Chapter 1: What happened during Darby Allin's first week as AEW Champion?
Yo, what's going on, Busted Open Nation, and thanks for tuning in to another edition of the Busted Open Podcast. Today, the B&B Connection returns Bishop and Bully talking AEW and NXT. Lots of real positive talk surrounding MJF and Darby Allin. And on the NXT side, Sol Ruka, ready for the main roster, but taking the monster Nestea
plunge was the risk worth the reward me and bishop will break it all down right here on the busted open podcast this is the busted open podcast the very first thing i'd like to get into with you is dynamite.
Now, in order to talk about dynamite from last night, I think we need to set the table and go back a week and talk about last Wednesday night, where out of nowhere, not really out of nowhere, they kind of, you know, They were hinting at it. Darby Allin defeats MJF to become the AEW world champion. He beats him in like two to three minutes. A glorified high energy squash match.
And there was a lot of back and forth. Was it the right decision? Was it not the right decision?
Chapter 2: How did MJF react to losing the AEW Championship?
Was it done for, was it hot shot booking to try to get some headlines from the WWE heading into WrestleMania? Me, Mark, Dave, and Tommy were in the Sirius XM studios at Wynn Hotel on Thursday morning, ready to kick off WrestleMania week. And here we are spending the first half hour of the show talking about the title change.
So AEW kind of forced our hand and made us talk about them instead of WWE and WrestleMania. But the minute that conversation ended, It ended and then it was wall to wall, WWE talk. So back to last week, how did you feel about the title change?
Look, I mean, I think MJF right now is one of the hottest performers in all of wrestling, top to bottom, in ring, backstage, on the mic, all of it. And I don't think you can necessarily hurt him in any fashion, right? I feel like he's pretty set where he's at, and he can just continue to get bigger and bigger as a star in and out of the wrestling world.
When it comes to Darby, one, I've loved the emotion that they've been giving him and his promos have felt very raw and very real. And he's not known as like a promo guy, but I've been into his promos in the weeks leading up to this, talking about the need for the title, all of those things. Because it seemed like for a long time that wasn't his game.
His game was just to go out and have car crashes, right?
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Chapter 3: What was the significance of the title change in the context of WrestleMania?
And when he talked about, you know, what's it all for if I'm not going after that title? Like, there's that cool click. Like, sometimes athletes, whether it be in football, baseball, hockey, wrestling, whatever it is, there's that moment where it clicks and you go, oh, shit, I can be pretty good at this. And I think that's kind of what clicked in him in my head, in my story-driven mind.
Him going, oh, man, wait. Not only am I great at putting on these matches, but I could be world champion. Like, I climbed Mount Everest, dude. Like, how many people can say they've done that? And so, one, I've liked the story of it all. And then, two, when you do put Darby over like that in four minutes, I think if it was a 30-minute banger, it wouldn't have had the impact that...
it had doing it in three or four minutes the four coffin drops the sting drop like all of those things I thought it was a perfect way to do it it didn't hurt MJF and it made Darby it put Darby and look there was some backlash from the fans why would you do it well I mean that's why we did it man like there's a shock factor now everybody's talking about it I thought it was a genius move genius timing with all of Wrestlemania going on and I'm interested in the story of how does MJF get it back so
I feel like it was a complete success in the move to do that, to switch the title like that because it created conversations. It had the internet going bonkers left and right with who's on which side of it. And then here we're still talking about it now. And I thought that the story they kind of drove with MJF last night gives us the complete circle. I'm excited for it.
So then let's move it forward right now.
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Chapter 4: What went wrong with Sol Ruka's Nestea Plunge?
Let's take you back to the opening of Dynamite from last night with Darby and MJF. How do you think they moved the story forward?
I mean, how does MJF get to a position where he's actually getting his shot for the title back? I love him throwing a fit. The promo to open the show was awesome. And then they even threw a little dip in with Jett coming out. And Jett cutting a promo. And also, I was excited for that, too, because I wanted to see if Jett could hang with MJF in there on the mic.
