My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 149 - AEW ALL OUT 2021 RECAP WITH SEAN ROSS SAPP

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com joins Robbie to discuss/recap AEW's All Out - which he was in attendance for! Sean also tells Robbie all about breaking the news that CM Punk would be back in the ring a few weeks back, and what that was like! 3Chi: Use code MMB at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.com Cuts Clothing: Go to CutsClothing.com/BASEMENT for 15% off the Only Shirt Worth Wearing HelloFresh: Use code 14robbie at HelloFresh.com/14robbie for 14 FREE MEALS! Subscribe to My Mom's Basement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeZ96PqdsJYQ7DFLRx6MHw My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basement Intro Music: “Basement Noise” by All Time Low Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/basement-noise/1499013757?i=1499013968 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3Aq9W9BBCjsFOQqcYyO6IA?si=d9d0f74cf54a48deYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement, noise in the basement Just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement, yeah, yeah Hello and welcome to My Mom's Basement presented by Barstool Sports and 3G. I am your host, Robbie Fox, and today we are breaking down AEW All Out with the number one journalist in wrestling. It's Sean Ross app of fightful.com and fightful select. Of course, Sean,

we've been trying to do this podcast for a little bit. We've had some internet connection issues. Finally, I can ask you this question. This was a card build around CM Punk's return to the ring, his return against Darby Allen. And you were the one who broke that story on fight full select cm punk is actually coming back take me back to the moment where you first heard

rumblings that this guy might be joining aew while i was on a zoom call with this guy and it kept just repeatedly cutting out and i was like you're telling me what you're telling me what uh robbie's robbie's heard the first minute of this story a couple times but I've got some connections within the Chicago sports world uh not just the Chicago sports world just the sports world in addition to wrestling because a lot of these people want to know about wrestling and they're like we'll just ask the guy who talks about wrestling and there's this one person in in particular in Chicago and he'll like always troll and be like, bro,

do you hear Hogan's coming back and winning the title, bro? And I'm like, very funny. And he did that. I can't remember what it was, but then he said, Oh,

by the way, CM Punk's coming to AEW. And my immediate thought was fuck right off. Like just shut up. No, he's not. And he's like, no,

but really? And I was like, whatever. And I completely dismissed it for like two or three days. And then I remember back to a Q and a, that I went to in Lexington at a comic con a couple of years ago, and it was Christian edge to my favorites of all time. And there was a guy, he didn't get laughed out of the room, but he got snickered at an awful lot because he asked Christian who had been retired for five years and edge who had been

retired for eight. Oh, are you ever going to wrestle again and come back to and do it for AEW and a lot of people like snickered at him and I thought back to that and I'm like what are those two guys doing right now and I was like I need to follow up on this even if it's wrong I need to follow up on it it was just so far-fetched yeah i was like why why would i you know he's had no interest in wrestling it seems like for a while and i started to ask people and it was funny because the people that i would ask would think that this was kept a lot quieter than it actually was but cm punk's people very clearly were out there and we're talking about it because how else am i going to get it from the chic area besides that? Like, so AEW is usually very good at keeping leaks quiet.

And none of the wrestlers had been told explicitly, yes, he's coming in until the day he showed up. Everybody just knew. And I was talking to a lot of people in AEW and they're like, well, we know that they've talked, but we don't know how serious it is. Then I start hearing from other media members around slam aversary weekend. I was in, uh, in Nashville for impact and the pieces started to fall together. And I was like, okay, they were talking. Then they traveled. Then this meeting happened then. And like with any big story, like I'll reach out to top people in WWE, in ROH, in Impact. I reached out about it, and I was very careful how I worded it because I know that other people had reached out to AEW and said,

heard you signed CM Punk, and it was easy for them to say, no, we didn't, because they hadn't. So I was very careful how I worded it. he signed the contract right before he walked out right on dynamite exactly mark or on rampage rather yeah yeah mark romandy had that story where his lawyer hit him up and was like hey you should probably sign this deal before you go out there but i i had said i heard you all are in talks and i couldn't get anything on the record, but I had talked to so many people there that had confirmed it. And there was a fire where there was smoke, but I was, I was terrified. It was going to be like a Helwani Brock Lesnar situation.

I was afraid I was going to get blackballed. And fortunately I was assured we don't do business that way regardless, but i don't think that either side really wanted it out there but i think by the night that it that it happened they were like well this is probably best for everybody that it did kind of get out there because surprises can still happen in wrestling even yeah even when people know the way they handled that was perfect and i even saw you say if i didn't break that story it was probably going to come out a few days later it seemed like it was starting to slip right it was going to come out probably within an hour or two so i had the story slated her i had decided on a sunday i was going to do the story i reached out to aew on on the monday after uh so it was it would be the

monday after slam impact slam anniversary i had decided i would drop it on a wednesday wednesday is a really good news day because especially for AEW stuff. So I was like, I was going to drop it on a Wednesday. And when you're sitting on a story like that, Oh my God, Jesus, man.

Like you're, you're worried somebody else is going to break it. And I had it set for noon Eastern on a Wednesday. And at about 1148, I'm getting like three or four media members. Hey, have you heard this? Have you heard this? Have you heard this? And I'm like, yeah, I have. like three or four media members. Hey, have you heard this? Have you heard this? Have you heard this? And I'm like, yeah, I have. And I was like, publish, let's hit,

let's hit publish on this. And I published it like 1153. Wow. So I was like, yeah, I got to get this out. And I was confident enough in it that, um, I mean, I knew it was happening obviously, but yeah, I was like, oh crap. And it was, it was the biggest story that I've ever I knew it was happening, obviously. But yeah, I was like, oh, crap. And it was the biggest story that I've ever published. And it changed not just my life, but our site and our staff and all that stuff. It has ramifications for everybody. Yeah, and the way that AEW handled it afterwards, like teasing it, kind of letting everyone in on it, but not. It was perfect. And by the time he debuted, it reminded me of when Jericho debuted on raw and that people had signs in the crowd already and like people in the documentaries

nowadays go how did they know and it's like well because it got out like a few weeks earlier it's kind of the same thing like all the signs in the crowd the chanting it made it all better yeah and he did a loser leaves town match on a house show and everybody knew about it so it's like they they knew it was coming but with the cm punk thing i it still was one of those things even though i i knew all this stuff i was reporting was true it's still cm punk and we have seen his demeanor a lot and we know that until he pops up there who's to say he might just just not be like oh you all let this get out even though it wasn't aew that let it get out uh i'm I'm just gonna go home you know what's so funny is I had heard I think in December that

Punk was like thinking about coming back and I in my mind I kind of did the same thing as you I dismissed it and I was like I don't think that's true um and in my mind I was like this is Royal Rumble every year. We're getting close to the Rumble. Ridiculous rumors will start. Oh, Punk was in an airport. And I didn't think about it again until your story came out. And I believed your story immediately because I was like, oh, wait a minute.

And they had been talking that entire time. They had been talking, like Tony Khan said, they had been talking for like a year and a half. But they were never going to do it in front of no fans, which I think was good. CM Punk even said the way that AEW's roster handled the Brodie Lee situation, keeping that illness private, showed him that it was worth going to. I can tell you that is 100% true. I remember after the announcement of the unfortunate passing of Brodie,

there were six or seven AEW wrestlers that messaged me and they said, what did you know? And I was like, I didn't know anything like it. I would have kept it private anyway, because that isn't, I mean, you could argue that no story is anybody else's business,

but to me, I get to decide where I draw the line. That's where I draw the line, but I hadn't heard anything. And I had asked about Brody numerous times to find out where he had been. So, I mean, that gave me a lot of respect to them too because they don't owe me info like nobody owes me information i owe my readers information and that's one of those things i'm very glad they did keep it close to the vest because they showed a lot of respect to that family and their wishes

yeah absolutely and even i was lucky enough to be backstage at a dynamite taping or not even taping it was live a couple months ago. I think it was in April. And the way I saw everyone treat Brody Jr. backstage was just so heartwarming. Like, there's such a genuine little brother dynamic between him and every single person on the roster. So that's like, it was so amazing to see it up close and personal. But let's talk about All Out. You were there.

