Latest / Elite Heat / Bangers, Brackets, & Brain Itches: MJF’s Hair, Darby’s Title, & a Hangman Problem?

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Bangers, Brackets, & Brain Itches: MJF’s Hair, Darby’s Title, & a Hangman Problem? · Elite Heat

• I think that took four years off Darby's life. I think it took four years off my life watching it. And we're back. I don't know why I did that. I don't know why I did that. I hate myself immediately for that. But we are back. Doug is back. And for those of you who are just listening and not watching, I still haven't fixed my mic stand. So I'm holding the microphone again because I am a true professional. You Yeah! It's kind of... it's kind of manly. A little bit. A little bit. Is it? All right, I'll take that. I'm not gonna complain about that. ⁓ It look you're cradling it like you're cradling a fine glass of wine. Well, I am known to never drink wine because I'm allergic to most of it, so I will take your word for it. Yeah, that's all I got. I was gonna sub in something, but nope. Okay, works for me. Yeah, I don't know. ⁓ I do know there's a pretty good dynamite tonight, so let's talk about it. Very good data, man. I was very happy with it. Good. So we started. I thought this actually might have been like my favorite part of the show because I thought it was genuinely hilarious with MJF walking in past a bunch of bald dudes, many of which look like me, by the way. But it was legit hilarious and I loved it. I love this stipulation. I talked about that last week. I don't know if you ⁓ caught that, Doug, but I am a big fan. I think it adds a really fun wrinkle to this match. Mm-hmm. I think this has allayed all our fears that we first had, at least for me, when Darby became the champ and what are they going to do and how are they going to make this make sense and MJF. And this has played out so well. this, I thought at first, I didn't know what to think of it at first, but I'm really, really, really buying into it. And it's because of how they're both playing their roles really well. And yeah, I really like it. And yeah, he walked by a boatload of bald guys, including John Silver, who I hadn't seen on Dynamite. Mm-hmm. in since when they dug out the dark order to defend to challenge for the trios belts like i don't know eight months ago Yeah, they've been primarily on ROH, I believe. And yeah, it was fun to get a quick look at him and Christopher Daniels sighting there and ⁓ what's his name? ⁓ Sanjay? Sanjay Dutt, isn't that his name? Who was there, who was laughing at him? Yeah, haven't seen him for a while, yep. So yeah, I really liked it. I thought it was legitimately funny. It was a good way to get into it. ⁓ Yep. I believe so. ⁓ Mm-hmm. And then we got the Tin Man tag, which I'm going to preface this with. I'm a little bit over the Tin Man tags. We're doing a lot of those lately. Yeah, yeah, it's bit much. It's a bit much. But I got to be honest, this was very entertaining. It's going to be tough to go wrong with this collection of 10 guys. mean, my gosh. You had everybody, know, OC, Young Bucks, Cage, Cope against Champa, the dogs in FTR, and wow, just. Yeah. It went about as you thought it would. Everyone gets their stuff in. Everybody looked great. I thought the bucks looked really good tonight. Yeah, it was. I thought that too. I had the exact same thought of, man, they look so good lately. Yep. And I really liked ⁓ Cage coming out in matching colors with the the Bucks. I thought that was really sweet. Cage, god, no, Cope had the matching colors and Copeland is getting huge pops. So, so good. And I like this match because you did do a little more story building with the Bucks and FTR, but you also did had Yes, he is. Cage and Cope doing some story building and Cage continuing to just play to his character. I thought his version of the super kick tonight with his kick to the crotch was fantastic. I just, think we've talked about it before. think Christian Cage is doing some of his best work in AEW and it continues to be spot on and he doesn't waver. And I love that about his character. I think it's amazing. Yeah, I agree. I think he's doing some of the best work of his career, which is really impressive when you consider the entirety of his Hall of Fame career. I think you hit on about everything that I thought as well watching it. I thought it was a fun match, even though I've been kind of over these 10 man matches, I thought this was fun. I thought it was a good way to open the show. I love the trend of using Orange Cassidy as a weapon. I think that's really fun. I think it's really funny. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. I was with you, I liked Cope having the matching gear with the Bucks. I did, I think, land on, because I've been thinking about this, why I have so much trouble calling him Cope instead, or calling him, calling him Cope, I call him Edge a lot is what I'm trying to say. I think that what I have landed on, other than my blame being clearly broken, Mm-hmm. Just gonna let that marinate for a minute. What? Those words happened. Yeah, I mean, I think maybe I could just stop there. I think the reason that I have so much trouble with it is so much of the presentation of him is exactly the same as WWE, right? Like it's the same music. It's the rated R superstar that apparently WWE never bothered to trademark. He's wearing gear that's very similar. Like even tonight, yeah, it's a different color, but like that's the stuff he wore forever in W and that's why I just see him and immediately go edge. So all that is to justify me calling him edge because I didn't do it. Thanks. with any of the others. Like I had no problem saying Miro, I had no problem saying Bryan Danielson, I have no problem saying Mercedes Monet. I just can't get over Edge and all of that is to justify why I'm going to keep calling him Edge. Thanks. I you're not wrong though his presentation really hasn't changed his character has not changed he the move set is basically identical there he hasn't tweaked anything and that that's fine but it is it does make it difficult to transition over whereas I don't Tommaso Ciampa is still Tommaso Ciampa so that's kind of a good thing No. No. Mm-mm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, there have certainly been ⁓ a couple guys, I think, that came over and were basically the same. I Jericho, I mean, Jericho reinvents himself a lot, but at the end of the day, Jericho is Jericho. And he has not shied away from playing some of his greatest hits, especially here lately. ⁓ I think when when Christian Cage first showed up, he was more, I thought he was closer to the WWE Christian than what he is now. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Same thing really with Miro. I you know, I didn't think those guys were that far off their character. And really you can even say it about Bryan Danielson too, other than he was allowed to be more violent and swear. And none of those are criticisms. I mean, they're really not like it's, it's no different than when they brought Sting in. If you had brought Sting in as a completely different guy, have been like, what are you doing that Sting? You know, it's the same thing with, you know, Flair. Mm-hmm. No. ⁓ Right, exactly. Like if you're gonna bring Ric Flair in, it's cause he's Ric Flair. You don't want him to not be that guy. So, right. Yeah, you want the nature boy. So I don't have a problem with him doing it that way. And you know, it's just, that's my justification for why I keep calling him Edge. Right. Yeah. You don't want it to be Richard Fleer. You want it to be Ric Flair. The only issue I really had with this 10-man tag, other than it was a lot, ⁓ I thought we'd get a little more, like there really wasn't much there for Champa and there really wasn't much there for Orange. And oddly, the dogs, kind of an afterthought in this, even though they're amazing, and then come into play. Yeah, and they're going to factor in later in the show too. With a different angle. So was a little, I thought it was a little bit messy with storytelling, but at least we got the main crux of the story across. You still, I believe they're still, you know, teaming the Bucks with Cage and Cope, I think to build that tension between if they do end up taking the titles off FTR, now you have a built in rivalry with the Bucks so that they can go at it and see who's the best of any generation. And that makes sense. But I did feel a little bad for like, Yeah. Champa, the dogs, and OC, because it felt like they were just filling slots. And if you're just doing that, you can probably pare that down. Yeah, that's my thought too, is you could have turned this into an eight man and been fine with it. But you know, whatever it is, what it is, and this is just, they are locked in hard on a couple of things right now, and that's one of them. Mm-hmm. Whatever. It could be worse. So then we got the Death Riders and Osprey training session, which I, this is such an interesting thing to me because on the surface, like if I