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which we hear from John

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and Waite. Hello.

1:17

It is John Pollack joining me

1:19

tonight. Kate from Montreal. We

1:21

are about to get into AEW's

1:24

spring breakthrough edition of the

1:26

show as they reached episode 289.

1:28

And we are going to be going

1:30

through quite the two plus hours

1:32

of television that AEW produced. A quick

1:34

note off the top is that

1:36

here on the YouTube channel, we will

1:38

be live on Thursday at noon

1:40

Eastern. Myself and John Sino as we

1:42

start off our WrestleMania week. daily

1:44

shows. And then we'll be exclusively on

1:47

the cafe Friday at noon, Saturday

1:49

at noon. Sino and Kate have you

1:51

covered. And then Sunday, Brandon Davey

1:53

will be live at noon chatting, stand

1:55

and deliver. And we will be

1:57

live as well after both nights

1:59

of WrestleMania Saturday. And Sunday night. But

2:01

we are not going to waste

2:03

any time. We are getting into

2:05

spring breakthrough from the MGM Music

2:08

Hall at Fenway in Boston, Massachusetts.

2:10

The WrestleTix number was 3 ,181,

2:12

which Tony Schiavone on the broadcast

2:14

did call it a sellout. And

2:16

this place looked packed, Kate. I

2:18

mean, it did not look like

2:20

there was any room in this.

2:22

What did you think about this

2:25

venue? It was one that I'm

2:27

sure there's never been wrestling at

2:29

this venue. continues

2:31

the pattern. AEW has been looking at a

2:33

lot of music halls and venues of this

2:35

size. Anyone

2:37

who listens to Collision Chorus regularly knows that

2:39

I've been a huge fan of this

2:41

transition to smaller venues that are just packed

2:44

really tight. I like this. It looked

2:46

like there were people pretty much swinging from

2:48

the rafters to fit in. I would

2:50

say that it actually came as a contrast

2:52

to the show on Saturday, which is

2:54

one of the only times I haven't liked

2:56

the venue that they were in because

2:58

the one on Saturday, There were

3:00

these wide staircases everywhere, so it looked

3:02

kind of empty just because there weren't

3:05

seats. Here, it was like just everything

3:07

was crowded in. It looked like a

3:09

fire marshal's nightmare, but I am assuming

3:11

that they know what they're doing. They

3:13

would not have, in fact, they

3:16

would not have

3:18

allowed more people in

3:20

than were allowed

3:22

by law. Well,

3:24

at the top, we get the

3:26

announcement that Hook will not be

3:28

in the main event. The Deathriders

3:30

have taken Hook out, and Joe

3:32

and Shibata... are going to go

3:35

it alone for the trios belts,

3:37

which kind of made no sense

3:39

on its face, but they would

3:41

have backup ready. And this was

3:43

their explanation for Taz not being

3:45

at the desk for the night.

3:47

So we had Excalibur and Tony

3:49

Schiavone. And so we had heard

3:51

last week that during the main

3:53

event that Hook had apparently vomited

3:55

during the match. Oh, it was

3:57

visible. Yeah, I totally missed

3:59

it. So did not even see

4:01

it. But my thought, Kate, the

4:03

fact that we got no visual

4:05

or any angle even shot with

4:07

Hook is I'm just guessing he

4:09

was not cleared for tonight. Yeah,

4:12

my guess was that they didn't say

4:14

anything because they wanted to bring him

4:16

in and see if he was cleared.

4:18

I'm guessing because he threw up in

4:20

the ring that he might have taken

4:22

a shot to the head. That could

4:24

be concussion related. They brought him in.

4:27

Had the doctors check him. He was not cleared. So it's

4:29

like, okay, we got to do something. Yeah. It's

4:31

kind of weird that this is

4:33

the second time in a few weeks

4:35

that they've done a Death Riders

4:38

attacked people with no camera evidence whatsoever.

4:40

And they've been taken out for

4:42

an indefinite period of time. But yeah,

4:44

and it made sense that Taz

4:46

wasn't there as a result. But yeah,

4:48

hope that Hook is okay. Well,

4:51

we are starting things off with Mercedes

4:53

Monet against Athena in the semifinals of

4:55

the Owen Hart Cup. And this crowd

4:57

is going nuts for the beginning of

4:59

this match. There's a holy shit chant

5:01

as soon as the bell rings. And

5:03

this crowd did not come down for

5:05

the duration of this match. And they

5:07

have this intense collar and elbow tie

5:09

up that they hold on going to

5:11

the ramp and all the way up

5:14

to the entrance. They

5:16

continue on, and we see Athena.

5:18

At one point, she is hung upside

5:20

down from the bottom rope with

5:22

her feet hanging on, and Monet misses

5:24

the double knees going to the

5:26

floor. So Athena then pulls herself up

5:29

and turns into this almost like

5:31

an O -face to the floor, hitting

5:33

the stunner, and we go through the

5:35

break. Crowds are chanting back and

5:37

forth of CEO, fallen goddess. We had

5:39

a series of tombstone reversals. Both

5:41

were struggling on some of these reversals,

5:43

but it ends with a gut

5:45

buster from Mercedes. And then in the

5:48

ring, Mercedes hits a tornado DDT.

5:50

And I guess she didn't feel it

5:52

was smooth enough because she followed

5:54

up with like this perfect looking one

5:56

after it. And it's Athena who.

5:58

Regains the advantage, hits these power

6:00

bombs in succession. And then Athena

6:02

starts stomping her. And we see

6:05

this spot that I don't think

6:07

I've ever seen this before. Athena.

