Sasha Banks’ time off from WWE has been explained, Braun Strowman reveals a shocking
injury, the Dominos and AEW saga continues, and my review of last night’s SmackDown,
all in today’s WrestleTalk News!
Now subscribe.
Subscribing is the only way that Laurie stands a chance at taking this Jampionship from me
at SummerJam.
It’s his power source.
So if you want this title off me - you’ll have to subscribe.
But you won’t.
I know you won’t.
Last night “boss time” Sasha Banks “boss time” made her “boss time” return “boss
time” to WWE…
Boss time.
Banks had been off television since losing the SmackDown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania
37 Night One.
Now, PWInsider has reported a possible reason why she missed so much television.
A number of WWE stars have taken long periods of time off after WrestleMania in the past
such as Shawn Michaels in 2009, The Undertaker in 2011, and CM Punk in 2013.
Some had speculated that Banks could just be taking time off, but now it appears that
there was more to her absence than the others.
Prior to her SmackDown return, Mike Johnson of PWInsider reported that:
“The belief, although never officially announced, is that Banks had been off from WWE in order
to film material as Koska Reeves, her Star Wars character, for future a Disney+ Lucasfilm
series.”
Banks made her Star Wars debut during the second season of The Mandalorian.
Her character, Koska Reeves, appeared in two episodes and with the show focusing more on
Mandalore in the future, it definitely seems possible that Banks could have an expanded
role in Disney’s plans.
And if you haven’t seen the show and have no idea what a Mandalore is then just carry
on because no spoilers.
I don’t know what a Mandalore is either, I’m just reading the script, I don’t have
Disney+.
Braun Strowman was recently announced for his first post-WWE appearance as he will appear
at QPW’s SuperSlam 3 event in Qatar in early 2022.
However, the more shocking news regarding Strowman is what he revealed on Instagram
on Friday.
Strowman posted a video of his workout and when one of the comments asked him when he
would be doing some deadlifts he responded by saying his lifting days are over because
he is 15% paralyzed in his leg as a result of a back injury suffered in 2015.
Strowman debuted on the WWE main roster in August of 2015 and it is unclear whether the
injury in question took place before or after he began appearing on television regularly.
It does not appear, however, that the injury greatly affected his in-ring work.
Strowman was released by WWE on June 2, 2021, shortly after he competed for the WWE Championship
at WrestleMania Backlash.
There have been reports of WWE having renewed interest in him but it remains to be seen
whether or not he will rejoin the company.
Pizza cutters have many uses these days.
While some at a place like Dominos use it to ya know, cut pizza, Nick Gage uses it to
cut people and that had Dominos in quite a fuss this week in his match against Chris
Jericho.
We have already reported on Dominos’ statement following the No Rules match at AEW Fight
for the Fallen, which essentially amounted to them not being happy bunnies, but now top
AEW star Jon Moxley has responded to their statement, appearing on the Cincy 3:60 podcast,
he said: “Domino’s needs to chill out.
They need to chill.
It was a coincidence.
Jump on the bandwagon.
You don’t think Nick Gage can sell some pizzas for you?”
Pabst Blue Ribbon - how do you pronounce that?
Pabst?
Paste?
Pab-s-t?
Paybest?
We don’t have it in the UK - has also voiced their support for Gage and AEW, saying they
want the ad spots and posting a picture of a PBR pizza cutter.
Let’s see that end up on The Price is Shite in QuizzleMania one day Adam.
And now it’s time for my review of last night’s SmackDown, in about 5 minutes.
This show opened with a recap of last week’s John Cena/Roman Reigns/Finn Balor promo triangle,
which included the missionary position line from Roman.
So it was just taken off the YouTube version then, for some reason.
John Cena then came out and cut a promo against Roman, saying he was a scared child and by
accepting Balor’s challenge he was ducking Cena.
But after Cena had finished, out came dishevelled Baron Corbin, who begged Cena for some help,
saying he knows they’ve never gotten along, but he’s desperate.
After his dick injury from last week, he said he can’t perform anymore and the wife and
kids have left him.
How can you boo this man?
Cena leaves it up to the crowd, who tell him they shouldn’t help the poor, in-need, well-meaning,
wrestler.
Good job Minneapolis.
Cena then gives Corbin a little money he had on him, and Corbin remarks that it’s not
enough, Cena’s a Hollywood megastar now, and he’s a sellout.
So Cena delivers an AA to him.
Now I don’t know what they’re doing with Corbin.
I thought last week was the babyface turn starting.
But now I have no idea.
Regardless, Corbin is playing this character so incredibly well.
We got a recap of the Usos & Mysterious from last week, before a Jimmy Uso vs Rey Mysterio
match, that was pretty fun, and ended with a reversal from last week, where Rey rolled
up Jimmy, but with Dominik’s help.
