Ep 299: New AEW Champion Crowned At All In. WWE Sends Goldberg Into Retirement. All The Latest News.

Episode 299: We recap a busy week in wrestling.  AEW crowns a new champion at All In. WWE has Goldberg's retirement match.  Seth Rollins suffers an injury.  All the latest news and more. 












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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to pro Wrestling after Hours. It's
Michael Carlisle, joined as always by Micah Frankle. Micah was shaking.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Man whole foundation of AE w EBPs, death writer, dumb
and it's all shaken.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Man, Ye a lot, dude, I'm shaking.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm not sure I'm called up on wrestling yet. Jesus Christ.
We had a lot of wrestling this past week.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
I don't Yeah, yeah, I don't appreciate what that WWE
just feels this deep need to counter program and I
guess when you're a monopoly, you don't want to see
anyone else succeed at all. Uh. But yeah, that was
like a wrestling overload without a lot of moments I

(01:00):
want to talk about except for a lot of aew.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, we'll talk about all of it to a certain degree,
some of it more than others. It was a busy week.
We got a lot to get to. Let's just jump
right in Friday night Ring of Honor, Supercard of Honor.
We don't have to go through the whole card. I
will say I thought Bandido and Takeshka for the ROH Championship.

(01:27):
That was a hell of a match. Kudos to both
of them. Bandido retains. I also thought Athena and thunder
Rosa had a good match for the ROH Women's Championship.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Somehow thunder Rosa performs better just when she's not in
an aew NWA Overseas Ring of Honor, not on Warner
Brother's TV. For some reason, does she not reach the
same level. But that was a much better performance Athena.
For my money, it's hard to tell me that the

(02:02):
top two female wrestlers in the world don't reside in
ae W. What Tena has done over the last like
thousand and fifty days or something, and her continuation to
push it in the ring, and not only with her character.
Really impressed with her. And like you said, let's not

(02:22):
also underestimate after being in those pants, Bendita's got some
freaking legs, man, I was. I was quite impressed by,
like the definition and muscularity, Like he should stay in
the shorts. Those are like a whoa kind of an
eye grabber.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, I would say the top three women's wrestlers in
the world reside in AW. I would one percent throw
Mercedes Monette into that conversation. If you want to tell
me the beginning of her AW run wasn't the smoothest.
I wouldn't disagree, but I would argue over the last
three or four months she's hit her prime as well.

(03:00):
But yes, as far as Bandido and to Gashia, that
was a hell of a match as well. I don't
know how far you can go with Bandido, like on
the AW side of things, because of the limitations with
promos and stuff, But damn if that guy doesn't deliver,

(03:22):
you can work, and I think you could slowly get
him there.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I don't think you could automatically insert him into a
main event run, but I think that eventually you could.
If he's able to get his style home to the
point where he stops being a risk to himself and
causing so many injuries, I could see some good runs
for Bandido. He really does deliver in the ring, and

(03:47):
I think he's working on his English yep yep.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Also, let's bring up the tag title match Sons of
Texas defeated the Infantry. I really only bring that up
because that was the start of a crazy a couple
of days for Dustin Rhoades, which we'll talk more about
when we get to All In.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
But Damn, you could throw on some Ozzie Osbourne and
all Dustin Rhads an iron man right there, he's doing
it all. I'm not sure what we think of Sammy.
I just only harkened to that because you had brought

(04:26):
up last week. How do we as a time that
we buy in on all the pillars. I think two
of them are much more stable pillars than the other two,
just from how the fan base feels about them.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
I agree with you on that. Was there anything else
from Ring of Honor that stood out to you?

Speaker 2 (04:42):
I'm just pleasantly surprising, and at least for I don't
know if I love it for ae W TV, but
returning to the same venue for a Ring of Honor
it excaped me. I think it is like the EES
Sports Arena there in Arlington. Yeah. I thought it does
a good look for Ring of Honor to really packet
it and feel like they have a good crowd. I
don't know if I love her for aw TV.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
I'm with you on that Saturday, Mike all In quite
possibly the longest pay per view in the history of
pay per views. I'm kidding it was long. No surprise there.
I ain't going to complain about it. Say what you want,
but we say this, after every pay per view, AW
is going to give you your money's worth. You may

(05:25):
be tired, you may be worn out, but you're never
gonna say I didn't feel like I got my money's worth.
You definitely got your money's worth. There. We'll skip around
a little bit here because I wanted to start with
Adam Cole being forced to vacate the T and T
title due to injury. Reportedly now it's believed it's concussion related. Certainly,

(05:51):
you hate that for anybody, whatever the issue is concussion
or something else, you certainly hate to see that. Certainly,
thoughts go out to Adam Cole. Really unfortunate situation for.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Him, the broken ankle, reconcussions in three years. There are
reports now coming out that Adam Cole was considering going
out there to announce his retirement, and I believe Tony
Khan talked him out of it. I believe that Tony
probably keep him around, put him on commentary. As we've

(06:26):
seen anyway, it's this unfortunate for Adam Cole. He had
did some great things in the Ring of Honor, he
had did some great things in the NXT, the injuries
are piling up, and I got to believe that it
was after the injury the call was made that Kyle

(06:46):
Fletcher would not be winning a title at all.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
In it was interesting, and this will get us into
the pre show. We'll spend just a couple of minutes here.
I'm surprised they kept the eight man tag on the
pre show, something you really didn't have to have. You
could have added anybody else into it and taken Dustin
and Sammy out since they were both going to be

(07:11):
in the match for the vacant T and T title.
Not hating on it, I'm just saying I'm surprised they
kept him in there. But they teamed with Ross and
Marshall Van eric and they got the win.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
They did do that that felt like we could see
it coming, a continuation from the night before, and Sons
of Texas get a huge moment in front of the
Texas crowd. Still not over on the Van Erics, but
the tag team of Sons of Texas, the duo Sammy
and Dustin, they seem to be very strong there in Ringovader.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
The other two pre match pre show matches the Conglomeration
B Team and Big Boom AJ beat the don Kallis
Family and FTR defeated the Outrunners.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
This match was fine for what it was and inappropriate
spot for what it was. It's it's some celebrity hijinks
that has no right being on anyone's main card. It's
just some you know, something to grab a different audience,
to pull them in to try to draw your numbers.
And it was appropriately slotted for having interaction with celebrities

