Episode 84 in the house.
TFW podcast.
That's freaking wrestling.
I am Matt joined by Ishan and Rodeja.
The good, the bad, the ugly of AEW full gears.
We will be diving into on this beautiful Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.
What's up, folks?
How y'all doing?
Good, the bad, the ugly.
At first I thought you were talking about us.
I'm like, well, who's who?
And then AEW, there's only one thing I really want to talk about from full gear.
But we have a show to produce, so let's go.
All right.
And that one thing you want to talk about is that what probably should have been the
main event.
Is that what people could say is the good, bad and ugly of professional wrestling?
Is that what could be and could go down as one of the best matches in wrestling history?
Is that possibly what you're talking about?
That's exactly what I'm talking about.
I mean, hey, I'm on y'all guys time.
We can go where you want.
If y'all want to start there, we can.
If y'all want to start with the real main event, we can start there.
Eshaan, you call it.
Where should we start when we're talking about full gear?
I love, see, I represent women, you know, love the women, my sister, my wife, my mom,
who's coming to visit me today from Detroit.
So in honor of all the women I support, Rhodesia is very passionate about something.
So I want to hear it.
Tell us what you got.
We're talking about what should have been the main event.
Let's go.
Let's go right to it.
Again, we can spend the next 40 minutes talking about this.
Y'all know, y'all know I can't stand gruesome matches.
What I saw, I can't even put into words.
It was probably the most beautiful, the most gruesome.
Okay, remember all that shit we was talking about how Hague man should have killed him
on site?
This makes up for all of that.
All of that.
So I said last night, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't full of hyperbole, hyperbole
when I said it, because I thought about it.
And I know I was not.
The hyperbole could have been, that was the best match I've ever seen, right?
In history of out of the tens of thousands of matches I watched, that's the best thing
I've ever seen.
I don't think you can say that like immediately when something's over.
That wasn't where my mind went though.
My mind went to for what I saw, for what that was.
That was the best match I'd ever seen.
And when I say for what that is, you can take that however you want to take it.
If you want to take it for a death match, if you want to take it for a personal real
life disagreement, if you want to take it for a story thread that makes perfect sense
for somebody to come into your home and threaten your entire family and that existence, it
was the best thing I had ever seen.
And I know for a fact that is how I feel.
Still to this day, and I'm going to feel like that until somebody tops it.
That was magic.
It was beautiful in the craziest way.
That is the kind of magic, and that's not for everybody.
And I understand with the bloodborne diseases that's out there, I can understand somebody
just saying, hey, putting blood in your mouth from somebody else's body is way too far.
I'm over it.
I get that.
But for art, that is the perfect match that I would show somebody if they ever ask me,
man, why do you like wrestling so much?
I would put that match and say, hey, I understand this may not be for you.
Do you like scary movies?
Okay, you do.
Do you like drama?
Okay, you do.
Do you like comedy?
Okay, you do.
All right, just sit down with a- Open mind.
Open mind, open mind, and just watch what these two people do for our enjoyment and
the levels they went to tell a story of a guy who will go to the depths of hell to get
something out of another guy and another guy who feels like he is untouchable and I'm going
to go into your home and threaten your family, oh yeah, and your newborn baby.
Just keep that in mind while you watch this entire match.
And I would just love to hear what they have to say after that.
That is how highly I thought.
And so on Saturday, I watched an interview with Swerve and they asked him in the interview,
hey, are you excited for the death match?
If you guys don't know, Swerve did a lot of death matches in Lucha Underground when he
was under the hood, et cetera, et cetera.
And he's like, well, no, I'm not excited for a death match.
You can't really get excited for what you're about to put your body through, but I have
to switch my mind.
I have to go to a different mindset and once the lights hit, I know I'll be there.
When I saw that, when I thought about it, I was like, damn, that is true because we
are so used to just violence in pro wrestling.
And we're going to talk about the Wednesday match also.
All right, let's just throw this violence for violence a lot of times.
And when he said I have to get into a different mentality and mindset, my thought was like,
oh shit, he's right.
To really embody the character, to embody the story we're trying to tell, to embody
what I'm about to put my body through.
That's a different mentality.
I didn't think it would be like that, but I was really excited to watch that after I
heard that.
I was like, okay, they got something up for this because they know the type of story this
needs to be told.
We came on the pile, like what he's just saying was like, man, hold on a second.
This guy broke into your home and all you do is put him through a table.
And from the jump, Hangman did not even wait for his entrance music.
They already set the tone for me there.
You don't see that.
You don't see one of your biggest baby faces don't even get an entrance.
But that is how much I need to get to this guy.
That is how much I'm going to destroy him.
I want to kill him with my bare hands.
I thought they did a fantastic job.
And then the match was just, like I said, it was beautiful violence, beautiful art.
E, you've been on the Swerve bandwagon the way we have.
We've talked about this was the match.
I'm glad I was wrong about Hangman going over.
I said I wanted to go one-on-one and then you go worlds in to do the rubber match.
We got what we got last night.
What was your thoughts while you were watching that match?
And then just where Swerve is right now and his ascension to the top of AW.
I'm really surprised you guys said I was the best match you guys ever seen.
I'm not going to discredit that.
I just didn't think that when I watched the match.
I wasn't thinking about ranking it at the time.
I just knew it was really great what I saw.
And for me, I agree with everything you said.
And the big thing for me was the story around it.
They really sold it on Dynamite.
He came out and cut the promo that you needed to cut.
You knew that he was in that zone.
I said from the beginning, I thought that this story would bring the best out of Hangman
and out of each other.
I thought it was going to take Swerve up another level.
I thought it was going to take Hangman up another level.
