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Elite Heat is the All Elite Wrestling podcast for fans who want more than just a recap.
Every week, Tim and Dug — two AEW fans who've been All Elite since day one — react to AEW Dynamite and Collision, break down the latest storylines, analyze the characters driving the product, and give you their unfiltered take on everything happening in All Elite Wrestling.
From weekly show reactions to PPV breakdowns, roster moves to long-term booking analysis, Elite Heat covers the full spectrum of AEW. No fluff, no filler...just two passionate pro wrestling fans who care deeply about the product and aren't afraid to say exactly what they think.
New episodes drop every week. Subscribe and join the conversation.
This is how they're gonna get him over. Because you weren't really gonna get him over in a big way, I don't think, until now. Live from the Cleve as the kids call it.
Is that what they say? Do they really know?
They say the Cleve Yes. We all want to escape to the Cleve but we can't. so live from the Cleve
Okay. well, we could. From a Cleve
It's time to go home for WrestleDream.
Tim, I don't know if you're aware of this.
Yeah. What?
I noticed tonight that there are seventy-two hours until WrestleDream, as of this recording. Mm-hmm. As of this recording.
I will be damned. That feels like something someone should have said.
You would think they'd want to mention it.
You think.
At least once.
That is sarcasm.
Ta-da.
Right. So with that, let's jump in to the latest episode of Elite Heat, which by the way, you should like, subscribe, and follow if you have not done that yet. Give us five star ratings, even if you don't like us. and of course, go to doichfoods.com. That's D-O-I-C-H doichfoods.com. Use the promo code EliteHeat when you check out. Save twenty percent on your offer. I meant order, but offer also works there. And you can get some cookie dough that has protein in it, and you can make cookies. And if you order now, you might get it in time for WrestleDream, but probably you get it next week and either way you'll be a happy camper.
Tim, let me just say that was an excellent Excalibur impression.
Thank you. That's kind of what I was going for. So thank you. Next
That was very good. Very good.
Week maybe I'll have a mask. Probably not. I feel like I wouldn't be able to breathe through it. I've always like I watch him and I'm like, How do you breathe through that? It's you know. Yeah. That's true. And we
If you get one like Hechicero then you could. Yeah.
Will talk about him because he was on this extended program here this evening as they combined Dynamite and Collision into one big ol' show, which I should have known they were doing, and I didn't realize it
Yeah.
Until you texted me about it. And I was like, Of course, because I'm tired. I didn't sleep well last night. So I was like, Yeah, of course. Let's
Yeah. Of course. Yeah, of course. 'Cause for some reason
Let's do that. All right.
They've started they're doing pay-per-views now on Saturdays. Which I'm down with.
Well, I do get it. I do get why they're doing it on Saturdays because they're so long. I mean, like we
Yeah.
We have talked about this. If you're gonna do it, do it on a Saturday because
Yeah.
I don't wanna be up until one in the morning on Sunday when, you know, people gotta go to work on Monday. And again,
Exactly. No, I agree.
You had a bunch of those pay-per-views ending at like one thirty in the morning on the East Coast. So that's a lot more palatable
Mm-hmm.
When it's Saturday going into Sunday instead of
Yep.
Sunday going into Monday.
Yep. Yep. Yep. No, I'm down. I'm down with Saturday pay-per-views. I like I prefer it.
Yep. I just keep looking at Dynasty in Liverpool and I'm like, that's gonna be wonderful. That's gonna be like ten AM our time. I can't wait. We're gonna be done. It's still gonna be light out. It's gonna be amazing.
Right? It's gonna be crazy.
Yeah. Anyway. All right. So let's talk about tonight's episode. Let us begin with the heat check, which I believe did I go? Is it my turn?
It's your turn. Yep.
Of course it's my turn. You know why? Didn't put one together. but
You want me to do it?
Nah, it's all right. I can do it. Here we go.
Okay.
All right, so here is my hot list. The good news for them is I would say most everything made my hot list. there wasn't a lot that I didn't like tonight. So let's begin. I really like that trios match to open the show with the Death Riders and the Don Callis Family.
Agreed.
I enjoyed that. That was on my hot list. I thought Cope and Josh Alexander were on the hot list. I enjoyed that. I'm a little torn on what to do with Cope's postmatch promo. 'Cause it's not really I mean, it is a promo, but it's also really just kind of a dude speaking from the heart, like telling us what's going on with Christian, you know, that he's gonna hang it up next year. And on one hand, I'm inclined to put it on the hot list just to celebrate his career. But then I'm also inclined to put it on the mid because I don't want him to hang it up. I get it, but I think he's
Yeah.
Still got some gas in the tank, you know.
Yeah, but he's also put his body through a hell of a lot. And I mean he was on the shelf for
Really has.
A reason and we're kinda just lucky he's back at all right now. So I say, look, you give us one more year, I'll be happy about it. But I
Yeah.
Agre I understand 'cause I don't necessarily want to see him go, but I get it.
Yeah, I do too. but well, we'll talk more about it when we run the show down. so I'm not quite sure what to do with that one. It's just gonna be in heat check purgatory, I guess.
Yeah.
Don interrupting him with Brian Cage with him Kind of went on my mid.
Okay.
It was I wa that's another one I wasn't quite sure what to do with, but it kinda went on my mid.
That's that's fine.
Yeah, it just wasn't like I think part of that is Don sets the bar so high that it's like if he doesn't just like blow me away and like it's fine.
Right.
He's a victim of his own success. I liked Brian Cage and Takeshita. It's on my hot list. Big meaty men slappin' meat.
Mm-hmm. Same. Yep.
I'm gonna put United Empire promo
Mm-hmm.
On my hot list, mostly
Okay.
For one specific re well, it's really two reasons, but one specific reason that we'll talk about when we get there.
All right, that's fine.
I'm gonna give the FTR and Motor City Machine Guns the hot list as well. Myron Reed and Okada on the hot list for sure.
Absolutely.
That was a lot of fun, I thought. I really like Triangle of Madness and Divine Dominion and Mercedes. I enjoyed that a lot. That went on my hot list.
That one on my hot list as well. And sneak preview made my possible match of the night list.
I totally understand that. Joe Ciampa, Ospreay, Andrade on the hot list. I mean, come on, like
Mm-hmm.
Just saying those four, you could probably bet on that. Ricochet and Ace Austin were really fun. That's definitely on the hot list. Really liked that.
Yes. Yep.
I liked Renee with the tag title match participants. Wasn't necessarily
Yes.
My favorite segment, but I liked it enough to put it on the hot list. Well, I didn't write anything down about that, so I'm guessing that's on the mid.
Ha ha ha!
Hyan and Dani Luna versus Britt Baker and Persephone went on my hot list as well. I liked that. There's a s there's a specific aspect of the match that I like that we'll talk about, but I like that one.
Okay. Love it.
I'm gonna put the weird teaser video on the hot list just 'cause I've no idea who it's for, and I like that. That's fun.
Yes, same. I forgot to put that on my list, but I definitely noted it down in my normal covered. So yeah, yeah, yeah, one hundred percent.
Hechicero and Darby goes on the hot list. And that's my hot list.
All right. I have a few that didn't make yours.
Okay.
Nothing major. my first one down, Renee in a leather jacket to start the show. I thought that was very cool.
I was gonna say, is it stuff that you went like very specific on? 'Cause that happens every week. Yeah.
Absolutely. Now this next one, you are not gonna like. I almost guarantee it.
Okay.
It was a sign in the audience that said Chi Sox blew a two-O lead. And the only reason it's on there is because I know you're a Sox fan. That's the only reason it's there.
Yeah, I didn't care for that. That's on the mayo list for me. Did not care
Yeah.
For that. That is dirty, rotten, spoiled mayonnaise that's
Which is why it's on my hot list.
Been in the sun for four days.
Also on my hot list, Cage's, I guess you call it an Alabama slam bomb. That was incredible. And
Yeah, that was something. Yeah.
His top-rope hurricanrana, that was impressive as hell.
Mm-hmm.
Also on the hot list, Joe noping out of the OsCutter. That was amazing.
That was great. That was great.
And then I've really enjoyed Darby Allin selling the knee injury really well the entire match. Like
Totally agree. I thought about that too. I was like, he's doing a great job with that. Totally agree.
Cause how many times do we talk about when, they've got an arm injury or a knee injury and they limp, limp, lip, and suddenly now they're jumping off the top rope and spinning around and their leg is fine until it needs to not be. But I felt Darby really did a great job. And then the only other thing that isn't on your hot list that's on mine is I just I thought the so I thought the scrum at the end was really solid. It did exactly what it needed to do. Everybody hit everybody and I liked it.
