AEW Dynamite/WWE Elimination Chamber/Co Host Lance Storm

Kind of a weird show compared to your normal editions of Dynamite. Did have a very good main event, bizarre match with CM Punk and Wardlow. We'll talk about all of that today. And today we have a special guest. Mike semper Viv is not here today. He's just too tired, and so I thought, simper Viv it's not here. Who should I ask to be a co host? I know filthies after my job. Can't be him, So land Storm is joining us here today as our co host. He'll join us after the break and we'll talk about all

of this news. We've got w W E in the elimination chamber. You'll never know where that show has taken place from. We have the n x T ratings, g CW going to pay per view, Charlie Hass update as noted, the a W Dynamite Report, and so much more. Saturday night, by the way, is Washington Hall, New Japan Pro Wrestling. I will be there, Vinny will be there, and Clarke Connors is going to be there, and Clark is going to be our guest in the final segment of the show.

Here today talking that show and pretty much whatever else we want to talk about New Japan. Wise, we can talk to him about training with Lance Storm here. He's gotten very good, very fast. Not to get into here today if you want to. Texas. Zero seven six is the phone number that is four to five seven eight zero seven five six six. Brian at Wrestling Observer dot com is the email at Brian Alvarez on Twitter, and Lance Storm is at lance Storm on Twitter. Check it

out and we'll be back in a moment. As you were li back in the show, Brian Olber is here Wrestling Observer Alive. Lance Storm is joining us here today. Lance pace Storm, who by the way, five years ago had a young Clark Connor in his class. We'll talk about that with Clarke later on when he joins the show here today, and we got news to get into

here lance before we getting this Dynamite review. In as shocking turn of events, w w E is reported looking at bringing the Elimination Chamber to Saudi Arabia for their Saturday February nineteenth event, because of course they're gonna bring the Elimination Chamber to Saudi Arabia and it's going to be the greatest elimination Chamber ever. Yeah, it's gonna be the most eliminating chamber ever. News were supported unfightful on Thursday.

It's unknown if the event will be branded as Elimination Chamber. It broke last week the show would be taking place in February. W w WE will hold the country for such Saturday show. By the way, they will behold since they holding in that country since their partnership began. So yeah, they're really need these Saturday pay per views. And uh it's kind of funny. I mean, I they know they know better than I, and I mean it really doesn't matter.

I don't think that much with Peacock. But remember when a W was running the occasional Saturday pay per view, and they discovered that in fact, Sundays do way better than Saturday. So now they're on Sundays for the most part. There the w is like, oh, let's do more Saturdays. So I don't know what their numbers are on Peacock. You know, they claim all sorts of things, but they claim all sorts of things about everything, but Saturday again for for this show and the Royal rumble, I believe,

is that right Saturday? I don't know, but I'm curious if it's too break fans of the habit that Sundays the night and an attempt to hurt a w tweing better on Sundays. It's like, we'll move ours around because it doesn't matter to us. M hmm, yeah, I don't know. Dogs dogs having a good time here again, he was really good the other night. I think the key is to have you on the show at night. Yeah, Royal rumbles Saturday, January, So another Saturday pay per view for

w W E. I should do it first Saturdays. Do you prefer Saturday? How come? Because Sunday is like getting ready for the week, and it's like late on a Sunday night, It's like you got Monday morning to deal with. Saturday is like right in the middle of the weekend is Saturday night. It's easy art. I was gonna say, what do you do during the week You're getting ready for well, my wife gets ready for work, so other things, and it's just staying normal. I guess I got it.

I got it, alright. The other quick news note here, n XT on Tuesday Night thousand viewers on the USA Network down five point five from New Year's Evil, lowest audience since December one point one four in eight Cable down twelve from New Year's Evil. And this was a show where they actually shot an angle on Monday Night Raw for the main event of this n x T show with Grayson Waller and aj Styles, and as it turned out, no one cared. So we're kind of talking

about this with simper VIV yesterday. It was Bizarre World. As w w E says, he was talking about how he thinks that n XT could be maybe getting better after WrestleMania. I don't know where all this hope came from from simper vv but we now have an example of an angle being shot on the main roster with someone who is undoubtedly a star. This is AJ Styles. It's not like they sent down No Fense, but like Chad Gable, AJ Styles goes down main event match Grays

