Chapter 1: What are the highlights of AEW Double or Nothing?
Welcome into the Busted Open podcast. Rick Uccino, Justin LaBar with you as we are joined by the remarkable Renee Paquette to talk AEW Double or Nothing and her new broadcast colleague, Mick Foley. This is the Busted Open podcast.
The Double or Nothing buy-in goes live at 7 Eastern, hosted by our guest at this time, the multi-talented backstage correspondent and ringside analyst for All Elite Wrestling and the greatest export that Canada ever gave the city of Cincinnati, Renee Paquette. Welcome back to Busted Open. Thanks for joining us. Nice to chat with you.
Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me on. Excited to see you guys. Excited to talk Double or Nothing. Very cool.
Yes, very intriguing card for the show tonight. But I think we have to start with your broadcast colleague for the night. Tony Khan, you know, known to have a few surprises up his sleeve come pay-per-view time. He unveiled this one a few days in advance, the hardcore legend Mick Foley, now in the fold in All Elite Wrestling.
Chapter 2: How does Renee Paquette feel about working with Mick Foley?
What was your reaction when you first heard the news that you were going to be pairing up with Mick for the night and moving forward?
I mean, it was so exciting. I had no idea that that was going to be happening. Of course, I've known Mick for such a long time. So to be able to work with him in this capacity... I'm just I'm excited. I mean, anytime you get to have someone of that legendary status, come on, shed some light. I mean, Mick is such a fan of professional wrestling.
So to have him be a part of AEW now, it just feels like such a perfect mix. I feel like he's somebody that just fits in with the entire vibe and essence that is all elite wrestling. So I'm really excited. I just I also just haven't seen Mick yet. in a long time. I get really beautiful Christmas cards every single year from Mick. Yes.
Nora does not know the magic that is Mick Foley yet, but he has been sprinkling magic in her life since she was born. So yeah, I'm really excited to have Mick on the panel. I'm excited. I'm also just like pumped for our talent to be able to pick his brain, to have someone like him around, I think is going to be so valuable to so many people.
Yeah, Renee, kind of to that point, like talk about what this means in a bigger picture for AEW, because Mick is still incredibly popular. He's known by several generations of fans with such credibility. He's super nice to interact with. Like this is a this is a as you would say in the recipe, this is a big rub for the company to have him associate. Talk about this.
It's huge to have him be a part of AEW and like, you know, he's the hardcore legend. That makes perfect sense for him to be here in AEW. Whether, you know, whether it's somebody like Darby Allin getting to pick his brain or, you know, you can run down like the list of our talent of guys that are going to be able to like lend a...
an ear, no pun intended, but to be able to talk to Mick and just to get some of that knowledge on, you know, psychology of certain things to how certain matches work to maybe how to push the envelope a certain way. And, you know, I think for Mick too, I think there's something really cool for him to now get to be a part of our world and
And you can't help but it's just so contagious to be around these people.
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Chapter 3: What impact does Mick Foley's involvement have on AEW?
And we're doing something so cool right now. And I just I feel like there's just a really great energy. And I think that that's something that's going to go both ways. I think Mick is going to benefit from it. I think we're going to benefit from it. Yeah, I'm really excited to see how that's going to go moving forward. And I really hope. that a lot of people use him to the most of his ability.
I think, you know, for people to be able to have those conversations and get to talk to him and Mick is so generous with his time and with his knowledge and his information. So I think for people to be able to really tap into that and use that from him, I think will be, you know, really great for everyone.
obviously his health is going to be and should be top priority, but Tony Khan kind of raised some eyebrows on Thursday when he said he'd be open to Mick wrestling, if that is something that he wanted to do. And upon hearing this, I immediately thought back to 2012 where the stage was being set for, for Mick and a young John Moxley to have a match in WWE.
And if Mick is going to step back into the ring, boy, John would be a very intriguing opponent. Don't you think?
I mean, the fact that that never got to happen and never came to fruition the way that it could have. And of course, things worked out beautifully the way that they did. And everyone went on to have really great, successful careers. But yeah, I mean, to have John and Mick, and especially where John's at now, John...
being John and being at the best version of himself and being to be able to like creatively do the things that he wants to do and physically doing the things that he wants to do. I think the idea of seeing those two together in whatever it could be, whether it's a backstage moment or whether they're able to do some kind of a program together. I don't, that is stressful to me.
