AEW Worlds End Media Scrum | 12/30/23

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AEW Worlds End Media Scrum | 12/30/23

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Ladies and gentlemen the new aew world champion Samoa Joe good to be here everybody hope you’re all well I’m excellent here we go take it away Adam before you ask question just make sure to St your outlet name thank you hi Kate from fightful Hello uh congratulations on your win today thank

You you spent a lot of your time under the aw umbrella as a champion both in Ro and now in aw just any general thoughts that you have on what it means to be put in that position and congratulations on your win uh you know as far as thoughts

Go I mean I mean uh I think it’s a testament to the tremendous Talent here you know uh to hold the aw Championship is an Accolade that uh I cherish very much especially at this point in my career and to uh compete with the guys that we have here for that Championship

Is something I look forward to in the future so I mean we’re just getting started here I’m I’m very very excited questions for Joe Hey Joe hey Rich San Matman podcast how validated and excited do you feel about getting that belt beyond beyond excited I mean uh you know validation I

Think this is just a uh uh proving a concept that I think many of you already knew and that’s I’m the best most dangerous individual to ever step foot in this company and I think this is a testament to that what’s sitting in front of me is a testament to that and

It will continue to be for quite a while so I mean uh I’m I’m very happy with the results tonight I think everything worked out as smoothly as it could be I mean obviously there was a lot of animosity between myself and Max and uh

You know he he Prides himself on being a scumbag but sometimes uh you just got a little bit more devious game that was definitely what I had on my side tonight question over here Tyler Fox 5 yep uh so Joe it’s been 15 years since you last held the world

Title uh how do you think you are different mentally and physically going to be a world champion at this point in your career versus last time you’re world champion you know honestly you know the last time that you know we we we were in World Championship territory

Is a very young me very impulsive me uh it’s a very calculated Samo Joe this is a very uh cerebral sjo that understands the responsibility of what’s been put on his shoulders and what he needs to do to you know maintain that Championship status and that’s really what I’m about

Right now you know this this is going to be the best version of a sjo champion you’ve ever seen and uh I’m very much looking forward to seeing what competition steps up and uh fails miserably at my hands Hey Joe Grant Matthews with Bleacher Report going into the 5-year

Anniversary of aw coming up in a couple days what president do you hope to set as the a world champion coming off a year where uh going into your two-year anniversary of the aw itself where a lot of controversies clouding the product both on screen off screen as the ew

World champion what precedent you hope to set going forward you know honestly the precent is quite simple it’s that uh you know the the what we do in the ring is the focus of what we put out in front of the fans and I think that you know

Our in ring Talent what our our athletes are able to accomplish inside the squar circle you know it’s going to become more of a focused especially under my ring you know uh we’re going to do things uh uh head up and in your face and in front of the people so I’m

Looking forward to this new era I think that uh you know in in the world of wrestling there’s always controvers there’s always things swirling about and it’s those people who persever persevere through it and you know ensure that the fans get you know the best show for for

What they came to see that that’s what I’m here to ensure another one over here uh Cory Lee with the wrestling Observer um about a couple years ago you were it almost seemed like your career was almost wrapping up you were doing on more office stuff and you were doing

Commentary and then obviously now you’re the world champion of a major company just kind of go into how you’re you know from almost kind of being done to now obviously being the top of the game as as a world champion uh I I think I think there’s a big misconception with that

Time period you know it wasn’t that I was done it was that I was taking the actual time to heal you know obviously we’ve learned so much about concussion protocol and you know the uh the time it takes to heal properly and I was taking

That time you know I just it was it was a conscious decision on my part for my health and what I felt I needed to do to get back in the ring and perform at a high level and I realized it wasn’t rushing back and putting myself in a

Position to potentially get hurt worse it was getting back to 100% you know uh following a lot of the recommendations that doctors gave me and giving it more time and uh you know it it it it was what it was and uh I’m glad I did it I

Definitely do not regret it at all and I think that you know my ability to come back and perform now is is a testament to taking that time and you know treating an injury with the proper protocol and the proper weight and uh you know levity it deserves and I think

That more of our athletes should be encouraged to do that and and I encourage them to do that you know uh you know our bodies are most important tool in this business so you know take care of your tools caros vosa here Flex sessions congratul on your Victory thank you

Appreciate that you kind of touched base a little bit with my question but I want to know a little bit more in depth on how you keep consistent during the years and how you’re able to hang out with these young kids and perform at the level that you’re performing right now

Because the focus is on you know is on uh you know The Fan Experience and that’s very much what I’m about you know like uh this this this you know Grand Endeavor that we do is fantastic and you know there’s a lot of uh benefit that we

Take from it but at the end of the day day we do this for our fan base and for our fans we do this for when people show up to an aw show they know they’re going to see a spectacle and have a great time

And uh you know that’s where I want to keep the focus on servicing our fans and giving them good matches and giving them something to look forward to to watch and being entertained and I think that’s my main focus during this rign is that I want to bring back you know that that

Fan assurity and make sure that fans know that when they tune in to aw we’re going to get down and you’re gonna have a lot of fun watching it and then really that’s what I want to reestablish in this company hi Phil strum USA Today sports Media Group congratulations thank you sir once

Again you whether intended or not have been the face of a number of pro wrestling Brands over the course of your career Ring of Honor TNA NXT and now aw what does the responsibility in this important time in aw’s history with what’s coming up in it mean to you to be

The face of this brand as its world champion I mean it’s it’s a tremendous accad you know and it’s a responsibility I take very seriously you know obviously I feel aw deserves a champion that you know they can they can put forward in the world and be proud of and you know

I’m going to be that champion you know when when people say have you seen the aw world champion they’re gonna know that they’re talking about the baddest days most dangerous man in this industry and you know that is going to be the focal point of what I do and and the

Message I’m trying to say few more hi y Torres from Conta now you’re the aw world champion after everything you have done in the business what do you think is amazing what else do you need to do to prove yourself I don’t do do anything to prove

Myself I amve in you know what I need to do now is you know uh Elevate this title to my status and I think that’s what we’re working on right now you know it’s it’s about taking on the best Challengers seeing all these young upand cominging uh superstars who think they

Can come and handle me well they can’t you know we’re we’re about to to to set a lot of Records straight and a lot of people right and uh you know that is the focus of this of this Championship Reign is just all comers anytime anywhere anybody want it they can come get

It hi crusta star from fightful first of all congratulations thank you you had just said about young up incomers who is somebody that you’re looking forward to giving them I’ll Whip hangman at and Paige’s ass any day of the damn week swerve can get it you know sure hey oh

Who’s your favorite go ahead shout out their name I’ll whip their ass like this like y’all think that this going to be like oh I want this guy I want that guy I’ll take them all you know a lot of loud mouths a lot of dudes talking a lot

Stuff you know hey y’all can do that stuff on Twitter come come come bring that to my face man see what happens you know that’s that’s the funny part everybody starting fights around here but nobody ever start fighting with me you know come fight me hi Matt kesone from the Queens

Gazette congrats on winning the Triple B Joe how do you feel about this title design do you want to go back to the previous title design you want your own one garbage don’t don’t worry about that I mean this trash right here this little knockoff BS Gucci stuff that he got

Going on this is going away do we getting the good belt the right belt something that’s designed well uh I’ve spoken with Tony in intensively about it and we’re very much looking forward to it I mean we got a whole new era starting up here you know uh actually

I’m here to announce a little bit we’re starting our partnership with WB Games you know Suicide Squad kill the Justice League starring myself we are definitely in some cross promotion with them game coming out the end of January and uh you know we have some big things coming up

With that Warner Brothers is is crazy I mean they finally got a champion that they show to the world with pride and respect and uh I mean everything’s really really fantastic right now I cannot wait for all the wonderful promotion opportunities and the tons of money I’m gonna make y’all gonna get to

Watch it’s gonna be fantastic I’m gonna make a lot of money and I just I’m not gonna share it with any of y’all but it’s gonna be really fun to watch me spend it all right thank you thank you that was fantastic thank you [Applause]

Joe if I may say uh I believe that there’s been a great focus on sports-based pro wrestling and recently we’ve seen aw coming through with some of our best matches best shows and I believe with this really enhanced focus on pro wrestling on sports-based pro wrestling there’s no one better to

Represent that than Samoa Joe is the world champion and now speaking of world champions come in bring it in man thank you so much no no thank you wonderful wonderful you’re wonderful you’re wonderful Mr K Miss storm Anthony Miss storm Miss storm it’s great to be here

With you I’m very excited for the future me too very happy 2024 is going to be crazy and I I know what you’re thinking do you you want to wear the hat don’t you oh geez yeah please he wants to wear the hat right you guessed guessed right you are this is gonna

Okay good good well and I’m Christmas you’ve never looked better thank you very much champ thank you Tony storm what a world champion one of the great great stars in pro wrestling right now Tony storm the aw women’s world champion once again and alongside her somebody

Making her debut this coming week on AW Wednesday night Dynamite on TBS her first ever aw wrestling Miss Mariah may my number one fan great isn’t she a darling okay that’s enough questions for the world champion and yes and I and I must State I will not I will not answer a single

Question unless you first tell me your New Year’s resolution oh that’s a lot of pressure I wasn’t ready for that go on what are the goals what are we doing I guess my goal is to do more aw media of course right good congratulations thank you Kimmy soal from the pop break Tony

You’ve had an amazing year what is your New Year’s resolution what do you want to do with the aw women Championship darling that’s a good question actually there are so many things to that we’re going to accomplish we have so much to accomplish isn’t it there is

So many things in store for 2024 I am very excited you will just have to wait and see I will not give out any surprises but it’s going to be wonderful I can assure you of that Madame is one of the world’s great stars as you’ve seen and we spoke of

