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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.
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Let's go home.
Yes.
I mean, that's generally just my attitude in life anyway of let's go home. But let's go home because tonight was the dynamite go home for revolution. First thing I noticed, no Excalibur.
No, we had a Enrico Boni and Brian Danielson. Yeah.
Yeah, I like Ian Riccobani. I'm a fan of his. So I was not upset that he was part of it, but I thought that's interesting. And then I noticed no Justin Roberts. So I feel that you and I should now speculate wildly on why both of them were not there.
Okay, do you want me to go ahead and start?
Sure, I mean, I can make something up off the top of my head if you'd like.
I am pretty sure that they are currently in Mexico having their secret nuptials. I'm pretty positive.
Somehow I knew that was where you were going to go.
Yeah, I'm pretty positive that that's what's going on.
I think they got sucked up in the hurricane or tornado or tornado cane, if you will, tornado cane is what I was trying to say. It didn't come out very well. And they're currently in Oz.
Mmm.
Tornado came.
maybe they're having their nuptials in Oz done.
Weirdly, in both cases, Sting is with them.
Huh. Yep. Yep.
But I mean, the musician, not the wrestler.
Oh yeah, clearly, because Sting the musician can actually conduct a legal wedding, whereas Sting the wrestler can only do that in three states. Oz is not one of those states. No.
Yeah. Yeah.
Right.
Correct. Yeah. No, no, actually several of them are Balkan states, but anyway, let's get into the wrestling. Yeah. So let's get into the wrestling before we run everybody off. We opened up with the Death Riders. This would be the Mox and Claudio version taking on H.E. Cedro and Takeshita. I noticed something in this match. I'm curious if you noticed it too. So tell me your thoughts on it.
Several of the three that I've mentioned.
Yeah.
and I'll tell you what I picked up on.
just on the match? I thought it was a really solid match. I really thought that, I thought the timing was better. I thought last week Mox and Hichisato did not have the best timing going on. I felt like this match went more smoothly for everybody involved. I liked a lot of what I saw. I saw a lot, I felt like I saw a little more from Claudio, saw a little bit more athletic moves from him that normally we don't.
see it was more than just uppercut uppercut uppercut uppercut so I kind of like that but all in all I I really I thought this was a really solid match start to finish I liked how it went I did laugh when Marina started mocking at you said outside the outside the ring with that didn't make me giggle but yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She had a couple actually decently funny moments in this one tonight, which was good to see. So I agree with you. I thought it was a really good match. I laughed when Claudio hit H.E. Cedaro with the sack attack. That made me laugh. I didn't love the finish on this. I didn't love the eye poke into the, and I quote, super tight, small package, which also made me chuckle because I'm 12.
Yeah. Solid.
No.
Pfft.
So that aside though, the thing I noticed that I mentioned was they mostly kept Mox and He-Sero apart. If you watch it, most of what He-Sero does is with Claudio and most of what Mox did was with Takeshita. Now I understand part of that is Mox and Takeshita are on the card already for revolution and have been for a few weeks. I get that that's part of it, but you can't tell me, no one can convince me.
Mmm.
Yep, you're right.
that it wasn't at least a little bit, like at least 10 % because that match last week was only And so they said, let's keep them apart and see what happens this time.
That wouldn't shock me, but it did make sense because you've got H.E. Sarah from CMLL and you've got Claudio carrying the CMLL title. So it makes sense, but I do believe you are correct. And that did factor in. That was part of the math that they mathed out for that match.
Yep. Yeah, it makes sense.
Yeah, like I said, it might only have been 10%, but I think it's a non-zero reason, you know what I mean, of how they laid that out.
yeah. I also wrote down Claudio iPoak for the win? Cause it was like, that seemed, yeah, I didn't.
Yeah, I didn't love it.
It made H.E. Serow look weak, I thought. And you and I have talked about him in the past of how we're both pretty impressed by him. I think he's got a pretty good future with AEW. So to do that and make him look weak, I mean, I get it that he was going to eat the pin. Either he or Claudio were eating the pin. I mean, that was pretty obvious, but like, I don't know. I thought that was a weird way to do it and not a great idea.
Yeah.
Right. Yeah, yeah.
It just, plus when they were doing, when they were clearly over his faces and then to have, again, this weird mixed message that you're sending. And I agree, know, cheer for who you want to cheer for and it's fine to be the character you are, but it just seemed so like Mox is clearly over as a face. And then Claudio, I thought was also, and then he pulls that and it just seemed odd.
Mm-hmm.
Yep. Didn't make sense. It didn't make sense at all. Cause he comes out, Claudio, mean, comes out in the mask and is very, like you said, baby face-esque. And then you went on a very heel move and they got to get this sorted out sooner rather than later of what are the death riders? Are they faces or are they heels? And if there are faces and heels both within the group, then we probably need to split them up. But what do I know?
Yeah. Yeah.
Yep. Speaking no,
huh. Yeah.
For the longest time, we thought that Don Kal's family was going to be breaking up. Didn't happen. We didn't think it would be along these lines, I don't believe. But it's been so long since we talked about it. But I was a little bit surprised. I guess I shouldn't have been. But that was an interesting swerve to take with this. And I just wasn't looking for it.
