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Episode 89: We're Back And AEW Dynamite Is Finally Here!
57 Plays6 years ago
Come hangout with Garrett and Derrick as they chat about this historic week in pro wrestling! They're chatting about the first official night of the Wednesday Night Wars, plus Garrett took it upon himself to sit in a theater for 12 hours watching back to back screenings of Hobbs and Shaw as punishment for missing last weeks show!
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Transcript
Intro & Garrett's Mental Health Journey
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Predetermined, a pro wrestling hangout. I'm your host, Garrett Callender. And with me, as always, a man who is so overwhelmed by the amount of wrestling there is to watch every week now that he has just completely given up and is only watching exclusively Kiefer Sutherland driven projects. Derek Halpin. Is he still doing shit? I mean, he had that show Lone Survivor where he was the president
00:00:29
Speaker
I really haven't watched any of his shit ever. So you were not prepared to talk about Kiefer Sutherland at the top of this pro wrestling podcast. It's not a pro wrestling podcast anymore, Garrett. I gave that up. That's true. What's your favorite Kiefer Sutherland movie? We've been through this. I ain't seen his shit. You haven't seen like, wasn't he in cowboy way with Woody? I may have seen bits of that.
00:00:57
Speaker
What are you over are you overwhelmed with the amount of wrestling?
00:01:03
Speaker
Um, no. And I'm excited to talk about all of it because it's a big fucking week and we made it back just in time. I just want to go out of my way to say, feeling good today. And I love when we start off an episode and you make up a random factoid about me. And then the next thing out of my mouth is me asking a question or saying something that completely demolishes whatever claim you just made. It really is more disappointing for me that you
00:01:31
Speaker
just aren't more well I don't want to I was gonna say well read but that's the wrong word I wish you were a more well-viewed Kiefer fan when we when we start this show up every week I have no idea what Garrett's gonna say
00:01:49
Speaker
And I had made a comment the other day as a joke through text message that I was done watching pro wrestling because in my mind, this would be the funniest time to stop. And I told Garrett that I was now a UFC fan because that shit's real.
00:02:04
Speaker
but he took that joke and edited the end of it into a Kiefer Sutherland bit that I'm not sure is gonna resonate with the audience. It doesn't even resonate with me. I chose a thing that I was not even interested in saying. It's okay.
00:02:23
Speaker
Hey, we're back. Yeah, we were gone last week. You may have noticed. I think we a few people reached out. Quite a few actually. Yeah, I appreciate everyone reaching out. You know, we are okay. But last week. Hey, you know, I what would you call it, Derek? I had you had to take a personal day.
00:02:43
Speaker
I used some PTO. I had to use some of my PTO. I've talked about this before. I've got some mental health issues. I had some changes in my medication.
00:02:58
Speaker
Would you describe that as a nervous breakdown? What the fuck was happening to me? Well, I wasn't there for you personally. I can tell you from my end, it seems like you've been going through some positive changes lately. You've been raving about some of the new changes in your life in regards to your mental health. And I just know that last Wednesday, I was sitting there in my recliner watching Keith Lee and Dijakovic wrestle their hearts out.
00:03:27
Speaker
and i was getting warmed up for recording with you and uh you put in you put in some pto and i told you hey dude it's all good with me
00:03:37
Speaker
Take this week off and we'll come back next week anew. And here we are. You see, that's what he's saying to you guys. But the part you're missing in this is where he said, didn't you read the part in the contract that if you were to ever call out sick, you have to give me at least one hour notice. And I don't think I got enough notice in. We didn't even notify the audience. And really, I feel worst about that.
00:04:04
Speaker
I think what was surprising, I don't know if surprising is the right word, I think what was heartwarming to me was that after doing this show for coming up on two years, I think you get numb to the idea that you have a wide variety of listeners. And maybe you forget that people are even listening after a while. And we do have quite a few listeners. People from all backgrounds reached out asking, hey, why isn't the new episode up? And that made me feel good.
Movie Challenges and Reflections
00:04:32
Speaker
Yeah, that wasn't the only reach out I got this week. So because of my mental health issues, and yes, I am doing better lately with the change in the medication, there was just a little rough spot in the switch over, but I feel great now. And then the other day I decided, you know what, Hobbs and Shaw has very little time left in the theater.
00:04:55
Speaker
And I felt like I wronged you guys. I let you down by not showing up. So I did a thing that none of you asked me to do, but it turned out nearly everyone in my life thought that it was a cry for help. See, yeah, everyone on the Internet, the Internet had the same reaction I did. And I'm just I'm putting it out there.
00:05:24
Speaker
My first thought was, and this is you doing better?
00:05:31
Speaker
Yeah, believe it or not. I like putting myself through dumb bits just to see what it's like. Kind of like when I went to Mania Weekend and stayed in the same building for 15 hours. No one asked me to do that. I just wanted to see if I could. Alright, but time out. Time out. Okay. Here's where I'll give you that you did that. That's a lot of fucking work. You were at least seeing a different thing in front of your face every few seconds.
00:05:59
Speaker
Okay, well- It was multiple shows. For those of you who don't know, Tuesday, I went to go see Hobbs and Shaw all day long. I saw- How many showings is that? Four back-to-back screenings. Starting at what time? Starting at noon, and the last screening let out somewhere after 1230 at night.
00:06:25
Speaker
That's 12 plus hours of being at a theater watching the same movie. Can I tell you? Yeah. For the final three screenings, I was in that theater alone. You sure you're doing okay? I was doing so good. I don't know why everybody is so worried about this. I just wanted to watch a movie over and over again and see if I still liked it. And guess what? Yeah, that movie still rules, Derek.
00:06:52
Speaker
Garrett, I don't think anybody else shares that level of whatever you want to call it. Like there's movies I love. You're making it seem like you're the only person who's ever loved a movie. A lot.
00:07:05
Speaker
Four times in one day is a lot of fucking movie. So you're telling me... So Garrett goes to see Hobbs and Shaw nine times. He's a fucking weirdo with mental problems. But all these nerds go see Avatar a hundred times and look at them. Look at them. They're fine. If I had heard of a nerd seeing Avatar four times in one day, I would express the same level of concern for them that I'm expressing for you. It's not the number of times you've seen Hobbs and Shaw.
00:07:32
Speaker
It's the number of times in a 12-hour period you watched Hobbs and Shaw.
00:07:36
Speaker
Well, I saw Hobbs and Shaw four times in a 12-hour period, stayed in that theater the whole time. What questions do you have for me? Did you get any snacks? Derek, I can tell you what snacks I had during all four screenings. I went different snacks each one. Opening one, I started with a Diet Coke and some peanut M&Ms. Screening two, I realized the theater had truly's. No white claws, but they did have truly. So I went with Welch's Gummy,
00:08:05
Speaker
fruit snacks, and two trulys. For the third screening, Dustin, come down. Time out. I got a text from you going into the third screening saying this is rough. The set, yeah. Can we acknowledge that as enthusiastic as you are about telling this story, halfway through you thought it was a bad idea. Oh, no, no, no. Like when I thought it was a bad idea was definitely halfway through the second screening.
00:08:34
Speaker
Oh, even sooner. Yeah, no, it was way sooner. The second one I realized there was a certain point when I realized I still have to watch this movie two and a half times. That was that was the moment that was the hardest. The first one was fun. The second one was a little stressful. But honest to God, by the time I got 20 minutes into the third one, I was so excited for the fourth already.
00:09:00
Speaker
Because it got to the point where it was like, you're doing this, man. No one asked you to do this, but it is possible. You sat in the same seat all day. No one was in the theater, Derek, so I'm walking around, I'm quoting the movie at the movie. Basically, okay, I know this sounds insane, but if somebody were to offer you a private screening of your favorite movie four times in a row in an empty theater, you just get a movie theater to yourself. Would you take that? No.
00:09:33
Speaker
Well, I became super focused on just the tiniest details. Like, for instance, the sound in that movie is insane. It turns out... So, for instance, if I were like three feet from you and just tossed you a wooden baseball bat...
00:09:49
Speaker
What sound would that make? I don't know, pretty woody type, hollow noise, I guess, when it hits my palm. Once it hits your hand, yeah. In this, when Hobbs throws Shaw a weapon from about three feet away, it is a wooden weapon, it makes a whoosh sound.
00:10:08
Speaker
that would require, like, if you swung a bat really fast, it would make that sound. But he made that sound just from throwing it three feet away very softly. And I really appreciate that detail to show how badass he is.
00:10:24
Speaker
Yeah, everyone kind of had a similar reaction to you seeing this movie four times in one day. I was concernicus. I was worried. I hadn't heard from you all weekend.
AEW Debut and Commentary Highlights
00:10:35
Speaker
And when you come back up on my radar, next thing I know, you're basically jamming your new favorite movie down your esophagus.
00:10:43
Speaker
to the point where it's a fucking choking hazard. So you asked me if I would see one of my favorite movies, but like on a private screen theater all to myself four times in one day. No, because I think that if you took my favorite movie and made me watch it that many times in a row, I would stop liking it. I just, I don't, I don't get why I am in the wrong in this. Don't you ever just want to do a dumb thing for the sake of doing a dumb thing?
