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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.
All right, and here we go with the post-Double or Nothing three hour dynamite collision hybrid thingy, because that's what we do these days. interesting one tonight in my mind, because on one hand, I felt like there's a lot of ground that they could cover coming out of Double or Nothing, which we all seem to agree is one of the best pay-per-views ever. that
Absolutely. So good.
Yeah, I mean, not only you and I, but that just seems to be kind of the buzz online, as a lot of people go, and that is arguably the best one ever, certainly top five. and by the way, again, that's that's wrestling pay-per-view, not just for AEW, that's for everybody. But anyway. on one hand, I do think they did a little bit to advance some storylines. On the other hand, I sort of feel like they don't, and I don't think that that made it a bad.
Absolutely.
three hour show, it just was a little surprising to me. So I'm curious what you thought about it.
I I agree because we were looking for Fallout and we kind of thought we knew some things and they did surprise me with a little bit, but it was we can get into that in a bit, but I I thought you're right, I thought the major storylines advanced and then I didn't see quite enough of a couple, but a couple surprises were in there and some stuff was basically exactly went exactly the way I thought it was going to go, which isn't a bad thing.
Mm-hmm.
Sure. Yeah, I mean I mean, it it's sort of like last week's Dynamite where I go, you put it entirely in a vacuum and just have it be a random Wednesday night in May. And it's fine. There's nothing wrong with it. It's fine. You know, I wouldn't call it one of the greatest dynamites they ever did, but I'd be like, yeah, whatever. It was a completely fine show. But because it's on the heels of Double or Nothing, which was such a big show, and they did a lot on that show, it felt
I don't wanna say it felt like it fell flat for me because I think that's probably harsher than I actually feel about the show. But it was surprising to me and it was a little bit like, huh, okay. I thought we'd do some more with some things that you know, I just thought we'd do a little bit more.
Right.
Where where do you feel where do you feel the storyline was lacking? That they that they could have.
Well, that's a good question because as I was saying it, I'm I'm sitting here going, I'm not really sure where how I'm not really sure I can put my finger on it. so that's kind of an interesting question. I don't I guess I don't really know why I feel that way. I just know that's how I feel. May I think part of it that stuck out to me as well is that we really didn't do anything to start the build to Forbidden Door, and I thought we would. and so maybe that's it. Maybe I thought that was coming and it didn't. I I don't know.
No. Yeah.
I think I think part of it for me is you had a lot of time dedicated to a four-way match that really it didn't it didn't do a ton. I mean it continued to make RUSH look good. It gave
I don't understand it.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Lio Rush and his new character some screen time, which I I'm at all of All In favor of. I am really, really liking his new character. It is bonkers. It is a new take on the crazy wrestler and the possessed wrestler. I like it. But then the orange Cassidy and I mean it it did give the conglomeration a new angle with the Don Callis family. So I wrote down that okay, we're we're going that way. But overall, it didn't it
Mm-hmm.
Okay, so Don Callis and the conglomeration, they're gonna tussle. All right, it sets up a little bit for later, but which was my biggest surprise, I think. And then, you know, okay, we still make RUSH look good and he looks good, but it didn't do much for him, in my opinion.
Mm-hmm.
I yeah. I I agree. I thought that whole match was weird. I thought this is one of those where maybe they got a little too cute calling it the Superstation Showcase or whatever, and I guess it was technically a money match, but nobody said a word about it, or not much anyway, and they certainly didn't in you know, anything that came after the match. I think what you could have done is you could have had Lio Rush and RUSH have a match.
Yeah.
Right.
Which is fine because as we have talked about, you don't always have to have a reason for it. You can and especially AEW has a precedent of we're just gonna make a match to make a match, right? So you could have had them fight. you could have had RUSH continue to look good, get that screen time for Lio Rush as they continue to kind of ease him into things, right? Which I think is great. I I think that's exactly what they should do. And then
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
You could have just had, I mean, let's just jump to it. You could have just had the conglomeration come out with Takeshita like they did. And you still have done everything you needed to do to set up, okay, this is gonna be a feud now. You know, you can run that that segment exactly the same way they did, and you've you've done all the setup you need right there.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
And you didn't have to put Orange Cassidy and Brian Cage in the match. Now look, I I like those guys. I'm not gonna complain about seeing them on my TV, but it really had me sitting on my couch going, I don't know why we're doing this. And you're right, it was a pretty big chunk of time for that match.
I I mean the only reason was for them to put the the premonition or what no. Yeah, the deja vuness or whatever, the peek behind of ooh, here's a little forerunner of what's coming with Don Callis and the conglomeration. My my biggest issue is like you said, it it took up a lot of time and I don't think it did Brian Cage any favors. Brian Brian Cage is a monster. He and RUSH should have been going toe to toe, and y you could have made that match.
Yeah.
I agree. Mm-hmm.
If you want RUSH to look good, have those two just go toe to toe and really make Cage look good in losing. And RUSH has, I think, in that win, has a much stronger case for going after the title because no offense to Lio Rush, I love this new character, but come on, beating beating Brian Cage physically looks way better than beating Lio Rush. And I when when the conglomeration came out with Takeshita, it took me a minute to go, yeah.
Yeah.
The conglomeration came out for the Don Callis family earlier. So yeah, this all makes sense. I didn't have to have that. I could have just been like, this makes sense for the conglomeration to get behind Takeshita. 100% it does, because that's the kind of, you know, faction they are. So I really liked that part of it. I like I agree with you. I didn't need the four-man match to set to help set that up.
Mm.
Yeah. Yeah. You could have very easily done everything that you just said. And then if anybody is asking, well, why'd the conglomeration come out with Takeshita? Which I'm with you. I think it makes sense. Like when I saw it, I didn't I just went, Yeah, okay. Yeah. All you got to do is then next week have Briscoe cut a promo going, he came to us and we were like, Yeah, baby, let's do it. Cause that, like you said, is a very conglomeration thing to do. Like, yeah, let's do it, you know. makes total sense.
Mm-hmm.
Makes total sense. Well Yeah.
Yep. Or they don't even have to explain it because it's wrestling and it's like, yeah, okay. Conglomeration saw a guy going out, one to five. They're gonna back up. Sure, they don't like those wins.
Yeah. Yeah, I I yeah, totally agree. You don't have to explain it, but if you wanted to, you could have done it that way. And then that could have given you a bit more time on tonight's episode to address I mean, again, I'm not really sure. Well, I can tell you one thing that was lacking. You could address, I don't know, the women's championship.
Yep.
Maybe start building a program there. Just a thought. I'm gonna ask for it every week until we get it.
Yep. That that was that was lacking.
Yeah. And we should. We absolutely should. speaking of the women, they they did address the wild card finally, and we're going to find out Wednesday who that is because that match is happening, and we'll find out if we're right and if it really is Mercedes Moné or not. Because if it's not, I don't have a clue who it's going to be, and the impact will be that much less. So I hope for their sake it really is Mercedes.
Yeah.
I don't either. Yeah.
I do too. I I think if it's anybody look it I've thought about this off and on since they announced it and we talked about it. I don't think that there's really anybody out there that they could bring in and I would go, Yeah, okay, like I'm cool with it being this person instead of Mercedes. Like I just don't think that person is out there. I I
No.
