March 19, 2025 • 29 mins
AEW President Tony Khan joins us to discuss the unique energy of smaller wrestling venues. He also addresses Kamille’s status in AEW. Plus, we dive into the strategy behind AEW Dynasty, his thoughts on PPV planning, and more!
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You'll play for all things for.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Wrestling and exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Podcast stop It, What's up you guys?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast,
And of course, tonight, Ay Diana, my aw Dynamite is
live in Omaha at the Liberty First Credit Union Arena.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Take it still available online at takeingmaster dot com.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
And you know, at this point we might as well
just call him a co host because he's been on
the show so many times. He's the mastermind behind all
elite wrestling, the man who's redefined the wrestling landscape and
one of the busiest minds in the business, whether it's
with a w ring of honor, football, soccer, I mean,
the guys making major moves everywhere.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Give it up for the one. The old Tony conjoined
the show.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Very much, my friend. It's great to see you, Tim,
Thanks for having me on the show.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Always glad to have you on the show. So let's
let's talk about it. Big night for aw Dynamite tonight.
I mean, you look at the card, it's stacked yet again.
Another Wednesday night, Dynamite stacked card. What are you most
looking forward to for tonight's show here in Omaha.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, there's so many exciting things tonight on the show.
I'm really excited for this one. It's a stacked card.
Last week we had a massive event coming off AW
Revolution that was such a great success for the company
after a great run of shows. Now we've got a
world title fight tonight on Dynamite that's pretty huge, and
(01:43):
it's a street fight, and we've got the former two
time TNT champion, the rated R superstar Adam Copeland. He's
been so great here in AAEW and he's one of
the greatest wrestlers of all time. And Adam Copeland challenging
the world champion John Moxley for the AEW title tonight
on Dynamite in a street fight. I can't wait for that.
(02:07):
It's gonna be absolutely insane. And we know that the
winner of the street fight mox or Cope, is gonna
be the world champion and they're gonna defend the title
at AW Dynasty versus the former champion Swarve Strickland, and
he won the title last year at the original AEW Dynasty.
This year at AW Dynasty, I gotta think, Uh, it's
(02:29):
gonna be a great, great match when Swarve Strickland challenges
for the world title. And we'll find out tonight in
the street fight on Dynamite. Who's gonna be challenging. It'll
be in Cope.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, it's gonna be insane.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Over under five minutes into the match before Moxley starts
bleeding in a street fight.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
It's hard to say. I'm very excited for the street fight,
but you can expect a hard hitting, bloody excite. You know,
who is to say what's gonna happen when these guys
get in the ring, But I would not be surprised
if blood was filled in this street fight. It's going
to be a great, great match Moxing versus Cope in
the street fight tonight.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, it's gonna be insane for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And of course we also want to say congrats on
another critically acclaimed pay per view, AW Revolution held at
Crypto dot Com Arena. I mean, you look at that
pay per view, several matches on the card, getting a
lot of rays. As a Lakers fan, how incredible was
it to host an aw pay per view on their
home court.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
It was incredible and to be honest, I just went
back to the scene of the crime. I just was
at the Lakers game the other night versus the Spurs
and went back and had so many people coming up
to me from the staff in the building and fans
saying how much they loved AW Revolution. It was pretty cool.
I had a great experience at AW Revolution, and I
(03:49):
love doing the show at the Forum because that's the
home of the original showtime Lakers and it has a
great legacy and it's been a great home for AW
for many years in Los Angeles. And then we went
to Crypto dot Com Arena for the first time ever.
This was such a home run and it's one of
the best shows we've ever done. It's one of the
best venues we've been to. The fans were great in
(04:11):
the arena, but also it was a huge commercial success.
We sold over twelve thousand tickets. We had huge amount
of fans in the building, but we also had a
huge pay per view audience, one of our biggest pay
per view audiences we've had, and the biggest audience we've
had since we were at Wembley Stadium last year. For
all in for sure, this is one of the biggest
(04:33):
revolutions ever in terms of the live gate and in
terms of the pay per view, and we had a
new partner to come on. Amazon Prime is new home
for the AW pay per views. That's been fantastic. They
were a great partner. We already have a lot of
great partners on cable satellite streaming, but to add somebody
with the scale, the scope, the power of Amazon Prime
(04:56):
that has been excellent for the pay per view business.
And then for our we've been on a fantastic run
of TV AW Dynamite on Wednesdays, AW Collision on Saturdays.
The shows have been really great and if you haven't
seen AW before or if you haven't watched recently, now's
a great time to come in because last year we
had a lot of injuries, a lot of our top stars.
(05:18):
At the same time as big stars being injured, we
had people that had commitments in movies and shows, and
I try to honor commitments every time, and in this case,
we had mjf the former world champion working on Happy
Gilmore Too, which is going to be a huge movie.
He's back in AW now and he's been great since
(05:40):
he came back. Just had a fantastic match with Hangman
Page at AW Revolution. It's great to have MJF back.
He's one of our biggest stars. Then Samoa Joe, the
former World Champion of AAW he was filming Twisted Metal,
he was away and we're losing two former world champions,
MJF and Samoa Joe, two of the biggest stars in wrestling.
But also it was while we had these huge injuries.
(06:02):
I was talking about Adam Copeland, the two time TNT champion,
his second reign ended. He was never defeated for the title.
He was injured. He broke his leg at Double or
Nothing jumping off the steel cage. He still finished the match,
he still won the match, but he was unable to
come back to action for the rest of last year,
so he was out till the end of the year.
(06:23):
And then Kenny Omega, somebody who has been instrumental in
the launch of AW and every step of the way
for us. He's held almost every major title in the company.
And then Kenny Omega was out for all of twenty
twenty four. He didn't wrestle at all last year. And
Kenny Omega was in the first main event of our
very first show. He's one of my personal favorite wrestlers ever,
(06:47):
and I believe he was instrumental in us creating this company.
And now he's back, and I believe he's as great
as ever. He's he's really found his footing. He came back.