(08:19):
that shouldn't be involved with wrestling. Heck, you even had
kids involved. One got pushed down once feared Rocky Romero.
Heck he the size of a kid. So that all
makes sense for where it was and h only ones
that were herded for it were Trent Brenna and Rocky
Romero and we have long since not taken them seriously.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, and I guess I should have said the Conglomeration
B Team and Big Boom AJ beat the don Kallis
Family B Team. To be fair, yes, sir, we give.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Some kind of just special award to Conglomeration. Kyle Fletcher
had them. Cole, I'm sorry to see you go, but
if we get funky attitude, it's not Kyle Flasher. Kyle
O'Reilly excuse me, Kyle, O'Reilly back. I mean him doing
the wristler pose and there's so much more personality.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Maybe O'Reilly can get Riddy stronger a spot in the conglomeration.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Or just give it back the ability to yell everyone's
first name, because that's the best roddy I've seen.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, look big boom aj in my cup of tea
per se, But I got I have no problems with
the way AW utilizes him. Like you said, they keep
it on the pre show. It gets some eyeballs. You're
not throwing him in the damn main event or anything
like that. No problems with that. I don't think the
Outrunners deserve to be on the pay per view, but

(09:45):
I don't think FTR deserved to be on the pre
show either.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Just eight hours, so much content. I hear what you're saying.
I just don't know what else I would have moved
round from the main card to move it down. But
I mean, did you not just feel the smell of
New Jersey in the room when those Newport pants came

(10:13):
out from the Outrunners? What is it with Tony Kahan
and his fascination with helping out cigarette companies. We've got
the Marlboro Man at the top of the car hang
Man page, and you've got the new Ports at the bottom.
I'm wondering what guy comes out in the camel looking attire.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
I bet he's a Middle Eastern wrestler, just saying, uh, yeah,
I don't I don't have an answer for that, Micah.
The pay per view started with the Trios Championship. The
Ops retained against the Death Riders, but some Mojo gets
laid out.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
The Mojo got laid out, Some Mojo got killed. Are
you surprised? Real quick? I didn't get a chance to
say it. FTR actually use some shenanigans to get a
win over the Outrunners. I thought that one might have
been a little bit cleaner, more dominant looking as we
previewed it.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Nah, that totally fits FTR these days.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
It made sense and I all of my thought process
for anything with Mocks retaining the darby being the hero
all that shit we said last week. As soon as
the Trio got handled by the Ops, I was like,
oh shit, this is going in a different direction. I
feel like an asshole. Fore even asking this, was Joe

(11:29):
hurt or was he wrestling hurt?

Speaker 1 (11:34):
I don't think he was hurt at all.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Okay, cool, Yeah, the way they were just letting his
arm flop there, and I love our househops grab his arm.
I mean, that was the most real thing I've heard
from somebody in one of those moments. Ever, you're not
even taking care of him. Yes, thank you, Thank you
Hobbs for pointing that out. You're the only one concerned
about Samoa Joe. I really did feel that.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Moment wasn't even in the top five of my ways.
They weren't taking care of so with Joe while they
were trying to get about You don't put a fucking
neck brace around my man. Yeah whatever, But yeah, there
was that way. Look, I enjoyed the match. It was fine.
We got the Men's Casino Gauntlet next. Not surprising to me.

(12:20):
But MJF gets to win. Now. I did think if
it wasn't MJF, it would be Mark Brisco and the
way things went down on TV last week, I could
have envisioned a scenario where they went that route. In
the end, it's MJF. He gets to win. It was
an interesting match. You may have had a little too

(12:42):
much guy guy in spots, but it's a damn Gauntlet
match for crying out loud, there was.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Too much to write down. It was awesome, There was
fun spots. There was a bit too many wire thirty
seven guys all laid out on the floor. If this
was a you know, a hardcore match, you know it'd
all be up three seconds later. But in all I
thought it was fun. It's appropriate to have mjfscrew over

(13:09):
Mark Bresco with how the build up has been between
the two of them, so I thought that worked out fine.
Poor O'Reilly having to take the l after everything great
that I thought he did on the pre show. He's
pulling double duty. What we got triple duty Dustin? We
don't even acknowledged two match KO.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, two match KO versus three belt Dustin? I mean,
come on, which does get us to the next match
for the vacant TNT title. Daniel Garcia, Dustin Rhodes, Kyle Fletcher,
Sammy Gavara. I might be in the minority, Micah, I
don't know. I love the fact they put this belt

(13:49):
on Dustin Rhodes. Doesn't mean I think he needs to
keep it for six months or more. But ay, I
thought Dustin deserved it and kudos to him three matches
in less than twenty four hours. Kyle Fletcher can wait
as long as you don't put the belt on Garcia
or Sammy. I was good, so I actually like, I

(14:13):
enjoyed the match, I enjoyed the storytelling, and I'm very
happy they put the belt on Dustin.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Until Dustin got the win, I thought, this is a waste.
Why couldn't we just pull two guys from the Casino
Gauntlet and add them to this match. Why didn't need
to be Dustin and Sammy? That makes no sense their
attag team. Why couldn't we just do Garcia former champion
versus Fletcher. This is Fletcher's moment. That's why I'm like,

(14:40):
I think Fletchers screwed himself. He came up short on
the power bomb with Pole, So I think there was
a thought process that is he ready, And then when
you start looking at the card and you say, hey,
if we add Dustin and Sammy here, what kind of
fricking moment is that gonna be? For Dustin? You could

(15:01):
see the true elation from Dustin for the for winning,
and you could see what it meant to the crowd,
and probably everyone had the same thought process as US.
I don't care how many people are in there. This
is Kyle Fletcher's moment, the shock of actually seeing Justin
win with the elation of the moment.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Perfect storytelling, one hundred percent. Uh, it's pay per view.
You want the fans to be happy. It's in Texas.
Dustin's a Texas guy. It made too much sense not
to do it. Based on what you had to deal
with with with Adam Cole being forced to vacate the
title and all that, you can build this up. Fletcher's pissed,

(15:47):
he's deranged, and he's coming after Dustin, so long term,
I don't think this hurts Fletcher at all. But I
do think had we gotten the matches originally scheduled Cole
and Fletcher, Fletcher was winning. But I guess we'll never
know unless Tony con decides to tell us. But based
on what you had to work with, this made total

(16:08):
sense and I'm glad they did it. You got the
Young Bucks versus Swerve, Strickland will Ospray with the ev
peace status on the line. For the Bucks and for
Ospray and Strickland with a loss, they can't challenge for
the world title for a year. This was a hell
of a match. In the end, Ospray and Swerve get

(16:33):
the win. The Young Bucks EVPs no more.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
I was kind of confused at the beginning because I
know that I'll all right, excuse me. I know that
Will Ospray is very in depth in the Assassin's Creed,
So when we started to see the intro right after
Ospray and Swerve had had their little inner, I thought

(17:01):
we were just getting one joint entrance, and I thought
they had kind of turned into the Kubuki Warriors all
of a sudden, because I thought the whole Assassin's Creed
plan was gonna be walking them in And I probably
wasn't the only one. That I can't say I'm as
big as for a fan as I should be, because
when Jojo Offerman is out there singing, my first reaction was, Okay,