Sometimes I feel like he does good promos, and then sometimes I feel like he gets in a position where he's just trying to say a bunch of catchphrases to see if something sticks, talking in the third person, the jet this, the jet that, which I've never seen a baby face necessarily talk in third person, but... it kind of is working for me.
And I feel like there were moments where MJF could have eaten him up and he didn't, which is nice because it's giving him a chance to kind of get out there and start getting his voice heard and talk about wanting to be two belts and all of those things.
And that's where I think Max has shown the most maturity lately, is he's not eating guys up on the mic when he knows he can and we know he can. A great performer, a great worker, not only physically in the ring but on the microphone, knows when to dial it back a notch. So the other guy or gal standing across from them can keep up. If you just bury the person, it doesn't do any good.
And Max has shown over the past couple of months, and we have put Max over to the moon on Busted Open about how well he's been doing and how... good of a champion in the ring and out of the ring he's been but the the most glaring thing with max is his ability to back it down a notch so others can keep up he had to do that with kenny and last night we saw him do it with jet thoughts
Yeah, I mean, absolutely. If you can't make money with the guy, you're wasting your time, right? So you've got to build up. It's the same thing I explained to some people who are, like, doing squash matches and they're not giving the guy anything. And I go, dude, well, then who did you beat? Like, it does nothing for you. You beat a bum off the street, a hobo.
It's like, you know, when you transfer into becoming a pro MMA fighter, they dig dudes out of the grave for you to fight that you can try to walk through. But you've got to give them some credibility, right? So that you beat somebody. I did it one time when me and JBL did our first debut. And Tazawa was my opponent. And they're like, just run through him in three minutes.
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Chapter 5: Was Sol Ruka's fall worth the risk in her career trajectory?
I was like, how about he ducks something, hits me with a couple drop kicks. Big missile drop kick off the top. You know, I take the bump. He rips my head off. I fall out to the floor. He comes to get me. And now he's dead. Like, then it made somebody that I can beat. And so I think that that's what MJF's doing. Is he's making these guys so that he has guys to work with.
The longer he does that and builds this roster of guys and talent. And elevates them. the more people he can run main events with because right now he is the main event player there right now.
What you just talked about with the making somebody first, I'll never forget. the first time I learned that in the wrestling business.
Chapter 6: How did Tommy Dreamer feel about Sol Ruka's risky maneuver?
It's like, there are certain times in my career, I remember what arena I was in, where I was standing, who taught me the lesson. And it was Monday Night Raw, probably, I think it was in, I think it might've been in like Kansas City. And it was supposed to be me and D-Von versus Booker and Christian. Me and D-Von happened to be the tag champs at the time. And something happened last minute.
I think Booker was not feeling well at all, had the flu, whatever. So we went from having a two-segment match on Monday Night Raw to doing a dark match to start off the show with two guys looking to get a job at the company. And they came to us and like, hey, listen... you're here. Can you, can you do this for us? And we were like, no problem.
So Jerry Briscoe is the agent and it's me and Devon versus Austin Aries and Sean Daivari. Now this is going back to like 2001, 2002. And Jerry Briscoe says, you know, just, you know, do whatever you need to do with them. And I said, Jerry, do you want us to guzzle them? And guzzle means eat them up.
I know you know what it means, but for our fans, eat them up, just beat them up, and then beat them. Basically a squash match. And Jerry said, Bubba, if you want to guzzle them, go right ahead. But remember...
if you don't make anybody you didn't beat anybody and holy shit was that a light bulb moment for me like i had really never been taught that lesson so directly before even in ecw i really didn't learn that one and jerry taught it to me and bishop we we went in the ring And we gave those young guys a lot. We let them get heat on us. We did the hot tag and then we hit the finish.
And brother, by the time we hit our finish, the place went crazy as if we had just won the tag team titles. And they're going crazy from the Dudleys just beating young boys. Why? because we made them first, taking the advice from Jet. It doesn't matter who it is, as long as you make them the right way in the body of the story. So last night, Max did a good job of making Jet.
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Chapter 7: What are the consequences of taking high-risk bumps in wrestling?
What did you think of the actual match?
Well, I mean, he rolled out of the ring, and I thought it was a great heel move.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say match. What did you think of the actual setup leading to Max rolling out?
