In this WrestleTalk News, Kyle O’Reilly shoots on NXT 2.0 and why he left, there seems
to be some unrest in the AEW locker room, there may be AEW releases coming soon, and
more.
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Last September when NXT transitioned to its 2.0 form, there were rumblings that the roster
may be shaken up quite a bit, and what followed was the departures of both Kyle O’Reilly
and Johnny Gargno.
While Gargano hasn’t appeared and wrestled elsewhere yet, Kyle O’Reilly swiftly made
his way over to AEW to join both Adam Cole and Bobby Fish to sort of reform Undisputed
Era and continue Adam Cole’s seizure of power within The Elite while Kenny Omega is
away recovering from injury.
Kyle has then taken some time off for paternity leave as he has welcomed his first child into
the world, and he recently spoke with Renee Paquette on her Oral Sessions podcast including
his views on NXT 2.0 and why he left.
“I thought I had at least maybe six months to a year left.
It was a real surprise to me knowing that it was coming up in December.
A pleasant surprise, just with the landscape and everything.
It was really kind of a blessing that I was given the opportunity to make my own decision...I
feel for people who get released and everything, and that happens way more than it should.
It’s awful…”
“...That was a huge selling point, too.
The AEW locker room is full of the guys that I came up with in this business that I’ve
been friends with for years.
And there was a lot of that in NXT too, but it seemed like every couple weeks, you look
around at the locker room just getting decimated.
It was just not a very good environment, I guess, at that time.”
Continuing on, O’Reilly explained the simple logic he followed as to why he left the company:
“‘We don’t want pro rasslers’ was something I heard.
And it was like, okay, well I am a pro wrestler.
And I want to be a pro wrestler still.
So, I’m gonna go where I can be a pro wrestler.”
And speaking on NXT 2.0 more generally, Kyle mentioned that they might run into a problem
in the future: “I think people in wrestling are really
rare in the sense that you really, really have to love it…I think that might be an
underlying problem in this new NXT…There’s a lot of people coming in that I don’t think
really have that true love for it.
I’m sure they’ll do well, they’ll make a big splash, be a big star, and make a ton
of money, but at the end of the day, if your heart isn’t really in it, I don’t know.
It’s tough.”
I must say it’s quite refreshing for wrestlers to be able to say no to WWE and go and find
success somewhere else, as in the past it was WWE or nothing if you wanted to make enough
money to survive on wrestling alone.
And I don’t just mean AEW either, some of the indies are really thriving lately too,
with GCW on the rise, Terminus, and other standouts.
Yay for wrestling, amirite?
However, it’s not all sunshine and roses over in the AEW locker room, as there might
be a bit of unrest brewing.
Former AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida recently penned an article for Weekly Pro
Wrestling, a Japanese weekly publication, and in it she highlighted how she feels that
Joshi wrestlers are struggling in AEW, including herself in that category.
“My feeling is that the hurdle for Japanese women’s pro wrestlers to come to AEW has
become much higher…AEW is an organization that is constantly changing, and the players
come and go very rapidly…At the time of the launch, the women’s division of AEW
relied heavily on Japanese female pro wrestlers, and that was one of the selling points of
the division.
But that was only for a while after the launch.”
“Nowadays, being a Japanese female pro wrestler is not as much of an advantage as it used
to be…On the contrary, it has become more of a handicap in terms of language barrier,
obtaining a work visa, and the Corona disaster,” Shida revealed.
“I myself am no exception to this, and even as a member of the AEW since its inception
and a former Women’s Champion, I am struggling to survive in the current AEW.”
The most frequent complaint since AEW’s inception has been its women’s division,
primarily regarding its lack of focus, matches and screen time.
A few of the characters initially brought into the company also didn’t click, as well
as storylines like the Nightmare Collective, which I think we’d all rather forget.
It’s unfortunate that a former AEW Women’s World Champion feels like she’s struggling
to compete against the other women in the growing division, especially because she’s
actually awesome, but perhaps AEW are taking the right steps to get more talent featured.
They’ve got the TBS title now, which was actually defended on TBS this week, and they
had two whole women’s matches on Dynamite this week!
Two!
I know!
That’s more than one!
But despite that step forward, there may be some trimming down of the AEW roster before
long.
Since AEW’s inception in 2019, there haven’t been many releases of talent at all.
