It's Tuesday. You know what that means. It's time to ignition with the a W fan Hub podcast team, and tonight we're gonna talk about some hot topics in the a W universe or galaxy. What's the politically correct? Uh, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna say galaxy. Well, we do have, we do have.
It's kind of a questionable rip off, but yeah, galaxy is bigger than the you no, I don't know. Galaxy is smaller than the universe, right, so you don't want to pick that.
Well, okay, the a W cesspool. There you go. Multi Uh, we do have some topics we're gonna talk about tonight. We're gonna give our predictions on who who attacked has book is going to reveal that tomorrow night. We're also going to talk about the partnership between AW and Scott Deymoores Maple Leaf Pro. We had some wrestlers over at Maple Leaf Pro this past weekend. But we're going to start off talking about something that Alex is going to bring up.
This is Kelson, and this is Alex and yeah, we've had some rumblings. I don't know if Jericho himself has talked about it, maybe on his podcast, but he's begun to put the word out there that his contract is expiring in twenty twenty five.
He's on the list of places he could go.
Well, I think, you know, I think it's very possible that he could go back to WWE if for some reason AW decides to lowball in. You know, it's I think he would be welcomed back there with open arms. And I think, you know, as much hate that Jericho gets these days, and I've enjoyed a lot of the Learning Tree stuff, but admittedly it's weird the bottom rung of AW. And you know, there's a place, there's a time, and a place for the low card, the lowest card.
You know, someone needs to open the show. Not everything is the main event, and that's kind of firmly where Jericho is these days. But given that, you know, Jericho started at the main event in year one of a w and he's just slowly gone lower and lower over time.
So are you saying that the Ladder War match on AW Dynamite between Chris Jericho and Mark Briscoe for the Ring of Honor World Championship is not going to be the main event.
I think it will be the main event. But the main event of a Dynamite is different than you know, main event of Full Gear coming up. You know, the last pay per view, Jericho was in the death spot. They put him on right before the main event.
I think you hit something good there. Alex Jericho is a Dynamiter collision main eventor I don't think he needs to be in key matches on pay per views. The guy's fifty three. Even if he resigns, I think there's a lot of value in having him on the roster. He's smart, he knows the business. I think he's pretty good behind the desk on commentary. But physically, I think everybody sees it. He doesn't have it. Some competitors that can can hold on to it into their fifties, but
he just doesn't anymore. And I think his value is actually not wrestling.
I disagree. He's matches.
He's put on some go to matches at fifty and stuff at But in the last year.
Though, like the like when he first got in though you know, no, no, you're right, But who has he really worked with this year that's worth it.
I mean he's worked with Hook and Hook is not the best. Uh, he is declining, and I will admit that. But at fifty three, I mean, look, yeah, like Shelton Benjamin whose peak right now.
But he's a.
Guy who needs to be there. Who I think is gonna be Tony's Michael P.
S Hayes is what he's gonna be.
He's gonna be the guy who's gonna retire. There be in his being Tony's ear all the time.
I don't see him.
Going back to WWE because of the things he said and done. I would love to see him going the Hall of Fame there, but I don't think it's ever gonna happen. But he's a good guy to have around to bounce ideals off and creativity, and he needs to be a part time if he does or announcing.
I love him Mama announced table. Some don't, but I do.
Yeah. I liked him too when I think he was doing rampage and stuff. I could see him as a manager who bumps occasionally. You know, Like I don't have a problem with them doing matches, it's just every week, you know, like there's just better performers. There's a find out about a TV time and there's just better performers. They could utilize it more.
Not only there's not only better performers, but there's also younger performers who get better unless they're actually wrestling in the ring. To a point, I did put a pull up on the AW fan hub subreddit and on the wrestling Hub discord asking when Chris Jericho's contract expires in twenty twenty five, should AW re sign him. The three selections or choices that people had was yes, no, or yes, but not as a wrestler. Not many people said no. Most of the responses were yes or yes, but not
as a wrestler. And it's really close. Yes but not as a wrestler is slightly.
Ahead, but.
People want Chris Jericho back. Another point that I want to make here is that Chris Jericho, as Barry said, is kind of on a decline. But here's the thing, in my opinion, and this has always been this way with Chris Jericho. Chris Jericho as a wrestler, he doesn't stand out to me as much as his character does. Not saying he's a bad wrestler, I'm saying is he's as good as his character is, and he evolves so
much throughout his career. I personally think that this particular thing that he's doing right now, the Learning Tree is the least engaging, the least fun that I've ever had watching Chris Jericho.
I think it's too inside baseball gamewise like to get a lot of his references. That won't like then another thing that bugs me, the Bucks do it too. That won't work for me, brother, Like, if you're a total wrestling nerd like we are, you get that. But if you're somebody who just tunes in casually, you don't know that reference. And I just the learning tree is it's an inside baseball reference, get my I just I don't think it's as effective as some of the other stables. He said, either, well.
Who said that quote?
That don't work for me?
Brother?
That's a Hogan thing that that comes back to when he went a job for staying at the uh what was the w show? Yeah, We're sting was supposed to win the belt off Ogaan. He said, that doesn't work for me.
Brother, Okay, I thought it was from the movie Brothers.
That's ninety seven.
Yeah. Yeah, but you know, I I love Jactough. I think he's willing to walk with anybody. You know, he can put up He even put up a Pineapple Pete who was in the audience back in the day. So you know, he wants to work with people. He's like, you know, like John Cena back in the day. There were some times he buried people. I don't see Jericho doing that. And he put you know, he helped put Orange Cassidy on the map. He helped mjuh get there. He was already there. But the year long feud was great.
And I really think that he's an asset no matter what he does.
I think there's an argument he helped elevate Garcia too.
Yeah, I agree with that.
