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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 Doug — 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.
The first AEW pay-per-view of 2026 is in the books and my god is they're allowed to talk about with this one.
Yeah, there is. was, woo, that was a lengthy one.
It was there's a lot of stuff to talk about with this a lot of things happen. However, we're to try and keep this if at all possible around an hour, which means we're probably going to gloss over some things. And in the spirit of that, we're basically skipping the pre show. The only thing really to talk about the legit only thing to talk about is that you were right. They did work the willow injury pretty much immediately that she hurt her shoulder, which would, of course, come back later. And then, of course, go ahead.
Yep, yep. Also, honorable mention goes out to the infantry. They should get bonus pay for putting over boom and doom, specifically boom.
I was just about to say, of course, Boom and Doom happened, which was on par with Savage Steamboat at WrestleMania III. Omega wishes he could put together a match like that. It was...
Clearly, And Wayne Brady taking a bump onto the floor.
Yeah, that was pretty good. I was actually pretty impressed with him. But yeah, so that's basically it from the pre show. The 21 man match started there and spilled over into the top. My main takeaways from this one were number one, why do they not use Roosh more?
Yeah.
That's what I asked. think I texted you, I was like, where's he been?
You did. I love that guy. Every time I see him, I'm like, that dude has all the star potential in the world. I wish they would use him more. I really liked the final sequence of this, especially Jack hanging on to Ricochet's waist. I thought that was really impressive and good on you guys for being in the gym. But I know you felt it was wonky. What what prompted that?
Yeah. Yep.
Yeah.
Just because I thought, and I would have to rewatch, but I thought they had made mention that was there a thing where Jack's feet touched before that sequence?
I think they were just reiterating if his feet touch then he's out. That's what I heard anyway.
Okay, because then when Ricochet got ripped over the top and Jack's hanging there, they were, they just kind of sat there. The announcers just kind of sat there like, well, now what? And I'm like, what do mean now what? He won. And then finally like ding, ding, he wins. And then it felt like there was this weird delayed reaction from both the audience and the announcers, but it just felt weird. don't know. think, I don't know. I don't know. That part felt awkward, but I was really glad to see Jack Perry win.
You know, it's interesting. I did not pick up on that. I'd have to watch it again. It could just be that they were late with the bell and they were waiting for the bell. I mean, it happens, you know.
Yep.
I don't know, but I'm with you. thought it was the right move to switch it to Jack because if Jack didn't win here, like I know the narrative could have become well, there were 1920 other dudes, whatever it was. You know, you can't beat me one on one, but it felt to me like if Jack didn't win, we're done. The story's over, move on. And there was really nothing for Jack to do while you wait for Luchasaurus to get healthy. So I think it was the right move to put the belt on him. And now Ricochet can chase him. And I think that's more compelling at this point.
Plus, know, Ciampa's going to be chasing him as well because Ciampa got tossed over the top. But it just reminded you how many legit contenders they could have had in there. Elclone, could see holding that title. He was in there. I texted you someone else, and I don't remember, but there were at least four to five people that you could legitimately go, OK, I can't be mad if they win.
Yeah. Yeah. He should.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
I can pull it up. I got my phone right here.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I mean, I think, well, you were asking me about Freddie Prince Jr. Danny Garcia was the other one you texted me about. And you're right. You're right.
yeah, because I think he was in the front row. Yeah, I mean any of those guys could hold that title and you would have went, yeah that's respectable, that makes sense, I can see that happening.
Mm hmm. Yeah, they have a deep roster. And yet it's also sort of shallow at the same time. But we can talk about that later. So then we rolled into the first full match of the show, which was FTR and the young bucks. I'm going to spoil the rest of this podcast. This is my match of the night. I loved this match. Loved it. Every single thing about it was great.
weird, yes.
Not spoiling anything. Same here. Absolutely. That was... That's how you start a... I don't know if you want to start your show that hot because good luck with the rest of your damn show because that was so good. Just so good.
This, yeah, this show was incredible. There were multiple, there are matches on this show that I think are match of the year contenders. And I still don't think they were better than this. And I realized it's subjective, but my thing with this was the emotion that the Young Bucks brought from having their kids to the way.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
that they conducted themselves in this match is not a way I've seen the young bucks behave maybe ever, but certainly in a long time like this meant more to them than being the greatest tag team ever. This meant more to them than winning the belt. It was personal for them. It was real. I felt it when you can make me feel that I don't have kids when you can make me feel that on that level. My God, well done guys. And then with FTR that is
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
top level heel work. Like we talked about this before, Dax I think right now might be the best heel in wrestling. Okay and and what he's doing is such good heel work and them coming out in the Celtics colors in the home of the Lakers was a brilliant touch. They were great, everything about it was great. Them bringing their kids in going back to the Young Bucks really does make me think there's not a lot of time left.
Yes,
Enjoy them while we've got them because they legitimately are one of if not the greatest tag team ever. They changed everything they did.
Yeah, they did. And it was, you're right, the passion you saw in that match from the open. mean, if you weren't hooked on this match from the word go before the bell even rang, I don't know what you were watching because this was so engaging. The entire fam is coming out with them and you're like, okay, this is real. And then when you just have FTR and Stokely come out by themselves, it really had that dichotomy of
just FTR versus the entire Bucks family and seeing them and I think Dax even brought you know their dad over all bloodied in front of the kids look at your dad look at your dad I'm like man just
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I even even before they got in the ring, he did he blow a kiss to them or did he did he I think he faked like he was going to hit there like he was going to hit pop a buck like they're probably FTR is probably not getting enough credit for the heel work that they're doing right now because it's really good, man. It's really, good.
I think so, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
They're making it look so easy is the other thing too. And that shows you how great both those teams are is the FTR is looking just so heelish without looking like they're trying. And in the Bucks, like you said, they brought in energy, they brought in intensity, they brought a passion that you haven't seen from the Bucks in a long time, like you said, maybe ever. And this one...
Yeah.
Yeah.
did feel like if you weren't following the story, if you just popped in on this, you would have felt by the end of it, you would have been neck deep into the story and you would have been neck deep in the emotion because they both brought it so well during this whole match and it was so good and not direct the finish heartbreaking.
It was it was absolutely heartbreaking. That's exactly what I was gonna say. I was heartbroken at the end of it. And when a wrestling match can do that, you did you did everything right. You did everything right when you can make me feel that. And then of course, it would make sense immediately after that when we got the return of I'm really gonna have to work not to call him edge when we got the return of of Adam Copeland and Christian Cage. So then it makes sense. The finish makes sense. But who heartbreaker.
Mm-hmm.
This shows you how emotional I was in it because I wrote down, could have done the same thing with the Bucks winning. That's how upset I was that the Bucks didn't win.
Could've.
Yep, you could have. I wrote down great in all caps match, deeply dissatisfying ending. Because it was it just was. And I get it. Like I said, we would find out immediately afterwards why they went the way that they did. And look, it makes sense with Cope holding up the belt and saying this is the only thing you care about, right? So we're going to take it. Totally get it. And the stared at the little kind of looks between the bucks and them. Please give us that match.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, that kind of brought it all around when the Bucks got back in the ring like, what are you guys doing picking up the belts? We just went through hell and you're holding the belts?
Please give us that.
Yeah.
Yeah. And it also felt a little bit to me like, okay, if you take those, then we're coming for you, you know, and I did enjoy them laying the belts in front of them. I thought that was a nice kind of respectful thing from two absolute legends. Please give us the bucks and edge and Christian. I know I said it. I don't care. I did it on purpose. Yeah, please give us that.
Yep.
would love it. I don't care either, man. That's who it would be. That was... That's... Because I don't think we've seen that yet. And that is something that we totally can in AEW. And I would love, love, love to see it. Titles don't even have to be on the line. Just put them in, give them an hour, let them cook. That's all I ask.
