In this WrestleTalk News, there’s 3 more rumoured big returns for this weekend’s
Survivor Series, a huge update on the relationship between WWE and New Japan, a WWE star was
nearly in an MCU movie and more.
On Monday’s Raw it was announced that the fifth and final member of Bianca Belair’
team for War Games this Saturday would be revealed on SmackDown.
Why this Raw storyline based on the Raw Championship and featuring wrestlers exclusively from the
Raw brand is taking place on SmackDown is quite beyond me.
I talk more about that in the Raw review yesterday, and on the Raw podcast myself and Dan Layton
did over on the WrestleTalk Podcast channel.
Fightful Select reported ahead Raw that Becky Lynch would be back with WWE “soon”, having
been off TV since Summerslam with a separated shoulder.
Not only that, but they added that Lynch, “was discussed and planned as the fifth
partner in the Survivor Series WarGames match.”
Fightful noted in their report that creative plans often change, but now PWInsider is backing
up Sean Ross Sapp’s story, saying that Lynch is slated to be at Survivor Series this weekend.
And her being there, “would put her in the pole position of being the fifth person on
Bianca Belair's team.”
There were other rumoured names for that fifth spot, including Charlotte Flair and Candice
LaRea - the latter of which was slated for the spot prior to her injury according to
Dave Meltzer - as well as Naomi and Sasha Banks, who both walked out of the company
back in May following disagreements over creative.
The speculation on Banks was furthered over the weekend, when WWE released an image promoting
Survivor Series with a hooded figure in place of the fifth member that appeared to have
Banks’ trademark blue hair.
Mike Johnson of PWInsider noted, “For those who have asked about Naomi, Charlotte Flair
and Sasha Banks, we have not heard anything about them being at Survivor Series at this
point in time.”
But Becky isn’t the only name currently doing the rounds of ‘returning at Survivor
Series’.
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We’ll have a full review of Survivor Series this weekend, and we posted our predictions
for the show yesterday - with the winner of Pete and Tempest becoming the number one contender
to this, my Jam That Jampionship at the Royal Rumble in January.
Back to Survivor Series, though, and PWInsider also add that The Undertaker will be backstage
at Survivor Series this weekend along with his wife Michelle McCool.
Taker debuted for WWE at the Survivor Series in 1990, and retired from the sport at the
same event 30 years later in 2020, even though there was no one in the building due to the
pandemic. 2020 really does feel like a fever dream at times.
Those who might think that this could be one final goodbye from WWE fans actually in attendance
this time might be disappointed, however, as Johnson adds in his report that Taker and
McCool will just be backstage, and likely Undertaker is there because his 1DEADMan show
on November 25th - the day before Survivor Series - is in Boston which is the same location
as the PPV.
Also likely just set to be backstage and not on camera is Maryse, who Mike Johnson of PWInsider
reports will also be at the PPV.
As to why she is there, Johnson writes: “There is no word yet whether she will be appearing
on camera at the event.
It is always possible she will be filming for future episodes of Miz & Mrs.”
So while we have reports of Becky Lynch, The Undertaker, Maryse and Michelle McCool returning
to WWE, there’s a WWE name that will be returning to New Japan.
Karl Anderson -
along with his good brother Doc Gallows - returned to WWE last month to further AJ Styles’
storyline with The Judgement Day.
There was just one slight problem with the return, however, which is that Anderson was
the NEVER Openweight Champion in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Anderson is, in fact, still the NEVER Openweight Champion.
He was supposed to defend the belt at Battle Autumn against Hikuleo, but the problem there
was that it was on the same day as WWE’s Crown Jewel - which Anderson wrestled on as
part of The OC against Judgement Day.
Anderson said in a video on Twitter that NJPW never actually approached him about the match,
but New Japan issued a statement saying, “the booking was made through the appropriate channels,
and with Anderson’s expressed approval.”
Adding, “NJPW has for the past several days attempted to negotiate with Anderson but has
not been met with a response.
Should Anderson decide to renege on his scheduled championship match, he will be required to
vacate the NEVER Openweight Championship and return the title belt to NJPW immediately.”
Anderson did not wrestle at Battle Autumn, with Hikuleo instead beating Anderson’s
Bullet Club running mate Yujiro Takahashi in less than 30 seconds.
But as it currently stands, Anderson is also still the NEVER Openweight Champion, and he
did not vacate the belt as New Japan requested he do.
Anderson then announced over the weekend that he would be returning to New Japan Pro Wrestling,
along with Gallows, at World Tag and Super Junior Tag League finals on December 14th.
Not only that, but he will defend the championship, and even teased that “Uncle Alan” AJ Styles
could join them.
Still no word on whether they’ll defend the QuizzleMania Tag Team Championships at
any point.
