What's up you guys, welcome to Fightful. It's Sean Ross Sapp. It is July 31, 2024. It is WWE SummerSlam week. We're going to have plenty of coverage for you guys this week. I'm going to have interviews at the junket. We've got a live post show from Reg and Phil. We had the prediction show, Wade Keller, a pro wrestling torch joined us today, joined Stephanie Chase. We're going to have a preview show on select, of course, recovering smack down all that good stuff. But you can head over to FightfulSelect.com. See this guy doing an awful lot of coverage this week. We got Alex Palowski. Alex, how you doing? Better before the end of the main event, but good looking forward to seeing what SummerSlam has in store. There's a lot of stuff that I honestly don't know where they're going with it for better or for worse. So those are always fun. But yeah, there's a lot, a lot of good stuff in AW, you know, not counting my own proclivities. A lot better stuff there than in the city of Cleveland in general. Alex, before my grandmother passed away, I found out that my mother and my grandmother actually lived in Cleveland for years. Oh God, are you okay? Yeah, it's like I finally understood the villain in all the X-Men movies. Like I got it. I understood. What a betrayal. I know. I was like, this is gross. Although I will say this, one of the last things that my grandmother said to me was me going, "Hey, ma'am, I'm going to Cleveland for work in a couple months." She goes, "Sounds like a terrible job." And I will always enjoy that interaction. I will be in Cleveland this week. A place where you can see both the Christmas Story House and, you know, the most depressing landscape just in general within like a few miles of one another. But hey, while you're here, leave a thumbs up, subscribe, tap that bell for notifications, get your super chats and humper chats in here at youtube.com/fifle or over on twitter/x or whatever that may be. You can send in humper chats, h-u-m-p-e-r, chats.com. We would greatly appreciate it if you did that. We largely thrive off of your sponsors or our sponsors and your support. We ain't making that much money off of clicks. YouTube ad revenue ain't cutting it, my friends. So please subscribe to Fightful Select where today we did a collaborative report on our free tier that I just know has Alex excited. One day we are going to see the Darby Jericho Shane McMahon stable that we all need. So I'm going to break down a lot of this. You can also watch the What's Up You Guys podcast where I answered a lot of questions about this. But there's there's always a lot of conspiracy theories over stuff like this. It's a coordinated leak and there's no way. Listen. Oh man. Okay, I'm going to break down this in as much detail as I can while preserving someone's gig. I got hit up by Luke Owen on Tuesday as they had been sent some information and then as a result of verifying it got couple couple graphics that showed that Shane McMahon was at a private Arlington airport on Monday. Those are not the only images that that we were able to see as a result of verifying this. Now, I saw a lot of people say intentional leak. Well, if it wasn't an intentional leak, AEW sure did a good job ghosting me following up on any anything. I got more when I asked about them being in talks with CM Punk in 2021. Wow. Yes. Then this. Wow. So it is not hard to tell that based on the little HDR up in the top left hand corner of that image, it's likely that whoever did this was taking a bit of a video probably swiped their phone upwards, got a little image of whatever this was. Now, the person that sent it, I'll say this had an email that I found stuff online from from decades before it is they would have had to have gone to great lengths. Wow. To, to make this a coordinated leak in that sense. What did a hotmail domain? Not far off, buddy. Not far off. Okay. Okay. Good. Not far off. But I mean, I don't think that they're necessarily upset that this news emerged in here anything like that. But it was not the coordinated leak that I saw a lot of people conspiracy theorizing on a pretty, pretty wide spread. And not only that, I was able to look into the email and find who was connected to it and then discover what connection to that possible situation they might have. Right. Right. I'm good at this shit guy. No, he's really good at it. Yeah. I didn't get this this far by being zero news. I'll tell you that much. I didn't get this far by being brad shepherd and being like, I'm going to be on ballers next week. Let me tweet that. It's just not the way that it works. But we did our due diligence here and wrestle talk did a great job as well. And this is a situation that is happening quite frequently in media now where sometimes you get one source and you're like, well, I know a person in media that can get this double triple quadruple source. And I'm always happy to collaborate in that sense. I've done that with a number of people in the past, John Alba, WrestleTalk, PWN, just a variety of outlets and people. Raj Gary in the past as well. It's something I'm always open to. But Shane McMahon did have a meeting with Tony Khan. I don't know how that meeting necessarily went. But Shane has always been pretty diplomatic in his relationships, so to speak. Now granted the last, I don't say the last time to the 20 tours leg up at WrestleMania last year. But the time before that that he was around, he did not make a good impression backstage at the Royal Rumble. You can read a read a full feature on inside the Royal Rumble that dropped last year. But your thoughts when you heard about Shane McMahon possibly joining AEW, of which Tony Khan backstage has been pretty open to, it seems like. >> Look, the first time I heard about Shane possibly joining AEW was when people were speculating it about it months ago. My reaction to seeing a picture of them together, obviously taken with both of them were like what? And had nobody was posing for it. It wasn't like, hey, there were way too many cups on the table, as Jeremy Lambert pointed out. I don't know how thirsty. I know Shane sweats a lot. So he probably needs at least three or four cups of water at a time. But I was just like- >> And I did see people that were like, oh, we never see other pictures of these meetings. Listen, I didn't publish the picture at first. WrestleTalk did. I wouldn't have published the picture personally. But then they did, and I said to hell with it. I've seen numerous pictures like this. >> Yeah. I just needed to be done right. They have such an incredible wealth of talent that could never get on television. You know what I mean? And I just don't know what their plans are. And until I do, I reserve the right to be more