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00:00:01
Tony. Tony! Tony?
6 Plays9 months ago
We have an All Elite episode of the pod. We briefly touch on Trick Williams winning the NXT Championship then go deep on AEW Dynasty while also touching the highs and lows of following Tony Khan’s follies this week. Plus, Keeping It Tranquilo and Listener Mail!
Use code CHICKFOLEY to save 10% at www.ringsidecollectibles.com
Find all things CHICK at www.CHICKFOLEY.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Highlights
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Chick Foley Show.
00:00:23
Speaker
What is up, Foley fan? We are back with an all-elite episode of the Chick Foley show. We'll be sprinkling in a little bit of WWE talk here and there, but we're mostly talking about all-elite wrestling tonight. We had an awesome pay-per-view last Sunday, and they've really kind of dominated the news cycle this week for good or bad, so we'll get into all of that. But first, let me introduce the star of the show, Sheena. How you doing?
00:00:44
Speaker
I'm doing good, man. Between the two night awesome WrestleMania that we had and this killer dynasty show, I just feel like wrestling is freaking rocking and rolling right now. So I'm a happy camper. Yeah, it's definitely a great time to be a wrestling fan.
Excitement for Recent Wrestling Events
00:01:00
Speaker
We definitely got to do some research because there may be some other months to stack up, but I think between, um, you know, between WrestleMania, between dynasty, all the cool stuff, TNA and new Japan are doing April, 2024 may have a legitimate claim to be the best month in the history of professional wrestling. Yeah, we have to go back and fact check that, but yeah, you know, recency bias for sure.
00:01:21
Speaker
Yeah. Wanna remind you guys at the top, this show is brought to you by Ringside
Sponsor Highlight and Figure Discussion
00:01:25
Speaker
Collectibles. Use code Chick Foley to save 10% on all your purchases there. They dropped some carded images of Elite Series 110 today. Those look really, really nice, especially those two Pete Dunn figures. Don't be discouraged that the box still says butch. We just couldn't quite make it in time. Sheena, tell us what is new on the farm.
00:01:45
Speaker
So I've been talking about my goats being pregnant. We finally, uh, have a new member of the, of the goat faction out there. And we have a little girl, a little baby kid named Myrtle. Oh my gosh, she's so cute. I got to be there for the birth is my first ever goat birth viewing. So, uh, pretty incredible stuff. And, uh, she's healthy, she's happy. Mama's healthy and happy. And I've started.
00:02:06
Speaker
you know, milking goats. So that's a goat milker. I'm officially a goat milker. So, um, yeah, cool stuff happening here on here on the homestead.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's just magical seeing this little goat. One, she's just ridiculously cute. If you had a video game, if you were a Minecraft and you were creating a goat from scratch, this is what it would look like. It's just white, all kinds of different coloring and stuff on it. Really, really beautiful. And she's just so healthy and thriving. And she's running around, goofing off, chasing around the bigger goats. Loves being around the kids. It's definitely been a just...
00:02:43
Speaker
A big like breath of fresh air and just energy in the you know, the backyard farm We also got a knock on wood, you know, we're closing in the last couple days of april. We haven't had any freak storms yet
00:02:53
Speaker
Oh, yeah, it's coming though, dude. I you know summer is coming, you know, it's gonna be windy af so i'm i'm anticipating some, you know, uh wizard of oz type weather hit to hit us it was it was mid-june where we had that bad one last year, so we'll see what happens we're about to watch a aw pay-per-view, right? Wasn't it? Yeah forbidden door for being set up on the back porch next thing we know the greenhouse doors are ripped off
00:03:15
Speaker
Yeah, they look like Wizard of Oz that day. Stuff was flying across the- And it came out of nowhere, dude. We literally just went and got a bunch of barbecue to take out. Yeah, we set up some barbecue on the back porch. It knocked the internet out and everything. I didn't even have to watch for video for it on my cell phone. Yeah, it was horrible, man. Tennessee is wild, dude. Yeah, the weather's crazy here.
Community Engagement and Social Media
00:03:34
Speaker
Sheena remind the listeners where they can find you on social media. You can find me on Instagram at chick Foley Marco running the Twitter machine over at chick Foley show You can join our private Facebook group by going to chick Foley calm That's where all all the communication goes down all the fun stuffs
Strategies for Purchasing Figures
00:03:49
Speaker
happening over there. We have our picks league We have we you know, help each other live threads, honey Live threads. Yeah, there's new legends about the hit this weekend I already got you know, I'm getting a whole case of the Ultimate Edition. Yoko Zuna's that's gonna be my strategy
00:04:01
Speaker
getting a chase we live so far out man that fig hunting is really just not a thing for us like yeah it's so we have our walmart here in oakland but the the closest target is still 30 minutes away and you gotta go into like a super high traffic area like it's just yes not easy to get in and out of my strategy if anybody wants to take this if you're in a similar situation to me
00:04:19
Speaker
Sunday
Understanding Action Figure Street Dates
00:04:20
Speaker
morning, it should be the last Legend sets. They kind of popped to be ordered in stock around like five or six in the morning because these things are already sitting in the back of stores. Target's just been strict as hell on the street dates. Yeah, I went to a Target recently and the big section was abysmal. There was literally like two figures on the pegs. I sent it to Seth and he's like, yeah, they're about to do another reset, dude. They're holding street dates pretty hard right now.
00:04:44
Speaker
Having street dates for action figures just completely boggles my mind. I feel like action figures are something. It's the most bizarre thing. If somebody comes in the store and wants to spend money on it, because it's not a shared experience, right? Like music or video games, I get it. Yeah, everybody listens to the album at the same time. You want it hitting at the same time. Same thing with a video game, especially if it's online. Books. You want everybody flooding the games at the same time. But yeah, action figures, it's a solitary experience.
00:05:09
Speaker
Do other toy line, like, do Legos and stuff like that? Do they have, like, street dates on stuff? I'm assuming. I can't imagine this is a WWE exclusive thing. It's at least got to be a Mattel thing, if nothing else, you know? Right. But, yeah, it's... Yeah, you guys will have to let us know. If you work at Target and, you know, let us know if there's other lines or if it's just a Mattel thing. Because I'm curious, you know, if it's... Yeah, Micah, if your bitch ass is still listening from Honolulu, let us know, man. Micah, yeah, he canceled this long time ago. The biggest bitch in Target history, man.
00:05:37
Speaker
But anyways, I was gonna say I'm gonna just as soon as they pop I'm ordering the entire case. I'm assuming they'll let me do it I don't think there's a limit on I'm gonna order the entire case of ultimate edition Yoko Zunas from The target up the road, you know, they're in case of four so it'd be 120 bucks and I can either return to the store or flip them to you know people in the Facebook group for shipping plus retail, but I'm hoping I get the chase because
00:06:00
Speaker
I'm not really interested in another red and black Yoko Zuna. I feel like they did such a good job on his elite that, you know, it's basically an ultimate edition already, but I really want that red and white one. So as long as they got a chase in each case, I'll be good to go.
00:06:13
Speaker
Do you think I'm over? Is that doing too much? I mean, you're always doing a little bit too much, but you did go into a store one time and fake that you were somebody else to get a defining moments figure. Classic. Yeah, that was an all timer. Speaking of which, we flipped that. I ended up getting two of those defining moments. Macho Man hit the archives. You can find that story. It's been told on here a few times.
00:06:34
Speaker
but we flipped that one as a gesture of goodwill to fully posable to do a giveaway.
Upcoming Podcast Collaboration
00:06:41
Speaker
We are teaming up with the fully posable boys again. It's looking like around May 9th, me and Sheena are going to be heading over there. We're basically going to record a episode of fully posable with me and Sheena on board, but it's going to be shared audio. So they're going to release it on their feed. It'll be here on the Chick Foley feed also. And we're going to be giving away
00:06:59
Speaker
a Malachi Black vault figure, that beautiful, amazing, one of 5,000 sold out everywhere. One of our Foley fan members was kind enough that, you know, he said our show in Foley Post will wear his two favorite podcasts and he's donated it to us. So we're going to do a giveaway. Got to talk to Jeff and Scott. We'll see exactly what we want to do if we want to make it, you know, follow on social media or maybe just, you know, send a screenshot that you listen to the pod.
