AEW Worlds End 2024 pre show

Both Continental classic semi-final matches given to us tonight along with the finals later on tonight, 4 men fighting for that piece of gold will it be Kyle Fletcher, Will Ospreay, Ricochet or Kazuchika Okada? Speaking of 4 men vying for a title, we have a 4-way match for the AEW championship later tonight as Jon Moxley defends against Orange Cassidy, Jay White and "Hangman" Adam Page. The Dynamite ring is up for grabs tonight as Adam Cole challenges MJF for it. Both women's championship are on the line tonight as Mariah May and Mercedes Moné defend against the likes of Thunder Rosa and Kris Statlander. 

Transcript

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I'm better than you, and you know it! I can't see now. I am home, baby! What is up guys? Welcome back to Wrestling Crossroads. As always, I am one half of Dana Mcdowell, twisted alongside brother Pyro. What up y'all? And we are covering AEW's World's End. This is our last coverage of 2024 before we move into 2025. Are you ready for this? To go into what is our like third year fully broadcasting? Oh my god. Yeah. Is this, is this our second year? Like, We started, technically we're on what, season three? We're technically on season three, yes. So yeah, this would be our, we're, literally 2025 will be our third year going from January to, uh, January to December. Thank you, my God, why am I brain farting? From beginning to end. Beginning to end of the year, almost immediate, oh my God. I didn't even think, I didn't even think we made it to year three at this point. Yep. We made it to year three and come mania we hit season four. Oh my god, where has the time gone? You're telling me. It doesn't feel like it's been that long. No. It really doesn't. Yo. And to think of everything we have coming for us, professional wrestling wise and personally, Yes. Going into 2025 is insane. Same. Baby Crossroads turns two. Two? Oh my god. Our baby turns four. Three, four, whatever. Like I mean, technically the entirety of the podcast is three years old, so That's what I'm saying. Like, our baby turns three. Baby Crossroads is two. Yeah? What the hell? You didn't come to realize that, did you? Like, honestly, I feel like I've just been going through the motions with it, and like, I don't feel like I'm truly appreciating this for what it is, like Well, let's also say this, before we do get into this, Um, as of You know, since, since this is our last one for the end of the year, I want to, I want to do our achievements first and then we'll go into our year end recaps, which will also be posted on our Instagram and our Twitter. So our podcast downloads, we are right now sitting at 1, 805. We only need 695 more to hit our next goal. Episodes published. Dude, honestly, I know, like, Buzzsprout gives us 2, 500 for Honestly, it's gonna be a big ass milestone when we hit 2, 000. Yep. And you know it. Oh, yeah. Like, I, don't get me wrong, I for us, yeah. 2, 500 is gonna be huge, but the fact that we are under 200 to hit 2, 000? Yep. Downloads in three years. Yeah, that's Isn't it insane? I still wanna know. I still want the answer to this, though. Yes. The guy that earlier this year legit listened to three years worth of episodes. We had that twice this year. In a freaking weekend. We had that twice this year. I need to know who y'all are because like honestly, again, dude, talking growth, we started the merch line. Yeah. I want to personally send y'all shirts or something. A sticker. Something to show you we Appreciate you. Mm hmm because holy cow that is dedication. So episodes published We have published 144 episodes since we started We don't feel like it's been we need a hundred and six more to hit 250 published episodes Now talking about our recap. Yes. Thanks to buzzsprout, which is what we Um Publish on we do get a backtrack in our years. So we grew 40 percent this year Um, and that's insane growth for anything we published 55 episodes this year that does Not include these two that does not include these two currently, but that also, you know Kind of takes away the number that we would have had because of all of our tough technical difficulties that we were having Honestly, we should be at like 60. We averaged 1. 