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Pod Warriors 25: Dynasty 2024 Preview
6 Plays9 months ago
A minor (listen to the pod for details) family emergency caused a change of plans and Heel Husband and the Fig God had to do a special Friday morning recording session to preview AEW Dynasty 2024.
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Transcript
Sheena's Absence and Special Episode
00:00:01
Speaker
UUUUUUUUUUUU
00:00:20
Speaker
What is up pod foundation family we are here it's the pod warriors bringing you guys a special kind of a one-off episode here I know you guys were probably expecting the the regular traditional chick Foley show but Sheena is unable to record this week we actually had a you know all things considered a minor family emergency our precious daughter Stella
00:00:42
Speaker
It was rough housing with her brother in the backyard yesterday and fell down and broke her collarbone. So we were, you know, ER and doctoring it up all night last night and we were planning to record.
Special Show Preview with Jordan
00:00:52
Speaker
And then, you know, she just got a tender today, but we were still dedicated to bring you guys a dynasty
00:00:58
Speaker
Preview and so we've linked up with Jordan to do a special pod warriors show preview. This is totally outside of what we normally do you know, we write like to stick to the the evergreen stuff and And you know just bring you guys stuff that you can go back and kind of binge at your leisure But hey when you know when when duty calls the the pod warriors are ready to rise to the occasion. So Jordan what's going on, man?
00:01:20
Speaker
I mean, I did say we were going to do more podwares, but this was definitely unplanned. It is 10 a.m. on April 19th, by the way. This is not going to be a normal episode. I'm definitely not drinking right now. You pussy. Yeah, right in the middle of the workday. Just couldn't crack open a bushlight just yet. But yeah, this will be fun. We got to get it done, so me and Seth will take care of it.
Pre-show Matches Discussion
00:01:50
Speaker
All right, we got a lot of matches to get to, and as Jordan said, it's smack dab middle of the day, so we don't got a lot of time to, you know, lounge around. Let's get into it, man. We'll start off with the pre-show. We got three matches. First up, this is one that I really thought we were gonna see at Revolution, but I guess they decided to just, you know, hold it off before they pull the trigger on it. We are gonna finally unify the AEW Trios Championship and the Ring of Honor six-man tag between the acclaimed and Bullet Club gold.
00:02:20
Speaker
I'm a little bit disappointed this is on the pre-show, honestly. I was looking forward to this when I also thought it was going to be at Revolution. I like both these teams. JY should never be on a pre-show match, dude. If for nothing else, he should not be on a pre-show match, but I think this will be a good match. Thank God they're finally unifying this. We did not need two sets of trios titles roaming around AEW.
AEW vs. Ring of Honor Trios Title Debate
00:02:50
Speaker
question for you because I've kind of gone back and forth in this in my mind. I agree there was never I mean it's in a way as I was a big fan of these belts getting introduced but in a way it was a little bit of a stretch having one set of trios championships in a you know in a federation or a wrestling company whatever you call it just because it's so outside of the the norm man it's just hard to have a whole division built around trios championships. Where do you think this title should live? I mean I'm I assume that it's going to be an AEW trios championship but
00:03:19
Speaker
If you had your way, man, would you keep this on a W or would you make it a Ring of Honor thing? I think it should be on a W just because I mean, the amount of like trios teams that they have, I think more of them are actually on a W than in Ring of Honor.
00:03:36
Speaker
And it seems like they're trying to introduce more and more of them to the weekly AEW crowd, like the Shane Taylor promotion and stuff like that. Like they're, they're really leaning heavy into introducing more and more trios. So I would imagine this will be an AEW exclusive, but that's not to say that they won't ever do anything on Ring of Honor, even though it's an AEW title. So I think it'll be mainly on AEW though.
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, agreed. I think short term, that's definitely what makes sense. I do think it's a little bit of a shame because Ring of Honor had six man championships going back to like 2016. So you got about nine years of of history built up in that that title. And now it's, you know, most likely going by the wayside.
Jay White's Potential and Bullet Club Gold Predictions
00:04:22
Speaker
But yeah, going back to your point about Jay White, I agree 100 percent, man. All due respect to Samoa Joe, he's been a cool champ. I think hindsight being 20, 20, if they could go back, I think maybe you find a way to put that belt on
00:04:34
Speaker
on Jay White back at Revolution. That belt talking about the AEW Championship. I mean... I'm talking to the wrong guy here, you know, Samoa Joe's biggest fan. No, it's not even that though, dude. I just felt like...
00:04:51
Speaker
It just felt like the right time for Samoa Joe to win that title and he was the right guy to take it off MJF because MJF looked completely fine coming out of that match. Like, Grant, we haven't seen him since then, but I mean, it's not like that took any shine off MJF losing his title to Samoa Joe. And Samoa Joe got his moment. I will never be mad that
00:05:10
Speaker
that that happened. I mean, I get what you're saying, but it swerve taking the belt off. Samoa Joe. I feel like he's going to mean a little bit more. Like dude, Samoa Joe just, he's, he looks like a goddamn enforcer, like beating him. He's got final boss energy for sure. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
00:05:26
Speaker
I do feel like, not that he's been absolutely horrible. I mean, he has been featured on TV pretty much every single week, but I feel like Jay White has definitely been underutilized, man. All things considered, dude, pound for pound, he's probably one of the three or four best wrestlers. And when I say best wrestlers, I'm talking about in-ring presentation, vibe, mic skills. He's probably one of the three or four best AEW has, and it doesn't seem like he's been presented like that over the last four or five months.
00:05:53
Speaker
Yeah, it almost seems like every time he gets in a feud, something happens like either someone gets hurt or he gets overshadowed by someone else. It's just, I don't know. I think his has been more bad luck than anything.
00:06:07
Speaker
So let's make some predictions.
Match Logic and Shabbatah's Spotlight
00:06:08
Speaker
I say Bullet Club Gold wins this. Yeah, I think it makes more sense for them to win. They can be on TV every single week. The run of Billy Gunn is, I think we're nearing its end, but I mean, he still looks like a million dollars, but I just cannot picture him wrestling every single week for much longer. And Bullet Club Gold needs to be on TV. So yeah, I'll go Bullet Club Gold as well.
00:06:33
Speaker
All right, two additional pre-order pre-show matches. We'll do these as a two for one special, man. We got Trent Beretta going up against Matt Seidl and Orange Cassidy and Shabata going against Shane, Taylor, and Lee Moriarty. Why is Trent and Orange Cassidy not fighting? To be perfectly clear, I've kind of been in and out on the AW Weekly TV. I watched the big matches and I've been keeping up with the recaps on what's happening.
00:06:59
Speaker
Why, you know, Orange Cassidy and Trent should be feuding right now, right? Like why, why is this broken to two separate pre-show matches instead of just letting these guys go one on one? I have no idea. I was going to ask you the same thing. Honestly, I do not understand this Trent Brennan Matt Seidel match at all. Yeah. So if there's some storyline reason why both of these are happening separate from each other, uh, apologies for not, not being familiar, but yeah, that, that does not make sense to me, the mechanics of that. So, uh, Shabbatas a treatment always,
00:07:25
Speaker
It warms my heart, man. This guy kind of is already over with me because it just makes me smile so much how much Jordan was into this guy when he's first coming over. I always call Shabbatah Jordan's man crush just because he's just a huge Shabbatah fan, but now it's made me a Shabbatah fan, and the dude is a badass wrestler, so I always like seeing him get a little bit of shine on pay-per-view. Yeah, dude. I mean, Orange, Cassie, and Shabbatah are on a pre-show match together on a tag team. You told me that 18 months ago. I told you you're full of shit.
