Down The Middle Episode 92: Queen of the Ring & AEW Revolution

[00:00:13] Hello and welcome everybody to the Down The Middle podcast. I know you missed us, sorry we're a day late, but my friend Hakim here needed the day, so no problem whatsoever, I get it. Like I said, it actually ended up being better for me too, so no problem. Can you say something for me good buddy so I can check your audio?

[00:00:50] Oh, for some reason it's not picking you up. I can hear you but YouTube's not picking, that might be on my end. Oh, it is on my end, I apologize.

[00:01:20] Oh, okay, okay. I don't know why it did that. I can hear you but YouTube's not picking, oh it is on my end, I apologize. Oh, okay, okay. I don't... Is it a setting? Like an ODS or something? Well yeah, but now I'm so paranoid, I hope my other recording didn't get screwed up by that. But no, I checked the audio.

[00:01:45] I think when I play our intro, it has it disabled, so then when I switch back, it automatically disables it. Gotcha. Alrighty, well welcome, like I said. This podcast tonight is brought to you by our friends at Vizard.ai, I Can't Talk Tonight, and the Final Frontier podcast. More on those later.

[00:02:14] But tonight, we got a lot to talk about tonight. Our main things we want to cover are our review of Queen of the Ring, and apparently AEW Revolution, which I've only seen parts of it. But I want to give a special shout out before we get started with all that. John Cena's promo on Raw. Oh yeah, sorry. Holy crap.

[00:02:41] It reminds me a lot of the pipe bomb from Pump. Not as effective, but it reminds me... It's different. It reminds me of that, yeah. You know what's funny though, to me? I got the sense that this might just be Cena's skill, but I got the sense that not all... Much like the pipe bomb, I got the sense that not all of that was a work. Well yeah, it's stuff like people always say, like, you know, they like the fans, but the fans are sometimes the worst people.

[00:03:11] You know, so... I think one of the highlights for me was when he's like, you made me the butt of an invisible joke for 15 years. And I'm like, yeah. We sure did. Dough funny. To be fair, that's on you, John. You're the one who said you can't see me. Yeah, exactly. He's the one who came up with it anyway.

[00:03:32] Yeah, that's on you. But I mean, it was great. And I timed it. By the time Cody came out, Raw had been on the air for 25 minutes. And he was out there. He was out there for, I want to say 10. That might be a touch long. But I mean, they let this breathe. They let this thing do what it was supposed to do. And it was great.

[00:04:00] And then you have AEW, where I don't know if you, I assume you've seen it because it's all over social media and AEW is putting this out. And listen, it's obvious where their mentality is now. Because the spot where Jon Moxley gets suplexed onto the two by four with nails sticking out of it. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's just...

[00:04:30] It was a little... I think it was the worst thing I've seen. No, it's still not the worst thing I've seen. It's up there though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I... Normally I would give credit to Moxley's acting ability, but I'll be honest, I don't think he's that good. Yeah, I don't think he's that good. That looked gnarly and that looked like that went way wrong.

[00:04:56] And it's like, gee, who would have thought that having a bunch of different nails going different directions and going into your back would not work out the way you thought it would? Exactly. And I watched a... Because I was just curious, Stevie Richards already did on his YouTube channel, he did sort of an opinion piece on this. And he brought up a good point. He was like, those nails are going into your spine, potentially. And it's not just one. It was a gimmick.

[00:05:28] Like nails, they weren't like completely... Well, yeah, I would hope so. But still, I mean, it doesn't take... It doesn't take that. But I mean, they must have painted them to look like they were rusty or something. Because those... Yeah, yeah. I can't... I refuse to believe that those were actually just like dirty nails. Like, I don't think they're that stupid. Yeah, I don't think they're that crazy. No. But they certainly looked it. Like, they did a good job.

[00:05:57] But I definitely think that spot went wrong. Because I don't think it was supposed to stick quite that well. Yeah. I think they probably thought it would be like the barbwire. Where it's dangerous, but it's not, you know... Yeah. ...that deep. I don't know. I just... And the thing is, I'd have a little bit of difference of opinion.

[00:06:23] Because I have some thoughts about Revolution for the match that I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Which I also think went way too far. But at least that was a pay-per-view for a championship. Yeah, the one... I liked most of the matches. The one match that I didn't... I liked it. I didn't like the way she got cut open. Because it was so obvious. She stabbed her own self. It was Tony Storm. Yeah. Oh, trust me. I've got thoughts.

[00:06:53] But before we get to that... We both saw Queen of the Ring. Yeah. It was okay. It wasn't... It wasn't something that I would watch again for that way. It was funny because... Because my good friend, Virus Box from Toontalk... He saw it before me. And he was like, Oh my God, it's so great. It's so amazing. And I watched it in the theater. And I was kind of like... Like, it's not a bad movie. It's a good little movie.

[00:07:23] It's an interesting biopic. I will say this much though. If you're not a wrestling fan, this movie is going to put you to sleep. Honestly, it put me to sleep. It's slow. It's slow going. I kind of understand. The Iron Claw is a better movie. That put me to sleep too. But it... I was going to say it has... No, no, no. It has... It was completely better than that. It has some of the same problems

[00:07:51] because that's the dancing game you're playing with a biographical movie is you're compressing someone's lifetime, certainly their professional lifetime or even a part of it. You're basically squishing 20 years into two hours. Exactly. And you have to do that in a way that's cohesive. And ironically, the biggest problem when you're trying to do that is pacing to not put your audience to sleep.

[00:08:22] I don't know a ton about Mildred Burke, but based upon what I know, they got a lot of things right. However, I do have to point out the grossest inaccuracy, which I don't remember her name, but the wrestler that dies in the ring. Yeah. And I heard she didn't actually die in the ring. Yeah. She's... She died 30 years later. She's a real person. She died all right in 1996. Yeah.

