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Dominic D'Angelo from ad-free shows is going to kick us off. And after Tony and Dominic connect, we're going to go to Jim Varsalone from the Miami Herald. Dominic, you are first. Hey, Tony. How are you doing today, man? Doing really well. Thanks for being on today. Thanks. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, so kind of wanted to get your perspective on Jeff Jarrett cut like an amazing promo on AEW collision. Very touching about the Owen Hart Club, his ties to Owen, everything like that really hit on a lot of different points. I wanted to get the details behind you getting him in that tournament and then what you kind of think about him as a creative mind backstage and if he's got more influence backstage working with you guys creatively. Well, Jeff is tremendous mind. I have so much respect for Jeff. I love having him, you know, in AEW, he's a great wrestler and he's great business mind. And when it comes to live events and a lot of the backstage production elements, Jeff's got great insights and also Jeff is a legendary professional wrestler and he is known all over the world. And it's amazing how far Jeff's traveled and yet how concentrated a base analogy has in American wrestling and is still been able to get so much international experience in terms of wrestling himself in the ring and the business of pro wrestling. I have tons of respect for Jeff and his family and I think Jeff's a great person and a lot of that came across in the interviews. And I am a big fan of Jeff and have been a big fan of the wrestling that Jeff's family has promoted out of Tennessee for many, many years. And to be able to see Jeff open up and show the side of Jeff that we see backstage, I thought that was really amazing. And Jeff gave a lot of insight into a friendship he had with the late great Owen Hart. And we're very fortunate this time of year to be able to present the annual Owen Hart Foundation Cup tournament. I love working with Dr Martha Hart and her family and being able to present this tournament memorializing a great professional wrestler who passed away tragically and keeping his memory and pro wrestling alive. And I really enjoyed doing the tournament. We have a great women's and men's tournament each year. And Jeff Jared is somebody who had a real close friendship with the late great Owen Hart. And this year I thought it would be cool to feature Jeff and for Jeff to be able to give those insights and I'm looking forward to his match next Wednesday. Of course, the Forbidden Door season we're going to continue the Owen Hart Foundation tournament again just like last year through the Forbidden Door. And we've got some great great matches planned. And one thing we have planned for next week after Forbidden Door is Jeff Jared versus the wild card. And I'm excited for that match and it's been great for Jeff to be able to go on TV, tell the story of his friendship with Owen Hart and really praise the legacy of Owen Hart and what a great man he was. And very excited for Jeff Jared versus the wild card on beach break in Chicago coming up next Wednesday on Dynamite and excited for the Owen Hart Foundation cup tournament to continue through this Sunday. Of course, I've just announced Mariah Mae versus Soraya will happen the big rematch at the zero hour and very excited for everybody to see that we have a great card of men's matches and women's matches. And I'm very excited for everybody to see that as well as the new Japan Dragon. I think that's a match people have been really looking forward to. We got a preview of them squaring off last night on Wednesday night Dynamite and I'm excited for them to go one on one on Sunday and Forbidden Door. I think that's going to be great. And then Jeff Jared against the wild card on Wednesday. We have a lot of great action coming up in the next week. Thanks. Thank you very much Dominic Jim vars alone from Miami Herald is next to be followed by Andrew Beadala from final Bell Media Jim. He's been in Long Island for Ben door just how important or what was the importance of trying to get MJF back and competing on this event, since it is his hometown. Was that a big factor trying to get him because of that or no, just wanting to get him back or both. Well MJF's a big attraction for a w and it's a great to have him competing at the event this weekend. We saw a lot of entry among some of the top stars in a w last night and the previous week. But it's been great to have MJF back in a w and a lot of exciting things happening in the company right now. And great to have MJF back and will be very excited to see him take on one of my personal favorite stars in CMLL somebody who's come in and done very well in a w and that's at cetera. Who's at beta great connection with the fans gets a great reaction whenever he appears. He was reintroduced in the L.A. forum in the casino gallup match he said a tremendous, tremendous match with Brian Danielson picked up the win last Saturday on collision against daddy magic. And definitely need to keep an eye on that Sarah, who is somebody that we really think has a ton of potential and is aligned himself with the gates of agony, who did really well last night I think on dynamite themselves. And Brian Cage and it's a great group to diverse group of really exciting stars. So excited to see that Sarah stepping in the ring with MJF, who I think is going to get a big reaction in any arena in the world. And especially at an arena so close to his home on Long Island, it'll be big for the fans at UBS arena to see MJF this Sunday and I think that just Sarah will be a great opponent for him should be a really fun match. Thank you Jim, Andrew bedala from final bill media is next I will follow Andrew with the right in question from john Paul of slam wrestling Andrew you are up. installment of forbidden door and the pay-per-view concept and the first two emanating from major markets such as Chicago and Toronto and now this