The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: Someone Who Worked At The Airport

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

Mauricio Pochettino has been named the new head coach of the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team, and Mike has some strong takes that he's embargoed from the internet specifically to deliver on today's show. Then, the crew takes a look at the new Aaron Hernandez show produced by Ryan Murphy (featuring the work of Domonique Foxworth!), and a new clip of Barry Bonds and Greg Maddux from an upcoming Maddux doc blows the minds of Chris, Jeremy, and Mike. Plus, can the Austin Dillon-Joey Logano controversy get more of the crew in on NASCAR? What about a budding rivalry across NASCAR and F1 between Kyle Larson and Max Verstappen? Also, Tony Khan is here! He chats with Mike and the Shipping Container about AEW, new characters and storylines, his airport meeting with Shane McMahon, Charles Barkley's future, the potential of a Jacksonville Super Bowl, and much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Please drink responsibly smirnoff number 21 vodka distilled from grain 40% alcohol volume The Smirnoff company, New York, New York. Please do not share with anyone under legal drinking age. Welcome to the big suey presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan LeBattard podcast. I'm sorry. I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys?

I've done it. And now, here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar. Coming up a little bit later in the show, Tony Khan is going to be joining us today on a really exciting day for him because Fulham kicks off the Premier League season at Old Trafford, Manchester United. They won there last year, I think for the first time in 20 years.

He's a man that wears many hats. I'm going to ask him pretty much, I'm going to ask him to put on a different hat for every question that I'm going to ask him because I'm going to ask him about the Jags, the NFL, Fulham Premier League, and all sorts of stuff for AEW, so stick around. I do wanna give you some soccer takes here, briefly. I've embargoed my own soccer takes on social media. No you didn't. I did.

Well, you gave us one on the show last week, and then we referenced it yesterday. What, the Pochettino take? You said career loser. Yes, and I have. That was not embargoed. No, no, no, but a lot of people were coming to me because it's the first time ever in my life that I got recognized for a take,

as opposed to like, hey, I know you. You have from the LeBatard Show? No, that's not it. Burrhalter guy. So proud that in my career I have like this soccer voice and people come to me for US men's national team takes Here's my take on pochettino because I've gone on the record on the club side career loser not a huge fan I will credit him made it to a Champions League final with Tottenham. That's really impressive. It's not winning it, right?

He found a way to not win trophies at PSG when the entire league is rigged for PSG to win trophies. He wasn't very impressive there. I'm not a huge fan of his style, but look, I'm a Chelsea fan. He was at Chelsea all season long. He survived. There were plenty of times that I wanted him gone as a Chelsea supporter. By the end of the season, he had that team turn the corner and people were sad to see him go. I was not in that camp that was sad to see him go, but people were. I will say though, all that being said, wearing my bias on my sleeve, I'm not the biggest Pochettino guy. I wanted the US Men's National Team to swing for the fences for

a hire. This is a really splashy hire, a really big name. In the international ranks, this is a top tier name. And I kinda like it for the US men's national team. I'd like it for the US men's national team because I like the message that it sends. They did the thing that they needed to do on the women's national team side, another Chelsea product, got Emma Hayes. She had plenty of success.

Now Pochettino is not Emma Hayes at all when it comes to success, but he has developed talents. If you look at Cole Palmer's season at Chelsea last year, you can credit Pochettino for what he did with Cole Palmer over there. And I think the parts of his tactics that bothered me so much on the club side, that is mitigated some by just CONCACAF and international

soccer. It's a different style. Poach has played against the US men's national team when the US men's national team was cooking a little bit more so I think he's familiar with the identity that I want the US national team to have which is more of a counter-attacking style. That being said, this is a tremendous upgrade over Greg Berlhalter. This is an tremendous upgrade over Greg Burlhalter. This is an immense upgrade over Greg Burlhalter and I say that as an out and out, not a Pochettino guy. Not a Pochettino guy, but I'm happy that they made a big ambitious hire. I think this is a big impressive name. I do think if

this is his central focus, this might actually play to some of his strengths so I like the hire I like the message that it sends and if we're just going from what he presents to the from the last guy and the last regime this is a huge upgrade over Greg Berhalter so credit to the US men's national team program for making a really impressive hire on that front seems like you're playing both sides I're playing both sides. I am playing both sides a little bit, but look, if Spain made the hire, straight up, I'd be dragging them, because they play at a certain level,

their expectations are at a certain place. For the US Men's National Team, this is as impressive of a name outside of Klopp that you could find right there. He had a good season at Chelsea, all things considered. He won over a really difficult fan base and went over to the point that many people actually didn't want to see him go. They had changed their mind on him. I was pretty sonchely in the camp that, thank you for your service, we

did the Pochettino thing. I don't think he is a certified winner. All it takes is winning one and he can shut me up, win here at the grandest level. That's not the expectations we did the pochettino thing. I don't think he is a certified winner. All it takes is winning one and he can shut me up, win here at the grandest level. That's not the expectations here for the United States men's national team by the way. It's just be really competitive in this World Cup, give American soccer fans a reason to be excited, and have faith in the manager. And on the international level, this is a totally different story than on the club side. On the club side, when he's getting into these big cup competitions or at the very upper echelon of league play, I look at that touchline and I have more faith in the other manager. International game?

