Who Is Winning The WWE Vs AEW TV War? AEW Dynamite Review!

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You there! Yes, you there! The one listening to this podcast! Hello, it's Luke Owen here from the WrestleTorp Podcast. Hope you're doing well. This is just a little quick plug to click the link in the podcast description because there is a Survey there. The Fine Focer ACAS are looking to build a better profile for the podcast listenership. So

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Wrestle top is the spot for breaking news for addictions and reviews from British Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk podcast here every Tuesday and Friday. I'm Ollie Davis. I'm joined by Luke Owen D A D. And please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from. It could be there. on YouTube! It could be there on Apple Podcasts. It could be there on Spotify. and we are still sponsored and brought to you for the whole month of March by

QR codes. QR codes that take you to a link, not to subscribe to this podcast this time, but to order your own WrestleTalk 10th anniversary t-shirt. We're celebrating 10 years this month, and if you want one, You can click the link in the video description below. Or clink or clink it. Or clink it. Cha ching. That's what the sound clinks make. Cha ching. Or you can be a pro player and try and catch the most elusive bit of promotion this side of

I kind of thought another elusive bit of promotion would come to me. ESPN. Marty Spr ESPN plus, sure, that's thematic. Because the QR code is coming. In three. Oh if you manage to s and don't get you can pause it and you can scan it, that's fine. But if you manage to scan it the moment it comes on I don't think it's actually possible, but I'm not a pro player. Yeah. If y someone must build some kind of QR code scanner. Exactly. Like every time I watch Beard Meets Food. There's no way.

And then usually ten nine times out of ten he d he does do it. Are you saying we should launch a YouTube channel about being a pro player at QR code?

It is an untapped market. Why? Maybe we've answered our own question. There's a gap in the market. But is there a market in the gap? Is the Dragon's Den line I believe. Um yeah, well that's it. People keep saying why what is the point of the QR codes? Is it ever gonna pay off on s as something? like these bits are a wrestling storyline that need a payoff? No, they're just bits we run into the ground. Yeah. But hey, if we launched a QR code channel off the back of it,

That'd show'em, wouldn't it? In this episode we have oooh a surprise new segment that Luke doesn't know about. We're gonna be reviewing AEW dynamite. We've got the ass index. Uh but we're gonna kick things off, I believe. By talking about TV deals and this TV war between WWE and AEW. Yeah, it's a fascinating time. Um and Luke and I will shoehorn the Warner Bros. Discovery purchase news story into anything we can. Exactly. So we've done it here. What a great deal for Paramount.

Well yeah, well What they they really they showed their smarts in this business deal here. You know who won? Netflix won. Exactly. Netflix won by losing. So much. They won so much. This is the greatest loss in business history. Because Netflix Manage to massively drive up something like the the cost of something for a competitor.

And ev their own stock price has gone up because they're no longer going to buy it. Yeah. It feels like Paramount Sky Dance were like, We've gotta get it now they're gonna be like ah Maybe we didn't need it that bad. Oh no, they don't think that way. Dad, I don't want it! Daddy! I want a bigger studio. Of course, son. Here you go. Have another one. Stop bothering me. I'm trying to run my AI empire. They're gonna they're gonna release thirty-one films a year.

No, they're not. Oh, they could do. No, they are never gonna need it for the tax breaks. They are never gonna hit that target. If they do, they're gonna be 31. Terrible films. Oh, come bring back the mid budget romantic comedy. They're not gonna make them. Twenty-five mid-budget romantic comedies.

And six Mission Impossible films. No a year. No, what they want is thirty one Mission Impossible films a year because those are the ones that are gonna make you hundreds of millions of dollars, which they need to do because they've made a thick person. Do you like Transformers? Because You're gonna get a lot of animated kids films.

Do you like the Batman? Because you're gonna get a lot of animated kids' films of Batman. Oh, and you're probably gonna get a lot of animated kids' films of Batman meeting the Transformers. Um yeah. Sorry, we will get to the wrestling. But we haven't actually spoken about this. This is the larger news story and trust me it does eventually tie into WWE and AEW and how what once looked like a great space for WWE to be expanding in.

has aged quite weirdly over two years. And AEW, which was in the rough patch and the oh well as Warner Bros gonna take it or or whatever, it's dwindling ratings, actually finds itself in arguably A stronger position for the future. Yeah, part of it is that we have no idea how it's going to shake out with the paramount purchase of WB. Once their deal expires in twenty twenty seven, so it's next year it does I mean like are we'd say the end of

Yeah. And yeah, we talked about this when the Netflix deal was confirmed and going through was. A it may not happen. B if it does happen it will take like a full year to g uh come through anyways. We're not look we're looking at like the start of twenty twenty seven, maybe even mid twenty twenty seven before this thing is even fully finalized and fully gone through. We just have no idea how it is going to affect them.

What we do know is that I d I believe the relationship between UFC and Paramount Plus has not has got off to a bit of a rocky start and they're not overly thrilled with with how that's gone. No. TKO screwing over a business partner. Isn't it It's it's the same it's different owners the same business practice. Yes. Which is WWE, um, consistently screwed over their T V partners. Sky over here in the UK when they

just decided to launch the network despite Skygame. Um we charge people for pay per views. You cannot do that. Uh the WWE sold a very big game to Fox. Get Brock Lesnar. You're gonna get Roman Reigns. Kane Velasquez. Ronda Rousey. Yeah, everyone wants Kane Velazquez. And then within a couple of months. It's Baron Gorbon. Baron C Baron Corbin. Not even prime baron Corbin. Dog food Baron Corbyn. No disrespect to to Bishop Dyer, of course. Um

No th I was gonna say with that sky thing. It's not just that they launched the network. is they'd literally just signed a new deal with Sky and then launched the network two months later. Yeah, WWE, I would never trust, even now, un not under Vince McMahon and under TKO, I wouldn't trust them to be a a collaborative partner. I think they make business deals to benefit themselves, not to benefit both parties. I think that ties into the ESPN thing. Do we start with ESPS?

Oh no, I mean there's so many ways into this story. Yeah, let's start the ESPN. Because with ESPN, I think that's the one that du as a question I've got the most questions about, I suppose. Because when WW signed their deal with Netflix, The idea is that the PLEs will be on Netflix internationally. RAW is going to be on Netflix. Here in the UK, we get RAW, NXT, SmackDown, and the PLEs all on Netflix.

And a version of the library. Yeah, yeah, a terrible version of the library. Now it's on YouTube with hundreds of thousands of ad breaks. So we get um because YouTube now dynamically add all their ad people keep saying it's like you have too many ad breaks in. We don't have a choice anymore. YouTube put all the ad breaks in. I'm I'm sorry to say they make the choice now.

We try and add an ad break in at a spot we think would be appropriate, and YouTube will say Well we'll put it in somewhere else for you. But if you just let your risk, if you want to put it there, that's on you, but uh it might not go there. This is uh inshenification and that's why you should help us out on patreon.com forward slash wrestletalk and it is a concept I will eventually explain in the wrestling video essay. So when they made that deal with Met.

Uh I assumed and a lot of people assumed that Well when the deal with Peacock expires, they'll just go onto Netflix. Everything under one roof. Everything under the one roof. That is so good for fans. It is such a great deal for all of WWE's fan base to be able to just get everything in one place. On Netflix, a subscription most of them probably already have. And it is great for us. Like that's that's our situation.

We get all of that stuff and Netflix writ large for Stranger Things. Yeah. We were already paying for Netflix. We were paying technically it's cheaper for us now, internationally, because it The price of one Netflix subscription is less than the network and the Netflix subscription. And then they just announced this deal with ESPN instead, because ESPN were launching a new stream.

And they wanted to compete against Fox, who are opening up their own streaming platform, because apparently no one has really noticed yet that streaming platforms don't make money, but they're still doing them anyway. So they're launching this new triple and they want WW to be a part of So WWE then get out of their peacock deal. But and so they can get onto ESPN early. It was meant to start we're not even supposed to be on ESPN plus just yet. It's meant to start with WrestleMania forty two.