Sunday's pay-per-view being in New York. In the future for the forbidden door pay review and could we see this pay-per-view go international, maybe Japan. Thank you. Well, sure it's a great question through I think we've had forbidden door all over North America now and some of the great cities. And when you talk about again just the city you listed we launched the event in Chicago. And then last year we took it to Toronto. And here we are in New York. And it's consistently been a huge draw for us. The first event in Chicago was one of our biggest gates of 2022. In 2023 was the North American biggest gate of the year. And with the event being in Toronto of course and then this year. We're in New York at UBS arena and we're poised to top the one million dollar gate mark for the third straight year, which means every forbidden door over one million dollar gate. It's been a great success story and we're looking to have over 10,000 fans attending the event at UBS arena. It'll be one of our top shows of the year. And I think we've seen great business from forbidden door. So again we've taken it international so far to Toronto but potentially could we expand outside of the continent. And I do think so. It's interesting with the idea of forbidden door in Japan. I do think that there's a great potential to grow the I grow the IP and also as a pay per view event. There are other events in Japan in collaboration with new Japan pro wrestling outside of the forbidden door which is something I think we've really built great excitement and great business case for here on the Western Hemisphere. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew. I'm going to have a question here Tony from john Paul from slam wrestling and when you're when you're finished with this Samantha shipment from the daily DDT will be next john's question Tony is a rather simple one. Big card coming up on Sunday. What's the match that you personally the one match that you're most looking forward to. That's a very, very loaded unfair question. I think if I personally can't wait to see so many of the matches in the card and I don't want to give a cop out answer but I think the championship matches are so great up and down the card. I really, it would put me in a bad position to pick one. I think sort of you can't pick against the sort of Strickland and will all spray for the world championship to see the international champion will all spray who competed on this event the past two years as a part of the new Japan pro wrestling roster and move full time to a w this year and has become the international champion and has taken America by storm. And to have the international champion will operate coming in challenging for the world title. It's unprecedented and it happened out of a great casino gauntlet batch. I love those casino gauntlet matches and I think the one in Los Angeles has been one of the best matches we've had an AW all year and I think one of the best matches ever on dynamite and. Well, I spray has continued to bring fans from all over the world, you know, into his matches people who've never watched wrestling before can watch a while I spray match and and be blown away. He has been great as international champion. I think he has unlimited upside and then you have a great world champion with Swerve Strickland who has come into a w and gotten better every year and now is at the very top of his game. And with Swerve, we have somebody that has stepped in there and had over the past year, some of the best matches ever in a w against some of our top stars. And Swerve's rivalry with Hangman, I think it will be immortal. The champion he defeated is one of our best stars and somebody that is one of the most respected wrestlers ever in a w and some other Joe, then to be able to top Christian cage who I think is. Beldebell and inside and outside the ring is good of a pro wrestler is great of a pro wrestler, as I've ever seen, and made very well be the MVP of this entire company Christian cage. And then, you know, when you look at what Swerve's been able to do against all those great wrestlers time after time, we've seen Swerve step up and have these top matches. And we'll ask Prince Swerve over the past year, each of them separately have been involved in so many of the best matches ever in a w. And now that they're both in the same company, now that they're both champions. And we saw the rivalry take a new step yesterday when Swerve put down Will for touching his championship, and we saw that side of Swerve that we've seen before with Hangman. I think that's going to be such a fantastic match, but I could also talk at length about every match on the card up and down the card. And I think there's so many great things happening, including the rivalry between AEW and New Japan, but also some of the stars that have arrived from stardom and CMLL that are competing on the card. And I think that the Women's World Championship match with the AEW World Champion, Timeless Tony Storm, taking on Mina Shurikawa has been very captivating television. And Mariah Mae says she's going to be in both women's corners. And we saw as close as it's physically possible for her to do that. I mean, she made entrances with both Tony and Mina yesterday. And Mariah has been a huge part of this story and what's become a fascinating rivalry, very different kind of rivalry. And I've really enjoyed that. And I can't wait for John Moxley, who has made a different kind of history himself. Arguably the most decorated world champion in the history of the sport. The first man ever to become the AEW World Champion, WWE World Champion and IWGP World Champion. It's a milestone that will live forever. And I wanted to be there because if and when John won the title in Chicago, I knew it was going to be so special. So I felt really blessed to be in attendance and watch it with Renee when John won the IWGP World title and made history and set a milestone that nobody can ever take. And now Naito aims to take back