Ep 289: WWE Backlash Preview. Roster Cuts. AEW sells out Arena Mexico.

Episode 289: We preview WWE Backlash, happening this weekend. Roster cuts. AEW sells out Arena Mexico for Grand Slam. All the latest news. 













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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Pro Wrestling After Hours.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm Michael Carlisle, joined as always by Micah Frankl.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Micah was shaken man.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
The unemployment line as Braun Stroman walks up to it,
but he knows where to find it because it's not
like ww hasn't done this to him before. Ouch a boom,
and they'll do it to him again the next time
they call him in the room.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
You know, if I'm Carl Anderson and the other one,
I'm just making Stroman an honorary good brother.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Because he gets hired and fired as often as they do.
Did you see the update now from the podcast? I
can't remember what it was called, but Carl Anderson did
do a podcast, and you know why we haven't seen
him on AW because he still has a torn labrom
that he's recovering from, making me feel even worse that
WWE just shook him aside while he's injured after most
likely getting injured working for them.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, yeah, bron Stroman gets his walking papers from WWE.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Shana Bailer, Dakota Dakota.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Kai Kayden Carter, Katana Chance Scora, jade Gg Dolan and
then from there on. I don't know the rest of
these NXT people or the stable, but I am surprised
about a few of those that we named, because where

(01:28):
we seem to think that there is hope for Carrion Cross,
we say that there were shortcomings in the way that
he was presented by the old regime, And same thing
with Alistair Black, where we felt their NXT presentations were
much better and now the guy who was in charge
of those is in charge now of everything. Shana Basler

(01:48):
didn't benefit from that same leadership because she was a
legit hot entity in NXT.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Really, if we're being completely honest, no huge surprises here
from the standpoint of post WrestleMania WWE typically does little
house cleaning here and there.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
But as far as any of the names, you surprised.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Dakota Kai was just in the finals to crown the
first women's US champion, and not like that means something,
but that they had been giving her a bit of
a push in the right direction. The fact that Cory
Jade had been used even in TNA and they were
trying to get her more reps. Those two stick out

(02:35):
for me from it felt like they were getting used
and trying to do something with them, And like I said,
Bayler was more just I'm surprised that they never did
anything with her.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, I like Strohman, I think WWE had gotten everything
they could out of him, which says more about their
booking than him. But Basler, I was a little surprised.
But at the same time, none of these really surprised me.
I know, Cory Jade seeing Punk had kind of taken

(03:09):
her under his wing a bit, So maybe from that
standpoint of tad surprising. But I mean, I don't want
to sound cold and callous, but it is what it is.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Well let's let's let's be cold and callous. Let's say
what it is. WWE runs the industry, and none of
us can really say anything about. Oh, they're a monster
for firing people. I mean, I do appreciate every time
that they fire people. I do go back to the
I appreciate the Tony Kahn method of We're just gonna
let your contract run out unless you beg for your release.

(03:41):
Because people don't like being fired, and headlines are being
fired are just unkind, so letting a contract run out
seems more business appropriate.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Well, look good, but put it like this, because I
just don't want to like crap on WWE for releasing people,
although if one wants to one can Who do you
see see Tony Khan running after in ninety days or
thirty days in the case of the NXT wrestlers and saying,
I gotta have you, I gotta have you come on
home to AW because I'll be honest, I see him

(04:14):
having interest in one of those people, and it ain't
the one you're thinking of. Maybe two, I would say
to Koda Kai and Shannon Basler, those were the one
and maybe two. I'll be honest, And I see we
had a discussion about this not knocking bron Stroman at all.

(04:38):
Tony Khan does not know what to do with big
guys and history has played that out. So I think
he just stays away from braun Stroman. You've got a
really strong women's division. I think Basler can add to that,
and I think Dakota Kai could add to that as well.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
I agree with you there some of the other ones
I could see popping up in TNA, just like in
d Heartwell. So that's another question. Is it just like
getting demoted to single a ball when you were in
the major leagues? If you end up in TNA, Like, like,
what is that? Like, You're you're not that far away
from WWE. No, when you're sent down to their little
brother that tries to emulate everything they do.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
No, it's way worse because you're not still making your
WWE money while doing TNA shots. If TNA brings in
Bron Stroman, Bron's making TNA money, not WWE money, So
that would be your difference. But yeah, I would not
be shocked to see broun Stroman there.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, I don't know. I would think that the.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Japanese would love him, but you know, who the hell knows.
In the next week or so, we might be talking
about WWE buying a Japanese promotion so that that might
go kapluey. But before it could even get started, he Look,
maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Tony's like, ooh, Bron, You're gonna
be the big man. I finally figure out what to
do with please please come here to a I just

(06:01):
based on pasting. We were part of a group text
name me the best big man in ae W.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
It was Brody Lee Brody Lee. Before he passed away.
That was the sure closest that Tony Kahan ever got
to appropriately booking a big man. There have been moments
of a flance Archer, and I think we ended up
that overall powerhouse, Hobbs has been the most traditional big
man who's been well used.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
So and that means that as of right now, that
there's a ceiling for big men in AEW and it's
being one third of the trios champs.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
But only when one of the small.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Dudes gets hurt and you need a replacement, because like,
I don't consider Joe a big guy because Joe actually wrestles.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
I mean talking more of your big plot.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Your your ward Lows's with Hobbes, Yeah, exactly, Benjamin, And lastly,
they're both wrestlers, so I don't consider them big built
like your Archer, your cage, both of whom I like,
Tony Khin really hasn't done a ton with them.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
I think that wwe do. You can correct me if
I'm wrong. Here did a very good job of diminishing
all the value in braunz Stroman. Yes he's a big,
imposing figure, but they have made him look like shit
this last run, and the last opportunity he had to
impress me was when they started control your narrative. He
had a couple inspiring performances there and immediately went back

