Ep 313: AEW WrestleDream Recap. WWE World Title is Vacant, How Will They Crown a New Champ?

Episode 313:  AEW's WrestleDream is in the books. We take a look back at the show.  Seth Rollins vacates the WWE World Heavyweight Championship...how is WWE crowning a new champ? More belts for Mercedes Mone.













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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to pro Wrestling after Hours.
I'm Michael Carlile, joined us always by Micah Frankle Micah,
I shake it man like a Chief.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Carnival Ride, the death Ride. This one has crows on it.
Bro's doing the Mockerna and aj Lee winning men's tag titles.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
That tag team has to be aj Lee, right, I mean,
they're the fucking champs. Now they need a name?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Is aj Lee right as CM punk is the most
powerful man in the company. No shit, it's gonna be
aj Lee.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Is seeing Puck the most powerful man of the company.
I bet he isn't.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
No, it'd be a con if I told you that
he was.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
I see what you did there. Uh? But yes, the
new Raw tag team champions. That tag team's name has
to be aj Lee. It just does.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
It should be. It should be. I mean, yeah, well,
we'll get to them. I'm sure we'll get to them today.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
We're to them right now. Aj styles Dragon Lee. The
name of that tag team now they're the champs, has
to be aj Lee playing it. There is no getting
around this, Bikah. Uh, Now you can styles Lee.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
You don't want phenomenal Dragons, No.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Aj Lee. It's too damn simple. And if it pisses
See Them Punk off storyline wise and brings us to
another appearance of that other aj Lee, then I'm good
with that as well. But yes, that tag team has
to be Look so the world the raw tag team
champs aj Lee See Them Punk. We now know is

(01:39):
is in the match for the vacant world title. He'll
be taking on jay Usso for that it's it's not
a bad time to be seem Punk and aj Lee.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
I guess bring back aj Lee, have her win a title,
and then aj Lee could be double champions.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Well see now gets a little convoluted, Micah, because well
you know what, I wouldn't hate on that, Micah, I'm
fine with that. Yes, aj Lee could be double champs
at that point. Sure, why the hell not.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Makes as much sense as anything I saw this weekend?

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Uh? I don't know, I mean hell well, okay, maybe
that I will say this as we record right now
somewhere somewhere in the world. Hold on, you can hear
it if you listen. Two three Ultimo Money just want
another belt, literally right now while we are recording the show.

(02:41):
She just wont another belt.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
So now twelve boats, belts boat she.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Is twelve belts money Ultimo Monee, which I like, by
the way, that that's actually pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
I still just think it's got to be hard getting
through an airport with that much metal in your bag.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
My guess is you have a really big suitcase dedicated
to nothing but your belts, and uh yeah, you have
to pay extra for that, I'm sure, but uh.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, maybe a trunk even keep them nice and sturdy
in there.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Secure, sure, sure, sure, yeah, that's got to be rough man.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
So many belts, so many titles, some promotions I've never
even heard of. But good for you guys for being
able to afford Mercedes to come on down for a night. Definitely,
it's Mercedes World, and she's proving that you you can
make a living on the independence if you work enough.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
I think this is genius by Tony Kahan. If you
remember when Mercedes first debut, she was a face, big
old applause, and quickly the fans soured on her, mainly
because she really shouldn't be a face. But so you
turn her heel, but there was still a backlash from

(03:59):
a big part of the fan base, so you just
forced the fans to like her, whether they want to
or not, by continuing to let her win titles. And
it's and it's worked to perfection. I'm not even making fun.
It's worked to perfection. To quote that great sports movie Dodgeball.
It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off.

(04:19):
It's paid off.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
I just didn't know if I needed to constantly all
weekend see the s Alina's theme. It worked in Arena Mexico.
I don't know if we needed it on the pay
per view. I digress, though, I've heard many people commenting
on the wig, well.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
What about it?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
It's kind of like off balance because there were the
hair wasn't cut at the same level in the back,
and then it was all black in the back. Missed
the highlights. Some real internet talk. I don't know why.
It was a whole corner of the internet going crazy
about the look whatever.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Not even the worst hair on the show.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Okay, who are you giving that credit to? I really
haven't thought about many other people's hair. I just saw
them making a deal about Mercedes hair.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
And look. I don't care. I don't want to judge
any of the wrestlers by their well look and sometimes
we just did the looks. Yeah, I know, and we're
about to again give me Mercedes with her weave wig
whatever she had over the seemingly natural hair of Jamie
Hayter any day of the week.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Seemingly natural.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Okay, I hear, but I'm guessing the colors, not the
hair itself. Probably is, but no.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
The bright orange isn't it for everybody?

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Not only that the hairstyle itself, it's that whole seventies
full bush look exactly. And that's my point. You knew
exactly what I was talking about.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
I don't feel like there's been a way to connect
Jamie's character with that she's from the seventies. Besides the look,
like you get the look on top of the mannerisms,
on top of the vernacular from a Tony storm that
you're connecting her to a certain era of movie star.

(06:22):
I feel like it's been a lot harder getting the
connection of the error and how you would captivate being
a hard hitting flower child. It feels like a quite
the dichotomy to navigate. It's something peace love and hard hitting.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
It's something you want to jump into.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Wrestle dream now, sure, start dreaming, all right.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Let's start dreaming. We'll just go through the pre show
real quick. The conglomeration versus the death Riders, death Writers
get to win here. No real prize there, right.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
No real surprise. I like that Pack displayed his legs again.
It felt more natural.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
I guess Eddie Kingston and Hook taking on mystery opponents.
And I think I said last week they should just
take on the frat house. Lo and behold they take
on the frat house. This one was quick, This one
was easy, and it was what it should have been
for Kingston and Hook, and good for the frat house
getting on the pre show.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
I guess Tony Colin loves him some Kingston and some Hook.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
I guess they were able to work Big Boom AJ
and Big Justice and they were hosting a tailgate party
and Boker Raton where it was probably after dinner and
just before bed, a lot of old people in Boca Raton.
Willow Nightingale, Harley, Cameron, Meghan Bain, Penelope Ford. Nightingale and

(07:54):
Harley get the win here.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
I just wish we would have already had the classification
of this match being like part of the women's tag
title tournament, because it leaves me then wondering could we
see them in the first round, could we see them
in the semifinals? Could this be a prelude to a
finals rematch?

