<v Speaker 1>It had been two years since AEW had been in

<v Speaker 1>Wembley Stadium for All In. They took a break last year.

<v Speaker 1>They took All In to Texas. And they were back

<v Speaker 1>this year, 47,000 or so. That was the last figure

<v Speaker 1>I saw as far as how many people were in

<v Speaker 1>the building here for their big return for what was

<v Speaker 1>one of the best shows all year. I think this

<v Speaker 1>was up there with Double or Nothing. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>that this clear Double or Nothing for me as the

<v Speaker 1>best show of the year, but it's certainly in that conversation.

<v Speaker 1>It's pretty damn close. I thought All in London was

<v Speaker 1>a fantastic show. My predictions, not so much. Three for

<v Speaker 1>six in my predictions this time. Not too great. Not

<v Speaker 1>too great. But it was also a night of champions,

<v Speaker 1>you might say, because we had six championships. Change hands

<v Speaker 1>here on this show. New champions crowned all around. Felt

<v Speaker 1>like a reset in many ways. which makes sense if

<v Speaker 1>it's their biggest show of the year. You know, you

<v Speaker 1>take things in some new directions. You crown some new champions.

<v Speaker 1>But the biggest championship of all was the AW World Championship.

<v Speaker 1>That was in the main event tonight. Everything was built

<v Speaker 1>around this big main event and the story of Will

<v Speaker 1>Ospreay coming back home in front of all of his

<v Speaker 1>friends and family and fans, going after the one championship

<v Speaker 1>that he had yet to win since coming to the company.

<v Speaker 1>Could he get the job done? Could he pull the trigger,

<v Speaker 1>as they say? That was the story coming into tonight.

<v Speaker 1>And probably the most predictable outcome on the entire show.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know that anybody honestly expected it to go

<v Speaker 1>any other way, but it went exactly how it should

<v Speaker 1>have gone. Everything that you would want this to be

<v Speaker 1>is what it was. Everything played out exactly the way

<v Speaker 1>that I'm sure Tony Khan and Will Ospreay and Kenny

<v Speaker 1>Omega wanted it to play out to perfection, from the

<v Speaker 1>crowd reaction to... The entrances to the in-ring itself, the

<v Speaker 1>big reaction there at the end. I have to say this,

<v Speaker 1>because I tweeted about it, one of the greatest entrances

<v Speaker 1>that I have ever seen was that Will Ospreay entrance.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, easily in AEW history, the best. But truly,

<v Speaker 1>one of my favorite entrances of all time. The shot

<v Speaker 1>of him coming to the Who, which Tony Khan paid

<v Speaker 1>for the rights to the Who, and him coming through

<v Speaker 1>the back... He's got his friends around him, and him

<v Speaker 1>passing in different points in the locker room area, passing

<v Speaker 1>different past opponents and past rivals and friends or past

<v Speaker 1>friends on his way. It was almost like it was

<v Speaker 1>sort of a window into his career as he was

<v Speaker 1>making his way out for the biggest match of his life. And,

<v Speaker 1>of course, the last person he saw before he went

<v Speaker 1>out to the ring was Jon Moxley, who presented him

<v Speaker 1>with the Union Jack, And then out he came to

<v Speaker 1>Elevation and just the reaction, the response that he got.

<v Speaker 1>He was the returning hero. He had come home. It

<v Speaker 1>was everything that you would hope for it to be.

<v Speaker 1>So I thought that alone was just fantastic stuff. But

<v Speaker 1>he also became only the third man ever to kick

<v Speaker 1>out of a one-winged angel. Talk about moves that have

<v Speaker 1>been largely protected now for many, many years. The only

<v Speaker 1>two people outside of Will Ospreay to ever kick out

<v Speaker 1>of that move are Kota Ibushi and MJF. And you

<v Speaker 1>may or may not count MJF because if you remember

<v Speaker 1>their match at Dynasty, he kicked out of it, but

<v Speaker 1>there was this long gap before the referee made their

<v Speaker 1>way over to count the fall. Some people, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>technically it counts. But still, three people in what, 20 years?

<v Speaker 1>Not bad. Not bad. If you were going to save

<v Speaker 1>it for this moment, this was the perfect moment to

<v Speaker 1>save it for. You know, in a company and in

<v Speaker 1>a business, really, where we see these days finishing moves

<v Speaker 1>get kicked out of all the time. In that main

<v Speaker 1>event alone, there were big moves that were kicked out

<v Speaker 1>of at the count of one. We see this constantly.

<v Speaker 1>That moment at least meant more than your average kick

<v Speaker 1>out because that move had been protected for so long.

<v Speaker 1>And if Ospreay was going to go over tonight and

<v Speaker 1>be the man to beat Kenny Omega, then tonight was

<v Speaker 1>the night for it to happen. And then in the end,

<v Speaker 1>Will Ospreay holds up the championship. Kenny Omega's second run,

<v Speaker 1>maybe his final run, comes to an end. And now

<v Speaker 1>we begin this new era, you know, with this new

<v Speaker 1>face on top now as champion coming out of this pay-per-view.

<v Speaker 1>Who the first challenger is going to be? You know,

<v Speaker 1>is it going to be Jon Moxley? Is it going

<v Speaker 1>to be Andrade, who won the casino gauntlet contract tonight?

<v Speaker 1>Is it going to be MJF, who is still walking

<v Speaker 1>around with his belt, calling himself the one true champion?

<v Speaker 1>There's a few different possibilities. So Ospreay gets his crowning moment.

<v Speaker 1>The other person who got their crowning moment was for

<v Speaker 1>the Women's World Championship. And that was Mercedes Monet. This

<v Speaker 1>was the one title that she had not been able

<v Speaker 1>to capture. All the other fucking belts that this woman

<v Speaker 1>had collected over the last year, year and a half,

<v Speaker 1>two years, including the TBS Championship here in this company.

<v Speaker 1>Every other title, but the big one. She had two

<v Speaker 1>opportunities before this. She lost both times. And I can't

<v Speaker 1>say I was convinced, but I thought this was going

<v Speaker 1>to be 0 for 3 for her tonight. And then

<v Speaker 1>we got the news the other day that Willow Nightingale

<v Speaker 1>broke her hand. And she wrestled. She was cleared to

<v Speaker 1>wrestle in this match, but she had her hand wrapped up.

<v Speaker 1>She wrestled with a broken hand. And that made me go, well,

<v Speaker 1>I might want to second guess that prediction. I'm going

<v Speaker 1>to stick with it, but I'm at least second guessing it.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if before she broke her hand, she

<v Speaker 1>was going to retain the championship. Most of you would

<v Speaker 1>probably go, come on, she was always going to lose.

<v Speaker 1>We don't know that. And I'm not sure what the

<v Speaker 1>answer to that is going to be. Maybe one day

<v Speaker 1>we'll find out. But the minute that she broke her hand,

<v Speaker 1>I guess depending on how severe it is, this became academic.

<v Speaker 1>Because the reality is, if this woman has a broken hand,

<v Speaker 1>you should not be wrestling with a broken hand. Kudos

<v Speaker 1>to her for going out there and saying, hey, we're

<v Speaker 1>still going to have this match. We're going to go

<v Speaker 1>out there and we're going to give the people the

<v Speaker 1>match that we advertised. And for their part, both women,

<v Speaker 1>they went out there and they had a hell of

<v Speaker 1>a match. Ended up being a very bloody match because

<v Speaker 1>Mercedes got busted open hard way on her nose. But

<v Speaker 1>this woman went in there and wrestled with a broken hand.

<v Speaker 1>So kudos to her. It is stupid, though, to continue

<v Speaker 1>wrestling with a broken hand. And so if Willow Nightingale

<v Speaker 1>needs a while to recuperate and to heal the hand,

<v Speaker 1>then she shouldn't be the champion. And there was no

<v Speaker 1>point in her walking out of Wembley as the champion

<v Speaker 1>just for her to do what? Show up on TV

<v Speaker 1>and vacate the title? It became pretty clear at that

<v Speaker 1>point the decision that probably made the most sense would

<v Speaker 1>be to do a title change, and that's what we got.

<v Speaker 1>And so Mercedes has finally conquered that mountain that she

<v Speaker 1>could not conquer before. She is the champion. She also

<v Speaker 1>made history tonight. She made history becoming the first woman

<v Speaker 1>ever to hold championships in WWE, AEW, CMLL, which is

<v Speaker 1>the oldest wrestling company in the world, and New Japan

<v Speaker 1>Pro Wrestling. Nobody else, male or female, has ever done that.

<v Speaker 1>So she made a little bit of history tonight. But

<v Speaker 1>the two of them went out there and they all

<v Speaker 1>said they had an excellent match. We also had, as

<v Speaker 1>far as other championships that changed hands tonight, we have

<v Speaker 1>the tag team titles were one of the few titles

<v Speaker 1>that did not change hands. In fact, I think it

<v Speaker 1>was just the men's tag team titles and the continental titles. Surprise, surprise.

<v Speaker 1>Jon Moxley holds on to his championship. The unbeatable Jon Moxley,

<v Speaker 1>undefeated this year in singles competition, is still the continental champion.

<v Speaker 1>But now he's got a spiffy cup to take home

<v Speaker 1>with him. He's got a trophy now to go along

<v Speaker 1>with the belt. Good for him. But the tag team

<v Speaker 1>championships remain with Adam Copeland and Christian Cage. This is

<v Speaker 1>another one where I thought we would see a title change.

<v Speaker 1>We did not. We had a clash of generations here

<v Speaker 1>with them and the Young Bucks. Edge and Christian, they

<v Speaker 1>go back to the 90s, really. But in terms of

<v Speaker 1>their big run in WWE, we're going back to the

<v Speaker 1>year 1999 with the two of them. And then the

<v Speaker 1>Young Bucks, they come up and Generation Me in TNA

<v Speaker 1>and all the stuff they did in Ring of Honor

<v Speaker 1>in New Japan and then eventually AEW. And so finally

<v Speaker 1>you have a clash between these two teams. I was

<v Speaker 1>going to say the past and the present. I guess

<v Speaker 1>it is the past and the present. The Young Bucks

<v Speaker 1>have been around long enough, though, that they might actually

<v Speaker 1>fall into the past category. It's kind of like the

<v Speaker 1>past and the more recent past. But they collided for

<v Speaker 1>the first time here tonight. Had a very good match.

<v Speaker 1>Not at the level of the other matches I just

<v Speaker 1>talked about, but they had a very good match. But

<v Speaker 1>the bigger story was when the match was over. And

<v Speaker 1>we had in the ring a collection of challengers threatening

<v Speaker 1>coping Christian's reign as tag team champions, right? Planting their

<v Speaker 1>flag in the ground and saying, hey, we want next.

<v Speaker 1>We want to be the tag team champions, including the

<v Speaker 1>Young Bucks, who were still in the ring, even though

<v Speaker 1>they lost. We know the Bucks are still going to

<v Speaker 1>be in the mix. They're still going to be part

<v Speaker 1>of this conversation. But you had Cope and Christian. You

<v Speaker 1>had the young Bucks. You had the Motor City Machine Guns.

<v Speaker 1>They finally found their way back to TV after debuting

<v Speaker 1>in Detroit on Collision last month. We haven't seen them since.

<v Speaker 1>They haven't wrestled. They haven't appeared. They went away. They

<v Speaker 1>just wanted to show up and go, hey guys, we're here.

<v Speaker 1>And now we're going to go away for a while.

<v Speaker 1>So they reemerged here. to confront the champions when this

<v Speaker 1>match was over, as did FTR, who we haven't seen in, what,

<v Speaker 1>a couple of months now? So you have these four

<v Speaker 1>teams standing around, staring each other down in the ring.

<v Speaker 1>And again, this was Tony Khan's way of showing you that, hey,

<v Speaker 1>we got the best tag team division in wrestling right now.

<v Speaker 1>The tag team division is heating up. And that's not

<v Speaker 1>even all the tag teams they have. I mean, you

<v Speaker 1>can get into the Death Riders, you can get into

<v Speaker 1>the Bang Bang Gang, and you can get into the

<v Speaker 1>Dogs and the Rascals, Gates of Agony, on and on

<v Speaker 1>and on. They have tons of tag teams. So if

<v Speaker 1>you're a fan of tag team wrestling, this is great,

<v Speaker 1>because you've got endless teams, right? And you've got veteran

<v Speaker 1>teams like this and older teams, but they have a

<v Speaker 1>lot of younger ones as well. And so... It is

<v Speaker 1>kind of like a new renaissance in this company. When

<v Speaker 1>the company first started, they had a very, very strong

<v Speaker 1>tag team division. They got away from it for a while.

<v Speaker 1>I think the introduction of the Trios titles took away

<v Speaker 1>from the tag team division. And now we're finally getting

<v Speaker 1>back to basics here. And it's good to see. I'm

<v Speaker 1>glad that we have all of this competition for the

<v Speaker 1>tag team titles. We also have a new international champion.

<v Speaker 1>Same as the old international champion, his second time holding

<v Speaker 1>this title, that is Kazuchika Okada. I wasn't expecting that.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe I should have, though, because they've been telling this

<v Speaker 1>story of friction between Okada and Kyle Fletcher for a while.

<v Speaker 1>So Kyle Fletcher is no longer the champion. We have

<v Speaker 1>a new TNT champion. Same as the old champion, right?

<v Speaker 1>You see there's a common thread here with some of

<v Speaker 1>these titles. Darby Allin wins his third title. tnt championship

<v Speaker 1>and it got us a sting cameo and seek and

<v Speaker 1>destroy is what he came out to again so sting

<v Speaker 1>got to make an appearance here on the show along

<v Speaker 1>with sting jr which we'll get into we also have

<v Speaker 1>new women's tag team champions divine dominion no longer the

<v Speaker 1>women's tag team champions the brawling birds i would say

<v Speaker 1>that this was the second most predictable outcome on this show,

<v Speaker 1>behind the main event. This was preordained months ago. We

<v Speaker 1>knew months ago that A, this match was going to

<v Speaker 1>take place, and B, we were going to have new

<v Speaker 1>tag team champions on this show. And so Jamie Hayter

<v Speaker 1>and Alex Windsor, they are now your new women's tag

<v Speaker 1>team champions. We have new trios champions, which was also

<v Speaker 1>fairly predictable because if you knew who the wild card

<v Speaker 1>team was going to be, in the match that they

<v Speaker 1>announced seven trios teams, one of which was an unknown

<v Speaker 1>wild card. Who could it be? If it was going

<v Speaker 1>to be who everybody thought it would be, there could

<v Speaker 1>be no other outcome here. And sure enough, Swerve Strickland

<v Speaker 1>comes out, and he's got a couple of partners with him,

<v Speaker 1>and it is the debut of the New Day. Although

<v Speaker 1>they are no longer the New Day. They are not

<v Speaker 1>the New Day. They are not Happy Day. They are

<v Speaker 1>not New Dawn. What other names did you people come

<v Speaker 1>up with? I've seen you people pitching a whole bunch

<v Speaker 1>of names over the last few weeks. The New Dawn

<v Speaker 1>was one. There were a bunch of others. They are

<v Speaker 1>the new level, which actually makes a lot of sense,

<v Speaker 1>especially if you saw their entrance and you know Woods

<v Speaker 1>and his love of video games. They've advanced to a

<v Speaker 1>new level. They've leveled up. They've leveled up here. Or

<v Speaker 1>I guess some of you may think they leveled down.

<v Speaker 1>But either way, they leveled up into a much better

<v Speaker 1>position than the one they were in before. I think

<v Speaker 1>we can all agree, given what they were doing or

<v Speaker 1>not doing where they were previously. They're already ahead of

<v Speaker 1>the game, at least for the time being. But yes,

<v Speaker 1>they are the new level and they are officially all elite.

<v Speaker 1>We also had on the pre-show, Which we're going to

<v Speaker 1>get into the pre-show because it was also newsworthy. The

<v Speaker 1>return of a former AEW Women's World Champion who we

<v Speaker 1>have not seen for a very long time. She is back.

<v Speaker 1>We'll talk about that as well. So a lot to

<v Speaker 1>get into here. Excellent show from top to bottom. We

<v Speaker 1>had some news as well. On this show they announced

<v Speaker 1>that Dynasty, which typically takes place in April... is going

<v Speaker 1>to be bumped up in 2027. It will be taking

<v Speaker 1>place on Sunday, February 7th. And it will be taking

<v Speaker 1>place in Liverpool. Dynamite that Wednesday is going to be

<v Speaker 1>taking place at the O2 Arena in London. Now, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know if Tony Khan was asked about this or

<v Speaker 1>commented on it in the post-show scrum. I didn't see

<v Speaker 1>the entire scrum. I only saw bits and pieces of it.

<v Speaker 1>without knowing for sure, my guess, when I first heard

<v Speaker 1>that they were going to be in London in February,

<v Speaker 1>that told me they're not going back to London for

<v Speaker 1>Wembley for all in next year. Cause I don't know

<v Speaker 1>that they would run London twice. So that tells me

<v Speaker 1>that they're not going back to Wembley in 2027. Um,

<v Speaker 1>But it's pretty cool that they're doing Dynasty in February,

<v Speaker 1>because the other thing that I read into with that

<v Speaker 1>announcement is that since it's usually in April, and they

<v Speaker 1>bumped this up to February, that must mean that in April,

<v Speaker 1>Tony Khan is in fact planning some kind of big

<v Speaker 1>show around WrestleMania time, given that WrestleMania is happening overseas

<v Speaker 1>in Saudi Arabia. that he is going to have some

<v Speaker 1>sort of big event. Now, it might just be Revolution, right?

<v Speaker 1>He might bump Revolution. In fact, that's the likely outcome here. Normally,

<v Speaker 1>Revolution is in April. I'm sorry, Revolution is in March.

<v Speaker 1>Now they're doing a pay-per-view in February. It would kind

<v Speaker 1>of make sense if they just shifted Revolution back to April.

<v Speaker 1>It could be as simple as that, but I think

<v Speaker 1>he probably wants to do an event around that time period. Now, remember,

<v Speaker 1>we still don't know when WrestleMania is. We only know

<v Speaker 1>that WrestleMania is in April. That's all we know. So

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure they've locked in the weekend there. They've just

<v Speaker 1>been waiting. You know, they've been waiting to see if

<v Speaker 1>other companies are going to make certain announcements about certain events.

<v Speaker 1>I kind of look at it as a game of chicken, right?

<v Speaker 1>They're waiting for the other to blink. But I think

<v Speaker 1>there's definitely going to be something going on in April.

<v Speaker 1>And I hope so. You know, and I hope that

<v Speaker 1>they can turn it into a whole big wrestling week.

<v Speaker 1>And just like for WrestleMania, you know, you have independent

<v Speaker 1>companies and other promotions that piggyback off of it, and

<v Speaker 1>it becomes a whole big wrestling weekend. Maybe it's the

<v Speaker 1>weekend before WrestleMania, maybe it's the weekend, you know, after WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if it would be the same weekend.

<v Speaker 1>I think that would be kind of weird, but we'll see.

<v Speaker 1>But the other thing also here is the Royal Rumble. Now,

<v Speaker 1>the Royal Rumble is going to be taking place in

<v Speaker 1>Glendale next year. It was already announced for February. I

<v Speaker 1>don't believe we have a date yet. The only thing

<v Speaker 1>that was said is that the Rumble is going to

<v Speaker 1>be happening in February. And typically the Royal Rumble is

<v Speaker 1>held between the NFL Conference Championship Games and the Super Bowl.

<v Speaker 1>If that holds, and that is the same case for

<v Speaker 1>next year, that would very likely mean that Dynasty is

<v Speaker 1>taking place the same weekend as the Royal Rumble. So

<v Speaker 1>we could have the Rumble on a Saturday and then

<v Speaker 1>have Dynasty on Sunday. That could be what we're looking at,

<v Speaker 1>but Until we get a specific date for the Rumble,

<v Speaker 1>we're just not sure yet. That could very well be

<v Speaker 1>a very busy wrestling weekend, though, the way things are

<v Speaker 1>shaping up. But this is your AEW All in London

<v Speaker 1>2026 review. I am the Solid Monster. Thank you for

<v Speaker 1>hanging out with me here on a Sunday night. I

<v Speaker 1>do appreciate it. Like and subscribe. Brand new sound off

<v Speaker 1>went up yesterday, a day early because of All In.

<v Speaker 1>So episode 978 is currently up for your listening pleasure.

<v Speaker 1>wherever you get your podcast from. Spin the wheel here,

<v Speaker 1>as we usually do on these streams, and find out

<v Speaker 1>how many likes we're looking for here. What's the goal?

<v Speaker 1>What is the goal for tonight? Or be the booker.

<v Speaker 1>Let's find out. Spin, spin, spin. Spin, spin, spin. 465 likes.

<v Speaker 1>We are already at 381. That should be very easy.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, before I'm even done talking about the pre-show,

<v Speaker 1>we should already have our goal reached. So there it is, 465.

<v Speaker 1>Let's take it from the top here. The stage. Let

<v Speaker 1>me just mention that first. I like the stage. I

<v Speaker 1>thought it looked good. I thought that you could see pockets,

<v Speaker 1>the empty pockets of empty seats in the crowd. During

<v Speaker 1>the pre-show, there were empty seats everywhere. As they got

<v Speaker 1>toward the end of it, it filled in nicely. And

<v Speaker 1>then as, you know, it went from sunlight and, you know,

<v Speaker 1>daylight to nighttime, it looked full enough. So like on TV,

<v Speaker 1>it didn't look anything out of the ordinary. It was loud.

<v Speaker 1>It was the atmosphere that you would hope to have.

<v Speaker 1>Very lively, energetic bunch in London for this show. Excalibur,

<v Speaker 1>Tony Schiavone, and Taz, they were on commentary. Taz made

<v Speaker 1>the trip to London. We had the buy-in pre-show. Now,

<v Speaker 1>they were having issues with their audio, especially on HBO Max.

<v Speaker 1>And I was not watching on HBO Max, but I

<v Speaker 1>was watching the pre-show for a little bit on their

<v Speaker 1>YouTube channel. And just comment after comment after comment. fix

<v Speaker 1>the Max audio. There's no audio on Max. Fix the

<v Speaker 1>Max audio. I don't know what was going on. There

<v Speaker 1>was some debacle with the HBO Max feed that I

<v Speaker 1>would imagine they were able to resolve after a while.

<v Speaker 1>But yeah, it affected Renee later on in the pre-show

<v Speaker 1>because they had cut to her at the panel. It

<v Speaker 1>was her, it was paul white mcfoley and jeff jarrett

<v Speaker 1>and she was trying to speak her her mic was

<v Speaker 1>cutting out and then in the middle of everything she

<v Speaker 1>just looks at someone off camera and goes my audio

<v Speaker 1>right she's getting she's getting and look she has every

<v Speaker 1>right to she's getting aggravated because at that point it's

<v Speaker 1>like how come they don't have this you know, resolved

<v Speaker 1>at this point. And her mic is just cutting out.

<v Speaker 1>So she was not happy. But thankfully, after that, there

<v Speaker 1>were no more issues. At least on my end. Again,

<v Speaker 1>I watched it through MyAEW. I've been using the MyAEW

<v Speaker 1>service now for a few months. I've had no issues whatsoever.

<v Speaker 1>It works great. Use the VPN. Get the pay-per-view for $ 20. Quality-wise,

<v Speaker 1>I have no complaints. We had the ops. Hook, Katsuyori Shibata,

<v Speaker 1>Anthony Bowens, and Action Andretti. They picked up a win

<v Speaker 1>over the Rascals. Leo Rush hit the big frog splash

<v Speaker 1>at the end to win it for his team. Anthony

<v Speaker 1>Bowens took the losing fall here. Leo Rush hit the

<v Speaker 1>frog splash off the top rope to win it for

<v Speaker 1>the babyfaces, not the ops. We have AEW is botching

<v Speaker 1>of the audio and I'm botching of the outcome of

<v Speaker 1>the opening contest here. What is in this mug? Anyway,

<v Speaker 1>Leo Rush picks up the win for his team. Now

<v Speaker 1>it started raining around this time. Harley Cameron, Chris Statlander,

<v Speaker 1>they teamed up. This was added at the last minute.

