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Shopify.com/RedCircle Introducing first, speaking out of Akron, Ohio, representing team popping the boys, the headline god, Jeremy Limmer, and his co-host speaking out of Atlanta, Georgia, representing more than one royal family. Welcome everyone to the spotlight here on Fightful. I'm Jeremy Limmer. That is Steven Jensen, and shout out as always to Big Dick, Emil J. For the intro, it is Thursday, September 12th. As always, a lot to talk about in the world of professional wrestling, but before we begin, Jensen, how are you doing? I'm doing good, man, doing good, man. Just fighting through these little morning colds that I keep getting with the weather changing, but outside of that, we're doing good, we're doing good, man. Got a lot of good stuff to talk about, as you mentioned, NFL was back, very happy about that, and we're in a lot of purple on the show lately. This hat that I wear often on the show, by the way, is that Minnesota Vikings hat? People might not know. We're on a biking shirt. I've got a Justin Jefferson jersey on during our interview that's always here at the end of the show with TWB Champion Darian Benson, but I'm very happy that it fells back. My biking's look great on Sunday. Sam Darnold, out there playing really, really well, which I'm very, very excited about. I think we got a shot against the 49ers. We beat him last season, you know, so hopefully we beat the Niners this week. Fantasy football wise, I've got a, it's hard to explain my league when we're not going to talk football very long today, but NFL season did just start. But in my fantasy football league that we've been doing by saying buddies since high school, so we're going on like 17 seasons now. We play like two is kind of untrudible. We start two quarterbacks. We have defensive players and all this kind of stuff. So anyway, big, big fantasy football night for myself tonight. I've got Chua and I've got Jalen Waddle playing tonight and also Dalton Kincaid. So big Thursday night football for my fantasy team today. And then a big Monday night, I've got Jalen Hurts as well. And AJ Brown, so heavy on the Eagles, heavy on the Dolphins fantasy football. And obviously, my Minnesota Vikings, I am rooting to the death. So yeah, I'm very excited for the football season. I know that you're in a rough spot being a fan of the, yeah, the Carolina Panthers are rough. Listen, my favorite player of all time, Adam Feline is on your team. I feel very bad for him that he's made the decision to go there and do this to himself for a couple of seasons, but he got paid. He got paid a lot. And that was, that was his goal. He wasn't, he couldn't accept, and I hate saying it. He's my favorite player ever. He couldn't accept being, you know, the number three, the number four receiver in Minnesota at this point in his career and Carolina paint have a lot more money to go there and be the number one receiver, even though he's supposed to be the number three receiver this season, but he's still in on one receiver right now. But anyway, he's the, he's at least the number two receivers. Yante Johnson is number one. Well, but it's based on like the stats last week. Dylan did have the best yards of any of the receivers on your team. So technically speaking, he still is the top receiver, but he isn't the, he isn't the, they're, they're trying to build around Bryce Young, and they're trying to make the younger guys their future. Like, Dylan won't be there probably past this season anyway, because they're going to go younger, I'm sure. Probably get traded at the deadline if they can help it. Yeah, I would, I love for him to come back to Minnesota, honestly, and be, and just be like, you know, a guy there for like the red zone, who, because he should end his career in Minnesota after, after the years he had there. And the fact that he is from Minnesota, and he went to Mankato State and the Richard's way from the practice squad to being a pro bowl receiver and stuff like, I'm a, yeah, so I love Adam, but it was similar to the Kirk cousin situation. Like, I'm super, super happy we let Kirk go after seeing what he looks like for the Falcons. He looked terrible and his Achilles is not healed, but it isn't just the Achilles. I said it pre-season a lot. Michael Pennix will be the starting quarterback for the Falcons before the end of this season, probably before the halfway through the season, like Kirk's not going to make the next few weeks because the Atlanta fans are brutal. Dude, I've been to plenty of games here in Atlanta at the old, at the old dome and the current Mercedes Benz. Those fans are brutal and Kirk Cousins is mentally weak. And when things aren't going his way, he becomes a head case. Huh? It's true. Wow. It's true. Kirk is super mentally weak. That's, that's the main thing about it. He's, he's our age coming off of a complete Achilles tear and has only won one playoff game his entire career. And the, the Falcons just gave him $180 million and like a hundred million to guarantee. It makes no sense. And then they drafted his successor, which Kirk wanted nothing to do in Minnesota. He basically left because more money and because we were going to draft JJ McCarthy. And he couldn't handle it. Then the same thing winds up happening to him in Atlanta anyways, they draft Michael Pennics. And that, that fan base, if he continues to throw picks, because he also can't, he's not mobile. He was, he was immobile before the Achilles. Now he can't, they're just running all these plays out of like shotgun and stuff because he can't even like drop back normally still. So anyway, I'm very glad we got out of the Kirk Cousins business and I will stop talking about football because I know y'all do not want to hear me talking about football very long, but I need to take this opportunity. We do have a big announcement about the future of the show. Um, so I want to make sure to get some biking shots out there right now while I could. But, uh, it's out of that. Yeah, everything else is going really, really good, man. I'm very happy football is that. Yeah, I watched five minutes and that was enough football for me. I watch other teams that are actually competent and good for the rest of the season. Mm hmm. Was my team sucks. So as Jensen alluded to, we do have an announcement. This will be the last episode of the spotlight on the main channel. Beginning next week, we'll be moving to Fightful Overbooked. So same time, everything's the exact same. We'll just be on Fightful Overbooked.com. Moving forward, it is largely for synergies for me because every other show I do on on the on for Fightful is on Fight Overbooked. So I like having now just every show that I do on that channel. It makes things easier for me and that was that's basically and it allows for more breathing room because we have so many shows on the main channel, whereas on overbooked, we don't have any shows on Thursday. So now this will be a standalone show on Thursday on Fightful Overbooked. Yes, Matt, I set that up purposely. Yeah. We're not going anywhere. I don't know. We love we love doing the show and we love, you know, being able to give the spotlight, you know, indie wrestlers and promoters and other YouTubers and stuff. So like literally nothing about the show is going to change. It's literally just going to be airing on overbooked instead of this channel. And like Jeremy said, I think it's actually a really smart move because like like Jeremy just said, it's tough for us on Thursday morning, sometimes when for one, we're already a really early show. No one on the West Coast can watch us live. This is all because I have a shoot job and this is only hours I can I can do the show. And then we're recording the interviews that you'll watch after I get off work, some of these ages, usually on a Tuesday or Wednesday night after I've already worked. So we still put, you know, the same effort into the show. We're still going to be literally literally this the show you've been watching for the last two and a half years or whatever is going to be identical. But it should be helpful to our show and see all his viewers too because a lot of these I've noticed in recent weeks as well because I pay attention to the YouTube, you know, recommended feed and stuff. There's a lot of weeks that our show doesn't even show up on like the YouTube feed because by the time by the time Thursday night rolls around, there's usually already been another fight for like prediction show. There's been the ROH impact show. Sometimes another interview has been uploaded on the site and it's like by the end of that day, we might be the fourth or fifth, you know, show on there and like we don't even wind up on the recommended feed. You know what I mean? So we're hoping that this also helps kind of spread the shot again and gets some more eyes on it again because it will be the only show on Thursday on overbook. So there won't be like all this other stuff around it and we want all the shows to be successful. We want the potion because I thought doing the show on Thursday morning will probably help the review show or the prediction shows too, most likely because we're not splitting the audience, we're both running live at the same time and stuff. So anyway, I'm looking forward to moving over to overbook. I've got roots on overbooked. If you all remember to Grossey do's with me and SP3. There's a handful of those shows that out drew the viewership of spotlight episodes, you know what I mean? So like I'm excited for, I'm excited for the move over to overbooked and like like being Jeremy have said, literally all you have to do in the morning is just go to that YouTube channel instead of this one. 830 a.m. Eastern every Thursday morning. It's just fightfuloverbooked.com. So you don't need to, you don't really need to change anything. Hey, it's again, just fightfuloverbooked.com. There's a direct link to it. You don't have to do youtube.com/fightfuloverbooked or anything like that. Just fightfuloverbooked.com. If you're not subscribed to that channel, please go over there and subscribe to that channel. Again, this show will be over there. I do a morning show three days a week, which old Pearl over there. I do a non wrestling show over there with SP3. Maggie, who's always in our chat, Maggie does a show with Rob Wilkins every Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern coexisting. And we also have wrestling name and cry every Sunday at 12 on Fightful Overbooked as well. So we have live shows. Now since this show, we'll be moving on Thursday every single day on Fightful Overbooked outside of Saturdays. So live shows every single day on Fightful Overbooked.com outside of Saturday. And we'll have a Saturday show at some point. We'll see. We'll see what happens. I'm open to the idea potentially, depending on how long it is and what we talk about or something like that. Maybe maybe expanding a little bit. I don't know. And it feels like we got some room to spread our wings a little bit over on Overbooked. I'm, yeah, like I said, I'm looking forward to it. SP3's in the chat. The home, SP3. Congratulations, by the way. I saw you got the new new stuff going on. Very, very happy for you, man. I know you've been grinded. And he says the street's been saying they want the Grazidudes back. So, dude, trust me, I want to talk. I want to do the Grazidudes again. I want to do, I want to do South Park reviews and all that kind of stuff. It's like, it's that damn real life, you know, in the shoot job. It gets in the way so often. But now that I'm going to be more on Overbooked, more consistently, we'll try to get more stuff going again. Yeah. So, yeah, anyway, we're also making this sound like this is a bigger deal than it is. It's literally like the majority of y'all that watched this show are probably just going to, like you might wouldn't even notice that we get anything changed. It's like you're just going to see us pop up on YouTube where you're the little bell will ring and go on the website. And so we'll be doing the same thing we've been doing for the last two and a half years or whatever. Just, you know, I don't think anything we've been like are even what we look like on the screen will be probably identical five to say like everything will probably be the same just over on another channel. So follow us over there. Let's get into it. We got a lot of wrestling to talk about. Guys, leave a thumbs up on the video, leave a question, leave a super chat, question, comment statement read on the air and subscribe to this channel and subscribe for my full book. Over a million fans and a great number in the demo tuned in. It was a great show. And I think it's been a run of great shows. AEW dynamite coming off of AEW all out. We're going to kind of do an all-encompassing thing here. There's a lot to talk about when it comes to AEW. But I think the big topic coming out of AEW all out was John Moxley suffocating, trying to murder Brian Danielson, the AEW world champion, turning on him. And then last night kind of opening the show with the video package, the behind the scenes after video package of democracy is dead. Brian Danielson is dead. This is our company now. We tried to do things your way. We are taking over and then pack later in the night they attacked private party port, private party. First off, they were booked in a trios match and not even in this tag team gauntlet. You would think they would be in that, but no, they were going to be in a trios match instead. And then they got attacked anyway. Impact was like, this company is broken. This company is now ours. The hostile takeover. Oh, there's even more to it than that. Darby Allen comes out because John Moxley finally has a talk with him. John Moxley's like, give me your title shot. And Darby Allen's like, no, I'll fight you instead. So then they set up a match for the tight where the winner becomes the number one contender. Nigel saw this as an opportunity of, oh, Brian doesn't have a match at Grand Slam. Let me go get this match against Brian Danielson. Now he's going to face Brian Danielson. If Brian's cleared, doesn't seem like it's a world title match. They're not building it as a world title match, at least as of yet. Maybe they will. What'd you make of all push Jensen? Um, excuse me, all of it ruled. That's not great. Um, there's a lot to unpack there, obviously. So like, just kind of going back to all out. When the combat club turned, I thought that that was smart. I mean, I'm sure you were happy about that. Just within like the last couple of weeks on this show, you were talking about how, you know, disappointed you were in that group and like them being so, you know, doing their own things and everything. So it kind of felt, you weren't alone in that, by the way. I think a lot of people were just kind of confused at like the current status of the group. And you know, if it was really working to build new people or whatever. And I like the way that how Claudio is the one who like started the turn, but then Mox was right behind him, ready with that bag. So it was like this, you know, planned out thing. We had seen him with Marina Shafir recently also. So like things were brewing, packed being a part of the Trio's champions based a whole lot more sense now. Um, as far as like him being involved with those guys because of this plan that's been going, putting, putting together. And then also, I loved how Yuto wasn't in on it. Like he was trying to like, healthy and he'll send during the attack and went and covered his body up whenever the attack ended. So there's a lot of different layers there that I really like. And then as far as like dynamite, we got more of the hostile takeover stuff, which, you know, it didn't work out great. I don't think when the elite just kind of tried doing something pretty similar to this, you know, but the elite aren't serious. That's why that didn't like really work. Yeah, you're probably right about that, you know, you're definitely right about them not being serious, but you're probably right about that being a reason why, you know, I mean, the fact that they went from attacking Tony Khan and him being, him doing like NFL, you know, owners meetings and stuff in the, in the neck brace. And then that's still not really leading to much buzz for the storyline inside. Like, so yeah, I consider that basically a flop overall for being honest, like that whole storyline. Um, you know, and then the one, the team AEW that wound up beating them, it didn't seem like that big of a deal when it went on happening. Anyway, that's a older conversation. But the reason I brought it up is because I feel we're kind of just coming off of a hostile takeover type storyline, but I buy it a lot more with this current group with Moxley, Claudio, Marina, Impact. Um, as far as later in the night when Darby in Mox interacted, I don't know if I said it. I don't know if I ever said it on this show. I'm almost positive. I heard, I'm almost positive. I heard Brian Alvarez talk about this on his show at some point, but somebody I'm pretty sure was Alvarez. I heard float the idea of, of Mox doing what he actually might have doing last night. Like some people, I think like we're kind of predicting the idea of Mox basically like because he's been trying to talk to Darby for weeks. And so there, there were basically what it came down to was I was like, oh, that would actually be a really good idea if that, if that one of happening and they might end up doing it, which I, so I think this, the stories, Martin makes sense. And Darby and Mox's history, I like that they talked about how they met on the indie scene. But like even just in AEW, they've been linked literally since day one of the company, like they were basically the two guys, like Moxley was having to fight off the inner circle. Darby was having to kind