He picked Action Andretti to put Andrettio. He picked Andretti to put him over. They just didn't have plans afterwards. That's on Tome. Yeah, but I mean, you know, this comes back. I think there's a lot of value in Chris. I remember he'd leaned out a couple of years ago. He had done an interview where he said he was doing an Internet fasting or something that had dropped some weight. The speed was there, and you're like, man, maybe this is a guy could go into his fifties, but he's
put the weight back on injured. I mean like it's hard. It's it's hard.
Man.
You're in your fifties, you know. I think there's a lot of value. I just I don't think it's wrestling, or if it is, it's a special it's a special occasion type of thing.
Yeah, I think I think it would be devastating to lose Chris Jericho.
I absolutely agree.
Uh, you know, I I don't see him sticking around if he can't wrestle a little bit. But if they could get him just like a part timer kind of thing like Sting had and down the line, give him a huge send off, like yeah, they they need to keep him around.
To send off.
He does, he really does. You know one thing that's always bothered me, and I've seen it said so many times, is that Chris Jericho is a selfish, selfish wrestler and he's all about himself. And as was just said, I mean he did it. He puts people over. He really does work hard to put people.
And always has.
Yeah, he always has. It's in the case of Action Andretti, as was said, it's not Jericho's fault that Tony Kahan didn't carry through with the Action Andretti story, because Action Andretti was hot, and when he had that match with Chris Jericho, the crowd loved him, and Tony Kan just threw him away for whatever reason. He may have had good reasons to do it, but he just threw him away. He tossed them aside, and he lost a momentum, meaning action. Andretti lost a momentum.
So I remember when.
Chris Jericho don't doesn't put people over because he does.
Yeah. Yeah, when Andretti won, it reminded me of when I remember watching the Randy Orton and the John Cenas first wins and they were against pretty I don't remember who's scena went over on her. It was either seen or Randy went over somebody pretty big on a raw and it launched him. And that's what I thought was gonna happen to Andretta. I'm like, man, he just went over Jericho out of the blue. This is a big deal. The crowd went crazy and then it just it didn't
go anywhere. That's not on CJ. They should have had a plan for him. But I think one of the challenges with Chris is like the stables, each stable has gotten like less and less significant, you know, and that's kind of the pull on him. People are only looking at his recent track record as far as his whole body, Like Chris is fantastic. He's had an amazing career and he he is the reason AW is one of the
reasons AW is here and got founded. That proof of concept match he did with Kenny in New Japan kind of helped get the ball rolling. He's really smart.
He just needs a good gimmit, because his last two factions, the Learning Tree and the Jericho Appreciation Society, did nothing for me.
Yeah, yeah, I didn't. I liked the Jericho Appreciation Society. I wish it ended differently, And yeah, me too, I think on the I mean the worst part about the Learning Tree for me is just who they've been up against, Like, yeah, just put him with someone interesting in that that you want to see when and come out of it looking good. Instead, they're just with Hook and the conglomeration who It just feels like it's like a holding pattern.
Yeah, I think it's time for Jericho go away for a little bit and reinvent himself again.
Who was the one that suggested the ladder match might be a way that they're looking to write? CJ. Off for a bit. Do you know who was it? That was Alex? That was you? I think that I think that's actually I think you might be onto something like fantasy book hat for a second. Here, let's say you want to get Jericho off TV and get him hot again, and you want to make a star out of somebody. We've already seen that. They've started to plant the seeds for a Big Bill Chris, you know, put that line.
Bill gave him the look Chris loses. This is another lost with Bill snap and say, you know, I came with you because you were going to tell me how to be a winner. And all you're doing is losing and just annihilate them. And that rockets, you know, Big Bill for his push. Then you get CJ out of action for a couple months. When he comes back, he's going to get a pop. Know he's gonna get a pop.
I'd rather see Big turn without being intellectual, just be like you know what, I'm sick of your ass. We just beat him.
Down just for someone's got to go through a table man, hell you.
Result things or whatever.
But well that has been sitting there very silent through all this. Does she have a conspiracy theory about.
No.
No, I've just been thinking and listening. God, that's all. Oh God, I don't want to lose Chris Jericho. I still think he has a future. I think it may not be in the ring, but I think he's he's great to have around. Maybe he just needs some time off and time away, that's all, and come back and he'll be the same old Chris Jericho that we all know in the Yeah, well we.
All it's the same. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, is that it?
That's it?
Because I mean he goes away for a few months. When he comes back, they'll pop for him. They can reset him if they do.
M Yeah, we need Fozzy to have a huge hit and then do a world to where.
Well did you see the video of Fozzy's latest show or one of their latest shows. The place was empty. It was actually kind of embarrassing.
Uh yeah, I don't think they do huge venues.
He's yeah, it was somebody on the floor, standing on the floor facing the stage taking a video and there were not many people there. But Chris Jericho is out there performing as if it was Webley Stadium sold out. So yeah, and Fozzy, I mean, the whole group was out there performing because that's what you do, treat every paying customer as if they're one of thousands, not hundreds, you know. So that's that's why it was because it did look like there was maybe a couple hundred people
at that show. So so anyway, it will be interesting to see tomorrow night on the main event of aw Dynamite. I'm gonna go ahead predicted now that it is gonna be Mark Prisco and Chris Jericho in the latter war. They keep coming up with new names for ladder matches.
That's like a Ring of Honor term. They were using it for a long time.
Oh, speaking of Ring of Honor, their Instagram account for Ring of Honor put up a really great graphic of a batch card between the go on John Cruise and basically the batch card said is probably not going to happen. They did the whole match card. I thought it was brilliant. But I'm going to talk about.
John Cruise was on TV recently, wasn't he?
Yes, I'm going to talk about John Cruise and Serpentaco later on in the show.
He's very good friends with Nila Rose.
Was was Cruse the one who did the funny when Joe did his walk away spot when he was in mid air and did the face with the hands up, like, what the heck?
