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Tim and Doug dive deep into the world of All Elite Wrestling. Recaps, character analysis, storyline breakdowns, and more. Two guys who have been All Elite since day 1 talk AEW.
Right, and now we will recap World's End. And by recap, I mean, I'm not gonna say a lot, because I don't have a lot of thoughts on this one. And also, let's just jump into it ah with Okada and Takeshita.
Doug, you talk about this one, because my dog was being a menace, and I basically missed the whole match. Dude, this was a really solid match and Okada ate one of the wickedest poison runners I've ever seen. This was the first of, I think we kept track of five possible broken necks during the match. Yes, and I think that that ah my wife suggested, and I think she's right. Is it this button?
I cannot. Nope, that's not it. Nope, that's not it. There it is. We'll ding every time that we get a broken neck or in this show a missing tooth. Ooh. Because there was more than one. Yes, but this was this was really solid. We finally saw these two come together, go at it, and Okada went over...
By digging out a screwdriver from the turnbuckle, top turnbuckle, and just whacking to catch it in the head, took the pin one, two, three, and then put it in his trunks, which I thought was hilarious. Yeah, I did see that part. I didn't see him dig the screwdriver out because, again, my...
frigging dog was on one um so I'm gonna have to go back and re-watch this or really watch it for the first time i thought though the screwdriver was a very clever bit of storytelling yes because the very next match is fletcher and Moxley yep and fletcher goes looking for the screwdriver and it's not there right he tore up three different turnbuckles looking for it and it was gone Yeah, I thought that was really, really clever little bit of storytelling there, um which is that I wrote that down.
And then whatever that top rope choke suplex thing was, which led us to broken neck number two on the night. Fletcher landed square on his beam. Like, and they kept showing him. I know. I literally, I wrote down here, how did he get up? I don't, I don't know how he got up from that. I didn't, I said to you, I go, why do they keep showing it in case he's actually hurt? Because that looked really bad. It looked brutal. when you land and your head goes like, yeah that's not, that's not good. No, that's not what you want. No, but Mox came out on top of this one, which by the way,
What did I say when I first came over? you He said, I think Moxley's winning the Continental Classic. yep And I was like, to be fair, and I said this on Wednesday's ah Dynamite on 34th Street recap.
i have taught I talked to myself into multiple different winners of the Continental Classic. Moxley wasn't one of them, so i will I'll eat that one of the lesson, as always, is that I'm an idiot and that my dog is a menace. ah but But i once you got to those four guys, I was like, well, obviously any of the four of them could win it, and its yeah and it makes sense. yeah It's credible, and I'm not really going to have much of an issue with it.
Yeah, you could have said any of those four guys, and it would have been an okay guess. yeah I just had this weird feeling that because there were three other Don Callis family guys in it, that Mox somehow was going to come out on top. And he came out on top against Fletcher, which was a bit surprising. Oh, and that's where we got the broken tooth.
Yeah, you're right. So let's also give that a – because, yeah, Moxley, he's going – I'm sure he's at a dentist oh like right now. Yes. um Whoever's on call in the Chicagoland area tonight is working on that man's tooth because that got good and busted. that I think it happened when he was pinned in that. but Yeah, well, you know, you're right because he he when he fell out of those being pinned by the stairs, yeah he immediately grabbed his mouth when he hit the... So I think he hit it on the corner of the staff. I do too.
And I don't know if you know this, I can relate because the same tooth for me, a good chunk of that is fake. Oh, okay. ah From an elbow in a basketball game. So I can only imagine what steel stairs felt like Yeah, because he fell out. He wasn't using his hands. He did. yeah did the It was a good. But then like he immediately was like oh, yeah. Yeah. yeah he look He quite literally ate it. o Yeah. oof um So then we got FTR and the Bang Bang Gang in the Chicago street fight, which you were right that they would run that back with a stipulation. Yep. um
It's fine. We both at the end of that match, we both kind of looked at the each other and went, huh? Yeah. Just okay. I mean, there were some spots that I thought like I thought ah a lot of the stuff that Colton gun did was pretty funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. um His overalls made me laugh. Some of the stuff that they did with um some of the stuff that they did with like ah the trash can was entertaining, if nothing else. Yeah. But yeah.
It was fine. Like they, they all can, can go in the ring and it, and it wasn't that the match was bad. We like, know but it did feel like it ended. Yes. It was a very anticlimactic finish. Yeah.
