went to the printer to
load at MHS in the ejpod to load paper, and
we pulled it out. Some of the mints you had
on your desk were in the printer, partially eaten by

(18:46):
a mouse that had taken them and scurried them away.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Do you remember I remember that? Well?

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, So if anything is left out at all and
is a potential area, we're out in the desert. There
aren't any other structures around it is, it's gonna happen.
What I took away from it all is if not us,
who and it's now our responsibility to make sure everything

(19:11):
is clean, everything is ordered. I'm not gonna put the
wood shop on the list of cleaning areas for our
cleaning service folks, when they got classrooms to worry about
and the entire auditorium to worry about, I'm not gonna
be like, hey, could you go clean out the miter
saw real quick? That's just not a fair or reasonable
thing to ask. But there's some overlap in different spaces.

(19:34):
But it's a good reminder that if something needs to
get done and you need to rely on other people,
unless those people are people that you know it's their
job and you can trust them to get it done
and they're equipped to get it done and correctly, just
do it yourself. You just got to commit to doing it,
and if it's for the best for everybody, just do it.
And it's when people are asking me, why don't I

(19:55):
ask for help in the shop? Why don't ask for
people to come in, It's because it's like, it's not
their probab. It's why am I going to ask all
these people to do these things? Because usually the answer
to is we'll help you.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
It'll be in August.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
No, I need it now it has to happen now,
like I need it right now.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
So just do it myself and take care of it.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Because whatever a couple of days of ick to avoid
it entirely in the future totally worth it. And I
think that it's the commitment to just getting it done
and to recognizing that that Walmart was right. When I
worked at Walmart, Man, there was a poster in that
break room that has a phrase that most of us

(20:35):
have seen or know at some point. It might not
be your job, but it is your problem, and I
have to let that settle in sometimes go like, yeah,
maybe this isn't my job, but I don't know whose
job it is, so it's mine now. Let's just do
it and be done with it. And then I'll know
that it wasn't me if something happens too. So that's

(20:56):
also you know, freeing in that respect. But it's been
a really really productive week. I'm really proud of the progress.
I can see how great it's going to be. There's
a lot of work yet to do, and I just
I just want a positive experience for the kids and
for the future of the program, whether it's me running
it or someone else. I just really want to set
everybody up for success, feel good in the space, feel

(21:18):
safe in the space, and I don't want to step
on anything crunchy anymore.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
I'm over it.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
I'm still thinking about that poster. It may not be
your job, but it is your problem. That's a that's
a bar man, that's that's tough. And I listen. I
did listen to what came after that very inspiring.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Well, of course, but I always that sat with me
because I like, when I saw eighteen years old see
that in there, I'm like, f that, I'm not doing
any of that, Like, get that all the way out
of here. Now, five dollars and twenty five cents an hour.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
You can kind of differently now though in your current context.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yeah, well yeah, I'm salaried now, it's a little easier
to live on that. When they were making minimum wage,
so I lied. I was not making five twenty I
was making five to fifty five. Twenty five was minimum
wage when I when I started my my my seven
year career at Walmart, I looked at that and thought, like,
if that problem is in the bathroom, I promise you

(22:14):
it is still not my job, nor it is it
my problem. I'm not doing that, I'll push carts, sell
straighten things. You need help on the cash register, out
your guy. But we're talking about journals. We're gonna need to.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
See the money, period.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
I support you with that.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yes, in fact, crazy crazy, but wonderful week. Wonderful week.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
I love it well, Brad. Speaking of great careers, obviously,
you had a seven year run with Walmart, an epic
run if you will. Someone who is on an epic
run and have has only been employed with their company
for just one year. We just passed. I think we're
coming up on one. You're not even a full year yet.
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah, it wasn't a forbidden door. That's yes aw to most.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Of the world.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
That was June. Yeah, and didn't sound the debut weed
till really the fall improper or at least later, Brad.
I love Stephanie Bacaier. We have a segment specifically to
talk about this. I'm gonna stop the suspense. Let's get
to it. Please hit the music.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
I certainly tried.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
It's it's time for steph watch.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
Well, we're gonna try it again.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Stuff.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
I guess the computer was buffering.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
That's what I'm talking about. We just had to build
a suspense a little bit more. You know, we embrace
the mess here on gimmick infringement. We know what you
came here for. It is time for steph Watch. Okay.
Here are Stephanie Baker's accomplishment since we last spoke, Brad. First,
she won the Evolution Battle Royal to earn a title
shot at Clash in Paris. I love the Evolution, by
the way, we have not spoken about show on Hair

(23:53):
fan tasked. Secondly, back Hair saved Nikki Bella from a
postmatch attack at the hands of the secret hervists on
Raw and then finally Fakir defeated Alba Faire on SmackDown.
I was moved by the post Battle Royal in ring promo.
La Premira got at Evolution. The crowd loved her in

(24:14):
Atlanta and we are so so up. Who do you
think she's gonna take on at Clash in Paris? You
think Naomi wins at summerslim Man.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
I think so.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
It has to write like it has to be.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
I would love to see her take on any street ladies. Sure, Naomi,
Eo or Rhea. There could be great stories with each
of them. I agree with you though that moment of
Naomi's cash in, completely unexpected and yet completely the right move.
Naomi needs to have a meaningful title run ending and yeah,
yeah what an ending? And yeah, I think Stephanie Vakia

(24:49):
is gonna take her on in Paris. We shall see.
Let's stick with WWE. We are recording a few hours
before TNA Slammiversary. Now aj Styles will appear in a
TNA ring for the first time in years. Several NXT
talents are also featured on the card, including j C.
Jane and Trick Williams defending their respective championships. As of

(25:11):
this recording, the company has sold just under seven thousand tickets.
The show will sport the largest US attendance in years
for TNA, if not all time. Yeah, given the expected
success of this event, how would you assess the working
relationship between WWE and TNA as it stands currently? And Brad,

(25:34):
do you think we'll see aj Styles wrestle in a
TNA ring this year?

