Who Should Win The Owen Hart Tournament? AEW Dynamite Review

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Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk podcast here every Tuesday and Thursday. I'm Ollie Davis. I'm joined by Luke Owen D A D. And if you haven't already, please Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from. That could be here, on YouTube, over there, on Apple Podcasts, or on Spotify maybe. Um I've not got a I've not got a guess. I you know what? I could feel that in your voice. You saw the panic.

And I could see it in your eyes that you started your'cause you I mean, you won't have seen this folks. He kind of also made a mistake at the start. So we've had to restart our record so you can get a cleaner take of this intro. And I could just feel in your voice tone and in your eyes you didn't know where you were.

It's brought to you by Hair! Hair transplants! Apparently they're a thing. Maybe MJF had one. I don't know. I think it looks pretty natural to me. Yes, that's what that's the gag. We're all agreed that's a good gag, it's a relevant gag. Uh and happen totally organically. Uh we're talking about the Owen Hart, not cup, not trophy. But it was exactly Cool. Yeah. Is it I thought people would just call it the Owen? याओन याओन याओन It was like the Owen Cup.

I was gonna call it the Owen Hart Cup because in my memory they had a cup at the start of it, like a Mario Kart trophy cup. Confusingly so. Doesn't need the belt. No. Just needed the cup. Because the first winners were Adam Cole and Prip Baker, right?

Well done. Isn't it mad? So we were doing the news today. I actually don't know if this will make it into the edit. I made a joke today about the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Because I was like, Ray Phoenix was in that. Didn't win, obviously. And then I just like hands up, who can remember who won this year's Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal? Because I bet some of you will have forgotten. And Editor Rich was off camera and I saw him go, Huh.

And'cause and he was paused and then after a while he just s like I've you know, I flubbed the line and he was like, Who did win? And I was like, Honestly, I don't remember. Royce. And then about two paragraphs later I was like Royce Keyes won it. Payton Royce to the the true fans, I think. So yeah, but this is whatever it's called the uh the the tournament that happens on a yearly basis to honour the memory of Owen Hart.

In association with the Owen Hart Foundation, which means we get a well meaning but rambly promo from Martha. Did she do it last year? She did do it last year. She was at Forbidden Door. We got to see it in in uh real time. Yeah, we've seen it twice in real time now'cause she did it at all in a couple of years ago as well. And uh it sort of historically varies what you get, but the last two years, so the previous year, of course Hangman paid. So this is the third year they've done.

So hangman page won last year's that's how he could face John Moxley. Excellent build to all in. This is really The year previous to that was Danielson winning it so that he could face uh Swerve Strickland for the title. Which wasn't as good a story. Not as great as well.

No, that was all over the place in my memory. But this is sort of like if I think about my childhood watching wrestling and this illusion of the big five that I don't know if it was ever really a proper thing to the extent I remember. But King of the Ring, you win King of the Ring, you get a shot at Summerslam for the title. Yeah. Or fully loaded. Whichever one comes next. But then it became mostly a silly crown. Yeah, now you got a you got a new gimmick. Now you are literally a kid.

Yeah, and you're gonna talk with a king voice. Um, so I really like this structure. Just how the Royal Rumble and Chamber set up Mania. I love how the Owen Hart tournament. crowns the winner for two months later because so it starts at double or nothing. The the winner might be crowned at this Middle event or is it forbidden door? It's a forbidden door, so June. And then you've got two months really to build to the all-in Um but we have the brackets for both the men and women's.

Let's do the men's. So this starts at double or nothing, which is next Sunday. Yeah. Which is really exciting. F when they opened this show and they were like I I heard them I misheard them when they said a week on Sunday and I thought they were like this Sunday and I was like, It's not this Sunday, is it? Surely it's not this Sunday. You are away, of course. So I will be reviewing that with Dan Leighton on this show. Um so yeah, he can he can hate on AEW all he wants.

So if you're in the comments being like, Ugh, all these guys ever do is just love everything that AEW does, you might want to watch the Double or Nothing podcast because Dan won't love it that much. By the way, someone left a comment on the RAW podcast. This wing. And they just said Uh, you know, some podcasts I listen to I feel are too positive. Some I think are really too negative.

I r I really like coming to the WrestleTalk podcast with Luke and Ollie because they say the bad things are bad, they say the good things are good, and it doesn't really matter which company it is, they just do it basic and I thought that's all I've ever wanted. And that's what we've always often said. We're baby bear porridge, buddy. We're not too hot, we're not too souly, we're not too sweet, we're not too cool.

I have been told directly to my face by someone within AEW that the reason why they like our podcast is because we are fair and we call things out when they are bad. Um and it just it it helps that AW are going through a pretty faultless streak right now. Why am I so good again? And like, was it better than other weeks?

Probably not. I think there have been better you know, that the the episode where Derby One was just brilliant. But because it's such a consistently great show, yeah, the momentum's building inside me. I feel like this is a better show than last week. Even though it was probably the same quality. I I think this was better than last week's this had a better main event than last week's one, even though I really liked last week's main event. This main event was superb.

Last week's main event was maybe arguably building up Kevin Knight for the future, whereas Takeshta's already here. Um but yes, sorry, I keep um making you take that graphic on and off the screen. We have a double or nothing next Sunday, the first two matches of the men's side, which will be Samoa Joe versus Will Ospreay. Love. That

Which has been built up on T V for a couple of weeks now. Just just by coincidence. They have been bracketed against each other. Yeah. Uh sort of will Samoa Joe's been saying, Hey, don't hang out with the Death Riders. Join the ops, Will.

Yeah, th I we did get a bit of patron feedback that said this that was like Maybe it'd be hyper nitpicky, hypercritical here, but the brackets have put together people who are feuding or have set up people who are also feuding on TV to have matches with one another, which doesn't give it the perception of a random draw. Well. But look, people don't have to bounce off the ropes when you're Irish with them.

Do you want to watch a full Royal Rumble where it's totally random? And it's not like play 2k twenty six and you'll get it and it's not as much fun as you think. Someone's in there and then oh my god, the next entrant is the person they're feuding with? Yeah. I appreciate that. Of course, not all the time, and we'll get into that because, you know, looking at this, I could clearly tell you

the route they're gonna go. Yes. Which makes me think that's not how it's gonna happen. Interesting. Well there's so many examples of us thinking, you do this storyline in the C2. This is how you do this, Owen Hart. They don't do that. You know it's predictable. But I think with this one, this one's way more mapped out.

I w I can't say previous years,'cause last year it felt like it was mapped out for Oh no, I can't say it was mapped out for Hangman, because when Hangman won, I remember me and Tempest in an episode being like, Was he the right winner? They should have gone with Will. I mean you could have done Will being the guy's dethroned But they then told this excellent story with Hangman. That was like, oh no, I didn't. They zigged when that I thought they were gonna zag, and I'm glad that they zigged.

Here, I feel like we are zigging definitely in one direction, and I'm quite happy to go in that one direction because I think it's the right direction. Let's go through the rest of the matches and then we'll talk about those directions. But other match for double or nothing is Swerve Strickland versus Bandito. How random, guys. Last couple of weeks, of course, Swerve has had Little cool video packages calling out Pandita.

And not only that, because we can talk about the other match that's on that side of the bracket, which is Claudio Castignoli versus Brody King. Last week Brody King cut a promo on Swerve Strickland. So wi with Bandito next to him no less. That kind of leads Swerve to beat Bandito in the opening round. Brody to be Claudio in his opening round, you can do Swerve and Brody in the semifinals. Of course, yeah. Which we had um that was the last pay per view match for Swerve. A revolution.

Um even if they go the predictable route, I'm like fair play, that's a very neatly told story. I'm happy with that. Um and the final match is in that bottom corner. It's Mark Davis versus Jack Perry. Mark Davis beat Jack Perry for the national title on the Fairway Collision episode, so there's a feud there. Also, Mark Davis was the guy who slightly re injured

Will Ospreay's neck a couple of weeks ago, which pushed him into the arms of the Death Riders. So you're looking at that and you're like, Well, Davis wins. He faces Will who beats Joe in the semits. I completely agree. That's where I'm heading as well. Everyone knows that too much. What's It's it's gonna be Swerve wa being bandido, Brody beats Claudio, Swerve probably beats Brody in the semi.

