Ep 319: WWE Survivor Series Recap. AEW Continental Classic Kicks Off.

Episode 319: We look back at WWE's Survivor Series. AEW kicks off the Continental Classic.  All the latest news. 














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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
What's up, everybody?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome back. It is pro Wrestling after Hours. I'm Michael Carlisle,
joined as always by Micah Franco.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Micah was shaking man surviving games of a continental proportion?
Is that classical enough for you?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I guess yeah, that works.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
I suppose.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Kind of where we're at, it seems like and these
days of pro wrestling, unless you're moving to AMC.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Right right, right right, coming off the Survivor series for
WWE this past weekend, we'll get into that aw Continental
Classic kicking off, and yeah, you touched on it at
the beginning, as we record. By the time you hear this,
it won't be breaking. But the big news is we
record here Today, TNA and AMC announced a multi year

(00:54):
deal for Impact Wrestling to air starting on January fifteenth
of twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Okay, cool, I but I was a little bit surprised
because I still don't know who owns It's been so
long since we paid attention to Impact. Last time I
was paying attention, Anthem, who had purchased Access TV, was
in control I thought of Impact Wrestling. So the only
reason that the surprising to me is I kind of

(01:25):
thought they'd stay with the company that owned them, but
for ranching out bigger market more homes, being AMC being
in more homes all the better for them.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Anthem still owns Impact Wrestling.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
The reality is, yes, this is all about getting more
eyeballs on the product, which makes the product theoretically more profitable,
which works out for Anthem. I would not be surprised
if there's not still some sort of TNA presence on
Access TV at some point.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Maybe there's not.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
We'll see on that, but I mean, look, just right
off the bat, Access TV is in thirty three to
thirty five million homes, AMCs in fifty seven million homes,
so quite a bit of jump on potential eyeballs that
could watch the product. You understand why they wanted to
get on a bigger network. And look, the first reaction

(02:19):
might be, well, nobody watches wrestling on AMC. People aren't
gonna be conditioned to that. A. I believe people will
find it, and b AMC has dipped their toe in
the wrestling landscape a bit with several different WWE companion
shows and things like that. Now not actual wrestling shows

(02:40):
per se, but whether it's biographies or hidden treasures or
this or that or the other. It's not like AMC
hasn't dabbled into the wrestling world, and it's.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Not like we're in the era of AMC where Walking
Dead there was quite a few other shows of that nature.
And in that time where Sundays for a good three
hours was appointment viewing for the scripted drama television that
was on AMC. You're down to like one hour a

(03:14):
week now of that. And we know the financial ease
of live sports, so you can't understand why they're going
in that genre. Branching out to pro wrestling, as you said,
isn't that far of a reach considering some of the
other accompanying WWE products they've already had in circulation.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yep, for sure.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
So January fifteenth will be the first episode of Impact
on AMC that will be from Dallas, Texas.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Interestingly enough, they're not wasting any.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Time busting out a special January twenty second and twenty
third TNA on AMC back to back nights. Both those
nights will be from Albuquerque, New Mexico. So like two
weeks in, Hey, we're gonna amp it up a little
bit and run a special to back nights of.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Impact interesting back to back night nights of Impact coming
out the gates hard, this expansion, what they've done in
recent months, getting more eyeballs. My biggest question is has
it done anything to make you a curious wrestling observer?

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Oh, I'm certain, And look, I haven't watched a lot
of TNA over the last year or so. I keep
tabs on it, but I haven't actually watched a lot.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
I am ninety nine certain.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
I'll sit down at least that first week and see
how it goes, see what it looks like, see what
they're doing, and they kind of take it from there.
Hopefully they hook me and Thursday night Impact becomes must
watch wrestling for me. And if not, then I'll view
it from the way I am now, from a distance,
from a casual perspective, so we'll see. B Yeah, I'll

(04:55):
definitely give a give them a shot.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
All right.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
I wonder where that announcement led you to.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah, good, look good for I'm all about everybody doing
well in this business. And I haven't seen anything official,
but reportedly this deal is worth somewhere in the neighborhood
of thirty million dollars for the multi year deal. We'll
see at some point. I'm guessing what that final number is,

(05:21):
but I think certainly. Look, money's important, let's not kid ourselves.
But the bigger thing here for TNA is you're not
quite doubling your potential audience, but you're growing it by
quite a bit.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's a good opportunity for impact for a company that, Yeah,
we remember why the Impact minute stopped around here, and
I haven't seen a reason to pick it back up.
So good for them for what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
No look on and in a lot of ways this
might sound like a shot. I hope it doesn't, because
I mean it in a complimentary way. This is the
company that just won't die. You go back to when
they were found did on the weekly pay per view premise,
and they got fed some bad info on the numbers
they were getting, so they believed they were doing a

(06:08):
lot better than they were, so they were spending accordingly,
and then finding out they weren't, they had to seek
outside investors. They eventually abandoned the weekly pay per view format.
You got time buys late night Saturday night TV slots

(06:30):
off primetime Thursday time slots, Primetime Thursday time slots. You
went all in and thought you'd go head to head
on Monday nights. That didn't work either. You ran your
founder off it multiple times. It seemed like the end
was in sight for TNA, but somehow they find a
way and now certainly the biggest TV news for them

(06:52):
and quite some time, leaving Access TV and going to
a place with considerably more homes in AMC.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Did you call them the cockerroach of pro wrestling? You
just won't die?

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (07:05):
I didn't say that exactly, but yes, that that that
analogy works as well if you want to call them
the cockroach of of wrestling. Sure, but yeah, the company
that just won't die. And I think that's a credit
to everybody busting their butts and working so hard trying
to keep it afloat all this time, through good times
and bad times. And I'm not saying that the whole
time was like that, but there were a lot of

(07:27):
the iffy moments for TNA.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Oh, there have been a lot of iffy moments. And
I think it becomes if he again, because I've seen
reports that this could actually possibly end the NXT. That
collaboration not gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Nope, nope, no, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
That that that, uh, that relationship is continuing.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Oh okay, heaven forbid if they had to step out
on their own again, I was worried for them.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Well hold on, you say that like it's a bad thing.
Is it a bad thing for AW to work with New.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Japan or CMLL? I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
Now.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Look, I'm also not comparing NXT to CMLL or New Japan,
although I guess we probably could if we wanted to.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
But I.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Don't have a problem with TNA working with other companies,
and even if that's WWE or WWE adjacent with an xteam.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yah, sure, more power to them.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Oh no, more power. I just again, it's done nothing
to make us bring back a impact recap with what
they've done, the eyes that they've drawn. So I'm just
speaking from a place of not entertained by either brand.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
And that's fine if you're not entertained by either brand,
and I hear you. But I'd be willing to bet
you dollars to donuts that they don't give this TV
deal with AMC without the WWE relationship, just just the
added exposure that they've gotten from it, even if it
hasn't motivated you or I per se it's got a