And it has.
It was a little bit slow.
I think in what needs to be done after Swerve, through the t-shirt and the baby's crib and
try to suffocate or whatever he tried to do.
I've seen it all, you get the merch, man.
You know what I'm saying?
But once it got to the point they needed to get to, it got there very, very well.
And as you said, I knew the rap was going to be good when Hangman didn't even wait for
his intro.
And what did I say on the last part?
I was like, man, this man, after Swerve snuck into the crib, literally snuck into the crib,
the next week, Hangman's getting ready for a match.
He got his gear on, he waited and got ready for his...
He didn't have his gear on.
He came out there, he probably ripped his shirt off before he came out, slid right into
the ring.
Let's get to it.
Great.
Because that's what it is.
Man, look, I'm not waiting for no music.
We're not doing no whole intro.
I'm not posing for the camera.
It's none of that, bro.
It's on site when I see you.
That's how I felt.
That felt like a real encounter that anybody could feel.
Like, look, this man invaded my house.
He tried to suffocate my child.
Bro, it's on.
Really, really great.
And then, I was reminded back a little bit, I loved the little intro with Swerve and then
Nana come out there with his little pants on.
And he was hitting that so hard.
They killed it.
They hit it so hard.
He came out with the whole thing.
And then, they stepped out of the way for Swerve so he can come out there.
He looked around like he's above what's happening.
I like how he's kind of doing.
Playing off Nana, he's kind of like, I'm kind of above this.
He sees him.
Almost like he's like a fly, like buzzing around him.
Because it's not time for that.
You know what I'm saying?
It's not time for the games.
So I love Nana doing the Who's House.
It's not time for me to do that.
And I also love too.
So you talk about storytelling.
And this was for me, like, if I could get, I can't really get goosebumps on my body.
It feels like my hair grows when I get super excited.
I always say that.
But I don't get goosebumps.
Another thing that I thought was really under the radar that was goosebumps worthy for me
when you talk about a story was when Hangman put Nana through the table.
And Nana tried to get out of it by just doing what he does.
I'm gonna just dance and you just gonna go along with it.
Because that's what I do.
Right?
I dance and everybody just loves.
They like it.
They think I'm funny.
And now, like, okay, I'm getting over by it.
That is whoever helped them put that match together.
And I got a feeling a lot of that stuff came from them too.
Yeah.
Because we got to start giving Hangman props for being what A.W.'s probably truly embodies
as a performer.
I think if you look back at like some of A.W.'s best singles matches, I think Hangman is like
in arguably two or three out of the top, like 10 matches of all time.
But bro, like the matches.
I mean, they all got good matches, man.
We can all sit there.
But it's not about matches to me.
What I said about bringing someone out as Hangman was like something like this, his
level of storytelling in this match was like something he's never done before.
Like, and here's the thing.
I don't think he's really been in a real, I mean, you know, you got the wrestling stories.
Right?
He was like, yeah, that was in that one.
That was a shoot though.
Right?
Like imagine the business they could be.
I don't think he's ever really wrestled in something that he had.
Because like, what are they really wrestling about?
They're not wrestling for a title.
They're not wrestling for a number one contender in a match.
This is a blood feud.
And that's what we got, blood feud.
Right?
He tapped into something.
Right?
He's fighting for himself, his family, his child.
Like and you felt that in the match.
I think we got something out of Hangman that we've never gotten before.
Just his level of like losing my word for it.
But he just, it just was a different level because I think that, you know, he was fighting
for something.
He really felt connected to this specific story.
And I wonder where they go from here.
Like, right?
Because Swerve had to choke this man out to keep him down for that 10.
Right?
Like, where are we going next?
He hung Hangman.
Now that I can finally gather my thoughts, I'm going to fully break down what we saw
last night.
And thanks, Matt, for saying the good, bad and the ugly.
And then what we got out of this, as far as like a movie, if you like drama, you like
comedy, if you like scary.
We just start with drama.
So we already get the beautifulness of him staple gunning his son's finger art on his
face.
You get the drama out of that.
You get the comedy relief from the intro.
Like you said, when I was killing it with the dancers and him dancing right before he
got taken down.
Then we go and look at scary, scary is everything else.
Everything else, the glass, all of it.
And then irony, you got real glass too.
I laughed though.
One of my emotions of this, of the whole match when the full glass came out, because I'm
like, let's God, please let it be candy corn.
Please let it be candy corn.
That better be some sugar.
I don't think it was.
That better be some sugar.
I was like, please let it be candy corn.
Matthew was like, no, my eyes passed Halloween.
He's like, maybe candy canes.
And then the glass came out and all I could do was laugh.
And then the irony to wrap it all up.
Hangman getting hanged, hung, hanged, hung, hung, whatever you want to call it.
That was beautiful.
I didn't even peep that.
Wow.
I'm sure.
Yeah.
It's beautiful.
And y'all know I hate these kinds of matches.
Y'all know I actually had a walk away after he drank the blood.
I did walk away because I was like, okay, this is like just too much for me.
But I had immediately ran back to finish watching the match because I'm like, what I'm watching
here is something beautiful.
What that tells you is you don't hate those types of matches.
You hate those types of matches when you feel like it's unnecessary.
Okay.
If they would have done that match because I need to take your heavyweight championship
from you and you're the king of death match.
So I'm going to be a death match wrestler on this show.
You'd be like, this ain't it, man.
But the story.
Yeah.
I called for it.
Yeah.
I said last night, like if I was an emotional person, I would have probably shed a tear
during the match and not because they were like killing themselves because I really thought
how beautiful of art that they're doing.