They got on there early with Russell Palooza, the C graded Russell Palooza. By ESPN themselves. And have you noticed that they've stopped grading WWE pay per views? No one, I don't think anyone's really picked up on this yet, but I I checked The other day, they have not done a review of Elimination Chamber, and I don't think they did one of the Royal Rumble either.

That's interesting because after the WrestlePalooza bit there was a lot of discussion about how ESPN are editorially totally separate because they also, you know, cover other things in a more objective way.

Um yeah, definitely. They will honestly review things. We thought, well, they gave their partner a C, so that must be true. But then if you're saying they've not done any since Now maybe I couldn't find it and if I can't find it that means it is not well uh able it's not it is not well displayed uh upon the website. That got a lot of backlash when they first started doing it because

It was way more expensive than it was on Peacock. It was harder to get hold of because ESPN had not finished up all of their deals with their other distribution partners, which meant that you had to pay for your ESPN subscription. And pay for ESPN Plus just to watch these WWE papers. Like WrestlePalooza. Yeah, so currently the cost of an ESPN plus pass, well, you don't just get the PLEs, you know, you do get other things on ESPN which people would find valuable.

But you do have to spend thirty dollars. Just for the paper page. Yeah. And just you gotta remember WWE spent a decade plus Saying to everybody,$9.99. Everything for$9.99. This is one of the benefits of AEW always charging for pay-per-view. in a climate that everyone said the pay-per-view business model was dead despite boxing still doing it and doing record buy rates and the SPN doing it and them doing very well.

Because AEW have always charged for pay-per-views, and you've forty bucks a go, fifty bucks a go. I think it's forty now, it's on HBO Max maybe, as a d as a slightly discounted price. That means no one really bats an eyelid when you end up paying and I've worked it out fifty dollars a month on on average Throughout the year for AEW. Mm hmm. Okay. Uh up until a couple of years ago, people were spending, I'd say, fifteen dollars a month just for the network for everything. Absolutely.

So they've gone on to ESPN, and I think now that we are a few months into this, you're starting to see some of the frictions between the two parts. Most notably is so there's there's a report that came out from a sports journalist, which is one report. So I think we can you know give that a little like maybe take this with a a grain of salt. They have got their sort of version of events, their sources within ESPN are saying this. Not a lot of people are saying this, just this one person.

But you certainly can take Mark Shapiro from TKO who at the uh what was the thing he was at? Oh I didn't write that take. Oh no. Well he was at some like boring media conference. The Goldman Sachs Telecom Telecoms cordings. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's where guys white guys in suits who are all in their fifties get together to talk about why they're brilliant at being white guys in suits. And afterwards they have a couple of beers and they chuck some sausages on the ground.

And the the their underlings have to fight for the sausages. And they said that they felt, Mark Shapiro felt, that the ESPN price point was somewhat prohibitive to the WWE auditors. This is the guy, by the way, who six months ago quite infamously said Vince McMahon was charging too low a ticket price. We don't want fans. to be able to afford a ticket. We want to really maximize the I'll use the really uh

a really corporate. Yeah, but I can't remember what it was now as well. But you you've reminded me that it was essentially whatever their business speak word for Getting the most money out of everything. Uh he said, especially in today's economy and the struggles that certain uh certainly middle income and low income earners have uh are having with affordability, they have to get these deals done, they being ESPN. Until they do, that will affect our order. Ah, so either...

Either he's totally disconnected from reality and what his own company does for both UFC tickets and WWE tickets. and the insane price. Prices that last year Randy Orton was embarrassed by and they are higher this year. But the source within ESPN from that reporter did say that they felt that he was disconnected from the average American uh fan. Yeah, so either he's disconnected or he knows exact this is He's very smart. He totally Yeah and this is a PR exercise.

to frame ESPM, their own business partner, as the ones at fault, not WWE. Yeah. He also admitted within this that their viewership for PLEs is lower year on year. But that was always probably going to be the case because these this ESPN thing A is way more expensive than Peacock, B has a much lower subscriber base than Peacock, C is brand new. So Russell Palooza was always gonna do less viewers than SummerSlam did on P.

The twenty twenty six Royal Rumble was always going to do less viewers than the twenty twenty five Royal Rumble. I would imagine this year's WrestleMania will do less viewers than last year's WrestleMania did on Peak. This is Shapiro in my opinion teeing up this early, so when they do the Q three earnings report in the sorry, Q two earnings report in the second half of the and the WrestleMania viewing figures are down. They can say yes, this was what we

As opposed to it's come out as a shock. Yeah, he did say it has gone up between WrestlePalooza and Royal Rumble. And I think again, that's also to be expected from a brand new streaming platform. You would hope that over months you would get a growing audience from there. Because if you had like one month and then you start to stag.

That would be a really concerning sign. But four months, five months in, you're seeing that increase. So he says he did say the viewership is uh drastic he didn't say drastic go up, but it is not drastic go down. Well, I think there's a little thing they've announced as well, probably part of this, is that the first hour of both nights of WrestleMania will be

Fri well, whatever free to air is on ESPN. On their linear cable cable to get that. Yeah. But that will reap eighty million homes or whate whatever it is, to hopefully upsell people to go to ESPN Plus. I think they'll they're gonna use that to fudge the numbers and say that is it's it's the most watched WrestleMania ever because this the these sorts of companies are market themselves to the stock market as Engines of infinite growth. Is in it's not just that we're up on last year.

We're up at an increasing extent. So if last year was the most watched WrestleMania ever, huh. This year it's even more watched. What? They must be doing amazing. Actually no They're just doing statistics statistics do lie. Yes, of course. Because it's how you frame and cherry pick the statistics. And there was this report from a sports writer called Blake Avion, who said Inside ESPN, there's chatted that WWE's transition into the network's ecosystem hasn't been seamless.

One person described it as a DNA mismatch, adding that WW leadership has yet to make an unified push to correct the short term. Yeah, this reporter Blake Avignon, he's he's not a wrestling guy, you know, he's not a name that pops up often. But he was the guy that sort of broke the triple A partnership before it was announced. He he did the TNA news.

to that which turned out to be true. So not a known name within R circles. It's not like a Sean Ross Sapp or a Mike Johnson, but there's no reason to doubt this. But also It's more literally please do take with a pinch of salt. Uh he also added as well that ESPN are losing confidence in the first.

Within WWE, citing the lower ticket sales for WrestleMania, which I feel like we're talking like uh every single week, only because those ticket sales are not really going up, whilst last year's was still going up. And he's that it's he quoted here, viewing it as a sign the current strategy may not be landing as intended. This is very uh uh sort of dressed up ways of covering up what I imagine a shouting match. Yeah. is still in prologue. This deal was meant to start in April.

And they've not even t started their original t their first term bit and there's already uh disconnects between the two sites. WWE are saying, Well, ESPN is too expensive and ESPN are saying, Well, WWE aren't doing a good enough show

To make it to make people pay for this. And they're doing silly things in their sort of mind. Self inflicted deterrence is the way they sort of put this of blocking watch parties, blocking bars in Las Vegas from showing WrestleMania, because from the ESPN side of things, according to this reporter, they view this being on in bars of like, well if you went to night uh a bar and watched night one

It was such a good show, you might buy a ticket for night two because you get FOMO. And who what who's getting the money mostly from the people in the bar?

Their commercial license is free SPM Plus. So what WWE have done, and I didn't really appreciate this at the time. Very good point, WWE by blocking local bars in Las Vegas from showing WrestleMania forty two when WrestleMania forty two is on, isn't just Going back on the actual Las Vegas tourism board deal, a whole deal designed to bring more people to Las Vegas and enjoy the bars and local businesses of Las Vegas.

It screws over WWE's own business partner. I hadn't even put those two together. Like I said with this about the phone and I was like, I mean that that argument works for night one. It certainly doesn't work for night two because there's no more tickets to buy unless you buy.

for raw, I guess. But yeah, you're right. What it does mean is that ESPN aren't selling any licenses to then show the show in bars. Well that you know that'll be I imagine those are your annual licenses that you give to the bar. Well the the bars bar. But ESPN want to give those people value, those those business owners value.'Cause when I read that bit of the report, I was like, what Look, I get the ESPN care about They're sign up.