didn't watch the show and somebody just like you described to me, this is what the segment was. And this is what the storyline is that they're doing. And I have no idea where they're going with it. I feel like in a vacuum I would go, wow, that sounds terrible. But I love it. This is my favorite angle that they have going right now. And I don't know if it's because I have no idea where we're going with it. I don't know if it's because I'm glad that this is how they're going to get away from talking about Osprey's neck being a bag of marbles. One thing that I really enjoyed tonight is that Mox is basically Will Osprey's Mr. Miyagi. Okay. Okay. Yes. I like that. think that's fun angle. I think he's doing now for Osprey what he should have been doing all along for guys like Yuta and Garcia and all that when they first started the Death Riders. I don't I repeatedly write down. I don't get it. I don't know where we're going. Like, damn, I love it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I like it. It started off to me on a weird foot because having Garcia call Osprey kid just, there's something wrong there. It's just like, get it, have Pac say that. You don't have Garcia say that. But. I agree. Yeah, I agree. think Garcia starting these every week is a little weird, but whatever. I don't mind it because he is kind of the, he's the Energizer bunny. He's the guy, he's the hype man of the group. He's the one that is going to get, you know, he's going to do a lot of the loud talking and Moxley is just going to do the more quiet, reserved, focused talking. And I thought Mox's speech was more focused this time. I thought it was still a bit rambly. Mm-hmm. but I felt like finally it got a little more focused and started to kind of circle around the point he's been trying to make. Again, I thought it was still a bit wordy for what he needed, but at least it felt more focused and it made sense, know? And he's basically trying to say, look, you can still have that fervor and that energy and that love you had for the sport back seven years ago. You're just going to be more dangerous now. Yeah. And he took a lot of words to say all that, but that's basically what he's getting to. he's just basically like, but like you said, this is what he should have been doing with all these guys for the last two years or however long this Death Rider thing has been going. This is, we should have seen this with Yuta. We should have seen this with Garcia and we saw none of this. And I think if we would have this, this Death Rider thing would have been. Yeah. Yeah Yeah. more evolved at this point and I think it would have caught on better. I think people would have gotten it more, but at least we're now seeing it and I dig it. I like where it's going and it has set up tension between Osprey and the Ops and Joe. So if you could keep layering storylines in like that for me, I'm going to keep watching. I really liked it story-wise today. I thought that was really solid. Yeah, I agree. And I think, you know, to put a bow on this, what you said about mocks using a lot of words to make his point, that's just who he is. It's just who he is and so just deal with it is all we can do. ⁓ Mm-hmm. But like I said, at least it was more focus this time and it seemed to have more of a target on it. And once again, I think Mox may be in the best shape of his damn life. He looks fabulous. Just, man, that dude just keeps getting better and better. So yeah, I like, I do. I'm a fan of this angle. I like it. It was. He looked great. Yeah, he looked great. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. It's really, really interesting to me. ⁓ Then we got the stadium stampede hype video that rolled into a backstage with the demand and Mark Davis. ⁓ The hype video is, I think, important because it filled in a lot of gaps. I haven't watched fairway to hell yet. I meant to. I've been meaning to watch it all week and I keep forgetting or running out of time. ⁓ If for no other reason. Yeah, for no other reason than I want to see the match on a golf course. That is. Mm-hmm. It was good. It's pretty solid. I bet. ⁓ So I thought that was good that they did that recap. ⁓ Then Andrade comes in and this is really where I thought it got interesting because I said this last week, I think he and Takeshita are going to leave the Don Callis family sooner rather than later. I know I'm going out on a limb there because they're definitely not making it obvious. ⁓ Right. So I thought the addition of Andrade to this match is very interesting, particularly when you have the Owen on deck as well. And we knew they were going to do the bracket reveal tonight and we knew, you know, that it's that season that felt like a good spot for him. ⁓ so I think it's very interesting that they put him in the stadium stampede match. ⁓ I don't know how that's going to factor into the match or if it will at all. It may not, but it Mm-hmm. makes me, ⁓ it adds a level of intrigue, I think to the match that might not have been there without him being in it. So I think that's a good call. I think this is a good spot for the dogs, assuming that they don't get shuffled to the background like they kind of did tonight. ⁓ Yeah, that's the only storyline thing that was a little confusing. And I know you had to put some incredible in there in that opening match. But if you're not going to have them really be a factor, then it felt, like I said, it just felt like it was bloated for no reason when they were going to make join Stadium Stampede. And that makes all the sense in the world to put them in there because they've been just killers lately. And so, put them in a violent match like this. That makes sense. And I like them being involved in it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I do too. think going back to that opening match, if you cut it down to an eight man where it's four on four and it's, know, edging Christian and the bucks versus FTR and the dogs. Well, now you set it up really nicely for them to come back around a couple segments later and say, Hey, you guys are going to be in this. Well, we're going to be in it too. Cause we're not done with you. So I think you could have easily done that because you know, look as much as I enjoyed, ⁓ Who was it that threw, I think it was Christian Cage that threw Orange Cassidy as a weapon. I don't know that OC needed to be in that. You know, and it's kind of the same thing with Champa. Like I like those guys. I'm just not sure that that did anything to advance any storylines with them tonight. So, you know, is what it is. But so yeah, I think it's an interesting spot for the dogs. I am really curious, especially because... It looks... No. Mm-hmm. Correct me if I'm wrong, Stadium Stampede has always been five on five and now we're up to seven on seven, which is very interesting to me and how they're gonna work this all. But. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And that was a Jack Perry move on the weekend when he brought in the elite. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ So it's interesting. And like I said, it adds a layer of intrigue, I think to the match in general, which is never a bad thing. You know, when you're, when you got to sell tickets. So, you know, okay, cool. Is this going to be the hottest angle on the card? No, it is not. But will this be a very, I think entertaining, goofy ass match come double or nothing? Yep. Yeah, I do. Mm-hmm. Yep, yep. And they've got the right mix of players in there to make it interesting, dynamic, and able to do a bunch of different things. You've got your power guys in there. You've got your high flyers in there. You've got your guys that are just bruisers in there. So you've got a lot of nice moving parts. it's going to be a great match. And it's just going to be Bonkersville. And that's what, you know, since they have it. Normally, Stadium Stampede has been kind of a blood feud that's grown and grown and grown. That's not what you've got here. Yeah. Here you just have the weird spark of Jericho and Ricochet. It's a bit of a weak reason, but at least it's there and we're gonna get a fun match out of it, so. Yeah, I agree. I think the premise is relatively weak. But yeah, I mean, you know, to your point, they've balanced it really nicely. And then you've got Andrade and Omega who can do everything, right? I mean, you've got these two guys who can do everything. I have to believe at some point, those two will square off and it'll be magic. It will. ⁓ If they don't, man, that's a giant missed opportunity. ⁓ So I got to believe they'll do that. Yeah. I hope so, yeah. Yeah. And you know, like I said, it's going to be a goofy ass match, but it's going to be really entertaining. It's going to be a match. My guess is that it will be a match more than likely that when double or nothing is in the books, we're going to come back to it and go, you know what? wasn't match of the night, but it was like a four star banger. You know, I mean, that's my prediction on it. And the only reason it won't be