Hook it to my veins. my God, hook it to my veins. Whew, yeah.
I get, I honestly gotta get goosebumps just thinking about that match. That's how good I think it would be. So then after that, Toni Storm and Marina Shafir, I think the only thing that, let me put it this way, I thought this was pretty good match, hard hitting. thought she made, I thought Toni made Marina look good, which was necessary, but let's be real. There's one thing to talk about with this and it happened after the match.
Mm-hmm. So good.
Yep, but before we get there, I wrote down that Marina Shafir looks better than she has maybe ever looked in AEW. And I think a lot of it does have to be credited to Toni Storm, but I think a lot of it does have to do with Marina Shafir. I think there's a reason you haven't seen her in the ring very much lately. And I think her level of performance...
Yes.
was much improved in this match and she's always felt legitimate. But this time I felt like she not just felt like a legitimate badass, but a legitimate pro wrestler for maybe the first time in my opinion. And I really enjoyed this. I thought this was a really good match. It was better than I thought it was going to be. I do have to question Toni Storm biting her foot because that was gross.
Again, Don Callis taught us Ringworm. That's a good way to get Ringworm. Yeah, but I yeah, I'm with you. It impressed me. I had a low bar for this match because of Marina. I thought she really performed well. I know she works directly with mocks. That's why she's in the group. He's really taken her under his wing. I think it's starting to show. So you know, congratulations to her. That's a lot of hard work and you did a great job.
It's a foot, don't do it. Don't do it.
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Absolutely.
What everybody's talking about is Ronda Rousey showing up at the end. Very, very, I'll be honest with you. I would love it if that was just a one off and we don't see her again. I don't think she's a very good pro wrestler. I saw most if not all of her WWE stuff. It was meh.
How stunned were you? Because I was pretty surprised.
That's That's fair.
You know, she did, I know she did one appearance in ROH. That wasn't bad. She got a lot better when she went full heel over in WWE. I just, I don't know, man. I'd be fine if it was a one-off. I don't think it is, but I'd be fine if it was.
I'm OK if it's not, if it's a limited run, because she still has that fight coming up. So she's not going to be in the ring doing anything significant before then and probably for a good minute after then. But I'm almost going to guarantee we're going to see Rousey Shafir versus Timeless Love Bombs or some Toni Storm.
Right, right.
plus someone iteration. And I'm OK with that. Just because of the amount of eyes Rhonda Rousey will bring to that match, I get it. I will watch it and keep it to a limited run. And I think it could work really well. But I was kind of surprised and very, I thought it was very cool. I thought it very cool she showed up.
Yeah.
I was stunned. Yeah, I mean, I was stunned. I think your reaction to it depends entirely on how you feel about her. And she's polarizing. She's a very polarizing figure. So it depends entirely on how you feel about her. I suspect I don't know when that fight is with Gina Carano because I don't. OK, then the timing on this works. All in is five months away.
Mm-hmm.
I want to say early next month, but I could be wrong.
I think if they're going to, that's where you have that match with her in it. You have her do a few run ins. You have her back up Marina, or yeah, Marina. And you're solid. And I was a big Ronda Rousey fan from day one in her MMA days. I thought she brought a needed spotlight to that sport for women. And I respect the daylights out of what she's done. Yes, she's not the best pro wrestler.
where it's going to be. That's where it's going to be.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
there have been worse in there. And if you're going to bring eyeballs to something new, especially the women's division in AAUW, there are way worse ways to do it than bringing Ronda Rousey in. And I think it was really, really cool to see her. And I'm looking forward to that tag match. And then that could be it.
There have. Yeah, there have.
Yeah, I I'm approaching it entirely from her what she has shown her pro wrestling ability to be at this point, which is why I'd like it to be a one off, even though I know it's not like I said, it's going to happen at all. And we'll see where they go from there. I'm with you, though. I don't mind getting more eyes on the product. And if she helps with that, then she helps with that. And, know, I'll nitpick it to death later, because that's what I do around here is what I do. Yeah. After that mocks into Kesha,
Right.
Hey, man, that is what we do.
This was another one that if the Bucks had not brought that level of emotion and everything would have been a strong contender for match of the night. I think it's a contender for match of the year. These guys were great.
It was so good. You talk about just a flat out old school hard hitting stiff match. They went to it and to Keshe.
They kept commenting on what a different wrestler he is since his debut. And you can tell it did take him some time to get his AEW legs. But man, he has really shown how just good he is. There's a reason they call him the alpha and that match showed it. And I thought I even wrote down at the end of this, I wrote to Keshte as a death rider question mark. I can maybe see that happening.
That's interesting.
That's interesting. I like that idea a lot. There were a couple, there was, there were two basic questions that I had coming out of this match. One of them involves the match. The other one sort of more of a meta question. First one was, was mocks working heel? Cause boy, he was flipping the crowd off a lot, but I noticed then later that happened more. So don't know, maybe somebody was just running their mouth ringside. I don't know, but
That's him saying hi. I mean, that's how he communicates. I don't know if he... See that, and that comes back to our inherent weirdness with Death Riders is... Mox...
I guess that's true.
What are they?
doesn't really play heel anymore, even though he's doing the bird flipping, but he's definitely playing up his face side. And the others sometimes are, but sometimes aren't, depending on who's in the ring. So it's a big question mark. But I think he was definitely playing face, especially at the end, when he showed the respect to Takeshita. So.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, at the end, definitely. I don't know if that confused me a little bit. The bigger, more meta question to me is when are they gonna pull the trigger on Takeshita? Like, I don't understand these quasi pushes with him. You you put him in these title scenes and then they just don't pull the trigger. Like, that felt like a good time to put a belt on him and I don't know why they don't do it.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
I don't know either. the other meta question I had with that was, I guess I was just surprised that when Takeshita went back in to shake his hand, why Don Callis and the rest of the fam didn't come out and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm really surprised that did not happen. And in a way, it's like, why aren't you pulling the trigger on that one either? I don't get it.
Yeah, I think that's a point.
Yeah, I yeah, there's things going on with Takeshi and we talked about this the other week too about like, are we ever going to get him in Okada? You've been slow, slow burning that one. I don't understand.
Mm-hmm. At this point, I don't care if we see, I don't think we're going to, and that's fine, because I think that all led to, I think, these slightly delayed lights out, because Mox was halfway out of the arena. It felt like when the lights went out. And of course, finally, we got the return we've all been hoping for.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I got the vapors over this one. I'm not gonna lie to you. I got real excited over this one.
By the way, Don Callis needs to stop saying he got the vapors because all that means is he's been farting a lot. That's what that phrase means. Is that they got the gas and they fart a lot. I know why you said it. You did. I don't think Don Callis does. That's all. But man, that Will Ospreay return? Thank you. That was dope. That was great.
well, no, I used it correctly then. Yeah, yeah.
God, that was sexy is what that was. I he looks great. I know he's lost a little mass, which was to be expected, but he looks great. And he showed you with the moves that he hit, he's ready to go. He is ready to go. keep his return, plus me pointing out that all in is five months away in the back of your head.
She does.
Mm-hmm.
Yes, he is.
Okay, because this is going to factor in when we get to the end of this show, because we're gonna have a lot to talk about there. And there's a reason I counted it to find out how far all in is. Okay, so keep that in the back of your head. That's your tease for the end of this episode. So hang with us. I know you don't. You have an idea, but you don't because you and I haven't talked about it. So after that women's tag titles, this is one of the ones that I'm going to kind of gloss over.
Alright. And I don't even know where you're going. I kinda I do, but we'll find out. Mm-hmm. Correct. Correct.
