Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Predetermined: A Pro Wrestling Hangout- Episode 006- AAW Showdown: The Boys Get Worked
54 Plays8 years ago
This week Garrett & Derrick talk about a visit to the Pro Wrestling Tee's store in Chicago to meet NJPW star Tetsuya Naito followed by attending their first AAW show! The boys recap the entire show including a very controversial moment and watching a wrestler successfully work every single person in the room!
Recommended
Transcript
First In-Person Recording
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to Predetermined, a pro wrestling hangout. I am your host, Garrett Callender, and with me as always, the man who is actually in the same room as me this time for the first time in the history of the podcast, Derek Halpin. I could reach out and touch the man. I'm gonna reach out and touch you right now. Can you believe this shit? We're in the same fucking place at the same time now? I know. Did most of you people even know we weren't in the same place other than we told you that once? Yeah, we told them once and they probably didn't think about it because we've done a good job of hiding that fact.
00:00:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think we've hidden it well, but guess what? I'm here, we're gonna do this.
A Day in Pro Wrestling
00:00:33
Speaker
We just went to an AAW show tonight. We also went to the Pro Wrestling Tea Store to meet Nido. It's been a big day for us, a big day of Pro Wrestling. It's been a long, productive day for Pro Wrestling and we're home and we're here to kind of give you guys the recap on how the day went, how the signing or the meet and greet went and how the show went and long night at Logan Square Auditorium.
00:00:57
Speaker
Long night, but a good night. Hit our goddamn music.
00:01:35
Speaker
Where do we start, man? Like, should we, uh, do we start with, uh, I mean, our day started by going to the pro wrestling tee shop. Uh, that was my first time going there. We went there to meet Naito. Yeah. Um, this was your idea. You had gone out of your way to go buy a ticket to go see, uh, Tetsuya Naito. And, uh, I went along. Um, we met some cool people at the, uh, at the, uh, signing and, uh,
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, I was just kind of excited to get you in the store for the first time, too. I mean, that was a whole thing on its own. Oh, I mean, that was a place I would have gone regardless of him being there. Right. Because they sell wrestling shit. Lots of wrestling shit. Lots of wrestling shit. And we're wrestling fans. But yeah, the signing was from noon to two. You had to buy a ticket to get in. They gave you a shirt. I always fuck up saying it. Los Encobanables.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah. No, that sounds good. That sounds good. I'm not going to take a crack at it. Somebody's going to be like, you did it wrong. You said it wrong. You think you know real wrestling fans. At this point, we are recording this at like one 30 in the morning after a long night. I don't have the shirt in front of me. Give me a break, man.
00:02:45
Speaker
We got there, line was like down the street. We were outside, it was cold, but it wasn't bad. I think about this a little while ago, actually. I think we actually spent more time in line inside than we did in line outside. Which was nice. I did wear the new Japan tracksuit. I felt like it was appropriate. I needed to wear that. If I'm gonna meet him, I had to put it on. You were turning some heads, man. Yeah, I know. It's a flashy piece of wrestling clothing. You were complimented a couple times on it, I think.
00:03:13
Speaker
It is a little uncomfortable, as a man who just typically wears wrestling t-shirts and jeans anyway, you know, I usually don't get compliments on those. Well, you stood out today, and you walk up there to meet Naito, you get your Wrestle Kingdom program signed, and... That if you recall, Hangman Page did not sign a few weeks ago. Hangman Page is a good man, and he didn't sign it.
00:03:38
Speaker
Appreciate
Meeting Naito: A Fan's Perspective
00:03:54
Speaker
more smiley than I would have expected. Unlike Dalton Castle who's in character the whole time, Naito not in character when he's sitting at the table signing like pretty nice smiling stands up to get in the picture immediately. Nice guy. Immediately in character for the picture like holding the eye open but then immediately smiling and saying thank you. Yeah. Like I mean you know our interaction with him was
00:04:08
Speaker
it, Hangman.
00:04:17
Speaker
It was brief, but again, we didn't know how much English the guy could speak, and obviously we didn't have enough time to have a full-fledged conversation. But it was nice to us. We got our picture taken, which is going to get posted, I guess, probably in the next day or so. I'm guessing you've probably already seen it at this point. If you're listening to this, it was probably below the link that you clicked to get to this. Yep.
00:04:39
Speaker
but you know that store was really cool um as far as it I mean it's cool that a store exists that pretty much only sells indie wrestling shit I mean there's some stone cold in there there's legends there's legends but for the most part like if you walked in you'd be like holy shit
00:04:56
Speaker
There is a Bullet Club store. It's basically a Bullet Club store for the most part. It's like, do you want a Bullet Club shirt that has the Chicago flag in it? Yeah. I don't know. That's a pretty cool store. And then also they had a spot where you could actually go if the shirt you wanted wasn't in stock. You could find it online, order it and have it printed while you were in the store.
00:05:14
Speaker
Yeah, you have a lot of options while you're in there. And I think it's super cool that One Hour Tees was getting to a point where they realized probably a good chunk of their business was going to pro wrestling fans buying tees from them. So they were like, well, fuck it. If that's what we're doing anyway, we might as well have a little store connected. And what's funny is there's even a spot where you can tell who was using that store the most because there's a thing that says a door that says Authorized Personnel Only and Colt Cabana. Yeah.
00:05:44
Speaker
So we yeah, but night Oh made some fucking money today. Yeah, what do you say about it was 50 bucks for the ticket? Yeah, and you got to figure he's probably taking home at least what 40 of them I would guess that it was 40 because it this show tonight that he performed at it was 40 bucks to get a picture in an autograph man
00:06:04
Speaker
And the line today was so long, and then they sold out of the tickets, but if you showed up, they were going to let like 50 or 60 people show up at the door and pay 60 bucks at the door to do it. Well, here's the thing. It was supposed to be from noon to two. And we were like in the middle of the line, and we got up to meet him around 2.15.
00:06:25
Speaker
Oh, yeah. By the time we left, that's when the line was finally getting all the way through. So I mean, I mean, clearly he went over, but I think they were kind of prepared for that. But once again, like, if I have to wait in a line, I want it to be a wrestling line. Right. Because you can talk to anybody about anything. Lots to talk about. Everybody's there for the same thing. And I feel like lately I've just had really good luck with meeting cool people. Yeah, we made some friends today. Yeah, made some friends. Met up with them at the show later. Yeah.
00:06:53
Speaker
So, I mean, overall, like, that was a good start to the day. Good start to the day, and then we went off to get, like, a late lunch. Yeah. If you took you to Devil Dogs, it may pop up on some of our social media. I showed Garrett a place to get a good chicken sandwich. He told me it was the best chicken sandwich he had ever had. And then he proceeds to not get the chicken sandwich that I told him to get. It was pretty good, though.
00:07:15
Speaker
I'll tell you, that devil dogs, they fry that away. That is pretty pleasing. It's a hot dog place, but they make a damn good chicken sandwich. So it starts snowing. That's the other part of the story. So we go out of our way to go get Naito to sign his program.
