Hello and welcome to the Wrestletalk News.
I am El Fakidor Laurie Blake.
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Coming up on this episode of News As An Act of Rebellion: a huge match has just been set
for NXT TakeOver New York, a potentially even huger match is in the works for WrestleMania
and Roman Reigns is already training for an in-ring return? Which I’m not 100% convinced
is a fantastic idea.
But we start with a bit of Ricochet and Silent Bob.
As NXT’s, and also Raw and Smackdown’s, One and Only bumped into director Kevin Smith
in an airport, marked out and got himself a selfie.
“I spotted the awesome @thatkevinsmith in the airport the other day and had to say hi!
Only for him to say “if you’ve got a camera we can take a photo.” Couldn’t pass that
up either! So cool!”
Luke would have a really good Kevin Smith movie reference to go here, I can’t think
of anything because I’m not a monster nerd, so we’ll move on.
The odds of Ricochet bumping into Kevin Smith in an airport went up exponentially when he
got drafted up to Raw and Smackdown in a panic raid on NXT talent last week and now might
have to travel between the two shows and Florida on the reg.
But he’s not just racking up air miles in planes, he’s getting them from his high-flying
antics in the ring, and he’s about to earn even more this week as WWE announced some
of the booked matches for Smackdown nice and early this week.
Ricochet will be teaming with Aleister Black to take on the well-tenured tag team of Rusev
and Shinsuke Nakamura. The Brute and the Artist, the Brutalist.
Meanwhile Johnny Gargano will take on Cesaro one on one, while Tommaso Ciampa and Sheamus
hang out at ringside. Obviously Smackdown is keen to capitalise on the momentum the
NXT stars quickly gained on the main roster last week, and are hoping this early announcement
will give viewers time to clear their schedules and tune in.
Also on the show will be a contract signing between Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston for
10 pounds of hemp at the biggest show of the year, WWE Fastlane baby, Cough.
Expect some shenanigans from Captain Planet and Captain Flannel to mess with the New Day.
Wrestling is coming home next or should that be NXT as we hop the pond for spoilers from
NXT UK’s recent tapings in Coventry. So if you don’t want to know then skip ahead
in 3, 2, 1.
During the tapings Noam Dar announced a big move, as he switches brands to NXT UK from
205 Live. Which is like escaping the quantum realm. People can see me again. He’s believed
to be moving back to the UK soon, right after they write him off 205.
However, on the second night of the tapings there was reportedly a harrowing moment when
a reverse rana went wrong leading to both Dar and Mark Andrews being stretchered from
the ring. No word yet on whether either man is badly hurt, but we’ll keep you posted.
Also on the show was Kassius Ohno who has storyline quit NXT US and is looking for a
new home.
It hasn’t been confirmed yet but the general belief is that Ohno will become a semi regular
on the show in an effort to boost attendance, instead of just dropping ticket prices.
But he’ll also be a veteran teacher for the UK talent and spend the week in the PC
in the week prior to the tapings imparting his knowledge like a hero.
It was also announced that Primate has become a full-time NXT UK roster member and is now
teaming with Wild Boar as a squad known as The Hunt. Which is a better name than my first
draft attempt, monkey pig.
Still on the spoilers for NXT UK and Scottish sensation Kay Lee Ray also made her debut
at the tapings defeating Jamie Oliver’s arch nemesis Candyfloss.
We also saw the NXT UK debut of Viper aka Piper Niven who came out to confront Rhea
Ripley before having a match against
And the audience in attendance were also treated to a dark match between Ashton Smith and Ilja
Dragunov, which Ilja won obviously.
But it wasn’t all just exciting debuts at the tapings they also paid off on some of
the other debuts they’ve had... well sort of.
On the second night of tapings it was confirmed that Pete Dunne will face WALTER at NXT TakeOver
New York for the UK Championship.
Dunne called out WALTER for the match after the ring general stepped on the belt, the
ultimate punishment, he doesn’t like the belt so force it on him.
That’ll be a busy weekend for wrestling as Impact have also been busy setting some
interesting matches for their Mania weekend Pay Per View United We Stand.
On the show will be the Lucha Bros vs Rob Van Damm and Sabu in a match everyone but
Sabu is sure to regret.
An Ultimate X match between Jake Christ, Kotto Brazil and Jack Evans with more names to be
announced, you’d assume the X Division Champion, Rich Swann.
And Team Impact vs Team Lucha Underground in a lovely bit of wrestling cross pollination.
