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Double or Nothing 2024
71 Plays1 year ago
Chris, Fax and Garrett are back talking Double or Nothing, Iron Claw, ToS, death by Stretch Arm Strong and more!
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Transcript
Introduction and Weekend Recap
00:00:34
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Predetermined at Pro Wrestling. Hangout, Garrett Callender, Chris Miggs, Jimmy Fax, the whole gang is here, and we just watched a great pay-per-view. Two nights ago? Last night? Two nights ago? Two nights ago. Two nights ago. The days mean nothing to me. Yeah, the three-day weekend just explodes it, but yeah, it was Sunday night and it's currently Tuesday according to my laptop, so.
00:00:59
Speaker
I'm I'm all thrown out. Often I will get messages in our group chats about dynamite. And then I usually go, oh, shit, it's Wednesday. Dynamite's on. And it's like 40 minutes in tonight. Like an asshole. A, I forgot we were recording. Had to quickly make myself dinner. B, I'm like, oh, let me throw on dynamite.
00:01:20
Speaker
while I make dinner and then I'm so vexed. I'm like, wait, the NBA playoffs aren't dominating the time slot. Like what's going on? Like, why isn't dynamite on? I thought there was a conspiracy. These three day weekends really fucked me up. How many episodes of young Sheldon did you have to watch before you realized it wasn't coming? It wasn't coming, but I was a man.
Upcoming Wrestling Events
00:01:45
Speaker
It's a sexy show.
00:01:48
Speaker
Well, Annie Potts plays grandma and you know, she's still looking good. Still got it. Still got it. Yeah. So before we hit record, uh, facts was just saying this coming weekend, he might be going to the tournament of survival in Atlantic city.
00:02:06
Speaker
Yeah, like I I'm literally moving next Tuesday. So it's like my schedule is technically my calendar is fully blank for Saturday. I got stuff on Sunday. I can't go to the cage show, but.
00:02:23
Speaker
Like, I don't know, Atlantic City is like an hour and 45 minutes from me. Like, it's not short, but, you know, if I'm done packing by then, it's not it's not crazy just on a whim to just go and see a deathmatch tournament in Atlantic City. It's not. I just wish I knew it was competing on it. So I found a few names. OK, I think that's names. So I see Ultramandus, John Wayne Murdoch,
00:03:13
Speaker
Kamitani, Ishikawa, and Kirk. So, Casey, or, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
00:03:22
Speaker
Brandon. I'm pretty sure it's Brandon. I saw a picture, I think. Because you're right. I think Casey actually goes by her own last name now. So what I'm hearing is this is a GCW tournament that Jordan Oliver won't win. He can't. He can't. He's not in it. He can't win it. Look at the last name on that list. Just question mark? That could be Jordan Oliver. You might get Jordan Oliver's.
Iron Claw Movie Critique
00:03:51
Speaker
Didn't the question mark die? Too soon? It's the corpse of Terry Gordy. Terry Gordy's kids were watching the...
00:04:14
Speaker
the stuff with Destructo and Destro and what's his name? PCO. And they were like, OK, that's an act. Let's do it for real. Let's hire a real necromancer. They found a, you know, voodoo wizard. And yeah, it's going to be Terry Gordy. I will say that was one of my complaints about Iron Claw. I finally watched Iron Claw last week with my wife.
00:04:42
Speaker
and I felt like we could have gotten a little more free birds. Yeah, but after seeing the flare stuff, right, they would have just brutalized. Although I think, again, I saw it in theaters, I feel like the Michael Hayes guy was kind of okay.
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah, he was the Harley race was fine. It was really just the flare. It was really hilariously bad. I actually really I want the director's cut of that movie because it just feels like there's a lot that they just shot a lot of wrestling stuff and probably cut it back.
00:05:14
Speaker
because they, you know, looking at the run time and whatnot. So the director, the director is definitely willing to die on that hill because like after it just got a lot of criticism from critics, then it got even more criticism from like actual fans on wide for lease. And like he came out with statements being like, I think you're all wrong. I think everyone else in the planet is wrong. And I am right. And that was a great Ric Flair performance.
00:05:40
Speaker
I will say everybody I know that has seen that movie that is not a wrestling fan
00:05:47
Speaker
really, really loves that movie. So as far as hitting a movie that a regular audience could enjoy, they definitely nailed it. Oh, the movie's good. I'm not bashing the movie. I enjoyed the movie. I'm bashing the Ric Flair performance. Oh, you're saying he defended the Flair stuff? Yeah, he defended the Flair performance. And this is weeks after it came out, and it was universally reviled.
00:06:14
Speaker
This is like when it was in mainstream movie theaters. He was he was defending it as that was a good choice. Sorry, I thought you were you were saying he was defending the amount of. Yeah, of course he's defending the movie. Yeah, the movie is fine. I have no problem with the movie. I'll probably watch the movie again.
00:06:31
Speaker
Oh, well, for sure. Yeah, I'm saying strictly the Ric Flair performance is like I can't even and I'm saying, you know, you're a movie guy. I'm a movie guy. Like, I can't think of a more out of place performance in any movie of any kind than that. Like, it's an easy it'd be like if saving a private ride.
00:06:52
Speaker
Right, it would be like if they did Saving Private Ryan and then they had Dana Carvey doing Hans and Franz in the last 20 minutes as a Nazi. I'm curious, have you, so have you, you guys have both seen the movie before when it was in theaters, did your wives go with you, either of you?
00:07:14
Speaker
No, my wife doesn't want to see it nor mine, because I did rope her into seeing the the rise and fall of the CCW or whatever that world. Yeah, I would have brought the world like the one that was basically the documentary tragedy of a bunch of the in triumph for whatever they called it. Yeah. The one that was basically the documentary version of the movie. And she did not apparently know what was coming.
00:07:41
Speaker
Um, and never wants anything to do with anything about these men ever again. This is the vice thing killed him for my, no, didn't mean to say it that way, but yeah, the face dog really killed him. Yeah. Actually, I think something else killed him, Garrett. Um, but that's the thing I think with the Von Erics is I'm positive. I told my wife, this is going to be incredibly sad. It's going to, this is, I promise she's going to get very, very dark.
00:08:07
Speaker
And yet midway through the movie, she was like, you didn't prepare me for this. And I was like, I told, I told you, I feel like I really prepped you for this. And she's like, I think you can't possibly fully prep someone for the Von Eric story. Yeah. See my wife, I remember when we watched that documentary, so like she wasn't even watching it. I just say this is like a decade ago, right? And I just say that I'm watching it.
00:08:30
Speaker
And then she's just doing the folding laundry in the room kind of thing. She's like, what's this? And knowing it's about wrestlers, which wrestlers, who dies? I was like, oh, there's a couple.
00:08:42
Speaker
And then I even told her that there was more than one death coming. But it was one of those things like she gets kind of pulled in and like the laundry is done and she just kind of takes a seat. And then she blamed me afterwards where I'm like, you weren't watching it. I don't know what to tell you. I could have told you how it's going to end. But it wasn't your fault. Facts. It was a history, a family history of mental illness. Yeah, exactly. It.
00:09:08
Speaker
My wife was most offended at what they did to Mike's death. She's like, why are they making this poor man wrestle? I was like, that seems fair. That's fair. He just wants to play guitar. I think the way to get anyone to watch it now is to just say that you're putting on Ricky's to Nikki and let them find out the hard way that John Cena isn't wearing a dress in this movie.