These people are putting their bodies on the line for a story and for our entertainment
and they're doing it flawlessly.
To me it was flawless.
I made a note yesterday.
I just kind of just put it in my notes for the show today.
And I just said, AEW is so necessary.
And as much as I know I will continue to bitch and moan at times about booking decisions,
I'm going to talk about one right now to kind of bring it full circle.
As much as I'm going to complain about things that I think is common sense that could help
elevate them and elongate some of their storylines or characters and they don't do.
But AEW is so necessary because we don't get this at a level like this if it wasn't for
AEW.
Sure.
You can go to an independent show and see this.
Sure.
You can go to one of the shows and buy a pay-per-view on Fight TV for $10 to see this.
But on a national, worldwide scale, we would never get this without AEW.
And you got to take the good with the bad.
So the bad for me was Wednesday.
I was in a legit shoot irritating mood Wednesday night after that street fight on Dynamite.
I'll give you real quick why.
Kyle Fletcher threw a table off the stage.
Kyle Fletcher should be done for the entire match.
A giant who doesn't wrestle on your show just choke slammed you from the stage through
a table.
Kyle Fletcher's back up five minutes later working the match.
To me that undermines what you're doing.
Brian Cage puts Kenny Omega through two tables super plexed from inside the ring to outside
on the floor.
Kenny Omega should be out for the rest of that match.
Kenny Omega is back working three minutes later.
That is undermining the actual legit violence and pain these wrestlers are going through.
You're shooting yourself in the foot because you're not going to continue to get reactions
because I've seen this already and you come right back.
And then the finality of it, Koto Bushi takes a tombstone through chairs from the inside
of the ring to the outside of the ring.
He's back up in less than two minutes after the good guys win.
He's up before Kyle Fletcher is.
That is a legit move that you should be stretchered out on.
If we're telling the story of Warlow where Warlow hits one powerbomb and then the referee
completely ends the match.
How can you give me that on Wednesday where these guys are legit killing themselves and
we're not selling?
You're hurting your company and you're setting a really bad precedent for your fan base to
what to expect.
So I'm irritated.
I don't give a damn about MGS promo now at the end of the show because of what you just
gave me.
But if it wasn't for that, we wouldn't have gotten what we got last night.
So I'm still going to complain about those things, but I understand you can't have one
without the other because it's all creative, how you look at it and how you see it.
That match for me was worth the price of a mission alone.
I thought good luck to anybody trying to top that just in general.
To your point, E, where you go from here is interesting.
I can't see a third match.
I think that was pretty decisive of how he beat him.
And now for Swerve, there is nowhere to go but for the world championship.
But he's not in line.
The only thing is, so I also, let me go back to the dynamite thing, man.
Y'all got to get some shots out there in Chicago, man.
I shouldn't let that stinky AEW match ruin your mood like that.
I felt the same thing you felt.
This is that AEW that we don't like.
This is the parts of AEW that we don't like.
That's why when you see what we saw on Saturday night, that's wrestling done right.
We talk about storylines and things in those matches because I'm with Rhodesia.
I'm not a blood match person.
Especially, I think, at this stage in our life where we kind of-
We understand what it feels like.
Yeah, I think it's more so like I'm more, I understand what the people are putting their
bodies through.
Right.
Right, right.
And a lot of times when you see all this blood and all this stuff, when it doesn't mean anything,
I don't feel anything about it.
I'm like, man, this dude is hurting himself on TV for my enjoyment.
And I don't get why you're doing it, right?
Other than you're hurting yourself.
But in that match, you got it.
Because all of us are parents.
There's nothing I would do, because I would do whatever I can do in my power, blood, whatever,
to get at somebody if I felt like they hurt my family.
Right?
So there was a story purpose for that match.
And yeah, that's what we got.
But yeah, that's like the dynamite.
That's shenanigans.
I hope they kind of can minimize.
But yeah, it's a great show.
But I don't know where he goes, man.
Like, look, you know, you think about MJF, he's had eight different storylines going
for his championship for like six months, right?
So now some old Joe's next, right?
We know Wardlow's been talking about him for the past three months, right?
So we got to get past Joe.
He got to get past Wardlow.
What I don't want is Shwerd to be part of the, I don't know, what is it?
The MJF power hour?
Like this him to be another thing that he's dealing with on his schedule?
No, like, Shwerd is his own problem.
He's not in addition to another thing.
He's his own thing.
Would you be satisfied, both of y'all, if he won the international Triple Crown?
He being Shwerd?
Yes, I would.
But I don't know.
I mean, granted, we don't even know what matches are Wednesday on Dynamite.
I was going to say, I wouldn't throw him right in immediately.
But that would be huge.
But I don't know, like, if that, I don't know if that fits.
Why would he care about being in that tournament?
Right.
That's where I'm like, look, like I would.
So I told you guys before, I think I said it before.
I don't think you guys understand it.
Like, if I was a wrestling character, it would be Shwerd.
Like he does a lot of things.
Like in my mind, I'm thinking like, if I'm that character, why would I want to be in
that tournament to work that hard?
Like, right.
Like I'm already at a level.
So my management team should be getting me to the next level without me having to work
so hard.
For me, I think maybe his next step is Orange Cassidy.
Like, maybe they run that back.
Right, right, because like the international championship is arguably like it's their 1B
championship right now, especially with how many great title offenses Orange Cassidy has.
I know they had like a brief run, but this is where we're at another level.
Hey, let me ask you a question about that tournament.
When Eddie Kingston said on Zero Hour that he was putting all his championships on the
line and so they're going to crown a triple crown champion.
I'm like, wait a minute, are they introducing another championship?
Please tell me it's just a trophy.