I mean, I loved it. I loved the fact that he dangled the carrot to the audience. Like, we'll do it right here, right now. I haven't held that title before. Yeah, I'll take it from you. You wanted this. You're going to get it. And I think it was a cool moment, too, because Jet even looked surprised for a moment when he was like, done. Yeah, let's do this match. And-
Then he's going, well, wait, did I just dig myself in a little bit of a hole? Am I about to lose my, I'm going to be no belts Jet? So I thought that was cool the way that kind of the emotional flip for Jet when he was like being very talkative, very confident. And then when MJF accepted, he was like, I don't know.
To me, I saw like a little bit of a pause of like, ah, maybe I shouldn't have said all this. But he was just, you know, because I wanted to come out here and talk about I want to be world champ too. And now my title's on the line. Like, what'd I do? And then, you know, for MJF to back up, get ready, and then roll out as they're getting ready to ring the bell, like, that's heel 101, baby.
Like, he left that audience pissed at him.
But he really brought it right to the brink. Like, he even got me last night because I thought the match was going to happen right there. And then Max bails and gets out. And the boos were profound when Max rolled out of the ring. Um, people were pissed off. I thought he took something that has been done a hundred times before and was able to do it just a little bit better last night.
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Chapter 8: How do wrestlers balance risk and reward in their performances?
Cause I was waiting for the belter. I didn't even realize that Mac shouldn't take his gear off. Yeah. Yeah, he's got his jacket on. Yeah, I was just waiting for it. I'm like, all right, we're getting this right off the bat. They're going to roll right into the promo, roll right into the match. And AEW has shown before that they won't take that first commercial break for a while sometimes.
So it wasn't like I hadn't seen this. But Max rolls out, gets all that heat. Coming up next, myself and Bishop discuss Soul Rooker's monster Nestea Plunge Bump. Your one stop. I want to go to NXT, Bishop. And I think the conversation that everybody has been having over the past, I'd say, 36 hours, was the big fall that Sol Ruka took. Her and Zarya...
Standing on top of that crow's nest or that platform or that thing at the top of the NXT arena. Looks like they were going to kiss and make up. They're hugging each other. And when the hug started, you obviously kind of knew, you know. Now you're just waiting for it. You're just waiting for it. And then Zarya pushes Soul backwards. Soul takes the Nestea Plunge.
She's supposed to go through both tables. She only goes through one. And you see her neck, not just graze, but get fully kind of, you know, bang into the other table. And then she's laying there. And in laying there, she looked fine. And then they counted to 10. The ref counted to 10. She was out. It was like, Paul, correct me if I'm wrong.
It was a last women's standing match or a, what kind of gimmick match was it? Yes, that's correct. Last woman standing match, right. So the ref counts to 10, and she's out. A very high-risk maneuver, dangerous. So, Tommy, I want to bring you in right now. And full disclosure to the nation, this is how this happened. At about a quarter to 11 Eastern time last night, I called Tommy.
And I said, hey, did you talk about Sol Ruka? And he's like, well, we touched on it a little bit here, there, and there, blah, blah, blah. Because I knew I wanted to talk to you this morning about it, Bishop. And then Tommy called me back five minutes before he went on After Dark last night.
And he's like, hey, I'm willing to call in tomorrow and talk a little bit more about this because I took the bump first. So, Tommy, what's going on? How you doing? Good. How are you? Good. So just, I remember you back in the day going through two tables, like Taz suplexing you off the stage through tables and you only go through one. But did you take this exact bump first?
I've taken, I mean, many a choke slam off the top of everything. The net tee plunge, I mean... it's kind of the same where I would just jump and go through it and be guided. So I had no real direction outside of like, I knew what I wanted to do. I sometimes, again, it's trial and error.
This is in the early nineties where, and I felt like crap when Tom Morocco comes on and says like, guys are jumping off a place. I was like, yeah, me and bully kind of started that stuff. But yeah, I was, I was the first to go the higher place and just get thrown off of things. From suplexes to many choke slams, which led to, of course, the famous high-incidence scaffold mess.
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