I'm Robbie Gorman, and this is the serial fanaticist at the podcast for fans and everything. Welcome! Today, I'm joined by Eric Z. Goodnight to talk about full gear, the recent overview from all Elite Wrestling.
We talk about how we've enjoyed the first six weeks of Wednesday Night Dynamite, we break down the entire car from top to bottom, and we talk about what we're excited about for EEW in the future. EEW has been a breath of fresh air in professional wrestling, and we're both loving it. Please note this was recorded prior to the Dynamite from November 13th. It was fun talking about wrestling with Eric, as always, under the discussion.
I'm here with Eric Z. Goodnight to talk about full gear, EEW's recent pay-per-view event. Eric, how are you? I'm doing great.
Watching wrestling. Brother. We do not need to invoke the ghost of Mr. Hogan.
He's not dead. He's still alive. He's dead to me. I mean, yes.
That's... Yes. I mean, that was not exclusively a Hogan thing. Many wrestlers still use their brother talking about each other amongst themselves, as we are.
Yes. Absolutely. Both of us are definitely professional wrestlers, and we just talk about it. Every podcast that talks about professional wrestling does for a bunch of dumb dorks.
Yeah, that's fine. We're middle-aged white guys, and we have to put our opinion on the internet. That's very important. Full gear happened yesterday, last night, as the time of recording this.
Before we get to full gear in specifics, we're not going to break down, but we will talk about each match, and we thought about it. Before we get there, I do want to talk briefly, because we haven't really had a wrestle cast since television started, since Dynamite started. Now, we've had six weeks of Dynamite building up to this pay-per-view in largely general thoughts or are you satisfied with how Dynamite has gone? I've had a very good time.
I don't think I've been invested in a television show this deeply. Maybe not ever. I don't know. I'm having a very good time, and I feel like they're doing, I mean, I don't want to oversell it because I think that it does have some weaknesses and some things that I wish they would have done differently but weren't bad, but in general, I think it's really quite good.
I put it on par with Lucha Underground when I was enjoying Lucha Underground, and we had the added benefit of how we were falling into what the Elite was doing, and feel invested that way. It's still very exciting, but I still tune in eagerly every Wednesday. I do not want this. Yes, it is.
It has become a part of, well, I unfortunately had to record podcasts right during the multiple times that it frustrated the hell out of me, but it was inevitable because- That's why we got that DVR, baby. That's true. I do go back and watch, but it is a live wrestling, it's the thing that I missed about when I was into WWE so much as watching it live and seeing things happen as it happened. There's something special about it that I agree with you.
Dynamite has been great. It makes those two hours just fly, guy. God, it really does. They get to the last match and they're like television time remaining, and I'm like, what the fuck?
How is this over everything? Literally every Wednesday. Yeah, I think that's it. It speaks to the quality of it because I just never remember watching her all and going, oh, God, how much time is still left?
Oh, an hour? Oh, God. It was just fast forward to the last 20 minutes. I don't care about any of this.
It's interesting. Was it raw? It has always been three hours, right? No.
For a long time. It's like five years ago. It went to three hours, and three hours is way too long. Three hours.
I'm wondering if that would be the case if I would get sick of that, but I think it's cool that they're breaking it up because the dark matches, it's, I don't know, it's very smart. They're giving away two or three cool matches every week, the day before, get people hyped to watch it. It's, it's pretty smart. You know, there are going to be some people that aren't going to watch on television.
They aren't going to get some kind of subscription or do whatever and give them something they can watch on YouTube and they can still follow the story. It's still pretty great. I don't. I, dark is really another great thing because they make it, they, it's not diminished because it's not the main show.
It's, it doesn't feel like, oh, this is secondary. Yeah. This isn't important. This isn't valuable.
Like they have guest commentators come out. They, they hike it up on their social media. They say, look, they can't have countdowns when dark comes out and it comes out, like before, you know, dynamite. So you get hyped up because you're like, oh, I swatched these matches.
They have great matches on there. Like they give away a pay-per-view quality matches on dark and it lets you, and it also gives chances like that tag team between a son and kiss and Dustin that was great. Those two guys working together weirdly really worked really well and there's like, oh, a lot of kiss loves Dustin Rose. Those, those, those combinations of characters that you're not, I mean, it's, I think they do a good job of the making those two hours fly by because it's very dense and they make sure something's always happening.
It's never filler, which you get a lot of time with WWE. It's like recaps and people just, and we'll see talking in the microphone. When people do promos on dynamite, it's meaningful. It's actually like, there's not a lot of promos.
You might get one or two a night, but I kind of wish that there was more, but everyone they've done has been like a goddamn banger. Yeah, home run. Yeah. It's amazing.
All of them are really like, you can, every week they're seemingly like the Jericho's first inner city, inner city, inner circle promo, where he's introducing the gang when the most racing Cody promo, the Moxley promo, when he went crazy in the ring, like you get one of those a night. I'd rather have that than meandering 20 minute promo that starts a show and doesn't actually say anything except to fill time. And I think that's largely like, I don't really mind that there isn't, you know, I would like, hey, if every promo is going to be this good, I want more of them. But I don't know if there's more of them, if they're going to be all that good, because they're eventually going to run out things to say.
And so you just end up with this business and I'm the, and then you also get this promo packages where Chris Jericho is the youngest AW champion of all time. That was, that's such a goofy thing. It is. That had, I don't know that that was just them.
They had a budget and they're fucking around and I, I don't know, I love that we get stupid shit like that. Yeah. So that is, that is actually, I think the closest thing that we've got, like, BTE, that, that promo. Well, it really did have that kind of taste to it.