It's not another championship that they're introducing at the end of this tournament.
Please tell me that.
Am I hearing this wrong?
I'm understanding it wrong.
So Tony Khan reaffirmed in doing the scrum last night.
They're consolidating all belts into one.
So they're consolidating the NJPW Strong Belt, they're consolidating the ROH World title
and the AEW Continental belt.
So it's going to be one belt, but basically in all three promotions.
So it's going to be like probably the first inter promotional title that we've had on
a major platform in forever.
So I'm okay with that.
I'm okay with that.
Because when he first said that I was like, okay, that adds some gravitas to the tournament.
I'm like, because whoever wins now is going to be champion.
And then I was like, hold on a second.
Because when they said like, what did they call it?
They said it was a triple crown.
So now I'm doing the math.
I'm like three.
Where's the third belt?
I was like, oh hell, are they doing like another belt for this?
It's another belt.
I'm good with them consolidating it.
So they're going to have an inter promotional championship for New Japan and AEW.
And ROH title.
So I'm 100% okay with that.
But it was funny because when you were saying the triple crown, I was counting, I was trying
to do my Scott Siner math.
I'm like, yeah, this ain't adding up.
In the end, it's going to be the Continental Championship.
I'm so down for that because every time we talk about in sports, even in basketball,
you talk about like the world champions, but really not the world champions.
You're just a champion of that said league.
This is actually BINUS WWE.
You are like a champion of multiple companies.
And to me, I like that because it is worldwide.
So I'm kind of, and it's kind of, and it's kind of, and it's kind of sports centric.
That's kind of funky though.
So if you've got an ROH brand, you don't have an ROH champion.
You got a Continental champion.
If you're a new, new Japan, I'm not sure how that pro thing worked.
I'm not sure what is that's different from the strong belt.
Yeah.
I'm not sure how that's different from, but so you don't actually, if it's a promotion,
you don't actually have a champion.
You got a champion that's kind of affiliated with ROH, AEW.
That just seems kind of-
But you have RH TV championship, right?
Can we still have that?
Yeah.
You still got the TV.
You still have, I mean, you got, I don't give a damn about ROH.
I'll ask you guys about the whole Rhonda thing here after we get through a couple more of
these matches.
I don't think we have enough time.
I don't think we have enough time for that for today.
We ain't got enough time for it.
We gotta watch the Lions play.
Hey look, we got a half hour.
I do think that on paper, if we were looking at this as a shoot sport, you would say like,
oh, this is the most prestigious belt.
You got to go through an entire tournament that's going to be continuing.
He also said like, this is going to be a yearly thing at the same time, which I also think
is kind of cool because it's going to lead you right into Wrestle Kingdom.
But that also tells me also how much in bed in JPW and AEW.
Of course we know they were in bed because of the Forbidden Door shows and hey, Billy
Goat.
He went out to Will Ospreay signing and now he's All Elite.
His contract wasn't up until February.
So if he's already on a handshake deal or if he's already signed on paper to Tony Khan
and AEW, that just shows you how close AEW and NJPW is.
I'm good with it.
I am looking forward to this tournament though because I do think for people who don't watch
NJPW and for us that like when we cared about the summer turning, you had to try to watch
it at four o'clock in the morning, six o'clock in the morning.
I haven't been like that with NJPW for years, but we're going to have kind of our own now
tournament that should give us that same type of feeling, those same type of major, huge
matches.
Tony said, hey, there's going to be no outside interference.
So we know it's going to be just one-on-one, one point for a draw, three points for a victory.
I am excited to see how this plays out starting this week.
Let's talk about the main event.
Before we talk about the main event though, let's talk about the pre-show.
I had said, I think I even tweeted it on X, follow us if you are not, that's FNW.
At the end of the pre-show, when they had the shot of Adam Cole kind of looking in disbelief
and what am I going to do when MJF is just like, don't let them take my title.
I said, this is the best cliffhanger of a pre-show that I think I've ever seen.
Don't know if it was smart business because your guy in the main event, your top baby
face is being shown going to the hospital at the beginning of your show.
I'm sure that didn't impact anybody.
I don't think anybody saw that and said, let me not buy it because MJF is not wrestling
tonight.
But the payoff I thought, I thought it was a whole bunch of bullshit and shenanigans
for no reason.
Now I'm the person on the pod that said, I don't care about this build to MJF, JY, we
know it's going to be a great match.
I don't care about the build though.
We know what's going to happen.
MJF is going to win and get his belt back.
I said that last week.
So they added a lot to it.
But if you didn't watch the pre-show and you just started full gear when the bell rung
for the main event, you didn't miss anything.
And they did TV.
I talk about episodic TV.
Yep.
I wanted some of that, but I also wanted some type of payoff.
And to have MJF work a match where the guns destroyed his leg, he probably should have
been out for weeks the way they put it down on him in that pre-show.
And he comes back, he works a match.
Then he does like some signature spots, like he does a nip up, but then like he can't like
throw a punch and then Adam Cole's out there giving the match away.
He can't grab the ring in enough time.
He's like, I'm like, okay, what are we doing here?
So for all that to happen, and he just beats JY.
And what the hell does that say for JY?
Now you can't beat a one legged MJF.
I don't think they did him any favors either.
So what was your guys' kind of thoughts just about how we got to that main event last night
and then nothing consequential happening between Cole and MJF?
How we got to there is fun.
That was fine.
I liked that.
It was fun.
Like you mentioned, if you didn't watch the Zero Dark 30 hour, then you probably would
have been like, what happened here?
You really didn't miss anything.
But I'm going to be completely honest and I'm going to lay out here.