I-
Yeah, I've thought for a while that the Don Callis, so I don't think it's gonna be a Don Callis family split. I think it's going to be Takeshita splitting from them. And I've thought that for a while because they have been positioning Takeshita as a face for a couple of months now. Like it was pretty obvious that he's gonna be the face with whatever this is with him and Okada, right? And the, my God, just kiss already and get it over with.
Right.
So I thought for a while that it was gonna break along those lines and that because the Don Callis family is very aligned in being heels, they would all stay with Okada and Takeshita would, that's how they would spin him off on his own. And I still think that's what's gonna happen here. I'm less inclined now to believe that it's gonna be specifically because of the beef with him and Okada because I...
Right.
I feel like we've almost dropped that. Like, I feel like we're moving away from it.
Yeah, it doesn't feel like that. I feel like they let that one die in the vine, and I think that could have been a big mistake, because I think that was still a decent money match, and we didn't do it.
I agree, because I was looking forward to that match and now I'm not sure we're going to get it or we're going to get it way too late in the game. You know, they're going to have to work to heat it back up. And I think that, I think they missed on that. Yeah. I think they missed on that one. like you did say, we, got the beat down after that. When did Archer break his arm?
Yeah. Yep.
You have other things you could go to. Yeah.
I was wondering that myself because I don't know. I didn't watch all of Collision. I hadn't really seen anything online, so I don't know when that happened. But I don't believe he had that cast last week.
Yeah, don't either. And I didn't read anything about he broke it. So I'm curious for somebody to get the scoop on that. I imagine Uncle Dave will, I don't know if he caught it. He was ringside. Yeah, there's a shot. believe it was, I wrote it down. We'll get to it. There's a shot of him ringside after one of the matches. I was like, oh, Meltzer's there. All right.
no, I didn't catch that.
Okay.
But then we got the backstage with Willow and Persephone, which I thought was not bad and at the very least caught you up on Persephone beat Mercedes for the CMLL Women's World title. The trend of Mercedes dropping belts is on if you haven't noticed. She's slowly dropping all these other ones. Gee, I wonder why. I wonder what that could be building to. Not bad is the best I can say. It was fine.
Mm-hmm.
Y'all.
Hmm.
It's fine. It did what it needed to do and it wasn't it didn't overstay its welcome, so it was fine. I was OK with it.
Yep. Then we moved to the backstage with Fletcher, Don Callis and MJF. All I put down here was, well, MJF was fun. I thought he had a couple good lines. Don Callis is always good. Like I said a couple of weeks ago, unless we specifically say otherwise, just assume we liked what he did, what Don Callis did. Fletcher, go ahead.
Thank
Mm-hmm.
yeah. I was just going to say, think the most interesting thing was Fletcher talking to Kalis afterwards and like, you're not working with this guy, right? So I think clearly they're setting up that he probably is in some way.
Yeah, I thought that was interesting.
Yeah, and that's fine. just, I don't get it. The only thing that I can think is, because we have talked about this a lot, of how in the world are you gonna get out of this corner that you've painted yourself into with the world title picture? And if you don't wanna have MJF drop to Hangman on Sunday, how are you gonna get out of it, especially when it's Texas death and there's no DQ?
No.
Right.
I liked our idea of swerve snapping and beating both guys down to the point that they can't answer. Maybe the Don Callis family is the answer now. Maybe they're going to get involved and then Donkey Kong rodeo gets involved. And I, I still don't know how that results in a DQ when it's a no DQ match, but I will see, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.
you
Right. Yeah, unless neither one can answer the bell and you're like, what do we do?
And at that point it's a draw, which if they go with a draw, they need to be prepared for a lot of boos. The boo birds are gonna be out. So they just need to be prepared and accept that when it happens. So then we got the TNT title match between Fletcher and Speedball Mike Bailey. Would you think?
yeah, without a doubt.
And they should.
Mm-hm. I thought that was a hell of a match. I thought Bayley looked the best he's ever looked. put on, for me, that was, I'm going to spoil the rest of the card, but that was match of the night for me. I wrote it down then. It did not change the entire night. I don't know if I've ever seen Mike Bayley look that good. They painted him as a, just a superhero.
And it wasn't unbelievable. All of it made sense in the context of what was happening inside the ring and outside the ring. And it was just really, really good. I really liked that match. And I wrote down that butterfly suplex almost broke Bailey's neck because holy cow.
Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you. It was my match of the night as well. I wrote down match of the night with a question mark right after it ended to leave room in case somebody came in behind them and one match came close, but this was my match of the night. They were incredible. my God. They were incredible for a match that you and I felt like got accidentally put together. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, kinda yeah.
I was like, holy crap, did they tear it down? I agree with you on that spot. I also wrote down the poison Rana on the apron. my God. Yeah, that was one of the craziest things I've seen. This, by the way, as I'm looking at my notes, this is the match where afterwards you got the nice shot of Uncle Dave ringside there. And he was doing the same thing that I do. Match ended and he's got, and he's on his phone making notes. So, but anyway, they were incredible.
I have that too.
but another broken neck.
Mm.
okay.
Yep.
run this back run this back my god they were good
Yes, please, please run that back. And just hats off to both of them because they made each other look so good. the psychology within the match for Bailey to constantly attack that arm and constantly attack that arm was so good. And he was pulling off some moves in that ring that I don't know if I've seen people pull off before. I don't remember exactly what Fletcher was trying to do, but when
Yeah.