Speaker 2 (25:42):
I mean is he making an appearance or is he wrestling?
Because it could be one of those things where he
shows out to make an appearance and somebody challenges him
on the spot and they have an impromptu match. I
can see that happening. I can see it happening, but
I don't know. There was a lot of hurt feelings
there and it's different leadership now and the company is

(26:02):
totally different. But that was part of the reason he
left is they wanted him to take a massive pay
cut and he was their biggest star, so he dipped,
and that's how he ended up in New Japan and
then eventually, you know, over in WWE. It was because
TNA didn't want to pay him what he was worth.
So I think there's probably still a bit of an
association there of No, I don't want.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
To do that. What would what would rule is if.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
They they brought back the ring, if if we got
the multi sided ring, if we got that back for
an AJ styles match, I mean, what a what a
cool way to cap off a career, because because you know,
he's he's probably thinking about how much longer he's got left,
and he's had some injuries recently and he's not getting
younger by any stretch. But for him to return to TNA,

(26:47):
two things. Number One, it would be great to see
him come out for a match, and number two come
out to have a match with his old theme it's
got to be the TNA theme. If he comes out
to that, that's got I'd be curious enough to think
about buying buying the pay per view tonight, where I
otherwise don't really care about what's happening because I haven't
watched any of those things, so I'm not It's not

(27:09):
that I don't care that good wrestling is going to occur,
it's I don't I'm not invested in anything that's happening
within any part of TNA n XT. I'm just really
not watching it because I just time pal so I'll
catch the social media clips. But this one sounds fun.
This one sounds like it might be might be one
that I need to check out.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
It's it's a big deal and not only and we'll
see because obviously we're going to release this episode after
the show, but it seems like they're going to pull out.
They being TNA pronounce Pal, are gonna plug all the
stops to make this event a success. So we already
have a card to be hyped for just based on
what's been announced, especially now that they confirmed aj Styles

(27:51):
will in fact be there. Over social media, they were
using the word phenomenal and tena President Carlos Silva was
really leaning into that. They decided to confirm that aj
Styles will be there. I would imagine we'll get some
other surprises on this show. It's the biggest house they've
done again in a long time, if not ever, in
the United States. It really is an inflection point for TNA.

(28:11):
What what stood out to me, Brad is for a
while I thought, Okay, I see how WWE is benefiting.
They're they're getting to use top TNA talent kind of
in a way like a feeder system to the main roster,
at least to NXT. Jordan feeding NXT sure and beating
TNA champions, So you rock, Samperez, Bet Jordan Grace. Jordan
Grace of course eventually signs with with WWE NXT, and

(28:36):
it seems the Joe Hendre's and I would even say
at this point the Mike Santana's of the world could
also be NXT or main roster bound if they do
decide to sign with WWE when their contracts are up.
The Hardy's appearing on NXT, right, great, Look, what's the
benefit for TNA. This has been I don't know if

(28:57):
I want to say the first but definitely the loudest
sign to me that this deal has worked wonders for
both and you could even argue TNA has been the
bigger winner in all of this, because if you look
at where they were at before the NXT agreement, certainly
an upward trajectory, but being able to get seven thousand
fans at the UBS Arena for this event, which features

(29:20):
NXT talent in some of the bigger matches, but also
showcases a lot of their sign talent. You know, Leon
Slater I predicted is going to dethrone Moose. That's gonna
be a big look for him to be the new
ex division champion. You're building Masha Slamovich. I actually predict
he's gonna beat j C. Jane at Slammiversary and become
retainer TNA Championship, but also become the new NXT Women's Championship.

(29:43):
It's a title for title Jones situation. You know, you
are building your sign talent while utilizing the name value
and entering prowess of NXT. You know, I saw Trick
Williams at that Tempee show. The crowd was lit for him.
This is it's a clear sign to me that Okay,
this was a really prudent move for TNA, and it's

(30:03):
not just a matter of Joe Hendry being defeated in
three minutes by Randy Or at WrestleMania. This has actually
done a great job of building TNA Plus and just
building a larger fan base, and not just folks who
will tune in for TNA Plus, but people who will
actually pay money to see your show, whether it's at
ASU's Hockey Arena in Tempe or in this case, it's

(30:25):
in Long Island Ubs Arena, and folks are actually gonna
come out and spend money to see you. So I've
really been blown away by the number they did for
this show. I did not anticipate they were going to
be able to move that many tickets. It's a great
time for wrestling, It's an awesome time to be a fan,
and I'm eager to see if we'll see more of
aj Styles and TNA. I'm like you, Brad, I think

(30:46):
not only will he appear at Slammiversary, but I could
easily see him wrestling one match in a TNA ring.
One more match, and maybe maybe that is one of
the matches when TNA dear I say, makes their television
debut yeah, and President Carlos Silas to do that. Yes,
Carlos Silva has TAS. Okay, maybe within the next thirty

(31:07):
to sixty days, we'll have an announcement about a TV
deal that could be announced that Slammer Verser again. We'll
see when this episode drops. I could absolutely see part
of the advertisement for the debut launch being aj styles
versus insert name on the TNA roster, and people would
certainly tune in for that.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yeah, I think that.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
I was just looking it up Spike TV when TNA
was on Spike TV.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
That's a throwback Spike TV.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
Well, I'm trying to think of like when was like
Thousand Ways to Die? Right, remember that, like peak TNA
was Kurt Angle and it was Christopher Daniels and Samoa
Joe and like stacked loaded roster. When did that slow down?
And it had to have been like it was in
the twenty tens and twenty fourteen is when they went

(31:56):
off of Spike. Where did they go after that? Where
were we watching.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
TNA after Destination in America?

