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Hey, it's A-E-W double or nothing review time on the Wrestle Talk podcast channel. Here is the start of the show. If anything else happened before the countdown, did it happen?

Who knows?

A lot of people. Yeah. I don't usually manage the live stream.

Neither do I. So I'm figuring it time, playing with the machine, and hopefully the Chat probably let us know.

Chat seemed to be fine.

There we go.

Maybe we got away with it.

Maybe we did. Maybe we shouldn't have been terrible with that whole conversation we had. Sharing our bank details with each other was probably questionable.

And my support for dubious organizations oh.

My God, so many dubious organizations, Ollie.

Anyway, we are here to talk double or nothing. It's the second. It was a double main event, weekend one.

Oh, I see.

You do five main events overall between the two shows.

This one had one less main event than Night of Champions. So statistically speaking, that makes it less good.

They're a T shirt company. At the end of the day, they'll figure it out. If you haven't already, please press the subscribe button. Give us a thumbs up. Press the comments.

Go and press the comments.

Write a comment in the box, then press the publish button to let us know what you thought of AW double or nothing. And send in those Omega chats to WrestleTalk.com support or read out every single one of them. $5. But before we get to that, we will talk about the big final match, the main event. Main event.

The proper big boy, big bashy boy.

Anarchy in the arena, which was the elite of the young bucks. Kenny Omega and a renewed hangman page rejoining them all against the Blackpool Combat Club of Healer, Utah. Claude Castignoli, like it Brian Danielson and John Moxley. And it was an Arctic.

I think it might have been tony Shivoni said it about four times on the commentary. It's like anarchy was advertised and we're giving it to you. And they certainly did. It was Anarchy in the arena and even outside the arena.

Yes, they traveled to a little car park bit for a moment when Claudio and Matt Jackson got in the back of a pickup truck and I was like, well, they've done so many crazy things already. What are they going to do in a car? I thought it was going to drive off and they strip. Yeah, like the Dustin Roads WCW, what's it called when they're fighting on the back of the hat?

When Goldust and Brody Piper and then they splice in OJ footage. I don't know, I was already quite excited because in the background is the Luxur hotel, which is a big pyramid that shines a light. And I went to Vegas last year, so I was doing that whole I've been there, I've seen this thing.

Even the things that weren't in Vegas. You managed to do that on this show.

Let's not DOX me.

But yeah, because there's only one living quarters that are in that area.

That's true. That's very true. We'll get to that part in a little bit. But yeah, I thought they were going to do something mad at one point. I thought Claudio was fully just going to drive him away from the arena, dump him on the Strip somewhere and then drive back. It was mad. I kind of didn't know what was going to happen at any stage. And then that came through at the finale.

Well, the whole thing was absolutely chaotic. I was watching it and they did the same thing last year, but they one upped it this time. The only thing I can compare it to in my head is the second Anchorman Street fight, which raised the stakes. Of course, the first one's better. Yeah, but this raised the stakes so much in that last time they started the brawl when Moxley's music Wild Thing was playing over the loudspeakers and they let it run through twice, maybe three times, and I think Jericho ripped it up to stop it and the crowd booed. This time, the Blackpool Combat Club's entrance was played by a live band and they just kept playing the song over and over and over again until the Young Bucks eventually went up there and kicked it.

Because there came a point where I was kind of loki hoping the band, Kansas would come in and take them out and then start playing Carry On My Way with Son. For a while, I thought that was the only fair way of doing it. But then the massive pop for a little super kick party on what was a slightly questionable outfit, if I can say.

Well, he had his face painted black, but does that make it well, he.

Also had a mask on, so the mask was black. It's one of those things where I think if you look in the mirror before you go out and there's a moment of you that goes, is this toeing a line? Maybe go and have a wash.

It's provocative.

It's provocative. That's what he was going and it certainly was that. But it did make that super quick super kick even sweeter. I thought it was a really good I loved the fact that they were playing the music over and over again. And this is great booking because it came at the perfect point where I was like, all right, the Wild Thing joke has played its time now. I don't want to hear it another time. And then they were like, Cool. Neither do we. We will take him out.

Yeah, great. The Baby Faces did.

Yeah.

At the point, you were bored, so that's perfect timing. Yeah, I experienced all of this, but particularly that first half, which had the constant soundtrack. Like, this is a new form of wrestling that I think has been burst out of the pandemic. In the pandemic we loved. Well, I certainly loved a lot of the cinematic matches.

Yeah, really good point.

And I got quite sad when it was found out that it was all a scam and that we were locked in our houses for those, which meant that we couldn't enjoy Bray Wyatt's video essays and the craziness of the stadium stampede.

I'm wearing a white shirt and drinking black coffee, ollie, you're going to need to give me notice before you start talking about the pandemic. I know your point. Your point is really good.

So it's like you had all this fun and innovation during the in lockdown when you couldn't do stuff in front of live fans, and it'll be such a shame to leave all those lessons you learned in the pandemic. And what I feel like Brian Danielson is particularly one of those people who's always thinking, I mean, all eight of these guys are so they brought that the fun, the energy, craziness energy, and also some of the aesthetic tropes. Like, you had a literal soundtrack yes. To this.

You did what was super cool. So it's interesting that you said it was kind of like a cinematic thing, because the first thing I wrote down in my notes about this match was that I've never seen a live montage before. It felt like that. And there was the amazing shot of the ref having done a blade job. Yeah.

Rick Knox out of nowhere.

Because it was out of nowhere, because we didn't see how he got cut open, it just suddenly cuts through and he's like, he's caught in blood. And it was like the Hangover or something in this moment at this house, house parties got out of control and then Mad cutting between over there, matt Jackson's putting some popcorn on someone's head. Over there, we've got Danielson doing his own being slid down the banister. Yeah. And it's just like, what's happening? And I can't get a grasp on what's going on. And it felt just completely wild in the best possible way. And Danielson even said recently, he's like, I have a wife and a kid now, my life is pretty chill.

I need a little bit of wild somewhere.

And I think he's kind of delivered it because it was so OD. It was just so fun and so fresh. And you're right to keep that. One of the what was it? Hangman page on a horse at one point. Was it? Stadium stampede. I can't remember what it was called.

He's been on that. He obviously did the entrance of full gear, but I think in the stadium stampede, he was dragging like Sammy Guevara. Was that?

Yeah. Those images are just in my head, even if I can't fully anchor them. So it's nice that they've kept that spirit in that way. Yeah, you're right.

What I want to get over as well is this is chaotic, but I always knew what was happening. It was overwhelming visually, but I never was like, well, this feels like an actual mess. And that is so difficult to do because I've been to plenty of British indie shows where they try to do this kind of chaotic brawling everywhere and it's just and it doesn't work. And you can see it, like, go back, watch ECW, things like that. So this was a really well thought out like, it takes a lot of planning and talent to be able to look this improvisational.

Yeah. And to do it safely as well, I think, is well, I mean, as safe as you can. Yeah, as safe as you possibly can. But there's something in when we talk about the indie shows or where they light a table on fire and they do it onto a literal hardwood floor and they've kind of caused themselves serious injury for a crowd of maybe 50, 60. It's like, I get that you're trying to get some attention, you're trying to get yourself over, you're trying to have eyes on you, but be serious. You've got a whole life ahead of you. That Jr line that you always used to say, here we're at Double or Nothing. It's one of the big it's kind of their WrestleMania in a way. It's their big show. It's the one that launched AW in front of a big crowd in Las Vegas. Go for it. And they did, and it worked. And I don't usually like that kind of blood and gut thing. I was never an ECW person. Hardcore matches were always fun when I was a kid, but the older I've got, the more I understand about concussions and physical trauma and all that stuff, and all of the people who were a big part of that era of wrestling who are suffering in a big way now, I'm like, can we just maybe play it a little bit safe?

I loved this. So even with all of that you know what I mean? Even with all of that prejudice I was in.

Well, I think that's because you've got trust in the performers.

Yeah.

Because a modern experience of watching wrestling, it's not like, oh, we can just enjoy things cart blanche anymore. If something goes slightly too close to a real injury, it does take you out of the action. Whereas before you complete ignorance and you didn't know that, so it wasn't an issue. But this pay per view, when Jericho threw a chair at Adam Cole's head, that took me out of it because.

Of concussion, because he just come back.

From that awful thing. Whereas this match, I never once was scared because all the spots were even with Daisy. Yeah, well, no one was, like, chucking stuff directly into his head, were they?

Yeah, that's true. But, like, with popcorn bucket. Yeah. Can take a few titanium popcorn bucket.

