TNA’s AJ Francis, WWE’s King & Queen of the Ring & NYC's New Champs | No-Contest Wresetling

The latest No Contest Wrestling Podcast had hosts OSHA Jackson Jr. and TJ Jefferson weaving the wrestling world into a loaded couple of weeks in sports, before TNA's AJ Francis let himself in to drop an exclusive.

The sports thread started with the Knicks, and TJ drew the wrestling parallel he promised had a point. For years, he argued, basketball was a land of giants, the Russells and Chamberlains and O'Neals, until Steph Curry shrank the game the way wrestling once shrank from a sport of seven-footers into the smaller, athletic era of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Jalen Brunson, a 6-foot-2 point guard, did the same thing this spring, going right at the biggest man in the league in Victor Wembanyama, taking his best shots, and standing tall as the king of New York. The hosts even ribbed Wembanyama for his newfound physicality, joking that the once-soft star now has a little dog in him and a few moves that looked borrowed from the ring.

Then came the knock at the door. AJ Francis, who calls himself the best big man in the business, took the hosts up on their open invitation to walk right in, and immediately got into his TNA storyline with Elijah. In classic heel fashion, Francis explained that since Elijah wouldn't collaborate with him, he simply bought the man's entire catalog, name, image, and likeness, claiming to have studied the greats from Michael Jackson to Suge Knight. He framed it as a business lesson: if you don't know who owns your property, someone else can. The payoff was a No Contest exclusive, with Francis calling out Elijah for a match at Slamversary, declaring himself the new Mr. Slamversary after stealing past shows with PCO and in a ladder match against the Hardys.

The crew also ran through the WWE tournament finals. In the men's King of the Ring fatal four-way featuring Jey Uso, LA Knight, and Finn Balor, the hosts had believed in their Balor pick before Solo Sikoa popped out of nowhere, got a thumb on LA Knight, and helped Jey Uso take the crown, sparking a bloodline-interference debate. On the women's side, the Queen of the Ring four-way came down to a formidable group including Jade Cargill, Lyra Valkyria, and Charlotte Flair, with Flair getting the win. The lasting image, though, was Cargill finishing the match one-handed after a slam peeled her wig back, earning a salute from the hosts for toughing it out.

The episode also touched the Carolina Hurricanes' Stanley Cup, with the guys noting coach Rod Brind'Amour's shirtless trophy photo looked ready for a WWE run, and the spectacle of UFC on the White House lawn, which both hosts found visually stunning even as they declined to wade into the politics.

The recurring comedy was TJ's defense of his beleaguered teams. Armed with folders of arguments for football season, he insisted that the 49ers' title drought is actually longer than the Cowboys', and that of all the franchises that have gone dry, only 14 NFL teams have won a Super Bowl in that span, so a lot of fan bases have no room to talk.