00:11:11
Speaker
Yes, not this. This one was two foot. See, I had a group of friends like this is something I would have there. I have a very specific group of friends that this is something we would have done together where it's like, you want to see if we can do it? Hell yeah. Another thing we like to do. We for a while made it a hobby to cook meals exclusively from celebrity cookbooks.
00:11:32
Speaker
That's fun. Yeah, I have homemade a pasta from Tony Dan's cookbook. Didn't you make stuff from the the Frasier cookbook? I have made it from the Frasier cookbook. I've made it from Snoop Dogg's cookbook. Stanley and that's not not not Frasier like, you know, Joe Frasier, not that like the television series Frasier.
00:11:50
Speaker
Yeah, so technically that one is not a celebrity because it's just based off of fiction. My prized one is I have Vincent Price's cookbook from the 70s. The recipes are fucking terrible. Food was very boring in the 70s. Hey, Derek. Hit our goddamn music.
00:12:45
Speaker
I actually kinda wanted to make it go a little bit longer. I was gonna offer it to you. Should we hit it again? No. You wanna just hit the music twice at the beginning? No. We do it at the end. That's a claw. That's not a truly... That's a claw. Yeah, it truly was disappointing. But hey, guess what? Now that we're 13 minutes into this podcast... Holy shit, this was a big week in pro wrestling.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We took last week off. We're coming back with a vengeance this week because we got we got some stuff to talk about and I'm excited to talk about it because man, we got a new promotion. It's on television. We've got NXT's finally got full two hours on USA Network and
00:13:30
Speaker
Friday, this week, SmackDown makes its debut on Fox. Which you will not get to hear us talk about until next week. And let's face it, we were pretty much already not talking about SmackDown. What do you think is gonna happen there?
00:13:48
Speaker
We were talking about SmackDown more than we were talking about Raw. That's true, because that's where Roman Reigns was hiding. I was like, what the fuck are you talking about? You're right, I forgot that's where that story was taking place. God damn. Yeah, this is wild.
00:14:02
Speaker
Does it finally just feel real that we can refer to AEW as having a thing? Yes. It feels really good, too. Let's just start off with that then, because that's the big topic. I'm sure that whoever listeners we have that are still around, that's what they want to hear us review. There's other things we have to talk about. But yeah, let's start out. What? Go ahead. I don't know. Just before we're into the actual show, did you see anything about the numbers?
00:14:33
Speaker
I know that it beat NXT in the ratings. So what I had sent to me a producer, John, I call him producer, John West Coast correspondent, John. He said that NXT did eight hundred and ninety one thousand and that AEW did one point four million and that it that it was TNT's biggest premiere in five years.
00:15:00
Speaker
So we're calling that a win. I think we're calling it a win. He said deadline is saying it was 1.8 million. Either way, I mean, that's not bad for a debut of a show that I think most people didn't know about. Let me ask you this question. Were you expecting it to be more? No, honestly, like I was kind of expecting it to be less. I was expecting to be closer to what NXT had. What's so interesting is I think
00:15:27
Speaker
the way they started transitioning NXT to USA Network, it may have ultimately hurt them, because that one hour on USA, one hour on the network shit made it weird, because they hyped it up like it was a big fucking deal, and then when you got to USA and you're like, oh, I'm only getting an hour, and I gotta boot up my network the same way I would have to do this for fucking SmackDown and then 205 Live, I can tell you from personal experience, I don't do that.
00:15:56
Speaker
There's somebody out there that said, I was so excited for NXT. I tuned in, it was an hour long, and then it turns out I have a new favorite show. It's called Suits. There wasn't a second hour of wrestling. So I think them doing that the past couple of weeks, I'm not saying that I know that it confused. I don't know. To me, it just watered down the big deal of them going to USA. I think if they had debuted,
00:16:22
Speaker
on USA this week head to head with AEW the numbers may be a little bit different but because the big hype was out of the way a couple weeks ago I don't know not that there wasn't some shit that happened on NXT let me tell you well I know that's what
00:16:42
Speaker
I'll be honest, if you told me a year ago that they were gonna put something up against AEW and that there is a possibility that I might change the channel, I would have told you. You would have believed it? I would not have believed that. Last night, I mean, that was a takeover card. Is that true though? Didn't we give NXT like the brand or promotion of the year, Sophie Award?
00:17:07
Speaker
Last year? That's true. That's true. But I mean, just think about how fondly we have talked about the Bucks and Chuck Taylor and just everybody that's in this promotion and how we haven't talked about Chuck Taylor nearly enough for him to be number two on that list. I'm just thinking of some of my favorite people in this promotion. Maybe you didn't see him on TV last night, but he was in a dark match.
00:17:32
Speaker
Uh, no, go on with your point. I wasn't trying to, I just thought it was funny. It was like the young bucks shot Taylor. I kept really personal with that one. Yeah, clearly. There were not a lot of people that felt my, uh, felt me there. They were, no one's with me on this one. Watch Smackdown this week. We've got Roman Reigns, Heath Slater, and he's got kids.
00:18:02
Speaker
Uh, so, so yeah, I, I just didn't see a world where I didn't want to tune in and see these guys debut, but then fucking NXT is like, Garrett, do you want to see Candice LeRae go for a title? So kinda. Yeah. And they're like, Hey, we got Walter versus Kushida. Shit. Like they're just Cole versus riddle. God damn. I thought it was strange though that they did. Did it make sense that they went last with the tag matches?
00:18:30
Speaker
I think they knew they had to get, like that was, to me, that was an offensive move on their part. That was them saying, Hey, you don't want to miss the start of our show. We're doing Adam Cole versus Matt Riddle for the NXT championship to close the show. Plus fucking how many times have they had unbelievable tag team title matches in NXT? That's just as good as the main event as anything else you can think of.
00:18:54
Speaker
That's true. I mean, they usually treat the tag matches as just kind of like a main event at the beginning. I just think they flip-flopped it for the show. So it felt kind of like a little bit of a takeover, like a little mini takeover, just backwards. That being said, they did put the tag division against essentially the tag division. That's true. That's very true. We'll go back to talk about NXT. Let's get back on track.
00:19:23
Speaker
I was so giddy inside in the bottom right corner of your television screen seeing the countdown. And by the way, I did watch that countdown to AEW Dynamite program the night before I saw Bits and Pieces of it during the wild card game for MLB. And then I watched Bits and Pieces of it again on, I think, TruTV re-aired it in the hour leading up to whatever I had that on. So that got me excited about it.
00:19:53
Speaker
And then we go live. How do you feel about the opening intro with the color bursts and the fucking song that I don't know what the song is, but it does use the word dynamite in it. Let's be clear. I'm trying. Oh, I actually almost got their intro mixed up with Ross new intro in my head, where I wondered why did I have to see the band playing this song so much?
00:20:17
Speaker
No, actually, the AEW intro, I was so pumped. I mean, I got to watch that shitty last 15 minutes of Suicide Squad. And as that timer was going, I was getting pumped, boy. And when that hit, I mean, it was just like that timer hit and goosebumps. Goosebumps everywhere. Did it feel like, did it feel a little bit like
00:20:38
Speaker
And I guess this is once again us personalizing it and customizing the history just for us. We've since we started this podcast in February of last year. It feels like we've been counting down to this since then, right? At least from our perspective. It really does feel like that even though the majority of that beginning time we were watching them in New Japan and Ring of Honor.
00:21:03
Speaker
But so many of the, I mean, not just that, but some of these other guys, like MJF and Sammy Guevara are guys we have seen working indie shows over the last couple of years. That's true. There's a bunch of these guys that the first time we'd ever seen any of them was while doing this podcast. I think I watched Ray Phoenix versus Sammy Guevara at an AAW show last October. Well, which brings us to Sammy, opening match.
00:21:32
Speaker
Well, before we get to opening match, I got to get a little nostalgic on you. Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry. It made me so fucking happy to hear Tony Shabani's voice again. I had no clue that I mean, obviously I knew about Jim Ross and Excalibur. Had no idea they were going to throw Shabani straight into the mix on night one with Jim Ross and Excalibur and.
00:21:54
Speaker
I loved it. I actually like the chemistry of the commentary team. I don't know how you feel about that.
00:22:11
Speaker
I really liked it. I thought that it was like an all-star combo of two different voices from back in the day and plus Excalibur. And I don't know. I don't know what the other fans are saying, but man, it took me back to hear Tony Shabani's voice at the start of that show.
00:22:31
Speaker
Honestly, both the NXT and the AEW commentary teams, I think are really strong right now. I mean, obviously you had said so many times that you didn't like Jim Ross doing New Japan commentary. But how do you feel about that here? I think now that we're starting this show and he is going to be there to actually see the show and now he can basically his references are going to be from the things he's seen.
00:22:56
Speaker
And I think that's gonna be a little easier for him to handle, where with New Japan it just seemed like he didn't watch the show and would just get thrown in every once in a while and have no idea what was going on.