Yeah, I drop that to my mid. We'll talk about it when we run the show down, but that's on my mid list. And it's not because it was bad. I don't think it was bad by any means. But you know
Right.
How we break this out of there are degrees of hot and mid and or
Yeah. That could go in the mild category. I understand that.
Yeah, mild. Sorry. See, I'm tired.
Yep, I get it.
That's in my mild. Yeah. it would probably be closer to the hot. It's a it's a mild with a little bit of a kick, but I put it in the mild.
Yeah.
Like I said, Don with Brian Cage kinda on my mild. Again, probably closer to the hot, but kinda on my mild.
Yeah,
So I gotta put the Bro Hangdo promo on the mild because number one,
Yep. Same.
I wasn't entirely certain what we were doing with the promo.
Mm-mm.
And number two, as you know, if you've been listening to this show for the last couple of weeks, I'm just not feeling this story. I'm just I'm
No.
Just not.
No. While I do like Brody kind of holding Hangman accountable and saying, Hey, stop sniffing around Swerves Crotch and get your head in the game, it just felt more the same and it's fine. I put it in mild too.
Yep. I put the New Level promo in mild.
Yes.
Okay, I'll say specifically why when we get to it, but that went in my mild. I put Renee and the Death Riders in the mild, not because I thought it was bad. It was just kind of weird.
I said that may be my favorite Renee Mox interview and I'll get into why. But Yeah, one hundred percent.
Yeah. No, I think I know why and I think yeah, I think I'm gonna agree with you on it, but it was just kinda weird. So I put it there. Yeah.
I it could stay in the mile, but possibly my favorite interview of her with Mox.
Yeah, again mild with a little kick, you know. the Nick Wayne victory celebration is in my mild, and it's very, very close to Mayo. Very close. It's in my mild,
Woof. Yep. Very close. I agree.
And I'm probably being generous with that one.
I think I am too.
Renee with Ciampa and Joe went in my mild because that's the thing that I went, well, I didn't write anything down for that, so I guess that's going in my mild. I remember nothing
Yeah.
About it.
Yep. That's fine.
Like when I got to it I went, I don't remember that segment at all. So that's in the mild and I'm gonna I'm gonna put the scrum in the mild, like I said.
Okay.
And again we'll talk about that. And then for Mayo, clearly that guy's sign about my White Sox.
What?
Put that in the mayo. and I gotta I gotta throw that Walker guy who was on commentary tonight in the mayo because how how do you say Okada's first name?
Thank you Thank you because
I've never heard someone say Kazuchika the way he was saying it.
I it was like he said it and I went, what did he say? Like I honestly didn't know. I'm like, my gosh, he's trying to say Kazuchka and I've never heard anyone say it the way he said well and I'm still not sure how he said it, but it was weird. And it's
Kazuchika. He kept saying it that way.
And here's what sucks about that because I thought he was really good except
I agree.
For that.
Yep, I agree. I like him when he shows up there, and I know that he's like the English voice of New Japan right now.
Mm-hmm.
Which is why it confused me even more. And at first I was like, well, maybe we've had it wrong this whole time, but then I remembered at Forbidden Door when they bring New Japan's ring announcer over.
Right.
He says Kazuchka. So I'm gonna
I think I'm gonna go with that guy.
Go with that guy too. Yeah. I mean
I did have I did have a couple things on my mild that you did not. I
Okay, hit me.
Put the Clockwork Carnage promo on there just because I'm like, my God.
That's fair. I don't think I even wrote it down, so that's why I didn't remember it. But yeah, that's fair.
And then weirdly, I put the MJF PWI Wrestler of the Year bit down. Mostly because I felt it was very like late 80s, early 90s, WCW sounding. I think it was just the voice
Mm.
Guy. And it just I don't know. It just was there. And then
That's fair. That's fair.
On my mayo, there probably should be one more thing, but we can just discuss it later. But I have Collision main event starting at 10:09 p.m. in the mayo.
Yeah. Yeah.
And we've discussed why, but good lord, you already have three hours. You don't even start your main event till ten after. Woof.
Yeah, no, I'm with you on that one. I agree. All right, so let's break this thing down a bit more in depth,
Yeah.
As we have again, I don't know if you know this, seventy two hours to WrestleDream.
You know what I heard that somewhere.
Yeah. Now I wanna before we start breaking down the individual segments here, I wanna get your sense of this. I really thought tonight's show was dominated by the Clockwork Carnage match.
It one hundred percent was. One hundred percent. Well, they needed to fill it 'cause they only had two people in it at that point. So they had to
Yeah. I mean that's bas that's almost all they talked about. Almost. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
Fill it. And I will I will say I liked it for its potential, but I think there was some a little bit missing from it. Basically the reason I liked it was This gave them an opportunity to kind of create an excuse to start new feuds and rivalries and we kinda didn't really do that, but you could have. But we got to see some cool matches you normally wouldn't see. So that I enjoyed, but I felt they could have done a little bit more creating some new spark to get us moving after WrestleDream. But
Yeah. And they might. We don't
Yeah, maybe.
Know how this is going to play itself out. They might. And
Mm-hmm.
And I understand you had to sprint because you lost a week with the PAC tribute show, which is, you did exactly what you should have done. And it was going to be a tight window anyway. I get it. I understand the why. But I was just, I found myself at one point in the show going, We've talked about clockwork a lot. I'm not sure what else is on WrestleDream. And
I mean that is for the world title and again and I think like
And now, I get it. I get it. But I
Every other match was a qualifying match, so
Right. I mean most of the matches were. And so again,
Movement.
I understand the why behind it. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have done that or that it was bad or whatever. there were a couple times where I was like, what else is on the show? We should probably mention
Yeah.
That.
Yeah. Well, as we found out during the show, there wasn't much and they booked a lot tonight. They booked a lot tonight. And
They sure did. They sure did, Billy. They sure did.
Before we get into the full thing, I'll say what, three and a half hours? Talking a good three and a half tonight?
Yeah.
With that much, I felt like this was I don't think I've ever used this term for the show, bloated. I felt like it was bloated with stuff that
I think that's fair. Th there's definitely a few things that didn't need to be there.
Really we could have trimmed a good forty minutes out of this show tonight and given given
Okay.
Us another match personally. But that's just me. I enjoyed the show, but I did feel like the whole thing was a bit bloated with just stuff. No.
Okay. All right. Well, let's talk about it. So that trios match to open up with the Death Riders and the Don Callis Family. I enjoyed it, you know. I don't have a lot of thoughts on it. I thought it was pretty good.
Mm-hmm.
Nice to see Wardlow in his hometown there. Didn't do a lot, but it was nice to see him. Did he
Yeah, that was fun. Mm-hmm.
I if he did, I missed it. Did he do that wind up headbutt thing he was doing all the time before he left? Or like the wind up clothesline, maybe is what it was. Well,
I don't think so. If you if you I don't know. I might have missed it.
I don't think he did it and I celebrate that decision because when he was doing that before he, you know, was gone for two years or whatever, I was like,
Yes.
I don't think this looks as cool as you think it looks.
Yeah, yeah.
And I'm glad he didn't do that. But yeah, I thought he looked pretty good in limited action, so that was nice.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I thought that I actually gave this a possible match of the night at the start. And I will say
Mm-hmm. Same. Same.
This, one of my favorite things, started early, and you know I am. I'm weird. Tony said too meaty too strong. And immediately I thought Vin Diesel has a new franchise.
There you go.
Too meaty, too strong. It's about a meaty family.
I enjoy I enjoy Danny Garcia's bit where he goes for the chokeslam and it never works. I am a big fan of that.
Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
At some point it's gonna get old, but we're not there yet. I enjoyed it.
That or at some point he's going to hit it on someone he should definitely
Well, yeah.
Not.
That too. Yeah. I thought the pacing of the match is really good. I thought it was a lot faster than it was going to be, given the people involved, especially because, you know, a lot of
Yeah.
How Mox in particular has been working lately is we start slow and build, and I don't have a problem with that. But I thought they
Mm-hmm.
Paced it really well. I liked that. And
Yeah. Are you as surprised as I am that Kidd is getting over as a face with the crowds?
Yes. And I had that thought at one point in the match, and I went, This is how they're gonna get him over.
This is what we
Because you weren't really gonna get him over in a big way, I don't think, until now. And
Right.
It sucks that it required very unfortunate circumstances for that to happen, but I'm shocked
True.
With how over he is or seems to be.
And I don't think he could have I don't think they could have done it with him in the dogs only.
I agree.
I think having him be there and having Mox having verbally endorsed him for about three weeks in a row, I think that super helped. And again, of course, the tragedy just shot them over the face line immediately. And
Yeah.
Like we said before, they should definitely embrace it. But the fact that he's able to get over as well as he has is kudos to him, man. Cause
Yeah.
