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Episode 100: The 100th Episode
56 Plays6 years ago
It's episode 100 and the boys celebrate with a trip to Freelance Wrestling's Send In The Clowns in Chicago, we're chatting Chris Benoit vs Chris Jericho Royal Rumble 2001, the XFL and more!
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Transcript
Introduction to Episode 100
00:00:37
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, predetermined a pro wrestling hangout proudly presents to you, episode 100. My name's Garrett Callender. I'm Derek Halpin. We're back to being predetermined a pro wrestling hangout now? Well, it was for episode 100. I guess break it out one more time for old time's sake. You know, we're in triple digits now, baby. We got to do it. We got to do it. Do it. Old school. We're in triple digits and how many white claws in are you at this point for this recording? Two.
00:01:05
Speaker
Two? Well, yeah, I'm on the pretty team. I realized that I hadn't been drinking white claws the last several episodes, mostly since we came back from our hiatus.
Unusual Recording Setting
00:01:15
Speaker
And you missed it, and you think that because you're hanging out with me in person, we're recording this together, that you needed to get a claw going.
00:01:23
Speaker
It never feels right looking at you anymore when we record. Like it feels unnatural? Yeah, like this actually feels like less of a real conversation than when I'm just staring at the Kevin Owens action. I was about to ask, would you prefer the Kevin Owens Funko Pop as opposed to actually having me in the room? This is also one of the first times we've recorded where it isn't the next morning where we're like completely out of our voices and
00:01:49
Speaker
just tired and shitty you've always opted to record the morning after because you just want to go to bed and then you usually get on the road and you drive back the morning after we see a show together but this time you've got other things going on tomorrow so we gotta do it
00:02:06
Speaker
right now yeah this is a weird episode for us because it's friday this episode just came out we had an episode come out yesterday it's 12 52 in the morning on saturday february 8th okay i'm sorry it is saturday right now
00:02:23
Speaker
Just be clear.
Freelance Pro Wrestling Show Review
00:02:26
Speaker
But no, we just got back from our, not our first, but our first together, Freelance Pro Wrestling Show. It was your very first Freelance Wrestling Show. I think this is like my fourth or fifth. What did you think Garrett?
00:02:45
Speaker
I really liked it. It was a fun indie show. And also, you could tell that was just like, because you had told me about these shows for years, and so did your roommate, Chris. And I don't know, it always seemed like these really small, intimate bar shows. It felt like based on what you were talking about, it sounded more like a Southern Underground Pro than it did like an AAW. But tonight, it may as well have been just AAW. I mean,
00:03:12
Speaker
It had a little more of a punk rock vibe to it than AAW did. Like AAW always feels a little more polished. Right. But this still had a light show. It still had. I think I described it to my girlfriend. I said AAW is kind of like AAA baseball and freelance wrestling is probably like AA or single A. Like it's a stepped in. Like it's a lower level minor league, but it's still
00:03:42
Speaker
I think it's just grown a lot. I mean, you also went to tonight. We saw freelance wrestling sending the clowns and. The thing to take away from this show was that they did record numbers for this. They had like a huge amount of ticket sales. They said it was a sellout. They had to turn away people at the door.
00:04:06
Speaker
which is sort of unprecedented for them. And I believe it, that place was fucking packed. I believe GCW would refer to it as super no vacancy. Super no vacancy. I mean, honestly, it was, as far as the way that they had the room set up, I think AAW has it a little better where there's more chairs. And that way, you're really just one row of humans standing behind them. This, there were a lot more people standing, a little more obstructed view.
00:04:35
Speaker
I mean, I think freelance likes taking advantage of that stage that they use for the entrance. They like using the curtain. And AAW likes putting their entrance over in the corner. And they've got more of a WCW nitro field to their entrance area with the scaffolding and spotlights over there. But no, it was exciting getting to take you to your first freelance show tonight.
00:05:03
Speaker
fun card Yeah, there were some big names. I mean there were some GCW names on the card. There were some people that I had seen it Southern Underground Pro before a lot of people just and also Yeah, this one was broadcast an IW TV. So if you have that you can definitely check it out
00:05:21
Speaker
There were four title matches today at this show I was prepared for You told me that the show could run until one in the morning initially. Yeah, and that I'll be honest freaked me out Well to be clear the show didn't run till one in the morning last time I went I got home after one in the morning I think the show got out between 1130 and midnight and
00:05:46
Speaker
But yeah, no, the show didn't go nearly that long and didn't need to and thank goodness, but
Main Event: Kylie Rae vs. Robert Anthony
00:05:54
Speaker
Yeah, like you said, there were a lot of recognizable names up and down on this show. What were some of your favorite matches of the night here at freelance wrestling, sending the clowns? Honestly, the main event, like you said, when the main event felt like a real main event. For sure. It felt like I got a true big match at the end of the night.
00:06:17
Speaker
And it was, uh, what was it? Kylie Ray versus Robert Ego Anthony featuring Frank the clown. Fuck that clown. Fuck that. He, he's a pretty good heel. I think the reason that works so well, at least, at least for the sake of this match, I mean, that's not, this is enough. I'm not taking the weight, anything away from Robert Anthony.
00:06:39
Speaker
Let me be clear about that. But Frank the Clown is the most hated figure in Chicago wrestling scene. Bar none. And polar opposite, Kylie Rae is the most beloved figure in the Chicago wrestling scene if you don't include CM Punk.
00:06:59
Speaker
Is that fair to say? She was. God damn, she was over. Super over. The crowd went insane. Like, I mean, we saw Nido wrestle in that building before she got the same pop Nido did. Absolutely. Yeah, no, I got goosebumps because there were multiple times during the match where it got just as loud as it had done for her entrance. Um.
00:07:23
Speaker
I don't know that. You're right
Audience Reactions to Intergender Matches
00:07:25
Speaker
though. Like I said, it felt like a main event match. They told a story, had a very much Brock Lesnar type vibe. It felt like a Brock Lesnar match to a certain extent the way they did it.
00:07:41
Speaker
Robert Anthony kind of took advantage of her as she was getting into the ring and then kind of bullied her for a long time. No selling shots to the face, chucking around. You said those German suplexes had some extra snap to him. Oh my God. Like he just kept hitting the Germans on her and each one it was like, yeah, he just snapped back a little extra hard. Yeah. Like it was just fucking.
00:08:04
Speaker
Yeah. I think it's always interesting when you see a big intergender match like this to watch people, certain people's reactions because you can tell it's like their first time seeing something like that. Booping her fucking head off at the beginning. Yeah. This started out as a pretty brutal intergender match. Yeah.
00:08:23
Speaker
And I was kind of worried that it was just gonna be, she's getting squashed, something happens, she rolls him up and ends up winning. That really was not the case. Frank the Clown gets thrown out, he's been stomping on her the whole match, he's been cheating. And then what
Highlight Moments from the Main Event
00:08:40
Speaker
happens? The referee gets knocked out.