[00:08:51] That part I don't like because if it's going to be a viral pic, sure, you're going to embellish her some things, but... You can hurt her. It's not a right lie. You can absolutely hurt her. I don't mind that. Hurt her. Absolutely. Or create a fictional character that's a composite. But I mean, yeah, I don't know. But I get it narratively. They have to build up... Now, why... That was kind of May's story. Mm-hmm. You know, which, by the way,

[00:09:21] I'm just going to... Great thing about them, other than Jim Cornette being the NWA commissioner, I popped so hard for that. I thought that was hilarious. And the fact that Naomi was the worst actor in the entire movie. It was. It was bad. I honestly thought she was going to be, not to be like the best Academy Award winning, but at least a little bit more of her personality. Yeah.

[00:09:59] A little bit. What's her name? I can't remember. She's the... What's that? Camilla? I think so. That sounds right. She's the... The best tall... Yeah, the really tall... I've seen her in something. Or at least somebody that looks just like her. She did good. I was really into her performance and her character. And then... But I gotta say, the one who takes the cake, the actress that plays Mae Young,

[00:10:30] Yeah, yeah. Nailed it. And not only that, if you go back and look at pictures of Mae Young from like the 30s through the 50s, Dead Ringer. Fantastic casting. Some of the casting was off and some was like spot on. Some was spot on. Yeah. And to be fair, I understand why they did this. That woman looks nothing like the real Mildred Burch. No, no, no. She has the

[00:11:00] slight muscle tone of her. But, but if you look like the pictures of her, like Mildred is way bigger. Yeah. muscle-wise. Like her arms is double. Yeah, yeah. Mildred was a, was a big gal. And then the other, I think I understand why they did this. I was really surprised that there was no, not even a mention and she should have been in the movie. No mention whatsoever

[00:11:29] of the fabulous Moolah. Oh, well, oh, it could be two things or one thing. She was, she was into, to be in the Hall of Fame one year and then people start looking at her past seeing that she was like a pimp. Yeah. That's, that's the, cause I will, I will say this cause I dug into that cause, well, because there was like three times they would introduce a new girl and I'm like, oh, it's Moolah. Yeah. You know? Um, and then it turned out to not be Moolah.

[00:11:59] Um, and I watched that episode of Dark Side of the Ring so I know what the accusations are but from what I've seen there's just as many people that were saying that wasn't the case. I don't know. I wasn't there. Yeah. That I think. I heard some old wrestlers said that she was, she used to like use girls to pimp no and get, no, bookends and stuff. Yeah. Was it true or not? I don't know. I don't know.

[00:12:29] But that, that's the only reason I could fathom that she wasn't included in the movie is because of that. Which. Well, I heard the same for Mae Young. Like, not as to the extent but I heard like she was there too. You know? So, she was. Yeah. I've heard that but I also didn't know apparently Mae Young is a lesbian. I didn't know that. I could see it. Like I said, like in the movie, like in the movie,

[00:12:59] I'm like, okay, this is starting to make more sense. This is really starting to make more sense and then I looked it up and I don't think she, I could be totally wrong here. Yeah, I heard that before. Like, I heard she just went with anyone and then it actually mattered. Well, what's funny though is the whole, is the movie actually does a really good job of kind of implying it and they don't really outright state it until much later in the movie. They kind of hint at it a couple of times

[00:13:28] but then there's a line where the guy's like, same reason, you sleep with a different broad in every town and I'm like, oh, so she is, okay. I get it. That being said though, I think May's, which again, this is a very friendly, this is a very somewhat WWE, well, it's not a somewhat, this is a very WWE friendly production because they have the little gag with Vince Senior mentioning Vince Junior and all that. Yeah. To me, it seemed like

[00:13:58] May Young's involvement was a little bit too much, particularly in the last match at the climax and then this movie also does one thing that I really don't like which, to praise it, the wrestling scenes are done really well. They're very effective, almost too effective because my other pet peeve in wrestling movies is when they always make, like, they always kind of tiptoe around the fact

[00:14:27] that it's scripted, right, in the movies and every single match that you see in the movie is like a real shoot fight. Yeah. And it's kind of like, okay, like, shoots happened, but, to quote Jim Cornette's, shoots happened, but most of the time when you knew it was a shoot, it wasn't a shoot. Yeah. You know, which this being in hindsight, it's like,

[00:14:57] I do know, because I read about this after the fact, I do know that the match where Mildred won the title from the California girl that Tony Storm played. Yeah. I don't know if it went down exactly like that, but from what I understand and what I've read and or been told is that is at least thought to have been a shoot. I think it was, but I think it was.

[00:15:26] That's the problem with, like, older movies. It's hard to know what's actually real and what they wrote and, you know, like, or what they embellish a little bit more. Oh, I'm sure a ton was embellished, but it is a fact that, oh, what's it? Wolf. I forget his first name. Is it Jack Wolf or whatever? Yeah. It is fact that they got married. He cheated on her. They stayed business partners. I don't know if the business with his son, but I mean, I think that seems like a very random thing to put in a movie

[00:15:55] to not be true. And plus, it was known that there was a pretty substantial age gap, so it would make sense. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But no, overall, I'd give it a solid B minus. It's a good little movie, especially if you're a wrestling fan. You'll appreciate some of the nods and the tips of the hat. And it's worth it just to see Jim Cornette. Yeah. Honestly, I would give it probably like just a C. Well, yeah, but you hate everything.