of do the same at the same time. They were, they had to become allies at the beginning of AEW as two of like, Moxley was basically like the top baby face that was like, you know, from the outside of the, of the company. And then Darby was like the top baby face of like, you know, the homegrown guys basically, they had to band together. So like, they've had a bond in an alliance since the beginning of the company. And now we're going to get like a legitimate kind of feud story between the two that has real stakes because the winner will go on to wrestle for the World Championship against Danielson. By the way, I think that Moxley is probably going to win. I think that Moxley is going to probably win the title shot from Darby. But I do think that Darby Allen, like, would this probably sets up long term? And that would be great with this scenario. If Moxley is ultimately the one to take the title off of Danielson, which I don't know if that'll have to be the case or not, but I could definitely see a scenario where Moxley becomes the champion and like, and Darby eventually does beat Moxley to become the champion himself. I feel like they're setting or planting seeds for that like now. They're not how long it's going to take to play all that out. But that's kind of where I'm at with it. I think that I think that Moxley is going to wind up beating Darby. And I do expect Darby to be the A.W. World champion in the future. I don't know what timeline wise I'd say within, I think I think I do within the next year. I mean, the years a long time, but like, I, you know, I feel like Darby's got to be the A.W. World champion at some point. They've been building him the entire run of the company. All the stuff he did with Sting, he's held all the other championships like, he's got to be the World champion at some point. And him and Moxley would make sense for the title if and when that eventually happened. So I think that, I think that this whole thing accomplishes a lot that the Mox turned the BCT, the BCC turn, the, the, I didn't even talk touch on the Nigel stuff. Like, because that also ties into that, like you brought up. I don't think it's going to be for the title either Danielson versus Nigel. But I think that's by design because everyone would automatically expect Nigel to lose if it was a title match because he hasn't had a singles match in, I mean, over a decade or whatever. So maybe there's a little bit more, there's a little more doubt of like Danielson winning maybe because it's non-title and because of their history. Although, but I wouldn't mind if it was for the championship, by the way. I don't really mind one way or another. I expect Danielson to win either way. But I thought that was awesome, too. Good for, good for Nigel, a guy that we finally saw come back to the ring at all, at all in rather. And we figured that Danielson would want a match against Nigel during this retirement run. So it looks like we're going to get it. So yeah, there's a lot to one back there. I know I just rambled for a while, but that's, I mean, that's, that's kind of how I feel about all of it. I like everything I just mentioned. I don't think Moxie's going to beat Danielson for the title. I think Darby actually ends up taking the title from Danielson. I think Danielson wants that match against Darby. Two Washington kids, like, I think he wants to, I think I just think he wants that match against Darby. I don't know if it's going to be at Wrestle Dream. I don't know if Darby beats Mox at Grand Slam to face Danielson at Wrestle Dream. It's very possible that Moxie beats Darby at Wrestle, or at Grand Slam, faces Danielson at Wrestle Dream. Danielson wins that match at Wrestle Dream, and then he faces Darby at either full gear or world's end, potentially. They got two pay per views between Wrestle Dream in the end of the year, so it could be at any point there. You can very easily heat up, you can very easily heat up Darby in the meantime, if he loses to Moxie. He can win another battle royal, he can win another tournament, he can win another gauntlet, however they decide to do it. But I think we're going to get Danielson and Darby while Danielson is still the champion. I would not be shocked if Darby wins the title there. My scenario is still, whoever faces Danielson at Wrestle Dream, Danielson wins, but he comes out a little worse for wear, and then Christian executes the contract and beats Danielson in front of his family at Wrestle Dream. >> I hate that. Well, I should say I hate that idea. It's actually a good idea, but I don't want to see Danielson lose the title from a money-to-date cash in basically. That just feels so wrong, but it's also completely perfect for the character of Christian Gage. So I get the reasons you would want to do that. And by the way, just for what it's worth personally speaking, I would prefer if Darby beat Moxie, nothing as Moxie. I love John Moxie. There's very few people at the level of respect I do for John Moxie, considering that guy is still, Darby mentioned it during his promo last night. I think I still makes indie bookings. He doesn't have to do this at all. It's a love of the game. I love John Moxie. But if it was up to me, I do think I would prefer if Darby beat Moxie, I'd prefer if Darby was the one actually to be Danielson. I think that would be awesome. I'm a big Darby guy, as y'all can tell. I was a fan of his. I've talked about a thousand times. The first time I saw him live was in a high school gym at the SCI in Chattanooga, and he wrestled Joey Janela. And they had this match that was completely insane. I've seen them do some of this stuff on AEW since, but Darby got his hand duct taped behind his back and did a towface to Acita through the ropes to the outside. And they were doing the crazy spot where Janela did a front flip and landed in a chair and stuff. And this was in 2017 or something like that. I just remember back then being like, man, it's such a bummer that these guys will ever wind up in the WWE because they're too small or whatever. But AEW wound up coming around within the last couple of years. Darby never looked back. And I feel like Darby's really earned it. They built him great, especially with the Sting stuff and all. I mean, like, so just want to kind of let people know, personally, I can see a scenario where Moxley would wind up winning in the history that Mox has a Danielson. I could see them going with Mox, but personally speaking, I'd prefer if they weren't with Darby. The thing with Moxley is I don't think he needs the title because we've kind of been there done that with Moxley. But for a storyline like this, a title makes sense because it does feel like they're trying to make good on what they tried with the Elite and it did fail with the Elite. That hostile takeover thing with the Elite just it started well with the attack on Tony Khan. It escalated very nicely with the attack on Kenny Omega. And then it went completely downhill, basically after anarchy in the arena. And then the Elite issued the challenge for blood and guts. And then it just fell off after that. And then it became like about Hangman and Swerve in a good way. But the Elite attack on Tony Khan and Kenny Omega were almost rendered not pointless because they it happened. And it's still two big moments in AEW time. But like you don't talk about them as being any type of importance to the AEW television show when they should have like it really should have been these big moments in AEW history. And it's like, Oh yeah, that just like kind of happened. And the Elite are now just a team that are going to face Will Osprey and Kyle Fletcher for the tag team titles because apparently they have no other tag teams except they got to put Osprey and Fletcher back together. And Okada is the guy who says bitch. And he's facing Takeshka who's aligned with the biggest heel in the company in Don Callis. It's like, Oh sure, that that's something that makes sense. And here's Jack Perry, who's the TNT champion, but losing and world title matches. It's the Elite stuff just to me is kind of a mess. So this feels like a make good of like, okay, here's a real hostile takeover story line with a true seriousness to it, which you kind of need in a hostile takeover. And that's why I think the Elite stuff didn't work is because they didn't have a serious tone to them to make it work. And so for a storyline like this, having titles makes a lot of sense because titles have kind of represented power. So having the world title here makes sense for Moxley. At the same time, Moxley having the world title feels like, okay, we we know what Moxley is as the world champion. It's good. It's really good. But it's also like, does he need to be world champion again? Right. Yeah, I'm not sure because also, I mean, another thing we rather consider obviously is like hangman and Swerve because those guys are going to be in that upper mix. Also, you know, hangman, especially, I think right now, like I would I would love to see him in that in that mix or, you know, going after a champion in Moxley, or a man's got to deal with Jeff Jarrett first. Well, first, yes, but I'm talking bigger picture. Like, you know, I would expect hangman. It's a good problem to have because there are a handful of people in AEW that I can totally see as the world champion after Danielson, or even after like Darby or Moxley, like they got a good list of people ready to ready to go for sure. But yeah, it's uh, it's interesting with all these groups and these hostile takeovers they've attempted because we didn't even mention before the elite attempted it, we had that dulled of the undisputed kingdom takeover. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, I was pretty similar. It was again, it was designed against MJF specifically. It's kind of crazy that that that angle is like not even a year old. And dude, it was so bad. I mean, like when David and Bennett came out last night for that, uh, for that gauntlet, it was just like, it might have been like nothing even against David and Bennett. It's just that it's like, they're their music hit and I forgot about them completely. And then they came out and I was like, Oh, yeah, no paw. You know, it's just like, this was supposed to be like the game changing storyline for the company. You know, and I know that obviously Adam Cole getting hurt, you know, that's, they killed, they killed what they could even do. And in MJF, I had to take time off too. But so the timing of everything was terrible. But like, AEW has been doing a, I'll just be, I'll keep it real. They've been doing a very poor job over the last like year or so, or year or so, at attempting hostile takeover type stories with these groups. But I do have a lot of optimism about this new Moxley group like you do. They got a different vibe to them. And everybody involved, like I trust everyone in the group. Like, you know what I mean? Like, they have a really solid team of people in that group. So like, you know, they're gonna have bad ass matches and they cut good promos. Like, so, you know, this is in a situation where they threw like Wardlow in there and they're just like, all right, well, let's try this again. Like, all right, you're gonna be the enforcer of the group. And you know, eventually, maybe you'll like, did they ever even turn on the undisputed kingdom or anything? Like, I don't think she's even, they were just like trying to make him give them the title, but he didn't win it. So then they were just like, you're worthless to us, but like, Adam Cole's still not around, but the group still exists. I don't know, dude. But anyway, I like this new Moxley group, but I have not liked the, I did not like the elite hostile take over. I did not, I mean, the undisputed kingdom is ass. So what do you make of Nigel just basically coming out and because I don't think Nigel's gonna beat Danielson, even if it's non title, I think that would be dumb to beat your world champion, even if it's a non title match and Danielson's like, banged up. I've seen people float the scenario of Danielson won't be cleared. And so Nigel brags about essentially a countout victory, because he doesn't show up. That might turn the New York crowd against against them. When you're promising a, when you're promising a Brian Danielson match and everybody thought it was going to be Darby Allen. And now it's not Darby Allen's like, okay, well, Nigel's a good make good at the very least. And then you don't give them a Danielson match at all. That could really backfire if that's the way they go. And I don't think they will. I've just seen this idea floated. Um, I don't think that's a good idea. I get the concept behind doing something like that, but I, because Nigel, it just gives him more fuel to just talk mad trash about Danielson and build something bigger, I guess. But like, I bet the thing with Danielson, like we both know, is for all we know, he's backstage being like, like begging to lose than I do because not, I don't haven't been able to wrestle for so long. You know what I mean? Like, the thing with Danielson, I'm with you though. I don't want to deep dive into this too much, but I, I, I'm with you where I don't, I don't think that he should lose than I do, whether it's for the title or it isn't, like Danielson shouldn't lose until he loses the championship. And I highly doubt that Nigel McGinnis is just going to come in, not have any single matches since signing no ear was when he stopped wrestling. And, you know, he's not going to just become the AEW champion with the roster that they have. And then like, you don't know what he looks. You know, obviously we want him to come out healthy. And the only reason they would even do this is if they're confident that medically, he's fine to do this. I don't have any real concerns as far as that goes. But I don't think they're going to heavily, heavily, heavily invest in like the future of Nigel McGinnis until they see what he looks like more often in the ring. Or if you even want to do it often, he might just want to have, you know, a couple of green matches because he can. I don't know if he's trying to do his part time, full time, whatever. He said he would like to do, you know, like a couple more matches. I don't think he wants to do any type of full time. He obviously mentioned Danielson as one opponent. And he mentioned Zach Sarah Jr. as another opponent. But it sounds like he would like to do one off matches as long as they make sense. And obviously, Danielson makes a lot of sense. Yeah, 100%. That's one that we could, we could see coming, right? It was like, I don't think it cleared. We would expect him to wrestle Danielson before Danielson's done full time. So, I love that they're doing it. Nigel's cutting great promos. Like he makes you really buy into like, that he's been, you know, he's been able to do a good job over the years to on commentary, keeping this thing going with all the trash talk and stuff, you know, so it's like, you know, it may, it just makes perfect sense. Should I sound spurs leave the super chance? So it's hot take, I know, but Okada Tkeshta is good actually. The match will be great. I love Tkeshta and I hope they actually go full bore with him. It's my issue with it is he's aligned with Don Callis who can't help but be Don Callis and be the heel. And then Okada is aligned with the elite who are supposed to be heels. And that's kind of the, the match. It just feels like a, a cool match for the sake of a cool match. I've talked enough about Babyface heel alignment when it comes to this stuff. And it still just doesn't feel like they do a great enough job when it comes to that. Yeah, I'm with you. 100%. I was there for Gerald says in the chat. I saw this on the thing X as well, but Danielson versus Nigel's last match was in 2009 in New York City. And now it'll be almost 15 years to the date because I think it was like September 24th when they wrestled in 2009 and I think it's September 25th. So it's almost like to the exact day 15 years ago in New York City. So that's pretty poetic as well. Pretty cool full circle. Yeah, I hope I assume they're going to actually do the match and they're not going to bait and switch anything out of it. And Nigel looked good in limited capacity at all and don't know what he's going to look like in a more one on one setting and and a longer kind of role. You know, he didn't really take any bumps in that if you go back and watch all in, like he wasn't taking anything like terrible on the head, neck, and even like back spine area. So I don't know what he's going to look like in a full on match against Brian Danielson. And maybe he can take those bumps, but it was very clear he was being a little protected in that match as he should be. I just don't know what it's going to look like in a full on match with Danielson. I don't think it should go super long or anything. You've already got kind of your longer matches. Like I imagine Darby and Mox will get time. The tag team match will get time. They'll add something else to the show as well. But I'm sure we'll get plenty of time. So I don't think you're going to get like a super long match out of Danielson and Nigel at Grand Slam. But I'm curious to see what Nigel looks like in not so much of a limited capacity as he was at all. Um, do you want to move on to like swerving hangman for a second? Yeah. Did they go too far? Were you uncomfortable watching swerving hangman? So I'm the wrong person to ask about something like this and screwing all the death matches I cover for like for the weekender and stuff on the indies. But like, so I've seen the string spot man. Like when you pulled that thing out, I was like, that's going through his cheek. Like because I've seen that spot before, but it's not. I could I could one. Let me answer your question. Yes, it is too far. Even for me, it is too far. But