the championship, but I think it's going to be a great, great fight. And John Moxley head to head is the greatest wrestler ever in AEW. And I think it's going to be so incredible and the environment is going to be electric EBS for Mox versus Naito. I think great matches like that are what forbid doors all about. So excited then to have Stephanie Vacker coming here and you talk about the relationships between the companies. We've got Stephanie Vacker, who is a great wrestler for CML, who is the New Japan Strong Women's Champion and is putting it up in a title for title match against the face of TVS, the TVS Champion, the CEO Mercedes Monet. I think that's going to be fantastic and I'm very excited for everybody to see Stephanie on a very stacked AEW Collage in this Saturday. We have so many great things on the show leading into the pay-per-view, really excited for Rampage tomorrow and Friday night and then collision on Saturday night leading into the pay-per-view. And everybody to get a good look at Stephanie and also Mercedes will be there live and Stephanie's got a very good opponent, Lady Frost, who has done great things on collision. And it should be a really strong show. I think that there's so many great matches on the pay-per-view top to bottom. I did start with sort of an Osprey, but I think I could talk about in addition to those four pay-per-view matches. There's so many great things on this show. So it's one of the reasons why this is one of my favorite times of the year. Thanks for asking. Thank you, Tony. Thank you, John. Samantha Shipman from the daily DDT is next to be followed by Arunova Gosho from sports, Keita Samantha. We can. Yeah. Hi. Great. It was shown. I just want to make sure. So first of all, thank you for the time. And I have a question related to Mark Risco because on Sunday, we see that he will obviously be getting a shot at the TNT. Championship. But before that, he has a match on Honor Club tonight, where he will be putting up his ROH World Championship against Kyle Fletcher. Can you talk about the decision to do that match now versus doing it at death before dishonor next month? Well, it's a great question. And I appreciate you asking me that. And I think it makes a lot of sense. Kyle's got a very busy schedule and I want to get Mark also with his very, very busy schedule. I thought it would make a lot of sense for them to have this match because it's a great match for the fans. Both of them are booked all over the world. They're both great champions and have the ring of honor world television champion and the ring of honor world champion when you can get that match. It made a lot of sense to me for the television champion and the world champion also when you see the TV champion get the pin on the world champion. And also, I want to put good matches on Honor Club on the show for the fans that I think the match tonight is a great match. And Kyle's been on this incredible role. And I thought coming off the match, Kyle and Lee had the previous episode that is one of the best matches in the history of the show with Kyle defending the title in the two out of three falls match against Lee Johnson. Both of them are brilliant wrestlers. And I thought that Kyle and Lee put together a great match for the TV title and Kyle's been on this great role. He pinned the world champion on Dynamite. And I thought that, you know, with the show being so hot right now, this made a lot of sense for the fans. And it should be a great match. I appreciate you asking about it. And excited to have Mark involved in the ladder match. And of course, Kyle's also going to be defending that television title in Arena, Mexico, which I think is really exciting also working with Atlanta Jr. So lots of cool stuff. Thank you. Thank you Samantha ruin of a ghost show from sports key is next. I will follow a run of our with a writing question from LHA, a wrestling gal, a run of a career. Yeah, hi. Yeah, so we were really excited to see and give back ahead of forbidden those. If you can provide any update on the papers, return. That's possible. Yes. Really excited about Britt Baker being close to ready for a return to you. She's been out with injury and was not clear to wrestle, but I do expect that sometimes soon she could return so would absolutely love that and very excited about getting all of our top stars back. It's been great having MJF back. And so many top stars have been away. It's going to feel amazing when we've got great stars. Britt Baker is a great example. It'd be great to have the doctor back in AEW so many other great former champions, including Jamie Hader, Kenny Omega, and Adam Cole and many other great wrestlers. We can't wait to have back here in AEW and certainly for me. I know that Dr. Britt Baker and fans all over the world will be excited to see her return and I'm glad that she's going to be cleared to return very soon. Thank you very much. Arunova, I have a writing question here, Tony, from L.A.J. a wrestling gal, and then we'll follow Ella with Bill Pritchard. Excuse me from Russell's own. Ella's question is the following. Forbidden Door will feature three representatives from stardom. Does AEW have plans to work with stardom talent beyond Sunday's pay-per-view event? Yes, absolutely. We have lots of plans with stardom, and I'm really excited about working so closely with the promotion this year. stardom has the same parent company as New Japan pro wrestling, Busy Road. So I have been looking to work with stardom for a long time, and this current management has been such a great pleasure to work with. And I think it's been great for the wrestlers in AEW and stardom, and also for the fans of either or both promotions that we've been working together so closely, putting together great matches, bringing the talent back and forth. And I look to bring stardom talent regularly to AEW, and right now we're in a position where a stardom wrestler, Mina Shirakawa, to very well be the AEW Women's Wolf Champion. I think