With all the crazy spots here, I always felt like it was done with a sort of balanced risk, and they are all at the top of their game in terms of performing. So, yeah, I loved it. I thought it was terrific just to run through some of the crazy spots. You've got to go and watch it because there's too many.

Yeah. But if I can say quickly, before you do it's a show to get before we do the full show. It's a show that started, I think, kind of dry.

I like the opener.

For me, I was very dry, dry, dry. And then suddenly it started to do this and this and this, and then the final two matches, and this one in particular, with one where I was like, yeah, I would encourage you to see the show out. It's like, you want to watch this match? So, yeah, do the spot.

I'd say you could watch the opener, then you could watch the from the cargill match onwards. So the last three matches. Yeah, it was fun, but, like, must see stuff.

You must see. Yeah.

So Hangman removed his eye patch early on. It was a ruse. Danielson I loved the eye patch, though.

I kind of wish he hadn't.

I know. Yeah.

Keep it on forever.

We had Moxley fighting with Kenny up near the big double or nothing poker chips, and just seeing those two near the Double or Nothing poker chips did give me flashbacks for 2019.

And I will say I missed that kind of staging. AW. The giant screens in any show, for me, is a bit of, like it's just a graphic. But the reveal that he'd rigged the chip the whole time, it secretly had barbed wire on it the whole way through the show was a great touch.

And then we had the most memorable spot from it. I imagine it'll be this year's Eddie Kingston doused in blood with Gas canister. Although that was more awesome. This was just more of a crazy high spot Moxley has. I can't even remember who. Oh, it's Nick in a submission with, I think, Wheeler, Utah's, on the front of him, or maybe Claudio. And Matt Jackson comes down after being piled driven into a car. And he comes in and he super kicks John Moxley. And there is some kind of pyro firecracker effect on his boot and it explodes, not in fire, but in a flash of light sparks. Yeah. In Moxley's face.

Yeah, it certainly did do that. And it certainly did make me rewind it three times and watch it three times, because I was like, what just happened? And my girlfriend, who's not a wrestling fan, walked through and went, thank God. What's this? It was one of those stiff it up and noticed spots I'm going to lay my cards on the table. I think it was a bit hokey and a bit weird and I think that the idea of it being like this is the serious wrestling company or whatever, that some people try and anti WWE with it. You can't really make that argument if we're going to be doing exploding fireworks, super kicks. Because this was not set up anywhere. It wasn't set up that there was some pyro and he grabbed some pyro and he wrapped it to his foot and super kicked him because it was going to cause extra damage. It wasn't even set up earlier on in the program or anything like that. It just was a super kick that blew up in John Moxie's face, which made it a little bit Captain America or not Captain America Thor, because you Captain America with the Kenny Omega's tights.

Yes. And a shield. There was a shield moment as well.

That was great.

So maybe that's the theme of the match.

It was set up. It was just set up backing Kenny Omega versus John Moxley when the barbed wire didn't explode.

Oh, yeah.

And this is a full circle, but I do agree it looks great. Yeah, it looks shocking and it did make you sit up, but it would have benefited from a bit more foreshadowing, maybe not like see him do it, but in the whole feud, this has been a feud based around stabbing people as opposed to like a Jericho feud, which is fireballs. Yeah. If there was more fireball or other flash blinding things, this would have landed more. And also like Moxley was just fine afterwards.

He just rolled out the ring for a bit and went, oh, how are weird. Right, anyway, where were we?

Because then he's right on Matt Jackson. It was the definition of a high spot, meant nothing overall. It was just like, wow, a big light. But Moxley then took off the boot and Claudio lobbed it up the ramp of Matt and Moxley gets Matt Jackson and drops his foot in a lot, his bare foot in a load of thumbtacks. You could see the tax sticking out his heel.

Because it's thing that where we don't know what it's like as people watching at home to take a bump or run the ropes or anything like that. But you know what it's like to stub your toe and you know what it's like when you accidentally stand on something on the floor and it's like ow. Imagine. So then you can just sort of times that by like 50. Imagine standing in some tax and then he has to wrestle the rest of the match and he's walking on that boo boo. Or then when he had him in his mouth, when you can imagine what the pain is like, it makes it ten times worse.

I don't know what Matt gets off on this stuff with because in that Lucha Bros. Feud. It was like, oh, I've got the boot with all the tax. And then they took his shoe. I feel like he's getting his shoes taken off a lot. Oh, no, guys, don't hurt my feet.

I was a little bit sad when Claudio kicked the boot. I wanted the crowd to sail it back and give it back to Matt.

That would have been fun. And then we had sort of a wonderful moment when Hangman and Kenny are together.

Oh, my God, that was such a great moment.

It was probably the emotional high point of the whole match. And you had all of the Blackpool Combat Club surrounding them in the ring and a genuine surrounding, not the shield surrounding, where there's one whole area you can escape through.

Yeah.

And Hangman and Kenny stand up, they're just looking at each other's eyes and they're like, come on, let's do this. Very Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kids star.

And you've got that whole we've been through all that. We've been through. We've been partners, we've been enemies, we've been everything. We've both been champion. And they're selling it on commentary like former tag team champions. Both former world champions. And it was such a come on. And it's that like last moment of endgame or whatever, whether it's like, let's try and take these people out, fight back. I was well into it at this point. Yeah, I think that was really smart.

But then we had they took out all of the Blackpool Combat Club and Kenny's going to win on Wheeler, Utah. Wheeler, Utah. By the way, I've decided is AEW's dominic mysterio.

Yeah, I just saw that little note and I'd like you to do a small piece about how you came to that conclusion.

I just feel like he's not there yet.

Right.

But he's the little s word, isn't he, of the Blackpool comeback.

But this is what was then interesting about the finish, which I don't want to bury the lead or get ahead of ourselves, but Willie Utah was kind of put over big here.

I think that's a smart move. So Kenny's got Utah up for the one winged angel. Don Callus gets in and I think it isn't Don who stops it, is it? It's this hooded man who stops it.

Suddenly there's a hooded man in the ring and we're all a screwdriver trying to figure out who that is and how long is his hair.

Did you think to Keshe to ride away?

No, I didn't, because I was blinded by the upcoming second Brand show and I was like, thinking, like, yeah, could it be punk? Could it be punk? There was a little part of me.

That was wondering doing that to Omega.

Do you know what I mean?

Holy crap, I never even thought of.

You want to have the conversation go. And I don't know the back stage, and I know that there's discussions of certain people don't want to work with certain people and all of that stuff, but let's fantasy book ourselves for a minute. Daniel Bryan, if we all sort of say is kind of playing the role Punk would have played in the Blackpool Combat Club or whatever, could you imagine? At their big show, Punk gets in the ring, joins the Blackpool Combat Club and takes out Omega just before the launch of collision. But it wasn't it was a very equally good option.

I hadn't even thought of that, but that's one of the biggest things I can ever think of happening.

It would make you forget the bloodline, do you know what I mean?

Because it's not just Punk going straight into a feud with Kenny Omega and the Elite, which of course is very charged in a shoot way. It aligns punk with Moxley Danielson. Claudio. Of course you've got Wheeler in there, but all of a sudden it's like these are X WWE guys against the AEW guys. Oh, that is fantastic.

Dan, give me the book, Tony.

Now I've soured on the whole show.

It's a one star show. I know my audience is a thing.

I've given you a vocal, of course, that couldn't happen, but my God, what an idea it was. The Keshta which has been set up, it makes way more sense.

Wolf had been door in the way. So we're looking for a big match.

And Utah ends up pinning Kenny Omega. The reason I like that is because Blackpool Combat Club are very vocal about they want their young boys, which is Utah, to be better than them. And now they can say, well, our young boy got a pin on your main guy, we want them to succeed. Whereas their idea, and what Danielson said on commentary is that if Takeshta went to the Elite, that, look, what are you going to be going to be another Brandon Cutler? You're going to be another Michael Nakasaur? They don't care about elevating people. So I think that fuels to Keshter's reason for joining them, if he has joined them. Because it wasn't like I'm with it.

Because we had a few shots towards the end of the Combat Club and Don and Takshita together and the commentary was giving out that kind of like, are they, aren't they? Who knows kind of thing. So it would seem, wait, tune into Dynamite and see what the actual fallout is. But it's a great shine for Utah because earlier on in the match he'd broken up a pin and I'd gone, or he kicked out of a move or something like that. And I was like, you really okay, sure. And then to get the pin, as you say it is that thing of setting you up, pushing you forward. And the best heels in all of wrestling have the truth on their side. So they have that nugget of nudge, the nudge shows around the world, they have reality and it's like, oh, you've got a point. I just don't like the way you're going about it. So for them to be able to say, yeah, look, we have brought Utah to our level, come join the ranks, and it gives you a reason to want to be part of their club.

