All Elite Talk - an AEW podcast

AEW Dynamite Review | Greenville July 31, 2024

The AEW Fan Hub podcast team reviews the newest episode of AEW Dynamite from Greenville, SC! Be sure to join us for discussions about all things AEW on the AEW Fan Hub subreddit!

Duration:: 1h 10m
Broadcast on:: 01 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

It's Wednesday, you know what that means? It's time for all the talk with the AEW fan hub podcast team. This is Kelson and this is Alex. And I felt like it was kind of an average episode of Dynamite. Maybe even below average for me. Maybe I'm tired and things just weren't hitting correctly. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know how I felt about tonight. What did you think, Kelson? I think you hit on many levels. There were a couple of segments that were a little bit weak. Of course, I did not watch the conglomeration and the whatever match I had to take my dogs out. And that was my dog break match. So thank goodness. That's fair. But we did have, and I thought this was a really good match, the first ever match between Hangman, Adam Page and Darby Allen. Darby maybe killed himself a little bit more in this match than he even did in the Blood and Gut's match. There was some insane follow way slams into the off the top rope into the steel steps. It was, yeah, it was, you know, part for the course for Darby Allen, but also a pretty crazy match. He actually got the win, which I think makes sense because he's got a title shot against where Strickland or I guess Brian Danielson after all in in September at Grand Slam. And Hangman didn't look bad. He still looked, I think Excalibur put it perfectly. He just looks like a man who is not well. Yeah. Nobody does crazy like Hangman at a bait. And does anybody else feel like if they just put padding on the stairs that Darby's career may last a little bit longer? Oh, I think it would definitely change it. He wouldn't have anything to bounce off of anymore. Oh, you could arguably bounce higher, but I'm thinking he would figure out some way to make that, you know, bumper or whatever look like it's killing him. Yeah, I'm sure he would take it as a challenge. It's so fine to wait. You know, look, Darby Allen, he's an underdog practically in every match. I think, I mean, what, Serpentico is maybe Darby Allen's size. Darby Allen is smaller than just about every wrestler in AEW yet. He goes out there and he puts on banger after banger after banger, which comprise mostly of him getting the absolute not beat out of his body, mostly done by himself. So we always say it, Darby is here for a good time, just not for a long time. I got to love Darby, though. I mean, he is definitely one of the better at just taking a beating and keeping on ticking. His storytelling is really important. I think that that is something that needs to be, because anybody can get beat up a lot, but Darby sells the entire experience all the way up to the comeback and gets everybody in. It's why Darby is one of the best. He continues to be the most flingable human being I've ever seen. That's a lot to do with his size. He does only weigh 170 pounds. I mean, come on, I'm on most the size and a half of him. Well, gee, so you know, we tie it into Brian Danielson and Swerve in the winter of that match will face Darby Allen at Grand Slam, as Alex said. Nat, do you think that Darby Allen has a world championship in him this year? Or do you think that it's too soon? Oh, I don't know. He still has that foot injury to kind of hold him back a little bit. So I don't know. But he's full of surprises. So anything with him as possible, I think. Red, did you see anything going on with his foot injury tonight? Did you see? Did you think that he was held back at all tonight? By his foot injury? Is his foot still broken? Well, you know, it was broken and then he got hit by a bus and if he had gone up Mount Everest, he would have fallen off a cliff, you know, but it's because it's Darby. But you know, and I understand what that is saying, but I'm just wondering, you know, this goes for everybody. Did Darby seemed a little bit held back tonight or did he just seem like Darby? I wasn't really looking for it, so I didn't notice anything. Okay, but I was specifically asking Red first. Sorry. No, I don't think he looked injured or inhibited or anything like that. I think it was a typical Darby Allen match, which means he's going to go the extreme and do things that people should normally do. And we're going to feel bad for him because he's a babyface and he's killing himself out there. And to go back to your question about is it time for him to win a title? How much longer does he have in the ring? Realistically, many more years can he do this? I think we keep telling ourselves, well, he's young, so he has more time, but I don't know how realistic that is. Well, how old is Darby? Is he like 30, 31, somewhere in that area? Yeah, he's 31. Yeah, I mean, look, a wrestler could go into their look at AW. They got wrestlers in their 50s, but they're not down. Yeah, like Mick Foley, look, look what he did do himself. And arguably Darby Allen does more than Mick Foley ever did. He does more than Mick Foley's ever done. I mean, every couple of you do the running off the the apron elbow drop to the concrete. And he was heavier. Just think about every two cities, neck to chest, full speed, nothing fake about it. And he's 170 pounds. Joints can only take so much of that, the tendons, the bones, the cartilage, the muscles, eventually it wears out. And I mean, he doesn't look as fast as he did four years ago. I do, just as I do have to agree with that statement there, I'm going back and rewatching old AW and I will agree Darby does not look as fast as he did just four years ago. Well, again, look at the wear and tear he's put on his body. I want to move on to, let's just talk about Brian Danielson and his his announcement that if he does not beat Swear Strickland at Wembley Stadium and all in, he's never going to wrestle again. So this is essentially a title versus career match. Do you think this is, I don't know, is it time for Danielson to hang up the boots or do you think that, I mean, look, if Danielson is, this is going to be Danielson's last match, he, this would be in front of a big crowd to do it, but it would also be in front of a big crowd to win the title too. So early prediction time, what do you guys think is going to happen in this world title match? Is this going to be Swear rotating or at Danielson retiring? Well, if Tony does what Tony does, he's going to want Danielson to win this match and go out as