Corporate Partnerships just like we were excited to have the new aw world champion Samo jooe the partnership of WB Games it was exciting to have TCM step in and to have Ben movitz work with Timeless Tony storm that was amazing and it’s only the beginning of all the great

Promotions and things we can do with world champion I plan to kick ass all year round and forever thank you New Year’s resolution uh interview you one-on-one we do a one-on-one interview someday oneon-one more questions than just one question right now oh it’s like wishing for more wishes excuse me but my

Question for you is since aw is expanding so much could we see a fulllength movie starring Timeless Tony sto and maybe Mr Tony KH in that hat though it has to be the Hat you’ve not seen any of my f length feature films um there’s so many streaming platforms I’ll have you know

There is quite a number of them where can I find them they’re on max they’re on Max she quite a catalog I think they’re still on Max good what have you got uh you want a cup of coffee yeah it’s yours darling black coffee you have

God yeah I told you I told you it’s just black coffee tastes rough yeah well that’s true I don’t I can’t I don’t I don’t spike it like you do at your uh key parties I wouldn’t have a clue what you’re talking about I heard about your

Key parties it’s okay what you do at home is your business darling hi Kate from fful and my New Year’s resolution is to watch for the shoe um as you should where are you I’ll there you congratulations on retaining your Championship today um we’ve seen a lot of really great competitors in aew

And the free agency market is heating up with some notable names from a lot of different promotions that are available is there any Challengers either in aew that you have lined up next or anybody you would like to see from the free agent Market com in and

Challenge okay here we go Tony Anthony I don’t care how much you’re gonna yell at me for this after but yes there is quite the free agent out there isn’t there there’s money written all over it Wendy RoR I’m going to you up that’s the answer we all

Expected very good very good sorry to give no it’s well you know what that’s a good to know I plan to be very active in free agency I uh in 2024 or have a lot of cards up my sleeve so it’s good to know that you’re out there looking for

The toughest competition including Miss Wendy reor hello Tony uh nice to meet you uh congratulations for your defense and my New Year’s resolution is travel more around the world and hopefully go to Allin and now the question talking about wait wait wait wait wait horoscope Pisces oh okay keep going I

Knew it I knew it talking about the woman division we know that there’s a lot of hectic and a lot going around right now in aw do you think that anyone right now in this moment is at your level that you think that might be able to keep on in the

Ring with you right now okay well God okay okay my first the first one I’ll go with is Kristen statland oh I would love to get in the ring with her and get nice and sweaty phenomenal athlete I would love to touch her of course touching hello CA from fightful my New

Year’s resolution is to be as confident as you darling speaking of confidence where do you draw all this Timeless Tony storm Confidence from and how do you use it to manage the locker room back here with these tough women how do I darling this is me this

Is my locker room I manage it I’m in charge of it I am the top competitor the biggest act I do not know how I do it but I just do she’s Larger than Life ladies and gentlemen this is unbelievable it’s truly unbelievable you glasses too don’t you dear well the

Thought had cross my mind you go hi Tony Colin Tess you for rone and fightful congratulations on on your win today the woman’s Vision recently had a big return Thunder Rosa former Champion someone you’re very familiar with uh obviously I think she might have something to say about potentially

Challenging for the title what would you say about potentially getting her shot I’m sorry whom the name was a thunder a Thunder Thunder Thunder Thunder do you remember a picture you were in entitled thunderstorm okay now if that is her name that would be a fantastic idea for

A tag team if we were one of those double team Duo things that they do it’s a great idea yeah it’s a great idea thunderstorm very clever it’s an old picture but a classic do not remember you’ve been in so many films it’s just been so many performances I can’t

Possibly remember them all you know this it’s true you remember really the most celebrated you remember decorated catalog in the entire industry yes hi Tony uh Rich from Matman podcast my New Year resolution is to look as good as the other Tony complete with the hat and sunglasses now my question for you

What given your history what has been your favorite starring role my favorite what sorry starring role being the aew women’s world [Applause] champion thank you thank you oh is this the is this the end you don’t want me to stay no I would love for you to stay you

Want to have more questions for Tony she’s doing so well what do you really want to know about me go on that’s for a one-on-one later um talking about the tag team division do you see yourself in the future tag team with someone and where will you go with

That it’s an obvious answer but I just wanted to you see this is a very good question who whom whom I love love this thunderstorm name though yes I don’t know oh what do you think yeah think hard sorry can I help sorry she’s new she’s doing a fantastic job taking

Care of me especially when uh uh my butler was sent away I don’t know what uh I haven’t seen him since I hope they didn’t put him down no oh no no he’s okay but thank you dear Mariah for for stepping in and helping me this evening she’s been a absolute

Doll thank you dear she showered you with roses no less thank you darling good job good job she’s a real darling and she’s a great wrestler she’s a great pro wrestler wait till you see her wrestle it’s going to be great this Wednesday night on TBS I can’t wait to

See Mariah May debut I know you’re excited to see Mari wrestle oh yes oh yes of course she going to be dashing aren’t you be absolutely dashing darling y Tesa Tony your the hat looks great on you I I gotta say that stunning how about Mar May versus Tony

Storm for the aw Women’s Championship in the near future well let’s see Mariah May debut in aw I think Mariah May is a great pro wrestler with a lot of great experience all over the world and and I think let’s see how the debut goes and

Certainly I believe in Mariah may I know Tony storm really believes in ryay she’s very excited to watch a wrestle of course and I think uh certainly we’ll see how it goes but I believe Mariah May has everything it takes to be a champion and right now we have the greatest

Champion of them all Miss Tony storm stick with me kid I’ll make you rich but not as rich as me that’s enough she’s the best what a great night thank you for being here yes we can all go home I’m done we can all

Get out of here we can all have a Happy New Year we’ll be celebrating this evening I will see you all there for my extravagant party who’s gonna be there who’s going to be at your New Year’s party nobody that’s a Pisces thank you thank you thank you [Applause]

Champ thanks thank you champ what a great champion thank you Miss mat okay well that was absolutely fantastic uh and Now ladies and gentlemen going from one great Champion to another ladies and gentlemen the TBS Champion Miss Julia Hart it’s here for the champ uh first question is uh to Tony K

Can you have her put the head on and maybe the glasses why you win them the whole time they were a gift from Tony storm to me so I think you know I should keep them it would be very rude of course um anyways I have my

Own hat thank you you have your own hat of course I love your hat SE fall from wrestling’s co question about your Championship though we saw one Champion leave you come on in ever have a chance to see both of you in the ring one-on-one title for tile that would be

Great I’ve never uh wrestled Tony so I would love to one day it’s a dream match for sure two of the top stars in wrestling hi Julia hi Kimmy soal from the pop break now earlier today Brit Baker actually tweeted a photo of a match that

You two had is that a match that you would want to have another match with Brit for the TBS title that match was my first match on Dynamite and I think she beat me in two minutes so I would love to see where I could take this match definitely longer than two minutes

Uh Kevin mvan pro wrestling Illustrated Julia congratulations great match tonight thank you um I know a lot of people were happy to see three women’s matches tonight including the Zero Hour um I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask this is actually a question for Tony um there’s a lot of conversation especially the

Last couple days about the issue of safety and harassment specifically involving women wrestlers um you know without getting too much into the details there some people may not want their names mentioned um but there have been a lot of conversations and there there’s real concern from wrestlers from uh fans from

Media like you know about the safety of wrestlers behind the scenes so like what has been done specifically to combat to prevent issues like sexual harassment in the aw locker room both you know in the past and going forward because this is something that should always be looked

At I think it’s very important it’s a great question Kevin and I think it applies to everybody in the company women and men and it’s something very serious about and we’ve had a policy in place and certainly I think any time there’s anything like that we would uh

Make sure we do everything we can to prevent it aw has the best safety record I believe of any pro wrestling company in the world I believe we have the most safe environment I believe we have the best safety record of any pro wrestling company and I would hold the record of

Aw on safety against any wrestling company in the world and I think we aw is the safest place for pro wrestling and if any of our wrestlers ever have a concern they always have an open line to talk to me and I you know I believe

Anybody would sit here and tell you they always can talk to me anytime they are concerned about anything well certainly if there was anything uh that you know came to light to me I would take it to the disciplinary committee and uh you know that’s how we’ve been doing it and I

Think we our disciplinary committee has been doing a great job job and everybody knows they have an open line to me or anybody on that committee Julia next question over here hi Kate from fightful Julie I think a lot of people are on the same page and

That you have been one of the most improved wrestlers over the past year congratulations on your success tonight and all of that and just looking back it is kind of an end of the year question I guess as we’re wrapping up here um can you just talk to us a little bit about

What that process has been like as you have grown so much in the ring character-wise um and just become a really complete wrestler um I can just say I’m really proud of myself and if even me in the beginning of the year I told myself I’d be ending the year TBS

Champion I wouldn’t believe you so I’m I’m just like I looked back at some of my pictures going through my phone just seeing where I was and I was like wow I’m completely different person and anything is possible hi caar from fightful first of all congratulations on your victory over

Abdon I would be remiss if I didn’t say why are we putting two equally bad people against each other have you ever thought about maybe you fit so seamlessly in House of black you ever thought about maybe leading your own faction leaving the house of black you

Fit so seamlessly in House of black have you ever thought about leading your own faction at some point leaning my own said leaving the house of black oh I don’t think I could ever leave House of black but yeah I don’t know I think right now I’m I’m just focused on being champion

And doing the best I can at being a champion I like to take things one day at a time so maybe a faction is in my future but right now I’m focused on this and focus on what I can do and representing the house hi Julia contest you of Russ and

Fightful coming off of a a breakout year in 2023 how do you think you’re going to keep your M momentum going next year do you have any goalss you have in mind ways the candidates keep keep progressing forward in the year ahead I think one of my big goals for myself