Speaker 3 (32:01):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
So like that was eleven years ago, Tyler. How many
kids are watching now that even have a semblance of
an idea of what TNA is or was before actually
getting into WWB and watching TNA on their screens, going like,
what's TNA. Because let's just say they were four, you know,
they're born in twenty ten, They're not going to remember

(32:23):
TNA being on a on a channel you actually had.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
I didn't have to go searching for so for them
to have.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
To you know, like four or five years old, it's
two thousand and nine, twenty ten, and then you know,
jump forward now they probably if they're still watching the product,
are going like, oh, this is cool. I didn't know
there were the wrestling companies aside from AW and WWBE.
I'd had no idea that TNA was also a thing.
And I think the partnership worked really well just from

(32:52):
brand identity. Over the last couple of years, we've seen
the TNA champs show up at Royal Rumbles, specifically the
Women's Rumble, and now we have all this crossover stuff
with NXT. The NXT thing is always so weird to
me because they never acknowledge that their WWE. They always
acknowledge their NXT. So when people are talking about like, oh,

(33:14):
there's this WWTNA crossover stuff, no, there's not. There's TNA
and NXT crossover stuff, but not WWE crossover stuff except
AJ Styles is coming, but AG Styles is from TNA,
So like, I don't really know what's happening. This is
it's it's very soupy how they've said we're gonna keep
it split, separate but not here, but we're gonna do

(33:35):
it this way but sometimes different, and it's it's starting
to feel a little bit like r O H and
AW in that we're getting like some weird crossover stuff
where I don't really know where everything fits. I think
the TNA NXT experiment has worked out wonderfully for probably
both parties, because TNA people that are like I'm not

(33:56):
gonna watch w W because I want to watch real
wrestling are probably we're now going, oh, actually there's real
wrestling over here. I didn't know that, and and getting
to to get eyes on a different thing. So it's
probably worked out well. I don't know what the viewership
hit has been for NXT, if it's bumped it up,
stayed the same when it's been and there's obviously a
lot of factors that go into those things, but I

(34:18):
think it's been great. Uh, the the group that I
think that I would be the most upset about this
right now is I really feel bad for Triple A Tyler.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
I feel like we had the world's collide and that's it.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
The closest we've gotten after that is Triple A has
been doing stuff with t and A. We've had we
We've we had uh uh Santina and uh the little
snake thing against the iguana like that was hilarious, but that, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Yeah it was. It was Santino versus iguana. Also also
like yes versus the cobra.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yes, yeah, ye ye yah, yeah, yeah, you remember the name.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
I was like, it's I can't remember.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
No shout out to you sent me that clip. I
was not out aware that was going down. I had no
idea it was. It was. It was everything I needed
last week and then so oh it's amazing.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
It was hilarious. It was amazing.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
It was like those gimmicks had to get together at
some point, and I thought it was I thought it
was great. But I also was like, all right, this
is Triple A doing stuff with TNA, probably brought together
by WWB or or NXT folks or or t k O,
whoever's running all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
I have no idea. Is that Triple Ah.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
Nick Con is that Seawn Michaels Or is that some
other thing that's happening that we're unaware of.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
I have no idea how that works.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
But I just feel like TNA's partnership with w W
versus WWE's basically ownership of Triple A, feels very different
where TNA's feels more like a partnership in Triple as
feels like a afterthought takeover at the moment. Maybe long
term I'll feel differently about it, but right now it
just doesn't feel the same. Not to be on Nike

(36:00):
of about it, but I think TNA's partnership has worked
out really well.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
Yeah, something to keep an eye on. I enjoyed a
lot of what we saw in World's Collide, And as
to your point, so much of our collective wrestling fandom
involves asking the question what now or or what's next.
It's not what's next, it's who next? Who's next? Goldberg,
the Goldberg Interview, He's better again. It's okay, we got

(36:24):
this moment or we got this event. It happened, it ruled,
and then what's to come? In the case as you said, Brad,
in the case of Triple A and WWE, Okay, well,
now what's next. We're going to get more integration. I
know I can buy a mystery quantity on WWE shop,
But what's the next what's the next move for that
partnership versus as you pointed out, the dreaded sort of

(36:46):
manifest destiny of it all, where Okay, we you know,
we bought Triple A, we have the signature event, but
what what can fans look forward to? Because if if
we get more of that World's Collide experience and they
make it them better, as fans were in for a
really exciting remainder of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
Yeah, it was really interesting because the Tony Kahn quotes
came out about it. That's why the Triple A stuff
was on my on my mind. I guess they had
like a working agreement which released to go working with
AW were coming to AW and they did the event
with them, and then the second it ended, they announced
releast too was going to WWE. So it's like they
just did stuff behind my back, and that's sort of

(37:26):
how that partnership just ended abruptly. Because I was always curious,
like Why did it just stop because we were getting
Viking Go and we're getting all kinds of stuff.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
Right yeah, Vi Kingo versus Ken you O mag.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
I mean we're getting a Grande Americano is doing some
Triple A stuff. But like that's what we're that's what
we're doing. Cool, we're showcasing Luca wrestling, but I just
don't know if it's highlighting the company.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
We've seen a play out. You mentioned Dragon Ly Stephanie Bacaer,
who we led with early.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
Dragon, Thank you Dragging Lee.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yeah, yeah, we led with earlier in this episode where
Stephanie Bauker popped up for and popped up at Forbidden Door.
We've documented this on many occasions. Showed up and showed
out in her match versus Mercedes Monet, and then seemingly
in record time, she was wrestling at a house show
on Mexico for WWE because we said, oh no, we
we see the talent, let's make it happen. I'm sure

(38:16):
it was a it was a lesson learned for Tony
Kahn and company that Okay, we gotta we got to
maybe navigate. But how cool is it that talent now
have so many options? They're A huge winner in all
this as well, is you get to really kind of
name your price and bet on yourself and decide where
you want to sign with versus years ago, especially during

(38:37):
the especially during the downfall of TNA, when it was okay,
it's either WWE or when it was Peter now right,
and now it's just a completely different climate, which is
good for all of us fame.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
We have talent, yeah, smaller but thriving markets. By by
all accounts, you have GCW, you have MLW, there's DeFi
is doing well. There's there's just all these different smaller
independent promotions that are also doing well. Especially with streaming
being an option you can asha you can do like
a five ten dollars fifteen dollars viewing pay per view

