[music] What's up you guys? Sean Ross App, welcome to Fightful. It's the What's Up, you guys podcast. We've got plenty to talk about today, but we are going to talk about what you want to talk about formerly the what do you guys want to talk about podcast. Cody Rhodes has sort of started his own show, so we ain't exactly fighting that one. I'm not going to go at it with that uphill battle, so it is the What's Up You Guys podcast. Leave a thumbs up on this video. Get a super chat or humper chat in. That's how you get your question answered on the air, your statement read on the air. We're going to make a conscious effort to spend even more time on these or as much as I can. I got people asking me if I'm going to Blink 182 tomorrow. No, I am headed to Cleveland tomorrow, so man, let's get right into it. Get those super chats in. Get those humper chats in. It would mean an awful lot. Help out that algorithm and make sure you tune in all week long. Stephanie Chase and Wade Keller had the prediction show today. We've got Post Smackdown, Post-ROH, Post-TNA. We got Grapsody and Reg and Phil are doing the post show on Saturday. I'm going to try to call into that as well. We're going to have some Fightful Select exclusive interviews. We're going to have some interviews from SummerSlam Weekend. Just a whole mess of stuff for you guys to get into. Show us a little bit of love and show some love to our wonderful sponsors at Nord. Our high pay-per-view price is getting to you. Maybe MLB Blackouts, maybe the insane cost of Sunday ticket, whatever it might be. NordVPN.com/Fyful is here to help. You get NordVPN.com/Fyful. You change your virtual location with one click. Maybe you want to be in the West Coast when you can't watch a game on the East Coast. They got you covered. Maybe the pay-per-view prices are just too high or there's too many of them. Switch your virtual location overseas and get the prices that they're paying there. NordVPN.com/Fyful does it all for you and that's in addition to their password manager, their protection on public Wi-Fi, the ability to use it on all your devices, including your router, your TV. It doesn't matter. They've got you on all those and a 30-day money back guarantee. Maybe you're just feeling wild and you want to try it. Well, you know what in 30 days, if you don't like it, spoiler you will, you can get your money back. NordVPN.com/Fyful. We got Stu taking us off for the humper chat. He says for the hump seven matches on Summer Slam, all singles, no multi-person tags for a big four-paper-view to have zero variation. It's a bit of a let down. Well, Stu in the notes that I posted on FightfulSelect.com, best $5 in the business. I'll tell you more about that later. A WWE source told me don't be surprised if we see some stipulations or things added, adjusted a little bit. Now, that's not necessarily, yeah, it's not necessarily something that's hard and fast, but it's something that I was told to not be surprised if we see like a tag match added or maybe a person added or a little bit of an adjustment, like a no DQ or something like that. I'm editorializing on the last part, but yes, that is a bit of a surprise seeing that. Now, I think they have built an awful lot for this show, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that. As a wrestler, as there are movies you refuse to take, what is the worst move to take and what is your favorite to perform? I like doing the drop toe hold legitimately because Billy Robinson taught it to me and I'm very good at it. When I wrestled regularly, I didn't like taking back body drops. I just wasn't good at them. I never landed flat. I would over rotate a little bit, but there's no move that anybody has pitched to me to take since I've been back that I've said no to. But also, I think that the people that I've worked with pretty well know that I'm not going to go out there and be on the receiving end of a Canadian destroyer or anything like that. As long as it's safe and makes sense within the context of what we're doing, I really don't mind it. The worst move I ever, the most painful move I've taken since I've been back is a Horned Swaggle Chokeslam. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but I had a WDB wrestler who was actually at Squared Circle Expo that was like, "Man, you got up for that." I'm like, "Well, yeah, I wanted to make it look as good as possible." And I was like, "It actually hurt worse than my other bumps." And he was like, "Well, yeah, because Horned Swaggle can't set you down. You're doing it all yourself. You're just throwing yourself up and bumping without any help." So that would probably be one. The most painful move I've ever taken was actually on a boxing ring where we were doing a pro wrestling demo. And it was the Gold Dust style swinging suplex. Somebody raised me up and they hit the move perfect, just flush. And you know how when you see a lot of wrestling rings, you'll see it and they'll hit a little bit of a bounce. This, I went up, spun me around and added that velocity, and I just stuck to the mat. And yeah. And F-E knocked the wind out of me during one of our spots, but that wasn't too bad. Sean, what's going on at OVW? Why'd they book a 6K arena for August? Is Mickey James still in charge of women? Because she doesn't promote them on her socials. She's not involved as of now. I don't know what happened there. I mean, let me see how long ago. I mean, I announced that in January, January 11th. So that was done pretty quickly apparently, but she's not involved as of now. The 6K venue, listen, I want Kentucky wrestling to be successful. There are several people involved at OVW that I really like and that