There have been a few contracts that have expired however with AEW choosing not to re-sign
them, one of them being controversial, thanks Tony.
But we might be seeing some more contracts expiring before long, as the company approaches
its three-year anniversary.
Tony Khan revealed in an interview with TVInsider that he kept a lot of people under contract
during the peak of the pandemic regardless of how much he was using them on screen because
he wanted to give people paying work “which was hard to come by for wrestling during the
pandemic where there weren’t any independent shows.
Really only two places were running and the other place was cutting people left and right.
I did want to give some job security to people.”
However, that’s about to change, as he went on to say: “Now with so many wrestlers coming
in, I can’t renew all the contracts.
I’ve had to make some tough choices based on ability, fan response, or both.
I try to maintain the best roster I can for the company and fans.”
So we may be seeing some wrestlers becoming free agents before long.
However, this week’s episode was a corker of a show, and the ratings reflected that.
Bouncing back from last week’s low, this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite drew an average
of 1.13 million viewers, with a huge .41 rating in the 18-49 demographic, an increase of 18%
from last week.
This is of course significantly higher than Raw’s demo rating this week, but that’s
primarily due to Raw being bumped to SyFy because of Winter Olympics coverage.
We’ll have to see if AEW can capitalize on this momentum as they begin the build to
Revolution which is just under a month away.
One of the two women’s matches on Dynamite this week - two!
I know!
That’s more than one!
- was Jade Cargill actually defending her TBS Championship on TBS against the debuting
AQA.
While this wasn’t Jade’s best match to date, she has been noticeably improving with
every week that passes, and there might be a reason for this.
As Cargill revealed on an episode of Talk Is Jericho, she had been working with Bryan
Danielson on improving her wrestling ability.
Which makes sense as Danielson is arguably the best wrestler in the world.
Tony Khan recently revealed when speaking with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated
that it was him who asked Cargill and Danielson to work together, saying “I think Bryan
is the world’s greatest pro wrestler, and he has such valuable insight.
Jade is incredibly driven, and Bryan’s been a great mentor to her so far.”
But steady on there Tony, don’t make her too good, because now she’s got the attention
of WWE.
According to Andrew Zarian on the Mat Men Podcast, people within WWE are “100% interested”
in signing Jade Cargill after seeing her perform on AEW.
Cargill had previously tried out for WWE, but declined their offer to join the promotion
as it wasn’t enough money and she would have had to sever sponsorships and relationships
with third parties that were pre-existing.
Tin foil hat time!
What if Danielson only joined AEW as a WWE spy and is training the wrestlers that WWE
want to sign so then WWE can get wrestlers who are better in the ring already-wait, no,
this won’t work.
WWE don’t care about wrestling.
My bad.
And speaking of Danielson, Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio was speculating about
his role in AEW going forward and what his plans would be for Revolution, saying:
“I think Danielson will probably be in a more high-profile match (than the Face of
the Revolution ladder match).
But Danielson has been talked about for the TNT Title too.”
Danielson having the TNT Title and putting it on the line all the time in fantastic matches
against up and comers that helps Danielson look amazing, helps the new wrestlers with
experience and we get to see some great wrestling?
Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
Of course Danielson is currently wrapped up with his story with Jon Moxley, after he offered
to pair up with Mox and take some of the young AEW stars and coach them into the future,
which is an offer Moxley is seemingly considering.
Moxley then tagged with CM Punk on this week’s episode of Dynamite, so maybe he was testing
the waters to see what it was like tagging with someone else…
Maybe.
Next week, Lita will be challenging Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship at
Elimination Chamber in Saudi Arabia.
However, Lita has previously been critical of the Saudi Arabia deal WWE had made, and
she explained on Ring The Belle why her opinion has now changed.
“I was outspoken on the early relationship on WWE and Saudi.
Oh, they say they want women to wrestle over there, there’s no women on the card.
[There are now] women on the card.
And I’ve talked to the women personally that have been over there.
And they’re like, ‘It’s unbelievable.
There are women crying, never thinking they would get to see two women be so strong in
the ring’.
They’re like, ‘It’s really powerful.
You’re going to enjoy that.’
And so, sure, do they have a long way to go?
Do we as a society have a long way to go?
Absolutely.
But, you got to take the opportunities when they’re there.”
The forefront of change.
Now check out this week’s What’s On At Cineworld with Luke and Dan Layton!