Really believe that it's gonna be Mercedes. And if it's not Mercedes, then I really believe it will be Thunder Rosa. I'm not kidding. I really think if it's for some reason not Mercedes, then it's gonna be her. And you and I are gonna be sitting here next week going, Okay.
Yep. The only other the only other name that y we brought up that kinda makes sense but there hasn't been a sniff around it is Ruby Soho.
Yep, Ruby would would be interesting. And I think you'd get a nice pop for her coming back. And you don't have to have her go over. that's fine. But I think you'd get a nice pop for that. Yeah. Yeah. No problem. but anyway, so yeah, it was it was just kind of an interesting one. Like I said, I I really expected some sort of build toward
No. Make her make her look good in the match and we're good. Yep.
Forbidden Door and we got literally zero. Now, granted, they have a month. It's at the end of June, so that's okay. But just found that interesting. Another thing I found interesting that I think might somehow tie in to Forbidden Door is one of the first things that we saw, which was Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay. And what was Omega wearing? Did you catch that? He's wearing a New Japan jacket.
Yep.
Okay.
Yes.
no yes.
Now, on one hand, maybe I'm reading too much into it because certainly the man spent the bulk of his career in New Japan. He's gone back there multiple times since AEW started. I think, you know, you talk about a guy who I don't know if New Japan Pro Wrestling has a Hall of Fame, but if they do, he's certainly a Hall of Famer for them. Yeah. I mean, a guy who was a pillar of their company for a long time. So it could just be the man's wearing some gear because it was comfortable and he likes it, right?
Better be.
Yep, could be.
Is it's no different than the t shirt I'm wearing right now.
Right.
But just given that it's Forbidden Door season, it just made me wonder, is that a little seed of something? I don't know what. It just made me wonder.
And that's the type of seed that would be in a Kenny Omega angle and the one that makes sense. I completely missed it. I just I didn't realize it was a New Japan. I thought it was a video game thing because there was a different name over here. And I was like, okay, what I I didn't pay much attention to it. I thought it was interesting that Kenny was like, hey man, you could have come to me. And Ospreay is just like, you haven't been here. And then it's like,
Mm. Mm-hmm.
I thought that was interesting too.
He's gotcha. So what are you gonna say now? And it's like, all right, let me let me change tack on this. It it just that felt a little weird. So I I think you're right. I wasn't thinking Forbidden Door angle there. I think that may be the first seed that we've seen for Forbidden Door. But if it is, it's the only one I think that got planted for that show.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Absolutely. They didn't do anything else with it, which again, you've got some time and and Forbidden Door is a unique show that I think is fun. I love that they do it, but you're not you don't necessarily have to do a ton of build to it, right? Like you can just go, Hey, here's you know the IWGP champion versus insert AEW person here.
Mm-hmm.
Here's CMLL champion versus, you know, like you don't have to do a lot of build to it. And the hook of Forbidden Door is the uniqueness of it. And that's fine. but yeah, I the one note I made on that segment literally was Will makes a good point about Kenny not being there. So, you know, it's it's
Absolutely. Yep.
Yeah. Yes he does.
It's interesting to me to see where that goes. It's interesting to me that he was wearing the jacket. Again, I might be reading too much into it, but it does feel like an omega and AEW type of thing to do. so we'll see. We'll see about that.
Absolutely it does. Yep. Yep. As far as like angles go, I think we may as well address the biggest one that everyone was waiting for. And it was Kevin Knight. And I'm so glad that he came out first. And hats off to Kevin Knight because I he's been decent on the mic. I don't think he's been stellar. His skills have improved. I think this was his best promo yet.
Yep, that's what I was gonna say. Yep.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
I agree.
I think it made all the sense in the world. It's very similar to the angle I thought he would take, which is Darby let us down. I'm done waiting. Ta-da. we got to see speedball come out. We got to see Kevin turn on him, clock him, a good one. It's setting up the match for next week, which I think the timing is right. I don't think they rushed it. I don't think they waited too long. I was very happy with with that. One of the biggest storylines coming out of of Double or Nothing, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah, I I agree with you on almost everything you said there. this was a big promo. There was a lot riding on it, and I thought he was pretty good. My expectation for him is relatively low because of what you said. I he's not been great on the mic, so I expect that. And I thought he was pretty good. You know, I I I thought in a lot of ways, kind of a classic heel promo of No, no, no, you don't understand. I'm doing like I'm right.
And you just don't get it, sort of a thing, right? I thought he he made some sense. I really did. And that's compelling. So, so I think he did a good job there. I thought the stuff with him and Speedball was good. I will say later, when Speedball did his little promo, which I also thought was pretty good, and he called him out. I I thought, boy, I don't want to do it next week. I want them to let this simmer a little more.
Yep. Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yep. Yep.
And of course we're doing it next week. So that's where I disagree with you on it just a tad of I have no problem with the timing of how they built to those two splitting. I have no problem with that. I think all that they I think they did it all really well. Really, really well. The subtle stuff that they were doing with Kevin Knight, getting arrogant was really good. I just wish that we weren't doing this next week.
okay, yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Yes, you you're absolutely right. I think they're rushing the match. I don't see unless they have plans for jet at Forbidden Door or elsewhere or Speedball for that matter, I could maybe see that and they want to make sure that he's ready or done with it. But I don't see the harm. We've got a month. Let it simmer for at least let give us at least a week of something, you know, anything to let it simmer, to let it boil. Because quite frankly, the tension between them hasn't been
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yep.
really there yet until tonight or Sunday.
Yep. I yep. Totally agree. I think that you well, it it wasn't even Sunday because Speedball didn't come out. You know, he didn't come out at the end of the show after Kevin did what he did to just give him like the what are you doing? You know, it didn't start until tonight, really. And so I I agree. You could take a week or two and let this get a little more heat on it, let it boil a little bit more, you know, and I think that it would be
Right.
Right.
I think you could do a really good build to a match, like I said, in like two weeks. You know, it doesn't have to be on the pay-per-view. You could do it in two weeks, let them do the match, and then if you want to have Kevin Knight defend the TNT title against somebody from New Japan or whatever the case may be, that's fine. Cause like we just said, you don't need a lot of build for Forbidden Door. You can just announce the match and it's like, yeah, okay, cool.
Yeah. Because that's what Forbidden Door is about is unique matches you're not going to be able to see almost anywhere else. A few storyline things will happen, but not near as many. And so we don't need that build, but we do, I think, need that tension a little bit built up between those two. I kind of wish now thinking back that the timing and everything was good, I I kinda wish Kevin wouldn't have clocked him tonight. I kind of wish he just would have shouldered by him like he did and then kept walking and just been like showing how disappointed he was in speedball.
Yeah.
And then next week they can have another confrontation or whatever or in the jet could clock there and be like, It's you just don't understand. So but that is again me nitpicking, but you're right, they should wait, I think, a little bit longer on this match, but we're gonna get it next week anyway. So
Yeah. Yeah. I I I agree. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I mean it's it's just a it's an ongoing nitpick slash issue, whatever you want to call it, that I have with AEW of we're gonna make the match and we're gonna immediately do it the following week. And it's like, let's some of these get some heat on them. Let it, you know, let's build it a little bit. You don't again, you don't have to stretch this to the pay-per-view, but you could stretch it two weeks and it'd be fine. You know. but you know, whatever. It's gonna happen and
It it will, if nothing else, be interesting to see. I mean, I gotta believe Kevin Knight's going over. It'll be interesting to see how he does it. and to see how they continue to build here and where they're gonna go next. Cause I I don't know how much juice you're gonna get out of the squeeze here with if you try to run those guys back again after next week's dynamite. Like I I think this is a one and done.