00:09:38
Speaker
That's a much stronger, much lighter movie. There's some real dark stuff in that movie. That's actually, in terms of things that are out of context in the rest of the movie.
00:09:51
Speaker
Zach Efren's character having been horribly abused as a child. Very, very annoying. I'm gonna interject there though. That is not as uncommon. I'm not saying it's not bad, but like the comedic tone movies that have like this one dark secret thing to try to human. I don't know why screenwriters do this. That's like a, that happens a decent amount, you know? This one was weirdly dark relative to the rest of the movie.
Upcoming GCW Matches
00:10:18
Speaker
It's not a performance, I get it, it's different. The flair performance is bizarre. Well, but it's, yeah, yeah. It's weird for a movie where you watch John Cena give a circumcision with a cigar cutter. And also watch John Cena lick booze off the ground. I kinda loved Ricky Stanicki. I laughed a lot in that movie and I will not apologize for it.
00:10:45
Speaker
So it doesn't, you guys bringing Ricky's to Nikki up again, makes me think after reading the reviews of his performance in the iron claw, how many stretch Armstrong's did that flare, that that flare act or drink? Is he just in an alley somewhere in a trench coat with just a bunch of empty stretches around him?
00:11:13
Speaker
They're going to find him hanged by a loose, empty nest. The rest of them stretch Armstrong. But it doesn't work. It actually breaks because it's very weak without the liquid inside. It couldn't support his weight.
00:11:35
Speaker
Easily the funniest suicide is death by Stretch Armstrong. Oh my God. It's like, well, one wouldn't hold him, so he had to use the Stretch Armstrong and Stretch Armstrong's wiener dog. Oh my God. Chris, me and Chris are going to the sphere this weekend to see dead and go a few times. I think we're gonna be drinking several Stretch Armstrong's and watching the pretty lights.
00:12:02
Speaker
They've said you don't need to drink because the lights are so pretty. They will fuck you up. I mean, you never need to drink, right? I mean drinking just makes everything better. That's true.
00:12:14
Speaker
And we don't really know what the contents of a stretch Armstrong does to you. I mean, it. I mean, flares kind of indestructible. You know, frail made out of paper, but he's one in his 70s now. Yeah. The fact that he only had a heart attack in that last match is pretty remarkable. Biting people in restaurants. Yeah, it was like getting kicked out of TGI Fridays or wherever the fuck he was yelling. My favorite part of that story is he apparently ordered delivery from that place like two days later.
00:12:48
Speaker
I'm never coming back here. But they do have really good wings. I don't know anywhere else that can fry an onion like that. What about Hogan's? Don't trust it. It's the only place that will actually fry an onion instead of an oil in vodka. Fuck.
00:13:14
Speaker
But, yeah, we were talking about Atlantic City, right? And and so we're talking to obviously the big match this weekend, which I would definitely can't go to is Effie and Mance Warner, which the presumed blow off the presumed match where we'll finally get the fire. And we were looking it up. And Chris, I think you came in the green room like when we were mid conversation. I have the final. How many times?
00:13:39
Speaker
have Effie and Mance Warner wrestled in GCW this year, not in the last 12 months. I literally just went back to January 1st. Is this just singles matches or does it include tag team matches as well? I got the singles matches. We could we could definitely add some if we're getting tag matches in there. I don't know, like eight.
00:14:08
Speaker
That's actually high. That's actually high. OK. Because we were sitting here talking and kind of thinking about, OK, well, they had the one match where Mancer wanted to set Effie on fire and then Effie had the one where he tried to set Mancer on fire. So obviously this must be number three and somebody's getting burned. But then Fax started looking and more. Yeah. So we start with.
00:14:36
Speaker
a no contest that went 21 minutes, January 26th, 2024 in Tampa. This will not be the last match these two men have in Tampa this year. Then there is a couple tag matches. That was that look at me.
00:14:56
Speaker
Then let me see here. Where's the next one? So you have a budget. Then March, March 9th was Effie and Warner in the Atlantic City Strap Match. OK, that's March 9th. Then the I quit match was mania weekend. That's April 5th in Philly.
00:15:19
Speaker
That was an I quit match. Then we had the last man standing match May 3rd once again in the exact same building in Tampa, Florida. So they've already they've already done two singles matches in. What's the full name of the room? Let me give it the Egypt Shrine Center in Tampa, Florida. Now, again, I'm not being critical of this, mind you, other than the non finishes, which we've already talked about, but like
00:15:48
Speaker
I can't think of a GCW story that's run this long in a very long time. Yeah. I guess that's good that they're telling longer stories again. As long as they make with the fire. Right. Right. They're promising fire and yet they did fire on pay-per-view this weekend and beat them to it.
00:16:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's your jungle boy beat him to it. But like, I mean, they need both metaphorical and literal fire. I need both of those things for this to be satisfactory. And I swear if this is going to be another bullshit finish. I'm going to flip, but unless it's just like a long Janela joke and they literally this feud goes like twenty nine matches and there's never a real finish. Is he the Booker over there now?
00:16:44
Speaker
I have no
Tournament Discussions
00:16:45
Speaker
idea. He seems to have some stroke because I remember reading something about him, him being involved in the booking of the Blake Christians title run. Pretty sure it's Brett Lauderdale's kid. Big Blake Christian. Yeah, she's just she's tossing out the ideas. They were teasing Hammerstein again. It doesn't look like that's at least I don't know when that's happening.
00:17:15
Speaker
How often do they come? So they just stripped. Right. Blake Christian got stripped of the title. What? Yeah, you guys didn't see this. No, Cardona stripped. So it's like a storyline, but it was because he was supposed to wrestle at Cage of Death and is in Japan. And I don't know if they've already reinstated it, but I believe I had read that.
00:17:45
Speaker
Yeah. Fightful. I do. Matt Cardona strips like Christian of GCW World title. And then I think they said there's going to be like a mystery world title match this weekend or maybe not. Yeah, Christian was scheduled to defend against Joey Janela this weekend at tournament of survival. That's really what a we will not make it because the new Japan. Yes, Cardona stripped him of the title and vacating it. Obviously, Cardona, you know, GM in story, maybe in real life, who could tell?
00:18:15
Speaker
Yeah, I love the way. By the way, here's here's the exact tweet. Wait, here's the exact tweet or here's the exact quote for that. Cardona. Blake Christians in Japan wrestling at the Battle of the Super Junior's some flippity flop spotty shit tournament that he will not be making it back to the United States. Therefore, I'm stripping him of the world title. So so yeah, unclear to me without actually reading like a whole article if there's going to be
00:18:44
Speaker
another title match, you know, like to fill the vacated title. Danhausen seems available. Well, Danhausen won it for 10 seconds, what, like three weeks ago. Yeah. I haven't been following the best of super juniors. Is he doing well? Is he like in the end of the tournament basically? He, so I checked in after I saw that.
00:19:11
Speaker
And I think that was after the AEW pay per view. So I want to say this was like late Sunday night. I'm just kind of doom scrolling the dirt sheets before bed. And at that time, he was tied for the lead in his block. But with like a life, it was at that stage of the tournament with like two matches to go where like kind of everybody is at like 10 points, except for the couple of guys that are at like zero to four.
00:19:39
Speaker
Right, but the last, so the last block is Friday. Maybe it's a swerve, right? I think it's Christian's last block is, I think his is Thursday. But then the semi-finals are on Sunday? Monday, Monday, June 3rd. Maybe that's why, I don't know.