We knew how this was gonna go coming off the pre-show and them working the willow injury. I think we all knew the babes of wrath were gonna drop. The only question was, Harley gonna turn on her, which you were predicting. Still time to happen on Wednesday, I guess.
Yep. My question is, I don't know if you watched the... You watched Zero Hour though, right? Did you notice their tag team name changed between Zero Hour and the Pay Per View? Because when Lena Cross came out with the Megasus, it said Mega Cross. That was the tag team. And then suddenly out of nowhere, they're the Divine Dominion. And I was like, I do too, but I was like, wait a minute, you were...
Yeah.
Yeah, they did change it. Yeah.
Which I actually like better.
Okay. All right. That's fine. Maybe someone in production didn't get the memo, but they made it clear they're the divine dominion. And even though we haven't seen Lena Cross, colossal Lena Cross very much, I thought she looked really good. I love the fact that her and Meghan Bane are the champs. So yeah, I liked it.
Yeah.
Yeah, she's one that I went she's not there yet, but you see the potential. She's got all the potential in the world. And you know, you you pair them with the right opponents and you let Megan Bain do most of the work in these matches. She's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine.
yeah.
Yep. Yep. I'm just wondering who, you know, is that why you left the brawling birds off? Because that's who's going to challenge because in...
I think so. I think so. I have a suspicion. I'm not quite sure how it would have affected this particular match, but Penelope Ford's injury, I think, changed their plans. I just don't know how exactly, but it feels to me like this got changed in the wake of her injury. But I do think either way, the Brawlin birds are probably next. We're gonna find out.
Mm-hmm.
Probably.
Right. And the one question I wrote down is, so, Sisters of Sin? Because you may as well write them off because what the hell? What are they going to do now?
They are pointless. Yeah, they are pointless right now. They are techless backup at best and they're kind of not even back up because I feel like every time I see them, they get wrecked again by Chris Stattlander. So yeah, we need to do some there. Like it started out hot and they've kind of lost some momentum and they got to find a way to get it back. And I do think the title switch is going to help with that. I do. We'll find out on Wednesday. Then.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-mm.
Hopefully.
Who is the most dangerous man in AEW? Here's all I wrote for Swerve versus Brody King. Banger, no notes. It was great, they were great.
Yep. I wrote, I think Brody's trying to break Swerve's back because there were at least three different moves that looked genuinely brutal and genuinely scary. And I physically winced like multiple times during that match. it does, I don't do that very often, but I was, But yeah, that was great.
Yeah, they hit each other. mean.
Yeah, yeah, everybody in my, yeah, everybody in my house can tell when I think something went wrong, because I go, God, like I go like that, you know, and that that happened more than once in that match, I was like, my god, I don't know how those two have to be in pain today. Like they got to be hurting today. But they were great. They were really, really good. I thought Brody looked good even in defeat. That's what mattered. Like, he's good. It's good stuff.
Mm. Mm. Right. Yeah.
yeah.
The inverter breaker on the floor looked so deadly, so deadly. Congrats to both of them for walking away from that one, because that looked amazing.
that yeah that was
Yes, I agree. They were they were really, really good. Then speaking of Tecla, Tecla and Statlander was up next. I wrote down it was fine is fine. I thought it made Tecla look better. She was closer to I don't want to say the dominant because she wasn't dominant. You can't be in a two out of three falls match when we know how the formula is going to go. But
Mm-hmm.
I thought she looked better. I thought she looked more legit, but it was it was fine. But we got to move on like it's next contender now. I don't know who it is, but next. Yeah, yeah.
Yep. Yeah, and even Tecla was saying, I'm done with her. I don't want to see her again. And I did wrote down, those belt welts are nasty. Yes, she did.
Yeah, she got her. She got her good on Saturday, I believe is when that happened.
But again, that leaves us to the question, Chris Statlander, now what? What are we doing? What are we doing?
Well, so that's not the only person we're going to say that about tonight. Now what? And I don't know the answer to that, but it is absolutely time to split them up. And maybe it's just that stat needs to go away for a little bit, which is, which would be understandable, right? Maybe she needs to go away for a little bit. I don't know. Maybe she needs to go find a partner, getting the tag team scene. I don't, I don't know. I don't know.
Maybe.
Mm-hmm.
something.
something though, but yeah, it's this is over. We're done next. After that, the trios title match. You're going to love this one. I wrote this down specifically for you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I can't wait. OK, I said I'm surprised that Mexican Donkey Rodeo won.
I wrote one down just for you, so we'll see.
I like that one, but I'm good with it. I'm good with them winning and I dig that Beastie Co is gonna do is gonna work both. It's gonna work AEW just like H.E.S.S.A.T.R.O. and I think I think maybe Commander does that as well. I could be wrong on that.
I think so. I think so, yeah. I wrote down, Lucha Donkey Roll gets Lucha Masks.
That's better. Lucha Donkey Roll is better. Yeah.
And Don Kal's family apparently varsity jackets for reasons. I did too.
I liked those. I really dug that. I liked it a lot and the color coordination of it was really good. I thought, you know, again, this is a really good match. You put it on a different show, probably not a different AEW pay-per-view because they are bangers, but you put it on, you know, a dynamite or a collision and we're going, holy crap, that's match of the night by far. They were really good. They were really, really good. He looks great.
Yeah.
Yes, they are.
Yeah. Very good match. Mistico looked great. course, Lucha Donkeys, they looked great.
That's it. Lucha donkeys. That's that might be it. Lucha donkeys.
Luchadonkey's in with great. I, I, again, I, Speedball Mike Bailey has gone up so much in my opinion and the more passion he shows, the more I'm buying into him, the better I'm liking him. And maybe it's just the, the matches are getting better timed or whatever, but he's, he's looking so good. And of course, kit driver, Michael Knight looks always amazing.
That that him hitting his finishing move that I can't remember the name of from basically Yeah from that far out. Holy crap, dude. That was impressive Right as I say and clearing people yeah Wow Yeah
the UFO thing.
Man, and clearing both of them. Like he had to clear two people. Yeah, so good. So good. Speaking of what could have been match of the night, holy cats, next up, Bandito versus Andrade.
Mhm.
Yeah, I, I wrote down the first thing I wrote down was just, Whoa, because they were good. They were really good. They were really entertaining. I'm glad they got a lot of time. I thought there that both of them had some really creative offense in this. I thought they pulled out some things. I'm like, that's really cool. I can't give you specifics right now. But they were
Yep.
It's all kind of just a moving blur.
Yeah, they were really, really good. I thought they did a great job together. I think you could tell those two dudes were just having a blast. They had a lot of fun out there Sunday night.
yeah.
And it was really cool because you got to see Andrade actually work more of a lucha style than he has recently to show that this is why this guy had so much hype on him way back in his WWE days. And you know I wasn't very impressed when he came over the first time in AEW. No. And then he went, he left, he came back and I've said this before, since he's been back, I think...
Yeah.
He wasn't good the first time. I mean, he just wasn't.
And I don't have a ton of experience with Andrade, but this is the best Andrade I've seen, and I'm a fan. I think Andrade right now is, again, this just shows how stacked this locker room is. You could put the strap on Andrade, and I'm not gonna bitch about it.
Yeah. So he, I've talked about this before when he went to NXT, I thought he, thought he was quite good in NXT. He's better now. What he's doing right now is better than what he did then. I thought he was good in NXT. The rest of that run, both times in WWE just wasn't very good. And I don't know how much of that is on him versus how much of that is just how he was booked. when he came to AEW in between, we've talked about this, he was not good.
Mm-mm.
Everything about him said he didn't really want to be there. He was part of that trio with Malachi Black and Miro that it's like you guys don't really want to be here. I can tell. He wants to be there now. He wants to be there now and holy crap is he performing at an elite level pun very much intended.