Right.
Yep. It should be. I mean it should be. And yeah.
Yeah. So I'll I'll be curious to see where it goes coming out in the match next week. But that's where I think again you could have taken a little bit more time with it. speaking of promos that I thought was one of the better ones from a guy who again, my bar for him is relatively low. I thought Ricochet was pretty good tonight.
yeah. Yes, he was. I liked that. Cause and again, I think it was because it was concise. It was short. It was to the point. And it didn't surprise me that we're gonna see a blow off between those two. Between you know, in case you missed it, Ricochet and Jericho. That was next. I thought that promo summed it up very nicely. I thought the match was pretty solid. I'm a little I guess I'm not sir super surprised that Jericho won.
Mm-hmm.
I'm not either.
But I I actu before anything happened, I literally said, So what's next for Jericho? And I guess and then I said, well, I guess Ciampa's next because Tommaso came out. And that to me made no sense.
Yep. Yep.
Yeah, I I I agree. I thought again, you put it in a vacuum. It's fine. It was a pretty good match. Whatever, right? I I I'm gonna nitpick a little bit here on a guy that I shouldn't be surprised, I suppose, but that was one of the uglier lion salts I've seen from Chris Jericho at the end there. Yeah, he did. That was tough, yeah.
Yes it was. And Ricochet even tried to help him by moving and it did not it didn't help them.
I thought Sunday should have been the blow off. And that was why I didn't understand. I think it was Bishop Kaun that took the bullet for for Ricochet. You know, on one hand, you can do it from a storyline perspective of like that's how loyal these guys are to him. I thought it should have been the blow-off at Stadium Stampede. I'm I'm a bit disappointed that they did it again tonight. and that that was the blow off. I I'm with you on.
Mm-hmm.
I agree.
Here.
I don't understand Ciampa then jumping Jericho. Other than Ciampa needs something to do, and now so does Jericho, because apparently we're done with him and Ricochet.
Right.
Yep. And here is my my quibble with that whole blow off being tonight and not on the pay-per-view is you had Bishop Kaun take the pin instead of Ricochet to have this match to set up a non sequitur interference from Ciampa.
It you didn't need that. Have him pin him at the pay-per-view where it mattered more. You can have Ricochet come back and be like, whatever, Jericho, I'm done with you. That didn't mean, you know, I got beat up by seven guys. Use the basically the same speech that Khan said, and then boom. You know, he he do he he's gonna be fine after that. Then have Ciampa say something. Do a d give us a reason why he wants to take on Jericho. That would be a much more satisfying thing than what we got. Like you said, you know, the match was
Yeah.
Fine. Those two are always gonna be okay together. Their chemistry is pretty good. You were right. The lion's salt was weak. And then the Ciampa thing made no sense. And then referencing an old Jericho bit, which is what Ricochet just got done doing for five weeks, felt just a the that whole angle felt off to me. So I guess you know, give us something next week or I'm I'm not very invested in this.
It was fine. Yeah.
Yeah.
I I agree. I so I I have two different directions I want to go here to put the bow on what's currently happening. I agree with you. Next week, we're gonna need a good promo from Ciampa to explain why he did what he did. Now, again, given that you are looking at Forbidden Door in about four weeks, give or take. I don't know that this is the best time to be starting a new program between two dudes in your own company.
Yes, we are.
When in theory you're gonna want both of them on the pay-per-view and maybe they're gonna have fight at Forbidden Door, but I I whatever. Yeah. Right. And and
That's four weeks. What are you gonna do in the that's four weeks. So I hope you know, unless this is filler to get us to a point where they the one of them is gonna be on Forbidden Door and we find out why in a couple of weeks, then okay. But again, I think the setting the table setting of this could have been done better and more neatly and a little more satisfyingly. So I think between that and the four man match, that that's why this show felt lacking is because the Jericho thing could have been one of the
Yeah.
I agree. I agree.
bigger storylines and it just kind of fizzled because you didn't pay it off at the pay-per-view and you did this and you had a weird Ciampa thing. So to me, those matches as we talk about it, those two things are what makes the whole feel a little less satisfying.
Yeah, I
Yeah, I I don't think you're wrong on that. Yeah. let me ask you this. So my friend Mike texted me that, you know, man, Jericho did it again. He reinvented himself again. What do you think of that statement? I'll hang up and listen.
I I would I would disagree because it doesn't feel much like a reinvention. It just feels i if you want to say the reinvention is him him dropping the name Chris, technically yes, but there isn't a very solid direction that this new quote Jericho is going. He's referenced some old bits, he hasn't latched on to any one of them, he hasn't really made a big thing about
I would too. Yeah.
playing the hits like you had mentioned last time. So I I don't think this is much of a reinvention other than a return because that's what it feels like to me is just more of a okay Jericho's back on TV, not, ooh, I like where this new Jericho is going because there isn't any focus for him.
Yep.
I I agree. Yeah. And that's basically what I said is I said, Well, I don't know that he's reinvented himself because he's kind of playing the greatest hits, right? Like we just did a whole feud around the lion salt, you know? And when he came back, we got the list, and then, you know, like even the sparkly pants and stuff. You know what I mean? Like he's kind of playing the greatest hits, which is fine. I don't like I don't mind it. I'm not I'm not trying to be critical of it.
Right, right.
But I don't think that this is a guy who, you know, has famously reinvented himself a whole bunch of times. I wouldn't call this one of them. Now it might be headed somewhere where he's going to, and maybe it's gonna be part of this Ciampa thing. I don't know. But I just found that interesting that, you know, really, really he's just playing the greatest hits, right?
And it has to be better than I'm the guy who gets beat up by The Demand every week on TV. It was a cute idea for a T shirt. That's not a reinvention. It's not a very strong hook. So yeah.
Yes. Yep. No.
No. Yeah. So anyway, I just wanted to after I got that text, I was like, I'm gonna ask about this and see if I'm alone on this one. I'm glad that I'm not.
You you are not, sir. You are not. But you know, when when we were t discussing promos, what do you think of the Kyle Fletcher promo? Because I gotta be honest, I thought that was pretty fire.
Sweet. Sweet.
Yeah, I mean of the things that that I thought worked on this show, which again I think there's more pros than cons, I would absolutely say that was really good. let me let me just find my notes here. Let me scroll down to get all my thoughts together on it.
I like because it was kind of twofold. You had the first one in the back where he came up to the jet and then Don Callis came in and was like, hey, hey, hey, hey, basically saying, Hey, Jet, if you want to come our way. And clearly Fletcher's like, I'll be taking that when I want.
Yeah, I I thought that was very good. I liked the it was subtle because you're right. It was a little bit of Don recruiting the new heel, which makes total sense, right? He's always recruiting. The other part was, yeah, he didn't blatantly just be like, you know, I never lost that. because he didn't. But
Mm-hmm.