really, but but but but the reason I say that is because there are fans that I've literally seen say like they never want to see something like that again. They're like, I love the match, but I never want to see that happen again, you know. Um, for me personally, was it too far? No, but like I could totally get why why people would think that it was stabbing someone through the cheek with a with a needle. I couldn't understand why people wouldn't want to see that. Now that said, let's take that one point away, right? Let's just say that the the syringe thing doesn't happen. Everything else happened. I and even then once in this is my I'm I'm trying to balance what right like my own personal opinion on this stuff because I'm very desensitized to it. Like for me, it was no big deal, but I know it was a polarizing thing in the match. And it's a there's a lot of fuel for like a w haters for sure to see something like that and be like give him a reason to hate on the company and stuff. The sickos and the in the fan base, but I thought that the match ruled. I loved. I love this cage match between between Swerve and hang man. I thought they told an awesome story. It wasn't like overly bloody, you know, like they weren't bleeding each other's mouths and stuff again. Like they were in the Texas death match, but those cinder block spots were insane. Like because I'm expecting them to like crumble, right? Because we've seen cinder blocks and wrestling before where, you know, Swerve does a double stomp or whatever. And the thing, you know, disintegrates. They're, you know, gimmicked, excuse me, a gimmicked, uh, uh, uh, cinder block. But I don't think that this one was gimmicked. I mean, they both the first there was the vertebraker, uh, which is a risky as hell moved to begin with without a cinder block. They're like the vertebrakers, you know, that would be just sort of letting people do that again. Whenever Cody did it for the first time, like, over a decade recently. So that's a very protected move. Um, and to do that onto a cinder block is very sketchy and a man wound up like scraping his back on it because he landed on the corner. Um, it could have been so much worse. If that would have happened on his neck, who knows what happens, you know, God forbid, obviously don't want to see that kind of stuff happen. And then there was a power bomb on just Swerve, same kind of thing where he like hits the corner and like the thing doesn't give at all. I mean, they're just, they're just taking bumps on cinder blocks. I mean, this is, this is completely insane. Um, I am hoping for the sake of, of, uh, safety that the chair at that end of the match was gimmicked. Although there was a gimmick chair whenever Cody got hit by Sean Spears and that thing wrapped around his head and gave him a massive gash. So like, even one sucks gimmick, that didn't necessarily see the fact that it broke the way it did makes me believe it was, you know, pretty good. Well, when I don't, I, and I'm not going to put anything past for an amen because these guys are willing to like do anything seemingly. Um, but you would hope that there was, you know, the precautionary measures taken where the finish of the match is going to be hanging and swinging that chair as hard as you possibly can into the head of swerve, which by the way, was an awesome visual and audio moment because they got, they got the intended reaction there. Like that, that chair sounded like a gunshot going off. And I liked that that was the finish too. Um, the needle set it up, you know, but at the end of the day, it was really, it was that chair shot that was just like, okay, there's nothing left. Like, honestly, and this is going to sound, this is going to sound like it's going too far, and I don't want to see this happen on wrestling. So obviously, but that was as, as close as you can get to like hang man whipping out a gun and just shooting swerve. Just like, you know what I mean? Just like, you know, like that's like how it felt because it was just like the dude stabbed him through the cheek. And then like the sound of that, of that chair shot, you know what I mean? It was just like, you're like, he killed him. He killed him. Like there's not, there's no wrestling movie you can do that's going to get that effect. You can kill them with a chair. You know, like that's, that's how it felt. And I think like swerve is going to go away for a while. But eventually, we'll be right back to this at some point. Like this isn't over, which is also kind of exciting. I think it's over for a while, but it's, you know, that's how it felt. And I think that's how it was meant to come across was like, swerve was like, and hey man, hey man celebrating after the match too. He's like basically like crying and like tears of joy and like the entrance ramp is he's finally, he's finally put this guy away. Um, after all this that they put each other through. But yeah, I thought, I thought the match was awesome. I've loved the feud. I'm looking forward to them doing it again at some point in the future, but I think they should stay away for a while. And similar to some of the people we've already mentioned, I legitimately think like if they were, if hanging on page was to be the next AWS champion, I'd be totally good with that. Like they've had him in a scenario where like if he were to be Gaines, and I'm all for it, you know, he's been positioned great. So how did, how do you feel about, did you feel like they went too far with, with this stuff? And uh, yeah, how do you feel about the, the match? And then hang me and finally got the win, even though it technically doesn't count, but the records aren't like matter now anyway, anyway. So I thought it was uncomfortable in the best way possible. I mean, like you, like, I've seen enough death match stuff to where none of this really bothered me. Um, like if you don't like needles and stuff, I understand being freaked out about the syringe spot. But like I saw, I was like, Oh, okay. And he put it through his cheeks. Yeah. All right. Sure. Like the center black stuff was the most uncomfortable, especially the power bomb. And then Jim Ross just being like, listen, the broth don't care. Hey, that's center blocking her at all. I thought he was fantastic. I would pop for Jim Ross's commentary during this match. But yeah, when he, when hangman's a back got scraped, yeah, that could have been a lot worse if he landed like head neck on it. Yeah, I was like, oh, the back being scraped, just like probably the best case scenario for him. And then chair shot. I, I suspect, and I know somebody mentioned love throw in the chat said SRS Sean said it was gimmicked and he's been told exactly how I suspect these guys take the right precautionary measures and are not just going to go out here and just do unprotected chair shots to the head. I feel like we've learned enough about the business over the years to know that's not good. Look, these guys aren't taking it every week, like they were doing in the attitude era. And you know, that was a big cause of why wrestlers ended up the way that they did. This is kind of one off stuff. Now we have seen it twice in the past flooding us was July. So twice in the past three months. Now I don't need this like every two months doing these chair shots to the head gimmicked or not, because I think then you just kind of lose effect when you continue to do them in this manner. But overall, I was completely fine with it. This is a few that had breaking the entering, almost threatening a child. Yeah, arson, like stalking essentially, you had to go to some crazy lengths to end this feud. And that's exactly what they did. I thought it was the right way to kind of end things. And I had no issue with it. Swerve, was it on TV last night? I think you should probably take another few weeks off. Hopefully, hangman was there. He's going to now wrong everybody or he's going to write everybody who tried to wrong him. Basically going to make everyone pay who attempted to even like get in his way of getting its work. Yeah. So good. I like that side of hangman. You hang me on rules. Like, I can't, like, hangman, I know you're not saying anything different, but I just for the chat or anyone who's watching this on demand later on, like, I, hangman is on a short list right now. Like, my favorite guys, my most and I'm super interested in his character. I think he talked about last week, but I think the whole gimmick change was, was done. The timing of it was, was done really well. Like they were smart to pivot his character and everything about his entrance is different, his look is different, his attitude, everything is different. I mean, he seems like a guy who's just completely unhinged, but has legitimate reasons for doing this stuff that he's doing. And I still view him at the end of the day, like the good guy. But once again, we've talked about that a lot. And you can also view Swerve, like the good guy because of the same, for the same reason. Like, so I, I really, I really, really dig hangman page and what they're doing with him right now. And I mean, I fully expect him to destroy Jeff Jarrett and then like, go on to probably the world title scene again in the near future. Because there's, there's not, you know, I'm sure there's other big stories and feuds that they can think up to do with hangman. But there's really nowhere else for him to go. But the world title, I feel like at this point, like coming off of that Swerve feud and the people he's been beating, like, yeah, eventually he's going to have to have his eyes set on the, on the world championship again, you think? So yeah, I just want to, I can't stress it enough. Hangman page is awesome. And Danielson technically did stand in the way of hangman getting at Swerve because Danielson beat him in the Owen. And if hangman had won that match, he would have faced Swerve at all in. Yeah, that's like, dude, that's a great call. That's a great call. You know, that could maybe be where they, I could see hangman beating Danielson. I could see that happening. And hangman and Darby, like maybe Darby eventually beat hangman for the title, which I think would make sense too, because they've got a little history and they're both they want to eat up you guys. So these are all Darby, look, Darby, Darby stood in his way too, because Darby beat him in that match. Yeah, true. Yeah, these are great points. I think, yeah, I could, if you had to put money on this, this is not run gambling right now for real. This is not betting advice for anybody, by the way, disclaimer. But if you had to put money on it right now, who do you think is the one who tasted head off anal set? You don't just say when, but like, who do you think would, doesn't matter what, what, where the setting is, whatever the scenario, like, who do you think is that the end of the day is the one who gets the title from them? I still think it's Christian. Man, I hate that. Oh, I hate that. But you could be right, Rob Olkin's in the show. What up, Rob? Did you ever see a school Vikings looking great, man? Rob's a Vikings fan as well. I think it's Christian. There's so much that he can just come in and pick the carcass. Like, and he's, he's so smart. Like the character is so smart that I think that's where they end up going. Otherwise, I don't know if there's an expiration date on this contract. I don't know if he's got like a year. If he has a year, I guess you can sort of wait it out and not do anything until all in next year. But I think Christian, the character of Christian is so smart. He will find that, because he almost did it at all out, when he came out there, but he got stopped by Moxley. But I think the character of Christian is smart enough to do, to know when Danielson is vulnerable, to beat him. I could also, yeah, that was, that was going to be, that was going to be my next point of, it could be Darby who beats Danielson, and then Christian comes out and beats Darby. I think Christian wins the title relatively quickly after Danielson loses it. And by that, I mean, if Darby beats Danielson, Christian comes out and beats Darby, or he just straight up beats Danielson. Moxley a little bit tougher, because if Moxley beats Danielson, kind of tough for Christian to come out and take it from Moxley. But Darby is an easy one to come out and beat. Yeah. Yeah, these are all scenarios in many sense. Also, Bora says Max, oh, Mox. I thought he said Max for a second. Mox getting the title off of Danielson. Yeah, we talked about that before. I mean, that's very possible that Mox gets the title shot by beating, by beating Darby, and then he winds up being Danielson. When he said Max, I thought about it, because I'll be, at some point, MJF will probably be in that title race again. Eventually, Osprey will probably be in that title mix fairly soon. I mean, they got, it's a spoil of riches. We talked about that before, but it's a good problem to have. Like, they got so much talent on this roster. But, but yeah, I think these are all, these are all possible scenarios. I'm going to take, I think that that scenario of Darby beating Danielson and like Christian ruining the moment. I think that that is super likely. As of right now, though, I'm going to say, hangman is the one who beat Danielson. He's just too hot right now. He's just, I think they got to capitalize. There's no revolve for him to go. And then eventually, by the time you do Swerve and Hangman against for the World Championship, down the line, maybe. I don't think you do Swerve and Hangman until all one in Texas. And if it's for the world title, go for it. And I think that makes a lot of sense. But I would not do Swerve and Hangman again until all one big stadium show. Like that's, it's very tough to top what they did at in the steel cage. And I don't know if you can top that on a violence level. So you almost have to top that on a stage level. And all one is the biggest stage you can do it on. I'm with you. I'm with you. Um, I don't know what Maggie St. Jensen. No, I'm not sure exactly what she is talking about. Just a general. No, I agree, Maggie. Just in general. Yeah. All right. Well, anything else from AW you want to touch on before we move on to the next topics? No, we still got a lot to hit. I thought all that was a really good pay-per-view. Yeah. I know some people were maybe turned off by the violence. All in was the happy go lucky show. Everybody got their moments. And then all out was the hey, we're going to murder people show. Thought it worked. Oh, they're saying, Darby, everyone's kind of not everyone, but there's some people kind of roasting the idea of they're calling Rob said, I like turtles kid talking about dark. I like turtles. And that's, that's already like, like 20 years old already now. Um, but uh, yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot of people out there that aren't huge fans of Darby. I, uh, I get it to a degree a little bit sometimes. I get, I get some of the stuff, but I'm, I mean, I'm the fan of his obviously. So anyway, uh, yeah, we can move on to the next topics. We have a lot of stuff we still got to, we still got to hit on that. Let's move on to WWE. I need to finish the story. In the WWE, the story never finishes. You want to talk about Kevin Nash at Logan Paul? Yeah. Can you set this up? And then I'll kind of explain. So Kevin Nash, that's his podcast as we all do. And it's like Logan Paul is not one of the boys because he doesn't know the difference between a work and a shoot because Logan interviewed and, uh, Hulk at lobster. Yeah. And the full quote is he's not one of the boys. Where would he learn that shit at? Where is he going up and down talking jargon in the building? Everybody is on their own motor coach. There is no interaction. There is no socialization. You don't become one of the boys just because you're around them. From what I heard, he's making five million bucks for limited dates and all those other guys are out there making house shows. Fuck you. Fuck you. That's from the boys. Fuck you. I don't give a fuck how many people are following you. If it said you had 24 million road scholars following you, you're fucking Jesus. You have a bunch of idiots. And then Logan Paul responded and said, I got people messaging me. They're like, Kevin Nash is talking and shit about you. I said, damn, who is Kevin Nash? I mean that. I'm unfamiliar with this guy, which I think is his problem. I'm not as versed in the WWE and wrestling as I should be as my peers are, but then how am I so much better than all of them? I don't have to answer to all these questions. I don't know how I can be the best in WWE, at least one of the best. I'm surely a top fiber, and I don't even do it full time. Imagine if I did learn a little bit. Imagine if I devoted became one of the boys. Learn the difference between a shoot and a work. Would that make me a champion? Fuck me. Fuck you. You're one of the old guys who is bitter that I'm better at your job than you ever were. That makes you pathetic. This will be my sport and I'll continue to make guys like you eat your words when I devote a little bit of time to it. Fuck me. Fuck you. So both guys are right. As I know, I'm not even kidding. Both guys are right. So I think that I think that I think the stems mainly from just I think Logan didn't know like the terms like work and shoot and stuff like during the Hogan interview. I think that's where like this came from because because that's I don't believe Logan didn't know these terms. I don't believe that at all. I don't. Well, but there is a lot the Logan doesn't know. It's still I mean like I remember when Cody was on Logan's show. I mean this was already like a year ago or whatever. But like I thought it was so funny because like Cody is explaining to him like the indie scene because like Logan so on because obviously he just started in the WWE