6:09

That is laying on the middle

6:11

rope while Mercedes runs across the

6:13

edge and gets power slammed onto

6:15

the edge of the apron. This

6:17

looks really cool. And then we

6:19

have Athena applying the statement maker.

6:21

It's reversed by Bonet and then

6:23

Athena getting out after a cover.

6:25

Both end up on top of

6:27

the barricade, slapping one another. And

6:29

then after a shotgun blast dropkick,

6:31

the O -Face gets caught by

6:33

Mercedes in the ring and turns

6:35

it into an O 'Connor. role and

6:37

while the announcers called no attention

6:39

to it it did look like

6:41

she was holding the tights but

6:43

they the announcers made no kind

6:45

of like they didn't make that

6:47

any kind of plot point here

6:49

this one goes 21 minutes and

6:51

12 seconds and you know there

6:53

was like the odd hiccup but

6:55

I thought this was just a

6:57

tremendous opener that they had it

6:59

was a great atmosphere and I

7:01

was like Looking at this card,

7:03

Kate, this card looked incredible on

7:06

paper. And the only caveat was,

7:08

man, are any of these matches

7:10

going to get rushed? And I

7:12

think we got two 21 -minute

7:14

matches on this show. They certainly

7:16

did not waste any time. And

7:18

this certainly got more time than

7:20

I thought it was going to. Yeah,

7:23

I think that people had a sense

7:25

of occasion that this was the first

7:27

time they were meeting. Not in AEW.

7:29

This is the first match they've had.

7:31

And you definitely got this vibe

7:34

that these are two women

7:36

who have been thinking for a

7:38

long time about moves and

7:40

sequences that they want to try

7:42

together. Because there was some

7:44

really inventive stuff going on here.

7:46

And yeah, some of it

7:48

looked a little wild. I don't

7:50

think that detracted from it for

7:53

me. There are times when if

7:55

a match looks messy, that yeah,

7:57

it does really bring it down.

7:59

But I find when the overall

8:01

caliber of the match is this

8:03

good, a little bit of roughness

8:05

means a little bit of reality.

8:07

These shouldn't be super smooth all

8:09

the time. So I didn't mind

8:11

that in this case because I

8:14

just thought that overall the match

8:16

was so strong. I

8:18

think that Mercedes grabbing

8:20

the tights does leave open

8:22

the door for a

8:24

rematch between the two of

8:27

them. Thinking it all

8:29

in, but that's just speculation.

8:32

This was a challenge, too,

8:34

because they had to live

8:36

up to the hype of

8:38

this being their first matchup.

8:40

So you want that to

8:42

feel really important. You want

8:44

it to meet the anticipation. but

8:47

you also want to

8:49

leave just enough on the

8:51

table that there's more

8:53

to do in future matches

8:55

than it will be. So,

8:59

yeah, it was a tremendous match.

9:01

On most shows, this would probably be

9:03

your match of the show, but

9:05

they would have a lot to contend

9:07

with later on in this show.

9:09

Afterward... So the winner of this will

9:11

face the winner of Jamie Hayter

9:13

and Chris Statlander, who they announced for

9:15

next Wednesday show in New Orleans.

9:17

And then we had Tony Storm just

9:19

appearing in the crowd at the

9:21

end, applauding Mercedes. Renee is

9:23

in the back with Hangman Page

9:25

and the Young Bucks appear along

9:27

with Okada. And Nick Jackson did

9:29

a first here. He worked the

9:31

prayer our father into his promo

9:33

here. And they explained that they

9:35

can fix Hangman's issue with the

9:38

Deathriders. And get

9:40

them onto their side. And you can go

9:42

on. You can win the Owen. You can win

9:44

the title. And they can help

9:46

him out. And Hangman is just kind of,

9:48

he has no response to any of this.

9:50

And then Okada asks why he's so angry

9:52

all the time. He needs to smile more.

9:54

And when Hangman walks off, he calls him

9:56

a bitch. And this upset Hangman. Tuka

9:59

Rask was shown from the

10:01

Boston Bruins. And we got the

10:03

Stanley Cup appearing on Dynamite.

10:05

Another first. Hangman Page is

10:07

out and the wild card. It

10:09

is Canadian -owned Josh Alexander, one of

10:11

our last exports to the U .S.

10:13

here. I don't know if he got

10:15

like a 10%. Did he cost

10:17

some more money? Yeah, he might. I

10:19

hope he got maybe a bump

10:21

here. But he is out. What did

10:23

you think about the choice for

10:25

the wild card pick? I

10:28

think he was the most popular choice.

10:30

There were a lot of

10:32

other names kind of circling.

