¶ Show Introduction & Weekend Teasers
How's it going everybody? Andrew Zarian here, Wrestling Observer Live. We're here every day, Monday through Friday, three PM Eastern, one PM on Saturdays with Jim Valley, and Sundays with me. Happy Sunday, everybody. I gotta tell ya, I gotta be honest with you. I went out last night. I'm hungover today. It was at the Hammerstein Ballroom for AEW Dynamite, the tape dynamite at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Sold out, about fifteen hundred people in that building. My favorite place to go see wrestling.
I'm gonna discuss the experience without doing any spoilers. Okay, you're not gonna get any spoilers on It was a lot of fun. I had a really fun night. A lot of fun stuff going on. Continental Classic is happening. Is is actually this is a great tournament. I really enjoy this tournament that they're doing. We'll talk about that. We had an afternoon collision show with a new champion last night. Also, Triple A ran a show yesterday.
People were surprised. I don't know. Did WWE not do a good job at marketing this? Because there were two scenarios. One, people didn't realize that it was an afternoon collision. I have no idea why. And Triple A was running a show yesterday. And nobody was talking about it until until it happened, which uh there's some news out of here. Dominic got injured in the main event, right near the end. He teamed up with El Grande Americano.
Face his father and Ray Phoenix. That was yeah, it was Ray Phoenix, right? Yes. Just making sure I told you I'm a little I'm a little off today. We're gonna talk about this this and of course SmackDown. WWE going into Royal Rumble season. AEW some interesting comments. Tony Khan made a very interesting comment yesterday, okay? Uh I will I will talk about that because it it that went online. He made a comment about Madison Square Garden.
And that being the first venue he wanted to run, and they blocked him. We'll talk about this. And a whole lot of other stuff. Wrestling Observer Live here on SportsByline. We'll be back right after this. Wrestling Observer live here on Sports Byline.
¶ AEW Hammerstein & MSG Ambitions
Last night, I was in New York City. Rich and I went to the Hammerstein Ballroom for the taping of AW Dynamite. You know, it's interesting that they how they do these tapings. Um, we had a great dinner. We went to Nick and Steph. New York institution, if you go into the garden, you go into a Rangers game, you go into a Knicks game, you stop by Nick and Steph's. You have a porter house for two at the bar. You get a couple sides.
You got a couple more dirty martinis, and you're ready to go watch wrestling, I'll tell you, after that. My producers actually uh I got a funny story. We were with somebody and they they they thought he was MG, our producer. And he was asking him all these questions about the production of the show and why he's not allowed on the other shows. And the guy goes, Dude, no, no, no, no, different guy, different guy. I thought that was funny.
So I have an imposter, is that what you're telling?
Do have an imposter, dude. You have an imposter. Uh you know, the I'll I'll I'll I'll do like a little summary of this'cause a lot of people were asking me uh today. You know, how was it? It was great. I I wanna I'm very curious when when this airs on Wednesday, how it comes off on TV.
The loudness versus the not loudness. Uh it was it was a really good show. It was a lot of fun. Um I don't know, the energy compared to last year maybe a little different, but I'm curious how it's gonna come off on T V. Last year found more of a party because they were running it because it was the first time they were running it. This year was a little different. But still a fantastic show. I'm not gonna spoil anything. But one thing that Tony said.
And I found this interesting. Um, you know, he he ha I had heard this. I know that they had interest in running the garden. Uh Tony's pick for the first dynamite was Madison Square Garden. And I find it very interesting that he's bringing up the garden now. Obviously they're with the Hammerstein, but I will tell you, I predict they're running New York, uh uh, probably the first six months of the year for a pay per view. And I will tell you that uh if they could run New York City they would.
Now I don't know if the garden is even remotely possible. We have the Barclays Arena also here. I don't know if that's remotely possible. Uh but that's the only other options you have in New York City unless you're going to UBS, which is not. So I found it interesting that he mentioned the garden uh after I had heard some stuff. So listen, could he sell out the garden? A hundred and thirty percent AEW could sell out the garden for the first show.
I don't know if that's even remotely possible because of their relationship with WWE But I thought that was interesting that he he mentioned that. See, I did not hear him say it in the building. This is what my producer was asking me. Did you hear Tony say this? You can't hear him because he was doing the Tony yell. You know what I mean, MJ?