Yep. Yep.
Yeah.
Yes, he is. And like I said, he's looking so good. He and Bandito both, again, that was just such a damn banger match. Loved it. So good. So good. Although I did, go ahead. I was just going to say, I did write down that great match, I said, but I think I'm starting to get a bit of wrestling fatigue at this point, because at that point, we're over two and a half hours in. Maybe close to three.
Yeah. Now if I'm not missed, go ahead. No, no, no, go.
Yeah. Yeah.
And while I loved that match, didn't feel that spark that I normally would have watching that match. And it didn't help that the Bucks and FDR started on such a high note. So I think I was at a bit of wrestling fatigued. And then I realized, my god, we still have more to go.
Yeah.
Yeah, however, what I was going to point out is for for real time for us here, we have unless I didn't write one down, which is possible due to the fatigue, we only have two more matches and we haven't even hit 30 minutes yet. Look at us go. We're doing real good. All right. So let's keep that rolling. So then we got the dogs versus Darby, Orange, Cassidy and Roddy. I enjoyed this match more than I thought I would. So I have a couple different thoughts on this one.
Okay.
First of all, Darby got from that load-in area to like halfway down the ramp, superhuman fast. Apparently he can teleport.
you
I noticed the same thing. I was like, wow, okay. Apparently the entrance to the arena is literally off the loading dock. I guess.
It's yeah, it's just right there. Yep. Yep. We didn't realize that ramp continued back straight into the parking lot, I guess. Yeah, the spear through the ropes. My God, that is one of the coolest things I've ever seen ever. That's that is impressive as hell, which leads me to my to my next point, which was no matter
Yep, right out of the back of the truck into the ring.
who the focal point of the match was. If Clark Connors was in the frame, my eyes went to him. He was really good last night. He was really good.
Like I said, I thought Kid was okay by himself, but once Clark Conner showed up, I was like, okay, this guy's got all the charisma that Kid is lacking, and he makes the most out of every time he's on the screen. I think he's making that triumvirate. I think he, if he's not, and I know that they're making Finley the centerpiece, but really, I think the un...
Sungstar is Clark Connors because he's doing so much work in there and he's so good at it. I will tip, I was just gonna say I will tip the hat to the crowd. Please help Darby chant may have been the best thing I heard all night.
Yeah, I agree. agree. mean, look, go ahead. Sorry.
That was really good. That was really, really good. Um, I mean, going back to David Finley, this is a guy who, I'm not mistaken as a former world champion, I believe he won the IWGP belt for a while there. So I get it. They're going to try and position him as kind of the centerpiece, the heavy hitter, the potential main event or don't don't sleep on Clark Connors though. That's the guy that's making that thing go. And wow, was he good? Um, speaking of kids. So we talked earlier.
Mm-hmm.
Nope. Nope.
about FTR and specifically DAX and how good that heel work is. After this we're going to talk about MJF which is very good heel work in a different way. Gabe Kidd for me personally has the wrong kind of heat. He's getting that X-Pac go away heat with me of I don't like you but it's not because I'm supposed to not like you. I think he's weird. I don't get it.
Yep, I can understand that.
it's not doing anything for me. I don't want to see him get beat up the way I want to see Dax get beat up. I'm not entertained by him the way I am by MJF. I just kind of want him to go away. They're gonna have to figure that out. Maybe, maybe I'm alone on that. Maybe they disagree with me backstage, but I think that's something they need to figure out.
I think you have pointed out a potential in the dynamic shift that needs to and hopefully will be shifting. Because if they start to make Finley the centerpiece, like the Ric Flair of that group, and you have Clark Connors, who's going to be his right-hand man, who's going to be his Aaron Anderson, the guy that's there, and then I don't know what you call Kid, because he's kind of their Buzz Sawyer. That's an old-school reference for you folks. Go look it up.
That is, that's a good one. Deep pole.
Because he's just, know, yeah, he's the mad dog. He's the weirdo, but he's not he hasn't achieved that Buzz Sawyer status yet. He hasn't gotten that kind of heat that Buzz could get. But and I think that's kind of what they're going for with this. And it's just not quite clicking. But you give me Finley and Connors. I'm in, you know, I'm in.
Yeah.
I agree. I agree. I think I agree. I think they're a tremendous tag team. Just those two guys. I think you said something that was absolutely right there. They're trying to get kid over as crazy as he's just utterly unhinged, you know, frothing at the mouth, rabid dog. But I think he literally did froth at the mouth, if I'm not mistaken last night.
Mm-hmm.
No, you're not wrong.
I'm just not sure that's enough to get me to care.
Right. I will say Roderick Strong looked great.
my God, he looked really good. He looked really good.
Yeah, it was good to see him back, good to see him performing well. And I wrote down, strong orange skate, win the match. Which is what I started calling them, strong orange skate.
Yeah. I like that. I liked at the beginning Orange Cassidy giving him the gift card. That was the reward for finding him. I thought that was really good. Look, I really liked Roddy here. I'm with you. I thought he looked really good. I like the dynamic with him in Orange Cassidy where, all right, I'm going to be your friend, but like you annoy me, so I'm going to literally throw you at other people. And if you get hurt, bonus for me, you know, like I like it.
funny.
Mm-hmm.
was so good.
I think they got something brewing there. We'll see what they do with it, but I like it.
Yep.
That was very good. And oddly, I found that, yeah, Darby was amazing. And Darby, once again, threw himself into the jaws of death like he always does. It was the Orange Cassidy Roderick Strong storyline and connection that I cared about. And I can see that going forward. You don't need to keep Darby around with that. You can have Darby go do whatever he's going to do now. I hope that he's done with the dogs. I would like to
Yeah.
I agree.
needs to be.
I would like to the dogs do something different. would like to, my gosh, look, there's a new trios champion. Throw them that way. Why not?
Yeah, yeah, I would like to see them go mix it up with anybody else. cause I, I agree. think the Darby stuff needs to be done and they need to find something else for him to do. But again, I find myself going, I have no idea what. So he's in that group of Stat lander. I don't know where you go next.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Nope.
If I'm being honest right now, I think I would say the same thing about the Bucks. I'm not entirely certain where they're going to go next. I think they're going to get folded into this story, but with, with cope and Christian and FTR, but, they would be kind of on that fringe of I'm not sure what they're going to do next. You know,
I would hope so, yeah.
And the other thing is, even though Roddy Strong and Orange Cassidy looked great, you really don't have anything waiting for them in the wings. You don't really have much there for them. And unless you're going to try and throw, start throwing all these people at the new Trios champs, you haven't bothered to, I think, getting them into the tag title situation is, hi, Anastasia, is, no.
Yeah!
It's too early and unwarranted. I don't, again, now you have kind of at least those three going.
I agree. I agree.
I think you could continue the dogs as a trio versus Orange Cassidy, Roddy Strong, and then put Mark Briscoe in there. And I think it gets, yeah, because yeah, you've got that conglomeration angle of it. And I think Briscoe is, I don't know about more compelling, is at least a different dynamic from Darby is probably the way to put it.
I plus I think he fits that mold and completes that trio a little better and it fleshes that out and I'd be 100 % fine seeing those three do stuff. So yeah. Yeah. I don't either. Yeah.
I agree.
Yeah. And then just find something else for Darby to do. I don't know what it is. I don't just find something. Yeah. so then as we get to the biggest name that is now lost in the woods, Texas death between MJF and hang man. I will say I loved MJF's vignette. I loved the Terry funk homage.
My gosh, Yep.
Yes.
