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consultation. Come. The

1:30

show rolls on. It is

1:32

John Pollack, Poison Rana's own,

1:34

Braden Harrington, and from Vero

1:37

Beach, Florida, Jordan Goodman himself.

1:39

Yes, yes, in a bedroom, there's

1:41

a bed behind me, gentlemen. How

1:44

excited. We see that, yes, look

1:46

at that, very, very, we're coming from

1:48

all different points. So I thank you

1:51

both for riding shotgun here for the

1:53

dynamite review. If you would like the

1:55

Excel edition of Rewinded Dynamite, you. get

1:57

all the news of the day. Jordan,

2:00

Braden and I, we just chatted about

2:02

the passing of Steve Michael, some WrestleMania,

2:04

41 reactions from Braden and Jordan, and

2:07

their different viewing experiences of the show.

2:09

Plus, Dwayne Johnson appearing on the Pat

2:11

McAfee show, which was quite the interview

2:14

that DJ participated in on Tuesday. Also,

2:16

you can't forget the kidney stone chat.

2:18

Thanks, Jordan. That's that's what you get

2:21

at the the Excel level. Okay. So

2:23

and yeah, so rest on me and

2:25

detox. Okay. That's what it is. That's

2:28

it. That's it. Yeah, if you detox

2:30

too heavy, you might run into some

2:32

kidney issues. So on that note, got

2:35

to listen to the whole show for

2:37

the proper context there. I can't do

2:39

it any justice. Do want to let

2:42

everybody know we do have a new

2:44

edition of Pollock and Thurston out today

2:46

with the Cubs fan from Lucia blog

2:49

joining us and Thursday for our double

2:51

double and espresso members, Neil Flanagan and

2:53

I are presenting our book club where

2:56

we are chatting about Saraya's new book.

2:59

I remember, Braden, once upon a time,

3:01

you have interviewed one page, did you

3:04

not? Yes, I used to, you know

3:06

what, I still, I still am a

3:08

fan of Soree. I know she's kind

3:10

of stepped away from the wrestling recently,

3:13

but I was a huge fan of

3:15

page in her NIST, WWE run, had

3:17

the pleasure to chat with her. If

3:19

I remember, she was talking about the

3:22

rock, helping her out, I think she

3:24

was helping promote the movie. that she

3:26

did and now she's got a book.

3:29

So isn't it weird that she had

3:31

a movie come out before the book?

3:33

Doesn't it usually go the other way

3:35

around? However, the movie was pretty good

3:38

except, who was Vince Vaughn trying to

3:40

play? I never still never got the

3:42

answer to that. Well, maybe, maybe the

3:44

book, the book is quite a page

3:47

Turner. See? Yeah, very nice. We're moving

3:49

on a dynamite, everyone. Tonight. That's what

3:51

we do here. Now this was not.

3:54

planned at all? I did not even

3:56

realize this till I sat down to

3:58

watch the dynamite tonight. Okay, Jordan knows

4:00

where I'm going here. This is the

4:03

venue. where I first met Jordan Goodman.

4:05

Yes, sir. Yeah. The UNO Lakefront Arena

4:07

in 2018. Yeah, in New Orleans, yeah,

4:09

in New Orleans, greatest city for WrestleMania.

4:12

For those that don't know, I worked

4:14

with the Ring of Honor in a

4:16

branding and communications role for a couple

4:19

years. And my first super card of

4:21

honor was 2018 in this very building.

4:23

And it was, it was, it was,

4:25

it was, it was, very important for

4:28

me to meet one John Pollack on

4:30

that trip amongst many people I met.