are very talented. But I don't think that running that the same night and weekend that TNA is in town is a smart idea to begin with. I know that at times they get very territorial and I think that's counterproductive for the level in which OVW is because OVW, I fully believe that if OVW adapted to the modern day style of indies, it could be one of the premier indies. There's always somebody willing to back it. There's always somebody willing to step in. They've got a good infrastructure. They have a nice training system and especially with like the grants that are eligible. They've got a lot of things going in their favor. In the past when I've talked to people who take over these regimes and I'll say, why isn't this person in? They'll say, well, they work across the river and I'm like, hold on there. Nobody gives a shit. Nobody gives a shit about your local feuds with other companies or anything like that. Outside of that radius, and I mean that radius being Louisville, Jeffersonville, that area, nobody cares, nobody's thinking about it. Nobody's talking about it. That's it. I mean, not trying to insult anybody in that, but I think that traditionally over the years they have had some really brilliant minds involved, but there are a lot of practices that sort of get in the way of themselves. Not allowing some people to take other bookings locally. I know some people got some grief over working GCW and I'm like, these people have been working GCW for years. What's the deal? I remember when I recommended Billy Starks for them. It was one of the first names I brought up. They said, well, she works over here. Nobody cares. Get her on your show. She lived there. The fact that they run Thursday nights in Kentucky could be so beneficial because if somebody's got a Friday in Chicago or a weekend booking, it's not going to be impeded by the fact that OVW usually runs Thursdays. Now you might not get them on the weekend shows, but I could go on for days about that. I'm sure they have their reasons and there's a lot of elements that maybe I'm not privy to or hip to in that sense, but I want to see it succeed so much, but what it feels like is that there are a lot of talented people involved. I love the show. I thought the show was brilliant. I love when they do the nightmare rumble. I love that type of stuff, but I just want to see them excel so bad for Kentucky. Do I think Judgment Day implodes on Saturday? If so, how do you think the turn plays out? I really thought Seth was going to win the title and that that would lead to the implosion, but they have made it fairly unpredictable. Now, if you look back at the DX implosion, here's how it went down. You had one breakup happen. I think it was China that turned first, right? Everybody was like, Oh my God, no. And then Triple H turned later that night. And then they split up. I think that's where it happens, like a bit of a double turn, a bit of a, a bit of a swap, so to speak, where Ria is effectively replaced by Liv, but Liv isn't a part of the Judgment Day or is she? Does she take over? It's not like we haven't seen that change at the top of the, the food chain there before. I mean, it's easy to forget. Edge was a member of Judgment Day. I, you know, I feel like they could just swap Ria in, but if that's the case, Damien Priest, I don't think we'll be in Judgment Day anymore. So I think Judgment Day might see Ria and Damien, both sort of implode and leave. I think J.D. Finn Carlito stay, but I think that if you don't have Dom and live involved, what is Judgment Day anymore? It's a name, right? And man, they've, they've made the most out of that name. Any word on how all in ticket sales are going? Well, let's pull up our good friends at WrestleTix, who I encourage you guys to check out. Six minutes ago, they had an update. They have distributed 44,600 of the currently available 51,300 tickets available, obviously nowhere near what they did last year. But listen, you're not going to feel bad about selling or moving over 44,000 tickets. And they have added, or they have sold 24, 2500 in the last nine days. So as we get closer to that show, you're going to have people that, you know, decide that they're going to go. And I wouldn't be surprised that they get near that 50,000 mark. It would make an awful lot of sense to me. I'm saving all the Shane ones, by the way, we're going to talk a lot about Shane. Outside of Roman Reigns, do you expect any Summer Slam surprises on Saturday? The Dom turn is the big one that I'm seeing. I think that if you have any big surprises there and Roman shows up, you're probably going to see that overshadowed, right? And you don't want to overshadow somebody like, yeah, nobody's going to remember or remember anything besides the Roman thing, in that sense. Do you think we'll see an NXT first, Julia, Stephanie or Delta? Julia. It depends on how far ahead Delta is. And, but I mean, like, listen, Julian Stephanie are just basically learning how to work WWE TV style, getting acclimated to the country and all that stuff. Delta is going to be learning a lot more about how global wrestling works, but man, she's got some good people on her side. You got, you got Rhea putting her over pretty heavily there. ROH would Zeta Steel, Myra, Grace, Meghan Bain fit. I'm not as familiar with Myra Grace. Zeta Steel definitely would. I think Zeta Steel is a top free agent. Meghan Bain, I think, should be a heater on the main roster. This is something that I've mentioned. On previous shows, I think that now that Camille is a heater for Mercedes, that Meghan should be a heater for somebody else. And then even Jamie can be, I don't want her to be the heater. She's a