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Well, we will find out this Wednesday on Dynamite when
we get the brackets for the Women's Tag team title Tournament.
That brings us to FTR versus Jet Speed, which was
your final match on the pre show slash opening match
of the pay per view. I'm all about trying different things,
and I don't fault aaw a bit in the world

(08:39):
for having this match start on the pre show and
en during the pay per view. I didn't care for it.
I hope they don't do it again, but I don't
fault them for trying something different.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
I was excited by it. I thought it was awesome,
and then reading later the mix feelings on the internet
about it, I was like, well, you definitely did something
because causing conversation it's not a bad thing. And oh,
people are upset that they were robbed that they didn't
get to see the finish of Jet Speed and FTR

(09:15):
if they had only planned to tune in for the
free portion. It wasn't hard to find the finish online.
It wasn't hard if you were that interested to go
after it. It was innovative, creative. Like you said, I
don't know if they need to do it again because
it takes away from the surprise, but the performers genuinely

(09:35):
seemed enthused by the new idea.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
It was a good match. It was a really good match. Actually,
I'm fine with it now. If the only reason you
did it is because you didn't really want to start
the pay per view with Jamie Hayter and Tekla, then
shame on you. But I think they were just trying
something different. Did it lead to any more pay per
view buys? Probably not, if we're being completely honest. But

(10:03):
I'm all about trying something different, and so I didn't
have a problem with it, But I don't think I
liked it enough that i'd like to see them do
that more often.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
It was fine, Hey, we're tuning in, hurry up, get
right on over, we know what we're tuning into. Hi,
everybody of the matches continuing, Boom, they're going the fireworks
are going off, like Bailey is adamant online. How invigorating.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
That was.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Only thing really I more had a problem with from
that match was that Stokely slightly missed his cue, and
it for an innovative crossover. I would have wished that
we wouldn't have had such a classical finish that was
kind of highlighted by Stokely missing his mark.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
I think Stokely, out of the corner of his eye
saw a hoe in the front row that he thought
he might have a chance with and he got distracted.
But yeah, that that was a little rough. Too bad.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
It wasn't a bad bitch. He could have just kept
on working.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
I guess. Which gets this to what was to be
the first match on the pay per view, which I
guess was the match and a half, first match in
a half of the whatever, it doesn't matter, first.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Full match of the pay per view.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
There you go, Jamie Hater and Tecla. I I'm surprised
they had Hater win, but I'm not. I think I
picked Hayter just because on the logic that Tony Cod
loves him some. Jamie Hayter, I would have probably went
with Tecla here, but it was fine match for what
it was.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
I would have went the other way to establish tackla. Also,
I had heard rumors coming out of Ring of Honor tapings.
I believe that Queen Amanada had suffered an injury, so
I thought that was going to limit her for blood
and guts. Maybe it's not going to limit her that much.
If she was able to come out be a part

(11:58):
of the match. I thought there was going to be something,
maybe a little more after the match. Didn't know what,
but it was a fine match overall. I would just
went the other way with the winner.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yep, yep. Jurassic Express in the young bucks five hundred
thousand bucks on the line and boil boy. What can
a dinosaur do with his half of five hundred k
I guess we'll find out on Dynamite this week. Jurassic
Express gets.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
The win, I feel like he might need to buy
a bunker, get asteroid insurance. I think there's a couple
of things a dinosaur might want to invest in. Who knows,
Maybe he just wants to invest in a knife business.
You might know someone starting one.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Solar panel business, windmill farm, because you know, oil comes
from the dinosaurs and whatnot. Yeah, something along those lines, right,
alternative energy if you will. This was a really good match,
by the way. I had no problems, Yeah, yeah, I

(13:04):
had no problems. With it at all. I can't help
but feel like Jack Perry ain't gonna be a face
for very long now. Maybe Lucasaurus comes with him and
they stayed together. But this ain't the feel good jungle boy.

(13:25):
But it ain't exactly the Scapegoat either. But I don't know.
Maybe he's just me after here's your thoughts of this,
Mike get Jack Perry does not seem like a like
a good guy.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
I thought you felt like a good guy. Felt like
he feels like a jungle man instead of a jungle boy.
It's a little more salted, well, a little more hardened,
not as as bouncy, and lord knows, life in the
jungle ain't easy.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Not all that different from a young man in WWE
who spent hard time in the big House and came
out of change Man. To be fair to Jack Perry,
when you live in the jungle, it's kill or be killed,
and maybe you just have to have that attitude. I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
The match was insane. I love the way the two
teams work together. There were a lot of big spots,
a lot of great tandem offense. I had nothing wrong
to say about the match. The psychology maybe just maybe
the rev counted three a couple extra times. I felt
like the finish might have been there and wasn't there

(14:31):
a couple of times because you've counted three and the
crowd acknowledged it. But all in all, nothing wrong with
the performers. Liked the match. The right guys got the victory.
And then I like the storytelling that's happening afterwards with
the Kallous family attacking, and you still see this Bucks
that are conflicted. They're in it for the money now,

(14:54):
They're not here just to be savages. They're not really
sure how they feel they handled their business with the
Jungle Bunch, and Keny Omega is trying to appeal to
their better sides because now he obviously is back liking
jack Man now that they had the trios matched together.
There's that's terrible, that's awful a jungle Man. Sorry, Okay.

(15:19):
Then and Omega comes out to have their back and
and you could really feel that sense of confliction within
the Bucks. Where do we just end up leading to
like a super elite. Do the Bucks become faces again,
do they look to come back and take back the

(15:41):
company as the Callous family is getting so powerful, or
are these Bucks that realize they just lost five hundred
thousand dollars, and as reluctant as they may be, they're
going to align with the Callous family because they have
nowhere else to turn now with their broke bit glasses.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Well not that Don Callous would be above just adding
people to the family, but they do have a hole
in the family right now that maybe two bucks equals
one and draw.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
D it's Brian Cage healthy again. I've heard speculations about that.
I I think some holes might have been filled by
the very large bottom of Mark Davis.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
But he was a part of the family the whole
time he was just out injured and we had forgotten
he was a part of the family. And apparently aw
did two until he was healthy. But it's the same
thing with Brian Cage. I mean that that's family members already.
You added a family member a couple of weeks ago,
and unless something changes, you ain't gonna see him for
a year, so you got to fill that spot.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Maybe maybe you gotta change that, Like I said, maybe Warlow,
Brian Cage, someone becomes healthy. I don't know if we
need both bucks to take all of them.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
Or everybody You keep mentioning are already in the family.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
You have had giving them a role now, something to
actually battle. They're not just stand there in the family.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
But this isn't about rolls. This is about seats at
the table, whether it's the frat house or the kid's
table or whatever.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Exactly the frat house, you could add a whole fucking
kid's table right there with those three dudes from the
pre show. They need Callous's guidance anyway, hold.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
On, Rocky Romero is your Mendoza line. You can't go
below that when you're adding members to the family. It
has to be above that. That immediately eliminates the frat house.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
So is Lee Moriarty a possibility with being a three
time Ring of Honor pure champion.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Uh yeah, see, there you go.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
We could add in Lee Moriarty for another guy for
the background, and then he just wrestles on Ring of
Honors still the whole time.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yuess, that seems underwhelming. If I'm aw, I go all
in on the Bucks at this point. They won't do this.
But I have them wearing Pete Rose jerseys. I have
them going up in the back offering wrestlers a little
something something to take a dive, sharing the winnings. If
they'll go along with it, just totally embrace this degenerate gambler.

(18:22):
We need money because my goddamn brother is a fucking idiot,
So I got to go in all in on this
now to try to save our fortunes and earn some money.
I seriously doubt they do that, but at this point
you may as well.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Why not? Why not?

