Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I am Luke Owen and this is wrestling news.
We start today’s episode by reminding everyone of the passage of time to make you all feel
old and decaying because - do you remember The Bayley Girl?
You know, the superfan at ringside in the glory days of NXT who dressed like Bayley
and Sasha Banks once made her cry during a title match?
Well she made her in-ring wrestling debut this past weekend.
Turns out I’ve already got one foot in the grave.
Yes the 16-year old wrestled for Mission Pro in a losing effort to Jazmin Allure; wearing
Bayley inspired gear and - at times - doing Bayley-inspired moves.
Despite not winning her first match, we here at WrestleTalk would like to send out our
congrats and support to Izzy and wish her continued success.
Even though, let’s not forget, she once big leagued me in the build to Survivor Series
2020 by refusing to join my team against Oli Davis and said she didn’t know who I was.
And I’m…
I’m not bitter about that at all.
What I just did there was a little bit of what wrestler call, ‘a work’.
I’m not actually bitter about Izzy not knowing who I am.
Of course she knows who I am, I’m Wrestling YouTube’s Luke Owen!
I’m on Instagram now!
Which is why when CM Punk said what he said after Collision went off the air in the Greensboro
Coliseum on Saturday night, I - like a lot of people - assumed it was all a big work.
But it turns out I might be wrong.
Because there’s been some drama backstage in AEW involving CM Punk and Hangman Page
- oh, whoops, looks like I’ve accidentally loaded an old WrestleTalk News script from
this time last year.
But actually not!
This is a new story.
And if you’ve not been on the Twitter-sphere over the weekend - and I would not blame you
- CM Punk cut a promo after Collision went off the air, taking a pot shot at Hangman
Adam Page, calling his toys “peg warmers”, a term used in the retail industry to describe
toys that never sell.
This Cassandra figure from Doctor Who, for example, was a peg warmer during my days in
the toy retail world.
Punk noted that Page’s toys don’t sell, but his do.
He also sells merchandise and pops ratings, unlike Adam Page.
He also noted that the company has people saying they’re the heart and soul of AEW,
but in fact he is; is a reference to Page’s promo when The Elite reformed on Dynamite
a few months ago.
With Page, Omega and The Bucks all recently re-signing with AEW, and FTR facing The Bucks
for the tag titles at All In, it was figured that some of the bad tensions between all
parties had been smoothed over to some degree, and this promo by Punk was just him stoking
the ‘worked shoot’ fires to get people talking.
But, apparently, it wasn’t.
According to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Daily Update, “this was not storyline
or anything like that.”
Not only that, but Page was scheduled to be in the building for Collision to record a
pre-tape promo for Dynamite and, “when he got there was told that they would have to
do it away from the Greensboro Coliseum and not to go to the show.”
Page himself confirmed that he was in Greensboro, posting this picture to Instagram Stories,
where he claims that his karma is kink.
Mine is women in suits, but you don’t see me posting that on Instagram or saying it
on a WrestleTalk News video.
Wait.
Meltzer adds that Punk, “ran down Page for no apparent reason, [and] he was booed heavily.”
For those who might not remember, all of Punk’s issues with The Elite stemmed from Page’s
additional line he added into a promo segment on Dynamite to build their Double or Nothing
world championship match.
Punk also called Page out for a talk during a promo segment on a night that Hangman was
not in the building in an effort to make him look bad.
But Page was not involved in Brawl Out, and therefore is not part of the agreement that
Omega, The Bucks and Punk have made where they can not say disparaging things about
each other publicly - which means he can cut promos like this on Hangman.
We also saw this in a Punk interview he did with ESPN ahead of his Collision return.
But maybe there is a ‘worked shoot’ element to this.
As according to Voices of Wrestling, the promo was “not planned” but is a work.
The idea was to get “jump the rail” heat from Elite fans who will be worked by Punk’s
comments, as the long term AEW plan is for Punk to turn fully heel - something he reportedly
pushed hard for when he returned to the company.
They also add that The Bucks are still refusing to work with Punk - with the latest attempt
being made last week - but Kenny Omega is open to the idea.
There has reportedly been no backstage fallout to Punk’s promo, according to Voices of
Wrestling, and it’s unknown what Hangman made of the promo or the idea of working with
Punk again.
Sean Ross Sapp over at Fightful Select has backed up some of what Meltzer reported writing,
“We were flat out told the promo after Collision was not a work, or a planned thing that Page
was involved in.”
However, they could not confirm that Page’s promo had to be recorded somewhere else.
What they can report, though, is that someone was sent home from Collision after heated
words with Punk backstage.
According to Fightful Select, Ryan Nemeth was brought in for the Collision tapings,
but was confronted by Punk who had taken issue with Nemeth’s tweet about Punk’s return
to TV where he called him, “literally the softest man alive”, a reference to Punk
calling The Elite ‘soft’ in that return promo.
Nemeth was then told he wasn’t needed for the show by an AEW coach, and a flight was
booked to send him home.