Next year is maybe to wrestle at wimbley that’s up to Tony though I would love to wrestle at wimbley and i’ love to keep my streak as a TBS Champion going hi Phil strum from USA Today sports Media Group Julie congratulations on the match tonight you and abidon are

Both newer in your careers wrestlers that we’ve seen develop through the DA’s Place era through the dark and the dark elevation and stuff like that can you talk a little bit about what this moment tonight was like for you in the ring with her in on this kind of a stage on

AW pay-per-view thank you yeah I think this is uh this is the first time me and abidon have ever wrestled oneon-one so it’s really cool to see two people that have been parallel in the Jacksonville days to now so finally getting to wrestle each other and it was

Great I who beat the crap out of each other so it was fun thank you Julia yeah Steve Fall Again from wrestling new Co for question for both of you the women’s division is expanding obviously growing Tag Team Championships in the Future Tony I’m something I think would be great it

Definitely we’ve shown we can expand our programming and certainly there’s been some of the best I think matches and some of the most exciting rivalries we’ve ever had in the women’s division just in recent weeks and months and Julia Hart is the TBS Champion has been

At the epicenter of that a huge huge part of it so absolutely I think that would be tremendous and it’s something I’m very open to doing I think it would be great and there’s a lot of great tandems some that are active right now that could be great for that and there’s

Also some that haven’t teamed in a while that could could be great for that people that could be you know absolutely that’s a good that’s for you know a lot of other examples sure uh that’s a fine fine picture uh and uh so that I do think uh there’s a lot of great

Opportunities there and it’s something certainly you know to keep an eye on more over here Carlos monosa Flex sessions congratulations being the youngest to ever do this championship and having those goals that you want at Wembley how do you see and how do you prepare

Yourself to be able to go into the ring with more experienced wrestlers and go toe-to-toe with them and at the end of the day end up with the victory well I can tell you I watch every single one of their matches before I step in the ring with them study them

Figure out what I can get the advantage on I think that’s probably my biggest tactic is just trying to watch every single match I can find of that person just to know what they do hey Julia gr Matthew with this with Bleacher Report uh just talking about the F4 mentioned criticisms of the

Women’s division this past year in the Improvement and other areas that can be improved upon stuff like that as a chance Champion going into a match like this on pay-per-view like hearing the criticisms from fans on social media stuff like that is that something for you personally that you take to heart

And want to go out there and have a better match or is it something that you don’t really involve yourself with uh specifically um when it comes to the internet uh it’s different because at the end of the day the only person’s opinion that matters is Tony and myself so whatever

The internet’s always going to have an opinion on you it’s going to be negative it’s G to be positive and they can think whatever they want because I also remember being a fan and I thought I knew everything as well and not a fan doesn’t know everything so but I do know

Tony’s my boss and I’m gonna if I he says I do a good job I believe him if I tell myself I do a good job that’s all that matters and the fans like they can say whatever they want so you’re doing great and I think that’s one thing we

Unanimously the fans and me and hopefully you two we all can agree on is you’re doing fantastic Julia you’re great thank you thank you now any other questions that was pretty natural Pretty Natural Applause break but any other great questions for the champion these have been great questions for

Julia thank you very much champ thank [Applause] you thank you bu oh yeah I forgot those are on jeez so comfortable hey thanks I have hat hair good oh man speaking of hats speaking of great Stars top stars in aw thank you [Applause] sir to be joined by swerve Strickland

I swear of contest to your Russ and fightful congratulations on your win tonight just want to know what your initial reaction was when you found out about Keith Lee’s injury obviously that’s a match that fans have wanted to see for a long time and we we thought we

Were G to get tonight and now with Keith Lee being unable to compete looks like we’re gonna have to wait a little longer so I just want to see what your what your initial reaction was it was quite unfortunate um I’m done waiting though like I don’t wait on anybody for me I’ve

Been waiting for a while now and now I have my sight set on something else and that’s Championship gold so either Keith’s going to have to work harder than ever in 2024 to reach me at that point or reach to the championship or do something but I’m not waiting on anybody

And if the match happens he’s gonna have to work hard to get to me at this point aor first time long time Rich St willan mattman podcast what’s the first thing that goes through your mind in the morning and what’s the last thing that goes through your mind at

Night um in the morning I have a lot of things to accomplish first thing is just like working on how to improve myself what can I what can I do to start my day to improve and get to the next level that’s not just a physical thing that’s

Just not a career thing that’s a mental thing as well my mental has to be on 12 15 20 different things all at the same time you know so I’m always looking to improve and then uh last thing I’m like honestly going through my mind is

Just like how do I how do I how do I make a change whether it’s in my life whether it’s in my career my job aw like music it’s podcasting whatever I’m going to do next I want to try to always make an impact and a change and do something

Unique that nobody else is really doing and that’s unique to me Rob USA Today sports Media Group what what kind of timeline do you think you have to get to the aw World Championship in 2024 uh timeline wise it starts tomorrow truth be told like whatever it is however long

It’s going to take H just know it’s going to start tomorrow like that’s what I wake up for tonight felt like my my time was wasted and my time is very valuable to me and as Dustin Rose can see that he paid for that because he got

In my way I spent two months doing the Continental classic going after Championship gold and I was like Hey I was the one that got pinned the least in the entire tournament only only one that only got took one pin in the entire tournament full of like

Aces of not just a but in the entire industry and that says something to me that says that I’m worth something and that says that my time is worth something so Dustin trying to be the noble guy and come up and step to me like that he had to pay for

That that goes to show the world like I’m not playing anymore 2024 is where things get direct no subliminal it’s direct and I’m standing on that uh courtly with ar wrestling erver um it’s two-part question one for swerve one for Tony first question for swerve

Is you started you started at the end of last year obviously pretty much breaking up with Keith Lee and going on going as a as a single with the with the with uh you know Mogul Affiliates and then obviously merging to the Mogul Embassy kind of reflect a little bit on this

Year where you kind of went from you kind of started from here to where you are now where basically people are saying saying that you are the guy basically you’re that you’re ready to be the guy in this company and then the second question I had just for Tony uh

In regards to the Keith Lee injury um can you just talk about the process of because he did post on on Twitter that you know he wanted to to go and he was going to try to go and then a about an hour later it turned out no you guys

Did it clear what is the process in regards to the doctors and obviously the staff to basically take the decision out of uh wrestler because I’m pretty sure Keith wanted to wrestle tonight absolutely but it’s a situation where you guys took it out of his hands that

Was the case and it resulted in changes and it was big for Dustin to step up because I think the fans really wanted to see a great match Dustin helped deliver it but also I think the fans it was very obvious the fans wanted to see swerve Russell and that is something

That fans are paying to see which is really bodess well for aw it’s been a great year for us and he’s been a huge part of it I think Keith absolutely did want to wrestle uh there is a process there and it involves the doctor examining the wrestler every time before

They go out and wrestle but also keeping in touch with them during the week and Keith mentioned he got injured in his match at final battle he had a great match with Shane Taylor hard-hitting match in Dallas at final battle and then after that Keith had gotten back in the

Ring and had a great match with Brian Cage did a great number on collision and I was really excited of course like swerve said he’s red hot and was swore of having the best record of all coming out of the Continental classic in terms of wins losses but not

Actually being in the Continental classic final based on how the league finals played out I thought it made sense to have this great resolution talk about World’s End it was something people wanted to see and the timing was right and Keith had really been getting it going on collision and I thought it

Was going to be uh true Collision of sorts to have Keith Lee and swerve but uh Keith today when he went in to see the doctor his injury had gotten worse during the week and really it was worse than it was uh after the Shane Taylor

Match and it was worse than it was before or after the Brian Cage MCH this swelling had gone up and with the swelling being what it was the doctor didn’t feel comfortable clearing Keith so it’s a tough call but the doctor did what he thought was right and I respect

The medical team’s decision and uh you know I thought it was still big for swerve to go out there and get that massive reaction and uh inflict a lot of vience which is what people wanted to see swerve do in regards to your question about early this

Year uh I adapt and I overcome it’s been military instilled in me and that’s something I live and die by like things ain’t always going to go my way but I’m still here because things don’t always go my way and I figure it out anyway

Things don’t go my way in aw I figure it out anyway things don’t go my way in life I figured it out and that’s why I’m still here and that’s why I’m still growing anybody that keeps like trying to say that I’m not the one that should

Be in the position that I am or anybody has any doubts or this won’t happen like I save all that because I always figure it out I’m smart enough I’m talented enough I’m unique enough and I built myself from ground up and I’ve always figured it

Out uh gr Matthews the police report swe first for you just talking about the reaction that you got tonight massively favorable uh considering throughout most of the year been rejecting the fans now kind of accepting the fans talk about your standpoint as far as like are you

Accepting the Newfound fan support or do you not really care about it too much and then for Tony talking about the Keith Lee match mentioning earlier that he was injured at final battle against Shane Taylor he had mentioned in his tweet that he was injured initially last

Year at the September Grand Slam event was it like an injury that was reag grav or a different injury just talking about that process a little bit well you know Keith’s been working through injury which is uh why we he hasn’t been on sometimes on TV the weeks we’ve wanted

To have him there and uh again just speaking to that injury I you know without disclosing too much of his personal information like he said uh he’s been dealing with an injury it’s been uh sticking with him for a while and he’s had some really hard-hitting matches lately against some big

Competitors this was obviously one he had said he really wanted and I think he clearly came looking for a fight today but the doctors just didn’t feel comfortable given again the swelling and where it was at that he’d be out there for the match I think like you said

Swerve and I I would let him certainly speak at length to this the crowd certainly has built a very powerful connection with him and it’s really something telling and it’s not at all unexpected because this company at Revolution 22 we were just in Orlando and this past week The League finals

