And nine. Ignition six five four three two one zero All engine running.
It's Tuesday. You know what that means.
It's time for Ignition with the ae W fat podcast team AW Dynamite This week Spring Breakthrough is the two hundred and eighty ninth episode of AW Dynamite, which surpasses WCW Monday Nitro, which was on TNT as the longest running wrestling show prime time on the Turner Networks. Just to give you an idea of the accomplishment this is. This is really interesting to me. RAW has sixteen hundred and sixty three episodes. I thought that they would have more.
W WCW Thunder had one hundred and fifty six episodes, and SmackDown hassand three hundred and thirty three one thousan three hundred and thirty seven episodes.
Collision is in eighty nine. So Collision will hit one hundred.
Episodes at on June twenty eighth, I think it is, And then Dynamite's gonna hit three hundred episodes less than a week later on July second, So AW is gonna be hitting some milestones right in consecutive order. But anyway, let's get on with the show. Because we've got a lot to talk about this is Kelson, and I wanted to thank Barry and Sutton and Nett for coming in and joining us tonight. I thought it would be interesting
with the spring breakthrough episode. We've got quite a bit we talked about this last week, got quite a bit of wrestlers that have not wrestled in twenty twenty five yet or have been missing for most of the Jack Perry, Britt Baker, you know, Rijo to Karushida.
A lot of them are on the women's side, like Anna Jay as well. They have not wrestled in aw match in twenty twenty five. So remember we've got the Hangman Adam Page against the Joker tomorrow night. Plus there's opportunities for I think there's gonna be opportunities for returns and guest appearances. What do you think? Can you let's talk about this.
Who's gonna be Hagman Adam Page's opponent and who may just show up?
Could be Jack Perry, could be There's a lot of people.
It could be.
I think it's Josh Alexander.
Yeah, yeah, I think it's gonna be Josh. Would it be cool if it was Lucasaurus or Keith Lee.
Or somebody like that coming back. I mean, there's all kinds of things.
What about like uh other not even not even in this Ohen Heart Joker scenario. But would it be cool if maybe Brian Danielson stuck his nose in at the Trios Championship TOMORROWY would just.
Show him in the audience watching just in a seat, like not even a sweet just like hanging out drinking a coke or if people or on the.
Back, maybe he gives a pep talk to the to the opps. I can't call him the ops. I like calling him the opps, uh, the opps because I'm nasty that way, and you know, and then just hanging out in the back watching it on a monitor, you know, with a plastic bag over his head. I don't know.
That horrible eyepad that.
Somebody else it could be it's free agent soon. Jeff Cobb.
Uh, Jeff Cobb is already on the internal roster. I believe of w w E.
It's pretty much a given that Jeff cobbs going to w W. I don't think there's a hope hope in hell that I mean, look at Jeff Cobb he's literally got that Samoan muscular build to him that WWE just loves. I mean, he's a shoe fitted great with that.
Would I would not be shocked to see him on Night two Media. So he's got his match Saturday at Kirrikan Hall, which is his last match for New Japan, So that would be early Saturday our time. He can hop on a plane and beat to Vegas.
I really don't see the point in that though, because he's gonna be wrestling our equivalent of Saturday morning in the United States, and then he's gonna fly eighteen hours or however to how long it is. I think it's I think it's more because it's in Vegas.
If their debut and you at WrestleMania, you absolutely make that trip.
Yeah. You know what, though, I don't think Jeff COM's big enough to even care for they care about.
Which night, which night is the Three Way with Rains and is that night one or night too?
No?
Yes, okay, all right, I know we're off top.
I just I would be like asking me about w w E is asking me about me like and asking me about I get it.
I get it.
So yeah, I mean no disrespect. I just don't watch it. I don't have time. It's not that I hate it, I don't. I want to make that clear. I don't hate w w E. I just have so much to do with a with a w fan hub and all that that I just don't.
I mean, I would have no no life at all. You know, I have?
How much life did any of us have? This week? We've got wrestling seven days in a row, Raw, NXT, Dynamite Collisions, SmackDown, Mania one, Mania two Like, and not to mention all the indie shows this week. It is the spoil of the riches for its your wrestling.
Fans would like t j p w's running shows. I'm stardom is I believe you know?
So much? Stuff?
Go ahead?
I'm sorry, Kells.
You know here's another idea too.
We talked about Josh Alexander, you know what about the women's match between Athena and Mercedes Monette. Keep in mind that Resurgence is coming up and that pay that event is uh at nj at JPW. Event is going to feature Mercedes Monette defending her New Japan Strong Women's Championship against Mina Shirakawa and Azumi, both of whom obviously Mina Shirakawa has appeared in the W so has A Zumi. I wouldn't put it over if they showed up, you know, I or one of them at least.
I mean it's a possibility. There are so many people that could show up and make sense, Tomorrownay, are.
We expecting clean finishes in the Mercedes Athena match coming off off your tip there. If they're going to show up, that's going to be the match they show up on. And so I could see shenanigans going down there.
Well, don't forget if A Zoomi and Mina Shear Cow or even Billy Starks come out during the match, they get set to the back. The rules of the ow at Hart state that there's no has.
No outside I thought that was.
It's not no outside interference, it's nobody can be ringside. So something happened.
They could take a like Mina Shear Colla and Zumi could theoretically kick Mercedes ass in the back before the match, but that wouldn't make much sense.
Yeah, but Julia Hart was at ringside for the.
UH and yeah, his match.
The rule is you're you can have people out there, but it's no outside interference.
That's that's why I was used because I remember. I remember she had that really sharp black blouse and and and slacks, and she's she looks really sharp.
So yeah, well, I mean, I don't think.
I don't think you're gonna have it's gonna be a it's gonna be a slam dunk that you're gonna have. Uh, Monet is gonna win it. They're not gonna have her losing Boston, There's no way. So pretty much they're undefeated, sixty three winning streak for Uh, it's gonna come to an end.
Bhu. I want to hear you say the name.
I can't remember her name.
