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00:00:01
Pod Warriors: The State Of Wrestling, Summer 2025
110 Plays17 days ago
The boys are back to recap Jordan's All In road trip and take a look at where AEW and WWE are heading for the rest of this year.
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
Oh.
Return of the Pod Warriors
00:00:16
Speaker
You know what that music means. We're back for the first time since Christmas. It's an episode of the Pod Warriors. Jordan, what's going on, man? Man, it never gets old hearing that theme song. And yeah, man, it's it's been a while. Obviously, you guys have heard us on other podcasts, but I mean, we're back, man. This is ah this is what you guys all paid to see.
00:00:37
Speaker
Yeah, this is a little bit of a a hot route, man.
Parenthood and Exhaustion
00:00:40
Speaker
It was originally going to be your standard flagship Chick-fil-A show, but I think we we don't have confirmation because it's all the way on the other side of the house, but we believe that Sheena crashed out putting the kids down tonight. Well, deservedly so. you know We've had a very busy day. Tackle football started up. and We don't get home from practice till about 830. So by the time you you know put something in the kids bellies, get them get them bathed and laying down, we're pretty spent. and She was helping them get to sleep for the pod. And we think that she may have ah got hit with a goon through sleeper hold, man.
00:01:08
Speaker
I mean, it doesn't take much for Sheena to fall asleep, if we're being honest. Like I've been at your house while Sheena's dozing off when we're not even doing anything. So it happens, man. Part of being a parent is falling asleep on the couch. just it's like a rite of passage. you You always made fun of your parents for passing out all the time. Then you become a parent. It's like, holy shit, man, my days are just long now.
00:01:31
Speaker
Dude, I don't know if it's just because I'm a night owl or maybe being in the Navy. I've stood so much like boring ass watch on the ships, like monitoring radar systems and stuff, man, that I've gotten accustomed to it, dude. I've never been able to be one that can just fall asleep sitting straight up, dude. Sheena can do the, like you know, doing touch and goes, man, like sitting there watching TV and just getting the head nod going, man. I still, dude, I got to be like, if I'm laid down, I can kind of doze off, man. But if I'm sitting straight up watching something, I can stay awake through it.
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, you are a different breed. I mean, usually if I'm doing something, I can stay awake no matter how late it is. But dude, if I like, like watching TV in bed is an absolute no-go for me. I mean, once my head hits that pillow, it doesn't matter what's on the TV, I'm out. Yeah, man. So we'll see, you know the invitations there. Sheena may pop in at some point if she happens to get up. But for now, I it's going to be me
Wrestling Weekend Highlights
00:02:26
Speaker
and George. So we're pivoting a little bit.
00:02:28
Speaker
Obviously, you guys know we had an absolutely gigantic weekend of wrestling. oh You know, we kind of we were saying it's going the biggest weekend besides Mania. But shit honestly, this may have been a bigger weekend than Mania, at least quantity wise. Right. At least, you know obviously wresstlemania's WrestleMania is WrestleMania.
00:02:45
Speaker
But at least on the amount of wrestling, man, the amount of mainstream wrestling to watch, I think it it totally beat. ah I think it totally beat Mania weekend this year, man. Bro, if you're if you're just going strictly on the wrestling, not not the presentation, not the glitz and glamour, I think this weekend was bigger than WrestleMania, personally. like i just It was AEW's, to me, biggest show ever. like yeah I don't even think that's arguable. We had Evolution 2, Goldberg's retirement.
00:03:13
Speaker
Final Battle. Supercard of Honor. There was a GCW show. There was a Great American Bash. There was a whole ass episode of SmackDown. Yeah, we we don't really need to talk too much about that. I mean, outside of the Wyatt's winning, there there wasn't much of note on SmackDown, which it's pretty normal for us.
00:03:30
Speaker
you didn't like You didn't enjoy seeing the birth of RK Roll? No, I did not. Yeah, so we're going to kind of, you know, obviously Jordan went all in, so we're going to dive in on his trip. He's going to, you know, he's going to all the deets, man, with the road trips like. He's got to give us the breakdown on the food scene.
00:03:47
Speaker
um And then we'll we'll kind of hit the wave caps on all in Take a look at what we think. Basically, this is the state of wrestling summer 2025 is how we're framing this. You know, what does AEW do to build off this momentum that they've captured after really being in a lull for the last, you know, maybe year and a half, two years?
00:04:06
Speaker
And then, ah you know, WWE stumbling a little bit, man, for the first time in the Triple H era, dude. They're definitely, you know, I think they fumbled defense, picked it up and ran it back a little bit, man. and we're going to see if ah what what w to b Team WWE can do to kind of bow up and get a response now that really for the first time since Vince left, um they're the ones facing all the scrutiny. I think the last little bit of goodwill from Triple H has kind of burned up and people have definitely been frustrated.
00:04:31
Speaker
If the Rumblings were there before Mania, definitely post Mania 41. There's been a lot of, you know, there's been very few bright spots with WWE creative. Yeah, I agree. I'd, Everybody always, and I know, and you know i me and Seth talked about this the other night, just like how people are so against one company and so against the other. It's just, I don't get it. Like, i just like to talk wrestling and like, if there's something i don't like, I'm going to vocalize it. you You guys have always known how I am. I'm not going to hate on one more than the other.
00:05:01
Speaker
Like, yeah if I don't like something though, i'm going to say I don't like it. And Since WrestleMania, I feel like WWE is on their old cruise control mode like they were doing five, six years ago where it's it's just repetitive, man. it's just They're just in a cycle right now, and I don't know what it takes for them to get out of it. I mean, i just, I don't know. We'll get into it ah as far as like the build towards SummerSlam and stuff and what we're both feeling. But ah yeah, they just feel like they're in cruise control right now, and they're just not doing anything spectacular.
00:05:34
Speaker
So we're about to pull the pull pull the crank starter on this episode,
Exploring Buc-ee's Adventure
00:05:38
Speaker
man, to get it going. want to remind you guys, Pod Warriors, special concept. Me and Jordan, you know, he's been my best friend for almost 15 years now, man.
00:05:46
Speaker
We get on and we'll pick one topic and kind of go deep on it. For the most part, yeah there's a couple like super topical things on there, but almost every episode we've done is kind of evergreen. You know, like you can go back to it and listen to it and it's still going to hold up.
00:05:59
Speaker
whether we recorded it in 2022 or, you know, the Christmas episode from this past December. So if you just get on the Chick-fil-A show feed, start scrolling up and down, we got all of them are labeled Pod Warriors at the start. So they're easy to find if you like what you hear and you want to go and hit the back catalog.
00:06:14
Speaker
With that out of the way, Jordan, you ready to get going? Let's do it.
00:06:19
Speaker
start us off, man. We need the details. You know we love a good road trip, dude. Take us through all-in weekend. Yeah, so we left Omaha at about 7 on Thursday morning.
00:06:31
Speaker
um it It actually was a quick trip. like ah and We got there in under 10 hours. Our first stop, well, we we stopped in Oklahoma for gas. So, I mean, we made it six hours without stopping, which...
00:06:43
Speaker
On a road trip, that's all you can ask for is making it that long without stopping. So stop for gas in Oklahoma. And then ah we made it to Bucky's was our first stop in Denton.
00:06:54
Speaker
You guys need to get any breakfast, man? Y'all went nonstop Omaha to Buc-ee's? Yep, I wanted to save all my appetite for Buc-ee's. Let's go. So we got to Buc-ee's, and Jesus, that is a spectacle of a gas station. It literally is Walmart. like i mean Did it live up to the hype, man? I think we got lucky, too, because the one we went to didn't seem overly busy. I mean, it was busy. Yeah.
00:07:18
Speaker
But I feel like it's far enough on the north side of Dallas that ah not a lot of like people from Dallas are going there. um yeah they're not and you know they're They're a mainstay in Texas, right? So I feel like they're not as much of a tourist attraction as the ones that have opened up since they've been expanding the last five years or so, dude. I can tell you, I had my own Buc-ee's experience, man. On Saturday, you know me and the kids were up in Kentucky, dude. We got the cousins, and so it was me, my mom, and dad, and four kids under the age of 12.
00:07:46
Speaker
Packed up and drove about an hour up to Smith's Grove, Kentucky, hit the Buc-ee's there. Dude, I've been to four Buc-ee's. This was by far the busiest one. you know it's It's less than a year old, so it's still a huge novelty in Kentucky. and like yeah It was like being at a freaking amusement park, man. felt like to keep the kids like right there at arm's length. it It was jam-packed, man. So yeah, Texas Buc-ee's experience is definitely superior. So...
00:08:06
Speaker
but what's What's like your take us through, Jordan? You know, you've been wanting to go to Bucky's for years. I still remember when we went to NWA Always Ready back in 2022, man. We're seeing the signs hit the exit just to find out that, you know, it's opening in like two weeks and we missed it, man. Jordan was so heartbroken. I was. Give us the first impression as you walk through those glass doors, man, and and that Bucky's just hit you right in the face. Dude, I'm not going to lie. It's kind of... it's I mean, it's not kind of. It's very overwhelming just like yeah how much stuff is in there.
00:08:35
Speaker
I mean, everybody can tell you like how big it is and everything that's in there. But, like I mean, seriously, half of the store is a clothing store. like Yeah.
00:08:45
Speaker
I wasn't mentally prepared for that much clothing. I just, I thought we would walk in. There'd be some racks of Bucky stuff, but no, dude, yeah it's a legitimate, like people were in their clothes shopping, like not just the Bucky stuff. Like there was a ton of people in the women's department that were looking at all the women's clothes. And um yeah, dude, it's just, it's a spectacle of a gas station.
00:09:07
Speaker
um Once you start getting towards the middle where they're cutting all the brisket and stuff, Dude, like that moment for me was like, it was like a door open and there was just like a golden light that shined out when we got to the the meat cutting table. And it's just unreal, man, just how much stuff and how much like Bucky's merchandise they have. And just like all the Bucky's wall of jerky and the Bucky's wall of sweets and all that stuff. It was, it's so much. And like,
00:09:38
Speaker
As someone who had never been there, I mean, I'd had Bucky's food before because we had ordered it. um But like, just like, I don't know, just like seeing that wall of like jerky and all the sweets and all the chips and stuff. It's just like overwhelming. I mean, you can't even like focus on one thing.
00:09:55
Speaker
You just you just really have to pick and choose what you're going to get. Yeah, it's it's so bright in there and the store is so well maintained, right? Like that's why it just, it's super duper just visually appealing as soon as you walk in and see everything.
00:10:07
Speaker
And then, yeah, like Jordan said, dude, you got, to me, it's that smell. It's the mix of the brisket with the, like the roasted candy pecans and almonds and stuff, man. Like that smell just like blending together and it's like, it hits my nose and I feel like it like charms my wallet. My wallet just comes like flying out of my pocket, just opens up and, you know, spreads itself wide open. Like, you know, take me, take me, Bucky's, take me.
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah, it is. It's just... And, like, the way down there, I knew I wasn't going to spend as much as the way back because we obviously stopped there on the way back, too. But the way down there, I was just hungry as shit. So ended up getting the triple meat or the three meat sandwich, which was... Life changer. That's spectacular. I would literally probably eat one of those every day if I lived by one. Yeah, it's bomb. I got the sausage on a stick, which...
00:10:53
Speaker
I was whelmed. I wasn't underwhelmed. I wasn't overwhelmed. i was just it's It's not a life changer. It's a solid road trip snack, dude. But yeah, that's like, you know, that's so me, dude, what I used to but the last couple years, I've had to go down to Dallas about once every three months for work.
00:11:08
Speaker
And I would usually grab the three meat sandwich. That's what I'd eat is I'm like leaving, hitting home because it's about another seven hours from Bucky's back to my house here in Tennessee. So I get the sandwich to eat immediately. I grab the sausage on a stick for like when I'm like crossing that Arkansas state line, man, it's starting to hit the the home stretch towards back to Tennessee. Yeah, I mean, it was good, but like the way everybody had built it up, I'm like...
00:11:30
Speaker
I mean, yeah, it's good, but it's not like life-changing good. No. um Agreed. And then I had seen like a lot of people... i don't know how this just randomly came up in my feed in the last like month, but just like a bunch of Bucky's hauls had come up on my feed in the last month.
00:11:46
Speaker
So I made sure to get some of those things that I saw. So I got... um It was the gummy butterflies, which everybody says like their best gummy item. I fucking housed those in two days. Like I just...
00:11:57
Speaker
Those are phenomenal. like if you're Those are very good. Bucky's gummies, they give Haribo a run for their money. I'm a gummy aficionado, and their gummies are pretty dang good. I think they're like closer to like the Albanese gummies. like I don't think that that they are trying to be Haribo at all. i think yeah They're just completely different.
00:12:15
Speaker
So I got those. i got... a bag of chips, which I, I did not see the hype behind the chips at all. I did not get the, the fresh chips. Like you had told me after the fact, but I got a bag of chips and they were just, i mean it was just a bag of chips. It wasn't anything. You gotta get those fresh beaver chips, dude. Those are bomb. And then obviously I got a bag of jerky, which absolutely outstanding.
00:12:36
Speaker
yeah i mean they're I think their jerky is like second to none. i mean Outside of going to like ah um like a meat house in your hometown or anything where they're making fresh jerky every day, i mean there's really nothing like Bucky's jerky.
