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 a W FANTA podcast team. I'm here with MK and Jest tonight. This is Kelson and Well. We just saw Double or Nothing. Arguably one of the best. Some people say it is the best cage match. Ratings say it is the best aw pay per view of all time. We'll talk about that, but first, guys, I want to talk about something that I really don't want this to get out of hand, but I'm just a little bit mystified about well wwui's booking of events.
They booked three events for all in weekend.
You know, when you take into consideration at ad W has already booked numerous events for that same weekend.
What do you guys think about this?
I brought this up last week in poopery. This is the most pardon my friend, but this is the most bush league shit I've ever heard of. Competition is one thing It's gonna happen in any business, but this is getting ridiculous.
Do you really see this as competition though, or do you just see this as I've heard it described as petty.
Petty's a good word for it.
My word for it. It's inexplicable to me. I just don't get I don't get it. Especially I have some information for you, and I think it's going to blow your minds.
But go ahead, Jess.
I was just gonna say, like I just said, like you expect this sort of thing in any business competition, but AEW is not supposed to be competitions. According to criple H, I.
Feel like they're trying to oversaturate the market where people get tired and don't want to watch all the products.
Live and then won't be.
Able to.
So it just it feels like to me, it's petty, to be honest with you, doesn't know what they're doing. It really hurts, in my opinion, the evolve of hey of you they're wanting to do because I know it's not on the day of all inm but people are gonna be so tired out they're not gonna want to watch it live. And it really hurts that women's division because they want to pump it up as such a great division, but then to tackle onto something else already when they could have just had to stand alone and
be its own thing. It makes me feel like they don't trust that division enough and say, look at here will It doesn't delivered, so why why do it anymore?
Yeah, I mean I've seen several people make that comment that it's really not fair to the women's division, and it really isn't, you know. And well, look, I want to share you some interesting you know, these are facts, these are facts, Okay, I want to share you some interesting facts for that week. Then when I talk about that week, I'm talking about the entire week of wrestling, the leading from Monday Night Raw on July seventh, all the way through to UH to Saturday Night's main event and and UH.
Evolution.
So on Monday night, July seventh, w W RAW is going to be from Providence, Rhode Island. Now, the next night, July eighth, is the end x T show. I've read that they are doing an NXT show, but I can't find any information about it, so I'm just going to leave that as being to be determined.
Okay.
Of course, on Wednesday night, AW Dynamite from Garland, Texas, and because all In is on Saturday to twelfth, the next night, July tenth, AW Collision from Garland, Texas.
Now also starting.
July eleventh and July twelfth, there's no times on it, but I assume it's during the morning. Is aw's star cast, Yeah, okay, But then also on July eleventh is Ring of Honor Supercard of Honor from the Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Are we tired yet?
So?
But wait, there's more.
Now this doesn't have anything to do with wrestling, but it kind of ties in because on July eleventh, Beyonce plays her first of three concerts at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Okay, that is on a Friday, which, of course WWE SmackDown was coming from Nashville, Tennessee on that Friday as well, So keep in mind you have the Ring of Honor, Supercart of Honor and ww.
SmackDown on the same day. Now wait, there's more.
Of course, on July twelfth, I've already said that there is going to be AW Starcast, which was running on the eleventh of twelfth. I think that that'll probably be in the morning. But of course July twelfth is all in Texas, which starts pretty much but I think it starts real early. Put it that way. But also WWE announced NXT's Great American Bash at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. Now, if you've never been to Atlanta, the State Farm Arena is pretty close to the Mercedes
Benz Stadium. I already mentioned that Beyonce is not is performing on the eleventh, but she is not performing on the twelfth, but also on the twelfth Saturday Night made event wwee later in the evening, also from the State Farm Arena, because the Great American Bash for MENXT is basically being run at the same time as All in Texas, but also on July twelfth in Atlanta, is the Futures Game in the Major League Baseball Major League Baseball All
Star Week festivities, they're also I don't I haven't written down here. I thought I did. Oh yeah, okay, I do. So July twelfth, you've got All in Texas, You've got Saturday Night main event in Atlanta. Then you've got Great American Bash in Atlanta. You've got the All Star Futures Game and Celebrity Softball Game. Now, the All Star Futures Game and Celebrity Softball Game are really not that close
to Atlanta. They're in Cobb County. I mean, you're still talking within ten miles of each other, but they're not like right next door to each other.
Bye.
Wait, but wait, there's more, so I said July twelfth, July thirteen, eighth in Atlanta, you have understand something to July twelfth. That's that's the end of the Well, No, it isn't, because July twelfth, I'm sorry. July thirteenth, in Atlanta, Beyonce plazer second concert at the Mercedes Benz Stadium, which at the same time very close by, arguably within walking distance for most people, is.
WWE's Evolution two at the State Farm Arena.
If you could go look at Mercedes Benz at State Farm Arena, they're not that far away from each other. Also, on July thirteenth, Major League Baseball is doing their four point four miler, which is kind of like a celebrity run in the heart of Atlanta. Basically, it starts where where the old Atlanta Braves Stadium is and loops around and come and ends right back at the old Atlanta.
Braves Stadium and then a course.
On July fourteenth, and this has nothing to do with with wrestling, Beyonce has her third and final concert at the Mercedes Benz Stadium. The reason I'm bringing up Major League Baseball and the the Beyonce concerts is that these were all booked well in advance of WWE booking their things. Okay, major League Baseball's All Star Week is a big week.
Beyonce is a big deal, especially in Atlanta.
Right where are people going for these ww shows going to stay?
Are they going to sneep in the streets?
Because I can guarantee you that people have booked, the traffic's going to be a nightmare.
Yeah. I was going to say, trying to get any place is going to be just like the Circle.
Of l Well Marta Well.
I mean, people could probably book hotel rooms and you know the perimeter, you know, down by the airport or north up in Cobb County, maybe even Gudec County, and take more to the rapid transit in Atlanta down down to the city. You know, get off of five points, you're right there. At least that's the way it used to be when I lived there. But it's still not optimal.
I mean.
