Ep 304: AEW Forbidden Door Preview. Is WWE Heading to ESPN Sooner Than Expected?

Episode 304: AEW presents Forbidden Door this Sunday from London. Is WWE debuting on ESPN sooner than expected? All the latest news. 














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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome back, everybody. It is pro Wrestling after Hours. I'm
Michael Carlile, joined as always by Micah Franko, and Micah
was shaken man a door with a voice behind at
the scene, not so forbidden, Not so forbidden. I thought
you would go with uh Naomi's belly, what's shaking? Big

(00:31):
jim comes with shaking, then the earth gets a quaking.
Well he should have proceeded with a caution or some
other C word. Possibly Jimmy should have used the Jimmy Yeah,
I know.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
And also, congratulations, uh Naomi. You know she got pulled
from roll last week. We didn't know why.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Now WWE has given a reason.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
To question everything these days. But I'm gonna go out
on a limb and.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Assume it's true that she is in fact a real
life pregnant huh I I just either way, okay, cool,
move on. I didn't really give a thought or not
to whether it's fake or whether it was real. I'm
just like, oh, look, we thought they were gonna do
something with Naomi, and now she's vacating the title and

(01:17):
non essential on WWE TV again. Sounds about right for
how they've treated the character. Whether she's really pregnant or not.
Oh no, no, it just seems to be the perfect tiping yeah,
career wise for her. I'm certain she's really pregnant.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I'm just after the whole seth rollins fake injury thing.
You do have to wonder now, I'm just saying this
would be the most awkward one though.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
I just won the world title. Let me fake by
pregnancy and in about in about seven months she comes
out with a big belly and then like reaches under
a shirt and pulls out a a metal plate or
something and banks somebody over the head and haha, bitches,
I'm not pregnant after all, it was all a setup
for what I don't know the payoff would be. Yeah,

(02:02):
I don't know. Yeah, Champion, well so I mean I
hear you on that, but yeah, I'm in all Seriouses congratulations,
I guess yeah, big big big gem And Naomi congratulations.
The bloodline continues as she said, yes, bloodline three point

(02:24):
zero oh something. They'll be n f fbcdt's by then.
I'm not sure what sure sure? It seems like WW
just like threw thoves together three letters at that point, right,
we still have no clue what MFT means it's just
like not NFTs, because we know those went horribly, not

(02:46):
like m f T isn't going horribly. But it's at
least a nice punchline. Yeah, you're buying the Killer Cross
really gone from WWE thing yet? Who Killer Cross?

Speaker 2 (02:58):
You knowing this carry on in WWE, but everywhere else
he's killer.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Oh, he's gone. Seemed like he was on TV as
much last week as he'd ever been, so didn't really
notice it.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
You know, he wasn't on TV last week, right, he wasn't.
You don't remember last week's show when we spent fifteen
minutes talking about it.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
I was just sure that they showed him on TV
again by now. No oh had to pay any mind
to it. Okay, that's sadly, that's kind of where I'm
at as well. Hadn't really given it a lot of fault. No, no, no,
I hear people keep trying to make it a big deal.
Like you know what really felt weird to me about WWE?

(03:42):
I kind of get when ae W and I hate
to compare the two companies in this fact, in this essence,
because I'm not all the way happy with AW in
this MGF goes down to Mexico. It's obviously leading to
something with Mystico. I believe that cml L anniversary show
they're gonna have aim. We kind of saw breadcrumbs of

(04:03):
that on aew TV and we heard that MGF was
transitioning to Mexico. On the other hand, we sat Triple
Mania this past weekend, Yeah, and I felt like all
this shit and all these grudges that the Judgment Day
and other people had with Triple A stars just came
the fuck out of nowhere. Like we had a lot

(04:24):
of time on raw and random promos where you could
just throw in little snidbits about Triple A. Instead the
Judgment Day being down there felt weird. And it's not
like we don't give Dom enough time where he could
have mentioned El Hiliovich Kingo a couple more times if
it was, you know, so prevalent in his life. It

(04:44):
just felt really fucking random to me that Triple Mania
was so ww prelevent. But I really hadn't meant, hadn't
seen any of these WWE stars bring up any of
these interactions. It was very Natalia of them, how she's
one person in WWE had a totally different, cooler person
outside of it. It just seemed like a WWE show

(05:05):
to me. It did, but without any lead up and
with like a bunch of people that I didn't recognize
by the way I enjoy Corey Graves on play by
play that that might have been the best thing about
the show. I'm not even gonna lie and say that
I put that much effort into watching the show. I
saw a good bit of clips. I heard Corey Graves

(05:27):
did a great job. That's awesome from him. He is
a very hard worker. Just a lot of it didn't
make a lot of sense to me for it, feeling
like you said a WW product, but you didn't give
us much lead up on WWE for it. Yeah, yeah,
I don't disagree with you.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
It's a you know, Triple Mania, you know, it's Triple
A's big event, blah blah blah, and then you get
there and it's ad MWWE show, much like what.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Did Dragonly do wrong? Who'd he wrong? You think? Coming over? Nobody?

Speaker 2 (06:03):
There's Uh, there's Raymastereo, and then there's everybody else. I
don't include Dom and the the Lucidor thing because.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
That's not where he cut his teeth.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
I just look at him as a WWE guy, But
there's Raymysterio, and then there's everybody, and then everybody else
is LWO interchangeable.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Dragon Lee was having five star matches, came over to
NXT virtually disappeared after Little Murmurcy viewed the next Ray
Mysterio quickly replaced by Panta, Ray Phoenix, a host of
others to now the point where he's the fourth guy
in a triple A fatal fourg way match when none

(06:49):
of them are actually triple A guys. Really yeah, and
that he's tagging with a guy that's not really his
tag partner just because he knows the WWE style that
he's making more money. But I just can't believe this
is what he envisions his WWE main card run would
be before he became just another luchador on the roster.

(07:12):
If that's not what he envisioned, then that that's on him,
because that's Look.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
They're in the We're right smack dab in the middle
of them doing the exact same thing to Penta right now,
you shouldn't be that surprised. Now, Look, I don't know
that any of those guys made the move just because
they really thought they were going to be pushed as
made of vendors. No, you're going for the WWE paycheck,
the WWE notoriety, and look, that's fine. I'm not saying

(07:43):
Dragon Lee made a bad decision, but he shouldn't be
that surprised at the way he's being used.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
And I don't fall anyone that says they missed Dragon Lee.
They missed what he used to be, They missed the
matches that he used to put on. Sure, I miss
Penca and Ray Finnix and aw I. I also understand
why they left. If it's a real sport, it's all
about wins and losses and placement on the card. You're

(08:09):
never leaving. But that's not what it's all about. I
get why they left.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
I'm also not surprised that again, that they're that they've
that they're being used the way they were being used
and the way they're currently being used. I mean, it
shouldn't be that surprising.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
The Internet blowing out of proportion, the almost criminal facial expressions,
and I don't mean criminal, I mean hostage. Excuse me,
hostage like facial expressions. The madam who runs triple a
hat on her facial static next to Sean Michaels. Does
this look like the most awkward forced to arrange marriage
between WWE and Triple A or is the Internet blowing

(08:49):
some of that out of proportion. They're blowing it out
of proportion. I do wonder why they haven't closed that
deal yet, though, I wonder why the Triple A audience
is matt at al Hilio VI kingo and cheering for
Berto al patron al criminal And that's not even alleged.
People just freaking google the ship. Yeah, yeah, because that's

(09:14):
the handpicked guy from w that WWE chose to forcefully
take the belt off of Alberto, and yeah, my king
oh kind of came out of nowhere.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Wasn't being used much at all in Triple A. At
that title contention level. You probably saw more in aw
TV than the folks in Mexico had seen him on
Triple A.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
But before all that went down, I thought he was
the mega COMPIONI A champion when Triple A and a
W did have their working agreement, because I thought he
was defending the title a lot in gc W, so
I kind of thought that the belt had went from
him back over to Patron back to him again. I
wasn't once we lost the ae W Triple A working relationship.

