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The Queen of the. Crop Duke loves wrestling and there is no. One that does it better than your house. I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass and I'm all out of bubble. Brothers and sisters, welcome back. Welcome back to Devon and the Duke, a limited podcast series hosted by your main man. Duke loves wrestling and of course, the Hall of Famer himself, one of the most decorated wrestlers of all time, Devon Dudley. How you doing that Devon? I'm all right.
I think like we had some technical difficulty 10-15 minutes prior to coming back on here to doing this. So like I said earlier, I'm just trying to find a nice quiet place to do this without my kids coming in the room and knocking on the door going daddy. So you might hear that from time to time. Well, you know, Devon, now you got me curious here, man. Is it because you're a television star? You know someone who's been on
TV over 30 years. People come from far and wide just to meet you, get your autograph, let you know how much you mean to them. Is it because you're this? This star? Is that the reason why the kids are always so fighting for your attention, so to speak? No, the the you know, the older you know. I got 7 kids all together. A lot of people know the 1st 2, which is Terrence and Terrell. They go by the name of TNT in the wrestling business. They followed in my footsteps.
They are, you know, they've been used to it their whole lives. And then I have Matthew because Terence and Jarrell, they'll be 30 February 25th and then you have Matthew who will be 24 this November 27th. Then you have my 16 year old son who, you know, he can care less about this wrestling business. You know, everybody knows when you're a teenager, 16 years old, you really don't really care about stuff like that. So I understand he's interested in driving.
He loves basketball. And you know, he's now getting into that stage where girls are cute. Oh, help me, God. And then you have, you know, then me and my wife, we started over where we have a 5 year old, a four year old and a six month old. And the five and the four year old, they, the five year old knows Daddy's on TV with Uncle Bubba and his friends. But she doesn't really grasp, she doesn't really grasp it. You know, she's not really like, you know, daddy's on TV and
stuff like that. She just sees me doing my stuff and that's about it. So I don't think they fully understand. I don't think they're there yet to fully understand the magnitude of what I do and how it touches so many lives. OK, so it's not because Devon Dudley is a big star. I think mom is the big superstar in the house. And you know, I think Chris Rock said it best. You know, dads don't get no
respect. You know, every time you see an athlete or somebody go, they thinking, mom, you know, I want to thank my mom. I want to think my mom, what the hell does daddy get? Daddy don't get shit. Man, after seven kids, you, you certainly have found that out the hard way, right? You know, I mean, you know, my girls are daddy's, daddy's girls, but still, they love their Mama and ain't nothing wrong with that. There's no jealousy or pride, you know, on my end.
You know, I just, I'm happy that we're able to give them a family that is not broken. Wow, that's deep. That's real deep, man. How important is that to you, Devon, to to make sure that your family has a stable home, your children have a stable home? Well, it's, you know, extremely important. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY Like I've always said in the project, my mother was pregnant at 15, had me at 16. My biological father was out there selling drugs and doing his thing, running the streets
and whatever. And my mother and grandmother was the foundation of my life. And so growing up with those morals and stuff like that through my grandmother, you know, it was one of those things where I take that very, very seriously. And, you know, I just like to make sure that my upbringing is not the same, is not going to be the same as theirs. They're going to have a better life than I have. My grandmother and mother provided a very good life for me, but there was struggles
along the way. And but I'm very proud of some of those struggles and some of the things that I've shouldn't have seen as a child that I did see. And it just made me, it made me, you know, grow up faster. It's powerful to hear you share these sentiments and, you know, open up about your life story in this manner and at the same time hear the kids laughing and playing and calling your name in
the background. It just goes to show man, you, you really have done a great job overall, not just as a father and and a husband and a provider for your family, like you said, providing that stability, something that you longed for. And then you had to deal with all the challenges as you recount. But just the fact that you are able to set goals and then achieve them. And I don't care who you are, that's not easy to do.
And certainly to provide a better life for your family than what you had growing up, that's a very serious goal to set. It's a very difficult goal to achieve because life is life. There's so many twists and turns and challenges that can knock us off track from what we've always dreamed or hoped we were able to
accomplish. But yet you are someone who's actually made it work, made it happen, and you have fruits of your labor to show for it. So, you know, again, kudos to you, Devon. I just gained a tremendous amount of respect for you, even more so than ever before now, because that's, I didn't realize your beginnings were so humble. And now it makes sense why you're so dedicated to your family and why you're you're so serious about making sure that
they're all set. And it's interesting that we're we're talking about this because we're seeing something like this play out a little bit in the wrestling world right now. For example, you you have somebody like the young lady Stephanie Backer. Here's someone who back in 2018, she had AWWE tryout. Things didn't work out for her. You know, WWE decided not to go in that direction. So she had to go back and build her career outside of WWE.