00:12:50
Speaker
what What about the trip back? What did you grab on the way back? So I got a ton of shit on the way back. I got me and Ari both a hoodie because the hoodies there were only 20 bucks. You can't beat it, man. like, fuck.
00:13:00
Speaker
Zoe told me she wanted a Jeep shirt, so I got Zoe a Jeep shirt. I didn't eat on the way back because we had just had Portillo's before we went there because I wanted Portillo's one time before we left because I don't get very often.
00:13:12
Speaker
um so i didn't eat on the way back but i i got a ton of shit to bring home because the girls all wanted stuff so i got a ton of peach rings i got the tahini peach rings i got more of the butterflies some gummy bears um a ton of beef jerky don't it was fucking 200 that's that's all i yeah may go tune yeah and it went quick oh and i got a 12 pack of lone star for that night which yeah yeah I love Lone Star, dude. It's a good beer.
00:13:39
Speaker
To me it's like ah it's it's like Bud Light, but better, man. yeah I get a lot of Bud Light vibes out there, but it's good. It's definitely better than Bud Light. Yeah, a good beer. Similar favorite flavor profile, though. But yeah, so I didn't eat anything on the way back. i just we We literally had just went to Portillo's, and I housed i Italian in beef and the Chicago dog, so I was not hungry at all on the way back.
00:13:58
Speaker
Hell yeah.
Dallas and StarCast Experience
00:13:59
Speaker
all right. So you guys get in ah Thursday night. You guys got Thursday night, right? Yeah, we were there about four. What'd you guys do Thursday evening? Thursday night. Tony had never been to In-N-Out, so we went to In-N-Out Thursday night. we got we still The hotel we sit at was absolutely gorgeous. If you ever go to Dallas, ah we sit at the Omni in Las Colinas.
00:14:20
Speaker
It was one of the coolest hotels I've ever had. They have a tiki bar outside by the pool. absolutely clutch they had good beers on tap we stopped there for a little bit and hung out there and then there was a liquor store that was like a block from our hotel so we went down there and grabbed some beer and stuff and then about 10 30 i took him to in and out and i just like going to in and out late at night like i just i feel like it hits way different when you go late at night because everybody is there at that time um so we went there I got my normal. I got a three by three and then a double double.
00:14:54
Speaker
Same way always get them animal style, extra grilled onions. Tony got a three by three and a double double. I don't know. hes He doesn't get the sauce. He doesn't like sauce at all on his burgers, which I don't know how you eat. What is he like a six year old?
00:15:06
Speaker
I don't know, man. But he loved it. Like raved about it the entire trip, how much he liked In-N-Out. um What did you think of, so you've had In-N-Out at the Mecca in Northern California. What did you think In-N-Out there versus In-N-Out in Texas, man? Any difference whatsoever? Was it a seamless experience? i mean So now I've had it in California, Vegas, Denver, and Dallas. And dude, I think it's... I mean, it's all... The fries suck no matter what. I did not get any fries. I told you the other night I wasn't going to fries. I didn't get any fries on this trip.
00:15:40
Speaker
um Yeah, the burgers are just... Dude, it's a top-tier burger. I mean, there's there's no beating it in for the price. Like, it's just... Shake Shack is still my favorite, but the price of a Shake Shack burger compared to ah and an In-N-Out burger is night and day. But yeah, I i love In-N-Out, man. It's delicious. It doesn't matter where you get it.
00:15:59
Speaker
Yeah, definitely, man. I agree, too. The couple I've had outside of Cali have always hit. um So that's good, man. You know, they're they're coming to Tennessee later this year, dude. So I'm always nervous when I see my favorite change anytime they're expanding, dude. I feel like that's just – you can just go ahead and set your watch by it, man, and the quality is going to go down. But but so far, In-N-Out's held up.
00:16:18
Speaker
All right, so that's not that's a wrap. yeah Go ahead. That's all we did Thursday night because we were just going to take it easy Thursday because I knew we had a full day Friday. Take us through Friday, man. So Friday morning, we got up and went to Waffle House, which what a perfect start to your day. I mean, you can't start a Friday any better than having Waffle House. So got Waffle House, um drove to StarCast.
00:16:41
Speaker
Dude, that's probably the last time I'm going to StarCast. I just... the Okay, so... Fool fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on Conrad. There was more to this one than than ours, though, okay?
00:16:55
Speaker
So, first of all, we walk in. It's hot as fuck in this hotel. Like, um mean like I couldn't even tell that they had the air on. First of all, all the... So you got a bunch of sweaty wrestling fans in there.
00:17:07
Speaker
So all the fucking doors are open. Like at this hotel, all the doors are open. So that any air that's coming through is automatically going right back out. it's a Reminder, we're in North Texas in the middle of the summer. It was 97 degrees.
00:17:19
Speaker
Yeah. 97 degrees. Humidity was about like 60%. It was hot as fuck. Um, so we walk in, it's just a cluster. Like, so some of the stuff, so it's just a normal hotel. Like it's, so you're walking into a hotel lobby.
00:17:34
Speaker
So there's like an upstairs part where some of the wrestlers are. And then the majority of them are outside in like little tiny buildings. So like they're doing a professional photo op in this building.
00:17:45
Speaker
They're doing the free meet and greets in this building up top by the pool. What kind of little tiny building? we talking like the special ed trailers like in middle school? No, no, I think it was more because we didn't see the professional photo ops building because we didn't we didn't get any of those.
00:17:59
Speaker
But I would say it's probably like a small ballroom is basically what I would describe it And then the other one, similar it it was just like a pool house basically was the where the free wrestlers were at.
00:18:11
Speaker
So we're like walking around and I'm just not there's no like direction at all for what's happening. So we tried to go upstairs and the guy's like, oh, you have to get a bracelet first. And I'm like, OK, where do we get a bracelet? You guys have the yellow bracelets. You need an orange bracelet. No, no, we didn't have any bracelet at this time.
00:18:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Remember we had to do that last time at StarCast, too, dude. So they're still sticking with that same bracelet system. So i go, OK, where do we get a bracelet? And he points down and there's this fucking line that's a mile long that's wrapped outside the building. And I'm like, oh, my God, dude, this might just be worth just picking up the fifty five dollars and just calling it a wash like it is what it is.
00:18:48
Speaker
I'm like, no, Tony's never been to this. We're we're sitting in line. We're waiting for the bracelet. so we get the bracelet. After 45 minutes, we finally get a bracelet. We walk upstairs. It is literally assholes to elbows walking through this place. I'm getting anxiety just living this through you right now, dude. It pissed me off so bad. There's no way to get through to anything.
00:19:11
Speaker
So like Cardona's got a little table set up like right at the top of the stairs. he's selling the ljan style big rubber guys all that stuff on his table there's nobody there i honestly felt bad for him where they were placed at because there's just a line of people standing in front of his table the whole time and i would have been pissed and then the back room so they got where where you're doing like the meet and greets for like sting and all that stuff so obviously huge line of people coming out of that room so we couldn't even walk in that room So I never even saw where they did the meet and greets upstairs.
00:19:43
Speaker
And then they have the back room where they have like all the high spots, like autograph figures and all that stuff. And then they had a zombie sailor, a little booth. i mean, it was cool. Tony got a zombie sailor. I don't remember which one it was.
00:19:56
Speaker
Busick, maybe. I don't fucking know. Uh, whatever. But so I'm looking at all these autographed figures and it's just a you good shit show to like check out or anything. Cause I, I honestly contemplated buying one. And then and in the end I decided it wasn't worth it waiting in the line.
00:20:12
Speaker
So right after that, I'm like, dude, I'm ready to go. I'm sweating my nuts off. It's so hot out. Oh, We did have a cool experience. So while we're waiting in line for the wristbands, Tony Storm and Luther were walking out to do their professional photo op.
00:20:26
Speaker
And she's eating like a bagel as she walks out and she just hands it to some random guy and is like, here, sir. Or, you know, in her voice, she just gives it to him. And he's just like standing there holding this bagel as she just walks off.
00:20:38
Speaker
That's a pretty cool piece of memorabilia. Exactly. It was cool. And then Swerve and Nana walked right past us and then Sting and his kids walked right past us. So I dapped up Swerve and stuff. So that made waiting in that line actually worth it. I mean, that that part was cool getting to see him.
00:20:52
Speaker
And then Okada walks out and flips everybody off like it was... That part of it was neat. We did go up to the pool house where they had the free wrestlers, but those lines were a disaster too. and it But at this time, it's like 1130, and the only person I really wanted to meet was Big Boom AJ, or AJ and Big Justice. That's the only people I really wanted to meet in the Rizzler.
00:21:13
Speaker
All I could think about was they started at 3 o'clock and just how much of a disaster that line would have been. So I just told Tony, I was like, all right, dude, we saw it. You got to see it. Let's just leave. ah The $55 was spent a long time ago. like they He's fooled me twice now. I'm done with it. I can't justify doing this anymore. so so that's twice now we've done walkaways from StarCast without getting everything we wanted to do. But this time, at least I didn't pay for a photo op and an autograph. Like when we went, we our had already paid for all that stuff. So that pissed me off even more when we went. So...
00:21:48
Speaker
Yeah, just... Same thing. They're just not... Dude, there's a lack of organization. And then it feels like, to me, man, I can only chalk it up to to maximize profits, dude. They're not hiring all the staff that's needed to really direct traffic, man, and make this thing work, dude. Because, like, dude, WrestleCon is not like that. And WrestleCon is still bigger than StarCast, man. There's way more people at WrestleCon, way more merch stands stuff, dude. And WrestleCon's, like, got at least a little bit of organization, man. I mean, they the couple of times I've been WrestleCon...
00:22:15
Speaker
was at least decent, dude. You don't... yeah I definitely left both times feeling like I got my money's worth, you know? Okay, so two things that I found out. They hire a bunch of the hotel workers to help, which they have no fucking idea what they're getting themselves into.
00:22:29
Speaker
And two... That hotel is scheduled to be demolished, and the only reason it wasn't demolished is because they had already committed to StarCast. Like, that hotel wasn't supposed to be there.
00:22:40
Speaker
So ah we found that out because a lot of people were complaining about just, like, StarCast in general, and then somebody had mentioned that little nugget on, like, Twitter or something. I'm like, oh, my God, what a disaster.
00:22:52
Speaker
so yeah starcast this is what i'll say if you have a ton of patience which i i have none of i don't have patience for fucking waiting in line for an hour to meet someone i don't have the patience for that if you have patience and you're okay being hot and fucking crammed in a room which i know seth is also not okay with that which is why we both decided to bail on the bread hard thing at starcast it just yeah did It just gets to a point where it's like, am I really fucking waiting in line for an hour for this? Like, it's just...
00:23:23
Speaker
It's worth it. and To me, man, maybe maybe if it's like coming to your city, right? Like if they do if they did a StarCast in Memphis for whatever reason, it'd be different. But for the most part, these are at places where you're taking trips to go, right? This is your precious, hard-earned, you know, they can if you want to call vacation or road trip time, whatever, dude. But like, dude, if you're only going to be somewhere for two days, you're not trying to spend four hours of it sitting in line to meet, you know, a wrestler, dude, regardless of who it is. i mean, it was literally – I walked away from meeting Bret Hart, man, just because – We're, so you know, going back to 2022, man, which you can find it in the archives. We were sitting there in line and you can just do the math, man. if you walk, you know, you watch three or four people go up and see how long it takes them to get through the line.
00:24:04
Speaker
Kind of look at how many people and do the math. Like I remember dude it was going to we would have been there all day our Saturday for for SummerSlam, man. So like, yeah, I remember me and Jordan, you know, we kind of bailed to go hit one of the food trucks, and get a snack, bring it back to the girls.
00:24:16
Speaker
And I can't remember who said it first. can't remember who said it first, but one of us was like, dude, I don't know about this line. And then just heard the other being like, dude, I'm so glad you said something, man. I was thinking it the same thing. And we take it back to the girls. We we pulled chocks and bailed, man.
00:24:28
Speaker
Yeah, it just, I don't know. And you had mentioned it. Like, we've been to WrestleCon, and WrestleCon was never like this. I mean, WrestleCon at WrestleMania 31, like, you guys met Bret Hart, and I swear it took under 45 minutes for you get through the There was a clear line. They told you what time to get in line to meet Bret Hart, and it got moving. Once then once he was up there, you got to move. And you still got time. It wasn't like it was rushed. you know We still got to freaking chat with him, have a little you know have a little moment stuff, dude.
00:24:54
Speaker
but ah But they kept people moving, man. It felt like – I remember at StarCast 2022, it seemed like, dude, there was just like – they have they They try to run like the VIP line at the same time as the Gen Pop line. It's just a hot mess, man. It's a disaster.
00:25:09
Speaker
and ah like I even compare it I went to a Comic Con in Kansas City to meet Sting and Trish, and their lines were right next to each other. and i was through both of those lines in under an hour. and You can imagine how many people were in both of those lines. Dude, it was Sting in full fucking paint. like Obviously, there's a huge line. We met Sting last September at the the Nashville Sports Memoravillies Show. He was there. And, dude, it was a non-issue, man. We waited in one line to get a professional photo op, and then we got another line to get an autograph.
