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Matthew Justice's Trickle Down Economics
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Garrett, Chris and Fax are chatting the Best Friends on Floor is Lava, Appalachian Championship Wrestling at Buffalo Wild Wings, sharing a bed with Sandman, Nick Gage on Sesame Street, GCW in Japan, AEW's 3 year anniversary and more!
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Transcript
Introduction and Frasier Reboot Excitement
00:00:35
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Predetermined, a Pro Wrestling Hangout. I'm your host, Garret Calendar, and with me, as always, Chris Miggs, Jimmy Fax, and even more important than anything in Pro Wrestling, this week it has finally been announced that the Frasier reboot is happening.
00:00:52
Speaker
So that announced today or that was announced yesterday. Paramount Plus has picked it up and we're going to get the Frasier read. Oh, man. So in between watching episodes of Dora the Explorer with my daughter, I can watch episodes of Frasier. That is fucking exciting. I've got my tossed salad and scrambled eggs hat on right now. I am. I've got my spinny. I'm ready to punch some of my coworkers, if need be. That's that's quite a way to, you know,
00:01:20
Speaker
cap off, you know, Rosh Hashanah and national scissoring day. We should apparently go inside. No, it's Yom Kippur facts. I'm sorry, I'm Yom Kippur, right?
The Floor is Lava and Wrestler Impressions
00:01:40
Speaker
I will say, speaking of speaking of things I watch on the on streaming services with my little one, Garrett, you recommended to me the episode on Netflix of The Floor is Lava, which is a game show, which I know this is a hard concept to understand. The Floor is Lava.
00:01:58
Speaker
with involved the best friends, Chuck Taylor, Orange Cassidy, Chris Statlander. And I enjoyed it, but my four-year-old fucking loved it. She literally went upstairs and started building her own florist lava thing in the... She was, I think, as everyone, amazed by Orange Cassidy. Who's not amazed by Orange Cassidy?
00:02:28
Speaker
but was most, I think most entertained by Chris Statlander. She's like, who is that? She seems great. So a new fan, maybe. I love you. You get to keep showing your daughter wrestling stuff. Yeah, I mean, again, children did invent the floor is lava. So it feels like a good circle of circle of art imitating life, imitating art imitating. Exactly. I tried to explain, Garrett, that Daddy's friend also really loves the third guy in the group, Chucky T.
00:02:58
Speaker
She seemed not interested in him. She seemed like he seems he seems fine. There she actually she actually said in perfect English as though she were like a college graduate of like that guy doesn't seem like he has enough charisma to be on cable television.
00:03:17
Speaker
Honestly, I have a feeling that if they had one, which spoiler alert, they did very poorly. I think the money would have gone to pay Chucky T's rent. As much as I love Chuck Taylor, it wasn't like these guys were there.
00:03:34
Speaker
playing for charity. That was never
Wrestlers' Fashion and Financial Struggles
00:03:37
Speaker
established. They're playing against normal people and that money was going into their pockets. But I feel like Orange Cassidy doesn't need it. He sold enough shirts. Chris Lautlander probably has an action figure and decent shirts. Chucky Teague hasn't until recently been on TV very much.
00:03:58
Speaker
No. Yeah. Chuck probably got a pay cut on the renegotiation. And but actually they probably Tony sent him on the show because he was like, Chuck, I know I cut your pay, but giving you an opportunity to get a ten thousand dollar bonus. He actually resigned as Trent's valet.
00:04:21
Speaker
I love. So I didn't see this like I'm wondering did they dress the way we're used to them dressing, which of course is like as though they were drug dealers in a movie in the late 70s. Yes, they all dressed normally. They were. They know of themselves. Orange people. The announcer was literally like, I can't believe that man is doing what he's doing in jeans. Referring to Orange. They've not heard of stretch jeans. It's a new concept for the lava people.
00:04:48
Speaker
it was very bizarre because they're against like three CrossFit bro friends and like three yoga guys and like well obviously the pro wrestlers are going to win and just so quickly but there's one of the yoga guys Seth Rollins though he was on both teams actually CrossFit and yoga but not pro wrestlers he's a sports entertainer
00:05:13
Speaker
I can't get over your daughter loving two of them and being like, and daddy's friend likes the third one that you don't care about. He actually was the PWG World Heavyweight Champion at one point. I'll try to show her some Chuck T matches on the VCR, but it's unclear if she'll just walk away and start playing with blocks. I can't promise more than a couple of minutes. Yeah, it's a terrible show. Honestly, I truly think though that the three of us should be on it.
00:05:44
Speaker
I'm willing to I'm willing to give it a spin. I really don't like the internet won't be kind. Unless again, unless unless we're going against Team GCW and it's Jimmy Lloyd. Lauderdale. And Jordan Oliver, just because I'll push him.
00:06:15
Speaker
Sir, you're not allowed to play defense. I'm I'm not playing defense. He just deserves to be in the lava. Their team ends up losing because Jimmy Lloyd stopped to take a smoke break and we get a better time. Sir, there's no smoking on set. You know where actually Jimmy Lloyd would probably be allowed to smoke just totally freely?
00:06:41
Speaker
Denny's in the 90s. I was going to say or even modern day outside of Buffalo Wild Wings. So I know I saw a video this week of Appalachian Championship Wrestling, a match that took place in the vaunted Buffalo Wild Wings parking lot that we've heard so much
Buffalo Wild Wings Wrestling Matches
00:06:59
Speaker
about. It was my first seeing a match there. Did you guys watch? I have not watched it yet. Tell it. Tell us about it. Yeah, tell me. Oh, wow. OK, so it was team franchise.
00:07:10
Speaker
against team Pitbull. Um, when he came out, I had to go, wait, isn't that the dead one? And then look up. So I went down a little bit of a Wikipedia hole on the Pitbulls and I was like, with the timing, I'm like, wait, he's the one that broke his neck. I thought the one that broke his neck is the one that died. Nope. The one that broke his neck is the one that's still alive and was in this match in a Buffalo wild. Bald one's the dead one.
00:07:37
Speaker
Well, again, bald in like 98, who knows what these people look like today, right? I haven't been keeping abreast of that. So, that was a team, it was six man tags, but it's obviously Pitbull franchise. They were the marquee guys.
00:07:56
Speaker
I don't know who the other four were. I'm not going to pretend that I know their names, but they were guys that looked like they belonged with the other people. I guess Pitbull was the babyface side. The other two were carrying a major young bucks vibe, but were the same age as the young bucks. They were aspiring young bucks that are the age of the current young bucks.
00:08:23
Speaker
And then Bill Alfonso was the special referee, no conflict of interest there whatsoever. And it was, it was one of those things that I went through a cycle of emotions. My wife came down. She's like, why are you watching that? I'm like, it's wrestling in a Buffalo Wild Wings parking lot in West Virginia. And she's like, I still don't understand why you're watching it. I'm like, we could go there next time.
00:08:46
Speaker
It's funny. We just need to bring our own chair. And she's like, I don't like where this is going. And I still don't know why you're talking about it. And I'm like, this is like a Mecca. And then she left the room. She left the room to call the divorce lawyer. I don't I'm not pulling the trigger yet, but he's saying things that are very strange. So at first it was Beastman. Now he's watching stuff in a Buffalo Wild Wings. I didn't even see Beastman there. I don't even know if Beastman is real.
00:09:15
Speaker
He said he met him, but then missed his match to go to an organized play. None of this makes any sense. Then he had sores on his hands. Then he had sores all over after allegedly meeting this beast man. And I heard from Chris's wife that he was hanging around inside bathrooms and bowling alleys hidden under buildings. I kind of think that they just took a bunch of peyote and fucked each other sick.
00:09:48
Speaker
So anyway back to the level or what happened to boot in We're planning another boom-boom day in Bhutan right before there in a minute How it was the matter Wait, but I just want to talk one more Putin. I
00:10:11
Speaker
There's another organized play event this goddamn Saturday. But I am not going because I would have to. I know in advance that the timelines would not sync up for me to make it to Atlantic City.