Swerves in the final and then Osprey beats Joe. Davis beats Jack Perry. You have Will Ospreay, Mark Davis in the semi, and Will Ospreay wins that to go through to face Swerve, and you get Swerve versus Osprey in the final. It's last year's final was Osprey and Hangman trying to, you know, prove who's the better man to save AEW.

Now I think you you can tell an inverse of that. Will's second time, Swerve is now the the evil inverted version of that hangman. Um and you you run that through. Yeah. And Will and Will wins to face whoever uh MJF are all in. Which is what we've been kind of saying since the start of the year really. Oh, likely the main event of all then will be Will versus MJS.

we've had the you know the slight bump in the road since derby won it, but I still think we'll end up with Will vs MJF at uh All in because that plays off what they did at All in twenty twenty four when it was over the the All American championship. I'm really pleased with this because I think this is going to be a fun tournament. I think we're going to get some great matches. And that final of Will versus Swirl.

Swerve being the most dangerous man in all elite wrestling, targeting the neck of Will Ospreay, but it's a neck that will have been kind of rehabilitated in the through the lens of the Death Riders. How does that play into Will's attitude to his neck when it goes against uh Swerve Strickland? Like maybe Swerve's whole thing of like I'm gonna go after the neck is not gonna work at all. I think it's a really cool lineup like sure, it's totally predictable, but I don't mind that.

So again, really go back and look at the tournaments of the past in AEW. They do not do the predictable thing. Remember the C two were like, oh yep, okay, we're gonna get uh Moxley Um that they're gonna turn on. Right. We're building to Akada versus to Kestra in the final. Didn't didn't happen. It was still fantastic. They didn't do what you thought they were going to do. This to me is as we've just laid it out there, that is the obvious thing to do.

I think Will Ospreay wins. I think that is a hundred percent guaranteed. I think if he doesn't win, they they better have a hell of a story to explain why. Well If he doesn't win, then It's Will versus Moxa all in. Yeah. To pe to finish off that storyline. Which again is also not the worst idea in the world, because it I'm it's my favorite thing in AEW right now is this Will in the Death Rider stuff.

But then I'd but if it's gonna be Will and Marks, then I was like, Okay, well then is it gonna be Swerve winning the the Owen? And he goes through to face MJF or maybe if like what was um Adam Corona's big thing that Kenny Omega's gonna win the title and you can do Swervin Kenny, which actually they also started building at the start of the year. Or derby retained. Max goes bald and you've got Derby versus Swerve.

You've got that Washington connection there in the final. I you know, me right now looking at that direction, I think that would be a mistake. I think now is the time. You're back in Wembley after not being there the previous year. Will cement him as your number one top baby face. We want a Will World champion. It's time It is time. Because we've been saying this now for like two and a bit years. It's time to make Will your top guy. Do not triple H this.

That's what I was about to say. Like let's not be well, we've got time with with Will. Let's just do it. Yeah. Let's just do this in Wembley. But so so I think we'll Will wins. I don't think it's as obvious for the other matches. If if you pop up the graphic again, I could see a version where Jack Perry beats Mark Davis and you get Perry versus Osprey in the main event.

you tell a story of Will having to do this Death Riders submission thing. How does he work that against the someone who's more of a baby face in Perry? And and Mark Davis, if Perry beats Davis you set up a national title rematch. Yeah. So that that's a route you can go. With Swerve and Bandido, Bandito could beat Swerve. I think that would be a mistake, but then you could build Bandito versus Brody King and

That could be a direction. I think Claudio could beat Brody King and you could have Claudio swerve and Claudio could beat Swerve and then you've got Osprey versus Claudio in the Final. That Death Rider's connection. I I th there is an obvious route to go down. If they go it, it's great, but it is predictable. I think there is m because AW's so well booked at the moment.

It's so deep in the context you can play with and the rivalries and the factions and the past matches. So all we've got quite a few actually I'll do them now. Shall I do the Patreon comments where people like a bit predictable? Yeah. Um Sam Sullivan writes, It's a minor nitpick, but it annoys me that the Owen brackets are very obvious, mirrors of pre-existing feuds. It feels like there wasn't even an attempt to make it feel random within K-Face. Um and

Vic Cutting, okay this show ruled. I'm interesting to see what they do with the Owen winner after Forbidden Door since there's a full two months till all in after June. Still a really good show, Joe vs Osprey is my most hyped match for the Owen Jam Mat Jam. Um so yeah, if if you don't get that Mark Davis match in the Owen, that could be a mini feud Will could have in those two months as well.

So yeah, I I don't think it will go the predictable route. That's my prediction that it will be unpredictable. My prediction is they're gonna go down that route that is the most predictable one, but I don't think it will be a bad idea and I don't think it'll be a bad route to go down. I think we're winning either way as long as our spray is victorious. Yes.

Uh the women's bracket is much harder to cool and, dare I say, get excited by, just because the women's division as is not where it was at. Five, six months ago. Without Mercedes, without Tony? Yeah. It really does feel like this division has floundered a little bit. It hasn't got a star. It's top star to hang itself a like to build itself around. There are people on there who are over. Tecla is great.

Statland is great. Having Hikarushida back on the show is but I've been really enjoying Hikaroshida back on the show and I'm quite enjoying the storyline that she's doing. But you've got the brawling birds there and you've got uh Thunder Rosa made her return on this show, so she maybe she can get herself into the mix as well, but it hasn't got like

that focal point which you have when Tony Storm or Mercedes Monet is there. And I think that's actually the big criticism that's coming against the women's brackets. Where is Mercedes? She's she's been around for ages at this point. There's no top star. I I love Willow Nightingale. I I love Athena I love Athena. I think Miri Mina Shirakawa could be a top star. But right now these are not the names that are you know.

Look, Claudio, Mark Davis, Jack Perry, Bandito, they're not top stars. But it doesn't matter because you've got Swerve top star. You've got Will, you've got Samoa Joe, and arguably you've got Brody King as well. Yeah. So that's okay. The the women's bracket, you've got Persephone versus Hazuki. Yeah. So uh a CMLL talent versus a stardom talent. Um Interesting, not the match that's at Forbidden Door. Yes. That's fine. I guarantee you that'll be on Collision

Yeah. Mina Shirakawa versus Athena. I d I really want to see that match. Um I would have preferred a a version where one of both of those can get through to the semis. Mm. Um I hope Athena wins that one, I guess. Sky Blue versus Suri? Uh Ceres I down in Ring of Honor. It's like sky blue, I really like, but she's the third most important person in her faction. Uh I think she's the second. I think Julia Hart is below sky blue. She missed it that referee. She's a former women's champion.

And y well, yeah. But I think j she's not been at that level for a while now. And then Willow Nightingale versus Alex Windsor, which is the double or nothing match. So this for me is like the the most glaring thing about the difference between the men's and the women's

brackets in terms of its star power is there is only one of these matches that's taking place at the pay per view. Yeah. Whereas with the men's brackets you can look at them be like, okay, well those two matches definitely should be on pay per view. But looking at these women's ones now it's like Munichera Cow vs Athena is not a pay-per-view match.

Skyblue vs Hurree is not a pay-per-view match. Persephone vs Hus it's not a pay-per-view match. I'll be honest, Willow Nightingale versus Alex Windsor is barely a pay-per-view match because they're not on TV built enough. to the point where you are in a pay-per-view calibre level storyline.

Yeah,'cause you can have star power, like we just said, but uh some of the comments points or the feedback points of oh it's a bit predictable, they're all in feuds. Like this is this is the version of a tournament where no one is in a storyline. This is the randomness you're after. Yeah. And it's not as satisfying. I'm not saying that every match needs to obviously be a build up feud.

But I think you need a healthy balance of, you know, just, oh wow, I want to see those two guys do a wrestle because they're top stars, not necessarily in a storyline, or oh, these two guys are in a storyline, that makes sense, they're in a quarter final. It kinda

Of annoys me that we've got this fatal four-way at double or nothing because it it has removed three women you could have had within this tournament. You've removed Jamie Hayde from the tournaments, you've removed Statlander from the tournament, and I think Karashina is in that map like tournament as well. So those are three names who you are build Karushida and Statland in particular that you're building on TV that should be in this tool.

Yeah, I f I felt like The last couple of months the women's division has not been where it was. Yeah. Fair enough Tony's out. I don't know what's happening with Mercedes. But they have made a concerted effort to start building these, you know, multiple new stars like Chris Statlander let's count them. So Alex Windsor, Willow Nightingale, Sheida, Chris Statlander, Jamie Hayter, Tecla you know, wouldn't be in this because she's a champion. Um I I would say Megan Bain.

