Yes, it is John Pollock and Wei Ting with you for Rewind a Dynamite, the April 1st edition. Wei, what day? do i detest the most every year it is april fool's day did you get hit with lunch actually no and it was a it was a rather calm one but it's not like it did not exist out there i find um older fighters are probably the worst because they're just first of all they have no senses of humor to begin with like this is basically amateur comedian day and it's got you know like just stupid fight announcements uh i failed a steroid test i was just like my eyes just rolled continually today but actually in wrestling and actually i didn't think it was too bad today i didn't even see anything that was um
all that egregious but it's always an annoying day that's the point it's a really annoying day well like in the age of like i guess like ai and shit like i mean everything is plausible and therefore nothing is really all that funny anymore every day is april fool's day to a degree yeah you have to be able to decipher what's real what's not and welcome welcome to our messed up media ecosystem but wait sometimes people want to go back to a simpler time a simpler time in 2018 when they just wanted to enjoy spring break and what better place than the ponchartane convention center in kenner louisiana where waiting and i found ourselves on april the 6th 2018 for joey janela's spring break too and what what better endorsement for this event than a video of great sasuke doing karaoke that waiting had preserved all these years later with audio that i must say i commended way on his audio was better than this live than this stream that we watch this show on all these years later it sounded clearer on your phone i didn't realize that i had recorded this until like we were mid recording and i just decided to like you know follow my own social media archives just to kind of see what what was there and thankfully i did have how could i have not captured this i mean i am a you know a videographer in a past life and i knew i was witnessing a very special moment here great sasuke belting out the second verse of it's my life
This is also a four in the morning, by the way. Honestly, like I love going back to rewatch the show. I had a great time reviewing the show. Like I didn't go into this one necessarily thinking, you know, it was in the grand scheme of things. It's a fairly recent show, but what a different era this was of just independent wrestling. And the fact that we were there, this was, you know, it's a pretty.
significant period, I think, in our small developments in post-wrestling as well. And we ended up just chatting for like two and a half hours about this show. The good and the bad that is attached to this show. Obviously, when you look at some of the figures that are associated with this show, it is not all positive memories, but I think we covered it all. And this was a really interesting, intriguing show to go back to 2018 and give you a snapshot of what the independent boom was like at this period. In particular, like my experience in recounting how I was feeling watching that clusterfuck battle royal at like 2.30 in the morning.
I mean, it really was, in hindsight, an incredibly, like, unique experience watching a professional wrestling event that I don't think I will ever engage with again because, you know, you kind of have to have been there. Like, even future editions of The Clusterfuck now seem to take place the day after. So you're not really in this sort of, like, hallucinogenic phase that I feel like we were all in at about that time in 2018. So that is up now for all Post Wrestling Cafe members with the 203rd edition of Rewind Away. And we are now kicking off WrestleMania month.
on the cafe all roads lead to las vegas nevada except our roads we're staying right in these seats but we are going to be joining you every single day beginning monday april the 13th we're going live during wrestlemania week we're going to go daily 1 p.m eastern time monday through saturday and then doing shows after both nights of wrestlemania we have already uh started to piece together who's going to be joining us we've got some some interesting theme shows scheduled so it all begins we're going to do uh live and free for everybody on the monday at one eastern The rest of the week, you want to join us daily, you will have to be a Post Wrestling Cafe member. So it's a great month to jump on board. As you can see here, beyond WrestleMania week, we're also offering you Sakura Genesis recap this weekend. TNA Rebellion is going to be covered the following weekend. We've got Daredevil Born Again with Rich Van and WH Park and a Patron's Pick edition of Rewind Away coming up at the end of the month. Voting is now open at postwrestlingcafe.com where you get to choose what we review on the next Rewind Away.
Yeah, the selections, I'm actually, like, really interested in seeing what people choose because we have, like, four, I would say, very strong choices and a lot of debate about what people want. Do you want the good WCW show, the really bad WCW show, or a Ring of Honor show from 2004, or Louis LaRue's Inside the Manosphere? All incredible options, and I really wouldn't be able to complain no matter what people pick. It is neck and neck, and so it is very close right now. Your vote will count. I promise, Wei, you did not realize that the ROH show you picked is...
Quite the era of Ring of Honor. This is the first post Rob Weinstein show for ROH. And I was sent 90 pages of notes in case this one prevails in the vote. So we will see if that one wins or not. But you can go vote at postwrestlingcafe.com now and pick what we are going to be reviewing. We're really looking forward to WrestleMania week. And we are doing a special promotion this month. New subscribers that sign up for the cafe get 50% off for their first month. So it's a great way to sample what we are doing 24-7 at the cafe. Your best place to support postwrestling. Support all the staff here at Postwrestling. And we're going to be putting out a lot over the next month.
That's 50% off for the entire month, which means everything we just announced can be yours for 50%. So this is an offer only for new members. And it's just our way of, again, being incredibly proud of what we are about to present to all of you and wanting as many people to sample it as possible in the hopes that you guys might stick around for the rest of the year. And judging by the people that have been around for many years now in the Post Wrestling Cafe, I would say, mostly I would say people are quite satisfied with everything that they've received. We have very low churn. Yeah. So all that can be yours, postwrestlingcafe.com tonight.