00:10:23
Speaker
It's about a two hour drive from boot, an hour and a half at minimum. So no possible way. That doesn't matter if you make it to you, you have your priorities and it is not. No, no, I was, I was screwed, sir. I was screwed. Had things followed the normal flow of schedule, how it was scheduled. I just want you to hear this. Facts are saying that he loves Nick Gage and John Moxley more than you. And I want you to know beast man, like Garrett and I, we don't feel that way.
00:10:54
Speaker
Don't talk for both of us. Fair enough. Beastman has never almost stayed on any of our couches. We can get back to that. But the actual match is fine in a way that made it kind of sadder because then at one of those things, so I'll cut to some spoilers. The match ends shockingly neither the franchise nor Pitbull are involved in the finish particularly. One of the young bucks
00:11:24
Speaker
gets the pinfall victory. And then, you know, the heels kind of try to get their revenge, you know, and then the Sandman shows up. And they're playing Enter Sandman just from like a random boombox. It's actually playing from the bathroom of the Buffalo Wild Wings. They have the doors open. It's on the Buffalo Wild Wings playlist.
00:11:50
Speaker
It's just, yeah, somebody opened the door to go out for a smoke. Jimmy Lloyd, maybe. And it came from inside, which although that works, right? Cause you guys know the YouTube algorithm, you can't just play a Metallica song. Lars Ulrich is very litigious about that. But this was so low fidelity that the YouTube algorithm could not tell one of the most famous songs of all time.
00:12:18
Speaker
Um, so Sandman comes in and it was really at this point that I really like, cause Sandman looked real bad physically and like was making so little effort. Like, like almost to the point of like was actually expending mental effort to make sure he was giving body language to show to the crowd how much he was phoning it in. Um, he was not even phoning and he was mailing it in.
00:12:46
Speaker
Like he literally licked an envelope, put it on a stamp, gave it to a guy on a horse. Even a phone call would be too much to the point that it really made me think where I'm like, wait a minute. And we've talked about this before. This is in deep West Virginia. None of these guys live in West Virginia. They had to get there. They're not charging. And then I'm like thinking about like, there's only about. Let's be generous and call it 40 people there.
00:13:16
Speaker
And I think that's a pretty generous estimate. Maybe more, if you count again, people walking back and forth from their cars from the Buffalo Wild Wing, completely disinterested in the wrestling. And then I'm like, they got Fonzie, they got Sandman, they got the franchise and they got the living pit bull.
00:13:37
Speaker
And the young bucks. And well, even if those guys get nothing, it's like it made me a little bit sad where I'm like, but I know people didn't really like hardcore hack, but like he was in WCW. He signed a big money deal. Shane Douglas was in the, had a couple of more than cups of coffee in kind of the quote unquote majors.
00:13:58
Speaker
And it made me realize, and like they physically look horrendous. And it just, it made me kind of really sad that like, when we watch guys at some of these big cards, like the type of cards that we typically go to is more like Mickey Rourke and the wrestler where it's like, but like the end of, like where it's like a little bit more noble, it feels a little bit more like, oh man, he's got it. But then this was like, oh God, like is Shane Douglas driving like nine hours
00:14:28
Speaker
each way to a parking lot in a Buffalo Wild Wings sleeping in someone's, you know, guest room at best for like a $40 payday. Sandman's definitely driving home to Philly drunk, right? That's... Oh yeah, there was a lot of drinking in the ring and the best line of the whole thing is
00:14:49
Speaker
Pretty incoherent, but it's Fonzie speaking directly into the camera with a beer, talking about how great his life is. Why is my life great? Because I'm partying with the Sandman tonight. You know it's bad when there's enough people in the crowd that Sandman can give everybody a sip of beer.
00:15:10
Speaker
I will say though, I don't know. You know, I used to watch a lot of like shoot interviews and particularly ECW ones. There's one in which I think it's all of these guys together. It's Sandman, Fonzie, Too Cold Scorpio, and Todd Gordon. And they proceed to tell stories about what they would do on an average ECW weekend that are exceptionally filthy. Like truly,
00:15:39
Speaker
like Bakanal, like to the level that like, it sounds like, like if you described what was happening, you'd be like, are they all dead now? No, they're all alive. When you say filthy, do you mean like if the average person gave even a little bit of a shit, they would all be canceled? Oh, for sure, yes. Yes.
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah, but I guess it's like, how can you cancel someone who will drive nine hours for basically a couple of free meals at a Buffalo Wild Wings? That's called a strong work ethic. That looks good. That looks good. And that's kind of, by the way, that's what went through at first. I'm like, man, are these guys just cheap?
00:16:26
Speaker
Like are they just like literally like this is their main source of revenue that cuz like again like it's not like like does she Douglas maybe have an okay house from some of that money or like does the Sandman and it's just like
00:16:39
Speaker
you know, their wives are on their back. And it's like, I can either work it as an assistant manager at McDonald's, or I can work a couple of weeks, you know, I can work every weekend going wherever we'll pay, you know, the equivalent of a minimum wage job. But I don't know, man, that kind of seems sadder.
00:17:00
Speaker
I mean, I went to I think we went to WrestleCon a few years ago and I and I met Shane Sandman was there and I would have gotten maybe an autograph or something, but he was asleep at one in the afternoon. Yeah. Oh, I mean, the last weekend, the last time I saw Sandman was I think my first trip to New York, I went to Joey Janela, Austin, New York.
00:17:30
Speaker
I brought my friend Aaron, who had never been to a wrestling show before. It was me, Aaron, and Queen of the Ring, sitting second row. And then Sandman enters from the balcony, then walks around, gets to our row, and is pouring beer all over everybody.
00:17:47
Speaker
My friend Aaron has never been to wrestling and was also about two years sober at this point. So I was like, how does Sandman choose who he pours the beer on? Because if he pours beer all over my pretty friend, I feel like she's not gonna want to stay the rest of the show. How did that resolve? Did she just run away? Oh, no, we stood there. He just passed us.
00:18:15
Speaker
But I want to know how does he choose? Does he look at somebody and like beer like he's like, I've been doing this long enough, sir. I'm professional. I know that drinks beer. I can look into somebody's face. There's no way that's it. It was really I think you're saying it was more Russian roulette. I think it's more along the lines of if you just like.
00:18:39
Speaker
see a dog that has to go to the bathroom real bad and you open the door to the fence area and they run out. But even though they got to go really bad, they still got to sniff a couple areas before they go. That's the sand man, right? He's not he's he's in his is an animalistic zone where there's something purely primal is how he's going by and not at all informed by any facts. I wouldn't say that it might be Sandman's only skill.
00:19:09
Speaker
Like he just might just somehow he has learned over the years. And it's I'm with the fact that it's not intellectual in any sense. He just somehow in his heart, he knows who wants beer. Well, I'm not saying the dog pisses in the wrong place either, right? I'm just saying they're not consciously aware of of what made them choose the where they're, you know, laying it out. So are you telling me?
00:19:33
Speaker
that Sandman doesn't need to be going to Appalachia on the weekends for minimum wage. He could get a job, as hear me out, if he weren't a cop caller, essentially a drug sniffing dog. It'd be like, are you drunk? And the guy's like, no, he's like, well, Sandman. Sandman can look him straight in the face and say like, yeah, he's drunk. But he wouldn't be, he would just be like, Sandman, he cool.
00:20:00
Speaker
You just say, if the Sandman thinks you're cool, you're probably guilty of something. Sandman will only do it though if the guys, if the cops go through with the guys holding and give it to Sandman. There's no money in this for him. His wife's actually like, can't you go to Appalachia to the Buffalo Wild Wings? We at least get a meal out of it. Now you have a sack of pills and you don't share.