(09:08):
lot more buzz around them, and probably I'm not saying
that WWE got them the deal, but the added exposure
of that, I think it would be naive to say
it didn't factor in at least a little bit.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, no, I agree with you. I just again, having
a for all their success, haven't seen anything that has
enticed me to keep watching, and and quite literally, when
I've tuned in, I can't make it too far into
a segment before turning it off.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
I hear you, I hear you. So good for TNA,
Good for them.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
That's that's good for them, And I don't know where
else to go from it on that one. Besides, it's
more liked right now and getting more eyeballs I believe,
than NWA, than Jugglo Championship Wrestling, so they're obviously doing
something right.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
WWE had their Survivor series this past Saturday.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
In San Diego.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
I didn't hate any of the matches, but good lord,
the pacing of this show was god awful.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
The pacing was got awful, and I didn't get the
you know, shout out to Cody Rhodes and I want
to say Alexa Bliss the only two people that ran
to the cage like their teams were in war. I mean,

(10:47):
the lack of urgency and the need to fully indulge
everyone's entire entrance was elongating the show, and to me,
less than the circumstances of all your teammates are getting
beat down my three minute intro. Okay, guys, well.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Look it's for me.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
I didn't even have that much of a problem with that.
I'm just I was talking more about the amount of
time between matches. It was paced more much more like
a boxing or UFC event than it was a pro
wrestling or sports entertainment event.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
And I don't know how that's.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Going to go over long term with the fans if
that's how they're gonna pace their premium live events now,
to stretch them out a little bit.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
I'm gonna be honest here. The beautyfullness, beautyfulness of us
having the ESPN app it no longer makes the event
appointment viewing. I just need to watch the event before
we do the show. So I got to wait a
good couple days. And I understand what you're saying, because
the amount of times I hit the skip button and

(12:02):
I was fast forwarding felt like forever. But the beauty
of the new way that they distributed to us with
having access to this app, which is nothing new from Peacock,
we can watch this later. So my fear of how
long it would run. When I saw that three hour
and one minute timer, I was like, there's four matches,

(12:25):
three hours a one minute. This is going to be
a journey. So I understand what you're saying for the
live viewing audience. I took the ladder route and watched
the next day, right, But most.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
People don't watch two or three days later. I hear you,
and yes, and look, I ain't gonna lie. I'm not
crap out on you for watching it a day or
two later. Lots of times, especially with WWE, I'll watch
it later that night for that very reason. I'm gonna
fast forward through this shit now, the stuff I don't
want to see. So yeah, I hear you on that.

(12:59):
But if you're sitting down watching a premium live event
and you're more of a wrestling fan than a UFC
fan or a boxing fan, you were just like, what
the hell are we doing here?

Speaker 1 (13:10):
People? I get it.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
You're trying to maximize every bit of advertising and crap
that you can, but this is freaking ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
As long as those masses are willing to pay, as
long as people are willing to tune in. We've heard
them refer to WWE, especially since going to ESPN, as
we want to make it a more sports oriented, feeling product,
and I think this might be part of it. Now
we get UFC boxing, elongated pacing, because this is a

(13:42):
big time sporting event that we will milk the advertising
out of. I think Dana White said it one time.
Too much advertising and you just look like a gatty
race car. No one wants to see.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
That, except for you know, the matt inside of the octagon,
which looks like a fucking NASCAR which, by the way,
I'm not hating on. Look, I'm not hating on. More
power to them sell the shit out of those ads.
But I believe what you refer to that comment, and

(14:17):
we won't go far into the MMA world was about
the time they stopped the fighters from selling their own
sponsorships and did the apparel deal that the first one
I think was Rebok and everybody had to dress in
the same way and all that, and I get where
he's coming from. But then you look at the map
there obviously with WWE, whether it's commercials during the premium

(14:39):
live event, they're advertising on the matting, the video boards
around the ring, all that the ring posts.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, there's a lot of advertising in these shows.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
And I can understand all that visual aid If you
weren't gonna beat us down with commercials, you don't have
to because you already implemented all of the advertising. Not
to mention, I remember days when backstage promos were backstage promos,
not rock Sampetz pushing Exfinity to two fans. It felt

(15:16):
like an over abundance of unnecessary advertising when you already
have so many visual aids to give us the advertising.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yep, let's jump.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
In Mica Survivor series this past Saturday, they started things
off with the women's wargame match. Maybe this isn't fair,
but I kept watching this and subconsciously comparing it, or
maybe consciously comparing it to the women's Blood and Guts
match at aw from a week or so ago, and

(15:50):
from that standpoint, I thought this seemed lesser than that.
But that being said, standing on its own, there was
nothing wrong with this match. It was a fine match.
If I'm being honest, it kind of exceeded my expectations.
In the end, Ria Ripley, O Sky, Charlotte, Alexa and
aj Lee got the win here.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
It was a fine match.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
I just I don't know, maybe it was just the
way I went into it, but it didn't really nothing
really stood out to me as being spectacular or anything.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
I feel like we've had a better storyline leading together,
leading into wargames. That's the biggest problem here is that
we just slapsticked all these mischigosh pieces together and said
get in there. It's like a kid that just took
a little piece of clay from this one and this one,
and he makes a color that inevitably turns out to

(16:44):
either be purple or brown.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
It just gets kind of all the colors mushed together,
but you don't understand why. Right, That's what a lot
of this felt like from me for a storyline purpose
the match itself. I'm glad that Etosky is good to
wrestle still, because it looks like that first spot off
the ropes when she was running, she nearly blew out
her knee, so I'm glad she's okay. Kudos to Alexa

(17:10):
Bliss as I said for having urgency, felt like that
was pivotal. I don't understand the theory of the miss pinfall.
Last Legend Naya jacks the stereo power bombs right, the
ref jumps down, goes to count aj Lee hits Naya,

(17:33):
and inevitably we just never worried that lash Legend had
pinned Charlotte Flair in the match was over at that point.
The ref just kind of never looked over that way.
She was not in a stereo scenario like that, You're
normally making both penfalls, and it just took out to
me that that didn't happen.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Oh, come on, Micah. There was so much action.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
How's the referee supposed to keep track of everything going
on with all that action happening simultaneously?

Speaker 3 (17:59):
And that actually is one of my biggest gripes. There
were the moments, the minutes upon minutes when they were
looking at the clock waiting for the next entrance to
come in, where you just saw everyone in a corner
and someone else was stomping on them or choking on
them to really no effect. I mean, even that close
up of when Becky Lynch was kind of getting double
team by Charlotte and I forgot who the other person was.