00:07:32
Speaker
and we're transporting this program back to my apartment here in the city and all of a sudden big snowstorm starts and my friend here has to hide his Wrestle Kingdom program in his coat. Yeah so me walking around like clutching my peacoat like I've stolen something like walking through the grocery store was the weirdest part when you went in to go to the ATM like
00:07:57
Speaker
It felt like I had stolen something and I looked guilty. Yeah, and the thing is and you're wearing the tracksuit under your coat I've got a fucking tracksuit on under a pea coat So if anyone had stopped me and they're like what do you got under there? And I had to pull it out like I'm trying to decide if that's actually more embarrassing it's like I'm clutching my prized possession of Of Nido's signature, which was pretty intricate
00:08:19
Speaker
It was a good signature. So you're walking around in your coat, in your tracksuit, and you're wearing your St. Louis Blues stocking cap, and a Blackhawks fan corners you on the street to say nice things for the most part? Yeah. I mean, honestly, that could have gone either way, but I tried to shut it down quick by just like... You were being positive. I was being positive. I've been on a positivity kick lately. New day? Yeah. It's the power of positivity, baby. It is. It's like those bootyos get in your system, man, and it just comes out of you.
00:08:48
Speaker
Ew. Ew. So anyways, yeah, we get at lunch, we come back to my apartment, we hang out for a little bit, and then it's time to go to the show. Well, I guess in the meantime, while we're hanging out at my apartment, we're watching some... Oh yeah, we did. We watched wrestling. We did watch some wrestling together. You know why? Because that's what we fucking do. We just watch wrestling all the time. That's how we kill time to go do our job. We got to kind of create our own little card by watching a couple matches you picked first.
00:09:15
Speaker
We watched El Generico versus Kevin Steen at Final Battle. And then we watched Joey Ryan and Candice LeRae against the Young Bucks. Yeah, the Gorilla Warfare match from I believe the pay-per-view or the PWG show was called 11. But as far as, this is hard to believe, I had never seen that Kevin Steen, El Generico Final Battle match.
00:09:38
Speaker
Pretty good wrap up to a story that they'd been doing for almost a year there and fucking brutal. And the thing is, I guess Kevin wrote that all down prior to them doing it, the whole year. So they Randy Savage steam boated it? I guess. Because isn't that with WrestleMania 3?
00:09:59
Speaker
where Savage and Steamboat had that awesome match and supposedly they had choreographed the entire match beginning to end. Like nothing that happened was... Oh, I was just telling the whole story. I wasn't even talking the match. Oh, you mean... The culmination of that match with... I mean, the final battle match was the end of the Steen generico feud there in Ring of Honor.
00:10:20
Speaker
Oh, you meant though, like he had... Yeah, Kevin wrote the whole story for the whole year. He wrote like an arc of it, like a season of a TV series. Yeah. And that was like the symphony. I mean, that was their masterpiece was that final show, which was Steen losing and leaving Ring of Honor.
00:10:38
Speaker
I think the most fucked up part of that whole match, it is a very bloody match. Everybody's busted open. He's a bloody demon teddy bear in that match. That is a great way to put it.
00:10:53
Speaker
Yeah, that dude's fuckable in the bear community. I'm sure he is. I know some bears that when
Wrestling Storytelling: Steen vs. Generico
00:11:00
Speaker
they see Kevin Steen, they... Oh, he's adorable. They pop. They pop. Not that kind of pop we're used to, right? Both. Damn both. But no, by the... He's gushing blood out of his mouth, and it's so dark. And you can see that it's just pulsing out of him. And by the end of the match, they've wrestled so fucking long that they've both stopped bleeding.
00:11:22
Speaker
He put it to you this way. If you haven't seen it, go on YouTube, type in Steen Generico, you'll find it. At some points during the match, he's drawing on himself with his own blood. I think he writes die or kill on his bicep and then licks it off. Yeah. He licks, he licks Generico's blood off of his palm. Yeah, he does. So then you're like, oh, I got one for you. I mean, they're pretty good. They're pretty good friends. Yeah. Would you drink my blood?
00:11:51
Speaker
You've known me a long time. I think if you got me in front of a bunch of people.
00:11:57
Speaker
Like if there was peer pressure, maybe. Yeah, like it's more of a dare situation. Yeah, I think it's different. If we were in the privacy of our own home and you're like, drink my blood, I'd be like, ew, no. But say for a podcast where it's only audio, the only person that's seen it is me, like you're not really getting anything out of that. No, that's horrible. But if there's like 1,000 people in a room saying like, oh shit, is he going to do it? I'm going to feel like they don't think I'll do it. I got to do it.
00:12:26
Speaker
I mean, I appreciate that you're willing to do that for your art form. I'm committed. You don't have any blood-borne pathogens, do you? I don't know. Thanks. I don't know. Well, maybe you need to get tested before we do this. I mean, Cowboy Bob bled right in the taker's mouth. Yep.
00:12:47
Speaker
Were they good enough friends? Like, do you think- No, they weren't. Do you think in retrospect- No, Mark was pissed from what I hear when he found out. He just bled right all over. What is his voice? He's kind of Southern, right? Mark? Mark. Or cowboy. Mark Callaway. Undertaker. Actually, earlier today we were having a conversation about like his Undertaker ever pitched just like really shitty ideas.
00:13:15
Speaker
Because he's a guy at this point who could probably get away with it, right? He could pitch the worst fucking idea and they'd be like, come on, Taker, he's like, I've never said no. I've never said no. I'm asking for this, Vince.
00:13:28
Speaker
on my way out I don't even remember what we were saying like he was gonna come out on a motorcycle but dressed as the undertaker and his hats gonna fall off and I wanted him to ride the motorcycle from Ghost Rider oh yeah like you wanted him to yeah that was gonna be silly yeah I'm sure the undertakers had some terrible ideas maybe he doesn't give a shit
00:13:49
Speaker
I don't know. It's hard to say what he thinks. He's a company guy. Yeah. He's a company man. So company guys usually don't bitch too much. I've been pretty easy going with this Vince. I need the ghost rider bike. Did you ever hear the story about
00:14:06
Speaker
Undertaker taping his hands up before Shawn Michaels versus Steve Austin at WrestleMania 14? No. No, there was there was a lot of suspicion that HBK was gonna do some fuckery and try not to lose the stone cold at Mania and you know taker being the leader of the locker room
00:14:26
Speaker
when they went out for their match, I guess he taped up his wrists and taped up his hands, popped open a chair, and then sat right by the gorilla position and was fully prepared, like if Sean pulls some shit, he's coming through that curtain and getting his ass beat. And so the story goes, as soon as Austin hits the stunner and the ref counts for one, two, three, Mark stood up, took the tape off his wrists and went to the hotel.
00:14:56
Speaker
I love his position in the company where everybody just kind of accepted, well like they always said that they had wrestler court and Undertaker's the judge of wrestler court. And that everybody's just like, no that makes sense. He's the Undertaker. Well I guess once or twice they tried to, Triple H tried to be the judge for wrestler's court. Of course he did. And it was not well received. Yeah, no shit.
00:15:24
Speaker
How many times do you think he's pitched that in meetings where he's like, hey, I think that next week I should be a judge.
00:15:32
Speaker
No, you don't just get to be the judge. Vince was probably like that gimmick infringement, because he's worn the judge's robes and had the gavel a couple times. Wait, has Vince been in charge of wrestler court? Guaranteed not. He doesn't even know that wrestler court's happening. That would be not surprising to me at all. He'd be like, what? They're holding secret meetings in the locker room and I didn't know anything about it? They're trying to unionize. And he just loses his shit.
