AEW Full Gear Preview, Plus NXT Gold Rush Recap

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Cheez-It crackers. Should this whole podcast just be me eating Cheez-It? That'd be a top-notch podcast. You could hear them crunching in my mouth. You could think about how salty and savory and delicious they are. You could just get Cheez-It on the brain. Oh, man. Those Cheez-It cravings, they get you. Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh, yeah. Oh, Cheez-It. Yeah, Cheez-It crackers. Go check them out. Call up in question of the week, Kaz. What up, shoes?

What up, man? On NXT this week, Sol Rukka lost her fight against Blake Monroe for that North American championship when her partner... bestie, Zarya, threw in the towel. My question for you is... I think partner was the appropriate term of Indiana for those two. A little bit more than friends. Just for future reference.

If we're ever in this situation, you're in the match. When is it appropriate for me to throw in the towel? It is appropriate for me, for you to throw in the towel on one condition. Okay. If my insides... alleviate themselves. That's the only time. If something brown or something yellow comes out of my body at any point in time, please. Just end the match. I've lost all control of my bodily functions.

This is not what I was expecting. This is not toughness. This is not heart I'm showing to you right now. I'm saying, Dave, help me. Get me the hell out of here. I think I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but I've never... been in pain to the level of shitting myself and i've seen people in pain and the level of shitting themselves yeah i'm just like that's not a level of pain i'm ever willing to

experience in my life. So Dave, if like Brock Lesnar got me into Kimura and my joints about to snap and I've got too much pride to say I quit. and you see something brown leaking down the side of my leg, please just take that towel, wipe me up, and throw it on the floor. Say, get me out of here. That is a very good answer that I was not expecting. I think we just got to move on. Let's start the show.

Welcome to the Masked Man Show with Kaz. It's your AEW Full Gear Preview episode. Along with some NXT stuff and I'm sure there's other stuff we're going to talk about. But first, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing good, Shoes. How about yourself, man? I'm doing good. I'm doing good, man. We're recording early this morning, so I apologize if I phase into bleary-eyed.

dreamscaping here. Now I'm just only going to be thinking about your insides coming out for the rest of the show. Apologies to anybody listening at home. Yeah. Yeah, let's just do AEW Full Gear. We'll hit some NXT at the end. It's a local vehicle this weekend. It'll be in Newark, New Jersey, the Prudential Center. It's going to be a pretty good show.

Prudential. Prudential is definitely like a top three bank to name your arena after. You know, you want your bank to sound like something that doesn't sound bankish. And Prudential sounds so... prestigious it's like yeah it's a lot of syllables in there so i don't even think of a bank i'm like oh like prudential does that like the name of the state flag in new jersey it's like nope just a bank yeah just a bank it works um

all right it's a big card so we got a lot to run through here we'll definitely hit some dynamite moments in the way through hold on before we get into that My New York Knicks played your Dallas Mavericks to a very tight ending last night. And last week, I made the connection. that nobody has ever seen Landry Schammett and the Bastard Pack at the same place at the same time. I was just like, and he's playing well now. Hit them two clutch threes against your Mavericks last night.

And as soon as he hit them shits, I couldn't help but say he is a bastard. Andrew Shannon. They do kind of look alike. Especially since Pat cut the hair, too. Oh, yeah, that is. That is your twin, buddy. I don't know if they've ever crossed paths before, but it would be a funny interaction if they did it. Especially because Landry Shammott looks short compared to basketball players.

Yes, but he's 6'6", or something, probably. But he's 6'6", so you would think him and Pac are similar in height, but Pac is like... He's short compared to other wrestlers, but he's cocked diesel. Yeah. So it's like, it's a weird sort of like twin situation with like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito where it's kind of like, oh, but they have the same face. They can make this work. Make this work. Free movie idea, guys. New version of Twins with Landry Shaman and Pac. Oh, my God.

That game also had a great, the great referee, like heel referee angle. I mean, that was just like, what a blind referee at the end of that game. It was a dusty finish. It was a dusty finish to the tee. I was like, no. yes the bad guys win get out of Dallas with that dove it was great Great night of hoops. Just going to the referee who hits just the comical charge symbol with a fist out. Oh my gosh. And you know refs get more, they probably get more satisfaction out of that.

than actual wrestling refs when they get to really fuck with the crowd like that. Like in The Naked Gun where he's the umpire and he just really gets into all the physicality of calling somebody out. Man, there's nothing more... debilitating than hearing that whistle and seeing a ball go in and just seeing him wind up to turn that arm the other way. He's just here. Yeah. Yeah.

Going the other way. No. It was great. Great, great wrestling drama. I'm sorry. I saw Landry Sham at two clutch shots last night. I'm just like, yeah, I wonder how his twin is doing. And it turns out pretty good. He'll be at full gear this weekend also. So, yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So let's go through the AW full gear card. Okay. We got damn 12, 13 matches. This shit has 13 matches. God damn. I did not know it was this many matches on the show. Oh, yeah. Okay, four of those matches are pre-show matches. Okay. And two of these matches are... We don't always have to count the pre-show matches. We don't have to run through them all. However...

We don't need to spend any time on Big Boom AJ. I apologize. Yes, we do. Are you kidding me? We're not going to get back into this again. Big Boom AJ and QT Marshall are friends. They're in a tag team. Oh, okay. Boom and Doom with Big Justice. All right. I like that. Against Rapongi Vice. Hey, man, listen. I don't know how much luster is left on the Big Boom viral.

Luster that had a year or two ago. You're a big fan, I know. Listen, I was all about the Big Boom AJ like a year ago, but I don't know. They still, you know, we bring the boom. I don't know. And what's his face? The star of the show when he went Justin Timberlake, he went solo. He went Michael Jackson on him. What was it? I had no idea.

That was big justice. The Drizzler. The Drizzler, yeah. The Drizzler is you when you're in the cold open question of the week. That's what they're going to start calling you. The drizzler, yeah. So, yeah. We'll do the pre-show like this. Boom and Doom are going to win because Big Boom AJ is there. We got the tag team like a $200,000 match.

I love that they actually put thought behind the dollar figures in these things. Like, no, no, no, no. This four-way tag match is not worth $500,000. It's a pre-show match. We're just going to give you 200K. I mean... This has Big Bill and Brian Keith. It has the outrunners, but more importantly, it has Max Caster and Anthony Bowens, and it has the Bang Bang Gang. I think Caster and Bowens are the odds-on betting favorite here. However, Bang Bang Gang.

Austin and Juice have been getting, you know, they got some screen time last night. Everybody likes to see them. So who knows? Who knows? What's your over under on us getting an acclaimed old school style entrance in Newark, New Jersey? You think they're going to? Obviously, that's like the moment we're all holding out for here. I don't know if full gear is a time. Maybe it is. Maybe it's really obvious. Maybe I'm just missing it.