Fightful Select reported last month that Gallows and Anderson would be heading back to New
Japan, and that NJPW were aware the pair were signing with WWE back in August.
Sean Ross Sapp notes, “A plan was put in order to have Anderson work dates around his
WWE schedule and advance storylines.”
Sapp also adds, “Those that we've spoken to said that the plan is still for Anderson
to work more dates beyond his title defense in December, noting that he's always been
penciled in and planning to work the Tokyo Dome show.”
According to Fightful, The Good Brothers had committed to those dates before they left
Impact.
If Gallows and Anderson do appear at the Tokyo Dome show on Jan 4th, that would mean next
year’s Wrestle Kingdom would see talent from New Japan, Stardom, WWE and All Elite
Wrestling appearing on the show, as Kenny Omega revealed over the weekend that he will
be facing Will Ospreay for the United States Championship on January 4th.
The forbidden doors continue to be creaked open.
Speaking of The OC, the group was joined recently by the returning Mia Yim, who will take part
in the Women’s War Games match this weekend as part of Team Belair against Damage CTRL,
Nikki Cross and Rhea Ripley.
However, she wasn’t Mia Yim for very long.
Because Yim owns the trademark on her name, she started getting referred to instead on
TV as Michin, which is Korean for “crazy”.
And according to the lady herself, it was something her mother called her when she was
a kid.
At first it was assumed this would just be a nickname for Yim, but then WWE.com renamed
her profile to be Michin, and even amended her history in the company to suggest that’s
been her name the entire time, writing, “Michin first turned heads in WWE during the inaugural
Mae Young Classic in 2017.”
However, less than 24 hours later, she was back on WWE.com as Mia Yim.
To play Devil’s Avocado here, this might not be a case of WWE ‘changing their mind’
and more just a case the website team misunderstood that this was a nickname rather than a full
name change, and then corrected the error when it was made clear.
Or, it’s just classic WWE changing their minds lol.
Yim and co might have had an easier time against The Judgement Day, if one of them had gone
to the MCU instead.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has been blowing up the box office since its release a couple
of weeks ago, earning over $500 million worldwide.
The film follows on from the first Black Panther movie, and deals with the passing of its lead
actor Chadwick Boseman, while also introducing no one’s favourite Marvel villain Namor.
There will be people who will comment on this video saying they like Namor, but don’t
believe them they’re just lying to themselves.
But why am I talking about Black Panther: Wakanda Forever here on the WrestleTalk News
- this isn’t my weekly show I do with Dan Layton for Cineworld where we review the latest
movies - well, the reason I’m doing so is, according to Fightful Select, a WWE star was
invited to read for the movie.
Sean Ross Sapp reports that Damien Priest was asked to come in and audition for Black
Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Not only was he asked to audition for a role, he was asked to audition for no one’s favourite
Marvel villain Namor.
Essentially one of the lead characters in the movie.
Figtful have been unable to confirm whether the audition actually took place, but the
inquiry was certainly made.
Priest would have been the second big WWE name in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with
Batista featuring in the Guardians of the Galaxy series as Drax the Destroyer.
He wouldn’t have been alone, either, as Deadline Hollywood reported earlier this year
that Becky Lynch will be joining the MCU for a Disney+ series, and was rumoured at one
point to have been on the set for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Bianca Belair has spoken openly about wanting to play Storm when Marvel do their X-Men movie,
and Liv Morgan said in an interview recently that one of her life goals is to be part of
the MCU.
Who else from WWE would you like to see in the MCU?
Let me know in the comments down below.
In some NXT news, now, and the closing of the show saw Wes Lee - fresh of successfully
defending his North American Championship - get attacked by the returning Domonik Diajakovic,
who is now just going by Dijak - a shortened version of his indie name Donovan Dijak - and
is thankfully without any Retribution stuff on him.
However the biggest news coming out of this week’s NXT is that a main roster star has
moved to the developmental brand with the new gimmick Scrypts.
The tease of Scrypts has been going on for some time in NXT, but the debut didn’t quite
feel in line with those videos.
What we got instead was a wacky orange masked man doing flips and leaving a playing card
on Guru Raaj.
It was quite clear that this was former 24/7 Champion and former sommelier to Carmella,
Reggie To say the debut went down poorly would be
an understatement.
Scrypts ended up trending on Twitter, but for all the wrong reasons.
Hollywood Hangman wrote, “SCRYPTS is the most dead on arrival gimmick I've seen since
Kizarny.
WWE should be embarrassed for allowing gear and a mask THAT bad looking on their programming
and this should die immediately.”
Fightful’s Kate tweeted, “Scrypts is Reggie, a luchador hacker who leaves game show host
cards on his opponents after he defeats them.
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA” While Denise Salcedo noted, “with the build
to Scrypts with the voicemails and the vandalism, I did not picture this look.
And I was not expecting Reggie.”