<v Speaker 1>They took on the Sisters of Sin, Julia Hart, and

<v Speaker 1>Sky Blue. We got a blind tag late in the

<v Speaker 1>match from Statlander. Harley hit a backstabber to Julia, who

<v Speaker 1>then got dropped by Stat with the Sunday Night Fever

<v Speaker 1>for the win. Action Andretti sounds like a B superhero movie.

<v Speaker 1>You know what? You're not wrong. You're not wrong at all.

<v Speaker 1>It does. Man, Scotty says he still hasn't come down

<v Speaker 1>after the main event. The main event ended, what, three

<v Speaker 1>hours ago? I don't blame you. It was a hell

<v Speaker 1>of a main event. I can't wait to talk about

<v Speaker 1>it here in a little bit. So anyway, a win

<v Speaker 1>for Statlander and Harley Cameron. I wish they had something

<v Speaker 1>better for Statlander on this show. It felt the same

<v Speaker 1>way about Tekla, but there's only so many spots at

<v Speaker 1>the top of the card. At least she got a spot.

<v Speaker 1>We have the Hurt Syndicate. Oh, this. This thing right here.

<v Speaker 1>We had Bobby Lashley, and we had Shelton Benjamin. Now,

<v Speaker 1>unless you watch Collision, you wouldn't even know that the

<v Speaker 1>Hurt Syndicate still works for this company. They have not

<v Speaker 1>been very visible on TV. They were on the pre-show,

<v Speaker 1>and what were they doing on the pre-show? The former

<v Speaker 1>tag team champions were teaming up with Boom and Doom,

<v Speaker 1>QT Marshall, and Big Boom AJ. Okay. And they came

<v Speaker 1>out with his son, Big Justice. They took on Shane

<v Speaker 1>Taylor promotions. So we have Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin.

<v Speaker 1>They are reduced to tagging with the Costco guys on

<v Speaker 1>the pre-show. Say it ain't so. I saw them come

<v Speaker 1>out to the ring. I saw what they had them

<v Speaker 1>doing here. And I said, you have got to be

<v Speaker 1>kidding me. But no, this is real. This was their role.

<v Speaker 1>Here on this big Wembley Stadium show. The story is

<v Speaker 1>that the Costco crew paid them off. Hurt Syndicate are

<v Speaker 1>basically the new APA. If you pay them, then they

<v Speaker 1>will do a job for you. When I say do

<v Speaker 1>a job for you, I don't mean that kind of job.

<v Speaker 1>Because they don't do that. But they will do the

<v Speaker 1>job for you. Whatever you're paying them to do. They'll

<v Speaker 1>watch your back. They'll be your partner. As long as

<v Speaker 1>the money is good enough. That's basically their new role

<v Speaker 1>at the moment in AEW. The Rizzler, you'll notice I

<v Speaker 1>didn't mention The Rizzler. You know, who's usually with the

<v Speaker 1>Costco guys. He's touching his face and everything else, right?

<v Speaker 1>Everyone's in love with The Rizzler. Well, The Rizzler was

<v Speaker 1>not on this show. The Rizzler did not make the trip.

<v Speaker 1>I assume because they would not allow him into the

<v Speaker 1>country because of his criminal record. And so, therefore, there

<v Speaker 1>was no Rizzler. Tony Schiavone, as the baby faces were

<v Speaker 1>coming out, and here comes Big Boom AJ and Big Justice,

<v Speaker 1>and they're slapping hands with all the fans at ringside.

<v Speaker 1>On commentary, Tony Schiavone, he said that, boy, you know,

<v Speaker 1>Big Justice, he seems to get, he's getting bigger before

<v Speaker 1>our eyes, right? Because he's getting older. But at that point,

<v Speaker 1>commentary went silent. Because when he made this comment, it

<v Speaker 1>was very, I didn't even have to see them on

<v Speaker 1>camera to know They hit their mute buttons and they

<v Speaker 1>were laughing their fucking asses off. And so commentary went

<v Speaker 1>silent for like a good minute. And then they and

<v Speaker 1>then Shivani is trying to explain, well, you know what

<v Speaker 1>I meant by that? You know, he's he's getting bigger

<v Speaker 1>every time we see him. They're like, OK, Tony, stop

<v Speaker 1>digging the hole. Stop digging your own grave. So, yeah,

<v Speaker 1>that was the one funny Tony Shivani moment on the show. Otherwise,

<v Speaker 1>he was the, you know, the walking pull string doll.

<v Speaker 1>So Bobby Lashley here, he finished off Carly Bravo with

<v Speaker 1>a Dominator to pick up the win for his team.

<v Speaker 1>That's really all you need to know about this. When

<v Speaker 1>the match was over, Big Justice presented one of those

<v Speaker 1>oversized publisher's clearinghouse checks to the Hurt Syndicate from the Rizzler.

<v Speaker 1>It had the Rizzler's face on it. And they presented

<v Speaker 1>this check to the Hurt Syndicate in the amount of $ 50, 000. hey,

<v Speaker 1>if you wanted to pay me $ 50, 000 to tag team

<v Speaker 1>with the Costco guys in a pre-show match for seven minutes,

<v Speaker 1>I suppose that's not a bad night's work. I happen

<v Speaker 1>to think the Hurt Syndicate is better than that, and

<v Speaker 1>they should be doing more than that, but what do

<v Speaker 1>I know? So for $ 50, 000, they teamed up with the

<v Speaker 1>Costco crew. The Hurt Syndicate stuff, it's going to be

<v Speaker 1>very interesting one day to see the sit-down interview with

<v Speaker 1>them or MVP or whoever it is, because something very

<v Speaker 1>clearly went down with them last year. And it could

<v Speaker 1>be as simple because, look, there were reports heading into

<v Speaker 1>all in last year and forbidden door that they didn't

<v Speaker 1>want to lose the tag team titles and do a

<v Speaker 1>job for FTR. And, you know, reportedly MVP, you know,

<v Speaker 1>who advocates for them, wanted them or they preferred losing

<v Speaker 1>to a younger team. whether it was the Outrunners, whether

<v Speaker 1>it was, you know, Private Party or GOA, right? That

<v Speaker 1>was kind of the report, the reporting that was out

<v Speaker 1>at that time. So you had that. And then you

<v Speaker 1>had that storyline with MJF, where MJF became this new

<v Speaker 1>honorary member of the Hurt Syndicate. And that storyline was

<v Speaker 1>like that. It was just abruptly dropped. And there was

<v Speaker 1>no resolution to it. There was no follow-up. There was nothing.

<v Speaker 1>Something happened around that period of time. And who knows?

<v Speaker 1>It could be as simple as maybe they didn't want

<v Speaker 1>to lose to certain teams. Maybe it was. And Tony

<v Speaker 1>Khan soured on them and said, you know what? This

<v Speaker 1>is not how we want to do things. So if

<v Speaker 1>it's going to be an issue, then we'll just phase

<v Speaker 1>them down and we'll move on to other people. Because

<v Speaker 1>that's the easiest explanation I can come up with. Ever

<v Speaker 1>since then, they've done nothing. Like, they're there, they get

<v Speaker 1>a paycheck, they work for the company, but they don't

<v Speaker 1>do anything. And they were one of the hottest acts

<v Speaker 1>on TV. They would come out, everybody would be singing

<v Speaker 1>their song, everybody was into them, like babyfaces even when

<v Speaker 1>they were supposed to be heels, and then nothing. But

<v Speaker 1>the MJF stuff being dropped the way it was, that

<v Speaker 1>was the biggest, like, what the fuck. Like, I would

<v Speaker 1>love to know what's going on here. The American Dragon,

<v Speaker 1>Bryan Danielson, he made his way out to join on commentary.

<v Speaker 1>So you know it's a big night when you have

<v Speaker 1>Bryan Danielson and you have Taz, two men who don't

<v Speaker 1>fly coast to coast anymore because it causes too much

<v Speaker 1>pain in their necks. When they get on a plane

<v Speaker 1>and they fly overseas, you know it's a big show.

<v Speaker 1>So he joined them on commentary. For the next match,

<v Speaker 1>which was Maya World defending her TBS championship against Persephone. Now,

<v Speaker 1>when I talked about the all-in preview on the SoundOff

<v Speaker 1>this weekend, I said, pretty good chance my guess would

<v Speaker 1>be this was going to be added to the pre-show,

<v Speaker 1>and then it was. And it's not hard to figure why.

<v Speaker 1>If you watched Dynamite this week, it was pretty clear

<v Speaker 1>we were going to get this match at some point

<v Speaker 1>soon anyway. So for the finish here, Maya was going

<v Speaker 1>up top, and Persephone took the referee out. And with

<v Speaker 1>the referee distracted, a masked, presumably woman, although we didn't

<v Speaker 1>know at the time, a masked person, climbs the steps,

<v Speaker 1>shoves Maya off the top rope, and she crashes and burns.

<v Speaker 1>Persephone then hit a razor's edge, and she pinned Maya

<v Speaker 1>to win the TBS championship. And nobody was more happy

<v Speaker 1>about that than me. I'm a Persephone fan. I was

<v Speaker 1>hoping they would start doing some more stuff with her. Again,

<v Speaker 1>I said her or Queen Aminata winning that big survival match.

<v Speaker 1>of the fittest match they did back on July 1st

<v Speaker 1>on Dynamite to crown a new TBS champion they went

<v Speaker 1>with Shida which sorry but I thought that was the

<v Speaker 1>worst decision of the bunch that they could have made

<v Speaker 1>and thankfully that was short-lived and now they have the

<v Speaker 1>title on Persephone who now is a double champion because

<v Speaker 1>she's already the CMLL women's champion So she wins the title.

<v Speaker 1>Brian Danielson is talking on commentary saying, I think I

<v Speaker 1>know who that is, right? I have a hunch. I

<v Speaker 1>think I might know who that is. And he goes, well,

<v Speaker 1>it's probably somebody who's been working with Persephone recently who

<v Speaker 1>does not like Maya World. So he was intimating that

<v Speaker 1>it was Hikaru Shida. And I'm like, oh God, please no. Please.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, I could tell it wasn't Shida most likely anyway,

<v Speaker 1>just from looking at the person, but Anyway, they get

<v Speaker 1>in the ring, and it was definitely not Hikaru Shida,

<v Speaker 1>because the masked person applied the lockjaw on Maya World.

<v Speaker 1>They gave it away before the mask reveal. They gave

<v Speaker 1>it away. Everybody knew at that point who it was,

<v Speaker 1>and they started to really pop. Then they get up,

<v Speaker 1>they take the mask off, and it is Dr. Britt Baker, DMD.

<v Speaker 1>And she got a huge reaction for the big reveal.

<v Speaker 1>First of all, again, Persephone winning the championship, I like

<v Speaker 1>that move. I think that was the right move. But

<v Speaker 1>then we have the return of Britt Baker. And we

<v Speaker 1>have this Rebel Heart episode of Dynamite coming up in

<v Speaker 1>a few weeks, September 9th. And that episode is to

<v Speaker 1>raise awareness for ALS, and it's kind of a tribute

<v Speaker 1>to Rebel, who is currently suffering from ALS. And there's

<v Speaker 1>been some chatter about if Britt Baker is going to

<v Speaker 1>be on that show or not. My attitude was, If

<v Speaker 1>she's not on that show, if she's not on the

<v Speaker 1>Rebel Heart show, you know, as close as she is

<v Speaker 1>with Rebel, then she ain't ever coming back. So I

<v Speaker 1>would have expected her to at least be on that show.

<v Speaker 1>I was not expecting her to be on this show.

<v Speaker 1>And again, this match wasn't even added until the last

<v Speaker 1>day or two. So that was a nice surprise here.

<v Speaker 1>First time that we've seen her on AEW television in

<v Speaker 1>almost two years. The last time would have been the

<v Speaker 1>last time she wrestled, you know, which was November of 2024.

<v Speaker 1>A lot of time has gone by since then. And

<v Speaker 1>that's a whole other weird situation. You know, nobody ever

<v Speaker 1>talks about this stuff in AEW. And so people have

<v Speaker 1>to end up speculating about why this person disappeared. Why

<v Speaker 1>did that person disappear? Why did their push disappear? There's

<v Speaker 1>so many stories. Hopefully one day we'll get the real

<v Speaker 1>story here. But sometimes it's just as simple as you

<v Speaker 1>fall out of favor... with Tony Khan, or he gets

<v Speaker 1>bored of you, and he moves on to the next person.

<v Speaker 1>In the case of Britt Baker, it's a little more

<v Speaker 1>involved than that, because even if he just got bored

<v Speaker 1>or soured on Britt, she would still be used in

<v Speaker 1>some capacity from time to time. The fact that she

<v Speaker 1>was gone for almost two years is pretty fucking weird.

<v Speaker 1>And it's not like she was injured for the entire time.

<v Speaker 1>If you follow her on social media... She would be posting.

<v Speaker 1>She was doing other events and showing up and plugging

<v Speaker 1>products and doing all kinds of stuff. Lounging on the beach.

<v Speaker 1>Loving life. Doing everything but wrestling. She didn't even do indies.

<v Speaker 1>Which I thought was weird. Like, if she wanted to wrestle,

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure she could have worked independent dates. She hasn't

<v Speaker 1>wrestled at all. So now she's back. And... I guess

<v Speaker 1>we'll see how serious he is about pushing her. I

<v Speaker 1>did see some comments from people criticizing, why is she

<v Speaker 1>in the mid-card? It's perfectly fine to reintroduce her in

<v Speaker 1>a story like this. She does not have to be

<v Speaker 1>in the main mix. They have a lot of women

<v Speaker 1>in the women's division right now who could be challenging

<v Speaker 1>Mercedes for the world championship. Britt Baker should not be

<v Speaker 1>one of those people. This is actually the perfect spot

<v Speaker 1>to reintroduce her. And let her work her way back

<v Speaker 1>into things. You know, without incident or anything else, and

<v Speaker 1>let's see. And if all goes well, then eventually she

<v Speaker 1>could challenge one day for the world championship again. But

<v Speaker 1>what's so bad about introducing her in the midcard somewhere?

<v Speaker 1>I mean, Charlotte Flair has been working in the midcard

<v Speaker 1>or upper midcard now for like two years, it feels like.

<v Speaker 1>Which was good for her. That was a good thing.

<v Speaker 1>There were a lot of people who were sick of

<v Speaker 1>seeing Charlotte Flair in a top position. Sometimes when you

<v Speaker 1>knock someone down the card a few pegs, it might

<v Speaker 1>actually benefit them. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

<v Speaker 1>And then you kind of just work your way in there.

<v Speaker 1>I think it's a good spot for her to be in.

<v Speaker 1>She got a big baby face pop, even though they

<v Speaker 1>introduced her here as a heel. What I did think

<v Speaker 1>was weird, think about the way that Britt returned here.

<v Speaker 1>She shoved Maya World. off the top rope Maya world

<v Speaker 1>has been this great like underdog baby face story tragedy

<v Speaker 1>in her family but she wanted to compete right and

<v Speaker 1>she was in that tournament and she ended up winning

<v Speaker 1>the TBS championship and oh my god what a what

<v Speaker 1>a great story this was right and she gets shoved

<v Speaker 1>off the top rope and fucked out of her title

<v Speaker 1>but yet even the announcers are like oh it's great

<v Speaker 1>to see Britt Baker back like they're putting her over

<v Speaker 1>like a fucking baby face and Britt's out there and

<v Speaker 1>she's smiling and the crowd's giving her a big ovation.

<v Speaker 1>I'm like, I guess fuck my world, I guess, right?

<v Speaker 1>I just thought that was very weird. You would think

<v Speaker 1>that there would be more heat on her. I mean, look,

<v Speaker 1>she was always going to get a big pop because

<v Speaker 1>she's been gone for so long. But the announcers should

<v Speaker 1>have at least, you know, treated this a little bit differently.

<v Speaker 1>It was very, very bizarre for them to not look

<v Speaker 1>at this and go, well, why would she do that

<v Speaker 1>to Maya? This is awful. Maya worked so hard to

<v Speaker 1>get that spot. Now Britt Baker has screwed her out

<v Speaker 1>of that spot. There was none of that here. It

<v Speaker 1>was like, oh, it's good to see Brit back. This

<v Speaker 1>is great. Sure. Okay. That's not weird at all. Now,

<v Speaker 1>later on in the back, Lexi Nair was talking to

<v Speaker 1>Persephone and the good doctor, who said that just because

<v Speaker 1>she hasn't been around doesn't mean that she hasn't been watching.

<v Speaker 1>She said that Percy is worthy of being a double champion,

<v Speaker 1>and she asked her to tell everybody the good thing

<v Speaker 1>about mutual enemies. And Persephone brought up Thunder Rosa, who

<v Speaker 1>she's been beefing with in CMLL. And she said that

<v Speaker 1>if she wants to stick her nose in her business,

<v Speaker 1>she's got somebody new in her corner. Brit and Thunder

<v Speaker 1>Rosa obviously have had issues going back, what, five or

<v Speaker 1>six years? Now, they've already announced a few things now

<v Speaker 1>for Dynamite coming up this week. I don't know if

<v Speaker 1>they would do it on this Dynamite, but the Rebel

<v Speaker 1>Heart episode is the week... after this so maybe not

<v Speaker 1>this Wednesday but I could see them doing a tag

<v Speaker 1>team match maybe on September 9th maybe save the tag

<v Speaker 1>team match for that show I mean they could always

<v Speaker 1>do Britt Baker and Maya World you know one on

<v Speaker 1>one Maya has taken a lot of losses recently this

<v Speaker 1>might have been her third in a row so I

<v Speaker 1>don't know about going right into a singles match but

<v Speaker 1>Persephone and Britt against Thunder Rosa and Maya World seems

<v Speaker 1>like a sure thing in the next couple of weeks

<v Speaker 1>I'm just saying September 9th would seem to make a

<v Speaker 1>lot of sense. Now, after this, we go back to

<v Speaker 1>the pre-show panel and we hear Tekla's music. Tekla, the

<v Speaker 1>former Women's World Champion who was announced for nothing on

<v Speaker 1>this show. We didn't even know that she was going

<v Speaker 1>to be there. Tekla comes out. She crashes the panel.

<v Speaker 1>She climbs up on top of the desk. She's got

<v Speaker 1>her drink in her hand. She says, you can't have

<v Speaker 1>the biggest night of the year without the Toxic Spiders.

<v Speaker 1>She's going to sit back with her spicy margarita. She's

<v Speaker 1>going to watch very closely. And she tells Willow Nightingale,

<v Speaker 1>I'll never forget what you took from me. She said,

<v Speaker 1>win or lose, up or down or all around, shit

<v Speaker 1>will get toxic. And she threw the microphone away. She

<v Speaker 1>hit the spider pose on the desk. She hit the

<v Speaker 1>spider pose. And Mick Foley, oh, my God. Mick Foley

<v Speaker 1>had just the absolute look of joy on his face.

<v Speaker 1>As Tekla was thrusting her crotch basically up in his face.

<v Speaker 1>He was a little too close to Tekla. And Mick

<v Speaker 1>had a big old smile on his face. I don't

<v Speaker 1>think he was complaining about the position that he was in.

<v Speaker 1>Then we had, to close out the pre-show, a seven-team

<v Speaker 1>roulette royale for the AEW Trios Championships. This was their

<v Speaker 1>way of getting a whole bunch of people on the

<v Speaker 1>show and at Wembley Stadium, who otherwise would not have

<v Speaker 1>had a spot on this show. We were told that

<v Speaker 1>this was over-the-top rope elimination only. So this was a

<v Speaker 1>little bit different than the casino gauntlet format. Over-the-top elimination only,

<v Speaker 1>both feet must touch the floor. But all three members

<v Speaker 1>of each trio's team would have to be eliminated. So

<v Speaker 1>it is not a case where one person is gone,

<v Speaker 1>the whole team is out. That's not how this worked.

<v Speaker 1>And they said entrants would be entering at random intervals.

<v Speaker 1>So we had the Bang Bang Gang, comprised of Jay

<v Speaker 1>White and the Guns. They were out, as well as

<v Speaker 1>the Dogs. They were out. David Finley, Clark Connors, and

<v Speaker 1>Gabe Kidd. Those are your first two teams here to

<v Speaker 1>kick things off. Each time a new team would come out,

<v Speaker 1>up on the screen, above the ring, they would have

<v Speaker 1>this video roulette wheel showing the different teams. And they

<v Speaker 1>would spin it. Kind of like kind of like. our wheel.

<v Speaker 1>Only theirs was a lot fancier, and it had faces

<v Speaker 1>on it. So they would spin the roulette wheel. It

<v Speaker 1>landed on the demand. So Ricochet and the Gates of

<v Speaker 1>Agony were out next. After that, the conglomeration, Orange Cassidy,

<v Speaker 1>Roderick Strong, and Kyle O'Reilly, they made their way out.

<v Speaker 1>A few minutes later, the wheel spins and out come

<v Speaker 1>the Death Riders. And even Marina Shafir got into the

<v Speaker 1>ring with the Death Riders. So we got a face-off

<v Speaker 1>between husband and wife. We haven't had this in a

<v Speaker 1>little while. Last time it got over really well. We

<v Speaker 1>had a face-off between Roderick Strong and Marina Shafir. And again,

<v Speaker 1>the crowd popped. Husband and wife face-to-face. What's going to

<v Speaker 1>happen here? So she spit on her husband and slapped him.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure he didn't enjoy it. In return, Roddy

<v Speaker 1>picked up his wife and dropped her with a backbreaker

<v Speaker 1>across the knee to a big pop from the crowd.

<v Speaker 1>They love that. So then out next were the reigning

<v Speaker 1>trios champions, Hangman Adam Page, Brody King, and Bandito. Bandito

<v Speaker 1>ended up down on the floor. He was being checked

<v Speaker 1>out by the doctor. I don't know what happened. It

<v Speaker 1>looked like he injured his shoulder. He did eventually return

<v Speaker 1>to the match. It was a while. Once he got

<v Speaker 1>back in, I think his shoulder was all wrapped up,

<v Speaker 1>which it was not when he first came out. So

<v Speaker 1>if he is hurt, hopefully it's nothing too serious. So

<v Speaker 1>at this point, and again, I'm speeding through this because

<v Speaker 1>this dragged on far longer than it needed to be.

<v Speaker 1>At this point, we had to be, what, 30 minutes

<v Speaker 1>into this match, 25, 30 minutes in? We have less

<v Speaker 1>than five minutes now left in the pre-show. And they're

<v Speaker 1>really dragging things out. We have one team left. Now,

<v Speaker 1>I know they said random intervals, and it's very clear

<v Speaker 1>people aren't coming out at evenly timed intervals. But by

<v Speaker 1>this point, it felt like almost 10 minutes had gone by.

<v Speaker 1>It had to be at least seven or eight minutes.

<v Speaker 1>And we're still waiting for the wildcard team to come out.

<v Speaker 1>And it's very clear why. Because Tony wants to wait

<v Speaker 1>until we're about to go off the air so it

<v Speaker 1>bleeds over into the beginning of the pay-per-view, which is smart.

<v Speaker 1>And I would have done that. Well, I wouldn't have

<v Speaker 1>had them on the fucking pre-show. But if I were

<v Speaker 1>doing it where this match took place on the pre-show,

<v Speaker 1>of course. If I'm about to debut a new team,

<v Speaker 1>I would want this to bleed over into the pay-per-view

<v Speaker 1>and make people buy the show if for some reason

<v Speaker 1>they were still on the fence and didn't make the

<v Speaker 1>decision to buy the show. So they're dragging this out,

<v Speaker 1>and finally they go off the air. I flip over

<v Speaker 1>because even on my AEW, you've got to flip out

<v Speaker 1>of the pre-show, you've got to then jump into the

<v Speaker 1>pay-per-view feed, and I'm like, motherfucker, I better not miss this.