And you know, she's originally from Chile, but she's made a name for herself down in Mexico, especially for the CMLL promotion, became the the number one woman's wrestler and really one of the top wrestlers period in Mexico. And in fact, recently she's been doing some business with AEW. She had a match with Mercedes Monet and vignettes and and and stare downs and promo and all that good stuff leading up to it doing business with AEW right as as cross promotional partnership
with CMLL. Now something happened. Something happened where Stephanie Backer was actually negotiating with both AEW and WWE. And according to Conan on the Keeping It 100 podcast and shout out to Conan, Stephanie Vacker was actually left at the airport by AEW. So this is not a new thing that we've heard. This has been done before. In fact, CM Punk himself has complained that this happened to him before in AEW. But Stephanie Vacker was not
picked up at the airport. She had to figure out how to get from where she was at the airport to where she needed to be. And as a result, according to Conan, she decided, you know, that plus hearing from other wrestlers, especially Mexican wrestlers and how they're treated in AAW and how they're treated in WWE, she decided she's going to go with WWE. So Stephanie Backer left CMLL, she left negotiating with AEW, signs with WWE, immediately
starts wrestling for WWE. In fact, she did 2 shots with them down to Mexico back-to-back and it's already been discussed on WWENXT that she's going to be part of that promotion or sub promotion within the WWE Universe there. So this is interesting. This is somebody who made a decision to do what's best for them and best with for their family and and go with WWE. AEW had a shot at her.
They had the best shot at her, quite frankly, because she was already doing business with them and they just couldn't close the deal. What's your take on that, Devon? Well, let me just say this, her leaving AEW to go to the WWEI can understand the two meetings that I had with Tony Kahn, or three I should say. One was at Universal when they were there. They did their last couple of shows at Universal. Then it was in I think December
of that year. It was December of that year and I basically had it. I don't know, it was a weird experience. And then I had another one in January, this coming January I believe it was. The unorganized stuff that I saw was mind boggling to me because, you know, it's true. The man has more money than the WWE, you know, because of his father. It seems like it's an endless amount of money, but yet there's
no organization. I think that was one of the biggest things that I heard when I was there. And again, I wasn't going there because I needed the job. I was going there because I was told that if I went there, it was going to help my sons, Terrence and Terrell be able to get employment there and to be able to get some stability in the company. And like I said on on a previous podcast, when I told them, I did not want to wrestle really.
I just wanted to help my sons maybe manage like Jake the Snake Robbins was doing, like Tully Blanchett was doing. That's what I wanted to do. I just wanted to manage at the time because I had the back surgery, I didn't want to mess up anything. I was told yes, that was the opportunity that I could, you know, achieve and you know, and help my boys out in tremendous way. But every once in a while getting a ring like in a six man tag or something like that, Would I be opposed to that?
I said well, no, but understand, I'm not trying to relive the attitude error or even the TNA error. I just want to help my sons and just leading up to the first, I thought the first meeting was good, but you know, Tony had me waiting around like I was some young boy for him. And I remember telling my agent I said I don't need this. The only reason why I'm still staying here and dealing with this is because of my sons. You know, I don't really care to
come to this company and work. When you've worked for the WWE. To me, there's no other company that's better now. I know people leaving the company and you know, they badmouth WWE and they say this and they say that, but when things are going good for them, they're on the WWE bandwagon. You know, it's the greatest company in the world. But the minute things start going South or going in a different direction, now they want to bury the company.
Me personally, I've never seen so much unorganized stuff going on in a company like AW. And again, I'm not bad mouthing the company, but there's certain things. Even people within the company that had jobs there would shake their heads and go, you know, this is insane. Producers are not getting their assignments until, you know, 10-15 minutes prior to their math. She's supposed to go out. You know, it's, it's, it's not the most organized place in the world.
And again, I'm not the only one saying that. There are people within the organizations that have jobs and are saying it. And so it doesn't surprise me that this young lady was left at the airport and nobody picked her up. Again, a lot of stuff is going on in that company that no one can get a handle on. But it has to start with Tony Khan. He has to get control of his company because if he doesn't, then it's going to wind up being like another WCW.