It was clear he was trying to work off any
ring rust before he stepped in and tried to challenge
(07:07):
for his first championship match in over a year. And
he went at Revolution challenged possibly the greatest AW International
champion of all time, Knuskate to Keshia, who defended the
title all over the world in other promotions against aw's
top stars, and then he defeated probably the other person
(07:30):
who I think would have a claim to be the
greatest International champion, Orange Cassidy, straight up in a magency
who would go on to fight Kenny Omega at Revolution,
defending the title there. And Takeshida has taken on this
incredibly challenging schedule. He was fighting all over the world.
He defended the title in Japan, Canada, Mexico and against
(07:50):
top stars in AW, great wrestlers including Ricochet and Orange
Cassidy and Powerhouse Tobbs and so many others along the
way that Casha had these great matches with and he
was really on a hot streak. But also he had
had Kenny Omega's number in the past, and Kenny Omega
(08:13):
had lost it to cash it top before he stepped away,
and to cash you to continue to get better and
better and better. And there were a lot of questions,
is Kenny gonna be as great as he's always been?
Is what's gonna be this comeback for Kenny. He's been
out for over a year and he almost died. Yeah,
And a lot of people thought Kenny could never return
(08:35):
to the ring, but I know he always believed that
there was a fighting chance, and he fought, and he fought,
and he came back, and now he's the International Champion
and we're going to find out on Dynamite who's up next,
who's the next challenger for that international title. And I'm
really really excited for it because we have a four
way match and you've got four great stars from different country,
(09:00):
different backgrounds, different wrestling styles. And to have four great
wrestlers like the former International Champion, Orange Cassidy, the new arrival,
the hot free agent Speedball Bailey, who has been an
excellent star. We're so excited to have him in aw
He's a top star, an international star coming from Canada,
(09:21):
and we're happy to have him here. Mark Davis, who's
been part of a top team and a top international
wrestler in OSSI Open, who just defeated one of the
top champions' top stars in our company, Mark Briscoe, who's
been a top tag team wrestler in the past and
now is a top singles wrestler. That's a huge win
for Mark Davis. We saw Mark brisco really come in
(09:44):
last year and grow so much as a singles wrestler
from the First Continental Classic to the second Continental Classic.
Mark brisco had such a great run this year. He
ended on three straight wins and he won three times
as many matches as he did last year I think,
and just came out so great for Mark and really
(10:04):
that's a huge win for Mark Davis. So he's red
hot going into this four way. And then you have
probably the least liked man in the whole field, one
of the least like men in our locker room, and
somebody I'm a big fan of as a wrestler, but
he's a very challenging personality, very hard to work with,
really weird guy. And that's Ricochet, and he has really
(10:27):
turned the fans off. And I think he's a great, great,
great wrestler, And to be honest, I like working with
him because I think he's such a great talent in
the ring. I really enjoy collaborating with Ricochet. But a
lot of the fans have really turned on him because
they see what he's all about, which is Ricochet. He's
(10:47):
all about himself and he is in really top fighting condition.
And I think Ricochet is a great wrestler. I don't
think he's a great guy, but I think this is
a great field for this four way to have four
great stars like Ricochet, Mark Davis, Speedball Bailey, and Orange
(11:08):
Cassidy the former international champion, all four guys fighting for
a shot at Kenny Omega and the international title at
AW Dynasty.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Yeah, and that you talk about everybody that you just mentioned,
and it's definitely gonna be an incredible night for AW
Dynamite tonight. And of course, you know, we're only what
three months into the new year, and like you said,
I mean, you got a lot of guys and girls
coming back from injury. You're introducing new, you know, superstars
to the roster. Now that everything's clicking. One of the
(11:37):
things that we have noticed as fans from watching from
TV has been, you know, aw running in much more
intimate venues, which seems to have a big bump in presentation.
What is it about, you know, those intimate venues, not
the ginormous you know, fifteen twenty thousand crowds, but you
know the eight to ten thousand crowds that capture you know,
(11:59):
the energy of pro wrestling better than a lot of
a larger credit.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Well, I think it just just depends right on the venue.
And I think for the pay per views, packing it
in and bringing in ten twelve thousand fans sometimes more,
you know, even in the world's attendance record we set
in Wembley Stadium eighty one thousand tickets sold, over eighty
one thousand tickets sold for aw All in London. You know,
(12:25):
these are great venues, great events, but it's also great
to see wrestling presented as we've been doing it on
TV in recent months in some of these great theaters,
Amphitheaters and aw is. Primarily, our TV has been known
for a lot of great wrestling, a lot of great
wrestlers because aew is where the best wrestle. But the
(12:49):
venue that's probably most associated with aw television is Daily's Place,
which is an amphitheater. It's a unique viewing experience. So
then in recent months we visited all these great theaters
across America, and we've been able to find some of
that same spirit, some of that same excited passion and
that packed house in these intimate venues, like you said, Tim,
(13:11):
where you've got Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Recently
we had a great experience at the Andrew Brady Theater
in Cincinnati, and people really clearly loved seeing that. We
were just at the Virgin Theater in Las Vegas, and
we've gone to some really great venues across different cities.
Phoenix was a fantastic one, and I'm looking forward to
(13:35):
going to Boston and running the Fenway Music Hall there,
and lots of great venues like that. Daily's Place will
always be number one in our hearts, I think, but
lots of great places across America where we get that
same energy, and it's like you said, it's different energy
from these great pay per views in these huge arenas
(13:57):
and stadiums. So I really enjoy it. I think first
and foremost, the wrestling has been great. The wrestlers are
doing a great job, our staff, and we've been putting
great shows together, especially in these recent months. I think
since we launched on Max in the past few months,
Dynamite and Collision are currently on a great run of shows.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, absolutely, for sure.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Like I said, I mean, we're just three months into
the new year, and we've still got several months to go,
and it's exciting to see what AAW is gonna do.
And you know, speaking of AAW, and of course the
roster very talented. You said, the best come to wrestle there,
and obviously AW creates superstars not only in the ring,
but also on the big screen. Queen of the Ring
(14:39):
recently released two very positive reviews and praise with many
people in AW involved in the project. Did they reach
out out to you about being involved with the project
and possibly sending talent for the film or how that
all play out.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yes. I talked to Ash at the beginning when he
was working on this movie, and he asked me about
casting Tony Stone, and Tony Storm is the greatest actress
in Hollywood, so I was very supportive of it. Of course,
we have other people in AW involved in the project.