(07:29):
to WWE when they called his name, and has been
diminished from there on. So from that standpoint, also, he's
such a reclamation project that if Tony Kahn listens to
anybody in his inner circle, they got to point out,
we are not equipped to rebuild somebody that is this damaged.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
No.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Look, I one hundred percent agree with you.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
I think WWE did stroman no favors booking wise, and
that's gonna be hard to overcome.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
It's hard to care about damage control because I don't
know why they came together. I don't know why they
broke up. I don't know why Dakota Kai was in
a final and then release. But you know that that's
WWE booking and the moral of all this as well.
There was budget cuts, there is house cleaning, and if
ww calls any of these people up, they will be
happy to be released the next time. Take that from Broadenstrowman.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
On the subject of released workers non competes ending for
several of the last round of cuts from WWE, including
Cedric Alexander, Carl Anderson, authors of Payne Sonya, Deville Blair, Davenport,
Luke Gallows the other one Giovanni Vinci.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
So I'm convinced. When healthy Tony Kahn would love to
have the good brothers.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
I can see that being a strong possibility. We'll see
how long it takes for health. There. Maybe there's a
chance for Alexander. We know that acrobats have a very
high ceiling, and it would be an interesting turn to
the saga of the Hurt Syndicate if maybe we did
have a promise of a fourth member and MJF is

(09:11):
fully ready to take his spot and instead it might
be a letdown. But it's Cedric Alexander, the returning member
of this business.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Who do you think MJF like goes out in malls
to impress Bobby Lashley and get that thumbs up. Max Caster,
That's that's too easy though, But yeah, man, I could
see him doing that. And then lastly, I mean, yeah,
lastly's still not giving him the thumb's too easy.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah, I'm gonna have to work his way up to
someone in the middle of the card we're talking about,
just below Daniel Garcia. I don't know, Yeah, probably ends
up doing it to somebody that you used to conglomerate,
poor Mark Briscoe in the scenario.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah, well yeah, I guess.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Do you think that one would cause some backlash night?
I said it?

Speaker 2 (10:01):
So look at you backlash this weekend from Saint Louis.
I uh uh, okay, your main event, undisputed Championship. John
Cena versus Randy Orton. Here's the problem with Sena with
the belt. He will lose it at some point. It

(10:22):
ain't gonna be to Randy Orton, even if we are
in Randy Orton's hometown.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
This the card itself.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
I'm convinced that outside of Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, Summer Slam
Survivor Series, right.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
WWE, Yeah no, not even no. But but if there's.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
A pecking order for the rest, maybe elimination chambers at
the top. But I'm convinced outside of the Big four WWE. Now,
I've used pay per views the same way they've used
Saturday Night's main event. It's slightly more special than a
Raw or a SmackDown, but not much.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
John Cena versus Randy Orton. And do you feel like
they had audibles in play? Like? Because I felt on
SmackDown that the tone of the Randy Orton promo changed
directions two or three times, and I wondered if that

(11:28):
was Randy feeling the tenure of the room, that the
crowd you could literally hear the baby in the back crying,
or do you feel like there were audibles put in?
If this isn't working, go here, hit this topic, hit
that topic. Because he changed paces, he changed characters, he
changed topics in the middle of the promo. And the

(11:52):
problem for this callback because it is a classical pairing,
it's such a instruction of that classical pairing. There's such
a different dynamic from the normal Randy or John Cena
to now heal Sena face Orton that it's just not
clicking in the same manner or is that just me?

(12:15):
I didn't really feel like a lot of life was
given from Randy Orton. Can't wait for John Cena this Friday.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
I don't know if that's the reason, and it could
very well be, But.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
To me, the whole John Cena thing has been the
proverbial fart in church.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
You're facing history, and it would not no.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Not even that.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
It's just everything about scene, like I don't think it's
seen this fault. I I didn't want to go down
this rum.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
No, he needed the fucking Rock to not bail before WrestleMania.
That messed up everything.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
You still told a decent story at Mayne with Cody,
but it wasn't the story you were telling. It felt
painly obvious, painfully obvious. You were pivoting and real talk.
Why'd they pivot?

Speaker 1 (13:11):
The Rock didn't want.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
To do it, he just all of a sudden.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Pat mcavae said, after we did the the troph Scott thing,
I called up Seena, I called up Cody as a
boys outside of in our paraphrase, outside of Hogan, biggest
turn in the history of wrestling.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
I'm out you boys got it from here.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
So yeah, yeah, so I think WW has been playing
catch up. Now, look, the plan may have all along
been uh, Cody's will take a little time off after Mania.
We'll do Randy because we got backlash in Saint Louis.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
But I don't feel any interest in this match whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
And part of it probably has to do with, you know,
not knocking Orton or anybody else, but it has more
to do with well, this ain't how it ends for
This is just a placeholder waiting for Cody to come
back or waiting for the next step in the story.
But I think you've had so many holes in this
because of Rock not wanting to be a part, not

(14:15):
being a part, and you've been trying to patch holes
here and there, that it just this one just hitting
on all cylinders like you would hope it would.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
I still can't get over Johnsena is gonna erase all
history is Was he really the one the hacker behind
the hologram promos and ae W because it doesn't look
like hologram like hacks or does any of the things
that led into the all knowingness of the hologram being everywhere.

(14:47):
That's more like what John Sene is doing now, because
he's gonna hack into the record books. He's gonna break
into the library. He said it all on fire, where
we're never gonna find it again. And this apparently bothers
the voices and Orton's head, who really feels like John
Cena could be best by seeking out options for adoption.

(15:08):
The fuck is going on in this story?

Speaker 1 (15:10):
I don't know, man, I don't well.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
At least it's better than Gunther Pat McAfee, where either
Gunther goes on a two fight scared or he beats
up what has now been severely portrayed as a helpless,
defenseless broadcaster.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
The only thing worse for Gunther to go from losing
at WrestleMania losing his title to losing to Pat McAfee
at Summer Slam is for them to hot shot the
McAfee thing and have Gunther lose his title at Mania
and then come back at Backlash and lose to Pat McAfee.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
I don't know. I think it almost feels like.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Gunpher's about to get the broad Stroman treatment, and this
time next year we're talking about gun being let go
because getting Gunh back into the upper echelon a lot
of ways you can do it, breaking Michael Cole's nose
and wrestling Pat McAfee at Backlash ain't the way to
go about doing it.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
All of a sudden, he's become Walter.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Yeah, no, shit, you are not wrong.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
They're back to Walter. This is atrocious. I never saw
the Gunther thing. I didn't really get it, but you know,
I will tell you I did miss him this week.
I longed for him as I'm watching Santos Escobar and
Ray Phoenix play Patty Cake on each other's chest I'm like,
I need some gunther with a real fricking slap. I mean,