And listen, a lot of veterans across the board are saying this. Again, even people within the company, you have a lot of great talent there and you know the stories and all that. I'm sure now I didn't see the matches between her and Mercedes AKA Sasha Banks, but I'm sure it was good. But it wasn't good enough for her to stay and you know, to be disrespected like that. Tony Khan doesn't realize. I don't care how much money you got. This is the wrestling business,
my friend. Either you get your head out of your ass and realize, and nobody really gives a damn too much about your money. If you're going to disrespect people, you know you're not going to survive. He wouldn't do that to people like MJF. He wouldn't do that to offspring. He wouldn't do that to Mercedes. He wouldn't do that to Edge. You know, he does it to people that think that. I don't, I don't know. I can't explain it, so I'm not
even going to speak on that. I don't know why he does the things that he does or why the people in his organization choose to let a young lady like that slip through their fingers and and do disrespectful stuff like that for for them to come back and say, Oh, well, we didn't know she was left at the airport and they never arrived. Well, when you knew she was coming in, did you bother to have travel, make sure that everything was taken care of? WWE make sure of that.
They don't leave their people stranded. That's the one thing I got to say about WWE. They don't do things like that. So it's not hard pressed for me to believe that this young lady wanted to leave and go to WWEWWE is a very well oiled machine. Tony Kahn can say whatever the hell he wants to say about that company, OK, but they are well oiled machine. Again, when things start going South for a person in the company, that's when they start talking crap or they don't get their way.
But when they're on top of the world and they're doing the right thing. Oh, the WWE is the greatest company in the world. And for those that have never been there and probably went straight to AW before WWE, you know, they don't know how things are there and how different it is, especially with Hunter in the mix.
You know, the company now, the powers that be are going to have their favorites and they're going to have their people that they're not fond of. So the people that they're not fond of who's not getting the push or who's not getting what they want, of course they're going to talk crap and things like that. They did it during the Vince era and some are doing it now during the Triple H era. But again, when the iron is striking there, no, there's nothing, there's no wrong that WWE can do.
But the minute that you know, they started going to decline, it's the it's the worst company in the world. And you know, something else I heard you know about Tony Khan is that he said Edge's run is better in AEW was in WWE. I'm sorry, I know he smokes weed because I hear about it from all the time, but is there some crack or anything involved in that weed? What? What planet is this man on for him to even think and say that he hasn't nearly touched the tip of the iceberg on the stuff that
he did in WWE? Let's not even talk about the world famous matches with the Dudleys, Hardys and edging Christian. OK, let's put all the stuff with the Rated R Superstar, you know, even after me and Bubba and and the Hardys and and Christian were going, you know, again, that in itself right there, those matches that we had are legendary. And we'll go on in history and people still talk about them 30 years down the road, you know,
after it's all said and done. So don't give me that crap, Tony. Get your head out of your ass and realize what the Hell's going on. You haven't even built Edge to that point yet. And remember, Edge was a superstar way before he came to AW, which is why you jumped at the opportunity to get him. It was WWE that made him, not you. So don't think that you're, you know, the cat's meow. You didn't make him, WWE did, Vince did.
And that's the truth. Whether he wants to, like when he wants to hear it or not, that's the truth. You hear some of the stuff that people are saying online after he made this comment, OK, People can get mad all they want and call me, you know, shut the F up, Devon. You don't know what the hell you're talking about. But I do because I'm not the only one that feels that way. And the thing about it is, I bet you as well as I know Edge, he don't think that way. But hey, Edge, take that money.
I get it. Take it and enjoy it because that's exactly what's going on. Tony Khan is is kind of like, it's Tony Khan is kind of like Ricky Stroder and Silver Spoons. Silver spoons you. You're telling our age now, Devon. I am, you know, it's kind of like that. You know, he had the father with all the money and then he was the kid that had all the video games and the train going through and all that.
That's him. You know, he never really had to work for that money or probably even knew what it was like to help that money built. But yet he could throw it around and then feel that he could say what he can say what he has to say with this. And I remember going back to what I said earlier about me having those three meetings. Once the third meeting happened in Orlando, I looked at my age and I said, you know what? I can't do this.