00:20:07
Speaker
I don't know. Is he an A block or B block? Because I have I have the latest updates and scoring from each on New Japan. 1972 dot com. All right, let's see. I see him. He is in a block. I see him in the A block. So he is. Yeah, he is at 10 points, which is for a four way tie.
00:20:32
Speaker
for the a block lead, and it looks like. I can't tell what matches remain for him because the scorecards really confusing except for the final score. The only thing they I mean, the only thing that may be. Oh, it looks like just one. Actually, there was just one match for each guy left, it looks like. OK. So it looks like he has food, Fujita. No, no, Fujita and Bushi two matches. I was reading it from the wrong direction. OK.
00:21:01
Speaker
This was as of Sunday night. Is that maybe they stripped him because he's in the tournament and New Japan was like, you can't be promising that you're going to be in New Jersey this weekend, because if you're going to be in New Jersey this weekend, there's no way you're in the semis. I don't think so. It could be honestly, they could just be booking by the seat of their pants and just being like, Guido's like, I really actually like this Christian kid. Maybe. I want you to do a few more matches.
00:21:30
Speaker
Or it could, again, just be an angle, right? And Blake Christian is going to show up at the show. And again, I don't know why you do the stripping him gimmick. I also feel like this had to be kind of like this is the reason why I'm saying book and see the best. It had to be kind of last minute, because otherwise you'd think that Dan has an angle would have been an optimal circumstance to vacate the title, right? Yeah. Like you don't do that two weeks before or three weeks before you vacate the title for real.
00:22:00
Speaker
Yeah, I'm, I'm with you.
Wrestling Shows and Skepticism
00:22:02
Speaker
I look, I'm just glad the next GCW show in New York is bloodsport because that can't lose. So yeah, we got tickets to that. You did already get them. We got to go. Yeah. What's that next month? Two months? Uh, two months, July, July.
00:22:19
Speaker
I mean, at this point, it doesn't even matter what the lineup is like that would be such an easy no matches announced purchase at this point. Bloodsport is what Vince always wanted WWE to be something you buy on brand name alone. The actual talent doesn't matter. Bloodsport achieved it. WWE never got there. Yeah. Josh Barnett's brand is strong.
00:22:47
Speaker
I mean, yeah, there is no one announced, right? Like other than they put like Masha. Josh, there's like a few people on the flyer, at least. So you kind of have an idea of a few people who are going to be there, but no matches. That'll be Masha working at GCW show in in Queens. I can't believe it. Brooklyn. Oh, Brooklyn, my bad. Isn't she from where? No, she from Brooklyn, I think.
00:23:13
Speaker
Or is it Brooklyn? I forget which. Mother Russia. No, I I like it enough that I will give Triller TV my money to watch their their Japan show. Oh, yeah, definitely.
00:23:33
Speaker
One thing I disagreed with you guys on the last episode is that you Garrett were even considering a world in which you would pay money to see an impact pay-per-view in 2024. I literally was driving and I got a text that came in so it lowered the volume as you said the amount that you'd be willing to pay and I didn't rewind. I didn't rewind because I didn't want to know because I didn't want to lose even more respect for you.
00:23:59
Speaker
For me, it's not even a matter of the money. It's just I can't imagine three plus hours of my time. On a TNA pay per view fair like like you could just rip rip through some old bruiser Brody matches or something during that time. Or watch paint dry. Yeah. Well, speaking of money that we spent on paper views. Oh, yeah.
00:24:24
Speaker
We all watched one together over the weekend and it was pretty good. It's good. Pretty good. Very enjoyable show. Um, I think we all kind of, this is the thing. Everyone was a little bit underwhelmed at the overall card, but it was also like it's AW. This is
00:24:43
Speaker
they don't miss on pay-per-view, and they definitely didn't miss with this one. And I do want to jump in on that. I think it was a little overwhelming on the top of the card. I think that the overall show card was strong. I think the middle card was strong. And I think, in retrospect, by the way, we kind of talked around this while we were talking live with Derek as well. I think this might have been the best night of women's wrestling.
00:25:14
Speaker
that AEW has ever put together. Both women's matches were very good. All three, I think you could say. What was the third one, the pre-show one? Pre-show match. If you count the pre-show match. I was kind of packing during that, so it seemed good, but I wasn't paying much attention, I'll be honest. But yeah, the Tony Storm match was great. And Mercedes, I don't know if I'm going to say she's been worth the wait.
00:25:40
Speaker
Um, I think, well, she just shouldn't have been on TV. If you literally just had her, she showed up once, like, like literally the wheel aspirating. She just showed up once in Boston, said I'm back. I'm not wrestling until we get to Vegas. She doesn't cut any promos. And then she shows up and does that match. She's the biggest star in the history of women's wrestling in AEW. Now.
00:26:07
Speaker
She might still be, but it's definitely not like an overnight thing just because again, it's been such a slog to get here.
Defending Matches and Wrestler Momentum
00:26:16
Speaker
Yeah, but that match was again, she really she did deliver and did remind us why we were excited two and a half months ago, which is good. And I'm into Willow and stat going at it. That'll be a really good food. Yeah. I mean, we saw that match they had in in Long Island. That was pretty solid.
00:26:36
Speaker
Yeah, but I'm saying like a like a big a big built up like pay-per-view type match, which is what I assume they're going to be building towards. Right. Right. Yeah, no, I think it was I think you're right. Facts relative to the last few shows where I think there was a real demarcation between the undercard and the upper card of the of the last like few AEW pay-per-views. This one was much more like the upper card and the undercard at all kind of
00:27:05
Speaker
mesh together it wasn't like oh shoot now we're hitting the real part of the show it was like no this is kind of fun all the way through and maybe it didn't hit quite the same peak um except maybe anarchy in the arena we'll talk about that but i think that it was a different sort of show relative to again like we went to like world's end right and that was very much like there's an undercard and there's three main events
00:27:29
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm not done bashing you guys for last episode yet. Let's go back to that. You two sounded like a couple of Valley girls with rich parents talking about Osprey. You're like, oh, Rodney Strong, it seems like a waste. That should be a TV match. Like, oh my God, Brittany's parents got her Alexis. Yuck.
00:27:47
Speaker
Like you spoiled bitches. Like Roddy Strong versus Will Ospreay is awesome. That's an awesome match in any universe. We get Will Ospreay every week. Like that match was incredible. I was ready for that match. I don't need Ospreay in the main event yet. Like the main event is great. Now we got MJF and Cole back. Like I don't care what they do.
00:28:13
Speaker
but just give me good Will Ospreay matches. And Brody Strong was always gonna be a good Will Ospreay match.
00:28:20
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't the best match of the night, but I think I think the issue there was that the finish was a foregone conclusion. That was my that was my issue with that match. Not that it was. And I think you could say that or, you know, and I think you could say that about a lot of the matches. Right. I think Mercedes was clearly go walking out with the title. You know, Osprey's clearly walking out of the title. The only thing that was clearly not losing was was Matt Taven. Right.
00:28:46
Speaker
Bat-Taven shouldn't be on television. He's a dangerous man. He's a dangerous man. Bat-Taven almost injured Will Ospreay and thus almost got fired on. And we'll never, and we might not know for weeks how much charisma he sucked out of him as well.