And then the El Sky team versus Don Callis family is just, I mean, Okada's face last night when Callis announced that he'd be teaming up with Takeshi was just a thing of absolute beauty. This storyline is... Another one that is just taking a lot longer than maybe you or I would have guessed, but it seems to have been worth it just to see things like Ogata being low-key pissed off. Whenever this happens...

you know, the middle fingers, the whole, the painting, the whole, the whole, I mean, when they, when they do come to blows, it's going to be absolutely epic. That's going to be the story we're telling here. So if they don't win, it's going to be because of that. And I don't know if you do that on the pre-show.

Or if you just go with some more, you know, some more build to whenever this actually comes. Some more teasing, some more, you know. Teasing and cheesing, as we always say. Teasing and cheesing. World's End, by the way, is like two days after Christmas. So it's not that far until like the next big quote unquote big show for, you know, AEW or whatever. Anyway, let's go to the main card. Oh wait, there's another one on the main card.

Hook and Eddie Kingston are teaming up against someone we don't know. So, anyway. Okay. There's that. Hook just needs to find the right friend. Maybe Eddie Kingston's the right friend. Did they drop the ball on Eddie Kingston's return? Should Eddie have just been thrown right into the main event? Actually, here's what we're going to do. When we go through all these matches, we're going to do upside rankings for all parties involved.

All right? You just say, basically, have they hit their ceiling? Or if not, how much ceiling is there to go? All right? Okay. you can do it in two ways with hook. You can be like, well, obviously he hasn't hit his ceiling, but I don't think he's going to be like a super duper star or dude, this guy's a future world champion. Or, you know, with Eddie Kingston, you could be like, we know who Eddie Kingston is. His ceiling is out there like crazy. Why aren't they?

embracing it right yeah so I feel like Eddie Kingston I don't know man like I'm a big Eddie Kingston fan and they his return was kind of underwhelming like I don't think they and not just AEW like I think he was a little underwhelming as much of a big fan as I am of him like you know that match that return match wasn't that great but he still

wildly charismatic and so charismatic that you tend to forget about it. But also kind of like, you know, it also sort of like reassembles your, I would say, your...

your expectations for him, right? Maybe he's just the wily vet that keeps the young guys going, which is a great spot to be in. Still somebody that is valued in a wrestling company, but... I had the feeling that he would have like a Mick Foley type, you know, world championship run, you know, just as like, you know, once he started calling himself like the king of the bums, I was like, oh yeah, when he comes back.

He's going to be like, you know, the man of the people, people's champ, you know, Mick Foley style, like unconventional world champion. But like, he seems so far away from that now, especially being on the pre-show with Hook on a tag match that nobody really knows who's. he's fighting against and hook on the other end you know i still think i'll never i'll never poo poo on the guy who's like not even 25 yet and be like oh he'll never be

X, Y, Z. You know what I mean? A lot of things could happen between now and the time he's like, what, 30? You know, if he's still doing this. So I just think he just needs to find a little bit more confidence in himself with the way he talks. And maybe it's not confidence. Maybe it's just convincing people that he's confident. in the way he talks because i think there's nothing wrong with his entering work i think he's you know he's got a great look and

Great presence, but... That was a reaction to the in-ring work, not the look, by the way. Hell of a suplex thrower. He could throw the hell out of a suplex, you know what I mean? And he's still... wildly young. He still has a lot to learn. Maybe he's got a... I don't know what it's going to take for that light bulb to go off eventually, but it's going to take a little bit more time than I think people anticipated when he first came on the scene.

So who do you think is being more underused? Who do you think has the bigger upside right now? Is it Eddie Kingston? I mean, I still think Eddie Kingston is beloved enough to... I hope nobody takes it the wrong way. A big enough bomb that people will still get behind them if all the stars align for him right away. So I still think there's hope for Eddie Kingston to go on some sort of...

Linsanity run in the next, like, year or two, you know what I mean? Yeah, but they gotta get on it, you know? They gotta get on it. And, you know, who knows how really healthy he truly is, man? Yeah, yeah, I think they came back. I think they didn't. Obviously, he wanted to work himself back into shape a little bit, and that was part of it. of the plan so for sure and aw is historically unafraid of putting people on those just sort of

Like what's it called in baseball when you're like coming, when you like come back like an injury stint. Yeah. Yeah. But, but yeah, not that triple A. Yeah. But where you're, where you sort of, you know. go through rehab in front of live fans. Get your legs back underneath you. My guess is that'll be what's going on. There's no way that Tony Khan doesn't want to push Eddie Kingston to the top of the card.

So yeah, I think he's by far, he might be the underutilized, the big upside champion of this whole thing. But let's move on to the main card. All right?

Let's start at the bottom here. Jon Moxley versus Kyle O'Reilly in a No Holds Barred match. It was just announced last night. I don't know why Kyle O'Reilly insisted on No Holds Barred. Although he has been on quite a roll against Moxley. But this one might be the blood and gutsiest match of the night. What do you think? What is Moxley going to do or have done to him that's going to have us talking?

Dave, it doesn't matter what I think. It matters what you think. This is your boy. Your boy Kyle O'Reilly on a big stage, big solo match against the ace of AEW, Jon Moxley. In a bloodiest, gutsiest, no holds barsiest match. I think it's going to be a great match. As much as we like the end to blood and guts. with o'reilly forcing mox to tap out the kind of like triple subminisher roll around reversal thing

my guess is that mox went back and looked at that tape and they were like, wasn't this so awesome? And he was like, no, it wasn't bloody. And it wasn't, it wasn't Austin versus heart enough. Right. And he wants to redo it. He wants to redo it so that when he's in the ankle lock, there's blood viscerally squirting out of his forehead. So that's what, that's my prediction that somehow we'll get.

him bloodied to the point where there will be like a geyser coming out of his face while he's screaming in agony in the ankle lock. I don't know if that means he's going to win or he's going to lose. Certainly if you go by wrestling logic. Well, there's competing logics here.

O'Reilly's the one who's getting made, right? So you think he's going to win. On the flip side, he's already got wins. He's already... He got that... He got mocks to tap at blood and guts. That might be an indicator that he's going to lose in their one-on-one match. Kyle O'Reilly's my guy. It's exciting to see him finally here. Upside rankings? I mean, listen, a month ago, I would have said Kyle O'Reilly has almost a crazy amount of upside potential.

However, he's really rocketed himself up the rankings here. And I don't know if he has as much upside potential as Eddie Kingston does right now. Moxley has like... I mean, this is the greatest compliment in the world. Very little upside potential. He's the ace, man. He's the ace. He's the ace of AEW. And Moxley, you know, I don't think anybody's, you know.