Why are they caring about bars? And then it hit me, I was like, oh yeah, because they're the ones who supply the licenses to the bars. So the reason why we wanted to talk about the Netflix uh the ESPN thing first is because rather than take the better option for fans by just doing a deal with Netflix They opted instead for the bigger money draw of doing a deal with somebody else, doing a deal with ESPN, doing a deal with Disney.

And I feel that that has now somewhat backed them into a corner, which has if anything, given AEW a bit of a leg up. Yes. This is a fascinating whenever you watch the apprentice. And you got the two teams to do a task and they somehow just pick totally opposite products. It's always fairly constructed as a show. But it's what's happened with AEW and WWE. I don't think anyone's ever sat down and go, Well, let's just do the exact opposite business.

It's just happened as a natural occurrence of of the conditions and a main manoeuvred into positions by your competitors sometimes, which naturally creates opposing forces. But WWE and TKO, their headline for really the last eight years since Nick Khan started doing these big money deals, but definitely under the TKO era it. Multiple big money deals with different companies.

There is business sense to this. You are spreading risk and you can increase your prices because you're playing multiple parties off it. So, we have the Netflix deal. That is ten years long with a five year opt-out, worth five billion over. NBC Universal, that goes till twenty twenty nine, that's just for SmackDown, that's one point four billion. The ESPN deal, that's five years, that's one point six billion, that ends in twenty thirty.

That is one point one billion dollars in total media rights across those three major ones. NXT which I don't include. Per year. Per year. You've got the one point one billion dollars Yes, per year. Yeah. Um and then you've got the Saudi money, which I haven't included either. So that one point one billion dollars that they're getting. That means that the consumer now suddenly has to have multiple expensive

Different streaming services. Yeah, in a economy that's not exactly flourishing. And that's not just America only, that is sort of like a worldwide situation. And this is after, like I said, a decade plus of that fan base. being very used to an incredibly good deal with ten dollar ten dollars a month for the network. Which was In hindsight, they had to do it. It was new technology. That was a way to get people to embrace the network. But really, I think in the longer term,

That pay-per-view model might have been a bit more robust. Yeah, I thought of stuck with it, but like I think that at the time they launched it, they thought the pay-per-view model is dying. We need to find the next. Version of this because our pay-per-view. It wasn't that the product was bad that pay-per-view numbers were down. It's just the pay-per-view's not working. That's why pay-per-view is down.

We better do the network instead. But the network was just a money loser for them, like just year on year, because they never hit the targets that they thought they were going to, because they set themselves this lofty expectation of they'll get two million sign ups. Yeah. Like e easily. Like it may be like you know one point five, but we'll definitely do two million by the end of the first year. And then they could barely get to a million within the first year.

I'm not I'm not sort of criticizing these deals at the time'cause I actually think all of these make perfect sense. I think when these deals were made, up until the ESPN All of us were like, well, that's amazing. For for W for a wrestling product that's historically been underpaid for the amount of audience figures they deliver, this is like good on you. Like I I respect the Nick Khan deal making.

But it is a strategy that has split it's it's made it more difficult to be a fan of the product because it is in multiple places. It just comes down to those two things. It is. And I g I so I'm reading a a book at the moment that about the the How music became free, how music got free. And they're talking about sort of like that nineties period where there was this huge influx in sales of

um CDs and like there was like there was this became this huge industry. Cause that was a period of time where people just had a lot more disposable income to them. They could go out and do things like, you know, that eighties and nineties American boom period of consumerism, you're able to go out and do it buy a lot more CDs

videos and and home media and this that and the other and technologies go along with that. We're not in that period anymore where people don't have as much disposable income to their name, but now things are way more expensive than they were previous.

Meanwhile, WWE are making these billions of dollars deals, but none of that like the you know, it's not it trickle down ec economics or anything. We've made so much money, which means we can charge less for things. If we're making so much money, so now we can charge more for things. Yeah. It is weird. you know I I would as a as a kid with um paper own money I would be able to save up enough per month to buy two C D

Which could range from ten to fifteen quid. You know, if you got if you've got an older CD, Pablo Honey by Radiohead, that's frustratingly sixteen ninety-nine in HMV. Back that that means that's sixty quid in today's How was and and now nowadays I can get Netflix for the equivalent of 10 quid, 12 quid a month. And that's the back then equivalent of six quid? And I get I get access to everything. So it is

I'm I d I don't fully understand what's happened. But I just put those two points in my life together. I'm like, well I'm both getting a b a better deal and a worse deal. I can't figure it out. I don't think people are getting a better deal with ESPN though, just because like because ESPN have not finished up signing up these deals, they wanted to get the the thing out before they'd finalised these deals with YouTube and Dish and Combo.

they serve and lined up, which means that even if you already have ESPN, you still need to pay an extra fee on top of that. You're not being able to get ESPN plus for free as part of your already existing ESPN bundle. But the reason why we wanted to uh link this into the AEW. For me is one of my like I I love this as a wrestling story.

The WWS uh leak go back to Leak of the Fast Nationals again. Like this you know, they've been doing this since the launch of Collision, paying thousands of dollars every week. For one rating.

Which is historically not accurate, and feeding it to WWE friendly reporters to put out on Twitter, AEW collision, the fast nationals are in. It's a terrible number. Lol Eddie Lol AEW, don't watch that show. It's a bad The reason they do this, which I think is actually a very smart move, is if you are first, that's the only story that's not. So when the eventual rating actually does come out and it is higher than what the Fast National said it was going to be.

Doesn't matter. Because that story, you've got to do work so much harder. The truth is there's a a phrase of like, um, uh the lies all the way around the world before the truth has even got its trousers. Like it's already the the lies already spread. So it doesn't actually matter if the truth gets out there because then people will just believe the first thing that they they

And they're back to doing it again. And for the last few weeks, they have been leaking the Fast Nationals. And then the Fast Nationals come out, and it's way higher for Calypso. The key to for this one though is they did it against the elimination chain. And historically, whenever AEW collision has gone against the Chamber or gone against any WWE pay per view, even if that pay per view is not on at the same time, like when a uh Money the Bank was here in the UK or when it's in a Saudi Arabia.

Even if it's not at the same time, still does a bad number. This number was actually quite up. It's like the highest number that collision has done going up against a WWE paper. And I think the reason for that is because people aren't watching on ESPN. Yeah. It hurt them when it was on Peacock and everyone had Peacock. Now that they're on ESPN and it's harder to get hold of.

That is helping the collision ratings go up. Yeah, I don't we don't know what the actual numbers are from Peacock to ESPN Plus, but the the product's also not as hot. So people would sign up to Peacock. Uh to to sign up for a non-hop non-hop product for an expensive price. It's it there's a lot of resistance there for that happening. So yeah, we've got And this is

Let's not get into the whole ratings mess because who knows if the ratings are even consistent. But what we do have here is a business strategy that TKO have pursued for WWE of spread everything around and we'll get loads more money and the consumer has to foot the ultimate bill really. Well actually th the networks do, but the consumer is also exploited in this because they're

AEW has taken a very, very simple route from the start. Tony Kahn's been very loyal to Warner Bros. Discovery and David Zaslov. We're just gonna stick with you. Collisions on TNT or TBS, dynamites on the other one, and our pay per views are now also available on HBO Max, which is also within the Warner B. That means Dynamite and Collision are on basic cable, so there is a fee for US viewers to watch that, but they could also just pay seventeen dollars a month.

To watch Max. Yeah. And they get dynamite and collision. And because AW only do between eight and ten pay-per-views a year. Uh forty bucks a go on HBO Max. It's fifty if you buy it outside of that. But let's just pretend it's all within a You really it's about forty five dollars a month. To watch AEW pay-per-views dynamite collision. Yeah. And for raw SmackDown and pay-per-views, it's over double that. At its very lowest price point, it is over double that. Yeah.

But again, we go back to that the the Paramount purchase of WBD. We've no idea what is going to happen come next year for this for AEW because one of the things the Paramount have said is they're going to close down HBM. Have they said that now? Yeah. So are they gonna close it down or are they gonna they're gonna make a super streaming? Everything will just go into Paramount Plus.