00:29:00
Speaker
And then, of course, swerving Christian. Derek was so mad about that, by the way. I was getting such angry texts from Derek, where he's like, that spot was bullshit. And it was done on outside interference. He's like, I get that Osprey's deal is to do big dangerous spots. But if Roddy was doing it to him, no one gained anything from him almost dying on an interference spot.
00:29:28
Speaker
Can't defend it. Can't defend it. He didn't die, though. We're happy he's alive. Well, and going to be wrestling on my TV more often, hopefully. Yeah. Yeah, but it's true. Like any of the I think all of the title matches, right? Like, again, Tony Storm wasn't losing, Swerve's not losing. Like, I think every single title match and since this is AW, that's like 70 percent of even Jericho, like we knew Jericho wasn't losing either.
00:29:57
Speaker
And he's, by the way, I, I kind of like this new Jericho, but man has this killed hook hook hooks. Momentum has just been killed dead. I am not excited to see hook on my TV just about ever anymore. And I was never a huge hook guy, but yeah. Yeah. I think they could have found some other person for hook to feud with to try to figure out what hook could be in a bigger match. Um, but.
00:30:26
Speaker
I don't know. Doesn't it help this new Jericho character though of Hooks gone forever and destroyed? Because what was the name of Jericho's new TV segment they're debuting? TV time. TV time with Chris Jericho. It's great.
00:30:48
Speaker
You know what, fuck all the new guys. Chris Jericho, let's keep it going. I like what's happening. Pull more into the Jericho vortex. Yeah, this guy, he always finds a way to bring us back. Yeah? He's been doing it for a long time, and sometimes it is unpleasant to watch, but he keeps finding ways. He keeps finding ways. We killed Edge, finally.
00:31:19
Speaker
He had a good run. And broke himself, literally. Like I told you guys, if you didn't see the pay-per-view, you should have watched it. But Edge basically straight leg jumped from the top of a steel cage to the floor of the ring. And surprisingly, broke his leg. The angle he had to do an elbow drop was a terrible, terrible,
00:31:46
Speaker
He had just straight down to go. He looked like a kid in the second grade whose friends dared him to do a pencil drop off that really high diving board. But the adults won't let you on, but none of the adults were around. So his friends got him to do it. But Edge didn't land in water. No.
00:32:09
Speaker
Remember the time this fine. Sid Vicious just looked, what'd he do? Like a double axe handle off the top rope and just, how did Edge, like how didn't both of his legs look, should've looked like Woody from Toy Story after that move?
00:32:27
Speaker
Just like, yeah, like it was literally like, hey, what happened to Chris's uncle Pete? Oh, he fell off the roof. So we're not going to see him for a while. Like he fell off a roof. Basically, the way a drunk uncle would at three p.m. on a Saturday when he wants to be watching football. But Aunt Elizabeth said he's got to finish the gutters before he's allowed to watch.
00:32:56
Speaker
Oh, not Uncle Pete. How old is he now? He's 50. It's pretty amazing that on a show with Chris Jericho, Edge was the drunk uncle. Yeah. Amazing. Truly amazing. Yeah, that was a good match though. Him and Malachi. That was pretty fun. Yeah, I continue to be wowed by this Edge run. He's amazing.
00:33:22
Speaker
He deserves big months off. This is the most I've ever liked Edge. I was always fine with Edge. I loved Christian. I always loved Christian of that duo. I really liked the Hardy Boys matches and the tags. I never really was into Edge like Main Eventor and WWE. A lot of that I missed. And when I came back and he was Main Eventor, I just wasn't there for it. This is the most I've ever liked Edge. Full stop.
00:33:46
Speaker
This is the closest Edge has ever gotten me into t-shirt buying territory, which I think shows how much I enjoy a wrestler. I am dangerously close to t-shirt territory. Dangerously. I have a 2008 rated R t-shirt. Somewhere in a bin somewhere. But those WWE t-shirts back then were dog shit. So I don't think I wore it very much.
00:34:15
Speaker
pretty sandbakery. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Chris, who's your t-shirt guy right now? All of them. Well, well, I buy, I very rarely buy AWT shirts because, uh, I feel like the quality and the designs not frequently the best. Um, I will tell you,
00:34:39
Speaker
I think for Forbidden Door I'm gonna wear a scapegoat t-shirt. I was about to say scapegoat. I knew that's where you were going with it. It's a nice shirt and I think it's the right call. That's fair. Either that or this Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody shirt that I'm wearing, but that's obviously not current. Nice.
00:35:03
Speaker
So Edge probably had the worst injury, but there are a couple other like big ouch moments, aside from Osprey landing on his head. But he seems fine, right? By all accounts, Osprey is not actually injured. No. Nothing we've heard, at least. The fact that Hook, Shabbatah, and Jericho took bumps onto dice for about 13 minutes, that looked painful as hell.
00:35:32
Speaker
Maybe it shouldn't have looked as painful as it did. I don't know, but it looks shitty. Just stepping on dice. Honestly, just looked horrible. Horrible. Fax, you're a board game guy. Tell us, does it hurt? Well, again, I'm such a game guy and the D6s they used, right? Your common six-sided die. I've grown dumb to it. So maybe they've just been doing flatbacks onto Warhammer tables for a while.
00:36:02
Speaker
Well, which reminds me, we got to talk about that, too. So I've been texting you guys. I know you didn't watch. They just launched. They did a preview game of the new edition of Warhammer that's launching. And the guys that played the game in front of a live audience and streamed online was Claudio Castagnoli and Kip Sabian.
Wrestling and Gaming Crossover
00:36:26
Speaker
Which is just such a bizarre thing I didn't expect to see in my YouTube feed until it happened.
00:36:31
Speaker
Did they become t-shirt guys for you now because they have similar interests? I think I'm I think I'm going to buy the actual Warhammer that Claudio came out with. And he wore a nice suit. Yeah, Claudio is definitely back to my A list. Kip Sabian, maybe I'd like him. It's unclear if he wrestles on TV anymore or if he's in witness protection or something. But who's better at Warhammer?
00:37:00
Speaker
So I mean, do you want me to spoil it? Yes. So I would actually say from the strategy I observed in a new game that I don't know the rules for yet, I think Claudio played the better game. He had a good cogent strategy. He executed on it. Kip Sabian won the game in the 11th hour with some kind of big gambit that scored a bunch of points right at the end. So he won the game. I think Claudio is the better Warhammer player.
00:37:30
Speaker
It's my hot take. I might regret this question. What is Warhammer? It is a tabletop miniatures game. So in this particular game, they play with little fantasy figurines that attack each other and you roll dice to determine who wins the fight. Claudio is playing these giant swole soldiers in armor.
00:37:59
Speaker
And Kip was playing as the army of Skaven, who are mutant rat people. And it's like kind of a Lord of the Rings, the kind of fantasy realm. With rat people, I really wish you all could see the disdain on Fax's face as he explained that to Garrett, like that Garrett didn't know Skaven. Yeah. Yeah. Did you know this, Chris?
00:38:24
Speaker
I mean, I had a general concept. I don't think I knew about the rat people. The rat people weren't really around as much when we were kids. It does make sense to me that Kip Sabian would be with the rat people. That seems about right.
00:38:42
Speaker
Yeah, Claudio has the vibe of like, I'm going to pick a big man. Hmm. I think it seemed pretty clear that they booked Kip first. He then talked Claudio into it. And then the reason they played is those two weren't that they just chose them. That's like the box set of the new game that's coming out as those two. So like those were the two that they were going to play. And then it was very clear once Claudio was on board, he's like, oh, yeah, I'm playing the big swole guys.