(18:21):
It just didn't look violent. This is war games, and
it looked like everyone was just kind of doing maneuvers,
just kind of going with the flow. And I guess
every time Youto skys in the match, we're gonna get
the same spot. We're all looking forward to it. They
called it vintage Eto, and she is so atomically powerful

(18:44):
atomically the radiation of the trash can fall takes out
the kabuki warriors who literally weren't even touched by anything,
and you get the multiple person finished on poor Becky Lynch.
I wasn't mad at the finish, just it was a
little bit awkward. I thought the dive off. I didn't

(19:06):
know where we were gonna go on Monday after this victory.
Considering everyone has this symbiotic relationship. We're all friends, We've
all went to war together. We're not gonna turn around
and start fighting each other right away. Bygones, be bygones.
We just came to this Akuna matata. Oh no, it

(19:28):
really diminishes the thought of war that you're gonna stab
your fellow soldier Monday night for the tag team titles.
I didn't have a problem with that, but I hear you,
I hear you.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Up next, we have the Intercontinental title match, the champ
John Cena defending against Dominique my Stereo. To the surprise
of no one, Mysterio gets to win and reclaims the
Icy title. Took some outside interference, quite a bit of it,
but uh supposedly John Cena's last pre Meum live event

(20:01):
goes in as the champ drops the belt on the
way out.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
If I would have had more conviction to pick the
female faces, I would have won one hundred percent right here.
I even got the live Morgan return on this match.
I told you last week a certain side piece would
come back, and it played out just as I suspected.
I am not as gullible as John Cena, who for

(20:27):
some reason thought the girl decked out in the dumb
Mysterio attire that even said Guerrero was somehow turning on him. Ah,
that was a lot of stuff to get the victory
for dumb Mysterio. And I can't tell if the crowd

(20:51):
likes them hates them. It seemed like when Raquel and
Roxanne got involved, the crowd was not happy, but the
very happy when when liv gets involved. I'm still a
little not sure what the crowd wants from the Judgment day,
but good for Dom forgetting the win. That exactly the

(21:11):
way we body would how we sow it. I don't
like being surprised with my PL's That's why I launched WWE.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
I can tell you exactly what the crowd wants from
Judgment day to go away. I don't think they care
about the Judgment day. I think they care the hell
out of Dominic Mysterio and Live Morgan to a lesser degree.
But yeah, the rest of the Judgment Day for their sake.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
The quicker you can.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
Get Dominic Mysterio away from them, the better it might
be for them. But I also look at this point,
I don't think they're rushing anything with Dom but and
I get it, it was his hometown and all, but
holy effing shite, the damn pop he got when he
came out was crazy.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
It was crazy. He's huge. They needed the Roman Reigns
match on this card where everybody in their grandma gets
out of the car, gets involved, has a spot. I uh.
I feel like if we saw this on an independent
show and we replayed it to wrestling aficionados, many of

(22:20):
them would tell us. Oh, this is some overproduced crap.
You'll only need one of those angles to get someone over,
and I think we used was it five six different
tricks in the book to get dumb Mysterio over. So
it's not at this point if Dumb Mysterio's gonna win,

(22:40):
I'm just keeping track, not a drinking game, but track
of how many different ways to cheat they have to
use to get him over.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
I mean, it's not like they did anything super out
of the ordinary cheating wise.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
There was just a lot of it.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
But yeah, exactly, that's why there was just a lot
of it in different circumstances.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Are you buying that December thirteenth is John Cena's last match?

Speaker 3 (23:08):
I'm sure it's not. U shouldn't thunder Laiger wrussell Joey
Janella for like ten dollars the other day at Wrestle Con.
So No. Now, at some point someone will offer John
Cena enough money that he returns to wrestling, or WWE
will need him, or Saudi Arabia will offer him, or
he'll just wrestle the very next night. Anyway, and I'm

(23:30):
coming back for Domastereo one more time.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
What he ain't coming back for Tomasterio one more time.
That's just dumb. But he is advertised to the Raw
after WrestleMania, some three months after his last match.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Now what my.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Guess is on that is either after his last match
on Saturday Night's main event or a week or two
after on Raw, they're gonna announce him.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
For the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
And of course all the Hall of famers most all
sure are honored it Raw that the next night as well,
so it could be nothing more than that. But my
guess would be seen as going to be your Hall
of Fame headliner. But there's been a lot of speculation
is he really going to hang it up? Is this
really gonna be the last match? And I've seen a
lot of online about WWE advertising him for the Raw

(24:18):
after WrestleMania, But I think there and look, I don't know.
My gut tells me, Hey, it's pro wrestling. Nobody ever
stays retired, so he could come back for something. But
I think the ad being advertised for Rall after Mania
might be more of a telltale sign he's going into
the Hall of Fame than it is that he's going

(24:38):
to keep wrestling, at least on a semi regular basis.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
I could see that. Did you even just see John
Cena coming out one last time to thank the fans?
Just another appearance, but it's not on the tour, a
make a wish stop maybe or something.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
But the tour ends next Saturday, and we're talking the
raw after WrestleMania here, so that this ain't just another
come out and.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Tip your cap thing.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Either he's going to get into a program or again,
what I think is far more likely, he has his
last match, and pretty quickly after they announced he's going
into a Hall of Fame.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
That's possible. Still don't believe it'll be his last match,
but it's possible. I mean, how many active Hall of
Famers are on TV right now?

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, Women's World Championship, Stephanie a Cure versus Nikki Bella.
This one didn't do a whole lot for me at all.
Mia ain't gonna lie.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
No, no, Like we said, we were gonna get to it,
we were gonna get through it, and then we were
gonna see what Vancouver moves on to next, which apparently
you know, played into Monday Night Raw where the Judgment Day,
as you say, gonna get rid of that, they're they're
being a pretty big focal point. Now, Women's tag ting Division,

(25:56):
Women's solo division. Maybe they do get rid of the
dead weight and it's just Dom and the girls could
be Dom's angels.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
I wonder if this match would have been better had
it not followed Sena in mystereo, Like, whatever you put
there was going to be a tall order. Unfortunately it
had to be Bella and the cure maybe somewhere else
on the card. We look at this match a little differently,
but you're not doing the Men's war Games after that,

(26:27):
so I mean something had to go there, and yeah,
I think that was one of the things they couldn't overcome.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
Do you think they maybe should have just went back
to back women's matches. We go Women's war Games, you
go right into the women's title match to then the
giant pop of doma stereo John Cena where there was
just no way to change this circumstance. There's four matches,
so you wanted to change the bout order. I'm like,
should it have been one, two, three, or no? It

(26:55):
shouldn't have been four?