00:08:43
Speaker
she gets Robert Anthony in the corner while the referees knocked out and starts bashing him in the face with the guard rail. Yeah, she unhooks the guard rail and starts using it as a weapon to bash him repeatedly with. And when he comes up from this, he is just gushing an obscene amount of blood. We're gonna, if you haven't already,
00:09:04
Speaker
We're going to share the picture that you took of the collection of blood just sitting on the outside of the ring mat and the cords and everything. Oh, well, just it's funny, like in pro wrestling, the things that you watch people get hit in the face with and they come up with no marks. Right. He kind of did. We were in the back, so he kind of disappeared down. And when he came up, like this was an amount of blood that
00:09:33
Speaker
I'm trying to even think of what I could describe would have had to have happened to this man to have as much blood as he currently had. Just, it was over his entire body. Yes, down the chest, down the stomach, all over the face, over the shoulders. And the best, you know it's good blood when you see the other wrestler, like, touch the body.
00:09:55
Speaker
with their body and when they separate they're just covered in somebody else's blood and in your mind you're like that's gross. In my regular ordinary life that never happens. Did you see that somebody from the outside was trying to hand him a towel?
00:10:11
Speaker
I didn't see that. Why the fuck? They're giving somebody from freelance like clearly was like, well, he can't see shit anymore. He is completely blind. There's a whole bunch of match left. And this God damn. And even after that, he was still beating the shit out of her. Yeah. He hit her with what looked like a finisher three times. Yeah. It was like a rolling F or I guess a rolling attitude adjustment. Multiple.
00:10:35
Speaker
But yeah, that ended up how did what was the finish on the finish? He did that. Like he said, he did his finisher three times in a row and went for the cover and she kicked out, I think at two and then immediately like out of the kick out.
00:10:52
Speaker
Or did he lock in a submission? I can't remember now. But she ended up like pulling like a quick roll up on him and winning like you said, but the dramatic comeback was not what you had kind of expected. There was still tension. The match had a lot more elements to it than I initially thought there was gonna be. I'm trying to think if I had seen Kylie Rae before. I probably had seen her at like a shimmer show or something, right? Did she do double or nothing?
00:11:22
Speaker
Was she in the battle royal? I'm sure she had to have been because she was signed to AEW for a minute. Right. And I there was like a bit where I had been to all of the AEW shows. So I had to have seen her. But God damn, she was. She's going to be super over somewhere. She's going to end up in a company that.
00:11:42
Speaker
User that uses I mean she didn't have time to even get used in a ew But right let's go ahead and say it looks like she may have made the right decision If she's making money now, and she's happy that's kind of all that matters somebody will pick her up eventually And she deserves it quite frankly and you we were talking about this in the lift ride on the way back She's ready now as far as I'm concerned
00:12:08
Speaker
Oh, I don't think there's any question that she would make whatever work wherever she ends up signing I don't like I didn't see that as just getting a hometown pop tonight Like that was a crowd that was insanely excited to see her right that I mean it looked like she sold that building out with that match
00:12:25
Speaker
It felt like, I mean, she was the main focus of the poster. Like I said before, like next to CM Punk, she's probably the most famous wrestler in Chicago right now. But the exciting thing after the match, Frank the Clown comes back, they're fucking her up. I'm glad we were both here for this. This was a big moment. This is an episode 100 fucking moment. Yeah, I didn't even think about that when I saw it, but yeah, this is worth breaking. Craig Mitchell is back.
00:12:50
Speaker
And after the match was over, Frank, the clown came back out and did a sneak attack up on Kylie Rae. And then he and Robert ended up beating her down. But a mystery. A wrestler, Robert. It is so proper. It is.
00:13:06
Speaker
I see I remember him from his earlier wrestling days from like five or six years ago. He was a completely different character. He was over. He was a baby face. He's a dick now. He's hanging around that clown. So you hang out with clowns. Bad shit happens. But a mystery figure appears to save
Surprise Return: Craig Mitchell
00:13:23
Speaker
Kylie Rae. And who does it happen to be? Craig Mitchell. Craig fucking Mitchell. When I had no idea who was going to be I could tell it was obviously a dude.
00:13:31
Speaker
Because he had a mask on. But right before he pulled it off, my thought was, dude's kind of built like Craig. And then it's fucking Craig. I lost my shit. Because he's another guy that's like, I would argue that it's like Kylie Rae, Craig Mitchell, GPA, Robert Anthony.
00:13:55
Speaker
I'm trying to think of some others, like Matt Nicks, like the four star heroes, obviously, yeah. That's like the Chicago core in the group. Is it Eric Cannon? Eric Cannon. But Eric Cannon, I think he's from Minnesota, and he's just here a lot.
00:14:11
Speaker
So I don't know. But yeah, I mean, you could throw him in there probably to a certain extent, but there's like a group of core Chicago wrestlers and that's them. So it was awesome to see Craig come out because I think Craig stepped away. Took a hiatus for a little while to have, you know, rest up and get his head right. And I know he's been doing a lot of coaching, like doing the training camps and stuff with some of the new recruits.
00:14:37
Speaker
because I'm pretty sure they have like a training facility at pro wrestling teams here in the city. And that's, you'll see, you'll see Mustafa Ali, who's in WWE, that he'll do a lot of stuff with those recruits. And, um, I think they film, I think that like, uh, the CM punk teaser that he did before his thing at star cast for all out. I think that was filmed in there. And I know that Kylie Ray will step in there. GPA will step in there and they like coach people. So.
00:15:07
Speaker
It was cool getting to see Craig in Chicago because I've only seen him in Nashville. Yeah, and I think I had sent you video of the last freelance show I went to where Craig wrestled GPA. And I was like, yeah, he's over his shit here. Not that he wasn't over in Nashville, but he was a heel in Nashville.
00:15:29
Speaker
But it's a whole other, yeah, it's a whole other deal here on a whole other level. That's gotta be so weird on the independent scene these days where you do kind of have a hometown crowd and then your stock goes down a little bit and you could become a completely different character when you're on the road.
00:15:46
Speaker
but you're still you like it's still the same ring gear essentially the same persona but you got to be a dick just speaking of like the the persona and traveling to towns and pro wrestling
Comedic Relief: Dan the Dad
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah? Yeah, no, we saw a wrestler tonight named, uh, fuck. Dan the dad? Dan the dad. Holy shit. Speaking of another person that came to that curtain, it was immediately over.
00:16:18
Speaker
god i had seen this guy wrestle at southern underground pro i wish i could remember his name but he i remember his gimmick was no new friends but now he was a heel there now he's dan the dad he just has on little shorts he looks hello shirt what would you say it's like he's almost like a sexy ups man with those little shorts and took a cross between like a sexy ups man and a uh a best buy
00:16:46
Speaker
Service tech and His his moveset is really just a lot of things that a dad would do to punish you or have fun with He did steal somebody's nose tonight mid-match and still Gregory Irons knows What'd he do? He did some airplane spins to somebody took his belt off and whipped him Dan the dad was an absolute treat tonight definitely one of the highlights of the show and
00:17:11
Speaker
That was in the scramble match, right? Like it was like an eight man scramble. Yeah. Ricky Shane Page and.
00:17:18
Speaker
Yeah, you were super happy because at least out of this show, you knew you were going to get to see Effie. Oh, yeah. Anywhere. So put it this way. We're in Chicago this weekend because it's my wife's birthday and she wanted to come here and do some Chicago things. Right. We find out this show's happening. Derek invites me to go to it. I was really hesitant to pitch the idea of going to this show to my wife.