10:34

The challenge was always going

10:36

to be... debuting someone and

10:39

then probably having them take

10:41

a loss right off. So

10:43

the finesse was in handling

10:45

that. Jobs

10:47

Alexander is super impressive in

10:49

ring. I'm a little nervous

10:51

that he hasn't impressed me

10:53

with his character work or

10:55

mic skills necessarily because my

10:57

god AEW has a lot

10:59

of people who are very

11:02

good professional wrestlers. For

11:04

him to stand out and to

11:07

kind of make himself distinct from

11:09

other people. So

11:11

we had a really good match between

11:13

these two. They ended up getting 13

11:15

minutes. And we have Alexander taking over

11:17

during the break. And after a German,

11:19

Page lands on his feet, hits a

11:21

rolling lariat. The Orihara moonsault connects to

11:23

the floor by Page and then hits

11:25

a liger bomb in the ring. Alexander

11:27

then spins him off the shoulders and

11:29

applies the ankle lock. Page gets out

11:31

of that with an enziguri and into

11:34

a tombstone for a near fall. Sets

11:36

up for the buckshot, but Josh rolls

11:38

out to the edge and catches Page

11:40

and drops him onto the edge of

11:42

the apron and does his running cross

11:44

body from behind, sending Page off. And

11:46

then another ankle lock is attempted. This

11:48

time, Page kicks him off, and as

11:50

Alexander bounces off the ropes, he's caught

11:52

in a small package by Hangman, and

11:54

Hangman gets the win. 13 .03, setting

11:56

up. Hangman and Kyle Fletcher in the

11:59

semifinals. What did you think about Josh

12:01

Alexander's AEW debut? And we will get

12:03

to the post -match, which I thought was

12:05

maybe even more important than the match,

12:07

that they had an idea for this

12:09

guy beyond just coming in and having

12:11

a good match. Well, this

12:13

was a very good match. I

12:15

thought, again, had some very creative sponsors.

12:18

That one where, I guess, Alexander

12:20

was on the barricade. Hangman just comes

12:22

at like... of does a lariat

12:24

basically off the ramp, which was a

12:26

very cool looking spot, very well

12:28

shot to. AEW's not always great with

12:31

the camera angles. I thought that

12:33

their camera work was pretty good tonight.

12:35

But as far as Alexander's debut

12:37

is concerned, I thought very well handled.

12:39

There were a number of spots.

12:41

where he was made to look smart.

12:44

And that can feed into a

12:46

character for him, being experienced and technically

12:48

proficient, but also just a very

12:50

clever wrestler. The other thing, of course,

12:52

is that he lost, but did

12:54

he lose really? It was a fluke

12:56

that he got pinned. So he

12:59

does not look weak coming out of

13:01

this at all, even more so

13:03

when you talk about the post -match. Our

13:06

WrestleMania week coverage begins on Thursday,

13:08

April the 17th. Tune in daily on

13:10

the cafe at noon Eastern to

13:12

join myself, John Ceno, Kate from Montreal,

13:14

Brayden Harrington and Davey Portman, and

13:17

many others from the post -wrestling community.

13:19

We also have Rewind Away covering the

13:21

life of Jumbo Saruta, Book Club

13:23

featuring Neil Flanagan and myself reading Hell

13:25

in Boots by Soraya, and we

13:27

will have coverage of TNA Rebellion. It's

13:29

all happening at post -wrestlingcafe.com. $6 gets

13:32

you in the door. Yeah.

13:34

So Fletcher and Callis come

13:36

out and Fletcher and Hangman start

13:38

fighting on the ramp. And

13:40

there's this big lariat by page.

13:42

And you see Don Callis

13:44

whispering something into Josh's ear. And

13:47

he comes in and he

13:49

attacks Hangman from behind as Kyle

13:51

powders out of the ring

13:53

and power bombs Hangman and leaves

13:55

him there for Kyle to

13:57

hit him with a brain buster.

14:00

I really like this. Number one, it's

14:02

like you're playing off natural history here

14:04

with Callis and Josh Alexander. You've done

14:06

the teases of new members coming in

14:08

with the injuries that have hit the

14:10

Callis family. But more importantly, we have

14:12

a lot of guys that show up

14:14

and he could have just had a

14:16

great match and that was it. But

14:18

instead, it feels like he's got an

14:20

angle here. He has a reason to

14:22

have a rematch with Hangman. Him

14:25

being paired with Kyle Fletcher is like

14:27

that's... a near top guy to be

14:29

positioned with. So I really liked this

14:31

introduction because it felt by the end

14:33

of it, that we have more than

14:35

just an introduction for Josh plan. We

14:37

actually have like an angle laid out

14:39

as well. Exactly. I thought overall, that's

14:41

a good debut. Yeah. I

14:43

thought well handled. I,

14:45

I suspect like, I feel

14:47

like callous in that whole

14:49

group has felt. more

14:52

important over the last few months. So

14:54

this is a good time to, to bring

14:56

someone in. Like they immediately feel like

14:58

part of the top heel stapler, one of,

15:00

one of the top heel staples, a

15:02

lot of staples in this company. There's a

15:04

lot to keep track of, uh, including

15:06

the patriarchy who we go to backstage. And

15:08

Nick Wayne is with Kip Sabian and

15:10

mother Wayne. And he talks about Christian cage

15:12

being at home. Um, but then he

15:14

turns 90 degrees and realizes Christian is right

15:16

there. And he confronts Nick Wayne. He

15:18

says, Cage, you wouldn't have

15:20

been able to live with yourself if

15:22

Cope became champion before you did. That's the

15:24

reason you executed your contract at Revolution. Cage

15:27

says he likes the side of Nick

15:29

Wayne. And I let you have this time

15:31

over the past month. And I got

15:33

you booked in the best of the Super

15:35

Juniors tournament. So look at that. Maybe

15:37

Ghetto is going to be calling Christian. He

15:39

needs a replacement now for Bushi. Can

15:41

you get someone else booked too? And he

15:43

says that... He's going to keep him

15:45

busy and prepare him for this best of

15:47

the super juniors. And he'll face commander

15:49

tomorrow night for the ROH television title. And

15:51

he gives him a slap and tells

15:53

him not to let his father down. So,

15:55

uh, Christian has returned. And, um, I,

15:58

I think this will, uh, I

16:00

think all of this is eventually going to lead to,

16:02

uh, to Christian and cope. And now he is back

16:04

on TV. I think this will be the slow road

16:06

to all in that. That is my thought, Kate. Yeah.