And, and that wasn't the only one on this show where it ended and it was like, okay, that happened. Uh, and, i whoever was in that position, i think you said this, ah maybe it was about a different match, but whoever was in that position was going to be in a tough spot following those two Continental Classic semifinal matches. That was not going to be easy for anybody, but like for the finish to just be like, oop, it's over. Yeah.
well We opened with two barn burners that yeah they really did build really well to a climactic finish. And now you have this third match that didn't do that.
Yeah. And there's room for that to happen. It did just feel a little weird that it happened that way. Yeah, I agree. And it just felt like... Well, I'm just going to say it. I felt a little blue-balled by it. Because, like... Okay.
You know, and maybe this is the... Maybe this is just wrestling in 2025 where... they build and they build and they build and you get this really hot finish, right? We had bunch of one, two ooze and then somebody hits a big move and then hits their finisher and, and, and that's that. And it happens very fast. And with that, it was just like, it just ended. Yep.
It was like, uh, it was like the Sopranos finale. Like you just cut to black and that was it. yeah We're all just like, wait, what? You know, there, there was no controversy at the end. no clean pin. Yeah. It just felt like a weird way to end because it feels like that was the blow off. It feels like I agree. i agree. But then it begs the question, what are you going to next?
Because we were talking about this. The tag team division is not in great shape, which is sad given that that was kind of the calling card of AEW, particularly that first year.
And they have enough teams to make it work. They do. They really do. So we'll see. don't know. We'll Yep, we'll see. ah So then we went to Babes of Wrath versus Mercedes and Athena. um I'll just read you what I wrote down. Solid match, I thought. i think yeah solid is the way to describe it. Mercedes did do the job, which we thought might happen. Yep. um Which is also, I think, part of the bigger story that they're telling there. Oh, 100%. Yeah. I loved the tease. I'm sure you caught this of Athena staring at the TBS belt while she was trying to not berate, but then also berating Mercedes for getting pinned. Um, clearly we're, we're setting that up, which you can hook that to my veins. I think if they don't run those two head to head, that that's a big mistake. Seeing those two go at it, I think is pure money. I think seeing Mercedes and Athena go head to head would really give a little, shoot a little bit of life into not just the TBS belt, but just the women's division. I've really liked, cause I, we thought now I'm not going to say Athena's being wasted on ROH, but I think she could add so much more to dynamite and collision. Yeah.
I'll say it. She's being wasted on ROH. And I like Ring of Honor and I want the TV deal for Ring of Honor. I would absolutely i would absolutely watch it. Bring it. But we're not there.
Nope. And unfortunately, Athena is really good and is probably the face of Ring of Honor. Yes. um But that also means that we don't see her a lot on Dynamite. And I think that's a bummer because she's really good and I really like her. She's the forever ROH champ. Yeah.
um after that After that, we went, well, this is going to get uncomfortable because it was Gabe Kidd and Darby. And it did. It did. Although I actually wrote down less uncomfortable than I thought it would be. Okay. Given that Darby was involved and he usually does things that makes me, that make me go, yes, you know, and that didn't really happen. But ah part of that might've also been, I'm going be honest with this one didn't hold my attention very well. And I don't know if that was because it was a rushed build because of the Darby injury, which was real. Yeah. I know there are some people that think it was fake, uh, that it was a work. It was real.
um, We thought it might've been a word. We thought it might've been a work. Yeah. But it was, apparently it was a concussion, which then even more makes, makes me go, why do you do a spot where you throw him down the stairs right when he came back? Yeah.
So ah anyway, um so I, I wrote down less uncomfortable than I thought it would be, but also didn't hold my attention. That's really all I have to say about that. Did we get a near broken neck spot in that one too? I feel like we might've. Oh yeah. I think we did.
You know what? It's Darby. So yeah, Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure it was Darby, and I'm sure it was when he was flung out of the... Oh, it was when ah he took the ring post shot. Oh, yeah. And then also ran into the camera. Yeah.
Yeah. Because that looked horrible. Also, I just feel like any time we talk about Darby... yeah Oh, yeah. 100%. He almost broke his neck. Yeah. Or broke it. I mean... Yes. Yeah. ah From there, the Mixed Nuts Mayhem match...
I got to be honest, when I heard that match was announced, I thought it was going to on the pre-show. I did too. I was positive that was on the pre-show. Really thought it was going the pre-show. My other thought when i when I saw the graphic for it, because I didn't watch, I started Collision, I didn't finish it.
um My thought when I saw the graphic was... tell me that this is to get Tony storm on the pay-per-view without telling me. cause on Cause on paper, it makes no sense. No.