(10:09):
I fell out of Triple A, missed Viking go. That's
why I'm surprised that they're kind of revolting against him,
because he's like the greatest life flyer. I had seen
this side of Commander who I miss seeing on aw TV.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
I thought I saw Mortis on Saturday until I realized, No,
that's that's Taurus, that doing his best Mortos.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Right, you know, Diesel Razor Martz, I mean Tros. They're
all just, you know, characters, and you own the rights
to them. So just repurposed the character. No Beast Mortos owns.
No owns Beast Mortos. Uh. He came out look at
a whole Morto Tarus came out looking at a whole
lot like Beast Mortos. You didn't notice that, Oh my god, yeah,

(10:53):
just the red Tarros. Yeah yeah, no, I I totally
noticed it. It doesn't doesn't surprise me at all at all.
They think the only intellectual property to the characters, so
they try to recreate it. It feels like a very
wwe move to do. Here's the problem. One of them
is actually an attorney, and it is not happy that they.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Send a dude out looking like him, just saying, by
the way, that's beast more toasts.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Actually we're only attorney. Well, if WW doesn't like getting
involved with lawsuits, do what they like to do. Well,
you know what I mean, they know how it sends
season just this, but they don't know how to back
away from them. At least they didn't shut on anybody's
head allegedly. Well, hey, they're even okay, you know with
founders having done that or well people setting text messages

(11:46):
about wanting to do it. They're okay until you do
it and get arrested for it. Well there's no admit
and no arrest for it. But there is no But
I bet they finally have a problem you did get
arrested for it, maybe, well, actually know if you were
convicted after getting arrested. I think no, I have to
actual arrest because, like I think they've softened up on

(12:10):
the d w I stances and some of the other stances,
haven't they Where they've a leed Well, yeah, because one
of the usos has like forty seven d wy's. I
think that's actually a big Jim. I think it is.
I'm not calling him big Jim.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
I'd rather call it little Jimmy, but I realized that
might piss off our truth those our truth has a
little invisible friend, little Jimmy.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
But again, if I'm like WWE, I don't give a
fuck about pissing off our truth. I already got what
I wanted out of him. So yeah, did SmackDown feel
totally awkward this past week? Where was John Cena? Where
was Cody Rhoades. I'd hate to say this like most
but think about it, but uh, as my ten year

(12:58):
old nephew said to me, what, God, we're all the
cool characters today. Yeah, I guess I was like, whoa dude? Yeah?
Not happy he didn't see Cody Rhods. Not happy at all.
Cody Rose is on TV every fucking week, so I mean,
give him a week off. How hard is it to

(13:18):
show up and cut promos every week? That's from a
ten year old's perspective, Well, we'll just turn ten nine that.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
He should get a damn dose of reality from the
real world.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
That ain't the way it works. Sit there and wait
for Roman Reigns to show up. Hey, which we got? Actually? Which, man,
I'll give WWE credit. Really are just giving away pay
per view main events for free right now, because that
was a pay per view main event if I've ever
seen one. On Monday Night Raw. We had Roman Reigns involved,
we had seth Rawlins involved, we had eighty nine different

(13:52):
people run in that weren't involved with the bron Breaker
Jay Uso match. That was pay per view quality. Shit.
It seemed like a typical Raw to me, felt like
a typical Roman Reigned Johnson the match main event to me,
Codin Rhodes whatever. Well, lots of times those are interchangeable, exactly,
I'm like, So it just felt like what you get
on a p l E. So many moving parts, so

(14:15):
much clusters, so much. When are we just going to
get the real match? And finally there was a winner
I was looking to see as we record.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
It hasn't been officially announced yet, but by the time
you're hearing this, you probably already know this and it
is official. But WWE bringing back Russell Paloozo, which was
the name of an ECW event.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
They're bringing this back to do it September.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Twentieth in Indianapolis to run opposite of a w's All
Out in Toronto. So we're not you know, it's not
NXT they're putting against ae W and the first part
of a Saturday Night's main event versus an AW pay

(14:59):
per view.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Presumably the word is they're.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Looking at Cena and Brock for the headline this event,
but a WWE event and the scuttle bud is since
it's an added premium live event, they're.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Not obligated to give it to Peacock, so you might
see it on ESPN. Interesting. Yeah, the level of threat
that Tony Kahn has imposed on WWE in the existence
of AW has been incredible, and also not to mention

(15:39):
the lawsuits that alleged that they were a monopoly that
has opened them up to working with Triple AGCW sending
talents out to other places pro wrestling, noahs so you
can prove that you're not engaging in these monopolistic activities.
Is incredible. From one site to see how AW is

(16:00):
working with TRIPLA, able to work with New Japan, and
on the other side to see how WWE continues to
purposely pick dates to counter program AW content. It's amazing
to see the amount of fear that they've put into
them where they feel that this is necessary. Where a

(16:20):
TNA for all of its existence was never able to
get under the WWE skin in this manner. Well, TNA
was never a threat. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I mean,
I felt like a current angle, a sting. It felt
like it was a real number two promotion, and it
was another option for us audience that wanted a different option.

(16:44):
But it never struck a chord to where they felt
like attacking or doing something towards it. I mean, this
is more like into the pettiness they shored towards MLW
Ring of Honor, where they're like, you can't work Madison
Square Garden, you can't work this venue. We want this venue.

(17:07):
I could tell you why, if you really want to know.
They want to be number one, and they'd like to
cut everybody that's not on their payroll. No, not that
that's not somewhat accurate at least all right, TNA was
all right. So WCW almost got the job done right
right with the money was right. They didn't and WWE prevails.

(17:32):
TNA was never seen as a serious threat because T
and A never garnered that much well that they stumbled
almost right out of the gate.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
They were getting bad information about what the weekly pay
per views were doing so, they thought they had more
money coming in than they did. They quickly found out
they didn't. Their main financial backer gets caught up in
in some sort of scandal and they lose him.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
You have to go to the carters.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
You're you abandon the weekly TV, the weekly pay per views.
You're on a time buy on Fox Sports, meaning you're
paying for the time, you're not getting money for it.
You're finally able to get on Spike at like eleven
o'clock on a Saturday night. You parlay that into what
ten or eleven on a Thursday night, which you're able

(18:19):
to parlay into Primetime on a Thursday, and.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
Then you have the but you're still you don't have
a ton of money. Then you you go all in
no pun intended, bring in Hogan Flare all that decided
to move the Mondays and the company was never not
saying that's where it all went downhill. That didn't work
the company's footing. Then the power struggles in management, right

(18:47):
ae W second TV rights deal with with with Warner
getting really good money if they choose to do it,
pretty much unlimited finances with the con family. I'm not
just saying that that that Papa Shad, which has opened

(19:09):
up the wallet. But they have that ability. And oh,
by the way, Warner doesn't release the MAX numbers, But
if the speculation on what they're getting on Max is accurate,
there are a lot of weeks where Dynamite gets more
viewers than Raw does on Netflix. What's the speculation for

(19:29):
the HBO numbers?

