BONUS The Friday Show - The Legend of Excalibur
Guest:If I'm speaking and I hear somebody talk in my ear, I'm somehow able to just tune it out because I know it's not for me.
Guest:And if it is for me, after I'm done talking, they'll come hit me back on it.
Guest:So I'm kind of able to filter it out, which is great.
Guest:My wife hates it.
Marc:What happened?
Guest:What happened?
Guest:You're going to listen to it on the ride?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So Erin, my wife, loves listening to the show.
Marc:But, you know, she's not listening to it when she's working.
Marc:She has to, like, do, like, I don't know, like, grown-up stuff.
Marc:So she can't listen.
Marc:She has to listen to it in the car or when she, you know, has alone time.
Marc:So we're going up to the Finger Lakes, and I don't – I'm just dying laughing at this guy taking –
Marc:some sort of drug and mark has to calm him down and i'm just laughing hysterically and i'm like oh wait wait i i have to save this for erin because she's going to lose her shit over this so yeah i had a pause uh mid mid episode so that was the one you stopped at the one where the guy was smoking the salvia
Guest:No, it was the guy who was describing his shit.
Guest:Oh, he wanted to only talk to people about their shit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, it was funny because like we had talked about doing this as a bonus thing, Mark and I. And, you know, he said, you know, pick some good ones out.
Guest:He's like, I love that one.
Guest:The guy on Salvia and Matt Walsh doing that guy.
Guest:So like he recommended some ones.
Guest:And I went and I found those along with some other ones to put in a compilation, the best ones that I could think of.
Guest:And those two that Mark had mentioned to me, I don't think he realized this at the time, but they both end in a shit joke.
Guest:And I was like, is this really what we want to do?
Guest:We really want to put two shit jokes back to back.
Guest:And I said that to him and he was like, eh, they're funny though, right?
Guest:Yeah, what are you going to do?
Yeah.
Marc:You land the plane the way you land the plane, man.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:He apologized for it like on the bonus content.
Guest:He was like, yeah, sorry.
Guest:It's two shit jokes, but funny is funny.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:That one kills me, though.
Guest:The guy smoking the stuff, especially the part where he's this is the Dave Waterman is the was the comic who is doing this.
Guest:he uh saying he can't breathe and mark is trying to like say like be cool man okay just breathe breathe and he goes i can't i can only breathe out i can only breathe i can only breathe out and so then he's going like and mark's like no no pull in pull in and he's going oh
Guest:and he's like no now do one then the other i i'm listening to that i'm like wait a minute we had that on our on our show and i haven't like played that every day of my life since then how's that possible it's the funniest thing i've ever heard
Guest:It reminded me of, I remember when I was in college, I was sitting around watching the big Lebowski with a, with a friend.
Guest:And he was like, we were just laughing, watch the thing.
Guest:And this thing was so great.
Guest:And it got to the end and he's like, if you made that, would you ever leave the house again?
Guest:I would never leave the house.
Guest:I'd sit and watch that every day.
Guest:Like, look what I made.
Guest:I can't believe this.
Guest:I made this.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you guys kept on going.
Guest:You got like thousand episodes later.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, we didn't think about these again until now, until we had the bonus content to do.
Guest:Well, if you haven't listened to that yet, that is this week's bonus episode called The Third Act Guests, where we used to have a third act of the show.
Guest:Chris was a guest at some point on it as a third act of the show.
Guest:This was really just the improv comedy that we used to do in those sections, which, yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Guest:It got to be way too much like comedy bang bang.
Guest:Or actually, I thought I was not thinking bang bang at the time.
Guest:At the time, I was like, I'm worried we look like we're biting into Sharpling's bits.
Guest:Oh yeah.
Guest:Like, especially use that guy, Dave Waterman a lot.
Guest:Cause he was so good at it.
Guest:And it would be like the one you heard on, well, you haven't gotten to it yet.
Guest:He does another guy on that bonus episode, but he doesn't like change his voice or anything.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which is like the same thing with John Wurster on The Best Show.
Guest:You know, he calls in as 20 different people, but he's the same voice every single time.
Guest:And I remember feeling a little uncomfortable.
Guest:I was like, I don't want Tom to like call us out on like biting his show, you know, which we weren't doing, obviously.
Marc:But but it was a little too close for comfort.
Marc:I was also listening to the Amy Sherman Palladino episode.
Marc:And first of all, she's great.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I love the sliding doors aspect of her and Mark just missing each other.
Guest:Well, that's what I said to Mark.
Guest:I couldn't believe we didn't have her on before.
Guest:Like, it's been this long.
Guest:I'm like, she's like a standard comedy store episode.
Guest:Like, I feel like we should have had her on like 10 years ago.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was astonishing, honestly.
Marc:And her stories were just, wow.
Marc:The Roseanne story, just of Roseanne and Tom just like starting to take off their clothes and be like, all right, I'm going to go take lunch now.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That was wild.
Marc:Did you know that Eric guy, the serial rapist?
Guest:I did not.
Guest:I did not know about that guy.
Marc:Boy, that sounds awesome.
Marc:Yeah, did not sound good.
Marc:No.
Marc:Also, I'm really interested in Mark's will.
Marc:Who gets Mark's record collection, you think?
Guest:Oh, I don't know.
Guest:I don't know if it goes that granular.
Guest:I know every now and then I get an... Wait a minute.
Guest:I'm going to actually pull it up here.
Guest:Hang on, because they're just too funny.
Guest:I get random texts in the middle of the day while he's trying to do his will.
Guest:Here, this was Tuesday, March 28th at 1.44 p.m.,
Guest:Hey, if my brother isn't around to unplug me, will you?
Guest:To which I responded, yes, three exclamation marks.
Guest:And then I wrote right away, oh, sorry, didn't mean to put so many exclamation marks.
Guest:Maybe just a period.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's amazing.
Guest:Just a frowny face.
Guest:Tier one, tier one.
Guest:Yes, I wish I didn't have to.
Marc:The ultimate ending of an episode.
Marc:Pulling the plug on Mark Barrett.
Guest:That's how this is all going to go down.
Marc:That's great.
Marc:We're doing a will, too.
Marc:And we don't have kids.
Marc:So it's just like, all right, who do you think would want our Vitamix?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Maybe Michelle would want it.
Marc:Do you really?
Marc:Do you're doing it like that level?
Marc:No.
Marc:I mean, I don't know.
Marc:My wife's really the business person.
Marc:But that's how I think wills go.
Marc:It's like I'm Logan Roy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, ATM goes to Roman.
Guest:We had a death in the family last year.
Guest:It was my grandmother, my dad's mother.
Guest:And she was 97.
Guest:She lived a very long life.
Guest:And, you know, everything had been worked out.
Guest:She'd been, you know, prepared for end of life for quite a long time.
Guest:And Owen, my son, who was like 11 at the time, was like, is there going to be a will?
Guest:And I was like, well, yeah, she has a will and everything's taken care of already.
Guest:And he's like, but what's going to happen with that?
Guest:Who gets what?
Guest:And I'm like, no, dude, it's all taken care of.
Guest:She had money she was living on that was in the place where she was living.
Guest:And then anything else that's still around after that, there's places it divvied up to and it goes.
Guest:And he's like, but what about stuff?
