AEW Dynamite Empty Arena Comparison

...put into perspective how small we all are.

It is also clarified for me how big and how important

the service we provide is. And the irony in what

I'm about to ask is not lost on me because I'm

about to ask three of the best athletes in the

world to discard their petty differences. to

put aside those squabbles and to stand together.

The irony it being March 18th, 2020 and us as

human beings need to stand together. And for

many of us, that will mean standing at a distance.

We have to be informed and we have to be held

responsible by health and science, but there

is a profound difference in that versus living

in a prison of fear. And I refuse to live in

fear because that's not living at all. And I

don't know about you watching at home. I feel

alive and I hope you feel alive. Matt Jackson,

I know that you were listening. Save Tony Khan,

you were probably second most responsible for

AEW even existing. I think you're a tag team

specialist, an absolute tag team master. But

that doesn't mean anything... is owed to you.

If anything, that means you have to work harder

and your anger last week towards Hangman Adam

Page was misplaced. I don't need that anger and

you don't want that anger. Instead, I need your

older brother wisdom and I need you to carry

Nick Jackson's giant heart into this match so

that we can win at blood and guts. Ladies and

gentlemen, welcome to the podcast arena. Coming

to the ring at this time. I got four words for

you. Check out my ass. Here is your special guest

referee. Hello and welcome to mayhem Alex or

something. I don't know. This is ma 'am Mike.

This is episode This is episode 54 54 of the

show. I can't keep things together folks I'm

of course teach you and Mike joining me is the

white heat himself. Mr. Alex Richie. Hello, sir

Hello. Hello. I think everybody's either quarantined

away from us or we quarantined away from them

Well, you know, I've been self I've been self

isolating since I was 10 years old. So, you know,

this is nothing new to me. As long as I have

at least one other person to podcast with, I'm

good, because I cannot do a one man show whatsoever.

I've tried. It is horrible. I have to do them

occasionally if I can't get anybody else on.

And it's always seems weird. It always seems

like you're grabbing for words that aren't there.

But then you get used to it. But it's so much

better when you have at least one more person.

I would rather do a Facebook live video by myself

than record a podcast by myself and I hate, hate

video, cannot stand it. So we're here, last episode

we talked about the audience list, WWE, Raw and

SmackDown episodes. And tonight we're going to

head on over to TNT Drama with AEW Dynamite.

This show was from St. Patrick's Day or somewhere

around there, March 17th, 18th, whatever. Anyway,

basically this is the first audience list AEW

Dynamite. And the reason why we're doing this

is, as I said, we'd already done the WWE one

and we wanted to compare and contrast and basically

say how much better the AEW show. handled the

no audience thing than WWE did. There's really

just two live programs now that like every other

sport is shut down. It's WWE, whatever they they're

putting on. I mean, technically there's three

because they got their three shows. But really,

there's only two companies in the game right

now putting out anything. Any other company has

like pre tape things. And it's like, yeah, that's

cool. But it's not the same as like, this is

the holy crap like What's going to happen on

TV when there's like 10 people. Yeah, it's crazy.

Um, I have not, I'll say this right now and upfront,

I have not been watching AEW. It's not that I

don't want to. I haven't been watching any wrestling.