Speaker 2 (19:31):
The MAX number somewhere between two hundred and fifty five
hundred thousand, okay, while your numbers have gone up on
TV since you started the stream on Max as well.
So if that is true, then there are weeks where
Dynamite gets more viewers then Raw does on Netflix. So look,

(19:53):
WWE's the king and they probably always will be, and
no one is challenging, right. But the longer you let
them around and then something big happens and you catch
fire like ooh haul and ash become available, ooh nWo ooh,
Hogan's third right, lightning in a bottle everything. Look, they
had Hogan for over a year and that didn't move

(20:16):
the needle significantly. But you catch lightning in a bottle,
you don't want to give aw the chance to catch
like look case in point. Chris Jericho just the other
day said he'd be open to a WWE return when
his contract ends at the end of the year. When
his AW contract ends at the end of the year.
If you're WWE, and I'm not knocking Jericho here, I

(20:39):
like Jericho. I think he's an asset to AEW. But
if you're WWE, there's only one reason you'd be interested
in bringing Chris Jericho back.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
To hurt aw exactly because there's nothing to use him for,
right he's kind of long in the tooth at this point. Yes, yes,
and I do believe ww would have some interest.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
There's also a reason that everyone that TNA is talking
to about a new TV show a TV rights deal
are people that are already partners at WWE, A and E.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
CW.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
So TNA you can control you're working with them. You've
even I'm sure seen the rumors. Hey, TNA would like
to run on Wednesday nights when they signed their new
TV Why would you want to run Wednesday nights because
you want to cut into that. You don't have to
beat AW, you just want to cut into the numbers.
From the WWE standpoints, Hey, no one.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
Wants to see the wrestling industry fail as much as
WWE wants to see everyone in it fail connected. Yeah. Yeah,
it's the most malicious entity in pro wrestling that again
focuses a product towards a large segment of children. Look,

(21:57):
I'm not even gonna hate on WWE. If you want
to be successful in business, you either go all in,
no pun intended, or you're just happy with your little
chunk of the pie. WWE chooses not to be happy
with their chunk of the pie. I don't fault them
for that. No, I don't fault them, but it does

(22:18):
honestly make it less desirable for me to support that. Well, look,
that's fair. You don't have a problem watching the UFC
every week, right, Oh god, I do a lot of
time when we look at half of the dictators they
let's sit at ringside. It really does make me question
my life choices and damn myself for my love of

(22:39):
calling bat sports and pro wrestling, pulling me away from
addiction in the life I was living. It makes me
question myself. See, I look at it as to the
victor go the spoils. So when you're the top dog,
you can do stuff like that, and oh here comes
a young up start. You're talking back to the WW
side of things, young upstart aw whoa, whoa. They've got

(23:02):
partnerships with international company. Oh fuck it, let's buy Triple A.
Let's uh. TNA's over here. They're not doing any they're
not threatening.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
But.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
We'll work with them a little bit as well. You
know why they're not. I get it.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
I'm not saying you're wrong either. I totally get where
you're coming from. I'm just saying, while I don't necessarily
like it, I I can't say that that if I
were running WWE, that I would be all that different now.
I don't know that i'd be necessarily lining up TNA
with my fellow partners unless I was looking to buy TNA.

(23:40):
But as far as trying to run everybody else out
of business, I get why they run opposition to the
last few AW pay per views.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
I don't maybe I don't go that far, but I
get it. You want a snuff up hell. That's also
nothing New's been doing that for decades, back to the
eighties with a Starkate event where Vince told the cable operators,
if you run Starkad, you don't get to run WrestleMania.

(24:13):
WrestleMania was a proven entity Starkad on pay per view
was not a proven entity, and I think they were
across the country. There were four cable companies that carried Starkad.
I just every time I hear stories about Fitz McMahon
and WWE, anybody that's ever robbed or stolen anything from them,

(24:34):
I find you in no fault at all, because they
would do the same if they had the opportunity. It
feels like if it worked for their business model and
you did it for your business model, I find no
fault for you then because they would do the same thing.
It's just that kind of feeling they give me. Yeah.
But again, if you want to be successful in business,

(24:56):
I mean, I'm not saying you have to be an asshole.
It may and you don't have to go to the
extremes that they go to, but you have to be
a little cutthroat. You have to make business decisions. Yeah,
there's a there's a differenceness I think between being an
aggressive businessman and a cutthroat, ruthless one. That that's where

(25:17):
I might differ. Where I think there's that line between
the two. I don't know, and it does nothing to me.
Like I said, to appeal that we know that aw
announces things months and events, and it's now ww's tendency
to then a couple of weeks later announced something for
a competitive date, and we understand it's it's just to

(25:38):
try to divide their numbers or pull the fan base side.
It just doesn't do anything to make me want to
watch the WWE more to buy any of their merchandise.
The podcast is what keeps me watching WWE. See, my
issue with WWE is way more the product they put
on TV than well, they're business practices. Yeah, business practices

(26:00):
don't help the lackluster, well look product that we get
on TV against. And don't worry, we are going to
get to Forbidden Door this Sunday live on pay per view. Yeah,
that's still a thing in wrestling pay per view in
a second, but the show. I'm not just picking on
WWE here. I might get a little emotional here, micah Uh.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
I think it's no secret that in twenty twenty five,
my favorite active wrestler is Dan Housen. Correct, his birthday
was just this past Sunday.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
I know this because AEW tweeted out a happy birthday
Dan Housing graphic. What the slap in the face is that.
My first thought was whoa aw remembers Dan Housen. Then
my second thought was, wait, why are they tweeting that out?
His contract was supposed to be up at the end
of July. You want to know why they tweeted it out,

(26:53):
Micah Bye During Dan Housen's contract, he had an injury
and missed some time, so the extended his contract in
his contract, which they are well within their right to
do that, not the first guy they've done that with.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
Here's my problem with that. Dan house has been healthy
for quite some time. You want to take a guest
the last time he was on aw TV, it's been
years December of twenty twenty three, it's been well over
a year and a half. You haven't felt the need
to use him during that.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
So, while yes, absolutely within the rights to add the
time with this came up with Phoenix and Pincer right
because one of them was free, and I think Pincer
was free and Phoenix they had added time too because
they had been negotiating with WWE while they were still
under contract. I think it's a safe bet Dan Housen

(27:50):
at some point is going to wind up on some
form of WWETV. Most likely an XT.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
I'm not saying he's going to be a star or
a main eventor but he's got enough friends over there,
which apparently is one of the reasons why aw and
he had.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
A falling out. I don't know, but you haven't used
this motherfucker since the Sibber of twenty twenty three. One
other reason than to be spiteful is there to add
time to his contract. Oh my god, I want somebody
to be spiteful to me like Tony co was spiteful
to his people. Stay at home, take all the independent bookings.
You will keep getting a shot. Yeah, and I'm gonna

(28:25):
keep sending you the pay we agreed upon, and you
don't have to show up or do a fucking thing.
Tony Kahan, please spikee me like that. Please everybody spike
me like that where I don't have to go to work,
I get paid for everything. Oh yeah, they probably took
care of his medical during that injury and then the keeping.
They're legally obligated to take care of his medical. So yes,
I also draw back from Dan Housen. Besides, he's not

(28:48):
on WWE where they know he's going, and he's getting
free money, right, Now there's a huge difference in if
they doctor checks, if they withheld this pay, if they said, hey,
you only get half the pay because we gave you
half the pay, will you were out and injured. If
he's just sitting at home out his contract, that seems

(29:10):
like the greatest job I could ever have.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Well it is, except you can make more money. Look,
motherfucker's a merchandise mover. Say what you want about him,
and again, look, all wrestlers aren't created the same. I'm
not saying he's ever headlining a pay per view. He
may have never actually been on an aw pay per
view main cardly, it may have all been pre shows.
But he moves merchandise under the WWE umbrella where we're

(29:36):
selling fucking iguana puppets and demon puppets. You don't think
he'd be making a shit ton of money in merch
in WWE.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
So look, you're not wrong. There are worst things in
the world.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
To sit at home and collect a paycheck because they
extended your contract.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
As they are well within their were right to do.
But you have no plans to use him. Why do
do it other than well because I can and I
don't want to see you show up with your buddy
Ethan Paige and look here, motherfucker, you just had to
see him punk on your video vlog again and yeah, no,
we're gonna stick it to you. I fail to see