00:07:23
Speaker
We'll come up with something easy and you're not going to have to tag three people and make sure those three people tag three people or give up credit card info, nothing like that to enter the contest. It's going to be a super easy and fun way to just generate some support more than anything to show some love back to you guys. So you're looking forward to recording with the California kids again, Shane. Always. It's been way too
Flexibility in Podcast Recording
00:07:43
Speaker
long. I mean, when was the last time we joined forces with Scott? I think 2021 maybe. Wow. I think it was spring 2021.
00:07:50
Speaker
We did a home and home with them where we went and talked figures on their show and then they came and talked wrestling on our show Yeah, we love we love those guys So if you're not even if you're not gonna enter the giveaway even if you're not a you know You know, you don't want that figure go ahead and subscribe to yeah They are the best the most the most consistent podcast and podcast Cal Ripken juniors of podcast and they've literally never missed a show and they're going on nine years now that they've been doing their pod man and
00:08:15
Speaker
It's crazy. Me and Jeff were sorting out the details and he was like, well, what date and time do you guys usually record? And I'd be like, dude, we're the exact opposite of you guys when it comes to consistency and routine.
Wrestling Matches and Events
00:08:26
Speaker
We record whenever, so. Yeah. We used to be, we've evolved over the years. Obviously, the more kids we added to the mix and the moves and the cross-country situations and all that kind of stuff, yeah.
00:08:37
Speaker
gets a little hairy, but yeah, I feel like it's much more enjoyable when we kind of just record when we want to man. Like anytime something like this is, is feeling like a chore. Like you got to, uh, you got to switch it up a little bit, man. I feel like it's been very refreshing kind of just doing it on an ad hoc basis. Like if the mood strikes us, we do something to talk about. Yeah. I feel like a lot of times in wrestling, there's a little bit of a lull and you're forcing yourself to talk about something and it's just, you
00:09:00
Speaker
And sometimes when you do the weekly shows, because you do got to kind of find stuff to talk about, it kind of levels things out and you end up feeling like you have to talk about everything. I want to say like late 2020, like, you know, early 2021, like when we were kind of really hitting our stride and like the show was doing great numbers wise. It was, you know, so, I mean, we, we didn't want to, uh, you know, break something that wasn't fixed, but it would definitely, you know, we'd be taping.
00:09:27
Speaker
I mean, you know, I mean fix something that wasn't broke. Yeah, scratch that reverse it But you know, we'd be like 40 minutes deep into the show and i'm kind of looking at the format like dude We have we've like barely scratched on the surface here, man. So yeah Yeah, it's uh, I don't know. It's interesting man. I feel like since we've gone a little bit less formal on it It's been a more enjoyable recording experience for sure All right, all that out of the way of spent 10 minutes on housekeeping. That's a long one for us, man You ready to get into some wrestling talk? Oh, yeah
00:09:57
Speaker
All right. So over the, over the weekend, God, it was like this past weekend, we're almost to the following weekend. It has flown by. It's been a, it's been a crazy week over here. Um, but we had AEW dynasty. Um, so incredible show. Amazing pay-per-view. Yeah. Top to bottom, just action packed, like, you know, banger after banger after banger in the words of a Seamus. So, uh, what were your thoughts on a dynasty?
00:10:23
Speaker
I loved it. We weren't sure if this was going to be some sort of like AEWB show or something. They're introducing a few new show concepts this year, but I thought it was outstanding.
00:10:35
Speaker
some of those matches, especially like the last two, they had a tall task to follow up that Osprey and Danielson match and, and they still delivered. And I thought everything kind of had its place on the car. They were like at worst, the matches were just good. You know what I mean? Like that was the absolute worst thing that you got on the show was just a regular good match. You knew the show was going to be awesome. The match card, I mean, was just fire from the beginning. So
00:10:58
Speaker
That's one thing about AEW, they've definitely taken NXT Black and Gold Takeovers place as the most consistent, you know you're gonna get a great show every time. They're never gonna let you down. Think about how awesome this show was and we didn't even have, no Kenny Omega, no Mox, no Hangman. There's a million incredible A-list guys that weren't even on this card. The show's still delivered. Yeah, it's still delivered. Incredible, awesome, shout out to AEW for that.
00:11:26
Speaker
We're just gonna run over a few of the you know, the top matches if you guys haven't already heard about the whole the whole pay-per-view by now We're just gonna spoiler alert. So if you yeah, pretty sure anybody's listening to this knows what happened at this point
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah. So we're going to talk about the, uh, we had a unification match for the trios titles. Uh, it was the claimed versus bullet club goal. What were your thoughts on the match? Uh, the match was cool. I thought, you know, it was nice way to cap off the pre-show and the story that's been going for really about six months now between these guys. Um, I was a little bit bummed. I guess it just made sense to keep it on the main show. I felt like the trio shape of ships really kind of have more of a spot on Ring of Honor than AEW. I felt like it's something to kind of differentiate and make
00:12:03
Speaker
something to make you seek out Ring of Honor because it can be you know it's kind of easy to forget that it's there until the paper views come around. Yeah and I was talking to Seth about this like a few days ago I just feel like
00:12:15
Speaker
Like you said, it shouldn't be on AEW. I feel like we should really focus on like the tag team and the tag team division because AEW, unlike WWE is just absolutely stacked with tag team wrestling and they, and they treat it as such, you know, they treat it so like they, they give tag team wrestling the, the shine that it deserves. And when you're got a lot of these guys tied up in these trios titles, it really kind of weakens the, um, the tag division a little bit. So.
00:12:40
Speaker
I wouldn't have been mad to see them just kind of like go off of AEW television altogether. But you know, yeah, I'm gonna say I'm a big fan in theory of the trios championship. Like I was, you know, I don't want to sound like a hypocrite because I was definitely calling for them to, to introduce this for a long time before they actually rolled them out. But I feel like in practice, yeah, it seems to be like you said, it seems to be something where you end up just getting a ton of guys bogged down in these never ending feuds. But
00:13:04
Speaker
Um, still a really good match, man. And I, another thing I got to say to Jay white, I very, very rarely ever say a wrestler's being misused, especially if it's somebody that's getting TV time every single week. But I do think this guy is so far above being in the trios division, man. I think Jay white is legit.
00:13:21
Speaker
As far as in-ring, mic skills, just the aura as the kids say now, it's no longer about the vibe or the presence, it's all about the aura. I feel like the dude's probably top five, top six wrestler in the world right now. And he should be up there fighting for that world championship, man. And it feels like he's far away from that.
00:13:39
Speaker
I mean they could always heat him up. You know what I mean? Like it's it's there was a lot going on when when J white came into You know, there was the MJF of it all and like, you know, I feel like there was a lot going on So, I mean, you know a you W could heat him up and get him up there. Where are you at on switchblade? Are you as high as I am or I mean, yeah, he's awesome, dude But yeah, I mean, I don't know if I'm as high on him as you are I mean just I mean he's a great wrestler. He just not that interesting to me. I
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that's fair. I mean I hear it from some people I I The more I've seen him the more I've liked him like when he first when everybody's making such a big deal about him signing with a W I was like, ah, whatever, you know, this another guy I do think I think he's got my skills that are a level above most of the guys on their roster. Mm-hmm. Yeah
00:14:23
Speaker
All right. House of black versus, uh, edge Mark Briscoe and, uh, Eddie Kingston. This was, this was an awesome match. I was saying how I didn't get to really say it because my daughter broke her arm. So I didn't even get to get on the, uh, the show, the pre-show about this. Uh, but, uh, house of black had to win this dude. I was a little bit worried. I was still worried they were going to lose. Yeah. During the match. I was like, Oh shit, dude. They're actually going to like let house of black lose this. Thankfully, uh, house of black pulled it off. We got the black mist and, uh, you know, we're setting up a little Malachi.