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yeah, no, Look, I don't think you could change the
bout order. And to answer your question, I would not
have gone back to back the two women's matches, the
bout order had to be what it was that made sense.
Unfortunately for Stephanie Vakure and Bella, they had to follow
it and they didn't have enough in their bag of
tricks to overcome that.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah, no, I agree with you, and now we move
on to, like we said, a much more prominent story,
hopefully for Vancore.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
That gets us to the men's war game match and
Micah Shock Shock Shock Shock Shock. For the first time
since twenty twenty two, the Heels win a men's war
game match at Survivors Series with Lessner the bronze logan
Paul Drew mckensire on the winning side of things.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Good for Drew, they get the win here.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
I did enjoy this one a whole lot more than
I did the women's war games.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
How dare you not include Grande Americano.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
I don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (27:58):
Somebody was under that mass hood and I feel like
we call him Brande Americano at this point because it's
the last hooded figure I can think of that we
actually gave a name to because we didn't really address
this guy. Besides, there's a mystery of who he is
right now.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
I'm pretty sure we call him Austin theory.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
The worst kept secret in pro wrestling is that we're
going to care that it was Austin theory. Way, we're
gonna say that Austin theory. Curb stump, see him punk
and that was enough to take out see him punk?
I U yeah, Okay, there's a lot of theories going.
I still think that could be Chad Gable under that hood.

(28:41):
The beautiful part about what they did is I think
it could be Omoss. Who knows Brandi Americano grew three
feet overnight when he got injured, so we could put
a hood under anybody. We could put that mask on
anybody and they could say it was really Brons and read.
All of a sudden, he just moves as fast as
Roger when the alien really gets going.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
I don't look at you with the American dad reference.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
I'm gonna go out on a limb. It was not almost.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Obviously you want to infer that maybe it was seth Rollins.
I don't believe it was Seth Rollins. I think sooner
rather than later it's revealed to be Austin theory. Well, now,
how that goes over, we'll see. I had not given
this any thought, but since they've kept Grande Americano going

(29:30):
with Chad Gable's absence, and if I'm being honest, they've
gone in a little bit different direction with it. Maybe
you don't put Chad Gable under that hood anymore when
he comes back, maybe you are doing something else with him.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
I mean, I can think of worse things.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Than this winding up being him, but.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
I'm pretty sure it's gonna be Austin theory.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
I'm pretty sure you're right. How did you feel about, uh,
shouldn't be on TV coming in, clearing the looking like
a monster and then getting taken out and just I
was quite surprised how these matches played out where it
seemed like everyone kind of came in, cleared the house,

(30:13):
and then went down without a peep and was down
for minutes on end.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
It's war, man, It's brutal.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
Except for when you stop to have your entrance in
and blow your entire advantage because you rolled back your intro.
That was probably my favorite part of why w WE
is not that serious about war. You take your man
advantage and you waste it to dance. We said the
Vince McMahon. Error was gone a dance contest in the

(30:46):
middle of war games is so Vince McMahon.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
It's so something that's not very good.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
I'll give you that.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Hey, look, I'm just happy rock Lester made it to
the ring without us than his ass.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
Oh you said that spot was four letters one word. Shit.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
You know what, I can't disagree with you. I was
just gonna overlook it. But you're not wrong.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
I didn't get the urgency for most of everything that
was happening, and from Bronson reed to to shall not
be named everyone clearing house and then going down without
a whisper.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
The finish was okay, except for the fact that like
Cody was like halfway to his knees and then just
kind of like fell back down.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Are you trying not to mention brock Lessener by name?
Is that what you're doing here? Because I'm confused as
fun well with all your analogies, because you're not mentioning him.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
So I don't know who the hell you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
Yeah, yeah, that guy. I just don't want to bring
him up ever, ever, ever, until a core case is
cleared up.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
You know, he's not accused of doing anything, right, huh.
You know, he's not accused of doing anything right.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
His association and still all of it, there's a lot
that I've eloquently described as feeling uncomfortable with on a
kid's program. So I hate constantly having to bring up
his name, and it makes me icky about how they've
marked him on the forefront again to a children's audience.
Don't want to keep reiterating all those reasons why I
don't want to bring him up. But yeah, he came

(32:24):
in with a bang and just kind of went down.
Seemed like everyone did it in the match, and I
didn't feel like there was a lot of creativity in
that repetitive segment that kept playing out in front of us.
The finish didn't make sense because everyone was down for
minutes on end, it seemed like they were starting to
get back up, then they didn't. Good for bron Breaker

(32:47):
getting the pinfall. Do you like the single it going
off to go on to go off? No? And did
you like how Seampunk had to lift his arm up
so that him and bron Breaker didn't collide in that
moment where Stampunk was unconscious but aware and all enough
to not mess up the move.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yeah, there's some issues here.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Look, I like Ron Breaker a lot, and I do
believe he is going to be a star. I feel
like they are trying to push him too hard, too quick. Look,
maybe the Rollins injury plays into that, and you've got
to keep that group strong and you don't have that
veteran there. But I think they sometimes put him in

(33:31):
situations that don't hide his weaknesses.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
There were a couple slips in that pipe bomb that
he dropped. If that thing was a grenade, he was
a little butterfingery with it last night. It was one
of the better promos that bron Breaker has ever cut.
But it feels like they are shoving him into a
Beast incarnate sized box from what that guy was when
he was first introduced, and Brown Breaker just isn't ready yet.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
Right Like.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
In some ways they're trying to hype the heck out
of that dominic mysterio. That the same way, but there's
been a lot more of a slow build with him.
He's been there, I mean, help that motherfucker's done, been
to prison, got out and you know, been changed and
all that. Whereas Breakers really and I realized he was
in an NXT for a while, but it's really, I

(34:30):
just don't If you push him too quickly and it
falls flat, his career may not recover from that.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
So that's my only thing.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
I would be really careful that I'm not saying he's
not worthy of where he's eventually going to be, because
I think he is. I just I wouldn't push too
quickly because you might wind up doing more harm than good.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
In a positive way. Dom Mysterio may have long minutes
on the mic, but he doesn't say a lot. He
rehiggrituates his lines, but that's a positive thing. He reinforces
to you I am the king of the Luchadors. Two
minutes later, I am the king of the Luchadors. I
hate my dad, I love girls. But he keeps it simple.
It felt like to me bron Breaker overloaded himself with