00:23:08
Speaker
Like I said, it was so weird to hear basically the voice of raw and the voice of nitro. Yeah, like I said, it felt like like an all star collaboration there. And yeah, it made me really happy to right at the top of the show. They're already talking about, you know, first time back on TNT in almost 20 years and
00:23:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think I got goosebumps and a little teary eyed at the start of the show because it's been a long time coming. What did you think of the opening match?
Exciting AEW Matches and Indie Darlings
00:23:40
Speaker
So Obman is going to come right out and say it. You said that it started slow and then it built and it got, you know, it was a good Cody match. I just straight up, I rewatched it before we recorded today. I just straight up think it was a good match. I enjoyed the shit. I actually, cause they restarted AEW after the show ended and I rewatched the first match again last night. I really like, I've been thinking about that all day. That was such a good match to start the show on.
00:24:05
Speaker
I think Cody in his match with Darby Allen and his match with Sammy Guevara did a damn good job. I guess I guess it was a time limit draw with Darby Allen. But even though he beat Sammy, he made him look like a fucking monster.
00:24:21
Speaker
And he beat him by cheating. So he looks even better. Did he beat him by cheating? I thought it was just a straight up roll up. Well, didn't Brandi hit him in the head with the shoe first and then he rolled him up from there? No. She hit him with the shoe and then he hit that middle rope kick and then he covered him and Sammy kicked out. So it made him look even stronger. He beat Sammy when Sammy went for that shooting star press and he got the knees up. And then as soon as he hit the knees, he rolled him up after that and got the three count.
00:24:51
Speaker
Those two just make so much sense it make because with this I you know you want to bring people in suck them in on the first one Cody is the best with storytelling over there it seems and It makes sense to put him up against a guy who's a little flippy So you can get both things the storytelling and the flippies in the first match Cody is just really fucking good. He's good in a way that I think isn't appreciated Nearly as much as it should be he has grown on me a lot
00:25:22
Speaker
Because you have often said that Cody wrestles a WWE style. I don't know if that's true. I think Cody just wrestles a straight up like old school pro wrestling style. I don't even know if it has anything to do with WWE. You mean just like his dad style. I just I don't even know if it's that because I think his dad had a completely different physique and and moveset but it's just
00:25:47
Speaker
Cody's really good at starting a match, building it, and then there's a thing that happens in the middle that causes some havoc and then gets back on track. Like for instance, this was a match that for all intents and purposes, everyone watching knew that Cody was supposed to win this match. And yet they had two or three moments halfway through the match that made you wonder if Cody was going to lose.
00:26:15
Speaker
And that is classic fucking pro wrestling storytelling, if you ask me. Yes, yes. And I think they did a good job all night of me not knowing who is going to win these matches. So let's put a marker there and then go back to all in or all out a month ago to Pac beating Kenny.
00:26:40
Speaker
And all the different purposes, it looks like that served now. Because I was pretty upset about it. But now, like you had said at the time, maybe they're trying to establish that on any given night, one of these guys can beat anyone else. And it's helped drive Kenny's story to where it's like he's going crazy and questioning himself. And Pac continues to look super strong, especially after, you know, first night on TNT. But going back to the Cody match,
00:27:09
Speaker
Yeah, this was a really, really good one. I thought this was a great way to start the show. And I will say it was pretty awesome when after he won and Tony Shabani got in the ring and you thought they're getting ready to do an in-ring interview and he started crying. He was overcome with emotion. Leah was in the room next to me and I was like, you know what, Cody might end up being the new Ric Flair.
00:27:35
Speaker
Well, I'm trying to think of the last show I went to that Cody was on where he didn't cry. He's overcome with emotion, man. It's been a long journey. Yeah.
00:27:47
Speaker
They let him out of his WWE contract, and next thing you know, a couple years later, he's opening match on a new wrestling promotion on TNT. Figure that shit out. So much shit. And seeing them fill that arena, and just seeing their set be that big, and seeing the pyro at the beginning, just showing like, they're doing it. And I'm sure you,
00:28:16
Speaker
You've got a comment for a minute on the fact that, you know, front and center right there next to ringside, you got Kevin Smith and Jason Muse. That fucked me up a little bit. Tell me why. OK, I'll tell you why, because Kevin Smith has been my hero since I was but a wee lad. And do you ever have a dream like deep down in your heart that you know that's probably never going to come true, but you liked keeping it there anyway?
00:28:47
Speaker
Yeah. One of those was crushed for me last night, Derek. And I always assumed that Kevin Smith would really enjoy pro wrestling, but knew that he had never watched it or talked about it. I was always hoping that maybe one day I would get to be the man to introduce it to him. But it was Chris Jericho.
00:29:10
Speaker
So while Chris Jericho made some of my dreams come true, he crushed some of yours and that was the cost. Yeah, that was the cost of the whole time. I'm just like, man, I knew he would have liked wrestling. It's just comic books. He would love this. Do you really thought you were going to be the first person? Just look at Kevin Smith.
00:29:26
Speaker
You think he didn't know about pro wrestling? I think he knew about pro wrestling, but I don't think he knew it was awesome. And I can tell you that based on his face, as people were getting slammed into the barricade in front of him, he had pure joy on his face and the look of surprise that a person who had never sat front row at a wrestling show was getting.
00:29:46
Speaker
He's like, holy shit, this is really fun. Like it was awesome because that spot where Cody flew out of the ring and Sammy Guevara pulled brandy in front of him and Cody took out brandy. That happened right in front of Kevin Smith and he totally had that new fan. Holy shit. What did I just see? Look on his face.
00:30:06
Speaker
And honestly, the moment of the night where I'm like, God, this is fucking weird. Just people from different areas of my life. Rick Knox, the PWG referee was in the ring. Kevin Smith was in the front row. And the camera was also on Kenny Omega, all at the same time. And I did not know how... That's just one of those things you never thought you'd see.
00:30:30
Speaker
Well, again, doesn't that feel like something that would happen in one of your dreams? Like, if you were describing it to somebody later on, you're like, I had this dream last night, I was watching a wrestling show, and then you explain all of the elements, and you're like, isn't that all random and weird? And that's a thing that happened?
00:30:45
Speaker
I'm like, I had the weirdest dream last night, Derek. There was a new wrestling promotion on AEW, and Rick Knox from PWG was the referee, and Kenny Omega was there with the Young Bucks, but they were fighting LAX and Chris Jericho. It was the damnedest thing. And fucking Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross were teamed up with a luchador? Yeah, this show doesn't sound real, but it was real, and I loved it.
00:31:14
Speaker
Totally happened. Visually, oh, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, go on, go on, go on. Because I want to talk about the visuals too. Yeah, I was just gonna say visually, how did you like the look of the show? Loved it, and I was commenting on it as the show was going on. It's still HD, it's still high definition.
00:31:35
Speaker
I don't know if it's the lighting because they still, they still lit the crowd the way they would for like a smackdown. Like they still had like that blue gel, you know, look over the, uh, over the audience, but it still looked different from WWE and I can't put my finger on what it is. I don't know if it's just a little smokier. I don't know if it's slightly darker, but I mean, they may even just be shooting it on different cameras. I mean, that could very well be the case too, but it just, it looks different. Like it,
00:32:05
Speaker
Again, it's high definition, but it still looked a little grittier, just tiny, a little bit. And those moments where it looks grittier, but then you get like, I don't know, even things with just like the graphics where it's showing me the graphics of the fighters before they come out and just the colors and the way it moves. It was just everything felt a little bit different. Like I was, you know, it's very familiar, but it was like just different enough that I was getting a different show.
00:32:34
Speaker
Absolutely. Was it weird to have a moment where you were on fucking television watching these guys that have just been indie darlings for a long time? Yeah. Yeah. On a prime time network slot, they threw up a graphic that showed the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega against Chris Jericho and LAX.
00:32:56
Speaker
Honestly, it really was their match at the end when they finally came out and I got to see the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega on national television. That is that was the moment where I was like, holy fuck, this is real. This is finally happening. This has come a long way, baby. And that they got a man and Kenny mopped for a second. Yeah. OK, but yeah, back to the the show.
00:33:21
Speaker
Yeah, overall, I was very pleased with the way it looked. I was very fine with the pacing. There were times, though, the commercials would come on at weird moments where I thought that because I ended up having to get the Hulu streaming to watch it, which I'm not a fan of. I'll have to cut out some other streaming services. So probably bye bye high spots. Always the one to go.
00:33:44
Speaker
I thought the commercials were fine. I thought it was like they made a point to as much as they could just give you like the whole match. Like I'm pretty sure the entire Cody Sammy Guevara match was uninterrupted.
00:33:56
Speaker
And they were decent lengths of matches. Did you get the picture in a picture on the Hulu streaming when they went to commercial? Yes, but towards the end, they didn't do picture in picture stuff, right? They would just go to regular commercials occasionally. I think just like they do with SmackDown, it's random. Sometimes they show the picture in a picture. And going back to commentary, it's funny because
00:34:21
Speaker
like specifically when Tony Schiavone was able to unleash the words the bastard pock and then from that point on it was like they kept making like running jokes about like it being TV 14 and the fact that they could swear a little bit like I can't remember who said it now Jim Ross some well that but somebody made somebody said the word prick and
00:34:46
Speaker
Oh, that was Shivani because I he's like he said that. What do you say? Sammy was a prick. Oh, no. Yeah, he said MJF was a prick. He said I'd like to see him shut up this little prick or shut up this little prick.