I haven't even been watching WWE. Like I mentioned

in the last episode, I just, I think I'm at that

point where. Yeah, it's great that we've had

this podcast going since 2015, but WWE burnt

me out and it was just getting to be so much

of I don't care about keeping up with 12 hours

a week of television anymore for wrestling. I

still absolutely love the performers. I love

all of them. I love everything that they do,

but I just Don't feel the need for wrestling

right now, I guess. I think we're all in the

same boat. You actually probably dropped out

right around the time that John Cena left. And

not that it's just like, that's a little bit

of coincidence, but like that seems to be right

around the time that the vast majority of people

tuned out and we're looking for AEW to be like

an alternative. Yeah. And I really wanted to

watch all of the the mock stuff because obviously

I'm a huge John Moxley slash Dean Ambrose fan,

but I just It's not against AEW. It's just an

overall Withdrawment of it all so if I'm withdrawing

from one part of it I have to withdraw from all

of it. I can't just switch over now You know,

I'm watching some of this stuff and it is really

good. I really like AEW, even though I've only

watched a few episodes here and there, because

I have watched a couple of the ones when they

first debuted Dynamite. I've watched, we've obviously

covered two of the pay -per -views on the podcast

before Double or Nothing and Fighter Fest. So

it isn't that I haven't seen the product, I have,

I just am not keeping up with it. And it seems

like... their two pay -per -views that they've

run since Dynamite's come out have been really

good. They're just, they're not as big as Double

or Nothing was, but still like overall consistently

better than the pay -per -views that WWE's put

up. WWE's only had one good pay -per -view in

five years, and literally it was just the rumble

this year. The problem is it's a little too little

too late. Uh, the performers, like I complain

a lot about AW. I don't like some of the hokey,

you know, bullshit stuff or when it's like a

little too ho - like too cheesy and they have

a few characters that are like that. But it's

nowhere near as boring as WWU. Like I can say

this, nothing is boring in AW. Yeah. No, nothing

was. Um. So this match this this this match this

episode starts off with Cody in an empty arena

with a spotlight on him and he's talking about

various things that you probably would have heard

at the beginning of this podcast folks and then

Kenny Omega and oh God I just heard his name.

Why can't I remember it? One of the Jackson Yeah,

one of the bucks I can't off the top my head

I can't remember if it's the fathead one or the

one that you've gum all the time one of the two

It was Matt Jackson because Nick was the one

that got injured or something Yeah, it was Matt

Jackson Kenny Omega and Cody and then hangman

and Paige kind of came out a little bit Was drinking

something who knows what the hell they're drinking

his gimmick right now is that he's a drunk and

that his friends don't want to drink Hmm. Okay.

Well, there you go. Uh, so that all happened

and other, what I like about AEW is how much

they embraced the tag matches. Um, most of what

we saw in this episode was mostly tag matches.

I think all of it was actually, there were no

single one -on -one competitors to mine. The

thought that comes to mind is they're a pretty

tag team heavy program, but also when you don't

have a crowd, it really will accentuate it if

it's just two people in the ring. This ensures

there's always something to look at. It always

seems like something's happening. Yep. I still

love MJF. Not that I shouldn't already have loved

him anyway, but he was hilarious with the crowd

commentary. Well, that's the thing too. They

were smart for this episode where they had, you

know, the sides of the ring, you know, the audience

were the wrestlers, the good guys on the one

side, the bad guys on another. They could, you

know, some of them were gambling, playing cards,

they were hooting and hollering and just generally

keeping you, you know, thoughts on the actual

action and not having to think about like WWE

where they're constantly showing how there's

nobody there. Yeah. If you just flip the channels

and cut in, it might be 10 minutes until you

realize there's no audience. If I didn't already

know the fact there wasn't gonna be no audience

I realized that there was no audience as soon

as Cody started speaking as soon as he came out

in the dark I'm like, oh, they're gonna leave

it in the dark the whole time I thought that

would have been cool not to say that they needed

to do that Obviously they you know and like Kenny

said at the very end of that that promo God damn

it. Let's just put on the show get the pyro.

Let's go and that's what you have to especially

in where we're living now and I don't mean where

specifically but in the times that we are in

yeah put the show on the way you want to put

it on and just do the damn thing and be done

with it and WWE I hate the PG era I understand

it's for them to get the most fans that they

can but I I just hate it just And the thing is,

they're so run down. It's been said to death

that Vince is killing the company. He's killing

his own company. He doesn't even realize it.