Mina has a great chance and is a fantastic representative of not only stardom, but also AEW, and I would love to have Mina as the champion here. I also love having Timeless Tony Storm as the champion, and it's one of the reasons I'm so excited for the match. And I think I want to continue to work with stardom closely, and that it may be that one of their wrestlers is the world champion here, and that can be a great thing. I mean, as we've seen, John Moxley as the IWGP world champion has had some fantastic matches, and is one of the top wrestlers, not only in AEW, but New Japan. And now I think we're seeing Mina Shirakawa is one of the top wrestlers, not only in stardom, but also in AEW. And I think we'll continue to see wrestlers from stardom in AEW, top stars, and also continuing to bring the young wrestlers over. I'd also like to continue having stardom and gold with bring of honor as well, but I do think in addition to bring stardom wrestlers into AEW, you could see a lot of AEW wrestlers traveling to stardom. And we're working on that, wrestlers are working on getting their visas, and it's something we're excited about. Thanks for asking. Excuse me, apparently I was muted, I apologize for that. Bill Prichard from WrestleZone is next, and Bill will be followed by Kristen Ashley from Pro Wrestling Illustrated. My apologies, Bill, you're next. Hey Tony, how are you doing? Hey, you doing well. Thanks for asking. How are you? I'm doing good. Surviving the heatwave on the East Coast. So, I wanted to ask about MJF's return specifically. We've seen a character shift. I know he's kind of indirectly mentioned it looks reminiscent of Triple H MSG return, but I wanted to know like how much input you might have as far as hearing him out. And this is for everyone, but specifically, I'm using him as the example because it's recent, but how much input do you have as far as like what you need for the show versus listening to what his idea is just trying to figure out what the best presentation is for a guy like him because we've seen him as a babyface before, but it was salt to the earth, like sort of the traditional look for him. So just, can you talk about the creative decisions that go involved that go into bringing a guy such an important part of the company back on TV, making sure it's, you know, not only the right fit, but the right timing and everything like that. Yeah, it's a great question. Well, it's the nature of wrestling. You have lots of wrestlers and you have lots of wrestlers and some of them come in with lots of ideas and you get some wrestlers that come in with a lot of good ideas and something unfortunate to do is be able to interact with a lot of people, but also hear a lot of ideas and we have a great group of people and Jeff's been here since the very first dynamite. We're coming up on 250 dynamites, just a few weeks from now, which I'm really excited about. And, you know, as somebody who's been here from the first show, I've spent a lot of time around him and we have a lot of wrestlers here and including some of the people that have been here from the very beginning like him. That have lots of really good ideas and I love talking to them and that's something I enjoy doing and I think we've had success with is collaborating with the talent here and trying to make their voice heard and also do a presentation that's authentic to them. So it's been a great shift for him, but I think it's something that's really connected with the fans and certainly in the arenas that we've seen the fans are really excited to have MJF back. I thought it was a great match with Rush and it was great for him to return to AWS in his first match back. And then we were really excited to see MJF last night again, and interesting to see the interaction with some of the other top fan favorites, like Daniel Garcia, the hometown hero and Buffalo, and the international champion, Will Osprey, who's going into this weekend and is challenging for the UW World Championship. So some fascinating things happening around the company and some involving MJF. And I spend a lot of time thinking of ideas and also communicating with wrestlers and the people in the office and some people in wrestling come up with a lot of ideas that fit with what we're doing. And other people, you know, there's some people that like look for the office to come up with ideas for them. And then there's a people that are in between that want, you know, a blend of their own stuff and they want to hear what we want to do for them. And I really like working with different people. I've lots of different relationships and wrestling with now so many people and MJF somebody that's been here from the very beginning of the UW and it's always had cool ideas for presentation and, and things we can do on the show. And I love communicating with him and you're seeing a look and a spirit from him that's very authentic and true to him. And I'm very excited for everybody to kind of see where this goes, going into forbidden door, and everything we have planned for what I think is going to be a really great summer for the UW. Thanks for asking. Thank you bill. Christian Ashley from pro wrestling illustrated is next Christian will be followed with a right in from Kimmy so cool from the pop break. You were up. Hi. Hi, sorry, sorry, it just stopped for some reason. So, CML women are starting to appear in a w Mercedes herself has hinted that she wants to fight in arena Mexico. Hey guys, I'm here to tell you about eBay auto. eBay Motors is the leading online platform for automotive dealers to get their inventory in front of over 7 million ready to buy shoppers who are buying cars and trucks on eBay motors, every three minutes, every single day. They make it easy to find parts for cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, and more. They even offer a massive selection of new and pre owned classics, whether it's fixing, updating or maintaining your existing vehicle, or finding new and used