I, I can't, I, I love my boys to death, but I can't come and work for an organization like this. It's just number one, too unorganized and #2 this man is insane. I'm so not No, if, if, if everything would have went well and I started working for that company, I think I would have had to lose my mind. And I don't think I would have been in the right place mentally to be able to. I don't care how much money he threw. It's just I just saw so much stuff that it was like, what the
hell is going on here? And for people within the organization to say that to me that I knew, you know, very good friends of mine, they were like, Yvonne, this place is so unorganized. It's probably the worst that I've ever seen of any other place that I've ever been to. And I had to agree with them. Some of the things I was hearing and sitting and seeing, I just couldn't believe it. I hope that he can get a grip on things like this so these things can stop being said about the company.
Tony, you have a phenomenal company. Take charge. Start doing the right thing. Get people behind you that know what the hell they're doing. Insane. Not these yay OS who freaking get a podcast or they're dirt sheet riders and you have them by your side. Go to hell with those guys, man. Screw you guys. What the hell have you ever done? What bumps have you ever taken? When did you ever control a crowd in the palm of your hands? You know, when did you ever do anything meaningful in this
business? But yet these are the people that he brings in his inner circle because they're yes people. They're yes men. At least when Vince McMahon had yes men, they these were guys that actually did something in the business or knew the business, not these dirt sheet writers that he has by his side. You know, the, the interesting part about this is it's not just AEW itself that is having these challenges. When you look at folks who have partnered with them, it hasn't
been a pretty picture. You have TNA, who you know, at the time they were Impact Wrestling, what have you, would they partnered with AW was a disaster and they lost a good chunk of their audience for a while and their TV ratings were in the toilet. By the time that was done, allowing Tony Kahn and and Shivani and and also Omega and those guys to bury Impact Wrestling on their own television programming week after week for months at a time.
It was just, it was ridiculous. It really hurt them. It really hurt them. And they're only now starting to turn the corner on making that type of big mistake. And certainly pairing up with WWE doesn't hurt, especially considering they're being treated with far more respect. So shout out to TNA. But you have a situation where today Bushi wrote the parent company of New Japan Pro Wrestling. They revealed some of their
financials. They're a publicly traded company, so they have to do that. And to make a Long story short, they're down about 7% year over year. And New Japan Pro Wrestling is just, you know, for lack of a better term, they're in a toilet. Now. This coincides with New Japan Pro Wrestling's relationship with AEW and it it expanding. I mean, you even have a Jon Moxley being IWGP world champion.
And clearly that hasn't done anything in terms of a net positive for New Japan Pro Wrestling at all. In fact, they they just are in a downturn period. It's clear that they don't have enough stars. It's clear that they're leaning on AE W and AE WS, quote UN quote. Stars are not big enough to help New Japan and in fact, AE WS just really taking from them. What's your take on that, Devon? Just the fact that even Tony Khan's influences is having a net negative reaction on their
business partners, let. Me ask you a question. When you look at TNA and WWE, when they're merging together using talent, they put in correct storylines with these matches with a Jordan Grayson, what what they're doing with her and NXT champion what what how they brought her into the Rumble and they're doing storylines that people can invest in and
feel what is AW doing with that? Nobody's feeling it the way he thinks that they're feeling it. Because if that was the case, the numbers would be up. People will be talking about it and the whole 9. The difference is you have somebody who Triple H, who knows the game, you know, who knows how to do things like this and is working together with great wrestling minds that can, you know, put a match together or put a match on that makes sense to the people so they can invest
in emotional investment. People want to see it. People are dying to see it. That's the difference between those two companies working together and AW and Japan. There is no structure with that company. That's the problem. There is no, it seems like there's no leadership or what have you. It's like the blind leading the blind in a sense. And I hate to say this because, you know, both organizations are really, really good and have great talent.
And I can't stress that enough. I don't want these people to think that I'm burying the company because I'm not. But if Tony doesn't get a control of it again, it's going to become like another WCW. God damn it. Wake up. Shit. Enough's enough. Listen to the wrestling minds. Listen. You always talk about you like to, you know, listen to the people and let and give the
people what they want. But you're not because if you did, your arenas will be full and stop trying to go after WWE and talking about them or how bad they are or how you took somebody from their organization and made them bigger stars than they were in WWE here. The bottom line is this. The only reason why you have them is because you're throwing a boatload of money at them. That's the only reason why.