00:14:53
Speaker
edge situation or sorry, Copeland situation. Um, I mean, the, the thing is the, the rated are chicken Kings. That's a strong ass team, dude. Those are all three individual, you know, singles champions in AWS. So they're all three bringing belts to the table. I wouldn't mind seeing this spin off and we get, uh, you know, three different solo feuds off of it. You know, let Mark Briscoe and buddy Matthews go at it for the, uh,
00:15:16
Speaker
for the ring of honor. Let, yeah, let Eddie and Brody go at it for the new Japan strong. And then edge Malachi would be money for TNT. You know, I know edge has been a huge fan of Malachi black for, you know, going back to the NXT days on the old edge and Christian pod. He would always talk about how much, you know, how cool he thought this guy was just as a character and a wrestler. So I think there's a lot of money to be made in those guys having a nice one-on-one for, you know,
00:15:41
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, it's perfectly set up for you right now. So I hope they do capitalize on it in that way. And I'm so happy that House of Black finally got a big win like this. And hopefully it's the momentum and the wind and the sails that they need to keep it up. Because yeah, I still will never understand how
00:16:01
Speaker
Malachi um freaking Alistair all that has just been so underused and you know, like you said misused uh since uh, maybe he's an asshole. Maybe he's hard to work with. I don't know. You know what I mean? He could be a total total dickhead behind the scenes and we just we just don't see it. But all I see is just like potential potential potential getting flushed down the toilet. Um, so super stoked for House of Black to win this one.
00:16:23
Speaker
All right. Uh, you, you took a little bit of controversy cause you said Chris Jericho got go home heat and our buddies over at the tavern said they didn't see it. But I mean, to me, he definitely had to go away heat going, dude. He defeated, he defeated for the, um, FT has the FTR championship, the FTW championship. Um, but luckily they were able to successfully kind of co-opt it by Wednesday night and just make it part of the gimmick. So I think even if he does, it works at least for the short term, but
00:16:51
Speaker
Yeah, dude, I hate
Chris Jericho's Role in AEW
00:16:52
Speaker
to say it. And I even, you know, I think the crowd was a little rough on Jericho. Like he's a legend at this point, man, legit, one of the top 10 easily. Um, I do think he's got like big Shane McMahon, 2019 vibes, dude, where, you know, they call it the Jericho vortex, right? That's the same thing that we used to say about Shane McMahon guys, you know, promising guys get sucked into these never ending fields.
00:17:14
Speaker
It just goes nowhere and nobody's elevated by it. You just, you just unlocked core memory. I remember that when that was going down. Shane had like Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre and they're feud with like Roman and the undertaker. And it was just, it was never ending, man. And that was like the absolute worst year at WWE back 2019 when
00:17:32
Speaker
you know, coincidentally this year, AEW launched. So I don't know, man, it definitely would benefit Hook from working from Jericho. I don't think there's, I think there's a lot of goodness in that because Hook's as cool as he is. Like he's still a, you know, still, still very green. Still very green.
00:17:47
Speaker
I don't know. We got big cast coming out Wednesday night. Who could use a little bit of a charisma boost, dude? He's cool. He's got the look. He's young. He's just like, I don't know. I love his, I guess I'll say, or I don't know. I'm a millennial, so I'm going to say vibe. I love his vibe, but yeah, he could use a little shot of adrenaline for him.
00:18:05
Speaker
And the thing is did Jericho as much as we complain about, you know, the Jericho vortex, he will put folks over there and this is going to end with hook going over in a big way. Absolutely. So yeah, I think it's, I think this could still work, but there's no doubt about it. He was definitely getting go away heat. And yeah, and I, I just, I just don't mind Jericho. I mean, everything he does is like solid gold, dude. I mean, the man literally like cash his checks from freaking everything he says in the mic. So he reinvented himself so many times over the years too.
00:18:33
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah. Shout out to Jericho. I love that guy. Um, okay. We're going to move on. This is big, big money match right here. I don't know how we're even going to follow this, but Osprey versus Danielson. Just as far as bell to bell action goes, it was a perfect match. Just like absolutely captivating.
00:18:49
Speaker
Will Osprey is just incredible dude, probably the best pound for pound wrestler in the world right now. At least when that, when that bell rings, man, like the moves he does the, it's the athleticism, but he's also got the power to go with it, right? Like it's not, it's not like the ricochet deal. Cause you remember him and ricochet came up together.
00:19:07
Speaker
But osprey put on yeah, he probably put on 30 pounds of muscle since him and ricochet kind of made their mark back in 2016 It's just got the era realism to it the intensity like I just everything about will osprey is freaking awesome Yeah, like you said like back in 2016 I feel like it was just like all these like flips and high-flying moves and stuff dude and now like will osprey is just like an absolute monster dude like I mean I
00:19:30
Speaker
I don't know. He's awesome. I mean, just his size, his power, that elbow. I wouldn't fuck with that elbow at all, dude. He's the man. Danison had an awesome match too, dude. Daniel Bryan, Bryan Danison, whatever you want to call him. He's still at the top of his head. You know me. I'm a day one Daniel Bryan lover.
00:19:48
Speaker
He's my dude. Yeah, whoever would have thought he would come back this strong after basically being gone for five years. Yeah, I do have one qualm at the end of that match. They did the finish, the big finish, dropped Danielson on his head. And then they're like, oh my god, he's doing the flailing, the seizing up and everything. They dropped him right on his head, so they show the replay. And Daniel Bryan. Just perfectly executed, as safe as could be. Yeah, Daniel Bryan being the absolute professional that he is.
00:20:15
Speaker
Took the move in the absolute safest way, did not land on his neck or head at all. I was like, dude, we should have just not showed the replay there. But yeah, if I had the tiniest quibble, I'm really over the Daniel Ryan seizure cell. Like, you know, he was doing it back in WWE. He's done it a handful of times here. It's to the point where it's like a meme, dude. Like, to me, the seizure cell is something that you can do like once, maybe twice. You do it once and you maybe do a callback couple of years later. But at this point, that's just kind of like his thing.
00:20:42
Speaker
I feel like somebody didn't really get the job done unless they put Daniel Bryan into a seizure. Yeah. Oh man. Yeah. Perfect match. So good. Five out of five stars. Bucks versus FTR and we got to see.
00:20:57
Speaker
Jack Perry come back at the end. Yeah. First off, got to give a shout out to the, to Matt and Nick and, uh, and yeah, they, I mean, dude, they could not have been in a worse spot. You know, this was, this was Randy Orton and Triple H having to go on after undertaker and HPC at WrestleMania 25. And you saw at the start of the match,
00:21:16
Speaker
crowd is absolutely dead. There were a ton of empty seats, right? Cause everybody's going to, you know, get a beer before the main event, take a piss. But dude, by the end of this match, it was damn near just as hot as it was for the end of, uh, Danielson Osprey. Like they were pulling out some crazy moves and stuff. I've never seen with the ladders. It was, it was brutal. Dax is bleeding all over the place. Uh, just a very, very painful looking match. And then you get the kiss on top with the scapegoat Jack Perry coming back.
00:21:42
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, and Jack Perry, the, the shot of Jack Perry that they got when they, you know, unmasked him and he's looking dead into the camera and he's just smirking. It was perfection, dude. Like it was so good. Like the facial expression was so on point. Um, I, I am a day again, I'm a day one jungle boy lover. Um, you know, so I'm on board with Jack Perry. So you know, team scapegoat over here for sure. He's got some of the coolest merch in the wrestling game right now too. I don't know if you've seen some of the shirts he has out. Like they are, they are the coolest man.
00:22:11
Speaker
Yeah, love him. We have a new AEW champion, Swerve defeated Samoa Joe for the AEW Championship. This match kind of was what it was. It was definitely a coordination for
00:22:31
Speaker
for Swerve more than anything else. Didn't seem like there was a ton of resistance from Joe. I did buy the one false finish when he got hit with the muscle buster. I was like, oh shit, Joe's actually gonna retain. But it felt like Swerve, you know, put him over, Joe put him over clean as a sheet. Swerve got a very, very strong win and we're in the Swerve era now, man.
00:22:50
Speaker
I know. You love to see it too, dude. I mean, I don't know. A lot of people were like, you know, they think they should have drug out the Samoa Joe swear thing a little bit longer, but I say just cash in on it. Yeah. You know, Joe did an awesome job like re kind of like, you know, stabilizing the title and making it feel like a big deal. You know, not that MJF didn't make it feel like a big deal. He was out of gas by the end of it. Yeah. MJF literally could not go on any longer with that belt.