<v Speaker 1>So I flip over, and the pay-per-view begins, and we

<v Speaker 1>come right back to the match. And again, this is

<v Speaker 1>one of those times where it really made a lot

<v Speaker 1>of sense for them to have the pre-show bleed over

<v Speaker 1>into the opening of the main card sure enough out

<v Speaker 1>comes swerve strickland he's got prince nana with him and

<v Speaker 1>then it's time to find out uh who his partners

<v Speaker 1>are we see on the screen they play we hear

<v Speaker 1>some music but they play uh this little video animation

<v Speaker 1>on the screen press start like a video game intro

<v Speaker 1>So it says press start, and then we hear a

<v Speaker 1>big pop because out comes Kofi and Austin Creed. The

<v Speaker 1>new day have arrived. And it is a new day

<v Speaker 1>for them because they have a new name. They are

<v Speaker 1>now the new level. And Tony Khan went, and this

<v Speaker 1>is not the only song he licensed for this show,

<v Speaker 1>but he did license A $ AP Ferg's new level song.

<v Speaker 1>I assume that will be their entrance music from now on,

<v Speaker 1>and it wasn't just for the pay-per-view. But for at

<v Speaker 1>least one night, he licensed that as their song. They

<v Speaker 1>come out, they get a huge reaction, as you would imagine,

<v Speaker 1>even though most people in the building probably knew or

<v Speaker 1>figured that they were going to be there. And I

<v Speaker 1>thought the presentation was great. And they come down to

<v Speaker 1>the ring. Bandito at this point returned to the match. Again,

<v Speaker 1>his shoulder was taped up. He got dumped out by

<v Speaker 1>Gabe Kidd after taking a pile driver. So again, he

<v Speaker 1>was still out there taking bumps, which hopefully is a

<v Speaker 1>good sign that if he is hurt, it's not too serious.

<v Speaker 1>Finley and Jay White, they spilled out over the top

<v Speaker 1>rope onto the apron. White hit a Blade Runner and

<v Speaker 1>didn't really hit a Blade Runner. He did the Blade

<v Speaker 1>Runner motion, which sent Finley off the apron, landed on

<v Speaker 1>his feet. So he's eliminated. At that point, Gabe Kidd

<v Speaker 1>knocked Jay White off the apron to the floor and

<v Speaker 1>he was gone. So Hangman Page was about to deliver

<v Speaker 1>a buckshot lariat. Ricochet, though, hit a springboard dropkick and

<v Speaker 1>eliminated Hangman, who took this ridiculous inside-out bump off the

<v Speaker 1>apron and landed on the floor. So that guaranteed that

<v Speaker 1>we were going to get new champions crowned. Because Brody

<v Speaker 1>King was actually eliminated very quickly in this match when

<v Speaker 1>they first came out. And as I mentioned, Bandito got

<v Speaker 1>dumped and now Hangman. So we are guaranteed. To have

<v Speaker 1>new Trios champions for, what, the fourth time, maybe? Third

<v Speaker 1>or fourth time in two months or something. I mean, again,

<v Speaker 1>it's the Trios belt, so who cares? But we've had

<v Speaker 1>a bunch of different Trios champions in the last couple

<v Speaker 1>of months. Swerve dumped Ricochet, and we were down to Swerve.

<v Speaker 1>New level, Claudio, Pac, and Gabe Kidd. Kofi. I was

<v Speaker 1>wondering if we were going to get this when they

<v Speaker 1>said over the top rope elimination. And I knew Kofi

<v Speaker 1>was going to be debuting. I said, I wonder if

<v Speaker 1>they're going to revive the old rumble spot. And they did.

<v Speaker 1>It's been many years since we've seen this. He was

<v Speaker 1>left dangling by his feet upside down. He was hanging

<v Speaker 1>out of the ring only by his feet, which were

<v Speaker 1>kind of hooked underneath the bottom rope. The heels thought

<v Speaker 1>they had eliminated him. And then they realized that they didn't.

<v Speaker 1>So pack went out to the apron. And he stomped

<v Speaker 1>on him. And Kofi falls to the floor on his back.

<v Speaker 1>And Pac thinks, great, he's done, right? Pac goes back

<v Speaker 1>into the ring. But Kofi's feet are still up. They

<v Speaker 1>have not touched the floor. Your feet have to touch

<v Speaker 1>the floor or you're not officially eliminated. So here comes

<v Speaker 1>Prince Nana. And he grabs Kofi by the legs in

<v Speaker 1>a wheelbarrow position. And Kofi uses his hands to pedal

<v Speaker 1>his way towards the ring steps. And he gets saved.

<v Speaker 1>So they did the old Kofi rumble savior spot, only

<v Speaker 1>this time he had a little bit of assistance. And

<v Speaker 1>everybody popped huge for it. Kofi, at that point, hit

<v Speaker 1>a springboard crossbody to Claudio. Then came the midnight hour,

<v Speaker 1>which is the old New Day finish. The double stop by,

<v Speaker 1>I was going to say Woods, by Creed to Gabe Kidd.

<v Speaker 1>Gabe then got hung up on the apron. Strickland hit

<v Speaker 1>him with a springboard house call kick to eliminate him.

<v Speaker 1>Kofi and Creed hit stereo clotheslines to dump both remaining

<v Speaker 1>members of the Death Riders. Goodbye, Claudio. Goodbye, Pac. Hello,

<v Speaker 1>new Trios champions. And new. Swerve Strickland and the new

<v Speaker 1>level win the Trios belts. In total, this match went

<v Speaker 1>40 minutes, which, again, this did not need to go

<v Speaker 1>40 minutes. but it did. I don't think it's anything

<v Speaker 1>that needs to become an annual thing. It wasn't awful

<v Speaker 1>or anything like that. It definitely had its fun moments.

<v Speaker 1>I wasn't in love with it. Again, some fun moments,

<v Speaker 1>but like the Continental Cup, I don't think this is

<v Speaker 1>something that we need to see. Well, with the Continental Cup,

<v Speaker 1>I don't think that's something we need to see ever again.

<v Speaker 1>With this, I mean, you could do one of these

<v Speaker 1>from time to time, but I don't think this needs

<v Speaker 1>to be some new annual concept. I am glad that

<v Speaker 1>Tony saved the New Day debut here for the main card.

<v Speaker 1>And to do it in the opener, I think, was smart, right?

<v Speaker 1>Because that's still a big spot to be in. You're

<v Speaker 1>either opening the show, right? You want to open in

<v Speaker 1>a hot way, or you're closing the show. That was

<v Speaker 1>always the Brock Lesnar philosophy, right? If I'm not main eventing,

<v Speaker 1>then I'm opening, in part so I can leave early.

<v Speaker 1>You don't want to be, like some of these AW pay-per-views,

<v Speaker 1>This one was not, like, egregiously long, like some of

<v Speaker 1>the pay-per-views typically are. You'll notice, like, the pacing and

<v Speaker 1>everything was much better on this show, which is why

<v Speaker 1>I haven't commented on it yet. But, like, typically on

<v Speaker 1>a lot of these pay-per-views, there's so many matches. And

<v Speaker 1>it's all rapid-fire, just one after the other after the other.

<v Speaker 1>And they're just throwing everything but the kitchen sink at

<v Speaker 1>each other. It's easy to get lost in the middle. Like,

<v Speaker 1>I would not... I wouldn't want to be in the

<v Speaker 1>main event, frankly. The way some of these main events

<v Speaker 1>go on at fucking midnight. But to be stuck somewhere

<v Speaker 1>in the middle of the card would be death. I

<v Speaker 1>would love to be in the opening match. Stand out more.

<v Speaker 1>So whatever. I'm glad they made it onto the main card.

<v Speaker 1>I thought their presentation was really well done. I like

<v Speaker 1>the new music. I like the name. I don't see

<v Speaker 1>anything wrong with the name. I like the tie-in to

<v Speaker 1>the whole video game thing. You know, that's the whole

<v Speaker 1>point of the new level. I don't have an issue

<v Speaker 1>with it. Could they have come up with a better name? Sure.

<v Speaker 1>This name is fine. And their first defense has already

<v Speaker 1>been announced. They're going to be defending those Trios titles

<v Speaker 1>on Wednesday again. the Rascals, which actually should be a

<v Speaker 1>hell of a match. Swerve and New Day against the Rascals. Okay,

<v Speaker 1>I like it. I'll be here for it. We have

<v Speaker 1>Divine Dominion, Megan Bain, Alina Cross, defending their women's tag

<v Speaker 1>team titles. Against the Brawling Birds, Jamie Hayter and Alex Windsor.

<v Speaker 1>The crowd came across on television, very quiet. Perhaps we'll

<v Speaker 1>hear from some people who were there who can speak

<v Speaker 1>to this better. But yeah, it was just very, and again,

<v Speaker 1>maybe they were very up for that previous match, which

<v Speaker 1>went 40 fucking minutes. And they got a big debut

<v Speaker 1>and they got new champions crowned. And so this was almost,

<v Speaker 1>this almost felt like a comedown. But this is a

<v Speaker 1>match that has been brewing for a long time, and

<v Speaker 1>so it's a sign that the fans were just not

<v Speaker 1>fully invested in this, or else they would have been

<v Speaker 1>more animated for it. Not a lot of tags in

<v Speaker 1>this match, or at least not legal ones. The champions

<v Speaker 1>hit their heaven-to-hell double chokeslam. Enough! Enough! Enough! That's what

<v Speaker 1>they said. I said enough. Enough of these Divine Dominion women.

<v Speaker 1>They have been dominant now for months. It's about time

<v Speaker 1>that somebody beat them and took these titles away from them.

<v Speaker 1>So Alex Windsor pulls Lena Cross off the pin. So

<v Speaker 1>that broke the count. Lena got dropped with a hate breaker.

<v Speaker 1>And the birds hit their two birds, one stone finish

<v Speaker 1>to get the pin on Lena to win the women's

<v Speaker 1>tag team titles. Again, I wish that the crowd was

<v Speaker 1>more up for the match. I thought, as a match,

<v Speaker 1>it was solid. It really wasn't anything great. It was okay.

<v Speaker 1>But it built to the predictable finish. And the right one.

<v Speaker 1>Nobody else has been able to beat these two women.

<v Speaker 1>And they make a great team, by the way. Like,

<v Speaker 1>I think their entrance and presentation and everything has been great.

<v Speaker 1>But it just gets to a point where it's like, okay, well,

<v Speaker 1>where do you go from here? Like, if they go

<v Speaker 1>in here and win again... There is no other obvious

<v Speaker 1>team for them to create a story with or for

<v Speaker 1>them to go in there and wrestle against. This was

<v Speaker 1>the right place at the right time. They're in London.

<v Speaker 1>It's your biggest show of the year. These two have

<v Speaker 1>been dominant for months and months. The time was now.

<v Speaker 1>There really could be no other logical finish to this match. Now,

<v Speaker 1>they did pop for the finish. So they were at

<v Speaker 1>least into that. The rest of it, Not so much,

<v Speaker 1>but they got some pyro. Yeah, there was some talk

<v Speaker 1>coming into the show that because of some regulations or something,

<v Speaker 1>they may not be able to have any pyro on

<v Speaker 1>this show. They had pyro. I don't know if that

<v Speaker 1>was just an errant report or if something changed. They

<v Speaker 1>had actually lots of pyro on this show. We had

<v Speaker 1>the finals of the Continental Cup with the reigning Continental Champion,

<v Speaker 1>the unbeatable one, Jon Moxley. Against Nigel McGuinness. The story

<v Speaker 1>of Nigel is very simple. He injured his ankle early

<v Speaker 1>on in this tournament, and there was some question as

<v Speaker 1>to whether or not he would be able to continue.

<v Speaker 1>He opted to continue, and they allowed him to. He

<v Speaker 1>did pull himself, or get pulled, from the Ring of

<v Speaker 1>Honor pay-per-view a couple of weeks ago. It's all part

<v Speaker 1>of the storyline. And he had some matches in this tournament,

<v Speaker 1>like the one with Hechicero a few weeks ago, where

<v Speaker 1>it was mostly just selling the ankle, and it made

<v Speaker 1>for a very boring match. So I see this, and look, hey, selling,

<v Speaker 1>that's great, right? We don't get enough of that. But

<v Speaker 1>when you're selling so much that it makes for a

<v Speaker 1>boring match, I wasn't exactly, you know, overly excited coming

<v Speaker 1>into this pay-per-view to see this match. And I was

<v Speaker 1>hoping it wouldn't just be 15 minutes of just him

<v Speaker 1>selling the ankle, because again, that's fucking boring. But it's

<v Speaker 1>Nigel McGinnis, and he's a great wrestler, and here we

<v Speaker 1>are in Wembley Stadium, and this is a big moment

<v Speaker 1>for him. And so if ever he was going to

<v Speaker 1>go in there and have another great Nigel McGinnis match, right,

<v Speaker 1>this would be the one. So he goes in there

<v Speaker 1>with Moxley, and Excalibur said that this is only Nigel's

<v Speaker 1>fourth match this year. In AEW, maybe. He's actually had five.

<v Speaker 1>He had a Ring of Honor match back in May,

<v Speaker 1>so it wasn't that long ago. But it's matches like

<v Speaker 1>this where a lot of the work is very grounded.

<v Speaker 1>and very mat-based, where I feel like Bryan Danielson really

<v Speaker 1>excels on commentary. He did a good job throughout the night,

<v Speaker 1>but again, this match in particular, he really stood out,

<v Speaker 1>I thought, on commentary. Lots of mat work, working over

<v Speaker 1>the ankle, until the ripcord lariat flattened Moxley. Moxley got

<v Speaker 1>the bulldog choke applied. McGinnis, though, broke the hold and

<v Speaker 1>got the London Dungeon locked on, which he's won some

<v Speaker 1>of his recent matches with. Danielson was screaming for him

<v Speaker 1>to end it, A little biased, right? Not exactly the

<v Speaker 1>biggest Jon Moxley fan. But it's a little weird hearing

<v Speaker 1>him root for Nigel, too, because the two of them

<v Speaker 1>don't like each other. But I guess he hates Moxley more.

<v Speaker 1>So he was really getting behind Nigel on commentary. And

<v Speaker 1>Moxley was really teasing that he was going to tap.

<v Speaker 1>It was like when he was having those matches with

<v Speaker 1>Kyle O'Reilly. Every time he would get locked in a

<v Speaker 1>submission hold, he would panic, right? He would get all

<v Speaker 1>freaked out. So for a moment there, you thought that

<v Speaker 1>he was actually going to tap out, but he rolled

<v Speaker 1>through into an ankle lock. McGinnis kicked his way free.

<v Speaker 1>Moxley got a sunset flip. Nigel, though, sat forward for

<v Speaker 1>a very close jackknife pin. That was a nod to

<v Speaker 1>the finish of the Bret Hart-British Bulldog match at Wembley.

<v Speaker 1>The old Wembley. SummerSlam 92. I love the callback. Moxley

<v Speaker 1>got another ankle lock apply, but then he got a

<v Speaker 1>curb stomp. And now Moxley grapevined the leg. He sank

<v Speaker 1>in one more ankle lock. And these fans were begging.

<v Speaker 1>They were begging Nigel not to give up. They were

<v Speaker 1>fully invested in this now. And Nigel is just writhing

<v Speaker 1>in pain, and he's inching his way towards the bottom rope.

<v Speaker 1>And it looked like, to me, from that camera angle,

<v Speaker 1>it looked like he got his fingertips on the bottom rope,

<v Speaker 1>whether he did or he didn't. The referee didn't call

<v Speaker 1>for the break, so I assume he didn't. But he

<v Speaker 1>was that close. And yet, as close as he was,

<v Speaker 1>he was still too far away. And he is just

<v Speaker 1>milking this for all it's worth. Even Excalibur was rooting

<v Speaker 1>for Nigel to make it, and then he apologized later

<v Speaker 1>on for being a little too biased. Pain was too much, though.

<v Speaker 1>Nigel finally tapped out to give Moxley the cup and

<v Speaker 1>the championship. Of course, he already had the championship, so

<v Speaker 1>just handed it right back to him. When the match

<v Speaker 1>was over, the Death Riders joined Moxley for the celebration

<v Speaker 1>at ringside, and they all left through the crowd together.

<v Speaker 1>McGinnis was left alone in the ring, got up on

<v Speaker 1>his own two feet all by himself, and he bowed

<v Speaker 1>to each side of the crowd. Big standing ovation. The

<v Speaker 1>crowd got louder, deeper into the match they went here.

<v Speaker 1>When it looked like Nigel might actually have a fighting

<v Speaker 1>chance here to win this thing, they really got into it.

<v Speaker 1>I thought the way they laid the match out, honestly,

<v Speaker 1>was masterful. They did a really good job with that.

<v Speaker 1>This was some great pro wrestling here towards the end.

<v Speaker 1>When the music stopped and Nigel was alone in the ring,

<v Speaker 1>there was a moment there where I was convinced he

<v Speaker 1>was taking the boots off. And this was going to

<v Speaker 1>be his retirement. Because again, he's obviously closer to the

<v Speaker 1>end of his career than he is the beginning. For

<v Speaker 1>years there, his career was over. He's in the same

<v Speaker 1>camp as Copeland and Danielson, where to them, it looked

<v Speaker 1>like their career was over, and then they were able

<v Speaker 1>to eventually return. But how many more years, realistically, is

<v Speaker 1>he going to be doing this, right? So you could

<v Speaker 1>believe that maybe he decided, look, I don't know when

<v Speaker 1>or if we're even going to be back here at Wembley.

<v Speaker 1>And so what better place for him to hang it

<v Speaker 1>up and retire than in the middle of the ring

<v Speaker 1>at Wembley Stadium after having a really good wrestling match?

<v Speaker 1>So I'm like, okay, here it comes. And It never came.

<v Speaker 1>He just bowed to the crowd and left the ring.

<v Speaker 1>So it looks like Nigel is going to fight on

<v Speaker 1>even if it's only a handful of times each year.

<v Speaker 1>The one thing I will say, the guy can still go.

<v Speaker 1>You can't say that he can't go anymore. You know,

<v Speaker 1>he wrestles maybe a handful of times every year. He

<v Speaker 1>goes in there and he has really good pro wrestling matches. Sometimes,

<v Speaker 1>you know, it could be a little on the dull

<v Speaker 1>side if they really spend a lot of time on

<v Speaker 1>the mat or it's just some random match that he's in.

<v Speaker 1>Like the stuff with Danielson. There was a story there, right?

<v Speaker 1>There was years of just insults and just hate. Nigel

<v Speaker 1>hated this guy's fucking guts. So when they were building

<v Speaker 1>up the fact that they were going to wrestle finally,

<v Speaker 1>it's like, okay, this is the culmination of something. And

<v Speaker 1>that's a lot more enjoyable than just randomly saying, let's

<v Speaker 1>say on a collision one week, hey, Nigel's going to

<v Speaker 1>be wrestling. Like, okay. Great. But the guy can still go. Then...

<v Speaker 1>It was time for the three-way, and this was one

<v Speaker 1>of the two matches I was most looking forward to

<v Speaker 1>here on this show. For the AEW International Championship, Kyle

<v Speaker 1>Fletcher defending his title against both Konosuke Takeshita and Kazuchika Okada.

<v Speaker 1>They did the old Shawn Michaels Triple H spot from

<v Speaker 1>Survivor Series in 2009 when they had their three-way with

<v Speaker 1>John Cena match where Shawn super kicked Triple H at

<v Speaker 1>the very beginning. And then Cena stood there with the

<v Speaker 1>big shocked look on his face. everybody was stunned so

<v Speaker 1>they took a page out of their book here having

<v Speaker 1>Fletcher super kick Okada out of the ring and then

<v Speaker 1>Takeshita stood there looking all shocked Okada delivered an air

<v Speaker 1>raid crash neck breaker to Takeshita He went up top.

<v Speaker 1>He did the falling elbow, the stalling elbow drop that

<v Speaker 1>he does before giving all of us the Rainmaker middle finger.

<v Speaker 1>What he didn't see is behind him, Kyle Fletcher was

<v Speaker 1>standing and he gave Okada the middle finger. And then

<v Speaker 1>he dropped him with a half and half suplex. Then

<v Speaker 1>we got a crazy sequence where Okada delivered a drop kick.

<v Speaker 1>Then we got a pump knee from Takeshita and Okada

<v Speaker 1>brain buster, which is Fletcher's move. He did that to Fletcher.

<v Speaker 1>We got a Rainmaker, which is Okada's move, but it

<v Speaker 1>was done by Takeshita to Fletcher, who then took out

<v Speaker 1>Takeshita with Takeshita's own raging fire. Did you follow all that?

<v Speaker 1>Because I barely did. What I can tell you is

<v Speaker 1>that at the end of the sequence, everybody was down.

<v Speaker 1>So Okada went to the turnbuckle to pull out the

<v Speaker 1>dreaded screwdriver. He got caught, though, by Fletcher. And so

<v Speaker 1>he presented it to him as a gift. Fletcher took it.

<v Speaker 1>He went to go use it on Takeshita, but Okada

<v Speaker 1>tried a Rainmaker on Fletcher, and he missed. And Takeshita

<v Speaker 1>came in with stereo O'Connor roll German suplex combo. If

<v Speaker 1>you could visualize this, where he had both men pinned

<v Speaker 1>at the same time. Crab popped huge for that spot.

<v Speaker 1>Takeshita took the screwdriver. Okada was begging off, and Takeshita

<v Speaker 1>tossed it aside, only to eat a dropkick. Okada then

<v Speaker 1>went for the Rainmaker. Takeshita ducked. Fletcher took the bullet instead.

<v Speaker 1>Okada went for another rainmaker to Kyle, but Fletcher connected first,

<v Speaker 1>and then Takeshita brought Fletcher up into the corner. He

<v Speaker 1>wanted a brain buster. Kyle escaped. He wanted his top

<v Speaker 1>rope brain buster. Takeshita, though, countered into a spinning avalanche DDT,

<v Speaker 1>then hit the power drive knee, only for two. Then

<v Speaker 1>he connected on the raging fire, but Okada comes back

<v Speaker 1>in with a rainmaker, and then Fletcher breaks up the pitch.

<v Speaker 1>So We were going back and forth, you know, seesaw

<v Speaker 1>with all three of these guys. Takeshita, he spikes Fletcher

<v Speaker 1>with a huge blue thunderbomb. As he went to go

<v Speaker 1>lower the knee pad, though, Fletcher pops up, hits a

<v Speaker 1>halluva kick, and then he got his avalanche brain buster.

<v Speaker 1>Dropped him right onto the top turnbuckle. Fletcher had the

<v Speaker 1>match won. But here comes Okada, who rolls back inside.

<v Speaker 1>He scurries in. He drops Fletcher with a rainmaker. And

<v Speaker 1>when it looked like he was about to go cover Takeshita,

<v Speaker 1>he stopped himself, and instead he chose, he opted to

<v Speaker 1>cover Kyle Fletcher. He would pin the champion, right? His

<v Speaker 1>fellow Callis family member, he covers Fletcher, and he gets

<v Speaker 1>the three count to win back the title. When the

<v Speaker 1>match was over, Okada was celebrating in the ring with

<v Speaker 1>Don Callis. Fletcher rips the international title away from him.

<v Speaker 1>He's fucking pissed as all hell. Callis tried to calm

<v Speaker 1>him down. Fletcher... is just staring at the championship. And

<v Speaker 1>eventually he hands it to Okada, and Okada demands that

<v Speaker 1>he raises his hand, right? Raise my hand! And this is,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, this is too much for Fletcher. Callus comes over,

<v Speaker 1>he goes, here, I'll do it with you. He grabs

<v Speaker 1>Okada's other hand, Fletcher grabs, I think, Okada's right hand,

<v Speaker 1>and they both raise his arm. And I thought maybe

<v Speaker 1>the clothesline was coming, but there was no clothesline. I'm

<v Speaker 1>glad they didn't, honestly, because if they wanted Okada to

<v Speaker 1>win this match, right, there's a clear story that they're

<v Speaker 1>trying to tell here within the family. They have to

<v Speaker 1>play this out for a little while longer. The match itself,

<v Speaker 1>very good. This is the match I thought could steal

<v Speaker 1>the show. This was not the best match on the show,

<v Speaker 1>but if it wasn't number one, it was probably number two.