Everybody kind of knows his affinity for mixed martial arts styles of wrestling, especially if it's not... Everybody thinks he's a bloody, gutsy, grappler, brawler type, but I remember he was talking about... how much she, how much inspiration he takes from like Dustin Perea, I want to say, or Justin Gaethje, one of those guys, you know? And... Kyle O'Reilly's style is so apropos to that struggle of submission style, grappling, MMA.

And even the striking of it all. So I think this is going to be a much better match than I think people are anticipating. The thing is, Jon Moxley has kind of worked himself into being a cool heel again. For a time, you know, I was...

banging the drum on how important the Death Riders are because nobody was willing to be hated. Nobody was willing to be... the person that like people really don't like cheering and you know putting the title in the briefcase was the best thing that they could have done because it made moxley

an absolute terror and somebody people didn't like but now that's sort of flip now people kind of dig you know the the death riders entrance and the music and the and the brooding walk to the ring and all that type of stuff so I'm sure it will do a lot for Kyle O'Reilly to win this match, but I can't go against Mox, man. I think Mox will find a way. You think Mox is going to win? I think Mox is going to win, yeah. And Mox has been putting a ton of people over in the past couple of months.

line terms, he's been putting people over and everybody keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop of like, when is the rest of the Deathriders going to have enough of Mox losing? You know, when he's getting the you tapped out chance, I feel like the chance could get louder. I feel like the story they have to tell is what happens when the Death Writers stop believing in Jon Moxley. And they took, they did not take that opportunity even one bit coming out of blood and guts, coming out of his other.

big losses. I think Kyle O'Reilly is going to win. I think he's going to do it. So that's going to be my pick. So far, we have Eddie Kingston and Kyle O'Reilly climbing the... the upside power rankings leaderboard right now. We'll keep moving on from that. This episode is brought to you by Mobile One. Mobile One synthetic motor oil knows your car is your happy place. But did you know your happy place has a happy place?

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Powered by auto intelligence. Next we have the four-way tag team match, women's tag team match. The winning team chooses a stipulation for semifinal match in the inaugural AEW Women's Tag Team Championship Tournament. The Babes of Wrath, Harley Cameron and Willow Nightingale. Great name. I don't need to say it all the time. Versus Sisters of Sin. Love that name. We'll continue to say it. Julia Hart and Sky of Blue. Their promo last night was so hilarious.

when they were like each completing each other's sentences, or I guess more importantly, Julia Hart was completing more, I mean, more specifically, Julia Hart was completing Sky Blue sentences and Renee Paquette was like off screen. but still moving the microphone back and forth between them as if she magically knew when it was time for one or the other to talk. I could have done without it. But they look like...

The twins from The Shining just standing there, like staring at the camera and like absolutely like stone faced. It was a wonderful thing versus. I mean, Shirakawa and Timeless Tony Storm, I will say that they're being called the Timeless Love Bombs once only because they got new entrance music and a whole dance routine kind of matching ring gear, the whole thing that goes with this. They're a real tag team now.

which was the main thing holding them back from being the inaugural champs in my mind, versus Marina Shafir and Megan Bain, who are just an incredible bruiser duo. that may or may not be together for more than 15 minutes after this event. I mean, I think the only fair thing to do is to rank these teams by names. And the guys with the best names should win. Marina Shafir and Megan Bain don't have a team name, I don't think. Do they have a fan? Brian, look up to see if they have a fandom.

you know, like shipping name or whatever. Not going to work. Not going to work. So Shafir and Ben, you guys go all the way to the bottom of the list. Bottom of the list. Second, I'm going to go, I mean, third, I think Sisters of Sin, you know. I'm a fan of a little alliteration, right? Alliteration is nice. Yeah. The Sisters of Sin, you know, they're a little spooky. Sky Blue sort of turned the cheek. Julia Hart is, you know, doing her thing as well. So I like a little alliteration.

Timeless love bombs. First off, timeless love bombs sounds like something you buy at Bed Bath & Beyond when you want to throw it into your bathtub to give it a little sizzle. It's not a bad thing. Yeah, you know, like buy these timeless love bombs to make, you know, the night out with wifey a little bit more special, okay? But I do kind of feel like you might be running the risk of a little bit of, how do you say, Tony Storm oversaturation.

a little bit. Oh, okay. I think there's a possibility that they may not be the first women's world tag team champions. I got to go with the babes of wrath, man, like Harley Cameron and Little Nightingale. Now, the stipulation here is the winning team chooses the stipulation for their semifinal match, the inaugural. AEW Women's World Tag Team Championship Tournament.

This is true in so many ways. Does a tournament need bonus stipulations thrown in? Yeah, and it's a semi-final match. It's not even the finals. Yeah, it's not even the finals. I'm assuming there's other tag teams. These are the last four tag teams left, right? And I guess if it's a semi-final, that means there's another final where there just won't be no stipulation. And you're just like, okay, like...

Right, the Sisters of Sin and the Babes of Wrath are facing off in the semifinals, and the Timeless Love Bombs are going up against Bane and Shafir. Because if you're really trying to win, I'd be like, yo, my stipulation is this is a handicap match, and you could... You can only pick one of the partners and then we're going to go to the finals and then.

You know, win the Women's World Taxi Champions. Does it make sense that the Sisters of Sin are going to win just so they can bring Tekla in? It's like now we're like doing this is like next level free bird rules. This is three on two. You know, I don't know. I think that might be outlawed. Yeah, by names alone.

I would agree Babes of Wrath, number one, but Sisters of Sin, I would put number two. It's alliterative. Yeah, it's simple. It feels like wrestling. Timeless Love Bombs, just a name mashup with a lot of words that are exciting, but come on. It's no Knight Rider as far as mashup tag team names go. I'm trying to think. I'm not banging on Knight Rider, bro. I do. Sisters of Sin and...

timeless love bombs would be the two teams that were for whom it would be interesting to see what they would pick. Right. You know, time timeless could, we'll come out with some great, just like old Hollywood, Hollywood ending style. you know, cool gimmick that will one, be like cinematic and interesting, but also give them like a kayfabe chance against the Megasus and Marina Shafir. So I might lean towards them.

Also, just the difference in crowd reaction to them winning versus the Sisters of Sin, I think would be pretty significant. Although Sisters of Sin winning, doing something kind of violent and gothic or whatever. and giving Harley Cameron and Willow Nightingale something to overcome potentially in their semifinal match would be interesting. I mean, listen, my pick for this has always been...