We are heading to the Canada Life Center in Winnipeg, Manitoba. WrestleTix last number was 4,620. So the last time they were at this venue in Winnipeg was not quite two years ago, May 1st, 2024. The WrestleTix number was 5,337. However, this is one of the shows that we did get Polestar data for. Are you ready for the Polestar numbers from 2024? They reported 4,109 tickets sold and a gate of just over $212,000, I believe, US. So this did better than that? It did better.
Again, if we're comparing WrestleTix to WrestleTix, then they're down from the last time. If we're comparing this WrestleTix number to Polestar, they're above their last trip there. There's quite the variance from 2024. So you can interpret this however you want if you are so inclined. Okay. Yes. I just report the numbers. Wait, I can't break them down any further. That's for the comment section to do. Yes. That's right. So into Dynamite we go. And I guess one of the...
central figures uh discussed throughout the day was one chris jericho and can't say that this return completely came out of left field there were at least like hints uh toward this but in fact you tuned in and there's tony shivani in the center of the ring ready for the contract signing and as he is teeing the segment up he's being interrupted by pyro going off and he's getting uh interrupted by this and has to reset and then finally after the last set of pyro goes off judas begins and out comes chris jericho for the first time on aew programming in nearly a year and he comes out The whole crowd is singing. We cut to Ted Irvin, his father, just belting this song out. And Jericho is out. He proceeds to enter the ring.
And he spent a lot of time just rallying this crowd, getting them to go. I mean, this was kind of him and his Hulk Hoganist, just going and going. And it kind of felt like this crowd, like they were ready for the segment to start at this point. And Jericho was just wanting this crowd to respond as loud as possible. What did you think of just the response here that Jericho got? Well, I have to say the whole thing was incredibly weird.
starting with the pyro or really from start to finish because like um what are we supposed to take from assuming the pyro interruption is all part of the whole presentation like what what's this supposed to mean like did jericho fuck up the pyro intentionally what what what is that supposed to be i mean odds are i mean they had some idea but it made no sense i mean it's possible this thing like i don't know what the point of this would have been like why wouldn't it just be all of a sudden tony shivani's talking and then pyro goes off and his music plays i felt like it could have been an actual fuck up it's possible i don't know i don't know what the answer is so that was really strange jericho comes out and you know okay yeah like winnipeg pops or judas like of course um then the music dies down and then like there's there's there's a there's a positive reaction i would deem this but like i wouldn't say it was deafening at least it was not deafening to the extent like let's let's compare this if uh And granted, we're talking about 4,000-ish people in a venue that holds over 16,000. So you do have that. But if we're comparing this to a big return, a big debut... But 4,000 size arenas for AW have just sounded great. Now, what is the capacity of this place? I just said over 16,000. So you had that. This probably would have had a totally different dynamic. But Winnipeg, to my understanding, it doesn't have a venue that would be ideal for them. They probably shouldn't be running 16,000-seat arenas, but that's kind of your option if you're going to Winnipeg.
TV and everything. Yes, understood. Yeah, so, like, the music dies down. Crowd, like, responds well. But then, like, it felt as if Jericho was almost, like, trying to, like, encourage a louder reaction because he wasn't satisfied. Oh, he was, like, he was cheerleading the crowd here. But it came across like he was begging for a bigger reaction. And at that point, it almost signals that this is not a strong enough reaction, you know, by his own standards and maybe to our ears as well. And he just kept, like, encouraging and encouraging and encouraging it. And it didn't really ever come. So the result of this felt like it was not necessarily flat, but flatter than perhaps what...
was intended and knowing this is Chris Jericho I do have to consider like how much of all of this is intentional especially if like he intends on coming back as a heel I'm sure he's not he's well aware of maybe like audience um sort of like demand for him or lack thereof you know with an AEW and so would this have been some intentional way of creating a maybe a bit more of a heel dynamic to the return I don't know but I'm left with more questions than I would say excitement you know for the return coming off this verse Yeah. I just think it was a crowd that was, you know, it was like, it was not like he didn't get like a very good response coming out. Like you would think so. It's like, it's his hometown. It's been a year since he's been there. It's a big surprise, but it just felt like it was by prolonging it. You just saw like the fade out extend and extend. And then finally he just says, um, he's home and that's it.
And he leaves and that, and that was it. That was the only period we saw Jericho. He later posted a video that he was recording, just announcing in 10 minutes, I'm making my big return. And he said more in this video in his car than he did out here in front of the ring. But you know, certainly what did he say? All he said was he was recording himself like 10 minutes before the show was to start and saying, I'm about to make my return. And then he posted it after the segment. And like, he just said, it's going to be magic or it's going to be something. Okay. So yeah, I would say for those people that are critical of Chris Jericho in AW, I don't know if this would have been a segment that would have changed your mind. We didn't really get anything.
to come out of this we don't know who he'd be it was just jericho is back that's that's the story jericho is back and um so but i would also say even if you were welcoming welcoming him back it didn't necessarily give you a whole lot to be excited over because it really was just like okay he's back now let's see next week what he's got but he does look in incredible shape yeah he certainly does um you know he's you know he had the abs here he was you know he looked he looks in good shape um i guess your question number one is that i wonder how much this guy made over the last year well yeah what's it what's his downside I would imagine he is like, it's quite possible. He is the highest paid guy in AEW and you just sat him for a year and now he is back. Um, you know, I can see there's going to be naturally, I think there are going to be the people that were tired of Jericho to begin with that are going to feel like this is, you know, one thing that we have talked about consistently was like this show in the absence of Christian, the absence of Copeland and Jericho and Jeff Jarrett being more de-emphasized, like the show had a much more youthful feel, but this is a year where.