(35:15):
too many ideas, too many thought points that he tried
to get out last night instead of keeping it simple
and just.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Look here's something else to keep in mind. And I
say this kind of tongue in cheek, but I also
kind of mean it. He is a Steiner. Interesting memorable
promos from both the Steiner brothers, but not what you
would necessarily call great.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Guys on the mic.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
You know, I get where you're going on that one.
That's where it did surprise me that we are even
with the pen fall rightfully, So Bron Breaker is the
leader of this group. I think a lot of us
thought the vision would be more gear towards Logan Paul's
vision and in the short term at least and maybe

(36:05):
towards wrestle Mania. Is when Bron Breaker would be getting
a main event spotlight of this magnitude rather than right now,
it feels like they're they're forcing Bron to the front of.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
The back a little bit. And again I would just
I would be really careful with that.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
But yeah, look, keep in mind barking and bad math.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
That's what the two Steiners were known for in their promos.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
So it's probably a safe bet that Bron doesn't have
the gift the gift of gab in his family jeens.
So i'd maybe a little less talky talkie from Breaker
and a little more relying on Paul Hayman to do
the talkie talkie for him.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
We just saw the Foot Clan take down the Freaking
Ninja Turtles because they had one extra member jump in
the cage. I don't think I've seen a story like
that portrayed. I was surprised that the Mega Sours did
not overcome everything, and I am even more surprised that
they all look so mad at each other. In the end,

(37:15):
we all just lay there and watch Punk get beat down.
Roban just nonchalantly stands up after the three count. I
was like, Oh, you're fine.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
I don't know what the hell you just said Megasurs,
potfoots and Ninja Turtles.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
What the hell are you talking about right now? Micah.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
It looked like a much weaker group that normally gets
being down very easily by these superheroes. Well overcame them
because they had one extra man for a split moment,
and that was far under what we would expect of
of the Roman, the Cody and the CM Punk combination.
And they all look quite mad at each other. So

(37:59):
when it was Hogan and Macho and their love, they
were Mega Powers. But because we know that pettiness is
the superpower of Punk and Roman and Cody's a cry baby,
thank you rock, they feel like the Mega Sours instead
of the Mega Powers.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Okay, all right, that part I got the Ninja Turtles
and whatever the other thing you say, and I don't
need the explanation. It's fine, I should watch.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
I guess Sretter's henchmen were the Foot Clan, and they
were the guys that the Ninja Turtles beat up all
the time. We just saw the Foot Clan beat up
the Ninja Turtles because they had one extra member.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
A couple of other WWE related things, real quick, Mikeah,
the finals for the last time is now tournament we
now know will be Gunther taking on La Knight on
SmackDown this week.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
No chance in hell La Knight's beating Gunther, right.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
Right, Yeah, it would be a pretty stunning turn of
events for everyone's prediction to go into the shitter and
have La Knight get the opportunity to get this uplift.
That would be quite a surprise and at this point

(39:21):
not such a great loss for Gunther to lose to
like the contender to the contender to the contender who
keep coming up short.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
The only thing that would be worse if it was
Drew McIntyre versus Gunther and Gunther lost to McIntyre.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
Yeah, there's that many starts and stops, so yeah, I
think the biggest surprise was that jay USO's meltdown that
he's not Roman reigns came at this level and not
in a rematch. I think we all kind of felt
like the tournament was playing out to a rematch because
how many times has jay Uslo got the better of
l A Knight?

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Did we really think any body other than Gunther was
going to be in the finals on that side?

Speaker 3 (40:04):
Oh no, he took on solos to co that.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Oh that's right, that's right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got chack,
got cha, got cha, I got check.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
That's why I was thinking that jay Uso l A
Knight that one felt like more of a toss up,
and the way they treated La Knight, I kind of
thought we were getting uh usso Gunther three and this
would have been the best way for Gunther to reshow
his his hoots, but his manhood, his tenacity by overcoming

(40:29):
Jay and then taking down John.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
I mean, I guess I'm just look, it's nothing against sina.
I got no problems with anything wwe' is doing for
him on this retirement tour. I'm just I think this
says more about me than he does senior WWE.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
So, so I'm willing to know that this just doesn't
excite me.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
I don't think anything that's happened except for or like
maybe one match after Sena turned back to face has
excited me. Of this retirement tour, if you're Chris Jericho,
you gotta re really mulling over that storyline they're giving
you for a retirement tour, thinking how this is gonna

(41:16):
hit after you saw the hits and misses of the
John Senor retirement tour.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
I would hope if Jericho comes in and they do
a retirement tour, first of all kind of aim, but
I digress. If you do it right, just keep the
Rock away from it, because honestly, this would have been
so much better if you hadn't have had this shit
with the Rock. I wasn't against the scene that he'll
turn per se, but it made no sense and there

(41:47):
was no payoff to it, so you just had to
quickly and quietly turn him back face.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
It.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
This has been as successful as it has despite WWE's
best efforts to make it seeming not successful with some
of the decision making.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
I get where you're coming from. It's just funny to
think about all the bumps in the roads ye self
inflicted wounds if you will that they've caused themselves with this.
I think that if you don't waste your time with
the scenic heel turn to keep them away from Cody,

(42:30):
maybe you just hit us with some more of the classics,
a little more CM punk interaction. Maybe the Randy Orton
interaction is a week or two longer and feels like
it's just not a one off in Saint Louis. Maybe
we could have hit some of those high notes and
then kind of transition into this tournament finishing off rather

(42:52):
than just having a wonky couple appearances.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
Again, look, we all like what we like.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
And if you like this and don't like how AW
handled Sting, your prerogative. But to me, even if they
almost did too much for Sting, the way AW did
the Sting retirement tour, I think was much better that
than what wwe did with the Sena. And look, if
they're looking to do this for Jericho or somebody else,

(43:21):
hopefully they learned from that.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
It's all about building and learning, so hopefully they're able
to take this in an in a right direction.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
We'll see, we'll see over an aew Micah, we got
the Continental Classic getting underway on dynamite this past week,
and right off the bat we what can only be
called an upset, and it was callous family on callous

(43:52):
family violence. Kyle Fletcher beats Okada in round one and
gets an early advantage in in the Continental Classic.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
Second year in a row. Let's not forget Okada was
behind the eight ball and came out victorious last year.
He knows how to manage these tournaments. But you go
back thinking a year ago, this is kind of the
tournament where Kyle Fletcher started to establish himself as a
solo entity, as someone that we have to take serious.

(44:22):
He's continuing that trend. And it wasn't a a anger, physicality,
rip a hole in the callous family kind of victory.
It was a cheeky little roll up. You got the
better of Okada than an Okada can respect that.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
We got a pause for a moment here, Micah, because
I got issues of the Continental Classic. What the fuck
is up for grabs here?

Speaker 3 (44:53):
The Continental title?