It looked like an amazing weekend in Chicago. And I kind of want to start there. What was the vibe? Like you've been to WrestleMania as I know, and stuff like that. Did it have a WrestleMania weekend feel? So I've actually never been to a WrestleMania. Wait,

what? I've never been to a WrestleMania. Have you gone to a city like the city where WrestleMania is? What? No, my trips. So I was, i was actually scheduled to wrestle a match why do i have mandela effect i know well here i was finally going to start to

travel uh i i started to travel for this job really uh double or nothing weekend 2019 because media opportunities opened up yep and when aew started to provide media opportunities that they really don't provide anymore with talent interviews, WWE started to do it and other companies started to do it. So I didn't go in 2019 because I wasn't going to be invited to the media stuff. And all due respect, I can do more work from my desk than I can do there. In 2020, I was going to have media opportunities. I was booked to wrestle in a freaking match at a brewery at one point,

but the pandemic hit and then 2021, there weren't the media opportunities. So I just didn't go. So I've never been next year will be my first. Dude, that stuns me. Stun. Oh,

it surprises a lot of people. I've been to a rumble, a summer slam. I've been to multiple summer slams because they do a lot of media there, but I can tell you the vibeumble, SummerSlam. I've been to multiple SummerSlams because they do a lot of media there. But I can tell you the vibe there is so unanimously positive. And, I mean, at the risk of people saying, oh, you're an AEW shill. I don't really care.

I don't care if you think I'm a journalist. I don't care what you think. I report news. It's accurate. There you go. Subscribe. Dude, I see the masses that you have to deal with on Twitter sometimes. And I'm like, listen, you have to deal with them because you're number one. Like, always remember that you're number one.

That's why they're coming at you. Positive outweighs the negative. And that's kind of the point I'm getting at. Like, there are so many cool people that I got to meet this weekend. And at an AEW show, it's so much different than anything else. Like at some other shows, it's a sit on your hands and impress me crowd. People at AEW want everything to succeed. Like I'm at home. I might not think the bunny in Ty Conti is like the hottest feud going on, but they're the audience wants it to succeed. They want it to get over.

And it's one of those things where in WWE, if MJF were there, he might get cheered because he'd be the most entertaining thing on the show because they can't book baby faces in AEW. They if MJF were there, he might get cheered because he'd be the most entertaining thing on the show because they can't book babyfaces. In AEW, they want MJF to continue being that piece of shit because it's entertaining, so they boo him. I mean, that's a great way to put it. And, I mean, it's not always like that. Britt Baker gets a lot of cheers, but they haven't changed how she acts. So, like, the environment there is really, really positive and really exciting. And, um, it's, it's just very positive.

Now it was also in, in Las Vegas as well for summer slam. So I'm not trying to crap on WDB or anything like that. I was there as well. It was fucking hot in Las Vegas, dude. Yeah, it was,

it was, but I mean, I'm in Kentucky and there's so much humidity. So to me, I'm like, Oh, it feels like it's 78 degrees in Kentucky where we walk through soup every day.

But like, if you listen to Adam Cole and brian danielson they're like oh we loved working for wwe we don't have anything bad to say it's just listen to that crowd that's why we're here so i mean that doesn't that that's the best example i can provide it's almost a bigger statement than people saying like i hated the wwe I hated everything about it. Because, like, I think someone did a Twitter thread about it today. And they said the WWE could look at that and be like, ah, yeah, they were angry. They were this, that, and the next thing. It's like when WWE looks at a Bryan Danielson and says he main evented WrestleMania this year.

He was happy. He had creative opportunities. We were going to let him work elsewhere. And he's still like, not for me. Adam Cole is one of the best booked people of the past four years always an important storylines always gets a lot of tv time gets mic time gets freedom push apparently promised them stuff right they took them up to the main roster and we're like hey this is we'll do angles like this for you and whatnot do you think he was

seriously considering staying yeah i do i think there was a part because i mean i had always heard i mean we broke a ton of the adam cole news like we were on that beat i was talking to people from wwe weekly about him and they had nothing but good things to say about him usually you'll get like a little snide remark about somebody who's on their way out not adam cole they were like man he didn't have to re-sign with us he could have shown up on dynamite four days later because they walked up to him and they're like hey we know that your contract's supposed to be up in december but it's actually up in three days and uh by the way pete duns is too will you all please sign extensions to stay through august and he was like yeah of course i will which is man very very nice of him yeah

very nice of him and he said it was a surprise to him too uh but that was as the day i tweeted a picture of the radicals and people were like what's this about that's what it was about that's what it was about that and some other stuff but but he's, he had it good in WWE. Yeah. But I know like I, this has been a long-winded answer. The audience, the vibe that you just asked me about is a recruiting tool for AEW.

And you can't replicate that unless you just put on a good show. It got Daniel Bryan and Adam Cole to be like, Hey, we're going to leave this show. Joe to AEW. And in a way CM Punk to be like, Hey, we're going to leave this show. Joe to AEW. And in a way, CM Punk to be like, I want to be a part of that.

It's part of that punk rock environment that he talks about. You go to a punk rock show and the crowd's going to cheer for the indie bands that are the openers that they don't know because they're at the punk rock show and punk rock is our little thing and we want it to succeed. And that's all part of it. Let's open up the show discussion with the buy-in this podcast is sponsored by 3G 3G is our presenting sponsor of course they are the industry leader in delta

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Use the promo code MMB. You'll receive 5% off your complete order. Now let's get back into the show. This was, I saw someone on Twitter call it a final day of Bola match, and that's exactly what it was. It was perfect. It was Chuck, Orange Cassidy, Jurassic Express versus the Hardy family office. I don't have everyone written down.

I believe that was the match, right? Yeah. Private party, a TH two and a Jack Evans and the butcher popped up at the end. I had seen the butchers back. Yeah. I'd seen him around Chicago.

I put the news on fightful select.com and apparently he had been dealing with a really bad thumb issue that he had in his, in his last match. And when they were out there i thought to myself why isn't he just ringside and then he came back and that's why but this this is like okay we want to give people uh an excuse to listen to orange cassidy's music get a bunch of people on the show all these people are entertaining workers wheeler yuta was the bell of the ball earlier this year i mean when he didn't get signed i had people on wb saying yeah i think our hiring

methods are changing because we don't know why he didn't get signed if that if that doesn't if that's not a ringing endorsement i don't know what is but this is this is how you get a bunch of people's music played and get a good 10 minute match on a show you get the good pop at the end with the group hug. That was great. Every time they do the Rainmaker zoom out, I laugh. I don't care how many times it happens.

I will get me every single time. Good way to get the show started. But the way they got the actual show started was even better. Miro versus Eddie Kingston. This could have been the best match of both of their careers. I saw people saying it, it went like 13 minutes. It wasn't the greatest technical masterpiece of all time but it was great professional wrestling all this

stuff with bryce all this stuff with the ref i loved the crowd i mean you guys treated bryce like public enemy number one in chicago so uh man this this miro is uh as a wise man once said he is who we thought he was this is the guy we always knew he could be like that part charming part horrifying type of thing and I know a lot of people had a problem with the video game stuff and Kip Sabian I didn't I mean besides the feud blasting so long with best friends I think that set the stage you had to show the softer friendly side of of miro before you realize that he could also rip your spine out through your asshole and eddie kingston can talk his way into any situation like redeem these nuts redeem these nuts was so good it was trending on twitter like the trending with wrestling redeem these nuts just

so funny didn't sell hundreds of shirts that night and they had them ready to go like proud of chanit yes so it was super over eddie kingston is always going to be over miro is exactly who we knew he could be and that's awesome because tony khan is very particular he cuts off people and says this is not a mid-card championship. This is a top championship. Miro has never lost in AEW. Man, it is really, really good stuff. I really enjoyed this. And just two personalities that people care about.

