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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...
04:35close...
04:36and...
04:37Darby...
04:38and...
04:39how Sting... you...
04:40in that moment...
04:40that they were going to have a killer match that was going to knock all expectations out the window.
04:45I think Derby calls it the best retirement match of all time in the book.
04:50It's certainly right up there.
04:53The Sting gets really good treatment throughout the-
04:55Obviously, everyone loves Sting.
04:57If you don't like Sting, I probably don't trust you very much as a human.
05:00But this is just a nice touching moment to learn of on one of the most-
05:05important nights of the Icon's career.
05:07Number five, the TV network didn't like the scissor-
05:10Scissoring, obviously, is a huge part of the Acclaims Act.
05:13Anthony Bowens and Max-
05:15You know, a huge thing about them getting over with daddy-ass Billy Gunn.
05:20What's the whole scissoring deal?
05:22Now, obviously, this comes with some sexual con-
05:25connotations that-
05:27AEW's television partners, Warner Bros Discovery-
05:30were more than aware of.
05:32According to Max Castor in the book-
05:35Actually, the network didn't like it at first.
05:37They had a bit of a problem with the scissoring going on on the-
05:40their network because of those connotations.
05:43But apparently, Tony Khan put his foot-
05:45down, he stomped the ground, and he said,
05:47make the t-shirt.
05:49They-
05:50he did, and it became one of the highest selling merch items in AEW.
05:54We've all seen the phone-
05:55fingers at the shows and the shirts and everything else.
05:57And now they're back together on AEW television.
06:00as well.
06:01Interesting to learn that the network didn't like this.
06:03I'm not surprised that they didn't, to be fair.
06:05But ultimately, it's one of these-
06:08it's relatively harmless-
06:10I don't think the youth are being corrupted by scissor me daddy ass.
06:15as weird as that sounds, you know, you write that phrase down.
06:18It doesn't make any sense, but it's one of-
06:20those things where if you're an AEW fan, you know exactly what it means.
06:24The scissoring-
06:25the game maker was pivotal to getting the acclaimed over.
06:28Would they have been as-
06:29as profitable?
06:30That's not the word I'm looking for.
06:31As popular as they eventually became without it?
06:34Maybe?
06:35But-
06:35but it sure as hell would have been a lot harder for them.
06:37So, good on Tony Khan for putting the foot down.
06:40Yeah.
06:41Number four.
06:42A big name wasn't sure at first.
06:45I-
06:45as the book goes through discussing a bunch of the people who were picked up by AEW early
06:49on, and like after-
06:50after all in, several people were told-
06:52without being explicitly told a wrestling promotion was company-
06:55they were told by like Matt Jackson,
06:57hey, you keep your dates open chief.
06:59You know, don't-
07:00don't sign anywhere.
07:01Keep available.
07:02Something- something's happening.
07:03There was a lot of excitement.
07:04A lot of people-
07:05looking forward to it.
07:06A lot of wrestlers getting on TV for the first time, having the biggest opportunity
07:09of their careers.
07:10after decades and decades in the industry.
07:12Evil Uno is one such person who's documented here.
07:15But one person wasn't sure about all this.
07:19That person was Chris-
07:20Christopher-
07:21Daniels.
07:22Now, he had been a veteran in the game for like 20, 30-
07:25years at this point, right?
07:26He'd seen it all.
07:27He'd seen it all.
07:28And he understood wrestling's roots as a car-
07:30funny operation.
07:31Here's what he had to say.
07:33My attitude was, I'll believe it when I-
07:35see it.
07:36We're all skeptical.
07:37We've all had the experience where somebody wanted to start something-
07:40knew.
07:41The intentions were good.
07:42The motivation was there.
07:43And it fell through.
07:44Anyway.
07:45So, Christopher-
07:46Daniels, based on his experience, kept this whole AEW thing at arm's length because-
07:50to him, Tony Khan could have just been another money mark, if you use that phrase.
07:55Uh, who had no idea what he was doing and wasn't going to get it off the ground.
07:59Daniels later ex-
08:00Daniels explains that a further conversation he had with Tony, um, changed his mind and-
08:05convinced him that this was going to be something worth investing in.
