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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.
Plus, there was a moment when he was totally channeling Ric Flair.
he he's full Ric Flair there. Like the wild eyes, like he went full Flair, which is not a bad thing. It yeah.
No, that was great. That is when that's that's when you should go full Flair.
Douglas
Tim
Well, I ruined my own bit. I had earlier typed in to translate on my phone that we are twenty-five days away from All In and I was going to say it in Spanish. And then apparently it cleared itself. So
That's fair.
I know Tenemos 25 días,
Okay.
and then I think it's para All In. I don't know. I don't know.
Sure. Sure. You know what I'm all into? Doich Foods. Dude, I got yes. I got it the day after you did. And let me just
Yeah, buddy. You finally got it. I shouldn't say finally. You got it like a day after me, but yeah.
say, Basic Batch, I'm in. I'm in. I thought
Okay.
maybe chocolate chip was gonna be my favorite. I mean, I like them all. But Basic Batch is surprising me, man. I'm digging it. Yeah.
Yeah. So the consensus in this house between my wife and I was that Birthday Cake and WTFudge Brownie were our top two. Which is not to say that any of them are bad. Those are just
Understand. Mm-hmm.
our top two. I think what I'm gonna have to do, cause buddy, I housed them.
that has been the hardest part waiting this
Yeah.
whole time is not destroying all of them. And I'm not
They didn't
even kidding.
no, I totally get it. I don't think they lasted forty-eight hours in this house.
you were right last week about the Birthday Cake flavor. Spot on. You're right. I
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
get what you were saying about how sometimes it's tough to get that flavor correct. They nailed it. Nailed it. Nailed it. Mm-hmm.
They did. It's really, really good. So we're gonna have to get more here because I want to pop them in the oven. I want to see what it tastes like when you make the actual cookies. So
Yeah.
I'm gonna have to order more. Darn, but you should see what we are talking about at DoichFoods.com. That's D O I C H DoichFoods.com. Put in code ELITEHEAT. When you check out, you'll get twenty percent off and you will enjoy some damn fine cookie dough.
Dude. I'm kinda I'm kinda looking forward to us being done recording so I can finish this off and not embarrass myself during the show.
I get it. I get it. That last week that's why I had the I had the jar of the Birthday Cake here and I was just eyeing
Mm-hmm.
it the whole time. Like, Are we done with this yet? Cause I just want to eat more. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So
dude, it's really good. Really, really good.
my failed attempt at Spanish aside, let's talk about Grand Slam Mexico from Arena,
Yeah.
Mexico in Mexico City. And I informed my wife tonight that at some point I would like to go watch professional wrestling. at Arena México in Mexico City, because that looks awesome. Yeah.
Dude, that would that would be great. That would be so fun.
Yeah. At some point, I think we're gonna try and make that happen. I don't know if it'll be specifically around AEW because I'm totally down to go see CMLL as well. but
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
one way or another, I think someday I'm going to get there and watch me some lucha libre from Arena México, which will be awesome.
Heck yeah. Yeah, that sounds great.
But let's get into this. well let's just start with the heat check. I am not at all organized here because I was trying to get a dog. Well, no, it's fine. I can do it. I was trying to get a dog to pee. So anyway. The good news.
You want me to go first? Okay. Well.
For Grand Slam Mexico, is that I don't think there is anything tonight. Well, there's one thing that I didn't like, and I bet you can guess what it is. But
Probably. Probably.
we'll get to that. in terms of the matches, I thought all the matches were good. One of
Yes.
them is borderline mid for me, but I'm
Yeah.
I struggle with was the match weak. Or was it just in a tough spot on the card? And
I understand completely and I have the same questions.
Okay, yeah. But really, this is a match heavy show. It
Yeah.
it felt almost pay-per-view-esque from that standpoint, which
Mm-hmm.
is not a bad thing. so really I think we're just gonna talk matches because there's really not much else. There's some recap videos, there's one promo really that was I mean, if you know anything about me, you know I enjoyed the hell out of it.
Okay.
yeah, so I'm I'm gonna say I liked everything. With the exception, I am gonna go ahead and put Divine Dominion versus the women's trios match, Divine Dominion and Mercedes versus Willow and the Brawling Birds. I'm gonna put it on the mid. But again, I'm not sure that that's their fault. we'll talk about that. And the only thing I didn't like why did we go three hours? Why did we do three hours? I I yeah.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I texted you at 9:30 and said there's no way this no at 9:26 or something. And I'm like, there's no way this is done at 9:30 because they were
Yeah. No, it
still in the second to last match.
Yeah, at 9:28 PM Central Time, they hadn't started the main event, and they're going I I think it was like halfway through the show that they started going, it's a special two-and-a-half-hour episode. And I'm like, Okay, that's news. But at 9 28, you haven't started the main event. Well, I don't think that was only going to be two minutes long. So
No.
you might as well have just called it what it was. You just said it's a special three-hour episode. At least then I would have been prepared for it. But
They they did say at the beginning of the show it was two and a half hours. And so I immediately said
did they? Okay.
I immediately said, so you mean three? Because that's what two-and-a-half-hour means in AEW is it's gonna be three hours.
Yeah, and I just don't I don't understand why they keep doing that. I don't understand why that overrun gets longer and longer every week. I know part of it is because TBS is just letting them, which to be fair, the only
Yeah, right.
thing they're bumping is like a modern family rerun. So whatever. But dude, I like modern family. So you get you know, but
Damn it. No, that's fine. No, I mean, but you can bump it. I'm down with it.
but So, like I get that, but I just don't understand why we keep doing it. And I was thinking about this tonight. If Let's say that the Paramount Warner Brothers merger goes through, which I still think it's probably going to, even though it's being challenged in court right now. And let's say that then Paramount says you know what? Like, hey, nothing against you guys, but we're just we're getting that we're not we're getting out of the wrestling business. Sort of like what happened with the AOL time warner merger that was a big part of what killed WCW, right?
Right. Mm-hmm.
And so they go somewhere else. What's gonna happen if they go somewhere else and that network says, Okay, but you can't do the overrun. You gotta be two hours bang on.
Right.
I'm do they know how to do that anymore?
I mean, they're gonna have to learn pretty quick. Gonna have to learn pretty quick.
Yeah. So anyway, what deliver your heat check, sir.
my heat check. I I liked the like you said, the matches I thought basically every single one I really, really liked. I think I have one in the mid, and it's it's not the one that you had.
okay.
but I thought at the very opening Cope's entrance, my God, that arena was rocket.
Mm-hmm.
So that that may be the loudest pop of the night, which was crazy, but that just shows you how intense and how electric that. that venue is and they were
Yeah.
eating up AEW. They were eating up Cope and I've really liked
Man,
it.
like a month ago when I was in Mexico, I caught CMLL on TV for a little while in the hotel room. And it was like that for just whatever CMLL show it was,
Right.
which was just a standard, you know, like a dynamite for them. And I was like,
Mm-hmm.
that that was the beginning of me being like, I must go watch wrestling in this arena.
Absolutely. Yeah, that's that looks like an amazing venue. I also liked I I think Excalibur may have the line of the night early on with commenting on Cage's move and calling it some kind of punt. Marina Shafir. I was like, man, that's really funny.
Yeah yeah. He was pretty good tonight. Yeah. Yeah.
