Swerve Strickland on Blood & Guts, Darby Allin's Comments, and Future Goals as AEW Champion

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Welcome to the Battleground Podcast. You'll
play for all these prostling and exclusive interviews

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with some of your favorite wrestlers around. Stop it, what's up you guys?

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Welcome back into Iheartradios official wrestling podcast, The Battleground Podcast. It is

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battle and we have been talking about
it. Blood and Guts makes its return

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to Nashville. Actually, Blood and
Guts has never been to Nashville. Aw

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is making its return to Nashville with
Blood and Guts. And today on the

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show, we have a former guest
on the show that we told him the

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last time he was on here that
he was gonna go on to win Championship

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Gold and lo and behold what happens
He goes on and wins Championship Gold.

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We have the Man, the Myth, the Legends War Slick Stricklands in the

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house Man Suarve, Congratulations. We
can say it's in person now, Yes,

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sir, appreciate it. Man speaking
into it existence. I'm all about

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at the universe did exactly what I
wanted it to do. But a lot

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of times you gotta take your hands
off of it and let it, let

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it take you where it needs,
where you need to be and you'll end

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up where you need to want that
you ultimately said you were going to be.

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But this is here where I am
AW World champion. Absolutely, And

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of course we were all excited when
it happened, when it all went down,

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the fact that we were sitting there
and it was like, is it

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gonna happen? When's it gonna happen? What's going on? And then it

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happens you become the AW World Champion. So let's let's kind of talk about

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it. I mean, what does
it mean for you? You have that

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title now, you've been working your
ass off to get it. What do

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you want your legacy to be as
the AEW World Heavyweight Champion? For one,

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I don't. I don't think this
is like I'm done yet. I'm

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not like as this as this current
title run. Man, it's just staying

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staying focused and staying true to yourself
honestly, honestly, just believing, believing

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in like what your grind is and
believing on in what your processes. For

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me, it's just like I got
told like a lot of times, countless

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times that like this wasn't a lot
of people didn't see it, They didn't

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see the vision. They didn't see
this, they didn't understand it. I

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should go about a different way.
I should try this, I should try

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this. They're not doing this that
I should be doing this. And I

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was just like, no, I'm
going to shut out a lot of that

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noise. I'm gonna get tunnel vision
and just keep going straightforward with what I

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know works for me and just staying
true and honestly, it was about like

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like just keeping my passion, keeping
my passion, and for me, what

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the definition of passion for me is, especially in this industry, is the

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fact that, like, you keep
the love for it even though it doesn't

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love you back when in times when
it doesn't love you back. It's easy

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to love something that loves you all
the time, But when what happens?

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Do you still love it? If
it's not treating you well, if you're

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not being getting the love and you
feel like you're getting appreciation you deserve for

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it, If it's like you keep
getting punished for certain things and you do,

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like, do you still have that
same love? Yeah? And that's

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what wrestling has been. It's like
this has always treated me the best and

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kicked me in the ass. So
a couple of times you know set me

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back, but I kept going.
I stayed like true to like, I'm

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still going to keep doing what I
do and I'm going to keep adapting and

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improving on but on those core things. And that's what got me here.

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Yeah. Absolutely, And of course
you're here in town promoting the big show

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tomorrow night, Blood and Guts aw
Bridge Donner in which, by the way,

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you can still grab tickets aew ticks
dot com. That is ae w

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ti x dot com. And you
know, when you think about it,

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one of the defining matches for aw
obviously is Blood and Guts. What sets

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Blood and Guts apart from other matches
that are kind of similar to it in

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style and execution, well, the
structure, one, the name, the

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title of it. This doesn't get
any bigger than Blood and Guts. And

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I've been in probably some of the
most dangerous matches you can imagine for wrestling,

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you know, going all the way
from Hell of War to Cage to

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Death to Texas Death Match to now
Blood and Guts. It's literally a giant

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cage structure with two rings and ten
men, and one of those men across

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from me is like probably one of
the most like violent men in a w

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seeing what we me and him done
with each other at U in full gear.