[00:16:28] Give it a C for Costco. No, I get it because it is... No, but I did honestly, I kind of enjoyed this a little bit more than The Iron Claw. I did. It didn't, I will say this much, it didn't meander in the third act like a lot of these movies do. Yeah, yeah. It was a little more digestible, I'll put it that way. It kind of got faster

[00:16:57] as the movie went along, which was, which was nice. I also... It should have been like episodes, it should have been like a five-part episode on Netflix. To me, it would have been... I gotta say, yeah, a miniseries, I think that would be really interesting, but it comes down to would they have the numbers? Okay. Honestly, I think they would have more numbers if they did it that way

[00:17:27] than they did like in the movies. It's not even like, I can't even watch it now. They released... Yeah, that's true. I almost... Yeah, I ended up having to like speed to a theater after work because it was only... It was very limited show times here. Exactly. And they didn't make much off of it. Like last time I saw it, they put in I think a couple of million and they made maybe

[00:17:56] $600,000 back. Ooh, actually, yeah, I wanna look that up. I'm not sure how accurate it is because like on one site it says they put in $10,000,000. I don't know if they put $10,000,000 for that. If they did, that's sad. We'll see. We'll see if I can find it. Oh! Ooh, that's rough. I don't have the budget but

[00:18:25] the box office is $600,000, $2,104. $600,000. And they put in $10,000,000 and only got back $6,000. That is insane. An average review of $6.4 out of $10,000. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. To me, maybe they didn't, I don't know, but if they even put in $1,000,000 and just got back $600,000, even that's a loss. Yeah,

[00:18:55] that's a oof. Well, they clearly did a few stars in there. You know, like, wasn't Jim Carrey in there for a bit? I don't know. Was he? Yeah, I thought he was. He had like a beard and everything. He took a bump. Oh, if he was, I didn't see him. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, it got him, Jim. this movie does have

[00:19:24] some indie film problems. Like, for example, and frankly, I think it would have been a better movie, is the, this film devotes a lot of time to Gorgeous George. Yeah, yeah. Which, they were friends. He and Mildred were friends. But, honestly, that's the movie I'd pay to see. Yeah. It was more appealing. Like, I was more interested. Yeah. Well, because it's like, you, you have to understand, like, Gorgeous George

[00:19:53] would not be, I mean, Gorgeous George being replicated a day and, and dialed up even more. Like, it's not a big deal that he'd be celebrated. You gotta understand. When he was doing that, people wanted to kill him. Oh, yeah. Like, and the other thing is, I know of him. Like, I never might have heard of Mildred before this movie. Never heard of her at all. But I know who George is. And like, even Dark Side of Rain, did a really good one on him. Yeah.

[00:20:23] I had actually, I knew of Mildred Burke before, and I'd actually heard J.R. talking about what would become this movie all the way back. I think it was in 20, it was either 2020 or 2018. Oh, okay. It's been going, he was like, they're putting together a movie about Mildred Burke. And I'm like, oh, that's, yeah. I think at this movie it had more money. It would have, it would have just gotten more of a push. But the way it was marketed, it was pretty much only marketed to wrestling fans. So.

[00:20:54] And the other thing, maybe they will pick someone else, Mae Young. I think they will be like a biopic of Mae Young and it will have been. I mean, I get, I get Mildred Burke because she was kind of the trailblazer for those, those kind of like your Mae Young's, your fabulous moolah's, your, um. Absolutely. Yeah. But, but yeah, the actress who plays Mae is pretty small. But kudos to her because she got, she put on some muscle. Yeah.

[00:21:24] She, she looks like a, she looks the part but just like a shrunken down version. Exactly. She's a vegan version. It's kind of like, kind of like the Triple H from Young Rock. Just. His, instead of, I'm Triple H, it's, I'm Triple H. Look at the rock. But that's a show I enjoy. Oh, well, there you go. There's a wrestling

[00:21:53] television series that apparently did decently. Did three seasons. I didn't, I didn't see much of it, honestly. I saw maybe a few episodes, clips here and there, but I never asked you if I would. It's, it's kind of worth watching just to see how, it's really funny because the, the, with, with the exception of Dwayne's iterations version. Yeah. Um, the actors who they get to play him actually look pretty similar. It pretty much stops there.

[00:22:24] Everybody else is a, like a really bad, like if you ordered Stone Cold from Wish, this is what you get. Yeah. Oh yeah, I've seen that one. Except, except he gets the voice down pat, but yeah, especially once he goes bald, when he still has hair, it's not that bad. And then, like I said, the actor, they get to play Triple H is like, this looks nothing like Paul Levin. Yeah. Nothing at all.

[00:22:55] and then don't get me started on the guy they get to play Vince. Oh, I didn't see him, but did I see him? Check. There's no way, I'll put it this way, there's no way Vince McMahon signed off on that casting. There's no way. I'm sure he was very angry with that, but like we said, if you haven't seen it yet, you should absolutely watch Queen of the Ring because if nothing else, you're supporting an up-and-coming filmmaker. Actually, Ash Avildsen,

[00:23:25] the director and writer, is the son of, I'm forgetting his first name, John Avildsen, I think, the director of Rocky and the Karate Kid. Oh, oh, cool. And it's funny because once I learned that, I was like, I see some similarities between this and Rocky. Yeah, absolutely. When you said, yeah, definitely. Yeah, I see. That's why I think it would look better if it was made in that way of like seasons, maybe.

