FiredUp Network
Saturday, June 22:Wrestling Spotlight Weekly Champions
>> Welcome in to weekly champions. We're here on wrestling spotlight and on the fired up network. This week, the podcast dad has managed to get past security that was keeping him out with the flame throwers. He's here, Mr. Cincinnati, whereabouts unknown. We'll have to see if he can come back through the forbidden door. Podcast dad, Chris Hootch. Thanks for joining us here today. Appreciate you having me on. Yes, I made it through the security. We got the hot tag. We'll say that and hopefully, you know, hopefully next time both of us can get on, but, you know, altering schedules. We just want to represent. >> Absolutely. And you guys are coming off. It's been a big week in pro wrestling. You guys had your most watched episode ever. So, congratulations and just to get it right off the top, somebody else who had his most views ever. Maybe if we say his name, he'll show up here. Do you believe in Joe Henry? >> Oh, oh, I will, I will always, I got, I got the t-shirt. >> There you go. >> I always believe in Joe Henry. Yes, no, that was, man, that was crazy. I divided the internet, for sure, because he was eliminated so quickly, but yeah, you know, it's something we discussed on our show was three people got a televised entrance and he was one of them. He also got a cut, cut a promo and he had the social media afterwards with Sean, like, I've watched the clip a couple times and that when that music first hits and they kind of take that roof shot of it, you can see the camera shaking, like everybody was very excited. You know, you know, management heard that, you know, he's going to be back, it's just, I don't know, contract status-wise, but I think strategically for WWE, they're looking at him, they're probably looking at Jordan Grace as kind of those two that they're like, all right, this is, these are the two we see something in and this is what we want for our company in the future. Sure, well in TNA, this has to be, you have to feel good if you're Tommy Dreamer, if you're Gail Cam, if you're the executives of Anthem, the parent company of TNA Wrestling because this impact, this response by the fans, belies the weekly ratings of less than 20,000. That tells you that there's a lot more people that are actually consuming the TNA product some way because those fans at NXT knew who Joe Henry was. They absolutely knew who Jordan Grace was, but now she had a spot in the Royal Rumble, so they had a little bit of a prefix for her, but Joe Henry, that was a surprise. And it's the most viewed social media, most liked video for the WWE since WrestleMania. Yeah, I mean, it does numbers, and if your TNA, like you said, a win for them because obviously there have been eyes on TNA because everybody knew who Joe Henry was, everybody knew who Jordan Grace was. You know, Frankie Kazarian, they tweeted that out early, everybody knows who that is. Sure, so if you're TNA and you're looking at it as kind of the pecking order, right, like your WWE's obviously number one, AEW's gonna be number two, where are you at in that pecking order, and if you're TNA, and maybe WWE poaches some of your talent, but you still get that rub, is that the worst thing in the world? Probably not, it could be the minor leagues for WWE and it's still being really, really good shape. Well, and if there's a little bit of sharing and they get some NXT talent to come over, because TNA isn't like WWE and AEW, they don't do a show live every week. They actually don't air anything live, except their premium live events, their pay-per-views, all their weekly shows are taped, and they're actually much closer in setup to Billy Corgan's NWA than they are to either WWE or AEW, where they have their tentpole event, and then they record three, two, three weeks of TV around that tentpole event, sometimes four weeks. So it's much more in line with what the NWA is than it is WWE or AEW, but by being able to partner with NXT, they're raising their level, and it's pulling them up closer to WWE. Yeah, and it wouldn't hurt NXT to have some people go to TNA. TNA's got a lot of veterans down there, and NXT now has a lot of young talent with the departures of Anelia Dragunoff, Carmelo Hayes, Diejack, a lot of the talent that was there is now on the main roster, and then there's a little bit of an avoid, and we saw it. You know, Trick Williams has been wrestling for two years, so that's your main champion at this point. Oba Fermi's been wrestling for, I mean, he's got what, 45 matches or something like that? Yeah, an amazing, amazing athlete, but yeah, Oba Fermi against Moose. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I mean, and like a Josh Alexander against Trick Williams, like they can learn so much from that TNA talent that I think overall, this partnership is just going to be a win for both sides. And like I said, if you get a couple of talents poached, they were probably going to be too big for your company anyway. So why not just partner with WWE now and call it a day? Yeah, and as here as the NWA has shown, there is plenty of unsigned talent out there. I mean, got watch, watch this channel, watch our channel for the whole day. Watch some of the competitors in central states wrestling, in Brew City wrestling, in Powell wrestling, or Glory Pro. Glory Pro. Just had all ego, Ethan Page, main event, a card in St. Louis just across the street from the main headquarters of Budweiser, and he was in Glory Pro and then straight to NXT. So they have some great talent down there, and it's like that all around the country. So if you lose somebody, it's okay, just bring somebody up, just elevate somebody else. Exactly. I saw Ethan Page and Revolver a couple of weeks right before we went to NXT too. And it was like, yeah, there were so many talents on the Revolver show that you're like, okay, they could go to TNA, they could get that start there. And we're seeing WWE now partnered with TNA, we're seeing AJ Styles go to Noah, we're seeing EO Sky go to Marigold, like this is, we keep saying the new era of WWE, right? But this time, it kind of feels different. Like, I don't think two, three years ago, this would ever be the case. Oh, no, God. And now we're seeing WWE kind of be a little bit more open to it where I do think the tides are turning a little bit for what we think WWE is going to be moving forward. Yeah, if you had a chance to watch the premium live event clash at the castle, just the first match with Cody against AJ Styles, that match doesn't happen in the WWE five years ago, six years ago. You had the wrestlers bleeding, you had Michael Cole referencing AJ Styles being four and O and I quit matches, not in his exact words were not in the WWE, but in other promotions. That would have never been said. And the match honestly looked like an AEW pay-per-view match that Cody would have had there. So I think you're seeing really, you're seeing WWE shifting a little bit towards AEW in their match style with longer matches, more hard hitting matches, more more blood, more graphic. And you're seeing AEW and see if you agree with this over the last couple of months. AEW is sliding a little bit more towards WWE with the vignettes with essentially a general manager in the fallen angel Christopher Daniels now. And having the matches build up with a little bit of story behind it as opposed to just, hey, these are two great wrestlers, let's go. Yeah, yeah, and you can kind of see them, you know, with AEW, they've kind of flip flop back and forth sometimes at the time, right? Like they try the long term storytelling, we saw the Adam Cole and JF storyline. And it didn't quite get to where we wanted it to be. And because of injuries. And then they kind of flipped back to, okay, these guys are great wrestlers. And now we're kind of getting back to it. So I think they're kind of, you know, zigging and zagging as they're telling their stories, trying to figure out, you know, still five years in, still a very young company trying to figure out what exactly they want to do for story telling purposes. But I couldn't agree more with you saying that AEW is now kind of leaning towards more of the storytelling. Well, and just to go really deep into the weeds, the hires that they're making behind the scenes. Correct. Lean into that too. It started with Jennifer Pepperman, who came along with Mercedes Monet, and you saw the women's angle start to pick up. Now they've been adding more writers, more former behind the scenes workers in the WWE that are coming and taking similar positions in AEW, while still having pay-per-view quality matches. The match that started Dynamite last night, commercial fray with RUSH against MJF, that would have been right at home on a AEW pay-per-view. Yep. And unfortunately, we saw the reports that came out about RUSH being able to work on the pay-per-view. But, you know, that's one of those things where you get a curveball thrown at you and they were able to pivot and make it work. And I think that goes into it with some of the hires that they've made. I think this is something that I think we've seen over the last year that maybe Tony Khan was getting spread a little too thin. With Ring of Honor, AEW, Dynamite Collision Rampage, as well as the Jaguars. He's still got a job there. Oh, I'm in the APL. Exactly. And I think now he's kind of realizing, I don't know. I don't know him, but he's kind of realizing, like, maybe I do need to disperse some responsibilities. And yes, I'm the final say still, but I can let some things go and have somebody else do this for me. Yeah. I mean, you can absolutely be the final boss. That's perfectly fine. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Not to steal the rocks name. Well, he's kind of a final boss now, too, on the reporter directors. Well, let's go ahead, clash at the castle. The only thing that really surprised me was Jaden Bianca losing. They didn't take the pin, but they did lose. They're no longer the tag time champions. Do you think they go back after the tag titles, or are we going to see the inevitable singles match between Jaden Bianca coming soon? I think they will go back after the tag titles. As you said, they weren't pinned. They weren't in the outcome. So they have that natural. Hey, we lost our titles, but we didn't lose our titles kind of storyline. And I think that'll play itself out, whether that's money in the bank. I think that's probably what will happen. Sure. However, I don't think they will win the titles back. I think we will probably get Jaden Bianca at SummerSlam. I think the depth in the tag division doesn't really call for them to win it back because after they win it back, who are they going to face afterwards? They kind of run through the division. So when they first got crowned champions on our show, I was a little skeptical with how long we were hoping for a dominant run. And again, when you talk about the depth of a tag division, there's like three or four teams. That's only going to last you a month or two. That's what you got. And I think people want to see Jaden Bianca go at it. That's something that we wanted to see ever since Jaden was signed. It was like, "Oh, man, we want to see Bianca and Jade." Sure. And now with this TNA partnership, who knows what could happen? You know, could main roster go down to TNA and then do that? Could we see Jordan Grace come back up for a show against Jade, a show against Bianca? It was a good thing for Bianca for WrestleMania season to be partnered with Jade to give her something to do. But now we're at the point where, "All right, let's get this feud going. Let's get both of these women up into the main event scene and let's see what we can do with it afterwards." Kick off the Monday Night Raw, Seth freaking Rollins back after only a few months after Nick Cartilage surgery. Are you okay with Seth Rollins taking on Damian Priest for the WWE Championship already? Yeah, I think I am. Again, another natural kind of, you know, he never got his rematch. I know rematch clause are a funny thing in wrestling and they're there sometimes and then they go away sometimes and they're there and when it's convenient. Exactly. But yeah, like this is, because you're going to need somebody for Priest to face that money in the bank. You don't have anybody realistically at the moment. I don't think Seth Rollins is going to win the title. I could be wrong. We've been surprised in the past. But that gives some, for me, I think some much needed star power to that main event scene on Raw that was already missing Cody Rhodes is now on SmackDown. Seth Rollins, we haven't seen Gunther since the King of the Ring, so I don't know what we're doing there with him. Your main event scene is kind of dwindling down a little bit. Drew is quit. Punk's still on the shelf. So Seth coming back was a fun surprise. And something that WWE's done a very good job of as of late as I'm going to kind of go on a left turn here is, we didn't know Ethan Page was coming. We didn't know Jordan Grace was coming. We didn't know Joe Hendry was coming. We didn't know Seth Rollins was returning. It seems like it's a little bit more tight-lipped than the WWE right now. And is that a reflection on how Triple H is running this? Or is it a reflection on just how not as crazy as it is backstage as it was when the Vince was in charge? I think that's really cool that we're seeing some surprises again and we're not getting spoiled on the internet with a leak here and a leak there. It's fun when there are surprises in wrestling because you get the props that you got with Joe Hendry. You get the pops like you got with Jordan Grace. So I like that. And Seth got a big pop on Raw. It was really cool to see. And Seth's really good. So it's fun to have him back. You know, it may just be. There's a smaller group. A click, if you will, that's running the shows now going back to the attitude era. Because I mean, you got Shawn Michaels in Triple H are in charge of the two big shows. And they're not making knee jerk decisions and changing things five minutes before they go on air where the plot gets leaked out and then it changes. Now, okay, we'll do this next week. There probably is a bit more of a streamlined process. And by nature, it has to be more streamlined because they've had a bunch of people leave. So, yeah, it makes sense. Let's go to one of the other stories that they're building up on WWE as we're heading towards money in the bank. Judgment day. Are we seeing the break in judgment day because Damien priest has been much more on the good side of the aisle lately. And Finn Balor turning towards the dark side. Is this the end of the judgment day coming soon. I agree and close. I don't know if it's there quite yet but I think after or by summer slam we will have a definitive break, because I really enjoyed this live Morgan. Judgment day storyline because when Rhea Ripley comes back, it's going to be crazy. I'm so excited to see her. I just want to see her go scorched earth on everything. I mean, she is going to destroy Liv. She's going to destroy Dominic. Like, it's just going to be a lot of fun. With with Finn, I still have the sneaking suspicion that he might win the money in the bank. And I didn't see that. Yeah. Cashing it in on priest. And that is how we finally get priest out of the judgment day. I'm getting a little impatient with this kind of, you know, tweener role that priest is in. I wish they would kind of commit to he's a heel or he's a baby face. Because I think he could be a really good baby face is showing it at that clash of the castle. I thought was the best showing on the card to