And all of a sudden she's in this match and it's her and the conglomeration against the death writers. And I gotta be honest with you. Uh, one of the things I wrote down here was I know that they don't do, they don't do mixed tag matches. Not really. If they wanted to do mixed tag matches and gave me a bunch of o c and Tony storm,
yeah I am on board. Yes. The tango thing. Oh my gosh. Loved it. what most I loved it. One of the most entertaining spots of the whole night. yeah Those two dancing their way to clobbering people. And then OC taking the dip, the big dip from Tony storm. So good. Yeah. And I know that there are going be people that complain about that. I know there are people that don't like the goofy comedy wrestling. I don't care. It's supposed to be fun. I enjoyed it.
Give me more. Yeah. And if you don't like it, shut up. Well, if you don't like it, that's fine. you don't have to crap on it either. Exactly. You know what I mean? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. um I don't know. What else did you think about that? It was an entertaining match.
Liked it. um You got to see the entire conglomeration come out. You did get to see um Roderick Strong kind of begrudgingly be part of the conglomeration. I still don't know what we're doing with that. I don't either. um But you saw Tony Storm. You saw the women. You saw the Babes of Wrath out there with the conglomeration. Nice little collective. Really feel-good moment. Entertaining match. I enjoyed it. I also did like the, we're going to get the brief moment where Roddy Strong and Marina Shafir square off since they're married. And the crowd, you knew the people in the crowd that do it because they made noise when they squared off. So I thought, you know, okay, that was fun. Plus he chopped the daylights out of her back. Yes, he did. it was i was like, they're going go home and their kid's going to be like, oh, what did you guys do at work today? and Beat the shit out of each other. yes Mommy and daddy. See, when a mommy and daddy love each other very much, yeah they can punch each other in the schnoz. And it's fine. It's okay.
ah And get paid to do it. Yeah. um And get paid well to do it. After that, we got the Mercedes interview. Loved it. So good. Loved it. Unhinged Mercedes is great. That may be my favorite Mercedes Monet so far. Yeah. Is her going out of nut.
i I loved it. I loved her shrieking and breaking. So I also loved the added little detail of her dressing room was almost like, uh, what I would imagine Mariah carries is like, yeah you know what I mean? Like i had the neon light M and like, it just, I, I liked that little touch of like the diva room. Exactly.
Yeah. And she swore. She did. She dropped the first F-bomb, but it would not be the last. No, it would not. ah Yay, pay-per-view. Because i her and Willow are going to go at it.
Is it on Dynamite?
Yes. Yes. Let's say yes. They're gonna go at it really soon. Because that's what she was talking about. Oh, yeah. No, I think you're right. I think it is on Dynamite. Yeah.
I didn't mean to short-circuit you there for second. Well, what it is is i that part didn't process with me. Gotcha. I just enjoyed the screaming. Oh, yeah. It was great. I'm not sure I processed really anything else about it. Seeing her reaction to that question, the back end of 2025 hasn't been good for you. And then to have her recount all the yeah positive that it was.
You really do see why she was the female wrestler of the year the Sports Illustrated because she has put in the work this year. No, she's she's been great this year. She absolutely has. I mean, you cannot take that away from her. I think this is one of the best years that any wrestler has had in quite a while. I mean, she's been incredible and she's done it all over the globe. Loved it. Yep.
After that.
This is the match I was saying really suffered because of the very entertaining match. Yes. Beforehand. Statlander, Kris Statlander and Jamie Hayter happened after that. And I say happened because that's about as nice as I can be. um And here's the thing.
It was a really good match. I liked the match. I think it was went too long. I agree. They had way too much time. And I think the crowd in Chicago was all going to the bathroom because it was the quietest I have ever heard a Chicago crowd for any AEW match. Yeah. I mean, what I said to Doug during it was, I know they talk about Jacksonville and I get why they talk about Jacksonville as being their home.
It's not. It is not only the Chicago area. it is specifically the now arena in Hoffman Estates. Yep. That's where the original all in happened, which we were there for. We were.
It's where the company was born. Mm-hmm. And that place never fails to show up for them. They never fail to show up for AEW. If you want a guaranteed sellout crowd, you go to the now arena in Hoffman Estates. oh And that's what's gonna happen. And they are hot and they are into it.
And they were not for this match. Nope. And I, we talked about it. it I'm not a hundred percent sure it doesn't have to do with the very short build. I think that's part of it. I think it also has to do, because you brought it up in your Solo Wednesday review, that Statlander promo was... I don't know what they're doing with her. I don't know where they're going with her. It feels like a weird, almost Moxley-esque type, who's coming with me? I've defeated all my demons. I'm really going forward, which is great, but it's just a weird take, and it's not...