apprehensive than excited. But there's certainly some things they could do with him that I would look at and be like, that's a great choice. That's a good use of Shane McMahon. But there are, I think, more options that if they did that, it'd be like, no, don't do that. So I just don't know which thing they're going to go with. But the last major deal that we had of him was him blowing at his quad doing a leapfrog in a match versus the Miz at WrestleMania 39. And the thing we had before was him basically deciding he should be the most important guy in the Royal Rumble. So he doesn't have a great recent track record, both in the ring and also like in creative. So I don't know where they're going with this, but I am at this point apprehensive. >> I would love to see him involved in the elite. I think that would be. >> I think that is a great way of using him. I hope that that is the thing they go with as opposed to anything else. >> I want to see him do the Mercedes Manet dance. >> Well, that would be very interesting. >> Did you hear Jeremy Lambert's idea? >> No, I did not. >> Oh, it's great. He said that Brian Daniels should come out and say, you know, I mentioned last week, my doctors don't want me to wrestle. And the last time that happened and I made my comeback, there was one man that was there for me. >> Mm-hm. Here comes the money, dollar, dollar, dollar, dollar. And there he is. >> Yeah. >> The greatest wrestler in the world. >> Yeah, yep. >> And then they can say we're the greatest in, we're the best in the world. >> Yeah, there you go. There you go. Yeah. >> There you go. Guys, get in your super chat, get in your humper chats. Big deodorant says, do you think it's more likely that Shane is coming in for a one off, or do you think he is the forbidden Shane between AEW and WWE? Love you, Sean. You're the best big step host ever. Shane has no connection at WWE anymore. I don't believe he has stock. He is not under contract. WWE confirmed that to me. I want to say last month, yeah, we're still in July. So in June, they confirmed that to me as well. But yeah, I think that we will eventually see Shane McMahon in AEW. And if for one thing, Christian Cage just walks out to the ring, looks at him and says, your father, and then just basks, and then there's no follow up. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. That's good. >> Thank you to Eugene for becoming a YouTube member. Will says, with the good work you do, you should join the Men in Black SRS. It's better than the fourth movie. I'm afraid I do not understand how that applies to the context of this situation. >> Well, I mean, maybe you're good at investigating things. >> I am good at investigating things. I'm very good at it. But your cousin from Boston says, with everyone assuming that AEW will get a new TV deal, how would it be presented to fans? TK in the ring to announce it, Twitter post, etc. Probably likely something to variety or the like, and then they would probably do something on TV. But how about this for a plug? FightfulSelect.com, the best $5 in the business. On Thursday, we got some news coming. Got some news about AEWBD. I will say all of our news has been accurate so far. I got one freakazoid that has emailed me from a burner like 40 times. Like last year, you said they were deep in talks. Hey, buddy, that's WBD's words, not mine. And they were. And we'll have more details on that just because I feel like releasing some of that. But also, a very important milestone date type of thing. FightfulSelect.com, best $5 in the business. Our WBD AEW reporting is going to age phenomenally well. I'll say that. Got the MJF promo. And he's interrupted by Will Osprey. They go back and forth about America. And the thing that's really highlighted to me, this was a smaller venue, smaller crowd, dark drab depressing background. Like the way that they shoot this, I see Will talking and nothing in the background. Nothing but just black and then the occasional light shining in at the screen. I wish they would find a better way to shoot that. But the MJF Will Osprey interaction is followed by the match with Lance Archer. But how do you feel about the promo itself? Because MJF will get to what happened afterwards after all that. But this promo in general talking about America and Will Osprey. Well, you know, he's he's he's doing his ugly American shtick, which we kind of thought was what what where they were going to go with this for the duration of of his title reign with the American title. But he wasn't out there very long before Will Osprey ran out there and ran him off. But then he cuts a promo about like, you know, because they're in Greenville, South Carolina. So you're going to get a USA USA chant, even if the guy represented the USA is clearly the villain here, they're still going to chant for USA. So we had Will Osprey had to stop and go, yes, no, I agree, bruv, America 100%. However, I don't think he's representing America to the greatest. And I was like, oh, that's a good pivot. Like, if you love America, awesome, you should hate him for being a fake for not being the right kind of American. I thought that was a really good pivot by Will. I, yeah, what we, that's the the weird thing about this is that the American champion plays really great as a heel when he goes to Mexico, or when he goes to the UK to face Michael Oku, or went or for all in. But it has a weird thing in America, because some crowds are going to feel weird about booing the America guy. You know what I mean? So I like that they're trying to figure out a way to draw a distinction between, yes, he's American and I'm not and USA USA, especially during the Olympics. But you could draw a distinction by making making the point that he is not representing America the way he should. I saw somebody say that Lance Archer is the type of guy we never really miss him, but then when he shows up on TV and has a match, you're like, damn, this guy's good. And it really does remind me of the OG days of AEW seeing him there. Yeah, really bring it does restore the feeling. Will Osprey beats him. After the match, Fletcher makes the save for Osprey and cuts this great promo. Koi Stallings says any truth to Fletcher being a replacement for MJF, like Dave Meltzer tweeted about, was it supposed to be Daniel Garcia? I'm I haven't I don't think it's supposed to be it was wasn't supposed to be Daniel Garcia. And I'm working to find out who it was that Meltzer was alluding to on his tweet. He said that somebody had obligations they couldn't get out of. I don't think Daniel for this particular spot tonight for the Kyle Fletcher thing. I don't think Daniel Garcia has like an important chiropractor's appointment. He can't get out of to