and Waller point one four in eighteen forty nine. So I don't know what you do with the show, but that's how it that's how it did. I think still good enough to not worry about getting canceled anytime soon. But more people wrestling in onesies, That's that's the key. I've been watching an XT heavy lands No, but I saw clips of the Is it Wendy in the in the fake slippers? But I mean she worked well, Okay, you don't think I don't think it matters when you're

sleeping and drinking a beverage and then wrestling in your pajamas. Well, at the end of the day, Lands it's but it's it's one of those short term gimmicks that you can laugh and go, hey, that's cute, But it's like, is anyone going to main event a show in a onesie? You know what it reminds me of? Actually I was, I was sitting there watching it and I was watching Wendy Chow walk through the ring in her pajamas in her onesie with her blanket and pillow and I sat.

You know, I can imagine like, because my wife doesn't watch wrestling, and uh, you know, I could imagine if I watched wrestling like downstairs and she was in the room when this happened, and I can imagine her like watching Wendy choose entrance and at first being confused, but then like you know, seeing her doing all the high flying and every thing like that kind of thing. It was sort of cool, but not in a way where she would ever watch it again, you know what I'm

talking about. Like it's one of those things where I can see people thinking it's cool or or funny or interesting or different, but not in a way where they're gonna like become n x T fans because of it. Kind of like, you know, she used to love Santino and I'd be watching Raw and you know, Santino would come on, and she'd want to watch Santino and doing all this goofy comedy and a snake and everything like that.

But it was never like I'm gonna keep watching after Santino goes off the screen because like, I want to see Santino, tell me what he's on. And then when he's not on anymore. I'm gonna get out of here. So I mean, is that good for the future of wrestling, or for raw or for building fans. I don't think so. Like you need something that's gonna get my wife to go.

I want to watch this show every week and Wendy Chew in her pajamas, and I like Wendy Chew, and I thought she was the best worker in the match. I don't think that's doing it. No, And the gimmick will get very tired very soon, because once you get used to the fact that she wrestles in her pajamas, who cares. We've got a update on a few things. Charlie Hass after a freak accident at Sunday's Impact Wrestling tapings, he provided an update. He wants to wrestle more in

the year ahead. He suffered a concussion as he was running into the corner. He slipped and hits hit Alexander's knees and the ropes. That's no good, complimented Impact staff and the roster. Can't say good enough things about them. He says, I look forward to working with him again in the near future. On everyone to know, I will be just fine. Contrary to some reports, Charlie Hass is not dead. I didn't see those reports, but that's good to know that he is not dead. And also PCO

is now under contract with Impact Wrestling. Pet Laprade reported on his podcast he signed a contract. The deal allows PCO to work indie dates as well. He has to prioritiate prioritize dates with Impact. Fifty four year old p c O. I feel like you've been fifty four for like seven years now. My wrong about that. He's not human. He ages at a different rate. Yeah, he he's always been fifty four since he came back signed with r O H in eighteen, won the r O H Championship

once during his time with the company. So very good for p c O. And finally, Game Changer Wrestling has got a high profile show, their biggest in history the world on g c W will be available through traditional cable, pay per view providers and Fight TV. So if you don't have Fight dot TV, but you have a TV, if you're one of those people that has a TV with pay per view, you can order this. Hammerstein Ballroom,

New York City, two thousand fans. Uh, there's gonna be a hall of Fame ceremony the night before with Dave Praise, ac Lepisto, Jerry Lynnhumicide Ruckets and Tracy Smothers in the inaugural class. Jonathan Gresham versus Blake Christian for the r O H title, Ruby Soho and Ali Catch Team Band Dedo versus Team Gringo. Eddie Kingston will be appearing in his first g c W show since November of opponent not yet announced, whoever it is, I'm ready. So that's

the update. Another another company running pay per views. So I'll be curious if companies like a e W and perhaps Impact will be as eager to allow their talent to work GCW. If they're going to be doing pay per view dates, I think that they probably will not care too much. I think if GCW got national television like Strong national television, it would be a little bit different. But I mean, a W let their their guys work the Impact pay per views and you know Impact that

was a specific working relationship at the time. Well sure, but we'll see, but that's coming up here very soon. Alright, a W. Last night, a lot of stuff happened on the show. We're actually gonna head to a break before we talk about it, but see him punk Wardlow I think is one of the most Would you say that's the most noteworthy thing on the show, Lance? Probably? Yeah, yeah,

