June 24, 2023 • 28 mins
Battle & Eli sit down with #AEW Referee, Aubrey Edwards. Aubrey talks about the culture of AEW on how things have changed since the start of AEW. Edwards also talks to the guys about making Karen Jarrett tap out, loudest crowd, AEW storylines, how the referee's get selected for matches and more!
FOLLOW US ON SOCIALS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/battlegroundpodcast Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/battlegroundihr Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/battlegroundpod YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/battlegroundpodcast
FOLLOW US ON SOCIALS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/battlegroundpodcast Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/battlegroundihr Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/battlegroundpod YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/battlegroundpodcast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, what's going on? It'sbattle. It's been a minute since we've
actually released an actual episode on thepodcast feed. Uh yeah, and I
will tell you that I've I've beena very bad podcaster host whenever you want
to call me, because we kindof started to focus on our YouTube channel
because we've film these interviews every timewe do them, and so we've started
(00:22):
to try to build up our YouTubechannel, which, by the way,
YouTube dot com Slash Battleground Podcast.I know the last episode that you heard
in this feed was with Nick Aldisand since then we've had interviews posted up
on our YouTube channel with Speedball,Mike Bailey, rear Ripley, Kofi Kinston,
and uh, well, today's episodewhich if you could watch it in
(00:43):
ten ADP, yes high definition,AEW referee Aubrey Edwards is on the show
to date, and if you'd liketo watch that interview, you can just
go to YouTube dot com Slash BattlegroundPodcast, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
and uh you can watch the interviewsas well as listen to them. Here
(01:03):
enough of me rambling, and uhhere's the theme song that you've missed hearing
boy from the Parts Unknown Studios intothe Battle Crowd, Battle Crown, the
Battlefround, Battle the Battle Crowd.Welcome to the Battleground Podcast, your place
(01:26):
for all things pro wrestling. LittleCrowd, the Battle Frown, the Battle
Brown now making their way to themicrophone and sex get up for your hosts
to the Battle Crowd. Yeah,what's up you guys. Welcome back into
the Battleground Podcast. I Heart RadiosOfficial Wrestling Podcast. It is an exciting
(01:49):
week here on the show. NormallyEli will have a certain shirt on for
who we have on the show today, but today he's got Grateful Dead.
So I enlisted the help of mysix year old to tell you who's on
our show today, because as youcan see, she is hanging up here
on the shelf next to the title. Let's go ahead and bring Yeah,
(02:10):
we have the action figure Aubrey Edwards, and the real Aubrey Edwards joins us
on the show to name how areyou? I am good? I like
the action figure. That's a that'sa commitment man, because that thing comes
with the full ring that's at Mysix year old was very mad when I
told him that I needed to borrowhis referee for this interview and I had
(02:31):
to sneak it out of his room, because yes, he does have the
ring. And currently right now youare calling a match and I'm looking over
I believe it's Adam Cole and somebodyelse and there's somebody hanging in a cage
on his makeshift thing over there.I don't know what kind of I don't
know what kind of match it isat the moment, but I think it's
(02:52):
a Judy Judy backs Baguel on aPaul match? Is that what it is?
That that's probably what it is.That's probably what it is. Let's
skip to that question. How awesomeis it to have your own Action figure?
Yes, it's it's wild. It'slike it's it's kind of one of
those like it's been a while sinceit's been out. I think it was
like the first time, like lastyear, but I distinctly remember the first
(03:13):
time someone like bringing it to asigning like the whole box even, and
they like drove four hours with thisbox and they're like, I want you
to sign it. So I literallysigned it. This is the first one
of these I've ever signed. Andthen like Cardona and all of them that
do their Action Figure podcast, Solike, do you realize how much money
you just made that guy. I'mlike, oh my god, hopefully that
(03:34):
guy's not going to be that guyand turn around and sell right exactly.
I was like, man, Idon't know. I hope he keeps it.
But it's it's been wild, right, Like it's even just to think
like how crazy it is to havean action figure as a referee, but
knowing that there are like three tofour women in the referee role at the
highest level for how long wrestling hasbeen around, It's that itself is kind
(03:55):
of insane, and it's a nicelittle like way for me to check in
and realize, like, man,this this is crazy. Like, right,
I was in a completely different fieldfive years ago, and now I'm
sitting in a hotel room in Torontotalking to you guys about my action right.
I didn't mean it was a videogame too, right, right?
Yeah, I mean there was atime where you know, the females didn't
(04:16):
have I mean, that wasn't evenan option. I mean wrestlers anything.
I mean, I think they kindof like you'd see like dolls or something
occasionally, but like, I mean, it wasn't too long ago where a
female action figure wasn't even on thetable exactly. So anyways, I got
sidetracked. I was a good seguethat was perfect, and that's and that's
the thing. It's like, it'sit's a cool moment to go and say,
(04:39):
hey, I have my own actionfigure. Not many people can say
that. My mom bought three ofthem. One of them exclusively hangs in
the Christmas tree at Christmas time.It's kind of like Elf on the shelf,
but now it's something different that shemove it around Aubrey in the tree
thanks to a strawberry, because sheliterally has like a strawberry ornament. It's
pretty great. That is you seenout from the shelf, get ready for
(05:00):
Aubrey and the tree right doesn't havethe same ring to it, but it's
like gay, more sassy and justas authoritative. I think Tony Kann could
probably sell it them. They coulda lot of people buy it. Something
really cool recently happened and we werevery excited about this. A lot of
people are excited. You made youraw wrestling debut last Friday night on Rammage
(05:26):
getting Karen Jarrett to tap out inthe figure four. I mean it mixed,
Tagg. That's that's an amazing thing, right, there there are a
lot of people jealous of that positionyou were in, by the way,
because a lot of people would wouldwant to just inflict damage on her,
according to what we've seen on theinternet. But how long had that been
in the planning stages? And whatwas it like getting Karen to tap out
(05:48):
um, I mean just to peelback the colonel A little bit like the
story itself between like me and JeffJarrett and his posse had kind of like
started sort of at our Seattle showback on January fourth, where there was
sort of some hullabaloo the ref didn'tsee the finish. We thought Jay Lethal
(06:08):
and Jeff Jared hadn't won the tagtitles. And then I run in because
hey, I'm local and this isgoing to get a big reaction from the
crowd. I overturned the match,we restarted, and the Heels end up
losing. So it's kind of thisthing and just it it kind of kept
finding ways to sort of weave itselftogether with everything we were doing, whether
I was ref in their matches orwe'd have a ref bomb, someone would
(06:29):
run in, whatever it might be, and that's sort of culminated at double
or Nothing, where I end upgetting hit in the head with the guitar
and out of context. This isreally fun to explain. So I'm glad
people know this as a wrestling podcast. They're like, yeah, and it's
one of those things like with wrestling, it's really important to have storytelling and
long term pay payoffs for our fans. Right. So it's one thing to
(06:54):
say, yeah, sure we're gonnahit a referee with a guitar and she's
gonna go down, But that's coolin them, but where does that go?