16:08

My, my guess. I think we

16:11

all know where the patriarchy is

16:13

heading. It's just, how they're going

16:15

to get there. And yeah, having

16:17

Nick Siddur and the others kind

16:19

of turn on Christian, thus

16:21

effecting a babyface turn

16:23

for Christian is most

16:25

likely. They

16:27

recapped what I thought was a

16:29

great angle with FTR on the

16:31

weekend. First with Tony Schiavone and

16:33

then taking out Daniel Garcia. I

16:35

mean, Tony Schiavone was great in

16:38

this angle on Saturday. And even

16:40

Nigel, too. It's like even Nigel

16:42

begrudgingly is like, I can't let

16:44

them kill this guy. And Schiavone

16:46

explains that FTR had been suspended

16:48

for one week and fined one

16:50

week's pay. If

16:52

I'm Shivani, that's kind of a piss

16:54

off. It's like these guys were literally going

16:56

to beat me to death in the

16:58

ring. And the punishment is they get suspended.

17:00

They get a week's vacation. Yes,

17:02

unpaid. But really? It

17:05

didn't happen in a locker room.

17:07

It was one week. One week.

17:09

That's all they have to deal

17:12

with. The Hurt Syndicate against

17:14

the Gates of Agony was next for

17:16

the tag titles. And the Gates of

17:18

Agony, they got out to a very

17:20

aggressive start. I

17:22

don't know, maybe, Kate, if you feel the

17:24

same way, but it does feel to me

17:27

that, like, the Hurt Syndicate, it does feel

17:29

like the most... The

17:31

complaint that has been so prevalent has been

17:33

these guys like they're super cool, but they

17:35

just are killing these people so much. And

17:37

it feels like there is a more concerted

17:39

effort now that, yes, they're going to win

17:41

this match, but they're going to sell a

17:43

lot now during these matches. And you've got

17:45

MVP on commentary to put over the challengers

17:47

as well. So it's not so much of

17:49

a just one sided nature because they got

17:52

they gave quite a lot of offense to

17:54

con in this match. It was the most

17:56

selling I've seen Bobby Lashley do since he

17:58

has gotten to AEW. Lashley

18:02

First off, he's taking the clotheslines from

18:04

Toa while he's in and then goes

18:06

for the hurt lock. Khan breaks it

18:08

up. But then Benjamin super kicks Khan,

18:10

hits the Germans. And after Toa lands

18:12

on the floor, Toa lands on the

18:14

floor and he doesn't see the oncoming

18:16

traffic that is Bobby Lashley, who spears

18:18

him from the side. And this is

18:20

like that scene in Final Destination where

18:23

a guy just gets hit by the

18:25

bus out of nowhere. So there's a

18:27

step up knee by Benjamin and a

18:29

spear by Lashley to pin Khan in

18:31

nine minutes. And 13 seconds. I would

18:33

say I thought this one like overperformed

18:35

against my expectations that I didn't have

18:37

too many high hopes for this beyond

18:39

just like a hurt syndicate squash. And

18:41

this was more than that. And I

18:43

felt the gates of agony. They looked

18:46

fine in this match. Yeah, I

18:48

thought that they look good. The only problem they

18:50

seem to be running into was with Toliona.

18:52

He slipped a couple of times. And I think

18:54

he needs to talk to Mike Bailey's like. foot

18:57

person because he needs to make sure

18:59

that if he's going to continue doing the

19:01

barefoot wrestling that he can get a

19:03

good stable base. Because the first time it

19:05

happened, I'm like, oh, did he do

19:07

that on purpose? And then it happened like

19:10

– a couple of times more. He

19:12

tagged in at one point and he like

19:14

tripped over the bottom rope. So, I

19:16

mean, maybe Mike Baila can go a little

19:18

light instead of a hundred grand on

19:20

sneakers and maybe, you know, spare a little

19:22

bit for... A little foot chalk or

19:25

something for Toa. But yeah, I thought that

19:27

they're a team who's done pretty well.

19:29

Like if you follow ROH, which I know

19:31

not many people do, they've been a

19:33

force there for a while. I think that,

19:35

yeah, they made a good sort of

19:37

compromise because... It seemed kind of obvious that

19:40

we were heading towards murder machines versus

19:42

the Hart Syndicate, which would have been a

19:44

much more serious opponent. These guys

19:46

are sort of a good, they're

19:48

not going to be like a

19:50

pay -per -view caliber match. But yeah,

19:52

they gave a decent television match,

19:54

and I'm happy to have them

19:56

get a bit more time. Did

19:58

you see any of the photos

20:00

Brian Cage opted to share from

20:03

his recent surgery? Missed

20:05

those. No, you

20:07

didn't. Avoid

20:10

his Instagram unless you literally want to

20:12

see the insides of his knee. I

20:14

was not ready for that visual at

20:16

like 7 and 30 in the morning.

20:20

MJF is out after the match.

20:23

He rags on Boston saying, you're

20:25

all too white. And he compliments

20:27

Benjamin, but then takes a shot

20:29

at Lashley being a slow learner. But

20:31

he's got something for the Hurt Syndicate

20:34

to try and convince them to allow

20:36

him into the group. And he brings

20:38

out this group of women that he

20:40

has hired for the evening, I guess,

20:42

for the Hurt Syndicate. All they have

20:44

to do is give him three thumbs

20:46

up. And MVP is still a yes.