Very silliness to it. But I think Dynamite has been great. I'm excited to watch it every week. And I think it built pretty well to full gear.
I think it, all the matches, I think had time, aside from Rehouse and Emi Sacker's match, which we'll talk about. I feel like the build to that was a little rough, but I think they're still working out. The women's division, Cody, Cody mentioned something in his media call prior to full gear that made him get a chance to watch though. I will, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll illuminate a little bit of why I think the women's division has been a little slow going to start.
It makes a lot of sense. Um, well, let's, let's jump into full gear with start of the matches. Uh, the, the, the, the buy-in match, so to speak, which now they switched to only one buy-in match now. They're only going to do one match prior to the official start of the show, uh, from now on.
And they're also shortened the length of the total show. They're not, they, from four hours to three and a half. Uh, I think there's overrun because of the lunatic ending of full gear, but it still was closer to three and a half hours versus four hours, which I think is largely good. Um, but Britt Baker and, uh, be priestly was the, the buy-in match, which Britt Baker apparently wrestled with the flu.
I heard that as well. Um, you really couldn't tell. She is, she's a trooper. She wants to play through the pain.
These, it's a whole business is all about playing through the pain, I guess. But I don't know, I, I, I really like this rivalry. I hope that they have more matches and this doesn't just sort of the blow off. And this is the end of it.
Cause I kind of think that Britt as a baby face, she's just generic. She doesn't have the charisma of, she's, she's not quite there. I think she needs to, I think she needs to turn heel. Honestly, it makes sense, it makes more sense for her as a character to be.
She won her finishes as a submission. As submission finishers are generally heel things. And it's, she's a dentist. No one likes the dentist.
Everyone hates the dentist. When I was watching it yesterday, I was with my friend, uh, uh, Mike Aberley, he said the same thing. Why isn't she a heel? He's not really the huge wrestling guy, but he asked the same question and went, I don't know.
I don't know. I think I had an answer for you. She, she's, it's going to be what it's going to be. Um, I think the match was fine.
It was, yeah, it was not really the standout. I think, I think, I think Brit's fine. She's not, she's not a standout in anything. I think, uh, it basically has a lot of potential.
I think she's still getting there. I think she goes for a lot of big things. And sometimes those things land and work really well. And sometimes, you know, she swings hard and misses, but I would prefer that honestly, I'm, I'm, I'm more for people who are trying to do big things and then just like being generic, whatever.
What do you think I'm going to say? It's not really a business suited to, um, well, safety, playing it safe in any way. No, I was going to ask how you feel about the post match, uh, Brandy and awesome con coming out now that they're spooky and cutting off people's hair. I didn't see a post match yet.
Um, at the end of the thing, Oh, you mean after this match, somebody's not thought you meant at the end of the paper. You're like, no, no, no, no, no, no. After this match, Brandy. And when awesome con came out in horrendous, her and her rent fair cost.
Um, I, I, this is the most lucha underground bullshit that I, like I can't believe they went so, so lucha underground with this, but I really kind of like it. It's weird and like, I don't know, like I, I, I, I applaud people for doing weird stupid shit in a wrestling show. So God bless them. This is, this, this is no worse than the fucking magic rock that, and the, the, the licking people from lucha underground and put it right on par with it.
I can't believe she actually cut her fucking hair. It's probably in my mid extensions or something. It's not who knows who knows. Oh, God, I just, sorry, but I have the matches playing while I'm talking to you.
And Nick Jackson just kicks that pole again. Well, I, that's, we're, we're getting ahead of ourselves. We're a little bit, I mean, we're about to wrap up this match anyway, but I, I do, like, I think I like adding a one extra thing. I think that's what the one thing that was missing with, I mean, awesome con can certainly work as just the veteran, the monster veteran of the division and B Brandy's enforcer.
Like that can work, but I like that they added one extra layer on top of it, of the cutting pair of that weird, like the, a little bit of a spooky weird flavor to it. It makes a little bit of fear, which I like. And I think this is my inclination is this is, this is, this is a long gameplay to turn Nyla face eventually, not anytime soon, but I think they're going to eventually turn Nyla face because she'll be the face, the face monster, right, which I, it's probably a good in the long game as well. I don't hate that.
I mean, I definitely don't want to root against Nyla. No, I think, you know, I think that you have there clearly the two, you know, the, the, the powerhouses of the division in that's, that's filled with tiny, tiny people, the Rios. Are you, I'm going to say, are you telling me that Rios not a monster deal? No, not, not really, but I, I think, I, I, that's my inclination to think that this, that's a long game of this because I feel like awesome con could eventually be a champion.
But I think this, everything was fine and interesting. And like, that's the thing I can say about all these matches, even the matches I worked, I'm not super, you know, big on them. Like there's interesting things happen in them and that, that portent for stories in the future. The, the, the proper opener of the show, Santana Ortiz, proud, proud and powerful.
It's not a bad name. It's all worse. It could be where I sold it. Like all their promos walking around New York and screaming in the subway.
I liked it. They sure played it too many times, but I, I, I think they, they, they sold the name. It's, it's fine. Versus the, the young bucks, as you just mentioned, this is the Nick Jackson smashing his leg to pieces.
Nick's leg selling match. That's basically the match was, it was, you know, the, the, this is, this is the opening match in the inner circle elite rivalry that is certainly not over yet. It's just starting and it was, you know, it was a good match. I don't know what else to describe.
You know, these guys are all very good wrestlers, all very good tag team wrestlers. It was, it was good. And I, I think I liked, I liked the box losing. Yeah, it, it makes sense.