00:23:16
Speaker
Yeah, physically. Exactly. And it was just, you know, and it was just a totally different vibe. You know what I mean? Like Samoa Joe and MJF just bring totally different energies to being a champion. And yeah, Samoa Joe, and he made it feel like a huge deal when Swerve when Swerve won. And dude, Swerve has been on the come up. Like, I mean, the feud with Hangman and all that, like, I just think it built him to a crescendo. And I'm glad I'm glad he finally got his moment, dude.
00:23:39
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like the only thing they got to do a sort of man, he's a babyface dude like drop the tweener stuff man like dude is straight up babyface this point he's, he's beloved by the crowd man he got over just organically off the his own performances and you got to love the guy dude got you know got dropped from from NXT and WWE.
00:23:57
Speaker
They came calling to try to get him back and Triple H got in charge. He said, nah, I'm going to ride it out with AEW. And he wasn't setting the world on fire at the time. He was, he was doing cool stuff, but he wasn't at the top of the car. Dude literally just bet on himself. And now he's holding, you know, one of the most prestigious championships in wrestling, dude. Like I'm a huge fan of the guy. They really don't make a big deal out of it. He was an army vet, you know, did I think eight years in the army. His dad was in the army also. Like this is a freaking badass American. We got hold in the AEW championship.
00:24:26
Speaker
Yeah, you love to see it, dude. So rooting for Swerve. I don't know how long you'll hold the title or who's going to do Thrones for, but I am.
Swerve's Championship Victory
00:24:35
Speaker
You got anybody in mind you think should be his first feud?
00:24:37
Speaker
his first few. I'm thinking hangman's got to come back sooner than later, man. Yeah, I would love hangman would be a good one. Cause that way, you know, it could just kind of be like a, they need to have their, their finale at double or nothing. Cause you know, swerve got the win on him at it. I can't remember if it was world's end or, or if that was back at a full gear, but swerve
00:24:59
Speaker
got the win on them in that big death match. You know, the one when they were drinking the blood and everything, but that was about as far from a clean win as it gets. You know, I think paying man got freaking powerbomb through a table by Brian cage that match. I think we need to see them go at it one-on-one and see if, you know, swear it can really prove to be the better man over hangman.
00:25:14
Speaker
Yeah, I would, I would like to see swerve retain against hangman. I mean, I love, I love hangman, but I would like to see him retain against hangman. And then, you know, possibly fight like little Osprey or something, you know, it, uh, somewhere. Yeah. Osprey is going for the international championship now against Roddy. So it feels like they're.
00:25:31
Speaker
they're buying their time on osprey. I wondered about that if they would just, you know, same thing like they struck with swerve, just strike while the iron's hot with a little osprey. It'd be risky because like the more do you go from there, he's definitely at that level where he's, he's damn near made it undeniable for them to just put him in the world title picture.
00:25:47
Speaker
right now. Um, but I don't know. I feel like, I feel like you guys still got some legs from Swerve. It feels like there could be another hangman world title running there. And then Adam Cole and MJF, they still got kind of, you know, claims to the belt when they come back. Yeah. You got to feel like that's going to have to revolve around the world championship as well.
00:26:04
Speaker
So very, very intriguing main event picture right now, man. I was thinking maybe they could have Osprey go ahead and get the title shot at Double or Nothing. If we can go down there, are you cool to do some fantasy booking? Sure. Let me pitch you this storyline, dude. So Osprey gets the World Championship match against Swerve at Double or Nothing. Because I haven't seen anything from Hangman since then.
00:26:23
Speaker
main event, you get a ref bump while refs down. Hangman comes out, goes to buckshot Larry at Swerve, Swerve ducks, and he hits Osprey instead. And then Swerve makes the cover as the ref wakes up. Because then you get, Swerve retains the belt, gets to keep on stepping, and then you can pivot to an Osprey Hangman feud, which would be freaking badass. And Swerve from the belt, and you buy yourself another six to nine months before you got to come back to
00:26:46
Speaker
Osprey because I feel like all in next year. I feel like not this year at Wembley. I feel like next year at Wembley is when we see Osprey finally get that belt in that crowning moment. Like I feel like you almost, it's just Taylor made for him to do it in London in front of that giant crowd. Yeah. How old is he? Is he RH 30? No, Osprey is 30. He's just 30. Okay. I feel like I'm forever 30. I don't, you know, I can't believe I'm like knocking on the door for you. That's just like blows my freaking mind, but yeah, forever 30. Um,
00:27:18
Speaker
the overall dynasty two thumbs up man amazing show like it was just awesome dude like just a really it was at the absolute perfect AW experience right non-stop action crazy spots some of the most creative moves you're ever gonna see in a wrestling ring so what their
00:27:36
Speaker
Unfortunately, like what about the fallout, dude? So we had this awesome pay-per-view and then we had dynamite that had some of the lowest dynamite numbers. And again, we don't talk a lot about numbers. We don't talk a lot about numbers on here because it's boring. Like nobody cares about ratings, but like, I mean, it is. To me, like I get that numbers are down and there was NBA playoffs, but I still thought that despite all
00:27:55
Speaker
All those factors, they kind of going against them. I still thought it would be seen as how you're coming off a picture perfect pay-per-view with a title. With a new champion. You would have thought you'd seen a spike. I don't know. I really can't put my finger on it. Willow Nightingale got the women's championship, dude. So I mean, it was like, you know, wasn't uneventful by any means. Yeah. Like if I got hired by AEW tomorrow and they'd said like, hey, what can we do to kind of, you know, stop the bleeding on this TV viewership? I wouldn't know what to tell them, man, because I'm
00:28:24
Speaker
Honestly, entertained by the product more times than not, dude. I think they put out a really good wrestling show. I don't know if it's just promotion or, I don't know, man. It's very weird that they're, you know, it just continues to decline after this, especially after they signed Okada, Osprey, and Mercedes too. I was going to say, I mean, you had this Osprey, Danielson match that everybody was talking about. I mean, it was like on every social media platform and then like, you know, nobody tunes into Dynamite to see like what's next, you know?
00:28:53
Speaker
It's a little bit mind boggling. And I think the social media numbers were like really low too. I was listening to another podcast and they were talking about how the clips on YouTube, you know, like four million followers or something crazy on, um, you know, uh, YouTube and yet their video clips only had like 200,000 views or something. Like it was pretty much any like measurable metric that's out there.
00:29:14
Speaker
Numbers are down right now and I can't explain it because it's if it's not as good as it's ever been it's close man It's really close right now. They just have you know One of the best rosters ever assembled in wrestling history for any company, right? Like the the star power there and the ability I don't know. I don't know if they need to change time slots if maybe there's something about Wednesday night is just uh, that's what I was gonna I was gonna say do you think it's the time slot, but I mean What's going on on Wednesday night? So I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, it's
00:29:44
Speaker
It can't, it can't just be that it's cool to hate AEW right now, right? Like that seems like what's out there. Cause there is a ton of like negativity towards them from like the internet wrestling community. People like to shit on them. Like that had kind of always been there from the start, but it seems like over the last year that that kind of voice really grew louder. Um, but do you think it's just like a vocal minority? Because I feel like.
00:30:06
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, I feel like I don't see as much AW hate. I don't know. Maybe I'm just in a different algorithm or something, but. Yeah. I mean, if you go on Reddit, so Reddit, you can sort Reddit on hot. So it's not like algorithm based. Like you can see what the top posts are. And people do seem to like the dog pilot, right? It's almost like a,
00:30:24
Speaker
it's like the morbid like watching a train crash thing right like people like there seems to be there's a segment of the fan base that seems to get enjoyment out of seeing like their numbers drop and like the pictures of the low seats which is just weird because dude go back and watch WWE 2018 2019 man like it could be coincidence but you cannot tell me that there is it didn't at least light a fire under their ass a little bit with aw coming along
00:30:48
Speaker
True. And also I feel like maybe AEW suffers a little bit because we don't have anywhere to go watch AEW content, like past content. So like the people are tuning in. They don't really know what's happened in the past four years. You know what I mean? And so like it's, if they could go back and see some of this play out and see some of these incredible pay reviews, like have a place where they can view it all. Like it might change their tune a little bit, but they're just taking it on like the weekly television show. They may or may not buy the pay review. Cause like, let's be real, like a lot of these people probably aren't even buying the pay reviews. They're just watching the clips.