4:32

But John I told you you were

4:34

the one I was I was most

4:37

excited to me and that was kind

4:39

of true and we sat for 25

4:41

minutes and chatted. Yeah way just disappeared

4:44

for a long time so you and

4:46

I had a great chat together and

4:48

I said you know what one day

4:50

we'll be we'll be sitting back talking

4:53

kidney stones on a podcast and Jordan

4:55

said it's a deal I'll see you

4:57

soon. Yeah, and not a coincidence at

4:59

all that Jordan Goodman comes to Ring

5:02

of Honor and they draw their biggest

5:04

attendance to date that night in New

5:06

Orleans. Six K sticks around for the

5:09

next year and they and they go

5:11

to Madison Square Garden. That is the

5:13

Jordan Goodman effect right there. Why not

5:15

on top brother? Well tonight's, tonight's edition

5:18

of Dynamite, did it draw 6,000? It

5:20

did not. Russell ticks reporting at. 2100

5:22

tickets distributed so I do feel the

5:24

shows like they are I think they

5:27

had really hit kind of like their

5:29

their valley towards the end of 2024

5:31

these are more energetic shows I'm generally

5:34

enjoying the shows but we haven't really

5:36

seen the attendance hit that it's not

5:38

affected the attendance yet and like we

5:40

will see over time if that starts

5:43

to trickle up but thus far like

5:45

they're generally and You know, tell me

5:47

if you think differently, Braden, like it

5:49

does seem like they're well received shows,

5:52

but it's like they are kind of

5:54

stuck in that gear when it comes

5:56

to selling tickets, at least for the

5:59

TV right now. The paper views are

6:01

still doing fine ticket wise. Like everyone's

6:03

complaining, obviously we're coming off. of WrestleMania

6:05

Weekend were all wrestled out, but like,

6:08

Wrestlemania tickets were basically a mortgage on

6:10

your home to get a family of

6:12

four to go to it, essentially. But

6:14

AEW still is like not necessarily cheap.

6:17

So that could be an issue, especially,

6:19

you know, in these, these hard times,

6:21

brother, maybe just make things a little

6:24

bit more affordable, and I feel like

6:26

that actually might. help bring more people

6:28

or give to promotion, give tickets away

6:30

sometimes like W. C. W. W. F.