So, a heel victory, did you predict that?

No, I just thought that return with the eye patch was so cool. I was like, I want it. I want the moment.

I thought blackpool Combat Club. I want them to win. Because then I think it's a better story going forward.

It is.

And then yama.

Soccer for moments is the thing.

We've got a five person heel group now versus a four person group after the show. Kenny Omega said, I've got one or two friends outside of AW who could join me. So, of course, one of them is surely Kota Abuchi. And then a lot of people are speculating. The other one is a carda. Of course you can't have both of them join because then it's a baby face numbers advantage. So I think maybe a Cardiff a forbidden door because there's no way Abu she's working with you. Japan, it sounds like. And then you can have a Bouchie join post that.

I have heard one sort of critique of the show being that you'll be looking ahead rather than delivering a show. It's like them setting up things in the future, which I personally is a thing that I don't really mind when that happens in shows, but they have got forbidden door on the horizon and they've got all in. So it's like, how do we keep an eye on both of those? Set things up, keep the ball rolling kind of thing, keep the momentum going. So, yeah, I don't know, I saw Tempest say that. Maybe it's Cody. Let's really smash the forbidden door, right? And I was like, okay, I'm fantasy booking over here.

We found one more outlandish thing. Let's see what you all think in the Omega chats. Get your thoughts into WrestleTalk.com support. We'll read out every single one over $5. Master popo twelve says hey, Gents. Currently on the return leg, heading back 14 hours to Boston from Indianapolis, except this time I'm now engaged.

Oh, sick. Well done.

Congratulations. We're both listening. On our way. I want to know who you think the two non AEW friends are that Kenny is talking about to take on backpack combat card.

I think I think you just said that. Right. Yeah. I can't really think of any of the level. I mean, maybe an osprey, just as a bit of spice.

Ket says, Anarchy in the arena was fine, but generally speaking, I'm not a fan of this match type. I'm not a fan of crowded brawls or matches where there's too many spots going on at once. It's a bit convoluted for my liking.

There was an element of that at the beginning, especially when the camera was cutting and I said this to you upstairs. I was talking about there was a moment where they kevin Dundit because after Kenny had taken the spot on the barbed wire, he was setting Moxley up. Essentially just fall backwards and have Moxley land on the barbed wire and it cut to wheelie you to check in his jacket. And then we heard in the background, people go, oh. And then you cut to and you see Moxley is on the barbed wire and we missed it. And I was like, that was irritating. But also in that same section. And this is why it got on my grandma gears a little bit. Matt Jackson did a great moonsault onto Claudio, but we also missed that because they cut to it too late. That said, it's a difficult job for a vision mixer with stuff going on all over the that's what makes it anarchy in the arena.

We couldn't even do it on this stream. I feel like the verb Kevin Dunn is being misused there.

Go on.

I feel like to Kevin Dunn is to crash zoom or to move the camera around too much or to cut loads.

I just think missing things entirely I.

Think missing things entirely is Ring of Honor. Okay.

All right.

Or even AW. White House 76 says, when WWE has a bad pay per view, I can just change to Brooklyn Nine Nine on Peacock and enjoy life again. Because it's a great deal for fans that just want live products. This is sponsored post when AEW has a bad pay per view. I just sit there and I think, I can't believe I wasted $50 on this. Never again.

I don't think this is that bad. Like I say, I think it started relatively dry. We'll talk about that, but then I think when we get to I think the show did this right and it was a real offswing. I'm sorry you felt that way.

Well, maybe AW will be on Max soon where you can just go and enjoy Shazam fury of the gods.

And that would be your choice.

I had the opportunity to watch that last night and I didn't watch it, I watched McGregor. I looked at it and I thought, 1 hour, 34 minutes. McGregor.

I saw it in IMAX.

Is it that bad? Did it level up?

No, it just was it was fine. I enjoyed myself. It was a three star film.

Missing news name? I'm so sorry. Get your tell the mods what your name is if that's been missed. The Hater Storm match sat poorly with me. Injury granted, but Baker not being with her at the start, the ref ignoring constant apron interference and the Hater used an exposed turnbuckle in view of the ref. Made everyone seem a bit dumb. Except the outcasts.

Yeah, well, I mean, we'll get onto that much in a bit, I think. I don't want to bury the lead.

Thomas Shevlin. Hey prof and Ollie love. Double or nothing, but Tony Khan has single handedly ruined two stars, tyre and Jade, by having Statlander come out of nowhere to win the belt, and Jade having a streak snapped and Tayya now looks like an afterthought, and the TPS belt looks mid.

That's not a million miles away from my take, really.

However, I am the complete opposite.

I liked the moment, but I think when I get into the logic of it, I don't like it.

You are inconsistent.

Professor dan late. Why?

Because you just said you love moments and you don't care about the largest thing. That's true, kid cuddy. Finally.

I just want everything to be for me. Okay? I don't know what to tell you.

But what is for you? You just said you wanted one thing and then you said you got it and you didn't like it.

I'm the professor of Nitpicking. Okay?

Kid Cuddy said this show was a rough one to get through for me. A lot of the booking was off and didn't make sense, I guess, after Night of Champions. My, this is so crazy to read, isn't it? Like, this is what we always used to say about watching a WWE show after an AW show.

The role.

Now it's gone. My expectations were just too high last night. Also, did you guys watch Dragonov and Diejac go at it? That was flames. I haven't seen it.

I haven't seen it yet, but I have heard exactly that. So that's, in fact, the only thing I've heard about the show. So I'm keeping it there as much as I physically can. I'm intrigued by how negative people are feeling about this show.

Well, let's get onto it, because let.

Me be clear, as if I haven't already, there are some negative things for me in here, and when I negative about them, I am quite negative about them. But the good stuff, I think, was great.

I think Unequivocally Anarchy in the arena and the Four Pillars match were absolutely incredible matches. It's a ten match card, though, right? Overall, with the preshow, like, the preshow match, I'm not counting the whole preshow, although the RJ City stuff was fantastic. He does this interview with Arne Anderson and he says, intimidating me at this time.

I like that.

And then at the end, just before Arm was walking away, RJ goes, you're packing heat for the match. You can see Arm goes, like this, like that. And then ARN goes, asking Mother, and RJ says in return, my new stepfather, ARN Anderson. He was so quick with him. He was brilliant.

You.

So the pre show Hardy party, which is the Hardy Boys and Hook, I think, or is that the Isaiah Cassidy version? It was Jeff Hardy. Matt Hardy and hook versus the guns. And Ethan Page, aka firm Legacy, as I call them. That was rough.

Yeah. I have watched this partly as I was leaving the house and then partly on my phone because I forgot that the preshow was the thing.

The buy in.

Excuse me? The buy in, not the kickoff panel. Yeah, it was tricky, wasn't it? It was rough to watch. There was some good bits in there, but it's just first match in a year. I think he's probably dealing with a lot of insecurities. I think he's dealing with a lot of anxiety about making the return and making the return worth it. The timing was way off a lot. There was a lot of slipping, a lot of yikes. A lot of my line about his gear was that it looked like he had a layer of skin that was a bit too large. Yeah, it was a bit of a yikes match. And the finale of this means that we're now back the reverse of what we were fighting for, isn't it? That he's got the firms contract.

Matt's got oh, that was on the line, wasn't it? Okay. Yeah, sure.

There you go. Okay. Yeah, sure.

That's the review hook was worked over for the majority. Jeff got one of the hot tags. Yeah, he slipped over. He didn't look good at all. Even when he was on the apron. I thought he looked disinterested.

Disinterested and also a little bit out of puff. I think it's a lack of conditioning. And also, I genuinely think he's I'm trying to be generous and empathetic to to it emotional emotion as much as possible. Because having not wrestled in a year and having everyone know your trouble, do you know what I mean? I think that's a lot of pressure on his shoulders, saying, I felt bad for him.

Well, it wasn't good. Ethan Page and the guns and well, to be honest, everyone was doing stuff apart from Jeff. Like, even Matt, I think, is a very good performer in these situations, too. And Austin Gunn is really, really charismatic. Or is it Colton Gunn? It's the one with the two stripes, and he had makeup on his eye, but yet that the storyline's a bit naff. I'm over it. It's a shame because I love hook. I love Ethan Page. I want them to do better things, but let's see where it goes. The main card opened up with the 21 man blackjack Battle Royal, which was just, well, Battle Royal, but everyone didn't start in the ring, so that was OD. OD, like some orange was in the ring the start, and everyone was outside the ring, and they just all started well, half of them started fighting, and the other half got in, so it felt like a reverse Battle Royal for a moment.