Speaker 1 (18:44):
I mean, how much longer are we gonna milk this?
They don't get a real entrance, and we just put
up on the screen or whatever we want and whatever
music they want. I mean, that was funny the first
eight hundred times we saw it. But you're doing this
degenerate gambler gimmick, you may as well go all in
with it, no pun intended.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Well, does it become a gambler Orfortunately?

Speaker 1 (19:08):
The one thing that.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
I liked about your theory, well, your idea is they
wouldn't need to win the match to pay off people
to take dives for them. You can't offer anybody money
when you don't have any money. You're like, hey, guys,
let's split the winners half of the person.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
We'll take it easy on you. Well, not even that
their matches. Yeah, no, not even their matches. You just
have them sitting in the back and in front of
a laptop with draft kings up and they're betting on
all the matches. And then they're trying to you know, hey,
uh shabata, you got pack. Later, Pack's probably gonna beat
your ass anyway, take a dive here. We're gonna put

(19:45):
a lot of money on a pack. We'll cut you
in on our winnings a little bit, you know, stuff
like that.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Or so it was the end all be all to go
to rehab or to oh somewhat so much that you
end up in like MJF or Don kallis his pocket,
I don't know, Heaven forbid you end up the cleaning
boys for like Nick Wayne's patriarchy.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
No, they get further and further in debt, and they
get into debt and to somebody at aw who hires
a certain bounty hunter and his big ass sidekick to
go collect the money that the Bucks owe him. And
there you go another feud and I payoff to otherwise

(20:29):
bizarre storyline. Cool.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
I like that better than my inevitable fear that Kenny
O Mega Jurassic Express and the Young Bucks are the
five men that take on the Cowis family and the
upcoming Blood and Guts as we'll have a women's blood
and guts and a men's blood and guts. I bet
on the same night.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Tornado Trios match Hurt Syndicate versus the Demand, a match
we've had in different iterations it seems like at least
once a week for the past three months. I enjoyed
the match. It seems awful damn short though, especially if
this was your your at least for now, your blowoff.
But in the end the Hurt Syndicate win. I believe

(21:09):
they get a trio titles match now, which I think
you see on Dynamite this week.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yes, that was added that stipulation. At least it gave
some more meaning and consequence to the match. I wish
the blowff would have been in the street fight. I
don't know if we necessarily needed this, but I guess
that Tony Kain looked around and said, well, you guys
were already attached to each other and it'd be hard
to book you unattached from each other, so let's just
quickly do this match one more time, which, unfortunately, rather

(21:35):
than the Bucks intro boring you that this was kind
of repetitive to me right in and think we needed it.
But the match is fine. The demand has got to
the place where they needed to go, where we can
take them seriously, and it makes sense that now the
Hurt Syndicate moves on to something bigger and better, which
much which later in the night makes it a possibility

(21:56):
that there will be some legs going forward with what's
going to happen in the Trio's division possibly or is
this a quick exit for it. There's a lot of
talking points I think we can bring up with the
Hurt Syndicated still later.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
There is I don't think it bodes well for the
Hurt Syndicate, but there definitely is. I just wish they
had slapped the stipulation on in the build up to
the pay per view to make us understand why we
were getting another version of this match, But I digress
on that well.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Also, from that opinion, I think it would have made
more sense to cut to a promo of MVP announcing
it rather than I believe Excalibrates is kind of oh,
we have news from Tony Kahn. I think it would
have made more sense to hype up the storyline. Throw
it to MVP.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
MVP be like.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
You guys are tired of us. We're tired of you.
Why are we doing this for a third time. We're
about business. I took that to Tony Kahn and he
made me a business offer that will both agree on
the winners gets a trio title shot, and that's why
we're doing this one more time. I think that you
could have added a storytelling element by having MVP presented

(23:08):
rather than just ex caliber. Oh, Tony conn has let
us know.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
I can't believe I'm gonna say this. Micah Aw really
needs a commissioner or a GM.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
They need that acting bigger Tony Khan being a pseudo
boss but pseudo member of the program, it doesn't work well.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
Look, I'm not advocating Tony Khan being on TV every week,
but much like you alluded to the whole oh, we're
getting word from the back, Tony Khan's making it official
or or Shiavanny on collision. Uh, Tony Khan's telling me
in the headset we're doing this. Just give us a
GM or whatever you want to call it, a commissioner, whatever, whatever,

(23:53):
and let them make these decisions. T and t Championship,
Mark brisco Kyle Fletcher. I enjoyed the hell out of
this man. I feel bad for brisco because he seems
like a man without a home. You beat mjf but
you can't beat Kyle Fletcher. You can go out and
have great matches, you're right there on the cuffs, but

(24:14):
you're not getting to the next level. And I'm not
saying he should have beaten Kyle Fletcher either. Obviously you've
got much bigger plans for Kyle Fletcher, and him dropping
the TNT title was not going to be in the
cards here. All that being said, this was a really
good match, although they told a good story and in
the end, Kyle Fletcher gets the win.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
In a perfect world where Okada is not the Intercontinental
Champion and those belts are separated again, I.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Know are continental, Yeah, I know, I know, I.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Know those two titles are separate, and one of them
should be on Mark Briscoe's waist.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
In a world where you have forty seven titles in
a promotion and Mark Briscoe can't hold one of them, come.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
On, it kind of hurts Mark Briscoe right now. Osprey
isn't there, Jay White isn't there, Chris Werve, isn't there?
You're looking around, You're like, how can we keep the
momentum going for Kyle Fletcher but not give it a layup.
We're some intrigued that he could possibly lose, and unfortunately
they didn't want to take out Eddie Kingston right away.
You go with Mark brisco Hell of a fricking match.

(25:21):
The one finger kickout, the one finger on the bottom
rope from Kyle Fletcher absolutely had me dying. It's like
he took every bullet in the chamber from Fletcher. Fletcher
just had a bigger clip than Mark Briscoe. As they
went moved from move.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
AW Women's Championship Timeless Tony Storm challenging the champion, Chris Statlander.
This was a good physical back and forth match. In
the end, they did the right thing here. They ignored
any temptation of putting the belt back on Tony Storm,
who does not need it. The win really helps solidify

(26:06):
Chris Statlander. Seems like you've got other things planned for Statlander,
but it's hard not to enjoy a Tony Storm match,
and I enjoyed the heck out of this one.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Bravo beautiful match. I don't have any complaints about it,
and like you said, legitimizes Chris Statlander one more time,
a legit win. No multiple person no distractions, get everything done,
no over dramatics. We can see later. Because I feel
like the whole women scene played into itself on the

(26:38):
nine and really links in how everything comes together.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
It's so funny you said that, because you're right. Everything
we saw involving the women on the pay per view
and heck, even the last few weeks of television, if
you pay attention in one way or another, it's all intertwined.
Between the world title picture, the TBS title picture, and
the upcoming women's tag team title tournament and picture there,