star on her own. But Meghan can be a heater for somebody else and eventually they meet up. Zeta Steel, I think, is a very good shout for ROH. Very good. Man, the crop of women's wrestlers on the Indies unsigned right now. A year and a half ago, it was insanely robust. It's still robust. You look at the names that are out there right now, like Maggie Lee and Brittany Brooks and Zeta Steel. There's a ton of them. I'll even mention Shaza. Every time she goes on TV, I think that she does really, really well. There are so many that can go on to national TV and just fit right in. I think there's way, way, way more women than men on the Indies circuit that can do that right now. There are plenty of men, but there are an insane number of women that could just fit in. Crazy 101 says, "Well, all in, have a big stage set." You know, that's a good question. I would imagine they are sort of scaling it based on how the tickets will be, because right now they have the stage set up and they don't have tickets being sold to the left, to the right, or behind it. So they are going to have it set up to where I think they could probably do a big one if they wanted. Sean, contract updates on Ricky Starks and Wardlow. I don't have that information. Somebody was trying to tell me Ricky Starks wasn't up soon. Brian Alvers is reporting Daniel Garcia may not be back. Do you know anything else? Well, yeah, if his contract is up in October, as I believe it is, I do not believe the talent that thinks that said that they believed he resigned and that they think that he's staying. I don't believe that person in that sense. Will he stay? Perhaps, but I don't think it has anything to do with that person. However, that person was up enough in the company to where it was a situation where it should have been included in that article. Now, I don't know if Daniel Garcia was necessarily too thrilled about that, because, you know, he doesn't want his leverage affected, but as best I know, he has not resigned. I'm going to get that nailed down sometime over the next week. I am going to find out if he has resigned or not, at least what the internal company line is in that sense. But I will find out. Speaking of Anthony Pride says, "A Ross and Marshall Vaughn Eric going to sign with AEW long-term after winning the trios championships." Long-term is a good question. I don't have a specific answer for you, but I do have insight here. They have, they've got some sort of agreement going right now, but also you have to look at AEW and their point, and this is from like my point of view. Marshall Vaughn Eric and Ross Vaughn Eric, they're early 30s. They've been wrestling a long time. They do pretty well. They have been featured on ROH a number of times. They don't wrestle a ton outside of it. They don't really wrestle outside of Texas much at all. They did like MLW for quite a while. They did TNA back in the day. They did NOAA, but like these dudes don't wrestle like a ton. Let's go to their cage match right now. If you go 100 matches back, that is 11 and a half years ago for them. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. If you can step in and be passable and do what you're doing, sure. Ross Vaughn Eric's in his mid to late 30s, but like who are you competing against to make sure they're signed you a long-term deal? If WWE wanted them, they would have had them a long time ago. TNA is not going to outbid you. They're done with MLW. So, I don't know the motivation there, depending on how this run goes right now, I think is important. Sean, I had a thought today. What do you think? Why do you think TKO went to Rock instead of Cena? Well, Rock is a bigger star globally. Aria Manuel has a good relationship with the Rock. Nick Khan has had a relationship with the Rock since he was a child. They were kids. They hung out when they were much younger. It's crazy the way the world works, but just familiar relations, just like they knew each other. So, they the assistant trolling on X or joining NXT any update on Daniel Garcia. I spoke to Jose shortly after he left AEW. We saw each other at a TNA show and he told me he was considering maybe sort of calling in some favor, so to speak. Some people that were saying, "Hey, you know, if you want to look here at NXT, maybe it'll work." I haven't heard anything on that, but he's definitely, he was definitely like bringing it up then as a possibility. And if he can add something, why not? He can bump. He can wrestle if they need him too. And they like that too. They like having managers in NXT that had the ability to do other things, like Stokely Hathaway, when he was there as Malcolm Bivens, they had him going through classes and taking bumps and stuff. If somebody needs Stokely Hathaway to work, the man can work and really could before he went to WWE, but they like that. Can you explain how DIY is not buried if they lose to the Bloodline Friday, the tag team title booking and WWE needs some serious change? I would not have them lose to the Bloodline on Friday, and I would have had that match on SummerSlam. Like, why? Why not, right? Hey, if you want to go to a non-finish and then redo it the next night, I would be fine with that too. But no, I don't think they're buried, but this is what happens when you split up the tag team divisions and then you don't necessarily build other teams. You got to build them in one night like they did with the Bloodline, and the Bloodline were already sort of built because of the name connection, right? I don't think that they're buried, but they shouldn't lose there. Zach Schimmel, then a member for 34 months. I need to post some new behind the scene stuff. SRSX CM Punk interview at