2 Six episodes per week. That's not bad, actually. Our most popular city, thank you to Lindsay on Terrio Canada Oh Canada! For a hundred and twelve downloads this year. Yo, the fact that our biggest city isn't even the city that we're living in. Nope, next up. Uh, comes Waukesha, Wisconsin at 53. Our consistent listeners in Germany, I do not want to botch the uh, the city that you guys live in. Do your best? No, I, I'm not even going to try. So, 44 downloads from you guys. Milwaukee, Wisconsin has 42 and Las Vegas, Nevada at 39. Hold on, let me see. Yeah, no. Um, Frankfort, Maine, please? Yeah, exactly. I didn't want to try to botch it. We have 12 countries, United States being the top one. Our top episodes are Elimination Chamber from 2024, our AEW Revolution recap of 2024, WrestleMania 49 2 recap, AEW Worlds End 2023 recap. So the one that we're covering right now, our one from last year is a very popular one and our Royal Rumble of 2024. So, in overall the picture that you guys will be seeing, uh, we've had 949 downloads this year, 55 episodes published, we are in 12 countries, and we have put out 1. 97k, that's a thousand, minutes. Our growth has been absolutely amazing this year, and I'm so proud of, like, where we've come, because we got to see the ones from past years, Thanks to buzzsprout and to see our incline and everything it has been true I'm happy that it's an incline and not a decline. Yes I don't see us declining. Honestly, i'd even be okay if we plateaued as long as we don't start losing, right? Uh, so did you want to start us off today? Uh, no, I told you you could okay Um, so opening up the show at least what we feel will open up the show monet and Mercedes Monet takes on Chris Statlander for the TBS Championship. Um, now you guys know that, you know, there's times where Brother Pyro and I can watch and there's times where we can't. We do our best to still cover everything. So we did get a little bit of cliff notes. Thank you, Hex and Desario for, you know, giving us our recaps. Cause, yes. Cause this has just been a very hard product to watch, unfortunately, but we still like to cover it for you guys until pretty much this goes down like a Another brand that we knew. Pew! Plateau. All the way down. Oh, you gotta check your side of WCW. Because the one time I typed AEW into my computer, it wanted to autocorrect it to WCW. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, I think it's trying to tell me something. Anywho, um, so Statlander turned face immediately after her feud with Willow Knight and Gale. No explanation. She had a Oh, I guess she's like split ways with Stokely and Yeah. Um, she had a good match with Monet, but she did lose at full gear, we remember that. Uh, she talked about needing to make amends with things after losing, challenged Penelope Ford, won, and then challenged then was challenged by Monet. Monet. for a rematch. We also know that Monet no longer has her bodyguard in her corner after the full gear, um, pay per view. She kind of said, I'm quitting. Uh, looking at our They made her a shuttle before herself anyway. Looking at our predictions, because I don't think she's doing anything right. They literally did nothing but make her a bodyguard, which is disappointing because I will say time and time again, Camille is a top tier woman's talent. Hey, that's great, but I know she's also injured with the arm, right? Or is that storyline? I think that might just be storyline. Okay. I could be wrong. Going into our predictions, we have Hex and Cauldron that have gone for Statlander, and me and Desario going Monet. Okay. I, I could care either way of how this goes. I know you don't genuinely care. Personally, I think they build towards, um, Camille versus Monet. And honestly, with the match coming up at Dynasty next month, you want to build Monet into a momentum building spot. And you can't end that only being like two weeks or a week away. You It can't be her losing tonight. Alright, uh, then take us into our next match. Continental Semifinal Okada vs Ricochet. Um, I, I was unaware of the announcement made. Uh, they did announce that the top tier, you know, top person for, um, the blue brand, Would take on the second place person from the gold and vice versa. So our first of two semi final matches Okada versus Ricochet Personally, I would have been okay with this being or the semi final match being originally Okada or Sorry, Ricochet and Osprey and then Okada Fletcher but whatever They however, it makes sense to them I just know this This tournament has been super good. I've caught the highlights. Um, Immediately just going straight into our predictions, We have Ricochet, A for myself, U and Cauldron, Okada and Okada for Hex and Dasario, My god, why am I so