In this moment, it is a little hard because we've been rooting for all the elite for so long, but it, it just makes too much sense. You want to establish this playing field of like all these top guys. I don't know. It is very kind of new Japan, you know, not, not quite everyone is going to be, people are going to be trading wins and losses.
And you want to, the feel of like, oh, well, yeah, he lost, but he lost one of the best in the world. So he's, he's still one of the best in the world. Yeah. And, and it's just starting to, you know, literally, it's like, this is six weeks of television and, you know, their second, third, proper paper, you know, it's not like, I think there is, there's two minds about the Young Bucks losing so much so lately, because they lost private party as well.
But it's, it's one, it's like, well, they are the, among the hardcore fans of AEW, the Young Bucks are eternally popular. Young Bucks lose a hundred times a row. I'm not going to stop caring about the Young Bucks. I, I will still love them.
And, but then there's also people like, what about the people to start watching television? With AEW. They've only seen the television and maybe one or two paper views. They don't get, they don't have the, you know, the ears of watching the box wrestle and win most of the time to have that cache build up in their minds.
But I don't know, I feel like the quality, how good the Young Bucks are is kind of apparent. They're, it's, you just watch them wrestle and you go, Oh, these guys are very good. Even if they lost, they're still really, really good. But like, the ladder match was a loser, bros.
I mean, I go, Oh, well, I both, these teams are incredible. I who cares if one team lost or whatever. But what do you think about the, the rock and roll express post match, post match appearance and beat down of the, of the probably powerful and saving of our effort, I matter. I thought it was cute.
It made me happy. It was goofy old man. I love they took that fucking bomb. I mean, I don't, I don't particularly love old men taking bumps and things.
But like I did, it did impress me a lot. And it's one of those things that you, you really don't expect an old man to take a bump like that. 60, 63 year old Ricky Morton to do a suicide dive. Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm sitting there thinking like really applauding, like, was it Sammy and Santana that caught him?
Who was it that caught him? I don't remember. I do not know. It's irrelevant.
But they did a really good job of, of, of catching him because I don't think that old man needs to hit that concrete. No, probably not. I saw some back and forth. Some people are like, this is awesome.
The rock and roll express these old dudes doing stuff. People are like, I don't like that. They got their heat back. They should have stayed beat up from the power bomb from the week or two prior.
I don't, I thought it was fine. I think it's a way to help them safe. Have the elite save a little bit of faces that they are, you know, that they might have lost, but they haven't, you know, this is a battle, not a war. I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of that.
And I think in the show in general, it's like, this is not the ending of any of this. I think this is just another chapter and stuff. It's like to have the rock and roll express show up and get, take a bump like that and not, you know, have them show up in the crowd the way they do and then do that. I mean, it seems dumb to even bring them out and involve them in the story and not get some closure to it.
So that was great. That was tremendous. The next match, hangman page versus pack. Hangman getting the win.
A little bit of a surprise for me. I kind of, I have expected the pack to pull this one out, but this was a very, very good match. I liked it a lot. It's, it's, these, this match had a little bit of, this is very much a hangman getting back to his winning way is kind of thing.
We talked about that. I think the lesson reported because Paige at that time had lost and had lost a, you know, he looked a little bit aimless. And I think he added, there's some talk about him not connecting to the crowd as much as they wanted him to, but I think it feels like at this point, he's absolutely, he's connected. The cowboy shit line got him over with the, the, the general crowds of a w because they're chaining cowboy shit as, as the match goes on.
And then he gets the big win over pack of packets himself in and winning streak lately. But I thought this match was very good. It was a little bit of a slower pace after that young bucks match, which is hard. That was a hard position they were put in, but both those guys are so good at, uh, so good at wrestling that it didn't really matter.
No, they're, they're, they're good together. I could, I mean, I'm not going to hate pack beefing with anybody. He's just a bastard. You put him, he's fucking great.
He's so goofy and charismatic and him just coming in and being an asshole. It works with everyone. Keep, keep doing it. I, I, I don't get tired of it.
I, I think maybe they do kind of need to pick, but it is, it's still interesting. Like it was interesting seeing him beef with Moxelie because it's just like, what are these guys going to do together? It's just, it's, it's, it's like two, two universes colliding. It's just so weird.
And it's that predictably great. Um, and I think that's another statement about, you know, the things are connected. These are not, this is not, nothing is happening in a vacuum. When, you know, when, when hangman is fighting the pack, pack and also be angry at Moxelie for a different reason.
It doesn't, he doesn't have to be only feuding with hangman. Everything can be connected because all these wrestlers are wrestling in a company with each other. It is not, you know, feuds are largely centered, but we see, we've seen a, w kind of, like you mentioned, new Japan, they've, you know, we have rough factions forming in a lot of places, and I assume that's going to continue to a certain extent among their regulars. And that's, it's, it's, I really like it when we see if someone is getting jumped by someone, other people run in.
They have friends, they have allies. They're not, this is not just happening in a vacuum. You know, they like people have, even the inner circle, like they kind of joke about it, but those guys are also tight with each other. They also are, you know, they have Chris Jericho kissing Sammy Guevara, but it's, it's like, they played as a joke.
It was, it is funny. But it's, it was, it was just thinking about it makes me smile. But there's also, but you can feel those guys also have connections that they are when they're, they're in the, they're in the trenches with each other. You wouldn't, you couldn't, I mean, I would have never thought that like, they would have such good, like chemistry together.
But it's, I don't know, it didn't take too much convincing. And I'm like, this feels so right and so natural. I don't know. They're, they're fucking gifted.
I'm curious. So what happens? I'm curious. What's next for page and pack pages when that pro that puts him in contention for another championship match, certainly.
