Bayley Should Have Gone To AEW? Reacting to Pro Wrestling HOT TAKES

0:00This episode of Going in Raw sponsored by PrizePix. Football is back and prize picks is bringing their best offer yet. New users who sign up will get $150 in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup. And for week one, so opener Sam Darlene's just one yard against New England to cash his pick. It doesn't get easier than that. So download the app today and use code going raw to get $150 instantly in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup. Again, download the app today and use code going raw to get $150 instantly in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup. Prize picks run your game. Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial services companies. Just like I'm so much more than quarterback Peyton Manning. I'm also Peyton Manning. Insurance and financial services together? It's a masterpiece. Peyton Manning does it again. For your insurance and financial needs, nationwide is on your side.

1:03Nationwide Investment Services Corporation Ember Finra Columbus, Ohio. Now you can watch ESPN College Game Day and select live college football games on Disney Plus. All day every Saturday at NOICS for cost for Disney Plus subscribers. Now there's something for every kind of thing. Select live college football games are now on Disney Plus. It's going to be wild! A limited sampling of content from ESPN is now available to all Disney Plus subscribers. Upgrades will plan that includes ESPN to access the full ESPN on Disney Plus experience. Terms apply. Hey friend, don'ts, Steve here. Hey Lars. And welcome back to Going in Raw, the only pro wrestling podcast you need to be listening to on today's episode. Not only do we have Larsons dog, but we are going to be taking a look at your hot takes from the world of professional wrestling and look at it for matching today.

2:04Good job. Good job us. Good job, but it's completely unplanned. Let's go ahead and kick these hot takes off with straight fire 2318 who says, Bailey should have gone to AW or TNA. It would have freshened up for somewhat stale career. So there are, this makes me so happy Larson. There are conflicting reports now. So it's going to be dirt sheet versus dirt sheet. Yeah. Who will be your correct? Go ahead and explain this. Dave Meltzer. It's hard to tell unless you hear the full context of what he said, whether it's just him speculating or his actual word he's gotten from somebody. But Dave said Bailey's resigned. PWInsider says, not so fast. No words she has. So yeah, I mean, I'll say this dude on those other guys' website. It says Dave Meltzer and Brian with Meltzer confirming it is. It is on the front.

3:05I think it's a rough site. Yeah, it's not speculation. That's actually Dave saying she's resigned. The Meltzer camp says she's resigned. The Mike Johnson PWInsider camp says, not so fast. Yeah. So remains to be seen. But regardless, let's say for the sake of discussion when it comes to this particular hot take. Of course, let's say she hasn't resigned with WWE. Yeah. That she will be a free agent at some point either end of this year, early 2027, potentially. Um, you know, it's it's it's a thing where I'm sure all of us is wrestling fans will like to see tells the situations where we think their towels would be best used. Best utilized. Yeah. Yeah. And you look at Bailey's time at Devda B and there's been time where she's been booked really well. And there's times such as our last title reign where they didn't really do a whole lot with it. The prospect of Bailey going elsewhere and having a lot of potential dream matches made of any of a pay per view with Mercedes and AWW. That all sounds really cool. But at the end of the day,

4:12Bailey should do what makes her happy regardless of what the fans think about it. Yeah, let's take that out of it. Because that's that's that I mean, come on, that's a given the equation. It's a given. Let's also take TNA off the table. Come on, let's not be ridiculous here. Yeah, let's be honest. TNA would be a significant step down. Look, if you want to say for the sake of, uh, you know, what what we want to see if this if straight fire loves his TNA then great that's what straight fire wants to see. That would be a horrible move for Bailey. She is way above TNA. Um, unless maybe maybe she goes and she becomes belt collector. She beat who's their world champion right now on the men's side of things. Is it Dulf? Yes. Your favorite. So she would beat Nick Nemeth for the men's title. She would beat whoever the knockouts champion is, etc, etc. She would be the exhibition title. Yes. She would be the

5:15oboe feme of TNA. So barring that, which would be silly and gimmicky. A W'd be terrific. That's I would love to see her in a W. I think you agree with that. It'd be tremendous. Great. You know, that would probably give her the leeway to do other things like CMLL. Obviously maybe yes, start them. They just yes, start them as part of her bin door. Um, so yeah, to see her in those other places, that'd be tremendous. But not this TNA business though. Mm-hmm. It's like, you know, I she don't watch this show, but let's just let's just I'll give some free advice. No, they couldn't afford her. No, no, no, they couldn't afford her. Unless Bailey specifically wanted to go to TNA, it was willing to take a pay cut to do so. No, TNA cannot, you know, match the millions of dollars that the BNA W would be offering. She was like, you know, a huge fan of total nonstop action.

6:17She liked what are they called the Johnson's the Dix or they, Johnson's I think was in TNA. The Jackson were in the Rutherford there. The tag team the Dix and that would be that sounds right. You know, what other obscure, you know, she was like, hey, I want to do my own Steiner Math promo. You know, she's like, I like to fly in the wall presentation. Yeah, I said, I'll slide with you TNA, but bring back fly on the wall presentation. She's a huge system fan. Are they still a thing? I don't know. No, you got, we're missing the obvious. She wants to work for no more wall Fed Edwards. She wants to reform on or no more. Yeah, yeah. That's really what she should be trying to do here. Agreed. Let's move on to this next one. Andre Holly has a hot take who says assuming Bailey has resigned with W. W. And those other guys are correct. I think we'll see Mercedes back in W. E. by next year. She even outright said she probably back with W. W. down the road, even when she was under a W contract over a year ago. Yeah, I remember that. She was

7:20shortly after she showed up in a W. She didn't interview somewhere or something. You know, yeah, some point, which I appreciate the honesty there because so often people like, oh, no, I'm happy in A. W. I'm not going anywhere. She kind of said. Yeah, it's a good chance. I'll probably end up back in W. At some point. You know, I think since then she's she's revealed that she actually had negotiations with that would be before signing with A. W. I think she said that on her on her blog or newsletter or whatever. So it would not surprise me, you know, the prospect of Bailey and Sasha potentially getting the main event feud. Ideally at WrestleMania is huge. You know, and and by the time Mercedes contract with A. W. is wrapped up, she's accomplished so much in the what three years she's been there. She'll will have won the top two titles in A. W. 13 titles around the world or 12 other titles around the world. Two-time Owen Cup winner.