20:49

Shelton is contemplating this. He

20:51

is more in the middle

20:53

now. But to put it

20:55

over the top, he wants

20:57

MJF's watch. MJF

21:00

says, well, if you give me

21:02

a thumbs up, I will give

21:04

you my watch. And Shelton teases

21:06

putting the thumbs up, but the

21:08

thumbs go down. And MJF, he

21:10

is not an election denier. He

21:12

respects democracy. So that's a baby

21:14

face in my books. And says

21:16

to Shelton, I think I'm growing

21:18

on you. Still gives him the

21:20

watch. Still gives him the women.

21:22

And said, when I joined the

21:24

Hurt Syndicate. There is more where

21:26

this came from. And Lashley is

21:29

still the main voice of dissent

21:31

towards this group. But yeah, we

21:33

got like an angle, Kate, where

21:35

I guess some – I don't

21:37

want to assume that these women

21:39

were playing prostitutes, but you were

21:41

led down that path. Well, I

21:43

think if you are offering women

21:45

to your friends as a gift,

21:47

it's just – they're prostitutes. It's

21:49

just a question of what the

21:51

price is and how you're paying.

21:55

I did. I'm not sure. I

21:59

just gonna say, maybe they're tour guides.

22:01

Maybe they're going on the sites of Boston.

22:03

Maybe, maybe, maybe we're just assuming the

22:05

worst. One

22:08

of them, I will say, I

22:10

don't know what she's doing in her

22:12

time with AEW, but the tall

22:14

redhead in the ring was the independent

22:16

wrestler, Notorious Mimi, who has been

22:18

on, she'd done AEW Dark back when

22:20

that was a thing. She'd been

22:22

on ROH. She got a. tryout from

22:25

WWE that ended up not going

22:27

anywhere. But she's actually – I'm hoping

22:29

this means she'll be on ROH

22:31

so that she gets onto television as

22:33

a wrestler. Yeah.

22:38

I'm not going to say

22:40

that there was anything hugely

22:42

objectionable in this one, but

22:44

it's like, really? I

22:47

don't know. This kind of

22:49

– yeah. Left me

22:51

cold. Well, they

22:54

would be backstage and they did leave

22:56

to do whatever MJF has hired them

22:58

for for the rest of the night.

23:00

So maybe that would be a digital

23:02

exclusive that AEW will put out for

23:04

us. Maybe it's all a ruse. Maybe

23:06

they were just going for like –

23:08

I don't know what you would do.

23:11

I've never been into the late night

23:13

affairs in Boston, so I can't even

23:15

speak to where they might be. Support

23:18

for this post -wrestling podcast comes from

23:20

those of you who have picked

23:22

up our merch over at Chopped Tees.

23:25

T -shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, and hats from

23:27

post -wrestling and our network of shows,

23:29

including the NWA podcast, Poison Rana,

23:31

the long and winding Royal Road, Russellnomics,

23:33

and MC Later. Free shipping to

23:35

almost anywhere in the entire world. No

23:37

minimum spend required. That's chop -tees.com slash

23:40

post -wrestling. There were

23:42

highlights of Ospreay's matches with Takeshita

23:44

last year, both the Revolution and

23:46

WrestleDream match. And then it is

23:48

into Ospreay and Takeshita in the

23:50

Owen Hart Cup. Don Callis is

23:53

on commentary. We

23:55

are starting things off, and they're going

23:57

at a relatively slow pace, and

23:59

I'm realizing, yeah, we're getting the full

24:01

-on match. They're going long here. This

24:03

is not going to be a

24:05

sprint. And you see Takeshita working on

24:08

the lower back, and after some

24:10

Exploders, Will pops up. They even are

24:12

calling, like, oh, he's moving his

24:14

fingers. Maybe he's got nerve damage from

24:16

the suplexes. And we start to

24:18

pick things up. There is an avalanche

24:20

raging fire that is attempted by

24:22

Takeshita and is countered into a stun

24:25

dog. And Osprey follows that with

24:27

an os cutter. Onto the ramp. And

24:29

all of a sudden, this crowd

24:31

realized, we are skipping gears number two

24:33

and three. Someone

24:35

hit the accelerator. Okay, they're

24:37

just going. And for the next,

24:39

like, I don't know, 17 minutes,

24:41

they were just going at a

24:43

crazy pace here. Osprey hits the

24:46

Sky Twister. Osprey gets

24:48

caught with a... thunder bomb but

24:50

manages to turn it into a head

24:52

scissors and then hits the os

24:54

cutter and that's just our first of

24:56

several really big near falls and

24:58

i never felt they overdid the near

25:01

falls it was like every near

25:03

fall caught like they just grew and

25:05

grew and this crowd they just

25:07

went nuts um there's these hook kicks

25:09

from osprey then to catch the

25:11

collapses so the hidden blade cannot be

25:13

hit and osk The Auscutter is

25:16

stopped in midair with a forearm. Takeshita

25:18

goes for the cover. Will kicks out

25:20

at one. Then he hits the hidden

25:22

blade. One count from both. I will

25:25

say this. There are some people who

25:27

are critics of the one count kickout.

25:29

I will say I love the one

25:31

count kickout. Okay. There are virtually no

25:33

times. I don't enjoy the one count

25:35

kickout and to do it twice here.

25:37

I thought this was terrific. And yeah,

25:39

this crowd was just like, suddenly they're

25:41

like, we're watching every bit of these

25:44

two. If they were on a pay

25:46

-per -view, like they are going full out

25:48

for us tonight is what you had

25:50

from this crowd. Yeah, I

25:52

think that you had a very hot crowd

25:54

anyway, and this was just a way

25:56

of – obviously, they planned it out in

25:58

advance, but this was a way of

26:00

paying back that interest. It's like, let's go

26:02

out and just give you, without a

26:04

doubt, a pay -per -view quality match right here.