vehicles. eBay Motors is easy to navigate by vehicle type category of items, sales events, or the brand type of car motorcycle pickup or SUV that you have. You can shop parts on the eBay Motors app, and with their eBay guaranteed fit, it is guaranteed to fit your ride every time. Head over to ebay.com and find what's right for your ride. That's ebay.com. That about stardom. Will we see more talent exchange between the two women's divisions? Yeah, I think so. We're starting to see it. I did get that question peripheral to your question. I was starting to talk about that. We're working on getting more visas for the AEW wrestlers to go to Japan specifically to work at stardom, and we've seen a lot of top stardom wrestlers come into AEW, and then CMLL is a great example also. As I said, about stardom, I agree, like CMLL, I'd like to trade more there also, and I think it makes a lot of sense. We could see a wrestler from CMLL as the new face of TVS, which I think would be very exciting. I'm a big fan of staff, and I think she's a great talent, and everybody can get a good look at her for free on TNT if you're a cable subscriber. It's going to be a great episode of Collision, and I'm excited for Steph vs. Lady Frost. We've seen Zooxies in AEW, and it was great to have Mercedes go down and make an appearance at Arena Mexico. We've seen a lot of AEW's top stars going down to Arena Mexico and getting great reactions and connecting with the fans, and Mercedes did very well there. I believe that it would make a lot of sense, and I want to do that. It's a little bit easier with a travel, and it doesn't take people out of commission to necessarily miss a TV if they travel to Mexico. And because it's a lot easier logistically for wrestlers to go back and forth, I think it makes a ton of sense for AEW and CMLL to collaborate more on sending wrestlers back and forth. And it's something that's been really good for us, and I also think that with CMLL, I think it's been beneficial to them, having the great women and men from AEW going to Arena Mexico. So definitely want to continue working with them, something that's been really nice in the past year for AEW has been opening up and strengthening the relationships with CMLL and stardom. And I think they've brought something special this year to the Forbidden Door, which has already been a great collaboration with AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling for the past few years, and love working with CMLL. I think Salvador is a great man, and they have a great family and a great family tradition and business they built in Mexico and have a lot of respect and admiration for him and his family and CMLL and what they do. Thank you. Thank you, Christine. I've got to write in Tony from Kimi Sokol from the Pop Break followed by Joey Hayden from the Dallas Morning News. Kimi's question. How do you feel about there being four women's matches being on the show this Sunday night? Four. I feel great about it. I'm very excited about it. I put together the card with my staffing team and this is the card I wanted and I think it's great. We have some really exciting matches on the card. I could talk in length about everything, but we spent a lot of time by design because I'm really excited about talking about the AEW Women's World Championship match with Timeless Tony Storm taking on Mina Shirakawa, who I think has taken our show by by storm pun intended and is taking on one of our greatest stars and somebody who is so important to our TV and somebody beloved by our fans. I think that's the most Tony Storm and then to have the TBS championship on the line in a title for title match. It's fascinating because we have the knee Japan strong women's champion Stephanie Vacker go in title for title with Mercedes Monet. I think that's such a great match and such a great situation between multiple companies being involved there and all the inter promotional implications. There's a lot of implications of this match. Then you have something I'm really, really excited about talking about the stardom collaboration. I am so excited to have this big tag match on the zero hour. It's a preview of what's to come next week in Chicago at beach break. To have the team of Statlander and Momo versus the team of Willow Nightingale and Tim McConnell. I think that's going to be tremendous. We've seen Willow go to stardom and defend the TBS title and Tim McConnell and Willow. They've been opponents have been friends. That's I think going to be really exciting tag match and then I can't wait for the Owen Hart semi final match next week between. Willow Nightingale and Chris Sally and everyone one on one. I think that's that's a great part of the card. And then of course, Ryan may she'll be in the corner of both women in the world championship match. Tony storm versus Shirakawa to have Ryan may involved there, but also will be involved wrestling earlier in the night. Well, if I may taking on one of her idols, Saraya and that's a great match and they really turned into great rivals. And Saraya is won the match against Mariah. Saraya is a former AEW women's world champion. The winner of this match gets to go back to Wembley and a chance to become the AEW women's world champion. And Saraya would love to get back into that spotlight and regain that championship at Wembley. And Ryan may I think it would be a dream come true for her to win this tournament and be able to challenge. Either of her closest friends and really the people she's currently idolizing and teaming with in timeless Tony storm and me and Shirakawa. So a lot of exciting things happening on the card and those four matches are a big part of it. Thank you very much, Kimmy. Joey Hayden from the Dallas morning news is next followed by Cresta star from Fightful. Joey. Or this weekend and before you know it, we'll be back at Wembley Stadium. But in between that we have the summer series at Arlington in July. What are you most hoping to accomplish with the event this weekend