Timeless and Shirokawa or Tony and Shirokawa or the Sisters of Sin mostly because Sisters of Sin are like a real tag team and you know it's a crew that's kind of coming up but as much as I love Sky Blue and Julia Hart It just feels like the reaction difference between them and Harley Cameron and Willow Nightingale is so significant that my money would be on the Babes of Wrath between that semifinal match.

I'm going to go with the Timeless Love Bombs here. I'm going to go with Mina and Tony. All right. So who has the most unclaimed upside?

That's what we're calling this now. The most unclaimed upside of any of the teams in this match. So teams, I'd probably go Shafir and Bain, right? They probably have the most upside because they don't have a name. And they're both very badass. I think out of all the women in this tag match, Marina Shafir has probably had the, next to Harley Cameron, probably had the most growth, I'd say, in the past year. We're just in the tournament alone. We're just in the tournament alone.

I'd probably go Shafir and Ben as a team, but Shafir Solo probably is one of those women that I think we should keep an eye on in the future, especially the more... the more the death riders become like cool heels and stuff like that so you know slapping people before matches like gets you over in this company it's true it's true um

Okay, Darby Allin versus Pac. Landry Shamit-esque Pac. Landry Shamit versus Darby Allin. In a singles match, Pac threw Darby off of the entrance ramp into the flaming table. Flaming table off the... off the stage which is fantastic incredible stuff I don't know Darby Allin's kind of turned into like this invincible unkilling unkillable wrestler apparently yeah the new look is really doing it for him I'm a huge fan yeah

I mean, but I like Pac a lot, man. And not just because he looks like Landry Shammott, just because he's back and he looks more dangerous than ever. Do you think we'll ever have a Pac throwback night where it's like... He comes back with the briefs on and his hair grown out a little bit just so everybody can pop. I guess that's kind of hard for him to grow his hair in secret. I would give Pac the...

nod here because it kind of seems like they're telling the story of the Death Riders. And if Jon Moxley loses, even though I picked Kylo, I think I did pick Jon Moxley to win, but if he loses.

And then Pac beats Darby Allin. Well, then you got yourself a little conundrum as far as the pecking order of the... the the death riders there and i think you can start telling that story about like why do we listen to this guy if all he does is lose these big matches so um that's my guess but i mean darby's just been dave They've strapped such a rocket to Darby since he's gotten back. Who has the most unclean potential, Darby or Pac? I don't know. I kind of feel like they both are.

operating at the at the optimal level of potential that they should be i gotta tell you since like since his return or just especially over the past several weeks i could see pack being like a world champion now I mean, I think that he's got all the... I mean, listen, not that Darby couldn't, but I think Darby's sort of currently operating there. You're right. I mean, listen, it's a big match. They're both big names. It's not like one of them is being squandered.

no no they're both uh it is a big match and they're both big names and it's not like either of them are uh searching for TV time every week. They're both major factors in the show. But if Pac... What are we saying now? I feel like I've been so overcorrective on his name I don't even know how to say it. If Pac is the one that kicks...

that kicks Mox out of the Deathriders and he takes over and suddenly he's like a world championship threat. That's a big step up. So I'm going to go with Pac for unclaimed upside on this one.

Darby is Darby. Darby can be world champion tomorrow and nobody would be too shocked, you know? That said, I think Pac's going to win the match because of what you said. I think this is part of the storyline with Max. Anyway, Kyle Fletcher versus Mark Briscoe. No DQ match for the AEW TNT Championship. If Briscoe loses, he has to join the Don Callis family. Oh, God. Because they need more members.

That'd be so funny if he joined and because the crew is so big, it's like it doesn't even... He gets like 10 seconds of TV time a week. We don't have time to investigate this funny storyline. I mean, listen, Mark Briscoe, every win Mark Briscoe has gotten over the past four months has been a minor shock to me. Because I don't... I just didn't think they were going to get behind him in such a way. You know?

Or that he, in terms of unclaimed upside, if you ask me, I would have said he has absolutely zero untapped, unclaimed upside. You know, like three months ago. Because he's already... He's already over. He's over and he's never going to get a big moment. And he's just sort of like, he's exactly where he needs to be.

But the more time they've given him, the more it's clear that Tony Khan loves this guy, that the fans love this guy, that other wrestlers love this guy. And he's lived up to it. He's put on some really good matches. And he's also had like a million TNT championship matches. So like eventually he's got to win one. So why not this be the one?

that said mark briscoe that said mark briscoe joining the don callis family is an opportunity maybe too good to pass up you know i don't know i don't put him in in a like an ill-fitting suit for one of their big meeting i don't know if they all have to wear suits but like you know

You could just see there's so much potential comedy that had come out of this. I'm going with Fletcher. Just so, because I think, why do you put a stipulation like that out there and then just let it hang? That's a good point. That's a great point. All right. We got a casino gauntlet match. for the new AEW National Championship. All those participants are TBA. That'll be exciting. All right. We got a $1 million match. We have a $200,000 match in the pre-show. A $1 million trios match.

between the Young Bucks and Josh Alexander on one side and Kenny Omega and the Jurassic Express on the other side. Who's going to win the million dollars, Kaz? Who's going to win the million dollars? It should be the Young Bucks. Right? Yeah, I mean, we feel like, I felt like since they came back, Jurassic Express is about to turn heel, but is it really the moment for them to turn heel in a match against a Young Bucks? Like, was this a Young Bucks, like...

galaxy brain thing? It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't feel right. I'm just tired of friendship battles. friendship battles it's just like i don't care if you guys are friends or not this is a wrestling company yeah it's true like kenny omega is like probably the best in-ring wrestler i've ever seen but is it

And he's always concerned about who's his friend or not. I'm just like, why do you care this much? There's a million dollars on the line, champ. Go get the bread. And I think the Young Bucks need a little bit more than Kenny and them do. So I'm going to go with the Bucs, man. Is this the end of the broke Bucs storyline, then, if they get a million dollars? I mean, we know the American dollar is not worth what it used to be.

Is a million dollars enough for the Bucks to now be like, okay, now this storyline's over. Time to us to pivot? Maybe it is. Maybe it's time. It seems hard to imagine there's going to be a $2 million or a $1.5 million match coming up that we are going to care more about at World's End or something like that. I agree with you. Honestly, at that point, they need to have a...

a money management match if they have to have another one of these how did you blow through that said it's a trios match so they only they only get a third right josh alexander takes home some of this ah yeah that is true that is true okay so all right there's a little 30 years ago

three thousand dollars and change okay years and years and years ago when writing about the it's in my book when writing about the um i was writing about the road warriors like specifically road warrior hawk at the time And I was talking about what the value of a manager is in pro wrestling. And I said, you know, sometimes a manager is there just to answer unspoken questions.

especially when it comes to monster wrestlers, right? It's like, does Kamala have a checking account? It's like one of those things you don't want to have to think about. I don't know if Luchasaurus has a bank account. And I don't really want to think about it, right? So maybe I just don't want him to have a third of a million dollars. So yeah, I'm going to go with the heels on this one. Although the fact that Josh Alexander is thrown into this, I mean, I know that they've...