00:07:55
Speaker
All right, so we have another trios match. I think this one's got a good shot to be the show opener. Should be a freaking absolute banger. We got Edge, Eddie Kingston, and Mark Briscoe going up against the House of Black.
00:08:07
Speaker
This should be really, really good. I mean, I don't know if this has match of the night written on it, but it's gonna be easily. Yeah, it's gonna be shenanigans, absolutely. But I'm very excited
Malachi Black's Booking and AEW Figures
00:08:20
Speaker
for this. Anytime you get House of Black on a pay-per-view, it's exciting. I like the Team Edge too. I mean, that's three pretty badass people on a team. So yeah, I think this is gonna be really good.
00:08:35
Speaker
Sadly, just the way AW has booked House of Black, it would not shock me one bit for Edge and the Edgeheads to get the win, dude. I just feel like it seems like every time you think House of Black's gonna go over and level up, they end up losing again.
00:08:50
Speaker
they need to, they just got to split this and they got to split it apart and have Malachi just be a singles wrestler and have the other two be a tag team. I just, yeah, the misuse of Malachi and granted WWE did the exact same thing. So I'm not saying like, AWS making some huge folly here. Cause I mean, the dude, since NXT has never been booked well. So I just, there's so much more of this dude should be doing like this dude should be wrestling for the title.
00:09:17
Speaker
Yeah, he's been, I love House of Black as a faction, but you're right. He's been presented, they've, for the most part, they've been presented as kind of three equals in the group, where yeah, you're right. It should be Malachi as, you know, the, he's Hollywood Hogan, and then you got Brody King and Buddy Matthews as the outsiders, man. I'd love to see them go over strong, look like the badasses that we know them to be, and see Malachi and Edge go on to a, you know, one-on-one feud and match for that TNT championship. We know Edge,
00:09:43
Speaker
to go back and listen to his old podcast, the ENC pod. He was a huge, huge fan of Tommy End and Malachi back in the NXT days. And, you know, Edge loves to lift up the younger talent. So I think him and Malachi would be tremendous. Maybe we're missing something on Malachi Black, because how does this dude get booked so poorly in two consecutive promotions? Like maybe there's just something we don't know about the dude. I don't know. Like there's got to be more to it. There's no way that
00:10:12
Speaker
you look at this dude and the presentation of him and don't think like world champion. I just, I don't get it.
00:10:19
Speaker
I mean, you know, wrestling is still a workplace. You know, we all have people at our jobs that we know are just a pain in the ass to deal with. And maybe that's the case with him. You know what I mean? Maybe he's just a freaking, maybe he's just hard to deal with, man. And it makes him reluctant to give him a big push. But dude's got, in ring, the presentation, everything. I think Malachi is the man. So yeah, I'd love to see him get elevated a little bit more. And he has the absolute best wrestling figures in the game coming out right now. Did you see that
00:10:44
Speaker
They're sprinkling in some autographed figures from those vault releases from Jazzwares. Like some autographed ones that already got sent out.
00:10:54
Speaker
Yeah, so if you go to Wrestling Figure News on Twitter, they posted a couple of days ago, one collector received their thing from the vault and they had a certificate in there, like basically a certificate of authenticity saying that, you know, they received one of the autographed ones. So that's something to look forward to for these vault releases going forward. It wasn't numbered. You know, the figure was, I think, one of 5,000 or one of 3,000, but yeah, some of those were actually autographed by Malachi as well. Wow, that's pretty cool. Yeah. Did you see the vault releases for next week?
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah, Daniel Bryan and Young Bucks, is that what it was? Yeah, I'm probably passing on the Bucks. I think I'm getting that Daniel Bryan. That Daniel Bryan is sick. Yeah, that's a really good figure. Yeah, Mattel did a really, really good one of that in their flashback line, or maybe it was their fan central line. I forget. It was a Walmart exclusive a couple of years back that was really, really cool. This one's even better though, man. I wasn't even a big fan of
00:11:50
Speaker
of Daniel Bryan during that time. But that figure is freaking awesome looking dude. See, this is what we mean when we talk about like jazzwares has potential to absolutely kill it in the figure game because when they get it right, like that's what it looks like. I mean, that's just a absolutely perfect figure.
00:12:06
Speaker
Yeah, their best goes toe to toe with Mattel, dude. If you lined up the top five jazzwares against the top five Mattel for the year, it would be a tough debate. The middle of the pack figures is where Mattel really starts to spank them, dude.
00:12:21
Speaker
I don't know. I sent you a picture of that autographed Malachi from the vault. That's pretty sweet, huh? That's sweet. Yeah, that was absolutely awesome. Maybe I should fully open both of mine and make sure there's not one in there. Oh, my God. They're still sealed in the outer shipper, dude? Oh, yeah. You're a psychopath, dude. You haven't even looked at these figures yet. No, not yet.
00:12:43
Speaker
then why do you buy them, dude? You're literally just buying a box. I mean, that is legit just buying a box, dude. Just relax. I'll open them today and make sure I got an autograph in there. Yeah, let me know if you got one, dude. That's, I mean, are they handy, dude? Are they close by? I kind of want to find out on the air, dude. They're not close by, they're downstairs. All right. Yeah, I think for the ones I really like, dude, I may start buying too, because I mean, the resale is always going to be there for the hot figures off the vault, dude. So I've made bikes because I'm sure,
00:13:11
Speaker
I don't even know if I'd sell one, dude, if I got that lucky, but if you did, I'm sure that'd be a nice little flip. So let's make picks, man. I'm picking Edge and the Edgeheads to steal one here, dude, just because House of Black seems to have a habit of coming up short
Edge's Team Predictions and FTW Championship
00:13:23
Speaker
on pay-per-view. And just based on the current booking, it's kind of hard to pick against Edge. I mean, he's white hot right now, so yeah, I'm gonna go Edge and the Edgeheads.
00:13:33
Speaker
All right, we got... Do you remember in 2019, we used to talk about the Shane McMahon vortex day when Roman was shooting with him for a while, then Miz, and it was just this tornado of suckage that wasn't possible for anybody to escape. I feel like we're there with Chris Jericho at this point, man. And Hook is the latest victim to fall into it, dude. We got Hook and Jericho for the FTW Championship. I mean,
00:14:02
Speaker
I kind of see what they're trying to do. Like, but does this like fully established hook like beating a 50 year old Chris Jericho? I mean, yeah, it's a meaningful win for him. But like, what are we doing? Like how much longer are we going to continue this little thing? I just I don't get it.
00:14:19
Speaker
I'm not convinced Hook wins, dude. I think Hook wins the feud. I think Jericho might go over, dude. It's FTW rules, so you got all types of fuckery that could happen. We know Jericho's got two dozen former faction members, dude, that could come back to help him out.