talk about that. Lots of other things happened back in the month with more Everybody Observer Live, Stock Crack so far for the Wall's fallen through the floor because it's as well that came in Game Storms Me we'll be again an in the tweens and the cool cool morning turn the days a slam say, Living Rode is easy. Back in the show, Brian Elber is here wrestling Observer Alive, Land Storm is joining us here today. Clark Connors coming

up after the next commercial break. And very very busy show last night, Lance, what did you think of Dynamite Um, I didn't like it. I thought it was way too busy with way too much going on, where all of the matches to me, felt like they were just there

to set up angles afterwards. And I, you know, we've raved off and on on our regular show on Friday about the winning formula of a really strong opening match, that party match with high spots and action in the middle, and then a good main event, and they abandoned that formula, and I didn't like this one nearly as much. Well. I think the most talked about thing is the See Him Punk versus Wardlow match, which was bizarre to me.

I mean, the feud is c HM Punk versus MGF, and to be fair, See Him Punk and MGF I think can talk their way back into this feud, but there's gonna need to be a lot of talking because Wardlow absolutely destroyed Shampunk, not even a case where like he destroyed him from most of the match, and then like see Him Punk caught him and pinned him, which is kind of what happened, but Wardlow destroyed him so much. Then after like five power bombs, like he's just destroying

this guy, totally clean, no interference. Five times he power bombs this guy. He puts his foot on his chest and Punk is done and the ref goes one two and MCF says no, no, no, no no, So Warlow takes his foot off. The guy's just like Punk was destroyed.

He was beaten clean in the middle of the ring. Yeah, and then he gets thrown outside and power bomb through a table and like he's dead and Aubrey starts doing the count and she's doing a like one two to the point where Jared's like, bro, she's counting real slow to give this guy she has to get back in the ring, so he should have been beating a second time.

So he finally gets in the ring and h MGF tells Wardlow to do another power bomb, and in a scene straight out of Brett Hart versus Diesel word logos with the power bombs se him, Punk rolls him up and pins him and then dies like Punk pins him and then he's dead and he rolls outside. He's just dead on the outside and he's been killed. And then all of the heat shifts to MGF versus Wardlow and they get in a shoving match and Wardlow finally grabs

his wrist. He's gonna and then you know, Spears jumps in to to separate him, and like when it was over, I want to see MGF in Wardlow, like see him. Punk is now an afterthought And I don't think the

segment was designed to make him an afterthought. Well it was designed to which just maybe not have intended to intended to yes, And now I mean I think, like I said, I'm confident that MGF and c Hampunk and talk their way back into this, but I thought that it was just this was too much all about Wardlow. And granted, Wardlow is about to turn and be a huge star, but the timing of it took away from interest building and MGF versus Punk. Well, yeah, Punk was

the afterthought as the entire story was Wardlow. It was like, oh my god, Wardlow lost. Wardlow is going to be angry about this. Wardlow had two visual victories over Punk. Wardlow was the rightful winner. And it's like this segment damaged Punk a lot. It completely made me not care about Punk m JF anymore. Everyone's into m JF Wardlow and it's like, yeah, quite probably because they're good promo guys.

They can dig themselves out of this hole. But I don't understand putting them, putting Punk in particular, this deep in a hole that they have to talk their way out of. This was a very damaging segment. I'm not sure. No, hey, listen chat. No one said Punk's careers over. No one said that let's not go crazy here at some of this last night. It's funny as I'm always accused of being paid by a W. But if I have any criticism of a W, I intes them like just bombarded

with anger and fury, so so seldom that they react strong. Yes, everyone, Punk will be fine, But that was a really weird segment that took away my interest in the Punk match with m JF and shifted my interest to a match with MGF and Wardlow. Now, maybe, and I don't know exactly how they do this unless it was like a major injury angle, But I mean maybe Punk and MGF is not taking place until the pay per view in March, and so they're going to do MGF and Wardlow in

the meantime. But I mean that would sort of be weird too, because you know, MGF should not be losing to Wardlow before facing cm Punk, nor should Wardlow be losing to MGF right after turning baby face. So I don't know what they're gonna do, but will this one I'm confident I can say we can wait and see because it ain't just gonna be dropped. And I can

tell you what else do you think of this show? Uh? Again, I mentioned that there were too many angles for me that to me, the debut of Brodie King was almost forgotten.