have that scary moment and then have the wherewithal to then continue to sell. Probably being a little sore at the same time, but like it continued to kind of sell that on the fly and the reports were just blown away like he had a, I thought a star making performance in his best title defense so far. And I want to see him walk into summer slam as the champion. So I kind of want to see this baby face run for priests and see what he can do in that role. And then Finn cashing in on him is the perfect way to break them up. What you do with JD, and Carlito. I don't really know that some, you know, you could you could have JD kind of be the sidekick for Finn you know that teacher student kind of thing is like Carlito I have no idea I don't know why he's in the judgment day now but it's that's past the point. And then Dominic you know he's done very well on his own I think without real so far that he's improved a lot and that could be what is his singles run look like I'm not sure. I have faith that they will have something for it. Well and he could team with Carlito I mean people naturally hate Dominic so that's all for him. Another person that people are really enjoying hating right now and he's making it very easy Chad Gable lost again going after the Intercontinental title and got beat down by Braun Strowman. And finally seeing the straw that broke the back for Otis it was slapping at Maxine's crotch Otis shoving Chad Gable down we're inevitably seeing that match up to the end of the show. I don't know what happened to Chad Gable. You know he got pulled in the triple threat match on Monday. He's been replaced with Ilya Dragunov so I don't know what that looks like for Chad Gable moving forward. That for me was the biggest surprise I clash was that he did not win the IC Championship. I thought him resigning meant okay he's going to win the championship there right. And he didn't and that was kind of okay well let's see what's next and then he loses the Braun Strowman and I'm like what kind of going on here. And now it seems like he's going to be involved in this Wyatt sick you know kind of storyline. Yeah I'm I want to say I have faith in Triple H and the new regime to kind of do right by Chad Gable but I really think he should have won a clash. I was I'm not allowed pretty disappointed that he didn't so Otis you know turning on Chad perfect I'm excited to see where that goes. I just don't know where Chad's going to be next week or if he's going to be on the show or I mean this Wyatt six thing kind of is they took over Pat McAfee show today. I don't know what that looks like as the for the whole storyline and then that's that's kind of fun. Well hey let's get to that because if not for Joe Henry that would have been the story coming out of Monday Night Raw Uncle Howdy Bo Dallas. And the characters that you know and love from the Firefly Funhouse. Now back with Joe Gacy Dexter Lumis Eric Rowan and Nikki cross portraying him. Can that menagerie of your menagerie of mid carders be what Bray Wyatt was. Man it's tough it's you're never going to be what Bray Wyatt was right it's just it's not it's not going to happen. I think it's going to be a fun tribute to Bray Wyatt I'm hoping it does something a little bit different. It's really cool. I mean the moment was really cool felt like a movie. You know the whole one camera shot thing was very very well produced and really hard to do live like they took a huge chance doing that live. That was really really fun. The follow up is what I'm kind of worried about because that scene was crazy and do they address that on SmackDown or do they act like it didn't happen. Do they address it on Raw the next week they're going to have to because from what I'm seeing on the Internet it was like Gunther was a victim Chad Gable Braun Strowman. They said Bruce Prichard Triple H like there was a bunch of people in the back down so I'm cautiously optimistic because it is a new regime. So this is kind of their first foray in the supernatural gimmick. I really hope that when like Joe Gacy wrestles or when Nikki Cross wrestles that they're not in the mask. I don't want that because I think that'd be a little hokey. I want you know that can be their character and then they get in the ring and they take it off and then they wrestle. It's not going to be very wide so I think we need to look at it as a different lens is kind of a tribute to Bray Wyatt but it's it's going to be different. And I'm hoping it's going to be fun because the void of the supernatural character since Taker has left and since unfortunately Bray Wyatt has passed. There's a void and there's always been kind of that supernatural character and rusting for the past what 40 years at this point so this could be something special. I just. Can they do it in 2024. Well yeah because what's going to be the issue I think is once they come to the ring. Okay you take off the vulture mask. Well it's not some supernatural being it's extra lomas. You know it's not. Some demented zombie rabbit man it's Eric Rowan Eric red beer who. You know because at some point you got to get into the ring and actually wrestle. Yeah and the same thing with Uncle Howdy like it's. It's Bo Dallas. Yeah. And