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Be Kind Rewind
65 Plays3 years ago
This week the boys are chatting GCW Eye For An Eye which Chris was in attendance for! Fax mysteriously wasn't in the same room as Gringo Loco, the strongest man in Long Island isn't Grim, Garrett runs a video store and more!
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Transcript
Introduction of Predetermined Podcast
00:00:34
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Predetermined, a pro wrestling hangout. I'm your host, Garrett Callender. And with me, as always, Fax Loco and Chris Miggs. Woo! Good to be here. We survived.
Surviving St. Patrick's Day GCW Event
00:00:46
Speaker
I survived going to a place where there were bars on St. Patrick's Day to see GCW. And I'm very happy that I survived.
00:00:55
Speaker
And he's using the singular, because I didn't make it. We can talk about that when we talk about the show, but I'm glad to see, Chris, that you are in much better shape than the satellite feed from Fight Plus for that show. The satellite feed had been drinking. That is for sure. The satellite field got its Irish on. Oh, of course. A lot of people had gotten their Irish on in that place, including some new friends.
Spoiler Alerts and Unwritten Rules
00:01:22
Speaker
Kiss me, my signal's been interrupted.
00:01:25
Speaker
But you know, you can tell that and, you know, spoilers. If anybody's listening to this podcast that hasn't seen the big GCW show and has stayed off the Internet, probably pause the podcast. You probably want to do that. You probably want to watch the main event, at least without the whole show before you listen to this. But I will I'm going to throw and I'm going to reuse a joke I put on our text thread, but I thought it was a great joke is, is there anything that's more St. Patty's Day in New York City than seeing a Russian lady choke out next con?
00:02:02
Speaker
You guys, you talked quite a bit in the text thread about it. Actually spoiled the match for me, you assholes. Welcome to my world. You just assumed you were watching. Garrett, it's a GCW show. What were you doing that was more important? It's also, I feel like our thread with just us, now just the three of us, is...
00:02:25
Speaker
It's understood that that's a, you don't look at the thread if there's a big wrestling show in and you don't want to be spoiled. It's just, it's just kind of unders. I would say for dynamite or something like that, like a normal weekly show, I think that we play like no spoilers for 48 hours, but for big shows. And this was definitely a big GCW show.
00:02:44
Speaker
Yeah, it was my fault. That's why I wasn't angry at you guys. I said assholes, but I said it lovingly. We are. Yeah, I don't remember. Something came up I wasn't able to watch live.
Gringo Loco Match Chaos
00:02:55
Speaker
I did watch the entire show though later. Except for what the satellite feed wouldn't let you watch. Because most of the gringo loco match was just too hot for TV apparently.
00:03:07
Speaker
There were there was too much nudity for fight TV or fight fight plus. Well, let's hang one ball for most of the match. Let's go there. Because so earlier in the day, I get to text some facts and says, hey, I don't think I can make it tonight. I'm feeling kind of under the weather and I'm you know, I got a lot of work and it's OK. We understand he graciously gave his ticket to our friend Tom.
00:03:35
Speaker
And then it did hit me when, well, the show did sell out, right? So that's the other thing is, is Tom was like, Oh, I went to buy a ticket and it sold out. So that was one of those things. Like if nobody was going to take my ticket, I probably would have just showed up late and like dragged myself there. But since I had the ticket, I probably would have just
00:03:54
Speaker
a friend that would have enjoyed it that needed the ticket, I was like, all right. And then I did end up working though straight until like 40 minutes into the show. He says that, but he was nowhere to be seen during the gringo loco match. And then for some reason it says, oh, the feed broke out, can't talk about the gringo loco match because he would give away if he talked about it, that he was the one in the ring with Bandito.
00:04:24
Speaker
Those sunglasses, those sunglasses that I, I mean, Gringo Loco wears are actually like smart glasses on the inside that can keep iMessage threads going. You're gonna be the guy that at some point, you know, it's like a comedy of doors, like in a Frasier or Scooby-Doo episode. And you come back out and one dread remains on your head. As you like, you're like, what's that fax? And you just quickly pull it out. You're like, no, no, no.
00:04:52
Speaker
Or what I'm going to have to do is I'm going to do like what Zach Galifianakis did on his first SNL hosting, where just gringo goes out and wrestles. And then I'm going to run to the back, fully cleanly shave, and then come out and be like, look guys, I'm cleanly shaven, clearly different person.
Bandito's Impressive Feats
00:05:14
Speaker
I thought it was very impressive that Bandito was able to just bench press you, to do the gorilla press of you. I don't know how much you weigh, but it seems to be more than Bandito, and he is deceptively strong. I mean, Jim Ross, right, has called him the strongest pound-for-pound guy, and I don't think he's wrong, because Bandito,
00:05:40
Speaker
He does this, like, this is kind of his shtick now, because he did this in Ring of Honor, too, where he would always pick up very large men. And, uh... Didn't he hold Jericho, like, one arm over his head? Yeah. What the fuck? Bandito fucking rules. Why isn't he on my TV more?
00:05:57
Speaker
Well, I think he signed, right? Didn't I think he he signed like AEW. Yeah, he is a full contract. So I'm assuming that like he had other commitments that are kind of dying down. But I have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot more of him on AEW television and Ring of Honor, whatever you call it, moving forward. We'd hope. Well, he was good. That match was good. That's what I wanted to ask, because basically a big move would
00:06:23
Speaker
beyond the cusp of setting up and you're like, oh fuck, this
Streaming Frustrations
00:06:26
Speaker
is gonna rule. And then the signal would come out for about 10 seconds. And then when the signal, like the feed would come back and the crowd would be going apeshit. And it's just like both guys were covering on the mat of like me, like trying to like do that, like, oh, I gotta get back up.
00:06:45
Speaker
And that was the only, to be clear, like that was the only, like there were a couple other issues that like clearly the camera guy did car bombs right before that match because the rest of the thing, like there'd be little cutouts here and there, but that was the only match that was basically made completely unwatchable.
00:07:03
Speaker
You know, maybe not totally unwatchable, but it was you knew it was a banger and like you just got frustrated watching it at home because you couldn't see the good stuff. Right. I would say it was it was very
GCW Event Expectations vs Reality
00:07:15
Speaker
good. I wouldn't say it was like you guys missed a classic, but I very much enjoyed myself watching the match, which I felt like was kind of a running theme. We were talking about sort of like expectations for the show and I like walked out of there going like,
00:07:29
Speaker
There was, I had a great time. There was nothing that was bad. It was just straight, good wrestling for three and a half hours, essentially. But I will say other than the main event, which is going to be memorable for a very specific reason. I don't know if anything.
00:07:47
Speaker
Well, like if any of those matches are like my standouts of the year or anything like that, they were all just good. Well, and that's why I think I was a little underwhelmed was honestly my reaction, because I feel like that card on paper looked like an absolute blow away. Like honestly, one of the better GCW cards ever on paper in my mind. And it.
00:08:09
Speaker
It didn't, and I was kind of like, oh, this is them making up for Hammerstein, that card that they had this chance to make the greatest card ever, and they kind of flubbed it. And this one, the card, guys showed up. It wasn't like they didn't deliver the matches they promised or anything. It just, they all kind of felt a little too short. Maybe they packed a little bit too much in. And then in particular, my recurring theme is that a lot of the finishes felt really flat and generic to me.
00:08:36
Speaker
Um, which I don't, that's not something I associate with GCW GCW. Normally there's so many great spots that, and they do try to really stick the landing because they know, Hey, if you're going to have these back and forth, and I didn't feel like we had a lot of back and forth violence with big finishes, which is what I like out of my GCW, whether it's the more technical side or the more violent hardcore side.
00:09:00
Speaker
I think because that was kind of the theme of what was going on in the text thread as I wasn't watching it, I think you helped manage my expectations of the show, and I had a great fucking time watching it. I think because you, I think you made it seem like it was a little worse than it was.
Tony Deppin vs Willie Mack Match
00:09:21
Speaker
And maybe maybe I guess the thing is like I would say Tony Deppin and Willie Mack was the only match I would say that over delivered my expectations. And that was the thing is I don't think there was any anything that was a dud or anything like that. It's just almost in my mind is like every single match was just a little bit less than what I was hoping.
00:09:41
Speaker
Well, and I think Chris will be able to say this, but to me, maybe it didn't play as well on TV, but I think if you were there, this would have been an excellent night at the matches.
Overcrowded Venue Challenges
00:09:55
Speaker
Like this scene, you would walk away happy with what you got for the live crowd. Yeah, I mean, despite the fact that the place was like wildly oversold to the point where like Tom and I walked in, it was probably 10 to eight.