And when you have the traditional heelsand baby faces, if the heels
don't get their come uppance and thebaby faces don't end up on top at
the end, then you've just reallyyou know, upset your fans, like
why are they getting invested? Then? And this is traditional storytelling. We
(07:15):
have three X we follow. It'sas old as Shakespeare even older. Right,
So from that, like the momentof double or nothing, where did
the guitar shot happened? That's wherewe sort of started talking like okay,
well, what is the next logicalstep for this? And they asked if
I was willing to wrestle, andI said, dude, I can't even
lock up correctly, like I'm adancer, and then twenty two years about
(07:38):
I didn't teach me how to dolike like a headlock takeover, like those
those don't translate, man, rightright right, right, right right.
This is a different form of entertainment. Yeah, very difficult, still physical,
but very different form of entertainment.And it just came down to like,
well, how can we really playthis up and how can we have
fun with this? And it wasreally cool to get like opportunities like I
(07:59):
got to choke chair carrying out ina promo. UM. I had a
live promo on Rampage which was insaneum. And then you know, it
ended up coming down to the match, which was great, and it just
felt really cool, Like it feltreally cool like the way we kind of
structure everything, like I went overwith the figure four, but that's also
Jay Lethal's move. So there's likethat little bit of like uh meta nous
(08:22):
that the long term fans really appreciatebecause they get it in the moment like
oh this is this is that deeperstory and that part of wrestling that's really
nice. It's not just on thesurface who wins and loses, but what
are those little details that reward usas viewers watching this product for so long
it was it was cool. I'mglad it's over. I'm retiring undefeated.
I think you're the only undefeated wrestleron the roster right now. I believe
(08:45):
I think so up there. Butthose are tags. Yeah, not splitting
hairs, but Jay think it wasn'tTrio's match, but for the record,
like it does count as So yeah, well I'm retiring from entering competition.
Not being able to talk for liketwo days without Payne. Yeah, it's
(09:07):
like I never want to do thatgame. Yeah. Well, you brought
up a good point too, becauseI mean, part of the whole reason
AW was even developed and founded andeverything was kind of what you mentioned about
storytelling, kind of like leaving thedangling fruit, like not finishing the three
acts and just start stop start stop, start stop. So I mean this
is technically, like you said,going back to jenerally, this is a
(09:28):
six month story that a lot ofcompanies still aren't I won't say who,
but a lot of companies don't dothat. And so and then it bled
into this week's Dynamite that had theconcession stand, which coming from West Tennessee
that's like my bread. But that'swhat I grew up on, so I
go, oh yeah, oh yeahsou. And it's still going. I
mean there's still there's still layers toit they're going to develop. So yeah,
it's very awesome. So being withaw as long as you have,
(09:54):
what do you think has been Ifthere is one single thing, what do
you think has been the biggest changesince your day one too? Now?
Has it been the production value?Has it been the I don't know,
I'm just spitball. What do youthink has been the biggest change since day
one? I think, honestly,like the biggest change has I think it's
it's twofold. It's both internally howwe feel the company, but I think
(10:16):
also externally how the company is viewed. Like when we started, we were
small, we were scrappy, wewere the alternative, we were different,
and I come from the corporate world, so I liken it a lot too.
We're a startup. There's a coupleof people with an idea and a
lot of passion and we're just goingto put it out there and see how
it works. We're going to putin the time and hopefully eventually like it
(10:39):
breaks through and then we get allof this acclaimed for it, right,
and then fast forward and now we'vegot all these people who are who are
legends in wrestling joining our company.Like we've just been talking about Jeff Jarrett
and Jay Lethal, who are synonymouswith TNA and ROH. So like we've
got j White, We've got whojust came over, We've got Staying,
We've got Billy Gun, We've gotour understand we have like all these people.
(11:01):
We have Tony Shirvanni, who wasthe guest on my post of my
podcast. So it's like this isinsane, right, Yeah, we have
this sort of like we started asthis like young, scrappy thing and now
it's like, no, we're amain player because we haven't announced a single
match for Wembley and we're at sixtyfive thousand tickets. Yeah, it's wild.
So I think internally it feels likethere's been a ton of growth,
(11:22):
like so fast that you're just likeI'm totally like lost and nauseous now.
But externally, as a fan,it's been really awesome to see this thing
that we've been investing, because atthe end of the day, we're all
fans right to see this thing thatwe've all been investated grow to be the
juggernaut that it is. It's insane. I love it. Yeah, and
it's great to see because you havea little bit when you watch AW,
(11:43):
have a little bit of every fanbase that can tune in and watch something
like you know, there's some placesthat you watch and it's kind of cookie
cutter and you know it. Butwhen you watch AW with my six year
old, he is like I tunedwith wrestling, Like he knows which night
is, which would shows on andhe will sit there and watch every single
thing that goes down. Good kid. And the thing is is like he's
(12:07):
extremely smart when it comes to wrestlingbecause he's like he knows who the bad
guys are, he knows who thegood guys are, and then he's like
asking the questions, why did thishappen? Why did that happen? And
the great thing was watching on Wednesdaynights and of course now on Friday and
Saturdays as well, like you extendthat storyline even further. And he's always
got to make sure that if hemisses Wednesday night and being six, he's
(12:31):
like, what happened? What's goingon? Ye? And that's the great
thing about it is you got normallyyou could just miss a week and still
be caught up the next week,right you guys like, if you miss
something, you're gonna have to eithertry to figure out some bootleg way to
watch it on Twitter or yeah,I mean if you like, if you
miss this the Go Home Dynamite,I mean it was stacked. I mean
(12:52):
there was tons of stuff happening,and I think kind of bounce off what
you're saying. I mean, thisis unprecedented territory. I mean, most
wrestling companies within less than five yearsare getting TV deals. I don't know
the actual you know, I meanWimbley, I mean, you know,
even going back to the name wewon't say in North, I mean they
(13:13):
weren't doing this five years into theircar. You know what I mean I
mean is this really is uncharted territory. So for the fans that have been
unfulfilled for all those years to seeit get to where it's added this quickly,
it's yeah, very awesome to see. It's it's super awesome to see.
And speaking of awesome, I mean, what has been in your mind
the loudest aw show or atmosphere thatyou've been a part of so far,
(13:35):
Oh, that's a tricky one.I think, like there's a handful that
stick out, and part of itis like I'm sitting in Toronto right now,
and when we did our Toronto debutback in October, like that crowd
was insane. There's something fun aboutCanadian fans and they just get it and
they're on board with it. Theyinvest everything in it. So I'm really
(13:56):
excited for Forbidden Door this weekend becauseknowing how the fans responded to us when
we were first here, and likeeverything feels a little bit bigger with a
pay per view right, Like you'vegot a ton of dream matches happening this
weekend that as fans were like,wait, we're getting what? Like away
in any lifetime, anyone would havethought we would have seen Brian danielsoner in
Okada, Like what is that?How? What? We didn't deserve this?