<v Speaker 1>You could argue the women's match. I would probably argue

<v Speaker 1>number two. But whatever position you want to put it in.

<v Speaker 1>This was one of the better matches on the card.

<v Speaker 1>Certainly the best one on the card up to this point.

<v Speaker 1>As far as Okada winning, I was not expecting it.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe I should have been. I'm not mad about it.

<v Speaker 1>Because it plays into this story that they're telling. This

<v Speaker 1>tension that's been building for a while now. With Okada

<v Speaker 1>and Fletcher. And the whole putting family first. We saw

<v Speaker 1>Okada on television once. even on Wednesday. Kyle, you know,

<v Speaker 1>it doesn't matter who wins, as long as we keep

<v Speaker 1>it in the family, right? It's all about family, but

<v Speaker 1>he would say it with this big shit-eating grin on

<v Speaker 1>his face, like you knew he was being so disingenuous.

<v Speaker 1>He's very good at that. He knows how to play

<v Speaker 1>that character to a hilt. So that's the story I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure they're going to lean into, which is, well, we

<v Speaker 1>should all be happy, because at least the championship is

<v Speaker 1>still within the family. Of course, Fletcher is that's small

<v Speaker 1>consolation to him. He's not going to be happy about

<v Speaker 1>that at all. This feels like this should eventually lead

<v Speaker 1>to him splitting away from the family and going baby face.

<v Speaker 1>But I don't think, I don't think the time is

<v Speaker 1>right for that. I think we need Fletcher to stay

<v Speaker 1>heel for a little while longer. I think that that's

<v Speaker 1>the right move to make and the right spot for

<v Speaker 1>him to still be in for a while. So it doesn't,

<v Speaker 1>it's not something that has to happen in the next

<v Speaker 1>like month. Hopefully they can drag it out and not,

<v Speaker 1>dissimilar to what they did with Okada and Takeshita when

<v Speaker 1>they were both members of the Kalos family. Now that

<v Speaker 1>they dragged out for probably far too long. But you

<v Speaker 1>can still get mileage out of this. You know, you

<v Speaker 1>don't have to turn him just yet. What this means

<v Speaker 1>for Takeshita, I don't know. I just hope he doesn't

<v Speaker 1>end up on the back burner. Very easy in this

<v Speaker 1>company with so many people to get lost in the shuffle.

<v Speaker 1>Hopefully that doesn't happen with him. But anyway... See you Friday, Kyle.

<v Speaker 1>Kyle Fletcher has a date with the Amazing Red this

<v Speaker 1>Friday at House of Glory. He will not be showing

<v Speaker 1>up now with the international title, but he's got to

<v Speaker 1>shake it off. You got other matches coming up. You

<v Speaker 1>got a big challenge coming up. Shake it off. On

<v Speaker 1>to the next. We'll see you there. We had the

<v Speaker 1>men's casino gauntlet match after this for a contract for

<v Speaker 1>a guaranteed future championship match. We knew coming into this

<v Speaker 1>that Andrade El Idolo was entering in number one. We

<v Speaker 1>knew that MJF, who still has his leg wrapped up,

<v Speaker 1>by the way, or his thigh, he was entering this

<v Speaker 1>match in the number two spot. Now, if you've seen

<v Speaker 1>the casino gauntlet before, you know how these work. You

<v Speaker 1>want to be early in the match because the match

<v Speaker 1>could end at any moment. This was not like the

<v Speaker 1>tag team trios match earlier where every team was going

<v Speaker 1>to enter like a Royal Rumble until everybody was called.

<v Speaker 1>First fall wins the match. Pinfall or submission. This could

<v Speaker 1>have been over in five minutes. So the earlier the better.

<v Speaker 1>You're incentivized to end this match as quickly as possible.

<v Speaker 1>We had Nick Wayne. Obviously these two went at it

<v Speaker 1>right out of the gate because they don't like each other.

<v Speaker 1>Nick Wayne entered here at number three. We had Speedball

<v Speaker 1>Mike Bailey coming in at number four. Tommaso Ciampa came

<v Speaker 1>out at number five. Actually, if you listen, he kind

<v Speaker 1>of got a good pop for himself, too, when they

<v Speaker 1>hit his music. He's got good theme music, though. Unfortunately,

<v Speaker 1>in wrestling today, there are a lot of wrestlers who

<v Speaker 1>have been saddled with just awful, terrible entrance music. And

<v Speaker 1>I would say he has one of the better ones. So,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, that helps, you know, when you have cool

<v Speaker 1>music to come out to you. So he was out

<v Speaker 1>at number five, but I did have a bone to pick.

<v Speaker 1>Although it became clear after a few seconds why this

<v Speaker 1>was happening, but he comes out and he's taking his

<v Speaker 1>sweet time. Now he happened to come out at a

<v Speaker 1>point in the match where everybody was down. And what

<v Speaker 1>did I just tell you? I said, like, there is

<v Speaker 1>a world champion, or I guess technically you can use

<v Speaker 1>the contract for any title, but we'll say world championship

<v Speaker 1>contract up for grabs here in this match. And everybody

<v Speaker 1>is down. And it's one fall to a finish. You

<v Speaker 1>would think he would be rushing to the ring, right,

<v Speaker 1>to cover the first person that he can cover and

<v Speaker 1>try to get the pin. But he's taking his time.

<v Speaker 1>I'm like, why is he taking, and even the announcers

<v Speaker 1>are pointing this out, like, why is he taking his time?

<v Speaker 1>He was barely halfway down the ramp. They cut his

<v Speaker 1>music off and they play Chris Jericho's music. And Jericho

<v Speaker 1>enters here at number six. And at this point, Excalibur

<v Speaker 1>reminds us that they were going to have irregular intervals,

<v Speaker 1>he said. Although it was never explained why we were

<v Speaker 1>having irregular intervals here on this show in this match.

<v Speaker 1>The actual answer, the practical answer is that they had

<v Speaker 1>a curfew for this show. And so by having intervals

<v Speaker 1>that were not timed out exactly the same each time,

<v Speaker 1>it gave them the flexibility that they needed to depending

<v Speaker 1>on how long or short they were running with the show,

<v Speaker 1>to adjust on the fly. That's the sensible answer why. Kayfabe-wise, storyline-wise,

<v Speaker 1>I have no idea why we would have intervals that

<v Speaker 1>could be... Look, we had eight minutes in the fucking

<v Speaker 1>trios match earlier. Or here, in this case, we had

<v Speaker 1>an interval that went maybe 30 seconds. There's really no

<v Speaker 1>reason for it. So then, after maybe... 90 seconds later,

<v Speaker 1>I would say, Jericho in the ring has MJF in

<v Speaker 1>the walls. Mark Davis shows up. And when I say

<v Speaker 1>that Mark Davis showed up, there was no music. There

<v Speaker 1>was no you know buzzer noise or anything like that

<v Speaker 1>he just appeared like he stepped out of a fucking

<v Speaker 1>portal from another dimension and there he is dunkzilla as

<v Speaker 1>they said mark mark davis is standing in the ring

<v Speaker 1>and he you know goes on the attack here on

<v Speaker 1>jericho and justin roberts then announced him as entrant number

<v Speaker 1>seven i'm like okay I guess he's in. It reminded me,

<v Speaker 1>there was a Royal Rumble one year, I want to

<v Speaker 1>say it was 1990, where it was late in the match,

<v Speaker 1>like one of the last entrants. Hogan was already in there.

<v Speaker 1>And Rick Rude came out. But he came out prematurely

<v Speaker 1>because they had the countdown clock and everything, but there

<v Speaker 1>was no clock. He just showed up. He just got

<v Speaker 1>in the ring. And I think then the clock came on.

<v Speaker 1>And the announcers were completely confused by this. Like, why

<v Speaker 1>is he out here? I guess he jumped the gun.

<v Speaker 1>I was like, yeah, Jericho, you could say the same

<v Speaker 1>thing about Jericho, except they played his music. So if

<v Speaker 1>anybody jumped the gun, it was the sound man. But anyway,

<v Speaker 1>so we have Justin Roberts introducing the next participant, which

<v Speaker 1>was number eight. And he announces Mystico. The only problem

<v Speaker 1>is it was not Mystico. It was Commandor. Because to

<v Speaker 1>Justin Roberts, all the luchadors, they all look the same.

<v Speaker 1>I guess they're all wearing the same masks. They all

<v Speaker 1>walk the same. They all talk the same. This was

<v Speaker 1>very much not Mystico. The fans even started to mockingly

<v Speaker 1>chant Mystico at Commander. And what's he going to do?

<v Speaker 1>You know, it's not his fault. He just kind of

<v Speaker 1>shrugged it off. Commander did his rope walk dive out

<v Speaker 1>onto the big pile outside. And then Justin corrected himself

<v Speaker 1>and introduced entrant number eight, Commander. And he got a

<v Speaker 1>big pop for it. So, I mean, look, kudos to

<v Speaker 1>him for at least figuring out a way to adjust

<v Speaker 1>on the fly, I guess, for his fuck up here.

<v Speaker 1>Number nine was, in fact, Mystico. Or as Justin said,

<v Speaker 1>you guessed it, Mystico. So he came out to Mimuero.

<v Speaker 1>Only made it halfway down the ramp before he got

<v Speaker 1>ambushed by Daniel Garcia, who almost slipped and fucking tripped

<v Speaker 1>on his ass. So he was number 10. Jack Perry

<v Speaker 1>came in at number 11. First thing he did was

<v Speaker 1>take Andrade off the apron with a Rana down to

<v Speaker 1>the floor. Then he got the snare trap submission applied

<v Speaker 1>to Ciampa in the center of the ring, and he

<v Speaker 1>teased a tap. Ciampa was. Until Nick Wayne broke it

<v Speaker 1>up with a top rope splash to the back. Later

<v Speaker 1>on in the match, Nick hit a tope destroyer to

<v Speaker 1>Perry outside the ring and then rushed back inside with

<v Speaker 1>a phoenix splash to Mark Davis for a near fall.

<v Speaker 1>Nick tried to throw a kick at MJF, who he

<v Speaker 1>had come to an understanding with early in this match.

<v Speaker 1>They were going to work together. So here he throws

<v Speaker 1>a kick at MJF, who blocked it, but quickly forgave him, said,

<v Speaker 1>don't worry about it, right? They shake hands. And as

<v Speaker 1>soon as they shake hands, what does MJF do? Of course,

<v Speaker 1>he kicks him low. Nick Wayne is the only person

<v Speaker 1>in the entirety of Wembley Stadium who did not see

<v Speaker 1>this coming. MJF then dropped him with a heat seeker,

<v Speaker 1>had the match won seemingly, but Andrade gets back in

<v Speaker 1>the ring, and he hits the spinning back elbow to MJF.

<v Speaker 1>That knocks him out, and he steals the pin on

<v Speaker 1>Nick Wayne to win the gauntlet and earn the contract.

<v Speaker 1>for a future championship match. They went with the predictable

<v Speaker 1>winner in this match. And maybe the bigger surprise is

<v Speaker 1>that there were none. There were no surprises. There was

<v Speaker 1>no Ilya Dragunov. There was no returning star from injury.

<v Speaker 1>There was nothing. It was all very straightforward. Andrade now

<v Speaker 1>has a title match in his back pocket. Jericho may

<v Speaker 1>have hurt his knee. Again, I don't know if this

<v Speaker 1>was addressed or if Jericho spoke. I would imagine not.

<v Speaker 1>on the post show. So maybe we got some more

<v Speaker 1>clarity on this, uh, later on. And I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>but it looked to me like Jericho got hurt. He

<v Speaker 1>may have hurt his knee. There was a spot where

<v Speaker 1>he took Mark Davis off the top rope. You know,

<v Speaker 1>he does that, uh, avalanche Rana from the top rope.

<v Speaker 1>And so we hit that and immediately he, he tried

<v Speaker 1>to get back up and then he just collapsed, uh,

<v Speaker 1>back down to the mat. He started clutching his knee.

<v Speaker 1>It was right before, uh, Mystica made his entrance, uh,

<v Speaker 1>And he didn't look like he was moving very well

<v Speaker 1>for the remainder. He was still in the match. He

<v Speaker 1>still did some spots, but it didn't look like he

<v Speaker 1>was moving around too well. So I don't know what

<v Speaker 1>his status is. This went about 20 minutes. I will

<v Speaker 1>say this. It never dragged. They do some of these matches,

<v Speaker 1>these gauntlets, even like on TV sometimes. And they're like, yeah,

<v Speaker 1>they're not great. This never dragged. I think it was

<v Speaker 1>probably helped by the fact that they sped up. some

<v Speaker 1>of the entrances and we had some of these, as

<v Speaker 1>they said, irregular intervals in between entrances. Uh, so that

<v Speaker 1>sped up the pacing here and, you know, look, it

<v Speaker 1>helped break things up in between two important championship matches.

<v Speaker 1>This came to after the international title match and before

<v Speaker 1>the tag team title match. Now we had something important

<v Speaker 1>on the line in terms of the contract, but you know,

<v Speaker 1>they had a little bit of levity at different points

<v Speaker 1>here during the match. So that that's fine. No Ilya Dragunov,

<v Speaker 1>which I'm also okay with. I mean, him debuting here

<v Speaker 1>would have been great. The fact that he didn't doesn't

<v Speaker 1>change my opinion that he's coming in. I'm sure he is.

<v Speaker 1>Because realistically, I'm not sure where else he would go.

<v Speaker 1>You know, you want to be on TV, you want

<v Speaker 1>to make some real money. Since money evidently was one

<v Speaker 1>of the reasons why he is no longer in WWE,

<v Speaker 1>nothing else really makes sense. And I mean, look at

<v Speaker 1>all the people he would have to work with. The

<v Speaker 1>only thing working against him is the sheer number of

<v Speaker 1>people that Tony Khan employs at the moment. That's really

<v Speaker 1>the only thing working against him. It's a numbers game

<v Speaker 1>in AEW. It's hard to break through, you know, unless

<v Speaker 1>you're already coming in as like a top, top name. Otherwise,

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure he's ending up here. And it's probably better

<v Speaker 1>off this way because now he can debut more in

<v Speaker 1>a single situation where the spotlight is on him. You know,

<v Speaker 1>and it's not on 15 other people. Because even if

<v Speaker 1>he debuted in this match, I don't think he wasn't winning.

<v Speaker 1>Maybe we'll see him on Wednesday. So often, coming out

<v Speaker 1>of these shows, these post-pay-per-view Dynamites are very lackluster. I

<v Speaker 1>think the last one they had was actually one of

<v Speaker 1>the better ones. But typically, it's just a drag to

<v Speaker 1>sit through those shows. Maybe he can save some stuff

<v Speaker 1>for Wednesday and not give everything away on the pay-per-view.

<v Speaker 1>It's okay to do that. After this, the tag team

<v Speaker 1>titles were on the line. Not the trio's titles. Not

<v Speaker 1>the women's tag team titles. The men's tag team titles.

<v Speaker 1>Adam Copeland and Christian Cage in their Wembley debut. I

<v Speaker 1>guess Christian would have been at Wembley, right? For Copeland,

<v Speaker 1>this was his Wembley debut. They took on the Young

<v Speaker 1>Bucks first time ever. As I mentioned, for Copeland, it

<v Speaker 1>was his first time at Wembley Stadium. He's been checking

<v Speaker 1>different venues off of his wrestling bucket list. The first

<v Speaker 1>one was Arena Mexico. Wembley was the next one. In October,

<v Speaker 1>he's going to be working the main event for Scott

<v Speaker 1>D'Amore for Maple Leaf Pro at the old Maple Leaf Garden.

<v Speaker 1>And the only other venue I think left on his

<v Speaker 1>list then to work would be the Tokyo Dome. Which

<v Speaker 1>is why I think there's a very good chance we're

<v Speaker 1>going to get an Adam Copeland match on the Tokyo

<v Speaker 1>Dome show in January. Because I don't know that Copeland

<v Speaker 1>is wrestling beyond 2027. So if next year is potentially

<v Speaker 1>going to be it for him, then there's only going

<v Speaker 1>to be one Tokyo Dome show. He's got one shot

<v Speaker 1>if he wants to make that happen. So these fans,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if I would say it's a problem,

<v Speaker 1>but one of the things I noticed here in this

<v Speaker 1>match is that these fans did not want to boo

<v Speaker 1>Cope and Christian. Not that they came into the match

<v Speaker 1>like Omega, for example, coming into the main event acting

<v Speaker 1>clearly more heelish. But there were moments in this match,

<v Speaker 1>especially with Christian, where they were doing some underhanded stuff,

<v Speaker 1>and these fans did not want to boo these two.

<v Speaker 1>Christian tried a tornado DDT. Matt Jackson, though, turned it

<v Speaker 1>into the rolling Northern Lights suplexes that he does. He

<v Speaker 1>grabbed Copeland for the third one, took both men over.

<v Speaker 1>Nick Jackson wanted a melter driver, but he was nursing

<v Speaker 1>a bad ankle in the first half of the match.

<v Speaker 1>And so when he went for the move, he went

<v Speaker 1>for the springboard, he slipped. which he never does. And

<v Speaker 1>it's funny because in this situation, typically the fans will

<v Speaker 1>react in a way where they feel like, oh, it's

<v Speaker 1>a botch. I mean, they may not all chant you

<v Speaker 1>fucked up like they used to back in the day

<v Speaker 1>when those fans, especially in ECW, they were just ruthless

<v Speaker 1>with that. But it's pretty clear when somebody fucks up

<v Speaker 1>in this case, I think they understood, you know, it

<v Speaker 1>was part of the story here is clutching the ankle

<v Speaker 1>and He crashes and burns on the mat, and his

<v Speaker 1>brother is looking down at him like, oh my god,

<v Speaker 1>are you okay? Rick Knox goes over to tend to

<v Speaker 1>Nick Jackson. That allowed Christian to punt Matt low, and

<v Speaker 1>then he dropped Nick with a twist of fate before

<v Speaker 1>he and Copeland dropped Matt with a 3D for a

<v Speaker 1>near fall. So we got two nice callbacks to their

<v Speaker 1>fellow TLC teams. Copeland and Cage, they went up top

<v Speaker 1>with Matt and hit a stalling vertical superplex, but they

<v Speaker 1>landed in perfect position for Nick Jackson to hit a

<v Speaker 1>450 splash on both of them. Copeland came back with

<v Speaker 1>an impaler DDT, but when he charged in for a spear,

<v Speaker 1>he ate a superkick. And then the Bucks wanted the

<v Speaker 1>BTE trigger on Cage. Copeland, though, went for a spear

<v Speaker 1>only to catch Christian with some friendly fire. Uh-oh. Matt

<v Speaker 1>laid out Copeland with a spear of his own, and

<v Speaker 1>then they hit Cage with the BTE trigger. Copeland, though,

<v Speaker 1>at the very last moment, they claimed... broke up the pin.

<v Speaker 1>Now look, from the camera angle that we were watching,

<v Speaker 1>it didn't look to me like he was there in time,

<v Speaker 1>but it could have just been the camera angle. It

<v Speaker 1>looked like he broke it up with his head. We'll

<v Speaker 1>say he barely did. He barely broke up the pin attempt.

<v Speaker 1>The Bucks then tossed Copeland out of the ring, and

<v Speaker 1>then they had another BTE trigger to Christian. He kicked out.

<v Speaker 1>They all acted just shocked. Nick again signaled for a

<v Speaker 1>melter driver, but he springboarded into a charging spear from Copeland.

<v Speaker 1>And then Christian hit Matt with a kill switch. Then

<v Speaker 1>came a pop-up spear by Copeland. Matt kicked out. And

<v Speaker 1>at that point, Christian is frustrated as all hell. He's

<v Speaker 1>dropping some F-bombs out of frustration. He heads out to

<v Speaker 1>the timekeeper's area. He grabs a wrench. He grabs one

<v Speaker 1>of the tag title belts. Rick knocks. He grabs it

<v Speaker 1>away from him. And then Christian blocks a super kick

<v Speaker 1>from Nick, and he smashes the leg with the wrench.

<v Speaker 1>So Matt got sent into Rick Knox in the corner,

<v Speaker 1>but he stopped short, so we didn't get the ref bump.

<v Speaker 1>We almost did. But then Christian caught him with a

<v Speaker 1>wrench shot to the head. Referee didn't see it. Another

<v Speaker 1>pop-up spear by Copeland, and then Christian got the pin

<v Speaker 1>on Matt to retain. So Adam Copeland and Christian Cage

<v Speaker 1>leave as they walked in. Still the AEW Tag Team Champions.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think it was as good as the... best

<v Speaker 1>match that Cope and Christian had with FTR. So whatever

<v Speaker 1>match that would have been, was that double or maybe

<v Speaker 1>double or nothing? Whatever the best match was between FTR

<v Speaker 1>and Cope and Christian. This was not as good as that,

<v Speaker 1>but this was one of the better matches, really one

<v Speaker 1>of the best matches that Cope and Christian have had

<v Speaker 1>together since reuniting as a tag team. I thought this

<v Speaker 1>was very good. They got me on some of those

<v Speaker 1>near falls, a couple of them near the end. Surprised

<v Speaker 1>me on the finish. With them retaining, I thought they

<v Speaker 1>were going to drop them here, but they clearly have

<v Speaker 1>some more mileage that they could get out of them

<v Speaker 1>as a, not just a tag team, but as tag

<v Speaker 1>team champions, considering the post-match stuff. Because when the match

<v Speaker 1>was over, we heard the music for the Motor City

<v Speaker 1>Machine Guns. And so out to the ring they came.

<v Speaker 1>I was just shocked to see them at all. They

<v Speaker 1>debuted a month ago. We haven't seen them since. So

<v Speaker 1>they make their way down the long ramp. They get

<v Speaker 1>in the ring. They come face-to-face with Cope and Christian.

<v Speaker 1>The Bucks are back in the ring now. We have

<v Speaker 1>three teams in there. I'm figuring, who else is coming out?

<v Speaker 1>And sure enough, we weren't done yet. Here comes FTR.

<v Speaker 1>They come out with Stokely Hathaway. We have not seen

<v Speaker 1>them either on AEW television in a few months. They

<v Speaker 1>did just re-emerge last night. They actually won the RevPro

<v Speaker 1>British Tag Team titles last night from cowboy way. So

<v Speaker 1>now all four teams are in the ring and they

<v Speaker 1>are staring each other down. We have the champs, we

<v Speaker 1>have the Bucks, we have FTR, we have the machine guns,

<v Speaker 1>and we're still not done. We have one more. Back

<v Speaker 1>out comes the new level. No swerve. It's just Kofi

<v Speaker 1>and Creed with their new trios titles and they make

<v Speaker 1>their way down to the ring. Two-thirds of the new

<v Speaker 1>trios champs. So we have One big face-off in the

<v Speaker 1>middle of the ring. Cope and Christian are caught in

<v Speaker 1>the middle. They're looking around at all these different challengers

<v Speaker 1>that are gunning for them and gunning for their titles,

<v Speaker 1>like sharks circling their prey. And the champions exit at

<v Speaker 1>that point. What this was, was Tony Khan flexing. He

<v Speaker 1>was flexing and showing people, hey, If you're wondering who

<v Speaker 1>has the strongest tag team division in wrestling right now,

<v Speaker 1>look no further. You see it right here. You got

<v Speaker 1>it in AEW. And he's not wrong. Look, if I

<v Speaker 1>were him, I'd flex away too. If I knew that

<v Speaker 1>I had a leg up on the competition and that

<v Speaker 1>my tag team division was stronger than any other tag

<v Speaker 1>team division in any other company, I would want the

<v Speaker 1>world to know that too. And again, this is not

<v Speaker 1>even all the teams. This is just like the core

<v Speaker 1>teams that they're going to be focused on, it seems like,

<v Speaker 1>for the next few months. There's a bunch of other teams,

<v Speaker 1>like earlier, that I just rattled off, that you could

<v Speaker 1>also throw into the mix here. These are the ones

<v Speaker 1>that are going to be focused on here in these

<v Speaker 1>next few months. Kofi, I did catch Kofi's comments on

<v Speaker 1>the post-show scrum, and I just lifted them. I just

<v Speaker 1>wanted to read to you part of what he said.