00:14:36
Speaker
I don't know, man. I, and I could totally see a heel Jericho parading around with that FTW championship on Wednesday night and talking, talking cash. God, that just seems like such a worthless thing to do though. Like I just, I like, I get it. Like in the booking sense of Chris Jericho being a heel and just being a pompous asshole when he comes out there.
00:14:57
Speaker
Dude, hook is still one of their young stars and he should be a lot dude. He's so good. I'm not saying this dude is going to win the title in like two years or anything, but he is really good. He could totally be in the mix for the other big car titles, you know, the continental the international TNT, he's totally realistic to challenge for those. But
00:15:16
Speaker
Dude, I think Jericho walks out of there with his belt, man. I can picture that so clearly. Him being smug as hell, praying around with that FTW championship, talking shit to Taz. He'll make it a whole anti-ECW thing. He'll talk about how he started there and had to leave them behind because they were garbage. I could hear that promo in my head right now.
00:15:37
Speaker
I'm going to go hook just for the fact that Jericho pushed Taz down the other night. Like usually when you assault a member of the other person's family, usually it goes the opposite way. So I'm going to go hook for that reason. Yeah, tough to come back from that. All right. We have the undisputed era explodes. We got Roderick Strong defending the international championship against Kyle O'Reilly.
00:16:00
Speaker
I think we're going to see the kingdom start to get reestablished. That report came out that Adam Cole is nowhere close to returning. I guess he's had some serious complications on getting that ankle healed up. I could actually see two things with the kingdom. I see them pivoting a little bit and making it more of a Roderick Strong leadership type deal and then reestablishing themselves with a big win over Kyle O'Reilly or
00:16:22
Speaker
It could be one of those wrestling things where it kind of just quietly dissolves, dude. And, you know, we don't have a big breakup angle. It just stops being a thing. But I do think Roderick Strong is going to successfully defend his belt one way or another against Kyle O'Reilly on Sunday night.
Roderick Strong vs. Kyle O'Reilly Feud Critique
00:16:35
Speaker
Those Adam Cole toddler buns just aren't healing properly right now. Like his little baby buns can't mend themselves back together.
00:16:45
Speaker
I'm not gonna, I have zero interest in this. Like the match, the feud, the kingdom, it's just ruined at this point. And the worst part about it is, so all this shit's happening. This was like the hottest feud with MJF and then Adam. It was the most compelling thing they'd done in a while with that devil storyline. I was tuning in each and every week to see what the newest development was going to be. The devil thing happened and then it was over. Like it just.
00:17:12
Speaker
Dude, again, another fucking shade of bad luck. Like Adam Cole gets hurt. MJF is completely banged up at that point. Like I think they're the reason that whole thing ended was a little bit of both of them being hurt. So yeah, I just have zero interest in this. I completely forgot. Roderick Strong even won the inter international championship. I just
00:17:34
Speaker
I don't know, man. Kyle O'Reilly looking like a homeless guy that's camping outside of Walmart isn't helping either. Dude, this is not Kyle O'Reilly. This is like someone that's dressed up as Kyle O'Reilly. I just refuse to believe this is the same dude that had all the swag and the undisputed error. I just... I don't know, man. He was main eventing and he was like the top babyface on NXT for a stretch. Yeah, dude, he just... I don't know, man.
00:17:58
Speaker
I think Roderick Strong wins as well. I just don't think Kyle O'Reilly holding that belt is going to look very like prestigious or anything like homeless man wins title. I just don't have much excitement for this one. We were going back and forth in the, uh, the term vocal tavern Facebook group, man, discussing this ankle injury, Dave, like
00:18:20
Speaker
I was starting to speculate like I wonder if because I mean dude I feel like you know as much as we follow sports and stuff I feel like anybody I feel like a broken ankle you'd be back by now you know I mean it's been a long time dude I'm wondering if maybe you know he had some pretty severe concussion issues I'm wondering if maybe something else bubbled up with that and
00:18:38
Speaker
Maybe they're using the ankles just to cover up, dude, before they got to make a final determination. Unless there's something more to the story, man, it seems kind of weird that the ankle has kept him out this long to the point where they're taking him back off TV and saying he's nowhere close to returning.
00:18:52
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, or they could just be playing, playing all of us and doing an angle and making us all believe that he's not coming back. And then he comes out. I mean, that would be typical wrestling storyline. So I hope he comes back, man. Cause he was so hot when he got hurt. And yeah, I just, they're missing him really bad right now.
Sober Podcast Humor and Julia Hart's Development
00:19:13
Speaker
Yeah. Big time. All right. We're halfway through our matches. Let's take our, uh, totally sober beverage break.
00:19:43
Speaker
Alright, that is a little sample from Earnest's newest album, Nashville, Tennessee. Definitely recommend that one. Have you had a chance to listen to it yet, Jordan? Yeah, it's really good. I'm honestly shocked there wasn't a Taylor Swift song there. Like, I just know you stayed up till three o'clock in the morning listening to that.
00:19:58
Speaker
I did have it set up for auto download. I pre-ordered so it's sitting on my phone, but I haven't listened yet, dude. You guys know I'm a big time Swifty dude. If I'm really going to listen to some new music, it's got to be at night after everybody's gone to bed and I'm just vibing out playing Xbox and having the music going. Jordan knows I was texting... Well, it was like 1.30 when I was texting you about Earnest New Album last weekend, right? Yeah.
00:20:21
Speaker
What the hell was I doing? Oh, I was at that function. That's right. I was like, why the hell was I up drinking at that point? Because usually I pass on the couch because I start going usually around noon and usually making it till 2am is quite the chore for me.
00:20:36
Speaker
Yeah, see I still my kids are much younger than Jordan's dude. So I'm usually a little bit more tied up. Yeah, I'm usually about like 6 7 sometimes 8 before I get started dude. So I'm kind of I'm kind of I'm usually peaking around like 12 31 o'clock if I'm just having a you know, knocking a few back playing Xbox or watch watching wrestling kind of night, but
00:20:53
Speaker
It's our sober pod warriors, man. I have to go back and listen. There may have been one before, but I think this is the first time we've done a sober pod warriors. What are you drinking as we pod today? Just an orange Gatorade. What an absolute lame. Oh, is that is orange your favorite? I go between orange and then the cool blue one. Like those are probably my two favorites.
00:21:16
Speaker
Cool Blue is the coldest, man. If you're on the hardcore Gatorade Reddit groups and stuff, people swear that the Cool Blue just gets just a little bit colder than the other flavors, man. I prefer, if I'm going with the classics, dude, I will go with Fruit Punch most of the time, the red.
00:21:33
Speaker
Kind of the off the off-sheets and I like is the citrus cooler that's like that was one of the og flavors but they bring it back from time to time it's really good and then I like the cucumber lime it's it's not it's tough to find it I swear that I see it out but occasionally I'll find a bottle of the the cucumber lime it's really good.
00:21:50
Speaker
So we drink a lot of the zero ones just because there's so much fucking sugar and Gatorade. Yeah, it's basically Kool-Aid, man. And they came out with a green apple zero one and we got it last week. It literally tastes like a Jolly Rancher was dropped into a Gatorade. It's phenomenal. Nice.