And mainly with the Bucks matching Kenny and Jericho, I completely, first off, the Kenny
match with Young Bucks and Jericho.
I didn't watch one second of it because I was still in disbelief of what I saw from
the death match.
Like, I don't know anything that happened in that match, like at all.
So I at least said, let me like sit down and really try to watch this, this main event,
because like my mind and my intention isn't here.
I just thought it was just a, I thought it was a good match.
And that was it.
The only takeaway I have from it was he still did that elbow drop when the table was already
busted.
I didn't want him to do it.
He did it anyways.
That was my only like, holy shit moment.
Other than that, everything else to me either felt like just a simple match, but it's not
fair because of what I just saw.
Anybody who followed that death match could have kicked rocks to be honest with you.
MJF is the new super John Cena.
He's new super Cena.
That's what it is.
It was a lot going on.
You think you're saying John Cena?
You know, I actually was kind of excited to see him.
I was like, I'm going to go to the gym.
I'm going to go to the gym.
He was trying to pick two words, we started at that point when we were all kind of being
totally
like, you know, every person's a
I loved like his little heel, stuff that he was doing, the taunting that he was doing.
Like he has a lot of character.
I thought he looked silky smooth in the match.
I thought Jay White did a really good job.
The match and layout itself, it was kind of wonky, but this is what we've gotten from
MJF and his storylines for months now.
So I was kind of okay with it, but hey, it was what it was.
Were you okay with, were you okay after the pay-per-view was over?
So they signed off, it's over, okay, there's no double review reveal.
There's no heel turn.
There's no return or anything like that.
In that moment, were you okay?
Are you saying you were just okay with all the shenanigans leading up to we're signing
off on the pay-per-view?
I gotta tell you something, I was ready for the show to be over.
I mean, not because the matches were bad or anything in particular because I was mad about
it, that was a long night, man.
The show starts at 6.30, right?
I think I got ready for it at 6.
So I'm sitting there from 6 to midnight.
Three pre-show matches.
Right?
I'm sitting there from 6 to midnight watching this thing, man.
And that blood for you, because that wasn't the match I came to see.
That was the match I told you I was on 10th floor.
The hangman's were, I mean, there was a lot of energy just expended in that match, right?
And just from start to finish, most of the matches were good.
I mean, I don't know if we have time to talk about the ladies, but I think the ladies showed
out in their matches.
Yeah.
Talk about it.
It was a long night.
So by the end, I'm glad they didn't have a reveal because it was something I had to
now mentally focus on.
But yeah, I mean, talk about the women.
Yeah, talk about it.
Like Tony Storm.
I love Sierra's champion.
Yep.
Talk about it.
Mariah May came out and gave her her flowers.
And she was kind of upset.
This was a strange thing.
We had the Women's World Championship match, right?
Now you would think in the women's division that is their top of the line.
That's like, I started number one title for the women.
But then you had that triple threat match for the TVS title.
Talk about it.
And them girls showed up and showed out.
Talk about it.
Two for two.
Hey, Tony Khan, it is okay to book two women's matches on the same show because look what
we got.
I thought they both exceeded expectations.
Well, I'm not going to say they both exceeded.
To your point, they showed up and showed out the triple threat match.
I was like, salute women.
I thought that was fantastic.
No, they exceeded.
I thought the white person went over.
That was beyond what I thought they were going to do.
Even both of them.
And everybody has opinions.
So whatever on that.
But I go on social media last night after the show was over because I really wasn't
on much during the show.
Because a lot of times you'll go on during the show and you'll see something that either
pisses you off or you don't agree with.
And then it kind of like taints what you think you just watched.
So I'm starting to pull back from watching the shows and then watching my timeline.
And I'll still tweet through the shows, but maybe I just won't check the actual timeline
itself.
So I saw somebody like, what are we doing here?
What is going on with the AEW women's division?
Since when is it the wrong thing to put the title on your most over character?
What are we talking about?
I would like to know why they say that.
Maybe that person was just, you get a lot of pro, WB, anti, AEW, vice versa.
But it's just like, we're complaining about that?
Now maybe you're just the biggest Sheetha fan in the world.
Even if you're the biggest Sheetha fan in the world, Tony, when she comes on, all eyes
are on her.
That was the right move.
Now we got to see what the follow up is.
I don't want to keep bouncing these titles back and forth.
But I thought both women's matches did exactly what it needed to do.
You guys got some more of your sky blue character change.
Like she got new music.
She took the hat off, put the new little crown on.
Okay, so now she's telling us kind of where she's at.
I just thought it was great.
I do want to spend time talking about both of these matches separately, because I think
both of those matches, the women matches, were great.
And I don't think they should be clumped in.
Because like what you just said to Tony, hey, you can have two women matches on your show
and it'd be just fine.
Oh wow, I put my fingers up and got balloons.
Hey, I told you.
Got the peas on it.
And the balloons in the back.
That must be the balloon gang sign I just threw up.
First, let's start with the-
It don't work for me.
For starters, let's talk about in the women's championship.
I want to give Sheida her flowers because Sheida is just so good, so solid in the ring.
Just the things that she does.
And I had made a note here that when she went for her rope break, she didn't just go with
her fingers.
She grabbed with her forearm.
Like it's like the little things like that that she does that to me just like, wow, like
bravo to you.
You kept that division, you held it down.
Of course, we can always bitch and moan about the women's division in AEW, but you held
it down and you made that belt still mean something to me.
So I am going to give you your flowers.
May Tony third reign be better than her second reign because we all know the last time she
had the championship, just how she was an afterthought to me when she was down.
What were they called?
Not damage control.
Outcast.