(27:06):
everything does kind of link together. So it makes sense
from the standpoint of you. You don't feel like they're
putting women's matches on just for the sake of putting
on women's matches. They're all, one way or another, somewhat
intertwined and beautiful.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
I thought it was the way that everything plays out.
Statlander victorious celebrating upstage by Mercedes Monet, Mercedes Moneue comes out.
I think maybe some of us were thinking, could it
have been Dakota Kai, Could there have been another surprise
open challenge anyone in the world. Little slight disappointment as
it's Mina Scherkawa.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
That's just me.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
I'm sorry, Mina still Mina love you, but that was
a little bit less than what I was hoping for.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
It all comes together, it all does later, right. Monette
gets the win. She is now the interim a Ring
of Honor Women's TV Champion. That was belt number eleven
for Ultimo Monet. She does have twelve. Now we'll talk.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
About this to get thirteen by Halloween.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Oh I bet she does. I have no doubts if
there's a women's belt out there somewhere on the indie
scene that she doesn't already have. But yeah, fine match
for for what it was, and you get a little
more storytelling there with Monette and Statlander, but I go ahead.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
I love that because Chris Statlander then took back control
of the moment. She got upstage and then she does
the upstaging, so it kind of left that moment reminding
you who the women's world champion was. I loved how
that played out.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
And then later in the back you had Tony Storm
and Mina Shirakawa. Mina consoling Tony Storm, but also just
told you without telling you, they're going to be a
team in the women's Tag Team tournament and they're probably
at the very least going to the finals. If they're
not winning it. That's going to be their redemption storyline

(29:11):
while other stuff's going on in the women's singles division,
and when the time is right, you bring it back
around and Tony's ready to get her belt back.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
You have tij you have Will o'harley, you have Baine
and Ford, you have the other two points to the triangle.
You have Storm and Mina. So you have at least
I think that's five to six tag teams. I wonder
if you may be getting Athena Billy Starks from Ring
of Honor. There's the Renegade twins from Ring of Honor,

(29:41):
and then I wonder, with the international feel, do you
maybe see a persephone from cml L and maybe another
one of the mass Lucadoras that we've seen before. And
in that same thought, can we get a startup team
maybe Yukarakazaki, Hikarashida Riho. I wonder if we get from
six to eight teams, how this tournament plays out and

(30:03):
real quick do you think Mercedes Monet finds a partner.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
I don't think she's involved in this at all. Maybe
I'm wrong on that. I'm not advocating for this, Micah,
but knowing how Tony Kahan likes to do things on
a grand scale, and how much he believes in the
women's tag team division and how long he's wanted to
do this, and he sat on it for a while,
waiting for the right time and people being healthy, I

(30:30):
wonder if this isn't like a stupid oversized tournament and
part of these matches as a thank you to some
of these companies that have allowed Mercedes Monet to compete
there and win their titles. If you don't see some
opening round matches in this Women's tag team title tournament
take place outside of TNA, in some of these other

(30:54):
promotions you said TNA, I mean, I'm sorry, Jesus Christ,
outside of AEW and in some of these other Hell
maybe you have one at t TODA, probably not, but yes,
outside of AAW in some of these.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Other promotions, some of these smaller ones. Do you see
it in DeFi, do you see it in Revolver? Could
you see it in New Japan? Startup. Could you see
him in cl CML.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
It's a possibility.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
I would not be surprised if we go in that trajection.
I was thinking maybe eighteens, but maybe you're right. Does
it get to sixteen? Does it get to thirty two?
Do we see this maybe happening on the regional scenes
and then making its way from the independence no regionals, sorry,
getting the MMA and the pro wrestling terminology confused, and
then leading to dynamite and collision.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, look, I think eight teams makes a lot of sense.
But I could see Tony Kahan doing something really, really grand,
and you know we'll see I guess aw World tag
team titles the men's side. Broddo versus Takeshka and Okada.
I got some thoughts here after we get to the end,

(32:03):
but good back and forth match. Okata Takeshia gas No
not on the same page. Brodido retains here with Bandido
getting the pin on Takeshka.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
I think that this side of Stone Cold, Steve Austin
and maybe Kevin Owens, Okada has the most eloquent middle
finger in all of wrestling.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
He does he flips off the crowd times.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
It has made it his thing in a way that
is it's not just a blatant, vulgar fuck you, it's
an artistic Oh there it is again.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
I kind of enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
I enjoyed how they work together. You see the cracks
start forming, You've seen the chippiness. Then you get the
invertant friendly fire, which actually was in inverted friendly fire.
The laughing afterwards. You know he wasn't sad that he
did it. I don't think he meant to do it
though intentionally, uh so. I do like the back and forth.
I don't know if I need the dancing. They never

(33:08):
stop fighting, it's cool. I don't know if I need
the macarena. It's just me. One week was enough. Two weeks, yes,
I bring it up in the opening, but the shaking
needs to stop.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
My man, Bandido is a fucking star. And while I
think this has been part of Tony Kahan's grand plan,
if it wasn't and it's just happened organically, aw is
gonna have to try really hard to fuck this up.
For Bandido. You go back to the last Ring of

(33:41):
Honor pay per view and the match he had with Takeshka,
and this match the big wins. He's getting the being
part of the tag team champions with with Brodydy, there
are huge things on the herz for Bandido and I

(34:01):
think this has been something Tony Kahan has been planning
for a while.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
We wanted more faces, we wanted somebody to come around.
You can see the reorganization of the Acclaimed Unacclaim FTR
jet Speed. I think that if you're right, Brodido will
have a nice placeholder tag team run that elevates Bandido

(34:26):
and we have reset the tag team division wall, putting
him in that position to become one of the four
or five faces that we're really counting on.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
Not only that, you've done a phenomenal job of elevating
Brody as well. So there's that, But yet is it
about Brody?

Speaker 2 (34:48):
And sorry to cut you off, but somehow Tony has
been able to book him best of the big man
faces that we have seen. The Lucha Stora stuff has
been a little clunky. There have been others, the ward
Low stuff, but it feels like they found a niche
with Brody king finally.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Because he can move, he's He's much more comparable to
a Samoa Joe than he is a Lucasaurus or a
big bill or something like that. I think that's how,
or even a and I like Cajun Archer singles and
as a team, but he's more mobile. I think that's how.