I and here's one thing I liked about that match in particular was that because You did not have a brawl after the match between Cage and Cope and the Bucks. I liked that.
Well don't don't don't blow your load here. Like we're gonna talk about it.
Alright, well then I like that anyway. let's see here. What can I
Ha ha ha.
say? I liked here if you know you know, I liked Megan Bayne kicking out at one. Loved it.
Yep. That happened more than once tonight. And I was like, further proof Tony Khan listens to this show.
Yup. I thought Speedball and Fletcher was great. Okada and Fletcher stare stare down was solid. The promo you're talking about was a maze balls. The trios match was really, really good.
Cool. I think I know which one you put in the mid category.
And
Is it is it Persephone and Kris Statlander?
It is.
Yeah, that that one I actually forgot about. So I should put that in the mid as well. So
Because I thought that one suffered more from placement than the the six-way the trios match. But
Yeah. I'll I'll I'll explain my thinking on that, but but yeah.
But that's in my that's in my mid. The the and I'll get more into it in the match. The the what's in the mid for me is the reason the birds are getting their title shot at All In. That's in the mid for me.
Yeah. Yep.
and also this probably should get put down into I you know what I am moving it down to don't like. And I have something in the mid that probably should wait until we retalk about the match, but it has to do with the outcome of the trios match, second to last match. So yeah.
Okay. Yep. I'm I'm with you on I'm with you on all that. All right.
And did you you did you have a dislike?
The only thing I didn't like was the length. it's it's tough for me because on one hand, I I can't be super critical of it because I actually thought the pacing of the show was pretty good. There's a couple matches that I think went a little too long, but
Mm-hmm.
it wasn't egregious like it has been. You know, like when we talked about redemption and we were going, you could have cut so much out of this show, right?
Right. Mm-hmm.
I didn't think it was egregious like that. But I I don't love that they're getting into this habit of going dramatically over the two-hour expectation for dynamite. Like if it's a three
Right. And I
if it's gonna be a three-hour show, just make it a three-hour show. I
Right. And I and I understand you have to make the most of your opportunity while you're in Arena México. I get it. I do.
Yep, I get that too.
I I don't know. Then just tell us you're gonna be there three hours, like you said.
Yeah. Just say it's a special three-hour dynamite. We've done it before, right?
Yeah.
They've done it before.
But but here's I think the difference. If they said that, you know they're going 3:15.
That's true. Yeah.
So
Well, but but but again, that's that's my issue here is like w when you start out going, okay, it's a two-and-a-half-hour episode. I'm like, okay, fine. But then you blow way past that, which I should have expected, but it's like it's starting to bug me. Like clearly
Mm-hmm.
it's starting to bug me a lot of why do we keep drawing these episodes out as long as we do. And and again, the pacing of the show is pretty good, but there's a couple matches where I'm like, you could have cut five, ten minutes off that and it would been fine. You know.
And to to have the the the the fin the final match not even start at the two-and-a-half-hour mark. They started
Right. Right.
at 9:30-two, I believe. You're not even close.
I think you're correct. Yeah.
I mean, you're not even pretending you're trying to get to two and a half hours. The thing I had in my dislike was and I moved it down from mid was Ciampa trying to pin Andrade's pants. I don't understand
Yeah.
that about his character. I don't know why suddenly he's doing that now. Pinning in added objects.
I I agree. I yeah. I I because it's part of a match that I loved, I didn't think about it in those terms. You know what I mean? Like I didn't think
I don't know.
about like, I'm gonna isolate that out. Probably should. I think that's a good call by you to isolate that out of the match because you're right, it was bad. I have notes on it that we'll get to.
Right. I just don't again, I don't understand I mean, is that the psycho part of the Psycho Killer? Because it doesn't mess with my idea of Psycho Killer. And maybe that's a me
I
thing, but I don't think so.
no, I I agree with you. I totally agree with you. So all right, with that, let's talk about this show, which again, very match heavy.
Yeah. Yeah.
as as you pointed out, we opened with Cage and Cope and the Bucks versus the Death Riders. Huge pop on Cope's music. which really set a great tone, I think, for the show.
man, so good.
I have to tip the cap to PAC wearing the English World Cup kit to troll them since England knocked Mexico out of the World Cup. I thought that was great.
So fun. So good. Yep.
You know, some good kind of classic heel work there.
Yeah, a little cheap heat, but it's still heat and it was it was worth it.
I'm a big fan of cheap heat. I'm a fan of the cheap
Yeah.
pop that Mick Foley gets. I'm a fan of cheap heat. Like, well done. Well done.
Mm. Yeah. That was great.
I really liked the match. It was a strong contender for me right out of the gate for match of the night. It's not my match of the night, but I really I liked it. And
Minute.
and you talk about pacing, which again I think the show did a pretty good job with. These guys were hot, man. This was nonstop. It was really good. Really good.
Yeah. They they were going at it from bell to bell, like you've heard before, but that it was true. they made a vague reference to Nick Jackson's head injury and they didn't really play into it. There's only one time when they might have been referencing it when he was a little confused as to where he was in the tag. How did you did you do you think they've rebounded and and corrected their mistake with that? from last week because I think we both agree that was a mistake to harp on that.
Yeah, I do. I think that that they well, did they harp on it last week?
Not that they harp by harp I mean they really played up the fact that Nick was out of you know, they were really playing up the fact that he had a head and he was super confused that, you know Red I'm sorry, redemption, not last week, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, are you talking you're talking about at redemption, right? Well, because here's why I asked that. Yeah, because last week they didn't reference it at all. Like it did
Right.
commentary didn't talk about it. It didn't come up at all. And Nick was clearly fine, right? the little reference to it tonight, which I forgot about until you brought it up, I think is a better way to go about it. to me, it boils down to Make a decision here because if the narrative if part of this storyline is going to be Nick's not a hundred percent, then make that the story, right?
Right. Yep.
Now again, I don't like if you listen to the redemption episode I got on my soapbox of I don't like the idea of kayfabe concussions because to me it's it's you're blurring that line too much in a real
Yeah.
world concern, right? Like we know. You know, I mean, go talk to Chris Nowinski, go find him on Instagram or YouTube. Tell me if you think it's funny after you listen to him for five minutes, right?
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But I was I was I mean, I was okay with them not like the only reference I think Nigel said he had a head or neck injury. So I think they're shying away from the head
Yeah.
injury, but still trying to make it I I think you're right. So probably drop it. I don't think it's probably going to be a factor moving forward, but we we could be wrong. I don't know. But I was happy
Yeah. I I
to see them not get too focused on.
Yeah, I actually hope that they don't make that part of the story because the story just is plenty with Edge and Christian versus the Young Bucks. You you have my attention. Like I don't need more than that. You know, you have my attention. So yeah.
No man. No. That's all I need. Yep. Bring that. That's that's it.
I mean, i there are matches throughout the course of you know, wrestling history where you go, well, it's this person versus this person, and like, cool. It's all I need. I don't I don't care about anything. Yeah, I mean, great, tell me a story if you want, great, but
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
if you just said that's the match, like cool, I'm in, you know.
Yeah. Kinda like kinda like Ospreay and and Omega. I mean, there's
Mm-hmm.
story there. I don't need one because I know it's gonna be amazing, but I'm glad we have some story. But I feel
No. Yeah. Absolutely.
kind of the same way with Cage and Cope and the Bucks. It's like, yeah, just throw
Yeah.
in there. I'll watch it.