00:10:08
Speaker
And people came in afterwards. We were not the last people to get there or anything like that. But we were basically in like the back corner. We were first we were in the back corner by the door because our friend with our friends Andrew was saying, oh, I'm at the bar. And I'm like, there's no way we're getting over to the bar. Like there's just a wall of people and that's just not going to happen.
00:10:27
Speaker
so we were down. The bar side looked so full on TV. It looked uncomfortable to watch from that side. When you told me it was oversold, I believed you and it was visible on television that was oversold. And that's what I'm saying is, especially for someone like me, and because I think you've been to a show there, but I've been to a bunch of shows there. So I know how narrow that space is, and then I'm like, it looks bigger on TV, but this is where even on the screen, it looked super cramped, and I'm like, oh, yeah.
00:10:57
Speaker
that's like three or four people in the space that normally one person would occupy. Yeah it was so we at first we tried to go upstairs there's a balcony and so the room probably wasn't oversold from like a legal capacity perspective but this is always a problem at places with like balconies like when terminal five when they did the rohos there used to be the worst for this but
00:11:19
Speaker
You know, you couldn't there was like a seated row in the balcony, but and you could stand behind them. But if you weren't the first people right behind them, you weren't going to be able to see anything. And if you were behind like any of the set and the cameras, you couldn't really see anything. So it was there was a lot of space in the upstairs bar, but there was not a lot of usable space in the upstairs bar.
00:11:38
Speaker
So yeah, so we were down on that side first. Then we came down from the bar and we were over on the corner where you could see on the hard cam, but way off to the side, like over by where the door was to the point that when we like bailed for a second, cause it was getting kind of hot. Um, people kept thinking that we were the people that would tell them where the bathroom was during intermission. Everyone just is like, Hey, which way is the bathroom? Like, um, aren't you going to tip first?
00:12:08
Speaker
No one did. Can I interject for just one second? So last time we recorded, I was after the show heading to go see Yolatango for the second night in a row. And I got there way later than I intended. The place was so packed.
00:12:26
Speaker
But with Basement East, if you exit out a door, you can walk around the entire outside of the building and come through on the opposite side of the building, where a lot of people don't know you can even stand. It's normally where the wrestlers, for the wrestling shows, it would be their dressing room.
00:12:41
Speaker
and like where merch is sold. And they had some VIP seating, but nobody guarding any of it. I grabbed an unoccupied chair and sat directly next to the exit. And the rest of the night, I guess just got white guy with beard and a jean jacket looks like he works at a rock venue.
00:13:01
Speaker
Especially if he's sitting by the exit. To be fair, Derek, the way I describe you to people that don't know you is just imagine a guy that works at a rock venue and or works at a vintage VHS rental store that somehow is still able to be in business in Brooklyn in 2023.
00:13:29
Speaker
I got your, uh, your tapes. I got your toxic Avengers. I got your... You want porn? You want wrestling. That's all we have. You want porn? You want wrestling? Go fuck yourself.
00:13:42
Speaker
But every section is hardcore. Let's be clear about that. It's all hardcore. Your heart rate's gonna be raised no matter what tape you grab. It's gonna be, it's an experience. Wait, let me, let me ask my boss if we
Humorous Tangents and Speculations
00:13:55
Speaker
got that. Hey, Rob Black! Hey, Rob Black, my boss, who has all the porn and wrestling. Do we got Power Rangers the movie?
00:14:09
Speaker
We got the hairless cut. Now, do you want Masha Slamovich, the wrestler? Or do you want Masha Slammer in the Pussovich, the porn star? Because you just said I want Masha and I don't know which one. Very different ladies.
00:14:30
Speaker
different skill sets. It's right next to American Cheeseburger, guys. If you need VHS tapes, Rob Black's got them right next to American Cheeseburger. Look in the front counter, use promo code pre-determined to get 15% off your tapes. And some special glow in the dark rubbers.
00:14:52
Speaker
So I'm sitting in this chair by the exit and people keep coming over and asking me rules of the venue. Like, am I allowed to be in this section? And if like somebody seemed like kind of a dick, it was like, no, this is a special section, man. Sorry, you gotta go into the, like in there. And at one point, somebody came and stood directly in front of me and I used the words, hey, we gotta keep this area clear.
00:15:23
Speaker
had an unobstructed view the entire night. So apologies to the staff at Basement East. Apologies to the owner of my favorite record store who also owns Basement East. I took over for the night and I liked it. Why apologies, you're a good customer and it sounded like you did a good job defending that section. Yeah, I didn't hear any complaints, right? It sounds like people appreciated the authority you took.
00:15:49
Speaker
Some people be like, can I be over here? They're like, absolutely, here's some stools, and then would get them a stool off the wall. And handed to the, yes. I really managed that section well. I'm sorry, back to New York. Well, speaking, I did give directions to what we later realized was Master Shlamovich's dad. Yep. Oh. Yeah.
00:16:13
Speaker
Russian? No, did not seem it. Did not seem it. So and I know we're in typical pre-determined just jumping all over the show, but I got us because you brought up her dad and obviously the parents kind of come out and are on TV during this and in the ring for those like.
00:16:32
Speaker
Those two definitely still fuck, right? Like, like, did anyone else get that vibe? Masha Slammavish's parents. Oh, yeah. I definitely was like that dad. He had the t-shirt tucked into the cargo camo pants. That's just the look of like a 60 year old man that still gets it. So he just doesn't care about anything else. What's in the what's in the other cargo pocket? Well, I just visited Garrett's VHS shop and I've got a whole pocket full of glow in the dark rubber.
00:17:04
Speaker
Please, Mrs. Slammer pusses my mom. I'm pretty sure this is a character we're going to be coming back to in the future.
00:17:27
Speaker
Um, but says, I guess,
Tony Deppin's Brewery Visit
00:17:29
Speaker
were there any matches? I mean, I'll, I'll agree with you facts that Deppin versus Willie Mack was the first match that really like exceeded expectations. That was a really, really great match. Um, Tom and I were trying to figure out Tony Deppin apparently does help run a brewery and we were trying to figure out how we could go visit the brewery and make sure he could give us a beer tour without, um, seeming like giant creeps.
00:17:55
Speaker
Hey, um, we're coming for a tour. Yeah. Uh, is there one of your employees who'll definitely be there and can give us that brewery tour? No reason, uh, just specifically him. Uh, we don't want, we don't want to talk about Jordan Oliver wrestling for two hours. That's not, that's not something we want to discuss with this person.
00:18:16
Speaker
Isn't he, am I wrong? Is he part owner of this place? I thought he was part owner based on the way he talked about it on Twitter. Yeah, but is it maybe the way that we might become part owners of Zencaster? Maybe is that a thing? He actually doesn't own anything. He's just, they can't get him to stop being behind the bar.
00:18:41
Speaker
Yeah, no, I thought that match was was pretty great. What were you were you going to ask? Like, did anything else stand out from home? Yeah, I mean.
00:18:50
Speaker
It was an interesting, again, I thought it was the, um, the Mexicans, missy. So it was against Rena and, uh, Sawyer wreck. I thought was pretty good. Again, I really wanted blood there. That was a tough. Yeah. I think that that was the one that like, and especially they did like the show of respect thing afterwards. And I'm like, I felt like that was.
00:19:11
Speaker
a little bit shy of like where it would have been a bigger deal. Although I do feel like the other tag match, like the eight, was it 8% tag, right? Four teams, I think. Six or eight. Yeah. Four C against main event versus the wasted youth versus SGC. And again, that one, like when it was hitting a high gear,
00:19:31
Speaker
was really fun, as you knew it was gonna be, but it just felt too short to me. It just didn't keep that prolonged for enough for me. And I think that one was probably the biggest, it just ended. Literally, there's a guy in the front row. It was the shortest match on the card. Which is insane, right? When you have four really good teams, and maybe they were running behind, because it was, was that, I think, third to last? I was right after intermission.
00:19:56
Speaker
Okay, so that's what I was wondering if they had a hard out or so. What time did they work? They were cruising. That was the thing is I remember they got to intermission and I'm like, wow, they are cruising here pacing because engaged didn't even mosh for his entrance. Like he would he walked straight into the ring and the match just like they got to the end. Wait. And can we just talk about the gauges? I really hate the recorded like Nick fucking engaged, Nick fucking engaged before they play Metallica. Like the fans will do it for you.
00:20:24
Speaker
It's not like we're at the point where we need canned heat for Nick Gage. It just feels... Are you sure? I mean, I'm pretty sure, particularly non-world champion, Nick Gage. Fans in New York, certainly, are still going to give the Nick fucking Gage entrance when Metallica hits.
Nick Gage's Controversial Comments
00:20:41
Speaker
From my couch, the main event sounded very quiet for Nick Gage. Like he even said, even a few people won't cheer me at one point while he was on the mic.