I'm very happy for him. I think that's very cool.
Yeah, I agree. I'm impressed by it. And I don't know where that leaves the dogs. I was thinking about that, because they've kind of disappeared, which is a bummer, but
Mm-hmm.
It's interesting.
Yep.
So check my math on this. Since Mox lost twice now to Mark Davis, by the rules
Yeah.
Of wrestling that dictates he's gonna win at the pay-per-view, right?
One hundred percent. Yeah. One hundred percent. I thought that same thing too. I was like, Ooh,
Yeah, okay. Okay. Okay. That's gonna come up again. Yeah.
Are they gonna have him take the pin again? And I was like, yep. Well he's gonna win it the pay-per-view.
Mm-hmm. then it was Cope and Josh Alexander. This is a clockwork qualifier. And you know,
C C Q
Good, good match. How could
Yeah. Yeah.
It not be really?
Yep. and I should have put this in my heat, but I didn't. But when at the end, Cope knocking off Alexander's headgear. That was really good. That was really good. Yep. That was really good.
Yes. And wearing it at the start of the promo. Yeah, I agree. That was really good. I liked Alexander's counter of the spear that happened somewhat early in the match. I haven't
Mm-hmm.
Seen somebody counter it that way where he just kind of pushed him down. I was like, I like that.
In a weird way, the announce team said something right then that just made me go, We say this a little too much because they were like, Alexander has really got that one scouted. If you've seen three Cope matches, you should have that scouted. You should know that's coming. We all know it's
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Coming. I've never wrestled a day in my life. I knew it was coming.
If I were wrestling Adam Copeland and I see him in a in any corner, I'm immediately getting out of the ring. Yeah.
Yeah, if he is crouching down for anything, I'm gonna I'm just
Yeah. Out of the ring.
Yep, I'm out.
Yep. Yep. So then we get the postmatch promo where he tells us that Christian Cage broke multiple ribs five minutes into the not TLC TLC match at all out
Mm-hmm.
And collapsed a lung and wrestled the damn match like that. So
That's that's incredible.
Yeah, so cheers to Christian Cage and his giant brass huevos. Good for you. And then of course, you know, Cope says, Well, I'm gonna hang it up in twenty twenty seven. It's not about me anymore, whatever. yeah, mixed emotions on that.
But what did you think about him yet another guy putting their hat in the ring for the world title?
Well, I didn't mind it in this context because number one, you've got an eight man match for the world title.
Yeah. Yep.
And I don't know why you if you're Tony Khan, I don't know why you wouldn't put him on the pay-per-view if he's available. You
Yeah.
Know. So I didn't have a problem with it. I don't think I don't think it's gonna go very far. I you know, at some point he'll get the match with Ospreay and it'll probably be really good. And that'll be it. I don't think it's gonna
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Be like a multi week program. You know, they might give it like two weeks, maybe three, but you know.
No. I think they give up two three. Mm-hmm.
And it seems like what's next for him for Cope. is some sort of feud with the Don Callis Family since Don came out and basically told him, You're old, shut up.
Yeah. Which was kind of fun. Yep.
Yeah. which would then lead to Takeshita coming out with the conglomeration and I was like, I forgot that they hang out.
Yeah.
Yeah, I forgot those guys hang out together.
Yeah.
So you know, the whole segment there was fine. Yeah, I don't have a problem with him saying he's gotta go after the world title. I don't think he's gonna win it. I don't think it's gonna be a Bryan Danielson thing where he wins it and then, you know, retires a month or two later. I don't think it's gonna be like that.
Right. I mean he's they th they wore the tag titles. That I think that's
And he had the TNT title.
Yeah, I think that's his that's legacy enough. You don't have to put you don't have to put it on him personally.
Yeah. I get that a big part of why Brian won it is because Tony Khan wanted to have his name as one of the world champions, and I get that. Maybe that happens with Adam Copeland, but I just I don't think so.
No, I don't think that is necessary personally, but you know, maybe.
I agree. Yeah, I agree. I don't think it's necessary and yeah, I just don't think you need it. So Yeah.
And we have a year for that to happen, if it's ever to happen. I don't think it needs to happen soon.
No, I agree. yeah, so then it looks like Cope's gonna beef with the Don Callis Family for at least a little bit here, which, you know, wiki doke. you know. Yeah. Yeah, might as well.
Yeah. I mean there's plenty of He may as well.
Yeah. so then it would lead into Brian Cage and
Yeah.
Takeshita, which was this a yeah, it was a qualifier match. Yeah.
Yep. Almost everything tonight was a C C Q
Yeah, I should just assume. Yeah. I thought it was a little odd putting the Clockwork Carnage match explainer video so they do the Takeshita breaks up the run in, whatever with the conglomeration. They go to break, they come back, they do the video, and then now Cage and Takeshita are in the ring and gonna fight. I thought that was a little weird.
Yeah, the timing of that was a bit odd. And like I said, that clock, I get it. You need to explain. But do you I mean, if we don't get it at this point, we I don't know,
Yeah.
Man.
Yeah. I get it. Well, I mean, this is where it's tough because there are times where I'm like, you guys need to do a better job of explaining things because I still will see when they do the when they announce the that they're doing a casino gauntlet match.
Mm.
I still see people going, That's not a gauntlet match. I'm like, I know it's not supposed to be. Like
Right.
It's the name, but it's not really what it is. And you know, we have to explain it to them in the comments. And so it's like on one hand I go, Yeah, I get it, but on
I mean, yeah.
The other hand, like, well, maybe you do still need to explain it. I don't know. I bet you they're gonna air it again on Saturday, too.
Yeah, it was fine. Probably. They should yeah. Whatever. It's fine. It was j that's
Yeah. Yeah.
Why it made my mild. I was like, meh, whatever.
No, I get I think the placement of it was very odd. And especially
That was weird.
In a night where it's basically all they were talking about, you probably didn't need it. I see that.
Yeah. Yep. Yep. And I think that's one of the
Then the
Examples that I that I'm including in the bloat. Just felt a little bloaty with that. But you know, whatever. Yeah.
That's fair. Yep. I get that. I get that. Then United Empire promo would happen, I did put it in the hot for really for two reasons. I put this in there because I kind of like this version of the group. It's eclectic, but I think it's fun.
Yeah.
And the biggest reason I put this in my hot list.
Can I guess?
Yes.
Andrade?
No.
Was it Speedball going boop? Alright. Alright. Did not know
It was speedball booping Ospreay, yes.
That Speedball was hanging around old school Statlander.
It that made me laugh. I didn't expect it. It made me laugh. So that's why it got in the hot list for me.
And let me just say it wouldn't be a birds interview without them using the word piss or the word slags, and they did both.
As soon as she said that, I just started laughing 'cause I knew you were gonna say it. Yeah.
And but before we get too far, I want
Yeah.
To go back real quick to Cage and Takeshita. Because during that match, we saw what I called Lariat War number two. Because now, for the second time on that show, we saw people standing up and just slugging it out with Lariats. And that has that's kind of becoming a new trend that people are doing. Not just AEW, but it's happening. And it just seems to It was kind of interesting because when who was using the head? when Garcia was using the headlock, I was
Mm-hmm.
Like, I almost wrote down, glad to see he's like utilizing a headlock, and then they made a big deal about it on commentary. And I was like, Okay, that's cool. An old thing is coming back. And I was like, okay, this is one of the new hotnesses that everyone's doing. And now we've had two on the same show within thirty five minutes of each other. So it was fine and I get it, because they're two big boys slapping it together. I don't know. It just stuck out in my head. Anyway, back to Andrade.
Well, no, hang on, hang on. I'll I'll go with you on this. Like it jumped out to me too, but for a different reason. My thought was all those people that go, AEW is just spot fest. That's all it is. It's just high
Huh.
Spot, high spot, high spots, high spot. Well, well, those matches weren't. You know?
No. Mm-hmm.
And I don't think they were that they were doing that as a response to the people that say it's just a spot fest. I think it makes a lot of sense. Like you said, two big guys duking it out, you know. Look, I gotta tell you,
Concluded.
I like a good Lariat. So if they're gonna throw
Mm-hmm.
A bunch of I'm okay with it personally.
Th like I said, the only issue I had was we had a bunch of them earlier with the Don Callis Family in that and so it's like we started the show with that and now we have another one and again
But again, it kind of makes some sense, right? Cause look at that squad that the Don Callis Family put out. Those are big, beefy dudes. Like
Yeah. yeah.
If the narrative becomes Don is telling them, is coaching them up like you're huge, throw clotheslines and lariates because you're huge, it kind of makes sense.
Yeah. It was just the fact that we had these stand up b you know, where
I get it.
They both hit each other, nothing happens. They both hit each other, nothing happens.