(39:14):
experience for people make some money on the back end,
and we get like really kind of raw, unfiltered pro
wrestling versus the stuff that we're getting for a televised product.
And I just think that's super cool because because these
athletes and performers are getting paid. And you know, we
were talking about Cabana being at a table doing the
signing when he was in Phoenix for the show. You

(39:35):
got to go to I was excited to see him
on TV again. It was granted he was being murdered,
but like, it was exciting to see him on TV
again this week regardless. But Stephanie Vakira probably had an
offer coming at her from both angles.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
And it's which and documented from Vakia herself. Aw's is
more financially lucrative. But HPK gives you a call and
you get some back and then you decide that you're
going to take your talents to Orlando, And yeah, my goodness, Brad,
if if that wasn't a great decision, I just obviously

(40:09):
so high on her for so many reasons. It has
to be so gratifying to see the reaction and dare
I say, the push she's getting again, We'll see the
what now of it? The whole build up has been okay, Well,
clearly she's going to be in a title program sooner
than later. She wins the Battle Royal, she specifically gets
entering promo time at Evolution amazing, and now the match

(40:32):
is going to be against whoever the women's champ is
you and I pretty it's going to be Naomi. What
happens after that, especially if Steph loses? What's going to
be the move. Does she kind of fall into dare
I say obscurity or is she still prioritized creatively on
that show? We shall see. It's always about the what next,

(40:52):
what now?

Speaker 2 (40:53):
And to your point, I wonder if we look back
and think if Julia made the right move or if
she would have been better served being in a w
because right now and that's and that's the point is like, yeah,
she's a champ, she's being kind of featured, but I
also feel like I don't know that maybe that wasn't
the right move. But what a what a great thing

(41:16):
to have options. She's getting paid, she's getting TV time, experience,
people get to know who she is. So if she
does ultimately end up leaving or something, and I don't
see it happening, but if she ends up leaving, you know,
she's getting paid and I'm and I'm suddenly stunned. I
should ask my questions so I can get out there
and ask why my house is suddenly filled with the
scent of vinegar. Okay, Tyler, the hell is happening? I

(41:41):
had a question that I wanted to pivot on it.
So Oscar had a social media promo and and not
really a promo. It was just her having a conversation.
I think you saw it more than likely, but I
don't know if you did. About her thoughts about Bailey
and Lyra's match. She was gushing about it and said
it was one of her favorite matches. She loved the

(42:01):
match so much because proper pro wrestling. It wasn't flips,
it wasn't jumping off ropes. It was in the ring,
on the map, they were wrestling, and it was sort
of a throwback match. And I wanted to ask you
that Tyler, is WW navigating back towards those kinds of

(42:23):
matches really a good thing for what the company has
been trying to do, or the long term health of
the wrestlers, or is it something you think that will
push fans away from the product.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Oh, I think it's the former and not the latter.
For sure. I think it's a great thing. Evolution was
sandwiched by two great contests. I'm thinking back to that
Becky Lynch versus Larra of val Curia match, Becky Lynch
versus Larra, val Curia versus Bailey to open up Evolution,
great spot for those three. They put on an outstanding

(42:57):
match and then as you pointed out through that oscar
a social media video Bailey versus Lyra on raw which
I did see live. It was fantastic. Clearly I'm eager
to see.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
We love. We're big Bailey fans around here.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
We are, we are and they and and WWE is
really invested in Lyra Valkyria being one of those talents
who's next up and is a foundational piece of their
weekly programming. I actually believe they've done quite well with
building group. She has the financial and the crowd can
sing along, she's really good in ring and clearly found

(43:34):
a foundational piece for that next generation of talent on
the women's roster. Yeah, I think it's only going to expand, right,
I think it's only going to be positive, hard hitting. Again,
a story is involved there. It's not just a fun
bout for the sake of a fun bout. There's actually
a story being weaved throughout it. You know. Obviously was
to find out who's going to face Becky Lynch at SummerSlam,

(43:58):
and yeah, fans want more of that. Even though the
bill to Evolution was so lackluster and so unbecoming of
what it should be, and all of the women involved
and why do we have an all dude commentary team
as well? That was so weird. Yes, Wade Buried and
Michael Cole no shade of both of those guys, very

(44:20):
good at what they do, but I just thought, man,
that's just odd. And then some of the commentary during
the night was like this would have been upgraded if
we had two ladies here, But point being Evolution. Speaking
of ticket sales, they had what Brad like eight thousand
people ended up at State Farm Arena in Atlanta for

(44:41):
this event, even with the lackluster build to it. To me,
it was such a success sitting from my couch watching
that show that if you pair the success of Evolution
with these matches that we've been seeing again with the
sheer death that you have on this roster, I think
we're gonna see and I think it's going to really

(45:01):
bring in a new generation of fans because we had
this boon of the women's evolution, the four Horse Women
and so on and so forth, and I think we're
all now wondering how can we get back to that
level of fervor and that investment in the women's division.
I think now is as perfect as a time than
ever to have that, so I want I want more.

(45:24):
I want evolution to be an annual tradition. I want
the women to continue to get more meaningful time and
creative on the main roster. And again, I think that's
only going to do wonders for the business of w
w WE. OSCA is spot on. Those two ladies delivered
a great match and I only see positives moving forward,
and we can use evolution to build off of that.