00:35:01
Speaker
And in my mind, I'm like, ah, totally different than Michael Cole. See, yeah, I do like that, because really, I had not heard Tony Schiavone curse until we were at that first star cast. So now that I know that his real personality, I'm kind of excited to see that come out on commentary.
00:35:19
Speaker
Yeah, I again, raving about commentary, I get a lot of that's nostalgia. But again, them being able to swear just a little bit. And the fact that every time that came up, they're like, Oh, wow, remember, it's TV 14.
00:35:35
Speaker
Were you surprised that they didn't have the Jurassic Express debut on the first show? Or have a- No. Maybe at the time, but by the time the show got over and you- See this- We're recording this Thursday night. So if you listen to this tonight, this is hot off the fucking presses.
00:35:56
Speaker
The one thing I've had time to digest since watching it last night and then watching bits and pieces of it again is remembering that they only showed us a snippet of their fucking roster.
00:36:08
Speaker
and that they still had a fucking wild debut last night. They didn't show us best friends. They didn't show us fucking Luchasaurus or Marco Stunt or Jungle Boy. They didn't show us, they didn't have a fucking dark order on there.
00:36:27
Speaker
They had SCU and the Lucha Brothers, but we haven't seen and damn sure they didn't put the librarians on last night. No, no Orange Cassidy. So like we're sitting here talking about what they didn't put on the first episode and it's smart because what it means is that next week when you tune in, you're going to get to see a new face. That's true faces for the first few weeks, maybe even.
00:36:53
Speaker
Well, I mean, and not everyone's gonna come to TV every week.
00:36:57
Speaker
they're not going to be needed every week. I am looking at this though, and they did have four dark matches in the building. Well, that's fine, but I mean, I understand that, but I'm just saying for purposes of like, I think the thing that's going to be difficult that we have to keep in mind going forward is that being the elite and all that stuff, we have to pretend that doesn't happen or didn't happen and doesn't exist because what they're trying to do is they're trying to grab hold of a new audience.
00:37:27
Speaker
And we have to assume that with the new audience, they don't know anything about the fucking web series or the past on these guys. And if you're trying to draw in new viewers, all of these debuts or first matches or reveals and all these things are going to be like hot fucking news. Like it's going to be a big deal each time. And I'm excited to see how they like week by week, how they debut new guys. So.
00:37:55
Speaker
I thought they, I thought they did just the right amount of wrestling. There really weren't segments, but I mean, they had like little interview bits and was it fucking MJF who cut a promo to the ring? He cut the, yeah, but he had a two man. His match was under three minutes, but I bet that's how long its promo was. Well, did something happen in that match between him and, um, fuck now I'm blanking on his name. Brandon Cutler. Brandon Cutler.
00:38:26
Speaker
What happened there? Did that play out exactly like it was supposed to, where he came off the turnbuckle? Because it looked like he fell.
00:38:36
Speaker
It didn't look good, right? And then he just put him in a submission. Yeah. And the match is over. Yeah. It was an under three minutes. I think if anything, that match existed to let MJF go out there and talk to the crowd. It was. To introduce his character and to get his first win technically. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, he is going to be one of their big heels that they build around over the next few years.
00:38:59
Speaker
Oh yeah, he see, like looking at the people that are gonna be in the midcard here, I don't see him being in the midcard long. Or at least him being like top midcard guy for a while. I don't know, he's just so damn entertaining. Well this week, I mean the primary things that they were really pushing was Cody opening the show, the women's title being decided, and then obviously the main event.
00:39:23
Speaker
And they didn't address anything with the tag division. So there's other things that they can do for future episodes of the show. They're going to carry a lot of weight. So again, this is the key. You don't give away everything the first night. And you don't reveal your whole roster. And it gives people a reason to tune in.
00:39:48
Speaker
One of the moments that just hit me where I was like, fuck, this is our Wednesdays now. Was when I realized, holy shit, I'm watching Pac versus Hangman on TNT on a Wednesday night. And like, I'm watching this live. I'm not waiting to see this on Hulu because I wanna see this now.
00:40:13
Speaker
Yes. That makes me so excited, Derek. That was maybe the most excited I was the entire night. Just the realization that this is a match that, you know, I, this is, that's a pay-per-view match to me. It was supposed to be. It was literally supposed to be. It was supposed to be at Double or Nothing in Las Vegas. And I thought they looked good. It makes, it made so much sense to me to put those two on the first show. They went out there and did exactly what they needed to do.
00:40:44
Speaker
There's a lot of little things I don't want to forget about, so I may jump around a little bit as we continue talking about this. Once again, as we've said before, I love the time limit. I think that adds a whole other element to a match. Where there's the possibility that a match doesn't have a decisive winner, they're not forced into that.
00:41:07
Speaker
That way nobody necessarily has to get hurt. Nobody necessarily has to come out of a match looking exceptionally strong. And there's always that impending doom of like, this may have been awesome, but I may not get to see, they may have to do this again down the road. The other thing, and we'll talk about this maybe a little bit later, but I don't want to forget about it.
00:41:30
Speaker
You know how we've talked about in the past when we've talked about the time limit thing? Things that just make sense, rules wise, that just WWE has never fucking addressed. For instance, when they went into the main event at the end of the show, they announced that the match's time limit was a TV time limit.
00:41:53
Speaker
Like that's so ridiculously fucking smart. And I, and I have never heard that before. What do you mean? What do you mean? What do you mean? Okay. So everybody watching AEW dynamite knows that the show lasts from seven to nine. Well, if central, I guess if you're East coast, it's whatever eight to 10.
00:42:15
Speaker
You know that if you're watching something play out in the ring at the last 15, 20 minutes of the show or 23 minutes of the show or whatever the last thing is the night, you know that at nine o'clock the show is going to shut off, right? Yeah. So just address that upfront and say this match ends when the show is over. If it has not ended by then.
00:42:41
Speaker
WWE has never done this. Oh, so they I think I might have might have missed them saying that so they straight up said this matches over like we're ringing the bell when this goes off the air. Correct. Okay, okay. I like that. Like no like I've never heard maybe it's happened before maybe I'm dumb and I haven't brushed up on my pro wrestling history before talking about this but
00:43:06
Speaker
As soon as I heard that, I'm like, that's fucking genius. Because every time you watch a WWE show, if they go into the main event and you know, oh, there's nine minutes, there's nine minutes left, what kind of fuckery are they gonna do to make this nine minute match work as a main event between these two stars?
00:43:26
Speaker
Yeah. The way you address that up front is say, hey, you guys got fucking nine minutes. That's how long we have left in the show. And if you guys don't have it decided by them, match over. No winner, no loser. Like it's the same thing as like the time limit I was just talking about a second ago, but it's a different way of addressing the end of the show so that the ending doesn't feel forced. It doesn't feel like there has to necessarily be fuckery.
00:43:51
Speaker
There doesn't have to be some bullshit that explains why this is how the show is going off the air. You can literally just say, hey, guys, go put on a nice fucking 17 minute match. And if you guys don't have a winner by the time it's nine o'clock or whatever shows over. Like to me, like it's such a common sense thing. Like everybody knows it's not like it's a fucking Monday night football game that if it goes to overtime, they stay with the game.
00:44:18
Speaker
It's fucking entertainment. So like, I just wanted to compliment that. I had never heard that before. And it's just these little tweaks that like the package they ran before the Sammy Guevara Cody match. This is just a normal match on TV. I get that it was the first match on TNT and it was a big fucking deal. But they made a normal match on television feel like it meant something.
00:44:47
Speaker
Hello? I'm still here. I'm sorry. I just got a text that they found a dead body down the street. I'm sorry. I was fully paying attention until I realized there was a corpse nearby. What the fuck? Yeah, they found a body behind the Kroger. Well, tell that fucking corpse to go like we're talking about pro wrestling here. This is a big week. They're just going to have to wait. Yeah, I don't even know this corpse. I just see my phone light up and I think should I look at that? I never look at my texts. Who the fuck's texting you about this?
00:45:17
Speaker
or a friend from the neighborhood. Is it your drug dealer? No, it is not my drug dealer. Oh, speaking of drug dealers, I sat through four screenings of Hobbs and Shaw completely sober. Like, I know I had the Trulies, but that didn't do anything. Like, I want you to know, I want you to know, like, I sat through all of that dead fucking sober and just took it straight.
00:45:43
Speaker
But yes, I agree. Are you sure you're okay? Just so you know, I've seen that movie nine times. Tonight is the very last night of it playing in Nashville before it leaves the theater. I'm going to see it one more time because when the fuck else am I going to see a movie 10 times in theaters? Never. That's your 10 o'clock plans? That's my 10 o'clock plans. And you just couldn't tell me that up front? No, I couldn't. I was going to reveal that on the show. So there are listeners right now listening to this.
00:46:09
Speaker
that no joke, I am probably in the theater right now while you're listening to this.