00:17:43
Speaker
You didn't want to abandon your wife during her birthday weekend. No, that just seems like a thing that's gonna get me in a lot of trouble. She's probably at a point now that she realizes every single time you travel to another location that you, as a courtesy to wherever you go, do a browsing of the local wrestling scene to see if there's any shows and...
00:18:06
Speaker
I think I was the one that kind of tipped you off about the freelance thing. And then it was just kind of like an awkward, can I get permission? I was going to be busy that night. And when I told her that Effie was there, she was like, oh yeah, we'll have fun. Go enjoy. Because if Effie's there, it's a party.
00:18:24
Speaker
She loves Effie. She loves Effie. She loves Effie and understands my love for Effie and was okay with me leaving her and going to that. Well, thank you Leah for letting Garrett come out to see his first freelance wrestling show. Okay, who did Effie fight
Effie vs. Project Monix
00:18:39
Speaker
again? Effie was defending the freelance legacy championship against Project Monix.
00:18:44
Speaker
Who is a robot? A cyborg of sorts. That's true. If you say robot, it makes it seem like he's all machine. I mean, he's living tissue over metal, exos, endoskeleton. Good Lord.
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah, I had leaned over to you right before this match started and I was like, have you seen project monarchs before? And you were like, I think so. I feel I mean, I feel like I've seen him before. And then he comes out and he's wearing like the fucking cyber scorpion sub zero suit covered in wires with the lights and the mask and the partial Seth Rollins gear. And as soon as you see that, you're like, yeah, no, I definitely haven't seen him because I would have remembered all of that.
00:19:33
Speaker
he had a lot of shit he did have a lot of shit I can't on a personal level I have a hard time getting behind those gimmicks like I don't you gotta have some balls to be like I'm gonna be the cyborg tech guy like what's funny though is you can say like fuck yeah damn the dad I get damn the dad oh I get it I get it immediately this guy thinks he's a fucking robot and that's weird
00:19:55
Speaker
I think what it is is it takes me back to my days when I would play like the smackdown games and you would have create a wrestler and there's there's the people who do their creator wrestlers and they take it so seriously and they're sitting there like attaching claws and different things to their character because they think it looks cool. The problem is when I see you do that and when I see you play with your character online and I see that you think it looks rad.
00:20:21
Speaker
To me, it's automatically not rad because you're trying to look awesome. If you take just a character and put him in little tiny dad shorts and a hat and glasses and a polo, and it doesn't look like it belongs in a wrestling ring, it looks like it belongs in a wrestling ring when you see it. It's just funny to think about the process of coming up with the cyborg character and nailing it.
00:20:50
Speaker
I mean, it works for him. I mean, he's been doing this for a while. So like, I mean, why, why did DJZ work? That's true. I think what's so unique about professional wrestling, and this is, I love when you go, I go on these little philosophical tangents, but the stupidest shit is what gets over. Mitch, the potted plant.
00:21:14
Speaker
from the fucking Jericho segment. Fucking Space Monkey. Fucking Space Monkey, who we saw. That was another one. You said, I feel like I've seen him online all the time at all these different shows, but I've never seen him live. Yeah, that was a first for me. That was a lot of fun seeing him. Felt so bad for his tag team partner. What's his tag team partner doing? The Space Pirates is the name of the tag team, and it's Shane Sabre and the Space Monkey.
00:21:39
Speaker
Shane Sabre good name But the problem is you're wrestling with a monkey and and he's the star the eye is always gonna go to the monkey The eye is always gonna go to the guy dressed like a monkey with a really long tail I mean Yeah, the movie canine also had Jim Belushi, but I liked that dog a lot better. I
00:22:01
Speaker
Yeah, I get it. I get it. You said it's really, I thought it was funny when you worded it like, you know, like, yeah, it's like Otis and Jizz. I said Jizz is over. Yeah. Like, well, it's like Shane Sabers in the awkward position of being on our show. He's in the position of being Otis. There's only one Jizz.
00:22:23
Speaker
And that's where the eye goes. What's your whole thing with your eye always goes to Jeff Goldblum? I think that was a Conan thing, where the eye goes to Goldblum. Yep. It's the same thing. If you tag a team with a fucking monkey, your eye is going to go to the monkey. Which that monkey, oh my god, they were up against a team from St. Louis called the Gym Nasty Boys, who- There's a good payoff to this story.
00:22:49
Speaker
I'm
00:23:04
Speaker
And then when the match is over, I lean over to you and be like, yeah, and they've got that fucking Jizz logo on the back of their onesie. Just a spray of cum right across the back. Just a spray of semen. Somebody had to stitch that on. Jim Nasty Boys really fit well with this podcast.
00:23:27
Speaker
That's true. They know who they are. And I can just, you know what? Fuck me for not buying a shirt of theirs. I asked you after that match was over, do you wish you had known about the the jizz stitching before it started? Would that have made you feel differently about that match? I don't know. Well, one of the gym nasty boys crushed Space Monkey in a way that like I thought he was fucking dead. Yeah, we were both concerned because I
00:23:55
Speaker
But as soon as they set up for that spot, like where they dove off, so you have the guy laying across some knees in the middle of the ring. Like you set him up on your knees and then your tag team partner climbs the turnbuckle and dives off and splashes him while he's across your knees. Like there's no part of that where that's... His body bent in a way that it shouldn't have. Gross. Yeah, his lower half, like he, uh, if you do DDP yoga, he was in Cobra.
00:24:23
Speaker
I think tonight was the first night that I saw JP Warhorse. Really? I think so.
00:24:30
Speaker
Another guy that was super over too. Did he rule your ass? He did rule my ass. I was throwing up devil horns. Head banging. I really enjoyed when he was in the corner getting his head beat in. Like he was getting his face smashed on the turnbuckle and he's like, no, this is just head banging. I'm just having fun. This is great. But no, who was in that one against him? It was Eric Cannon, Tony Deppin.
00:24:57
Speaker
It was JP Warhorse defending the IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship against Isaiah Velasquez, Eric Cannon, and Tony Deppin.
00:25:15
Speaker
Speaking of that, you actually met with Tony Deppin during the, uh, the intermission tonight. Yeah. I, uh, if I watch a wrestler enough times, I feel like I should get a shirt from them and just support. So I bought a Tony Deppin shirt and I got to pay him with Venmo and, uh, we both got to figure out how to work Venmo together. He says he's a PayPal man.
00:25:41
Speaker
Well, what was on the shirt that you got from him? Well, it's a picture of him doing his trust fall onto David Starr and it says rules are for idiots.
00:25:52
Speaker
Well, you got another wrestling shirt.
Overall Impressions of Freelance Wrestling
00:25:55
Speaker
Overall, first time to see freelance wrestling in person. What did you think? Would you come back? Yeah, honestly, it was a really good vibe to the room. I think I would. Well, what we did learn because I knew they only sold rows one and two. Right. But there were other rows and it turns out we could have sat in those. It could have sat in the back row.
00:26:18
Speaker
And I spent my entire day at a fucking art museum. On your feet? Yeah, I was looking at a lot of pottery, a lot of armoires. You were saying you were a little sore by the time you got to... By the time we got to the main event, I was pretty ready to have a seat. It was like every now and then Garrett would dip out of sight because he was down crouched on the floor. Just in a sea of ass. Just in a sea of assholes.