00:20:29
Speaker
Oh, it's true. There's a lot of colors of probably. I give the match about, you know, one and three quarter stars, you know, not bad for a Buffalo Wild Wings. Unfortunately, they don't have the full card up, but you can find that again on the Appalachian Championship Wrestling YouTube. I'm guessing Shane didn't break Pitbull's neck this time.
00:20:54
Speaker
I mean maybe just because Pitbull appeared to be mostly bones at this point. I would think like a strong gust of wind could break his neck and that's about the offense that Shane delivered. Shane actually, I kid, Pitbull looked terrible. Sandman looked subhuman.
Shane Douglas Match Jokes
00:21:14
Speaker
but Shane actually he merely looked like an old man wrestling like he didn't look that dissimilar to like Ric Flair 10 years ago like like post I'm sorry I love you but like not that far like only like
00:21:33
Speaker
five, 10 years past that, not like Conrad blood money. I was kind of thinking that Shane, Shane's old man wrestling is a little bit like, have you ever seen like, like old, like Bobby Eaton matches, like after he kind of couldn't do very much. It's basically just his worked punch. You're like, wow, that guy's got a good punch. And that's, that's the entire, that's his entire office. He takes one bump to lose the match. And that's the entire thing.
00:21:58
Speaker
Yeah, and then you see Shane doing it to this like 39 year old young buck. And you're just like, why is that guy's uncle punching him?
00:22:10
Speaker
And you're like, but that's a good punch. He's punching him good. That could be that. I mean, that could be you talk about us going the floor is lava. I mean, could could we be a tag team against the franchise players? It seems like most of what we would do is take worked punches from Shane Douglas and just laugh. And we would just laugh at the old bucks. And, you know, that would be a match. And we and Shane would give us one of us a low blow, roll us up. And that's the whole thing.
00:22:38
Speaker
We too can get paid in Buffalo Wild Wings. I mean, I think that we would certainly have more charisma than most of the people in that match or for those that have a little bit of charisma, a better balance of charisma and giving a fuck. There was no one in that match that had both of those things.
00:23:00
Speaker
The way you're describing these punches, you're like, these work punches were so good, he could have gotten signed year one of AEW. No, to be clear, these punches were so good, they looked borderline competent, which was, again, a highlight compared to when Pitbull was in the ring. It was bad.
00:23:24
Speaker
And Sandman again, couldn't do a competent work step. And I've heard clear and how you even work is that you just legitimately couldn't walk properly. It's an interesting comparison though. Cause I was watching, I think I told you, I saw some old WCW this week and I was watching, uh, Steve Riegel against Finley. And, uh, I don't know if you ever seen those matches. There's like one from uncensored 96. Um, they beat the shit out of each other.
00:23:51
Speaker
And it's sort of the opposite of this, right? It's the literal, Shane's like, they're just slowly tapping each other. And Riegel and Finley are just throwing forearms as hard as they can at each other's face. Mm-hmm. So I do want to just roll back, it reminds me, because those are really fun matches that, like, while I'm shitting on a little bit the older guys in this, again, the match was totally competent. And it actually had, like,
00:24:20
Speaker
I'm not going to lie. And this is not me bullshitting. I'm not. I'm not doing this. Isn't a bit. It actually did make me really enthusiastic to go where I'm like, Fonzie gets in, he's jumping in that ring. I'm like, it's a good looking ring. It's an outdoor shore. Sure. There's a Buffalo Wild Wings right there. But hey, that's pretty good concessions. That's better. Right. And I'm not going to lie. I legitimately was like, they look like they are having the people working the show and the people in attendance all look like they're having a great time.
00:24:49
Speaker
And I am dead serious. I want to go. We could 100% drink with the Sandman after. Oh, for sure. It may be the only wrestling show in recorded history where you could buy a salad. That's true. You know what? We could probably set up a booth.
00:25:08
Speaker
and just do our podcast live during the show. A hundred percent. They can't stop you. If we're buying the wings, we're buying the salads, we got to pay for the wings. What are they going to do? Full Wild Wings isn't going to stop us. Don't set up your podcast. It'll look like we're the announce table because we brought our own table. We brought our own chairs. They don't have announcers.
00:25:32
Speaker
So we could just bring, I mean, I was going there. I wasn't going to go all the way there, but I was totally start talking and we'd be the announcers. And not for nothing. We know a lot about beast man and he's probably to be on that card. Like we weren't ready a couple of months ago and we started talking about this promotion at this point. Again, I don't know the names of a lot of guys, but I'm beginning to get a kind of familiar with some of them.
00:26:01
Speaker
and I could recite Shane Douglas' acts for a solid, however long the match longs. I could with the Pit Bulls after the Wikipedia hole I went down a couple of days ago after I watched this match. And I'm just gonna get in trouble from the Appalachians for just giving some of these guys names. I don't know their names. I'm gonna just give them facts that,
00:26:29
Speaker
don't necessarily line up with their career, but maybe this is part of the new. Yeah. You can just, you can make it up and maybe you'll come up with something better for them. You know, it's true. I think actually now, now we're really getting somewhere. We go to this Buffalo wild wings round, round 10 AM ish, right?
00:26:54
Speaker
I think the show starts at like, let's call it two. We just go, we get really plowed, like super duper drunk. And then we call the show and we're just like, listen, when we've had about nine to 12 white claws each, we think we can come up with the perfect names that'll resonate. Cause we talked about this during the VCW show as well too, right? Like there were guys that just, their names were terrible.
00:27:21
Speaker
and didn't really tell the story. If they wanna make it to the top indies, let alone the big leagues, you gotta make it snappy. You gotta have a name, a gimmick, a look, they all gotta connect, and I think we could help them with that.
00:27:35
Speaker
So we just drive to West Virginia, get so drunk that DDP could make a documentary about getting us sober. And then we're good to go. We're just off to the races. And then we. Yeah. And so here's the thing. If we go out with Sandman afterwards, I don't see how we don't die. So we get a hotel room.
00:28:00
Speaker
I assume it only has two beds. You two get a bed. Me and Sandman get a bed. And I get to write a book my night with Sandman. Sandman's a very gentle spoon. I would be surprised. The kendo sticks between us were both shirtless and I got a splinter.
00:28:24
Speaker
You just wake up in the morning, Sandman's gone. You're just like, oh, it's wet and stinky. Is this me or just Sandman juice? He seems like he might naturally ooze something offensive.
00:28:44
Speaker
There's definitely going to be a planes, trains and automobiles. Those aren't pillows moment, but I, yeah. Look, I, I've got a big birthday coming up next year and maybe I need to spend it in West Virginia. I, I'm not, I will, I'll meet you there, man. It's, uh, I'm not going to miss a big birthday in West Virginia. I love Buffalo wild wings. It just.
00:29:14
Speaker
An afternoon show? I mean, we could catch a movie later that. I mean, how many how often do you get to go to an afternoon outdoor daylight show without paying for WrestleMania, you know, on the West Coast?
Outdoor Wrestling Logistics in Atlantic City
00:29:28
Speaker
I mean, you're going to get a slight bit of daylight on Saturday facts, right? Just the very, very tail end of daylight in Atlantic City.
00:29:36
Speaker
Yeah, so it's I know the tickets say six thirty start is so it's six thirty. There'll still be some daylight. But if it starts any later than that, it'll probably be that is what it says to I think. Wait. OK, so we so Bax, you were the only one attending Gage.
00:29:56
Speaker
Yeah, me, me and my buddy, Johnny, oh, we should we should be there. We have our tickets. We will be there. It's now been moved to outdoors, as Chris alluded to. Still don't really know. Maybe like somebody called in a terrorist threat at the showboat ballroom where it was originally supposed to be. I just sold too many tickets and they just moved it outside. Weather be damned because it's going to be 55 degrees on Saturday on a pier.
00:30:24
Speaker
So I don't know how, like, I mean, I'm going to be at a baseball game during that time, a Mets playoff game. So I will also be cold. We'll all be cold together, I guess. I don't know.