to sort of set the stage for this pretty pivotal time on the calendar? Well, it's a great, great question. I'm really excited for the summer series. It's going to be tremendous once we've got the Forbidden door this weekend and very excited to have top stars from all over the world coming in New York. Wrestling for a worldwide audience on pay-per-view this Sunday. And then once we have Forbidden door in the books officially, we'll be on the path at 8W all in. And they'll start at beach break in Chicago, which is going to be a great event on Wednesday. And then going to later July, we'll have the summer series kicking off. Excuse me. Sorry I had to mute my phone. I just need to excuse me. And we'll have the summer series kicking off. I'm very excited for that. And I think it's going to be a great, great event and a great way for the fans to enjoy collision on the path to 8W all in Wembley Stadium. We're going to bring big matches to Dallas. Very excited to feature top stars from collision and have top stars from all over AEW colliding on TNT every week there in Dallas. And I think we're going to have a great fan base. And it's something that the City of Arlington is excited about and works. I'm excited about working with them to utilize Arlington's eSports Stadium for AEW. And Dallas is one of the greatest wrestling towns in the world. I've really enjoyed our time in Dallas. We've put on a lot of great shows there around the Metroplex and that great event in Arlington with AEW and Ring of Honor and some of the best Ring of Honor matches and moments were there. Arlington is a special place to me. Arlington is the last place I ever saw the late great Jay Briscoe. So I'm having one of his greatest matches ever. We're teaming with his brother Mark against FTR in the dog collar match in Arlington on Saturday afternoon. And it was one of the best matches. It was a great pay-per-view. And it was the dog collar match is one of the greatest matches I've ever seen. And it was a great moment for the Briscoes to win the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Championship. And I really enjoyed working with him and getting to know him and becoming friends with him. He's a great guy and he's got a great family. And the last place I saw him was Arlington. And then after the show, a bunch of people got together and then I had to head to Jacksonville because we had a game, a very, very big game the next day. And so I flew back to Florida that night, but I saw him and some of the people after the show at the post show get together after the pay-per-view and then never got to see Jay again. And so that's a wrestling memory in Arlington specifically that I always hold a near and dear, especially that dog collar match and NCM Jay one last time. And I love working with his brother Mark and with FTR and together those guys had such a special match that night in Arlington. And I think going to a place, the Dallas Metroplex where we've had so many great shows, the AEW winners coming events and the Ring of Honor pay-per-views. It's time after time the crowd brings it really. So, so many places in Texas, so many great towns in Texas where the fans are just so rabid and love wrestling and love AEW. And they've been so loyal and supported and will tell us and we're very much in the dead of the great fans in Texas. So it's great to be able to bring an event like this there to Arlington where we can, we can week out bring great AEW wrestling. I love the traditions of Texas wrestling and specifically around the Dallas Metroplex, the history of what the Von Eric family was able to build. Kevin Von Eric has become a good friend to me and AEW. And his sons Ross and Marshall are just tremendous young men. I really like Ross and Marshall and Kevin and love what they were able to build as a family. If somebody's big on family and family business myself, I have a lot of respect for them and their business which has been memorialized and seen all over the world now through the lens of the iron claw, which I think is amazing that everyone got to see things through Kevin's eyes and it was a great film. And I think it's cool that the tradition of Dallas wrestling and world class and everything Kevin and his family were able to build. People saw that and now I'm really excited to bring AEW back to the Dallas Metroplex specifically to Arlington for that series of events. We're going to have a great time there. Thank you, Joey. Kresta star from Fightful is next to be followed by Mike McGuire from Vista Radio Canada's McGuire on wrestling. Kresta. Hello, good afternoon. Thank you so much for taking my question. With all the success of the Forbidden Doors so far. Is there a future where a ring of honor or any other any promotion or indie promotion get involved in the Forbidden Door fracas. Well, that's a great question. I think I'd love having more ring of honor involvement. We do have some good involvement. We have the world champion Mark Grisco in that ladder match, which is going to feature. Some great stars from across the world. And I do think we've got a great opportunity also to get more involvement from our way in the show. And in the future, I think other promotions as well. I think right now you've got two of the top promotions in North America in AEW and CMLL featured very prominently in the cards. And then, you know, obviously, having not only new Japan pro wrestling, but also stardom now more intricately involved in the event. I think it has been tremendous. And now you could see a wrestler from stardom as the AEW Women's World Champion in miniature Kawa. You could see a woman from CMLL who is not only the new Japan strong women's champion, but has also been a great champion. You could see Stephanie take the TBS Championship and become the face of TBS. So a lot of exciting opportunities there. And, you know, in addition to all the great things happening between AEW and Japan, and like having John Moxley as the IWGP World Champion. And, and, and now