SummerSlam. I would love nothing more than interview CM Punk, and I don't want to speak for him, but first off, he does not like a lot of wrestling media. I'm sure I'm among them. He and I have had very cordial interactions. We've had some not so cordial interactions, but I've got a ton of respect for CM Punk. What you'll never see me do is take shots at somebody on a personal level, and I don't know them personally like that and don't know anything beyond what I've heard. He's gone and done really good things in WWE and has made a lot of friends there and is doing well. I would love to interview CM Punk. I would have loved to have interviewed him at any point. He's one of my favorite performers of all time. Do you think AEW would be interested in some of the crop of unsigned women from the indies anytime soon for ROH? Yes. If they get a TV deal, I think that the care that is already being given to ROH, which is more than it was a couple of weeks ago, it feels like they took a little bit away from collision and gave a little bit to ROH. I think that situation would call for some people to get signed. I mean, they've taken looks at almost all those women that I mentioned. Shaza worked a match in ROH. She was a first Cino battle royal for the women, I think. Brittany Brooks, I think has worked for them. Eric Adimi has done spots for them. So yeah, I think for sure they would. Do you think Danielson stays with AEW? Motor City Machine Guns Update? No update on the Motor City Machine Guns. Besides, everybody thinks they're going to WWE. I think Danielson will stay connected to AEW. Is Dan Hausen still with AEW? I see him all the time just on never in any of the shows. Thanks for everything you do. Well, thank you very much. He is still under contract to AEW. He has not been backstage in quite some time. I do not know why as of yet besides the fact that he wanted to be on TV and did not seem thrilled with some stuff being pushed back and adjusted and some things internally that people who shouldn't have taken issue with took issue with and sort of taddled about. But like some some mind your own business stuff there for sure. For sure. What else we got excited for summer slam in my mind. I see punk hitting a GTS and Seth with super slow count making an argument and Drew hits a big claymore and a fast three count. Well, Frank, I'm going to I'm going to use your thing to parlay into this here ad read. Whoa, you can bet on wrestling? Yeah, you can at that online AG. We've given you a bunch of underdog picks over at Fightful since we started to work with that online AG. But well before they were a partner, that's where we got our odds from for years. Whether it be major shows or your continental classics and other things like that, they always have a bunch of interesting odds for you over at that online AG. But it's not just that. Payouts and minutes, high credit card acceptance, a safe and secure environment. And they've been trusted for over 25 years. They got the earliest lines, the fastest payouts and the ability to bet on wrestling. How cool is that? If you think you know so much about this, go put your money down. Go do it. Show the world. Please bet responsibly. That online AG. Okay, Cody or actually CM Punk right now is an underdog. If things happen the way that our most recent super chat happened or say they'll happen, I could see that. But as of right now, the way that I'm feeling, it feels like they need to get Punk a win in some capacity unless they want to roll with a compelling story of, damn, will this guy ever win again? You know what I mean? Like that. Also on bet online AG, Braun Breaker, LA Knight, Gunther, Nia Jax, all favored to win titles. They are favoring four title changes on SummerSlam. If you think that is too much, go over to bet online AG, lay down your bets. I could see Logan Paul emerging victorious because of his connection to the city. There's also a lot of prop bets on Jake Paul, Roman Reigns, Dominic, tables being broken, all kinds of good stuff over there. You think that Nia wins the title back Saturday, I've been going back and forth on this for a couple of weeks. If she does, I think Tiffany Stratton will cash in and that will lead towards a literal chase of Nia chasing Tiffany Stratton and Bailey being involved as well. And I think that would be compelling because they have needed a real good top title program there. I think it is very, very important. Or you could see a thing where Tiffany tries to cash in and like tries to do the triple threat thing and costs Nia the title. Ooh, that could be good too. Any update on Becky, do you think she ultimately returns a WWE or has your mind changed on that? I do believe she'll return to WWE and both sides there think that she will as well. But she is very, very much enjoying her time off from what I understand. And man, if anybody deserves it, it is her. It is her. She had a great run after having a child and now gets to spend time with that child. Truly one of the most wonderful people that you will interact with in pro wrestling is Becky Lynch. Is Megan Bane in AEW now? Because Dave said she wanted to work Mary Gold if you had any update. No, I've not heard any update. I'll reiterate this for people who didn't know. She was under contract while she was injured. She came back and did a dark match and then ended up being effectively sent to stardom, depending on who you listen to there. And then her contract was up at some point. They have reached out to her about doing some stuff but I don't know anything set in stone. But Rocky Romero was in touch with her. Absolutely was in touch with her fairly recently. Hey, SRS, why does WWE continue