00:31:18
Speaker
YouTube right so it's like yeah if they could take one page out of WWE's book I would think having a little bit more like recaps on segments from like the past couple weeks on TV it seems like dynamite's always so jam-packed that it's just from one thing to another bang bang bang whereas you know WWE takes it too far at times dude but they're gonna if some important happens like it's basically impossible not to know what's going on with
00:31:42
Speaker
Yeah. AEW, AEW spends so much time telling you what's going to happen next week that they never, like they don't ever like wind back and tell you what happened the week before. So yeah. And I think there's just, there's an assumption that anybody tuning in is just like, you know, dial it all the way in. And I'm sure there's some fans that are dude, but I feel like you could maybe grow a little bit if it was
00:32:00
Speaker
a little bit more accessible. It's still wrestling, so it's not like you're diving into the middle of the godfather and trying to get caught up. Still, some of these storylines get pretty damn convoluted. I'm as deep into this shit as anybody, and I gotta check my notes sometimes to find out exactly what was going on with this or that
AEW Narrative and Historical Accessibility
00:32:15
Speaker
storyline. Yeah, a few years ago, I took a social media marketing class, a little course online, and they talked about how you can't assume that everybody sees everything you do. You know what I mean? If you're going into it, if you're talking on your stories, and you feel like you've already told this story once,
00:32:29
Speaker
There's going to be a whole group of people that didn't even see that. They may follow you, but they don't follow you close enough that they saw that information. So you have to continually sprinkle that information throughout whatever you're doing. Because otherwise, people are going to tune in. They're going to be lost and not know what you're referring to.
00:32:47
Speaker
Definitely. The other thing that I think could really help them out is if with this next media deal, assuming that it goes through without a hitch and they're re-up with Warner Brothers, if they get a foothold on Max to have something similar to what WWE's presence on Peacock is, right? They definitely need
00:33:02
Speaker
giving us all the back catalog of paper views, episodes of dynamite, collision rampage, give us a little bit of bumper content with like some documentaries and original programming and stuff. I think all that would help. If there was one thing that I, probably my biggest critique on AW is that nothing has weight to it, right? Like it's kind of, I always refer, it's like wrestling junk food to me, right? Like it's really, really awesome when I'm sitting down watching and experiencing it, but I'm not really thinking about it after it's over, right? And it's like, it's almost like you kind of got to think hard to remember
00:33:31
Speaker
What you just saw where it's like, you know, it's I thought just the added stakes, right? And I feel like having that easy access to like the the the back catalog and like the older shows and being able to produce, you know, some of the different original content around it would help to add some of the gravitas to these big matches.
00:33:48
Speaker
Yeah, and you can't remember like for me personally like I mean I have a bad memory anyway But even I know you we've talked about this before like you can't remember like which like what event what happened at you They all kind of like run together a little bit shit was that you know double or nothing or was that all? It's like it was the AW pay-per-viewer every single match was badass. Oh shit I mean besides like, you know going to Wembley and stuff like that like for the most part they all feel the same Yeah the same you know what I mean? So it's kind of just like
00:34:15
Speaker
You know, like you said, it just all kind of runs together So if you had that back catalog where you could go revisit and like rewatch and stuff like that because there's a ton of Matches that are worth a rewatch, but you just never reach for it. Yeah, it's just you know It's it's a pain in the butt because at this point I bought a w paper views from like three or four different providers and they all got different
00:34:35
Speaker
replay rules, different apps I got to go to. It's just like, dude, we've watched Roman and Cody from night two, probably six times, dude. This is in the three weeks since it happened, man. I'm not sure if I'll go back and watch Osprey and Danielson again. It's just, I don't know. It's just lost in the ether, dude. Yeah. I feel like they could do some stuff to add just a little bit of historical weight to what they're doing. And I know WWE had a 40-year head start, but they're still, you know, AEW's five years deep into it.
00:35:00
Speaker
Yeah. You have to start building some nostalgia sometime. You know what I mean? Like you have to, cause dude, wrestling fans love nothing more than nostalgia. It can be five years ago and it's just, it's still nostalgic, right? So like, it doesn't have to be like, just because WWE had a 40 year headstart, like you can still create those moments where you're like, holy shit, remember back at,
00:35:17
Speaker
Freakin all in or you know what I mean? Yeah, make it easy for me to go back and watch mocks debuting at the end of double or nothing That would be so awesome and like you just you forget about them Maybe we have to go digging through bleacher report and go, you know find my purchase receipt so I can read down exactly or like, you know
00:35:34
Speaker
look at the clips on YouTube and shit. You never just get the full, you don't get the fully immersive experience when you're on YouTube, dude. Yeah. Tony Khan, if you're listening, that's our, uh, our strategy to, you know, help, help stop the bleeding a little bit and bounce back. I will say I love the angle at the end of dynamite, man, with them attacking Tony Khan. I thought it was cool, dude. It was cool. I'm a sucker for any time they have, you know, it gets real and the announcers lay out and stop talking. You know, Tony Shivani was in the ring, like,
00:35:59
Speaker
I just, I thought it was really cool and it definitely established the elite as like, it made me think of like the early NWO, not the NWO when they were like the cool guys or basically good guys, like the evil NWO, like chunking Rey Mysterio into the side of a trailer and stuff like that. That's kind of what it put me in mind of. And I'm really intrigued to see where this faction goes now with Okada, Jack Perry in the books.
00:36:21
Speaker
Yeah. Well, as awesome as that was, so we had, so we had, this was the weekend as you're listening to this, the NFL draft is going down as we speak. We're recording Friday night. So day two of the draft just wrapped up. Yeah. Um, and you know, we were, there was some discussion after it happened on Wednesday, like, Oh my God, it's Tony Khan going to show up to the, to the draft in a neck brace in the Jaguar draft room. Sure enough. Dude does it, dude. Like I'm like, Oh my God, this is so awesome. Right? Like he, he shows up.
00:36:47
Speaker
fully immersed in the gimmick, right? Just live in the gimmick. And, uh, I was like, this is so cool. And then they let, they put him on a freaking hot mic and I'm just like, God damn tone. Like, you know what I mean? Like, like this guy just cannot get on a mic. Like he, we can not just let this guy freely talk because
00:37:05
Speaker
He's a mess, dude. He's a, he's a train wreck. Yeah, frozen here. He basically, you know, he said, he said a bunch of stuff, dude. And like the announcers was kind of yucking up with him and everything from NFL network. And then he started talking about AW how they're the Pepsi of wrestling. It's like, okay. Yeah, we're making the, yeah, we're with you. Coca-Cola is WWE. He said, but we're going up against WWE, which is the Harvey Weinstein of wrestling, dude. And it's just like, oh, you can tell the announcers were like trying to hurry up and wrap the segment up and change the subject. It was just,
00:37:33
Speaker
And you can tell the thing about it was is that you know, like I could tell just by the expression in his face, he is like, that's not the first time he said that. He's probably like rehearsed it in the mirror. Like he said that backstage to people before he's like, oh yeah, this is a joke right here. This is the jab right here. I'm gonna call WWE the Harvey Weinstein of
00:37:52
Speaker
of wrestling. See, I got a different vibe, dude. I thought that, I thought he was on his way to saying that they were like the Coke while they were the Pepsi. And I think he realized like halfway, like he didn't want to give him that compliment of saying they're the Coca-Cola. And I think he was like, what's like the most despicable thing I don't know. No, because at the beginning he said we're up against an evil, um, megalith or something like that. I can't remember what, what words he used. Why not go with it? He definitely said evil. Call him the Death Star and say you're the Jedi rebel, something like that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That dude, that's a way better. That's a way better freaking, uh,
00:38:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's like is I mean, did it? It was just dumb. Like why say that? I know you are the leader. You are the CEO of a freaking company. Like, you know what I mean? It's not like it'd be one thing if freaking, you know, mocks or somebody got on there and said some shit like that. Right. But like,
00:38:40
Speaker
the CEO of the company gets on, on national television to an audience who may or may not be even watching the product, right? So he had this golden opportunity to like open up the nostalgia box again, like, Hey, come watch our wrestling product, right? Like these people who are watching the NFL draft and watch an NFL network.