00:39:09
Speaker
And Kip was like, yeah, I wanted to play as them, too, but I think I figured, sir. I'm I'm curious, does Kip saving even have a T-shirt? He is. I'm sure he's got one on pro wrestling. He's he's got two on ShopAW.com. OK. One of them is him with just a picture of him with the box on his head.
00:39:33
Speaker
How many T-shirts does mother Wayne have? Does she have more T-shirts than Kip Sabian? Let's see. Are you just searching Nick Wayne's mom?
00:39:49
Speaker
I mean, that's the character name, right? Is Mother Wayne. Mother Wayne. She has one and she also has a family portrait poster. So she has the same number of items on ShopAWW.com as Kip Sabian. OK. The T-shirt, by the way, just says mother in big letters and then Wayne in much smaller letters below it. But it just. Just a T-shirt that says mother. OK.
00:40:19
Speaker
I mean, again, if you know if you're buying a mother wane shirt, you're in that mindset. I don't think it really matters what's on the shirt, right? You're buying that shirt. Yeah, that was going into the closet anyway. Right. I do like, though, that she's clearly Bigfootting her son. She's much more charismatic than him. Yeah.
00:40:47
Speaker
He's good at flipping around, but she's a character. I mean, I think she's doing whatever she has to do not to get him over, just to keep him away from Jordan Oliver. She let him go out on the road with him one time right before he was about to debut in AEW. And she's like, nope, nope, Mother Wayne's just sticking around, keep an eye on it. If they got to write me into the storyline, so be it.
00:41:12
Speaker
He kept Nick Gage sober. Like they have, I don't know why she doesn't want him around him. Like they have the same amount of charisma. They're not going to get into any trouble. Like if anything, that might be her other son and she's just trying to keep them away from each other. Yeah. So they don't figure it out. Fair point. They're like a couple of orange cats. Like they share a brain cell and they can't realize that they're from the same litter.
00:41:42
Speaker
Um, we did get to see at the paper, we did see dark speaking of, of merch, right? We got to see dark orange Cassidy, right? And we discovered that you could get Trent and Chuck on ringside collectibles right now for under $10 combined. So if anyone's out there right now, that's like, I could use.
00:42:05
Speaker
a Chucky T and Trent action figure. Now is the time. Orange is only like eight bucks. And that was a surge, right? He was the same price at the beginning of the show. We're pretty sure somebody was listening into our conversation because Garrett had it in his cart the whole time. And then when he went back, it had tripled in price up to about eight bucks.
00:42:26
Speaker
Yeah. So I did buy the Chucky T the other day, because I don't know, we talked about it on the show. I always thought like, you know, during my PWG days, like if there was just a Chucky T action figure at Target, I would have absolutely bought that. Why now? When it is a reality, did I skip it?
00:42:48
Speaker
Five bucks I had to get it. And my kid keeps finding it and kept trying to hand it to me like, can you open this toy for me? And I finally decided that night I'm going to go ahead and buy myself another one. I'll open this for him. I have never seen anyone lose interest in a toy quicker.
00:43:07
Speaker
Then when I opened that toy, pulled it out of the package, handed it to him, he gave it one look, sat it on the ground, and walked away. He has never touched it since. It sounds like your son has a little bit of Tony Khan in him. Oh, poor Danhausen.
00:43:34
Speaker
I think fairly rich Dan House and I think he's okay. I mean, he's got a rich friend that will buy him extraordinarily expensive comic books whenever he needs them. He just isn't allowed to wrestle. The one thing he loves to do that he got into this to do. You're right. It is safer. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
00:44:01
Speaker
I was going to say, one thing we didn't talk about yet is the main event, the 30-minute anarchy in the arena, that at the end of, I want to say, Fax said, I don't know, this one just didn't seem as wild as the rest of them. I want to defend that. I did say that. I've rewatched it.
00:44:25
Speaker
Because I'm like, you know what? We were all talking. Maybe I missed some stuff, right? I didn't watch the whole show, but I watched it. I stand by it. It was, again, compared to the other ones, not compared to a normal wrestling match. It was kind of slow and boring. They let a man on fire. They let a jungle bully on fire. He's a jungle man now.
00:44:50
Speaker
In fact, this was a stunt. This wasn't even like a table gets set on fire and someone gets thrown on top of it. Darby Allen came out with a flamethrower and Jungle Boy did a body burn on live television. Yeah, less injured than Edge, by the way. Less injured than Edge currently. Final countdown, great. On one end.
00:45:16
Speaker
Darby Pinata, great on the other end. Love Darby Pinata. Darby Pinata was brilliant. Whoever came up with that, which I'm guessing was Darby. I just think the middle was, you know, I don't know. Thumbtack Rainmaker.
00:45:36
Speaker
But that was cooler in concept than an execution. Him putting on the elbow pad or whatever. Yes, agreed. Was amazing. The actual Rainmaker was bar none. The worst Rainmaker we've seen in 15 years. You really think I rewatched it as well, and I honestly had just as much fun watching the next day.
00:45:58
Speaker
I took a note. I wrote a note on real paper. Oh, shit. We saying we got to talk about this because I was like, I bet you guys had the reverse of what I thought happened to me that because it's a great party match when you're just hanging out with your buds on, you know, on a call while you're watching it, have a couple of drinks, but watching at home just trying to like deeply watch it.
00:46:24
Speaker
Kind of a shallow experience. That's how I found it. I was stoned sober facts and I'd already finished my ice cream, so. Exactly.
Match Reviews and Opinions
00:46:32
Speaker
You weren't in your right mind, Chris. You know how you get after your ice cream.
00:46:38
Speaker
They I don't know the stuff with the final countdown, the the young bucks line. I guess I'm not really there. Someone got hit by a car. I think you're also forgetting how good the other anarchy in the arenas are. I just felt like this one, it had a lot of comedy, right? Like basically like all of those things you mentioned were like even the car spot was kind of a comedy spot in a way.
00:47:05
Speaker
Like what about Darby doing the coffin drop off of the hundred level down to the floor? That was awesome. Again, compared to the other and the arenas, like I'm not saying it was a bad time. What I'm just though, am I not remembering from the others? You're not remembering the six minutes of nothing in between each of those spots.
00:47:33
Speaker
six minutes of slowly pulling guys by the t-shirt through the crowd as nothing happens. Chris, whose side are you on right now? I'm on your side, Garrett. I had a good time watching the match. I don't like, I'm not necessarily like,
00:47:52
Speaker
sitting here rating any of these past ones. And I obviously recall enjoying the last couple of anarchy in the arenas, particularly last year was pretty great as well. This is the third one. The Kingston with the fire, right? Yeah, third. Third. Yeah, that was the last year was Kingston and Brian.
00:48:16
Speaker
Or was that two years? Because which one? There was the daddy magic one, which I just remembered. So the first last year was daddy magic, right? No, I think that's here before last year. Last year was the elite against the BCC. OK. Again, they're all I'm probably also.
00:48:40
Speaker
what stadium stampedes and probably also mixing in there because they haven't fully differentiated those things in the post pandemic area. I think anarchy in the arena is just a smaller building and an actual live crowd. Right. Although, no, they kind of similar concept. They did a stadium stampede in Wembley last year. So yeah, they have done stadium stampedes in front of a live crowd now.