a champion because that's the only thing he hasn't done in AEW. He's done everything else. And he's had some of the biggest matches of his career. He's beat up on, you know, he's been beaten up a lot, but he has, and Tony wants him to stick around. And like he said during the thing, tomorrow is the end of his contract. So it kind of, it's kind of a deal, you know, but it's really not because we all know he's not going to wrestle full time anyway after this year. So if that ends it, if it ends it all in, it ends it all in. Anybody else have an opinion about this match? I am sticking with my original prediction. I still think Danielson was going to win. So personally, I don't like the stipulation being added that Danielson will retire if he loses, because even with us knowing that this is the last time that that year that Danielson's going to wrestle, he does have a big hometown show coming up that he's already said he wants to be a part of Wrestle Dream in Seattle again this year. So I feel like it kind of gives it away a little bit. Yeah, that's a good point. There's been a whole bunch of matches where I'm like, you know, whoever wins I win. This might be the most conflicted I've ever felt because on the one hand, you know, yeah, I want Danielson to win and, you know, have the title at least once and but at the same time, I'm like, but I really like Swerve. So either way, whatever happens, I'm going to be happy and sad at the same time. And I'm looking forward to just seeing them play the hell out of it. Well, you know, when you look at Danielson and Swerve Strickland, I'm not mistaken, they're both from Washington. So that would make another good Wrestle Dream math. So what do you think about that? And what does everybody else have to say about this math? Yeah, I want to like Danielson did his promo, which was good. And then Swerve Strickland came out. And he did what I thought was probably his best promo, in my opinion, like ever, because I've always felt like Swerve Strickland has not felt like 100% confident when he's out there talking on the mic. And tonight it just felt like it was clicking for me more than usual. So I really like that part of it. I do think Swerve is probably going to lose, especially with this added stipulation. And then it's interesting where they go from there after Swerve loses the title. Is he going to fill his unfinished business with Hangman? I think Hangman needs to beat Swerve once and for all to get his sanity back. And then we'd have Darby and Brian Danielson against each other at Grand Slam. It's very interesting what's going to happen with the result of that match. Well, we have a woman here from Washington net. What do you think is? I mean, because even Darby's from the area. So we've got a lot of people that are in the world championship picture that are from the same area. Thinking about where just thinking about where Russell Dream, the place that Russell Dream is going to be, is the city that Swerve is actually from. So Russell Dream is in the Seattle area. It's actually going to take place in Tacoma, Washington, which is about 40 minute south of Seattle. And that's where Swerve is actually from. So if you look at it that way, I would say that Swerve is going to win because he's actually going to bring the title back to his hometown. If they were going to have Russell Dream in Seattle proper again, I could see Danielson doing it. But I think for that reason alone, I think Swerve is going to do it. He's huge here. If you think he's huge on AEW, he's beyond belief here in Western Washington. And some of that has to do with his work in the independence here. But people are insane about that man. So I can't see him coming here and not being champion. That's my title on it. Nat, I have a question. So Darby's also from that area. Do you think if Darby were to be in a position where he's competing for the title and possibly winning the title in Washington? Would that be a big deal? I think it would be because I think, yeah, Darby has big roots here, not just in the wrestling scene. So I could see it, but based on location alone, I would have to give it to Swerve. And I think Darby could probably play a big part in that. I mean, every time there's some kind of wrestling event, everyone is looking for Darby to show up. Anytime there's any signings or anything, people are immediately looking for Darby Allen. So he's in the running. But I'd say just based on where Russell Dream is taking place, they're going to give it to Swerve. But I don't know. I'd be pleasantly surprised no matter what they do. I like them all. Well, I have something to throw out there. Russell Dream, if I'm not mistaken, is the last pay-per-view for AW in 2024? Is that correct? I think so. Is there a world's end this year? Because world's end? That's right. I think a world's end. It is world's end. So Russell Dream would probably be what October, November? I told you November, isn't it? Yeah, you're right. Because I was thinking, you know, that's still later in the year. Do you think it's a good idea for Swerve to have the championship for that long? No. And I don't think he will. I actually think that at AW in, Danielson wins the title at AW in. He battles Darby at the-- Well, after Ash, yeah, at that match. And then whoever they just-- because Danielson doesn't need to keep the title for long, he just needs to win the title. That's what Tony's going to do, just like he did with Sting, with the tag title. I think he might lose it to Darby at Arthur Ash, and then you would have Darby versus Swerve at Russell Dream, which would be probably the biggest match you could ever schedule there because they're both from there. I think that's how it's going to happen. But that's why I would see it happen. Oh, don't forget, there's also the possibility of AW doing AW things that I'm in a three-way. This is true, too. I just don't see Danielson because if he's not going to sign another contract and his contract's out tomorrow, he's going to work-- he's not going to sign a full-time wrestling contract. He'll still be with the company, but I don't see him keeping the title and defending it between now and November, except for once. And that's the only time. And I think that'll be his last match to Arthur Ash. Let me post something to post something to Red here. Yeah, okay, so it's been widely reported. This is not news that Danielson's contract is up tomorrow, his current contract. Do you believe that he's re-signed a part-time wrestling deal with like agent producer, written in to his contract? Because it's been said, Danielson's not going anywhere, for