I can't, I don't know that I want to wish that into fruition. But yeah, I mean, it, Who knows? You know, I think that it's one of those situations that, you know, depending on how Mick's feeling and what the situation may be, I think you got to kind of see where that's at. I think that that's, you know, for Tony to kind of leave that open ended and say that something like that could happen.
I think we just have to all kind of wait and see. But I will say, I mean, just as like a fan of Mick and a fan of the things that he brings to the table. Yeah, I'll be kind. I'll be in a fan POV.
for that until I've got to do a ringside hit and there's gore every so we'll see Renee speaking of a kind of fan point of view as best as I can tell you are like you were really really liked by wrestling fans which is hard to do on social media to have like an overwhelming positive response but I think You get a lot of that from AEW viewers, which is awesome.
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Chapter 4: Who are the potential contenders for the TBS Championship?
Oh my gosh. But yeah, they're, they're really fun to do. And you know, it's,
you know from like the broadcast side of things it's like everything's been done so it's like you try to find new ways to do things and how can we freshen things up what hasn't been done we also just get in like the habits of what broadcasting should look like that it's like you try to break out of that a little bit and find new ways to do things i i feel like we've had some success with doing these sideline reports or ringside reports renee to the broadcasting point uh
Well, I've always wondered actually what your history with wrestling. I remember prior to WWE, I remember hearing and seeing clips with you and Jimmy and Arda in Toronto. Were you learning about the business then or had you been a fan prior to that? I've always wondered what the background and relationship is with wrestling.
I was really learning more about the business then. So when I was a kid, I grew up watching it. I was able to go see it at the Sky Dome. I had been around it a bit before. But then once I got more into the sports broadcasting world, I was working for The Score, which is now Sportsnet, who had the broadcasting rights to WWE. And my boss there asked me if I would do an after show for Raw.
And I was like, hell yeah, of course. But like, as anyone... early in their career, you're like, yes, I will do anything. Let me in, let me figure it out. And then once I started getting into it and just, I just, I fell so in love with the sport and with the entertainment aspect of it.
And for me, it was like light bulbs went off that I was like, you know, I worked as a sports broadcaster, but really it was more the entertainment side of doing it that I more than like being like a straight up journalist in that capacity. Um, so once I got into the pro wrestling space, I was like, ah, these are my people. This is where I want to be. Um, so that was like a learning curve.
And, you know, I was lucky because I was working with Jimmy Corderas, um, Arda Ocal, like really gave me a ton of information. I could run, you know, all sorts of stuff by him. But yeah, I mean, I always think of like my dumb ass being like young and so green and not knowing what I was doing, but we had John Cena coming in to the studio in Toronto to do some media for us.
And I was like about to do an interview. And I had like all my questions set and actually Adam Hopkins, who's our PR guy now, yeah, he was like, you're not asking these questions. And then I never got to do the interview because I did not know what I was doing and it was so piss poor. So thank God I've grown out of that.
But that was definitely, you know, those early stages of figuring out pro wrestling and how it works. And then to be able to go on and actually work in pro wrestling, like I'll always remember my first day of like going to a show and being like, holy shit, like, that's how this all works, like in that belly of the beast mentality.
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Chapter 5: What makes the match between MJF and Darby Allin unique?
And she's somebody too, that I just think the fans are, have really gravitated towards. So I think putting her in that spot and really letting her do that, I feel like the TBS championship and TBS as a network would probably be pretty thrilled to have her in that spot.
From my brain to your mouth.
That's got to be a t-shirt, a fucked up ray of sunshine.
I love it. Yeah, she is something, man. Sometimes the stuff that flies out of her mouth on or off camera, I'm like, what?
What?
Well, Renee, we can't run down the car without talking about the AEW World Championship title versus hair match, MJF versus Darby Allin. The dynamic is fascinating here because you have MJF who, you know, funny enough, prior to the Mick Foley announcement, I had made a comparison on the show in the last few weeks of like.
This kind of makes me feel like 1999 corporate rock versus the people's guy in a McFoley. And so you have MJF, who's that arguably one of the biggest names in the company. But then you have Darby, who I think he embodies everything that AEW kind of stands for. So this dynamic is fascinating. And then you throw in the added stipulation of not just the title, but the hair, of course.