But what if there's gonna be some TKO well uh UFCs on this? You can't have uh a competitor on that streaming platform. What if they have that? in the contract. Like there's so much that could happen with this. Like I the idea that Paramount buying it is better for than Netflix buying it, I don't think either one was particularly great for AW, but it might also be fine for AEW. This is gonna be one of those things where we genuinely won't know.

until the purchase has fully gone through. Yeah, so much can change. And like it could be it's we've you know, they're saying now though we're gonna close HBO Max. They can change their mind in a few minutes being like, actually now we're gonna keep it open and we're just gonna t'cause that was Netflix's plan was to run them as two separate things.

Paramount things like then we'll just make them one thing. They could change their mind. Yeah, but I think we're in store for an invasion level flip flopping of plans here. Look, HBO has changed its name Four times in the last since it launched a couple of years ago. So I actually if If I had to say now, I think this is a huge positive for AEW because Paramount

have the UFC connection. I don't think that will that will affect them too much. I think it would be far more damaging with the Netflix relationship with WWE. I feel like that if if Netflix Did actually absorb all of Warner Bros. into one streaming service. I think then TKO are a bit iffy about AEW and WWE appearing on that.

I think that's a far bigger danger than UFC, which is a separate thing, you know, of course in the combat sports world, but I I don't think based on the press conferences, Paramount consider AEW. No, they're usually like entertainers. Yeah, that's in the entertainment. The real benefit to AEW and this is I this isn't of their own making, this is a a a happy coincidence that could really benefit It's HBO Max as a streaming service and Paramount Plus as a streaming.

are pretty big and they have very little over. The studies done at the subscriber base. It's not like if uh say Netflix and Disney Plus and actually eighty percent of the people just pay for both. If you bought both of those and merged them, you'll be making far less money because actually it's only the twenty percent of people Yeah, eighty percent of people are gonna cancel one subscription. So what AEW could have here if they keep it the seventeen dollars a month or twenty dollars a month.

Not just the max viewers can watch AEW, but uh an extra 20 million people. It could double their audience. It could do with the Paramount side. So, to just compare the business strategies and who might be coming ahead in this overall war, right now WWE are filthy rich, but that has come at the expense of exposure. And getting viewers to continually watch things. And I think we've seen that in a in an interest decline and a viewership.

AEW, meanwhile, have stuck with one business partner. That business partner has just become a whole lot bigger. And I think it could benefit them long run. Yeah. Could being the strong word. Could but we don't know. We don't know we don't know any of these. But to your point, it could be.

It could be hugely beneficial. I think it's a stronger chance that it would be. And with WWE, these are long term deals. The the SPN deals five years, the the the Peacock one well NBC Universal's five years these all end on twenty thirty. These things a couple of like last year were like God and what a great business deal because that lasts forever and they're secure with their future. AEW meanwhile, oh it's in two years' time it runs out. I think AEW could be in a better position.

Because they can renegotiate to go up because right now they can go We're getting not far off the amount of viewers that WWE is and they are getting six times more than us for the same amount of content.

Yeah, very true. So you know what HBO, or Warner Bros, Peacock, whatever your new company is called, David Ellison. We want more money. And actually that's hugely important to them at this point. AEW becomes a flagship programme for them. They're doing incredibly well in the ratings. Hör upp. Dacks för ett nytt stryktips Kvist Mysterium. Vilket lag spelar på Citiground? Håll jag lhetro tack. Sog i stan. Smart. Nottingham Forest. Rätt tårnigt. Ett spel från svenska Spel, Sport och Casino för dig.

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After such a high bar of dynamite this year. I don't feel like this episode uh leapt over that bar. Like this wasn't one like the best episodes they've done this year, but what I think it was, is showing how consistently strong Dynamite has been. because you had it was a newsworthy episode. You had a debut, you had a title change, you had three title matches on the show or two titles matches and a and a title eliminator, a double main event. One of them is actually a main event.

But it did feel like a newsworthy show. Yeah, I really liked it. I thought last w I really loved last week's episode we didn't get to cover it on here because of the chamber of the. But I felt that was more of a solid filler episode with an insanely fun main event. That main event was incredible. I agree. Didn't have the high highs. It's not like a touching five-star status. But this was a really, really good episode. of America.

Because you open with the MJF Kevin Knight match, Kevin Knight gets his midsection worked over, and MJF wins. Kevin Knight is of course a trios champion with Hangman Page. In the middle of the show, Hangman Page has a squash match, issues a challenge to MJF, Don Callis Family attack him, sets up a main event, Trios match. Between uh what is it, Jet Rodeo sp what they call it? Jet Jet Set R Jet Set Rodeo. Jet Set Rodeo versus the Callus family, which MJF interferes in.

Spoiling the lead here, and the trio's titles change hands. That is sort of what I've been calling out for for the last six months in wrestling programming. This had a beginning, middle, and end for the same storyline in an episode. Yeah, which I like. I I thought as a show long storyline I really, really enjoyed. If I could make one slight tweak to it and maybe we can sort of jump around a a little bit here before we do the play by is that uh the war dogs won the trio.

The war? Do you mean Don Callis family? No, but I'm ch I'm changing it to the War Dogs win instead. And that's David Finley's debut in the company. So like they attack, and the three of them win the trio. I don't mind the Don Callis family winning the titles because what it does further is the Akada Of Carl Fletcher, the split with Takesha, it's kicking Takesha because now

K Akada can look at Carly like hey, our pro our tag team, we've won tag team goal together. You were never getting that with Takeshta, also Takeshta hasn't even got one world tit uh one title belt. You and I have got two title belts each. So it really furthers that storyline and I quite like it. But at the same time I don't think that the Don Callis family needs the trios titles and two of the mid card titles.

Whereas you could have put it onto the War Dogs, had a really strong debut for um David Finley, and also spins off then into a natural programme between uh Derby Allen, Orange Casty, and a tag partner, whether that be a Roderick Strong or be someone else. Yeah, I I think I disagree. Um, I think this this makes total sense'cause you've also got the separate feuds of Akada and Knight.

Yes. And you've got Balium Carl Fletcher. Yeah. So this this makes t total sense to me. I don't say I don't think it does work. I would say if I was to make one change I would have pitched that as a potential For this. The show did open though with MGF taking on Kevin Knight for the AEW World Times. Oh, there were three times.

Um and this was a really, really good match. Knight was awesome in this. Hit the coast to coast drop kick and went for the UFO splash and hit it. But in the process, MGF knocked the referee into the ropes which hurt his shoulder. Which means he missed the visual pin on MJF by night. And then MGF basically was playing possum that whole time and uh got the knees up for the second UFO, hit the heat seeker and got the win. Very fun. Very fun. And MJF is doing an excellent job.

Of elevating mid-carders in his title reign. Brody King and now Kevin Knight, he's given them so much, gave Brody King a win for God. Uh I'm really impressed with it. And it doesn't feel like he's doing that. He's somehow still being a heel. But when you look at it on paper, he's been a very generous fighting champion. What really got me here though And throughout the inter Once I noticed it, I saw it everywhere. This is how you produce a wrestling case.

We have we have mocked AEW for their production for so long and gone actually WWE do have the lead on them over that. But you know what this has? In this match and for the rest. Excalibur legit saying this is an important match, we're gonna have limited ad breaks. We don't get an ad break until seventeen minutes into the show, and it's only for ninety seconds. So we don't miss much of the story of the match. Also, entrances

That ramp is half the length of the WWE one. Yeah. Music hits, they're in the ring twenty seconds later. This does not need to be a drawn-out process, WWE. Well W is an entrance company. Yes. In the same way that AEW used to be called a T-shirt company, WWE is now it's an entrance company. Like that is what you are paying to go and see. You are not paying to go and see wrestling. You are paying to go see wrestlers do entrance. I think the amount I pay to go see a WWE show, I would want both.

Uh Hangman Page came out on stage afterwards and Speedball jumped in the ring, kicked MJF. Um not really to set up like a world title match between them. It was more to further the show long narrative of MJF and Jet Set Rhodes. We then got Orange Casty and Darby Ellen taking on the dogs of Clark Connors and Gabe Kidd, fight for psych reporting, Gabe Kidd under AEW contract.