I, I, we mentioned it during watching the show. Her and Stokely need to get back together. Yeah. I think that was a huge mistake to take the mouthpiece away from her. And they kept playing the clip in the promo, ah the promo package of her going, ah you want to find answers or whatever, come find them. oh What, what question was asked? Yeah, exactly.
From my perspective, The only thing Jamie Hayter said was, I want my belt back. Yeah. I don't think that's a question. Like, I think if you answered a Jeopardy question with that, you don't get the points. You don't get the money because it's not the question. Correct.
Correct. and i And then I think I said, i would be okay if somehow Don Callis was Statlander's mouthpiece. Because I could see that working really well. I could too. I mean, obviously we've talked about it on the show a lot. He is in our opinion, the best heel manager working right now. 100%. He doesn't, his promos are great.
We even talked about tonight. Not that I want him to stop anytime soon, but if you, if slash whenever he does, if they put him on commentary full-time, he would be amazing on that. He's so good. So, yeah, I think that would make a tremendous amount of sense. Stokely would be great as well, but you got to flip her.
Either way, you got to flip her heel. Now, granted, she did the Big Show thing there for a while where she was flipping back and forth every 15 minutes. So it's not unheard of to to switch her back.
And it might not be the worst idea anyway because – If you're not going to keep the timeless love bombs as a thing, which I think they're gonna, but then, I mean, at some point, Tony storm's coming back into the title picture and you're going to need a heel for her to chase.
I'm just not sure that should be Kris Statlander. I like Kris Statlander, but the whole build to this match was bad. And unfortunately, a lot of that's got to fall on her because her promos were not good. the she She felt to me in the build to this like she was not confident in what she was saying.
And when you are the world champion, I expect you to be confident in what you're saying. Yes. And you juxtapose that with Joe and Hangman and Swerve and MJF.
And it's just like, o boy. Or even like Mercedes, even with her meltdown, you know, i don't know. The match was probably better than it's going to get credit for. Right, yeah. But...
That one was a bit of a swing and a miss tonight. And I think, ah like we said, a lot of it had to do with the fact the crowd wasn't into it. And then even watching at home, that takes so much energy out of the match, which wasn't fair to them.
No, i thought it was. But this should tell you something. I'm not kidding when I say i don't remember who won. Kris Statlander won. that That makes sense. Which surprised me because going into it, I kept saying, I think they need to switch the belt.
And I think putting it on a heel-leaning Jamie Hayter would have injected some juice. And maybe they'll run it back.
Maybe. But are kind of doubt it. Because that leads us again to where are we going now? Right. And again, I don't think there's a clear challenger lined up. No.
And I think that plays a lot into the main event. But first, we had the boy, I got this all the way wrong. The final of the Continental Classic between Okada and Mox. And I literally, all I wrote down was, I was very wrong about this.
I was weirdly right. i i missed this pretty bad. If you go back to the episode when it all started, i said, this this is one of the things we put out on social media. People reacted to it. Me going...
I don't think he makes the semifinals, let alone the final. And he won the whole damn thing. Yep. And I said, as soon as I came over to watch this, I said, that stuff i think it would be interesting if Moxley won because you do have three Don Callis family members in there. And if none of them win, now you have...
This added layer of what are we going to do now? Yeah. And I liked the fact that Moxley won. What I didn't completely understand was his victory speech afterwards. Yeah. Which seemed to be contradicting everything he said up until tonight. Yeah, I agree. So ah just to put a ball on the match, the match was very good. Yeah, really good. um How could it not be with those two dudes? Yep. Even with Mox missing a tooth.
um I thought. Which course is where all his wrestling talent is located. Oh, that's science. Everybody knows it's this tooth right here. That right there. Yeah. Yeah.
Good match. The promo was really weird. And the it was weird because you're right. It went completely opposite of everything he had been saying. This isn't for me. This is for everybody. This is for the fans. This for everybody that showed up to work, blah, blah, blah. When we spent like a year of him saying, you don't deserve to see the world championship. Right. We spent like a year of him saying, people here don't work hard enough. And so obviously what this is to me is it's a face turn.
Could be. I think it's pretty clear. I think it's a pretty clear face turn. Yeah. So now what that sets up is we have a baby face, John Moxley, who is in theory, the leader of the death writers who are all heels and pack, as you pointed out, was nowhere to be seen. Nope.