It's right there in the picture the picture. Oh my god, brain dead today.
Okay, yeah, now we haven't heard from you at all. What are your thoughts? Who's the joker?
Who you to return?
I think that the joker might be Josh alex Xander, but I'm hopeful that it's Eddie Kingston holding out hope here, So I see, let's see what else. I think Mercedes Monnette will win. Yeah, I'm I'm just excited. In general, there's a lot of wrestling going on, so I'm kind of overloaded with wrestling. I can't get Yeah.
Well, well, thank you thanks for joining the podcast.
Oh you're welcome, thank you all.
He took up two minutes. I'm so proud, you know.
So kelsel. If Eddie Kingston is the joker, how how loud will you pop tomorrow night? We'll be able to hear you all the way down here.
There will definitely be a noise.
I'll be able to hear you.
Love Eddie.
I love Eddie Kingston. I want to have Eddie Kingston's babies.
Oh god, I wonder if he don't have different ring gear, if he's changed his ring gear into something else.
Depends on how much weight he's gained. Although I've heard no. Seriously, though, I've heard that he's looking decent. I mean, he's looking good. I think it's I think I think it's bullshit. But I've heard that.
He might he might look like a whole different person.
He might he may come out in a Lucasaurus bask and we won't know the difference. He may he may have grown seven or eight inches.
You never know.
Maybe he's been gravity this whole time.
It's interesting you mentioned that the weight loss. One thing I did notice for quite a few eight of your formers is they have they've leaned out. They haven't put on masks, but they've leaned out, and they look a little faster, and they just they just look better. I mean Adam Cole is a great example of that, him getting really really great shape. I think he's the best he's looking a long time. But quite a few folks
have leaned out a decent amount. Yeah, it's because they've got some new trainers in a training table and dietitians, or they just got a whole bunch of people taking Quinn Butterol or whatever right now to help lean out. But they the rosters looked really good, really really good, especially people con doctromentry too. Go ahead, Kelsel.
Totally scientific noticing this by the way, I don't want to be sound creepy, but Julia Hard is really thinned out. But she's but she's got muscular muscular Her arms are jacked or her stomach is jack but she's noticeably.
Slimmer a cheerleader base from all that training, which is body weight and everything. You just build up such a good core muscle doing any any of that type of tumbling. It's got such a great base to work with regardless of what she wants to do.
Yeah, do you.
Think, uh, do you think that Sting and or Flair will show up?
Well, I highly doubt that Flair will show up.
He's under contract, is under contract, he's under compact. Then he was a major, he was a major part of w CW with Stings, So I could see them both not necessarily coming out on stage, out out to the live, but be backstage for a segment. I mean, it is a big deal that they're passing w CW.
That's a good point, Sutton. Until you mentioned that, I hadn't really connected the w CW connection and the nitrous stuff, even though Kelson kicked us off with that, I feel like an idiot. Now that's that's a really good point. I didn't even consider singing. I think that's a good point, Sutton. That'd be a good opportunity.
To that would be cool to see.
A celebration where celebrating this achievement.
You know, I don't know.
I don't know if you saw that stupid storyboard I put up for the opening of Dynamite tomorrow night.
Did you see it? I posted it? It was it was basically for those who didn't see it, because it's on the aw fat Hub subreddit, It's on the Wrestling Hub discord server, and I'm also I think I posted it on Blue Sky as well. It's got some weird responses.
Basically, the opening of Dynamite starts with Shane McMahon standing basically, I picture like standing outside of Tony Kahn's door, you know, the door with the little paper.
Taped to it that says Tony Kahan.
And he says, they said, hey, you know, I need to talk to Tony. I have business. You know, we have business to discuss, right, And the next thing you see is KaBlam your kapal or whatever. And then the next seed is Shane McMahon laying outside and basically the trash with Megan Bain standing over him saying, I'll.
Be right there, Tony. I had to take the trash out. And that's how the stories, that's how the Dynamite starts to write.
You know, that's that's just my stupid contribution. You know, one person that we haven't seen in a while that could make their return tomorrow night. It kind of makes sense to do it, is Mariah May. Look, there's been speculation that her contract is up, which if you remember, she started and I believe it was November of twenty twenty three, so she signed a two year contract. It's going to be up in November of this year, so she still got a few months to go seven months ago,
I guess before her contract is up. But but you know, hey, this is a big show, and this has where you may want to bring somebody like Mariah May back.
Sean Ross sat today said she was under contract as at least as early as August of twenty twenty three, so that's a few months less, but I think that's enough time to run a short term program with her, especially if they're bringing Mina And like, I don't like how Tony keeps people on the shelf when they're under contract or their contracts coming up. I think he really misses an opportunity to have them run a final program and put somebody over that's traditionally outside and pro wrestling,
especially it's a bigger star. Mariah May is a former real champion, giving the rub to somebody I think would be great if you're bringing men to share Kalla in anytime soon, setting up something between the two of them that ends up in a career versus career match whenever it's appropriate. Obviously, Mariah does the job, puts over Mina. There's something you can do with her. You're paying her for it, so use her. You know she's leaving, she's leaving,
big deal, but use her. It's not like she doesn't do work professionally or anybody doesn't like her. I'm sure she'll run the program, especially if she's putting over her friend Mina. Take advantage of it.
Man.
I think they're the wrong idea.
I don't think.
I don't think she's going anywhere. I think, like you said, all alone Kelson, the one woman that did more wrestling in the end of twenty twenty four and into twenty twenty five was her. She wrestled all the time, and I think she's just on a break. They finally gave her, got her a chance to get her an opportunity to have a little vacation, get out of the ring, get to recover a little bit. And I think she'll be back very soon.
Yeah, I mean she if I'm not mistaken. At least in the women's division.
Maria May had by far the most matches in twenty twenty four and Look.
I hope she doesn't go anywhere and they're starting them in teams.
Yeah.