I don’t mind this, The Usos have done it twice now, and it’s a little payback.
I just don’t know where this feud is going.
After a recap, I’m sensing a trend here, of Carmella vs Bianca Belair from last week,
Belair came out to celebrate surpassing 100 days as champion, but was interrupted by Carmella,
who has lost twice, clean, who said she deserved another go.
I mean no, and then was interrupted by Zelina Vega, who hasn’t won a match since coming
back to WWE before Money in the Bank.
Zelina Vega says Carmella doesn’t want to be a three-time loser, and says she’s a
rising star.
I mean, no.
And because wins and losses actually matter, this statement holds absolutely no water.
For some reason Bianca accepts Vega’s challenge, and then she and Carmella beat up Belair,
before the return of Sasha Banks, who came out as a face, beat up Carmella and Vega,
and hugged Belair.
It’s boss time.
We then got a recap - of Reginald becoming 24/7 champion, before he had a match with
a mystery opponent, who turned out to be Chad Gable.
Reginald got a promo before the match in Gorilla position, where he’s now lost the French
accent entirely, and he revealed on a wwe.com exclusive clip that he was speaking in that
accent because Carmella wanted him to.
Even while he wasn’t with Carmella and was with Nia and Shayna.
Yep, makes sense to me.
Also this guy clearly wasn’t supposed to walk through the curtain during the promo.
Heh.
He did a whoopsie.
Reginald won by DQ in the match against Gable because Otis interrupted, and this was...fine.
People think I hate Reginald on principle, and I don’t.
He’s a very athletically impressive person, the problem was that he was the primary focus
in the women’s division.
Him as 24/7 champion is exactly what he should be doing.
Though I do feel bad for Chad Gable here.
The contract signing came next between Roman Reigns and Finn Balor for their match at SummerSlam,
where Roman says he’s gonna smash Finn and send him back to NXT, before Baron Corbin
comes back out, the desperate man that he is, attacks Finn Balor and tries to sign the
contract instead.
But nope, here comes Cena, who beats up Corbin, and then decides to just steal Finn’s title
opportunity, and signs the contract with a sharpie instead.
That’s not how contracts work, also John you signed it all over the words and not in
the section you’re supposed to, that contract’s got to be thrown out and re-printed.
That’s just a waste of paper, John.
Also this was kind of a dick move from Cena.
This was Finn’s opportunity, not his.
Stop Corbin by all means, but taking it away from Finn...eh, didn’t sit right with me
at all.
Paul Heyman brought up a legitimately great point backstage, saying Finn Balor’s name
is the one that’s on the contract, but Deville and Pearce wave that aside and just say it’ll
be Cena vs Reigns at SummerSlam.
Ok then.
A six-man tag came next of Big E, Nakamura & Cesaro vs Apollo Crews, Ziggler & Roode.
This was a very quick match, and Nakamura won by pinning the champion, Apollo Crews.
WWE innit.
We then got a recap, if you’re keeping count that’s 5, of Edge and Rollins from last
week, before Edge makes his entrance and it cuts to ad break.
When we come back, Seth Rollins is in the ring, because he attacked Edge during the
ad break, and honestly I thought this was kinda cool.
It’s different, and you don’t get different all that often in WWE.
Rollins then shows a recap - of his feud with Edge.
And once that’s done, he says if he can’t be Universal Champion, then neither can Edge.
Cool.
Good stuff.
We then got a RECAP OF THE CONTRACT SIGNING.
I saw it, I was here.
On this show.
And then it was the main event tag match of Carmella & Zelina Vega vs Bianca Belair & freshly
returned babyface, Sasha Banks.
So naturally, after Banks tapped out Carmella in a fun match, she turned on Belair, and
tapped her out with the Bank Statement as well.
I loved this, the return and turn in one night was really effective, and this is no doubt
setting up the WrestleMania rematch, which should be wonderful.
And to finish, we got a replay of the beatdown we just saw.
Because of course we did.
So that was the show, let me know what you thought in the comments below and by voting
in our POLL ON A POLE MATCH on our Community tab, where 68% of you voted for Yay!
Sasha Banks!
Instead of Oh No!
Sasha Banks!
I thought this was a decent show, but there seemed to be an awful lot of filler on it
with replays and recaps galore.
The Banks return was very good I thought, and sets up an exciting match, but the contract
signing was a very convoluted way to get to Cena vs Reigns, the undercard feels a little
disjointed and uninspired right now, and Seth vs Edge will still be very good, but this
week felt a little stagnant, despite a cool beatdown angle.
Overall this show gets a high 3/5, Smack Bang In
The Middle.