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Yeah you and Hangman, that was
that match of the year. Yeah,

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thank you. Yeah, in our
book Match of the Year, thank

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you. Incredible stuff you guys did
so like so that mixed with one of

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the greatest tactooms of our generation,
mixed with one of the greatest wrestlers of

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our generation in Okada, mixed with
one half of one of the greatest tax

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teams and our generation with Mark Briscoe
and our current ROH World Champion. One

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of the best tag teams we've had, best like self made tag teams and

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they acclaimed, and one of the
craziest, wildest like talents in wrestling period

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with Darby Allen. There's a huge
recipe for disaster, violence, destruction and

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all sorts of things and creative minds, a lot of creative minds in this

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too, and the Young Bucks and
all that. So there's also a lot

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to prove for a lot of guys
on each side to prove to aw fan

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base and the wrestling world. You
know, like they claim does their chance

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to step up and get out of
like just being like where they were positioned

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for the last year and then move
up to the next echelon of performer in

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the industry. Mark Brisco, same
thing, you know myself, Darby,

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we've done that, but we're the
ones that were the kind of the glue

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to these type of matches on our
side on Team a W. But at

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the same time, me and Darby
butt heads too, and we don't necessarily

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we don't necessarily get along. I've
done some horrible things. Yeah. We

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all saw that match last year at
Wimbley. Yeah, yeah, we saw

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it. Yeah. But even before
that, I beat up and stay in

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there, traumatized one of his best
long friends in Nick Wayne, you know,

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and that's hasn't been forgotten a lot
of there's a lot of past history

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between a lot of these guys that
just hasn't been forgotten. Yeah, you

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know. And like even Hangman,
he's not seeing eye to eye with the

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EVPs and the Bucks. They suspended
him, kept him out here for for

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like four months, you know.
And so there's a lot of animosity between

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the just the teams alone, let
alone the ones between two teams. I

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feel like this is our event,
this is our Marvel's Civil War, yeah,

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you know, and one of us
is Tony Stark. The other is

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Steve Rogers, and we'll see how
these teams get along in this war.

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Yeah. Absolutely, And you mentioned
there's a lot of history between you and

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Darby. Darby recently made some comments
said that aw is his baby, it

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was able to retire his family.
And he also said that what really pisses

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him off is you and he is
not your or you're not his leader.

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But he said he's willing to put
the differences aside for this match tomorrow night

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at Bridge, Blood and Guts.
How do you respond to something like that

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and does that kind of make you
rethink teaming up with him tomorrow night?

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Yeah. The Darb for one,
has never really been like really well received

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with authority's you know, that's kind
of what got him here. That's what

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makes Darby special. You know,
he bucks at authority and he wants to,

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you know, go at the establishment
in a lot of ways he's done

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outside of wrestling. That's kind of
what the skateboard mentality is. That's kind

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of what the Darby Allen that we
all know and love is. That's what

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I appreciated about him form all the
years that we've known each other. He

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has every right to not want to
follow my lead. But he also knows

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that I bring results. I am
a w World champion. Everything I've said

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I was going to do, I've
done it. And he's tried it his

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way in a different way at double
or Nothing and Anarchy and the Arena and

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he failed. He knows he needs
me to succeed. Yeah, So that's

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why he's putting his differences aside.
He needs me because you know, he

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knows what they're there, what they're
capable of, what they're capable of.

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On the other side. At the
same time, now they're adding a Hangman

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page, which is the biggest X
factor on the entire team. Yeah,

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because you don't know which version of
Hangman you're gonna get. You don't.

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You don't, neither does the EVPs, the Young Bucks either and the fans

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don't either. So who has beaten
that man twice? Now? Yeah?

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I have? Who shared blood with
that man? Yeah? I have.

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He knows what's needed on this team
and that's me. I'm the X factor

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that's going to make be the biggest, biggest outcome possible in this matchup.

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So that's why he's putting his differences
aside. As much as he hates me

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and wants to hold that grudge from
what I've done. I needed that to

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get to where I'm at, just
like he's done a lot of things to

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get to where he's at. And
at the same time, it's like,

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hey man, you had Brian Danielson
on your team and you lost. I've

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seen Brian Damson go up against will
Ospray and one of the best matches and

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the people are saying, ever and
he lost. I just beat will Ospray.

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H So another Match of the Year
contender right there for sure too.