8:23I mean, the accolades are tremendous for being out to AB for three years to accomplish all that. And you know, to get to to resign with that would be potentially get a massive paycheck and potentially do some pretty cool things at a very high level and hopefully made of any pay per views. I could see the appeal of all that. Obviously working in A. W. has worked out well for Mercedes and she seems happy. But at the same time, you know, the the as I say a lot, the prime money making years for wrestlers. In some respects, it's maybe kind of that window is larger than it used to be, but it's still incredibly small. And so, you know, right now at this point where Mercedes has done so much outside of WWE for her to potentially come back if the money's right, it'd be pretty huge. So I would not be surprised. I would be surprised. How much do you think best friendship plays a factor in where people go? They both already have

9:25a lot of money. And I would think that because what you said about their money making years is absolutely correct. You want to make the most amount of that big money as you possibly can. Now, for some people like John Moxley, he's like, I can only have so much money. My truck is paid off. I'm good. He doesn't need extravagance. Some people are like that. There might be a case with Bailey where it's like, you know what? I don't necessarily need this, but on principle, I'm going to ask for this because I'm worth it and you guys need to pay up. I can understand that too. Oh, without a doubt. Yeah. Where in all that? Hey, Larson, I'm going over to WWE. I'm going to stay here. You're having a good time in AEW. Come on, man. We can, Paula said we could do the things that we've always wanted to do. Undunfettered from Vince's shackles. What, what, what, what bearing does that have? Do you think?

10:29You know, I guess it's a situation where a conversation might be had about that, you know, or maybe they'll talk and formulate, oh, if this happens, we can do this, this, this, this, and perhaps a similar conversation happened while Bailey was out of action after being written off whether she's resigned or not, where herself and Mercedes had a talk about. I don't know, this is speculation. Yeah, if you came to AEW, we can maybe do this, this, this, this, this, but you know, at the end of the day, I think everybody in the wrestling business understands that this is professional wrestling and you're in this business to make money. Yeah. And obviously, there's no grudge was, was, was held on Bailey's part against Mercedes for leaving in the first place. Yeah, she's been in a lot of shows to support her best friend. Oh, yeah, absolutely. The, you know, the prospect of working together again is probably pretty huge, but at the same time, you know, I think they're probably both well aware. Hey, we gotta, we gotta make that money while we

11:32can. And so I assume there'd be a measure of understanding that that comes first potentially. But yeah, I mean, if, if the situation where the money's comparable and it's kind of a toss up and the prospect of being reunited with your best friend, yeah, that could hold some sway. You think so, right? You know, circumstances and whatnot. So let's go ahead and move on now from Bailey talk and by the way, I am very curious to find out who's going to win this particular because it's Cut and Dry, man. This is Cut and Dry. Either we're going to find out that Bailey has resigned or she won't or she will or whatever. We're going to find out if somebody's right and somebody's wrong here, man. Yeah, yeah, you know, I think I'm waiting for Sean to chime in. Sean Rossap. That's a great point. No, that's a tremendous point. Absolutely. Absolutely. And if you get some news, which seems to strongly indicate or confirm that Bailey has signed, my mind that that ink is dry on that contract. Done. Done. But if Sean is unable to report that or

12:35or something to the contrary, she hasn't resigned. Guess what? Boom. She can still be going to W next year. So and we know who's right and who's wrong. Exactly. Undisputed King with the hot takes says Royce Keys and OTM has got to attack Roman next week to make a statement. I think you and I both consider this take. Ah, it's cool. Yeah, it's called his eyes because a thousand percent should be the case. Leave him bloody. Yeah, it's elated. Leave him pixelated. Larson pixelated blood. Yeah, those this is a live rock. I believe from Mexico City on Monday. But nonetheless, yes. Yeah. A level of violence. We don't often see a Adobe television. That's what we need to. How about this? What they attack him prior to the pentamatch pent up? There we go. Oh my god. That'd be cool. Yeah, that'd be awesome. I don't think that's going to happen. But yeah, absolutely after the pentamatch have those guys come down and Jacob

13:37mysteriously absent from the proceedings. Yeah, where's Jacob? He said he was going to slide, damn it. He said he was going to slide. These guys need to, yeah, they need to I look, I maintain, you know, regardless of our conversation about the true worth, the sentimentality of a rental car. I appreciated that they put that thing on fire. It was a cool image. And yeah, next week, Roman, he's to come into hot being like, what the hell? Why did I get this bill for a rental car? And then, and then they absolutely completely dismantled the guy. Leave him pixely as hell. Yeah, that's that's what you got to do. Yeah, I mean Roy's keys look, he ain't going to be Roman for that title. Be cool. Be would. But they're not going to have that happen. No. So do the next best thing. Just leave people pixely. Exactly, exactly, exactly. Exactly. And I think it's, it's a great idea to have. I said this before Roman is situations where it's really pushing limits of what he feels like he can do as an individual wrestling these matches,

14:39especially after saying, I'm not going to use the bloodline to help me when matches anymore, to be on the other side of that. To have these matches that are three, four against one. What is that going to do to Roman? Is that going to push him to revert back to old habits? That's interesting stuff from a character perspective. And, you know, I've been kind of advocating, that would be doing that for a little while now. Let's see if they do. This is a perfect opportunity to do it to help elevate Roy's and OTM up the card immediately. Yep. Yeah, it's huge. That's what happens. And it should happen. It should. This episode of going in raw is sponsored by prize picks. Get excited, Steve. Cause football is back. Yeah. Yeah. This season, I'm stoked. Sing a lot of fly Eagles fly after every Philadelphia Eagles touchdown. Excited. The prize picks is bringing their best offer yet. That's right. Right now new prize picks users who sign up will get $150 in lineups. If you win your first $5 lineup, that's right. If you win your first $5 lineup to