You are trying to sell tickets to Wembley stadium next year is the end of their TV deal. And Jericho does hold a lot of weight in terms of like names that you do have. Like, this is not someone like I can understand that there's some fatigue on Chris Jericho, but I can also see a hell of an argument that you don't want to just be handing this guy over. And if you're Chris Jericho as well, like one, whenever the deal is up with an AEW, like, like what is your best option at this point? You can, you can say like AEW, like it didn't seem like everything was in alignment that a WWE return was going to give him a big lift.
But it's a question mark of like how valued he'd be in WWE at this stage as well. So there's a lot of open-ended questions and how he's going to be utilized. But I would certainly imagine that if you are someone that thinks he's just going to come back and be in these like small, like he is going to be emphasized. I think his, and they are like, there's a reason he is back and they're going to want to utilize him to a huge degree this year. So I guess my question would be, is this part of his existing contract this particular moment? Or would he have come to a new commitment with Tony Khan that would have, you know, prompted Tony to want to put him back onto television?
It's a great question because, you know, from our understanding was that there was time to, like, originally when he signed that last deal, Variety had reported that it ran through the end of 2025. And then it was reported that time got tacked onto that deal. To your point, if this guy's coming back and we've only got X amount of, like, let's just throw out a number, like six months. Yeah, I, like, what good does that do us to put him back here for six months if there's that thought that... I would argue a lot of good, but if we're going by Tony Khan's philosophy of not featuring guys, not wanting to provide airtime for people that are just going to end up with a competition, this wouldn't necessarily align with that.
It very much goes against Tony Khan's MO of putting people on TV that you believe are going and the fact that he's going to get up a lot of television time and what are you going to have for it at the end of it? Now, maybe you could argue that, hey, if it's six months and he takes us through Wembley, we're going to play that card and then he moves on. He puts over, you know, like Kevin Knight, like whatever, you name it. So, yeah, we don't know the answer to that question. He could have a new deal. He could be on this existing one. We obviously don't know the answer to that question, but it's a really important question to ask for sure. Yeah. Another important question I think to ask is,
how will this chris jericho return differ from previous chris jericho returns or previous chris jericho incarnations many of which recently have i mean pretty much bombed you know we're talking about the learning tree which maybe had some you know glimmers of hope but ultimately i don't think did a whole lot for really the show itself nor like um you know like the members of the group uh we're talking about the jericho appreciation society um these are maybe considering how much this person is paid and his great successes prior in this company and beyond um probably not to the level that like you know you'd want out of chris jericho so The cornerstone is something that he's trademarked, right? You know, that kind of made some headlines. What would this be and can he afford another failure?
I think certainly that scrutiny is going to be there. I don't think he's coming back to be a mid-card player. You're either in or you're out on the Chris Jericho business. And if you're in, which tonight certainly shows that they are, you have to maximize that value. So whatever he is attached to, it's going to be under great scrutiny, I think, for all those reasons that you list. And I think some of the criticism is warranted. I think in other times, I think that he...
I think his head was always in the place of working with younger talent. He certainly lost like quite a lot to talent. I mean, it was sometimes the follow-up just was not there and that doesn't fall on him. I mean, it's, you know, he had that loss to Bandito and, you know, Bandito has had his own, you know, he's had injuries, he's had time missed and stuff like that. But, you know, remember when he lost that action to Andretti?
Well, that's that's an example like a Chris Jericho would be well within his rights to not want to go for something like that. And from all indications, like that was his idea. And they just like that's not on him for the follow up. I don't look at Action Andretti as a mark against him. Now, if you want to look at the Jericho Appreciation Society, like the learning tree, like that stuff was, you know, more more misses than hits that he had in that run. And I think you can associate some of that with him. But this is not a guy that at the end of the program was unwilling to put people over. But I think like there is he is he's a greatly maligned figure among certain members of your audience. But.
I think there's a lot of pressure right now when you want to move tickets for Wembley. That show almost needs to be a success for you, whatever that is. And at 21,000 tickets right now, they have a lot to move. And how many people do we have that could make a difference? And I think they look at Jericho as being one of those people that we have access to. And speaking about the possibility of Chris Jericho going to a WWE, I was looking at that with a lot of excitement. And I guess I asked myself why. What would be so different about him being in the WWE?