He c he he just did little glances down at the belt, you know, and I'm li I love when they do that. I think it's such a fun little subtle thing. but yeah, I thought that was very good. I thought his promo later in the ring was excellent. Again, I would say kind of a good old school heel promo, just bury the guy who didn't do anything wrong. answer a question that nobody asked, you know.
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Exactly.
Yes, yes, yes.
I I thought it was really good. I thought it was really, really good. I did make this note out of it though, because it's part of kind of a twofold promo, right? Because it starts with Don. Don saying that Fletcher is the chosen one jumped out of me because I thought, boy, what is a guy like Andrade and Okada think about that? What do those two guys think about that particular line?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yep. What I found what I found interesting about the Andrade bit is Andrade was on the show backstage and in the ring. Don Callis what I was he out for the Andrade match? Because I don't think he was. And Andrade didn't mention anything about the family or anything. So I thought it was interesting that
I don't believe he was. I think Andrade was solo each time.
If there's a break between them, no one's talking about it, and we're just letting that go. That was interesting. But yes, Don calling him the chosen one, not surprising. Especially when you've got, you know, Dunkzilla standing right next to you. And he's like, yeah, he's the chosen one. and by the way, Doyle's back. I thought that was really good.
Mm-hmm.
No.
Yeah. I thought that was good too. And not unlike with Fletcher, that surprised me because I really thought Doyle was going to be out like the rest of the year or most of it. Yeah. I would have liked them to actually kind of make it a bigger deal than they did. 'cause it it's almost a blink and you miss it. but yeah, it was nice to see him back and what'll be fascinating with that is how do they treat it because they had
Yeah. I thought it was Yep, I thought he was on the shelf for a while.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
been doing such a good job of building the momentum of him and Davis as a tag team. And now, I mean, you could put back together and do it, but with Davis having the national championship and kind of being involved in his own stuff, I don't know that they're gonna put them back together right away.
Yes.
I I wouldn't right now for a multitude of reasons, but mostly because of what you said about the belt and the tag division doesn't need them at the moment. So but having him back is encouraging just to see him back at the ring. And but you're right. If if i if Excalibur wouldn't have said he that that was who that was, I might have missed that that was just not another Don Callis family member beating someone up.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I I mean you could have easily blinked and missed it. They didn't show him very long, but anyway. speaking of Andrade, I thought this was a good promo from him tonight that he did. And I thought it was the best use of his how you know line. I thought it was a great use of that.
Mm-hmm.
Finally, yeah.
Yep. I liked it. I liked it a lot. And his his his action in the ring and that match I thought was really, really good. Him and Ace Austin, you know, once again, Ace Austin, they're building him to look really, really good even in defeat. I don't know what their plans are for Ace Austin, but I'm a fan. I like it. Bring it.
Yeah. as we
Yep.
That's that's my only hesitation, I guess, is the word I'm gonna go with with this one. Yeah, the it was a good match, real good match. And Ace Austin continues to look great in these matches. He looks good in a loss, but it's always in a loss. He's always putting somebody else over. And that is what concerns me a little bit, is
Yep. Yep.
Okay.
That he seems to be in this role of, yeah, he'll look good, but he's never gonna win. And if he doesn't win, at some point it's like, well, what do you you're not advancing him? You know what I mean? And I would like to see I would like to see them not only do something with him, but with the entire Bang Bang Gang who have just been completely relegated to the shadows. you know, if only there was like, I don't know, like a like a
Absolutely.
Mm-hmm.
Like a trios championship or something.
Yeah, that would be cool if there was.
Yeah, maybe that's something that they could go after if it existed.
Can I make just a little editorial comment? I don't know if you've noticed, but since both of the Ass Boys are back together, both the brothers are back in the Bang Bang Gang. why am I blanking on his juice? Juice is not wearing the puffy trunks. He's wearing long tights. He's not wearing the word brown diaper.
Please.
Jews, yeah.
I did not notice that.
He's not wearing the weird brown puffy diaper thing that he was wearing. The adult mm depends brown thing that he was wearing that really skeeved me out. He's he's wearing long pants. And I just appreciate that. So I don't know if it was some kind of protest or waiting until both the boys were back together, but I don't care what happened. I'm glad he's in actual pants now. That's it. End of rant.
Yeah.
All right.
All right. I had not noticed that. but okay. Good call, good catch, I guess. I don't know. I I'm I I
Yeah, really s now I realize how much it sounds like I've been focusing on pants that Juice Robinson wears and I don't feel good about that, but I'm glad he's changed them. That's all I'm gonna say.
That yeah, I
I I was about to say I'm I'm a bit concerned over how really locked in you are on Juice Robinson's pants and particularly the crotchal region of his pants, but
you're breaking up. I didn't hear any of that. So let's move on to maybe one of the bigger storylines. Absolutely I do. Absolutely I do. No, I don't mean that at all. I mean of course MJF.
I assume you mean the Brawling Birds?
No. Yeah. Yeah, I liked it. I you know, the celebration was really fun. Him being carried to the ring on the throne was great. I I'll say this. So I didn't originally make a note about this because I had every intention of skipping over it. But I was like, Why did they do a random Mark Briscoe hype video? Well, we found out here. Cause Mark Briscoe came out to interrupt it to
That
Yes.
Yeah.
Kind of call his shot, but then RUSH came out to say, No, no, you're gonna fight me. And I'll say this Max makes this whole thing work because you know, the whole premise of Max saying, I'm not gonna fight Mark Briscoe because you cannot be the face of a wrestling company, basically. But then saying to RUSH, however, you could, my guy, you could, so I'll fight you. That was I liked that. I liked that angle.
yeah.
Right. Yep.
and I think it's gonna be very interesting if the new angle, whatever you want to call it, that Max takes is I'm the guy protecting the company. I'm the guy doing everything that's best for business. So it's gonna be my decision on if you are the best thing for the company or not. I think that's interesting.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
That is a really good, that's a really good take. And I really liked that that angle he he did. However, I'm gonna put a mild caveat on this because I something didn't happen that I thought for sure they were setting up earlier. And that's of all the people, RUSH has talked about maybe going for the belt. I get it. Briscoe hasn't, but it makes sense. He's beaten MJF. And that's I don't have any problem with.
Yeah, they've got a history there. Like it's yeah.
Brisco calling him out. It makes all the sense of the world. You got the upper crust guy and the chicken farmer. I get it. You have RUSH come out. Where was Andrade? Who not 20 minutes prior, maybe a little more, said, now I can focus on getting the world title. I thought for sure, okay, we've had two people come call their shot. We have preloaded Andrade. We've set the table for him to come out and make his call.
Nowhere to be found. I was really surprised by that. Wouldn't it would it have confused things more? Probably. But it felt like that's the table you're setting. I don't mind RUSH going after it, but Andrade's not gonna come out and say anything?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a good point. I didn't
Yeah, it that that's a good point. I didn't think about it in the moment. What I think is kind of interesting here is you've got a coup excuse me as I die a little bit. Let's try that again. You've got a couple different things going here, right? Like on one hand, good lord, what is happening here? I might be. I don't know. Take three. Let's try this again. All right, here we go.
my god. Holy cow.
Are you are you dying? What's happening over there?
You know, this would work if your mic was three feet over the other way.
You know what, you're right. If I had left it like as about as far away from my face as as humanly possible, that that yeah, that would have been better. Let me do water real quick. this is part of the problem though, because it's carbonated.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's just gonna gas you up even more.