There was an element of TNA in there throughout the show. Yeah, it was, OD one for me. Okay, here's why I thought it was dry. OD. That no one's getting in the ring. Jr. Is compounding that fact nonstop.

JL was in a complaining mood. He really was preferred it when he was because they switched out at one.

Point with Siobhani and then also the crowd were pretty dead for it, which was a difficult thing. I love a show to open with. I mean, it's it's the two K 23, my GM thing. Good opening, good closing. The middle is what you need to start with. A banger and AW. Traditionally on their shows, I think, does start with something that gets the crowd going, gets people excited, gets that goodwill going. And this Battle royals I like very much. This just was a bit OD. And I think the way to fix it for me was just make it a casino battle royal. I don't know why they didn't. I was wondering whether we because because by virtue of them all being at a ringside and even Orange Cassidy was already in the ring by the time the show went on the air proper.

Oh, they all made their entrances in the end of the buy in.

Right. Which not even having like a Keith Lee make an entrance on the main show. Not even having your champion make his.

Entrance on the main make these main shows longer than they are.

Yeah, well, sure, but you have to have the champ gets to make an entrance. I'm sorry, I think that's allowed. I'm allowed to nitpick on that. The champ should get an entrance on the main show. It just made it feel a bit like, oh, who's in this? And then I'm trying to see, oh, Dustin Rose is over there.

Okay.

Because we heard also that some of the people in the match didn't know they were in the match until very late in the game. Certainly not when it was announced.

And powerhouse Hobbs QT, I think solo as well, they're all pulled despite being announced.

Yeah. So it just gave it this feel of like, oh, well, okay. Orange Cassidy is winning to the end when Swerves in there doing some business and big Bills in there getting his big boss, big boss Lamb, which I'm sure you loved.

Big Bill is so good.

Yeah, it was good to see. Penter was giving him some stuff. I liked elements of it. I liked what Goldust was doing.

Dustin Rhodes.

Yeah, he's always gold. Someone super kicked someone outside.

I don't even know what device could.

Have made that flash, but yeah, I don't know, it was a weird vibe. I would have liked it if we had people enter in batches. And then I was wondering, I picked Mirror in my wrestle league predictions because I was like, I wonder if they'll set something up for collision. We have this new show starting. They may want one of the big names that is going to be on that show. Maybe taking a championship over to it. Soft, hard, brand split, who knows? No, just happened.

And I was like, Well, I enjoyed it far more than you. Yeah, I was a bit annoyed about the rules at the start, just because I was like, what is this? And Swerve was outside for, like, a good half of the match and then he gets in and it's meant to be. This whole Keith Lee Swerve stare down, like, come on, this feud has just passed its expiration date and you still haven't had a single haven't even been in a match. I don't care. Which I hate saying because I love Swerve and I love Keith Lee, and I just don't know why they're dragging this on so much. But there were so many impressive spots in this. Brian Cage all the Lucha doors commander running bandido.

Yeah.

He should have been eliminated.

Well, he wasn't technically in the match because you don't get officially entered into the match until you've entered the ring and both your feet touch the mat. That was what they said in commentary. But whenever I'm sorry, it gets on my nerves when he does all of his bouncy ropesy stuff anyway, because often it doesn't end with anything. Running across the ropes and planter onto someone great being there and going, oh, look at me, I've got great balance. Doesn't do anything. If you're in a Battle Royal and you have officially entered the match and then you run on the top ropes, you deserve to get pushed off. Strategic error, that is on you.

And Jay White did just that.

And I love pushed him.

The crowd didn't, though. They booed, of course, because it's a great heel spot. I thought it was perfectly suited for Jay bandido hoisting. Brian Cage up above him in a grassland.

I mean, yeah, all of that stuff was great. Moments in the battle royal were great. That's my opener. I want to be ready for it.

On the off, it came down to Orange Cassidy and Swerve Strickland as the final two, and they had like as soon as Big Bill was eliminated by Swerve, like, he'll betraying heel.

Talking about good logic, by the way. Him and Bill were sort of teaming up and then Bill was like, I've got this. I was like, yeah, all right, you good? Yeah. And then I'm going to take advantage of it. That's great. Great stuff.

As soon as Big Bill went out, it wasn't like, oh, the final two of the Royal Rumble in two K 23 cutscene of everything. It was boom, straight into, like, the fastest sequences outside of Leo Rush. They were running back and forth, reversals. It was great. And then they end up on the apron and Swerve is holding on with one hand and Cassie just goes he.

Like, sets up like he's going to do something big and then just let Orange Castle, which I liked, I liked.

I really, really liked the last from the Final Four and I enjoyed the rest of it.

I really liked the final four.

What I didn't like any of was Chris Jericho and Adam Cole.

Big yikes.

I don't know is it surprising because Jericho really has, he had a great run from about August through to November as ROH champion. Like just the banging matches every week and then it felt like he was going to go somewhere really fun with the Jericho Appreciation Society and a losing streak because he lost action. Andretti yes.

Which was a great, great moment.

Great moment. I thought. Brilliant. He's had all the appreciation stuff and now we can see him decline and the JS being in this awkward position of oh, but we appreciate this loser. What a great fun comedy story for Jericho to go into and it has just been awful. Ricky Stark's feud, I thought, and now the cold feud's been fun. There's been some nice moments but I'm not really invested in it and this was a really subpar match.

It was subpar in conception and execution, I thought because it's this whole idea of well, first of all we talked about this upstairs but unsanctioned match, what does that mean in AW? It appears to just mean a no hold barred match. If you're going to call something an unsanctioned match you want nothing to do with it and you brought up the great point of unsanctioned matches. It was like the refs weren't even allowed to wear ROH colors and just.

Like black T shirts.

Yeah, we don't want anything to do with this because we don't know what you two are going to do to each other. And the idea is that the feud has built and built and built so much that it's just bad blood.

It's essentially a lights out match but taking place within the show and this.

Just didn't ever really get into second gear. A lot of it I thought was quite sloppy. I don't know if it's rust on Adam Cole's part in any way. I don't think so. But I kept watching it thinking like wish I was watching that Falls guy. Anyway, match with Roderick Strong, which I thought was so much fun. Yeah, that was great. Where they were going all over the arena and then Cole was banned from the building but not the outside.

Great.

That was all really well plotted, really well performed and this just sort of wasn't and the crowd again were pretty dead for it and you'd seen a lot of I don't know if it's because they were saving their energy for the violence later on in the show. I don't know whether there's a yeah.

The anarchy in the arena main event I think did undermine having an unsanctioned match on the same card which is like, well don't book that then that's your fault for booking it. And there is an expectation of an unsanctioned match and it never got anywhere near the level of violence required. I don't want blood everywhere but if you tell me this is going to be a match so violent AW won't even officially sanction it. You've got to deliver on some of that and the Saboo stuff.

Oh, I didn't even think that. Yeah, let's do the Saboo stuff, because first of all, why are you there?

Why is he there? We said this on the Dynamite podcast. It makes no sense. It really smacks of just, Tony, I love wrestling. Here's an ECW person, and shoehorning him into what was actually a pretty good, intense personal blood feud. It made no sense. I do think it took away from it. And now he comes out here as the Special Enforcer. But the Special Enforcer role really was just immediately brawling with because if you're.

A Special let's think about the other Special Enforcer I always think of is Mike Tyson. Right. And the idea was that he was there to make sure things stayed in line, but he was aligned with the heels. So that's another thing for the baby face to overcome here. The Special Enforcer has, from the off, been on Adam Cole's side. He's in Adam Cole's corner. So why are you promoting him as a Special Enforcer to begin with? And then all he sort of does is throw a chair at someone, climb up to a rope and fall off it. That's what he did. It wasn't really a job, was it?

Yeah, he climbed up to that top turnbuckle. There's a table outside. I didn't even see the person get set up on it, but I imagine one of 2.0 was there. And yes, Saboo gets up to the top, doesn't even catch his balance because there was none. And forward rolls off.

It was quite splat. He just sort of yeah. Up there. And then in a flurry of happening, he's down. And then that's it, off they go.

They all brawl off. And then it is like another 14 minutes.

Yeah, 40, 50 minutes.

And yeah, just never really reaching for a fire extinguisher.