fulfill contractual duties. But I am working on that, but Kyle Fletcher cut a great promo is great. And I've long said that I see him where I see him where AJ Styles was in 01. Yeah, I see him where Kenny Omega was in 2015, where Will Osprey was a number of years ago. And he is next up in my opinion. I love it. And I also like MJF's Thank Me Later line. That's a nice switch from I'm better than you and you know it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's quicker. It's to the point. Crowd crowding going to get behind it. No, he can he can just go with that. What'd you feel about all this? Well, I wanted to call attention quickly to the Archer and Osprey match. I thought they did a really great job of having Archer immediately get the upper hand with a giant choke slam and then just pound Osprey into submission throughout. But Osprey gets one really good reversal and then hits a hidden blade that Archer kicks out of at one because he didn't get all of it. Like if they won, they showed the replay. I was like, that wasn't a full hidden blade. So Archer kicking out of it one doesn't ruin the move because immediately he does it to him again. And he's out for the count. I thought that was a really, really good use of both guys in that. Fletcher saving Osprey from being attacked by MJF. I don't even know who you would use if it wasn't Garcia. That's the only other person. I don't know who you would use in this spot other than that unless it was Pac because Pac's got the match versus MJF down the line. Like honestly, I don't know who else you would do. It's it's Fletcher. Like it's a perfect thing. I also love that they brought out Callis and Fletcher says to Callis. I know that because he's not in the Don Callis family anymore. So it's not family business. But that man is my not only my best friend. He's my brother. And I wasn't about to let him sit out here getting his ass beat by this clown. And he caught a cut a great promo on MJF. We're going to get an MJF versus Fletcher match. I love the threat from MJF of like I'm going to beat the absolute dog crap out of your boy next week. It's all because of you. So you can thank me later. All of that is awesome. This was great. I mean, I think the match we're going to get with Fletcher and MJF is is going to be excellent. MJF will win and then we will have a really cool thing to look back on in a few years when Kyle Fletcher is world champion material. MJF is still at the top of his game. We will have this match to look back on as part of the beginning of their story together. It's great stuff. See Delgado says they should advertise best in the world for all out troll Chicago. It changed the Rainmaker to the Shane Maker. I am ashamed to say that I enjoy that a lot. Risi Rosé says a few hours ago, Divan said Will Washington is a snake in the locker room and leaking information. Any comment? Wait, do you want me to comment on the guy who hosted the podcast that did a three part series platforming a convicted pedophile? Or do you want me to comment on Divan Dudley who about 12 seconds into that clip thought that Will Washington was still a dirt sheet writer when he got signed by AEW 15 months ago and in his contract, his physical contract, they were able to insert in there. You are not allowed to provide proprietary information to your previous employer. Which of those would you like for me to comment on? Because I'll tell you what I can comment on. The fact that I have done interviews with a number of talent who brought him up on their own because I don't bother asking Will about proprietary information because I wouldn't risk his dream job. But have unprovoked brought up how much they like Will. Haven't had anybody bury him yet. Not had had anybody bury him yet. Am I biased? Probably a little over the fact that I worked with him. But hey, that's why I'm not on this show singing the praises of Will Washington every week. But listen, if you want me, I just clarify which, which do you want me to comment on? Because I know one thing, I'll never be so desperate in my career to where I have to hitch my wagon to a person who's like, yeah, let me get somebody who's on the fucking registry. Let me, let me find somebody whose name pops up when you, when you Google it, and you're looking for all the weirdos in your neighborhood so they could tell their side of the story. Guess when their side of the story was told, the guilty plea or the conviction brother. So you can miss me with that one. Now, if somebody who hosts a show that maintains some sort of credibility within the wrestling world that says something like that, yeah, I'm happy to address whatever they say. But guess what? I ain't heard none of those yet. James Stallings is still waiting on Ricochet laughing emoji. Great show tonight. Keep up the great work tonight or great, keep the great work guys. I thought tonight might be the night for Ricochet. And I, I was like, you know, I, I thought that they had a loaded July and that would be a good way to cap it off. But didn't happen. No, didn't happen. Bill says MJF using the kangaroo kick on Fletcher will rival Bart Simpson versus Australia. That's a good one. That is good. Learning tree promo Alex, how'd you feel about this? Masterful stuff. Masterful stuff 102 days. He put 102 days on the, on the cake. Like listen, get, get big bill into witness protection program. So Jericho can't find him anymore. He's, he's so good. He's better at this. The Jericho is because he's got a level of like sincerity, like to this that like you know, he's, he's playing the gimmick. But he also sounds at least moderately like a real person. He's better at this than Jericho is. Whatever Jericho heard his pinky. So he can't fight Shabbat. So he's gonna have Brian Keith do it. There you go. I mean, like this, this what this is. Um, I, I, we're thinking like, let's hope the hook is back in time to beat Jericho with an inch of his life at all in. And then this whole thing goes away. That's, that's the only, that's the only thing I'm looking forward to when it comes to this, because I think that both of the underlings have way better stuff they could be doing than this. Chris, that lander defeated Willow Nightingale in a championship eliminator. This one saw, I mean, this one first off has stakes. Yeah, it's got build, which I am, I am all too happy about. And it's, it's a feud that continues here on Dynamite making, you know, adding, adding some juice to this show as well. We saw Chris satlander hitting a 450. I think it's caliber called Stokely her short king or something like that at one point. I thought this worked out really, really great. This was, they were, they did like a sirloin beef sons of bitches match for a bit of