(17:26):
I gotta google this, And then you see multiple highlight
videos of Swerve enter into that song, and then even
aw fans that are more knowledgeable than I am with it.
So once you finally know the whole backstory, I almost worry.
Do you think there was too much of an Easter

(17:49):
egg hunt in those introductions? As they gave Osprey and
Swerve each their time. Once you know everything that's going on,
I appreciate did the artistry, but you had to go
and kind of for my money stated afterwards to understand
everything that happened.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
I think most people, most aw fans got it. I
would say the bigger issue. If you give everybody a
fucking special entrance, it ain't special anymore. And by the way,
out of the three, the Young Bucks was the best entrance.
And that stupid ass boat rowing their damn way out

(18:27):
that was way better than Osprey's assassin's creed. That was
way better. Now that Jojo Offerman wasn't great singing the
Shakakhn song and all that, I'm not saying that, but hey,
you give everybody special entrances, they're not special anymore, and
be the best one was actually the Bucks.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
And then one of the best tag team matches in
recent memory, absolute insanity. I could probably watch that match
on repeat several times over before getting tired of it.
The chemistry between Osprey and Swear for not being a
tag team, the overall just artistry put together, the acrobatics

(19:12):
and the the again continued evolution of this new landscape
as we don't have EVPs. Have you put in your
official application for fan EVP?

Speaker 1 (19:25):
You know I have my man, you know I have.
Say what you want about the bucks, they always deliver
in the ring. Maybe sometimes there are a little few
too many super cakes and things they always effing deliver.
This was a hell of a match that got us

(19:46):
to the Women's Casino Gauntlet. Athena gets the win here.
If I'm being perfectly honest, Micah, this match hurt my
head a little.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Really.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah. I I didn't feel like we necessarily needed it,
but we were going to get it. I just yeah,
there was this one could have ended before you got
to the third person, and I would have been okay,
Like we kind of speculated a little bit with MJF
and Mark Briscoe, But I mean it's fine. It was

(20:19):
fine for what it was. I guess I thought, uh
mellow and Meghan Bain had a really rough looking spot
there at one point, but there was a lot of
stuff going on and all that. In the end, Athena
against the wind, and we talked about her a little
earlier about what she's meant to the two companies overall,

(20:40):
and she gets a chance to shine on aw Pay
per view.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
I liked Athena I liked I thought sky Blue getting
in there and having her extra interaction. There were some
really good spots and some really spots throughout the match.
So I went back and forth with how much I
liked it, and I did it THEKLA. I'm still impressed
by her. There's a chance for there's to be some

(21:05):
legs between her and Queen Amidala to keep maturing that rivalry.
This was a little earlier on on the card. I
think it might have been in a better spot also,
but I wasn't upset with it, and I really did
like the finish. I thought Athena King crashing in out

(21:26):
of nowhere, that was a beautiful surprise ending, kind of
like the MGF one, because I think he came in
at such a good enough angle them live. They probably
saw a TV. We were a bit surprised.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure, I will say, if
you really wanted to argue it, the Women's Gauntlet was
better than anything on the WWE Women's pay per view
the next day. Yeah, I just thought it was a
bit much for me, But again, personal taste. I just
told you how great the bucks are in matches there

(21:57):
are people out there who are going to disagree with that. No,
I hate the Bucks, fuck them, I don't care personal preference.
Aw Tag team titles were on the line. Shelton, Benjamin,
Bobby Lashley defending against Jet Speed and Nick Wayne and Christian.
Let me just say, yeah, good match, all that whatever,
whatever f you Nick Wayne, you damn snot nosed ingrate

(22:21):
turning your back on your father like that. Shame on you, sir,
Shame on.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
You became a parent after Athena that if you were
living in or born in Texas, it was probably gonna
be a good way and all. I wanted to think
that the Cages still had a chance to win. When

(22:47):
Lastly and Benjamin came out in Cowboys' colors said, you figured, wow,
the Cowboys will finally win a championship in Texas. It
had to happen. Good for Bobby Lashley. I'm a little
surprised that we're gonna go this direction of domination with
the Heart Business hurt syndicate. I was more thinking that

(23:10):
here we'd see some cracks. Like we said, trios match
the perfect opportunity, but it'd be really hurtful for the
jet for Jet Speed as they were dressed like Wonderbread
to beat Bobby Lashley dressed like a Cowboys player in Texas.
That would have been a little hurtful. And you are right,
how dare Nick Wayne give a shit that Edge is

(23:34):
gonna take ten minutes to the damn ring and not
concurto that damn bastard that he was gonna hit?

Speaker 1 (23:42):
Well, obviously, Nick Wayne's a chicken shit, chicken shit for
turning on his dad, chicken shit for not delivering the concerto.
You're right, had plenty of time to do it if
he was really man enough to do it. Obviously he's not.
Who's he gonna look up to now? Fucking Kipsabian?

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Please who has the worst save this year? Real Ripley?
There's a list going on online of who took the
longest time to get all their shit in in their
intro before getting to the ring. I mean it, It

(24:20):
really bothered me in that spot that they took ten
minutes to get to the chair, Like, who the hell
was supposed to hit the play on Edges music as
Nick Wayne is just like how much longer can I
not hit him for? Every just shitt can a hat?
What do I do do? I actually do this. Yes,
you should have done it. I mean, I don't understand

(24:42):
any of it. I get the Copeland down. Love. We
thought that Christian was obsessed wanting to be everybody's father figure.
Copeland's got a deep down obsession. This dude took you out,
spit on you, and well you're hanging out backstage all night.
The only thing you could pick of to do is

(25:02):
to go save this asshole. What do you care?

Speaker 1 (25:07):
Lifelong friends, going back to childhood, you always you always
see the good in your friend. Dude, if I had
a nickel for every person who talks shit about you
to me, and I still defend you because we're tight
like that, much like Edge and Christian from way back
in the day. I'm kidding. I hear you. I hear you,
But I would argue it's the lifelong friendship and all

(25:29):
that growing up in the business together and all that
happy shit cool.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
Where was that when Christians just let that shit happen
to Cope. I mean, I'm just saying you want him
to get his shit together. Maybe knocking his marbles right
would have been the first step.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
But okay, I don't I don't disagree with you.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
I hear you, I hear you. Yeah, just I hated
the theory and all of the Copeland say that it
took him so long, and that you're making this this
is your comeback, is to save Christian. Okay, here's the
worst part of it to me. Copeland makes his entrance,

(26:12):
he cleans house the whole time, he's got the fucking
microphone in his back pocket, and then it falls out
right before he can grab it and tell Christian to
get his shit together, so he has to.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Bend down and pick it up. The hell, man, I
see it's shit like that. I don't that I know.
I don't know why the whole Christians a bastard wise
Copeland helping him. I didn't care about that. I was
able to rationalize that, but I was like, damn, the
fucking microphone finally fell out of his back pocket.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
All I can think is is if I'm Copeland, I'm like,
he's finally getting what he deserves, this manipulative asshole. Once
he's done getting his ass kicked, I'll go talk to him.
But why am I going to go make the safe
for a guy that was just all about my demise
of a couple months ago. It didn't make I understand
where you're coming from. It's just it's it's just the easiest,