The other reason, you know, could be also is that the people that you're grabbing from that company and bringing them over, they're a little frustrated, they're fed up or they know things are not going the way they want, so they're going to want going to go over here. I think it's, you know, and it's better over on the other side. But we all know the grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side, especially when you get
there, you know? So again, all these people you know, that are talking, you know, crap, you know, about the WWE company when they were there and they were on top of, they were doing well, you know, you weren't talking crap then, but now you are BS. So to go back, in order for things to work, you have to have a mind that knows how to do that. Tony is that doesn't have a mind for the wrestling business. You know, he's a great guy, yes, he's a nice guy, but he doesn't know.
It's almost like having Dixie Carter run the show in TNA. The minute that happened, TNA's downfall, she was a mock for the business. She knew nothing about this business. And I feel somewhat that's Tony Todd. He knows it from a fan's point of view, but not from a business point of view. I think that's the difference. Well, Speaking of difference, or rather difference makers, breaking news, she's back. That's right. Ria Ripley, AKA Mommy has
returned. She's ready to stick it to Liv Morgan. She's ready to reclaim her dumb, dumb. In fact, Dominic Mysterio said to Ria Ripley, you're my girl. And she says no, I'm not yours, you're mine. So, Deepa, what do you think of all that? Well, if mommy said that to me, I'd be like yes, Mommy, I belong to you. You right about that. I mean, there's no question. I mean we Ripley is fine as hell. Yes, Dirk, she right as I said that she's fine as hell.
And you know, just her coming back, the suspense, the build up of this, the WWE, this is what I'm saying. They did it so good. They did it so right where you saw Liv Morgan trying to infiltrate the Judgement Day and their crew, and she did a damn good job at it. She caused the seat or what have you. And then after taking the title, now the next step was taking Dom away. And that's exactly what she did. And the build up to that was phenomenal.
Now all of a sudden the kiss happens and they're tagging together and all of that. And then all of a sudden here comes Mommy. That place just exploded. Rio Ripley came down with a with just this. The look on her face, how she came down and the expression on both Dom and Liv Morgan was priceless. It was like they saw, they saw 10,000 ghosts coming towards the ring to get them. I mean, it was freaking. It was great storytelling, it really was.
I enjoyed it to the fullest and I've been enjoying it as they've been projecting it on TV. It's one of those things where my God, mommy's doing. I mean, I would have never thought in a million years, and there's nothing against her but that this type of deal would have been going on with Liv Dom and and and Ria Ripley. But that just goes to show you how damn good Triple H and whoever else is with him in his corner is, is how they doing things.
They're getting you emotionally invested in their storylines and that is what you have to do in order to get the people to care. You got to get them emotionally invested into it and they're doing a damn good job of it. And like I said, mommy is mommy's mommy because. She sure is. There's only one mommy and you know, if, if her and I were dating, she'd be mommy every day.
JJ also better be careful because I don't know, he might be barking up the wrong tree trying to get a date with mommy. He might be saying ye. What? What? What does he say ye? Yes, Sir, he he says ye. That all day long, I'm telling you, she'll put a hurt on him. He better be careful. He she'll put a hurt on him. Sometimes the old school sees what the new school is bringing to the table and she's bringing a lot to the table. So you better be careful.
Jay USOI, hope you're listening, brother. Old school over here. Devon Dudley's try to pull your coat to something. Shout out to Mobbie, Shout out to Dom. Shout out to live. Fantastic program they have going on there. Everyone's intrigued, Everyone's tuning in. It's it's interesting. It's very interesting and it's fun, refreshing something different. And that's OK. That's OK. Speaking of, OK, I mean, you saw it, Devon smack down.
Cody Rhodes was being held back while the Bloodline dismantled Randy Orton and Cody taken a page out of his father's book, The American Dream. Dusty Rhodes, Cody Rhodes screaming take me, don't take him, take me as he watched Randy Orton just get decimated. I mean goodness gracious Jacob fought 2 with the Super kicks over and over and over again. Randy was worse for wear. What's your take on what the bloodline is doing? And now that they've claimed another victim, this time Randy Orton.
Again, perfect storyline. Perfect storyline where the people got invested and the emotion was so real. I again, I can't put into words again, I'm going to repeat myself because it's exactly what it is. You're putting you're making people invest in a storyline that you're telling that you're doing that is going very well and people are reacting to it. And that's the thing. So, you know, my take on it is this.