00:46:16
Speaker
I'm sorry, but yeah, no, I agree with what you were saying completely. I'm actually, I'm very, I was just saying like, I think there's little details that fucking add to the show that they're paying attention to. And I'm excited to see what more of those are going to be. But do you think during the main event they did like some WWE fuckery? Cause I know me, you and Alex were texting, I'm sorry, queen of the ring, which fucking congratulations to queen of the ring. Yeah.
00:46:44
Speaker
Holy shit. That's the other thing, that was news that came out last week, but we weren't around to fucking do anything. So, I guess we're giving out our congratulations on the podcast now to our dear friend, Queen of the Ring, over there on the East Coast. Yeah, she's gonna be the, she's a correspondent for Wrestling With Regret. She's gonna be covering their SmackDown on the YouTubes. Go check her out, goddamn, that's fucking awesome. She's gonna- I'm sure by now, you know,
00:47:10
Speaker
about Queen of the Ring because we've talked about her all the time on this podcast. But yeah, big move for her. And I'm excited because I'm you know how excited I am about SmackDown being on Friday nights now and being on Fox. And now, hey, we get to hear her review the show every week. Yeah, you know, you can just go. You know, our show comes out on Thursday. That's on Friday. So watch her talk about SmackDown. You don't need us.
00:47:35
Speaker
Well, you need us for every other stuff. We'll say that. Shit. We just came back. We're supposed to be putting ourselves over a little bit. This is the last episode, guys. I know it's kind of fucked up that we're ending before we hit 90, but this is the last episode. We're done.
00:47:51
Speaker
What did you think of the women's title match between Nyla Rose and Rio? I thought it was fucking evil that WWE and AEW put Candice LeRae's match on at the same time as this because these were two of the matches I was most looking forward to the entire night.
00:48:10
Speaker
Well, we'll talk about NXT when we talk about NXT. What did you think of this? I really enjoyed it and it surprised the shit out of me. I mean, I don't know. In my mind, all the talk going in was that I think everybody thought Nyla Rose had it. I thought Rio was gonna win it. And I was pleasant. I mean, I guess I wasn't surprised then, but I mean, I was happy to be right. Happy to be happy. I was happy to be happy at the end.
00:48:39
Speaker
I thought it was a damn good match and god damn, she is like a fucking, she's a twig. She is the fucking Blair Witch Project logo with wrestling gear on and fighting fucking giant ass Nyla Rose. Every time they did a spot together where Rio had to bear any sort of brunt from Nyla, I was terrified I was gonna see a limb snap the way that Sid Vicious' leg when he came off the top or opened WCW. That's what I was worried about.
00:49:08
Speaker
Good shit. No, that was really good. I, I, man, yeah, no, I enjoyed that. Watching them, I just got so excited for the women's division. Cause you know, a lot of these guys we've seen fight each other before, but for me at least, a lot of these women, this is going to be new match ups for me that I have not seen. So I'm very excited for that.
00:49:30
Speaker
Like the way the title looks too. It looks like a very old school belt and I'm a fan of the women's title in AEW. Are you happy with the decision to put the belt on her? I just told you I fucking was. You said you were happy to be happy?
00:49:43
Speaker
I said that I was predicting Rio to win the title and I was happy to be right. Well, did you want her to win? If you had to choose, was she the one you were actually like, you're like, I would choose her. She should be the first champion. I'll be straight up with you. Those two would not have been the two people I would have had and decide the first AEW women's title if it was up to me. Given that scenario. Yeah. Fucking underdog David Goliath story. I get it.
00:50:10
Speaker
It's good shit. And what that sets up where now she's going to have a match with Britt Baker? I think that would be awesome. I'm looking forward to that. Have you seen the shirt that says Wednesday Night Wars and has Adam Cole and Britt Baker on it? I have not seen that. It's available on Pro Wrestling Tees, I believe. Yeah, no, I like the women's title match a lot.
00:50:36
Speaker
What the fuck else is there to- are we missing something before the main event here? No, it went from that to the main event. Damn. Okay, I guess this is a good time to ask this. Did it feel like two hours or did it fly by? Um, I think there were times that it did feel like two hours.
00:50:55
Speaker
It felt like I watched wrestling for two hours, but I'm not saying that as a bad thing. It didn't feel bloated. It didn't feel like I was watching a lot of unnecessary things or filler. So I mean, yes, it did feel like two hours, but a good two hours. Okay. I would agree with that. Yeah. I mean, to me, like.
00:51:19
Speaker
I guess to me having a, like I had said weeks ago when I was hyping up this finally fucking happening and now it's here. It's just refreshing is the best way I can put it. It was refreshing to watch another major pro wrestling promotion on prime time on a major network. And it's not like, you know, just an hour or whatever. Like it felt like a nice chunk of wrestling with a bunch of guys that we've been talking about for a couple of years.
00:51:48
Speaker
finally getting that main event slot. Not main event as in main event of a wrestling card, but like prime time, big time, man. I was very, very happy for these guys. I mean, like you said, we've been talking about them for a long time. We've been seeing these guys forever. Just kind of seeing them be where they deserve to be. And something that was a little upsetting that I found out today, they started knocking down the American Legion Hall today that they used to run PWG out of.
00:52:18
Speaker
So it truly is the end of an era. It was. It was like that debuted and then they fucking tore down the Legion Hall just so that we'll forget about it forever. And now everybody's going to know these guys that we love. So it's like they graduated to the big time.
00:52:37
Speaker
And they have to knock down the old stomping grounds. I believe everything that is happening right now can be summed up with the hate breed song. Destroy everything lyrically. Just give it a listen and you'll be like, yeah, that is exactly what's happened. You got to got to tear down the old and make room for the new. So let's go on to the main event of the show. My question to you is.
00:52:59
Speaker
There's a big return or a debut or whatever the fuck you wanna call it as Jon Moxley pretty early on in the match attacks Kenny Omega. So he does show up during the TNT debut. You called this WWE fuckery. I think it's a little fuckery. Why wasn't there a disqualification? Is there no DQs in the six man? So this is the one thing I will ask. If that's gonna be the case,
00:53:30
Speaker
then that's, I guess another way of asking that question is, cause to me this would be super exciting to hear, are they going to suggest that an AEW, it's referees discretion, ooh, like red shoes, like basically like fuckery can happen, but if the refs like, ah, this makes sense, we'll let it go.
00:53:53
Speaker
he's got his own thing going on in these two don't this is fine web not to let it go like the inconsistency is is just part of the environment there like it's not like it they're not trying to treat it like like a fucking legitimate sport where you violate this rule disqualification match over
00:54:10
Speaker
Mike Knox can look at it and go, oh yeah, Kenny Omega and fucking John Moxley. They have a thing going on right now. They need to go settle that. All right. This is now a handicap match. Like to me, that makes perfect sense. See, now we need a side story, maybe a web series of just the referees. So what was it? Aubrey, fuck what's shit? Edwards.
00:54:34
Speaker
Yeah, but I'm trying to remember the other guy's name. The guy that got the referees for GCW. We got Knox. We do have Hebner. Don't forget about Hebner. Which was he the one in the hangman match? I think so. Was he? Was that the one where hangman was like, why the hell was Earl Hebner my referee? First of all, we didn't go back and say this. They're making Pac look like a beast.
00:55:03
Speaker
Oh, they make him look like he's the guy that's going to take the belt from somebody. I mean, fucking, he's a heel. So I mean, I don't think he's going to be the one to take it from Jericho. Hate to burst your bubble there. Well, he could be the guy to take it from. I don't know. I don't know who wins it next. I mean, I guess Cody has the match next, but I don't think Cody's the guy to take it. Yeah, no, they're going to let that go a little bit longer. It's going to be Luchasaurus and Pox going to take it from Luchasaurus.
00:55:33
Speaker
How did you feel about, uh, Kenny and the Bucks coming out to there being the elite entrance music? I enjoyed everything about this. This was just a fun six man with, like you said, a little bit of fuckery, but it makes sense to have the, uh, you know, the, the champ go out on top and I kind of like it. If LAX is, are they teaming with Jericho now? Are they buds?
00:55:57
Speaker
Apparently, everybody at the end of that show looks like they're buds now. When you say fuckery, do you necessarily give that a negative connotation? No. Not always. I want to clarify that. I've always felt this weird tension between you and me whenever you talk about fuck finishes because sometimes I feel like there's some spite in your voice. Well, sometimes a fuck finish deserves to have a little spite. I mean, how many times? You look so easy to fucking work.
00:56:24
Speaker
If I know, I get annoyed with a fuck finish if I'm going to have to like, if it's one of those things where it's like, well, I know they're probably going to fight three times. We're going to have to have a fuck finish at least once before we get to that third one. Well, then by definition, this really wasn't a fuck finish, was it? No, I wouldn't say this was. This gave us an exciting thing. We saw a guy go through a glass table.
00:56:46
Speaker
I think from a storyline perspective they had to isolate Moxley and Omega away from the match because it wouldn't make sense for Moxley to come out after the match was over considering all the other shit they had to book.