Yes, but that's not the first time he's done that.
Oh okay, I saw eyepops, So.
I love that is that is not the first time he did that. I can't remember. He was in a he was in a four way batch or some sort it looked like, and the three other guys were in the ring and he tried to do a rope jump and they all just walked away and yeah, yeah, yeah, it was the Dark Order. Yeah. So anyway, let's move on something that I'm actually looking forward to. And I know Net's going to have something to say about this
because it's got conspiracy theory written all over it. But tomorrow night Hook is supposed to show up on Dynamite and reveal who attacked Taz backstage? What three weeks ago? Of course, Tas had what was it hip surgery or was it knee surgery, hip replacement.
Double knee? I think.
Knee, I don't know, But anyway, so Hook is going to reveal who attacked Taz backstage? What do you guys think? Who do you think attacked Taz and will be part of the Hook story going forward. Let's hear let's hear your theories.
It's Christian.
That seems like conventional wisdom. A lot of people are thinking it's Christian.
I think it's Christian too, like.
No conspiracy theory.
No, I think Christian.
But I think they've taken too long to reveal it.
So it's Tony Kah. You know, why do something tomorrow when you can wait a.
Month and a half and everyone's forgotten about it? Yeah?
Yeah, and it was they announced this. It wasn't on TV. It was just like a Instagram video or something right where yeah, where Hook announced that he's going to announce Yeah, he found the Yeah. So that kind of feels a little half asked to me, like they're like, you know, it's not that big.
Of a's really good at putting videos on social media Twitter, Instagram, Uh, wherever that are really good. It would be more entertaining on the show. And I don't know why they don't put them on the show.
Nuts. Kelson drives me nuts. They have so much good back well Washington Shooks, so much good backstage stuff and it never makes it on TV. And it's better than a lot of the prepackaged promos. I will say, some of the vibe they used to have from the backstage stuff, we're seeing it in the Moxley stuff. We're starting to see more of that get onto the on I love. Yeah,
I can start seeing that influence. But to your point, Kelson, it's been at least six or eight months or they've had a lot of really good, really good stuff on their social media accounts that really should be on TV. And this hook one is a good example, Kelson, I think you nailed it them.
Yeah, they end up putting some of them. They they they record them after Dynamite and they end up playing them on Collision. Yeah, some of them, but they have already been seen, So now you're wasting time. I don't know. I just don't know.
Let's see what it goes.
All right, Bud? Who else has? Is everybody saying Christian?
I don't think it'll be Christian. I think it's going to be underwhelming. I'm expecting something like Who's the Bound, Brian Keith, the Bounty Hunter. It's going to be like either Big Tell or somebody.
Oh no, that would be I'm not excited for Christian. But that's even more disappointing.
Yeah, I have a feeling it's going to be.
Jericho Vortex stipulation was he escapes the Jericho Vortex if you win.
My fantasy booking, And this won't happen because I think Ricky's on his way out, and really I think he probably will be better off with Cody and WWE from a career perspective, just with how they've never been able to figure out his pushing a w and that's that's on Tony. But I'd love it to be Ricky, and I'd love his promo to be like Listen, I peaked when I was with Team TAZ and it's been all downhill from here, and I blame you for ruining that.
And I'd love to see a long term feud with him and Hook just going back and forth putting on absolute bangers. I think Ricky if he had, if he had the right One of the things I like what AW is doing is they're starting to pair up, like long term feuds of just people who hate each other mm hmm. And I'd love Hook to have somebody like that, or the inverse is Ricky to have somebody and that would be fantasy booking why A great way to do that,
But I don't think it's going to happen. I think Ricky is not long for the aw multi verse much longer.
He needs to be released. Honestly, I wish they would.
But yeah, damn they're shot. They blew it. Lets somebody else, Troy.
Yeah, you know, so I have a conspiracy theory. Nobody even came close. I already said that I was going to mention this is coming to fruition. It's got a twist to it.
Though.
I believe that the person that's gonna be shown on the backstage camera as having attacked Taz is going to be Serpentico. No, no, the listen, you gotta let me finish. However, however, it's not really Serpentico.
It's somebody mask.
It's it's it's it's somebody in the Serpentaco mask and it's and it's going to be John Cruise.
It's definitely John Cruise is.
Going to Yeah, and one on our in our audience here is saying that it's Samo and Joe. Yeah, I think some Joe kind of he's kind of identifiable from the neck down.
Yeah, yeah, uh hook and it's their Pentaco math I.
Like the mask thing though, Kelson, I hadn't even thought about a way for them to draw it out another week. But if you put a masked figure or something that can add a little more intrigue and then give them another week, give.
You another thought. Okay, what if it's a masked figure or cloaked figure that you really don't see their faces during the attack and after it's after it's done, it's revealed that the attacker is Hook.
Yeah it's ridiculous, but I would like that. Yeah, it would just give Hook so much heat.
You turn them, heel, you have to be.
What's the motivation there? Though? Like his dad's nothing but support him. He helped him win his belt back, he helped them retire it. So like, what's the motivation on that that angle though? For the turn?
Well, when you think about it, uh, his dad took his belt.
Yeah, and he kept him in the the f t W vortex.
Yeah. Yeah, as a wrestler or as a personality or as a man. Because of you, You're you're not very smart.
If it's Christian, all right, so let's fantasy book this for a bit. So let's say they go with Christian. Joe's out filming a movie and he's gonna be wrapping up soon. Speaking of which, anybody see the footage of Joe in the New Yakuza game, because they all did, I mean, like I with Fight Forever looked like that, I mean, like nailed it. But so Joe's off film in a movie and he's due back. How do you bring him back in? And so you know, if you
have yeah, yeah Joe. So so if Hook turns or not, if Hook turns on, you know, and he's the one that text has. But coming back to the Christian thing, so so Christians want to attacks them, does Joe come in as the heavy to help Hook out? And then they start their you know, paulp Fiction Buddy cop stuff again, which was getting over huge before Joe had to go film.