00:20:51
Speaker
Well, he did get a couple of boos because they do announce him from New Jersey. And that gets some boos. Janela pointed that out too. He's like, ah, you people. Of course, it's not about New York and New Jersey. It's like it is about New York, New Jersey, Joey. We love you, but. Well, and especially because Masha is New York, right? And they were playing that very much front of mind of like, this is Masha's hometown crowd, not Nick Gage's hometown crowd. So I think that's more what that was about.
00:21:15
Speaker
I will say a couple of notes from the crowd interactions here. Matt Cardona beat Homicide, right? Which I thought was a fine match. I didn't have a great view for that one. I thought that was hot dog shit, but like you kind of thought maybe, you know, it's a Cardona matches. You have two types of Cardona matches, and this was the dog shit type as opposed to wow, Cardona actually took a bump type.
00:21:40
Speaker
Yeah, I know this was kind of a ho-hum little match, but I will note our friend Andrew in the building said he did lock eyes with Persia Perada, Steph De Lander before. And, um, if you're listening to this step, he is willing to be your ring rat. He said they had a very long, um, eye contact and he is, he is up. You know, whatever you need, whenever you're in New York, he's, he's ready to do it.
00:22:04
Speaker
He's a tall, handsome man, very physically fit from the looks of it. Another type that, even though I know him and I've known him for a while, whenever I see him at a show, I assume he's one of the bouncers. He just looks like a bouncer at a rock slash wrestling venue.
00:22:25
Speaker
The other note from that four-way, so after the match, Mansur, so during the second half of the show, some people had very unsmartly abandoned their spots directly behind the sitting people in the balcony. And Tom and I stole those. And so we were there and we realized midway through the gringo loco Bandito match that Mansur was just right behind us.
00:22:49
Speaker
And so we get to tell Mansa his hair is looking great. And I don't know, did anyone else notice how nice and full Mansa's hair is looking? Yes. He said once he's learned he can grow it, he can't shave it again. I don't know what that means. I don't know why he couldn't do it. But Tom and I did have a theory as to why Mansa is growing the hair.
00:23:09
Speaker
Please. And it's that Mansour is teaching AP history in high school now. Because if you take that hair and you put like a cardigan and like a white button down on him, that's a teacher. And our assumption is that he is teaching AP history covering critical race theory through the lens of Memphis wrestling history.
00:23:35
Speaker
It's just all now that's how that's how he's teaching critical race theory and just like all right gang say we're gonna be learning about Sputnik Monroe and we're gonna be we're gonna be talking about how he desegregated wrestling in Memphis because he wanted to make more money see that's the thing it's not I mean Sputnik's a good guy he did a lot of great things but also popping the house
00:23:58
Speaker
making sure that you got to bring in the money for the promoter. So it's really the advances in race in this country are both about people wanting to move things forward, but also about how it can feed capitalism.
00:24:13
Speaker
Well, the thing, though, is that the one hole in that is he's from Buck Snort, Tennessee.
Mance Warner Teaching History?
00:24:18
Speaker
And I don't know where Buck Snort is, but I know it's not Nashville. Therefore, I'm guessing that that's a little bit too positive a take on race relations for the state of Tennessee in twenty twenty three. I mean, I think AP history is probably going to be more focused on the South will rise again.
00:24:43
Speaker
I didn't say Mansur's classes is complaint free facts. Okay. He's struggling. He's struggling. Why do you think he needs that light beer every weekend?
00:24:55
Speaker
And then I also just picture Jimmy Lloyd in the back row, 25 year old Jimmy Lloyd still doesn't have a high school degree. Just kind of sweating of just being, don't call on me, Manser. Don't call on me, Manser. Don't call on me, Manser. Just has like a barbed wire piece of wood by his side to hit the teacher with. If he gets called on.
00:25:15
Speaker
You know I didn't read last night. I know Jimmy and that's why I called on you to set an example. Come over and sit on my lap. You see Jimmy, sometimes you got to learn about history to prevent it happening in the future. He tutors him at every GCW show. I'm now imagining him as like the Atticus Finch to Jimmy Lloyd.
00:25:42
Speaker
Um, for reference, by the way, Buck snort only an hour outside Nashville.
00:25:46
Speaker
That's still red. That's still for sure. Oh, for sure. Oh, yeah. Most of Nashville is right. Let's be clear. I didn't I actually didn't realize Buck Snort was a real place. I just sort of assumed it was something that Robert Fuller and Bunkhouse Buck had made up. I always thought when I was a kid, I thought Cobb County, Georgia was made up. I was just like, there's not a place called Cobb County, Georgia. That's just where you'd think the big boss man would be from. Right. Truth or consequences, New Mexico. Same deal.
00:26:15
Speaker
I mean, a lot of our geography we've learned from pro wrestling. Yeah, that's true. It's so it's in progress. People really do essence. I was like, how do you know about this city? And I'm like, I just know it's a place that exists because wrestling took place there. Like I would read the results in the back of PWI. And thus I am aware of the existence of Terre Haute, Indiana. I don't know anything about Terre Haute, Indiana, but I know it's a place and I'm pretty sure a Saturday Night's Main Event took place there once.
00:26:41
Speaker
Well, and again, and we also know that the relative magnitude of this place by the kind of cards that happened there were like, Oh, Saturday night's main event in like 88. That's probably pretty decent house. You know, they must have some people there. Right. Not a ton, but some, you know. Yeah. I mean, Hogan did main event, so it's, you know. Yeah. But should we I mean, I guess.
00:27:05
Speaker
The one other thing we should talk about before we get to the main event. Other than the really spectacular reefer holding Grim Reefer did, I mean really just top flight stuff in this match.
00:27:17
Speaker
really just top lights. Wait, and did Joey Janela turn face? Because he did the thing like where he was giving props to reefer after the match, which, you know, he can do with like, you know, there's always that kind of third wall breaking, fourth wall breaking, whatever you want to call it. But then like he did like the baby face chase off afterwards where it's like I was really digging heel, heel Janela again. I kind of hope this isn't a face turn. I mean, I hope he's just turning further against Grim Reaper.
00:27:47
Speaker
I don't want to see Janela against like Charles Mason or something like that. That doesn't sound no. I did. Did you catch, though, that he with the weird implication where he's like, how many kids you got at home? Refered refers like two. We might have one more comment. Yeah. Wife's watching, Joey, she's not supposed to know about the rats in deep Jersey.
00:28:13
Speaker
The extra family. It's weak. Um, and then Jimmy Lloyd was just watching in the back. He goes, dad, I thought it was DeNiro, but are you my dad? He was like, no, I'm sorry.
00:28:32
Speaker
I'm sorry, I'm sorry kid. You'd be much better looking. You'd be much better looking. Jimmy Lloyd's dad is actually another famous actor who is currently in a movie and that is a cocaine bear. The other note I want to make, so the match right before the main event was time splitters against Jordan Oliver and Mike Bailey.
00:29:00
Speaker
And there was a guy standing next to Tom and I that, man, he really had a good time yelling at Jordan Oliver and he's my best friend now.
00:29:13
Speaker
We were going back and forth discussing, because he was like, Newberg sucks. You suck and Newberg sucks. And Tom was like- Who's the guy next to you, Tom? No, Tom next to him was like, there's a pretty good brewery there though. And the guy's like, I don't think I'm going to go there though, because it sucks. And he's like, thanks for letting us know.
00:29:38
Speaker
So you're in the middle and Tom and this other guy are just like shouting this at, shouting their conversation at Jordan Oliver. It's also just like, Jordan Oliver would like do something and he would go, you still suck.
00:29:52
Speaker
I just want to see them going deeper into it if the match went long of like, yeah, that brewery is pretty solid. You would spend an Uber there afterwards? I don't know. It's St. Patty's Day. It's getting pretty late. They might be pretty sloppy over there. Okay, well, I mean, do you want to come over to my house? Instead, I've got a couple beers. My wife can heat up a casserole.
00:30:19
Speaker
Um, but I thought, I thought that was a, I thought that was a good match. I enjoyed that. I, except again, Jordan Oliver tried to do a double figure, uh, uh, Boston crab. It did not look good. It was an interesting idea, but I liked when he got a Kushida in the crab and then Mike Bailey, he was on his stomach and Bailey stood in front of him and did the back flip with the knees and the Kushida's back. I thought that was a pretty good double team move.
00:30:44
Speaker
Yeah, I was a good match on the whole. I mean, I we again, we mocked we mocked Jordan Oliver, but we enjoyed we enjoyed the match. It was good.
00:30:51
Speaker
Yeah. And I do have to say though, during just even the entrances of that one, because that's one, like I literally, again, this car was so stacked. I actually forgot about that match, even though it was arguably the one I was most excited for when it was announced, despite Mike Bailey being in it. And then when, when Kushida comes out, it just, has there been a guy whose stock has dropped more precipitously than Kushida in the last couple of years? Like it's at the point where like,
00:31:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's really like you could say whatever you want about anybody else, but like that's one one sign of like, yeah, maybe maybe don't just sign with WWE first chance you get.