(30:16):
how wasting all that money is sticking it to him.
You are giving him away a lot of money for
not doing anything, and he's inevitably going to end up
where you want him to anyway, A lot of money.
How what are you under the impression AEW's paying Dan
Housen a couple hundreds to a couple thousand dollars a week,
but no matter what he's getting paid, Oh, a couple

(30:38):
hundred thousand dollars a week, a couple hundred to a
couple thousand, like five hundred to one thousand dollars a week.
I don't know what he's getting either way. You're saying
that if a character is not being used by either company,
they should be immediately released to be able to go
and look for more. No, no, no, I'm saying, if
you haven't used me in over a year and a

(30:59):
half and my contract has ended, well don't because it
is extended because he was. Do you want me to
answer the question if my contract has ended and you
haven't used me in a year and a half, then
don't add injury time to the contract.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Now, if I'm on TV, that's another thing. Even if
you know I'm leaving or whatever and you want to
job me out. Absolutely, and again, look, we've talked about
this before and my position doesn't change on it.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
It's not that they're doing anything wrong because it is
their right to extend any talents contract, you know, if
they miss time due to injury one hundred percent. But
this is again December of what did I say, twenty
twenty three.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
I can't be right, Uh yeah, twenty twenty three, so
before yeah, so it's almost two fucking full years, year
and a half.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
You don't you obviously don't have plans for him. So
and again you got the money. So I mean, if
you want to be a little spiteful or ex exercise,
you're right to do it. I mean, I guess more
power to you. But based on the way he was.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Used in his time there, they're not going to miss him.
It's not like like if Jericho. If Jericho's dead set
on going to WWE, and there's a way Tony Kahan
could say, well, look here, you missed two months due
to injury. I'm adding too much of your contract that
one I get because you actually have used him on
TV somewhat recently and.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
He's been a player for you. I love Dan Housen
to death. He has not been a player for aw
Why just let him go being him free money to
sit at home? I don't know. You'd have to ask
Tony Khan why he feels like he's okay with giving
away money for what feels like a year, a year

(32:49):
and a half by the time, this is all done
to allow Dan Housen to live his best life, to
go take all the bookings he was taking on the
independence scene, and to still get his a pay. It
sounds like a sweet gig. I can understand where you
feel like it's hostile, but at least he very clearly
now understands the date that the contract runs out it

(33:10):
will not be exceeded. And we know it's only a
few months where you keep getting free pay before you
get even bigger pay. I guess I'd be surprised if
he's making one hundred grand a year. No again, not
that anything to sneeze at. I bet he does better
on the indies.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
And all these convention he goes, conventions he goes to
and his par wrestling tea stuff than.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
He does on his AW deal. And I'm not even
gonna imagine to start to think I know what AW
contract values are. Ring of Honor contract values are, NXT
contract values are. Performance center contracts are. I don't know
how much money any of these people make until we
get to like the top end when people are reporting

(33:53):
the what is like seven point five a year for
a Roman reigns. I don't know what any of the
low ends are. Some googling to figure out what Roman
reigns Cody and all them are making. I really don't know.
You realize one of these is not like the other.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Right, But put it like this, If apparently Cold Cabana
is still under some sort of AW contract, Right, if
col Cabana wanted to leave and go to obviously WWE
wouldn't take him because it's the punk situation.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
But Pro Wrestling Noah, is Tony Kahan really gonna say no,
Cold Cabana, you gotta stay here in case I decide
I need you. Probably not.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
I can't look if they're within the right to do
it other than keeping him from somewhere else must the
benefit to keep it dead housing around if you're not
going to know if you're gonna bring him on TV,
if you're gonna have him come out and try to
curse MJF and MJF beats the fuck out of him.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
All right, at least you're doing something there. You're you're
getting rid of him, and you're making MJF into a
bigger a hole than he already is.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
All right, I can buy into that. But if you
haven't been on TV since December of twenty twenty three,
they probably putting you on TV between now in December.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
You're an employee and they are paying you, and they
are keeping you under contract as long as you're an
employee in at right now, you're an employee who they're
not assigning anything to. So take your free money. It's
not free money, my cut. What it's like? No, what
it's like?

Speaker 2 (35:24):
All right, you get fired from your job and you're
collecting unemployment. Hey, that's good, I got money coming in.
But if I had a job, i'd have more money
coming in. Like, unemployment doesn't pay you your full amount
of money wherever he's going next, maybe.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
Not significantly more. That's probably gonna be a little more
than he's than he's getting an AW. So well, I
thought you just said he was getting more, probably from
all these independent things he's doing. So you're telling me
he's probably making a lot of money because the independent bookings,
the competitions, none of which none of which have anything
to do with AAW. Exactly, AAW isn't giving him any work.
They're paying him to allow him. You'd like you said

(36:02):
unemployment and inability to go get a job, But then
you tell me he's out working every weekend for these
other companies, So it sounds like he's getting the uh,
the the pay from ae W, the second Space and
he has a part time job.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
Hold on, you think two hundred bucks for an indie
shot is the same as working for WWE.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Was technically pointing out one company that he's not allowed
to work for when they have given him the entire
wrestling world that he's allowed to go work for. Not true,
Not true of WWE company. Yeah, hold on, you you
think they're gonna let him show up in TNA. Well,
I set out for the ww You think they're gonna
let him show up in a triple A? Well, stop
naming WW companies. You think they There are no other companies, Mike,

(36:44):
there are no other companies that are going to pay
you worth a fuck, So yes, if you want to,
that's right.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
You don't actually see him wrestle a ton on indie show.
Now he does, but you see him more at comic
book conventions and things like that.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Carlisle misses his favorite wrestler and he is demanding that
Tony conn releases him so he can go to WWE
right now. Because Carlisle misses Dan Housen. No no no, no, no,
no no no, that's what it sounds like. That's because
you're not listening. So you think it was wrong that
Tony kept Ray Phoenix under contract. No, he didn't use
them that whole time. He kept them off TV. I

(37:18):
thought he should have bring him back and made him
lose eight hundred masters in it. But they used him
up to that point. He wasn't off air for a
year and a half. And then Tony said, eah, you
were hurt early in your contract.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
I'm ad, see's there's levels and every situation is different,
and look, let me be really clear again and then
we can move on.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
There will within their white rights to do this.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
I got that Phoenix and Penta were being used regularly
and openly negotiated with WWE, like talked about it publicly
while they were still under contract.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Tony had an axe to grind. He didn't have a
problem letting Mallister Black go or Ricky. In fact, they
released Ricky Starks early. I think because he's like, I
ain't using you. Fuck it, you don't want to be here,
go ahead. I just my point is, and again, I
love danauson to death. I don't know why are you're

(38:14):
fucking with dan Housen. I don't know why it's worth
it to now Again, you can do it, but just
let the mother furger go. Okay, listen to me and
tell me if there's a similarity. Okay, Ray Phoenix got
to the end of his contract. I want to go
to WWE. They kind of fucked with him. They let
him go. Ricky Starks, I want to go to w
W came right to Tony Kahn. Then we heard about it.
They let him go. Alistair Black goes right to Turningy Kahn.