Well, look, you know, you got to give Maria a credit. She signed a two year contract, according to the reports, and she did a lot with that contract, arguably the most popular storyline in AW history with Tony Storm. She was the AW Women's World Champion for months in minis and months and months. She didn't slow down. She was out there performing, she was out there doing promos and whatnot. Look, you got to give her credit for signing a two year contract and having confidence in herself.
And taking the risk if she wouldn't get injured.
I mean, there was always the risk that she could get injured, and that would have put a you know, kebash on everything for her. But now she's got leverage, bargaining leverage.
Ed.
Look, AW is going to pay more than WWE. But it can be argued as well that WWE is the dream, you know, But I don't know, it's it's it's up to her and it's up to Tony Kahan. We could speculate all we want, but we're just talking out of her ass.
You know.
I was chatting with somebody earlier today too about the difference between the promotions and the goals of individuals. And as much as I would be bummed to see her move over to WWE, it's because of all the people if she didn't get a chance to work with an AAW. You know, there's a lot of matches we never got to see. And that's the case of a lot of the talent that jumps. I wasn't a huge Cmpunk fan, but I appreciate him as a worker, and I never
got to see the Cmpunk versus Kinny Omega match. You know, there's matches that we miss out on when talent moves. But I look at Mariah and for many people coming back to your point in the dream like, WWE's the hot promotion right now, and for many people they do. You know, I don't know many people, but for performers, they may want a run where they're doing three years, where WWE runs everything top to bottom. They're doing all the promotion, they're operating under the TKO media umbrella that
AW simply can't provide. They want to be in front of ten thousand fans twice a week as opposed to once a month at a pay per view or something. You know, there's differences. She won't be able to work anywhere else, which she didn't really do. It's not like we saw her go to stardom or take New Japan dates. See, he's going to be on the road more, which might be fine because perhaps that's what she wants to do because of the Median stuff. So it's just balancing the differences.
There's a lot of performers that prefer AW because they like they enjoy working a couple of indies. They like going and doing rev Pro shows or doing DeFi shows or GCW or going to New Japan or or Triple A. And that's not something you get to do, at least until recently in WWE. So there's differences. It's really what the performer wants. And she was down here in Orlando and posts some pictures and if she chootued to go to WWE, so be it. But I really hope they
don't waste a few months she's here. We get a fun little program and she puts somebody over on the way out with Mina and some other performers and give us a couple of those matches we didn't get to see it.
Yeah, you know, here's the thing. With Mariah May and other performers. Aw's been around for five years, where pretty much anybody that's fifty or younger has basically grown up with WWE. So that is a disadvantage when you're growing up. You know, when I was growing up, I didn't fantasize about being an AW wrestler because AW didn't exist. You know,
that's you know, that's that's just the truth. Now, fifteen twenty years from now, yeah, there will be kids that grow up it would be like fall that had fallen in love with ae W and they would want to be AW wrestlers.
You know, you're gonna have that.
AW is gonna have that going for them, but it's gonna be a while.
There's still a very young company.
Stephanieve Kerr is a great example of that. She had said her dream was always WWE, and when they offered, she wasn't even any consider AW because she grew up seeing WWE. And that's to your point. When you've been around decades, it's it's of course you're going to be the dream job or the job people grow because that's what was in town or that's what was in place when you were a kid.
Yeah, yeah, you know, let's shift gears here because.
Uh, somebody brought up a really good topic and I wanted to bring it up because there are a w wrestlers that maybe we weren't we didn't get or we just didn't like them when we first saw them, but then they grew on you, much like to me. You know, I will fully admit that I was not a big Eddie Kingston fan, and.
Now I absolutely love what he's doing in the ring. So oh my god. What so anyway, anyway.
I detect sarcasm, not for me.
He's been doing such great work in the ring for the last what three years? Two years? Year and a half he's been gone. I mean, oh sorry three years.
That boy, you have no concept of five.
I just did.
Not let me. Let's here's a I need do a public service announcement based on what Sutton just said. Kids, crack is whack? Three years? Holy cow? Anyway, So let's.
I just want to ask the panel, what is what is if any an aw wrestler that not that you hated them, but you maybe you just didn't get them, or you were hoping for something more from them, and now they've come through.
What wrestlers at AAW have grown on you the most.
You go first, nut.
Someone who has grown on me as MJS. I hated them at first and just thought he was a tool. But he's pretty entertaining. Well, so he did the hurt syndicate really got me.
No, let me ask you this, No, let me ask you this? Was this what you say you thought he was a tool? Do you mean that you thought he was a tool.
In real life or did you think that his character just not was your was your dislike for a W R for MJF dot a w MJF I just pulled a suttongf genuine or based on his character.
Genuine. I thought I could see him being his a W character in real life, and he.
Just aggravated me.
So he's if he is playing a character, he's very very good at it. I can see him behaving that way all the time everywhere he goes. But I've started to find him entertaining, so that that'd be somebody who won me over.
Yeah, okay, well what about let's go to Sutton. Let's let's let's hear from Sutton.
And I don't really have anybody that has grown on me or who has I mean, I don't. I don't look at wrestling the way most people do. I like everything they do, and if it doesn't agree with what I if I got a problem with it, I just roll with it to see what happens in it. It's one of those things where I don't necessarily hate anybody. I mean, I have a despise I kind of despise DMD because she's terrible, But other than that, I just if they use her, they use her. She does what
she does whatever. I'm not a big fan of mo A because I don't I think, don't think she's gotten any better than she was when she was in WWE. But she's wrestling, and when she wrestles, she wrestles. I can sit there and watch the match and go, yep, exactly what I thought. So I don't really have anybody that I has grown on me or who has gotten worse on me. I just watch it to enjoy what they do.
Fair enough, What about you, Barry.
So?
I want to go back to nets for a second with m JF like he lives his game McNett so like if people encounter him not in public, he's his gimmick. I don't know if people actually know what he's like in real life, for very few people do because he one lives his gimmick and it's hilarious. So I thought that was really fascinating you picked that because yeah, that's out in public autograph like he lives his gimmick.