The other thing that I wanted to bring up is you've got all these shows now again, a w has had these shows booked for a while now. Even though they they moved the Supercard of Honor to this venue, they still did that quite a while ago. So you know, I'm tired of talking, but you understand. I mean, I'm exhausted just talking about it. You gotta watch it, and I don't think people are gonna walk. This is oversaturation of wrestling, I don't think and as you said, MKA,
I just don't think it's it's right. I don't think it's going to be wrestling my opinion, it's not smart booking. You know, you could argue that a w made a mistake, and I and I kind of agree with it. Why would you put Super Card of Honor on Friday and then follow it up less than twenty four hours later with All In Texas.
Well, you know I'll be going down there.
For all that event and stuff. It's five hours away from my house.
But I'm really only doing I'm just doing star Cast and I'm going to do.
All In.
I'm not paying all that bunch of money just to go to dish it different events. I don't want to do that. It's a big event for me and my wife to go down to first the first time we've been away from the kids since we were married, so we're going to enjoy our time down there. But just crazy off the thing that's going.
To go on down there.
I don't I think booking the Ring of Honor thing was mistake. They should have done that differently. It's just a whole lot of saturation of advance. I don't think Tony's a clear for booking this crazy and stuff either.
But yeah, I agree with you.
I think that, you know, look, it's not fair to Ring of Honor and the performers at Ring of Honor either. I mean, Rig of Honor pay per views are, in my opinion, every bit is good as AW pay per views, and everybody knows you know that AW pay per views are really really top notch.
It's kind of a shame.
I mean, I'm gonna be watching Supercard of Honor, going to bed, waking up and watching All In Texas.
I mean to be exhausted.
Yes, I can play Devil's advocate here for a second. I can see what Tony was trying to do. He was trying like, if All In is going to be like their mania, like what you usually have the night before the day before mania, you have the big NXT show, so he was trying to sort of do something like that.
I think sure, But you know, to Tony Kahan's detriment here.
He's got to know that WWWE is going to oversaturate the market, and that's exactly what w they announced three shows for in two days. I mean, it's just it's preposterous. I mean, I do not understand. And let me put it this way. And I've seen this comment made many times and I don't want to misquote anybody, so I'm just gonna say it the way my interpretation of what has been said.
Okay, think of it this way.
People that are watching aw all In because that is the big pay per view, I think that a pro wrestling fan, if they had to choose between aw all In and Great American Bash, They're going to choose all In. And the reason why is because they know that they can go and watch Great American Bash, you know, after all In, whether it's right after All In or the next day on Peacock, and they can fast forward through the commercials, you know, and because of the wrestling fatigue.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people with Great American Bash Evolution two and Saturday Night's Made Event. Don't watch these events live. I think you're gonna see a lot of pro wrestling fans kind of try to pace themselves, and they know that they can watch these events on Peacock. They're going to watch it at their own pace. And guess what They're going to fast forward through the advertisements. That's going to piss off the advertisers.
I mean, I'm just thinking from a business standpoint, it doesn't make sense.
This whole thing just does not make sense.
Well, to be fair, if you're fast forwarding through the ads on a WWE show, you're fast forwarding through the whole show pretty much.
I mean look, yeah, I mean.
Hearing you got some wrestling sprinkled in with your ads.
Yeah, you know, look, I don't really want to go there.
Okay, as far as that, because WWE has been around for a long time, they're obviously successful. Their formula works for whatever reason, it works. But if you watch ae W and then watch WWE, there is a stark difference. I'll give you an example. We're going to talk about Double or Nothing coming up. Doubler or Nothing was a four and a half hour show. Okay, Yeah, and that's what two hundred and seventy minutes. Out of those two hundred and seventy minutes, one hundred and ninety six minutes
bell to Bell was actual wrestling. Seventy three percent of the show of Double or Nothing was actual wrestling, And you're, okay, what you think about this? That's Bell to Bell. You know, we're not talking the other parts. Weren't all video packages and whatnot. They were like the entrances and whatnot. You know, so those are fun. So you're still getting entertained because you come out there with with these entrances and they take,
you know, a few minutes to get done. I would if you take the entrances and the wrestling, the actual wrestling, you're damn you're looking.
Probably around eighty percent was pure wrestling entertainment. You know.
So look are they counting like the pre show as well?
No, No, this is just this is I did the count myself Double or Nothing. The main show was four and a half hours long, and there was one hundred and ninety.
Six minutes of Bell to Bell wrestling Bell Bell.
I read where no match for the for Double and Nothing was under ten minutes?
No, No, there there were a couple of matches I the if I'm not mistaken, I'm going by member here. I believe the Mercedes Monday and JB Hater match was twelve minutes in something, and the Hurt Syndicate match against the Sons of Texas was twelve minutes in something. I mean every other match was I think the other the two closest to that, I want to say there was one minute match was sixteen minutes, and there were two matches that were nineteen minutes.
I may be off there, but that there were a couple.
Of matches that were like thirty minutes, you know, and you know which ones those were, you know, So.
Yeah, you know.
The point the point being here is, yeah, one hundred and ninety six minutes of bell to bell wrestling. I sincerely doubt if you take if you take Saturday Nights Made Event, Great American Bash and Evolution two and add up the actual wrestling in that those three events, I have a hard time believing that they're gonna have more wrestling than all in Texas. I mean, they may have a little bit more, but it's not going to be like, Wow, look how much more they did.
Because two nights of WrestleMania two.
Two nights of WrestleMania barely beat one night of Dynasty in actual bell to bell match time. And you're talking about twice twice as long, more than twice as long of shows, you know what I mean. So I mean it's it's and again this adds to the fatigue. I just I don't get it.
Again.
I'm not trolling WWE here because it's stupid to do so, because they're obviously very successful. All right, but I'm gonna watch the w W show. I'm gonna take you know, DVR and fast forward through the through the bunk.
Go ahead, chess.
Yeah.
I was just going to say one thing that has been on my mind, and it gets just it makes matter the more I think about it. I have been wanting a follow up to Evolution for years, I bet like tons of people have. But the way that it has been booked, with this petty dickery going on, if you are making me choose between a W and you can you lose. I'm sorry.
Yeah, it's mind boggley to me, It really is. I don't get it. Oh look, I'm gonna get off my soapbox. I'm gonna give you guys a chance to talk because I just rambled like crazy for what.
Ten fifteen minutes. Yeah, so let's let's talk about Double or Nothing.
I don't want to get into like what were your favorite matches and what were you disappointed in? Let's just uh, I'm gonna go to Jess first because Jess has been.
Dying to talk about Double or Nothing?