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Okay, that's the Unified that's one half of the unified title.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
That that that.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
Title point, because it's up for a band minute on itself,
making Okata Thuss only the international champion right now.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
Uh uh Okata is only the unified champion. And that's
the fucking problem, Micah, it's he can't be the unified
champion if the continental belts going away.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
I have issues here.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
This is and and this is something that they could
have spent five minutes on before announcing the field and
figured out how.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
They were gonna handle it.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
It seems like Tony Kahn was totally caught off guard.
Oh wait, you mean Okada can't be the unified champion unless.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
He wins the tournament.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Well, we'll still call him the unified champion. He's still
the international champion. Well, he's not fucking unified anymore. If
you're ununifying the belts.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
He is the unified champion because he has not lost
the title. He just doesn't have the unifying title because
the title is but sitting there on a plaque. So
right now he has the international title. Well, he's waiting
to get back the unified title and while the continental
title is there.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
So when somebody else wins this, you can't keep calling
him the unified champion.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
Exactly, then he's just the international champion.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
This is crazy to me.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Aew does so much right, This is so fucking wrong
and could could have been so damn simple to figure
out and overcome. This just bug Look, maybe this bugs
me way more than it should and I should just relax,
but this bugs the shit out of me.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
Man. I want to go back to last year and
look at what they did with Kingston when he had
to put up the title and he was still like but.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
He wasn't that right, But they weren't still calling him
unified champion.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
That's the part that I want to go back to
look at. I don't remember if they were at that
point just calling him whatever the other two titles as
he had was.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
But no, he wasn't a unified champion.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Ay king What was just said that the continental champion?

Speaker 3 (47:08):
Oh he was the Continental Crown winner, wasn't he at
that point because he had a new Japan title, But.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
They weren't all unified, and shit, he was right, he was.
He went into that tournament as the continental champion. That
that's my issue here. Okata can't be unified anything. If
the belts aren't unified anymore, he has to go back
to being the international champion because you've ununified the unified title.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
Yeah, I didn't even notice. It didn't bother me at all.
John Cena's retirement some mysterio. All those things that bothered
me a lot more than the title belt that they
refer to Okada for a company at this point where
I'm like, even I think we have too many fucking titles.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
I don't even have a problem with the number of
titles per se. I just it doesn't matter. Look different
conversation for a different time. But were you surprised about
Fletcher getting the win over Okada?

Speaker 3 (48:12):
Here? Yeah, but not in full retrospect. I mean, why
are we gonna throw the wedge between Okada and Fletcher
that already seems to be forming right there? And it
did make me think, well, are they gonna go in
a different trajectory than last year where Ocata did have
a slow start, But he had a slow start last year,

(48:34):
so it wasn't all that surprising.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Willow Nightingawn Hurley Cameron advanced to the finals of the
Women's World Tag Team Championship tournament. They beat Julia Hart
and sky Blue.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
Called that a little bit surprising. I thought you would
see it go the other way and kind of have
sky Blue and Julia Hart feet off the momentum of
what happened in blooding Guts where they were victor, because
we all expect that Tony and that the what are

(49:09):
we calling them exactly? I forget the long title for
her and Mina, but either way, we thought that mena
timeless thank you telling us love bombs too many words.
We thought they were going to be in the finals.
A little surprising if you go face on face, especially
considering that as a combined effort they lost in Blood
and Guts to these same adversaries.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
But okay, well, to be fair, the timeless love bombs
aren't in the finals yet. I mean, something could happen there. Look,
I'm with you. I feel pretty confident they're gonna win
this week in advance to the finals, but you never know.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
It's not confidence I have in them. It'd be a
huge upset to see Tony go in a different direction
than taking Tony, than taking one of your biggest stars
and putting the title on her to elevate the status
of that new tag team title belt. And I'm not
sure what the scent and of madness happens to Tony
again if her next inquiry for goal comes up short.

(50:12):
This feels like we're leading that way. This feels like
a gunther situation. We can all tell who should win
the tournament.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
Why does it take so fucking long in aew to
walk from the back to the ring. Who hangman Page
and Swerve Strickland did they stop and take pictures? Grab

(50:40):
a beer? Well they did grab a beer, but get
something to eat, hit the bathroom, go to the merch stand.
From the time that Prince Nana drove up and Swerve
got out, walked up the hangman and they got their
chains like they're the fucking Junkyard dog and they're like,
let's go. It was another ten minutes before they got

(51:02):
the fuck out there.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
First time in the arena, wasn't exactly sure.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
It went the wrong way. They were lost.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
They're like, oh, security, can you help us please? It did?

Speaker 3 (51:13):
It looks like they checked him with the proper authorities.
You and I have been to these events. You know
that there has to be somebody there to meet you,
to greet you, to take you around. You can't just
be left going around you get locked in a boiler room.
Who knows what happened to those two. It's not like
just because it's first house, he has all the blueprints.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
I mean, I guess, but that was I didn't that
just see.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
Its the little things like that that bugged the shit
out of me for some reason.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
I don't know why, all right.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Something that happened in the ring that bugged me. I
get you're going somewhere with John Moxley here, but shouldn't
he look a little stronger against Dorata?

Speaker 3 (52:00):
I thought everyone looked strong in the Continental Classic, to
a point where Commander had near what was it? He
only won one match, but he was in all five
matches that he lost last year. I feel like there's
the demise of John Moxley, and there's also a certain
level of emphasis and heightened that Mascarra Derata can't hang

(52:25):
with a John Moxley, so giving him a slight echelon
of a rub without taking a loss. I was surprised
that Moxley actually won. I thought we were gonna go
all the way into another quick win, maybe a Remasterios
kind of hurri Conrana, and Moxley would still be at
his wit ends, falling further and further.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
The way the match was going. I thought that as well, Micah.
But yeah, look for what it's worth, it was a
good match and I don't have problems if you're going
to give Dorata a bit of a push.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
I just thought it seemed a little weird, but whatever.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
I like the match. I thought the finish was innovative.
I don't think we've seen Moxley go to that front
choke before to get a submission victory in that manner. Yeah,
so that was at least somewhat creative. I think I
was even more surprised that Kevin Knight comes out on
top of Darby Allen. Darby doesn't care about winning, and
he takes that to the heart one more time that

(53:32):
he is about the art.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Well, the story there, he's still licking his wounds from
the last couple of weeks. But yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (53:42):
Look, the story of his life is he's licking his
wounds from all the crashes. We've never seen one hundred
percent healthy Darby.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Right up until the point where the referee raised Knight's hand,
I still kept expecting Darby Allen to somehow get the win.
I'm like, they're not gonna have Darby lose the first
match in the in the Continental time, not to Kevin Knight.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Yeah they did.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
Yeah, I'm right to Kevin Knight coming out with a
couple of big moves. I like that Darby's the main guy.
He can take a couple of these losses and help
a Dorada, help a Knight to get to that next level,
look like a serious competitor.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
Well, look in the case of Okada here the case
of Darby Allen. I like them losing early and then
coming on strong, rather than like in this case if
it's Kevin Knight and he's tournament wise and a deficit
from the start because you don't believe he's making it
to the finals, whereas you can buy Darby getting hot

(54:39):
and somehow battling his way to the finals despite the
early loss.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
So I do like the storytelling here.