(16:36):
I guess that was hardcore for lucha's. I don't know
if I'm understanding this, but are you at all intrigued
by Andrade looks like he's about to now take over
Logado del Fantasma and take away Garzas from Santos esca bar. Yeah.
I'm transitioning away real quick from backlash, throwing out another

(16:58):
random storyline that to be the you he presented us. Yeah,
they've never done enough with any of these guys for
re Ust to care that they're starting this right.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
Well, yeah you have to.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
So it seems like kind of a big deal when
you send them down to Triple A for Triple Mania,
So yeah, you have to do something.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah whatever, I don't care.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
Uh Lyra Valkyria versus Becky Lynch for the that's not
the Women's us T Women's Yeah all right.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
Yeah, I think I'll go with that last thing you
said about the lutadors.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Don't care.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
It's pretty hard for me to care about this. Uh.
I mean, there was the sabotage, but then there's something
about that promo last night where I was feeling what
Picky Lynch was doing, and then between their back and forth,
I was begging for it to be over.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
I don't know. I just don't know if this is
getting Lyra Valcaria over in the right way. Maybe the
crowd's caring for it, but I didn't love this one.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Does this feel like Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton again? Yeah,
with Becky being Charlotte, Elira being you wear a lot
more leather.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, I feel you. Hey, don't don't insult the wide
array of creativity that vastly none of us can understand
that it's possessed by w W E the greatest storytellers
in wrestling. We're just missing the intricacies of how this
is different, how this is new and fresh?

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Um okay uh us title Jacob FAUGHTU versus Drew McIntyre
versus La Night versus Damien Priest.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
Really really, we're doing a fucking four way.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
I told you we'd have a freight of four way
for the year. Oh wait, that was that WrestleMania. We
are one event off, but I basically called it all right.
Hopefully Jacob Faughtuo wins if not solosicoas somehow cost him
the title, and I guess we can tell continue the
bloodline implosion beateen bloodline implosion.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yes, Dominate, mysteriover is Penta? Are you really pulling the
plug on dom Dom this quickly?

Speaker 1 (19:04):
As I see Champ.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
No, No, Penta's that over. He can take some losses.
He's just a mid carter. It's gonna have chicanery all over.
I don't know if you go that quick that Finn
costs Dom the title. I think that'll live overcomes all
Live Morgan. Surprise, you turn from the movie set just
to help dom Dom get over over on Penta Penta,

(19:27):
so the chagrin of Finfinn. I don't know why I started.
You said pizza and you said Dom just kind of
caught caught on from your favorite Flintstone character. Bam bam,
Yeah there you go.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Look at you.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Uh, by the way, as we record, that's your backlash card.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
We we just ran it down, looking much like Bedrock.
I'm just gonna continue with the Flintstones' references now. I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
Well, I think we need a change in creative Mister
Slate better bring in somebody new.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Maybe Triple Ah could find his own Dino and go
some fresh things here.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
They need a new lucha like Kazoo remember the Little Alien.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
Yes, yes, I'm also just thinking about, you know, how
all lucas are the same, because the more awkward it
gets watching Stephanie Vancoure standing there next to all the
Triple A people like, yes, we're all Mexican, Yes, I
know you. I'm quite surprised that we don't have a
Roxanne Petes e Edo Sky title match. I'm quite perplexed

(20:31):
by actually that whole rivalry because we had the attack
and then reported lyon Raw on NXT Itto and Jordan Grace.
I don't know where she comes into this beat Julia
and Roxanne, and then Ito beats Roxanne again. I'm seeing
a lot of Roxanne losing in this rivalry, but they
keep perpetuating it. So that's something not on this card,

(20:51):
but something that WW is doing. There wasn't a lot
more for us to go over on backlash, But what
about out the trail that we're being led down seth
rawlins main event Jay Usso quite possibly eventually we get
into a six man tax scenario where the USO's and

(21:12):
Sammy take on whatever we're gonna call Seth Rowlins group maybe.
And I think this is where that guy that they're
bringing over from Japan that's gonna go instantly to the
main roster, Jeff Cobb, I think, becomes a Hayman guy.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Maybe.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
I wonder what his name's gonna be, because because I
bet you anything, it ain't gonna be Jeff Cobb.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
Jeff Clauber, Jeff Claber. They're gonna go with something Samoan sounding.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
I was about to say, Samoa Jean.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
He's a long lost cousin of that other guy that
used to be here, Samoa Jeff Joe.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Maybe I don't know. I don't know me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
I like the way Hayman every week tries to talk
somebody into leaving or going away or whatever.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
Clearing the path for Seth. Just clearing the path, man,
I was.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
I didn't expect to see see a punk on Monday
night to come out, but I was good with that
as well.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
It certainly makes sense.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
I was hoping we were done with yeating and Seth
was gonna go ahead and take care of jay Uso and.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
So damn close, so damn close, right. I was surprised
that in Paul Hayman's whole speech that we never brought up.
And last of all, were you going back.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
To kneeling at Roman Reins's side.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
Jay, you're judging me for leaving him as you've been
so at his loyal beck and call of our tribal chief.
That was the only part I was surprised that didn't
come up.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
One of the things that I kind of like about
the bigger WWE S storylines, And I know it drives
some people crazy and there are times that doesn't make sense.
It definitely makes sense here. Paul ham is not wrong
in anything.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
No, he's totally right. He is the seth Rawlins, the
Drew McIntyre. The villains have made much more sense recently.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah, yeah, whether it goes everybody that was challenging Cody,
you know, but before we got to the scene of
program and all that, they're all making sense. Yeah, it's
it's interesting. But listen to Paul Hayman. I'm like, you know,
Paul's right, he'd have been a fool to to have
stayed alied with Roman. We should be cheering him, celebrating

(23:30):
him for getting away from that and getting away from
his dastardly so called best friend who put him in
an impossible situation.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
And all that.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
He just remember, Jay and Sammy are mad at everybody
that gangs up and attacks people, especially if they're not
a part of that gang. That's all I've learned from them. Yeah,
they see the right way if they're not in the wrong. Yo,
how could you be doing the show? I mean, some
people are blind, not as blind as our Truth. But

(24:03):
you know, Little Jimmy's there for a reason. Are actually
Big jim there for a reason? Save our truth from snakes?
I guess I asked you a question last week and
I now needed answered. It was at the end of
the show last week, and I hoped you had contemplated
it deeply.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
I don't remember the question, Micah.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
Does NXT have better women's wrestling than SmackDown?