Guest:her her stuffed animals and her and i'm like are you talking about like tv where they have people sit around and they're like oh to my uh grandson i leave this bag of potato chips that i've had since 1967 that's how i think wills were too yes right i guess you and owen are the same on that level
Guest:Yeah, no, that's generally not how it goes, especially nowadays, like where you can do them online in five seconds, you know, legal zoom or whatever.
Guest:Like, I think that's how I did my will.
Guest:We were like, okay, you fill out these things, click, click, clack, you get a will, you got to go get it notarized.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:So you don't call dibs on something?
Guest:No, no dibs.
Oh.
Marc:Oh man, that's a bummer.
Marc:All I do know is I have like, if things break the right way, I got like five kids that I'm responsible for now.
Marc:Oh, because you keep saying yes to people's wills?
Marc:Yes, I'm like, yeah, if you guys both die in a plane crash, totally I'll take your kids.
Marc:So now I got like five kids.
Guest:This sounds like a comedy coming up.
Guest:It's super tragic at first because five separate people die in terrible circumstances.
Guest:But the hilarious comedy of you now with a giant family, you know, it's like cheaper by the dozen, but with a lot more death.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Just a smidge more death.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:But I will say, also, speaking of old age, he spoke with William Shatner this week, who is 92 years old and does not seem a day over 72, let's say.
Marc:Wait, Captain Kirk is 92?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I would definitely cut 20 years off.
Guest:He showed up by himself.
Guest:He drove himself.
Guest:He drove a Porsche SUV, probably one of those Porsche Cayennes or whatever.
Guest:A 92-year-old man's driving around on a Porsche.
Guest:Oh, boy.
Guest:And he came with baked goods where he stopped on the way there.
Guest:And they talked for 90 minutes.
Guest:He just goes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There's nothing wrong with that guy.
Guest:That guy's, that guy is in tip top shape.
Guest:Now I will say I was a little nervous ahead of time because he, I never thought he was going to be on the show.
Guest:Cause he used to go publicly talk about how he hates podcasts.
Guest:He does.
Guest:He thinks he's podcasters.
Guest:Like people used to, I would get looped into it.
Guest:Cause people would say, you should go on Mark Maron's podcast.
Guest:And he would reply to them.
Guest:Be like, I won't go on that.
Guest:I don't know what that is.
Guest:No, you know, like,
Guest:And, you know, this is William... Specifically your show.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:And this is William Shatner, right?
Guest:He famously has feuded with everyone he's ever worked with, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Very high self-regard.
Guest:He is, you know, has a reputation that precedes him, one might say.
Guest:So I was doing quite a bit of prep with Mark on this.
Guest:Like, here's some stuff you could maybe talk to.
Guest:And Mark was undeterred.
Guest:Like, he was like...
Guest:Yeah, he's like, nah, I don't know.
Guest:This guy, it's not going to bother me.
Guest:It's fine.
Guest:And I'm waiting.
Guest:I'm like, oh, man, I don't know.
Guest:This is a little concerning to me.
Guest:It's one of the rare times where I was like, I'm a little concerned it's not going to go well and it's going to be awkward.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Well, so they go, you know, I know what time it's about to start.
Guest:And then, yeah, I don't hear anything for about 90 minutes.
Guest:So, so far, so good.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You're like, OK, that's great.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Then I get a text and it just says, well, that's it.
Guest:Just well.
Guest:Oh, no.
Guest:And I'm like, oh, this is like Gallagher happened again.
Guest:Oh, no.
Guest:And I wrote that.
Guest:I was like, did he Gallagher out?
Guest:And he goes, no, we just kept going and I couldn't make it stop.
Guest:And I don't know what I have here, but it's amazing.
Guest:Oh, that's awesome.
Guest:I listened to it a little bit.
Guest:I haven't listened to the full thing yet, but they got along like fast friends.
Guest:They were, you know, were busting balls.
Guest:That's awesome.
Guest:From the jump, it is fun.
Guest:Immediately, I'm like, oh my god, this is going to be fun, these two guys going at each other.
Guest:And yeah, they just loved each other.
Guest:And the only thing I kept thinking about was Michael Lerner, who played Barton Fink.
Guest:And he just recently died.
Guest:And that's why it's fresh in the mind.
Guest:But he played on Mark's show, Marin, on IFC.
Guest:He played his mom's boyfriend.
Guest:who is the real life guy, is the guy from Mark's standup.
Guest:You know, it was a different time guy, right?
Guest:John, her mom's boyfriend.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Hey, Mark, come over here.
Guest:You know, he tells him a story or whatever.
Guest:Well, Michael Lerner played that part on the show Marin.
Guest:And I think the week after they did that episode, they shot that episode, I was out in LA and I went to the set of Marin.
Guest:By that time, it was season three or so.
Guest:I knew everybody who was there.
Guest:It might've even been in the last season.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was friendly with the people there.
Guest:So I would just go and visit the set, like see the writers, see the people who were on the crew.
Guest:And, you know, usually I'd go around when I knew they were rapping for lunch so I could sit and have lunch with them.
Guest:And Mark had told me like before beforehand, he was like, oh yeah, Michael Lerner.
Guest:I love that guy.
Guest:He was so great.
Guest:But man, what a handful.
Guest:And I was like, oh yeah, a handful.
Guest:He's like, oh yeah, he was, he was, you know, he was a lot to deal with here at this place.
Guest:And so, but he loved working with, he had wanted him, he'd wanted to get him to play his dad in the, initially, and they just couldn't line it up for scheduling or something.
Guest:But he had wanted him to play the part that Judd Hirsch wound up playing of his father.
Guest:And so now you had him playing his mom's boyfriend, John, and he was so happy.
Guest:Oh, Barton Fink.
Guest:I love Barton Fink.
Guest:And he, but,
Guest:But he was getting such a kick out of this guy, too.
Guest:And I get there, like I said, it was like the week after.
Guest:And I'm saying hi to people.
Guest:And I say to the showrunners, like, oh, I heard you had Michael Lerner here last week.
Guest:Oh, God.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but this is like exactly what everyone was saying to me.
Guest:We hated that guy.
Guest:We couldn't wait till he left.
Guest:And it was like, to a person, everyone was saying this to me.
Guest:Cast, crew, writers, directors.
Guest:Apparently, you know, they were shooting, they were supposed to be in Florida, Mark's mom's apartment, right?
Guest:So they were shooting it in some condo and it was a real condo.
Guest:They're in this like apartment.
Guest:And so to do that, you know, you have to set up the apartment like a film studio for the day.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so anybody who doesn't has never been on a film set or any kind of thing where they're shooting, they do a thing called video village.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Where if you're on location, you're not in a studio location.
Guest:You're shooting somewhere on location.
Guest:You have to set up monitors, cameras, a soundboard, all this stuff.
Guest:And the director, writer, people can sit by them.
Guest:Mark could do it as the main actor in the show and an executive producer.
Guest:And that's where you sit while the show is being shot, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's usually got to be a little bit farther away or in some ways soundproof.
Guest:So in this little condo where they were shooting Mark's mother's house, they had to set video village up in the bathroom.
Guest:So put the bathroom like which was farthest away, whatever the spot in the condo was farthest away from what they were shooting.
Guest:That's where they would set up video village.
Guest:So you didn't get sound bleed or whatever.
Guest:Mm hmm.