(27:07):
lowest hanging crew to grab. For me.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
Well, this is pro wrestling, man, we often grab the
lowest hanging fruit. Speaking of fruit grabbing, not really, but AnyWho,
Tony Storm Mercedes monet Ae W title was next. This
was a hell of a match, dude. It was entertaining
as all get out. You really were able to suspend

(27:32):
disbelief just because you didn't know how they were going
to go. Does Mercedes continue her own collecting belts? Does
Tony Storms solidify herself as the best women's wrestler, at
least in the US, I'd say the world? Who knows.
I think you had a little bit of everything in

(27:54):
this match, including some HM munching and whatnot and whatnot
and whatnot. Tony Storm gets the win. I thought this
was phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
This was beautiful. I thought the entrances were theatrical. I
liked the incorporation the cowboys, cheerleaders, the cowboy hat from Mercedes,
the big grandioso kind of back end to her coat.
I fought all of that made her the text. And
I was sure that the belt collector theme was gonna continue,

(28:32):
so to me, I was truly surprised to see the
tender that the match took. It took all the way
to an avalanche freaking storm breaker to get the victory,
going a next level of violence to take out Mercedes,
showing how tough it was, how much this pushed both
ladies to their limits. I loved the Meteora when we

(28:57):
had seen Luther been such a crucial part of the
plan for Tony, Stormy catches her, and then there's the
Mercedes on top. I thought this match far exceeded expectations.
And I know that WWE does everything for counter programming
to be the pettiest company ever, and it's hard to

(29:19):
do that when you can't hold a candle to what
that match was. That was the best women's match of
the week, and you said it, The Gauntlet was still
probably better than anything we saw on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
There was a lot of good women's wrestling this past
weekend that didn't have anything to do with the WWE
All Women's pay per view, the interim Ring of Honor
Women's TV title match, the Gauntlet. You mentioned that there
was there was a lot, and I.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Dare say that thunder Roster versus Athena was the second
best women's match of the week, and actually better than
the Gauntlet. Sorry, I have to give that one some respect.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Possibly Tony Storm wins, which was probably the right move.
I don't think Mercedes is hurt that much by the loss.
She can just come back more vindictive than ever. But
I think this really puts an exclamation point on Tony's Storm.
Not in aw perc I think that was already there,

(30:25):
but just generally speaking, in the world of professional wrestling,
in the world of sports entertainment, whatever you want to
call it, I think it meant more for her to
win than it would have for Mercedes. Mercedes has still
got five, six, seven, eight, other belts whatever it is
these days, she can comfort herself with, so she'll be
just fine. I enjoyed the hell out of this match

(30:46):
and was surprised probably not the right word, but I
was very satisfied that Tony Storm got the win.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
I think that in hindsight now, there there's a lot
of limitations creatively to having both of the women's titles
on Mercedes. It's not like you have a hard brand split,
so on one show it'd be one program. On the
other be another you'd literally be down to really having

(31:16):
one champion, and that would limit them creatively. So this
does make more sense in that aspect. She still has
the TBS title, so there's a lot of legs to
be garnered in that direction. With Athena winning and the
Gauntlet and US now presumably going towards Athena versus Tony Storm.

(31:40):
That does surprise me a little bit because I kind
of it's posted us in that same predicament where the
Ring of Honor champion. Now. I wonder how we're gonna
go into that, if there'll be any talks of title
unification or what as we get champion versus I'm not
expecting it, but two belts Athena. I just don't know

(32:01):
how this one plays out where they transition the story,
because we've already said some of what Tony Storm did
in the lead up to Monet felt like some of
the stuff that we had previously with Mariah May. I thought, so,
we just don't want the tenor of the stories continuing,
and I wonder how they'll do something different with Athena right.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Well as far as unifications and things like that. I
would be very surprised. I mean, Dustin Rhodes has the
six man Ring of Honor Belts, the tag team Ring
of Honor Belts. He's now the T and T Champion.
But yeah, I agree with you on Mercedes having both
aw women's titles would have been a little awkward. You'd

(32:42):
have almost have to have forced her to give up
the the TBS title. I would think a little different,
both being in the same company, both being singles titles.
But yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
Do you see somebody I'm just thinking about storytelling wise,
do we see somebody besides the Aena that's ready to
step up, you think, out of this young crop to
that next level, ready to do battle with the with
the Mercedes, with the Tony Storm. That's where Mariah May
felt so special that she came in and she was ready,

(33:16):
and even to a point where I don't know if
Mina Shirakawa feels as clean.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Mena Willow stat Lander right off the top. And that's
not even counting your Julia Hart's, Meghan Bains, Penelope Forwards
people like that. I don't think it's a foregone conclusion
that Athena is necessarily next for Tony Storm, just like
I don't think MJF is, although he could be necessarily

(33:44):
up first for Hangman, and maybe he is, but mjf's opportunistic.
Maybe that's a little easier to wait for him to
pick a spot. But we'll see how they play out.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
With all that, I was gonna say that you're right.
Isn't Athena a little more head on? But she does
have her minions, she is into playing games, so maybe
you're onto something there. Maybe maybe we do wait a
while because Forbidden Doors to the next pay per view.
I don't expect that MJF Hangman Page is gonna headline

(34:18):
for Bidden Door Athena Tony Storm at least a little closer,
because it would be that cross brand ring of honor
versus ae W. But I think you're onto something, maybe
not right now, maybe it's the next pay per view up.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Next, Micah. We had Kenney, Omega and Okata for the
Unified Championship. I thought that the video package for this
was incredible. I thought the last minute, minute and a
half of this match was phenomenal. While it's probably not
fair to compare this to some of their other matches,

(34:56):
if you've seen any of those, I don't think you
can help, but compare it a little. I don't think
it was quite on that level. But where these guys
are both at in twenty twenty five, I thought they
both gave it their all. This was probably the best
we've seen Okada in ae w so I enjoyed the match.
In the end he gets to win.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
I think this is the second paper view in a
row we've said that the big Nights, the bright lights.
Okada has had his two best performances double or nothing
and then here at all. And this might be too strong,
this might be blasphemous. They are a classic combination. I
think that there's and some of them we didn't get

(35:36):
to see this long. But am I over exaggerating to
say that they have a feeling of staying flair that
when you put them together, they just rise above what
they normally do with another dance partner.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
I think that's part of it. I think in the
case of Okada, intentionally he has done less than aaw
like weekend week out, saving for the big moments. And
at this point we're probably in that same place with
Kenny Omega, just you know, at this point in their careers,
their ages and all that. But yes, to answer your question. Yeah,

(36:11):
it's like stained Flair, Flair steamboat, what have you. Yeah,
both these guys bring out the best in each other.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
That was evident on the night, and and I kept
thinking that I wanted to say something on X like
this is as good as it's ever been, and I'm like, no,
and you're right, it's not. It's down a couple levels.
But even being down a couple levels, you understand how
good these two freaking guys were and how good they
were together. We're even down a couple levels. This is special.