You know, like I love that stuff, those long segments where they're talking as they go through and they kick open a door and they're like surprise and speak down people bring back in.
Well, let me ask you this related to that question, is I can't remember who wasn't the k fabe injured Joe to send them on? Yeah, I think it's tops down that trick, the freaking learning tree and be it over and done with gone. Maybe maybe Joe tomorrow night and throws Jeric out of the ladder into the.
Yeah, Alison, Yeah, but if afterwards Joe's music hits and he's the one that puts Jericho away for revenge.
And then Bill goes and stands next to Joe like face to face with him, and they hug and kiss, and they run off and get married.
And they turn into the Warriors tag team. I've been talking about wanting to see that we're we're gonna get from from Brian Cage and Lance Archer.
Instead if the team my god, I'll tell you what.
I don't know, but I don't. I think it's gonna underwhelming having a big on Hook. I've let that be known. I don't think he's worth the time. I know people love him, but I just don't see it. He reminds me of Jade a lot.
But but well, the thing about Hook is Hook could be good if his character ever evolved. He actually wrestled different people. He's been doing the same thing for since he started. Remember when he first started, he wasn't really wrestling. He was just like mini muscle.
Yeah, it always feels like they're hiding Hook like I know he was. He was in a collision one of their multi min tag matches, like four on four, and that was the first time I saw Hook like standing next to a bunch of the normal wrestlers. I'm like, oh, he's not as short as I assumed he was. Yeah, he's you know, he's normal size. I thought he was like Kaz's height because they seem to always be kind of hiding him.
I don't know. He reminds me of the kid from Mike Tyson's punch Out.
Yeah, no, little Mac, right, little Mac, Little Mac, That's what it was.
Well, has been starting to talk a lot more now. Yeah, but he's been around for four years. We still don't know what the hell he is.
Well, he has to get over the throwing and all that stuff. There has to be deeper.
I don't know. Well, we gotta see him wrestle Moore than just.
Hook's move set is really similar to his pops though, Like if you go back in and watch some of the task stuff from E CW, like he was the human soup box machine, Like that's his that's his move set. You know, he wasn't in there huge.
He was so thick it made sense.
Yeah, I think that's that's part of the I think you're onto something, Alex, Like i'd like to see Hook integrate, especially since he's paired with Shabbata, Like get in some more of that shoot style stuff, Like you know, he can do the kicks, He's got a really good physique. He's he's a he's a smaller guy, but that and
aw doesn't that's not a detriment. You can you can work a style that makes it believable, Like I go back to his match against Joe, totally believable, like he was giving Everybody knew Joe was going to win, but we believed this little guy was going to die trying. And he had a good move set against Joe. He had a good strategy, like he can work big matches against big opponents in a fun style. They built to
that one supplex he got onto. Everybody went crazy. But I agree, Alex, there's there's a little more dimension they need to add into him. I don't know why they're kind of keeping him hidden a little bit. I like that he's talking more, but I feel like they've just not reached his potential, which seems to be a reoccurring theory or not theory, a reoccurring theme with a lot of AW midcar.
Performers with with Hook's boosa, you know where they should put him to use him to his best ability, start them, because that's Hook Russell. Like every single starter wrestler does the suplex German Suplex.
Everyone bridging, bridging German Suplex and it's beautiful.
Yes, well the bridging wan. Not everybody does the bridging, but everybody does the German Suplex. They throw each other over the over their shoulders like crazy and start them. Hook would have been in really well there and again I want to see Hook versus Hazuki. That's it. That's my.
Yeah, one Franta j Man.
Hooks Hook's excursion to start on.
Yes, I don't think you're too off. I'd like to see Hook do a tour in Japan for six weeks, have him out there, haven't like best of the super Juniors or something like. I'd love to see him in some of the AW guys do the best of the super Juniors.
Yeah, that'd be cool.
Well, I think with Russell Dynasty coming up on January fifth in the Tokyo Dome, I think we're going to see a lot of AW guys and a lot of AW women doing some really surprising things. And I think it's going to be really good for a W because I believe that this card is going to be The
word I would use is humbling to AW. I think that they are going to get out wrestled, and they need to get out wrestled the young kids, not the not the established veterans, but they need to get these young kids out there and can't have them out wrestled. So they're like, no, hey, I can't be complacent. I got to get out there and work. So Alex, go ahead, go ahead, and net No, I was.
Just I was just agreeing. I was just thinking, yeah, that's a really good idea. I like that idea.
That's all okay, Well Alex what well?
Yeah, speaking about Wressell Dynasty CMLL and New Japan or Partners with AEW And there was also Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling had their first show in Windsor. So it's Scott de Moore's new company. He's I guess bought the rights to the Maple Leaf Pro heritage and yeah, so they had their first show. They had Takeshta doing dual main events.
He was in Yeah, he fought Mike Bailey the first the second night he fought Josh Alexander, and then after the match, Takesha was beating down Josh Alexander after defending the International title, and then Ricochet showed up. So they're kind of continuing a W storylines in MLP and it will be interesting to see.
Isn't you know? Furthering that isn't Don Kallis on commentary?
It was He was good too.
He was a relationship with Scott de Moray. Scott Demury was like the leader of t NA. When they had Kenny Omegas the champion and Christian Cage.
Who else?
Who else was there? I mean, I know I saw Harley Cameron was there?
Was there?
Q T Marshall?
Marshall the who was the Stu Grayson? I know he's not with a W anymore, but he was on the show too. Yeah forgetting somebody else.
Oh maybe it'll come to us.
Yeah. They had other new japan guys like LP who is part of you know, a bunch of a W shows as well.
Were there any c M people there?
I don't think so. There's a guy named El riverso but I think he they American luchador yeah too.