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So once again, I bring results
when you want. If you want the

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win, you want to do it
your way. You've done it and he

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didn't get you the results you wanted. Let's try doing my way. Like

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I said, you don't make a
team AW without the AW World Champion involved

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in it. Yeah, absolutely for
sure. And of course you're gonna be

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able to see this in many other
matches Tomorrow night, AW Blood and guts

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Bridge Stone Arena tickets aew ticks dot
Com. That's aew tix dot com in

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the studio with us right now,
the AW World Heavyweight Champion sware of Strickland

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now during COVID. You know the
forbidden door was open. AW worked with

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a lot of companies, some of
them are also now working with WW as

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well. Is that door still open
for you and AEW or any of these

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doors kind of closed for good?
Because I know that, you know,

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once the door closes, it's kind
of hard to open back up. I

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feel like every door is open for
me, and I like to keep it

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like that. That's the kind of
type of business I like to do.

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I like to keep every door open. Possibly. I like to have the

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choice though, yeah, And that's
I think that's the power in that,

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Like I have the choice of whether
what I can walk through this door,

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and whenever I want to walk through
this door, I can. And I

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think that's where a lot of I
think that's the beauty of what the competition

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is. And I think people confuse
what competition is swinging companies. Competition is

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the fact that there's a team,
there's a there's something across the pond that

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can rival, like the exposure and
the money and the the talent, you

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know what I mean. That's in
the choice, Like it's it's almost like

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I look at it as like the
last several, like many many like decades

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for wrestling has been Madden, and
now we have college sports. Now you

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have nothing. Now you have an
option of something else to play. And

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it's like, wow, this is
different, this is unique. This feels

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better. Oh my gosh, I
guess somebody else has to step up over

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there to like keep the keep the
flow going. Like and it's selling,

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and it's selling, is selling companies, it's moving, is moving pre orders.

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Wow, we should take a look
at what's going on over there.

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That right there just changes the narrative
and it changes the game in such a

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sense. So now it's like we
have option and like I like that for

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me, Like I'm I worked really
hard to be in a position that just

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have an option and have options out
there. Period. Is beautiful for the

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industry, you know, Like I
don't have a single bridge that's ever been

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burnt. You know, I don't
talk bad like everybody's doing great, Like

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and I'm happy to see like Slammerversary
do four thousand and attendance. That's dope.

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I got friends and family that I've
been getting the ring with forever.

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I like to see that west Lee
can go from NXT to just do a

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pay per view of Slammer Versity with
his friends like that's dope. As i'mlike,

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that's that's really cool. And I'm
like, and then Joe Henry do

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NXT. That builds opportunity, it
brings in I'm happy and proud for like

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Ethan Pages go over and get opportunity
elsewhere. That's choice, that's options,

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And that's what competition really does.
It makes people. It makes them have

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to like open up their minds and
be like, you know, we got

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to change up and do some different
things because like we need to keep up

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too in a sense, and we
need to start finding different ways to build

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our machine in different methods. Because
the future is coming no matter what,

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and times are changing. You got
to like you want to be ahead of

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it. So don't want to be
slacking and falling behind. So get ahead

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of it. Yeah, get ahead
of it. Put some power back into

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the wrestler's hands too, Like,
oh, I can just go right over

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here, that's available. You know, they it's not working out here.

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I haven't been doing much in the
past six months. There's an option over

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there. There's a choice that can
offer me this. So what can we

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do? Yeah, you know,
and I mean and I think that's a

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good thing. Is like you said
about competition, I mean it makes everybody

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step their game up, yeah,
regardless of what it is. And the

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thing about wrestling is there's so many
different forms of wrestling. So if you

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like Luca, you can go to
there. If you like you know,

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Joshi Pro, you can go over
here, you can go there. For

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sports entertainment, I mean, everybody's
got an option for what they like.

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And that's but that's what makes AW
so special. All those options are in

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AW. You get Lucid, or
you get Hologram debuting. You know,

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you get Mina Shirakawa coming over Leo. You know, you get like the

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sports entertainment with Jericho and the Learning
Tree. Then you get like the New

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Age the young guys. Ospray myself, MJF, Like, what's the future

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of wrestling going to look? Like? Well, we're here, we're here,

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you know, like you know,
we don't have like the like we

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also have the legends and stuff too. Billy Gun's still around doing US.