Took place in the same building where were first arrived and signed his aw contractor Revolution 22 and it was actually the very first thing I said when I saw you and it meant a lot and uh this company really believes in you and we’ve certainly been rewarded thank you

And from what you were saying the people believe and they feel me and regardless of what I do they feel and understand everything that I do they and they they know they’re not getting they’re not going to get like anything cheap out of me nothing about me is

Cheap and I feel like the fans felt some sometimes things aren’t delivered in a very fulfilling way and I I fulfill everything whether they like my methods or not they understand and they feel me hi question for for Tony about sw’s opponent tonight can you clarify the

Status of Dustin rhods with a W I know back in 2022 he was talking about wrapping up by the end of 2023 then there were some reports that he might be extended through 2024 where does Dustin Road stand with a Dustin’s a great part of aw and Dustin volunteered to step up

And do this which I thought stepped up in a major way for us and really I thought it showed uh what a great company person Dustin is Dustin’s a great part of aw both in the office Dustin’s a great coach to the women and men in aw and a great wrestler and uh

You know even though that was a hard-hitting battle I think everybody even swerv has a lot of respect for Dustin he’s great part of what we do here in aw so very fortunate to have him and I thought it was uh big for him to

Step up and still give the fans uh that violent spectacle from Sor of people have come to expect I I respected Dustin for years like he’s part of one of the first tape studies I’ve ever done when getting into this business I respect the hell out of

Him for what he’s done and what he’s been doing in a that doesn’t mean that he can’t he can’t get that either he can’t get like worked on either from by me it’s not it’s either him or me and now it’s either him or the championship so don’t stand in the way

Of my Championship Joel Torres Contra Alona obviously the fans reaction has been great tonight we saw that but also you have had great matches for example last month at full gear was amazing tonight all as well New Year’s resolution 2024 for you first African-American aw world [Applause]

Champion Tyler Fox 5 uh so you mentioned a lot about uh figuring it out as we get and things not necessarily going as planned uh but we’ve already heard a lot of talk about going future into 2024 with the Wembley show coming up uh all things put aside titles put aside if you

Had your pick of your one-on-one match you want going into Wembley who do you got if I had to go to Wembley my my honest pick I still want my win back from Brian Danielson thank you thank you very much [Applause] swerve is great speaking of the rising stars

Ladies and gentlemen rising star of the Continental [Applause] Classic Mr Garcia yeah we’re at hi Kate from pipel um you mentioned in an interview this year that uh your contract is up at the end of the year and I just wanted to touch base about

That and ask if you had any kind of immediate aspirations for 20 24 coming up yeah obviously that’s a that’s a big deal in um not just in wrestling just in life your contract being up it’s a it’s a very big deal and um you know I just

Want to prove over this next year that I be a asset I’m somebody that can be built around and I think I’ve been doing that for the past month or so I agree hi kesa from fightful here um you in the Continental classic was amazing phenomenal even though you lost

I want to ask you going forward are you going to be giving dance classes because we all love you dancing and also do you think people put more respect on your name now considering the performance you had throughout the entire tournament uh probably no dance classes in the near

Future but um I definitely think more people have been able to see what I can do over the past month I think when I came into aw I was given a lot of big opportunities right off the bat that I’m very grateful for and um you know like I

Said opportunity here gets harder and harder to come by every week um the roster gets bigger and bigger and I think it’s great I think competition is amazing but it means that you know you get less opportunity and I went a year where I was hungry hungry hungry for

Opportunity and I just wanted more and the Continental classic is something that you know there there’s nothing more valuable being a TV wrestler than being able to wrestle five weeks on TV in a row and to be able to show what I can do five weeks in a row night in night out

Against some of the best wrestlers in the world I think that’s crazy valuable like that’s worth millions and millions of dollars and I definitely think I was able to show more people like what I can do and I hope people more respect on my name since then what do you guys what do

You guys think yeah I hope so we leave with the wrestling Observer this is good another two-part question one for Danny and also one for Tony in regards to and it’s almost kind of the same thing over the five weeks of the Continental classic there was a couple

Of features that we don’t really see on awtv that much and that’s some of the YouTube videos of you of kind of showing you after your defeats and after your win and kind of kind of growing and kind of you know basically do you because again when you first came in you were

Just basically you know you were part with with um with 2.0 you came in basically is then kind of morphed with the JS but this was really the first time we were able to really kind of see the real Daniel Garcia especially after those matches do you feel that that’s

That’s a that’s a part that you’re that you’re very happy that you’re able to go ahead and show to the audience and then for Tony in regards to we we obviously have it was a big success with with with what they they did and you know with all

With all the videos and everything like that are we going to see more of that integrated into the into the uh program because again I really do feel that it was a it was a major major major step to kind of you know almost go with the with

The wrestler on their Journey Through the tournament as as Danny did absolutely do you want to go first yeah um I was personally just sick of pretending um I feel like you know that’s kind of our jobs as uh performers but I was sick of putting up a front all

The time I was sick of um you know trying to be a tough guy trying to put on a front for the camera like whenever it was in front of me and um the first time I did that interview it was after my match with uh mjf in Portland which I

Flew my mom out for so I mean afterwards it was just true real emotion it was how I was feeling um it was something that it was my first big opportunity in a couple months of aw so I mean all that was just true emotion and then I think

After that promo after that little clip they saw the success of that they started getting more and more after the Continental Classics they kept getting me for uh for videos afterwards and every time it was just my my immediate thoughts it wasn’t anything that I planned to say it wasn’t any like

Narrative that I was trying to push like any storyline or anything it was just how I was feeling and um I think that’s when I’ve been at my most successful when I show you guys how I’m really feeling I think we’re all human beings with real emotions and uh with real

Feelings and that’s just what I wanted to show you guys I wanted to show you guys that I’m not a tough guy all the time I’m not somebody who just dances I’m not somebody who is perfect all the time I’m an imperfect person like we all

Are and that’s just what I wanted to show you guys we are you know we feel stuff too I’m sick of putting up a front and I’m not going to do it no more and then by the way I would just uh finishing out Cory’s question there I do

Think yes it added a lot to the show and I expect to see more of those kinds of promos the stuff we shoot after the matches is fantastic and I think we built a good Cadence too because what we did very frequently was show some of the promos from the Collision blue league

Matches on Dynamite we showed some of the uh promos from the dynamite gold league matches on collision and got kind of a good Cadence to build from show to show and film those promos after the matches and then ran them in the next show promoting show to show and I

Thought we built uh something very nice there and I’d love to see that continue you know some of these great promos after great matches on Dynamite seeing those on collision great promos after matches on collision seeing those on Dynamite I think it’s a great way to link the shows up and also capture

Really like Daniel said these real moments and hear from these great wrestlers after these great matches and these Great Moments and I think it can help the wrestlers and also it’s great for the storytelling and uh we have a great backstage crew they do a great job

Filming these interviews and uh you know that was some of the great content outside of the ring on the Continental classic which I also think was a great product in the ring and I personally just love um very stripped down things so I think it’s really cool you know

Just go into the back in a natural environment and you know it’s just you and the camera it’s no interviewer it’s no LED lights it’s just a very stripped down version of a of a television show and I think that’s that’s all this needs to be sometimes not all the time

Sometimes it’s all it needs to be though hey uh Chris Welch with the Verge uh Tony can you talk about fight forever for a minute it seems like your plan is not to put your plan is not to put like a new game every year so it seems so like what’s the

So what does 2024 look like as just when it comes to the game uh he’s not in the game sw’s not in the games like what are your plans for 2024 when it comes to fight forever and like that whole division at large aw games great question so there are some top

Stars great examples I think we’re going to continue adding stars and uh doing downloadable packs and featuring more people in the game but I think those are great examples of people that we could uh utilize great people people would want to see see in the game in the

Future we continue adding people for fight forever uh it’s our first ever video game release it’s been distributed all over the world we’ve sold so many copies and continued the sales through the holiday season and that was our beginning of aw games as far as a a console Game launch we’ve launched other

Properties before that but that was certainly our most ambitious project and now I think it’s a beginning and certainly I think we will be supporting fight forever for a really really long time and the next time we come back I expect someday in the future we would

Come back with a console game but for the foreseeable future all of the resources really into keeping fight forever and uh you know really updating that game and doing the best we can with people who bought fight forever adding the great names keeping it current um Carlos monosa Flex sessions

Um talking about mental health and I know that there’s a lot of people watching us right now what are those things that you do that you can recommend to those people doing and help them out because we know sometimes they get stuck and they get depressed and

They don’t know how to get out of that dark place how are you able to manage that and be yourself and just let it go yeah I’m no mental health expert um my advice isn’t probably the best something that I still work on every single day

But I think the best advice I could give is just be open and honest with yourself and open and honest with others like be vulnerable with what you’re going through don’t try to fool yourself into thinking you’re okay when you’re clearly not and don’t try to you know present

That you’re okay to others when you’re not I think it’s good to um just be honest and be vulnerable I think uh the world would be a much better place if everyone was a little bit more honest and sincere with their [Applause] feelings hi Daniel hey Kimmy so back at forbid

Door you tweeted that your one goal this year was to get on a pview and not only did you get on another one you won yeah let go now what does it feel like to finally get your big pay-per-view win man it feels so cool I went through like

A uh a long streak where I wasn’t on a pay-per-view I did um doubler nothing in Vegas Anarchy in the arena that I went about a full year and did um forbidden door this past summer and now I’m doing uh World’s End here in Long Island and

To get the win it feels great like I said I just want to be somebody who proves that can be built around I feel like I’m a person who you know I can be a system player I’m somebody that you can like plug in and can do like can do

Kind of like every little job but I am somebody that can do the job I am somebody that can um do the the highest job in the company at a very high level I think I can do everything at a very high level and I just want to prove that