Things go in ebbs and flows. There is a time

to go back to being a PG company. And they've

tried doing slightly PG -13 -esque stuff in NXT,

but it's just not hitting because they're not

putting enough money into making it look like

a big event. Because if you... Like an NXT, I

believe this, that episode that aired back to

like a head to head with AEW, I think it was

entirely a clip show with just a couple of prerecorded

promos in front of a green screen. And they thought

that that's like competition. I would have to

look this up and. doing it over Wi -Fi and over

my phone, I cannot, because the last thing I

need is Discord to screw up because of my phone

doing something so stupid. But I'm going to say,

I'm reasonably sure that that's all they aired,

because that's all they basically aired on the

other programs, like when we talked about Raw

and SmackDown, they're having like one match,

and then the rest is like a couple promos, and

then recaps of pay -per -views. Whereas this

was all new content and debuts. Yeah, what I

would say is what I was gonna say was I would

look up to see what the ratings were and who

won between the two of them. I'm pretty sure

AEW won that that week's ratings war for television

because It was I looked it up. It was the lowest

rated episode of NXT ever Little over 500 ,000

people and just under a million for AEW is their

highest rated since they debuted Wow That hurts

me for NXT because the NXT product is supposed

to be really, really good. And Ryan always talks

about how good it is and everything else. And

it's run differently because it's Triple H running

it and not Vince. The problem is, is you bring

all these people up to WWE and you constrict

them. Well, the big thing is they're not making

enough stars in NXT anymore. They have a few

people that are like, Oh, they're cool, but like

they're top stars with the exception of, uh,

of the, um, undisputed era, which is people from

ring of honor. Uh, everybody else is new and

they're like, they seem like somebody who would

be a mid or low card person anywhere else. With

the exception of, I think was it Rhea Ripley,

the, the, the woman's champ, which is cool, but

like, that's it, but like their women's division

is killing it because ADW is terrible, but like.

Other than the women's division, NXT has nothing.

Like nothing worth watching, except for those

three dudes in Undisputed Era, which are just

basically the Bullet Club. And they're basically

any other cool heel group. Big deal. Like if

you move them out of NXT, they have nothing.

Yeah. Like I said, with AEW, the main event was

fun. It was really fun. Uh, seeing all these

guys go, go at it. Um, and of course, you know,

Jericho on commentary. How can you not love that?

He's consistently like the best of his generation

now. Yep. Uh, he very much is, um, I've listened,

I've cause I've. Obviously had more time to listen

to podcasts than ever before since I'm still

quote unquote retired I've listened to several

of his talk is Jericho episodes and he just he's

just really good. I've always liked him I haven't

always liked some of the gimmicks that he's done

not all of them But I just love how much he is

involved and doing with AEW and how different

it is from anything. I mean, he's still himself.

He's still always going to be Y2J and all of

that and everything else. But it just seems like

he's more invested into it than what he had done

anything in WWE in the last five years. Oh yeah,

like he had the list and he had some cool stuff.

But when you think about it, This is basically,

he's getting to do and behave with the attitude

that he would have loved to have done during

the attitude era, but was never given the chance

to. Like, I almost feel like this is the character

he wanted to be in WCW. And he finally gets to

do it. Yep. Uh, we got to talk about the commentary

team. Sure, go ahead. Well, again, like I said,

I have not been watching. AEW Dynamite so I didn't

realize Taz was back finally yeah you came back

about a month ago yeah I'm like okay hi Taz um

and I still don't much care for Excalibur why

the hell do you need a damn mask when you're

on commentary for crap sake he's all right he's

better than when they start when we first started

covering AEW whomever was on that um that uh

that double or nothing pay -per -view that that

before they really brought in jr to be the lynch

pin oh yeah the marvez whatever marvez yeah yeah

as much as i will complain about uh Excalibur

he's a little bit like the you know screaming

in his parents basement kind of commentary uh

i'll give him one thing He's miles better than

almost everybody in the WWE commentary team.

He just doesn't fit. The thing is, his faults

are accentuated because he's with people way

better than him. I mean, you got Tony Schiavone,

the voice of, of, uh, uh, WCW. You got Taz sort

of, you know, from the good era of WWE. And you

got the voice of wrestling in general, JR, right?