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah, things did not go well for him. Um, and then apparently I saw something that he like decided he wanted to say in America for a bit, which is why they're using him on these like new Japan, us shows, but then he got like hand, foot and mouth disease last year. And thus he, so did I not his spot, but did note, did master Watto take your spot at anything though?
00:31:49
Speaker
He took his job. He took his fucking job. Master Watto. He got Wally pipped by by Master Watto. Also, that was the first time that people listeners of the show know that that's what you had last year. Oh, I never actually said it. I just know we never said it.
00:32:09
Speaker
Oh yeah, I as a middle-aged man nearly got a disease that apparently me Kushida and small infants get. Only people whose favorite movie is Back to the Future get it, so I think the rest of us are fine. It's a great movie, just not my favorite. I'll get it again if that's what it takes. I will also say, so right before the main event,
00:32:37
Speaker
Someone comes over to Tom and asks him, Hey man, are you what we thought was grim stoyko? Now we thought this was grim stoyko because that is the second time I've been with Tom at a wrestling thing and been asked if Tom was this person. Um, the first time was by Cody Rhodes.
00:33:01
Speaker
at a cigar bar before ROH final battle 2018. So we all may remember that Cody and Frankie Kazarian were doing these cigar meet and greet things. And they did one at this cigar bar in New York. And Tom and I went and we're having a good time. We took a picture with them and joined some scotch and a cigar and whatever. And Cody comes over to our table and he says, Hey man,
00:33:28
Speaker
I just want to say, I'm sorry. Tom's like, what do you mean? He's like, well, at first when I saw you, I thought you were this guy, Grim Stoico. And so I was probably a little cold to you because that guy, he's kind of weird and kind of a dick, but I realized you're not that guy. So sorry about that. By the way, here's a token I have for an extra app. And I was like, what can we say? We ordered some dumplings on Cody.
00:33:56
Speaker
And so this is the second. Who is Grimstoyko? So we always heard it as Grimstoyko. We tried to Google this person. We couldn't find him. I mean, this has been an ongoing joke for us since 2018, right?
Mistaken Identity and Double Life
00:34:09
Speaker
Like Tom is going to be, leads a double life as Grimstoyko, whoever this is.
00:34:15
Speaker
Right. And so this guy comes up to Tom right before the main event. And it seems he's like, hey, are you we think Grimstoyko is like, no. And the guy is very offended. He thinks Tom is big timing him. And he's like, oh, oh, I see. You don't have time for your fans. I get it. I get it kind of thing. And but somehow this is like a wrestling personality, not like
00:34:37
Speaker
The short stop for the Mets like who are we talking? Well, no and that's when Tom finally feels like oh wait a minute He heard it and he said see Grimm's Toy Show Which is a very easily Google-able thing
00:34:57
Speaker
And immediately the guy grim does look a lot like Tom, a lot like Tom and has, and has dabbled in some, like there's pictures of him in singlets. And by the way, real Tom, easy to find pictures of him in singlets. So like, even I was questioning when I looked this up in Google, I'm like, I think Tom might've been lying to me for years. I think he might be the same person and he is big timing us.
00:35:22
Speaker
It really sucks, though, for people to think you're the toy boy when you're the strongest man on the East Coast. That's fair. That's fair. And also to be thought that, I mean, if Cody doesn't like you, I don't know what this guy did to Cody. It sounded like he was maybe a hanger on type. Nothing too bad or anything. But Garrett, you said you did some Googling about Grimm's Toy Show?
00:35:47
Speaker
I did and I had seen this guy before. I know him as like a very annoying internet wrestling personality. But I looked, he has like 250,000 followers on like YouTube subscribers.
00:36:03
Speaker
And as I Googled and I saw the picture, I was like, oh, I've seen this fucking pod before. But then under, you know, like Google gives you the most commonly searched things about what you've just Googled. The very first one is, why did Grimm's Toy Show get divorced? I saw that, too. That was my Google auto complete when I wrote in Grimm's Toy Show. It's a Grimm's Toy Show divorce was the first thing on it.
00:36:31
Speaker
And it said it didn't give me the reason for the divorce, but it did tell me, I guess I'll say allegedly with all this, because this is what Google told me and I don't want to get in trouble. But it said that Graham and his wife, who I guess she was part of his toy show and was named Heal Wife,
00:36:54
Speaker
who was the heel wife who hated wrestling and didn't like that he was devoting so much of his life to it, which, I mean, my wife is a fucking godsend that she puts up with all this shit. But that being said, like she does hate most of this. Sure.
00:37:10
Speaker
But it seemed like it was character work within his vlog or whatever the fuck he did. But it said that there was some sort of dispute, Grimm started living in their basement as they were in the process of getting divorced, got an alcohol problem, and destroyed the basement and is now legally not allowed in his wife's basement anymore.
00:37:33
Speaker
So that is what came up. The first search was just about this man destroying a bit. So Tom, when people come like, are you grim? Are you that guy that destroyed his wife's basement? Well, you know, and he should have learned from pro wrestling, right? You never write an angle where your wife or girlfriend is, you know, unless you want it to happen in real life. Cause it always does. But what I'm curious about is how did he destroy the basement?
00:38:05
Speaker
Like I have a drunkle that likes to burn things when he gets really drunk. So maybe did he just start burning things? And they're like, I'm assuming this is like an old disheveled like cement basement. So like the fire just stayed downstairs and didn't get to the main house.
00:38:22
Speaker
I think it has to do with, because, you know, obviously he had plenty of followers, so I'm sure he got to do press things. He probably showed up to like a Magic Mike 2 press junket. And when he got to Kevin Nash, Kevin was like, no, no, no, I'm not talking to Grim. Fuck Grim. Cody told me about Grim. This guy's a putt. He broke, he beat up his basement, not talking to him. And then he tried to set his Kevin Nash action figure collection on fire and there goes the basement.
00:38:49
Speaker
I'm just trying to I'm just trying to learn more details on this. This is. I think it was even just simpler that actually nothing to do with his wife. It was kind of similar to what Garrett was saying, but like it was even for like a smaller indie show recently, and he just was like going to go up to there was actually a kids area was hosting another cigar thing and sometimes all the wrestlers show up and Cardona showed up.
00:39:13
Speaker
And Grim just went over and kind of just sidled in, was trying to make it so that when people walked by, they'd be like, oh, Grim's Toy Show is hanging out with Matt Cardona. That makes sense. And then Cardona noticed and is like, who the fuck are you and why are you near me? Go away. And then he got so frustrated, he just had to get into a fits of smashing. He just ran right home and just started smashing and smashing.
00:39:35
Speaker
Mashita's toy collection. The Beetlejuice toys are gone. The Batman Returns figures are gone. The original Power Rangers on card. Oh, those are worth money. That's, woo! Sorry, I saw in the chat in my video store, got excited. Should I mention this? Again, apparently this is easily Googleable. Apparently the heel wife, heel wife has a porn hub.
00:40:02
Speaker
And that apparently turned her baby face on the show. I don't know. This is very, I'm disturbed for Tom that anyone thinks that- That he's part of this world. Yes. He could probably kick Grimm's ass.
00:40:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah, of course. He's the, he's the strongest man on long Island. He's entering strong man nationals. And when I was like impressed, he's like, it's really world strong man. That's impressive. And I'm like, Tom, you're entering national strong man.
00:40:34
Speaker
You gotta beat the U.S. before you can beat the world, man. You gotta conquer every section, you know? He's gonna take the globe. He's like, that's the real major leagues. Rocky never gets to Drago if he doesn't clear that bar of Apollo Creed and Clubber Lang first, you know? Either way, when I read that, and people are coming up to Tom, that just like tickled me so much. They're like, you're that alcoholic that ruined his basement.
00:41:03
Speaker
He's not, and somebody's like, you big timing me, Mr. Basement Construction? What are you looking for?
Vince McMahon's VHS Preferences
00:41:14
Speaker
Oh, no, Grimstinkhole, because he always puts it in. That's what he does. She's got a pornhub, but yeah, we have it on VHS. We got it here. Come on.
00:41:29
Speaker
By the way, the biggest customer of that VHS porn rental store, Vince McMahon, of course, he still likes his porn on. Non analog. Very. He has a he has a CRT TV in his office that with has the VCR attached like the ones people had in college back in the 90s and then
00:41:53
Speaker
He puts the tapes in and that's how he masturbates. That's actually the he calls his secretary in and then he starts masturbating. Black was able to resurrect XPW because Vince made a particularly large order. He's like, oh, I got the money to run the show now. That's awesome. Actually, a lot of the money for XPW came from him not rewinding the tapes before he returned. Oh, you got me again, Black. I'll pay the five dollar fee.