<v Speaker 1>As far as the fans in Wembley chanting tag team

<v Speaker 1>wrestling at them when they were standing in the ring

<v Speaker 1>here in this segment post-match. He said, that's a big

<v Speaker 1>part of the reason why we wanted to come here.

<v Speaker 1>We've been watching from afar, and I told Tony this

<v Speaker 1>when we were talking in our video chat, this tag

<v Speaker 1>team division is one of, if not the greatest of

<v Speaker 1>all time in the history of the business. And I

<v Speaker 1>really mean that. So for us, we consider ourselves to

<v Speaker 1>be the best. So we want to mix it up

<v Speaker 1>with all the tag teams. So for us to be

<v Speaker 1>in there and have all of you recognize that, it

<v Speaker 1>feels like we made the right decision. Now, whether or

<v Speaker 1>not you believe this is the strongest tag team division

<v Speaker 1>in the history of the business, I wouldn't go that far.

<v Speaker 1>But it is a very strong tag team division. And

<v Speaker 1>think about it, if you're in their position, like if

<v Speaker 1>you're Kofi and you're Creed, you spent the majority of

<v Speaker 1>your career Working in one place. And you had great

<v Speaker 1>success there. And you won multiple tag team championships there.

<v Speaker 1>And you wrestled all the teams that there were to wrestle.

<v Speaker 1>Everybody that you could imagine. FTR when they were there

<v Speaker 1>as their revival. How many battles with the Usos, right?

<v Speaker 1>And everybody else that they've worked with over the years.

<v Speaker 1>You name them, they've been in the ring with them.

<v Speaker 1>And in recent years, they've been phased down. Which does

<v Speaker 1>tend to happen when you've been there for a million

<v Speaker 1>fucking years, but also it happens when you don't know

<v Speaker 1>what to do with these people. They were phased out.

<v Speaker 1>They were being featured during commercial breaks. WWE has a

<v Speaker 1>dead tag team division. Now there's hope that they're trying

<v Speaker 1>to resurrect the tag team division. Good luck with that.

<v Speaker 1>I hope they can. I don't buy for a second

<v Speaker 1>that this is going to end up being a long-term thing,

<v Speaker 1>but look, I hope they can. But it doesn't change

<v Speaker 1>the fact that those two worked in a company that

<v Speaker 1>did not prioritize tag team wrestling. The division is dead.

<v Speaker 1>It was dead. It is dead. So what were they

<v Speaker 1>going to do if they sign new deals and they

<v Speaker 1>took a pay cut? They took a 50 percent pay

<v Speaker 1>cut to stay because, oh, man, we're lifers here. We've

<v Speaker 1>been here for our whole career. Our whole library is here. Right.

<v Speaker 1>And we'll be in the Hall of Fame one day

<v Speaker 1>and all this stuff. Why would we leave? Why would

<v Speaker 1>we go anywhere else? Well, you would if you want

<v Speaker 1>to actually work with other teams in a healthy tag

<v Speaker 1>team division. That's why you would leave. Leaving was the

<v Speaker 1>best thing they could have done. Even if they weren't

<v Speaker 1>having their pay cut. Leaving was the best thing that

<v Speaker 1>they could have done. If they still wanted to get

<v Speaker 1>in the ring and wrestle. Because they had nobody to

<v Speaker 1>wrestle there. So of course they're going to feel reinvigorated

<v Speaker 1>and they're going to be excited. This is a new

<v Speaker 1>challenge for them. This is something they didn't plan on.

<v Speaker 1>This is something that they never thought would happen. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know that anybody in this chat realistically ever thought

<v Speaker 1>that they would see Kofi Kingston wrestling anywhere but WWE.

<v Speaker 1>He's been wrestling there since 2006. So I completely understand

<v Speaker 1>where he's coming from when he says this. Now it's

<v Speaker 1>like new life has been breathed into their careers. And

<v Speaker 1>they have all of these new, and I say new, even,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, look, a lot of the teams that were

<v Speaker 1>in the ring, if not all of them, I think

<v Speaker 1>there were two people in the ring who are under

<v Speaker 1>40 years old. And even those two people are in

<v Speaker 1>their late 30s. So I'm not going to sit here

<v Speaker 1>and tell you, look at all the youth in the ring, right?

<v Speaker 1>They have youth in the company, but there was not

<v Speaker 1>a lot of youth in the ring, but there were

<v Speaker 1>some big tag teams in there. Youth aside. So this

<v Speaker 1>is an exciting time if you are a fan of

<v Speaker 1>tag team wrestling and you watch the AEW product, right?

<v Speaker 1>It's one of the strong points now of the roster

<v Speaker 1>where they can really kind of wave their flag and go, hey,

<v Speaker 1>look at us. We're doing something that the other guys

<v Speaker 1>aren't doing. Good. Let them flex. But now you have

<v Speaker 1>to deliver, right? You have to deliver what people want

<v Speaker 1>to see, which are some great stories and some great

<v Speaker 1>matches in this tag team division. Make use of what

<v Speaker 1>you have. Don't waste it. Don't bury it. Don't fumble it.

<v Speaker 1>I'm excited to see what they can do. What was glaring,

<v Speaker 1>I will say, though, Despite everything I just said, what

<v Speaker 1>was very glaring was one team in particular not being

<v Speaker 1>out there. Even though they were there at Wembley Stadium.

<v Speaker 1>We know this because we saw them earlier in the night,

<v Speaker 1>and that's the Hurt Syndicate. Bobby Lashley. and Shelton Benjamin

<v Speaker 1>and them not being out there was like a giant

<v Speaker 1>neon sign instead Tony probably had them in the back

<v Speaker 1>eating cookies with the Costco guys double chocolate chunk or

<v Speaker 1>whatever it is that they eat they even have Costco

<v Speaker 1>over in the UK What would be the Costco equivalent

<v Speaker 1>over in the UK? Do they even have? I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>but I'll tell you what. It's very clear to me

<v Speaker 1>that they're not going to be in that mix. I

<v Speaker 1>would rather they do single stuff. I'm not even saying

<v Speaker 1>you have to break them up. You could still have

<v Speaker 1>the Hurt Syndicate. But man, Shelton Benjamin, before Bobby came in,

<v Speaker 1>Shelton Benjamin was doing some really cool stuff as a single.

<v Speaker 1>And I would like to see him go back to that.

<v Speaker 1>These guys are not getting any younger. And they got

<v Speaker 1>a whole roster of people to work with. And this

<v Speaker 1>goes for Bobby Lashley, too. I would like to see

<v Speaker 1>Tony Khan make use of them in singles competition. If

<v Speaker 1>you're not going to do anything with them as a

<v Speaker 1>tag team, use them as singles. Because otherwise, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>they're just being wasted. Today's episode is sponsored by HIMSS.

<v Speaker 1>Losing weight is one thing. That's hard enough. But looking

<v Speaker 1>and feeling your best this summer? Now that's the ultimate goal.

<v Speaker 1>And to that end, I've got good news to share.

<v Speaker 1>Weight Loss by HIMSS now offers access to the FDA-approved

<v Speaker 1>WeGoV pill and WeGoV pen. WeGoV is designed to help

<v Speaker 1>you lose weight and keep it off, so you can

<v Speaker 1>show up this summer feeling like yourself. With Wegovy, it

<v Speaker 1>hymns lose up to 20% of your body weight when

<v Speaker 1>combined with diet and exercise. It helps you regulate your appetite,

<v Speaker 1>eat less, and keep weight off. Plus, Wegovy is the

<v Speaker 1>first ever GLP-1 pill for weight loss, so there are

<v Speaker 1>no needles needed. Through HIMSS, everything happens online. You'll connect

<v Speaker 1>with a licensed provider who will determine if treatment is

<v Speaker 1>right for you. If prescribed, your medication is delivered right

<v Speaker 1>to your door. No insurance necessary. And it doesn't stop there.

<v Speaker 1>HIMSS makes hitting your goals seamless by offering access to

<v Speaker 1>24-7 messaging with your care team and in-app lifestyle and

<v Speaker 1>nutrition support, like recipes, meal plans, fitness videos, sleep content,

<v Speaker 1>and more. Even better, with a range of affordable GLP-1 options,

<v Speaker 1>HIMS makes it simple to find a weight loss approach

<v Speaker 1>that fits into your world and your wallet, if eligible.

<v Speaker 1>You'll get a treatment plan personalized to you and unlimited

<v Speaker 1>dosage changes as needed. Ready to reach your goals? Visit HIMS.com

<v Speaker 1>slash Salomonster to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.

<v Speaker 1>That's H-I-M-S dot com slash Salomonster. HIMS.com slash Salomonster. Weight

<v Speaker 1>loss by HIMSS is not available in all 50 states.

<v Speaker 1>Wegovy is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To

<v Speaker 1>get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wegovy

<v Speaker 1>clinical study information, and restrictions, visit HIMSS.com. We had Kevin

<v Speaker 1>Knight defending the TNT Championship against the former champion Darby Allin.

<v Speaker 1>Falls count anywhere match. Darby got the back of his

<v Speaker 1>head busted open in the first, like, 90 seconds, if that,

<v Speaker 1>of this match. I didn't even see how it happened.

<v Speaker 1>It might have been a belt shot. So he was

<v Speaker 1>bleeding from the back of the head. First blood of

<v Speaker 1>the night. I'm proud of them. This deep into the show,

<v Speaker 1>to have no blood is pretty fucking impressive. They had

<v Speaker 1>some level of self-control. I am impressed. So night took

<v Speaker 1>too long. He was trying to set up a table

<v Speaker 1>outside the ring. Darby comes flying his crazy suicide dive

<v Speaker 1>out through the ropes. into the table and Kevin Knight.

<v Speaker 1>So Darby ended up getting placed on top of the

<v Speaker 1>announce desk. Knight hit a springboard dive from the ring

<v Speaker 1>to the desk that looked like it sucked because when

<v Speaker 1>he landed, he landed full force on his fucking knees.

<v Speaker 1>Pads or no pads. I mean, that can't feel too good.

<v Speaker 1>And so both men bounced off the table. The table

<v Speaker 1>did not break. They ended up back in the ring

<v Speaker 1>and Knight starts throwing in a bunch of steel chairs.

<v Speaker 1>But he took a long time to toss these chairs

<v Speaker 1>into the ring, and so Darby was able to hit

<v Speaker 1>an avalanche code red out of the corner onto the chairs,

<v Speaker 1>and then he followed that up with another one into

<v Speaker 1>the corner. So here come the Callas family, or at

<v Speaker 1>least two members of said family, because it's false count anywhere,

<v Speaker 1>which means there's no rules. So there's nothing stopping them

<v Speaker 1>from interfering. I don't know why all the members of

<v Speaker 1>the Callas family didn't come out. This is what is

<v Speaker 1>so stupid about these situations here, where it's like, You

<v Speaker 1>either have a rule that says the Callis family cannot

<v Speaker 1>get involved, or they should all be just coming out

<v Speaker 1>there and interfering at will. Like, if I had a

<v Speaker 1>family in this company that I was leading that had

<v Speaker 1>18 different members, why would I send two of my

<v Speaker 1>lower-level members out there to try to help this man

<v Speaker 1>retain his championship? I would be sending out my full

<v Speaker 1>force of the Callis family. My top guns. My top lieutenants.

<v Speaker 1>would be going out to the ring to try to

<v Speaker 1>preserve this championship. We get Jake Doyle and we get

<v Speaker 1>Brian Cage. So Cage sets up a bunch of chairs

<v Speaker 1>that are in the ring. He sets them up, right?

<v Speaker 1>He sits them down. He takes Darby and he drops

<v Speaker 1>Darby onto the chairs. But he does so in a

<v Speaker 1>way where Darby, I don't know how his balls are

<v Speaker 1>still intact. I don't know. I don't know that he'll

<v Speaker 1>be having kids after this. So then Doyle brings a

<v Speaker 1>ladder into the ring. And they start taping Darby's wrists

<v Speaker 1>behind him, like they're cuffing him, right? But with tape.

<v Speaker 1>Tying his hands up behind his back. And out comes

<v Speaker 1>Stephen Borden. El Hijo del Sting is back. Every time

<v Speaker 1>I see him, it is uncanny. It's like, I don't

<v Speaker 1>think his mother's genes put up a fight at all.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, he is a spitting image of like early

<v Speaker 1>90s surfer Sting, but without the hair. He has like

<v Speaker 1>mid to late 90s Sting hair, but otherwise I just,

<v Speaker 1>I look at him and I see early 90s, like

<v Speaker 1>crop top Sting. It's just uncanny. So it's almost like

<v Speaker 1>he's the guy's son. So he gets into the ring, right?

<v Speaker 1>He's been on television for the last, I don't know,

<v Speaker 1>week or two. We've seen him pop up on TV.

<v Speaker 1>It's only been training for a few months. Darby has

<v Speaker 1>been the one training him, by the way. So he

<v Speaker 1>shows up with a chair, takes out Cage, takes out Doyle.

<v Speaker 1>Cage ends up propping a table up in the corner.

<v Speaker 1>He power bombs Borden through the table. Sting cloned himself. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>no DNA test required. That's right. We don't need any swabs.

<v Speaker 1>There is none of that needed here. So Darby, still

<v Speaker 1>with his hands taped behind his back, ends up on

<v Speaker 1>the top rope, and he hits a top rope Hurricane Ronda,

<v Speaker 1>takes down Brian Cage. And then he hits a low

<v Speaker 1>tope to Kevin Knight outside. Back inside, Brian Cage sets

<v Speaker 1>Darby up in a tree of woe. Knight goes up.

<v Speaker 1>He's going to go for the coast to coast when

<v Speaker 1>the lights go out, and we hear seek and destroy.

<v Speaker 1>And that could only mean one thing. The real Steve

<v Speaker 1>Borden is here. sting has arrived and he comes out

<v Speaker 1>and he's got the all white hair, which works for him.

<v Speaker 1>It's like this older, bad-ass grandfatherly look for him. It

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't work for everybody, but it works for him, but

<v Speaker 1>he's got the face paint and he's got his, his

<v Speaker 1>little bomber Jack or, uh, yeah, his bomber jacket on.

<v Speaker 1>It's a long ramp too. Uh, so he's got a

<v Speaker 1>nice brisk walk down to the ring. He's got the

<v Speaker 1>baseball bat in his hand and, uh, Cage and Doyle,

<v Speaker 1>they meet him down by the bottom of the ramp.

<v Speaker 1>He takes them out with bat shots. He gets in

<v Speaker 1>the ring, and he's staring down Kevin Knight. And Darby

<v Speaker 1>freed himself. I didn't see how or when, but now

<v Speaker 1>he's free. He's not taped up anymore. And Sting tosses

<v Speaker 1>the bat to Darby, which Knight didn't see. I guess

<v Speaker 1>he had his back turned. He turns around. He sees

<v Speaker 1>Darby with the bat. Darby gives him a bat shot.

<v Speaker 1>He stumbles backwards into a scorpion death drop from Sting.

<v Speaker 1>And so with Borden's help, Sting's son and Darby, they

<v Speaker 1>set this ladder up. Big ladder in the ring. Sting's

<v Speaker 1>son climbs the ladder on one side. Sting himself begins

<v Speaker 1>climbing the ladder on the opposite side. I'm like, what

<v Speaker 1>the fuck? What are they going to do here? Sting

<v Speaker 1>is climbing to the top of this ladder. And I'm

<v Speaker 1>already starting to just like, I'm sitting here going, what

<v Speaker 1>could they possibly have this man do? This man hasn't

<v Speaker 1>wrestled in two and a half years. Even when he

<v Speaker 1>was wrestling two and a half years ago, he was

<v Speaker 1>64 years old. So he's that much older now. And

<v Speaker 1>they're going to have this fucking guy take a bump

<v Speaker 1>off the top of the ladder. Now they're face-to-face, father

<v Speaker 1>and son. And the camera zooms in on them and

<v Speaker 1>it's like, Dad, I got this. And Sting, thankfully, climbs

<v Speaker 1>back down the ladder to give his son his moment,

<v Speaker 1>as it should be. Sting has had more than enough moments,

<v Speaker 1>and he still has his health. He was lucky enough

<v Speaker 1>to get out of the wrestling business with his health.

<v Speaker 1>No good can come from this. So thankfully, he climbed

<v Speaker 1>back down. He gave the moment to his son. And

<v Speaker 1>as I said before, like his son is up there

<v Speaker 1>and he's like beating his chest. And I'm like, I'm

<v Speaker 1>looking at young Sting. And he dives off the ladder

<v Speaker 1>onto the pile of callous family members down on the floor.

<v Speaker 1>So that was a cool moment. So father and son,

<v Speaker 1>they brawl with Cajun Doyle. And off they go. Kevin

<v Speaker 1>Knight is already halfway up the ramp. He's crawling away

<v Speaker 1>from Darby. Darby is stalking him. And they end up

<v Speaker 1>on top of the stage. Darby has the bat. So

<v Speaker 1>Knight is just dodging bat shots. And he rakes the eyes.

<v Speaker 1>He went to go charge Darby. He missed. He ran

<v Speaker 1>into the steel structure on stage. Darby looks up. Anytime

<v Speaker 1>Darby looks up, that's bad news. He looks up and

<v Speaker 1>he begins to climb. And he's climbing and he's climbing

<v Speaker 1>and he's climbing. And... I don't know exactly how high

<v Speaker 1>up he was. He looked to be every bit of

<v Speaker 1>25 feet, 30 feet up in the air. And he

<v Speaker 1>did a coffin drop. So he gives his back, and

<v Speaker 1>he dives off backwards, and it felt like he was

<v Speaker 1>falling forever. This reminded me of one of those old

<v Speaker 1>Shane McMahon dives off the Titantron. I just saw it

<v Speaker 1>not too long ago. I had probably on the vault.

<v Speaker 1>They probably uploaded it. The Shane McMahon, Steve Blackman match

<v Speaker 1>from SummerSlam, I want to say 2000. That was crazier.

<v Speaker 1>He had to be every bit of 50 feet up there.

<v Speaker 1>But that's exactly what this reminded me of. He's just

<v Speaker 1>falling forever through the air. And he comes and he

<v Speaker 1>crashes down onto Kevin Knight through the stage, whatever the

<v Speaker 1>crash pad was there. He hit the target, thankfully. And

<v Speaker 1>they cut to the crowd and everybody is like fucking

<v Speaker 1>freaking out over this and they showed a replay of it.

<v Speaker 1>They cut back live. Darby is out of the hole.

<v Speaker 1>And we see down below on the side of the stage,

<v Speaker 1>Kevin Knight is strapped to a gurney, or at least

<v Speaker 1>they have him loaded onto a stretcher. And my first

<v Speaker 1>thought was like, how the fuck did he get over

<v Speaker 1>there so quickly? Like, that was fast. So he's already

<v Speaker 1>on a stretcher. Darby is warning them, get out of

<v Speaker 1>the way. And he does a coffin drop off the ramp,

<v Speaker 1>down onto Kevin Knight on the stretcher, which was a

<v Speaker 1>callback to Double or Nothing, because after he lost the

<v Speaker 1>championship back to MJF, Kevin Knight did that to him, right?

<v Speaker 1>He did the UFO splash off the top rope to Darby,

<v Speaker 1>who was strapped to a gurney. So this was a

<v Speaker 1>callback to that. This was revenge for that. And then

<v Speaker 1>he pinned him, it falls count anywhere, and he gets

<v Speaker 1>the three. And Darby Allin for the third time is

<v Speaker 1>the TNT champion. I will say this. I enjoyed this.

<v Speaker 1>These matches tend to be hit or miss, especially the

<v Speaker 1>Darby stuff. I mean, the usual Darby craziness. Honestly, by

<v Speaker 1>Darby Allin standards, this was pretty tame compared to what

<v Speaker 1>we've seen him do before. On a big stage like this,

<v Speaker 1>Wembley Stadium, their biggest event of the year, I was

<v Speaker 1>expecting him to do something really, truly insane. And it

<v Speaker 1>felt like, hey, okay, for Darby, this wasn't too bad, actually. Right?

<v Speaker 1>Nobody got killed, which is good. The height off that

<v Speaker 1>dive from the structure was actually pretty insane. The Sting

<v Speaker 1>Seek and Destroy mode. Anytime we get to see Sting

<v Speaker 1>is good. You know, let him pop up once a year.

<v Speaker 1>Why not? It's fucking Sting. Who doesn't want to see Sting?

<v Speaker 1>Come on. So that was cool. And the callback to

<v Speaker 1>the stretcher dive. I thought that was also very clever

<v Speaker 1>the way they did that. I was not thrilled about

<v Speaker 1>seeing Kevin Knight lose the TNT championship. But aside from that,

<v Speaker 1>I had fun with it. I thought this was fine. Again,

<v Speaker 1>these Falls Count Anywhere matches, I really wish they would

<v Speaker 1>make better use of the stipulations. They made use of

<v Speaker 1>it here. I still think there was more they could

<v Speaker 1>have done with it, but I didn't want this to

<v Speaker 1>drag out another five or ten minutes, so I'm fine

<v Speaker 1>with what they did. Now, after this, we came down

<v Speaker 1>to our final two matches. This was for the AEW

<v Speaker 1>Women's World Championship Willow Nightingale against Mercedes Monet. Mercedes won

<v Speaker 1>the Owen Hart Tournament last year. She went to All-In Texas,

<v Speaker 1>and she lost. This was her second year in a

<v Speaker 1>row winning the Owen Hart Tournament. foundation tournament would we

<v Speaker 1>see a repeat on the other side we had willow

<v Speaker 1>nightingale who only just won the championship from tecla at

<v Speaker 1>redemption last month she has not had the belt for

<v Speaker 1>very long and unfortunately we got the news a few

<v Speaker 1>days ago that she suffered a hand injury it was

<v Speaker 1>a broken hand i presume in the match with maya

<v Speaker 1>world on collision last week and they were going to

<v Speaker 1>allow her to wrestle She was going to have x-rays

<v Speaker 1>done to tell her how badly it was broken and

<v Speaker 1>what she could do and what she couldn't do. But

<v Speaker 1>she was bound and determined to go ahead and forge

<v Speaker 1>ahead with the match. Which, if she has a legitimately

<v Speaker 1>broken hand, doesn't sound very wise. But that's a big

<v Speaker 1>match to have to cancel at the last minute. And

<v Speaker 1>so if she feels like she's not going to make

<v Speaker 1>it that much worse, and if she can tolerate the pain,

<v Speaker 1>she's a pro wrestler... Of course she's going to do

<v Speaker 1>the match. And so here we are. And now they

<v Speaker 1>showed Tecla up in one of the skyboxes watching this.

<v Speaker 1>Taz also had stepped away at this point for the

<v Speaker 1>remainder of the show. Nigel McGuinness joined on commentary for

<v Speaker 1>the remainder of it. They wheeled him out there. They

<v Speaker 1>didn't do this on camera, but apparently they wheeled him

<v Speaker 1>out there in a wheelchair, which we actually got a

<v Speaker 1>sight of him sitting in the wheelchair later on during

<v Speaker 1>the main event. But it was kind of funny. He's

<v Speaker 1>kind of sitting there, you know, off to the sea.