this, which I really, really loved. Is this still doing it for you? I love Chris and I love Willow. The fact this was an eliminator match to get to the actual title match, presumably at all in. I don't know if we needed to see how many of these are, is the, is, are we going to? I don't want them to be diminishing returns at any point. This was really good, stat getting the win with the, with loading up her forearm with a chain was, was good stuff. We'll get the match again. I don't know when the end game is planned. I just, I don't want this to out, out, out stay, it's welcome. But for now, it's great stuff. Both of them are amazing. Stokely is adding a lot to this that the touch of statlander helping Stokely off the apron, like he was an eight year old child was very, very good. I loved it a lot. For some reason, Jeremy Lambert is here of whom I will be seeing this week in Cleveland. You are Cleveland affiliated. So I just got that first question. What's your fucking problem? I mean, I don't claim Cleveland. I'm not, I wasn't born in Ohio. I moved here out of love. That's even worse. Yeah, but you know, men do foolish things in love. So, and by the way, my, my lovely wife actually has a gift for you when you come and visit this weekend. So she, what is it? What is it? A seven score on a par three? No, that was coming, but no, no. She bought you, she bought you something very nice. It's actually right next time. I won't show it on camera. Okay. I have news. I'm going to, I'm doing a Sean Ross sapon in the weeds, run it here. I don't even know if this is serious, but usually. No, it's very, it's actually very serious. Basically, he's on the show this late. So I'm like, this can't be a bit. Well, you guys, I assume have, or we'll talk about chain and a w and the photo and everything. Obviously, Sean and rest of talk broke the news this morning. Bully Ray, he does his own show. He does busted open up. Yes. Never heard of it. He does. He got a statement from Shane McMahon. I'm going to assume it's legit. Bully Ray is the adamant that it is legit. Very adamant. I find it hard to believe that he would just lie over something like this. I agree with you. I agree with you. So I'm going to read this statement and I'm about to write the article, but everybody now gets it first here. Okay. Statement from Shane on the meeting is Tony and I were connected through a mutual friend and we had a great meeting. We talked about many things, but mostly about our shared love for the business and the rewards and challenges of working with family. I congratulated him on the five year anniversary of AEW and look forward to how he evolves the business moving forward. That is Shane McMahon's statement, via Bully Ray, on the meeting with Tony Khan. So my question is Alex, have you reached out to Spike Dudley, Big Dick Dudley, Dances with Dudley? Because I guess all the duddlies are getting brought up on this show tonight. Yeah. I have not. I've been lacking in my duties. It's been a long time since I handled news for the site. Mostly, I'm just a guy who blowingates. We can't get a hold of snot Dudley or sign guy Dudley. He's not working in T&A anymore. I mean, hey, at least this Bubba Ray was, Bully Ray was productive here. Shout out to Bully Ray for getting that scoop, man. Good. There you go. I now have articles to write. I listened to a CM Punk interview during Dynamite. No idea what actually happened on Dynamite. I wrote three CM Punk stories instead. Well, I sincerely appreciate you dropping that because that is what that is something that I needed. And he just hit the brakes. Goodbye, Jeremy. Goodbye, Jeremy. Yeah. I mean, let's go. I saw that Bully Ray was going to get that and I was like, okay, not not a lot of people have have that connection. Not a lot of people can just reach out to Shane, go figure. Yeah. Any egg and any thoughts on Statlander and Willow? No, I said, I said my piece. I thought I think that there, this is, here's the thing that I want, I want to call attention to. AEW currently on main shows has four great, I mean, great women's programs. Great. Like the fact that you've got what they're doing with Tony and Mariah, we'll talk about what they're doing with with with Mercedes and and Brit with now Camille added to it. Great. What they're doing here with with Statlander and and Willow. Great. What they've been doing now for what four months with Thunder Rosa and Diana Perazzo flying under the radar, adding Tia Valkyrie to the to the mix. Great. Like this is the kind of stuff that we, I think, both of us said once Mercedes comes in, they're going to start really packing out, they're going to use these great women they have. We got two women's matches tonight that used to be completely unheard of on Dynamite. This is awesome that we're getting the women used to such great effect. Like none of these stories they're telling are more about like the, the, the dude who's hanging around the championship. It's about the women. This is great stuff. Love it. 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You can get a password manager, a file encryption tool, be safe, be smart, NordVPN.com/fightfall. Check it out, guys. Very useful. Very useful. Roderick Strong, the Beast Mortos and Rush defeated the conglomeration, which now includes Tomahira Ishii. Matthew Hook says Rush and Rush Mortos is a tag team, Camille versus Meghan Bain. Go ahead, Alex. Hey, guys, I'm here to tell you about eBay Auto. eBay Motors is the leading online platform for automotive dealers to get their inventory in front of over $7 million ready to buy shoppers who are buying cars and trucks on eBay Motors every three minutes every single day. They make it easy to find parts for cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, and more. They even offer a massive selection of new and pre-owned classics. Whether it's fixing, updating, or maintaining your existing vehicle, or finding new and used vehicles, eBay Motors is easy to navigate by vehicle type category of items, sales events, or the brand type of car, motorcycle pickup, or SUV that you have. You can shop parts on the eBay Motors app, and with their eBay guaranteed fit, it is guaranteed to fit your ride every time. Head over to ebay.com and find what's right for your ride. That's ebay.com. And this is something I called for a while ago, like, I don't know, December. What can they do with Beast Mortos, the former Black Taurus? I was like, put them with Rouge. Make them, you know, the El Toro Negro and El Toro Blanco, something. Somebody in the Sour Graps Discord said, "Call them Los Toro's Furiosas, the raging bulls." Like, these guys together, I loved how they were interacting. Beast Mortos for ROH champ. I'm calling it