(36:46):
This was something put together. This was an incredible look
at who Kenny Omega was. I think there's been times
in ae W where we've struggled to see the Kenny
Omega in New Japan, and I think this so caught
a pairing was able to bring the best out in
both of them and really deliver on what you think

(37:07):
they could do.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Main event time Mike Texas Deathmatch, aw Title, John Moxley
Hangman Adam Page. This match finish aside was exactly what
I thought it was gonna be. There was a lot
of plundering, there was a lot of blood, there was
a lot of objects, there was a lot of outside interference.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
There was. There was a lot of plunder and blunder
and barbire and broken glass and and and handcuffs and
and and and and it's hard to top when John
Moxley goes into the extreme setting he has. I didn't

(37:58):
know if Hangman Page is so vast in how to
use a fork besides for eating, until he knew John.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Moxley, he's bilingual and he's by fork.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
It was beautiful destruction. It was chaos. I've actually taken
last week real quick. The new season comes out July thirty. First,
I started watching the series that Samoa Joe's a part
of Twisted Metal. YEP. This basically looks like shit that
happens in that show, and they actually kill people. I
don't think anybody told Moxley Texas death doesn't mean one

(38:36):
of you dies. But it felt like we were trying
to get there. And that was even before everybody and
their mother got involved.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Have you seen the video, the fan shot video of
Darby Allen just hanging from the top of the Damn
Stadium for like five minutes waiting for the Q to
be dropped down.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
No must have had the time of his life that neural.
Uh that's insane. No, I did not see that.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah I will, I'm sure leave out a name or two.
But at various points in time, in addition to the
members of the Death Riders, Brian Danielson came out. I
thought it was Pether until he took the mask off.
I thought it was El Grande Ameri Dragono or something.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
The aforementioned Darby Allen, who even was nice to see,
took time during his uh conquering of Mount Everest to
record a promo up there and all that that they
played but before he finally dropped down, and even then,
poor dude. And this happened with sting some back in
the day too, the slowest damn dissension and no look

(39:49):
safety paramount. But like everybody around Ringside could have went
to the back, gathered up weapons, bats, kindo sticks, broomsticks,
what have you, Singapore canes and just like when all
pinana on his ass when he finally got low enough,
but he finally comes down, hangman gets the win. I

(40:11):
wasn't sure they were gonna do it, but they did.
Based on the reaction of the fans. Probably the right.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Move, all right, I'd say so I think everyone found
the you know, got the cheer, we got the good
vibes back.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
The only thing that would have made me question it
is damn The biggest reaction this entire match was swere
of Strickland when he came out. But yeah, yeah, look,
I had no problems here. You know, we talked about
this leading up to it, the build up they had
to this. I went from thinking there was no chance
in hell Hangman was winning to I would not be

(40:57):
the least bit surprised if Hangman were to get the win.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
I thought it was going to go all the way
to Darby. I thought it was gonna be Darby's moment,
and it came around and it ended up being Hangman
and Darby was a nice addition to the story as
he's helping chase off the the death writers. The complexity
of this story coming so far full circle with the

(41:26):
backstage interviews and the kind of peace summit between Swerve
and Hangman and Swerve and Prince Nana's interaction at the
end with the handcuffs and leaving Mosley to have to
defend himself. How about I'm such complex storytelling?

Speaker 1 (41:48):
How about fucking Prince Nana Man I don't know if
he was under that table the whole damn match, if
he ran out and crawled under it at some point.
But Moxley tells Marinishafir to grab the brief briefcase and
get the hell out of there. She goes, She gets it,
and she turns to walk away, and she can't go
anywhere because fucking friends not I handcuffed her ass to

(42:09):
the table.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
And becaus the coffee salesman got quick hands there. Make
you change real fast, or make you part of the
chains real fast?

Speaker 1 (42:20):
I guess again. All in all, aew overdelivers on pay
per view. I think they over delivered on all in
for sure, they were I haven't seen a final number yet,
but they were gonna wind up very close to thirty
thousand people there. They might have been just a tad
shy under it. But I'm curious, Mike, leaving all in,

(42:45):
where do they go from here? You've this chapter, at
least of the death Writer's storyline is over. I personally
don't think the death Writers are done, but by a
long shot, I think the Death Writers and the Bucks
are going to be looking for retribution. But you've got
a little different dynamic with Hangman as the champ. Now,
by the way, MJF has earned a title shot. And also, oh,

(43:08):
by the way, you saw a lot of returns on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
There was a lot of returns on Saturday. We still
got some returns to happen. There's always a ton of injuries,
and not to mention, like we said, the next pay
per view is Forbidden Door, so that leaves a lot
to be wondered of who's gonna headline that card. We
could be seriously three months away from Death Writers and

(43:39):
the Bucks having to reappear and go for their revenge
because we could go through something for Forbidden Door into
the MJF Hangman page saga, maybe even getting past MJF
back into the Death Writers. I don't know if that'd
be a possibility. This is a well deserved break for

(44:04):
Moxley and company who've been putting in double duty carrying
the promotion.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
All right, So now not all these created equal, but
you had Brian Danielson return. How much of a return
that is remains to be seen, Adam Copeland return, Darby
Allen return, Juice Robinson returned, The Guns returned, so you

(44:32):
definitely have some new players now, I'm not suggesting Juice
and the Guns are going to be in the world
title picture, but they're back as well. If Danielsen's got
more matches left in him, he's going to be near
the top of the card. Adam Copeland's going to be
somewhere near the top of the card, although it seems
like at least for now, Christian is going to be

(44:52):
the object of his attentions. But you have some different players.
You've also one has to assume Eddie Kingston's going to
be back sooner rather than later, although that sooner may
not necessarily be imminent. At some point in time, Jack
Perry presumably is going to come back. He is not hurt,

(45:12):
he's just sitting at home. Whatever's going on with Adam Cole.
And if he's able to come back pack at some point,
we assume we'll be back as well, and that might
give the Death Riders a shot in the arms. So
you've got a lot of interesting scenarios moving forward. And oh,
by the way, you mentioned Forbidden Door being the next