I love this. I, I think too, like ever since Darby won the title and it was like in such shocking fashion for that to happen, but then to go on this tear of, you know, however many weeks it has been of having these insane matches. I mean, To go into a pay-per-view match, I mean, we saw what just happened with him in speedball.
But to go into this pay-per-view match, Darby is always some version of dinged up. But that being said, he's Darby, and I don't know what composition his body is made of that makes him able to go through these matches and do these insane. I mean, when you think of him and Pac, when we were out of the golf course, Like, that was nuts. That was great. I can't say no one was expecting that.
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Chapter 6: How does Renee Paquette view the AEW Women's division?
But Marina Shafir is a really great baker. I don't know if people know that she's a really she's a sourdough queen. So I'm hoping that, you know, in between her reps and slapping people around that maybe she might be able to steer me in the right direction.
Well, I look forward to the Instagram videos because, you know, you know, they're going to come out and it's going to be awesome. And I'm looking forward to AEW coming to Cincinnati back home for you here in a couple of weeks. Hopefully we can get you on Cincinnati radio. You know, we can just hype up the Bengals in the upcoming football season.
Maybe I can bring a sourdough loaf.
There we go. That's what I'm talking about right there. Have fun working with Mick tonight. Good luck on the broadcast and we'll all be watching. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
Have a nice day.
Coming up next, we give our predictions on Double or Nothing. Who walks out a winner? Your one-stop shop for R-A-S-S-L-I and that's wrestling.
Pro Wrestling Nation, 24-7, Channel 156. Lots of great action, you know, typical for an AEW event. Some of these results could be very, very intriguing. I don't see this to be an overly unpredictable show, but Tony Khan has proven me wrong before. Let's dive into some of these and get our thoughts on things. Let's start with this.
This is a match that has been building for quite some time now, this rivalry between Kazuchika Okada and Kanosuke Takeshina. This is a match that we did see in the Continental Classic where Okada had to use the screwdriver. to pick up the win. Takeshita has been all about sportsmanship and wanting to get things done the right way.
I don't know if he's going to be overly concerned with sportsmanship when it comes to the Rainmaker tonight. I kind of see him giving the Rainmaker a dose of his own medicine and walking away with the AW International title tonight. How do you feel this one goes down?
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Chapter 7: What predictions are made for the main event of Double or Nothing?
And have Mercedes come out.
And if it's not Mercedes, Britt Baker, not a bad shout to come here. If it's ever going to happen, if she's ever going to come back to AEW at this point, this wouldn't be a bad spot for her either. God, it's been so long. End of 2024 is the last time that we saw her on programming. So that would certainly be a surprise. And TK loves his surprises. So we'll see.
Again, the Owen Hart, both men's and women's cups getting underway. Samoa Joe, Will Ospreay. This is, you know, one of the matches I'm looking forward to the most on this one. Like we talked about a little bit at the top of the hour, like this one, you know, if Will Ospreay doesn't win this, it just screams, what the heck are we doing here? And that's no knock against Samoa Joe.
Yeah, it feels weird to feel so adamant that Samoa Joe has to lose a match. But, I mean, that's just kind of where we're at here, that, like, as we said, predictable's fine as long as it's logical, and that's what it is. Will Ospreay wins, goes on to win the entire thing, and then he goes to Wembley to challenge for the world title. So, yeah, I...
And then added on, I mean, again, he's got the Death Riders training him, so it would be very weird for him to lose his first pay-per-view match since his initiation, we'll call it.
Yeah, and again, we're in agreeance all the way through here. Bandito, Swerve Strickland, the other quarterfinal matchup for the men's tournament tonight. I got Swerve in this one, but this, for me, low-key, like match of the night candidate. Like, I just don't see this match being... being bad, and this might, at the end of the day, stand out as one of the best of the entire night.
Yeah, you know, when we do the show next Sunday, our match of the week always is any match that's happened on planet Earth since we last got off the air from our 9 to 12 Sunday morning busted open. So the matches on this card will all qualify potentially for match of the week candidacy next week, and this could be right up there.
But yeah, I think Swerve's Ricklin, I had a hard time seeing him come back and lose right here.
The women's quarterfinal matchup that we were supposed to get was Willow Nightingale and Alex Windsor. Unfortunately, that could not happen. Willow had to drop out and relinquish the TBS Championship due to injury. So instead, we are getting Athena and Mina Shirakawa.
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