Something about it, though, just made me excited in the way that Cody going to WWE or Punk going to WWE was completely different. It's a natural new coat of paint that you get when you are gone for a long time from a company and come back. So if you're AEW and you're Tony Khan, how can you capture that feeling while keeping Chris Jericho within your own company so that you stand to benefit from that first coat of paint? Well, I would certainly want to ditch a lot of the... elements that were present the last like year to 18 months whether whether good or bad just change is good and jericho has been very like that has been a lot of his mindset is always changing things up um the problem was like he was going through a number of years i would say you know from the list onward through those first couple of years in aw where he was having a lot of hits and he was getting stuff over and he was you know it just felt like he had he believed he had the magic touch and then i think like there was a certain pushback towards that and some of his ideas were falling flat so i think you've had the year off um I can't imagine this is a guy that was just sitting back and not thinking about wrestling for a lot of time. And we're going to see what that collaborative process is and ultimately what Tony Khan's reasoning for having him here are. I would say if you just don't want a guy to go to WWE, I don't think that's enough that you just use a guy. I think if that was the case, I don't think you're bringing him back in a prominent spot. This would signal to me is that he's got an idea, probably a big idea, and they were able to come together and work this out.
Let's see. Yeah, it's a great question you raised about the contract status, for sure. Ospreay is in the back attacking Jon Moxley as the Deathriders pull him off and the officials have to intervene. MJF and Kenny Omega then come out for the contract signing. No physicality allowed. And they immediately signed the contract. I thought this was going to be the shortest contract signing of all time, but they all have to do their declarations. And Kenny tells Max how, I'm sure you've rehearsed all of this in front of a mirror. And he pokes fun at his hair plugs. And Max, you think you're the reason for the ratings and the people being here, but they're here to see the best wrestle. And he explains how he was on death's door. His family stood behind him and someone needs to strike MJF down and make sure he never is close to that belt again. And I'm the one to do it. MJF laughs this off.
at this idea that Kenny is 100% stating how his neck, shoulder, and knees are aging as fast as the bags of milk that you drink here in Canada. A real shot at our skim and homogenized options. Why do we have bags? I did not know that this was such a, like, that this was not just generally how milk was distributed, that bags are somewhat... different form of transportation. I guess cartons are the traditional method of how people... We do have cartons too, but like... We do, but bags are... I buy bags. If you're buying in bulk, you're probably buying bags of milk, right? Please, please. Of course. What did you type to... Milk bags is what I typed in. Google image search. But yeah, I don't know. I'm not a big fan. I like... I spill the shit all the time. Oh, it's annoying. It's annoying. You gotta like cut the side and then sometimes you don't make a good cut. Sometimes you make the whole too large.
You like, you know, smack the bottle into the fridge too hard and then it all just gets everywhere. I went through this yesterday. So point to MJF on this one. Then he insults Kota Ibushi, calling him Kenny's injury-prone boyfriend. And let's talk about the real thing that keeps you up at night, Kenny. The reason that you want this title.
Isn't it true you had a doctor's visit? And somehow Detective MJF here, really exposing our Canadian healthcare system by the ease at which MJF was able to procure this very, this like terminal, potential terminal diagnosis that Kenny's intestines could explode at any time, at any moment. He's a ticking time bomb and your life is on a winding clock and your disciples are going to learn that on April 12th, their God is a false idol and you would be better off dead. So now we have... I brought this story up before, but it harkened back to the soap opera passions, which a pro wrestling storyline should never harken back to. But there was a character who was, I can't remember the names, but he was dating this woman. And the woman started dating the guy's brother when the other brother was away. He comes home and they're going to tell him about their relationship. But he has this diagnosis that if he gets upset, it could kill him. Like he has a condition that it could kill him. So they cannot tell him about this relationship. And because he died if they told him. So now Kenny.
literally could drop dead at any moment throughout his AEW tenure. I hope this sets up like spot in the match. They're like, you know, like, okay, like we've had to do like five, you know, near false finishes. All right. He's about to hit him with a one-winged angel. And then, oh, he explodes. His intestines explode. MJF wins.
I don't know about this. I don't think so. This sounded so goofy. I mean, I feel like this was just a way to just raise the stakes and to tell us, like, why Omega suddenly has this urgency and that he likely will not have too many chances at this, and therefore he will be trying really hard to win the championship. Do you think that exact explanation couldn't be given that we know you've come back at a diminished state and that this diverticulitis gave you an understanding that you are mortal and you might not have as many matches left in you as you do now, and I know that you're not 100%. Like, that sounds a lot...
he has been saying that you know throughout the course of this return this kind of makes it sound a little bit more urgent yeah he could die at any second like i'm sorry that's a little extreme like we're watching this match waiting for like the death clock to tick um to zero so Out comes Speedball Mike Bailey for the biggest promo of the man's career. And he holds back Kenny, knowing that if Kenny touches him, he will lose this title match at Dynasty. And Speedball explains that you're scared. You just want Kenny to hit you so you can get out of this. Without Kenny, there is no AEW, and then there is no MJF. You be rolled up by the invisible man in some convention center in New Orleans without this man. And he says Kenny is a living legend and issues a challenge to MJF.