And it doesn't go off in the right time. And you can see Jericho telegraphing it. I think that's my problem. You can see a lot of them. There was a lot of baggy parts of this match.

And the crowd were just yeah, they sat there, mostly silent for it.

Sat there. And because they were so well lit, which is a great I like that AEW does that. You can just see them.

Very uncharacteristic for an AW crowd, especially a paid view one. And the finish was the worst thing about it.

Yeah.

It's not like it was saved at the end because Cole hits the boom. He wraps. At this point, they're both handcuffed to each other with a long, long chain, so almost like a dog collar set up. And he wraps the chain round his knee, hits another boom. Okay, there's the pin. And he doesn't he just starts hitting Jericho. I'm like, oh, my God, they're going to go for a ref stoppage. And then yeah, Aubrey goes ding, ding, ding. Call off the match. The crowd booed and they were booing Aubrey. They were booing the booking. That's what that was, because the Baby Face won. They weren't playing it up like all the Baby Face has been consumed by revenge and has turned heel. It wasn't that kind of poo. It was just a bad finish, because.

If you're going to do something like that and keep the Baby Face over, the momentum and the crowd's energy has to be so high. Right. But it wasn't.

Yeah.

And so it just felt like, oh, that's the end. That's limp. Come on, I do better. Was it fiend Helena cell levels?

No, of course not. It didn't kill a company.

Arrest off Vigilant and unsanctioned match. Kill the company. I'm sorry. Several America jazz here said that night champions was better. The power is back. No. I don't know. It just didn't work. The ending didn't work and the match didn't work. And it was a shame because I really like Adam Cole very much.

Yeah, but do we like him as a Baby Face? I'm still like I don't know.

I do, because, like I say, it wasn't long ago, it was two weeks ago that they had an incredible match on Dynamite within the feud. And that moment that you do get him outside and there's Adam Cole with his lovely top knot and his great leather jacket. I'm like, yeah, I'm into you. I like you. And then they're setting up the Brit and Adam. Yes. Jericho and Serea match to come. And I'm not into it.

So Britt ran down during this and absolutely clobbered Jericho with a Kendall stick. Serea came down and they sort of broad and chased off. Later on, it cuts backstage. Jericho, who had a black eye, I don't know if he was at that's a genuine black eye working. Okay.

Yeah, because I spotted and I thought he'd been busted open. I thought that's what we were doing. Get a bit of color and then the match will continue. Oh, the match is over. He had the black eye in the match.

I'm so glad they didn't get color from that finish, because that is what a Way 101. Don't do that, lesnar autumn level. Yeah, but, yeah. Later on, Jericho and Serrea are backstage. They challenge colon Brit to an intergender tag for Dynamite. And it's been booked.

Yeah.

And then one lone security guard says, oh, can you calm down?

Can you move on from here?

And Jericho fireballs him. Yeah, I'm always a bitch is what he said.

Fake us, baby.

Yeah. I thought I was like, Just send one guy.

Yeah.

And it was like one really junior looking guy.

He really did look like it was.

His first day on the job after that. That was bad. Definitely. Comfortably the worst thing on the show and one of the most disappointing things on any AW pay per view ever, I'd say.

Really?

Well, there's not been many. The only ones that really come to mind. Are the botched exploding death match thing devastating? That's sad. That's just sad. Matt Hardy getting concussed in his match with Sammy Guevar.

Oh, yeah.

The booking of the ladder match all out last year. And this.

Yeah, a rare myth then.

Yeah. After that, though, it's team TNA time.

Here's Jeff Jarrett to save the day.

FTR versus team TNA with Mark brisket as a special guest referee. The previous match harmed the crowd so much, they were quiet for about ten minutes until how did this go? So Sunjay pulled DAX out, maybe off a cover. So Mark Briscoe is like, you're out of here. And they're walking to the back. And while that's happening, jarrett comes with a guitar to clobber DAX, but somehow gets Mark Briscoe.

There was definitely a bit of, like, timing is not quite right here, because it's like, I've sent you to the back. Not there yet. I've sent you to the back again. No, you absolutely go to the back. Are we ready? Yes, we are. Whoops. And then I think it was DAC just ducking out the way kind of thing. But instantly I was like, here we go, here we go. I think the crowd was as well.

But earlier on, as soon as Mark's back was turned, as soon as it was jeff went like a robot to a chair and got a chair, and Mark's like, no. And he's like, okay, put the chair down. He threw DAX or cash into a barricade. It's like, as soon as a referee is not watching Jarrett, he has this compulsion to cheat.

Look, it's a way of getting it done. It's a good heel move.

But then if he did hit DAX with the guitar, there'd be guitar fragments everywhere. And Mark was right there. You would have heard it.

I mean, the crowd were quiet enough that you would have heard it. Yeah, but maybe you're overthinking.

I think I am. Because the best way to enjoy this is to just switch off.

I will say this was incredibly sports entertaining. Yeah. And I was like, okay, I don't like to be that guy, but it's like you needed a bit of sports entertainment to pop the crowd, to get them on their feet, and it did.

So with Mark taken out. They did, like, a big rig, and they pinned Jarrett for, like, 7 seconds in a crowd of chant.

And he's counting it as well. He's like, Hang on, what are we doing here?

Aubrey Edwards runs down new referee, and Sonjay stands in front of her, blocks her, blocks her. And then out of nowhere, karen Jarrett comes with a guitar and whacks Aubrey in the head and then falls over herself.

Yeah. Absolutely fell over. She stumbled on those gigantic heels. I loved this spy. It was so much fun.

It's so rare to see such blatant ref attacks. Yeah.

Complete nonsense.

And it's Aubrey beloved referee, aubrey Edwards not just getting like a push. Like, if they just had Sunjay blocker, that would have been enough heat. And then Karen Jarrett comes in with.

The guitar, which is I mean, Karen Jarrett with the guitar is a sentence that we can say in 2023. I love it. I love it on AW. Pay per view. Great.

I didn't think a referee would be more brutalized than Rudy Charles getting speared by the champions this weekend.

No. Well, you didn't factor in the Queen of TNA, Karen Jarrett.

She got mega heat off of that. I am worried we'll get some kind of Karen Aubrey match.

That's a worry for you. Yeah. Karen. I'm just saying. Karen TBS championship role.

After that, there was, like, a really fun back and forth bit. And Mark revived himself to make the pin. FDR retain.

It was Jarrett. Jarrett hitting the is it a stroke? I can't remember what. It's the same as the skull crushing alley, but he hits the mansion. He hit the move and he's like, yes, we've got it one, lads. It's just not he's like, pin him, mate. I love everything Jared is doing in this runner.

He's got to protect the finisher. If he knows they're kicking out, he's not making the quick cover.

Let Jeff be Jeff.

Speaking of Jeff Jarrett bullet Club gold were next. When Ricky Starks was attacked by them backstage, it was FDR who chased them off.

Yeah.

So maybe that is a oh. Starks and FDR challenge Bullet Club gold and I don't know who for. The Doors coming up.

Yeah.

Let's do a Bullet Club reunion.

Yeah. Nice. Again, this is where they're sort of one eye in the future, which I quite like. And it gives FDR this storyline has finished now. Lovely. Clean out. Move on to something else.

I like that Christian took on Wardlow and a ladder match for the TNT title. This was pretty decent.

I really liked it.

I liked it. And it was more because I was a bit worried about Christian doing a ladder match. A single ladder match fine with a multi person. But I thought Wardlow did a great job here because he just took all the bumps for Christian. Christian's offense was mostly about being smart and cutting things off, and Wardlow just took all the big bumps.

That's what I liked about it. And that's how I actually think a singles one in this case was actually a better call for Christian at this point. Because the thing with a multi person, yes, you can sort of hide behind it, but when it's a multi person ladder match, and we've seen so many of them, people expect an element of chaos, of anarchy, and you kind of have to save it for later on in the show. So that almost forced them to be a little bit more cerebral, a little bit cleverer with the way they use the ladder in the match. And I think that yeah, you're right. I think Wardlow taking the big bumps and Christian being smart in what he did take made it more effective.

The finish was another sort of insane bit of booking where Luciasaurus comes down, then ARN Anderson comes down and ARN faces off against Luciasaurus and bites Luciasaurus's thumb.

He bites his thumb clean off.

It looked like he's had the idea.

Well, to me, it looked like he had nothing but bone left. ARN had, like, sucked all the skin off his of his thumb. It was really weird. And yet I kind of was like, all right, then, let's do it. Why not?

Because the rest of the match, ARN is then, like his face is covered in blood down here and his hair.

Is like dark blood.