Wasn't there Who's the Who's the new japan performer that does the back to the future gimmick with Martin.
M uh yeah, just the.
That's it.
Yeah, he was on the show too that was about to have.
I think it was a six man. It was a lot of fun. Anybody else get the show because I got the pay per views and launched them. Anybody else almost did.
But then I was like Collisions three and I want to watch the House of Black.
Thirty bucks Man. It was a fun show. It was a fun show, So.
I grew n go ahead both nice.
Yeah, I enjoyed it. So I grew up. I grew up in Detroit, So when I was a kid, I actually watched the original Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling on TV because in Detroit would get a bunch of the stations from Windsor, Ontario, and that's where the pro went out of And if any of you guys know, the Detroit territory back in the day for NWA was really big too,
So like my relatives and stuff, loved it. And then I tuned in right as like there in the early to mid eighties, right as their relationship with WWE was ending and then they folded not too long afterwards, so it was interesting to see the Moore.
Pick that up.
And the thing that I enjoyed the most was I felt like Maple Leaf Crow is what they should be doing with Ring of Honor the whole time I'm watching this going this should be ring them and.
If the I let me stop you there, Berry, why do you say that?
So them trying to shoehorn Ring of Honor into the tapings of dynamite and collision, it doesn't allow them to really focus on it as a developmental territory. And regardless of the talent they send, their Ring of Honor at this point would be the equivalent of NXT for aw and stop running them in arenas, get them in a studio show. I watched the Maple Leaf throw Card and I'm like, this would be perfect. They had about a thousand people in there. It wasn't a studio they used.
There was a I don't remember the college in Ontario where they filmed it at, but it was a very intimate setting. Would have been perfect. You can bring in some main roster people to spice it up, just like WWE does with NXT. But I thought the production was really simple, but it was effective. They had a couple cameras on the floor, they had a hard cam. They
didn't need to go over the top. You didn't have to deal with this huge empty arena when you've only got five hundred people there for the Ring of Honor tapings before hand. And I just kept thinking, like, this should be how they do Ring of Honor. Yeah, and it felt like it felt like a step up from a regular indie show because of the talent they had, and I think that's really what they should look at to do for a Ring of Honor.
I agree, m M.
I loved the shows. I thought they were a blast. The main events both nights were just they were great. And there's a lot of other really good There's some of the stuff felt very indie, but more than half of each night felt like any other paper view you'd watched, and it was. It was a great time.
If you haven't seen the Tequesta Mike Bailey match on there, bind it and watch it.
Oh good, it's so good.
That's one of the best I have seen. Yeah, watch that match.
So I'll check it out.
Yeah, and Takashka put on a clinic both nights, like that kid he's just so good.
I'm so glad he has that been y Kay, let me ask you a question directly. So, we saw this with Maple Leaf Pro and obviously AW had several wrestlers and personalities at the show. And frankly MLP needs it because they don't have a established roster right now, I mean not one that at least would be known. So having that partnership with possible partnership with AW, do you think that this should continue with AW sending some of their roster guys to MLP.
Yeah, I think I can honestly help. I mean, we have to do something that trained some of these guys up. It's good working with Dmore because look, he's he's a great guy to work with.
He's been with TEENA for a long time. He knows how to build up, build up people.
Better than I think Tony does. And I really wish Tony would sign this guy, but I think, but I don't know if Tony's.
Ego will do it or not. Uh, they need.
To send people like Action Andretti over there to actually get a personality and uh, you know people.
Like that who need the boost. Heck, I see Hook over.
There or somebody just to just to get them exposure and learn how to work outside of a.
W learn and learn how to work, not saying that they don't know how to work, but you can always learn a bit more.
Yeah.
Yeah, I would venture to say that even better than wrestlers, the more they wrestle, the more they learned.
Yeah, oh yeah, mm hmm.
Yeah.
Like I don't like MLP.
I don't.
I don't see it ever being like CMLL or New Japan, like those are huge companies. But you know, Rev Pro in England has had a great relationship with AW. They've had the wrestlers show up there and it's great for Rev Pro, it's great for the fans. It makes that company better and it's just cool and fun and good buzz for AW to to have guys showing up in different places than they show it on social media.
Yeah.
I think there's no there's nothing bad that can come from it. You're not going to lose your guys to MLP. It's just good for the wrestling business. And even WWE is doing it more because of AW their relationship with TNA and they're sending guys to Japan. It's just healthy for the wrestling business as a whole You hit the nail on that, Alex.
Alex is somebody from Toronto. Yeah, do you think that sending AW wrestlers to MLP will actually result in get more viewers for AW?
It's hard to say. I I could see that being the case if they're running a lot of shows locally and people who just want to go to a wrestling show are going there and they're seeing AW people and it brings interest, you know. I kind of see it going more the other direction, where it's it's going to get AW fans to buy MLP tickets and watch their shows. But there's no reason it doesn't help AW at the same time, like like because of this relationship. Yeah, like
Barry bought the show. Like how many how many non AW companies goes to you by Barry.
More than I should? The problem Like, like I love wrestling, I do. I love it. I've been to an indie show here at a Highlight arena in Orlando where I saw I won't go into it, but like, I love indie wrestling, and Alex you said something it's good for the business. And when you mentioned WWE, like the Stars of Tomorrow they come from promotions like DeFi promotions like GCW promotions like Progress, as much as WWE wants their
farm system to only develop talent through NXT. When Vince was there, Hunter realizes that they're not going to capture everybody. You're going to miss people, and having those relationships with other promotions grabs those people. And to your point, you look at like, I think Drew McIntyre is a prime example of this, and I know this is an AW podcast, but like they let Drew go, Well what did you do?