00:30:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, again, I issued out logistically, they set it up because while the Atlantic City boardwalk is huge and you'd certainly fit tens of thousands of people, probably 100,000 people plus there. It's like not it says it's like the showboats pier, which that I don't fully know how we went to in for homecoming a couple of years ago. I think it's the same thing. If it is, that doesn't seem like it would be nearly as big as one of the
00:31:05
Speaker
David. But hey, listen, Jimmy Lloyd can smoke throughout the entire show, you know, without fear of reprisal. That's a feature, not a bug. I personally, I'll throw a hoodie on, I'll throw a couple layers on. Cole is a bug. I do like the outdoor show. I think that this is a...
00:31:22
Speaker
This is a good thing. And we were all texting and Derek brought up a really good point. Or could it be that they started running through the shit they were going to do? And they were like, yeah, you guys got to be outside. Even in Atlantic City, we have some standards.
00:31:40
Speaker
I hope I loved on the the homecoming show, the beautiful like, you know, this the sea is the background. That was great. But this, I mean, it's going to be nighttime by the time they go on. All I hope is that they spent enough money on lights that at home I don't get like a poorly lit show. Because that was the thing on the the they don't have a great track record of that.
00:32:06
Speaker
But, um, again, they, they announced it like a full week in advance, almost. Right. So presumably, you know, this is arguably their biggest show ever. Right. On, on fight, you know, maybe it's, it's right there with one B to the hammer sign one A, but it's at the very least one of the biggest shows in GCW history. You got to imagine by any measure, more people are going to be buying this on fight than they're going to be there in person by an order of magnitude. So I'd be really shocked if they didn't.
00:32:36
Speaker
Particularly if they announce more tickets. I don't think it ever sold out exactly, but maybe they realized they were. Oh, they just kept selling more GA, which is what they seemingly always have done. Like I have never seen one of their Atlantic City shows actually sell out GA. They usually will just keep selling and again, which would certainly lend to the narrative of moving it to the outside. Yeah, they'll send Big Vin to the hardware store. He'll get all the likes you need. Don't worry about it.
00:33:05
Speaker
Or how about this, they just go, they get a bunch of light tubes. They're like, wait, we're just not gonna break them this time. And we're actually gonna use them as lights.
00:33:15
Speaker
could work, could work. Or again, that could add to the drama, right? They say nobody's allowed to touch those light tubes, right? John Mox is not gonna follow that. So it's gonna be fine till the main event, but then it's kind of like an empire strikes back, right? Where it's like no light and you got the blue lightsaber and the red lightsaber, could be something there. Only this time they actually murder each other. There could be.
00:33:41
Speaker
I'm really pumped. Honestly, it's a great card. Well, you got to love the main event where neither guy can lose. Right. Which isn't what we necessarily expected. But like, seriously, what do you guys like?
Moxley vs. Gage Match Anticipation
00:33:53
Speaker
I was thinking about this and we were talking earlier when I mentioned, hey, he hasn't like moxie's gone against a lot of guys on the roster in this current kind of run or whatever you call it. Slack wasn't worth them. But then I started thinking of, oh, a couple other people. And I started thinking, do you think
00:34:10
Speaker
Even before Moxley had to become AEW champion again, do you think the plan was ever that this was going to be his kind of swan song from GCW? Because I'm beginning to think it's not no matter what. I think he'll keep doing it. I think he's having fun doing it. I do think it was
00:34:30
Speaker
I don't know. I think it was far more likely that Gage was going to win before, but maybe that's part of it. Maybe that was always going to be sort of the swerve is that this is a setup for some sort of gauge angle retirement angle or fake return. I don't know. I really don't know. It's an interesting spot because I just pointed out like either Tony has to OK, mocks losing to Gage, which maybe he would or like for whatever purposes, Gage is going to be retired.
00:35:02
Speaker
Which, again, we know Brett Lauderdale has met Beastman. The timing is kind of like, does Brett go, hmm, don't know if I need MDK anymore? Hey, don't you say that. Don't you say that. MDK is forever. This is truly, if he loses that match, I will be in my living room, mouth agape, not just like single-bin Affleck tier rolling down my cheek. I'm going to be fucking weeping. I can't picture my life.
00:35:32
Speaker
without Nick Gage. He's my soulmate. Ozzy, when was the first time you saw your dad cry? Well, you know, it's really pre-actual memory, but I have this deep sense of him sobbing. I was about a month old, and somehow I just knew. Daddy was sad. After that, we didn't call him Daddy anymore. He was just his bad man.
00:35:59
Speaker
And he slept in a bed with a guy called the Sandman, which was very confusing. That was the second time I saw him cry. That's a great setup for a tag team as well. Sandman looks like he's in good shape to come back. Like I could... Sure. You know what? Me and Sandman are probably in about the exact same physical condition. Well, how are your working steps? How are your working steps these days?
00:36:23
Speaker
I haven't been getting as many in as I'd like, but give me a week. Give me a week, I'll get in shape. I think what's in this problem, you haven't seen a lot of the really sad kids movies yet. Garrett, I think what you need to do is if Gage loses,
00:36:42
Speaker
and you sob, I think you need to really emotionally sort of put that away so that you can compare it to the movies you see in your child's life. I don't know if you've seen Coco, but that shit's gonna make you cry. And I think that would be a 0.8 you crying after Nick Gage losing. Maybe a 0.9, but I think 1.0 is still gonna be you crying after Gage losing.
00:37:11
Speaker
I just need our listeners to know if he loses, check in on me. You might not hear from me for a few days. You might not see me next week. Maybe make sure that I've scheduled a therapy appointment. And I would love to have a whole therapy appointment where I just tell my therapist about Nick Gage and why him being gone hurts me so much. Well, here's the silver lining, right? So let's play worst case scenario and that happens.
00:37:41
Speaker
We know, it's kind of the theme of this episode. We know there's always Appalachian Championship Wrestling. Nick Gage is never going away from everywhere. Even if he hadn't beaten GCW, he will have a home in your wrestling entertainment life. Okay. Okay. Well, I mean, that does make me feel better. Like, you're like, now you get Nick Gage, but you also get, you get the Wild Wings.
00:38:11
Speaker
You do get crazy, man. There's like 10 different sauces to choose from. Some days, maybe it's unlimited. Maybe it's 50 cent wing days. I don't know. But also maybe he bleeds in the parking lot. It would also be interesting to see Nickage interacting with some of the stuff you sometimes see on the lower parts of these cards where they will refer to it as Southern pride.
Nick Gage on Sesame Street - A Humorous Take
00:38:33
Speaker
Some of us would call it
00:38:35
Speaker
overt racism unambiguously. But it'd be interesting to see Nick Cage in that environment because I feel like Nick Cage isn't going to stand for that. Maybe Nick Cage just teaches them something about tolerance. Oh, there's a document. OK, we all quit our jobs. If this happens, we get Nick Cage down to Appalachian. We start filming a documentary. We're also the ring announcers. It's a little bit of a con or sorry, announcers, a little bit of a conflict of interest. We're going to power through it.
00:39:06
Speaker
I like it. It's like Rocky going to Russia. The exact same. Do you think Nick Gage would be a good Sesame Street? Oh, amazing. Yes. Yeah. Who does he hang out with? Is he with Elmo or is he like in the trash with Oscar? Yeah, I think he's in the trash with Oscar and he's saying, you know, Oscar.
00:39:31
Speaker
Like you feel like you're down. Your home is a weapon. But like Oscar, like you need to get some self-respect and love yourself and get out of this trash. And Oscar like rises out of it and he's like, thank you, Nick Gage. I think it's more that he just keeps showing up to all of them and explaining why what they're doing is all right and that they got to keep being them. You love your cookie. You can have it in moderation.
00:40:01
Speaker
He's just, they replace, they replace one of the, like the humans that's there to like, I don't know, run the bookstore or something with just Nick Gage. He's on every episode. There's a cartoon version. There's a cartoon version of him in the sort of like little cartoon bits where he's just like flying around like a, you know, cause it's their fairies and stuff. I don't know. I think there's a lot of opportunities here, which is really going all in on Nick Gage as a Sesame Street character.