Here, Oh Jess, Jess, what were your overall thoughts on Double or Nothing?
And what matches you know, just or segments or what.
Were your what were your favorite things and if and of course if there was anything you were disappointed in let us know that too.
Well, I'm gonna be letting my nothing was really I mean, I guess if I had to say like alt, like if something I was disappointed by, It's like I was hoping like this there would be some sort of big surprise return like Mariah Darby, Our Dear Sweet Lord and Save You Ready Kingston.
Where we got book?
Yeah?
I did send yeah, all sixteen seconds of.
Them overall though, Like I have not read Meltzer's review of this show yet, but just from my opinion, in all that show and like what you said, like seventy to eighty percent wrestling. I would not rate a single match under three stars, even like the matches that were there to be filler would have made a fine main event on any TV or my more or lesser pay per view.
Yes, I want to ask you about that, because you just brought up something. There were people that were legitimately upset at the filler matches at at all In and the filler matches that they basically pointed to. There was literally three to people considered thrill filler matches. Ocata Mike Bailey was one of them. The other one was well Brisco at Ricochet was a lot of people considered that
a filler match. And the last one was was it all the Trio's match, the Paragon versus whoever the hell they wrestled.
I can't even remember.
The doc towas amily, you know, but look, if you went from I'm interested in hearing your opinion on this. But in my mind, you had to put the paragrind at the don Kallis family, after Anarchy and the Arena and before Osprey and hey Manhanna Page. You have to give people chanced to come down, go to the bathroom, you know, get their you know, get their breath back. Yeah,
these I didn't have a problem with. Yeah, look, was I as entertained by the paragrin and you know the don Cols family and Ricochet and Brisco and Ocada Bailey.
No, I was not.
I didn't think that they were like the oh wow matches, but they served the purpose.
Yeah, I exactly. I mean, like you're not gonna put freaking the main event right after Anarchy in the arena. Just thinking about it just completely like wears me out, just imagining that scenario. You need to like breathe, you need to pee sometime. You can't just get it.
But go ahead, go ahead, Okay, no, go go there.
There's a reason why bookers know how to do the ebbs and flows. And sometimes I arg you a lot with why is this white here? But you have to have a rest break. And I've heard nothing but good things about an Archie and arena. I scroll through my Instagram feed, it's all over the place. It reminds me the moment when like the buddies of the floor pops on, the whole arena was rocking, And that reminds me of
what wrestling should be. It should be fun, it should be entertaining, yes, it's hochy sometimes and cheeseball, but it's fun and that's what they need. And that show was great and the timing was great because you.
Got to have that plateau a little bit.
Yes, I felt bad for Paragone and the don Kallis family, but they put on a decent match.
But they did, There's no question they did. They put on a good match.
But it wasn't story of the night.
Story of the night was Owen's and the Owen matches and Ken Arena, which from what I've heard, just blew everything out of the water.
Oh yeah, I disappoint The other thing that sort of disappointed me is I would have had Jamie Hater go over. But I can't really complain too much because Mercedes mone versus Tony Storm is gonna kill.
Yeah, well, you kind of look at it realistically.
Look at Tony Storm versus Jamie Hayter and Tony Storm versus Mercedes Monette.
Which one is gonna sell the best?
It sells more tickets, it's a smart.
Name, it's a smart choice. There was no way.
I love Jamie Hayter, but there was no way in my mind, there was no way that Jamie Hater should have.
Won that match.
Yeah, but we'll be I'm not a big fan of this result myself, because what do we want Mercedes Money to win?
I mean, how do you book that? To suffivee?
Well, no, this is a commesurate to uh, you know, hul Cogd and Andre to Giant, you know, with significantly you know, smaller people.
But yeah, yeah, it's you know, it's one of those things where I.
Tony Storm, Tony Storm Is and Mercedes Monet are, especially Mercedes Monet are kind of seen as the faces of the women's division.
I mean, there's other great.
Women, but look, I mean, you've got these two women that are literally, in my opinion, the faces of aw's women division, and now you've got them going against.
Each other at at All in Texas. It hit. It just hits harder than it's a talking point.
Look, I'll say it right now, if Jamie Hayter had won that match, we wouldn't be talking about the All in Texas match with Tony Storm right now.
What they could have done is I'm cribbing a little from my husband, who's pretty good at like fantasy booking. You could have had Hater versus Storm and then you could have run back Athena versus Monette for the TBS title. That would have been great.
Uh yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
No, I agree, that was I thought that's where everything was going there for a while. But I don't understand why they pulled out a thing.
For our right trist for her to lose and go back.
I thought they were going to do something with that, but uh, that didn't happen.
So I agree, though, Yeah.
No, I I think that what you're good to see with Athena Athina is going to be at All in Texas and she's going to win and her opponent's going to be THECKLA, And that makes perfect sense. I mean, they were partners earlier this year in stardom. They faced each other earlier this year in stardom, and after Athena defeated Decla, Athena did challenge Decla to a fight, but this time in the United States. So look, it makes
perfect sense. Look think about it. Logically, if you had Athena against Mercedes Monet, for example, for the TBS Championship at All in the winner comes out looking good, the loser comes out looking really bad. I'm sorry they do, because if Mercedes Monette had lost Athena, what's the point because she lost to somebody who's not even technically you know, used on the AW.
Roster very often, and she's not.
But if Mercedes loses to Tony Storm, it doesn't hurt It doesn't hurt Mercedes at all. And Mercedes beats Tony Storm, it doesn't really hurt Tony Storm at all. It just means, oh, here's the next story for the next sixteen sixteen months, you know.
So so there you go.
It makes perfect sense to have Athena against Docklea, and hey, if Dekla wins, that puts her in a position to be a big name in Ring of Honor and frees up that frees up Athena to come to a w and wreak some havoc.
It's just the way I look at it.
I'm sure once, once the things become clear, we will know for sure what's going to be happening, you know, at all in Texas with you know, different matches.
But I'll go back to Jess.
What did you think of the Osprey versus Page match? Did the right person win there? And what did you.
Think of the match?
Yes, okay, I mentioned this like in the chat like uh, and I mentioned this last two week. I adore both of those men and I would have been happy with either outcome, but having to pick one, I thought it should have been Hangar because he had the better story. So I am thoroughly satisfied with how everything turned out.
Yeah, you know, I thought it was interesting.