Bayley turned that into the sleeper and he put in the body lock and actually locked his foot in. I thought, that's so smart. A lot of wrestlers don't bother to do that extra step and it was just so good. Plus when Don Callis started laughing when Bayley got hit with the dart move into the corner, I thought that was really funny.
Yeah, he had another tremendous line on Bailey wrestling barefoot. And I quote, it's a good way to get ringworm.
You
Yes! So good! That guy is so good, But yeah-
Yeah, but I'm with you. The in-ring psychology was great. All of it was believable. They made Mike Bailey look great in a way that I believe he would. They played into, this is a guy with a legit martial arts background and you saw it. You saw the athleticism, really, really good match. Well done to everybody involved in that one. Really good job.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. And Okada's suit? Was that when they brought out the... Yeah, Okada came out with the screwdriver and then yeah. I know, I felt the same thing. And then I couldn't see him.
Yeah, that was interesting.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, is he wearing camo at first? I was like, what is that? That is something. I couldn't, yeah. Then after that we got a guy who actually was wearing camo pants anyway, Brody King versus Jabroni.
Mm.
Yep. I wrote down Brody King kills a guy.
Yeah, I mean, here's what I wrote down about it. And one of these questions would kind of be answered, but here's what I wrote down. Why are we calling these standby matches?
Thank you.
That's completely unnecessary. mean, I get it that, yeah, I get it. I'm not either. I don't get it. don't, this is the new, it's like when Tony was on the run of the money matches and we were having those every single week, a lot of the time, twice a week. It's like now all of a sudden the standby matches his thing. What? I know we did. I know when they teased it, I was like, ah, God, don't.
I woke down basically the same thing, not sure why we keep doing standby matches.
Mmm.
Had one on collision this past weekend. Had one on collision this past weekend for 200,000.
I know, I thought of you.
Well, again, I don't mind it when you find a way for it to have legitimate stakes beyond the money. Like the storyline that they did with the Young Bucks and them needing the money match and all that, that made sense. But like, doing it just to do it, to justify slapping a match together, dude, it's a wrestling show, put a match together and I'll just go with it. Like, okay, fine. You you don't have to justify all of them. So this standby match thing,
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, don't need to. Exactly.
feels to me like Tony's new hyper focus or obsession or whatever. I don't love it. I get it that you don't want to say like, okay, now Brody King squash is a guy. I get it. But I don't, when they do these squash matches, they always do it with somebody that I got it. I don't need you to prove to me that this person is really good. I don't need it. Yeah, like I'm.
Mm-hmm. Nope.
Yeah, we understand that he's super tough.
very aware of who Brody King is. I'm very aware that he is a legit badass. I don't need to see him squash somebody to get that over. And calling it a standby match cheapens the match, I think. Like it makes it feel like completely unimportant. Now, and Brody doing, had them having the little pre-taped promo, I should say, beforehand going...
I'm in another one of these standby matches and I'm not even like, okay, all right, I guess. I realized this was all just to get to what happened after the match, but like you could have had him wrestle somebody that we know who they are and still win quick and it would feel a little better.
Yes.
Right.
Here's the thing about standby matches. They're supposed to be there when a match runs short. At no point did we think anything ran short. Like, if anything, we've only had what, two matches at this point? And that first match got a solid 20 plus minutes.
Right. Right.
Yeah.
Well, and this show went long tonight.
Yeah, did. And so calling that a standby match makes zero sense. Just zero. It would have made more sense to me if they would have shot that promo in the back with Brody and it's him saying, I'm on a standby match. He's like, I've been looking for Swerve. I can't find him. I'm going to the ring. Send me somebody so I can whoop him. OK, that I believe. That I believe. And.
I agree. I totally agree.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I want to get my hands on somebody. Yep. Yep.
I did you, did you catch it before Brody did? Because I sure did. I even wrote down, and again, this bothers me because this should not happen to Brody. I wrote walks right by the guy with the hood and the chain. Because as he's taking the like walking by, Swerve is making no attempt to hide the fact that he's holding a chain. And I was like,
That's interesting.
Are you kidding me? Because I saw that and went, my god. And then all of a sudden, there he goes. He gets clocked. And I was like.
Yeah, that's interesting. I did not see it. I didn't see him until the chain came out and got wrapped around his neck. In fact, I didn't see him so much. Like I missed it so much that I literally wrote down, now that's how you do the Masked Man bit.
my gosh, well okay. Maybe I just got lucky. Maybe I just, my eyes were in the right spot at the right time.
I guess so. And, and, cause there's another masked man bit going on that's terrible. it's so bad. But anyway, no, it's bad. Yeah, that's that. Yeah, that's fine. I was like, so that's how you do that. So that's interesting that you caught it. I did not. So I, I believed that one. I loved him breaking the chain. I thought that was great.
No comment. I mean, I'm not disagreeing. just don't feel like talking about it.
Oh, I thought that was great. The only thing I really didn't like about it was Swerve running. That to me is so counterintuitive to that whole character he's been building. I don't care who he's going to be up against. He's not going to run. But otherwise, thought overall, even though I thought Brody should have seen him and didn't, that's fine. I thought the rest of it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
did what it needed to do. You know, it was fine.