00:40:30
Speaker
Him in the count can talk about how many days he spent in jail, which also teaches kids to count and also teaches kids, you know, don't rob banks.
00:40:44
Speaker
you bring him on and some people be like, finally, this show isn't gonna be so woke. And then he starts talking and they're like, how is this man talking about trans lives matter? Because he's a great guy. Elmo's like, I don't know, maybe, is Elmo a boy or a girl? And Gage is like, Elmo, you're whatever you fucking wanna be.
00:41:10
Speaker
You're you, you're Elmo, that's all that matters. And the Elmo cries, everyone cries. It's, you know, it's a very special episode. Elmo starts crying, and then the kids go, are you in the MDK gang? They just keep crying, like, oh, I don't know. Let me hear you, Big Bird. They figure out, they figure out with the Muppet Fingers how to throw up the MDK side. They all throw up.
00:41:35
Speaker
What Bert and Ernie do behind closed doors is nobody's fucking business besides Bert and Ernie. Then all of a sudden in the background, Oscar pops out of the garbage can, Nick Gage breaks a light tube and stabs him with it. Cause he's like, oh fuck, that's, he can't sneak up on Nick Gage. Oscar goes back down, Schlack pops up, he's in there too. Nick, I had a nightmare last night, there's a monster around. Don't worry, that's just Schlack, Schlack.
00:42:05
Speaker
It's totally real, though. Speaking of Schlack, so they finally over the weekend started releasing some of the the Japan shows for GCW, which Schlack has been kind of gone from GCW. He kind of disappeared for I guess he went to Circle Six, but he's also such a big deal in Japan that I think they wanted to bring him back.
00:42:32
Speaker
And Joey Janela posted a video that is gonna live rent free in my brain forever of just a candid video of Schlack cracking like six eggs into a glass and drinking it while just kind of looking off into the middle distance.
GCW Shows in Japan and Notable Matches
00:42:49
Speaker
All right, well, what he didn't mention is that those were dragon eggs. Ancient Japanese dragon eggs.
00:43:03
Speaker
Yeah, we'll actually live forever. And if they weren't, then he was just in one of those owl petting cafes just reaching under the owls. He doesn't understand it. He thought they were marshmallows.
00:43:17
Speaker
Well, how have those shows been in general? I have I've been super busy. I haven't I have not seen one second of those shows, but it's kind of I wanted to see them before the show on Saturday, but that seems kind of unlikely that I'm going to hit that mark. But if I if I do a sampler, what should I make go out of my way to check out from what night to the second show? I think it was called D.O.A. That one had.
00:43:41
Speaker
my two favorite matches of either show, which was, I honestly assumed Effie versus June Kasai was the main event, but that was maybe semi main. No, the main event ended up being Rena versus Mancer for the, what's the, not the extreme title. That's what Cole Radrick had. What's the hardcore title in GCW?
00:44:04
Speaker
The ultraviolet ultraviolet. Is that it? Yeah. Yeah. And that was that was a banger. That was a really good like Mansur putting barbed wire in Rina's mouth and pulling it back. It was a very violent. And it's nice to get to see Mansur in a singles match. I feel like he's been too taken up by thrash justice. Yeah, I think particularly in like his GCW work. Right. Like I feel like I'm even used to seeing Mansur in either the hardcore ish
00:44:34
Speaker
tag matches, because even the tag division is like, again, it's it's like it's not just as hardcore. It's not it's not deathmatch or anything like that. And then and honestly, I still even have been thinking about like, where all of this stuff like MLW, which is just like, it's fine, I guess, but it's not it's not the answer I want. Yeah, I
00:44:56
Speaker
I think when they did the Thrash Justice Mancer tag team, it did a good job of making me care more about Matt Justice, but I'm still not getting the Mancer match I won. He's a singles guy, I want Mancer on the mic.
00:45:13
Speaker
It's made just to seem like a bigger deal. I'll say that like he was always a guy that physically like he looks like a wrestler. He's a big guy. He obviously can take a chair shot with the best of him. Probably a lot more than he should. And Ditto give them out. But it always kind of felt like he just felt like kind of a less than guy. Like even in GCW, he never felt like a guy that if I saw him in the main event of a show, I'm not excited about that show. Right. Sure.
00:45:40
Speaker
And now I think that tag team has really elevated him. He feels like a true inner circle GCW guy. Yeah. What was it? I guess it would have been actually about a year ago.
00:45:54
Speaker
maybe this week, I don't know, when I was in L.A. to see Suzuki versus Gage. And one of the best matches on that card was Justice and Mansour versus the Briscoes. Oh, yeah. Ended up being, you know, like kind of just a hardcore match, not like a death match. Right. But it was fucking great. That's the thing. It's like hardcore matches. They're like, it's not that dissimilar from what you have seen in, you know, 90 90 CW or something.
00:46:24
Speaker
Yeah, you're still going to see you're going to see broken tables. You're going to see some shots. He's taken less. He is taking less. What I had heard is because, you know, like he's got some bad takes on things. I know he was not he was not afraid of covid. He doesn't wear a seat belt when he drives. He was taking unprotected headshots. But I guess he was having a conversation with Effie.
00:46:51
Speaker
And at the end of the conversation, he didn't remember a second of the conversation. Wow. It was like, man, maybe I'll take less of those. Well, I mean, I hope so, because otherwise, you know, the other theory I've heard of why he's taking less unprotected headshots is that
00:47:12
Speaker
Uh, Renee is paying him to take less because she knows Moxley watches these matches. And she's like, God, don't, don't let John see this. Don't let John, he's already doing this bleeding thing. Every fucking match. The one thing I don't want him to do is take these unpricked headshots. So she's, she's given justice, like a K one K every match. He doesn't take an unprotected headshot.
00:47:39
Speaker
1K that he doesn't remember getting. He wakes up the next day with just a wad of cash going like. Which he then immediately goes into a parking lot and just pays the guy that cash to hit him in the head with a chair a bunch of times. Not even go back to feeling normal. He's going to kind of make his own version of the bum fights videos, but it's paying unhoused people to smash him in the head with a chair.
00:48:08
Speaker
That's trickle-down economics, and it's fine. It works. It goes from wealthy corporate sponsors to Renee, to that huge justice, to hobos in the Atlantic City and Philadelphia area. It may say that trickle-down economics... It's truly Reagan's dream.
00:48:41
Speaker
And we're all Republicans now. I'm sure Ronald Reagan is looking up at us and realizing that, yeah, yeah, we got a couple of things right. That was it. And speaking of politics tonight.
00:49:00
Speaker
on national scissoring day, we had the first bipartisan scissoring. So they brought peace to America tonight on your anniversary. Well, and they never said, because I mean, without saying, right, the acclaimed are liberal, and then daddy asked clearly hardcore conservative. Right? We assume. I got it. Because it wasn't like bicameral or it is bipartisan that you need at least one on each side.
00:49:30
Speaker
Bowens and Caster don't strike me as a super conservative, but. You're saying that Natty Ass looks like he could chat with Jericho's wife. I mean, he was there probably with Jericho's wife when they met, you know, like. January 6th, they were in the DX tank and in towards the guys. Oh, that's a sketch waiting to happen.
00:49:58
Speaker
See, Triple H would be like, no, no, no, it's just a Jeep, it's just a Jeep.
00:50:04
Speaker
We should talk too about, so this show in DC, really bad ticket sales from what we've heard. And watching it on TV, it's super clear. The lights are all out upstairs. There's hardly any people up there. It kind of looks like a really small venue.
AEW Ticket Sales Strategy Critique
00:50:21
Speaker
I don't know, we don't have the numbers yet on how many people were there, but it definitely looked like one of the smaller shows, if not the smaller show, AW's done for a Wednesday, right? And I have a theory.