now. Let's do it. He got the pin on Brisco. I have loved what I have seen from this guy in AEW. He's a great base for smaller guys. He's incredibly strong, an amazing look. Like, he's that he is excellent. I loved what I saw out of this. All six guys in this match were really, really great. This has been a really great surprise for me that we were like, "Hey, let's throw Roderick Strong with Rouge should be some of those." And like, it worked. Everything worked. It was excellent. This is one of the rare instances you're going to see, like a 5'9" and under "Sirloin beef sons of bitches." That's right. Like, listen. When I first started covering New Japan, gosh, it was mid 2010s. And I was trying to get, cover something that was vastly undercovered in American wrestling news. And the first New several times that I watched Tomey or Achee, I had no concept of how tall he was. The way that he wrestles. I just assumed he was the 5'11" and maybe 300 pounds. No. He's not. Maddie Nisas with the LFI vignettes, is Rouge still with LFI in AEW? Are they emerging with DCF? I think at the end of Grand Slam, Darby will be the AEW champ. Man, there's a real possibility based on what we saw tonight that that could happen. I wonder how that plays into WrestleDream. I don't know yet. And I've got my theories and we'll talk with that later tonight. As far as LFI, I don't have a damn clue what they're doing. I wish I could provide more on that. But we've seen so many stops and starts and people be involved and then taken away and then released and moved around. And then they're over in this stable. Unfortunately, that has foggyed up the waters quite a bit for me. Yeah. Yeah. A little thing talking about how small Achee is, the Stone Pitbull is kind of a misnomer because Pitbulls are not small dogs. So I called him on the collision review on, if I have a select last week, I called him the Stone Peganese because he is a V is a much smaller dog than a Pitbull. But he is made of stone. Whatever kind of dog he is, he's made out of stone. That dude, you can't do anything to him. We got this Mariah Mae promo that I just loved. It's a sit down, it's a lay down interview with Renee Paquette. And Mariah is truly sociopathic in this character. She is just, no, Tony didn't do anything wrong. I just used her. That's all, not even anything personal. It just became fun for me. Yeah. Tony is very mad. She is livid. She's beside herself. Maddie Nice wants her to beat Mariah with the wire hangers. James Zimmerman says that he was very happy with the women's division tonight, which by the way, got two women's matches tonight. Yeah. On Dynamite. Yeah. Even even if one's an enhancement match. But we've been asking for a long time and we got those on stage promo, backstage promo. Yeah. And, and this interview. So I mean, there was a lot put into this that I don't think can be underscored. But yeah, says Timeless Tony Storm is on fire. I just love the Mariah Mae stuff. And Tony's reaction will be what it is. She is, she is, she's razor Ramon in late 95, fallen for all the gold dust tricks. Inside, like she's fallen for it all. Yeah. Mariah's got. She's, she's gone fully round the bend. The painted on eyebrows, like this is, this is so fantastic. I can't wait to see what she does with his next four weeks leading up to that match as she goes further and further into insanity. The, the, I can only imagine the entrance of fully gone Tony Storm for all in. Like, what is that going to look like? What is, what makeup will she be wearing? What outfit? How will she like be carried to the ring? Like, what is it? So this, she's all, she's been on another level with her character work for a year now. Mariah has perfectly slid into that sted-eyed sociopath thing, which is completely different than what we were seeing her before she turned. And it works. It all works. It all feels like it works. Because she pulled the wool, not only over Tony Storm's eyes, but over ours as well. So that we, we kind of fell in love with the whole, she was playing, she was playing a peacemaker between Tony and Mina. Like, this is so, what a sweet love story this is. And a month later, she destroys all of it. It's just such, such excellent stuff. Get the acclaimed promo. They want FTR. I want to know when they're getting their tag title shot. I mean, FTR, when they cut their return promo on collision, said we want the young bucks at all in. And I mean, they would leapfrog the, the acclaimed to get that shot. I wonder if it's a triple threat. I hope. Like somehow this match between FTR, I mean, I don't know who the other team team is, but yeah, don't care. Don't throw anybody else. Don't throw a ladder up there too. It's a real glass. Yeah, don't care. Make it, make it Roush and, and Mordos. Do that, do that tag team. Why not? Let them win it. It should be MXM. Honestly, MXM should be great. They're so good. That's a completely different type of team than the other three that would be in it, making it four corners. I just don't understand why, why the line of thought is that FTR, like, should have been in the, the blood and guts match, because they, they were wasn't out. No, they were, they weren't cleared to wrestle. If they had been cleared to wrestle, I'm pretty sure they would have had that spot in, in the blood and guts match acclaimed. So you calling them out doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I, I think they, they, they really need to add a little bit of something. MXM, as you had mentioned, boy, that their first promo was so good. The crowd reacted perfectly to that. Thomas Sandberg says, Tony Storm, women's wrestler of the year, easily. I'm very interested to see who, who ends up winning women's wrestler of the year in the Fightful Awards. Cause like, Ria missed a few months. I, I don't know how that will necessarily play out, cause we have a multitude of awards. We have women's best on promos. We have women's best in-ring performer and then women's best overall performer. And we have seen where someone will win best promo or best in-ring and neither of those win best overall performer, which I, I really like. Yeah. I, I, I should find out this week though. Um, I, I think that Tony probably has best on promos sewn up just because of the ridiculous stuff that she says. Um, but overall, like it, it's, it's hard. She's been very consistent for a full year. Like we'll see if like her loss to Mariah Mae, which I assume she will lose to Mariah Mae, takes her off of TV for an extended period of time because that might hurt her in the overall wrestler of the year thing. But also Ria has a lot of, she used to catch up because she missed all that time. She used to catch up quick in the fall. Kyrie says