26:06

It's not even the main event, but

26:08

we're going to have some fun with it.

26:10

I'm with you. I actually like the

26:13

kick out at one. It can be overdone,

26:15

but – I do always like the

26:17

symmetry of having one guy do it and

26:19

then immediately the other guy do it

26:21

because it's like a sort of proving of

26:23

the metal. Like, yeah, we are on

26:25

equal footing. We need to figure out a

26:27

way to beat each other or at

26:29

least not to lose. When put at the

26:31

right spot in a match, it's a

26:33

tremendous tool. So then – swapping moves. Ospreay

26:35

does his bastard driver into a wheelbarrow

26:37

German. So Tekesh does up and he hits

26:39

the hidden blade. But Will rolls away. They

26:42

end up getting to their feet at the

26:44

count of nine. Ospreay slips while

26:46

trying to climb. And the announcers are

26:48

just, oh, it could be the numbness in

26:50

his arm potentially. So, I mean, they

26:52

just like worked it in here. Knowing

26:55

Will, this could have even been. you

26:58

know, a planned idea, but regardless

27:00

it worked. And if it wasn't, I

27:02

thought he, he worked with it

27:04

really well. It's like, you just, you

27:06

just work with what happens and

27:08

play off of it. So Osprey. gets

27:11

clotheslined off the top turnbuckle, but

27:13

flips over, landing on his feet, connects

27:15

with the hidden blade. Takeshita kicks

27:17

out. There's like a tsunami in response

27:19

to this from the crowd. Takeshita

27:22

stops him with another knee strike.

27:24

Raging Fire gets countered with a

27:26

Rana into a Styles clash. Another

27:28

big kick out. And then he

27:30

goes for the hidden blade. He's

27:32

caught in the backslide. Takeshita gets

27:34

up, lands the knee, but Ospreay

27:37

counters. flipping over and into the

27:39

Stormbreaker for the win in 21

27:41

minutes and 43 seconds. Recency bias

27:43

aside, I would put this in

27:45

the absolute top tier that not

27:47

just Dynamite has had on its

27:50

programming. I really believe that this

27:52

is like one of the better

27:54

matches, I think, in AEW's history.

27:56

This is how great this was.

27:58

And for the confines of television,

28:00

this was just an unbelievable match.

28:03

This was every bit. of a

28:05

big pay -per -view match at the

28:07

highest level of AEW. It

28:09

was better than the match they

28:11

had on the pay -per -view. And that's

28:13

fine. You want the rivalry to

28:15

escalate. But yeah, this was just remarkable.

28:18

And again, as

28:21

with Mercedes and Athena,

28:24

if you told me this

28:26

match was... 14 minutes long,

28:28

I would have believed you because it

28:30

just seemed to go by so fast. Again,

28:32

I was so caught up in it. I

28:35

did not know. I did not have

28:37

any doubt who was winning this. I

28:39

knew it was pretty much a given

28:41

that Osprey was going to go through.

28:44

But the fact that they still

28:46

made it so exciting, I'm

28:48

always impressed when wrestlers can get

28:50

me that invested in a

28:52

match when I'm pretty damn certain

28:54

of the outcome and correct

28:56

me if i'm wrong you're watching

28:58

on on tsn so are

29:00

you getting like picture in picture

29:02

during this yes um it's

29:04

it's occasionally it gets screwed up

29:06

luckily tonight everything uh everything

29:09

sort of um uh everything sort

29:11

of lined up and i

29:13

did actually get to see the

29:15

picture in picture Yeah,

29:18

because I'm watching it on Triller,

29:20

so I'm just watching it uninterrupted, so

29:22

it really was no difference for

29:24

me. But that's also something you have

29:26

to work around as well. You

29:28

do have these commercials in it, and

29:30

it didn't seem like it affected

29:33

the momentum or flow of the match

29:35

for you at all, even having

29:37

that interruption. This is not just arguably

29:39

the best TV match of the

29:41

year. This is... This

29:44

was just an all -timer. I was

29:46

so high on this match at the

29:48

end of this, and you got this

29:50

on a free television episode. It was

29:52

just outstanding. Yeah, this

29:54

was – if you were trying to

29:56

make the case to give – AEW

29:59

another 289 episodes or whatever

30:01

it is, this match was

30:03

a very good way to

30:05

make your argument. I

30:07

have to say that looking at

30:09

what was happening in Picture in Picture,

30:11

this is one of those weeks

30:14

where I was a little annoyed that

30:16

I didn't watch the fight stream

30:18

because with both this and the opening

30:20

Wrestle Women's match, They

30:22

didn't slow down a lot

30:24

during the ad breaks. No, no.

30:26

If you didn't have commentary

30:28

telling you when the ad breaks

30:30

were happening, you wouldn't know. Yeah,

30:33

but – go out of your

30:35

way really to watch this show, but

30:37

this in particular announced for collision

30:40

tomorrow night. It's the commander Nick Wayne

30:42

match for the TV title, Mercedes

30:44

and Harley Cameron against Julia Hart and

30:46

Chris Statlander and an open challenge

30:48

by Adam Cole for the TNT title.

30:51

They did hit it more so

30:53

in the overrun, but I really

30:55

felt like. They should

30:57

have made like this Thursday night,

30:59

like really stuck in your brain

31:01

that this is coming up tomorrow

31:03

night. And I think like you

31:05

could really benefit from like shooting

31:07

your angle on Wednesday and sending

31:09

people to Thursday a bit more.