(35:24):
He's probably also a better talker than any of those people,
which is another thing, by the way, that works well
for Bandido. You're seeing it more and more on aw TV.
But if you ever watched the post pay per view
media scrumbs and he's a part of the dude speaks
really good English. Tony Khan's gonna fuck around and going

(35:48):
against a company that just bought a lucha company and
has Ray Mysterio on their roster. Tony Khan's gonna fuck
around and have the biggest Luca star in the world
on his roster, and it's someone he helped elevated that position.
And yes, talking about Bandido here, they've got gold here
if they don't get in their own damn way.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Absolutely love the shirt with all the masks that they
just put out for Latin Latino Heritage Month. They're doing
such great work with the luchadors, even into getting off
the pay per view, how they've elevated l Lefi. I
think there's a lot of really good stuff that they're
doing with the lugitalent specifically right now.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
Last thing, Micah on Bandido when I said, if you
watch any of the media scrums in any of that
stuff and he can talk, I'm not just talking speak
English and speak it pretty well. He's actually pretty charismatic. Again,
there is so much star power all over him that

(36:49):
I think they're gonna have to go out of their
way to try to screw it up. He's just a
star waiting to burst out, and I do believe AW
will do everything they can to take full advantage of that.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Well, now it's just on Bandido because not to kick
him while he's high. But the only one that has
stifled his growth is his inability to stay healthy. Yep,
with with some of his moves coming off more reckless
than needing to be or I think we might have
seen him push to this level sooner because it had
long been talked about Tony Kahan's affinity for how he

(37:22):
was performing.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yeah, and look, some of it is just bad luck
as well with those injuries. But yeah, certainly his style
does lend itself to the potential for more injuries, and
he certainly had his share.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
But man, he can go, he can fly, he's powerful,
he can dance, he brings that charisma, the electricity.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Yeah, no, I look, I agree, looks well as believable
as any My grena can't can look, I guess, but yeah,
the Bandido is a star and is going to be
an even bigger star, which gets us to two more stars.
Your world title match, the champ Hangman Adam Page taking

(38:12):
on Samoa Joe. You knew this was going to be
a good match with these two competitors. It had to be.
I don't know that we saw the story playing out
post match that we got, but I like that a
lot as well. We'll talk more about that in a second.
Your thoughts on Hangman Page successfully defending the AEW Men's

(38:36):
World Championship against Samoa Joe.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
Heavy, hard hitting, physical, everything we expected, and the initial
story that we expected to be portrayed, I thought played
out exactly. Are you mad enough? Can you dig down
deep enough? Can you hit hard enough? Can you earn
my respect as a fighter? Bat out of a submission?

(39:01):
Buck shot after buck shot after buck shot after buck shot. God,
I was starting to go in like a Roman Reigns,
felt like remix of Superman. Punches right there for a moment,
but eventually the buck shots get it done.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
Worst moving wrestling and I stand by that and I
will diewn that.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
Hill him and Logan Paul doing that shit.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah that being said, look I still like Hangman and
he's a fantastic wrestler. I just hate that move. This
was a good match, very good match. In the end,
Hangman gets the wind, you get the handshake from Samoa
Joe and all is right in the world until the

(39:41):
Oppos attack and uh beat down the Hangman.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
And the way it played out with the Ops coming
out there and lifting up Joe, Joe giving the sign
of respect, and then that clothesline came as the hands
are in the air way too long for the congratulations.
And now I like how that turns the trio's picture
where you kind of like the Hurts in the kit.

(40:07):
You got used to liking the Hurt Syndicate when they
were going against the demand because I think a lot
of people felt Ricochet was annoying and you add some
character to the Ops or they felt a little too
cookie cutter. I could see Hobbes being evil. I thought
Shabata got a way bigger smile out of being physical
than I expected. So I can feel this giving some

(40:29):
juice in a different directions to our trios champions.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Well, look for a main event that felt like, hey,
we need somebody to take on Page in the main event.
I know Samoa Joe, it's impossible to have a bad
match with anybody. We'll put him in there. Looking back,
it gives that match a reason and going forward, obviously
business ain't done between the Ops and Hangman, whether it's

(40:57):
a Joe rematch, whether it's taking on Hobbs, taking on Shabata,
So you've got some focus on the world title picture
with the Ops there. The other thing it does, and
you kind of alluded to this, it changes the dynamic
of the trio's division that the Ops obviously now heals.

(41:19):
I think this also means the Hurt Syndicate ain't quickly
winning the trios titles. Not saying they won't win them eventually,
but I think the Ops dropping these belts quickly kind
of undercuts Page and undercuts whatever you're doing next with
the Ops and hang Man. So I don't know that

(41:41):
I would look for a quick title change there, but
I do think the world title picture just got a
whole lot more interesting in the aftermath of this match.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Oh, definitely, not to mention there's been a you can
allude to the Bang Bang Gang. I feel like we've
seen a lot more focus on some of them, the
face factions as trios coming up, and now it makes
sense where the Ops will be the big bad heels
in the room on this one, unless you were expecting
that the death writers over there, which who knows how

(42:13):
they're gonna play out, But I thought this gave a
lot of options there, and it also then tells us
that we're not done, Like you said with the Joe
and Hangman's story, where I think with mjof being off filming,
you kind of wondered what was the long time focus
gonna be for Hangman Page. So I think a lot

(42:35):
of things came together and added some more chapters to
the book.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
Now, the problem this might keep a trios title match
off of pay per view for the next three pay
per views, assuming the Ops keep it that long, because
I could see a scenario where Page takes on Hobbs,
then he takes on Shebata and then Joe again. Well

(43:01):
we'll see if they go that long with it, or
if you're again really just trying to fill a hole
and until you're you're going somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
But I mean, well, it is Tony Kahn, and I
could see the Shebata and Hobbs matches being knocked out
on collision er dynamite and Joe is just the next
pay per view match.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
I see Shabbata maybe, but I would do Hobbs on
pay per view one hund dude's big, he can move,
he's physical. You could definitely get a pay per view
match out of that, and I would do it first,
have Hobbs soften him up a little, and then do
the Shabbata match. You're right, though, you could do at

(43:40):
least one of those on a dynamite or collision, and
in hell, maybe both. We'll see how it plays out.
But yeah, Hangman's got some focus right now. So that's good.
That gets us to what wound up being the main event,
the I Quit match Darby Allen and John Moxley in
a match Micah that lighter fluid taser, flamethrower, stun gun,

(44:07):
stun gun. I did that. Yeah, I did not have
aquarium on my being Go card, but lo and behold,
there's an aquarium full of water. In the middle of
the ring.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
You know what disappointed me most about the match? What's that?
The lack of one specific weapon that I thought would
play a very heavy role in this match, and traditionally
it doesn't e quip matches, the microphone. Are you supposed
to shove it in your opponent's face many times, yelling
at them? Say it? Say it?

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Are you done yet?

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Playing up that theatrical aspect?