He went to work the indies. Well, without indies like Progress and others out there, there isn't a place for him to turn into the Drew McIntyre that then return to WWE, you know, And I think that's important. You need these other outlets out out there. You need to help support them. You know, aw's got a good relationship with the Five. They send people to Japan, They've got people down at CMML, I mean the CMO in New Japan obviously are huge promotions. But yeah, this is where
that talent from the MARW comes from. And you never know who you're going to hit on some hot indie talent that you're like, you know what, I got a program for this guy and I can push this this man or this woman to the moon. We'll pair him up with X person three month, three month program and boom, we got a new superstar.
You know.
Yeah, it's funny because before AW, there were so many more guys out there, and AW took a lot of them off the indiec and right away, and like even like Nick Wayne, you know, he didn't end up to even have a chance to be the indie darling guy for a while because as soon as he turned eighteen and he's already signed an AW. Yeah, it's really like that. That is the lifeblood of AW. Is indie wrestling always starts.
As a good example too, Alex the same thing there, they signed her and she was still right out of high school, you know.
Yeah, but Billy Starks was doing a lot of indie stuff where somebody like Nick Wayne and no, he was, Hey, look at like Anna. A good example of this is Anna j Yeah, he was, she was. She did that. I don't think she ever did an in D.
Match with Julia Hart.
Yeah, a handful. Julia Hart did a handful of matches before a w A couple of them were interjective matches, but she did some matchups like Anna Ja see her first match was in a Ever was in a W.
I think Harley's first match was in a W two go ahead, Okay, I'm sorry.
I thought Anna was in was in n x T for.
A little bit. No, M no, I don't know.
And Harley Cameron has She's looking better and better every match.
It's so funny, man, She's like, I'm really high. Yeah, I'm really high on her just in general because of the charisma she has. And I think we've seen this with other performers that you can compensate for a mediocre or a slightly above average move set or talent in the ring with ridiculous charisma and timing. And like, if there's one thing she has, it's timing. You put her
in a segment. She knows where to hit the punchlines, she knows the reactions, like the stuff she did with Bully Ray at Maple Leaf Pro that then paid off in their match when she did the what's up? And actually that may fell into his crops. Like, I don't know if there's another female wrestler on the AW roster who could have pulled that comedic bit off, but not only did she pull it off. She pulled it off lawlessly. She's absurdly talented, so charismatic, she has superstar written all
over it. If they do it right, and that's my worry. They don't, and then she goes somewhere else and becomes a superstar.
You know.
Yeah, well that can very well happen. But something tells me that she is very happy with AW because she is all over social media hype it up AW. If if every wrestler did with what Harley Cameron does and hyping up aw AW be the most annoying promotion on the planet by far, that'd be like, I can't go on social media a where it's all aw. Well, let's move on because we've actually kind of started getting into it.
We're gonna go do our pot Prix section now. And what pot Pourrie is is that we will all have an opportunity to talk about whatever we want to bring up, a topic such as the rise of Harley Cameron. So who wants to go first? Who has an idea of what they want to talk about? If nobody wants to go first, I have something that I can talk about, Well for it, all right, Well I will go for it.
Something interesting that I saw the other day actually posted it on the AW fan hub subreddit, is that it has now been over two months since Tony Storm has been victorious in a singles match. She's wrestled in CMLL, she's wrestled in Stardom, she's wrestled in AW and she's not want to say she's won in in a tag team competition, but she's not won a singles competition in over two months. She lost the World Championship in England to mariahm A. She lost it in Mayuebatani in Japan.
She just lost to La Catalina in Mexico. So not only is she on a losing streak, she's losing all over the world. And she after her most recent loss in Mexico to La Catalina, she said, where do I go now? And then she just walked off into the you know, black and white. I guess she's going to come back to AW obviously, but what do we think? I mean? I don't know, is Tony Storm's absence helped Tony Storm helped Mariah may Or? Is all the shit gonna hit the fan when she comes back?
I got an idea, so putting the fantasy booking had on for a second here Tony. Tony needs a bit of a change for her character. The All about Eve story has reached its peak and Mariah is done, and so that movie's done. And if she's going to stick with the timeless gimmick and as an homage to the nineteen forties and fifties golden era of Hollywood, I think her pivot, especially after all these leaving is this losing, is to come back hair dyed black with a femme
fatale type of approach because she's lost. So she's got to find herself and she's got to dig deep and get a little darker because her little comedy shtick it's not working. She lost to Mariah. She's lost three times internationally now and to see her come back, she's going to get a huge pop when she returns. I think it's good she's spin off TV because it lets Mariah shine a little bit and get a couple couple wins. Everybody's waiting for Tony to come back. But when she
comes back, she needs that. She needs that character change to be effective. And I think pivoting a little away from some of the getting inspiration from some other aspects of classic Hollywood is the way to go.
Okay, so let me ask you a question without getting into a big dialogue about it. All about Eve is over? What's her next starring role? What movie is she going to emulate next?
Oh, that's a tough one. I don't think they do. I don't think they do like an homage to a movie though. I think she just takes inspiration from other characters.
Yeah, but you know, it was pretty damn obvious she was doing all about Eve. Everybody knew she was doing all about Eve. That whole story was all about I kind of like to see her come back and do mommy dearest, just start poking people with Hanny too.
I go.
There, you go?
Yeah, Oh my god?
Who has a polt purri that they want to talk about?
They could do Double Indemnity too, that would be a good one. But I mean we're gonna get into Malti's falcon. I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of different stuff they can pull from. Pulzman always rings twice, just a ton of stuff.
Yeah.
Uh, all right, So let's get off this topic. Who has a pot pourri that they want to talk about?
So I want to get props to r J City.
Uh.
I just read that he is helping along this. Uh.
I guess their new name is Death Writers, I guess now. And and he's really helping that story along. And what they're doing with the promos, they're they're hints, They're awesome. I love what he did with Mariah May and Tony Storm and his hey w things are on point every week. I'm glad you picked him up because didn't know who he was. That he used to be an old wrestler, I guess. And now he's went in a comedy bit and I love it everything about him.