So I think the year of courting Gabe Kid has paid off for them in the same way they courted Will Ospreay for a year and brought him with Hey, look what we can give you, Will, if you chose to sign with us, not with WWE Wembley. They've done the same thing with Gabe Kid for the last year. Hey Gabe'cause there was interest from WWE for Gabe Kid, which I Horrible place for him to land. Um

But uh this was a good match. Uh Orange Casty was taken out before the bell, but he made the big comeback and he got the win with the beach break. And then afterwards, out of nowhere, David Finley runs in, makes his debut for AEW, clocks Orange Casty with the Shilleley, and the trio of the dogs stands tall. Five for select report that David Finley signed a multi-year deal with AEW was signed to this year. Sorry, New Japan. Uh yeah, I I really like everyone involved in this. I thought the

opening spot that took Cassidy out, which was Clark Connors running up steel steps to spear Cassidy into the timekeepers area, was a great like great little spot. I just The war dogs just feel like their books like bullet club gold. Uh-huh. The Bang Bang Gang. Yeah. And uh now that they've entered the company like this and the Cassidy Allen just beat them really clean at the end. I was surprised the dogs didn't. Yeah, because I...

I I would have had David Finley debut to cost Cassidy and Derby the match. You also had an out. You took out Orange Cassidy at the start. And you and you beat him last week, so it's not like you're protecting Orange Casty here. He kinda loses nothing in the the loss either. So while I I like everyone involved, I d this feels Very yeah, bullet club goal bang bang gang for me in the early days. And that that's a faction that never just clicked, did it?

It well it did eventually. Did it yeah it did I think they did get over once like they got a bit of a collision running. Not on the main event level but injuries have certainly hurt that as well because every time it feels like they get on some Momentum, one of them got hurt, and then eventually sort of all of them end up getting hurt. Um Renee interviewed Bandito backstage with Andrade, and Bandito was somebody like, hey, you know, Andrade, I was I'm a big fan of your work.

I I I watched you when I was uh growing up. I I really appreciate everything you've done for for lucha libre and and for Mexican wrestling. And Andrade was like, What a nice fan. Do you wanna sell for you? He's so good. Uh I think it's it's a story of bandido needs a bit more of an edge to him rather than just sort of being a happy go luck. Usually I'd agree with you. Because I don't like that style of character, but the He's a nice guy. He's got a nan.

Then we got the Brawling Birds beating the Inspiration in their AEW debut match in ninety seconds. Yeah, so they're they're ring of honor, really, aren't they? Inspiration. Well, there's sort of two ways to look at it. So I reckon we didn't get to talk about this last week because we didn't do the podcast. I think Megabad was supposed to win the tank titles last week. Before Penalope Ford got hurt, I think Megabad was supposed to win.

The idea being, and I think they still will, Megabad will win the tag titles, the Brawling Birds will win the tag titles at all in. So we're gonna get to that match eventually. So you need to give the brawling bird some win. And you can do that over the job squad when you bring them in and local in a

Talent, but now you give them a squash win over a established name in the inspiration. They're the former iconics in WWE. They were the TNA knockouts tag team champions just two months ago. So it's a big win for them. I totally get it from that. The other side of the coin though, is that they were the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions just two months ago. This is their dynamite debut. You might want to treat them a little bit like bigger stars.

They're a comedy act. They're a comedy act for Ring of Honor. This i this is this is uh M M X M Connection? Did I get that right? Collective or something. Collective, yeah. And I don't I don't think they should be anything more than Well, I don't think they're going to Ring of Honor, but I do think that their role is to be the comedy tag team. And I think that's a good role for them because they're amazing at it. They were so entertaining in this match getting squad.

And if anything, I don't think it hurts them getting squashed either, because I think it anything it emboldens their characters and it makes it gives them their role on the show. But as I said, I can see two side both sides of the show. And I think it it's actually fine to treat them as they comedy tag team. What do you think of the Brawling Birds? I think they have been put together so that Alex Winds can get a win at Wembley and she's not winning the world.

Put them together as a tag team. But what do you think of the that All right, Governor, let's just come on yeah, come on, shall we have some pints? Do am I offended? Do you think they put on Britface? I th yeah, I think they have. Which is weird'cause they're British. Yeah, very British. It's I don't know. I like I really like Jamie Ayler, I really like Anna. Maybe because one of them's from Southampton.

So why are you trying to act like you're from East Tenders? You're from Southampton. Uh I d Where's Alex Windsor from? There's there's part of me I r I do like and I think they should be this is a good idea for an act. But to do the way I just I f I find it a bit try hard. Yeah, I I totally see what you mean because I I don't know if it's maybe it connects much better in the US because

They could enjoy a a more cartoon guy Richie style. But British invasion this is not. Where is Alex Windsor wrestler from? Hampshire. Oh Hap Happensburg. What the s it's Happensburg. Happensburg's Norfolk. So she's not from She's not from here either. She's not from London. I live in the East End and I feel like they're appropriating my my gentrified coffee shops.

Well that's it, if they were gonna do a legit East End of London act now, there would be much more about trying to get organic coffee. Um That's when they turn heel. Look, I'm saying Shah Samuels is the perfect version of this gimmick. Yes. Because he's legit. That's what he's like. Um and I'm not like that's fine, you can you can be I just it doesn't

It feels like yeah, it feels try hard. That's the best way I can describe it. And I think that they're really good and they don't need to do this level of over. I totally get you, but I do buy them at least being friends. Oh yeah, yeah, I get that. I like the match in ring gear. I like the I I love the the it's'cause the heart attack finisher, isn't it? Yeah. Two birds, one stone. That's the perfect name for that move with their act name. Do you think

Do you think it's also the name? The Brawling Birds? Yeah, that's a that does doesn't I don't love Don't love that. I I much preferred the British invasion as a tag team. And which is actually oddly the tags you might keep comparing them to are we do we just want the British invasion back? He's unfortunately one of them's now the general manager of SmackDown. Rob Terry. I've only

If Rob Terry was the GM of SmackDown, he would have sorted out that Crake, uh, that crate nonsense weeks ago. A. That place would be ship-shaped and running smooth. And it'll also be WWE Champion. Hangman Page then had a squash match beating I've written Marty Stone, but his name was Marty Snow. I c I didn't hear it. I wrote Martin Sloan?

If only he'd be in my slone. Uh Paige wins in seconds. He cuts a promo saying he's putting his future on the line to teach Max a lesson. He dares Max to come out, and you can even bring that dynamite diamond ring. Foreshadowing. Carl Fletcher, Gazuchika Akada, and Mark Davis attacked him from behind. Speedball and nightmare the save. Iceman a trio's match player. We're getting one. It'll be the main event tonight.

But Don Callis said it up very well. It's not like the show went on air without a main event. Don Callis said, Hey on collision, you guys said you'd fight anyone, anywhere, anywhere. So I've booked that match with Tony Khan. Tonight. Which was which was really good. And that's such a babyface line to deliver. We're gonna do it tonight. Yeah, Don Callis made it seem like like a bitch move, like a a heel thing. I guess because Knight has already wrestled, hangman just had a squash.

It's putting the baby faces at a disadvantage. I thought it was a terrific way to settle up. Renee had a sit down interview with the Bucks and FTR, and FTR said that they are two of the three best tag teams of this millennium, the other one being the Briscoes, and we beat them in two out of three Falls matches, so I guess that really makes us the best tag team. Your second fiddle now.

Dax is low key such a funny heel. Yeah. Um it might have actually been Cash who said this, but Nick's doing the serious, it's not about the best anymore, because that has been the storyline for I don't know, the last five You assaulted our family. And one of FDR just went self defence. It was cash. Really popped me.

So the the Bucks said that they're gonna win the tag, they're not gonna fight them here, they're gonna fight them at Revolution'cause it'll be in in their hometown, in front of their families. So they're Which they likely will do. We've got a no contact clause, so we can't hit you. But there's nothing in that about Brandon Cutler. Punches Brandon Cutler. And Tomasso Champa used the exact same line later on. Joel Moxley beat Hetchicro in a title eliminator match. This was just a

Look, there were so many good matches on this show. If I had to pick a favourite just through personal preference, it's this one. Yeah, it was great. Is that Gacero's awesome? He he is a surgeon. He's a wizard. He's a he's a surgeon. He's a technical surgeon. And Moxie's doing his brawling style and I thought of you because it was a corkscrew through the ropes. And then he just started working over the leg in this methodical way.