me. Yeah, I definitely think less of a part-time wrestling deal and more of an agent and someone in creative, someone-- I mean, I don't want to use the term, but probably more like an executive vice president. I mean, this is clearly someone Tony Khan has pulled in as a confidant, someone who he's working with on creative. Ryan Danielson seems to have had some creative control, creative impact on the Ryan May, Tony Storm feud with-- especially with Mina Shirakawa. It sounds like he had something to do with that. And I'm sure lots of other things. So if he does win the title at all in, I have a feeling he's going to do the ultimate favorite wrestling dream and put Swerve over. And I mean, that's what the great ones really do, right? They like Ric Flair you. Yeah, you have the title, but you're giving it back to someone eventually. And making anything bigger when you do it. And that's the kind of person he is, and he's showing that his entire career. Well, don't forget that Danielson is also the head of what the disciplinary committee, so you'll probably continue to do that as well. Anybody else have to say anything about Danielson's maybe swan song? I do actually have to say though, I think that at the end of the day, it's important how AEW is establishing how they handle retirements. Because if you look at the-- I know people like the joke that it's the retirement home for WWE, guys, but some of these guys are getting the best runs of their career. I mean, Danielson's amazing. Things run as amazing. Christian is on fire. Like, it's becoming a good place to finish out your best years. Yeah, and it can be argued. I mean, especially like in Christian's case, it really is his best years. And you can't overlook people like Danielson. I mean, Sting was not as great as he was, obviously, when he was a young man. But he still went out there and did it. And he was convincing in doing it. What more can you ask from somebody that's 60? Billy Gunn is also doing the work. They're doing the work, and it looks like they're having fun. Alex, what do you want to talk about next? Talking about people having fun. The conglomeration. I know you didn't watch this match. You hate. You hate the conglomeration. But, okay, when they first came out, I don't know if any of you guys remember this, but the union in WWF way back in the day was like Mick Foley and Big Show, Ken Shamrock and Test, I believe. Just like four random guys just put together as a face group. That's what I got that vibe from when the conglomeration was coming out. Just four random baby face guys that are just having a good time together. This was a fun match. We also got kind of the weird Don Callis on commentary because of the rush connection, Rouge connection. I'm not sure exactly what's going on with the Don Callis family. It feels like they're getting pulled in a bunch of different directions. And this is a fun match. I love the Beast Mortos. It's great to see him on Dynamite instead of just Collision and Ring of Honor. And we had the Beast Mortos pin Mark Briscoe, so I assume that's setting up like some sort of title match on Ring of Honor TV down the line. Good point. I did catch the end of the match, and I will say that I was most happy, as you just pointed out, that Beast Mortos got the pin, because I was looking at this match and I was like, okay, so either Beast Mortos is going to take the pin or ECE was going to take the pin. And I just thought that it was fitting that Briscoe took the pin and you made a really good point. That is definitely setting up possibly something for an ROH World Championship match, which I'm for because Mortos is brilliant in my mind. I could actually see him winning that title. I could see him being the one that beats Briscoe and takes that to a different level because he is. He's definitely one of the better Beast type wrestlers that they've had in AEW and he's actually being used in that role on a regular basis now, which is awesome. But he's nimble and he can take a bump from the Luchadors doing Luchadors things. They're not having to tone down their wrestling. Right, and that's why I think that he would be a great ROH champion for now. I don't rule him out of ever being an AEW champion of some kind, but I think he can take the ROH title to a whole new level. Anybody else have any opinions about this? I'm in the same boat that Hugh R. Kelsen. I took my dog out during this match. Just strange because I do like all the people in consideration, but I'll tell you what lost me was the entrances because Roddy's music comes out and ROH's looked lost and then Ruch awkwardly stood in the background waiting for his cue. So my mind, I was like, if they don't care about this, then I'm going to go take my dog out. That's a good point. It's the Roddy. It's the Roddy effect and his own partners can't stand him. I would argue that's good characterization right there. He is a detriment to it. I mean, listen, I used to hate Britt Baker with a passion. I couldn't stand her matches. I couldn't stand her being in a ring. Roddy is now taking that place because honestly, that's the one reason why I really didn't pay that much attention to that match. I liked it. It was a good match and I like seeing everybody in it except for him. Now, look, the undisputed kingdom, when they had their match on ROH, I loved it. It was a great match. Here's the thing. Okay. The undisputed kingdom is lost. Without Adam Cole, that whole storyline is basically, as we've discussed in the past, it's in a holding pattern and Roderick Strong is therefore in a holding pattern. The problem is, is they use Roderick Strong so much and it doesn't make any sense because he's not going anywhere. Yeah, I think they're trying to make him fit that role of the leader that they're missing, but he just doesn't have it in him. I think that they're just using him as a face of the undisputed kingdom in the hopes that when Adam Cole does eventually return, that the undisputed kingdom has some sort of relevance remaining. Will they? In my opinion, no, they're totally irrelevant in AEW right now. Does anybody know when Cole's coming back? Because I thought with him being up on his feet again, he'd be back before now. He would have thought he made a post, I believe, today on Twitter where he was just kind of alluding to returning. And he'd always said a couple of words, but he's basically like, I'm watching, you know, kind of thing like he's, he's in the wings waiting for his. He's trying to figure out a way to get himself faced away from the undisputed kingdom. How can I come back without having to be involved with you