Yeah, it was fine. Yeah. Then we got the backstage with Speedball and Renee. I wrote down not bad. I don't buy his super intense guy routine in this one. I get he's mad. I get he's fired up. It just didn't, to me, it didn't hit. But I'll say this, not bad. And as his promos go, one of the better ones we've seen.
I wrote down Mike Bailey promo good. I thought his intensity, while not 100 % bi-innable, was way more convincing than his whatever those early promos were of him, I guess, just trying to talk. But I like this one a lot better. And again, because they kept it short. again, at least his intensity is showing that he's got some fire and some passion. And we're getting somewhere with Mike Bailey. And I'm really, my.
Hey
My opinion of him has turned quite a bit in the last several weeks and it's because of the performances both in and out of the ring. I've been very pleased with that growth. Yeah.
Same.
Yep. Yeah, his performance in the Continental Classic really started to turn it all for me where I was like, this dude is more than just a mid-carder. Okay. Okay. And good.
yeah.
Mm-hmm. And man, that match tonight, if it didn't prove to everybody that Mike Bailey should be talked about the way they've been pushing him, ooh.
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree. Then Orange Cassidy and Darby take on Gabe Kidd and Finley.
Mm-hmm.
I wrote down Darby's dive looked yet again like a concussion.
my god, yes. yes.
He landed on his face as near as I could tell.
Are you talking about the one where he and kid basically went head to head and that yeah? That looked like they both were concussed and he yeah, that was so incredible
Yes. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah. And it looked to me like Darby didn't catch himself. You know what mean? Like in the moment it looked like he did not get his hands up and he landed on his face. I, okay. I was actually surprised he got up and finished that match. I really thought like, cool. This is what I thought. good. He hurt himself again and they're going to have to redo the card for revolution on the fly.
Great.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
That's really what I thought. It is to the point with Darby where legitimately, like I know we've talked a lot about like this guy clearly has no intention on being able to walk by the time he's 40, got it. It's to the point with Darby where I'm like,
Right. Yeah, exactly.
If you are planning on having him in a match on the pay-per-view and a match that's going to carry some sort of weight, right? Like you're not just throwing him into a casino gauntlet or whatever, right? Not that those don't have weight, but you know what I mean? Like he's gonna be in a quote unquote feature match. Don't book him to wrestle the week of the show.
Right, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
because he's more likely than not he's gonna hurt himself.
Or tell him, you only get to tag in once. No dive, you know, don't just stop it. Stop it.
Yeah.
Yeah, because I really thought cool. He just took himself right out. I really thought that and
Yeah, that looked brutal. I thought that was an actual skull to skull impact.
Yeah, if you are a subscriber, if you're a long time listener of this show, which is weird to say when I think this is episode 17, but still that's 17 weeks worth of shows.
Yeah.
I know I've been hard on Darby. It is because he is a guy who legitimately scares the crap out of me. I see him do stuff and I, every time he wrestles, I make this sound, my God, like, and I understand that it's a dangerous thing that they're doing and I get all that and I get his style, but dude, on just a standard Wednesday night, maybe tone it down a little bit.
Yeah.
Yep. Yep.
Yeah, you're hard on him for his own good because something dumb like that is going to take him out for six months, if not longer.
Exactly, yeah.
Yeah, and yeah, and it really, it scares me for a kid who I think, I say kid just cause I'm a lot older than him, but for a guy who's I think got real potential, like real long-term potential, there was a reason that he was one of the quote unquote four pillars, right? Like, dude, every now and then take your foot off the gas a little bit. It's gonna be okay.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. You know, I understand why, especially against the dogs, why he's being so intense. But like you said, you got to look after yourself. But I will say, he took that pile driver like a champ. I loved how he was just dangling his arms down like that. I don't know, again, I don't know if I've seen anyone sell it like that. I thought that was really smart. I thought that was, I liked it. But dude, take care of yourself. And then, of course, we had the big surprise at the end.
He did.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
yeah, yeah, yeah. I legitimately forgot about it. was like, wait, what? And I was about to go to my notes. And then I remembered that did surprise me. I legitimately, I wrote down, really didn't expect Roddy to be the third man. Cause I knew that somebody's coming. It was obvious that, you know, we're getting a six man here, but I was like, really Roddy? Okay. Huh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I wrote Roddy is back, cool, but I don't get it. Like I don't get why now he's cool with Orange Cassidy.
Yeah, I don't either.
I was just thinking that I hope that on collision, he cuts a promo explaining it or there's a video or whatever. Like they need to explain why this guy went from I'm walking out on you and clearly ignoring you for multiple weeks to the point where you put the missing poster as part of your entrance video to now, everything's fine.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah. He spent weeks building up to, I'm not part of the conglomeration. I'm not part of the conglomeration. And now he saves Orange and Darby. I thought he looked great. I thought it was really good. I thought this is going to be good for him. It'll help build him up to where he should be going up against these intense guys. That'll be good. He could hang with them.
Yeah, it doesn't. Yes.
But it didn't make sense to me in the moment and I was like, okay, I mean, I'm glad he's back, but okay.
I'm going to go with you through probably next week. And if we don't get some sort of explanation next week, or if there's not something that happens at revolution, i.e. he turns again or whatever, then I'm going to be like, okay, you guys did it again. Just like with the formation of the Death Riders where you're acting in a way contrary to everything you
Mm-hmm.
have laid the groundwork for to this point and you're not telling me why. know Moxley and Bryan Danielson are supposed to be you know like brothers forged in combat and they attempted to kill him twice and never explained why and and you know Yuta was supposed to be on his side and he not only stopped but participated in the attempted felony and never explained why you know so like if they do that again now with Roddy
Right.