(14:18):
Who are we? Right? So, so, I like Toronto is
always a really great city, umI think like really it stands out like
Punk's debut at United Center when hecame back to wrestling for after seven years,
Like that was insane because United Centerhad sold out so quickly on the
like rumor that he had been Yeah, and then as soon as that like
(14:41):
riff hits in his song, thecrowd just erupts. I don't want to
tell you how many times I've watchedthat debut in the last few years.
If I just made a little boost, I'll kind of my wife will be
like get like yeah and yeah,So anyways, sorry, yeah, I
mean there's I mean another one.It's just so many like moments. Like
my one of my favorite matches I'vedone was Eddie Kingston versus Chris Jericho Revolution
(15:05):
and it was the first match tostart the show, hot crowd. Jericho
is in the ring, Eddie Kingstoncomes in ring the bell, Jericho gets
dumped on his head and it's justimmediately the crowd's like, oh my god,
like this is insane, as wecaught right to the action. So
there's just so many little things,like every crowd is great, every every
show is great. There's just allthese memorable moments that are happening constantly.
(15:26):
Yeah. I was at the firstdouble or nothing when Moxley debuted and that
was that was that was loud.That was loud. Oh my god,
and you're just sitting there and whyis everyone looking oh whoa, okay,
okay, cool? Yes what yeah? That one was yeah very loud.
Um where were we? Oh?So let's let's talk about your podcast with
(15:50):
Tony Shovanni. Um, are thereunrestricted? Um? What is do you
do? You have a dream guessthat you have not talked to yet?
Is there anybody floating around like whyhave we not got this person yet?
UM? I don't know. It'stricky because it's the advantage we have is
it's the official AW podcast, right, like new episode every Thursday. Yeah,
(16:11):
we're talking to people that but likeyou, anyone you see on TV
is fair game for us and it'sgreat. UM. I feel like Jamie
Hayter has been a little elusive.UM. I would really love to have
her on. The timing's just neverreally worked out yea, And I know
that she's she's out for a bitand she just dropped the title, but
(16:32):
she was just a phenomenal women's champion, So I'd love to have her on.
UM. And then there's so manypeople that we interviewed super early,
like John Moxley was our first everguest. We had JR. We had
the Bucks and that was all prepandemic, so we've all changed as people
itself has changed. I think it'dbe great to honestly have them back on.
(16:52):
Oh yeah, that would be awesomebecause I sit here and think about
like what you what you were saying, like when we first started this podcast
and when you guys first launched,like going back to the original time when
we had Cody on, Like Codymade the announcement on this podcast, is
like what do you think about awDynamite? And it's like and then you
you progress over the years and thinkabout how many people have come on this
(17:14):
podcast, like we're the same boat. And uh, I think maybe the
internet would probably go out on thethe IWC with a lot of chatter right
now. Maybe Goldberg could be aguest on Unrestricted. Oh who knows?
Who knows? Yeah, who knows? Um, we have the Fight Forever
game coming out next week. Whatare you most excited about that? What
(17:37):
can you tell us from what you'veseen and all that. So, so
this is this is funny because Ifeel like a lot of people just assume
that I've been like super focused onthe game because that's so whatever. Someone's
like, wait, you don't workon the game. I'm like, no,
I'm working on other cool stuff Ican't talk about right now. Um,
but yeah, it's like I havenot played Fight forever at all.
(18:00):
Oh really, yes, I haveseen a couple clips, all the ones
that people tag me. I'm like, hey, you know you're in this
game as someone's like chopping the crapout of me, which has been super
fun to see. So I'm justexcited to play it. And it seems
sounds like a really basic question,But like as a game developer, when
you talk to people who work ongames, if they're at this point in
(18:22):
development and they're still excited about itand talking to Kenny Omega and talking to
like, no one knows who Nicksobiks because he's this high level executive who's
been on this project since literally dayone and he's my boss, and he's
just so giddy about this game.And to not be completely jaded and so
done with it and knowing it's goingto be out means that it has stood
the test of time that despite throughall of the troubles, they're excited for
(18:47):
the game. So I'm excited toplay it because I know that if people
involved with it are still happy withit three four years later, it's going
to be good and all in everythingI've heard is indicated that it is the
game that they set out to make. It is the old school and sixty
four era wrestling game. It's ourKatie. They didn't do mo cap,
they did like individual animation, soeverything kind of feels more gamy like that's
(19:11):
it sounds very generic, But I'mexcited to play the game. That is
probably absolutely yeah. And I'm alsoexcited that the fact that it's going to
be available on all platforms, becauseI went out and I will tell you,
I've pre ordered it for the PSfive and my six year old got
mad because he can't really figure outhow to play a PS five yet,
so I had to order it onthe switch as well. So they're getting
(19:32):
double money for me when the gamecomes out. Not gonna complain. Yeah,
And you know, some people werekind of up in arms when they
kind of started some of the minigames started getting out. I'm just as
excited for those as I am.I mean, you have people over they're
not wrestling fans, Hey we gotthese little mini games. I mean there's
so many ways that you can spendthat, you know, I think it's
gonna be a really good addition tothe game. So one of the things
(19:53):
I really like about the mini gamesis kind of how how more wrestling I
think they are than people realize exactly. Kind of said, like with wrestling,
there's a little bit of something foreverybody. Like Orange Cassie is my
favorite example. People may have neverwatched wrestling, but then as soon as
they see a guy who's fighting withhis hands in his pockets, they're immediately
on board. Ye right, it'slike, okay, cool, my suspension
of disbelief is intact. We cando this. It's it's fine. So
(20:17):
kind of like you said, it'sthe whole couch multiplayer aspect of if someone
sits down and goes I don't reallyknow wrestling, but like sheet is,
swinging a kendo stick in a baseballgame sounds cool. Yeah, And that's
the thing that gets people hooked.You're not quite sure what it is,
but if you if you let peopleinto the buffet, they will find something
that they like and maybe it'll staya while. Right. I can't wait
(20:37):
for Wardlow to hit a home runand that thing just wow, that's gonna
be some fun stuff. So,of course Sunday, big big things happening.
It's Forbidden Door happening live in Toronto. It's gonna be available on pay
per view as well, so likemovie theaters, which is pretty awesome around
the country. How important is thisevent to both companies AW and New Pan
(21:00):
and how important is it to thewrestling fans in general? I think Forbidden
Door is an extremely important event,and all of our pay per views are
important just from like fan perspective,from how we measure success as a business.