Yeah. I've just woken up, old man.

Yeah. Did you love his little dad run to the ring?

I can't really remember.

It was great. So it's like, here comes Alan Anderson, like a dad looking for his car in the car park. It was great. Love that. But I don't know. So this then leads to Luchasaurus. Again, it's not Christian taking the massive, massive bumps, which is a smart thing. Great swanton from Wardlow off that massive ladder and in full Jeff Hardy style. He took most of it himself. Yeah, but then what I didn't then, like, I thought this was the moment then for Christian to be like, well, he's out. I'm going to go up and get my belt, kind of thing. I didn't like the fact that the finish came from ARN cheating. Like oh, baby face cheating. He not have roused Ward loman like, get in the ring. It's time. You got to go and do your thing. Him actively. I pressed the button.

Have you? Have you definitely pressed the button? It looks okay.

Are we fine? Maybe it was an audio.

There's a little deck underneath. A little deck? I'm not usually not a little anything else underneath?

Dan, check the chat, see if we're okay. I accidentally lent forward, and I don't usually sit on this side and I'm nervous.

It's okay. I think it seems fine.

Okay, great. Good.

Same.

Everything's fine. Yeah. I don't know. I think baby fishing wasn't my vibe.

So Arm pushed Christian off the ladder perfectly into a Wardlow power bomb. I saw it more as Wardlow could have stopped him. He was already in the ring. It was like a little nudge.

I don't like a nudge.

Yeah. I would have just preferred Christian to win the belt.

Right.

With Wardlow taken out because of the Luciasaurus bump. And then we can have Christian as champion just because it's crazy the amount of stuff Wardlow did in this match. He, like, took all the punishment, all the crazy bumps. So impressive. He's such a good big man. He's such a good wrestler, but I'm just not interested in him.

Yeah. Which is such a shame. Yeah.

After that, we got Jamie Hayder versus. Tony Storm. This only went five minutes because it was mostly angle.

Yes.

Jamie Hayder didn't initially come out for a rentrance music. It's because the outcasts have beating her up. They get her into the ring. Tony Storm keeps beating up the injured arm because it's a real injury and they're sort of covering for it. Jamie does quite way more spots than I was anticipating.

Yeah. And I like there was a lot of selling in those spots, like hitting a move and it being too painful for it to do anything was great.

But storm one with what's it called? Storm Zero. Yeah. Storm zero. Bit anticlimactic. Like, it just happened and everything okay, but it is what it is.

That's it. I think I cut them some slack because of this. The very real injury that Jamie hates dealing with. I would rather that than they sort of give us a new interim champ while she's injured again or anything like that, or even take the title off her. The fact that it was worked into an angle in some way, I think, is like, all right, let's make the best of a bad situation. Give Jamie the time she needs to hopefully heal in time for what I think she deserves, which is a great hometown pop in Wembley. This was where I popped up. My flat was in shot of the giant wide angle. AW. Wembley Stadium.

I was like, people know exactly where you live now. People work out your address.

They will. I could see myself. It was great, and I took a picture of it, and I'm thrilled about it. But, yeah, no, you want the best. I think everyone's wishing the best for Jamie Haita in that because she deserves that hometown pop. And it's good that we have a champion.

In the meantime, we had the acclaimed and Daddy Ass taking on the house of Black after that in the trio's match. I've seen a lot of love for this trio's match. A lot of people are like, oh, my God. The the moment the trio's match started is when the pay per view really, really started getting good for me, that Jarrett Arasia. Yeah. For me, that this wasn't the bit. It was the next match because I really admire Malachi Black trying to try new things, and I'm like, cool. This is your open house gimmick. You've got the 20 count for outside the ring. You've got no rope breaks. And this interesting idea of the opponents get to choose a rule, I like it a lot. It is not being done. We got the first I think there's only been three. The first one was against best amigos. They forgot they had to choose a stipulation. The next one was good. It was kind of lucha tag rules. But that didn't massively work into the story of the match. And this one on pay per view. Max Castor rapped that we don't need a rule and they didn't choose one.

Board off the gimmick, which is unacceptable as far as I'm yeah, because, again, the thing with that is it makes you, as the baby faces, look arrogant and a bit stupid.

And you lost.

Yeah. And it so you should have taken advantage of it. What I like about The Stipulation is the fact that the House of Black are essentially saying, like, these are our rules, but also, we'll give you something, you pick a rule as well, and we'll still take you down, kind of thing. So for you to just go by the way, I also didn't like the rap in general because he took a shot of RuPaul's Drag Race. And I will not be having it.

Not in my house, saying Brody King.

Looked like a reject from RuPaul's Drag.

Race, which is surely that same RuPaul is really good because they rejected Brody King.

Yes, but that's the people who get the pork shot. You don't know the drag race law. The people who go out first are still good. They're all great.

But maybe from even the audition process.

They'Re all still great. I will not be having RuPaul's Drag Race lander on my show. No. I thought that the choice, to not take advantage. Why would you not take advantage of a rule even even to just say, like, we can lose the belt by disqualification? I don't know. Just pick something that's Max of Laziness on the part of the producer of the bookers. Why come up with this really intriguing, exciting concept that is in its infancy and then bore it off?

Shame.

But the match itself was fine and I liked that. I liked Billy Gunn getting in and getting a couple of pre hefty looking fame asses and being the one to take the pin was a good shout.

Yeah. Daddy Ass was the hot tag. The whole match was built towards us. That was another thing. I thought it was quite long, what they were doing a lot of working over of the acclaimed and then they finally make the hot tag to Daddy Ass. And usually, if this was a dynamite match, daddy Ass would run wild and you'd have that bit where it really breaks down and it goes another five minutes and everyone's just going crazy. But what happened was Daddy asked, got a hot tag and then got pinned.

House of Black.

Yeah. I hope they use the open house concept to tell some actual stories as opposed to just having the lights weird. Then Jake cargill took on Tyre Valkyrie. I thought this was a great match. I don't know how long it went, actually. Let me find out.

I think it went about eight minutes or so. I agree. I thought this was a great match. I loved Tyre's Brutality. When?

Eight minutes, 50 seconds.

Have I read the Wikipedia page on the way into work today? That's right. Yeah. I thought it made Tyler look great. There was some brutality in there that was really fun. I thought it's like an STF. And she was like, you're a bit close to the ropes. Maybe I'll pull you back and then stomp you into the ground. I was like, yes, this is great. The fact that she's got the road to Valhalla back was a nice little moment, so that when she lifted her up, I was like, Here we go, this could be it.

The whole crowd did.

Yeah.

And that's because it's been a well told story.

Exactly that. Yeah.

That moment meant so much because we've had loads of angles and that match where Tyre wasn't allowed to hit that move, and when she went up and she hit it and they did the near fall and Jade 2.9 kickout. Jade's kickout was amazing.

Completely agree. It was really, really good. So then when almost immediately afterward, jade gets the better hand and does the Jaded is it called the Jaded? I couldn't quite remember. And gets the pin. It's like, Well, I could do it better than you. And I am Jay Cargill, I am 60 and, oh, look at me. I am what God envisioned for the peak specimen of a human kind of thing. Beautiful, powerful belt in the air. Nobody can take me. What an incredible moment. And I think Tyre looked really strong as well. And then they said, and I'm going to drop my one F bomber tonight. Tyres Drag and they just ruined it all. And they hogan it WrestleMania's nine. Not only that, not only did they get rid of Tire, the entire streak over.

That's it. Okay, well, let's objectively run through what happened before we get biased version of this. So Jade won this match really well for and a real star power match, I thought. And then Jade's celebrating. She's got the tile up high. I can't remember the baddie's name, but Mark Sterling's in the ring and Mark Sterling's like, look, Jade's dominant 60 and she's so good, she could fight someone else right now.

So they got anyone, anywhere, anytime.

And Jade is going, yeah, but there's nobody left. And then Chris Statlander's music Hits Statlander Comes Out bell Rings because she's just her hubris for arrogance. She made the challenge.

Yeah, I see that. I do.

And then Chris Statlander went about 48 seconds, little bit of back and forth and Statlander won.

And I get as well that it's the sort of money in the bank situation. If she's been through a match and Tyre really took it to her and she's slightly weakened, but also it just sort of happens and it just is then Jade's whole 60 and o streak that you've been building all this time, she's the only person to hold that belt.

But it's been boring for I agree.