You know, I don't know what the rest of you guys think, but the way that they built up this, uh, this match was, oh, will Osbury is gonna win?
How is that? How?
How is Hangman, Hangman and and Paige gonna lose? But that's not what happened. I mean, it was a pretty I thought it was a pretty big swerve.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was respect to Osbar to win, and I still stand by my point that I think he should have been. But uh, from what Fightfulle said, they were both trying to love before each other, which is great and.
And so.
But I thought Osprey would have been great, great to be a future.
I have no problem with Hangman.
I love Hangman and he deserves the second Tyler Raine, which is hopefully booked better than the last one.
But I thought it should have been Ospray last night.
Yeah, well, you know what the uh you touched on what Feifel reported, And apparently Tony Khan did not tell either Osprey or Hangman Addam Paige who is going to win this match until very late.
And the report is is that Hangman Adam Paige lobbied.
With Tony Khan to say that Osprey should win, and Ospray lobbied with Tony Khan to say that Hangman should win. That's so great, It's that's that's the It's sweet baby.
Look that's the kind of stuff you want your locker room.
Yeah, that's healthy.
That's the kind of stuff you want your locker room.
You know, you don't need the uh part of the French, but the CM punk bullshit stuff going on, you know. And look that you know hangm At and Page winning and now going to All in Texas. Yeah, some people can say that's a big fu too to see him punk.
You know. So look, I'm all for it.
You know, you want people to talk, and this is getting people to talk, and I'm interested to see what happens like on this week's Dynamite the Fallout show, you know that's coming up really soon. Less as we're recording this, we're you know, less than twenty four hours from from the fall up.
I'm interested to see what the heck happens it really is.
But you know, one of the things that just brought up was there was a lot of opportunities for debuts and returns here.
And really nothing happened.
I mean, we had, you know what, we had hooked there for sixteen seconds basically as I said earlier, and gave kid and that was it.
You know, but when you look at it, aw didn't need it.
They put on arguably the best pay per view of their existence and they didn't need any you know, Brian Danielson and had them Cole showing up on the same night to make it talk worthy.
Yeah, that's true. Surprises are fun, but they're not always necessary.
Yeah, I wanted to talk about anarchy in the arena. When the bodies hit the floor gave me probably the thing that tickled me to death the most in the entire show, and that was when I believe it was Claudio Cassioli giving the big spin to Swear Strickland and threw him into this little speaker and as soon as swerve and as soon as Swear, I don't know if
he caught it, but I was dying laughing. As soon as Swerve hit that speaker and shattered it into a million pieces, the music in the entire arena stop as if it was centered on that one little speaker. That was brilliant theater. I am sorry, you know, And yeah, I thought that was just clever and it was a little you know, it's interesting the little things that happened.
Make a lot of a lot of sense.
You know.
That's what a lot of the entertaining stuff comes from, is the little things, not the big wow factors, but little stupid shit.
Like that.
I mentioned earlier. I think it was in the chat or something that basically a good narchy in the arena slash stadium stampede match. Good wrestling is a plus but basically needs an abundance of two things to be successful, and that's violence and comedy. And there was like a ton of just the right amount of both in Sunday's match. It was just great.
Yeah, you know, there was, but a lot of the comedy was three stooges comedy where it was praying. The prelude to it was violence, you know. But you know, my daughter was at the show. It was her first a w Show live show, and she did say that her and my son in law were at the show, and I talked to them both after after the show,
and they did say that their seats were terrible. They were you know, they basically it probably wouldn't have mattered if it was a dynamite or a collision, but when you're talking about a four and a half hour show, and they had to turn at an angle because they were sitting by the stage. They were above the stage,
but they were sitting by the stage. They were very close to where when Prince Dana came out with Swerve on the forklift, they passed pretty much right by my daughter and son in law, and so they had to kind of turn and look at the stage the entire time. And of course there was a camera crane in their way because she showed me pictures of where her seats were before the show. So by the end of the show,
they were sore. I mean, they were exhausted. But my daughter did say that, you know, her section, I guess because of that, was fairly quiet. They were not as loud, but they said that, you know, the rest of the arena was loud as hell. She didn't know whether it came through. She did say, here's the interesting thing. She said that the music, she thought the music would be louder in the arena, but it wasn't. She said, it
wasn't too soft, it was just right. But she thought it would be like pounding, you know, it would be.
Pounding and really loud, and she said that wasn't the case.
But she did say that her favorite part of anarchy and the anarchy in the arena was when people you know, were chanting, please help Willow because Willow. However, how they did that, they she got her ear chained.
To the ring post.
But one of the things I was concerned about, because I believe it was Barry that joined us a couple of weeks ago, and he did go to a couple of double or nothings, and he did see a couple of anarchy and arenas, if I'm not mistaken, And one of the things he did say was that it was anarchy and arena was very hard to keep up with because they really didn't show on the screens what.
Was going on. I asked my daughter.
She missed things like, you know, the little things like Willow getting chained to her ear, getting chained to the to the ring post, and.
She said no, she saw everything.
She saw everything live, you know, and she wasn't confused at all, which I thought is a testament to a really good production work on it. A W's parton I gotta say, I thought the sound of this show on TV at least was really good. The music was blaring, the crowd sounded awesome. You know, I think they finally got it.
Than Josh Matthews.
Yeah, Jush mathis right. Was there anything in not an Adder?
Well, we can you could bring up at her Kaana read, of course, but was there anything in the pay per view that's just surprised you?
I mean you've already talked about, you.
Know, maybe the Hangman ad him page and will Osprey result being surprising, but uh, look, what.
Were some of your favorite moments at the pay per view?
I'll say that I'm very impressed with Speedball Mike Bailey. I know he's not gonna go far on the card, but he's always a good match, he's always entertaining, and to put him with Okada, really I thought it was a pretty good setup between the two and I knew he would win, but man, he knows how to put on a match and he knows how to use him feet.
And he does a good job. So I got to give him props where it's due.
I agree. I was actually just gonna mention that same match because, like I was gonna say, it's the first time in a long time that Okada felt like Okada. If that makes any sense.
It does.
Also, I absolutely loved a speedballs ring gear. I am a just like seeing that, just like seeing his r ring gear put a big stupid smile on my face.
Yeah, yeah, you know what, I'm gonna go back as far as something that impressed me, I'd go back to zero hour or buy it if you will. I thought that the energy of Harley Cameron A against Megan Bain and Penelope FOURD was brilliant.