00:38:58
Speaker
Uh, you know, like, Hey, cool. We got this wrestling product over here. But instead he takes that chance, that opportunity to just like, you know, say something shitty about WWE, which whatever dude, like, you know, we can argue back and forth about what came first, the chicken or the egg, like who's talking shit about who, which let's be real. Cody, Cody kicked off the fucking talking about shit about people because he broke that. Yeah. He, he, he, he opened that can of worms. And yeah, look at, look at him now.
00:39:26
Speaker
Um, but, uh, yeah, it's, it, I just feel like Tony dude, you're better than that.
00:39:32
Speaker
I mean, to me, dude, I think he is a big contributing factor on AEW kind of stalling out all that momentum that they had. And now they're like actively losing momentum. I think he, he fashions himself as like, you know, this big underdog and like this, he's got this victim mentality, but the dude is the son of a billionaire, right? Like this guy was freaking born on third base, man. Like he's getting to live out his dream running this wrestling company, man. It's just for fun. Literally has no bearing on, you know, his actual success. It could all go away tomorrow.
00:40:05
Speaker
He's actually doing his real job right now. You know what I mean? Like yeah, I think I so you got your hardcore AW fans that no matter what right they're gonna they're gonna watch like Tony Khan could literally come out and
00:40:17
Speaker
say anything, dude, and they're not, it's not going to detract them. You got your hardcore WWE fans that whether it was freaking, you know, Roman Reigns and John Cena both signed with WWE and they fought in a tag match against, you know, Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay, the WWE fans still wouldn't watch. But then you got your people in the middle, dude. And I feel like shit like this turns off the people in the middle of making me like, you know what? I'm over AEW, man.
00:40:37
Speaker
They turn it off. You saw it, dude, when Tony had a freaking breakdown when NXT beat AEW in the ratings earlier this year, dude, was making the most reaching tweets. He tweeted out about John Cena and Undertaker being on a show that did less than a million viewers. It's like, dude, just take the L and keep it moving, man. You're doing great stuff, dude. I feel like his unlikeability is something that is definitely turning off the
00:41:01
Speaker
you know, the, the swing votes, right? Like the people who got a foot in both camps, man. Like I'll always watch it because I love wrestling and I love a w man. Like edits when a w's hitting, it's like the freaking best wrestling. And it goes without saying, if you've listened to this show, we want a w to succeed. So like,
00:41:16
Speaker
Anybody who like ever would claim that we're, uh, you know, just eight, like WWE marks through and through. I got you. We're in the top 0.1% of people who legitimately supported this company. Yeah. You drove freaking 10 hours recently to go to a fucking we bought every, every, every pay-per-view Tony Khan has ever put on the Phelps family has purchased. We got every figure day one. We bought the deluxe version of the video game. That was a dynamite. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We bought the freaking shitty video game.
00:41:44
Speaker
any chance we've had. Every AWW figure that's come out, dude. Literally, we support this company, dude. I just feel like they'd be in a better spot if he wasn't. And the other thing is, dude, call Spade a Spade. He fumbled what would have been the biggest money match in history if they could have got the Bucks and CM Punk and Kenny Omega to all work together. That's really where this all goes back to, man. When things started going south with Punk, and that was kind of where
00:42:14
Speaker
I, the rose came off the bloom for me man was it all out 2022 when Tony Khan set there and let CM Punk just run down his entire company sitting right there like from that really planted like a little bit of like just negativity towards me like what the hell is actually going on behind the scenes in this company man and I hate it because I can't stand CM Punk but I can't really I don't think you'd have a hard time arguing against any of the shit that he said publicly since he left man.
00:42:39
Speaker
Yeah. And it was, it was even worse, but like you said, because Tony con was right there. And instead of just like taking up for hangman, dude, how are you not going to take up for Heyman Adam pages? Do as a freaking school teacher, dude, school teacher turned wrestler, dude, family man. Like the, I mean, hangman is fucking awesome, dude. Like you're going to sit there and let this asshole just run him down right next to you. Like, no, fuck that bro. Like
00:43:01
Speaker
And looking like he's scared to say anything. That was the thing, like, you know, I mean, just stand up or just be like, you know, that that's all for today. Like cut the fucking interview off. You know what I mean? Like he could have stood up and shut that shit down right there. Yeah. Crack a joke, add some levity and say, you know, hey, say guys, seeing punk, obviously had a rough night tonight and he's taken out and all of us here. Let's, let's move on and, you know, bring whoever out who's coming out next. But instead you just sit there and let this dude eviscerate your whole freaking, because really all the stuff
00:43:28
Speaker
CM Punk was saying, he was really talking about Tony Khan, right? Right. That's really who he's taking the shots at, dude. It was just- Yeah, I think at one point, didn't he say like no offense or something like that, like the Tony ... I'm just like, ugh. And then it seemed like the mismanagement and the foot and mouth quotes and tweets and stuff since then have kind of just been at a steady stream.
00:43:48
Speaker
I don't know. Maybe I'm being too hard on the guy, dude, but that was really where I started. I don't dislike Tony. I mean, like, that's the thing. And Tony Khan brought us this, dude. I don't dislike him. Take the good with the bad. A.W. wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Tony Khan. So hats off to him, man. Like, he took the vision that Cody and the bunch had and brought it to life. He could be spending his millions and billions of dollars on whatever he wants, right? And just chilling. And not having to, you know, subject himself to, you know, just fans like us, you know, critiquing his every move.
Critique of Tony Khan's Management
00:44:12
Speaker
But, you know, that's part of wrestling. That's what we do. And I think the dude has just made unforced error after unforced error over the last, you know, 12 to 18 months. Yeah, it's just it's not not good, not good. And I have a feeling it's not going to get any better with him being an onscreen talent at this point. I really think it's a one off dude. I trust him at his word that he said he was never going to be on screen. I think it was a one off just to get heat on the elite.
00:44:37
Speaker
I will say, dude, I did kind of like pop a, I kind of like pop a con coming down there, dude, shag coming down looking mad. I feel like he should be the real like authority figure for AWD. Like we don't see him that much, you know, maybe every freaking, you know, it'd be like Jack Tony back in the day, dude. Just when you see, when you see shag coming out, you know, shit's about to get real, dude. Like somebody's about to lay down the law.
00:44:58
Speaker
All right. Real quick. Um, any other, any other AEW thoughts before we move on? I just, I don't know, dude, I, for the listeners, man, do us a favor. You guys are always asking us questions. I'm asking you questions. If you don't watch AEW or if you used to watch AEW and stopped, please write in and, uh, you know, you can respond to like the listener mail question and we'll read it next, next podcast. Let us know why, dude. If you, if.
00:45:22
Speaker
Yeah, or how to step in the DMs on Chipotle. Yeah, DM, anything. Do you find a way to get in touch with us? Let us know why you either haven't given AW a chance or why you stopped watching AW because the product really is good enough that it should be doing better numbers than it is. All right. We did have another title change really quickly before, you know, we're going to touch on some WWE trick Williams, whoop that trick, Ilya Dragunov, and won the NXT.
00:45:48
Speaker
championship. So awesome, dude, dude, the moment was so explosive, like the hard cameras and stuff were like shaking, dude, like it was absolutely nuts. Yeah, trick is the man the glow up he's had over the last year. It's just incredible. Like, I mean, he was he was just a cool sidekick. I'd be honest, dude, I did not see it coming with him, man.
00:46:08
Speaker
Dude, uh-uh, I was about to give you props, dude, because you were one of the first people that I knew that was on the Trick Williams bandwagon, dude. Because everybody was talking about mellow, mellow, mellow. And you're like, dude, Trick is the man. Well, as soon as it started, I saw the glimpses really quickly. As soon as he started branching off and doing stuff single C, I'll say that. Before it was a whole movement, I saw it. But I'm talking about when he was first coming around with mellow. I thought that he was just going to be like, cool sidekick, whatever. Yeah, exactly. I did not.