it's not going to be Bray Wyatt the former WWE champion it's Bo Dallas who is. Part of the social outcasts and the B team and. Yeah it's going to be. It's going to be interesting to see how they book them I am going to again hold out faith because so far triple H is done a very good job at booking. The entire card so. We'll see but in this kind of reality era that we're in I just don't know if a supernatural. Or gimmick might. You know I don't know if it's going to work but we should see and I do know they've been working on this for a long time. Dexter Loomis is the co owner of Hatchet Pro Wrestling Academy in Florida along with your NWA national champion Tom Latimer. And when we did the interview talking about the opening of Hatchet wrestling. Dexter Loomis wasn't allowed to come on camera because they were already working on the story. That was four months ago so it's been in the works for quite a while. Yeah the only person we could talk to was Tom Latimer. And Dexter's in the background kind of doing that as he wasn't able to come on so. It's been in the works they've been building it for a while. Bo Dallas never went away and then you know maybe the sixth person. This is a great idea that Bully Ray came up with on busted open. The sixth person could be the messages from beyond a break. Yeah yeah that would be a lot of fun. I don't you know it'll hate that. That's something I didn't really think of. I still think it's going to be Alexa Bliss. Sure. Because that's a natural fit it's a natural connection. It would also you know you could have a tag team. Nikki Carlson Alexa Bliss they have the history and you need depth in that division. There's another team for you so. We're going to see about this. It was a fun first night. The follow up I am definitely a little nervous about but we were going to see how it goes. When they could bring back one of the great tag team finishing moves of all time. Bliss cross applesauce. I don't know if that's going to come back but they could. It might fit with the firefly gimmick the fun house gimmick kind of thing. I don't know it's interesting. And bring the doll back. No please don't bring Lily back. I don't want Lily back. I even said that on our show I said if you bring Alexa Bliss back leave Lily at home. Fair enough but they sold a lot of Lily dolls you got to understand that. They're in the business of making a ton of money now so. Yeah maybe. They sell a lot of dolls let's go over to. AEW they're coming up on forbidden door and it's you're seeing this theme now too. There's so much inner working with wrestling which is great because it's bringing everything up. WWE is working with TNA. They're working with all Japan. They're working with pro wrestling Noah. AEW relationship with CMLL and New Japan. And you're going to see that coming up at forbidden door next week. The main event one of the main events anyways is going to be with two AEW wrestlers now. Swerve Strickland and Will Osprey. How do you feel about this build up because it's definitely a little bit more thought out that it seemed like it was going to be initially. Yeah initially I thought this was way too soon. You know Will Osprey just won that title and I think Swerve is kind of in the infancy of his world title run. The promos last night were great. We know the match is going to be awesome. We just know that. Like Will Osprey is where we're going to put on a show. But I'm a little nervous on the finish. I don't know how they're going to do this. No idea. Lose the title. This early into his run. Or do you beat Will Osprey and then kind of establish Swerve as the top guy while still trying to protect Will Osprey. I don't know. And that is what's going to really drive me to watch this main event to see what they're going to do. Because I think the best thing in wrestling is when you have no idea what's going to happen. And I really don't know what's going to happen with this match. I know it's going to be a great match. I just don't know who's going to win. Well in AEW generally their matches have finishes. They don't do many non finishes. So you think there's going to be a decisive finish one way or the other. You think so. I don't know. Yeah. Like do the elite play some sort of role in that? They are so far they are not on the court for Ben Doar. So they're going to be there. Yeah. Obviously the EVPs, right? They're going to be there. Do they play some sort of role in this? I'm not sure. I'm not sure at all. Could the Don Callis family, you're seeing the cracks forming in the foundation of the family. Could the Don Callis family come back and go at Will Osprey because he's not being a loyal family member? Yeah. There's a lot of avenues they can go. And like I said, I'm not sure which one they pick. And that's why I'm going to tune in for sure to see what they do. The EVPs, they did actually have a match. It was a eliminator match. The acclaimed win after they went a little bit awry with the belt to the head and hit each other. I don't know. Maybe that gets added to the card. Yeah. And we talked about it a little bit today. Like when Forbidden Door started, it was kind of a, you know, world's collide card, right? You had New Japan versus AEW kind of