00:26:49
Speaker
Yeah, I had a lot of fun tonight. I'm glad I got to share that experience with you. No, I'll definitely, I would go to another freelance show. It's just, it's so funny because I've been hearing about them for years and just, I don't see it until it's this big, built up, established thing. Right. It's, it's weird though. Like Logan square auditorium officially runs wrestling promote like shows for three different promotions now.
00:27:19
Speaker
They run shows for Freelance, they run shows for AAW, and they run shows for Evolve. I'm surprised that GCW hasn't started doing shows there. I think Logan Square Auditorium tries to keep a tight grasp on the environment in there. I would not invite GCW over to my house.
00:27:44
Speaker
I would go to GCW's house if that's the back of a Foreman Mills. They're the friend that you never go. I don't loan my stuff to. They're not coming over. No. No, my game's coming back with a scratch on it. Nope. If Jimmy Lloyd gets a hold of it. If you get it back. Jimmy, where's my copy of God of War? I used it to cut open a man's fucking skull.
00:28:13
Speaker
So I'm not getting that game back? No! I don't know if that's how he sounds, but... Now that was a fun show.
Attempted Watch-Along for Listener Request
00:28:25
Speaker
I also have that, like, I feel like my voice has been flattened because I was yelling the whole night, man. You need that. It's good for the soul. You know what else is good for the soul, Garrett? What?
00:28:39
Speaker
We fulfilled a request tonight after this show. Yeah, we actually tried. We tried tegums. We did it for you. We did it. We actually tried to give you something a little extra special. But the key word there is tried. Tried. Tried. We tried to give you a full watch along for the match you requested, which was...
Intense Ladder Match from 2001 Royal Rumble
00:29:04
Speaker
What was it? What was it?
00:29:06
Speaker
Garrett, you and I sat down together and we watched Chris Jericho versus Chris Benoit from the 2001 Royal Rumble in a ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship. This was requested by Teagums.
00:29:20
Speaker
and until we learn your first name. Teagums. Teagums is your name. I feel like I'm doing the thing I did with Neil where I just... Teagums! Teagums? Yeah, no, we tried to do a full-on watch-along and we had a... We had some buffering issues. We had some buffering issues, which would have... Thrown off everything. Wouldn't have worked. Everyone at home, we'd have to yell at everyone at home, pause! Pause right now! Pause, okay, and it's back. And it's back. Probably off by a couple seconds, though.
00:29:48
Speaker
but we did watch the whole match we did watch the whole match and neither of us had ever seen it well well picked selection because neither of us has seen the match and to your credit deagams the match had spots that we had to rewind
00:30:06
Speaker
several times, specifically one spot, several times, I've never seen Garrett so happily whip out his phone to record something off of the television because he wanted it for personal use later. He wanted to refer to it on his own time.
00:30:27
Speaker
Jericho gets sent over the top rope. He's on the outside. Benoit is going for a suicide dive. Derek gave me a look like, don't say that.
00:30:39
Speaker
No, you can say that, but you said something that was completely inappropriate while we were watching it, and now... Okay, during our watch-along, we discussed how Derek would like to do a Crispin Moi episode, and I don't think I'm mature enough to handle it. I completely agree now.
00:31:01
Speaker
as we laugh about it. Like I said, I think there's a true crime podcast out there that is gonna cover that Benoit stuff, but I don't think we're, like I said, Jim Nasty Boys. Right up our alley. Right up our alley. Otis and Jizz, all day.
00:31:19
Speaker
Chris Benoit, I feel like I'm not the right person to cover that. I mean, I get it now because I think I've always, I've always fancied us maybe filling that role of the investigative journalist.
00:31:35
Speaker
So there's always been two ways we could have approached Chris Benoit, which was we could have done a career retrospective and actually gone through and some of his greatest matches and talked about those on an episode. And maybe that would have interested people. Maybe it still does. We also could have just dove right into the Benoit murder story and done an episode on that.
00:32:00
Speaker
After tonight, I'm convinced that neither of those things are possibilities because you couldn't make it through five minutes of that match without making it what one would define as inappropriate remarks. Yeah. I mean, I'm not mad at you. No, I do feel a little bit like I crushed your dreams because it turns out we had two different visions for this podcast.
00:32:26
Speaker
One of us really thought that this was gonna be hard-hitting journalism. I don't know if that's... And the other... wants to talk about... Yep. And have a white claw while doing it. Oh yeah, fuck Logan Square Auditorium for selling Truly. I almost don't even want to admit to you all that I drank a Truly there, because I'm a white claw boy, but I did have a lemon Truly. How was it? It was fine.
00:32:58
Speaker
It was just more about brand loyalty than anything. Yeah, it had nothing to do with taste. So Teagums!
00:33:04
Speaker
The other thing we took away from this, other than Benoit getting his fucking brains. Oh, we didn't even finish saying what the spot was. Yeah. Get back into this. So Jericho's on the outside of the ring and Benoit does a suicide dive. That's where we last left off. Benoit does a suicide dive out of the ring towards Jericho. Jericho moves and he has a steel chair in his hands and he swings that thing and clubs Benoit out of midair as if though he's a baseball.
00:33:34
Speaker
crashes to the ground like immediately drops to the floor the way the mask does after he finishes kissing Cameron Diaz in the movie and he freezes and then falls and it's just a lump of shit. There's always time.
00:33:51
Speaker
for one last kiss. Not from you, from Dorian, the man I loved. That's not the scene I was referring to out of Jim Carrey's The
Ethics of Watching Chris Benoit Matches
00:34:04
Speaker
Mask. Yeah, I know. But any Cameron Diaz kissing scenes is going to make me think of, there's always time. Wasn't he the guy that was in control of the gimp in Pulp Fiction? Hell, yeah, he was. Anyhoozers.
00:34:20
Speaker
God damn though, when they re-show, they replayed that from a different angle, it was even more glorious. They show it from like three or four different angles. And credit to that WWF film crew at the time, they had everybody in place to capture that spot so that it didn't go wasted. On top of that spot, there was just a lot of people riding ladders. Yeah, I think, we can talk about that.
00:34:49
Speaker
I don't know what it is, but for some reason that tonight got you, which was guys straddling ladders and being on them a little bit longer than normal as they were falling. I think you nailed it. They were on it just a little bit longer than normal.
00:35:05
Speaker
where you start getting a little concerned, like, maybe you don't know what you're doing. I don't think you know. You're supposed to bail out. In my head, it was like the first ladder match ever, and they just didn't know when things were supposed to happen. Maybe we should go back and watch that radio remote, Sean Michaels one, and see where it all started, where it's actually scary and awkward. That's gonna be the one where they ride it all the way to the ground, and you're like, oh. Oh.
00:35:30
Speaker
because now you're so used to seeing like somebody pushes the ladder and like after two seconds they just bail off and and it's the fall but really the thrill is riding that damn thing three quarters of the way down and then falling off. Jericho was gonna decapitate
00:35:47
Speaker
Benoit at a certain point. He hung him up over the guardrail and was just going to ride it from the fucking ring down to his head. That was flat out attempted murder. That was not self-defense. That wasn't fighting the guy. Good Lord. The amount of times that Benoit got hit in the face with a ladder and that chair, the way that Robert Anthony looked tonight in that match, Benoit, like I shouldn't have, I shouldn't recognize him anymore. I'll tell you, no wrestling's, you know, predetermined.