15:40get $150 in lineups, and now price picks is available nationwide to lock in for kickoff, because everyone and everything is on price picks. Steve, as you know, I'm a huge Eagles fan. Say it with me. Go birds. Yes. Fly Eagles fly. I mean, sure. I wrote on the what? I think, you know, whatever makes you happy is good. Well, singing fly Eagles fly makes me happy. But with no AJ Brown on the team this season, Devonte Smith is now looking to be wide receiver once. I'm picking him to have more receiving yards this season. And hopefully he'll help lead Philadelphia to another deep playoff run while Larsen sings. Sing it with me, Steve. Fly Eagles fly. I'm not an Eagles guy. I mean, I like that. I mean, Eagles fan. Let's ask you to sing with me. But if I sing with you, then it makes me a fan. I'm a whole city guy. Anyways, prize picks going crazy with the deals, Larsen to start the football season, giving users a new promo every day during stack September. Make sure to sign up now for guaranteed picks every Sunday,

16:42along with profit boosts and daily discounts throughout the month. And the app is simple to use, to just pick two to six players and pick more or less on their projected stats like pass yards, rush yards, and fantasy score. It's the best way to get more locked in on game day. You can make all the picks you want across any sport all in the same app. And for weak ones opener, Sam Darnel needs just one yard against New England to cash his pick. It doesn't get easier than that. Download the app today. Use code going your ought to get $150 instantly in lineups. If you win, your first $5 lineup. Again, download the app today and use code going raw to get $150 instantly in lineups. If you win, your first $5 lineup, prize picks run your game. And this episode of sponsor by Better Helps, Steve, I got a question for you. Okay. So marinate on this. Think about this for a moment. Yeah. You could wake up tomorrow and be better at one thing. What would that one think be? Well, he just said the word marinate. So I'm going to go with cooking. You know, my mom still has some recipes up her sleeve that I am dying to know exactly how she makes this

17:47delicious cuisine. And so I would say I would be imbued with the powers of my mom. See, that's a good thing to be better at. I wish I was a better cook too. I can make like three things well. And that's it. Regardless, better is a feeling defined by you. And for Better Help, it's a better help therapist who really gets you to focus on global emotional well being with thousands of therapists and millions of members in over 100 countries. It's progress. And in fact, I can remember the first time I actually started feeling better back when I was dealing with severe anxiety about 20 years ago, my mid 20s, with the help of a therapist, I was able to learn the tools I needed to better cope with my anxiety, start making progress towards becoming a better larson. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash raw that's better H-E-L-P dot com slash raw. And this episode of Going into Raw is sponsored by CashApps. Steve got another question for you. I'm full of questions today. All sorts of questions please go ahead. If CashApp could add just the ideal, perfect discount to his card for you,

18:51Steve here. What would that discount be? Socks. Can't have too many socks. Short socks, long socks, medium size socks. I want discounts on them all. Yeah. Do you go through a lot of socks? I do, you know, get long toenails, they rip through them, we got holes in them. Maybe need a discount on some nail clippers while you're at it. That'd be nice as well perhaps. Anyways, if you were in up the speed already, CashApp is way more than just a safe way to send and receive money. With CashApp card, you can unlock a ton of perks without all the hidden fees. Enjoy benefits, like exclusive early access to nationwide constant pre sales. Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter, a name a couple of recent examples. Plus, discounts on everyday purchases and popular brands, you're probably already spending money on. Add your card, your digital wallet to make your money moves easier. CashApp also adds security to your money by declining suspicious card transactions, and sending you a notification to make sure the payment is really you. If your card is over

19:53lost or stolen, you can lock it with just one tap right in the app. Spend with confidence with CashApp card today. New CashApp customers can earn $10 if they use code CashApp10 in their profile. Let's sign up and send $5 to a friend within 14 days. Terms apply. Download CashApp today and make your money work for you. There's an R link in our bio. CashApp is a financial service platform, not a bank bank. Service provided by CashApp's bank partners, prepaid debit cards, issued by Sutton Bank member FDIC, CashApp Visa debit flex cards, issued by Sutton Bank member FDIC, and the bank court bank NA. Pursuit with two license from VCUSA, Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and bank court debit flex card. CashApp green feature, savings direct deposit roundups, overdraft coverage, and discounts provided CashApp, a block ink brand, visit cash.app slash legal slash podcast for full disclosures. Let's continue on with these hot takes now. First up from Paul Evans, says the closing shot of Bronson Fronten Center, his foot on Obo with Braun to the side tells you

20:55everything you need to know about Braun standing as the guy in WWE. Hey, let me ask you some. I don't know if you got this on raw, but somebody mentioned a dope sent me a text with video this, and I remember this during this shot that ended raw. You're not ended raw. I ended that segment. Yeah, yeah. Bronson puts his foot on Obo. Obo, like he's playing dead, but then he springs up to shove the foot away and then plays dead again. Did you notice that? I noticed him put his foot on him, but I noticed the Obo docket his foot away now. I'll send you the thing. It happened, and I've, I've, a couple people noted a dope sent it to me. I was like, yeah, that was kind of weird because that, you know, people are making the, you know, when Brock and Obo had their thing, the word was Brock told, you can actually see this Brock told Obo put your foot on me. And Obo sort of shoved Bronson's foot away, and I was like, that's interesting. It was kind of