Now I've said it many times, is speedball ever going to win promo of the year? Far from it. But I thought that in this role, like I do feel this guy has made strides in his speaking, especially over this last month or so, really since getting together with Kevin Knight, but especially in these segments with Kenny Omega, where, you know, the guy has the conviction. It's just, he, he is overcoming like a very just Canadian delivery. And as I say, in the nicest way possible, like, like I would, if I ran into this man at a Tim Hortons, I'm sure we would have a wonderful conversation. And it's like, what a nice guy. But that's a very different thing than saying.
wow, you should have heard what this guy just said on television. I know what you mean. Yes. I mean, it feels like it is, you know, for a guy who is as amazing of a professional wrestler as he is, it seems like, you know, it's a very clear weakness of his. But I think like in giving him that pressure and giving him the ball over these past few weeks, I'm sure, you know, that's coupled with maybe some coaching has definitely resulted in some improvement. But he's also somebody who I think can get by at this point.
simply being average because in ring he is so exceptional and in aw he has already proven and he's already gotten over based off of his incredible in-ring ability that i feel like he can just get by now and just at least being average which i feel like he's proven to be i think that that aspect of just putting guys into these positions like What is going to grow you as a performer? Is it going to be, hey, you're an awful talker. We're never going to give you promos or we're throwing you out there in this main event segment in front of 4000 people in your home country. And you've got to you've got to set this main event up. It's like we have faith that you're going to pull this off. And I think that in the long run is how a performer does either rise to the occasion or not. But I think you do have to take that risk with people and put them in situations where they're going to give you their best effort possible rather than just have this mark of we're never enlisting you with that kind of responsibility of a talker.
If it's controlled, I agree. Like, I mean, you know, parenting is kind of like this where like you want to let your child maybe make mistakes and fall, but in a controlled way where you can maybe step in if something is necessary, right? Like to completely shield somebody away from what their weakness is kind of follows a philosophy of like, you know, emphasizing your strengths and de-emphasizing your weaknesses, which might not necessarily be conducive to growth, but at least, you know, I feel like with Bailey, they are letting him showcase his strengths on a weekly basis, but they're at least letting him do something substantial on the microphone every single week as well. so then omega gets the last word i too spoke to your doctor mjf so much about hippo laws it says yes my intestines aren't what they used to be but i'd rather be missing my intestines than missing my balls and mjf agrees to the match he is goaded into this and he is going to uh he calls canada dump and tonight you wrestle an american hero um you know the segment had its points but man there was a lot of um like this could have easily opened up an episode of smackdown as well
right the doctor stuff was a little much uh from all the kenny's even calling out the like ludicrousness of like yes uh turns out that these uh don't have too much privacy here when it comes to our medical conditions yeah i i i certainly was not as big of a fan of this week maybe some of that is influenced by maybe like the conversation we had last week where like i felt like i was almost defending kenny omega where i really just felt it was average this week i actively felt the segment was kind of cringeworthy with many of its lines In particular, like they're trying to frame this whole thing as like the god of pro wrestling versus the devil of pro wrestling. In my opinion, that is not really resonating for me as a bit of a motif because I think both guys are sort of lighthearted and a little too lighthearted, especially with lines like this towards the end of a segment to make me take anything like biblical, like seriously. Right. I also, yeah, I'm not connecting with the story in a way that I feel like I should be for something that's considered the main event. But it did its job in like, I guess, reinforcing Kenny's severity of his injuries.
So, to the death, they meet in Vancouver. And right then, we shuffle Omega into the trios match with Jack Perry and Brody King against The Demand, which was a tour de force here from Ricochet, who just came out of this. This guy was incredible in this match. I mean, several people had. This was an awesome, awesome match. Jack Perry gets pulled down. The rope gets pulled down. He crashes on the floor, and Toa runs him over with a clothesline. And this might have been as they go to picture-in-picture, but we got to see all of it. And he just looks into the camera. Cry me a frickin' river, Jack.
There was a great point brought up here, I think it was by Excalibur, that they announced MJF and Bayley is an Eliminator match, and that the last time MJF had an Eliminator match, he got smoked by Brody King, which was a nice, like, tie-in, both to this match and to give Bayley a flicker of a chance as well. So, GOA Double Team Parry, he's beaten down for quite some time, and then Omega gets the tag, and he's just going wild here, Snapdragon onto Toa. Somewhere on an episode of Collision, should the man's intestines hold up, Toa and Kenny Omega would have quite the contest, I think. Ricochet. then gets tagged, and he goes just insane here. He hits a springboard 450 onto Kenny. Tony Schiavone, the only man here who's concerned about Kenny's midsection, having heard this lethal diagnosis. And then it's Omega, who goes for the Terminator dive. It's stopped by Ricochet's springboard, and Ricochet just goes from that springboard to a Fosbury flop on Brody, right to the top for a 450 that misses. V-Trigger gets missed, and then he hits a Poison Rana to Kenny Omega. This was video game stuff from Ricochet, of how he just went from spot to spot to spot. Brody runs over GOA into the Time Keepers area, and as Ricochet has the national title, it gets ripped away from Jack Perry.
and Ricochet avoids the one-winged angel, and Kenny runs Ricochet, knocking Perry off the apron by mistake, but then connects with the V-Trigger and one-winged angel in 17 minutes of an... Just an awesome match. I just thought this was incredible. Kenny looked tremendous, but to me, Ricochet was the star of this match. Agreed. Totally. Yeah. It feels like, I mean, you know, over the past year, we've seen Ricochet develop into maybe more of a personality first type of performer. And I don't know if it's a result of like recent controversies or what, but like in this match, he was letting us know that he still is very much a wrestler first and we can see maybe, you know, the full scope of his abilities in a match like this where I totally agree. I thought he stood out amongst the pack, but it was another really fun multi-person AEW match involving really like take your pick of like any six guys on this roster, put them together and it resulted in like the pace and quality and just like atmosphere of these sort of like great TV matches. I thought Kenny looks great in there, especially with Ricochet. So I would love to see.