I want to prove it to all you guys I want to prove it to Tony I want want to prove it to everybody in the locker room I’m somebody that um you know wants to fight for everybody who who loves aw it’s not just for myself I want to fight

For everybody who loves this product as much as I do so it feels great yeah it’s great really great really great thank you very much I really appreciate it Danel yeah thank you thank you very much that’s great all right well thanks everybody and now uh I can talk a little

Bit about uh World’s End it was great having some of the top stars from World’s End in the show up here I thought and the pay-per-view has been a huge success for us uh really a great time for the company just to run down some details before I start taking

Questions about some of the exciting things happening just to recap this past week was a really great week for aw across the board in terms of the business on Saturday last week we posted a top 10 number from the chart I’ve seen for Collision Collision finished ahead

Of the NBA Collision finished ahead of a lot of the top sports against top football competition third straight week the Collision rating had gone up and uh we’ve seen the Collision rating going up against the toughest football competition of the Year typically the NFL number one one always the toughest

Media property in the world and college football bowl games are the toughest things you can go up against but the Collision rating has continued to go go up I think it’s a tribute to the great wrestling we’ve been putting on there the Continental classic is a great part

Of it the women’s division has been on fire a lot of great people doing great work and so I think the recent run of collisions there has been some of the best TV we’ve ever done and like I said three straight weeks the rating has gone

Up and this week to have a top 10 finish and beat out NBA and a lot of other top competition that was really great for aw then with dynamite after posting the biggest Collision rating since October and going up again week after week despite the toughest competition of the

Year Dynamite we posted our biggest rating since Grand Slam in September so over three months a really really strong run of Television culminated in this big week uh the biggest week of ratings we’ve had in months and really a strong week for momentum for the company then

Coming here tonight we had a sellout show was a huge deal for the company the crowd was tremendous and in addition to the sellout live crowd we had here at Nassau Coliseum which was a dream come true to work here in this building for so many of the great wrestlers it was a

Really big deal to have the sellout crowd and then the pay-per-view which we haven’t talked that much about the pay-per-view was a huge hit the pay-per-view will end up it’s right now it looks like about the same as full gear which was the biggest pay-per-view we’ve had since all in Wembley Stadium

All of these pay-per-views have been huge hits we’ve on a really great streak of shows all year all the pay-per-views over a 100,000 buys this one way over that and uh again this will probably end up very close to full gear which was our biggest pay-per-view since all in

Wembley which is one of the top two aw pay-per-views of all time so we’re finishing the biggest year of aw on pay-per-view we’ve ever had so it’s been a tremendous business year uh thanks to all of you and uh of course all the great wrestlers and this great staff and

Uh before I also get too deep into the questions I would love to to talk about some people uh we have some uh people in particular in the company uh few that come to mind I just wanted to say some words about uh one uh who was not either

In the room or featured necessarily in the card tonight but has been a part of aw since the beginning at the end of the year QT Marshall his contracts up I somebody I really respect the door would always be open for QT to come back in any capacity wrestling and coaching I

Know he wants to go out and and apply his trade and he’s somebody that has done a great job when you see people like Julia Hart sitting here next to me her development QT had such a huge hand in that and a lot of the great wrestlers

Here and uh I know he wants to go out and and focus on his wrestling career but he’s also been a huge part of aw in addition to the wrestling as a coach he’s been in great matches the bunk house match and so many great matches on TV uh he’s done great work

Internationally and I consider him a good friend and you know QT his contract is up but I would welcome QT back here anytime and I think any wrestling company in the world would be very lucky to have him and uh always will wish him the best and and hopefully see him again

Either here or or any place down the road because anybody that has QT would be very fortunate also you know coming at the end of the year this is like World’s End first time we’ve done this pay-per-view December 30th typically in sports Wrestling Entertainment all kinds of Trades you’ll see some contract cycle

End at the end of the year it’s just nature of business for some reason I don’t know why but a lot of contracts 10 to expire December 31st it’s just how things go and for us maybe in part because this is actually going to be the fiveyear anniversary of the company so

Looking at where we are I’ll talk a lot about the fiveyear anniversary of the company and the health of the company where we stand but QT was a huge part of the whole fiveyear run and I want to thank him because it’s been a great five years and again he’d be welcomed back

Anytime somebody who has not been with us the entire five years but they’ve been with us about half the time and they’ve been outstanding and somebody I really respect and I don’t expect to see uh necessarily as it stands right now renewing the contract but somebody that

I have a great amount of respect for and would be parting on good terms and was tremendous and was here and did wrestle tonight is Andrade ELO Andrade ELO’s contract is up at the end of the year we’ve had great talks I have a ton of

Respect for Andrade Alo he’s been a huge performer in the Continental classic week after week I talked about this great Ron collision’s been on andrad alilo has been a huge part of it also has wrestled on the other shows and and the blue League of the Continental

Classic he’s outstanding uh I wanted to keep him involved at the top and if we had been able to reach an agreement certainly he would be somebody we would slot in uh in a prominent position I think we did everything we could to show onra Lio we really do value him and I

Think this last run he’s had in recent months has been tremendous and if this is going to be the way uh he’s going to leave aw talk about leaving on a high note because he had a great match with Meo tonight something that uh I think

People had wanted to see for a long time had said he was going to respect the Continental classic in part because I demanded it I wasn’t going to let him uh you know affect the the wrestling and have outside interference because there were no personal grudges there was not

Supposed to be anybody interfering it was just great wrestling I thought andrade’s matches Andrade Alo week after week tremendous in the Continental classic we also uh had talked to cmll and said I would love uh to set that up because andr Alo had a great history there lambra has a great history in

Mexico I am a big fan of his and I thought that was something very nice we were able to put together I don’t know uh exactly what the future of that would be but I do know that Andrade Alo is a great wrestler I appreciated him coming

And having such a great match tonight and if that was his last match in aw again he left on a very high note over these recent months with a continental classic the great matches he’s had really since the beginning of collision week in week out and the great match

Tonight certainly with Meo and also speaking of people finishing up their run and somebody who’s here somebody have a lot of respect for and what a way to finish your fiveyear run in aw with a sellout rapael morphy who has been our head of live events for five

Years and you left on the highest of high notes with a HomeTown sellout in New York and he’s been a huge part of aw2 and uh whether it was here uh you know in New York or all across the continent all across the world Raph has

Been a huge part of the growth of aw from day one and for five years I’ve been lucky to work aside Raphael and he’s taken on a new position outside of pro wrestling at another great venue uh and they’ll be very fortunate to have him anybody that works with Raphael

Would be very fortunate to have him and I’ll miss him very much and we all will thank you rap that’s great and uh so with that it’s been you know like I said it’s been a great five years for aw closing uh this year on a real high note in terms

Of the business high points going out very hot with a hot pay-per-view hot TV ratings and uh it’s great to see all of you so with that I can visit with you and take your questions Brian Solomon the wrestling news uh had a question that it was a

Follow-up actually to something that you talked about during the media call earlier this week relating to booking duties in the company you mentioned that recently you’ve been getting some help some guidance from other people like Brian Danielson Sanjay dut getting kind of uh I I want to know if if going

Forward forward you see the booking as being more of like a committee type situation or a group and if you ever see yourself at any point stepping back from it entirely it’s a great question I mean it’s the same process it’s always been there’s been different people in the

Room throughout the pro I think I’ve always come in with an outline of ideas and I’ll talk through and talk ideas with the people in the room and it’s some people that weren’t here at the beginning like Brian danielson’s a great example that wasn’t here at the

Beginning of aw but uh you know would have fit in the whole time in is a mind I would have gladly uh discussed wrestling ideas with at any time so uh really for the last several years I think it’s been a pretty consistent process it’s just the people that I’m

You know talking to QT would have been somebody that you know if he was still here every week would be in the room with us uh and I’ll come in with an outline of ideas week to week and talk through things we have a great group of

People so I I think it’s been really strong and certainly right now the company this week you’d say is on one of the hottest runs in terms of business we’ve been on on so to come in with uh the shows really looking across the board really strong business

Pay-per-view TV and a sellout crowd tonight feeling really good about what we’re doing so I think going into 2024 things have been on a really good run you know the Continental classic in particular was something I felt really strongly about and wanted to put together what I felt like was the best

Sports-based product to give aw fans and wrestling fans all over the world something to really look forward to through the holiday season and I think the Continental class worked and when you look at the ratings of the shows and the way things have delivered I think it

Was really an added element on top of everything we’ve been doing that really put us over the top now to have this run where you across the board the TV ratings for Collision for Dynamite the pay-per-view by rate tonight that the sellout crowd everything says we’re pointing in a good direction having a

Great Champion like Samoa Joe when you’ve been having all these great hard-hitting matches on TV every week and setting the tone you know he was not somebody that was in the cont classic obviously he’s been chasing the world title but now we have a very interesting scene you have those dozen competitors

That we’ve been highlighting week to week uh you have certainly Samoa Joe now coming into Focus as the world champion Eddie Kingston coming out uh with the Continental Crown I think we have a really strong set of Champions there and of course being up here with Tony

Storman Julia Hart I think both of them have been running really hot it was great to have I thought three strong matches across the women’s division tonight and we’re only getting started there I think things have been really heating up there we had injuries at one point you know it’s great to get

Thunderosa back and it was great to see her in San Antonio like I said for a show that did a great rating and performed very well but also uh you know we’ve been missing Thunder Roa a former world champion missing Dr Britt Baker missing Jamie haer and I think it’s so

Much credit to the whole women’s locker room when you have Timeless Tony storm Julia Hart Chris statlander Willow Nightingale you have abidon you have rho you have uh so many people stepping up across the division certainly sky blue and so many others and really I think with all these names and all these