00:57:00
Speaker
because they had to get Sammy Guevara, LAX, Jake Hager, and Jericho all on the same page at the end of that match, which by the way, fucking Jack Swagger not looking like he's got the Jack Swagger stank on him. He did not look like, you're right, you're right. I wanna talk about that. I think when I say the words Jack Swagger,
00:57:27
Speaker
As I say it, I kind of picture those words coming out of my mouth in a cartoon bubble and above the words Jack Swagger or like the stink lines that come off a pig pen and the Peanuts cartoons. No, I get it. Yeah, you're right. Like there is something about him that even when I when he showed up, I was looking at him like, fuck, he looks really good.
00:57:48
Speaker
But goddamn last, he's what we're going off the air with on a hard close-up of his face for damn near 40 seconds. Staring deep into that camera. Like, they moved the camera away from Jericho to keep showing me Jack Swagger. Yeah, they did. Like, whoever was in the production yard was like, no, focus on that giant motherfucker. Does him being good at MMA really increase his stock? He's undefeated, Garrett.
00:58:16
Speaker
Does that mean anything to you though? As a pro wrestling fan? Look, I'll say this about Jack Swagger. Or Jake Hager. Whatever the fuck we're calling him. He's a tremendous wrestler and an athlete. And if he... I guess I'll put it to you this way.
00:58:36
Speaker
The way people used to feel about Drew McIntyre in WWE. He went away for a while and when he came back everyone was in love with him when he came back. I don't see any reason why people can't do that with Jake Hager. I agree with that. I mean I would have never thought I'd be where I was with Cody Rhodes right now.
00:58:55
Speaker
So I didn't call you out on this last night. I was kind of busy dealing with some shit. But you you made some comment about that like like fucking Jack Swagger showing up at the end of the show and you were kind of being a smarmy asshole about it. I still say and and I wanted to say how many people in this this text exchange that we were having how many people have owned a Jack Swagger shirt. I knew that was going to come up because you know it had to and it was you.
00:59:25
Speaker
You own or owned a Jack Swagger shirt. And yet you're the one here talking about the pig pin stink lines. To recall an old episode, as I was watching AEW last night and he came out, I was just like, fucking Marie Kondo, I could wear this now. Yep.
00:59:50
Speaker
God damn it. I did buy the Jack Swagger shirt literally the day that the Jack Swagger shirt debuted, the hand over the chest thing. I thought it was cool as hell. I wore that to a raw in Anaheim.
01:00:07
Speaker
And as I was standing out in front by myself waiting to go in, a guy looked at me and just goes, hmm, you pretty big Jack Swagger fan? And it was in that moment that I knew, I don't think the wrestling community is going to like this shirt as much as I do. And yet here we are. And Roman Reigns is about to be replaced by Jake Hager as your new favorite wrestler. I think, no! No! Don't you say that about Roman.
01:00:38
Speaker
I'll put it this way, this just goes without saying, out of all the things we have as pro wrestling fans bitched about for years about how WWE mishandles talent, how they can make somebody a star if they just handled them differently or booked them better or presented them better, I don't see any fucking reason why AEW can't take somebody who's got the talent that Jake has and turn him into something.
01:01:06
Speaker
I agree. I agree. And again, did you see the way the crowd reacted? I don't know if I remember, were they very excited? What? You don't know? I'm trying to remember, because I was fighting with my own demons inside as I was watching that where I'm like, well, this isn't like a... When you're wanting a big... Did you watch with the volume off? No.
01:01:37
Speaker
You seem guilty like maybe you did. Well, no, the volume was on, but I think I was just, I think I blocked the volume out as I was trying to decide in my head, is this an acceptable debut for the end of the show? Is this really my Lex Luger showing up here? So as we approach the two year mark of this podcast, may I recommend next time you're watching a pro wrestling show, you have the volume at an appropriate level so you can listen to the crowd response, because it'll tell you whether or not something worked.
01:02:07
Speaker
Pal tell that to Vince then Yes, the fucking Jake Hager thing got a reaction a big reaction last night people were fucking stunned Hands on the head. He's lying to everybody that he didn't watch a ew last night But at the end of that he's looking he's like we need to try and get this Hager guy
01:02:40
Speaker
It's just funny to me because in my mind, I'm sitting here having to cope with the fact that you watched the show, got to the final part of the show and were so fucking blocked out from the rest of the world that you didn't even, you couldn't even tell me how the crowd reacted to this moment because you were having fucking panic flashbacks to you in line at a Raw and Anaheim.
01:03:04
Speaker
wearing your Jack Swagger shirt, and you're like blaming him, and you don't want to give him the credit that he's getting the fucking reaction he did. I didn't hear the reaction. All I could think is, you made a fuck out of me. Yes, it did work. Will it work in the long run? We'll see, but fuck Garrett. Come on.
01:03:30
Speaker
Come on. You can, I don't have to like everybody from the top. I can be skeptical. I didn't say you have to like it, but you don't get to not like somebody and be like, they didn't get a reaction. I didn't say they didn't get a reaction. I said, I don't know if they got one, because I would. Well, fucking pay attention. I couldn't stop focusing on how the camera just wouldn't quit zooming in on his face. Like, Jericho was there for a second and all I thought was, this is too long.
01:03:57
Speaker
This is too long. I said, the amount of time that you're giving me to look at him right now, you're showing me this like this is CM Punk. CM Punk is back, but it's him. And you aren't getting the reaction out of me that I guess these people are giving him. It's even better than CM Punk because Jake Hager still likes to wrestle. You don't know that.
01:04:18
Speaker
What do you know about him other than, you know nothing about this man. Here's what I know he's undefeated in MMA apparently and I know that the reason they probably had that extended shot on him was just so Vince could get a long hard look at him and be like, hey, you let another one go. I hope they do that with every former WWE talent they bring in. Every single one gets like 15 extra seconds of hard cam time.
01:04:47
Speaker
Except, except one person. He finally gets out of his contract. He makes it over there. But I promise you, if Mike Kanellis makes it to AEW, he's still jobbing. We're going to make sure he never wins in this town again.
01:05:06
Speaker
We got more of this shit next week. That's the thing that we have to, it's not, it was not a pay-per-view. This is weekly television. This is, this isn't one and done. And hey, we still got fucking, I guess Hell in a Cell's this weekend. We have, the funny thing is, out of all the things on this week's fucking block of wrestling, Hell in a Cell is only second to last as far as shit that I care about.
01:05:33
Speaker
Monday Night Raw being number one. Could not have given a fuck. I tried. I watched like an hour and a half and was not impressed. I watched Raw this week and I laughed so hard during the entire opening segment. I don't know what you're talking about.
01:05:52
Speaker
Did you watch the whole show? I didn't see the entire show per se. No, of course not. My favorite was when I think Queen of the Ring put on Twitter, I don't remember if she text us this, but she said something about, will Lawler quit referring to Dominic as a teenager?
01:06:14
Speaker
And I never. Has that ever concerned Jerry Lawler? I've I'm not like I don't want him to stop. I want him to keep saying the dumb thing and I want to pretend that this kid's like 13 when this is clearly like a 30 year old man ring getting beaten or honestly him beating up Dominic. That is a match I would like to see in a hell in a cell. That was really unexpected. I didn't I saw the replay back on that because I like I said I watched like the last hour and a half but.
01:06:42
Speaker
That's fucking Eddie Guerrero's son that Brock's throwing around. Dominic!
01:06:52
Speaker
Oh my God. Oh man, we should get an AJ Styles thing out there where he tries to adopt Dominic. Keep that thing where he's like everybody's dad. This gets his fucking initials tattooed. Let this come. See, that is the ultimate bit. If AJ Styles went so hard that he got Dominic tattooed under there and is like, see, he's my son now.
01:07:16
Speaker
Yeah, Hell in a Cell is this weekend, but, you know, fuck, like, I guess the only thing I'm really excited about from that show is, I guess there's two things. I am excited about The Fiend and Bray Wyatt, and I am excited about Sasha Banks and Becky.
Wrestling Showdowns and Surprises
01:07:32
Speaker
Yeah, I'm actually excited about both of those things. And does Roman Reigns have a match? Does he? He better. This is such a weird week because I'm more excited about Friday Night SmackDown than I am Hell in a Cell, by far.
01:07:48
Speaker
You probably don't even know what's going on in SmackDown. Are you just a shitty fucking wrestling fan? And I didn't realize it until tonight. I do. You have no clue. Monday night, I sat down and I watched GCW curtain call live. It was Joey Janela's last show. So that's where I and then last week, you know, I watched. What'd you do Tuesday, Garrett? Tuesday, I watched the same movie for 12 and a half hours. Yeah.
01:08:24
Speaker
How did the audience react during that show? Which one? The empty screening of Hobbs and Shaw? It was just me yelling. You paid attention to that part. No. It's funny. I'm not going to let you get it. This is going to be a running gag. Every week, I'm going to ask you, how did the crowd react to that and find out whether or not you actually watched the fucking match?
01:08:41
Speaker
I didn't have that. I didn't have time. That's what you fucking did.
01:08:53
Speaker
Why do I have to listen to the crowd? Why can't I just have my own reactions? You're like that fucking asshole I had a conversation with during the fucking yes movement who was swearing to me that the Daniel Bryan thing wasn't a big deal. It wasn't that big of a deal. Fuck you.