Again, say what you want about him. But they even said this on commentary. The man is a student of the game. He really is. I loved all of that. I will be honest with you for Texas death, which is not my favorite match. I don't love the death matches. I'm just not into that. If you are good on you, that's fine. I'm not here to tell you you're wrong for me personally. Now my cup of tea. This one entertained me more than the others have.
Mm-hmm.
And I think that that was the MJF factor of I instead of it being a Texas death match between two dudes who are all about Texas death You got a guy who's I don't want to do this I don't want to be part of this so I'm gonna not get you know eight feet of barbed wire Which is the part that makes me cringe the hardest, you know Like I think that was the MJF of it and and sorry, I saw a little tail there. Yeah
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
My cat.
And for me, that helped my enjoyment of the match a lot.
For someone who has seen more than his share of death matches, because I do enjoy some GCW and they do a lot, and it's not that I like the death matches, but I've seen a bunch, this was a pretty tame death match. And I was a little surprised to see light tubes in AEW. Those were not gimmicked light tubes because you could see the back of MJF. will say, I think I'm 98 % sure the barbed wire was gimmicked.
Yeah.
They.
it was. Yeah. Yep.
The glass was gimmicked, but those light tubes were not. And I'm sorry, this hangman, this syringe weird addiction you've got, dude, go bite feet with Tony Storm. That's no, no, no, no, no.
Yeah.
So I understand the symmetry of it, right? Like that's, I get it that so much of this was callbacks to things that both men had done separately before. So I two problems with that spot. The first one was the obvious one of didn't need to see it go through his cheek. Didn't need to see that. But then when MJF pushes the plunger, well now we can just see it spraying out the side of his face. Now,
I get it!
Nope.
To be fair, they didn't try to act like he drugged him. But it does beg the question of why even push the plunger there, I guess, for the visual of it, you know, but yeah, I don't I don't care for that. I don't I did not care for that at all. I did, too. I did, too. I looked away. Part of that is I don't like needles to begin with, but I looked away. I I was not OK with that.
Correct.
Yeah, that's all.
I... Nope. Nope. I looked away. That's one of the few times in any death match I've ever looked away.
No.
The light tube was a tough spot too, you're right, those weren't gimmicked. And when they went up to the ramp, or to the stage, I should say, that's when I was like, okay, it's not gimmicked and they're gonna hit each other because I can't remember. it was when I was listening to Chris Statlander on Chris Van Fleet's show, she talked about, she did a light tube spot. And she was like, I was actually surprised we were able to do it because you have to be away from the crowd.
because you can't control where that's going to go. And so they figured out a way to get them far enough away from the crowd. So when they went up there, I was like, here it comes. And this is going to suck. I'll give them this. thought for once the going off the stage into the electrical equipment explosion spot actually looked kind of good. Usually that that looks pretty goofy. It looked good. It looked good. So that's the positives of it.
Mm-hmm.
It did.
No, it looked really good. It looked really good.
I will say also real quick, those skewers were the biggest skewers I've ever seen put in anyone's head. Because I've seen that spot done a bunch. It's real big on the Indies because skewers are cheap and apparently they only go in so far and it's a great visual. honestly, but honestly, God, those skewers were s-
Yeah.
Yeah, those were.
They did it with mocks. He did it with mocks, I believe, in theirs.
I don't know if I've seen bigger skewers. That was ridiculous how big they're and he put so many in that I was like, MJF it's going to wreck your hair plugs buddy. What are you doing? What are you doing?
Yeah.
I don't think they're plugs. think he did the transplant maybe or something. don't, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. so those are, are generally speaking the positives. I did think it was interesting. the birthday card stuff that was, that was clever. That was clever. That's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. And the paper cuts. That was funny. That was, that was good. So those are the positives.
Something's going on. Something happened.
That was pretty good. Staple it to his chest. Pretty impressive. Liked it a lot. Yep.
But they did it. And you and I, think we're pretty sure that that was how it was going to go. That hang man lost and now cannot challenge for the world championship again. So just like we said with Statlander and a couple other people, what the hell do you do with him?
I don't know. didn't, literally I wrote down MGF wins, crap.
Yeah, and I love MJF. I love him. And that's why I think he's a different heel than Dax and why I think Dax is the best heel because I want to see Dax. He punched in the face. I root for MJF. He's a fun heel, right? Nothing wrong with that, by the way. Nothing wrong with that.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. I mean, his vignette of him peeing on a hangman's grave, hilarious. Hilarious. Done so well.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, I'm paying you to entertain me, so no notes there, you know.
Yeah, exactly. Job well done. Entertained.
Yeah, but man, I'm so mad at them for this.
Your poster child loses. They made a big deal and they're right. He was the first person, one of the first two people to vie for the title in AEW.
Mm-hmm.
Go back even further. Do you remember the video, the BTE, the being the elite when they announced the company? Do you remember that? Okay, so here's what happened for those who don't remember or didn't see it. Coming out of, it was coming out of All In, which was in September. So they started, I can't remember if it was a month later or what it was, but they started a countdown that was obviously going to end on New Year's Eve, right?
Vaguely, yes.
And everybody was going, okay, something's happening because they were all still signed to New Japan. And at that time, I think New Japan has changed this, but at that time contracts expired January 1, right? So countdown finishes, they're all in Japan, fireworks, New Year's Eve stuff is going on. Omega and the Bucks turn their phones around and it's the double or nothing logo on all three of theirs. Hangman, who was the only other guy there, Cody went there.
Right.
was the only other guy there. He turned, he looks at them and goes, guys, mine says something different and turns it around and it's the AEW logo. They did it on purpose. That hangman was the one that announced the company. He was the one that was the first person to show us the AEW logo. This guy was the main character from day one that look MJF is great. And I hear what he's saying, but this is the guy who has been the heart of AEW from day one. And now you did this. And so
at where I try to give them grace is that they have a plan here. But the worst case scenario is you didn't learn a damn thing from what you did with Cody, who was originally really the heart and soul of it, right? Like, like really was the guy that was out there doing it all and doing everything he could to make the company what it be, you know, what it has become.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Yep. Love him or hate him, he put everything he had into it and you could tell.
He did. I asked him, I asked him point blank, when the hell do you sleep? And he looked at me and said, it's okay, I find a couple hours here and there, it's fine. I'm doing what I have to do. Okay, all right, you're crazy, but I respect that. But you know, when hangman's supposed to be the guy, this is his elevation to top guy, and now you've done this. So either you learned nothing,
Mmm.
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Or you have a plan and I have tried over these not quite 24 hours since the show ended to figure out where they're going with this. And I have a couple different ideas. Let me preface all of them with you're not going to love any of these. And the reason the reason I see. Yeah. Right. And the reason that I say you're not going to love any of these is I don't see a good way out of it. Like I can't find.
probably not. Because I don't like where we're at now.
no.
a path out of this where I go, that would be really good. So here's what I got for you. And I'm curious if you've thought about it too, but here's what I got for you. Option one is we actually stick with this stipulation. Hangman is never in the main event scene again, and he's now Cody 2.0. He becomes every bit as pointless as Cody was in AEW, and he will be in WWE in five years.
I think five is generous, depending on his contract status. If that is the way it is, if they're going to stick to the stipulation, I would guess he would be in WWE the minute his contract is over and his non-compete is up. That's my guess.
Or less. Yeah, I'm, yeah, or less.
I would agree. would agree. Option two, as we stick in kind of the real world side of this, he really is done. He's leaving the company and we don't know it and he's done and we're never going to see him in AEW again, or at least not for a long time. The main reason I don't lean that way is Tony's habit typically is I take you off TV. Will Hobbs is the only guy he didn't take off TV before he went over there. Everybody else got a
nice long paid vacation before they showed up over.
Yup.
So now let's get into the kayfabe-ish options I have for you, which again, gonna remind you, you're not gonna feel good about any of these.