Not the case. Not the case at all. Pochettino comes in there with a reputation and a tactical edge in most cases. So this is a good hire for the US men's national team. Does he have international experience or is he only done club level stuff? As a manager, no. To the best of my knowledge, he's been on the club side. Now he's certainly got experience from his playing career and whatnot. And I think he's well aware. I like the fact that we don't have an American doing this

because Americans have kind of gotten away from what brought them to the dance. You would think that people within the program would know the scrappy American style and I think now it's gotten to the point where people from the outside probably know this side shrinks a little bit better than people on the inside. So I'm happy to have this voice and I'm really happy that they made an impressive hire because I'm probably the lone dissenting voice

in criticizing anything about Pochettino because it is a time for excitement. If you're a US soccer fan, do not let me rain on your parade just because I've had several years long of accurate takes when it comes to Pochettino. All in all, this is a good hire for them. Have you guys seen the trailer for the Aaron Hernandez show? I have.

So Dominique promoted it. I never wanted to put Dominique's business out there, but I had known that Dominique had been working on this show for quite some time. Without Dominique's inclusion into this project, I would have been interested in this Aaron Hernandez show, even though I'm not a big Ryan Murphy guy. But I've seen these real, what do they call them?

Real crime stories, American crime stories? Yeah, this one will be American sports story. Okay, that's a- They've done American crime story, they've done American horror story, this is American sports story. It gives off the vibes of the OJ show though. When you look at it.

Right, it's the same producers and it's the same concept except in this case, I think the OJ one was just about the trial where this is going to include sports like Patrick Schwarzenegger is playing Tim Tebow in this production. That's actually good casting. Yeah, there's real football happening and so in turn, I guess that's why it's American sports.

The crazy thing to me is that you see a bunch of Patriots stuff in this. So does that mean the NFL gives that permission? No. Is it the Patriots? Or they can just do it? So remember, Ballers was really the first show to be like, we don't care what you say.

We're going to use these logos. Oh, I thought they had permission, too. No, they didn't. It was like a whole thing. But you can do the unauthorized thing, and I'm sure the NFL would not have wanted these logos all out there. The University of Florida. You need the Florida Gators?

Like, oh man. Yeah. Certainly not wanting that stuff out there, but I'm in on this because it's a crazy real life story, and you add Dominique's involvement, and I'm certainly in on it. And don't take, take like my Ryan Murphy takes like all that seriously because I was just a fan of nip-tuck and that show just went totally sideways on me my wife loves Ryan Murphy show she loves the American Horror Stories and I watched the entire OJ thing and this looks really

good from from the preview and thank God they got the licensing it just would have been so whack well I don't even know if they got the licensing but thank God they decided to get the actual logo It just would have been so whack. Well, I don't even know if they got the licensing, but thank God they decided to get the actual logo, because it would have been real, real tough looking. What would they have called the Patriots if they had to get something like the generals? The Minutemen. They would have probably just referred to them by location.

Boston Minutemen. The Boston football team. Because, I mean, an NFL team would never name itself the blank football team after the city that they play. It was one of two things that I saw that caught my eye on social media, the Aaron Hernandez trailer and word of a Greg Maddux documentary. I thought you were gonna say the Travis Kelce show

that apparently Travis Kelce is going to be in that's a Ryan Murphy. I just found out about this yesterday. What is this? There's another Ryan Murphy show called, I think it's called Grotesquerie. And it's a very Ryan Murphy show. It's way more in the American Horror Story type of world,

where there seems to be sci-fi and religion and all these different things sort of warped into one. But Travis Kelce was cast as just a character in that show. It's his acting debut doing something outside of, I think, hosting Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? They're bringing that back with him, I think. And he's doing Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? Oh, maybe it's that.

So it's a knockoff of that. But essentially, like, he's clearly trying to do the stuff outside of football, and this is his first step toward acting in something serious. Doing it with Ryan Murphy makes actually a lot of sense considering, like, the target market that he's going for. But did you see this trailer for the Greg Maddux documentary? Yes.

I did not. Oh, man. Jess, it's terrific. Do we have this clip? So apparently, there was news of this trailer that got everybody excited because for people of my generation, and Jeremy, I'm surprised that you're a big Maddux guy because you're

younger than I am. But it's a bygone era type of thing. They don't make pictures like this anymore and Greg Maddox has this documentary and apparently they have a back-and-forth with Barry Bonds It's spectacular. Yeah, I could set it up for you So and and people were seeing some of the video, but we'll play it now with some audio where Barry Bonds and Greg Maddox It's just breaking down one at bat between these two guys.

Two Hall of Famers, Greg Maddux who's known as one of, if not the smartest pitcher that we've ever seen in terms of outsmarting opponents, and then Barry Bonds who everyone knows is the smartest hitter on top of his talent. And watching the two of them break down this singular at bat, I could watch this for two and a half hours.

This is just two minutes. I'll tell you when to hit play on that. I'll just have you hold it for one second. 98, I can't remember, I'm 60 years old. I can't remember back that far. This is, yeah, this is when he was good. And here comes Barry Bonds. So I mean, you know, first inning,

it's kind of too early to pitch around somebody, so you're going to try to get him out. Well, Blanch chased that first pitch. Ooh, jam, fastball. What was that? 92. Pretty good cutter that beat him. I could do this for the rest of my life. So he's going to try to float a change up or something, that little floater away.