I think he was ranked number three on their little list behind Cody and pack and then he'd be pack and Cody lost. So that puts him in number one, if we're going to keep up, if they're going to, if they're going to keep kayfabe with their power rankings. I'm sure they, I'm sure they will. I mean, or page could lose three matches in a row.
And then suddenly he's dropped down at the bottom list again. Next match, Sean Spears and Joey Janela. This match happened because Janela was forced to eat a cigarette, a lit cigarette, basically from Sean Spears and Tully. I think this is probably the weakest match on the card.
Maybe or tied with the Brit via the match. It wasn't bad. I think I had some interesting spots in there. We see Sean Spears get his win against Janela.
Sean Spears has a no garbage wrestling t-shirt now that got torn to pieces. By Joey Janela's Hulk-like strength. I will say this about Janela. He has worked hard to get himself in better shape.
He's, I think Janela's, I think he's wonderful. He's very good. He really is, I think that, I think that him being, because it seems like these younger guys, the Darby Allen and, and, and Joey, that they're men, like, I feel like that match with him and Kenny in my head can. And I'm really seeing that they're mentoring him and they're, they're going to be a fucking top guy, like, not just let me jump off of a fucking crazy ass building and slice my hand open and break my back, but, like, actually become a great wrestler.
And I don't know. It, it might be me wishing things on to what's not there, but it, it feels like that's what they're starting to tell here. And I'm really excited for it. I mean, it's a clash of styles in this match because like Sean, Sean has become basically the, in a typical old, because of Tully, I think the choice of having Tully as his manager makes kind of telegraphs a little bit, but Sean Spears is absolutely becoming like an old NWA type heel, or he is a shit heel behind us.
Does anything he came behind the refs back? You know, we'll use weapons, we'll tie Janelle's hair to the corner, whatever, whatever, do some brutal spike power drivers, et cetera, et cetera. When, when Janelle pulled his hair and we got out of that, and he left hair behind, and then Jim Ross said, oh, there's just some DNA. That's, that's just like the most, like, I was like, did my dad just say that?
I couldn't believe it. We're going to talk about the announcing a certain point. Uh, but this match was fine. You know, I think it was fine.
It wasn't, it wasn't like amazing or anything, but I think both these guys, like, I, I don't, I, I, I think I've learned my lesson finally, because it's the last time I'm going to do it. Like, I was on the, the square, squared circle live thread for this, which they're always really negative. It doesn't matter what they are. It can be anything.
And it's always going to be negative, even if the show is great. And I just, I, these people are like, Oh, Sean Spears was so boring. Who cares about Joey, you know, I'm like, guys, not every match is going to be the main event. You know, some matches are like, Hey, he's mid car guys fighting for what they can get.
You know, and this story is like generally trying to be a real wrestler, not being a garbage wrestler, as I've said. And it's John Spears trying to get, you know, trying to prove that he's not that, you know, the good hand that Cody called him. He's trying to win that, get those wins back with telly on his side. And like, that's all it is.
It's not complicated. And it's not the most exciting thing, but you can't expect everything from every match. And this says, this had a little bit, like this is, you know, there's a lot of these matches here, some similarities. And then each match had its own little unique thing going on, which I think is another strength that we've talked about before.
Reach match appealed to something slightly different. Tag team match, which is the definition of this match was a giant cluster flick, which is I think fine. At a certain point, for me, you get six men in the ring. Yeah, it's just, it's always going to be stupid chaos.
And we were discussing that, Rick Knox is just the clusterfuck ref now. He gets to try and corral cats. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's all, look at the guys in this match.
It's like Lucia Bros private party. Seu, all these guys are going to do ridiculous things. They're going to do, you know, I, Phoenix, I sort of think I'd stop being surprised by what Ray Phoenix can do. I don't think it's ever, I don't think it's physically possible.
And yet every time I see him to the some combination of rope walks and rope jumps and diving from ridiculous angles and at the speed, he does it. It is unbelievable. Yeah, he keeps getting better somehow. And the charisma in the room, like private party is such a relative, like what?
Like six months ago, I had no idea who these guys were. Never. Now I'm like, Oh God, private party. Awesome.
I'm so excited to see private party. They're very confident. They're, I like they're gimmick. They're fun.
They're very fun. They're fun. They're fun. They're good wrestlers.
They're good tag team. It's really been like, I knew Lucia Bros. I knew SC already, but learning, you know, getting to know them kind of actually, that's like, that's what has happened over the past six weeks is like, I'm learning to know, I'm getting to know private party. And I'm like, Oh, these are, these guys are great.
It's not water. Eric, it's not water. It's not water. Oh, that is what he said, is what I said.
But S.E.U. retains, which I think is the, what I think that's a wise thing. And they don't pay in the Lucia Bros. They pin private party.
So protects the Lucia Bros a little bit. Right party is so young. So you can, you can deal with them taking a fall to S.E.U. But we got the return of the fallen angel Christopher Daniels dressed up as Pentagon in the aftermath, which I mean, I mean, I knew it was like, Oh, that's Chris for Daniel.
It's not like it was in a mystery who's behind the mask. But I like Christopher Daniels despite myself sometimes. Christopher Daniels is fun. He's he's a goober.
He is apparently he doesn't ever have to pee. What? So it was the Chris Van Vliet's interview with Scorpio Sky, not listening to the whole thing yet. It was probably my favorite moment in all of it when he talked about traveling with him and Kazarian and Christopher Daniels.
And he says that Chris is just something about Christopher Daniels, like metabolism or something that they're like, man, we're starving. We gotta go eat something like, okay, he doesn't he doesn't care. He just goes with him. He's like, we have to go, you know, in the airport, we have to piss.