It was forgotten by me like by the end of the show, and I think they they really undermined the main event in that by the time, like Jericho and Kingston did the promo before the match where there was big tension between these two big stars, and you know, Jered, We'll be out there at ringside, and it's like I no longer cared about the main event because I knew it's like, we're just waiting until Kingston and Jericho do the the Angle afterwards, because every match had the angle afterwards,

and I was right, and it just there ended up being not really a matt like a good match that I got into because with all of the post match shenanigans after every single match, that's what I was waiting for in the main event, was like, just give me to the Jericho Kingston thing because that's the big angle. And I didn't care about the interim title match. Well, the interim title match is also weird. Here's another one.

We'll left to see how it plays out. But yes, uh, you know, we we had the champion ms A show, and so they created an interim title and when we were talking about it a couple of days ago, you know, the one thing I keep hearing people say was, well, we don't know when Cody is gonna be back. Maybe Cody is gonna be out for a month. Maybe Cody's gonna be out for two months, and that's what we're gonna do a bunch of stuff. Nope, Now he's back

next week. But it sets a dangerous precedent too in that, especially with you know, O macron being such a widely spread thing, there's a good chance others will test positive and have to sit out a week or two because they don't end up really sick, but they test positive. And it's like, if any of these people are scheduled for a championship match and miss that championship match, if they want to follow consistency, they got to do interms for you know, like even forbid, you know, one of

the Jurassic Express guys. Actually it was taped already, so that's fine. But or is that next week on on Dynamite? I don't remember. But it's like one title match that someone tests positive for the champion does and it's like, why isn't there an interim? You promised this a title match, and I just think it was a poor idea. And yeah, Cody is out for like what nine days? Yeah, Dynamite.

Next week is Adam Cole and Britt Baker versus Orange Cassi and Chris stat Lander, Punk versus Spears, Serena Deep versus Sky Blue. Let's see what the Serena Deep things all about. Cody Rhodes returns and Stinging Darby versus Acclaimed. Friday has Adam Cole, Trent Boretta, stat Lander, Red Velvet and Layla Hirst versus Nylo, Penelope and the Bunny, Sean Spears Andrew Everett and Jurassic Express versus Dark Order. So

that one has been taped. No interim title. Same thing with the interim title that I could at least they could at least, but I mean you still could argue many different things. Is that it was on the Battle of the Belt show. We were committed to having battles for belts on this show. Where a random dynamite, well, the champions aren't there. They can do it next week or whatever. It's not it's not needed for the name

of the show. I texted you about this. I thought, if if you have to do it, I think it would have been better for Cody to just do a promo that he has to be out because he tested positive or makeup an excuse whatever, but that he doesn't

want to rob the fans of a championship match. So he's asked both Tony Kahn if he could allow him to pick someone to defend the title form and he could pick Dustin to defend the t NT Championship for him, and then at least it's the real belt, and then there's a reason for Dustin who doesn't have I think I don't think he was even ranked why he's in

the championship match. I think it would have made more sense and at least been the real championship rather than an interim and you know, it's still you know, why is someone else defending the belt for him? But it's like why is there an interim title for a week? And why is Dustin Rhodes in it? There's there's questions either way you go. And then at least Samuy Guavarro would be walking around with you know, quote unquote the

real TNT Championship. I just think that, uh, I don't like that idea because yeah, it's the real belt, but it's not the real champion. He'll be like if if Connor McGregor was the champion and Connor McGregor was scheduled to fight on Saturday and he couldn't fight, and they were like, well, you know, Connor says that you know is that not whoever can defend the belt for him? But you have neither guy being the real champion and

the belt not being real. It's like, again, I'm not saying my idea is great, but it's like, if you insist on having a TNT championship match, I think at least there a reason to justify Dustin being in the match and it being the real belt is better than a fake belt with two people that you know aren't the champion. I think the best idea would have been don't do the match and have another championship match on