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We just sent off. We just
send off of us ding, you know,

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like with Flair involved, and we
sent off like we have we still

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have all those choices and options,
you know, so one stop shop for

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everything. In AW is that's right, ask beauty of it. That's that's

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the alternative that we all been running, you know. So I say,

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for me, I appreciate the alternative
while you have it, because I mean,

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growing up, we had you know, it was you had either you

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know, wor WCW. Those are
the two that you had growing up,

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and you had some other stuff like
NWA here and there, but it was

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like now there's so many options.
And the great thing about with AW,

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and I can and vouch for this
because I've got a seven year old who

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religiously watches wrestling with me. He
knows which shows are on every night,

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but the one that he gravitates towards
more is that one that's on Wednesday nights

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with AW. The ones that you
know is with Collision and Rampage and r

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O H. Because you've got the
history there, You've got, like you

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said, everything is there that he
can enjoy. Right. And then there's

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a couple of times where I'm like, that might be a little too much

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for you to be seven years old
watching this, But you know, I

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grew up watching that. I grew
up in the attitude there, so I

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understand, like, like it's it's
it's wild to me that you people want

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to see they want they want things
to get a little radical, and they

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and they do, but then they
wanted to all right, kind I kind

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of I'm getting nervous. I want
to bring it back to like what they

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do over there. I'm like,
then go watch what they do. We're

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not saying they can't, but like, watch what they do. Yeah,

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Like, but we have to have
a little cohesiveness and a little radical at

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sometimes and then go back to the
cohesiveness. It has to go in those

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ebbs and flows, because it's not
just catered to like the small box that

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the small bubble that thinks it should
be this way. Were catered to the

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people that love this no matter what. Too that's been there loves this,

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like you know what I mean.
It's like there's no right or wrong answers

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to this. Yeah, absolutely,
And I do have a question for this

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one. And you know, you've
seen in the past, because I grew

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up watching wrestling, when celebrities got
into wrestling, it was more or less

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of just hey, they're there for
a one off, a quick spot,

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they go home kind of thing.
But now it seems like you've seen other

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celebrities like legitimately stepping up actually putting
in the work, you know, Logan

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and Bad Bunny and whatnot. Is
there any celebrity because we saw it with

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Shack and he actually got in there
and wrestled when he wrestled back in AW.

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Is there any celebrity right now that
you have been maybe trying to convince

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or maybe that you would like to
see come inside of AW. I mean,

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we saw it with Rick Ross for
a little bit, but there wasn't

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much there for him to actually wrestle. But is there somebody there that you

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think they would be good here?
Oh? As far as wrestling, I'm

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like I always thought Kevin Gates could
do it, you know, but it's

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all about the spirit of wanting to
do it and like being able to like

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believe in it, and like Kevin's
off doing his own thing right now.

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So like right now, I really
don't especially like where I'm at right now

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with the World Championship, Like once
again things move forward. Yeah, So

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it's like, Okay, that's not
what we need right now, and that's

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not what I need right now,
Like we need to focus on these things

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and these things and these things.
You know, you also run a slippery

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slope of like you don't want the
celebrity to out necessarily not out do and

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outperform, but out just like you
don't want that to overshadow a lot of

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the guys that have been putting in
the work too in the town that keeps

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the lights on on night in the
night out, night in a night out.

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You got to reward those guys too
and give them the opportunities to become

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those celebrities and to become that big
next thing. You know, you can't

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constantly like next celebrity, boom,
Now that's that's who we're running with.

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It's like all right, cool,
that's cool, But like can't take away

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from these guys that you know,
keep this, keep the machine, and

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keep them the thing going r you
know, there's a slippery slope with it.

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In my opinion, Yeah, absolutely, you don't want that to be

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the standard to getting to that success. Like wrestling still has to be a

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standard, like you you know what
I mean, Like being like succeeding in

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wrestling still has to give results and
like be rewarded and that has to always

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be the pinnacle of like that's the
work that you had to grow go into

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and still dedicated to the art.
Yeah, to be the top of that

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art. Yeah, for sure,
that makes sense. You know that makes

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that makes sense. I mean it's
it's it's it's everything that you just said

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is as something that people should start
kind of paying more attention to. Yeah,

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Like I said, it's a slippery
slope of that kind of thing.

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Like I don't think like Pat Mahomes
wasn't a YouTuber then got into football to

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be a great quarterback. He's dedicated
to football right to be the best quarterback

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in the game. Yeah, you
know, you don't want you don't want

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to make it so like, oh, I have to have twenty million followers

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first, then learn the art you're
playing football to get that, to get

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to get that, you know what
I mean, It's like, I don't

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we got to be careful of making
it that we're reversing the effect in the

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in the grind to get to that, right, I mean absolutely. Yeah.

