So you're not going to believe this, but sometimes wrestling is violent. I know. AW is also a constant offender of this, so I've decided we shall not let them get away with it anymore. Of course they shall listen to a random bald guy on the internet. But hello, I am Simon Miller, I'm also a buffoon, and that's right. Strap yourselves in, because we are about to talk violence in all-el-elite wrestling. Number, Swerve gets daddy ass. That was not the best way to say that. Mingo is say that to somebody today who does not watch pro wrestling and they will look at you like this, but it does tie in to the rise of Swerve Strickland. Because when he did join AEW in 2022 and started a tag team with Keith Lee, I don't think anybody expected him to get to where he did do, and more full us. You look at Swerve now, he was always destined for greatness. Of course, the story between him and Keith was, can they coexist? Because pro wrestling loves that one. And before long, given we did have two teams, they came up against the acclaimed. And daddy asked. As Matt's camp for Anthony Bowens and Billy Gunn did

enjoy scissoring though, Strickland decided, I wonder if I could kidnap Billy Gun and, you know, torture him just a little bit. And because the police never get involved in pro wrestling, that's exactly what he did. But at one point, we even insinuated that Strickland had used pliers to rip off Billy's fingers. Ah, I think you should do that. No, he can't have gone through

with this because of course Bill did still have his hand the next old week, but you were meant to left thinking, oh, well, Swerve Strickland is totally screwed up. So it was almost the thought of violence, rather than violence itself, which sometimes could actually be more effective. But don't worry, we are going to talk about swerve later. He's definitely done visual violence. But still, it was a nice place to start. Number 9, Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa changed the game. Women in a hardcore match. I mean, however, will we continue to exist as a society? Because this is the internet, I'm being sarcastic. Really, we all need to grow up because what's good enough for men is obviously good enough for women, and if you need proof, go and watch this. This was a proper lights out, unsanctioned match back on Dynamite in 2021, and look, yes, sure, in Western professional wrestling, females doing this did cause some mixed reactions, because some individuals never seen anything like this before. They're also the first women to main event a Wednesday night, and it gave us so many iconic moments. I mean, look at this image. You can look at that and not feel a little bit oogly-boggling your tum-tong. You are stronger human than I. So as you can tell it was filled with blood, but also it was so, so violent. violent, but listen, man, it was a proper feud, and if you wanted to sit down and go, wow,

Thunder Rosa and Brip Baker really hate each other, Exhibit A. Both really deserve praise for what they did put themselves through here because they did move the conversation forward. And ever since this moment, AEW has opened the door and that's what we should always do. And if it's not for you, just don't watch it. But should they have the opportunity, you bet your ass. Number eight, Cody's 10 whips. We did it again. The violence in wrestling isn't just about the act of violence. Sometimes it can be about the emotion too. Cody Rhodes and MGF really understood this as well. So after MGF had cost Cody Rhodes the AEW world title, which meant he could never challenge for it again, Cody decided, I am going to get my revenge on you, Max. If he wanted to do that, he'd have to go through the Charles of MJF. Now, one of these got so out of control, because Maxwell said, alright, fine, I get to whip you 10 times with a weight belt. Now most fans are like, well, I'm sure Roads isn't just going to get laid there as he does get hit.

Hey, he does get hit, AEW will find a way out of it. But nope, we got to the episode of Dynamite and Cody quite literally got whooped. The true highlight, of course, though, is that even though Maxwell Jacob Freeman got more and more aggressive with these, so did Cody, or at least he got more emotional.

It was like he wasn't going to let him break his spirit, and obviously that pissed Freeman off. But even when the Young Bucks and Brandy Rhodes were like, stop, stop, it wouldn't happen. And of course, Wardloaded one of these two, and that was going to tie in. Because two years later, he found himself in a feud with Maxwell, so then he had to take these hits, but he stood like a superhero, as if to say, I'm really big and you can't get to my man meat. So talk about cold, but it just told you there is more than one way to crack an egg, and all of this just made you feel, man. And how did we do it? Violence. Number seven, swerve is constantly insane. So as we You saw out, Swerve Strickland is sort of brilliant when it comes to pro wrestling, because he has done all these terrible things and we still cheer it. Even when some of these matches and questions didn't connect with the fans, he would still find a way to drag them in a little bit, much like he did at Blood and Guts 2024. Because the elite takeover AEW story had really got to the point that we were hoping for. But when Swerve Strickland entered that cage and realized he was surrounded by his enemies, they all decided, hey, we've got a staple gun here and we are going to staple you so bad that you're probably going to bleed. And do you know what Swerve did? He just stood there and took it. So he went from being like, oh my gosh, that's disgusting to, oh my gosh, he's a superhero, especially because he got revenge. He got this would-be weapon and he attacked him back. So there's no two ways about it when we talk about that one. Taking a staple gun and put this table into someone's skin so the red stuff comes out, that's totally flubbed up, but it's certainly got a reaction out of me. Number six, Darby Allen really like Stone Cold Steve Austin's entrance music. So I'm being facetious, I'm talking about the glass break. Because at Revolution, when Sting decided he was going to retire, of course he teamed with his best friend Darby Allen to take on the young. but Darby must have woken up that morning and said, you know what? I've got to do right by my fake dad. After laying Nick Jackson on a plane of class, Alan climbed the tallest ladder you'd ever seen and he dove onto his would-be opponent who moved and Darby Allen went smashing through this thing. It's one of the most disgusting things you're ever going to see. As always, people like, oh, the Allen can't keep doing this, yet somehow he can. When the camera zoomed in on his back, I tell you, my friends, he was bleeding in around about 4.2 milliseconds. The crowd went absolutely nuts because of course they did. And in a slight bit of irony, it certainly looked like all elite wrestling had used real glass so yeah it was certainly a sight and only in wrestling i suppose but i think we could leave it