He thinks I'm going to speed up because they jam me. The cutter beat him, so I thought he would speed up. I threw a change-up, and he spit on it. That's his change-up. I mean, that's a pretty good change-up right there, and it was an easy take for him. I didn't even try. I just knew it.

And now we're playing chess. He knows he can't beat me inside. Experience has taught me that he's probably looking in. Back then I didn't know it. And most of the time I was always waiting for that 92 and back over the plate so I could catch him. And I'm just praying for it. Bonds hits one high to right field at deep.

And there it goes. Can't come in the well twice buddy, you just can't do it. And Greg knows because I always have this saying, you cannot come in the penthouse without an invite. I mean that's a good pitch believe it or not. It's an executed pitch but obviously it's the wrong pitch to throw. That's one you got to put in the memory bank and try not to ever throw it right there again to him. I mean he's the best in baseball and you can't make it easy for him. That's the pitch he wants

to hit so you have to make him hit something other than that. I think that was one I finally said I got you now. There's nothing you can do now. Oh man, that's great. Spectacular. Tell me that's the entire documentary. That's what I want it to be, just Greg Maddux and opposing hitters breaking down at bats. The same score is just do, do, do, do, do. I could watch that all day.

That's what I'm saying. Men my age want one thing. Dude. And it's that. It's just that. Can we do this with everybody? The entire brave staff. All the great hitters.

Do Will Clark next. Do Ryan Sandberg. Do Dave Magadan. I'll watch it all. It doesn't have to be Barry Bonds. It doesn't. It needs Dan Uggler. No.

Give me Uggs. Rhino. Folks, The Dan LeBittard Show is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day. I know. have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Self-care and therapy work hand-in-hand to support mental health. While therapy provides professional guidance and support, self-care empowers individuals to take active steps towards their well-being outside of therapy sessions. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash dlb to

get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash dlb. Don LeBattard. You owe me everything. You owe me everything. You have added 10 years to Mike Your Heirs. Yes I have. This man has. You haven't. That man. Who the hell are you? Stugats. I am. Who the hell are you?

Who the hell are you? Bullshit. Me. You're a rude young man. You're a fool. You're a fool. I already called you a fool. You can't call me a fool.

You're already getting a guy. You're a fool. You're a fool. You're a fool. You're a fool. You're a fool. You're a fool. You're a fool. You're a fool. I'm not sure those embargo thoughts on Pochettino were worth it. I was going to say they were pretty mild, like, he's not the best we could do, but maybe he is. I think in terms of hire and name.

He's better than Burhalter, but we could have done better, but we actually probably couldn't. No, it's me looking past my own bias and my own thoughts on him in the club game. There are plenty of managers that weren't great on the club side and were better suited for the international side. I sincerely hope this is one of those hires. I am rooting for him. I don't have a problem with a guy. I think he's nice. I did have a problem with Greg Berhalter. I also didn't think he was nice. So I think across the board, this is a drastic improvement, but I also think I probably should've just put it in a tweet. This could've been an email.

One of the things, and this show's been all over the place, and I'm curious to hear your feedback, please be kind at Michael Ryan Ruiz on social media. That Keys segment really crushed. Keys segment, in my mind it was good. And honestly- The Key West segment or the car key segment? Both.

Dude, if people heard Manu speak, this would have been an all-timer. Both. So feedback that I got from both this show, I've never had the show as locked in on my NASCAR talk as I had them earlier in this week because of a crazy finish that happened in the last NASCAR race that saw Austin

Dillon wreck his way to a playoff berth and a victory. It happens in overtime. He got a tough break in the fact that it had to go to overtime, but Austin Dillon, while his spotter is telling him in his headsets, wreck him, wreck him, f-yeah, wrecks Joey Logano, who had a much better restart than him out of the out of the top position And then after he does that he clips Denny Hamlin who was in clean on the inside and he goes across the finish line Austin Dillon wins this race and it really pissed Joey Logano off and Joey Logano who's not the most popular driver had a pretty good sound back sound bite So I want to run that sound back real quick of Joey Logano, who's not the most popular driver, had a pretty good sound back, sound bite.

So I wanna run that sound back real quick of Joey Logano. So you can see, he runs through the pit, he ends up getting penalized for his behavior, by the way, Joey Logano, because he was spinning out his tires in the pit, and he had this to say after the race. I was shaking, there's no doubt about it. He's four car lengths back, not even close.

Then he wrecks the 11 to go along with it, and then he can go up there and thank God and praise everything with his baby. It's a bunch of BS. It's not even freaking close. I mean, dude, I get it. Bump and run. I get it. I didn't back up the corner at all. He came in there and just drove through me.

It's ridiculous that that's the way we race. Unbelievable. I get bump and runs. I do that. I would expect it. But from four car lengths back, he was never gonna make the corner. And then he wrecks the other car, he wrecks the 11 to go with it. So, what a piece of crap. So what's fair game moving forward? How do you race him? Next week or in the playoffs?

Wait and see. So anyone that could watch that sequence doesn't have to know much about motorsports to say that seems a little unfair. You can just wreck guys out of the top position. Jess follows Formula One. That kind of behavior is not allowed. Someone would not be allowed to win a race if they did that. Well, in cars, you're allowed to do that. It actually reminded me of the...