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So we we put this out there
on social media. We talked to

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our listeners and said that you were
going to come in. We usually like

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to have have our listeners get involved. They get to ask our guests a

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question. Uh. One person wanted
to know they said. Recently headlines were

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made about somebody that you have very
well history with Ricochet becoming a free agent.

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Lots and lots of history between you
guys. Yeah, is that something

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you know once everything is clear,
is that something you'd want to run back

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without the masks? Of course?
I mean we've we've had our matches without

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the masks in MLW. You know, we've had like Strickland versus Ricochet before

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it's up to him, like I
don't know, like we'll see like competition

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stiff in AW. And there's also
a different type of there's also a different

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type of ladder to climb in,
a different in a lot of different ways

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here. It doesn't necessarily make it
easier. There's difficulties on both sides of

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things. And I just like you
got to adapt. Yeah, aw's now

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more than ever's and you've got to
be an adaptable performer, way more so

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in AW nowadays. And so just
big if that's true, you get ready

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to put a different type of work
in boots on. And there's a lot

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of people that don't want to make
it easy for anybody. It's it's already

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not easy for me in the position
I'm in, So and I've been in

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the position of like the new guy
coming in and I had to adapt and

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a lot of people, a lot
of people have tried to adapt and they

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couldn't do it. So that goes
to show you the type of locker room,

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00:21:34.839 --> 00:21:38.000
the type of talent, the type
of like energy, the type of

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00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:44.240
like workload that comes in aaw Yeah, for sure. You know, the

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champs time is very precious. I
don't want to take up too much of

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it. So before we let you
go, what do you want to say

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to those people right now that are
watching this listen to this about ae W

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and you know there's some people that
still are on the fence about it.

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If you're on the fence, check
out Wednesday night. Blenna Guts is like

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00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:07.440
everything that you're looking for. Even
on the women's wrestling side, man,

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they're killing it. They've stepped up. Tony Storm is just being diabolical with

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00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:15.799
the Women's Championship for almost a year
now. She's been killing it on a

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00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:21.359
creative and in ring since. Is
heating up every which way. Chris stat

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00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:25.640
Lander, Mercedes britt Baker just returned. There's a lot to sink your teeth

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00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:30.200
into in the women's division. And
the jo she's with, the Japanese talent,

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00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:36.359
the ladies, the Luchidora's coming in. It's amazing just on that sense.

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Myself as the AW World Champion,
the first black AW World Champion in

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the company's history, the Dynasty era, myself will ospray Okada, We're literally

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stepping into a different generation of what
pro wrestling is and what it can be

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00:22:52.759 --> 00:23:00.079
and what we truly envision it as
the fantasy world we always fantasize about it.

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Here it's here, and I'm the
forefront of it, and I'm proud

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00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:07.119
of that. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of what MJF does.

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I'm proud of like a lot of
our top talents, I'm proud of.

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I'm proud of to be working for
all the wrestling under a Tony Kahan and

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that motivates me and that inspires me, and it makes me also create,

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and that's where you that's where the
fans get to create and go with us

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on that journey as well. You
know, like there's a lot of great

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00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:33.039
product out there, but I truly, without a doubt, I feel like

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we put on the best product weekend
and week out. I don't care what

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show we're on. I don't care
if it's Dynamite, Rampage or Collision.

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00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:42.440
We put on the best product,
even ring of minor. Shout out to

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Athena, shout out to Mark Brisco, you know, all of these guys.

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00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:52.000
Shout out to the Guns. Yeah
you. We truly do great work

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00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:55.559
out here, and we want you
to be a part of that, and

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00:23:55.559 --> 00:23:59.319
we want you to grow with us
and help grow it even bigger. I'm

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00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:00.799
just getting into like that. There's
nothing else I could say to end it

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00:24:00.839 --> 00:24:04.880
with a with a just Mike drop, I guess, So swerve out here,

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00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:07.319
you know, making sure you don't
have to go to church on Sunday

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00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:12.000
because you just preached to everybody.
But again, thank you for coming in

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00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:15.200
to the studio today. It's an
honor, it's a privilege, and I'm

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00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:18.319
glad to see you coming onto the
show. Like we said, with gold

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00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:21.160
around your waist. Next time you're
here, appreciating man, shout out,

348
00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:25.480
you know, shout out Flash Garments
Motion Sickness album coming soon, just about

349
00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:30.480
to drop this little big Pressure Trill
remix feature in Bumbe and Westside Gun this

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00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:34.279
week. So keep your social media's
open, Follow me, swerve confident everywhere