They've done it. They've had Kallus on screen. I'm glad that Josh Alexander is here. That just makes it a little bit odd for him to get a piece of it. I'm going with the heels. Anyway, let's move on.

FTR versus AEW World Tag Team Champs Brodito. That's Bandito and Brody King. This is a tough one. They both had... I had a kind of promo battle, a backstage promo battle last night. I was not particularly enthused by either one. Dax, I guess, was my favorite promo. Or maybe Bandito. Brody and Cash, both kind of. Flatline for me. Oh wait, go backwards. Kenny Omega, Jungle Jack Perry, Luchasaurus, Young Bucks, or Josh Alexander. Who's got the higher untapped potential?

The highest untapped potential of each individual person in this match. Josh Alexander or Jack Perry, I guess, are the options here, right? i probably have to go jack perry but yeah i feel like they've they've given a lot to him already and maybe this is his ceiling

I feel like Jack Perry is the easy answer. You can make a loud argument either direction for this. I wouldn't disagree with you. And certainly Josh Alexander's got a lot of upside. You know what the real answer is? Nick Jackson. Nick Jackson as a solo wrestler. Really? That is the highest upside, yes. I still think Nick is better than that. Nick is like...

Go back and see some of his... No, he's a better wrestler by a lot. Matt's just... The thing is, he's so good that there's a sort of diminishing return situation. Like Matt Jackson is plenty good enough of a wrestler to get, you know, I mean, it's not like he's the lousy one. He is so better than almost everybody else. Right. Right. Nick, Nick is the better wrestler. Yes, absolutely true.

Matt's just got a little bit more pop on screen, a little bit more charisma, a little bit more it factor. Nah, I feel like Matt's a little bit more charismatic, but I feel like Nick Jackson is a guy who like... if by some unfortunate circumstance like one of them got hurt and you can tell a story you can tell a solo story of nick jackson like trying to find himself as like a

as a wrestler, all the way up to the AEW World Championship, I think. I think that could be some real dope stuff. And I think that's something that the AEW really hasn't scratched the surface of yet. They'll take tag teams that are makeshift. put them into um you know singles matches or whatever but like they haven't broken up like legitimate tag teams yet like i guess if you count jungle express maybe but jurassic express but like a real like

OG tag team and have them give a real run. They tried it with the acclaimed. Obviously, it didn't work that well. No, the crowd could really get behind Nick Jackson. I'm not denying that. All right. Brodito versus FTR. Brodito to your champs. Is FTR going to do it? Yeah. I think they're going to do it. I think they're going to do it too. I don't really have a lot to say about it, although it just sort of seems like Brodito...

as incredible as they are, as what, just such an incredible combo, a lucky find, or just fortuitous booking decision. Mm-hmm. Sort of feels like that's, they have... tapped out their potential as a tag team. They could be bigger, I guess, but it feels like the momentum is sort of dwindling. Maybe. Maybe.

But who knows? This is the type of match to get people right back on them again. Especially with FTR. I think people are on them. I think it's time for a switch up. I say that because people don't really like FTR. like oh behind them yeah yeah yeah 100 i think it's unlikable enough they are unlikable enough for people to like you know to give brodito even more

establishment on their tag team run. You know what I mean? Once you beat the quote-unquote greatest tag team of all time, then it's like, oh yeah, they're legitimate. They can always run a rematch back down the road. Are they really the greatest tag team of all time? Well, if you ask them, they'll tell you. That's exactly what they'll say. Brian H. Waters, are they better than Greg the Hammer Valentine and Brutus the Barber Beefcake, the dream team?

Yeah. Okay. The begrudging yes. Have we got anything wrong yet, Brian? No. No picks. No untapped potential. So far on the untapped potential ranking, which we'll do at the end, we have Nick Jackson, Jack Perry, Pac, Marina Shafir, Kyle O'Reilly, and Eddie Kingston. I love the Pac one. Yeah, okay, good. Who's going to win, Brian, while you're here? Who's going to win, Brodito or FTR? Brodito.

You got Brodito. Okay, I got FTR. Kaz, what do you have? I'm going to go Brodito. I think Brodito's going to win this. I'm the lone voice crying out for the world's greatest tag team, FTR, in this one. Also, Stokely's just so great. And every time he's on screen, I wish we had more. I don't wish we had like a Don Callis amount of him, you know, but he's just, he has been a real asset for FTR, I feel like. Okay. Now onto the two important ones.

Hangman Adam Page. Oh wait, we didn't do it again. Who has the most untapped potential in Brody King, Bandito, or either member of FTR? Or Stokely Hathaway for that point. Stokely's a good bet in this one. Nah, I think it's Bandito still. He's so cool. That's all he needed. Brody King's awesome too, but Bandito's got like that, you know. He might have... Or he has potential to be like what Penta is for WWE now. And funny enough that Penta wasn't AEW and was awesome there as well.

Bandido's going to win wrestler of the year in a lot of rankings. He's AEW's most lit luchador right now. For sure. There's still so much to scratch over there. Brody King... I would almost put Brody King over him in terms of untapped potential. I mean, Brody King legitimately could be AEW world champ for a year. Mm-hmm. You know, he's very, very good and has a lot of...

I guess the question is whether or not all the acclaim that Bandito's gotten over the past four to six months means that he's reaching the height of his potential in a certain way. He's getting to have five-star matches. He's given the opportunity. He's getting the respect.

There's still a lot of Brody King hanging out there, but it's impossible to not say Bandito at the end of the day. If that guy could be, you're right, AW's most lit luchador, official trademarked Kazeem. All right. Hangman Adam Page versus Samoa Joe. for the AEW World Championship. This is one of those, is there any way Samoa Joe actually does it situations? Samoa Joe is in the traditional Samoa Joe spot.

Or the Kevin Owens spot. And like, we're going to just have this feud for several months. And no one's going to really believe that the heel vire is going to, has a chance at this. Although we... i feel like we last time around we had some we had we talked ourselves in a little bit to samoa joe i don't know man is there any way that samoa joe does this um

It's in a steel cage. I should say that. It's a steel cage match for the AEW World Championship. I'm always going to leave a little room for Samoa Joe. I always will. But I think Adam Page... wins this match and this seems like a blow-off match and it seems like um There'll be a new challenger after this match. I was just thinking the same thing. On the show, this match will end with Kane coming through the ring inside the steel cage. Somebody.