spacey right now? Because it's you. Okay, but you know I'm never this bad. Touche. Okay. Usually a misplace cadet. It just, it, yeah. I can't even say anything. Yeah, you can't even argue with it. But like, honestly, I'm, I'm just predicting a really good match.'cause all four of these men that have made it to the semifinals have put in the work mm-hmm And I can genuinely see it just being two, three absolute great, great matches. Mm-hmm Alright, uh, going into our next match, we have the Dynamite Diamond Ring. MJF defends against Adam Cole. Uh, so Now this is usually an episode of Dynamite type thing. Yeah, but this feud and this rivalry has been So much bigger than just an episode. Oh my God, yes. Uh, if you guys don't remember a while, a couple years ago, I think about, it's been about a year, year and a half now, so about a year and a half ago, um, MJF and Adam Cole were the best of friends. They won the ROH tag titles, ended up losing them earlier in the night due to Adam Cole being injured. Yep. Yep. And then MJF, um. Also having a match later that night for his AEW championship. Lost that one, if I'm not mistaken. To Samoa Joe. To Samoa Joe. Adam Cole coming out and pretty much saying like, I'm the one that is stabbing you in the back. I'm the one that screwed you. Because I knew you were gonna eventually do it to me. And honestly, going into the build, I think it was this past week. Yeah. Or the week before, MJF really did state like, Look, going into it I didn't really care. Yeah. I was just doing it because I thought I had to. Then I did stretch of care and honestly I have full intent on double crossing you. Last year you just kind of beat me to the punch. I love the um comment that he made about the fact that Adam Cole's dentist is no longer seeing him. Playing into the real life. I was like, yo, this man did not just go there. My former relationship with Britt Baker. Yeah. I was gonna say, if you're going to bring up her name, you're going to do it right. Oh, shush. Uh, unanimously, we are all going Adam Cole for this. Honestly, I think it's just, the payoff is so much bigger if you have Adam Cole over than the storyline that really was, like, two years in the making. And another thing is, like, I see this building to something bigger, and I It needs to go to something bigger. For something bigger for Adam Cole. It should. And even if they end up, you know, across the ring because of this building into something bigger again, I wouldn't be mad about it. Those men can put on phenomenal. Oh, honestly, like last year's, uh, last year, all in Wembley, when they had their one on one match for the, uh, world title. Yes. My God, was that a fantastic match. Even though they weren't like. Quote unquote best friends behind the scenes like at that time. Yeah, it was it was such a good match All right, our next match going into the next match Tijuana so great fight women's world title mariah may thunder rosa Let me See how we got here Thunder wanted a title match because mariah kept making thunder's dad Archie Horner's street fight was announced, as well as Thunder's dad is going to be at B Side. Okay, so this is really just personal and Yeah, essentially. Essentially. Uh, and honestly, I'm not mad about it, cause I do love me a good grudge match. Mm hmm. Uh, going into our predictions Yes. Yes. Almost unanimous, Cauldron being the Ottawan out. Which is somewhat fair, fairly rare for him. Ah, we all have Mariah, Mariah May taking the dove and Cauldron, obviously, Ottawan out, picking Thunder Rosa. Um, I do love that Oh yes, Desario's reasoning. Yes. Please. So This match will be bloody, but no one believed Mariah McMay is losing the title, especially not with it. Tony storm just coming back as you know, eventually they're gonna build to that. Um Speaking of Tony storm understand the gimmick you you have never understood either of her gimmicks And the fact that she is really and I'm hoping this is Tony cat Con finally having a great creative cap on cuz now her treating Timeless Tony storm like it was a fever dream and didn't actually exist has been Brilliant, dude. It looked like a fever dream any time it was on my TV. Exactly. So if we the fans felt that way, and now the person that did the gimmick is treating it as such, we're not getting treated like we're stupid like normal. This is actually brilliant writing. I don't think it's Tony Khan. I think it's honestly Tony Slart. Honestly, I don't care who it is. Thank you for, thank you for giving