Speaker 2 (24:34):
NXT might have better women's wrestler than Raw or SmackDown.

Speaker 3 (24:41):
Giving Edosky and Ria a little bit of respect, But yeah,
outside of them, I could see where you're going. It's
interesting that all the girls that could work, Stephanie Vancour,
Julia Roxanne, they all had to go down to learn
the WWE style. And I don't know if that's paid
off her b Fab or whoever that is that hangs

(25:03):
out with Otis or Ivy Nile or any of the
plethora of matches that we've watched recently and you had
it watched them.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yes, I would say to answer your question, n XD
has better women's wrestling.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Than Oh and Jordan. How could I not mention her?

Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah, I don't know that that's a huge accomplishment you
should be beating your chest about. Because no, I feel
sorry for the main boss, right, Yeah, the bar set
very low, But yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
It's a problem to me. It's an issue about the
lack of quality that has been brought up from NXT
and how it's been used on the main roster. Because
I shouldn't feel so weird with Selena Vega because we
know she could work me a yam. We know she
could work presentation matters a lot, and the hot and
the cold. I don't know, There's just there seems to

(25:56):
be a giant difference that you can easily examine between
the top of the car, the top couple, and everyone
else there in the women's division. And even where I'm
saying Tiffy doesn't feel as strong sometimes where her greenness shows.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Out, it does, which I guess kind of begs to question,
We've all seen the reports out there Mariah ma is
looking to go WWE when her aw contracts up, assuming
there's truth to that, just because it looks.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
So easy over there, or.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Do you instantly want to be a big fish in
a small pond or a big fish in a pond
where a lot of the fish don't know how to swim.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
I shudder to see what they'll do with Mariah May.
There's a hope for me that they're just going to
make the blonde bombshell quartet, and you get every blonde
that you have together, because I'm pretty sure you got copies.
You'd have a Charlotte. Then you could have Charlotte number two,
Charlotte Tea, and then you can have Charlotte m and
we can have the whole band of Charlotte's the four

(27:11):
horse Charlottes.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
I think horse And let me be clear, I didn't
say horse Charlotte's, No, because A into in insulting.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
Anyone right now, certainly not like that.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
But I was trying to after four horse women, which
is at four horsemen, the four horse Charlottes.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yeah, I could definitely see that coming with the different
blonds that they all have in order there, but uh,
it really feels weird that we went from blowing through
the Naya Jack storyline to all of a sudden returning
to the Naya Jack storyline, and and uh.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Does that get added to backlash her and Tiffy real quick? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (27:55):
Did it also feel weird to you? And I know
we've already talked about that we're not inspired by WWE commentary,
But did you catch during the Jade match that Wade
Barrett's like, the role that Jade was in as a
tag team was good, but now she's stepping into a
single role And I'm like, I know they're performers, bro,

(28:18):
but I feel like you're podcasting right now, not broadcasting it.
Like I understand wanting to break off in your own
have that solo success, the individual spotlight, and I understand
what he's trying to say, but when you literally call
it a role, it feels like a motion picture, a play.
That's what you get a role in. I mean, I

(28:41):
guess or am I just picking on something and that I
shouldn't be right there? I stuck in my crawl.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
I assume it's something gets lost in the translation going
from English to English is that's hard by.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
I don't know, didn't notice it, didn't care about it.
I get it. Yeah, No, I just.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
I don't like listening to the less than English announcer
in wrestling, so yeah, I tune.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
Out with a lot of what he said.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Although I kind of like Wade Barrett because you know,
I like a poor.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Man's Nigel McGinnis. But that's just me. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
Whatever do you feel that presenting Alistair Black and Russef
and quite a familiar way? I swear we've seen these
these quite similar presentations. I'll talk about the last time
there in WWE. You impressed, you inspired? Anything new? Did
these guys just step back into the same kind of

(29:44):
treadmill going on that same walk.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
I like Alistair Black, what they've done with him so far.
The Russev thing, I don't know. I remember Russev being
a little higher in the pecking order. Maybe I'm thinking
of the heyday and and not near the end, you.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Know, before he left and all that. You know, I
said it last week.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
I'll say it again, Russef doesn't work without Lana, So
either do something completely different.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Or signed C J.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Perry already they're back together now, shouldn't be that hard
of a ideal to to work out, assuming she has
any interest in coming back.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
But yeah, I don't think ruse works without her.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
I just felt like Russev attacking lacause Ala after the match,
that the clam will clutches all the same kind of
mo that he's had there. There's nothing the.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Number of people I've seen take out Kayleazawa and Otis. Dude,
I'd have to take my shoes off to count them all.
You're just adding rusef to that long list.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
And it also feels bland because we've seen it so
many times. It's the same chick and I have for
ten or seven nights in a row.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
And it's not really an impressive list either. So you know.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
That'd have been better off being killed by the Wyats.
He gave Chad Gable a whole new life and literally
killed the Wyats.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
They could be Otis anyway, could be extra Grande Americano.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Because he's big.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
I just want I just want.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Oh, this is that micah okay extra grande?

Speaker 3 (31:30):
I want him to actually have a smaller accomplice. Maybe
that's where not becausez Aba could come in. You put
a mask on him. And you call him expresso.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
At some point in time, Man, you're gonna get a
cease and desist from Starbucks.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
I think expresso is a general term.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
I'm just saying.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
You're you're walking a thin line there, you're walking a
thin line.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
It's not like we're saying we should call him Jing
sing shot or wheat grass. Yeah, you know, you get
the little wheak.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Come on, man, I'll drink the fuck is wrong with you?
Come on?

Speaker 3 (32:04):
What did you call the four blonds earlier? And he
asked me, what's wrong with me?