6:33

They used to do it all the

6:35

time like there feels like there would

6:37

be people going to this if they

6:39

maybe they knew about it and it

6:42

was affordable. But that is I also

6:44

do think is is an issue. But

6:46

also W. W. Just so hot right

6:49

now maybe people would rather spend their

6:51

money to go see the the the

6:53

A show to go see the hot,

6:55

you know, the hot, you know the

6:58

hot product. I don't know, like I

7:00

still think AW has been on this

7:02

uprise of the content. I'm curious, Jordan's

7:04

thoughts as well as someone who has

7:07

probably, you know, navigated these issues. And

7:09

I'd push back on that braid and

7:11

I actually went to dynamite in Baltimore

7:14

a couple weeks ago and I was

7:16

looking at ticket master as I tend

7:18

to do and you can get in

7:20

for like 30 bucks or less if

7:23

you went with a few people. If

7:25

anything parking cost more than it could

7:27

have. cost to get in the building

7:29

and in these smaller college arenas just

7:32

about every seat is a good seat

7:34

and to your point John like these

7:36

recent shows have been solid the recent

7:39

crowds have been really engaged and hot

7:41

and I think it just takes time

7:43

look T&A is in the past year

7:45

and obviously there's been many things that

7:48

have helped like the WWE relationship. but

7:50

they've just been slow and steady with

7:52

consistency for years now and it's taken

7:54

as much time for it to start

7:57

to pay off. Same may be true

7:59

for this company. I think there is

8:01

a certain level of like that patience

8:04

if you believe you're putting out a

8:06

product that you are happy with and

8:08

no one is ever going to be

8:10

you know 100% approving of the product

8:13

you're putting out but I'm just looking

8:15

to like last week and that was

8:17

so much buzz that came off of

8:19

that that spring breakthrough that I really

8:22

believe was one of their best dynamites

8:24

to date and you can't do that

8:26

every week but. I think you want

8:29

to be able to capitalize on certain

8:31

areas like when WW is not doing

8:33

house shows, there's a lot of markets

8:35

that are not being served any longer

8:38

and we hear every week of fans

8:40

that are just stating like I just

8:42

can't afford to go to these shows

8:44

anymore and there is like these are

8:47

still wrestling fans like there are areas

8:49

that you should aggressively market if you

8:51

are AEW of being something that is

8:54

can capitalize on these areas that WWE

8:56

can not fulfill. And so maybe part

8:58

of it is a marketing issue. So

9:00

Master P opened the show, obviously. He

9:03

has the connection to the university and

9:05

obviously the city of New Orleans. From

9:07

my understanding, this was announced today that

9:09

he'd be appearing maybe yesterday. I'm curious

9:12

how much if at all, there was

9:14

a partnership with Master P the past

9:16

month to market this show locally or

9:19

not. Yeah, I mean I didn't hear

9:21

about this till yesterday like there was

9:23

no and this might have just been

9:25

a last-minute deal put together But that's

9:28

it's other things like if you can

9:30

build those kinds of relationships and markets

9:32

and have that kind of on-the-ground Marketing

9:34

push and getting someone like like honestly

9:37

like doing local media There's probably a

9:39

lot more local media that is interested

9:41

in talking to a master pee than

9:44

you know random AEW wrestler as well,

9:46

but yes, this was our The local

9:48

media when they come here wasn't there

9:50

wasn't really any when they've come to

9:53

markets outside of Toronto like I'm in

9:55

Toronto and like outside of Ontario outside

9:57

of the city in Ontario they ran

9:59

all these other little shows was with

10:02

collisions or whatnot and. I work in

10:04

some local media and I'll tell you,

10:06

we didn't do advertising and I was

10:09

like shocked, especially the city of Hamilton,

10:11

London, Ontario. So it made me question,

10:13

are you doing this like everywhere you

10:15

go? Like is there not a promo

10:18

team or people that go out there

10:20

and help spread the word? Like when

10:22

WEE comes to town, my phone is

10:24

riddled with ads, I'm getting it on,

10:27

you know, not really listening to the

10:29

radio, but you hear it and you

10:31

see it everywhere, it's not quite the

10:34

same with AEW. In defense of the

10:36

company, I know from experience. Now Ring

10:38

of Honor, Sinclair Ring of Honor, it

10:40

was nowhere near the level of AEW.

10:43

I mean, they're on TBS and TNT,

10:45

same time every week. And they

10:47

certainly are getting a lot

10:49

of income for the distribution

10:51

rights. I don't know the

10:53

inner workings of this company.

10:55

I have friends in the

10:57

company. I don't ask them

11:00

about how the company is

11:02

structured, etc. When I was

11:04

working at Ring of Honor,

11:06

I kind of was the

11:08

extent of the marketing department

11:10

on top of the communications

11:12

department on top of the

11:14

branding department. I think people

11:16

would be really surprised to

11:18

learn how small of a

11:20

crew we were for the

11:22

output. Now AEW obviously has

11:25

more muscle, but there is

11:27

a lot that goes into

11:29

running a wrestling promotion 365

11:31

days a year that most

11:33

people just don't consider. Yes,

11:35

would it be ideal to

11:37

really sit down and come

11:39

up with a really strong...

11:42

a far-reaching marketing plan for the

11:44

New Orleans market for this one

11:46

episode of dynamite. Sure, of course

11:48

it would be, but there's also

11:50

700 other things that are important

11:52

to at any given day. So

11:54

again, I don't know how they're

11:56

structured, but I will say into.

11:58

Like, it is not easy to

12:00

do this day in and day

12:02

out. And it's also a company

12:04

that is only now coming into

12:06

this really sizable television deal that

12:08

I'm very curious of like a

12:10

lot of this. It's like, I

12:13

don't think anyone is watching AW

12:15

and saying, oh, you know what,

12:17

the roster is just not at

12:19

a certain level. Like that is

12:21

not, to me, you always want

12:23

to be replenishing and scouting. I

12:25

think looking for younger town, that's

12:27

always a very big priority. building

12:29

the infrastructure that I really hope

12:31

this television deal like we look

12:33

18 months from now and you

12:35

see like the merchandise increases and

12:37

and promotion and marketing and kind

12:39

of building like the like that

12:41

that is what I don't think

12:43

people appreciate of like this just

12:45

monster that WWE has created internally

12:47

and it's the names that you've

12:49

never heard of that these departments

12:51

that go so many people deep

12:53

that are doing these specific tasks

12:55

on a daily basis and you

12:57

know it's just this is still

12:59

a five-year company that there's you're

13:02

going to be wearing a lot

13:04

of hats and there are going

13:06

to be you are going to

13:08

be spread thin even as they're

13:10

at this stage as a national

13:12

touring company. But yes, Master P

13:14

started things off, of course, reuniting

13:16

with Tony Shavani, going back to

13:18

the No Limit Soldiers Days, and

13:20

Master Pee is out. Oh my

13:22

God, look at that. He got

13:24

it, that just for... I just

13:26

love Master P so much. Yeah,

13:28

that's right. I did it for

13:30

this show. He introduces the new

13:32

Trios champions, Joe Shabbata and Hobbs

13:34

and Joe, just like a kid

13:36

on Christmas morning. Make him say,

13:38

oh, and he thanks Master P.

13:40

All he does for New Orleans

13:42

and the student athletes. So Master

13:44

P cuts a promo, I thought

13:46

Master P was great here. And

13:48

Marina Shifir comes to distract leading

13:51

to the death riders blindsiding the

13:53

champions. Moxley and Master P. Go

13:55

face to face to face. I

13:57

was so excited for physicality between

13:59

these two. But it's Joe, applying

14:01

the Kokina. clutch as Master P

14:03

just tackles on the microphone. I

14:05

was about to call him Mr.