Speaker 3 (54:46):
And even though we did jump by it, I did
like the Joe promo. I do like him as a
heel having the world title. I do like the mad
man kind of lead boss or that he portrays off
and how he he did tell us which was pretty obvious,
how the whole hook infiltration played out, so not to

(55:07):
mention it was a little weird how long it took
swerve and hang man again out there. I liked the
Joe part of that.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
No, I did too, but look, Joe ordered uh Shebata
to go to the back and get the jobbers. He
goes to the back, brings out the the ops dojo.
They all come out. There's still no fucking Swerve, Strickland
and hangman. Uh it just I if you're Swerve, if

(55:38):
you're a hangman, you want to get out there and
kick ass. You don't take twenty minutes to take pictures,
sign autographs, grab a beer, go take a piss, hit
the merch stand, all that, all that, and then finally
lumber your way out there. I just yeah, whatever your point,
the promo was great.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
I love Joe. I think he's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (56:00):
Of all the things that have pissed you off with
aw andis the little things. I'm surprised we haven't got
there with Swerve yet because I saw it pointed out
online it was the Don Callis family that took Swerve
out when he was injured. It wasn't anything to do
with Joe and the Ops. Why is Swerve back on

(56:23):
a war path for the heavyweight title and not the
guys that put him on the shelf.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Because he wants his belt back. I actually don't have
a problem with that now. At some point in time, Hey,
you took me out, I'm taking your guys out.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Yeah, that needs to be addressed. But he wants his title, and.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
There was the unlikely partnership working agreement, if you will,
with him and Hangman and Kyle Fletcher that helped get
Hangman the belt. So ospray, I mean, I'm sorry, not
Kyle Fletcher, Jesus Osprey, thank you. Yeah, I almost drastically
changed the course of aw history there. Yeah, I mean

(57:05):
it all makes sense, and so I get that if
that bugs you. Look, I think I just bitched about
how long it took Hangman and Swerved to get to
the ring. So I get it, and I'm talking about you,
but just the listeners in general, I get it.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
To me, not a huge deal for me. At some
point that should be addressed.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
But he's focused on he wants his title, which I
think makes things really interesting between him and Hangman at
some point, him and Osprey at some point when Osprey
comes back, and anybody else who wants to shot at
the title.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
But yeah, I hear you on that, but I'm fine
with it.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
We move over to Collision. The Continental Classic action kept
on going and Pack laying a big.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Whoa whoa you keep telling me Claudio should be the
leader of the death Riders, that we're gonna skip over
his big victory over Orange Cassidy.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
My bad, My bad, I missed one.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
That's all right?

Speaker 2 (58:05):
Or uh, Claudio beat arche Cassidy.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
He got three points on the collision to.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
The new cm l L Heavyweight champion. Claudio not just
confidentally wrecking, but globally wrecking. That was a huge win.
The Orange Castle You match kind of played out as
I expected. I kind of felt like it was a
time bomb. The big uppercut was gonna land at a point.

(58:31):
It's not that Orange Cassidy's gonna lose every match. I
just don't feel like his participation in the tournament is
gonna be of consequence that he's gonna make a huge
impact on it.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
I think you're probably right on that.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
I think you're probably right all right on a collision, Mike,
I'm sorry continue.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
You said it. Pack probably looks like another Claudio sque
kind of vibe coming off. They're doing a real job
to make both of them seem like these violent mercenaries
to have this real evil and menacing sense around them.
Mike Bailey, I've loved what they've done with him in

(59:13):
the last couple of weeks. It was a heck of
a match, and I think the right guy got the victory.
There was a few times though, where thought Bailey might
have been close to getting so I like that they
kept a soft balance they.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Did, and with Kevin Knight winning on Dynamite, you thought, oh,
Mike Bailey could.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Win here too.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
Look all that being said, I don't think this happens
because I think we're getting Takeshka and Okada in the finals.
I'd really like to see Pack win this thing. I
think that would be huge. I don't think we're going
in that direction though.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
No, I agree with you, but he feels like a
different version. There's just more that you want to love
about the ferocity of Pack in the last month since
he's been back.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Also, we'll keep it with the Continental Classic. You had
to catch good beat Roddy Strong.

Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
That was the main event of the evening. It was
and on a lot to show that Roddy Strong is
a badass. He is on that level. He can throw
you around, he can hit you, hurt you, and then
to Keshna able to overcome. There's a reason why we
feel like he will be a finalist.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Agreed, Uh, Daniel Garcia beat Matt Menard.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
I guess we had to have this match. At least
it went the way it should have.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
Went the way it should have. It went the way
they told us it was going to. Garcia told us
what was going to happen in the promo. It happened.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
John Moxley is losing his shit and losing control of
the death writers. I can't help it. Love his commentary
and also his background acting when he's back there throwing
punches and reacting to Garcia's promo like he's never heard
it before. You. Oh, I felt impressed by it. I
was laughing my house off. I appreciated his performance greatly.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
Isn't it funny how there's so many active competitors that
are so much better on the mic at commentary than
Brian Danielson is.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
That first week, man, I'll never forget that first week
for Danielson had it and then I don't know where
it went.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
But he not only yeah, did he not get any better,
He's just gotten progressively worse.

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
It's gone progressively worse and makes Big Showman, makes Moxley,
it makes Daddy magic it makes everyone look better.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
Honestly, and this is going to sound awful. I look
forward to Joe retiring because that's who I'm putting at
the desk. If you remember his work in WWE, he
was good there. I think he would excel as a commentator.
The problem is you got fifty eleven hundred commentators in

(01:01:55):
aw and unless Danielson is going to become active or
semi active again, I don't know what you do with
him if you took him off of commentary, but I
I enjoyed not having him on Dynamite this week.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
Put it that way, Free Man Booth on Ring of Honor,
Send Daniel send over to work with Riccabonni and Caprice
Coleman and learn the ropes.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
I would not do that to Iaan, Ricabonni and Caprice Coleman.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
I know they're fine on their own, but I was
just trying to think of something to do with Danielson.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Well, I mean, you could bring back Dark or Dark Elevation,
I guess, but yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
Have him in tasco host it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
It makes them They've just taken the Max Caaster challenge
since he's not doing it anymore. And that's their stick
every week now.