Yeah. And I and I do like that they're kind of letting this simmer a little bit. It's a little bit of a slow burn
Yeah.
between these four. I think that's a good way to do it. But yeah, I would drop the concussion angle all the way if they haven't yet.
I agree.
but yeah, good stuff there.
Yeah.
just I'm gonna put this up front. I'm skipping the recap videos because we don't need to talk about that.
yeah, that's w I don't even think I made notes of them. So yeah.
Then the triple threat. For the number one spot in the casino gauntlet match, which was Ciampa. Pause for the eye roll.
Yeah.
That's where he's at with me now. Komander and Andrade. my god, the pop for Andrade. my god.
Yeah, man. That was huge. Huge.
That's one of the bigger pops I think I've ever heard. Like, wow.
That was that was pretty intense. That was a pretty intense pop.
Let's just talk about the Ciampa thing. I agree with you. When he attacks Andrade's pants and does the I'm gonna go for the pen and all that, I wrote down, this is dumb. Don't
Mm-hmm.
keep doing it.
I d I just I don't again, I don't get it. I mean
I don't get it either.
it You're you're
I I
supposed to be portraying the Psycho Killer. That's the that's the character you wanted to portray. Is th is this really part of it? I d I you don't that's not the that's not what I imagine when I hear psycho for Psycho Killer. That is the goofball killer or whatever. That's
No, I I Yeah. Yes.
I don't get it. Nope.
It doesn't make any sense. And and I agree with you. So my my my sort of word vomity thoughts here are first of all, kudos to commentary for calling it out and going, This is an unforced error. Yes, it is. Let's not ever do it again. But
Yes, yes. Yep.
I I'm with you because I had the same thought of like if this is your idea of a Psycho Killer, you're not. What you are now is you're a comedy act. But prior to that, I I meant to tell you, I actually watched Collision.
Mm.
And if you go back to collision, where he basically inserts himself into this match, he's doing the super intense stare at the camera, you know, I'm coming for the big belt, blah, blah, blah. And then, you know, he does the thing at the end that he likes to do where he stands up and he slaps the chair away, right? Well, that's that's not a comedy act. So what are you? So just like
No. The in it
We were saying with let's pick a lane on if Nick Jackson is concussed or not, let's pick a lane on this guy. Is he a
Yes.
comedy act or is he supposed or is he somebody that I'm supposed to take seriously? Cause right now I don't.
Right. No, I don't. And the thing that bugs me is that this bit is kind of based on an unhinged Ric Flair bit from when he was not really that fun to watch. He was in it was late stage WCW.
I remember I remember it. Yep.
He was just out of his nut, desperate
Yep. For
for attention, and he strips down and, you know, elbows his own clothing.
I I remember
And that's all I think of when I see that and I'm like, it wasn't good the first time. Please stop.
No. Yeah, I remember watching that episode in Nitro and going, What what is happening? Like I remember watching that and going, Is Rick okay? I don't think
Yeah, no, I don't think he was.
he was either. when you're in the same sentence as that, that's not good, my man. That's not
No.
good. I don't know if the live crowd reaction When he did that at Redemption was better than we perceived it to be on the broadcast, and that's why he did it again. Or if he thinks
Maybe?
he's just gonna get it over, or if he's just trying to pop the boys in the back because somebody in the back thinks it's funny. Are you out here trying to pop the boys in the back? Cause that's the
Yeah.
only thing I can think of. Because otherwise, this is fucking dumb. Stop.
This this is so disappointing when you have Ciampa come in and win a belt on his first night, lose it in this next week, and now he's trying to pin pants in a in a stuffed animal. I Nope. Nope. You you've taken someone who should be over like crazy right now from either as a heel or a or a face. And he's just wandering around in this middle lane of what the fuckery, and I don't get it.
Yeah. And here's the bummer to me, on top of all of that. Like this is the bummer cherry on the bummer Sunday. This is a banger of a match. This
I love this match.
is a banger of a match. And and you, if you ignore his dumbassery in the middle of it, like
Mm-hmm.
if you just went in and recut the match and just edit that out. We're sitting, we we're probably sitting here going this five star match. I'm probably sitting here going match of the night. We're
Mm-hmm.
talking about maybe a match of the year contender. Here's the other aspect of it. I think you could actually remove him from it and just have it been Andrade and Komander. And I
Of course, yeah.
would say match of the year contender. It was a banger and Andrade was a massive part of that.
yeah. even with the dumb fuckery, I it
Mm-hmm.
was still a match of the night contender for me.
Me too, me too, even with all that. So,
Mm-hmm.
and that's the bummer of it, because to me, what holds it out of being the match of the night is the dumbassery of, I'm gonna fight pants. What?
Yep. Yeah. I mean that's a thing I would do. You don't no no do that.
Well, like if Dan Housen did it, I'd go,
Yeah.
Yeah, okay. But
Again, that's like an Orange Cassidy vibe thing. And you're not.
Yeah. It's it's
You're not trying to be that, I don't think.
I don't but well, but again, what are that's what we're talking about here is what are you? it just doesn't make any sense. And they gotta stop. Like if they're gonna try to actually make Ciampa a legitimate threat, they
Mm-hmm.
gotta stop that stuff. Or lean all the way into make him a comedy act. I don't think it's gonna be terribly funny, but lean all the way into it.
I mean, you know,
So at least then I know when he comes on screen, I don't really have to pay that much attention 'cause he's gonna do something dumb.
Or if you're going to be doing that type of thing, don't lean in from the comedy edge. Lean into the he's just unhinged edge and have him, you know, but then you you know, you could be a more violent, weird Leo Rush type character. But that would that would play
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, yeah.
better than whatever this is. So
With this, if you're calling yourself psycho, it's the killer part of it. If you're if you're telling yourself psycho
Right.
killer, but you're not being unhinged in the way of like Moxley was more was slash is more of a Psycho Killer because this is a man who again has multiple attempted murders on his rap sheet.
Yes, Ciampa should change his name to Psycho Annoyer.
Well, honestly what he should do is he should just dress up like a clown and start calling himself doink at this point, 'cause I
That deserves some Doich.
It does, but also it'd be it'd be more entertaining than whatever he's doing right now because it's weird and it doesn't make sense.
This Doich is more entertaining, I can tell you that.
Yeah, 'cause it's delicious and I'm bummed that I housed it all as fast as I did,
let's get to what was really important which is
Yes, yes.
what happened afterwards. Hell yeah, baby. Were you surprised by this? Because I certainly
MJF is back, baby. I was.
was.
I was. I was legitimately surprised by it. I thought it was going to be it All In. I I thought
Yeah, same.
I thought he's going to come out after the main event and he's going to insert himself into the title picture that way. what did you think about his? I'm gonna say think about his promo. Now let's put it in context of it's MJF, the promo's good. But
Yes.
what did you think about kind of the angle he's working here of like he's the real champion?
I thought that was weird and interesting and I don't think that of all of that, I don't think that part is necessary.
I agree.
but if anyone could pull it off, he can.
I also agree.
it's interesting because it it's a bit of a f I mean, I get why he's saying it, but the again, the logic is a little flimsy, but that you know, that's fine. Y if anyone has the ego to do that, he does. I really liked the approach of him saying, Fine, I'm gonna be the second person in that gauntlet match. I'm gonna beat the daylights out of Andrade and then I'm gonna take on whoever's got the belt. I liked that. I thought that was really good.