00:36:18
Speaker
I'll tell you this. Robert Anthony did not know he was going to be bleeding that much. I don't think so. There was nothing predetermined about that blood. I mean it was intentional but not to that level. He was surprised. He hit something he shouldn't have or cut a little too deep or maybe he was too excited and his blood was pumping. I bet he was really excited.
00:36:40
Speaker
Do you think he was excited as he looked down at his chest and just saw that he lost way too much blood? Does adrenaline kick in at some point and override that? Or do you actually start getting weary from blood loss? Let's try it. Next episode. Let's begin the episode. Let's blade and see if we can be coherent. Don't fucking threaten me with a good time.
00:37:11
Speaker
You telling me if you're willing to sit here in two weeks time when I return?
00:37:17
Speaker
I'm willing to blade white t-shirts. Let's sit here and blade white t-shirts and just record a podcast. We'll do a video podcast about what it's like and just gradually. We'll tell you if we're starting to feel a little woozy. Somebody's going to have to be on standby to give us some cookies and orange juice or something to replace sticker. This is like I gave blood for this pot.
00:37:43
Speaker
It's funny though. Maybe that's how we take this podcast to the next level. Maybe that's how we get this over is the same way that superhuman dives off and to various objects and is in major pain. Maybe what we need to do is every time we start this episode up, fuck this shit and blade. And even though it's audio and there's nothing visual about this experience, do you have a razor right now?
00:38:12
Speaker
I'm sure I could find one if I needed to. Get one. I'm not going to get a razor blade right now. I don't want to ruin this shirt. I've got on my leg. I don't want to ruin this new sofa that we just got in here. So no. We'll put down some towels. Yay. Put some style section. Do you have like a dog or a chow or something? No, overall. Wait, think about we need to get back to that match. Teagums. Teagums.
00:38:42
Speaker
if you're still listening. Teagums, are you still with us? Anyways. Okay.
00:38:48
Speaker
Yes, so the Jericho Benoit ladder match. Of course, this is the match that's famous for the spot where Jericho locks in the walls of Jericho on Benoit, on top of the ladder. Was that your first time seeing them? Yeah, I'd never seen that before. Your reaction? Then he dumps them off upside down. Yeah, and just kind of lets go and lets them fall. But better than that is while Jericho is climbing to get the belt, Benoit just very softly
00:39:15
Speaker
Just like little baby kicks that ladder over and once again Jericho rides it to what two quarter to the two-thirds of the way down
00:39:26
Speaker
I wanted to let our listeners know how lucky I am to be friends and to do a pro wrestling podcast with Garrett because so many times now I get to watch matches with him and I get to have Garrett's glorious reactions to things that otherwise you wouldn't think would elicit a response. Like tonight, we see lots of ladder riding. We see guys getting clubbed over the head midair with chairs.
00:39:52
Speaker
But maybe the most, like the most exaggerated response I got out of Garrett tonight was there's a spot where, I can't remember who was doing it to who, the back body drop over the top rope to the outside, got Garrett to go, ooh. He got to make like a cow noise. Like heifer from Rocko's Modern Life.
00:40:22
Speaker
really good effort oh man oh yeah you're right I that for some reason just seeing a guy get I thought he was getting German to the floor yeah I think that that spot worked for you tonight because at this point you were like maybe they don't maybe they don't know what they're doing maybe that spot is supposed to end with him literally landing on his head on the outside he doesn't know that you're not supposed to do this
00:40:47
Speaker
God damn. Can you, seriously though, can you watch a Benoit match anymore? Like, does it feel right? I think, well, I sent Garrett a text earlier in the day. There is a WWE network special that are getting ready to do that covers the ruthless aggression era, which he missed out on and which I was a huge fan of.
00:41:13
Speaker
Benoit was kind of a key figure during that era so some of the stuff from the ruthless aggression era that involves Benoit I can go back and watch and still enjoy but other things I don't know I mean there was at one time a feel-good story in there about Chris Benoit which was he was a smaller wrestler that was basically
Chris Benoit's Legacy and Controversy
00:41:39
Speaker
you know, nothing to WCW and then went and was in the main event of WrestleMania and won. I mean, in Madison Square Garden. I mean, that was a significant fucking moment for them that they had to essentially pull straight out of their history. So yeah, in a, in an alternate universe, they could have made a movie about that. Yeah. I mean, that was their Daniel Bryan before Daniel Bryan.
00:42:09
Speaker
That was that story. So I'm not one of these guys that sits there and laments the inability to talk about Chris Benoit without also bringing up all this other stuff. I don't know. You and I have had this conversation. This is about as close as it gets to hard-hitting journalism on this podcast. You and I've had this conversation before where it's like, do you separate
00:42:32
Speaker
the person behind the wrestler? Or can you keep that away from the persona that you see or the performer? Or do you view them as one and the same? Are we talking about Justin wrestling? I think it works in other forms of entertainment as well. We've talked about this on the show before. We have.
Separating Art from the Artist
00:42:51
Speaker
Because I think I said I don't watch Kevin Spacey movies anymore. Kevin Spacey and who was the other one? Dustin Hoffman.
00:42:59
Speaker
Um, Woody, Woody Allen? Woody Allen? Yeah. Was that the other one? There's one. I don't listen to Michael Jackson anymore. Like you just straight out like, that seems like you have to force that issue. Like, well, like who's that for?
00:43:20
Speaker
This is getting real. What do you mean? Who's it for? I mean, I guess it's for me. Like I don't want it. It makes me think of other. It makes me think of the bad shit they've done when I hear it. It doesn't matter. Does it? Yeah. It doesn't matter how good thriller is. Like I'm going to think of the bad shit now because some of the bad shit's that fucking horrific that.
00:43:42
Speaker
I don't know if it's like that for everybody. I don't know if I feel that way. I think for the most part, when it comes to Michael Jackson, I still associate Michael Jackson with those things that he did, but to me, thriller is a piece of art.
00:44:00
Speaker
He licked a kid's butthole. You weren't there, you don't know. Listening to this man described getting his butthole licked as a kid is terrible. It really stuck with me. So I don't want to think about that. And Thriller makes me think about that now. That sucks on multiple levels. But I guess in relation to Chris Benoit,
00:44:28
Speaker
Is that easy for you? Like that's weird to me a little bit. You mean is it easier for me to like? It's easier for you to cope with a man murdering his wife and his kid. Well now we're getting into my shit. Like you can still watch Crispin, you can still watch a murderer perform his art. Well I mean I did but it's not like I'm sitting here. I'm trying to think of like
00:44:57
Speaker
Well, it's not like I go back and watch fucking Naked Gun and watch O.J. Simpson. I think for some people it's uncomfortable. I mean, that's a hard one.
00:45:09
Speaker
We've, I've, I've always been the one trying to push these, these ethical inconsistencies that we have in this podcast. Cause like I said before, I think it's weird that we automatically was like, ah, stone cold Steve Austin. He didn't mean it. Fuck. Like why, why does nobody want to touch that? I mean, I'm sure here's the thing. I think he's actually sorry.