He turns heel as we discussed and he says, screw you, I'm challenging anyway. And we hope that he's a compelling enough heel that we go with it.
That is the only scenario that I have sketched out in my head that to me makes any salvageable sense.
I agree. I agree. It's not good, but it's the only one that makes some sense except for one other option I got for you, but I'm going to hold that one for a second. Okay. There's an option here where Tony con says, you know what, man, I get what you were doing, but screw it. I'm waving. I'm getting rid of that stipulation and he throws it out.
Okay.
which would be deeply unsatisfying and stupid. But it's wrestling and I've seen dumber things.
Mm-hmm.
True.
Not a lot of dumber things, but I've seen dumber.
Mm-hmm.
This is an interesting option that started rattling around my brain. Again, not deeply satisfying, but might be the direction we're going here. I can see this being a legitimate direction. I think they might play semantics here because what he said was, I will never challenge for the world title again. But what if a champion challenges him?
Okay, that's not as terrible as, because that's leading me to something that you inadvertently got my mind on, but I'm let you do yours, and then I'll tell you why I was thinking what I was thinking.
What if...
Okay, so here's to finish that thought. So do you remember, I think it was when Punk wanted the match with MJF, he would come out and just wreck whoever MJF's opponent was so that person won by DQ. And what it meant was Max was going to rack up losses at a time that they were still doing the rankings and tracking the wins and losses. And Punk's point to him was, I'm going to do this every single time you come to the ring until you give me my match.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
and I'm going to wreck your record, you're going to tumble in the rankings and you're never going to see the world title. Okay. There is a way and we've, we've done, there's a, there's precedent for this with MJF that you can go to him into doing things he doesn't actually want to do. Hangman has already done it to him. There's a vert, there's a path here where Hangman goads him into issuing the challenge and Hangman can go.
I didn't challenge, you challenged me. And I'm always up for a fight. I think that might be where we're headed with this. So I'm curious what you were thinking.
That's almost exactly what I was thinking is having Hangman just be so annoying that MJF has to say, you know what, I don't care. I want you in the ring. And if it takes me putting the belt on the line, fine. So yeah, that's exactly along the lines that I was thinking. The other thing that I was thinking was Hangman comes out or MJF is, you know.
just saying, we've seen the death of Hangman, yada, yada, yada. Then Hangman comes out and goes, Maxwell, you dumbass. I said I would never challenge again. Show me where it says that in our contract, and you can hold me to it.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, that again, not satisfying.
Well, you said something interesting there though, too. That's not a, it's like the third time. Maybe even four. I mean, you had a couple good names for, for what was it? Burrito, Donkey, Rodeo, Lucha Donkeys, that was it. I, if he comes out, if Max comes out and basically does the funeral,
That's a first.
I gotta start keeping track.
Lucha donkeys?
for Hangman Page, which would make sense off that vignette, right? He said, I will never challenge for the world title again as long as I'm alive.
Yes, we would.
Max, you just pronounced me dead.
So the TLDR of this is I think we're about to get into semantics here. I think they're gonna do a semantics argument on this. Prepare yourselves now for that. It's not gonna feel good, but I think it's gonna happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
yeah.
Well, a lot of wrestling logic is going to be employed, and that always doesn't really jive with real world logic, but it works in wrestling. But the issue I have is they have put themselves in a position that they have to do so much dancing if they're going to figure out a way to not have this suck. Because I'm sorry, like we've said, I have no problem with Max being the champ. I think he should be. He's amazing.
Yeah. Yep.
No, Yep.
the fact that you sacrificed Hangman's future potential at challenging, I think sucks. And you let it happen, you better be ready to back this up and give us something quickly so that we don't lose faith that Hangman's gonna be going soon, because that's what I'm feeling.
I agree.
Yeah, you better have something that you at least believe is a really damn compelling story coming behind this on how you're going to fix this because I agree with you. Sucks is absolutely the word for it. It sucks. It was a dumbass decision. It was dumb to put it in in the first place. I hate everything about it, which is too bad because that was a good match. And it's two of my favorite wrestlers going today. And man, did you make me feel gross on all this? You know?
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah I hated it.
I hated it. I absolutely hated it. But, but you bring up another good point. This is another thing that's been percolating in my brain here. I told you there's a reason I counted how long between now and all in. Okay. Here's where I pay that off. So let's say, all right. So, so first of all, let's, let's do some logistical stuff here. Okay. Tony con has said he wants to do nine pay per views per year, which I believe is what they did last year. Okay. We're already in March. So that means
Mm-hmm.
All right.
Okay.
you're going to have to stack not quite, but almost one pay per view per month between now and the end of the year. I believe they can take April off and I think they will. I think we'll probably get one of those, you know, winter is coming type dynamites, right? I think they'll take April off because double or nothing is in May. If I'm not mistaken, I got to go double check it because I know they already announced it, but I'm pretty sure it's in May. So I think now we're going to pivot to the bill to double or nothing, right? So so if the story is going to be.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
All right.
probably.
finding the way to get hangman in that title match at double or nothing, you're going to take six, eight-ish weeks to do that. Okay, unless you do this, unless you do it at the big dynamite, which you could, but then you're going to have a real short build to double or nothing. So let's say that the story for the world title is going to be however they get hangman out of this corner they've painted themselves into, right, and make him remain relevant. So if you switch the title at double or nothing,
And at that point, I think you have to like at that point, I think you really, really have to. That means you would have the rest of May, which if they keep it Memorial Day weekend, and I'm not sure if they did, but if they keep it Memorial Day weekend, isn't a lot of time. You would have June, July, and then all in is in August. That's three months. That's a three month rain for Hangman. And here's why I say it's a three month rain.
You cannot convince me that Will Ospreay is not winning the title in London in August at all.
Nope, I would agree. And I think if you're going to put Hangman back in, it'd give...
And here's.
Why bother? Why bother giving him yet another dinky ring? You're just sullying the guy who, again, he was supposed to be your main character, and you're treating him like an NPC. It's just he's been cannon fodder, not always his fault. But if that is the scenario they're going to do, put it on him in, what did we say, like two months, five weeks, five, six weeks?
Yeah.
It would be, I mean, here, let just you talk while I look up when double or nothing is.
A, you would have to clear up the debacle that you put yourself in with that finish last night on the pay-per-view. You're going to have to clean that up. You're going to have to regain trust with the audience. I'm sorry, you are, because what is going to happen if the scenario you lay out is accurate? And I feel like with Osprey back, it is the only thing I see standing in the way of that.
Yes, you are.
is he could take the continental title from Mox there, and then you build him the following year he gets the world title. So if that is what you do, which I think probably makes a little more sense, if you do it that way, now you have more time to rehab Hangman, you have more time to put this story into place so that it makes sense and it doesn't feel like you've rushed it and you're throwing just everything you can at the wall to make this.
debacle of a decision to let this stipulation go and then actually execute it, then you can do some story building and some world building and make that all hopefully make some sort of effing sense. mean, good luck, at least now you have more time. But if you try to put the title on him in five weeks, I'm sorry. I'm not going to buy that you're not going to take it off of him at All In. I just don't.
I agree, it's even longer. So May, I believe it was May 24th is when Double or Nothing is, is March 16th right now. That's roughly 10 and a half weeks. So yeah, so you're gonna have to either, you're gonna have to either switch the belt on your quasi pay-per-view level dynamite in April, or you're gonna have to try and find a way to make this work for 10 weeks.
Wow. OK.
and switch it at double or nothing. But I agree with you, a three month reign is pointless and hurts Hangman again. I think if you get him back in the main event but he loses, it hurts him again. And then, so the best option at that point is MJF carries to all in and then drops to, at that point I think it would absolutely be, it's either Osprey or Swerve at that point, right?