Yeah. That could have been I agree. I I in my mind I went, if that had really been the heart of the promo, like if that had been really the whole promo, straight
Mm-hmm.
fire. Now I'm with you. I don't think he needed to do the unhinged. I'm the real champion bringing out his, you know, Triple B version of the belt and all that. With that said, I agree with you. Of at first I was like I don't know how I feel about this.
Yeah.
But then I pretty quickly went, Yeah, but it's MJF. If anybody's gonna make it
Yeah.
work, it's gonna be him. So all right, let's buckle in and go for the ride. All right, let's do it, you know.
Plus, there was a moment when he was totally channeling Ric Flair. Totally channeling Ric Flair. When he's talking about
yeah. When they when c
that was my spot.
Yes. He went he went full Flair there. And then if you really watch him, like you can't really hear what he's saying, but when security has to carry him out because he's getting into it with fans, cause he left through the crowd, he he's full Ric Flair there. Like the wild eyes, like he went full Flair, which is not a bad thing. It yeah.
No, that was great. That is when that's that's when you should go full Flair. Not the way Ciampa chose to, the way MJF chose to. And it was
Yes. Right. And that version of Flair.
Yeah, yes. Cause that is that's yes, that's the that's MJF and it cause he knows how to play he knows how to play the crowd. He knows
Mm-hmm.
how to get under people's skin. He knows bringing out his belt will annoy people,
Yep. Yep.
which is probably the only reason he did it, is to annoy
Probably.
people because he knows that everyone loves Kenny Omega, or a lot of people do, and th they think the he I'm sure he knows or thinks that a lot of people think Kenny should be the champ, not him.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm gonna bring out my cooler belt and call yours a toy. And screw you, I'm
Right.
st I'm the champ.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And and I'm sure that, you know, it's the same thing with Ospreay of, he's the he's the anointed one, he's the champion. No, he's not. I am. then we got that triple threat match I mentioned earlier of Divine Dominion and Mercedes versus Willow and the Brawling Birds. The reason that I said I think it suffers from placement on the card is look what it followed. It it followed
Exactly. Yeah.
a really strong opener, and then it follows just a banger of a map of a triple threat match, and then it's there. And look, somebody had to follow it. I get that. But
Mm-hmm. Yep.
I I personally, this why I put it in the mid. I found myself not paying a lot of attention to it.
I understand that.
And that could be again just I needed a minute after those two matches.
yeah.
It's entirely possible that that's what happened there. It's also, I think, probably quite likely that part of why I wasn't paying attention is what you alluded to of there's a story issue here.
Yeah, and and don't get me wrong, I I liked this match. I put it in my like category. I thought the match was good. I thought for it I'm still a little perturbed by how Divine Dominion is being portrayed, although they were portrayed as stronger in this match. So that's that's good. the the a a few things that I I was questioning is a I thought the match was solid, but giving Willow the clean pin over Mercedes in the middle of the ring, I thought was interesting. And I'm I'm okay with it. But I but I thought it was interesting.
I did too. Yep, I did too.
But what made me and this is the part that I have in the mid, is now the birds and divine dominion are official for All In. And the reason they say is because this is Divine Dominion's first loss since becoming a team. And that's why the birds get the shot. But Willow pinned pinned Mercedes. The birds are on her team. Divine Dominion didn't get pinned, so the birds get them at All In. I mean, in theory that kinda makes sense, but it really t I'm it breaks my brain
It doesn't.
a little bit.
No, I I agree with you and I caught that too. My thought is that, you know, next week or on collision or whatever, the promo's going to be Divine Dominion. It should be, I think, Divine Dominion going, Well, you but you didn't beat us. So you don't deserve the shot. You didn't beat us. And that is probably gonna be the story heading forward of You're getting this title shot, but you don't deserve it. And
Exactly. Yeah, I I think that would be a g the way to go personally. Yeah.
Yeah, I I do too. I think that's probably the strongest angle that they can take right now, especially after that weak ass start of that brawling birds promo of, well, you just talk a lot. No, you talk a lot. They actually wrestle. So, you know I think that as this quote unquote story goes, that's probably the best angle for it. This is one of those that I
Yes.
think we're all just gonna have to accept. It's not gonna be a great storyline headed into All In. It's
No. No.
and and let's just accept it for what it is of it's a way to get the brawling birds on the card. I think
Mm-hmm.
there's a better than average chance they're gonna win because they're the hometown girls.
Yep. Yep.
Prepare yourself for all that. And you know what, that might not even be a bad thing because I think there might be I I think it might be more compelling to have Divine Dominion having Divine Dominion chase. Because if they get
Here's
like really angry and start beating the t the the mess out of people. Could be interesting.
The here my fear is this is that don't get me wrong, I I think the birds deserve a title run. I don't think they they need it right now. I think they should it but if they give it to them now, it's because they haven't done a, in my opinion, they haven't done a good enough job of really showing us and showcasing divine dominion. But
Mm. I agree.
my fear is if you put it on the birds, too often I find i at least in AEW sometimes, after the the dominant champion loses, especially in the women's division, they kind of go away. And I don't
Yeah. Yeah.
I don't want to see that. I would much prefer, like you said, show Divine Dominion to be what they were, which was just badass, beating the tar out of each other. And as soon as they got the titles, you didn't see them on Dynamite anymore. They were on collision, which is fine.
Yeah. Yeah.
But highlight at least show some highlights on on Dynamite to show how bad they are, how great they are, or how dominant
Yeah, no
they are.
Yeah, I I agree. If they do the thing that they so often do in AEW where champion loses and gets shuffled to the back of the deck, that's a problem. But if you create again a story of Divine Dominion chasing, I'm on board.
Then I'm on board. Yeah. That's funny. But yeah, I'm in for that.
Yeah. Yeah. so then Speedball Mike Bailey took on Kyle Fletcher for the International title. I am making this my match of the night. They
Same. I'm in. Yep.
they beat the hell out of each other.
First note I took was damn, speedball getting speared into the barrier.
So he gets speared into the barrier. And then I
my
don't know if this was a receipt for that or if it was just this is just how these two dudes work tonight. I think it was just how they worked tonight. When he when when Fletcher's sitting on the turnbuckle and Speedball kicked him, he kicked him. Like he kicked that man hard in the mouth. Like
Yeah. Yep. Yep.
and there was the I the power bomb onto the ring apron looked. Horrible, like just look brutal.
Mm-hmm.
There were one of the brain busters. I thought, my god, he killed him. Like I thought Fletcher killed him. I there were multiple points where I thought they killed each other. So they went to war. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they they
yeah. Yeah. The dive down the stairs was bonkers.
beat the absolute hell out of each other. And kudos to them. It was really good. Really, really good.
Yeah, I I wrote down that I think Fletcher is looking great and he's at he's getting to that point where he looked before he got injured and he had all this momentum going forward and he looked unbeatable. He's looking almost at that point again. He looked great and I thought speedball looked amazing tonight. I thought speedball again maybe looked more credible tonight than he's looked ever. And he's looked pretty credible in the past several matches. So again, hats off. They beat the tar out of each other.
Yes they did.