People that have come in had strong matches and we also have uh hakaru shida coming back into the fold now Thunder Roa is back and then you talk two more former world champions in Britt Baker and Jamie haer plus the fact that I’m going to be very active in free agency

2024 I can assure you that it’s going to be I believe the best run in the history of the Women’s Division I think that’s really in a very strong place I believe that Samoa Joe is exactly the kind of champion you know first of all across

This past year we’ve had a really great year we’ve hit all kinds of heights and you have to really give credit I think throughout the year there were so many great moments Wembley Stadium we set the record for the all-time most tickets sold in the history of pro wrestling

With 81035 tickets sold we had uh end of the year really on the hottest run of ratings in months and in a very good place with the TV product beating some of the top sports leagues giving us really good comps to take into next year which is from a medeor right standpoint

And just from a business standpoint 2024 is clearly the most important year in the history of aw so uh you know I’m very grateful to all the wrestlers that made it possible and I feel like we’re in like a really really good place right now so certainly I think the process is

Similar some of the the people have changed but uh you know it’s a constantly evolving thing and I think we have a great group of people so um I think we’ll you know continue to to evolve and grow as a company but one thing I think we saw this year was

Leaning into a sports-based presentation at times was very very strong uh we had a great great year I thought in terms of ending on a really high note and also as I said I think probably the best year for growing the the Women’s Division and I believe when the company gets

Completely healthy getting back those Stars I mentioned you know we just got Thunder Roosa back but getting Brit Baker and Jamie haer back but also getting on the men’s side getting Kenny Omega and pack and Adam Cole and Bandido and so many other people we really believe in and there’s a handful of

Others too I think it’s gonna really help push us in such a strong Direction and I believe uh like I said 2024 being the most important year in the history of aw it’s important to look back at what we’ve accomplished over the last five years and say that going into this

Year we’re in a great position thanks Tony fstm from USA Today sports Media Group um a lot of chatter today on social media regarding Chris Jericho is Chris Jericho or was Chris Jero at any time under any internal investigation for sexual misconduct any other type of misconduct over the course of his uh

Tenure in aw just I can’t I can’t speak to internet and onsource rumors I think I spoke earlier to Kevin and mentioned the policy we have in place and the disciplinary process we’ve always followed that and I believe aw is the safest wrestling company in the world

And we have the best track record for safety and I would hold it up to anybody and anytime anybody has any kind of complaint they have an open door again to to say it to me or to anyone in the office and we would would uh look into

It anytime so I again just Kevin earlier asked about that policy and I think I you know gave a pretty robust answer on that and it would apply here too hey Tony oh hey hold his hand up sorry sorry I got the microphone though hey hey Tony

Big hello uh Rich Batman podcast um U aw have been responsible for tremendous moments in professional wrestling for the past five years right now apart from the business and the numbers personally I want to know how does that 14-year-old Tony KH feel on the inside like right now so good so

Good uh it’s pretty great it’s a great question it’s a great way to end the year and the sellout crowd and the numbers I mean it’s you know it feels really good it’s really important for the locker room to see that what we’re doing is working and like for all the

Women and men in aw I think everybody could rally around and see like when Collision did that number and that was a great show and collision’s been on a great run of shows and then for that crew to come together in San Antonio post that number over the holidays beat

The NBA finish in the top 10 like up against all the football after the week before going up against NFL when every metric in wrestling history we have Decades of history that says when wrestling goes up against the NFL that the wrestling rating will go down and

This time the wrestling rating went up and it spoke to the quality of the show and how excited people were about those matches the Continental classic what the women are doing and everyone across the show the tag team division just some great things and there have been a great

Group of people throughout the year also a great group of Champions I thought that uh uh you know for me uh week to week have just been absolutely delivering and you know we have uh some Champions that you know were not up here in the scrum I think that have done a

Great job champions uh like Ricky Starks Big Bill have been excellent Christian Cage is somebody who’s maintained a high standard uh and then I believe you know in addition to the great Champions some people that have held championships you know mjf uh what a huge part of aw mjf

Has been uh what a huge part of aw FTR are week to week and there’s so many great examples of this so like when we posted the Collision rating that felt so good and then to follow that up and see the dynamite rating and see Big’s Grand

Slam that New Year smash was truly a Smash Hit and get the accolades from the network and know what that means for the whole crew the wrestlers and the staff and everybody works here and everybody can rally around that for the future all the women and men in the company the

Wrestlers the staff that’s so great and that’s the part I never imagined because like when you’re like riding dynamites when you’re like 12 13 years old in the back of the classroom and this is your like lifelong dream the part you don’t account for good and bad and the part

Nobody really accounts for good and bad when they’re like thinking about it but the part that’s the most different from like imagining what it would be like to do it versus actually doing it it’s the real people good and bad it’s not easy sometimes sometimes it’s the easiest

Thing in the world you have like Tony Storm come up and like you know uh one of the greatest people of all time and like you know you and you know there’s moments like that and Tony storm gives you your hat and sunglass is okay that’s pretty easy that’s fun right that’s a

Good that’s a fun day at the office there’s days that always aren’t the most fun day at the office but it what I love about it is the people the fans because I I’m a wrestling fan and like I said the last time I was up here with you I

Know that doing it 365 days a year it’s like hard to be a wrestling fan it is it’s hard to maintain that 365 days a year and one of the things I was really proud of with the Continental classic is that I felt like there were people that

First of all some people that I know because the ratings kept going up we there were people that was drawing in by focusing on those great matches by having all these great rivalries developing in the women’s division even with some of the big stars being out having Thunder Rose and then coming back

From the injury and having all these great young women rising to the top even Tony storm I’m talking about somebody in her 20s who has certainly uh to say at least an old soul and uh is truly Timeless person you know it’s really cool so I’m so happy for the crew and

And can’t even begin to name all the wrestlers and people that I’m happy for but also the backstage people so then those ratings were really big and then the sellout crowd and the big walk up and to move you know about 1,500 tickets since Christmas and to sell the thing

Out on the walk up that’s pretty cool and then the kicker was when they said the pay-per-view might end up being even bigger than full gear could end up being it’s right there with full gear NE and neck was right to be the biggest since

Uh Allin that’s a big deal and uh you know I I do have to say uh just what a you know what a big deal it is also going into 2024 because when you’re in the position the other thing you don’t think about when you’re doing it on

Paper is that you’re responsible for everyone’s jobs and I take that really seriously and in a week where the ratings are up for Collision the ratings are up for Dynamite and the pay-per-view does a huge Buy rate and the pay-per-view sells out that’s as good as you can do that’s

A clean sweep that’s as good as I can do my job for you and it means the wrestlers did as good as they can do and that means the team did as good as they can do and it means that all the staff stepped up as great as they can and it’s

Such a good feeling to know that the pay-per-view Buy rate was great we sold out and dynamite Collision ratings are up and it sets the table for next year because we’re going to come in and we have so many exciting things we’re working on 2024 is going to be the

Biggest year for aw things really we we left in an exciting way and it’s only the beginning there’s going to be great changes and for me yeah like feels so good but that’s the part I didn’t expect because when you’re a kid like you asked me about being 14 years old would like

I’m sitting in the back of I mean I spent Wednesday night it’s funny think of Wednesday nights because I spent Wednesday nights in confirmation class and I was riding dynamites in the back of confirmation class in St John’s Lutheran School and and the Midnight Express against the Armstrong brothers

And to use the Von Erics on you know be in the back of the class and have the Von Erics and then actually have Kevin come and use strangle hold in real life like that’s a big but the thing is you always think like that’s cool it is cool

For me but the thing that’s actually makes it that much cooler is like for the people like to see Tony storm be able to live this out to see Samo Joe walk in with the world title to see swerve rising to where he’s at to see Julia har at 22 years old and

I give QT a lot of credit for that and I also give Julia most of all a lot of credit for that and the house of black all of them have done great with Julia and that’s why when that you know I think what she said she sees herself as

House of black for life and I think to have this crew come together the way they have plus there were people that weren’t here were not on the show and are going to be a major focus of the promotion going forward next year too and are going to be stepping back into

The spotlight there’s just so much to look forward to and I’m excited for them and that’s what’s really cool because I love this place I love the fans I and it meant the world that clearly something we did through November and December really captivated people for the TV

Ratings to hit highs to be up year-over-year which is hard to do in the wrestling business and and not a lot you know frankly uh right now that’s hard territory I spoke to Brandon Thon about that earlier this week and after we talked then we saw Dynamite was up

Year-over-year when we talked about the cable being down 20% yet Dynamite’s up 11% so it’s like being you know up even more pretty cool and uh the best part of it is that means everybody’s jobs are very very secure and that I can sleep a little bit easier knowing that the great

Work that all the women and men here did and the support of the wrestling fans means that we’re going to be able to keep this thing going and that there’s that much more momentum for everybody to build on to create more jobs and grow the company and you know find more ways

To support pro wrestling more ways to support the wrestlers and take care of this great staff who work through the holidays because we have the best staff in the world here this is the best place in the world thank you Tyler Dominic Fox 5 uh so you’ve

Talked a lot about the ratings and how things are going to be changing going into 2024 uh We’ve also talked a lot about how people who have been here since the very beginning um a few important people both on and offscreen uh have been leaving aw uh from a

Showrunner perspective can you speak to how you go about with dynamite Rampage and collision as well as some TV uh specials and pay-per-views how you go about making each show feel uh individual and unique making everything must see while still having things be coherent over a week toe show it’s a

Great question and it’s a real Challenge and I think that dynamite and Collision in particular being both two-hour shows have found a distinct identity and I think both shows have gotten stronger and I really love the way we ended the year I thought both shows ended on a