It was just like, you remember how I felt one time she came out without even having
her belt on and that pissed me off.
So may her third reign be the best reign ever.
Now let's go over to the TBS championship.
Last two episodes ago, I went off about sky blue, right?
I did.
She completely changed her cadences for me.
That match was so good to me that when it comes to triple threats, it can be either
really good or really just like clunky because of timing and getting the match up.
And I remember thinking that they had the equal amount of triple action and the equal
amount of just like solos going back and forth.
It was produced very, very well for me.
I was fully engaged to that whole match and it had my full attention the entire time.
All three women look beautiful in the, just the chemistry and just the thing that Julia
and sky is so young, so young.
So you can only imagine where they're going to go from here.
Rewind six months and say, Hey, full gear TBS triple threat, Stan Lander, sky blue,
Julia Hart.
We'd be like, what the fuck?
How A&W fell off.
That's what we probably would have thought.
And I'll be damned if you look at that match.
He was like, man, they smoked it.
They did.
They really did.
You know, Ethan watched that match with me and he actually was kind of watched a good
portion of it and he's like, it's red versus blue versus purple.
He's like, daddy, did you know that red and blue makes purple?
That's so awesome.
Look at him.
You got a genius over there.
So then I'm like, yes, that's true.
Like, Hey, you know what?
Was that by the Chris do that intentionally?
Like, wow.
Okay.
Well, I thought it was a really good match, man.
And I was interested in Rhodesian and how you felt about sky.
Cause I think like, I was telling her, Hey, give her some time.
Like she's, it's a slow character change for, I'm very, very tempted me, uh, interested
to see where she goes with the character.
Right.
She has to look down.
I thought she looked phenomenal.
I think it's a great look for, um, I just need to know what this character is, what's
her intention, what's her motivation.
I hope we get that from her.
Like, right.
Like that's, that's the next stage.
Okay, cool.
Your, your look is different, right?
Like, but tell me who you are.
Why, why are you at the point right now?
Like, what's, what's the next thing?
And what's the story?
What's going to be believable?
Like, yeah, what's, what's, what's, what's, you know, how is it going to be believable?
But um, Julia Hart, man.
Yeah.
Ah, doing her thing, doing her thing.
So now is she going to be the new champ?
Is she going to be the new leader of house of black?
You're right.
She has gold.
I thought about it.
Right.
I thought of that.
She was on the scrum too.
Last night.
And she just talked about, um, how much she's grown and how when she was the cheerleader,
it was interesting to hear her talk about it because she said in all baby intensive
purposes that like, I wasn't ready.
Like she's like, I would go out there.
I didn't know what I was doing.
I didn't have confidence.
She's like, I will come back to the back and ask people how it was.
And they would just be like, you'll get it eventually.
You'll figure it out eventually.
And she was just like, she was lost.
So I think part of it for her probably was the character of just being a cheerleader.
How do I be that?
But then also how do I work?
You know, and she made a comment of, I'm working a ton of local talent, you know, too many
matches and then now I'm in here with real AEW contracted talent that we can build, you
know, synergy with.
But for her to be 22 years old, right.
And just, she's a star.
I mean, like just, just keep going where they're going with her.
We know a lot of times, AEW doesn't maximize when they get somebody hot, figure out how
to keep her hot.
And I think you got something going, but just that quick.
I think they, the women's division's in a really nice spot right now.
I really, I really, really do.
I'm gonna ask you guys about Ronda Rousey, but before we kind of just skimmed over the
Bucks, Kenny and Jericho's match.
Shout out and props to the four of them because, and yes, three out of four were or still are
EVPs, however you want to look at that.
But I am sure when they did the fight card and they were like, all right, got to find
somebody to follow up this hellacious match of forever death match.
Who's gonna take that spot?
And as much as shit as Chris Jericho gets, I am pretty sure he was like, fuck it, give
it to us.
We'll figure it out.
If there's anybody on this card that can not have that crowd come all the way down just
to get them all the way back up for the main event, WWE does that a lot.
I think Jericho's like, we can do it.
And they did it.
They did it.
The first half of the match, I was not paying attention at all because I'm just like, I
don't care.
You're processing what you just saw.
But they did a really nice job.
And this is where I talk about when I say stories matter, character matters, emotion
matters.
Biggest pop of that entire match was when Kenny was going back and forth on who he was
going to be.
Oh, I remember that.
I saw that.
That was toward the end of the match though, right?
There was no flip, no powerbomb spot, no thumbtacks, none of that.
It was, I'm about to hit a knee on one of these people and the crowd got up for it.
So you know, you got it.
That's when you know you're doing it right.
So shout out to them and we'll see where the bucks go.
I do think that this should be a fun thing for them because they've been stagnant to
me forever.
So maybe if they just become what CM Punk said they were, like children and immature
and all that kind of stuff.
Do you agree with them?
This is the best version of them?
I think it's absolutely the best version as of right now, this moment, because do any
of us want to see them as faces?
You know, it's kind of like, ah, not now.
Yeah, because they were much more interesting when they changed their look, right?
Changed their look to what it is currently.
And they started acting like heels.
Because I think in New Japan, they kind of were playing the obnoxious tag team guys,
right?
So maybe this is just a more comfortable role for them to be.
And why not?
Because you know, when I think about it, because you think about them as a tag team, think
about that tag match that we had on there, right?
Like three of the tag teams weren't even regular tag teams in a tag team match.
The World Tag Team title match.
Oh, the ladder match.
Yeah.
But the tag team champions aren't our tag team.
They like they will have need a tag a name, right?
You guys that the Knights of the Black Throne, they're not they're not a team team.
They got a team name.
They're the Black Kings.