So how is he gonna compare to them? Yeah, I love

that in the beginning of this in the beginning

the first match of this this this episode of

dynamite They were taught cuz oh What's his name?

Oh God, I just watched it the the guy that joined

them on commentary in the first match It's nice

orange something orange Cassidy. Yeah. I don't

yes. There you go Was gonna say orange Julius,

but yes orange Cassidy joined them and They were

they were joking. He didn't say anything, but

they were joking and They said something about

barbecue sauce and then JR whispered something

about barbecue sauce before about JR's barbecue

sauce before he did that he actually said okay,

that's enough of that about promoting the stuff

I love that he did that because It's widely known

JR was not gonna come back to the WWE commentary

table because Vince wants all of those commentators

to pimp out and promote everything WWE does from

the DVDs that they don't sell on you know physical

copies of anymore to Whatever to Rocket League

to all this all that JR was always there for

me for the actual sports commentary Not pimping

out this week's whatever. Yeah. And there's a

big difference between, um, when a segment starts

at the beginning of the show and they're like,

here, uh, tonight's episode is sponsored by and

listing that before the action starts and does

work. WW wants you to talk about it while the

match is happening before he has no problem with

like, they're coming back from a commercial saying,

Hey, we're brought to you by Snickers. That takes

10 seconds and it doesn't affect anything. But

if you, if you do end up watching WWE, it's,

it's like 90 seconds of ads every 10 minutes

that they talk about. Of course it is because

they got to pay those sponsors. They got to,

you know, get that money from those sponsors

and whatever. It's just silly. Um, I will. Maybe

try watching Dynamite a little bit more, but

I'm not really fully invested yet. Yeah. You

know what? I can cut together some highlights

for you. Of course you can. Just to back up to

date, you know, matches in the paper because

it's, I would say for the kind of stuff you like,

there's a lot more of it in there than like,

there's more in two hours of of dynamite every

week than in what is it now? Seven hours of WWE

between the three shows? Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

it's, I'll say this, like I've never ever had

any issue with the actual physicality of the

wrestling itself. But I'll say this, AEW puts

WWE to shame on what they get away with some

of the Some of the kicks and some of the some

of the stuff that they're doing in a W is would

never be seen in a WWE ring Oh just I don't know

if it's a good Like Frankie Kazarian does that

leg drop? Like nobody's ever seen it like I've

never seen anybody do anything like that on national

television It looks like it's it's there to murder

somebody every single time And yeah, it does

and I almost feel like WWE they're probably told

Here's the level of violence you're allowed to

show or we lose sponsors. Right. Especially now

with the Fox deal and all that. Who knows? But

I did really enjoy the AEW on my DVR. It's listed

as season two, episode 12. It's from the 17th

of March, 2020. I didn't really enjoy the first

AEW audience list show I think like we already

said they did a much better job of dealing with

the fact like Kenny Omega basically even says

like I said at the beginning before he says about

you know let's just do the damn show I'm talking

to an arena of nobody like there's nobody here

and when we talked about the WWE matches it just

felt like They were not I'm not talking about

the people themselves. I'm talking about the

way the the way the people were produced It feels

like they were just going through the motions

and they weren't even Acknowledging that the

crowd wasn't there They were trying to fake it

as if the crowd was there like that whole first

thing with Sasha and Bailey and all Joke and

then on top of that Yeah, there's this you can

see when somebody is determined to actually do

something, uh, put on a good show. And every

single person there was doing that for AEW. Also

the big thing, the big difference is to get viewers,

WWE did nothing but like show off an empty arena.

Uh, AEW, uh, basically premiered three people

on the show. Uh, he had, uh, uh, Lance Archer

who had been talked about and they had done promos

of, but they showed him sitting, uh, you know,

ringside with Uh, with Jake, the snake is manager

and they did a little promo there, which was

great. Cause he could tell that he was talking

off the cuff and that, you know, he, he was thinking

of what he was going to say before he said it.