match of the night is because somebody is going to eclipse it, whether it's Mm-hmm. Osprey or whether it's the main event or I don't know yet, but somebody it'll just be that somebody else was that good, you know So then we moved on to speedball versus a jobber and I I had made this note Before I think it was last week of they are really stacking wins for speedball. Where are we going with it? And I made that note again tonight Then it would get paid off yeah, 100%. Yeah, absolutely. I have a hunch and I thought we were going to get pay off tonight and it didn't happen. You don't think it did? Not where I thought it was. I thought that's what we were going to see. I thought that's exactly what we're going to see. And I wrote down Speedball versus some guy. Turns out it's a guy Westbrook who I literally watched this guy lose in GCW in a match I think was two weeks ago. And he was part of the three man team and he ate the pin. So you think he's gonna challenge for the TNT title? That's what I thought too, yeah. But I gotta be honest, I thought he looked decent. I mean, he got some offense in and it was fine for a squash match. He got more offense in than most of the women who are in squash matches get in. So kudos for him. And you're right, because they kept saying that ⁓ three wins, seven days, they're stacking those wins for speed ball. And it went right from that into the open challenge. I wrote before anything happened, I wrote, call speed ball. I was wrong and I'm happy I'm wrong because of what we saw. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, But I really, I. really thought because even as they were pulling the camera out and you can see Justin Roberts getting ready to announce Speedball jumped up onto the side of the ring. And I thought, ⁓ he's coming in. Yeah, and he kind of... Yeah, he kind of moved behind him too. And I'm with you. I thought for sure he was going to be the open challenger, I guess, tonight. ⁓ And so that did not happen. It instead was Brian Cage, which was awesome because, yeah, very happy to see that guy back because that was a tough injury for him that had multiple setbacks. I'm really glad to see him back. ⁓ Yeah. So good. So good. Dude looked shredded. Well, I mean, you knew he was gonna. That- you knew he was gonna. That's his thing. I mean, my God, though, I don't know if I've seen him that shredded in a long, long, long time. He looked phenomenal. Yeah. What impressed me was 14 months off and I thought he looked really good in ring. You know, and I thought he looked really, really good in there tonight. So I'm really happy for him. Really happy that he was able to make it back. ⁓ You know, good for him. Absolutely. I'm not, I'm not going to lie. I was, I was a little worried that they were going to pull a Camille with him and make a big splash of him coming back and then have a nothing match. Basically a man. He looked so good. He was pulling off move after move after move. When, when he shrugged off the top from the outside, I think he was supposed to catch him in the fireman's, but he just kept the momentum took them. So we just picked them right back up. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. He looked so strong. I thought they handled his return really well. He looked so strong. He looked so good. Yes, he lost, but I don't think he looked bad in the loss. I think he looked like the beast he is. And even the finish, clearly there was a bit of a mishap. Because of his strength and because Jett's so good, they pulled that off and got to a position where it looked like a believable, you it didn't look like you forgot the No. Mm-hmm. Yeah. that there might have been a mishap. I really enjoyed this match just for all the reasons. I really, really liked it. Yeah, they were they were really, really good, really good match. ⁓ Yeah, I have nothing else to say. They were fantastic. And then we got the post-match promo from Jet Speed. Now, here is where I thought, OK, so he didn't. Mike Bailey didn't answer the open challenge. He's going to call his shot for the TNT title a double or nothing. And I guess I was half right because he did call his shot, but it's for the world title, which. Okay. Mm-hmm. is not unlike the 10 mans and all that stuff is just we're just we're just gonna keep doing that for the foreseeable future. Here's why I'm okay with it because I won't have to go back and watch it, but I'm pretty sure when he said that, Jet didn't like it. I'll have to go watch that again. Yeah, I didn't catch that. I think his initial reaction was, then he kind of recou... Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think even him calling for it is gonna end up with those two clashing. Because I think it's really weird how Jett keeps saying, you're doing great, you're doing great. And it's encouraging, but it's ever so slightly condescending, especially when he's like, someday you'll get gold too. And it's like... Interesting. I yeah, I caught that too. And I was like, ⁓ he had it with you. ⁓ I have a theory. Go ahead. I'm sorry. I'll pay that off. Go ahead. Yeah. So, yeah. No, I was just going to say, I, they, when he first got the belt, I thought they were going to rush this turn because it really seemed like he was going to go off on this ego trip and kind of pulled back from that. I'm glad they did. Cause now you've got this, will they, won't they? I think eventually they're going to collide. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say is, is I have a theory that this is a very slow heel turn and there's a lot of different classic signs there. Him being a little bit condescending, the wearing all black, which is a, you know, callback, of course, to when Sean kicked Janetti through the window, right? ⁓ So yeah, I, I, I, I got to give them credit that it's subtle enough that I'm sitting here going, well, I have a theory, but I'm not sure. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, so I think they're doing a really good job with that. I labeled this as a possible match of the night because not just the action, but the storyline, all of it converged really nicely. I thought this was really well done. I liked it a lot. Edit 2. Yep, same. I did too. Then the bracket reveal for the men's part of the Owen tournament was revealed, which was a little bit interesting to me because I thought, I mean, I thought the bandito swerve stuff was going to go a different direction, but they're putting it in the Owen, which is fine. I don't, I don't have an issue with that. I thought it was very interesting that really the whole bracket is designed to further storylines. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Which I don't have a problem with. that's, you know, I think that in a tournament you should either be furthering the storylines or creating new ones, right? Probably ideally both. So, you know, we'll get Osprey and Joe at double or nothing. We'll get Swerve and Bandito at double or nothing. I think when you look at the bracket, I think you can pretty reasonably guess winners. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yeah, if I'm guessing it's gonna be Osprey v. Davis Swerve v. Brody and Then that's where it starts to get a little Hinky I think it's gonna be Osprey v. Swerve But because it's a you don't know they they very well could Go a completely different route and have it be Osprey Perry or Joe That's what I think too. That's what I think too. That's what I think too. Yeah. You don't. Yeah. Any of these, here's what I liked about this bracket is any of those are believable wins for me. Not so much for the women's bracket when we get there. Yes. Yeah. Yes, I agree with you on on all of that. You know, it reminded me a lot of the Continental Classic, where I looked at the field and when anybody could win this thing and legitimately anybody could. And I think that you've got a field of guys that they are clearly high on all of them. So I'm with you of look, anybody could win this thing and I would not be stunned, right? There's nobody that wins this that makes me go. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I didn't see that coming. Right. Right. I do think it's going to come down to Osprey and Swerve. I think Osprey is going to win because I think that, you know, that's going to be part of the build to him winning the world title, which I'm still on. He will win it before the year is over. Mm-hmm. I believe. Yeah, I agree. think if I'm looking at this and I have to right now pick a winner of the whole thing, I'm picking Osprey. ⁓ I think Swerve is a really close second. And weirdly, my dark horse is Claudio. Yeah. that is interesting. Yeah, that is interesting. My Dark Horse. My Dark Horse, I go between Jack Perry and ⁓ Bandito, quite honestly, because they really like Bandito. They really, really like him and they've put him in some big spots. So I can see it. I don't think they're quite ready to do that, though. ⁓ okay. Yeah, they do. I don't think they're quite ready to have him go over. I mean, he'd have to go over swerve. He'd have to go over Brody. Like, I'm not sure they're ready to do that. And I'm not sure that they should do that with him, but it wouldn't again. It would not shock me, right? So I think they did a good job putting this field together. I think it's gonna be a very interesting tournament. I think AEW does tournaments really, really well. ⁓ So it'll be fun. It'll be a fun ride. Right. No, no, not at all. ⁓ Then speaking of Jack, we got the Jack Perry promo. I've been saying this for a while now. I really like this version of him. I find him super entertaining. I am digging his new catchphrase so hard. Love it. I am too. ⁓ I want it on a t-shirt. Let's make it happen. Hell yeah. Bring that. That's awesome. Then speaking of Osprey, him versus Ace Austin. Yeah, I second that. Yep. So good, so good. When I saw this matchup just on the previews, was like, if this isn't Match of the Night from a strictly wrestling standpoint, then I don't know what they're doing because these two tore it down and ace Austin looked amazing. I think they're doing a really great job right now of making, especially the men. Yeah. Mm-hmm. He did. look really good even in their defeats and really building up their young talent. you know, see it in Ace Austin looking good. We see it in speedball looking great and getting wins. We see it in Michael Knight and no it's Kevin, but we see that. And so I'm really happy that they're doing that. And man, Ace Austin looked so good tonight. He did some things in there that you really haven't seen in a minute. And it really brings to a point that this guy doesn't move like everyone else and he's put on a lot of muscle in the last couple years and his movement's still great and if anyone was gonna go, in my humble opinion, if anyone was gonna go move for move with Ospreay, this guy is one of the few that could do it and he did and I thought he looked great. I thought this was an amazing match, I loved it. Yeah, I agree with you. thought they were tremendous. ⁓ Obviously match of the night candidate here. I mean, they were great. They were really, really great. I had wondered going in is Will gonna wrestle a little bit different because of the Death Rider influence and he did winning by submission. ⁓ They pointed it out on commentary. Obviously that's the Death Rider influence. I think it's very interesting to add that wrinkle to the Will Ospreay game. ⁓ I'm with you. I... Thought Ace Austin looked tremendous here. I think he's looked good every time out. ⁓ Makes me wonder if they'll at some point give him a little bit of a push. Maybe ⁓ TNT title run would be all right for him. I'd be okay with that. But we shall see. But tremendous, tremendous job here. And then of course after the match Joe and the Ops come out. Linus Hook again. Not sure what to make of that. Yeah. Wouldn't hurt? Wouldn't hurt. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. guess he's... Joe said last week he was out filming a movie. Which may be accurate. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, that's what he said. Look, I'm not calling Samoa Joe a liar because he'll kill me. Yeah, no you shouldn't. That's fair. this can of water might be. You should throw that can away right now. Throw that can away right now. Again, you're angry at the can, Joe, not me. Well, it's still got water in it I'm thirsty, but anyway. Yeah, he will. ⁓ I found this to be an interesting segment. ⁓ My first thought on it was it bums me out that Bowens officially joins the ops and then they've really done nothing. ⁓ I really want them to use him. He's good, use him. No, we'll take care of that. Yep. The only thing I'll say, I agree, but like, at least they're bringing him out. At least they're introduced. There really hasn't been much for the ops to do until Joe got back. They kind of fizzled. Joe seems to be putting his stamp of approval on Bowens, which I like. So at least having them on the screen, that's a step in the right direction. So I want them to actually start using them, and I'm hoping this will lead to more storylines so that they can start weaving some more threads and put bowens in there. But yeah, I 100 % agree. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it sure seemed to me like they're setting up some sort of war between the ops and the Death Riders. ⁓ Which is fine. thought I again, this whole thing is very interesting to me. This is the first time. Certainly in a long time, there's an argument that this is the first time ever. That when the Death Rider music hit. And they did their stroll to the ring. I like sat up. You know what I mean? Like it really brought me into it of like, what's going to happen here? This is fun. So, you know, again, if nothing else, this story might be what saves the Death Riders, if nothing else. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Bring it Osprey into the mix. Absolutely. And I really like you when you had Bowen's head to the ring and I can never remember the other dude, Shabbat. Thank you. When they started heading to the ring, I thought to myself, okay, are we going to see the Death Riders? And if we are, what's going to happen? And sure enough, that music hit and I was like, okay, here we go. And what I found interesting is they all came out. Shabbat shalom. Cause a lot of times when that music hits, it's usually like Claudio Garcia and Yuta and that's it. But all of them came out and there was at one point when they start backing away, they showed the, they showed a picture of Moxley and the look on his face. I don't know what's going on with his facial expressions, but he had the goofiest freaking look on his face looking at Joe. was. I thought, yeah. Mm-hmm. His nonverbals standing at the back of the ring staring at Joe were amazing. The faces that he made were brilliant and told a great story without saying a word. And I loved it. There's another subtle thing that happened that I loved, which was when they started stalking towards the ring, even after the Death Riders surrounded it, like they kind of backed up and then came forward again. Claudio just puts one leg in. Yup. Mm-hmm. It's all he did. put one leg in and they stopped. I've... Mm-hmm. It was Claudio and Maria and Garcia. All three of them had one leg in. Ready to go. Yeah. Yeah. My eyes went to Claudio because when you look like that, you know, but it was. Yeah, well, saw him. What's weird is I saw Maria, Maria, Maria, Marina, Marina. I saw Marina first because she was had like she stepped farther in and then I looked and I was like, ⁓ okay. They've got three corners set. They're good. They're good. burrito. Yeah, I loved it. I loved everything about this segment. Loved it. Very excited to see where we go with it. Then the backstage with Renee, Don Callis, Takeshita, MJF and Andrade happened. My main takeaway from this was Andrade showing off his hair to MJF was just perfect. Absolute perfection. Yeah. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Yep, chef's guest. So good. I don't know where they're going with this how you know bit. I don't know if that's something that got over in Mexico recently and he's bringing it here. I don't get it either. It's a thing that when he started doing it, I was like, yeah, I don't get it. And if it's not already on a t-shirt, it probably will be soon. I think they're gonna really try to make it a thing. Mm-hmm. I'm just not sure that it's landing. It just seems so weird from what he had been presented as, and now this weird like, how you know? How you know? Yeah. Yeah. And I think they're trying to use it in some sort of way to signal like a character shift with him, but I'm not, I don't get it. I'm not sure what the shift is. I'm not, don't, I don't get it. It landed better with me tonight because he didn't say it a million times and he immediately told Don, look, that's fine that Takesh could take home the world title, but next time it's my shot. So I liked that. And like you said, gee, they're not tipping their hand that those two have an issue being in the family for the time being, as we will see after a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then we got the women's Owen bracket reveal, which as you mentioned earlier is a weird one. The thing I put down was most of these are non-AEW wrestlers. Yeah. I- Yeah, yeah, you've got Persephone and Hazuki and I don't even remember where Hazuki wrestles. Yeah. I think stardom in New Japan or in Japan, I should say. mean, look, I know Persephone's on a duel. She's got a ⁓ contract with both AEW and CMLL, but AEW uses her so sparingly. There we go. Mm-hmm. So she feels non-AEW to me. The biggest match you have is Willow and Alex Windsor. And you have the two baby faces going head to head, which is... Yeah. Okay, have Mina and Athena, all right, and then Sky Blue and Cherie, who I don't know who that is. Don't know who Cherie is. Which will be good, but you know, okay. I don't either. And they're going to have to do some work to introduce us to some of these people. Yeah, but it just doesn't have the gravitas that the mince bracket