I love that match.
That was.
They over delivered on that match so hard. It was that The other buying match too, with the Lucha basically was the Luca match that over delivered. Those are really really good matches that I could you could. I'm telling you they if they were on the main show, I wouldn't have been upset about it.
Put it that way, because that was just good fun.
So very fun. When I said like nothing under three stars. I was including those matches in my assessment.
Yeah, you know.
I but again, I gotta give it to the women because they knocked it out of the park. And again they didn't need a run in or they didn't need, you know, a debut or return or whatever to make it great. And that was a great match. I want to see that match again, let me put it that way, and that's I just have to say it.
I thought to buy that buy in match was fantastic though.
Yeah, did you guys, Were you guys disappointed at all in any of the matches. Let's talk about Tony Storm and Mina Shirakawa. Uh, you know, people were saying, maybe this is the where Mariah May would come back again. I think it was the right call just to have Storm and Shirakawa go at it. And after the match, you know, they showed their respects to each other by sticking their tongues down each other's throats.
But that's neither here nor there. But I think that's that's up story for the future.
I'm all for tongue kissing replacing a handshake at the end of a match.
Yeah, I mean, I was kind of disappointed that Okada and Bailey didn't do it.
So, yeah, broke back stuff.
Yeah, Kenny.
I'm sure Kenny would do it, Oh for sure, Yeah he would do that.
Yeah, you know, anything to set Chip Cornette off.
Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
I'm really impressed with what those two.
I'm really impressed with Mina as well as how long it's, how far along she's coming, and how quickly the the A audience is taken to her. I think she's going to be a future star along with the rest of that division. She's gonna be wanting to keep up with.
Yeah, I mean, look, I mean the way drawback would be to shirk Kyla is that you know, she's not a spring chicken. You know, she's as far as women wrestlers go, she's one of the older ones in a w.
For sure, you know, so really absolutely.
I mean I think there's Emmy Saker, of course is older, but Mina Shikkaw is what is she She's either thirty seven or thirty eight, so no, she doesn't look it, but you know, and she she didn't start wrestling until her thirties, so she didn't she doesn't have. One of the things with stardom is that especially during the Rossio Goawa era. Look at Starlight Kid and as At Azumi. I think Azumie was eleven or twelve, but she started would startom, you know, uh, and Starlight Kid was like
thirteen or fourteen, and they're still there. But you know, look a Zumi's twenty two years old. Half of her life she's been wrestling now. And you know, if you pay attention to stardom, stardom is not like WWE or AW because.
They wrestle well over one hundred matches a year.
Each of the wrestlers, especially the top wrestlers, will wrestle over one hundred matches a year, whereas say a AW wrestler, Espally, when I'm talking about the women's of course, I think Mariah May had maybe forty matches last year, and she was the one that had the most matches in AW last year, So I mean there's a big disparity there.
So the wear and tear, what I'm saying is that the wear and tear on the body in UH in stardom is going to be a lot more than say WWE and and AW, and that, frankly is one of the reasons why I believe that A lot of these uh startup women like Carrie saying, you know Sky, you know, et cetera, Mariah May, Megan Bain, even Tony Storm. They come to America, whether it's AW or WWE, because frankly, the wrestling scheduled.
Is just a lot easier.
M hmm.
So it is, it is what it is, you know.
But I had no idea that Mino was the Joshi DDP.
Yeah, she's uh, she's she's not a young woman, you know, but you would never know that by looking at her.
I mean, she's she doesn't move, but I mean, look.
I remember when I was thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight years old. I was like, oh my god, I can't even tie my shoes anymore. She's out there doing what she does. More power to her, you know. And you gotta look look at these you know, John Moxley and and Adam Copeland and all. You know, these people have gone through it, you know, and they're still out there doing it. I have nothing but respect for people to get do that. I don't know how they do it.
Look at I was gonna up like dusting. It's like, I know he's up there and it's still wrestle man.
He's I'm gonna say it, he's better than.
Because he can actually kind of keep up with.
These other guys.
But I definitely definitely stilled down. Obviously good of his age, but he can still go up there. But on a show man.
Yeah, yeah, you know, I kind of want to talk about her sneck and an Sons of Texas now that you brought it up, Steve, because look, everybody was expecting for something to go on, you know, tom foolery between m JF and Bobby Lashley.
And and Shelton.
Benjamin almost called them, called him Benjamin Shelton like Hulk Coogan.
But uh, nothing happened.
In fact, they actually kind of played into something like Bobby Lashley was like wagging his finger at m JFF. You can see like the spark of disappointment going at they broke out of the big smiles. They're wrist bumping
and the hogging and congratulating each other. And look, MGF came out stronger in the hurt syndicate that he did going in, and I don't think a lot of people expected it, but I thought it was a great move on their part to keep that story going because eventually you know, something's gonna happen and they're gonna fall apart, but why do it real soon? Let it play out for a little while.
I think it's a brilliant strategy. I mean, if you have like an odd duck that you think is causing dissension, you're sort of going to underestimate your opponents because you think there's a fracture there. So what Bobby and Max did was played that up until they you know, they basically played their opponents with it. It was pretty brilliant.
Actually, yeah, I mean, look, I didn't have a problem with this. I thought this match was going to be one of the weaker matches on the card. That perhaps it was, but that was because the match card was so strong and the wrestling was even stronger than the card presented. But I had no problem with this match. And hey, Sammy actually got to speak, because he's been like a deaf mute back there for a while, you know, for the last few weeks, just.
Letting Dustin Rhodes do all the talking. Well he probably got to speak.
And yeah, you know, going back to anarchy in the arena, did you think about the the bucks, the the way they came out at their enteran Steve and the long introduction that that Roberts had to do.
It was pretty much the entire Emancipation Proclamation paraphrase.
Maybe the Gettysburg Address thrown in there a little bit. Anyway, I fully thought I would look. I thought that they would like, you know, take off their revolutionary war garb and wrestle the match and or no, they wrestled the entire match looking like minute men.
That was just preposterous.
I seriously thought the drumming fife music is what we were going to stick with it. Thought we were gonna like be treated to ten straight minutes of drum and fife music.
Yeah, and I love that it did go to I'm so excited for because that song is like the most I'm sorry that it was the dumbest thing that Tony Kohan has ever done. And I think he may have done that just to set up double or nothing, just to use it.