Yeah. Nope.
I'm gonna be like, guys, come on.
If they turn him again, I'm going to be upset. Because it's like, what are we doing? I didn't. Yeah. But again, I thought it was cool he came back. I don't understand his now OK being OK with Orange Cassidy. But I'm willing to give it, like you said, I'll give it a week. We'll see. Maybe we'll get something on collision. Maybe by.
Well, it'd be a big mistake, I think.
Well, your big show, you're doing big show.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
wait no the pay-per-view is this weekend isn't it?
Yeah, it's Sunday. but you know, like I said, this time next week, we should be able to have some clarity on it. If we don't, I'm gonna feel great about it.
I'm not going to put money down on it, I can tell you that.
Then it was Persephone and Willow for the TBS title. That was pretty good.
Yeah, I did write down tell Ian to stop trying to rap at the beginning, please, because that felt super goofy. yeah, I didn't get it. I was like, OK, OK. And maybe I haven't watched enough ROH, and if that's his thing.
That was weird.
That was weird.
Yep.
That's exactly what I was gonna say is maybe, yeah, maybe this is a thing that he's been doing that I'm not aware of. Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was weird. And again, I like Ian, but I thought it was weird. I also thought when was the last time you saw somebody went on a backslide? It's been a minute, I feel like.
Keep it there, baby.
Yeah, keep it on ROH.
It has been a minute. You're right.
So that surprised me. that was two finishes tonight that I was like, huh, interesting. And I don't know if it's a, let's throw it at the wall and see what sticks kind of thing, see how the fans feel about it, or if it was just a, I don't know, somebody thought it was a cool idea. don't.
I'm fine with it because it has to work at some point because, you know, otherwise if it's never worked, why keep trying? You know what I'm saying? So like, you have to let it pay off once in a while. Yeah. Yes. Yes. It is.
Yeah.
Exactly. It's, yeah. It's the blue thunderbomb.
I mean, it is. Simon Miller is right. It's the least devastating move in all professional wrestling because every time somebody hits a blue thunder bomb, they go for the pin and they kick out a two. mean, I think Takeshita is the only dude that has won matches on blue thunder bombs and he doesn't do it a ton, but I feel like he's won a couple of them anyway. And I think he's the only guy to have done that in no lie, like 20 years.
Mm-hmm.
You're probably not wrong. You're probably not wrong on that one.
So yeah, I guess you're right from that standpoint, just didn't expect it. After that, we got the Champa and Briscoe video recap promo. What I wrote down here was, can't hear because my wife was doing the dishes and I couldn't hear what they were saying.
No.
I gotta be honest, I started watching late, so I fast forwarded through a little bit of that.
Yeah, it was just a recap and that is the downside of the, you know, modern open concept is that then sometimes I can't hear my stories. After that backstage with Harley and Willow, a lot of Willow on this show. I am surprised they didn't put the brawling birds in the tag title.
Mm-hmm.
What?
Yeah, you're not, yeah.
that I immediately was like, really? We're calling out Megan Bain and the other one whose name I can't remember?
Yeah, Yes, Lena Skyscraper. Really tall.
Selena something I think.
Okay, yeah, that's probably right. Who's gonna wrestle twice on Sunday? Yeah, they're gonna lock up twice on Sunday, which surprised me. So.
But her and Willow both. I Willow through in double duty.
Which tells me, it left me with the feeling that Willow could be losing one of those belts. Because I get the feeling, like my gut would tell me she's gonna win for the singles title, but get hurt and then that will affect the tag titles.
Yup.
and that's when they will lose. But losing to that new team feels like feels wrong. But that was the first thing my gut told me is, we're having Willow wrestle twice. My first that's like I said, my but again, maybe we're just building Willow up to be the baddest person on the planet because she keeps winning. And that could be the thing.
Yeah, yeah, she could be stepping into the now vacant Mercedes role of you better bring your A game to have even a hope, you know. I think I did not think it at the time clearly, because I was just surprised by all of it. Hearing you say that though, I think you're right. I think the zero hour match, she's gonna get hurt and you know, not be, because I think
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I think they said the singles match for the TBS title is on zero hour. So that puts the tag match on the main show. So it's gonna be the whole Harley's fending for herself. Willow heroically comes out even though she's wounded and that's yeah, probably when they drop to, yeah.
Yes.
The thing that also surprised me was we didn't see Harley at all until this promo, which I thought was weird that we didn't see her before in any way, or form.
my legit theory on why Excalibur and Justin weren't there tonight and why maybe some, like when Harley did show up, was like, something seems a little bit off. I'm kind of wondering if maybe like a flu bug is making its way through the locker room.
If it's like anything around here, everyone has the flu. Lane, I'm not even kidding. Everyone has the flu.
Yeah. Yeah. yeah. I came back from vacation with my stomach, whatever. When I go back to work, like everybody's coughing and sick. And I was like, cool, cool. We're all gonna, we're all just gonna fall over and you know, pass fluids.