[00:23:54] Or even like Hills because the Hills is great. Yeah. You know, and he did Hills, so. Which, that's a great show if you haven't seen it. It's on Netflix now, so you don't have to get Showtime. I believe it was on Showtime before, but now it's on Netflix and that show is fantastic. I have to catch up or I've seen the first. I need to catch up. Yeah, man, the first season cliffhanger. Holy crap. That's

[00:24:24] I have to watch the other seasons. Yeah, Heels is great. So watch Heels too if you haven't. But another thing you should definitely check out, especially if you make content like us is our friends at Vizzer.ai because it's no secret. Short form content is the way of the future. It's the number one growth tool of our podcast and pretty much anybody who's ever, you know, gotten big on YouTube. It's all about shorts as far as getting your name out there. The only problem, Hakeem, with shorts is they take

[00:24:53] a very long time to make. It's extremely time consuming. Yeah, it's extremely time consuming. But after I discovered Vizzer.ai take today, for example, guess how many shorts I made today, Hakeem, in the span of working on it here and there a couple hours. Oh no, 85. I made 85 shorts today in the span

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[00:25:52] for example, yeah, give it the link and it auto-generates the clips in a few minutes and then you can select what you want and every time you get feedback, their AI gets a better idea of what you're looking for in terms of what clips and you can go in and set different parameters like you can search for keywords, you can eliminate pauses, you can choose the length of the clips you want. It's awesome. And the best part, since this company is so awesome and I talked to them very early because I realized how good it was

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[00:26:52] Alrighty, so really good. I gotta remember it but I can help with that. It's really I enjoyed it. It was some parts that took me out of it. The last part, honestly, I could have done about well, it is an it is an AEW show. So apparently we started the good lord. There were 14 matches on this thing. It went so

[00:27:22] quick. Honestly, it was the pacing was pretty good. It didn't feel like it was like five hours or oh, no, they're kind of I'm sorry. There's only 12 because they were they were counting the pre show. So the pre show we had commander and hologram with Alex Aberhantes for some reason against Lee Johnson and Blake Christian Lee and Blake lost.

[00:27:52] Then we had Daniel Garcia along with the Undisputed Kingdom against Shane Taylor promotions. Oh, yeah, I saw that one. Yeah, it was okay, but it's like I'm not a fan of all these like three men. I was going to say it's an eight man tag. So yeah, I'm not a fan of all. Too many guys. Oh, I forgot about this, but the Costco guys are back. Oh, yeah. Yes,

[00:28:21] that was the part that took me out of it. And that set me up to say like, oh, this is going to be trash. Once I saw them. Oh, his dad. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wait, so are Big Justice and the Rizzler two different people? Big Justice is the Costco guy. Well, then who's Big Boom AJ? I have no idea. I know it was this. I'm pretty sure

[00:28:51] that was his name. Yeah, that's that's the wrestler and then big. Oh, so it looks like he's got two kids. I thought they were the same person. So Big Boom AJ and Big Justice are the Costco guys and the Rizzler is some other social media person. Which makes sense why he was out there with Orange Cassidy.

[00:29:21] And they were, oh, Johnny, John Morrison's back. Johnny TV. Oh,. he was. His wife was there too. Yeah, with MM Collection, Mansour, and Mason Madden, with Taya Valkyrie. And, yes, apparently this happened. And, of course, the Costco. they're signing the Maxim Model guys.

[00:29:53] I think they just rode around for different promotions. They're just doing the circuit? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Of course, the Costco dork and Orange Cassidy won. And Mark Briscoe was there too, for some reason. And that match is almost 13. He was on the Costco guys. Yeah, that match was almost 13 minutes long. It should have been too. I was going to say, that's a thing that happened. But our first real match of the night saw Hangman Page versus

[00:30:23] MJF. Now, I've seen on Dynamite they were building up to this. I'm just now getting back into Dynamite. What the hell happened to Hangman Page? His look? I mean, all of it. just what is going on with this? It's a lot of them seem a little not like the same. Yeah. Although, not to get off topic, but I do want to give AEW some

[00:30:53] praise. As Kenny Omega returned, not this week, last week on Dynamite, Kenny Omega returned. And I don't know who changed his entrance, but whoever did deserves a medal, whether that was his idea, Tony's idea, or somebody else's idea, because he no longer, it's the first time, and I'm not being hyperbolic here, it's the first time in AEW that they have presented Kenny Omega like a legitimate star.

[00:31:22] Yeah, it was really good. I mean, he certainly did not dress up for the occasion, but he never does. I mean, that's kind of his deal, right? But that being said, he's walking out, and I'm like, oh my gosh, finally, he looks like a legitimate star. So, there's hope for the future in AEW. He looked like a legit star in New Japan. That's the thing I

[00:31:52] understand. It's like, well, I do kind of understand. I really think he likes Japan in general better than here, because he seemed happy, he seemed motivated. When he's here, it seems like he just wanted to get over with. Yeah, I mean, kind of. Kind of. Yeah, but I mean, even the promo wasn't thought awful. I mean, it was damn good for Kenny Omega. Oh, yeah, it was. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was,

[00:32:22] to be fair, I think he's been feeling really bad for a long time. I think so, too. I honestly, yeah, I think. Well, I didn't know he had diverticulitis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, he's, I didn't realize this, but we're, we, he, everybody is kind of lucky that he's still able to wrestle. Like, that's, that's potential death. So, yeah. I don't know how long he had it because honestly, he seemed this way, not from the

[00:32:52] very beginning, but even early on, he seemed like he was out of it, not like himself. That may, it may have been a case where he had it for a while and didn't know it. Yeah. Because if, if I remember correctly, that was, yeah, if I remember correctly, it was the same for Brock Lesnar. He had it for a bit. Yeah. Even, uh, Shane, my man, he had it. Yeah. Yeah. It's no joke. Like, that can turn, that can turn fatal really quick. So, kudos to AEW and or whoever

[00:33:21] made that decision because for the first time, your top star actually looked like your top star. Yep. So, kudos to that. Um, MJF won. I mean, I'm sorry, MJF lost for, for some, for some reason. Yeah. MJF is not MJF anymore. It's not the same. He's gotta be going to WWE. Honestly, if he was going to WWE, it feels like