00:50:36
Speaker
It's because at first I'm like, man, that's weird. DC is a pretty big market. It's right near Baltimore, the home of Ring of Honor, always a hot market for Ring of Honor. DC always did good for Ring of Honor. DC's obviously done good for WWE throughout the years, even WCW and NWA.
00:50:53
Speaker
it was a bit of a head scratcher until they said, oh, and tickets still on sale for Rampage and Battle of the Belts, Rampage Live and Battle of the Belts also in DC on Friday. So my theory is, Chris, I and our friends figured this out with the Newark pay-per-view, extremely difficult to get tickets to the pay-per-view.
00:51:15
Speaker
I looked earlier today while I was watching Dynamite, I looked, there are still tickets available for the Newark pay-per-view. In the lower bowl where we are sitting, a ticket to the pay-per-view is going to run you about $550 before any fees. Is it the platinum ticket?
00:51:38
Speaker
like ultra platinum like yeah that no you don't but you don't get anything with it just yeah they call it that but it's not like you get to meet you know Miro afterwards or something like that or you know share a bed with the Sandman however if you go to Ticketmaster you go to events at the Prudential Center where you go to all the wrestling events and you go to the package to get the pay-per-view plus rampage
00:52:07
Speaker
you can get a ticket in the lower bowl for about $180. So they're literally basically saying
00:52:19
Speaker
you have to pay over double to not go to Rampage, right? And they've made it, because we bought those tickets. So we're going to Rampage. Now, I live right near the arena. Decent chance I go to Rampage unless I got stuff going on. But Chris, he lives in Queens. Our friend Tom lives in Long Island. You know, others live further away. It's kind of a hike to Newark for a Rampage, and particularly when the PPV, the Rampage before PPVs haven't exactly been awe-inspiring lately.
00:52:47
Speaker
So I was just like, okay, well, if we can sell them even for five bucks each, like whatever.
00:52:53
Speaker
But you literally can't, because they give you one ticket, one QR code you have to use for both nights. So if you send it to someone, well, fuck you, they're going to use it obviously for both nights. So they're really sticking it to you. And I have a feeling now for the pay-per-view, for a pay-per-view, especially in the New York City metropolitan area, people are going to willing to do it. Like, wait, we did it. We were fully saying, we'll eat the rampage ticket if need be. But I got to say,
00:53:23
Speaker
when your package bundle in thing to get the bundle and they do cost with the initial list price it is like not quite double but close to it until you get down to platinum tickets only that's a pretty tough sell if you're in where it's like go to dynamite on wednesday but then you also have to go to rampage and battle the belts which you know is going to be dog shit every battle of the belts has been worse than the last and the first one wasn't amazing so
00:53:52
Speaker
That's where I think this is going, where they've just got to slow it down with this. Doing a bang bang Wednesday, Friday. If you want to do the live rampages and throw an extra hour of content in, I think that's a great idea, but maybe they should have done that in, you know, a market, maybe a little further outside of DC and not tried to bundle them together. Because I think that for non PPVs, this is going to keep backfiring for them. That Buffalo Wild Wings parking lot is still available.
00:54:23
Speaker
a reasonable commuting distance from DC, right? Probably only that. I don't know exactly where it is, but let's say three to four hour drive. West Virginia's not that big. You know, it's the tops, tops, three to four. Could be as low, could be as little as one. Sandman's driving after the show. He'll get, he'll get you there in an hour. He's, he's Ubering. He is your Uber driver. Yes. No, I'm with you. I mean, I think they're really,
00:54:51
Speaker
There's a bit of an oversaturation and I think there's, I don't know about recognition, maybe they understand it, but there's definitely a level to AEW shows where, look, I mean, a pay-per-view is going to be special. Dynamite's generally going to be pretty good, although a couple of people pointed out to me recently, like, it is kind of weird how inconsistent what you actually get for a dynamite is.
00:55:14
Speaker
You know, you can, you can have a very high level dynamite and you can have a very mid level one. We've been to both. Um, and then rampage.
00:55:25
Speaker
And how big the venue is and how quickly it sells out does outside of obviously grand slam and rare things like that doesn't seem like a big factor. Even like I remember when we were like, oh, you know, the the the Newark shows, the first show in the New York City area. OK, that one was pretty solid. But then the second one was kind of very like it wasn't a bad show, but it was very mid.
00:55:47
Speaker
I think though the wrestling you're getting is still good. Maybe you're not getting the matchups you would hope for. But I mean, I don't know, even like tonight's show, I thought there wasn't like other than Hangman versus Roosh. Well, it was great.
00:56:03
Speaker
I kind of actually love what they're doing now with these. So they had, tonight was the third anniversary show or yesterday, maybe by people listening to this earlier this week. Next week is their first Canadian show. So that's going to be a big one. That's got some matches. And then the week after that is the John Moxie Homecoming Cincinnati. They already set up the big title match with Hangman and obviously that story progressed tonight.
00:56:28
Speaker
It's kind of like three really solid matches. They're not doing that one blowaway of like, let's just smack everything on one show.
00:56:37
Speaker
And I far prefer it, right? Because it makes for even just watching at home, it's a more consistent watching experience. And like tonight, there's just like a lot of really great wrestling. And I miss that. And that's why I don't think I would ever pay real money to go to a rampage plus battle of the belts is because, yeah, I'm sure there'll be a good match or two, but you're really not seeing the top talent.
00:57:00
Speaker
that you really want to kind of pay money to see, or you're seeing them in kind of a bullshit match. Like one of the, I think it's rampage. It's like, there's a match with Moxley and a hangman on the same side of a six man tag, but it's still kind of like, but against like private party and Rusch who's been hitting the hostess factory. Like it, I don't know. It's just this,
00:57:28
Speaker
I just feel like give that show to a smaller market than DC, where they would love you and they might otherwise not see, like that was always the WWE strategy, right? Where they had the A show, the B show and the C show. And sometimes that C show like the A show might be in Madison Square Garden, the B show maybe would be in, you know, Rutherford, New Jersey. And then the C show would be in like Poughkeepsie.
00:57:55
Speaker
And it would be like all three of those markets would be really happy for the show they got. And I feel like they could do a better job with that. Like they're already running places that aren't really named brands that are like, you know, going to make Americans watching. And I kind of don't know that outside of big things like first show in Canada and New York and maybe L.A. and Chicago. Outside of that, I don't think the city you film in is going to have any impact on the viewers at home's excitement.
00:58:23
Speaker
So again, I would just say, I would encourage them to, and not just as a personal, because again, they got me, and not for nothing too, as like a customer, I feel like they kind of fucked us over, right? Like if they had just charged us $180, $200 or whatever it was for just the one ticket to the pay-per-view,
00:58:43
Speaker
I think we probably would have felt fine with it. We would have been like, Oh, that's more than a lot more than we pay for dynamite. But okay, if that's what the going rate is, like other people are buying and we'd be fine with it. But the fact that they made us go through this and buy the other ticket kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth of like, they're forcing me to do something I don't want. It's not generally something you want people to do to you. Yeah. And you can almost see people sort of rebelling because I mean, there are tickets that I think
00:59:09
Speaker
If they didn't, weren't part of the combo pack might've sold already. I mean, I think they, you know, but I think people are feeling a little bit like, eventually they're going to unlock these and I can pay even because it was not much. I mean, when they unlocked it for Chicago, cause I kept an eye on that for the, for all out weekend, the rampage that the discount from combo ticket to rampage, you know, getting rid of rampage and dynamite was not significant, right? They're.
00:59:36
Speaker
You know, they're basically at the end of the day admitting, yeah, this is if it's one hundred eighty dollar ticket, it's one hundred and sixty or seventy for the pay-per-view and ten or twenty for Rampage, which is not a great look. And and again, if we saw how few people were here on Dynamite tonight, how empty do you think that building is going to be on Friday for that live rampage? Oh, yeah. Name exactly. Guys, but they're going to do a draw against 10. So it's going to be fine.