Oh my great job. And it's like echoing. It's echoing in that building. So I couldn't understand half of what he was saying when he was yelling on the building.
Yeah. Explain that.
He did have a microphone. Yeah, he did have a microphone.
Well maybe like he needs to hold it back a little bit.
I don't know, maybe. But interesting. I thought that was interesting that he said, um You wanted to run the garden. No, that would be that would make the most sense, you know, to run the garden. If you're in New York you want to run the garden but That'll make it difficult. We'll see what happens.
But AW's a lot of fun yesterday. I had a blast. So a lot of people that uh that cover pro wrestling. Mike Johnson was sitting in front of me. I was harassing him the whole show. Just bothering him. It's great.
¶ AEW Classic & Mercedes Moné's Story
Let's talk about some wrestling. We had a one hour collision. Since we're on AEW, let's talk about this. I'm really enjoying this tournament. I don't know about you guys. We had a gold league match. Jack Perry defeated Mike Bailey. Mike Bailey has six points. Jack Perry has three. So now he's on the board. Eddie Kingston defeated Nathan Cruz. From the grizzled young vets. They continue that on Dynamite, by the way.
Little spoiler. Alex Windsor. This was interesting. Alex Windsor defeated Mercedes Monet to win the Rev Pro. Undisputed British women's championship. Windsor knocked Mercedes down to ten belts now. So this was a unified belt. This was two titles. How do you think they're gonna do this? She's gonna keep dropping, dropping, dropping and then they're gonna rebuild her for the world championship?
I uh it feels that that's kinda where they're going with it. Um which I'm okay with because she's They know what they have with her, and they're they're trying to do something to kind of get people more on board with her. Telling this like rebuild story, maybe that's how it works.
I don't know. I hope they do something good because you know, there's a lot of I she's interesting because when you look at that roster and how everybody kind of meshes their married to each other, she's not really married to anybody.
🔇 Silence
She has random matches and won random titles, and then now she's losing them because they need to take the titles off of these uh off of her. But I guess every m couple of weeks or so she loses a title by the new year. You could have her, you know, mi couple of weeks into the new year, you could have her kind of say like I I gotta rebuild myself. She starts having like preliminary matches and works her way back up. I don't know.
Well she's got all these um indie titles, she's got a all these overseas titles, so you think that's gonna take a minute to drop those back.
No. I mean it's easier just to bring those people in. Yeah. Instead of her going. You know, if you're Tony, you kinda want this to be part of your story, so why not? Why not do it that way?
I guess either way works. Um, but you know, those those small promotions benefit greatly from having her on the card, so if they can, they probably would.
¶ AEW Holiday Schedule & Ratings
So I have a some um some news here for you uh on the the sh the airing of these shows. Yeah. So I'm looking at HBO Max right now in Right now it's listed AEW's listed Wednesday at six o'clock. Yeah.
On on New Year's Eve at six PM.
That actually makes sense, right? Um earlier.
I guess. I don't know. I mean I do my new I'm doing my New Year's Eve at two thirty.
Why wonderful?
Is there a game?
I wonder no, they that uh spa the it's one whatever the Christmas story that twenty four hours.
Is that what it is?
Starts at eight o'clock. I'll bet that
Is that what it is? It's possible. I I I haven't I haven't chucked it.
Yeah, we're doing a fly.
I I don't think it's gonna do great numbers. No. I don't think I don't even think that's possible considering You know, they did pretty decent with the numbers, um On Wednesday, considering Trump had a nine PM state of the I guess country address. They they hung on with a half a million views, so uh that didn't really impact them as much as people anticipated.
Mental note, wrestling fans are not into politics.
Oh no, they're very into politics. Very you look at my timeline I I I don't want different cat. Listen, I I I I like to keep everybody in a box. I like to go to political people for my politics. I like to go to wrestling people for my wrestling. I don't like the two I don't like my political people talking about wrestling and I don't like my wrestling people talking about politics. I like to keep everybody in a box separate.
One other thing.
Spilled over. Yeah, give me. Sorry.
One other than I'm programming. And then the AW the collision show will be Thursday. Yeah.
Which is good.
Traditionally, yeah.