00:16:01
Speaker
God, we were telling the story about Candice LeRae and Joey Ryan's match against the Young Bucks. Because that was the other match we watched before we went to AAW. Oh yeah, we just watched two brutal, bloody matches. That Gorilla Warfare match, there's a couple fun spots in it. Oh, Kevin Steen is- He's on commentary. He's on commentary. I didn't know that going on. And him on commentary is just delightful. Because what we were saying about that, it's like he's no longer a heel. He's just a fan. He represents all of us.
00:16:31
Speaker
Like hearing him shout at the young Bucks when they're getting close. Nick. Hey, Nick. Hey, Nick. Over here. Like a fan who's really trying to get the attention of their favorite wrestler for way too long. And how there's a moment in it when the Bucks pull out a bag of what is presumed to be tax. And when they're not looking, Joey Ryan replaces it with the gummy bears. And he ends up getting put onto the gummy bears himself and sells it.
00:16:58
Speaker
No, I had never seen that match before so that was we both shared a couple favorites Yeah, we bonded the way it's supposed to be it's like wrestling Christmas around here. Yeah, it is like wrestling Christmas I don't know like I didn't feel like lately just been meeting good wrestling people Making the people we've met today. We're gonna meet I'm gonna meet up with them in New Orleans. Yeah He made some WrestleMania buddies today
00:17:20
Speaker
Everyone and a little jealous you got a bunch of people you know across the globe now I know now I'm just at this year's mania meeting up with some people from LA Chicago and Australia man of the people man of the people
00:17:36
Speaker
You know just you know you I have I've no I've said this on here But wrestling fans a lot of us don't go outside. I'm doing it for you right now I'm going outside and going to these things But you need to go outside and go to these things talk to people have fun go to these shows There's nothing better than live wrestling and making friends at wrestling shows and it for some reason you can't we're here for you Yeah, just keep tweeting at us We're doing it. Yeah, we're
Exploring Wrestling Venues
00:18:02
Speaker
doing it
00:18:02
Speaker
So, so we, we, we do a little intermission here at my apartment, watching some wrestling and it's time to go to the show. I had never been to the Logan square auditorium here in Chicago before first time there. And, uh, we walk in and I was blown away. I mean, it was a great setup in there.
00:18:19
Speaker
I'd only been there one other time. It was for a Crystal Castles concert on New Year's Eve like years ago. But that was not a good representation of what that room was going to be like for wrestling. Awesome room for wrestling. I mean, it's kind of just a big ballroom. Yeah.
00:18:38
Speaker
Plenty of space, they had a balcony, they had like a, what would you call that? Like risers over there in the back? And then where the stage is there, they actually still had seating on the stage and the stage is kind of flush with the ring. So if you end up on that, you have a great view too. There wasn't a bad place to watch a match in that room. No, Logan Square Auditorium, great place for that. But one thing I think is really interesting as far as
00:19:05
Speaker
like an indie promotion goes, AAW offers a season pass to the wrestling fans. I would have fucking killed for that at PWG. Like. Probably wouldn't have been cheap. Oh no, I mean like even theirs isn't cheap but.
00:19:21
Speaker
Like, uh, my buddy Metal Dave... Hey, Metal Dave, thanks for helping us get the tickets tonight. And thanks for listening. Yes, and thanks for listening. Uh, Metal Dave is gonna join us in the near future to, uh, tell us about... He got a master's degree recently, and in his, uh, his thesis, he did write about Roman Reigns, so we're gonna talk about how he used wrestling in his... to get his master's degree. That's gonna be one fuck of an episode. Oh, I'm excited for that.
00:19:45
Speaker
But, uh, Metal Dave does have the season pass, and that means they have the exact same seats every time. They have, like, second row. And I think he said it was, like, 450, 480 bucks, or something, for 13 shows. And getting, like... Same seat every time you're in there. Knowing that you don't have to show up super early, and, like, you can just go right to your seat. That's perfect. That's convenient.
00:20:06
Speaker
Yeah, it was a good crowd tonight too. They did a good job of if somebody in the crowd was doing some bullshit that they shouldn't, people shut it down pretty quick. One guy tried to start a CM Punk chant for like two and a half seconds and then everyone kind of booed him and shut that shit up.
00:20:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, Indy shows at this point. I mean, you're in Chicago, so it's bound to happen. Yeah. I mean, I guess I'm assuming kind of our listeners are going to be on the same page with us and maybe I shouldn't. You know, again, I don't really have any outward negative feelings towards CM Punk, but doing a CM Punk chant means fucking nothing at this point. And it's just kind of a waste of time. So it is a waste of time.
00:20:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't know what unless that's your way of expressing like displeasure with the product that you're seeing in front of you. But even then, that's there's other ways to do that, like his name. But yeah, no, that got shut down really quick. Just to like break down a little bit of the venue, like the way the rows are set up, what it was like probably like five rows deep. Yeah.
00:21:04
Speaker
and then behind like standing room behind that standing room which was very spacious yeah pwg if you were in the standing area they put you behind the seats where you're pinned against a wall with a seat in your dick or your vagina
00:21:21
Speaker
But it's just like pending like if you have to go to the bathroom You're like you're fucking stuck and with this like I could have I could have done some break dance Yeah, there was enough room to move around and people to walk by and and yet you're still you still have that feeling that you're right at ringside that was what I thought was so cool is that if Well somebody what you were saying there if somebody dies out of the ring a lot of time They'll dive right into like the first and second rows, okay?
00:21:46
Speaker
Thank you for bringing that up, because I had to ask people about that. I was a little caught off guard with how close the barricades were to the ring. It had to be no more than five feet, four feet? Yeah, there was like, I mean, we saw a couple topae suicidas, but other than that, there's not room for diving, or doing flips and everything. There's no space for it. You could really get fucked up on those rails.
00:22:15
Speaker
So we didn't see a lot of high flying outside of the ring tonight. But we did see a very large man. Good God.
00:22:26
Speaker
I don't know if you guys have heard of him. This was the first I'd ever heard of this man. We saw a guy wrestle tonight named AC Baby. AC Baby. A-C-E-Y. Baby. What did they say? I mean, they said his weight, but... Wasn't like 450 pounds. That seems high, but it doesn't looking at him. Maybe it was...
00:22:47
Speaker
I don't know. Let's be generous and say 400. It was around 400 pounds. The guy was very, very large and in a four way, a fatal four way. He was over. He was over. He got a please come back chance. I have to see a lot. That's one of the things about going to an indie promotion you've never been to before. You don't know if there's storylines or like guys that have something going on.
00:23:10
Speaker
So unless you have somebody explain that to you, you're just kind of going in blind and just kind of have to read the crowd. But that match, there was a guy named Paco. Hometown guy. Pretty small guy. Like probably about the size of... I would say like he's not much bigger than Leo Rush. Like maybe a little bit, you know, young kid. Huge pop for Paco.
00:23:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean an easy way to get the crowd behind you is announce where you're from. Yeah, just say the word Chicago, Illinois. Who else was in that match? We had AC Baby. Your guy was in that match. This guy came out with a really wicked haircut and a scarf. The second I saw this dude, this dude's name, according to Twitter, because I have to look up these names, his name was MJF.
00:23:54
Speaker
And the second I saw him, he had that punchable face, that punchable heel face that you're just like, this guy never gets to be a baby face. And he just basically spent that whole match just being a piece of shit to everyone in the match. I loved him. Yeah. He was the best. And I believe- Tell him why you love him. Well, when he was announced as, he's better than you and you know it.
