Konnan Talks CM Punk's All Out Scrum, AEW's Backstage Tensions, Kenny Omega & TripleMania & Dominik Mysterio! - Exclusive
Wrestling legend Konnan sat down with Wrestling Inc. Senior News Editor Nick Hausman to talk about AEW, WWE, TripleMania, and more.
Nick Hausman: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me here today.
Konnan: Yeah, what's up Nick? Pleasure.
Yeah, dude. I haven't had a chance to chat with you since All Out. You're obviously somebody I wanted to get to their take on because you're not just a wrestler. You're also a promoter and a booker. Right. So what kind of happened at the scrums affects all of that stuff. So I want to start there and we can kind of meander into some other things, but what did you think about what Punk did at the scrums and the way Tony handled it? I guess in that moment as things were playing out?
Before I answer that, let me ask you a question.
Okay.
What were you thinking? Because you just asked a question and he just went all in on you. You can tell that he had this planned. I thought it was kind of funny when he goes, yeah, you're Colt Cabana's friend expecting you to say yes, and then you go, you actually blew my spot. So this was already pre-planned, he was fed up. He wanted to get this off his chest. I'm going to tell you exactly what I thought, but I just wanted to hear, what were you thinking while this is going on? Is there any part of you that was thinking, this is f***ing surreal?
The whole thing was surreal, Konnan. I mean, I didn't know where he was going. I was really happy he brought up my improv career. I thought that was cool. I was like, dope. That's going to open some doors. Then when he brought up the Cabana stuff, I just thought it was weird because I'm not close with Scott anymore. It just kind of showed me how out of the loop he was. Truthfully, I wanted to let him know about me and Scott earlier, but I never had the chance to chat with him. We talked briefly when I was covering his trial, him and Scott versus Dr. Amann here in Chicago. But yeah, I did never get the chance ... I really wish I'd had a chance to smart him up. At some point, I feel like all this could have been averted.
Now, what did you think? Because you probably hung around and then you heard now there's a big fight broke out. What were you thinking then?
Konnan, I am somebody who lives for the thrill of the hunt. So when I hear there's a fight that just broke out, my mind's running a mile a minute. I'm trying to figure out what happened. I'm knowing we're about to have a crazy pro wrestling news cycle, which really hasn't stopped. I just kind of jumped into action. I'm always the last person in the scrum room because I have to send out so many assignments to my team. It was just me and Leva Bates in there, in the room together. I just thanked her for what a nice person she was.
AEW's Ticking Time Bomb
Let me ask you one more question before I answer yours. I'm sure that there are probably things you can't say, but do you have any conversation with Tony after that? Did he say anything to you?
Wow, you're really good. You flipped this. You made this [an interview] about me. I will say this. I have not talked to Tony. Tony and I do follow each other on social media. I DMed him. Haven't heard back.
Personally, do you think he's coming back?
Punk?
Yeah.
Look, I think he is. I think he's more likely than The Elite. Do you agree with that or no?
No.
You think it's the opposite? All right. Well, I'll give you my case. You give me your case. Okay?
Right.
This interview started, I wanted to ask you about what Punk said ...
I'm very opinionated. I've actually gotten sometimes feedback from wrestlers and AEW because I actually said on my podcast, whenever they were in St. Louis — I remember St. Louis because I had to go there because Jeff Hardy had gotten a DUI. He was going to main event our TripleMania in Tijuana. I needed to find a replacement, so I went there and I asked Tony if he would help me out get a replacement.
I remember being in catering, and a lot of people were coming up to me and they were complaining. On my podcast, I said something to the effect of, 'Bro, that dressing room is a ticking time bomb. I don't even think Tony knows this. I think he needs to go in there and handle this before it blows up.'
It did blow up, because Sammy [Guevara] got into a fight with this guy. There's other things that have happened that have not come out. Then of course, what Punk did, to me, was a meltdown. I actually had wrestlers call me and tell me, 'Hey, dude, it's not cool to come in our dressing room and talk about dirty laundry.'