(45:46):
But we've also seen in the past where it's a
bit inconsistent for our liking and we have questions about
what's being decided. I want more of it. I thought
they killed it over all.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
I completely agree. I want more of it to it.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
It's they okay that' style of wrestling is why I
fell in love with FTR, to be honest with you,
because that's the kind of stuff that they do. They
do the ground and pound stuff, and usually if it's
like an off the top rope thing, it's like a
double axe handle off the top rope outside of their
finishing move right right as pro Yeah, yeah, And I just.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
Think it's it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
But to get the women to get into it and
do it, it kind of reminds me of like all
the clips I've seen of like old all Japan, just
people throwing haymakers and and just I'm not saying I
want everybody to suddenly beat the crap out of each other,
but I just really like that. And it's a lot
of fun to watch because it's more of a like

(46:40):
what are they gonna do to get out of that?
And what are they gonna you know, versus we're gonna
watch somebody set up on the top rope and watch
the crowd pile together and hopefully the camera does it
in such a way that we're focused on something else
and not watching the pile develop, and you know, because
then I'm it takes me out of and go like, oh,
what what mover are they going to do onto that

(47:02):
crowd instead of like watching the match and.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Just exactly match and when it's at its best. Isn't
wrestling supposed to be a bit of a variety show?

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
We get a taste of all these I don't think
the pile up is going to stop, you know, it's
a ton of fun, yeah exactly. But when we get
a match like we saw Raw, that to me, that
really speaks to the variety show that is ideally weekly
wrestling television is it has entry points for a lot
of different fans who are looking for different types of
entering action.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
Well, I thought, I thought it was a lot of fun,
and hopefully we get to see more of that. We
know that they have plenty, plenty of talent to go around.
But Tyler, I can't wait to hear your thoughts. I know,
throwing back to Shanon Gillis here, we could easily bring
up his monologue and his jokes about this particular topic.

(47:54):
It's time for it's a work. We have not done
this in a long long time. I think Aaron Rodgers
might have been the last one we did. I think right,
But it's time for it's to work.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
It's a work. The Epstein investigation play the music.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
That was a great leading Thank you, my friend, and
you led me here perfectly. FBI Chief Cash Pattel recently
announced that he and his cronies that's my interpretation, not
the actual ab. In case you were wondering, that's not
that's not that's not the that's not the New York townshipport.
That's me. He and his cronies thoroughly examined the highly

(48:47):
speculated Jeffrey Epstein files, and the conclusion is there's nothing
to see here. We can all move on. Huh. Much
of the chagrin of his support orders, President Donald Trump
is even urging the public to move on. Of course,
this is a a complete one to eighty from the

(49:07):
rhetoric used during the campaign, and be very convenient given
the rumors that Trump may be implicated in those files.
Epstein allegedly had clients across a cross was weird across
both sides of the politically, across both sides of the
political aisle. Brad many would have a lot to lose

(49:27):
if this information became public. For all these reasons, the
conclusion of the Epstein investigation is a complete work. You
can't convince me that there's nothing there and we move on.
There's been so much investment from the public in figuring
out what exactly for years, and really, speaking of across

(49:50):
both aisles, maybe one of the few things we can
agree on, there's been this interest in releasing the Epstein files,
seeing the names on here, and then we judge accordingly,
or even dare I say, the legal system play itself
out because you have victims who have allegedly been victimized
throughout the years, and this list could perhaps provide that justice.

(50:15):
But again, apparently there's nothing here. Brad. I think it's
a complete work, and I wonder if this sort of
call to action is going to remain or if as honestly,
both parties have done well over the years, and particularly
the publican party, you sort of move on to the
next topic where you have this next distraction. It hopes

(50:35):
that the shiny object is going to lead you to
forget what's going on on this other side over here.
If you tell people nothing to see here, let's move on,
it's all okay, people will believe you. I just think
now as a society, we're not willing to trust the
word of elected officials and leave it at that. It's
a complete work. Am I tripping? What do you think?

Speaker 3 (50:56):
No, not at all.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
It's absolutely a work. This is the most obvious work
of all works. I'm not a conspiracy theory guy. This
isn't a conspiracy. This is obvious.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
This is like the most obvious thing I've ever seen
in my life.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
This is like.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
Being the only person in a room with a dead
body and you're holding the gun and smoke's coming out
of it, and you going like somebody must have been here.
I don't know who did this? I just what are
we doing this? This is so crazy. So I think
that if this happened, this conclusion happened, what is it,

(51:30):
it's July of twenty twenty five. If this happened in
a couple of years, this swings the election no matter what.
Because it's happening early, it'll put enough distance between now
and election time to prevent, let's be honest, everybody that's
involved in this from being implicated and maybe torpedo weing

(51:53):
plans for elections.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
JD. Vance looks silly. Now.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Donald Trump has looked silly about this for years and
years and years. It's he's the he's that hot dog meme,
like we gotta we gotta find out, you know, like
it's it's it's just the mean, it's silly man, Like
it's it's just silly. And to your point, I think
it's it's who thought the thing that would universally unite

(52:18):
America would be Epstein?

Speaker 1 (52:21):
For real?

Speaker 2 (52:22):
Like it doesn't make any sense, and it doesn't make
any sense that people think that this is okay, and
it doesn't make any sense that people are are being
fooled by this. I also don't think they are. My
fear is that let's say somebody else gets elected to
office uh and decides, you know what, we're going to
release those files to find out that they've been deleted.
So I I just yeah, I have a lot of questions,

(52:44):
and I think that this is gonna stir up some
some fervor that's gonna be uncomfortable for a lot of people.
I wonder if Anonymous gets involved. I wonder if like
other entities start getting involved and interested in Yeah, it's
gonna be interesting to see what the fallout is here,
but really really disappointing to see this and it's absolutely
at work.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
Yeah, Well said brad Well said. Aw all right, my friend,
first week back from aew all in Texas. Here's my
question for you. We saw two solid episodes of AW
television this week Wednesday for Dynamite, Saturday Collision, Hangman is
champ In case you haven't heard, Athena is here, and

(53:28):
Swerve is starting a rivalry with Okada. I want you
to yes very exciting. I want you to give us
one talent or one potential storyline. Slash rivalry that you
are most excited for in what feels like the birth
of a new season of creative for all elite.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
Wrestling, Darby and Mocks. I want to know where this goes.
Darby's here to ruin his life, right. I think it's
something like what he said, I'm here to take everything
away from you. I'm here to tear it all down.
And so far he hasn't really done much of anything
directly to John Moxley. He appeared in the ring and
Coffin dropped a bunch.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
Of dudes outside of it.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
Uh, he distracted mox into a Buckshot lariat by just
being up top on dynamite. So I'm really excited to
see where this goes. We know that that Darby and
mox have had, uh, you know, a rivalry before. They've
had matches before where Max is like, this isn't gonna
end well for you, and you know it, you know

(54:30):
stuff like that, and I and I think this could
be really good. I I really want to see that. Obviously,
I'm super excited for Swerve and Okada. That's those That's
the match I'm most excited to see out of all
of this. I thought Kenny and o'cada did a great job.
I thought it was a really good match. I don't
think it was anywhere near the best in their feud.