The Lightning McQueen cars. Yeah, not the Lightning McQueen, not him, Chick Hicks, I believe. Okay. But this put NASCAR in quite the predicament Yeah, Lightning McQueen, not him, Chick Hicks, I believe. Okay, but this put NASCAR in quite the predicament because you understand why the spotter was saying, wreck him, wreck him, F yeah, because that was the only way that he could win the race and get into the playoffs. But also, you could see that and understand, well, this opens up a can of worms.

Now anybody at the bottom of the standings can just be a demolition derby driver and try to wreck people out of a race without really any tact or skill. So NASCAR handed down a penalty and it was an interesting one. All the benefits that Austin Dillon got from that win were stripped away. His playoff spot, he got points deducted, he got fined. The only thing that didn't change, and this really stunk for someone like me who had the 11 winning that race is, Austin Dillon, you get to still be the winner. You just get none of the perks.

So NASCAR has effectively, on the fly, curbed this behavior, so we won't be seeing it anymore, which is a shame for the casual guy that, because this looks awesome. I'll tell you, you've talked about NASCAR quite a bit on the show over the last several months, and transparently, I've not been interested in any of it, because it's not my sport.

I know. This is the first thing, I was sitting in that room editing the show when you brought this up, I was all the way in. Cool. This is the first time where I'm like, this is the coolest way to end a race. The fact that this guy is wrecking because he just wants to get to the playoffs. Talk about

competitive nature. I'm in on it. The idea that now they're retroactively taking all of it away. I'm, I'm devastated about this and I didn't care. I couldn't. Now I am. Austin Dylan is now my NASCAR driver. Let's hope I don't find anything on like his tweets in the past. Well, brother, I've been there. That's what I'm worried about. Right. That's what I'm saying. I'm a Kyle Larson guy.

It's hard being a Kyle Larson guy. It's hard finding that out about Kyle Larson. Kyle Larson, for those that don't know, had a controversy on a live stream during the lockdown pandemic days where he said something racist. And he spent several months thereafter apologizing for it and actually has done really good work in the community

afterwards since then in the aftermath for it. But yeah, it was a life changing. Kick, it, and actually has done really good work in the community afterwards since then, in the aftermath for it, but yeah, it was a life changing. Kick, save, and imbue. No, not really, but he's done really good work with his foundation, and if you read his apology, it's not one of those lip service apologies, it was a good one. This is all stuff that I did to rationalize,

well, I'm a Kyle Orson guy. What do I do here with this? Racing tends to have that. You just say that spiel about everything he's doing. It's a lot of context to apply. I just had Kapusito, can you tell? I just Googled Austin Dillon racist just to kind of make sure I was good. Did you mean Austin Dillon racing?

No, just racist. But the Reddit comment here is just from seven years ago on Reddit NASCAR. Why does everyone hate Austin Dillon so much? He's not my favorite driver or anything, but I have nothing against the dude. Seems like a good driver, but I've seen it referenced many times that people hate him

and it just sounds like the Levitard Reddit talking about me. You know why people hate him, right? Who said piece of crap? Because that- Who said- Legano. Oh, okay, I was gonna say that's not nice.

That would turn me off big time. He called him a chicken shit earlier. Strong words. He called him a chicken shit earlier, Strong words. He called them a chicken shit earlier, and then he realized the error of his ways, and he toned it down a little bit. Chicken shit's a great insult. Great dude.

Three people called him a chicken shit after that. Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, and Ligano all called him a chicken shit. I apologize if you have children listening to this show today, but that's why I call them a piece of crap, but this is a This is I wanted to close that that loop that oval on NASCAR and open up something else that I saw the aforementioned Kyle Larson who Has a history but is also a very talented race car driver half Japanese

Well, not a lot of people know that about Kyle Larson. Kyle Larson, great driver, four wins on the NASCAR season this year. I've talked to people that cover this sport for a living and they told me that Kyle Larson is the best driver on the planet. And me, someone that is new to the motorsports game, my counter to that would be the natural one.

Well, what about Max Verstappen? Isn't Max Verstappen the best driver on the planet? And the rebuttal to that is, if it's got wheels, Kyle Larson will win in it. Where Max Verstappen can win if he's got the best car, the best team, and it's Formula One. When I hear them talking about who's the best driver in professional racing, it's like when I hear in golf, he's a good ball striker.

It's like, yeah, I think they all are. And it's like in ice hockey, when it's like, man, this guy's a great skater. You can skate. Man, have you seen this guy, have you seen Forsling the way he skates? Great skater, it's just like, I hear these things, it's like, I don't know what a great skater looks like

in hockey. When it comes to drivers. When I've seen Forsling, and now I kinda get it, cause I'm like, okay, he's smooth out there. But it's like, great skater, great ball, like When it comes to drivers. And I've seen Forsling and now I kinda get it cause I'm like, okay, he's smooth out there. But it's like great skater, great ball, like Max Homa, great ball striker. It's like, I feel like most golfers are great ball strikers.