Guest:And that means, like, that bathroom is not a bathroom.
Guest:It's Video Village.
Guest:The production has bathrooms set up outside.
Guest:You know, they have honey wagons and whatnot and places you go out and use the john and you come back in.
Guest:Oh, no.
Guest:I see where we're going here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They went to lunch.
Guest:They came back.
Guest:Someone took a huge dump in Video Village.
Yeah.
Guest:Now, there was no confusing that it was Video Village.
Guest:It had cameras everywhere.
Guest:It had monitors.
Guest:It had things blocking the toilet that you had to move to use the toilet.
Guest:Because people were sitting on the toilet to watch the monitors in Video Village.
Guest:So Michael Lerner shit in Video Village and stunk it up.
Guest:So they had to shoot the rest of the day in Video Village.
Guest:video village that smelled like human excrement so they're all telling me this story and like the anger on their faces anger just like oh that guy gives shit in video village fury all these people and i look over we're sitting at the like you know catering tables where everyone's having lunch break i look over and mark's just like smiling he's kind of chuckling
Guest:Quite a handful, that guy.
Guest:I'm like, yeah, I'm like, Mark, everybody hated this guy.
Guest:He's like, yeah, yeah, he was pretty bad.
Guest:I liked him.
Guest:And that was all that went through my head when he's telling me how much, what a good time he had with Bill Shatner.
Guest:I'm like, this guy, and he's even, he's telling me the stories about the stuff that they talked about in the episode.
Guest:And I'm like, oh my God, he sounds insufferable.
Guest:Like, you know, he's like, you know, everything Mark says, he's like trying to contradict him with something.
Guest:And Mark would be like, what are you talking about?
Guest:It's this, you know, or what, like...
Guest:And I'm like, oh, I, and it started all like kind of crystallized for me.
Guest:It's like, you get a kick out of these guys because like, it's like your dad, but without the emotional danger.
Guest:Baggage.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You don't have to worry about the landmines, but you're like, oh, this crazy guy, I can have fun with him.
Guest:I don't have to worry about the depressing part.
Marc:This chaos agent.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And by the way, yet, yet another shit joke.
Marc:Yeah, sorry, everybody.
Guest:I mean, this is what you signed up for.
Guest:It's been right there, Mr. Police.
Guest:We gave you all the clues.
Guest:It's been in there the whole time.
Guest:Go all the way back to episode 20 or whatever.
Guest:It's been there.
Guest:Well, yes, that's what that's going to you have.
Guest:Everyone has that William Shatner episode to look forward to.
Guest:We're going to post that next Thursday, which is June 1st.
Guest:And so you have that to look forward to William Shatner on WTF.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:If you'd like to send us anything, any thoughts, questions, anything you've been hearing here on the Friday show or on the other bonus content or on the regular WTF show, you can use the link that's in the episode description.
Guest:Just click on that and it'll take you to a Google form.
Guest:You just put in your question or comment or suggestion and send that to us.
Guest:And one person put something on that comment form and sent it to us a couple weeks ago saying we should talk about wrestling commentary.
Guest:I had made some mention about commentary that I don't like.
Guest:I don't particularly watch WWE programming almost entirely because I don't like the commentary.
Guest:It really is that big of a part of the show.
Guest:And this person was suggesting we talk about it.
Guest:Chris and I were kind of batting around our favorite commentators.
Guest:I mean, my number one team of all time,
Guest:would be Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon.
Guest:That's my favorite commentary team.
Guest:Also a comedy team of sorts.
Guest:And you would say the same, Chris?
Guest:They're your number one?
Marc:Absolutely.
Marc:I don't even want to think about it.
Marc:They are the duo that I think of.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, they're the ones who did the thing that I think is the most important when watching wrestling, is that they tell the story of the match, of what's going on, but they are also entertaining in their own sake.
Guest:Like, you could just be listening to it, and it would be fun.
Guest:And I find that there are plenty of people doing wrestling commentary in the past, in history, and now...
Guest:That have that quality.
Guest:I mean, obviously, Jim Ross and Jerry the King Lawler were the commentary team at the really peak of WWF with Steve Austin and The Rock.
Guest:And they were a great commentary team and had that exact quality.
Guest:You could just listen to them and they were fun.
Guest:But I do think that AEW now currently has excellent commentary.
Guest:And it's led by a guy who used to be a wrestler and...
Guest:And he was a masked wrestler, like the way like a luchador is masked.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He actually modeled his mask after the great Sasuke from Japan.
Guest:So it's like a Japanese style wrestling mask.
Guest:And when he became a commentator on the independent wrestling scene, he left the mask on.
Guest:So he did the commentary in gimmick as the character he was.
Guest:And he kept the mask and he has kept that mask on.
Guest:all the way now up through working on the national promotion, AEW.
Guest:And so if you turn AEW Wrestling on, you're like, who's this guy?
Guest:He wears a mask.
Guest:He's like a gimmick while he's doing commentary.
Guest:And I assure you, you will not hear currently on TV
Guest:a better play-by-play guy than this man.
Guest:And his name on AEW programming is Excalibur.
Guest:Wouldn't you say the same, Chris?
Guest:Oh, 100%.
Marc:Honestly, when you first told me about AEW, you were like, tune in to TBS, turn on Dynamite, tell me what you think.
Marc:And he is the first thing I thought of.
Marc:It's almost like that scene in Back to the Future when Chuck Berry's cousin is on the phone.
Marc:Mom Berry's cousin.
Marc:Yeah, you know that sound you've been looking for?
Marc:Like that Excalibur is that sound I've been looking for.
Guest:Oh, that's awesome.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Well, because of that, you know, we have a great relationship with the folks at AEW.
Guest:And they asked me if we wanted to have anybody on this week.
Guest:It's going to be a pay-per-view weekend for them, double or nothing in Las Vegas.
Guest:And I said, hey, you know, we're planning to talk about wrestling commentary on the show.
Guest:You think Excalibur will come on?
Guest:And in no time, Excalibur said, I'd love to talk to these guys.
Guest:And so here it is, me and Chris talking to the great Excalibur of AEW, the lead announcer, as he's in his hotel room in Las Vegas preparing for their big pay-per-view this weekend, AEW Double or Nothin'.
Guest:Hey, guys.
Guest:Oh, I don't know who that person is.
Guest:I was expecting something totally different.
Guest:I am Brendan, by the way.
Guest:That's Chris on the other box.
Guest:Hi, big fan.
Guest:Oh, thank you, guys.
Guest:It was very, very cool to meet you.
Guest:This was an unexpected pleasure when I got the text from PR about this.
Guest:So it was cool.
Guest:Well, that's awesome.
Guest:I was wondering if, you know, when I was at the forum, there was a very distinct possibility that I saw you there and would have had no idea because until right now, I have deliberately avoided ever seeing what you look like without the hood.
Guest:So I was surprised to see a regular face looking at me right now.
Guest:yeah it's uh i mean it's by design yeah and uh it's very helpful for weekends like this where i just had to walk across a very crowded casino and some of our guys were getting stopped every five feet you know to do pictures and signings and stuff and i could just breeze right by them yeah there you go i mean like and do you ever do it with the mask on like or that's just for you know uh when you're at a convention or something like that or fan meet and greet
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, that's, it's like, I, if it was like a video podcast thing, I would, I would pop the mask on at home.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But, um, I try not to, you know, the, the great secret about the mask, I'm not sure if it's a secret, but it's, it's uncomfortable.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Uh, had, had I, had I known this 20 something years ago, I might maybe have, uh, gone a different way with it.
