- 8 months ago
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00:00Did you know that when Wardlow wrestled MJF at AW000 in 2022, he did...
00:05So technically half blind, this is one of the things, along with seven others...
00:10So we learned while reading this, AW's brand new book, This Book Is All Elite...
00:15Which is out on November 4th, it's written by Keith Elliott Greenberg and AEW...
00:20And it's available for pre-order now. Full disclosure, we were provided with a free copy of the...
00:25For the purpose of this pseudo review video. I'm going to get into some...
00:30Some of my thoughts in general on the book later in the video, but right now we're going to start this one...
00:35We're going to run off with, yes, Wardlow being half blind in 2022.
00:40And why was Wardlow half blind on this show, you ask? How did this possibly happen? Well, according...
00:45According to the man himself, during the match, one of my contacts dried out. I'm blind...
00:50Not without my contacts. Fortunately, I can literally powerbomb somebody with my eyes closed. And that's...
00:55That's what it was like. I couldn't see the fan reactions, but I could hear them. So that's...
01:00Pretty useful that he can do that with minimal vision because...
01:03Yeah, the match was basically 10 powerbomb.
01:05Wasn't it? It was the big match where Wardlow in kayfabe won his freedom contractually.
01:10From MJF. And it was... It felt like a big breakout moment for him at the time, certainly.
01:15A very important match. Really interesting to learn that on his way to the...
01:20the ring or just before he was stepping out, contact lens started adding up. I mean, the man was in handcuffs.
01:25He couldn't do anything about that. He just had to live with it. That's the kind of small...
01:30everyday thing that can go wrong for anyone at any point in life.
01:35And for Wardlow, it unfortunately happened at a very pivotal moment. Nonetheless, he hit the powerbombs...
01:40exquisitely. And I'm sure he's very happy with his work that night.
01:43Number seven is the...
01:45specific moment that Tony Khan knew he wanted to launch AEW. So this book is...
01:50extremely brisk. It's very fast paced. I think if you're...
01:55a leader of any level really, you could probably blast through it in a couple of hours.
01:58Which is what I've done over the past...
02:00couple of days. And then it starts off with Tony Khan's roots as a wrestling fan. It goes...
02:05through his decision to launch AEW and the pivotal moment that kind of led to him going...
02:10you know what? This is viable. We can do this. It was the escalation of TV right...
02:15the rights fees, the bubble, the exorbitant... exorbitant... that's not a word...
02:20but you know what I'm trying to say...
02:21the ex... extortion... I... words... words are failing me...
02:25right now... but it was when Tony realized that he could be paid a lot of money to run
02:28a TV show basically. Here's what he...
02:30what he had to say about the whole thing. The business model for pro wrestling had really changed when TV...
02:35rights fees increased. You could sell a show for tens of millions of dollars signing...
02:40a roster of wrestlers and air 52 weeks a year. There was a new opportunity to...
02:45launch a promotion profitably and internationally that had not existed...
02:50until then. So the race explosion continues today. I mean AEW is currently paid...
02:55around 185 million dollars a year by Warner Bros Discovery to air...
03:00WWE earns billions from their various partnerships. It has gone through...
03:05the roof in recent years and it has made things a lot more viable...
03:08than they would have been in the past.
03:10this was key. If AEW had launched a... I don't know like 10 years prior or...
03:15whatever... without that... without that financial security... it may never have gotten off the...
03:20ground. Now obviously there are other factors that contributed to the launch...
03:23of the promotion and they talk about it in the book...
03:25you know... things like the Elite suddenly being available... Cody Rhodes obviously...
03:29guys like Chris...
03:30Jericho and so forth...
03:32but if it wasn't for the TV rights fees explosion...
03:35Tony Khan wouldn't have had a viable business. So there you go.
03:38Number six...
03:39How...
03:40Sting perked Darby Allen up. So the book goes as far as Sting's retirement match...
03:45basically in early 2024. That's chronologically where... we kind of draw the line...
03:50and hey... leave things open for another one of these bad boys...
03:53in five or six years...
03:55one of the things that Darby Allen speaks about...
03:57is being a little bit nervous perhaps... before the match...
03:59he's... he's...
04:00backstage... he's brooding... Sting comes up to him and goes...
04:02hey man... what's wrong with you? What's up?
04:05Are you feeling down or anything like that?
04:07Darby explained to him...
04:08well... it's your retirement match and we only get one...
04:10chance to do this... so... we've really got to kill it.
04:13Sting's reply was that...
04:15hey... let's take the chains off... and apparently according to Darby...
04:18at that moment he realised that...
04:20uh... yeah... we're gonna go all out here... we're gonna go crazy...
04:22of course he ended up going through a pane of glass...
04:24uh...
04:25in this match...
04:26Darby also speaks about how there was a big prayer huddle... right?
04:30involving Sting... very religious man...
04:32his family... his sons were of course on the show...
04:34the young... but...
04:35the young...
04:36the young...
04:37the young...
04:38the young...
04:39the young...
04:40the young...
04:41the young...
04:42the young...
04:43the young...
04:44the young...
04:45the young...
04:46the young...