00:24:20
Speaker
He definitely has learned from the school of Miz. Yeah, that was the thing that stood out to me is when he did come out, you could tell he had taken notes from watching the Miz. Oh, he was good. And then a guy named Hakim Zayn. Yeah, I thought he was actually pretty athletic too. As far as the guys in the match, I remember him being the most athletic. Yeah.
00:24:41
Speaker
Like, he was the most, like, normal-sized wrestler. Well, you could tell they were gonna base a lot of the stuff that happened in that match around Paco and Hazim. Yeah. Yeah, Hakeem. Hakeem. Hakeem Zayn. Gotcha. There was a spot in that match that, like, I wanted to throw up after it happened, so...
00:25:05
Speaker
Paco was trying to give AC baby Paco, let's say 150 160 pounds. Yeah, definitely 205 live material. Absolutely Tried to do a Canadian destroyer to Paco. No Paco tried to do a Canadian Who did what? Who did what to who? But like, you know what a Canadian destroyer is? Yeah, where
00:25:27
Speaker
They do the flip and they fucking... Yeah. We have wrestling action figures. I have a couple figures. I feel bad. I feel like some of my favorite podcasts, they reenact each other with figures to do this. Garrett, just to be clear, Garrett has my Carlito action figure and my Kevin Owens action figure. And he's reenacting. Yeah, cool. I just watched two figures do a flip. Yeah. But either way, let's just say 160-pound guy could not get 400-pound guy all the way over.
00:25:56
Speaker
400-pound guy lands on top of Paco and bends him in half. Yeah, it's kind of like open a folding chair and then fold it up. Yeah, he pretty well got crushed. He had to take a breather. Yeah, he powdered for a little bit. He spent a good few minutes just laying on the outside of that ring. Yeah. That wasn't even the first match of the night.
AAW Event Highlights
00:26:20
Speaker
That was actually match number two. Do you remember who went over on that one?
00:26:26
Speaker
Oh, Paco had to have gone over, right? Yeah, he went over. I don't remember who he pinned. He may have actually pinned AC Baby. He may have gotten his revenge. No, I thought he pinned Hakeem. Okay, which is surprising. They definitely were the two most active. Yeah, it seemed like they based the match around those two guys, which is fine because they can move.
00:26:44
Speaker
Yeah, the, uh, the first match of the night. The opener. Before the match we just got in talking about. The opener was, uh, David Starr and Eddie Kingston. Eddie Kingston. Which somebody kind of explained to us that in AAW there was some kind of match and Eddie Kingston had to hand over his career to David Starr so like he's just like in charge of his career now and he has to do whatever he says.
00:27:07
Speaker
really that's what that's what somebody was telling me but he fought uh dave christ christ christ the uh o oi 4k okay they're uh impact guys right now i know they've started doing pwg since i've left it was a fun opener yeah it was it was fine kingston has some heat
00:27:27
Speaker
yeah yeah that one like honestly not like a whole bunch to say after that though we got a Jeff Cobb and Desmond Xavier that was that was a lot of fun though I mean if you've seen Jeff Cobb like big Hawaiian guy former Olympian like you know when you say you watch wrestling and everybody's like oh like collegiate wrestling yeah he did that kind of wrestling and then he did pro wrestling and then he did pro wrestling but Jeff Cobb is just a meaty like beefy motherfucker he like I
00:27:54
Speaker
I have actually only ever seen Cobb is baby face, and tonight he was heel, and as far as I could tell, the only thing that made him heel was he wet his hair, and I actually leaned over to you, I'm like, with wet hair, he kinda looks like a dick. But here's the thing, they could keep telling me he was a heel, but like, it's like- He didn't do anything heelish. In certain situations, what you find out is that a guy is a heel or a baby face, depending upon how much the crowd, he's over with the crowd.
00:28:22
Speaker
Well, he did interfere in that first match, though. Yeah. And he was doing heel shit in the first match, but in this match, he was just a guy wrestling another guy. I don't know. Desmond Xavier was really good, too. Well, the crowd was behind him. The thing is, it was kind of a both these guys type of match. Yeah. But I think there's just something really likable about Jeff Cobb. Like, where you say that MJF guy has a really punchable face, like, even as a heel, Jeff Cobb just has a face that, like,
00:28:49
Speaker
You feel good about it. I had never seen him before. That was your introduction. Correct. He put off a very Samoa Joe type vibe about him. OK. Maybe not as far as girth, but he had like a similar, I don't know. He has like a similar build. Yeah, something about him is. And I guess that's kind of the attitude he portrayed tonight. But normally he's just kind of throwing up the hanglooses. Well, Joe does those too. Yeah, he teams up with Matt Riddle a lot.
00:29:18
Speaker
who's the bro and they're they're like team bro they're pretty good together but yeah that was a good match uh let's see Cobb went over on that one then we hit Jesus Christ the besties okay my favorite oh god
00:29:37
Speaker
So it's Davey Vega and Matt Fichit. So a lot of these guys, like I've heard of Davey Vega, but there were a lot of guys I was seeing tonight for the first time or just hearing of for the first time. They seem, these guys seem pretty over with the crowd. The crowd, AW crowd, good crowd. Like they were definitely behind their dudes. I'm literally sitting here trying to decide if the Besties were my favorite gimmick of the night or DJZ.
00:30:02
Speaker
Holy shit, we wait till we get to DJZ. Let's get let's stick to this one I know I'm just sitting here because I was about to say oh, that was my favorite part of well Okay, just to start it up. This was a tag match the besties They they were the tag champs and they were going up against Trey Miguel and Steven wolf
00:30:23
Speaker
Who kind of gave me like a boys vibe like Dalton a little bit. Yeah, especially like the way their tights were colored Yeah, and they had a lady or the the besties had a lady with them as well. That was a bit of tension Scarlett Bordeaux Scarlett Bordeaux. Yeah, which we were both a little shocked with with Miss Scarlett
00:30:42
Speaker
She was, uh, she was very, uh, scantily clad, scantily clad, very, very revealing choice of wardrobe. It was very attitude era. It felt that way. Like I was, I was telling you this earlier. Like I was kind of, I was taken aback. Maybe not necessarily in a negative way, but it had just been, it had been so long since I had seen like a valet or a manager wear something that revealing. I was like, Jesus, oh, I forgot this was part of pro wrestling.
00:31:07
Speaker
Maybe that's naive of me. I don't think it is as common now. To me, the last one I can think of is Taylor Hendrix in Ring of Honor. But I think we're so used to that not being the case anymore. Yeah, it's changed a lot. Not that the women aren't sexy, but they're not sexualized as much. And she was wearing clothes that
00:31:32
Speaker
It was impossible for her to not be sexualized a little bit. It was, yeah. Both going silent on... But they led to a pretty uncomfortable moment a little later in the show. Yeah, we'll get back to that. But anyway, the besties went over.
00:31:57
Speaker
Let's see. Awkward, awkward interaction between partners because Scarlett Bordeaux was getting the attention of Vega.
00:32:07
Speaker
What was next on the end? That's what I'm trying to find here. Let's see, Kurt Stallion and Jake Wayne Holmes against Colt Cabana and Chuck Taylor. This was fun. That was just, I mean, it was just a fun match. Like when- Chuckie T coming out and then you're, oh, who's he teaming up with? Boom, boom. Boom, boom. There he is.