going back to Russell Naito. I think that's really exciting. So there's a lot of really cool things happening with the Forbidden Door this year. I think it's my personal favorite card yet on the Forbidden Door. And would love to have even more promotions involved potentially in the future. It's already a lot with so many promotions teaming up though. So it's something to keep an eye on for sure. Thank you, Kresta. Mike McGuire from Vista Radio Canada's McGuire on wrestling is next to be followed by Joel Torres from Contralona. Mike. Mike, you're good. Okay. Tony, thanks as always for doing these. Appreciate you and looking very forward to the collision and dynamite coming up in Calgary in a few weeks here. On that note, part of the open heart tournament is at Forbidden Door and looking forward to that. But some guy who's been talking a lot about what's been going on in the W and what could happen in the W is Jim Ross. And just wondering if you've heard from JR, he was hoping to be there to do the call, but he's been going through some health stuff obviously have you heard from Jim and whether or not he'll be at Forbidden Door. And from Jim, I am hopeful that, you know, I had been hopeful he'd be able to make it, but Jim's had some health concerns. So I don't want to, you know, say for sure when he'd be able to make a return because I think the most important thing to us is that JR gets well. He's been with us since day one. He was a part of AEW from the launch. And, you know, we really value Jim and everything he's done for AEW since we started the business and definitely would love to have JR back on a more regular basis soon and involved when his health permits. Thanks for asking. Thank you very much, Mike. Joel Torres, Councilor Lona is next to be followed by Sean Ross Sapp and Fightful, Joel. My question is, there are two other promotions in North America, doing something similar to the Forbidden Door, which is NXT and TNA wrestling, and I wanted to know if you think your, your idea of Forbidden Door has been influential for all of this happening right now. I think that what we've done with Forbidden Door has been really historic and it's been very successful. We've seen the business so strong year in year out. Again, this would be the third straight year where the gate has topped $1 million. And it is fantastic collaboration. And I think that it's great to see wrestling companies all over the world working together. And I love wrestling and I love the competition wrestling, but it's also great collaborating with some of the top companies. And we built really great relationships with new Japan pro wrestling over the years. And now with Mr. Tanahashi is the president. That's also very nice because I've worked closely with him over the years, you know, on the wrestling side of the business. And then with Bushy Road and the new management at stardom is the relationship across New Japan and stardom has been so great for us. And then the past year, getting to know Salvador, the CML partnership has really gotten very strong. And it's created some great moments for the fans. I'm excited that we were able to announce for the fans in New York City that we've got for the first time ever. Everybody around New York, we'll be able to go to UBS arena and see the first time ever. Mystico teaming with the Lucha brothers to take on the L.I.J. and bringing Yoda Suji, who's somebody I really enjoy, to E.W. for the first time and teaming with Ramu and Teton, who I think are both just outstanding. I'm really excited for that. We just announced that. So many great things happening and great collaborations. That's another first. And it's great to bring that L.I.J. versus Mystico rivalry to E.W. and to America, to New York, to the great fans, but also to see Mystico teaming with the Lucha brothers for the first time. Just such a cool thing. So I'm really excited for that match to be a part of the event. And I really, really believe in these partnerships. I think we've got something we built here that's really special. And it continues to prove itself out when we see such great box office for forbidden or year in your app. Thank you. Thank you very much, Joel. We are almost in time. So let's conclude with Sean Ross Sapp from Fightful. Sean. These are great questions. I would prefer not to do my free agent negotiating on the on the all media call. It's not even like, you know, an off the record conversation. It's like the all media call. You're all here. So I think it's a really exciting time in pro wrestling. When we launched a one of the things that I had told the great people at TBS and TNT, and this was long before discovery had come in and Warner Brothers Discovery had become this great entity and long before Mr. Zazlaw's great leadership had entered the picture here. So this is a long time ago, but six years ago, I remember telling the people at TBS before we even launched AEW when it was really a concept on paper and ideas in 2018 that I was telling them about that free agency in pro wrestling has not been nearly at the level of competition that it was once in the 90s. And then in 2019 we arrived on the scene. And I do think that it's been a fascinating period and watching the movement between wrestlers between companies over the past few years. I think it's been great for the fans and I think it's been great for the wrestling business. So there are some great free agents out there and coming up. These are great names you're talking about. I have a lot of respect for everybody you said, Sean, but I probably wouldn't behoove me or benefit AEW for me to give my contract thoughts on all of them or where I would negotiate or have or would with any of them. I do think they're all great talents to talk about for sure. And, you know, we've had great year in free agency. I think we've seen, including people that are all over the show and are going to make a huge impact on the event with having the AEW international champion will celebrate the AEW