Speaker 1 (32:07):
The four horse Charlottes?

Speaker 3 (32:09):
And you were so sure how you said that?

Speaker 2 (32:12):
I just wanted to make sure I put the emphasis
on on the SA, that it wasn't a silent S
and somebody took it a different way.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
That's all.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
So now you would have you were hoping that you
didn't get mistaken from the Godfather's slash MJF.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
Is that our.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Opening to just move over to a W because you
brought up MJF.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Please say yes, Please say yes, Please say yes, Please
say yes, Please say yes.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
Was there really anything else in the universe to talk about?

Speaker 1 (32:38):
No?

Speaker 2 (32:39):
No, no, no, there was not.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
Didn't make it any less satisfying when last week we
predicted that Hangman Page was gonna take down Kyle Fletcher, Boom,
we have the finals of the Owen Uh.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
It was very satisfying. Actually, yeah, it's just.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
You're better off having Fletcher lose there that lose to
Osprey again on pay per view.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
I get it, and it makes it. That's probably gonna
be your Double or Nothing main event.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
By the way, I don't know that with Joe and
Moxley in a couple of weeks at whatever, the beach
blast in Chicago, that luxurious tropical locale known for its
fine beaches.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
Dude, that lake is so big.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
I know, I know, and I know they have Lake Michigan,
and they do have beaches at the lake, but.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Not in fucking May. It's still thirty damn degrees in Chicago.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
It's thirty damn degrees across our whole country right now.
Somewhere there's spring break going on and they're taking a
ski trip.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
You know what. That's a very fair point. That's a
very fair point.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
But my guess is we're not going to get a
world title match at Double or Nothing, so that's probably.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Gonna be your main event.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Hangman one of your biggest stars from day one versus
Osprey for the right to go to All In and
challenge for the title.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
That's a hell of a main event. That's gonna be
a banger. We know that you could call him five
star will Osprey. At this point, the matches have just
been delivering and delivering, and and I like the fresh flavor.
I like the opposing styles. I like that you're gonna
get the hard hitting style of Hayman to be opposite
of the total agility and spectacular aerial assault that Osprey

(34:28):
brings in. So I'm interested to see this combination.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
When Hook comes back, he's not happy with the Ops, right, how.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
Could you be there? Mentioned your name once exactly, he said. Wait,
if I squint, I guess Hook looks like Hobbs and
you're right in Brosky, next man on the roster.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
So when all the pieces start falling into place, Hook
comes back, turns on the Ops. He's with the Death Riders,
and Taz is revealed as.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
The guy who's behind all this.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
That would be great, because at least it would give
us a reason why Taz looks so shit faced and
disinterested half the time. When the camera goes on to him.
Was that just me? Or was that a little bit awkward?
On Dynamite, there's a point where, like the camera's on
the three announcers, Taza's head is kind of bobbing everywhere.
I'm like, bro, you're on coke like that, and that's

(35:27):
just like reminiscent of doing security work and finding coke heads.
And at least I.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Don't Uh yeah, I don't know. I don't like Taz
on commentary anymore.

Speaker 3 (35:37):
Dude, I used to love it in TNA.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
I just think, uh, he's sucky Jones.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
I guess I don't know.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
You don't understand how good that was because ae W
Dark Living My Soul. That was probably the best work
Taz is done in ae W. Was just him NX caliber,
probably drunk, just shooting the shit there.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, I could totally see that playing out that way, though,
We'll see. I I mean, I'm more cool with with
hook joining up with the Death Riders, but if you're
gonna do that, the other part of that is probably
playing out as well, because you got to complete that
part of the storyline. Who's who got in Moxley's head,

(36:26):
who convinced him to do all this? You know, things
that he's alluded to in the past, and they've just
kind of dropped.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
I like the Death Writers having a voice of reason
at commentary, almost like the nWo had an influence back
in the day. Within the WCW have that almost Bobby Heenan,
the guy that was always on the plight of the heels,
because I feel like Aw walks the line a lot.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
Isn't it a problem though, that the most intimidating looking
person in that group is the one walking around holding
the briefcase.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
Oh Marinas if he looks like a badass right now,
looks is quite psychotic. And there's just something about CA
Audio and its constant workout a tire that I'm just
not scared of.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
And look, he can certainly go, hey, look, I'm low
key terrified of anybody who will you know, get a
goddamn barbarer back or not even a barbar a nail.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Bats stuck in their back and can't get it out.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Do you even bring back back into the next And
I think you'd point Wheeler and John Moxley most likely
to have a bomb in their backpack.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
If you If you bring hook in after he turns
on the ops, then he and you to have to
wrestle on each other's shoulders, right that they just have to.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
Become like one person for the purposes of wrestling.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
Yeah, because when used to at least way two hundred
pounds combined.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
They know their offshoot tag team can be must be
this tall to wrestle us, and it's like a cardboard
cutout of them holding you over the hedges, just like
it Disney or whatever, you know.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
For the little kids. You must be this tall and
get to get on this little ride.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
I feel like, then, well it's the one person like
a video game. And then they're finishers. They separate and
each one grabs onto a different limit starts pulling on it.
You get the body submission.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
I guess, I guess, I.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Don't know, but yeah, if I'm Hook for the purposes
of the storyline, I am pissed.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
So much effort was put into the ops, into Joe
and Hook and the Mentor ship, and yeah, to see
them just slide in hobbs so easily.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
I guess.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
You can't turn away from the story that you're gonna win,
much like in WWE, if you're not supposed to kick out,
which we didn't mention and you don't kick out, they're
not gonna count the three. I mean, we always heard
that all that. It's just if you don't kick out,
I'm gonna keep counting. That's not what they do in WWE.
But yeah, from the turnco, I could see Hook becoming angry,