I'd I'd put her in there as well. And it's like You're not in this tournament because she's not gonna win it. Mina Shirakawa Athena. I've just listed nine names there. Yeah, yeah. I've got eight names there. If all eight names of those were in this tournament I'd be like Okay.

Those are big it those are big names that should be here. It's also it's a kind of a shame that it's coming at this point because it would have been nice to maybe have a surprise entrant in there and that surprise entrant be revealed as Kyrie Sane. 'Cause that would have like been this real like, whoa, you got uh a new name's come into the company, been released by WWE and now she's here in AEW but

With the way that he got the ninety day wait period, I don't think there's gonna be enough time to before we get to Forbidden Door for that sort of reveal. You can't hold it off for d for longer than that. No, from what I remember it's July as the ninety day non competes come due. That's what I mean. So it's a shame that this is happening now because it would have been nice to have been able to

poacher name from this sort of released lineup that you could have put within this tournament. That I that I think it unfortunately that I think the women's side needs. Because for me, I can only see two directions to go with this. And neither of them particularly like float my boat or get me too excited. And one of those is you just go with Suri.

Just like breat like you just do Sarit and just make a new star. And I just you know, she goes through the tournament, she wins it, unlikely, and that's a way to to go through with it. That's one thing to do. The more obvious one though is what I think likely will be the case. is Windsor. Mm. Windsor beats Willow in the opener and then she beats uh Azuki or Persephone in the semis, then beats whoever it is in the finals, and then at all in you've got the husband and wife world championship duo.

Sh Windsor wins the world title the women's world title, Will wins the men's world title, they end the show holding the belts aloft. I didn't even consider that, I guess'cause I've been so preoccupied with Windsor and Hater going for the tag. Well, same here. It was only until I saw her in this tournament. I was like, uh, okay, like that that that'll be the direction you go with then. And that's how you'll end the show. Yeah. Yeah, it's not um it's not un unless look.

If I had to do a bracket pick right now, if you pop up the thing, I'd go Persephone wins, I'd go Athena. No, actually I'll go Shirakawa because she can face Sky Blue in the semis. I agree, yeah. There's been a bit of a feud there. I was gonna have Willow go advance. Willow beats Persephone. It's maybe Mina versus Willow in the final. Willow wins. Unite the titles. Oh uniting the titles. I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure. Trying to

Willow going through to the final and your final is Willow versus Athena. That's cool. That's a really cool final to go for. And then it's Willow versus Tecla at all in. But or Athena w No,'cause Athena's is heel vest. And is on this show as well, when you had the Triangle of Mandas beating down the brawling birds, I was like, Okay, well, I think we are sort of setting up something here for Windsor.

against Tekla for the the title. Seeing that Jamie Hayter faced Tekla at the last pay per view, she's in the four way again here. I thought they were gonna be just they're put together as a tag team'cause it felt like they were just put together as a Franken team and given a name so that they could win the tag titles at all in. Now I'm like, oh yeah, maybe they're just gonna the winds are just gonna win the world title instead. And like look, that's a lovely thing.

says no disrespect to Alex Windsor. That is a lovely thing and that'll be a lovely moment for her and Will and actually for AEW fans as well, for them to end the show.

She's not over to that point yet. And what I think you now need to do, if that's what you want to do, if that's the direction, you need to get a compelling story. You can't just rely on, oh well she's from there. So they'll like that. Yeah. That's what they did with pain. It's exactly what they did with Paige. And like it and it it was a one time pop. And you need something with a bit more substance than just a one time pop. So give Alex Windsor

Something with a bit of substance, something with a little bit of bite to it. Make the fans invested in her winning the match as opposed to just being in a match in her home country and she wins that match. Yeah, you are right. It's f e I d I actually quite like the brawling birds. Is that what they're called? Yeah. Yeah. That's how much you like. I thought that's from the dark time. Who were the Brawling Brutes? It was Rich Holland.

That's right. Yeah. Um but I uh yeah, I like the Brawling Birds, but it is a one dimensional act. Yeah. Which is fine, you know, but if you I I agree, if you want to give some more uh you want substance so we can get invested in that story. But you've got a whole tournament here that you can tell a story of her You know, putting on great matches, some kind of character thing there as well.

Like you did with Mariah May. When Mariah May won it, you told a story. It wasn't just Mariah May won the tournament. She was like the most obvious person to win that tournament'cause you wanted to do May versus Storm. But you were telling a compelling story. And so the tournament is part of that story. At the moment, uh the as it currently stands, Windsor is there because she is from here. And why do you do it with Mariah Mae? She's from here. Yeah.

But you actually did it as part like that actually her being from here wasn't part of the story. It was just a happenstance that she was also from here. I think you need more to this.

Before we get onto the play by play review, let's say a very big thank you to my wonderful Pledge Hammers on Patreon. They put the MO in Movember. The British Bulldog Philip Boy J. Smith Junior. Oh Rocky I did it the wrong way round. Yo Adrian Rocky. He can last short fur longer than you in the rings, said Starbucks, Steven Costa. Big Willie D. Well, yeah. The machine gun, Alex Anderson. Let him cook, Alex. Alex now.

And lastly for this Hall of Fame class, on Thursday, the fourteenth of may twenty twenty six, Allie the Cat Gordon. Thank you so much, all the new people. After, you know, WrestleMania and our discount code RAM Pat. We had quite a influx of new pledge hammers. So yeah, thank you. I hope you enjoy the content. There's more tomorrow because we have the latest episodes in our invasion series.

Indeed. It is Ollie and I sitting down to review Unforgiven two thousand one, which is the post nine eleven pay per view, a very weird time in America, very weird time in the WWF, and nine eleven changed their plan. So we talk about that show in full and over on patreon.com forward slash Rust Talk, there is a bonus episode going up at the same time where we review the post-9-11 SmackDown and go into all of the ins and outs of how that show came about.

Yeah, it's a bit weird watch order wise, I would say watch the Patreon episode first and then the YouTube. Yeah. Because that's the chronological order. In fact, I've set up on Patreon that the unforgiven post goes up one minute after the nine eleven post because that way in post order you will get them in the order you should be watching them.

But yes, go to patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk to watch that tomorrow when it goes live and and and watch us really awkwardly try and talk about one of the biggest terrorists. events and tragedies of our lifetime. And uh listen to that something to wrestle with when Bruce Pritchard defends Stephanie McMahon's uh position that she takes in that post nine eleven episode. She th the the to a person's suffering is relative. That was the worst thing she's experienced. Exactly.

Therefore right now this is the worst thing she's experienced too. The two are equal.

Write this episode of AEW Take Us Through. So Renee tried to catch up with MJF at the start of the show, but like Hayley Joel Osman sees dead people in the sixth sense, MJF just sees bald people. So he's just walking around backstage in like the parking lot area. And there's there are so many bald people working within AEW at the moment.

This was fantastic because MJF arrives in the parking lot, Renee goes to talk to him. She's starting to talk to him and you know what about you gonna sign the the contract where you might have to shave your head and Rick Knox just walks past. Background. In the referee showing. And I was like, well, it was a weird thing to have. And and when I almost

It interrupts th like disrupts her train of thought. And I d I thought that's weird. But I didn't think anything of it. No. And then Max continued to walk forward and then he looked and there was a bald guy there. And that was where I was like, oh, he's gonna see more of them. And then there was another one. And then he stops and then there's just a group of five bald guys talking on their phones. Silver walks past. And then uh is it Champer at the end?

Champa takes off his beanie to reveal that he's also bald. And right at the end of the walk is the demand, and Ricochet just does, Hey, you look good, Bald, but not as good as me. Excellent. Such a such a great idea that both gets over the seriousness of it the the stip, uh, I mean, and and does it in a comedic way. Yes. This is this is real to MJF. This is the worst thing that can happen to MJF. But to us it's funny. Yeah. And I really think because there was quite a few comments last week

misunderstanding how serious the hair stipulation really is. Just historically, this is one of the biggest things you can put on the line if not a mask or a title or a career. Because the idea being how humiliating it will be that you are now bald. Usually you do it with

Someone who's got lovely, luscious locks, or they've grown their hair out purposely. Remember like CM Punk grew his hair out to be this sort of like dirty, disgusting mane. Now he's gonna get it shaved off. You put Ric Flair in this position, like not the Ric Flair hair. But with Max, you're like, oh, he hasn't got long hair. But to Max, it's so important to him that he has a certain look.