until we do it again just a little bit number five mjf hangs cm punk so really you could take

the entire cm punk and mgf feud and stick it in here the old thing was pretty damn violent

whatever you think about punks running a ew, you cannot throw bones at this, because man, when you put these two together, dare I said, they created magic. Now I started with a bunch of masterful promos that allowed you to buy in and the secret source that after a while you were listening to Max, you started going, I feel a bit sorry for this guy and do do you know who else fell into that trap? CM Punk. This was just days before their dog collar match, which was also very violent, and as soon as Punk had let his guard down, MGF attacked with the pinnacle, to the point, they basically wrapped a piece of rope around CM Punk's neck, and yep, they hanged him. The images on the screen now, nobody is doing

this, but it was still horrible. He was totally bloody when they were doing this too, but it just reminded you, sometimes wrestling can be unhinged and it hits a certain amount of quality in your tum-tum, and for whatever reason, it makes you want to tune in again. It also allowed MGF to feel super duper dangerous which he he needed going into this pay-per-view. So yes, this may not be for you, but in terms of ticking the boxes, it did a damn good job. Number four, Brodie Lee decimates the Rhodes family. So I put this here deliberately because sometimes violence doesn't mean blood, blood doesn't mean violence. But August 22nd, 2020 was a hard time for all of us and pro wrestling because we were knee-deep in the global pandemic. So like other promotions that were running, Tony Kahn looked across his roster and decided, we got to do something big. This was when Brody Lee was brought in, and yes, Cody Rhodes is the TNT champion. And he was having a pretty good run with that belt. When Brode was like, I don't care, I'm going to crush you and I'm going to take it. My gosh, that's exactly what he did. He literally threw Cody around before he defeated him like he was nobody, and not only that, but now he had the title. The more dark part actually came after this, because Lee started to cut a promo, and as Cody Rose was getting stretched out there he told his minions no I don't like that you should push him off the thing

damn it they did Lee Johnson also took out Arna Anderson and Dustin Rhodes even dragged out to the

back this felt a little bit like a kidnapping I mean I'm exaggerating but it was super uncomfortable

to watch brandy even got choked out too so we just took this Brody Lee character and my word did we give it some edge, not Adam Copeland, he'd be there in a couple of years. Here's another reason, though, why Brody Lee's tragic so early on was such a loss. Obviously that's way more important than anything we ever do in wrestling, but we were just getting started with this persona. I really think it could have changed the game.

Number three, Mariah May destroys her teacher. So as soon as Mariah May arrived in AEW in November 2003 and started cozying up to Tony Storm, who was not interested, you just knew exactly where this was going to go. So it's just a classic tale with a constant intrigue of, well, is she going to do it now, or is she going to do it today?

And actually, Mariah waited until she won that Owen Hart Cup.

My gosh, she didn't wait another second. So even though you could have anticipated this, I don't think anybody expected AWW to go this far, because as soon as she grabbed the Owen Hart Cup, she turned around and she bludgeoned Tony Storm, to the point the timeless one was wailing. That's right.

She was screaming as if she was going to die. May even made it poetic because she got

the shoe that Tony talked about all the time and she whacked her right in the hole where the blood was coming from.

That still makes me feel a bit queasy. The bell shot she gave her too, which are so uncomfortable, and you're a bit like, can somebody come out here to stop this? Because it just got more and more insane. It really will go down as one of the best moments in AEW history, though, because not only did you get the heel turn, but it just had emotion pouring out the whim-wam. So once again, yeah, without the blood and without the violence, I don't think you achieve that. That's why sometimes you just got to do it. Number two, John Moxley suffocates Brian Danielson. So this was controversial. Can't argue that. I mean, John Moxley literally woke up one day and went, yep, I'm going to murder my best friend. Now it's actually based on an old school angle, but let's just be honest here. New fans aren't going to remember that. It's one of the reasons why you can pull from old wrestling. It feels like it's new again. There's also post-all-out 2024 when Brian Danielson had just retained his 80W world title versus Jack Perry, when he just had to go through hell. Because when Blackball combat member Claudia Castanoli smacked him right in the balls,

he couldn't believe it. Then that got even worse because Moxie snuck up from behind him and he had a plastic bag and he choked him.

Honestly, my life flashed before our eyes. I wasn't even involved. What really made this hit home though is that Weila Yuta,

another member of the Black Ball Combat Club, hadn't been clued up about this. So he too is in the corner just crying his eyes out. So that just added to how horrendous this was. It was like he was watching his best friend die. So I get the way people thought this was excessive and I totally understand if it's not for you. But it goes to show 80W is happy to cross that line line, and as many people that are like, oh man, yeah, this queer wrestling is the best, more are going to be like, oh my gosh, I can't handle it. But I guess you vote with your remotes, but AEW did it, and it was flipping violent. Number one, Adam Page drinks blood. I mean, where else could we go? It still stuns me, that's a sentence. And look, you can see it right now. Now it all ties into the death feud between Adam Page and Swerve Strickland, hence why they keep coming up in this list. And because they had to keep finding ways to outdo each other, well, yeah, they quite literally drunk each other's blood. This was full gear 2003 and what was totally nuts

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