which is obviously super that's a massive outlier. Like most people you know obviously are working in the Indies or have like a collegiate background or something like that tracks them into the WWE but it was so mind blowing to me just hearing him talk to Cody and Cody being like yeah man like you ought to check out like this match is Ricochet versus Guy Will Osprey and like if you see that match like you'll probably have like a new perspective on some stuff and Logan was like yo, Ricochet was on the Indies. It's like yeah, I believe he doesn't know the whole history of of independent wrestling in New Japan. I fully believe he doesn't follow any of that kind of stuff. I don't believe he does not know the difference between a work and a shoot though. No but I'm just saying I can I could believe that there are certain things that we as wrestling fans are super used to and know about that like he just has no he has no clue because like why were we gonna shoot? I mean I but I think I don't know exactly what that but that's the reason Nash is bringing up jargon is because of this like that's why he's saying that's why I have a lot of stems from him not knowing these terms I think because because that's what he's saying is like he's not he's not Logan isn't in a car going city to city with other wrestlers so he's not learning the jargon. He's not learning the ins and outs of the business. He's not having to put in the miles and having to work you know 300 plus days a year like people from Nash's generation did. Nash even said during his response or during his uh his rant or whatever about it he was like Cody Rhodes if Cody was around during our era he would have been one of us he would have been one of the boys. Cody would have been working 300 plus days he would have been in the road with the other wrestlers like he did when he came up in the WWE you know driving around with Daniel Sin and in Cardona and those guys and so it's like an orphan and you know learning the business obviously Cody came from the business so it's you know family and it's a little different for him but the point is is that I think both guys are right because Kevin Nash is basically saying Logan Paul is being handed a lot of what he's been getting he makes a lot more money than most of the other wrestlers but he isn't quote-unquote one of the boys because he hasn't earned it in the same way that pretty much everyone else on the roster has and he just doesn't have the same knowledge of the business at all but Logan's also right about like he is one of the best guys in the WWE he doesn't even dedicate most of his time to it and if he did he probably would be consistently one of the best guys in the company like I totally believe that too you know Logan I don't know if he's a top five guy in the WWE but when he's around he consistently puts on one of the best matches on the card whenever he's on the show and he brings in a lot of eyes at the company and you know and he clearly has some some love or respect for it I think it's surprising you wouldn't know Kevin Nash was I mean I don't know if that was just all think he probably just saying he's trolling right not knowing who Kevin Nash is or you were in where Logan probably wants to be careful about you know saying you know Kevin Nash though is like you know I don't know if he understands the bond between like Triple H and Kevin Nash like you're basically you're talking mad shit about your boss's best friend also like which isn't really smart to do um so Kevin Nash probably shouldn't be talking a bunch of shit about Logan Paul either I'm not I'm not saying that he shouldn't either you know what I mean like both guys are it's funny because both guys are right and both guys are wrong it just depends on kind of what points you want to bring up about it but like they're and then the day I think they're both they're both right and I think they both believe in what they're saying for the most part like Nash doesn't like Logan for whatever reason he doesn't respect that he makes more money than the guys that doesn't know about the business and not to put the same miles in but at the same time it's also kind of wild coming from Kevin Nash the guy who like was only about the money who was all about having like doing like the pretty much the bare minimum in the ring and listen this is from I am a massive Kevin Nash fan I've got like five Kevin Nash autographs behind me right now like I mean I've got a signed super shredder Kevin Nash figure also I mean I'm a Kevin Nash more lifelong I met Kevin Nash back in like 1997 in Atlanta airport when I was a kid I love Kevin Nash so you're not ever gonna get me Kevin Nash lander for me but I see both sides from where both these guys are coming from and like I said I think they're I think they're both right you know I think Kevin Nash is being kind of kind of an angry kind of you know kind of vet that probably did go a little too far and what he was saying about Logan probably didn't deserve it then Logan went like probably a little too hard back on him because Kevin Nash deserves the respect that he does deserve for being a legend and a double to be Hallfamer and everything he's done for the business so yeah what if all this is a work we're gonna get that big Kevin Nash versus Logan Paul Nash we've been feeding in for yeah um it would actually wind up being good because Logan would bump his ass off out there for him and fly all over the place um but uh but yeah and listen I know that there's a lot of people also like Kevin Nash hasn't done himself like a whole lot of favors with his podcast I feel like I like Sean Oliver I loved his You Shoot series back in the day he really was like a pioneer for a lot of stuff that like we're doing right now really so those guys deserve a lot of respect for you know what they're doing but there's also been a lot of there's also been a lot of bad takes on Kevin Nash has shown in my opinion too um that I don't really agree with but you're gonna get that everywhere like I don't agree with a lot of most of what Jim Pratt says I don't agree with plenty of what you know other people say um but you know I still think that they deserve to have the platform to you know say what they want to say and have kind of that freedom to do that you know um and I think Kevin Nash has a really smart mind for the business he just he's just uh I think Kevin Nash is just a little too stuck still on kind of the old school mindset when it comes to a lot of this stuff but you would expect him because he is one of the old guys now you know so it is what it is I think it's just all the work I think we're gonna get a big Kevin Nash Logan Paul match at Survivor Series hey man I'm not even I know this sounds insane I'm totally I'm in I would definitely want to watch that but I hope Kevin Nash is in good enough shape that he'd be able to have a match if he wanted to I doubt he could but um that'd be pretty inspiring to see a guy his age with all the injuries he's had be able to even do it but I doubt that's what this is heading so at some point Kevin Nash is gonna show up to a WWE show just like he did at Summer Slam and he's gonna talk with Logan and they're gonna realize they have more in common than they think and things will be fine just like it was with Nash and L.A. Knight yeah it was it was all nothing well like low enough to be nothing well like low for us as in the chat Nash also knows that bashing low people's engagement and views yeah Nash is very smart when it comes to this stuff too and and what becomes talking points on his podcast so yes they meticulously put certain titles for their videos and stuff that are clickbaity but not clickbaity if that makes sense like they're not they're not putting stuff out there that's like untrue but they'll they'll put stuff that like makes you want to click it but they'll actually talk about that stuff but they might not always have the the take that you agree with um like once again I feel like Kevin Nash has more than earned his you know the right to say what everyone wants to say about the wrestling business just like someone like Jim Cornette I know people trash him all the time and I understand the reasons to not like Jim Cornette there's plenty I don't like you're about Jim Cornette too but you can't sit here and tell me the guy isn't allowed to give his opinion on wrestling given how much wrestling he's been involved in his whole life I mean we got to have perspectives from everybody I feel like when it comes to everything whether you agree with it or not I wanted I want to know people's points of view and then I want to for my I want to for I think that's the most healthy way of forming my own point of view because everything I listen to doesn't mean I'm automatically gonna agree with it you know I just want to hear okay that's how you feel I don't think that's right I kind of great this person more but now I know how you feel about it you know now I thought because you are I don't you know what I mean I don't want to hear any of these people points of view honestly that's fair I know you're also probably burned out on it because like so much of your job is having to listen to their points of view and transcribe it so I'm sure I like when they just tell me stories like that's my that's my favorite part of these podcasts is like yeah tell me what was going on in 1996 when you jumped to WCW I know that story has been told a million times but like that's the fun stuff like when I listen to basketball podcast I listen Jeff Teague's podcast you know Jeff Teague is oh you know the basketball player yeah yeah he used to play for the Hawks yeah I know you you just kind of got into basketball I've gotten his autograph actually surprisingly I've got a little 8 by 10 time by him so so Jeff Teague has a podcast and it's great because all he does is tell these stories about how he was like chirping LeBron and how he was trying to get under Carl Anthony Town's skin and Carl Anthony Town's just trying to back down to Marcus Cousins and Marcus Cousins like what the hell are you trying to do like just give me stories of you on the court I don't care about Jeff Teague's opinion on the game today because he's not playing he's not there he's not at the arena every single night so I don't really care what he has to say about the game today I understand he's gonna have a different viewpoint because he played the game and like I get that but like the game has changed and he hasn't been retired for long or anything but the game has changed stuff has changed players have changed teams have changed so I don't really care what he has to say about the game today what I do care about is the stories on the hawks teams when they were battle in the brawn and the playoffs things like that that's the stuff I like hearing from whether it's an NBA player an HL player a football player or a wrestler I like hearing the stories about back in the day of like yeah we were going to this town and this happened when Undertaker's telling stories about two hookers fighting in Thailand that's good shit to me I don't give a fuck what the Undertaker thinks about Gump there don't care do not care at all Gump through is their guy they they love Gump through over there and see that's the thing I let's why I'm talking about getting the different perspectives my my what I basically do to get get different perspectives on stuff my youtube feed all kind of go through like these cycles of clips I rarely listen to like full shows anymore but it'll be like you know it'd be like you know Kevin Nash, Cornette, Sala Monster, JD, Alvarez I mean I'm getting the whole spectrum right there's plenty of stuff I grew with and plenty of stuff I don't but I but I'm with you a lot of the time the most interesting stuff is just like the non wrestling it's like what was going on on the road you know but yeah we can we can move on from from from this I don't let you have anything else to add I obviously I'm a fan of both guys I can't say it strongly enough Kevin Nash is one of my favorite professional wrestlers of all time I love Kevin Nash and Logan Paul you know how I feel about him on a personal level I said a lot going on outside of wrestling right now that he's dealing with um so we'll see all that goes but I've talked about it before I met Logan Paul in person a couple years ago and he was super super nice to me I know that that's not like you can't always judge everybody based on that right like plenty people will be nice to your face or whatever and they could be weirdo people you know behind the scenes or real like I get you can't just judge everything about how people treat you but Logan Paul treated me very very nicely and I very much appreciated the way that I interacted with them and then he went on and this is before he's even in pro wrestling this is I met him at a UFC event when he was like dabbling and potentially doing MMA but he was still doing boxing hadn't moved into wrestling yet and I talked to him really briefly about some of his boxing matches and he was just he was super super cool um but then he's done great in wrestling so I'm a fan of both of these guys for like different reasons you know so um and I could totally see a scenario like you're saying where they're working we're maybe not didn't start as a work but at some point between then and now it's totally possible these guys have gotten each other's DMs and been like you know a lot of people are talking about this like where should we go from here you know what I mean so got their troll bread heart from Goldberg what's his favorite wrestling it's awesome the segment ruled yeah same he's ain uh you know same he's ain and breadheart being out there together is cool too you know they got the history with zane when he had like debuted in the WWE already was an NXT of course we don't like the main roster he was like linked with bread back then um that line from gone through is genius everyone who knows the history between breadheart and uh and Goldberg you know I can't I can't speak for breadheart obviously um I understand why he's bitter you know between the reason he got retired basically by Goldberg you know like that that sucks for a career like his especially to end that way is tragic that's nothing greater the tragedy of Owen and like stuff that his families had to deal with over the year like there's a lot of reasons why breadheart would be bitter towards the wrestling business and bitter towards certain people and I don't necessarily blame him for taking every opportunity can to bash Goldberg now I'm I'm a fan of Goldberg you know I've said it a thousand times I'm Jewish he was one of my heroes as a kid I'm a W.C.W. fan from Atlanta I mean Goldberg was my guy and I still love Bill Goldberg I still actually enjoy when he randomly shows up and just squashes somebody like there's a lot of nostalgia there for me so I'm I'm a breadheart fan and I'm a Bill Goldberg fan so I don't I kind of hate that the two guys have been at odds for forever because of this stuff but I don't blame breadheart for being bitter I really don't I get it um but for gone through to use that in the on screen that's the first time I think we've ever really seen anything on like unnatural WWE television of that being mentioned which I think is also cool because this new era of WWE is there's just so much loose it's so it's so much looser if that makes sense like it's just I feel like there's so much more freedom to like drop like when like when Vince was in charge I don't think that that line would have happened because like he wouldn't have understood it enough or thought the fans wouldn't have understood it or whatever it hadn't gotten cleared by too many people and Goldberg isn't in the company at the moment so don't mention Goldberg or whatever now it's just like everybody knows that Bill Goldberg and breadheart have had beef forever and bread hates Bill so like what's what better way to have Gunther get under breadheart skin than say that his favorite wrestlers go over I I popped massively for that so um yeah this is great stuff this is a great stuff and it continues to build Gunther versus Sami Zayn which I fully expect Sami Zayn to uh you know I fully expect Gunther rather to to retain over Sami Zayn but it's gonna be a badass match just like it was at Wrestlemania and this this was a good way to you know help continue to get there it'd be cool if Goldberg showed up by the way if Goldberg actually showed up at some point it went face to face with Brett we all like the the the the Sean and Brett moment but with Brett and Goldberg in the middle of the ring but like they don't shake hands and hug Goldberg just kicks him in the head again you know it's us and then because then we're trying to square one obviously don't want that to really happen but I think it'd be cool to see this guy there in the hatchet at some point in our lifetimes though it'd be nice to like but once again I totally get my Brett doesn't want anything to do with the guy and he still talks shit about it my if if somebody ended my career because once again this isn't just a career this is the career of arguably the best professional wrestler of all time Brett the hit me in heart and it got ended by basically a reckless kick to the head I mean I'd be pissed off to my whole life probably if that happened to me I don't think we're gonna get go bring him Brett Barrett matches I don't think so either I don't think that's gonna happen I have to make an always sunny style like dinner squashing beef making actual squash and beef bearing an actual hatchet in the sand um but yeah I pop for it there's not a whole lot more I can really say I guess but I mean I I pop for it the people who got the reference pop for it I think it was good heat for Gunther Gunther rules there's a reason Kevin Nash you know I was sorry the reason