Really strong run I think with Collision uh there’s aspects of the production there’s this whether it’s the set the theme song with Elton John or uh the nature of the action and even the some of that the wrestlers that are identified with each of the shows certainly there’s no exclusivity people

Appear on both shows but I do think uh there are some people that have strongly been identified with each show FTR on Saturdays how many great matches have we seen FTR have this year as a great example and you know I do think across the two-hour shows we’ve

Been able to distinguish them Rampage we always call the fastest one hour of wrestling certainly there’s been more of an emphasis lately on the Lucha Libre on rampage and I think that’s been something really strong and there’s been a lot of great fast-paced action Lucha Libre and great highflying great matches

Like we saw with Top Flight against the best friends last night and then for our pay-per-views I think it’s important to keep the field to you know very very unique to each show and you know we’ve been able to add new events that have been very successful tonight felt like a

Major event and tonight the crowd the sellout crowd uh the New York environment being here around the holidays and and having some of these people with real connections whether it was mjf and Samoa Joe and the connection that mjf has with his hometown crowd Eddie Kingston the way the New York

Crowd got behind Eddie Kingston the love for statlander and Willow the to Hometown Heroes and so many great moments uh then wow the love the crowd showed for Adam Copeland and Adam copen and Christian Cage in that match I mean there were so many unique things about

Tonight and the crowd was was very special but I think we have other shows you know certainly the one that stands above everything and is really something I can’t wait to have another chance to go back and have aew at Wembley Stadium August 25th 2024 for all in and those

Tickets have been selling great and it’s amazing to have millions of dollars already advance for a show that is eight months away and it’s a great tribute again Raph thanks to all the great work you did to help uh just I know to send Raph off one more time all the great

Work he did to help us make the first Allin and this Allin a great success and you know that that environment that sporting environment is so unique I think it forbidden door we’ve shown we can capture a unique feel for a wrestling event this year I thought

Wrestle dream also was a great new event but we also have double or nothing revolution revolution is such a great event and where how special will it be to go back to where sting had his first aw match and have sting wrap up his run in

Aw three years later and we’ll see how that goes three years for sting these shows have a great feel they’re very unique and uh I really really think that as we build more aw content ENT we can you know try to keep that feeling keep distinct feeling but I something that

Really especially with having dynamite and collision both being two-hour wrestling shows I think we’ve been able to give them a distinct feel but the TV and the pay-per-view during this Collision era when we went from doing three hours of TV to five hours it’s only gotten stronger it’s our best year

On pay-per-view and we’ve done some of our best pay-per-views everever this year thank you uh hey Tony uh Brendan from WTF with Mark Maron how are you hey it’s good to see you good to see you what it was about a year ago we had you on and you

Were talking about the show as a a challenger brand really aew as a a challenger brand and now congrats on entering your fifth year but it kind of feels like you’re not really a challenger brand anymore you have your own identity and I I think everybody

Kind of talks about you know what what’s going to happen going forward it’s kind of hard to tell the future right but without doing that you you know looking back at the past in the past five years what’s happened during those 5 years that you know you’re going to do

Differently moving ahead like what are things that are going to be different just because you’re five years older and what are you personally thinking well I don’t want to do that again I want to do that differently and the lessons you’ve learned I think certainly for me I’ve

Tried to go through there’s examples of matches moments that with the gift of hindsight that You’ always look and look back and say what would I do differently and I try to do that kind of evaluation after the shows and and learn from it learn from the things that are the best

And learn from the things that are you know that are the least best and I think tonight there was so many great positives and the business has been on a hot run something that I really believe is that what we’ve been doing lately has been working really

Well on the shows that we’ve been having hard-hitting great matches with the great women and men week after week that we’ve been focusing on wrestlers that the crowd believes in and I think that the people who’ve been on TV lately have been doing tremendous we’ve seen a lot

Of people really raise their stock lately and I think those are people that we can keep betting on and some of the people that were up here with me tonight have been doing an excellent job and I think they’re trending in a great Direction which is why I wanted them to

Sit with me I really appreciated when you had us on your show I thought that was an incredible break for us and it’s nice to see you I remember talking at length about uh my thoughts on being a challenger brand I still think that our heart we are a challenger brand we have

To constantly acknowledge that and fight and fight with that chip on our shoulder swerve is a great representative of this company swerve has the exact same chip on his shoulder I do and it it fuels him he believes he has to prove something every single day and he pushes himself

To do better and better and learn and nobody’s perfect and nobody does everything perfect but I think swerve is trending in a great Direction and I think that’s representative of this company it’s a company that is in the end it is a company that has that Challenger spirit

That he maintains and I believe that someday swerve has everything it takes he’s a great example of somebody who could be a great Champion but that chip on his shoulder that fuel that fires him he’s got to keep that spirit and keep that Challenger spirit

And I think that’s a big part of who he is and I think that’s a big part of aw and who we are and uh constantly evolving changing and trying to do our best that’s what we’re about and right now the identity of the company going into 2024 I feel really really great

About it and I feel great about the people that were up here with me and the people that weren’t up here with me I think right now I feel really strongly about the people in aw and also some of the people that could come to aw I think it’s going

To be a really great year for us but I do think like I said the Challenger spirit it’s important for us to keep that even if we have built an identity grown the business and even if things are hot in many ways and we’ve had a great year if you lose that

Challenger spirit I think for us the word that we’ve always thrown around a lot in the back is punk rock and if you lose that punk rock feel then I think you change what aw is so there’s times where I felt myself getting away

From it and I’ve said no no no this is punk rock and so I want it to be punk rock and I think that’s what we need to do here to set ourselves apart it’s good to see you ACC leave with the wrestling Observer I just want to get a couple

Questions about the uh gate and attendance you did mention it was a sellout do you have an official attendance an official gate uh for the for the uh the event well it was a the gate was uh I I don’t have the exact

Number on the gate but it was a it was a big gate uh it was a sellout and rap I would I would I be Comfort it was just just under 10,000 close to 10 just Just Around close to 10,000 I think over just around 10,000 close within ear shot over

9500 we closer to 10,000 yeah and then the second question I have um again there’s bringing this up again but it’s just again with there’s a lot of stuff going on the inter right now and it’s there are a lot of questions about a lot of you know different people and there

Are there are questions obviously Chris Jericho was brought up earlier in in the uh thing again from from as a general manager standpoint in this in this in this situation can you confirm or deny that there’s been an investigation with him or has there ever been any accusations or anything like that in

Regards to to to Chris’s behavior and like I said these are these are all basically internet and again there are people in this who are have an agenda per se in you know but again these questions do need to be asked and obviously like I said as you know

Respectfully as I want to be in the situation is just to kind of just bring it up and just and just ask as as best as we can you know because again there also was another um situation former Talent of aw did post something that has been perceived as a

Confirmation of these of these allegations so I can’t speak to that I would just say what I had mentioned to Kevin earlier that you know we have a disciplinary policy here we have a disciplinary committee that things are referred to and that everybody in aw anybody who’s ever wrestled in aw has an

Open line to talk to me or this group and uh always has and uh that’s how we’ve always acted and that’s why I believe aw has the safest environment and aw is the safest place in pro wrestling it’s why aw has definitely the best safety record in wrestling and I

Believe we maintained that thank you hi Tony Colin of wrestle Zone fightful great show tonight thank you for taking the time to speak with us you mentioned QT Marshal earlier and other other rafhael as well as people who have been so important to comy that they’re leaving there’s been a lot of

Speculation and mjf even said in his players article that he’s not really sure what’s next and we saw the end of the main event tonight I just wanted to know if you could comment on mjf status and those kind of a second part to it how much did mjf’s injury kind of

Throughout the build of this show impact kind of the road there because obviously we had the de the devil and everything but mjf was obviously working through a number of injuries throughout that time thank you mjf’s injury absolutely uh very big factor but mjf wrestled through

The injury and then had an amazing match tonight wrestled through a match against one of the hardest hit hitting best wrestlers of all time and I believe Max is somebody who has a great heart and somebody who loves aw and I think everybody read that in the article I

Can’t speak to his future in 2024 here at this time but I do think mjf has been a huge part of aw for five years and mjf is somebody also that is welcome in aw and wanted in aw for life and is also a huge part of the growth of aw and the

Success of the company thank you hi Tony Kimmy soal from the pop break now speaking about the women’s division you recently added a new Championship to Ring of Honor what was kind of the idea behind introducing the women’s TV title it was really great question we’ve had so much great success

In aw trying to feature the women and really spotlighting a lot of new stars rising stars in aw and I think also in Ro we’ve been trying to focus on spotlighting young Stars rising stars and we have a great roster in Ring of Honor great roster of women and men and

I felt like with the way the company’s going with ro having a mission first of all to feature great wrestling every Thursday on watch.com but also building Stars building stars for the present we have one of the greatest champions in all of wrestling in Ro the Women’s World

Champion Athena has been dominant I think Athena will take on all commers but with the quality of the division frankly iron sharpens iron and what we’ve seen Athena having all these incredible matches something it showed me is there’s a whole division of stars and I believe this division could

Support another great Champion a world Television Champion and I think it’s a great opportunity and we’ve seen just like in aw we have a great world champion with Tony storm and a great TBS Champion with Julia Hart I think in Ro we’ve got a great world champion in

Athena and we have a great roster of women that want to to be the world TV champion I brought a lot of the locker room together on a Saturday and unveiled the championship belt to them in the locker room before uh we unveiled it to the world and the reaction was

Unanimously very very excited there’s a lot of women in the locker room that want to fight for that Ro World television title and I think there’s going to be great competition there when you watch Ro week to week you see several great women’s matches every week and you see the great comp comptition

The roster is there and I think we can support a great TV title and it’s something that I know the locker room is really excited about thank you hey Tony Grant matthews’s bleach report going off a follow-up question from earlier as far as the sports you know oriented feel going forward and