08:08And obviously, we're talking about it six years-
08:10Daniels later-
08:11Daniels was a very-
08:12Daniels was a very-
08:13Daniels was a very-
08:14Daniels was a very-
08:15Daniels was a very-
08:16Daniels was a very-
08:17Daniels was a very-
08:18Daniels was a very-
08:19Daniels was a very-
08:20Daniels was a very-
08:21Daniels was a very-
08:22Daniels was a very-
08:23Daniels was a very-
08:24Daniels was a very-
08:25Daniels was a very-
08:26Daniels was a very-
08:27Daniels was a very-
08:28Daniels was a very-
08:29Daniels was a very-
08:30Daniels was a very-
08:31Daniels was a very-
08:32Daniels was a very-
08:33Daniels was a very-
08:34Daniels was a very-
08:35Daniels was a very-
08:36Daniels was a very-
08:38It's like how do you kick the head of talent relations? That's the job for talent relations
08:43It was a whole mess. One thing the book doesn't go into, obviously, right, is the big controversies and the CM
08:48Punk issues and the Jack Perry issues. We'll just talk about that a little bit right now because it seems like a natural
08:53place to do it. There's none of that here because this is an official product, right? This is
08:58the equivalent of a WWE documentary in book form
09:03It's not quite as it doesn't tell as many lies as that obviously, right?
09:08We all know about the ruthless aggression documentary in particular, but in regards as
09:13Effectively, it serves as a positive
09:16Recollection of all these things
09:18that have happened in the WWE's past. So there's nothing about brawl out or backstage fights or anything
09:23like that. None of that's in here. This is more focused on
09:27a positive
09:28Right, a positive journey. So if that stands up your street and you want to live the good times, this is
09:33Definitely the book for you. Just be aware that it's not going to go into some of those spicy
09:38moments from AEW history because, I mean, look, guys, it's right here on
09:43the front pages by Keith Elliott Greenberg and it's an official product, right? They're not going to
09:48do that kind of thing. Just keep that in mind. Number three, the original stadium stampede was delivered
09:53by a tropical storm. There's a big paragraph, big section, big couple of pages
09:58on the original stadium stampede match in 2020 and the whole attitude within AEW.
10:03Hey, we've got this football stadium. We might as well use it for something cool.
10:06It's not being used for the NFL.
10:08We might as well have a wrestling match in it and the whole construction of the match, how they were walking
10:11through the building and finding specific
10:13places they wanted to do sports from like Nick Jackson said, Hey, look at that football thing.
10:18I'm going to flip off of that. Matt Jackson's like chief. You just cracked your rib. You can't do that. Nick.
10:23Jackson made all Barry from EastEnders like I'm going to do it anyway, but an interesting
10:28nugget from this bit of info is that initially when they were filming this thing
10:33they were there until half five in the morning filming this cinematic match as Jericho
10:38recalls the sun was coming up when they wrapped it up. And part of that is because they were delayed by weather.
10:43The tropical storm had the route the lack of decency to occur in the middle of
10:48So they all had to stop and presumably wait for things to dry up before they could resume
10:53and cause a big delay. Now look, it's Florida. These things dry up pretty quickly, right?
10:57They can happen in a
10:58flash be over and it's dry half an hour later. There's no word on exactly how long they were delayed for
11:03but you can imagine it was sizable. If you are going to flip off of a wobbly football goal.
11:08Yeah, you probably want that to be dry. You don't want it to be wet and slippery.
11:11So the stadium stampedes like
11:13you can see is really interesting. One of the more enjoyable early cinematic matches for sure. I thought it was a blast personally
11:18I mean it was the most fun I had were wrestling in the whole pandemic era with
11:23there were no crowds and everything and the matches legacy continues to date. Initial one though?
11:28Almost got rained off. Crazy. Number two is how the pandemic
11:33unfolded. Now obviously we all know that in early 2020 the world shut down right
11:38and wrestling kept going with empty arenas. AW's version of that was at
11:43QT Marshall's gym in Georgia where it was very very
11:48sparse. There was nobody around. They later went to Daly's place. They had people like the guns at ringside mix
11:53making lots of noise wherever they could. All of that stuff is very well documented. And actually
11:58if somebody wanted to they could probably write about 500 pages on the pandemic era of wrestling.