us entertainment. When it comes to this, but yeah no, eventually they're gonna build back to that rematch where Tony Storm actually captures the title as Tony Storm. It'll be her first championship. Two to the wrestling fans. It'll be four. It'll be four to Tony Storm in her own brain. It'll be the one. And it's funny because watch her come out as timeless tony storm once they do this rematch. Oh my god I'd cry because like no let it die. Let it die. Let it die. Let it die Let it shrivel up and cry. No, and it's funny because We're talking to this timeless tony storm. I was out with a friend like a week ago, and she has a coffee mug that reads chin up tits up That, that's all it reads. Not a wrestling fan. Unaware. That it has to do with Timeless Tony Stark. Yeah, like what it was is I went to go visit a friend at work and one of his co workers at it. So I, I laughed and she asked me what so I was like, so this is what it reminds me of, you know, gimmick pro me being a pro wrestling fan. Explained it, explained it to her and she laughed. She's like, alright, I need to see this. So I pull it up on YouTube and she starts dying. She's like, that is my whole spirit animal right there. Yeah. Well, now it's a fever dream. So sorry. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go into the next match. Next match. Continental classic semifinals, the secondary semifinals match. Uh, Kyle Fletcher versus Will Ospreay. Again, Father Pyro explained how we got here. Kind of a recap. Uh, winner. Top of the Gold League takes on second place of Blue League and vice versa. I genuinely feel like this should have been the finals match given the story that is there. I called that it would have been. Right, me and you were both saying that that's what they were building towards and now we got in the semifinals. And now we don't get that because he wanted to be special. Whatever. However, going into predictions. All of us chose Osprey, aside from Hex. I was gonna say, not all of us. I know. I was really hoping that I could have written Osprey really big like I did for Adam Cole, but no. Hex wanted to be the odd woman out and go down. Hex wanted to be different. You were gonna read something for Desario. Oh no, I love that he referred to Kylo Fletcher as T Mobile Andy Orton. It was like, he doesn't even have, You Kyle Fletcher written in, in, in, in him sending the message to give his predictions. Timo Randy Orton versus Osprey. Osprey wins. That is how it is written. I love that. I love everything about that. I do too. Honestly, like, if you're gonna give us, and I'm hoping it is really just story, a story based final, your next biggest story coming out of this is Ricochet and Osprey. You know, the uh, how did, how did, How did Desario, uh, put it Um, Okada versus the man that gravity forgot. Or, that charisma forgot. Because honestly, like, since his jump to AEW, Ricochet has not been as charismatic. He's not been as exciting to watch, and he actually has that X Pac y. Again, explaining this to somebody that, a really good friend of mine, last night, while I was at work. Like, he's a great talent, don't get me wrong, but No. Also, that man really did just get cooked by a fan on Twitter. Okay, the last thing I heard about anything Ricochet said was when it popped up on my te on my, you know, Facebook timeline, that he told Swerve, That's why you no longer got a house. Alright, but he also has made comments on Twitter talking about how, cause fans are upset that Samantha Irvin is at home, and his response was, Well, who else is gonna make me a sandwich when I need one? Ooh, I wanna beat him. Yo, the And again, the fact that he really referred to a fan as broke boy and then that fan cooked him. Like when I say cooked, hold on, let me, let me, let me, let me find this real quick because this is absolutely hilarious. Not the, there, there it is. Okay. You work once a week, get, which gives you six days to work on your promos and you still can't cut, hot one on X. Brokeboy also isn't very initiative. Same old ish. Nothing original inside his broke ass head. Ha ha. Shut up. That's why you had to work on Christmas, Brokeboy. Just for the record, I was off on Christmas like my TV when you were wrestling. Damn. Bro, Ricochet got COOKED. And nobody care. Yeah, no, no. Like, Tony Khan has really made you not care about Ricochet. But, and part of that, I think, is you really made his first feud signing with your company Will Osprey. Yeah. His first big feud. Will