04:47the young...
04:48the young...
04:49the young...
04:50the young...
04:51the young...
04:52the young...
04:53the young...
04:54the young...
04:55the young...
04:56the young...
04:57the young...
04:58the young...
04:59the young...
05:00the young...
05:01the young...
05:02the young...
05:03the young...
05:04on one of the most important nights of the icon's career number five the tv network did
05:09like the scissoring scissoring obviously is a huge part of the acclaims act Anthony
05:14Bowens and Max Caster you know a huge thing about them getting over with daddy ass
05:19Billy gun was an old scissoring deal now obviously this comes with some
05:24sexual connotations uh that aw's television partners
05:29runner bros discovery we're more than aware of according to Max Caster in the
05:34book actually the the network didn't like it at first they had a bit of a problem with the system
05:39scissoring going on on their network because of those connotations but apparently Tony
05:44can put his foot down he stomped the ground and he said make the t-
05:49shirt they did and it became one of the highest selling merch items in a w
05:54we've all seen the foam fingers at the shows and the shirts and everything else and now they're back together
05:59on aw television as well interesting to learn that the network didn't like this i'm not surprised
06:04that they didn't to be fair um but ultimately it's one of these it's really
06:09relatively harmless right i don't think the youth are being corrupted by scissor me daddy ass
06:14as weird as that sounds you know you write that phrase down it doesn't make
06:19any sense but it's one of those things where if you're an aw fan you know exactly what it means
06:24the scissoring gimmick was pivotal to getting the acclaimed over would they have been as
06:29profitable that's not the word i'm looking for as popular as they eventually became without it
06:34maybe but it sure as hell would have been a lot harder for them so good on tony can for
06:39the foot down and yeah number four a big name wasn't sure
06:44first as the book goes through discussing a bunch of people who were picked up by aw early on
06:49and like after all in several people were told without being explicitly told a wrestling
06:54motion was coming coming they were told by like matt jackson hey you keep your dates open chief
06:59you know don't sign anywhere keep available something something's happening there was a lot of
07:04excitement a lot of people looking forward to it a lot of wrestlers getting on tv for the first time having the biggest opportunity of their
07:09careers after decades and decades in the industry evil uno is one such person who's
07:14documented here uh but one person wasn't sure about all this
07:19that person was christopher daniels now he had been a veron in the game
07:24for like 20 30 years at this point right he'd seen it all he'd seen it all and he understood wrestling's roots
07:29as a carny operation here's what he had to say my attitude was i'll
07:34believe it when i see it we're all skeptical we've all had the experience where somebody wants
07:39to start something new the intentions were good the motivation was there and it fell through
07:44anyway so christopher daniels based on his experience kept this whole aew being
07:49arm's length because to him tony khan could have just been another money mark if you
07:54use that phrase uh who had no idea what he was doing and wasn't going to get it off the ground
07:59daniels later explains that a further conversation he had with tony um
08:04changed his mind and convinced him that this was going to be something worth investing in and obviously
08:09what we're talking about is six years later it was correct uh daniels was a very it's
08:14still is a very important figure in aew he was obviously a key member of scu which
08:19were very heavily pushed and promoted early on in aew seu with the first tag team champion
08:24of course uh scorpio sky and frankie kazarian and daniels was aw's head of talent release
08:29leading a few years ago to the infamous backstage situation where there were
08:34reports that cm punk had tried to kick him off collision before when he returned it's like how
08:39you kicked the head of talent relations that's the job for talent relations it was a whole mess
08:44thing the book doesn't go into obviously right is the big controversies and the cm punk issues
08:49the jack perry issues we'll just talk about that a little bit right now because it seems like a natural
08:52place to do it um
08:54there's none of that here because this is an official product right this is um
08:59the equivalent of a ww documentary in book form it's not quite
09:04as it doesn't tell as many lies as that obviously right we all know about the roof
09:09this aggression documentary in particular um but in regards as effectively
09:21you
09:14it serves as a positive recollection of all these things that have happened in aews
09:19so there's nothing about brawl out or backstage fights or anything like that none of that
09:24that's in here this is more focused on um a positive ride a positive journey
09:29so if that stands up your street and you want to live the good times this is definitely the book
09:34for you just be aware that it's not going to go into some of those spicier moments from any w hits
09:39history because i mean look guys uh it's right here on the front pages
09:44by keith elliott greenberg and aid it's an official product right they're not gonna they're not gonna do that kind of thing
09:49just keep that in mind number three the original stadium stampede was delayed by a
09:54tropical storm there's a big paragraph big section big couple of pages on the original
09:59stadium stampede match in 2020 and the whole attitude within aw have been hey we've got this
10:04football stadium we might as well use it for something cool something used for the nfl we might as well have a wrestling match
10:09in it and the whole construction of the match how they were walking through the building and finding specific places they wanted to do
10:14sports from like nick jackson said hey look at that football uh thing i'm gonna flip off of
10:19that matt jackson's like chief you just cracked your rib you can't do that nick jackson made all barry
10:24from eastenders like i'm gonna do it anyway but an interesting nugget from