Yeah, and it was so fluidly booked, the whole shenanigans with the ref and Bryce and taking the turnbuckle off and the low blow. Sometimes that gets convoluted and it gets the eye roll. at all for this the crowd loved all of it great match to open the show too i was confused as uh we were watching the buy-in like what's gonna what's gonna open the show it's gonna be the cage match so the bucks can go back and produce is it gonna be this is gonna be that as soon as eddie kingston's music hit i was like oh no that's the right call that's the right call that they're gonna get the crowd excited um up next we got moxley versus kojima this one was better than i thought it

would be and i wasn't like down on the match at all but i was just like oh yeah that's a match on the card and it wound up being like oh shit yeah moxley kind of works that japanese style maybe better than anyone on the aew roster at the the end, we get fucking Suzuki. Yes. In AEW, which people said we should have known it was coming because he was in America and he had the prior history with Moxley. True, but who would put that together? That was such an awesome surprise.

The crowd going wild for it. And if you don't know who he is, oh my God, you are going to be delighted on Wednesday when you watch this match because they had some good chemistry last year and I think it's going to deliver here. I liked it. Jon Moxley, like they went up to him and they're like, who do you want to feud with? And he's like, have you heard of Japan? Yeah.

New Japan Pro Wrestling. You know that company? The company. The whole thing. I was, I don't want to say I was let down when they announced Kojima because they had been teasing Tanahashi, obviously. But this was good. You knew it was going to be good. And Suzuki coming out, when he's the fourth biggest person

that people are talking about coming to a show, that's unreal. Everybody's like, oh, they should spread these out. No. Why? This is like their biggest show of the year. Why would you spread it out? Yeah. I mean, this is how,

this is what makes you be able to go to soldier field or something like that next year or wherever, like a stadium and be able to do a stadium show next year. This is a good match. Kojima won me over by liking bread so much on Twitter. Yeah, that was, I love it. And the tweet afterwards, he said, thank you Moxley with the AEW lanyard and like just the one piece of bread yes if you're not aware moxley apparently

doesn't like bread oh really yeah which what a weird thing interesting interesting and i mean i had tickets to aw sensi and that's moxley's homecoming uh very you know that's quite quite a week for for that guy but suz popping up, it's like a no duh. Like, of course he will, but I hadn't heard anything about it. And you get, people can say, oh, you should have seen it coming. But who would have thought like right here in this spot, so many people were worried about Ruby, Adam Cole. Yep. Brian Danielson that I think it almost went under the radar before this, and it created a very special moment.

And debuting him in front of this crowd, they all knew who he was. They all went crazy for him. They all sang the theme. You run the risk of not making him look like as big a star as he is if you debut him in front of Cincy, no offense. I don't know if they're going to know Suzuki as well as Chicago did. Fellas, the sport of business means demanding excellence from your craft and wardrobe. Your fits need to be versatile, blending timeless style and comfort so that you look as good as you feel.

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That's an amazing deal. Go there now. Cutsclothing.com slash basement for my mom's basement. Of course, you'll get 15% off. Great deal. Get yourself some Cuts clothing. Up next, one of my favorite matches on the card. We got the AEW Women's Championship. Britt Baker defeated Chris Statlander. Orange yelling chris to get back in the ring one of the best moments on this pay-per-view one of the ones that i thought about as soon as the pay-per-view ended thinking back to like what a freaking great show orange cassidy taking off the glasses get back in the ring what are you doing come on that was great i wrote down chris is probably the best base in women's wrestling yes when she had brit and brit's like going around her like a

monkey basically like climbing on every limb that she had and i was like she's gonna fall oh no she's gonna drop brit oh no she's gonna fall and none of those things happened she hit her move flawlessly um the panama sunrise the perfect tease for what was to come the crowd ate it up too that was perfect uh excalibur i don't know if you've gotten the chance to watch that the broadcast back Excalibur called it perfectly with the Pittsburgh sunrise right in that moment um Chris Statlander future AEW women's champ I say yes oh gotta be gotta be and this is a part of the the murderer's row for Britt Baker right now there were some people that say oh she doesn't need the championship. I'm like, no, I completely disagree. When you've got a star that hot, put your biggest prize on them.

That way everybody knows how important that prize is. I agree. I completely agree with what you're saying about her being the best base, Chris Statlander. When these big dudes like Drew and Seamus and Damian Priest and Lashley fight each other, I call them sirloin beef sons of bitches. That's what she is for them. And Britt Baker is deceptively tall. Drew and Seamus and Damian Priest and Lashley fight each other. I call them sirloin beef sons of bitches. That's what she is for them. And Britt Baker is deceptively tall.

She's 5'7". She's the same height as Rhea Ripley, as they claim Rhea Ripley is. I think she might be taller, but that's not easy with that tall body type to make it work. And she did. And the Pittsburgh sunrise was perfect because it's one of those things that makes you think you think well surely he won't be on the show if she's doing that here it's a tease for down the line and then she teased it on wednesday saying free agent signing all of this was very clever and very smart and that's one of the things i like about aew is i can't predict exactly what they're going to do even if i'm told what's going to happen, I'm like, will it really happen?

I thought this was great. And it's, I mean, we'll talk more about the Battle Royal later, but it's the first in a long line of challengers for Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, who is very clearly their anchor, their megastar. I said Miro is who we thought he was. She is who AEW always thought she was when she was the first signing. When you had Hangman Page coming out there at that presser and saying,

I want to be AEW champion. And we were like, we know the drill. We know you're not one of the EVPs so that you're his boy. They're putting you in that spot. And he worked and he worked and he worked and he got over. We knew Britt Baker was their poster girl. And so many people rejected her. I was one of them beginning.

I'll admit when they went really hard with the dentistry stuff. Yeah. I was just like, Isaac Yankum 2.0, what is going on here? And Britt won me over match by match, promo by promo. She's now one of my favorite people on the roster, one of my favorite people in wrestling. She had to learn to work TV. She had never had a performance center.

And, I mean, they still subtly lean into the dentistry thing so much because of doctor and DMD. It's a redundant phrase. But I love it, and she has been a home run. And I like that this match is like 11 and a half minutes. Moxley and Kojima was like under 12 minutes. Miro and Eddie was like 13 and a half. I think the opener was under 10 minutes.

You don't have to do 20 minute marathons. And AEW has gotten so much better at that. Give me an action packed 12 minutes and I'm happy. I have that written down. I have great match lengths throughout the show, except for there were two matches that I felt went a bit too long. We'll get to those later in the show. The next match, I'm going to basically just throw it right to you, Sean,

because being in that crowd, I just want to know what that was like for you. It was the Lucha Bros versus the Young Bucks, a steel cage match. I wrote down instant classic classic all-time entrance. I love the big feathered headdresses like Rey at WrestleMania 22. That's one of my all-time favorite entrance attires. Everything about this match I thought was perfect. The thumbtack Travis's from the Bucks, Phoenix jumping off the top of the cage like a lunatic. That cage, by the way, in person, has to be taller than WWE steel cages, right? It looks like it. I'm going to ask how tall it is, but they don't have the pieces of the cage,

like where there's a bit of a divider. So it looks way, way taller. It looks huge. When he jumped off that cage, it looked like he was in the air for an hour. Yeah, it was beautiful. So I'm not big on rematcheses constant rematches running it back but these two are these two teams are very clearly like going to be almost like their sammy zane kevin owens their triple h sean michaels type of thing where you can go back to it often and this is what