But Tony Storm is the AW Women's World Champion first
and foremost. She's the person I think of when I
(15:13):
think of Hollywood and when I think of pro wrestling,
and it fit like a glove. So I talked to
Ash for about an hour on the phone when he
was first working on the movie, before he cast Tony
in the movie. He reached out to me about it,
and I worked around the schedule. You know, Tony needed
to take a little time off for filming, but this
was a long time ago, and it all worked out
(15:34):
just absolutely fantastic, And we're very proud of Tony and
her work, and everybody associated with Queen of the Ring
has done a great job, and they've been a great
sponsor for us. And Tony's a great champion and a
great actress.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah. Absolutely, And it was a fantastic movie. They did
a premiere here in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
And we had a lot of the cast on the
show to talk about the movie. And I mean, you
just look at it and you talk about Tony Storm
beating in the movie and several other people including Camille
and whatnot, and you look at the women's roster for
AE w and I would say that the roster just
keeps getting more bigger and bigger and bigger. And you
(16:13):
recently announced Meghan Bain being a part of that roster,
and a lot of people on the internet want to know, like,
are we ever going to see the clash, because this
would be the match Meghan Bain versus Camille, Like, is
that a potential thinking happened? Is what's the status of Camille.
I know she's been off TV for a while, she
did the movie. I'm just trying to give you the
pencil and I'm just trying to fantasy book myself right now.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
It's a great question, Tim. We don't know who attacked Camille,
and the last time we saw her she was attacked.
We know she had to break up with Mercedes Monet
and their business relationship. Mercedes is flourishing since then, she's
done really well on her own, but Camille, we haven't
seen her since she was attacked, and we're not sure
what that was and what that was about. I do
(16:57):
think that's an interesting thought, for sure, and it's something
to keep an eye on. But that would be a
great matchup and win Camil does return to get payback
for that attack. It'll be interesting to see who she
goes after and what that was.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, I mean again, the fan in my mind is
like Money prints itself.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Sorry, Mercedes prints itself.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
When you think about Camille and Meghan, like those two
powerhouse I mean, Megan coming out just shocking the world
and it's like, holy crap. But yeah, I mean again.
You look at the women's roster, you look at the
men's roster, and it goes to show. Like you said, AWS,
where the best come to wrestle, and you put it
on every week.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Of course tonight with AW.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Dynamite and coming up here soon we've got Dynasty, which
has become a marquee event with some classic matches. When
you're in the pay per view planning stages, what is
your main focus? Obviously it's to put on a great show,
which we know that, but do you try to top
last year's event or is it just about putting on
(18:02):
the best show possible.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
It's about putting on the best show possible. You want
to look at what the event was the previous year
and also with the last pay per view you had,
and you really want to understand the expectations of the fans.
But the most important thing is to do the best
show possible and have it makes sense. And I think
that we had a great dynasty last year. We just
(18:24):
came off a great pay per view Revolution. Look at that.
I mean Revolution had a huge act to follow because
last year's Revolution was probably the best show we had
ever done, and this year we came in and were
able to have a Revolution that somehow lived up, you know,
coming off what we had done the year before. I
don't know if anything for me personally will ever top
(18:44):
stings retirement match. I think I would put that in
certainly is my number one night in the business, or
certainly one of my top two nights in the business.
I think the greatest moments for me working in wrestling,
other than maybe the along with maybe our very first
event and some of these milestones, these first time ends,
we did two of the greatest things I've ever been
associated with, and maybe number one for me I think
(19:05):
would be Sting's retirement match last year at aw Revolution.
Also Brian Danielson winning the World Championship at Wembley Stadium
and being able to celebrate it with his family and
being able to see his kids and his family and
to see Brien and Bertie and Buddy enjoy it so much.
And then to have Bertie come into the press conference
with Brian and Me with the belt, that's a real
(19:25):
life highlight also. And to have both those moments in
one year and and and right before Sting made his
entrance for his last match, I went up. I don't
always go up to this. You know, I'm sitting back
in a chair by the curtain before people go out,
but I don't always get out of the chair as
they're about to make their entrance and stand next to them.
And I went up and stood next to Sting right
(19:47):
before he went out. He put his hand on my
shoulder and said something to me that I'll always remember
and always really appreciate about this last about that last match,
and about that last run, And it's about everything that
a lot to me that I would put up there
with my top moments. And you know, Sting, Rick Flair,
(20:08):
and Ricky Steamboat are really among my biggest heroes in
this business. So to have the three of them in
the same place at the same time on the same night,
and have it be Sting's retirement match and be able
to stand there with Sting and rick Steamboat and Rick Flair,
three people that really all mean a lot to me
personally that I grew up, they were three of my
(20:28):
heroes all at the same time. And then to be
able to stand there with them to celebrate Stings last night,
that's about as good as it gets. And then to
have that moment with Brian and Brie and Birdie and Buddy,
and then to have Brian bring Birdie in the belt
into the press conference, that's about as great as it gets.
So I really was very happy. I thought we had
great pay per views last year, but those are probably
(20:48):
the greatest moments too.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Now, is that one of those moments, like you said,
you're sitting there with Rick and Ricky and Sting, is
that one of those moments where you're pinching yourself and
we're like, is this real life? Like?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Is this a dream? Right now? Am I gonna wake up? Eventually?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I had to take a photo of it. I mean,
it was very surreal night. There's a lot of other
things happening. I mean, there's great matches on that show.
Leading up to the final match, will Ospray and Takashia
I had one of the best matches we've ever seen
FTR had a classic match with John Moxley and Claudio Castignoli.
That was a great, great show and there were a
(21:22):
lot of great moments on that event, and it culminated
in the greatest moment ever in aw Sting in Darby
Allen versus the Umbucks for the World Tag Team Championship.
Darby and Sting ended on the Undefeated run and it
was a storybook moment in wrestling that none of us
wanted to end.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I think I know I didn't want it to end
that night. I wanted to Sting to just continue wrestling forever.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
So, of course, Tony conn is our guest on the
show aw Dynamite Tonight. Tickets still available, you could grab
those ticketmaster dot com live from the Liberty First Credit
Union Arena here in Omaha.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Now here's the part.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Of the show where we kind of can you know,
pull the curtain back and get to know Tony Moore
outside of wrestling. Imagine you're hopping into your car, right
windows down, open road stretched ahead of you.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
What's the song that you're gonna.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Play first in your car that you're just gonna crank
up and just you know, drive to.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
It really depends on the day in the mood I'm in,
you know. I love some of the songs we've used
in aew. Guns n' Roses have been great collaborators. I
love November Rain and Welcome to the Jungle. Those were
great songs and I would certainly love to listen to those.