(54:53):
I thought that match was good, but not like it didn't.
It didn't melt my brain or anything. But I think
Oca Swerve could be something we haven't seen before, and
I think that one would blow us all away. That
is going to rule. I'm excited for that match. I'm
really excited to see what happens with Darby and maybe
even with Tony's Storm. And I don't really know where

(55:15):
do you think Tony's going here?

Speaker 1 (55:19):
An Athena match?

Speaker 3 (55:20):
Is it Athenae Tecla? Is it?

Speaker 1 (55:23):
That'd be fun too if I've been very impressed with Tecla,
Megan Bain could want to rematch with Tony Storm at
some point, run back that match they had at Dynasty,
maybe this time with a different outcome. Because Megan Bain
continues to pick up singles wins, I think the move
is going to be Athena. But whenever Athena does get
that first title match, I'm of the belief that she

(55:43):
should win that thing. And for timeless Tony Storm, I mean,
she is just so on a different level right now
that she doesn't need the aw Women's World Championship, but
it just makes so much sense for her to hold
that championship because she is far and away the face
of that division. I think also it helps her character

(56:04):
when you know she comes out her she's on the
what would say the gimmick balcony or the gimmick.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
The gimmick, the gimmick balcony, I think it is.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
And she has the title and she's say, I forget
the exact quotes from a promo, but here's the run
running back on dynam It's probably not good for me
to show on you two anyway, but she's just saying, hey,
I am here, I am timeless, I am your champion,
and please celebrate me in the most baby face way possible.
I think her having the title for the next few

(56:39):
months is a good call, and then someone needs to
defeat her, and someone needs to rise the ranks and
get to that championship level in a w Aside from
Mercedes and Tony, everyone you mentioned are viable candidates. Brad
Tekla maybe a bit too soon, but Athena certainly, since
we know she won it all in and is you know,
has the right to challenge for a title. Meghan Bain

(57:01):
is right there. I think Queen A Mi Nada is
still probably a season away from holding gold. That's probably
a twenty twenty six goal that I would like to
see accomplished. But Athena Megan Baine pick one or the other,
I could for sure see them being the person to
dethrone timeless Tony. And don't forget we have Mercedes coming
back at some point. Willow Willow is here, Chris Statlander

(57:26):
is here. They kind of have their own thing going on.
Maybe there's a tag division, but I share this with
you last week, if not the week prior. I want
to see talent be elevated into that championship conversation, and
I believe it's gonna start with Athena or Megan Baine
against Timeless Tony. I just love that character and want
her to be champion for yeah, however long is needed.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
She's awesome in terms of winning the championship. I don't
think Taekelo would do it right now, but no, she's
going to be a fun program though, and oh yeah
having her that match would rules. So yeah, it's gonna
be really interesting to see what happens, and don't forget
you have like when available, you got just sheet it
out there floating around, Yeah, you got bath or you know,

(58:10):
I guess Mina Shirikawa is injured broke her hand and
I think they said that on commentary, but.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
It you know, who knows.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
And I also don't know if that's actually you know,
if there's that storyline or is that but it sounded
like it was real. So there's so much going on there,
I don't know. And then you know, Will Osprey has
probably taken a little vacation here after getting murdered. I
liked what they were doing with Cope and FTR, and
that's my bridge into my.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
Question for you.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
So we have all of these new storylines, is sold refresh.
It's sort of like all all In was one hundred
percent their mania, and now what comes out of mania?

Speaker 3 (58:48):
What comes out of all In? What's the next step?

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Apparently it's Hangman versus the Death Rider still, but we
have Darby getting in a way and hang Man just
got another win, So what's the reason for them to
stick around anymore?

Speaker 3 (59:00):
So all that.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Being said, FDR's music hit Cope was cutting a promo
and it's like Christian's dick. I don't want anything to
do with him. I didn't go out there to save him.
I came out there to get to FDR. Well, you know,
when you're getting to FTR, it turns out you do
probably need a partner. I'm sure that's where this is going.
And I don't think it's going to happen quickly. I
think it's going to be a very slow build to
that moment. I think even Coke picks up a tag

(59:27):
partner and it doesn't work out, they lose, and then
Christian eventually comes in for a save and then they're like,
the only way we're going to beat them is together
or something like that, and then give that to us
at I don't know, revolution or something.

Speaker 3 (59:42):
I could see that happening.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
So here's my question, because Big Stoke came out instead
and he ate the heck out of that sphere. Tyler,
where does Big Stoke Stokely Hathaway rank among the pantheon
of managers contemporary, for all time contemporary or all time?

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Because right now managers, how many are there? There's there's
like three Stoke, Callous.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Hayman, Paul Haymen's number one, of course, Paul.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
Hayman's number one all time, of course.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
But but yeah, contemporary and all time.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
And then after that, it's like, what do we got?