thing. But right now, like I don't know what exactly they want Forbidden Door to be. Like do you going to keep having AEW versus AEW? Or are you going to strictly do the New Japan versus AEW? There are a couple matches on the card already that are going to be AEW New Japan. But how many more AEW versus AEW matches do you put on that show? I'm not, I'm not sure. I'm not booking it. But I think we need to, like I still think Osprey and Swerve probably could have been on your biggest show at all. And it still may be. But you could have had Osprey defend his title. And Forbidden Door against a New Japan wrestler. You could have had Swerve defend his title against a New Japan wrestler and kind of bridge that gap to all in. But they could add it, for sure. I just, do you want to keep giving New Japan talent that window to come in and work? Or is this going to be an AEW pay-per-view? It remains to be seen. Well, and here to be fair and to tie back to what we were talking about with TNA wrestlers basically auditioning for WWE jobs. I mean, gotta say that's what New Japan wrestlers were doing. And Forbidden Door. Yeah. Kyle Fletcher. JY. Will Osprey? All left. And it's really a rebuild time for New Japan right now. And I think the exact same for juniors is probably looking at it. Sure. Especially since Will Osprey's made the move and pointed out, "Hey, it's a six-hour commute. It's not that bad." Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I wouldn't want to do that. But yes. Maybe if I got paid his money, maybe. Maybe. Well, I mean, it's really only four hours longer than people commute in Chicago and LA. Yeah. Mike, you mean 20 minutes? I'll stick with that. You've seen a lot of it though. A lot of talents left New Japan and has moved over to AEW. And a lot of talent left AAA and came to AEW. So probably a reason why AAA is not involved in CMLL is. They're doing exactly what people are saying WWE is going to do to TNA. And they're going to start peeling off the people that they want. And again, if you're these smaller companies, you know, attach yourself to the bigger companies, you know, so use like a baseball reference, like you got your two major league teams. Yeah. They always have their minor league teams. And they call up, they send down, they call up, they send down. Sure. If you're a smaller company and you can attach yourself to an AEW and go, "Hey, we're the minor leagues for AEW, AEW is probably going to throw some money or way to keep you afloat, so you keep developing talent for them." So it's not a bad thing. If you're New Japan, obviously, I think you have a little bit more history and they are in a downtime, but we've seen New Japan do this all the time. So there's a chance that they will look back. They have the best training apparatus in pro wrestling. They have a dojo in LA. They have a dojo in New Zealand. They have a dojo in Japan. They give the people crazy workouts to get them ready to go. So yeah, they'll build back up. But if you're really smaller companies, attach yourself to the bigger companies, why not? Yeah. In talking about New Japan talent that's going to be built up, look at a couple of people from Las Vegas to be stepping up into a higher profile. Viva Van, who's the future star of wrestling champion in Las Vegas. She's also an active wrestler in New Japan and Matt Vandergriff, the aerial chemist. I think you'll see both of them continue stepping up to a great degree in New Japan pretty soon. How about the women's championships? We're going to see the TBS title defended. Mercedes Monet, she made an appearance in CMLL. It's taken on Stephanie Vancour. And then who are you picking? Who do you want Mariah made end up with? Tony Storm, Timer's Tony Storm, or Mina? I'm going to say Mina because I want Mariah and Tony Storm to finally get this feud going. But yeah, the Mercedes match, it's title for title, I think. It is. It's taken. So that's a way for her to get her that title, but she lost, but it was an injury that caused it. So that's the way to get that one back as far. Go ahead. Largely created for Mercedes. New Japan did not have a women's championship before that. Yeah. And then you could continue to do that. And I think she wants to explore that venue. Like you said, she was down in Mexico for a show. So let her kind of do this international travel thing, promote your company. And like I said, if you're one of these other companies and you've attached yourself, hey, you get to sell tickets because Mercedes Monet is going to be in your shows every once in a while. I do want Mariah Mae and Tony Storm to be here soon because that story is, it's very good. And I think we're getting to the point where Mariah Mae is going. Okay. I probably need to break off and do this. The Saraya curveball. Does kind of throw a wrench into things and I will see what that looks like because. I'm not sure Tony Storm loses at Forbidden Door, but if we're looking ahead to to all in. Are we going to see another four way or we're going to see, you know, a six back challenge, something like that. They're throwing a lot of pieces in the women's division and it's exciting because I think one of the biggest criticisms of AEW is their women's division