they're doing and it was perfect there was i mean that entrance where mikey ruckus is wrapping them out and alex abraham test looks like the weekend it was they look like the biggest stars in the world they did and i didn't expect that that was so cool there was a specific turning point now the whole match was good, but there was a kick out about like, gosh, I don't know how far into the match. And the crowd just erupted and stood up. And after that, it was fire. The thumbtack spot, the Mexican destroyer off the top rope, which is a benefit of the cage because you can use that to base yourself off of and do that spot where you can't necessarily as easily without it. There are so many wrestlers where the

cage is a limitation it's it constricts them that is not the case for these guys they're showing that it's not it's not necessarily a power structure it can be a high flyer structure without before you even jump off the thing yeah this was so special uh the young bucks own chicago they every time they go to chicago something crazy happens i mean that's where the the bucks uh versus omega and page happened the ladder match happened in chicago right yeah yeah yeah the ladder match happened there i'm sure there are so many more but even going back to the ring of honor days i'm sure they had tons of like chicago classics yeah there are a few that are coming to mind but i mean they they just completely even going back to the ring of honor days, I'm sure they had tons of like Chicago classics. Yeah. There are a few that are coming to mind, but I mean,

they, they just completely own that city and just run everything. And I feel like Chicago has got to be the number one wrestling city in the country at this point. Right. I mean, I'm a New Jersey guy. I want it to be New York.

I really badly do, but come on Chicago, the last few years, that's the place to be. Oh my gosh, man gosh man they they just they've killed it over and over again but yeah they had that ladder match there they the main event of all in was yeah with ray and there was she in there even though it was shortened and stuff but they they've done they've worked there so often that it's just it's just common for them

this was so special so special the ending with the kids coming in, hugging them. I loved the visual of the Lucha Bros with the max rip, the blood coming over. It looked like they went through the war that they did to win those titles. And I don't see those titles leaving them anytime soon. I think they're going to run with them as champs for a while. Yeah, I think they, I mean, you could get heat on them by switching it quick. But I mean, you could get heat on them by, by switching it quick, but I mean, damn.

Also, if I were AEW, I would quickly book them against, uh, Santana and Ortiz for, for Arthur Ashe. Get that there. And even if Santana and Ortiz lose, the crowd's going to be hot for it. Oh my God. Yeah. I I'm right now I'm in like a pickle. I have a commitment for the night of Arthur Ashe at 7 or 8 p.m., and I'm like, I need to get there for at least the last half of that show because I feel like it's just going to be an incredible environment.

What you referenced earlier, the Casino Battle Royale, Ruby Soho made her much-anticipated debut, much-rumored debut. I feel like it was almost a guarantee at this point when we saw all the videos. I mean, I reported it so listen until it happens today um she eliminated thunder rose alas they had such a creative finish on the apron sometimes the like apron spots where i'm gonna hit you and i'm holding on to the ropes and whoa gets a little tired i thought this was great i really didn't know who was going to win because going into it, I was like, I could see Ruby coming in and Thunder Rosa still winning with the Britt Baker connection and whatnot. But I was really happy Ruby won her hugging Bryce and saying,

hi, Bryce. Everyone's been posting that gif. It's heartwarming. You want Ruby to succeed, and so does everyone in the WWE because this was the moment that they all tweeted about the most. Every wrestler that's ever worked with Rubyy riot or ruby soho is like yeah she was the fucking best and we're nothing but happy for her she was uh almost in tears at the media scrum afterwards and i had wwe wrestlers that were like we were in tears yeah we were in tears over it happening i really

like this match i so i've talked to a lot of the women on the roster about this. Battle Royals are way more difficult for them than men biologically because they got to go over the top rope. Men are taller. It's easier to clothesline somebody, throw somebody over. The women a lot of times have to set up spots where they get tossed under the apron and thrown out or they're sitting on the top rope and get thrown out so it's always great to see them getting creative with it i wish there was an adjustment that could be made to make it easier for them to do these but i mean i mean that's that's a thing that i hear them mention a lot but um i don't see that on the horizon but i loved this match because it it displayed a lot of things it forwarded the big swole diamante feud that's happening on dark you get people like kylan king and sky blue who was so over in she was yeah the crowd had signs for her and everything they were going wild yeah that was great you get rebel

in there as well you get people like layla hirsch in there but you also as i mentioned that murderers row for uh for brit baker and the last two in that battle royal thunder rosen and ruby soho are a part of that aew liked thunder roses so much they were like we're not going to wait until your deal ends and uh 2022 with nwa we're going to buy you out of that deal yeah and that that match is there one day they will run that back greatest women's match in aw history one of the greatest women's matches of all time agreed ruby soho's there now they got hikaru shida that they can do a rematch with on dynamite rampage anytime but you got anna j coming back yep to she's going wild for her she seems super over yeah so you've got dr brit baker this super over heel in the middle and you've got a returning anna jay super over all these emerging talents hikaru shida just

waiting in the wings uh thunder rosa as the runner-up with a ready-made rematch classic and then you got ruby soho winning this they have set Britt Baker up for success and therefore the women's division up for success. What a turnaround for what people said about the women's division even months ago. I don't even want to say years ago. People months ago were like, yeah, AEW women's division is still a bit thin. Not anymore.

No. This is a stacked division. They do need to highlight them more. They built this battle royal really well. It was all over the place. I mean, I haven't even mentioned jade cargill who's a future star nyla rose is a former champion like the habadon got a huge pop and she's only on dark and she always wins her look is phenomenal though i was watching with someone that had never watched aew before and when she came out it was like whoa who whoa, who is that? What is that?

Yeah. So, yeah, I do think they need to highlight the women more. Get Thunder Rosa and Hikaru Shida on Dynamite and Rampage more. There's no reason you shouldn't be doing three women's matches on Rampage and Dynamite combined every week and building this division. Just make them matter. Make people care about them. I couldn't agree more and the crowds like you said want them to succeed so much that there's not as much of a risk as there is in wwe of doing something like that and trying to build a new division like that and getting

people to care also how rad was it that ruby got to use that ruby soho song which i mean he kind of figured that she would because she did one interview after her release. And it was with the singer, right? Yes, it was the Wrestling Perspective podcast with Lars of Rancid. So I get the feeling just a theory. I'm sure he was like, hey, come do my show and I'll let you. Which what a trade off like that's such a it's been stuck in my head since the night. Such a great wrestling entrance theme and such a great wrestling name.

Ruby Soho is amazing and that's what she originally based the ruby riot name off of was the ruby soho song and it's a 26 year old song that sounds like it was written for her like the vibe the tone everything it was perfect and shout out to her video i know there's been much made of like people making uh prison escape videos and how that's become such a trope at this point. She went the complete opposite way. She went super creative. If you get released from WWE in the future,

hit up the people that made her video. John Carlo. Let's talk about it. Same one that may, I think he made a, all of Joey Janela's in, in the past. Like that makes a lot of sense.

Joey Janela always had great ones, Barry in the VHS tapes, like uncovering sense joey janela always had great ones burying the vhs tapes like uncovering that shit that was always great yeah junk harlow killed it uh there's there's some good teams out there making these videos so uh and it's such a good way to create buzz such a great way to creep us i want more of it in wrestling like seeing the ruby soho character even in those little snippets gave me a sense of who she is what her personality is like i want that for more characters i feel like it'd be smart of aew to even invest in that and give us one segment like that for one character per show i'd watch a minute

of darby skating around new york city he's running whole events based off of it like his team runs free the narrative and like it is all stuff like that i've seen some of that yeah and when i watched it at first i'm like i don't know how i feel about this it's different and then i was like wait why is different bad different isn't bad and it was like it was a it was a description of what the character was what their motivation was why they're here why they would want to win or lose this match and then you see that battle i love that people are doing different stuff and using this i mean if vince mcmahon's gonna say we make movies pal then make some damn movies yeah i agree i mean

think about the response that the firefly funhouse match and the undertaker aj styles match got the with the one wrestlemania where they were kind of forced to do that like all right now there's no restrictions why don't you go where at less restrictions why don't you go wild um speaking about going wild chris jericho and mjf went wild in going 20 minutes in this match which i felt was a bit too long um amazing entrance for mjf amazing troll job with the countdown that was just chef's kiss rough entrance for chris jericho i love chris he was getting a little too cocky with the sing-alongs, I think, for this one. And the guitar player of Fozzy, shout out to Fozzy, didn't really understand what was going on either.