guys, man? They're going to kill my career. Yeah, he's been in his wheel. He's just waiting for that for you to be banished to ROH on a permanent basis because that's where they need to go. I don't like them either. I do not like Roderick Strong. So they need to do something with them quickly. I don't mind them. I really like having, okay, there is a type of cartoon character whose purpose it is to be annoying and easily beaten. And they are kind of serving that function right now. Their self importance is out of league with how like silly they are. They're just, they're a bunch of silly little guys. And I like that. I do admit that, yeah, trying to position them is like this big boss instead of just honestly very annoying is a mistake on AEW's part right now. I think they could be a lot more menacing with Cole. They were a lot more menacing with Cole. And I also do agree that they need to find a purpose for them that's not just being the heel team that gets beat that we have fun booing. But they're good at being that heel team that gets beaten that we have fun booing or I do anyway. Yeah, as the rest of it, I do love that orange at the beginning of the match. He had been in some interview on like local news or something and said, yeah, we're going against this guy. I think I'm going to do like a matador and then he proceeded to use his jacket like a matador. I love that moment. That was so funny. Red, let me ask you this. Do you see, we talked about Adam Cole and the holding pattern. I don't know if you agree with that. But do you see a similarity to like what Tony Khan did with Jade Kargill when he was waiting for Chris Stattlander to come back? Well, I mean, it seems like the MJF and Adam Page thing is dead. So I mean, Adam Cole, I apologize, Adam Cole. How long, how many times do we have to put all of our faith in Adam Cole for him to completely let everyone down. He was put in charge of the elite. He got hurt. Missed significant time. He comes back. He does this huge angle with MJF. Completely alters the trajectory of his championship reign and I mean, just ruins it for like five months and then just gets hurt. Screwing around on a ramp jumping like to look, I don't know. Well, I mean, I feel bad for Roderick Strong in the kingdom because I mean, obviously some people feel differently, but Roderick Strong's a really, I think he's a really good wrestler. The kingdom are a really good tag team and they're stuck doing this, a tribute act to Adam Cole for what? What did they gain from it? They're on Ring of Honor now. They're not on AW anymore. Roderick Strong came in with all of the momentum leaving NXT, had this liberation tour and show who he is as a wrestler and surmounted at nothing. And what do they see in Adam Cole at Warren's all of this? Ward Lowe's career has totally been, I mean, ruined in AW because he got put in his faction and then was beaten two weeks later by Samoa Joe. He's not in it anymore. It could have just been the devil. I mean, they could have just made Ward Lowe the devil and said, screw you, Adam Cole, you know, sorry, but I'm up. I mean. Yeah, I mean, there were some of us that when we were trying to figure out who the devil was, there better was a couple of mentions of Ward Lowe. I want to move on. In my opinion, this was the weakest part of the show and I hate to say it because it's been so strong for months. But tonight was a letdown. And that was Renee Pickett talking to Mariah May. And then of course, Tony Storm coming out looking like Betty Grable and Betty Davis's love child with those God awful eyebrows. But yeah, I don't know this. My heart wasn't in it. And I don't think Mariah May's heart was in it. I don't think when I just thought this was a week segment and Tony Storm coming out was, you know, Kamala Harris weird. I mean, Kamala Harris would have called her weird. You know, I don't know. It was just I think it was just off. Like for me, the Tony Storm part of it was good. I like that. Like it made sense. Yeah, she was weird. She was scary, frightening. But I thought that was the point. She's she's off her rocker now. She's been kind of pushed over the edge. Yeah, so I was happy with all the Tony Storm stuff. It was just the Mariah May interview. It's just it's like, it's hard for me to really understand what she's going for. It's it's subtle in a way that maybe for stupid wrestling fans or me as a stupid wrestling fan is. I'm just like a little confused. I'm wondering what what the stereotype is, I guess that she's going for, you know? Yeah, I mean, that's a good point you may know. It's because it was subtle. But the problem with that is, is that this story's been going on for months and nothing about this story has been subtle from the beginning. And all of a sudden it's subtle. And then you have a cartoon character come out and Tony Storm, which just did not work for me. I'm sorry. I would like to argue that that was not subtle. That was horror movie villain shit. Like that was the whole, you know, oh no, from day one, basically my whole purpose was to destroy her and then become a better version of her. I sliced her open and climbed into her skin. This is some, this is really making me want to rewatch Hannibal right now. Yeah, there's this extreme combination of sex and violence that this story is really going after. And the combination of their two versions of unhinged being Mariah's extremely cold calculated, I played this to the hilt energy. And Tony's, you were the thing keeping me centered. Now that's gone. She is straight up turning into Betty Davis and whatever happened to baby Jane. I was looking at some pictures of the makeup earlier and they are extremely heading in that direction, especially with that beauty mark on her cheek and the eyebrows that you mentioned. And the whole point of that is that this woman who used to be a star and is no longer a star is just, you know, out to lunch. And I love it. I love everything about it. It's Tony coming out and saying I love you like present tense was, oh, it was everything I needed right now from this story. I can't wait to watch them tear each other apart. I think the only thing that could have made it better was had she used to shoot a maker self bleed. That would have been she did, but she didn't quite go far enough. And I'm not sure that that was the intention. But I think it's the Tony, especially the Tony storm portion. She is going right where I was hoping she would go. She's so far off the deep and now that there's no way she's coming back without something happening to bring her back. She is like gonzo. I kind of get what they're going