Mm-hmm.
They both hit each other, nothing happens. It just
I get it.
Maybe it was too close back to back to see it that it stuck out, but that was it. And it's a minor it's a minor thing for
Nope.
Me.
Nope. You hate it. You hate professional wrestling now. And
Mostly, yeah. Mm-hmm.
I believe you hate puppies.
Yep. Next week I'm reviewing Dance Moms.
All right. Why not? Is that even still
While n
On?
I don't I have no idea.
Anyway. Yep. So then FTR would come out on stage with Tony Schiavone. I did like that Dax broke from his usual like, my wife and daughter are the only thing that matters, and instead insulted them. I thought that was pretty funny.
That was kind of funny.
And then Motor City Machine Guns came out instead of the Young Bucks, whom FTR
I wrote down
Had called out.
It's about time.
So do you know the story behind that?
No.
Apparently, Motor City Machine Guns are part of a band. And their band was touring. And
Yep. Y I forgot about that. Yep.
Yeah, they didn't even want to debut when they did, because they knew they were going to be on this tour, but it was in Detroit. And how do you not debut them in Detroit? And so like they worked one match because it was like the one night
One.
That they had off. now the tour is done. And so now they're going to be. in the ring, but yeah, apparently they didn't want to debut until like now. And Tony just was like, No, no, no, we gotta debut debut you in Detroit. Say that ten times fast.
Yep. And I yeah, you're you're right. I forgot about that. And it's just that I like them a lot and I didn't want to see them fade
I do too. Mm-hmm.
Into the ether because they haven't been around much, but I could not be happier that we're getting a best of five series on this one. I think that is that's something I think if you I talked about old WCW earlier, but one of my favorite things back then There's a wrestler we're not supposed to name anymore because he did a horrendous thing, but he had a best of seven with Booker T, and that was really good. Like that was really good. And so I
Yeah. Yeah.
Really like this because now we know we're gonna get seven. Probably they're gonna push it to seven. We aren't gonna see a clean sweep. So we're gonna probably see, or is it best of five? Best of four. So we're
It's best of five, so it doesn't yeah.
Gonna get at least five matches, if not five weeks out of this. And I think that's fantastic. I love that.
I agree. I agree. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. I think Motor City Machine Guns come out on top on this one, and that's how they're gonna put them with the Young Bucks. I think it's gonna be tremendous fun. when they
Yeah.
Announced that, I was like, Yep, you sign me right up for that. That's gonna be a lot of fun. Yeah.
Can't wait. So good.
Yep. Then the Bro Hangdo promo, but really hangman yelling at swerve.
Yeah.
I just
I mean, the good thing about it is Brody called him out 'cause I think he was
Yeah.
Voicing the frustration that a lot of people have watching that happen.
Yeah, I agree. Like as like you said, I thought Brody was good there. The problem with it was because of how it started, my brain very quickly went, I just like I like the swerve hangman stuff. Like I like them. How can you not? But at the same time, like this just it's not hitting, and I'm kind of over it and I don't know where
Nope. Mm-hmm.
We're going with it. And I kind of stopped paying attention. And so like I caught Brody going, like, hey man, like Basically you gotta lock in and then I know Bandito said words, I didn't hear any of
I heard Tranquilo and something else.
And to be clear, it's not that I didn't hear them because of him. It's because I had stopped paying attention. And yeah.
Yeah, I mean I that's same. I heard Drankelo and was like, Yeah, he should calm down.
And that's where I was just like, this has got to be over, man. This has got to be over.
Yeah, yep. Yep.
So I really hope that WrestleDream is the end for that. And they the but again, the problem is I'm going, you haven't done anything to heat up. Another trio. So it's either gotta be Don Callis Family or it's gotta be some of the Death Riders because you've done nothing to heat anybody else up. So
Right. I mean, luckily you do have Don Callis Family, you do have the Death Riders, and you can throw the Rascalz at them. So absolutely. Absolutely.
Which I would like them to do a lot. The because then Myron Reed of the Rascalz and Okada wrestled and I wanted with all my heart for Myron Reed to win, but I knew he wasn't gonna.
Yeah, I wanted that too. I thought for a hot minute they that would happen. I really did.
If if I'm going to nitpick anything with the qualifying matches tonight, it's that you did have an opportunity to take some of these guys that don't factor into big storylines, right? And you could have put them in this match.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
And I thought the two that I thought could have been really interesting additions to this match were Myron Reed and Ace Austin.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I thought if you had put those two guys in the match, it could have been a really interesting dynamic. Look, do I think either of them would have had a any chance of winning the world title? No. But
Not really.
To be fair, there's one guy in that match that I think is winning the world championship on Saturday, and it's the guy that already has it.
I agree. I agree.
And that's no disrespect to the other seven. I just think they're not taking it off Ospreay yet. So you could have.
Right. And I mean, especially with this match, Okada doesn't need to be in the title hunt. He can be in the title hunt at any point. But Myron Reed,
Yeah. Same thing with Joe.
It yeah, same thing with Joe. But it's good to see Joe back in a mix. So that's I don't have a problem with that. But like
Yeah. Yeah.
Myron Reed, I think, deserves to at least get a little bit of that rub. He's not gonna win, but show him some love. Show him some, you know. Get him in there, get people used to seeing him in a big pressure situation, in a big time situation, and I think that does nothing but good for him and the radicals. So or yeah. Radicals? Radicals. Radiscals.
Rascalz. Yeah. Yeah. No, I totally agree with you on that. I thought it would have been really interesting to put him and Ace Austin in the in the match on Saturday. Let those guys have a couple moments to shine. It would does nothing but elevate them and their groups.
Important. Mm-hmm.
I w I get it. Don't get me wrong. I get it. I totally understand why they booked it the way that they did. And I think these eight guys are gonna tear it down on Saturday.
Absolutely.
I totally understand that. But again, when I think a lot of us are looking at it going, Ospreay's gonna retain. It's not gonna be a surprise when he does. Then take these two dudes and toss them in there with speedball and Ospreay and Ricochet and Darby. Yeah, Darby
Yeah.
Would have been in it. And let's see what they do. You know, like let's let put on a show. So
Yep.
I'm not surprised. I understand it, but I'm a little sad that they didn't do that. However,
Yeah, same.
I was paying attention to the graphic after you talked about it with the silhouettes, and you were right, they totally gave it away. Cause I'm looking
Yeah.
At it and I was like, That's ricochet, that's Darby. And I had it right. So
Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. I did the same thing. So
Yep. So anyway, this good match.
Could have been match
Yeah, I
Of the night, but it didn't make my my final list of possible match of the night. But it was really good.
Yeah, absolutely. Same, same. It was really good. Didn't end up in the in the match of the night final list for me, but it was real close to it. the only other thought I have on it is Kazuchka Okada's middle finger the second most over middle finger in wrestling history?
At this point in time, yes indeed. Yes indeed.
I mean I don't think anybody's will ever be more popular than Stone Cold Steve Austin, but man, he's gotta be up there at this point.
It's so good. It is so good. And I know we talk about it all the time, every week when he wrestles, but man, h this is gotta be so fun for him and it's so fun to watch this version of Okada. So I just I really like it. Kazu Chica.
Yeah. Totally agree. Then the new
Kazuchi however that guy said it. Kazu Chica. It's so weird.
Kazuchika is how he was saying it. Yeah. Then it was New Level time. And
Yeah.
Should I know who Mojo Brookzz is? Because I had never heard that name until tonight. Okay.
Same, I don't know. It's not making my feeds. I'm probably too old for
Yeah. I that's what I wondered. Is it like just a completely different demographic? And it might be.
Mm-hmm.
You know, it might be that I'm too old or it might just be, you know, again, that's that's not part of my algorithm. I don't know, but like I think he's a comedian, right? And I see a lot of stand up comics, so
Yes, comedian and possibly other performer as well, maybe musician as well. I don't know. He does more than one thing apparently. But this right here
I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Yeah. Good for him.
Is exactly what I was talking about bloat, because not only did you have the backstage episode, which I thought
Mm-hmm.
Was very meh, but then they bring it into the ring and it goes on however long it was, that much too long.
Yeah. I this was one that I definitely
Yeah.
Was like too long. I thought Austin Creed was good. I thought he was the best part of it.
Yeah, that's all you needed out of this.
Yeah. But there was a lot of it where I was like, I don't know why we're doing this. And I don't know what we're talking about. And here's this guy that I don't know who he is. And he's mildly entertaining.
Mm-hmm.
I'm not sure that was the best spotlight for somebody that doesn't know who he is, you know what I mean? Like I'm
Right.
Not sure that was the best introduction to him. I don't know. It was weird. Didn't love it.