00:49:08
Speaker
So I guess that's the only time they get a stadium is Wembley. Right. Yeah, they did anarchy in the arena a couple of years ago was the Jericho group against Eddie. In his group, Eddie mocks. You know, Ortiz, a couple other people, and then last year was a lead against BCC. Yeah, and I just feel like as a wrestling match,
00:49:39
Speaker
This was nowhere near those. I think this was just the spots, right? That was kind of my thing. And when it's just the spots to me, the spots lose impact. Like the Jungle Boy thing in particular, was it cool that you sat on fire? Sure. Was it like he came out covered in jelly? It was pretty clear, right? Like it wasn't, and it was totally out of context of anything.
00:50:08
Speaker
Yeah, I feel, I don't know. I don't feel like the other Anarchy in the Arena matches were particularly, I don't know, constructed. They were giant multi-man brawls. They did both involve Bryan Danielson. So I'm assuming they were a little, although this one did too. So I don't know. But you don't remember that it did. That tells you something.
00:50:34
Speaker
That was not a heavy Danielson match other than the final countdown. Um, and, and the finish, he was very involved in the finish. They, they should give him the new Jack treatment for the rest of his run. That just all of his matches for the rest of his run. They just play that song on loop the entire match. That would be hilarious. Very expensive apparently, but hilarious. Yeah.
00:50:59
Speaker
I don't know. I think you're being too harsh facts. I think it was a good time. Pinata Darby. I love any match with Pinata Darby. Pinata Darby is great. No arguments there.
00:51:13
Speaker
a little more blood like him like really bleeding like a stuck pig upside down would have just a little cherry on top. I wonder if it had more blood in the original script. And then after Edge exploded himself, they were like Tony was Tony Khan was like, you know, guys, maybe just let's dial it back. Like we already can't lose the entire roster in one night.
00:51:38
Speaker
We can still do the fire, right? Yeah, I mean, go for that. We can still we can still put out a derby. Yeah, of course. Tony just goes, wait, who's getting set off? Oh, jungle boy. Yeah, you can set him on fire. That's just not Danielson, please. Yeah, don't. You don't touch a hair in his head. Don't you dare touch Okada's beautiful hair with that disgusting jelly.
00:52:04
Speaker
Okada really didn't get up to much hardcore business. He mostly just brawled with Danielson. Yeah, I want to get in that that Rainmaker was so terrible. Like he was clearly really concerned with I don't know how to do this without killing this man. So like. Obviously, the right answer is you should have killed him, but right. I think Okada, this is just so foreign to him, like having to do this.
00:52:32
Speaker
Was it one of FTR that he hit the Rainmaker on? Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, I think it was FTR hair. Right, FTR gun. FTR gun. Yeah, FTR guns. Speaking of guns, I actually only missed one, I missed one and a half matches on this show. I missed the Bang Bang Gang match. How did that one, was it?
00:53:00
Speaker
That's good. Yeah, it was good. It was good. The Bang Bang Gang continues to be entertaining. I do. Juice is back. That's great. I do think, though. The pace of the match did still expose as much better as the guns have gotten. Right. Is that like when you have Death Triangle and Jay White, those are like legitimately four of the best wrestlers in the world.
00:53:27
Speaker
And then you put the guns with them, you know, you can tell the difference. But now that juice is back, I mean, I can't imagine what heights we'll get into. What an E.W. struggle that like guys like the guns is happening. The claim to where. I feel like guys who are mid level workers struggle eventually in a.
00:53:53
Speaker
It's just hard when you're at that not quite at that higher level. Well, I think at these big pay-per-view shows where you know every other match is going to get like seventh gear and you've never gone past fourth. And it's like I'm going to try fifth and even sixth and you're clearly just not comfortable there. And I don't know. Maybe the guns can get there at some point.
00:54:15
Speaker
clearly the claim to have had a much longer duration of like big pay-per-view matches and you're right, they never really got, or they never consistently got there. But again, like this is a ridiculously high bar. Like if you go to the pre-AEW era, if we were like, Hey, we're going to have a trios match and one of the teams is going to be Pac.
00:54:37
Speaker
Ray Phoenix and Penta. You'd be like, okay, I don't care who they're against. That sounds like one of the three greatest matches in the history of wrestling. Right? Like. No, I'm with you. I think. Yeah, I'm curious to see the guns don't feel quite like they peaked. They claimed really feels like they peaked. They peaked somewhere in early twenty three and it's just.
00:55:02
Speaker
They just seem out of stuff for them. Well, I think it's because the mic is getting better and the mic work, right? Because I think that they obviously had a much higher peak on the mic, but it just kind of wasn't sustainable. And as soon as you lose the titles, that kind of starts decaying. You're you're you're on rampage. Sometimes you're you're rarely in like the biggest spots on dynamite or collision. I think that that really hurt them. Whereas the guns.
00:55:30
Speaker
don't talk, right? Like one of the two guns is the butt of the joke. That is his role in his faction. So that's why it does also feel like they have some room to grow. Yeah, they do significantly less talking than the acclaimed.
00:55:46
Speaker
And, you know, if they do a bang bang civil war now that juice is back, you do juice and Jay against the guns at some point. I don't know who's the face news, the heel there. But I don't know. Maybe maybe that could be something kind of great. We don't need a civil war of the bang bang gang list. I hope it never happens. I hope it never happens. Yeah. But, you know, wrestling be wrestling. How did they redebut juice? Like, where did he come in in the match? He came in at the finish and knocked him. Yeah. Knock someone out.
00:56:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah, it was. I'm trying to think, was it the worst match on the car? I mean, again, that's still like a solid B plus. I'm trying to be the shortest. If you had to miss a match, that probably was the one unless there's something I'm forgetting. Yeah, that was a pretty reasonable one to I think to miss. Enjoyable match. Nothing. Nothing negative to say so much as you know.
00:56:45
Speaker
I was just funny. It was it was more than. I'm sorry, I was going to say I would say more than like Roddy and Osprey. It's the one that could have been a match on Dynamite. I will say there is.
00:57:05
Speaker
It feels, this feels excessive, but I feel like we have missed an opportunity so far. Cause I feel like all of us just wearing bang bang gang t-shirts together is just one of those things. Like what better way to like show camaraderie and take a picture that would embarrass our wives. If we're just all, if there's like seven of us just wearing t-shirts and just say bang bang gang. I feel like that's an opportunity we need to, we might need to,
00:57:35
Speaker
Maybe when next time there's a big P.W.T. sale, it's time to go all in and get our Bang Bang Gang T-shirts to. So again, if I'm almost in the T-shirt zone on edge, I am firmly in the T-shirt zone on Bang Bang Gang. Like when you were saying that, I was literally sitting here thinking, how the fuck don't I own a Bang Bang Gang T-shirt yet? Because you've been trying to figure out other places than a wrestling show to wear a T-shirt that says Bang Bang Gang.
00:58:03
Speaker
Guys, and I figured that out. You come to Nashville, the three of us, kid rocks big ass honky tonk. That is the perfect place to wear the Bang Bang Gang shirt. Then, honestly Nashville, not far from Georgia, we visit FTR hair. Shoot some guns with them. That's where the Bang Bang came from in the first place, right?
00:58:35
Speaker
And then you guys could visit me. I don't live that far from the original Bada Bing. That one writes itself. Hell, I mean, I'm pretty sure there's a wrestling t-shirt store in Vegas, Chris. We could go ahead and get a couple, just wear them to the sphere. Yeah, we'll check that out, yeah. I'd be one to bet you guys won't be the only ones in the sphere in a bang, bang, gang shirt.