Is it's being filmed as we speak. Actually, no, it might have it might have been wrapped up by now because it's a four PM filming today at the Hammerstein Ballroom. I'm curious on um as far as today versus yesterday, because I went to all of them last year. I went to I went to Dynamite, I went to Collision, and I went to uh Ring of Honor.
¶ Cena's Retirement & Gunther's Push
So I'm curious about today and the taping there. When we come back, a lot of WWE to talk about and the aftermath of John Cena's retirement. And Gunther and everything else that happened there. I gotta tell you, uh that Gunther heat, people lost their minds over John Cena losing. Lost their minds on his retirement. Wrestling Observer Live here on Sports Byline. We'll be back right up. Wrestling Observer Live here on Sports Byline. Do me a favor. Follow me on X at Andrew Zarian.
The topic of conversation around everywhere, John Cena's retirement. A lot of people upset at that finish. We touched on it. I touched on it all week. But a lot of people were upset at that finish. I did not find it as much of a problem. Uh the conversation around the time honor tradition and what you're supposed to do on the way out versus what they did with Sting and what they did with Flair now with Cena. Listen, I think every scenario's different, right? Every scenario is different.
Uh it is not a hill I'm willing to die on to argue that he should or should not have won. They're planning something. They I mean, if th if Gunther doesn't become the biggest monster in that company now, it's definitely a mistake. You beat John Cena, you beat Superman. You beat Superman. Now what are you gonna do? You can have Gunther go back and just have regular competitive matches with people that are not on that level.
Which she probably will. I mean it's wrestling. That's what they do. But I would like to see a bigger storyline here. Who retires AJ? Not AJ Lee, AJ Styles.
Well, I think they're setting they set that up Monday Monday. Yeah. So it looks like maybe that's where they're going with him.
You know, who retires Randy Orton? Who retires Brock Lesnar?
🔇 Silence
You want to put major heat on him? Have him take out Hunter. Have him take him out. Make him into a monster. You need you need a major heel like that. If you don't have a strong heel, then your baby faces are just rah-rah in themselves. I kinda like this. I like this I like what they did here. And and you know, I saw the peop I saw people getting hysterical and they're telling people how to think about this. Who cares? It's it's
A TV show. If you enjoyed it, that's great. If you didn't, it was an aspect of the program that you didn't really love. I I I I didn't mind it. Did I did I like the smile and the smirk? I think he attempted something with that. It just didn't Didn't look as smooth as I thought it would you know, it's probably what they thought would happen.
You know where that came. You know Well there there's a story there because that's the same thing Pat McAfee did when he lost Gunther.
Oh, is that really?
Yeah. So I don't know if I had anything to do with it. But you and I talked about this um on one of our other shows and it just occurred to me after all the heat that the new fans don't care about our tradition as long time wrestling.
But they but well, how would they even know about like yeah, here's the truth, okay? Here's the reality. What uh the people listening to the show, I love you guys so much. This is a a a great aspect of my life that I could share with you guys. I I love talking to you guys about wrestling, but we are the the one percent here. We are a small microcosm.
Do you think my son and my daughter know anything about, well, you know, on your way out, you better drop it to put over, put somebody else over. They don't know any of that, and why why should they? They shouldn't. They shouldn't know any of it. To them, it's John Cena lost to this guy, and I hated it, but that's the natural feeling you should have at. That is the most natural response to this. John Cena's the good guy. He's the big star. He's retiring.
I want to see him win for one last time. I never want to see him lose. I should be upset every time he loses. I shouldn't go online and start analyzing how good of a loss John Cena had versus, you know, a win. I that is not the real world. The real world is looking at it. And I gotta tell you, I got messages from people. They were so angry that Cena lost, but not angry as far as, you know, Hunter should have booked it differently. Angry that John Cena lost.
And that's the most natural response that you could possibly have if you're a fate fan of his. I think, you know, it got it got the attention they wanted. They wanted this attention. Whether or not they wanted people chanting AEW during that presser or or the post show, that's a whole different story. But it got the response. It it villainized this guy. And it seen a loss on his way out. They they got exactly what they wanted.
And another thing, I don't know if you remember in on Raw with Gunther, when he came out, I was getting Roman Reigns after WrestleMania. Uh Seven was that two thousand seventeen. Taker, was that the year? Um yeah, when he when they did that and they and just I was like wow same same vibe, same energy. Fans were not having it.