00:22:06
Speaker
you remember the uh when we were kids the lemon ice the clear lemon flavor yeah i don't know what it was about that dude that just that slab dude lemon ice gatorade in the old school glass bottles that was basically like the the champagne of gatorade dude when they did all like the old frost flavors too like when they had riptide rush and all those flavors like those flavors were hitting
00:22:27
Speaker
Yeah, I love some Gatorade. Like you said, there's so much sugar in it that we typically don't get it a lot, but if we do it, it never lasts that long around the house. When I was on
00:22:39
Speaker
When I was on my deployment, I'm out on a ship for six months at a time. I would live off that powder. I would get Sheena to send me the little tanks of the powder, and I'd just make my own Gatorade out there, man. It's good stuff. I'm drinking just an OG eight-ounce Red Bull, man. We talked about the Gatorade. What's your Red Bull of choice, Jordan?
00:22:59
Speaker
Um, I don't do a ton of Red Bull. Like if I get one, it's usually like a watermelon Red Bull, but what's your, well, what's your energy drink of choice thing? Cause I used to be big on the full throttle and then I just, I got kind of burnout on the 16 ounce cans. That's just a whole lot of fluid to down dude. So I started going back to the OG eight ounce Red Bull, man. That's my go-to.
00:23:20
Speaker
Usually, I do the Monster Zeros, the Ultra Monsters, the Peach one, and then the Strawberry one, or two of my favorites. The Orange one, if you're drinking one in the morning, it literally has an orange juice flavor to it, so I like that one too for the morning. Okay, cool. All right, let's get back into it, man.
00:23:42
Speaker
house rules for the AEW TBS championship, Julia Hart versus Willow Nightingale. First off, dude, I just want to show some love to Julia Hart, man. She is over the last four years. She's improved so much to where like now she's one of my... I get about as excited to see her. It's just about anybody on the show, dude.
00:24:00
Speaker
Seeing her entrance live and in person at Revolution back in March, I was like, dude, this chick freaking rocks, man. Like, she's gotten to where she's good enough in the ring. But all the other stuff, she is just really leveled up, like the presentation of my skills, everything. So I'm a big fan of hers. Definitely a little bit nervous for her going into this match, though. Yeah, I think it being house rules, Sasha being in the background, like, I Sasha.
00:24:26
Speaker
the CEO, sorry, Mercedes Monet. I just feel like she's going to help Willow win because I feel like she wants that Willow match. And I feel like we're getting Willow and Mercedes at double or nothing. So yeah, I'm going to go Willow on this much.
00:24:43
Speaker
Same, yeah, her and her and Mercedes for the the TBS championship feels like a proper debut for Mercedes. And you know, you got Chris Statlander, who's been involved in this program also. So I think there's going to be enough, you know, enough gaga, as Pat Patterson would say, dude, that I think we're going to get some sort of finished. But unfortunately, it's going to end with Julia losing that belt.
00:25:04
Speaker
No shame to her, dude. If you would have told me two years ago that this chick's gonna hold a title, have a semi-significant reign with a title in AEW, I would have told you you were smoking crack. But she's done it, and I think it's time for her to go off and go to some other cool stories, man. Oh, she's definitely leveled up. I think she's honestly leveled up to the point where I could buy her being in
00:25:24
Speaker
a AEW Women's World Championship match at this point. She definitely has done a ton of work and really crafted herself. So yeah, I'm excited to see what the future holds for her. I'd like to see her tighten up that affiliation with the House of Black also. She's still a member, but it feels like they've kind of drifted a little bit. You don't see all four of them together a whole lot, man. I think it'd be cool to
00:25:50
Speaker
to see her. Like I said, just just more of like, you know, a fully formed member of the house of black man, they were, you know, they're ringside with him every single match and stuff like that. I wish Brody was her heavy for every match, dude, like him and her together is just like a match made in heaven. Those two are just perfect together.
00:26:08
Speaker
Yeah, definitely, dude. Brody King is the man. All right, we'll do these next two back to back, because they're really kind of opposite sides of the same coin.
Anticipated Matches and Young Bucks Speculation
00:26:16
Speaker
We got Okada and Pac for the Continental Championship, and then Will Ospreay versus Bryan Danielson. Both of these are potential match of the year candidates. They're guaranteed to be five-star bangers. I'll be shocked if either one of these matches isn't an instant classic. Which one are you more excited for? Okada and Pac. Just saying, dude. Just saying, man.
00:26:37
Speaker
I think I feel like this match is going to absolutely bang. Like, like I know everybody's looking at the Osprey, Brian Danielson matches match of the night. I feel like this is going to be the match of the year. Honestly, if they give these two 25 minutes, which 20, 25 minutes, I feel like that'll be enough time. Cause I think people forget how good pack is sometimes cause he's been gone so long and do the best.
00:27:00
Speaker
Okada was arguably the best wrestler on the planet for five consecutive years. I just, I feel like we are destined to have a real Okada match at this pay-per-view. And they, you know, they're a little bit more different styles, a little bit more contrasting, you know, Osprey, Osprey and Danielson are definitely different. Osprey, especially at this point in his career, Osprey is a little bit faster doing more of the high flying stuff, but they're still pretty similar, dude. Like if you were,
00:27:29
Speaker
If you're creating them on WWE 2K, you're starting off with the same template and then tweaking it for those two. Whereas Okada and Pac, you know, Pac, he's kind of that same style as Osprey, but Okada works more of a slower, almost like a WWE main event style is kind of the way he works, man. And I think, yeah, I just think this match is going to freak and rock. They're both going to be great, but I'm definitely a little bit more hyped up to see Okada and Pac go at it.
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, we've seen the young bucks in FTR wrestle and do not get, get it twisted. I am fucking jacked for this. This is the best way that this tag tournament could have ended was with these two going at it again. It's going to be a great match. Like the bucks in FTR just know how to put on banger matches. So it's going to be great, but yeah, man, just, it still is like mind blowing to me that we're getting Ocada in AW pay-per-views monthly now, like,
00:28:21
Speaker
It's just, it's exciting for a wrestling fan and getting him in pack right out of the gate is a special moment.
00:28:29
Speaker
I think both the new guys are going over. I think Ocada and Osprey are winning. I'm pretty confident in that. How about you? Yeah, I, there's no reason for, um, pack or Brian Daniels to win either one of these matches. Like Ocada needs to be booked as about as strong as you can be considering he's got a mid-card title. That's going to get elevated to the top of the card with him holding it. So yeah, I'm, I'm very excited for this.
00:28:53
Speaker
All right, Jordan teased a little bit. Up next, we'll talk about the ladder match for the AEW tag team championship. Do you know how this got made a ladder match or was it just reasons? They just announced, hey, it's going to be a ladder match now. Reasons. Yeah, OK. I'm cool with it, man. Is something different?
00:29:09
Speaker
I think Young Bucks, I think they're going to win this one, dude, and I think they're going to get a little bit of help from the scapegoat, man. I think we see... I could already see it right now, neither Dax or Cash or both of them are climbing up to grab those belts, and suddenly, somebody's at that bottom of that ladder tipping them over, dude, and Jack Perry helps the Bucks win the belts and becomes the newest member of the elite. Crimea River starts playing, and then they tip the ladder over.