has. Yep. I agree. You don't see names in there that I thought we'd see. know, sheet is not in there. Stats not in there. I agree. So, yeah, so this is where I think turning the women's title match into a four person match was a mistake. Because you took Sheeta and Statlander out of it, but then when you look at the bracket, only one of the matches is on double or nothing. Yeah. So I think it's Willow and Alex Windsor. If I'm not mistaken, that's the one that they have the Double or Nothing logo on, which if you look at the men's side, it shows you the matches that are, you know, the logo's there to say this is gonna be on the show, right? So what that tells me is, Which one? Is it Will and Alex? It should be, better be. Mm. they're using this as part of their, you know, what am I trying to say? A part of their way of expanding their international footprint, which is a thing that they like to do and they should. I get it. I get it. Yeah. But somebody from, you know, somebody that we don't know is going to end up advancing in this tournament and is going to be on Dynamite or is going to be on a pay-per-view or whatever, and they're going to have to introduce us to this person. They're going to have to do it fast. Yeah, 100%. Yes. No argument. Yes. It's a weird bracket to me because like you said, if you take Sheeta and Statlander out of the women's championship match, which I don't even know how they got added into it to begin with, because I think it happened on fairway to hell, which I haven't watched yet. And I think it was just an announcement. I don't think there was a confrontation. I think it was just, this is what's happening. Cause I watched it and I don't remember anything big happening around it. Yeah, so I Yeah, so. So that makes no sense because you tossed them into the match when you didn't need to, so that takes them out of the O-In. It also takes them out of the tag title picture, which again, I'm going to harp on, do you even remember that you have the women's tag team championships? I will say, and they did this on collision and they're doing it again on collision, I think, they have got the divine dominions five minute challenge for the it's basically there. If you could last five minutes, you'll get the title shot. So at least they've been doing that. And so, but that being said, the first one was just two randos. It's like, well, okay, you're not even going to come close. Mm-hmm. ⁓ okay. Gotcha. Right. And you, you spent this time building the brawling birds and then you've moved away from it for the most part. You've spent this time building Sheeta and Statlander where for all the world, it looked like, well, they're going to be the ones to challenge. And now they're randomly tossed into this four women match. So it sets up a weird, and when you've also got, when you look at the, and you've also got a bunch of women on the roster who aren't doing anything. They're not doing anything. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, I mean, you've got Harley. Who? Yeah. Right. Camille came. Yeah, Camille came back and disappeared. Harley's not doing anything. You're paying Britt Baker to stay at home. And I get it that they're probably finished with Britt, but you could toss her in her in here and have her lose to Persephone or somebody and help me. Right. So she's out. ⁓ Camille came back. Why is she not in there? Harley Cam- Like Camille, she came back. Why is she not in there? Like you see, Harley Cam- Yeah, I don't Mm-hmm. Where's Thunder Rosa? Yeah, I was just about to Thunder Rosa who showed up tonight for the first time in a long time, but she's not in the tournament. Like you've got all these women Penelope Ford is not in the tournament. She's all of sudden fallen by the wayside and I don't I think I don't think she got hurt again, but I could be wrong on that. But you know, you've got Tecla doing all this stuff in Sky Blues in the tournament, but Julia Hart isn't. Julia Hart is very much an afterthought right now. In my mind. Yeah, I don't think so, but you never know. Mm-mm. Yeah, she yeah, would yeah, we'll get into that in there in their later, but I that's one of the main notes I had to is that anyway Okay. Okay. But then, you know, Marina Shafir. Nowhere. You've spent all this time with her as a Death Rider and now she's just not factoring into anything all over again. What are we? Mm-hmm. Now, did you notice, did you notice, because I noticed this tonight, and I think it was maybe last week as well, or maybe it was just on Fairway to Hell, she has started to be presented not so much as, yes, getting involved, kind of, but she's dressing different. She's dressing more like a valet as opposed to the thug that she kind of was. Yeah, I did notice that tonight. Yeah. I don't either. And I don't like it. It doesn't make sense. It takes away from her credibility. She doesn't need to. I don't understand it at all. but once again, where she at in the tournament? There's zero reason for her not to be. Yep, I agree. Yeah, I mean, you've spent time and money on all these women and most of them are now sitting around with nothing to do. They're just hanging out and catering. Mm-hmm. mean, I would forgive Red Velvet being in there. We've at least seen her a little more often. Throw her in there. But I don't know. I was really disappointed in this bracket. Really disappointed. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I was too, I was very surprised and very much like, know, especially when you compare it to the men's bracket, where again, you look at it and go, anybody could win that. And you've got a bunch of main event dudes. And then now you're tossing a bunch of people that I don't know who they are into this tournament. don't, I don't get it. I just don't get it. Mm-hmm. Here's my weird prediction. I think Sky Blue takes this tournament. Okay, I'd be okay with that. I think Sky Blue takes this tournament and I'll explain a little bit more coming up in the next segment. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, before we do that, there was a backstage with the conglomeration, which is fine. They kind of sorted out some business, ⁓ okay. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. Why, why? Because Willow made a statement about being in the tournament, but the way she spoke about it, she's like, I won it before, I'll do it again. And I guess I'll just have, I don't know what it was. It was about the way she talked about the belt and going for the world title that made me think she's running out, like mentally she's looking like she's running out of steam and it looked like. she's getting ready to lose. Like I wrote down Willow makes me think she's going to lose. And there was something about the way she said what she said that tripped in my head going, ⁓ she doesn't she doesn't think she can do it. She's it just felt like she was getting tired. I don't know. But I felt like Willow doesn't think she's going to win this. And she's probably going to lose that title and she's not going to win the Interesting. the women's title. So that's what made me think of all the people in that list. Sky Blue makes the most sense. Interesting. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I will say this. She's definitely been lacking her trademark kind of spirit lately. I'll have to go back and watch that segment again. That's interesting. But And maybe I'm just reading things that I want to see into it, it just, something perked in my head. went, huh, okay. Maybe I'm making things up in my head, but I think that's what I took from it. Could be nothing. No, I... Well, I mean, now that you say that, like she she has come off for a while. ⁓ but she's come off the way that I would expect Darby to come off right now. A guy who has defended his world championship. What did they say three times in seven days or something like that? You know, I mean, dude, who is the definition of a fighting champion? I haven't seen Willow on TV much lately, and maybe she's been on collision and I haven't seen it, but you know, so I would expect her to be more energized. And she's not. And I think that's a very interesting point that you make there. So I'm gonna have to go back and watch that again, because I think maybe I just didn't pick up on it. And I'll tell you why. think part of why I didn't pick up on it is I got hung up on Rade on Rade. Geez, on Rade doing the yelling someone's name bit. And I really thought we were past that, but apparently not. Okay. Apparently not. I really liked this segment. I liked Kyle going back to calling Mox layout. I really liked that. It makes all the sense in the world. I understand it. I get it. It's like he beat him twice. I think the storyline was Mox put him out and now he's back and he's like, I love the way he did it too. And he wasn't a great, he was just like, where's my shot? Mox, come on buddy. Yeah. And. I agree. Yep, I got business. Yep. Yep. Could Renee look more happy to see Mark Briscoe back? Yeah, I know, right? That was fun. Briscoe coming back was a lot of fun. ⁓ Good to see him back. That was a lot of fun. I was happy about it too. I would watch an entire like YouTube show of just Renee and Orange Cassidy. I really would. I really would. They're tremendous. ⁓ Yeah. Yes! Yes! I like how he just goes... Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would absolutely watch that. ⁓ But I think maybe I'll rewatch that segment at some point to pick up on that Willow stuff because I think you make a very interesting point there. So then speaking of sky blue, we got the triangle of madness versus Sheeta and the brawling birds. So we get a brawling birds appearance as a team. So good. Yep. for like the fourth time after all that hype. ⁓ I thought the setup of this was odd with Sheeta being with the faces. She is really straddling the face heel thing here. Not sure how I feel about that. Right? Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Well, like I said, from the beginning, when she first came back, they made it almost overtly obvious they wanted us to think she was a bad guy. But then they started this goofy, hyper positive, saccharinely sweet persona teaming with Statlander, who traditionally has been really stoic. So it's been an interesting odd couple. Right. Right. and there's been a few nods to, I don't think Sheeta is really on the same page, but it became clear that, I don't know whose page she's on tonight, but it's clearly just Sheeta's and no one else's at the moment, which honestly I'm fine with. I'm okay with that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, as confusing as I find her right now, I also can't reasonably sit here and say that I find it boring because I don't. You know, I'm paying attention to her, which is what you want, obviously. ⁓ So I'm confused, but not in a way that is, you know, turning me off to it. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Right. Yep. ⁓ I still don't love the, the four way at double or nothing. I still am confused by that. That's not her fault. ⁓ the match itself is fine. ⁓ it did lose my attention at some point, which is too bad because I liked the people involved. And at some point I just kind of drifted. ⁓ I think part of it is cause again, it's just a little bit confusing to me as to what the story is here. Cause I'm not entirely certain there is a story. No. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. There kind of is, there kind of is, but only kind of. And there's a lot of moving parts to it and a lot of it makes my brain itchy. ⁓ And then you've got a Thunder Rosa appearance at the end, out of nowhere. ⁓ Yep. you Yeah, out of nowhere. I don't know what to say about this one other than it just was kind of weird and it happened. I thought, I thought it was interesting that they went with the DQ loss for the triangle. And it is obvious why, so that you give the opportunity for Sheeta to leave them high and dry. Like, Nope, I'm not getting my hands dirty. But throughout the match ⁓ more than once, I thought they, they talk so highly of Tecla. They talked so highly of Sky Blue. And I said to myself, I didn't write it down, but I said to myself, Yeah. Julia Hart is a, they've left her in the dust. Like they have forgotten, not forgotten, but they, they bring her out and she does nothing. She's. Yeah, she is such an afterthought right now and they had done such a great job of building her up prior to the injury and then she comes back and man she doesn't matter. Mm-hmm. I don't know if she's confident in the ring anymore because I've noticed she's, she is not performing the way she used to before her injury in my opinion. And I don't know if it's mental. I don't know if she still doesn't have the timing back down or what, but they use her for the weird black mist right now and that's about it. And that was her biggest contribution. And it's too bad. She's got a great look. She knows how to carry herself, but man, they don't. Yeah. talk about her at all. It's all Sky Blue and Tecla and oh yeah, the other one. Yep. Yeah, she is a non-factor. Yeah. Yeah. I did find it interesting that it was Willowmina and then Thunder Rosa out of nowhere that came to the rescue, but okay. Yeah, I don't. Again, it makes my brain itch because we haven't seen Thunder Rosa in a hot minute and then here she is making the save when she's had nothing to do with any of this. Mm-hmm. I even thought to myself, because there's a woman in the front row that had thunder rose makeup on, and I went, oh, that's too bad that she's not going to be here. And then sure as shit, she shows up. So I was like, oh, OK, there she is. Right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Who knows? Who knows? This is a point that I made last week of the women's division is a mess. And they've got to figure out what they're doing here and they've got to get it cleaned up because you have some really talented women. You have some really, really talented women on that roster that right now have no direction or are in very confusing storylines. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. get it cleaned up, get it together, make it matter because they're really good. And for a while there, the women were arguably the best thing they had going. And boy, I guess Toni Storm was the glue holding it all together. ⁓ Because man, she goes out and what a mess it's become. Mm-hmm. I was. I was just going to say, it's getting to the point where it's been long enough. You can't use Tony being gone as an excuse anymore for not knowing what's going on. If she's going to be out, she's going to be out. You probably knew that immediately that she wasn't going to be back for the rest of the year because that's what everyone was reporting immediately. I can forgive you for a couple of weeks, but you've got enough roster. You've got enough names. You've got enough talent. There's no reason why this has to be as sloppy as it is. Yep. Yep. Yeah. And if you're gonna stack that women's world title like you did, why bother doing the Owen? Or at least put some of those other names in there. My God, again, I don't understand why we don't see Thunder Rosa. I don't understand why you don't see Camille. I don't understand, like I said, even a red velvet. Yeah, yeah, I mean that that's what I think we were driving at with the Owen is you've got a bunch of women who are doing nothing and rather than put them in the Owen and try to jumpstart something in the women's division, you stacked it with women who don't work for you. Who wrestle in Japan and Mexico and that's fine. That's great. I have no problem. You know being an international promotion. You should be I have no issue with that. I'm just not sure this is the spot for it, especially with Forbidden Door a month away. That's your time to feature those people and to build that footprint. It's not the Owen Hart classic or whatever its technical name is. Yeah. That's what lends me to believe that Sky Blue is being built to win this because you do have those names that are not familiar and you have probably your two biggest likely people to win it going head to head in the first round. So. I agree. Yeah, and I do, agree with you. think Sky Blue probably is in position to win this thing, but I think it's a better win if she goes over names that we know. Again, I'm not arguing that point at all. No, I know, I'm saying that the way I'm saying it because Tony Khan listens and I want him to understand. Tony, we love it, but listen to Tim. That's all I'm saying. I just I think it's a bigger win if you go look who she went through. You know she went through Athena. She went through you know she does she went through Statland or she went you know you know what mean like you can stack these names and it's like man that's a huge win. They're strapping the rocket to her and instead it's going to be like she beat this killer from Japan that you're not going to see again probably. Yeah. She beat this person from CMLL. OK cool. I don't know who that is. Mm-hmm. She beat Sheree. Yeah. Nope. You know, I just, it's okay. And you know, and that also doesn't even take into account that there are several free agents out there that are just working the indies that we know who they are that you could have brought in for this. There's some former NXTers and WWEers that could have brought in for this and you didn't and that's fine. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 100%. Mm-hmm. Shotzi has been wrestling everywhere. Yeah, in the former Dakota Kai, right? Isn't that Charlie? You know, she's she's wrestled with them a couple of times. She's been doing stuff. I mean. Yep. What happened to the former I know they're in TNA now, the former Iconics. Yeah. Okay. No, they're not. They signed with AEW and they made one appearance. And then I think they've done some ROH and they're doing some indie stuff. They signed with AEW. Okay. Okay. So that's a great point. I forgot about them. You could have put them in it. One of them at least. Yeah, I don't I don't know, man. I don't get it. Yeah, exactly. Moving on, Darby and Takeshita were next. ⁓ Number one. Let me just say this. I am bummed that this was supposed to be Okada and it's not. But apparently it's a family issue. He had to go back to Japan. So all the best to one of the best ever do it. I hope everything's OK. I'm sure we'll get this down the road ⁓ when Okada is back. But it's not like Takeshita was going to be bad here. And boy, I don't either. So let's move on. Yep. Yep. Mm-hmm. He was not. They were great. This was a banger. I, they had me believing Takeshi was going to win this tonight. He looked so good, so good. And by the way, was a Darby's done five defenses in 21 days. ⁓ that's a lot. And I think they even counted the minutes he's been, he's defended in the last, since he won it over like an hour and 20 minutes or something of ring time defending the title, which is amazing. I wrote that blue thunder bomb outside the apron. My Yes. Okay, so I mean, that's a lot. That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean. ⁓ my God, god. I think that took four years off Darby's life. I think it took four years off my life watching it. That was insane. That was absolutely insane. My thought on this was, and you hit on it there of, there were a bunch of times where I bit of Takeshita is gonna win this thing. And that is several matches in a row where they've gotten me to bite on, my God, they're gonna switch it. And that is what is making me buy in more and more and more to the Derby Championship. It is really entertaining. Yeah. from a fan perspective to have a world champion who not only is defending the belt five times in 21 days or whatever it was, but who every time he goes into a match you're going, man, this dude might lose. Because we have lived in a world of professional wrestling for a really long time, like decades, plural, where the world champion not gonna lose more often than not, right? Like, and is going into matches where you're going into it going, that dude's not gonna lose. Yeah. Great. Right? Whether it was Roman doing a thousand plus days where you're going, it's going to be good match, but he's not going to lose. Whether it was MJF a bunch of times going, all right, fine. I'll give you the match, but you know, he's not going to lose. Like, look, Kevin Knight may be a world champion someday, but I didn't think he was beating MJF for the title. You know, we had that with Hangman. We've had it, you know, at the start of AEW, it was like, my thing was No. I'm not gonna believe that the world champion loses until we get to at least 10 months of the reign, because that's what they were doing. And there was nothing wrong with that, but it was just like, okay, it's fine. But I don't think he's gonna lose. And man, every time out, I'm like, there is gonna be some drama here, and that's kind of fun. Yeah, it's been great. it occurred to me just when you were talking about it that like Darby is playing for the old school wrestling fans out there. He's playing like the Ricky Morton role, but he's winning all the time. Ricky Morton was always undersized and getting the tar whipped out of him, but he always found a way to win. And that is Darby is a modern day. Angle of that and he is he's getting the tar whipped out of him. Yes he is. but he is coming back and he's believably coming back. And I think that's what the difference is in a lot of these. When you, when you see some of these types of matches that you don't always believe that that, that little guy is going to be able to come back because Takeshi did, he looked so damn good. And like I said, I didn't think, I didn't think they were going to miss the opportunity to do that hair match, but Takeshi hit that one knee near the end. thought, yeah. Yeah. They are going to switch it. To me, that's how you know it's good. That's how you know they're doing this right is because logically I know, I know he's not dropping between now and double or nothing because you're right, they're going to do that match. But man, you're putting on these matches where at some point you get me to go, my God, they're doing it. know, like that's how you know they're doing it right. And kudos to them for that. I applaud that. They've taken a decision that a lot of people, Right. Mm-hmm. Not just us, a lot of people were like, ooh, I don't know if that's a good idea to make that guy your world champion. And they have very much proved us wrong and I'm happy to be wrong. Yeah, I'm a believer. like, I, I get it. I get the Darby thing and I do believe now, you know, well, I thought this was a knee jerk reaction. I don't believe that anymore. I think you're right. I think this was the plan for a long, long time. am Tony. I'm sorry that I thought that you, got me and I'm loving it. I'm loving it. This match so good. So good. I am too. I don't either. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. It was it was tremendous. He's had a bunch of really good matches in a row now. It's been a great it's been great. It's been great. So then that leads into the contract signing, which I think that went the way all of us pretty much assumed it would. I don't want to spend a ton of time on what actually happened. What I want to spend time on here as we get ready to land the plane on this episode is. Mm-hmm. because of the hair stipulation and because of how good the Derby World Championship run has been, I don't know who's gonna win this thing. No. mean, initially you think, well, MJF's going to win. There's no freaking way they're going to make him shave his head. No way. Yeah, I mean you you go back you go back to when they first switched the belt you and I were out here going double or nothing MJF is taking it back and he's going to be your champion headed into all in and then we'll see what happens right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I now legitimately don't know. I legitimately don't know how they're gonna do this thing because I'm with you. Are you gonna shave that man's head? Are you really gonna shave his head? Can they even do it after the surgery? I don't even know. I don't know how that works. I don't either. I know. That's the thing. I'm so intrigued now because I, like you, we thought we knew the score. But because of the angle and because of the run and because of the passion Darby is showing, I find it hard to take the belt off him right now. Yeah. I do too, the pop that he is getting is legit. After being pretty, pretty quiet, as you would point it out, the pop he's getting right now is legit, and I don't know that it's the best move to take the belt off him. I also, I don't know if they're gonna shave Max's head. This is the one thing. Great. Yeah. that I will say I am the most confident on. And when I say I'm the most confident on this, it means I think there's like a 40 % chance it happens. I think we get the hangman return here. Okay, yep, I can see that. I can see that 100 % and I can see that screwing everything up. And I think that could be the out. I think the hang, yeah, I think the hangman, well, so here's what I think is gonna happen. I think hangman is gonna cost MJF the match. I think he's gonna come out and he's gonna cost him the match and cost him his hair, right? And we're gonna go back to that and maybe Darby, cause he's the fighting champion says, screw that stipulation, let's go. I he might, that's a very Darby move, right? And again, there've been plenty of reports out there from people who know stuff that. Mm-hmm. No, no, no, they're not gonna stick to hangman can never challenge again. They have a plan. This might be it. I don't know. But again, I'm only like 40 % confident that hangman shows up. After that, I have no idea what happens. I genuinely don't know. Yes. Tell me I'm right. Mm. Now that you've said that. You're right. But, but it makes me think, let's say Hangman comes back. Yes. I can see him helping Max win and then going, I saved your hair, give me my match. Well, I can too, yeah. Yep. I have had a theory for a while and I have nothing to base it on. That when Hangman comes back, well, I have a little bit of something to base it on. I've thought Hangman comes back heel, like complete with the heel music that he was using and everything. And the reason I've thought that is I think they're lacking a legit top heel beyond MJF. Okay. Okay. It's Max and then who? I would say swerve. Okay, yeah, Swerve would be it, but now remove him from this picture because he's in the Owen. You know. Right. May. ⁓ Yeah, as far as like challenging for the title, like you could say Andrade, but no, because he's more of a tweener. He's not really a heel. 100%, you could say the same thing about Takeshita. Possibly Okada, but he's so entertaining, it's hard to really put him in that full heel mode. Mm-hmm. And I think he's trending face. Yeah, like he's a heel, but... I would say Joe, but Joe has kind of been playing the face since he came back. So it's not a hundred percent. ⁓ Swerve is your strongest contender right now. But again, we haven't seen what he's up to other than he wants bandito and power. And