00:32:30
Speaker
Those two guys just work so well together. Chuck Taylor is one of my favorite wrestlers right now. He's just so funny. Yeah. And he can, he can work, but everything he does is just so funny. Like, and it's the way he does it. One of my favorite things he does is like when he goes to the top rope and just shouts the word murder before he does a move. Well, I'm glad you brought that up because it's something I wanted to ask you if I could go on a quick tangent. We're talking wrestling. This is what we do on this podcast.
00:32:54
Speaker
One of the things I actually feel like a company like WWE doesn't do enough of is the guys in the ring don't talk enough.
00:33:02
Speaker
Yeah, like it's something that like Kevin does and there's like one or two other guys who like shout things or interact with the crowd like I don't understand WWE like doesn't do it but like if you watch a young bucks match the whole time like before they'd like Superkick somebody you'll hear them shouting like you're dead and then like do it Yeah, especially like you would need to mic a Chuck Taylor match. Why is that not a thing? Do you think?
00:33:26
Speaker
I mean, they've got cameras from every angle. You know they've got stuff miked by the ring. And this is the way I've always looked at it. I've never actually worked a match, if you can believe that. You would think that talking and talking a lot during your match can mask you communicating with your opponent. Because if you're constantly doing it, it doesn't seem out of place when you turn and give the next round of shit that you're going to do.
00:33:56
Speaker
You're right. Do you think in WWE it's only because they do talk so much in the ring? I don't know. I feel like at these indie shows, I don't really hear them calling their spots and shit. No. But in WWE, you catch them doing it a lot. You catch them calling their spots, but it would work well. It would work to their advantage to talk and interact with whether the fans are your opponent a little bit more. I feel like the only talking you hear is them bleeping out Kevin Steen shouting fuck all the time.
00:34:25
Speaker
I don't know I just it was something that I noticed again tonight and another indie show was just like part of the show is getting to hear them yell things at each other which makes sense I mean if you if you're recreating a fight
00:34:38
Speaker
you would be talking shit to the guy you're trying to kill. But do you think it's, like at an indie show you're in an intimate venue where Chuck Taylor's saying something and the whole crowd hears it and is laughing. Well no, I totally get that not the people in the 300 level aren't gonna hear it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need to happen.
00:34:56
Speaker
It also could be because Randy Orton just doesn't have anything interesting to say. And why spend the money on a microphone near the ring if you're just gonna, I mean. I'm not comfortable with how often things come back to Randy not giving a fuck.
00:35:13
Speaker
Like I went to school with his brother. Yeah, you did you know? Nathan Nathan Orton a cross comedian. Yeah, that means cowboy Bob was in my vicinity probably helping him move in at some point That's weird. That's pretty cool questions. Do you have for him? Why'd you do that?
00:35:32
Speaker
Exactly, exactly what I was going to say. Why'd you do it, Bob? Crazy thing. My buddy, Ben Volker, his dad was a pro wrestler, tag team partner with Cowboy Bob. His name? Also Cowboy Bob. They were the Cowboy Bobs. They should call themselves the Cowboy Bob Band. That would, like for real though, Randy Orton at that point, he's like, I'm going to smoke you like my vape pen. I don't know. But you know what I mean. It's just a weird, Rock used to do it.
00:36:02
Speaker
When he would fight Austin, he would shit talk him in the ring. I just don't feel like it's a thing you see very much. I don't know. Maybe it's not looked at as tough. Because I feel like a lot of the stuff I'm hearing them say in the ring ends up being funny. And WWE doesn't want to be funny. Or do you think there's not enough guys who know how to do it right? Like, I'm going to get you. I don't know. I thought it was pretty funny when Cena was like, now, Shinsuke.
00:36:27
Speaker
Now, Shinsuke! I was laughing. Or Brock Lesnar going, all right, big man, you gotta help me out when he says that to a fucking Braun Strowman to do this. Well, I guess technically the most famous one of all time is the Suplex City bitch. And technically, I don't think that was supposed to be caught. You were there for it. Yeah, I didn't get to hear it. I saw you tweet about it after, and I was like, what does that mean? And when I rewatched it when I got home,
00:36:54
Speaker
I was in fucking tears. And that's a moment that I would love to think wasn't scripted. I don't think it was. He was just really fucking into what he was doing. He was like, that maybe was one of the few times that Brock was just like, I am having fun suplexing this Samoan guy. He's getting paid millions of dollars.
00:37:15
Speaker
to be in the main event at WrestleMania, chucking a giant Samoan across the ring and he's like, he's not losing. I mean, he's losing his belt, but he's not getting pinned. Like suplex city is like, uh, I think people are getting a little tired of it at this point. The shirt's a little old, but had a great run. It suplex city had a great run. Like hearing him say suplex city, bitch, like I'd listen to Lesnar do 45 minutes of standup. I just listened to put a mic in front of him and tell me what he has to say. Lesnar and Netflix special.
00:37:46
Speaker
What am I here for? What do I gotta do? Just tell stories. Just talk. I'm a dairy farmer. Is he? Yeah. He's out there milking the cows. I'm a fucking dairy farmer. Lesnar has layers, man. He's a lay. He's an onion. You gotta peel those back and under there is still just a terrifying man. All right. So isn't there like an awkward thing coming up here pretty soon? Yeah, and this is funny because to go back on these matches and like read them, I'm on AAW's Twitter page.
00:38:15
Speaker
and they left out a match. So I can't even credit one of the wrestlers in it because I don't know his name.
Controversy and Characters
00:38:22
Speaker
So we're sorry. Sorry about that. But there was one other wrestler in the match that kind of surprised the entire audience. That person being Big Mike Elgin.
00:38:33
Speaker
Why don't you let the people know what Big Mike Elgin is notorious for at this point? I don't know the full story but Big Mike is one of the few wrestlers right now that is caught up in the middle of sexual abuse scandals and it has to do something with his company Glory Pro which was a St. Louis
00:38:52
Speaker
company or a St. Louis wrestling thing. That's actually where Nido is wrestling tomorrow. He's wrestling A.R. Fox, which I know some of our listeners are going to be at Dalton. Enjoy it, brother. I think that's going to be a good match. But something along the lines of one of his workers for his promotion.
00:39:11
Speaker
was accused of sexual assault? Was this rape or sexual assault and Big Mike calling the girl a slut? And defended this guy. And defended the guy. It sounds like he defended a rapist. And it sounds like a piece of shit. Okay, so we started Now Say Something Nice, and my original wrestler that I was going to use for Say Something Nice, anytime I have to say a wrestler, I just don't understand the appeal. It's always been Big Mike.
00:39:38
Speaker
I have seen Big Mike wrestle a lot, and every time I see him live, I'm just like, man, it's a Big Mike match again. I just, I don't get into it, but now I can't even say something nice about him. Here's the thing, if you hadn't told me that, there was nothing about him that stood out to me.
00:39:53
Speaker
But he walked through that curtain, because tonight's show, I don't know if we said this yet, was a mystery. They announced Nido and Callahan. The show immediately sold out, and they said, you know what? It's a mystery show. You're not gonna know who's coming on to this because it's already sold out. You're gonna be here regardless. Why not keep it a surprise? Which I enjoyed. I thought that was nice, because you don't know who's gonna come to the curtain. But it turns out sometimes a surprise isn't good. Big Mike comes through. There was so much tension in that room.
00:40:21
Speaker
It wasn't the right kind of heat.