So this this is not a comedy feud. I think you're really misunderstanding the characters and the the significance of this. And you know, in a larger point, it's a big frickin' deal. If you've not been blighted by boldness like I have. Then that y you know nothing of the the compulsive checking in the mirror and the the des the increasingly desperate hairdresser visits. And when you go to the segment at the end of the show, when he's cutting his promo

Max is all about legacy and going down as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. So I think to him it's an it's all about that image. It's about that legacy that he wants to hold. Derby, he doesn't care. But for Max, it's it is a serious deal for Max that this is going to be on the line.

It's weird how Bald, and AEW specifically, has become such a thing. I guess it started. With ricochet. With punk? Punk called FTR um hair and bolt. I well I think the bald chance'cause that's the one of the things they the reason why you do this opening here is to set the crowd up to chant bald whenever Max then appears later on screen or when he's in front of the crowd during the main event. But the actual bald chance starts from Ricochet.

No, I think it was no I think it was all ricochet'cause they've made it part of his character that he was bald. Well it definitely is and and that yeah, but th there was a in the lineage I swear there was. Is this one of those times where you said you don't remember anyone ever chanting AEW at an AEW? And may maybe I just hear it's it's the d it's like my fears. I'm act I'm actually just hearing stuff in the back of my head. You're just a bold person deep down.

It's just your partner just poking her head around the tone bald. Bald

I really enjoyed this. Yeah. I tell you what I really loved though. This opening ten man tag, Tommaso Champa, FTR, and the Dogs versus Cajun Cope, the Bucks, and Orange Cassidy. Yes, please wait. Yeah. And uh Edge and Christian and the Bucks had matching ring gear. Well well Edge Edge had matching ring gear. Uh Christian was just in his black turtleneck. Oh, did Christian not have a bit of green in there as well?

I don't remember Al Green in there. Um but this was just this is party match mentality. Brilliant. And it is I don't think there's any company in North America on this large of a scale that can do a party match as well as AEW can. They just they because That's why a lot of them cut their teeth doing these sort of party matches in PWG and the like. This was just so much fun.

Is there a story here? Not really. In terms of the match. There's stories outside of the match, because there's various feuds going on. Is there a story in the match? No. It's just people doing moves. And you do moves to make the crowd pop. You do a comedy spot to make the crowd laugh. Then you do some more spots to make the crowd pop. And then one of the teams wins. Usually it's the babyface team. Perfect, wonderful, lovely, adored it. FUN!

And it's wrestling. You you but you had fun on this show through the medium of wrestling. And we've talked about on RAW recently this idea of like where are your main events? Why aren't your stars wrestling on the show? That's what you're looking at here. Like there are some big stars in this match. Orange Cassidy, Edge and Christian, the Bucks, FTR, Cha this felt like when they say it's an all-star match, it did feel like an all-star match.

Well Osprey had a match on this show. Yeah. Darby Allen had his fifth consecutive world title defence against Takeshta. Can have your top stars wrestle. And not feel like they are diminished or their st their uh specialness is being taken away. This was just great. It also kinda shows off to uh some potential new signees how stacked the tag team division is.

If you're ever you know, if you're wondering about do you want to come into AEW? Look how stacked our tag division currently is. Crowd were going nuts for this. I enjoyed Orange Casty putting Christian's hands into his pockets. Uh but he doesn't have time for offbeat shenanigans. Ha ha. Triple super geek to Clark Connors, orange punch, spear for the win. Great opener. Poor Clark Connors.

Then we got and I'm like, Oh it's happening already. Love that max opening, loved this ten man tag. What are we going to next? Wheel training with the Death Riders. Nom nom nom nom nom I'm eating good here today. In what I believe is their evil compound in a mountain. Where is this place? I thought it was on top of a building. That's where I'm that's where I read it. You have to walk up 30 flights of stairs to get to it. And you have to walk. You can't take the lift.

And it's Will and sorry it's it's Moxie like choking out Wheelie Utah and showing Will various ways to choke somebody out. While Will is doing that bridge thing where you are A neck bridge. A neck bridge. And he's just staring at us, working on his neck, making his neck better, making his neck stronger, while listening to the teachings of Mark.

And then Will gets up from that and Mox gets up. And Mox just cuts this beautiful promo about I remember that when you're in the best of the super genius? Fly like a bird. That's what birds do, it's what they naturally do. They fly. Now you've got to be a different kind of bird. Now you've got to try and be a bird of prey. We talked about responsibility and and mortgages and uh kids and uh Wazy down. But you're still a bird. Still a bird. So you gotta change out what style of bird you are.

Sh yeah, and then he does that excellent speech, delivered in that uniquely compelling way that Mox does. And then he just goes, God damn it, if you're gonna stamp his neck, stamp his neck to something off camera Yeah. I'm just like fun. This is so fun. Don't worry about protecting something. Go out there and give something.

Great line. Then we've got a video for Stadium Stampede, and we got our full lineup for Stadium Stampede, which is a 12-man tag match. Yeah. So it's gonna be Jericho teaming with the Hurt Syndicate, Jack Perry, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. I d I did one for the Hurt Syndicate, so that's that's that's team number one.

And then the demand cutter promo announcing that Mark Davis is gonna be joining them, so that's the fourth guy. Andrade is joining them from the Don Callis family, and then the Dogs will also be teaming up with them. And then they tried to look tough and was like, Man, I just want you get absolutely bodied. By the good guys in that ten man tag. Can't act tough in front of me. Great stuff. I mean look, that's that's gonna be really fun.

Yeah, it'll be the probably be the closer, do you think, of the show? No. Yeah, but if it's MJ... Possible. MJF and Darb That feels like that should be the main. Well we'll see, we'll see. It's it's just very hard to follow a stadium stampede. It is. That is that is like a show enough.

The thing with Stadium Stampede is when they did the first one it was during the pandemic and there were no fans, so you could do a lot of that zany wackiness. Like Matt Hardy was in the first one, they did like the lake of reincarnation in the middle of it, you know, chasing people with golf carts and stuff.

Now the and then they did one the following year when there were fans in attendant and I don't think it was as good because the crowd are there to watch you wrestle, not watch some video clips of you doing wrestling. So when they've done it as anarchy in the arena, they've just sort of like kept it within the arena.

But when they did Stadium Stampeda All In, that was like my least favourite thing on the show.'Cause I couldn't see half of it. Like you know, granted I was, you know, in the press box anyway, so I had a bit of a skewed view of these of the action. But I I didn't enjoy it whatsoever. I'll be curious to see if they can keep the crowd in for it for the entire time.

Speedball Mike Bailey took on Westbrook. Speedball won very quickly with ultimate weapon, putting over that he's now three wins in a row. Oh I think he's more than that. I've written uh he'd won his last five matches, so this would be six. Oh I think well yeah, sorry, it was the three matches in the last seven days I think they were trying to put over. Uh poor old Westbrook, obviously an enhancement guy brought in.

The idea was you'll do a minute of really cool athletic flips with Mike Bailey and then Mike Bailey will beat you. He did all those athletic flips and then he fell over in the ropes. Yeah. And then he got beat. And I was like, Oh, I'm sorry, mate.

And then immediately Kevin Knight had a match'cause he came out with Mike Bailey, so then he gets up to have a his open challenge for the TNT title, which was answered by a returning Brian Cage after fourteen months of being out. Mm. He's uh he's big now. Yes. He has the vascularity, by which I mean the veins you can see, the visible popping veins, because his body fat must be so low of an in-competition bodybuild.

I yeah, I like Brian Cage. I just think I I I there's some people in wrestling, I don't get it in WWE most of the time, but there is a thing with AEW where I'm just like What is your policy? You know? I think their policy is the same as all wrestling companies have. Which is that we're just not going to talk about it as much as it used to get talked about, and fans don't talk about it as much as it used to have, but people are just doing. Mm. And we're not gonna say that it's a bad

Yeah. Well, I you know, I was we were both fans in a period where a lot of people Yeah a lot of people passed away from that stuff. Um you know, it I'm sure it it has a place within reason, but then when it's so noticeable, I sort of makes me a bit uncomfortable. Yeah. Allegedly. If it if that's if that is my God, he could be What what a carnivore diet he must be on. Yeah.