01:00:07
Speaker
for Andrade's AEW career. What's happening? I wish I didn't know so much about what was happening backstage. Seeing that Sammy and Andrade got in a fight before the show and maybe they got sent home, I don't care. Except for Sammy was in the main event. Except Sammy's in the main event and then Andrade's coming back for Friday.
01:00:30
Speaker
Oh no, they actually said Andrade's out for Friday. Oh yeah, you're right. They switched that to now it's a six man. The Dark Order is now in the six man title match.
01:00:40
Speaker
Okay. So maybe it was going to be Andrade. TK, get your shit together, sir. Because now, I don't know, clicking on the comment section of anything, wrestling fans seem terrible. They are. They are. I don't know. It's, you know, I don't, I don't need to click on a comment section and feel embarrassed to watch your product. I watched 30 minutes of Raw this week and I couldn't, I couldn't do it.
01:01:03
Speaker
I had to change. I mean, people talking a little more about Robert, man, I'm caught. Call me when Cody comes back or the young bucks show up. I don't care if Bray White shows up like it's just watching the match that I saw for like a half hour on Friday was Dominic and whose punishment Martinez, what's his name? Damien Priest.
01:01:30
Speaker
David was them and Damien priest versus fucking who wasn't like Ray and
01:01:38
Speaker
AJ Styles or something. I don't know. On paper, that that should be a fun match. But it's just like when I tune in, I feel like I'm getting just a house show match every week. I don't know. It's there's something about the quality of the in ring work I'm seeing that it just feels like it doesn't matter. And like tonight's show, I was just getting honestly kind of banger match after banger match. And that's that's what I'm tuning in for.
01:02:02
Speaker
And tonight too is like kind of it's the best of the big roster, right? And I think part of that split roster thing and obviously way more hours of TV on the WWE side where they're just like.
MJF's Performance and Women's Division in AEW
01:02:12
Speaker
That match sounds like a banger on paper, but they need to run seven other variations of that match between now and two pay-per-views from now. Of course, the monthly pay-per-view grind, which sucks. AEW, the quarterly pay-per-views, and then the in-between big time, it's really good from a story telling perspective, keeping things fresh. Then tonight was really great where they were like,
01:02:35
Speaker
You know, let's have Jay Lethal. Wait a minute. Jay Lethal's actually a pretty good wrestler, isn't he? Why don't we actually give him like 15 minutes against another good wrestler, you know, instead of just his normal job spot against like, I don't know, whoever.
01:02:52
Speaker
And then Ditto, like Brian Cage was like, they were like, oh yeah, we have this super just freak athlete who's unlike anyone else in the entire wrestling industry. We remembered we have him under contract. Why don't we give him a bunch of time with another big Haas? And it wasn't even like a classic Haas fight for most of it. Like it was like a really solid match. And I hope that they kind of continue
01:03:16
Speaker
continue doing it and quite frankly wouldn't that be a great use of rampage where it's like i like the potential of rampage those first few weeks cuz it seemed like they were gonna give you a banger twenty minute match in the main event every week and i feel like that's kinda fizzled. Where you gonna tune in maybe see somebody you really like
01:03:39
Speaker
beat the shit out of Fuego del Sol in 30 seconds, which I guess was tonight with Luchasaurus. Before we go though, I do need to say that MJF match, he surprises me every time he wrestles at this point.
01:03:56
Speaker
I know Ethan Page says he has the tightest tits in the game. MJF's got some pretty tight tits right now. I mean, he had the six-pack showing a little bit too, like marvelous shaping. Yeah, I mean, I made a joke on our text thread that MJF needs to start teaming with Eddie Kingston as an AJPW tribute act, and I wasn't 100% joking.
01:04:21
Speaker
Honestly, he had the best move I've seen this week, that power bomb into the backbreaker, and dumped him on his neck. That looked like something I would have seen in New Japan. Yeah, I didn't care for the slight babyface overtones at the end, which I assume is just obviously leading to a bigger heel swerve until he's ready to actually turn babyface if and when that happens. But yeah, the actual match, I mean, that was...
01:04:47
Speaker
I think that might have beat the Jungle Boy match as the new kind of best best I've seen of. It's a little hard to compare, but I told you guys I didn't fast forward through the commercial break when they did the picture in picture. And that is extremely rare for me. Like, that's how engaged I was in that match. Also, do you think that the the women's division is kind of getting a little tighter? That's six. The six lady match tonight was awesome. Jamie Haider's great. I think the record.
01:05:19
Speaker
I think Jamie Haider's great. I think she could be the Salvation. I think the wrestling is, I do think they, I think that all of the baby faces are very meh. I think even if Thunder Rosa was around, that'd still be true. I think Tony Storm already kind of boring, but I think that it looks like Jamie Haider's going to turn face.
01:05:41
Speaker
Right. And if you can have someone, cause that's the problem with it's not, I don't think it's just Britt Baker is the problem. I don't think Jade is the problem. It's the fact that the clear top two people and they're way above everyone else are both really dominant heels. And I'm hoping that Jamie Hader can kind of be the solution to that. If she becomes a big baby face and I don't think Tony storm was our person. I don't think she could do it.
01:06:05
Speaker
But I feel like Jamie Haider could be the one. Because that's where, again, the wrestling is definitely. I do also think Willow's going to be a star at some point. I mean, also, and Statlander, I think Willow and Statlander are both going to be pretty big for them in a year. And I think that'll help. I think that'll help the depth of the division a lot. I think it's good to see more. And again, I'd rather see them push Statlander and Willow than bring in someone from WWE
01:06:35
Speaker
who, you know, has never worked outside the WWE system or hasn't done it in years and just feels like they're not. I don't know. You were saying I'm with you that like Athena as a baby face has been not great in a year. You can use my exact words that she's over like a wet fart on a hot day. That's what I compared her to. Well, you know, Statlanders got that
01:07:04
Speaker
Got that, that hotness coming off of Flora's lava. Right. Your kid loves her. So, you know, now's the time. I think they, I think they missed an opportunity not putting a title on her earlier, which would make her coming back even bigger because she should be a bigger star already. And I know she's had some injury problems, but like, uh, I don't know. I think, I think I liked that. I liked the trajectory of the division overall. And I do, even though she's not much of a worker, I love Jade, love Jade.
01:07:34
Speaker
She should be the champion, right? Kind of. I assume I know what's going on with Thunder Rosa, by the way. Do we have any idea when she's getting back? I heard next week she's having smile surgery. And if it's successful, she might once again have her smile and be able to work a match with Tony Stark. She's got to stay away from Marines.
01:07:59
Speaker
Is smile surgery a sack of sack of different colored pills with Sandman? Yes, yes. Eat enough of those greens, you doctor Sandman shows up with all the pills. I will also say I will also say this, guys, as I want you to I want you to know something, because obviously you you know, we talk to each other all the time, but you and even when we talk this week, you can only see up here.
01:08:29
Speaker
I bought the Young Bucks shoes. Oh, son of a bitch. I couldn't get them. I didn't get them. They had my side. You get them in already? They're here. I haven't worn them yet. It's been very rainy in New York. You don't want to mess them up. The Young Bucks, I think, would be very mad if I wore them in the rain. They look cool, though. I've always liked kind of like the Jordan thing, but never felt quite right. I feel like the Young Bucks, it's, you know.
01:08:58
Speaker
Maybe you'll be able to wear them to Newark. Maybe the Bucks will be back by then. God, I hope so. I was really thinking I was watching some old Bucks matches this weekend and really kind of missing them. Even just I watched a random. Were you at final battle 2013 facts? That. That's pretty borderline. That sounds possibly too. No, it doesn't sound too early. Which what was the main event of let's see if we can find it here. The main event was.
01:09:30
Speaker
Was final battle always at Hammerstein? Oh, it was there a lot. It wasn't always. But the main event was Adam Cole against Michael Elgin and Jay Briscoe. No, I was not. I'm looking at the card. I don't. If I was there, I was extremely inebriated and Kevin. No, this doesn't. Dean wrestled Mike Bennett and a loser in a stretch in a stretcher match.