00:25:39
Speaker
And it was smooth sailing, bro. No confusion, no frustration. Like, easy day at the office, man. so Yeah, dude. You know, ah maybe if there's like a big panel or one of the speaking engagements you want to go to, but it could be cool. But I would avoid going to StarCast to try to meet your heroes at all costs. You know what the other thing is, too? And I was i i mean, we obviously didn't get in any lines. And I basically met the majority of the people that I really, really want to meet. I mean, dude, once I crossed Trish off, I mean, that was amazing.
00:26:08
Speaker
It's all downhill from there. Yeah, like I did. I mean, and I was supposed to meet her at WrestleCon at WrestleMania 31. And Seth was like, so excited to watch me meet her because I just I knew I ever brought you that cursed Trish LJ figure cross side figure.
00:26:23
Speaker
And I just because I knew I was going make an ass myself. And that's what I was thinking about. Like, as I'm we're standing there and I'm watching all these people get in line to meet Sting. And I'm like, God, dude, it just gives you so much time to think about what you're about to say to like one of your idols. Like, I mean, when i'm met skiing like I like, didn't know what the fuck to say to him. I just was like, Hey man, big fan of your, your work and everything like that. And he's like, yeah, man, thanks brother.
00:26:47
Speaker
He's like, how do you want to take this picture? And I'm like, ah um I don't Wolfpack for life it's just like but like when I met Trish like i fucking made sure like I didn't fucking stutter I made sure I got everything I wanted to say out and then Tony met her right after me And I wasn't paying attention anymore because I was just like starstruck that I just met her.
00:27:10
Speaker
i mean, this is a chick I've had a crush on for 20 years. Like Tony met her and he's like, and he goes, she was, she asked if I was your friend. And I said, yeah. And he, she goes, oh, he's really charming. And I was like, she did not say that. And he goes, yeah, she did.
00:27:23
Speaker
i was like, Jesus Christ. Thank God I didn't hear that. i would have had heart attack. Instant nut, dude. Yeah, i'm I'm done. Like, ah gonna need a cleanup on aisle five over here.
00:27:36
Speaker
But yeah, I just, I don't understand how Sarcast has so many fucking
Dining and GCW Show
00:27:40
Speaker
problems. Like, dude, it's just, i I don't know, man. Conrad does not care about people at all. Like, it's it's pretty obvious. Yeah.
00:27:47
Speaker
I've heard this from numerous people now and just the whole thing's a disaster and people were talking about how much of a disaster the media was and, um, getting interviews and stuff like that. So yeah, I don't, I don't envy people at all. And obviously we did not go back for day two after day one. So,
00:28:04
Speaker
Dude, remember, man, si while we're dogpiling Conrad, might as well take a ah moment, man, to freaking keep it going. Dude, whenever we were buying our house here in Oakland, Tennessee, man, we were originally going to go through First Family Mortgage just because I've been listening all the Conrad pods for year man here for years, hearing all the ads, dude, about how much he cares and how he's going to take care of you and stuff.
00:28:24
Speaker
Dude, the they were going to end up charging us twice as much as fees as the lender we we ended up going through. man like he definitely puts the con in conrad i still have my signed uh pre-approval letter by conrad thompson man but yeah like the stay away from first family mortgage also man they're higher than gp yeah it's it's wild man i just i don't get it so yeah another unsuccessful starcast trip unfortunately so yeah i'm probably out on future starcast unless like i don't even know would get me to go at this point like the road warriors get dug up and reincarnated. i don't, I don't even know. It would get me to go at this point.
00:29:01
Speaker
What was the GCW show like? right What did you guys eat Friday before the GCW show? Oh, we had Papa does Friday night, dude. Take take us through this. pado experience My restaurant in the world. So,
00:29:14
Speaker
we had originally planned on going to Portillo's that night. It was, it was so far in the heart of Dallas to the Portillo's we were going to. I mean, GCW is at Gillies, which is in the heart of Dallas. Like it's right by downtown.
00:29:28
Speaker
Like you walk out of Gillies and you can just see the entire skyline lit up. Like, So, I mean, it's it's in the heart of downtown. So we were going to go to Portillo's and I was like, dude, let's just have one really nice dinner. And because you had talked it up and I forgot how much I liked it. So we went to Papado's um and Tony loved it. Like, dude, he was all for it. And we got there. it wasn't busy at all.
00:29:51
Speaker
Our waitress was awesome and we had good beers. And yeah, man, we didn't get an appetizer anything because they had bread. And I knew what I was going to get was going to definitely going to be enough. And so, yeah, I got the catfish Appaloosas like Seth told me to. And he wasn't lying. It's one of the best meals I've ever had in my life.
00:30:09
Speaker
incredible right yeah and then tony had never like i didn't know this until he told me he'd never tried like lump crab or crab meat or anything like that so he got swordfish with jumbo lump crab on top of it it looked phenomenal and he said it was really good so yeah it fantastic dinner before we're going to a gcw show what'd you guys do for apps we did not do an app i just said that i said all we got was bread oh my bad No, you're good. Yeah, that catfish opelousas is incredible, dude. It's just catfish with this, like, Cajun cream sauce over dirty rice. Got some oysters, shrimp, crab meat. It was like phenomenal. like if i was if i was you know If I knew i was dying in an hour, dude, I'd have one last meal, i'm going catfish opelousas without thinking about it, no? It was really good. So we did that and then we headed over to, oh no, we did, we did a fig hunt real quick. Cause there was a Walmart nearby.
00:30:57
Speaker
i think Tony might've got something on this one, but I can't remember. i didn't get it. How'd it look? Was it stocked up, man? i've I've always had good luck on my trips to Texas fig hunting, man. seemed like they do Walmart district Walmart and target are both pretty decent. The only Walmart we, we only went to one Walmart that did not have the ship or every other Walmart we hit had the shipper. So nice. I didn't find anything I wanted. Like the only Monday night war figure they had at every target or every Walmart was the Hogan. There was nobody else. Everything else was cleaned out, but Tony. where shes looking good the
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah. Tony got almost every superstars figure that he needed. He got, um, all, almost all of 14. I think he's just missing Muda. And then he got the majority of 13 as well. So he found a ton. I, I didn't find anything that I needed there. Unfortunately.
00:31:43
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I always I always did pretty well. think on all my my Texas adventures. I forgot Friday morning before GCW, we went to the baseball stadium because they opened the AEW shop.
00:31:54
Speaker
And then that's where I got the Okada exclusive. So but that was a good experience. And we got to meet Thunder Rosa for free. So, yeah, good experience all around at that as well.
00:32:05
Speaker
How did Thunder Rosa smell? I didn't get that close. Bummer. Fortunately. um But yeah, so we did all that that day and then we went to GCW at Gillies that night. Dude, I'm just... Seth's been to a GCW show, so he knows what I'm going say.
00:32:20
Speaker
GCW is an experience unlike any other. Like, there's there's nothing you can ever compare GCW to. Like... I used to think GCW was just Nick Gage.
00:32:33
Speaker
And, I mean, for a while there, it was. I mean, the majority of what they surrounded their product around was Nick Gage. Nick Gage was not here at all. The show i think they're on the house, right? Isn't he kind of beefing a little bit with Lauderdale? Well, yeah, and he's not thrilled about the whole w WWE thing either. Like, he doesn't want anything to do with that. So, ah the yeah, they're done.
00:32:53
Speaker
um I mean, dude, just... they have the best ring announcer in all of wrestling. Like he's by far the best ring announcer. Is it emy his that his name? Yeah. And he has the, the best bootleg shirt collection of all time. Like he was wearing the ah ruler of the world shirt on Friday night. Like it's just nice.
00:33:12
Speaker
He just nails it. The Gillies was a perfect place for it. So it had, it looked really cool, man. it So it had a stage, obviously, where the wrestlers walked off of and they had um they had seats up there. So that was really cool.
00:33:25
Speaker
We had standing room only. So we were really close to the entrance. Or not the entrance, but the right right by the stage, basically standing. And then we were standing in the spot where they would leave after the ring. They would walk out past us. So it was really cool. Yeah.
00:33:41
Speaker
Yeah. we we started off and they announced the the participants of the first match. And I'm like, did they just say cold brew cappuccino Jones? I'm like, dude, guy I was like, holy shit. What are the odds that this dude is, is here? Like I just, and you are not lying. That dude is unreal. And I told Seth that he was there and he texted me back and said, ah make sure you tell him that Chick-fil-A show gives him the full endorsement. And I sure as shit did. I stopped him on his way out of the ring and he smiled at me and dapped me up and,
00:34:10
Speaker
It was cool, man. it The beginning of that show was awesome. You said wrestled Gringo Loco, right? It was a six-way match. Gringo Loco, Cartwheel. That Cartwheel dude is unreal. like it's just The match was incredible, obviously.
00:34:25
Speaker
yeah cart Jack Cartwheel and Cappuccino Jones, they're both signed to WWE ID deals right now. yeah um so That was really cool. They had um ah Fuego Del Sol and... ah Sam Stackhouse, I think is his name, the bigger dude. yeah They had an I Quit match. Dude, that was one of the most insane matches I've ever seen in my life, and I did not think it could get any better than that that night.
00:34:52
Speaker
The ultra-violent championship match that they did was ah Dude, I think it was like 10 times more hardcore than the match we saw where that dude almost got... Well, the dude get did get impaled in his arm.
00:35:05
Speaker
oh They supposedly had not been breaking out light tubes in a really long time, and they broke them out for this match. So the match is getting ready to start, and the champion... I can't remember his name, so don't get on me, you guys.
00:35:16
Speaker
This was a long weekend. The guy's like, bring me some fucking glass. So then they bring out all the light tubes to the ring. And, dude, they just absolutely just went insane on each other with the with the light tubes. And if you've never heard them pop one of those things in person, and this one, all of them were wrapped in threes, so each one...
00:35:40
Speaker
yeah so each one like a fucking explosion man yeah i mean it's just a loud bang like every pressurized glass popping it's insane and tony had never seen one of those live and i just looked at his face and and it is fucking real watching them do that like it's just any uh injuries in the crowd this time around No, I didn't see any injuries in the crowd. it seemed like they had a pretty good handle on like doing the spots in the middle of the ring.
00:36:05
Speaker
I think what fucked them on that spot when we were there, dude, doing it on the top rope was absolutely insane. like There's no way they should have done that. And they were pretty close to the fans. They were busting those tubes also, man. like the Honestly, man, like looking back, I don't know how that didn't get more attention, man. i think I think a lot of people didn't even notice it because it happened so quick and they got the guy out of there so quick, man. But, dude, that was – I mean, his arm, but he was fucking bleeding, dude.
00:36:31
Speaker
Yeah, he got busted open and – Yeah, it's just unreal. I don't know if I'll ever sit front row to GCW again after that. like ah and It could have been bad. Do you think if that got you in the face, bro? Now you got a fucking wicked scar on the face rest of your life. you like What happened? It's like, oh, I got hit with a light tube and a wrestling shot. Bro, the craziest part is like my first reaction was to cover you, Sheena, and Ari like immediately.
00:36:54
Speaker
like i don't even know how that was my reaction, but before it even had hit any of us, like I turned my back and just covered all you guys. like I don't even know how that was my reaction to that whole thing. And that's what I noticed that that dude got cut open. but Hero dude. Jordan is I mean, you can see if you watch back that show, like you literally see me turn my back towards it right as it happens. And like, I'm standing in front of you guys.
00:37:17
Speaker
Yeah, for those who remember, like literally, the guy, he was sitting in the seat right next to me, man. And we were all kind of crowded around because it's you know street fight ringside GCW. And dude, right in front of us, man, they had they went through some light tubes and the glass shoots out, dude. Jordan turns at the last second and kind of shield us from all the debris.
00:37:36
Speaker
But the guy that was in the seat right next to me took a huge shard of glass right to the forearm, man. And, like, he's looking down at his arm, like, in shock. that His blood has just started running down his whole arm. And a GCW staffer ran up and grabbed him. And we didn't see him the rest of the night, dude. So, you know, for all we don't we don't know if he got a bunch of merch and swag backstage or if they took back there and Nick Gage just, like, beat the shit out of him and said, hey, don't don't tell the cops, man. Like, we have no idea what happened. But it was in just nuts, man.
00:38:04
Speaker
Yeah, so we didn't even stay for the main event because it was already, you it was like 1130 at this point. I'm like, we got like a 45 minute drive back to our hotel at that point. I was like, dude, let's just go after this match because that was the co-main event was ultra violent match. So we left after that.
00:38:21
Speaker
It wasn't going to get any better than that anyway. Yeah. So yeah, boom man that was, uh, that was Friday. um, we went back to the hotel. ah we drank quite a bit. Oh, we actually did meet, and some people might know who this is. His name's Alan owns.
00:38:36
Speaker
He's a big tech talker. He has like 3.5 million TikTok followers, but, uh, he was staying at our hotel and we talked to him for about an hour. Really good dude. Um, it was just, i don't know, man, sometimes you meet those dudes and they think like they're better than you cause they have 3.5 million followers, but not dude. He was normal dude. I mean,
00:38:54
Speaker
29 years old i think so yeah just completely normal dude uh was obviously the show day saturday we left at right around 9 30 got to the ballpark at 10 and um we went into texas live for about hour and a half two hours and then what's texas live that's like the the hangout spot outside the stadium yeah So it's like, i mean, there's just like huge like screens and everything.