Can he be the all-time best WWE signing that AEW could pull off? Could you... How? Was there anything that would get a bigger reaction than, I would just say that as a joke, but Kane literally tearing through the floor like in his debut and just like being inside the steel cage, Brian would pop. Brian H. Waters would be going nuts.

He's got to be Kane. I still think Goldberg's the best signing. He's retired, man. Kane never had a retirement match, though, did he? Well, you know, he's busy. He's got things he's doing. Do you think Samoa Joe's has a chance to win? You think Samoa Joe's going to lose, but there will be another opponent. It'll be like Swerve will make his comeback.

That'd be my guess, right? That'd be the spot for him if that was me putting the show together. I think that's totally right. I think Swerve, Hangman, Run It Back. That is right now, as far as like, you know, assuming Swerve is healthy. That is... That is probably the biggest world title scene match you could probably have if he does come back. You think Swerve will bring back Parker Bordreau and Trench? That's what would really make me pop.

He's like, I know what I've been missing. Yeah, no, that's... Or what is the health situation of Swerve and Osprey? Do we know this? Brian, look this up. Literally, there's so many people on AEW.

that you don't miss their two biggest stars when they're gone, or there's not enough time to miss them. I mean, we do miss them a great deal. I mean, Swerve's made a lot of public appearances recently. He's done a bunch of autograph signings. He's at the big event in New York. Like, you know, he's outside, so... Yeah. Wouldn't shock me if he's close to returning to normal. Yeah. Swerve?

Yeah, that's what I'm seeing. Yeah, meniscus is a little bit of ticky-tack in terms of arthroscopic surgeries. I mean, yeah, it should take him a while to recover, but it all depends on the degree of the injury. and what kind of surgery you get and blah, blah, blah. So, you know, it's feasible. He's been out for a minute. Untapped potential. Hangman Adam Page and Samoa Joe. It's got to be Adam Page because...

Samoa Joe is just who he is. But how much does that, I mean, how much untapped potential does Hangman really have? I don't know. Anyway, here we go.

I assume this will be the main event. Although Steel Cage match could go on last. Who knows? But I assume this will be the main event. Singles match for the AEW Women's World Championship. Friend of the Masked Man Show, Chris Statlander. defending her belt against Mercedes Monet with her 17 championship belts. What's going to happen here? I literally don't know. Is this the end of the...

the Monet reign of terror, or is it really the beginning of now she actually has all of the belts? I still think she doesn't win this world title. I still think she's not going to win it. Yeah. Like I think that's. I think that's the best story to tell, right? Like if you are, if I'm somebody who hired, you know, Mercedes Monet to zillion dollar contract and lets her go to every single wrestling show and win every title.

The deal has to be like, you can't win the women's world championship because how are we going to build up the prestige? of the Women's World Championship, if it has the same acclaim as the West Bubblefuck World Championship in some indie promotion. You know what I mean? It doesn't make a lot of sense. It makes sense. You build...

Mercedes by having her, not Bill, she's already a star, but winning all these titles around the world. But if she can't win the big one, how does it stay the big one if she wins it? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I think Chris Dantlander is going to win. He's going to retain. I'm missing the logic of this argument. Why can she not win the world title? If I run Shoemaker Championship Wrestling. Right.

Why does the world title factor into my decision to give the SCW title belt to Mercedes? It doesn't, but... If I'm Tony Khan, if I'm David Shoemaker, who runs Shoemaker Wrestling, and I'm letting Mercedes Monet go to all these other companies and walk out with all these other belts and all this type of stuff, why would I want my...

my crown jewel of the women's division lumped in with all the West bubble fuck championships of the world. So Tony Khan's like, no, no, no, this isn't just one of a bunch of belts. This is the belt. there's the belt you know what i mean so like it would make sense for like that to be you know mercedes kryptonite it would make sense for that to be like it would be like josh allen you know like

win everything, but you can't beat Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. That's got to be the story of Mercedes if you're going to have her win 17 million titles, but not the one title that has eluded her entire

AEW career. Did you see your match with Red Velvet last night? Did you see that finish? I missed it. It was the main event of a three-hour dynamite, which was a lot of dynamite. It was a good show. It didn't keep the... hype train up from the couple of weeks prior uh especially the week before but red velvet comes out red velvet gets like the main event spot

And she's very good, but it ends with this really bizarre, like off the road. Maybe I just don't, I'm not remembering it correctly, but it seemed like she was doing, Mercedes is basically doing like a... like a hurricane I mean like an avalanche pile driver or something but just land straight on her back like it was kind of awkward um but let me look right now yeah she has her set up like a tombstone pile driver on the second rope

and jumps off but oh it was like a face to the knees it just looked like a giant botch anyway yeah we'll call that deliberate sorry I'm just an idiot it's all good I don't know. Oh, yeah. I think Mercedes is going to win. I don't know why. I think if this is the main event, does it really make sense for Chris Tatlander to win? Certainly, Chris Tatlander has a lot of untapped potential. She's the untapped potential champ of this match.

man, this is tough. I think Mercedes is going to win. You got stat. I got Mercedes. We have to let you go because you're getting out of here. But just for the record, just for the record. Here's your choice. Of the people who made it to the second round, the semifinal round of the Untapped Potential Championship, who has the most Untapped Potential? Statlander, Hangman, Bandito, Nick Jackson, Jack Perry, Pac, Shafir.

Kyle O'Reilly or Eddie Kingston? I mean, it would probably have to be Kyle, right? Kyle's probably got the biggest chance to... make a leap of all the matches that are kind of on this card. Could Kyle be like a legit AEW champion in the next two years? It could be. Could be, you know, and I like that they're giving new guys a shot at the top of the card. Not that he's new, but new opportunities there.

And Kyle O'Reilly, gosh, hasn't really been a top guy since Ring of Honor, the OG version, right? He hasn't necessarily... Been in that mix. They tried Cool Kyle in NXT for a while. I can't get over Cool Kyle. As the leader of the Kyle O'Reilly fan club, Cool Kyle is what I have a hard time getting past.

Yeah, I'm sorry about that. That was rough. That was a rough time for Kyle FC back then. But yeah, I think I'm going to go with him. He's probably got the most upside and a possibility to make that happen. For sure. All right. I know you got to get out of here. Yes. I'll talk to Brian about NXT for a few minutes after you get out of here, but you want to get your plugs in on your way out? We're going to keep going.

Yes, sir. New episode of 7 p.m. Brooklyn. Go check it out. I don't know which episode is dropping this week, but we recorded a bunch of them and they're all great. You catch me on Say Less with Kaz and Rosie on Mondays and Fridays. And yeah, that will be all. I catch you next time, people.