22:00weird in the moment because it's like, well, Obo stopped selling for a second, and maybe it was like it could be interpreted as one desperate act of, you know, defiance. Yeah, yeah. But then Bronson also just acted like the performer was like, oh, I shouldn't have done that. And so it's not like he put his foot back on there, like, no, we've got you right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, I wonder what the thought process there was. I would imagine wrestlers were there in the moment, much like actors will follow in their instincts to do something. And sometimes those instincts, what they lead them to will work sometimes it doesn't. And obviously there's moments in the ring that aren't communicated or improvised. And, you know, maybe it was a situation where Bronson's like, oh, we can echo what happened between Brock and Obo here. And, but, you know, sometimes just when something's not planned or communicated, it's something happens. Sometimes your first instinct is,

23:03no, don't do that. You know, I wonder if the idea from Obo's point of view is the messaging, the messaging here, just in general from creative, is a bit muddied. Who's supposed to be the guy? Braun or Bronson? So this is, this is potentially one interpretation. That's kind of what I've been thinking. Obviously, Braun is coming out of the Sunday night's made event, referring to himself as the future you know, we didn't win. But since he's got the vision, having his back, he feels comfortable doing so. So obviously this battle for the future, that would be, isn't over because the match is ended, the satisfying means are a clean finish. But if the idea is that Obo has to now go through the entirety of the vision to get to Braun, I mean, let's be real for a second. Obo versus Austin theory is not a competitive match. Obo should break him in half in 30 seconds. Yes. Obo versus Braun should read is a different story. And so if that's Obo's next major PLE opponent,

24:10then that makes sense to a degree to have Bronson front and center because in the short term, that's the feud they're focusing on. You know, it's so long as Braun is continually telling people, I got Obo's number and I'm the future. He doesn't necessarily have to be front center short term. I think to be at the center of the story, that's just how I kind of interpreted it for the time being. I don't, yeah, I think, I think you're probably right in that because otherwise you end up with a situation and yes, I'm digging 30 years ago or almost 30 years ago. When on the, I'm pretty sure it was the same episode where Goldberg beat Hogan. Remember what happened earlier in the episode? They fed Scott Hall to Goldberg. It was like beat him first in the Georgia dome and then you get Hogan. I'm almost positive that was the situation. I don't think it was a weak prior. I think it was at the show. It was. Yeah, he Goldberg, Russell, twice that night. Yeah. And Scott Hall was such a

25:11foregone conclusion. He shouldn't have been by the way, but he was such a foregone conclusion that Goldberg would get past him. And I guess they're trying to make Bronson Reed feel like not a foregone conclusion, trying to make something out of him. I do wish, you know, what would help, you know, what would help this tremendously is if they did a better job with the interpersonal dynamics backstage with the vision. Bron doesn't seem, then they've never done that well. Bron doesn't seem threatened by Bronson Reed coming back. Oh, quite the opposite. Yeah, he's elated. He loves that he's back. Calls him his brother and all that. And I just feel like it would maybe be more interesting. Oh, it's maybe look at our little tee fees there. There's don't hide your big. I'm trying to get my, my, oh, you're talking to her. I'm talking to her. She's you don't have a baby face. She's had a rough, just a rough couple of days. I know there's been people in Larson's house making all sorts of noises.

26:13And she said, boy, stay in here because she barks all the time. If if Gypsy was still with us, I would have she would have gone to my mom's house. If I had all that, but oh boy, that would have been unsuffable. By the way, speaking of of doggies, Rest in Peace Pharaoh. Yeah. Cody Rhodes broke this on on social media in a heartbreaking post that Pharaoh went over the rainbow bridge. And oh boy, oh boy, devastating. Sad. It's super sad for the family to go through that. Yeah. So yeah, those really special special companions, those dogs are you got that right. So anyways, let's continue on with this next one because I three probably said everything we needed to say. Oh, whatever that was. Well, all the leaders as Braun winning money in the bank would be a disservice to his character. He should win the big one without a cash and then be much better fit on Dom getting him back on his feet shortly after losing the mega championship. Bro,

27:16Dom is cold as ice. Yeah. Even putting money in the bank, I'm not going to be enough to get Dom back to where he was. He's just not involved in Dom's not involved in anything interesting. He's stuck in the Joe Hendry vortex right now. Yeah, he certainly is. And right now from a creative standpoint, that's not a place he necessarily want to be. Nope. Go but as for Braun, let's be good backtrack. If this is Dom last year, Dom circa 2025, I would understand this point of view. Going back to Braun, you know, it's not like Braun's being positioned as a baby face. In fact, there's a level of desperation to his part for Heyman's acceptance validation. He wants Heyman to look at him as the dude going forward. And I think this iteration of Braun's character will do whatever it takes to get that. And if that means doing the opportunistic cash in, especially if it's at the hands of Oba, he will do so. He will do anything. He is hell bent on proving that he's the future.

28:20And if he has to take a couple shortcuts, he'll do it. Yeah. Braun's philosophy. Braun's philosophy right now is whatever it takes to be on top. That does not mean I have to learn how to beat people clean. It means if it takes the vision, that's what it takes. If it takes money in the bank, that's what it takes. And I'll be happy to do it that way. Whatever gets me to that is what I am okay with. And right now, and I'm sure down the line, we will have a Braun breaker face run where he is booked as a dominant clean winning champion because he's got 20 more years in his career. If not more, yeah, he will have that run. It'll probably be a lengthy run. But right now, as we've seen, he was more than happy to get those brass nucks. He was more than happy to have Bronson Reed

29:20come back and and and and share in the spoils with him. Braun breaker understands. And if you look at, for example, Triple H, you know, one of the most dominant champions of his day. And that guy always did it with a sledgehammer with DX with the corporation with whomever he did it with China. Whoever that guy never, you know, I mean, yeah, he had like a face run here and there, but by and large, Triple H knew, hey, you know, get that sledgehammer out. I love that thing because it helps me win every time. Nobody ever claimed, oh, this guy needs to win things clean. No, he just understands as a character, you know, when you're a bad guy, one of the tools of your trade is cheating. Yeah, without a doubt or being being an opportunist. Yeah, and also being a healer offers the performer more opportunity to use the showcase their their talents to I feel like, especially it does it be, although it's, you know, it depends on the situation. Obviously, this in the case,