At first I was like, 'If I brought somebody into my dressing room and they did that, I'd probably kick them out too.' So I had to apologize to them and say, 'You're right.' Okay. But I'm very opinionated, bro. I've always been like that. I mean, when I was opinionated, when I was 12 f***ing years old, when I was in the military. I mean, that's just the way I am. I just felt he had a meltdown. When I was listening to this, I was thinking two things ... I was thinking, 'What if he had nothing to do with Colt Cabana being fired?' Let's say he didn't, and he's getting tired of hearing these f***ing questions. But I think the way he went about it, wasn't the correct way to do it. I really never understood why he thought it was such a big deal to bring up that he shared a bank account with his mom. What is that supposed to f***ing mean?
The Business Of CM Punk
Now just to kind of clarify that point real fast, and I'm not trying to defend Punk or anything here ... I personally would not have said what he said there, but I think what he was [doing] in that part of the tangent, he was talking about how he was paying for Scott's legal bills without knowing Scott was already pretty financially taken care of and could maybe have done this on his own without Punk having to spend that much.
Well, he didn't explain that.
No, I know. But again, I covered the trial. I have some familiarity.
Right, right, right.
That's how I interpreted that comment.
Even in the podcast, Disco Inferno is my co-host, and he brought up the fact that, remember, when he goes, he's f***ing with my business. Everybody was like, 'What do you mean? It's your business? This is Tony Khan's business.' I thought he meant CM Punk's business. You're f***ing with my business, CM Punk's business. I don't think he meant AEW, but I don't know. What I don't think was cool, bro, he just totally embarrassed f***ing Tony, which is not cool. Because Tony's a cool dude, dude. I don't think he deserved that. When he told them, you don't need to clarify anything mean, he just punked him. If it would've been me, it would've been a whole different story. I would've cut his mic off and that would've been the end of it. Tony just kind of, what could he do, bro? I felt so bad for him because I like Tony.
I like Tony too. Here's the reason I say, I think Punk maybe more likely than the Elite to come back is because, and it's like the Zapruder tape, I've watched back this footage so many times. Even in the moment, Tony kind of knew this was coming.
How did he kind of know what's coming?
Because if you watch Tony's reaction throughout it, it's very head down, and he is listening, and when Punk brings up how Tony didn't clarify it on the call when Nick asked his stupid question, Tony apologized. He's like, 'You're right. I'm sorry.' I kind of get the vibe that Tony was a little braced for it, whether or not it came out the way he expected it. Part of me thinks that if Punk had his 'A-ha, I got you' moment with me and had been able to put all the heat on the media, maybe he would not have gone in as hard as he did on the rest of the locker room, if that makes sense.
CM Punk Sounds Off
Well, I've been in the Punk situation when I've been super mad, and I just went off on everybody or quit. I've been in the Punk situation. I never did it during a scrum ... I just think that maybe he holds onto vendettas too long, because when he was talking about Hangman Page, it just seems to me that I don't know if he'd be willing to go into the ring and do business with Hangman Page. I just think this is a guy he never wants to work with. I don't know.
I think that's unprofessional. Bro, I'm a Punk fan. Look, when I used to watch WWE, he was the last person that for me was must-see TV. I was watching every week when he was throwing the pipe bombs. He was going toe-to-toe with Hunter. He was going toe-to-toe with Vince. You know a lot of that was a shoot. There was a worked shoot. I was so happy when it came back to AEW. Like I told you before, I didn't like the 'Aw, shucks. I'm happy to be back' Punk. That was very boring. I like angry Punk.
I thought this was the best version of Punk we had seen, honestly, but I know that the locker room's not going to see that the same way. From my perspective, as fan Nick Hausman here, kind of half-insider Nick Hausman here, he hypothetically set up a lot of business to be done with a lot of people. People that you would want to see him, Punk, wrestle following that scrum.
I'll do a call-back to another interview I did recently. I talked to Hacksaw Jim Duggan last week, and he was like, that's not how it works, kid. It's not how it works. He's like, when people don't actually like each other, you don't put them in a ring to actually try. It's a nice thought, but that's not how it traditionally, usually works at professional wrestling. I don't know if that resonates with you.