01:09:56
Speaker
Yeah, I remember that, because Steen was kind of my, and he was my guy when I first started going to those shows. It was all about Steen, so I wouldn't forget that match. But the Young Bucks, I watched the Young Bucks work ACH and someone named Tederius Thomas, whose existence I was unaware of until
01:10:14
Speaker
very recently. The Bucks are fucking amazing. I don't know. I was on some other Bucks matches. They're fucking amazing. I don't know. I just miss those guys. I want them back. Bring them back, TK. And that also just makes me think, like, fuck TK, man. Let's talk about this. I want to go back to Andrade for a second where
01:10:32
Speaker
Okay, like Sammy was in the main event, Adrade actually maybe was actually sent home and isn't working on Friday anymore. So assuming it's not a gimmick, which is on like TMZ. So I'm assuming it probably wasn't. It's not a worked anything. But like the story is I read it.
Sammy Guevara's Backstage Issues
01:10:49
Speaker
I don't know. It was like, basically, Sammy's talks a ton of shit a lot. He pissing a lot of people off.
01:10:56
Speaker
Andrade did something about it. And this is like, sounds like an almost exact repeat of the Eddie Kingston thing. Where like, I get the key, but like, at what point are you like, many people don't like Sammy and they seemingly have really good reasons for it. Those reasons should not escalate to real world violence, of course, but like,
01:11:18
Speaker
What the fuck is Sammy doing in the main event and the Bucks are still at home? You know you have the entire audience Who read this shit on TMZ before they got into the arena right chanting fuck you Sammy? Right at the guy in the ring, but not because of the character because they don't like him on a personal level
01:11:38
Speaker
Yeah, and this is like even with the, like he just seems like a legitimately really terrible person in real life, right? Like he obviously, and I don't even count the stuff he said, like it was really bad, but again, I can somewhat excuse
01:11:56
Speaker
Or if there was sincere apologies that I was just trying to tell a jokes and I don't know where the line is. It's a bad excuse, but that's like 1718 whatever. Yeah, it's strike one. But then it's like you propose in the ring on live TV.
01:12:13
Speaker
to a girl you're cheating on and immediately leave her for another part of the roster, you get into this fight with one of, like, Eddie Kingston, who's become not only one of the most beloved people on the roster, but, like, he's legitimately gotten this, like, fully-esque cult of loveability where, like,
01:12:33
Speaker
He is one of the most loved men in wrestling period. And if he stopped appearing in AEW television tomorrow, that wouldn't waver one iota. And then you have this with and I'm not going to put Andrade to the same level of like beloved as Eddie. Right. But it seems like Andrade is kind of like a locker room leader type. And it's like, I just don't. What's what's the deal with all the love for Sammy? I don't know, Vax. I don't know.
01:13:04
Speaker
One of the four pillars. You can't I mean, you can't have three pillars. You need four pillars per baker. It's OK. Exactly. Just paste her in. If you say so, if you say so. No, she's great. She should have been a pillar. They can make some else. No, he's good. He's good. He's fun to watch. But think about like tonight was the perfect example, like.
01:13:31
Speaker
You know who's fun to watch and good? Brian Cage. Why don't you put him on TV like that? That's honestly and that's actually one of the things, unfortunately, even with the young bucks that like I miss them because I love them. But I can't say the quality of the show is not remained excellent. Right. It's not like there hasn't been good. Well, no, I think I think part of the issue is that it's not that any of these people need to go or are a problem on the show.
01:14:01
Speaker
The overall issue is that there's been kind of too many guys and there's almost addition by subtraction when you subtract almost anyone because fewer people means a more focused and concise show and, you know, dynamite plus rampage. And so there's a benefit to Xing out. Again, I said almost, almost anyone to an extent, which is a weird thing, but like, get rid of Sammy, get rid of Andrade. The show will be fine. You've got plenty of other people.
01:14:28
Speaker
I just put it together while you were talking because whether you realize or not you put it together Sammy isn't going nowhere because he's the actual shadow head of talent relations and he's just getting into fights So they have reasons to fire and suspend people to get him off TV to give space to the others So that that's the real Sammy once a month Sammy's gonna get into it with someone You know the TK is really
01:14:57
Speaker
We're really getting into it when Sammy just runs down five people in one promo. Like, wow, that's that promo seemed really scattershot and five peoples ended up running and got suspended for running after Sammy with our private private party, the butcher and the blade and all of Dark Order is just running after Sammy Guevara. And they've all been suspended for three weeks. Eventually, he's going to get his
01:15:26
Speaker
his press conference where he's eating muffins. The muffins need to make an appearance at all the press conferences. I would assume they will. We have to get this Derek gone to Mindy's and tested this out. I feel like he's got to. Yeah, he does. He needs to do that. No excuses, Derek. Get the muffins. Do you think Mindy sees a lot more like neckbeards, like in wrestling t-shirts now just being like, hey, I heard your muffins are really good.
01:15:57
Speaker
We're like, your muffins ruined wrestling. I have nothing to masturbate to since your muffins fucking ruined wrestling. If we do go back to next time we do all go to Chicago for a show, we do all need to go to Mindy's and just take a picture of ourselves just like just destroying their muffins with spin drifts.
01:16:18
Speaker
sack of spinny's sack of each which by the way i don't think i put that together having a carbonated beverage like that with a muffin just sounds completely disgusting here's the thing facts spindrift are more lightly carbonated so it i think it could work that's kind of the beauty of the spindrift they're they're not as you know that could give it back up the same way so i i think it i think it works for punk i think it works i'm willing to try it i don't know i don't
01:16:46
Speaker
I'm going to try it, but I don't know if I believe anything punk has to say. If Colt Cabana tells me I should be having that with a coffee, I'm going to follow what Colt says. I believe you think Colt would tell people to rate and review the show and give it five stars. I would like to think so. Yeah, for sure.
01:17:06
Speaker
Please do that.
Young Bucks Shoes Admiration
01:17:08
Speaker
Follow us at Predetermined Podcast on Instagram. Chris posts pictures of his shirts every week. He's got a delightful shirt collection. You need to see them. I'm at Gartet on Instagram.
01:17:20
Speaker
I'm at Jimmy Fex, but I might be on the show a little bit less just for a little while. Just a little while. Or if I am going to be here moving forward, I may not have watched any wrestling. So it'll be kind of like when I came out of my iceberg and you guys told me things, but maybe maybe every week for a little while. But for the next, you know, month to six weeks or so, I'm going to be here a little bit less. But the show will go on and probably be better without me. It's as I said, addition by subtraction is an important piece of any wrestling show.
01:17:50
Speaker
I did get into a little bit of an altercation with Sammy Guevara on social media. Things got physical in a more romantic way, quite frankly. But my wife is now banning me from social media involving wrestling. And I just can't do the show if I can't follow them on Twitter. He's he is. Yeah, you're actually as of now, facts, you're fucking suspended. We have to do an investigation with Sammy. We'll get back to you when you're allowed to come back.
01:18:21
Speaker
No more peyote, even if it's not wrestling related. Just all of my whole life. I hate to inform you this, but we've seen your DMS to be span and yeah. Yeah. So when you say you see my DMS, do you mean just the text or the images to.
01:18:45
Speaker
Why did you send just the hole? No one wants to see just the hole. There was some of the fur kind of sticking out along the, you could tell that there's a healthy mane around the tip, which is what I was trying to imply. Never go full rectal.
01:19:03
Speaker
All right, everybody, thanks for tuning in this week. Chris and I will be back next week. We may start having, well, while Fax is suspended, we may bring in a rotating cast of new characters. Please not, Sammy. We'll see. We'll see. He might be available. I hear Ty's got a lot of opinions about older wrestling, so we want to talk to her about this. Yeah, that sounds good. All right, everybody, have a good week. See you next time.