30:21a Chad Gable, he's not given the opportunity to do much of anything. Yeah, from a character perspective. But you know, other baby faces a bit more so, but as a heal, you know, you're allowed to cook a bit more, you know, you're allowed to showcase a lot more of your personality, various facets of your personality and who you are as a performer. So I think it's a good situation for Braun where they want to develop him as a performer, not just in ring, but out of the ring, let him be a heal, let him be an opportunistic heal. And if he can really run with that, then he'll get over organically eventually and the crowd will just push him as a baby face. Mm-hmm, yep. Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial services companies, just like I'm so much more than quarterback Peyton Manning. I'm also Peyton Manning. Insurance and financial services together?

31:21It's a masterpiece. Peyton Manning does it again. For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide is on your side. Nationwide Investment Services Corporation Ember Finra Columbus, Ohio. Now you can watch ESPN College Game Day and select live college football games on Disney Plus. All day every Saturday at Nox for cost for Disney Plus subscribers. Now there's something for every kind of thing. Select live college football games are now on Disney Plus. It's going to be why? A limited sampling of content from ESPN is now available to all Disney Plus subscribers. Upgrades will plan that includes ESPN to access the full ESPN Disney Plus experience. Terms apply. Next year from Shotgun Sean, says Tony Storbs prediction about Mariah May slash Blake Monroe was right. Her career continued, but was condemned to mediocrity and her WWE run is proving it. She peaked too early in AEW. Well she left too early in AEW. Yeah, I mean that's, she did her one big thing and then

32:26she was like, hey I always wanted to be in WWE. So that's what I'm going to do now that I established this, you know, I mean, that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to go and make a name for yourself and give yourself the most leverage possible to go pursue what you want to do. And then you got to let the chips fall where they may. You know, I wonder if the situation had she not gone to NXT if she as former AEW Women's World Champion went directly to main roster if she would have had better luck carrying over her momentum. You know, because granted, you know, she beat Tony for that title, tremendous match. Great story. One seemingly that was, that was conceived but also kind of mapped out from day one to a degree. I'm not saying week by week or exactly story beat by story beat, but they do where they were going with it. And it was structured really well and it paid off really well and the matches were all really good.

33:27But even after she won the title from Tony, it's not like she was book consistently well in AEW. So like after she won the title and they were finished with the Tony Storms, you'd like, what do we do with Mariah May? She seemed like the answer was a bit unclear and then she left when to NXT, wasn't doing too much for a while. They really seemed to get the push, commiserate with what she accomplished in AEW. That was you got brought to WWE to main roster. Like she debuted was off TV for a month and has had a couple backstage things. She still hasn't had, well last week she's supposed to have her first match, right? Finally have her. She's not. No, dude, they, they do it again. But this time Julia, tag Blake Monroe. She's still on that match. Yeah, I, I grew with a lot of what you're saying. I think that the problem was she was designed as a character in AEW to be a foil for Tony Storm. Tony Storm has already shown that she can be in

34:36a variety of stories with a variety of characters. And so she's fine. Mariah May was, design was brought in specifically to be in a very specific homage angle to a movie from like the 1950s or 60s. Yeah, all about the 50s, right? Yeah. And so without the ability to define herself outside that central story, that's why I say she left AEW to really not necessarily she peaked to early in AEW because if she had stayed for an extra year, if she had signed, I'll put it this way, if she had signed an extension or a new contract for another year or two, then we would have probably seen because I think Tony would have been more inclined to and I don't know, I don't remember exactly what the contract circumstances were,

35:36but it seemed like after the Tony thing, her contract was coming up relatively shortly, I think. And that's why they didn't use her because she was like not committing. I could be completely off on that, but I don't think it was that much longer. It wasn't that much longer. It didn't seem that she was out of there. And if she had committed more time, Tony probably would have committed more screen time because she is really good. And we would have seen more stories maybe centered around her where she can continue to build up her brand. And then maybe she's got leverage to say, I want to go straight to main roster when I get to WWE or at the very least when I get to NXT, you're going to have something more well-rounded that you could just run with. And they completely just mishandled her in NXT. And now that she's on main roster, she's floundering because they don't know what the hell to do with her. And that's just, it could have gone either way with her. Like she could have, she could have been used really, really well or what happened now.

36:42Yeah. Yeah. So Mariah beat Tony for the title at all in 2024. Had matches, title offenses against Naila Rose, Mina and OJ. Let's see, Tony came back after being out for four months in December of 2024. That's when she started doing the small packets. The rookie stuff, yeah. Yeah. But then eventually at Grants, Lamb, Tony beat Mariah in 2025, really 2025. For the title, they had the Hollywood ending match at Revolution 2025 in March and that was Mariah's last match in AEW. When did she debut in NXT? So her contract expired in May of 2025 and she debuted on the June 3rd NXT. So pretty quick. So her contract expired two months after her last match.