you think that could ever be AEW bound at love the show. Well, thank you so much for that. Yeah, I do think one day perhaps, but I, I feel like they probably would have brought her in more if they had their eye on bringing her over full time. You know what I mean? But I think we could definitely see that happen. I think, I think we could for sure see that happen. Uh, and regarding Tony, I mean, she won women's best on promos last year, did a great acceptance speech for us. Yes. Camille defeated Brittany Jade. I've had the opportunity to see Brittany Jade wrestle a lot. Glad to see her getting a spot here, but glad to see Camille pretty quickly back in the fold in the ring and showing what she can do. This was quick, but also we needed to see what this woman could do in the ring. And the world did too, because most of the world has not seen NWA. That's true. Uh, there was a, there was a bit here that, that was odd to me when they just said randomly kind of in passing. We are told that the match is official for all in. Um, Mercedes Manet defending her title against Britt Baker. And I was like, what changed? Mercedes last week said, you're not getting that title shot. Like, I'm assuming somebody told her, yes, she is getting the title shot. But who was that? Like, when did that should, that should have been a moment that Christopher Daniels comes out and tells her Britt Baker is getting that title shot by order of Tony Khan, whatever it is, it just kind of felt weird that they just dropped it on us. I thought Britt would have to earn it in some way. Like, you've got to beat this thing to get it. I thought a great way to do it was to do some kind of tag match at all in. And well, they showed the Comic Con stuff. They did announce this at Comic Con. Okay. Yeah. So they made, they made that confrontation happen and they, they ended up setting the match. So I got no problem with that. But they also said the elite suspended Britt Baker. Yes. So she was not there tonight either. Yeah. We got a super chat from our friend Irene who says, besides the initial shock value, I just don't know the long term benefit of Shane and AEW. What does he bring into the company that isn't already there? Well, for sure, it will largely be for the initial shock value. But let's be very, very blatant. He brings the name McMahon in a very petty wrestling world. That's what he brings. He brings the name McMahon and a few people that like to see him do crazy shit. He brings some memes, some banter, some really great jokes that we can make, some funny one offs with the elite. I think that like I don't have a great desire to see him wrestle people. I had somebody say, what are your dream Shane McMahon matches in AEW? And I said, literally him with the elite facing somebody where they can protect him. That's it. No desire to see him do one on one stuff. The only one, one on one that I would be interested in is him versus Darby Allen of who's the craziest mother effort in the history of professional wrestling. Because I still remember watching him do that ridiculous, just fall off the top of the scaffolding versus Steve Black. When I was like, the son of the owner of the company just committed suicide on pay per view. Like he's, I've always said that dude has as a screw loose upstairs. Well, guys, check out our wonderful partners at Bed Online AG. You'd have to have a screw loose and not put some money down on some of these great odds that they have right now, not just, not just summer slam odds, which by the way, as of now on Bed Online AG, four champions are favored to switch titles. I think Logan Paul is favored to lose, which that's an under, if I had to pick one underdog at this point, I'd probably pick Logan Paul because of the Cleveland connection for him. And you got Braun Breaker favored to win, Nia Jax favored to win, and Gunther favored to win. But also they've got John Cena WrestleMania opponent betting odds. Right now Randy Orton is the favorite at plus 100. However, also, he's a minus 120 to wrestle for a world title at WrestleMania. I don't think those two can coexist. So if you get crafty with your bet there, I think that that could be a surefire way to make money one way or another over at our friends bed online. AG trusted over 25 years highest credit card acceptance. They got a bunch of great games. You can play poker. You can they got every sports book known to man, NCAA, NHL, MLB, NBA, NFL, all that good stuff. But also they have odds about whether or not Jake Paul shows up. If Roman Reign shows up, how many tables will be broken? All kinds of great stuff over at bet online AG. Please only bet what you can and bet responsibly over in our Fightful Select discord. Thanks to a popular demand. We have started a bet online channel on our subscribers only discord where I'm going to be talking to you guys about odds. If you have any questions about what they mean or my picks. I haven't had a lock pick in a couple months that I've made. But so far our lock underdog picks are nine for nine this year. And I think we have in our official predictions, we have made 14 correct underdog predictions out of 15 this year. Check it out, my friends. Koi says Camille versus Hader at all out. Don't mind me speaking that into existence. I could see Jamie and Brit versus Camille and Mercedes at all out. And I think that's a real possibility and not just a possibility, a real I think it's a likelihood at this stage. Oh boy, it's Brian Danielson promo. He comes out to the ring and he talks about his connection to Greenville. And it's so funny because the crowd's like, you don't know shit about Greenville. And he's like, yeah, I got my engagement pictures done here. I love downtown. It's beautiful. And they're like, Oh hell yeah. He talks about promises that he made to his child, to his wife, who does not want him to wrestle, he promises child that when she was seven, he would stop wrestling full time. Doctors don't want him to wrestle. And there's a lot to get into here because FightfulSelect.com reported this past Sunday. Best $5 in the business, please subscribe. Brian Danielson, like this is a shoot as far as man's body is made to paper mache. It's a miracle he can stay in the physical shape that he's in. And the way that it was laid out last week was his neck is fixable. And they want to keep it that way. He has legitimately been prevented from doing things that he has wanted to do and matches that he was supposed to be a part of. And Swerve comes out and Swerve teases getting a little bit personal, but he's like, you know what, I respect you so much. I admire you, inspired a lot of people, including me. He's like, but I don't think that physically you can carry the weight of being