But Forbidden Door itself is just sounique because it's both AEW and New
(21:21):
Japan Pro Wrestling, and back inthe day before AW you could never even
imagine major companies coming together to worktogether like this. So the fact that
it's happened once, it was sosuccessful and we're doing it again, it's
great for the fans because last year, we know Forbidden Door, we had
this great idea and then all ofthese injuries started happening, and the card
that we got, while still excellentand still an award winning show, was
(21:45):
not the card we expected. Soit kind of itself left so much more
on the table of like, well, we could get this, and we
could get this, and we couldoh my god, what if we did
this and now like Ryan Danielson,who wasn't even on the show last year,
now has this crazy pun match withOkada, who somehow he's never wrestled
before. You see Will Osprey andKenny Omega tear it up again. I
(22:08):
think the last one they did waslike six and three quarters stars, so
it's like, how many more starscan we give them? Right? It's
going to be excellent. So Ithink from a wrestling fan perspective, it's
great because you know that there's somany more options for how amazing matches are
going to be served you. Ithink from the business perspective, it can't
be seen as anything less than greatbecause it just opens the doors for all
(22:30):
these new opportunities no pun intended.I think for AW it's great because it
introduces a lot of our people tothe Japanese market, and then for New
Japan introduces a lot of their fansto the AW market. So it's just
overall fantastic concept and I'm so happywe're doing it again. Yeah. And
to go to your point too,I mean, if you go back to
the eighties kind of when you hada bunch of these promoters get together to
(22:53):
kind of go against any kase.You know, it generally ended being kind
of a disaster. You know,they were cannibalizing each other and couldn't agree
on things, and then they weredrawing like five thousand people, and it's
just you know, even though lastyear had its difficulties and then you know,
Adam Cole got injured out of it, so there, it was a
trying time, but it's still Imean, I loved it. I enjoyed
(23:15):
it from top to bottom, andthis year definitely feels a little bigger.
But I think being in Toronto isgonna make it real special because, like
you said, those fans are justincredible up there and start on the whole
new level. And the Owen Cupstarts up this weekend too, heading into
that, so seeing that startup orthe associated with Canadas, that would be
very good too. So yeah,we've got a couple of weeks in Canada,
(23:36):
so doing the Owen Hart run,yeah, and then having it culminate
in Calgary, like it's just thetiming could not be better. It's so
great. This is like the bestsummer to be a wrestling fan. I
can't wait to see Owen in thevideo game too, because I mean just
see like doing a match like withhim in Orange or him and Ricky Ricky
Starks. I mean, it's justlike physically would have never been possible.
You know, It's just it's crazy. Well, you mentioned earlier that you're
(23:59):
working on something that you can't mention. Is there anything on your plate right
now you can disclose? Yeah?Yeah, here, let me take off
one of the like twelve halts on. Yeah. So I do a lot
of different stuff at AW. Likeobviously you see me on TV yelling at
you know, people rolling around ina ring, feeling rules, and sometimes
they listen, sometimes they don't.When I'm not in a wrestling ring,
(24:19):
I have a number of different projectsI'm involved in. I'm working with AW
Games on a few unannounced projects,and I post the podcast aw in Restricted
new episodes every Thursday. One ofthe other things I'm doing is I'm one
of the leads on this thing calledaw Heels, which is a female focused
fan club, which is not somethingthat's ever really existed before in wrestling,
(24:41):
And that's something that's very near anddear to my heart because I think,
even as as unbiased as I couldbe, because obviously I'm very biased,
but as a woman in wrestling,it's something that I see there being a
need for because it's a very verymale dominated space and being a female and
a male do nator role, Ifeel it even that much more that I
(25:03):
want wrestling to feel like it canbe something for everyone. So this is
a really fun thing to work onand see people come together make friendships that
wouldn't exist otherwise, and they're allbasically bring brought together because of wrestling.
Yeah, now, this is afun thing. And before we let you
go dream match that you get tocall, why would that be? Oh
(25:25):
good? I do? I mean, I have no idea, Like,
I have no idea, and it'snot a cop out, but like literally
we're talking about Okada and Brian thisweekend, right, and no one thought
it was possible. We thought,like seven years ago Brian was never going
to wrestle again. So I can'teven fathom one of my dream matches because
(25:48):
it might even happen, because that'swhat wrestling is nowadays. And honestly,
like, I'm just happy to workwith all different kinds of people, Like
I've had the opportunity to work withJericho constantly, I have with Sting,
I have you know Jeff, Jarrett, Jay Lethal, all of these guys
that have been all through everywhere forever. So I mean, it's it's really
(26:08):
hard to answer that question because it'slike, just give me everything right,
kind of piggybacking off of that whenit comes time for I guess the match
selection of the night, Like doyou all get to like get around be
like I wish I could. Iwould like to call this one or this
one or is it kind of alreadylike assigned when you get there and this
is the matches that you go with, So this is a fun one.
(26:29):
Our senior official is actually Paul Turner. He's known everyone kind of at the
highest level, like the Bucks andKenny and Hangman the longest because they all
came from ROH together, so whenhe came in, he had the most
television experience of all of us.And Paul is an absolutely incredible senior official
because he makes sure that we allget something cool at the end of the
day. So if you have wouldactually say two three minutes cool, the
(26:52):
next one are gonna get as atitle match. So it's like there's always
something fun and he's always thinking aboutlike, oh, this person likes to
work with this person, so he'llpair us up together. Like Bryce Ramsburg
and Orange Cassidy have a ton ofhistory together, which is why you end
up seeing them in the ring alot because they're friends, like behind the
scene. So it's great. Iobviously work with Jericho a lot. Knox
works with the Bucks. Like there'sjust history and whatnot, and Paul's really
(27:14):
respectful of maintaining that, but he'salso very respectful of just making sure we
all get cool stuff. So Iwill find out on Sunday what I'm doing,
and based on the card we have, I will be happy with whatever
I am a sithe, Yeah,I mean it's a stack card. For
sure. You're gonna be able towatch Forbidden Door on pay per views,
so like movie theaters across the country. Real quick, before we let you
go, is there anything else thatyou'd like to tell the listeners? Where
(27:37):
could they keep up with you onlinebefore we let you go? Promote whatever
you'd like to promote? Right now? This is your floor. Sure,
you can follow me on Twitter refAubrey. You can follow me on Instagram
ref Aubrey. You should definitely listento the aw Unrestricted podcast New episodes every
Thursday. You should watch Dynamite,Wednesday's Rampage, Friday's Collision on Saturdays.
And if you're not tuning into thispay per view and you're a wrestling fan,
you're lying to yourself because you're onlya wrestling fan if you watch the
(27:59):
show, because it is just atribute to wrestling fans. Boom, that's
not an endorsement. I don't knowwhat it is. Yes, we'll just
end it like that one. Aubrey, it's an honor to have you on
the show. Thank you for takingthe time out and hanging out with us,
and we look forward to seeing youwhen you guys come to Nashville in
August. Thank you for retreating myaction figure with respect and make sure that
you please return that to your sonand thank you well he will, he
(28:22):
will. He will hit me witha guitar like Karen did you And I'm
sorry about that. That was theonly thing that popped in my head.