00:45:36
Speaker
But why do I, I don't know that. They're like, but why do I think that? Why do I get to be so convinced of that? You're right. Like I knew what he did and I kept buying his beer. Like he gets a pass. Like I think I can't be mad at somebody for holding Hogan to the standard of he seems like a piece of shit. He said some really horrible things.
00:46:00
Speaker
I don't hear any stories about Hogan hitting people that like I don't hear any domestic abuse stories from Hulk Hogan.
00:46:09
Speaker
People don't like doing this because they, here, let's just say the truth. People don't want to hold a grudge against Stone Cold Steve Austin because they think he's fucking cool. And they think Hulk Hogan's an old dude and he's not hip anymore. He's out of touch. He's out of touch, so it's really easy to fucking excommunicate him and hold him to the Europe piece of shit standard. But when the fucking guy is like the favorite wrestler you had from your youth, people are like, eh, I think he's sorry.
00:46:41
Speaker
Once again, Jim Nasty Boys. Jim Nasty Boys. That's our wheelhouse. They had that come on their back. Effie humped at somebody's face tonight. You know, like it's those are the things that I'm here for. Those are the things you're there for.
00:47:02
Speaker
You're like, I don't like talking about this serious stuff. Happy episode 100. Enjoy that claw. Do I feel good about being okay with Stone Cold? Not really. Do I understand why? Not at all.
00:47:20
Speaker
I'm the one that had the certain answer or the certainty in the answer is not what I expected. Garrett's currently taking the microphone across the room because he needs another white claw. Well, I bought a six pack of them and you mean you could take them back
00:47:38
Speaker
All right. No, they're staying. All right. You're getting to finish some claws while you watch the XFL tomorrow. Oh, that's true. That's the other news. Garrett and I are going to be trying to watch follow the XFL, but you won't actually get to watch games tomorrow.
Excitement Around XFL's Return
00:47:53
Speaker
No, I don't get to watch games, but don't worry. I will be keeping up with the score. Dude, isn't the scoring system kind of weird?
00:47:59
Speaker
They did make a bunch of rule changes that I'm actually kind of excited about. I did do some minor research and watched a YouTube video about how the scoring is supposed to be a little bit different so that there's more scoring opportunities. See, here's the thing. There's gonna be so many people who listen to this. I just like pro wrestling and you guys. I don't give a fuck about football. Here's the thing, man. Neither do we.
00:48:25
Speaker
It doesn't matter. I don't give a shit about football either, but this is brand new rules. We can start fresh. We can all start fresh and watch the XFL together.
00:48:34
Speaker
This was a bad idea 20 years ago. It's a worse idea now, and you know what Guerra likes? Bad ideas. I'm watching it. This is like getting to watch The Room as a sport. So this is where we inform you that we're going to have another side project, and it's going to be us doing a FXFL podcast every week, where we talk about that week's games. And by the end of this, we might be fucking coaches. We might be.
00:48:59
Speaker
How long do you give this, like in all sincerity, I mean Vince McMahon's getting back into football. We found the weirdest ways to tie things to pro wrestling. So this isn't all that odd. Vince McMahon's getting back into football. So yes, we can talk about it on a pro wrestling podcast. How long do you give this league? The last one lasted one season and barely did that.
00:49:20
Speaker
Do you genuinely think this gets two seasons? Yes. Three seasons? No. Okay. That's my answer. So where you're at is it's going to end and the TV networks are going to say like, what do we do? I heard from the video I watched that Vince is willing to put like a quarter of a billion dollars into this.
00:49:46
Speaker
Like, that's what I heard. And I'm, you know it's fucking Vince. He needs to at least do better than he did last time.
00:49:59
Speaker
I think they're prepared to get it through more than one year. Unless it's just a complete fucking disaster that they have to pull the plug on. Hear me out. I'm hearing you. You got half a billion dollars. What's the dumbest thing you would do with it? Not this. Mine? I'd build the aggro crag in my backyard. You've been talking about this for a long time. I'm just in like, really like, I'm not over the aggro crag.
00:50:27
Speaker
But I'm just trying to think of dumb shit that like, if I had that much money trying to do a thing that didn't work again.
00:50:34
Speaker
I don't know. That wouldn't be my first choice. You don't think them actually taking it seriously and not doing the skimpy outfits on the cheerleaders and all that stuff gives it... I feel like I'm talking to the wrong guy about this because I feel like you're like, you're like, Derek, I don't actually care about sports management. I just like watching it every now and then. Oh, no, no, no. I care about the management. No, you don't. As long as the coaches are wearing skimpy outfits. The coaches. The coaches.
00:51:01
Speaker
Hear me out. The coaches wear skimpy outfits. You telling me you're not going to tune in to see some nerd wearing like little short shorts? This is America, Garrett. There's a lot of people that are going to be offended at that idea. Offended the idea of an adult male being forced to wear a skimpy outfit to manage a fucking C-rate football team.
00:51:25
Speaker
Hey, hey, if you were a better coach, you wouldn't be in the XFL. I know why you're so defensive. You're a St. Louis fan. And St. Louis finally has a football team again after a few seasons of not having one. So you're happy for them. Go Battle Hawks. Go Battle Hawks.
00:51:42
Speaker
Like you said, who's got the most Instagram followers right now? The St. Louis Battle Hawks have the most social media followers. You know why? Great fucking name. They announce all those names. Those are regular things. The Battle Hawk is the only one that is like, that isn't a thing.
00:52:01
Speaker
Go dragons. Breathe fire. Do you think the... Is a single XFL player going to get laid by saying they're an XFL player? Maybe in a couple of years. You know I played for the XFL for a season. Yeah, nobody cares about that part. They care about the part where now you're on an NFL team because that league's defunct. I'm a pro... I'm a pro... I can't even get it up.
00:52:27
Speaker
I'm a professional athlete. Oh yeah? What team do you play for? Dragon. I'm sorry, what was that? Dragon. I play for the dragons.
00:52:37
Speaker
What's, is this Quidditch? What fucking sport is that? What we should have done is we should have pulled up the XFL team names and ranked which ones are the lamest names. You see, I don't think any of them are, they are all very, like, what did you say last episode? You said they're all varying degrees of lame. Yes, all of them. Every single one of them is some form of lame.
00:53:04
Speaker
Some of them are lame because they're unoriginal, and some of them are lame because why the fuck would you name your team that? Now I know for sure. If I had a time machine, I would go back to be in the meeting where they came up with the names, and I would just be sitting there eating popcorn and having the time of my life. Guys, we only get one shot at this. We gotta get this right. Alright, what do you got? So they're in St. Louis, right?
00:53:34
Speaker
Wait, what are they doing in your mind here? What are these sounds and this is just like the how I envision like a sweaty executive fucking eating peanuts or some shit So here's my idea. So they're in st. Louis, you know and they're gonna fight, you know, they're gonna battle and then like birds are a thing and
00:53:56
Speaker
and call him the Battle Hawks. And then you would have seen me in that office spiking a can of white claw on the ground and just shouting, fuck yeah, what do you got Tony? Dragons, fuck yeah, fuck yeah, what do you got? Vipers, boom, Randy. Boom, like Randy Orton. What about you? What about you?