37:43You would have to assume that in that time, there was probably negotiations where she indicated I'm not sticking around. Yeah. And what it's funny, you listed off those title matches that she had. None of those were feuds. No. They were just matches. Yeah. Like I didn't hear a willow in there. I didn't hear, you know, Mina's probably the biggest name there. Yeah. Mina was the one that was actually kind of a story. Yeah. Yeah. Because she was linked to Tony. So it was kind of just an extension of the Tony thing. Well, I mean, she initially was linked to Mariah because they were a team. Oh, that's right. You're right. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're turned on. Mina. Yeah. That's right. So yeah. But, you know, that, again, that's sort of a foregone conclusion. Not like she beat anybody even close to like Tony's level after Tony. Yeah. So yeah. I mean, I just think that was a situation where it's like, you know, you think, yeah, you're, you're, you're a decent sized deal in a W. But did you do enough

38:47to guarantee to make yourself inevitable once you get to a W. And none of those dudes really did. You know, ego too is credit. Didn't do, you know, they didn't really do a hell of a lot with them in a W. But that guy is versatile. That guy he's got experience and he's a good in-ring guy. He's a good promo. Yeah. That's, that's not a bad bet to make on yourself to be like, hey, you know what, I'm going to go there and try my hand. You know, I don't know that Ricky Saints made himself inevitable, you know, and I don't know that Ryan May made herself inevitable. Yeah. Well, if that might, we can, we can go ahead to this one from Chinese finger trapezoid. It says Anthony Bowen has has no future in WWE. The only real option for him outside of staying in a W's to go to TNA and hopes to be in book like Santana because he goes, dubby now, he'll just be Ricky Saints 2.0. And I guess that's one of the issues that A.W's had when it comes to defining who Anthony Bowen's is outside the acclaim. Yeah. You know, because they repackaged him as the five tool player. But he's still doing the scissorsing thing. They did the acclaimed reunion

39:55tease that didn't happen. Now Bowen's is in the ops. It's not a dynamite ever. I think he's on division. So in Ring of Honor some. So he went from being one of the most popular wrestlers in A.W. to the team splitting up and then kind of floundering without a firm identity in the fans eyes. It felt like because he just wasn't featured enough. He wasn't given opportunities to define that, that personality for the audience. And I go back to the Mariah May example. I think that's part of it too because yeah, from her debut in the company, it was all planned for that storyline with Tony. You come to the end of that storyline. All right. How do you define who this character is now and what their motivations are? Yeah. And they had a problem with that. And yeah, she had stuck around after the conclusion to Tony's story after Tony got the title back at the Hollywood ending match. And she was able or creative was able to say, all right, this is who this character is coming out of this loss. This is what motivates her now. Then you know, you're you're setting her up to

41:01define who her character is outside of a Tony the Tony story on her own. And I guess maybe in a lot of examples that something A.W. is at a hard time with. Because I think that's the same thing happening with Bowens. Who is anti bowens outside of the acclaimed? Here's where I think Bowens, you're right. Bowens unfortunately is if he ends up going to WWE. The thing that he has on his side is now he's got more experience of when he was there before he's got experience at the top of AEW at least in the top of the tag division for a spell. So he knows what that is. Well, he's shown to you get himself over. He is a remarkably talented guy. Yeah, he is. He really and he has much more of it than I think a lot of the dudes. He's got more it than evil. He's got more it than Tony D. He's got more it than well, I like Santana Grayson Waller Grayson Waller. And I

42:12noticed people out there who wall are fans, but whatever like a waller is a big fumble to me. But like they buried him so deep and then all of a sudden he comes out doing this work shoot shit. I'm like, God boy, don't start that is not the way for Grayson Waller. But because I think he's a talented guy. I like Grayson Waller. I think so too, but doing the work shoot thing just seems kind of the laziest way to try to get somebody over. It's it's TNA former WWE guy, you know, like that there was at span of time when everybody would show up in TNA at a WWE and they'd cut the work shoot promo and it's like a better WWE promo. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's what it is. And it's it's not fun. But Anthony Bowens has got all that stuff. He's got the ingredients. Yeah, it's just would NXT use them. I think he's got more ingredients than than Ricky Saints. I think he's got probably on par with with ego. I think ego has got everything. And I think Bowens has everything. It's just a matter of like I like his prospects better than a lot of those NIL people

43:18because like all their promos all just feel like the same not genuine bullshit. I know. And Bowens knows how he knows how to talk in a genuine way. He knows how to connect. He does. It's just would they get that would they actually give him the creative or they just put them in the WWE system and micromanage everything he does. Yeah. Next year from Phoenix is Okada is it is Brett Hart fate. WCW face sorry Brett Hart and WCW face he doesn't give a fuck and it's just there for a paycheck hard disagree. So I've got a saying because over a wrestle juice we don't do hot takes like those other guys. Yeah. We do pro wrestling opinions. We would do pro wrestling opinions. You would die on a hill for I know right. It's weird. It's like weird conflict. It's my it's my essential crisis. And so and so this is what I say to people with takes like this with death hell opinions like this. I say put your climbing boots on and then climb up that hill and

44:23you're going to look to your left and you're just see nobody there. You can just look to your right. You can see nobody there with you because you're the only person who thinks this. Okada is in my opinion doing better work in AW than he did in New Japan. These saw he's such a shit. He is such an unmitigated shit in AW family Kyle family while he's holding on to that title. I can't take my eyes off this guy in AW. Okada is brilliant at doing a lot with a very little. You just mentioned family Kyle family. It's three words but yet the subtext of it is paragraph long. You know and that's what Okada does best. He makes it look effortless too so I guess in that sense he makes it all look so easy. That looks like he's phony again I guess. But no he is weekly one of the most interesting characters in AW and he still puts on great matches.

45:28Yeah dude I cannot I cannot get enough of when he throw shade to Keshda every time he's like yeah and I'm going to be a champion unlike to Keshda. I can't get enough of this guy. I think he's great. Bret Hart legitimately just looked like he was depressed. Yeah. There were moments here and there where you know he would you would shine you know the LDandy promo. Well it wasn't just that Bret was depressed. Bret seemed like he didn't want to be there. Yeah right exactly. And I don't get that sense from Okada. I think Okada is enjoying his time and he's done because he's gotten it seems clear he's gotten measured creative freedom to do different things that maybe he didn't have in Japan. Yeah I think I think I think to me it comes off like the guys having fun. Yeah his matches are great. Yeah and yeah I think I really enjoy Okada and in AW. Bret I was even back then I was got the feeling like oh boy his guy is not he's not one. Yeah he's just waiting counting down