Like, he doesn't, he's just like fucking goes all day at all night and doesn't get tired and doesn't need to use the bathroom. And I don't know, they spoke of him in like fucking awe. It was, it was, it was a nice moment. But Scorpio Sky is just the fucking future in general future world champion, Scorpio Sky.
I mean, there's, there's a lot of really tremendous people in AEW. And they're all working very hard to get the young talent over as well. And I think that Scorpio, he really is fucking amazing. He's absolutely, I don't know if he's going to win the title anytime soon, but he's absolutely going to challenge for it.
Because they've teased it a couple times, little tiny things here and there about him eventually challenging for that, for the Jericho title. And I am all on board for that. The match was good. It was a plus wreck match.
It was a lot of crazy stuff when, you know, and a lot of uneven action, but I don't, with a match with a six man tag match on his like, yeah, whatever. It's a lot of crazy. It's fine. The women's championship match next, Rio versus Emi Sakara.
I think this match was very good. Had a great finishing sequence. The last like three minutes of it was incredible. Yeah, it was absolutely just mind blowing.
I wish that they had used, and the promo video for it was very good. Really good at laying out the history between, like we had, you and I had that exact conversation when in that tag match, then the week in the Dynamite prior about, oh, these people, these two women must have wrestled each other a hundred times. And no, it wasn't a hundred times. It was 268 times, actually.
They wrestled each other. So that makes sense. Why they work so well together. And, you know, and Sakara is, is her teacher for a very long time.
And they, I think it was, it started a little bit slow. And, but then it built up into something and it was really, really good. And, you know, Rio's offense comes across more believable against Sakara, who's not, she's not like a massive person. She is still relatively small.
So when Rio hits, you know, three flying EZRO, like, okay, that'll do it. She can win with that. You know, I think it's one of the face three times when he's, that'll get her win. The suspension of disbelief is definitely a lot easier.
Yes, which I mean, I don't know if JR calling like that she weighs 80 pounds, soaking wet over and over yet is necessarily going to help, I think. But at a certain point, you do have to acknowledge the fact that she is a tiny woman. And you can't just ignore that, you know. So I understand why I still think that Rio should try and gain 10 pounds, but get over a hundred.
Yeah, probably. She probably should just eat some, like eat a big plate of lasagna before the match. I do think that, you know, some muscle and some fat on her would do her well. She takes them, they're a little harder.
And I think it would, I don't think it would hurt her, you know, her flexibility or her moves or any of that. It would, I think for me, it would be better. But she can, she's doing fine doing what she's doing. I just wish that every one of her matches, you said you prefer the Nyla match, which this is the, this is by far my favorite Rio match.
I like that. I think the crowd played a part in why I like the Nyla match more. They were, they were kind of, I mean, I like to think that AEW crowds would be a little bit more sophisticated. But at the end of the day, it's to two Japanese women in the United States.
It's a bunch of white people. And I think they are, they're going to be largely confused about what they're looking at. And there's not, they have been building story with these Joshi and they're doing a great job. But it's still, it's tough for people to connect to, I don't know, it's a truism, the world over.
It's why most Americans or British people go to Japan to be fucking heels and they're not going to, I don't know. I think it's, I think one of the crowd in the whole show seemed a little quiet. Some people say, there's people there and it said the crowd was playing loud. And that was an issue of miking it that they didn't like the crowd loud enough so that it seems like the crowd was quiet when they weren't.
But I think it did, I mean, I don't really, I try and judge crowds matches in a vacuum without how the announcing was or how the crowds were, but they do play a part, obviously. And I feel like when people are around you are excited, it's, you get caught up in that, it's just human nature. Yes. And I think I like the Nyla match one because I think I like the clear differential, like the clear Nyla is the powerhouse and Rio is the underdog.
And there was, I feel like there was, I don't know, that the way the crowd within this man at 20 minutes was, didn't really care. And suddenly within 20 minutes, they absolutely were invested in Rio and her victory. And like that, that did, usually it doesn't affect me that time it did, but this match was still very good. I wasn't really expecting anything else because these women have wrestled each other a lot, but that closing sequence was incredible.
I'm glad real, I'm, you know, I expect to reow to win. I wish there was more build to this. I wish they had spent a little bit more time building up to this over the few weeks instead of just a week. More would, you know, more instead of just be, I mean, like they had a sack or they featured her and the more matches coming up to it, I just wish that we had had more build about their relationship and we got to know how they knew each other for longer.
They're doing, they do things, they have done things. Like, I mean, when you think about everything, a double or nothing, and they're, they're taking that shortcut, like, okay, we already know this relationship. So let's just, we're already telling that story, but you know, it's like the brother versus brother angle. We already know the relationship of brother.
They really, I don't know, it's, it's shortcutty to do it the way that they've done it. But I guess there's only so much time. It does feel like, do you want to talk more about the, the, the women's league? Because it does, it does feel, it's not, it's not at the level of, it's not where it could be.
No, I mean, it's the weakest part of A.W. And I think, I don't think they would, I think one, the A.W.E. and Impact and any, like any number of other companies have signed so many of the women independent on the independent scene that there's just, there's not a lot to pick from. And so, they went, and then so, it's smartly, I think, they went to, well, let's get some Joshi, who are large, there's, there's so much depth there in Japanese women's wrestlers right now, that even if, you know, obviously, W.W.E.
took Oscar and, you know, and, and, I agree, we're all great. And they're not going to get my, Mayo, maybe, you know, Tana, who's currently the top Joshi in starting, but, and they're not going to, you know, they're not going to, you know, they're not going to, probably Michael, Michael, Sotomar is too old. She's probably not going to be willing to, to do anything at this point, but they went to the Joshi, but Cody, which I mentioned earlier, I mentioned this in his media call, where they've had, he acknowledged that, yeah, we've started pretty slow with the women's admission because they've had trouble getting visas for people, which I would assume that's why it took longer to get Karoshita over. It took time, to have more of the Joshi make their presence known, plus, I mean, be a priestly, it's not American, only braids, they had, you know, kind of Ray, but she quit.