to put on these long boring pre-shows with no wrestling? Why don't they put on one or two pre-show matches considering the high ticket prices for a big four pay-per-view with not a lot of matches? Well, I can't speak to why they don't put more matches on there. I like the condensed match card. For this, I get it. But I mean, nobody's going to be at that venue inside three hours before. And I know they're doing like the three-hour thing. But I had a bit of an epiphany. Man, if the bingles are not at home, my ass is parked in front of the TV all morning watching pre-game stuff. Now, I know that wrestling isn't. Hey, guys, I'm here to tell you about incogni.com/fightful wrestling. There are some strange people out there, some shady people out there. And a lot of times you struggle with your own data privacy. I've had those struggles myself in the past. And it is unfortunately way too easy to look someone up and get their personal info. Sometimes you sign up for a loyalty card or a membership online. The next thing you know, you've got a bunch of emails, a bunch of calls, because somebody has sold your data. For example, incogni found over 200 brokers with my information. Those brokers are required to remove your name if you ask them. And you might say, man, I don't have the time to do that incogni.com/fightful does. And they'll make sure it happens. Not only that, I had people signing me up for physical and digital spam emails incogni.com/fightful wrestling fixed all of that. And that's just one of the many benefits of incogni.com/fightful wrestling criminals do not care about the rules associated with those websites. So take it into your own hands incogni.com/fightful wrestling. You just create an account, grant them the right to do the work for you, then kick back and watch them work as big as football. But there are some people when they want to tune into wrestling, they want to make it an all day thing. They want to have people over. They want that environment. You put on the pre-show. Maybe you're watching something on YouTube as well. And you sort of enjoy the atmosphere and all that. To me, it's missable content if you want to miss it. But I think that it's something that is ultimately harmless. Also, now I get the reaction for Sammy. Why ROH? Well, I think that the spoiler alert, he's coming back to ROH, teaming with Dustin and being involved with Devon Eric's. The Texas connection makes an awful lot of sense. It's just the Texas that Sammy Guevara has been in is the Jericho vore Texas for so long that it sometimes seems like it isn't going to fit. You know what I mean? Top three matches of 2024 so far. Oh man, these put me on the spot wins are tough. MJF and Osprey. Swerve, they all three got Osprey in them, man. Swerve and Osprey and probably Osprey and Danielson for me. Yeah, I think Osprey is untouched right now. As I'm thinking of like my top 10 matches of the year, God, I think he'd be in almost all of them. If you want me to go like just for the sake of like just somebody else, Cody and AJ was incredible. Oh my God, that Diamante Layla Hirsch match that just happened. Jesus Christ, go watch that match. Gabe Kidd and Eddie Kingston was really good. The EO match at Marigold against Yutami was really great. Sari and Maya Iwatani, I'm giving you a lot more than three because I understand that the AEW Revolution Sting retirement match was incredible. I mean, there's so many. I'm not like mentioned. These aren't like all the good matches that happened this year, but Taiji, Shimori and TJP is one that I think everybody should watch as well. To throw some more WWE wins in there, I love Cody and Roman. I love that because like what I had said for weeks before that was I don't want a great match. I want goofy bullshit. I want all the crazy shit possible. And that's what I got. DIY and A-town down under was phenomenal. Phenomenal match. And let me see another one out of left field. Well, I'm Elia and Ricochet, but Bailey, Naomi, Tiffany, I liked a lot as well. So there you go. What do you think the main event of Anna Bash at Berlin is? It's probably Gunther, but I can't think of an obvious challenger opponent as of now. They could have Elia challenge him, but they'd have to heat him up. Now, I mean, that is like eight hours from where Gunther lives. That'd be like me being like my hometown of Atlanta. So, I mean, I think they'll stack it. Obviously, Cody will be there as well, but Gunther against Gunther and Rollins would be kind of cool, right? Compared to us fans, how much do wrestlers care about if they win or lose the match? I've always been curious since fans seem to argue about outcomes. Most wrestlers do want to win their match, for sure. Everybody wants to be the guy. Everybody wants to be, you know, the big cheese, so to speak, in the company. Everybody wants to be world champion. Even if you say they don't care, they want to be world champion, for sure. However, I just like there were people that were upset over one specific wrestler's booking last year in AEW. And that person told me, I don't really care that much. I'm getting paid well. I'm doing my job. Eventually, my time will come. But it's a case by case basis. You lack cities is what's the deal with Joe Hendry, TNA, WDB deal he mentioned. We start getting the same criticism about WDB poaching talent like we heard about AEW in New Japan. We know Grace is WDB bound. Now, this Hendry deal. Well, we don't know that Grace is WDB bound. We assume it. And there are some, you know, there are definitely some indications that make me go, yeah, well, she would like to go there or would make sense to go there. If they pick Jordan Grace, the rascals, and