Guest:So you should fix that.
Guest:I actually had my guy.
Guest:I'm getting two new masks.
Guest:I got to actually because I live in San Diego.
Guest:And so I got a Padres themed one for next week.
Guest:Oh, cool.
Guest:It's supposed to be soft on the inside.
Guest:That was my one request to him.
Guest:And so we'll see how it goes.
Marc:You have a Lucius Fox over there just designing new masks like basically.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He's this dude in Japan.
Guest:He does House of Black's gear.
Guest:He does a bunch of guys from New Japan and stuff.
Guest:Awesome.
Guest:Well, Excalibur, when AEW started up, I was familiar with you from the indie scene, but I never actually got to see any PWG broadcast.
Guest:So I didn't know really what you sounded like.
Guest:I think probably the first time I heard you was on the all-in pay-per-view.
Guest:But when Dynamite started, I remember I kind of got...
Guest:Chris into wrestling again.
Guest:He was like a lapsed fan.
Guest:I said, oh, you should watch this.
Guest:It's probably more like what you like.
Guest:And it was very quick into watching it.
Guest:Maybe week one, week two.
Guest:He's like, that guy with the mask is amazing.
Guest:Like, I love that guy with the mask.
Guest:And I think one of the reasons we asked to have you on here was because we got a request to talk about our favorite podcast.
Guest:And we started thinking about what makes it good?
Guest:What makes it, you know, the best commentary?
Guest:What is wrestling commentary?
Guest:And I kind of feel like that's a question.
Guest:That's the best question for you.
Guest:What is wrestling commentary?
Guest:Like basically from a philosophical level, what are you doing with it in your job?
Guest:there's, there's a lot of different things that I do.
Guest:It's part of it is, you know, just calling the action, you know, describing what's, what's happening, trying to convey the, the, the bigger picture, you know, the, the long-term ramifications of this, this winner, this loss, but it's also promoting talent, you know, and it's, it's conveying to the audience that, you know, these people are stars.
Guest:These people are worth your attention, your time, your money, and all these things.
Guest:And,
Guest:It's tough because in a two-hour broadcast, everything that we do is worth your attention, your time, and your money.
Guest:And so how do you differentiate it?
Guest:And it's all in the way that you kind of talk about people and their intangibles and things like that.
Guest:And I had done commentary on the indies for...
Guest:I guess it was about 17 years before coming on board with AEW.
Guest:And I was just calling matches, really.
Guest:It was just me by myself, in most cases, just kind of calling matches in a vacuum.
Guest:And then at the first episode of Dynamite, being able to work with Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross.
Guest:And it's like, these are two guys who I've had in my ears for countless hours as a fan.
Guest:and really learning how to, you know, elevate myself.
Guest:It was, I mean, that was, it was an honor and it still is an honor to work with them every single week.
Guest:And it's something that every single week I'm learning something new from them.
Guest:And when you, like, you know, in terms of learning it, do you mean, you mean learning in all ways, like the technical ways, but also, again, I'm going to use the word, like the philosophy of it, or maybe even the psychology of it, right?
Guest:Like, it's just like in the ring, there's psychology to a match.
Guest:And maybe I'm wrong because I don't do it, but my feeling is there's psychology to the commentary as well, right?
Guest:That you have to tell a story logically by trying to maintain what this universe is, what this thing is, and basically treat it like a sports competition, but also treat it like a drama, like something that you're trying to get story point A, B, C, and connect all of those.
Guest:And so that, like...
Guest:I couldn't really even wrap my head around it until figuring out when it was you started.
Guest:And you just mentioned it.
Guest:You were doing it about 17 years.
Guest:I have to think that was kind of like your Beatles in Germany stuff, right?
Guest:Like this is the, you get your thousand hours in, right?
Guest:Just those reps.
Guest:And then when you get to a point where you're working with someone like a Tony Schiavone or a Jim Ross, you have the goods.
Guest:Now it's just about learning the refinement.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, the, the easiest thing that, or the easiest part of my job is calling the action because that's, you know, that's what I know.
Guest:Um, and that's super simple.
Guest:And, you know, I think, uh, you know, we, we, we say it, uh, you know, among the, the announcers room, that's like the, the best thing that we do AEW is, is, is in ring.
Guest:And, you know, and that makes our job incredibly, incredibly easy, but, uh,
Guest:the, the advancement of the storylines and talking about, you know, it could be, there could be two grudge matches on, on a, you know, on a pay-per-view or on a, on a random dynamite.
Guest:And how do you talk about grudge match a in a way that differentiates it from grudge match B and, you know, in, in sports, mainstream sports, I guess there's some storylines, there's some rivalries, but for the most part, they're just calling the action.
Guest:You know, it's a, if this team wins, they go on to face this team in the next round.
Guest:something like that but you know we have to talk about what it means for uh you know this this blood feud and you know when when eddie kingston poured a a gallon of gasoline on on brian danielson and uh and chris jericho this this is something that will stick with both uh both those guys and the next time they see eddie kingston they're going to remember that and we have to bring those stories forward and that's that's been the biggest challenge for me is you know
Guest:not just wins and losses, but maintaining that through line of storytelling.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, you know, you did say something, though, that I want to push back on a little bit.
Guest:You said calling the action is easy.
Guest:And I think, you know, that it probably, for me, falls into, like, the top 10 of things that look very easy to people and are tremendously difficult, right?
Guest:Like, I've worked with people who are on Prompter a lot.
Guest:And the best one I ever worked with was Keith Olbermann.
Guest:Like he was a savant at the prompter.
Guest:He could make you think there were no words anywhere near his face, but he was just locked in with the thing.
Guest:And the people would always try to say, go work with Keith on the prompter for new people who were starting at the station.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:and they could never pick it up from him because it was pretty natural, right?
Guest:It was like a thing he just knew how to do.
Guest:He couldn't even explain to them how he was doing it so well.
Guest:And I do wonder, do you think that that's similar to someone like yourself or, you know, Jim Ross when he was in his play-by-play heyday or Gordon Soley?
Guest:Like the actual calling of the action becomes so second nature to you.
Guest:You're just doing it, and I don't know that you could even teach someone how to do it.
Guest:Yeah, I couldn't begin to teach somebody how to start doing it.
Guest:It's something that I've always loved talking about wrestling.
Guest:And it does come very naturally to me.
Guest:And I've done it for so long that it is second nature to me.
Guest:The tough thing for me, unlike Keith Olbermann,
Guest:is reading pitches and reading promos and things like that.
Guest:I am so extemporaneous.
Guest:I'm so just off the cuff at all times that if it's...
Guest:you know, like if I have to do a, a card rundown for, uh, you know, the pay-per-view or something like that, oftentimes I will write it out in my own words before I have to do it.
Guest:Because if somebody else is writing it for me, it's like, it's, it's just not how my brain works.
Guest:And so, um, it's, yeah, it's, it's, I don't, I don't know why I have that problem, but it's just how it is.
Guest:And so that's, that's why it really is the easiest part of the job for me.