that singles match again really everybody looked great in this match is is there a weirder dichotomy than the company that in my estimation has like the best with respect to dragon gate like the best trios matches in the industry and yet a trios championship that just never feels of any real substance like it just like you could just mix and match and it just never fails on these shows generally yeah trios matches though i mean in this case certainly like you're using it to build to your other storylines they are sort of like a bit of a teaser for the singles match and as a result it's rare to get dedicated storylines just for trios championship this is part of the reason why i'm actually not a fan of a championship for the trios title i think a tournament every year should be cool like a king of trios once a year should be cool but championships to me always end up you know feeling not emphasized on the show Willow Nightingale's backstage. She is putting up her title on Collision for an open challenge, which is being taped tonight in Winnipeg. Spoilers are out there if people want to know. Do we have the name? Yeah. You can share the name. Okay. It's Hikaru Shida. Okay. So Hikaru Shida answers the challenge. All right. So that is, yeah, we will get to the whole Collision lineup because they pretty much announced the whole card later on. Renee is with Copeland and Christian who arrive. They're here to take out FTR and anyone who gets in our way, which prompts Christian to lift the chair to go take out Renee and is stopped by Copeland, who says Renee is not in our way. So they go into a room labeled FTR.
And inside are Trent Barretta and Rocky Romero, who explain that FTR are not here. They're at collision tomorrow night. Why they had their own dressing room, I can't answer that question. But they just destroyed these geeks and left them laying. And so, Copeland and Christian, having come all the way here to this venue, like, okay, we'll come back tomorrow night. And that was your Copeland and Christian appearance tonight. They were using this as a way to suggest that there's some sort of working relationship between the Don Callis family and FTR. Yeah. I will say, though, I mean, I can't help but feel bad for Roppongi Vice in a segment like this. And it feels very like...
kind of off-brand in my opinion well yes they are the people with chairs but to like storm into like locker rooms threatening people like wearing leather jackets with steel chairs and then like they bring like mob style beatdowns feels very off-brand and hard for me to buy from at this point a 52 year old edge and christian doing this um but i mean again did its job of telling you that they will be on the show tomorrow looking for a tr Pac against Will Ospreay, a rematch from All Out 2024. And Pac jumps Ospreay on the ramp and gives him a brain buster. And they're teasing that he won't be able to do the match, but he ignores the trainer's suggestion and delivers as he gets into the ring. And this became different from their last match because a lot of it was just neck selling by Will Ospreay. And Pac just using cravats and going after the neck.
Osprey caught him on a tornado attempt and hit his own brain buster and a 450, and then trying a moonsault, Pac does a moonsault off the apron into a DDT on the floor, regaining control, and tries a Poison Rana off the top turnbuckle, which Osprey lands on his feet and then gets caught with a Snap Rana. Pac hits a Tombstone to him and then a Black Arrow into the Brutalizer. Osprey tries to deadlift him up, but collapses. Pac is telling the ref he's out, and as he rolls Osprey away from the rope, Osprey counters and cradles him in 17 minutes and 16 seconds to pull out the win in a match that Pac took like 75% of before getting caught at the end. yeah so i mean um i've heard um you know um or Dave Meltzer say that Will Osprey has told him that he would be wrestling with a new style or different style now that he's back from neck surgery. And this certainly maybe felt that. And it told you that, you know, the style would be more emphasis on neck selling, which you would understand, you know, just given like they want to sell the severity of the neck injury. So I thought like that was it was refreshing to see, I suppose, like, you know, this version of a Will Osprey match instead of like maybe what we've come to expect from Will Osprey. But I thought there was still a lot of like good looking, flashy moves and speed, but more emphasis on, you know, like Will selling for his performance.
For me, like, I enjoyed the match very much. It was high-quality wrestling on free television, but it is very tough to buy Pac, you know, as great as he is. It's tough to buy him as any sort of contender at this point, when he's clearly just kind of, at this point, the gatekeeper of, like, you know, the Death Riders, you know, ahead of Jon Moxley. So I couldn't find that much drama watching the match itself. The result was certainly not something you would necessarily question, but I did enjoy the match as a technical performance.
and it does feel like a bit of a template for what you could expect expect like a expanded version to be with moxley like i don't see osprey doing a big aerial based type of match with moxley i think a lot of it's like it's gonna be a grudge match where it's gonna be moxley going after the neck yeah i will say though i almost feel like they're they're working it too much too early to the point where like it feels like a performance rather than something you could actually like believe in you know does that make sense what if john moxley it does uh what happens if john moxley learns that will osprey's neck could explode at any moment It could crumble into sand at any point.
okay the surgeon did a poor job and it's it's just hanging together by you know some cadavers in in his vertebrae you know what um that would that would fix everything yeah i think that's the new way to program a baby face he's on the brink of death at any moment just explosions internal yeah so pat continues attacking him after the loss and then gets caught by a hidden blade in come the death riders to jump him and claudio puts a chair around the neck and moxa comes in but instead of stomping the chair just tells him to use your head or you will lose it permanently so he's he's threatening to beheading This could be like a fatal pay-per-view for Dynasty. Well, they often are. Man explodes, man beheaded, and tells Will, it's not personal to me. Don't make it personal. Yeah. Any thoughts? I mean, I didn't necessarily feel like this kind of heated things up that much more than they initially did.