that the Undertaker is such a great Goldberg fan or such a big Gunther fan I'm getting everybody all mixed up now that we're talking about I doubt he's a big Goldberg fan because Goldberg almost brought hearted Undertaker dropping on his head and stuff that was that was brutal um anyway that's well that's a whole other conversation in itself the the Goldberg Undertaker match that was a mess anyway it was a fantastic match I love that match so bad Goldberg like knocked himself out and like dropped Undertaker on his head and like well this is how I don't think Gunther is actually that big of a Goldberg fan because I only came away in this segment injured so yeah all right yeah it wasn't authentic enough yeah he didn't get injured Sammy didn't get injured Brett didn't get injured everyone came out fine so you can't be that big of a Goldberg fan if you didn't injure somebody yourself included Corey in the chat mentions I love how you knew to use quote Bill Goldberg instead of just Goldberg in the presence of Bret Hart he was very specific yes well because because Brett always says Bill Goldberg right well right the smile that came over his face before he said the line and even like Brett was smiling like they all knew what the line was about to be like they just popped themselves with it rolled yeah yeah this was you got to mention Bill Goldberg because you know there's not being a confusion that he may be talking about like Goldberg from the Mighty Ducks or something like it's it's Bill Bill Goldberg specifically Goldberg whoopi Goldberg yeah I'm proud about her sister act that was like 30 years ago man in world all right um that's probably enough about that topic I don't even know what else that was all the WWE right so yeah okay yeah we're still pretty good on that cool are you going to bad blood yeah unless something happens to my tickets um okay you know that's the the plan is to be there um you excited about Cody lose the title we'll talk about that once we get closer to bad blood um but I do plan on I do plan on being there like it all comes down to I saw the tickets were pretty expensive um but you know I've talked about it before my my brother my brother trained my brother the boxing trainer here in Atlanta and one of the guys that he trains has box seats at state farm that's why I'm able to go to a lot of the Hawks games and stuff like that whenever people don't want the tickets he sends it to my brother kind of like last minute but we gave him like a really big heads up that we wanted to go to bad blood and he's usually good about letting us get like raw tickets and stuff because usually people don't want the wrestling tickets so as long as nothing crazy happens I do plan on being a bad blood um they're alive so Cody's gonna lose the title too I've decided it's gonna be Randy Orton and bad blood that was my prediction actually a few weeks ago if you remember I was saying that I thought it was gonna be Randy Orton and uh and Cody at bad blood there's a good chance of that because Cody was he was gone through and Randy I was like how are they gonna keep Randy you know heated coming off the gun through loss but I felt like he was probably gonna be heading towards a match with Cody I could see Cody losing in Atlanta I could see it happening I think it's a terrible idea and they shouldn't do it and I don't want it to happen but I can see it happening unfortunately just get ready that's all our product is what it is we're going straight up the middle TNA Victory Road is on Friday because we needed another TNA show two weeks after we just had a TNA show are you excited for Moose and Nick Nemeth um I mean not like particularly excited but I'm sure it'll be I'm sure it'll be a solid I mean Nemeth is always uh you know Nemeth is always gonna have a grid match against everyone and you know I'm happy he's getting a run with his TNA championship um I see no reason for Moose to defeat him Moose has been the champion multiple times so the reason I guess the reason I'm not like more excited for it is because I feel like I'm pretty confident that Nemeth it's gonna retain but I think it'll be a decent match like I'm more looking forward to some of the other stuff like I think like the match I'm looking the most forward to is is Wentz vs Speedball like personally I think Joe Henry vs Josh Alexander will be really good you know like there's good matches on the show um but I'm not particularly excited for Nemeth vs Moose but I expect Nemeth to retain oh sorry are you good Jeremy's muted for a second um but also uh yeah as far as uh other matches like I said Wentz vs Speedball I'm really looking forward to I would expect Wentz to retain since he just recently won the championship and they've got that feud going between him and the rascals we're just going across you know both shows but uh that match in ring should be I think that'll be the match of the night as far as as far as in ring goes will be Wentz vs Bayley I'm sure to be a great show in ring was because the wrestlers nowadays are just really good and they're gonna do a title change I don't know what title probably the knockouts tag team titles because it feels like those things change every other pay-per-view and if sweatfire loses they gotta break up so I think though that title will change I don't know if they're gonna do any maybe the tag team titles maybe because that's the system against ABC so maybe that title gets changes but I don't think we're getting an exhibition title change because I think they it would feel weird unless they just wanted to do a thing of they knew that Wentz was gonna beat Wesley so they thought it'd be good to have Wentz as the champion beating Wesley at No Mercy because I assume Wesley's gonna beat Wentz at the CW premiere in the street fight to get that win back so maybe they just want to go ahead and get the title off of Wentz before he takes that loss to Wesley on NXT television but I think they like having the exhibition title on NXT TV I think that looks like a cool prestigious thing the same way Jordan Grace is the knockouts champion on NXT television but otherwise I don't think we're gonna get any title changes I don't think Moose is gonna beat Nick Nemeth I think they're setting up really think they're setting up Nemeth and Alexander again at Bound for Glory yeah but it's possible they go it's possible they go Hendry and Moose at Bound for Glory and that's the big crowning moment for Joe Hendry it's possible I mean Hendry and Moose do have history they had a really good match on pay-per-view like a couple years ago I can't remember what show was like same reverse rear bound for glory or something I remember them having a standout match on that show um personally speaking this is me personally I would have Alexander be the one to beat Nemeth but I've also been the one who's been like rallying this whole time for the idea of the North holding both titles doing the two-man power trip over both shows so that's maybe some wishful thinking but I think it makes sense though um but I think both scenarios make sense I could see Moose versus Hendry or Alexander versus Nemeth but I'm gonna say I'm gonna say Josh Alexander is the one who ultimately beats Nick Nemeth for the championship and then maybe Joe Hendry down the line beats Alexander because they'll have all this history that they can come back to and reference and stuff a little later on um and also I don't know what Joe Hendry's future looks like either like I don't know how locked in all these people are to like to TNA specifically like I don't know if Joe Hendry has plans just like move over to to NXT when when he gets the chance you know what I mean like I feel like you're always Hendry's contracts for a while okay I have no idea what these people contrast statuses are but I'm just that's just in the back of my mind too as far as like they're already kind of one company in a lot of ways NXT and TNA because of all the back and forth with the talent but it's also seems like kind of a tryout for a lot of these people too in a way where it's like if NXT really likes them when they become available they're probably trying the people that they like I would imagine but if Joe Hendry's got time left and Joe Hendry's got time left and he's gonna keep keep killing it doing what he's doing I think Hendry's contracts for a while Josh's contracts coming up pretty soon pretty sure it's February Josh's contract and Josh just didn't interview where he said like he said he like he doesn't want to leave TNA he can't his exact words where I can't say I want to leave TNA but I'd be pretty foolish to not at least listen to what else is out there he would everyone should everyone should find out what their market value is I think I mean there's value sometimes to you know signing an extension and stuff you know as a fan of people and a fan of like sports and stuff for instance like when like when the biking sprints is they sign Justin Jeffers's new extension before the season they designed Harris and Phillips to an extension the other day like as a sports fan I love the extensions because it's like on my for my the people I like on my teams because then it's the security of knowing they're gonna be around for a while but as as an athlete or a talent I think you're doing yourself kind of a disservice not testing free agency but you also don't want to shoot yourself in the foot either some people overestimate their value I'm not saying Josh I was Anderson this boat I think Josh I was Andrew would be valuable anywhere so I think he would have a lot of options I think he should test free agency but there's also plenty of people that think they're bigger than they are if we're being honest and like they think that they're gonna go out and free agency and kill it and in the process they they turn down an extension and then that company changes their mind because now they know oh no one else wanted you so we're gonna be able to lower off or if you want to stay here so there's there's two sides to to free agency and negotiating and stuff like that but I think Josh I was Anderson a really good position because he's he's like one of the faces of TNA and has been for years at this point but he's also got the talent and the history with other people and these other companies that like he could totally wind up in the WWE could wind up in AEW like there he he is a kind of guy who will have good options I think well chism since it's just what if it's Cody versus Jacob oh Jacob beating Cody would rule I don't think that they're gonna strap up Jacob this quickly um but I do think he's in for a massive push obviously I mean he's basically leading the bloodline right now going up for solos not around like he's the main guy and I guess are they doing are they doing free bird rules with the tag titles with GOD and Jacob no they're they're Judy's titles it's Tama and Tonga like they basically gave the title over to Tonga Loa because oh that's right yeah yeah Jacob's got to protect solo that's right that's right um all right cool and then we got a one more show to preview also I think I'm always a fan of Jordan Grace I'm looking forward to you know I always love she's doing a great show so I'm don't know how her and when he choose gonna go because when he choose characters got really strange um in her in-ring styles different but like I think it'll make it work apologies um I'm battling still COVID so yeah um MLW fight land is also this this weekend are you going to that show no I don't think so I was thinking about it it's going to be a center stage in Atlanta which is one of my favorite venues to watch wrestling but this saturday night is also the big UFC no-che show in the in the sphere and I'm gonna have I already invited friends over to watch the UFC I would do the dual-screen thing where I'll watch you know those shows on two screens with my buddies and the UFC shows like the pay-per-view won't start until later but you know they do all the prelims and stuff but I don't want to have to rush back and like people like waiting outside my place to get in and stuff so like it makes more sense for why me to just watch MLW on a dual screen along with the UFC but obviously we support MLW we we we had cruel on the show just a few weeks ago who's challenging for the championship against cojima I'm very much looking forward to that I think it's gonna be a great show I just don't think I'll be there live I feel like cruel is gonna win the title he should I mean they positioned him in a in a way that like he's pretty much been unstoppable he took over contrary unit from Jacob Batu he was Jacob last match before we even can go to the WWE the only thing that's unsure about him and he said it on our show is you know cruel has been honest that he doesn't have a contract with MLW and he is keeping his options open but he is under like a handshake deal where he's not going to like up and fail in MLW if they have plans for stuff so the other side of this too of course is that is that Matt Riddle has been really heavily positioned as as the next challenger for the championship also like they've been building him like he's gonna be the champion in MLW eventually and I but I could see a scenario where where I the way I think it's gonna eventually long-term play out is I think who will beat cojima to win the MLW championship this weekend and then eventually Matt Riddle is probably gonna be the one to to finally be the one to be cruel my guess so I don't think anybody in MLW has like a super long-term contract you know like yeah it's pretty rare yeah because it's called problems there's not a lot of people that would get in under those then they want to get out and like work for their companies and like it becomes a problem so cojima obviously still works new Japan shows so it's not like he has this big contract with MLW I don't think Riddle does his own thing works much independent dates so the fact that cruel is basically on a per appearance deal isn't really out of the ordinary when it comes to MLW I feel like the maturity of their rosters on a per appearance deal yeah that's that's that's fair that's very fair to to mention I mean even like Alice Kane was the champion before cojima and Alice Kane mainly works the indie scene I mean he's grinding constantly but was also he's still obviously still in MLW um excuse me he's gonna be on the show as well on him and mr. Thomas of the boomay fight club we're gonna be taking on the Anderson's Brock and CW I'm actually looking forward to that match too and it's great after all these years CW Anderson you know not being a real Anderson my blood is actually teaming with the real Anderson now so you know so good for him um he's kind of part of the game that match is is fine but they've announced that Alex Kane and mr. Thomas are challenging for the tag titles at the next show already oh did that yeah so I don't know if they basically gave away their own result here or they're gonna have like maybe get switched up I don't know but it was weird that they announced that they would be challenging for the tag titles at the next show before they do this match yeah that is that is strange to do that because I feel like the Anderson's had a chance to maybe even win this but I mean obviously the smart choice would be boomay based on the the history of of them in the company then also if that's already been announced for a tag title match I think the Dijak vs. Thatcher will be a solid match um Dijak had a match will win considering they've you know they had the whole countdown locked to doomsday the big debut for him and you know Thatcher like he lost just recently like this past week or so and mlw it's all like it's all like they're having Thatcher on like some like giant winning streak so I I would imagine Dijak will win this one probably fairly handily I'm looking forward to Akamur vs. Adam Priest shout out to any solid and priest for this one I'd imagine Akamur will probably win but it'd be I'm gonna take Adam Priest he's our guy I'm going Adam Priest to win the match I'm gonna take the homework pick there with with our guy but I uh I I hope this is a breakout match for him because like so far and mlw priest has been involved in like really short stuff to like put other people over I hope he has like a real match against Akamur and I'd love to see him win with the DD2 that'd be badass kind of versus tjp in mr co versus bad utido or the opera cup semis I'm gonna take bad utido to win the entire thing it's kind of like a sleeper kind of Jericho kind of pick in this thing as far as like you know when Jericho won the the championship he was kind of one of the guys that was like oh maybe I'll do it but probably not I think I'd go all the way with bad utido to see where it goes they've been pushing him really well in the company um so that's pretty much I know I'm like rushing through something I call it for my shoot job but that's that's how that's kind of my preview of mlw I think there's gonna be a lot of good matches but my predation is I'll take boom I fight club I'll take die jack I'll take priest um I will take kenta to go to the finals against bad utido and I'll take bad utido to win the whole thing for the opera cup I'll take magical crueger over kojima to win the mlwv championship not real quickly because oh let me hit the indie smartlight I want to give a big mother fucking shot out Tim Bozvi against Jeremiah Plunkett from a ci yeah I wanted to bring up Tim Bozvi on the show because um he is a guy who will eventually all eventually try to get him for an interview he's very early in his career he's only been around for like two years but just in like recent money I'm gonna play more on my radar uh through like the sci and TWE and stuff like that um he recently got a win over war horse to form out of the tb and a veteran's world champion um in that leading to