No, I completely agree on that one, but just sod it throw it away, build it to something. Could it not have been? Could it not have been that Chris Statlander, who has been healed for a little while, has been working out in the ring? Has been could it not have been her moment at double or nothing? Could they not have built to this match then? Because now she's the champ. I'm assuming she's completely fine, knowing what's good to go, full stop, so she'll be on dynamite or whatever. Could we not have had okay, so I'm going to come out. I'm not in ring gear. Anyone, anytime, any place. See you on Wednesday. I'll take you out on Wednesday. I just don't know why it undercut this other moment, other than a pop and a couple of headlines. Didn't work for me. It got on my nerves, felt a bit hogan in WrestleMania nine.

Well, it seems to be a split thing because we've had the chat about it as well. I loved it. It's Mod mother around today. It looks like she is. Well, then maybe we could we could.

Do a little poll.

Let's have a poll. Let's see what the was Chris Statlander winning in the way she did a good thing? Yes or no?

Because I see your point. I really do. And I think that I completely agree that Jada's just had this belt and there hasn't really been anything to do with it, and it feels secondary, but that's all the more reason to push it in that final stretch. Get it to 62 and one just a couple more. I don't know.

It's crazy how two shocking title changes happened for both J yeah. And Bianca. And Bianca, which were just like, long reigns that we'd all got on board of, though the last match we'll talk about is the Four Pillars four way MGF defending his AW World Championship against Sammy Guevara, Darby Allen and Jungle Boy, which was, I just thought, genuinely groundbreaking.

Yeah. I loved it. Yeah, it was amazing. I mean, the feud to this point hasn't really lit the world on fire.

For me because it's been a long build. It's been, like, two and a half months.

Yeah.

And at least a month of that was really good. And they sort of went off the.

Boil, especially, like in the past couple of weeks when I think about what's happened. The Sammy Guevara face turn hasn't worked. No, because they took someone who was a really good sort of Weasley heel and turned him into a fully white, meat baby face. And it just for the purposes of this match, which I think is a shame, jungle Boy was absolutely murdered by Rouge a couple of weeks ago.

Even after this match, I think Jungle Boy has come off worse.

Yeah, it's a shame. But I think the reason is none of the three of them, to me, scream World Championship material yet. That's not to say that they can't be, but MJF absolutely does best heal in the industry, as far as I'm concerned. Love everything he does next to Dominic. Well, I mean, yeah, but no one can touch Dominic in particular, that amazing big band sequence that you can come out and do a big band sequence in the middle of a wrestling show. I love you, MJF, but wrestling is an interesting thing because you have almost like three layers of storytelling. You have the meta wider narrative of storytelling, which we all know because of being fans and being engaged with it on this level. And we have AEW's existence is a story in of itself. And these people being the four pillars who help build it with great under and mid card matches and moments with Sting and all the rest, that's part of the story. Then you have the narrative of the match itself, the storyline that has led to the moment of the pay per view, and then you have the story that's told between the bells.

And I think, for me, even with all of the stuff that hasn't worked in the storyline leading up to the pay per view, I knew for a fact, I think we all did, the second that bell rang, we were going to see something special from these four and they absolutely delivered. I will ding it slightly from some self indulgence a little bit later on that maybe as a full nitpick. And I will take that criticism because I think a lot of people loved the moment, but I'll probably wait until we get to it. But to a point, I was out loud.

Oh, my God.

I was reacting to it. Spots in the middle of it. If you can interrupt a match like that to do some mic work and still keep me, I'm all for it. It was such a good showcase for all four of these people. Yeah.

Banger. I think I never believed MJF would lose the belt.

No, I didn't either.

Even when I was watching the match. So I was not absorbed in it into the story in that regard. But, yeah, that action, I was enjoying it in the same way that I enjoy the Civil War airport fight. Yeah.

Yes. That's a good example.

I never thought Cap or Iron Man were going to die midway through this movie, but I thought we were going.

To get a definitive finish in it.

Yeah, but I just love the action. I thought what they did with the four way match structure will have changed the game. I don't think you'll be able to do fatal four ways like you used to, where you split off people as much. Feels like when the three way went from the attitude era of two people having a match, then you tag someone else in and they have the match to the modern version, which is just people doing three way spots now. It was like all the whole second half of the match, maybe more, was just four way spot. Four way spot pace as well gymnastic moves using all four people. It was so remarkably well thought out. I'm amazed at how much work has gone into this to come up with all the spots.

I think I never doubted like I said, I never doubted how it was going to end. I never doubted that. I never thought we were going to see a title change. However, I've been around the game enough to see things go slightly wrong, and I think the moments of nerves for me came from you are putting together such an intricate match. If one of you doesn't make the kick out, if one of you doesn't break it up and it spoils what you've created, which I think is something pretty special, that would be such a shame. So I was reacting in that way. But there's moments like Sammy Guevara's cutter to Darby when Darby slid the ring.

Perfectly timed. Unbelievable.

And that's something that could go so wrong, but it doesn't because they've timed it to perfection. I thought the four way submission, human centerpiece. Yeah, it was really good. Again, I normally am not one for, you know, where they did the sort of roly poly one, too. I don't really like that, but I liked the way it worked in this match. The only thing that for me was a bit of a ding, which I think a lot of people have loved was the tribute to all of their.

Oh, yeah, that was nice. And so MJF Hitler Crossroads The kill switch.

The scorpion, was it? What? It's not Scorpion death, was it?

Scorpion Death? Drop that one.

They change name. Sting. He did the walls of Jericho at one point, but he did the code breaker and they all came one after the other, which for me felt a bit hokey. It felt a bit like and now the bit where we do this. And I was like, You've done so well in so many other areas. Couldn't you just drip those in through the match, make it a little bit more subtle and have each of you do it at one point? Like, maybe say we get the code breaker early on, and then a little bit later on we get the kill switch, and a little bit later on we get the crossroads. I thought that would have been more of a subtler narrative because I think they did such a good job of storytelling in the match that I was just like, It's nitpicky, and I will completely hold my hands up, but I was just like, Give me a little more subtlety here.

I think that is super nitpicky. But I do agree the best way to do that is the FTR Young Bucks match, where they were doing attitude era moves. So you do the hardies move, you'll do the but they weren't all answered to each other. It was purely at one.

That's what for me felt a bit hokey. And I think this match was better than that level of Hokey, but it's one that I'll watch it again. I can't wait to watch it again.

The sort of storyline points, starting with the entrances. Sammy Guevara comes out with Tay conti to reveal or tamello yeah, sorry. Tamello with the placards that they're having a baby.

Baby. Isn't that lovely? There was a little clap from Jungle Boy in the ring as well. I thought it was really sweet. It was also kind of Healy.

I don't know what they're doing. Why are they trying to make him a baby face? Even this even this announcement, they're out.

Here in pure white. Purest white. And it's like you're the couple who like, what? I guess only fans with the belts a little bit.

Or that's the sort of couple, character wise, that would post on Instagram or Facebook. The really like, Gushing, oh, we're so blessed. And I would read that if it was my mate and go, you're a wank. Yes, that's how I experience maybe it's.

Just American and we as Brits don't really do that.

I don't think so, because the audience don't like him either. I don't think you can propose to your childhood sweetheart in the ring and then all of a sudden, a couple of months later, you're with the hot Brazilian chick and then expect to be cheered a year later. I think it's irreparable. Damage forever heal at least three more years. He's going to be a heel until.

We know for a fact that this was what was meant to be. Yes. Yeah.

Anyway, I'm not prudish. I just I don't think you'll be.

Hate children and other people's happiness. That's what you don't like.

I do, because Luke's always on about it as well. Darby had a cool short film as well. I thought it was one of his better ones.

Hated it.

Did you really?

Yeah. I thought it was hokey.

I don't know the Elvis.

I just thought it would because it was it finished with the shot of him on a skateboard and I saw the strip in the background. Then I was like, what would have been way better would have been him skating down the strip and into the arena. Do you know what I mean? Just such a cool visual as opposed to what we got, which was just a bit I don't know, I thought it was a bit lame, but that's my taste.

He had cool attire. He was dressed as Elvis.

That was cool.

The big story points of the match were that Jungle Boy had a moment where he could use the World championship belt on Derby to maybe win. And he thought about it and he was like, no, I'm a good guy.

And MJF said that thing about him not having the killer instinct and they sort of doubled down on that. I thought it was a shame. I wanted to see him do it.

Well, this is the problem that's a good story to tell if you're into someone as a baby face and the crowd booed it when Jungle Boy put the belt down, because I don't think.