I mean maybe it's just he's on the uh the MCU diet, which every male star has said is the worst thing you can ever really do to yourself. Which is where you're constantly training not drinking any water and just eating chicken thighs or chicken breast the entire time. Oh that that and the MCU diet reportedly is is a lot of human growth hormone and other Yeah. Performance enhancing drugs.

That's good, yeah. On in combination with don't drink any water. For me, when Brian Cage comes out though, I'm like, what is, you know, is what's your policy? It's like, what is your place within this company? The Don Kallas family. The Don Callis family is where everyone uh is, you know, at the island of misfit toys. But when you are like this massive. Like surely the whole point of being that massive is that you're in the main event scene. But also you're just a lower mid-carder.

Who loses on his return match after Fourteen months. So why get that big? Uh well because, you know, he he looks great, you know, looks like a frickin' action figure. He's really good. I've always liked Brian Cage as a wrestler'cause he look just he is a monster. R do you know what? I I I don't wanna cut you off there. I'm so I'm hoping Melissa doesn't see this. Mm,'cause she'll probably get really active on Twitter about it or something.

Night one. I enjoyed the finish of this where he went for that top probe Hurricane Rana and then Cage stopped him doing that and literally like muscled him right back into the power bomb position and then Knight hit the Hurricane Rana anyway, hit the US splash, got the win. Yeah. Fun stuff, good overall segment in combination with the Bailey one to get jet speed over.

Yeah. And then Speedball put overnight after the match and Smike's like I'm gonna get my shot next week because I'm calling out either Darby Allen or Kanuske Takesh, depending on who wins tonight. Fantastic.

Then we've got all the Owen Hart stuff and Jack Perry cut a promo on Mark Davis. Will Ospreay then took on Ace Austin. Will won with a cross armbreaker. A brilliant match. Yeah. I it's so hard to um complain. when it's such a good match. But by jolly, I'm gonna give it a go. Well, our space should have beat him in several minutes. It shouldn't have been as competitive of a match, you say.

And and I know that is such a thing levelled at AEW. Why would Kenny Amega give so and so all that time in the ring? The Allen Angels coming. Will did it with Blake Christians and when he came back and it was like, Oh, okay, well, you know That's a great match. I just kind of want to see you beat people. I think the Death Rider segments have been so terrific. The Will coming back and just being super saiyan Will.

Fully neck heeled. Ace gets a bit in, but I'm talking the same amount that your man Westbrook got him in the Mike Bailey match. And we'll just Back and forth for one two minutes, then Osprey goes into overdrive, kills him dead, hidden blade, hidden blade, then taps him out. I'm like, holy moly Yeah. This is what the Death Riders has done to Will. Instead the story they told was, Will is the same as he was before, but he's next better, and he will use a submission finish.

I sh my complaints and by golly I'll I'll also give it a go. I kinda wish he'd went with a bulldog choke. Just because that's what uh he Moxie was showing him during that backstage segment that we had, that behind the scenes segment that we had. I don't mind it being the cross armbreaker. I go you know it's being sort of hypercritical, really. To your point, if this had been a shorter match, this show probably wouldn't have gone fifteen minutes ago.

Well yeah, well that's always uh that's always a thing I'm considering. Look, Will might win with a different submission every week. Yeah. Uh that that could be a thing. Or he's trying to get over the the cross arm breaker as his as his submission. Could be.

Because that is a way to change up your game. Ooh. And you have arm arm submission versus arm submission with MJF at all in. Oh yeah. Maybe. Samara Joe came uh comes out and says, Do you know what? Well, you could have had a bye in the first round of the tournament if you'd have uh joined the ops'cause I do that for my friend, but no, you've chosen to be a lapdog for the Death Riders for John Mark.

And I'm not gonna come and attack you because I've got my date with Destiny. I'll see you at double or nothing. But these two guys, unlike you, are not on a leash. So Shabatter and Anthony Bowens go down to attack Will Ospreay. And then the Death Riders music hit and they came out from the crowd. And just looked awesome and they all stood around the ring and I was like, this is the coolest thing in the world. I felt exactly the same. Exactly They were already cold.

Remember how l how much they used the circus? Oh for s for like half a year they just absolutely sucked. Sucked the life out of the show. And here, they've been great for a l for a long time. They came out here after those backstage bits when they've not really been across as much shows, or the you know, pack wrestled derby and but talking full Death Riders with Will, it's bringing that

vignette based story into the ring, I was exactly like you. I was like, Oh my god, they're the best fact this is the best thing in wrestling. Yeah, they're the they're the coolest guys, Ospreay's the coolest guy Yes, yes, yes. I ca I just want to keep gobbling up this story.

Renee interview actually which is kind of why I want something good for them at all in. Not just being I don't know, probably a trios match or something. Renee interviews Don and Takeshta, an MGF walks in to be like, Look, you better win tonight. I do not want to be doing the simulation. And then actually what a great idea,'cause then it could be me versus you at double or nothing. Doesn't that sound great?'Cause I've already beaten you once. Maybe you could get a win over me. Maybe.

And when Takeshta walks away, he turns to Don he's like, You'd better make sure your guy wins tonight. In fact, here's the dynamite diamond ring. You know what to do with it. And then Andrade walks in and flicks his hair into Max's face. Yeah,'cause he's he always wears the little flat cap and he took the the flat cap off. It was like a clown car. So much hair came out of this flat cap. The most beautiful

highlighted, luscious locks. Um and yeah, the how you know stuff. Max had a really good line as Dakeshta walked off. He was like, Oh, I've got to win this. I don't want to turn into a disgusting bald freak. And Don is right there. That was really good.

Uh then we got the announcement for the women's uh Owen Heart Tournament. Renee interviewed the conglomeration who have s haven't quite decided who the team should be for their tag title shot. Which is so I was confused. I'm guessing over this last week. Yeah,'cause I was like, Oh, surely it it will happen at some point, definitely after Double or Nothing. But now it's happening next week ahead of the cage in Copenhagen.

F TR. Which is what I thought was gonna happen, which is why I thought it was weird that Orange Cassidy won, because it's less complicated if Dax won and they got a trio shot at the conglomeration. Was it definitely announced for next week? No.

Well no, but I said it I feel like it has to be before double or nothing, only because my perception is that Cage and Cope win the titles at Double or Nothing. But the storyline they've set up is that the conglomeration are going up against FTR for the tag title. Like they beat Dax of FTR to get a tag title shot. That to me would suggest that you do the conglomeration versus FTR for the tag title. This is the this is the sort of mindset that gives you the men's f uh Owen Hart brackets.

What sensible stories that? I I d I d I think you can you can weave. So The conglomeration got that title shot. They have it after f um double or nothing. They face Edge and Christian. They lose and then they spin off into a trios match against FDR and Champa. But then but you just did four steps when you only needed to do one. If your end goal was to do trio stuff with FTR and Champa, just have Dax win. You don't need to do three extra steps to get to that end goal.

Points. No, I I just I don't think this is I don't think this is artificially extending out a feud like you would see in WWE a lot of the moment. I think this is a larger tapestry where feuds might take form. months when there's only a month of story, but you've actually weaved it in and out of B plots and C plots and then they come together. I actually I th I think it's brilliant booking. I will disagree.

Unless unless the match is on Wednesday, in which case, what the hell that's so obvious who's going to win. Well look, it could go your way and I don't think it's the worst idea in the world. I think you've you have taken extra steps here that you didn't need to take. Uh but either way it's gonna be Roddy and Orange Cassidy because Kyle is calling out John Moxley for a shot of the uh Continental Championship, which I'd imagine I'll be at double or nothing.

And then Willow says, Hey, I'm a champion. I was like, Oh yeah, you are, aren't you? I keep forgetting that. And then Mark uh Mark Briscoe returned to the company and he challenged Champa for next week. Yeah, cuts a crazy promo. That'll be a fun match.