00:40:41
Speaker
in front of us. Two guys like no joke like almost fought each other getting in like a political like screaming match like an ethics argument like an ethics or whether or not he should be there you know performing and it was fucked up
00:40:57
Speaker
I actually just saw some pictures when I looked at AAW, not AAW's Twitter, but the hashtag for the night AAW Showdown, and there were people that actually stood and put their back to the ring for the match, and they had to have known that this match was just fucked up. It was just a negative vibe, and it couldn't have ended soon enough. It ended in like four minutes. Yeah, it didn't last very long. And here's the thing. So what happens, that's what everyone's talking about, and then boom,
00:41:24
Speaker
Dude. Intermission. Oh yeah. That was the last fucking match before intermission. They cut that so that we all get to go stand around for 20 minutes and be like, that was fucked up.
00:41:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think you said, you turned to me as soon as I went to intermission. I was like, you're like, great. So this entire crowd is gonna turn to the people around them and start talking about rape culture and. And I mean, not that we shouldn't be talking about that. No, but it's a weird thing to inject into the middle of that show. It's definitely not what you want at like a fun night out. Yeah. Like the conversation needs to be had, but 20 minutes in between the next match. But you shouldn't be using it to get heat.
00:42:04
Speaker
And you shouldn't. And I don't think that they were. Like, I don't think they knew that the crowd was going to react like that. And I think the match ended early on purpose. Yeah, I think so too. Because the tension in that room was high.
00:42:17
Speaker
Can you imagine how embarrassing that was? It's embarrassing enough that AAW, in their list of matches throughout the night, left it out. They left it off Twitter. It is not on Twitter at all. Like, I'm guessing when a DVD for that comes out, that that match might be left off. I'm sure. Because it's only four minutes, so they're not cutting out much. But Big Mike left with his head down. He, like, got the fuck out of there.
00:42:39
Speaker
Got the message? That was fucked up. And he fought Naito in Ohio last night. So Naito came to the States for like three shows. Ohio, Chicago, St. Louis. And he still fought Big Mike in Ohio. I don't get it. I know Big Mike is probably the reason that Naito's even here. Right. Because they're both in New Japan. I don't know how much Naito even knows about all that. I mean, it's possible. I don't know. So we come out of the intermission.
00:43:09
Speaker
which we're down at that point. The crowd, the energy level has dropped, morale is low. It's kinda weird. You know what we forgot to mention during this whole thing is Jimmy Jacobs came out. They did an entering segment with ACH earlier in the show where they congratulated him for being the new AAW champion. The Chicago comedian Marty DeRosa. Came out to interview him. And surprise, Jimmy Jacobs shows up.
00:43:36
Speaker
Mr. Jacobs got a little heat. Jimmy Jacobs got some heat tonight, and it was kind of surprising. I wasn't expecting him to be there. No, like, honestly, like I he's somebody I don't even think about. I kind of forgot that he's back on the end, that he was a possibility. Yeah. So he comes out, challenges ACH to a championship match that night, and he accepts and that's really badmouthed ACH like he like hit him hard. He's like, Oh, fuck. He's like, New Japan kicked you out. Ring of Honor kicked you out. Nobody wants you. Yeah.
00:44:03
Speaker
Everybody knows you're not that good. ACH said WWE fired you because you couldn't even be a writer. Are they going to fire you for being a bad wrestler tonight? Oh yeah, he did say that. So they booked that match and that's going to be the secondary main event under Naito and Callahan. But we come out of
00:44:22
Speaker
We come out of the intermission. We come out of the intermission for the AAW Heritage Championship match, which I guess is, what would you say, like the equivalent of like an intercontinental title for them? Yeah, it's clearly their secondary bolt. Yeah, it's like, you know, something just to throw in there.
00:44:37
Speaker
Yeah, but it was a pretty good match. It was Trevor Lee, the Carolina caveman. Big fan of Trevor Lee's work. Seen him a shit ton at at P.W.G. And you know, if you're watching Impact, he's he's on there and he'll always let you know it at an indie show. He'll always pull the announcer aside and he would like us to remind you that he is a DNA superstar.
00:45:02
Speaker
And he went up against, maybe my favorite act of the night was DJ Z. I had never heard of this guy. Jesus, dude comes to the ring. Picture Jericho's jacket. Jericho's jacket mixed with Naomi's, the colorful entrance. Mixed with fucking daft punk. Yeah, that was like the daft punk robot thing going on. He comes to the ring. And anytime he hits a big spot in his match, he points back to the entrance and screams DJ.
00:45:29
Speaker
So yeah, there's a balcony with the sound guys and like where the like DeRosa and I don't know who their other guy on commentary is but every time he points up there it makes the that sound.
00:45:47
Speaker
That was over with me. Oh, fuck, immediately. Every time he would do this one move. That was never not going to be funny. I was kind of sad that he only did it a couple of times. I think it was like four times. Because that's something after I hit any move. If I had the option of hitting that and just pointing at a guy. The funniest thing he could have done would have been a spot where the other guy hits a big move on him and he's down and he's crawling, but then he does it from like a prone position to motivate him. No, I just thought it was a great gimmick. And it was a good match, too. He could really.
00:46:17
Speaker
He did some high spots there. At one point they were both up on the turnbuckle together and he did like a head scissors back into the ring. They kicked the shit out of each other. Trevor Lee, they were both just really good workers. Trevor Lee didn't do my favorite move though. My favorite Trevor Lee move is he jumps up and gets both feet on your chest and just stomps you into the ground while you're in a standing position. So DJ Z comes into this match as the Heritage Champion.
00:46:47
Speaker
I think it surprised everybody. He walked out without that belt. Mr. Trevor Lee left with the belt. Yeah, I think we saw a title change tonight. I think everybody was kind of caught off guard by it. But, okay, so after that though, most uncomfortable thing of the night. Yeah. The besties come back out after... I don't even remember what they came out for. Well, the two...
00:47:15
Speaker
uh cowboy motherfuckers what were their names like jeff something something jake something jake something jake something i can't remember what the other guy's name was they wrest they wrestled the match um against colt right
00:47:32
Speaker
I'm looking through this and because I'm seeing like Kurt Stallion and Jake, Jake Wayne Holmes. Yeah. But I guess when he first came out, everybody in the crowd didn't know who he was. And it just became a thing where it's like, what's his name? I don't know. It's Jake something. So he changed his wrestling name to Jake something. But his name is Jake Wayne Holmes. And they came out and challenged.
00:47:55
Speaker
the besties for the title. And when these two motherfuckers came out, no joke, they said, isn't it awesome that Big Mike Elgin's here tonight? And like, they read, they just, they just addressed the elephant in the room directly.
00:48:11
Speaker
and the crowd just got silent again. But then when the Besties came back out with, what did you say her name was? Scarlet Bordeaux. Scarlet Bordeaux. I feel embarrassed that you're just like, what's her name? You know her name. You know her name. You're in charge of her name. Thanks. Because it's not written on the Twitter. So they beat the shit out of the Besties, and then after praising Elgin, beat the shit out of this woman. Yeah. And then leave.
00:48:38
Speaker
Here's the thing, if Big Mike hadn't been there, wouldn't have thought of anything of it. No, because we've talked about intergender wrestling and that got huge heat on them, but the fact that they bring up a rapist, or not a rapist, but like a sexual assault character. Somebody involved in the sexual assault game. Fuck. That's the most tension I've ever had at a wrestling show.