WWE keeps hitting it out the park every single time, and I'm loving it because if it's not the mommy and Dom thing, it's this. It's the Cody Rose and you know the one. Like, again, they're investing in the storylines and really, really telling the story and they're keeping you going. It's no different than the attitude error. This is exactly what they were doing in the attitude error. Why? Which is why everybody from the opening match to the main event
was over. Why everybody was over during that time. People did not want to turn the TV when the commercial came on during the Attitude Era because they were afraid that they were going to miss whatever it was when they came back. So again, kudos to the WWE, Triple H, and I've got to say, Paul Heyman has got to be helping out with this these storylines because it has Paul Heyman written all over it to take a page out of Dusty Rose. Well, you know, take me instead. Take me.
But the bloodlines like, Nah, we're going to kill him because we know that means more to you than it would be beating your ass. And it showed. Kudos to everybody involved in that segment. Again, my hat goes off to the WWE with that. Well said, Well said, Devon. This past weekend you were at the 90s con. So how was that? How was the 90s wrestling con? It was OK, you know, it wasn't really advertised or promoted the right way, but it was OK.
I still met some great fans and had a good time, some good talks, but it could have been better. Right now, promoters, come on now you, you have these, these megastars, these folks from yesterday, some folks from today, even few folks mixed in from for tomorrow. The whole idea at these conventions is that you got to
get the word out. You know, if you get the word out, people going to show up. But if you're not utilizing not just newspapers and billboards, not just TV and radio, you got to utilize these these podcasts, man. You know, you get the word out on these podcasts and hey, it's a whole different ball game. I mean, here on Devon and the Duke and also on Duke Loves Wrestling.
You hear it promoted the River City Wrestling Con and made sure that we did it within a ample amount of time, you know, months and months and months. In fact, most of this year is promoting that convention and it in turn, it was the most successful pro wrestling convention in the history of the state of Florida and per capita is one of the most successful wrestling conventions this year in the world. There's a reason for that, folks.
So these podcasts that actually have an audience that is captivated and and interested, they spend money and they want to meet their heroes, They want to bring the family out and what have you. That can't happen if you're not tapping into all of the different mediums you can tap
into. So you know, no disrespect to anybody and we know that it's not the easiest business in the world to be a promoter, but if you're going to bring these folks out, these legends, you better make sure you're promoting it properly so that everyone can walk away with a great experience, especially the fans. How, how crazy is it that you would have something and the
word didn't get out well enough. People who wanted to be there weren't there because they didn't know if a, if a tree falls in the woods and there's no one to hear it, did it really happen? They don't know. So just some advice out there. Anyway, Devon, for all the serious promoters out there and the wonderful fans or what have you, what's the best way that everyone can keep up with you all? Right. Well, you can follow me at Testify Devon on Instagram.
I'm on there a lot. You can also follow me on Testify Devon on Twitter, but I'm mostly on Instagram and I do answer a lot of the messages that are written to me. Even the fans that think they know everything and want to try to tell me off, I don't really get too invested in them, but I say a couple of words here and there, then I block them. So. But yeah, you can find me there. And I mean again, you also find me at Devon Dudley Academy, which is my wrestling school in Winter Park, FL.
You know, give us a call. Look it up at www.devondudleyacademy.com. If you think that you want to take your wrestling ability to the next level and you're tired of the school that you're in wasting your time or you just want to start off in a good school, give us a call. All the information is on the website and would love to take you. Great stuff there. And of course, folks, hey, reach out. You just heard it from the man himself, Devon Dudley. He personally will be responding to you.
So that's not a bad deal there. Of course, Duke loves wrestling on Facebook, on Twitter, Duke loves wrestling@gmail.com. Let me know what you think. You got birthday shout outs. You have questions for Devon. You know, you, you want to hear us talk about anything? Certainly send in those suggestions, those questions, those comments, we will actually shout you out. We've done the birthday shout outs and all that good stuff there. You've heard that before. That's what we're here to do.
You know, just have a good time for sure before I get out of here And, and Devon, I appreciate you letting me have an open mic to wrap this up here. I just want to say something because I, I have been receiving some feedback from folks who are so shaken up and, and, and upset and what have you over the fact that Devon would have the audacity to criticize AEW. And you know, me, I've been doing this since day one that, that company's been around.