Speaker 1 (44:45):
And I didn't feel like we got that.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
I felt like we got a little more of a
submission match in this one.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Yeah, which I'm fine with. Honestly, if you're going for realism,
you don't need the microphones. Now that being said, lots
of time with iquid matches, you do, you do have that.
You're not wrong on that. And if that was a
negative for any of you out there, hey, I get it.
It didn't bother me.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
I was glad to see that an aquarium was not
more used because I had a whole nother finish in
my head as soon as I saw sting breaking, and
I was glad that Darby was not about to threaten
to stab John Moxley through the neck or curb stump
him onto an aquarium because I.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
Thought that's where we were leading. I'll be damned if
I'm gonna sit there and let another man jab skewers
under my fucking fingernails. I don't care how much I'm
getting paid. I don't care how great of a boss
Tony Kahan is. That shit ain't happening. I'll fall on thumbtacks.
I'll get tased. You can pretend like you're gonna fire

(45:46):
a fucking flamethrower at me, shoot me with roaming candles,
water board me in a goddamn aquarium. You are not
sticking skewers under my fucking fingernails, You asshole jab me
with a fork in the ear. Hey, I got a
peer there anyway. I don't give a shit. No, I
will not do that. That was some ft up, probably

(46:07):
in the grand scheme of things, the least visually anyway
nefarious thing in that match, but probably the legit most
fucking painful man.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
For dark Meat did try to drown himself a couple
of times. That seem quite bad in that fish tank.
But uh, I don't disagree with you that there wasn't
a specific kind of We've all had a splinter, and
there's just a tingle DOLLI your spine. If you've ever
had lost the nail and it's pulled back on you,
it's it's a certain kind of pain that you never
won again.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
No, you do not want that pain. The lights go out,
you allude to it a moment ago. They come back
up and lo and behold his grandpa Stings standing there,
and he's got his grandpa bad.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
I thought he was retired and father time hit him
like it looked like the ghost of Steak at Pasting.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
Which, by the way, I don't hate the look. It's
a natural evolution for Sting at this point in his life.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
He kind of looked like the grost of Colonel Sanders
though the face, just the face, yeah, a little bit,
a little bit, the goatee.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
If he had been wearing a white suit, that would
have been so effing awesome.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Full on Colonel Sanders. Yeah, he could have given us
the original recipe.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Exactly. Good to see staying. I hope we see him
more regularly. I hope he adheres to his retirement. He
doesn't have a match again, but having him there with
Darby and maybe Sting two point zero, who made his debut,
his talking about his son who made his pro wrestling

(47:52):
debut just a couple of weeks ago, and Darby was
one of the people that had trained him. I could
see something like that happening, and I'm fine with that.
But this thing Sting thing, Uh, I don't think people
were expecting that got a really good pop, and uh
do we call him Colonel Sting?

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Well, it came out like crow Sting again, And they
did have the crows in the Darby entrance with some
people adequately did pick up was a good easter because
you didn't know if that was an homage to Sting
or he was like to come in. But I just
think there was some hints too that he was going
to be there.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
Yeah, but I mean I just meant as far as
you said he look like Colonel Sanders, did we just
call him Colonel Sting?

Speaker 2 (48:35):
And I guess, oh, captain, my captain. I think that's
how sure said him.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
You're you're probably right on that. But uh Sing smashes
the aquarium, gets rid of the death riders, takes Marina
to the back, and uh Darby gets the scorpion death
drop coffin drop for good measure, and lo and behold,
John Moxley quits from.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
The scorpion death flocked, just like has happened in war
games before. Uh, there's a couple of different ways that
you can read into that. Was John Moxley broken mentally physically?
Is he a coward? Did he realized after all the torture,

(49:20):
which shit, we didn't even get to Claudio Castignoli treating
Darby like a freaking lawn dart that once we had
did all this as they conglomerate to Darby that if
we cannot overcome him, he's not gonna quit. And I
have to I wonder, from a psychology standpoint, what do

(49:42):
you feel? Could they not break Darby? Is Moxley a
regularly coward? Heel tapping out that quick? Was he morally broken?
How did you read it?

Speaker 1 (49:52):
I read it as in, we're gonna hear something along
the lines of we had you beaten, Darby, you are
the verge of quitting and old man staying with his
damn eleven herbs and spices showed up. It ruined things.
There's something along those lines.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
I wonder. This feels like a big setback, a big loss,
almost a cowardice loss from John Moxley. And is it
time for the death riders to need someone else to
step up to the forefront to show John Moxley how
it's done. I mean they plastic bag Brian Danielson for

(50:32):
a lot less than tapping it out like a punk.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Who do you suggest stepping up and taking over the
reins for Moxley?

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Well, everyone already does enough talking, So what about Castian Joli?
Actually I don't know physically inserts himself more, I'm not sure.
I just wonder how this is gonna spice up.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yeah, well again sting as you're out, so that that's
how you can justify the loss. I will tell you
there is no one in that group that's a bigger
star than Moxley and that could realistically lead it. Now,
maybe they'll turn on him Danielsen saves him, or in

(51:13):
the weeks after Danielson and Moxley become like Copeland and
Christian if you will, an example from more recent times
and something like that. But I don't think the Death
Writers are going anywhere, and I think Moxley's going to
continue to be their leader.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
No chance that Claudio sniffs out Moxley takes over the leadership.
But we still have Wheeler and Marina doing the talking.
Claudio looks a little more demonstrative and physical, comes out
there and starts being more aggressive in his wrestling and
quite possibly that savior you talk about. John Moxley is

(51:53):
getting beat down and Darby comes back to stave him,
and they align with each other because Darby is everything
that John Moxley wants aew to b no quit, extreme rules,
going for the goal. He is the envision of everything
that Moxley was originally fighting for and talking about, and

(52:16):
he just had to prove it to Moxley that Darby
was that guy.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
We may eventually get to that point that you just
alluded to with Darby and Moxley, but there's not a
chance in hell. Claudio Castignoli is becoming the leader of
the death Writers. Nobody is by at that point in time.
They become the Callous Family without Callous, without Okada, without Takashka,

(52:44):
and it's Cagen Archer and Rocky Romeiro and Mark Davis.
That's basically what the death Writers are at that point.
So that that ain't happening.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
I was just trying to spice up this burrito.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
No no, no, I understand. Now, do they turn on Moxley
and someone else comes in, Danielson, just hear me out, Moxley.
I get why you did what you did. You were
wrong for turning on me, but I see your vision.

(53:19):
You can't carry it out. So I had Moxley, so
I had Claudio and Judah and Pact take you out.
I'm gonna see the Death Riders through and it's an
occasional match, but more of a outside leader thing. I
could see that.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
But is he still stay in commentary?

Speaker 1 (53:38):
Oh god, I hope not. That that ship has sailed
every week has gotten progressively worse.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
But that was so good the first time.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
It was fresh and different. And I don't know, and
so I don't want to assume anything. You'll get what
I'm saying here. I think. I think the first couple
of weeks he took it really seriously, and after that
he thought it would be okay to take the Joe
Rogan approach to broadcasting, like as far as his pre

(54:09):
show rituals, if you will.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
I know what I'm doing and I'm gonna get in
my mellow zone to do it.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
Except he can't fucking talk when he's like that. I digress.
That's just me. Yeah, I think that has progressively gotten
worse each week, So I don't know about all that.
I can see something like that, But back to your point,
I don't see them just turning on Moxley and kicking
him out and Claudio and packing Yudah or are the

(54:37):
men and Tyson kids shows up whenever he shows up
and whatever whatever.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
Merely merrily, merrily life was about to wrestle dream.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
I will also say, and let me be clear, I
did not hate this pay per view at all. You
always get more than your money's worth with AW. This
that was not my favorite AW pay per view of
the year, and it probably wasn't in the top three,
and it may not have been in the top five.
Curious your overall thoughts on the show.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
I can be objective and say we're gonna rank this
as the lowest ranked. It's the worst pay per view
of the year because they normally over deliver to such
an absurd level. This one still had a lot of
high moments, but grading everyone against each other throughout the
whole year, it's probably not the best, and one of

(55:32):
them is gonna have to be the worst. That's just
the fact. Yeah, is it possible.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
That Darby Allen isn't the attraction that AW thinks he is.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
It's possible. Do you think that the seven thousand tickets sold,
do you think it was hurt by having him in
the main event?