<v Speaker 1>It looks like, I don't know, he's sitting there and

<v Speaker 1>he's still selling the injury. God bless the guy, right? Kayfabe,

<v Speaker 1>got to sell the injury. I appreciate that. Look, the

<v Speaker 1>guy had his ankle shredded in the match earlier, and

<v Speaker 1>that's a long ramp at Wembley. So good. I'm glad

<v Speaker 1>he came out. He could have come out on crutches,

<v Speaker 1>I guess, but at least he's still selling it. Mercedes

<v Speaker 1>got caught and flung into the guardrail very early into

<v Speaker 1>this match, and she came up bleeding very badly from

<v Speaker 1>the nose, which was clearly not intended. She had blood

<v Speaker 1>all over her face for the rest of the match.

<v Speaker 1>One of the top turnbuckle pads got ripped off early

<v Speaker 1>in this one, which would come into play later on

<v Speaker 1>in the match. Monet delivered two of the three amigos.

<v Speaker 1>They rolled to the apron at that point. It was

<v Speaker 1>Willow who connected on the third one. and both women

<v Speaker 1>splatted on the floor. Later on, Willow brought her down

<v Speaker 1>off the top with an avalanche Spanish fly for a

<v Speaker 1>near fall. Monet ducked a clothesline, got a statement maker. Willow, though,

<v Speaker 1>powered her up into a Death Valley driver into the corner.

<v Speaker 1>So then she missed a corner cannonball, allowing Mercedes to

<v Speaker 1>hit a sunset bomb into the corner. There was a

<v Speaker 1>spot where Willow hit a moonsault off the top rope. Mercedes...

<v Speaker 1>They tried to say Mercedes... was trying to roll out

<v Speaker 1>of the way, she rolled the wrong way. She rolled

<v Speaker 1>in when she should have rolled out. So she rolled in,

<v Speaker 1>and laying on her stomach, she took the full brunt

<v Speaker 1>of this moonsault from Willow Nightingale. Still kicked out, though.

<v Speaker 1>So Willow tried a doctor bomb, Monet held on, and

<v Speaker 1>drove Willow face-first into the exposed buckle from earlier. Then

<v Speaker 1>hit the Monet maker, and they had me. This was

<v Speaker 1>one of those moments in this match where they had me.

<v Speaker 1>I thought it was over at this point. But it

<v Speaker 1>was only a close two count. So Monet, she lost it.

<v Speaker 1>She started attacking the broken hand. She got into Aubrey

<v Speaker 1>Edwards' face. Willow then pounced Mercedes into Aubrey. But she

<v Speaker 1>pounced her into Aubrey's legs. And Aubrey sold it like

<v Speaker 1>she was knocked out. Thankfully on the way down... her

<v Speaker 1>face made contact with the bottom turnbuckle. So you could

<v Speaker 1>at least explain her being, you know, knocked out. If

<v Speaker 1>she didn't hit the turnbuckle and she played dead because

<v Speaker 1>she got, because her legs got taken out, that would

<v Speaker 1>have looked even worse. But if you go back and

<v Speaker 1>watch it, she did go face first into the bottom buckle.

<v Speaker 1>So that was, that was the spot they decided to

<v Speaker 1>do there. So she's knocked out cold and they ended

<v Speaker 1>up on the outside. Mercedes started smashing the broken hand

<v Speaker 1>into the announce desk and the ring steps. She's ripping

<v Speaker 1>off the, uh, not the cast, but like the wrap

<v Speaker 1>that was around her hand. She starts bending the fingers

<v Speaker 1>and snapping the fingers and the fans are just, they're

<v Speaker 1>reacting in a way where they're like mortified by this.

<v Speaker 1>They're horrified by what they're seeing. So Mercedes held up

<v Speaker 1>the women's world title. She said that this is mine.

<v Speaker 1>She swung it at Willow who kicked out the legs

<v Speaker 1>and then Monet fell into the steps, uh, Willow blasted

<v Speaker 1>Mercedes in the back with the bell over and over again,

<v Speaker 1>and then back inside she hit the doctor bomb, but

<v Speaker 1>there's no referee. So she does eventually crawl over, though,

<v Speaker 1>Aubrey does, for the two count. Then, pointing to the

<v Speaker 1>exposed buckle, Willow delivered a buckle bomb. Then she brought

<v Speaker 1>Mercedes up to the corner. for an avalanche doctor bomb,

<v Speaker 1>but Mercedes countered into a super hurricane Rana. The Monet

<v Speaker 1>maker got countered into the backslide, which Willow has used

<v Speaker 1>to win matches before. The backslide, though, only got her

<v Speaker 1>a two count. Monet countered another doctor bomb attempt into

<v Speaker 1>a statement maker. That was a smooth transition there. And

<v Speaker 1>she fish hooks the mouth. She gets a crossface applied.

<v Speaker 1>And Willow is struggling. And she's showing signs of life.

<v Speaker 1>She's not done yet, right? She's trying to reach for

<v Speaker 1>the ropes, but she's too far away. And she's trying

<v Speaker 1>and she's trying. And then all of a sudden, the

<v Speaker 1>bell sounded. The bell sounded. And the match was over.

<v Speaker 1>I guess the idea is that Aubrey called, and maybe

<v Speaker 1>she did, I didn't see it, but they said that

<v Speaker 1>I guess the referee called it. And just like that,

<v Speaker 1>we have a new Women's World Champion. Now, on commentary,

<v Speaker 1>they claim that Willow went out. That is not what happened.

<v Speaker 1>She was still very much alive. She was fading, but

<v Speaker 1>she was alive. So, unfortunately, the finish came off as

<v Speaker 1>very awkward because of it, because it just felt like

<v Speaker 1>they called it prematurely. That was really the only blemish

<v Speaker 1>on this match. And it just so happened to be

<v Speaker 1>the finish. It wasn't like it fucked up the entire finish,

<v Speaker 1>but it just didn't really look that great. I'm wondering

<v Speaker 1>if Aubrey got hurt, because she was still hobbling a

<v Speaker 1>lot when the match was over. Maybe she was just selling.

<v Speaker 1>The way Mercedes came down on her legs, if you

<v Speaker 1>were to tell me that she hurt her knee, it

<v Speaker 1>wouldn't shock me. But this was an excellent match, outside

<v Speaker 1>of that one little blemish there at the end. This

<v Speaker 1>was excellent. This was... You know, Willow wrestling with a

<v Speaker 1>broken hand, again, if we believe she has... I always

<v Speaker 1>have to put that caveat in there because of a

<v Speaker 1>few months ago. And, you know, Willow and the injury

<v Speaker 1>that ended up not being as serious as she and

<v Speaker 1>everybody else thought it was. Were they working it? Were

<v Speaker 1>they not working it? Who knows? I'm assuming it's a

<v Speaker 1>legitimate injury. Maybe we come to find out it wasn't,

<v Speaker 1>and they came up with it just to enhance the

<v Speaker 1>match and give Willow an out for losing... Until I'm

<v Speaker 1>told otherwise, I'll assume it was a legitimate hand injury.

<v Speaker 1>And if she's going to be out for a while,

<v Speaker 1>that would also be an indication that it probably was

<v Speaker 1>a legitimate injury. So she's wrestling with a broken hand,

<v Speaker 1>and Mercedes possibly is in there with a broken nose.

<v Speaker 1>She's bleeding all over the place. The two of them, though,

<v Speaker 1>they work together to have an excellent match. And Mercedes

<v Speaker 1>finally does the one thing that she has not been

<v Speaker 1>able to do since she came to AEW. She wins

<v Speaker 1>the big one. Third time's a charm. The first time,

<v Speaker 1>she couldn't do it. The second time, she couldn't do it.

<v Speaker 1>Third time, she finally did it. Was it going to

<v Speaker 1>happen anyway? Or did it happen because Willow does have

<v Speaker 1>a legitimately broken hand and may have to go away

<v Speaker 1>for a while? I don't know. I don't know. I

<v Speaker 1>still was thinking that Willow might pull out the win here,

<v Speaker 1>but the reality is if she really is injured, then

<v Speaker 1>you got to get the belt off her. And if

<v Speaker 1>you're going to get the belt off her, then you

<v Speaker 1>get it off of her here. Doesn't make any sense.

<v Speaker 1>If she's hurt, broken fucking hand, you can't keep the

<v Speaker 1>belt on her. The only outcome to do was the

<v Speaker 1>one that they did here, which was to put the

<v Speaker 1>championship on Mercedes. She also, as I mentioned earlier, made history.

<v Speaker 1>She becomes the first person, male or female, to hold

<v Speaker 1>world championships in WWE, AEW, New Japan, and CMLL. And

<v Speaker 1>she's held a lot more titles than that, as we

<v Speaker 1>know from last year. But now she is going to

<v Speaker 1>be the defending champion, which is a different spot than

<v Speaker 1>she's been in really at all this year since she

<v Speaker 1>lost the TBS title. I don't know if they go

<v Speaker 1>into Mercedes and Tecla. I don't know if they have

<v Speaker 1>somebody else in mind as that first challenger. Britt Baker

<v Speaker 1>is back, but Britt Baker is doing stuff with Persephone

<v Speaker 1>and around the TBS title. And we've already had Mercedes

<v Speaker 1>and Britt, the funny thing is, of all the matches,

<v Speaker 1>especially like big matches, pay-per-view matches, that Mercedes has had

<v Speaker 1>since coming to AEW, the one real stinker that she's

<v Speaker 1>had was with Britt Baker. Otherwise, Mercedes always goes in

<v Speaker 1>there and has good to great matches. I can't think

<v Speaker 1>of very many, I honestly can't think of any match

<v Speaker 1>that Mercedes has had since coming to the company a

<v Speaker 1>few years ago that was truly a dud. Other than

<v Speaker 1>the Britt Baker match. And it was just one match.

<v Speaker 1>It's possible that one day they'll be back in the

<v Speaker 1>ring together. And they'll be able to go out there

<v Speaker 1>and wash all of that away. And they'll have a

<v Speaker 1>great match. Or maybe they just don't work well together.

<v Speaker 1>But that's not going to be a match that we're

<v Speaker 1>going to see anytime soon. So I don't know who

<v Speaker 1>they have in mind next. But one thing I can

<v Speaker 1>say is she keeps killing it in these big matches.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know that there's a better big match performer

<v Speaker 1>in that entire division. better than her and then we

<v Speaker 1>had the main event of this show for the world

<v Speaker 1>championship of all elite wrestling Kenny Omega defending his title

<v Speaker 1>against Will Ospreay Mark says Mercedes has terrible matches well

<v Speaker 1>now we know Mark is a liar see I can't

<v Speaker 1>take that seriously It's one thing if you say that, well,

<v Speaker 1>now she's had a few stinkers. I didn't think this

<v Speaker 1>was good or that was good. What is it about

<v Speaker 1>her matches since joining AEW that leads you to conclude

<v Speaker 1>that she has terrible matches? What is it about her

<v Speaker 1>matches that irks you? I'm genuinely curious. I'm floored by this.

<v Speaker 1>That you would not be able to find one great

<v Speaker 1>match that she's had in the, what, three years that

<v Speaker 1>she's been in this company? Are you kidding me? Now

<v Speaker 1>you're just dealing in bad faith. We had a Will

<v Speaker 1>Ospreay video package that was narrated by his mother. She

<v Speaker 1>was also part of this video series. They posted a

<v Speaker 1>whole series of videos on their social media channels. in

<v Speaker 1>the build-up here, the lead-up to this main event here

<v Speaker 1>on this show. And she was in some of them,

<v Speaker 1>and she was really good. So she did the narration

<v Speaker 1>here for this. And they set this to the who.

<v Speaker 1>We know Tony Khan is not above spending money, especially

<v Speaker 1>on big shows like this, for actual, real music. And

<v Speaker 1>he did it for Bryan Danielson a few years ago, right,

<v Speaker 1>with Europe, for Final Countdown. So he paid for The

<v Speaker 1>Who for not Teenage Wasteland. I always call it that.

<v Speaker 1>I always call it Teenage Wasteland. It's not Teenage Wasteland.

<v Speaker 1>It's Bob O'Reilly. Look, I'm sure there's a reason. I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure there's a story behind the name of the song

<v Speaker 1>being what it is. To me, I always think of

<v Speaker 1>it as Teenage Wasteland. So then when that portion of

<v Speaker 1>the video was over, narrated by her and showing various

<v Speaker 1>Osprey highlights. They come back live. They show Osprey in

<v Speaker 1>the back, and he hugs his fellow United Empire stablemates,

<v Speaker 1>Callum Newman, the former IWGP champion, Hanare, Francesco Akira, who

<v Speaker 1>followed along with him as he was walking through the

<v Speaker 1>backstage area. And again, they're still playing the music. He's

<v Speaker 1>walking by, and one of the people that he walks

<v Speaker 1>by who is standing off to the side, just hanging out,

<v Speaker 1>is Zack Sabre Jr. And they kind of look at

<v Speaker 1>each other and Sabre nods at him and the crowd

<v Speaker 1>pops in the arena when they see him. And he's

<v Speaker 1>walking by and walking by and he passes by Michael

<v Speaker 1>Oku and, you know, his girlfriend Amira. Got history with

<v Speaker 1>him as well from the British independence scene. So he

<v Speaker 1>continues walking and He passes by Ricochet. He's got some

<v Speaker 1>real history with Ricochet in and out of AEW. Walks along.

<v Speaker 1>Here comes Swerve Strickland. The crowd reacts to that because

<v Speaker 1>we've seen these guys have some battles before. They battled

<v Speaker 1>in the finals of the tournament that sent Ospreay to

<v Speaker 1>this very main event. So they come face to face.

<v Speaker 1>Ospreay now is walking down a tunnel towards the ring.

<v Speaker 1>And at the end of this tunnel, There's Mark Davis

<v Speaker 1>and Kyle Fletcher, Aussie Open. He's got history with those

<v Speaker 1>two men as well. Friends for a long time, sometimes enemies.

<v Speaker 1>He's had some battles recently with Mark Davis that have

<v Speaker 1>been quite great. And he's had battles in the past

<v Speaker 1>with Kyle Fletcher. Stares them, they stare at him, he

<v Speaker 1>walks past them. So at that point, he encounters his wife,

<v Speaker 1>one half of the new women's tag team champions, Alex Windsor.

<v Speaker 1>And he hugs her and he kisses her. So the

<v Speaker 1>United Empire guys, they help him put on his robe

<v Speaker 1>for the big match. And he's about to walk out

<v Speaker 1>to the ring. Before he walks out, though, I guess

<v Speaker 1>he's at what their version of Gorilla would be. john

<v Speaker 1>moxley shows up and the crowd really reacts to that

<v Speaker 1>and moxley has a flag with the the union jack

<v Speaker 1>on it and they just stare at each other moxley

<v Speaker 1>almost has like a smirk on his face and he

<v Speaker 1>hands him the flag and he had he kind of

<v Speaker 1>is shooting him this look of like even though things

<v Speaker 1>ended up going south recently with him and the death

<v Speaker 1>riders like it's almost like this proud father look Because

<v Speaker 1>the story they told coming out of their last match

<v Speaker 1>at Dynasty when Moxley beat him and then he joined

<v Speaker 1>them was they're going to toughen him up. They're going

<v Speaker 1>to bring out the killer within so that he could

<v Speaker 1>be the best version of himself that he's ever been

<v Speaker 1>and he can go on to win the world championship.

<v Speaker 1>And so here we are at All In. He's about

<v Speaker 1>to go out there for the biggest match of his

<v Speaker 1>life and Moxley is looking at him like, you know,

<v Speaker 1>almost like mission accomplished. And Moxley walks away. Ospreay pulls

<v Speaker 1>the hood down. They kill the who. They play elevated.

<v Speaker 1>And out he walks to a monster reaction from these

<v Speaker 1>45 or 47,000 people here at Wembley Stadium. The announcers

<v Speaker 1>lay out. They just let the moment speak for itself.

<v Speaker 1>And he makes his way out to the ring. This

<v Speaker 1>was fantastic from start to finish. So when I tell

<v Speaker 1>you that this is one of the best entrances that

<v Speaker 1>you will ever see, He really is. This is one

<v Speaker 1>of my favorite wrestling entrances of all time. I love that.

<v Speaker 1>And again, it helps if you know the history between

<v Speaker 1>him and all the people that he walked by. It's

<v Speaker 1>like as he was making his way out to the ring,

<v Speaker 1>he was looking at his career playing out in front

<v Speaker 1>of him. Like, man, I've had wars with this guy

<v Speaker 1>and big feuds with this person and championship matches with

<v Speaker 1>that guy. And these guys used to be my brothers.

<v Speaker 1>And I have my actual brothers behind me from the

<v Speaker 1>United Empire. And there's Moxley. And there's Swerve. And it

<v Speaker 1>was just so well done. With that music playing behind him,

<v Speaker 1>this just was fucking great. This was just a fucking

<v Speaker 1>great entrance. So then after this, Kenny Omega gets his

<v Speaker 1>own video package treatment. And the person narrating it, I

<v Speaker 1>don't know the guy's name, but I'm sure that it

<v Speaker 1>was the same person who does many of the videos

<v Speaker 1>for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Like when you watch those

<v Speaker 1>Wrestle Kingdom shows and they show a video package before

<v Speaker 1>a big match. That guy, that guy's voice is the

<v Speaker 1>one that we heard here in this video. And so

<v Speaker 1>they had the English subtitles as he was speaking. And

<v Speaker 1>they show footage from throughout Omega's career. Omega walks out

<v Speaker 1>on stage. And then they switch to, I don't know

<v Speaker 1>what music they were playing behind this. But that music

<v Speaker 1>ends and they play his theme. They play the Battle

<v Speaker 1>Cry theme. Omega gets into the ring and he gets

<v Speaker 1>the big pyro for his entrance. The Young Bucks, they

<v Speaker 1>walk out behind Kenny. They come to the ring with him.

<v Speaker 1>They meet him along with Michael Nakazawa, Brandon Cutler, all

<v Speaker 1>these elite guys. They meet Omega down at the bottom

<v Speaker 1>of the ramp. Both entrances were awesome. Osprey's was just

<v Speaker 1>on another level. But both of these were just big-time

<v Speaker 1>entrances that made this match feel a lot bigger. You know,

<v Speaker 1>it really did feel like that big fight feel. Excalibur

<v Speaker 1>pointed out that both men had, you know, seconds in

<v Speaker 1>their corner. They had their buddies with them, as is

<v Speaker 1>customary in Japan. Which, when you think about it, is

<v Speaker 1>really where they both made a name for themselves. All

<v Speaker 1>those classic battles they had that really turned them into

<v Speaker 1>big names and main event caliber performers... happened in Japan,

<v Speaker 1>happened mostly in New Japan, pro wrestling. So Omega played

<v Speaker 1>heel for most of this match, which was not hard

<v Speaker 1>given that you're wrestling Will Ospreay in the UK, so

<v Speaker 1>you're kind of going to be the heel anyway, but

<v Speaker 1>he was really healing it up here. He targeted Ospreay's

<v Speaker 1>surgically repaired neck. Ospreay hit a sunset bomb, and Omega

<v Speaker 1>rolled out to the floor. Ospreay, though, dropped him with

<v Speaker 1>a corkscrew dive from the top. So Omega tried to

<v Speaker 1>pull a table out from the timekeeper's area, and Ospreay

<v Speaker 1>put a stop to that. Referee Paul Turner, he tried

<v Speaker 1>to pull Ospreay away, and Ospreay shoved him to the ground,

<v Speaker 1>which is not a very smart thing to do here

<v Speaker 1>when you're wrestling for the world championship in the main

<v Speaker 1>event of this show. I don't know why you would

<v Speaker 1>put your hands on the referee and shove him to

<v Speaker 1>the ground, but you probably shouldn't be doing that. When

<v Speaker 1>he turned back around, though, Kenny blasted him in the

<v Speaker 1>head with a small monitor. I don't know if it

<v Speaker 1>was a monitor or if it was a tablet, some

<v Speaker 1>sort of screen. And he blasted him in the head

<v Speaker 1>with it. So Callum Newman gets up in Omega's face

<v Speaker 1>and we got a shoving match between all of their friends.

<v Speaker 1>Referees spilled out to try to separate but not eject them. Meanwhile,

<v Speaker 1>Osprey comes up bleeding a gusher, as I figured he would,

<v Speaker 1>because they kept the camera off of him for a

<v Speaker 1>long time. I'm like, gee, I wonder what he's doing

<v Speaker 1>on the floor. And they cut back to him. There's

<v Speaker 1>a fucking pool of blood on the floor. So now

<v Speaker 1>he's bleeding. And this right here, I'm pretty sure, this

<v Speaker 1>right here was the only intentional blood on the entire show,

<v Speaker 1>which is very unusual for an AW pay-per-view, especially their

<v Speaker 1>big show of the year. Everyone's going to want to

<v Speaker 1>go all out. At all in, no pun intended. And

<v Speaker 1>I liked the fact that they kept it to the

<v Speaker 1>main event. You know, what we saw with Mercedes getting

<v Speaker 1>her nose busted in the women's match, that was hard way.

<v Speaker 1>That was not intentional. The blood on the back of

<v Speaker 1>Darby's head. It's the back of his fucking head. I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure that was not intentional. Not that he cares. I'm

<v Speaker 1>sure he loves it. But this felt like the only

<v Speaker 1>intentional blood in the entire show. And this is what

<v Speaker 1>I mean and why I get so frustrated when I

<v Speaker 1>see some of these pay-per-views. And you can go two, three,

<v Speaker 1>four matches in a row, five matches up and down

<v Speaker 1>the card where people are bleeding. And like, I'm not

<v Speaker 1>talking about a little cut, like an incidental cut. I'm

<v Speaker 1>talking about bleeding a lot. Like, oh, let's just get blood.

<v Speaker 1>And when you see it over and over and over again,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, unless it's a match, like a hardcore type

<v Speaker 1>match where the stipulation calls for it, or it's the

<v Speaker 1>main event of the show, it just shouldn't happen. Or

<v Speaker 1>if it's going to happen in the main event, save

<v Speaker 1>it for the main event. You know, because then it'll

<v Speaker 1>just mean more in that situation. And so here it

<v Speaker 1>really hit me like, hey, we haven't been assaulted by this,

<v Speaker 1>you know, for the rest of the show. It's kind

<v Speaker 1>of nice. So he's bleeding all over his face here.

<v Speaker 1>And Omega brings Osprey up on top of the announced desk.

<v Speaker 1>He power bombs him off the desk into the other

<v Speaker 1>table that he had dragged out, which was kind of

<v Speaker 1>propped up in a weird way. Powerbombs him into the table,

<v Speaker 1>which looked like one of those Japanese tables, and much

<v Speaker 1>like those Japanese tables, this table did not break. I

<v Speaker 1>thought his head ricocheted off of it, so I'm like, okay,

<v Speaker 1>he's probably seeing stars right now, is Osprey. Nigel was

<v Speaker 1>sitting there ranting from his wheelchair. He's sitting there, looks

<v Speaker 1>like fucking Professor X sitting out there, and he's ranting

<v Speaker 1>and raving. And so Osprey, he kind of sort of

<v Speaker 1>broke the count back in before 10. He didn't really

<v Speaker 1>fully get his body back in the ring, but he

<v Speaker 1>got in just enough to where Omega came off the

<v Speaker 1>ropes and just absolutely destroyed him with a V-trigger. And

<v Speaker 1>then he folded Ospreay up with a Snapdragon suplex on

<v Speaker 1>the apron. Then came the Omega-Terminator dive. So back inside,

<v Speaker 1>Omega came off the top with a dropkick right to

<v Speaker 1>the back of the neck, on point. Omega wanted an

<v Speaker 1>avalanche snapdrag, and Ospreay, he's trying to fight out of it.

<v Speaker 1>And Omega switched to his electric chair drop into a

<v Speaker 1>bridging German suplex. I always forget what he calls it.

<v Speaker 1>He's got a name for it. Whatever it is, he

<v Speaker 1>did that off the top, avalanche style. Ospreay was taking

<v Speaker 1>a nasty number of bumps on the back of his neck.

<v Speaker 1>Here in this match. Surgically repaired neck, by the way.