00:42:22
Speaker
Let's say five times one hundred thousand. He's like, I'll pay somebody to to rewind these tapes for me. I don't have the time. And then that's definitely the thing. He's like, wait, you say how many tapes didn't get rewinding? Oh, my God, Johnny, Johnny. You had one job. We took all your other jobs away.
Unexpected Title Change at GCW
00:42:48
Speaker
This was the last one.
00:42:50
Speaker
It's actually Jimmy Lloyd's job with XPW as he's sitting there with like three VHS rewinders just at a time. But I guess we shouldn't. We should talk about this, right, guys? Let's talk the main event. Yeah, we should get there. Grim. I think we've squeezed all we can out of Grim, as did apparently his ex-wife.
00:43:19
Speaker
So it seems, Garrett, you and I talked a few weeks ago after the LA show about how it feels like GCW probably needed to move on from Gage's champion soon. I don't think either of us expected it to be this soon. And this match, yeah. I don't think at the time, but based off of, I don't think it was last weekend, but maybe two weekends ago,
00:43:48
Speaker
The show, Gage came out, he wasn't, I don't think he had a match that night, but then he ended up having a back and forth with Masha and like security had to come out and she's beating the shit out of all of security. Gage is really talking shit on her in a way that almost felt like a Gage heel turn, like just from the way he's talking to a woman.
00:44:14
Speaker
That's kind of part of his character though, right? Is that he just talks to everyone the same way, which is the way an ex-con would talk to people. So Akira comes out and like clears Masha from the ring and as they're leaving, Gage is like, good, good Akira, get your bitch in the back. And like, there was like a moment of that where it was like, ooh, she might get him. Like, because it just, it felt like for him to be that disrespectful,
00:44:43
Speaker
to a female opponent, he didn't feel like the good guy. And it felt like- Is this Garrett saying that there's a little part of Garrett that said, I want Nick Gage to lose? Maybe, did that happen? I don't know if I would have chosen her, but also she does really represent GCW well. She's willing to do death matches. We've seen her do death matches, she's great. Yeah.
00:45:13
Speaker
And I don't know, I do like the idea of having a female world champ in GCW. I think that's cool. I think that makes sense. And now is a good time. Like I would have said she could have been the person I didn't think she was ready yet. Like right in March of 2023, if you had told me a year from now she was going to do that, I would have been like, oh, I could see that. But if you said in March and I'll see even more than that after the Cardona promo and then the natural homicide.
00:45:39
Speaker
To me, it really seemed like they had laid the groundwork for like I would have put written a check of like Matt Cardona is going to take the world title from Nick Gage at some point in the next 45 to 60 days. Yeah. And that was kind of my pick for it was that if you if you give the belt back to Cardona and then someone gets to be the conquering hero.
00:45:59
Speaker
not Jon Moxley, but over Cardona. Because I do wonder, so the match, so the match itself was fine, right? It wasn't, it was pretty much a Nick Gage match post comeback here, right? Oh, I don't think it was far below or far above. And it wasn't too long. It wasn't like the Bailey match. It wasn't 35 minutes. But it definitely didn't seem to like build to a fever pitch in the way that I think you would have wanted
00:46:25
Speaker
They got the third gear and they never really seemed like they got above that.
00:46:31
Speaker
I don't know, to me, once again, there was a point in the match where it did take off a little bit. And where, once again, he felt very heelish. And that was the moment he had her in front of her parents, who her parents did not sell, that their daughter was being beaten up in front of them. And I think they could have helped out a little bit. They looked like they were having too much fun. Because they had just gotten a little action in the bathroom during their mission. That's what I'm saying.
00:47:01
Speaker
They still were in the refractory period. But if you look away from her mom smiling and Nick Gage is talking shit to both of her parents, punching her in the face, like racked her on the guardrail, like pretty fucking hard. And then when she started getting the comeback from that moment, I thought it felt pretty good. Like, I guess I already knew I didn't know how the finish was going to work out, I guess, because you didn't really say that in the text, but
00:47:32
Speaker
I don't know, from that moment I was like, okay, yeah, this, this makes sense. Like he is, he underestimated her. And he was just like, he spent too much time, like kind of being a dick.
00:47:43
Speaker
in the match and I kind of gave it up. And that's why even though I wouldn't have thought Masha was there yet, that's the thing that annoys me is that if you're going to do it, you're going to make this decision. Masha is going to be our world champion. She's our future. I'm 100% behind that. But then channel that, what you were just talking about, Garrett, and let her have the big win.
00:48:05
Speaker
And like, yeah, she gets the big win, but like, they have like, what's his name? Blake Christian, you have Akira, which to me, makes the whole thing feel a little bit like B, B level, where it's like Blake Christian is not a main event guy, right? So having him run interference just kind of brings the whole thing down. Masha's win isn't totally clean.
00:48:28
Speaker
and i even have now this existential dread that like you know chris what you were talking about where if you move the title to cardona a it's a big win for cardona his stock goes up whoever beats cardona becomes the conquering hero you get to make multiple people whereas this
00:48:43
Speaker
I'm a little worried, like where do they go with this? Did you really make Masha as much as you could have? And I'm, I have zero interest in seeing Masha versus Blake Christian for the world title. And I think we're clearly going to be getting that in the very near future. And I have a little bit of terror of Blake Christian world champion, which is definitely something I don't want to, I don't want to buy. So I do feel like I would have gone harder in on Masha, harder on a Nic Cage. Maybe you could still do some level of interference if you need to keep
00:49:11
Speaker
some Nick Gage strong for something that they want to do later because Nick Gage you know is still a big name in the GCW world.
00:49:18
Speaker
But I think you could have done that in a better way. And then really earned that big celebration afterwards, I think a little bit more. Although I will say it did add to the drama. Because as a viewer until that happens, and even despite what you said, Garrett, I didn't think Masha had any chance at winning. And then when she that's that she initially gets into the show. Like I remember I was like, heating leftovers and like I literally like the microwaves beeping and my wife's like the microwave stop
00:49:45
Speaker
We're right now, like she's got him. This could actually happen. So like it did ratchet up the drama, but not.
00:49:52
Speaker
Not in a way it was more drama of who's going to be champion than like well earned dramatic tension in a wrestling match to me. Yeah, I actually thought I mean, legitimately, I sort of missed the finish in the sense that Gage started hulking up and I kind of turned to say something to Tom about something. I was like, oh, and then I heard the bell ring and I was like, what? He gave up because it did not look like he was about to give up or pass out. He didn't give up. Yeah.
00:50:19
Speaker
And I thought they actually blew, I thought they blew the spot. Cause I thought I heard like a bell ring way earlier when she had the hold on. Oh, maybe that's what it was. Maybe that's part of what it was. I didn't, you know, so, and the announcers were talking about that a little bit where the Nick age never gave up and they were kind of teasing on the broadcast. I don't know if you got this Garrett from watching. It almost seemed like they were teasing. Oh, this match must continue kind of thing. Like Nick age never gave up. Like they even seem to set it up as maybe it wasn't an actual legitimate win.
00:50:51
Speaker
I mean, if you want to say that because there was fuckery, but he didn't play that up at all at the end. He came out and like put Masha over. He didn't, but the announcers did. So the announcers, when he goes to get the microphone, the announcers are like, he never tapped out. He never gave up. I bet like, which would be weird if the announcers didn't know where they were going with it.
00:51:12
Speaker
But if they want to have an actual deathmatch rematch with the two of them where they're can't like in Jersey in LA somewhere where there can be glass and fuckery. Yeah. Well, that to me, though, is part of the decision making process here is you put Masha over in New York in a match with Gage where you can't because again, because the New York Commission, they couldn't do a deathmatch.
00:51:36
Speaker
But it's 2023 gauge, right? If you've done a death match, you probably could have ratcheted up the intensity and drama, I would say significantly higher. So to me, that was maybe not the best choice either. Again, you had a great crowd in New York. I'm not going to argue against seeing the title change, but I do wonder if that retrospectively
00:51:59
Speaker
Maybe you should have just done it in Atlantic City or done it at The Collective or I don't know. And by the way, this is now two title changes in a row that have been just complete fuckery. I don't know. I think we're coming up on their biggest show of the year. I mean, Spring Break is typically the biggest show of the year at least.
00:52:21
Speaker
Maybe they don't want Gage main eventing that, you know, like maybe they just were, they had to do it somewhere. Why not put her over in her hometown? And again, my whole thing is, my whole thing is not let's don't put her over. It's just, I don't know why you don't put her over stronger.
00:52:35
Speaker
Right and maybe it is because they do want to do the rematch and then this way they kind of pop two different reactions where it's like you get one of just the sheer shock of Masha going over and then you get the really clean strong putting her over which admittedly by my own words I think would right the ship.