This is uh and I was talking to someone y yesterday. This company's so unpredictable now. It's a very it's not Vince McMahon's company. And what would Vince have done? The argument that Vince would have done a better job with this, Vince would have done exactly this. Mm-hmm. Now should this be the case in every scenario, the time honored tradition? No, no, no. There's no it's it's There's n that the whole thing is gone. Cảm ơn các bạn đã theo dõi.
I'm I I think if it makes sense, if you want to end it on a feel-good, you end it on a feel-good. If you want people disappointed and hate this new heel, this is what you do. Or not a new heel, but uh you know, new monster for them to this level.
¶ WWE's New Era & Production
I was fine with it, you know, it was what it was. I you know, you guys know how I feel about WWE. I tell you guys how I watch WWE at this point, because if I watch it as a professional wrestling show, I'm gonna lose my mind. Yeah, you can't do that. I can't do that. I have to put it in its own box and I watch it for what it is. It is a highly, highly produced variety television show that has wrestling.
🔇 Silence
For years, you know what I said was that show, Monday Night Raw on SmackDown, was a television show about a family that owns a promotion or a company, and the employees are just lunatics. That's what that show was for a very long time. Now it's become something I d uh unrecognizable to many people. presence, everything that they do. It's larger than life. You know, listen, I I very much like it. It's just very different. You have to present it differently. SmackDown this week.
That that show is so different than what AEW put out. Yes, you know, what I watched AEW, and that's fine, that's great. You need the difference. You need the difference.
¶ WWE SmackDown & Cody vs. Drew
Talking about SmackDown. Damian Priest kicked off SmackDown, which led to a brawl with Alistair Black and Zelina Vega. All right. I I love uh yeah listen, I love Damien. He's fantastic and I like Alistair.
I feel like this this program's kinda
Something is off though. It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be stale. But something is stale here. I do like that Alistair and Zelina are together. Yes. I do like that a lot. I just I don't know where you're placing this guy. Is he just the character that you bring out for the entrance, or are you going to do something?
Yeah, I wonder if her having a death in her family I think she lost a really close uncle. They were off T V maybe they were gone and it kinda pushed the pushed the story down a little bit.
I like them together. I like Alistair, I like Damien, I like Zelina. Zelina's from here, by the way, from Flushing.
Yeah.
The Queen's kid. Flash Legend and Naya Jax defeated the Kabuki Warriors via pinfall. The biggest conversation here was Naya's outfit.
Yeah. She looks like she slimmed down a little.
Good for her. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair attack Legend and Naya after the match. Cody attacks Drew McIntyre at home. This was a a pre-taped home invasion.
Did you get Randy Orton uh Triple H survives at all?
I you know, dude, what do you think of the the home invasion? I hate the home invasion. Even the one with swerve. Even the one with swerve and the and you know, going into his house like it was
That was more done in a more eerie, creepy way. This one was This one seemed more natural because they they weren't clearly at looked like Drew's real house. It might might have been might have been a stage house. Who knows? But the way the way he pulled up his security camera and he goes Cody's out front on his phone, I thought that was a Um, it seemed more realistic. The one the Triple H uh Randy Orton one from back in the day was so It was like, oh man.
Yeah. Uh let's see. There was a home invasion. He broke in. Nick Aldis was trying to convince Drew to come back. Cody would show up at the front gate, leading to a big brawl. So this is the program that they're going to Cody and Drew, which is fine.
Yeah, and then we're going to be able to Not to skip over the next match, but then if you go then he they went to the ring later and Aldous told Cody that he uh will get stripped of the title if he touches Nick or or touches Drew before the match. So That's where they're going, which is an interesting angle. So that's gonna come into play at some point.
I think that's fine. I think that's a good, you know, in between whatever the next program is, um, match to have or program to have. Mm-hmm. Julia defeated Alba Alba Fire with Chelsea Green. Cody cut a promo, but was interrupted by Nick Aldous. We set that. And Carmelo, Carmelo Hayes and Ela Dragonoff, the f uh Defeated DIY via pin w pinfall. All right. That was a really good match, by the way. That was a really good match. WWE Tag Championship, the Wyatt's. Versus MFT MFTs sorry, MFTs.