00:54:22
Speaker
Who do you want to be, Jerry? What do you want to be? This is very aggressive. I'm a roughneck. You're goddamn right you are, Jerry. You're a fucking roughneck. I've always kind of seen myself as a defender. What? Brilliant!
00:54:45
Speaker
you get to be a guardian and you get to be a renegade. And then they also just come up with name. Like they find out the names of actual NFL teams. I'm like, that's not a thing. What's a Bronco? Isn't that a vehicle? That's stupid. Yeah. That's the thing that OJ. We want to do that. We got to steer away from those. I am a little surprised in all sincerity that they didn't name at least one team, not one team from the old XFL got carried over.
00:55:15
Speaker
Yeah, I really thought the Dwayne Johnsons were gonna... The Dwayne Johnsons! What are we at? Are we at an hour? We're getting close. Well, you know, it's almost two o'clock in the morning, Central Standard Time. I'm glad that's what's driving the end of this episode. It's also that and I'm filled with three white claws right now. You're not driving anywhere. I have to piss something wicked. Oh. I mean, I guess I can...
00:55:43
Speaker
I mean, I'm going to be sending this audio to you so you could just edit this part out. I could edit it, yeah. I have to piss something wicked.
00:55:59
Speaker
So yes, yes, we will, to some degree, be paying attention to the XFL. I said this earlier tonight, Garrett, you and I are at our best when we've got a nice fucking piece of garbage to work with. We've compared ourselves before. We're somewhere between Wayne's World and Beavis and Butthead, but I think we're also somewhere between all of that and Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Podcast's Future and Evolution
00:56:23
Speaker
Yeah, like I like watching good wrestling. Yeah, but I equally like watching bad. Oh, yes. It's that in between shit that we don't do well with. It makes me appreciate what a YouTube personality like angry video game nerd does because I get it now where he's like sometimes stuff is bad, but it's bad in a boring way that I can't work with. Like it needs to be fucking horrific for me to get some good material out of it.
00:56:54
Speaker
How many episodes do you think this podcast is gonna run? Where do you think we peter out? That's the same question that I asked about the XFL. Do you see it going one year? No. Do you see it going two years? No. What about three?
00:57:13
Speaker
We just hit, we've hit our second year, we're at a hundred episodes. A lot of people have stuck around with us over a hundred episodes. It's crazy. And it does make us feel good when we find out that people go through our back catalog of stuff and get caught up.
00:57:32
Speaker
Over the last couple of years, we've heard stories. You've said that you met some people at shows that literally listen to all of our episodes on a car drive to WrestleMania. I think that was Neil. Was that Neil? I think it was Neil.
00:57:46
Speaker
It's weird. It's weird because we basically other than Twitter and Instagram like there's no real promotion that goes into this Like you have to kind of stumble across the show to find it I mean I think to a certain degree this podcast works like any podcast as we just don't have the huge platform to promote it so that it makes a significant difference but I think
00:58:07
Speaker
If you listen to the Joe Rogan podcaster, if you listen to Neil deGrasse Tyson's fucking whatever, I don't know, then you probably just wait to get the alert on your phone that there's a new episode and you listen. So maybe the promotion helps a little bit. Maybe the promotion helps find the occasional new listener, but
00:58:31
Speaker
We really appreciate how many people stuck with us, especially to the extended break that we just took, you know, the last couple months. What are we gonna talk about the next hundred episodes? I feel like we should be done with wrestling. We've covered all the wrestling. We did joke about the possibility of dropping this being a podcast about pro wrestling and more a podcast aimed at pro wrestling fans where we talk about other things.
00:58:58
Speaker
That's kind of what it already is. We're never gonna stop talking about wrestling. We love it. Prediction time. Where does Kylie Rae end up? Does she end up going to NXT? She should. You think that's the- That could be hard though. Her going there with her thing being so close to Bayley's. But I guess Bayley's healed now so we can- Yeah, but she'll eventually be resurrected anew.
00:59:26
Speaker
You're right, though. Honestly, I think NXT would be the best place if there was a female wrestler and I had to say, where is the best place for you to go right now? Fucking NXT. I mean, Impact does good shit with their ladies. Obviously, Tessa Blanchard is the champ over there. But that is that is one. And I don't know how many ladies are going to get that opportunity.
00:59:53
Speaker
You'll be back here in Chicago in a couple weeks for AEW Revolution.
Speculations for AEW Revolution
00:59:58
Speaker
I had said to you earlier tonight, I think this show has a possibility of being AEW's best show to date. How do you feel about that as a prediction?
01:00:08
Speaker
Well, what matches, what all do we have on the card right now? We have Jericho versus Moxley. We're setting up for MJF Cody. Okay. We know there's going to be a tag title match and we know they've been planting the seeds of this hangman Kenny Omega elite split.
01:00:30
Speaker
Honestly, I'm pretty curious to see this Jericho Moxley match. Yeah. Because we've seen that before. Yeah. But we haven't seen it there where it sounded like they had a specific vision of a match they wanted to do in WWE. And they ended up getting to use the thumbtacks and everything. And Jericho was into it. But since we're going more hardcore, do you think he'll do it again or do something more intense? I don't know. I know that I.
01:00:56
Speaker
I can't remember if I was listening to a podcast or if I was reading somebody's review, how long ago was it that they did that hardcore match between Moxley and Omega? It was a couple months ago, right? Somebody pointed out that maybe they went to that well way too soon.
01:01:14
Speaker
that even though that feud had been brewing for a while, that they went straight to the hardcore match. They didn't even let them have a wrestling match. That's true. We immediately started teasing that the cleaner was back, and then they had a hardcore match that ended in barbed wire, and Kenny Omega going into barbed wire. Right.
01:01:38
Speaker
that like, and maybe that's fine. Maybe we did need that because we are. So how many times have you and I talked about at least with WWE, sometimes they look at like, Oh, that'll be our main event for the next four paper views. Oh yeah. And then they get the first pay-per-view and you're like, okay, cool. I'm done. That was fun. And they're like, well, no, we're going to do this for a few more months. And then you're just like fucking get it over with.
01:02:01
Speaker
or they give you a bad one the first time and you know that you're gonna have to wait till the third one to maybe get the one that you want. AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura. Yeah, and even that's iffy if that was exactly what we wanted. Because I saw a shitty one, but then you and I saw the good one. We saw the good one at Money in the Bank last summer, right? Yeah. The Money in the Bank before this most recent one. Yeah, so I mean, I don't know.
01:02:32
Speaker
Moxley is motivated because he missed the last pay-per-view here in Chicago with that injury he got in Japan. And I keep going back and forth on what, when I think Jericho will drop the title. Cause there's a lot of people who are, they stick by that like idea of to legitimize the title. The guy has to have like a year and a half long reign.
01:03:02
Speaker
But maybe they legitimized the title by putting it on Jericho and having him hold it for more than two weeks. You know what I mean? Because they picked Jericho. They could have picked Hangman.
01:03:15
Speaker
But they opted to go with the veteran to be their first champion. So he could drop it anytime. My gut says he's still gonna hold it for longer. Maybe Jericho's holding it for Kenny Omega to take it from him. But that's- Do you think Omega or do you think even... Like in my mind didn't even go to Omega. Who are you thinking? I'm thinking Cody. Cody can't challenge for the title. Holy shit. That's a thing.