[00:33:51] in general, himself is not the same. Like, he don't wrestle the same. He's haven't been working out the same like he was at one point. I'll be honest. I'll be honest. This is, this is, this is just, this is pure speculation on my part. But based on what I've seen, I think I was right. Way back when they did that stupid baby face MJF angle with Adam Cole, I'm pretty sure he went into Tony's office and said, Tony, this is

[00:34:21] fucking stupid. It's going to ruin my character and I, it will never be the same after this. And then Tony goes, no, no, it'll be great. It'll be really fun. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. MJF did it against his better judgment because he wants to, you know, make his boss happy and do what he's told. And he ended up being 100% right. And now he's just phoning it in until he can get the hell out of there.

[00:34:51] Like so many other, like so many other towns that Ricky Starks did it. Ricky Starks did the exact same thing. Well, they removed Ricky way faster. Yeah. Yeah. He was gone. Well, but they also couldn't figure out what to do with him. So I'm sure he was frustrated. I don't understand why. They did the same with Hobbs. Yeah. You know what you do with Ricky Starks? You send him out to the ring and say, go get him tiger.

[00:35:21] Cause like he he's got this. And then Hobbs, like Hobbs was in a match last week on dynamite. And it's like, why, why is he even in this thing? This makes no sense. Why is he teaming with these doors? At one point they repackage him like some crime boss or something. He looked phenomenal. He was like the hurt biz before the hurt business came. Why is he not in the hurt biz? I guess because Bobby is just as big.

[00:35:52] Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. So interesting though, because we're talking about a bit of a diatribe, but I also watched on NXT, the Hardy boys had a fantastic match against the NXT tag champs, but I noticed something. The Hardys wrestled different Jeff in particular. They're wrestling a style that is more conducive

[00:36:22] to their age. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Matt was talking about that before he wrestles a little less than he did before. And hopefully Jeff will stick to it too. Well, I noticed it with Jeff more so. He even, and I don't know if this, I would imagine, I think at some point Jeff, maybe probably because of Matt, if I had to guess, but Jeff at some point sat down with

[00:36:52] someone who was like, look, dude, you're not 20 anymore. You, you can't consistently do not to say he can't do it, but like you can't consistently do the whisper in the rim like you could when you were 24. You just, exactly. There's no reason. And you can't, well, and you can't be expected to do it because God, they're pushing 60 now, aren't they? Maybe not 60, maybe 50. maybe. Yeah. Now I'm going to look that up because I know Matt's older,

[00:37:21] but Jeff already. Okay, 47. But okay, so you're pushing 50. Oh, wow. But still, like, honestly, I didn't think that was that younger. I know, right? Sorry, Jeff. Well, okay, but you're pushing 50 and you've done all the crazy things you've done. So physically you're probably 84. A very athletic 84, but 84 nonetheless.

[00:37:51] And I'll be honest, I liked it. I liked the style they're wrestling now because you don't need to do, the Hardys don't need to do all that stuff anymore. Yeah, that's what Matt was saying. He was like, they know who you are, Jeff. Like, you have to prove that you're Jeff, you know? Yeah, you do not have to do that. So that was a really good match. I was kind of surprised how much I liked the match. Um, and then let's see, next we had, oh, Mercedes, as our

[00:38:20] friend Jim Cornette would say, Mercedes Moon defeated Momo Wananoya. Mercedes Monet defeated Momo Watanabe for the TBS title, she retained. Okay. I actually heard, really? Because I heard, I heard people were like telling her to get out, get out the ring, or I might be thinking of a different match. I don't know.

[00:38:52] Although I fell for a clickbait headline though, because apparently because she had her blue hair back from back when her Sasha Banks days. I saw an article in SportsKedia that said, welcome back Sasha Banks. And I was like, wait, what? I was all excited. And then I read the article and I'm like, oh, you got me. You got me good. And then she'll ever go back to WWE. She might when she's a

[00:39:22] little bit older. I hope so, dude, because this is not working. But to be honest, for me, everywhere, she went besides WWE, she weren't that good. Even when she went to like, New Japan. Yeah, it was okay. But I think Mercedes is one of this is not. I'm not dogging on her. And she'd know better than me. She's an

[00:39:51] actual wrestler. I just host a podcast. She strikes me as one of the wrestlers that is not good at booking herself. Yeah. I think she needs to be told what to do and how to do it because there's no denying Sasha Banks matches are great. I love her with Charlotte. Yeah. The first helm to sell. So good. Even going

[00:40:21] back to NXT, man, her match with Becky is it was awesome. It was great. But I mean, the proof is in the pudding, right? Because Japan was supposed to be her big, you know, break and then and you know, it just it was whatever. But then we had Swerve Strickland versus Ricochet to determine

[00:40:51] the number one contender for the AEW World Championship. I heard this one was good. I heard this one was really good. It was the best ever seen Ricochet. Really? Yeah, absolutely. By far none. I can't it's funny because it goes for Ricochet as a Ricochet fan. Ricochet and AVW kind of alternates weekly for me because some weeks I'm like, wow, okay, he's doing really yeah, I get

[00:41:21] that. Like I watched a match he had with Shibata where I watched him oversell and then they did, okay, they'd established earlier in the match that him slapping Shibata was not effective so then they did the whole sit down in the center of the ring and hit each other, which just logically, if I've already hit the guy and it didn't work, why would I sit there and let him hit me?