01:09:13
Speaker
I mean, look, what's Daniel Bryan doing now? Was it that big of a deal? I don't know. He's getting ready to team up a fucking Roman Reigns. Oh, I guess that is the match. Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Can I tell you- Oh, you're a Mac down. No. No, you can't. When he debuts on NXT because they need to bring the ratings up, that is gonna be the greatest night of my life watching him spear at him cold to hell and get that NXT title.
01:09:45
Speaker
So they are doing a pretty big show on Friday. I mean, they have Lesnar actually wrestling a title match? They have Lesnar wrestling Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship. They have Sasha Banks and Bayley against Becky and Charlotte. They have Owens versus Shane in a fucking ladder match. And loser is fucking gone.
01:10:14
Speaker
And the rocks gonna be there, you know that guy you saw four fucking times on Tuesday I'm familiar Yeah, you're like don't we'll go see him once so I'm not watching. Well, he says yeah, why would I I could? See him once for 10 minutes Do you know how much screen time he has in Hobbs and Shaw?
01:10:34
Speaker
Did you keep track? I mean, you had enough time to. That's true. I should have kept it. There's so many things I should have done that day differently. You like you could have taken like a clipboard in and been like rockets on screen for a total of 38 and a half minutes. I said to my wife, I was like, it sucks. There's a they're actually showing a remastered version of The Shining here. I wish I could go. And she's like, you literally could. Like there's some imaginary restraint on you.
01:11:00
Speaker
Let's talk about NXT a little bit. You said you were kind of excited about the Candace Shayna Baszler match. What did you think of it when you watched it back? I actually did watch it live. I set up my laptop next to my TV and had this, I believe at that time I was watching the Candace one on the laptop, but with sound, but still had AEW on the TV.
01:11:23
Speaker
I was enjoying the match and then exactly what we thought was gonna happen happened and then I started booing my laptop and then switched back over to AW and never looked back at my laptop again. I'm pretty sure it was me who said they're gonna fight and Candace is definitely gonna lose the first one.
01:11:43
Speaker
And then they're gonna fight again, possibly, maybe next month, take over in Chicago. You better promise me that. I can't even win that one. I didn't promise, promise. No, you gave me a promise, promise.
01:11:57
Speaker
I don't remember it, but whatever. We cut our hands with glass and blood and shook hands and you said this will happen or I will give you my Boba Fett. Need to make a note of something. What did you think of that Adam Cole Matt Riddle match? Because I can tell you that when Matt Riddle did that fucking release German to Adam Cole and it looked like he just fucking threw him straight on top of the top of his head.
01:12:22
Speaker
I actually did not get to see that, I just got to watch the highlights. Did it end on any fuckery or did Adam Cole win clean? Adam Cole won clean. No shit, he beat Matt Riddle clean? Beat Matt Riddle clean. That's wild. It was a damn good match. They had a moment I think early on where they were just trading major fucking moves, not blows, not like punches or chops, like fucking moves back and forth.
01:12:51
Speaker
And I mean, they each look fucking awesome coming out of it. Multiple. God damn it. Why? Whatever the fucking name of his Margaritaville finisher is. Wait, which one? Adam Cole's finisher, the sunset, whatever. Panama sunset. The fucking Margaritaville finisher? It's the Margaritaville mixer, man.
01:13:20
Speaker
tell you how the crowd reacted to it though well stepped on a pop top and he blew out his flip-flop you know because fucking which is ironic considering he was with a guy in the ring who wears flip-flops
01:13:35
Speaker
He blew out and Matt Riddle's flip flop. He beat him clean, no fuckery from undisputed era. And yeah. Shit, like in my head, Matt Riddle, that is one thing that's gonna be hard over it. Honestly, both of these promotions is who has belts. In my mind, Matt Riddle's a champion. Yeah, I think he's going to be. The only thing that's making this murky, there's a couple, like several things.
01:14:01
Speaker
One, part of the big news coming out of NXT is after Adam Cole beat Matt Riddle, Finn Balor made his return to NXT and got all up in Adam Cole's face to announce that he was back. That feels fucking huge. That is big because it also means that Bray Wyatt did officially kill him from the Raw universe.
01:14:26
Speaker
So Bray Wyatt's thing is he's just it's like what's the name of the fucking lake in the the Matt Hardy universe. Oh god damn it. Yeah. I don't remember off the top of my head. You're reborn. When the fiend kills you he sends you back to NXT.
01:14:44
Speaker
Oh, I can't wait for the Fiend versus Roman Reigns, because I need Roman Reigns versus Keith Lee. So in theory, there's a possibility that Seth Rollins shows up on NXT next week, just because the Fiend is going to fucking murder him at Hell in a Cell. In every pay-per-view, what happens is he breaks your neck, you get sent to NXT, pretty soon Brock Lesnar.
01:15:06
Speaker
Him versus Brock Lesnar. And he's just like, I didn't fucking sign up to go down to Florida. I live in Florida now. Fuck. And then he shows up. He's like, oh my God, everyone here is five foot two. This is going to be a lot of fun. What am I? I'm losing to five foot two.
01:15:23
Speaker
Brock doesn't do that. Well, Dijak's tall. Well, I did get my fucking neck snapped. His name is Dijakovic or whatever. I'm sorry. I know him from his indie time.
01:15:38
Speaker
That would blow everybody's fucking mind if they found out that Brock Lesnar was a big fan of indie wrestling. You know what would be the best bit for Brock Lesnar to do? Show up at NXT, walk around backstage, just see somebody who looks like a wrestler and walk over and go, oh my god, I'm a huge fan, just to see their face. And then he's just like, I'm just fucking with you, I don't know who you are.
01:16:01
Speaker
Where he's like a jock bully, like just straight out. I don't watch this shit. Just giving fucking wedgies to Johnny Gargano and shit. Oh my god, I love this bit. I want that more than Roman Reigns going down there. He's just, oh my god, who is he gonna get it? Who's his first confrontation with? Who from that roster? Damien Priest.
01:16:28
Speaker
You telling me you came down here? Your name used to be punishment. Did you see what I did to fucking Dominic? That's punishment. Every time we go back into the Brock Lesnar Irish fucking lad accent and never ceases like we get halfway into it. You do it for a while and then it hits me like this is not the best Minnesota accent. No.
01:16:54
Speaker
Um, people don't come here for the Minnesota accents. They come here for our, for our musings. Yeah. Um, so I guess, uh, the other thing, the other big news coming out of NXT is after the undisputed era retains the tag titles against street profits, and which was a very good match, by the way, was it, did it end up, it wasn't, it was actually a good match.
01:17:17
Speaker
It was a good match. I mean, honestly, depending upon who you talk to, some people say that NXT had the better show. I've heard that. I can't confirm because I have seen very little of it, but that wasn't because I didn't want to. It felt like I needed to give AEW full attention because NXT has had plenty of time. They could have been doing this already if they wanted to. That's true. They've been holding out.
01:17:42
Speaker
but no, it was a good match. The other big news, somebody else got up on Adam Cole's face and it was the returning to Maso Champa, which blew my fucking mind because here's the other thing, USA let them go long. They went past nine o'clock. So this was like, I want to say like nine, 10, nine, 15. And as Adam Cole's making his way back up the ramp, fucking Champa's music comes out and he goes face to face with him.
01:18:11
Speaker
Who is this fucking Tommaso Champa? I turned on my TV to see myself, and God damn it, if I'm not on there, who are these fucking men just slapping each other around with their shirts off? Sorry, that was- That's Chris Chrisley. That was Todd Chrisley. Todd Chrisley. Chris Chrisley. Not Chris- Whatever. Yeah, I totally wasn't expecting that, and I thought he was out with a major injury for a long time again. Like, like...
01:18:38
Speaker
They did a good job keeping that one secret. He had been doing a good job too of telling us that it was going to be longer than expected and just seeming kind of vague and sad about everything. So in one night we saw Finn Balor come back to NXT where he will probably get way better treatment on that brand and Tommaso Ciampa come back. Undisputed Era still has all the gold and Shayna Baszler's reign continues on. Did Walter Kushida happen?
01:19:07
Speaker
Walter and Kushida did happen. I didn't see it. That seems like it should be big news. I think I watched, you see when I gave my full attention to AEW and then I went back and watched the Hulu version, which is like an hour long. So they got some stuff. What are you yelling at me for? I'm yelling at you for cutting the stuff. I didn't personally do it.
01:19:35
Speaker
I can tell you that the crowd reacted very strongly when Champa came out. At the end of the show, I wasn't having like a fucking dilemma inside. Oh my God, is that Bobby Fish? I'm such a big fan. I'm just fucking kidding with you, pal. I'm just being mean and everyone being genuinely too terrified to say anything. Oh, hi, Io Shirai.
01:20:03
Speaker
Oh my god, is that fucking Prince? Velveteen Dream?
01:20:09
Speaker
I'm just waiting for all the dirt sheets where it's like, yeah, Brock Lesnar won't quit being mean to Io Shirai. It's really odd and kind of fucked up. He's not even down there wrestling. He's just down there being a personality. That's funny shit. You watched GCW give some time to that because we put over NXT. I mean, from like I said, they put on a good show.