But in hockey, Roy, you can see it like Barkov, McDavid, their skating ability, it's a huge edge on the ice for those guys. Skating and puck handling. Larson, great driver, he makes those turns, man. He can, oh yeah. I'm not gonna pretend like I know. That's why I put it on guys like Marty Smith.

I'm not going to pretend like I know what makes a good driver. But what I will say is Kyle Larson won IndyCar Rookie of the Year with his performance at the Indy 500. He made a rookie mistake at the Indy 500. This is open wheel racing, folks. He sped into the pit, got a penalty, and it undid his Indy 500. He actually.

He was on the lead lap for a little bit in the final. Where do you think they keep their keys? That's a good question. They've got to be pushed to start at this point. They have to be. What about their house keys? That's a good question. But Kyle Larson has leaned into these Max Verstappen

comparisons, and he gave a 10 out of 10 Southern NASCAR quote. So he's often asked about Max Verstappen comparisons, and he gave a 10 out of 10 Southern NASCAR quote. So he's often asked about Max Verstappen. Kyle Larson has been long rumored. Jess, it kind of feels like Andretti racing is blackballed out of Formula One. They're trying to get into Formula One for whatever reason, they're not allowed. There's various anti-trust investigations

going on about that very topic. So the long-standing rumor, and I believe Andretti has been asked about Kyle Larson and his chops as a driver, and there's a rumor that if Andretti ever gets into Formula One, one of the drivers he would target would be Kyle Larson. So we could actually see this. Now this is a road game for Kyle Larson admittedly, but this is what Kyle Larson had to say about the Max Verstappen comparisons.

I know in my mind, I am better than him as an all around driver. There's no way Max Verstappen can get into a sprint car and win the Knoxville Nationals. There's no way he can win the Chili Bowl. Let's pause. What's the Chili Bowl? I'm not sure, but I love it.

But I'm here for it. That is great trash talk. One driver to another. There's no way he can win a cup race at Bristol. I know I'm better than him. Maybe not an open wheel IndyCar F1, but I think I can beat him in everything else. And you can quote that. I actually do think, considering the Indy 500 experience that we saw from Kyle Larson,

in which he might have won that race had he gotten some better advice and not sped into to pit lane. I actually do think that if you give Kyle Larson time and a great team and the resources over time with the experience he can beat out Max Verstappen. Kyle Larson is that talented of a driver and he lives for this stuff. He's driving those weird-looking golf carts with the wing on top of it. Kyle Larson is about racing and it's one of the better things about the sport just watching that guy drive because it shows in some of these finishes.

So I mean, Max Verstappen is like, he stays up till 4 a.m. the night before F1 races doing his sim race things like for 24 hour races and stuff. So he's also a racing freak. Apparently the chili bowl is at Tulsa Expo Raceway. Tulsa Expo Raceway, yeah, I don't think Max Verstappen can win at that. My favorite part of that quote, by the way,

was Kyle Larson saying, you can quote that. I like when people say something and then they're like, you can quote that right after. Take it to the bank. It's just like a great, he doesn't mind. And I don't think Max Verstappen gives a single crap about this. Yeah, definitely not. I don't think he cares whatsoever.

But Larsen's one of those guys that in his off time, he's just doing those simulation racing, the flow racing stuff. Like he's sometimes gets in trouble. Verstappen's racing F1 in his off time when he's not doing his sim racing. Yeah, Verstappen, it's been a weird year for Max Verstappen and he still ended up winning the season.

I don't think I'm allowed to talk about this. I get one minute and I feel like we've gone way over that. Really? Yeah. That's unfortunate because I was curious to know, I want the Formula One season to come down to McLaren telling Lando to let Piazzari win.

I don't think it's going to get that close. I think the Constructors is interesting, but I think Max has the drivers. I was always a NASCAR guy, remain a NASCAR guy, but credit to Formula One. They have really gotten better this season. It's anybody's race. Just need a race called a cup of chili, and then we're set. Folks, The Dan LeBittard Show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

What are your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day. When your schedule is packed with kids' activities, big work projects, and more, it's easy to let your priorities slip. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's hard to make time for it. But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever.

If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Self-care and therapy work hand-in-hand to support mental health. While therapy provides professional guidance and support, self-care empowers individuals to take active steps towards their well-being outside of therapy sessions. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash DLB to get 10% off your first month.

That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash DLB to get 10% off your first month. That's better help. H E L P dot com slash DLB. Don libertard. I'm not going to apologize. I wouldn't expect you to apologize. Then you're a giant infant. Okay. You have no control over your emotions. You have no control over your emotions when you're calling someone you know an idiot, I don't deserve it. Okay. I don't deserve it. And you're a fool for saying it. Okay. Stugots. You're a fool.

I was kind of following you. For calling somebody else an idiot. Oh, you're locking in right now? You're locking in on us? Yeah, right. Let's drop the gloves, pal. Let's drop the... You should be thanking me.

For what? Every day. For what? For what I've done around this character. And the second shit gets real for you, you wanna come at me and call me a fool? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Welcome back everybody. Always love when Tony Khan is on the show. He's honest, but he's also a difficult interview to pin down sometimes and he goes heavy into promo mode.