(38:35):
We hear about him wanting to go to we WE.
They let him go. Mariah may Is at the end
of her contracts. He says he wants to go to WWE.
They let her go. Dan Housen has a year and
a half left. They fire his best friend, cm Punk.
He shows allegiency to cempunk. They declared they're gonna fuck
with him because he's not leaving for that year and
a half till his contracts up. Everybody else's contracts were

(38:56):
coming up when they declared they wanted to go to WWE.
Dan Housen, at least from a social media perspective, look
like he aligned with Cumpunk and wanted to get out
to go to WWE. And to this point, we haven't
heard the Dan Housen conversation with Tony Kahan where we
heard Alistair asked out, Miro asked out, Ricky Starks asked out,
we haven't heard that. Dan Housing got in front of

(39:18):
Tony Kahan and asked out, unless you heard that, I
haven't seen that.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
No.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Dan Houses said, I want to be used. If you're
not going to use me, please don't add the time
to my contract.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Well, well, do you one of your two favorites, because
why are you asking us for two? You got the one?

Speaker 3 (39:35):
No?

Speaker 1 (39:36):
No, no, no, no, add the time to my contract,
but use me like I want to work. Well, we'll
do half of that. Well at the time, you're a contract.
But again it's fucking Dan Housen man that they can't
use Alistair Black.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
Right.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
You think WWE's gonna push Dan Housen to the moon,
of course not. You think that Tony khn actually runs
the social media? Does that far? Do you think they
tweet out shit at any wrestler without Tony kahan general
knowledge of it. I wouldn't be surprised if they just
do some shit because they do it. But I don't know.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Hey, boss, is this guy's birthday? He's technically under contract.
But is it okay to send it out?

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Is it not? I don't mean specifically for Dan Housen.
Yeah that.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
When Jack Perry's birthday comes up, I bet somebody asks,
is it okay we send out Happy birthday to the
former Jungle Boy?

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah? Do they do the happy birthdays for everybody? Or
was Dan Houson a special one?

Speaker 3 (40:29):
No?

Speaker 1 (40:29):
No, they do it for everybody. Okay. See I don't
pay that much attention to either one. So okay, happy birthday?
Aw starts Tiny kNN acknowledges it whether he's using you
or not. Dan Housen is popular with the fan base,
and A keeps him around on the roster because of that,
and he moves merch, so he does what they need
him to do well.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
I don't want to spend the whole fucking show talking
about Dan housing, although I could, but if it's all
about moving merch, he'd move a lot more fucking merch
if you put him on TV every once in a while.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
Aw Forbidden or this Sunday Alive on pay per view
the O two Arena. Luckily, all this Dan Housen talk,
I don't have to rip AW to shreds for fucking
rushing the ever loving shit out of Adam Copeland and
Christian Cage getting back together. Yeah, that was stupid and horrible.
That was I don't know why they fucking announced it

(41:19):
like they did, because the half hug left so much
mystery between it, and then to just announce their forts together. Now,
can they work together? It's what a fucking way.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
You had gold there and you felt like you needed
another match on fucking forbidden Door, so you rushed the
hell out of this.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
I am disappointed by the lack of Forbidden doornis no
particular order. You've got, uh, the Golden Lovers, Darby Allen,
Tana Hashi, Ospray versus the Death Riders, the Bucks, Gabe Kid.
They rushed everything on this card. Did this this right here?

(41:58):
When you bring up this cage match, the announcement of
the pieces felt rushed, And I wish we could have
had another week for what you just mentioned with Christian
and Copeland or Edge for it to come together. I
think one or two promos the following week, or even
if you could have just waited to a collision would
have made that better. And the same thing with when

(42:21):
you present Moxley with tana Hashi joining the hero faction,
if there would have been a longer pause and way,
it felt too stupid that Moxley was just walking to
the Young Bucks and they kind of in the middle
of it announced to the team and it's like, oh,
I got a plan for that? What the plan? You
are already going to interact as you were walking towards

(42:42):
their locker room. Exactly? Yeah, well no, it was all right.
You think you could have won up me, Well, no,
I've got my plan to one up you that I got.
You know this this wasn't rushed from the standpoint of
in some form or fashion, all these guys have been
feuding with each other for quite some time. Now, did
the match come together other quick? All right?

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Maybe, but that's not like the Copeland Cage situation, who
were bitter enemies after being friends forever, and you could
have milked the hell out of their reuniting instead of
it's just randomly coming together.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Midway through an episode of Dynamite, the Bucks are cucks
now and on a three match skin and John Moxley's like,
you're the guys. I'm turned out. I would have rather
seen Wheeler Da in that match and Gabe Kid bringing
over one more guy from New Japan. And then I
know from a star perspective that would it makes sense.
And I know you're horrified, but what about this? The

(43:35):
Bucks are losers. The Bucks are already forgotten about The
Bucks should be wrestling two schmucks from New Japan on
the pre show. The Bucks are losers. They beat the
fuck out of Juster Roberts last week. Uh yeah, hey,
aw guy, what's his aw record? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, fuck you.
He's undefeated windless. Ah, he's undefeated and winless. His record

(43:57):
has no blemishes and it has that no perfections either
either way. I felt like for the the piling on
that they had on the young Bucks, this is too
prominent of a role for how you were beating them down.
I understand they want to get back. I thought it
would have been ultimately hilarious to see them on a
pre show match well that that would have been favorite.

(44:18):
And like I said, you just bring over one more
dude from New Japan. I can only assume their slot
on the pre show is going to be taken up
by the recently extended Dan Hausen. You didn't think I
was through with that, did you? I'm kidding, Well, honestly,
at this point is what I was gonna say. I
don't know who's on the pre show. I don't know
where the Boom guy is.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
I don't know if he if they have versus, I
don't know. But somebody's got to lose. Somebody's gonna take
the pinfall, so it'll be one of the Bucks.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
No can have the New Japan guy do it too.
Poor Wheeler, you the biggest win of his career this
past week over Jet He got John Moxley's slide approval,
and now he's let good enough for the Cage match.
We're all better for this though. Hurt Syndicate versus either
FTR or Brodido has to be Brodido in this match,

(45:11):
especially after the FTR beat down. They look so strong
and prominent. That's got to be in nail on the coffin.
Uh my guess is it's FTR. Oh, you've changed the
Brodido shots don't matter as much now, No, not now.
There's no reason to hold FTR back since you already
fucking hot shot in the shit out of the reunion

(45:33):
of Cage and Copeland, So you don't need something for
Copeland to do separately while Christian continues to get his
ass beat and then realize the error. Ok.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
Look, keep in mind, we go from one week Christians
talking about He's the biggest asshole, fuck everybody, fuck Adam Copeland,
I did it and I'd do it again, to him
coming out and saving it literally a fuck week.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Later and literally like two weeks after the concerto. Well,
remember Adam Copeland was gone for like five weeks two
months with one. I hate all of that so much noise,
So at this point there's no reason to hold FTR back.
You've given Brodido in out by on back to back
shows having each of them taken out so they won't

(46:21):
be one hundred percent so they can stay strong and
keep selling those shirts. Mike, I would assume they.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Face FTR here, but we'll see, And who do you
think wins? Depends on what you're doing with MJF.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
MtFs already concerned with Hangman Adam Page. I could see
MJF right.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
I could see MJF getting his revenge on the Hurt
Syndicate by helping out his former and maybe future stable
mates and FTR and Soklely Hathaway.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
But does that make sense on a show.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Where he's challenging Hangman Page for the world title, because
you'd assume FTR and Stokely would return the favor in
that main event. I don't think we're taking the belt
off Hangman anytime soon, so we'll have to see so.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
But yeah, so that's a tough one. Yeah, so HERT
Syndicate retains, Maybe I'm guessing they do to keep perpetuating
it and maybe then FDR has to come back around
with MJFU. That's a tight one.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
Aw Unified Championship Okada versus swer of Strickland. I'd really
like to see Swerve win here, but very quietly, Don
Kallis is built like a stable of champions now it's
also a big as stable that has its own set
of losers.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
I'm looking at you, Rocky Romero, Trumperetta, but Okata Takeshka Fletcher.
I don't know that we need anybody dropping titles in
that faction, so I'm assuming Okada retains here. Felt like
Swerve has flown so close to the sun now it's

(48:05):
cool to clip his wings. Like he's had some big moments.
He's a made man, losing doesn't hurt him. Have we
really got Okada over to show the prominence the way
we want to? I think o'cada retains. I agree with you.
Tony Storm versus Athena for the ae W Women's Championship.