01:20:37
Speaker
Fuck, I think it was AEW's night and the radians would reflect that. Yeah, do you want me to go into GCW for a couple minutes? If you want to, you watch the show. Yeah, it was a good show. I watched it was curtain call.
GCW Farewells and Unexpected Moments
01:20:50
Speaker
It was supposed to be Joey Janela's last night, but it ended up being the last night for three people and they gave three people a really nice farewell, which was Janela, Marco and Jungle Boy.
01:21:01
Speaker
Okay. So they all kind of got a farewell. That would make sense, yeah, I mean. Which was weird, because Orange- That was like a full-time gig, though. Orange Cassidy was on the show, but he didn't get a farewell.
01:21:13
Speaker
Time out, back up. I saw a gif, or it was either a gif or a video clip, when Orange Cassidy was making his entrance, did some giant fucking mark get in his way as he was coming out? Yeah, it was somebody who definitely didn't know it was on the air yet, was trying to get around him to go backstage, and the whole thing was on TV.
01:21:33
Speaker
It was like the most awkward fucking like stereotype ever of just some clueless fucking big boy Mark with like a he even had like a fucking Walmart plastic bag of some shit just just walking by at like a moment where he's completely ruining the shot and ruining the moment and the fact that Orange Cassidy had to stop
01:21:53
Speaker
and let him walk by and then waited an extra two or three seconds to emphasize yeah that fucking asshole just got in my way and that's fucking hilarious because i know people just saw that happen i saw that clip and i laughed about it because he had that smug little smile on his face
01:22:10
Speaker
This was one thing that surprised me out of the GCW show though. So the first two matches, it opened with Jungle Boy versus Jake Atlas. And I figured, oh, Jungle Boy's last match. Jungle Boy went over.
01:22:25
Speaker
Really? And then Marco comes out and they were calling it the Marco Stunt Invitational. So when we were in New York for lost, for Joey Janela lost in New York, KTB came out and had an open invitation and Marco Stunt was supposed to be a little boy in the front row that answered the open invitation and fought him and lost. So Marco Stunt actually called out KTB and said he wanted to bring his GCW run full circle.
01:22:53
Speaker
He ended up beating KTB. So I thought it was- The exiting people are going over? Yeah, the exiting people are going over, especially like KTB, who is a GCW guy. I thought it was weird to let him go over. Next, Tony Deppin versus David Starr. It was like a 20-minute match. Those two did awesome. Nick Gage had his title match in the middle of the show, which was a death match, against Matt Tremont, Orrin Veit, and Schlack.
01:23:20
Speaker
believe it or not, Nick Gage still champ, that fucking asshole Shane Mercer won a match against Alex Zane and Blake Chris. I say fucking asshole because he threw a man at me. And I think some people think that I should be appreciative that he threw a man at me. Yes, but should. And he made that happen. You, baby, me.
01:23:45
Speaker
That was a little Tenacious D reference for you and I. How do you feel about them calling Candace Tenacious C? I like that. Yeah. I mean, that would probably make a better t-shirt than the one they made. Let's see. Matthew Justice versus Chris Dickinson. Do not care for Matthew Justice. Cannot get over. There's just something about that guy that I look at him and I'm like, yeah, you look like a wrestler, but, sir, I do not care.
01:24:12
Speaker
And I am willing to say that on this show. And yeah, I would not say that to his face, but I just hope he is not listening. Orange Cassidy versus Ethan Page. The most important thing about that match. It started with our buddy. I say buddy, we've never met this man. I just love him and he brings me so much joy. He feels like my friend, which is superhuman. Had his pro wrestling debut.
01:24:37
Speaker
Yeah, that got a lot of coverage. So he came out, Ethan Page came out to interrupt that, and then Orange Cassidy came to save the day, and after the match, basically towards the end of the match, then we got to have Superhuman come out and give him a stone-gold stunner. So Ethan Page, not too proud to take a stunner from Superhuman.
01:25:02
Speaker
That's kinda cool from his story of how, like basically the opportunities he's getting because of the videos he's made. And just all shit of him jumping on things. I liked that during intermission too they basically just showed us a montage of superhuman videos. So normally during a GCW intermission I get up and do something else but I actually stuck around and watched every single one even though I had already seen them.
01:25:25
Speaker
it's just so funny because when we were younger you know but back in the days of yore when the attitude era was very fresh and they would run those videos at the beginning of shows that would say do not try this at home and before jackass they would say you know don't do this at home don't send this footage we're not going to air it it's funny how things have changed now to where superhumans getting booked because of shit that he's trying at home in his backyard that's definitely hurting him and he's
01:25:54
Speaker
He's getting opportunities that we were told we would never get. That's true from just posting videos on YouTube and an actual wrestling promotion saw him thought he's doing such a good job trying this at home that we should bring him here.
01:26:12
Speaker
We've gone long. You still have to edit this beast and get it up tonight because people have been waiting for a new podcast episode for a couple weeks now. I do have some closing news for you to share that I think will excite you.
Upcoming Wrestling Events and Teasers
01:26:26
Speaker
Oh, exciting news. Good. Okay. Yes. So AAW is running a show soon. I don't have the date in front of me. Did you see who's going to be appearing at this AAW show at Logan Square Auditorium?
01:26:40
Speaker
Yes, I did, Derek, and I am so excited for what the matches tell the people. It's the king, Nick Gage, against good brother number three, because Jimmy Jacobs has put out a bounty on good brother number three, who we know as Mance Warner. So that means Nick Gage is wrestling in AAW now,
01:27:09
Speaker
And this is going after fucking Mance Warner dressed up as somebody else.
01:27:14
Speaker
I could not love a stipulation match with Nick Gage more, where the match is, Nick Gage has to remove Mance Warner's ski mask. And if he does, he gets $10,000 from Jimmy Jacobs. From Jimmy Jacobs. At a venue he was just scouting out a few weeks ago with us. Oh, for the love of God, please tell me you're hitting that one up. I'm going to try to make that one because
01:27:41
Speaker
I don't know, I want to be in that room with Nick Gage again, except this time the focus is on him. If Nick Gage is doing meet and greets beforehand, will you go say hi to Nick?
01:27:51
Speaker
You know what, if I go to that show, I will make a point to say that. He's such a fucking sweetheart. I want to hear the conversation from you where you're like, I know you've already told me this, but fuck, that is just a sweet man. And be like, you almost fucking broke me at that fucking two cup stuff show. And I just want you to know, I appreciate you taking the chair that I offered you.
01:28:15
Speaker
Garrett, I think we should apologize again for making people wait an extra week for another episode, but we gave them a little bonus today and gave them a little bit more than they're used to getting. We put a little extra sauce on your taco. Yeah.
01:28:28
Speaker
That's to make up for lost time. It's funny because what is this episode 89? This is episode 89. We made a point to make a Back to the Future joke about when this podcast hits 88 episodes you're going to see some serious shit and then the podcast went fucking rogue.
01:28:49
Speaker
But we're back. AEW is starting up. NXT is going to be rolling on USA Network every week at the same time slot. Two hours. Smackdown. I'm excited about it. I don't know if everybody else is same level of excitement as me, but whatever. Fuck you guys. I'll be cracking open some beers tomorrow, watching the show, and we'll talk about that next week.
01:29:12
Speaker
It's good to be back, Garrett. Yeah, it's good to be back. If you're in Nashville this weekend, be sure to go to Basement East on Sunday, 2 p.m. for Southern Underground Pro. I hear that it's going to be a good one. I have been told that I need to go, but no one will tell me why. So it sounds like there's going to be some sort of surprise that will tickle us.
01:29:33
Speaker
I'm happy to hear that you are doing better than you were last week. I busted your chops a little bit in this episode, but love you, dude. And glad we're doing this again. So yeah, good times. Feels good to be back. And you know what? I can't wait to talk to you all again next week. Thank you so much.
01:29:52
Speaker
Also, oh fuck, I keep forgetting. We have that goddamn fanfiction to read. And I know the author wanted to remain anonymous. They have a pen name they want me to use that I don't remember off the top of my head. I believe Klaus White, maybe, was the name. But they keep asking, like, why? What the fuck? I wrote you some fanfiction. And he's right. We
01:30:11
Speaker
Did get fan fiction we attempted to read it on here and by we I mean I I somehow like fucked it up royally I told him we were gonna do it this week. Clearly. We're 90 minutes in that didn't happen So let's let's literally next week Top of the show, that's what we're reading. That's what we'll open the show next week as a fanfic
01:30:33
Speaker
Yes. Yes, it is time.
Podcast Wrap-up and Listener Engagement
01:30:35
Speaker
OK, follow us on social media at Wrestle Hangout on Twitter and Facebook at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram. I am at Gartet on social media. Derek is at Halloween Halpin. Give us the five star reviews on iTunes. Leave a nice review. We'll talk about whatever you want. As always, we will be back next week. Sorry about that long delay. We love you to death. Thank you for sticking around with us. Now hit our goddamn music.