When I was in college, I lived about November rain
(22:41):
from my parents. I lived, you know, just enough that
my dorm room and then my apartment which was very
close to then after that to my dorm on campus.
The campus is like, you know, eight minutes from my
parents' house roughly, so it was about like it could
start November rain and I would be home by the
time it was over to visit my family. Vice versa.
Going from my family back to college, uh and uh say.
(23:04):
I went to high school on the same campus too,
so it took about November rain to get from home
to school and back.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
That's the greatest thing before GPS be like, how long
do you think it's gonna take you to get here?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Well, November rain ish.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Yeah, Like yeah, usually started me be getting there right
or as they're finishing up. So that's a great one. Certainly.
I have a few other songs that I would like
to bring into aw that I don't I don't want
to hurt my leverage in the negotiating. But that's a
great I.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Mean, I could try to poke you out of it,
but we don't want to hurt any leverage for wrestling
fans to get that big pop when we hear the song.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
It's a great, great collaboration with Elton John.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Though.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I think Saturday night's all right for fighting and great
for Collision. That's a great wrestling theme. I think it's
an iconic wrestling theme now. Saturday Night Collision on TNT
and Max the Elton John Saturday Nights all right for fighting.
This week, we've got to spend Sunday. We're on Saturday
after the NCAA Tournament. Collision is gonna be broken up
this weekend and we're filming that in Omaha too. It's
(24:07):
a great value because we're gonna do Dynamite Live tonight
on TBS and streaming on Max Live, and then we're
also gonna film Collision. Collision is gonna be broken into
two one hour episodes and it's gonna be after NC Doualea,
so we get two great lead ins out of two hours.
So there's slam Dunk Saturday and Slam Dunk Sunday. I
(24:30):
gotta figure out the music. I'll be honest for Slam
on Sunday because this is the first time Delon Johnson
Saturday Night all right for fighting. It might not make
total sense, but I might just use it anyway, but
I haven't decided to. I'm thinking about that one. But
it's gonna be a great week. I'm really excited about it.
And uh, you know, there's a lot Frankly, some of
(24:53):
the Sunday songs you know, aren't as hard hitting when
you look at you know, Sunday kind of love. I
don't think that's gonna work.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Because I if we're if we're tying basketball, and you
can always go with the space Jam theme song, I
mean goes right. I don't know how it will correlate
with wrestling, but I mean maybe, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
We're it's an interesting one. There's a lot of great
themes that we you know, we use round Ball Rock,
which was great, uh, and that's always been great for us.
So there's some interesting ones for sure we could look
to use. I do think, uh, it's gonna be a
great week of wrestling for us. And and no matter
what music opens that, we're excited to have that ncaa
(25:31):
lead in. But I really do love a lot of
the songs we've used in the show. You know. I
loved when we use Cinderella when Kenny and Hangman broke up.
Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone. That was
a great music video, and we've had a lot of
great ones over the years like that.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
When you did that one which one Pointer Sisters, Oh yeah,
Pointer Sisters.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
I love that. But I mean that was for the
first show of the year. I thought that was like
a cool way for the first night it was a
fight for the fallen. You know, there's a lot of
nights where you think, okay, that's not like the bloodthirsty
song that you might want to hear to start a
wrestling show. But for that night, I think it was
great for a fight for the fallen where you're doing
a charity show and it's the first night on Max.
Let's get excited. So I really thought that was fun.
(26:19):
And we've got a lot of great themes and great
songs we try to bring into the show, you know,
with Elton John, I thought that Saturday Night, Sorry for
Fighting Like I said, I think that's a great theme
for us, but it's you know, also just a great song.
Elton John a great artist. I really enjoyed the Rocketman
(26:40):
movie about his life. The only thing that was missing
was the football what we would call soccer in America
but what we call football in England, and there was
not any of that. It's a big part of his life.
If you didn't know, he's been the chairman of Watford,
and there was Noah Watford in the movie at all.
So I kind of surprised by that because it's somebody
(27:01):
who's an executive in the Premier League and has had
a lot of experience playing against Watford, you know, with
our team and working against Watford and competing, and I
know how big of a part of Watford's legacy Elton
John is, and I know how big a part of
(27:22):
Elton John's life Watford is, So I was kind of
surprised there was none of that in that movie. But
I do love that song, and I think it's a
great wrestling theme.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Speaking of you being an executive in your hand is
in a lot of different organizations with wrestling and football,
or in America we call it soccer, and then the
NFL with the draft around the corner. With your experience
in both AW and the NFL, how do you see
the similarities and differences in how free agency works in
(27:52):
professional wrestling versus the NFL.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
It's very different, I think because there are a lot
more teams in the end, with thirty two teams, there
are a lot more destinations and free agencies a little
more routine. In pro wrestling, people commit to a wrestling
organization and there aren't as many different places to go,
so I think it feels even more impactful and important
(28:18):
when a wrestler switches organizations because it doesn't happen as often.