Kind of plans for 2024 going forward uh kind of bringing back the feeling of 2019 as an alternative uh in the pro wrestling business and uh what you plan to do in 2024 as far as you know bringing back the win loss not records those are obviously still a thing but is

The uh rankings that kind of went away a bit randomly about a year ago maybe bringing those back and uh you know just kind of going off previous questions as far as you know cutting down and limiting on the uh controversies and stuff that have already been discussed and at least within controllable

Situations injuries and departures are obviously inevitable but uh what can be done from from your standpoint as a GM as the owner of aw to kind of limit on this stuff going forward and lessons you’ve learned to kind of cut down on the stuff going forward the backstage

Drawing well the Continental classic as far as on screen I think has created a great a great platform for awesome matches and I think it also set a high standard with no outside interference and nobody allowed at ringside and really we saw these hard-hitting clean wrestling matches and we can continue

That now the Continental classic is something that was a big success and is going to come back but I think the spirit of competition and really the excitement around aw is going to continue so I have a lot of things up my sleeve and I’m very excited I think this

Year is going to be the very best of aw and we need to be at our very best it’s really important because uh the timing of hitting these high ratings the time of the pay-per-view absolutely crushing it that’s by Design we needed to and you

Know we took a big swing and it paid off for us because we went into the end of the year and it said if we build it they will come and I asked and you all put your money where your mouth is so thank you very much God bless you people asked and

Uh we were rewarded I asked and I said I believe the Continental classic I think the fans will put their money where their mouth is and they did it was clearly demonstrated to have the Collision ratings go up week after week after week the last several weeks as the

Competition ratcheted up and got more challenging that was a great sign and then to do the biggest Dynamite rating since Grand Slam this week that’s a big deal and uh it’s to me demonstrates with the Continental classic being a big part of it that that worked and the spirit

Behind it at the competition that worked we’ve also put more and more of an emphasis week in week out on the women’s division because I believe it’s really important you know we had to develop new stars when some of the top Stars arguably the three top stars in the

Division at one point with three world champions Jamie haer Britt Baker and thunder Rosa all injured we’ve had new faces step in and in addition to you know some of the great people we saw here tonight uh like Timeless Tony storm and reho who’s been with us since the beginning

But came back from Japan and has been a big part of the TV lately that’s been great uh and I think that you know in particular I can’t say enough about at 22 years old what Julia Hart’s doing and I thought you know it was great to get

Julia Hart and sky blue somebody else who’s very young in the pro wrestling business and as they’ve stepped up I think the shows have stepped up and we’ve seen uh you know Chris DL and Willow have something special I think a lot of people have really enjoyed Ruby

Soho and serea and in addition to in the ring out of the ring they’ve been delivering lately and there’s so many great things going on but uh you know it starts at the top with the champions of the company and I think uh the women have been doing great Tony storm and

Julia Hart I think uh you know it’s important to say that stuff we’ve seen that’s worked really well there’s a lot of it and so it’s at right now I think we want to lean into the things that have been successful for us right now that’s a lot of things we’ve been doing

But to your point uh you know as far as what we can do in the future I think building on what we did this week because this has been the most successful business week for the company probably since we came back from England which was the one of the most successful

Weeks in the history of the business thanks thank you hi Kate from fightful congratulations on a success successful event today okay thank you um two-parter because I’m greedy the first one is there was talk of an accelerated pay-per-view schedule heading into 2024 um I was just wondering if there was

Anything that you would keep feel comfortable sharing about that and the potential possibly of a super show for people that are into the interpromotional stuff um and then my other question is in addition to Wendy Rector as Tony storm pointed out I would be remiss if I didn’t ask there is a

Couple of um big free agent names on the Market Mercedes Monae of course um but Dianna pru of course uh Camille uh anything that You’ feel comfortable sharing in regards to those free agents as well I would say that you’ve just named some great wrestlers I will be

Very active in the market signing great wrestlers I always have been whenever great names come up and you can expect that I really appreciate your questions that’s a great question and your first question was a great question this year was a huge year this was our biggest

Year ever on pay-per-view so thank you for the platform to talk about that because because it’s a big risk for a company in this day and age to expand the pay-per-view calendar the way we did this year and talk about being rewarded and tonight is a great example of that

You know uh for the first few years of aw we had a quarterly pay-per-view calendar of course with Revolution double or nothing all out and full gear and last year we expanded the calendar from four to five in partnership with New Japan Pro Wrestling so that is uh our interpromotional Super Show of

Record and that was the biggest debut any aw pay-per-view had ever done this year we came back and it was even bigger the rating the Buy rate was even higher for the second year so that had been an amazing launch so we expanded from four

To five this year it was a big swing we went from five to eight it worked incredibly well all of these new pay-per-views were huge hits Allin now that is uh Allin is a platform that existed but there had never been an aw Allin and it was actually something that the Y

Bucks and Cody had put together when they worked with ro and the video was actually in the RO Library it was arguably one of the big assets arguably maybe the biggest asset and uh I would say that that alone was worth more than what I paid for RO Which is less than

10% of what what I’ve seen report so uh I would say um it was a big risk to expand from 5 to 8 and holy cow did it work because Allin is one of our top two pay-per-views of all time in addition to being the biggest live event in terms of ticket

Sales and the history of the pro wrestling business and we’re going back and doing it again and it’s already a huge profitable success with eight months to go and then wrestle dream is one of my favorite events we’ve ever done and it was very personal to me that

Was something I had thought of the night inisan passed away and I marked the date down and said I feel like one year from tonight we should pay tribute to him and I don’t think I would be here without him he’s somebody I idolize growing up he’s one of the greatest promoters in

The history of the business and he’s one of the greatest minds and the fighting spirit that he embodied in the ring and as a promoter changed the wrestling business and set the tone for what we do in aw including in many ways the Continental classic and inspired so many

Great wrestlers and certainly I don’t think we would be here if he hadn’t kept the fight going for a long time and after Allin and wrestle dream we came here for world’s in World’s End uh and talk about a home run you know this was a huge success for the company this week

Has been a huge success and now again just to reiterate the the pay-per-view buys this is a new event and uh all the new events this year did really well by far biggest year of pay-per-view sales and as far as more expanding of the calendar I can’t speak to that I I think

We’re planning to come back March 3rd for revolution we know that will be Sting’s retirement match and that will be certainly an increased focus in the coming months and something that’s very important to all of us because sting is somebody who joined us along the way

Here at winter is coming 2020 and is one of the most respected people in aw internally and I believe by the fans and in my opinion is one of the most respected and deserving and greatest wrestlers of all time thank you Rob with USC Today sports Media Group

Much has been made of mjf’s contract status so entering 2024 is he under contract uh you know I right now uh can’t comment on the future of mjf and aw other than to say we’re very grateful for everything he’s done to this point to get us here mjf’s been a big part of

Aw now for five years and he is one of the people that helped build this place he was in the first aw match ever he’s wrestled with us through the pandemic he was on the Brody Lee tribute show which was three years ago today and that was something I really wanted to

Mention and I felt really strongly about so uh you know he was a big part of that in fact Brody Lee Jr hit him with a cane on the Brody Lee tribute show in one of the greatest matches one of the greatest tribute matches on the greatest tribute

Show of all time to a great man and the greatest TNT champion and being up here in New York I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up that and say that uh we’re all thinking of Brody Lee all the time we just passed the three-year anniversary

Of his passing and of course today’s is the three- year anniversary of his tribute show and I think about it all the time and you know when you mentioned uh mjf there that and I think of all the great memories in the five years and the

Great Moments he was a part of I think that’s one of them and uh there’s so many and tonight was a great event tonight mjf was a huge part of the promotion of the event I think he was a huge part of the sale of the event he’s

Been a part of some of the biggest moments in aw over the past five years and mjf’s also somebody that’s always welcome here for the rest of his career but I can’t speak uh directly to his future uh I would like to again wish the best with some people I already

Mentioned I I can’t speak highly enough of QT Marshal I mentioned uh think the world of him somebody would be welcome here anytime I mentioned of course Andrade Alo somebody uh that we really have appreciated having here and is always welcome in aw uh I would also

Like to say uh in addition to rapael morphe who gave a great parting words and also great way for him to leave aw on a sellout show also uh end of uh contract for our chief merchandising Officer Dana Massie who I really appreciate he’s done great work and has

Been with us since the very beginning of the company Dana is a really really great person she’s a a very wonderful lady she has a great family and I got to know her before there was an aw and she’s one of the first people that took

A chance on this and one of the first people that took this idea this dream seriously and without Dana and if she hadn’t convinced uh Matt to get on the phone with me and take this seriously I don’t know that we’d all be here and I

Think she’s a huge part of what we’ve done and I also wanted to thank her uh and also wanted to thank all of you uh really appreciate all of you being here giving us your time staying here to cover this um pro wrestling I think five years ago when aw

Came in I believe our launch I believe our presence has changed pro wrestling and I think aw has done great things for the wrestling business and none of it would have been possible without all of you covering the shows when we launched many of you were there and gave us a

Chance to reach out to the fans and tell them about our Dream for pro wrestling and now this week we celebrate the 5-year anniversary of the company so I appreciate all of you the wrestling media who gave us a chance uh and gave us a platform and an opportunity to show

Who we are and talk about who we are because when we launched this company we didn’t have any TV and really we disseminated our information we shared our information we streamed things we did interviews with a bunch of you you gave us a platform and it was the

Interest that you helped us get it was the buzz you helped create just by giving us a fair chance to talk about what we were trying to do here that helped us get on TBS that helped us get on TNT and now we’ve been there over four years and we’re going into the

Biggest year of them all and we’re in a great position and you’ve all been very fair to us and I really appreciate all of you thank you very much thank [Applause] you