Hitting him with the belt is a heelish thing for him to do in that moment because it is a killer instinct thing. There are no disqualifications. It's part of the rules of the match. Do you want to be champ or not? And I think it could have actually elevated Jungle Boy and said, yeah, I am someone who, when it gets down to it, I can be brutal, I can make it happen. Would have stepped him up to another gear for me. Instead, it just made him still seem like Jungle Boy rather than Jungle Man.

Yeah, that's very well put. I think they're going to need to do something with Jungle Boy because this has really exposed, maybe the performer, maybe the character's limitations. Darby, however, I think has come off great from this. And he had the finishing sequence where MJF? So Darby's up. He's going to do the coffin drop on Jungle Boy. MJF. Puts the belt on Jungle Boy's stomach. So when Darby comes down, knocks himself out, max goes over to him. Headlock takeover. Pins. Darby, I think AW has always thought from the start, three years time, MJF versus Jungle Boy. There are two big stars, but it's actually MJF, Darby. They're the diametrically opposed people in every way.

One of them is clean cut and rich posh boy. The other one comes to the ring, like, in various states of distress any given moment. Skater Boy with the little goth hot Topic boy. What's interesting is that I don't really.

Vibe with Darby's character that, do I? No, but you're right.

I imagine that moment, I bought into it and I was like, yeah, I do want to see this. And I thought I thought Darby had cut a great promo about I need this to really solidify my choices, kind of thing. Yeah, I'd like to see it.

Overall, now this whole Four Pillars build is done. MJF looks as good as ever. Derby has been increased as well. Sammy is the completely wrong character, and Jungle Boy has been exposed.

Yeah.

So 50 50, right?

50.

Not bad.

Yeah, not too bad.

And a .5. But yes, that was the whole show, really. Overall, I gave it 93%.

I think I would give the show 3.5 to four out of five is how I feel.

Let's have a look on the poll. So I'm going to end the poll. Was Statlanders win a good thing? 70% yes.

I can't handle the truth.

Wow. No. Revised 69%. Yes. Nice. Let's get into the rest of your remaining Omega Chats WrestleTalk.com forward slash support. Read out every single one of them over $5. Ben Blerick says garbage backyard wrestling matches aren't for me, sadly. So I was bummed at main evented over the anticipated Four Pillars world Title match. Quite baffling. To me, the crowd seemed far more into that, too. Well, there is no way you would be able to follow that. The Anarchy in the arena match, obviously the Four Pillars match is as good, maybe even better than the Anarchy in the arena match. But from the crowd reaction of it, they will be exhausted and it will harm the first ten minutes, at least, of the World Title match. So I think they made the right decision.

Also, did you hear MGF, I don't know if you saw this on the press conference, said they had asked him about it and said, what do you think about not Main Eventing? And he was like, do you think I want to go out there and roll around in John Moxley's blood? No, thank you. It was a great way of the character being the idea that he the same way. It was like, if we're not on last, we're on first. I might have touched the thing again. I haven't. It's fine. It's that thing of, like, no, it made it into a character thing. I'm not going on after that with all that mess. Like, it's great. I liked it.

I didn't mind Kill Pop at the show last night. The Statlander moment was the moment of the night for me. Seeing her come back was great, but seeing her win the title was perfect.

Perfect?

What does that mean?

Aitami the asshole. Anarchy in the arena.

Anarchy in the well done was great. Everyone in the crowd was stood up for the whole time. Also the pillars match. Perfect. Ben Valk says, thank you, Morty, for writing out what that acronym is. Ben Valerick again. From their first Grand Slam Champion to Main eventing Wrestle Kingdom, and being their overall top heel, to being mostly in the background of the opening battle, royal Vince hasn't come back full time yet, so maybe Switchblade would have been better in WWE. I think he would have.

You think?

Yeah. I stunned at how non special Jay White feels in AW.

Yeah. I mean, I think it's an early days thing. I think there's a lot going on. There's only so many spots at the top of the card.

And don't bring him in.

Sure.

Delay it until you've got something big because you can't get over first impressions.

That's true. I don't think he doesn't feel like he has potential. Do you know what I mean? I think it's not that they've stripped him of everything, but it's not like.

Oh, Jay White, he'll be good in a bit when he grows into it.

Right.

He's already there.

Yeah, but where would you have gone in the WWE?

I don't know.

World title picture. Make him world title. Yeah.

Make him win. Have a final of him and Seth.

Yeah, good shout.

Tim Ruza. I think Tony Khan needs a week away. And do like Ian Fleming and go to a golden eye rip. Tina Turner in Jamaica is this what he did?

Ian Fleming went to Jamaica and had a house there called Golden Eye, and that's where he wrote James Bond.

Right, okay.

And Tina Turner sang inarguably the best Bond theme, which was Golden Eye RP. Tina Turner okay.

Temraza has obviously just done a Bond marathon. To think that this is a normal I got it analogy to use right. AWH to get a clear idea of what is going on. Still loving AW and hope the road to all in his class and fun. Monet, Kota, Trinity, Carlo Riley, et cetera.

I think it's interesting knowing how much more AW has on its plate at the moment with this whole new show collision. It's like, okay, so not the most ideal time for your booking to be less strong than it has been. Don't overdo it. Don't overproduce yourself. He produced the battle royal. And my my argument is stick to what stick to what you're good at. It's not like a kid with his action figures having a play.

That's exactly what it is.

Well, it is. It is that.

I just got a new saboo. Will Campbell says, good day, lads. Really enjoyed the show last night. Even if one or two bits were a bit expletive, the tag championship match was far better than it had any right to be. Someone check on Aubrey. And I felt the four pillars. Match was absolute artistry.

Yeah. Cheers.

Big MGM job entrance and eliminated halfway through a random Battle Royal. What a game changer. J y it is.

Oh, dear.

Manuel sifuentes hull, ola amigos. Went to the show last night, I'd say for my first AEW payperview. It was a bit of a letdown. Crowd sucked. Was hoping for a bigger turnout. Yes, there was some great wrestling. The last two matches were great, but if House of Black lost, I was going to walk out.

I heard that dynamite was half taped off and I think you could hear that in the crowd reaction. I think it if felt a bit tinny. I don't know what the gate for Double or Nothing was. I don't know how fully arena was, but the live crowd maker, as we learned at Night of Champions, I always think we've clashed the castle. Night of champions. Should I watch them again to see what they're actually like from home on your own versus what it's like in a room full of people where you're like super hyped. I think a live crowd makes makes a show that extra notch. And for the first hour or so of them being kind of down, probably wasn't that great. Fine.

Someone described our watch long party for Night of Champions as making it feel like a really hot indie event for a w, because everyone was just doing all the chances all the time. I wonder what it would have been like if we did watch this pay per view within that atmosphere. I don't think it. Would have been as good as Night of Champions.

I don't either. And then you know what a good example of it for me is the Askabyanca match, which I think was the weakest match of the night. Because it was slow, it kind of didn't go anywhere and then it peaked. Right then when you figured out what they were going to do, when you figured out where the story was going, we were like, oh, this is yet still, the whole thing was quite enjoyable, but that was a moment where I was like, can we do the next one now? So I wonder whether or not those first couple, we would have been talking amongst ourselves and a little bit less focused on the action versus where we ended up being on that night, which was staring at the screen and super excited.

But at the same time, those final three matches, they were so good. And the guitar shot on Aubrey Love, like, everyone would have been going mad. Temriza finally, I think, says, Dan, it is time to free the nips. It's not that kind of shirt. Stay. I'm still loving AW because I'm going to all in. All the way from here in Australia.

Wow.

Can't wait to meet you. Yeah, that'll be great. First round on me. Hope Collision goes well. Want AW to succeed for Pro wrestling. Can't wait for New Japan dominion. Well, thank you very much for all your chats and for joining us here today. Go over to the Wrestle Talk main channel, where I've had my review go up. You can watch that. And I've got a news video with all of the press conference media scrum stuff. No fights this time.

Real shame. Yeah, real shame. That's what I'm here for.

But a bit of a bit of company. Burying Tony storm does directly bury Tony's booking.

At one point, her own company.

Tony'S like Tony Storm, that is.

Is Tony sat there?

Yes, right next to her says, what is it? Yeah, I think we can all say now that interim stuff was bullshit.

That works in character as well. But also true is Tony Sat there like he was with Punk.

It's a bit like hello, darkness. Mild friend. Yes, very much so. Yeah, go over there. But for now, I've been Ollie Davis. This has been Dan Layton. Oh, I nearly said D-A-D. This has been Dan Layton. T-R-U-T-H jam. That jam. Press that little outro button.

Hang on. Keep going.

Keep jam. That jam.

Jen. That jam. Jim jam. JAMA, jam. Jenna. Jam.