Guest:And yeah, I think for a lot of people, it,
Guest:wouldn't be that easy and i um somehow developed this uh this recall for for wrestling moves and and things like that and i remember um you know when i was in when i was in high school i spent a lot of time watching wrestling tapes i would go to the there's a japanese video store you know
Guest:by my dad's house and i would go there and my dad one day he said to me he's like if you dedicated half as much time to your schoolwork as you did professional wrestling you'd be a straight a student and who's laughing now dad yeah you're this you're straight a's at the this one thing that it's like very few people on earth have ever done be the lead play-by-play person on televised wrestling uh
Guest:Well, I mean, that's, you know, interesting.
Guest:You brought up, though, that the thing that you struggle with is reading like a run card.
Guest:And I looked at Chris.
Guest:Chris was smiling, too.
Guest:I was smiling.
Guest:It's like this is this thing that you have become known for.
Guest:Like you're like the FedEx man, right?
Guest:The micro machines.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Is that like that speed reading?
Guest:Is that a skill you have always had or it just has come because you had to figure out how to read these rundown cards?
Guest:It was not a skill I knew I possessed before I had to call upon it.
Guest:And I'm lucky because when we get handed a format, it just has, you know, Chris Jericho versus Adam Cole unsanctioned.
Guest:It doesn't have any, you know, this Sunday, blah, blah, blah.
Guest:And so that way, when I'm just looking at the names, I can, you know, I'm processing it.
Guest:I'm already looking at the next match while I'm speaking about
Guest:you know, or the previous match, you know, it's like, I'm, I'm, I'm one thing ahead and I, I don't know how I do it.
Guest:I am able to do it and I have stumbled infrequently, but I do, I do stumble.
Guest:It's not, it's not the easiest thing in the world, but it's, uh, I'm glad people like it.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Um,
Guest:I mean, I guess if I did a regular card rundown, it would never get retweeted or, you know, a video of it would never circulate.
Guest:So maybe it is effective in its own weird way.
Marc:I love that.
Marc:You're like, oh, I'm glad people like it.
Marc:It's like a magic trick.
Marc:Every time it happens, it's like clear out.
Marc:I'm going to be watching a magic trick right now of you going through the card.
Marc:How much water do you drink?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I tend to overhydrate, which is okay for a dynamite or a rampage.
Guest:It becomes a challenge by the end of a five-hour pay-per-view.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:How many pee breaks do you get there?
Guest:None on a pay-per-view, really.
Marc:Ooh, boy.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:That's that great.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We were talking about, you know, Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone and that they're legendary commentators.
Guest:But would you say that you had any strong particular influences in doing this?
Guest:Were there were there people who jumped out to you?
Guest:Because like this all started with Chris and I about us talking about, you know, who were our favorites, who were the ones who we thought were the best at this?
Guest:You know, obviously I watched a lot of wrestling.
Guest:I listened to a lot of wrestling, but I think the people I try to draw upon most were the mainstream sports commentators that I grew up listening to.
Guest:And so I was, you know, the Red Wings when I was growing up were, you know, a tremendous team.
Guest:And so Dave Schrader and Mickey Redmond were like somebody that I would, you know, hear...
Guest:you know number of times every every winter you know every every hockey season george blaha who was the the lead guy on the pistons uh he was somebody and that was you know that bad boy pistons era and that was uh you know a time that i was i was really excited to be a fan and so it's like those are the people that kind of stick out in my head as as you know who my influences are and so i'm sure i draw upon
Guest:You know, influences from Tony Schiavone, from Taz, from, you know, even Joey Styles, from all these people without kind of being conscious of it.
Guest:But, you know, I would say that, you know, those those teams or, you know, those commentary teams when I was growing up, those are the guys I think, you know, influenced me the most.
Marc:Yeah, Brendan and I are big Mets fans out here in New York.
Marc:And, you know, we have Gary Keith and Ron as our commentators.
Marc:And we have said for it's been like 17 years that they've been on the air.
Marc:We're just like so lucky to have these guys.
Marc:And before that, it was like Tim McCarver.
Marc:And before that, it was, you know, all these legendary people to sort of
Marc:infuse us, like the fans, with this sort of vocabulary on how we talk about sports.
Marc:But with wrestling, there's a great way to call a match, which I think AEW is very good at.
Marc:And then there's not so great.
Marc:So how did you differentiate between the two?
Marc:Because
Marc:You know, I, you know, I watch all of professional wrestling.
Marc:Some commentary is not as good as others, which is a nice way of saying it.
Guest:Yeah, it's I mean, the commentary can really make or break a match, you know, it does.
Guest:And the thing I always try to do is, you know, I mean, having having wrestled in the past, I, you know, I have.
Guest:and understanding about, you know, what it takes to be inside the ring.
Guest:And if nothing else, I try to be respectful of the effort it takes to be in the ring, to, to perform as a professional wrestler and the, the inherent risks that are involved.
Guest:You know, I mean, every time people get in there, they're putting their lives in one another's hands.
Guest:And it,
Guest:There were times when on AEW Dark, Taz and I would just be joking around and having fun.
Guest:But ultimately, it's about respecting the art and respecting the effort that it takes to even want to become a professional wrestler.
Guest:You actually mentioned it.
Guest:There's so few people that are able to be the lead voice on a televised wrestling broadcast.
Guest:And so I am extremely lucky in that regard.
Guest:And I never, ever want to take it for granted.
Guest:You're kind of unlocking something for me here.
Guest:I hadn't really thought about it ahead of time.
Guest:And you brought up two things.
Guest:And then there's a third that I think are really kind of fundamental to this, like,
Guest:perfect storm mix you've got as as a lead announcer and the one is what you just said about having the time in the ring so great that gives you uh the ability to help understand the pace understand what the workers are doing so that you're going to be able to emphasize the right things de-emphasize things know when to lay out that all makes a ton of sense that the second thing that you said that makes a ton of sense is drawing inspiration from professional sports announcers like a
Guest:As you said that, I was thinking the same exact thing Chris was thinking about our Mets announcers here.
Guest:I would bet you if you told an aspiring wrestling announcer to just listen to them for a full season, they'd get much more out of trying to listen to old wrestling announcing, which I always kind of wondered if that was why there was a problem or what I was feeling was a deficiency in wrestling announcers.
Guest:I would listen to them and go...
Guest:I think they're trying to do like a copy of Gordon Soley or Jim Ross or something.
Guest:And it's not translating.
Guest:It's like a Memorex thing.
Guest:Like, you know, it degrades a copy and a copy and a copy.
Guest:So like, those are two things that this third thing though, I don't know is true or not.
Guest:And I'm going to ask you, do you have someone in your ear the whole time?
Guest:Like a Tony Khan, like often in your headset telling you what to do or say.
Yeah.
Guest:The most constant voice in my ear is the producer.
Guest:And they're... I mean, it's not all the time, but they're the one that's guiding us to break.
Guest:We're getting counts to packages and things like that.
Guest:Tony will come in occasionally if there's a specific note that he wants us to hit.
Guest:Or sometimes, you know, for as great as my recall is, Tony's is...
Guest:a trillion percent better.
Guest:And he'll, you know, I'll be, I'll be calling a match and he'll be like, Hey, remember these, these people wrestled in Pittsburgh in 2019.