(45:33):
pay per view. You know where that's at, London, England.
I'm not saying it's gonna be for the title, but
you don't think will Ospray's not going to be in
the main event or the co main.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
Event o main event. I mean that seems like a
really nice place maybe to have Zach Saber Junior in
a main event, come over from New Japan and maybe
get the two biggest players in the game. I believe
he also comes from England somewhere. Yeah, it look Bunningham, Norwich.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Yeah, and with Forbidden Door, you have a tendency to
put some feuds on hold. Like I think it's far
more likely Hangman wrestles somebody from New Japan or CMLL
than MJF taking his title shot there. But you know,
we'll see. You definitely have a lot of possibilities.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
And I feel like you're throwing it out there. Will
Osprey's gonna end up wrestling somebody from CMLL. I feel
like we haven't seen him in that matchup, and it'd
be a little weird to have him go right back
to a Forbidden Door matchup against someone he's faced five
hundred times and New Japan that one's not as special,
but yeah, there's a lot of opportunity. I think that

(46:49):
Copeland is a tag team wrestler with Christian for the
foreseeable future entangled there this Darby maker is Darby end
up getting pushed back and he just ends up battling
with the death writers. Uh, Swerve and Ospray. Also they're

(47:09):
not forbidden from challenging for that world title because they
were successful. So yeah, there's a large range of what
could happen to the Hangman. For sure.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
I don't know that Ospray immediately wants that title shot
at Forbidden Door, but whether it's leading to Forbidden Door
or somewhere along the way, you could see scenarios things
happen where that becomes a possibility. Same thing with Swerve.
All right, we kind of made our peace, but you
still burnt my house down. Well yeah, well you cereal

(47:42):
put the fear of God in my children. Blah blah blah.
You know, we're not that far away from going back
to that if if that's what they wanted to do.
So you definitely have a lot of scenarios coming out
of all in which is exactly what I think you wanted.
If you were aw You're ending a lot of stories

(48:03):
and opening up new stories or branching out from current story.
You know, like, all right, you ended this chapter of
the death writers and all that. But I don't think
it's necessarily done unless you just want it to be.
There are a lot of different ways you can go
there as it relates to the title picture and all
that as well.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Is it just me? Or is shaving the beard the
wrong move? It look ridiculous on Elijah Looce Robinson looks awful,
and I don't know where his charisma went or his
voice that promo with the bucks, I mean with the guns.

(48:48):
I never expected the guns to so far outshine Juice.
Why do you come back in the dull black attire
to be dull black person.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
I like a serious focus, Juice Robinson. Now I agree
with you. I don't like the shaved beard look. I
think I sent you a picture he looked like Bo
Dallas pre Uncle Howdy. I don't know that that's the look.
Not that there was anything wrong with the way Bo
Dallas lope, but I don't know that that's the way
that the look you want. If you're Jews Robinson, I

(49:24):
can get down with a more serious Jews Robinson. I
think you still need some of the comedic stuff he
brings to the table, though, But I'm here for that.
And if that gets the guns a little more focused,
and presumably at some point Jay White will be back
name we didn't mention a while ago, and he could

(49:45):
easily be in that title conversation as well. Well, I'm
gonna take away and see on that. I hear you, Mikah.
I'm not disputing anything you said. I didn't hate it
as much as you did, and I'm willing to see
what they.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
Do with it. To go back to the Gauntlin match,
but I think we're one step closer to an Acclaim reunion.
As they were HOPEFU laid out next to each other
looking pathetic. It's getting closer as they physically got closer.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
Who would have thought Max Caster actually got the better
end of that deal the Acclaimed split up. I think
he did. He goes out and loses every week, but
at least people react to him.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
Yeah, five tool Player has not worked out. Pride of
Pro Wrestling feels like it's forced. It needs to be
authentic and needs to be natural. You know, it might
be more from the MMA After Hours segment, but it's
not appealing to give yourself your on nickname.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
It's really not It's really not anything else, aw wise
you wanted to hit on reat show every show tops
it and a shout out and a thank you to
the UFC all the years of long events they trained
me for this eight hours.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
I was ready for the marathon man. They helped me
get ready for it.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
You think they intentionally went even longer than usual just
to overlap against Saturday night's main event as kind of
an fu for them running NXT Great American Bash during
the early parts of All In.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
You could go with that theory, And if you wanted
to tell me that, someone said no, Tony kh just
got writing and all of a sudden, before he knew it,
he had eight hours worth of shit when he looked
at all the talent that was at his disposal. I
could buy either one. But oh, I'll lean towards the
petty corner.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
I'm gonna guess that didn't play into it at all,
that this is just what Tony GNN had in mind. Now,
if we find out, yeah, did I wanted to jab
them back. That wouldn't surprise me in the least either.
But I'm guessing because look, the other all ins have
been even longer than most pay per views as well,
So it went about as long as I thought it

(51:59):
would maybe maybe a tad longer, but yeah, it was
long for sure. But never say aw doesn't give you
your money's work. Over on the WWE side of things,
Mike we mentioned they ran NXT's Great American Bash. I

(52:19):
think they got a thirty minute head start on all
in other than hey, we're going to count our program,
it sure didn't feel like they did much of anything
to make this show stand out.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Didn't feel special, didn't feel that great. Big ups though,
to Ethan Page and Ricky Starks.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
My gosh, my gosh, that no holds barred street fight
whatever they ended up calling that match fos County, that
was destructive. Love what they're both doing, continuing to excel
and being.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
The great performance they are.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
I thought that was the best match on the card,
far and away. Yeah, and maybe it had something to
do with it, maybe it didn't, but it felt like
they were out to prove a point. I don't understand
the point of having a contract signing on a pay
per view or a premium live event, as WWE does,
but damn if we didn't get one with Trick Williams,

(53:18):
Joe Hendry and Mike Santana for a T and a
Championship match. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, not that anything was
particularly bad on this card, but nothing else really stood
out that much to me.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
But it's that a Toxic Traction lost the tag match
that I was hoping they were gonna win, because that
basically assured that j C. Jane was retaining at Evolution. No,
nothing else really know where they stuck out to me?

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Yeah, and spoiler for when we get there, she retained. Yep, yep, yep.
You had Saturday Night's main event on Saturday Night from WWE.
This one it was on par with other recent Saturday
Night made events. Of course, the big story here that

(54:16):
the injury to Seth Rollins, and I think that throws
a monkey wrench into a lot of WWE plans. We
saw Roman Rains make his return Monday night on RAW.
I'm not one hundred percent sure Roman Reigns comes back
just yet. If Seth Rollins doesn't get hurt, maybe he does.
Maybe that was already planned out, but I think a

(54:38):
lot of plans have to be changed now. Well, first
and foremost, what are you doing to keep that faction strong?
Whereas you know we had talked about helped us last week,
how it seemed like Seth and the other guys, well,
now it's just the other guys and they have to
look really important now. Maybe on Raw this week they

(54:59):
took some steps to that. But this Seth Rawlins injury,
and I believe he was getting an MRI waiting on
the results of that. By the time this drops, we
probably know how serious the injury is, but it's probably
a pretty safe bet he's gonna be out for a while.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Ye, Seth Rollins looks like you saw ghosts. He blew
his knee. He blew his knee before and had to
have ACL reconstruction.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
I think he knows to knee, by the.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Way, same knee. I think that he looked like you
saw a ghost. He saw everything that was planned for him,
everything that was about to happen, just fade away. It's
a tragic injury. It's unfortunate for everything that was about
to happen for Seth Rawlins, Brawn Breaker and Bronson Reading
now get an opportunity to look ultra strong. Maybe Roman

(55:51):
Reigns was gonna come back for the bill to SummerSlam,
and this was going to lead towards him versus Seth.
But obviously at this point it looks like we're gonna
build towards Roman and versus Braun and Bronson. We've got
the B and B with Hayman's you got Hayman and
Airbnb going on now instead of the seth Rawlins Faction
still a better name than MFTs if you ask me.