with with with Mariah. I don't know so much that I would have said like like said, I don't think it's so subtle. It's just that it don't think it's what people were expecting. People thought it was going to be this whole. Oh, then I just did this because I just said she's like, I'm the mastermind. I'm the, I'm, I'm the Joker to everybody's Batman. And I'm going to do this exactly how I want to. And this is what I set out to do. And I'm going to do it that way. I do want to say I do really like actually what we saw from Tony tonight. Just because on the scale of because this whole story began because Tony storm was going insane. So now we're so far past that that because she's not acting the way that she used to. We're now saying she's lost it now when the whole thing began and she originally lost it. Like that's amazing that we're that far away from our origin point. Anybody else? Um, I completely agree with what Stith said about Mariah and May's how horrifying that was. And it was subtle, but subtlety is good in wrestling. Sometimes things that are simple and easy to understand are better than things that are what we call it overbooked. But I want to applaud them because unlike Baker and Mercedes Monet over the last few weeks, unfortunately, even Osprey and MJF, it wasn't the same old thing again. It wasn't the same run in someone gets chased out of the ring and they cut a promo. It was a sit down. It was a little more low key. It was nice. It was different. And that's I like that. I was happy that it was a little different. Okay. Well, Alex, what do you want to talk about next? Um, yeah, let's talk about Mercedes Monet. Be well, not Mercedes Monet, the brick house Camille, accompanied by Mercedes Monet. She had a squash match versus a local talent, which was a fun showcase for, I don't know how I feel about the name the brick house. It makes me think of like a brick shit house. I think that's the point. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's okay. I kind of like just brick shit house better, but I guess they can't say that too many times per episode. So we get the brick house. Um, yeah, and I liked Mercedes Monet's promo afterwards. It was, you know, simple, but she does seem more comfortable on the mic. I was kind of expecting Brit to come out again. I guess as Brad was saying, the same old thing that they've been doing, but I like this new twist with Camille involved. And I look forward to seeing where the rest of this goes. Yeah, I, I do have to say that when Camille came out, I was in awe of her entrance outfit. I mean, she looked like it brought back almost the kind of, I don't know the best way to destroy it was the same aura as Jade Cargill, which she looked like a superhero. And Amazonian, she did. I mean, she looked spectacular. And she did this, mature was a squash match, squash match, but not as single hair was out of place after that match. I don't know how she pulled that off. But, uh, yeah, I mean, just, just a presence. She, she knocked it out of the park tonight, in my opinion, without saying a word. Or I think that I was disappointed about what Camille is that we still didn't get the official Camille as all the graphic yet, as far as I know. I'm kind of waiting to see what happens when Camille no longer takes Monet's shit being like a piece of meat, because when that happens, I'm sorry, and Monet's got a serious problem. And that's going to make, that's going to make the whole thing worthwhile if they do it the right way. I mean, the Monet corporation tonight, which kind of implies to me, it could be a growing faction, which is interesting. Yeah, yeah, that's very true. Money court, money court. Yeah, I'm interested because Camille is a championship contender. You know, she had the the NWA women's world championship for over two years, I think it was like 850 some days. That's impressive. And she's she's a workhorse, and she's obviously got the presence in the aura. So I think that what she's doing right now is great for right now. But in the coming months, I think they do need to expand upon Camille because they can't shoehorn her into a into this, I guess, is the best way to put it. Unsurprisingly, the second Camille showed up in that gear looking like that, like I already like her. This is just a lot, and I'm so happy. She looked really good in this match. Like, you knew it was going to be a squash match, but it served its purpose of showing, hey, this is a very, very intimidating woman, and it did so very well. I'm looking forward to, yes, Mercedes said corporation, she's mentioned she wanted to do some factions and stuff. Can we please have factions on the women's side? I need my girl gangs. This is I love faction stuff. And come on, let's have some let's let's have a 10 women's tag team championship. Yes, let's have the women's tag champions. Let's just let's just have factions scheming against each other and having alliances with each other. And I just I just want that. But Camille, very, very yes. I would like to wear there was a zina aspect to her gear. And yeah, I am here for that. I would like to see a W use similar to what you're saying, Sif. I would like to see a W use dardom's models star stardom's model, because stardom is all faction. As a matter of fact, right now in stardom, I think there's only one wrestler that isn't in a faction right now. It's faction wrestling. And it's one of the things about stardom is that there's not really a fine there's a fine line between heel and face factions. Sure, there's baby face factions and there's a heel faction. But mostly it's up in the air and it does give you a chance to do very good stories. Matt, what did you think about Mercedes Monet and Camille? I like them both. I like them together. I haven't seen Camille before a W. So well, just a little bit, but I'm not really familiar with her. So I'm going to leave it be and just watch her going forward. I think that she's great. I like her look. I like her paired up with Mercedes and I do wish they would do some women's tag team matches. I love women's wrestling too. So I wish they would just do some more women's matches. There's a lot of potential there. You have some good women's wrestlers, but we don't see them enough. We don't get enough storylines from them. And there's there's one women's wrestler who I think kind of dominates the whole division and I'm you just got back and I'm already tired of seeing her. So I is Britt Baker. I have never liked her and I'm tired of her. Yeah. I've said that so many times before. They played her up so much and it really wasn't warranted. I mean, she's I'm only