[00:41:52] I don't know, it's just but then the week before I thought he had a great match like, yeah, that's kind of how it's been for the last, what, six months I believe but I still say like in AEW he feels like he's going to be a star versus like in WWE he had like a ceiling, he was only going to be a Nick Hart at best. You know what's funny though? I think it's because of his name

[00:42:24] that he was going to be a Nick Hart only. Because I just don't think you can take unless Ricochet is like I was going to say it was because they added that thing to his like interest music. That didn't okay, so I'll be honest, the one and only theme he had in NXT was great. He felt like a star. And if they had I'm going to be honest when he came to NXT, I was really excited, but I was like, yeah,

[00:42:53] but his name is Ricochet. Like you can't take it seriously in NXT. You took it seriously because they booked him well. And then they added that and I'm like, oh, it's too on the nose. And here's the thing. Like Ron Strowman when they added the choo-choo sound. Because Ron wasn't on the nose enough. Yeah, but oh, wow, I was going to say something. I don't

[00:43:23] see the first thing about Ricochet though. Is he actually like his real name is a great wrestler name. I don't know his name. His real name is Trevor Mann. Yeah, especially his first name is really good. Trevor's good and it's M-A-N-N but like yeah, and I'll just inject some human growth hormone to get your voice a little bit deeper and then go nuts. He always tells me he's going to cry. He's another one.

[00:43:56] Okay, wow, this is going back and nobody will get this reference because it was local. There's a local radio station where I live and they used to have well, I guess Carlos Diaz used to be he was in L.A. but he used to do like syndicated radio so he'd call in to different and he was like the guy from L.A. that would do entertainment news. And he did this one bit one day which he was very funny, but he did this one bit where he was making fun of Taylor Lautner because this was after Taylor

[00:44:26] Lautner got famous from Twilight and then he did one action movie. And it was when that action movie came out and he was like, yeah, Taylor Lautner is in a shoot him up action movie and I can't take him seriously because it's like the camera pans to Taylor and he goes, thanks. And I'm like, that's, that's, that's kind of a ricochet promo. Yeah, exactly. You know? Yeah, I don't.

[00:44:58] I mean, hopefully I've been wrong before and I'll be very thankful with Ricochet. We're able to, well, I was going to say he's already been a world champion, which I mean, he has, but in Lucha Underground, but technically that wasn't Ricochet. Technically, that was Prince Puma. It was a different character. brought that name back. Prince Puma? I don't think he youngster.

[00:45:31] That's, that's a whole different kind of ricochet. You don't want that. Actually, I don't think he can, because I'm pretty sure Lucha Underground still owns that. No, somebody should buy the Vince McMahon should buy Lucha Underground. Yeah, somebody, somebody should buy Lucha Underground. Come on, bring it back. Mysterio should buy it. If it should, you might go for it, I don't know. Well, I think

[00:46:00] Penta and Phoenix still own a part of the crash in Mexico. Maybe they should buy it. Doubt they have the money. Well, I don't know. Penta's making that WWE money now. And so I'm pretty sure that Phoenix is already there. Oh, okay. Yeah. They're doing release about a couple weeks ago. three weeks. Yeah, they're doing the back and forth thing where some, I'm pretty

[00:46:30] sure sometimes it's Chad Gable under that stupid American Lucha mask and sometimes it's Phoenix. Okay. Yeah. Which is so not the way you guys should have listened to me. I don't know, but anyway, it would have been so much better. But so like a different mask on him if he is there. Oh, I think change it up. Yeah, I think this is temporary.

[00:47:00] The other guy, not Ray Phoenix. Yeah, Ray Phoenix. Dragon Lee. Yeah, Dragon Lee. There's another one to him. He's not there no more. I don't think I don't think Kalisto is still there. Yeah, he's not there no more. No. Swordstrick on the wand. So he is now the number one contender for the AEW World Championship. Yep. And he will face Jon Moxley who came out and attacked him like a bitch.

[00:47:30] But that was very like that's not Mox. I mean, I know it is now, but that just felt like last time I checked Jon Moxley didn't have to attack his opponent when he wasn't looking. But wasn't he out there a couple weeks ago? Yeah, but wasn't Moxley out there a few weeks ago or like a month ago bitching and moaning about how there's nobody left in AEW to fight me? Yeah,

[00:48:00] it was. Yeah, sure. And now he goes to attack them. Yeah, okay. Well, I mean, that's par for the course with one week Mox is a heel and the next week he's not. And next we had next we had Kazuchika Okada versus Brody King for the AEW Continental Championship. This was okay, but honestly

[00:48:29] this was kind of like a match that could have been on regular TV. Yeah. It literally had to be on a pay-per-view. Yeah, as we've come to find with many AEW pay-per-views, about half the matches are basically, I mean, good TV matches, but TV matches. Yeah. Although it was, it's fine. I was listening to, I think it was the drive. It was, I don't actually, I think it was the experience, but they were talking about how, so they're going to do

[00:48:59] a tournament to crown the number one contender for the international title that Kenny Omega has. And Okada is in that tournament, so they think they might be heading up to a point where it's Kenny Okada and they unify the belts, and then Jim, not missing a beat, goes, well, that would be the Intercontinental Championship. And I'm like, you're not wrong. That is absolutely

[00:49:28] what it would be. Okada Wan, by the way. So he is the, he's still the AEW Continental champion. Honestly, where I see him, it's like, kind of sad, because like, no one who sees him now will actually see what he used to be, or the potential he had. I mean, same with Kenny, really. Yeah, but at least with Kenny, you can still see him in a lot of matches, that's still Kenny, but.