I've been calling out some of the challenges that I see there and, and really some of the, the marketing mistakes that Tony Kahn has made. And I've told him personally and, and Tony has responded to me and we've had some interesting back and forth which, you know, I, I have not been shy about it made that public. But I want to make something clear, and I know Devon has said it before, but I want to really hammer this point home, folks.
There is no way on God's green earth that we want AEW to fail. That's not what's going on here. Congratulations on Dynamite hitting that 250th episode and all that good stuff. We don't want this to fail, folks. If any of you have listened to Duke Loves Wrestling, you have heard from people who are in AEW. You have heard Tony Shivani, who's a great man in a legend, Thunderosa, Shane Taylor, the Renegade Twins.
Do I, you know, Con? I can go on and on and on and on. Layla Gray, We've had some fantastic folks who are actively under contract in AEW and we care about them. Devon has trained folks who are in AEW, he cares about them. Devon has worked with folks who are in AEW, he cares about them. So this isn't a situation where we're we're praying for their demise or anything of the sort. And anyone who is interpreting it that way, it's unfortunate because that's not the case here.
Here's the reality of the situation. In order for this company to continue to be a valuable place where wrestlers and people who work behind the scenes have another option, where they can make a great living for themselves and their families, where they can still be seen on television, where they can still be top stars. In order for this thing to work, Tony Kahn has to foreclose on whoever he was previously in terms of how he's been running this company. He's got to shut that down.
Got to start from scratch here in the sense that it's time to utilize the great wrestling minds that are around you because there's plenty of them in that company. It's time to loosen up the reins a little bit and get some professionals who actually know how to run a business successfully and not just be a trust fund baby, but actually know how to run a business successfully.
It's time to bring these folks in, and I think piece by piece, Tony is starting to do that a little bit, but it's time to ramp that up. You got to show these television partners, whether it be WBD or anybody else, that you're a serious company with serious plans to last beyond 2024. And you can't do that when you're doing goofy nonsense all the damn time. You certainly can't do that with Tony Khan being the spokesperson of the company because he just really doesn't do a good job of that.
So again, this is this is like tough love here. We love pro wrestling. We love the pro wrestlers. We love the people who work in wrestling. We love the fact that no matter what happens, you're generating content that we can discuss. And of course, our listeners, they love it because they want to hear perspective about
things. Hearing from a Hall of Famer like Devon, who knows all the players, and then hearing from a fan like myself who's been fortunate enough to interview a lot of folks but is a lifelong fan. And I can speak from the perspective of a consumer of someone who they're trying to market to. It's a nice 1-2 punch. So certainly it's great content for us, but it's not great content for us. If you go away, I don't want you to go away. And I don't think anyone, for the most part, commenting on
this stuff wants AEW to fail. But it's disturbing, quite frankly, that WWE was able to pivot and, you know, clean up a lot of their mistakes and provide a product that we were hoping AEW was going to be. That's disturbing. All AEW had to do was just be what you said you were going to be. Unfortunately, you just have not hit the mark, Tony. So while we celebrate the fact that you've lasted this long, there is a deep and serious concern that come 2025, you may not be here anymore.
And if you are, it's not going to be anywhere on the scale that you are right now. We don't want that to be people we care about are going to be affected by that. We don't want that, brother. So it's imperative that change gets ushered in like yesterday right away. This whole nonsense about, well, there's still a young company, Give them time, Give them time. Time is up, man. Time is up. You you should not be a modern company and you need to be given time to do the most basic stuff
such as treating women fairly. There is no reason why AEW should still average only one women's match per television episode. It doesn't make sense. And for those of you out there who want to say well they just had two matches, two women's matches on collision the other night and and two weeks ago they they had two women's matches on Dynamite and will. Will they have nice segments? No, Look at the yearly average. What does it amount to?
The same thing it's amounted to all along for the whole history of the company. That is not acceptable. There's something wrong with that now. Thank goodness you finally had some people of color become world champion back-to-back here. You have some old Joe. Now you have Swerve. But the way Swerve has been treated as ridiculous, Swerve has not been presented as the face of the company. Swerve has been presented as another guy in the company.