world champion. And Danielson thought about it. And he said, you know what, if I can't be a world champion, I don't need to be anything. Now there, there's an awful lot to this. He says he'll retire if he doesn't win the AEW title. There's some wiggle room. Didn't say it all in, even though it very clearly is at all in. His talent contract is legitimately up tomorrow. Yeah. He is committed to future dates as Fightful Select reported. They have him on a pitch count, so to speak. Right. They want to make sure they get their all in match backstage. He challenged Jeff Jarrett, the safest worker in the history of pro wrestling. Right. I want to know what you think about all of this from the promo that got cut, the stipulation, and of course, the great Jeff Jarrett. So first, there's two, there's two things. And like, with the answer to these questions, I think dictates how you feel about this whole thing. I asked myself, do I believe that Brian Danielson wants his character? I eat himself, because that's the person he's playing to be perceived as a liar. I do not believe that he wants that. Do I believe that if Brian Danielson were to lose at all in, that he would honestly retire from wrestling forever? No. I think he would take some time off, but he'd always want to come back. He's a sicko. He loves this. He needs it. So if he's not a liar, and if he's going to wrestle after August at the end of August, then he's winning the match. And to me, that gives the game away. Now, I honestly thought he was going to win the match, but I didn't know for sure this to me with a stipulation like this attached to it kind of lets me know Brian's winning. And I don't like having that thing being told to me. And honestly, if he does lose, well, that's worse because then he's retiring or he's a big old liar. I don't want those things either. Also, the thing with Jeff Jarrett, yeah, he's an incredibly safe worker. Put this dude in bubble wrap. We saw Shotzi have a match in NXT, where all she did was hop backwards off the apron and land on both feet and blew out her knee. Crazy stuff happens when you're not doing anything. Adam Cole jumped off a ramp, wrecked his ankle, hasn't been back since. And it is kind of wild that like Adam Cole just stepped off the apron. Darby's been hit by a bus, hung upside down, kicked in his already broken nose and he's come back multiple times. Yeah, I'm with you. I saw a lot of people say, Oh, the stipulation makes it predictable. I mean, maybe, maybe for people who don't live on, or like who live on the internet and stuff, but I don't think that it does necessarily. Brian has always seemed like the type of guy who will decide when he goes wants to go out. Maybe he wants to go out at Arthur Ashe. Maybe he wants to go out at Wrestle Dream. But we're looking at a situation where they're very clearly heating Darby up. Yes. Swerve is the champion. Danielson is the top contender. And we have an AEW paper view in Seattle in a few months, which is where all three of them are from. We're all three of them are from. So that triple threat to me feels like a lock. I just don't know who's going to be the champion when that happens. That's that's that's that's to me feels like what what to me, not me all a lock, but I anticipate that is where they're headed because it just feels like something they would do. But yeah, I, I, I loved the promo from Brian. And I really loved what surf came out and said, you know, like, I respect the hell out of you. I, I looked up to you. You inspired me to be become a wrestler. I thought that was all very excellent. Somebody says, technically it's in Tacoma, not Seattle. Okay. Oh, brother. Yeah. It's in Washington state. They could do it in Spokane. It would still be their home state. Yeah. Darren Walker says JJ versus Danielson, the match we all prayed for. I am sincerely excited to see that match. I am, I will be watching that. Like literally with my fingers crossed, saying a prayer the whole time. Because if Danielson, if something happens to Danielson during that match, no matter what kind of freak out it is, the whole thing's ruined. His Wembley dream is over. Alex, if I can do a stroke onto a chair on Effie, at this point, Jeff Jarrett can do it without hurting Brian Day. I'm just saying. I mean, I was way better. Well, sure. I know that a lot of people are surprised that I stroked Effie that hard. Yeah. But I did. I made sure that he got stroked. JP says Swerve should have put the challenge down, not Danielson. The belt was already on the line. He up the stakes for no real reason. I would like for Swerve to mention that. I'd like Swerve to be, he kind of did. Swerve, it wasn't him putting like a bat or anything. He said, you don't need to make that promise to me. Make it to your family. Keep it to your family. So Swerve already did kind of address it. He's like, give a damn if you wrestle after this or not. That's self-imposed. He's like, I care about the title. Why don't I give a shit about you? I like you. Yeah. I thought that Swerve played it off really good. They had great delivery here, but he was just like, what the hell do I care, man? Yeah. Darby Allen defeated hangman page, Boris says this hangman hosting all in. I think it's pretty clear they're going to go towards Ocata for the continental title, but I thought this match kicked all kinds of ass. I know you don't like to finish. So I want to hear why you didn't like it. Well, listen, my anti-Darby proclivities are well known beyond the paywall, but I feel like the opposite of like when somebody grows on you, the opposite of that is me and Darby. Like I used to be a big fan, and I've just seen him do the same things over and over again for long. And I know he can do more. I remember that MJF match that he had at all out one year, I think it was. And I was like, where's this guy? Do more of this stuff? Don't just hurl your body at people. There's, to me, that's incredibly diminishing returns on that. Every time I see it, I'm less impressed by it. I'm sorry. I am. Also, the story of get your absolute ass handed to you for 15 straight minutes. Have a dude do his finisher to you twice. And then whoopsie-daisy, I put over, hold you up and pin you. Man, that's that's the kind of stuff I just get. I don't care who it is. I can't stand when you see when you see a guy like that, he takes so much punishment and somehow wins. Like they did a thing last week where it wasn't enough that he threatened to burn a man to death on live television to get a shot at the fourth most important singles title on the brand. But in 45 minutes later, they had him win a different title shot that happens a month later for a different title. I don't like they're, they're, they're really