Triangle of Manners took on Hikaroshida and the Brawling Birds. Fun match, stupid finish. Yeah, very rare DQ finish. Um we keep talking about how Tecla should be winning clean sometimes. Oh yeah, and I'm like you could You might be I was like, well, you don't want to beat anyone else. Like, there's a sky blue right there. There's a Julia Hart right there that you could have had uh the brawling b like Jamie Hayter could have got a win over one of the Triangle of Madness to set her up

for the shot that she's getting at double or nothing. Or Hikaru Shida gets the win over one of them. Doing a DQ finish here, I just think is stupid. Didn't offend me too much, but yeah, wasn't wasn't a home run thing. Uh and then they kept beating down the baby face of the brawling birds. Hikarishida decided not to help out. She actually just walked away from all of this. Very good character.

Continuing that stuff she's doing with Kristalina, that I did enjoy, and um my point my larger point being you still could have had that angle, even if Hikaroshida and the Brawling Birds have won. In fact, it actually might have meant more if Hikaroshida had won than just walked away. Um and then the babyface trio of Minishirakao, Willow Nightingale, and Thunder Rosa ran down to make the save. Yeah.

Julia Hart in all this, the referees tried to make the save first, and Julia Hart missed it a referee. It was brilliant. I love that spot.

And then in the main event of the show. Sorry, a height package building up rouge. Sorry, don't apologise. Just that he's been getting these squash wins hype package. Uh him versus MJF at that middle show that we've got before all in. I got hair. And then in the main event it is Kanuska Takeshta versus uh Darby Allen for the AEW World title. Supposed to be a Cada but got changed to Gitakeshta. I actually haven't heard why.

Oh, Akada genuinely had to go back to Japan for some private family stuff. Oh, okay. So just had to Yeah, it's a genuine Yeah. I I didn't think it was anything like untoward. I just I I I missed that bit of news that they got changed. Untoward or storyline based. It's neither of those things. They got a re a fun recap of Fair Way to Hell where uh you know Darby was like thrown over all those tables and stuff by Pac. This match was awesome. Yeah. So so great, featuring two of the wildest spots.

Which is saying something considering all the stuff that Darby has done since he's won this title. But I do think these are the two wildest spots so far. One of which was he went to hit a coffin drop while Takeshta was standing on the April. And Darby got caught by Takeshta, who then hit a blue thunderbomb off the apron to the floor. That's mad. Yeah. Insane, right? That that's already insane.

good spot. The crowd the crowd were great all night. They were really into this match from the start. When that blue thunderbomb was hit, they exploded. They chanted this is awesome. Because that's a natural escalation of uh you know a crowd being hot, not complete silence, then this is all. Yeah, because they do a double down. I don't know if we've got that bit of patron feedback later on that was like

While this is all fine and everything, I'm kinda sick of this template derby match now. Um I bury anything that's critical of AD. And then if that blue thunderbomb spot wasn't wild enough.

They then, you know, set themselves up to do one of those tippity top German suplexes. Yeah, you climb up to the top rope, you're holding one of them by the waist, and you're like, okay, yeah, seen this all before. You either hit the German suplex, which is You throw them overhead and they land on their stomach or they land on their feet and then they go and attack.

No, he hit a German suplex from the top rope. Not a release German suplex. A German suplex maintained waste control and hit a German suplex from the tip of the top rope. One of the wildest things I've ever seen. Pem. In like that's video game territory. I I'm father gas. It's such a high angle as well. For Derby to take that on the the sort of I guess the very base of his neck.

Incredible spot. Incredible spot. Yeah. Elklon ran down to distract the referee, which allowed Don Callus to hand Konuske Tekeshta the dynamite diamond ring, but his will to be a champion, his will to do the right thing, he threw the ring down. Instantly straight into a code read and last supper and I was like, Oh that's the pinful. Takeshta kicks out of the Last Supper. Coffin drops to the floor. Scorpion death drop on the steps. Another coffin drop to the floor.

Takeshta kicks out again. Darby right back up for a coffin drop. Takeshta gets the knees up for a near pull. Scorpion Deathlog, please learn how to do that move, Darby. And then as Takeshta gets to the rope. Bang, quick as a flash, Derby's up, Coffin Drop, quick as a flash, up to the following ropes, Coffin Drop gets the win. Great match. ¡Fantástico!

I loved it. R really good. I was actually like, so what is my rankings now? Um I've got a top five, there's only been five matches. At number five we have Darby Allen versus Kevin Knight. Not Athernet's family. At number four, this was uh this was tough. Derby Allen versus Power. Yes, I think that's fair. I d I love all the spots in it, but I just it was more just stump based. Yeah.

That was more about the spots. That was more about like getting over the the weird arena that they were in more than the the match itself. Number three Darvey Allen vs. Brody King. Really good smash mouth mach uh match. A new entry in at number two at Darby Allen vs. Konoske Takeshta. And which means that number one still It's its fifth week in a row at the number one spot, Darby Allen versus Tommaso Champa.

I'm wondering if this was gonna replace it, but I think the the champa match is still my my numero Uno. Temper match. Oh man, there's been quite a few good matches there. Yeah, but be careful what you're about to say. Yeah, so of course mania main event, the entire card of revolution. And then Alan Champa, maybe. So it's maybe it's top five, I don't know. But it's an incredible man. I think you can certainly go as far as to say it's the best T V main events of twenty twenty six.

I think you could. Yeah. Yeah. But just great. And and like that quality of match and then Darby gets the mic. St production hands are setting up the ring for the table and the chairs. Max get out here. Max comes out. It's like a minute entrance. I'm just like, if this was another company, that would have been a

Come back because we've got Max coming uh you know, Max gonna be here. There's a break. We come back. There's a shot of the exterior of the building. Then there's an interview with someone backstage. I don't maybe it's to Don Callus after the Takeshda loss. Then we cut back. MJF's music hits. He has a long entrance. They stand there in the ring looking at each other for ages. And then we have ten minutes of talking. No, this was just bang bang bang bang bang.

He calls out MJF for that world title contract signing. They unfortunately quite accidentally put the graphic up in the the the corner of the screen, so kinda bet you know, he's gonna sign this contract. Derby signs it, crowd understood the assignment, the chat had balled the entire time. And MJF says, I hope you're having a fun time holding my world title.

But you're never gonna win it a second time. So you really should enjoy this because this is a short term thing. You're a one off stunt man, you're getting your fifteen minutes of fame, you really won't make an impact. You're just a little prick that got lucky. And it's like, sure, you keep banging on about climbing this mountain. But what you haven't climbed is the mountain professional wrestling is I am the top of the mountain.

Great promo from Max. It's a program that's so good, and I cannot believe they've done this to me, considering where we were all at four weeks ago. Bye. Can see a really realistic, great world where Derby wins and Max shaves his head. Interesting.

Because he's saying all this stuff. You haven't got what it takes, you're a stump man, you're fifteen minutes of fame. This is all the stuff that we're all saying and have said from the start. Yeah, great. I can't wait for this short, yeah, um, burning bright rain. And you're sort of are you perhaps being slightly influenced by our review we've just done of No Mercy two thousand one, which is the the Jericho rock match in that is very much built around the idea of rock saying

You're just not good enough. You kill you'll never win the big one. And then the match really comes up becomes about Jericho finally winning the big one. I I I I not intentionally, but maybe I am.'Cause like Max wins the title back. really, you know, that'll be great. We we w what a great story. If Max loses, you then get bald Max and and what that does to his psyche and that that's a more interesting max than Max back with the belt. And you get Derby beating Max at full strength.

Yeah. And and and s something has happened, I think, with all of us, where we're like I kinda don't want this reign to end now. Yeah. I I feel like it is gonna end because I think that's why we're doing so many of these matches It could. But both both routes are definitely plausible. But this was this promo made me go It's giving that a little bit of doubt in there, what that what if, yeah, which is the sort of the magic that you want really.

And I loved Derby's promo. And the reason why I'm bringing this up now because I want to tie it back into the point I was making earlier, which is I you always talk about legacy. I don't care about legacy. I mean I'm here for the moment. That's all he's ever looking looking to do. It's like I will stop when I'm buried in the ground.

But I'm not here to be like, what's my legs gonna be? What are people gonna think about me in fifteen years? He doesn't give a sh. He just wants to wrestle. He just wants to defend this title. He just wants to live forever in this moment that he's currently in. It almost sets up that if he does lose the title, he probably won't go for it again. And this this really is just a one time deal for him to say that he Yep, I've done it, did that.

You're they they both signed the contract. Their hair is gonna be on the line. Dynamite diamond ring shot. MGF sets up to do the tombstone on um Derby from the middle rope. But Kevin Knight runs down for the save. Interestingly, not with Mike Bailey.