[00:49:58] Especially in early, yeah, especially in early AEW, you didn't so much see it in the spectacle of the booking of the match, but you saw it in the match. That's what I mean, exactly. Yeah, and then next, we saw the Hurt Syndicate versus the Outrunners. I didn't like this. I liked it, but I didn't like it, because I like both teams, and I didn't want the Outrunners to lose, but I knew they had to lose. I was going to say,

[00:50:28] they did. So the Hurt Syndicate is still the AEW tag team titles, and before we get to the next match, which is honestly what everybody is talking about. Yeah. I'm going to let you know about another wonderful podcast on our network, especially if you're a Star Trek fan, you're definitely going to want to check out the Final Frontier podcast, where every week, myself and my cohort, my first

[00:50:57] officer, Justin, watch an episode of Star Trek, and then we tear it apart, usually take the piss out of it, but we sing its praises more often than not, but our last episodes are coming up, we're getting to the end of season one, so we're going to be wrapping that up shortly and then take a small break and then bring it back out for season two, but check it out, second link in the description. And now we are coming to the match that everyone is talking about, at least until Moxley suplexed

[00:51:27] onto a board of nails. Timeless Toni Storm defends her title against Mariah May in a Falls Count Anywhere match, and apparently a who passes out from blood loss first match. It was a bloodbath. Not in a good way. I just... I didn't mind a bloodbath, but I mind the way it happened. When she got... Okay,

[00:51:57] if she got hit somewhere else, or it was like a more devastating move, she got knocked into stairs, and then like, poke her head in the head, and it didn't make sense. It was just the stairs. It was like... I seen that move like a hundred times, so it wouldn't make sense for her to be gushing blood after getting knocked into some... Well, again, there's a reason I'm

[00:52:27] wearing this shirt in particular, because Jim made a very good point. He said this reeked of desperation. Yeah, I didn't like that part. It could have been really good if they planned out better. Well, because he had said it was all in how it was framed, because this match was put together so that both of the girls could bleed as much as humanly possible. If it had instead been, both of the girls bled, because this was the

[00:52:56] blowout of a long-running feud, it would have been completely different. But the way this match was put together, and to your point, he bled that much from being thrown into the stairs, something that we see weekly? Yeah, it makes no sense. It just doesn't make any sense. I've ever seen that actually happen, and legitimately happen, it was Kofi Kingston, when he got knocked into some stairs, but his head hit the corner of it,

[00:53:26] and it sliced him open. That I can understand. But that part made no sense. None. None whatsoever. Yeah, I haven't even watched the whole match, but I've seen a lot of long chunks of it, and this is a me thing, I'm sure, but I've said this before, and I'll say it again, all of you AEW fans that just never say anything bad about

[00:53:56] AEW, and are like, oh my god, this is so awesome, what do you like about this match? What is it for you? Is it the bleeding girls? The way you guys talk about it, it's about the bleeding girls, and it's like, listen, I'm not minimizing anyone's mental health, but like, maybe you can talk to someone and stay away from

[00:54:26] small animals. It's like, I didn't mind the blood, it's just the way it happened, it felt too forced, it felt like, oh, we want to be like the boys, so let's play out and make it, the match they had before this one, see that one, that one, oh, sure, but this one, it was too much, it was just too much, it was too much for the wrong reasons, exactly,

[00:54:55] it could have toned down, and like, for both of them to be bleeding, made no sense, like, that much, yeah, and then the shoe on top of it, like, this is just, this is just silly, yeah, it was just silly, but Tony, like the ECW, you'll like this, but, oh, I forgot, I just said ECW, because I also saw the part where they stopped the match, so both of them can grab a bucket of broken glass, tape their hands,

[00:55:25] and do the Ian Axel Rotten, Taipei Deathmatch is what they used to call them, yeah, like Bloodsport, here's the thing, if this were a real fight, while your opponent is doing that, you would run over there, and since there are no rules, you would find something sturdy, say, a chair, a baseball bat, something, and you would walk over there while they have their head down, taping their

[00:55:55] hand, and bash them in the face, and win the match, instead, you stay in your corner, stare at her while you're doing the exact same thing, and just, oh, just, oh, with a side of, oh, that's, that's what kills me, because I was watching, um, actually, I believe it was that Ricochet match, where, it was, it was that

[00:56:25] match, where it started out good, and then it reached a certain point where the cooperation was so obvious and hokey, that it took me out of the match. Oh, yeah, I know it's I see that in a lot of matches where, again, I hate the part where someone has to stay outside and catch the person, and you see them take like five minutes to do the whole setup, and look back where they're going to land and all that stuff.

[00:56:56] I watched a video from Mexico where a guy did that, and he still landed on his head. There's three guys outside the ring waiting to catch him, and he still landed on his head. Did you see J Uso did the flop dollar? I did. Hey, they salvaged that one, though. It could have looked way worse. I mean, no, he didn't.

[00:57:28] Oh, gosh, but anyway, timeless Tony Storm is still timeless and your AEW Women's World Champion, which I loved how also on Dynamite Thunder Rosa is like, you don't talk about our champion that way. I'm like, since when are you like, why not? Like, this doesn't make sense. Like, apparently you two are friends now, which maybe I missed something,

[00:57:58] but next we saw Kenny Omega challenge in his surprise return challenge Kenosuke take a shit for the AEW International Championship and Kenny won it, which we've already talked about because he came out on Dynamite with the belt. And honestly, this was really good. It looked like a good match. It was, and he lost, but he lost in a good way. Yeah. Yeah, it was, it shows that he's

[00:58:28] going to be a really good star. He looked almost as strong as Roman did. And then I would imagine this was a good match. I've not seen it, but I heard about it. Will Ospreay versus Kyle Fletcher in a steel cage match. Oh, yeah, it was. I heard it was good. I heard it was really good. It was which, okay, this sounds really bad coming from me because accents don't normally bother me.