And it wasn't like scripted at all. Yep. I love

that Jake, the snake is an AEW now as a manager.

I think that's, I think that's awesome. And,

and really, really cool. And then you had, uh,

okay. The dark order is the group that we all

make fun of because they were boring and terrible

and just weren't really worth being there, but

they did premiere their leader finally. And it

wasn't who they thought everybody thought it

was going to be. Everybody thought, uh, um, it

was one of two people and it was neither, uh,

the former Luke Harper from WWE. Yeah. So he.

Was he going by Brody Lee now or something? Yes,

Brody Lee, yes. And I'm still not a great fan

of the outfit they gave him for this. It looks

a little weird on his body, probably because

we're so used to seeing him look a certain way.

He would probably do better with regular tights.

But overall, he can talk a lot better than I

ever thought he was going to be able to because

I guess WWE never let him talk. No. And when

he did, they probably scripted him so much that...

He felt like he couldn't be whatever character

he was supposed to be. Um, but yeah, that, that,

that was super cool and interesting. And then,

uh, we had the final debut out of nowhere at

the end, which, uh, which, which, you know, we

see get revealed from a drone. Yes, that was

hilarious. That was awesome. That any of us that

remembered watching, uh, impact wrestling when

they were. actually trying to do something good

a few years back was one of the highlights. And

we're like, oh, is he actually going to be there?

Or is he going to be at home? And then Matt Hardy

shows up and he's full on invested in his character

again. Now, is it broken or is it woken? I assume

it's broken. It's broken because that's the trademark

he owns. Right. OK. Yeah, I'm. really excited

to see some of this AEW stuff now after watching

this and after you telling me about the show

that happened recently. Yeah, I mean, the one

that we're talking about. Yeah, I may as well

briefly just summarize it because I mean, it'll

be old news by the time we have ever end up Oh,

of course. Yeah. So basically, they ran a second

show, they weren't allowed to have the like,

the crowd in the background anymore because the

arena told them they had to have 10 people or

less in a gathering, and that included camera

crew and everybody. So some people were doing

double duty, like the ring announcer also happens

to be the referee, that sort of stuff. But at

the end, Jericho is out there doing his thing

and being himself, doing his schmarmie sort of

presentation, mugging for the camera. And then

You hear the music play the the broken music

and Hardy appears in the like the way back like

the three levels up in the arena and then you

know his music goes like and then you blink and

he's now teleported down an entire level and

you can see it stop motion because you can see

You can see it's still photos Of teleporting

down and then you hear like the commentary on

top of it. Oh my god. Did you see that? He's

teleporting And then he like appears in the ring

and he's like, ah, you know going so over the

top It's it's basically making fun of undertaker's

entrance Mm -hmm Yeah, I'm probably gonna have

to watch this episode after we finish this episode

of the podcast because It looks so like first

of all Jericho and Hardy Face -to -face inside

an AEW ring for the first time Holy crap. What

is this? The 90s again? I know, right? And then

the like, no, not not in a bad way at all, though,

because, okay, back in the 90s, Chris Jericho

was doing his long hair thing. Jeff and Matt

were doing their Hardy Boys thing, which that

was more Jeff than Matt half the time anyway,

with the the whole them and Lita and all that.

But I'm like, I'm reading through this. The recap

on the AW website and I'm like, okay, I have

to just go watch this now because holy crap I

really need to see this and yay mox is back Yeah,

well, I know that thing with this Jericho has

grown his hair out again for the first time in

like 20 years Long hair again, you actually make

them look younger for surprisingly and then you

got Matt who Really reinvented himself in his

40s and he's actually a better performer in his

40s than he was in his 20s and 30s as a single

and you've got Uh, all this, and then they also

ran a promo, um, where the dark order was sitting

down to lunch with, uh, um, with like, I guess

the former Luke Harper and he's impersonating

Vince, Vince McMahon the entire time. Uh, getting

pissed off at people when they try to eat before

he's finished eating, somebody sneezes and he

throws a fit and kicks them out. How dare you

sneeze in front of me. All this stuff. Apparently

people are pissed at WWE. Of course they are.