looks like a bigger overall feud between the two and TWE um for him Bozvi to get the win over Plunkett's a big deal because Plunkett's a legit veteran he's been in the Tennessee scene forever and uh for Bozvi to get a clean win over him on the sci show um battle for sale creek which has happened this past weekend um you can just the reason I wanted to bring up Tim Bozvi's name is because he's someone I would I would recommend people start becoming aware of now um before he really starts his big come up because I can tell he's in for a really big push in the southeast he's uh he's been getting big wins against big games in convincing fashion he's a excuse me he's a he's a high school wrestling state champion out of Tennessee and he's still very new so you know he's learning he's not you know it's like it's almost like watching level up on the indies for for this guy because like you know you have a lot of his moves set and it's like F5s and ankle locks and catamutalations and stuff you can tell he takes a lot of inspiration from guys like Brock Lesnar Kurt Angle Brian Danielson but he's the kind of guy who has like the actual amateur wrestling background in the skills he like he throws like really good German suplexes really good single legs and stuff like that so like I can tell there's big things in the future for this guy and he's been really protected up to this point and I would expect him to get a really big push like I said and I wouldn't be surprised at all if he wound up being becoming like the TWE chant like he might be the one to be very invincible potentially at some point who's gonna be you're gonna be hearing from here in just a second there in Benson the TWE undisputed champion so I just want to throw it out there and shout out Tim Boggs beyond the show today people go check out his stuff check out his matches from TWE check out his matches from SCI I think he's been popping up on action lately as well but he'll be all over the southeast and soon enough he'll be all over the country and all over the world and he'll be able to say hey I was watching him all the way back when Stephen said to go check him out and then you know he'll be a big star so I got a clock in for work because they're gonna complain that I'm late chance of appreciation as always next week everyone don't forget Fightful Overbooked going forward same exact show just like what you saw today just over there we appreciate all the support I appreciate you Jeremy I appreciate the chat and I'm very thankful for the two and a half years or whatever it was that we were able to do this show right here on the Fightful main channel which is time for a new chapter but follow us along for the journey nothing's changing love you guys I hope you all have a great weekend let's go like it. Appreciate you as always Jensen guys let's get into it our interview with Darren Benson who is the long reigning over a year TWE champion he was ranked 251 in the PWI this past I came out this week so he's 251 in the PWI 500 we talked about that we talked about his appearances on AEW dark and ROH television he has a no contest in AEW usually the kind of enhancement guys they always lose he actually has a no contest on his AEW record so we talk about that we get into a lot with Darren it was a really fun interview hope you guys enjoy it and the creator spotlight Darren Benson welcome to the creator spotlight here on the spotlight on Fightful I'm Stephen Jensen joined as always by Jeremy Lambert and our guest today is the long time reigning defending undisputed TWE champion the people's prince Darian Benson thank you for joining us Darren how you doing I'm doing well thank you for having me yeah absolutely absolutely um you know we've been covering TWE a lot here on this show um and I covered as well over on the Fightful Weekend or over on Select and uh you know we're big fans of what you're doing really all over the place but you know especially in TWE what's it been like you know representing that company I mean you're still really like early on in your career but they've really put a lot of um like a lot of responsibility and a lot on you as like their champion and the representative and you've been the champion for like what around a year or so already right yeah over a year um I think I just passed 400 days I think yeah that sounds about right I mean how's that experience been being like this one of the centerpieces of that company it's been really really cool uh some very very crazy names have come out of there and to be added to that list and to have been able to share specifically a TWE ring with so many people who are legends not only of the southeast scene but specifically the independent scene um has just been really really cool and TWE is so unique in that we run twice a month so having to do you know shows every other week there and having that presence and still keeping that crowd has been really really cool and you know having it sit on my shoulders is kind of like the forefront of the show has been yeah a really really valuable experience what's the reception been like from the the crowd because they seem to be really behind you and like that TWE arena has become like really special place as well yeah I mean there it's such an electric crowd and for TWE to be around for now 11 years um and to still have a consistent fan base because that's one thing it's harder runs twice a month um and to still retain that but our crowd is so invested so into it I mean like if you've been to a TWE show there's very distinct uh sexual of the crowd that have like bootleg airbrush t-shirts of me that they made themselves and bring to every show um there are like people who like my name on their foreheads and stuff it is a very enthusiastic very enthusiastic crowd we have problems there's a woman named Sherry she's so lovely she uh has tried to interfere on my behalf on so many occasions and I have to just beg to not get disqualified each time you know what I mean like uh we have really really die hard fans but I'm very very thankful for it um it is uh it is crazy and to have been a kind of good guy here our champion for over a year in the crowd to not be sick of me has been a very cool experience you know makes me feel very accomplished and I'm thankful for it I just say holding the title for a year how do you essentially try to keep it fresh I know it's only running twice a month so it's you're not overexposed week to week but it's still having the title for that long like to keep the crowd on your side and keep the crowd interested like how how what have you done I guess to in the past year to maybe little things that maybe people aren't picking up on to really keep the title right fresh uh definitely I mean the thing is is that I feel even when I even after I first won the title I was still very much the underdog I was still very much like the new guy in town and so I think the change over the past year is that I've been a fighting champion I've taken on all comers and it's not just me um you know challenging myself against the elder statesmen but now being one of them myself and taking on challenges from the people who are younger than me and you know I don't know a lot hungrier but you know that are chasing my spot and to have to fight the battle uh both above me and you know below me as far as you know kind of rankings is very uh I think that keeps it fresh right because you're seeing me against these household names that everyone knows as well as like someone could surprise me out of the blue and you know really become an issue so I think that element of danger you know is is always what keeps them invested and what keeps them you know trying to see if I'll be able to figure out this puzzle it's very sure our columns I feel like uh that building is just like how was he gonna figure it out this time but it's been very cool yeah I like I like that aspect of it because like there are so many different types of wrestlers that you've been challenged by and like all these different types of matches you've been having and though in your style is very diverse like you're you're really good at like all different aspects of pro wrestling so like all your title offenses feel fresh um and we're going to jump around a little bit but like you mentioned um you know getting in there with like big names as well and stuff like that um I know cage matches and always the most accurate source of all wrestling information but when you look at your cage match you go to the beginning of your career it says that you started in 2019 and then it shows only three matches between 2019 and 2020 and that's you know COVID and all that happened at that time too and then the next thing is you know you're against powerhouse Hobbes on AEW and you start wrestling guys like Wardlow so it's like what what was what was that like you know I mean it's like and I don't know how much cage matches missing between 2019 and 2020 and 2021 but like can you tell us about how I mean you had have been so new and like you're on AEW against household names like you just mentioned yeah uh no that's accurate welcome I I was maybe like five months into training uh when COVID hit so I'm like five months uh brand new uh trained out of the London school which Libre um and when COVID hit I wasn't able to renew my visa because the embassies were shut down so I was basically like forced for lack of a better term to move back home um which you know I wasn't a wrestler before I moved to England and I didn't you know sorry I didn't have any connections or I wasn't tapped into the American independency at all so I really needed to like figure out what I was going to do and luckily I was close friends with Anthony Agogo who's an AEW and you know he was also moving to America and was like yeah I don't know anyone out here so if you want to move to Atlanta to me you know with me we can you know do that so that's what we did and that ended up with me having my second ever singles matching it's powerhouse I hope I was very yeah I was very new and things happened very fast and I kind of had to adapt on the fly and I think that's where my style of wrestling came from because when you're in that situation where at the very start of your career you're wrestling war loads and hops and Tottenham sings and whoever else you're not going to be able to lift a lot of them up or knock a lot of them down so I tried to figure out a way to like really capitalize on what kind of stand-up offense that I could do to any person um could be the most effective in the most flashy in the most all of those things so it was kind of like innovation by necessity yeah so that's funny that's why you noticed that yeah so I was like five months into training and the next thing I knew that's what I was doing and it was very intimidating but here we are now did they know that like okay he's trained but this is only like his second singles match uh luckily for me um I so directly going from the London school of which Lee Ray which is super prestigious in its own right Greg Burridge head trainer Gary van der Horn gave us Will Osprey gave us Nina Samuels car in a war litany of people I then immediately go to the nightmare factory so I'm being trained um by QT Marshall and QT is you know very very trusted because he is a very very very good wrestler and a very very good trainer and so I think just like by proxy being adjacent to him uh lent me more trust in that regard uh can see I think if there was anyone else that was like kind of off the street five lunch train they'd be like okay no maybe not but yeah just right place right time right connection type thing. What were your experiences like uh you're training with the nightmare factory I actually saw you live this was already years ago now but I did a little bit of commentary for a championship district I can't never say championship district wrestling CDW out of Atlanta and I went to all the battle Sam shows too so like I've seen I saw you a little bit around Atlanta as well um so yeah just uh yeah experiences when it comes to that. Yeah um let me affect you with such a really special experience and I didn't have like a typical route through it that most people did. I moved to Atlanta maybe two three weeks before the first nightmare factory camp started so I was never like a camp student um I was always just kind of like adjacent and kind of in my own bubble um and was fortunate to get to really be under the truth QT for a while um and he is you know I can't say enough about how underrated and I don't know like he's just unbelievable like one of the most talented people I've ever seen or just touched in a ring like he's really really exceptional and I got so many other really cool experiences I got to train with Dave Taylor um at the nightmare factory for an entire summer uh which was changed the game for me and especially like the way that I wrestle in my style um and I felt like it really legitimized me um as a British you know wrestler because I felt like I was learning from the source and with the intent and the understanding of you know what the source material was so yeah I had an unbelievable experience that I'm very very thankful for it. Would would you compare um I know it's hard to do this it's hard to compare wrestlers to one another I mean everyone everyone's different in their own ways but you know you've had big matches with you know guys like Dan and Macabre for instance is that something that you felt like you know having training with someone like Dave Taylor really helps prepare you for someone like a Dan and Macabre and like to know that know that they're you know especially when Macabre was wrapping his career up every match was a big match and so like for you to be in those spots did that make you feel more prepared because it's like me I've been I have been preparing with guys that are like that train the kind of people that you know shaped the ring style of someone like Dan and Macabre. Absolutely the match with Dan the first match uh which was British rounds right um my first ever British rounds and would have been I believe the April following my training with Dave I don't think I would have been qualified ready or any of those things for that match without Dave um and around that time is when people really started to consider me a technician um I think before kind of like what you were saying earlier and not to gotta say it about myself but you were saying like you know I was kind of skilled at everything and while that's great I feel like there's a lot of wrestlers right now who are skilled at everything um and so I think what makes people stand out what takes people to that next level is being a specialist and I felt like training with Dave and then wrestling Dan and the British rounds was when people zeroed in on me as like a specialist and a technician um which has made all the difference in my career because I feel like the more stylized I've become the more I've leaned into kind of my own lane uh just the more everything has changed for me which has been really cool. Jonathan Gresham talks about that of how if everyone just does everything great then and nobody has a weakness where's the where's the struggle at like you've got to have a weakness somewhere like if striking might be your weakness okay you're a good striker but someone is a better striker that's actually a weakness for you and one thing I I listened to a past interview you did with our with our friends Mike and Reg on on indeed and one thing I really love uh you you called your style uh catch flow right catch flow wrestling I think that's like such a cool name for the style that you do and the way you described it of like uh I think you said it was like Harlem Globetrotters like the and one mixtape of the Harlem Globetrotters when it comes to like flowing wrestling I thought that was just a really cool way to describe it and so I kind of wanted just more background on putting that together and making that your your own kind of style. Yeah absolutely so um a lot a huge huge huge part of that goes to the commentary team of TWE which is primarily Mo's and Dylan Hales um that commentary team switches up a bunch but they are as commentators basically the narrators of our story and the people who communicate the message to the audience right and I feel like some people really undervalue a commentator's part in what it is that we do um because the thing is that what they are telling people is what people's perception of you is so the more and more I wrestle the TWE I would hear them talk about the things that they liked and they saw and they noticed about me and a lot of it was like technical proficiency a lot of it was was that I was on orthodox outside the box things like that so when I listened to them or I think Mo's was maybe the first person to call me a mixtape wrestler and it was just getting kind of thrown out and I think Dylan said that I wasn't a tribute act to Johnny Sainte but I was a remix of it and I think through there I had heard a piece of wrestling philosophy passed on about how the Harlem Globe Trotters are too basketball what pro wrestlers are to combat sports um and understanding that comparison of that some of these people are qualified to do each other's job but not everyone can do both and as we see in wrestling and in combat sports there are people who can do one or the other there are people who can do both but not everyone you know so it's when I saw that kind of laid out in front of me and I thought about world of sport as being like the absolute closest thing wrestling has ever done to the Harlem Globe Trotters I was like well if that's my you know being a part of that legacy being a British style wrestler what does an update of this look like in the same way that the update of the Harlem Globe Trotters to my childhood was and won and so basically that's