Battle of the Belts. I agree completely. That's why I said, if you insist on having a t NT championship I would have preferred um an explanation with Dustin's defending the belt for his brother. Because think about this, everybody, all right, I like to think on this show, Cody's back next Wednesday, right, Yes, yes, so you very easily could have just done Jurassic Express versus the Dark Order on Battle of the Belt and then Cody comes back and defends his title against Sammy

on TV. Right, just switch those two matches, but that's not what they did. Now we have an interim title in the champions back it's coming Wednesday. The main a bet of the show. By the way, it was great. I want to get that out there. Sammy Gavar and Daniel Garcia. That was a really good match and Samy Gavar retained the title. They beat the absolute hell out

of each other. I liked it a lot and uh that's said more on Impact tonight on Briant vide show Back to Up with Clarke Connors Observer live back of the show. Brian Albert is here wrestling Observer alive. A land Storm is joining us here today as well as Clark Connors, who's gimmick as that he is the Rhino. But my god, look at that mane of hair. What are you gonna do? You know? Yeah, I got I look too good at it to cut it off. Tell you what what I'm gonna do is steal all of

Lances jokes from during the commercial break. You know what's funny is uh, I can't remember what show that I was at, but I was at some show and I looked when I was like, oh my god, hangman pages here, and uh it was you. I was totally confused if I had a nickel ferry time I heard that. Man, Yeah, it's good, good, he's he's doing he's doing something good over there. And uh in a w so you know, maybe it's in the in our genes or something. He's

definitely not doing too bad now I hear. Uh I I heard from an inside source that actually was not land storm, because I got scoops that you have moved to Arizona. Is that right, Yes, sir, I no longer a young lion for a little while. Then, as everyone knows, so I up and got at the hell out of l A and I'm living out here in the Valley of the Sun in Arizona. I'm loving every second of it. And uh yeah, it's good to get out of the city.

I say, how much, I mean before before l A. As I'm sure many people are aware you lived in in North Bend, Washington, North Bend, which is absolutely completely totally different from Arizona. Well, that's the thing is you you grow up someplace and it reigns three hundred days a year and Uh, snow, you can used to that. It feels a lot better to get the get out to somewhere where it's sunny, you know, three and fifty. So I, uh, this is more of my speed, I'll

tell you that much. Yeah. Every now and then I go over to uh to Viney's and there's just like you're on You're on the pass. There's this gigantic mountain, there's snow on the mountains. It's cold and perfect place where Vinnie lived by the way, and then uh An you think about Arizona is like, wow, you just had to get out of that place. Yeah, I know, you're right. That's a that's Vinny personified if he was a weather system. Yeah. Yes. Now the other the other questions, as you mentioned, no

longer being a young lion. So I was watching New Japan Strong every week religiously, and this was during your young lion phase, and every week I was just waiting for like the big moment where you had your your graduation and I had all these ideas about, you know, Shabata can come out and we can do this and that, and man, this big moment and also just one day you weren't a young lion, anymore, And I was like,

what happened? So what happened? Well, you know, um, in my own personal growth and journey of it all, I didn't feel like I was a young Lion for a good year before I actually came out with the costume change. Anyways, I didn't think of myself as a young Lion. Um. So for me, it was more just a I didn't want a big reveal or anything anyways. For me, it was just like his business as usual, Like yeah, I got new trunks, I got myself a new nickname. Uh, but yeah, it's I'm just gonna go out there and

kick button the entire time anyways. So um, yeah, I didn't need it, and uh, you know, I like the fanfare. I didn't need to have a whole big cape. I don't need to dress up in a suit like Nito or any of that stuff. I'm just there to you know, I want to start winning more matches. That's about it. But yeah, and here I am now. So so so how did it actually happen? Just one day? You just go,

I get some runks. Well, no, I got the I got the okay, you know, like especially for our l A do just system, you know, Shibata is the is the real deal, is the head guy, and he gives you the okay, and it was kind of you know, I think for me it was the last match I

had before the trunks changed over. Was Carl and I had we made invented the l a Dojo showcase that week, and I think for myself and kind of everyone backstage, it was just a it was a culmination of just like everything I had learned to that point, um from Lance at the start and all the way through Shibata and Buddy in between, and all the guys have been around in the locker room, and uh, it was it

was what I could do um at that point. And I think I proved to them and myself and hopefully the fans that like it's this young Lion gimmick is not it was a gimmick at that point. It wasn't necessary in my opinion, it was there was a period where I was just watching It was like every time I saw one of your matches, you would you would like gotten twice as good as is the week before, and uh, what how would you compare the the training that you got from Lance, Buddy and Shabbata. I mean,