is not hasn't been great. And we're seeing other feuds like a Thunder Rosa and Deena Plaza, right? We're seeing those two go at it. We're seeing Willow Night and Gail and Chris Statlander have their own feud and it's really cool to see. And then you still have these two championships that have main stories that are being told. So seeing the multiple storylines is really cool and seeing the amount of women that they are now showcasing is awesome. Yeah, which is the first time that's really happened because even when they had main event matches like with Dr. Britt Baker, the MD against Thunder Rosa, that was the only women's match on the card. Last night you had two big segments and it was according to the viewers, according to the people on social media, one of the best dynamites of the last couple of years. Yeah, and that's a good sign. And then, if you're Tony Khan, listen, you know, listen to that. You get the feedback. We want to see the women wrestle because you have a very talented women's roster. And now with Mercedes, you know, sky's the limit. Absolutely. And so you're going with your green. Everybody wants Mina. I would say that yes. Yeah, I was surprised that she hadn't been in America before now. Yeah, that's, you know, it is the travel things, you know, a thing and then the culture shock thing of coming to America is a thing. So if you were comfortable and making decent money, sure, it is what it is, but. Yeah, I think with, you know, the Mercedes Monet and then it's always, I think it's always going to come back to her with that relationship with new Japan, I think we're going to see a lot of this moving forward. Yeah, I'd agree with that. Any other matches that jump out at you on the forbidden door show. Yeah, I'm MJM's match. We talked about a day on our show. It kind of feels a bit thrown together. And I don't know is this. It's not really a dream match, right? So it's not really that forbidden door dream match. Now, well, you know, I don't know if it can be really with CML outside of Stephanie van core who. Is prominent because of her role in new Japan. You know, I don't think a lot of the American audience has ever seen CML with the exception of. Seeing him on a w. Yeah, yeah, and then I just, is this. The best use for MJF on. This paper for you. That's my only question. He came back with a lot of momentum had a great match last night with Rouge. And now he's kind of in the, you know. Let's be honest, a mid card match. MJF is one of your biggest stars. I don't understand. And I'm trying to use logic and pro wrestling and I know that's silly me. But like, why, why isn't he trying to take out the people that took him out? Like, I know Adam Coastal on the shelf, but there's four other members of that group. Why can't him and Roddy have a match or even Warlow have the match? They may get involved in this. This strikes me as, hey, we got to give CML. They got to get something and they are good wrestlers. And you're not going to elevate them unless they do something. So you may as well get them involved. And honestly, it's MJF second match. It really doesn't matter. He could be wrestling you and me. It wouldn't be a very exciting match, but it would go over. It would be fine. Roderick Strong and the Kingdom can come out. They can interfere and then you can set up something to continue building and create that arc. I'm sure it'll be fine. I mean, the CML wrestlers are really good. What hurts them, I think, a little bit is just that lack of knowing who they were. When it was Triple A as the partner, I was at the arena here in Kansas City when Alhela Delva Kingo came out and the guy sitting next to me who had been commentating the whole time. So, you know, no, no. Why do they have this guy out here? So no, no. Trust me, man. Watch him. This guy's amazing. You'll want to watch him. Why should we care about a minor league wrestler from Mexico? He's really, really good. Watch him. And then at the end of the match when the Kingo did a 450 splash outside of the ring onto Kenny Omega and a table. Oh my God. Where's this guy wrestling? It's well here. You can go on YouTube. The match he had against TJP and Impact is on there. It's just as good. Why? You don't watch this guy. That was a different level. But if the Kingo was actually relatively well known and people in the arena who paid, I was sitting pretty close, people who paid like 80 or 100 bucks to go to the show didn't know who he was. Okay. Well, now you're going a couple notches down the ladder where outside of like you and me and Mr. Cincinnati on a, how many people know into the weeds, the roster of CMLL. Exactly. Or even know what CMLL stands for. I don't know what it stands for. It stands for the Council of Legit Libre. There we go. See? I've learned something new every day. Oh, there you go. Orange Cassidy against Zach Sabre Jr. Yeah, I think, you know, that'll be a fun match. I know it was Zach Sabre Jr.'s not for everybody. The technical aspect of it, right? Some people just don't like it as much. I love it. I think it's a lot of fun to watch. The Orange Cassidy character is also a lot of fun to watch and now that he's broken away from the best friends. This is his first kind of true singles