(56:14):
Unfortunate though, and it's not even really like it's a
great winter moment for la night where then the next
night you said everybody went into emergency mode to try
to make Braun Breaker look as big and strong as
possible with the four victories in a match that real

(56:35):
quick indulged me on this. Bronson Reid gets involved and
it's legal because it's no disqualification, So why doesn't he
just jump in right away and attacks the mpunk when
that match is starting one and two? Because you're a
cmpunk and you're so crafty, why don't you just come
out with a chair in the first place, ready and

(56:58):
taking out Bronson Reid like it felt like allowing Bronson
Reid to cheat and then keeping him on the outside
for the opportune moment to cheat, which doesn't matter because
it's all legal. Was a lot of overthinking this situation.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
I had a lot of problems with that, not the
least of which the irony of two days after AW
did a men's and women's gauntlet match. Aw alright, WW
had their version of a gauntlet on Monday Night Raw
to crowd a number one contender for the title. But yeah,
I had a lot of issues with that. How stupid.

(57:35):
Once again they made see Him punk. Look, we'll see
if we have time to get to that or not.
Solo Soca beats Jimmy USO to retain the US title.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
No surprise there, You know what in hindsight, also kind
of bothers me, Like you know how nick All, this
was very pre empt up and shutting down everything that
the cap Knit and Chelsea had going on. You don't
get it. You'll use your henchwomen two times in a row.
They cannot be there. You think we're ever gonna get that?

(58:09):
For Solo so CoA, who better rely on three guys
to beat one?

Speaker 1 (58:13):
No?

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Interesting how that works? Interesting? The difference between Chelsea and
Solo so CoA bothers me because it's just how they're
perceived and it's basically the same factions. It bothers me.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
Randy Orton b Drew McIntyre. This match notable because Big
boom Aj double duty the assist for Randy. Oh no,
I'm sorry. That wasn't Big boom Aj, that was Jelly Roll.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
There is an appropriate placement for people. The absolute biggest
abomination that I saw the weekend was this horseshit one.
Big Boom Aj is dealing with the Kallus family, Rocky
Romeo and Trent BARRETTA. You want us to believe in

(59:05):
Logan Paul. You've done years to cram that blonde hair
fuck down our throats that he's a legitimate competitor, and
Jelly Roll's pushing him around. Jelly Roll, all of a sudden,
is a badass. He looks like he's about to cry
in the background and tells Randy, I want my revenge.
I'm a tough guy, and now we have to take

(59:27):
that abominated shit to a SummerSlam. This is where appropriate
placement matters to me. If that shit's not on the
pre show, it's a waste.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
It ain't gonna be on the pre show, it's a waste.
The only thing I'll say is at least the sin
a match involving Logan Paul, so you've already got one
outsider that some WWE fans still don't really warm up to,
although I think at this point, by and large most
of them except Logan Paul for what he is. Yeah,
I don't I don't disagree with you. I also, at

(01:00:06):
least everybody and their brother knows who the hell Jelly
Role is, Whereas like, if you're AEW, I don't think
you have a choice but to use Big Boom Aj
on the pre show. And I'm not saying they contemplate
putting him in a main event or comin event on
a pay per view. But he's got a big social
media following. But if you're not on social media, you

(01:00:27):
don't know who the hell he is. Everybody knows who
Jelly Role is. You've heard a jelly Roll song, You've
seen Jelly Roll somewhere along the way. From an attention
grabbing standpoint, it makes a lot more sense to put
him on a main card than other celebrities you might
have involved. Doesn't mean I disagree with you at all.
I totally get what you're saying, and I tend to

(01:00:49):
think along the same way you do. I think there's
a place for celebrities. I don't know if it's prominent
pay per view matches, although I don't recall ever crying
with Carl Malone was on a WCW pay per view
or Dennis Rodman or fucking Jay Leno. Uh So, I
mean maybe part of that hypocritical, maybe my taste of

(01:01:10):
change since then, I don't know, but it bothers me.
But at least it's somebody that everybody knows.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Dennis Rodman Carl Malone felt all right because it was
Dennis Rodman against Carl Malone. And didn't Dennis come back
after that? Again, Yeah, I just don't like it. I
don't care for it, at least when you were going
in with Bad Bunny Logan, Paul, We're like, we're grabbing entertainers,

(01:01:42):
even to the point when they did Arrow that we're
grabbing guys that are physically fit, that want to do
something in this industry. And Jelly Roll just doesn't look
like an athlete.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
Well see the Arrow guy case in point. Outside of
the eight hundred thousand people who watched that show every
week on whichever secondary network it was on, well, I
think it was the CW show. I don't remember, nobody
knew who the fuck he was. No disrespect, but to
put him in prominent situations didn't make a lot of sense.

(01:02:17):
And again, I ain't gonna sit here and try to
justify the jelly roll thing, because ultimately I kind of
agree with you. But whether you're a fourteen year old
kid or a seventy year old grandma, you've heard of
jelly roll. That's my only point on that. Gunther Goldberg,
Goldberg goes into retirement. We debated, we talked about what
might they do here. In the end, I think they

(01:02:40):
did the right thing. Gunther makes Goldberg submit and retains
the title.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
It was belts around Goldberg. It was Goldberg's moment. Goldberg
lost oho Hum. He walked through most of gun Through's strikes,
and because of a knee injury, Gunther took his back
and submitted him really quickly, actually not even really quickly.
He got the joke of that, had to fight for
it for two or three minutes. Eventually Gunther got the win,
but a old ass Goldberg made him work his ass

(01:03:08):
off for it in a very slow, methodical match, probably
a really great Goldberg match, because there hasn't been many
when how slow or how fast they usually are. I
just I couldn't care less about Gunther at the moment,
It just I don't there's nothing impressive about Gunther and