He couldn't keep up with the crowd. They couldn't keep up with him. Match went a little too long. Great pop-up powerbomb spot out of nowhere onto the apron. That was like the standout for me. As soon as they started the match over again, crowd was on fire for it. That's like what weout for me. As soon as they started the match over again, crowd was on fire for it. That's like what we needed to get to.

Now, did the match have to be that long for the crowd to be that hot when the match got restarted? I don't know. I loved when they did it with, I think it was Hogan and was it Hogan and Michaels or was it Hogan and Orton at SummerSlam where they did this foot on the ropes restart spot. And it always gets me. It's kind of a pro wrestling trope that I love. It's with uh when someone's getting taken out on a stretcher and they throw someone out of the way and they're like i'm getting back in the ring every time i'm marking out i'm like let's go this was i i agree with you i think it could have been about five minutes

shorter i don't necessarily know if i need to see chris jericho beating mjf for any reason mjf is so such a star but um the entrance of live it started and i was like oh cool and then the crowd was like oh we don't know we don't know all the words to this song yeah and there are so many times you hear people say oh well mjf should have came out to cult of personality before punk and troll people and they say that about so many different songs the chris jericho countdown was never one of them that i saw pitched so when he did it it's like oh my gosh what's jericho doing because in these labors of jericho he played homage to a lot of his his old stuff and then it's him it was that was magnificent that's robe too such good gear on him as well yes and that pop-up powerbomb spot.

So he countered that top rope Hurricanrana from Jericho, and I was like, oh, no, what's happening? Like, I thought something went wrong at first, but it was just a beautifully executed spot. MJF, this is a way to protect him by beating him because he does not lose. Well, he doesn't wrestle that much but he doesn't lose because you don't want him to lose but at this point it's like he was gonna have to probably be

in the title picture soon otherwise yeah because he's he doesn't lose but again he doesn't wrestle so i don't know where that that issue would come up so i think i'm conflicted on the result, but I enjoyed the match, but I do agree. I don't know if it needed to be 20 minutes long. 15, 14 could have worked real well. I think it's the longest match on the show. Like, I don't know, the main event. Yeah, there were a few more. Because the Battle Royale's got to be longer because of the five-minute intervals.

Oh, yeah, that's a good point. But I don't know how I felt about the finish either. I was kind of like going into the match. I was explaining storylines to my girlfriend. I was like, see this one. I don't really know what's going to happen because Jericho is probably going to win because he's not going to retire, but he really shouldn't. So they're going to have to like figure something out for this. They figured it out with a dusty finish.

What do you think is next for Jericho? And then what do you think is next for MJF? I would like to see MJF go after Eddie Kingston. I think that I like that a lot. I think that would be really good. You want to talk about two guys from different sides of the tracks there from New York? Yeah.

MJF lost Eddie Kingston lost, but they are two people that everyone will care about what they're doing. So why not go there? But I would like to see maybe the pinnacle do something since they want to match or they, they competed in a match against the inner circle and the inner circle didn't have to break up and they just hadn't been seen together since. So I would like to see the pinnacle do something.

Yeah. Um, but I, I don't know. Jericho. I, I, I,

again, I like him. I just don't know what his place, again, I like him. I just don't know what his place is right now in AEW. That's why I think they should have broken up the inner circle. They haven't done anything together since Double or Nothing. Yeah. I mean, Hager's barely around. Is Jericho feuding with the inner circle even super appealing right now? Like, I don't know if I want to see that taking up time on an AEW show.

Is Jericho versus Jake Hager? I don't know if i want to see that taking up time on an aw show is jericho versus jake hager i don't know yeah i'm not super into that i don't see that up next this is the one that everyone in chicago is there for i think cm punk makes his return to the ring against darby allen he comes out in the long boys i was like is cm punk gonna come out in his money in the bank year i thought he was just gonna come out in his money in the bank gear? I thought he was just going to come out in the, you know, Chicago colored. He did have Chicago colors. Some people were comparing this to Shawn Michaels returning in the UPS gear. And I want to say, no, no, that was horrible. That was like, you looked at it and you're like, that's putrid.

He had that horrible haircut too. Yes. It was weird seeing Punk in, in the long boys, but I got used to it by the end of the match. I could, I could get used to it going forward. I thought they were fine. It was a rein Punk in the long voice, but I got used to it by the end of the match. I could get used to it going forward. I thought they were fine. It was a reinvention for him. He doesn't want to come out looking exactly like he did before. He would always reinvent himself.

Exactly. The mask for straight-edge society, the long hair, the short hair. Exactly. He would change that stuff up pretty often. He looked lean, and that's one of the benefits of being in AEW. You don't have to try to make yourself a balloon of a wrestler to fit in. Some athletes are just better off leaner than others. When Anderson Silva was knocking people dead, I didn't see a lot of people saying,

he doesn't look like he could beat you up. Yeah. Now it's tough when Punk has the UFC career and it's like, maybe he can't beat you up. Of course. Of course, yes. can't beat you up but of course yes that's that's one of the unique situations where the lack of experience is like no experience might have been better than some experience but also realistically i'm like even though cm punk was just miserable in mma he could physically beat up like 90 of humans because he's trained with pro fighters for so long. But he looked lean.

He looked good. I liked the tights because it signified something different. I think a lot of people have a misconception that Punk wrestled this like torrid pace outside of WWE or something. And Brian did too. I had a lot of people were like, oh, Brian Danielson. Will he be able to do AEW style for very long? And I'm like, man, his WWE style was more fast paced than his ring of honor style.

It was a very grounded technical base for a long time. And that's what we saw here. I thought it was a nice contrast, but you could tell the crowd was waiting for it to heat up. And it did. This was to me a very, like a very WWE style match, but punk is so good at that and making it his own.

The GTS to sending Darby outside, then you mix in. So good. And the way Darby sold that, the way he took the bump, it was like he literally got ragdolled, and it was like ragdoll physics out the ring, where they did that spot in the Money in the Bank match,

and I think Cena takes it and he just rolls out. The differences, I would love someone to put him side by side, like one person that has to care about their body and one person that's Darby Allen and throws caution to the wind and you always have those people that are like oh Darby's career will end soon well you know what I heard that about the TLC guys and who are you not wrestling now the two that aren't wrestling now are the bases Bubba Ray and Devon yeah you're right all four of the others are still in the ring uh i like this match a lot this is one of those situations where you can do less is more because the crowd's going to

be there for it yep and they spaced out some of the big spots to where you can make this a 16 17 minute match but then something important happens like once every 90 seconds to two minutes after like the five minute mark and it really stretched out and made it good um i i wasn't convinced that punk was gonna win it's he neither was i especially when it wasn't the main event when it's not the main event you're like hmm yeah i could and there's a story to be told there i mean i saw debates saying like was it the right move to put Punk over there? Because you could put Darby over when more eyes are on this than ever before. And Punk has the built-in story of like, well, I got to get back to the top then.