And then calling out Brody King, I mean
Yeah, like I was sitting there when he did that. I'm like, so you just want to die? Like
Yeah. I mean I get it because it's such a an odd request, so it's kind of cool, but like again,
Yeah.
It's probably I'm just a victim of he's not in my zeitgeist, so I don't have any
Yeah.
Interest in its I mean more power to him if he's getting a shot
Mm-hmm.
At something he's always wanted to do, but it just went on so long and I don't think it was necessary at all. And basically Creed said the same thing that Brody did, which is hangman, cut it the hell out.
Yeah. I will say this, if he's gonna get if that Mojo Brookzz guy is gonna get in the ring, let's not do that. I don't want AEW
Yeah.
To fall into the we're gonna put a celebrity in the ring trap. It just more
Yeah.
Often than not, it's not it's a thing that happens and that's the best you can say about it, you know.
Yeah. I mean if they can't get jelly roll I don't give a shit who they get. It's not
Yeah, true.
Yeah.
So then another trios match, Triangle of Madness took on Divine Dominion and Mercedes. I really enjoyed this match. It was a lot of fun.
Absolutely. I liked it a lot. I forgot I was gonna put something in the in my hot list that I forgot. The overhead shot from the top down of Thekla's submission on Lena Kross just looked so freaking cool.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
I was like, That's I'm glad they're using that angle. That was so cool looking and just watching her crank her head and neck back like that. It was neat.
Yeah. No, I thought the whole match was really fun. I don't know if they did this on purpose or if it just worked out this way. But if you go back and pay attention, after Julia Hart misted Lena Kross, you don't see her face again. Her hair is in her face.
Yeah. That was really good.
And I was like, if they did that on purpose, brilliant. Love it.
Yeah, I hope they did. Yep.
Love it. Cause we talk about that before of like, If somebody gets misted, gets misted, and the referee, it's like, how do you not see that? You know? Yeah. And then go,
Right. I mean it try try get something on your
Wait, wait a minute. Why is your face green? It wasn't before. That's hmm. So
Right. And let me just say, I think Julia Hart, God lover, is fine in the ring. But her only offensive move that works is the mist.
I thought she threw a good super kick. She
Okay, yeah, I'll give you that.
She had a good super kick or two tonight.
But I mean, f on the whole, it's she's a mister. Julia Hart, Mr. Julia Hart. I said it.
Yeah. I mean, her husband might be fine with being called Mr. Julia Hart. I don't know, but anyway, yeah, I that's fair.
Well, there you go. So anyway. I like that match.
I'm sure people are gonna talk about at some point how badly Skye Blue missed on the super kick to Mercedes, which was
Both. Yeah.
Pretty obvious. But here's the thing, here's why I don't have a problem with it. You've got to protect her nose. And this close to the pay-per-view, I would rather you miss that badly than accidentally. connect and re-injure her.
Mm-hmm.
So I have no problem with her missing by that much. I really don't.
I also wouldn't put all the onus on her because I
No, yeah.
Think it was equal parts. She's trying to protect Mercedes. Mercedes is trying to protect herself. And I think Mercedes ducked away sooner rather than later. And it just the angle was unfortunately where you could obviously see it. And that's just live TV and that happens. I mean, it didn't wreck it for me, because it happened, but I enjoyed the shit out of this match. I thought it was really
Yeah.
Good.
I did too. Like I said, I have no problem with that at all. I enjoyed it. Thought it was a really good match. Looking forward to Thekla and Mercedes this weekend.
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Then Samoa Joe and Tommaso Ciampa took on Will Ospreay and Andrade El Ídolo. And I mean, what what are you gonna say? Like you put those four guys in the ring together, like, yeah, that's gonna be good. It was good.
Here's what here's what I'll say.
Yeah.
I did not know that Samoa Joe and Ciampa was a tag team I needed in my life, but now I realize I do.
That's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. I'm
And I'm sorry. I just want
No, go ahead.
To let you know, I probably wasn't paying enough attention to this match because I was busy coming up with names for the Samoa Joe Ciampa team. Here's what I came up with. I have several. Are you ready?
Yeah, old God, yeah.
Tommaso Joe.
Okay.
Samoa Ciampa. I know that's not great. Tomasop. No, what was it? Tomasops.
Hm. Okay. Okay.
The champ ops Tommaso Joe.
There it is. Yeah. Okay.
The Psycho Samoan, Samoso Champo, and possibly my favorite, Joe Paw.
That might be a well.
What's
I like that one a lot until I remembered that's what people called Joe Paterno. And if you remember what happened at Penn State, that's Huh? No,
I thought they was Papa Joe. Isn't that Papa Joe? Didn't they call him Papa Joe?
No, Joe Paterno. Puh. Joe Pa.
I know that. I just thought I didn't know. I don't care. That's all sports ball.
Yeah. It's yeah, it's I mean
What do I care?
Well, that's fair. I like a lot of those though. I do. That
Tommaso Joe I liked.
That's that might be my favorite. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. Yeah, I
Yeah. Samasu Champo really made me laugh too.
That is pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, I mean they were good together. Like you had pointed out, Joe just noping out of the was it the OsCutter? It was great.
So good.
It was great. His reaction after it too was really fun. So these guys are great. It was it was really good. I was thinking about this. How do you think they're gonna book the Andrade cash in?
I don't know.
'Cause remember, you can't just run in and do it anymore. You gotta
Right.
Say, next week I'm doing it or whatever.
Is it refresh my memory. Is it just for the world title? Okay.
Yeah. I believe so.
Okay.
So because I was thinking about that and I was like, both of those guys are super over in Andrade and
Mm-hmm.
Ospreay. And they've done a nice job of having them kind of form their, you know, friendship or whatever there. So how do you do it? Do you just have them both be mega faces and say, look, we're gonna do this and just do the match and be done with it? Or do you start sowing seeds of tension there? I don't know.
I hope not.
I don't know which is better.
I really hope not. Because I thought that same thing when they were all backstage during the interview. I was like, can we not do the thing that we always do in wrestling where we have the two super over faces and suddenly one of them wants you know, it's can we just not do that? Can we let them have can we just keep this family together for a little while and not have mom and dad fight? Because I don't want to see that. Now,
That's fair. Yeah.
I just had a thought. Which I know is surprising for everyone involved. But what you could do to keep everything on copacetic is at WrestleDream, say Joe wins. Then immediately you could have Andrade turn in his shot so that he can in a week get his the title shot, win it, have a little run, something happens, and then somehow Ospreay gets it back. I don't I don't know. The more I talked about it, the
I
Less that made sense, but
No, I can see that path. So if if Joe wins, and I do think that if there's anybody in that match that's gonna win it that isn't Ospreay, it's probably Samoa Joe.
I mean, they were really laying into that one tonight.
Which is to say I don't think he's gonna win it.
No, but like you said, if they're if they're getting you to doubt that Ospreay's gonna lose, that's the guy that they're gonna have to come out. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah. I think it would be Joe. So let's say Joe wins it, Andrade cashes in on him, Andrade wins it off of Joe. Yeah, you could you could have like a couple weeks of Andrade carrying the belt and then like because they are buddies, just like, hey man, you know, if is especially if Ospreay doesn't factor into it at all, you right, because of the point system where it's like
Mm-hmm.
He didn't, you know, he wasn't pinned, he wasn't submitted, Joe just got one more point or whatever. you know, 'cause he took out Ricochet or something, right? You could have Andrade go, You kind of got screwed, so
Without swords.
Let's do it and put it back on Ospreay that way. I don't love it solely from the standpoint of both of those
Right. No, I don't either.
Guys are so over, but I don't hate it. So there's that. Like if they went that
Yeah. I mean I
Direction, I wouldn't be like, God, this is a mistake, you know?
I think probably what you're gonna see is kind of what you alluded to is at some point they get together and go, you know, Ospreay's like, Look, man, how long are you gonna hold on to this? Let's just
Mm-hmm.
Let's just knock this out. May the better man
Let's just do it, yeah.
Win. We're all in United Empire, whoever wins a belt wins
Yeah.
The belt. Let's go. I think that'd be all right. I'd be okay with
Yeah, I think that's and I think that's probably the way to do it. So we'll see. Then Renee with the Death Riders.
Because Collision started and we had to if you
That's true.
Were watching on HBO, you had to go and change feeds so you could see
Yep.
It.
They did do a nice job of creating some buffer there though.
Yes, they did.
So I appreciate AEW doing that.
Mm-hmm.
So Renee was with the Death Riders. I thought it was interesting. Why did Jon Moxley sound like he was turning into the Hulk in this?
Here's here's literally what I wrote. Renee with Death Riders asks Mox about his loss. Mox rearranges furniture, beats up a pallet, then maybe has a stroke or poops. Because I
Almost got the spit take there.