In football, it's very common for players to change teams
and there's so many teams to go to. There's a
huge market. In wrestling, there aren't as many wrestling organizations
to go wrestle for, and if you really want to
make good money in wrestling, there's only a couple places
to work. So I think AW is something that's been
(28:42):
very important in the world of wrestling because it's created
a great marketplace and competition. But even with AW in
the market, there aren't that many other places to go
and earn a great living. In wrestling. Compared to the NFL,
where there's thirty two teams, there's definitely not thirty two
top wrestling organizations. There's only a few, and that's very different. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Absolutely, Well, Tony, I know you're a very busy man,
and I don't want to take up too much your
time because you've got to figure out what the game
plan is for you know, some of the things that
aren't on the card just yet for tonight for.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Aw Dynamite Live in Omaha.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
But Tony, it is always an honor and a privilege
to have you on the show, and it's always great
talking to you.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
It's always great talking to you, Tim. Thanks for having
me on the show today and I really am excited
to see you with Liam at a show soon. And
I hope you guys enjoyed the show on TVs tonight
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You'll play for all things for.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Wrestling and exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Podcast stop It, What's up you guys?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast,
And of course, tonight, Ay Diana, my aw Dynamite is
live in Omaha at the Liberty First Credit Union Arena.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Take it still available online at takeingmaster dot com.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
And you know, at this point we might as well
just call him a co host because he's been on
the show so many times. He's the mastermind behind all
elite wrestling, the man who's redefined the wrestling landscape and
one of the busiest minds in the business, whether it's
with a w ring of honor, football, soccer, I mean,
the guys making major moves everywhere.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Give it up for the one. The old Tony conjoined
the show.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Very much, my friend. It's great to see you, Tim,
Thanks for having me on the show.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Always glad to have you on the show. So let's
let's talk about it. Big night for aw Dynamite tonight.
I mean, you look at the card, it's stacked yet again.
Another Wednesday night, Dynamite stacked card. What are you most
looking forward to for tonight's show here in Omaha.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, there's so many exciting things tonight on the show.
I'm really excited for this one. It's a stacked card.
Last week we had a massive event coming off AW
Revolution that was such a great success for the company
after a great run of shows. Now we've got a
world title fight tonight on Dynamite that's pretty huge, and
(01:43):
it's a street fight, and we've got the former two
time TNT champion, the rated R superstar Adam Copeland. He's
been so great here in AAEW and he's one of
the greatest wrestlers of all time. And Adam Copeland challenging
the world champion John Moxley for the AEW title tonight
on Dynamite in a street fight. I can't wait for that.
(02:07):
It's gonna be absolutely insane. And we know that the
winner of the street fight mox or Cope, is gonna
be the world champion and they're gonna defend the title
at AW Dynasty versus the former champion Swarve Strickland, and
he won the title last year at the original AEW Dynasty.
This year at AW Dynasty, I gotta think, Uh, it's
(02:29):
gonna be a great, great match when Swarve Strickland challenges
for the world title. And we'll find out tonight in
the street fight on Dynamite. Who's gonna be challenging. It'll
be in Cope.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, it's gonna be insane.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Over under five minutes into the match before Moxley starts
bleeding in a street fight.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
It's hard to say. I'm very excited for the street fight,
but you can expect a hard hitting, bloody excite. You know,
who is to say what's gonna happen when these guys
get in the ring, But I would not be surprised
if blood was filled in this street fight. It's going
to be a great, great match Moxing versus Cope in
the street fight tonight.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, it's gonna be insane for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And of course we also want to say congrats on
another critically acclaimed pay per view, AW Revolution held at
Crypto dot Com Arena. I mean, you look at that
pay per view, several matches on the card, getting a
lot of rays. As a Lakers fan, how incredible was
it to host an aw pay per view on their
home court.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
It was incredible and to be honest, I just went
back to the scene of the crime. I just was
at the Lakers game the other night versus the Spurs
and went back and had so many people coming up
to me from the staff in the building and fans
saying how much they loved AW Revolution. It was pretty cool.
I had a great experience at AW Revolution, and I
(03:49):
love doing the show at the Forum because that's the
home of the original showtime Lakers and it has a
great legacy and it's been a great home for AW
for many years in Los Angeles. And then we went
to Crypto dot Com Arena for the first time ever.
This was such a home run and it's one of
the best shows we've ever done. It's one of the
best venues we've been to. The fans were great in
(04:11):
the arena, but also it was a huge commercial success.
We sold over twelve thousand tickets. We had huge amount
of fans in the building, but we also had a
huge pay per view audience, one of our biggest pay
per view audiences we've had, and the biggest audience we've
had since we were at Wembley Stadium last year. For
all in for sure, this is one of the biggest
(04:33):
revolutions ever in terms of the live gate and in
terms of the pay per view, and we had a
new partner to come on. Amazon Prime is new home
for the AW pay per views. That's been fantastic. They
were a great partner. We already have a lot of
great partners on cable satellite streaming, but to add somebody
with the scale, the scope, the power of Amazon Prime
(04:56):
that has been excellent for the pay per view business.
And then for our we've been on a fantastic run
of TV AW Dynamite on Wednesdays, AW Collision on Saturdays.
The shows have been really great and if you haven't
seen AW before or if you haven't watched recently, now's
a great time to come in because last year we
had a lot of injuries, a lot of our top stars.
(05:18):
At the same time as big stars being injured, we
had people that had commitments in movies and shows, and
I try to honor commitments every time, and in this case,
we had mjf the former world champion working on Happy
Gilmore Too, which is going to be a huge movie.
He's back in AW now and he's been great since
(05:40):
he came back. Just had a fantastic match with Hangman
Page at AW Revolution. It's great to have MJF back.
He's one of our biggest stars. Then Samoa Joe, the
former World Champion of AAW he was filming Twisted Metal,
he was away and we're losing two former world champions,
MJF and Samoa Joe, two of the biggest stars in wrestling.
But also it was while we had these huge injuries.
(06:02):
I was talking about Adam Copeland, the two time TNT champion,
his second reign ended. He was never defeated for the title.
He was injured. He broke his leg at Double or
Nothing jumping off the steel cage. He still finished the match,
he still won the match, but he was unable to
come back to action for the rest of last year,
so he was out till the end of the year.
(06:23):
And then Kenny Omega, somebody who has been instrumental in
the launch of AW and every step of the way
for us. He's held almost every major title in the company.
And then Kenny Omega was out for all of twenty
twenty four. He didn't wrestle at all last year. And
Kenny Omega was in the first main event of our
very first show. He's one of my personal favorite wrestlers ever,
(06:47):
and I believe he was instrumental in us creating this company.
And now he's back, and I believe he's as great
as ever. He's he's really found his footing. He came back.
It was clear he was trying to work off any
ring rust before he stepped in and tried to challenge
(07:07):
for his first championship match in over a year. And
he went at Revolution challenged possibly the greatest AW International
champion of all time, Knuskate to Keshia, who defended the
title all over the world in other promotions against aw's
top stars, and then he defeated probably the other person
(07:30):
who I think would have a claim to be the
greatest International champion, Orange Cassidy, straight up in a magency
who would go on to fight Kenny Omega at Revolution,
defending the title there. And Takeshida has taken on this
incredibly challenging schedule. He was fighting all over the world.