Ended in a no contest. I the Wyatt stuff is odd. That never picked up. Didn't do it.
¶ WWE Holiday Taping & Andrade's Status
Triple A this week and they were really good.
Yeah, well this weekend. Yeah. Triple A. I like it in Triple A. I don't know why it doesn't present the same. We'll be back right after this. Wrestling Observer Live here on Sports Byline. Stay tuned. Wrestling Observer Live here on Sports byline. MG, my producer, what what did WWE do with the holiday schedule? They they did it they did it differently, right? During SmackDown, they were actually filming a SmackDown.
And a Raw. Um in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Yeah. Not too not terribly far from me, but um yeah, there was a lot of spoilers out there. I didn't I didn't uh really read'em that much. But um yeah, so they were taping two episodes. So next Monday's Raw and next Friday's SmackDown. So the whole holiday week Uh are already in the can. So that way the production team I guess gets the weak
Oh that's good.
Which is nice because I feel like that wouldn't have happened in past years.
Listen, AEW's same thing, right? They're their their production team is off. They're not on the road. They're all everybody's off.
Times have changed.
Listen, it's perfect. You know, it actually works out perfect for them'cause they all came from the UK, right? They came from the the the overseas trip. They landed in New York. They ran a show in New York and they're done for the week. It's great.
That's AEW you're talking about.
Yeah, AEW. It worked out for them too. So everybody's all By the way, next week on SmackDown, you got Ela Dragonov US open title uh US title open challenge, which I love that they're doing. Ms. vs. Joe Hendry. Okay, and Drew McIntyre returned. Andrade made a surprise appearance at House of Glory.
🔇 Silence
He confronted Charles Mason. Not to be mistaken with Charlie Manson, the the the crazy person. The cult leader. Uh he's the he's the hog world champion. Uh so I guess this is the program. I don't know what this means as far as Andrade being allowed to do things.
Well he was also at Puerto Rico last night.
He was. He was in Puerto Rico. Issa, my good friend Issa, that's a commentator for that promotion in Puerto Rico, uh interviewed. So I don't know. I I don't know what this means. I his contract situation is fascinating because You really as a independent contractor, you really cannot be locked from doing anything. So if he has a good lawyer, then then this will be settled.
It sounds like WWE is doing him a solid and letting him hey, you can work on these fringe independents as long as you're not on national T V type thing. Sounds like that's what they're doing. But he was fired. You know, he I know.
How are you able to dictate someone's income like that when they're not an employee? And they never were. Very interesting. Very
Definitely gonna end up in the courts for sure.
Yeah, I I definitely think Uh we'll see what happens there. I don't know. I I think him in AEW would have been great. I I was looking forward to him being in A. W.
Well, he might still end up there.
He might still end up there. He probably will. I mean, he's not going back to WWE. I mean, unless but never say never, right?
Seeing never.
¶ AEW Worlds End & Classic Standings
So I'll give you the matches for AEW Dynamite, uh, and we'll go over what's going on with the AEW classic um sta the AEW uh Continental Classic standings here. A W Dynamite on thirty fourth Street. It'll air this Wednesday, six PM start. This was great. I I'll tell you what I really liked. I'll tell you what I didn't like. Um
I actually liked everything, to be honest with you. The show was really good. You got Takeshta and Orange Cassidy. This is the Blue League. Uh this is the Continental Classic Blue League. Takeshta versus Orange Cassidy. Continental Classic Blue Rig, Roderick Strong versus Mascara Dorado, that opened up the show. So you know this is interesting, you know this is not the same mascara Dorado, right?
Uh
This is not gram metalek. This is not gram metalek. And somebody somebody mentioned to me How young could he have been a couple years ago when he was in WWE? I said, it's not the same guy. This is not the original Mascara Dorada. This is not the one from a couple years ago. This is not the Grand Metal League Mescro Dorado. That guy's 37 years old. This guy is 23. And he's unbelievable. He's really good.
Uh they've putting him in this putting him in this tournament they definitely have uh think of h very highly of'em for sure.
You know what? I'll tell you one thing. I'll give you one spoiler, and it tickled me. During this match and during the bandito match. The crowd started chanting Feliz Navidad. They started singing Feliz Navidad.
Yeah.
Like over and over again.
That's not a spoiler, that's just funny.