Joe Hendry off now, yeah, there's going to be a lot of people that are going to have the same criticisms or should of AEW taking Okada and Osprey and Switch Blade. Now, I mean, definitely on scale, but Jordan Grace and Joe Hendry are definitely comparable to the scale of TNA of those aforementioned names to New Japan. Not on a global level, but definitely from a scaled level. Ricochet update. I believe he is headed to AEW. I think it's just a matter of time before he shows up. Oh, guys, get in your super chats. Get in your helper chats. Leave that thumbs up because we are at the main event. Oh, well, look at this. BL says fantasy book, what faction would come out on top? OG NWO, OG Bloodline, Wyatt Family, DX for Horseman and Evolution. So, Ric Flair would have some conflict internally between Evolution and Horseman. So, Evolution and the Horseman would probably come together and be one group. So you would probably have Ric Flair, Batista, Randy Orton, Triple H, Arn Anderson and a couple other members of that forming a super faction, right? DX and the NWO have their connection. I think they would form together as the click. I think that's what ends up happening. So, instead of individual groups of four, I think you end up getting the four Horseman and Evolution. You end up getting Hogan Hall, Nash, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, The New Age Outlaws, Ex-Pock Rick Roode as like the click faction. The Wyatt Family ends up going to Bray Wyatt, Eric Rowan, Braun Strowman, Luke Harper, now Bo Dallas, Joe Gacy, Nikki Cross, you know, all those into that greater faction. Probably has some Dark Order connection there as well. And the OG Bloodline, well guess what? If we're going fantasy booking, we know how wide that expands. So, I don't think it would be individual factions. I think naturally, they would start to form. I think the political power of the click ends up taking control, but that seemed a lot of fun. That seems like something I would want to do a full show on, honestly. Because like, naturally, the only thing that kept Evolution from being four Horseman was the fact that Vince didn't want to call them the four Horseman. And DX and individual would have been a collective unit. The Bloodline has been a thing and will be a thing for a long time. And the Wyatt Family is back, man. It's back. Do the Rascals win the tag titles Tuesday? Would WWE be cool with them having those titles on TNA TV? I think they do and I think they should. I think that would be a big step. A big step. Somebody says you can't have Triple H in two factions. That's a good point. That's a good point. That's what leads to the power struggle there. That's what leads to it. Ooh. But yeah, I think they should have the Rascals win the tag titles. I think that's a good thing to have or it's a good perception thing. I like those tag titles. Like, listen, they're great. But come on, man, doesn't hurt. Who do you think defeats Athena? Because she is on fire. Nobody right now. TBD. If they get a TV deal, she carries the title into that. But if it's got to be somebody, Billy, kind of money, do you see Jamar Chase getting in his extension? DJ Moore got paid yesterday and well deserved. So let's see. He got four years, 110. Justin Jefferson got four years, 140. I think Jamar gets four years, 150. That's what I think. Because it'll be next year. So he's going to get a lot of money. Pardon me for not muting that, guys. All right. Let's talk about what a lot of people want to talk about. Shane McMahon. So I'm going to explain to you guys how this came about. Address some misinformation that I see out there. This much I promise you. There will be nobody in wrestling media that ever exists and will be more transparent about things that I can be transparent about than myself. So Luke hit me up the other day. He goes, Hey, you want to collaborate on a story? This is something that I've been getting quite a lot. And honestly, I welcome as long as you clear it with me. Sometimes it's hard for someone that has single source something to get a second source. So what we will do is go to another medium member who can get that second source and was able to, you know, is able to help confirm that. And Harjay says how ill-equipped was Ollie Davis to handle the Shane news. But at all, Ollie's great, man. He's wonderful. And I love working with WrestleTalk. And if it wasn't fightful, I would have been with WrestleTalk years ago. I really, really like those guys. They were given that picture, not by Shane McMahon, not by Tony Khan, not by anybody connected to them. And let me tell you, I looked into it. I can't reveal how I was able to verify, but it was not like a new burner or anything that was passed along. The information that I was able to look up associated with what I was shown indicated the person that provided it. And the fact that they weren't just like, oh, here's a burner. Let me do this. That's about all I can say about that. I was able to verify the picture was real. I was able to find out which private airport it was. I did reach out to people in AEW. They had not heard about it yet. I reached out to Tony, did not hear back from him outside of, yeah, I've had some meetings, but that's it. This was not a coordinated AEW PR thing. I mean, I'll, again, I've been transparent in the past when that's happened. Like when we got news about all out moving back a week, that came from within AEW. The numbers that you will see a bunch of Twitter accounts posting yesterday that are like, oh, Robbie, the Olympics, that is a coordinated WDPR thing. There have been things from TNA PR that I have said, hey, this is from TNA as a company, from ROH as