He defended the title in Japan, Canada, Mexico and against
(07:50):
top stars in AW, great wrestlers including Ricochet and Orange
Cassidy and Powerhouse Tobbs and so many others along the
way that Casha had these great matches with and he
was really on a hot streak. But also he had
had Kenny Omega's number in the past, and Kenny Omega
(08:13):
had lost it to cash it top before he stepped away,
and to cash you to continue to get better and
better and better. And there were a lot of questions,
is Kenny gonna be as great as he's always been?
Is what's gonna be this comeback for Kenny. He's been
out for over a year and he almost died. Yeah,
And a lot of people thought Kenny could never return
(08:35):
to the ring, but I know he always believed that
there was a fighting chance, and he fought, and he fought,
and he came back, and now he's the International Champion
and we're going to find out on Dynamite who's up next,
who's the next challenger for that international title. And I'm
really really excited for it because we have a four
way match and you've got four great stars from different country,
(09:00):
different backgrounds, different wrestling styles. And to have four great
wrestlers like the former International Champion, Orange Cassidy, the new arrival,
the hot free agent Speedball Bailey, who has been an
excellent star. We're so excited to have him in aw
He's a top star, an international star coming from Canada,
(09:21):
and we're happy to have him here. Mark Davis, who's
been part of a top team and a top international
wrestler in OSSI Open, who just defeated one of the
top champions' top stars in our company, Mark Briscoe, who's
been a top tag team wrestler in the past and
now is a top singles wrestler. That's a huge win
for Mark Davis. We saw Mark brisco really come in
(09:44):
last year and grow so much as a singles wrestler
from the First Continental Classic to the second Continental Classic.
Mark brisco had such a great run this year. He
ended on three straight wins and he won three times
as many matches as he did last year I think,
and just came out so great for Mark and really
(10:04):
that's a huge win for Mark Davis. So he's red
hot going into this four way. And then you have
probably the least liked man in the whole field, one
of the least like men in our locker room, and
somebody I'm a big fan of as a wrestler, but
he's a very challenging personality, very hard to work with,
really weird guy. And that's Ricochet, and he has really
(10:27):
turned the fans off. And I think he's a great, great,
great wrestler, And to be honest, I like working with
him because I think he's such a great talent in
the ring. I really enjoy collaborating with Ricochet. But a
lot of the fans have really turned on him because
they see what he's all about, which is Ricochet. He's
(10:47):
all about himself and he is in really top fighting condition.
And I think Ricochet is a great wrestler. I don't
think he's a great guy, but I think this is
a great field for this four way to have four
great stars like Ricochet, Mark Davis, Speedball Bailey, and Orange
(11:08):
Cassidy the former international champion, all four guys fighting for
a shot at Kenny Omega and the international title at
AW Dynasty.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Yeah, and that you talk about everybody that you just mentioned,
and it's definitely gonna be an incredible night for AW
Dynamite tonight. And of course, you know, we're only what
three months into the new year, and like you said,
I mean, you got a lot of guys and girls
coming back from injury. You're introducing new, you know, superstars
to the roster. Now that everything's clicking. One of the
(11:37):
things that we have noticed as fans from watching from
TV has been, you know, aw running in much more
intimate venues, which seems to have a big bump in presentation.
What is it about, you know, those intimate venues, not
the ginormous you know, fifteen twenty thousand crowds, but you
know the eight to ten thousand crowds that capture you know,
(11:59):
the energy of pro wrestling better than a lot of
a larger credit.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Well, I think it just just depends right on the venue.
And I think for the pay per views, packing it
in and bringing in ten twelve thousand fans sometimes more,
you know, even in the world's attendance record we set
in Wembley Stadium eighty one thousand tickets sold, over eighty
one thousand tickets sold for aw All in London. You know,
(12:25):
these are great venues, great events, but it's also great
to see wrestling presented as we've been doing it on
TV in recent months in some of these great theaters,
Amphitheaters and aw is. Primarily, our TV has been known
for a lot of great wrestling, a lot of great
wrestlers because aew is where the best wrestle. But the
(12:49):
venue that's probably most associated with aw television is Daily's Place,
which is an amphitheater. It's a unique viewing experience. So
then in recent months we visited all these great theaters
across America, and we've been able to find some of
that same spirit, some of that same excited passion and
that packed house in these intimate venues, like you said, Tim,
(13:11):
where you've got Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Recently
we had a great experience at the Andrew Brady Theater
in Cincinnati, and people really clearly loved seeing that. We
were just at the Virgin Theater in Las Vegas, and
we've gone to some really great venues across different cities.
Phoenix was a fantastic one, and I'm looking forward to
(13:35):
going to Boston and running the Fenway Music Hall there,
and lots of great venues like that. Daily's Place will
always be number one in our hearts, I think, but
lots of great places across America where we get that
same energy, and it's like you said, it's different energy
from these great pay per views in these huge arenas
(13:57):
and stadiums. So I really enjoy it. I think first
and foremost, the wrestling has been great. The wrestlers are
doing a great job, our staff, and we've been putting
great shows together, especially in these recent months. I think
since we launched on Max in the past few months,
Dynamite and Collision are currently on a great run of shows.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, absolutely, for sure.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Like I said, I mean, we're just three months into
the new year, and we've still got several months to go,
and it's exciting to see what AAW is gonna do.
And you know, speaking of AAW, and of course the
roster very talented. You said, the best come to wrestle there,
and obviously AW creates superstars not only in the ring,
but also on the big screen. Queen of the Ring
(14:39):
recently released two very positive reviews and praise with many
people in AW involved in the project. Did they reach
out out to you about being involved with the project
and possibly sending talent for the film or how that
all play out.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yes. I talked to Ash at the beginning when he
was working on this movie, and he asked me about
casting Tony Stone, and Tony Storm is the greatest actress
in Hollywood, so I was very supportive of it. Of course,
we have other people in AW involved in the project.