I, and I think she was going to be a big focal point of the division. And it, it was, it was already there. You could really see it, and it, it really does feel like it derailed it, the story that was building. The combination of a lot of things.
I think they are slowly piecing this stuff together. Kenny's the guy behind the women's division. He's the one booking, you know, helping, you know, producing matches and booking the women's division largely. And I don't, he's like, you listen to him talk, he's like, yeah, my match is important.
I'm really concerned about the women's matches. He's like, he does not care about his own matches. More than he cares how the women's matches are going to go, because he's the one like kind of overseeing it all. I fully expect them to continue to build it, and it's just going to take some time.
It's not going to happen all overnight. But, you know, seeing what Austin Kong did, I think they have several wrestlers like Lake Nyla, like Rhett, who are still learning or are still developing their characters. And I think that was, that will settle into a good space. It'll just take some time.
I think Rio is a good, a good champion. I don't expect her to be champion forever, but I think she's a good dependable baby face. I am waiting until Austin Kong takes it from her, because I think that's the next story they tell. But I don't, I think, you know, there's obviously, I understand that there's, you can't, and they asked Cody and Brandy during Starcast during this weekend, like, if they could add one person, who would they add?
Anyone? If they're signed, any similar or not? Brandy said Alexa Bliss. Code, that's an interesting answer.
I mean, I think, despite what she's, she people love her. I think she's great. I think she's great. I think she's a great heel or face.
I think she's a really great, she's not the greatest wrestler, but her character work is as good as anyone. I think she's tremendous as a work as a, as a, with her character in promo. But Code, he said, Tessa Williams, her, which I feel like Tessa is the most obvious answer that there is. Yes.
And I think her, when her contract is up with Impact, there is, she is going to get paid. Someone is going to bear a lot of money. No, she's, she does, Tessa does exactly what she wants, and people fucking love her for it. She's basically the hottest wrestler.
Well, everyone is eyeball in her hard. She's the only question mark. I mean, she is apparently in love with being at Impact. She loves that she does basically exactly what she wants and they give it to her.
Mm hmm. I am. It's, it's more about when, hey, my contract's up. And then suddenly you have two companies, both of you and you offering her seven figures, you know, something she doesn't make say it impacts, honestly.
Impact's like a pair of seven figures. I know that they're not in that. That might be what she wants. It's, it's hard to say.
Everyone right now, Team Impact is putting over Impact pretty hard. They're all, well, they're all selling it hard. And then she, she might jump ship. It's hard to say.
My, I mean, my prediction is that she goes to, unless impact is to only sum up, bring up a lot of money, money is going to be the deciding. And I think, you know, WWE tours more than AEW, say AEW gives her the same amount of money and says, Oh yeah, you're absolutely the, you're immediately the focus of the women's division. You are immediately are challenging for a championship and or becoming champion. I don't know.
That's hard to turn down to me. WWE is so, so much. There's so many. So the roster so bloated right now.
Like I, if I'm an independent, I go, Oh, you're paying me on money. But what am I going to do to sit on my hands for six months? Or wrestle once in a while or go do a house show tour and wrestle on, you know, I don't know what you want. I still think, and I think that's actually like, considering how, how they have, they own have admitted how they've struggled with the women's division so far, both with women being available and their plans falling through and injuries.
I think the fact that we've still gotten such good matches and we're good enough stories with Rio and, you know, her various challenges so far, I think is a good sign because I've been quite happy with Rio as champion and with the matches she's put on. She's a, she's a great choice for it for sure. And then we got our technically the final official match of the night, which is the world championship match with Jericho and Cody, which God, the amount of things that happened in this match. It's a Cody's, Cody loves these, he loves overbooked NWA 18 things happen in the match.
We wrestle the entire time, but also my mom sitting at ringside and she slaps Jericho, also JK is there and he gets a couple of cheap shots in and then he gets thrown out. Also, I'm going to take a, I'm a face plan on the metal ramp and slice my head open and bleed all over the place. Also, MJF is going to be there. Also, there's three judges for, you know, just in case it goes to a tie, 60 minute to draw, like also all these things happen.
But still, this match was great. I was a little hesitant with the, the, which I told you while we were watching, still hesitant about the judges and I'm like, I don't want this to go 60 minutes. I don't want Chris Jericho and Cody to wrestle for 60 minutes at any ever again. I don't think they did go, like they slowed the pace down, which I think teased that a little bit.
But then at a certain point, you know, you're like, oh, this is not going to go 60 minutes. You look at how much times left in the pay per view and all that. I think the match itself is very good. I think there was multiple moments where the two of them were countering into various signatures and finishers, which were all very good and all had me believing that that if any one of those could, like when Cody hits the bionic elbow, great moment when, you know, when Jericho, you know, counter stuff into the walls, to the line timers.
All those are all great moments, but most people are not even talking about what happened during the match. They're mostly just talking about the ending of the match because it finally happened. They've been teasing it for, I think as soon as, as soon as MGF started being a friend of Cody, people are immediately like, okay, when is he turning? How long it takes?