It's undertaker.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, Barry.
I'm Barry Barry.
Let me interrupt you because I saw an interview with a celebrity and I can't remember who it was, but it was like a couple of years ago, and they were asked about MJF because he said that he or she said that they met MJF.
And this person said, I don't know if I about that. I'm supposed to say this, but MGF is just a sweetheart.
The real person right now, the real person is a sweetheart. Yeah, he's really good on eye handles things out in public. I've always been impressed with that. As far as who hasn't improved or impressed me the most, I'm going to go back to Wheeler Yuda. I have a a kind of a shtick I say with friends of mine when we're seeing certain guys on TV that might be news is unlike they just look like an indie wrestler, like they scream indie wrestler. They don't belong on TV. They
look like an indie guy. And I don't mean like an indie guy who's out there grinding and was a former champ and earned it. I mean, like, you know, somebody was fresh out of the wrestling camp, right, And that's that's kind of how I saw Wheeler Utah. At first, he had the cheesy music. I didn't really see anything unique in him. They threw him with Orange Cassie and the best friends in all of them, and even when he first joined the Blackpool Combat Club, I was like, oh, okay,
I get it. But for whatever reason, to me, the best thing to come out of the Death Writers is grease Boy, because like he is just settled into this sniveling little heel routine, and Wheeler grooseboy Youda is grease boy. DA is just I just love everything he's doing now. I think he's really starting to figure it out from a heal perspective, from a form perspective, how to get the crowd to just hate it, the heat he can
generate doing really stupid things, just real simple stuff. I just really enjoyed watching it come together for him, and he's somebody who's who's won me over who I just I thought he was just another mid card guy forever, and I've really enjoyed what he said in the last eighteen months.
Yeah, I can see that well for me.
And I want to preface this by saying that I did not dislike these two wrestlers that I'm going to bring up.
It's that they've grown on me. Okay.
I want to make sure that I make that clear that I never disliked them. It's just that they what I've what they've done in the last couple of years has made me appreciate them more and they've made them grow on me, the first one being Hangman and and Paige. Again, I didn't dislike Hangman in page. I just didn't get him. He just seemed like, I don't know, I just couldn't grasp what he was trying to do.
Once I figured it out that he's trying to do absolutely.
Nothing but be a painted everybody's ass, then I got to enjoy him. So my male wrestler is going to be hanging Man at him page. Again, I didn't dislike him, but I've grown to really like him and look forward to him. Okay, on the female side, And this may come as a shock to you, but I'm going with Tony Storm again. I didn't dislike her when she came
into AW. I thought she was fine. The outcast thing that she did kind of annoyed me because it was very death writer ish where they did the same thing every single week and everybody they everybody that any of the outcast wrestles looked like a complete moron, and it just got annoying. But then timeless Tony Storm happened and she really grew on me. She was fine before Tony Storm, but she wasn't special. Now she's grown on me and become special. So I'm going with Timeless Tony Storm as
my pick on the women's side. Now I'm gonna throw something. Put everybody on the spot. What's a wrestler. Who's a wrestler? You know, pick a male and a female if you wouldn't mind, Uh, what's a wrestler that you've liked from the get go and just saw, even if they weren't the greatest, you saw the potential in them. And now they've either lived up to the potential or even if they haven't lived up to the potential, you're still hopeful that they will.
Net let's go to you. Oh geez.
Oh, I don't know.
I'm sure you're gonna say Eddie Kingston.
Well, no, because he's already great.
He's at the top of the game obviously.
Yeah.
Well, if you don't have anybody who we can go to Sutton.
Yeah, go to Sutton.
I have to think about it a bit.
On the female side, figures himself on the.
Women's side of christ Atlander. I've liked her from the beginning. I think she's got a lot of potential still that they have not even come close to tapping. On the men's side, Uh, Darby. I just thought Darby was gonna turn out to be some crazy skateboarder dude that was just gonna hang around the lower levels and not become anything. But I really think he is missed right now, and when he comes back, if he's used right, he could be the superstar to carry them for a while.
A fair enough? What about you Berry?
Still I want to go on the women's side. Queen Almanada and it was kind of I don't I didn't know anything about her. She showed up on TV and just watching and looking at her. I'm like, I bet she's going to be pretty good. She has visually everything it takes to be pretty good. And I don't remember who she wrestled, but at the end of the match, I was like, Yeah, she's going to be pretty good.
I can tell. And she's just continued to every time she come out, other than a couple of matches where their timing was off, that it's going to happen with
any performer. She's maintained that, and it's been It's been a blast to watch somebody just completely foreign to me in more ways than one and just complete a complete blank check and just being able to enjoy just taking a performer completely on its own for the first time probably since I've been watching pro wrestling, because usually everybody I see I've heard or wright about before. On the men's side, I'm going to say Orange Cassidy. I knew a little bit about him from the indies. I'd seen
a couple of comedy spots. I just assumed he was a he was a comedy wrestler, and that can work on the indies, But I think I've read other folks for like, there's no way his shick is going to work on regular TV with a major promotion, and one way or another he made it work. And I remember the first match that I watched him in AW, I'm like, this is, this is not going to get over. This
is I feel bad for this guy. And you know this was back during peak hot AW crowd, so they just exploded for anything, and the way I saw the crowd, I'll react to his comedy spots. But more importantly, I realized very quickly, this kid can go. And I say kid, he's in mid to late thirties, he can go in the ring, Like totally blew me away that this is this guy could wrestle.
He's not very he's very athletic. He's very really athletic, very.
Good and very underrated as a perform that works clean, just really really really good. And I think he's performed with enough people that they realize he's more than a comedy guy. But that's my pick for the men's side. Really just impressed with him for different ways. In the kleen Amanada, I expected something completely different from day one and was immediately shocked and have been on the badwagon ever since.