00:29:32
Speaker
Oh my God, dude. That would be freaking epic. Dude. I feel like if they put, if they do this right and they, jungle boy does help them. Well, Jack Perry, sorry. He's not jungle boy anymore. The scapegoat, Jack Perry helps them. Um, dude, I think having, I don't know if they'll do it, but having Jack Perry in the elite with Okada and the young bucks would hit hard right now.
00:29:56
Speaker
Imagine the Bucks get the tag belts, and then a week or two from now, Jack Perry takes that international championship off of Roderick Strong. You got all four of them holding gold, dude. That will be the faction that you wanted when you made the Kingdom, dude. I'm here for it, dude. We've always been big Jungle Boy fans on this show, dude. Between me, you, Sheena, and Marco, I think we've all... I'm looking at a Jungle Boy figure on my shelf right now, dude. I'm all about it, man. I think the guy's got... Mike's skills could use some tuning up, but I think his charisma in the ring
00:30:25
Speaker
is really, really good, man. And I totally buy him as being a main eventer. And he'd just be an awesome addition, dude, to add some edge, add some flavor to the bucks in Okada. They need one more person to really round out the faction.
00:30:39
Speaker
And I think Jack Perry's it. So I'm hoping we see him. I think we're going to see him. How about you? Yeah, I think we're going to see him as well. Time is right. Um, he's selling out all these shirts and all this merch and stuff. Like dude, you got to put him back in AEW right now and get him in front of everybody. Now, the one thing I will say is I think the smartest thing to do with him right now, considering how over he is, is not put him on TV every single week with, with the young bucks. Like
00:31:04
Speaker
maybe just kind of filter him in here and there. Like if they go to the ring for an in ring promo, maybe have him come out. And obviously the first one he's going to talk shit about punk. We obviously know that's going to happen. Like the one thing I will say about that video is Jack Perry, you can definitely tell what kind of guy he is. Like he's not, he's definitely not a prick. I mean, he put his hands up in that video. Like I don't think he was trying to escalate it by any means. Maybe he is kind of a pussy, but I mean,
00:31:31
Speaker
I don't know. Who else has ever had beef with Jungle Boy, though? I feel like I've never heard a bad word out of him, aside from seeing Punk. Same thing with Hangman, dude. Punk's always the common denominator in all this bullshit. So yeah, I'm with you, man. I think the fans are ready to embrace Jack Perry, and I hope we see it on Sunday night. Yep, I agree.
00:31:49
Speaker
All right, women's championship match, timeless Toni Storm against Thunder
Toni Storm, Samoa Joe, and MJF Speculations
00:31:52
Speaker
Rosa. My only wish for this, you know, I know we've been leaning into the fantasy booking a little bit. I want to see Toni Storm get a good win, hopefully clean or as clean as she can nowadays. And I want to see DMD come back, dude. We need DMD back on our TV screens. Let's have DMD come out and confront her after this match to try to, you know, take back the AEW women's division. It's time, man. I miss her so much right now, like,
00:32:15
Speaker
I just, I feel like Britt Baker is just the one constant that AEW has always had in that women's division. And she's just, I don't know, man, there's just a different persona with her. Like she just, it feels different when she's in the ring. All right. Main event. Jordan's one of Jordan's all time favorites, dude. Give me the reason why Samoa Joe should keep this belt over. Um,
00:32:40
Speaker
I feel like there's going to be interference in this match. And the only reason I'm saying this, I do think it's worth time to win the title. I do, but I just, he does not feel as over in this last month as he's called a little bit for sure.
00:32:55
Speaker
feel like you got to heat this back up and then do this, run this back at double or nothing, maybe in a triple threat or a four way or something. Um, I do think Swerve is eventually going to win the title. Like I really think it's going to happen at double or nothing. I feel like we get some smudge finish here and smojo keeps the title on like a DQ or something. I just, you think in hangman. Yeah. I mean,
00:33:18
Speaker
I'd be down for hangman swerve and samoa joe again at double or nothing for the title and then swerve finally gets over i just
00:33:29
Speaker
Dude, him winning the title of this pay review would seem so weird to me because I feel like it's going to get overshadowed with Okada and Pac and then Osprey and Bryan Danielson. I just, I feel like it's going to get overshadowed. That's why I don't think it's smart to do it here. I mean, dude, this pay review is built around Osprey and Bryan Danielson. Like, let's be serious.
00:33:50
Speaker
I was going to say, yeah, I know that they've made a point, it seems like, to keep reminding us that Swerve and Joe is the main event. But yeah, it definitely feels like Osprey and Danielson is the biggest deal. I'm kind of with you, man. I'd smile. I wouldn't be opposed to Swerve, wouldn't it? And not that Swerve is cold now, but it feels just a couple degrees cooler than it did going into revolution. So I'm kind of with you, man. Maybe we see some sort of fuck finish with Hangman.
00:34:17
Speaker
to point this down to double or nothing. To make it the big moment, it should be when Swerve finally does get that belt, man. I think I'm still picking Swerve, dude. I feel like they're going to make a move. But we'll see, man. I think it could go either way. And that's good. We had some intrigue in that match. It's not a foregone conclusion.
00:34:37
Speaker
The show's called Dynasty. We know back in MLW MJF's faction was called Dynasty. Do you think we see MJF return here, man? I don't really see a story for it. I mean, he could always show up just because, but it doesn't feel to me like MJF's coming back. Yeah, I just... I mean, dude, when he left his feuds with Adam Cole, like him coming back now, I mean, I guess he could be in the world title feud, but I just... Yeah. What's the point right now?
00:35:05
Speaker
Yeah, doesn't feel like it man. Like I said, I think maybe when they originally were sketching this out and they called it that maybe they had an idea this is when he'd be back and you know, they're just putting on it, but I don't know, it will be something to look out for. I think is there any other big surprise we could get outside of an MJF return? I didn't really seem like there's anything else kind of floating out there right now. No, there's really no like huge free agents right now or anything. I just
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think we're going to get anything at this one. I mean, it's going to be a banger of a pay per view. That's the thing. We just went through. I was going to say, we just went through. I'm so hyped up for this show, man. Yeah, we just went through all these matches. Dude, you have no idea how hard it has been for me not to go to this show. It's just with life and stuff. It's been so busy. I mean, St. Louis is a short drive. I've still kicked it around of driving down there Sunday morning and then driving back on Monday morning.
00:35:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's just I mean, I really think this show has potential to be one of their best shows ever just based on the match qualities we're going to get. Yeah, but yeah, I don't think they need to do anything. So any surprises or anything like I just I feel like this show is going to deliver on its own.
00:36:10
Speaker
they've put together an absolute banger of a card. I'm so stoked for this one, man. It'd be tough to put together a better 12-mat show, man. It's going to be tremendous. I will say, dude, I was talking to somebody else about this earlier this week, man. Why did they go away from the Saturday pay-per-views? Remember when AW was first starting, their first handful were all on Saturdays. We're like, dude, this is so awesome. And then it's like they kind of just handed that off to WWE and let them start taking the Saturday shows and they went back to Sundays, man.