<v Speaker 1>So after another run of offense by the champion, Ospreay,

<v Speaker 1>he exploded up into a desperation hidden blade. Just to

<v Speaker 1>buy himself some much-needed time here in this match. So

<v Speaker 1>Omega came up bleeding very badly from his eye. And

<v Speaker 1>this also did not look intentional at all. He got

<v Speaker 1>opened up. I mean, half his face was covered in blood.

<v Speaker 1>It was right under his eye. So it looked like

<v Speaker 1>he got opened up by the hidden blade. I guess

<v Speaker 1>this is what Will Ospreay meant when he was talking

<v Speaker 1>to Ariel Helwani about how he wants to feel alive

<v Speaker 1>when he wrestles, which is why he would not want

<v Speaker 1>to go to WWE because they're very minimalist and he

<v Speaker 1>likes the contact. He wants to feel alive during his matches. Yes,

<v Speaker 1>but that also doesn't mean that you should be caving

<v Speaker 1>your opponent's face in either. So now he had Omega

<v Speaker 1>playing defense here, and he started throwing some violent forearms

<v Speaker 1>to the back of Kenny's neck, to the point where

<v Speaker 1>Paul Turner had to back him off. It took Kenny

<v Speaker 1>until the count of nine to recover, and then he

<v Speaker 1>got rocked with a hidden blade only for two. Ospreay

<v Speaker 1>flipped through a lariat into a powerbomb with a high stack,

<v Speaker 1>but then immediately rolled backwards into a styles clash to Omega,

<v Speaker 1>only for a near fall. So after this, he wanted

<v Speaker 1>an ass cutter. He got caught, though, out of midair

<v Speaker 1>with a knee strike. There was a nasty Tiger Driver

<v Speaker 1>91 from Omega and then a V-trigger and then the

<v Speaker 1>one winged angel. And Will Ospreay kicked out. He kicked

<v Speaker 1>out of the one-winged angel. The announcers just laid out

<v Speaker 1>to let the moment breathe. They didn't say a word.

<v Speaker 1>They let the crowd speak for the moment. I'm glad

<v Speaker 1>they did that. Because so many times on this show,

<v Speaker 1>you know, Tony Schiavone with the over-the-top screaming and Excalibur

<v Speaker 1>is guilty of that sometimes where it just goes a

<v Speaker 1>little overboard. And I'm like, this was nice. They didn't

<v Speaker 1>say a word. It was like they were speechless. All

<v Speaker 1>you needed to do was listen to the crowd and

<v Speaker 1>the way they reacted to that because it's a protected move.

<v Speaker 1>You just don't see people kicking out of this move. Again,

<v Speaker 1>two people. In 20 years, they've kicked out of this

<v Speaker 1>fucking move. Now we have number three. So I like

<v Speaker 1>that they didn't say anything. Omega hit another V-trigger, and

<v Speaker 1>then he tried for another one-winged angel. Ospreay, though, escaped

<v Speaker 1>into a tiger driver of his own, which reminded me

<v Speaker 1>of their forbidden door match all over again. Dropped Kenny

<v Speaker 1>Wright on his fucking head. That was just sickening. I

<v Speaker 1>could just hear Bryan Danielson groaning on commentary watching this.

<v Speaker 1>Osprey swings when he gets up, but he just collapses

<v Speaker 1>into a heap. He can't capitalize. It's as if he

<v Speaker 1>has nothing left. Yes, tuxedo. I think that's what it's called.

<v Speaker 1>That move I mentioned earlier, the electric chair drop into

<v Speaker 1>the bridging German, I think he calls it Kreutzrath. I

<v Speaker 1>think that's the... I can never remember the name of

<v Speaker 1>that move. Is that from anime? It's Kenny Omega, so

<v Speaker 1>it probably is. It's probably some fucking anime term. Anyway.

<v Speaker 1>So Ospreay just looks like he's got nothing left. Again,

<v Speaker 1>he took a swing, but he just collapsed on himself. Ospreay, again,

<v Speaker 1>slips out of a one-winged angel attempt into one of

<v Speaker 1>his own. And Kenny Omega kicks out at one. He

<v Speaker 1>no-sells his own finish. And then Ospreay takes his head

<v Speaker 1>off with a hidden blade into a Stormbreaker. Two finishes

<v Speaker 1>of his own. These are Ospreay's finishes. And again, Kenny

<v Speaker 1>kicks out at one. That I didn't like. One kick

<v Speaker 1>out at one is fine. The second kick out at one,

<v Speaker 1>you kind of lost me on that. I was not

<v Speaker 1>a fan of that. So now Ospreay lowers the elbow pad.

<v Speaker 1>He does the gun gesture. He is signaling for the

<v Speaker 1>kill shot, which Kenny Omega claimed he didn't think Ospreay

<v Speaker 1>had it in him to pull it off. Well, we're

<v Speaker 1>about to find out because he flashes the kill shot sign.

<v Speaker 1>He wrecks Kenny with one final hidden blade to put

<v Speaker 1>it away and claim his first AEW World Championship. Ospreay

<v Speaker 1>celebrates with some pyro. They actually went off the air

<v Speaker 1>very quickly after this because they were already nearly at curfew.

<v Speaker 1>They didn't end at 5 o'clock. They actually went to

<v Speaker 1>about 5.15. But they had to be done no later

<v Speaker 1>than 5.30. I thought they had to be out of

<v Speaker 1>the building by 5.30, and that was never going to happen,

<v Speaker 1>but they went off the air pretty quickly, which was fine.

<v Speaker 1>I mean, you didn't have to really, you know, he

<v Speaker 1>got the pyro, and it's all well and good. And

<v Speaker 1>when it was over, I just thought to myself, this

<v Speaker 1>was a great show. He did the deal. Osprey went

<v Speaker 1>in there, he did the deal, he did what Omega

<v Speaker 1>said he couldn't do, right, in this story they tried

<v Speaker 1>to tell, and what Jon Moxley taught him to do.

<v Speaker 1>which was how to deliver the death blow. I thought

<v Speaker 1>the in-ring storytelling here, whatever you want to say about

<v Speaker 1>the moves and him constantly being dropped on his fucking

<v Speaker 1>neck and the second kick out at one and all that,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, we could quibble about that, but I thought

<v Speaker 1>the in-ring storytelling here was actually really good if you've

<v Speaker 1>been paying attention for the last few months. From the

<v Speaker 1>entrances to the three count, from start to finish here,

<v Speaker 1>I just thought this was outstanding stuff. We already knew

<v Speaker 1>their body of work. We knew the matches Kenny Omega had.

<v Speaker 1>We knew the matches that Will Ospreay had. We knew

<v Speaker 1>the matches they had against each other. They've already had

<v Speaker 1>a couple of them before. We knew they were great.

<v Speaker 1>But for all of the stuff about Kenny coming back

<v Speaker 1>from the diverticulitis, and he's not. He's not the same

<v Speaker 1>person he was before that. But he's still fucking great.

<v Speaker 1>He's still one of the best in the world, even

<v Speaker 1>if he isn't the same guy he was five years ago.

<v Speaker 1>So for all of the diverticulitis stuff and his age,

<v Speaker 1>you know, catching up with him, you watch a match

<v Speaker 1>like this and you would never know, right? Because he always,

<v Speaker 1>on the big stage, he always goes out there and

<v Speaker 1>he delivers, right? He is that big match performer that

<v Speaker 1>you can rely on. He's going to go out there

<v Speaker 1>and give you what you hope and need to get

<v Speaker 1>out of him. And for Will Ospreay, you know, this

<v Speaker 1>is now a new era for him. He is now

<v Speaker 1>the face of this company. He is the guy that

<v Speaker 1>is going to lead AEW into 2027. You know, as

<v Speaker 1>the world champion, he's going to lead this company now

<v Speaker 1>until Tony Khan says otherwise. But I mean, everything built

<v Speaker 1>up to this moment right here. Everything has been building

<v Speaker 1>to this from the moment he signed with this company.

<v Speaker 1>You know, WWE made him an offer. AEW made him

<v Speaker 1>an offer. He chose the AEW offer. We know why

<v Speaker 1>he chose the AEW offer. He talked about it. This

<v Speaker 1>past week, this is where he wanted to be. He

<v Speaker 1>didn't want to move to the States. I'm sure he

<v Speaker 1>had a lot of reasons for wanting to come to

<v Speaker 1>this company. From the moment he signed with AEW to

<v Speaker 1>the moment he beat MJF at Wembley two years ago

<v Speaker 1>for the international title, the only place to go from

<v Speaker 1>there was up to the world championship. We all knew

<v Speaker 1>that this was the road that he was going to

<v Speaker 1>go down. The neck surgery, the stuff with the death riders,

<v Speaker 1>winning the Owen, right? Everything built to this moment in

<v Speaker 1>front of his people. in front of his family, in

<v Speaker 1>front of his friends, in front of his United Empire buddies.

<v Speaker 1>All of it. And when the stars can align like that,

<v Speaker 1>and you get a great main event like this, and

<v Speaker 1>the crowd is as loud and invested as they are,

<v Speaker 1>that's what makes it so much fun to follow. And

<v Speaker 1>we could talk about whether or not it should have

<v Speaker 1>been MJF and Will Ospreay, or was it the right

<v Speaker 1>choice to go with Kenny and Ospreay, right? I think

<v Speaker 1>you could have made the other match work too, but

<v Speaker 1>This is the match that Tony Khan wanted to do.

<v Speaker 1>This is the match that these two guys wanted to do.

<v Speaker 1>And they made it work. It doesn't matter what match

<v Speaker 1>they could have done. What matters is that the match

<v Speaker 1>that we got was fucking great. And it felt like

<v Speaker 1>a big-time all-in main event. Who steps up next? Well,

<v Speaker 1>we'll find out, I guess, on Wednesday. I mean, Andrade

<v Speaker 1>has that contract. He can cash that in with one

<v Speaker 1>week's notice. I don't know if he's going to cash

<v Speaker 1>in for an all-out title shot. I don't know if

<v Speaker 1>he's going to bank it for a while and hold

<v Speaker 1>on to it for a little while longer. MJF is

<v Speaker 1>still walking around with his world championship. You've got Jon Moxley.

<v Speaker 1>Jon Moxley is the one that makes the most sense.

<v Speaker 1>Jon Moxley has a pay-per-view win this year over Will Ospreay.

<v Speaker 1>That still has gone unavenged. Jon Moxley is also still

<v Speaker 1>the continental champion, though. Do we really need the Continental

<v Speaker 1>Champion challenging for the World Championship? We don't. One of

<v Speaker 1>the reasons why I was hoping he would drop the

<v Speaker 1>belt on this show. Maybe it means they're not going

<v Speaker 1>to go into that match right away. Maybe they're going

<v Speaker 1>to hold off on that for a while. You don't

<v Speaker 1>have to go into it right away. So those are

<v Speaker 1>the names that kind of pop up to me there.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure there's other people that will step up and

<v Speaker 1>want to crack at the belt. Other Don Callis family members.

<v Speaker 1>Kyle Fletcher has no title now. You know, you could

<v Speaker 1>always go back to that. So we'll see. But when

<v Speaker 1>the show was over, I was very happy with my purchase.

<v Speaker 1>This is one of the best shows of 2026. Did

<v Speaker 1>it beat Double or Nothing? Top to bottom as a show?

<v Speaker 1>Probably not. I think I probably would still have Double

<v Speaker 1>or Nothing in the number one spot. That was a

<v Speaker 1>great fucking show. But this one is definitely up there.

<v Speaker 1>Osprey vs. Dragunov. Says Alexander. That could be a television match. Absolutely.

<v Speaker 1>Would love to see that match. Are you kidding me?

<v Speaker 1>Dragunov against three quarters of the roster would be great.

<v Speaker 1>You want to give me Osprey and Dragunov on like

<v Speaker 1>a big themed episode of Dynamite early next year or something? Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>Dynamite's coming to the O2 in London in February. Like

<v Speaker 1>a show like that. Sure. Why not? I'd love to

<v Speaker 1>see it. That'd be great. Sign me up, man. Seamus. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>don't forget, Seamus is on his way in, most likely.

<v Speaker 1>He's a free man, October 1st. It's going to be

<v Speaker 1>a little while, but I'm sure he's going to end

<v Speaker 1>up here just like the New Day did. I am

<v Speaker 1>sure of it. Let's take a look at your Super

<v Speaker 1>Chat questions here. Get them on in. We'll hang out

<v Speaker 1>for a little bit. That'll get you out of here

<v Speaker 1>on a Sunday night. Thank you for hanging out with

<v Speaker 1>me for my all-in review. We got Death Scythe starting

<v Speaker 1>us off here. Says, I watched Rock Hogan in WrestleMania 18.

<v Speaker 1>It is amazing how the crowd... can make a match

<v Speaker 1>feel great. But then I watched Brock and Roman in

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania 34 and it was the opposite. Yeah, because Brock

<v Speaker 1>and Roman in WrestleMania 34 was shit. That's why we

<v Speaker 1>weren't making a lot of noise for it in the

<v Speaker 1>building that night. At least my section wasn't. Love's Cat says,

<v Speaker 1>is Dragunov an AW now? No, but he will be.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure he will be. He did not debut tonight, though.

<v Speaker 1>Either they didn't make the deal yet, or they are

<v Speaker 1>saving him for another date. WWE Wrestling and Gaming says,

<v Speaker 1>will All In be better than Coyote vs. Acme? I

<v Speaker 1>like them both. I'll just say that. I've watched them both.

<v Speaker 1>I like them both. You should all go see Coyote vs. Acme.

<v Speaker 1>Everybody should go support that movie. That movie made $ 15

<v Speaker 1>million in its opening weekend, which actually beat the expectations,

<v Speaker 1>so that's a good sign. It cost Ketchup Entertainment $ 50

<v Speaker 1>million to acquire it. But the more money that movie makes,

<v Speaker 1>the better. tell David Zaslav to go suck it Casper

<v Speaker 1>the Tryhards shout out to Justin Roberts for the hilarious

<v Speaker 1>recovery yeah yeah he made a mistake and at least

<v Speaker 1>he was able to try to turn it into something

<v Speaker 1>funny Deathside says I take it New Dawn was already

<v Speaker 1>taken I don't know, maybe they didn't want anything that

<v Speaker 1>was that close to New Day. Maybe New Level was

<v Speaker 1>their choice all along. Dry Chicken says, Big shout out

<v Speaker 1>to Mercedes Monet and Will Ospreay for winning the world

<v Speaker 1>titles from their matches with Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Running

<v Speaker 1>through their faces. Well, not through their faces. Running down

<v Speaker 1>their faces, not through their faces. I guess technically it

<v Speaker 1>was running through their faces. Death Scythe. I mentioned Okada

<v Speaker 1>and Darby as possible challengers to Ospreay's world title. There's

<v Speaker 1>also Ricochet. Him and Ospreay had two matches in AEW.

<v Speaker 1>The first one ended in a draw. And Ricochet won. Well,

<v Speaker 1>there you go. I mean, Ricochet, Swerve. I didn't mention

<v Speaker 1>Swerve as a potential challenger for Ospreay. I know they

<v Speaker 1>just did that match, but he's got a bunch of

<v Speaker 1>people that he could step in there with. Anti-M Bishop.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you for the five. Dry Chicken says, before the

<v Speaker 1>main event when Will Ospreay was walking past his previous

<v Speaker 1>partners and opponents, I feel like they were foreshadowing future challengers.

<v Speaker 1>That's very possible. I think they probably were in terms

<v Speaker 1>of like Ricochet and Swerve. Zack Sabre, I mean, they

<v Speaker 1>got WrestleDream coming up in a few months, right? So

<v Speaker 1>I suppose that could be a WrestleDream match. We got

<v Speaker 1>Aaron with a $ 50 Super Chat. Such a fun show.

<v Speaker 1>Kenny was unreal tonight. He's easily the best big match

<v Speaker 1>wrestler in the business, in my opinion. They were hitting

<v Speaker 1>on a new level tonight. Maybe it's just me, but

<v Speaker 1>I feel like there's some real momentum for the company

<v Speaker 1>after this show. Cheers, Solo. Thank you, Aaron. I salute you, sir. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, look, we always say that after they have

<v Speaker 1>a big pay-per-view. And then sometimes the follow-up is very subpar.

<v Speaker 1>So hopefully they can follow up on this with a

<v Speaker 1>good show on Wednesday. Ruben says, The once-a-year AEW visit

<v Speaker 1>to London is always electric. It was our first time

<v Speaker 1>bringing my friend's son along. And after tonight, he is

<v Speaker 1>officially a huge AEW fan, especially Darby Allin, of course.

<v Speaker 1>What kid is not going to like Darby Allin jumping

<v Speaker 1>off of shit and trying to kill himself? Boomerang. My

<v Speaker 1>initial reaction after Mercedes won. Bailey to AEW confirmed. No,

<v Speaker 1>I don't think that confirms anything. I do hope she

<v Speaker 1>ends up there, though. Just so we can get another

<v Speaker 1>match between them. They always had great matches together. WWE

<v Speaker 1>Wrestling and Gaming why is the Rumble no longer in January?

<v Speaker 1>sometimes it is they've been waffling back and forth between

<v Speaker 1>January and early February I think they try to do

<v Speaker 1>it on the weekend between the conference championship games and

<v Speaker 1>the Super Bowl and sometimes it just falls it could

<v Speaker 1>be late January it could be early February I prefer

<v Speaker 1>a January Royal Rumble I'm not a fan of this

<v Speaker 1>February shit Tuxedo says, enough bad booking the Hurt Syndicate.

<v Speaker 1>I'm telling you there's a story there. There's a reason

<v Speaker 1>for it. One day we'll know the real story. Andre,

<v Speaker 1>what's going on, brother? Thank you for the 10. The

<v Speaker 1>tag team standoff after the tag team match said it all.

<v Speaker 1>Tony has no use for the Hurt Syndicate anymore. Well,

<v Speaker 1>then use them in singles. I mean, just sitting them

<v Speaker 1>on the bench and making them colliders every other Saturday

<v Speaker 1>is not enough. What's the harm in getting them in singles? See,

<v Speaker 1>this is the same problem we had this with Malachi Black.

<v Speaker 1>When we couldn't get a straight answer about why they

<v Speaker 1>weren't using him in singles matches. It was just the

<v Speaker 1>occasional tag team match. To the point where he had

<v Speaker 1>to come out and say, guys, stop claiming I'm hurt.

<v Speaker 1>Stop claiming I still have a bad back. My back

<v Speaker 1>is fine. Don't ask me. I'm not the one you

<v Speaker 1>should be asking. It's a Tony Khan thing. Donovan with

<v Speaker 1>a 999. With WWE becoming increasingly unwatchable, what would it

<v Speaker 1>take for AEW to surpass WWE as the top wrestling promotion?

<v Speaker 1>Similar to how WCW overtook WWF, In popularity in 1996.

<v Speaker 1>WCW did it. Why not AEW? It's apples and oranges, brother.

<v Speaker 1>It is not the same thing. WWE is not the

<v Speaker 1>same company they were in 1996. They are so much

<v Speaker 1>bigger now. They're so corporate. They have all of these

<v Speaker 1>relationships and guaranteed money coming in. It's a totally different

<v Speaker 1>landscape now. They are far too big. to be overtaken

<v Speaker 1>like business wise by another wrestling company. So you're never

<v Speaker 1>going to have that again. Like that's, it's never going

<v Speaker 1>to happen again. What you're talking about and what you're

<v Speaker 1>like envisioning will not happen. It does not mean that

<v Speaker 1>AEW cannot be a strong, like business wise, a strong

<v Speaker 1>number two, like stronger than they are now. They could.

<v Speaker 1>And I hope they do. I hope they can drive

<v Speaker 1>business up even more. Business goes up for them, business

<v Speaker 1>goes up for everybody. But this idea that, well, WCW

<v Speaker 1>was beating them for a while, for 83 weeks, so

<v Speaker 1>why can't AEW do the same? They can't. It's a

<v Speaker 1>totally different world now, and it's just not going to happen.

<v Speaker 1>It's not practical. And they shouldn't judge their success, and

<v Speaker 1>I think fans don't need to judge their success by, well,

<v Speaker 1>can they... Match WWE. You're fighting a losing battle if

<v Speaker 1>that's your criteria for it. They just went into Wembley

<v Speaker 1>Stadium for the third time with 47,000 people and had

<v Speaker 1>a $ 6. 5 million gate. Not bad. Right? I mean, not bad.

<v Speaker 1>They have a lot of people under contract. They have

<v Speaker 1>a lot of expenses. The hope would be, if you're AEW,

<v Speaker 1>that they're actually making money and turning a profit and

<v Speaker 1>making more than they have going out. Only Tony Khan

<v Speaker 1>knows if that's the case or not. But the comparisons

<v Speaker 1>to WWE, as far as business goes, it's just not practical.

<v Speaker 1>Link Lex, great show, but I'm so over Mox and

<v Speaker 1>the continental nonsense. It's so predictable that Mox... is change

<v Speaker 1>the channel for me. That was my bathroom break. He

<v Speaker 1>has been very dominant this year, but he's had some

<v Speaker 1>good matches too. Tyler said, had a great birthday today,

<v Speaker 1>25 years old, much love. Happy birthday, Tyler. I hope

<v Speaker 1>it was a great one. Boomerang says the casino gauntlet

<v Speaker 1>is why I love Taz on commentary. Him roasting Justin.

<v Speaker 1>Roberts after the botch was hilarious. Justin Roberts dream match.

<v Speaker 1>If you ever saw Taz and Excalibur on commentary for Dark,

<v Speaker 1>they used to have a lot of fun on commentary.

<v Speaker 1>We got Sudo with the five. Would a New Japan-style

<v Speaker 1>15-minute intermission two-thirds of the way through the show possibly

<v Speaker 1>help AEW pay-per-views? All in felt fine, but they often

<v Speaker 1>feel very long. No, because all that would do is

<v Speaker 1>prolong the shows. Tony is not going to sacrifice a

<v Speaker 1>match for a 15-minute intermission. He's just going to add

<v Speaker 1>a 15-minute intermission, which is just going to make the

<v Speaker 1>show 15 minutes longer. So the answer is no. I

<v Speaker 1>don't think it's going to help. If anything, I actually

<v Speaker 1>think it would hurt. All you got to do is

<v Speaker 1>just pace the shows better. Don't make them go overly long.

<v Speaker 1>The way they formatted it and the pace of things

<v Speaker 1>on this show was much better. And the show still

<v Speaker 1>went almost four and a half hours. But it just

<v Speaker 1>felt a lot better than some of these other shows

<v Speaker 1>typically do. San Juan Wolf with a 20 sub solo.

<v Speaker 1>Just stopping by to say hello. back at the hotel

<v Speaker 1>from Wembley with the fam first time in London and

<v Speaker 1>it was a blast all in was an easy 10

<v Speaker 1>out of 10 plus I finally tried Nando's unbelievable day

<v Speaker 1>overall well I didn't see anybody answer my question before

<v Speaker 1>would you liken Nando's to like a a Chick-fil-a or

<v Speaker 1>is that is that not the best analogy what would

<v Speaker 1>be the best analogy to a place here in the U.S.? Foodhive. Oh,

<v Speaker 1>Foodhive is with us. Foodhive, what's going on, man? I

<v Speaker 1>haven't heard from you in a while. Says, I got

<v Speaker 1>my girlfriend into AEW and now she's obsessed. Her favorite

<v Speaker 1>wrestler is Darby and she hates Kevin Knight for his

<v Speaker 1>crimes against him. Yeah, he tried to kill him a

<v Speaker 1>few weeks ago. He tried to explode him with pyro. Well,

<v Speaker 1>I would hope that she enjoyed this show because this

<v Speaker 1>was an excellent show. Bojangles? Really? Bojangles would be a

<v Speaker 1>better analogy for Nando's? We don't have any Bojangles around here.

<v Speaker 1>We have a Raising Cane's. We have one of those.

<v Speaker 1>I haven't tried them yet. Mr. Ozone, just imagine Shane

<v Speaker 1>McMahon versus Darby Allin. Street fighter. You mean street fight?