I'm coming into this rusty. And do you think it's the right move to put him over? Yeah, I do. I think in Chicago, right, it could have killed the crowd if he lost. Yes, I think it is. It's better to err on the side of caution and go with darby and darby's gonna be over no matter what yeah um and darby is the type of guy that can play off of i can't believe i lost to this guy uh he's good but i know

i'm better type of thing and the finish i compared to wrestlemania 25 sean michaels doing the moonsault getting caught darby it felt like he just got caught you know he was in control and then quick finish gts and he's out he could claim i made one little mistake and like i can get back at you my favorite spot was cm punk in his first match back turning into the crafty veteran exactly he turned into ed harris from major league with crisisco on his shoulder and baseball. He's throwing everything he can. And he Darby does that coffin drop and punk just sits up and laughs.

Oh, that was so magnificent. It was shot. Well, I loved it so much. The way they booked this match was really so smart. And I assume some of it had to be based on punk being like, I don't want to be blown up.

Like let's book this match in a way where I'm not going to look bad out there. And Darby bumped his ass off, took the wild spots. Punk took the suicide dive that he said he didn't want to take. Steve Muehlhausen at the scrum was like, well, punk,

you got blown up out there. Didn't you? And punk's like, did I? And Steve's like, well, if I'm being honest. Oh my God.

He said that. Yes. I was like, Oh no, sorry to cut you off. I was's like, well, if I'm being honest. Oh my God. He said that. Yes. I was like, Oh no, sorry to cut you off. I was just like, I remembered it. And I was like,

Oh my God. And no, that's, that's crazy. You can tell punk is like, I'm going to be dealing with this shit for a while. The only thing. And I love punk.

He's on my Mount Rushmore of personal favorite wrestlers. I was 12 when he cut the pipe bomb. It's like, he's up there. Oh my God. Punk. Stop calling the spots in the ring. That was, favorite wrestlers i was 12 when he cut the pipe bomb it's like he's up there oh my god punk stop calling the spots in the ring that was was that obvious from your seat because it was super obvious on tv because i remember when he had long hair how it would look all the time his face would go down his hair would go straight down now there's no hair and so he just keeps on doing that like just

pretend you're talking trash it was it was probably five minutes into the match and i'm thinking to myself did they not call any of this in the back is he calling all of this in the ring right now what's going on there was this this guy i worked with when i i do independent wrestling and i wrestled on this show and i saw him putting his match together and he never made it big but i loved his way of calling a match because he was a heel and he would just back somebody into the ropes and he'd go i'm gonna big boot you you piece of shit so he would call the match by talking trash to the other person i'm like i would love to see somebody do that that's so fucking funny i when we did the uh wwe warehouse tour and triple h and

stephanie showed up he was telling us they were filming something about the ruthless aggression Aggression era and they were talking about the Elimination Chamber and he was talking about how Rob Van Dam like crushed his windpipe in that match with the five star off the chamber and he couldn't call any spots to Sean but they hadn't called the finish yet so it was when it was just those two he said he was calling all of his spots to the ref and the ref would walk over to Sean and tell him the spots and he said it was like calling pitches to a catcher because sometimes the ref would walk back and be like sean says no and he said what do you mean no that's the spot i just called so that was like one of the funniest little uh anecdotes he told us that we were like oh god that's fucking hysterical sean just being like nope not taking that spot, dude. That is amazing. Our friends at HelloFresh are back.

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You get two meals a week. I'm feeding you guys for seven weeks. It's pretty damn good. Come on. You got to admit, pretty damn good. HelloFresh.com slash 14 Robbie. Get your 14 free meals and free shipping on me. Now let's get back into the show.

Up next, Tall Paul. The main event. The main event. Tall Paul. The main event. The main event. Tall Paul versus QT Marshall. I think I heard some little smatterings in the crowd of Tall Paul. So let me. Did I hear any? For those that aren't educated, I tried to get a chance of Tall Paul.

Tall Paul. Which is great for the big show. No more BS. Tall Paul. He loves it. He loved it. He followed me on Twitter. He put it over, all that stuff.

Have you interviewed him before? I haven't, and I want to real bad. He's awesome. He's legit awesome. The way he thinks about the business is legit. Like, he's one of those really smart minds. Waiting for AEW to hit me up when I message them every month and say, hey, give me an interview, and they never reply.

It's because of that CM Punk news. You're sneaky blackballed. Well, it was well before that. them every month and say hey give me an interview and they never reply but because i see him punk news you're you're sneaky blackballed well it was well before that but that's neither here nor there um paul white i've got i gotta take issue with him oh because the chants were starting multiple times there were three signs in the crowd for tall Paul and they were starting to go and go tall Paul. Would he? Yes. Twice. Fuck.

To do it, to do a chop or something. And I don't think that he knew the chance for starting. It was complete, like complete coincidence. And that would shut him up. And I was like, no,

cause I can't start them in the media section. That's frowned upon. Yeah. Yeah. I can like be like, yeah, you should have gone rogue. You should have been like, if you throw me out now, I don't care. him in the media section. That's frowned upon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can be like, yeah, it's fun. You should have gone rogue. You should have been like, if you throw me out now, I don't care. It's the main event.

Yeah, it was the main event. This went three minutes, probably two minutes longer than it had to, but it was what it needed to be, right? When did Adam Cole ever main event a WrestleMania? Never. Never. Paul Paul did. He did, and he won this match.

He should have won this match yeah it should have been even shorter than what it was yeah it should have been it should have been a wrecking crew like not even a little bit this should have been like a minute and a half he beats the hell out of everybody gave everyone a bathroom break I guess before the main event seeing him pick people up like from the ringside area to the ring oh he's fun live you're like oh yeah I forgot he's he's a monster he's a massive person I was at no way out i think it's no way out 2012 where he main evented against cena in a steel cage match i was like if cena won laurenitis was gone that match is a weird like people have different experiences the people that were in the arena for that match look at it like

it was a five-star classic myself included like it was the most fun live match and then you watch it back and you're like oh oh yeah that's a big show john cena steel cage match it's exactly what you thought it would be i mean people that were there i've talked to multiple people that were in the building they were like that was the greatest match you've ever seen wasn't it like but it was really good yeah like i would i think there is a place somewhere for paul white and mark henry to be like aew's apa where they just come out for Paul White and Mark Henry to be like AEW's APA, where they just come out and they murder people that need to be off TV, and they don't wrestle very often.

I like that. Like they just, a punch, world's strongest slam, choke slam, and get them out of here, and they would get over doing that. Yeah. The 9-1-1 from ECW type of thing. Yeah. That would work, but I don't need to see him wrestle that much. On this card, yeah.

I don't know if that's the place for him. Hope that AEW puts out a Captain Insano figure. That'd be cool. But yeah. In the main event, Kenny Omega defeated Christian. 21 minutes, 19 seconds. A bit too long, I thought, but a good match. I enjoyed it.

There were some people on Twitter were shitting on it. Like, oh, the crowd's so dead for it. This the next thing i like christian a lot i don't know if i was just biased for it i thought they worked their asses off of a very good almost wwe style main event match it's obviously not what they they had planned the plan was for hangman but he asked for time off tony khan confirmed that to me he wanted time off for the birth of his his child uh it's early on it was very quiet and i think it's because the audience knew christian cage was not going to win this was a rematch we had seen this match before and in aw it's not usually the case but there were stakes

to it but everybody knew something was happening afterwards christian cage at this age i'm just i feel lucky that i get to see him wrestle and he's in the shape that he's in and that's the table spot he took on the ribs where it cut him holy fuck that looked bad and the finish very scary when they're setting it up but Kenny hit it perfectly it was you know pretty flawless he hit it perfect I like the match but this was a means to an end and and to me Christian Cage if you look at his his AEW run and people are like oh well he should I liked the match, but this was a means to an end. And to me, Christian Cage, if you look at his AEW run, and people are like, oh, well, he should have went to WWE,

he would have had a great WWE run because he would have been booked at the top for sure. He would have been. He would have had a feud with Roman, probably Edge, something like that. So it was creatively satisfying options for him. But he's gone to AEW. He won a bunch of matches. He won the impact title.