Your opinion? It was a fine segment. I like the match. I didn't think it surpassed the opener, though. It was more so just establishing that this neck is the big target, and I think we're going to get a larger version of that at the pay-per-view type of match with Moxley. Triangle of Madness against our favorite tag team, the Brawling Birds and Mina Shirakawa.
They did this back and forth attempt at a triple vertical suplex. Now, these things typically never look good. Usually someone takes it bad. It's rare that all three of them take it bad, and that's pretty much what happened. This was like the ugliest triple team vertical you've seen. All six women are down. Brass knuckles are introduced by Tekla, but she gets stopped by Jamie Hayter, and they hit two birds with one stone. Tekla is down, but Julia Hart is the legal woman and falls to Hayterade in nine minutes and 19 seconds.
Yeah, I quite enjoyed this match. Everybody, you know, was very fast-paced here, and I found it hard-hitting. Good creative tandem offense, save for maybe that not-great-looking triple vertical suplex. But I found it to be a strong showcase of this women's roster at this particular time, and I found LeBron, Burns, and Mina to be a very fun team to watch. Then folks, I mean, this Tommaso Ciampa, Ace Austin, Juice Robinson. I mean, we need to know why we are continuing all of this. We got the whole history of this in that Blackjack Battle Royal. Because first you see Ciampa eliminated Ace Austin, but then Juice eliminated Ciampa. So after Ciampa faced Ace Austin last week, now he is facing Juice Robinson on collision tomorrow night. And that's going to settle all of our programs out of the Blackjack Battle Royal.
Sure. Yeah. Well, you can't hit on them for giving us some backstory. It's what you should do. Yeah. Darby comes out. He warns MJF. He will hold that throttle until he sees God or wins that title. So this is our, our third baby face on the, on the brink of death. And he wants MJF tonight. He says, I'm due for that championship. I hope Kenny beats you or anyone else to end this bullshit rain. And he calls out Max. Don Callis comes out with the family or at least like one 20th of the family. And he says that MJF is going to give Darby a title match. If you can get past a handpicked member.
of the Don Callis family, which feels very charitable of MJF. So that member is going to be Andrade, who is stunned by this news and seemed very reluctant that he will be the one to face Darby at Dynasty. And then he sticks Lance Archer, Clone, and Hechicero on Darby, who fights them off with his skateboard. And then the Avengers arrive, Brody King, Jack Perry, and eventually Kenny Omega, who whispers something to Darby as Darby heads to the back. So we have got, at this point of the show, we have Bayley in the Eliminator bout, that if he won, he would get a title shot. You have Omega at Dynasty. You have Darby, if he wins at Dynasty, he gets a title match. And so again, it's...
all of these babyfaces aiming for MJF. And if not with MJF, then at least with each other, as this seemed to maybe throw some teases towards a Darby versus Omega match. Yeah, there was that potential indication there too. Do you feel... MJF and Darby. Let's just go with that as a theory if you get to that title match. Is that a big enough match for like a double or nothing? Not to headline. No. Not as the main event. Where's double or nothing? That's the one at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens. Queens. Yeah. I don't think it's strong enough to headline unless there's some crazy stipulation attached to it, which, you know, I could certainly see. Win or die. How about that as a stipulation? They also have a number of TVs that, I mean, could probably use major title defenses for and, you know, Darby versus MJF almost feels like too big, a little too big for just something to give away on TV, but I can also see Tony Khan booking it. So.
Yeah, a lot of strong challengers. And then the main event is the Eliminator, MJF against Speedball Mike Bailey. Kenny Omega comes out for commentary. So, I mean, this guy was all over this show in Winnipeg. And we've got U.S. and Canadian-themed gear for each member. This had quite the patriotic feel way. MJF early on uses Bryce Rumsberg as a shield to avoid a tornado kick. A lot of heat for Max. There were Chance of Canada. Bailey hits a triangle moonsault, and they had a deep discussion, Nigel and Kenny, about wrestling barefoot. And Omega once tried it, stubbed his toe on a moonsault, never was going to do it again. There was this beautiful straight jacket sunset flip by Bailey, getting a two-count out of that. And then a springboard moonsault.
Catches MJF on the floor. He's lighting him up with kicks. And then Bailey struggles to climb the turnbuckle. Takes too long and gets knocked off balance. And goes for the moonsault double knees on the apron. Missed Ultima Weapon. And it's Bailey using the Snapdragon in front of Kenny. Lands the Tornado Kick. Goes for Ultima Weapon. MJF gets his foot on the rope. And then Bailey misses the moonsault double knees on the edge of the apron. Just comes down right on his ACL exploding. And Tombstone is hit by MJF on the edge and wins clean with the Heat Seeker.
very clean you had kenny basically beating ricochet clean mjf beating bailey clean i like this booking of both guys on the show just getting really strong victories leading into uh this match and then omega he puts over mjf he won the match but then mjf attacks bailey and is chased off by kenny and kenny helps bailey to his feet and he gets you know a bit of a standing ovation here from this crowd and he got kind of the uh the the centerpiece spot with kenny in the middle of the ring to end the show I thought it was a very good match here. I wouldn't necessarily say it was to the level of Speedball's greater, maybe more memorable TV matches, but the story of this one was more as a way to set up the MJF Omega match, which again, it achieved very well. I didn't expect them to use Speedball in the role of Kenny Omega's friend that MJF beats in order to maybe heat up the grudge a little bit with Omega, but I thought this was sort of that.