46:31the days of that contract expires. Five-olding here says Jinder explaining how 90-day no compete clause is actually works best bet of good best bit of goodwill PRW has received in the year. So I don't know if you saw this video. I think it was on Instagram he posted it. Jinder's Instagram account is a great resource not just for wrestling fans but I think wrestlers as well. He gives out financial advice talks about how to save taxes like it's all real good practical information he's doling out. In this video I thought was pretty solid and that he frames it not in terms of all right you're laid off now you have 90 days where you can't work anywhere it's you're given 90-day notice that you're going to be released and that 90 days you're getting paid which we already knew but since you're still under contract for those 90 days to WWE you can't go signed with somebody else. So it's not a no compete clause in the sense where your contract has come to an end and you can't work for a similar company for you know a term it's just hey essentially you're given 90

47:36days notice that you're being released and you're still being paid for those 90 days. I don't know how that differs from no compete clauses outside the world of wrestling. I think that no compete clauses your company is not paying you it's just the thing in the contract saying you can't essentially work for the competition after they let you go. That's my idea. Okay you think okay I don't I don't I legitimately don't know that's crazy if like you literally can't get any money for the days. I know if that's the truth. That's fine but he also frames it as some altruistic thing on WWE's part and that's where I take issue because if wrestlers are given and he put it through his own lens where he said you know I'm really happy to take that money and try to figure out what comes next and that's where we're scared the what comes next part. Well that's great for him for wrestlers who would rather I want to strike

48:38while the iron's hot I'd rather do that I'd rather not get paid and and go somewhere else they don't have that option because WWE doesn't give them the option to do that. And so framing this as oh they're they're paying you to figure out what you're going to do next. No they're paying you not to go somewhere else. Yeah they're paying you not to work essentially. Right. Because when you the announcement is made that you're getting released you know it generates a lot of interest in the wrestling world and I'm sure if they're a name who's accomplished quite a bit in the B there's promoters whether they be a WTN or independent promoters were clamoring oh we could sign this person because they're in the news and people are when it comes to see them at my show in two weeks to see what they do next and yeah the fact that they have to wait 90 days and aren't able to do that is the downside of the whole situation without a doubt yeah. Yeah yeah. So yeah Courtney Claude anyways most knocking peak clauses don't come with pay once you leave the

49:42job you're barred from working for a competitor for whatever time period and geography the contract specifies but you don't get compensation for that restriction. This is the default in the most United States that's still in force non-compete. There are garden leave or paid non-compete some agreements most common in finance executive roles and parts of Europe do require the employer to keep paying the employee salary sometimes at full or reduced rate during the restricted period. Yeah that makes sense if you just let somebody go and be like no you can't make a living in your chosen field after we let you go that's lame. Incredibly lame. Yeah you know I don't I'm you know I would have to in order for me to form an opinion on that I'd like look into this. I mean I guess the idea is if you're let go by somebody they don't want you working for competition because then you could divulge your prior employer's secrets to your new employer. Which you would think

50:42would be covered in like NDAs instead. Yeah if there's a situation where a pawn being laid off he had to sign NDA to get maybe a severance package than yes I don't think that's outside the outside the ordinary no. Yeah I don't know I'm pretty ignorant on this kind of stuff I'm not in the corporate world. I just hear my room talk about that. Yeah. Ozzy here says Stephen Larsson the best in the podcast business but they're missing out on a huge section of wrestling of the wrestling fan base by not pushing out more LA night content. LA night generates mad views on YouTube and it's clear the people want to hear about him constantly. So I pulled up every time we have LA night in a thumbnail or a title I have it in front of me and I would say of the eight videos here only one has outperformed and that's the most recent one where he was finally getting to the program with Roman in early August. Everything before that this is just based on our own numbers falls in the general you know view range of what we normally do. So that's let's say outside of our purview

51:50LA night videos don't blow up it's entirely possible. I'm just saying in terms of how LA night thumbs and titles work for our audience. Seemingly know where nope know where near outside of of what we would typically expect. Was the one that over oh you said it was the Roman one so the one that it said like LA night finally gets Roman push that's the one. Okay wasn't what wasn't there okay. Okay. Was there one about LA night being punished or buried or something like that? See there was LA night the new Mr. Kennedy and then there's yeah LA night buried and both those got around the typical view range. Really? Yeah they're both hot takes episodes though so. Okay all right. Yeah I figured it was a do well. Yeah like I said maybe outside of what we do and other channels LA night content does really well. I mean maybe you know we got to do

52:56a count out you know top 10 LA night moments what's the number one LA night moment Lars? Yeah gosh isn't when he almost choked on his gun. When he messed up to finish the May the bank. I know I know that's like that literally the thing that I've remembered first is choking on the gum messing up mining in the bank those are horrible those are the number one special two for one special that's number two for one special that's number one next here from diehard Homer got a movie hot take here says zodiac is as good as sinusol ames. I don't know if you agree with my take Steve but I'll do diehard however one better zodiac is better than sinusol ames. I'll do even one better zodiac is much better than sinusol ames. Here's the thing about zodiac. There is no there is no discernible villain in it. We know it's zodiac but like who the fuck is it? Is it Arthur Lee Allen? Is it Guy in Basement? Who is it? I don't know. We don't know there's a creeping atmosphere to this movie

54:01and then there's also the the all consuming nature of who the zodiac is that consumes Robert Grayson and everything around it's the the mystery is a disease. Yeah that infects everybody involved in the mystery. Yeah. That's the most horrifying aspect. Yeah the move zodiac is like two plus hours of just constant dread. That's the feeling and it just gets heavy. Yeah it might not be for everybody. I get it. And yet it's still a really funny movie. There are moments of comedy in this thing that are just wonderful. It's it's a super-coitable movie. The script is great. Yeah. Yeah. I have to read that book you got me about the shooting of it. I keep on meaning too. I've like a stack of fucking books. Yeah. I'm almost done with uh I don't even know fucking name of it but it's like about the origins of LA via the other one. Oh you read that one for a while. It's been a while. I'm on finally I've got like 10 pages left. So I was I was because I read the whole grunge book and bit like like I stopped that one and read the whole grunge book. So while we're talking about