But when, when does it happen? But MGF throws in the towel to quote unquote, save Cody, which I actually like, the idea that it popped into my mind, like five minutes before it happened. It was more than five minutes. It was, you were like halfway through the match when you texted it to me.
That's what they did. However, however, however, I was not, I was thinking he would actually do it just as a friend, and it would eventually lead to the heel turn later, which it did not. No, it happened right then. MGF serves first starts like, Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I apologize. And then Lobos Cody commits heel turn official full on you. He's, he's the first, I think I can't think of another situation when a heel has turned healer, like he, he was already a heel.
Now he's the most he'll like, I don't know if there's a more hated man in the company than MJF in this moment. Do you think it was the right time? No, I would really prefer it to have been drawn out and be even more vicious. Like, I, I feel like it could have been bigger.
But I mean, you know, you can make the argument that there's kind of no better moment than that. Right. At the end of that, he costs Cody the championship. Yeah.
And then even, and then confirms the fact that he did it on purpose. And that it is there. I, I probably, when I asked me that exact question before the match started, he's like, does he turn? And I say, not yet.
I don't think so. I really would have preferred. I would have preferred some more time. But maybe, you know, maybe the kind of things that we've been talking about, because it could be that he cozies up to Jericho, Jericho has, you know, in the, in his, in his scrum promos, just teasing that he might invite MJ after the inner circle.
And, you know, maybe he does a heel turn on Jericho and cost him the, or I don't know, maybe he challenges for Jericho. It's hard to say that it needs to, it needs to lead to MJF being a heel champion, because God, I want it so bad. I mean, I, I would say, yeah, not yet. But also, there's many times where you think, yeah, we were all been waiting for, oh, yeah, he's going to be, he's going to turn on Cody's going to turn on Cody.
They've been teasing it for a long time now, honestly. And eventually you get to the point where you get, when the will, they won't, that becomes tiresome. And it's already too late. You know, it's already like, well, they should have done that three months ago.
Why are they doing it now? They should have already had it. And people are just at a certain point you get to a point where you're always expecting it. Every single moment, you're like, come on, just do it already.
And I think if you get out ahead of it, you just have it. Oh, it happened. It meant something. And now we get full heel MJF, and he gets meaningful time.
He hasn't really had a lot of meaningful time on dynamite yet. He's, he's been kind of a co-star, he's supporting character to Cody. And he had a match with Brandik other that lasted five minutes. He hasn't had promo time, which is what he's amazing at.
And that's what we're gonna, I assume that is going to be a focal point of this dynamite. He's gonna cut the sick motherfucking promo on Wednesday. Yes, about how he's waited too long for all this and Cody or a fool and blah, but whatever. He's probably way better than what I'm gonna say, but he's, he's incredible.
He's young. And he's got a longer ahead of him. And he is now going to be another, they don't have, you know, who are the big heels they have? Of course, they have Jericho, and they have Inner Circle, and they have Pack, who's, you know, by himself.
But who else is there? Kipsabian? Yeah, he's, we didn't talk about the fucking promo that he did with Penelope Ford, right after the Joey Janelle match. Which, yeah, I, I'm fine with it together, you know, having Kip and Penelope Ford together.
Well, I mean, you, I mean, you know, that they're in real life together. Yes, I know. Well, I mean, Joey Janelle, that was a girlfriend. He broke up.
Well, she went straight to Kipsabian. They fucking like, and now this is part of the show. She did not go straight to Kipsabian. She had dated other people in between.
Okay, I didn't. Joey Janelle said that himself. This is, I don't, I, yes, they are playing, oh, it's real life kind of story, but I fully believe they just, they just went like, well, hey, Joey, you get, do you want to have a feud with Kipsabian? Penelope Ford will be a part of it, and we're going to play into the real life stuff.
He's like, that's fine. I don't, wrestlers are way less precious about the stuff than we are, I think, largely bringing real life stuff into it. I think that's the beauty of professional wrestling sometimes is the kind of mixture of reality and kayfave and all that. I think Kipsabian is a good promo.
I don't know about, I don't know that's super bad as like, we'll see what's, saying the word super bad doesn't really mean anything yet. I think you need a little bit, again, he needs more time. I'm going to give it a benefit of doubt because they've done a good job with most of these fun. Like, if you, I mean, I knew Darby Allen prior, I could have told you like three years ago that Darby Allen given an opportunity could be a superstar because he always had that charisma to me.
But Kipsabian, I don't know Kipsabian, you know, I didn't know right at party. I didn't know a lot of these people and suddenly like, I love them. So, you know, I think like, he's a lot like Sam and Guevara that he needs the right context to work. Yes.
I mean, because Guevara made no, I mean, he was fine. He was a great worker and pretty, yeah, pretty charismatic, very funny. I mean, he had a lot of good things going for him, but it never really quite worked. And they give him the context of the inner circle and, you know, foil him against these other guys and put him next to Jericho.
And it's fucking amazing. Yeah, he's, and that's the other thing, like Sam and Guevara, I'm like, I was not, I'm like, I said, it's fine. He's not, but then suddenly he's with Jericho, Jericho calls him a Spanish God. And he's, and now he's, he's finally, he's finally no longer the generic ass best ever.
Yes. He's now Spanish God. And he's, I don't know, his, his shtick of, of being like, the friendly asshole never really did anything me prior, but then he, there was that one BT where he was talking to Cutler. And he's like, I never really saw your matches, but I didn't hear him.
And he's like, Hey, wait, remember this? And then he stands up on, he stands up on the chair and falls off and her holds his leg right for the color. Oh, man. I think that was, I think that BT is my favorite ever.