AEW All In Event Highlights
00:39:21
Speaker
it's It's right across street from the baseball stadium. So that's where they all go hang out before the games.
00:39:25
Speaker
There's like eight bars in there. i mean, it's it's really it's really cool. Like there's it's the place to hang out for sure. And the beers were only like nine bucks in there. So it was worth going in there.
00:39:36
Speaker
um so yeah we hung out there for two hours they had some wrestlers come in like daddy magic did like three panels john morrison tya um um they they just had they just had some normal people come in and do some panels and stuff there's neat uh then we walked over to the stadium stood in line at like it's probably 11 30 we got in line and uh no it was 11 because they opened the doors 11 30 got in there right at noon and dude when I tell you that, like when I finally looked down at my watch, cause I mean, I was obviously looking at my phone, but wasn't paying attention to the time. Cause I didn't care. Dude, we're at a wrestling show.
00:40:12
Speaker
When I finally looked down and saw that it was already seven o'clock and we still had a full match left. Like we were in the middle of the Okada and Omega match. And I was like, Holy shit, man. And that's when you texted or said something about like, this has 11 minutes before it's the longest wrestling show in North American history. And I was like,
00:40:30
Speaker
Holy shit. We've been here for eight hours in this pay-per-view. The main show has been on for six. It's just absolutely insane. But dude, I'm going to say this for, for everyone that hates on AEW, like whatever your reasoning is, I really urge you to go to an AEW pay-per-view Seth can vouch for this. Seth has been doing it. experience, man. Yep.
00:40:55
Speaker
Whatever you want to say about AEW, whatever you want to say about WWE, it is, I will say this. The one thing I love most about AEW is, and me and Seth talked about this the other day.
00:41:08
Speaker
I love that, dude. You're just going there just for nonstop action. like That's what you're going there for. You know what you're doing. There's downtime, man. There's going to be five minutes between a match. There is no 20-minute downtimes unless there's like a huge entrance, which obviously um the big tag match, there was three huge entrances, so that took some time. but Even when they do video packages, it's shorter video packages. like The video for Mox and Hangman was like maybe two, two and a half minutes long, whereas... like You know, the WrestleMania 40, we got a mini documentary between Roman and Cody before the yeah before the match started.
00:41:42
Speaker
I saw a lot of people that were watching it at home were complaining about the crowd and it sounded like the crowd wasn't into it. Dude, I thought the crowd was into it from match one to the last match. Like...
00:41:53
Speaker
Those big arenas like that, it's always hit or miss, man. You hear that a lot on Mania crowds, man. yeah People say like, oh, the Mania crowd's dead. But the people that are there are like, dude, we were rocking all night. I just think that it's I think it's literally just that not to go super scientific. just the dynamics of the way sound works, man. The bigger the arena, it's just going to be different the way it's not. It's not like it's not like you're at the Allstate Arena and in Chicago, man. And the sound's just freaking reverberating off the rafters.
00:42:17
Speaker
Yeah, it's just a totally different type of space. Yeah, i agree. So it was just the the whole layout of the stadium was awesome. They did a great job. That to me was like at peak presentation was all in like that. That was like, that's what they can be at peak peak levels is, is exactly what we saw on Saturday.
00:42:39
Speaker
I had to watch on ah on replay, man, because, again, I was doing the family thing up in Kentucky. So I was really just following along on social media. And Jordan kind of had – I had like a little voyeur thing going with Jordan, man. He used keep me updated and stuff throughout the day on the the happenings inside the arena. Yeah.
00:42:55
Speaker
Chad Smith, our buddy from the Turnbuckle Tavern, he hooked me up with a YouTube login so I could watch the replay. And I texted him after I got done, told him thanks. And I told him, dude, like to me, they out-mania'd Mania this year, man. You know, Mania was definitely, obviously WrestleMania never felt, it didn't feel budget show, but it felt like there was way less effort put into WrestleMania this year than in years past.
00:43:15
Speaker
And it was the opposite. We got a ton of big entrances. Like Jordan said, dude, the arena looked absolutely spectacular, man. I know we were kind of you know, me and Sheena were both kind of dogging them from moving into the daytime last time. I think that was 100% the right call, man, because it was cool because the show went so long that you started to kind of get a little bit of sunset action towards the end of it, man. I think maybe if you started a little bit later to where kind of WrestleMania 31 style, Hangman and Mox, like, goes down, like, right as it's, like, you know, it's, like, kind of gets dark outside during the match. I think that would have hit. But...
00:43:44
Speaker
Either way, just that's such a beautiful stadium anyways, man. And I think the way they had it decked out just looked incredible on TV. And I'm glad to hear that it you know it was the same in person. Yeah, I'll just go through some of the highlights for me. I mean, obviously, you guys all watch the show. But, dude, the pop that Kevin Von Ayer got was was really cool. And seeing him get in the ring was really cool. like that That was a really cool thing that I'm glad I got to see live.
00:44:08
Speaker
Big Boom AJ is... He's got to be in the top five for most over people in that company. Between him, Big Justice, and Rizzler. Like, dude, the crowd was going fucking insane anytime they put the camera on Rizzler.
00:44:24
Speaker
I love hearing that, man, because, again, dude, I know we got a lot of crossover, dude. Our Turnbuckle Tavern fan listeners, they're hardcore AEW guys. And then the Facebook group,
00:44:36
Speaker
the Tavern Facebook group, they were kind of bitching about Jelly Roll being in there in WWE. And I was like, dude, celebrities are just part of wrestling, man. It's always been a thing. And my exact quote was that, you know, big the the Costco guys are going to be one of three or four most overacts at AEW's biggest show of the year this year, dude. It's just, I think it's just the relatability and the funniness, man. Like those guys just hit. And they got the Rizzler, dude. The Rizzler's just an absolute super duper star.
00:44:58
Speaker
Yeah, he's absolutely incredible and they they even got like uh um basically some pyro too when they came out which i was like what the fuck this is i thought i saw somebody said uh uh big justice has already got one of the the three uh top three spears he does dude like he he actually throws it properly like he actually is tackling someone which is what it's supposed to be yeah It's like Braun, Roman, Big Justice. Yeah, it's not supposed to be like gently setting someone down. Like, dude, you're supposed to like hit him. The running hug by Edge and Jay Uso. Yeah, like, dude, that was an actual spear.
00:45:33
Speaker
And he's not a small dude. He's the same height as Ricky Romero. Like, he's not a small kid. and um So, yeah, that was cool. What did we saw The Ops. That match was fine. i There was nothing really bad to say. thought it was a little bit of a weird call having doing the stretcher job on Samoa Joe there at the start of the It seemed like a little bit of a buzzkill, man.
00:45:52
Speaker
Yeah, but now it sounds like he was getting written off TV for a while because he's doing Twisted Metal, yeah all the promo for that. So it makes sense. I mean, it is what it is, and they sold it really well because they're like, well, now he can't interfere fear in the main event. Yeah.
00:46:07
Speaker
I mean, it made sense the way they were doing it, but yeah, I agree. I did not want to see Samoa Joe getting stretchered out in the first match. When I saw that, dude, I know you would loved to see this, man, the biggest Joe fans you are. I was just thinking, I could already see it in my head, main event.
00:46:19
Speaker
Like, you know, things are looking bleak for Hangman, and all of a sudden we get a... yeah ah A camera shot of an ambulance pulling up backstage. Samoa Joe comes running back in from the hospital to save the day. would have been awesome.
00:46:32
Speaker
um The battle royal, men's battle royal, was it was exactly what you expected it to be. there There were some surprises. Seeing Juice back was really cool. Obviously, we all knew MJF was winning. I don't even think, like, did you think there was a chance anybody else won that match?
00:46:48
Speaker
Uh, you know, I thought there was at least a little bit of a chance. Maybe they bring Darby back there, you know, if they don't want to, if they just want to keep him totally away from the hangman situation. ah But yeah, I mean, I obviously are fully picks league. I had MJF is my pick. Yeah.
00:47:02
Speaker
So that that was good. Um, I don't remember the exact match or so we're going to get off the women's battle Royal was, I mean, I loved that match. Like, dude, I thought they, the girls killed it. um We're getting Athena on the main roster, AEW.
00:47:16
Speaker
Bro, she's had a promo on Tony tonight. I'm so fucking happy Athena's on the main roster, man. I think she's taking that belt, man. indeed Athena's one of the three or four best women's wrestlers in the world, man. like It's great.
00:47:29
Speaker
I love the fact that she's probably going to go 1,000 days as Ring of Honor women's champ now. um But, dude, it's criminal. We haven't seen more of her in the last couple of years. She's awesome. um Yeah. And that we'll just go to the four big matches now. Like, we don't need to go over the whole card.
00:47:45
Speaker
Swerve and Osprey, I texted Seth this. I legitimately had goosebumps during both of their entrances. It was just... I don't know. Dudes, I'm going to say this, and I don't know if you're going agree with me. Swerve is the most overdue in AEW by far.
00:47:59
Speaker
He is the most overdue. I was going to ask you, man, i if there was anybody that's seen it in person, kind of like stuck out, like how over they really are. Because sometimes it's hard to tell when you're just watching at home on TV. Swerve, Ospreay, and Hangman are the three most over guys in the company. And I would argue that Swerve is like...
00:48:16
Speaker
i he might even he might be one of the most over people in wrestling period like dude the crowd just goes fucking nuts when he comes out and obviously it's just so easy for him to get into it like his song like everybody dances to his song they love chanting who's house like its just i don't know man he's just easy to get behind and he's awesome to to me that is gonna always be wwe's biggest fumble is the way they used him like yeah That dude is a world champion anywhere in the world. He's absolutely unreal.
00:48:48
Speaker
um ah Same thing with Osprey, dude. I'll never get tired of watching this guy wrestle. And he's just awesome, man. Just everything about him is just so unique to him. Like, he he just is who he is.
00:49:01
Speaker
And then ah Young Bucks coming out on the boat was... phenomenal like it just It was fantastic. That man i was probably our most surprising result of the weekend, man. that agree. 100%. did not think there was a single chance they were winning that match. Yeah, just with the stipulation and just kind of like looking at the booking, man. i I wonder if maybe that was... ah I wonder if maybe that was like a call like day of like, hey, you know what, let's just let's give the people what they want and have them win. Because it seemed like everything that my entire like wrestling watching, ah you know, life has shown me is that they they should have lost that match, man. But but it it was a great match, man. Outstanding action for the absolute best wrestlers in the world. Dude, it just, it was perfect. It never had a low spot. It just, it was going the whole time.
00:49:46
Speaker
And they did say that Ospreay is going to be off TV for a while now, which dude, good for him. That dude has been a workhorse for like a year now. So if anybody deserves it, it's him. um Then you had Tony and Mercedes.
00:50:01
Speaker
Probably for me, just like watching this live for For just me, for a live women's match, that's probably the best women's match I've ever seen live in my life. like Everything we all say about Mercedes and everything we said about her having her creative control and stuff, dude, they just went out there and killed it. like That match was phenomenal.
00:50:23
Speaker
I just... If it wouldn't have been for Evolution being the next night, that was by far a women's match of the weekend. It still has an argument for women's match the weekend, but it it was just outstanding. I loved it. What did you think of that match?
00:50:40
Speaker
It was good, man. Really good. You know my feelings on Mercedes. It's hard for me to get all the way there the match. hers But she brought it, dude. She brought it. lot of crazy spots, man. The Storm Zero. The the Avalanche Storm Zero. Crazy finish.
00:50:53
Speaker
And even though Tony Storm's really my cup of tea, man. It's almost like two too goofy for me, dude. I can recognize greatness when it's happening. and She is performing her role perfectly. performing her character. Unlike just about anybody in the history of wrestling, she's taken a gimmick that should have had a shelf life of a couple months and she's made it, you know, pardon the pun, dude. She's made it timeless, man.
00:51:14
Speaker
Uh, four-time champ, biggest win of her career. I think the odds were definitely stacked against her with this one. Uh, and you know, she's done enough to convince the AW higher ups. Hey, let's keep it going with Tony.
00:51:25
Speaker
Um, And I think it's for the best. I mean Mercedes is a made woman anyway. She's a freaking CEO. I think it could really elevate Athena if she ends up being the one to to kind of end Tony's reign. Yeah. Tony's awesome. I love Tony Storm.
00:51:38
Speaker
um Okada and Omega. I obviously expected the world out of this match. I mean, this was the match that got me to buy tickets to go to this pay-per-view. It was good. it was really good. I mean...
00:51:51
Speaker
Dude, when when you have two guys that have just absolutely killed it four times, like, i mean, to still expect the world out of it and expect to be the best match you've ever seen live is probably way too high of, I got way too high on it. It was still really, really good. Like, I just, I felt like 30 minutes was not enough for them, though. that They need, like, 45 minutes to get their full match in. and You know, I was a little surprised, too, man. It had the Don Callis interference in it. It kind muddied it up just a little bit.
00:52:18
Speaker
i I originally thought that Okada was going to win with some hijinks, man, and we were going to kick off a series of matches. But, you know, seeing the the highlights on Dynamite tonight, it looks like we're going to Okada and Swerve. That's going to be the next deal.