00:59:03
Speaker
I think, you know, how many shows you go into? Two, three? Three. Three? I think you might even wear one. Mayor's a Bang Bang gang. Well, you know, he's matured. Younger John Mayer definitely was a member of the Bang Bang gang. Chris, did you ever read Jessica Simpson's biography? I have not. You probably shouldn't as a Mayer fan. He is an upset in person. He was mean to her. He was not nice.
00:59:35
Speaker
Oh well. What do you do? Yeah, I think especially if we if we get a group, we've been talking maybe about getting a group together for all out. I think if we do, I think I think we all wear Bang Bang Gang T-shirts together into it. So especially if we're getting a sweet 15 people wearing that Bang Bang Gang. That's what I'm saying. I it's almost like.
01:00:02
Speaker
We just tell everyone, so if tickets are like, let's say 120 a person, we just go, oh, the tickets are 150. And we just, we go into the suite ahead of them. And we just, you know, like the way you go to a hockey game and sometimes they'll give you a little giveaway. It's like already on the seat. We just put the Bang Bang Gang T-shirts on everyone's seat. We pretend as though it's a giveaway, even though we've just ordered them and charged them for it.
01:00:31
Speaker
It's a victimless crime. Oh, IHOP is going to be so bummed out when the Bang Bang Gang comes in to get our Rudy 2D Fresh and Fruities. Chris, did you hear back from the now arena? Are they selling us these tickets? They have not messaged me yet, but the tickets for the show aren't on sale yet. So maybe they're going to I have not gotten a holiday weekend. You know, they got a.
01:00:57
Speaker
They got stuff they gotta do, I'm sure. Get back in business. They probably have third-level lacrosse to schedule. I really hope this works out. I think this is really the most fun way to experience all out with the Bang Bang. And the Bang Bang gang t-shirt. It's the best of both. That might be a real requirement to get in the suite. I'm okay with that.
01:01:27
Speaker
I will be very firm on that. If you need me to do the talking, I'll be the bad guy. I'll be the guy who gets made fun of, part of the Bang Bang gang. Yeah. So.
Ethan Page's Transition to NXT
01:01:41
Speaker
Guys, I have breaking news that just popped up on my phone here. Someone has jumped from AEW to NXT.
01:01:54
Speaker
A-E-W-G-N-X-T. This was somebody like on AEW TV? Yes. Dan Hasen. No, not yet. Male or female? Male. Male. It's not Ricky Starks, is it? I hope not. No, no. Okay. Canadian. How about that? Canadian.
01:02:22
Speaker
Is Ethan Page over there? It is indeed. Ethan Page has debuted in NXT, apparently. As Ethan Page? Yeah, I think that's just his name, though. I do think that is his actual name. His real name is... No, it's not his real name. No, because he says his real name on the Toy Show. Yeah. He was wrestling as that for a long time. Maybe he just controls the name.
01:02:52
Speaker
Cause it's like, Julian is his name. Cause his website is played by Julian.com. Admittedly, Ethan Page is a much better wrestling name.
01:03:07
Speaker
That actually, good for him. I actually really do like Ethan Page. I think he's super charismatic. I think he's really likable. I mean, I was pretty bummed lately that he wasn't getting TV time. I did miss him. I'm not gonna watch NXT. He could do good over there.
01:03:30
Speaker
He's like a smaller star, but kind of other than that, like similar to like Jade Cargill, where it's like, I recognize that she belongs there. That's where she belongs. And I feel like Ethan Page, I don't know that he's going to be a big main event guy or anything like that. But like him is like a mid card main roster WWE guy. That seems like his destiny.
01:03:58
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like one thing WWE does well relative to AEW is making use of like utility guy types. Right. I feel like WWE has a much better sense of, okay, how do I, if I've got someone who's kind of a career mid Carter, not a main, not a main eventer, but how could I sort of like pump them in in the right places to sort of accentuate the overall show? AEW doesn't seem to do a great job of having that
01:04:28
Speaker
sense of moving people around and just kind of putting them in the right spot if they're not going to be top guys. Yeah. So I get it. Yeah. I think if you're not going to be a top guy in AWW and WWE is willing to have you, I can see why someone would want to move. If you can't get a shot at one of their 17 men's titles, that's a sign you should probably call the other guys.
01:04:52
Speaker
Yeah, he was. And by the way, you get an ROTV title shot, but that is the 17th of 17 titles. So yeah, like the the the very, very prestigious ROTV title that I have no idea. No, I do know who holds it. But he did get a title shot against MJF in his hometown.
01:05:13
Speaker
When they were up in Canada, he did have a main event on, I don't know if it was a collision or- I think it was a collision. Yeah, it's kind of his main event. I don't know, it always did seem though like he was kind of a big WWE guy, just as far as being a fan of things. And it seemed like as far as wrestling goals, he kind of, that was still, you could tell that was kind of a thing he still hoped to do, just since it was the thing he's watched since he was a kid.
01:05:42
Speaker
better now than a couple of years ago, I guess. Yeah. Not good for him. And look, it's going to be a week. It's going to be, we're going to see a lot more of this over the next couple of years. I think just people are going to go back and forth. It's going to be a thing. Um, I think especially in that midcard, you're going to see a lot of people go from a W to WWE just because I think there's more opportunity
01:06:08
Speaker
I think they sense more opportunity there, probably is. It's going to be really interesting times depending on how the AEW TV negotiations go. Yeah, I mean, if they are going to let blood back on WWE, Edge might go back in six months when they put them back together. It's all he wants is the blood.
01:06:30
Speaker
By the way, can we talk a little bit about because I mentioned the 17 a W men's titles. There's only two women's titles, three, if you count the R.O.H. one, right before we. What's the fourth one? The R.O.H. TV title. Women's TV title. Didn't know that existed. We saw we saw Billy Starks get crowned that. Oh, you're right. You're right. That's dumb. That's a dumb thing. Whatever.
01:07:00
Speaker
I'm not ending it. I'm just only helps. Only helps. My point here is that there's only two main show women's titles.
AEW Title Talk and Humor
01:07:10
Speaker
And they've now gone right back to with Mercedes winning the alleged secondary one, creating confusion on title pecking order. Right. Like. Tony Storm was on second on the main card, I think second match, maybe third.
01:07:28
Speaker
It was definitely much earlier than Mercedes for sure. Yeah. Because Gary, you were with us by then. So it must have been after the Bang Bang Gang. So I think they went on second. She went on third and Mercedes was billed as part of the triple mean event. Like now we've got secondary titles for those up and comers. Okada and Will Ospreay took an edge. Like what the fuck does I? I'm just so confused what the point of any of these things are.
01:07:56
Speaker
Was it you or was it Derek that was talking about what does any of this do for Swerve as the world champion? I think it was me. Yeah. What does it do for Swerve? And what also like when you go to Swerve didn't win any of those titles on his way up. MJF didn't win any of those titles on the way up.
01:08:16
Speaker
Wardlow wins one of those titles, goes nowhere with it. Darby wins one of those titles 17 fucking times, doesn't do anything for him in terms of world title shots, right? Like, Orange Cassidy was the holder for life for one of them. It's just, I just don't understand the points of these things. Like, is Orange Cassidy, I think he helped make that belt, that international belt, but you don't need to make a belt for Okada.