And because I can't stand that song.
I cannot stand it, you know, and it's it's just not a wrestling song, and it's justpid and what they killed it off like after thirty seconds. I loved it, so so that's that, you know, Hey, I never maybe enjoyed when the body's at the floor a lot more.
Put it that way.
I thought that was a great song, got everybody hype. I mean that's.
I'm not a super fan of that group, but I thought it was a little apropos and then but when they switched, I'm.
So excited I died. Uh that was hilarious.
That's just a little aw humor for it for you. But Saturday night to fight at a night for fighting is what I was hoping for.
Yeah.
Well, you know, look, nothing says you know, professional wrestling and anarchy better than the Pointer Sisters. I mean, they go hand in hand, so one other matches one of the Is there anything else that you guys want to talk about as far as.
This pay per view goes?
Really, the only thing that we did talk about really is h Garcia Nigel against FTR, And of course we really didn't speak anything about Briscoe and Ricochet.
You know, these were I will disagree with anyone who calls that a stretcher match a filler. That's one thing I absolutely adore about Ricochet is that he is a pathetic goofy wiener until he's not.
Mm hmmm, yeah, I mean I get but I but you know, look, I absolutely think that that was a filler match.
There was nothing at stake in that match at all. Uh it was. It was a filler match. Again.
You know, that doesn't mean that it wasn't entertaining, because it was.
You know, I'm just saying there was. It was. It was a filler.
Match the pin and plus it was a setup. Like the setup is uh Mark losing the match being carted off in an ambulance, and then the payoff is later in an archy. Rien later in a anarchy when he comes back covered in blood.
Yeah yeah, you know, didn't even like wash his face or take off his shirt.
You know, just do you imagine.
Being because I was, like, what two and a half hours later, wearing a bloody shirt that entire time, which I'm sure he probably didn't do. But that's what I just don't get it. I mean that I would. That's just that's just nasty. There's the other way to put it.
What do you expect?
Yeah, well there you go. But yeah, I mean.
The Nigel I was actually disappointed in in the u FTR versus Nigel and Garcia match because Nigel really wasn't in the match very very much. It was just basically Garcia getting the stop beat out of him, you know. And I again, I think it may be one of those things where there's this story there. Maybe this is where Garcia turns, because let's face it, people were so concerned about Nigel, they just left you know, Garcia the ring to get the stop beat out of him.
I didn't understand the point of there has to be some point to this, Matt massive, but I just don't see it.
I don't you know.
We're all big fans of Nigel, but I don't see the point in FDR other than turning them heel. So we'll Garcia goes. Maybe Daniel Garcia does turn. He needs a refresher and I could see him joining FTR, but I don't or I don't know, but Garcia needs something to step it up.
So I gotta little agree. And I am saying that as somebody who loves Danny. I love Danny, I love his chemistry with Daddy Magic. They're great. That yeah, something.
Point he needs to get away from Danny Magic and and be his own person.
I think.
I like Danny Magic, but Daniel Garcia has to be his own person if he wants to be taken seriously.
Yeah, yeah, I guess you're right. But how would joining FTR solve that problem? Because he's then to be jumping from Daddy Magic to Stokely Hathaway.
See, I'm not the creator Hathaway either, so I can't.
I have a big fan of Stokely though, so I could.
Yeah, I could not have Soakley and a W and I be fine.
Well, I want to talk a little bit about the applications of double or Nothing. Look, we already know that hangman Autam Page is going to face John Moxley it all in and hopefully win the championship and put an end to that bullshit story. That's I feel like I felt. I felt like I've been held prisoner of war, you know, for months now. Just get it over with. Already have the match tomorrow on Dynamite.
Just get it over with.
I really, honestly, I really don't want to watch that match. But I will say this, I said the same I said the same thing about if you remember the last time the Entangment Adam Paige and John Moxley faced him and faced each other at a pay per view, uh, on this podcast, I said, I really don't want to watch this match because they had three don'll be the third match, and like it seemed like in two weeks. Of course it wasn't, but they had a pretty back
to back to back matches. I was like, I am not looking forward to this match, and I ended up loving the hell out of that match.
I just you know, and I hate Crow big time on this podcast.
But we also.
Yeah, well, of.
Course we also know that Mercedes Monet is going to face Tony Storm for the aw Women's Championship at all in Uh, did you see any other implications you know, put forth here? Uh, as far as other matches and other feuds, do you think anything there's better beginning? Look, you saw a little bit of discourse between Hook and Samoa Joe that was pretty interesting.
Uh, and I call me crazy, call me crazy here for me this year Kawen did some heelish stuff in that match with Tony Storm. Mm hm you know so.
Yeah, I've heard rumors that they're supposed to be a casino ladder match for women at all when it has not been confirmed, of course, but but but I can see that happen for a Number one contendership or or life they do where they grab it and they get a match when they want to or whatever. That would be interesting.
I love those. I would definitely take a woman's casino match.
I would like to see a woman's casino match, but not at all.
In that that takes away from from Mercedes and Storm. You don't have a number one contender match before the number one contender ever gets a chance to vuy for the title.
You know, I don't like that at all and that that would be a mistake for me.
Yeah, where does Osprey go from here? Seriously? Where does Jamie Hanner go from here? Where does speedball Mike Bailey go from here? This is some of the things that I think we may get addressed and you know, the next couple of weeks or you know, Look, we've got Dynamite on Wednesday. I think I think Collision is on on Saturday. I think it's However, next week, just so we you know, we will be doing All the Talk tomorrow night after Dynamite to give our thoughts on that.
But next week I'm going to already tell you we're not doing an episode of All the Talk because next week is fighter Fest and Dynamite is four hours long, so we're not.
Staying up until two o'clock.
Yeah, so I postponing the at for a week, you know, sorry, guys, But yeah, I'm not I'm definitely not gonna do that.
Yeah, I mean so, I really see AW remember starting to band together a little bit more, and hopefully I'm starting to see some cracks in the Death Riders and because something's gonna happen where if he does beat him at all in Death Riders are done, they're no longer powerful anymore. So I really do think something's gonna build.
He's gonna get a group of people behind him to watch his back so they can be a fair match, because that's been the story this whole time, of interference, interference left and right, new people coming in.
I think it's gonna be those two together.