Guest:And this, this is, you know, and I was just like, Oh, I didn't, but like, and then, so then I'll, I'll weave that into the broadcast.
Guest:And, but yeah, I mean the, the most, uh,
Guest:the most chatter I get is, um, about the technical aspects of the show and like, you know, uh, how long a segment or, you know, how, how much longer we have before break.
Guest:And that's good.
Guest:That's like any newscaster is getting that in there.
Guest:Like when I've worked in newsrooms, you're giving people through their IFB like time checks and, and, and they want that.
Guest:The anchor wants like to feel more to the broadcast.
Guest:They don't want to feel like, you know, I don't know where we're at in the, in the clock or anything like that.
Guest:So, uh,
Guest:But what you're telling me, though, is it's not a constant stream of someone else's thoughts going into your head, which I do notice on the air.
Guest:It feels that way.
Guest:It feels natural to you.
Guest:It doesn't feel like someone is giving you lines.
Guest:Yes, it very much is.
Guest:And the first time I ever had anybody in my ear was all in, the original all in, on the pre-show.
Guest:We were live on WGN.
Guest:And they cut to the announce desk.
Guest:And we were all introducing ourselves.
Guest:And I'm speaking.
Guest:And then I hear a voice in my ear while I'm speaking for the first time ever.
Guest:And I froze.
Guest:and it it felt like an eternity it was probably for a heartbeat i i haven't watched it back in a long time so i can't really remember um but the the guy that was producing that show was our executive producer at aew for a long time before he retired this guy named keith mitchell who his career goes all the way back to world-class championship wrestling where he was holding a camera that's in his words for fritz fritz von eric and that's that's how he began
Guest:His pro wrestling journey.
Guest:And when we were in break, at one point, he keyed into my ear.
Guest:And he's like, hey, buddy, if you ever hear my voice while I'm speaking,
Guest:I'm not talking to you.
Guest:And like, just, he, he was, he was a pros pro and he knew, he knew exactly what happened and he knew how to reassure me.
Guest:And so that's usually, you know, if, if I'm speaking and I hear somebody talking in my ear, I'm somehow able to just tune it out because I know it's not for me.
Guest:And if it is for me,
Marc:after i'm done talking they'll come hit me back on it right you know so i'm i'm kind of able to to filter it out which is is great my wife hates it after a night of dynamite are you like an extrovert where you're able to like just talk to your wife like about your day are you just like i want to not talk to anyone for the rest of the night
Guest:The level of adrenaline I have after a show is very, very hard to come down from.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And so, I mean, we do a lot more shows in Eastern time than Pacific time.
Guest:I live in California, so my body clock is already off.
Guest:And that means that after, if it's a show on the East Coast, I'm not...
Guest:I'm not fully coming down until like three in the morning.
Guest:It's very tough for me to sleep.
Guest:And so, um, you know, after a show, a lot of it is, is kind of, you know, just, we are like, we have a group of friends that will, you know, we'll go grab a beer or whatever after a show.
Guest:And we, we kind of decompress and we talk about our day, but it's, um,
Guest:actually now that i think about it it is a lot of wrestling talk because because i mean that's it consumes our day you know we get to tv at like two in the afternoon and we're not done till till midnight and so that's you know a 10-hour day and there's all sorts of stuff that that happens and you know like there's um you know like the wrestlers themselves like they're just worried about their their one part of the show where i'm you know i'm i'm there for for two hours and if we do rampage it's three hours and
Guest:You know, that's I'm I'm locked in and I'm focused on that.
Guest:And so there'll be a lot of times where people say it's like, oh, did you see, you know, do you see the Lakers game?
Guest:And I was like, no, I didn't.
Guest:I don't even know what happened.
Guest:I, you know, I tune that stuff out because I have to be completely focused on the broadcast.
Guest:So.
Guest:Yes, extrovert.
Guest:And yes, a lot of talking about wrestling after we're done.
Guest:And so you're getting that jacked up just on a weekly basis doing the show.
Guest:What is a week like this like for you?
Guest:We are talking to you a couple of days before one of the big pay-per-views of AEW's calendar year, Double or Nothing, happening right there in Las Vegas.
Guest:Chris and I have been to the pay-per-view when it was in Newark.
Guest:We watch...
Guest:them regularly.
Guest:We know one of AEW's signature selling points is that they do great pay-per-views.
Guest:And so do you go into a pay-per-view knowing, for lack of a better term, is that like you have to bring your A-game, like this is your playoff moment, or do you just think, no, they're all the same level of difficulty, I have to meet the challenge every week no matter what, and the pay-per-view is the same?
Guest:It's funny because, I mean, if you just look at viewership, the pay-per-view, while it's perceived as the bigger show, is actually, I think, less people watch the pay-per-views than watch the weekly broadcast.
Guest:So it's funny in that regard.
Guest:But I do tend to treat the pay-per-views as a little more important.
Guest:And I'm...
Guest:And Taz always, not makes funny, chides me, that I'm a prep nut and that I sit there and I write all my own notes and I have my own database of the talent and all this stuff.
Guest:And I'm constantly writing notes and it's not so much that it's something that I'm reading from, but it's just the act of writing it.
Guest:helps me remember it better when i when i need to call upon it in the moment and so on a week like um you know for for an average dynamite i'll do my prep that afternoon you know when i get to the building at two o'clock i start i open my laptop and i start writing up my notes when
Guest:on a, on a pay-per-view where, you know, we're lucky because I'm, I'm in Vegas, I'm in a hotel and, um, you know, I will, I will do my gambling.
Guest:I will lose my money and then I won't have anything else to do.
Guest:And then, so I'll sit up here and I'll, I'll do a little bit of extra prep, you know, and I'll, I'll start, I'll start that prep probably tomorrow on Friday, you know, two days ahead of the pay-per-view kind of take a deeper dive into the matches because, you know, the other thing too, is that on pay-per-views, we don't,
Guest:have commercial breaks.
Guest:We don't have a lot of things that are interrupting the matches.
Guest:We're very lucky that we just get to focus exclusively on what's happening in the ring and all of that.
Guest:We're not trying to promote Bear Grylls' new show while somebody's jumping off the top rope.
Guest:Well, do you look at the match card and think like, you know, that there are ones that are going to be more challenging for you or ones where you're going to have to focus and do more prep?
Guest:And I kind of ask this, maybe not in so much as this card of this weekend coming up, but like, for instance, the Iron Man match at the last pay-per-view.
Guest:Now, like you...
Guest:I am not just saying this because you're on our show and we're talking to you right now.
Guest:I documented it in public on Twitter, so I'm not making this up.
Guest:I wrote that that was the greatest called match I've ever watched in 30-whatever years of watching wrestling.
Guest:I really think you guys called the best bell-to-bell match I've ever seen.
Guest:And there were a lot of reasons for that, but I think the biggest one was basically you guys...
Guest:Telling the story perfectly aligned with what the story those guys were telling in the ring.
Guest:And it was for one hour seamlessly.
Guest:So I guess I kind of wonder, do you do you sit and look at that when it's on the page before you're actually there doing it thinking, wow, this is going to be tough.
Guest:This is a challenge.
Guest:Or is it just it's wrestling and you're going to call it, you know, the.
Guest:Jim Ross has, uh, has a saying that, that he says multiple times per week and it's just put it in the monitor and I'll call it.