Yeah, the Black Throne.
Black Kings.
No, it's the Kings of the Black Throne.
You're actually right.
It was Kings of the Kings of the Black Throne.
Who else is there?
So it's a bunch.
They were kind of thrown together, tag teams for the in some ways.
So even that match, even that match and that match came on before the death match.
You better say what I want you to say.
Say that match was violence just for violence to me.
Like when they made a ladder match on paper, I'm like, OK, cool.
It's a ladder match.
But I just felt like it wasn't needed.
If you're going to keep the belt on Bill and Starks, just do a straight up one on one match
and just just just beat somebody clean.
That division's code.
You know what I mean?
But who?
OK, first off, I was surprised.
Remember, I talk about how a W still surprises me that Ricky Starks and Big Bill still retain.
So I didn't think that was happening by a long shot.
But I wouldn't have wanted to see them in a singles match, a singles tag team match.
There was no interest there.
I actually love the ladder match.
I can appreciate your comment that the ladder match was unneeded, especially after what
we saw in the death match.
So that's a different point of view of it.
But I absolutely love that match.
I absolutely want to give the workhorse of the night to Cash Wheeler.
That entire match, I felt like was all cash.
Every time he was in the ring, every time he was doing something, I'm like, this dude
goes.
Yeah, he goes for it.
He goes 100 miles an hour.
And if you're there, you're there.
If you're not, I'll figure it out.
Yeah, that's really what it feels like.
It blow me away.
Roosh was number two.
That's what they do in that company.
We don't have a story for a match, we're just going to put a bunch of shit in high spots.
But I'd rather have that than Ricky Starks and Big Bill with just another random tag
team.
Because I would have had no interest in that.
But you know what, too?
I was thinking about after, because we don't know where they're going.
And everything, as much as we know there's a story with it.
Yeah, so look at Big Bill.
When they won, I was like, okay, what?
But then when Jericho and Omega won, I was like, that makes sense.
I don't know when they're going to cash in for their number one contenders.
Let's say they go at Worlds End.
You'd rather have Omega and Jericho wrestle Big Bill and Starks and anybody else.
We don't want to see them against House of Black.
We don't want to see them against FTR.
That's not the story.
That doesn't make sense.
What makes sense is, okay, what are we doing now with elevating, continuing to elevate
Starks and, evidently, Big Bill through Jericho and Omega?
So when I saw that, I was like, all right, you got the pass.
I'm still not invested in Starks and Big Bill as champions.
Two more thrown together tag teams.
Yeah.
That tag team match.
So, I mean, you know, we'll see with that.
Rhonda Rousey.
Can I ask, can I mention one more thing?
Yeah.
Before you go to Rhonda, our Black sister.
The other Blacks, so we have the House of Black.
All the men showed up, came up short.
First off, Buddy, Buddy chats out to Clyde.
She called him Clyde.
Did you hear him repeat that?
His name is Claudio Castagnoli.
Dasha said Clyde.
Like Clyde.
I was like, who?
But you know what it was?
In her mind, she was like, I'm not going to mess up Buddy Matthew's name because I called
him Buddy Murphy before.
So she put all her attention to calling him Buddy Matthews and then called Claudio Clyde.
I'm like, who's Clyde?
Anyway, Clyde.
Clyde.
Point is, all the men came up short of House of Black.
So again, that goes back to me.
Like what are they doing with House of Black?
But I digress.
Go ahead.
Talk about our Black sister.
Well, but when you, but that's the thing about a ladder match.
Gimmick matches in wrestling are used to protect.
That's really what gimmick matches are for.
They didn't take a pin.
So yeah, they didn't take the belt off the rung, off the ladder, but they lose nothing
by not winning it.
Yeah.
I wanted to bring a Rhonda Rousey because news comes out Friday night after collision
and rampage.
And I see her, there's a video online of her coming out on the ring of honor.
And I said, please tell me I'm missing something.
Can you guys explain to me?
Okay, so Tony Khan said on the scrum, she's not under contract anywhere.
She's not in the contract, A-E-W.
He would love to have her back.
And he kind of just told a quick story of, hey, the, the few started an independent show
on Thursday or Wednesday night.
I think it was in the Thursday.
And then they were like, Hey, let's carry over to R08.
So if you want to see it, you know, bye honor club.
Before I get my thoughts, I have to have your guys thoughts.
Cause we, none of us have talked about Rhonda Rousey showing up in R08.
I don't care who goes first.
I'm just excited to hear your guys' thoughts on this whole situation.
I don't know the situation.
I didn't watch the video.
I don't know in what capacity.
I just thought that she was there with her BFF and that was it.
And then when Tony reaffirmed it in the scrum last night, like, no, she's not like down
with us.
She's just, she was just here.
You welcome her back anytime.
I think, I guess this is good.
She's trying to figure out what's out there.
What companies are out there where she will fit in.
Cause once we found out that she was staying a wrestler and she was going indie, Hey, why
not?
I guess this is par for the course to me.
That's all I'll say.
He's got something cause he's smiling right now.
And whenever he's smiling and he does the Harlem Shake, you know, he's got something.
Floor is yours, sir.
Oh, I see.
I don't have anything at all.
I don't care.
Well, no, that is something.
That is something.
You know, like it's on R08, man.
Like we're not going to be able to see it.
First of all, I don't know.
R08, you're not going to be able to see it.
I'm not paying $10 or whatever it is to go see whatever, whatever, whatever that was.
Look, I, look, I didn't want to look, I was at, she was at SummerSlam in Detroit.
I got up in the, went to the bathroom and got something to eat during our match.
You think I'm going to pay $10 to see her at R08?
No sir.