10:29this bit of info um is that initially when they were filming this thing they were there until
10:34half five in the morning filming this cinematic match as jericho recalls the sun was coming
10:39up when they wrapped it up and part of that is because they were delayed by weather a tropical storm
10:44storm had the root the lack of decency to occur in the middle of shooting so they all had to
10:49stop and presumably wait for things to dry up before they could resume causing a big delay
10:54now look at florida these things dry up pretty quickly right they can happen in a flash be over and
10:59just try half an hour later there's no word on exactly how long they were delayed for but you can imagine it was size
11:04uh if you are going to flip off of a wobbly football goal yeah you probably want that to be
11:09try you don't want it to be wet and slippery um so the stadium stampede's legacy is really interesting
11:14one of the more enjoyable early cinematic matches for sure i thought it was a blast personally i mean
11:18it was the
11:19it was the most fun i had with wrestling in the whole pandemic era where there were no crowds and
11:24everything uh and the matches legacy continues to date initial one foe almost gone
11:29got rained off crazy number two is how the pandemic unfolded
11:34now obviously we all know that in early 2020 the world shut down wrestling kept going
11:39with empty arenas aw's version of that was at first
11:44qt marshall's gym in georgia where uh it was very very sparse there was nobody
11:49around they later went to daly's place they had people like the guns at ringside making lots of noise
11:53wherever they could um all of that stuff is very well documented and actually if somebody
11:58wanted to they could probably write about 500 pages on the pandemic era of wrestling alone there's a
12:03lot to cover there um but something we've never heard is how this specifically unfolded in aw
12:08um the moment they realize the moment they all realize ah crap something's going
12:13wrong here it was during the 11th of march uh 2020 episode of dynamite when
12:18evil uno uh had the following kind of sorry i'm not i've got i've
12:23a head when christopher daniels had the following realization i remember a lot of people
12:28in the locker room saying things like i've got a cold i've got the flu today i'm not feeling so good
12:33there was a lot of that going on but i didn't get it then evil uno added
12:38i remember the show went on as if it was nothing and then halfway through i'll tell
12:43a ton of important people started looking worried and going into meetings i didn't understand
12:48what was happening at all so the sense of confusion just kind of creeping in
13:01you
12:53backstage as the world is kind of coming to terms with this catastrophe that is unfolding even
13:07you
12:58even says i thought somebody big was showing up man like a big debut or something like that uh
13:03it turned out to be a debut of a global pandemic which had catastrophic impacts around
13:17you
13:08the world really interesting to learn about this backstage um situation
13:13right there i mean honestly i wish there was kind of cameras there to capture honestly or even a
13:18little bit more
13:18little bit more detail on these things uh in general but yeah really interesting to learn
13:32you
13:23and um thank goodness all of that is behind us now because really sucked
13:28and at number one the last minute reshuffle to the original casino battle royale
13:33so the original og casino battle royale was won by hangman page
13:38he earned his right to challenge for the aw world championship as a result of that he ended up
13:42facing chris jericho in league
13:43he was losing um but if you recall the original set up of that match there were
13:48car
13:48car
13:48car
13:48car
13:49groups of wrestlers came out depending on the card they drew
13:52in batches and then there was
13:53one joker at the end well the original casino battle royale was supposed to be
13:58the future one brian cage he eventually signed for aw in the future but at the time
14:03he was tna world champion problem was tna they
14:08didn't want their world champion being eliminated from a match they didn't want him getting pinned
14:12or thrown out or whatever
14:13whatever whatever whatever whatever he was their world champion it's an understandable point of view for them to take
14:18the problem is the aw didn't learn about this tna did not realize this
14:23and raise this concern until just as the match was beginning this
14:28meant that live on the fly on basically the first show i
14:33w had to completely change one of their big matches this meant that orange cast
14:38v who was originally supposed to have a much smaller role in the match became an official participant
14:43he entered the match and they all had to adjust on the fly excalibur says he was kind of
14:48making his way to the ring and taking a seat at the announce booth when he learned that the whole
14:53thing had changed one of the defining characteristics of aw
14:58aw has been that ability to adjust on the fly and here it is written documented in
15:03this book is all elite it's out on the 4th of november who should pick it up
15:08i think if you're an aw hardcore fan and you would just love to have this on your coffee table
15:13or your bookshelf definitely grab it get hold of it i mean as well as the editorial
15:18side i mean some of these images are just absolutely gorgeous the photographers of aw do a tremendous
15:23job and this is a very well designed and presented book so shout out to them
15:28speedy lee michael watson brain buster the whole team do a great job in this showcase
15:33really well in here uh if you're looking for a deeper dive if you're looking for like
15:38a super detailed analysis of this company from start to
15:43finish it's maybe not the book for you it doesn't really have that in it but it's not going
15:48for that it's going for a very high level overview it's going for uh
15:53a summary in positive terms of this promotion coming to life and prospering
15:58going all the way through to the first wembley show and sting's retirement that sounds great to
16:03you pick it up pre-order it right now they're available it's coming in just a few weeks but thank you for
16:08joining
16:08me today here's another video about aw i'll see you later