We should all be so lucky. Speaking of which, Bluetooth.
and not in a fun way. Yeah, exactly, right? So then after that, we got Dimbucks, which I liked that versus FTR and Champa. My HBO froze for part of it, so I missed a little bit of the match, but only a little bit. I think I got the handle of it. This is the one that I was like, it pushed for match of the night for me. It came close.
you like that, that's really good.
Mm-hmm.
yeah. Yeah. On any other night, it definitely would have been. But that man, again, that Fletcher-Bailey match was so damn good that this was going to have to go above and beyond even for them. But yeah. I mean, put, again, you put those six guys together, you're going to have to struggle to get a bad match. And I thought it was really well done. I thought, I think it was coming out of a break when you saw
Yep. Yep.
Yeah, but I liked it. I liked it a lot.
Briscoe on the one side of the guardrail just smacking back and forth with half of FDR, then the other half, and then Champ, like he was just on a tear and it was just like, all right, let's see more of this. Go, go, go.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, it was really good. Really, really good. Here's my nitpick on it. You ready? And it's from a storytelling standpoint.
Yep.
So match ends and it feels to me since we know the Bucks and FTR are already locked in for revolution. I don't know if they've made the match or not, but I'm guessing Brisco and Champa are gonna be on the revolution card, right? Possibly with the stipulation that gets added at collision. Probably my guess.
Somewhere, yeah.
Why did we go, other than they're very good together, why did we go back to Champa and Briscoe though? Because yes, I get it that Speedball put on a hell of a performance tonight. Champa held the TNT Championship for 12 days. You're telling me that this guy who's now morphed back into the psycho killer super intense guy doesn't want to rematch for the belt with Kyle Fletcher? It doesn't make, that part of it doesn't make sense to me.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
And that is a pay-per-view match.
Mmm, yeah, 100%.
So I don't know why we didn't do that. I don't know why we got away from that to continue a quasi story with Champa and Brisco.
My only guess is, speaking of putting a stip on the collision, my guess would be, if we're just fantasy booking all the way out, since they both want the belt back, be Winter gets a shot at the title. And then you would get probably Champa going after Fletcher or Bailey. So that's my guess. I don't know. But.
That's probably true.
You know, that makes some sense. But I guess I feel like Champa's had a lot of mic time and I haven't heard him talk about it. And I feel like he should be talking about
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, because he made such a big deal about Sylvie and now you don't hear about Sylvie and you should.
Uh-huh.
Fletcher has talked about it more than Champa has. Fletcher talked about it tonight, Champa hasn't said a word. That feels backwards to
Yeah.
Yep, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. I think sometimes they forget about what got them to phase two, and they're looking at phase six and forgot the few steps in the middle. It's like, guys, he's got to talk about Sylvie and still be obsessed over it. We have to do that.
Yeah, I mean, I get it. It is really difficult to book 52 weeks of storylines on professional wrestling shows, no matter how long or short they are. I get it. It's tough. It's a lot to keep track of. But that's where I expect, particularly in AEW, where by all accounts, the wrestlers have more of a platform. They have more
Mm-hmm.
sway or whatever you want to call it with Tony than anybody ever has had in WWE save for maybe like, you know, Undertaker, Austin, Hogan, you know, Cody, apparently. I think that if you are Tomasso Ciampa, it is completely acceptable for you to say to Tony Khan, no problem. I, I, I'm with you on this. Let's do it.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
But remember, like I lost this belt, I'm gonna mention it in the promo. I'm gonna bring that into the promo. I don't think Tony's gonna tell you no on that.
Right. Right. I don't think so either.
So I'd like to see some of that and maybe coming out of revolution, that's what we'll get. But right now it doesn't make a ton of sense.
No, yeah, ignoring that pretty major aspect of that character is feels awkward right now.
It does. That's the word for it. It feels awkward, but I also don't love that he just turned out of nowhere, but whatever, whatever. That's again, nitpicky. I'm more on the TNT thing than him just kind of turning, whatever. Then we got, so I thought the Hangman MJF promo video was really good. I liked them going all the way back to the original all in. I thought that was very good. I thought the press conference was dumb as hell.
Yeah. Yeah.
Right.
Did not see any of it. Didn't see any of it. Stop watching.
You missed nothing. Here's the only thing I picked up on. And this is the thing that you and I would pick up on. They apparently had radio people asking questions, because like they'd say their name and you know what outlet they're with. And they said real radio stations. And I was like, man, couldn't have done that any of the times that you were around us so we could get involved. Man.
Mm.
Exactly, exactly. Aw, come on. Tony, we're hometown. We're hometown.
Other than that. Yeah, yeah. Also, by the way, I've been to your little my AEW.com. I don't know if you saw that, which is interesting. I keep seeing something about a podcast network.
I did.
I thought the same thing. We definitely have to DM Tony. Definitely have DM Tony.
If for no other reason, we need DMM to go, that wasn't good, man. The press conference thing wasn't good. It was, I get it that you're trying to find different ways to have them be on TV and sell the match and do the promo battle and not, there's only so many times that you can have Tony Schiavone stand in the ring with them and go, well, thank you for agreeing to no physicality. You know, like I get it. I get it. I do. I would have preferred a cliche contract signing here.
Be bright. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right.
rather than whatever that was, because it was not good.
Yeah.