But you got payback and made hertap out. We'll take on all the
splinters out of my hair. Itwas fine. We hope you enjoyed today's
episode of the Battleground Podcast. Makesure you give it five stars. And
a nice review. To stay upto date with the show, follow them
at Battleground Podcast on Instagram,
Hey, what's going on? It'sbattle. It's been a minute since we've
actually released an actual episode on thepodcast feed. Uh yeah, and I
will tell you that I've I've beena very bad podcaster host whenever you want
to call me, because we kindof started to focus on our YouTube channel
because we've film these interviews every timewe do them, and so we've started
(00:22):
to try to build up our YouTubechannel, which, by the way,
YouTube dot com Slash Battleground Podcast.I know the last episode that you heard
in this feed was with Nick Aldisand since then we've had interviews posted up
on our YouTube channel with Speedball,Mike Bailey, rear Ripley, Kofi Kinston,
and uh, well, today's episodewhich if you could watch it in
(00:43):
ten ADP, yes high definition,AEW referee Aubrey Edwards is on the show
to date, and if you'd liketo watch that interview, you can just
go to YouTube dot com Slash BattlegroundPodcast, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
and uh you can watch the interviewsas well as listen to them. Here
(01:03):
enough of me rambling, and uhhere's the theme song that you've missed hearing
boy from the Parts Unknown Studios intothe Battle Crowd, Battle Crown, the
Battlefround, Battle the Battle Crowd.Welcome to the Battleground Podcast, your place
(01:26):
for all things pro wrestling. LittleCrowd, the Battle Frown, the Battle
Brown now making their way to themicrophone and sex get up for your hosts
to the Battle Crowd. Yeah,what's up you guys. Welcome back into
the Battleground Podcast. I Heart RadiosOfficial Wrestling Podcast. It is an exciting
(01:49):
week here on the show. NormallyEli will have a certain shirt on for
who we have on the show today, but today he's got Grateful Dead.
So I enlisted the help of mysix year old to tell you who's on
our show today, because as youcan see, she is hanging up here
on the shelf next to the title. Let's go ahead and bring Yeah,
(02:10):
we have the action figure Aubrey Edwards, and the real Aubrey Edwards joins us
on the show to name how areyou? I am good? I like
the action figure. That's a that'sa commitment man, because that thing comes
with the full ring that's at Mysix year old was very mad when I
told him that I needed to borrowhis referee for this interview and I had
(02:31):
to sneak it out of his room, because yes, he does have the
ring. And currently right now youare calling a match and I'm looking over
I believe it's Adam Cole and somebodyelse and there's somebody hanging in a cage
on his makeshift thing over there.I don't know what kind of I don't
know what kind of match it isat the moment, but I think it's
(02:52):
a Judy Judy backs Baguel on aPaul match? Is that what it is?
That that's probably what it is.That's probably what it is. Let's
skip to that question. How awesomeis it to have your own Action figure?
Yes, it's it's wild. It'slike it's it's kind of one of
those like it's been a while sinceit's been out. I think it was
like the first time, like lastyear, but I distinctly remember the first
(03:13):
time someone like bringing it to asigning like the whole box even, and
they like drove four hours with thisbox and they're like, I want you
to sign it. So I literallysigned it. This is the first one
of these I've ever signed. Andthen like Cardona and all of them that
do their Action Figure podcast, Solike, do you realize how much money
you just made that guy. I'mlike, oh my god, hopefully that
(03:34):
guy's not going to be that guyand turn around and sell right exactly.
I was like, man, Idon't know. I hope he keeps it.
But it's it's been wild, right, Like it's even just to think
like how crazy it is to havean action figure as a referee, but
knowing that there are like three tofour women in the referee role at the
highest level for how long wrestling hasbeen around, It's that itself is kind
(03:55):
of insane, and it's a nicelittle like way for me to check in
and realize, like, man,this this is crazy. Like, right,
I was in a completely different fieldfive years ago, and now I'm
sitting in a hotel room in Torontotalking to you guys about my action right.
I didn't mean it was a videogame too, right, right?
Yeah, I mean there was atime where you know, the females didn't
(04:16):
have I mean, that wasn't evenan option. I mean wrestlers anything.
I mean, I think they kindof like you'd see like dolls or something
occasionally, but like, I mean, it wasn't too long ago where a
female action figure wasn't even on thetable exactly. So anyways, I got
sidetracked. I was a good seguethat was perfect, and that's and that's
the thing. It's like, it'sit's a cool moment to go and say,
(04:39):
hey, I have my own actionfigure. Not many people can say
that. My mom bought three ofthem. One of them exclusively hangs in
the Christmas tree at Christmas time.It's kind of like Elf on the shelf,
but now it's something different that shemove it around Aubrey in the tree
thanks to a strawberry, because sheliterally has like a strawberry ornament. It's
pretty great. That is you seenout from the shelf, get ready for
(05:00):
Aubrey and the tree right doesn't havethe same ring to it, but it's
like gay, more sassy and justas authoritative. I think Tony Kann could
probably sell it them. They coulda lot of people buy it. Something
really cool recently happened and we werevery excited about this. A lot of
people are excited. You made youraw wrestling debut last Friday night on Rammage
(05:26):
getting Karen Jarrett to tap out inthe figure four. I mean it mixed,
Tagg. That's that's an amazing thing, right, there there are a
lot of people jealous of that positionyou were in, by the way,
because a lot of people would wouldwant to just inflict damage on her,
according to what we've seen on theinternet. But how long had that been
in the planning stages? And whatwas it like getting Karen to tap out
(05:48):
um, I mean just to peelback the colonel A little bit like the
story itself between like me and JeffJarrett and his posse had kind of like
started sort of at our Seattle showback on January fourth, where there was
sort of some hullabaloo the ref didn'tsee the finish. We thought Jay Lethal
(06:08):
and Jeff Jared hadn't won the tagtitles. And then I run in because
hey, I'm local and this isgoing to get a big reaction from the
crowd. I overturned the match,we restarted, and the Heels end up
losing. So it's kind of thisthing and just it it kind of kept
finding ways to sort of weave itselftogether with everything we were doing, whether
I was ref in their matches orwe'd have a ref bomb, someone would
(06:29):
run in, whatever it might be, and that's sort of culminated at double
or Nothing, where I end upgetting hit in the head with the guitar
and out of context. This isreally fun to explain. So I'm glad
people know this as a wrestling podcast. They're like, yeah, and it's
one of those things like with wrestling, it's really important to have storytelling and
long term pay payoffs for our fans. Right. So it's one thing to
(06:54):
say, yeah, sure we're gonnahit a referee with a guitar and she's
gonna go down, But that's coolin them, but where does that go?