So I'm going to try to get a lot of the promotion out of the way on the front end and I'll keep reminding people that All In on Pay Per View, live from Wembley Stadium, August 25th. This was a great event. I had the pleasure of going on last year. I'm sad to see that from yesterday's announcement that the next edition of All In next year is going to be in Arlington, Texas. I'll probably be at that one. But is this the end of the the Wembley run? Not at all. Tony, Tony, you you wear many hats and I could see you've already been... you've done interviews in this Warner Brothers Discovery hat previously and I think Tony, you wear many hats. And I can see you've already been, you've done interviews in this Warner Brothers Discovery hat previously,

and I think you're doing that with intention. And we're glad to have you. We love our partnership with Max. Welcome aboard, Tony. Is this the final AEW show at Wembley? No, definitely not. We love having AEW at Wembley Stadium, and we're back in 2026 in England. This year we're going to be

doing a huge event. It's coming up actually days from now. It's next weekend August 25th on Sunday. Kind of an early start for AEW on Pay-Per-View since we're running over in London. We're going to start at 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific and again that's next Sunday on Pay-Per-View. It's going to be a huge, huge event. We're calling it the Final Countdown as its title versus career with Brian Danielson, one of the greatest wrestlers ever, putting his career on the line versus the World Championship held by Swerve Strickland and so much more. Next year the show will be at Arlington's Globe Life Field, home of the world champion Texas Rangers.

It should be a great show. Absolutely, we love doing a show in England and we will be back in England in 2026. And you can bet you'll see us there in 2025 as well. It won't be AEW All In, there'll be something different, but we've got some big plans coming up next year as well. It won't be AEW All In, it'll be something different, but we've got some big plans coming up next year as well. It's a great time for AEW. Like you said, I do wear this hat proudly and a lot of exciting things coming for AEW. Yeah, you've teased a big announcement coming up for AEW. A lot of people think it might have to do with the hat that you're wearing. A lot of people think it might have to do

with Shane McMahon. I imagine you're enjoying keeping the people guessing. You've talked some and you've been careful with your words and I've heard Shane McMahon even release a statement via Busted Open a little bit. There is a crazy conspiracy out there on the internet that this leak, the call was coming from inside the house because it got people talking and whatever conversations happen there, if a negotiation followed and whatnot,

it's just great to have this stuff out there. Can you confirm or deny that the call came from inside the house here, Tony, when it came to this leaked photo of you with Shane McMahon? That was the first ever meeting between you two, yes? That was the first time we ever met. Hold on, I got a quick question. Is it the only time you've ever met?

Yes. You haven't met since then? You haven't met since then? Not since, no. Been a very busy time since then on many, many levels. So that's the only time we've met in person. I really enjoyed talking with him. I did not place that call from inside the house.

But I- You would have picked a more flattering photo of yourself. I had the call did if the call did indeed come from the house you probably would have picked a better photo that didn't catch you so much by surprise. It literally looks like someone just sprung in and said hey I'm leaking this on the internet. I mean nobody said anything but somebody did just pop in and it was kind of weird. Do you want to reveal who took the photo? There have been certain people taking credit for this all over the internet. Can you reveal who was behind that photo? I think somebody who works at the airport.

Really? So someone that worked at the airport just kicked a door down, barged in, took a photo of this meeting of two huge wrestling personalities and just posted it? I mean we were just talking in the airport lounge having a really nice chat as the photo kind of evidenced and somebody just walked in kind of like they were on their phone and oops sorry and then walked away. I think that's probably what it was it wasn't like that slick but also it's not like a top secret thing I just wanted to have a nice conversation with him. You know I've heard a lot of nice things about him. We have a bunch of mutual friends and we were both in Dallas. They said you guys

should meet up. So we met up at the airport and it was a nice talk and I thought he's a very respectful, respectful, and respectable person and somebody I really enjoyed talking to. Well a lot of people are having their their minds wander into really fun and creative places and so we'll leave the Shane McMahon talk there. I do want to talk to you about a very exciting time for one of your other jobs, sporting director over at Fulham. By the way credit on those those Fulham kids that I saw with the AEW sponsorship. That's a great corporate synergy there but I you guys won last year at Old Trafford.

You're kicking off the season today against Manchester United. You won there for the first time in 20 years. What are your hopes, expectations? Naturally, Fulham had previously been a bit of a yo-yo club. You guys stayed up now. So what is the move here for Fulham? You guys have a big fancy stadium. Did I read correctly that you're putting a jacuzzi out? You have a club lounge where you're going to put a jacuzzi out in London in like in December. I'm not really sure. Are you good? Are you actually doing that? Is that confirmed? Well, I'm the sporting director, so I don't spend as much time on that aspect of it. But I do think that we're going to have really great hospitality and the Riverside stand

and the new Craven Cottage is going to be one of the most fun places to be in all of football in all of the world. I think it's going to be really, really great for the fans and it's something people have been looking forward to for a long time finishing all the developments at Craven Cottage, which is one of the most classic, beautiful stadiums in all of English football. And right now we're in an exciting place with Fulham. Like you said, we stayed up last year. We're looking forward to a great Premier League season that kicks off hours from now today.

We're really excited about it. We've had some exciting new players come in. We have a great coach. There's a lot of really great things happening at the club right now and excited about the season starting tonight. I'm curious your thoughts. I assume you support the U.S. soccer program.