00:46:37
Speaker
I didn't see it like that at all. But yeah, you're right. I did start buying off Trick Williams stock immediately when I saw him start wrestling some singles matches. Yeah. Because when you started saying that, I started paying attention to Trick. Because like you said, he wasn't even on my radar, really. And then you were like, dude, this guy has the potential to be the next big thing, dude. Dude, he's got that same thing that Bad Bunny has that made Bad Bunny such a natural. The ability to sell and register with his body language and facial expressions, dude.
00:47:06
Speaker
build so much sympathy, man. Like the fans are just going along for the ride with him. And it's, you know, it's cool when bad bunny does it, but bad bunny's like five, 530 pounds. It's really impressive. The trick Williams was able to do it because the dude looks like he should, you know, he could be a top five pick in the NFL draft or wide receiver or something. Right.
00:47:21
Speaker
Yeah, like he's a huge guy, you know built like he's freaking chills it out of stone man, but he's the man dude I think he's the brightest brightest prospect in all of wrestling right now because he's still super green That's the thing like he is not that much experience at all. So if he continues
00:47:37
Speaker
Yeah, if he continues to improve, like I could totally see, you know, whoop this trick going down at the end of WrestleMania some year, you know, if it lines up, imagine if he does it in Nashville, do you imagine whoop that trick in Tennessee to close out WrestleMania, dude? Like I just, I love trick, man. I'm really, really glad it was kind of a spur of the moment decision. I'm so glad that we decided to go to vengeance day. Cause that was really, you know, it wasn't the coronation obviously, but I think that night really solidified, um,
00:48:06
Speaker
Trick Williams standing, he's like the new face of NXT. He opened the show and he closed the show and the whole night was really just built around him. It was a packed house there in Clarksville. Everybody was there to see Trick. Yeah, and everybody was there to see Trick, dude. A random, whoop, trick chance is going out before the show even started. That was just a really, really magical night and I'm always gonna look back on that fondly. It was definitely a core wrestling memory for me this past Tuesday, sitting on the couch with Brett, watching Trick win that match. We were both marking out big time, so yeah, just really, really awesome to see Trick be on top.
00:48:35
Speaker
And it's full circle. Brett was so bummed at a vengeance day. I can't believe we went into trick Williams lost both matches. Yeah, poor guy. Oh man. But yeah, congratulations trick. And that's going to wrap up our in ring talk for, uh, for tonight's show. All right. Let's hit some keeping it drunk.
00:49:07
Speaker
All right. Keeping it trying kilos where we give you guys some outside the ring entertainment recommendations. Sheena, take it away with this week's call. So we've been watching. We aren't, we were, you know, only about a halfway through the, uh, the season, but we, it's only gonna be one season I'm assuming, right? No, it's going to be ongoing series. Oh nice. Okay, cool, cool. So there's a ton of lore with this. Oh, the new show fallout. It's based on a video game. I never played the video game series.
00:49:32
Speaker
video game series based on a video game series and it is so cool like post-apocalyptic like totally my jam just um the I don't know the way they have like fleshed out this this world where it's like the vaulties and then like the surface dwellers and all of this it is just absolutely awesome there's Walter Goggins is in it which I you know I love everything that that man does uh so if you haven't it's on Amazon Prime
00:49:58
Speaker
Check it out. You don't got to be into the games either. Again, I've never I've never played. I've never played the games. I've seen them. I mean, I know what they are, but I've never I was always intrigued, but I've never really been a big RPG player, so I never got too deep into them. But I always like kind of like the premise of the games and just the set design, the world building, the visual effects are off the charts on the show.
00:50:17
Speaker
Yeah. So I highly, highly recommend, um, you know, it's, it's dude, the Gore is insane. Like there's some over the top Gore. Uh, so if you're not into that kind of stuff, you know, maybe you're a viewer beware, but, uh, you know, it's, but it's all like, I don't know. It's like a satire, right?
00:50:33
Speaker
Campy yeah, you know what I mean? But it's not like painful like it's it's gross out, but it's not like scary like mean like hard to watch Yeah, it's not like torture porn type stuff It's just like where you're just like holy shit like you know what I mean like you just something happens And you're just like yikes you know the whole story of the game look I don't it's not meant to be like hyper realistic right no Yeah, like it's like a little bit of a send-up of like post a lot of apocalyptic stuff mm-hmm
00:50:59
Speaker
Consumerism it's a lot of stuff going on the show, but very very cool. Very cool. So highly recommend. That's my keeping at Tranquilo Recommendation for this week. All right, she knew we have any listener mail. Oh, yeah
00:51:19
Speaker
All right, our buddy Johnny JB says, not a question, but an observation. I really liked the story that AEW is brewing with Jack Perry and the elite. I look at Jack Perry in a different light now. He's definitely elevated his status. We've always been high on Jungle Boy, Jack Perry, whatever you want to call them. So I'm all about seeing him ascend to main event status. Yeah. Um, 100%. Definitely on board for Jack Perry. Zach Hertzler says, out of the last several world title changes in pro wrestling this month, which is going to be the best for pro wrestling as a whole?
00:51:48
Speaker
Rick Williams, we just talked about it there. Swerve, it feels, you know, I like Swerve. It feels like his days are already numbered. Cody was all about just finishing the story. I don't see Cody having any kind of crazy reign. I feel like trick is over the next year is going to be become the face of NXT a la Johnny Gargano.
00:52:05
Speaker
you know, I thought it was significant that they had Johnny Gargano come out and give him the final pep talk before that match. I think that's where he's heading, you know, for his NXT destiny foresee him on the main roster. And I think unlike a lot of the NXT guys, I think tricks going to be one of the ones that hits. And yeah, I think this, this rain is just the start of a tremendous next couple of years for trick Williams.
00:52:26
Speaker
Um, you know, yes, I a hundred percent agree with what you said, but I also think Cody, I mean, we all know it's significant, but I also think it's going to be good for pro wrestling as a whole. I think it's going to allow us to really just kind of ruminate on the, the reign of Roman reigns.
00:52:41
Speaker
and really appreciate what he did for the business over the last four years. And then when he comes back, he's going to be like bigger and better and more awesome than ever, dude. And we still have so many good matches ahead. I mean, we still have like Cody Rock. Or is the title changed or the title reigned in, huh?
00:52:56
Speaker
What do you mean? It's what he said. Title, world title changes in Pro Wrestling. Oh, okay. I got you. I was looking at it. I was looking at it. Okay. So yeah, yeah, you're right, dude. I agree with you then. Yeah. You're right on Cody. Sorry. Yeah. Out of the last several world title changes in Pro Wrestling. Yeah. This month. Um, yeah, I think, I think Cody's going to be the one that's, you know, the best for Pro Wrestling as a whole. Yeah. And it opens up so many stories to take the belt off Roman. Cody's got, like you said, Cody's got cool things he can do.
00:53:20
Speaker
There's already, we want Roman chants at the shows, man. So he's going to be probably the biggest baby face in the company when he does come back. Johnny also says, do you think it's time for Jericho to step away? I love Jericho and I've been a fan of his since the debut in 99, but I feel like his AW run is stale now and he should be a manager or commentator. He's got the gift of gab.
00:53:40
Speaker
I do think they should move him to a different role, you know what I mean? Dude, the man, like I said, everything he does and everything he says just turns to freaking gold. The man can go on the mic, dude, and people always buy into whatever Jericho is selling, people buy into it. So I would love to see Jericho as just like a manager type situation for somebody and just being like a Paul Heyman, you know what I mean? And like being somebody's advocate.
00:54:07
Speaker
I think that would be a much better role for him than vying for titles in AEW. What are your thoughts?
00:54:12
Speaker
Yeah, I think unquestionably his best days are behind him. I bet he has earned the right to go out on his own term. So I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a little bit less TV time from Jericho. If that, that's the direction they go. Um, Brett said, Brett, Charles says, do we think Swerve is a transitional, uh, an Osprey takes it at Wembley. We kind of discussed this already. I don't think he's transitional champ, but I do think I don't think he's due for a long run. There's just.