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Like, No, I've just been overall interest in a show. Look,
I don't think anybody's gonna dispute Darby. Allen will put
his body on the line in a match and do
crazy shit, and you have to respect that. But at
the end of the day, none of that's gonna make
him any taller, any bigger, or any muscular. And I

(56:18):
do wonder if that's something of a detriment going up
against bigger.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
Guys as a remistereo supporter. I don't believe in that,
but I do believe that there could be something to
the You and I were pretty sure that Darby was
gonna lose going in because he's okay with losing, right,
And because he's been so okay with losing, I think
that it's almost been conditioned to think that he's not

(56:44):
gonna hit that next level.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
At some point in time. Do you run the risk
of turning fans off with all the and Look, I
think AW personally does a really good job of giving
everybody something on those shows. If you like wrestling, you're
gonna get rest. If you like big men, if you
like meat matches, you're probably gonna get one of those.
If you like lucha's you're probably gonna get some of that.
If you like hardcore, you're going to get some of that.

(57:09):
But when they go hardcore, man, they go hardcore. At
some point in time, do you have to dial that
back at least temporarily so when you do go back
to it, it seems more special. Like I think one
of the things of the main event, we were all
expecting more shit, and I went off with flamethrowers, tasers, aquariums, skewers,

(57:30):
all these other shit. But at some point in time,
you can't keep topping that, right, Yes, I.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
Wo'd agree with that second point. You can't keep topping
that At some point It is very hard to keep
topping that. At some point aw six year anniversary not
too long ago. For six years they have found a
way to keep doing crazier and crazier shit, and who
knows what the next level will be at because between

(57:58):
uh Swerve, between Darby, between Moxley, they find ways to
keep upping the ante in that direction. They do do
that and they are pushing a limit and there is
a segment of UH pro wrestling audience that does not
appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
And I don't think they they upped the ante with
this match, again not saying anything was bad, but the
fans always are building off of the last one, right,
and we saw this last time, what are we gonna
see this time? I don't think they topped it and
that they probably came up short, which again I'm not

(58:40):
saying they did anything wrong. It's just more of a
The more frequently you do stuff like this, the harder
it is to top it, and at some point you
maybe take a take a step back and let it
breathe for a bit. So it does seem special when
you do another anarchy and the arena slash, I quit, slash,

(59:03):
ambulance match slash. Fucking What are they doing coming up
here in a little bit with the two cages and
the or the two rings and the cakes, blood and guts,
thank you and all that stuff. What they've done this
year in those types of matches, how are you equaling
that or topping it with blood and guts. It's gonna
be hard.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
Blood and guts. I don't know, but from this match
the like you said, going under the fingernails the fish tank.
There's a couple moments from like it sticks with me,
it resonated where I felt like they up the ante
the fish tank. Definitely for sure, for sure.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
This week on Dynamite. By the way, coming off of
the pay per view, you get Bandido versus Okada for
the aw Unified Championship, OPS versus the Hurt Syndicate in
Trio's title match. I said earlier, you can't take the
belts off of the Ops. If Hangman were to interfere somehow,
it costs in the match. You could get the belts
off of them that way, and that gets Hangman some

(01:00:05):
heat back after taking the beat down postmatch and further
fuels to fire for that feud with Hangman of the Ops.
So maybe there is something there with that, and you
get the bracket reveal for the Women's Texting Title Tournament.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
A whole lot coming up this week, and I'm not
sold out. There gonna be a short story with the
Hurt Syndicate. Maybe it prolongs for a while, intertwines somehow
with Hangmen not saying hang Man's gonna end up working
with the Hurt syndicate. Just both are going on at
the same time.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
It's business man, it's business everything with the Hurt syndicate's business.
And if Hangman needs to do some business because of
his business, then maybe he gets some business with the
Hurt business or Hurt syndicate whatever the fuck they're called
an aw Hurt syndicate, I guess, but you get the point. Yes,
it's all about business. It's not personal.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
It's business or syndication.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
Sure a hubs business it does gets more eyeballs anything else. AW.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
I think that's everything ae.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
W We started the show chatting a bit about WWE.
In the show, chatting a bit about WWE, seth Rollins
vacates the title. They did a en raw a Battle
Royal to figure out who's going to take on CM
Punk for the title. Jay Usso gets the win there.

(01:01:30):
I think I said this to off Airmaica. I'll say
it on air as well. I really can't wait for
that WrestleMania showdown Roman Reigns versus jay Usso for that
version of the world title.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
And that makes one person who said that statement, it
might be the first person to make that statement.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
To be fair, I was being a bit facetious when
I said it, But yeah, that sounds like, yeah, I
think that's where we're headed.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
CM Punk just kind of like saying it out is
all I'm getting from all this. He's a good big
name to use up there. He's kind of involved in stuff,
but I don't know how serious I need to take
him in some of these situations. It's gonna happen, like
you said, Jay Us, so getting the title back that
helps precede the drama, the monster that his brother's scared.

(01:02:18):
He's becoming Jimmy J Punk. Yeah, that's where we're going
right now. It was interesting to see the story play
out through the battle Royal. Jimmy saved Jay and then
Jay was too late to push Jimmy over to really
drive home the animosity that they wanted because he waited

(01:02:39):
so long that La Night and Jimmy were teetering and
going over the rope before he could get there. But
I get the story they're trying to tell.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
It just further prolongs the never ending bloodline.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Story just never ending. You think for some reason they
could have vision to where the finish line is, but
some stories don't get it finished.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
On top of that real quick on SmackDown. Yeah, they
did bring it up that they're aligning now, Zelina Vega
aligning with her now real life husband Alistair Black on
top of the list of what the random shit is
WWE doing, because it's like, oh, no, it makes sense, guys,

(01:03:27):
because they're married. You're you're right, But the like last
eight months that he's been backed, they haven't had any interaction.
They were married and wayfore he left the company the
first time they were married, so you can call it
a natural alignment, but it just feels really weird that
the female ray mystereo on an assent being a nice

(01:03:51):
face suddenly turns into a heel next to her husband.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
I don't think it matters for Black, but you're one
hundred percent right on Zelena Vega. This seems like a
step back for her. Now, look, you get to work
with your husband and all that, and that was probably
one of the selling points for him going back to
WWE and leaving AEW So all right whatever, but yeah

(01:04:18):
for Vega. For Zelna Vega, it does seem like a
step back.