I'm curious to know your thoughts on the hire of Pochettino as a head man now for the U.S. men's national team. Obviously a big name on the club soccer side. You've had teams line up against him and you've had varying degrees of success against Pochettino led teams. I'm curious. I like the message that it sends to the fans because it's a big splashy hire and I think it presents a pretty clear upgrade. I was curious if you had any thoughts on the US national team hire. Yeah, I think it's really exciting. It's great news for the US team and for Fulham it's very

relevant because traditionally there have been Fulham players on the US team. As long as I've been here, we've always had involvement from Fulham in the US team. And for people who don't know about half the goals, I think exactly half the goals that have been scored in the history of the Premier League by American players, half of them had been by Fulham alone. We have a great tradition of American players. A number of Americans have gone to Fulham

and won player of the season. And that includes now our reigning player of the season, Anthony Robinson, Jedi. And Jedi is a big part of the US national team. He's a top player for Fulham and the US. So definitely we all, we're on a good common ground with Fulham and US football Really really excited about that appointment, and I think that'll be great for the US team All right

I'm gonna ask you to put your Warner Brothers Discovery hat back on now that we we have the Fulham hat on brief previously Charles Barkley Charles Barkley was in the news Turner loses the NBA rights is gonna be their final with it, and it was announced that no matter what, Charles Barkley is going to stay with Turner. Now that's great, a crazy once-in-a-lifetime unicorn personality, but they may not have NBA rights, so there were plenty people wondering. He's done stuff on their NHL coverage before and he's been plenty good at that. They have some other properties though. Is there a world in which Charles Barkley finds his way over to AEW programming?

I don't know. It's a great question. Charles Barkley is a wrestling fan I think. Yeah, hugely. We presented the Inside DMBA team with AEW Championship belts and he was great and very gracious. We've worked with Shaq and Shaq is one of the greatest human beings I've ever met or worked with in my entire life. I know that Shaq has been great to AEW. I don't know exactly what the future of the NBA holds but you know Charles Barkley as far as Being one of the top hosts in all of sports as far as being one of the most entertaining people on all television I think he adds to any sport he's involved in so if you wanted to come to AEW we would love that and Absolutely, I would encourage that and support that you mentioned the Shaq thing and There's an open loop when it comes to Shaq's appearance

on AEW that's always kind of bothered me. He was on a stretcher and he just disappeared. He disappeared and no one really knew where Shaq went. It was like all of a sudden he became the Undertaker. He had these mystical powers. Can you close the loop? What happened to Shaq? I don't think it serves us well to close the loop because I think to Shaq? I don't think it serves us well to close the loop

because I think that Shaq wanted to leave it open ended for him to come back. And he saw that being a really good cliffhanger to his return. And I think he's right because people are still talking about it and it's been three and a half years. And I think what he was going for clearly worked because he wanted a cliffhanger that leads to his return and When Shaq's ready to wrestle again That will be a perfect entry point for him to return to the world of professional wrestling that I know he enjoys very much And we loved having Shaq in AEW so much. All right, I got a ton of questions So I'm gonna try to tighten them up so I can fit in as much as I can here

Hologram this was different and I read reports correct me if I'm wrong Tony because I them up so I can fit in as much as I can here. Hologram, this was different, and I read reports, correct me if I'm wrong, Tony, because I wanna make sure I had this right, that this was a character that was in development for a long time before you even casted the performer for it, and the presentation's really cool, and it kinda harkened back to a bygone era in which you see occasionally on these old IG accounts, like sketch work of what Kane would look like,

and they had conceived these characters and before they even casted the performer. That's not really something that AEW had done much of. How's your experience with this character gone? I think the reception's been good to it, and I kinda wanna see more of this. Build out a character first. It would be great if it's a character that can actually do character work and talk a little bit on the mic a little bit.

We'll see if that's in the cards for for hologram too. But if your experience with it has been as good as what it appears to be the audience seems to be in pretty good consensus with. Are you going to be doing more of that creating characters and then casting the performer afterwards? Well I'm glad there's been great reception and I'm glad that you're enjoying it, Mike. It's been really exciting for us to have a top young luchador, a top young wrestler from Mexico come here and be so well received. The character of hologram, the idea of it is something that I had thought of many years ago and I thought this would be a really, really exciting presentation for a young luchador.

And when we started AEW, this was one of my original ideas. And fittingly, the luchador that we interviewed to play hologram is hologram. We brought him in when he was a teenager four and a half years ago. And it was right before the lockdown, right before we started doing all the shows in Jacksonville during the pandemic.

And he got locked down in Mexico. He wasn't able to travel up here for a long time. And then I thought about it and I really wanted to still bring hologram in and he was available. So I thought it would be awesome to develop this character and I think that he's totally capable of being a big star in AEW and so far the reception for Hologram in AEW has been fantastic and I think it bodes well for him and hopefully more new, exciting young stars.