And I think that's what then makes the most sense is to have him just carried to all in and then he drops to one of those two guys. Now with Osprey, because this is another corner that you're in, obviously he's going after Moxley. Great. My guess is he's going to have to run through most of, if not all the Death Riders to get to him. Fine. Again, we've got 10 weeks to the next pay-per-view if I'm right on that. If they're not doing one in April, if I'm correct, we have 10 weeks to fill. So fine. Have him run through the Death Riders.
ready. Yep.
But then, so let's say double or nothing, you've got Mox and Osprey for the Continental title. Well, if Osprey loses, how do you then catapult him in the remaining time to the main event of all-in? It's not impossible. I mean, I guess there's plenty of ways to do it. You do another gimmick match and he wins that and gets, I guess that's what you do, but you're gonna have to catapult him. Now he can probably absorb that loss and be okay.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Or he's just going to be a double champion in that scenario if he carries the continental classic or the continental. I always want to call it that the continental title into the main event at all in any any wins in his two belts Osprey. There are worse things. I don't have a problem with that, but I think again, you're in some real murky, murky, murky booking waters. Or murky, murky birders is what I was about to say there. With donkeys and possibly a burrito.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, loot your dockies.
always.
All of it though. So you take all that. You couple it with the other things we've said. I don't know who's next for the Women's Tag Team Championships. I don't know who's next for the Women's World Title. It might be Mercedes time on that one. I don't know. Yeah. Although I imagine they're going to save her for all in for the title shot as well. I would at this point, you know. I don't know who's next for the TBS title. I don't know what we're doing with the TNT title.
Could be.
I definitely would,
I don't know who's going to challenge for the Trios Championship. The only thing I've got is that Cope and Cage are going to challenge FTR at some point. Now, I don't necessarily mind not knowing where every story is going. I don't have a problem with that. But when I look at the landscape and I go, this is all really murky and there aren't clear contenders here and there's almost too many contenders in other cases, right? Like there's almost too many contenders for the national
and TNT titles because Ciampa can factor into both of those. Ricochet can factor into both of those. Mike Bailey can factor into both of those. Kevin Knight can factor into both of those if you want. There's almost too many. There's all, you know. There's Briscoe floating out there. That's a great point. You've got all the Don Callis family guys that at any point you can heat up, right? Because they're all pretty close anyway. Okada is always out there. Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Let's go.
Yes you can.
Mm-hmm, you have ProtoCada that can challenge, that can challenge for any kind of tag title.
Yep, yep. So, and then when you look at the world title, you got Swerve out there who's gonna need something to do now, because that really felt like a blow off between him and Brody to me, and it probably should be. You gotta do something with Brody to keep that momentum going. I don't know what you do. You got Andrade, you got Bandito. Like, on one hand, what a great problem to have. On the other hand, how the hell are you gonna make your way through all this and save Hangman?
It did.
You know.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
How the hell are you gonna do this? Build the double or nothing, which is not an insignificant pay-per-view for them. Build the other pay-per-views in between and still find a way to get everything you wanna get to all in. Good luck, Tony Khan. You're gonna need it, my man.
Yeah, because even like in my head, the world title right now for a minute, everyone was after it. And then you had this, this, don't get me wrong, I thought it was a great swerve Brody King. I loved it. I loved that conflict. You had Kenny Omega.
after it. He went away. He just came back. So I guess he's in the ring. But you don't really have a clear cut who's next in even in the world title now because you've taken it. You put Hangman in the center. You've now put him into basically just yes, wrestling purgatory of don't know what you're to do now, son.
Purgatory, I don't
and there's no clear way for Swerve to really Swerve or Brody to get back in hang. mean Kenny is really the only one.
who maybe has a clear run at the title, but even that, would say, Andrade has a better clear run at the title and would be, right now, with momentum and popularity, would be the best person to slot in there. So if you're going to do that, when are you gonna have time to do this hangman thing, if you bother to? And that's all in the assumption that they're going to do something with that other than shrug emoji and...
And that's how it goes.
Yeah, so here's how I would fantasy book this one, right? Since we like to play that game around here.
have we not started that yet? I'm sorry, I thought we did. Go ahead.
no, we've done been doing that, but that that particular scenario of the things you brought up there, because you sparked a couple things in my head. So Omega did the run in at the end of Swerve and Brody, right? So probably, even though in my mind, Swerve is the next obvious challenger for the world title. OK, so you're probably going to spin him and Omega off, right? And let them do Swerve and Omega things. Great. It'll be wildly entertaining. No problem with that.
Absolutely.
Still don't know what you're gonna do with Brody. I got nothing for you there. So, okay, so then let's say that you're gonna have, and they've done this kind of thing before, you're gonna have one storyline getting Hangman out of purgatory. You're gonna have a parallel-ish storyline of next contender coming out. So let's say it's Andrade, because I think you're right, that he probably makes the most sense here if it's not gonna be Swerve.
And if you keep Hangman in purgatory for a bit. So maybe there's a side quest, if you will, or parallel storyline going of Andrade coming for Max. And maybe they do that at the higher level dynamite and then find a way to launch that into the full on Hangman Max again at double or nothing, which is really what I think we're headed for. I just don't have.
I mean, got some ideas, clearly I laid them out, but I don't have a really like obvious path on how they're going to do all this.
And is it me or has Kyle Fletcher really cooled off when he was red freaking hot? Red freaking hot. And now he's he lost the TRIO's title and he's doing Proto-Cotta. He I mean, no offense to them. I don't see them getting the titles anytime soon. That's not in the in the picture.
he's cooled way off. Yeah, they, they.
They fumbled that.
because between the Bucks, FTR, and Cage and Cope, that's not going anywhere out of those three. All you can do
Yeah, if you're a tag team, you're not in that scene right now. You're nowhere near it.
All you can do is be a spoiler and you better hope you come up with a really good feud with another team so you can get some TV time.
Yeah. Or that they're going to feed you to cage and cope on their way to it. I mean,
You better hope they don't because you're not going to do much after that. yeah, unless you are cool, you know, making a run at the ROH titles and that's okay, you know, but now you're proto-Kade and you're going for the ROH titles, I don't think so. So you don't really have anything with Kyle Fletcher who again, when Will Ospreay left, that guy stepped up and basically everyone was like, holy crap, this guy is the next Will Ospreay.
No, you're gonna lose. Yeah.
Yeah.
Hmm?
Yeah.
And now we're talking about Michael Knight, Kevin Knight, I know his name. You know, we're talking about Kevin Knight and we're talking about Speedball Mike Bailey more than we're talking about Kyle Fletcher. And that whole confidence in him seems to have just evaporated and Andrade has eaten all that oxygen. And again, I love this version of Andrade.
Yep. I know, but lean into it.
Yeah.
Yes, he has. Yeah.
Hmm? Mm-hmm?
I feel bad for Fletcher because I feel like due to no fault of his own, he has cooled and cooled and cooled. If maybe they would have pulled the trigger on Takeshita and Okada, maybe something could have, you know, broken him away from that. And they didn't even play that triangle hardly at all. There was no real real tension there, just two awkward backstage interviews. So you didn't go anywhere with that. I feel really bad that right now you've got Fletcher
Yeah, he has.
is yet another one of these mega, you know, these super talented people on the roster that is rudderless right now. And that is now like six or seven people that all could be main eventing that have nothing.
Yeah.