Here's what I didn't like, even though I didn't watch it, here's what I didn't like about the setup is it came after the main event and all during the lead up and all during the main event, they're like, we're going to stay with this as long as it takes. We're going to stay with it as long as it takes. Well, yeah, you are because you have something booked after the main event. We don't think you're going to bail early.
And it went long and it felt long.
And then for Rick Bonney to go, we've taken our last commercial break and now we have to sit here and watch Jampa inflict this violence onto Mark Briscoe. It's like, no, no, we don't. We can cut away at any time. We can cut away at any time. I'm guessing something's going on backstage. We don't have to look at that.
Yeah.
Yeah, you, they could turn the camera and put it on you, Ian. I mean, like they could. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, that was, I didn't love that. Again, from a guy I like that wasn't, he didn't have his best night tonight. He just didn't. And that's okay. He got thrown in there. He doesn't get thrown in with them a lot. Like I get it. It's tough.
Yeah.
Overall, though, I did like his additions to the show tonight. I thought it was good to see him. Yeah.
Yeah, I like when he's part of it. I genuinely do. I think that whenever Tony Schiavone hangs it up, I think they should put him on collision. I think Ian Riccobani should take over collision. I think he and Nigel would be really good together. I think they've been good together. So anyway, but the press conference was weird. The press conference was not a great idea.
Damn.
I think that would be fun. Yeah.
would have preferred you just end the show after the main event. It would have been fine. It would have been completely fine, because that wasn't good.
Yep. You could have made that. You could have just made that my AEW.com content.
The only two things that I wrote down about it were number one, as we've established, Meltzer's there and you don't have him ask a question, it's freaking Dave Meltzer. Number two, the crowd, it sounded to me at one point was chanting, this is boring. And I agree, it was boring.
You're not wrong. That's fair. That's fair.
So it's tough to end on that note. It really is, but that was a misstep.
Yeah, how do you end on that when you had that hellacious tag match before that and not end there? That just, guys.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't know what the thought process was of booking it that way other than dragging it out because they know correctly that MJF pops a number when we know he's going to be on. We tune in like more people tune in for his segments than anything else. So I get saying we're going to put him at the end to try and pull you through the full show. I get that at that point, though.
Okay.
If I've come an hour and 45 minutes or whatever it is with you, do your little press conference thing and then go into the main event. I'll stay for the main event. Now granted, and in this hypothetical scenario, I'm not a guy doing a podcast with you about AEW, you know, like I'm a casual viewer, but like at that point it's 15, 20 minutes. Yeah, I'll hang in for that. And it's a banger of a match and they came out hot. Like, yeah, okay, you got my attention, you know, like.
yeah!
Right.
I even wrote down, that's how you start a match. It was so well, like it was boom and we're there. I was like, yes, that's how you do it.
Yeah!
Yeah, I agree. I just, think everything about that press conference was a big old oopsie. And I really hope they never do it again. But.
Yeah, that would be good. Kind of like that time they had Taz doing that weird video breakdown, and they never did it again because it sucked.
Hmm, the breakdown thing.
Yeah. I mean, look, you can criticize AEW about a lot of stuff. can criticize Tony Khan about a lot of stuff. One thing that I have respected about him from the beginning is when he realizes that didn't work or this story is not working, we're going to cut bait and walk away. You know, and I give him a lot of credit for that because man, I've watched a lot of wrestling where they shoved some bad angles down our throats and they just refused to pivot, you know.
Yeah.
And that's not just WWE, WCW did it, TNA has done it. You know, I mean.
And I'm not mad at them for trying because this could have went a different way. It just clearly didn't according to, like I said, I didn't even bother watching it. was like, no.
I'm not either.
Yeah. Yeah, it... I mean, it's in theory, I mean, it's a promo segment and you've got MJF there, but Hangman did most of the talking. And it's not that Hangman's a bad promo, but it's Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
That's a
Yeah, that's a mistake. Yep.
Yeah, I did. That would be like having Ric Flair not talk or barely talk. mean, you know, what are you doing? What are we? Yeah, you know, and again, it's not that the hangman is a bad promo by any means, but like, what are you doing? So it was, it was weird. It wasn't well executed. Brian Danielson looked uncomfortable as part of it. I just, it's tough that that's
Right? Right. Yeah, don't let, yeah, let Arne Anderson carry the promos out of Rick. No.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
Well, he sounded uncomfortable before it ever started as they're talking about him doing it.
He even said, I laughed at this, know, Shivani teased it and he goes, yep, looking forward to that. And you could hear them trying not to laugh at how much he didn't want to do it. You know what I mean? Like it was, I felt all night long, like Brian just was radiating, I don't want to be here. And I think it was mostly because of that segment. Like I think he knew it was bad. Yeah, no.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
yeah. Yeah, without a doubt. He didn't want to be part of that. Not at all.
Overall though, I thought pretty good show. I thought this was actually a better show than they've done in a couple of weeks because what you and I have not said a lot of tonight is that was weird.
Yeah, just a couple times, but nothing as egregious as what we've seen in the past.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, last week we had a bunch of promo segments that were weird. Bunch of good matches, but a bunch of weird promo segments. Tonight I thought the promo segments and the video packages and everything by and large were good. Just throw the press conference out. This is a good show.