Guest:Um, and, and, you know, like I, I was saying earlier that, that the wrestling is, is the easy part for me.
Guest:And we're especially lucky because we have great wrestling.
Guest:That is, that is not our problem.
Guest:And so for, for a match like that, um, yeah, I, I, I went back and I did, you know, I, I watched a little bit more of, um,
Guest:you know the build up to it just to watch it back to keep myself fresh on on the stuff that you know because that had a long build and so there was there were some things that happened very early that uh i might not have thought about and not only do i want to go back and refresh myself on the the things that that happened kind of early in the build but also i know that i'm going to be talking about for an hour straight you know and that that we're there's
Guest:I'm going to have to fill time somehow.
Guest:And there's only so many mechanical things I can talk about in the match.
Marc:What's the match you're most proud of?
Guest:It didn't happen in AEW.
Guest:It was actually a PWG match.
Guest:It was when Chuck Taylor beat Zack Sabre Jr.
Guest:for the PWG World Championship.
Guest:And it was all the PWG shows were in this tiny little building in Reseda, California.
Guest:That was a million degrees in the summertime.
Guest:And there was 500 people packed in there, and it was 500 people that realized that they were watching something special.
Guest:And just feeling how the crowd was coming up while watching this match kind of made me come up, and it made me really kind of boost my delivery and my performance.
Guest:And then when Chuck Taylor finally won, there was just like this huge level of catharsis that just went out throughout the crowd.
Guest:And I felt like...
Guest:that also went through me.
Guest:And it was something that I remember I got, I got a little misty, you know, after it happened.
Guest:And even though I like, I knew what was, what was coming, it was still something that it was just, I was so caught up in the moment.
Guest:And, you know, I haven't watched that match back in a number of years, but I just,
Guest:remember at the end of it being like, damn, that was good.
Guest:Awesome.
Guest:I did want to say, you know, as I mentioned, I told Chris, you know, you should check this out.
Guest:This is a good thing, AEW.
Guest:And he got into it with me right from the start.
Guest:The thing that told me
Guest:Oh, I'm in safe hands here with this guy.
Guest:This man in the mask was during a match.
Guest:I don't even really remember who it was.
Guest:It could.
Guest:Let's just say it was like Kip Sabian.
Guest:And he pulled someone up by the hair.
Guest:And and you said he pulls he pulls him up by the hair, pulls his hair up, but not out.
Guest:And I said, oh, I know who this guy is.
Guest:I feel I feel comfortable watching this show.
Guest:And I've been very happy ever since.
Guest:But but yeah, I guess that's the last thing I wanted to ask you about was are you do you have connections to the comedy world?
Guest:Are you just a comedy fan?
Guest:I've heard you talk about like Joe Pera.
Guest:And, you know, obviously there's guys like Tim Robinson hanging around AEW shows all the time.
Guest:Is that just something you like or are you connected?
Guest:No, it's just something I like, something that I'm a fan of.
Guest:And, you know, like Colt Cabana is a big part of that world.
Guest:And Colt and I have been friends for a very long time.
Guest:And so it's something that I really, really do enjoy as a fan.
Guest:It's like something I enjoy doing in my off time.
Guest:And so to bring elements of that into the broadcast is something that is just a lot of fun for me to be able to have those worlds cross over.
Guest:Well, listen, man, we will let you go.
Guest:We know you've got a big weekend ahead of you.
Guest:And we thank you so much for taking the time with us.
Guest:For everybody out there who wants to hear Excalibur do the play-by-play, be the lead announcer on this weekend's Double or Nothing pay-per-view, that's at Bleacher Report, on television pay-per-view, it's at movie theaters.
Guest:Just go find it.
Guest:You'll be able to watch it this Sunday.
Guest:We're going to be live from Vegas.
Guest:And Excalibur, thank you so much for joining us.
Guest:We really appreciate it.
Guest:Yeah, thank you guys very much.
Guest:This is a lot of fun.
Guest:I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Guest:Thanks again to Excalibur and to AEW for setting that up.
Guest:It's great to talk to him.
Guest:He's a super nice guy.
Guest:I was a little weird seeing his face, but I got used to it quickly enough, and I will not spill the beans.
Guest:I just tell everybody, no, it just looks like the way he looks in the mask.
Marc:I actually, for the Zoom, I actually put a box in front of the top of his face so I could only see his mask because I don't want to see the other part.
Guest:That would be so funny if you just like, yeah, you had like one of those like dots that they used to put over like crime victims' faces.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's an actual story too, by the way, of Vince McMahon.
Guest:He apparently, allegedly, right?
Guest:He did not like the way Christian Cage looked.
Guest:He didn't like his face.
Guest:He said he looked weird.
Guest:And so he had an idea for a gimmick.
Guest:of him that what they would do is have him every time he came out he'd have a blue dot over his head and they would wrestle that way he would and the whole thing was he was too ugly to show and so he'd have a blue dot somehow he was talked out of that i'm not sure uh who had the right idea to speak up to vince there but someone did and said do not do that that would be bad
Marc:what can you imagine being like christian cage you're like i'm sorry i'm what yeah i can't imagine it by the way i can imagine it 100 holy shit uh yes well uh
Guest:No one has done anything like that in AEW so far.
Guest:It might be one of the reasons we've been watching it.
Guest:And one of the reasons we're definitely watching it are these pay-per-views they do.
Guest:They're great shows.
Guest:You've probably heard me and Chris talking about going to them, and we watch them when they have them quarterly.
Guest:And this one is called AEW Double or Nothing.
Guest:It is in Las Vegas.
Guest:You can get it on Bleacher Report.
Guest:You can get it on your cable website.
Guest:Just regular pay-per-view, order it that way.
Guest:You can watch it in movie theaters, figure out a way to do it if you're into wrestling.
Guest:Because these things deliver.
Guest:I mean, that's like the AEW guarantee, basically.
Guest:Like, hey, if you're into wrestling at all, maybe you watch weekly, maybe you don't, whatever.
Guest:But these pay-per-views are going to deliver.
Guest:And they got a stacked card like they normally do.
Guest:And so instead of doing like the best thing we've seen this week, I guess we can do like the best thing we're hoping to see.
Guest:Like, what are we most looking forward to at this pay-per-view?
Guest:And Chris, what's on your list?
Guest:What's the thing you're most looking forward to?
Oh, man.
Marc:Death, taxes, and AW puts on great pay-per-views for sure.
Marc:I mean, there's so many matches to choose from.
Marc:I think...
Marc:The match I'm most excited about is the unsanctioned match with Sabu.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Sabu is now going to be in the corner in this unsanctioned match.
Guest:So, yes, that was quite the surprise of him showing up on AEW.
Guest:Very, very fun.
Marc:When was the last time you saw Sabu?
Guest:I mean, I probably have seen pictures of him here and there.
Guest:I definitely haven't seen him wrestle in the ring for probably close to 15, 20 years.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:But he looked okay.
Guest:I mean, he looked his age, but he was moving.
Guest:He didn't, you know, sometimes these guys who are legendary wrestlers come out and you go, Oh boy, it looks worse for wear.
Guest:And he didn't seem that way.
Guest:Um, he didn't do any moves or anything, but he looked fine.
Guest:Um, which, which made me feel good.
Guest:Uh, yes.