a company, from MLW as a company. That's why I'll say from the company. A lot of times we'll just post the press release outright. But yeah, it does make you wonder though, like, why are some of these homophobic and transphobic and bigoted accounts getting this information that is going from WDPR to some media members? I digress, but some of that's gross unless they're just copying and pasting it themselves and trying to pretend they have a connection. But this was not a coordinated AEW PR thing. I'm not sure if they knew or cared that it came out like by today because it could have came out yesterday because that's when we worked on this story myself and WrestleTalk. But Shane McMahon had a meeting at a private Arlington airport with Tony Khan. I believe it was Tuesday afternoon around two-ish local time. But I'm here to answer all your questions, your statements, all that stuff. Let's get into it. Realistically, what can Shane do for AEW? You don't think that Tony would sell ROH, right? What have you heard from talent in AEW? Did Shane ever have heat behind the scenes? Yes, Shane had heat with certain people and he definitely had heat after Royal Rumble 2022. Not to plug my own shit, but go over and look up inside the Royal Rumble for the 2022 that I did. We go into great detail on it. Other than that, most people liked him. Selling ROH wouldn't really mean anything because the talent is under AEW deals. What's the point? I see a lot of people saying, "We should run ROH. Why?" When is Shane McMahon ever been a booker? I don't get why a lot of people are saying, "He should run ROH." What makes you guys think that he has some extensive booking experience or is hit to that stuff? Now, I want to say he wouldn't be the only one. Plenty of people come into AEW and WWE and have not watched the product. A lot of very important and influential people were not familiar with AEW and WWE's product when they came in. Hey, Sean, do you think people are underselling Shane's worth to AEW on the business side, former CEO Business Connections? I don't think there's a ton of connections that Shane McMahon has that the Khan family or other people in AEW don't have. I can't really speak to his business acumen because I've never seen that. I've just heard of his individual products, obviously, and then the things that he wanted to do. He wanted to get involved with ECW. He wanted to get involved with Pride back in the day. But those didn't end up happening. Now, what do I think that he can do? As Kairos says, "What value do you think that he can bring?" A little bit of buzz. I see people say game changer. I don't know if there is a game changer, quote-unquote, "available." Maybe Becky Lynch, and I don't think she's going there, that you would bring in and they would make some massive difference. I think that Shane, from a story perspective, can add value. I don't need to see him wrestling in the ring very often, if ever, maybe once every so often. But man is 54, but listen, you're doing this elite storyline. Okay, that makes sense. Would I enjoy Christian Cage walking out to the ring, looking at Shane McMahon and saying, "Your father," and then something cuts it off. Yeah, I think that would be entertaining stuff. But, James says, "Hey, Sean, I personally don't have a problem with Shane coming in. What are the pros and cons?" Cons. Misinformation for one about the how and why and just the toxicity associated. But you're not going to help those people anyway. Those people aren't going to do much of anything. Pros, the memes, the jokes, the fantasy booking, the banter. Those are all pros to me. What kind of ribs can I get off? Those are pros for me. I think that he can be a valuable supporting character. Not main character, supporting character. I think he can be a valuable authority figure in the right circumstance. Will that right circumstance unfold? That I don't know. I think if it were all possible, AEW should debut Shane tonight. Buzz will already be declining this time next week. The butter disregard. Yeah, I would too. I mean, they've got ricochet to debut at some point. Somebody says he could get his way back over Snoop. He didn't lose to Snoop. Mis did, but Snoop is under a WWE deal. Some sort of connection there. An ambassador deal. Yeah, man. I think there are some positives to Shane McMahon joining. I don't think it's going to be like some sort of massive game changing thing. It'll be a hot topic for the week of, and then it comes down to what happens with them. It comes down to what they do with it. Mercedes is a person who greatly contributes to AEW and it helps. It helps beef up the show. Cool. Brian Daniels, I'm when he's around, really, really helps. Cool. We need to see it all come together. Put Shane with the elite, hostile takeover of AEW as Shane looks to take power, have Tony form the AEW Avengers to beat the elite and remove Shane. I think you got to put some time between the elite doing that and the new AEW Avengers, because what did we see at Double or Nothing? The AEW Avengers. What did we see at Blood and Guts? The AEW Avengers. I would love to see Shane sort of take out Tony or something like that. And this be a drastic measure that the elite go to after losing Blood and Guts. I think they could be compelling. Mean Street Posse will save the Trio's division. I would seriously love to see the Mean Street Posse hanging out with Brandon Cutler at some point. The all elite graphic. Well, would ignite Twitter. Yeah, it would. It certainly would. There's now a very real scenario where AEW pays for Shane McMahon, but loses Daniel Garcia to NXT can AEW claim to be an alternative if this occurs. I see way more