And you know, they made it great. I thought this was out of without a doubt my match of the night. And I think Fletcher's final turnbuckle brain buster was probably the best looking one he's done yet because it I
Mm-hmm.
think it came off perfectly. There wasn't any slop. There wasn't any, you know, misadjustment. There wasn't any weird fall. It looked the way I think it should look, and it looked great. So
Yep.
I like this match a lot.
Yeah, I I agree. Tremendous work. I'd like to see more out of them. I don't know if we're gonna get it anytime soon, but I would definitely watch more of them because wow, they were good. And
Yeah. That was a great math.
I was a little surprised Kevin Knight didn't get involved somewhere in there because I really thought they were going to restart that beef, but I think we know why.
Yeah.
Because next was Okada, Hechicero, and Kevin Knight taking on Místico, Darby Allin, and Jericho. I have many thoughts about just the entrances for this match.
Yeah. Yeah.
First one being I liked Místico's half and half mask, where it was like half Darby.
Mm-hmm.
And then his normal one. Second, hearing his music reminded me like a month ago, again, when we were in Mexico. I think you'll get a kick out of this. So we're sitting in one of the like lobby bars, just killing time before dinner. And they would they had this like huge, like huge wall of just monitors that just basically makes one giant TV, right? And they would play. like music videos on it.
Right.
And so we're sitting there just having a drink and I don't know, talking to my wife about something. And all of a I stop and I go, wait a minute. I know this song. And my wife is like, you know a Mexican song. I'm like, yeah. This is Místico's entrance music. And she's like, God,
No hilarious.
of course it's a wrestling thing. But yeah, so
That's awesome. That's amazing. That's amazing.
it's like a legit song. I didn't
Yeah. Wow.
I didn't know that. I learned. I guess that explains why everybody knows the words so well. I don't I didn't I learned. But anyway.
I liked I liked the fact that Okada came out early to squash Fletcher's celebration. I
I liked that too. Yep.
like that stare down, like I said earlier.
Yep, I agree. What did you think when they introduced Jericho as El Corazón de León, which is Lionheart in Spanish? That one I knew without Excalibur
I
telling us.
I
And then he came out in like his old CMLL gear, basically.
I don't I don't know what he's doing anymore. And like we have talked multiple times about the fact that he came back because to AEW, because the other guys wanted him to do kind of a retirement tour. And he se pulling out best doves, man. My God, this is from early in his career. And
Yeah.
okay, I get it. You you pander to the crowd. You get your cheap pop. I that's fine. But putting him in with Darby and Místico was so weird. And I didn't understand it. And then they then they but then I wrote down, you know what, they pair up nicely. You got Jericho and Okada. That's fine. You've
Mm-hmm.
got Darby and and Kevin Knight. And you've got Místico and H. Cerro. Fine. That's fine. But still, that is such an odd trio. It would it it made it tough for me to go, what? It's just it just I didn't get Jericho's involvement in it. But whatever.
yeah, I agree. It was an excuse to get him on the card there and let him do that.
Mm-hmm.
If this had been a one off thing, right, of he's back in Mexico, he's in Arena México, he's gonna throw back to the CMLL days, I'd have like, that's fun. But when you put it in context of his first promo back after the long layoff, he references the list, right? He does the you you know, you make the list, right?
Right. Mm-hmm.
the painmaker.
Mm-hmm.
there are some other references that I think I'm forgetting to, you know, the glory days, if you will. And then now he does this. When you put all that in context, my thought tonight was I am, as of this moment, more convinced than I have been to this point that this is the retirement tour. And I am now thinking, come double or nothing twenty twenty seven. Because remember, Double or Nothing's the one that starts at all, right? That's
Right.
the first AEW show. I'd like to point out again, we were there.
Yes, we were.
I think that there is a very real chance that there is a Jericho retirement match on that card. That they're gonna build some sort of story where if he loses, he's done. And that's
Mm-hmm.
gonna bookend, you know, the AEW run. I think there's a very real chance of that. I may be way wrong. But it feels like that's where the breadcrumb the breadcrumbs are going.
It is hard not to think that because of what we're seeing. It it really is. And and here's what else I found really odd about this night is after they win, you've got Místico, who was clearly the fan favorite. You know, they
yeah.
they were eating up everybody, but Místico was the guy. While Místico is getting his his roses from the crowd, Jericho's in there trying to get them to ch he just looked like he was ham hocking it up.
Yeah, he like blowing
It just
kisses and stuff. Yeah.
it looked weird. It just it felt weird to me. And it just maybe I'm misreading the whole situation and maybe everyone was cool with it. But it just, you know, I and here's the thing. I don't want to feel like I feel like I'm I'm just bashing this match and Jericho I'm not. I just am confused by it and I'm a little confused by his conduct. And I felt like I get it. You you haven't been to Arena México in ages. You're back. It's great for you. Damn dude, it's Místico. Let him have his thing. Just wave and get get off the stage, you know?
Yeah, yeah. Look, I don't think there's a bigger star, particularly in that arena, than Místico. I mean, I just
No, not right now, no.
Yeah. It's a good match. It's actually it's it's a very good match. I think the biggest thing that it served to do here was remind us that Kevin Knight and Darby Allin have beef. Cause I'll be honest with you, I forgot that they have beef. And that's kind of the the one problem with them taking Kevin Knight and putting him in that title match with Omega at redemption is kind of forgot about that. Now,
Right.
I think they did a fine job of reminding you of it tonight and letting that
Mm-hmm.
restart and and silly me for not remembering that and going, well, that's clearly gonna be the All In match is Darby and Kevin Knight for the TNT title. That makes sense. So I i from that standpoint, it did what it's supposed to do. Again, I thought it was a good match.
Yeah.
It just it's you're right, it's a little it's a little weird. But I've seen weirder.
But I mean, it's yeah, but in spite of all that, the match was good. Darby gets a clean pin over Kevin Knight, which was a little surprising. But it again, it leans into the fact that this is the the story beat we get out of it. So I'm I'm good with it.
Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was fine. Thought it was good.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
then it was Kris Statlander and Persephone, which after you talked about, I was like, yeah, that should have been in my mid as well. This was I'm curious if you picked up on this too. I thought the crowd was shockingly quiet for this match.
I thought Persephone was going to get a bigger pop.
I did too.
She got decent pop, but I think, you know, she's the heel in this, and I think she's a heel in CMLL
She is.
as well. So it it makes a little bit of sense. But I think, again, I think this is where we run into these long shows. This
Yeah.
is this is the match I thought suffered from placement just because it was so far down in the card. And after you only have two more matches left. So you they're going to be bangers. And they they put them here. And I think that's a tough situation. And I didn't feel I felt like this had a s a bit of a slow start. I think they were there was a little some clunkiness going on at the beginning. I think they they smoothed stuff out as it went on, but that didn't help. Having this giant pop for Místico during before, during, and after the match before them didn't help their momentum. And what I thought was weird was the biggest story was that. Thunder Rosa was on the outside. And the again, the biggest story of this match didn't have much to do with the match.
Yeah, I I agree. I thought the Thunder Rosa involvement in it was clunky.
Mm-hmm.
I thought it was it it didn't make a lot of sense here, in my opinion. And then also when I think this might have more been a production issue than anything, but when Persephone hit her with the belt, like it took too long. And you could clearly see from the angle that Thunder Rosa
Yeah.
is just standing there waiting and she's looking over
Yeah.
her shoulder for it.