By the way, I should just interject right now to say that if you haven't listened to the last episode of The Masked Man Show, our interview with Chris Statlander, go check that out now. I think she was pretty entertaining. I think to me... What'd you say? A while on a walking pad? I gotta get one of those. No, it was an entertaining... It was an exceptional performance by her. I really think that Chris Stantlander might be the untapped potential champion of AEW.

Yeah, I think she still has a lot more upside and places she can go and just even next into that crossover appeal. You know, she's obviously done work as a stuntwoman, but I could definitely see her being. one of the people where it's like, oh, AEW's Chris Statlander is here. Yeah, I think so, too. I think so, too. I think she's absolutely fantastic. I think even in AEW, she should be as big as Mercedes is right now. You know what I mean? Or she could be.

There it is. Your untapped potential champion is Chris Tatlander. Will she still be the champ after this weekend? I think Kaz is right. I think the smart money is on her retaining. I just... I feel like there's a lot more money in her kind of chasing Mercedes, you know? Yeah, babyface is chase. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, babyface, in terms of babyface...

And relatively short term baby face women's world champions that are that are no longer world champions. We got to go to NXT. In terms of relatively newly crowned women's world champions and whether or not they should retain. Tatum Paxley is no longer your NXT Women's Championship. JC Jane got it back. You were there live at NXT. How sad was the crowd when Tatum lost? Oh, man. They definitely was...

Did it rival Cody Rhodes losing to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania? No, it didn't rival that, but it was definitely sad because it was also like, you know, I mean, anytime somebody turns on that right there, it's like, oh. come on you know and uh jc jane just you know adding to the title win i mean you know it really comes down to the cullen just betraying tatum and that's the sympathy factor right there yeah It was...

There's a whole lot of schmizzity schmaz going on in some of this AEW booking decisions. I'm not against it watching it in real time, but it's kind of hard to wrap your head around outside like, wait, why did they make that call as opposed to X, Y, and Z?

Which is to say nothing of what's going on over in TNA, which we should probably talk about next week with the whole Santana thing and everything. Every decision just seems to be mind-boggling. I don't know. You're an old Ring of Honor guy. You've been watching delirious... That was a head booker for a long time. You know what it's like? You know what it's like to push your biggest underdog baby face, your guy with the most untapped potential?

but hold it off for so long that he's only got, like, three days left on his contract when you finally decide to pull the trigger? You saw that a bunch in Ring of Honor. Yeah, it felt like it, you know? I mean, it definitely felt like that a lot of times with maybe the contract times, but, like, definitely felt like that.

Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards. Even Kevin Steen, I think by the time they finally got behind him, it was too late. There was no time to really wrap your arms around it. Anyway, back to NXT. There's a lot of online sadness. Because I think, weirdly, Tatum Paxley is the most universally beloved wrestler amongst the internet wrestling fans. Everybody was so excited to see her win.

And I think not only having her lose, but having it go back to JC Jane, who people are incredibly respectful of. People love JC Jane. Yeah. I think she's a great heel champion. She is. She absolutely is. But more of the symbolism that Tatum's run was just, you know...

it was insignificant because it just goes back to the same storyline as before. And Tatum Paxley's got a new storyline, right? So Tatum Paxley is going to be going after Izzy Dame in the culling. And she doesn't even care about JC Jane in the world championship anymore. That's what really gets it.

for me. I mean, that is sort of heartbreaking that it goes back to JC Jane almost as if the whole Tatum-Paxley thing never happened. That said, Tatum-Paxley and JC Jane are both incredible. They're both going to be huge, huge main roster talents. They might be the... two of my top draft picks for like, Oh, okay. For like, when we look back in 10 years, like that's going to, they're going to be absolutely, they're both going to have really big careers. Tatum is.

I don't usually like the quirky, you know, whatever. I don't have any problem with goth in general, but the sort of like quirky weirdo gimmicks, they're not my favorite thing in the world. Mm-hmm. but she is just a like perfect pro wrestler. She's so much. I like how people have been noticing how good she is in the rings that she came back. What was her? Was she like a power lifter before she came to WWE?

Her real sports background was a little bit off the beaten path. But it's... She's just... Two-time powerlifting champion. 2019, 2021. That's the sort of real sports background I can get behind because that's real. That and being a wrestler, like a Greco-Roman wrestler, are the real transferable things, right? Also, Tatum Paxley will now always be waist-like sneaky strong.

Because she was a power lifter. She doesn't look like a power lifter now, but you know she's twice as strong as whoever she's staying across the ring from. Right. It's just nice padding on the resume. I just think JC Jane's so good too. Yeah. I think Fallon Henley is super good. Who knows about the new member? But like, yeah, Fallon is incredible. They have a healthy roster down there. You know, women's wrestling.

you look at where everything that's been happening with all the stories and they still have some that's like kind of on the bench that wasn't like at gold rush or haven't been on tv in a couple weeks so and then you know even with Looking at how Kalani Jordan going over to TNA, winning their title and kind of playing the role of heel in NXT, face over in TNA has been a lot of fun to watch as well. Yeah, it's totally true.

I mean, yeah, you're right. They have people that aren't even on TV. Blake Monroe retained the title as we discussed at the top of the show. What would it take for you to tap out? Like, what would it be acceptable for us to throw in the top of you? If I look at all uncomfortable, throw in the towel.

I would prefer for you to throw in the towel. That way I get a relatively short match, relatively little pain, but I still have something to complain about. It's like, well, I could have won that match, but Brian threw in the towel. I could go to Ben and cry like Owen Hart did. But that's our David. That's our David. Throw the towel in. He's like my brother. Blake Monroe is obvious. You know what? How do I rank anybody in this NXT women's division?

NXT women's division, people who go to 100%, who I feel confident could be in a top match at WrestleMania. Let's see. Blake Monroe, yes. Fallon Henley, yes. JC Jane, yes. Jada Parker, yes. Jordan Grace, yes. I'm looking at, I mean, Lola Vice, yes. I mean, who were you saying? Tatum Paxley, yes.

Tyra Maysteel, how do you say no to that? That's an absolute yes. Zarya, yes. Sol Ruka, yes. Ren Sinclair. Okay, Ren Sinclair and Kendall Gray, low-key. Both yeses. Both absolute yeses. I think Kendall Gray has so much of a rock. I mean... has so much untapped potential that people are very, very aware of that it is not like shocking to say that. Ren Sinclair, 1 million percent. Ren Sinclair is like, she's, she's, she's going to be huge.

She steps up. She fits at every single platform. I wasn't even sure when they signed her. I was a fan of her work before she came to WWE. I was like, yeah, is she going to look like a minor leaguer out there? I wasn't sure. No, no, no, no, no. She's so good. She's just, anyway. And Kalani Jordan, I don't think I mentioned yes. Absolutely.