12:03alone. There's a lot to cover there. But something we've never heard is how this specifically unfolded in
12:08AEW. The moment they realized, the moment they all realized, ah crap.
12:13something's going wrong here. It was during the 11th of March 2020 episode of
12:18Dynamite when Evil Uno had the following kind of, sorry, I'm not
12:23I've jumped ahead. When Christopher Daniels had the following realization.
12:27I remember
12:28a lot of people in the locker room saying things like I've got a cold. I've got the flu today. I'm not feeling
12:33so good. There was a lot of that going on, but I didn't get it. Then Evil Uno
12:38added, I remember the show went on as if it was nothing. And then halfway through
12:43a ton of important people started looking worried and going into meetings.
12:48I didn't understand what was happening at all. So the sense of confusion just kind of
12:53creeping in backstage as the world is kind of coming to terms with this catastrophe that
12:58is unfolding. Evil Uno even says, I thought somebody big was showing up, man, like a big debut or
13:02something like that.
13:03It turned out to be a debut of a global pandemic, which had catastrophic impacts.
13:08It's around the world. Really interesting to learn about this backstage.
13:13situation right there. I mean, honestly, I wish it was kind of cameras there to capture, honestly, or even
13:18a little bit more detail on these things in general, but yeah, really interesting.
13:23Thank goodness all of that is behind us now because really
13:28sucked. And at number one, the last minute reshuffle to the original casino.
13:33Battle Royale. So the original OG Casino Battle Royale was won by Hangman P.
13:38Cage. He earned his right to challenge for the WWE World Championship. As a result of that, he ended up facing
13:43against Jericho and losing. But if you recall the original setup of that match, there were
13:48cards, groups of wrestlers came out depending on the card they drew in bat
13:53matches. And then there was one Joker at the end. Well, the original Casino Battle Royale
13:58was supposed to feature one Brian Cage. He eventually signed for AEW in the future, but at the end
14:03of the time, he was TNA World Champion. Problem was TNA
14:08they didn't want their world champion being eliminated from a match. They didn't want him getting pinned or
14:13thrown out or whatever, whatever, whatever. He was their world champion. It's an understandable point of view for them to take.
14:18The problem is the AEW didn't learn about this. TNA did not
14:23realize this and raise this concern until just as the match was beginning.
14:28This meant that live on the fly on basically the first show.
14:33AEW had to completely change one of their big matches. This meant that
14:38Orange Cassidy, who was originally supposed to have a much smaller role in the match, became an official
14:43participant. He entered the match and they all had to adjust on the fly. Excalibur
14:48says he was kind of making his way to the ring and taking a seat at the announce booth when he learned that
14:53the whole thing had changed. One of the defining characters
14:58logistics of AEW has been that ability to adjust on the fly and here it is written, documented.
15:03in this book is all elite. It's out on the 4th of November.
15:08So if you pick it up, I think if you're an AEW hardcore fan and you would just love to have this on your
15:13coffee table or your bookshelf, definitely grab it, get a hold of it.
15:16I mean, as well as the
15:18editorial side, I mean some of these images are just absolutely gorgeous. The photographer's feed
15:23AEW do a tremendous job and this is a very well designed and presented book. So shout out to them.
15:28the speedily Michael Watson brain buster, the whole team do a great job.
15:33And it's showcased really well in here. If you're looking for a deeper dive.
15:38If you're looking for like a super detailed analysis of this company.
15:43from start to finish, it's maybe not the book for you. It doesn't really have that in it.
15:48But it's not going for that. It's going for a very high level overview. It's going for
15:53a summary in positive terms of this promotion coming to life.
15:58and prospering going all the way through to the first Wembley show and Sting's retirement.
16:03That sounds great to you. Pick it up. Pre-order it right now. They're available. It's coming in just a few weeks.
16:08But thank you for joining me today. Here's another video about AEW. I'll see you later.
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