Yeah. All right. Here we go. All right. One more time. Shake it out. Here we go. All right, here we go. For real this up. I don't know. I haven't we're not ready. Here we go.
You ready? We're ready. Are you ready? We're ready. We're ready. We're ready. We're going? We're doing we'll do it live!
Yeah. I could hit the little live button. I don't think it would go anywhere, but whatever.
So you've got a couple different things going on here that are potentially interesting, right? Because you've got kind of a slow boil started with Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight for the TNT title. I feel like it's kind of a slow boil for Andrade and MJF as well. Now, here's the part of that that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And I think you're right that like maybe bringing him out would have been too crowded, right?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
But you bring Brisco out of nowhere. So now you've got kind of that boiling as well, right? So you got a couple of different things on the burner here as I keep milking this analogy. but I think where it doesn't make a ton of sense to me is you can only drag out MJF and Andrade so long because well, I guess actually let me take that back because they announced the new pay-per-view for July. So maybe that's gonna be our main event.
in Montreal at that pay-per-view. Now that I think about it, that might be where we're headed. which makes some sense. Because obviously first one, you're going to want to try and sell it out and those two guys are pretty good headliners to do it. So maybe that's the plan there. I don't know. But but you you are right. In the kayfabe world you've established, Andrade called his shot and then didn't come out and like
Yeah, possi possibly. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Don't he and RUSH have history too? So I don't Yeah. That's a good point.
More than likely. Because you've been you've been playing Andrade saying he he's been waiting and waiting and waiting to get this chance. And here's an open door for him and nothing. It just was really surprising to me. Again, if you're gonna help pay this off later, that's cool. But it just the way this panned out, because it it kind of left Briscoe high and dry. It's like, hey, I want my shot. No. RUSH, yes, you know.
You don't leave a lot of room for Briscoe there. So that felt weird.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. I agree.
It would have made more sense to me to have RUSH come out and say, I want it, and him go, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then Andrade come out and go, no, no, no, no. I'm the guy. You want to talk about marketable? I'm El Idolo. Now that I but you know what do I what do I know? I'm just a idiot. Watching watching rasslin'.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I you're right. You're No, you're absolutely right about that. Like like I said, I didn't think about it in the moment, but now that you say it, like yeah, you're absolutely right about it. So and you're right. I feel like all of this squeezes Brisco out. So why have him come do that? The only thing I can think of is so it'll be MJF and RUSH on Wednesday. MJF's gonna go over. It's too bad. I love RUSH, but MJF's gonna go over.
Mm-hmm.
maybe Briscoe does something that he gets Max to say, fine, next week we'll do it. And then that moves Briscoe out of the way. You've eaten then two more weeks. You can then set up whoever MJF is going to take on at Forbidden Door. and then maybe from there it's Andrade at whatever the new pay-per-view is called in Montreal. I can't think of the name of it right now, but
Right. But with the Briscoe thing, since you've already made him a big part of the Takeshita/Don Callis feud, you don't need him to be involved with MJF. He has stuff to do. So it made even less sense to me in that regard. Now don't get me wrong, I I I will sit and watch a Briscoe MJF match for the title all day. Cause I think that would be really entertaining. And Briscoe's not gonna let us down, and neither is MJF. But to use them this way felt
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
just forced and weird and awkward, so okay.
Yeah. No, I I I agree with you on that. I I I think you're I think you're a I think you're spot on. I was trying to come up with something like old timey to say there and I d I had nothing. So I think you're spot on. Anyway.
yeah.
You know, speaking of the Canadian pay-per-view, I I think clearly they're paving the way for Cope and Cage to headline that since they're Canadian. And I thought this was an interesting promo from them. I felt it was a little long, but okay.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. yeah.
Yeah, it's a l it was a little long. it was sometimes you can tell with AEW when you get a segment where Tony just said to whoever's involved, yeah, do whatever you want. That's fine. And and that's what this was. Now, here's what I Yeah. Here's what I liked about it. There there were two well, there were three things that I really liked about it. The first was
And you have three extra minutes we didn't plan, so go ahead.
I liked that it was a fun kind of call back to the edge in Christian days, right? Not just with the five second pose, which was fun. That was that was super fun them doing that. Not just with the disposable cameras, and it was funny Cope having to explain it, right? but the way he was acting was very much the edge character from like 25 years ago.
Yep, liked it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Yes.
And that was always fun. I real that's when we fell in love with those guys. You know what I mean? When they were doing that goofy stuff. so I really liked that. Seeing that version of him come out again, I I enjoyed. And that's probably just because nostalgia is a hell of a drug, but I really loved that they found a way for Christian to be both face and heel in this. Like
Yes it is.
Yep.
For him to be a face but still be the character that he's been, like they knocked that out of the park. That was not an easy thing to do and man, he did it. Well done.
Yep, because that's exactly what I was gonna say. It was nice to see Edge, we'll just call Spade a Spade, Edge kind of flashing back to the golden age, but Christian not wavering from his current character at all. And it and you I personally think you needed that to happen because it's so entertaining the way he does it. And I loved his line, what? I didn't sleep with any of their moms, or did I?
Yeah. I mean
Yes.
Yeah. Yeah. And I really liked Cope going, I mean, the nineties were a wild time, you know. Yeah, it was it was really, really well done. And I'm really happy that the dogs are gonna be the first challengers just because I love them. Yeah.
Example. Yep. Exactly.
Mm-hmm.
I was so glad to see that. So glad to see the dogs come out and do what they should have done, which is destroy somebody. And I loved it. Loved it.
Yes.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm very, very happy about that. I still think if they don't give us Cope and Cage versus the Young Bucks, I think we have like a class action lawsuit on our hands at that point. but I'm very happy to see the dogs in that spot. Very, very happy. It's gonna be a lot of fun. And anything that puts Clark Connors on my TV makes me happy. Yeah.
I I would agree. I would agree.
Big fan. Those guys together are so good. Those two, Finley and Connors, there's something about You buy it. You buy the fact that those guys are vicious. You buy the fact that they can take those two out as viciously as they did in its credible. And I loved it. It's that they're the people who should have stepped up and knocked them, tried to knock them down a peg. I really, really like that.
Mm-hmm.
Yep, I agree. so as we've we've been kind of been jumping around here, I'm gonna kind of put the bow on a couple other things that I thought worked because that's mostly where we've been so far is talking about the stuff that worked. Mark Davis and Jack Perry were tremendous. That's my match of the night. I I they're great. Their chemistry together is great.
Mm-hmm.
Okay. Okay.
Mm-hmm.
I want more of it. I'm glad that there's a lane for them to continue that story. I understand why Mark Davis went over. It's because of the history with him and Ospreay. totally get it. And let's be honest, if it wasn't clear before, I think it's clear now that this year's Owen is gonna be the Will Ospreay story. It's that's what it's gonna be. And that's fine. That's that's what it should be, quite honestly.
without a doubt. Yes. Without a doubt. Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm.
Really good match. Really enjoyed it. We talked about the stuff that happened after that with Fletcher and Takeshita and the conglomeration and all that. I thought Ospreay did a good job of reminding us of the history of with him and Davis in his promo. I liked the trios match mostly just because my god, The Rascalz were on TV.