just kind of where it all came from and then hearing them talk about it puts the thoughts in my head to really understand what my brand was because that's what I was being seen as um so that's kind of where it all you know got developed and then it was just kind of like you know what is my spin on all of these British techniques that I've been trained so specifically on all right two follow-ups on that one can we bury Mo's we've got heat with him on this show we actually we can't stand him we'll never have him on the show again two favorite and one players um so first of all I can't I can't bury Mo's I've got Mo's has been on this show more than anybody else in the history so we he was literally on like two weeks ago so yeah we love Mo's he always has a spot here so for anybody out there or for you if you think we actually do have heat with him though we absolutely love Mo's or he's the best favorite animal in place I remember specifically having a bird DVD that I got from a Chicago flea market that had hot sauce white chocolate and Escalade for the three guys on there and so when I first started putting this together hot sauce with the one who I look at the most to kind of get like oh what is it that he's doing that's like making the crowd feel this way and making his opponent feel that way and what's like the closest thing in wrestling I can't do so it's like I have my thing where it's like I take their ankle I dribble the ankle between my legs when I shoot it off right I was just thinking about that because I was thinking about like hot sauce like putting the ball in his shirt and pretending to pass and they're just looking at the ball in his shirt and shoots on him and just that moment of like what is he doing to me and then just the embarrassment of like how could you do this to me I just wanted to find you know the wrestling equivalent of that and it's been a lot of fun to just kind of play and find new things and bring new things to wrestling and just expand the culture of what it is. And there were definitely a couple summers in a row where I spent those summers staying up late watching the AM1 mixtape tour and trying all these movies that you're talking about like I would put the ball in my shirt and try to like spin it around my body I try to do like the off the heezy and like have like some of them try to like bounce the ball off their forehead and stuff try to go through their legs and all that stuff like and I was like I couldn't do any of that stuff but like in your head like you thought you know man like these guys but yeah that's so funny that you're bringing back a lot of memories of this stuff for me the AM1 mixtape tour was was a very big deal for like a short amount of time but like if you if you were around to like know about it like like you know people who know know absolutely yeah what um how did you actually get like linked up with TWE you know because obviously you know Jaden Newman is like the guy there and you know him himself who talked about plenty pretty often on this show you know the fact that he was like this this teenager who's like parents or grandfather like gave him like a wrestling company and like they're like this whole stigma about him and and and and and all the in like the company and the building and all this stuff for like the longest time but now it's like super well established Jaden's like one of the most prestigious trainers in the area like all these companies I've just TWE like I said WNHB run shows out of there action runs shows out of there so like how do you actually get linked up with TWE and what your experience is like working like for Jaden Newman so uh it's it's kind of a mix of things that got me there um firstly me and Jaden really really bonded at a chris hero seminar in Charlotte um right near the end of like the super super uh strict um kind of pandemic regulations uh like we're still like you know in mass separated just talking like no wrestling and all that um but the fact that we had both took that drive just to be able to like talk about wrestling for a night and learning it better just really kind of bonded us in a way um and having similar taste for things and just being really cool um Jaden's like such a sweetheart and and just a really really lovely selfless dude and I really appreciate him and I'm so thankful for not only his friendship but his leadership as far as TWE goes so that was like my end with Jaden initially was uh we just kind of liked each other off of that but at the same time uh JROs who I work for a lot at Knackquan all pro is basically like a student of Dylan Ailes and so he was trying to put me on with Dylan for ages and um you know I just there wasn't really it didn't make sense yet um and so that is like taking a while and it all kind of lined up because Shazamah Kenzie was doing a tour of the states and her and I were originally going to tag later that month and she was based in Atlanta where I live currently and I was like oh I can you know take you to this action show like I live in town and based off of that like as kind of like oh thank you for you know driving Shazamah's action also had a talk with TWE and was like hey do you have a spot for Darian maybe and um there ended up being an opening on the car with Jaden and so I wrestled Jaden in my debut there um which is crazy because obviously it's his building his house and everything but there's nothing but love and just a really awesome experience and yeah I've had a really great time David you mentioned and you know JROs being a student at Dylan Hale's like so I I currently live in Atlanta as well but I lived in Nashville for like a decade before I moved here around the time of the pandemic so I was I went to all the sub shows in Nashville at the base beneath and um there's so much history within that building of the people that would go there not just the wrestlers but like I remember JROs as a as a fan that would go to those shows and like eventually got like really heavily involved in the scene those was just a fan got heavily involved in the scene I was just a fan wound up doing this up I'm doing here and stuff so it's like I love seeing the kind of with that little building in in Nashville has like spawned and I know that you got a chance to get in there on like the tail end you were part of the incarnation gauntlet match um that's up um so any any thoughts on like your experience wrestling uh I don't like the base beneath sort of like wrestling in Nashville in general yes well actually yeah that I apologize that that's up show you did I think was actually at the east side bowl I think I don't know if that was at the base beneath because it was during yeah that was that that was east side bowl um okay yeah yeah it was the last like one as of you know yeah so far like I don't know if stuff is like 100% done or anything but that was the last one the the what what we're hearing is so we've had Kevin Q on and he was telling us that there it was mainly had to do with like them locking down venues because live nation owns so many of them now but then also mo just other weeks that there might be something cooking for return outlook price is still technically the bone storm champion like I think he's got the destroyed belt somewhere at home so like um but yeah I guess it's just you're there's lots of like national wrestling wrestling there and you know stuff like that yeah it's um it was really cool you know I feel like my wrestling journey has been so cool and unique and specific like starting in England and like moving here and everything and in a lot of ways I feel like I was like nine months to a year too late to the game just in the sense of like so many of my peers now were the people who were the ones on stuff when it was really really like on and pop and it's like oh man like well it would have been like to have been there and been able to set up a lot of my job and even wrestled right but to be there with all of them um bread ice and as somebody who I've gotten to wrestle multiple times since and it's just like I don't think I realized at the time how crazy it was that I was working there and in doing that and and I was in a pile driver match against should be who I kissed and I hate that dude so much I like oh my god um and so I felt like that kind of started a long line to be not liking should it was being it's up and you know as let us know where we are now yes yes so you can assure I mean your most recent title the fences have been I mean the first one being a draw that led into the the next night which was the iron man match the 30 minute iron man match um what was that experience like I thought that was a really damn good match and I mean that was another one where it was like you had to keep just finding weight because you if I remember correctly I'm doing this off the dome I got a change match in front of me for some reminders but as far as the actual match went if I remember correctly you were down 0 to 2 and then wound up coming back winning I think 3 to 2 but it was like jarring because we're so not used to seeing you lose in that building at all it was like wait he's not 0 to 2 and I thought that really added to the story of your comeback and you you ultimately winning that match yeah it's um it was very crazy I mean Sug is a world champion you know a bonafide world champion um and is you know no slouch is a veteran is wily is is very wise and you know I got caught slipping twice in a row um and like you said that it's so crazy because when I look back on like the past year almost two years at CWino only two people have ever pinned to me in that building and that's Jaden and Adam Priest and you know even though they've pinned me I've you know got my wins back whatever and we showed you it was like oh you know you did it twice in a row and like I had to eat that after not being able to get the job done the first night and 30 minutes Iron Man after you know we had already fought for like 20 minutes straight the night before it was so crazy but the what's special about TWE and in my place there is that the crowd is so giving and so energetic and for them to be up for 30 straight minutes um made the job a lot easier oh it's about to round a little bit you've you've been multiple appearances on like AEW and ROH so clearly doing something right to continue to get to get the callback and one thing that stands out to me is most of the time everybody comes in there and you know they're in there they're to lose to enhance the other talent right you actually have a no contest in AEW the FTR match is technically a no contest so I don't know if that means anything big picture it's like you know what this is this is going to be not a loss for you this is going to be a no contest but really what's been the general uh I guess feeling and the when you go to AEW ROH taping specifically the last one at the esports arena which I know they were there for a good month like what's been what's been the feedback in the response from AEW and ROH um I mean it's it's been it's been nothing but lag uh yeah I think um the no contest was their first ever no contest in like company history because I remember like who were blowing up yeah people were blowing on my twitter about it um but yeah yeah crazy but uh no I every time I go there it's nothing but lag um it's really cool to be considered kind of like a go-to person for them to to hit up and consider and I have so many friends there I have so many of my like training partners there that it just feels very natural and also just being able to because I know so many of them look at what is special about them and and how I can be special in a different way uh because I feel like that's I found a good way of like maximizing my time there because it's not that my matches are that much longer than anyone else and it's just I feel like I'm putting the right pieces in the right place is all what was your uh most recent experience like feedback doing ring of honor against Robbie Eagles because I saw a lot of people like talking about you on social media like after that and there were like a lot of people applied site for the first time during that as well so like what was your uh experience with that and the feedback coming out of that oh it was great I mean Robbie is one of the best in the world uh and to have that experience just by you know not looking to draw like obviously I worked to get there and everything but it was a huge opportunity thrown in my lap um and one of the things that's very hard about wrestling and starting in a wrestling career is having access to people who are better than you right um it's very very hard to wrestle people that is you know done more been more experience traveled and really have that and so it was such a an honor and a learning experience for me um and the biggest thing is that like people thought that it was like a pure rules match just because we did so much you know kind of technical wrestling where more and whenever people talk about me being a technical wrestler that's fun or how and make it look fun to do pure wrestling it's really cool um just because I feel like that's always used as such a slide on the genre and for me to be able to weigh the kind of like derivative that I just think it's really cool and it's something I'm getting to like really explore and spread my arms on and then you know kill the loss so it's been it's been really really cool awesome something else that must be really cool is number 251 congratulations if you do i 500 yeah absolutely and he says here on your on your twitter post says uh November 30th will be five years in the game so uh congratulations on a early anniversary there with that as well but in reality you're really only like three or so years because I mean you know you miss so much of that chunk uh in in the pandemic so I mean that's really a credit like graduation that's a real credit to really only be like legit like three or so years in your career and you know number 251 of that list is uh well how's that feel man thank you it's unreal you know it's very unreal uh like that's it I don't want to I don't know I'm not talking about other people's numbers in a weird way just you know but like for me I remember specifically the moment where I was like I'm going to try this and I remember it was because of Kofi mania where I really sat down I was like no I want to try this like I was really inspired and to be like on the same page as Kofi Kingston it's like the craziest thing in the world um and just very feel like humbling and um fulfilling it's it's just very uh it's such a cool dose of self affirmation and I'm very thankful like I said uh the fast track that I've been on has just been a lot of luck in the right people in the right rooms in the right connections and the right people caring about me and so uh it feels really really really sick 251 I'm one away from being right there in the half uh you know can be super upset because she does directly love me uh so uh it's very cool and I'm very stoked I'm very very happy with this I would imagine Kofi Rhodes says like everyone cares about these numbers if they say they're they don't care about them they're they're lying and there's obviously a lot of debate and discourse online about what the numbers mean and who should be ranked where but I feel like for really any wrestler certainly independent wrestlers when you see these numbers it's like okay this is where I want to get to or you mentioned your post oh I was here last year now I'm here like you can see the growth and you can see more people are paying attention to so I just kind of want to get your overall thoughts on sort of the PWI 500 and lists like that what they sort of mean to someone like you and some of your peers and did your rate go off of course it did my below could cheat are you for real I'm on the same page as Kofi Kingston are we for real yes um it's the list um lists are hard because you know in PWI I think does do a very good job of explaining every year like there is very specific criteria that it's around like it's not as cut and dry it's just like here are the best most talented people in the world in order I feel like they're very clear and they try to be even clearer every year about it and still people feel some type of way um to be on the list it all is very cool to not be on the list doesn't mean anything one of the most Daniel Macabre wasn't on the list this year and he's Daniel Macabre you know what I mean like yeah it's it's it doesn't it's not the end all be all but it is very cool and like we're talking about like with commentary to see what the world sees of you is a very useful tool as a wrestler um and so I think it's very cool I'm very thankful for things like the Black Mercy 500 uh for QW you know like it's it's they're they're so helpful I think more than people realize and again they're not and I'll be all but it is such a there are no degrees or diplomas and wrestling so there are very few things that you can use to like legitimize your quality um and although it is just kind of like an aloof ethereal thing it is still something you know um so yeah I think there's a very cool value um to the list and yeah but it's also not also you know the most serious thing in the world I think what adds to the procedures kind of what you were saying is like they do have a very defined criteria this is not like one person sitting down okay this wrestler is better than this wrestler or this matches this many stars or anything like that like it's a group of people coming together here's their criteria this is how we're gonna put together and look people get left off there are oversights that happen I completely understand that so someone like Roman Reigns doesn't qualify because he didn't wrestle it nothing you know Roman Reigns is the biggest star maybe in the entire wrestling