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
Yeah, and at least now we get the difference of
his it a tag team match, a singles match, women's
singles match, a trios match. How are they gonna get beaten?
How quickly?

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
This week the lucky winners for the Outrunners in Dalton Castle,
So good, good on you there. I got no problems
with uh. I'm sorry, did you want to come in
on that? I apologize.

Speaker 3 (01:03:12):
I'm gonna say it was fine for being a vehicle
to get to the gates of agony. G I mean
the GOA, I mean the demand, I mean, what are
we gonna okay, the demand for them to be able
to come out. Ricochet says, you took my time away
from my celebration, from my national championship victory because we
knew that celebration was gonna be important, and Goa gets

(01:03:33):
to look fearsome by just trancing everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, I got no problems
with Eddie Kingston beating Shabata.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
Probably should have, but why you gotta make Shabata look
weak like that? To me?

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
That weekends the whole ops, which is your main event storyline.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
Yeah, I kind of used more than one boot to
the gut and a DDT. I appreciate the DDT. You
appreciate the backstory. Shabat has had had neck injuries in
the past. That is a vulnerability to them, But I
think we could have exposed that vulnerability more before ending the.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
Match real quick, Mike can we don't have to run
down the whole card.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
But Ring of Honor has a final battle this Friday,
your world title match. Bandido defends against Sammy Gavara, Beast
Mortas Hechi Zero Commander and Blake Christian and a survival
of the Fittest match. Now, I'm not gonna pretend that
I watch every second of Ring of Honor every single week,

(01:04:34):
but one of those guys ain't like the others, and spoiler,
it ain't Guevara, mor TOAs Hechi Zero Commander or Bandido.

Speaker 3 (01:04:43):
I don't have a swirl of a clue what you're
talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
Uh, what I watched Blake Christian somehow win and the
Ring of Hooter Champion Athena defenseer Women's or Ring of
Honter title.

Speaker 3 (01:04:59):
Go ahead, you know you have to pull up on
this one if the title change was in the cards,
because we're gonna give Bandido a full on singles, push
in ae W and elevate him to a bigger spot.
I think you have to pull up and at least
for a few more months, leave the title on him.
Rush's knee injury which turned this from a singles match

(01:05:20):
right into this multi layered match. I think Rush, right there,
you would have made the change and you would have
seen an LFI really become a power in Ring of
Honor with the tag titles and the world title. I
think the change was going to happen. I don't think
you do it now.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Yep, both the women's singles titles on the line.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
Athena defends the world title.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Against I can't never say her fucking name right, person person, Penny,
that chick, persephone.

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
Persephone, that's it. Yes, should be per whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
Mexico's top cmml mL female wrestler who's been making waves.
This will be a hard hitting match. I don't see
the Forever Goddess's reign coming to an end at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
I don't either.

Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
I also don't think Mercedes TV Championship run is going
to come to an end.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
She's defending against Red Velvet.

Speaker 3 (01:06:18):
I'd agree with you with that. And on the third
women's match, because we do have the crowning of the
first ever Ring of Honor Women's pure Champion. It screams
to me that that's a Deanna Pirazzo's belt to lose.
With her submission prowess, I.

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
Wouldn't sleep on Queen Amanada, but you're probably right.

Speaker 3 (01:06:38):
I'd rather see Queen Amanada a little more aw focus.
She returns to the side of Jamie Hater and we
kind of see how that tag team division sake shakes out.
Maybe I'm wrong, I'm hoping for something for Parrazzo. This
feels like upper ally though for her style.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
So our Gavara and Morta's doing double duty.

Speaker 3 (01:06:58):
Double duty. Call you're defending the titles and then you're
going after that single belt. How you can turn on
a title match when you're offered it?

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
I guess Ring of Honor World six Man Tag Team Championship.
How did I not know Shane Taylor Promotions were the
six man champions.

Speaker 1 (01:07:15):
They take on Skyflight.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
I don't know where you missed this. Shane Taylor about
that business, him and the infantry and they're gonna take
on Skyfly it. This is the moment that Christopher Daniels
has been preparing them for since he got Scorpio sky
back on some sport of TV.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
There you go, Rickychale defend the ae W National Championship
and we get a thirty minute iron Man match Nigel
McGinnis versus Lee Moriarty. Nigel's got to get there.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
He's not, but he's got to get the win here. Man,
Come on.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
Lee Moriarty to go down as the greatest pure wrestler
in Ring of Honor history. I think he already has
the days of title reign record. I think this just
supplants him above it all. I think this will be
a really fun catch style wrestling match. If you're into
that kind of thing. You know what a good nickname

(01:08:10):
for Lee Moriarty would be.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
The Black the black Hole of Charisma.

Speaker 3 (01:08:18):
See he was Tiger Style, and I thought you were
going to go no style.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
No, he just yeah whatever, And yes, I do expect
Moriarty to win it. Look, he can work, there's no
doubt about that. But uh, paint drives too.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
You can sit there and watch that. There's a reason
why the same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:08:38):
There's a reason why Shane Taylor's best attributes on the
mic shine through most when he is managing Lee Moriarty.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
Well, yeah, because he got to worry about being upstaged
by Lee Moriarty. Anything else, Mike, you want to hit
on before we get.

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
Out of here?

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
Man, I think that's about to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
I thought it was a.

Speaker 3 (01:08:57):
Fun week of action. Last thing is Tecla next in
line for Statlander. She got the victory over Tay Mellow.
We did see Hayter and Statlander have to come out
to clear away the triangle of madness. Do you think
we're leaning that way?

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
I bet it's really quick and it's like an episode
of Dynamite or something. I bet they don't build it
to the pay per view.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
Episode of Dynamite. I'm gonna call that one. Winter is coming,
same place where we're gonna see Kingston versus Joe.

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
Absolutely, there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:09:33):
You want to talk pro wrestling, hit me up on
X It's at Frankelmiicah and actually real quick before we go.
Best wishes to Joe Doring battling stage three cancer. I'm
sure you guys have seen thats around the news that
another unfortunate brain tumor was detected. A lot of us
know his work from Impact Wrestling, so best of luck.

(01:09:54):
To him and in February, Jonathan Gresham back in the ring.
First match, sin is having his seizure, so best wishes
to Jonathan Gresham being able to return to what he loves.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
There you go, Mike. Tell everybody how then keep up
with you at.

Speaker 3 (01:10:10):
Frankle Micah over on X. If you want to talk
about wrestling.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
Get the 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.