31:12

But like it did feel like

31:14

this was like all your heavy

31:16

artillery was here on this Wednesday

31:18

night and less so for Thursday

31:20

night. But I am interested to

31:22

see how well they do Thursday

31:24

night for a different night of

31:26

the week for a collision. I

31:28

think the thing. that kind of

31:30

surprised me was that while commentary

31:32

were mentioning that it was on

31:34

Thursday, there weren't any segments to

31:36

set up matches. No. It

31:38

was going on Thursday. And that to

31:40

me, like, at least then, you know,

31:42

the audience is hearing it. So if

31:44

they, if they have friends who might

31:47

not have been at the Wednesday show,

31:49

they can say like, Hey, by the

31:51

way, like, you know, there's, there's some

31:53

cool matches coming up. Like that, I

31:55

think would have, would have helped things

31:57

along. I don't know where you could

31:59

have compressed matters at all in the,

32:01

the rest of the show, because I'm

32:03

not giving up one minute of that

32:05

wrestling. I don't know. I might've made

32:07

the MJF hurts, the hurts syndicate bit

32:09

a little shorter, but that's. just me

32:11

yeah i mean it was like 9

32:13

50 by this point and to be

32:15

quite honest like i would have been

32:17

more than satisfied and we could have

32:19

put this trios match on thursday night

32:21

and i don't think there would have

32:23

been any complaints it was like wow

32:25

now we have this trios title like

32:27

i have just sat through i'm like

32:29

this to me is like already this

32:31

is one of the better dynamites in

32:33

history at this point as we're going

32:36

into this main event so it is

32:38

the death riders uh entering from outside

32:40

the building and with Marina Shafir in

32:42

their corner, no pack, and taking on

32:44

Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata, and joining them,

32:46

Powerhouse Hobbs. So we have three -on -three

32:48

for the Trios belts. So we get

32:50

right into things. First, they're beating on

32:52

Yuta for quite some time, but then

32:54

they would get the advantage on Shibata.

32:56

And at 10 .02 p .m., Excalibur notes

32:58

that we are continuing through the break. I

33:01

had a lot of time on my

33:03

hands, Kate, and I'm just wondering like

33:05

– so the concept of this overrun

33:07

is that it naturally is hopefully going

33:09

to inflate your audience because people are

33:12

– coming to this channel for what's

33:14

about to be on at 10 o

33:16

'clock so it's like if you're getting

33:18

this audience that is not into wrestling

33:20

it's a miracle that they're going to

33:22

stick around for this action but then

33:24

you're going to go to a commercial

33:26

break at in the overrun it's like

33:28

just tell these people to leave that

33:30

you're attracting at this point i don't

33:32

understand the need for a commercial break

33:34

during the overrun segment but that is

33:36

yeah i i don't i mean that

33:38

is not i I don't

33:40

know that that's on AEW,

33:42

but it's bad planning

33:44

on someone's part. If you're

33:47

TBS, why would you

33:49

want to do that? You're

33:51

naturally inviting people to

33:53

turn away from your channel.

33:56

I'm going to get the programming department

33:59

hitting me up now explaining me the

34:01

overrun commercial inventory load. But to me,

34:03

it makes no sense on the surface.

34:05

But we do come back. Shafir chop

34:07

blocks Hobbs. This was more so to

34:09

his upper thigh than it was to

34:11

the knee. But Hobbs sold it like

34:13

he'd been shot from behind. So he

34:15

goes down. And then Shabata boots Moxley

34:17

off the apron. Moxley grabs a chair.

34:20

And then Willow Nightingale runs down. This

34:22

was one of the biggest pops of

34:24

the whole match where she rips the

34:26

chair away from Jon Moxley. I think

34:28

that's the match they should be building

34:30

to forget Willow and Shafir. It's Willow

34:32

and Moxley. I think that's, that's the

34:34

program they're building too. I think we're

34:36

beyond Willow versus Shafir. Like we kind

34:39

of got that with the tag match,

34:41

but it just seems obvious that people

34:43

really want, like they want to see

34:45

Willow hit the doctor bomb on Jon

34:47

Moxley. This is what the people want.

34:49

And you know, Tony usually likes

34:51

to give the fans what they,

34:53

what they desire. But this was a

34:56

great run in for Willow and

34:58

the response she got. Then the Young

35:00

Bucks are out and Matt goes

35:02

to get a chair and Swerve appears

35:04

in the crowd and just attacks

35:06

both and hits the Swerve stomp and

35:08

just sends Matt and Nick over

35:11

the guardrails. And the crowd is going

35:13

nuts for Swerve at this point.

35:15

And this is this is sort of

35:17

like. Your House of Torture match

35:19

at the end where finally they don't

35:21

have the numbers advantage and the

35:23

babyfaces have an answer for every swerve,

35:26

pardon the pun, and for every

35:28

run -in. Everyone is outmanned. So Shibata

35:30

is choking out Claudio on the ramp

35:32

and lays him out with a

35:34

PK. Hobbs puts Yuta through

35:36

the desk with the Uranagi. And then

35:38

Shafir... Goes for a chair shot

35:40

from behind to Hobbs. So Willow

35:42

just kills Marina Shafir. And that's

35:44

the last we saw of Shafir. So

35:47

Joe is left with Moxley. He

35:49

avoids the Death Rider. Coquina clutch.

35:51

And the bell is rung. And we

35:53

have new trios champions. As Joe,

35:55

Shibata, and Hobbs win the belts.

35:57

The locker room empties. And there.