(38:53):
evil Hook. And it would make sense because they left
him so out in the cold. Who's checked on him
even in the hospital besides his dad. I don't know
if his dad has His dad left coms Arry when
it first happened. I think, well, yeah, but some we
at least assume he went with him to the hospital,
unless he went to the hotel of Cotching app first.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
I think m JF is one step closer to joining
the Hurt syndicate. Bobby Lashley has told him what he
needs to do to get his thumbs up. Last I checked,
that was the only thumbs up that MGF needed.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
He's got to hurt somebody.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
There's a lot of looci doors running around.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
I could see, man, I.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
Don't know, if you do that, I could see him
your quote unquote jobbers, your you're super less thands and.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Lashleys still not being impressed and then.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
MJF just like goes baseball back crazy on somebody or something.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Could you see it getting all the way up to
like a Mike Bailey Kevin Knight level? Or do you
think it stays like ar Fox commander. Yeah, her Fox
feels like a good one to me. I guess I
beat up, be bloodied, be down and out either way, though,
I still like from earlier in the show, I said,

(40:11):
just when MJF thinks they're gonna vote him in, they
do vote in a fourth member and then it's gonna
be Cedric Alexander instead.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
No, you're just throwing it out there.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
I mentioned last week how I gleaned parental advice through
the actions of Christian right.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
My man did it again this past week.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
Tough loving for his son Nick Wayne, get him a
match defending the r o H TV Championship against the
longest running r o H TV champ of all time,
Jay Lethal.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
And he won it like a G exactly like a
damn G.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
Or maybe a W because he's a Wayne, or maybe
we used to.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
Say like he's a cage. So there was that.

Speaker 3 (41:08):
I was a little I don't know the look on
Nick Wayne's face when the Christian finally put the belt
around his waist, but like he falls into the corner
and he looks so shocked, and I don't know, I
left me confused. Did you understand the full dynamic of
that storytelling? He actually put it around me? Was he touched?

Speaker 1 (41:29):
You think he was touched?

Speaker 3 (41:31):
He felt it? Yeah, I think so, just like we've said,
Mama and Wayne has felt it for a while from Christian.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
I don't uh, I uh, I don't, I know, I
got I got nothing on that one.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
Who's a better valet Kip Saviian or his wife Ka?

Speaker 2 (41:53):
And I like Kip Savian, so I'm not taking a
shot at Kip No, I no, no.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
If you say he's doing the job better, that is
a actual compliment because I asked who was doing the
job better, because I don't know if Penelope's the right
number two to Meghan Bane. It's been interesting, as interesting
as a Harley caeron caring about Anna Jy's ass as
much as the rest of us do.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
So in about fifty seven days, oh wait, that would
be sixty, So in about eighty six days, when Shana
Basler is free and clear from her non compete and
Tony Khan brings her in.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Is she friend or foe to Megan Bain?

Speaker 3 (42:35):
I want to say she's Maria Shaffer's tag team partner
in Tony Kahan's first ae W women second ae W
Women's Memorial Tag Tournament. She's a death writer. Shana Besler
is a death writer. I don't know how we get
to women in the group, but I feel like she

(42:56):
fits perfectly.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
Yeah, because again, at that point in time, the two
toughest looking people in that group are the females.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
And I love it. I just wanted to protect Wheeler You,
to protect you to and his beard at all costs. Yes,
I mean Moxley's briefcase.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Wheeler Uta looks like he ran away from Christian Cage's
orphanage and he's grabbing food out of the dumpster. But
he has yet to come across the disposable razor that
someone is disposed of so he can trim up his
damn ratty ass beer.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
The cops tell them what he looks like right now,
so he has to lay low from the wanted posters.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
Shana Beasler, though, God, I feel like her first off
is going to be losing to Athena and Ring of
Honor before we see her somehow, like you said in.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Ae W, but.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
I feel like she'd have to more be the heavy
for I don't know, could she come in and be
the business end of the CEO.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Has the multiman match for money replace tournaments as Tony
Kahan's favorite thing to do.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
I don't get you could put a international title shot
a TNT title shot. There are so many freaking titles
you could put any kind of title shot up for
the winner of one of these random matches, And instead
it's one hundred thousand dollars for way, a four hundred
thousand dollars eight man tag and none of us believe

(44:27):
that Tony Kahn is paying any of these guys nearly
any of that money. No.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
Look, I'm happy to see Sammy Gavara on AWTV. I'm
happy to see him get a win on AWTV Fourway.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
It was pretty fun match, But.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
How about having him defend the damn Ring of Honor
tag team titles that I learned on Saturday he and
Dustin Rose have held for something like two hundred and
fifty nine days. How many times have I seen them
defend that?

Speaker 1 (44:53):
You know? Once?

Speaker 3 (44:54):
You know? Actually, I'm glad. I haven't seen Sam mcavarre
for two hundred and fifty nine days, and I don't
need to see him defend that title, because this should
be a fucking Ring of honor.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Well, maybe I'll do you one better than that.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
I don't think that's the title that Dustin Rhodes currently
has that he's held the longest. I think him and
the two Von Eric boys have held the aw six
man tag team titles even longer.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
I don't know the last time that one's been defended.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
I'm sure I saw a poster for it within the
last month or something. But yeah, I don't know what
we're doing with the Ring of Honor, Like it's not
righteous anymore.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
No, the righteous are gone.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
I don't know if they asked for their release, if
their contract was up, I don't unless something happened.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
I doubt Tony just cut them, because that's not his thing.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Like you said earlier, he'll let you sit at home,
go work your indie shows, and keep paying until your
contracts up.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
So I yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Don't know what happened there, But yeah, Dutch and Vincent
are gone. I mean, I mean, I kind of got
a kick out of both guys. But the reality is
middle of the pack and.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Ring of Honor was going to be your lot in
life there.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
So I mean put it like this, so like I
threw out to you when we were talking about the
WWE releases, I don't know the Triple H and Nick
Connor beating down Vincent and Dutchess door trying to get
them to sign an NXT contract or anything.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
From my perspective, I enjoyed them. I would rather see
the Righteous than the dark Order is still around. I
understand that Evil Uno.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
Is the dark Order still around.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
I think they're still in a Ring of Honor. At
least Evil Uno keeps himself busy with other things. Him
and Adam Cole have like an aw Arcade podcast they're doing,
so they're still somehow involved in the company. But I
thought as far as the difference, because when you look
at crew, when you looked at top Flight, Private Party,

(46:59):
the infantry, we felt that there was a lot of similarities,
and I felt the Righteous was at least a different
drink of water, for it was a different taste. And
that's why I could have felt that at the bottom,
when you still have your top teams, you need your
bottom teams and I would have kept them around because
you need everything to make a full cake, all the ingredients.