Hopefully not a Texas death match like I said before, but I just want to fair fight between the two, and I think we're gonna see a team AW coming together a little bit more.
Yeah.
Well yep, yeah, he said, like what's uh, where does Osprey go from here? He's already made his intentions known. His role at least threw All In is to be a Hangman's second. As Hangman agreed to do the other way around if Osprey won, right.
Yeah, yeah, you know, I hate the Harpod the death Writers, but they suck. They they are They are not a powerful team at all. Everything about them is not everything. There have been a couple of moments that I did enjoy, but for the most part they are absolutely unwatchable.
You know, there are no Death Writers fans. I'm dead. I'm sorry. I may be one of the lone death Writers apologists.
And well you should stay off the aw fan hub subreddit because many, many, many people have been sick of the Death Writer since I don't know, November.
Yeah, I know, I know.
They are passe, they are overdone. They are a male version or mostly male version of the Outcast. The Outcast didn't work, and they were smart enough to kill that kill that shit off, you know, pretty quickly.
Yeah, but just.
It was.
No the outcasts. We pretty much as a unit agreed that the Outcast. The only thing the Outcast did was make the because there was four of them, and they were always together, you know, at least three of them were always together at every match that the Outcast had, whether it was singles or doubles, and the only thing that the Outcast did was made the AW women in mass look like absolute idiots because they would come out one on three every single week and it just got to be preposterous.
It was groundhog Day. It was the same thing over and over again.
And you can't say nothing came of it. If there's no outcast, we don't get Tony Storm in his current form.
So yeah, well, you know, look, you know, hopefully we'll get I don't know, somebody we were you get a haircut, and.
He'll be a good wrestler again. I don't know.
Well, all I'm saying is I honestly and sincerely, I'm gonna tell you something. There was a part there was a section during Anarchy in the arena. There was a section there was a segment of that match. I think it was after the actual match was over and the Team AW if you were, were walking up the ramp and what was sitting there right in the middle of
the ramp. Do you remember, Right in the middle of the ramp when the entire Team AW walked by, Sitting right at their feet was the briefcase with the AW World Championship belt at it. What did they do? Kenny Omega kicked it down the ramp. I never wanted to strangle Kenny Omega more than I wanted to at that point. You know, the briefcase is a joke. The death Writer this is a joke. It doesn't work, It's horrible.
It'll be a huge sigh of relief when if Hangman beats Mosley, which I don't want to say if it needs to be win, but there's people who are scaring me out there, who are saying a certain other person's gonna be it, and it's gonna take a while to do it, and if it does, I'm I let's just say that if if Page doesn't win, I will probably not watch AW till it's until Moxley loses.
Now, I will say this in all honesty, if Page doesn't win at all, in We're probably not gonna be I'm probably not gonna be doing this podcast. Yeah, seriously, I mean it's just a plain I mean, it's just being honest, because I will have lost.
I am strang.
The only saving grace for the death Writers, reasonably for me, is that they've not been used as much I guess as they were in the past.
You know, uh, because they are not as dominant either.
They take they take what they give.
Sorry, I was speaking of things that suck. Have you anybody really noticed that the correlation of AEW's uptick in quality seem to coincide with Jericho, leaving just something to think about.
Uh, I do not agree with that.
Actually, I think the uptick in quality has been mostly correlated to uh well several things.
Just getting rid of the.
I was being a little tongue in cheek there.
Yeah. I hate to say it because I don't like to come down on wrestlers that I actually think are good. But when once aw look therese there was obviously backstage problems with a W and a W is released a couple of wrestlers now, uh, few wrestlers recently that.
You can see a difference. Look, Ricky, Ricky Starks was not as.
Good as he thought he was, you know, and uh, you know, I loved Panta and I loved Ray Phoenix, but they just they just seemed like they were more of a problem. And the you know, and I'm speaking out of my ass here, but they just seem like they're more of a problem in the locker room than anything, you know, Miro, more of a problem out Malachi Black, who I adored more of a problem again.
These all the a W.
Releases that are going to WWE are big deals of w W, you know, and that's it'll be interesting.
I'm sorry, it's just.
It's interesting to me, But I don't know, it's.
It's yeah, You're probably right. I just couldn't resist the opportunity to take a dig it. I just don't like him very much.
Yeah, I mean, look, you know Jericho did is not a mad Jericho is a main eventor who was not a main eventor anymore.
Well, I think he's found his role. I think he understands that he's helping you, people like Danny Garcia and stuff like that.
Build him up.
And I I really don't think that he's ever going to go to not be aw once he retires. He's gonna stay there and said because he feels appreciated. And back to your point, Kelson, I feel like like the black cloud has been lifted ever since we got rid of those guys and more more positivity has came our way. And I've seen, just to chatter through the internet, I've seen a lot of people saying, hey, I noticed a change of a and I may start watching it again.
Yeah, and you see a lot a lot of people, you know, just getting tired of the of WWE shows.
I mean, I just don't understand how.
Again, obviously they got a gigantic audience. I just don't see how you can watch video packages commercials for hours a week. It just doesn't make any sense put that shit on YouTube. But it's obviously working. So I can't say, well, that's just you know, and I wanted to. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to work. I'm not a WWE hater. All I'm saying is I can't sit there and watch a show. I gotta have it on DBR so I can fast forward through the you know, frankly to bullshit.
Yeah, they got to change their their their style.
I think, like I said before, I've been to a live.
Event and it was Chinese torture.
To me, there's a huge stark difference of being in the middle action and watching product place matter product placement and seeing a huge prime bottle there and just.
It it drags on.
I love AW just for the fact that it's there, You're in the midst of it, and for me, the audience is better.
Yeah, I mean, I don't have to leave me I do not have a problem with product placement. I don't.
To me, if you have a problem with pop product placement, you know a serious problem with it. You know, it's kind of petty, you know, because it doesn't take away from the wrestling matches. You know, what takes away from the wrestling matches is not having wrestling matches.
I'll make a different there. I mean, do you really take the Viking Raiders seriously when they come out wearing cartoony Clash of Klan's cosplay? I don't. I thought that was horrible, and I love the Viking Raiders.
What about will Osprey coming out with an Assassin's Creed's outfits. There's no difference, you know, I don't think so. It's just it's it's, you.