00:52:55
Speaker
But I am just worried that they've, you know, I think already we're at a point where the tag division GCW is actually way more exciting and which I never would have thought would be possible. It's like two years ago. And now it just feels like if Masha Slam division, Blake Christian is the world title match at spring break, that shouldn't be the main event. It just shouldn't be. There's no way that's going to be one of the top three biggest matches on that card.
00:53:22
Speaker
I guess the question though would be, what else would be? And I think that comes to a little bit of where we're at with GCW right now. It feels, again, to me very much like the later period ECW in the sense that, again, a show like Last Friday Night, great show, had a great time. Everyone worked hard. Nothing was bad. At the same time, nothing was built in a way that we were like, wow, like this is an emotional moment right now. Even a title change, I'd say in a lot of ways.
00:53:51
Speaker
And I don't know what they're going to get. I mean, there's not even they're two weeks, two weeks from spring break. And I don't even know if there's an angle for any of these matches. They have a show tonight in Canada. I mean, I assume they'll do something there. But again, it really feels like they've basically just sold me on Kota Bush is going to show up, which again, I'm very excited for. That will be fun. I'm interested in those matches. But, you know, what is going to drive GCW forward over the next?
00:54:16
Speaker
So I don't, again, maybe they think Masha's the person they're gonna build around her. We'll see. We've been talking about that for months though. Like who's left? Like who can they, and they kind of did this to themselves where like he beat everybody. Like he shouldn't have beaten Speedball. Like regardless of what Fax thinks about Speedball, like that match, Nick Gage feasibly should not have won. Like he, he was,
00:54:44
Speaker
Well, what, what I think they need to do, right. And the other thing that we've been talking about for months is that there's just two different GCWs. Right. So if you go like speed balls, a great representative of one side of GCW, which I think is like the Tony Depp and Willie Mack match. Right. So they have these really good technical matches, which is really good old school pro wrestling. That's similar to what we got out of ring of honor for many, many, many years.
00:55:08
Speaker
then they have the more hardcore deathmatch style. And I think the problem is there's just not enough overlap between the two. And I think that that's how you do it is what they need to do. And maybe it's speedball because again, he's a name. He's got some wins. I'm pretty sure I could beat him in a fight, but whatever. Like I can't argue with the business of Mike Bailey relative to that. So I think you just need to merge those things because like you're if Mike Bailey goes against
00:55:37
Speaker
Masha, what kind of match are they gonna have a death match? Are they gonna have a technical match? And it just, it feels like just completely different divisions. And I just think that they have to find, they have to bridge that. And I think by bridging that, you also then open up way more possibilities, right? As opposed to Nick Gage as world champion.
00:55:57
Speaker
It's a death match, right? Like- Well, at this stage it is, right? At this stage, especially. It's a death match. And if it's not a death match- What stage was it not a death match, right? Like, Nick Gage was never wrestling good technical matches. Yeah, but no, but I would argue that during his last reign, the one that Mox ended, I think he was having interesting matches with those technical guys in terms of having an interesting style clash.
00:56:21
Speaker
I don't think he was there anymore, right? I think that's what's lost is that used to be bridge gauge could be kind of the bridge. And now I don't think he's well, I'm not sure what he is at all anymore from a like wrestling perspective, except it's again, maybe if you just put him in a deathmatch against someone, it would be fun. And people would chant for Nick Gage could be pizza cutters.
00:56:40
Speaker
Hopefully after this, they should just move Nick Gage into that Undertaker role of he's in his own parallel universe. Him showing up as a spectacle and you like to pop, but he's not in the title scene. He's not having long running feuds with different people. Maybe he'll have one or two big matches with GCW veterans that they'll play up over promos, but just leave him out of the title scene.
00:57:04
Speaker
I think that you have to do that. Obviously Mox was awesome at the time, but that's hurt them, right? Because it's like, well, where do you go from that? So they're having more distance, but I do feel like there's a lot of interesting guys and girls that there's a lot of interesting directions they need to go. I think that they just have to stop being two different GCWs. And I think that honestly, ECW had that to a much lesser degree, but they had that too, right? Where you'd have that like Eddie Guerrero versus Dean Malenko match.
00:57:33
Speaker
on the same card as, you know, 90s hardcore, which was like the death, the closest thing death match of its day. And they just felt like two completely different worlds. Right. Well, and I think kind of the matches we've seen Masha have like an impact.
00:57:48
Speaker
I do think she's a good bridge, where she can have that match against Mike. She is. We can still get a title shot for Sawyer Wreck, where we can have an awesome death match between those two, but then just, I don't know. I think if we let this play out, it could work.
00:58:07
Speaker
I'm hoping they have a big picture for this. You know what could be a fun future title match is because it does seem like again Cardona was pretty blatant like a Cardona title shots coming again it seemed like it was building for Gage but like maybe he can as a heel that's like he can be very sexist like him building up to a promo with her Masha could actually be really fun
00:58:29
Speaker
And then also, you could have a three-way, right? Where it's Masha has to overcome the odds of like Masha versus Zack Ryder versus Steph De Lander. Where it's like kind of a two-on-one, but then maybe both women can just beat the shit out of Cardona, you know what you call them, Zack Ryder. But then she's also got Akira on her side too, which could, you know, there can be builds with tag teams and, you know, there's
00:58:53
Speaker
I don't know, not long ago, I think it was last week on Twitter. Fuck, why can't I think of his name? Owner of GCW. Lauderdale.
00:59:03
Speaker
Lauderdale said that like more storylines are coming like that. He, he said that GCW is about to have more storylines. And I saw Matt Cardona post like, what do I got? And he's like, I know you're used to hearing this, but we don't have anything for you right now. What are you actually supposed to do is he has guys, guys, I found this video store in Brooklyn. I read, did a bunch of tapes. I have so many ideas. Now the storytelling, I got it. It's not just about the action.
00:59:30
Speaker
It's not just about the big finish. It's about the story. And that's why Jimmy Lloyd, you're going to become a pizza delivery guy. Because you're an actor, Jimmy. I do wonder. I do. I can see an imagine.
00:59:52
Speaker
Could we be going towards Akira and Masha redoing the Kirk's angle from ICW? Shit. You're not wrong. Yeah. I think the other thing, too, is do we have any idea what is Masha's status contractually, too? Because that's obviously the big thing hanging over GCW. And that's one thing that Nick Gage has. Nick Gage is not signing with AEW or WWE, right? Whereas Masha...
01:00:19
Speaker
could like, I don't know if she's like here is already MLW, right? Like he's already signed. Yeah. And it might as well be witness protection, though. Right. I mean, you really only care about AEW and WWE and New Japan. Those are the only ones that are actually going to take somebody away. If she signed with anything right now, it's its impact, which I think obviously would allow her to keep working. Yeah.
01:00:42
Speaker
Well, no, no, I'm saying more for the future, right? Like, could Masha have a good title ring? Because again, if they invest in Masha, they can absolutely completely fix a lot of the things we're talking about.
01:00:58
Speaker
Maybe we get into an area of GCW where we see shorter title reigns, because I think since we've all started watching GCW, it's been very fucking long title reigns. You get a year of Ricky Shane Page, you get a year of Jon Moxley, you get a year of Nick Gage. It wasn't always fun. There were some of those matches that were very much throwaway.
01:01:22
Speaker
that never felt like it mattered. Well, especially because if you make those long reigns and like those important reigns, then like a lot of the matches are very transparently what there's no way this person's losing. Although I probably would have said that about Masha versus Nicky on Friday. So that's an interesting thing that like for at least the first several title defenses for Masha, like I don't know.
01:01:45
Speaker
I don't know how much they're actually invested in her as world champion. So like Ted had some interesting drama, but I don't, I don't know that length of title reigns really has anything to do with quality. Um, but if it ratchets up the drama, then I'm all for it. I wouldn't want it to go like all the way to the way that the tag titles as much as I love the tag division. It's really hard to keep track of who the tag champions are at any given time because they're just all over the place.
01:02:12
Speaker
I am curious to see who they end up having for spring break for the tag jams. I mean, Masyskos actually have won and then lost the titles again during this podcast recording.
01:02:24
Speaker
which I love them. I thought their match with Sawyer and Rena was fucking awesome. I thought I wish that one had gone longer too. Yeah. And I wish it had gotten bloody. I think that that was, that was the one that I think that started getting me like a little of like, cause that was another one that I had super high expectations for. And maybe I'm wrong for that, but like that was the first one where I'm like, man, I really wanted blood in that. And I wanted it to go longer. Not that it was short, particularly.
01:02:50
Speaker
you got the four people who are most willing to bleed on the entire car. Just doing very clean wrestling. Um, it wasn't like you said, nothing was bad. It was, I think if you, especially if you were there, you absolutely had a fine time out. I had a great time. I, uh, hopped on the train, was home within what was probably 20 minutes. I did stop at the Taco Bell on the way home.