Osprey. What are you thinking, my guy? Osprey, probably your most over talent right now. Like the crowds behind him. The fans are sold on Osprey and AEW. Ricochet jumping ship from WWE. Great, we know who he is if you're not super tribalistic. We know who you are. We care about who you are. But your biggest mistake was trying to make them both baby faces and pit them against each other. Yeah, no. And then the fact that he And Ricochet really doesn't work as a heap. And then the fact that he was like trying to maneuver his way into the newly formed Hurt Business, and then they were just like, yeah, nope. Well, well, well, MVP did give him a business card. Yeah. And then he came out and he tried, and he was like, well, yeah, pretty much offers off the table. Go at it. But now going into our next match, International Championship, Takeshita defends against Powerhouse Hobbs. Hobbs on his relentless, I want the Don Callis family to, to die cause they essentially forgot about me and treated me like I was nothing. They forgot about him. I mean, I kind of feel the same way too. I mean, most of us fans kind of forget about him cause he's always f ing injured. I didn't. But anyway, uh, Going into our predictions, Cauldron picked Hobbs. You went undecided and the rest of us chose Takeshita. I know why I chose Takeshita. It was the same reason Desario did. Mm hmm. And that being? And that being just the fact that, you know, going into Dynasty, there's a title. He's, uh, announced for a title versus title match. You don't have him. And again, that's going to take a week. Yeah. You don't have him. You know, cool off now. You don't have him drop that title. It would really make no sense to announce title versus title and then only having the one title. This honestly just, and honestly with Hobbs being back from injury and you know, everything else going on, there really hasn't been a lot of build behind him. And what did I say when we were, when we were talking about this? I would love to go Hobbs, but the fact that he is always injured makes me want to lean the other way. However, I could care less about the international community. You, you don't, this, this match right now you really don't care about. Uh, going into our next match, we have the Continental Classic Finals. So instead of us picking kind of who we thought is going to be matched up in the finals, we did pick who we think is going to win overall. Um, so we have Hex, who has chosen Fletcher. All the rest of us go Osprey. So, and it's, and it's funny, cause I'm reading, I'm going back, I'm looking at everything. For the Continental Finals, she has Fletcher, no reason. Cauldron, Osprey, Osprey, no reason. I'm loving D'Sario right now. Yes. Okada, Osprey for his Finals. Uh, going Osprey, this match will be great, but unfortunately for Okada, his Oro from New Japan has disappeared since coming to AEW. Which you've even said. Oh yeah, no, and then going into all of, by the way, giving his reasonings or whatever. Sorry for the long rant. I'm just sick of this company's shit. I called him immediately after and I was like, way to just dump on him entirely. And he was like, dude, well, it's hard, like, and he broke down. It's a hard product to watch. He's like, it's a hard product to watch. It's not really consistent. You know, he, he gave me his reason to break down. Whatever cool to each their own. Thank you for providing those reasons, by the way. Just sorry Look, you've even said the same thing, but like it's so much harder to watch and the fact that Like if you look you're trying to chase that stadium build going into the future They've canceled australia. Yeah They Wait, they fully cancelled it now? I thought they just diminished. No, from what I hear, they've Talking to DeSario They cancelled it Australia's just not happening. Okay. They're not selling the tickets that they once were. I was there two months ago. Yeah. And I showed you what that looked like. Yep. That stadium was more than half empty. Like, they're not getting the revenue that they want to anymore. Didn't DeSario say that, uh, come next year, there's like, once the summer hits, there's no ticket sales going out anymore? Like there's nothing past a certain month. Uh, I don't think so. I think, I remember him saying something like that when we went to Smackdown. Yeah, he, I'll, I'll see if we can get a direct quote from him. The fact that, you know, last night was the final Rampage ever. Yep. In, in a year's span, they've canceled Dark, Dark