I just don't know. I just feel that he's so mad that he wouldn't do business with Hangman and he probably wouldn't do business, with who else was he mad at?
The Bucks?
Yeah, he probably wouldn't do business with them either ... Hey, Hangman went into business for himself. He shouldn't have said that in the ring. I didn't really catch it when he first said it. I didn't really, when Hangman first said that, I thought it was an angle. Punk went into business for himself the next week, because I'm sure none of that was cleared by Tony. I think Tony needs to say, 'Okay, you went into business for yourself. You went into business for yourself. You affected my business. Now we're going to do business. You guys are going to work together.'
Handling The AEW All Out Fallout
Don't you think Tony kind likes it, right? Because Tony seems like somebody who loves that sea of Punk energy, that anti-establishment. We got to let Punk be Punk. We're doing better viewerships. I've never sold so many t-shirts. Doesn't a part of you think that Tony kind likes Punk?
I just can't believe he liked the way he was punked out in the scrum. He may like the competitiveness ... They have made no mention, I mean Hangman has never ever come out and defended himself. He's really been punked in this whole thing. He's never come out and said anything. I don't know if that's good, because everybody knows it happened. Why are we ignoring it? There's different ways of looking at it. The only reason that I thought that Punk may not come back is because are you going to let these three guys that started the company with you, and that are so beloved by the fans, go, over Punk, who I think has heat in this with the fans. That's kind of my thinking.
I wonder about that. I don't know that Punk's lost anything in the eyes of the fans. I think within the industry, obviously, the tone has changed dramatically around one Phil Brooks. This is what people love about Punk. I think he did what the fans want. I don't know.
I don't know. It just depends how much heat he has in the locker room. I haven't really gone around and asked or gauged. I mean, I think that's going to be the prevailing thought. I think if enough people tell Tony, 'Bro, we don't want this motherf***er back,' why would Tony bring him back? The last thing you want. I've had wrestlers, Nick, where I won't work with them because other wrestlers have told me straight out, I don't want to work with him. If you bring him in here, there's going to be a problem. When I hear that enough times, unless the guy's a mega draw and I can get everybody to sit down and talk it out, I just won't mess with him ...
Locker room chemistry is more important than you'll ever know. It really is. If you got a guy that's so toxic that people don't want to be around him or work with him or ignoring him, that's not good. I don't know what the locker room situation is. I think that's a big thing. I think Tony needs to be able, when everybody sits down and cooler heads are prevailing, if that's what he wants, you got to sit down the Bucks. You got to sit down Phil and go, 'We're all adults. We're all making a lot of f***ing money. We got a chance to make more money. Who wants to work, and whoever doesn't want to work, you can get the f*** out.' Would you agree or disagree with any of that?
I mean, if you're going to make this work, you got to get everybody together and you got to sit down and work through it and get back. But again, if not, you're going to have to pick a side. Because I think that the locker room's going to be too divided.
The Origins Of AEW
If you're Tony, you pick Punk over Omega the Young Bucks.
Dude, this guy has wanted Punk in his action figure collection from go. If he could have launched this thing with Punk, I think he'd have done that.
Well, I remember. I'll tell you this and you may know this. I remember when they first started. Bro, they really wanted Punk ... I remember me telling the Young Bucks, 'Bro, if Punk ever shows up, this place is going to f***ing melt, because he's kind of the Pied Piper and the leader of all the people that hate everything about WWE. They were like, 'Yeah, he just wants too much money. He just wants too much money.' So they were already negotiating, you're right. They were negotiating with him from the very beginning.
I remember at the All In press conference, not All Out, the pre-AEW, Ring of Honor, All In press conference. There was some Pro Wrestling Tees mascot that was there or something. I remember being told, 'Hey, it's Punk in the mascot costume.' That's so interesting to me about all this, too, is it's not just that they wanted Punk. It's that the relationship has changed so much because the Bucks used to speak so highly of Punk. It's just a 180 from where they were.