Guest:And so that, that,
Guest:I mean, that'd be a good match just in general.
Guest:Jericho and Adam Cole, they're good performers.
Guest:But yeah, you add that element in of having Sabu.
Guest:I think for me, I feel like the easy answer is to say this anarchy in the arena match, right?
Guest:Which is got four on each side, four on four.
Guest:There are eight of the best wrestlers alive, right?
Guest:It's going to, like, obviously they're going to have a crazy good match.
Guest:But oddly, the thing I'm looking forward to the most, which is weird because it seems like it has the most foregone conclusion, is the main event.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:I think they have made it pretty clear in the way they book that MJF is going to be having a long title reign, right?
Guest:So it'd be very surprising to me.
Guest:I think it would be shocking, frankly, if any of the opponents, Jungle Boy,
Guest:Darby Allen, Sammy Guevara, if any of them won the title.
Guest:But I'm not going into the match looking for someone to beat him.
Guest:These are four young guys who have, other than MJF, have never main evented a pay-per-view.
Guest:And they're going to be very hungry to prove themselves.
Guest:And they're all good.
Guest:So I just anticipate them having a knockout great match.
Guest:And I very much expect there to be some kind of twist.
Guest:Which I think is going to be Jungle Boy going heel.
Marc:Oh, you think so?
Marc:I do.
Marc:That's good.
Marc:I like that idea.
Marc:And also, this match has these four guys.
Marc:And you can point to Jack Perry.
Marc:He was at full gear in the steel cage match.
Marc:That was a banger of a match.
Marc:Darby Allen, we also saw him in Jersey.
Marc:Or no, maybe it was Long Island.
Guest:We saw him in Long Island against Jeff Hardy.
Guest:That was crazy.
Marc:Yeah, just taking a coffin flop off of a ladder onto the floor.
Marc:I mean, it's going to be spectacular.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yes, I hope everybody stays safe.
Guest:I would like to see Spectacular Show, but I also do not want them to take their health and put it at risk.
Guest:Right, don't break an arm, please.
Guest:Yes, but I expect a lot of that match, and I really am.
Guest:It's like, hey, it's a main event.
Guest:I'm looking forward to it.
Guest:They're going to give it time.
Guest:It's probably a half hour long or something.
Guest:I think it's going to deliver.
Guest:Jack Perry turning heel is so smart.
Guest:And yeah, I can see it.
Guest:He would be a great heel.
Guest:Well, and also, so here's the way they've been setting up this thing, right?
Guest:Is that you've got what is essentially should have been two baby faces, Jungle Boy and Darby on and two heels, Sammy and MJF.
Guest:And they, they had even had that dynamic by having them have a tag match together.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And the whole idea was Sammy was going to get paid by Max to keep these other two guys out of the match.
Guest:And he would ultimately wind up laying down for him and they wound up fighting.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And now Sammy's saying, well, no, I'm not going to lay down for this guy.
Guest:I'm going to prove myself.
Guest:And he's essentially turned himself baby face.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, okay, so you're going to have a match then that has three babyfaces trying to kick this one heel's ass.
Guest:That's not a good dynamic.
Guest:But what has happened over the course of the last several weeks, they keep having promos and everything, is MJF keeps saying to Jungle Boy...
Guest:You could be better than you are, but you're not because you're too nice.
Guest:You're a nice guy and you kind of keep finishing last.
Guest:And I'm the way I am because being a dick gets you ahead, right?
Guest:And they had a match last week with Jungle Boy and that guy, Roosh, who beat the shit out of him, right?
Guest:He was just destroying it.
Guest:He made Jungle Boy all bloody and everything.
Guest:Almost to the point where...
Guest:It got a little too much heat, I thought, for the guy you're going to have in the main event of the pay-per-view.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You have him get his ass kicked.
Guest:He doesn't look like a threat at all.
Guest:But the story point that they were able to do with it was in this situation where he's getting bludgeoned by this guy who's bigger than him.
Guest:And he hasn't been able to put him away.
Guest:He didn't get him to submit with his submission move.
Guest:He hasn't found a pin or whatever.
Guest:He cheated.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He rolled him up and he pulled the tights.
Guest:you're you see this so perfectly yeah but now to be clear they could very easily just say that was that was the story to get to the the pay-per-view sure you know he could just be go be jungle boy for the rest of time but i do think that if they are looking to have some type of twist and that could be a good thing for the next couple of months right you have like max and jungle boy is his little
Guest:partner right right trying to teach him how to be a piece of shit right oh man that's some good content right there yeah i i i mean again it's going going back to one one of the things i've said since we started talking about wrestling on this show is that like i don't care if they do the obvious thing or do the thing that you know i've oh i figured it out i'm they should swerve or whatever no no no
Guest:Do the thing that makes the most sense to a story.
Guest:Tell the best story.
Guest:So if that might be the best story, they can tell.
Guest:If so, go that way.
Guest:I also would love, and this is based on nothing, but if they did some angle after the match, maybe Jungle Boy's a heel now or whatever, and him and Max start putting the boots to or in some way trying to injure Darby Allin,
Guest:And Sting makes the save.
Guest:If that happens, then I will plant my flag and say the main event of All In in London is going to be Sting and MJF.
Guest:You think so?
Guest:Like career for title?
Guest:If on Sunday you see Sting make a save for Darby against MJF, I think that will be the London main event.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:There are a lot of possibilities, and you just laid out some really, really exciting ones.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Well, hey, that's why we watch, because it's fun.
Guest:It is.
Guest:And we say, why do you watch this stuff?
Guest:It's fun.
Guest:We have fun.
Marc:There are not a lot of fun things going on.
Guest:the world right now this is just fun yes yes and we thank them for doing these fun shows uh they're not doing them for free obviously you have to pay to watch them but i do think it's worth your money and uh you can go get that at like i said bleacher report uh your cable pay-per-view or go watch it in a movie theater uh and uh we will watch and we'll give you our impressions next week although chris you're probably going to be watching it delayed right you're not watching it up in the country
Marc:hey we'll see i don't know i don't know what kind of night it is i might be sore from hiking and uh it is also the finale of succession so my friend i'm aware i i think i have to actually delete twitter and and any other social media i think that's the only social media i have uh no i have instagram but you have to ignore life you probably have to ignore newspapers like don't look at things in the in the world yeah yep
Marc:I'm going to listen to old podcasts, so I make sure I don't accidentally get one.
Marc:When can we start talking about Succession, by the way?
Marc:I don't want to spoil it for anyone.
Marc:Yeah, I think maybe a week after it's over, we can start talking about it.
Marc:Cool, cool, cool, cool.
Marc:Because I'm going to miss that show more than, well, just a lot.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It's kind of my favorite show since Breaking Bad, since Mad Men.
Guest:Oh, for sure.
Marc:And Sopranos.
Guest:that's the list man it's a Mel Rushmore yeah big time well alright well hopefully you don't cry at anyone's funeral this weekend is he in the box?
Marc:yeah can you take him out?
Guest:That's what I say when we bring my cat places.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, we will recalibrate next week when the pay-per-view is over, when Succession is over, and we will see you right here on the Friday show.
Guest:Don't forget, if you've got anything to send us, use the link in the episode description and send us whatever you're thinking about.
Guest:Until next time, I'm Brendan.
Guest:That's Chris.
Guest:Peace.