I love. Let me interrupt you because you lost me. Who are death Writers?
That's the new group, that's right.
Yeah, they obviously are not doing a great job of it because I run a podcast here.
I don't think they used it once. Yeah, they used it once on Collision. I think Collision.
Yeah, okay, but yeah, he's.
Yeah, but it's but he's doing great and Mosley dropped as really.
Drew me in with these brother what he's going to do.
And I don't know if he's actually it's something behind it or not. I don't know, but I'm loving it and loving what he's doing and he and we're getting attention. I've seen all positive things in all the separators.
All right, So let me ask you a specific question, MKA, since you brought it up the death writers John Moxley, you're impressed by what's going on with our Ja City and John Moxley whatever, Are you going to feel the same way when we're still doing the same thing six months from now?
That's it depends out booked h I hope that doesn't.
The nWo style and last forever and everybody in the world was joining, you know, we don't. We don't need hooking there, we don't need everybody in there. But I mutually where it goes, and I hope it ends with Darby you know around I don't. I don't know, give it at least six months. For three or four months, I'm good, but I don't. I don't want to see a year long with this.
Well. My thing is is that my fear with this whole John Moxley BCC thing is that based on past looking from Tony Kahan, six months from now and we're gonna head into forbidden door and we're gonna be like, what did this start? You know? That's a good thing about RJ City and what he did with Mariah May and Tony Storm and Mina Shirakawa kept it moving along. But if this is a RJ City thing, I have faith in it. If it's a Tony Khan thing, we may get Miirer in the mud. Like the elite are
right now. I'm sorry, but they are. They've not done anything they agree with me or not.
Like, yeah, I have no issues with the elite. I think they just stopped doing anything because of the death Rider's story that they were just like, ah, this is more interesting. But I mean they still seem like they might have a role to play because they it felt like they were almost hinting at them maybe joining forces against the death Riders at some point. Maybe not Jack Perry, but.
So Alex, Yeah, something was interesting on the last show because like one of the things that Adow gets a lot of great poor and I think rightfully so is just how some of the reactions to stuff is just not realistic, Like they're not going to authority. There's ridiculous things going on. Nobody's doing anything. So here we have John Moxley coming out to like kill people, right, and in real life you would go to your executives and be like, what do you How can you let this happen?
And that's what we saw backstage. They want to the elite and they're like, you guys are EVPs, Like do something, and they were complete cowards and like you could see some fear and that to me gives me some hope that they're gonna start doing something with the elite now, because like in real life, that's what would happen. You would expect your executives to put a stop to a rogue employee like this. Yeah, yeah, I just tried to kill somebody for crying out lout, go ahead.
Yeah. It's just interesting to have the elite involved, Like whatever they do, however they react. It's just interesting to show different groups of characters reacting to these big things.
Uh.
And it gives makes the elite more interesting rather than them just doing their own thing in a in a pocket universe that's not involved with other big things happening in aw And I really think that like Okata could be a big baby face and probably the young Bucks could turn as well. I think Jack Perry's too far gone, but.
Jack Perry's a sweet kid exactly now that Broma.
With the birthday gig.
Well it's a good cap.
That was a pretty cake.
Yeah, yeah, too bad they gruned it with their crankiness.
I prefer pie. Anybody else have a potpourri?
I want to talk about the to go ahead?
Oh sorry, well I have one. My potpourri is that I'm having trouble keeping up with everything that is going on in aw There seemed to be a lot of uh stories left unfinished, and like we were talking a little while ago about the whole thing with Hook and the video footage, it takes too long to explain what's going on, and by the time they explain it, everyone has lost interest or injured or they're yeah, or they're injured.
I mean, you know, it's the.
Same with with Chris Jericho. There's there's a lot of potential with Chris Jericho.
He's gonna be what is he on the number nine now?
That has a whole lot of momentum behind it if they want the momentum there. And it's just kind of like, Okay, I guess that's the thing now. And like we were just saying, the young Bucks not doing anything, what are they going to do? By the time they do anything, we'll have forgotten that anything needed.
To be done.
Uh, every two seconds, they're hinting at Kenny Omega coming back, but he's never back. They got Christopher Daniels to be Tony Kahan's voice, and he's jumping out backstage or running to the ring after everything has already happened. So it just it seems very separate, like nothing is fitting together, nothing is finishing. They're not finishing these stories, and it's
getting hard for me to pay attention. So I don't I can't be the only one who feels that way, And I wish they would kind of tie up some loose ends and finish some people's stories and keep the momentum going behind the people that really do have issues with one another so to speak, really get that going and you.
Know, let's see the finish line. So that's that's my take.
No, can I ask you a question about your perspective on this?
Sure?
So one of the things that I felt that AW is really bad at its pivoting And I don't remember who just a second ago mentioned injuries, but that's going to key problem with their stories, and it's something WWE excels at is when they've got a story if somebody gets hurt or injury, they can pivot off of it and they keep things moving. What would you like to see in instances where an injury does hurt a storyline?
So case in point, I think that the good case study for this is MJF and Adam Cole, Like, I don't care about tying this up. They got hurt, It totally derailed the storyline. Just move on, but they're coming back through it. And Tony seems to do that a lot, like he has an idea what he wants to do. Somebody gets hurt, and he just puts another back burner and then comes back when they're ready and picks it
back up. And that doesn't work anymore, you know, Like you said, it's six months ago, I don't care anymore. So what would you like to see? Like, what do you what would get those juices going for you and make it easier for you to watch.
One of the big things that would make it easier for me to watch, honestly, is And I know it's been a long time and it's long term storytelling, but I still feel that Hangman's story is not finished. With the bucks or are esteemed EVPs I don't think Kenny Omega's story is finished. And if you don't finish them,
they're always there in the background haunting. Those two stick out because they started way at the beginning of a w Hangman dabbles back and forth with the Dark Order, and it's like, finish something there and get those out of the way so we can start doing something else.