01:03:16
Speaker
I was kind of hungry. It was kind of late again. The show went until like 20 to midnight. And then actually, because the basketball had run so long, I realized that as I sat down to eat my Crunchwrap Supreme and Doritos Loco Taco, that rampage was still on. So I watched Brody King against Daniel Garcia live.
01:03:37
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I feel like, should we talk about, you know, Jericho Gonsens, Kenny in Winnipeg, Brody King looked like the biggest star hangman page in the elite might be getting back together. That all happened to this week. I think we should discuss that. But by the way, before we do the next GCW show in the tri state area is actually a three day music festival in Atlantic city.
01:03:59
Speaker
The Bamboozle, you get to see Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach. No, they're not even there. I looked at the lineup and there was no one of such high caliber as those two that I saw. And Bamboozle? Absolutely there is. Bamboozle 2023? Yeah. Oh, I know I see. Yeah, Limp Bizkit's in there. They just didn't. They just didn't put the top headliners names on top. Yeah, that's what better.
01:04:30
Speaker
Papa Roach, a boogie with a hoodie. Rich would be rich. Yeah, they just highlighted it. So I think I'm going to probably be out of town for that one. But that's and wrestling at music festivals is a nice, fun diversion, but tends not to be very good wrestling. I do wonder like they were promoting that on their upcoming shows that even for like the fight TV. So like, I guess you're going to be able to watch those on fight TV.
01:05:00
Speaker
Well, which Veda Scott, who I meant to mention, I absolutely fucking love her on commentary. She's awesome. She's one of my favorite people to listen to right now. But two weeks ago, when they're reading through the list and they got to Bamboozle, she's like, what the fuck is Bamboozle? And you hear clicking. So she's like, I looked it up at some music festival. Papa Roach is there. Well, if you're round facts, I'll, you know.
01:05:29
Speaker
As of now I'm gonna be probably near Garrett's neck of the woods that weekend But if that does not happen, obviously I will be going to bamboozle Well, I've seen you them for the wrestling. What was that? Does that mean I'm seeing you? Or maybe you just take my place right like me and my wife will be gone You can just stay at my place and go to bamboozle. You'll have a free place You can feed my cats
01:05:58
Speaker
feed my cats. Yeah, we're good. Actually, that could work. We just swap cats. You guys cat sit each other's cats. While you watch Limp Biscuit and GCW, and I just do some organized play in the Deep South, Deeper South. I'm actually going down to Northern Alabama that weekend is would be. Are you going to Bucksnort?
01:06:23
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I'm going to bookstore to find out how the reconstruction really went. But yeah, Brody, Brody King, like I would buy stock right now in Brody King, future AW world champion. I would buy that stock. Yeah.
01:06:43
Speaker
Well, I think we, I mean, you and I have been writing, I've been writing the Brody Train really going back to villain enterprises. I just thought. But it's clear Tony Khan and Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks are writing because this is now the second match with House of Black and the Elite. We have no idea what EVP means at this point, but presumably it's a non-zero. They have a little bit more sway than the other guys. And obviously Tony Khan's booking it. And this is now, again,
01:07:10
Speaker
he looks like a goddamn star in these main event matches, main event level matches. And then apparently he just like wrestled like 25 minutes and looks like a star towels down and then goes right back out for a matching rampage.
01:07:25
Speaker
Um, very fun host on what not to. I bought a pin from him on Thursday. And he definitely is. He's definitely an organized play guy. I've seen him at multiple comic con type endeavors as a fan, not there just to do signings. Also, again, I come back to that. I've been mentioned the podcast before, but this is a guy who wrestled at Madison Square Garden and then performed at our friends, the nobody's drag show right after in 2019.
01:07:52
Speaker
Um, Garrett, if he if he comes to Nashville, he might like do a go do a drag show and then just and then just punch out some politicians like this is a hero we can all get behind in 2023. This is what we want America to be. Right. This is he should be president.
01:08:11
Speaker
Is he American? Yeah, I think he's American. He's from California. He might be Canadian or something. Okay, yeah. Okay. So you guys were saying that you got into him with villain enterprises. Was that him, Marty, and PCO? And Flip, kind of, sort of. It was later Flip.
01:08:30
Speaker
But the key was because the key was that when that was right after the elite left ROH and I kind of didn't watch our weights for a bunch of months. And then I went back and I went watch the first like six man that they did together. And I was like, oh, shit, this is awesome. And then I just binged all of them and all of the the PCO.
01:08:50
Speaker
Brody King against the Briscoes matches were insane. Like fucking insane. And just the two of those guys like were just so good together. And I actually always thought like I was really excited for Brody to be a tag team with like Malakai Black or something because I was he's such a great tag wrestler. He's so good at the pacing and the timing of using his size and using his athleticism.
01:09:11
Speaker
But it seems now, again, I don't know, maybe he should just his back to be just the champion. I don't know. Yeah, like, well, and I think like with that, too, it was like, and this sounds ridiculous coming out of my mouth in March 2023, but it was like when the elite leave, it's like, well, I guess Marty Skirrell is my guy now, you know, and and I guess he's the best guy in Ring of Honor now. And, oh, PCOs with him like that's the two best guys of Ring of Honor together. Whoever this third guy in, like, I guess he's he's fine.
01:09:39
Speaker
and then like it quickly became like pco definitely showed and like even during his world title reign like he needed to be in a tag team right like his singles matches weren't really pulling their weight and those tag matches were just so good and it really quickly became even before um
01:09:58
Speaker
Marty Skirrell just disappeared from the historical records. It really became Brody King was the guy that was most exciting and even like on the YouTube shows where they'd go out for steaks and stuff like that. That was always fun. So like, yeah, I've been super into Brody King, but like Brody King was always the guy that felt like,
01:10:18
Speaker
Big time tag team in AWW or WWE potentially felt like the potential, but that felt like kind of what his ceiling was going to be. And I think that that ceiling has now just been destroyed and like future world champion seems inevitable to me. I mean, maybe not in the next year or something, but like it's not crazy. Yeah. And that was I thought the match was great. The nine man.
01:10:44
Speaker
match was really, really good. And the Garcia match was a little bit less good, but just he and Garcia, I think they'd be really good. But I think Garcia's character right now is in kind of a weird place when they were. And they were both in that match. Right. So that does like that is a factor of like they were both in the main event of one show and then immediately had like an hour to take a quick shower and do the main event of the other show.
01:11:08
Speaker
in the same building with the same fans like an hour later. The other thing that was really interesting at the end of that was they teased. So and Gary, so basically what happens, I know you may miss a little bit of this. The. At the end, Blackpool Combat Club and Hangman come out because he's been brawling and they're brawling into the ring and hangman's getting the shit kicked out of him and then.
01:11:33
Speaker
Kenny and the bucks see this and like hang man's kind of like squared up. He's like this. And then the three of them come up from behind and Blackpool combat cubs like, okay, we're going to, we're going to back off hang man turns. And that's where we cut the episode is.
01:11:51
Speaker
The three of them is the four of them looking at each other in the same ring for the first time in a very, very long time together. And from reports from the arena, though, like that didn't go anywhere. Like it just kind of ended like the heels are just everyone kind of scattered, but it's it's tantalizing for sure. Yeah, I might even watch 30 seconds of being the elite this week just to see what they try to do with that. Well, let's let's not get crazy. Yeah, I'm not going to do that. It's interesting. Again, I think.
01:12:22
Speaker
One of the things I always loved about like BTE sort of pre-AEW was they would slow burn angles and stuff there and they could do different things. Obviously it's lost a lot of its impact now that it has to also tie into a national television show. But there is an interesting thing here of, again, pulling through this story that's been going on for, I mean, three years now, essentially, about Hangman's journey and
01:12:47
Speaker
I think I'm curious to see where they're going with this. It's potentially, and potentially it's a place where they could get back to, I think, us being a little bit, at least me, I'll say for myself, more invested in AEW from an emotional storytelling perspective as opposed to just a good match. And that's the one thing that the EVP power seems to grant, right, at the very least, is that you have some more say in how your own shit is booked.
01:13:10
Speaker
You know, and I count Jericho as an EVP, whether he is by title or not. And it does seem like that's something that these guys have shown is that they're they are dedicated to this long term storytelling, particularly in this just the grand saga of the elite. Right. And this feels like the next chapter. And hey, I'm not going to lie, if I wouldn't be fantasy booking code of Bush's in the US, could could they start doing a like let's bury all hatchets and
01:13:40
Speaker
You know, something like that, which could be awesome, even if it is in the side universe. Although the weird thing is that, like, I think we all agreed after the pay-per-view, it feels like Hangman's got to get the next shot at MJF. So then it's like, it's a good problem to have that they have too many different interesting directions for Hangman and the, and the box and Kenny. So, but it'd be, it's going to be interesting.