But Tony Storm is the AW Women's World Champion first
and foremost. She's the person I think of when I
(15:13):
think of Hollywood and when I think of pro wrestling,
and it fit like a glove. So I talked to
Ash for about an hour on the phone when he
was first working on the movie, before he cast Tony
in the movie. He reached out to me about it,
and I worked around the schedule. You know, Tony needed
to take a little time off for filming, but this
was a long time ago, and it all worked out
(15:34):
just absolutely fantastic, And we're very proud of Tony and
her work, and everybody associated with Queen of the Ring
has done a great job, and they've been a great
sponsor for us. And Tony's a great champion and a
great actress.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah. Absolutely, And it was a fantastic movie. They did
a premiere here in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
And we had a lot of the cast on the
show to talk about the movie. And I mean, you
just look at it and you talk about Tony Storm
beating in the movie and several other people including Camille
and whatnot, and you look at the women's roster for
AE w and I would say that the roster just
keeps getting more bigger and bigger and bigger. And you
(16:13):
recently announced Meghan Bain being a part of that roster,
and a lot of people on the internet want to know, like,
are we ever going to see the clash, because this
would be the match Meghan Bain versus Camille, Like, is
that a potential thinking happened? Is what's the status of Camille.
I know she's been off TV for a while, she
did the movie. I'm just trying to give you the
pencil and I'm just trying to fantasy book myself right now.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
It's a great question, Tim. We don't know who attacked Camille,
and the last time we saw her she was attacked.
We know she had to break up with Mercedes Monet
and their business relationship. Mercedes is flourishing since then, she's
done really well on her own, but Camille, we haven't
seen her since she was attacked, and we're not sure
what that was and what that was about. I do
(16:57):
think that's an interesting thought, for sure, and it's something
to keep an eye on. But that would be a
great matchup and win Camil does return to get payback
for that attack. It'll be interesting to see who she
goes after and what that was.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, I mean again, the fan in my mind is
like Money prints itself.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Sorry, Mercedes prints itself.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
When you think about Camille and Meghan, like those two
powerhouse I mean, Megan coming out just shocking the world
and it's like, holy crap. But yeah, I mean again.
You look at the women's roster, you look at the
men's roster, and it goes to show. Like you said, AWS,
where the best come to wrestle, and you put it
on every week.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Of course tonight with AW.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Dynamite and coming up here soon we've got Dynasty, which
has become a marquee event with some classic matches. When
you're in the pay per view planning stages, what is
your main focus? Obviously it's to put on a great show,
which we know that, but do you try to top
last year's event or is it just about putting on
(18:02):
the best show possible.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
It's about putting on the best show possible. You want
to look at what the event was the previous year
and also with the last pay per view you had,
and you really want to understand the expectations of the fans.
But the most important thing is to do the best
show possible and have it makes sense. And I think
that we had a great dynasty last year. We just
(18:24):
came off a great pay per view Revolution. Look at that.
I mean Revolution had a huge act to follow because
last year's Revolution was probably the best show we had
ever done, and this year we came in and were
able to have a Revolution that somehow lived up, you know,
coming off what we had done the year before. I
don't know if anything for me personally will ever top
(18:44):
stings retirement match. I think I would put that in
certainly is my number one night in the business, or
certainly one of my top two nights in the business.
I think the greatest moments for me working in wrestling,
other than maybe the along with maybe our very first
event and some of these milestones, these first time ends,
we did two of the greatest things I've ever been
associated with, and maybe number one for me I think
(19:05):
would be Sting's retirement match last year at aw Revolution.
Also Brian Danielson winning the World Championship at Wembley Stadium
and being able to celebrate it with his family and
being able to see his kids and his family and
to see Brien and Bertie and Buddy enjoy it so much.
And then to have Bertie come into the press conference
with Brian and Me with the belt, that's a real
(19:25):
life highlight also. And to have both those moments in
one year and and and right before Sting made his
entrance for his last match, I went up. I don't
always go up to this. You know, I'm sitting back
in a chair by the curtain before people go out,
but I don't always get out of the chair as
they're about to make their entrance and stand next to them.
And I went up and stood next to Sting right
(19:47):
before he went out. He put his hand on my
shoulder and said something to me that I'll always remember
and always really appreciate about this last about that last match,
and about that last run, And it's about everything that
a lot to me that I would put up there
with my top moments. And you know, Sting, Rick Flair,
(20:08):
and Ricky Steamboat are really among my biggest heroes in
this business. So to have the three of them in
the same place at the same time on the same night,
and have it be Sting's retirement match and be able
to stand there with Sting and rick Steamboat and Rick Flair,
three people that really all mean a lot to me
personally that I grew up, they were three of my
(20:28):
heroes all at the same time. And then to be
able to stand there with them to celebrate Stings last night,
that's about as good as it gets. And then to
have that moment with Brian and Brie and Birdie and Buddy,
and then to have Brian bring Birdie in the belt
into the press conference, that's about as great as it gets.
So I really was very happy. I thought we had
great pay per views last year, but those are probably
(20:48):
the greatest moments too.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Now, is that one of those moments, like you said,
you're sitting there with Rick and Ricky and Sting, is
that one of those moments where you're pinching yourself and
we're like, is this real life? Like?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Is this a dream? Right now? Am I gonna wake up? Eventually?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I had to take a photo of it. I mean,
it was very surreal night. There's a lot of other
things happening. I mean, there's great matches on that show.
Leading up to the final match, will Ospray and Takashia
I had one of the best matches we've ever seen
FTR had a classic match with John Moxley and Claudio Castignoli.
That was a great, great show and there were a
(21:22):
lot of great moments on that event, and it culminated
in the greatest moment ever in aw Sting in Darby
Allen versus the Umbucks for the World Tag Team Championship.
Darby and Sting ended on the Undefeated run and it
was a storybook moment in wrestling that none of us
wanted to end.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I think I know I didn't want it to end
that night. I wanted to Sting to just continue wrestling forever.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
So, of course, Tony conn is our guest on the
show aw Dynamite Tonight. Tickets still available, you could grab
those ticketmaster dot com live from the Liberty First Credit
Union Arena here in Omaha.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Now here's the part.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Of the show where we kind of can you know,
pull the curtain back and get to know Tony Moore
outside of wrestling. Imagine you're hopping into your car, right
windows down, open road stretched ahead of you.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
What's the song that you're gonna.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Play first in your car that you're just gonna crank
up and just you know, drive to.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
It really depends on the day in the mood I'm in,
you know. I love some of the songs we've used
in aew. Guns n' Roses have been great collaborators. I
love November Rain and Welcome to the Jungle. Those were
great songs and I would certainly love to listen to those.