00:36:39
Speaker
That's my only thing because you know, a w paper is gonna be long as hell And it just sucks staying up that way knowing you gotta wake up for work on Monday It would be so much better if these things were on a Saturday night still there's got to be something behind it Like there's got to be some supporting Information that we're just not getting I just I don't know man. I agree with you I love the Saturday night pay-per-view it sucks for me during football season whether it's Saturday or Sunday because you
00:37:03
Speaker
you know, dude, I'm a football junkie. Like it doesn't matter who's on, I'm going to watch it. So it's tough for me. Um, but the only good thing is, is when they're on Sunday nights during football season, it's only going against one game as opposed to Saturday nights. Like there's like 12 football games on. So yeah.
00:37:19
Speaker
I think that might be part of it. Honestly, like, yeah, you're going head to head with the NFL on Sunday nights during football season, but it's only one game. I mean, as opposed to going against 12 college football games, like it's, I dunno, there's gotta be something behind it.
00:37:34
Speaker
Well, another thing I was thinking is maybe it's a pay-per-view deal, because you know, WWE for the longest, they were always on Sundays, that was the thing. I haven't looked into it. Maybe there's something out there that people are more apt to sit down and drop the 40, 50 bucks for a pay-per-view on a Sunday evening instead of a Saturday. Because you know, they're already paid for in that stuff, right? Peacock's paying them whether five people watch the show or whether it's five million. So they don't really got to sweat that as much. So it could be a pay-per-view deal also.
00:38:04
Speaker
Yeah. If there, if anybody from AW is listening, bring back the Saturday shows, man. We love them. All right. You ready to hit the, uh, I will say like the Sunday show does give you a bit of nostalgia though. Like it hits you in the field spot. Cause I mean, when me and you were growing up, like this is what we did Sunday nights for pay-per-view nights. Like you just, you just always knew that was Sunday night. One thing I want to mention before we kind of move into lists or mail is I had sent Seth some stuff yesterday about, um, the valuation for AEW and stuff, man.
AEW's Valuation and Business Growth
00:38:33
Speaker
for a five year old company to be estimated value of $2 billion is absolutely mind blowing to me. Yeah, man. It's awesome. Yeah. The thing is people get hung up on someone like the, you know, the stuff like the live show attendance or like TV ratings dipping salt, like a little bit, but overall, dude,
00:38:50
Speaker
AEW is still crushing it business-wise, man, right? They're consistently in the top five every Wednesday night on their time slot and stuff. And again, they're so unique, because we've never seen this before, dude. A company just, they basically started at the top, right? They started off with pay-per-view, action figure deals, cable TV, all that. Whereas every other company has had to kind of come up out the mud for it. Even WWF, way back in the day, dude. They started off as just a regional promotion.
00:39:18
Speaker
and slowly built up to that. So that's why we've never seen a company that basically is starting off at such a high level. And for the most part, they've maintained, dude. There's been some ups and downs along the way, but they're still chugging along. And if you go back to Tony Khan's early interviews, he had always said that he thought it was going to be the second media deal before they became really profitable and sustainable as a business. And God willing, we're going to see an announcement here in the next couple months that they're renewed with Warner Brothers, dude. And hopefully, we start to see some streaming on Max.
00:39:47
Speaker
Yeah. TNT and TBS is not getting rid of this. Like no matter what anyone says about TV ratings, no matter what, they're still drawing a rating and people are still talking about a W like TBS and TNT are absolutely in love with this partnership. I don't care what anyone says.
00:40:04
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm definitely at a 10 on this one for excitement level going in. How about you? Oh, 100%. Probably a 15, honestly. Dude, I mean, there literally is three matches. It's going to be awesome. There are candidates on this card. I mean, it's pretty rare that you get that, especially on what you would probably consider a B show for an AW show. I mean, they booked this like it was a completely A show, like this is all in or something like that. So I'm very excited.
00:40:31
Speaker
The outside of the outside of the the Trent and Matt side out match that orange Cassie Shabata tag and the Tony Storm and Thunder Rosa every single other match on the show I'm fucking jacked to watch dude. Yeah Well, the good thing is to the matches you just mentioned are on the pre show so you don't even have to watch them Yeah, man, so it's gonna be great. You're gonna get into the mailbag. Let's do it
00:40:53
Speaker
All right, so Alex Eubank says, how long will it take to pivot away from Jay Uso, Michael Cole, and Pat McAfee saying yeet 100,000 times every time he's on screen? It's clearly doing well moving merch, but absolutely can't stand this version of Jay Uso. Yeeting and yeeting take away from all the awesome career development and work he's done the last few years. The garbage match with Jimmy at Mania didn't help either, but who actually enjoys the nonstop yeeting?
00:41:19
Speaker
I mean, he's moving merch, like you just said. And the number one thing WWE has proven they care about is money. Like if we're printing money on something, they're going to keep doing it. I love Jey Uso right now. I texted Seth the other night. I think this dude has completely leveled up. Like he now is a main event talent.
00:41:40
Speaker
I mean, he's one of the top five guys on Raw now, so I'm very excited to see how this moves forward. Do I love the yeeting? Not really, but it doesn't take away from Jey Uso for me. I agree. I feel like he could turn back the series if he could. Alex does make a good point that he's flirting.
00:41:57
Speaker
with you know coming almost like a comedy act but I feel like he's gonna he can turn it back on and get serious when he needs to do it and I'm already in you know I'm already in my mind setting the tissues aside for when we get Roman Reigns reuniting the uh the usos later on this year yeah it's gonna be incredible
00:42:13
Speaker
I need ya, I need ya. I keep picturing Bret Hart when he brought back Owen and the Bulldog, man. All right, Sambro says, are we done seeing the Hardys in AEW? Definitely feels like it. And we already got Matt Hardy kind of teasing stuff that he might be involved in this Wyatt Six revival.
00:42:29
Speaker
Yeah. And you know what? All things considered, it was cool to get the Hardy boys back in wrestling again. Cause obviously the end of their WWE run wasn't the greatest. Um, so, I mean, all things considered, I think it was fine. Uh, Jeff Hardy still an absolute idiot, but I mean, outside of that, yeah, I feel like their AWW run was just, it was fine. I mean, they are what they are at this point in their careers. Yeah. Yeah. I'm down for one more nostalgia run in WWE or like I said, being seen Matt Hardy being, uh,
00:42:59
Speaker
you know, maybe going in like a manager role, like part-time wrestler role with this, whatever this Wyatt thing ends up being. I'm not gonna lie, I feel like...
00:43:07
Speaker
I feel like for like eight years, they lean so heavily into the delete stuff. I feel like it kind of, I mean, no pun intended. In my mind, they kind of deleted like the hardy boys persona to me. I don't know a team extreme. Yeah, it's just like, I don't know, man. It just doesn't feel the same now as it used to. I mean, I know they're way older, so it shouldn't feel the same.
00:43:29
Speaker
like the nostalgia is not really there for me anymore because of that. Like it just, I mean, it's been long. I mean, dude, on and off they've been doing like, you know, the, the broken multiverse or whatever you want to call it for about nine years now. Whereas team extreme that really lasted like three years, dude. And then they went off and you know, Jeff went solo and Matt started doing like the Matt V one and all that stuff. Like it seems like it was such a monumental period of time just cause we were kids, but
00:43:55
Speaker
I mean, yeah, I think you're totally right, dude, that, uh, at this point that's become a bigger part of their career than the team extreme era did. Dude, the T I feel like the team extreme era was just like, I mean, they just put on so many banger matches. You had all the TLC matches and stuff. So I feel like maybe that's why it feels like it was a longer run. Um, but yeah, I mean, whatever they do with them, I'm sure it'll be fine as long as Jeff Hardy can keep his mouth off the booze.