And when you have the traditional heelsand baby faces, if the heels
don't get their come uppance and thebaby faces don't end up on top at
the end, then you've just reallyyou know, upset your fans, like
why are they getting invested? Then? And this is traditional storytelling. We
(07:15):
have three X we follow. It'sas old as Shakespeare even older. Right,
So from that, like the momentof double or nothing, where did
the guitar shot happened? That's wherewe sort of started talking like okay,
well, what is the next logicalstep for this? And they asked if
I was willing to wrestle, andI said, dude, I can't even
lock up correctly, like I'm adancer, and then twenty two years about
(07:38):
I didn't teach me how to dolike like a headlock takeover, like those
those don't translate, man, rightright right, right, right right.
This is a different form of entertainment. Yeah, very difficult, still physical,
but very different form of entertainment.And it just came down to like,
well, how can we really playthis up and how can we have
fun with this? And it wasreally cool to get like opportunities like I
(07:59):
got to choke chair carrying out ina promo. UM. I had a
live promo on Rampage which was insaneum. And then you know, it
ended up coming down to the match, which was great, and it just
felt really cool, Like it feltreally cool like the way we kind of
structure everything, like I went overwith the figure four, but that's also
Jay Lethal's move. So there's likethat little bit of like uh meta nous
(08:22):
that the long term fans really appreciatebecause they get it in the moment like
oh this is this is that deeperstory and that part of wrestling that's really
nice. It's not just on thesurface who wins and loses, but what
are those little details that reward usas viewers watching this product for so long
it was it was cool. I'mglad it's over. I'm retiring undefeated.
I think you're the only undefeated wrestleron the roster right now. I believe
(08:45):
I think so up there. Butthose are tags. Yeah, not splitting
hairs, but Jay think it wasn'tTrio's match, but for the record,
like it does count as So yeah, well I'm retiring from entering competition.
Not being able to talk for liketwo days without Payne. Yeah, it's
(09:07):
like I never want to do thatgame. Yeah. Well, you brought
up a good point too, becauseI mean, part of the whole reason
AW was even developed and founded andeverything was kind of what you mentioned about
storytelling, kind of like leaving thedangling fruit, like not finishing the three
acts and just start stop start stop, start stop. So I mean this
is technically, like you said,going back to jenerally, this is a
(09:28):
six month story that a lot ofcompanies still aren't I won't say who,
but a lot of companies don't dothat. And so and then it bled
into this week's Dynamite that had theconcession stand, which coming from West Tennessee
that's like my bread. But that'swhat I grew up on, so I
go, oh yeah, oh yeahsou. And it's still going. I
mean there's still there's still layers toit they're going to develop. So yeah,
it's very awesome. So being withaw as long as you have,
(09:54):
what do you think has been Ifthere is one single thing, what do
you think has been the biggest changesince your day one too? Now?
Has it been the production value?Has it been the I don't know,
I'm just spitball. What do youthink has been the biggest change since day
one? I think, honestly,like the biggest change has I think it's
it's twofold. It's both internally howwe feel the company, but I think
(10:16):
also externally how the company is viewed. Like when we started, we were
small, we were scrappy, wewere the alternative, we were different,
and I come from the corporate world, so I liken it a lot too.
We're a startup. There's a coupleof people with an idea and a
lot of passion and we're just goingto put it out there and see how
it works. We're going to putin the time and hopefully eventually like it
(10:39):
breaks through and then we get allof this acclaimed for it, right,
and then fast forward and now we'vegot all these people who are who are
legends in wrestling joining our company.Like we've just been talking about Jeff Jarrett
and Jay Lethal, who are synonymouswith TNA and ROH. So like we've
got j White, We've got whojust came over, We've got Staying,
We've got Billy Gun, We've gotour understand we have like all these people.
(11:01):
We have Tony Shirvanni, who wasthe guest on my post of my
podcast. So it's like this isinsane, right, Yeah, we have
this sort of like we started asthis like young, scrappy thing and now
it's like, no, we're amain player because we haven't announced a single
match for Wembley and we're at sixtyfive thousand tickets. Yeah, it's wild.
So I think internally it feels likethere's been a ton of growth,
(11:22):
like so fast that you're just likeI'm totally like lost and nauseous now.
But externally, as a fan,it's been really awesome to see this thing
that we've been investing, because atthe end of the day, we're all
fans right to see this thing thatwe've all been investated grow to be the
juggernaut that it is. It's insane. I love it. Yeah, and
it's great to see because you havea little bit when you watch AW,
(11:43):
have a little bit of every fanbase that can tune in and watch something
like you know, there's some placesthat you watch and it's kind of cookie
cutter and you know it. Butwhen you watch AW with my six year
old, he is like I tunedwith wrestling, Like he knows which night
is, which would shows on andhe will sit there and watch every single
thing that goes down. Good kid. And the thing is is like he's
(12:07):
extremely smart when it comes to wrestlingbecause he's like he knows who the bad
guys are, he knows who thegood guys are, and then he's like
asking the questions, why did thishappen? Why did that happen? And
the great thing was watching on Wednesdaynights and of course now on Friday and
Saturdays as well, like you extendthat storyline even further. And he's always
got to make sure that if hemisses Wednesday night and being six, he's
(12:31):
like, what happened? What's goingon? Ye? And that's the great
thing about it is you got normallyyou could just miss a week and still
be caught up the next week,right you guys like, if you miss
something, you're gonna have to eithertry to figure out some bootleg way to
watch it on Twitter or yeah,I mean if you like, if you
miss this the Go Home Dynamite,I mean it was stacked. I mean
(12:52):
there was tons of stuff happening,and I think kind of bounce off what
you're saying. I mean, thisis unprecedented territory. I mean, most
wrestling companies within less than five yearsare getting TV deals. I don't know
the actual you know, I meanWimbley, I mean, you know,
even going back to the name wewon't say in North, I mean they
(13:13):
weren't doing this five years into theircar. You know what I mean I
mean is this really is uncharted territory. So for the fans that have been
unfulfilled for all those years to seeit get to where it's added this quickly,
it's yeah, very awesome to see. It's it's super awesome to see.
And speaking of awesome, I mean, what has been in your mind
the loudest aw show or atmosphere thatyou've been a part of so far,
(13:35):
Oh, that's a tricky one.I think, like there's a handful that
stick out, and part of itis like I'm sitting in Toronto right now,
and when we did our Toronto debutback in October, like that crowd
was insane. There's something fun aboutCanadian fans and they just get it and
they're on board with it. Theyinvest everything in it. So I'm really
(13:56):
excited for Forbidden Door this weekend becauseknowing how the fans responded to us when
we were first here, and likeeverything feels a little bit bigger with a
pay per view right, Like you'vegot a ton of dream matches happening this
weekend that as fans were like,wait, we're getting what? Like away
in any lifetime, anyone would havethought we would have seen Brian danielsoner in
Okada, Like what is that?How? What? We didn't deserve this?