It was only Kevin Knight that made the save. And I wonder if that will be a story beat next week that Bailey didn't come down to make the save when he's fighting for the world title next week because it would have been in his interest if that tombstone had been hit. Oh that's an interesting point. I was just quite confused'cause Knight was wearing a vertically striped shirt.

So I just thought, oh, a referees here'cause you know, it was sort of framed out as shock. Um again, this there was a table in the ring for this segment, and Max was beating down Derby. And not a single person in that crowd chanted for a girl.

That's a great point. Yeah, brilliantly,'cause like let's tie this all together, right? This comment that we had that was like I'm kinda sick and tired of these derby matches because they're all following the same thing, which is Darby gets worked over and takes a bunch of punishments and then he wins.

I don't want to come across like a cynical person. That's every babyface champion that's ever been in the history of world wrestling uh of all time. If you're a babyface champion, the template is you get worked over, you make your comeback, and then you win. The key to it is how much you're into the person. So, for example, when John Cena was doing it for ten years, not into it whatsoever, because I wasn't into John Cena. When The Rock was doing that same match ten years prior to that,

Into it. Well into it. All of those matches. Him being worked over for ages by Triple H, then he makes his comeback at the end. Loved all of that. That's great. Uh I was not a I'm not a Hogan guy, so when I w go back and watch those Hogan matches, feels a bit trolled to just be like, oh come on,'cause I get to the the hulking up comeback.

But if you're into the guy, if you're into the person who's in that baby face position, it becomes you just want to see them make that comeback. That's the story of wrestling. Also, with Darby's character, this is what his whole thing is. It's no matter what you throw at me, there is a will inside of me that wants this moment to last forever that I'm just gonna keep kicking out.

And the more you do this, the more it is, the mad stuff the champion did, the mad stuff that Pac did, the mad stuff that Tech Eshta did in this match, makes you as a fan be like, what is it gonna take to put him down?

What is it gonna take for Max to be able to put him down when it gets to double or nothing? Because he kicked out of a German suplex off the top rope. He g uh a blue thunderbomb off the apron to the floor, didn't put him down. Being thrown off all those that uh through all those tables didn't put him down. What is it gonna take? That's the story they're telling with Derby, and I'm really into it. Well, people are so into it that they're not going, We want tables

One more time, exactly the point of a larger point is the crowd are super into this as well. So what they are doing is absolutely working. I think if your audience start chanting one more time on We Want Tables when a heel is beating down a babyface. Sometimes there will just be trolling people, but that is a sign to you your booking isn't good enough. Yeah. Because they're not into the story. They just want to see a spot. Uh overall, another excellent episode of Dynamo. Yeah. Yeah.

Extraordinary run they're on right now.

The pledge hammers have to say over on patreon.com forward slash wrestletalk Alex Fry. I was wrong about Darby winning the title. His reign has been filled with banger after banger of main event title matches. I think the Takeshta match was the best so far. This reign may be more of a here for a good time not a long time reign, but man, if these matches haven't been fun. Zabi has turned me from a hater to a big fan. Hmm. Has it been the same for you?

And in th this version of Derby? I think it is. Yeah. See w I mean, that that's a hell of a win right there. But I I always really liked Derby when he wrestled. And he's right. So unsurprising. Noah, another great dynamite. Death Riders and Will are a must watch, and I'm so excited for Joe vs. Osprey,

Um Swerve Osprey final is the move and I think maybe Athena Willow final? Main event was amazing and the show was better because I didn't have to see Jericho for too long. I mean that w that is a good point. Yeah, no Jericho again. It does improve the quality of the show. What's your favorite derby match, by the way? Do you have it as Champa? Oh of this uh this run. Yeah, I think I still would go with the Champa match, but I did love this Takeshta match.

Close second, definitely. We've got a couple of really long ones. Um B. W. Murphy's in particular. It it's like a thousand word essay. Thank you so much for putting so much time into it. Um Can't read it all out, but I'll do Sir Fud's Pennyworths here. Hey guys, new Patreon and first time commentator, one of the new generation. Yeah. Is that what we should call them? Yeah. All the old patrons. There's been a steroid scandal.

And these are the new generation of And what I want you to do is do video promos where you're showing the charts of like how big th how good the Patreon has been now that the new generation are here. Uh I found myself feeling disillusioned with wrestling recently. Too many ads, old timers holding the main event hostage, slow, incomprehensible booking, etc. However your podcast has been a source of joy through the sh and your glowing reviews of dynamite.

have convinced me to start finally watching the show weekly. Like Ollie, I was never really a Derby guy, but this title reign has turned me around on him. I forgot what it was like to have a world champ on TV that wrestles every week in the best match on the card.

This week was no different. Takeshta is unreal. That blue thunderbomb to the outside. Oof. Anyways, thank you so much for being the alternative. I need to keep my love for wrestling strong. Really looking forward to Hair versus Title at Double or Nothing. Thank you so much. Started watching AW Dynamite.

MJF had a really funny reply to someone recently because they tweeted like, uh MGF's my favorite trash talker. I need Triple H to figure out what to do and how to get him into WWE and remove the PG uh moniker that the company has.

And MJF replied with like, Here's a wild idea, just watch dynamite. The show I'm on tonight. B. W. Murphy, he's the one who wrote the uh very long but very good comment. This is but a part of it. This was an incredibly strong dynamite. The opening gag of MJF finding himself surrounded by bald AEW staff and talent was very funny.

Those who have said this stipulation seems childish or makes no sense need to dig deeper into MJF's character. We know his external bravado is mostly a mask, this was shown mostly during the twenty twenty three twenty four story with Adam Cole. MJF's hair is part of his outward presentation. It's what gives him confidence. It's what helped keeps the mask up, his walls up. It's why he got the transplant to s well allegedly. Allegedly. Come on, man.

Uh to secure his visage and continue his maquizmo. It's why it has been used as an effective kayfabe attack against him multiple times. His hair doesn't just signify his vanity, it symbolizes The cornerstone of his character to risk losing it would be dropping a part of the facade, losing a wall. Wow. Love that. Yeah, what a read. Um yeah, thank you very much, Murphy. You see Corona? That's a comment.

And finally for now, Marcin Saturday. MJF, while walking, while watching the bald people around him, gave me a flashback to when I first noticed I was losing my hair. It was just like this. Suddenly I was hyper vigilant and wondering what I'd look like without my hair and stressing over it big time. Losing your hair can be and often is a very depressing journey in anyone's life. You are literally losing a part of yourself, your identity, which is why I find the fact

that there are fans who are calling this stip, boring, or silly, incredibly frustrating. It is literally perfect to define a MJF's character even more than just a dominating heel. Yes, it's fame, but anyone who has hair Anyone who has hair has and will keep to f uh will fight to keep it. Resident Restor co hosts include. I had my I I I kept on to my hair longer than I should have done because I was not ready to let go and I thought I could get away with it longer.

Oh yeah, and I and I should have just done it years ago. There are there's part of me now the regrets though that I kept on for so long as I look back at my wedding photos and be like, I wish I'd just done it there. But yeah, it it is something that a lot of guys will just keep hold of, even though like I knew it was the wrong thing. And actually like keeping hold of it was worse in the long run because everyone made fun of it for so long that's got any therapy for it.

But it is something that yeah, I think mentally for lads and men can be a really big deal. Like thankfully I've I've shaved my head and I think I do look better for It's a it's such a big thing in your head, and then once you make the jump, it's like, Oh, that's fine. Um, I was too scared to make the jump. So it went under a torturous nine hour um yeah, procedure.

It's one of the most horrific because I was obviously not in the room while it happened, but you sent me photos like afterwards. It is one of the most horrific things I've ever seen. So my partner works in circus and she's seen people fall from height, break arms, break necks, and she's been the one to take them to hospital and sit with. She said tending to my pussy, bulbous, swelling head with loads of hair follicles inserted into little slits was the most disgusting thing she's ever had to do.

And she didn't tell me that at the time. Bye. Because and that's why I'm married. Yeah, that's good, no cat. Well that that could be in the wedding rows? It might be. I've got to write them.

Luke Owen. Is Chris Saban? Whoa whoa, sweet child o mine we've got something to do here first, ladies and gentlemen. Yes he's better. Yes, Chris saved. yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n Is Eve Marie better or worse than Billy Gum? Bit against better than each. Is Lex Luger, better or worse than Billy Gunn? Right.