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
You went from being Bailey to now you're miss Elizabeth.
There's no bespirching the work, but It does feel like
a step back for everything she was trying to do,
and they didn't even bring it together in an intricate
way for the story. Uh Iliad Dragonov returns. That means

(01:04:42):
Sammy Zain's title run ends, uh five weeks of a
United States Open challenge. Sammy Zain is a heck of
a worker and a great guy for the mid card
And yeah, that's what this proves to me again. And
I think they have bigger plans for dragon Off.

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
Who the fuck gets dental work before a big number
one Contenders match.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
I don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
I think you do. No, no, no no.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
I was told that he was jumped backstage at the
last minute as he was preparing to walk out. That's
where all the blood from his mouth came from.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
I think you know what I'm talking about. Jacob fought too. Yes,
the actual reason they didn't have the match, he had
some dinnerware and look, I don't know. Maybe it was
emergency deal of work. I don't know. Maybe his tooth
was hurting, maybe there was an APPS I don't know,
but uh, yes, that's why he could not compete. He
was not cleared, so you had to beat down backstage
and uh, all right, we just don't really need to

(01:05:40):
have a number one contenders match. It's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Yeah, and instead Cody, the self righteous asshole that he
continues to be, runs out there. This isn't right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
I'll tell you what's going on.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
I'm the general manager of SmackDown, he's my number one contender.
We're fighting, and then I'm in a cheat So this
is obviously gonna be prolonged. We weren't we just here?

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
Okay, yeah, it's not my imagination that we were just
here and the ref stop Drew and Cody literally from
almost everything they did on on SmackDown anyway, I remember
Refts jumping in between them when they were fighting outside
last time.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Yeah, I'm assuming we're leading to some sort of hell
in a cell, no holds barred something something something, because yeah,
this is twice now you're going down this road. There's
got to be a payoff to it, right.

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
There should be my MVP of Monday Night Raw. And
I know you're going to disagree with this, but let's
give respect to the hardest working man on Monday Nights dominates.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
Oh, Adam Pierce.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
All right, Adam Pierce worked overtime at the beginning of
the night on that pro both.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
The anguries you two caused.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
No, not the stuff that rawlins across the rope that
we've even shown on WWE social media that actually dislocated
his shoulder, but what.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
You two did.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
He tried to sell that Braun and Braun were scary.
I give him so much damn credit for that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
It's just like the whole will Osprey thing, when the
whole lead up to his the most recent match, he had, aw,
I gotta take time off, I gotta have next surgery.
I gotta have next surgery. So then at the pay
per view they do the angle where he gets beaten down,
and then they tried to tell us, oh my god,
he's hurt his neck. He's gonna be out a prolonged
period of time. You're talking out of both sides of
your mouth, which is fine and is your prerogative, but

(01:07:37):
you can't ask me to suspend this belief when you've
already told me what's really going on.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
And I totally agree with you. It also, well, Adam
Pierce was my MVP. This might have been one of
the weaker for me. Paul Hayman performances or maybe it
was just like a weird warm up that he didn't
talk to anybody, maybe all day because I did not
like the first promo, but the second promo was better,
and by the time we got to the third promo

(01:08:04):
with Becky Lynch and the fourth promo back with the Bronze,
I thought Paul Hayman had hit his stride, but it
felt like early it was flat. And I can believe
somebody that believes what they're saying, but it felt like
he was just, Oh, they told me to run out
my same script, so I'm just gonna YadA, YadA, y'all
out here without any real feeling.

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
Ask don callis sometime about pacing yourself when you're gonna
be on camera four or five different fucking times. Yeah,
but my guess is, yeah, you don't want to shoot
your wid the first time out when you still got
to come out three more times, so you have to
have the slow build.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
Bravo to Becky Lynch. That promo was pointed, that was heated.
I felt the electricity, and I liked that Paul Hayman
came out and was like, this game is about survival
and I made a snap judgment. Well, fine, my husband's
not gonna hurt you because you don't matter, which again
is a real shot into reality for me, because Becky

(01:09:01):
Lynch is totally right. He's a puppet master, but he
doesn't matter because I want to have feelings towards him
as a character. But there's never a payoff for Paul
Hayman because he leeches and attaches himself to the next person,
So him as a hateable figure. You're right, it's just
not there for me. But I loved how she said
and how she communicated it real quick.

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
Back on SmackDown, were you excited for the Dragonov return?

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
No, I just thought it'd be unbecoming of me to
be like, Oh, Sammy's say, lost to an NXT call
up on his first night.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
Obviously they have big plans for him. But yeah, I
just I didn't. It just seems so out of left field.
It was more of a what the hell just happened
as opposed to a holy shit moment.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
You know, I don't like his move set, I don't
like the finisher, some of the lead up. I'm not
a big on dragging off guy, and it felt less
than for Samy Zain, who maybe we could have turned
this US title challenge into something a few more weeks
down the road. This felt like he was just getting going,
and it just felt like the same things is that

(01:10:11):
always happened to Samy Zain. You're cut off before the momentum,
rerely gets going. Anything else we need to hit on,
anything else that we should hit on. We're gonna skip
over mft's and Wyatt's right, Yeah, yeah, okay, just one

(01:10:32):
more time. Shout out to aj Lee and uh, I'll
leave you with one.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
I definitely disagree with me about I.

Speaker 1 (01:10:39):
Think seeing Punk would agree with you on that. Shout
out to a j Lee.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
Doma stereo matches are getting X you expect it, They're not.
It's not as random. I'm not surprised by his cheating ways.
It felt like there was a little too much Dom
Mysterio doing Domina stereo things on Monday Night.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
Me.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
With the two matches, I liked the storyline how it
played in with the Battle Royal. I just don't know
if we needed the RUSEV match two earlier in the
night for Rusof to not just be focused on trying
to kill Dom later in the night.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
You probably didn't need the first match. The Mysterio russev match.
I'm with you on that. I'm just telling you, when
they turn Dom masterio face, it's gonna be glorious.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
Yes, because all that lying, cheating and stealing is exactly
what the fans want of their heroes. Thank you, w
W hold on that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:37):
It's certainly the fuck is too bad. We can't ask
his late father, Eddie Guerrero.

Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
You know, it didn't seem like people liked it when
John Cena did it, and he's the biggest face of
them all.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
That was Johnson. That was John Cena was say your prayers,
take your vitamins two point zero though, so that was
a little different. Johnsena was also on his retirement tour
in the fans to send him off, so that one
probably not a good comparison. But I mean, I hear you,
but the fans love Eddie Guerrero lion, cheating, stealing and

(01:12:10):
his mama Sita and all that happy shit, so they'll
love it for dom Dom too.

Speaker 2 (01:12:15):
You want to talk more about pro wrestling, hit me
up on X It's at Frankle Micah get the.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
Show on X at PW after Hours, you can get
me at Real Mike Carlisle. We will talk to you
next week for another episode of Pro Wrestling After Hours.
You're on the After Hours podcast network.