Yeah, that was really good. That was really good.
Wow, look at that. But there's another thing I liked about it, which is Yeah, we're into the collision part now. The Okay.
No, that was that was in collision. That was before the end of Before before we get too far into collision though, I do wanna say the TayJay thing Okay. We could talk about that moving forward. Yeah, yeah. Okay, go ahead. yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I was gonna come back to that. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's like I said, the way that I'm kind of the way that we've kind of randomly gone with this one is here's the stuff that that we liked, and then, you know, and you know, look, we've spent a lot of time on stuff that we mostly liked. So good job again tonight, to everybody involved. I thought, like I said, I thought the trios match was good. I like seeing The Rascalz on TV. What I really liked about it though is if you didn't
Yep. Forgot that's what we were doing for.
Go back and watch it again and pay attention to everything Pac does.
Yes, yes. The it well, I just right.
Turn's coming.
It's not a turn because he's really a heel, but but the I think I think this goes one of two ways. It's either Pac splits off because he clearly is not happy about Ospreay. That's what he communicated tonight. So it's either that Pac is going to split off from the Death Riders, which I doubt, or I think what's going to happen is they're finally going to split them of probably Pac and Yuta, and I would bet Claudio, but I'm not.
Right. Mm-hmm.
either him or Garcia or possibly both are gonna split off to be the heel Death Riders and Moxley is gonna go full face and it's gonna be him and Ospreay against the Death Riders. That's where I think we're headed with it.
That's that's entirely possible. I did I I made note that Pac clearly wasn't a fan going in with Ospreay, but as the match went and then after the match, it seemed that Pac's respect grew for Ospreay. So I it I kind of had that same vibe, but then I was like, well, maybe this is just Ospreay showing, you know, his belief in the in what they're teaching him and the growing respect. He didn't engage in in some of their the antics.
But he used some of their teachings clearly. And I I thought it was really interesting. Do I think it's gonna lead to Pac breaking off? Maybe. I don't know. but I'd be okay with it if it does. But I still am enjoying Ospreay and how he is slowly incorporating the Death Riders thing, and even to the point where when they go to walk in, he's like, Guys, my entrance is over here. Okay. So you're not really a full Death Rider, but you're hanging out with him, and you know, John respects you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Pac, it looks grudgingly respected you at the end. So okay. I'm I'm still fine watching this one kind of kinda simmer on the front burner, so
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree. The darker ring gear that Ospreay is wearing shows some of the influence. Like, yeah, I I really like the story. It's it remains probably my number one storyline right now of the most interesting. and
without a doubt, yes.
I'm gonna put the Philly Street fight in the I mostly liked it. Liked the match. I don't understand Harley coming down.
Okay.
I don't either, other than w th they needed to remind us she's still there and she needs someone to be with right now, apparently. It didn't make a lot of sense. I I honest to God thought, my god, Harley's gonna turn on Chris Statlander tonight. I without a doubt thought that as she's getting the pin, I thought she's gonna grab that kendo stick and whack her in the head. Didn't happen. So I don't understand it. Yep. I
That's what I thought too.
That's what I thought too. No, which made it even more confusing to me.
I thought it was interesting, and it felt like such a quick blow-off for these two. Because really, the all the full turn didn't happen until Sunday. There were a few miscues, but the full turn didn't happen. And then it's like, street fight right now. But all respect, Statlander's a damn stud. Top to bottom, start to finish. Statlander's a stud. Taking those light tubes, man, that's.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
That was crazy that match. I I I like the match. I thought it was fine. The Harley thing confused me. I thought the blow-off was a little quick because w you you can't, you know, you can't where are you escalating from a non-sanctioned lights out street fight?
Yeah. I agree.
Right. Right. And that was right. Right. And that was part of my why I was like, I'm gonna kind of begrudgingly put it in my likes category because I'm really just evaluating it purely on the match. Because I think unfortunately, like with basically everything with the women, you can't evaluate it on storyline because there really isn't one.
Just pistols at pistols at dawn. I don't know what you're gonna do.
Okay.
You know, this is the most story they've had going with the women, arguably. But you're right, it was way too fast. And to immediately escalate to I want the unsanctioned street fight, you know, and you've got commentary all over this thing going, you do this when it's gotten so bad between two people that you know the company can't be held responsible for it, and they don't even want the company held responsible for it. It's just it's such a bad blood feud.
No.
that they are gonna tear each other apart, everything else be damned. And I'm like, when did we get to that point?
Yeah, I I don't know. I missed it because
You you get you get hit with one kendo stick and now we're
Yeah. Look, you want to do a street fight? Cool. Or you want to do a kendo stick match on a pole, whatever. That that makes sense. But to have it be this hardcore blowout and blow off of the of the feud already. Cause we the one of the things that I mentioned on the pay-per-view when we went over it was they have focused so much more on these two than they have the world champion for the women, who by the way
Nowhere on the show tonight in a three hour show. Not even mentioned. Didn't make an appearance. Not even in a package. Nothing. So now you've blown off your longest, best, most intricate storyline with the women in a day. Okay, I don't I don't get it, but I did enjoy the match. I thought Stat looked great and I thought Shida wrestled a really good match tonight. I in ring stuff, great. I this would have been a great blow off match.
Yep. Yep.
In a month.
Yeah, I agree. This would have been a really good blow off match at All In. Or even at the one in July in Montreal. That would have been fine too.
Yeah.
Mm. Yeah. Or do a Forbidden Door. Technically, you know, maybe do that. Whatever, but
Yeah. Yeah. It it it makes me wonder it makes me wonder if one of them, I would assume it'd be Statlander, since she won, is gonna move on to Thekla.
You know, I hope so. I hope so you know we
I it would make sense. The other thing the other angle that that pops in my head of why they would do a blow off this fast is that one of them's gonna be the wild card and the Owen, but I think that's a mistake.
I agree. It shouldn't be. Because i okay, so what you're putting Statlander in there or Shida what do you do and like that makes no sense.
So I don't know.
Well, I I well I mean I guess what you could do is take Statlander and now have her go after Thekla again, right? And I guess Shida could be your wild card now, 'cause if that's what you do, then Shida's got nothing to do. But I I don't know, man.
Technically you could put Jamie Hayter in there 'cause
Yeah. It it just goes back to what we've been saying for far, far too long now, which is that there is seemingly anyway no direction with the women. Nothing that they're doing makes sense. And it sucks because, you know, you watch these matches and you're man, they're good. They can go. They're good. They're a very talented roster. Figure out a story.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. I mean these two headlined collision. They closed the show out. That was great. Loved it. And it didn't feel awkward or weird, except for the storyline angle ending too soon. So
Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah.
Yeah, I agree. So that pretty well covers the stuff that I thought worked slash was pretty good. doesn't leave a lot a whole lot else. I mean, we talked about Ciampa and Jericho and how that was just kind of weird, but I'm willing to see where we go with it. there was a match that we didn't really talk about, which was Brody and Claudio.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Okay.
I thought it was fine. I mean, look it was yeah, it was big meaty men slappin' meat, which is what it should have been. I thought it was fine. It it you know, whatever, it was fine.
I thought it was fine too.
Mm-hmm.