Mm-hmm.
And part of that I think also is Thunder Rosa. I like Thunder Rosa, but there are too many times with her where I have seen her do something like that where it's like you you gotta be a little bit you gotta remember this is theater. You know what I mean?
Mm-hmm.
Like there's a there's a few too many times where it's like I see you're you're you're pulling the curtain back too much. You know what I mean?
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Again, that might have been more a production issue if they should have been on a different camera angle, but I don't I don't know. But
Right.
I thought that was weird. I think I caught this at the very beginning when they when Persephone and Statlander traded the arm drags at the very beginning of the match. I think that they expected Persephone's gonna arm drag Statlander and she's gonna get booed, and then Stat's gonna hit the same move and Statlander's gonna get cheered. And when that didn't happen. When there was no reaction, you can
Mm-hmm.
actually see Statlander does a double take. She looks back into the crowd like, and I think that threw her. It
It's possible because she did make more than one reference to the fact that they you know, that they were booing her or they weren't doing much. Like when
Yeah.
she was outside, she was like doing this. Hey, now are you gonna
Yeah.
say something?
Yeah. I think it threw her off a little bit. And I think that she at one point thought, well, maybe we need to for this match switch it up, right? when they weren't getting a pop, it was and and when Statlander's getting booed, it was like, well, maybe I should start trying to work a little more heel. But Persephone is a heel in CMLL. You're not turning her. I think
Right.
for the first quarter of that match, give or take, they were struggling to figure out how to work this thing based off of what the crowd was giving them. And I think at some point they just said, Screw it, let's just do the match we were gonna do and let
Right.
it ride. And I think that was the right call. But it's a it's a weird it's just a weird match.
Yeah. And like I said, it's and I think that's the clunkiness I was seeing and sensing at the beginning. I think it ended up okay.
Yeah.
the best part about this is I do like the pairing of Stat and Rosa against Persephone and Shida I think that could be interesting. I think that could be fine. I felt this match went a little long to get us there, but you know. Absolutely they could have.
I agree. I agree. This is one they could have cut some time off of. Yep.
it's too bad because I like everybody involved in this, and I don't think we're
I do too.
seeing the best of them or them being presented in the best way yet. Maybe now that we've really established the the lines of Statlander and Rosa going up against Shida and Persephone, maybe now we'll get some cleaner matches and we'll get some cleaner storyline and it will be a little more efficient. But and I'm hoping we get to see better sides of all of them because I think they all deserve it. I think they all have They clearly have done, they clearly have it in them. And I just think they need a better opportunity to show it. And this wasn't it for them.
I I agree. I really like Persephone and and
Mm-hmm.
if you can find, like on, you know, myAEW.com or something, if you can find CMLL, it's she was trying to do it tonight, especially because she was in her home arena and stuff. And it just I don't know why it didn't get over tonight the way it does in CMLL, but like, man, what I have seen of that, she's over. Like she's absolutely over as the heel she's supposed to be. I want more of that. Cause I think she's very good. I want more of that. I don't know why they're struggling to find that so far. But yeah, hopefully you're right that with some cleaner lines here, maybe we get some better work going forward. I don't know, but I hope so.
Hopefully.
Then the trios title match, Brodido and Hangman versus the Demand. I think you and I agree on this, which is I thought pretty good match. Yeah, pretty
Yeah, I thought it was a solid match. Absolutely.
good match. I don't I don't like the switch.
No, I don't either.
I I do not care for them putting the belts on Hangman and Brodido.
I put that in my mid and it maybe should have went down to my dislike because I under again, I understand to a certain extent, you've got your guy Bandito, who's pretty over.
Mm-hmm.
You don't have to put the belts on You you just
I agree.
don't. And I think it's a mistake to take take off the the demand so soon.
I agree. I think the demand should have had a much longer run with them. I think that I I get it that look, everybody loves Brodido. I love Brodido. Everybody loves
Okay.
Brodido. I would rather see you put them back in the tag title contention instead of going, we're gonna slap the trios belts on you and hangman.
what it felt like it was being slapped on them. That's what
Yeah.
it felt like.
Yeah. It it felt to me like, okay, we know people like Brodido. We know people like Hangman. We want
Mm-hmm. Yep.
to remind people that Hangman is a big deal here, so let's slap a belt on him. That's not that's not it and I didn't like the pairing of Brodido and Hangman anyway. I I think it's flimsy at best.
Yeah. Yeah.
And so and and the thing that bums me out, I think, the most about it. Is when you go back to that promo that Hangman cut when he came back where he rattled off every title basically. I think Hangman works better as a singles competitor than he does in teams. And that's not to take away from the team stuff he's done. I
Mm-hmm.
just kind of like him better as a loner. I think it makes more sense for the character. I just I think he's a bit better that way. why is he not in the Continental Cup? Why is he not going after the International title since he's Got beef
Mm-hmm.
with, you know, basically every heel. You know, why is he not going after the TNT championship, which I still think made a lot of sense because as he referenced in that promo, Kevin Knight's be it to use his words, Kevin Knight's being a dipshit right now, you know? Well, maybe go set him straight. I don't like this. And I can't
And
believe I'm saying that because I love Hangman, but I don't like this.
When he rattled off all those titles, did he say the Trios Championship? Did he?
I think he did. Cause I thought he hit every single title, but I could be wrong. Maybe he only did the singles. I don't I'd have to go back
I thought he was
and watch it.
I thought he just referenced all the singles titles. Well, and he could
He might have.
have done that for eight minutes and not repeated any because there's a lot.
Yeah.
But this again, this didn't feel like it made sense. I I'm not a fan of them switching the titles. I and I thought the demand looked my god Toa Liona. Whoa. Dude.
Yeah. He yeah.
He didn't just take a step. He walked them to the middle of the ring.
Yes. And that's a lot of beef. Yeah, that was
That was amazing. That was amazing.
a lot of beef on his back.
Some people can't even get Brody King up by themselves.
Right.
And he had all three of them on his back and he looked great doing it. So it's too bad. I
Yeah. No, I
I thought the demand looked really good tonight. I thought they should have kept the belts.
I agree. I think this was a mistake. We'll see what they do next week and and it All In. I just I don't I just don't like it. I think hot shotting the trios belts doesn't help them at all. And
No.
the trios belts are pretty pointless generally in AEW right now.
That's why I liked having the demand with the belts, because I thought if
Mm-hmm.
any team could get them on TV more, it'd be the demand. Because Brodido and Hangman are such a slap together team, kind
Yep.
of like when it was Jet Set Donkey Ride or whatever it was,
Yes.
that you knew that wasn't going to last. You knew that wasn't going to happen much, and it didn't. And I I feel the same way with this. It's like, yay, I mean Don't get me wrong, I think they did it for the image you got at the end with Brodido in the with Bandito in the middle and Bro Brody and Hangman on the sides holding up the trios titles. I think they did it for that image. It's a great image. But that's not enough to to change the titles for, in my humble opinion. I just don't think it is. But
I agree. No. No, I I agree with you. I don't think it made a lot of sense. And so now you have to make a decision. If you're Tony Khan, do you keep the trios belts on these guys and try to make something out of it and give them an extended run with it? Or are you gonna switch it back and then get hangman back on track of whatever his story is going to be? Because allegedly There have been multiple reports that no, they're not going to leave the Never Challenge for the world title stipulation on him. They're going to get that off him somehow.