This is interesting because my instant reactions would be like, no, because Lex was a failed experiment multiple times over. However, he did get that one really big pop in ninety seven when he beat Hogan. Yeah and he's like Mainstream I think more people know Lexluga. I'd say yeah. That's really tough. My actual my I think Lex is better than Billy Gunn. I think Lex will have a longer impact and legacy within wrestling than than Billy Gunn.

Can you call Dave Bradshaw? If Dave's around, I think this is he he is the only person who can he is the coin flip. Yeah. Oh that's happening. Is Brom Breaker better or worse than Billy Gun? Yeah he is. Brombreaker is better. But is Matt Riddle better or worse than Billy Gum? Hello Dave. Uh do you mind if I put you on speaker? We're just on the the rest of the podcast at the moment. Hi Dave.

So we're doing the Ass index, uh are they better or worse than Billy Gunn? And we thought you're the best person to ask on this one. Is Lex is Lex Luger better or worse than Billy Gunn? See you've got to take an average of the different incarnations of Lex Luger. Because there's there's obviously there's WCW Lex Luger, then there's narcissist Lex Luger, then there's all American Well take into account all the iterations of Billy Gunday. Kip James. Billy guys. Yeah. Mr. A.

Yeah. Which is a great thing to be. I'm not I'm not sure if you're not going to be able to do that. I think Probably is better than next week. Yeah. Okay, okay. Thank you very much. We Mikey we wanted you to be our coin flip. Thank you very much. All right. See you later. Thanks, Dave. Bye. That's huge. That's huge. I thought he was gonna end up top, but Dave has spoken. spoke and he was like, I thought Dave was gonna say he was there in ninety three and I liked ninety three.

That's what Iddle better or worse than Billy Gunn? But not controversial enough, I would say, to discuss. Oh no, just a bit of a dick. I by all accounts. Only I'd say Billy Gun's better. Yeah, I'm gonna g I'm gonna defer to you on that one. I I I would agree. However, interesting DX uh Colleague, is Sean Walkman better or worse than Belize? Oh, my God. Is better. Who's Victoria Crawford? Uh isn't that um uh Alicia Fox? Yeah, the game me

Assume she was some forties movie star with that name. Uh is Alicia Fox better or worse than Billy Griffin? Well the Northern Lights suplex are league. So uh no Billy Gunn is better than Is Frankie Kazarian better or worse than Billy Garrett? Oh, come on Oh no. I'm gonna push this to a coin flip. No obviously he's better, but Kaz does n Kaz does not have the name recognition. I I maybe I'm two thousand one brained at the moment, but he is part of that group that is changing the wrestling scene.

I don't care. Billy Gunn is still stinking up the joint in O one with his rubbish and boring matches beating Brockleb. I've I've got a coin flip simulator right here, you're gonna have to do it. Okay. Um so so tails is always bully gum. Yep. As is better. Yeah, well, good. Thank you, CoinFlip. Is Heath Slater better or worse than Billy Gum? Billy guns better than that. Yeah, I can't. Respect. Respectfully. Juice Robinson.

But I think he's not been um He had a great rum for a couple of years in New Japan, but I don't think that's enough to put the other. I think I'm gonna put Billy Gunner above Juice Robinson. Here's an interesting thing. I assume it means Bo Dallas in general, but is Uncle Howdy better or worse than Billy Girl? I'd say we will let we you the Yankham rule, then they are the same person. Well, St. Bo Dallas.

Yeah, that's what I mean.'Cause Bo Dallas is Uncle Howdy, so Yankham ruling this, they are one and Uh. Is Sonada better or worse than Billy Gunn? I'd say Billy Gunn's better. WGP championship. Yeah, yeah, no good. Isn't it it makes is is Sonata worse than evil? I think there's there's sort of like evil's got charisma and actually he is a good re Look, I do think Evil's got charisma. And he is a good wrestler, but he was booked to have horrible matches for five years.

The matter change is in WWE now. Uh is D D better or worse than Billy Guns? D P is better than Billy Gunn, absolutely. Is Roddy Piper better or worse than Billy Good? Ronnie Piper's better than Billy Gunn. Is Nick Jackson better or worse than Bob? Nick Jackson. R rough end there for old Billy Gunn, but Yeah. A couple of victories this week though. Uh Chris Saban one, two, three, four, five, six, seven were better than. And we had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Oh!

Worse than. Including Lex Luger, which is a huge scalp for Billy Gunn. Nearly Billy Young's best week he's ever had on the ass index. The lower down the Cage Match five hundred we're going, th it'll be yeah. It'll be interesting to see if we ever get a full class that oh people.

Do you have any uh recommendations for this week? I'm gonna I'm gonna be a bit of a shill this week. I'm gonna put out Dynamite. A EW Uh you know, No Rolls Bard, which is next door. It's we're all part of the same company. Uh they they brought out their new Blood on the Clock Tower series this week, Terror in Teensyville, and it's excellent.

It's all in black and white. It looks beautiful. I'm obsessed with how it looks. Some people like Oh, can you do one video in colour though, so I can sick No Oh absolutely. This is a this is an artistic vision. Yeah. When I was in the room when they got back the first edit and it was all in black and white, my first reaction was, Oh the algorithm. Yeah. Oh d I don't know how the algorithm's gonna react to this. And I had to have a a conversation with her, so I'd be like, who cares?

Who cares about the girl? Who cares what the algorithm has to say? There's the whole a whole new ethos is we want to do things that we want to make, not what the algorithm's asking us to make. Yes, and this is an example of that. I'm so proud of them and I think it's brilliant. So funny as well. Dom is hilarious as the host. Um so yeah, that's over on No Rolls Bard, Terror in Teensyville.

My recommendation, because I actually I was also on YouTube, which means that we can put links to these both in the uh the video and podcast description. My home feed randomly came up with a recommendation the other day for The Forever Hardcore documentary that came out in the mid 2000s when WWE announced they were doing their ECW Revival One Night Stand Show. And a lot of the guys did not get invited to do it. So Shane Douglas said, Well, I'm gonna do my own ECW revival show at the same time.

Yeah. And as a way to kind of do their own version of the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD, they released their own documentary as well, featuring interviews from some of the guys who are not in the Rise and Fall DVD. And it came and I was like, oh man, I haven't watched that like since it came out. I bought it when it came and I bought the the the pay-per-view that came alongside it.

And I've forgotten.'Cause it's got some opening narration with some shots of the twenty three hundred arena, the ECW arena. And I was like, I think I I recognise that voice. And I'm trying to I mean it sounds a lot like Jeremy Borash. And then it comes up with a title card at Jeremy Borrash Production. What? He made the documentary. I forgot it's Borash. He's so talented. And it's you can tell it's it's homemade. And it's like it's it's all shot in hotel rooms. It's not been white balanced.

Everything is shot in extreme close-up. There are no matching shots of of the interviews. And it's awesome. And I loved it. I guess no footage, it's all interview based. It's all interview based. You get some images. The images are on screen for such a short amount of time. It's g it's great. And it's you can watch it now on YouTube. Someone's uploaded the whole thing or go back and find the original D V D if you can do.

And it is just two and a half hours of wrestlers telling stories. And it's got Sandman, Sinister Minister, Raven, Francine, Bob Ryder, Terry Taylor is featured on it. Um it's really, really good. And I and I I watched it again over the last couple of days and I've really enjoyed it. I am gonna I'm gonna watch that. That sounds great. Um just a last bit of news. Did you hear about Dixie Carter turning down Dark Side of the Ring in terms of documentaries and Jeremy Borash connections?

Yeah, they're doing a three parter on TNA Dark Side of the Ring special, and Dixie Cutter has turned down numerous requests to be interviewed for it. Shall we reach out to Dixie if she wants to come do a podcast with us instead? Yeah, more favourable on a home turf. We've got your back, Dixie.

Uh but that's all we've got time for today. Thank you very much for joining us here. And make sure you're subscribed to podcast or YouTube or whatever, because we will have our review of Unforgiven two thousand and one tomorrow. And also the nine eleven episode of SmackDown review. What's what nine Yeah. Yeah. Thirteenth of September episode of SmackDown.

That'll be on patreon.com forward slash Russell Talk tomorrow too. But for now, I've been Oli Davis. That's been Luke INDAD. Jam that jam. Jam that jam.