pushing this guy. And, and everybody else loves it with me. And that's fine. But I can't pretend to love it. So I, I'm a huge hangman fan. And I think hangman is one of the best characters in wrestling. So, so great. And I loved what he did here. And I loved Excalibur calling it out at hangman looking to the kids who were cheering for Darby the whole time. And like, like, is, is he remember, is he thinking of his own son in this moment? I, I thought all of this was great. And the whole time I was watching going is Jack Perry under the ring or the elite gonna come out. What's gonna happen here? And no, he just won clean. I was like that. I don't feel like you should do that to hangman. Also, you say he's definitely going for the continental title. And I, I don't know people, people seem to think that might be doing a Jeff Jarrett versus hangman grudge match, which is not him going for the continental title. So we, we, we see it. Two else equal photos says add hangman to the Washington match kills hometown dreams. I don't think they'll put all their eggs into one match basket. I think they'll spread it out. And also you, you've got Nick Wayne, who will be trio's title defending there likely likely. James Zimmerman says, I think Darby's going to be a w champion soon. I do too. I think that Darby is going to be that. I think that, and he has said in the past, I care more about the world, the T and T titles and the world's title, but yeah, Darby winning tonight surprise the hell out of me says James Stalin surprised me too. And I, this is what finally made it, made it for me be like, okay, Darby might be a guy that they're crowning. I, I think that, um, I, I knew Darby was winning. I just thought it was going to be because something went wrong with an attack by the elite that then further opened the rift between hangman and the elite, which is how we get to hangman versus Okada. Um, I didn't think they were just going to have a hangman end up just getting rolled up. Like that, that to me just did, it didn't, it wasn't what I wanted out of this match certainly. Okay. Guys, a reminder, subscribe to Fightful Select.com. We got a discord, a bunch of bonus podcasts, exclusive news every single day, every single day. Tomorrow we got some injury updates. We got a www D news, just $5 a month or $54 a year. Promise if you guys try it, you're going to love it. Now every day, we're going to be, or every Monday, we're going to be doing that Q and A backstage report combo podcast. We got a bunch of retro reviews as well. Just anything you could ask for over at Fightful Select.com. Roy says, did hangman change his facial hair from man with no name to angel eyes since turning heel? It seems like it. It seems like it. And our good friend, Vicki says, hi, SRS and Alex, the great. Sorry, you dislike Darby. Sting chose him. Can't hate him. Darby has the momentum now. Hard to find a harder worker. Thanks. Also, according to Steve Borden, the younger one, does not own a couch, Darby. I bought two of them last week. So I feel fancy, man. I feel very fancy. As far as like, what the hell's going on with hangman, there are few people that can lose better in wrestling than hangman page. Right. No, he's going to be fine with it. He delivers emotion very well. One thing we did not get an answer to, why the hell the lights go out? That was unusual. I feel like that was a slip of the lightboard. If you know production, all you got to do is hit the wrong button and it skips to the next queue. And you have to program it to go back. It's not like a go back button. So I got plenty of issues with AWS lighting in general. I think the show's lit poorly. Not as bad as TNA. My God, their last pay per view was just a bismol. But do you remember when they had that error and it just flashed hello on the screen? Everybody was like, who is it teasing? The dark order or back? No, it was an error. Go figure. Irene says, don't care if it feels predictable. I selfishly want Danielson to win it all in and have an AWS world title run. Let the goat have his glory. I want him to win. I was rooting for him before tonight when now I feel like there's the suspense to me has been halved. Like at some point, I think, you know, I was I was pretty much 50 50 at some point. I was leaning and it's more likely Danielson. Now I feel like it's 70% Danielson at least wins this thing. And I wanted there to be more I wanted to be more suspense during the match from me personally. Guys, I want to thank you all for joining us. I'm going to try to call in Saturday as well for the post summer slam show. But Alex will be doing a post show review over on Fightful Select as well. Tell the people what you got going on. Well, we'll be doing a post summer slam. Like you said on on Saturday, me and Kate behind the paywall, Fightful Select, we always do want to lose after every AW and WWE and NXT. We'll do that every Tuesday. We talk about NXT. There's a lot of moving parts here going forward. The second straight week of the Great American Bash. We'll be next week. Also, we do a Monday Night Raw review behind the paywall and Friday. We'll do a little rampage. Watch along. I hear they taped MXM versus Pirate Party for Rampage this week. That sounds like a blast. MXM signing with AW is going to prove to be a phenomenal decision. Besides the fact that I like the fellas genuinely, the fact that we saw some of their creativity shine in the vignettes they released after that didn't end up airing. They're very good. They're so quick-witted. It's going to work out really, really well. Guys, I'm headed to Cleveland tomorrow. I don't know if you're religious, but pray for me anyway. I got to deal with that. Listen, this isn't an example of the rollercoaster of emotions. The hotel that I booked blindly for way too much money. A stupid amount of money, unfortunately. Right across the street from the junket. Very excited about that. That's nice. Right up from Jacob's Field. I'm going to see my grandmother and my mother's old house. Nice. A little emotional thing. Less than a mile from the Christmas story house. I hate Christmas story. I think the movie sucks, but I'm going to go see it anyway. To really show an example of Cleveland, also a half mile away from where Ariel Castro cashes those women in Hellen for a decade. So, obviously, yeah, yeah, good. That's Cleveland. Guys, hope I see some of you in Cleveland. I'm probably not going to be outside that much. Shocker, it's going to rain all week. Until next time, guys, we're out. If you're a facilities manager at a warehouse and your HVAC system goes down, it can turn up the heat. Literally. But don't sweat it. Granger has you covered. 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