I wrote a bit long, but fine. Moves Brody on in the Owen. Exactly like I don't know. at the very beginning, before anything happened, I r the first note I made was I'm calling Brody and Mark Davis moving forward. Because it made because and again, it's okay to be predictable because that makes the most sense. I thought this match between those two, I thought oddly, Claudio going up against Brody, I thought Brody made Claudio.
Yeah. Yep.
Mm-hmm.
look bad in a way that other not that he wasn't putting him over but Brody's so much I think better from a technical standpoint for two big meaty men. I just to me it showed Claudio's limitations of rem remember the the line you told me about someone saying great Claudio uppercut uppercut giant swing done yep it's like okay you've got the uppercut
I agree.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Big swing. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And I really believe that that is what has held him back throughout his career. And that's why, you know, that was a guy still that when you look at him, I'm like, man, this dude has almost everything that WWE looks for in a top guy. Right. Like he's got the look, he's got the athleticism, because he's clearly got the athleticism. Nobody is denying that.
Neat.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
You know, the only thing is is like, okay, he's got a bit of an accent, which we know WWE doesn't always love. But they could have solved that problem very easily with a dude named Paul Heyman.
Absolutely.
And so, you know, one of the great questions forever for me was like, Man, why did this dude not get over in WWE? Like, why was he never in the title picture? And I think that's why. I think they looked at him and they went, Dude, you got two moves. Okay, you do the sharpshooter. You got three.
Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Like that's not enough. And I realize I'm saying that about a company that made Triple H their top guy forever in a day when he had three moves. But he had personality. Yeah.
Yeah. He but he had personality and that's the big difference. And I think Claudio right now is in the right spot for him, which is the big meat in the Death Riders who doesn't say much. He's I don't think they should try to break him out of that because if they do, they're gonna have to do a lot of work. I was really glad to see Brody go over. For a hot minute I thought, my god, they're not gonna have Brody go over, and I think that's a huge mistake. But they did they did the right thing. Brody went over, I thought Brody looked great, and it it was fine. It was what it was. You know.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was fine. It was fine.
Yeah, it was fine. the ops promo I felt like was solely to explain why Joe is gonna be missing for a while.
That and to set up that there is going to be tension between for sure Bowens and Hook and probably Bowens and Shibata and Hook. I think this is clearly Hook going to separate and if when Joe comes back from filming then I assume he and Hook are gonna go at it would be my guess.
Problem.
I would think. I thought that's where we were going months ago or you know, whenever Joe came back, so
Same. But that was before we knew he was only coming back for a short run and gonna be gone again for months. Cause I think he said three months, right? He's out three months to do something.
True. Yeah. Yeah, I think some like that. Yeah. I well is it twisted metal? Are they doing another season of Twisted Metal? Yeah. So I don't know, whatever. It was it was what it was. we kind of mentioned this. The Brawling Birds talk to Renee.
It might be, yeah. It might be, where Joe doesn't get to talk.
My main takeaway from that was Jamie Hayter probably didn't need to be there for it because it was really all about Alex Windsor. and how she's got the wild card in the Owen. So Hayter probably didn't need to be there. don't think it did her any favors, which is unfortunately again something we say a lot when it comes to the Brawling Birds.
Mm-hmm.
The only thing she did was mention the fact that they are at some times a tag team called the Brawling Birds.
Yeah. Well and the part, you know, so she's the first person in the in the interview and she goes, yeah, I didn't win. But I got to take Thekla's head off, so that was pretty cool. And I'm like, Did ya? Cause y'all still lost. Like Thekla still got the belt. So Yeah. Okay. I liked the Jack Perry doing the Rocky training montage little video, you know.
Right.
Yeah. I mean you hit a hit a vicious clothesline, but you got pinned, so
Mm-hmm. Heck yeah.
Goofy wrestling for life. Swerve and Nana were solid, but it wasn't it didn't blow me away. but it didn't have to. It doesn't have to. It's a tournament. You don't have to. You don't have to necessarily build a lot of heat. Yeah. Yep.
No. Right.
Mm-hmm. He he brought up he brought up the history. It made sense. He established himself as exactly who he is. He reminded us who he was. It wasn't too long. It was concise. It was good. It was good.
Yeah, it was fine. Yeah. and then the TayJay stuff that you touched on a minute ago.
I here's the thing. I like them. But this feels so forced to me right now. And I and I have to say, I really feel bad for Allie Katch because she came in, she's coming in from GCW. She's much better than she's being portrayed here, and she's just been cannon fodder. And I get it, someone has to play that role. She's got enough experience to make it work. I just feel bad because I think she deserves a little bit more respect and more of a push, but that's neither here nor there.
Are you too?
I felt like they looked fine. You know. That that was. That is the best thing about the whole match was the finisher. So they win. Okay, great. But then in collision, you get the TayJay interview, which was Divine Dominion left them laying. And it was a weird post beat up scene. It didn't look very good, but they got beat up.
Yeah. The finisher is pretty cool. That finisher's pretty cool.
Mm-hmm.
No.
Okay. I mean, yes, we know that they're gonna be the next ones, you know, and we'll probably see that in two weeks and there won't be much story there.
Yep. Yeah, I I agree. It's the only way that you're gonna get story on it is so they're gonna do the five minute thing. Is it it's either on collision or it's Wednesday. I think it's Wednesday. I think so too.
I think it's I think it's collision because for some reason that's where that's where divine dominion is living is on collision and not dynamite.
Yeah. So they're gonna do that. I think it's pretty obvious TayJay are gonna be the first team to survive the five minutes to get their shot. And then they're probably gonna then they're probably gonna lose. Look, at this point, if you can just give me a good match, I guess that's really all I care about. But it's a bummer. It's a bummer. because I I agree with you. I like TayJay. I like them both. I think that both of them unfortunately have a ceiling.
Yep. Yep.
Mm-hmm.
where both of are are probably mid to upper mid card performers. That's fine. You need those people.
This this could be a good spot for them. I think it'd be interesting to switch the belts to them. I just don't think they're gonna do it.
I think it would be a mistake. making them be the first one to take the five minutes, that gives them a lot of credibility. You make them look good in a in a long loss that goes past five minutes to Divine Dominion, that does them a world of good. In it I think it does them more favors than putting the belts on them because then if they've got the belts
Yeah.
I have a fear you're not gonna see them even on collision because who's yeah it it again, I I'm okay with them being in this position, but man, they they made the announcement that they're back a week ago, you know, before the pay-per-view, and now you're getting a an eliminator match, and then you're probably gonna get the title shot. Okay, well that's two weeks. And now you have no story for the the women's tag champs.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And then what?
But then again, you've got no story for the women's heavyweight champ.
Yeah. I I'm guessing that the story is going to pivot to women from stardom and CMLL challenging at Forbidden Door. And that's fine. But then you're gonna be left with nothing again headed into Redemption? Is that the name of the July pay-per-view? Whatever whatever whatever that is, and then of course All In. so I don't know. It it's it's all the same problem all over again.
I don't remember to be honest with you.
Yeah.
Look, here's the At Forbidden Door if CMLL is represented and they do well, then they can hang around in AEW and you and you can continue that feud if you do if you want to do that. I okay. I can live with that. But we we're we're desperately begging you to give the women a longer running, better storyline. Please, please.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah.