Gee, I wonder where this might be headed on Wednesday. Look, if that's where we're going, I'll take it. Oh, I would yeah. Seeing those two go head to head, I will take that one all day long. Yeah. Love to see that. Yeah. And I think, I don't think that there is a bad match between Moxley and any of the Death Riders, except for Wheeler Yuta. Right.
come Sorry, Wheeler. Prove me wrong. I can't genuinely I genuinely want him to. I'm not kidding. I genuinely want that dude to prove me wrong. I want him to become a thing.
I think that's nothing but good for AEW. I would agree. i like him, but he's not doing anything. until it happens. Because who ate the pin when they were up against the conglomeration? It was Wheeler Yuta.
So again, prove me wrong, bro-chacho. Prove me wrong. There you go. We should do a ah bonus episode where we figure out who he needs to go up against and how he's going to get his credibility back.
If he ever had any in the first place. He did. with you it was the BCC. Mm-hmm. And he had the ROH Pure Championship. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. i This is back when Twitter was still a thing.
I tweeted, if you want to see how to make a star, look at what AEW did with Wheeler Yuta. Because at that point, I was like, that dude is, they had taken him from this guy with a weird name who didn't talk. Nope.
And mostly just hung around with the best friends. Today had made him into something like it looked to me. I'm like, this dude is primed to go on and be like one of the guys that they hold up as this dude is a great technical wrestler. Yep.
And boy, that all went away. Yeah. They fumbled all of that and they had, I'll save it for the death writers episode, which you which I think is coming sooner rather than later. So I, you know what? I don't know now.
Yeah. I don't know now. I don't know if that's, we'll have to see. We'll see what Pac brings. If he shows up on Wednesday, we'll see how that pans out. I just, I don't know how you go forward for very long with a baby face. Moxley allegedly leading a heel stable.
And in everything about the match, it would have been one thing if they had worked that match against the conglomeration, like even as like tweeners. Right. But they didn't. Those were heels. 100%.
So that's why I think it's good. I also think, like you have said, I do think part of the breakup of the Deathriders is going to be to get Moxley time off. He needs it. Yeah, has more than earned. Well, he needs some dental work now. Well, yeah yes, he does. My guess is he's not going to mix it up on Wednesday.
We'll see. Let me tell you, this stuff sets pretty quick, but not that quick. that' dude I just had to have this redone not that long ago. so Yeah, but Moxley's not all there. Well, that's true. That's a good point.
um Clip that. eight We probably will. love it But ah so then we got the main event, which was really good. So good.
Really, really good. um I had talked myself into MJF winning it, which I believe we discussed on the show. My main reason for it being i didn't have any idea where you go if Joe retains. Right.
I thought it made sense for him to keep it when it was a three way. Mm-hmm. Once it became a four person match, I went, I don't think he's going to keep it because I don't know where you go after that. Right. um Unless like you and I talked about tonight while we were watching the show, unless you did a thing of like, there was a referee bump and you know, swerve beat him.
Right. Like the crowd counts to 20 or whatever. Right. And then you've got Swerve going, no, no, no, no. no I beat you. But we literally just did that. Yeah. We just did that with Joe and Hangman. So I didn't think they were going back to that well. So I went, to me, MJF makes the most sense.
And lo and behold, that one I got right. Yeah. That one I got right. And I am excited because, as I have said since he came back, it is a better show with him.
I think it's a significantly better show when he's the champion. It opens up a ton of possibilities. He's way fun. He's so much fun. And it opens up a ton of possibilities because everybody hates him. Everybody hates him.
So everybody wants a piece, not just for the championship, but because they hate him. Right. And having the belt on MJF makes a lot of sense. I honestly... Didn't have any confidence in picking any winner in this one. I said Joe just to say a name because I really didn't have it. And I told you, I go, I don't feel confident picking Joe, but I could see Joe coming out on top. But having MJF with the belt, again, it does so many things. We're going to see a banger match between him and Bandito. I think that is going to be amazing. I think you're going to see MJF once again decide to wrestle on TV or not. And I think that's always fun.
Um, I, I think it's a really good move. I told you tonight though. I really wish hang man and swear would just kiss and get it over with and be a tag team. It's the internet. You can say what you actually said. I said, I wish I'd just go ahead and fuck and get it. Yeah.
And let's do it. Like let's, but it especially because, and here's where I think there may have been a little bit of a tease to, it might happen when swerve kissed hang man on the neck in the corner.
That was part of it. yeah They were doing moves in sync. yeah There was a sequence where they did moves in sync and you go back to the tag match with FTR and Bang Bang Gang and us going, what is next?