00:44:24
Speaker
Yeah, the Hardys were the coolest, man. I remember I used to want to go to Gadzooks and get, you know, a stretch shirt and then like the big black pants with like 55 zippers and chains and buckles on them. Some fishnet. Yeah, some fishnet sleeves. All right, why do y'all think House of Black is never in the AEW Championship story? Joe is cool and Swerve will have a short run, but I feel like Malachi with the House of Black would be an amazing storyline with potentially Brody's turn on Malachi or whatever.
00:44:47
Speaker
Kayfabe, they seem like they should just dominate the entire roster. I agree, man. When they're in action, they look like they should never freaking lose, so we kinda already discussed it, dude. I don't know. Only thing I can think is maybe Maokai is just a freaking pain in the dick to work with.
00:44:59
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and then you got buddy Matthew strutting his shit around the bathroom because he gets to bang Rhea when he goes home every night. Like, I'm sure that's a that's a pretty big fucking trophy for him. So I don't think he needs anything else. Brody is awesome. That is my one really big gripe is the way they booked him more than anything.
00:45:20
Speaker
At least I just, he should be booked so much better that I'll never forget that. I mean, they did a figure form of it that match with him and Darby. That was honestly one of the coolest under the radar matches of last year. Casket match, right? Yep. Yeah. All right. Do you guys think there's any validity to what guys like Triple H say about you, about the easier schedule, et cetera? I feel like I'm hearing this from more and more people in the business.
00:45:46
Speaker
Triple H ain't wrong, like they definitely work in a lighter schedule, but I can tell you straight up dude, like if you tell me I can make more money for working less, I'm taking that 10 times out of 10. What you're giving up is this possibility that maybe you end up being a WrestleMania main eventer and you can live off that exposure the rest of your life, but I don't know about you, dude. If you're telling me I can work less and get paid more, I'm taking that deal 99 times out of 100.
00:46:10
Speaker
Well, let's see here. They paid Osprey more money. He has to work less. He can still live in his home. They are not making a move to the US. Like they just said, we just have to stay on top of your visa and stuff like that and make sure that you're eligible to work all the time. I mean, dude,
00:46:28
Speaker
outside of not being able to work WrestleMania, like what is the downside of working in a W the most part they let have let you have creative freedom. I mean, they kind of just, I don't know, man, it just it seems like if you're a younger guy that wants to save his body and stuff, I feel like this is the better route to go.
00:46:47
Speaker
Because yeah, WrestleMania is always going to be there. If you're a guy like Osprey, he could totally go to WrestleMania. He could go to, you know, WrestleMania 43 days. Sign a one month contract. Like, do you think WWE is going to be like, oh no, we don't want you for a month. Like, yeah, the Okada, Osprey, all those guys, they could literally call Triple H tomorrow and be like, hey, we want to work WrestleMania next year. It doesn't have to be the main event. And Triple H would be like, absolutely.
00:47:13
Speaker
Exactly, man. Yeah. And I get it, dude. Like, you know, nobody, no kids ever grew up wanting the main event double or nothing. Like, right? WrestleMania is still the thing that that's going to live on forever if you do it. But, dude, you're not guaranteed. There's a ton of amazing wrestlers in WWE that don't, you know, I hate to sound like Michael Cole, but they don't get that WrestleMania moment. You know what I mean? They either don't make the card or they're just in a random mid-card match. Like, it's real. If you look at like the people who truly do something memorable at WrestleMania, it's usually like three, maybe four people every year.
00:47:42
Speaker
And I just don't think it's willing to give up the work-life balance and the money banking on it that you're going to be one of those guys. And not to mention, almost all these guys we're talking about are former New Japan guys. And Tony Khan has left it completely open for them.
00:47:59
Speaker
to work New Japan or Wrestle Kingdom, whatever they wanna do. I mean, Jesus Christ, look at Mox, dude. He's the New Japan World Champion right now. And Mox is one of the biggest dudes in AEW, and it was awesome to see. I don't get the whole hating on AEW thing, because it's not WWE. That's the entire point, is it's not WWE. Does Tony Khan need to work on some of the things he does? Absolutely. Dude, AEW is fucking incredible, and you're on drugs if you don't think it is.
00:48:28
Speaker
We are, we can have two really big wrestling promotions without shitting on one to prop the other one up. Like they're both awesome. Like I just, the, the constant back and forth about like why WWE is shit to AW fans and why AW shit to WWE fans. I just, I don't get it. Just fucking enjoy it. Like they're not trying to be the same thing.
00:48:48
Speaker
Yeah, both companies are killing it, dude. You know, two years ago, AW was on top. Now WWE is on top. This shit's cyclical though, man. Give it another couple of years and I bet you AW will be back red hot and WWE will be cooled off a little bit, man. That's just, that's the way it goes, dude. And the thing is, man, there's the...
00:49:04
Speaker
I hear people compare it to late air and WCW. The thing about it is the people that were at the very, very top in charge of WCW didn't care about wrestling, right? They cared about making money. So the moment WCW started to cool off financially, it was already, as Tony C. Money likes to say, a coffin on roller skates heading downhill.
00:49:20
Speaker
Um, whereas dude, the, you know, Tony Khan might be the biggest wrestling fan in the whole freaking world. So as long as he's got a dollar to pump into this thing, it's going to stay alive. They're going to keep trying to make it better. And yeah, it's going to be fine, dude. Also, we, we still, dude, again, we, we talked about this earlier. It's a five year old company. We still have not hit the peak of a W like it's still yet to happen.
00:49:42
Speaker
And I do feel like Tony Khan is starting to realize some of his downfalls, because he is starting to hire more people. And I feel like in the long run, that's gonna help AEW a lot. I still think he needs to hire a main booker. I just, I don't want him to be the booker for every show. Like, granted, he's gonna have the final say, but I just, I still feel like AEW is gonna hit a huge moment. I don't know when it's gonna happen, but it's gonna happen and it's gonna be awesome.
00:50:09
Speaker
Yeah, and they just hired a new, I want to say his titles like chief operating officer they hired somebody from wb to basically run their live events and promotion so I think you're going to start to see some changes over the next year so to try to, you know, shore up some of the attendance issues that they've had.
00:50:24
Speaker
Yeah Excuse me, they're also pointing way up for a W. Yeah I mean they're gonna draw 6,000 for a B pay-per-view this weekend like yeah I don't know if anyone realizes that drawing 6,000 people to a show is absolutely incredible like there's singers that wait 20 years to draw 6,000 people to a show like I just I think people read way too much into the attendance shit because it's not WWE and
00:50:51
Speaker
I'm not expecting AEW to draw 20,000 fans a night. It's just not going to happen. They're too young of a company still. But again, have not hit their peak. They will eventually. And when they do, we'll all be there to watch it. The Greensboro last month, there was not an empty seat in that place, dude. It was 17,000 plus there at the Greensboro Coliseum for Stings last match. So they can definitely, when they put their mind to it, they can pack a house. Yeah, for sure. Question, do y'all think at this stage, AEW's relationship with pro wrestling team hurts or helps?
