Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News!
I’m Oli Davis.
Memorial Day won’t just be blamed for Monday Night Raw’s inevitably low ratings, it’s
also now the reason behind some fan’s anger towards R-Truth.
In honor of the armed forces, Goldust broke his heel character to tweet: “RememberTheFallen”
Presumably still enraged by his Golden Truth tag team partner turning on him, R-Truth replied
to the non-kayfabe tweet very much in fake pro wrestling mode: “Remember I'm gone getcha”
A few fans on Twitter found the message disrespectful, but nobody complained about Braun Strowman’s
US army-mocking Instagram post yesterday!
But that’s probably because we’re all terrified of him.
NOT WONDER BRAUN!
Rusev was last seen in a WWE ring on the 5th March at the Raw-exclusive pay-per-view Fastlane,
where he was written off TV to undergo surgery.
While recovering, he’s since found himself drafted to Smackdown Live in the Superstar
Shake-Up and split from his real-life wife Lana, who is pursuing a new dancer gimmick.
In the weeks leading up to Backlash, Rusev appeared on Smackdown in two pre-taped promos,
demanding a WWE title match at Money in the Bank on his return, and announcing that he’ll
be on the go-home show to confront Shane McMahon about getting the championship opportunity.
But then, on the go-home show, there was no mention of The Bulgarian Brute.
Dave Meltzer reports in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that originally Rusev was planned
to challenge Randy Orton for the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank, but this was called
off when they decided to go with Jinder Mahal winning at Backlash.
As Smackdown was promoting Rusev’s confrontation with Shane McMahon up until two weeks before
the pay-per-view, it hints Mahal wasn’t always going to win the belt.
Rusev has been off TV ever since while creative find something for him - which is hopefully
being added to the Money in the Bank ladder match.
Also in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter - if you hadn’t figured it out already - WWE
is currently in ‘slow booking’ mode, where they “don’t have a lot of ideas for right
now, so they’re just using multiple person matches to fill the time.”
Apparently the storylines will begin to pick up in July and August heading into Summerslam.
After finding themselves without a home in Britain when Challenge dropped Impact Wrestling
late last year, the new/also old Jeff Jarrett regime convinced Spike UK to take their weekly
television - playing out every Friday night at 9pm since the 21st April.
And some episodes are so good, Spike UK play them out twice.
Just over a month into their new residence, last Friday saw the previous week’s episode
played again by mistake.
But no fear, grapple fans - Spike UK will catch up with a double bill this Friday.
Spoiler warning for all those UK fans who haven’t watched the missed episode via nefarious
means - the show saw the return of Scott Steiner to Impact Wrestling, who came out as Josh
Matthews’ muscle for his match against Jeremy Borash and Joseph Park.
F4WOnline are reporting Impact are taping four episodes tonight and tomorrow in India,
the first of which will be broadcast on Thursday.
India is quickly becoming the next monetization battleground in the global wrestling war,
with WWE appealing to the market through their Jinder Mahal push, and Ring of Honor also
signing a deal with Indian channel DSPORT, which will broadcast their weekly TV to more
than 70 million homes.
It’s time to honor the final Patreon donators of the month with their very own WrestleTalk
Hall of Fame rings.
Thank you The Wrath of Ricardo Aguirre Jr Genghis Ayman Khan
Just Josh Exotic Erica Duran
Catch As Catch Can Connor Simons Peter Gonna Stop You Stahl
The Crafstman Blake Carpenter An ex-TNA star appears to have signed with
WWE!
And did we just see the worst segment of the year on Raw?
Find out in my review of this week’s episode by clicking the videos to the left, press
subscribe and support WrestleTalk on Patreon.
I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.