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
Challas is effective, Jimmy Hart, Jim Cornett, Yeah for sure,
you know, like you got some other people, uh miss alone, right,
I would say.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
Is that a manager or a valet? I don't you know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
I maybe this is a hot take, maybe not. I'll
let you decide. I don't know that Stoke makes my
top five all time, but he has the requisite skills
to be in that conversation. I need to see more
of of what this partnership with FTR is because I

(01:00:53):
really enjoyed him with Chris Statlander. To me, that was
taken away too soon. There is a lot of value
in and just the optics of having that flip. You know,
historically we're used to a guy being managed by a woman,
but to have Stokely manage the Chris Statlander, I love

(01:01:15):
the optics, I love the talent involved, and I wish
we got more of that. So for me, it's kind
of a show and prove for Stokely right now. Contemporary wise,
you laid it out. Of course, Paul Hayman is number
one Don Kallas is always on TV. He is effective
at what he does. I don't think there's any denying that,
And then you could easily make the case for Slokely,
for Slokely, for Stokely sloting in probably at number three

(01:01:39):
and maybe I'm forgetting someone. I'm thinking I'm running in
my mind right now TNA n XT. I think Stokely
is in that top five conversation for sure all time.
I wouldn't position him there yet, just because I need
more of a body of a body of work. He
has quotable lines, he's definitely he's definitely me worthy. He's

(01:01:59):
a great pay you to follow on Twitter. But body
of work wise, I would love to see him utilize
those skills and some really meaningful programs. Maybe FTR is
that pathway. I just wish that we would have seen
more with him and Chris that I thought they had
a lot of legs to it. How about you where.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
You're completely agree because you have Paul Hayman and if
you're going all time, you have, like I said, Jimmy Hart,
Jim Cornette, Paul Bearer, you have like all these right
Like there there's a lot of people, but like even
Don Kallis was the Jackal and then he was Don Kallis.
He was over at Impact and then he's over you know,
like New Japan. There's all just floating around. I know

(01:02:35):
T and A had Oh what.

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
Is the James Mitchell.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
That's the one. Yeah. I was like, there's like the
I can't remember.

Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, nmars for many years.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Yeah, and and so and and But a lot of
them are like are they managers? We call them managers,
but they're not really like that kind of thing. Jimmy Hart,
I don't know if you could ever say was really
a manager. He was just sort of like the hype
man yelling at people, not really manager. Miss Elizabeth never
really a manager.

Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Chris Stratus transition, but you know when she started out
with Test and Albert, she was very effective.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Yeah, and I think Kustoke has been with like he
had that business faction when he was doing stuff with
MJF as a partnership. She had the stuff with Chris Statlander.
He then was doing a whole bunch of stuff over
r OH and then now he's back on the main
roster again with with a w and and doing the
stuff with FTR and and we've seen various iterations there.

(01:03:32):
There's the jumpsuit version of him, which we're getting again now,
then then the previous version where he he had a
jumpsuit and then went into like the suit and tie.
I think he went suit and tie, jumpsuit, suit and tie,
and we're back to jumpsuit again. If I have that right.
I'm not sure. But I've enjoyed all of his work.
But to your point, the the quotable lines, the moments

(01:03:53):
he's given us over time. Yeah, he's a great mouthpiece
for people, absolutely phenomenal. I really liked him with with
stat I don't I don't actually love him with FTR
right now. Uh, to me, it doesn't make a lot
of sense where they don't really need anybody exactly. Yeah,
they're cash. Cash is a really good talker. He's not

(01:04:15):
as good as as Dax, but that doesn't mean he's bad.
Everybody talks about him like he's not good on the
mic and get out of.

Speaker 3 (01:04:23):
Here with that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
That's crazy. But but you know that, I don't know
that they need Stoke to be the mouthpiece. I have
enjoyed him coming out to the theme though. That was great,
just because it's like, oh, yeah, what a What a
great way to get people mad at you is come
out on behalf of somebody because the other people are like, well,
they're not here because they're they're scared, they're just not here,

(01:04:45):
and it's just that kind of stuff where you're like,
all right, we see through this.

Speaker 3 (01:04:49):
I've really enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
I think right now, obviously he's he's a top manager.
He's not the top manager. Paul Hayman will always be there,
uh number one, probably you could pin that for all time,
but I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
I've just really enjoyed his work.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
I think that how often have you seen you raggedy
bitch show up online?

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
Just stoke saying it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
It's one of the funniest things to ever happen in
an AAW ring, and to sort of transcend the wrestling space.

Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
And just end up out there is hilarious.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
I've really enjoyed him, and I think one of his
critiques of WWB when he was at NXT was he
wanted to do the wrestling thing. He wanted to do,
like taking bumps and doing that stuff, and he's been
able to do that in aw He ate a spear
from Adam Copeland from Edge.

Speaker 3 (01:05:41):
I thought that was great. So I'm excited to see
what he does.

Speaker 2 (01:05:45):
I think, like you, I don't think he's in my
top five all time yet, but I could certainly see
that this could end up being one of those things
where it's like we're gonna look back and go.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
Like he had he was incredible at what he did.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And to think about you know, I
was listening to the list you mentioned historically, how many
black managers are at the top of our list? I.

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
Tyler, how many? How many black managers? Right right? What's
the start there?

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
Yeah, what's the roster we're working with with with the
you know what, what's the what's the depth?

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
I mean in many ways, and then I'm probably forgetting someone.
So if you're watching us on YouTube, let us know,
of course. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, but but someone who
who their bread and butter has been a manager. Yeah.
If we're thinking at that, if we're looking at that list, man,
it's it. Maybe maybe in some way Stokely is a
trailblazer in that regard, just being known for the Mike chops,

(01:06:43):
the managerial chops. I would love that for him. I
didn't even realize how many iterations of Stokely the manager
we've gotten. Just in a w you brought up the
MJF stable that was was defunct pretty when it wasn't him,
he just partnered with right, this is around the depth.

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
Yeah, but what was who was Stokely managing? Was it?