You know what? You might have a very valid point, because I was just thinking about something ... It was another scrum. You might have been at it.
I'm in all of them.
Okay. So then you remember this. Remember this infamous scrum where Tony just went from one to f***ing 100. He was like, 'He's the best draw we've ever had. He's the greatest guy.' I was like, 'What is going on here, bro? You're kind of fanboying out over this guy.' Do you remember that?
But that's what Punk needs, right? ... I'm not saying this derogatorily. I'm just saying, it seems like he's the kind of talent who wants you to constantly be promoting him. Like his issue with Hangman Page was, you went out there and told everybody I'm an asshole. That affects my ability to draw. That affects this company's ability to draw. Tony Khan got that note. Anything he says about Punk is not just good. It is over-the-top good. You know what I mean?
I think that, yeah, in the beginning, when he kind of bandwagoned on with Cody and the Bucks, Omega came later, it was right place, right time. It was the right opportunity. Punk wasn't involved, but this guy needed The Elite to get in, to get moving. He took the Cody Bucks route, but his heart, I feel like, has always been with Punk, and I could be wrong about that. But that's how it's always been.
Well, you do make some valid points.
The Elite Vs Cody Rhodes Revisited
I want to take a step back here. As much as you haven't been asking around about Punk and the Elite and the situation there right now. I have some idea. The Elite also had the issues with Cody before he left. There was other backstage drama involving the Elite. I don't know if you could attest to how heavy those tensions got between the Elite and Cody at the time.
Yeah. I know, very heated, but I can tell you, because I heard it from them themselves. Very heated. There was a lot of heat between Cody and the Elite.
That's the thing is, I wonder from Tony's perspective ... He goes, 'God damn, another top draw I could be losing right now.'
It's so funny because I can tell you this, Nick, as long as I've been in, and I've worked with just about everybody in the business that isn't in WWE. Especially in Mexico, I've worked with just about everybody. I mean, it's very hard to find guys more professional. That's a hard word when you get up there, and everybody's trying to protect their spot, and nobody wants to lose and nobody wants to do the job ... If you look at WWE nowadays, and even yesterday, it showed. You see so much interference, distractions, nobody wants to lose clean. Their career's going to f***ing end. That's the one thing I like about Japanese wrestling. They have clean finishes. Here, you always got to pacify and protect people's egos.
Bro, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. They're not just professional, they go over and beyond being professional. That's very hard to find nowadays. I've never had a problem with him. I've never heard him hating on anybody. I've never heard them say, 'No, well you need to give me this.' Or, 'I can't lose clean, or 'I can't lose to this guy.' They're always going to do what's best for business. That's why to me, when I hear that The Elite has problem, it's almost like Rey Mysterio. Not because he is my boy, but because he's just such a kind, gentle soul. Or somebody like X-Pac. If I hear that you've got a problem with them, I know it's not X-Pac. It's more than likely you. That's just the way it is.
What Happened With Kenny Omega And TripleMania?
There's been conflicting reports about Kenny Omega. You said he couldn't work TripleMania due to the suspension, but others say he wasn't booked in the first place. Can you give us a little insight on what happened here with Kenny and TripleMania?
I mean, we're dealing with semantics and it's kind of stupid ... What happened was is, at first Kenny Omega was going to have a match against Vikingo, which would've been a dream match because this kid is the next Rey Mysterio. [Kenny] had to get surgery. So we had to cancel the match, take the belt off of him. Then we did a vacant tournament or whatever, and then El Hijo del Vikingo won, right. Then I would always hit him up every now and then. 'How you doing?' I like Kenny. 'How you doing? How's the rehab? When do you think you're going to be back?' He goes, 'I'm not sure. I'm first going to probably ease in with six-mans. Then it depends how I feel. I don't know if I can do a singles yet.'