Yeah, for me, on the women's side, it should come as no surprise from anybody that listens to me, it's going to be Julia Hart. I just think Julia Hart has lived up to her potential. Remember she's only what she just turned twenty three years old a few months ago. She's still like the youngest women's wrestler on the roster, and she just continues to improve. The thing that really impresses me about Julia Hart, and if you really look at it, nobody takes risk and bumps on the women's
division as much as Julia Hart has. She's fallen off ladders, she's we're talking on a consistent basis, she's gone, you know, she just takes incredible bumps. Unfortunately, she did get injured a couple of times because you know what concussions and stuff like that. So that's my pick for the women's division. Julia Hart.
On the men's side, even though he really hasn't.
Been with AW that long. From the moment he stepped in the ring, I was entertained by him and I have not been disappointed in a single match that he has participated in to this day. And honestly, if I see him on the card, I look forward to it. And that is Commander. I absolutely adore Commander. He is just so athletic, so entertaining, and just so even. It's weird because he wears a mask, but yet he exudes
camaraderie with the fans. I don't know how he does it because he can't they can't see a space, you know what I mean. It's it's very strange, But I just like everything about Commander.
Matt. I want to go back to you. Have you thought of anybody that you like?
Well, I like everyone, but a cop out.
Now, come on, I have to be diplomatic. Somebody that I'm surprised that I like as much as I do is Kyle Fletcher.
At first a good point one.
Yeah, yeah I didn't. I didn't like him. I really didn't. He has there's things about him that just kind of have aggravated me. But I've slowly but surely come around and and enjoy his performances, especially his new one with these snap on pants. That's that's pretty cool. And somebody I'm trying to think on the women inside. I do like Queen Almanada a lot. I'm I'm a huge Billy Starks fan, so yeah, she's somebody that then I'm interested in and unlike you, Kelson, I do not like Julia.
I'm she's not for me.
So well, Bill.
Ter, Yeah, she's.
Practically she's on the r O A roster. True, so she's not listed on the a W roster. How do you think of I'm surprised especially at NATT for not mentioning Kenosk Takesta.
Oh well, yes, the great love of of Tequesta. But he's been around a bit. We got to see him debut in AW but him roster. He's a good guy.
Yeah. Oh he's gorgeous too. Yeah.
Well, I know I'm not blind, but you know, you're supposed to be talking about wrestling ability.
Is quite popular in the back with the ladies.
That is true.
That, yeah, But there's there's rumors that he's actually married to that one wrestling lady. I don't know her name. Yeah, that lady trains with him. I really don't know her name. I've seen pictures of them together in the ring, and there's rumors that they are actually married.
Instead of calling her that lady, I'll just tell let me just say the name that it is.
It is suspected by many people that it was actually recently reported by man Is by someone too that Kate Takeshta is married to Yukaza Kazaki.
Okay, well either way, that's like but that's that's like saying Kenny and and Rio are together.
I mean you you don't know, there's not like saying if they're married. It's not that's different. But there are a lot of many reports say that and Sakazaki are married.
Little or not.
I'm sorry that.
The little Yuka what little Kazaki?
That's who is that?
Who is allegedly reportedly who Kenoskate Takeshta is married to? And yes, they have different what's.
That I said? She's teeny It's just funny. It's just such a size difference between the two of them.
Well when you look at well, look, Sakazaki is not you know, she is tiny, but.
Without being I don't want to come off as racist, but you know, or anything like that or demeaning, but Japanese women are generally more petite, you know, they they are smaller, and the cash is kind of a freak, you know, and how big he is, you know, he is not your typical Japanese man.
He is a genetic unit, you know. So you know, it's just what it is.
You know, so.
I was hoping.
I was like some former olympian and him and his wife are going to have these like Olympian children that are gonna because he wasn't he a decathlete or training to be the into Catholic or something.
Yeah, I have no idea, Yeah.
Yeah, but you know, but that's that is the some lady is yu Kazakazaki.
That's I just couldn't think of her name. I've seen her places, seen her before. I just am not very very good with names. So I know her by face only.
Yeah, that's all.
That's all I know her.
But I know her more by her nails down the chalkboard speaking voice.
Oh my god, whenever she starts screeching. Who you know, She's cute as a button, but holy.
Cow, that's her gimmick voice though, right, yeah, I.
Don't think that's not her real voice. But what her gimmick voice is. My god, make the hair stand up on the back of your head, which is quite quite the uh, quite the accomplishment because I've been shaving my head for twenty years now, so more than that. So yeah, So anyway, moving on, this is an interesting topic and I'd like to hear what your opinions on this is because I've seen it posted on the discord, I've seen
it posted on the aw fanum subreddit. A lot of people are have been saying over the.
Last I would say at least three months, since around the beginning of February, that Collision is better than AW Dynamite on a lot of weeks. I personally feel that that's true. I do enjoy Collision a little bit more than AW Dynamite. I found myself, you know, looking forward to it more. A lot of that has to do with the women being heavily featured on Collision. We had five we had three women's matches and two promoted women's segments on Collision this last week. That's a lot, you know.
So I wanted to hear your thoughts. I mean, not again, I'm not saying that Dynamite sucks or anything like that. I'm just saying that there are people out there that where last year they were calling Collision the C show, and I was one of them. I thought Rampage at times was a lot better than Collision last year. Now they're calling Collision A two instead of not even a B show. It's an equal to Dynamite. Do you guys feel that way?
I thought, first, I don't have it.
I don't have a preference to either show. I don't agree that the women show this especially this weekend. There were three matches and only one of them was actually really good. Uh, Billy starts for some reason, seemed like she's working in concrete. Her match just she just looked like she was moving so slowly. And I've not seen her work in ROH, so I don't know the difference. But to me, it just seemed like that match was in slow motion the whole time. And I don't know,
I really hard. Match was okay for me, but I just I don't know. I don't have a preference to which one I watch. I think they're both equal.
I like them both. I would agree Collision has gotten a lot better, but I like them both. They're equally good.