14:07

P. I just wrote down a

14:09

shorthand here. So he's choking out

14:11

Moxley and this was pretty much

14:13

the Gunther Pat McAfee angle with

14:15

Moxley choking, being choked out and

14:17

selling just like Pat McAfee did

14:19

on Monday. The young bucks and

14:21

Okata run out to stop Joe

14:23

with a chair and then swerve

14:25

shows up. So it's just new

14:27

person showing up. It's all the

14:29

baby faces out. The Bucks and

14:31

Okata exit the ring to get

14:33

away from Swerve, but as they're

14:35

going up the aisle, Kenny Omega

14:37

comes out, so you get another

14:39

pop. He's got a chair, so

14:42

the Bucks and Okata bailed through

14:44

the crowd, and all the baby

14:46

faces are left in the ring

14:48

as Joe accepts the challenge laid

14:50

out by Moxley. He's gonna take

14:52

his title back, and they announced

14:54

this for May 14th on the

14:56

beach break edition. of the major

14:58

stars out there in these first

15:00

15 minutes? It was hard for

15:02

me to not make the comparison

15:04

of Travis Scott to Master Pete.

15:06

However, a big difference in that

15:08

one is arguably the most successful

15:10

rapper today and the other was

15:12

maybe in that conversation a few

15:14

decades ago. Let's not forget an

15:16

alumni of the Toronto Raptors as

15:18

well. Sure. And what came to

15:20

mind was like... Pre-T-K-O-I-S, W-W-E felt

15:22

like it was a bit more

15:24

aged in who it was reaching,

15:26

but like middle-aged, elderly people, especially

15:28

in just in their cultural residence,

15:31

whereas A-W felt like hot and

15:33

young and fresh, and in only

15:35

a few years, and especially post-T-K-O,

15:37

it kind of feels like it's

15:39

been flipped. I don't know if

15:41

you guys feel similar. I feel

15:43

like AW. They've had shack, but

15:45

like WW's had bad bunny and

15:47

streamers and all these other like

15:49

current more up-to-date kind of things.

15:51

WWW has done a fantastic job

15:53

with the celebrities it has ingrained

15:55

itself in. Like that has, like

15:57

it was only a few years

15:59

ago that we were starting off

16:01

Smackdown with ACDC, you know what

16:03

I mean? And it's just, it's

16:05

gotten, like they have gone after

16:07

celebrities that are way more relevant

16:09

to. their youngest audience. Like to

16:11

be fair Master P obviously has

16:13

the wrestling history, the connection, no

16:15

limit, you know, all that stuff.

16:17

So it's like, okay, at least

16:19

like there is that. And I

16:22

think maybe they could have hit

16:24

it over the head a little

16:26

bit. You're mentioning city, like where

16:28

they were today and everything, like

16:30

there could have been a bigger

16:32

connection there, but it also like.

16:34

One of the highlights of the

16:36

show was just him punching Moxley

16:38

while he was in the sleeper

16:40

in the cocina clutch. You could

16:42

tell this was not like a

16:44

bit they rehearsed. He was just

16:46

like, yeah, I'm gonna get mine

16:48

in there too. So he was

16:50

bout it, bout it, Master Pete.

16:52

Weird that he was on dynamite,

16:54

but I didn't hate it. I

16:56

enjoyed Master Pee here. I thought

16:58

he was not offensive in terms

17:00

of the presentation here and it

17:02

did get the crowd like into

17:04

things right off the gate and

17:06

just all this like the procession

17:08

of all the baby faces that

17:11

are eyeing this belt as well

17:13

with Joe at the forefront for

17:15

the next challenge. Ricochet and Mark

17:17

Brisco is our first match of

17:19

the show and Ricochet he starts

17:21

smacking Brisco's bald head and lots

17:23

of playing to the audience by

17:25

by Ricochet he was very entertaining

17:27

here. Brisco would catch Ricochet off

17:29

of a springboard into an exporter

17:31

and then a sliding deconnects misses

17:33

the froggy bow and after snapping

17:35

the throat on the top Ricochet

17:37

hits this beautiful springboard 450 this

17:39

looked amazing so much at the

17:41

crowd they still chanted at him

17:43

you still suck even though this

17:45

was a really tremendous hit springboard

17:47

for 50. And then it's Brisco

17:49

with a somersault dive through the

17:51

ropes, huge lariat inside, and then

17:53

Ricochet catches him, stacks him using

17:55

the rope for leverage and Brisco.