01:03:44
Speaker
Cause they already had that. No, wait. Yeah. That was the stipulation to the match. The MJF fucked him out of it was that he can no longer challenge for the world title. You're right. Holy shit. So block that off. It's a possible, again, it's pro wrestling. Cody will eventually be the AEW champion, but it's not going to be him winning it from Jericho. Well, I think Omega kind of fucked himself. It seemed like he was trying to book himself for a while that he was the guy that like,
01:04:10
Speaker
Wasn't winning and that didn't super work for him. I brought this up I Don't know when but I said to you it's weird watching everyone be excited to watch the elite On all elite wrestling and then watching them basically use their overness
01:04:29
Speaker
to get other guys over. So, like, if you've been some fringe, oh, what's this thing? All Elite Wrestling? I'll tune in. Oh, who are these people that are really awesome? The Young Bucks? Kenny Omega? Okay, I'll watch them. And then your first impression is all these people your friends have been hyping up to you to check out their...
01:04:47
Speaker
Losing putting over the other people That's weird And part of me has wondered if that's watered down the like again I'm diving into this but maybe that's watered down the entire effect across AEW which is the people that you just want to be really excited to see because now they're on primetime TV are actually having to put in the work of getting over teams like private party or
01:05:12
Speaker
best friends like they're actually having to do groundwork that maybe we really don't want to see them do right now we just want to see them be the thing that we saw on the indies but selfishly you can't have them just run rough shot through the entire roster no for sure have a whole mess of losers for sure but i mean
01:05:34
Speaker
If I had told you months ago before AEW started up that the first tag team champions were going to be SCU and that the second tag team champions were going to be Kenny Omega and Hangman Page, you might be like, is Matt hurt? Is Pentagon hurt?
01:05:56
Speaker
like what's going on they didn't go to like the obvious and again I don't think there's anything wrong with that but there is gonna be a moment where it's time to put title the tag titles on the teams that are perceived to be the absolute best and I don't know who's gonna be the person to take the title off Jericho I think Moxley is as good a pick as any because again he was behind Jerry he was the biggest name that they got after the company started up
01:06:23
Speaker
So I don't know. It's just, it's funny that if the first two guys that have the title are WWE guys, you feel like that validates everyone. Like the people who were like, yeah, w fuck them. It's just former WWE guys. But at the same time, they're the only two guys right now that makes sense to hold it. Cody would have made sense if they hadn't written them. See again, it's like, it's that all in syndrome.
01:06:49
Speaker
It's that fucking all in syndrome. He's totally deserving of that fucking spot, but he doesn't want to put himself in that spot because he knows that people will perceive it that way. And that's, I'm sure that's what the bucks are going through right now. They probably have enough pull that they could have easily been like, yeah, we're going to be the first tag team champions, but they're doing the right thing.
Analysis of AEW's Women's Division
01:07:11
Speaker
But once you take away Cody as being the guy that takes away from Jericho, once you realize that it's not going to be like hangman, it really basically it's either Kenny or who Kenny or Moxley. So.
01:07:32
Speaker
I don't know. Can you have your champ still running over to Japan? Well, I guess he already is. Well, Jericho already did. Yeah. And if it only helps that they would benefit so greatly from having a relationship with New Japan wrestling. It would be huge. They need it. They need it.
01:07:54
Speaker
I would love to see a lot of those wrestlers fighting New Japan wrestlers. I'm just showing up. Like you telling me like if, if Okada just showed up one day or so, you know, I feel like that's what they're doing with the women's roster though. Like how many of like the Japanese women like every other week gets a different one that just shows up. There's a lot of Joshi wrestlers. Yeah.
01:08:21
Speaker
And I don't know if it's necessarily working because I think for a crowd that's looking for some consistency and specific fresh faces, they're just like, who's this? I think there's three or four recognizable names on the women's side of that AEW roster. I think Britt Baker, I think Awesome Kong. They've built up Nyla Rose. Nyla Rose. She's been around consistently. And now Rio.
01:08:46
Speaker
I guess they're trying to get Chris Statlander there too. I think she's going to get there. Oh, I think so too. She's already really over. I don't know. I'm excited about you coming back here in a couple of weeks. I'm excited for revolution. I think that's going to be a kick ass show. I think the circumstance it's C2E2 weekend in Chicago.
01:09:08
Speaker
Who knows, CM Punk might show up. Ha, let's just keep running. They were joking. I watched him on a radio show recently. They were like, you know, his deals with Fox, wouldn't it just be fucking hilarious if he's just like, I'm going to go work for AEW and Fox because I'm not working for WWE. I'm going to go criticize my competition.
01:09:32
Speaker
I've heard that that relationship got spoiled and I don't know how much money he wants to fucking wrestle. So once again, since he didn't show up at the Royal Rumble, I'm back to being like, I think he's done. Like I said, I'm not even like, I don't even think about him anymore. Nah, we're past that.
01:09:49
Speaker
But fuck, man. The rumor on the street is that the reason Edge was able to get back into wrestling was because of the stem cell treatment they're doing. What country did you go to? Was it Colombia?
01:10:08
Speaker
He flew somewhere and they're thinking the stem cell treatment is going to be allowing guys that had to retire due to injury be able to come back more often.
01:10:31
Speaker
Do you realize that if this edge thing actually goes over while there's a chance that Stone Cold Steve Austin could wrestle again? He's not coming back. How old is he? I think he said recently that he totally thinks he has a few matches left in him. No, he didn't. God is my witness. He's not here. He's here.
01:10:54
Speaker
We're getting to the point in this where Nat and I were just hanging on by a thread, it's late. It is literally, it is past two in the morning. Yeah, it's not a big deal to me, I'm home. Yeah, I've gotta take an Uber back. You gotta go get back to your wife who let me rent you for the night. It's actually her birthday as we record. As we record. Happy birthday, Leah. Happy birthday, Leah. I'm gonna come home soon. Thank you.
01:11:18
Speaker
Is she going to listen to this? Never. Okay. Well, then everyone gets to hear us being nice to your wife. So everyone that listened to this podcast needs to tweet at her and let her know that we wished her happy birthday in this episode. Yeah. Let at lovable scamp on Instagram and Twitter, uh, give her, give her a happy birthday wish. Yep. Do that.
01:11:37
Speaker
Let her. Of course, by the time this episode comes out, it's past her birthday, but happy belated. Thank you for letting me go to that wrestling show so that we had some content for tonight. Yeah. As you know, we basically just recorded this two days after we already recorded, so we had watched no wrestling in this time. We did watch live wrestling.
01:11:56
Speaker
We did watch live. We did have stuff that we had a match to watch for a listener, so. But hey. Get us out of here, Garrett. Yeah. If you want to give us a follow on social media, we're at Wrestle Hangout on Twitter and Facebook. We're at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram. I am at Gartet on social media. Derek is at Halloween Halpin. Remember, rate, review, subscribe. If you review, give us a review on iTunes. We'll talk about whatever you want.
01:12:23
Speaker
pre-determined podcast at gmail.com. We're still waiting on more fanfiction. Always. Feel free to throw the gymnasty boys in there. Throw Effie in there if you want. Yeah. Teagums. Teagums. Throw Benoit in there if you want. Get weird with it. Say something nice in the drizzling chips. We'll be back next week. All right. Hit our goddamn music.