01:08:45
Speaker
Okada's already Okada, right? And then what has it done for Orange Cassidy? He only has not had it for a couple of months and already it's like, yeah, whatever, he's just fighting with Trent, that's cool. A $4 action figure. He's still super over though. He's still super over, but then what I'm saying is his overness has nothing to do with the title.
01:09:02
Speaker
So I just, do you think, does anyone see this? Cause it does, it just makes me fucking mad. And because it leads to lazy booking, right? Oh, we have a pay-per-view in three weeks. Let's have an eliminator match so that we have something for the pay-per-view rather than organically building a story. Yeah. I don't know why they don't, and maybe they will start getting rid of some of these belts. I, I still kind of assume Osprey is going to challenge Swerve for the title at Wembley. And so maybe the international title just gets
01:09:32
Speaker
But on the counterpoint, A. Kingston just unified a bunch of the titles like two months ago, and then they split them all up, yeah. And then they talk about even the Bang Bang gang, they literally call them the unified trios champions, but they're carrying around all the belts separately.
01:09:54
Speaker
suspiciously. It is one of the most embarrassing things about being an AEW fan, because when you see all of the bickering, there is no justifying this many belts. It's a stupid amount. Like, we all know it's stupid. Is there anyone arguing that this seems cool? Guy, I'm adding a wrinkle for all out. Everybody wears a Bang Bang Gang t-shirt and a different AEW belt.
01:10:21
Speaker
And we all wear them to the IHOP together afterwards. You don't need to wear the belt in the suite. You don't even have to wear it into through the metal detector, which I don't even know how that works. You do have to wear it at the IHOP after the show. Well, I'll see how much the ROH Women's TV title is.
01:10:47
Speaker
You can get the real one. She'll probably sell you the actual title for it. I'm trying to see how many the belts they sell. Go for it. It's really funny though. It would be funny to talk to Tony Khan. Man, he really got out of hand with those belts. He's like, yeah, I didn't know what to do. And before I knew it, there were just too many and I couldn't. What am I supposed to do? Tell Okada he can't have a belt?
01:11:14
Speaker
Well, and also like, you know how we'll sometimes fuck up and we'll call like the TNT title, the TV title, or we'll call it international versus like intercontinental. How often do you think Tony Khan fucks up the names the same way we do? It's gotta be just as frequently, right? Absolutely. I still don't know the difference between the one Roddy Strong had and whatever Okada has.
01:11:41
Speaker
Uh, they were different tournaments originally. Yep. You see Roddy Strong. So Osprey now is the international champion and that covers different countries. Whereas Okada is the continental champion. And so he's the champion of continents and not nations. It's kind of like totally different thing.
01:12:09
Speaker
that movie Cabin in the Woods, where the big hand comes out of the world, that's a continent. Okada has to fight those now. They're like kaiju. Earth-based kaiju. Why has no one asked TK that in the press conference? Just straight up said to his face, this seems like a lot of belts, right? This would be the best reason.
01:12:38
Speaker
This is the best reason for us to actually push for for credentials as podcast journalists. So we could go to the press conference after all out in our Bang Bang Gang T-shirts. One of us love the whichever belt and the other one will be wearing the other one. And we'll just point out to go TK. What's the difference between these two? Name him quick. I want to tell him if you can't hold all of these at the same time in your hands, this is too many.
01:13:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's too happy for him. God damn it, we got to. No one's asking the hard-hitting questions, and this is, as people who love pretty much most of what he's offered us, this is stupid from a story standpoint, it's stupid from, you know, it's just, TK, come on.
01:13:30
Speaker
He reminds me, Tony Khan is, so when I was in college, we had this kid that would sell us drugs, and we all loved what he was offering. He was the best when you needed drugs. But like, whenever he left the room, we would totally all make fun of him a little bit.
01:13:47
Speaker
Like make sure that you wouldn't hear us because we don't want to burn that bridge That's Tony Khan like I love what he's given me Put it directly up my nose But I'm still gonna I'm still gonna crack on him when he leaves the room cuz he's a little weird He's a little weird. I like him when he door dashes a hundred Big Macs at the end of the night That's that's a real cool guy move that is
01:14:13
Speaker
and signs and gives people a lot of money to come wrestle in America that we otherwise wouldn't get to see in person.
01:14:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's drugs are also really good. Yeah. It's in the grand scheme of things, the belt thing isn't super important, but it is stupid. So it's never going to get me to stop watching. No, no, no, no, no. And it's just I want to know more the psychology of Tony Khan, because like with all the when WWE has had the periods of like a title bloat, right, with a swollen amount of titles,
01:14:53
Speaker
You kind of do see how it happens because it happens kind of slowly and then all at once. Right. And then they typically realize it rubber band it do something about it. Right. And then maybe a couple of years. But with Tony, I'm not seeing any signs of self-awareness of this. And I I don't think it's the end of it. I don't think we've I don't think we've seen our last men's single title and.
01:15:21
Speaker
Tony, two questions, two parts. One, do you think there's too many titles? Part two, when does Jeff Jarrett have to defend the Leatherface Championship?
01:15:35
Speaker
That's actually the gimmick. Blake Christian has been stripped of the GCW world title. It'll remain vacant until he gets back. But the winner of Tournament of Survival will face Matt Cardona to become the AEW Atlantic City GCW Tournament of Survival champion. The International Atlantic, Atlantic International Championship Center
01:16:02
Speaker
arena belt sponsored. Oh, sorry. This doesn't say Atlantic. This actually says Atlantis, the Bahamas resort. This is it's getting very specific. That's a different. It's actually going to do in the bomb. It's actually the event ruled by Aquaman. Tony gone things that if you need an Atlantis championship and maybe flex some of the muscles with the Turner relationships, he could get Jason Momoa to wrestle Okada.
01:16:32
Speaker
That'd be pretty good. I'd be into it. I would I would pay 50 for that. I don't even need an undercard. Well. Wrestling. Good. Well, I guess we're going to be back next week. I definitely will have watched.
01:16:56
Speaker
the Tournament of Survival. I mean, it happens while Chris and I are over there, so we might watch it huddled up on a laptop on a single bed together. Yeah, I mean, I gotta think I'm gonna have packing stuff to do, but it's not on my calendar yet. So if not, I might put out the bat signal. See who's willing to go to AC with me to see the tournament live. All right, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.
01:17:25
Speaker
We'll be back next week. We're going to watch some wrestling. We'll tell you about it. Also, Chris and I might just be totally tripping balls from the sphere. Yeah, we might need to do a side like a side dead in company podcast next week that if.
01:17:42
Speaker
Yeah, if it's been at least two and a half weeks with no new episode, look for faxes, go fund me if I need to buy equipment to go searching for them. Just somewhere in Vegas. It's going to be like that fallout show. I'm going to get one of those big suits of armor and search the wastelands of Nevada for these two acid toads. We live in the sphere now.
01:18:13
Speaker
faxes go fund me is $5,000 for this suit of armor and a pith helmet. I do. I do find you guys. You guys don't recognize me. You don't want to leave the sphere. And then I show you the bang bang gang t-shirts. And that's the only thing that snaps you out of it. You realize that there's more to life than the world inside the sphere. Your family's irrelevant. But the bang bang gang t-shirts that reminds you what what you got outside of the sphere.
01:18:43
Speaker
We've been living off of chicken teriyaki and non-alcoholic Heineken's. Oh, fuck. All right, everybody. Thanks for listening at Predetermined Podcasts on Instagram. We all have other Instagrams. You'll find us. We love you. Have a good week. Hit our goddamn music.