00:52:31
Speaker
Dude, i I was so excited when he called him out tonight. Yeah, that's going to rock, man, for sure. But I just i feel like... I feel like this Omega thing is not done, man. I feel like we're getting another big Kenny and Okada match. Maybe that ends up being the C2 finals this year. But I don't think they i don't think the AEW chapter of their feud is done just yet off this one match. To me, that felt more like an opening course than the final showdown. No, I don't think it's done either. But I mean, like I said, you're nitpicking at this point. Like that's two of the best wrestlers in the world. And they went on there and did their thing. But I'm with you. that This is why I didn't want Calus involved in stuff because it didn't need all that. Like, dude, those yeah this is one of those matches where all you need to do is ring the bell and just let those guys do what they do. They they know how to wrestle each other. So you it was good.
00:53:20
Speaker
Main event.
00:53:23
Speaker
I don't know what your final thoughts are on this, but this was just a 10 out of 10 for me. Like, no, it was great. man No notes at all. The run ins were perfect the way they did it. um i saw Somebody on Twitter called it the R rated Roman versus Cody. And i thought that was pretty much perfect, man. Definitely.
00:53:40
Speaker
Similar vein match the vi with the violence cranked up to about 16 on a one to 10 scale. And you know what? I felt like, because everybody was like bitching because they were bleeding immediately and stuff. And it's like, dude, you can't. Texas death match. Yeah, you can't do a Texas death match and not have them bleeding the entire match. And it's at the, they're in, you know, if you include zero hour, these guys are going out there in hour eight. You know what I mean? Kicking off hour eight of butts in seats at the arena. Like, bro, you ain't got time, dude. You ain't got time to work into it, man. Let's start getting our shit in.
00:54:14
Speaker
and crank the heat up right away, man, to get to get folks locked in so we can get this big emotional conclusion when when the Hangar finally gets it done. Not to mention, dude, this is a legit blood feud. Like, Hangar hates everything that Moxley did to the title, just holding it up and and never showing the title on TV. Like,
00:54:32
Speaker
this was the way this feud needed to end. Like this was absolutely perfect. And I loved the Darby thing, just like playing the video. And then Daniel Bryan's in the ring and the, the mask, like,
00:54:45
Speaker
it was yeah I did not love Darby's like being in the match because all he did was a coffin drop off the top rope and then fought the rest of them backstage. like It obviously served a purpose, but it was just it was weird the way they used him there. just Did you guys clock Darby before he came out? like we we guys There was like a light on him so we could see him already.
00:55:06
Speaker
There was a light on him above the video board so we could already see him. Okay, so the live folks already knew. okay we're getting like like how When did you guys notice Darby? Because they put a light on him right away. Because, I i mean, he was up high. Like, it was he was up there, so they wanted to make sure that he knew where he was going and we could all see him.
00:55:24
Speaker
Right as the video started, we could already see him moving. Okay, so it wasn't like, you know, Mox is coming out and you're like, oh, shit, Darby Allin's up there. we weren Nobody was paying attention up there. But, yeah, dude, I just i thought it was perfect. And then Swerve being the person that helps Hangman win was just...
00:55:41
Speaker
yeah It was great. The Shafir getting handcuffed by Nana thing. They did that so perfectly. Like that was smooth. It was just seamless because I mean, all she did was because I watched it back. She just reached under the table and he slapped it on. You couldn't even see him do it like that was just an absolutely perfect spot. It's a man that knows his way around instead of handcuffs.
00:56:01
Speaker
What trying to say? don't know. saying Nana's get spicy with it. Yeah. yeah Everything. in one One thing, man, I'm sure it's all safety related and God bless, dude. and It's definitely the right way to go.
00:56:14
Speaker
Darby's the two times we've seen him descend from the heavens. it has not hit anything close to when sting used to do it, man. No, and it's cause they got so many extra harnesses and stuff. Yeah.
00:56:25
Speaker
It goes so slow and it's like, he's almost like, he's almost kind of laid back. I feel like sting was legit just dropping out of the freaking rafters, man. Yeah. I mean, Obviously, we have safety safety reasons for a reason. yeahs kind of It's kind of hard to complain on that, but it definitely... You know you you hear, oh Darby Allin dropped from the Raptors. That's fucking badass. And then you see the video of it, and it's like... You see why people always post Darby Allin right next to that SpongeBob. Swinging around from the wires, man, dude. But nah, man. Like I said, perfect. you know It's... ah
00:56:58
Speaker
If this is the new way that we get the blowoffs to the absolute biggest feuds, I'm good with it, man. The Avengers in-game style, all the run-ins. It's always fun, man. You know what I mean? I'm sure i'm sure Jim Cornette's probably bitching about it on his show, about it being overbooked nonsense.
00:57:13
Speaker
There's a time that I like a straight-up one-on-one showdown, but for stuff like this, man, stuff like Roman and Cody at Mania, I'm totally cool with just giving it all all the gaga, all the extra bells and whistles. and Let's have fun with it. Yeah, it was a Texas death match. What did you expect was going to happen in this match?
00:57:29
Speaker
yeah But yeah, overall, all in 10 out of 10 experience. the The show was phenomenal. i I get people's gripe on it. It might have been a little too long, but apparently Tony was playing 40 chess because he ran an hour into Saturday night's main event. Right on, man. We thought he was dodging Saturday night's main event. No, he's going to have the main event go right with it, dude. So yeah, pretty, pretty comical. I don't know if we need another show that long anytime in the future, but if you, if, if, If we're going to say, hey, all in every year is going be that long, I'm cool with it, especially if it's starting at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. If it was 2 o'clock in the morning, I'd probably be little bit more aggravated. But if I'm watching at home, I think I can handle at 8, 9 o'clock in time on something like that. Yeah, I agree. If you're going to do six-hour pay-per-view, it needs to start in the afternoon. You can't be starting at 6 o'clock.
00:58:17
Speaker
What was the arena experience like, man? Was anybody in there getting wrestled? Because I remember at AEW Revolution, Sting's last match, our buddy Hawk, again from Turnbuckle Tavern, was bitching basically the whole last hour and change. Like anytime there was a kickoff, on a kick out on a near fall or anything, he was just getting so because he was ready for that show to be over with so we go home No, I didn't notice anybody. I mean, our section was lit the entire time. Like, our section was really into it, and I loved it. I didn't see anybody get up and leave or anything. I mean, there might have been people, but i will say this. The minute the show ended and Hangman pinned Mox, everybody left. Like, nobody even stayed around for his speech. Like, half the arena was empty while he was speaking because, and yeah, i think people were just done. It's a long time,
Wrestling Event Challenges
00:59:01
Speaker
dude. My closest experience to that was WrestleMania 33.
00:59:05
Speaker
which wasn't quite that long. It didn't quite make WrestleMania 35 was, that was the longest WrestleMania, uh, the longest show in WWE history, longest pay-per-view in North American wrestling history.
00:59:16
Speaker
And, uh, you know, and it may have broke 33's record, man. It's 30, really 32, 33, 34, 35 were the marathons that ended up inspiring the, uh, the switch to two nights for mania.
00:59:28
Speaker
Um, but at 33, similar thing, dude, it was, you know, it started regular pay-per-view time. I think six o'clock Eastern, it started or so seven o'clock Eastern. It started and it was pushing midnight, man. By the time Roman Reigns pinned undertaker, I think it's something like 1145 at night.
00:59:43
Speaker
um And then they did the whole big Undertaker send off. We left, dude. Me and Sheena got up and left, right? His room and pinned him. We kind of stopped. As we were walking out of the stadium, we kind of went back up one of the entryways to the arena to watch the last little bit of Undertaker leaving. But yeah, we were ready to get the fuck out of there. It's just a long time to be sitting at a live event. It's so loud and you're so invested in it that it sounds dumb, but it can really be exhausting being at these shows for that long.
01:00:08
Speaker
Yeah, and you guys were outside. like I think the saving grace was this was in the AC. i mean, there we weren't sweating at all. like This stadium's gorgeous, and it's it's brand new. So like there was no sweat flowing on my body at all at this time.
01:00:22
Speaker
Did they have any of the signature concession items available? They did. They had everything, but it was up a level because we were... So we were sitting in like the basically club seat level and then the hundreds were right above us.
01:00:35
Speaker
And the way they split the stadium is weird. Like you have to go up an escalator to get to the hundred level, which is all that where all that stuff was. And by the time I even thought about it, i'm like, dude, I'll miss an entire match if I go up and get one of those things. So I just got two hot dogs and then just drank the entire time.
01:00:52
Speaker
And boy, was that an expensive drinking experience? Yeah. But yeah, man. What did you think it was 18 bucks for a pint? The total for two beers was, I think it was $38 every time I got it.
01:01:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's rough. Yeah, but I mean, it was great, man. Yeah, it's all in. What are going to do? Yeah, just the whole thing was great. So, yeah. All right. ah Let's do a quick pivot, man. Let's talk WWE, dude. We had on the other side, they did their the strategy that seems to be the calling card now. If AEW's got a big show, WWE's going to try to saturate the market. We had SmackDown on Friday. Saturday, we had Great American Bash and Saturday Night's Main Event.
01:01:34
Speaker
Sunday, we had Evolution. Then we had a big episode of Raw last night with Roman coming back. I mean, I think they definitely, you know, they obviously took a little bit of attention away from AW with the hardcores, but I think for the most part, man, they kind of got a lot of backlash this time. I think it just became, they went so heavy with it. It's not like they did they just threw out a random NXT show to go against it. It seemed like they were going, you know, basically all out against all in if we can, uh,
01:01:57
Speaker
If we can lay the puns on thick there, man. And I think it just backfired, at least with a hardcore fan. Most casual fans probably don't even know that this is a thing. yeah But I think for the hardcore fans, we see what they're doing. And it just kind of comes off as cheap. And I think really, man, the people I'm most pissed off for are the ladies that went out there on an under-promoted Evolution show Sunday night and absolutely kicked ass, man. That show deserved to have a weekend of its own.
01:02:19
Speaker
Give those ladies that stage because they absolutely rocked out. So... I went back and watched the majority of Great American Bash. Ricky Saints and Ethan Page was phenomenal.
01:02:32
Speaker
yeah It's a shame. Absolute shame that they went on the same time as AEW. That was fucking stupid. That should have been on Sunday afternoon. ah I agree with you. The hardcore fans were pissed this weekend because that was absolutely stupid. I think everybody thought it was funny at first and then it actually happened and you went back and watched some of it and it's like, dude, you buried those NXT people by putting them on at that time. Like yeah that did not help them at all. I'm,
01:02:57
Speaker
Yeah, dude. The NXT guys, man. yeah Like I said, those guys were, those guys busted their ass. They deserve to have the spotlight on them with the bitch. And he's done this week. I'm kind of over Goldberg, but at the same time, dude, Goldberg's last match. Why not give that its own night, dude? You know what i mean? Let Goldberg's match be a thing on its own. Instead of you're, instead of having four different shows of your own that you got to promote. And Oh, by the way, we're going head to head with a W's biggest show of the year.
01:03:20
Speaker
I just don't get it,
WWE Strategies and Criticisms
01:03:21
Speaker
dude. I just feel like it's such a disservice to the people that WWE has. Like I, For whatever eyeballs you got you took away from All In, and to me, I don't think they took any away.
01:03:31
Speaker
like If you were watching all All In, you were still watching All In. like I don't think anybody was changing their mind because WWE put a great American Bass show on. And dude, in the grand scheme of things, man, like dude eight as great as AW is, dude, even as hot as they are right now, they're still not they're not even touching WWE business-wise. You know what i mean? Dollars and cents-wise, I can't imagine they're making a drop in a bucket of difference to WWE's bottom line.
01:03:55
Speaker
That's why I think the petty thing is absolutely stupid in this case. like and there's There's no reason for it at all. Dude, that would be if AEW did this shit on WrestleMania weekend, people would freak the fuck out if this happened on WrestleMania weekend. i You know that the...
01:04:13
Speaker
Discord would be completely different, and it it would not be a good look, and I'm glad they're not doing it because I would be pissed if they did it. It's just, there's no Yeah, they stopped even doing collisions on Saturdays, man. on doty sorry They just stopped, dude. They said, you know what, it's not any point doing this. Let's do collisions on Thursdays. there's no There's no point to doing it. i just Like I said, dude, it was such a disservice to the people in NXT.
01:04:35
Speaker
They should not have an NXT pay-per-view with 700 people in the house. Like, yeah. you cant They can draw 5,000 to 10,000 people for an NXT pay-per-view. NXT's hot right now, man. It's it's and like right there neck and neck, or it's beating AEW on the the TV ratings each week, man. NXT is hot. i just don't know why you want to sell it short like that.
01:04:54
Speaker
i agree. and i Dude, I think a lot of people won't even go back and watch Great American Bash. I mean, we had so much wrestling this weekend. again Can you blame someone for not wanting to go back and watch it like it's It's fucked up. And yeah, i I'm with you. I don't like Goldberg either. But what they did to him on Saturday night was fucked up, man. Like cutting his speech off in the middle of it when it didn't even need to happen. I mean, they said they cut like six minutes off the Rollins and L.A. night match. Like, dude, are you serious? And I didn't watch very much of it. So I didn't obviously see it live. I just saw the highlights of it.