55:03David Fincher I'll I just saw this clip with Matt Damon talking about where he visited the set of Gone Girl and he was there with there was shooting some scene with Ben Affleck and uh Rosamond Pike and so uh Fincher so there's there's backgrounds there's you know extras in the scene they're a bookstore or something like that and so they call for background action and before he like the scene actually really starts this extra is walking in the background and it irritates David Fincher. So he's saying to Matt Damon who the fuck walks like that and Matt Damon says before this scene even started it was done they're gonna have to redo it and so the whole time he's just complaining about the the the background actor like just walking to walk as opposed to walking to get somewhere and that's all that Fincher sees in this tape and he and Matt Damon's like you know Rosamond and then they're act they're ass off great take but I know it doesn't matter because they're gonna redo it anyways and so they're still at the monitor and uh a makeup artist goes up to Rosamond Pike to adjust her makeup and and David Fincher says now that's how someone walks

56:08because she was trying to get somewhere right yeah yeah background actor was just all right you're walking at a movie you know as opposed to I'm walking to this section of the bookstore or something right yeah yeah yeah yeah I've never seen a Matt Damon interview clip that I didn't that I wasn't fascinated by yeah he's such a great story teller he's got so many good insightful stories yeah that's awesome he knows how to structure the stories he knows how to pace them he's got such an attention to detail yeah and he's got a keen mind for the business I mean I know I've seen a million times that one about him talking about DVDs and how the you know the streaming change the industry and royalties and stuff like that I think it was on the hot wings episode yeah yeah yeah or hot ones hot ones yeah you know he's a terrific storyteller but yeah Zodiac is is just a brilliant movie and it's endlessly rewatchable for my money best Hannibal Lecter's Brian Cox yeah give me man hunter yep finally here we got a grunge hot take having had one these in a while you know while Ozzy here

57:11says bleach kind of feels like the black sheep in nervana's discography everyone not only ever talks about nevermind in utero or even unplugged so different from the rest of their work it is you know sludge here a little more metal influenced it's it's abrasive and like you know obviously at that point Kurt Cobain hadn't matured as a songwriter as much as he had especially for in utero um and so yeah I understand why and maybe people don't pay as much attention to bleach as as their vana's other work there's good stuff right there no I love bleach um reading that book I always appreciated that when that that there were two albums that basically kept sub pop in business and it was bleach and it was mudhoney's first one it was super fuss big fuss big fuss yeah uh it was those two and then you know they mentioned when when Kurt you know took his life uh

58:12that they're like yeah you know unfortunately we got a huge influx of orders for that but also when nevermind blew up oh my god like they sold so many copy of bleach and you know it's like they went from owing I think like a bunch of different you know uh creditors or whatever 30 thousand dollars to having 500 thousand in the bank overnight yeah yeah because they sold so many because it nevermind when that blew up overnight so um it's not bleach is oh it's I mean I don't know man you know I've heard so many the tracks I'll never mind so many times it's difficult and even unplugged like it's difficult to go back to those too often but I'll still go back to bleach and I'll still go back to in utero but I'll go back to bleach quite a bit just because they none of those were overplayed on the radio I never saw any videos of those so yeah yeah yeah I did I had a pretty strong bleach phase when I first got in Nervana so I'm at the point of Nervana that very rarely do I endeavor to seek out their music to listen to what comes on is this song I'm in the mood to listen

59:16to I will but this is one of those bands that I heard so much growing up yeah that there's a handful of tracks and we like oh I'm the the listen to Francis Farmer off of in utero or song like that you know yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah anyways that is gonna do it for this edition of Hot Takes thanks everybody for yours be sure to hit that subscribe button the notification bell if you want to make sure you know when our hot takes threads go up every usually Monday night sometimes I forget Larsson put up Tuesday morning and then this time I scheduled it in advance and then you there's two of them there's two threads oh shit okay well there you go you're like I'll trust that no I just didn't say anything I was like I'll do it but I'll schedule should we just agree I maybe now we'll just agree you go ahead and do the threads sure I'll do the hot takes ones and you can do the news ones for the Thursday episode deal sounds like a deal all right that's gonna do it for the show don't like time see you guys around goodbye nation wide is so much more than a great insurance company they're one of America's largest financial services companies just like I'm so

1:00:19much more than quarterback Peyton Manning I'm also Peyton Manning insurance and financial services together it's a masterpiece Peyton Manning does it again for your insurance and financial needs nationwide is on your side nation wide investment services corporation and for Finra Columbus Ohio day port now here football is here in so is draftings the draft king sports app is now live in all 50 states from Texas to California to Florida in this September draft kings is giving customers the opportunity to get boosted every football game day every game day all month long draft kings customers can get a profit boost a select football games new draft kings customers sign up with code Spotify spend five bucks and get 200 and total rewards within 21 days includes all markets that's code Spotify in partnership with draft kings the crown is yours event trading offered by draft kings predictions a CFTC registered futures commission merchant trading involves risk of loss market availability varies eligibility restrictions apply

1:01:22$50 in non withdrawable predictions dollars issued every seven days via click to claim for 21 days predictions dollars expire in one year one football boost per customer maximum trade limits in restrictions apply tokens expire at the end of the final select game each day when offer nation wide based on sports book predictions and or free to play sports contest availability varies by state turns at dkng.co slash offer on September 25th no one's coming for us it's just you and me boy 58 miles part of the beast is the must see adventure of the year an incredible story of survival i got you one of the most extraordinary on-screen bond you'll ever see only the greatest dog ever walk the earth red pit i'll give you home part of the beast lean theaters September 25th ready PG 13 maybe inappropriate for children under 13