01:14:03
Speaker
But then it was a solid good show. AEW is always week after week. The show is always really good, even when you're not super excited for anything in particular. Like I do feel like AEW just consistently kind of over delivers. It can drag at times, but like there's always a really solid hour of AEW every week, even if there's not always three good hours for AEW every week.
01:14:27
Speaker
Carney, Mid Carter, Jeff Jarrett still going and. Yep. Yeah, I like this because here's I think you because you kind of landed on facts, not to over overly fantasy book, but the idea that you could do the the bucks against hanging out in a mystery partner and that mystery partner could be a bushy would be pretty fucking wild. Oh. Um.
New Japan Cup Finals Speculation
01:14:51
Speaker
But speaking of where Abushi came from, I should mention that as we record this, but when you hear this, the New Japan Cup finals will have happened. But I can confirm the results of the brackets because the final has not happened as we're recording this, but it does not matter because no one's pick for winner is still in at this point.
01:15:12
Speaker
And well, did you for sure first you explain what we did with Will Ospreay? Because I think as of the last update, the two, none of us, we were all already out on the winner, but some listeners had Will Ospreay and they were the ones in the running to win the whole thing. So what did we do with Will Ospreay getting pulled from the door? That's a good point. So Ospreay gets pulled because he got injured in the match with Mark Davis. Mark Davis took his spot and so he took
01:15:37
Speaker
Osprey's spot for those picks.
Sonata's Bold Moves
01:15:40
Speaker
Unfortunately, he ran into the buzzsaw that is new Sonata. New Sonata is like new Coke in that it's basically just old Sonata, but they did put, he did change his hair.
01:15:55
Speaker
And he's got new friends now. So I'm I'm at least willing to give a try to this for those who didn't miss it. Sonata beat Naito in the tournament. And then at the end of the match was just like, hey, I'm not going to be an L.I.J. anymore, guys. I'm with Tai Chi and his friends. We're no longer. And this is, I think, my favorite thing. They're no longer just four guys. They are just five guys, which means a great burger. That's going to say, you know,
01:16:23
Speaker
Like the burger chain has to, the burger chain is going to be a sponsor on New Japan Strong now. It's called Just Five Guys, main eventing, just eating delicious hamburgers. Which could be controversial because there is a Shake Shack right there in the Tokyo Dome, which Corkin Hall is in Tokyo Dome City, right? So it's right there.
01:16:42
Speaker
That might get them into some trouble, but we'll see. But the sponsor dollars facts are just too appealing. But Sonata also did. He got he he dyed his hair back to dark, shaved his beard and took off the side. So he is very different now. He's very different now. He's got to stop using skull end. That's the other thing he's got to change. Well, he did. He's added like a no, no, no, no. Add you have to adding is good. You also need to remove that move from your arsenal completely.
Bracket Tournament Standings
01:17:12
Speaker
I agree. Don't bury the lead here. Am I in last? Jared is in last. Well, let's break this down here. So Fax, you are in third. You came in third at the end. And I've now clinched third.
01:17:35
Speaker
Yes, nothing else could happen that would change your standing as third place in our bracket tournament with, um, with 32 points. Sorry. Sorry. With 25 points. And this is third, third out of the three of us or third out of five, third out of the five. The other two, we had our, our, our Canadian pals, Matt and Lowell great week for them. Cause apparently AEW is just going to be in Canada all summer. Um, they're going to go on Matt and Lowell are going on tour with them. Like the grateful dad.
01:18:05
Speaker
It's gonna be fantastic, it sounds. So, Lowell comes in second.
01:18:13
Speaker
Matt had actually been in first for much of the bracket, but a couple of tough breaks there. He comes in fourth, and that leaves Garrett in fifth.
Punishment for Garrett: What Should It Be?
01:18:28
Speaker
And- Big Papa Migs wins it. Number one, I believed in David Finley for some goddamn reason. He was my number two pick to win. I had him in the finals, right, I think?
01:18:41
Speaker
I had him in the finals. That's why actually you made it to. I actually had him in my original draft. I had him winning the whole thing. And then I changed it. And now it sounds like now that we know how this is booked, it does feel like he is going to probably win the whole thing. I think Sonata is our I think Sonata is our winner.
01:19:00
Speaker
I was my best. I was terrified because when you said I finished in third, I figured David Finley probably is what got me there. And I was positive that you guys are going to be fourth and fifth. And I was kind of OK with that because then at least all of us would have to do the punishment together. But I much more like this with you, Chris, determining the punishment that only Garrett has to do. Yeah. Yeah, I.
01:19:26
Speaker
You really, you sold that well where I thought like, Oh, am I, is it all through? Nope. It's just Papa M gets to give Garrett a spanking. And here's, here's what I say we do with my spanking. Well, I wait, first of all, we hold it till next week. Okay. I think we should hold it till next week. I thought let's let's, we should leave that on cliffhanger, but I do want to know, Chris, do you already know what, what it's going to be?
01:19:54
Speaker
Or are you going to think about it? Because I just want to know if I have a week to petition for things or not. You have time. I have some options here. I've been discussing this with an expert. OK. I sent I sent out I called up the bat signal. And I said I sent a text that reads the following.
01:20:19
Speaker
It looks like I'm going to win this NJ cup bracket and get to choose something for Garrett to watch. Anything from childhood that Garrett hates as much as you hate Goldberg. And I got a response from Derek that said, I'll try to think of something cruel.
01:20:39
Speaker
And we said the cap was what, four hours, five hours, five hours. Because that's like that's like a night of WrestleMania, right? That's the longest possible single unit of wrestling. We can't make you watch the full marathon again of GCW during pandemic. Yeah, Derek and I have been to discuss it. One suggestion that Derek made that I'm not going to use, he has has has Garrett seen one night in China?
01:21:08
Speaker
And while that is a VHS tape at the back of your door, it's not one you've experienced, I assume. I have not. I feel like that would be pretty morbid, like more morbid than watching somebody die in the ring, like somebody just with mental health issues. Yeah, I feel like watching it when she was still alive would have been
01:21:37
Speaker
weird, but now it definitely would carry a little bit of an extra. I think it really, Chris, it boils down to you. How much do you want to imperil Garrett's actual mental health? Because I was also thinking about that, because Garrett, you were the one actually talking about making people watch things on repeat. Then that's what's got me to being like, we could do something where five hours could be somebody in a government program that's never the same again.
01:22:05
Speaker
I do have one pitch, I do have one thought on how to use the four hours that I think could work. It does make use of the concept of repeating something. I haven't decided if that's the one I'm gonna use yet or not. I just don't know. It's hard, it's very difficult to think about what are options. There's so many options in professional wrestling. Part of the difficulty, Garrett, is that you do like a lot of stuff that many people would consider bad.
01:22:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's you run into a wall there you could here's the thing you could give me something really good that I just find boring And I have to watch one really nice match on repeat for Fuck all right well listeners
01:22:53
Speaker
If you have any suggestions on what my punishment should be, reach out to Chris in facts, hit him with your ideas. All I'm gonna say is do your worst. I'm excited to see what this punishment is because you can't break me. Maybe we can get hashtag predetermined punishment going. If you had something just tweet it, you can tweet it at us, you can tweet it at the show, but just go hashtag predetermined punishment, then the MiGs will know that that's where he's looking
01:23:21
Speaker
for, for Lister advice, particularly if you want Garrett to see it coming, because I think this is something we now have a week that we're going to be renting space in his head listeners. So while Chris can only choose one punishment, that doesn't mean that Garrett shouldn't have seven sleepless nights thinking about what that punishment might be.
Mental Health Check-Ins and Farewell
01:23:43
Speaker
Fuck. Well, I hate that. I really liked when it was going to be all three of us, but now that it's just me,
01:23:52
Speaker
Yeah. I think whenever we do it, you have to let us know when you do it and we might just do like check ins as kind of like mental health checks. Like I'll check in for 15 minutes and Chris will check in. Maybe we'll see if Derek can check in. We can record a little audio as I watch whatever we're watching.
01:24:09
Speaker
We get you a little one of those medical alert bracelets, just in case. In case grandpa falls down, I can call. All right, everybody. Thanks so much for listening this week at pre-determined podcast on Instagram at Chris Miggs, at Gartet, at
01:24:27
Speaker
Jimmy Lloyd's IMDB page. Jimmy Facts. Jimmy Facts, which is Jimmy Lloyd's facts machine, which goes to the porn store, which is then what they scan and put up to his IMDB page, because all of his credits from this point forward are going to be available in that VHS store. I feel confident. Yeah. Well, be kind, rewind, hit our goddamn music.