Give them something to do. Yeah. Give them something to do. So I think with that we've covered everything on the show. I know it was a little bit weird because we kind of jumped around, but yeah, we tried something new. We'll see how it feels.
Right. Right. And we we talked a lot, but for you, we we talked about your match of the night, which was the Jack Perry. By the way, I like the fact that he's wearing weird yellow pants. I don't know. Just liked it.
Yeah.
It was yeah. And Mark Davis.
Yeah, I thought that was fun. I saw something briefly online that that might have been a tribute to somebody. I don't I don't know. but yeah, I liked it. Yeah, I thought it was fun.
Mm. Okay.
But other than matching that, what was what do you think the biggest takeaway from this night was, storyline wise going forward?
It's I to me it's the Kevin Knight stuff. which you know, it would it would be Kevin Knight and Kyle Fletcher are are to me the big takeaways. Those are the two kind of main characters of the night. which is a little bit interesting on a show where you you had MJF, you know. but my other my other big takeaway from this is is some of the stuff that was not there, some of the people that were not there.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
No Young Bucks. really nobody from Stadium Stampede other than Jericho and The Demand, right? I mean, okay, Jack Perry and Mark Davis were in the Owen. We knew that, but like the Bucks. True. That's a good point. I keep forgetting they were in the match. but you know, and they moved them onto something. But no young Bucks. Kenny Omega again in a pre-tape, not in the arena, apparently. I don't understand what's going on there.
Nope.
Mm-hmm.
We saw the d and we did see the dogs.
Yep. Nope.
Mm-hmm. Nope.
you know, I I I think you know, I'm not surprised Darby wasn't there. They should keep him off TV to sell the injuries and everything. We even talked about that on the show after Double or Nothing. But I just thought it was
I know we.
One.
I thought it was interesting by who was absent and I thought it was interesting that really Kevin Knight and Kyle Fletcher have become, at least for tonight, the main characters.
Absolutely. And I was honestly surprised. Now don't get me wrong, I'm glad the dogs came out and did what they did because I think they deserve it and I think it makes sense. But to not have the Bucks come out during Cope and Cage when they're like, Look, FTR you are top guys, but not the tippy top. And for FTR not to come out and be like, W what are we? Chop liver? You know w
Or have them come in and make the save at the end. So now you have the three teams staring each other down. There's still this weird tension between Cope and Cage and the Bucks. You can still slow you know, slow burn that storyline and don't let us forget that that was a bit of contention for a minute. Them being not there, I think hurt the show.
Yeah.
I agree.
But like you said, in a vacuum, this is good show. And I agree. I agree. Moving forward, the biggest storyline we got out of it, weirdly, was Kevin Knight and Kyle Fletcher. Which also they seem to be on a weird collision course eventually. And that's fine.
It it is. Yeah. And
Yeah. And I
They do. They they absolutely do. And yeah, and it's fine. you know, again, you mentioned it earlier, Thekla wasn't there.
I don't know why. I don't know why we can't figure this out. so yeah, it was just kind of interesting to me that you had some stuff from Double or Nothing that got wrapped up tonight, like the Jericho and Ricochet and the Shida Statlander stuff, kind of got blown off tonight. And I guess you advanced the Kevin Knight story, but I don't know that you advanced any others.
Right.
We did.
and I maybe you don't have to right now, but it just was interesting to me.
I mean we I I mean we did advance the Kyle Fletcher and Takeshita. Right. It's it is but it is slightly different because it's with Takeshita and you're working the conglomeration into that and that's okay and that's good. They need someone, you know, they need to be feuding with someone and that makes all the sense in the world. but yeah, storyline-wise, I find it interesting that you brought up both
Yeah, I'm just folding that into the Kevin Knight story for right now, but yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
Stat and Shida and also Ricochet and Jericho because I feel like Ricochet and Jericho went one match too long and this match with Shida/Stat came at minimum one match too soon, if not four matches too soon. So
Yeah.
Way too fast.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a weird little dichotomy of what AEW is, I think. but anyway, so you know, on to next week and see what they do and see if we start any sort of build to Forbidden Door again. I'm not sure that it's the worst thing if they don't. I'm just very curious to see it.
Yep. And don't forget there's a live collision this Saturday too. So there's another two hour or one out one, two? We'll call it ninety minutes.
Yeah.
One, I believe. Sure. Why not? I mean, the way they overrun it probably will be. So Yeah.
Yeah, it's possible. So yeah. Ninety minutes wrestling in sixty minutes. That's eight.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Adjust your DVRs like anybody has those anymore. But
Yeah. So and they've already the and they have so much going on on those two shows that Poor Excalibur could not get them out at the end of the night when they are going, Talk about all of them, talk about all of them, talk about all of them.
Yeah.
Yeah, he was struggling. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, l like I said, I'm curious to see where we're going. It just felt off to me tonight. you know, so we soldier on the I just had another thought, but it left my brain. well. I know, right. I remember what it was. This may not matter. This may not mean anything.
Little bit. Little bit.
Welcome to me, being me every.
But they're in, I believe, Richmond, Virginia next week. And you know who lives by there. You know who lives in Virginia.
Dave?
Remember remember Dave?
I mean, there's probably a guy named Dave.
Okay.
But there's also a certain cowboy that lives in Virginia that we haven't seen for a long time.
No, I don't know.
Hmm, interesting. I didn't realize that's where he was living.
Hangman Adam Page lives in Virginia. And I again not saying we're gonna see him, but I feel like with All In looming, at some point relatively soon, that guy's coming back to TV.
It's
And Tony loves having people pop up in their hometowns.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, the other wrinkle too is what's Mick Foley gonna do going forward because we're certainly going to see him again. So, you know, again, there's some things to watch for.
Yeah. Yep.
Yeah, All In all, decent show. The biggest, you know, the good takeaways were really good. the biggest things that didn't work had more to do with who wasn't there than what was what was actually happening or the timing of the thing. So, All In all, not bad. Kind of excited. Like you said, I'm really, really interested. And it's weird that MJF is not the leading person in the interest meter for me, but Kevin Knight, I'm super intrigued.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. I am too.
I'm also intrigued by what the hell it was Speedball was wearing. I don't know. I don't know what that that weird tan gi slash bathrobe jacket was, but it speed Speedball. I'm an old guy with no fashion sense. Don't wear that. Don't wear that.
That was interesting. Yes.
What are you gonna do if he comes out next week wearing that and then he takes it off? Like he gets in the ring for the match, he takes it off and then he's wearing Juice Robinson's weird adult diaper thing.
I I can't unsee that in my brain now.
As it that's either gonna be the best or worst thing ever for you, and I'm genuinely not sure which. Yeah. Okay.
I think both I think both those statements are true. I think they're both true. I swear I thought you were gonna say, what are you gonna if he takes it off and he's wearing a t-shirt that looks exactly like the jacket he's wearing? And instead of like a tuxedo shirt. It's just that weird gi robe tan thing.
Ooh.
Maybe he'll pair that with Juice's weird diaper thing.
Back in. I'm back in. Go speedball go.
I thought that would get you. All right. Well, you know, like, subscribe, do all the things if you stuck with us all the way through this as we kind of Yeah, we we we switched it up. I don't know. We'll we'll see how it feels and if we keep doing it this way or if we try something else entirely different next week. I don't know. You better hit subscribe to find out. Yep, there it is.
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