Totally absorbed me. Yeah, it was really, really great. Um Ta Takeshta came out because Hechisero is part of the Don Kallas family. And stare down Moxley. The Death Ros were kind of promo later on. Really, really good promo. Like Garcia was great, Yusa was great. Marina Shafir I feel like has been really, really great there these last few weeks. Moxley was awesome.

I don't know if it was always this way, but Mox's tooth looked chipped to me. So I don't know if he chipped a tooth, one of his front two. I didn't saw. Uh Brody King came out for a promo to call out Swerve Strickland. Now Nanara's a heel. Ha ha ha ha. He's a baddie. Ha ha You wanna have Swav Strickland Ha ha ha ha Well here he comes Ha ha The most dangerous man Yeah, I'd I'd my notes would be just raining the laughs a bit.

And if you do, choose your spots with the laugh. Yeah. Don't do it as a punctuation. Yeah. So Liv Nana um then played the music for Swerve Strickland. Uh but instead Swerv Strickland attacked Brody King from behind. And then he hung him. And like and he was always like I'm gonna tie you up like a dog, I'm gonna beat you a revolution and Bandito ran down. Yeah, fantastic angle. Really effective. Yeah. Uh choked him but seeing Brody passed out. Uh Brody did to MJF a month ago really shows that.

that Swerve is the more dangerous man. I think it's gonna be a great match. My prediction Put Brody over. I think Brody's winning, man. Kenny costs Swerve, totally protects Swerve, builds that feud. Keep building Brody King. Yeah. I think even if Kenny's not there.

I think you can have Brody win. No, I think Kenny should cost him. I think yeah, but Kenny might not be there. That's why they're not doing that's why they did the match two weeks ago, mate. Because Kenny might not be there. I forgot about. It is in Brody's uh hometown though. Thunder Rosa then took on Tecla for the AEW Women's World Championship. Two women's matches on this show. Too many. Um this was fine. Oh, I liked it. I thought it was all right. I

Yeah I know what you mean. I felt like they the the match didn't hit its peak. Like it hit its peak with the spear and then Tecla lifted up her shoulder and was like And then they had about a minute and a half more of less exciting things.

Which included Thunder Rosa getting the near fall off her finish. Yeah. Which which didn't like and the the whole reason to do this in El Paso as well is because Thunder Rosa's from Texas. Like she's for you, you know, she's our home whatever it is, she's close to it or what. I don't really feel like this got over as as it kind of needed to i in order to for the match to be as big as it was. But like the Techla had a better match with Chris Statland a couple of weeks back. Yeah, yeah. Well

I I really like Thunderosa. I feel like the women's division has moved. Yeah, it's bit uh Britt Baker in a way. Yeah. She's she's one of the OG founding stars, but you know, she was injured for so long and just new stars have come in. Uh Tekla hit the spear and two stomps to get the win, and then security stopped Chris Statland, who appeared to be cosplaying as Lara Croft this week from getting into the ring and that allowed Tecla to stomp Rosa once again.

And we got a video play for Jack Perry versus Ricochet, and then Renee interviewed Tomasso Champa on the stage, but he was quickly interrupted by FT. Is this something you ever thought you wanted? Another FTR versus Champer and Gargano match? That th like I just d I didn't click with me. Neither did I until they came out. I was like'cause there's like, man, the history between those I was like

Maybe there was some history pre No, it was in WWE, it was in NXT ten years ago. And Dax walks out and he hugs ch I just Dax is brilliant. He hugs Champa and he's like, Look, old friend, it's so it's so insincere. Join us as a faction. And Champa's like, I hated you back then and I hate you now. Um and then he used the I know you've signed a non contact clause with the Bucks. But not with me. But not with me.

Dude, talk to each other. That was the that was the final line. That was the final line in the previous act segment they did. My open my open letter to wrestlers is you don't need to laugh if you're a heel. Your open letter is talk to each other.

I just think of the the wrestler backstage. You working the leg? Oh yeah, we can't work the leg. All right, cool. That yeah, that was a a really unrealistic portrayal of an indie wrestling locker room. Oh so we I'll do the leg. I'll do the leg as well. No, I'm doing it, I'd already decided. But Dax says I'll see you on collision.

Tax versus Champa Yeah it's gonna be great. Oh, cannot wait for that. I love how the wrestlers right now in AEW, particularly this year, that's I think that's been the best thing about AEW. They're all involved in multiple things. Yeah. Then Tony Storm was hyping up Orange Casty while he was seen by the doctors, and my only note was I want to see Tony Storm versus Gabe Kid.

Yes. And then our main event was Jetset Rodeo defending the Trius Championships against the Don Callis family, which was set up earlier in the night, not when the match was made, but when Hangman paid dead MJF to come out and use that dynamite diamond ring. He ran down, he hit them with that ring, and it cost them the trio's time.

Uh yeah, ri like the match got so great in that final third, and it was Davis that got the win as well, yoinking Knight into that pile driver, which means Mark Davis holds gold in AEW, five out of five. It's been that look, AEW is really well booked right now. Just the way this match was set up, from the line on collision that teed it up, the MJF thing on this episode, and just yet the rise of Davis over a six week period making him more credible every week. This

This match just furthers so many dynamics and furthers storylines. I cannot fault this stuff right now. And you said Don Callis family. Some people might say Pro-Sa. No, sorry. Prodocada. Prodo-cada and Mark Davis. And I think me and you. Aussie open. This is a carder and Aussie Open. I know, right? What a treat. Hör upp. Tacks för ett nytt strykttips Quis Mysterium. Vilket lag spelar på Citiground? Och det är en letro tack. Sog i stan. Smart. Nottingham Forest. Rätt tårning.

Stryktipset. Ett spel från svenska spel, sport och casino för dig över 18 år. Stödlinjen.se Opti hjälper dig att få ett bättre sparande som sköter sig självt. Gå till opti.se och svara på några frågor. Det är allt, resten tar vi på optihandom. Pengar ska få växa.

I would say that the Patreon feedback we got was a bit more mixed on the show. Interesting. LP said Champa feeding with FTR by himself does not feel right, but anything cla uh doesn't feel anything close to the feeling of takeover Toronto. It will still be.

Mohammed, I'm really over the trios titles. Two out of the three trios champions already hold other titles. I'd rather see them have storyline matches and elsewhere. Ket I I know what you mean, and we are getting a lot of title changes right now. It's not too much for me at the moment. I'm actually quite enjoying it after some dry spells.

Um, but I I I don't mind it. I think it is further. Ketz, Willow not having a singles program off the bat from winning the TBS title from Mercedes is just awful. It's been months. It's a disservice to Mercedes, making the title relevant for That is that is male practice stuff. Brendan, an enjoyable show. Time slides when watching Dynamite. A bit odd that you have so many colour commentators but couldn't find anyone on this show, but they managed to get by.

Oh Don Don's commentary by the way in that main event was so funny. Well I got two lines from him. I I was sorry I take what your point was, Brendan, but I cannot tell you how much more I enjoyed this show because it was just Yeah. Uh Callus when he was on commentary for the main event said, Oh, there's a lot of hot dogging tonight. And I think Excallop goes, What? What's hot dogging? He's like, Oh the flips and kicks

I guess it was because hot dog. Yeah. I d I just thought that was so funny. And then Mike Bailey broke up a pin and Callus went, That's sneaky Frenchman. Hotdogging is a term though. Oh is it really? Yeah it is a sexual thing? I don't think it's not a sexual thing, I don't think. Ripper, now that with the war dogs at full force we can have a three way bullet club standoff between the elite the war dogs and the bang bang gang. That won't happen.

Lando, uh I'm really enjoying Dynamite each week now. Seems to maintain a good balance of great wrestling alongside good storytelling. I think it's good because they tend to keep it to two hours or thereabouts. It's just enough to leave me content and fulfilled wanting more. The pay per view, as per usual, is going to be Two hours twenty. Interesting comparison point because Raw was two hours twenty. One show accomplished way more than the other. Mm-hmm.