Elevation, and now Rampage. Collision isn't doing well. Dynamite isn't doing well. Yeah, no. At this point, it's, it's falling down a cliff. And it's unfortunate because they have a stat cross, they have the talent. They don't know how to use it. It's the booking that, it's the booking of this talent that is really killing them and it sucks. Right, that's why I said they don't know how to use it. But alright, uh, go, is it me or you? This is you, you get our main event. I get the main event 4 way for the World title. I don't exactly know how we got here. Neither Hex nor Desario gave us the cliff notes on how we got all four men in this. I mean, we know the rivalries 2 and 2. And then I think Hangman just kind of wants to be back in the championship picture. Jay White is like, if you're going to be there, guess what? I'm going to be there because I'm on your ass. Alright, so. I'm going to assume that's how we got here. Uh, going into predictions and then I'll read. Um, all but Cauldron have chosen Jon Moxley. I just gave a name to give a name. Which, I mean, it makes sense though that you have Moxley. I don't see him dropping it. That's all. He just wouldn't. I don't see him dropping it anytime soon. Plus, you gotta think long term booking. You need the right person to really take it off of him. Uh, Cauldron with Orange Cassidy. I'm gonna read the, uh, This overbooked convoluted match is the prime example of what is wrong with AEW. Plus, why isn't Moxley in jail for attempted murder on live TV? Why, if he and his group are so dangerous, he wins a match a couple weeks ago with all these people with a roll up, then runs away with his crew, make it make sense, still going Mox though, because the other options aren't as good. Right now, anyway. storyline, they, they, they really aren't. I mean, I agree wholeheartedly with at this point, like I don't understand. Are they at this point, it's more or less, is this a wrestling show or is this a another game of saw on TV? Because that's what it's starting to look like. Honestly. And just for this to be on TV and you wanting to get the people in to watch your product that you are, you're not going to get them by violence after violence after violence. That gets the casual fan for the one moment because not a lot of products that are on TV have the blood. Like you can offer but if you do this every single week, you're going to make your usual fan The one that is even hardcore dedicated No longer care about your product What Did I nail it on the head with that? Oh, you're looking for something. Oh, you know I am Du du due mjn versus adamkul fighting over jewelry. Please make the story be done with It's been almost a year and a half, plus our choice by the Shady Adam Cole on Life TV. That will get him over, that part really, that will get him over with the casual audience. Oh wait! They don't have a casual audience. They don't. At this point, they really don't. They have nothing. They have their hardcore fans, and then you're gonna And that's it. And then you're no longer gonna hear about these hardcore, like the hardcore fans once they go down the toilet. Yeah. And it's sad to say it because originally this was such a good product. It was. And my, my, my thing is then, you know, signing that deal with Warner Brothers or whatever to get, um, on Max. Because, you know, Tony Connett will never let us live it down. He also lets us get that that's a thing. Whatever, I don't care. It's, like I said, I had such high hopes for AEW. I was so excited when they announced it. I know you were. And Because it's another form of wrestling. For them, for it to just go as far down hill as it has been, Yeah. Makes me really sad as a wrestling fan. I wholeheartedly agree. Uh, so that does conclude AEW World's End. And at this point, that is AEW's world ending. Ha ha, ha ha, I punny. Ha ha. Whistling. Oh shut up, you know it was funny. Ha ha ha ha! You know it was funny. You Um, anything else you'd like to say before we, uh, kind of cut off here? Uh, no. We hope you had a wonderful holiday, and we will, uh, see you at least once a year. Joyous Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas. Holiday. We're just gonna all put a And, you know, all of that fun schnazz. So happy, we're glad you had a happy holiday if you did. Um, aside from that, we'll see you and hear from you at least once before the end of the year. And we hope you guys have a wonderful 2025 as we hope to as well. And with that, we are out. Laters.