Because you have not built anybody. no Like if it right now today, if you had gone, like let's just let's just play hypothetical here. If you had gone differently where Hangman and Swerve have a breakdown in the main event and they basically cost each other the title, right I would say the next logical challenger is Jet Speed.
yeah Because they performed really well in Continental Classic. They're an established tag team. And you've got really nobody else. I think the only tag team, and I think they set this up in the pre-show, I think they have their sights set on Bandito and... Mascara Dorada. Yes, Dorado. Because they...
looked great together. Yeah. And they even alluded to, can you imagine what the tag team division would be like if these two got together? it's like, Oh, which makes no sense to me. Cause Brody King is still there. And Bandito was just tag champs with Brody King. So, and they both said Brodito was going to continue. Right.
Maybe not. Yeah. So if you remove them from the equation, which it looks like we just have for whatever reason, you just took bang, bang, gang out. And I don't think you can run it back again with them. Nope.
So it would logically then be jet speed. But if you said to me, we're going to throw hangman and swerve at FTR, that is going to put more butts in seats. Absolutely. With all due respect to jet speed, who again, had a very, both of those guys had star making turns in the continental class classic. And I hope that they capitalize on that momentum. I genuinely do.
But Hangman and Swerve are going to sell tickets more than Speedball and Kevin Knight. I couldn't even come up with his name that right there. yeah i could only think of Michael Knight. and i was like, that's not him. No, that's not right. That's a very different guy. Yeah and so I think the logical path is that. But I also think that I don't think we're done with these four guys. No, I don't think so either. the world title. i just I don't think we're finished with that. I think you're going to get...
I don't know if it's going to be Joe comes calling again of giving my belt back, even though he did to eat the pen. Right. Right. It just ended, but I'm pretty sure I got that right. He did eat the pen after he took three buckshot lariats. Right. in there And then MJF shoved him out of the way and been right.
That's it. And that's why I think we're not finished because I think now what they're going to probably try to move to is hang man and MJF. Oh, that'd be because right. Because number one, While Swerve and Hangman are the best rivalry AEW has ever done, MJF and Hangman are the original rivalry. So good. Those were two dudes that six years ago when the company started, i said, this is their rock in Austin.
This is the rivalry that you can always go back to and it'll always be good. Yeah. And I think they're going to go back to it. Now, I don't think it should yeah i don't think it's going to be a long thing. No.
But I think there's a very good chance. I like i think what you what you may see happen is between now and Revolution, they're going to do some sort of three-way between Joe Swerve and Hangman on a Dynamite winner gets MJF at Revolution. okay I think Hangman comes out of that.
Although there's not a bad option of those three, but I think hang man comes out of it. And I think MJF is going to beat him to retain at that point. You might see swerve be the next man up. But again, I think you're going really hard time keeping the belt off of him when you put him in that picture. Right.
it's It's the same thing as Kyle Fletcher. like Whenever he enters the title scene again, you're going to have a hard time keeping the belt off of him. And like we said tonight, the minute Osprey comes back, you're going to have hard time keeping that guy away from the title. My thought for a while has been if Osprey can get back by all in, because they're going back to London, which is a big if, because neck surgery is is a thing. But if Osprey gets back by all in...
You've got to put the belt on Fletcher before that and probably a couple months before that because Fletcher is like you go back to you know the pillars that they talked about once upon a time. Kyle Fletcher is a pillar. Yeah, he's the new pillar. He just is.
So you get the belt on him. When Osprey comes back, i that's the obvious one. you You run it back between those two who are excellent together. And Ospreay's got to go over at that point. Ospreay, I love Hangman Adam Page.
I love Hangman Adam Page. Yep, same. I thought Will Ospreay should have beat him and should have gone on to be the one to win the championship from Jon Moxley. Can't argue that one. I really thought that because Ospreay was so red hot. And I don't know how much his neck played into that. And maybe that's what... but the The report was that both guys were arguing for the other one to win.
Right, yeah. Like... and eventually Tony just went with hangman, which I get. Yep. And I have no problem with that. But man, whenever Osprey comes back, I don't think you can keep that belt off him for very long. I just don't. And weirdly, that is such a good place for them to be because oh yeah you have Will Osprey, you have Kyle Fletcher, you have hangman, you have swerve. Joe's still in the picture. Moxley's never going to be far away from the picture. How do you keep Kenny Omega away from at least being mentioned?
MJF of course you have so many top guys that can make that happen and it's going to be a good mix. I don't care who you throw in there out of those names.
It's going to a great match and it's going to be a good rivalry. Yeah, I agree. And I think that if we thought even a little bit harder, we probably come up with more names. Like I think you can conceivably come up with like 10 dudes. Oh yeah. Okay. You go. That's a legit contender. Okay.