And legit, this may be my favorite interview because it's one of the first Renee Mox interviews where it's cle it she clearly was playing the wife going, Are you okay? Like,
Yeah. Yeah.
What is wrong? And then
Yeah.
Marina had to come in and get him straight, and I thought, ooh, is this gonna be a problem? And then Marina and Renee walk off together. And then I wrote,
I thought that too. Yeah.
Suddenly, Kidd doesn't look like the craziest one in this group.
I know. And I and I did like I'm with you. I liked that they, you know, didn't do any sort of pretense of like these two aren't married 'cause, you know, Mox at one point like reaches out and pats Renee's leg and yeah, it was it was an interesting segment, a little weird, which to be fair is said a lot in context with the Death Riders, but
I would say little is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.
Yeah. I don't fully understand it. But okay.
I think it just solidifies the fact that he's winning on Saturday because
Well yeah.
He's now he's focused. Now he's got his boys with him and Marina and his wife
Yeah.
And everything's fine and he's fo and he'll just win.
Yeah, I think so too. I just didn't understand it from the standpoint of like, are we trying to do like a crisis of confidence thing with him? 'Cause we kind of did that a while ago when he kept losing to Kyle O'Reilly, but then also you're Jon Moxley, man. Like, I don't I have a little trouble buying
Right. Although it is
That.
But it is nice to see some cracks in the armor finally, 'cause like
Sure.
You said, I'm tired of seeing him as just the unbeatable Superman and it's like nothing
Yeah.
Dents the armor. So it's nice to see the armor getting dented once in a while. It's weird
Sure.
To see him lose his mind in the back when front of everybody he knows and likes and respects, but you know, that's fine too.
Yeah, it was just a weird little segment there.
Yeah.
Then Ricochet and Ace Austin would square off. really, really liked this match. Potential match of the night contender for me.
Absolutely.
I would like to see more from these two guys. I don't know how much more we're going to get, but I'd like to see
Right.
More.
It was during this
And like I said though.
I was just gonna say it was during this match that I wrote down, thanks to the silhouette before it even started, it's gonna be Ricochet and Darby winning.
Yeah. S same. Yeah. I was like, it's gonna be ricochet, it's gonna be Darby. Now, to be fair, just looking at the card, I went, It's gonna be ricochet, it's gonna be Darby. Like I said, I'm still a I get it. I'm just a little bummed that they didn't put Ace Austin and or Myron Reed in. I think it would have been
See, I think this is the one match that they could have done the switcheroo because it was supposed to be Jay White.
Yeah.
And J Jay White probably wasn't going to win. But now, kind
Probably not.
Of like the Maya world thing, they could have given not that, you know, they're gonna have Ace Austin go and win the world title, but they could have done a nice little story of having Ace beat Ricochet and have a good showing Saturday night, and it would have been that. Again, I don't think Ricochet is winning the world title. I don't think it does him any harm not to be in this match, and it does nothing but good things for Ace Austin.
Yeah.
And quite frankly, swapping those two out is kind of like swapping, you know, it's like you got a super athletic guy that does a lot of flippy stuff and is strong and cool. And you got another super strong guy that's kind of he's super flippy and does a lot of cool stuff and he's strong. He's got big quads. It's kind of like an A to A, A to B swap. So from a technical standpoint and a match style style standpoint, you weren't gonna lose anything with either one of those guys.
Yep. I agree. I totally agree. And that's why I think I would have liked to have seen it happen. Again, I get it. I just would have liked it.
Yep. Yep.
Then Renee spoke with the tag title match participants, which was really mostly talking to ProtoJet until the Bucks super kicked them out of nowhere. And the promo it's or the segment itself is like, whatever, it's fine.
Yeah, well.
What I really enjoyed about it though. were the noises that Kyle Fletcher was making after the
Yes.
Super kicks.
The w I wrote down the way he's selling it is awesome. So good. Yeah, it was so good. Absolutely.
Yes. It was amazing. It was so good. And that made that segment work for me. He did a great job there.
Absolutely.
Then we did the Nick Wayne victory celebration, which was far too long. And while I kind of enjoyed the music
Yes.
Video, I thought that was kind of funny, the first one, not the second one, which that right there tells you it's too long. I didn't I again it just it just didn't work the way that I think they were hoping for. Like, okay, the setting off the pyro every time that he says I beat Chris Jericho, like, okay, okay. And then I think
I like that part.
I did like it too, but the problem was when the whole bit was supposed to be so you're gonna do the pyro, but then Judas hits, the problem was Nick Wayne turned too early.
Yep, he reacted too soon.
He reacted too soon. And I was like, okay. I see what we're doing here. it was an utterly predictable segment, which is not necessarily a bad thing. There have been plenty of them that were predictable, but was still entertaining. It just was like every time these two get in the ring together to do promos, I feel like. I feel a little bit like it's like a high school play where
Mm-hmm.
Somebody delivers a line and then they just stare at each other and somebody has to go, it's your line now.
Yeah. Yep.
There's these weird beats that just make it awkward.
Mm-hmm.
And you know, for two guys that I generally like and I still think that putting Nick Wayne in the ring with Chris Jericho is a good idea. This just isn't quite firing on all cylinders the way I hoped it would.
I think having them wrestle is a good idea. I think
Yes.
Having these promo battles is a bad idea.
Yeah.
A couple things. I thought this was gonna be over.
I did too.
But Jericho wearing a bunch of necklaces out to the ring and not mentioning it made me laugh a lot.
That was funny. Yeah.
Playing the video while in the ring, I did not like.
I agree.
And then having Jericho come back. It's like, okay, I get that. That makes sense. And his was shorter, so yeah. But they start
Yeah.
Playing that video, and I'm like, my God, what are we doing? So the whole thing I felt fell flat. And I think it fell flat in now. This is when I started wondering. Maybe, maybe. Correct me if I'm wrong, but either this audience at this point, and it is well in the three hour mark, maybe they're getting overly tired, or the audio mix is off because it just sounded flat and like no one gave a shit during this whole promo.
I think it was more that it just kind of fell flat. And like you said, at this point we're past the three hour mark and you know, Cleveland is in eastern time. So
Mm, mm-hmm.
It was what was it? It was nine something our time, so it's ten something their time.
Yeah.
So that probably was a factor in it. But it's just I think it's just a bigger it's just a bigger picture of I think the match is gonna be good. I don't think it's gonna be great, but I think it's gonna be good. And I understand that Nick Wayne needs the reps. That's how
Mm-hmm.
You get better. I get all that. It just I don't know, man. The promo battle hasn't really worked with these two.
I think for this feud you really needed you could have just played the video and
Yeah.
Had Jericho come out, maybe not come out, or just do his ogo. I knew you're gonna do that, Nick. So I had a little something built for you. A it would have trimmed it down by, at least half, if not more, and you would have gotten
Yeah.
The same information, you would have gotten the same thing done, and it would would have felt less less awkward and weird. So I don't know. Either have
Yeah.
Nick come out by himself and not have Jericho because I think that's when things start to go weird, is when they're both together.
Yes. I agree.
I don't know.
No, I agree. I think a pre tape would have been good here too. A pre tape with Renee or with Tony Schiavani
Yep.
Would have been better, but whatever. I didn't hate it. It just fell flat and it went too long.
Yeah, I didn't like it much. I mean, there were par it's so funny 'cause there were parts that I liked. I liked the pyro going off every time he said it. I like Jericho
Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep.
Wearing the w the weird necklaces and not mentioning it. I thought that was fun. Kicking him in the balls, it was very predictable, but that was fine too.
Yeah.
But it you know, so there were little bits here and there, but again, it was just there's too much other stuff, and that's another thing where I was like, God, this show feels bloated with stuff. It's like oof.
Yep, I get that. then Renee was with Ciampa and Joe. Like I said, I don't even remember it, and I wrote nothing down. So that's a thing that
I
Happened.
Yeah, no, I thought it was good. It was short, you know, you had Ciampa basically going the last two times I was in the ring with Andrade, I knocked him out. What do you think's gonna happen Saturday? And what
Yeah. Yep.
Do you think's gonna happen when Joe gets in the ring for the title? Same thing that happened tonight. So I liked it. It was short, it was effective. And again, I r I didn't think I wanted to see I never thought I'd want to see Joe and Ciampa as a team. I hope this continues. I really do. I think that would be
Yeah.
Really fun.
Yeah, I agree. I think it'd be really interesting. Hyan and Dani Luna would then take on Britt Baker and Persephone. Pretty good. Pretty good.
Yeah, I liked it.
And what I liked about it too is they're they're using this opportunity to build up a couple more women. Hyan is getting built a bit, which I think, if nothing else, makes her and Maya World legit tag team contenders when Maya comes
Yep.