When I was in college, I lived about November rain
(22:41):
from my parents. I lived, you know, just enough that
my dorm room and then my apartment which was very
close to then after that to my dorm on campus.
The campus is like, you know, eight minutes from my
parents' house roughly, so it was about like it could
start November rain and I would be home by the
time it was over to visit my family. Vice versa.
Going from my family back to college, uh and uh say.
(23:04):
I went to high school on the same campus too,
so it took about November rain to get from home
to school and back.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
That's the greatest thing before GPS be like, how long
do you think it's gonna take you to get here?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Well, November rain ish.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Yeah, Like yeah, usually started me be getting there right
or as they're finishing up. So that's a great one. Certainly.
I have a few other songs that I would like
to bring into aw that I don't I don't want
to hurt my leverage in the negotiating. But that's a
great I.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Mean, I could try to poke you out of it,
but we don't want to hurt any leverage for wrestling
fans to get that big pop when we hear the song.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
It's a great, great collaboration with Elton John.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Though.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I think Saturday night's all right for fighting and great
for Collision. That's a great wrestling theme. I think it's
an iconic wrestling theme now. Saturday Night Collision on TNT
and Max the Elton John Saturday Nights all right for fighting.
This week, we've got to spend Sunday. We're on Saturday
after the NCAA Tournament. Collision is gonna be broken up
this weekend and we're filming that in Omaha too. It's
(24:07):
a great value because we're gonna do Dynamite Live tonight
on TBS and streaming on Max Live, and then we're
also gonna film Collision. Collision is gonna be broken into
two one hour episodes and it's gonna be after NC Doualea,
so we get two great lead ins out of two hours.
So there's slam Dunk Saturday and Slam Dunk Sunday. I
(24:30):
gotta figure out the music. I'll be honest for Slam
on Sunday because this is the first time Delon Johnson
Saturday Night all right for fighting. It might not make
total sense, but I might just use it anyway, but
I haven't decided to. I'm thinking about that one. But
it's gonna be a great week. I'm really excited about it.
And uh, you know, there's a lot Frankly, some of
(24:53):
the Sunday songs you know, aren't as hard hitting when
you look at you know, Sunday kind of love. I
don't think that's gonna work.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Because I if we're if we're tying basketball, and you
can always go with the space Jam theme song, I
mean goes right. I don't know how it will correlate
with wrestling, but I mean maybe, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
We're it's an interesting one. There's a lot of great
themes that we you know, we use round Ball Rock,
which was great, uh, and that's always been great for us.
So there's some interesting ones for sure we could look
to use. I do think, uh, it's gonna be a
great week of wrestling for us. And and no matter
what music opens that, we're excited to have that ncaa
(25:31):
lead in. But I really do love a lot of
the songs we've used in the show. You know. I
loved when we use Cinderella when Kenny and Hangman broke up.
Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone. That was
a great music video, and we've had a lot of
great ones over the years like that.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
When you did that one which one Pointer Sisters, Oh yeah,
Pointer Sisters.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
I love that. But I mean that was for the
first show of the year. I thought that was like
a cool way for the first night it was a
fight for the fallen. You know, there's a lot of
nights where you think, okay, that's not like the bloodthirsty
song that you might want to hear to start a
wrestling show. But for that night, I think it was
great for a fight for the fallen where you're doing
a charity show and it's the first night on Max.
Let's get excited. So I really thought that was fun.
(26:19):
And we've got a lot of great themes and great
songs we try to bring into the show, you know,
with Elton John, I thought that Saturday Night, Sorry for
Fighting Like I said, I think that's a great theme
for us, but it's you know, also just a great song.
Elton John a great artist. I really enjoyed the Rocketman
(26:40):
movie about his life. The only thing that was missing
was the football what we would call soccer in America
but what we call football in England, and there was
not any of that. It's a big part of his life.
If you didn't know, he's been the chairman of Watford,
and there was Noah Watford in the movie at all.
So I kind of surprised by that because it's somebody
(27:01):
who's an executive in the Premier League and has had
a lot of experience playing against Watford, you know, with
our team and working against Watford and competing, and I
know how big of a part of Watford's legacy Elton
John is, and I know how big a part of
(27:22):
Elton John's life Watford is, So I was kind of
surprised there was none of that in that movie. But
I do love that song, and I think it's a
great wrestling theme.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Speaking of you being an executive in your hand is
in a lot of different organizations with wrestling and football,
or in America we call it soccer, and then the
NFL with the draft around the corner. With your experience
in both AW and the NFL, how do you see
the similarities and differences in how free agency works in
(27:52):
professional wrestling versus the NFL.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
It's very different, I think because there are a lot
more teams in the end, with thirty two teams, there
are a lot more destinations and free agencies a little
more routine. In pro wrestling, people commit to a wrestling
organization and there aren't as many different places to go,
so I think it feels even more impactful and important
(28:18):
when a wrestler switches organizations because it doesn't happen as often.
In football, it's very common for players to change teams
and there's so many teams to go to. There's a
huge market. In wrestling, there aren't as many wrestling organizations
to go wrestle for, and if you really want to
make good money in wrestling, there's only a couple places
to work. So I think AW is something that's been
(28:42):
very important in the world of wrestling because it's created
a great marketplace and competition. But even with AW in
the market, there aren't that many other places to go
and earn a great living. In wrestling. Compared to the NFL,
where there's thirty two teams, there's definitely not thirty two
top wrestling organizations. There's only a few, and that's very different. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Absolutely, Well, Tony, I know you're a very busy man,
and I don't want to take up too much your
time because you've got to figure out what the game
plan is for you know, some of the things that
aren't on the card just yet for tonight for.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Aw Dynamite Live in Omaha.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
But Tony, it is always an honor and a privilege
to have you on the show, and it's always great
talking to you.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
It's always great talking to you, Tim. Thanks for having
me on the show today and I really am excited
to see you with Liam at a show soon. And
I hope you guys enjoyed the show on TVs tonight
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