00:51:20
Speaker
They definitely have issues with live merch at their events, right? Their merch stands are just sparse. And if that's a byproduct of the pro wrestling team's relationship, then yeah, you may be right. You know, pro wrestling team's whole model is print on demand. So you don't have a ton of inventory just sitting somewhere that you got to sell. You know, you sell it as it gets, you make it as it gets ordered. That may be the reason why we don't see that much AW merch at the shows. But I don't really know enough of the nitty gritty on that to say one way or the other.
00:51:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, but you have to think of it this way, too. Like, yeah, it fucking sucks for the merch at the live crowd, but...
00:51:56
Speaker
As far as like a company being smart about keeping their inventory low and stuff like that, like you, the one thing you don't want to do is over commit to somebody. Like, let's just say they do a, um, a persona change for somebody and they got 25,000 shirts that they got a clearance out. I mean, WWE is big enough that they can do that. Cause I mean, look at the clearance section on WWE. It's usually old shirts that no longer apply like a tag team shirt or something like that.
00:52:23
Speaker
Like, they're big enough to take that hit. AEW is not big enough to take a 20,000 shirt hit. They're just, they're not. Yeah, I feel you. And if people weren't, if people weren't complaining about the merch scenes being empty, they'd be clowning them because they have, you know, eight extra boxes of swerve t-shirts or something like that. Yeah, I think
00:52:40
Speaker
For the bottom line, I mean, at the live shows, yeah, I'd say it's probably an issue, but I think bottom line, I think Pro Wrestling Tees is probably the best way to work their t-shirt sales, man. All right, Sandbro says, how do you guys think the Japanese talent translates to American audiences? Always seems like they get a decent pop on debut, then they disappear. I mean, I don't know, dude. It's always tricky, man, when English isn't your primary language to make that connection with the fans. I feel like Shinsuke has had a decent run. Asuka's had a decent run.
00:53:10
Speaker
Um, yeah, it's it's a challenge dude, but I mean there's some great japanese talents, dude Look at uh, look at great muda, you know, I mean he's still alleging all this day I don't think I ever heard great muda talk Yeah, and like there's plenty of examples of it and okada's gonna do fine Like he's brushed up enough on his english where he's gonna be fine. Um, but yeah, I get it. I get it Sometimes it doesn't connect. I mean it's just part of it like but
00:53:37
Speaker
Us as a society, there's different cultures and sometimes they don't know how to speak English. I guess just kind of go with it. That's a tough question to answer because there's plenty of Japanese talent that has succeeded in the US.
00:53:52
Speaker
I feel like each one's different, dude. I don't really think, you know, not to get all like super like, you know, you know, rainbow coalition, but I don't think you could just paint every single Japanese talent that's come over with the same brush, right? There's all of them have either gotten over or not gotten over for their own individual reasons. And I don't think it has so much to do with just them being from Japan. I mean, Jushin Liger, like he was completely over. And I don't remember one word that dude ever said. Look at Yoko Zuna. He was a two time champion. Fucking incredible.
00:54:21
Speaker
He was Samoan, though. He wasn't actually Japanese, still. The audience thought he was Japanese. I remember on one of the first episodes of Raw, he hit a bonsai drop and I saw him as a kid because as he hit it, he yelled out, Samoa! He yelled out Samoas. That was kind of weird. You know, you kind of just rolled with it as a kid.
00:54:42
Speaker
A couple questions we already discussed. We gotta win the hell as Britt Baker coming back. And is it time for us to just forget about Adam Cole? So we discussed those. All right, last question. This is a good one. What do you guys think of AEW running a vent stone cold angle? MJF redebuts and just beats the shit out of TK. Would the fans cheer or boo?
00:54:58
Speaker
One, I think the fans would cheer. And two, dude, unless he's taken some crazy acting classes from Tom Cruise and some of the real legends in the acting game, I don't really want to see TK as an on-screen character. The dude's just painfully awkward.
00:55:15
Speaker
Also, I feel like TK is the type of dude that would genuinely get hurt on screen if they did something like this. This has bad, like, do a line of booger sugar right as he goes out there and then tries to jump off the top rope. Like, I just feel like that has a disaster written all over it. I mean, in theory, does it make sense? Yeah, but dude, I just, no, we can't do it.
00:55:40
Speaker
I've never been a fan of the on-screen authority figure. I think one thing that has really helped WWE's creative research over the last few years is that they still have them, but they've tremendously watered down the on-screen authority figures.
00:55:54
Speaker
They're there when you need them. They're more in the Jack Tunney role than the Vince McMahon, Stephanie role that we had for damn near 25 years, man. I like them more than that. I like to know that they're there in case you need a big ruling, but I don't need to see every single thing that happens on the show running through some sort of on-screen manager or something.
00:56:14
Speaker
No. Authority definitely does not need to be there. I really hope Triple H coming out. I mean, granted, it's been the two weeks after WrestleMania, but I really hope this doesn't become a constant thing where they have to announce every week that this is the Paul Leveque era. Like we don't, we don't need to do this every week. It's going to get repetitive really fast and really old. Yeah. I think it was just for the, that first wrong first Smackdown of the year, dude. I think, I think we came out on a raw this week too. Don't forget that.
00:56:43
Speaker
He was out there during the tag titles. Yeah, but I thought that was just to present the new tag belts, man. I'm just saying, I hope this doesn't become a thing where this is happening every week or even every other week. You start seeing Paul Lavec era t-shirts. Yeah, I'm a Paul Lavec guy. It doesn't need to be shown in the front row every week. We don't need to lean into this so much. I love Triple H and I love what he's doing, but let's not get too carried away with this whole thing. Yeah.
00:57:10
Speaker
I'm with you, dude. You don't want it to become like a trademark thing. Just let it be organic. But, you know, WWE is not good at that at all. No. All right. So that's a wrap. Again, thank you guys for bearing with us, man. Shout out to Sheena being super mom and taking care of our little precious Stella with the broke collarbone. So let us know how you guys like us doing these. You know, if it hits, dude, if the numbers are there, maybe we'll start sprinkling in some some some pod warriors previews. If there's a show that we're
00:57:37
Speaker
we're really, really excited about. But Jordan hit us with some closing thoughts and we'll get out of here, man. Yeah, man. Enjoy your AEW weekend. Enjoy some dynasty if you don't want to pay for it. Find a bootleg, whatever. Just watch some AEW this weekend. It's going to be good wrestling.
00:58:02
Speaker
Boot campbell just like the papaw said Keep your mouth shut and you'll be fine Just another enlisted egg In the bowl for Uncle Sam's Peter When you get to damn near, you'll hear a voice in your head Sayin' my life's too long of mine Have you runnin' with some S-A-D-S-O-G Bein' medicine even? Oh, you're sittin' out on them high seas Just like you're bein' born
00:58:32
Speaker
That first port you call them tiling Feels like a polywamp turning 19 They got king cobras fighting in boxing rings And all the angels play connect-o-fold Seemed like a sailor's paradise But it turns out to be a bad dream Well now you hit the ground running in Tokyo Kawasaki to Ebisu