Yeah. And the saddest part of that particular scenario to me is I really believed, and I think we can go back, you can go back and find where I said this. I think it might've been coming out of like World's End or something. Where I, how many times did I say it? Kyle Fletcher will be world champion in 2026. And my thought was he's gonna get a hold of that belt pretty quick. Like I thought,
he would get a hold of it at Revolution. I thought if you go back several months, I thought Kyle Fletcher is gonna win at the first pay-per-view of the year, which at that point I did not realize was Revolution, but it's fine. And I thought he was gonna carry to All-In, and it was gonna be him and Ospreay for the title at All-In, and that's where Ospreay has his moment.
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
But now you've got yourself one hell of a hot feud coming out of your biggest show of the year that you can run right into all out, which is always too close to all in. And they scrambled and fill that card. You know what I mean? Like there was a pretty clear, clean, really good path there for him and Osprey to fight. That was inevitable. This mic, this new mic is too heavy for my mic stand, which badly needs blue chew. but
There we go.
Bluetooth!
there is a clear path for a real hot feud between two of your top guys to bleed right into that would lead perfectly into your biggest show of the year. And man, you lost all that. You lost it all for a storyline of hang man, not challenging to hurt hang man. You lost it to hurt hang man. And none of this makes a damn bit of sense. And I don't know how you find your way out of this in a way.
that has any of us doing anything when they get done with whatever this direction is right and they move on to the next thing. I don't see any world where all of us aren't sitting there going. It was okay, I guess. I hope I'm wrong.
Yeah. mean, we went, it took about two months. And I don't think there's any way Kyle Fletcher holds the world title in this year. I don't think there's any way feasible at this point to get him heated up to the point that you had him because he was so on fire and his, missed the boat on putting that belt on Kyle Fletcher or you missed the boat on having him keep the TNT title. Was that it?
No, I, no.
Yep. Well, he's still, I mean, he got it back, but he's got it right now. He's got it right now. He's the champ right now. I know. I know. Yeah. Yeah.
Did he?
Doesn't even feel like that. Doesn't even feel that way, to be honest with you. Does not feel that way. So they need to make that a much better priority. They need to start putting a target on his back. They need to have Ciampa start attacking him. They need to have something happen where you need to make that title to make it like back in the old days when I think it was Luger who was saying, look, I might not have the world title, but the title doesn't make the man. The man makes the title.
That's exactly what I was going to say. Yep.
Yep.
And you can have, you could definitely build Kyle Fletcher in that mold. You can definitely build Kyle Fletcher to be like, I don't care who's holding the world title. I'm the best, period, end of story. And if finally Will Ospreay gets that title, now you can have those two go toe to toe and see who really is the best and get whoever two belts at the end of it or put that second bell up for grabs afterwards.
Yes. Yep.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I yeah, no, I agree. I mean, I to me the best path to heat Fletcher back up, which they need to do because man, he was red hot. I think I know. No, I know it's easy to do.
I gotta be honest, I forgot he had the belt. I'm not even kidding. I totally forgot because of the TRIOS thing. Totally forgot he had the belt.
Yeah, I think the best way to heat him up and to heat the TNT title back up is Ciampa. That's your path is have Ciampa come after him because that's a legit dude who's still got a little bit of heat, but they're in danger of squandering that too. But that's a legit dude coming after him. You do a nice program between them, probably not the full 10 weeks to build the double or nothing. But again, if you do one of those, you know, quasi pay-per-view level dynamites and collisions,
Mm-hmm.
Yes, they are.
in April, which I think is probably what we're gonna see, you could build a nice little program between them to heat both of those guys back up. And look, if they tear it down, which they probably will, you can run it back at double or nothing at that point with a step or something, you know?
Plus there's still heat between the Death Riders and Don Callis family. You throw Pac at him? my god. Banger after banger. You throw Daniel Garcia at him, which I think is long overdue. Pick one of those two.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
That would make a lot of sense, yeah.
Pick Pack or Daniel Garcia, throw them at Fletcher because I think those are both banger matches waiting to happen. You have Ciampa in there. And if you need someone to break it up for variety, you still have Briscoe that you can throw in to make a run and distract and keep it going for a little bit. And Rodney Strong is in there. You've got L.Cole. You have so many people that you could throw in there to help it, you know, help.
Yeah well and you you've got another directionless yeah that's exactly what I gonna say yeah
move that along.
Yep, that's exactly what I was gonna say. You've got two other directionless guys in Roddy Strong and Orange Cassidy that you could throw in there too. There's a path to do it, but they gotta do it. They gotta pull the trigger. And you've got Takeshita floating out there with nothing to do. You gotta pull the trigger on him on one of these things too. like you've got some guys and some women.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
because I'm kind of curious where we're going with Tony Storm too, that are gonna help carry you to your biggest show of the year, but you gotta heat some people back up and you gotta find that direction real quick and I hope they got it. I desperately hope that they didn't do what allegedly WWE has done this year where they didn't have the card worked out. I hope they've known this is what it is and have worked backwards for months. I hope. We're gonna find out.
Mm-hmm.
I hope so. I hope so. You know, wait, it's almost, it was there. It was on the tip of my brain hole. And if you really want this, okay, if you want to heat up Fletcher and you want to pull the trigger on Takeshita, have those two go for the title. Just saying, because now you've got Fletcher and Okada, you know, firmly entrenched together. Go ahead and blow it up.
that yeah.
Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense, yeah.
Have Takesh to run after it. Finally break him away. Let him be his own dude. Fine. Join the Death Riders. I don't care. That would be cool. think there's some legitimacy to that move. And I think that would work really well. It would give the Death Riders a fresh coat of paint. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, you've got you got a lot of you got a lot of folks kind of hang out in purgatory and they're going to have to figure that out and they're going to have to figure it out. It's to my mind, you've got 10 weeks to do it because double or nothing needs to wrap up, wrap up some loose ends and launch your road to all in because that's really what this is all about is is all in. That is that is their mania. That is their show that matters the most. Right.
Absolutely.
So double or nothing's gotta be your launch to the all in build. So you got 10 weeks by my count and I may have miscounted that, but we've got about 10 weeks to figure this out. It's not a short amount of time, but it's not a long time either.
Mm-hmm.
Right, right. It can feel like forever in wrestling, but it's not that many episodes to get this together. So, well, we shot for an hour and we've spent about 25 minutes just fantasy booking and bitching and trying to end up with a way out of our emotional pit we put ourselves in with this hangman.
can.
Yeah. Yeah.
Which I knew we would, yeah.
Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean.
But I don't think we're alone on that. We're gonna find out. We're gonna find out in the comments, but I don't think we're alone on that, which is why I knew we'd go long in that. So I'm still pretty proud of us that we're only at about an hour 16 at this point. That's pretty good.
No. No.
Yeah, yeah, we were done with the review well before the 60 minute mark and this has all been speculative on the last 25 or so. So yeah, I'm OK with that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yep. So like I said, get in the comments. We're all over social media at Elite Heat Pod. You can find us on YouTube, all that stuff. Drop your comments there. What do you want to see happen? How do you think they get out of this hole with Hangman or is it a hole? Maybe you like it. Maybe you think he shouldn't challenge for the title. Tell us why. Yeah, I'm genuinely curious to hear what other fans think about where we're at right now with All Elite Wrestling coming out of Revolution. So
Yeah. Is there something we're missing that we aren't seeing?
Mm-hmm.
Do that, like the podcast if you haven't yet, share, subscribe, definitely subscribe. Apple, Spotify, YouTube, really anywhere you listen to podcasts, we're there. Hit subscribe, hit like, share it with your friends that are into this stuff too. It would help us a lot as we continue to basically tell Tony Khan what to do.
Yeah, and tell Tony Khan to put us on the AEW Podcast Network on myAEW.com.
For real, for real. All right, so with that, onto a very, very interesting dynamite this Wednesday that has a lot riding on it. We'll see where we go.
Mm-hmm.
Yes, we will.