And then he went and did a podcast with Jericho

basically airing all his grievances, just like

everybody else has done so far. Right. Right.

That's awesome. That's hilarious. So I think

that's going to do it for us folks. So kind of

a short episode. Cause next time. And next time

we'll most likely be, when will you guys hear

the next episode after this one? Most likely

will be April. Normally I usually like doing

these things after the stuff premieres and catching

up on Ron Smackdown and all that, but I don't

think we're going to do that. I think we're just

good. I was going to say, depending on the episode

we're going to record, obviously we're going

to do something for mania because that's going

to be insane. Well, that's Yeah, that's that's

what I'm talking about. The next one is many

is the seventh, right? Sixth and seventh. Yeah,

it's fourth and fifth. The Saturday and Sunday,

whatever that weekend is the sixth and seventh.

Yes. Well, it's fourth and fifth on the calendar

right now. The next week is Easter. So some time

either in that range, probably. Because I don't

I don't imagine too many people are like are

going home for Easter or do anything this year.

Uh, yeah, not with travel ban, not, not with

staying shut, you know, stay in place and all

that. Stay home. You people stop infecting the

world. Huge thanks to everybody who has an essential

job, you know, grocery store workers, fast food

people, all those people who are risking their

lives in order to anybody in logistics, truck

drivers, people that you don't think about, those

are the people keeping everything running. Exactly.

I swear to god and I've said this I've said this

to you all fair before I swear to god every time

I continually talk with you I'm like oh my god

you're a younger version of that Alex guy from

Ice Road Truckers. I might be. There was a bearded

Canadian guy named Alex on Ice Road Truckers

for the longest time in the first few seasons

of that show. I might have to go back and watch

it. Yeah I'll find it for you or whatever. Yeah,

so basically folks with the way that things are

going right now as I mentioned before and as

I've mentioned on geek cast radio and altered

geek I don't currently have my computer. So Alex

is my edit monkey at this point in time With

WrestleMania being broken up into two days and

done it done movie style We're gonna have movie

mania and it will air ma 'am Mike's 55 will probably

air on the 13th of April just to give everybody

time to Number one be able to watch it number

two be able to record the episode. So Yeah, that's

when the next episode will be probably the middle

of April and After that who knows there might

be more. Yeah, it might be less We're gonna play

it by ear see what happens because you know We

don't know what is gonna be planned wrestling

wise for the next after after the middle of April,

right? We don't have anything. Yeah, nobody does

Yeah, so who knows by then it's possible that

there's some limited uh events are going to be

run again or it could be that things get extended

and we'll have more of this weird craziness to

watch yep absolutely where can the people find

you online sir uh you can find me on twitter

at deathface twig uh or just uh at thisweekengeek

i handle the social media there you can email

us feedback at thisweekengeek .net uh and i'm

floating around on all the other socials awesome

I'm at TFG and Mike on Twitter. You can follow

at GeekCastRadio for all the other network updates.

Obviously go to GeekCastRadio .com. Email is

feedback at GeekCastRadio .com. Hopefully we

didn't disappoint anybody with this very short

episode this week. I feel it was a short but

important episode because if somebody has been

avoiding or hasn't watched this, if they catch

our podcast, this is a week to go back and watch

actually the last two weeks. Just see what's

happening. The last two weeks, yeah. Yeah, like,

I mean, before we recorded this, I had just finished

the episode we were going to talk about and you're

like, have you seen the one that's most recent?