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Plus, tonight, I got an episode of Things My Wife Said While Watching Wrestling. Now, this was in direct response to Ian Riccobadi commenting in the Takeshita match on Takeshita's Black Eye, where he says, those broken blood vessels causing Takeshita's vision to blur. And my nurse wife says,
Yay!
That's not how that works.
You know, I didn't catch that in the moment, but even if I had in the moment, I would have gone, I don't think that's how that works.
It's not, but she didn't miss a beat. There was no hesitation. He says it, broken blood vessels, blurring to catch his vision. That's not how that works. I was like, so it's her only comment for the night, but man, she made it count. She made it count. She makes the most of her mic time. I'll give her that.
Just tremendous.
Yep. Well, that's the key, man. If you only get 30 seconds, make them matter.
She made the most of her promo and it killed. It was great. was better than that press conference apparently.
At one point both of my dogs were standing on me. So that's like a hundred plus pounds of dog standing on my chest blocking the TV so I couldn't see what was going on. That was better than the press conference.
you
Yeah, and you were okay with it apparently. Yeah. It's like, no, no, no, no, don't move. Don't move.
I, if it had been during the press conference, that's what I would have said. Unfortunately, which match was it? I think it was the main event. They jumped in front of me for part of that. And I was like, no, damn it, move. I'm trying to see this. anyway, so on that note, ends on a little bit of a downer, but otherwise pretty good show, pretty solid go home. We'll see what they do on collision to, think, really tidy up.
No.
Yeah.
the Revolution card and then strap in folks, cause it's gonna be a late night on Sunday for those of us that are not on the West Coast.
Yep, yep, it's gonna be a long night of rasslin'.
Yeah, it is. It's going to be a good five-ish hours, maybe six. I don't know.
Because they're, are they doing collision on Sunday as well or are they doing that Saturday? Okay, but you have zero hour and then you had the pay-per-view and they're probably going to add at least eight more matches between now and then because that's what he likes to do.
No, it's Saturday and then right. Yep.
I mean...
I, to my knowledge, there's only one thing on the zero hour. So they're going to stuff a bunch of things into there. You know, one thing we didn't talk about that we probably should, well, we'll, I'm sure we'll do it Sunday post revolution. If we stay up late and do that show, the 21 man match for the national title, instead of just having Jack Perry and Ricochet have a match.
Yeah, I don't get that.
Well, to me, it's tell me you're trying to get guys on the pay-per-view card to get the payday without telling me. It's, you know, that's the Andre. That's why they did the Andre Battle Royal was, well, let's get you on the Mania card, even though it doesn't matter, you know.
Right.
Right. And OK, mean, good on you for that. But do we need to do it in that match? Can't we just have a qualifier for the next up? mean, and they made a big deal that Champa's in that too. So it's like, OK, so now, yeah, at the end of the main event, they said Champa's going to be in that 21-man.
did they? Okay, so...
21 gun salute to Ricochet and.
Yeah. There were several things that I couldn't hear because also my deaf dog, the neighbor across the street, how dare he has company this evening. And because there's a car she doesn't recognize in the driveway all night, Doug, all night, this is what I was hearing.
Lovely. Lurvly.
And it's just, she just, doesn't even know how loud she is cause she can't hear it. but anyway, so on to revolution we go and we'll see what gets tidied up between now and then for the card and we'll see what happens. Maybe we'll get some surprises in that 21 gun salute. I don't know. We'll find out, but maybe, maybe, maybe Donkey Kong rodeo. I don't know.
Woohoo!
Maybe?
Could be. But I mean, how do you come out of that without having Jack Perry?
Well, I mean, so now you've got so many people involved in it that it's, I understand that the concept often is multi-man match means the champions at the disadvantage. I feel like now it's going to be easier for him to retain and never, I he can just avoid Jack, right? Like, I don't get it. I don't get the thinking there, but we'll see what happens. yeah. Yeah.
Right.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, and if you don't think the demand is gonna be running interference, then you're wrong. They may even be in the match. I don't know.
I, we're going to find out cause they haven't announced a lot of participants in it, which they rarely do. So.
I don't even know if they've announced Jack Perry in it, have they?
I think so. I thought for a minute, I thought he was the only one announced for it, but, but I don't know. And again, they haven't gone, they're not doing a great job of selling that particular match, which my concern when they introduced the national championship was this is another singles belt in an already crowded championship landscape. It's going to fade into the background and it's faded into the background.
that could be. That could be, yeah.
Yep.
Yep, 100%.
So anyway, on that note, we move on to revolution where things will happen and you and I are legitimately scared for this show because of the main event, mostly from the booking, but also because Texas death is uncomfortable. But but here we go. So we'll see what happens Sunday night. In the meantime, like, share and subscribe. You can find us on social media at Elite Heat Pod also.
A little bit, a little bit, a little worried, a little concerned.
that it is, that it very well is.
Shout out to Germany. Somebody subscribed over there. I see you, Germany. We are now in multiple countries. So thank you all for being part of this. Spread it around.
Hey! Hey! Yeah!
Like jelly on your naked chest. Spread it around.
You know what? Honestly, that's better than what I was going to say, because the only thing I could come up with was spread it around like a virus. And that's not good.
virus.
No. I mean, it's really effective because they go everywhere.
That's true. You know where you get a lot of viruses? Donkey Kong rodeos.
Down there.
A lot of ringworm there, just ask Don Callis.
You
Hmm?