I'm good.
Hey, but hey, best of luck to you, sister.
Like I hope you come back and rebound and do something really great that I enjoy.
I know what's next.
I know it's coming.
So, so that's my point of both of what both of you just said.
What he's saying, I don't even know what you're talking about.
Right?
I'm talking about Ronda fucking Rousey.
He's like, I ain't paying for that.
I was in attendance and I didn't watch her.
If I owned R08, I would feel differently.
R08 is a dead IP right now.
It is.
You have the opportunity to use Ronda Rousey and you put her on Ring of Honor?
Yeah.
Come on, man.
That doesn't make sense to me in the slightest at all.
No, if you have a chance to use her, you use her on your main brand.
We're real.
And then if maybe you just say, Hey, I can only have it for a weekend.
Maybe we don't use her at all then.
But to use her for the first time on R08, Ronda Rousey and Ring of Honor.
That is like, that is the equivalent and this is not hyperbole.
That is the equivalent to having someone like Becky Lynch available for a weekend.
And you say, you know what I'm going to do?
I'm a user at a house show instead of using her on TV.
What logic does that make?
Oh, I got Logan Paul for the month of April next year.
No, let's not use them at Mania.
Let's use them in Indiana the week before Mania at a house show.
We'll pop a good attendance because the word was the reason why they put her on there was
to try to get added subscriptions.
Let's stop worrying about Ring of Honor and let's put all of our hurt.
And I know we have to, we own it.
I get it.
But how about we make Dynamite, Rampage and Collision the biggest, the best shows that
we can.
And then through that is where we're going to get our weight to elevate.
Because if you can't get enough of this, I got this IP over here.
Because at this point, ROH is nothing more than what it should have been in the first
place, which is AEW developmental.
So to have her on there, I thought it was just like, what are we doing, man?
Because you can never get another first time.
The first time you saw that woman in that company was on a 15 second video clip.
That's how people are going to see it.
Anybody going to pay that $10 to see it, they go and look at that clip.
Oh shit, she was at ROH.
Even your major Ronda fans from WWE.
They ain't my pain.
They're going to see that and they're not going to think to themselves, oh my God, I
have to go and figure out what ROH is and then pay $10 to see it.
They're going to say, she went to what?
And they're going to keep scrolling.
I might be the, what do you call it, the vocal minority.
I think that's the phrase.
Honestly, you bring Ronda to AEW Dynamite or Collision and I don't think the crowd would
have accepted her.
I'll be completely honest with you.
I think they would have completely booed her as constructed right now.
Let's say for instance, she stays more time in the indies and the rumors going around
that she's actually really good.
She's figuring out who she is.
That's different.
But that same time, let's say she just showed up at full gear.
They would boo her.
It was a market test.
They wanted to see what kind of interests they could get out of there.
She already agreed to, hey, I'm an indie wrestler.
I'm going to start back from the beginning.
I just added that.
I don't know if she said that, but she's an indie wrestler.
So that's my assumption I'm making here.
I'm going to start from the beginning.
I think it was a market test and I think that if they did put her on AEW TV, she would not
have gotten the perception they would want it.
So maybe not a boo.
My only pushback, she showed up to taping of Collision as the same audience.
Hey, you know what?
I'm with you, Rhodija.
I'm with you on that 100%.
They may have booed her.
Maybe they need to let her boo her.
But you think about from like, oh, we have a, they announced a signing.
Like we didn't, we kind of blew past it a little bit, but like Will, it ain't that big
of a signing.
Like, right?
So you think about Ronda Rousey-
You said it's not?
No.
If you think about Ronda Rousey's AEW elite.
Yeah, let's think about it.
Take it outside of like the AEW, the fam thing, right?
If you go ask your neighbors, who's Ronda Rousey or who's Will Ospreay?
Who are they going to know?
They're going to know Ronda Rousey.
They don't know Will.
We've seen Will thousands of times with AEW TV.
That's not that big of a sign.
He's going from part time to full time.
Great.
Well, that's a big signing.
If you get somebody that name, but will it work?
I mean, it's not working for Edge either.
So it is what it is.
I get what you're saying, but that is a, that's a huge signing because WWE wanted Will Ospreay.
For you to be able to have Will Ospreay available for weekly TV.
I know what you're saying from a name value perspective.
Part time to full time.
Thank you.
For sure.
That's a major signing man.
Part time to full time.
Instead of seeing two good matches a year, you're going to see four.
Just four?
Working weekly?
Just four matches?
The steam retirement package?
And shout out to Darby Allen for telling Los Angeles to wake the hell up and give things
power.
Yes.
Give them his power.
You know what I'm saying?
Your farewell tour.
That is what it needs to be.
Every place they hit needs to be, this is the last time you're going to see this man live.
So I absolutely love that.
So then on Wednesday's show, we need to talk about Survivor Series preview.
Of course, I also want to discuss Mercedes not being the name last night at Full Gear.
And then you made a comment about Edge or Adam Copeland and you just threw that in there.
So we need to talk about that too.
Of you evidently your thoughts on this is not working with Adam Copeland in AEW.
So let's do that and of course, whatever we get on Raw and if we get to know what these
matches are going to be for the AEW tournament, that'd be some good conversation to have.
Y'all got anything else before we get up out of here on this Sunday?
Let the Lions win by 12.
That's what I'm talking about.
By the time we get back on here on Wednesday, the Lions can be the number one seed.
Let's go.
If we win against Chicago and Philly loses.
We'll be the number one seed in the entire conference.
Let's go.
Makes my nipples hard.
Love it.
All right.
Well, we out of here then.
Thank you guys for listening.
Love every single one of you.
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