(47:20):
You're saying the righteous are bottoms that least medals. They're
not really tops that at least medals. I don't know
if they're both bottoms. I don't know if they call
that righteous.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Did you realize you you brought up I'm going to
quickly get us out of this. I got to send
to it. I'm gonna get us out of it. Did
you realize you brought up at them? Cole a minute ago?

Speaker 2 (47:37):
How high pitched his fucking voice was before he did
commentary for the whole night on Collision on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
You know, there's a point where I used to enjoy
Adam Cole promos.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
His voice sitting there high when he's Adam Cole, Babe.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
Do you notice how he over explains everything?

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Dude, I swear to God, every time he talked, I
thought it was Ian Rick Abani.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
I like, but doesn't have that pro wrestler type voice.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
You know, listen here, brother or whatever whatever your whatever
you think of when you think of pro wrestler voice,
I don't think of somebody sitting on their nutsack. But
that's why it sounded like had happened to Adam Cole
there with Nigel and a Shavani.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
They have eight hundred dudes under contract. They do commentary
and big show other people, and we had Adam Cole
joined commentary for a whole night in a cutoff Adam
Cole PERI gon T shirt, where Nigel McGinnis looked just
as awkward and his little baby Polo. It was not

(48:42):
the exact look that we would go for. And there's
just something that I noticed it by seeing clips of
the ae w RKAD podcast between Cole and Evil who
Tony Kahn likes Adam Cole on the sticks, on the mics,
on the headphones.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
I would have to respectfully disagree with Tony Connor that one.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
But now if it was hmm, we could send Matt
Minard out there.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
You know, let's give Adam Coole a shot. All right,
then you made the right choice. But other than that,
it stop adding people and taking people away. You know,
you already have Don Kallis drop in and out and
all the I believe Oakley Hathaway dropped in and.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
It was Don Kallis actually not out there for the
Josh Alexander match.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
I don't believe he was hell, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
Inconsistency with the Kallis family was the shit out of me.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
And that and that's why they are losers.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
Yes, you don't put that full effort into it, and
I don't want to dimiss anything, but it felt like
the dangerous alliance Paul Hayman back in the day Jimmy
Hart when he had eight hundred seventy guys. They were
there in that role for every guy. Don callous missing matches.

(50:05):
I don't get it. We know you're backstage, you were
there earlier in the show. Do you guys feel like
it's overkill? Who's making the decision that you walk out
three times a loft the fourth time? Don dude, stay
with your guys.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
If you're worried about overkill, maybe not have him go
sit at the goddamn desk and put on the headset.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
Just make him be a manager. I was. I actually
was impressed by that, and we saw the value of
Stokely Hathaway this week for FTR. I like that we
had a pointed promo with the direction about them wanting
the tag team titles back, and then the use of
Stokely with the quick tap the directions you vocally hurt him,

(50:44):
calling it out. The use of Stokely Hathaway much better
with FTR, I feel like than what Callous has done
with the Callous family. And that's just in some short
exposure to it.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Yeah, I don't, I don't. I don't, I don't. I
don't get it.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
I learned this week that Harley Cameron without the puppet
is just like any other scrub wrestler. As Meghan Bain
destroyed her.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
Well, Bain is a is a dinosaur?

Speaker 1 (51:15):
I mean no, that's Lucasaurus.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
No, no, no, no. I heard Harley Cameron clearly she
thought that a Vegasus was going to be a dinosaur. Yeah,
I guess, And it's a green dinosaur. I mean, she's
not Jade, But but I feel like this is a
second opportunity at Jade, is what they're doing with Meghan
Bain presenting it in a much different way with Penalot

(51:41):
before being a veteran. Almost feels like being more of
the lead in the scenario where Jade had the underlings.
But I don't know if I'm seeing it with Meghan
Bane yet, are you I see superstar potential?

Speaker 2 (51:56):
I don't know, if I see superstar potential, you might
want to bring on.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Sorry so.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Worst Night on Saturday, Rody King, Josh Alexander going time
Limit draw I like that, or Max Caster getting his
ass beat by Daniel Garcia.

Speaker 3 (52:15):
I see a lot of people on the internet that
agree with Tony Kahan and they feel that the Caster
downturn is just hilarious.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
I don't care.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Okay, and that's fine, but then what, so what are
you doing with Max Caster when this is over? Because
my man is a great athlete, He's a multi time
tag team champ, was part of the package with fucking
Billy Gunn. You've turned him into a joke and look, yeah,

(52:45):
there are times it's funny. I don't disagree with that.
But if Tony Khan knew what to do with funny people,
fucking Dan Hausen would be the world champion.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
I could see a scenario where we got it down
in the dumps, fine league, desperate Caster, and then someone
gives him a hand, someone lifts him up, and a
new tag team is formed, and then he realizes tag
team wrestling is for his for.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
Aar Fox, so that that's Max Caster's saving grace being
an attack team with ar.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
Fox, maybe Powerhouse Hobbs after they're no longer in the ops,
because that trio will only last for so long. Maybe
you finally find something to do with Scorpio Sky. Maybe
something doesn't one of.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
The Martins, you know, when the other one gets hurt exactly.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Maybe something doesn't work out for Bowen's after all, as
the singles and we come back around in so many
months to the acclaim put everything aside, we were better together.
I think that we can't say that the ship is
fully sailed on Max Caster because he's getting TV time
and he's not a forgotten man. But like you said,

(53:59):
they're putting him in a really damned spot where maybe
he's just happy getting the TV time where it could
be worse. He could be Scorpio Sky and you just
see the guy taking pictures with Kazarian at Impact Wrestling
and not getting on TV.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
I'd rather be Scorpio's guy.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
And then that's your prerogative. And maybe mac Pastor was
willing to do this, yeah, and was happy to just
get the TV time to get out there, to get
the exposure.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
That's rough man, that's I And again I don't dispute
that there is some entertainment value. But you're killing this
man's career and what aw world is Max Caster ever
taken seriously?

Speaker 1 (54:36):
Again?