Fightful Select write, “We haven't heard how things went outside of Nemeth explaining
himself, and that it didn't end in anything physical.”
Speaking about this report on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer says that Nemeth’s discussion
with Punk did take place, but not at this weekend’s Collision, but did corroborate
that he was booked for the show and then sent home.
Bryan Alvarez then chimed in to add that this is actually the second time that Nemeth has
been booked for Collision before being sent home, and he’s not the only one.
Meltzer says, “There’s stuff that’s been happening since day one, and most of
it has been kept quiet.
A lot of people really wanted to keep this quiet, but it’s not quiet now.”
And that stuff being kept quiet, turns out, was that Nemeth is not the only person to
have been sent home from Collision, as Matt Hardy and Christopher Daniels have also reportedly
been booked for the show, and then told not to go to the building.
He added, “there may be others, but those are the ones I’ve heard of”.
The wild thing about Daniels being sent home is that not only is he a wrestler, he’s
also the Head of Talent Relations.
Meltzer concludes saying, “there’s a lot of other stuff too” and it’s a case of
‘wait and see’ what happens next.
Meltzer also reiterates that this is not an angle, and this is not designed to lead to
a match, adding that every time Punk does things like his promo on Page, it pushes back
the chances of us fans getting the Punk vs. Elite match.
He also adds that it cannot be confirmed that it’s Punk that’s making the call to send
people home who have been booked - and that Tony Khan would say it isn’t - but the locker
room believes that it is Punk making the call.
There’s a lot of murky waters here, and at this point it's hard to tell what is a
work and what’s a shoot.
So what do you think?
Let me know in the comments down below.
Punk also took a shot recently at Will Ospreay via Instagram - which I can now see because
I’m on Instagram go and follow me and all that - after Ospreay renamed the IWGP United
States Championship to the UK Championship.
Punk posted about this on The Gram saying, “Bruv, very disrespectful to just change
the belt like this.
You cannot just do things like this, this isn’t a real belt now I hope Inoki fires
you.”
With Punk opening this up with “bruv”, one would assume this is a work.
With All In just around the corner, and New Japan this morning announced Royal Quest III
here in London at the Copper Box.
Perhaps this is all leading somewhere?
But it’s not just Punk that’s been firing back at his critics, as WWE’s Asuka went
on a Twitter tirade and blocking spree against her own critics.
She called out the “scumbags” that she was blocking, and retweeted someone to tell
them to stop being a fan of hers after they called out some of her ‘flaws’.
Just what flaws someone could think Asuka has is beyond me, but Twitter is a weird place.
She then went one to call out some of the media…
…noting that she didn’t “flatter” the press in Japan, and that’s why some
of the media there still hates her.
She even claims that Stardom was created to defeat her, and destroy her personally.
She later clarified, “What I just said is in the past.
It was before I came to America.
Now the organization has changed and there are few players I know.
So, I don't know anything about it, and good luck to everyone who's trying their best.”
She also showed concern for two of the company’s stars, Mina Shirakawa and Syuri, a long-time
on-screen rival of Auska.
In a separate tweet she wrote, “The media could not bring me down when I came to America.
They must have really wanted me to fail.
I am used to it because I have been fighting my critics alone since my days in Japan.
But now that I am here, I have comrades in arms.
Charlotte, Becky, HHH and…”
Luke Owen?
“I've walked alone in the wilderness all my life, and here I have an oasis.
To the Asuka antis, I say, beat me up on the Internet all you want.
I grab everything.”
Looking to the male side of the SmackDown side of things, and a report has emerged from
Fightful Select that gives an indication of the popularity of LA Knight, yeah.
Because crowd reactions are one thing, but numbers are an entirely different and much
more tangible thing.
Interestingly, LA Knight does not make it as high up in the merch sold at live events
list as you might think.
Cody Rhodes tops out most live shows, with Roman Reigns, The Usos, Rhea Riply and Seth
Rollins rounding out a top 5 of wrestlers.
Generic WWE merchandise - tour shirts, toy belts, that sort of thing - is always top
of the overall list.
Fightful Select add that The Usos split from The Bloodline - who used to be grouped together
- has made them sell more merchandise at live shows than anyone else other than Cody Rhodes.
So, where does this leave LA Knight?
Well, Fightful add that all of Knight’s sales come from online or third party sellers.
On those lists, Knight is among the best sellers along with Rhodes and Reigns.
And that would be because Knight’s shirts aren’t all that available at the live shows.
In fact, SRS writes, “there was a point of contention internally recently regarding
the lack of merchandise for LA Knight at certain live shows of late.”
Which really screams of WWE’s usual ‘we don’t want you to look as over as you are’
mentality.
With all the Punk stuff taking up so much of the news, there’s no time for the AEW
Collision 1 minute 1 take, so instead you’ll have to go over to the WrestleTalk Podcast
to check out mine and Dan Layton’s review in full.
If you’re unaware of what the WrestleTalk Podcast is, here is a clip to sink your teeth
into - and it's LA Knight related - while I read The Last Ronin.