Just the amount of time, how much I laughed at it. I just, it was so good. But again, keeps saving his, I think he's very, he has the likes Amy Guevara, he has all the stuff you need. He just has to put it together in the right way.
I think they're going to try and find that. I have every faith that they can based on how great inner circle has worked out. Yes. They, they, so we, and MJ, I've got thrown, got thrown, got so never be or thrown at him.
People are saying that was a plan that was not a real person. I do think it was a work. That's what people, people are saying that they found the person who did it. And it was not an actual and then yes, they had the, well, of course, other people, oh, the police took them out.
I'm like, well, the police would also take out it. If it was a plan, they'd also have the police, you know, that's sort of hard to get someone to put on a security uniform and escort them out. Yes, exactly. But I was super invested in everything.
Cody, MJF, Jericho, again, nice, you know, connecting things where MJF is not necessarily a member of the inner circle. He has his own things. He wants an inner circle might help him eventually, but also I would, he's not going to necessarily just invest in the inner circle either. But then I think Chris Jericho knows that he understands that MJF is not going to necessarily backstab him, given the chance.
Final match, technically. The lights out, own sanctioned match where none of this counts, Eric. Moxley Omega, and I would call it a match, really. It was a, it was as JR kind of was talking about.
It was a fight, really. It was, it was a, it was a messy brawl full of insanity. Just nonstop over and over and over and over where you're just fucking bananas. You're, I'm just like, well, what are they going to, what are they going to do?
What's, and you're like, it starts off pretty tame. I'm like, Oh, no. But the team stuff they started with was barbed wire bats. That was the stuff they started with.
And I'm like, Oh, yeah, that means they're going to do crazy your things. And that's the mouse trap board. The very clever Moxley chain wrestling Omega, which I, it took me a while to pick up on that gel. Yeah.
They didn't have a chain, didn't they? They used the gold chain chain wrestle. What are you going to do? Chain wrestle me?
I guess so I feel like they, they need to actually make that joke because they, they even like, they played that sound bite, even in the promo, they played that sound bite twice every time they played that, that video. And they played that video like three times before the fucking pay-per-view open seat. It was just, it was a bit much, it was a bit much, guys. I was not watching all that.
So I didn't really, and I generally avoid it. They never stop playing it. And look at my phone. I do that part like, just randomly between matches.
I mute the television. I don't want to, because I get, you get bombarded with all that stuff. It kind of makes me not appreciate the matches as much. So I just kind of need the television.
And then as soon as I see a match starting, I put turn the sound back on. So I don't get just bombarded with stories. I've already seen the video score three or four times. I think this was great.
I wouldn't call it a great match. I did not think that that's what your opinion would be. It's not a great match. It's a great fight.
But I still like, I still love Moxley Omega. I just wish that this wasn't how we were getting it. I mean, they're going to wrestle again and they're going to wrestle a normal match. Absolutely.
That's the whole, that's the whole, and that's why I like this so much. This is not the end of this. This is the beginning. These guys are, they know who these two guys are.
They know that Kenny Omega and John Moxley are both incredible, which they are. This match only proved that even more than I thought prior. Like I didn't know Kenny, Kenny's not really ever done death matches. Like he done silly stuff in DDT that involved weapons, but nothing with barbed wire and mouse traps and broken glass and all that stuff.
Ice picks. The fucking ice pick shit made me uncomfortable as hell. I mean, it's supposed to. Yeah.
No, I know. I'm not saying they shouldn't have done it. I'm just saying that it might be too effective. But I mean, they're going to wrestle each other.
Like that's, that's the thing that I like about this match is very much it's they said, Oh, Moxley, yeah, you got an unsection match against Omega giving him what they think he wants. But he doesn't want an unsection match. He wants a regular match because he knows he's good at death match bullshit. He's know he knows he's the best at inflicting violence on people.
Like that's his whole gimmick. And that's why he won because as good as Kenny is, Kenny, Kenny is the best wrestler. This wasn't a wrestling match. I'm sure they get wrestling moves in it, but they also, he also dragged people through broken glass.
I mean, did two plexes into barbed wire hammocks? I don't know what it's to call it a barbed wire trampoline. Yeah, barbed wire trampoline. Like that's, that's our wrestling match anymore.
So it proves that Moxley is the best at inflicting violence. And and Kenny's not going to be able to keep compete with that. But Moxley still wants, you know, even in the promo, Moxley is like, well, yeah, I'm like, Hey, fine, you put me in this is what you're going to get. You're going to get me murdering Kenny Omega.
And any amount of punishment I take, it doesn't matter. I can take anything because I've gotten way worse than this. And that's fair. He's gotten way worse in death matches back of the day than anything that happened in this match.
There are still several moments in this where I was like, Oh, no, don't do that. It was it was very evocative, let's say. Yeah, the barbed wire net, the broken glass, the mouse traps, even I was it's the mouse traps of those things where I handled mass traps before. I know how much they can hurt.
And then, you know, it's the same thing as the paper cut, you know, like, I know what those that is. I've never been powerbombed into broken glass before, but I know what a mouse trap does. I can I can guarantee you that the the fucking broken glass is gimmicked and the fucking like the barbed wire hammock. I mean, it has it has barbs on it, but they're not they're not that they did not look that sharp.
I mean, I don't think you they need to kill themselves. So it's fine that they did that shit. But you know, I mean, this is no way that they there was real fucking broken glass. Well, I mean, I don't care.
I'm totally fine with it being not for sugar glass or whatever it was. I'm totally okay with that. I'm totally okay with it. I'm keeping the barbed wire so that it cuts them a little, but it doesn't like bring them apart.