Back.
Well, yep.
And they're showcasing Dani Luna a bit, which I'm again, do I think that any of these women need to be immediately inserted into the world championship picture? No. But I don't mind this. I
No. Yeah.
Think this is a good spot for them. I don't mind it. And you know I love Persephone, so
That's exactly what I wrote. Yeah. I that's what I wrote. I said, I like them building up high-end luna in Queen Aminata. I love
Yep.
That.
Yeah, Queen Aminata came in after. Yep. I agree.
Mm-hmm.
I totally agree. I think it's I really like what they're doing there.
This did what it needed to do perfectly.
Yep. Okay. Now then we would get the weird teaser video for somebody. I have no idea who. Let us now speculate wildly on who it is.
When I first saw the metronome, the first thing I thought was Killer Kross, because it used to be his TikTok thing.
Sure. Okay, sure.
But then you had the orchestra and then you had two different like weren't there two different pairs of shoes? Was it was one like nicely dressed?
Maybe I'd have to watch it again and I probably will watch it again.
I gotta be honest, I have no clue.
I don't either, 'cause for some reason at first I was like, is this like a like a is like Mal are they bringing Malakai Black back in? But like they're showing the hands and they're they he's, you know, covered in tattoos and I didn't see that on the hands, so I'm like, Well, I don't think it's him. And I was trying to
And I don't necessarily think the hands had to be of the person. I think the shoes were
I suppose that's true. But I don't think it's gonna be him anyway. They don't seem to be interested
Right.
In that. And then I thought, is this, you know, setting up like the buddy Matthews return, maybe? But I don't know, but he if it
That'd be a weird way to do it.
Is, then he's coming back with a different character because it doesn't make sense for the character that he left with.
No.
So then I was sitting there thinking, Well, who is out there? And I don't really know. The only thing
No me.
I can think of, because his name has been connected so much with him, is that it's a teaser for Dragonov or Ilja Dragunov. And it probably is it.
That yep, that makes the most sense. Yeah, that makes the most sense. Yep.
But I don't know how that what we saw connects back to him. But look, I enjoyed it. I used to love when wrestling would do that, when they would do
Yeah.
The teasers and it was like I have no idea who that is. That's awesome. I want more of it. Love it.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I love that. Yep. I think that's a ri that was r that was one of those things where you went, Wait a minute. What the hell? For all the good reasons
Yeah. Loved it.
Though.
Yes. Yeah. It makes you go, what the hell in the best way. Yeah. Yes.
Yeah, yeah. Not in not in a Nick Wayne Jericho way, but in a oo way. So Exactly. Yeah, I thought that was weird too, but I liked it.
Right. What is this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. More of that, please. then Hechicero and Darby for the TNT title. We didn't talk about that with Okada and Myron Reed as well. I thought it was interesting that both of those guys were defending their belts and it was a qualifier match. I don't think you needed both.
I didn't realize Okada was defending his belt. I knew
Yeah, both the international title and the TNT title were on the line tonight.
Well, and that shows you who was gonna win right out of the shoot.
Yep.
You're not gonna give the title up. 'Cause for a hot minute I thought the Hechicero was the other one I thought they could have put in as a surprise spoiler. But then when they were like in the titles on the line, I like, well, he's not going to win.
Yeah. But I thought that was interesting to have them be title defenses, but also qualifying matches. I don't think you needed both, especially
No.
When the qualifying part of it was what really overshadowed the matches.
Yep.
I don't know why we did that.
I mean, for this one, they kept pointing out that if he wins
Yeah.
Tonight and wins Saturday, he could walk away with three belts. And I'm like, okay, that makes sense for this. And I guess I didn't realize, and I'm not kidding. I had no idea Okada had his belt on the line for that match. None.
No, I totally understand that because they've they made very few references to it. Very few. So I don't
Yeah I don't
I don't fully understand that decision. I don't Yeah.
Mm mm. Again, I don't think it was needed. Like you said, I was
I don't hate it because it didn't, really interrupt my enjoyment of the matches. I just don't get it.
Well, the only thing it really did, like I said, is it kind of tipped your hand as to who was winning. 'Cause I don't think there's Yeah, but
Right, but I think we knew anyway. So
I mean it's even more apparent when you're gonna put the title
Yeah.
It's like, Are you gonna take the title off Darby and not have go on Saturday? Come on, that's not it.
Yeah. Yeah. But you know, setting that aside, I th I this is the match of the night for me. I thought they were
Yes.
Tremendous together. It was really good. It was really, really
I agree.
Good.
I agree. And I have three words for you, sir. Blue sparkle boots.
I didn't even notice that. You pick up on details that I'm like, I didn't even catch that. But yeah.
How did you not notice those sparkly bright ass boots he's wearing? Come on.
I don't know. I don't well actually I do know the answer to that because it was the end of a long show and I didn't sleep great last night and I'm tired. That's how.
Yeah. Yeah, that's fair.
Because I literally I was sitting there doing the like smack myself to stay awake because during
Just
The women's tag match, like I was nodding off. And I'm like,
Yeah. Well.
That's how.
The blue sparkle boots were the smack in the face for me, 'cause I saw those things and I went, That's really dope. I really like that. Really like Thank you. I was just gonna say it. I so like him a lot. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I really like Hechicero. I yeah. Yeah, I really enjoy him. So excellent match, match of the night there. And afterwards we would get all the participants in the Clockwork Carnage match.
Mm-hmm.
Which
Okay, you I liked it and you were less liking of it. What what
Yeah.
About it was not appealing to you?
Interestingly, I'm gonna use the word that you've used a couple of times. Thought it was bloat. I understand,
Yeah.
I understand that this is a thing we do, that they're all gonna, you know, throw down whatever to set up for you know, really it's to get the video clip so they can put the video package before the match on Saturday. I get it.
Mm-hmm.
However, You were already, as you pointed out, the main event did not start until ten past the hour when it was supposed to be over.
Mm-hmm.
Tired. I'm a little hungry. I've had to pee for like forty five minutes.
Ha ha
I get it. I don't need all eight of them to throw down and then for you know useless wrestling security to come in at the end
Right.
After these guys have already inflicted damage on each other, kayfabe
Yes.
Wise. The other reason I didn't love it, aside from it drug out an already long show and I felt it was a little bit of bloat and could have been shorter, the other reason I didn't love it is you are risking injury to the
Mm.
Match that is the centerpiece for your show.
Yeah. Yep. I get that. How what I will say though, as far as bloat goes, to me this at least had context and momentum forward and made sense as opposed to, I don't know, let's say the New Level bit that lasted twenty
Sure.
Seven minutes and meant nothing.
Sure. Look, if you were asking me, you know, what are the st what are the things you would cut to get rid of some of the bloat and shorten that down, Nick Wayne and Jericho gets cut way down, New Level probably just gets cut entirely, the Bro Hangdo promo gets cut way down, and those are all before I get to this.
Yes, yes, I agree.
So I don't hate it by any stretch of the imagination, but on a long show, I don't need to be reminded that these guys are w when the whole show, I should say, has been about how these guys are going to fight for the world title on Saturday. I don't, I don't I got it. We're good. I got it, you know.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. There was one thing I really enjoyed, and I don't know if you noticed it, because you probably had nodded off again. Near the end,
No, I was awake. Barely.
As they're before right before security comes in and they're getting up, Cope goes to pick up Darby and he like gets picks him up, kind of looks at him and then and then basically says, nah. And then he turns
Yeah.
Around and starts fighting with Ospreay. It was so weird and so funny because it's like Look, I gotta I gotta be punching somebody. here's d I don't wanna be punching Darby. Who Ospreay So it just that really made me grin a lot, so
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, I'm not saying this was bad by any stretch of the imagination. It was not. I just sometimes, like I said, they do these things specifically to get the video of it so they can cut it up for the promo package. And I get that.
Yep. Mm-hmm.
But I don't know, man. On a show that
You know what they could have you know what they could have done that they used to do way back in the day is fade to black right as it starts. And then at the beginning of the pay-per-view, show us the outcome. Show us what happened. Because
Yes. Yeah.
That was like it was very predictable back in the day, but it was also kind of cool. I mean you talk about a cliffhanger, it's like, you could
Yeah.
Have done that.
Yeah, you could have done that. And also in this day and age, now you put the scrum on social media. You put it on YouTube. You know, go get your views. So
Yeah. Yeah, one hundred percent. Yeah.
I that was my nitpick with it and why I was like,
No, that makes sense.
I don't love it. Also, just to your point, just one time I do want them to fade to black because I don't know how we have gone seven plus years of AEW and they haven't had Tony Schiavone yell, we're out of time.
Mm-hmm.