(48:33):
Tony Storm will lose the title at some point, but
I just don't know if it's now. She doesn't need
the title, but you gave her the title back or
you had her Yeah, I don't unless Tony Kah is
about to go to the moon with Athena. I have

(48:54):
Tony Storm win here. I'd like to see the title change,
but I don't think it'll happens. I'm going with Tony Storm,
but there's Athena. There's enough moving parts. Maybe something happens,
give her some kind of payoff and reward more on
WBTV for everything she's done to carry Ring of Honor

(49:15):
for the last three years. Yeah. Mercedes one A defends
the AEW TBS Championship versus Alex Windsor representing AEW, someone
representing CMLL, and someone representing Stardom. It's a Sophira or
the Phone representing cl l L. I'm not sure yet

(49:37):
who the starting representative is. Mercedes wins this and retains
the title. There is something interesting still brewing with Statlander
losing her mind and kind of disflirtation with the death Riders,
but I just don't think the Belt Collector loses an
actual AW title. Can we take a quick detour for

(50:01):
like ten seconds? Sure? What's up? Who did it better?
Harley Cameron and Mercedes or Iguana and Finn Balor the Puppets.
I didn't watch it, dude. I heard that there's a
Finn Balor demon doll that you can buy on shop
ae W and I think the Little Iguana as well. Yeah,

(50:26):
I honestly didn't watch it. I don't play, I don't
anything for me, and we were already watching the Mercedes
Harley Cameron match, and that's how I stumbled upon knowing
that puppets have no place in wrestling in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
But at least Harley Cameron and Mercedes kind of sort
of made it a little funny.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
But yeah, whatever, I just we didn't talk about the puppets,
were talking about Triple A earlier. Yeah, it was curious
every way. I cannot take Finn Balor seriously just anything anymore.
Just yea. And mister Iguana I could put him in
that same category with Joe Henry. He has no Dan Housen.

(51:07):
It was I saw it once and my my thought
after that was that's it. And everybody else is like, yeah,
did you see that? And I'm like that that that
that's it, and they're like, yeah, now we get that
every time. I'm like, and you like this, okay, oh
I don't. I don't have anything against mister Iguana. I

(51:27):
just yeah, I just yeah, all right, just compared to
the Joe Henry thing that I was just like, oh, yeah,
there's the entrance that happened one time I'm cool, all right.
Back to Forbidden Door. Kyle Fletcher defends the T and
T Championship versus Takahashi. Haoma Takahashi a little bit older

(51:48):
in his career, much like Naito. This is a huge
opportunity for Kyle Fletcher to look like a million bucks
to destroy somebody from New Japan. Uh Horomu he I
think he's in his forties now. He's another one of
these guys. We're seeing him a little later. If you
saw some of the New Japan Ring of Honor crossover
stuff before Tony Khan had Ring of Honor, that's when

(52:10):
you could have seen Heromu at his best. This is
a huge opportunity for Fletcher. Heromu is one of the
few names from New Japan that we recognize, which kind
of is the sad part about this card.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
Well, again, most people you'd recognize from New Japan and
have already signed with AW SO, but yeah, I hear you.
Zach Saber Junior versus Nigel mcguinnis I'm glad Nigel's on
this card.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
I wish it was against somebody else and an actual
regular wrestling talent on aaw was getting the IWGP World
Heavyweight title match. I get the dream match factor for
the people in the UK between these two UK wrestling legends,
but I don't know if I'm gonna like the matchup

(52:57):
between them. Nigel looked a little slow. Oh actually on
Saturday night, I thought, compared to his infrequent you so
normally he I think we see the best of Nigel.
This time he did look a little slow to me.
I'm not sure if I have a huge expectation for
the match. And my biggest expectation is how is Daniel
Garcia gonna fuck him and throw the towel in? I guess,

(53:17):
And now we're gonna lead to something between Nigel and
Garcia because we just can't let Garcia go.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
Well, Danny Garcia has got to be some damn body
at some point, right so you haven't bet an announcer finally,
I guess.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
I don't. Yeah, I don't. I don't know he's gonna
turn on the announcer. I don't know what we're getting
out of Danny right now. If he turns on Nigel,
does that mean he's got to beat up Shavanni as
well and join sides with FTR after all? I guess.
So I'm just saying. I mean, first thing that jumps
out of me in this match is if you want

(53:51):
in Nigel McGinnis to have a moment out there, maybe
he could have been the one for the Max cast
or Open Challenge. That would have been a surprise. Have
him take down the best wrestler alive and Zach Saber Junior.
Once he beats Nigel Beginnis, the biggest moment should be
when Takeshna comes down there and challenges him, which I

(54:13):
don't know how you feel about the controversy that's been
following Takeshna and ae W, where ae W has a
wrestler When the g one climax looks like Takesha is
the number one contender, the New Japan Faithful are very
upset that an outsider from another promotion has won their tournament,
especially when none of their guys really went shit in AW. Anyway,

(54:37):
doesn't matter, they're the B and all of this. I
know that that's all. That's how you feel about there
at the B level, so that they don't get to matter.
They should be happy for the AW rub right, No,
I don't know why that's Tony Kahn's fault. Tony Kahan
ain't booking the g One Climac Now. I don't know,
and I'm not saying it's not out of the realm

(54:59):
possibility that he said we'd really like to cash God
to win this. I'm gonna maybe all that happened, but
that's on them for agreeing to it. Who knows who's
booking between Tanahashi and Ghetto, right, they're the two that
I believe run New Japan, at least from what I've
heard and seen.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
Right, Copeland and Christian versus Sabian and Nick Wayne.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
Again, I don't hate the match. I just want to hate.
Later two months later there be more pilled up. We
there needed to be more about the Copeland. Uh, this
should be Christian versus either Sabian or Nick Wayne, and
then the rest of that family comes out and beats
him down. Work your way towards Copeland here, Christian should

(55:47):
still be injured. To me, I don't disagree with that either.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
Again, we knew at some point, hell, we knew when
Adam Copeland came in, we were getting Copeland and Christian together.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
At some point we knew with all the injuries and shit,
all right.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Not the injuries, but the turns and you have the
injuries and all that, and then Cope comes back and
all that all right, and Nick Wayne and company kicked
Christian out and all that.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
It's all right, We're getting there. At some point they're
gonna come back together. Why not continue to build that anticipation.
Why just rush the hell out of it? Wasted opportunity
to me, huge wasted opportunity because of the thought process
of feeling the pressure from having a pay per view event,
from having two big names, How could you not use them?