01:05:28
Speaker
what There was still 100 commercials apparently too. Yeah, it's deep. So I watched it on replay, man. it It's still it's 28 minutes of commercials across two hours.
01:05:41
Speaker
But something about the way they're formatted, I think they're having like more shorter commercial breaks for whatever than instead of having like, you know, two or three an hour day and they're just a little bit longer. I think that's got to be it, man, because.
01:05:52
Speaker
I like just looking at the vibe stuff, you would think like half the thing was commercials, but no, it was still kind of the standard, you know, hour TV, you're going to have 14 minutes of commercials each hour. yeah Cause I watched it on Peacock and the commercials are removed. So it's still an hour and 32 minutes, but something about the way they got it formatted, just commercial break after commercial break after commercial break.
01:06:12
Speaker
Um, But yeah, man, Goldberg, you know, gets gets his speech cut off to had a pretty damn good match, man. Obviously, you know, it's it's not going to be up there with Okada versus Omega. But since this Goldberg nostalgia run kicked off, you know, nine years ago back at Survivor Series 2016, it's up there with his, you know, two or three best matches. you know, Goldberg obviously got back in good enough shape to perform this first match in over three years.
01:06:36
Speaker
Tip of the cap to Gunther, though, dude, obviously, you know, Gunther was leading through the match and he he made Goldberg look like a million bucks on his way out the door. Yeah, it was good. I mean, it was 100 times better than what I thought it was going to be. yeah Overall, though, Saturday Night's main event was a nothing burger outside of that match. Like, theyre just there was just nothing on it. i It was just being petty is all it was.
01:06:58
Speaker
So let's, while we're on Saturday Night's Main Event, man, big story with the Smarks, the Seth Rollins situation, dude. So it looked, ah it came off a little just funky the way everything looked on Saturday night. I wasn't sure, original obviously you know me, I'm watching everything to work, but it was a little bit unclear if that it, you know, they've definitely passed off on TV as legit.
01:07:19
Speaker
But it just seemed – something seemed kind of off. Then it comes out after the fact that the guy from Post Wrestling, who's broke a few stories before in the past, reported on Thursday that there was going to be a big injury angle with Rawlins on Saturday night's main event. um what what do you think What do you think is going on with freaking right now, Jordan?
01:07:38
Speaker
what What's your read on it? Dude, WWE just has this like – thing that they think is fun to do where it's like all right let's just trick everybody and do the exact opposite like dude i hate the injury angle just for an injury angle sake like i just i don't think it and just don't see what the purpose of this is if he's actually not hurt i mean yeah it's to make everybody forget about him that he cashes in like i get that part of it don't I just don't like it, man. if you gotta You gotta, it's one of the things that, you know, like to say a lot, dude. It's one of the things that makes sense if you don't think about If you start on the surface, I i definitely dig it, man, right? Obviously, Seth's my favorite. Hey, the architect gets one over on everybody, but at the same time, you're like...
01:08:23
Speaker
What's the point, dude? You already had the money in the bank briefcase. like what's what In kayfabe, what would be the purpose of doing this? Because you're already going to be able to catch your opponent off guard by cashing in whenever you want. Yeah, what what is this? i kind of I'm kind of right there with you, man. I do enjoy when they go kayfabe 2.0 and try to just work the smarks and work the dirt sheets.
01:08:42
Speaker
But... Maybe, you know, actual kayfabe 1.0. It's kind of hard to make sense. Like, okay, so Seth faked a knee injury so he could trick everybody. then he let LA Knight get up and give him his finisher just so he could lose this match. Like, i don't it falls apart a little bit logically.
01:09:00
Speaker
That being said, you know, obviously I'm praying that this thing is, it's not really a serious injury where he's going out nine months. And we see this dude, you know, we don't hear, he hosted the Rich Eisen show again. I'm hoping we don't hear or see anything about Seth Rollins again until main event SummerSlam when CM Punk's about to win that belt from Guther.
01:09:17
Speaker
Okay, if that's what they all set it up for and CM Punk does not win the belt, I'm all for it. It's got to be, man. CM Punk winning it, that's another brick in the it's all the work thought for me, man. Yeah, so, I mean, it is what it is. I just, don't know, man. It's just, like you said, already has the money in the bank. Like, why do we need to do this? But whatever. We'll see what comes of it.
01:09:39
Speaker
It definitely didn't look like his old his old knee injuries. The times he's hurt his knee before, which unfortunately we've seen Seth have you know three big knee injuries, he always powers through it, finishes what he's got to get done, and then it comes out afterwards, dude. This was the first time where he – I mean, he sold it. You know what As soon as he landed, he sold it. So i don't know. Time will tell, man. We'll we'll see what's up. But I'm leaning i'm lean in work right now. What are you leaning? Are you leaning it to shoot or it's a work? No, it's definitely a work.
01:10:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. All right, so kind of just taking a big picture look, man. We're heading into SummerSlam, traditionally WWE's second biggest show of the year, but now I feel like i feel like every show is their biggest show ever, according to them.
01:10:22
Speaker
It's what we do. Dude, you sounded just like Triple H, man. wait yeah what What's some of the stuff that you're looking forward to see some improvement for WWE to kind of get them back on track where they were 2022, 2023, and the first half Dude, we got to get rid of this predictive booking. Like, we are in such a lull right now I mean, you can tell in the Pixel League, like, when WWE does a show, it's pretty predictable what they're going to do. I mean, like, the the Naomi thing was, like, i think they...
01:10:57
Speaker
Everybody was talking about her cashing in on Tiffy and the entire show. I'm like, dude, what if they have her cashing on raw to get her away from Jade? And that's what they ended up doing. I just, I don't know, man. It just seems so broadcast that Naomi was going to cash in that night.
01:11:13
Speaker
Maybe not everybody was thinking the same way I was that getting her away from Jade, but I don't know, dude. It just it didn't ruin it because that match was phenomenal. Like and anybody that says that match was not phenomenal. That was one of the best WWE matches of the year, if not the best WWE match. Yeah. your Top top 10 match of the year for sure. Like I said to me, man, I put it right up there with Roman Punk and Seth from Mania Night One is his best WWE match so far this year. Yeah, but, I mean, you just got to get away from, like, what everybody already knows is going to happen.
01:11:46
Speaker
i mean, whatever, dude. The Jelly Roll thing's going to happen. I hate that they're putting those three people in that match, though. That takes away three top-flight people from a different match for SummerSlam. I'm wondering how they're getting two nights out of this SummerSlam card, man.
01:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, they took three fucking main event people and put them in one match with a celebrity. Like, I don't get that one. um I don't know, man. We just... I feel like you got to take the belt off scene at this point, dude.
01:12:13
Speaker
ah Is it just, it just, it feels like Cody needs to have the belt back for them till I get some like semblance of balance back in WWE. Like, you know, I would watch for something with Seth and that match as well. And same way you said all signs pointed to, uh,
01:12:29
Speaker
ah You know, Naomi doing something with with Tiffy over on SmackDown or that Tiffy and Jade match coming up at SummerSlam. I feel like all signs are obviously pointing at Seth and CM Punk, you know, that the cash and have no at that, dude.
01:12:44
Speaker
Cody's are, you know, Cody traditionally, man, I've never been the biggest Cody fan, even though i give him all respect in the world for everything he's done the last decade in wrestling. Cody typically delivers, man. When he talks his shit, he usually delivers.
01:12:57
Speaker
And he came out and said that they're going to everybody that wasn't impressed and wasn't happy with the WrestleMania 41 main event. They're about to earn basically earn that love back, man, with what they do at SummerSlam. So I'm looking for something really good, something really interesting to happen.
01:13:11
Speaker
with this match. I'm with you, man. I i do think Cena, one way or another, does not walk out with that belt because, you know, they got to be able to tell that, like, dude, this Cena thing, you know, it was cool when it first happened, but it's definitely ran out of steam.
01:13:23
Speaker
I think everybody's ready to love on John Cena. You know what i mean? I think the fans are ready to just give John Cena his love, stop trying and pretend that he's a heel, and and let's let's cran let's have four months of good times and and fun before we we bid adieu to John Cena in December.
01:13:38
Speaker
Yeah, like... Dude, did does nobody did nobody watch the last year of Sting and how much we just got to love on Sting for the last year of his retirement tour? Nobody will ever be able to match that. I don't care what anyone does. They'll never be able to match that. That was the most perfect year ever. like Having Darby definitely helped a lot, but ah just...
01:14:00
Speaker
I don't know, dude. i just i look I think back to that year, and just that's not what we're getting at all with Cena. They kept staying cool, man. They kept staying cool the whole time. He was protected. But it was never unrealistic. you know They didn't have him going for the world championship or anything like that. like it was just They had him like right in the perfect pocket. They needed to have him in for his whole AEW run. You know, I think my biggest problem, and we've talked about this before, I think my biggest problem with this Cena run, just the way it started after Elimination Chamber, just like joining forces with The Rock, the Travis Scott shit, The Rock not showing up at WrestleMania. Like, dude, it just felt like it was off to a bad start at that point. Like, it just, it was, it felt so forced to me, and it still feels like really forced.
01:14:43
Speaker
Are you tracking that the bloom has like fallen off the rose on the Travis Scott WWE relationship also at this point? Well, yeah, because, dude, if he actually comes back, Cody's fading him on site like he is. Well, you know, it came. Well, it came. in I don't think he's doing anything with him now because he was supposed to be in the DLC pack um for the first DLC pack for WWE 2K. And that got canceled. He got replaced by Grande Americano.
01:15:06
Speaker
And then, ah you know, it came out in the dirt. She's just week somebody from WWE leaked that he was just not a fast learner in the business. And you got to imagine, man, i think he was meant to team up at either Money in the Bank or at least SummerSlam, man. I feel like Jelly Roll kind of took his spot, man, that was going to be, you know, whatever the celebrity attraction was going to be for SummerSlam. So and all this kind of happened right around when they put out the big Astroworld documentary on Netflix. So I think, you rumor is it that he had beef with Netflix after that happened.
01:15:33
Speaker
Obviously, we know Netflix is deep in bed with WWE. um Bro. But yeah, I don't know if we're seeing Travis Scott back on our TV. So that's that yet another strike on this whole John Cena heel turn that this whole Travis Scott thing flamed out.
01:15:45
Speaker
Why do i have a feeling we're getting worked and we're going to see Travis Scott at SummerSlam? Like, I just, like, yeah it would not surprise me at all if Travis Scott in the Rock showed up. Everything's a work until proven otherwise, but that's that's definitely the vibe that's been out there in the dirt sheets right now, man, is that, ah you know, that it ended up not being a...
01:16:03
Speaker
It was more of a fling than a long-term relationship between a Cactus Jack and WWE. I mean, he did straight-up punch Cody in the face, so we were not off to a good start. Like, that was a legitimate punch and obviously gave Cody a black eye. I mean, that was probably not the greatest start ever to your... And he single-handedly ruined the main event of night two of WrestleMania.
01:16:23
Speaker
He definitely didn't help it. But, and don't know, to answer your question, like...
WWE Women's Division Praise
01:16:29
Speaker
Dude, after Sunday night, they got to start leaning more into the women, man. They have so many talented women on the roster. NXT to top up, man. There's so many talented women, man. That's what so we were saying. Why it was such a head scratcher when you know Mariah May, a.k.a. Blake Monroe, came over just because I think the top level of the women's division in WWE and AEW are about the same, right? The Mercedes Monets, the Athenas, the Tony Storms, they're right about the same level as Bianca, Rhea Ripley, Eoskai. But, dude, there's so much more traffic to get from the bottom to the top in WWE than there is in AEW. You know, AEW, you got...
01:17:07
Speaker
You got five or six ladies you kind of got to get past. WWE, feel like it's like 25, 30 deep for super talented women. Dude, you got Sol Ruka, dude. She might be one of the best freaking women wrestlers in the world right now, man.
01:17:18
Speaker
And she's just hanging out down in NXT and is the the the speed champion right now, man. Jada Parker, dude. You could put any belt from the NXT up to the main roster on her, and she's totally credible, man. And again, just somebody kind of hanging out NXT. It is...
01:17:33
Speaker
Whoever they got developing the women, down not not that they're not churning out some cool men's wrestlers also do, but whoever is in charge of developing the women's wrestlers down there right now is just absolutely crushing it, man. Like they're on a straight up here.
01:17:45
Speaker
And it's in, you know, not to mention all the vets are still, you still got Bailey, you still got Becky, you still got all these kind of the old guard hanging around too. Alexa and Charlotte are getting really interested interesting, dude. Like, dude, how about that reaction for Charlotte at ah on Sunday? Do you think that's just because it was in Atlanta and that's flair country? Or do you think that they've kind of found something with this pairing with her and Alexa? Putting her with Alexa was the best thing they could have ever done for But hold on. Before we move on, you are not going shortchange Saul Ruka and only call her the speed champion. She's also the North American champion. Like, come on, bro. We're not just calling her just speed champion. She's fucking Soul 2 belts. But no, ah i that with Charlotte is phenomenal.