Nikita Lyons will say she's part of Evolve now, right? We don't have to mention that. Yeah, I thought Tatum losing was sad, but I'm interested to see what they're going to do with JC Jane back on top. Is JC Jane going to appreciate it more? Who's going to be the first J.C. Jane? Who's going to be the first feud if, as we assume, Tatum Paxley is kind of sidebarred into an Izzy Dame feud? Anyway, we haven't given much enough time to Ethan Page and Chelsea Green.

They did defeat Joe Hendry and Thea Hale, who I didn't just mention. Thea Hale is another one. Who knows? She's like 20. Yes, she could be a WrestleMania main event by the end of it. Who knows? There is no way that Ethan Page and Chelsea Green were dropping these titles on a random episode of NXT, but they shouldn't because no matter how much you love Joe Hendry, how much you believe in Joe Hendry, I should have said, you probably believe more.

in Ethan and Chelsea right now, right? They are so good. They are a tag team match made in heaven for Canada because every time I watch them, I'm entertained and I feel like they pull out comedic chops out of each other that... they probably didn't even know he had it's like wait absolutely funnier it gets even better yeah absolutely uh dark state retained over javon evans and leon slater javon loses yet another

Championship match. Are you sad? I mean, I put the odds relatively low. Mm-hmm. Javon's first championship gold win shouldn't be a tag team at this point. He's already a freaking, you know. main roster superstar as far as I'm concerned. No, and I think that's exactly what it is. Like you said, his first tag, his first championship goal. You know, we want to see him hold a single title. Man, just watching that in person.

You know, it's just incredible. I mean, it's the reason why both of them, you know, are highly regarded on this podcast. And Dark State's getting better. I know a lot of people, you know, may not be high on them. You know, maybe it's the whole...

I think people were chanting T-Mew Shield in the arena, in the theater the other night. I mean, they're like slowly getting... themselves over Saquon I think particularly but like in terms of just like someone whose name and ring work and everything else you put together I mean he was he's been great for a long time um Did you enjoy Obafemi's promo in person? Yeah. Yeah, man. Just Oba and Ricky Saints. I love watching them two go back and forth. Even Trick Williams coming out there, but then...

Miles Boyd has something to say about that. You know how I feel about Obafemi. I want to see him main event WrestleMania. I'll just say this. I think if you're Ricky Saints, you got to have a little bit more of a... prepared response to when someone says your daddy is home i mean you gotta like say yeah like well shit let me call my mom real quick she's been looking for you or whatever you know like uh

Obafemi is absolutely great. I love both those guys. I mean, I think... I feel like people haven't been as much on the Ricky Saints train as I expected them to be. Maybe just because... I mean, it's like the men's division is that stacked below the very top. I mean, you mentioned Miles Bourne. I mean, there's a couple other dudes in NXT that I'm excited about, you know, but like, I'd say, I mean, again, we got a lot of potential.

potential WrestleMania headliners. I don't know. Do you see the NXT crew that like invaded TNA? It's like there's a bunch of sort of middling names, you know, like I love Charlie Dempsey way more than the average wrestling fan. But after that, it gets it gets a little bit empty. I'm looking through right now. After the dudes who we could all imagine...

Ethan Page getting called up pretty soon. I mean, there's obviously Obafemi, Trick Williams, Ricky Saints, and Javon Evans. After those guys, who is the potential future main eventer? Lexis King is part of the crossover now. I'm looking for him to get it. It's Miles Bourne and it's probably somebody. That's what I was thinking though. Talk to Ben. Oh, Tavion Heights. So I was born in Tavion Heights or like the two ones that I would, that I would put up there.

Jasper Troy, they're obviously excited about. By the way, what a great gimmick. The giant dude should be the speed championship. It's not about how fast you go, it's about how fast you finish matches. Exactly. Brooks Jensen is over there in TNA, looking like Dean Ambrose. Yeah, so anyway. It was sad for Leon, sad for Javon, but that wasn't the moment for them. Dark State's got, you know.

they there's more they can do with those title belts what was it what was the biggest moment being there live well you were there live on monday too right yeah yeah we talked about that but what was it what was what's like the top moment or two from your live wrestling Weekend, or week, sorry. Honestly, seeing Dolph Ziggler come back. Really? That was the top moment for me. Former NXT champion Dolph Ziggler? I think because, like...

I expected to see Roman and Brock. Dolph, I've stayed off the internet long enough between running back and forth. So that was a moment, you know, obviously just seeing. John Cena come out there and really, you know, take in the love from MSG, knowing that was going to be his last time. That's obviously probably like the tippity top, but like, yeah, yeah. Just being able to be there and then, you know, NXT.

I just really enjoy seeing Chelsea and Ethan Page in the ring together. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, the Dolph Ziggler thing is really incredible. He's got to come back. i mean he's still in such ridiculous shape he could be he could wrestle until he's 50. let's give him a

You think we took him for granted? Like, wrestling fans took him for granted? Well, absolutely. WWE took him for granted. I mean, that's the whole thing with him. The whole book on him is that he was too good at selling. You know? You kind of make a spot for yourself. It's like the guy that puts other people over. Yeah. which helps you climb up, but then you get to a point where you're just like, like that's what they look at you and see, you know? Um,

And there's a couple of opportunities to really just capitalize on his popularity. I don't think wrestling fans took him for granted, man. After that, what year was the Survivor Series where he was the last dude in the ring when Roman had gotten hurt? 2014.

He took the spot. It got really like the crowd was going absolutely bonkers. And then the next week they just pretended like it never happened. You know, like they were just blinded by the disappointment of Roman's injury or whatever. It's crazy.

Dolph had his opportunities. I think if anything, the fans just kind of got used to the fact that he wasn't going to get it. After you have your title run, your money in the bank cash in, that cool little unit with Big E and AJ, and then that gets totally squandered.

I mean, in story, whatever, you can tell me that him dropping the belt was not the worst decision in the world, although most people would think it's a bad decision, but you could tell me it wasn't the end of the world, but then they didn't do anything with him afterwards. And then they didn't do anything with him after that huge moment.

At Survivor Series, I think as a fan, you just get to the point where you're like, okay, this is a dude who's in a tag team with Bobby Roode. Our expectations are just going to be low. But he could come back and it could be huge. Yeah. I mean, the music drop with him is always really great too. It's just fantastic. Anyway, it's been a fun week, man. We got...

We got full gear this weekend. Survivor Series is next weekend, right? I mean, we got a lot of wrestling coming. Thank you for doing this, man. Time to get out of here. Thank you all for listening. Thanks for producer Brian H. Waters. I'm kind of reiterating that there, but it's what I say at the end. Thanks to our EP, Ben Cruz. Finn Balor's going to be okay. Boo your mama. We'll see you back here next week, humanoids. Peace.