Where Brian Cage, Eddie Edwards, Moose and Johnny Impact will struggle to get along while
facing off against the team of Drago, King Cuerno, Aerostar and Daga.
Also announced was a special intergender match between Eli Drake and Tessa Blanchard.
Which as far as Eli Drake is concerned is not happening...
A fan tweeted Eli to say that he just wasn’t into intergender matches.
Feminist ally Adjustin Beaver said - “I’m a proponent of equality but (and we are off
to a flying start) Intergender matches really break the immersion of wrestling for me. It
screams, "hey this is fake". I don't like that in movies or in wrestling. I also don't
find men hitting women to be entertaining. #JustMy2Cents”
Also on the same card, a man who dresses like a dragon.
But to be fair it’s fine if you don’t like watching men pretend to hit women. But
the important word is pretend. Because actually wrestling is a semi choreographed routine.
Anyway Eli agreed with this beaver bloke saying: “You couldn’t have hit the nail more directly
on the head.
I have amazing respect for @IMPACTWRESTLING and @Tess_Blanchard and can see that she is
likely the greatest female talent in wrestling today.
Although that said, I will not participate in a one on one intergender match.”
So does that mean that Impact announced the match before checking with Eli?
Or is this part of the angle, creating a bit of friction with Blanchard before the match?
And eventually getting Mr Beaver’s knickers in a twist when it come to light the match
is happening?
It also raises the question of whether Eli be punished if he refuses to do the match?
Or will Impact make it a mixed tag to make him happy? Will they just give him another
bloke to go against and give Blanchard someone more open to the idea?
In other news, there have been some more rumours about the WWE Hall of Fame’s class of 2019.
Because along with Triple H inducting himself, along with the rest of DX, there were lots
of rumours that the original line-up of the Hart Foundation would be inducted into the
HOF.
Bret Hart, Jim ‘the Anvil’ Neidhart and manager Jimmy Hart were all said to be entrants
by PWInsider sources, which makes sense, because they’ve literally had Jim’s face on a
table on WWE TV in the past 12 months, but that was before DX were announced as entering
as a group.
However WrestleVotes on Twitter seems to think they still are, as are:
“Hearing that along with DX & The Hart Foundation, this years WWE Hall of Fame class may also
include Tazz & Honky Tonk Man.”
Later clarified with: “Source saying Tazz not for sure. Honky seems definite.” It’s
tough to get Tazz to do anything tbh.
WrestleVotes also had some inside scoops on Bryan’s Mania opponent, which had been reported
by Dave Meltzer to be Kevin Owens - fan of American consumerism.
“Asked about the Bryan v Owens Mania rumors. Got back that they are true.
HOWEVER, nothing is set in stone.
This wave of momentum that Kofi is on could still shake things up. One source I talked
to said don’t be shocked to see Bryan v Kofi as the Mania title match in the end.“
Whatever happens it’s just nice to live in a world in which two very good options
are on the table.
You may remember the news from last week that Vince McMahon had demanded that Roman Reigns,
a man with leukemia, return to WWE and wrestle a match at WrestleMania 35.
And you may remember how we all went, that’s ridiculous nobody would ask a sick man to
rush back to work, even to an office job, let alone to a wrestling ring. Has cancer
is a rubbish gimmick.
Well it all seems like it’s true - first and foremost Vince McMahon himself tweeted
that Roman would return to this week’s RAW to address his illness. Which is going to
make for a hot and totally not depressing segment… but seems is hoped by WWE will
boost those flagging ratings along with a bit of Becky Lynch and the NXT call-ups.
Add to that the fact that it appears like Roman has been training for an in-ring return…
An Instagram post from personal trainer David Gonyea shows Roman Reigns training at the
Island Club and Spa in Waikiki, Hawaii:
“Had the absolute honor and privilege of having @romanreigns train at @_islandclubandspa
during his stay in Waikiki! It was very humbling for an athlete of his caliber to not only
train here but also speak so very highly of our facility. Glad we provided a great space
to help him prepare for his in ring return!”
Looks like we may be getting that rumoured Roman, Ambros and Strowman vs Drew, Lashley
and Bazza Corbs match at Mania after all. Great...
Thank you for watching and thank you especially to all of the names scrolling below me for
being our awesome Pledgehammers on Patreon. And be sure to click the video over there
to find out the real reasons all of those NXT stars have been called up to Raw and Smackdown.
Spoiler alert, none of them are, it made perfect sense. I’ve been El Fakidor and that was
lucha.