I you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a little spoiler here. And I'm curio that's why I said I'm curious how the crowd audio, the crowd came came through on this show. Uh you got Pack versus Jack Perry, Continental Classic Gold match. Dynamite diam dynamite diamond ring finals. You got Ricochan Bandito. MJF wrestled. He he's in action. Kristatlander, Jamie Hayder, face to face, and Mina, Mina and Marina in a match. I'm not giving you spoilers here, but I I would listen, it's a fun show.
It's a really fun show. This is all leading to World Zen next week. As of right now, they'll actually I think they're gonna do better this year for the ticket sales than last year for World's End, which is a good sign for them. It is a good sign. Continental Classic, you got Gold League winner versus the Blue League winner. Then you got the semi another semifinal, Blue League versus Gold League. You got the finals. Uh
So they're doing the semifinals and the finals, huh?
Yeah, so it's gonna be three matches. Yeah, they're gonna have three continental matches and they're gonna crown who the new winner is. Who do you think wins this?
Oh man. So we should go through these uh the points really quick. Because it's back.
These points do not reflect what was on what was recorded, right? This is
Right. This is this is after what aired sa uh Saturday.
Afternoon. Saturday afternoon. Okay. So right now this is the Gold League. Jack Perry has three. Pack has six. Kevin Knight.
have sick.
Mike Bailey has six. Kyle Fletcher six. Tek uh Okada, six. Wow, it is. One, two, three, four, five, five way tie.
I just hope they don't and they're they're very similar to how they're doing the other one too. I just hope they don't end up with some sort of three-way in the semifinals, which has happened before. I'm not sure I'm a fan of that.
Yeah. Uh blue league, you got Orange Cassidy with six, Takesh though with seven, John Moxley with six, Claudio with seven, and zero for Roderick Strong, and three for Mascara Dorado.
🔇 Silence
So that's all leading up to that. Um who do you think takes it? I think it's gonna be Okada and Takeshta. And
I'd love to see Claudio uh get
He kind of deserves it.
Claudia would be a great Claudio would be great. Um I don't but you you know, there's two things here. One, you gotta get to Takeshda and Okada, right? You have to get to that'cause that is actually one of the best
Absolutely the slow build, yeah.
But but like a good slow, a good slow, not a bad slow. Like this has been in the making. They they've actually committed months to this, which AEW tends not to. They like to jump head first sometimes. I think this is the most calculated angle that people are looking forward to, program that people are looking forward to. I'm I I actually I appreciate the the slowness of this. But Do you have them wrestle a couple days prior to their big Tokyo dome matches?
Yeah that's a
Mm. And you know, like who wins, who loses? I think it's a very political ending there. You have Okada and you got you got Tanahashi.
🔇 Silence
And you got Takesh as our IWGP champion.
Mm-hmm. I don't know. I I mean it makes sense. That should be the match. Let's let's say that's going to be the match.
I mean, and and you know, this is a this is a winner-take all match for uh Takesh though because it's Yoda Suji, and I've been screaming at the top of my lungs that Yoda Suji should be the guy for them this year. So if that's going to
You had a you had a little little uh you've been a little excited over him for a couple years.
years. Couple a couple of years'cause I saw it. Listen, I I I'm not patting myself on the back here, okay? But I have I do have the the the the the clairvoyancy to see who who could do really well given a chance. For years I've been talking about this and so other people too. Listen, I'm I'm making a joke here, right? But Yodasuji is the guy for them. He has to be because really there's nobody else.
¶ New Japan Wrestle Kingdom Analysis
We're talking New Japan.
We're talking New Japan, yeah. Clarify. I listen, right now you look at this card, right? You look at this Wrestle Kingdom card, and I'll get back to World's End. You look at the Wrestle Kingdom card, you got Okada, you got Tanahashi, you got Takesh, you got Yodosuji, and then what else?
As far as their big heavyweights go, right? Like that's the story right there. Everything else is just really you know, you got evil and Aaron Wolf, which is gonna be a good match. You got El Desperado and Fujita and Ishimori and Sho. Uh for the IWGP Jr. title. It's a lot of moving parts here. These two matches are the clearest of this is what New Japan Pro Wrestling is. This is what it should be.