00:49:03
Speaker
And then Scarlet gets laid out. Pretty big, like they slammed her. Oh, and then they put her in like a choke hold and like, it was honestly like kind of fucked up. It was a little bit fucked up. Especially just because of the big mic stuff. But let's move on to one of the most wild matches of the night. Like, not even wild in a way that you're expecting. Jimmy Jacobs versus ACH.
00:49:29
Speaker
for the AAW title. First of all, Jimmy Jacobs comes out to...
00:49:37
Speaker
He comes out to goodbye horses, you know, from Silence of the Lambs. And I didn't realize that Jimmy Jacobs gimmick is that he's the, what is it, zombie princess? The zombie princess. He is getting heat. That whole match, like he's getting you can't wrestle chants, like just fuck you. Not well liked. And it's not a good kind of heat. Like it's like people just genuinely just ugly.
00:50:00
Speaker
It's just like they don't want them there. And honestly the match wasn't super exciting. They went into a series of just chair spots where basically the focus of the match became how can we use this chair in different ways to hurt each other and that was the way it was for it seemed like what five minutes? It felt like much longer than that but you're right like in the middle of the match you kind of figured it out because we had been watching all these indie style matches
00:50:23
Speaker
where it's kind of really fast paced, a lot of big spots, a lot of good, like big moves. And this was more of a main event style match. It was a slower paced match. And so we're sitting here watching this and Garrett turns to me at one point and he says, I feel like the crowd's not into this match as much. Well, Jimmy Jacobs pulls off one of the greatest things I've ever seen. I don't.
00:50:49
Speaker
I don't even know how to talk about it. How do you intro it? I don't know how you intro this. So he does, he does a spot, Jimmy does a spot where he flips over ACH and he lands on his feet. But as soon as he lands on his feet, he immediately collapses and screams fuck and rolls out of the ring and rolls over to the corner and then like rolls out on the mat. The ref comes over and checks on him, checks on him for a few seconds. Then he calls over the ring announcer.
00:51:14
Speaker
and like gives a motion to him like, it's done. Yeah, the match is like, clearly Jimmy's hurt. Like legit shoot hurt. Like they call ACH over, ACH is down on the ground with Jimmy Jacobs. Yeah. The crowd, like you could hear a fucking pen drop in that place. Yeah, it's quiet in Logan Square Auditorium. Oh, also it's Jimmy Jacobs birthday. Oh yeah, I forgot, he announced that it was his birthday. And he also announced that he was from Chicago now. Yeah, so now we don't know what is actually true. Yeah, it might have not even been his birthday. Maybe not.
00:51:43
Speaker
But so he goes down, he's got an injury. He's fucked up. And so they bring everyone out of the back. They bring out the promoter. They bring out a bunch of people. And they're helping him up on his feet. He's got some issue with his leg. He's fucked up. And I turn to Garrett and I go, I think he's legit hurt. And the match just kind of stops. And they start helping him away. And when he pops up,
00:52:12
Speaker
Well, here's the thing. Everyone in the room is sympathizing with him now. He goes from being the most hated man in the room to everyone going, well, this is what we want. He just broke his fucking leg on his birthday. That's sad. Yeah. When he pops up from the floor, though,
00:52:29
Speaker
tears. Yeah. Actual tears are streaming down his face and then he just puts his face in his hands and then just smashes his fist on the ring. It's like, God damn it. Fuck. Like, like he just knows that he's sustained like an injury that's going to keep him out for a long fucking time. Like we thought like possibly like a career ending thing or just like a really fucked up. Just gonna fuck up the immediate future.
00:52:51
Speaker
And so then, you know, he screams fuck. He's like throwing like a temper tantrum as much as he can because he's not moving very well. The cameramen are confused. Yeah, like the people from the back are starting to come out like ACH is helping him up and he is like he's having a hard time walking. Yeah.
00:53:10
Speaker
The whole crowd is now chanting Jimmy Jacobs. Yeah, I mean, everything's turned. Everyone's just like, hey, they're chanting for him, wanting to get well soon, presumably. Because even if you don't like a guy, there's still a point. You don't want anyone to be hurt. And you still have respect for anyone who steps in the ring. Right.
00:53:31
Speaker
motherfucker. Jimmy Jacobs turns and just punches ACH, like lays him out, throws him in the ring. Motherfucker worked the whole room. Everybody. Everybody. Anybody who says that they were in on it is fucking lying to you. There had to have been three people in on that, and it was ACH, Jimmy Jacobs, and the ref. It was brilliantly executed.
00:53:56
Speaker
And then like the match was just like immediately over. It was like he rolls it back in. ACH gives him a brain buster onto the chair. And it's over. It's over. But that was one of the single greatest spots I have ever seen in a wrestling match. Like pulled off. Like successfully pulled off.
00:54:12
Speaker
because the thing is, we're watching a match, the match kind of, I don't want to say it sucks. But at a slower pace, it was like a TV mess. It's kind of boring. And then that happened, changed the whole dynamic of the room, got the whole fucking crowd to cheer him. Right. And then when everyone realized they had been worked, everyone was fucking pissed. Right. Nobody liked it. Oh, I can think of a couple people who immediately liked it. Me and you? Yes.
00:54:40
Speaker
once I because that's the thing I'm still in that category of when you get me I'm I'm happy that you got me work me baby yeah and I just was like fuck everything about it was executed perfectly I my mind was fucked and like I don't know ACH beats him and you and I are just like fuck I mean I have to say though that is like for real
00:55:07
Speaker
I've been to a lot of wrestling. We've watched a lot of wrestling. I've never seen that executed like that. I've never seen that happen. That's a spot that pissed people off so much that after it was over, when I'm talking to people, I'm like, what about that Jimmy Jacobs thing? That was stupid. I hated it. I was like, no, you hate it because they tricked you. They got you. He pulled a magic trick on us. And it's a mean trick because it's such a weird trick because he's taking us out of the show.
00:55:35
Speaker
So the show's over at that point. We went out of the show. And we're empathizing with the person. Yes. To back end of the show. Right. Love it. I love that shit. And to me, it's actually fair game. It's not even like it's necessarily breaking kayfabe. A guy got hurt.
00:55:54
Speaker
Oh, legit hurting the match for anyone that doesn't know because I realized like we talk a lot about things like everybody knows what we're talking about already Jimmy Jacobs worked for the WWE. He was a writer Wrote a bunch of Derek's favorite shit right? Yeah, but you're everybody's favorite shit. He did all the Jericho Owen stuff
00:56:10
Speaker
Festival of Friendship, The List, he was really good. And he ended up getting fired because when the bucks, or the elite did the invasion of Raw, Jimmy Jacobs went outside and took a picture with him and put it on Instagram. That was not well received. Immediately got fired.
00:56:28
Speaker
But now he's back working the indies. He's back to wrestling again. Yeah, he was a wrestler before he was a writer. Stopped wrestling, did the writing, now he's back to wrestling. And then he blew my fucking mind tonight. Great spot. Jimmy Jacobs. He should be very proud of that. I don't feel like he's going to get enough. I mean, I get it. It's one indie show in an auditorium, whatever.
00:56:48
Speaker
No and I think we saw him outside after and he looked bummed out like he looked like he had a bad night and I don't think he should because he like to me that like it was like he pulled off the heist of the century. I thought so too. Like I want to I wish that he were here right now so I'd give him a hug and just be like hey man you no one's ever done this to me. I just want he should be proud.
00:57:09
Speaker
So main event time.