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
Was it like the Jeff Jarrett group before Jeff Jarrett.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
I can't even remember.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
Sandre dud speaking of contemporary fund managers, I like, but
we don't see him nearly as much. Yeah, it's it's
it's a blur for me, But yeah, man Stokely again,
he has the requisite skills. It's pretty shocking to me
that there aren't a lot of black managers in the
pantheon of when we think of who's been given who's
been given that time, you know in WWE or WWF

(01:07:29):
back then in w c W, you know, some of
the more well known companies. I think there's a real
lack of brothers in that regard in Stokely Stokely again
skill wise for sure going to be in that conversation.
I hope that in the years to come, whether it's
FTR others, we get to see his talents utilized to
their maximum ability to really also uplift talent because like you,

(01:07:50):
even Chris stat I don't know that she needed him,
and FTR, we don't. We know that they don't need him.
I wonder if there's a talent or talents floating out
there where it would be a mutual win in where
stokely would get that that creative satisfaction and then also hey,
there you go, Tecla. And then also talent would be
would be elevated by him, you know, being their manager.

(01:08:12):
We'll see, that's a great question.

Speaker 2 (01:08:15):
The firm, It was the firm.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
That's gonna be an a w trivia question in a
few years.

Speaker 3 (01:08:22):
I totally forgot about it, man, and then.

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):
It was he was he he he had bought private
parties contracts, right there was the.

Speaker 1 (01:08:31):
See that see that's yeah, yeah, Stoke's been there for
a minute, but there's just been there's just been these
these stops and starts or stops and then never to
return again. And yeah, when we're talking where we're talking
about big picture rankings, that that's hindered him for me.
But he has all again I kind of repeated myself here,
he has everything needed to be one of the most

(01:08:53):
memorable memorable managers ever, and in a time where we're
lacking managers, he could really be one who stands out.
And I can't wait to see what's ahead for him.
We'll see how this, how this FTR partnership plays out.

Speaker 3 (01:09:06):
Yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
I just saw a picture that reminded me of I
think at the first Forbidden Door he had lost that
that match stipulation and had to wrestle in the like
the the four way or whatever, and he had a
he ended up in the ring with eg. Yes, he
had like the gold toe with the black pants. Yeah,

(01:09:28):
remember stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:09:29):
And he's hilarious.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
He's so fun. His stand up is really strong and
it's yeah, really really great. But yeah, to your point,
let's see who he gets put with. That's not going
to be like, let's change it in fifteen minutes, uh,
and put you with somebody else because he was he
was the GM with Jerry Lynne at r o H,
which is where what he was doing.

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
When he was an r H, which is which is cool.

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
But if you weren't a member of Honor Club, you
didn't get you any stoke Tyler, what do we miss?

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
Three items that we missed? Number one, Brad, you may
have noticed there was no Batch up date because I
feure I'm out on Bachelor in Paradise. It was good
until it wasn't the second episode. I didn't realize this
about myself as a viewer. I need the courting in
these romance shows. Batch in Paradise they brought the Goldens

(01:10:18):
to the season again first ever. That's a big appeal
for why you want to tune into Bachelor in Paradise
this specific season. But it's just a lot of making out.
They had a segment this week where it was just anonymously,
you got a tablet and could swipe right on someone
you'd want to kiss on the island, or swipe left
if it's to know, and the segment was just them

(01:10:38):
going into this private kissing booth and kissing each other.
I'm not here to kingshame anyone. I need the story.
I need the courtship. That's what I like about the
traditional Bachelor and Bachelorette seasons. Bachelor in Paradise is just
about the makeout sessions, and I had to press pause
on it. I didn't even get through the full episode. Brad,

(01:11:00):
I think I might be out on Bachelor in Paradise.
We shall see audience, if you have reason for us
for me to get back into it again, let us
know on YouTube, let us know on socialized gipod nineteen.
But what did we miss? Number one? I might be
out on Bachsler in Paradise, Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
Good lord?

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Other items both wrestling before we get out of here,
before I kick it to you, wwe SmackDown heads to
temp b at ASU's Mullet Arena this October for our audience.
Pre sale tickets will be going on sale this Wednesday
at ten am, of course that's Arizona time. And then finally,

(01:11:39):
AHA ten is happening this weekend in Charlotte. The card
is headlined by should Be versus con for the Pan
African World Championship and some other fun bouts including Me
of Friday versus Tasha Steeles. You can purchase a streaming
link later this week at AHA Wrestling. That's ASEE Wrestling
dot com. Brad, what do we miss?

Speaker 3 (01:12:02):
Tyler?

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
The Dark Knight Rises turned thirteen. We were going to
turn this into a segment today before I decided to
talk about my mouse woes and my rat woes in
the shop and the.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
Just disgusting stuff I've seen this week now.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
I don't know if you remember when this movie came out,
but it was met with a lot of that was okay,
A lot of people disliked this film, and yet culturally
I'd say it probably had as big of an impact
as Dark Knight did, just because of the bane stuff.
His voice and certain things that came out of the

(01:12:39):
music is incredible. Giving it to rewatch that movie is
a great movie. It's a Christopher Nolan movie. So when
you're like, oh, it's not the best Christopher Nolan movie,
it's like going like, yeah, this caviar, Well, yeah, I
don't know what are we complaining about here? So I
thought it was a great movie. I still like the

(01:12:59):
watch it. Like when I go which one do I
want to watch? I end up turning that one on
more often than I do the other two. Maybe it's
because I saw it Dark Knight so much when it
came out in two thousand and eight. But this one
in particular, I loved this. I still think it's a
great movie. It holds up really well.

Speaker 3 (01:13:17):
But I feel old.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
I feel old. The other what did I miss? We
already talked about them, so we are good to go
on this end.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
Well, in case you missed it in case you're missing
out every week on social media once again, please be
sure to follow us at gipod nineteen. We post exclusive
show updates and more. You can follow us on Instagram,
on Facebook, on the artist formerly known as Twitter, and
please know your support means everything to Brad and I.
Thank you for joining us on this episode and we

(01:13:48):
will see you next week. Give Me Confridgement is a
part of nineteen Media Group. You can listen to us
on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you find podcasts. You
can also find us on YouTube via the nineteen media
group Annle. Please like, subscribe, comment, and share