Yeah, Hey, she works, Billy works a little slower style. There was definitely some timing issues in that match. It took him a little while to kind of get on the same pagement pacing perspective. Towards the end they did and came together. But you're absolutely right, she works slower style on the speed was just off. I don't know who where the communication was between the two of them, but yeah, I noticed that too, which was pretty weird. Most of our matches they look a lot cleaner than that.
But no, I agree. There's been a lot of parody really since the start of the year, specifically this run for AW since January, and I think you can even go back to starting with the Hammerstein shows to wrap up the year in December have been excellent. And the reason why Collision feels like it's important is because AW has made it important. It hasn't been every other week or every three weeks there's a good show and there's two blowoff shows. They've made it a point to make
it important. Having one less hour of TV with Rampage gone, I think has helped strengthen Collision because you have to make stuff interesting, you have to put stuff that would be on Rampage on there. And then in addition to that, I think they finally realized they had to pull some stuff together creatively and do a better job. They had
fallen significantly. Attendance still down, ratings are showing some promise, they're getting better in some places, but I think really they finally put the effort into making it a good show because they had to. You can't run two locations for one nobody wants to go to. You're just going to lose money every week on that performers do want to work in front of fifteen hundred people, and so they put the good effort into it, and it has
felt like a one B show. Not every week is as good as Dynamite, but I think more weeks than not it's on par and sometimes even a little better on occasion.
Yeah, I mean, I fully admit that I liked this week's Collision more than this week's last week's Dynamite, and I'm looking forward to it some having that continue, because look, I just want to see good wrestling shows.
And last week's time I was weird. Yeah, we show. You could tell they were trying some new things, and I liked that they tried them, but they didn't quite get it right, and so just there were segments that felt weird. I liked how they weave the whole opening together. I mean that was twenty four minutes commercial free. They did a lot of really cool stuff, or they tried a lot of really cool stuff, but it did quite work right. My biggest it was a weird show.
My biggest problem is ben they have gotten into the habit again of not announcing things for shows. I mean, we have the what four matches tomorrow? Three matches, one, two, three, four, five, five matches, and you don't have a lot else. You don't have anything about who might be there or anything like that. Is there any matches been announced for Collision
which is the next day. I mean for me, when they when they get the announcements made and they know, you know what's coming up on the shows, those shows are just better. And I think since the it wasn't Dynasty, it was the Paper before that, they started going back into that bad habit of putting shows together at last minute and not giving folks a chance to say, oh, this is going to be very interesting. That's just it just feels that way to me.
You're not wrong. That was one of the things that got them into the problems they did, when Attendant started to drop off because people didn't know who was on the shows. I remember back during the COVID era when WWE was still bad, joking with when Vince was still just destroying that product, joking with a buddy of mine
because IX Caliber at the end of the show. For AW would run down two weeks worth of cards and I would just joke, I'm like, you don't even know what's on Raw the day of Raw, And I was joking with my friend. And now it's kind of the opposite, or let me rephrase that it used to be. They've gotten a lot better, especially on this run this year. They've seemed to really want to focus on announcing at
least two segments for the next show. Some cards are fleshed out a little further, especially if they're a big focal point they'd be building for a few weeks. But there's going to be weeks when they don't. And that's one still. One knock on Collision still is they don't. They don't announce enough of the Collision cards going into Saturdays more times than not, I still only know one or two things on the Saturday show. Usually going into Dynamite, I know at least half of what's going to be on.
But Collision they still, they still when they fall off sudden to your point, it's typically I see it on Collision still, and that's kind of one of the remaining pieces I got to get sorted out.
You know what, though, Barry. I think it was you that mentioned the the opening to Dynamite last week and how much you appreciated it. Was it it you that said that, You know that it went twenty four minutes. Yeah, we'll see. Here's the thing.
Dynamite last week started with the John Moxley recorded statement. Then we went right into the Moxley and Shabbata match, and of course he had the bucks in Omega and o'cada swerve in the ring or coming out to the ring, which led right into the Swerve versus Pac match. And then you had the eight man tag team vignette that they did. That was all in the first half hour of the show, and.
It lost me. It completely lost me. I thought that was the worst way to start the Dynamite last week, you know, because.
Part of that is you're just disdained for the death writers too. But it was different, and I can totally get how that pacing and the way they structure that would turn some people off. Like I said, I I don't really think they figured it out yet. Well, let me sure you're not alone in that either. Well, let me put it this way.
I watched the Boxley recorded statement, the Moxley Chabata match, the Bucks and Kenny Omega and all that stuff that happened. The pack and Swerve match. I didn't watch any of it. I didn't watch any of it. I don't want to see the death Writers on my TV. And I and I've said it many times before, I am not a fan of eight multi man or multi woman matches. So that eight man tag team did nothing.
That just tuned out to the whole.
I can't understand what you're saying that.
Mmm, okay, you tuned out to that whole segment. It just did nothing for you.
I turned off the Moxley Shabbata match. I turned it back on when the Bucks, at Omega and Ocada were there, but it was really just I thought it was horrible.
I thought it was bad.
And then the Packet Swerve match. I had it on, but I was doing something. I can't remember what I was doing. I was probably looking at the subreddits or something. Yeah, during the match, there was nothing in that first half hour of aw Dynamite that kept my interest. And I say that, Barry, you hit the nail on the head is because of my disdain for the death Writers. But guess what, I am certainly not the only one that has disdain for the deaths.
No, I don't think you do. I think you're kind of an extreme case of someone who would just change the channel and turn it off when they're on. But the issue, the issue that I had with the opening, let me pause for a second. What I really enjoyed about what they tried to do was weave segments together organically. And they've done this in a couple other shows in the past. For one thing, they follow somebody into the back and they come across somebody else and we hear
their story segment. This is the first time in a while I can remember them trying to weave I think three or three and a half segments together without a cut or a break I guess would be a better term in there. And I think that's really really interesting. WWE's done that a few times. I especially like when they do their long entrances where they follow people back and then through that. I really enjoy when AW does
long camera shots out of the back and stuff. So I'm a big fan of trying to do new ways to weave your narrative together. And that's why I was saying, is like I liked that they try write something different. I don't think particularly what they did it with this week, the Death Writers Kenny's promo was kind of a little weird the way we've done a couple of things. I don't think they had the right players to do that. But I hope they try something like that again, because
it's different. It feels different, It feels a little special, a little more dynamic, a little more energy to it. Felt almost like a television show, the old Aaron Sorkin shows where you're just walking and talking everywhere. It was very active, and I appreciate AW trying something.