Main Event Showdown and Future Plans
00:57:11
Speaker
Main event. What everyone's there for, right? So you got Naito versus Sammy Callahan. Brutal. Brutal. Going into it, I told Derek, like on the drive there, I actually said, man, there's going to be a lot of spitting in this match.
00:57:25
Speaker
This is just two dudes that are gonna- That Sammy Callahan just fucking spit on everything. That dude has the most viscous-y, like, just thick slime spit. Can't just name it a slimmer. Like if I found out that that dude was like actually a men in black alien inside of there. Would not be surprised. Because that shit isn't human. But the match, like, Naito- Well first of all, talk about how well Naito was received. Naito looked like he was having the night of his life.
00:57:52
Speaker
he like that the cheers he got I did take some video of like him walking out we'll post those onto the Facebook page so that you can see but like that dude looked just so happy to be received like that
00:58:07
Speaker
From an American audience like that's the other thing is the new Japan the way that wrestlers are received or there's a lot different Based on your experience at Wrestle Kingdom. Yeah, it's a lot more polite and just like quieter entrances and this was just loud and rowdy this was just like everybody was losing their fucking mind and he still came out in the suit took his time and like Sammy's laying down on the ground board while he's like unbuttoning everything and damn he
00:58:36
Speaker
Yeah, it was a pretty quick match. I think I was expecting a New Japan style long match. It was about 14 minutes. It hit like eight seconds under 15 minutes. Right, so the assumption there is that he agreed to do 15 minutes. That he agreed to do a 15-minute match and do the exact moment that he needed to be done, because it was like 14 minutes and 50 seconds, he hit his finisher and we're like, oh, this is done.
00:59:00
Speaker
But, I mean, they beat the shit out of each other. It was a hard-hitting match. The crab is chanting, please come back. And he talked after and he made it seem like he would. He would, yeah. And I have to imagine he got a pretty good payday for that. That's a long way to fly to do three indie shows in the States.
00:59:18
Speaker
Yeah, so, I mean, the show wraps up, everyone's in a pretty ecstatic state, cuz. They just tore the house down. Fucking Nido. Nido and. Like, and the fact that Nido sold the place out when he was the only name attached to the show. Yeah. That's. Well done by AAW on that. Yeah, that's a good get for them. And honestly, just overall, two thumbs up on the show. I would go back to AAW.
00:59:44
Speaker
If you're in the area, totally worth going to check out an AAW show. They usually do two to three shows a month. Oh, I thought they just did like one a month. Oh, well, they got another one. Well, I guess if ACH won just a couple of weeks ago.
00:59:59
Speaker
Yeah. But that would have been in January. I guess. I don't know. I think because I believe Metal Dave said that you get 13 shows with the season pass. So there's like 13 shows a year. OK. Yeah. I mean, it's totally worth going. The venue was great. The crowd was great. Great wrestling fans there. I would I'm planning on going back.
01:00:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think they're having an anniversary show next month, and they're gonna have Jushin Thunder Liker taking on, do you remember who, I don't even remember who he was on that, but uh. He's the draw for the next show. Yeah, and that'll be a lot of fun. But this is something I wanna do more of, like I'm really interested in going to different cities and doing your indie promotions. So if you're in a city that has an awesome indie promotion I need to know about, let me know, because I'm actually very interested, I don't care where you're at. You're taking yourself on tour?
01:00:50
Speaker
I want to go on a little tour for myself. I'll travel to your city. I'll go watch wrestling. Let's hang out, man. Let us know on the Twitters and the Instagram.
01:01:00
Speaker
What's that? We can say something nice. Oh, damn. Were you not prepared for that? I wasn't prepared. Do you got one? For me? Yeah, I feel like we said a lot of nice things tonight. We were pretty positive. We were pretty positive, but let's say something nice. I guess to say something nice about somebody I have typically had a long history of talking shit on, I watched wrestling a lot through like 2003 to like 2006.
01:01:26
Speaker
and really got fed up with seeing Triple H be Triple H. A lot of world heavyweight title reigns. This was not particularly fond of everything from his promos to his, I don't know, not a big Triple H guy.
01:01:41
Speaker
But I'll give him the compliment that everyone else I'm about to give him. He's done some fucking amazing work with NXT. I think when he's not being a performer in the ring, I think he's got a great fucking wrestling mind. I think he understands how to book wrestling. I think he appreciates and respects professional wrestling.
01:01:59
Speaker
So in the words professional wrestling. Yeah, I like I emphasize that. And I think a big thing right now, two or five lives in the last couple of weeks. I don't think we've really talked about that has been it's different. It's been stellar. Like it's a show that I have not been paying attention to back to like I'm there now. Like that's that's something I'm going to tune into every week. This tournament they're doing is good. Yeah. So I guess the guy I don't like that I'll say something nice about Triple H.
01:02:29
Speaker
You're okay with me when it comes to NXT and- At the time you tore your quads was pretty cool, like it shows that you're tough. I guess you and Nash can bond over that.
01:02:41
Speaker
What about you? Somebody you don't like? Damn, like I was gonna say, like this segment basically originally was created to do this for Big Mike, but Big Mike fucked himself. Yeah, there's nothing he can do. And fuck Big Mike. Ah, fuck. This is really hard. Um, shit. How about Alberto Del Rio? That's one that was gonna make my list if he wasn't on yours. Yeah, I feel like there's definitely been times like
01:03:07
Speaker
I was there, oh yeah, he's just, I kinda snoozed with Alberto a little bit, and he's pretty scary. What do I gotta say, nice. I was at the Hell in a Cell where Taker and Lesnar fought each other in the Cell, but the start of that show was Cena doing the open challenge, and Alberto Le Rio came out, we were all very, what? We were just like, huh?
01:03:36
Speaker
I guess I'm really struggling right now to say something nice. Great physique. I like when he does that. Oh, here's something nice. I can't do this, and he can. Paige. Was that it? No, I was just kidding. Wow. Who went there? Yeah, no. He can do that whistle.
01:03:55
Speaker
He can do that really cool whistle. You know, like when he does like, you know, like some people can put the two fingers in their mouth, but he can do that without the two fingers. He goes like, and then like does the, you know, spins his finger. You're not even going to say he's a great worker. I like that whistle. He does. Okay. I think that's a nice whistle. Can you do it? No, I can't. I think, here's the thing. I think Alberto Doria was about as exciting as watching paint dry. I think he's a great worker, but I think there's a certain guys that just, that's just not enough. But he has that really good whistle. Okay.
01:04:24
Speaker
So the whistle is his thing for you. I'm saying something nice about the guy. There you go. I like his whistle. You met the minimum. All right, everybody. Thanks for hanging out with us this week. This has been a lot of fun. Follow us on the social media. Follow us at Wrestle Hangout on Twitter at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram. We are Wrestle Hangout on Facebook.
01:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, we're getting a lot of getting a lot of likes on Facebook and make sure you can add us our private accounts on there as well. You can get in touch with Garrett at Gartet and you can get in touch with me at Halloween Halpin. Hit us up. Message us anything. And if you could also do us a favor, if you get a chance and you're listening to this on iTunes, make sure to give us a rating and a review and subscribe. Please subscribe if you haven't already. Tell your friends, spread the word.
01:05:18
Speaker
Thank you everybody so much for listening. Please let me know the shows that are in your town that I need to check out. Let's get the fuck out of here. Hit my goddamn music.