35:59

Of the baby faces. Of the baby

36:01

faces, yes, yes. The heels were

36:03

long gone by the point that

36:06

this overrun was finishing up. And

36:08

that's how they finished it. A big

36:10

celebration where Tomohiro Ishii looked like

36:12

this man didn't know where he

36:14

was, but he was celebrating as Tomohiro

36:16

Ishii would, just looking very stoic

36:18

in the middle of this ring

36:20

while Prince Nana danced around him. So

36:23

concluded spring breakthrough that there I

36:25

say, I think was one of the

36:28

better dynamites that they have produced.

36:30

This was an incredible two hours of

36:32

television. I'm so glad that I

36:34

got to do this particular show because,

36:36

yeah, being able to review this

36:38

is phenomenal. I thought it's funny because

36:40

looking at the main event, I

36:42

almost. Coming off the back of

36:44

Osprey vs. Takeshita and knowing that Mercedes, the

36:46

hometown girl vs. Athena was on first,

36:48

I was like, oh my god, I kind

36:50

of feel sorry for it. How could

36:52

they do this as their main event? It's

36:54

occurred to me, I'm like, they're dropping

36:56

those titles. for

36:59

once doing this great moment to

37:01

make people happy at the end

37:03

of the show. And then, yes,

37:05

you're celebrating how successful you've been

37:08

and you're celebrating the good guys

37:10

winning. So it all comes together.

37:12

I'm glad that they actually let

37:14

some of the celebration continue on

37:16

TV for a few minutes. It

37:18

felt good. You wanted to see

37:20

that. It was

37:22

like this big victorious

37:24

moment for the AEW squad

37:26

over the Death Riders.

37:28

And yeah, I just thought

37:30

this was a tremendous

37:33

two -hour show that they

37:35

produced. So there you have

37:37

it. That is episode

37:39

289 in the books for

37:41

AEW Dynamite. Any

37:43

other closing thoughts just coming out

37:45

of the show overall, Kate, of just

37:47

how this came across? We kind

37:50

of hit all the big beats there.

37:53

It looked great on paper and

37:55

it really delivered. I thought

37:57

it over -delivered. I think that

37:59

this, as high as my expectations

38:01

were, I guess a lot

38:03

of it hinging on the main

38:05

event. The way that the

38:07

trios match was handled made me

38:09

think the show was even

38:11

better than I expected. That's

38:13

saying something because this one looked pretty

38:16

damn good. Very, very,

38:18

very high recommendation level for Dynamite. And

38:20

that's going to wrap up the free

38:22

portion of Rewind to Dynamite. But we

38:24

got a bunch of feedback to get

38:26

to. We will see. Maybe the forum

38:28

is going to be a complete 180

38:30

for me and Kate. But Kate I

38:32

were very high on the show. I

38:34

feel a lot of people will be

38:36

reflecting our opinions. But if you're on

38:38

the free feed, once again, we're live

38:40

here on the channel Thursday, noon Eastern,

38:42

myself and John Sino. And considering jumping

38:44

on board the Post Wrestling Cafe. at

38:47

postwrestlingcafe.com, where we will be live. Thursday,

38:50

Friday, Saturday, and we will be doing

38:52

shows Saturday and Sunday night after WrestleMania.

38:54

Lots to get to. Kate will be

38:57

back on Saturday at noon with John

38:59

Ceno, and she will be reporting back

39:01

after she comes up from air from

39:03

whatever she is able to keep up

39:05

with over these next couple of days.

39:07

But it's going to be a very,

39:10

very busy set of days with the

39:12

entire wrestling world descending upon Las Vegas.

39:14

So, Kate, I want to thank you

39:16

so much for filling in this week

39:18

for waiting. My absolute

39:20

pleasure. Every

39:22

Saturday night, Kate is with John

39:25

Cena. Well, I should say every Saturday

39:27

night. this one. Except for this

39:29

Saturday night. But you're still going to

39:31

get your Saturday fix with them

39:33

just at noon Eastern time. A more

39:35

palatable hour for you two to

39:38

be talking all WrestleMania week happenings. And

39:40

if people want to follow you

39:42

online, where's the best way to direct

39:44

people? There's really only one. I

39:46

am She Rants About Wrestling on Blue

39:48

Sky, which is She Rants MTL. And

39:51

yeah, I'm getting a little more

39:53

active on the Blue Sky. I'd

39:55

sort of take it a bit

39:57

of a step back from social

39:59

media when I ditch Twitter. But

40:01

yeah, I do like chatting with

40:03

people on there. So yeah, find

40:05

me, say, hello. I'm very friendly.

40:08

Blue Sky is way to go.

40:10

We We endorse Sky here. So

40:12

Again, I'll be live Thursday at

40:14

noon Eastern time with John Sino,

40:16

our intrepid dynamite recapper up on

40:18

postwrestling.com. The working man. The hardest

40:20

working man in pro wrestling, John

40:22

Sino. So chat with all of

40:24

you Thursday noon. A big thank

40:26

you to Kate Montreal, as well

40:28

as Simon behind the scenes, keeping

40:30

the show flowing. So thank all

40:33

of you for staying up with

40:35

us And insanity begins now. Although

40:37

maybe we have just seen the

40:39

best show of WrestleMania week. It

40:41

might be over before it even

40:43

started. We will see. All right.

40:45

That's it for us. Thanks to

40:47

everyone for tuning in to Rewind

40:49

a Dynamite. Goodbye. This

40:51

month at post wrestling cafe.com

40:53

go XL and you get live

40:55

editions of rewind to raw

40:57

rewind to dynamite and rewind to

40:59

featuring the news of the

41:01

day, your questions and answers as

41:03

well as feedback. post wrestling.com

41:05

$6 you in the door.