Mm-hmm.
my guess is that they're gonna switch it back. They might let let them hang on to it through I mean, it's 25 days to All In. So they might let him hold it for the 25 days and then drop it back to the demand. But I just You're hot shotting those belts, and I don't think that it is doing anything to help them. I don't, I don't love this, man. I don't love it. And again,
No, no.
like we have talked about, you have enough legitimate factions, enough established factions, build some, you know, faction warfare there of everybody chasing those trios titles. I don't know why we're
Yeah.
not doing that.
I don't either. I don't I don't either. Don Callis, where you at? Where you at? Yep. I don't
Yeah. Bang bang gang, where are you at? You know, I I just and and and again they did the thing that I that I don't like of the champions lose and just go, no, well, okay, on to the next thing. Really?
Yep. Yep.
The conglomeration, you guys don't want to get those belts back? Really? You're just like, nope, well, okay.
Exactly. Right. Death Riders, where are you at? You don't want trios belts?
Yeah. It just it doesn't I don't I don't care for it.
I mean, it could be Yuta's only chance to hold a belt in AEW. Let it let it happen. Let
Exactly.
it happen.
Boy, when you put it like that. When you put
Speaking of letting it happen.
it like that though, I'm less on board with it. Then
Yeah, what happens?
the Mexico City street fight with Ospreay and Davis.
Yep.
Again, two dudes who beat the absolute hell out of each other.
Mm-hmm.
I thought it was a good match. I mean
I did too. I l I liked the match. I thought it was fine. I didn't like the fact that it started two minutes after the show was supposed to be over, but I liked I
Yeah. It didn't either, yeah.
liked the match. I I think it's a questionable call to put Ospreay in that type of match twenty-five days before All In because
So
it was so violent and it what there's so many chances for him to legit get hurt. I don't care how good of friends you are with this guy and how well you work together. There were a lot of spots on there that Things could have gone wrong due to no one's fault. And it's just I I just questioned that thought process. I liked having them both on the match. I thought the or on the card. I thought the match was good, but I don't know. It it just had me a little concerned.
No, I I get that. And and you and I know and any wrestling fan knows that accidents happen in the ring where nobody was trying to hurt anybody else and something went wrong, somebody slips, whatever it is. Things happen. Now you can you can make the argument of if they had put him in just a straight ahead, standard, one fall match, those same accidents could have happened, right?
Absolutely.
So anytime you get in the ring, it's a risk. So that's me being devil's advocate here to what you're saying. With that
Mm-hmm.
said, I didn't understand. I mean, like I said, I watched Collision where they turned this into the street fight. I didn't understand why you made it a street fight. I don't
I still don't understand that.
Yeah, and and and it didn't it didn't there was really no justification for it. It's just Ospreay
Mm mm.
going, well, let's just make it a street fight. The only thing I can think is they're trying to tell you the story of again, this is a different Will Ospreay. This is a guy who is willing to go there, right? And the main reason I think that is the end of that match is very interesting to me because if you watch it. The referee calls the doctor into the ring to check on Mark Davis. And at
Mm-hmm.
first, I'm thinking, okay. So the story's going to be look at that, the whole thing of you got to pull the trigger no matter who's across from you. Well, he just did it. Right.
Yep.
And that's what I'm thinking of. man, he hurt his friend.
Mm-hmm.
But they never referenced it. And they didn't show the doctor working on him. You only see
No.
it in these wide shots. So now I got to ask Did Mark Davis get shoot hurt there?
Possibly. I mean, the the closest they came is when he's throwing those bows on top of him and they reference, you know, he's using that ruthlessness he learned from the Death Riders. And that's the close that's the that's the one reference it gets. He gets the pin. What surprised me was we had the Death Riders on earlier in the match, and I even wrote down in my notes that I thought Excalibur was setting us up for the future by saying The Death Riders said, Will, you know, leaving the Death Riders wasn't so easy, Will Ospreay. So I thought for sure at the end of that match, Death Riders come out, beat Tar out of Ospreay. That's I thought for sure we were gonna get that. And then we didn't.
I thought that too. So, but again, you go to the end of the match. So the first part of me questioning, you know, is that whole thing with Mark Davis. But then if you watch Ospreay and they do close ups of him, he looks back and sees this going on. And then he turns and he looks at the hard camera and he does the the gun, right?
Mm-hmm.
As in I interpreted that as I pulled the trigger.
Right.
Kenny, you're next, right?
Yep.
So maybe that's all the storyline. I'm right now I'm gonna say it is all all a work for the storyline. And that's fine. Again,
Right. Mm-hmm.
could you have accomplished it without the street fight and put them in slightly less danger twenty-five days away from your biggest show? Yeah, you probably could have. But
Yeah, 'cause you I mean, you could have had Ospreay finish the same way by just ranning down elbows viciously and then hidden bla i is this the first Hidden Blade he's done to the front? Because I thought he almost always did them to the back of the head, because he did it to his face.
Yeah, he he usually does it to the back, but I wanna say he's done it a handful of times since the since he joined the Death Riders that he's done it. I w 'cause
Okay. That's
wasn't I think that was part of the combo finish with Moxley is he hit it from the front.
okay. Yeah, that's that's possible. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I may be wrong, but I think so.
But I think those those tweaks tell you right there he's still keeping some of that Death Rider training.
Mm-hmm.
And I think that's fine. But again, I was just shocked we didn't see the Death Riders at the end of this. Because I thought
I I agree. Yeah.
I thought for sure, okay, we're starting this bitch late. We're gonna
Yeah.
end on either a promo instead
Yeah.
of a match.
Yeah.
Or we're gonna get a run in and then a promo. You know, I thought for sure we weren't just gonna end with a match. I just did and pleasantly surprised, we just ended with a clean match, a clean finish, and got out, but
Yeah, I mean, I I thought Death Riders were gonna get involved, or I thought Omega's gonna get involved. I was surprised we didn't see him at all tonight.
Yeah, no Kenny.
I don't know. Like this is a good show. This is I think this is a very good show. A lot of really good matches
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
in there. I think they got some storytelling done. I think there's also some confusing things on here. The good news though is they got twenty-five days to clean it up and we'll see where they go.
Yeah. I mean, this was not the most story heavy
No.
episode we've seen in a while, even though it was three hours. Still really solid. It felt very pay-per-view-ish. I thought the the match quality was very pay-per-view quality. Some a couple too long, but that you know, that's going to happen. You can't have everyone be in the best position and you just have to make the best of what you got. I think they did. really I overall, I know I've bitched and moaned a lot about this show tonight. I really like the show. It's just that the things that have gone wrong I I really wasn't a fan of.
Yeah, I I agree with you. I mean, like I think it's a good show. I do think, like I said, I think they got some good story beats in there. I think, you know, they did a nice job with reminding you of the Fletcher Okada beef. And I think, you know, certainly that's where we're headed for All In. They make the match official for the women's tag championships. Storyline be damned. At least, you know, you add to the card, right? you advance the Ospreay story. You advanced the tag team championship story tonight. You know, so they did, you know, again, reminded you of Kevin Knight and Darby Allin have beef and were, I think, getting the ball rolling towards those two at All In. So they did, they did some a lot of good stuff here. The stuff with Andrade was great. The MJF stuff was great. They
Yeah. That was amazing. Yep.
did a lot of really good stuff here, but you're right. When they made a misstep tonight, and there were several of them, it was glaring. You know, the Ciampa stuff is. bad. The
Yep.
trios title stuff is questionable at best. those two to me are the ones that really jump out as being really questionable of like, I'm not at all sure why you did that.