New like that.
Yeah, I mean, I get it. I mean I too.
I mean I've noticed that they've kind of seamlessly went from segment to segment, like in particular Dynamite, where where Swerve came out with the bucks at Omega and Okada, Swerve did come out, and then we were right into the Pack and Swerve match, which I thought was really well.
Done because it made sense, it didn't seem random.
Well, I think it has to do a lot with their wanting to portray ae w more of a sport than a human soap opera, because they've come across as that Tony should be really good at that, because he's got a soccer team in England, he's got the football team in Jacksonville, so he should be really good at that. And I think it's starting to show that they actually are getting that to where they can start weaving things together like that. Whether it works for you or it doesn't, it works for the show.
I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree with you a little bit there because I don't think what you can call what's going on in Jacksonville as a football team.
It's more like they pay their dues.
They pay their dues and they have people that they pay to play. So they are a professional football team. Not very good, but they're professional football team.
They're not the Stealer, you know. God, the Steelers aren't even the Steelers.
You know.
I'm gonna throw something at you here, you know, to wrap up the show, But I want to ask you, looking at the card for Tomorrow night, how would you open.
Up the show tomorrow night?
Kind of an interesting question because you've got Mercedes, Monet and Athena, You've got hak Man Anti Page against the Joker, got Takesha and Osprey, and Osprey has opened many shows it's kind of becoming.
The UH, the UH.
Orange Cassidy of twenty twenty five. You have, of course, you have John Moxley and the Death Writers against the opps.
You know, so because the Boxley has opened many shows as well, you know, and the Death Writers have too. So what do you think? What if you were given the reins to run the show? How would you open the show to grab people and get them to stay.
I'd go, I'd go if it was me, I'd do it bottom bottom left, across the.
Hold hold on, hold on. When you say bottom left, people are not able to see the bottom left.
Do the videos match the tag match? Then I'd do Athena and Mercedes. Then I'd do the UH. I'd finish with Tequshta and Osprey as the main event, and I'd have the Adam Page and the Yoker in between. Okay, get you get the matches if everybody since everybody kind of hates on the Death Rider, you get the worst match of the night out of the way, you have one of the I think, what's.
Gonna your death doesn't make sense? You get the worst matches. I said, how would you get people to stay? You know, to grab people, get them the state to watch. You're gonna put the worst match of the.
Night, Sarah Death Writerkelson got to change the channel right off the bat exactly.
I don't hate on the Death Riders. I don't think it's going to be that bad match, especially since it's the Trios match. I think everybody enjoys the Ops. I think that they're gonna be a very entertaining match. Of the five matches, it's the weakest of the five. I start my show out with the weakest to get it out of the way and build the show up to end with the best match, and that's gonna be us Braying Tuskesta.
I'm gonna put something out there to everybody right now.
Okay, Pack is injured and so he's not able to be part of the Treos Championship Championship team. In the past, when that's happened, they've had to vacate the championship. In this case, they let John Moxley step in.
I truly and honestly believe, and I don't know how you feel about this, but I truly and honestly believe that the Ops are going to be the new Trios Tag Team Championships to champions tomorrow night.
Yeah, and I think it's I think I think he's bullshit because it's you're showing favoritism to I mean, I get it, he's the heavyweight champion, and I guess you could give him a little bit of anyway. But if you're gonna do that to other teams if they have an injury in their team, you keep it uniform, you don't.
Well, look the way I'm saying, the way I see it is this Sutton, is that it was booked whether if Pack had not gotten injured, the Ops were still gonna win that match, so they so they just wanted to keep the match and do it.
And it's actually more of a big win if the Ops win or the Opps. I'm sorry I mispronounced that the Opps win this match with Moxley at it, that it would be with Pack, and it taking nothing away from Pack because I love Pack.
I like Pack more than Moxley for sure.
I think it would have better matter match with Pack, to be honest, But I.
Mean it would have been a better match with Pack.
But but because Moxley is like the central figure, I guess of aw right now, for better or for worse, it's a bigger win for the opps if they beat the Death Riders with Moxley in the ring, it'd be a bigger one if Moxley is the one that gets pinned, jokes him out or whatever.
I was just if you want to juice that team right out of the gate, you go. I mean, Joe's the only one they could do as a formal world champ to get that on mox. If they want to juice that, they got to make Joe look as strong as possible. So I'm figuring he's going to get the win over Claudia or Mox. I have a hard time having seeing them give Moxy l with the title on
the line at the pay per view. I don't know if that's the right time to do that, but I definitely think Joe's getting the pin or the win, and I think it'll probably be over Claudia.
Yeah, I mean, And then keep in mind that, you know we talked about earlier, what if Brian Danielson rears his ugly head. You know, during this match, the American Dragon gets involved in it in some way, whether it's at the back or whatever, just to get just a stadown to get into the death Writer's head, you know. So if this is the case where the opps, I will mispronounce it again.
If the opps do win this match and like somebody like Brian Danielson or something, somebody else hangman in him page whoever, Kenny o'bago whatever, gets involved in some way, shape or form. Like Again, it doesn't have to be in the ring.
It had maybe even in the back before the match, you know, just a staredown or some words or you know, knowing glances or something.
Then I can see this being a good entry point at the Dynamite. Other than that, if it's just a regular match with the Death Writers winning again and nothing going on other than regular Death Riders stop, then I don't want to see it.
No, I actually think that Brent Danielson is going to cause them the title. I think he's going to come out, his music's going to hit. It's going to distract MUCKs, and it's going to cost Marks the match, and it's going to start the downfall of the Death Riders.