He ran, Aaron Hanrahan. I'm happy for David Finlay, but the report saying he wanted to go to WWE, but they lowballed him has me worried he'll be another Miro or Malachi Black and ultimately just want to go to WWE. Hopefully he commits to A.

Yeah, I I I don't know. He seems more like a Jay White and that he'll be a professional wherever he is, but I d I don't have faith that AEW will book him correctly. I think it's a more of a case for me of I think David Finney realizes that there is actually a greener grass to go over to D. I think they probably made it quite clear. We just see you as an NXT guy. You'll go there, tag with your brother, but that's it. You're you're not gonna be we're never gonna put you up on the main.

And the problem people, the Andrade, previously, the Miro, the Malachi, they were people who had come from WWE waiting to go back there. That's not um It's not Finley's store. And lastly, Oliver here said, Honestly my favourite dynamite in a while. No huge huge angle sure, but Kevin Knight has to have been my fa has to have had my favourite MGF title defense so far, and the main event was killer.

And that's patreon.com forward slash wrestletalk. You can get your thoughts in on RAW and Dynamite over there and we'll read out the best ones. Right, so uh what you want to do next? Well I'll do the the ass index. Okay, one second. We have got uh a a theme sent in to us. I'm gonna apologize, I did not get your name uh that was sent this one through. Um but here is the ASS Index. Welcome to the Ass Index! Sorry, Billy, gone. Sorry, Billy Gunn. I didn't hear any of that. No, we can't hear that.

Um so this is brought to you this week by one of our biggest fans of all time, German Dan. Yeah. German Dan and uh another long running fan back from God like took Some of the first patrons we ever had, Marcel Duro. uh they're both German fans and they are running a th they started their own promotion. Marcel started a promotion over in Germany called Fury and this weekend is WXW and Fury has a match on the sort of super show independent wrestling summit thing.

Uh which RevPro's a part of as well. And Dan I don't think Dan's doing commentary for it, but Dan usually does the German commentary. for Fury. So yeah, you can support one of our own. This is the Living the Dream. It's on IW TV this coming Saturday. Our own Dave Bradshaw will be providing the English.

Uh yeah that's eleven AM the UK start time, so check that out. Uh the ASS Index though. Yes. So yeah, big shout out to I want to thank you everyone who has sent in your um your submissions. If I can make a request Uh, don't use AI. Uh'cause some people have sent theirs in, which is it's definitely AI generated music. We're even we're actually a bit of a question whether that one was AI generated, but

People who've sent ones with visuals are are definitely AI generated visuals and definitely AI generated music. We want actual we want some artists to send their music in. Yes. And uh I don't know. AI stuff just isn't as funny to me as someone taking the time and because it hasn't got a soul. Okay. To recap, Bully Gun is in the bottom third still.

Um, we have currently neck and neck with Shelton Benjamin. And didn't you take some heat? Oh didn't I've absolutely thought you were mad for thinking that Billy Gunn was better than Shelton Benjamin. Or that they might even be on the same level. So so what are we saying that Benjamin should be bumped up above Billy? Yeah, uh well that's what I argue. I I th I said that I thought Shelton Benjamin was better than Billy.

Okay, our class this week. Christopher Daniels, is he better or worse than Billy Gum? Is Minoro Suzuki better or worse than Billy Gum? Yes he is. Is Bishop Dyer, Baron Corbyn, better or worse than Billy Gum? Great question. This is good. This is good. This bit shall I tell you who's who's not as good as Billy Gunn so far?

It's not that long. Johnny T V, The Miz, Zack Ryder, Rusev, Diego, The Great Carly, MVP Natty and Alistair Black. If we've got the Miz as not as good as Billy Gum, surely Bishop Dyer uh Baron Corbyn is not good. Uh not as good. I think he Billy Gunn might be better than Baron Corbyn. Okay, so Baron Corbyn isn't as good as Billy Gunn. Granted, you know, Billy Gunn never failed at Money in the Bank. Is Jucian Thunder Liger better than Billy Gunn? Yes.

Uh Johnny Gargano, is he better or worse than Billy Gunn? Is Jack Swagger? Oh no. Better or worse than the other one. So many of the the ones who aren't as good as Billy Gunn, we debate on like, oh that was an interesting. There was I saw a story come up recently that um like uh X WWE and X AEW started joining Power Slap and I was like, I don't even need to click this article to know what idiot signed up for this.

This is an interesting one because the next and remember this is just a big list I've grabbed of five hundred wrestlers. Uh Vince McMahon, is he better or worse than Blee? And I I will stress this is as uh an on screen wrestler and talent. I think we've gotta we've gotta do Did we skip Chris Benoir? I feel like we did I think we can skip that. Okay, that's th okay. Roderick Strong, is he better or worse than Billy Gunn? He's better than he's better than Billy Gunn. Yeah, definitely.

God Massawa. Is Massaul better or worse than Billy Gum? No, that's a good question. Because like is he in the Jack Swagger camp or is he everywhere else? No, he he's better than Billy Gum. Is Chris Hero better or worse than Billy Gum? Chris Hero is better. gun, surely. I mean he had but he had a bad NXT run didn't he? Really bad. Well he had a great

Early like mid naughtys to twenty eleven, whatever it is, Kings of Wrestling. Yeah. Uh with Shelton. No, no, that's Charlie Hans. Yeah, with you're thinking with Cloud with Cloud here, yeah. Um I you gotta think Billy Gunn's longevity how how over he was, famous, uh, all of that stuff. I'm t I think I think I'd put Billy Gun above. Do you know why I'm gonna say I'm gonna put Billy Gun above as well, so we can both agree on this, is that um Chris Hero went to WWE and did not

Billy Gunn went to AEW and did succeed. He also went to TNA and sort of succeeded. Uh we've had few women so far, but all women have oh no, Natty isn't as good as Billy Gunn. Is Trish that is Trish Stratus better or worse than Billy Gunn? Much bigger attitude there is Yeah, I'd say so. And she came back and had a really good run with uh with Charlotte.

And she was given a push and actually got better. Whereas Billy Gunn got pushes and s kept getting worse. Is Randy Savage better or worse than Billy Gunn? Yes, yes. Is Eddie Kingston better or worse than Billy Gunn? Is Kevin Nash better or worse than Billy Gunn? Kevin Nash is better than anyone else we've had on this list so far. Okay, let me do this out. Remember, we're not ordering these people. Um it's just if you're better or worse than Billy Gunn. But Kevin Nash I will put at the top.

And finally for this week, is Penta better or worse than Billy Gunn? Did Billy Gunn ever take WWE by storm? Yeah. Uh no. I would say the Penta is better than Did Penta ever take WWE by stuff? It's a great question. Look, I think the match just the matches the series of Lucha Bro's matches alone would put him above Billy Gumfany. He had a much better TNA run than Billy Gun.

Okay, well that's this that's this uh week's episode uh for that. That's not looking good again for Billy Gum. Okay, well, thank you. Welcome to the S Index! Billy Gone. So the surprise segment. Yes, you've got another new surprise segment for this show. I bought your daughter a present. What? What? Why? So my my uh my partner, her friend was over the other week and she's got a daughter, same age as

And they were they were beaming about a series of books called Little People Big Dreams. Oh, uh yes, uh I think we've got one of them. Yes. What what one have you got, do you know? Oh it's so I think. It's sciencey well what they usually are is they're based on um

you know, famous people. So you've got you've got Stephen Hawking, it'll be like the a very friendly Life of Stephen Hawking or or Frida Carlo or David Adenborough or David Bowie or um this one that I bought your daughter Dwayne Johnson Amazing. It's a kid's book about the rock. Yes. Can I just uh you know Oh no Y you can enjoy it yourself, but it it it does the whole story. Seven bucks. It's in there. Oh amazing. Because because that's what kids want to know about.

production companies. The Rock was there being like, Yeah, but you gotta make sure that that you tell the story about how I had seven dollars in my pocket. No, no, that isn't in there. What? I don't think it is. Um but seven bucks production for what he's kidding me. You are kidding me. Okay. So

So well just this is the style. It's very sweet. It is sweet. It's the style of Dwayne Johnson. So there he is, he's growing up, um, and he respects his dad. Uh Dwayne starts to get musly, he goes to the gym and then he leaves. Uh home. He tries to make it in college football. Yeah. Oh no, not going too well. Sad. He pushes himself. He makes it to the Canadian Professional League. Um but after two months Dwayne was cut from the team.