what what did they have in common as trainers? I can mute Lance if you once, so you can jump in here. And what do they do differently, Well, I don't want to get any heat with Lance, so I'm gonna start out there and just say he's the best American style trainer I think in the entire world. Um, I haven't had a lot of them, but just in terms of structure and putting together a good program, it's

he's the top of the line. So for me, as just someone who had never stepped in a ring until I had come to Lance of school, um, it was the perfect program. Uh, you know, three months intensive um. And then so for me, that's kind of the way I looked at it was more like it was my elementary school, my through my early high school basically of wrestling, where it's basic need to learn, we need to learn,

and which is exactly what I needed. And then going to Buddies and I kind of went there and that was more of like a they saw that already knew what I was doing, and I would assume maybe the same thing if I went back for you know, someone on one training with with Lands, but it was more maybe uh, I could focus in on my character and focusing on who I am as a wrestler and uh and then then sharpened up actually with matches and then yeah, so I called in my college or my doctorate program

would be coming in with shabada. And don't get me wrong, we went back to basics. But by the end though, it was it's very high level. Even with the language barrier, it was it's a very high level training program. I would say, Yeah, I was gonna ask, like, when you show up to the new Japan dojo, I mean you you've been trained by by very very good trainers, and and what what did they they tell you when you first walked in there, Like, you know, were there things.

I'll give you an example if you if somebody goes to UH to w w E developmental and they work a style that's not your w w E style, they're gonna basically try to retrain you completely. I would presume that Shabata was not like you got to start over at zero and be completely retrained. But like, what did they say in terms of you know, whatever you did before, it doesn't matter, or we appreciate what you did before. We're gonna, you know, add in some amateur wrestling or whatever.

What did they say when you walked in? Uh? So the biggest thing and uh and I and I he lives it. I mean he leaves what he teaches with Savada is it's not it was literally didn't. He didn't give to you know, two craps about sorry, I'm trying to censor myself on the radio. He didn't care at all about anybody's level of wrestling acumen. He didn't care how you ran the ropes and are how you if you could take an arm drag, if you knew how

to do a Spanish fly or whatever people are doing. Uh, it was a d when he tells everybody's it's about your heart um. And he we would bust our butts, you know, in those big training sessions and anytime he's looking for new talent um. And it wasn't about if you knew the Japanese style, how to take a judo bump, or how to you know, like run the ropes Japanese style or headlock or anything. It's it was purely about is if you he could tell if you tried and

did your best, And that was really it. That was the baseline of it. So we have guys like Carl's been doing it for you know, a little longer than me, and and uh and and Jet Kevin. You know, he'd been only doing it for a year or so when when he got picked up, I was, you know, freshly new too. So it didn't matter how much we were

doing it or not in terms of wrestling acumen. It was purely just how much we tried, and it just so happened for you know that we're all happened to be really good at what we did, um and we got better as you know, as the years went on, for sure. So that's the biggest thing is it's not about you know, what you can do, and then obviously there's a relearning process and you take a lot of bumps and you do a lot of squats and do all that stuff anyways, but yeah, it's all about heart.

So when Shibata nearly died and then afterwards, it was like you will never be wrestling again. And uh, it's funny like if that never happened, who even knows what the new Japan dojo would be like now. But he ended up going to the dojo and and running the program, and you know, eventually earlier or last year we saw his his exhibition match with the Zack Saber Jr. And then of course in the Tokyotomi came out and it

did a full match. And my question you is what I mean, was any of this is a rise or or is Shabbada in there like all the time doing whatever during training sessions? I mean, was it clear to you long ago that this guy was good to go? Yes? And no, I would say mentally he never skipped a beat, like he treated every training, every practice, uh, with the intensity that he is still one of the best professional wrestlers in the world, not like he's just a coach

or anything. He had not I don't think there was a single second in his mind that he didn't see himself as a pro wrestler still, you know. And yes, he the doctors still to me couldn't wrestle, but he I don't think I ever thought that. But he was

obviously always very safe. Um Like he would get in there with us, an amateur wrestle, but we'd always you know what, he'd wear a helmet, you know, a padded rugby helmet, and it was always we were always very cognizant of, you know, not trying to take not if we take them down, they were not going to his head on the ground, you know. And and not to say that it's very easy to take him down. It's been you know, it's tough. Uh. But yeah, I think I think for him, it was always without a doubt

he was gonna come back. As for the actual match and even the exhibition, he's did not say a word does I had no idea like I had seen him, you know, like he'd put it away. He doesn't wear the helmet when he rests with us anymore, or he hadn't for a little while. But and that was just him getting better day by day. But in terms of the match or anything, I had no idea like he he faged all of us. So good for him, I guess. Excited to be back in Washington Hall for the show