(01:03:29):
you got a whoopedie de barely win over Goldberg. I
just always think, why do they not like Gunther? I
don't like Gunther and care for his style and his
massive chops that have destroyed everybody. Goldberg laughed off. It
didn't help me.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
Goldberg's got a bad man, Micah, Come on, this match
was as good as it could have been. And that's
my take on it. My other take, So, you had
the Rolins injury, which threw a monkey wrench into things
and also gave you a lot of time you had
to fill on the show. Yeah, you still couldn't end

(01:04:05):
in time to get Goldberg's retirement postmatch speech all on TV.
It cuts off what a minute or so into it,
whatever it was that they had to post that later.
I get it. Crap happens. You're booking on the fly
and all that that sing you're going to the trouble
of bringing Goldberg back. You put him in a world

(01:04:27):
title match in his retirement match, and you f up
the timing to the point where his retirement speech you
can't squeeze into the TV broadcast.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Sometimes shit happens, like you said, and they even had
extra time they had to fill. I'm not sure what
was going on for that. I was by that point.
I was just glad that we were getting to the
end of it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
I hear you. Sunday we had WWE Evolution, the All
Women's card. I thought there was some good stuff on here.
I don't think there was anything that was better than
and we talked about this earlier, the Tony Storm Mercedes
Monet match on AEW, probably the Women's Gauntlet match on AEW,

(01:05:14):
probably Athena Thunderosa on the Ring of Honor card on
Friday night. That being said, there was some stuff I liked.
I actually enjoyed Tiffany Stratton trist Stratus. I thought Stratton
looked really good here, and I don't know that that's
been the case in every high profile match she's had
of late.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
I thought it was okay. I thought the low lights
of the card actually for me was the that match
and the Jade Naomi match. I just still not that
over on Jade and Tiffany Stratton were for me. I
really did like the Triple Threat match to start out.
It was a creative backslide for Becky Lynch to get

(01:05:58):
the victory. I thought everyone work their butts off in
the Fatal four Way where we're Roquel Rodriguez really showed
out and you could see Soul Ruka and whatever the
Ultimate Road Warrior lady's name is. They both look like
they have some chops and real promise coming out of
NXT Jane Naomi, like you said, you can't do a

(01:06:23):
Gotlin match right after, and you can't call something no
holds Bars when there's a Texas Death Match in the
same night. It just fails to compare. And then also
it's that not that no holds bars or devastating spoiler
alert lady. Later Naomi runs out, looks fine and you know,
had a band aid on her nose and cash is

(01:06:44):
the money in the bank. I feel like the depths
of THO holds bars going through tables everything with Jade.
You just shit all over Jade by Naomi being healthy
enough to crab to grab the world title at the
end of the night.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
If I'm WWE, I am never signing another women's wrestler
from AW not because they aren't good, not because they
can't compete, but they don't know what to do with them.
The Jade thing, I think is a classic example. If
you take the time to watch NXT, if you took

(01:07:23):
the time to watch Great American Bash, they debuted Mariah
May hot does all get out and now she looks
less than most of the NXT women. Now I think
she's probably fair better on the main roster. But I
think we're in a similar situation with Mariah May that
that we were with Jade Cargill, where they just don't

(01:07:45):
know how to put them in positions to be successful,
or or maybe they don't want to, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
Looks like there might be an altered direction of Blake Monroe.
Now she's becoming more Mariah May. She did cost uh
Jordan Grace the match, so she's a little more helish.
Maybe the Lenans that aw side and rectify that mistake.
And I did like the battle oil for the fact
that we at least to get some you know, teeth.
You got Niki versus Chelsea, so you can see where

(01:08:16):
that's going. Julia versus Elena. Nya got to look as
strong as she ever can because she throws out a
couple of women and Stephanie Vancore. They feel great about her,
and we know she can work, obviously putting in a
lot of effort with her English. Being able to put
together that promo Ito versus RHEO was good, but felt
like no reason thrown together and the best reason to

(01:08:38):
have the match just ended up being the ending, giving
Naomi the opportunity to cash in. But like again, how
was she able to cash in? She literally just got
destroyed and it matches should probably take her out for weeks.
Oh wait, never mind, Jane's not that powerful and strong.
It wasn't that hard of a fight. She looks fine
the next night celebrating her championship victory. No harm, no

(01:09:00):
no damage done at all in a heated rivalry, devastating matchup.
So congratulations to Naomi. They are doing something with her. Finally,
as to where I felt like staying in TNA might
have been better for her for at least the first
year for her return, now proceed with caution. As bad
as a line as that is, it now has the impact.

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
Speaking of stay in TNA, Jordan Grace might do well
to stay in TNA as well. I don't know if
it's worth it being on WWE television just to look
so much less than.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
Just to keep losing. I mean, Steve looks so much
more special during all those rumbles that she would come
over as a favor and now automatically brought back to
the pack. You're just another random person in the next
locker room.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
Yeah, uh, anything else.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
I did comment on something from Monday Night, not to
mention my favorite thing still from Monday Night. Finn Balors
continue to put the wedge in on Live and hey,
look he was even able to manage to get domb
Dom caught up this week, as Thumb's ribs look quite
healed and ready to take on AJ style scoop and

(01:10:18):
praying for his recovery.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
So a couple of weeks ago see him. Punk tries
to shake John Cena's hand in their match in Saudi Arabia,
gets kicked in the nuts. Looks like a Putts. Did
that dumb motherfucker really hold up his hand, wanting Roman
Reigns to pull him up after he had pulled up
Jay Usso.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
Roman, buddy, fuck you, I'm out for myself, wanted Roman's hand.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
Yeah yeah, Roman, buddy, help me up, help me up?
Fuck you see him? I don't I like Punk. I
don't know why WWE is so help meent on making
him look dumb.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
I can't tell you that. I'll tell you there's a
section the audience that keeps telling me La Night and
Penta are better off right now and they are in
bigger spots than they've ever been in their careers. And
I still don't know if that's the case or if
they really are just the lever for whoever is actually
being made look good in that spot.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
Well, Penta's probably getting more exposure than he ever has.
Is he better for it? I mean, I guess we'll see.

Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
He has zero piano about it. Hey, the Wyatts have
tag team titles. Those hot Potato belts have been circulated
around once more. Don't know if that makes me care
any bit more over on SmackDown about their tag team division,
MFTs and SOLO, I don't know what to do about that.

(01:11:54):
There's a lot going on in NWWE, and I'm just
not sure what to make up most of it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
Yeah, I hear you, I hear I wasn't even gonna
bring up the Wyatts because I figure they would have
dropped it by the time the episode drops, So we'll see.
Mike can tell everybody how then keep up with you man, Well,
let's go over to act and chat with me about
pro wrestling at Frankle Micah. You can get the show
on x at PW After Hours. You can get me
at Real Mike Carlisle. We will talk to you next

(01:12:22):
week for another episode of Pro Wrestling After Hours here
on the After Hours Podcast Network