feud without that aspect to him. So I'm excited to see what his character arc or turn or evolution looks like. Well, he's looking for friends. He gave Renee a friendship right last night. He's always looking for friends. He's trying to find friends. He doesn't have any. Yeah. Yeah, you got to, you got to look out for Orange Cassidy. NWA, they're continuing their Crockett Cup. You're seeing them take a premium live event and they're breaking it up into, you know, basically six weeks of television. And it is, it is actually really good entertaining story arc wrestling. So if you want that old school pro wrestling feel where there's plots and their stories and the wrestlers have some character check out the NWA on the CW app. One of our frequent guests, Magic Jake Dumas is actively involved. He just had a match with Carson Drake on NWA. You can see the weight loss and the, the workout starting to catch up with Magic Jake. Probably about 30, 35 pounds lighter. So it's good. Yeah. Yeah. He's going to be able to do more card tricks now. Yeah. And I'm not any, anything else jumping out in pro wrestling before we get to the weekly champion. I did show you guys are getting ready to promote. We do. We do. We do. We have the SCI tournament coming up. That is in July. I would get the dates real quick. That is, I know this is terrible podcasting. I should have been prepared. That's on me. Yes. The SCI tournament down in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We are a sponsor for that. That will be on July 11th, 12th and the 13th. Our good friend, Landon Hale is in the tournament. So we are very excited to see what he can do. He is actually going up in the first round against Paul London. So that'll be a match. And then first time I've seen Paul London live. So, and I know his, his character and gimmick has changed a lot since the WWE days. So that'll be, that'll be a fun thing to, to go see. But yeah, now wrestling is a lot of fun right now. Let's just have fun with it. Like we, I think we're in a very good space, a very good era of wrestling. The two companies, the two major companies are listening to their fans for the first time and a long time, you know? Yeah, very true. So let's, let's enjoy it. Let's just have fun because we all remember 2010 to 2016. Absolutely. And if you haven't been watching who killed WCW, definitely check that out. It is, it's a combination of people. Like our contributor, Sonny, the man Eagle Kane said on the show last week. It wasn't just one person. It was a bunch of people. And then we had a chance to talk to baby doll who all that was in the WCW at the beginning. And she actually agreed with Sonny that the lack of merchandising was part of it, that they fell behind the WWE, probably by a hopeless margin when the action figures first came out. Yeah. Yeah, I remember, you know, I remember buying a few WCW action figures back in the day, but they're, I mean, they didn't touch the WWE. Yeah, WWE's were so much better. But yeah, that, that shows very good. It's, it's the nitro book kind of in TV form. So if you haven't read the nitro book and you want to go real in depth, that's a great book to read to, to really, really find out who killed WCW. Oh, yeah, absolutely. It was the death of a thousand cuts, I think we are going to be sponsoring outside of glory pro wrestling. I mean, we are going to be sponsoring Fountain City Pro Wrestling. It's a new, newer promotion coming out of Kansas City. Their third show was coming up on July 12 right here in KC and we'll have the guys from Fountain City Pro on to talk about it as it gets closer. But hey, let's go ahead and let's do the weekly champion. Who's your champion of the week? I mean, I don't think it's anybody else, right? He said his name, he appeared. There he is. I mean, 3.5 million views and 15 hours. It's, it's Joe Andrew. I mean, had the biggest week of anybody. Yeah, absolutely did amazing. And he was on busted open talking about all the extra work he's done. And he is. He's a guy who could actually go hold for hold with Zach Sabre, Jr. He is a decorated national champion level amateur wrestler from the UK as well as a motivational speaker and a rock star. And if you're debuting me, I mean, you got to be like, all right, like, he's got it. We got to get him in here. Absolutely. Yeah. Overnight success at 36 years old, Joe Henry. Crazy. You never tooled as DDP. Or Damian Priest, 41 years old and rolling with the championship. That's right. Yeah, I'll go with Joe Henry, too. I don't know how you can pick against him right now. He's, he's definitely the man who broke out and broke through crap that forbidden door for the WWE. Yes, he did. Well, hey, thanks for, thanks for stepping in. Thanks for making it past security. Hopefully you got your flame thrower back. Yeah, so let's hope so. Let's hope so. And again, thank you for having me on. Always, always a pleasure. Absolutely. And stay tuned to wrestling spotlight and the fired up network. You can download the True TV plus app on every platform. Now you can also see us on sports.tv. The single biggest all sports streaming platform in the country until next week. Thanks for coming into the ring here on weekly champions. Bye.