And but no, like Barry was saying, if you can't finish it, you can't finish Kenny Omega story with the EVPs because Kenny Omega's injured.
VOT, then stop talking about Kenny every week exactly.
I mean, because what's happening is that Tony Kahan is waiting for Kenny Omega to come back in order to do something with the with the Elite. That's what's happening.
I think he's coming back soon because they haven't mentioned him by name until.
Recently, like media with them dropping hints about him. They've said little things here and there about Kenny Omega, and I've picked up on so they they are sneaky and mentioning him here and there, and and he's doing it right back, so you know it's.
Yeah, that's true, that was Kenny.
Then a bush's on on talking about how he's he's you know, he's ready to come back any moment, you know, and and.
Just knock it off.
Either come back or don't come back. You don't see any Kingston every day talking about how he's coming back, so you know, and if anybody's angry, it's Eddie Kingston. So and we all know Kelson wants him to come back, most of them all.
So I'm interested to see you, Kenny. You know, honestly with with Eddie Kingston, who couldn't wrestle for ship to begin with. Now that he's been out with injuries, and I mean, he's gonna be even shitt the wrestler if it's possible. I mean, the guy has he's again, He's great on Mike. Absolutely the worst wrestler in a w by far. Nobody will do you really think he's the
worst by far? I will put it this way. I can't think of a woman on the woman's division who wouldn't be able to beat Eddie Kingston.
You think a better wrestler than Eddie Kingston.
I'd let me say this again, there is nobody on the aw roster who is as poor as a wrestler as Eddie Kingston period. That's my opinion. You can name Sir Petico, John Cruise, Tykante, whoever you want.
I said, I said, Eddie Kingston is if a guy at an indie show sat in the front row and said this isn't so tough, I could do that, and then the wrestler invited him in there, and he did it, and that's what he does from that point going.
Forward, when Eddie comes back, it's going to be a.
Huge It's going to get a huge pot man, so Calson. I have a soft spot for Eddie because I'm a huge fan of nineties All Japan and then early two thousands pro wrestling Noah, which I also know, as you guys know from the Discord. I pop in a lot of classic wrestling stuff from that era, and I know all of the spots that he's doing and what wrestler he's doing, so I have an appreciation for him. But I can also understand why some people watching them are like, this guy does nothing for me.
I get it. I mean people always say that he's an indie guy, that he's doing homages to all these indie wrestlers. I, however, am a fan of wrestling and eddie indie wrestlers.
Yeahs are the biggest start in Japan for twenty years.
Man Cordy, anybody from Dow, Japan is an indie wrestler.
He's a machine gun.
Much I'm sorry, Yeah, I don't even bring up the machine gun chops. Okay almost. I threw up a little.
Someone did the machine gun chops recently and they looked pretty good.
They're not that bad when they're done right. But Eddie kicks and beats the crap out of himself. He doesn't even hit the guy that he's.
Hit the chest.
At the same time, I feel that one video that they keep showing of Eddie Kingston giving the machine gun chops to Claudio casting Noli and Claudio is sitting there for like it seems like seven or eight minutes. I know it's only about twenty seconds, but it seemed like forever, and he's trying to sell it's the dumbest looking move ever.
You know.
Eddie Kingston reminds me of Abdula, the bitch of Bitcher the Butchers complains a lot fucking look a little long. Everybody, you have a potpourri? Uh? Or do you want to just call it a night until.
I got one thing to say. I'm just very excited for House of Black to be on Dynamite and I hope they're doing something with them, you know.
So I got porpor to did you guys? One of the things that I felt this week was Yna might float into Collision really really well. For the first time that I can remember. It felt felt like an A show, like right off Battle of the Belts. I know the ratings were crappy whatever. I thought that that hour was fine, but Collisions felt like an A show for the first time. And I thought the flow from Dynamite into Collision was
really good. And I'm hoping that that flow continues because that's what they need if people are going to start watching Collision again on a regular basis.
No disagree. It felt like they had more story things going on, and then House the Black was on, and then they're like, House the Black is going to be on Dynamite as well, So give you that reason to keep watching the next episode.
So, Calvin, why do you disagree the outrunners were on it?
But I think some of it is they're just different, you know, like they're they're nostalgia is fun, but it has a short shelf life. So that's why, like, if you're gonna, if you're gonna strap the Outrunners up, especially if this is their gonna make long term, and I have no reason to believe it's it's not going to be. You got to take advantage of it while it's there so that you can then use that to get somebody else over, whether that's not slight or get the belts
back on FTR or whatever is going to be short. Yeah, it's gonna be to take advantage of.
Will Fully admit that I may be speaking out of my ass a little bit because for the last three months I haven't watched the Outrunners. As soon as they music hits or whatever, I change the channel. So you know, it's as simple as that. They may be godly now I don't know, and I don't care, but I don't know.
They're fine in the ring. I mean, I don't think there's anything. They're very charismatic, they got a fun vibe, and like I said, it's it's a gimmick that I think will eventually tire out, much like the plane pass, and they need to be refreshed. But if you're gonna if You're gonna strap them and take advantage of it. You got to strike by the iron top.
Well, I'm going to stop the show right here because you are running really long and I'm getting We will be back tomorrow right after Dynamite for all the talk, so join us then. Everybody's welcome to join us on the Wrestling Up Discord. The link will be in the description of this podcast, so be sure to read the description. You will see the link in the Wrestling Up Discord.
Join us, come into the audience and chat with us as we're talking, and give us some ideas and what have your thoughts on AW Dynamite tomorrow night, So see you then for the AW fanhob podcast Team Missus Kelson, Alex good night, everybody. Good night,