I imagine that's a rewarding experience at work because you conceptualize a character where a lot of the pre-agent signings, they'd been performing under other names or they came from the Indies and they had kind of set characters. Are you anticipating that, considering your experience with this,

that it's something that you could probably get to be doing more of in AEW, creating original characters? It's a great question, Mike. I think it has to as something that you could probably get to be doing more of in AEW, creating original characters? It's a great question, Mike. I think it has to be something that really works, and that's why this has clicked so well. I think it has to be a really strong idea, and in this case I felt like this was a great idea that I wanted to do for a long time, and I think the fans really like it too, so

it does feel great. But I'm always happy whenever the fans pop, whenever the fans are happy about something, it makes me happy. And right now there's a lot of good stuff going on in AEW. We were the number one show on cable on Wednesday night for Wednesday Night Dynamite on TBS this week. And anytime we rack up the number one spot,

it's a very good thing for us, especially with all the things happening right now, that's excellent timing for thing for us, especially with all the things happening right now. That's excellent timing for us for many reasons. And Hologram in particular is one of the young stars the fans are really clicking with right now. Hologram's mostly been wrestling on our Collision Show Saturdays on TNT. We recently on our Wednesday night show Dynamite on TBS, our flagship show, recapped his progress. For some of the fans who hadn't seen him on Collision, they got a look at him. He's definitely somebody we want the fans to keep an eye on, because I think he can

be a great young star for AEW. All right, rapid fire here. Ten seconds or less on the answers. Doing a show at the Sphere, Dead and Company, I know you like Dead and Company. They wrapped up a residency at the Sphere Deading Company. I know you like Deading Company. They wrapped up a residency at the Sphere. Have you talked to the Sphere about possibly doing any shows? Through my management company, Activist Artists Management, like you said, we represent the Grateful Dead, the Deading Co, great artists. Have had some conversations about that, but I think it's a long, long

way away. There's a long line to get into the sphere. All right. That was actually close to 10 seconds over there. Guardian caps in the NFL, they aren't the most fashionable thing, but I imagine you have data, and I've seen reports that it actually does prevent head injuries. It's been approved for game use. There haven't been many players, Jonathan Taylor, like the first star player that tried this out in a preseason Game, what is your data telling you and do you think that there might be a day in the NFL where this is more normalized? And pretty much part of the the new standard uniform Well, I can't speak to whether it'll become part of the standard or normalized But I do think it is definitely more safe all the data speaks to that

my father's on the Health and Safety Committee of the NFL, and in the ownership meetings there's been a ton of data presented on this that says the Guardian Cap really makes a difference and is safe. Is a Super Bowl ever going to come back to Jacksonville? Full disclosure, I'm now a legacy media member, and people didn't have the greatest experience with the first Jacksonville Super Bowl experience, citing infrastructure and the venue itself. But you're pumping a lot of money into this area. Are you eyeing another Super Bowl?

Well, that was 20 years ago and a lot can change in 20 years. It'll be well over 20 years that's passed since that Super Bowl by the time the stadium of the future is Constructed and we're all really excited in Jacksonville about the stadium of the future. So I think That future is yet to be unwritten. You've been on the record and you can take 15 seconds. It's yet to be written It's unwritten now Song so you know what I was trying to do. Yeah, we all get there. It's words. It's unwritten now, it's got to be written now. I like that Natasha Belling, the old song. You know what I was trying to do. We all get there. It's words, it's hard.

So Tony, I wanna ask you about tampering. You can take 15 seconds for this. You've been pretty feisty on the record when it comes to WWE reaching out to contracted talent. There's all sorts of rumors out there about contracted talent presently, flirting with WWE. Look, the sausage gets made in several unique ways in wrestling. But do you think since you've gone on record trying to check WWE on some of

this tampering stuff, it's gotten better or there's been no change? That's a fascinating way to phrase the question. Well, cuz I imagine you did it with intention. You were a very thoughtful dude. So you put it on the record, stop tampering with my guys. You're sending a clear message. I'm you did it with intention. Like you were a very thoughtful dude. So like you put it on the record, like stop tampering with my guys. You're sending a clear message. I'm wondering if it worked out.

I don't think that it has. I think that it's still happening. And I will reserve all rights when it comes to that, but I don't think that it stopped. And I'll leave it at that if it's okay, but I think that'll get people talking where you probably accomplished what you were trying to do, Mike.

Yeah, I always have one clip that goes a little viral. I tried it with Barclay, I'm not sure I quite got it there, but I think I got it with that one. That or maybe two minutes too long on the hologram character. Maybe that one will go viral, we'll see. That was like my nerdy, I'm allowed one nerdy question Tony. All right well best of luck in the Premier League season, best of

luck in the NFL season, best of luck with All In. Man you're doing probably too much. Do you binge watch shows? That's a question for another day. Tony Khan thank you so much. All In, pay-per-view August 25th. It's always gonna be a great show and if it is indeed the final match for the American Dragon, no one does send-offs quite like AEW. They knocked it out of the park with Sting, so I imagine he'll meet the moment. Tony, thank you for your time. Bless you, Mike.

Great to see you. Thanks for having us on today. Folks, The Dan LeBittard Show is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day. When your schedule is packed with kids activities, big work projects and more, it's easy to let your priorities slip.

Even when we know what makes us happy, it's hard to make time for it. But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule.

Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Self-care and therapy work hand in hand to support mental health. While therapy provides professional guidance and support, self-care empowers individuals to take active steps towards their well-being outside of therapy sessions.

Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash DLB to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash DLB. Stugatia from my friends over at Simply Safe. If you're like me, you're constantly thinking about the safety of the people and things you value most. After a friend told me about a break-in in his home in which many of his most valuable possessions

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