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Well, I he starts cheating to win one where he
gets a manager, one where maybe he changes a different direction.
I don't know, Like we didn't know why they broke
up the acclaim, I'm not sure why we're going this way.
I haven't been overly impressed with the two times we've
seen Bowen's in four weeks now, know, Yeah, I guess

(55:03):
I don't know why the Paragon was just a stepping
stone for FDR.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
And why does Jeff Jarrett fucking hate sign Jay Dutt
now right?

Speaker 3 (55:13):
And jay Lee feels big way of getting back to
action was going to lose to Nick Wayne.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
I mean, I.

Speaker 3 (55:20):
Guess there's a lot of a lot of pointed promos
that inspire you to think maybe Tony's doing something with somebody,
and it was just enough to remind you that person's there,
so when they lose the next week, you at least
remember they were there.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Mark it down.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
When the Hurt Syndicate turns on MJF or MJF turns
on them, however that plays out, mjf's going to be
aligned with Jarrett and Lethal and Sidnam.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
Mark it down now that.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
I don't think so now that that may not last
long either, But yeah, come back.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Around to a guiding hand of a mentor who wanted
to be there for you.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
Well, you know it's more civil. You need each other.
Jeff Jarrett wants aw gold.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
During his last talent contract he tried going against MJF
that derailed things. I don't like you, but damn it,
I need you and you need some backup right now,
I can bring Lethal and big ass Sottingham here with
me to help you with with Lashley and Benjamin.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
We don't like each other, but we need each other
right now.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
How hard would it have been for ae W because
you know they already had local hands. We already saw
Rhett Titus and Nick Camarado. Yeah, get on squass matches.
How hard would it have been to have like a
group of like maybe ten independent wrestlers outside on the
boardwalk so that when Tony Storm popped out it was

(56:59):
over the boardwalk more epic that there was absolutely nobody
there and only Luther or should there have been a
little conglomerate of indie wrestlers. It is Tony Storm and
the excitement, and that it would have been more absurd
that people were chairing because she's over the balcony.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
I can only assume there was nobody on the boardwalk
because they were all inside the arena checking out the
hot action of aw collision.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
That's why I think it would have been appropriate.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
To have people. You should have probably had some people
out there.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
Yeah, but she's still timeless. The match was great. The
promos this week, the slut who Ken re butts all
claims and just oh, I never knew that Tony Storm
was so great on the mic. It's like, where was
this the entire time we had seen her in WWE NXT.

(57:49):
Such a revelation that we've seen this trajectory to the character.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
If Tony Kahn does not have Tony Storm locked in
to like a ten year contract, he's a fool.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
It should probably be Christ Jericho, but I think Tony
Storm first inductee into the ae W Hall of Fame.
Uh time been around the black and white.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
You know what, when you put it like that, you're
you're you're not wrong, You're you're not wrong.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
Fuck.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
I had something brilliant to say.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
I don't remember now everything you say is brilliant. I'm
sure it'll come back to you.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
Oh look at you suck it up like oh that.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
Just don't know where that one came out of me. People,
I'm sorry if you just yact.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
That warms the cockles of my heart.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
Cockles. I never wanted to touch those.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
It's all right. Sometimes it's incidental contact. It happens. Don't worry.
I take no offense. I don't even know what we're saying.
Know something about Tony Storm. The boardwalk, Yeah, the boarder.
There was nobody out there that was a little weird.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
A little weird again everything, Oh no, no.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
No, anyway, I'm he has her locked up for a while,
probably not ten years. But you need to make sure
whenever Tony Storm's done with AW, it's because you want
her done with AW, not because she wants to be done.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Give her whatever she wants. She's worth every.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
Pity, amazing, amazing, Tony Storm.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
I'm gonna put you on the spot here and you
might not get answer, because this is if there was
one person AW could not afford to be without talent,
it's Tony Storm.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
Right at this point, I think that Tony Storm is
the biggest talent in the company. That's the easiest way
to state it. Like you said, the most undeniable. I
don't think that John Moxley, his segments are not the
same MJF. Maybe will Osprey fall right behind Swerve.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Yeah, and that's not a knock on any of them,
Please don't get me wrong on that. But there's plenty
of other really good women's right without Tony Storm there,
I think you'd have a hard time making people care
about them. Now, maybe you would have done things differently
with Mercedes when you brought her in and in a

(01:00:12):
different role, she could be that Tony Storm type character
that makes you care about the entire division instead of
where now you just hate her, which is fine as well,
So you know, I mean, maybe things would have still
worked out, But I don't know that we care about
women's wrestling in AEW without Tony Storm.

Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
No, it's a very great point. I love the way
were her promos. They acknowledge the other characters, so you
know them, but it insults them. There's just something to
it where it brings everything around and the matches she
gets beat up so it makes everyone look strong before
she pulls it out.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
We'll end on this. I asked you earlier, who had
the worst Saturday? Did anybody have a better Saturday than
Juice Robinson? When Tony Storm proclaimed she is here and
she is queer? Oh you know, Juice Robinson perked up,
if you will, got excited, not even trying to be

(01:01:08):
funny there like hot damn.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
Well, you know that's why he's always been a member
of the Bang Bang Gang.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
I don't. I did not expect you to go there, Mike.
That was actually really good.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
And if you thought that was good, let me know
over on the X because that's where we keep up
the pro wrestling conversation. It's at Frankel Micah. Hey, real quick.
Last thing for me that I wanted to ask Michael
Carlisle about, uh huh AEW residency Philadelphia twenty three hundred Arena,
August September. They did a residency last summer in Texas.

(01:01:43):
What do you think of the idea?

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
I didn't like the way.

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
The Texas building looked, so this has to be better.
I'm fine with it. I'm way more impressed that they
sold out Arena Mexico for Grand Slam.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
But the THROUGHWA twenty three hundred Arena is.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
That what the name of it is, Yeah, the oldest arena.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
Yeah, a lot of people hold that building in very
high esteem.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
So good for AW.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
Keep up to pro wrestling conversation again on X with Me,
What about you?

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Yep, bye.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
You can get me at Real Mike Carlisle, you can
get the show at PW After Hours.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
We will talk to you next week

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
For another episode of Pro Wrestling After Hours here on
the After Hours Podcast Network.