Saturday night. Oh yeah did uh? Yeah, this match coming up with t j Um, that's a culmination for me of once again, like I told you before, with that match, I have a carl. Uh. This is this is now. I mean every match is more important and more important, but this one to me is uh, the culmination of where I am as a wrestler. Right now, I get to beat up t J, which is always fun to do in front of the best fans in the world

with the best company in the world. It's very punchable. Yeah, yeah, he's even when like we would team together and you know, and and we uh, we have a lot of we had a lot of respect for each other. But I'd still want to punch him in the face most of the time. You know, he's a he's punchable face but also punchable personality. So it's I'm trying to let out everyone's guitarsist when I beat him down in Washington. So has anyone talked to any of you guys about the future?

At some point, there's not gonna be a two week quarantine to get into Japan for New Japan proper. I would presume that that most of the top stars of New Japan Strong would ultimately be going over there. But has there been any discussion about that or are you just waiting to hear what you hear? That's really the

biggest hardest part about this whole thing. And obviously every one's gone through these past two years and do differently and there's have setbacks, But yeah, it's the hardest part for I know for myself, and I know for the guys I talked to, you know, almost on a daily basis, the other dojo guys, Gabe, Carl, Alex um and and it's just about like where we they're just lying in wait like it's nothing. It's like a coiled spring. Every day that goes by, there's more pressure on it, more

pressure on it. And uh, we haven't been told anything, um, but I know that when the time comes and and we're ready to go back, and I know I would want it to be in the correct place, the correct you know, make it make it impactful, you know, because it's because once that happens, once they let the spring go,

it's gonna be game over for everybody. In my personal opinion, huchpan Uh is about to become the company that it was in two nineteen uh, and we're going to be the best wrestling product, continue to be the best wrestling product in the world. But we'll get the respect as athletes in myself and as a company as a whole once we open things back up, all right, stand by, back in the moment, everybody, Observer live back in the show.

Brian Elber is here Wrestling Observer live Land Storm and is a dog joining us here today as well as Clark Connors here. Tomorrow is Friday, and the day after that is Saturday, and Saturday is the New Japan New Beginning USA show at Washington Hall here in Seattle. Tickets are I think there's still a few standing room tickets available, but I would presume not. Mini, Tom Lawler Taylor Rust for the title, the New Japan Open Way Title Newchpan

Strong open Way Title is the main event. Fred Rosser and Gabriel Kid, who had an awesome match on New Japan Strong with Eddie Kingston last week. God what a match. Carl Frederick's Ethan, HD, Cody Chun and Hitkoleleo and H Clark. You're on the show as well here, Buddy, Yeah, man, Yeah, I'm taken on t j uh t j P as

it were. Um yeah, and it's kind of uh, this is gonna be the culmination of about actually about a two year long story I've had with the guy, so uh yeah, I'm ready to I'm ready to close the chapter with this guy for sure. Who else is? Who else is on your list? We've got about thirty seconds here. Who have you not faced on strong that you also want to punch in the face like, well, uh, I'm just gonna make the list short and sweet. It's gotta

be Tom. Uh. You know I've I've wrestled a lot of the other guys, but I don't think I've had the chance of one on one with Tom, and especially he retains the championship. Um, He's He's who I'm calling out next. I know. That's just all I can say. That's all I know is I gotta win a championship. I gotta proved myself this company. Well, Clark, I want to thank you so much for in the show today. Best of luck we'll see this weekend, and best of

luck in your new residents as well. The weather it's much stir there than it is right here, so enjoy that see here. That's right, And of course thanks lancers always, callers and listeners over the studio, Twitch homies, YouTube folks will talk to you next time Wrestling Observer Live. You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network