<v Speaker 1>Somebody would die. In that match, somebody would die. bender

<v Speaker 1>mcsimpson shout out to the production team the camera angles

<v Speaker 1>were great love the 4k cameras the stage looked awesome

<v Speaker 1>minus the commander justin roberts flub uh the show looked

<v Speaker 1>amazing yeah outside of uh renee getting very irritated on

<v Speaker 1>the pre-show when her audio wasn't working arabian night uh

<v Speaker 1>says uh ko injured his knee at a house show

<v Speaker 1>look bad Oh, that's not good. See, sometimes people say that,

<v Speaker 1>but then it ends up being okay. Hopefully that's one

<v Speaker 1>of the... I haven't seen anything yet, but hopefully that's...

<v Speaker 1>Hopefully it's just a piece of video that looks bad,

<v Speaker 1>and it's not as bad as it looks. That would

<v Speaker 1>be very bad. DeathSize says, I can't help but wonder

<v Speaker 1>what they would have done if Will Ospreay suffered an

<v Speaker 1>injury like Willow days before tonight. Would they still have... Look,

<v Speaker 1>Ospreay popped up as a surprise. Was it last night

<v Speaker 1>or Friday night? at the RevPro anniversary show, and he wrestled.

<v Speaker 1>I'm like, is Tony out of his mind? Like, Ospreay

<v Speaker 1>being there is one thing, but to have him wrestle, like,

<v Speaker 1>you're tempting fate. When I saw that, I was like,

<v Speaker 1>I don't know that I would want him doing that.

<v Speaker 1>That would have me very nervous. Big Bolivian. Don't get

<v Speaker 1>why people want to sign up with WWE. Even if

<v Speaker 1>it's a big name, the job security is awful and

<v Speaker 1>you will be forgotten after three weeks. Catering hell. Well,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, to be fair, you could also be forgotten

<v Speaker 1>within two weeks after you sign with AEW, unless you're

<v Speaker 1>a super big name. But at least there, in theory,

<v Speaker 1>you could still... wrestle outside the company if they're not

<v Speaker 1>doing a lot with you. You can, you know, wrestle independently.

<v Speaker 1>That is one leg up that they have on WWE.

<v Speaker 1>Can't do that if you're in WWE. It would have

<v Speaker 1>to be under very special circumstances. Like Nakamura being allowed

<v Speaker 1>to wrestle on those pro wrestling Noah New Year shows.

<v Speaker 1>Jeff Larson. I give the show an A-. I really

<v Speaker 1>enjoyed the show from start to finish. I think that's fair.

<v Speaker 1>I thought it was excellent. AntiMBishop07 with a 5. Salute Salamonster.

<v Speaker 1>Good games on the recent Mets series. All-in was amazing.

<v Speaker 1>Where would you like to see it held next year? Plus,

<v Speaker 1>Fletcher in red equals Match of the Year Candidate. It

<v Speaker 1>could very well be. It could very well be, and

<v Speaker 1>I'm looking forward to being on the call for it.

<v Speaker 1>And you can watch it on YouTube. If you can't

<v Speaker 1>be there in Los Angeles on Friday, we're going to

<v Speaker 1>be streaming it live on YouTube. What is it, 8 p.m.

<v Speaker 1>local time? So that would be 11-ish Eastern. I think

<v Speaker 1>it's an 8 p.m. local start. So it'll be a

<v Speaker 1>little bit later on the East Coast. Where would I

<v Speaker 1>like to see All In held next year? That's a

<v Speaker 1>good question. assuming they're not doing it at Wembley, they

<v Speaker 1>could pick a stadium that is slightly smaller and probably

<v Speaker 1>somewhere domestic. I just, I don't really have any specific,

<v Speaker 1>you know, favorite candidate for like a city or a building.

<v Speaker 1>I just think All In is their big show. It

<v Speaker 1>should be in a big venue. It doesn't have to

<v Speaker 1>be Wembley Stadium though, you know, where it's fucking 80

<v Speaker 1>or 90,000 people. When they ran Globe Life Field last year,

<v Speaker 1>what is the capacity of Globe Life? It was probably

<v Speaker 1>in the 50,000 range. Something like that. Something maybe in

<v Speaker 1>the 40,000 to 50,000 range max. Like a baseball stadium

<v Speaker 1>or something. It can't just be in a regular venue.

<v Speaker 1>You're at a point now with this all-in show. You've

<v Speaker 1>done it now for years in a row in a stadium.

<v Speaker 1>It should be a stadium show. Crypto and poker solo.

<v Speaker 1>I watch everything, but TNT, you are the goat. Well,

<v Speaker 1>you should change that too, my friend, but, uh, but no,

<v Speaker 1>I appreciate that. I'm glad you're with us tonight. I

<v Speaker 1>hope you're enjoying the show. Gold Matthew with a pair

<v Speaker 1>of super chats, watch KO versus punk on SmackDown with

<v Speaker 1>my friend. And he loved the finish, but I hated it.

<v Speaker 1>He loved it because of the heat that it put

<v Speaker 1>on Sammy, but I hated it because I thought it

<v Speaker 1>made no sense for the KO character to refuse the title.

<v Speaker 1>Whose side are you on? Also, a Mercedes match equals

<v Speaker 1>the best AEW women's match ever. Well, that's high praise.

<v Speaker 1>It was a great match. I'm going to give you

<v Speaker 1>an answer that you're probably not going to like. Whose

<v Speaker 1>side am I on? I think that you both make

<v Speaker 1>valid points, and I'm kind of in the middle. I'm

<v Speaker 1>kind of in the middle because... I could see where Owens,

<v Speaker 1>who is not a straight heel at the moment, would

<v Speaker 1>not want his big win over CM Punk to be

<v Speaker 1>tainted for any reason, right? Where he wouldn't want to

<v Speaker 1>give Punk the out of being able to say, yeah, but.

<v Speaker 1>You beat me, but. Right? He used the belt or

<v Speaker 1>your friend helped you. It's kind of like what we've

<v Speaker 1>had in the Kenny Omega Will Ospreay thing. Where when

<v Speaker 1>they had their sit-down interview a couple of weeks ago,

<v Speaker 1>Osprey said, you know, that last win I had over

<v Speaker 1>you at Forbidden Door keeps me up at night. I

<v Speaker 1>don't even count it as a win. Because you're right,

<v Speaker 1>Don Callis helped me. And so maybe Owens would kind

<v Speaker 1>of think about that the same way, because he hates punk.

<v Speaker 1>He wants to beat punk the right way. On the

<v Speaker 1>flip side, I was also not really a huge fan

<v Speaker 1>of the finish, even though I knew it was coming,

<v Speaker 1>because I just thought it was fucking lame. So I

<v Speaker 1>kind of am in the middle between you and your friend.

<v Speaker 1>Anti-Ambishop says, side note, there are Nando's in America. DMV. DMV. Texas, Illinois,

<v Speaker 1>and Georgia. Well, that's why I didn't know that, because

<v Speaker 1>I don't live in any of those places. And out

<v Speaker 1>of all the places you just named, Texas, Illinois, and Georgia,

<v Speaker 1>I've only, well, actually, I've been to two of them.

<v Speaker 1>I've been to Georgia. Never eaten at Nando's, though. With

<v Speaker 1>a tear in my eye! But when I do eventually go,

<v Speaker 1>I will say that as I sit down to eat

<v Speaker 1>my food. I will say, with a tear in my eye.

<v Speaker 1>I'm about to have Nando's for the first time. We'll

<v Speaker 1>see if it brings a tear to my eye. If

<v Speaker 1>it's that good, it'll bring a tear to my eye.

<v Speaker 1>Bender McSimpson. One of the best shows I've seen in

<v Speaker 1>a while. When we talk about the best in the

<v Speaker 1>world today, we need to add Mercedes and Willow. Gotta

<v Speaker 1>put some respect on their names. Thank you, Bender. I

<v Speaker 1>appreciate the 1992. And I agree with you 100%. Tuxedo

<v Speaker 1>with 60 months of channel membership. Watched the last HOG show.

<v Speaker 1>Was entertained throughout. Will be watching on Friday. Safe travels.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you, brother. I fly out on Friday morning. barring

<v Speaker 1>any delays if there are any delays I guess I'm

<v Speaker 1>going to be in some trouble because I'm flying out

<v Speaker 1>the day of wish me luck Jay Vargas says city

<v Speaker 1>field would be suitable for an AW pay-per-view in the

<v Speaker 1>future and there's a lot of pro wrestling history in

<v Speaker 1>Queens would you agree I would it would just completely

<v Speaker 1>depend on the on the time of year during the

<v Speaker 1>baseball season would be tough. You'd have to coordinate that.

<v Speaker 1>That could be difficult. And obviously in the colder weather months,

<v Speaker 1>you don't want to run an outdoor venue. If you're

<v Speaker 1>going to run Queens, honestly, Citi Field would be kind

<v Speaker 1>of unique, I guess. If you're going to run Queens,

<v Speaker 1>they would probably just run Arthur Ashe again once it's opened.

<v Speaker 1>Right now it's being renovated. Or they could run the

<v Speaker 1>stadium right next to it like they did previously. You know,

<v Speaker 1>you don't even need to technically run Citi Field. If

<v Speaker 1>you don't want to have any concerns about weather, then

<v Speaker 1>you're probably better off running indoors. Ah, Antiam Bishop says,

<v Speaker 1>DMV equals D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Thank you for clarifying.

<v Speaker 1>I hear the DMV and a cold chill goes up

<v Speaker 1>my spine. It's not a place where I want to be.

<v Speaker 1>Waiting in line at the DMV is not my idea

<v Speaker 1>of a fun day. All right, well, we hit the

<v Speaker 1>main goal for one round of Be the Booker. We

<v Speaker 1>got two minutes left in the other goal. I don't

<v Speaker 1>know that we're going to make that one, but we

<v Speaker 1>got one round coming our way. Live with Blake with

<v Speaker 1>a $ 2 Super Chat. I work as a grocery store worker.

<v Speaker 1>Canada Nandos. Huh. Do you enjoy it? Are they a

<v Speaker 1>fun employer to work for? Do they have good benefits?

<v Speaker 1>These are the important questions. EJ Slemp with a five.

<v Speaker 1>I'd love an AEW show at the Oakland Coliseum before

<v Speaker 1>they tear it down. The Raiders and A's are gone,

<v Speaker 1>but that stadium has history and character. I'm very indifferent

<v Speaker 1>towards it because I have not been to that stadium.

<v Speaker 1>And I know that they're moving out of Oakland. So

<v Speaker 1>I imagine there's a reason for that. Is it a

<v Speaker 1>nice venue? Look, there was a lot of history with

<v Speaker 1>Shea Stadium here in New York where the Mets used

<v Speaker 1>to play, but it was a fucking dump. I can't

<v Speaker 1>say I was really sorry to see it go. When

<v Speaker 1>did they open Citi Field? Like 2009? 2009? Sometime around then.

<v Speaker 1>It may have some character, but a lot of these places,

<v Speaker 1>when they get torn down, they're being torn down for

<v Speaker 1>a reason. What was that stadium that WWE ran for

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania in Orlando that I went to in 2017? Camping World.

<v Speaker 1>Was it Camping World? The Orange Bowl? What the fuck

<v Speaker 1>was that place? Camping World Stadium? Yeah, that place wasn't

<v Speaker 1>too nice either. I remember being there thinking, man, they

<v Speaker 1>need to renovate this place. Matthews says, Oakland Coliseum is

<v Speaker 1>such a dump. Okay, well, see, he disagrees with you, EJ.

<v Speaker 1>He says it's a dump. The Citrus Bowl. That's what

<v Speaker 1>it was. I thought it was Camping World. I think

<v Speaker 1>maybe the official name was Camping World and people just

<v Speaker 1>kind of call it the Citrus Bowl. It's like the Meadowlands.

<v Speaker 1>You know, they used to have an arena, the Meadowlands Arena. Right?

<v Speaker 1>WWF would run there all the time. I went to

<v Speaker 1>many shows at the Meadowlands. Went to Raws at the Meadowlands. Actually,

<v Speaker 1>that might have been my first Raw that I went

<v Speaker 1>to was at the Meadowlands. But it had a different name. Like,

<v Speaker 1>it was the Brendan Byrne Arena. Then it was the

<v Speaker 1>Izod Center. But people still called it the Meadowlands. The

<v Speaker 1>Meadowlands Racetrack. Okay. All right. So, WWE and... Bama fans,

<v Speaker 1>says Camping World Stadium, a.k.a. Citrus Bowl. Yeah, the Citrus

<v Speaker 1>Bowl was a dump. I don't know if it still is. Sorry,

<v Speaker 1>Florida fans. Sorry to burst your bubble. All right, let's

<v Speaker 1>be the Booker. Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time

<v Speaker 1>to be the Booker! Oh my goodness. Look who it is.

<v Speaker 1>It is Gunthar. Bret Hart, I just saw your member chat.

<v Speaker 1>I'll get to it in a second. I just saw it.

<v Speaker 1>But first, we gotta shout out J-Man. As we switched

<v Speaker 1>over here to be the booker, he timed it. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know if he timed it well or timed it poorly,

<v Speaker 1>but I'm glad it popped up here. $ 50 Gunthar bomb

<v Speaker 1>here on the all-in stream. Figured I would drop a

<v Speaker 1>quick Bombay to help the goal. Thank you, brother. I

<v Speaker 1>think the goal expired. But that was certainly a welcome Bombay,

<v Speaker 1>as he called it. J-Man is always dropping some Bombays.

<v Speaker 1>Hope you're having a good Sunday night, my friend. And

<v Speaker 1>before I forget, let me read Bret Hart's member chat.

<v Speaker 1>Bret Hart, with 53 months, says, buy, rent, or send

<v Speaker 1>to hell. WWF slash pre-Nitro Shivani, WCW Nitro Shivani, AEW Shivani.

<v Speaker 1>What are we, we were dumping on Tony Shivani here?

<v Speaker 1>The man is a legend. He didn't name TNA Shivani

<v Speaker 1>when he popped up that one taping to just heal

<v Speaker 1>on everybody and then disappeared. Well, I mean, look, I'm

<v Speaker 1>going to buy on WWF pre-Nitro Shivani. I'm going to

<v Speaker 1>rent on Nitro Shivani and I'm going to send AEW

<v Speaker 1>Shivani to hell. I'm sorry. That's just how it has

<v Speaker 1>to be. Sorry, Tony. Alright, here we go. Tag team,

<v Speaker 1>be the booker. Then we'll get to the rest of

<v Speaker 1>your chats here, so get them on in. We have,

<v Speaker 1>oh boy, I didn't even mention this team. Jurassic Express,

<v Speaker 1>another tag team on the AEW roster. The only thing is, unfortunately,

<v Speaker 1>Luchasaurus is once again hurt. He just had his fourth

<v Speaker 1>surgery this year. Fourth surgery. I have no idea when

<v Speaker 1>he's going to be back in action. But eventually, we

<v Speaker 1>will get Jurassic Express back, I assume. Once he is

<v Speaker 1>all healed up. But he's had some major injury issues

<v Speaker 1>that have kept him out. They are going to be

<v Speaker 1>getting into the ring with who? They're going to get

<v Speaker 1>into the ring with the Briscoes. Which were it not

<v Speaker 1>for Warner Brothers Discovery. We could have gotten that match

<v Speaker 1>many years ago. In AEW. But we never did. Unfortunately. Unfortunately.

<v Speaker 1>We have, on the women's side of things, what do

<v Speaker 1>we have here? We have got, uh-oh, we have Choose

<v Speaker 1>Four Women. Book a tag team match. We're booking a

<v Speaker 1>women's tag team title match. Hey, shout out to Live

<v Speaker 1>With Blake. New channel member. Blake, it is Live With Blake, right?

<v Speaker 1>It's not Live With Blake? I can't live with Blake.

<v Speaker 1>Live With Blake sounds like some sort of daytime TV

<v Speaker 1>talk show. All right, we're picking four women here. Here

<v Speaker 1>we go. First two women are going to be the

<v Speaker 1>first tag team. Second two women are going to be

<v Speaker 1>the second tag team. Very easy. That's how this works.

<v Speaker 1>We have the legend. It says it right there in

<v Speaker 1>her mouthpiece. This is Bloodsport Natty that we have in

<v Speaker 1>this image. This is not Natalia. This is not busted

<v Speaker 1>open Natalia. This is Bloodsport Natty. and she will be

<v Speaker 1>partnered up with Trish Stratus speaking of legends Trish just

<v Speaker 1>sat down for an hour long interview with Chris Van

<v Speaker 1>Vliet my friend Chris Trish and Natty both former women's

<v Speaker 1>tag team champions are going to be colliding with Mandy Rose. Yes,

<v Speaker 1>the boat. Natty is the boat. Mandy Rose. Natty is

<v Speaker 1>the boat. And Mandy would float. You put her in

<v Speaker 1>the pool. She is going to be teaming up with

<v Speaker 1>another former women's champion, as ridiculous as it is, in

<v Speaker 1>Stephanie McMahon Helmsley. We do have some star power, though,

<v Speaker 1>in this match. We have Trish on one side and

<v Speaker 1>we have Stephanie on the other. That used to be

<v Speaker 1>a thing. That used to be a feud back in

<v Speaker 1>the day. Trish and Stephanie. So I'll give that the bell.

<v Speaker 1>And now our main event Should be a half bell.

<v Speaker 1>There is no half bell. What do you think this is?

<v Speaker 1>Half bell. We have the former AEW world champion, now

<v Speaker 1>one-third of the trios champs, Swerve Strickland. He swerves when

<v Speaker 1>he drives. He is in the main event. He was

<v Speaker 1>not in the main event tonight. But he's in the

<v Speaker 1>main event of Be the Booker. Against Chad Gable. That

<v Speaker 1>is the sweep. That is the clean sweep that we

<v Speaker 1>were looking for. Chad fucking Gable. Against Swerve Strickland. Hell yeah, man.

<v Speaker 1>Hell yeah. Give me a hell yeah. We got... Live

<v Speaker 1>with Blake. WrestleMania 18 Sky Dome. I will always call

<v Speaker 1>it that. Yeah, I mean, I tend to call it

<v Speaker 1>like WrestleMania 17. I think I feel like I usually

<v Speaker 1>call it WrestleMania X7. WrestleMania 18. I just call it

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania 18. And Bender McSimpson. I will not take any

<v Speaker 1>anti-Shavani slander. Bender takes this as fighting words. You're going

<v Speaker 1>to have to fight Bender. If you have a problem

<v Speaker 1>with Shivani, you've got a problem with Bender. Well, I'm

<v Speaker 1>glad if we were going to do Be The Booker

<v Speaker 1>that we got that clean sweep. And by the way,

<v Speaker 1>Swerve Strickland and Chad Gable, that would be a fucking

<v Speaker 1>great match. Sign me up for that. Well, thank you

<v Speaker 1>guys for hanging out with me here for the All

<v Speaker 1>In London. I didn't realize that we had gone almost

<v Speaker 1>three hours. That's pretty crazy. But it's also the sign

<v Speaker 1>of a great show. So I'm hoping that we will

<v Speaker 1>get some fun stuff on Wednesday. I know they've already

<v Speaker 1>announced the first Trios title defense will be on that show,

<v Speaker 1>so we're not going to have to wait very long

<v Speaker 1>to see the new level in action outside of a

<v Speaker 1>gauntlet-type setting. They're going to be taking on the Rascals.

<v Speaker 1>I never imagined I would see Kofi Kingston and Xavier

<v Speaker 1>Woods wrestling the Rascals, but here we go. Let's do it.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know that they've announced any other... Unless they

<v Speaker 1>announced something at the post-show scrum. I know they've announced

<v Speaker 1>a Mercedes celebration. Another fucking Mercedes celebration. I guess it's

<v Speaker 1>been a while since we've had one. She was having

<v Speaker 1>celebrations by the week. Every time she would win a

<v Speaker 1>new belt. So now we have another celebration. Beyond that,

<v Speaker 1>I don't believe they've announced anything yet. We shall see.

<v Speaker 1>The Juan Ocampo. With a $ 4. 99. $ 4. 99. Hello there. Torn

<v Speaker 1>my meniscus in April and got surgery in May. First

<v Speaker 1>major injury. Show got me through rough days, still swollen,

<v Speaker 1>but now walking and working. Well, I'm sorry to hear that, brother.

<v Speaker 1>That's a terrible injury. And I'm glad that the shows

<v Speaker 1>could help get you through your recovery. Hopefully you are

<v Speaker 1>healing well and healing quickly. At least you don't have

<v Speaker 1>to worry about getting back in the ring. That would

<v Speaker 1>be a very different situation. I mean, Rhea Ripley just

<v Speaker 1>had surgery for a torn meniscus. Hers was partially torn.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know if yours was fully torn, but I

<v Speaker 1>know that's a painful injury, so I hope all the

<v Speaker 1>healing is going well. Live with Blake. I was at

<v Speaker 1>Sky Dome in Toronto. Rock versus Hogan was wow. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>Rock versus Hogan, five-star match. There's different criteria that people

<v Speaker 1>have for five-star matches. To me, that's a five-star match

<v Speaker 1>all the way. It says, my favorite, though, is WrestleMania 19.

<v Speaker 1>19 was a good one. 19 had some strong matches

<v Speaker 1>on it. 19 had one of the worst WrestleMania buy

<v Speaker 1>rates of that time period. It's so weird if you

<v Speaker 1>find a chart online of the buy rates and the

<v Speaker 1>interest levels based on the buy rate for each WrestleMania.

<v Speaker 1>It's just funny, you look at like 17, 18, 19, 20,

<v Speaker 1>it's like 17 is way, like almost a million or

<v Speaker 1>a million buys, and then it just drops for fucking 19,

<v Speaker 1>and then it shoots back up. It's like, man, what

<v Speaker 1>happened there? You had Shawn Michaels' first Mania back, right,

<v Speaker 1>against Jericho. You had Brock and Kurt. Brock and Austin.

<v Speaker 1>And everything was really built around Hogan McMahon. The two

<v Speaker 1>old guys. Maybe that had a little something to do

<v Speaker 1>with it. Maybe people weren't overly excited about that match.

<v Speaker 1>Juan says, if I was wrestling, I would try to

<v Speaker 1>return at Survivor Series. Don't rush the injury back. See,

<v Speaker 1>Juan wants to compete here in the Be the Booker Federation.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to clear you. I will not medically

<v Speaker 1>clear you unless I know you are 100%. and forcing

<v Speaker 1>you to stay home and recover. I'm going to be

<v Speaker 1>live with you in less than 24 hours. We are

<v Speaker 1>going to talk about Monday Night Raw tomorrow. We are

<v Speaker 1>going to talk about the finals of the Lucha Tournament.

<v Speaker 1>Penta and Ray Phoenix, brother against brother. Hogan would be proud, brother.

<v Speaker 1>The only thing missing is special guest referee Hulk Hogan

<v Speaker 1>for this match. A lot of brothers. A lot of

<v Speaker 1>brothering going on here. And we got a big week

<v Speaker 1>ahead of us. No SmackDown review because I won't be

<v Speaker 1>here on Friday. But otherwise, we have all of our

<v Speaker 1>usual shows. And if you missed it, check out the

<v Speaker 1>latest SoundOff, episode 978. Cover a lot of ground on

<v Speaker 1>that show as well, including my final Dark Side of

<v Speaker 1>the Ring review, the finale for season seven. And I

<v Speaker 1>want feedback from you guys on what topics you might

<v Speaker 1>like to see if there is a season eight of

<v Speaker 1>Dark Side of the Ring. You can chime in and

<v Speaker 1>let me know. So again, thank you for all the love.

<v Speaker 1>Be well, stay safe, have yourselves a great rest of

<v Speaker 1>your night. Three hours in, I will bid you adieu,

<v Speaker 1>and I will see you for all the streams and

<v Speaker 1>shows coming up this week. Until then, take care, guys.