continental champion, Kazushka Okada, who is now the continental champion. And I must say it's fascinating that he's has four G1s under his belt, but has never won a continental classic, but he will be now, you know, it's interesting. There'll be a lot of people gunning for him going into the continental classic to be in that. I can't wait to talk more about it. It'd be the first time we've gone into the event with a champion and what that entails after so much buzz about the inaugural event. But the question will be, will he be the champion or will he have an entail this year with the reigning champion and who's going to be the continental champion, but certainly have an Okada and AEW's been fantastic. I haven't had a lot of questions about Okada today, but I have to say he's just been fantastic to work with as a wrestler backstage. I have a lot of mixed things to say about the elite and my on screen interactions with them, but they make no mistakes. This is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. And the way he's adapting to American TV, I think he's only going to continue to get better and better. And every arena we go to, the fans are captivated by him in his presence and I think he's a phenomenal talent and going into the continental classic this year, it would be interesting to see if he is still the continental champion or if he ends in the tournament. But if he is, it's that, you know, he's one of the two most successful wrestlers in such a round robin style format tournament ever. I think you have Chona with 5G1s and Okada with 4, you know, it's something interesting and I'd be interested to see how he would fare potentially in the continental classic. And very excited to have now President Tanahashi also coming into AEW. I think that's something really cool. And very excited to have the Okada Tanahashi rivalry renewed at the Forbidden Door and also to see the Scissor Ace Tanahashi, the Scissor President, and the Scissor administration, he's going to be running over there. And really, you know, that's phenomenal, but the Okada is a free agent. It's just what a great signing. I believe he will be and has been and then operate the international champion. Just what a huge statement he's made here in AEW and now I believe he got a great opportunity and all the necessary tools to be a great AEW world champion and then Mercedes Monet. What a great signing. I think she's been and will continue to be and she's a TVS champion. She's got a big title match and it's title for title sheet may continue to be the TVS champion and she may be the new Japan Strong Women's Champion. And we had in the past year, the rate in our superstar Adam Copeland come in and become the TNT champion. And you look at all these great champions. We had these huge free agent signings and where they all fit in. And that's the one where he's not here and he wanted to be a part of this card. We miss Adam every day and it's crazy. He's not with us right now. And he came in. He was the biggest, most positive influence he could have asked for. And you couldn't ask for four better champions and four better free agents to come in. Then Adam Copeland, Will Ospre, Mercedes Monet and Kazushka Okada and all great champions for us. We'll crown a new TNT champion in that ladder match but we miss Adam. So it's been a big past year for us in free agency signing those four and many others and will continue to be active in free agency. And any time there's somebody of the standard of those four who are for my personal favorite wrestlers ever. Then, you know, I'm always going to be looking to be involved. Thanks. Thank you, Sean. Tony, that is it. Do you have any final thoughts you want to share with everyone before we depart? Well, it's a really exciting time for AEW. I think that it's an exciting time for all the companies involved in Forbidden Door. And I love working with these great partners, New Japan, CMLL and start them now. And I love being able to put on this event and I want to continue this for a long time. It's a big year for AEW with our media rights renewal coming up and it's going to affect everybody who worked here in AEW, our wrestlers, our staff, and everybody in the company and the fans of the company too. You know, the deal we make and the distribution is a really important time for us and the fact that we've gotten here and we're at this point. And, you know, I believe we're in the red zone right now. And really approaching the goal line and about to make a big push for the big touchdown we've been chasing for years. I think it's really, really exciting that we're so close and just this has been a great drive together with you the past five years. And I've enjoyed it and I hope that we're about to put the ball in the end zone. I can feel it coming. And it's a really exciting time and it wouldn't have been possible without all of you covering the company. Many of you since the very beginning of AEW. And before we even launched and when this was just a rumor, it's amazing. So after five years of pay per views and this being the third forbidden door, I really appreciate all of you. Thanks for your coverage and your consideration. And I wish all of you the best and hopefully see a lot of you in York at the scrum and I'll try to answer as many questions as I can. I wanted to try to answer everybody's questions today and hope most of you or as many of you as possible got to ask something. And if you didn't, please try to come to the scrum. If you can, we'll see you in New York and I'll try to answer everybody's questions there too as many as we can. Thank you very much and hope you all have a great rest of your week. All right. Thanks, Tony. And as Tony mentioned, this is always really the fastest hour in professional wrestling, but unfortunately we are at 60 minutes. Is your vehicle stopping like it should? Does it squeal or grind when you break? Don't miss out on summer break deals at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, R