so it's like the heel, it's really cloudy right now as far as like pure. Exactly. Yeah. It is. pure heels. Like at one point you could point to the Death Riders and say yeah but you can't even do that now. Yep. No. And Kyle Fletcher would have been part of that conversation, but obviously he's out for a while. Maybe you could say Champa, but that even feels like a stretch to me. So, and he's kind of busy running around with FTR anyway. So I think that what they need, if they want to do a legit program beyond Darby defending every week, multiple times a week against whoever calls their shot, you need a heel and you need a credible heel. Mm-hmm. And I agree with you. I Swerve is that guy. And I would think at some point we're going to get Swerve and Darby because there's a history there. But there's a lane for heel hangman here to, you know, to come in and fill a void. So I've kind of thought that I think your idea is very intriguing, though, of he comes out saves Matt. Yeah. And that's how he you know, I saved your hair. You owe me. I think that's very interesting. It's very, very interesting. So. Mm-hmm. Right. All right, I'll bump it till I'm now 50 % confident that hangman shows up at double or nothing, but that's about as high as I'm willing to go. I mean, if you're going to, can see both of those scenarios playing out. But once you brought it up, my mind went to, ooh, I wonder if that's the backdoor hatch they have in mind. Yeah. It would make sense. It would make sense because that's what I've been trying to figure out is how, you know, how is Max gonna get out of this, right? Because he can't get out of the stipulation. We knew that. Mm-hmm. Right. And you have to assume he's gonna try and pull all the tricks that he normally does. He's gonna go for the ring. He's gonna go for all that stuff. But Darby knows all that. So it shouldn't work, right? The same like Omega, you go back to that of Omega's like, no, know your game, it's not gonna work, right? Like we know his routine at this point, we know what's going to happen and he and Darby have a history, so Darby should see it coming, right? So that's where I've been struggling to figure out how are they gonna navigate this and either, Mm-mm. Right, yep. have Darby win and find a way for Max to not have his head shaved or you know what I mean? I mean, unless you just have Max straight up beat him, which certainly you could do, but the hangman element of this is, I think, very interesting. And I know that MJF is a guy who historically will reference things that he's done, right? He likes to give you his resume. Mm-hmm. So it's in character and on brand for him to talk about. I made it so hang man can never challenge again. But it just makes me feel like there's a reason he's keeping hangman at the front of your mind and that he's keeping that specific part of the story at the front of your The only argument I have against heel hangman right now is MJF's involvement. Sure. Yeah, I agree with you on that. And I think that there is... I'm just thinking it through in my head. mean, you've got on one hand, you've got the angle of if he comes back, he'll and he. Just lays everybody out. Including Darby, you know, any torments Darby for a little while to get his match, right? That gets you out of the stipulation if Darby demands the match. But the more I think about it, the more I think what you said makes the most sense of if he comes out and saves Max's hair and then says, but now you owe me. Mm-hmm. Right. That probably makes the most sense. I mean, I could see him coming out, having his, a boot or some foreign object, getting, looking like he's going to clock Max. The ref's backs turned, stead. He turns around, he clocks Darby. He does the whole, Max goes in, gets up in, and then he's like, doesn't say anything, walks away. And then we hear afterwards, you know, I saved your ass, you owe me. Yeah, I mean... Yeah, I think that there's the way I see it is, you know, he gets in the ring and he and Max, you know, he stares down Max and Max is doing the, ⁓ you know, whatever the stairs him down. And then he just pivots and wrecks Darby, right? And it's well established hangman's a heavy hitter and that's not kayfabe. He really is a heavy hitter. So he just turns around and clock star B that's enough, especially if it comes at the end of a particularly brutal match, you know, and Mm-hmm. Yep. And as you talked about, Darby gets his ass whipped in every match. He just, does. And then he finds a way to win. Darby doesn't need to be in there with anybody to get hurt. He throws himself around a nut. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, he uses his body as a weapon, you know, and like how Christian tossed Orange Cassidy, you know, like it's, it's, would, yeah. So it's very believable that this dude has had the hell kicked out of him and one shot from a guy like Hangman is enough to lay him out at the end of that. And, you know, let Max do his, you know, side headlock takeover to get his win, right? I mean, that's. Mm-hmm. Still so funny. What? Now you said that that's probably how it goes, but... Buckshot Lariat takes down Darby. He walks out. Headlock takeover, pin, done. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. ⁓ I lean towards that's probably what's going to happen, which makes me lean towards MJF is going to win this thing. But man, it's like 5149. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's, it's, I'm not real confident on it. ⁓ Yeah, yeah. I'm. I'm not convinced like I was two weeks ago that well, he's going to lose it to MJF when he gets the match period. I'm not. I'm not in that camp right now. I don't know. Yeah. Yep, yep. No, I'm not either. I'm not either. And I'm not even sure that's the right thing to do anymore. And for a while I was, you know. No, but man, like you said, this stupid old school hair stipulation has made this so intriguing and has added so much doubt. That's where you want to be as a wrestling fan. don't, we all like to pretend that we know what's going on and we like, called it. You don't really want to know. You want to be surprised. And they've got me second guessing everything. Cause I don't know. And that's, I love it. I love that. Yeah, I agree. And I we're getting ready to wrap things up, but before we do, I do want to give a special shout out to the fan in like the second or third row that had the heart rebel sign. God love her. I missed that, but that's good. Yeah. That was brutal. That's just, she is, she's an amazing human being for how she handled making the announcement of her terminal ALS and just, that's just heartbreaking. And so my hat is off to the heart rebel sign and the guy holding it. Nice job. Love it. It was, yeah. Yep. And let me also tip the cap to AEW in general. ⁓ I thought they handled it really well after the announcement came out. ⁓ I don't think that this has been made super public, but she has referenced it more than once that Tony Khan has done a lot for her and continues to. So good on you guys for that because that is, that is brutal. That was absolutely brutal to see that. And ⁓ yeah, all the best. to her and her family for whatever time she's got left. but it just was a nice and weird and sobering little stupid sign that made all the, it's like, yes, we're being entertained, but man, it's just, these are people and it sucks. yeah, I just, ever since I found out, cause it was, yeah, it doesn't matter. I felt terrible and yeah, good on her and good on him. to go. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So ⁓ yeah, okay, on that note, ⁓ we will wrap this thing up. So if you haven't liked and shared and subscribed and done the five stars and all that good stuff, you should really do that. You should really do that. Because if you don't, if you don't do it, Hangman's coming for you. Yeah, do that. What are you doing? Yeah, and then Tim's gonna laugh at you. ⁓ a lot. Yeah, yeah. So hard. So you should do those things and then next week it'll be the go home for double or nothing. Believe it or not, we're already there. So. ⁓ Hard. So hard. Yeah, we get a three hour episode next week too. Yep, we'll see what other bizarre wrinkles they add to Double or Nothing, because I'm sure there'll be a couple angles. again, we'll see what happens with Osprey and Darby and MJF, because that is really interesting stuff right now. Yeah it is. Plus, I'm pretty sure Tony wants to add eight more matches to the card, so we're gonna see all that next week. Oh, minimum eight could be 12. Yeah, again, 18 hours of wrestling. Yeah. Could be. you not including the pre-show. Right, yeah, that's the main show. Free show gives you 27. It's a three day event. It's like Lollapalooza. Yeah, it's zero hour headlined by the women's tag team championships and third eye blind. Yep. It starts Thursday at 2 a.m. ⁓ Yeah ⁓ I gotta give the edge to Third Eye Blind. I think they take the belts. I think they take the belts. No offense to Divine Dominion, I love them, but that guitar shot means a little extra Yeah. ⁓ something.