00:54:38
Speaker
There's so many guys who are kind of at the point that they need to hold, you know, that world championship. I just see it. I see that bill getting passed off a little bit over the next couple of years, I think, or the next, you know, year, year and a half. I think we see a series of shorter runs as opposed to something like MJF on it for, you know, a year plus.
00:54:53
Speaker
Yeah. Brett, he also, you know, we kind of touched on this, but he also mentioned that he doesn't want to see Tony Khan as an onscreen character full time. And Tony Barker piggybacked on that question and said, expanding on that, does AEW need a constant authority figure character on screen at all? Or do you think the show would benefit from that?
00:55:09
Speaker
Jason, like you said, Shad would be a good. Yeah, but not as a constant authority figure. I hate the people involved in every single match storyline. I like the, I grew up on Jack Tony, man, where you see him a handful of times a year, just the way down the law. So Shad would be cool for that. Something else, I think that'd be great for Sting, man. Sting's still going to be around. Imagine, you know, four or five times a year when the situation calls, you're like, Sting is showing up next week to make a ruling on this dude. And you see Sting come back to be the, cause they're going to be, who's more authoritative in pro wrestling than Sting?
00:55:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. I would love to see that. Zach Hertzler, do you see Kenny Omega coming back to battle the elite after the attack on Tony Khan? I think that's where we're heading. I think we're going to see the elite going against some combination of FTR, Kenny Omega, and Edge and his little mini faction he's got going with Eddie Kingston and Mark Briscoe. I see those guys kind of being the Khan Crusaders, the Khan men.
00:56:05
Speaker
Uh, Phil done, it says, could Brett throw a more convincing punch than that jungle boy one? Oh man. Don't hate on jungle boy. I thought it, I thought it was perfectly fine. I mean, he didn't want to risk, you know, making Tony con scared for his life. So, uh, you know, he, he maybe pulled back just a little bit. Tony Barker says, who would be, who would you have as your blood and guts team to take on the new version of the elite? I think we kind of just answered it. Yeah. But if I had to pick four, I'll go FTR edge and Kenny Omega. That's a good one.
00:56:34
Speaker
Tony Barker, which do you think is the number two men's championship? Oh, this is a good question at AEW. We have the TNT, Continental, International, and even the FTW title. Seems like all variations of the same theme.
00:56:47
Speaker
I think all four have been the most important at different times. I mean, that's kind of a gift and a curse. They, they can elevate as needed. Like when the international, you know, when mocks and orange Cassidy were going back and forth for the international, I felt like the most important one. Um, right now it's, it's probably the continental just cause Ocada has it. I don't think, you know, if we got Tony conned down and asked him to rank about, I think he'd probably say that they're all kind of equal and just dependent on the.
00:57:10
Speaker
the month and the time of the season, this was gonna be the top one. Yeah, I think two mid-card championships is more than enough, dude. I think having the world title and then two mid-card championships and then tag championships, we don't need all this extra fluff. There's so many titles in AEW, it's just bananas. Tony Barker, which of the recent WWE releases do you think would make the biggest splash in AEW?
00:57:38
Speaker
I say gender, just because he's so different, you know, gender, they don't have enough big monstrous guys there. And he already got the built in storyline. Like, even if it was just for like a, a couple month run, like give him his big match with hook, you know, that's who he was talking shit with. Uh, you know, earlier this year on social media, when Tony Khan was making a big deal about gender Mahal, getting a world championship match on raw is ridiculous as that sounds. But yeah, I'd say, uh, I say gender.
00:58:03
Speaker
I think Cameron Grimes would be a good fit for, uh, for AEW. I feel like he's got AEW energy, you know, I think he's probably going to TNA dude. I see, I see him going back to TNA man, but yeah, I mean, Cameron Grimes is great. I was really sad to see him get released. Tony Barker. What do you think is the future for the forbidden door concept with new Japan? It seems like with Okada, switch blade, Osprey all signing, AWS, uh, most of the marquee talent from NJPW has been rated. Are there still must see dream matches left?
00:58:29
Speaker
I don't really think there were that many dream matches really to begin with for the most part, but I think forbidden doors and concepts should work. It shouldn't be just new Japan AW, it should be everybody, dude. It's all the super friends getting together to put on a show.
00:58:40
Speaker
Yeah. And Sam said, well, also when Japan talent is on the show almost weekly, what's forbidden? Yeah. Tony Barker, what is your most wanted figure from the AEW? I would love to see a black and white Timeless Tony Storm. That is so funny. I mentioned that. I thought that should be the chase, which should be the black and white Tony. Feels like a ringside exclusive to me, man. Yeah. My most, I still, I'd love to get a Supreme and JF, man. I don't feel like we've had
00:59:05
Speaker
a definitive MJF figure yet in the line they got that devil coming out pretty soon it's pretty cool but I would love to see a supreme release with him even if it's got to be like a walmart or vault exclusive give us like the big robe and everything like I think that'd be really cool very obscure but I think I would love an abaddon figure or a or a sue
00:59:23
Speaker
We were supposed to get Abaddon. So we were supposed to get Abaddon. She got canceled. She was in an announced lineup, got canceled. And Jeremy teased that we were going to get Sue's van as a play set. Dude, we talked about, dude, Sue's van as a play set would be so awesome. I remember when that first happened, we were like, dude, when they graffitied on Sue's van, we were like, dude, we need this as a play set. The wrecking line from WWE seems like it's been very successful, right? They're cranking out more and more stuff with it. Dude, that wrecking truck that Brad got, it's awesome.
00:59:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's a really cool toy. Stone Cold Steve Austin wreck and truck. His grandma got it for him. And yeah, it's cool. Yeah, there's definitely a market for it, man. So yeah, I'd love to see Sue's van. That would be really neat.
Mercedes' Title Shot Controversy
01:00:00
Speaker
Zach Hertzler, why the hell does Mercedes get a title shot a double or nothing when she is yet to have a match in AWW I mean shit. It's a team punk a while till he got a title shot. It's wrestling. Yeah, true Yeah, and the women and I think it's different with seeing punk cuz the men's division is just it's just different the women's division and AWW is so lacking if they don't put if they don't bring Mercedes in and put her right at the top of the car then what the fuck are they doing cuz like I
01:00:23
Speaker
I mean, who else, who else is going to be in there? You know what I mean? She's the CEO. And she's the CEO. Yeah. And she's, she's got built in clout, dude. I think, you know, we can pretend like we don't know that Mercedes was Sasha Banks, but I mean, she was Sasha Banks. So, um, yeah, I don't have a problem with it again, especially considering that the state of the women's division over the last several years for, for AW.
Debate on Tony's In-Ring Aspirations
01:00:46
Speaker
Sam roses though, how soon does Tony do a match? I bet with anything within a year or two He wants to be the Vince of the ad he wants to be Vince in the attitude era so bad I can't see it man. I can't I can't see him doing a full-blown match I definitely see him being like taking more one-off bumps and stuff though I still don't think he's gonna end up being on screen character, dude He's got it I don't know it's saying a lot but I feel like even he's self-aware enough to know that that's just not a good idea Yeah
01:01:10
Speaker
All right, well that wraps up our listener mail. All right, so that's it for this episode.
Podcast Conclusion and Recommendations
01:01:14
Speaker
Barely, barely beat an hour. We try to get these under an hour when it's just me and Sheena hopping on. But thanks everybody for tuning in. Again, that AEW question, reach out to us. If you stopped watching or if you've never watched, let us know why. Sheena, remind the listeners where they can find you guys on social media.
01:01:29
Speaker
You can find me on Instagram at chick Foley, Marco running the Twitter machine over at chick Foley show, join our Foley fam and all the fun we're having over on Facebook at chick Foley.com and be sure you're following all of our pod foundation brethren, uh, coming down the aisle podcast, the term buckle tavern and the guys over at the extra cooler show. It's literally all the wrestling content that you need for the week. Such great shows, such great wrestling fans. And yeah, you can find all of them at their handles.
01:01:56
Speaker
All right, that's a wrap for this all elite episode. Sheena hit us with some closing thoughts and we'll get out of here. Closing thoughts. Um, just support wrestling guys. All of it. AW, WWE, whatever your flavor is, uh, we should, we should want all wrestling to win.