(56:32):
They've been on TV, They're both healthy and active. We
need to have them in action somehow. It's not like
it'd be a great match, but I would rather see
the trio's titles being defended. The Ops had an open
challenge anybody from CMLL New Japan. He ended up getting
some New Japan guys losing to the Ops. That seems
like it could have been better. Rather than rushing this story,

(56:55):
this story still had obvious legs and chapters to grow
from where I think there were other matches with other talents,
even like a Ricochet having some random match against a
New Japan champion might have been able to fit on
here versus taking something that was an obvious story that
can have multiple layers and rushing it. Well, keep in

(57:16):
mind there, Micah, we're only eight matches into what, as
we record is an announced nine match card. You can
take it to the bank. There's gonna be ten to
twelve matches.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
So we may still get a trios title match, we
may still get a ricochet match before it's all said
and done.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
And Mack's caster isn't on the poster or anything that
we mentioned. What happens with that Best Wrestler Alive Open
Challenge tournament? Not sure who he's going to be taking on,
and if the dysfunctional Anthony Bowens pops up. I'm sorry,
I was debating on whether or not I wanted to

(57:55):
detourse again with more Dan Housen talk. I will not.
I will spare us all our main event Hangman Adam
Page defends the aw World title versus MJF. I can
only assume.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Because Tony Kahn seems to like to have, especially with
the world title, it lights to have somewhat lengthy reins.
You know, at least you're not changing it every month,
that somehow Hangman retains here.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
I can't imagine a title change this quickly, but again
it feels something rushed. MJF versus Hangman Page just felt
like we could have let this simmer them argue it's
forbidden door. I could have almost dealt with something else
happening here I don't even know, but just someone else
challenging Hangman Page and having the MJF storyline linger where

(58:48):
that contract was available for more time. You're not gonna
force me like I love the promo that we got
on Wednesday where Hangman go toed MJF into it, and
it makes a lot of sense, but we all else
could have had it go another way where MJF told
Hangman to screw off, he's not doing it, and Hangman
just had to have an open challenge and he has
a different opponent. Uh. I'm okay with it, but I

(59:11):
feel like MJF Hangman should have simmered and matured longer
before we got to this point much where I feel
Copeland and Edge a lot of this is too rush
for me on this pay per view.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
I don't disagree with you on Hangman and MJF being
a little rushed, but I'm okay with it. I am
not okay with Copeland and Christians reunion being rushed like.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
This, this, this, and again. I like both guys, which
is why it bothers me, because this, this, right, this
was a money making storyline instead of just another.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Match on a card in an arena. You were gonna
sell out anyway.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
I mean, even if you would have just had Christian
save Copeland and then they still stared at each other
and separated on Wednesday. You make this a singles match,
and maybe you have the reunion in that arena in
front of twenty two thousand people or sixteen thousand people.
The place pops. If they have a true reunion doing
it in front of two thousand people in Cincinnati and

(01:00:16):
rushing to announce that they are a tag team and
now they're gonna forced to work together. You cut off
your nose to spite your face. Agreed like the will
they or won't they build? And then you know the
first match you're headlining a pay per view with that,
You're making money with that storyline. You went for the

(01:00:40):
a cheap pop. Yeah. Yeah, basically basically they short sighted.
If they went WCW Goldberg Hogan, it could have been
so much bigger. Yep, So their your nine matches again
pre showing all that guarantee, there's gonna be at least ten,
possibly twelve somewhere in that area. So we're looking at
a few more. You named off some gys you'd like

(01:01:00):
to see on the card. I'm not saying I want
to see him on the card, but I got to
point something out to you, Micah. If I told you
there was a wrestler on the AW roster who is
twenty nine and oh, this motherfucker has gone into the
ring in AW twenty nine times, has had his hand

(01:01:23):
raised all twenty nine fucking times, not only would we
be saying, wait, where's he at on this card, but
we're saying, why ain't this motherfucker in the main event?
Why ain't he challenging for the world title, the Unified title,
the damn at least the AEW title. Where the fuck

(01:01:45):
is Hologram who I learned last week on Dynamite as
twenty nine and oh, you know he's gonna end up
one of those pre show matches. I know with the coamoration,
I know, let's make this bet really easily. It's gonna
be an eight man tag match, it's gonna be the
paragon Are conglomeration Nope. You don't think that we're gonna

(01:02:11):
get Kyle Roddy pissed off Roddy because he has the
team with Hologram and e C. And then we're gonna
end up with an implosion of Roddy laying out ECEE
and a hologram.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Hold on, I think I can tell you what it's
gonna be. It's gonna be O'Reilly uh the human Turtle,
Thank you, Brisco in hologram Hologram versus four random ass
New Japan guys.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Now, if you go five on five on the pre show,
all right, you add Roddy in, and let's be honest,
if you're gonna have the rest of the conglomeration there,
you should probably fly Roddy over as well. His wife's
gonna be there, I'm sure, so why why fly him
over and not use him? A dude? Do a five
on five? But I was thinking more of an eight man.

(01:03:04):
Maybe it's an eight man four hundred thousand dollars or
euro because we're in London, four hundred thousand euro match
or some or maybe it's yen if you're taking on
a New Japan team. But yes, something like that. Probably
you're right Okay, do you really believe holograms twenty nine

(01:03:25):
to oh, I wouldn't be surprised throughout all the random
six mans, eight mans. God, it felt like there was
too many weeks in a row where they did have
him in singles matches from that arena in Texas. Yes,
I could believe he is twenty nine to oh. It
feels like a painstakingly long twenty nine to oh, I

(01:03:47):
guess I don't care about any luchador less in aw
than I care about Hologram. He has done very little
to me to stick out besides pinning up an h
when he walks out very little. Who sticks out more
than he does that the legit luchador. Okay, we'll see.
It's just from a perspective. I thought that Commander stuck

(01:04:10):
out more before they all of a sudden drop Commander
now beat Mortos sticks out more. I don't consider okay,
I don't consider best more TOAs a luchador. It's because
he's too powerful when he goes Hurricane Plancha out.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
It's probably because I'm an ignorant American, and I think
when I think luchador is if you weigh over two
hundred pounds, I start to question you, and yeah, if
you're not doing a shit ton of flips and high
flying stuff, then you can't be a luchador. My guess is,
especially people who actually follow Luca wrestling. Hell fucking yes,

(01:04:44):
best Mortas is a Luca fair point. I just don't
think of him that way.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
I just you're gonna have to explain to me the difference.
I don't think that hologram sticks out more than Draga eleastico.
Oh I do. I think he's way more flash here,
but I hear. Look, it's subjective. It doesn't mean either
one of us is right or wrong. Yeah, it's Oh,
here's a weird one I want to ask you about now,
as we're talking about comparing and stuff. Does and I

(01:05:10):
want to call him Blake Shelton. I know it's Blake
Christian insider joke between y Yeah, did he not look
like the third long lost Young Buck this past week?
He came out in their pajamas. He had on the
Nikes with the kind of jogging suit pants with the
little anklets, just like the young Bucks, started jumping around
throwing a bunch of super kicks. I wish that Tony

(01:05:30):
Khm would recognize this and put Blake Christian in the
uh what's his name? Who's the guy hanging out with
the New Day right now? Oh? Is it theory or
Waller Waller Waller? Yeah? I think that you should put
Blake Christian in the Gration Waller role for the Young
Bucks because he looks like he's trying to be the

(01:05:51):
third Young Buck. He looks like he's so trying to
take their style. I'll do you one better than that.
If they were still treating the Bucks bad, and I
guess they are, but they're in this stupid lights out
cage match, I would have Tony Kahn making an announcement that.
And we just talked about this a few weeks ago.
If you remember, much like WWE with Diesel and Razor Ramone,

(01:06:16):
ae W owns the Young Bucks intellectual property. We think
Matthew and Nicholas whatever the fuck their real last names are,
are not indicative of ae W or worthy of the
Young Bucks name.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
So let me introduce to you the new Matt and
Nick Jackson, and it's like Christian and somebody.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Whomever. But yeah, just and yeah, and make the old
Young Bucks fight for to win back the name and
all that their identities start to dis announce them as
the old Bucks or just the Bucks Matthew and Nicholas whatever.
And I want to bring back their generation me names.