He has always been very open and honest with me. All of a sudden I was like, 'Do you think you're going to be able to make TripleMania?' Then he said, 'Well just ask Tony.' I did ask Tony. Tony said, 'Yeah, you can use him, but I'm not going to be doing anything with him that day.' We never really got it officially locked in, if you will. Then all of a sudden the fight broke out. When I asked him again, I go, 'Do you think, because of all the bulls*** that happened, you'll still be able to come to TripleMania?' He goes, 'Nah, man, I've been suspended, and I can't.' So that's exactly what happened.
Stokely Hathaway And MJF
The other big story coming out all out though that I thought was going to be the biggest story was the return of MJF, right? It's all anybody had been able to talk about for 90 days. This guy comes back. He gets completely lost in the shuffle. How do you feel about the way they brought him back and just kind of the work he's doing in general? He brought you up recently in an interview with Rasslin. I don't know if you saw that or not. He said very nice things about you.
I saw a little clip. I haven't seen the whole thing, but my producer on the show, Jojo Twinkboy Feeney, showed it to me. I love MJF ... When I was in MLW, I remember telling Court Bauer, and I told Dorian, 'There are three people that they have superstar potential in this company: Fatu, MJF, and Salina de la Renta. MJF, you just knew he was going to be big. I love talking to him. We always chop it up and we have a good time. I thought it was very weird that you would bring him back. First of all, Stokely, what's that guy's name? The brother?
Stokely Hathaway.
Very un-entertaining. I don't know why he gets so much TV, but anyways. He goes up in the ladder. You open your eyes like he's very entertaining. Do you find him entertaining?
Who, Stokely?
Yes.
I like Stoke. I'm not anti-Stokely.
I'm not anti-Stokely. I said he's not entertaining. Okay. That's the thing today, Nick. People think because you criticize somebody, you don't like them. So you just have to throw the disclaimer. I like this guy, but I'm not hating. I'm just stating. It doesn't mean that I hate the person ... I think WWE done a lot of good things bringing back Kevin Kross, putting Dominic with The Judgment Day. I think they've done a lot of smart things. I'm not a big fan of, what's this f***ing group, Damage CTRL? First of all, of the name. Could you find three girls that have less chemistry? When we're getting into that, there seems to be no chemistry between f***ing Bianca Belair, Asuka, and Alexa Bliss. I mean, there's no chemistry going on there.
So you bring these guys out, bro. Think about it, Nick. Who's in this crew? Ethan Page, right? Okay. Ethan Page, who does not need a mouthpiece. Okay. He talks better than Stokely. Why Stokely talking for him? Okay. You have Morrisey, right? Who kind of looked like a homeless Kevin Nash, standing there with the rest of the guys. You got the Gunn Brothers, who I actually like, because I think they're very annoying. You had Lee Moriarti. I don't even know who this guy really is ... Now think of the Panorama I just threw you. Lee Moriarti, William Morrisey, the Gun Brothers, and Ethan Page. Think of that crew in your mind. Do any guys look like they would actually hang out with each other?
AEW's Stable Of Stables
No. It is a very rag-tag bunch, and they tried to kind of couch it a little bit by saying, 'We're not always going to be together. We're individuals.' I don't know.
They have a penchant for sticking people together that don't need to be together. But anyways, they go overboard on all these factions. They think everybody's going to get the rub. I'll give you another one. That Nightmare Family that I don't know what they're called now. That QT Marshall has.
The Factory.
The Factory. I love QT Marshall. I think he's very underrated. You talked to him. Not only is he smart, he's very funny. That whole crew is kind of whack ... Stokely Carmichael came out, or what's his name?
Stokely Hathaway.
Hathaway. I'm sorry. Stokely Hathaway came out, walked up, grabbed the chip and gave it to some masked guy. Then you kind of knew the masked guy was MJF. He took off his mask. You were like, 'Okay, really? That's what you brought him back for?' During the match, he's just sitting in a luxury box, which, now him sitting in the luxury box, lets you know there's no way he's going to cash in the chip during the match. He should have been at ringside. He should have been like, 'Boy, is MJF going to cash into this chip?' No, he was in the luxury box, just kind of bored. You know what I'm saying? I don't know.