Yeah. There's enough things that made me go, huh? But All In all, really good show. Very happy with the storytelling that was done. Because you're right, it did at least progress the right stories in the right direction. Didn't confuse too many things. So I I liked it. I I and it's sad for me to say I think I think they need to take Ciampa off T V for a minute. And really rethink how he's gonna be portrayed and really rethink that Psycho Killer character and give him someone else to aim for other than, you know, Jericho, because that didn't do anything for either one of them. And him being in that three way didn't do anything for him.
No. put him in the casino gauntlet match. He's gonna be in it, right? We know it.
What? Yep.
He's gonna be in it. Let him then come out at All In and really wreck people. Like
Yeah.
really wreck people. You know, you can spin a storyline out of that that's gonna do more for him and whomever he ends up, you know, working with. and just let it let that be the thing you do with him. Yeah. But
Yeah. And possibly some of the best news I've seen all night Eddie Kingston gonna be on TV, baby.
Yeah, I was just thinking about that. I was gonna say, so, you know, make your picks now on the I I will say the Continental Cup confuses me a little bit of I'm just not really sure why we're doing it since we know they're gonna do the Continental Classic then in like a couple months. But that said, if you're gonna put Eddie Kingston on TV, we get a Matt Sydal sighting for the first time in forever. Like if this is how you're gonna take these people that you're like, we either haven't used them for a while or we're not sure what to do with them right now, like a Jack Perry, and this is how you're gonna put them on TV, fine. I'm fine. That's okay.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I I don't need to fully understand this continental cup. I don't care. Give me Eddie Kingston. Plea I want Eddie to win it. I don't think he's gonna, but man, I want him to.
Yep. I I want him to win it. I'm confused as to why Moxley is in the first round. I don't understand I really don't.
Well, so they talk about it on collision I don't think they did a great job of explaining it on collision.
Great.
But which tells me they're building the airplane in the air. But
yeah, yeah.
The matches are picked at random. Everybody's gonna compete. And then basically, like the way they said it, and this doesn't necessarily make sense, but the way they said it was so you you have your match and then you go back in the hat and we're gonna randomly pair you up again. But that doesn't really make sense because then they compared it to the FA Cup that European soccer does, it's based off of that. So you're gonna have like your round of 16. And then I I I think what's gonna happen is then from there they're gonna go to a knockout round. And then from there, they're gonna that's when you're gonna start paring it down. But I think this first round, this round of sixteen, I think, is gonna be everybody gonna fight everybody over these next couple of weeks. So think again of the Continental Classic of how you're gonna get paired up with everybody.
Okay.
And then they'll start knocking people out of it. I think. But don't quote me on that because again, I don't think they have fully fleshed it out, or at least they don't know how to explain it on TV yet. So and I thought they should have cleaned it up tonight and they didn't. So yeah.
No. They just gave us a bunch of matches. And I'm like, okay.
So maybe next week when they start the I think because I th or it does it start on collision. It might start on collision.
I think it starts on collision Saturday. Yeah, I think it does.
So maybe they'll start cleaning it up there. They'll have graphics and stuff, I hope, but I don't know.
Well, considering Moxley is the one who introduced us to the concept by saying he he heard
Yeah.
rumor backstage before anyone mentioned it, then yeah,
Yeah.
it's not surprising this is happening as it's happening live.
One cool thing about this, if you didn't watch collision though, Nigel McGuinness is gonna compete in it. Yeah, Nigel's
okay.
in the field and I think that's super fun. So
Yeah. He's he's he's laced him up a few times in ROH and I think Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah. He can still go. He was on All In the last time they were in London. He can still go.
I'm okay with that. Throw him in there, man. Throw him in there. Mike him up, let him call his own match. That'd be great.
Yeah, I'm down. Let's make it happen. you know, again, there you go. Again, I don't, you know, the Continental Cup as it stands right now is confusing. But again, Eddie Kingston, Nigel McGuinness, it's got Jack Perry something to do. Cool. I'm in. Let's do it. Yeah. Yep.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Bring it. I'm down. If we get to see weird, you know, this
Yeah.
this is what it makes sense to give us matchups that don't need any you don't need any story. Just throw them together and maybe build some story around it. That's great. Love it.
Yep. So anyway, like I said, hopefully they'll start cleaning that up on collision and certainly I hope they clean it up on the next dynamite. And look, again, on this road to All In, I think there's a lot of really interesting stuff happening. I think the Omega Ospreay Death Rider stuff remains very interesting. You have the X factor of MJF now, which can only be a good thing. So yeah, man, let's do this. Like I am excited for All In. And if nothing else, if they keep us feeling that way, if they keep us going, You've got me excited for All In, then they're doing their job. If nothing
Yeah. Yeah.
else, then then they're doing their job. So
Yeah. And even though I didn't like the way they put them together, I'm happy we're gonna see Divine Dominion take on the birds. I'm happy about it. Yeah, I'm disappointed in how it happened, but I'm super happy it's gonna be on the card and hey, you got there. I'm not gonna bitch too much.
Yep. there's a lot of interesting stuff floating out there because
Yeah.
if you didn't watch collision, Motor City Machine Guns made their appearance. I was too.
I was so happy to see that. I was so happy to hear that.
I was too. I'm very excited for them. So what are they gonna do? You have various other wild cards sitting out there of folks that got released whose non-competes are now up. And then of course there's
Yeah.
the shot that I called that I still think is gonna happen. I think The New Day appears. I think the Bucks are gonna win and The New Day is gonna come out and we're gonna get the the Young Bucks and The New Day for, or whatever they end up calling themselves for the AEW tag team championships at whatever the next pay-per-view is. I there's a lot to there's a lot to look forward to, is what I'm driving at here.
I'm okay if that happens. I'm I'm
Mm-hmm.
I am on board with that. Bring it, lock it in, make it happen. But yeah, I am. I'm looking forward to All In. I think it's it's been a little bit rocky getting there, but I think it's shaping up and I am still excited about it. There's still plenty of things going on that's making me go, yeah, okay, let's do this.
And the gauntlet match is very intriguing to me because that's a great spot to debut people, bring people back, whatever. And like I said, there's some names out there that I think may make appearances or whatever. So
does
yeah. All right. So on that note, we will be back here next week to talk about the next dynamite and we'll see what they do to again clean some of this stuff up. In the meantime, get yourself some cookie dough. I gotta go order more because I'm fiending. Man, and then you show me WTFudge Brownie, which is you son of a bitch. All right. So go to DoichFoods.com,
I know, man. So good.
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good. and then also follow us, like, share, subscribe, do all that fun stuff. Share us with your friends if you haven't already. invite them to the pants off, dance off that we're doing here.
Yes indeed.
I know you can't see us from the waist down, but trust me, there are no pants to be found in these parts.
Nope. I mean we're like Andrade midway through a match. Pants are down.
In fact, here's how you know, Ciampa actually just came in and tried to pin my pants.
He gave mine a backbreaker.