Know, difference that Will Ospray loves and appreciates Assassin's Creed. It works with his character. He's the aerial assassin, his move is the hidden Blade. Things he chose himself because he loves Assassin's Creed. I don't think the Viking Raiders have ever played plans in their life.
Well, you have to ask them. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. You know, It's just one of those things.
You know, but I I can't fault somebody for doing that. I really can't, you know, I you know, I mean, do you really think timeless Tony Storm has ever watched Turner classic movies once in her life? Probably not. She doesn't sound like it, but that's her character. Just being honest here, you know, I've I don't think you can take characters seriously, you know, that's all I'm saying. Yeah, you know Mercedes Monet when she comes out with her gears, a lot of times her gears.
Paying homage to something, and I like that. Uh you know, yeah, yeah it was it was neat.
I liked it, but it was like one of those things. Okay, did swear where that because it looked cool? Or did he like that because you know he's a.
Lifelong Predator fan? You know? Well, you know, look, I.
The only thing you can nippick, you know, personally, what I can nick pit nitpick is the death writers suck, and they've they've always sucked.
You know.
They're literally the most uninteresting thing that I've ever seen.
In a w or none.
I mean, the only thing, the only thing in a that AW has done that has been.
More.
There's two things that I could think of that have been more annoying to me than or not more annoying, but as annoying to me.
As the Death Writers.
One was j car Gill's TBS Championship rain because it was pointless, it was meaningless, it was repetitive.
And Orange Cassidy's first reign.
As the International Champion. I mean it was the same match over and over and over again, and it kind of made it was bad because if you listen, go back and listen to these podcasts, we were like, we were big fans of Orange Cassidy, and half of us were like, we don't want to see this anymore.
Yeah, my mind probably be the Devil storyline. I got so tired of that after a while and it petered out anyway, So that would probably have to be second place for me.
Yeah, the collective. I don't think anything in aw has ever been worse than the Nightmare Collective. And I speak this is somebody who at the time had a huge girl crush.
On a.
On a Missus Rhodes.
There.
I thought she was a gorgeous woman, but she is a gorgeous womanous woman, Brandy, I love you, but this is just awful.
Yeah, I mean, look, you know, the way I look at it is I think one of the strengths of AW right now is that the wrestling product is filled with wrestlers that can wrestle, and if they are maybe a little bit behind, uh, they are showing tremendous potential. And there are and it's diverse. I mean, there's it's not other than the death writers, which, to be frank with you, they have changed it to where it's not the same thing weekend and week out. It's been a
lot better in the lastcar. It still sucks, but at least it's not just like, is this a repeat? Haven't I seen this episode before? You know, at least they're doing something new just as awful, but it's at least it's new. But there are just you know, that's that's the point I think with AW is that the promos are better, the production.
Is better, the wrestling is better, and it hasn't.
Been dragged down by people that are, you know, a detriment to the locker room. Again, they've released a lot of these wrestlers and things have improved, you know, And I don't know, and hopefully we continue along this line and don't bring in wrestlers that just can't wrestle, you know, And if they can't wrestle, just put them on the mic and let them be a character. You know, you don't have to wrestle to be, you know, a star in wrestling. You know, it's as simple as that. You know,
played in the strengths right now. The strengths of AW is their wrestlers. Ay, w's got some damn good wrestling.
Hell, yes it does.
So I'm looking forward to Dynamite tomorrow.
I really am interested in, you know, implications that arise from double or nothing, and how they're going to build stories toward All In. One thing I will say, and I know something's not here tonight, but All In is on July twelfth. I believe that's seven weeks away. We cannot go until July eighth before we get half the matches.
We're all in.
They've got to get these matches set in the next at max, the next three weeks, at max, the next three weeks. We've got to have a majority of the matches set for all In. Because you just can't pussy put around with this anymore. You gotta get you know what's coming. You've got to get the story out there.
Yeah, I think with the fighter Fest being more or less a free pay per view, that should be a huge help in building things up pretty quickly. He's not the one that four hours.
Yeah, you know, it's unfortunate because I have heard I think Fightful select Is has reported that there are quite a few AW wrestlers that are banged up right now, which makes sense. I mean, Double or Nothing was brutal. You know, I know the bucks are banged up. I would be surprised if I still I mean.
Whatever.
I mean, you know, that's that's the thing. So I hope that fight or Fest has it off wrestlers healthy to make it a pay per.
View on DV I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
Yeah, that's true. I mean it just came out like to like late yesterday or early today that Drew McIntyre's gonna be taking a leave of absence because he can't turn his neck all the way left. And I hate that. Wrestlers, any athlete, really feel that they have to work hurt till it gets to that point.
Yeah. Well, AW is famous for that.
I mean, you know, MGF worked hurt. You know, there's a lot of wrestlers worked or Julia Hart worked hurt.
Yeah, I know they do, but I'm just saying it sucks that they feel that they have to.
Yeah.
Yeah, And I think you're like, look, and you know, I was upset because Drew McIntyre to me, he's the man.
He is the man.
I mean, by far, my favorite w w W wrestler because he just has the look, he has the talent.
I just I just like everything he does.
So, you know, I really really wish he gets healthy soon and takes the timing needs to come back and healthy, you know. So it's as simple as that. Well, that'll do it for the show. I think we've talked about pretty much everything that we can talk about.
I'm really looking forward.
To the fallout show of AW Dynamite, and we'll be back here tomorrow night, right after Dynamite to talk about it again. I'm just looking forward to it. I think it's going to be tremendous. I hope it's not a letdown because double or Nothing was so good. I hope it's not not a letdown. So I'm going to go back on to the AW Phantom sum Reddit and look at the crazy amount of conversation that's going on there
because it's really exploded because of uple or nothing. It's just a lot of opinions going on between aw fans and w W fans. It's it's uh, it's it's it's a fun time to be a moderator and it's a horrible time to be a moderator at the same time.
Right.
Well, yeah, like now that all these shows are going to be announced all at the.
Same time, you know how much we're gonna have to be doing.
Tony would get me started.
To go around deleting everybody talking smack about the death Riders.
Well yeah, if you you take about half the death Writer more than half, well more and a half of the.
Death Writer post off the subred if you did that. But anyway, uh.
We're gonna call it a night and we will see you right after Dynamite this week.
Again. I I just I'm looking forward to it.
So anyway, Yeah, for the a w ont Podcast team, Thanks guys.
This is Kelson. Good night everybody. Good night. Eddie Kingston