I'm reserving judgment for her return because she really hasn't been in any matches. I did not like her first match. I thought that was insane that they gave for the win like that, but that's what they do for her. She gets way too much given to her and she always has. I agree with you. I agree. It's not her fault because back in the day, she was a big fish in a small pond. Now, there's a bunch of good female wrestlers in AEW. So the only reason that she got the push that she got was because of her boyfriend. You watch backward all she did. She was pushed and pushed and pushed until Adam Cole signed as soon as Adam Cole signed and disappeared. She lost. She wrestled a few more times, went falling completely down to the bottom until she was gone for almost two years and you go back and watch all of her matches. She was pushed as a champion while they tried to sign him and as soon as he signed, it was gone. Yeah, but y'all said that has more duration. Yeah, Seth is absolutely right. I mean, your hatred of Britt Baker is well documented, but it's not as bad as yours of Eddie, so I mean, well, the difference is that Eddie can't wrestle to save his life. But Britt could beat Eddie in a fight easily. Oh, no, that would be a hell of a match. I don't think so because you have two moves and that's about it to be a Hogan-esque. They just stand there and breathe on each other until one of them fell. I definitely enjoyed the pairing. I'm happy they've leaned hard into the Mercedes heel turn and kind of saved this whole whole thing as it was going on. I think it sets up for a lot of good feuds coming later because like we said, I mean, when in wrestling has the heavy body guard not rose up and turned babyface on their heel over Lord. So definitely good things coming out in the pipeline. He'll overlord Mercedes Monet. I kind of think that I would rather see her turn babyface that Camille stay heel because over the city's Monet has been so much better. It was even said in the live chat tonight at AW fan up Mercedes Monet is so much better as a heel that she is as a babyface doesn't fit part of her aura. Does anybody else have anything to say about Mercedes Monet and Camille before we go on to the last segment? I think we have some more. Do we? Oh yeah, we do have a couple more. The other women's match. We have, okay, we'll talk about the other women's match then now and that was Willow Nightgale and Chris Statlander and a CMLL eliminator match which Chris Statlander won. So now we're going to get another Nightgale and Chris Statlander match. Did they, did they say that it was going to be an all-in or did they? I don't know. Yeah, they said this was a qualifier and I'm guessing we're going to get the final for real match at all in which I do love them fighting but also I want to see them fight other people. Yeah, it's pretty funny that it's like this is like their tenth match and then the reward for Chris Statlander winning is that we hit the 11th match or what I know that's not actually that many but yeah. It's close. I say I do not like the eliminator match as a concept but I do love Willow so this match won me over. Yeah, oh my god, Willow getting to shake Stokely Hathaway was so satisfying. And can I just say that Chris Statlander, her little uppies for Stokely Hathaway during her entrance, just chef's kiss. I love it. I was actually wearing cherry cream. I was waiting for her to carry him up the ramp and out. Does anybody else feel like the whole Chris Statlander and Willow Night Girl thing is like being stuck in Groundhog Day? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, much as I love them. Yeah. I made a post earlier about this match or I didn't make a post about this match but this match came up on Greatness of Wrestling subreddit and somebody said this is that somebody was like, this is the random match. Like, what are you talking about? This is like a night talk today. It's like, is it a good story? No, I don't I don't enjoy this story. I like Willow Night Girl. I like Chris Statlander but it's being overdone. It's overdone and I'm not going to lie to you. I kind of expected somebody like Julia Hart to come out tonight just to add some spice into it because this is just, it's the same old, like I said, Groundhog Day. It's like baby Bill Murray should have come out and got work with that. All I buy out right now, you know, special guest referee at all in Bill Murray. That would be amazing. Oh my gosh, come up in that video from the movie. Oh yeah, that would be great. All right. Does anybody else have anything to say about Willow Night Girl, Chris Statlander? I think the other than just watching it because I do like watching them wrestle even if it's, you know, the 10th time. One thing I really liked about this match was after the match, Chris kind of going off the metaphorical chain since, you know, she already had the physical chain earlier in the match, her going after first the security guards, well, first Willow, then the security guards, and then Stokely trying to talk her down. And there was like a moment where I think she was really like, I'm stronger than you. I'm very excited to see like Chris, even more unhinged right now, she's just mean, but Chris off the leash, I'm very excited for. I'm going to say something now and I wonder if anybody agrees with me or anybody has a comment about it. But as I was watching this match, the actual match, the things that happened story-wise were great. But the actual match, it seemed a little bit like Willow and Chris Statlander were a little bit bored with each other. Did anybody else get that? Yeah, I did. Like we said, you know, we're joking about it being their 10th match, but it's pretty damn close. And I get the fact that they want to play this out this way. But my god, you can't do, I mean, I can see 10 matches against each other over the entire year, not the first seven months, and especially since it's been like, since April, they've wrestled each other like eight times. I mean, come on, Tony, this is crazy. And yeah, it looked like they were both just going through the motions almost the entire match. Yeah, I mean, I just had a problem with the chemistry. Am I crazy here? No, I definitely feel like there are certain people who you can put together who you who can have 10 matches and build something new in the match each time that keeps you interested. So like in this match, I think the only thing that we haven't seen before was the electric chair drop when Statlander got her up. And that's where that grabbed my attention. I was like, Oh, that's new. And then it's just right back to the