(01:07:02):
That'd be even better. But they did that a couple
of weeks ago. No, it just makes them go by
those I don't, I don't, I don't know who.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
I bet you TNA never trademarked it. I bet you well,
A you probably couldn't have used it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:15):
If that that long ago, it would have been worth trademarking.
I don't know. Let's just keep running over the young Bucks.
That sounds like fun the case.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Yeah, Matthew and Nicholas Massy or their own aag. Yeah,
make them wrestle as that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
We talked about the cage mass, but we jumped around
it a little bit. Will Are you just gonna be
lurking in the arena? I always wonder could Gabe Kig
bring in more of the war dogs? Is it a
foregone conclusion though? The heroes have to win here or
the heels because they just lost anarchy and the arena
to a similar facsimile. I think the Heels lose here.

(01:07:58):
I like the story of of now, they didn't tell
it as much this past week. I don't think it
as they did the week before. But the doubt in Moxley,
you know, like right after he lost the title, and
that might have been when he wrestled not Knight the
other one Speedball and it took Yeah, yeah, and you

(01:08:23):
could tell that Moxley was frustrated. You know. They kind
of played it up like like he was doubting himself.
I like that. And then you know you eventually go
from that to to rebuilding and and and all that.
You're at some point in time.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
Yeah, the Death Riders and the Bucks have to win
one of these multimn matches, right, it would seem that way.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
If not, we've crushed them. And why do we keep
bothering so much with going back against them? You've taken
away all their power. How many times can we beat
you in different combinations of these multiman all over the
place matches? And we took the trios titles from you,
and we've given the world title back. What chaos or
the death writers causing? Besides Darby Allen really should want

(01:09:11):
to get even still, they injured him, they nearly killed him.
He could have beef will Osprey's kind of got one up.
On them though, and Tana Hashi's just to live your
best life. I guess out there. I don't know, you
can have Osprey and his lady both lose in London.
I don't think that Alex Windsor has anything to do

(01:09:34):
with the pinfall. Oh no, you just probably a really
safe bet. Whoever the stardom representative is is taking the
lh Yeah say so, yeah, yeah, the last mystery opponent. Yeah,
but I don't know, that's an interesting question, I think. Oh,

(01:09:56):
and don't forget everybody. I think we felt to mention
this one pm start time for this main card. What HBO, Max,
Prime TV, Internet pay per view, traditional pay per view providers.
It's not on Max, it's on your traditional pay per views.
Probably you can order it on Prime here in the US.

(01:10:16):
Outside the US, I have no idea does the last
week deal. I don't even think we brought this up.
I'm not sure how many years, but three hundred and
sixty million dollars the ple agreement between WWE and ESPN.
How long before AW is forced into appropriate reaction. We're
now getting all the ples built in, They've already been

(01:10:39):
built in kind of with peacock. Can AW keep doing a.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
Pay per view model, Yes, but those numbers are going
to Regardless of how good or bad those pay per
views are, those numbers will start to go down. And
we talked about this last week. I don't want to
repeat myself too much here, but I don't care what

(01:11:07):
company you prefer over the other. If you watch both,
if I can get one for free or included with
my paramount subscription or excuse me, my ESPN Wrong Sport
usc paramount with my ESPN Plus subscription or my ESPN
Directed consumer subscription. Why am I going to keep paying

(01:11:27):
fifty bucks for AW pay per views when I get
WWE ones for no added cost.

Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
I hear you, but there was no way you were
getting me to watch Triplemania, and that shit was free
as can be in a WWE event. So I hear
what you're saying, and I do believe you're right. In
the long term, it will take an effect for AEW,
but it is still hard to deny that AW is
the best value in premium live event wrestling or pay

(01:11:55):
per view content wrestling. Yeah, look, take star power out
of it, although I'd argue you're pretty close.

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
The number of matches, the length of the pay per
view the amount of time. Basically, you're buying for the price.
You get your money's worth. Now, there may be times
you're sitting like, God, damn, this paper U is never
gonna end. I hear you, but you're never gonna say
I don't feel like I got my money's worth. AW

(01:12:25):
will always over.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
Now. It may not be what you prefer, and you
may still prefer.

Speaker 2 (01:12:29):
WWE or New Japan or TNA, fuck, I don't know whatever,
and that's.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
Certainly your prerogative. But AEW, I think, does a fantastic
job of giving you as much bang for your buck
as they possibly can. Ratt in a question about Triple A.
We know that WWE is also, it seems like, exploring
the opportunities of getting Triple A possibly on American television.

(01:12:58):
Do you think that the idea of Triple A and
WWE is gonna work how they expect it to, because
we're already seeing their hand put champion kind of revolted on.
I think that Grande Americano might be the best thing
that ae W all right, mean excuse me, WWE has
done towards Triple A. I don't know if this is

(01:13:20):
gonna work out, if the Luta libre wrestling audience is
gonna grasp to the WWE vision of what Triple A
should be.

Speaker 2 (01:13:29):
I do not believe WWE is trying to get a
Triple A on TV here in America. A. They don't
own the motherfucker yet, which is why the events they've
done so far have been on free on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
And B.

Speaker 2 (01:13:48):
I think they're gonna use up Triple A and this
card it's rotten carcass as quickly as they can.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
There's only a handful of performers they're really looking at.

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
Looking to establish your footprint in Mexico, and after that,
it's all about WWE.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
You don't have to have.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
Those three letters Triple A or or anything else. And
now I do sincerely hope I'm wrong on that, because
so this.

Speaker 1 (01:14:18):
Isn't about getting more people into the beautiful art of
Luca libre and explore and opening us up to new talents.
This is about giving their three letters a little bit
more of notoriety to that audience. Yes that was already
caring about. Yes, yes, yeah, it's I think it's more
about WWE's international footprint than it is anything else that

(01:14:42):
that would make a lot of sense because it's like
like they more about Luca Libre.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
From like they somewhat frequently go to England, France all
that they want to that frequently go to Mexico because
hell it's fucking closer and it's an onn tapped market.

Speaker 1 (01:14:58):
Market growth. People almost like they're in Canada all the time, right,
almost like that if if Triple A sticks around, great,
If not and it's just WWE, that's fine too.

Speaker 2 (01:15:12):
It might might even wind up from w W standpoint,
might even be better that way. I don't want to
see anybody go out of business or get used.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
Up like that. I kind of think that's what's going
on though. Wow, not surprised. Kind of feels like it
kind of looks like it. Yeah, and then uh, pro wrestling,
it's a lot of fun. This weekend, we got a
Forbidden Door. Last weekend, you had a Triple Mania. Lots

(01:15:41):
of good stuff going on in pro wrestling. You got
a clash in Paris in a couple of weeks. I
guess we'll go into that one a little bit more
next week. Fatal four Way and I've got on a
little I don't think it's not Rowlands is losing the
title this quickly. But spoiler alert, Ah, who saw that

(01:16:02):
one coming? But are you even throwing for the seem
punk La Night riflery that seems to be brewing? No,
and I like seeing punk.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
WWE has told me there's no reason for me to
like La Knight, So I don't and that's terrible and
I feel bad for him. But you asked, so I'm
just telling you my thoughts. If you feel different, or
anybody else does, hey, oh that's fine. I just from
my standpoint, I've been conditioned to not care about La Knight.

Speaker 1 (01:16:34):
I want to care about l A. Knight. I want
to care about Drew Mackinshire. They both look like lame
ducks and the stories that they're a part of, and
that's just a shame where we're, what two weeks removed
from a tempole event and your World champions are already
in lame duck storylines. But that's WWE when there's not
a temppole event coming up. And if you feel a

(01:16:55):
different way, I guess hit me up over on the
to talk about it. It's at Franklbanca the last name
and then the first get the show on X at
PW after hours, you can get me at Real Mike Carlisle.
We will talk to you next week, and probably a
whole lot less Dan Housen talk, unless I just feel frightened.

(01:17:15):
Hopefully you don't leave off that a little pat too far.

Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
We'll talk to you next week for another episode of
Pro Wrestling After Hours here on the After Hours Podcast
Network