17:57

just reverses gets on top and

17:59

hooks the leg and gets what

18:02

I thought was like the surprise

18:04

win here as Mark Briscoe goes

18:06

over and ricochet attacks him with

18:08

a chair afterwards and pulls out

18:10

the scissors with Kevin Knight running

18:12

out stopping ricochet and taking the

18:14

scissors away from him and as

18:16

he gets into the ring he

18:18

has to tell Briscoe no no

18:20

no I'm not I'm not here

18:22

to stab you he was putting

18:24

Mark Briscoe at ease and obviously

18:26

this is a direction Jordan that

18:28

they're going with Kevin Knight and Ricochet

18:30

at some future date. Yeah,

18:32

I enjoyed the whole presentation.

18:35

First of all, Mark Briscoe,

18:37

one of the kindest, hardest-working

18:39

dependable people you could know

18:41

or work with. I was

18:43

pleasantly surprised to see the outcome.

18:45

In fact, it was hard for me

18:47

to get emotionally invested in the

18:49

match because I thought there's no

18:51

way that Briscoe would win this

18:53

match. And then it kept going.

18:55

and then it kept building and

18:58

I'm like, huh, I want to get

19:00

into this but there's no way.

19:02

And then he won. With

19:04

the rollup and ultimately the

19:06

the whole deal moved the

19:09

ricochet character forward, but nice

19:11

to see Mark Briscoe pull

19:13

out the win. Also, small

19:15

note, but that's kind of

19:17

what is interesting to me

19:19

on the ricochet announce coming

19:21

out to ring. Show some

19:24

love for ricochet. is part

19:26

of his ring introduction. And

19:28

to me, it's those small

19:30

differentiators from everyone else that add

19:32

up to getting someone over. I think

19:34

Ricochet has done the best work of

19:37

his career the past few months in

19:39

AW. When I used to watch him

19:41

in W. I'd watch him cut promos

19:43

and I could just feel he's in

19:45

his head. That's where the energy is.

19:48

He's thinking about it. Now he's

19:50

more embodied. He's living or

19:52

he's fully embodying the character

19:54

work, meaning I believe it

19:56

more. I feel it more.

19:59

It's wonderful. If

20:44

you work in quality control at

20:47

a candy factory, you know strict

20:49

safety regulations come with the job.

20:51

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done. That

41:57

would be my thought right now, but more

41:59

importantly, I think with Hangman and Osprey, you

42:01

get like three plus weeks of like

42:04

everyone that'll be arguing back and

42:06

forth of like what like you

42:08

can conceivably see either guy winning

42:10

where I don't think you get

42:12

that same dynamic with Fletcher going

42:14

to the finals with Osprey. That's

42:16

a huge pay-per-view match to be

42:18

honest. Hangman versus Osprey, that's that

42:20

sells it for me right away.

42:22

That sounds like an awesome match

42:24

of the year candidate and I

42:27

think at this point A-A-W fans.

42:29

We don't care if it's Osprey,

42:31

Hangman, Ricky Morton, someone just please

42:33

take that title. I guess not

42:35

Ricky after tonight. Please just take

42:37

the title. I think the the

42:39

layup would be just you're doing

42:41

Osprey, but if you continue to

42:43

just tease your fans and give

42:45

Osprey finally that win. next year

42:47

at Wembley. I think it would make

42:49

it feel like him finishing his story

42:51

in a kind of in a kind

42:54

of way. So in a way,

42:56

maybe hangman is the get the

42:58

cowboy winning in Texas. In Texas.

43:00

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That that it's

43:03

a wonderful buildup. Look, I think

43:05

Osprey would be a wonderful top

43:07

baby face for this promotion. He

43:09

really has a wonderful connection emotionally

43:11

with with the audience on top

43:14

of obviously consistently, consistently phenomenal. But

43:16

Hangman, he's been there since the

43:18

beginning. He's been there even before

43:20

the beginning with the ROH produced

43:22

all in in 2018. He was a

43:25

part of that. It's part of the

43:27

elite. This was the formation of AEW.

43:29

I Wikipedia did some of this during

43:31

the show, but a double or nothing

43:34

2019 AEW's first paper view. Who

43:36

opened that? It was a battle royal.

43:38

won by Hangman, eliminating MJF at

43:40

the end of it. You

43:42

go on to the next

43:44

paper view, the first in

43:46

the dynamite era. It's Hangman

43:48

versus Jericho for the inaugural

43:50

World Championship. Hangman doesn't get

43:53

it done. So if we're thinking

43:55

back on just the history of

43:57

this promotion, in many ways, it's

43:59

the. story If

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needs to inspect, detect, and help

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