same kind of notions we've been seeing here. So it's about you got to bring something new if you want to do the 11th match at all in. I feel like the all in match might be like a hardcore match. I'm wondering if that's what they're leading up to with it. A London death match. One didn't death match. Oh, I would be here for that. Yeah. Well, you know what would be interesting also is a is a steel cage match because England, the UK does not do a lot of steel cage matches, especially in the women's division. So that would be something. But would they be allowed to do that? That's that's a good question. I mean, as many matches as I've watched from England through different things, some of the different stuff with like NXT London, England and and you are UK and other matches I've watched. They don't do a lot of those kind of matches. Now they'll do hardcore matches and have weapons matches, but they don't really do steel cage things. So that could be an issue. But yeah, it would be interesting. Very much so. I know that Tony Storm and Tegan Knox had a steel cage match a few years back. And that was like one of the first steel cage matches ever in the UK. This was in the UK. But one of the things that, you know, if they did a steel cage match, stay with me here. It wouldn't be at all in because the cage would block the view of people in the stadium. So, but remember, they're doing shows in Cardiff. So that's where they can have why not? If you're going to do, you know, this does not have to be, you know, at at all in, this could be at the what the Dynamite and Collision in Cardiff, which would be a big deal because they've got to put something big on the card. And below Night Gayle and Chris Statlander ending their feud, hopefully, at that at that venue would be a pretty big deal. Yeah, I agree. And I'm not even certain that I think that I'm sure that they will put this if they don't do it like that, that they'll put this match on all in. Because of it being the CMLL title, they might do it somewhere closer to home. You know what I mean? That's a good point, too. Yeah. Because I could see them, you know, I could see the people in CMLL going, wait a minute, this is our belt. Why are you defending it in Europe, where we've never really had matches and that we don't like that. So, but that again, having a CMLL championship match in Europe would give CMLL exposure on a big stage, because let's face it, more people are going to be watching all in, and more people are going to be watching the show in Cardiff that they would be watching a show, let's just say, in Arlington, Texas, nothing against Arlington, Texas, because those crowds have been fantastic. I'm just using that as an example. In other words, it's a some more high profile match. True, true. Anybody else with opinions on what we've been talking about with Willow Nightingale and Chris Statlander? I do have a question on that. Did anybody see the picture on X that's Stokely put up with Chris and the two girls? I don't know. I don't know. I didn't know. That's an interesting group. There he goes. That's a faction. Yes, exactly. The making. Again, if I fondest wishes seeing many talented people in one place doing coordinated stories, I'm not sure where I'm going with this. All right, well, anybody else? If not, Alex, take it away. Yeah, before we get to the last match, we did have a backstage segment with the acclaimed. They've been calling out the FTR a few promos now. We're not getting that match this collision because they've announced some other match with FTR for collision. But I imagine they're setting up a match where FTR can make a claimed look good before all in, where I'm guessing they're presumably going to face the Young Bucks for the titles then. The one thing I want to call out with this promo is Max Castor. He keeps calling himself the best wrestler alive. There's a lot of wrestlers that say, "I'm the best wrestler in the world," or so on and so forth. That's their catchphrase. I don't think anyone else has ever thought or said that Max Castor is the best wrestler in the world. No, there's another reason he's doing it. Yeah, he owns the trademark for that. That's why he uses it. I love Max Castor. I think he's hilarious, but it's a strange trademark. When he made the trademark, he did several injuries, interviews, talking about it, and it's very, very tongue-in-cheek where he calls himself the best wrestler alive. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's being fully, again, playing into the whole obnoxious "nobody likes me" really, but I think they all do character. And again, him calling himself the best wrestler alive when, I mean, Bowen's is standing next to him and Bowen's is kind of the best, but he's better than Castor technically. He could be, yeah. You can make a case for Bowen. Yeah, I should go back and look at continuing a, I think I'm so great. Just a few video interviews, and if you watch the video interviews, he calls himself the best wrestler alive with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. He's laughing, he's joking about it. He's not, he didn't take it seriously. He just booked the trademark because it was available. He really reminds me of like a cat that will make eye contact with you as it knocks things over. He has just tremendous cat vibes, and it works really well for him, I think. He plays into it perfectly. The whole "best wrestler" thing, I laughed. Excuse me. All right, Alex, well, yeah, we had anybody else has to say something about Max Castor and the acclaimed Billy Gunn. Let's, let's move it on. Sure. Okay, and then we had the opening segment. I missed a little bit of this because my internet was down. So I assumed there was an MJF promo, but I did not hear it. I heard Will Osprey's promo, and then he had his match with Lance Archer, which I thought was a fantastic door match. Unfortunate for Lance Archer that he lost here, but I loved the match itself for what it was. Will Osprey look great? And I thought Lance Archer looked good as well. I don't, I felt like Will Osprey's promo was not his best promo. I think it's kind of awkward when he's in America trying to talk badly about the American championship. He tried his best. Yeah, I disagree with you. I think, I think that Osprey did much better than MJF. MJF was, MJF as a babyface was more creative, I think. As a heel, you see that he's, he's literally going for cheap heat constantly and calling the Greenville crowd, trailer dress, and everything else. I wasn't impressed with MJF as much as I was with Will Osprey because Will Osprey is kind of cleared up something. Is it