Obviously the t the Tanahashi match and the Yokata match is gonna be a little different than their previous because Tanahashi is, you know, his knees are made out of porcelain. And I'm not saying that disrespectfully. That poor man, I I I don't know how many high five flows that man could do in his I don't I think he's at a minus now. He owes.
Very much.
He's at a minus five.
For this for them is kind of their John Cena retirement. Of course it's.
Of course it is, of course it is, and Okada should beat him.
Part of that show.
See, I think Okada should beat him. Not that Okada is doing stuff in New Japan. Use him as your finisher. Use him as your mate, you know, your guy. Why not? I don't understand. Why not? Why can't you do it? You also have AEW women's tag champions, Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron. I love both of'em. Defending against Mercedes Monet and Athena. This'll probably go you know, they'll retain they'll retain
Yeah, they're gonna retain and this is where I think Mercedes melts.
Yeah. Mercedes starts melting right here. Uh AW Women AW World Women's Champion, Christat Lander defends against Jamie Hader. Samoa Joe defends against Swerve, Hangman, and MJF in a four way.
Okay, so what'd you think of MJF's return this week?
Well, I knew about it. I told I told you about it. Uh I thought it was I thought it was good. I I th I like what they're doing here. I like where this is going. I you know.
Yeah.
I I I'm not gonna I'm not gonna spoil anything. I'm not gonna tell you yes or no. Because I know the answer. But but I'm not gonna say yes or no, and I'm not leading you down MJF's path. I don't wanna spoil I I promise myself with the rest of you I'm not spoiling anything for anybody. Um, but I do like that Joe has become this like in-between champion, you know, and that I'm okay with how they use him because everybody knows how tough Joe is.
It's not, nobody looks at him as just like a halfway champion. People are excited that Joe has that title. And I think it just adds more to Swerve and Hangman. I think MJF being in here, I'm curious on how it's going to play out. Because it's a lot of moving parts. AEW doesn't do these, especially for world titles like this. They don't have a lot of four-ways and triple threats like this.
But I'm okay with this and I'm curious to see where it goes because there's obviously a story that you're building here. Who's the heel? Joe? Is is Max a heel? Max is not a heel. Hangman is not a heel. Swerve is not a heel.
They're all
But you d he can't ever he's a cool heel. He's not he can't be a heel anymore. You'll hate him, but you love him. So I think Joe being that tough monster is actually, you know what's funny? Doesn't even matter. Everybody's beloved in this man. Every single person in this four ways below. So whoever wins it, people are going to be happy. Wrestling Observer Live, we'll be back right after this. Stay tuned.
¶ AAA Show & Dominic Mysterio Injury
Rusting Observer Live here on Sports Byline, final segment of the show. Wanna touch on this really quickly. Triple A show last night. I watched some of it because I was Very tired when I got home and very hungover this morning. But I did see Ray Mysterio Ray Phoenix.
Emerged victorious in the main event. They defeated El Grande Americana, which is a huge star now there. And Dominic Mysterio, again, a huge star everywhere. Uh thanks to the help of Penta, who prevented Americano from using a foreign object. Penta instead put the f put the object under his own mask and attacked Dominic. Phoenix took out Americano and Ray ended up pinning his own son following followed the s uh following the 619.
Dude, I I triple triple A is a great promotion. And Canelo Alvarez was in was ringside uh for the opening. Uh I I thought it was interesting because watching him with like the like who was who came out? It was um
Um uh
Mr. Iguana, right? Mr. Iguana was there.
La parka.
La Parka. Uh and they did the LaParca thing, you know, he did the post. I thought that was great.
And he got a big pop it says it's hometown Gloria Harrow.
Also Brian, Brian Alvarez is reporting, our very own Brian Alvarez is reporting that Rem uh that Dominic Messier suffered an injury during the end of the match. He he injured his shoulder while taking a D D T from his father near the end of the main event.
🔇 Silence
It's possible that it's a separate separated shoulder. I hope not. Which somet you know, th those things pop back in. I've separated my shoulder. That was fine after a couple of weeks. But I'm not wrestling. So I don't know how how fine he'll be in a couple of weeks. Guys. Next week is Christmas. If you're celebrating a Merry Christmas. If not, happy holidays. It's a fun time of year. Enjoy it. Wrestling Observer Live here on Sports Byline. See you next week.