MJF is awesome, bro. He goes out there, and I don't know. They loved this Jimmy Utah, Wheeler Utah, guy to death. I got nothing against him, but seriously bro, he looked like a yoga instructor. When I first saw him out there, when he was doing the interview, because now he's got a beard, probably,, so he doesn't look like a little teenager because he kind of looks like a teenager. He had a beard on at first, I didn't recognize him. He looked like the company accountant or something, and bro, the guy can't cut a promo, and MJF comes out. He actually brings up the fact, this guy can't cut a promo. Just buries him even more.
God bless, Tony. I don't see him as a main event guy. I'm not hating. I'm just stating. I like him. I worked with him in MLW. Nice guy. But this isn't a nice guy business. This is a business.
Are you talking about how you don't see Wheeler Yuta as a main event?
Yeah, Yuta.
Okay. I was about to say MJF obviously in a...
MJF, bro, he's in a league by himself.
Yeah.
He had the people eating out of his hand. He's telling s*** like, 'Oh, if I spit, you guys would drink it.' And they popped .
AEW's Booking Decisions
Do you think that what happened here is Max cut that promo where he called Tony an 'effin money mark.' Then he just straight got suspended for 90 days? Because the timeline seems a little suspicious to me.
I don't know what's going on over there, bro ... It's very weird. They held him out for a long time, and that couldn't have helped the ratings, either. If that was a plan, that really didn't work out. They bring him back and he's so over, but they haven't really done anything exciting with him. He gets himself over.
Yeah.
Do you think that was exciting that this Stokely guy went up, grabbed the chip and just gave it to him? That was that's the way you brought him back?
I think that Tony, he should have listened to his own advice, which is the fans are always right and give the fans what they want. That moment, considering how long MJF had been off TV, I would not have brought him back in a traditional wrestling capacity. This is your maybe one and only opportunity to have the "He's not supposed to be here" moment. It caused some confusion, and let the fans play in those waters. I think that's what the fans wanted here.
Like I said, same thing yesterday. He's in the luxury box. I mean that wasn't riveting TV to me. He just gets over because he's so great on the mic and so charismatic.
I'm more puzzled by what they're doing with Danielson.
I was wondering, that was a booking decision that made me scratch. I'm okay with Moxley winning, because bro, he's worked his ass off, and he never cuts a bad promo. He's great at what he does. He's really great in his character. But Brian Danielson put everybody over, including Daniel Garcia. Why aren't you giving him the belt?
Yeah.
Same thing with Jericho. I love Jericho. That's my boy. We go back 30 years, bro. I love Jericho. Did he really need the belt? I think Claudio, he kind of stopped his momentum.
See, I think there's two trains of thoughts with what happened there. One, I think they might be moving Claudio into maybe the AEW world title picture ,or trying to get him away from the Ring of Honor nonsense. I have no idea how Tony's Ring of Honor TV deal negotiations are going. I don't know if he thought that, oh you know, Chris Jericho. Well, he's the champion. I don't know if that helped him maybe with what he's doing.
Could be. If that's it, then I'm down. I didn't say I'm against it. I'm okay with it. But I just thought they stopped Claudio's momentum. I mean, the big thing he did write was The Acclaimed. They're super over. The people wanted them to win the last time, and Tony gave him a real feel-good moment this time.
The Rise Of Dominik Mysterio
I did want to get your thoughts real fast on the WWE side of things. You brought up Dominic. A lot of people on the team wanted to know what it's like for you to see him thriving, right? He's got this whole Rhea Ripley thing going on right now. He's away from his dad. It seems like he's kind of off into the races on his own at the moment.
Well, I was telling Dom, I'm his godfather. He didn't decide to be a wrestler until very late in his life. He's still a rookie. I thought he was getting stale with Rey, and I was like, 'Bro, you need to do something different. You're getting stale. This, okay. Carrying your dad on your back. That's kind of run its course. So we're happy that my son's here. That's kind of run its course.'