He got to return to impact and he main evented a pay-per-view. That's already pretty good. And if he wants to go back to WWE, whether it's in a year or three years, they're going to hire him because they don't care how old he is. And he'll get to do all this stuff. So I think it was a good call for him and I liked it and nothing else happened after this.

Nope. That was it. The show faded to black and thank you for joining me on the podcast. We'll have to get you back on sometime. No, obviously Kenny cuts the promo afterwards. I'm getting so excited. I'm videotaping my TV saying,

here comes my guy, Daniel Bryan, Brian Danielson, whatever fuck you want to call him now he's coming out i've been accidentally calling him uh daniel bryanson for like two weeks oh yeah i someone called him daniel at the presser and he had a great response he was like daniel what he was mad tony accidentally said ruby riot and he goes that won't happen again i'm sorry that'll never happen again that will never happen again oh That will never happen again. Oh, that's funny.

But yeah, we get Adam Cole first, which was shocking. He walked out of the heel tunnel, which nobody noticed at first. And he gives a super kick to Jungle Boy, joining the elite, aligning himself back with the young bucks. Hangman, or not Hangman, Kenny Omega. I don't know why Hangman just came to mind. Because he was back in the, being the elite days, I guess. Unbelievable. And then, of course, we get Brian Danielson, the American Dragon.

He's back. Clears the ring. Baby faces and the show. The crowd goes home happy. If you were there live, you got a postmatch speech from Brian Danielson. That was amazing. Worth looking up on YouTube because it's completely different than the you know I'm angry about where I used to work and now that I'm here I finally get an opportunity

he's like nope I love where I used to work and I still came here there was a lot more to this place than it was the last place kind of what we talked about the beginning of the podcast was that the craziest I don't know like it was five minute stretch you've ever experienced at a wrestling show it's it's the most insane i've ever seen on a wrestling show period ever ever i believe without a doubt without a doubt like earlier in the night i i said man was that lucha brothers kick out the loudest reaction i've ever heard live and i was just at a stadium where the place came unglued for becky lynch coming back yeah and for brock lesnar coming back those were very loud

like now i grant i didn't do a ton of traveling before but like my experiences were limited to matt brown knocking out eric silva in front of his hometown crowd that was loud our oldest chapman taking like coming back after taking a line drive off the face, that was loud. Like, so, so to my localized area, I was limited, but over the last two years,

I've been to most of these major shows. I've never heard anything like that live. And when I listened to it back and I was like, that that's the craziest thing I've ever been. Witnessed to in wrestling because everybody just knew Brianrian danielson was coming out but they swerved and they're like here's adam cole and everybody's like well is this gonna be it and then when he joined people were like there's no way that's it everybody knew he was coming out and they were ready the flight of the valkyries i understand why they did it and made it their own

they ain't got to pay a bunch of money for it they can just produce their own song adam cole's song ruled him being a part of the elite oh boy does it adds a fresh uh coat of paint to it you're gonna redo the kenny and adam story in aew now which is like yes please give that to us and what nobody's talking about nobody is is saying, where does Hangman Page fit into this? Where does one of the most over people in wrestling? And nobody is also saying, where did Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa and Switchblade Jay White, who have been very transparent about this stuff, where do they fit into this? There are so many facets, so many different roads you can take. You just throw away the map, one of them turn back around go

down the next one this is one of the most interesting times of a wrestling program i've ever seen in my life when did you know that brian was going to make the jump to aew not necessarily appear at this show but that brian was leaving the wwe and actually signing with aew um okay so bodyslam.net i want to give them credit they reported it i had heard it that day but i that was the same day i broke the punk news oh wow so is it i thought maybe it would have been like earlier in the month between him leaving wwe and aw like this was a more recent deal probably well i don't know i don't know when they worked it out but that's when i heard for sure because when i reported the punk thing i I had somebody from AEW say,

well, I feel very comfortable now telling you that Daniel Bryan's here and he's going to debut at Arthur Ash. That's why I booked Arthur Ash. I was going to, I'm going there. Uh, then they changed it or,

uh, or at least that person said they changed it and body slam reported it that night. So I knew then, um, I heard a couple of weeks later that it was going to be all out because i said yeah i was afraid i was going to get blackballed for the punk thing and this person said no you'd probably get blackballed if you reported that daniel bryan was going to debut

it all out and i was like what and then body slam put that out there too they they did very good on that story i want to want to shout out them because they're doing great work but that's when like basically the day that that the both of those were reported that was happening uh or that he was coming in is when i heard but uh i had heard about him appearing at all out probably about a week before that it's just the adam cole thing yeah did you know adam cole would be there like day of yes i knew friday that adam cole was going to be at all out i could not get a confirmation on it who's so by the end of the show when kenny wins there's got to be part of your brain thinking like maybe not yes or is part of you still like no no he'll come out i was thinking okay well they they spread it out they

spread out and they're gonna be cold this week or something. But I had people telling me Friday, Adam Cole is debuting at all out. And I tried to exhaust my sources there, but nobody like the only people that knew for sure were the people involved with the segment. And obviously a dentist on the roster probably knew about it. Yeah. But it wasn't even official official until Sunday. He signed the deal Sunday.

Nobody inwe really knew they had an idea because if you heard they they posted or they sent out a memo early in the week uh he's no longer with the company i think that was their way of getting ahead of it without posting on their website adam cole has left wwe we wish him the best because that would be underhanded they they're they don't want that publicity so i knew friday but then i heard that there were some people that needed to know that heard well over a week ago and that aew was pretty confident he was coming in before his contract even expired and they could even legally talk to him. Wow. Did you hear anything about a WWE reaction to the show or what went down at All Out?

Anything from that end of, shit, here we are. Everyone's saying that the tide has turned, as New York Post put it. What did they think of the show? What did people at WWE respond to it like? Vince McMahon said, we're going to show them how it's done today.

They want to return? We're going to give them drake fucking that's exactly what happened but when i talk okay so the wrestlers i talk to they're all happy of course good for wrestling good for the goose is good for the gander yada yada blah blah and they were happy for their friends everybody likes brian danielson everybody likes ruby soho everybody likes adam cole everybody fears minoru suzuki so they were all very very happy about it like the officials i talked to are like they put on a good show like what what can you say like there wasn't a lot of like snide hating stuff and sometimes that that'll come through but there wasn't it was just kind of

one of those shows that was so undeniable. It's like, you did good. But part of me thought it was almost like when Kat Zingano got beat by Ronda Rousey, and it's like, she did good, guys. She did good. She got me. She got me. Part of it had me feeling like it was like that, but it's like, what else are you going to say?

Overrated? No. I mean yeah they know that aew hit a home run sunday at least the people i talked to did and as far as aew goes they've got brian they've got punk they've got cole rumors are that there's more surprises coming more signings coming in the next couple months what do you think this does for the business we've seen the people making the outsiders comments the responses like that people saying maybe it's bigger do you think that's crazy do you think the comparisons are warranted what does this do for aw does it catapult it to a next level i don't think it's crazy uh now i think a lot of people misremember what kevin nash and scott hall were in wwe and how long they've been around

were any of the three as big as Hogan at that point, even though Hogan was well past his prime? No, I think Hogan, I mean, we're talking biggest wrestling star of all time at that point. However, Scott Hall had been in WWF for three years and was an intercontinental

champion, a very over one, but was only in the WWF for three years, three or four years. He went in 92 96 exactly that is nuts nash was there for about three he was a year-long wwf champion he was great he headlined a wrestle well he didn't headline wrestlemania no he he was co-main under lawrence taylor but he was big but look at cm punk they had pam and Anderson involved in there. Yes. Kind of sick. Yes. Brian Danielson main evented multiple WrestleManias as a baby face.