I thought a strong match to put on TV. Yeah, I like the match. It didn't reach that level where you were buying into Bayley, like pulling this one off. But it was still like, you know, it was putting Bayley in a pretty prominent spot here, but ultimately to give MJF just that solid win going into this pay-per-view as well and still maintain this link between Bayley and Kenny that I could see them still pulling this off at some point, whether it's, you know, even if Omega does not win this title, still doing this match at some point between these two, because I think they've dangled it and it's something you could do down the road. Yeah. So at the end of the show, I guess the only update we got for Dynasty was Darby and Andrade. So more to be announced for this pay-per-view, but collision on Thursday night.
has Jon Moxley against Anthony Bowens. That's an eliminator match. Tommaso Ciampa against Juice Robinson. Willow Nightingale against Hikaru Shida for the TBS title. The Rascals of Zachary Wentz and Desmond Xavier against Andrade and Mark Davis. Claudio Yuta, David Finley, and Clark Connors against Mystico, Kevin Knight, Orange Cassidy, and Roderick Strong in a, what the hell, tornado match. FTR is going to have a match and Divine Dominion will also have a match. So that is seven match announcements already for Collision, which Kate from Montreal will be joined by John Clinchester Thursday night for a special edition of Collision Course.
Yep. Typically at about 10, 15 Eastern time, live in the Post-Rustle Cafe, which you have access to if you're, again, a member of our Post-Rustle Cafe, which for this month for new members can be yours for as little as $4 for the entire month. That includes our WrestleMania coverage and really the entire archive, including our entire Rewind Away archive where we just talked about spring break, where people can vote on the next edition of Rewind Away through our Patriots Pick Poll. So a lot of that. And maybe like, you know, one big topic to discuss was maybe an expectation for Mercedes-Benz Monat showing up on the show and that not resulting. Do you make anything of that?
Um, no. Um, yeah. So she dropped the Winnipeg pro wrestling title the night before to Jody threat. And so now she's down to one title left. And I guess it was natural speculation that she was in Winnipeg the night before AEW was in Winnipeg.
I guess collision is not done, but it would seem to, you know, it would probably be unlikely that she would. Honestly, like with Jericho returning, you know, like you, you kind of want to spread that a little bit just for both returns sake. And if you're, if Monet isn't necessarily figured into the pay-per-view, why not just save her return for the pay-per-view itself? That is a good point. If she is not figured in and it's going to be Mina versus Tekla, it looks like, right? Yeah. They seem to be potentially going that direction. Like I would not be putting Mercedes in like a prominent match, like with a Tekla on a week and a half notice either. I guess Willow needs an opponent. Yeah. I mean, you,
You could do something where Mercedes has announced her return is announced for the pay-per-view or something like that. I would expect she's going to be back very soon at this point. You would you would gather from all of this. All right. Well, there you go. That was that was dynamite in Winnipeg. They're going to be staying in Canada because next week they've got the lead up to dynasties. I believe they're in Edmonton next week for another dynamite collision combination. And I think Braden's going to Edmonton. And he's going to the pay-per-view, too.
I think so. Okay, cool. Well, I will ask him on Saturday when I'm with him. But we have breaking news. We have something announced for SmackDown. A video was just posted of Randy Orton. SmackDown is in St. Louis on Friday, and there's Randy Orton on the phone in front of a photo of his father, Cowboy Bob, and his grandfather, and stating that the mystery man on the phone will show up on SmackDown. So it would seem that our very blatant misdirection has been introduced here, if you were holding out hope about it being Cowboy Bob.
Yes, of course. I'd love to see Cowboy Bob. They could still have Cowboy Bob show up on the show. He doesn't have to be the man on the phone. Yeah, they could. Of course. Hey, Randy. And he takes out his dad. So who are your leading candidates? What is your pick? Why don't you throw one out there? Well, I was looking at Stephanie on Monday, and that would seem to be kind of redundant at this point when she was just on Monday.
I don't know. Are we expecting like anything of significance? I think it's Dwayne Johnson. I feel like they would have, would they announce that ahead of time rather than leave it as a surprise? I mean, these mystery deals, they tend to draw like a curiosity when they do pull these ones out. So yeah, we will see what they have up their sleeve. I have no idea. I don't know. Well, I guess I'm going to say Pat Borders. Okay. What about Ted DiBiase Jr.?
I mean, I feel like he's the leading joke suggestion. I am sure I'm going to get betting odds this week before Friday of who it is. I am sure Ted DiBiase Jr. Why don't we have a photo of Ted DiBiase Jr. in the background as the misdirector? That would have been actually priceless. All right, everybody. We're saying goodbye here on the YouTube channel, but do check out postwrestlingcafe.com, postwrestling.com for all of your news. And now we are heading on over to the forum.