Suddenly he was back at his parents' house with just a few dollars in his pocket. How did you get this bit wrong? Um and then he fell into a depression. This is the sort of thing that does I occur in these books'cause we've got one that is just about like uh inspirational women. Yeah. Yeah. How does it do?

She means uh uh it was inspirational women. I can't remember the whole thing. Mary Curie? Mary Curie is in there, yeah. Uh you see the the depression, um my depression also usually accompanied with lots of scrunched up tissues on the floor. Uh but he was brave enough to accept his own weakness and open up to others, where he became a wrestler. And he starts to get bigger and here we get

To Rocky Myveer. Oh wow, look at Rocky Myveer! The day he stepped out from behind the curtain as Rocky Myveer, the first third generation wrestler at the WWE, Dwayne looked like a star, but Somehow the fans couldn't care less. Somehow. Soon they were booing him even when he was winning a match. There we go, please. Where's the Survivor series?

Duane learned that winning in the ring didn't make a wrestler great. What really mattered was thrilling the audience. He needed to look inside himself and find a true hero who could hook the fans, and he did. And now we have But what is the heel turn with Nation of Domination portrayed a you know, a black supremacist pro group?

It was never about race, Vince McMahon said on TV, it was never about race. This is a heel tennis like what a hero. Um and then we get one bit where The Rock became the wrestling legend he longed to be, the people's champ. He won many titles. With what's that? Rock on fire. Oh wow, WrestleMania thirty two. We're jumping around here because this is pre film career. But it was his and this is when we get into sort of our favourite rock, which is modern day Pancake PR PR rock.

Multiple verticals rocked. But it was his magnetic personality that captured the fans' hearts. Soon even Hollywood was knocking at the door. Scorpion King right here. He was offered the role of an evil Egyptian money in a f Egyptian mummy in a film that was an instant blockbuster. Then kids love to hear these stories. Yet Duane didn't want to play the nasty.

but the fearless guy, ready to save the world with his big muscles and an even bigger heart. And it was an instant success because we go straight to That glory part of his career. Look, there he is in the fast and the furious in Jumanji. There's skyscraper there. Uh where I believe he doesn't have legs.

Or he's got or he's missing one arm. He has he has one physical disability in In the in Skyscraper. In skyscraper, yeah. I'm pretty sure he's just a regular dude in Skyscraper. No, no, he's got like that's that's why it's so crazy that he's climbing up the building. He's he's pretty sure it's just he's just like a security guard. No, no, he is an architect. Oh, he's an architect, that's it.

I knew he had He's this absolutely hench archist I knew he had like the Schwarzenegger nineteen nineties family movie role where it's like, Oh yeah, you're in sales, but you're also Arnold Schwarzenegger. Dwayne had one single rule. There was no place for sad endings in his films. He wanted everyone to have the feeling that good always wins. What happens in the smashing machine? Uh not it's not a it's not a good ending.

Yeah, they don't have the smashing machine. Yeah. Uh and here we go. He didn't win an Oscar. He failed again. Here's my favorite bit. Seven bucks headquarters. Besides being the best paid actor ever. Dwayne became a proud father and the co-founder of an entertainment company called Seven Bucks. Wha in which case if you're gonna mention seven bucks productions, why not say earlier in the text?

He needs seven dollars in his pockets. Set up and payoff, I agree. Um but do you think your your daughter would be interested in learning about uh him being a co founder? Of a production company. I will say the the the inspirational uh women's one she'd quite like.

And even though that is just like here is a fact about Frida Carlo. Yeah. Um and Mary Curie. And it's also it's got wrestling in there which he has shown like not an interest But it's only a curiosity in because you know, I'm I'm she comes into my office while I'm watching and she's like what is So if there's a book there where he becomes a wrestler, she might, you know, put two and two together and be like, Oh, like you.

Well there you go. So Oh thank you so much. That's that's tremendous. Please please give it a read to her and and we can get her a review next week, hopefully. I yeah, I will do a review next week of what uh the kid thought about uh this Dwayne Johnson book. Oh yeah, this Ru Paul's got one? I was just flabbergasted. Mindy Kayling has got one. The the the there was a a kid's but a children's book about the rock. J Russ has got one?

Uh what did you see? Vince McMahon. Yoko Ono. Oh. Well she's been reevaluated, I guess. Sat in bed and ruined a band. Oh you closed you you closed the iPad. Oh you did we we've got comments, have we? Well d you said you're not going to be able to do No I didn't get any'cause I had I had the the whole box. Oh right, sorry we didn't have said. Oh do you want to do recommendations then? Oh recommendations, yes, you go first. Uh uh mine is uh is a band. So uh I'm just gonna get it.

the details. Um but I I was recommended this band last year, um I think by my my my friend who works at Kerrang Mag. Uh it's a band called Dead Pony. And they had a track that was called MK Nothing, which I which I really quite enjoyed, actually. I thought it was it's quite dancy, it's quite pop.

And then they released a new single, which I again thought was like, Oh, that's pretty good, that's all right. But then I thought I'm gonna check out their album from twenty twenty four and just like listen to it as a whole. It's an album called Ignore This by Deadpony came out in twenty

Awesome. It's a really, really good album. If you like Paramour, then you will probably really, really dig this band. They can get uh they have a very paramour edge to them, but they could also be quite poppy, could be quite dancy, one of those sort of like genre-bending bands that the kids. But I would ignore this. Do not ignore this. Go check it out. It's a really, really good album. In particular, I'd recommend the tracks About Love and Cobra.

you entered such a radio host mode there. You know, like the y you've got two minutes, uh What's Jonathan Ross's brother called? Paul Ross. To review the film and pitch it on this morning. Ignore this Well don't ignore this. Uh the name of the album. Uh It's really great to go. Uh mine is also music related. Uh I love music videos, always have done. Sort of where my background is, and I think the latest Harry Styles music.

Fantastic. And it's a banging song as well. Came out a month ago. It's called Aperture. But uh he did the Brit performance over the weekend, which also is a stunning watch just for the the fun dancing. I thought I didn't like dance. Uh but I realized I like fun dancing, where people just look like they're having fun and

Oh okay. So I like the new Taylor Swift dance in that video that she does. Yes. Well how's that go? Uh oh it's like it's with Don Hall Gleason. They do a whole like little fun dance routine. And the the the thing with uh the the aperture video, it's actually And you could just watch it and go, This is an excellent fight scene. Hmm. It's just this Harry Styles, he's in a deserted hotel, he's walking around, it's very atmospheric, and then there's

I guess her fan just starts sprinting towards him. Big burly guy. And he pushes him down the stairs and they they have a fight round the entire place. I can't wait to see it in the MCU. Yes. It's getting ready for it. Yeah, that call up's coming, man. Well that's all we've got time for today. Uh please go over to patreon.com forward slash wrestle talk.

Where we have loads more exclusive videos like our continuing invasion series. That's right. We are deep into two thousand and one now and next month sees us review the episode where The old Stone Cold makes his return and will be reviewing the invasion pay-per-view itself. So get up to date by checking out our King of the Ring episode.

They'll review the episode of Monday Night Raw where they buy the WCW. We got the episode of uh uh Raw where WCW was killed by the WWF by doing it in Tacoma, Washington, and the episode where ECW joins the invasion. It's tomorrow, isn't it? You said next month. Oh yeah, right, it is. It's out tomorrow. Uh is it tomorrow? Is it next no, it's next week. What's out tomorrow? Uh TLC's out. Oh my god.

Yeah. We've we're so far ahead in content. Oh well go over to yep we've got TLC coming up tomorrow, biggest news stories of the last ten years. Yep with Sean Ross Sapp. Uh that's all part of our tenth anniversary celebrations. And then yeah, there's a there's one of the funniest news stories on Patreon, which is hilarious. So much fun that was. So yeah, you go to patreon.com forward slash restoral. Check those out right now.

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