You have him doing the its sting for, you know, the rest of his life. Gimme just one. We are desperately out of time.
Yep. What I used to love about that is he would i have enough time to say it about four times before they were actually out of time. Love it. Yep. Love it. Yeah. No, you're not you're wrong. I think that would be good. Just give
Yes. Yeah. We're out of time. Yeah. And then he'd say like three more sentences, but yeah. I loved it. I loved it. Yeah.
It to us one. Again, don't make that your norm. Okay.
No.
But tonight would have been a perfect night to pull that one out.
Yep. Give me one we're out of time and I'll be a happy boy. So overall, I thought it was a pretty good show.
Yeah, yeah, man.
Obviously they had a lot of work to do to set up WrestleDream because of everything that's been going on. I think they did a pretty good job with it.
Mm-hmm.
I'm not gonna nitpick them on like, hey, we're just announcing a bunch of stuff without a lot of setup on it. I get it. I'm not gonna nitpick you. Totally makes sense.
I mean, they didn't have a ton of time to begin with and then losing a week did not help. But again,
No. And then yeah. Yeah. So
I think they did the best they could with what they had and I didn't
I agree.
I don't I didn't mind this show. Other than the extra bloat, I didn't mind any of the in-ring stuff. So yeah, I was fine with it.
Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. All right. So last thing we're gonna do before we get out of here, let's pick the card for WrestleDream on Saturday. So I have it in front of me. This is the updated
Ooh, nice.
Card as of now. They
Okay.
May add something, but I don't think so, and I don't know what it would be. So let's begin with the tailgate brawl. This has been announced since you and I have been talking Sisters of Sin versus Divine Dominion.
Find Dominion.
I think so too. Hope so.
Mm-hmm.
Actually I'm gonna go Sisters of Sin. I think Divine Dominion should win, but I'm gonna go Sisters of Sin.
I can't argue with that. Yeah, I'm okay with that.
Surprisingly, th well, I guess it's because it's gonna be on TNT. This is on the tailgate brawl. FTR versus Motor City Machine Guns. It's a tough one.
I my heart says Motor City Machine Guns, but I think FTR is gonna take the first one.
I'm gonna go Motor City Machine Guns. I think they get the first one, but we're going five, no doubt on that.
Without a doubt we're going vibe.
Yeah, we're going five. Nick Wayne Jericho.
I hope Nick Nick Wayne wins.
I think it should be Nick Wayne.
I'm calling the plane, whether I'm
If Jericho wins,
Right or not. I don't care.
Yeah, if Jericho wins, then let the narrative begin on he's burying people. He's he's flexing and burying people. Cause it should
Finally.
Be Nick Wayne. I'm gonna say Nick Wayne, but I don't feel super confident about it.
Yeah. It's the same out on either.
Four away for the TBS championship, Queen Aminata, High Anne, Persephone and Dani Luna.
Mm. I think Persephone retains, but if she
I do too.
Doesn't, it's gotta be high end.
That's interesting. So I think Persephone retains, but I think if she drops it's Queen Aminata.
I could see that. Yep.
Which again, good job to them for building this in a way where I can see any of the four, but I Persephone retains.
I think so too.
Ciampa and Andrade for the national championship.
Again, my heart says Andrade, but I think it would be interesting if Ciampa won.
I think it would be very interesting if Ciampa won, but I think they're gonna keep Andrade on the heater until he cashes in for the world title. So I think it's Andrade.
And the only reason I'm saying Ciampa is because then I think it does start adding some pressure and weirdness and heat to him going for the other belt. But I agree he should he should keep it. I wanna see him with that championship for a long time to give it
Mm-hmm.
Some credibility and make it worth something. So
Yep. So we're both going Andrade there.
Be contrary, I'm gonna say Champag takes it. Why not? Why not? Are you keeping tabs
You're gonna say Jamba? All I'm sticking with an Andrade. All right, this.
On what we're guessing? Because I am not. I'll remember. yeah, yeah, we could do that. Well there's no way we could possibly do that.
No, but I'll go back and listen to it. So, you know. Yeah. No. No, no one could possibly know. This is perhaps the biggest no brainer on the card in my opinion, Mark Davis and Jon Moxley for the Continental Championship.
This is a surprise because this is where Don Callis sneaks in and actually pins Mox and he's the champ.
I actually would pop hard for that.
No, Mox is winning.
It's Mox. I agree. I think Mox is winning. Two out of three falls for the Trios Championships. New House versus Bro Hangdo.
This is where Doug puts on his tinfoil hat and throws a new curveball at everybody.
Okay.
I think New Level retains, but it's gonna be weird because this is where Hangman and Swerve finally kiss and make up, and they become. I think Hangman either joins New House or Swerve and Hangman form their own team. And so now you have basically three tag teams, but Swerve has got a title belt, but he's with New Level, and New Level's like. to hell. I think Hangman turns and he and Swerve just beat hell out of everybody else and they leave hand in hand, basically. That's what
So
That's what I'm calling. But I'm saying New Level retains, New House retains.
Sure. So I'm not gonna lie to you. I kind of love what you laid out there. I want it to happen.
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Not sure it's gonna, but I want it to. That's kind of fun.
Mm-hmm.
That would get me very interested in this very quickly. That's interesting.
Here's why I'm saying that. Because Hangman keeps talking about Swerve.
Yeah.
Or Hangdo, Brody is tired of it.
Yeah.
Creed is talking about how much hangman is talking about swerve, and Swerve has been a little weird with them. He's kind of been on the periphery. They're not a hundred percent sure about him.
Yeah.
All the pieces are there for this to be plausible. Do I think it's gonna happen? Probably not, but I'm gonna say it's going to anyway, because why the hell not?
Sure. No, I'm I really like that idea. But with all that said, I'm gonna say New House retains. I still think they're gonna get a decent run with it, and I think they should. I'll be
Yep. Mm-hmm. Even even with this weird turn I think New House
Yeah.
Retains, and then you've got weirdness.
I will say to fantasy book this, similar to what you're saying, but not exactly the same. I think hangman is gonna end up costing his team the title because he can't stop with his obsession over swerve, and that's gonna lead to the breakup. What that becomes, I'm not sure, but I think that's what's gonna lead to the breakup of these three guys.
If that's what's going down, then we're gonna see at least a match or two between him and Brody. And possibly
I think so too. Which
Hangman taking on
Bandito. ROH.
Benty, thank you for the ROH title.
Yeah, I was thinking that too. Then the tag team
Yeah. Yeah.
Championships will be on the line between the Young Bucks and ProtoJet.
Young Bucks.
Young Bucks. Mercedes versus Thekla for the women's world championship.
We talked about this last week. I think Mercedes retains. But man, Thekla's on a hot one right now and it's really hard to argue against putting the belt on her and being mad about it. But I think Mercedes
I agree.
Retains because again I think AEW ha hot shots their belts a little much. And I would like to see them kind of keep things status quo for a minute. You know, but
Yep. I think a lot of what they've been doing is settling into these are going to be the champions for a while.
I hope so.
I think the tag belts have the best chance of changing hands in the near future. And when I say that in the next, you know, two to three months.
Yes. Yes, I agree.
And maybe the trios championship, but I think it's the tag belts. But I think everybody else is probably gonna have their belt for the foreseeable future for the next, you know, four to six months.
Mm-hmm.
So I agree with you on that. I think they agree with you on that. So Mercedes retains, but it's gonna be hard to keep a belt off of Thekla, you know.
Yes.
And finally, the Clockwork Carnage match between eight dudes.
Spray wins.
Yeah, Ospreay wins.
Let's spice things up.
Okay.
Is anyone actually gonna be eliminated before the match?
That's an interesting question. So I feel like the answer to it is yes, because otherwise, why put the stipulation in? Right? Like why make that part of the match if you're not gonna have somebody get eliminated?
Uh-huh.
My money is on speedball. I think he gets
Wow.
Eliminated in there.
Yep. That makes sense.
I if not, my dark horse contender for gets eliminated in phase one is actually Darby because of the kayfabe knee injury.
Yeah, that would work. That would
Yeah.
One hundred percent work.
So I'll be very curious to see if they do that. But otherwise, look, a as much as I love Okada and Copeland and Samoa Joe, they ain't winning this one. It's Ospreay.
Mm. Yeah. Like I said, if it's not Ospreay, then Joe is gonna win. But Ospreay
Then it's Joe. Yeah.
Is winning.
Yep, I agree. Okay. So there's the picks for WrestleDream. Feel free to drop yours in the comments of whatever platform you are watching and or listening to this on. Remember to like, share, and subscribe. Remember to leave those five star reviews. Remember to go to doichfoods.com. That's D-O-I-C-H foods.com. Use promo code eliteheat to save twenty percent on your order. We are out of time.