[00:58:58] Will Ospreay needs a vocal coach. But here's the thing. I think he's dialing it up on purpose because I've heard him give promos before and I never had a problem understanding him. like Insta or he does like a different video. Yeah, okay, I thought so. I thought he was dialing up because I honestly there's some things I couldn't understand.

[00:59:28] I was like, I don't understand what you're saying, Mr. Ospreay, and I'm a fan, but I don't. Honestly, I like that him and Kyle match better than him and Kenny. Kenny, to me, the Kenny one was a little bit too far. It was like, well, that's a that's a Will Ospreay match. Yeah. I mean, frankly, that's a Will Ospreay match. Two matches in one.

[00:59:58] You definitely get your money's worth. Will Ospreay won that match. And finally, we saw Jon Moxley defend his AEW World Championship against Cope. And Christian Cage, which I think this started out as a singles match, right? But didn't Christian Cage like cash in his cash in? Yeah. Which again, Jim Cornett, why would you cash in while the match is still going on?

[01:00:29] Not only that, I always hate a failed cash in to me. Honestly, it lowers the person who does the cash in. Yeah, it does. Yeah. And this is like, it incentivizes you to cheat. So cheat. Don't cash in in the middle of a match. Yeah. Like, wait till someone wins and then come out and attack that person. Like, honestly, especially if you have something against

[01:00:59] Edge, why not wait until he wins and then be him? Yeah. this is not hard, but I guess it's because they wanted to do some kind of spot. I guess so. I guess they just want to give the belt back to Moxley and not to Christian. Well, Moxley was the champion already. Yeah. So I don't know. This feels like Moxley booking. Not going to lie.

[01:01:30] Yeah, it is. Honestly, I think he's in control of the thing in the match. Yeah, it'll be like the least popular movie. Which I actually like Rocky 5. I know I'm a naysayer here. I actually really like Rocky 5. I think it's an underrated. I like it for what it is. I didn't find it as bad as people thought it was. See, to me, it was the next logical step because Rocky had already

[01:02:00] gone the distance, then

[01:02:30] he some people like some people like A.W. pay-per-views. Tony Khan probably hates cone heads. I'm sure he loves Costco too. Tony Khan strikes me as the kind of guy who buys eggs in bowl. A dollar an egg. can't believe it. dollar an egg? Really?

[01:03:00] Yes. In New York or in Costco? New York. Oh, not here. We're still for one. Really? Yeah, we're a little bit cheaper here. It's like for a dozen. It's around eight bucks. I can't I think I paid like five or six. There's like eight for like the sweatshop eggs. Sweatshop eggs.

[01:03:30] Caged and no breaks. No, I buy because I'll be honest. I buy premium eggs because I buy the cage free free roaming grass all that shit and I pay extra for it. Yeah, I pay extra for it. I forget the brand I buy, but it's one of I were like

[01:04:00] 12. See, I think I only I think I only paid like six bucks after tax. It's weird. You should get your groceries delivered from Indiana. Get them from the heartland. Actually, I knew a kid that was selling this is before eggs got stupid. He was selling now like he has his own chickens, right? So these were like he was selling a dozen eggs for five bucks. So it was it was

[01:04:29] primo. That's pretty good. Fresh farm raised. Yeah, I thought to me it was worth it. Yeah, because the other thing is they last longer too. That's the part they don't tell you. If they don't bleach them over here they bleach.

[01:04:59] Yeah, now you can get brown eggs which I prefer because like I'm telling you if you've never had like a fresh it's there's a big difference it's not a day like to the point where after I had one I couldn't even taste like a regular like bleach just that's why Chrome sweatshop eggs because it tastes just like that. They're not even real eggs they're just just it's like they're from they just

[01:05:29] pour that carton of egg product from back in school the powdered eggs which I am glad though because McDonald's breakfast is my kryptonite and nowadays they used to have some product which I mean it's eggs it is but it

[01:05:58] comes out of something that looks like a milk carton so I'm not whereas if you get the round egg it's because I've made them it's a real egg it's probably a crappy egg but it yeah you're you're not you're not too far off from that these days

[01:06:28] but inflation is a bitch which is I can't afford AEW pay-per-views anymore so I'm glad you can tell me whether they're good or not I used to have 50 set aside in my budget in case there's an AEW pay-per-view and I can't do that now damn eggs are too expensive it's like honestly for everything it's yeah everything's gone up it's wild

[01:07:00] absolutely wild well that was AEW revolution and queen of the ring I weeks what is uh Wrestlemania oh

[01:07:30] wow okay yeah it is wow it's like it's like three weeks I think so yeah see that's why I gotta believe they're I I think Cena's gonna win the title yeah yeah Cena will eventually redeem himself and help Cody win the

[01:08:00] title back and yeah I hope not because unless Cody turns hill maybe that's the one where they just full flip reverse and Cody kicks Cena in the nuts yeah except Cody could do that now and he'd be he'd be totally justified well everybody I'm falling

[01:08:30] asleep this has been the down the middle podcast hopefully you enjoyed it go watch queen of the ring watch wrestling check out our sponsors and we will see you guys in a couple weeks and don't miss next week a new episode of weekly wrestling wrap-up will be released which I say new it's not new it's 18 years old but it's new for you it's old new retro I forgot every time every time I watch one of those episodes I totally forget

[01:08:59] and I'm like wow comedy has changed it's funnier than I remember though but some of those shows I'm like ooh not really because I've heard worse oh no and here's the thing it was totally his idea it was totally his idea he just started doing that and we went with it so I

[01:09:46] very offensive funny but offensive ah well this has been down the middle hopefully you enjoyed it please like share and subscribe check us out in two weeks when we'll do our next live stream like I said next week new episode of weekly wrestling wrap up and we