district so you should probably be somewhere on this list but I think because it is so defined it does add to the credibility of the overall list at least in my eyes um I I wanted to know about like dream matches you have that that's a pretty generic question but like do you have any like kind of some matches that you want in the kind of the immediate future some things that you think are like pretty feasible or could be like on the horizon soon with some people you're really interested in working with and then also um maybe like down the line like some like maybe your favorite wrestlers like big dream matches you would maybe want to have like a larger company like down the road if you can pick a couple yeah um dude I think it'll be easier for you to do long term ones I think first uh I just like at some point realized recently like so for people who don't know I guess me and macabre has a very close relationship I understand considering him my like wrestling mentor and when we wrestled it was like for his inheritance right um and so getting to like continue to build upon his legacies is really big for me so I think if I'm going to like continue on his legacy I feel like I have to wrestle Timothy Thatcher at some point um yeah uh it that just feels like it has to happen um there was a chance that we could have crossed paths in the SCI last year very both in the tournament but we didn't um and it it just feels like you know taking on the sensei sensei type thing uh it feels like something I have to do in my in my journey um and that's yeah only like a really recent realization but that's a big one for me uh would be him um in the immediate future uh Kalan Newman from uh new japan was like my first ever single smash and to see where we both are now it's very cool uh and so I would love to wrestle him uh I would love to wrestle Isaiah Browner one on one um Lee Moriarty has a really cool belt uh but yes there's um there's so much going on in the world of wrestling I feel like I'm in a very interesting place where it's like there is no limit up or down to where I can kind of have matches with or who with I'm in that sweet spot where it's like it could be somebody to own TV every week or it could be someone you've ever heard of before and it could be equally exciting um me and Paul Alterhouse have to do something at some point that's like my boy we're very very close I don't know if that's tagging or if I have to beat him up but like we're gonna make that happen soon you everyone's got to respect the dedication he's put into like what he's doing in the ring and stuff too like he he's one of those guys that I honestly just noticed respect I didn't know of him like outside like before he got into wrestling I found out like I did find out once I saw who he was and the reaction he was getting in the response to him being involved in stuff um but I immediately recognized that that guy had a deep respect for pro wrestling like he wasn't doing it to like for any kind of clout or like he clearly loves it because he was doing like death matches and stuff so like I mean you wouldn't do that unless you actually wanted to be involved he wrestled he did like a fight against Filthy Tom and like that MMA cage like not that long ago I mean you don't do that unless you're like for the love of the game you know no and he and it's really stressless and I this is something that I don't think people understand wrestling's dangerous wrestling's dangerous and it hurts people die and get paralyzed in that ring for real all the time people get seriously grievously never be the same again injured in that ring all the time and people don't understand this man is like one of the most successful influential actors on the planet that's not need to be a wrestler if he does not want to be and he is like really putting himself at risk and does not have to for the love of the game you know um and like kind of you know behind the scenes whatever he was taking some of his very first bumps in a ring with me um us training together and like I remember him taking a really you know bad ball and like really having to consider like is this something I really want to go forward with something that a lot of wrestlers do you know the first time I broke bones in the ring the first time I had my teeth messed up in a ring like I don't really think like don't look at this the rest of my life and for him to put himself out there like that it's very very cool and yeah he really loves it and I respect that how are you training with him because I would imagine you just mentioned he is like one of the top actor he just won like an Emmy for for stuff he's been in he's in freaking Cobra Kai I love Cobra Kai uh like he he's everywhere and so you're training him it's like I gotta like give him proper training but also maybe be a little careful like what is your mindset it when you're in there with him yeah I mean it helps that um like I'm gonna do myself so the reason I was living in England is because I got my master's degree in Shakespeare and everything and so we we already like kind of bonded on several levels and he was living with uh DDP for a while and Dallas is like a wrestling dad of mine so that's like how are we made the connection um but I think it was like a matter of me knowing what it's like obviously not to the same degree but me knowing what it's like to even though I'm an actor and I gotta keep my face pretty and all that like no like being 10 toes about this and when I realized he was locked in in the same way that I was you know maybe even despite some other people's best wishes like it was like you know we're gonna do it and um so I I would be careful in like putting the training wheels on but like it's you know time to go it's time to go and and he wouldn't want it any other way uh which again is you know speaks huge to him what's it like having PDP as like a wrestling dad because DDP is awesome he is he be on my ass man I will get caught yo I've been called at like 1130 at night kid I know you're not doing the program I see him and I'm like oh no video tell me what have you been eating and I'm like ah you know he's uh he has eyes everywhere he is he's the best and it's because he loves and he cares and um I'm so thankful for Dallas you know uh a lot of people even though it's like to me really obvious the people's prince thing 100% came from Dallas he was the people's champion and he gave me my advice early on in my career for the kind of wrestler that I should be and he always talked about the value of being a people's champion and obviously that can be that because as we know there are you know two of them in wrestling and uh so on the people's prince um because how would you be the people's champion see I actually did not know that connection I I knew you of course as the people's prince and I grew up on on Diamond House Pit I was a WCW kid I'm in my mid 30s so I like DDP was like I mean I I way way way up there on my list of favorite all-time guys so like but he I always considered him the people's champion I was always like the rocks the fraud people's champion and I think that WWE made a giant mistake when they didn't do DDP versus the rock when DDP came in they did a stupid stalker angle with the undertaker in DDP but DDP should have done people's shampers people's champ against the rock and I'll stand by that till end of time so I feel it I feel that we're staying in our business for Dallas man yeah 100 yeah you said TTD pretend to pretend to down right now on DDP TTD on DDP all right that's gonna be his new motto he's gonna use that motto at some point DDP the most positive and inspirational man in all of wrestling I love hearing DDP's down Derek before we kind of kind of wrap up here you mentioned Kofi Kofi mania like really pushing you forward like okay I'm gonna go and do this like what kind of wrestling did you did you grow up on so I'm from Waterloo Iowa which is like a huge huge huge wrestling town historically both for pro and amateur wrestling um but my parents were like yo this attitude air stuff that is not for kids bro and so I was allowed to watch it which meant I had to find loopholes right my loopholes were uh I'm just watching the sci-fi channel mom what comes on you know at a certain time it's the DDP and sci-fi uh so I was sneak watching uh WWE ECW and I'm sneak watching TNA and in TNA I was really really really into the machine guns and I remember watching the debut of Kofi Kingston and it's Evan Gorn and um I like distinct childhood memories was watching their day views and uh it's just and I wasn't like consistently interrupting between them and becoming one at all um wrestling very much fell in my lap but now to have a pretty good relationship with uh you know Matt and Mike Seidel uh and then you know like I said to be on this page with like Kofi's really cool I think in my dissertation when I when I got my master's degree I thanked the new day in my dissertation and that was right before I decided to start training and I just yeah super distinct that made me and it's just very cool very cool that's awesome you you've wrestled I think I saw when I was browsing your page maps you've wrestled Matt Seidel right and uh AW that's kind of a pretty surreal one of the guys if you like watch come in and with one of your favorites that's awesome yeah I remember like right before I didn't have a head anymore Kofi gave me the lightning fire I was thinking wow man oh but yeah this is very full circle he's beating my ass right now you know as a kid you don't think about like man I can't wait for one day for him to kick my ass crazy you know it's just not you know I remember like when I wrestled uh power us offs I remember just being in pain and looking up in the sky in daily's place and remember I thought I heard God's voice be like Derry and are you okay it was Paul White and I remember being like wow I didn't think when I finally met Paul White it was gonna be him asking me if I was dead or not you know well yeah well also we didn't even mention but like you wrestled powerhouse hobs and I'm looking here on the it was looks like it was the beginning of June but then like a few months later it's like the same thing it's Wardlow where you're like you're like in the same spot but that's gotta be there there has to be a level though of like I don't know how to put this into words because so like Wardlow for instance I don't know exactly where the timeline of this matches up this looks like it was September of 2021 but obviously at some time around then like Wardlow's on a crash course of like massively being pushed he's going to eventually you know he's going over MJF clean you know and all of a sudden like so what's it like being in the spot because it's like your job in that moment is essentially make Wardlow look as good as humanly possible but like you don't have that much experience yourself but like if you mess up or Wardlow doesn't look over power or whatever like it's gonna fall on you because like Wardlow's not gonna get any heat for that like you're the guy who's out there supposed to make him look look good in this scenario so what's not your mindset going into something like that where you're like yeah this guy's getting a massive push I got to make him look good but like you know I feel like I can do that but like I feel like there's a lot of pressure involved in that too even though it's like only like a two-minute match it's all about highlighting him yeah um if I'm being real with you I wish I could say I was like cool enough to have like thought of all of that but in reality I was like yo he's powerbombing dudes like 20 times in a row he's jack like crazy and I don't want to die man so as much as I wish I could have been like yeah you know I was just really thinking about the craftsmanship or what I was like yo I really hope I don't get power bombs you know you know I did it was like Hobbs when I was at Hobbs that was in the middle of the 10 body slams deal and I was like yo I hope these giant men don't kill me dog I'm just a boy that's that's really what was going through my head and I was like oh you know maybe yeah it was um yeah this was like this was crazy on fire war though and I remember it being very crazy I was in the spot and everyone including him being like oh what's the who's cousin are you like why are you what's why are you here and I just like I said a lot of lucky right place right time stuff that's awesome that's why the right mind said to have by the way like not really overthinking it too much it's like I want to stay safe out there hope I don't get killed but like at the end of the day like you know yolo yeah yeah of my home man oh he gave me this he gave me the power bomb pizza pie if his home oh does he call that as it happening like do you know he's gonna be spinning you around and stuff or does it just start happening you just you just make sure you land safe there is not a thing that he did to me that I could have changed if I wanted that man was gonna have you seen him that man is gonna be in the way I keep very strong and I'm five foot nine so uh yeah it was um but yeah it was and in both of those guys since because they bated me out crazy I've been so nice it has been so nice every time I see him it's love you know but I because I remember I still have the you know them my it's our true every time I see him it's a it's a good hug where I just get real scared for like a third of that you know it's a flashback said you yeah oh man oh real quickly before we ask our final question that we asked every guest I have to ask this that you mentioned new day and thanking them and your dissertation can you be twins if you are born a day apart on separate days can you be twins yes yes I'm 100% on big east side about it I don't know people are still talking about it and I remember like bringing it up to someone recently and being like yeah and only one person was like you know of course you twin and they're like well yeah like of course like everyone else was right and I was like there's no way I felt like how he did I was like there's no way that they really think like this yeah that's one of the greatest clips of all time just be are y'all dumb y'all can't be this dumb you might have times I have to say that's my friend there's no way you must be joking there's no way you really think this yeah I I'm a I'm a huge new day guy I'm a big easy hot guy I'm from Iowa I live in Atlanta I'm I'm sure I live like 10 minutes away from wood I don't even know but I'm trying to live like 10 minutes away from him but yeah those are my guys man the only WWE shot I've ever seen live was uh when big he dropped the title with the rock broke my heart oh oh that's an unfortunate one broke my heart but yeah those are my guys love them love them love them uh dare the question we the question we ask everybody uh what is the coolest thing you have in your room the coolest thing that I have in my room is okay okay okay and I'm sure this is in sentimentally or like oh it's completely up to you yeah and if you can show us like feel free if there's something you can show on the camera but if not you can tell us oh I'm not in my room right now but um the the coolest thing that I own which a lot of people used to know me for is uh I always wear a bullet necklace um and the bullet on the necklace is actually a shell casing my great grandfather's 21 guns to loot um super cool he and I were super close I was like a grown man when he passed away and a lot of people get that and I'm just trying to get great grandparents um but he's uh he's super just cool and it meant a lot to me and that's like my most prized possession that's awesome thank you so thank you so much for joining us here tonight let everybody know where they can find you at upcoming shows anything you want to plug absolutely uh you can find me at Lord Banks next Twitter or Darian Banks or no no sorry Lord Banks on Instagram or Darian Banks knows Twitter uh you can find me this Friday at action wrestling putting Marcus Matthews in the toy you can find me on Saturday putting Vanessa the toy at TWE um I am uh Darian Banksman uh catch flow is my deal I am the TWE champion undisputed for over a year I'm a proud member of Graph House proud member of Naptown all pro and thank you all so much for having me I appreciate y'all thank you man thank you guys all the links are below to follow Darian to keep up with Darian again thank you very much for joining us go back with everything moving forward uh we'll definitely stay in touch guys we'll be right back here on the spotlight we're back big thank you to Darian Benxton for joining us in the creator spotlight he was a lot of fun looking forward to continuing to follow his future as he moves forward guys we appreciate everybody hanging out with us this morning we'll be back next week on Fightful Overbooked again if you have not subscribed to Fightful Overbooked go do that uh I do a show every single day during the weekday on Fightful Overbooked we have new content every single day up there especially starting next week when the spotlight moves to Fightful Overbooked so appreciate everybody for hanging out with us this morning we have a thumbs up on the video thanks for the super chats thanks for just all the comments and the chats we'll be back next week everybody enjoy your weekend enjoy the wrestling we'll talk to y'all next week bye everybody This podcast is brought to you by the Marvel versus Capcom fighting collection arcade classics seven legendary titles including X-Men versus Street Fighter and Marvel versus Capcom 2 and join new features like online multiplayer training and gallery modes plus join in on the action with one button specials where players of all skill levels can at least those epic moves with ease relive the classic arcade 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