You know, give me two more right now. Uh, what powerhouse Hobbs, All right. Yep. And I'll throw him in there yeah here's why I say that is when you've got a dude that looks like that, even though he hasn't been around it, when you've got a dude who looks like that and can do what he can do in the ring,
You would have to consider him a threat for the world championship. Yeah. You have to, you should. Um, so I, I would put Hobbs in there. Okada. Yes. You can't ever. Takeshita. Yeah. Takeshita would be a part of that. I mean, you know, with Okada, you can't ever say that that guy's not a potential world champion because he's been so good for new Japan. True. Takeshita. Absolutely. Um,
I don't know. I'd have to sit down and look at the roster. I would have to say you could put Brody King in as a spoiler runner up. Yeah. I mean, um oh, here's one if you want a semi out of left field one.
Orange Cassidy. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because it wasn't that long ago, you know, before he got hurt. We talked about this before. Before he got hurt, a lot of us were going, i think you got put the belt on him.
Like, I think you got to make him the world champion. And it wasn't that he has to have a 400 plus day run like MJF does. No. But could you get a 90 day world champion Orange Cassidy? I think you could. yep And I think that the fans would be into it. Yeah. Plus with him, you would see him defend the title almost probably every week. Yeah. He'd be on TV wrestling. Yeah. It would be a good run.
But again, he doesn't need a belt. No. Orange Cassidy doesn't need the belt, but you could throw him in there as a potential spoiler of going, what if? Another guy that I have thought for a long time, the the guy that I thought was going to take it off of Jon Moxley before all the hangman stuff was Darby Allen.
Yep. And I'm not sure I full on buy Darby as world champion. I, But I'm not sure it matter I'm not sure it matters if I buy it. That's true. I think it matters if Tony Khan buys it.
Right. And I think he does. I think he does. Although at this point, Darby is busy applying to be a crash test dummy. So I don't know if he's to have time to be a world champion. Yeah. But I mean, that's a dude. um I just had another name and then it left my brain meats.
That's a bummer.
That's gone. That's gone. Oh, Claudio. It was Claudio. Claudio. Okay. Claudio would be another one. could him in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. ah Because, again, this is a dude who, and I know that that we ragged on him a while back, and I think we were justified for that. But that is a guy that so many of us have been like, why are you not a multi-time world champion? And that's kind of what we ragged on him for.
if you were to say to me, if you were going to put Claudio Castagnoli in the world championship picture, I'd be well, yeah I get it. Yeah. I buy it. Yeah. I'm not sure I buy that he's going to win just because of his history. But then if he did win, I'd be like, well, I mean, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Oh, and by the way, when he put Tony storm in the giant swing, yeah I don't think he's ever gained that much velocity ever. no And I thought he's going to throw her into the 10th row. Yeah. Yeah. That was something. Um, so, you know, I think overall, um,
I think it was a solid show. Yeah. I'm not going to tell you this was my favorite pay-per-view they've ever done. It wasn't. um However, what I'll say is is after every, I say this after every AEW pay-per-view, I don't regret spending the money. No. yeah I don't regret that. I mean, even though there were some weird spots, AEW pay-per-views are always so good. Yeah.
And I mentioned right after the event that I think they're a victim of their own success because they do set that bar so high. Mm-hmm. Which is why I think that third match of the night felt kind of weird because, you know, with the Bang Bang Gang and FTR, because they had just built and built those first two matches and it was like, holy crap, what's happening? And then you have this match where it ends.
It's okay that that happens, but it did feel they've had better. Yeah, they've had better. They've had better. um But overall, I think a solid show. What's ah what's your match of the night?
Oh, that's kind of tough. I honestly think Okada Takeshita, the opening match, was my match of the night. It was really fun to see Okada take the screwdriver and just resort to anything he possibly could to get the win and doing it. And I just thought they started with a lot of energy. And it just, for me, that was, that yeah, I think that was the match of the night. Yeah. I put down Moxley and Fletcher.
Okay. I can see that 100%. With the asterisk of, I didn't really see Okada and Takeshita because my puppy was being a gremlin. That's fair. So when I go back and rewatch that,
I might change my mind. But the Moxley Fletcher match was, again, good too. was really good. That's a really tough call. And even with the the main event, that four-way match, really solid. But maybe it was just because it started with such a a banger. And I'm really enjoying the Okada character right now. Maybe it's just speaking to me a little harder than normal.
But yeah, it just, you can put the screwdriver his pants was so funny. No, I love everything that Okada is doing right now. I think since he came to AEW, he has been wildly entertaining. Yep.