the American championship or is it the international championship? It is the international championship. Until, yeah, it'll be the American championship until MJF loses it. Which will happen at all in? Yes, hopefully. Because that title does nothing for MJF. MJF coming out looking like a concept art sketch for the Olympics teams like Entrance Wear with the red, white, and blue Burberry in his entrance and everything was, again, it made me think of what we all thought we were going to get with Cody back before he left AEW. I also think that Will and Fletcher's promos where they were talking about like, okay, the US isn't, is okay actually, but this guy sucks. They came off as a bit stilted. Yeah, but I don't want to get lost in this whole thing in this match is what I really don't want to get lost is Lance Archer here because he was in his element. He did spectacularly. I'm a huge Lance Archer mark and I thought that this was one of the best matches he's had from beginning to end in AEW. I was so happy for him. Now I just want to see him win. In a meaningful match, not a squash match. I want to see him win. I want to see him beat somebody not with the righteous who are dog shit. I want to see Lance Archer go out there and win. I want to see him win a title. I think he deserves it. I wouldn't mind seeing Lance Archer beat that shit out of Chris Jericho. That would be nice. Even though it would be for a crap title, having come out and just beat the living shit out of the learning tree and then have tasks come out and do the whole looks like task paid him off to do it, but that would be amazing. You know, maybe have a situation where Jericho tries to recruit Lance Archer, but Lance Archer turns on Jericho and that's how you get them because I don't want to see at all in. I don't want to see Jericho against Shabbat. I don't want to see Jericho against Samoa Joe and I don't want to see Jericho against look because we've seen that before. I want to see something new. It's all in. Do something there. There isn't a land search or a menorah Suzuki Suzuki goon connection. So theoretically you could work him into the learning tree if you didn't set up a match it all in with menorah Suzuki and Lance Archer versus them. Yeah, but I just want to see a title match. I want to I want to see Lance Archer be the FTW champion. Yeah, that would be cool. And then have Lance Archer do what MGF did to the international championship and that's throwing into garbage cans. What a pittance I hate that belt. It just means nothing. And it's such a it's such a shame because people say that a W has too many belts and yet we've got crap belts. I talked too long earlier today, you know, saying that we've got the international continental belts are basically to say thing. What's the difference between them? We've got the FTW belt that has absolutely no meaning in a W whatsoever. It's a legacy belt that wasn't even that popular when it was relevant. Now it's totally irrelevant. And you've got the trio's belt which I'm just not a fan of. So going back though to go back to our opening segment though. I know you missed the promo but MJF, I am really enjoying this. I think it's such a 2024 storyline, something that you could only kind of do now where the American is the obnoxious heel but still hates every other piece of America. And then we have Osprey and Fletcher playing the patriotic baby faces fighting for America against the American. I just I think it's a storyline that can only work now and I think MJF is the right person to pull it off. Very good point. Does anybody else have anything to say about Lance Archer and Will Osprey? One of the things that I really liked in the match was just how fluid it felt. And I found a thread on Twitter a little bit ago somebody being like yeah this is you know all this stuff about how many times they faced each other in New Japan and it's you know references to that. I really liked their chemistry together. I loved like just all of that match. I felt really bad for you know the second segment following it because I'm still thinking about that match. And I would love to see again more Lance Archer on TV just always but a few more Osprey versus Archer matches in the future. Yeah unfortunately Lance Archer is just too big to hold on an AW belt. So big men don't have belts in AW and if you make it look very tiny in his hands. He can pull off the TNT title. Yeah but again looking at the TNT champions that were big they didn't hold it for very long. Talking about Wardlow and Brian Cage you know. Brody our house Hobbs. Did Brian Cage hold the title? Yeah he's one of the key champion. He was an FTW. I don't think he was an FTW. I got that but yeah Brody held it for a long time and would have held it longer probably if things hadn't gone the way he did. But yeah you know that that's where he kind of puts me in that same frame of mind when I think of him and the way he wrestles. He reminds me a lot of Brody Lee. Yeah but Brody Lee was a different case because he was the head of a faction that was built up and built up and built up and the payoff was Brody Lee. You know and they gave they gave him the TNT belt and obviously he's TNT for life. TNT champion for life but you know that was a special case. I just don't see AEW giving a big man any title for any length of time because that's just not what AEW does. But anyway so I guess that's going to be the show for tonight. We appreciate everybody coming out. We appreciate everybody listening. Be sure to tune in on Tuesday night when we do our ignition podcast which I'm sure will have some things to say about one Shane McMahon possibly coming to AEW. So that should be an interesting topic to cover. Hopefully we'll get some more news and/or speculation before then. Maybe the case there are no news is good news. Maybe it's very fluid and it's very controversial. Oh sorry. Go ahead. Oh I was going to say do you all remember my theory from a few weeks ago that AEW kind of really didn't exist and it was WWE the whole time. Yeah I remember you bringing that up. That may be something we may need to re-explore come Tuesday night. I don't know this is it's going to be interesting to read between now and then. Here comes the money. Here comes the money is right. So anyway thank you everybody for coming tonight and we'll see you again on Tuesday night for ignition and of course Saturday night at five o'clock eastern time for collision a live chat at AEW fan hub subreddit. So 48W fan hub podcasting. This is Kelson and this is Alex. Good night everybody. Good night. Good night. Good night Eddie Kingston. Good night.