I'm like, no, not yet. And I'm like, oh crap,

I need more time. So yeah, I'm actually going

to watch. You got your homework and it's worth

watching. It's not as good of an episode overall

because they couldn't have the other people with

them, but it's even more different than the last

episode and how creative they were. Yeah, that's

very cool. very very cool awesome thank you to

everyone who has listened to this show and continues

to do so we will try our best to continually

bring you great content as always and I think

for now we're gonna head to the broken ranch

or something I don't know Matt Hardy. We are

ready for the face -to -face. From the top to

the all the way down to the ring area. Matt Hardy

with the psycho power. Is that what that is?

Psycho power. He's teleporting. Can't you see

it? Here he comes the confrontation we talked

about I kind of think Chris asked for this confrontation

didn't expect to actually get it here No, and

not in this form and not in this form. Absolutely

What a history between these two what a history

a story history maker of pain You know I'd call

Of course I knew you'd come because we had Booked

this segment last week, but how did you? How'd

you do that with the because I am magic Like

I said listen that was very impressive you are

very impressive Matt one of the one of the hottest

free agents in the world Coming to AEW. It's

a huge honor for us, but I just want to I just

want to explain something to you how things work

Yeah, the hell things work here in AEW this please

This is my show. This company was built on my

back. This company was organized by me. It was

raised by me. It was put into the mainstream

by me. So when you show up in AEW, I'm the one

that you want to align yourself with, not the

arrogant sons of bitches in the elite. Oh, come

on now. I just want to make sure you understand

that. No, I understand. The reason I assisted

the elite last week is because I owed the Bucks

of Youth a debt. The Bucks of Youth are who resurrected,

broken Matt Hardy. I am here because of them,

and I owed them a debt. And on top of that, I

have seen the tyranny that you and the Inner

Circle are creating here in All Elite Wrestling.

This place, for me, AEW represents freedom. It

is my Arcadia. And I cannot allow you and the

inner circle to run rough shot and ruin this

paradise. It must be protected at all cost. Okay,

Matt, I want to tell you something about resurrecting

a career. I... resurrect careers. I resurrected

Jake Hager's career. I brought John Moxley here.

I made Sammy Guevara. I made Santana. I made

Ortiz. And I can make you. You understand what

I'm saying, Matt? Listen, everybody makes mistakes,

especially since you're the new guy in town.

Second day on the job. You deserve a mulligan,

as they say in the sport of golf. So I'm gonna

give you another shot, once again. Don't align

yourself with the alien. Join the inner circle.

Last week, I was simply repaying my debt. I don't

think, Chris, you understand what you are looking

at. You may recognize my vessel. You may know

my name. But there is a different entity, a different

essence behind the wheel. I am Damascus. And

Damascus is over 3 ,000 years old! And when it

comes to creating chaos, violence, and brutality,

I am practically perfect. Alright, Damascus,

if you're 3 ,000 years old, that means you're

very wise, obviously. And listen, I know I understand

what you're doing here. I understand the reinvention.

No one knows more about reinventing themselves

than me, than Chris Jericho, right? But when

I look at you and I see the amazing gothic cloak

and the interesting hairstyle, like the red dash

by the way, that's really sassy. Point being

is this, outside you look very different. But

inside... You're still the same Matt Hardy that

I've known for 25 years. I can say the same for

you Like the chameleon you have changed many

times over the last two decades that I've known

you but inside You are still an evil essence

right into the core truly a whole of the arse

Once again You're missing this, Matt, like you

always have in your entire career. You're the

same old Matt Hardy, always a step behind, never

quite on top, always living in the shadow. Living

in the shadow of your younger brother, living

in the shadow of bad booking. And now you're

living in the shadow of Le Champion. I am not

in anyone's shadow. As a matter of fact. maker

of pain, my broken brilliance is shining brighter

than ever. Okay, great. Then apply that broken

brilliance and that wisdom from being 3 ,000

years old and make the right choice. I'm going

to give you one more chance. I'm going to ask

you one last time. Are you Inner Circle or are

you Elite? The world's going to find out we're

trending number one. Not what I said. I said,

are you Inner Circle? or are you elite?