And I think he's been really, really good. I'd like to see him wrestle a little bit more. Okay. Okay but I'll be honest with you, that's me being selfish because I haven't seen a lot of the New Japan stuff. I've just seen like little clips here and there and I know like the legend of Okada and I just, I wanna see more.
right And that's just me being greedy. I fully know that. That's okay. but that's okay yeah um But yeah, so pretty solid show. um I think the Continental Classic delivered. i think I do too. It absolutely delivered. I thought the main event delivered. And, you know, there are definitely some highlights in between and then a few head scratchers, but, you know, only a few. And as per usual, ah we'll see how they pay it off on Wednesday. Yeah, we'll see what they have in store. I'm really intrigued. Like, I liked the Continental Classic because I do think it set up some stuff going forward, which is what it should do. And I think it achieved that goal pretty well, although they've already got me a little confused with the Moxley win and the possible face turn weirdness. Well, and again, that's where I think Wednesday becomes really important of what do you do with that? You need to show that you've got a plan here of this is why he cut that specific promo.
And it's not just because he Got his tooth knocked out, ah may or may not have broken Kyle Fletcher's neck, and also got kicked right in the pills. Yes, he did.
By Okada. Like, he meet you need to, if you can explain why that dude, after a year of being the polar opposite of it, gave that promo. Yeah.
And do it in a clear way, John. Could have been the Novocain to the brain. Could have been. But if you can explain it in a clear way, John. Talking to you, buddy. I would appreciate if you took a little time and watched the John Cena heel turn promo on YouTube where he clearly laid out why he turned.
Maybe learn a few things from that. Yeah. If you could do that for me on Wednesday, that would be good. i don't think Tim's asking for a lot here, John. I just, just like words in an order that makes sense. Yes. That's all I'm asking for. if you could do me that solid, bud, uh, remember dapped me up twice, blew this guy off.
Let's keep that connection going. um Yeah, again. So, yeah. If we get a good promo that explains that on Wednesday and we can see a little bit more of what the Death Riders are going to do and if we get, um well, I mean, the Mercedes story I think is going to be really good. i think we confidently say that. We'll see what they do with FTR. I think that's gonna be kind of important. Yes, it is. how What do we do now? And obviously, it's always important what you do with the world title. But, you know, if they can capitalize on a lot of the stuff that they started building tonight,
um then I have no complaints about the show. Is this where they finally bring back Copen Christian to take on FTR?
God, I hope so. Like I get that the idea was they were done with FTR and they were supposed to move on to Nick Wayne and Kip Sabian because those guys had come back around. Right.
And Nick Wayne's foot injury is worse than they thought. Stop me when you've heard that before. As I point to my little toys of MJF and Adam Cole there. um My micro brawlers. um I know that that's part of the problem here.
But injuries are going to happen. Yep. Pivot. And I don't know why you wouldn't pivot to taking arguably the greatest tag team ever in Edge and Christian. Yep.
Why would you not run them against FTR again? like I would. You've got to get those dudes on the show. You talk about an instant pop. Yeah. You've got to get those dudes on the show anyway. I could totally see that on Wednesday. FTR coming out, celebrating. They're doing their thing. Big Stokes doing his thing. Lights go out. youth They come back up.
And then, boom, there they are. Yeah. I would love that. Yeah. ah So we'll see. That's, I think, that is is one of the things that I think I'm actually going to be watching the closest is what are we going to do with the tag team ah the tag team division here? And if it's Copen Christian, that would be delightful. Yeah.
And if it's not, please let it be Hangman and Swerve. Yes. I don't think they're going to do that. so i don't either. you've got to give us something. Even if they don't win, i don't care. I'll watch until we have built something else up underneath that, but we need something in them in between. Yep. Yep. I agree. Give us a that. Yeah. But overall, solid show. Like I said, I'm not mad at it. We broke a bunch of necks and a bunch of teeth tonight. Oh, God. So much neck.
Best of luck to everybody and their medical bills. Yes. Yes. And we will be back. A new episode will come on Thursday when we break down whatever they do on Dynamite. this coming week. And and like I said, we'll see ah if they can capitalize on things like the tag team. i like I said, I have no doubt about the world title scene, but like what are we doing with the tag team title? What are we doing with the continental championship and the death writers? So hopefully we'll have more clarity on that, that we can talk about on Wednesday. In the meantime, like share, subscribe, do all the things.
And ah also hi to MJF who liked one of our posts. Hey buddy. I assume he's now our number one fan. We're we're glad you won. Yeah.