01:18:23
Speaker
The one thing I was going to also say about Evolution, and it's in that match, in the Charlotte match, dude, that was the best Raquel has looked in four years at least. ah yeah She listened to Kevin Nash's advice. Did you see that yeah out on the dirt? She said, yeah, Kevin Nash told her to start working bigger. And instead of doing the typical – um modern wrestling thing about just bristling up and kind of you know clapping back at the vent she said you know heard took it to heart and uh yeah dude she looks fucking awesome she actually looked like what they're portraying her as which is big mommy cool she actually looked like that on saturday night like that that was perfect that was a shocking result for me too i did not think there was any way charlotte and alexa were not walking out of there with those belts
01:19:07
Speaker
Yeah, I was pretty shocked by that. I think I think we're gonna get a bigger moment for them. They're getting those belts. You know, maybe we see that come to pass at SummerSlam, dude. I think that's going to be a bigger moment, though, because Alexa is obviously beloved. Right. the the the Obviously, she's a great performer on her own.
01:19:21
Speaker
The fact she's got the braid dust sprinkled on her. You know, i mean, I feel like in a lot of ways, do she's she's more authentically like the. um, the legacy of like Bray Wyatt, then even the white six, you know what mean? It feels less forced with her anyways, you know, why six are great too, but Alexa, uh, you know, she still gets all the love for, you know, cause she was right there with him for the whole fiend to run and everything. It's easy for her. Like she, yeah, it's, she's not even playing a character anymore. That's just who she is at this point.
01:19:50
Speaker
Yeah. So I, I think maybe we see them the summer slam, maybe take those belts back from them. Um, But yeah, dude, freaking either way, man. Evolution rock, dude. I loved how invested the crowd was. And like I said, I hope WWE heard the message loud and clear. This needs to be a yearly thing.
01:20:06
Speaker
ah That was a little bit... you know i Again, I was in Kentucky doing the family thing, so Evolution was the only show this weekend that I actually got to watch live. We made it back to Tennessee a couple hours before it kicked off. And that moment when the bell is about to ring on the Intercontinental Championship triple threat and Bayley just gets the crowd fired up, like, dude, that... And Bayley even talked about it this week, man, on ah Figure What Podcast. you know as She was talking about it made her think back about like the OG like black and gold NXT days, man, the way the crowd was invested from the opening bell that night. Just a a very, very special night of wrestling, which was awesome.
01:20:38
Speaker
ah that you know Coming to the day after, we got something that was totally different, but still equally as cool, if not even cooler, with AW All-In. To me, it was a terrific weekend for wrestling, man. I think we could have just done with WWE backing off just a half step. Yeah.
01:20:52
Speaker
Two things about evolution. Why does Stephanie McMahon need to be front center for every fucking thing? Like she started. Because women's wrestling would not exist if it wasn't for Stephanie McMahon. Of course. Of course. opportunity Of course it wouldn't.
01:21:05
Speaker
and And number two, um god i lost my train oh can we stop portraying everyone like they're a fucking legend like dude ah every women's wrestler ever is not a legend and that's okay who do you get in mind like dude like i get the tori wilson thing but she's a terrible wrestler like come on man let's ah we don't need to do this the crowd, right, for a little moment. didn't think it was over the top.
01:21:32
Speaker
like Yeah, she's not a legend to me. She's an alumni. We were calling her a trailblazer and all that shit. I'm just like, dude, come on. Do we have to do this whole thing with every woman ever? like i think yeah I think they need to get comfortable with some people. Just call them alumni. You know what I mean? WWE alumni, dude. Give them their love because people still love seeing folks like that. You know what I mean? like People love seeing the ah the Ivories, the Molly Hollies, but yeah, you're right. We don't got to treat everybody like they were just an absolute... Those are legitimate legends, though. like Those women are in the Hall of Fame and deserving.
01:22:03
Speaker
Tori Wilson, bro, come on, man. like ah Let's call it like we see it. Tori Wilson was a shit wrestler. She was hot to look at. like That's what the Divas era was. like The majority of the women were just there for eye candy, which I'm not saying I agree with it. I'm just telling you like that's what it was back then. Yeah, that's what it was. And that's why they ditched the Divas title, finally, because it had such a bad name on it.
01:22:26
Speaker
But all right that's my only complaint. No, feel you. That's a totally valid complaint, man. um We're pushing an hour and a half, man. We kind of to start landing the plane on this thing. One last thing, dude.
01:22:38
Speaker
What to do with OTC, man? What do you do with Roman Reigns? Obviously, he came back last night at the end of Raw to an absolutely ridiculous reaction from the crowd there in Birmingham.
01:22:50
Speaker
um what What do you do with Roman Reigns, man, for SummerSlam? Are we getting just the Roman and Jay reuniting to go against Bronson and and Bron Breaker or... or but yeah What do you do with this guy? Because he's still the biggest star in wrestling, man.
01:23:05
Speaker
how how do you How do you get this guy organically integrated into the card? That's what they're going to do, 100%. And then if he wants to stay around, you can keep him around. And him going against Seth and his goons for for a couple of months would be completely fine. But yeah, I think we're headed towards a tag match. i don't I don't know what else would make sense at this point for him.
01:23:26
Speaker
You know, him and CM Punk had a little stare down, man. I think you could totally just do, I think you could do easy peasy, yeah do the tag match at SummerSlam. It'll get a big reaction, seeing Roman and Jay together, and they just kind of run through their greatest hits, get the win.
01:23:40
Speaker
I think there's still a lot of meat on the bone, especially if Seth does cash in and get the belt, man. and so There's a bunch of different ways you could pivot to it. Getting Roman and CM Punk one-on-one. Doesn't got to have a belt involved. I think that's a huge match still left on on the table for WWE.
01:23:55
Speaker
Yeah, that that definitely needs to happen. And I want to see Braun and Roman run one-on-one too. yeah Yeah, that definitely needs to happen. We're getting Roman on the next two episodes of Raw heading into SummerSlam. So I would just tell people enjoy it, man. I think, dude, we got, you know, Roman. We talked about this last week also, man. Roman, for everything we see,
01:24:16
Speaker
seems just like a totally legit content dude with his life. I do not think he's one of these guys. don't know. I don't think he's a Goldberg. That's going to need to keep coming back 50 times, man. I feel like, I feel like if something happened you and they told Roman like, Hey dude, you're done here. i don't think he would have any qualms. Just going back to Pensacola and chilling out the rest of his life, man, doing, doing a movie here and there.
01:24:35
Speaker
So I would just tell fans, dude, don't, don't take it for granted and enjoy it. When the tribal chief sees fit to grace us with his presence on WWE TV. Yeah, we've got a card, and and every time we see him, you put another checkmark on it because I think we got we don't have a ton of years left of watching Roman wrestle, man.
01:24:54
Speaker
yeah I'm with you. i That's what I said. where we're We're not going to get like the the Roman coming back all the time on our last episode. like i just I think when Roman's done, he's just done. Yeah, dude. He's all about his family. you know Obviously, he's got get some health concerns to think about, too. and Like I said, he just he he seems like everything we see in here, dude, he seems like a really balanced dude. I just don't see him being the type that stays around forever, man.
01:25:19
Speaker
ah Jordan, you want some listener mail before we get out of here? You want to talk about two figs real quick? Oh, yeah, yeah. My bad, dude. Missing it right here. Okay. So we do got a couple figures we want to review. We'll let Jordan go first, man. Jordan has got the one of 3,000 Kazuchika Okada in hand right now. Jordan, tell us about it.
01:25:36
Speaker
It's good, man. it's ah It's a soft goods robe. Okada's first figure. The face scan's pretty good, man. I can't complain about the face scan at all. Obviously, it's still in box, so I can't tell you what the trunks or anything looks like, unfortunately. But title looks good. I mean, yeah, it's just it's a clean fig. He's got the white boots on. I mean, i think Seth is going to love this fig, and his is actually boxed up right next to me, so it'll be getting shipped out tomorrow morning.
01:26:02
Speaker
But yeah, really good fig. And it's going to look perfect on the shelf right next to my one of 3,000 American champion MJF, man. This thing's the Shop AEW exclusive.
01:26:13
Speaker
This thing is sick, dude. Probably MJF's best figure he's had so far. i think it's between this and the the Target 2-pack that he had. um But yeah, just totally sick figure, man. Soft goods, Apollo Creed style, American robe.
01:26:28
Speaker
I love this figure. If I have one qualm, it's that, you know, the belt is heavily featured on the packaging and they didn't see fit to include the belt with it. So definitely hit up our buddy, Dan Turnquist, if you're looking to get a belt for this guy.
01:26:39
Speaker
Really cool figure. I saw some people bitching about the hat, right? Because it's a soft goods top hat. and it looks like a little janky. But dude, if you look at the pictures of M&M, M&M, if you look at the pictures of MJF's gear, it was like a janky hat to begin with. It's not, it wasn't a top hat. It was like a, you remember those like cat in the hat hats that you would get at like the state fairs and stuff back in the ah late 90s. That's the kind of hat that it is, man.
01:27:03
Speaker
And I think they did a pretty good job of replicating that. So it's, Pretty dang cool figure, man. Like i said, we we need this super toy had to look for MJF when he was debuting this, you know, a little tribute to mid-90s Lex Luger. Definitely happy to have this in hand. And I hope Jazz Wars keeps cranking out the unique choices like this, man. One thing about them, dude, they're absolutely killing it on the soft goods, dude.
01:27:25
Speaker
The FTR set that came out a couple weeks ago on the Jazz Wars Vault, those leather jackets some of the best like soft goods jackets I've ever gotten for figures. Very, very cool. um The Sting set that's coming out right now looks very awesome. It's supposed to be here in a couple days, man. Did you get the Sting three-pack, Jordan? I did, yeah.
01:27:42
Speaker
yeah can't do you got yours in hand yesterday i don't have yet uh there was one thing i forgot to mention so i was standing in line with the two okada figures in hand and there was an aew guy at the front of the line waiting for us obviously to meet thunder roast and he's like what what are you doing you selling one of those was like no another one of it's for the co the guy i do a podcast with he's like oh and then he kind of got interested and he's like how how do you like our stuff and i was like yeah man You guys, there's a little bit of quality issues every once in a while, and it sometimes it's kind of frustrating to not get new figs. But, I mean, dude, when the figs come out, for the most part, we're all happy with them. Yeah, they hit...
01:28:20
Speaker
What do you have to say to that? He just said, well, that's good to hear. I mean, we get we get some negativity and i'm like, well, I mean, I think Mattel gets some negativity too with the the legs and stuff. so Since Mattel switched to Vietnam, they've been down a notch, dude. And the other thing with Mattel, like, dude, it's just a problem with having the line for this long, man. Like,
01:28:39
Speaker
They're in a tough spot, dude. Every time they hit a first-time-in-the-line legend, that's one less person they can make. You kind of get to where there's literally Obviously, they're going to keep getting the new guys off the main roster, but to me, I get most excited for first-time-in-the-line legends. That list just naturally gets smaller and smaller every year. Still need Giant Gonzalez, man. To me, Giant Gonzalez is the white whale right now for Mattel.
01:29:05
Speaker
I want the rest of the oddities too. Oddities would be cool too, man. But I feel like, dude, I don't know. i I would love it, man. Aside from Luna Vachon, though, like, dude, how many people really even remember, like, Giant Silva and Kurgan?
01:29:19
Speaker
ah We do, and that's all that matters. We do. The good thing if they got Kurgan under contract, you could do oddities Kurgan, and then you could also do the Truth Commission, man, when back when he was with Don Calla. So I think that's still kind of relevant. But Luna is much needed, man. We definitely need a Luna figure. Yeah, i agree.
01:29:35
Speaker
To me, if you got Luna, you could you could get up. If you got her signed to a deal, you could do Luna from, you know, the run where she was like managing Shawn Michaels and Bam Bam Bigelow. That's kind of had the same look. You could do oddities Luna. And then if you really want to get freaky, you could do when she was managing the artist formerly known as Gold Dust. I don't think we're getting that.
01:29:53
Speaker
I have doubts. We're getting that. All right. Let's hit some listener mail. Uh, Thomas, again, this was originally intended for a proper Chick-fil-A show. some of this might not perfectly line up, but we love our listeners anyway. So we'll, we'll answer these to the best of our ability.
01:30:08
Speaker
Uh, How does Seth feel about predicting any main eventer could get injured and at any point and be out for nine to 10 months and it being Seth Rollins? Yeah, you know, I've definitely said that before, man. These companies got to get ready to go.
01:30:20
Speaker
ah But I don't think Seth's hurt, man. I think he's going to be just just right. All right, your buddy Tony. In honor of the totally outstanding and no way at all confusing Dallas highway system, what's the toughest city you've ever had to drive in?
Driving in Dallas: Challenges and Humor
01:30:33
Speaker
I don't know if it's necessarily any cities really tough for me, man. i'll I'll co-sign Tony, dude. Jordan, feel free to chime in. To me, Dallas-Fort Worth has the worst freaking traffic of any place I've been. I've lived in Honolulu. I've lived in D.C., man, places that are notorious for their traffic.
01:30:48
Speaker
I would take them any day over Dallas, man. I've never gotten through Dallas and not gotten stuck for at least 20, 25 minutes in traffic. bro It's not even just the traffic. It's every exit you get off on. You can get on a highway. You can get on a side street.