(14:18):
Who are we? Right? So, so, I like Toronto is
always a really great city, umI think like really it stands out like
Punk's debut at United Center when hecame back to wrestling for after seven years,
Like that was insane because United Centerhad sold out so quickly on the
like rumor that he had been Yeah, and then as soon as that like
(14:41):
riff hits in his song, thecrowd just erupts. I don't want to
tell you how many times I've watchedthat debut in the last few years.
If I just made a little boost, I'll kind of my wife will be
like get like yeah and yeah,So anyways, sorry, yeah, I
mean there's I mean another one.It's just so many like moments. Like
my one of my favorite matches I'vedone was Eddie Kingston versus Chris Jericho Revolution
(15:05):
and it was the first match tostart the show, hot crowd. Jericho
is in the ring, Eddie Kingstoncomes in ring the bell, Jericho gets
dumped on his head and it's justimmediately the crowd's like, oh my god,
like this is insane, as wecaught right to the action. So
there's just so many little things,like every crowd is great, every every
show is great. There's just allthese memorable moments that are happening constantly.
(15:26):
Yeah. I was at the firstdouble or nothing when Moxley debuted and that
was that was that was loud.That was loud. Oh my god,
and you're just sitting there and whyis everyone looking oh whoa, okay,
okay, cool? Yes what yeah? That one was yeah very loud.
Um where were we? Oh?So let's let's talk about your podcast with
(15:50):
Tony Shovanni. Um, are thereunrestricted? Um? What is do you
do? You have a dream guessthat you have not talked to yet?
Is there anybody floating around like whyhave we not got this person yet?
UM? I don't know. It'stricky because it's the advantage we have is
it's the official AW podcast, right, like new episode every Thursday. Yeah,
(16:11):
we're talking to people that but likeyou, anyone you see on TV
is fair game for us and it'sgreat. UM. I feel like Jamie
Hayter has been a little elusive.UM. I would really love to have
her on. The timing's just neverreally worked out yea, And I know
that she's she's out for a bitand she just dropped the title, but
(16:32):
she was just a phenomenal women's champion, So I'd love to have her on.
UM. And then there's so manypeople that we interviewed super early,
like John Moxley was our first everguest. We had JR. We had
the Bucks and that was all prepandemic, so we've all changed as people
itself has changed. I think it'dbe great to honestly have them back on.
(16:52):
Oh yeah, that would be awesomebecause I sit here and think about
like what you what you were saying, like when we first started this podcast
and when you guys first launched,like going back to the original time when
we had Cody on, Like Codymade the announcement on this podcast, is
like what do you think about awDynamite? And it's like and then you
you progress over the years and thinkabout how many people have come on this
(17:14):
podcast, like we're the same boat. And uh, I think maybe the
internet would probably go out on thethe IWC with a lot of chatter right
now. Maybe Goldberg could be aguest on Unrestricted. Oh who knows?
Who knows? Yeah, who knows? Um, we have the Fight Forever
game coming out next week. Whatare you most excited about that? What
(17:37):
can you tell us from what you'veseen and all that. So, so
this is this is funny because Ifeel like a lot of people just assume
that I've been like super focused onthe game because that's so whatever. Someone's
like, wait, you don't workon the game. I'm like, no,
I'm working on other cool stuff Ican't talk about right now. Um,
but yeah, it's like I havenot played Fight forever at all.
(18:00):
Oh really, yes, I haveseen a couple clips, all the ones
that people tag me. I'm like, hey, you know you're in this
game as someone's like chopping the crapout of me, which has been super
fun to see. So I'm justexcited to play it. And it seems
sounds like a really basic question,But like as a game developer, when
you talk to people who work ongames, if they're at this point in
(18:22):
development and they're still excited about itand talking to Kenny Omega and talking to
like, no one knows who Nicksobiks because he's this high level executive who's
been on this project since literally dayone and he's my boss, and he's
just so giddy about this game.And to not be completely jaded and so
done with it and knowing it's goingto be out means that it has stood
the test of time that despite throughall of the troubles, they're excited for
(18:47):
the game. So I'm excited toplay it because I know that if people
involved with it are still happy withit three four years later, it's going
to be good and all in everythingI've heard is indicated that it is the
game that they set out to make. It is the old school and sixty
four era wrestling game. It's ourKatie. They didn't do mo cap,
they did like individual animation, soeverything kind of feels more gamy like that's
(19:11):
it sounds very generic, But I'mexcited to play the game. That is
probably absolutely yeah. And I'm alsoexcited that the fact that it's going to
be available on all platforms, becauseI went out and I will tell you,
I've pre ordered it for the PSfive and my six year old got
mad because he can't really figure outhow to play a PS five yet,
so I had to order it onthe switch as well. So they're getting
(19:32):
double money for me when the gamecomes out. Not gonna complain. Yeah,
And you know, some people werekind of up in arms when they
kind of started some of the minigames started getting out. I'm just as
excited for those as I am.I mean, you have people over they're
not wrestling fans, Hey we gotthese little mini games. I mean there's
so many ways that you can spendthat, you know, I think it's
gonna be a really good addition tothe game. So one of the things
(19:53):
I really like about the mini gamesis kind of how how more wrestling I
think they are than people realize exactly. Kind of said, like with wrestling,
there's a little bit of something foreverybody. Like Orange Cassie is my
favorite example. People may have neverwatched wrestling, but then as soon as
they see a guy who's fighting withhis hands in his pockets, they're immediately
on board. Ye right, it'slike, okay, cool, my suspension
of disbelief is intact. We cando this. It's it's fine. So
(20:17):
kind of like you said, it'sthe whole couch multiplayer aspect of if someone
sits down and goes I don't reallyknow wrestling, but like sheet is,
swinging a kendo stick in a baseballgame sounds cool. Yeah, And that's
the thing that gets people hooked.You're not quite sure what it is,
but if you if you let peopleinto the buffet, they will find something
that they like and maybe it'll staya while. Right. I can't wait
(20:37):
for Wardlow to hit a home runand that thing just wow, that's gonna
be some fun stuff. So,of course Sunday, big big things happening.
It's Forbidden Door happening live in Toronto. It's gonna be available on pay
per view as well, so likemovie theaters, which is pretty awesome around
the country. How important is thisevent to both companies AW and New Pan
(21:00):
and how important is it to thewrestling fans in general? I think Forbidden
Door is an extremely important event,and all of our pay per views are
important just from like fan perspective,from how we measure success as a business.