When do we correct that problem? I heard people saying, whoa, it was such a big deal, it's a big win that he defeated Will Osprey. Is it? The last time I checked, Will Osprey was never WWE World Champion and he's never been AEW Champion and he's never even been TNA Champion. How is it a big deal that Swerve defeated Will Osprey, a guy that he's defeated previously in his career, in both their careers? That's not a big deal. It's ridiculous. Will Osprey, hey, might be a
nice guy, all that good stuff. He has not arrived yet. Let me say that again, Will Osprey has not arrived yet. Defeating him when you're the world champion is not a big deal, but you know it would be a big deal. Swerve defeating Jon Moxley, a guy who's been champion in the WWEAEW New Japan, yes, that's a victory. That makes sense. Let's have plenty of that, put him in a feud and have Swerve defeat Moxley over and over again. Definitively, that makes sense.
You want to make a face of your company, that's an easy way to do it. Get MJF in there with Swerve, put them in a feud. Have Swerve come out on top, That will do it. Swerve should be beating every single previous champion in that company. And I can't beat CM Punk. He's gone, but everybody else and I know Omega, he's injured, so whatever. But everyone available Swerve should be defeating them. And anyone who has not held that title or has not held the WWE
title, they're chopped liver. They're chopped liver. They have not arrived yet. It's not a big deal to defeat them. He should be defeating him. He is your world champion. He's supposed to be the face of your company. That is not a feather in the cap. So don't sell me a Bale of goods and tell me that they're roses when in reality they're manure. Give me a break. Again, we want the best for AE W And that's the other part about this.
When you listen to Devon's criticisms, when you listen to my criticisms, there's always information about how to improve. It's never just that's wrong and that's the end of it. It's never just complaining just to complain. There's always, hey, this is how you can make that better. There's a reason for that, folks. We care and many out of you out there listening care and all of you fragile folks out there who just enjoy wrestling and, and, and well, does it have to be
tribalism and all this nonsense? I, I'm just going to tell you flat out Sox versus Yankees in the, in, in Major League Baseball, the Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees. It's the biggest rivalry in sports, Celtics versus Lakers in the NBA, the Boston Celtics versus a lot Los Angeles Lakers. It's one of the biggest rivalries in sports history. Do I need to keep going in every sport and explain this to you? Rivalries matter. You see it on an interesting
scale with the WNBA, right? You got Caitlin Clark and and you have Angel Reese. These two powerhouses coming out of college now they're in the WNBA, right? Rivalries. This is healthy for the sport. Look how it's driven ticket sales and interest in every other sport. Pro wrestling is sports entertainment. But the same concept in regard
to rivalries matter. When you pick a company over another company and you want one to do well and you want them the best, the other company, that's a rivalry. WCW and WWE went through that. TV ratings and ticket sales and making money and all that went through the roof for everybody. It was fantastic. Fans were engaged like never
before. So for all of you fragile people out there who can't wrap your head around the concept of a rivalry and and you know, touch grass, touch grass, well, stay off the wacky tabacky because clearly it's messing up. It's clouding your judgement. Don't touch that grass. Stop touching that grass. It's not helping you. It's messing you up. It's getting you paranoid. You're getting that skunk weed. You're not getting the good
stuff, baby. All right, I'm just telling you right now, Smarten up. Having some type of US versus them situation is actually a good thing, especially for people who are emotionally stable enough to be in on it, in on the joke, the whole Red Sox versus Yankee. Listen, I've seen people come to blows over that. That's a little extreme, but you know, I grew up seeing that happen. But I'll tell you right now, both of those franchises make money hand over fist because of
that rivalry. It's just the way it is, man. So why can't we have that with WWE and AEW? Because I'm going to tell you when you want one company to to be more successful than the other, when you pick a side or when you switch sides, you don't want the rivalry to to end. You want the the the rival to still exist and come back another day. And hey, you know, quiet as it's kept. Sometimes you want the the rival to kick your ass so that you can come back 10 times stronger and
be motivated. It's not a rivalry if it's one sided all the time. You need some kind of mix up in there, right? That's the whole concept of 83 weeks, which Eric Bischoff was gracious enough to talk about that on the show. I digress. Listen, folks, we want AE W to stick around. We want that to be a place where people could make some money. We want the rivalry to exist, but we need you to be healthy and stable. Stop acting like a bunch of lunatics out there. Some of you take it easy.
It's OK. You'll make it through this. I promise. Anyway, on behalf of the Hall of Famer himself, Devon Dudley, this is the Duke from Duke Loves Wrestling. Letting you know we appreciate you and we thank you. Can't wait for you to join us again for another episode of Devon and the Duke. Take it away. Tony Shavani, this is Tony Stevani. And we're desperately out of time on Duke Love Wrestling.