01:31:04
Speaker
Yeah. i just the The infrastructure of Dallas is horrible, dude. It's just it's not good at all. And yeah, and then you have the traffic on top of that. And they're fucking terrible drivers. Holy shit.
01:31:16
Speaker
We almost saw a semi just destroy a minivan, and we weren't even there five minutes. It's just... I don't know. Dallas was bad. And I've driven in Chicago and a lot of big cities. I mean, I drove in Honolulu. We had a rental car. obviously drove the H3 and I didn't have part as much problems as I did in Dallas. Like, Dallas is awful.
01:31:35
Speaker
One other quirk about driving through Dallas, dude. I don't know what time you guys were hitting it when you were guys getting into town, dude. But a lot of at the time, I would leave Tennessee you know about 9 o'clock in the morning. night So I'd be hitting you know Dallas proper kind in the evening.
01:31:49
Speaker
I swear to fucking God, bro. I-30 is on the exact same axis that the sun is setting in the west, dude. Because there were times when I was driving, I was straight up blinded, man. I'm talking like I literally could like...
01:32:02
Speaker
Barely keep my eyes open in front of me, man. I've never experienced that before driving. I'm what the fuck is going on with these roads, man? So, yeah, like for for multiple reasons, dude. Yeah, I'm with you guys, man. Dallas freaking Dallas sucks.
01:32:15
Speaker
Tony also asks, since Jelly Roll is getting a high-profile match at SummerSlam, what celebrity would you like to see in the ring and what match would you book them in? Our buddy Doug, you know, and you said Fred Durst versus Eminem. Yikes.
01:32:26
Speaker
What's a celebrity match you want to see? i don't even have one. Like, i I'm so... You know what I want, dude? Hell in a Cell. Asylum style. So you got weapons chained on the side of it, dude.
01:32:39
Speaker
Rosie O'Donnell versus Donald Trump. Dear God. Let's fucking go. Somebody's going to be dead within the first five minutes. I don't think that's a good idea. You don't got no celebrities you want to see go at it, man?
01:32:52
Speaker
Not really, man, dude. don't really get into that shit. Like, I just... I don't really care. I mean... I don't know. Let's let's have a Big Boom AJ take on all the TikTok creators at once. like I'm down to watch that. and Remind us. we'll We'll save this one for Sheena, man. I think Sheena's much more fit to answer this one. Sheena will be much more fit to answer this question.
01:33:14
Speaker
All right. Our buddy David Brooks says, own personal gut feeling. What percentage of SummerSlam into your plans are being rerouted due to Seth Rollins' injury? I think it's all part of the plan, man. you know Me and Jordan are both kind of on board with it being a work, Dave. If not, if this really is ah you know legit, and I think it's right there with Liv, man. like They were both kind of the linchpins for Raw on the men's and women's side in that there were like three or four different storylines all kind of intersecting through them.
01:33:43
Speaker
If he's legitimately hurt and he's out for the rest of this year, it's really bad. And it's it's the worst for his little group because now they're going to have to elevate Braun that much faster, which, yeah I mean, I think. probably go ahead and set up Braun versus Seth for when Seth does come back. It just, yeah, it totally reshuffles the deck on everything you want to do. Yeah, so if he's hurt, it is definitely bad.
01:34:07
Speaker
Yeah, like you said, man, everything's run through him, dude. He is he' is like i mean he talks his shit and always says it, but it's true, man. he is He's the workhorse. He's the constant, dude. He's the one guy who's not the part-timer, who's always there.
01:34:18
Speaker
And yeah, he's feuding with – it feels like he's feuding with half their roster right now. yeah Johnny JB says match of the weekend, man.
01:34:28
Speaker
To me, there's three big ones. Yeah, I'm going to go –
01:34:33
Speaker
I got to go mocks and hang man, dude. That was just such a meaningful match. I mean, there's just like, don't get me wrong. The other matches were were really good, but I just feel like with, with the meaning of that match and everything and hang man, getting the belt back and us seeing the AEW title again for the first time in almost a year. I just, I don't know, dude, it was just perfect.
01:34:53
Speaker
I agree. You can make a great case for Bandido versus Takeshda you want to go hardcore. didn't even talk about that match. That was flames. ria And Rio rio riha and Io was great in its own right, man. it was it was right there bumping up against Hangman Mox. Totally different kind of match, but it was right there with it.
01:35:12
Speaker
But I think the the storyline weight that was carried in that Hangman-Mox match kind of puts it over the top, right? I think it's going to be the one that's most remembered. I feel like people are going to look back at that match a lot more than they look back at Takeshita and Bandito, obviously, but Rhea and Io, man. I feel like that one's going end up getting remembered more for the Naomi Cash and the amazing match they had going I will say just a little hidden gem, kind of my favorite match, uh, or not necessarily favorite, but a match that really, I liked way more than I was expecting to was the tag triple threat at AEW, man. The hurt syndicate versus jet speed versus the patriarchy, man. I thought that was a really, really fun match. All six guys showed out. You had the fun storyline moments at the end with, with edge coming back. I have that match had weight was way better than it had any business man. Dude. I thought that match was in the death spot going on before the triple main event and they killed it. Like that match was phenomenal.
01:36:04
Speaker
all right. Dougie Nunya says, do you see Braun Breaker being world champ for the end of the year? ah If Seth is out, yes.
01:36:16
Speaker
I... um I think Mania, dude. I'm going to call – I think they're going to up running back ah the something very similar to Triple H versus Batista at WrestleMania 21 with Braun and Seth.
01:36:30
Speaker
No, no, no. Not WrestleMania 35. Not that one. WrestleMania 21. Maybe WrestleMania 35 six years from now. Maybe that's what Seth – Seth for his last match. That's for one more showdown with Braun.
01:36:41
Speaker
But, no, i think I think Seth and Braun feels like it could – i don't know if that's main events, man. if maybe Maybe that opens up night two of of Mania next year, man, with Braun of getting his crowning moment. what he said the Clearly, the crowd... The one thing about that, dude, if Seth really is hurt, he's got to go babyface, man, because they're already having trouble getting people to boo him now, even though he's a heel.
01:37:03
Speaker
They're having a hard time getting folks to boost Seth Rollins. You know, people are going to love it when he does come back. So maybe you pivot and somehow bronze the heel, but i don't know, man, I will go and call it. If I had to put a prediction on it, I think WrestleMania 42, Ron breaker wins the championship.
01:37:17
Speaker
All right. Uh, Louis Valenzuela, besides listening to your podcast, how do you guys deal with life when you feel like everything is falling apart and nothing's
Life Advice and Coping Strategies
01:37:27
Speaker
going right?
01:37:27
Speaker
Oh brother. That is a, that's a deep one. Um, I don't know, man. You just gotta lean on your people more than anything. I don't know, man. We all have this shit, man. Whether or not we're open about and talk about it. Dude, life is a lot, man. Being an adult is fucking stressful, dude. It sucks, man. You add kids into it and any relationship that you have is a lot. Dude, it's just... don't know, man. Just lean on your people. Lean on your friends, man.
01:37:58
Speaker
I'm gonna say this, too. like I've never like talked about this or anything, but dude there's like a stigma that a man can't have like feelings and like be down and shit like dude me and seth talk about everything i i don't think i think if seth and me like either one of us was like legitimately depressed i think me and him could talk about it yeah and this is a pod warriors episode so i'm fine talking about this it dude if you're going through something reach out to somebody man like man Dude, you can reach out to me and Seth. Like, dude, we might not be your best friends, but i mean, just... We always we should a lean on sure. Yeah, like, dude, just having someone to listen to, man. Like, life's a lot. Like, especially now, like, there's just so much shit going on in the world and just... Yeah, it's a lot, man. Believe me, you're not going through this alone, man. It's it's a lot.
01:38:48
Speaker
Yeah, I'm right the way you did. Like, my my biggest thing I have issues with, man, is um just feeling like there's not enough hours in the day, man. Like I just did, I feel like I get overwhelmed or not necessarily overwhelmed. I just feel like my days get so jam packed that there's so much shit that like I didn't get to, or maybe I got to it, but I kind of had to give like a fucking 75% effort on it. So to like, you know, being my best self in that moment, whether it's work or with the family stuff, I i try i try to shortchange work.
01:39:17
Speaker
as much as I can. i try to give them the B minus version of Seth. Um, but you know, some, sometimes dude, sometimes it's a family, man. Sometimes there's just shit where I gotta be my best for work and, uh, can't necessarily be the best dad or be the best husband I can be, uh, for the family just cause I'm, you know, I'm happy to put so much on the work side of things, dude. So, uh, it's just, dude, don't man, being, being a good dude, if, if you're,
01:39:41
Speaker
Being an adult is freaking tough, man. If you're still a young adult, man, don't have start your family yet, dude, embrace that time, man. That's the time to really enjoy yourself, dude. Having kids is great. Don't get me wrong, man. Having kids, having a family is amazing. it's a It's a joy on a whole different type of level, but it also comes with just a burden of responsibility and expectation that it's a lot to manage for dudes, man.
01:40:01
Speaker
One other thing, too, and that this involves everyone. like I had to teach myself this at at some point. Make time for yourself. Even if you have a family, like a spouse, dude, make time for yourself. I'll just give you guys an example. Me and Seth started playing Fortnite six months ago.
01:40:21
Speaker
Yeah, not that long ago. Whatever. Yeah, it was like January, February timeframe, yeah. Probably around there. And, like, dude, a lot of times, like, that is, like, the the stress relief of my day. Like, just hanging out with my friend, talking to him, playing a game. Like, i mean, we would find something to do even if we weren't playing games. Like, me and Seth text all the time, so...
01:40:41
Speaker
The games gave us an activity to kind of like coalesce the talking around. Yeah. I feel like we, yeah, as corny as it sounds, i feel like Fortnite has definitely made us even closer friends friends somehow. Yeah. And just like I said, dude, make time for yourself. Just go get a drink like with a friend or if you don't drink, just.
01:40:58
Speaker
Go get a coffee with a friend. just Just do something with someone other than someone who's in your house all the time. You know what i mean? Like, sometimes you just need to, like, bounce stuff off someone other than who you talk to every single day, every single minute. Yeah. like It's tough. I know it's tough, man. And having a family makes it even tougher and like you feel guilty doing it. But dude, you really got to fucking do it. Like you just, you need to make time for yourself, man. And again, if you're, if you're struggling, and talk to somebody, man, just don't, you're never going through it alone.
01:41:31
Speaker
Facts, dude. Yeah. Like, dude, our Facebook group, man, so supportive. Like, dude, we say it's cliche, but it really is like family in there, man. I've seen so many times people will reach out about something not wrestling related, not wrestling figure related. And dude, like the amount of support people get is just overwhelming in there. So always, yeah, feel free to speak up, man, if you got something going on.
01:41:50
Speaker
And yeah, like Jordan said, dude, like, yeah, you're going to feel a little bit selfish sometimes, but dude, I can tell you straight up, man, i am a much better husband. i'm a much better dad. If I can kind of get, you know, on the weekends, try to carve a little bit more time, but during the week, dude, even if I just take, if I can get like 25 or 30 minutes to myself, dude, you just kind of like turn my brain off a little bit, reset, recharge, and then I can go back and be super dad, be super husband and stuff, man. So yeah, sometimes, you know,
01:42:14
Speaker
It sounds like you're being a little bit selfish, really you're doing what's best for everybody, man. It lets you be your best self. If you get a chance, you of decompress, man. So great, great advice from the J man as also, as always. Yeah. And work wise,
01:42:27
Speaker
Dude, any job is willing to replace you at the drop of hat. Just remember that when you're fucking thinking about work at 10 o'clock at night. yeah I am the worst at this. like I mean, I'm an insurance agent, so my job never stops. But there's just like some nights where I'm just like thinking about like the next day at 1030 night. It's like, why the fuck am I thinking about work right now? It's just... Yeah.
01:42:49
Speaker
I have some coworkers who really tweak out and stress about work, dude. And I tell them sometimes, I'm like, dude, you know, if you leave work and go out and get mowed down in the parking lot, dude, we're going to be looking for your replacement before they put you in the ground, man. Like it's going to keep moving on, man. So like just in the day, don't sweat it, man. Yeah.
01:43:06
Speaker
All right, dude. So we ended up doing about two hours, man. Somehow we went longer when it's just the two of us than I feel like we would have if Sheena was here with us, man. I feel like Sheena kind of keeps the conversation moving and it being little bit different flavor. We took a little bit, you know, took a step back, took a bigger look at ah and what AEW and WWE both got going on for the rest of...
01:43:23
Speaker
2025. Either way, man, I've said it a lot the last couple of years. There's never been a better time to be a wrestling fan. There's so much good wrestling out there and it's so accessible. Even with WWE Stumble a little bit last few months, there's collectively like having two companies operating at the level we got AEW and WWE operating at right now.
01:43:41
Speaker
It's just a tremendous time to be a lover of professional wrestling. Agreed. All right, Jordan, hit us with some some closing words, and we'll get out of here, man. Man, I'm going to keep it short and sweet, and we're going go with ah Lewis's question.
01:43:54
Speaker
yeah Take care of yourselves, man. that You're the only person you got in the end, and just take care yourselves, man.
01:44:12
Speaker
We'll be right back.