But Forbidden Door itself is just sounique because it's both AEW and New
(21:21):
Japan Pro Wrestling, and back inthe day before AW you could never even
imagine major companies coming together to worktogether like this. So the fact that
it's happened once, it was sosuccessful and we're doing it again, it's
great for the fans because last year, we know Forbidden Door, we had
this great idea and then all ofthese injuries started happening, and the card
that we got, while still excellentand still an award winning show, was
(21:45):
not the card we expected. Soit kind of itself left so much more
on the table of like, well, we could get this, and we
could get this, and we couldoh my god, what if we did
this and now like Ryan Danielson,who wasn't even on the show last year,
now has this crazy pun match withOkada, who somehow he's never wrestled
before. You see Will Osprey andKenny Omega tear it up again. I
(22:08):
think the last one they did waslike six and three quarters stars, so
it's like, how many more starscan we give them? Right? It's
going to be excellent. So Ithink from a wrestling fan perspective, it's
great because you know that there's somany more options for how amazing matches are
going to be served you. Ithink from the business perspective, it can't
be seen as anything less than greatbecause it just opens the doors for all
(22:30):
these new opportunities no pun intended.I think for AW it's great because it
introduces a lot of our people tothe Japanese market, and then for New
Japan introduces a lot of their fansto the AW market. So it's just
overall fantastic concept and I'm so happywe're doing it again. Yeah. And
to go to your point too,I mean, if you go back to
the eighties kind of when you hada bunch of these promoters get together to
(22:53):
kind of go against any kase.You know, it generally ended being kind
of a disaster. You know,they were cannibalizing each other and couldn't agree
on things, and then they weredrawing like five thousand people, and it's
just you know, even though lastyear had its difficulties and then you know,
Adam Cole got injured out of it, so there, it was a
trying time, but it's still Imean, I loved it. I enjoyed
(23:15):
it from top to bottom, andthis year definitely feels a little bigger.
But I think being in Toronto isgonna make it real special because, like
you said, those fans are justincredible up there and start on the whole
new level. And the Owen Cupstarts up this weekend too, heading into
that, so seeing that startup orthe associated with Canadas, that would be
very good too. So yeah,we've got a couple of weeks in Canada,
(23:36):
so doing the Owen Hart run,yeah, and then having it culminate
in Calgary, like it's just thetiming could not be better. It's so
great. This is like the bestsummer to be a wrestling fan. I
can't wait to see Owen in thevideo game too, because I mean just
see like doing a match like withhim in Orange or him and Ricky Ricky
Starks. I mean, it's justlike physically would have never been possible.
You know, It's just it's crazy. Well, you mentioned earlier that you're
(23:59):
working on something that you can't mention. Is there anything on your plate right
now you can disclose? Yeah?Yeah, here, let me take off
one of the like twelve halts on. Yeah. So I do a lot
of different stuff at AW. Likeobviously you see me on TV yelling at
you know, people rolling around ina ring, feeling rules, and sometimes
they listen, sometimes they don't.When I'm not in a wrestling ring,
(24:19):
I have a number of different projectsI'm involved in. I'm working with AW
Games on a few unannounced projects,and I post the podcast aw in Restricted
new episodes every Thursday. One ofthe other things I'm doing is I'm one
of the leads on this thing calledaw Heels, which is a female focused
fan club, which is not somethingthat's ever really existed before in wrestling,
(24:41):
And that's something that's very near anddear to my heart because I think,
even as as unbiased as I couldbe, because obviously I'm very biased,
but as a woman in wrestling,it's something that I see there being a
need for because it's a very verymale dominated space and being a female and
a male do nator role, Ifeel it even that much more that I
(25:03):
want wrestling to feel like it canbe something for everyone. So this is
a really fun thing to work onand see people come together make friendships that
wouldn't exist otherwise, and they're allbasically bring brought together because of wrestling.
Yeah, now, this is afun thing. And before we let you
go dream match that you get tocall, why would that be? Oh
(25:25):
good? I do? I mean, I have no idea, Like,
I have no idea, and it'snot a cop out, but like literally
we're talking about Okada and Brian thisweekend, right, and no one thought
it was possible. We thought,like seven years ago Brian was never going
to wrestle again. So I can'teven fathom one of my dream matches because
(25:48):
it might even happen, because that'swhat wrestling is nowadays. And honestly,
like, I'm just happy to workwith all different kinds of people, Like
I've had the opportunity to work withJericho constantly, I have with Sting,
I have you know Jeff, Jarrett, Jay Lethal, all of these guys
that have been all through everywhere forever. So I mean, it's it's really
(26:08):
hard to answer that question because it'slike, just give me everything right,
kind of piggybacking off of that whenit comes time for I guess the match
selection of the night, Like doyou all get to like get around be
like I wish I could. Iwould like to call this one or this
one or is it kind of alreadylike assigned when you get there and this
is the matches that you go with, So this is a fun one.
(26:29):
Our senior official is actually Paul Turner. He's known everyone kind of at the
highest level, like the Bucks andKenny and Hangman the longest because they all
came from ROH together, so whenhe came in, he had the most
television experience of all of us.And Paul is an absolutely incredible senior official
because he makes sure that we allget something cool at the end of the
day. So if you have wouldactually say two three minutes cool, the
(26:52):
next one are gonna get as atitle match. So it's like there's always
something fun and he's always thinking aboutlike, oh, this person likes to
work with this person, so he'llpair us up together. Like Bryce Ramsburg
and Orange Cassidy have a ton ofhistory together, which is why you end
up seeing them in the ring alot because they're friends, like behind the
scene. So it's great. Iobviously work with Jericho a lot. Knox
works with the Bucks. Like there'sjust history and whatnot, and Paul's really
(27:14):
respectful of maintaining that, but he'salso very respectful of just making sure we
all get cool stuff. So Iwill find out on Sunday what I'm doing,
and based on the card we have, I will be happy with whatever
I am a sithe, Yeah,I mean it's a stack card. For
sure. You're gonna be able towatch Forbidden Door on pay per views,
so like movie theaters across the country. Real quick, before we let you
go, is there anything else thatyou'd like to tell the listeners? Where
(27:37):
could they keep up with you onlinebefore we let you go? Promote whatever
you'd like to promote? Right now? This is your floor. Sure,
you can follow me on Twitter refAubrey. You can follow me on Instagram
ref Aubrey. You should definitely listento the aw Unrestricted podcast New episodes every
Thursday. You should watch Dynamite,Wednesday's Rampage, Friday's Collision on Saturdays.
And if you're not tuning into thispay per view and you're a wrestling fan,
you're lying to yourself because you're onlya wrestling fan if you watch the
(27:59):
show, because it is just atribute to wrestling fans. Boom, that's
not an endorsement. I don't knowwhat it is. Yes, we'll just
end it like that one. Aubrey, it's an honor to have you on
the show. Thank you for takingthe time out and hanging out with us,
and we look forward to seeing youwhen you guys come to Nashville in
August. Thank you for retreating myaction figure with respect and make sure that
you please return that to your sonand thank you well he will, he
(28:22):
will. He will hit me witha guitar like Karen did you And I'm
sorry about that. That was theonly thing that popped in my head.
But you got payback and made hertap out. We'll take on all the
splinters out of my hair. Itwas fine. We hope you enjoyed today's
episode of the Battleground Podcast. Makesure you give it five stars. And
a nice review. To stay upto date with the show, follow them
at Battleground Podcast on Instagram,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!