He did a great job. When he turned in Wales, the place went nuts, and I said, 'Okay, well obviously he was going to get a pop because that's a hot crowd. He turned heel. I want to see how he does in Raw.' And bro, he did great. If you saw last week's show, he couldn't even talk. He had so much heat, and the way that he looks out into the distance, while his dad's talking to him, disrespecting him, all the little nuances when Edge was going to hit him and he would say, don't hit me Uncle Edge. When he told his dad last week, he got on his knees and he goes, hit me, because he knew his dad wasn't going to hit him. Just so cocky, because Dominic's not like that. He's a very nice, likable, cool kid. I'm like, where do you get that? Because I told him, I was going over with him a couple things that he should do. I said, 'You need to channel Heel Eddie. You need to channel him. Channel people you don't like. That'll help you with your persona.'
Plus, he told me that he went to ... Edge lives in North Carolina. But I guess his wife might be from there. So he went to North Carolina for a couple days, and Edge gave him some acting tips and helped him out. He said Michael Hayes helped him out too. He's doing a great job, man. Not because he is my godson. I keep it real with him. I'll tell him, 'Hey, this looked weak. This looked bad' ... He appreciates that. I think he's doing great. I'm very, very happy with what they've done with him so far and the way he's handled it, because he's not a natural heel.
Yeah. When you say channel Heel Eddie man, he's got the mullet now...
The mullet and a little bit of the face. If you grew the mustache, he'd probably look a little like Eddie.
Starting to wonder about that old ladder match.
That 'Papi' thing. Yeah, I love when Rhea goes 'I can be your Papi or I can be your Mami.' Bro, they're having fun with that.
The Changing WWE & AEW Landscapes
WWE's gotten a lot better. I got to give them credit. I used to hate reviewing their shows. They were so boring ... I think Hunter's taken out a lot of the buffoonery, that kind of Vince liked. As you've seen, every match is really good. Just like about every single match is really good. They're a little bit too long for my taste. I'm not a big fan of long matches. AEW loves long matches too.
That's what I do for a living, and I did it. I've seen so many wrestling matches, I get kind of bored easily. I'm into promos and angles, but I think they're doing a good job. I thought AEW, their formatting, their pacing has gotten way better. There wasn't a bad match on Wednesday. Not one bad match, not really one bad segment. Even the girls match, which usually I don't like, was better than I expected. That's what you get when you got competition. The fans come out winning.
Saraya? That was a big pop. We tried to get her for TripleMania, but she was wrestling in England that day. Then all of a sudden she showed up with Tony.
Well, kind of put a button on this to kind of wrap it all up. You know, you talk about how good WWE's product has got recently. How much of a threat to AEW do you think WWE getting its cool factor back is?
Well, the thing that you see about WWE is, first of all, you're not going to out produce them, bro. Their production is at a whole other level. Plus, you got to remember they got a 40-year head start. AEW has only been around for three years, and you'll see a lot of booking mistakes that Tony makes for a novice that I made when I was a novice.
Obviously he don't like to hear them. Nobody does, but you just got to be real with yourself. There's nothing wrong with making mistakes because it teaches you what not to do the next time. WWE has such a head start, name-brand wise, in every aspect.
Obviously the one thing I've always said about WWE, even when they were doing bad shows, I've always said, WWE always adapts, no matter what. When they were getting buried, they watched ECW, took a lot of that attitude, brought it over there. When Hall and Nash were hot in WCW, they went and they kind of copied that with DX. They've always been real good at adjusting and coming back, and they got the resources. I think Hunter is brilliant. I think he's doing a good job over there.
Yeah, I agree. All right, well Konnan, I want to thank you so much for the time, man. Anything you want to put over or promote before we wrap up today?
The only thing that I want to put over is K100. That's my podcast. You can find that it's called Keeping it 100 with Konnan and Disco, and you can find that on Spotify, Apple, Amazon. We kick everything on there. We talk wrestling, pop culture, sports, anything and everything. Very opinionated. That's our show. We like to bring thought-provoking, informative content. I got to bring you on there one day.
I'd love to come on.
Instead of coming on your own show and interviewing you.