Right, But anybody else who what, well, how would you start Dynamite tomorrow night? What match?
I would take a page of the old WCW booking and you put the most exciting, fast paced match to start the show to get everybody amped up. It was Luca's back in the day, but we live in the modern era of the twenty twenties and we get to see arguably the top two professional wrestlers in ring in the world go at it. I'm putting our boy, Bill will Osprey against to Kesha open that show. Yeah, everybody,
it's going to get the crowd all hyped up. They're not going to They're going to go twelve minutes, so it's it's fine. They won't overshadow everybody else because everybody else has much more story in their matches. It doesn't need to be a super crazy match. So that's who i'd start out with. I probably do the tag team next, since everybody knows who's winning that. I do the women at the top of the hour at nine o'clock. I think that's the next biggest match before the title match.
Then you follow it up with Hangar and the debut of Josh Alexander, And if we're going to do a title change on the show, and I think everybody expects the trio change and you want to make it a big deal, you do that as the main event, especially if you've got somebody coming back like Daniel sent or other surprises at the main event.
Yeah, I kind of agree with you.
Only change I would make is I would actually put Hagman and the Joker Josh Alexander as the opening match. Yeah, we're you know, I because the only reason I say that, and this is true, The only reason I say that is that back in twenty twenty three, you know, twenty twenty four, the running joke was, hey, guess what Orange Cassady had the first match on Dynamite, you know, and he did.
He had the first match on Dynamite. It seemed like for sixteen weeks in a row, you know.
And it's getting to the point where Osprey has opened up Dynamite or Collision quite a bit, and I think it's becoming not as special because if you know that it's going to be Will Osprey every week, you know, so to the old the only reason I.
Look Takeshta and Osprey could very well be the opening match. It can very well be the main event. You know, it's it's going to be a.
Great match wherever. Yeah, just keep that away from whatever the next second important matches you don't want something having to follow that. That's important. That's why I want them to go first, right or they're going to go later. But to your point, we want to keep some distance between them and whoever else.
Yeah, I mean, no, I agree with you that the tag team match should be the second match. I agree with you hundred percent on that, Absolutely agree with you on that. All right, guys, Well, that's gonna do it for Ignition for tonight. We thank everybody for listening, and thank you Barry and Sutton and Nett for joining us tonight and sharing your thoughts. We will be back tomorrow night for our review of a W Dynamite Dynamite Spring
Breakthrough from Boston, Massachusetts. Well, I think we're gonna be talking about this Mercedes Bonet and Athena match quite extensively.
I for some reason, I think something's gonna happen big year. Something. I mean, will Mercedes Bonet take her first loss in a singles match in a W I kind of hope so in her hometown. I think that that's brilliant that it would be done in her hometown.
But we'll talk about that town in the rubber match. Yeah, they both get to one in their hometown.
I don't know if there's gonna be Yeah, I'd like to see.
Athena win and and uh and I mentioned this before that she changes her mind with the Owen. She says, I don't want.
Tony Storm, I want Mercedes about ay, I want the TBS Championship out the world Championship, So it'll be Mercedes against Athena forty a w TBS championship at all in I really do think that a drama. I think I don't know if the Owen.
I believe there has to be a winner. I think that's part of the rules. I'm not sure. I don't think you can't go.
To a draw.
I agree with you that it would be interesting if it did go to a draw, but I don't think it will well if it.
Does go to a draw, What does that mean?
Does it mean that the winner of Yeah, the winner of Stat and Uh Lynch or Becky.
Lynch the other the other Jimmie Hayter.
Jamie Hayter and Stat, whoever wins that we get the total shot?
No?
What?
I what would be the winner of Jamie Hayter and Stat will then face Athena and Mercedes Monet in a three way at double or nothing. That's how you protect Mercedes Monet, and that's how you protect Athena as well.
Yeah, but then one of them is going to have to lose it at the pay per view.
Well, one of us got to lose eventually, but you definitely.
Not.
Yeah, yeah, because I'm saying you're baking a triple threat and that's that. But you want the one on one loss to come in a pay per view, you know, so I I for some reason, I don't think that just because it's in Boston, it makes versites untouchable. Tomorrow night, I think that there's gonna be a swerve there, and that's where strickling but a different kind of sword.
But anyway, we'll talk about it tomorrow night at length. We'll see if if if we're right.
You know, during the lydst Oh my god, it squerve? What's he doing on here?
Yeah or whatever? I don't know. It's it's gonna be fun. But anyway, before we go off the air, I wanted to bring up one little thing but I found pretty hysterical. On Ring of Honor. We had the debut last week of Nick's Nixy XS. She calls herself the versaceae of violence, and she has been going at it with chanrass Sap on Twitter and it's it's hysterical. It's because she made a graphic. Chenrass Sap discovered Canva and he's been making his own graphics and she copied his graphics and put
headlines about herself in them. And Seaun ross Sap has been asking her tongue in cheek. By the way, you can tell that they're having fun. Tell her to please stop. You know, some of the words are coming out of Nicky's Nixy's mouth is uh, well, I can't repeat them here. Put it that way.
She's not the most ladylike of wrestlers. But if you get a chance, go on nix Nixy at I XI Space XS, look her up on Twitter and look up her battle with Sean ross Sapp. It's actually quite funny and cute. But anyway, there was.
Rumors that AW or a w r H had signed her, but I don't think it's true because I've not seen anything you know about it. But she does put in her she did in her recent pictures. She does put down as seen on AW So there you go. I was kind of shocked that it wasn't her against Megan Bain the other night as one of the opponents instead of Llen k and Kelly Maddon. But anyway, we will see you tomorrow night for all the talk right after
Dynamite goes off the air, join us. If you're around on the Wrestling Hub discord, you can join in the join in the fun. Just turn on your mic, we'll bring you up here and you can just chat away with us. Because you see how it is.
We are very informal. We just talk and have fun. So for the ae W fan Hubb podcast team, this is Kelson. Good night everybody.
Good night guys,