short and long term value in Daniel Garcia than Shane. But I want to make this abundantly clear. One has nothing to do with the other. Nothing to do with the other. Tony, Shane is not here. There's no Shane. I don't know what this is in reference to. Somebody wise me up there. Get your super chats and humper chats in. We got a couple left. Tony P says, do you feel Drew is still in WWE if punk never got hurt? Just asking is I wonder what he would have been doing if not for the punk story and if it would have made him to stay or move on. Yeah, I think he would have stayed in WWE. They made him a really, really great offer and he ended up hanging around. I definitely think that he'd still be there. With TKO now owning WWE, do you think ownership would care if Shane showed up in AEW? Love Fightful. Thanks, man. No, I think they want to sever as many ties with the McMahon family as they possibly can. Corey says, just got here. Sorry if it's been addressed. Von Eric's all elite ROH. I don't have that yet. What I said was, or AEW doesn't have a lot to compete against. If WWE wanted them, they would have signed them a long time ago. They left MLW. They haven't had anything with TNA. They only like, I don't want to say they only like. They seem to like working in Texas, so I don't see Japan being a big option for them. So I think it'll depend on how this run goes. Do you think Shane runs some AEW fans off? No, I don't. At this point, it's wrestling. You want exciting, crazy stuff like this, but I mean, I get where some people would be annoyed by the discourse, but I don't think it's going to run anybody off. Do you think ROH will be on TV or Max? I see Destination America as an option. Also, what about Megan Bain taking the title from Athena? Megan Bain is a good shout if she is still a free agent and Athena is still a champion when the new TV, if the new TV deal happens, I think that would be a really, really good one. I didn't know Destination America was still a thing. I forgot, but they are a discovery property. Destination America would be fine. Yeah, that'd be okay. I would do it with like next day streaming rights on Max, though. Heard any reaction about Shane maybe heading to AEW from the WWE side and those close to the man family? No surprises that I've heard about what WrestleVotes posted was effectively what I had heard too. Nobody was surprised. They kind of seen it coming. They know it's him sort of putting a flag in the ground and some personal preservation and a way that he can capitalize and extend some buzz. You know what I mean? So, yeah. Mr. Acosta says, "I feel like AEW always has internet buzz when something like this happens, but it usually fizzles out afterward. That's what I'm afraid of." I think what they need to do is more of what they've been doing lately. Put on great matches, put on great paper views, continue to tell stories, go at your pace, stay true to what you've got, load your shows up with stars. The collision needs to be better about that and slow and steady. It won't win the race for them, but it's going to get them across the finish line. It's going to keep them going. Slow and steady and doing what made them AEW is what they need to do. That's what's important. TNA tried to be WWE. We saw AEW go over the top on Sports Entertainment. It did not work for them. Didn't work for them. Guys, want to say thank you. Leave me a thumbs up. Please subscribe to FightfulSelect.com. Now every Monday, I do my Q&A show. If you like this show, I do a Q&A every single Monday and over in our Discord, which is exclusive to select subscribers. I'm over there answering questions all the time. $5 a month, $54 a year. We also have a free tier where I posted this story today in collaboration with WrestleTalk. I'm going to drop some more news here in a bit on FightfulSelect.com. Check it out. If you subscribe to the free tier, you will see all of our headlines and if you decide to subscribe, you'll get the heads up. Michael says, "Let's not forget. Shane had a lot ahead of the time ideas that got... Oh yeah, had a lot of ahead of the time ideas that got stamped out under Vince. I think he'd be valuable to ROH." Yes, but let me give you a good comparison. I'm a Kentucky basketball fan. John Calipari in the 2000s had a lot of ahead-of-the-time ideas as did Shane McMahon in the 2000s. As the years went on 2010 to 2014-15, those ahead-of-the-time ideas became right on time ideas. The last seven, eight years, he didn't adapt. We don't know if Shane McMahon has adapted. We don't know. Based on the royal rumble things that he was pitching going in there and standing toe-to-toe with Brock, come on now. That wasn't adapting, but maybe he has and I just don't know about it. He's very private. He doesn't put a lot of his stuff out there, but let's say, man, John Calipari couldn't get us out of the first round. He didn't adapt to the three-point shot. Everybody was talking about how ahead of the curve he was with one and done. He didn't adapt to the veteran system in college basketball, getting that fifth year, the transfer portal, NIL, all that stuff. A lot of things to consider now. When Shane McMahon had a head-of-the-curve ideas, they were for WWE. They weren't for who is second. So we'll see. We'll definitely see. We're going to talk more about this tonight on the post-AEW show. I am so excited to hear what Alex Paulowski has to say about this. Crazy 101 says Shane versus Darby, what other matches would you want? Just him in a group thing with the elite against Team AEW. I don't need to see him doing a bunch of matches. Don't need to see him doing a bunch of matches. Guys, until next time, we're out. [BLANK_AUDIO]