And WWE can't book baby faces. CM Punk was the biggest, the most over person on their show at times. He single-handedly got WWE mainstream exposure in 2011 when they badly wanted it. Adam Cole is completely different he is a well-booked i don't want to say underground star but he hadn't been on raw or smackdown yeah but you look at that i think that is as big as hall and nash for sure hogan's hard to replicate but i think it's very good um this as cool as was seeing Christian Cage and Booker T and Mick Foley hop over to TNA in the 2000s, like one a year it seemed like, these are people who are still in their physical primes

or not far removed from it in Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson. Punk hasn't wrestled in a long time, so we'll see. But I think it's very, very good for wrestling. And they've got another hour to pad out on Fridays. And I've been critical the last couple weeks saying it made both shows kind of thin. Well, let me tell you, not to date this podcast, but I'm excited to go to AEW and Rampage in Cincinnati this week. I'm like, I can't wait to sit through three hours of wrestling.

So you obviously, I think are with me in that when people say that AEW has a problem in signing too many former WWE guys, you kind of roll your eyes at that, right? Because what does that even mean? Like a lot of these former WWE guys, like you said,

are in your prime. And we're also in a time in the business where WWE hoarded a lot of talent and then released a lot of talent. So are you just supposed to like not sign any of the good talent that is right there for you to sign undertaker came from wcw steve austin came from wcw there you go there's so much i mean savage hogan brett hart all came from wbf and went over to wcw acquisitions happen people change they find out what's better for them they move along i mean look there are so many people that just had good better runs elsewhere jeff jarrett you know wasn't going to be a top guy in wbf he went to wcw arguably in one of the worst periods

but he forever became a top guy after that like yeah what is he a 14 time world champion or something ridiculous like that he's on all the graphics with like all the greats. Look at Sid. Sid would hop back and forth whenever it was convenient for him. And it worked out like it just, who cares? Who cares if they, it's about happiness and good creative satisfaction for the viewer and the

consumer. Like, you know what? If, if WWE selling snakes and sparklers, let, let AEW sell some whistling bungholes or something like, let them, let them do something different if they, if they want to, I'm cool with it. All right. I got two more questions for you. I appreciate the

time being around Bray. You said you don't see him signing with AEW. He's got like two more months. Is that something that you feel because there's not interest on his part, not interest on AEW's part? There is more interest elsewhere. Why do you feel like that? Well, I should clarify that tweet. It got a lot more traction than I thought. I wouldn't say that because I don't know that if that information is out there presently, that it would have come from Bray Wyatt himself.

Because I have made efforts to reach out to Bray Wyatt. And while very cordial that camp is very private and i mean very very private so that's something that um i don't that's just your assumption you would say yeah yeah i i don't think it's a slam dunk that he goes to aew because i don't know that what he had done in wwe this most recent body of work is something that would be spectacularly embraced in a W now the stuff he was doing in 2013, 2014, 2015 with the Wyatt family,

creepy backwoods guys. I do think that would work very, very well. So I just don't think it's, it's a certainty. I don't think it's a slam dunk that he goes there. I hope that he does in some capacity because he's a very good creative guy, but it's certainly not a definite.

If it were a definite, it's something I'd put in a report. But yeah, I got to be a little more careful about my tweets apparently. Your tweets though, I will say you have the power and you did it earlier. You tweeted an eyeballs emoji and you can get the world just going after whatever. And the final question i have for you is a fun one i know you're a wrestling toy collector yeah what would be your holy grail if i said sean ross sapp i could get you any wrestling action figure toy whatever it is whatever the price may be mint condition what is it so i started to collect last year during the

pandemic because i got depressed and i was like i'm going to familiarize myself with some stuff i liked when i was younger like stuff that made me happy and the last things i collected were jack's uh bone crunchers oh yeah i love how hideous they are it's before face scan so they had to hand make them yeah and on the other end i collect ecw figures from that same era because they're beautiful they're really really good i've got almost every jacks bca there is i collect awn rival the ones you're talking about are the ones where they like crack right yes they yeah so i had i had two of those i had uh hulk hogan and i had jericho both around like wrestlemania 19 right if i recall correctly yeah those i I actually loved those as a kid. Yeah, so I loved them.

They were very easy to play with and all that stuff. So I'm trying to think of one that's super rare that I don't have because I've got so many of them. But they made any excuse to release a Steve Austin figure back then. They were like, let's paint some jeans on them. Let's do this. Let's do that. So right now the one that i'm after i'm after like a just a straight up jacks bca brock lesnar but they've

got like these prototypes out there and like unpainted prototypes oh yeah some of those are like ones that i'm like i can't spend that much money on an action figure. I started to collect these cause they're cheap. So probably one of those, but I'm after so many different ECW figures right now. The one that would be the biggest would be a new Jack figure. Oh, nice. They had a new Jack figure that had a noose. Oh my God.

He would hang people, man. Yeah. He would just hang people and they released one without the noose oh my god he would hang people man yeah yeah yeah he would just hang people and they released one without the noose that people didn't even know for sure was a thing until a few years ago i would love to find that one it's a variant but i would that's what i was looking for out of you a weird ecw action figure response i asked when i was there for summer slam i asked both seamus and matt riddle if they would wrestle New Jack.

Both of them were like, Oh yeah, absolutely. We kick New Jack's fucking ass. I was like, all right. I said to Seamus, I said,

what if he stabbed you? He said, I'd stab him right back. I was like, all right, fucking A. It's amazing. And Cardona and Myers talked about it on their podcast that,

that figure. So it drove the demand up. Oh, there you go. Yeah. They utter something and it becomes, I mean, it on their podcast that that figure so it drove the demand up oh there you go yeah they utter something and it becomes i mean i started to collect ecw figures because i saw a taz one on their show and i go that's the raddest figure i've ever seen in my life so that makes it even

harder and it's not something i'm actively pursuing but that's the one where i'd be like all right i'd spend a little money on that just to have it if you saw it at a con yeah if you saw it in a bin and it was like whoa this is yeah yeah special all right, I'd spend a little money on that just to have it. If you saw it at a con, yeah. If you saw it in a bin and it was like, whoa, this is, yeah, yeah, special. All right, Sean, thank you so much for coming on, doing the All Out Recap Show. This is, like I said on Twitter, a long time coming. I can't believe we haven't sat down and done this before. And if you're looking for the best wrestling news, the most updated wrestling news, Fightful Select is well worth your subscription.

Tell everyone where they could find you where they can find fightful all that stuff yeah i'm on twitter at sean ross sap fightful has a bunch of twitter handles but uh we have fightful.com we cover pro wrestling primarily but we also cover mma and boxing uh as well we do live watch alongs on the huge fight nights and stuff like that but fightful select.com dare i say we break more wrestling news over there than anywhere and it's not just big stories like if i find out minute details about stuff that interests me i'm gonna pass that along and some people are like oh well that's not a big story why'd you put it out there because i wanted to because i think it's cool i think it's

interesting so we're doing that every day there's exclusive news there every single day and beyond that we have seven shows a week we have additional reviews great i love the fightful crew all of you guys yeah they're great like i wanted some people with personality because i'm covering fake wrestling like i didn't want to be like ever like so many other people were they can do their thing we're going to do ours but it's five bucks a month and it really supports us. And, uh, you know, there's,

there's, there's hints of bar stool in it. The way you guys write headlines, the fun headlines. Like, I feel like if you're listening to this, if you're a stoolie who hasn't checked out fightful before, I think you will like it.

I think it's an easy jump. If you're a wrestling fan, it's a must subscribe to fightful select. And I mean, my God, we, we knew each other before we were internet famous Robbie yeah I know yeah a long time a long time Sean there were a lot

of people like you're doing barstool I've known Robbie for years my god man I love it thank you Sean we'll have to do this again sometime absolutely