On today’s WrestleTalk News, there’s more drama from the Sammy and Tay saga,
WWE try out ROH free agent, WWE vs. AEW tribalism and more. Give yourself the best
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know what happens to naughty children … it’s one of my favourite christmas movies.
On the 18th of August 2021 edition of AEW Dynamite, current TNT Champion Sammy Guevera
proposed to his girlfriend Pam Nizio, but it was announced over the weekend that the couple
have now sadly broken up, with Sammy posting to Twitter: “I know a lot of you have supported us
for a long time and we have appreciated it so much over the past several years. Since you’ve
all given us so much love and support we figured we owed it to y’all to let you know that we are no
longer in a relationship. We still love each other and wish nothing but the best for one another. We
would appreciate your kindness and respect to our privacy during this time. – Sam and Pam.”
Now, in a regular world where people are normal and don’t act like idiots, this would be the end
of the story. After all, he asked for kindness and respect to their privacy. But this is the
internet, and these are wrestling fans. Over the last couple of months there has
been growing speculation - and that’s all this is by the way, internet sleuths thinking they’ve
worked something out and are putting clues together that aren’t actually there - that
Sammy Guevera and fellow AEW star Tay Conti were actually dating behind Pam’s back - as
Conti was featured more and more in Sammy’s vlogs while Pam wasn’t, and because Conti
revealing on Instagram that she had been split from her husband “for a long time”. This was
even addressed in one of Sammy’s recent vlogs: In the wake of the announcement that Sammy and
Pam had broken up, a bunch of people took to Twitter to send abusive, hateful and harassful
messages to Conti about these unfounded rumours - blaming her for the break-up of the relationship
between Sammy and Pam. The abuse got so bad, that Conti has now deactivated her Twitter account.
Her management team have since released a statement on the matter, posting to Instagram:
“This is Tay’s management team writing to let you know Tay is doing good but will be stepping away
from social media for a couple days. In the meantime, we will be posting on Tays behalf
throughout the week. This includes normal posts as well as some sponsored posts that we have already
recorded earlier in the month that must be posted this week. Thank you for reading, Happy Holidays
from Tay & her management team!” Responding to the abuse himself,
Sammy posted to Twitter: “This shouldn’t have to be said… but my relationship with Pam ending had
nothing to do with ANYONE else. Pam and I broke up back in October and just now felt was the time to
make it publicly known. So please stop pointing fingers and looking for someone to blame.”
Whatever the story is, whatever the truth of the matter is, don’t send abusive messages to
people online. I know I’m preaching to the choir here because if you’re watching this video then
you’re probably not like these goobers. But these are real people with real lives. Just
because you see them on TV, doesn’t mean they’re fictional characters. Just because they post about
their personal lives online, doesn’t mean you know them personally. They have real feelings,
and don’t need to take abuse from strangers on the internet based on conjecture and rumours.
Don’t do this. Don’t be these people. Wrestling fans get a bad wrap as it is, so let’s try and
be better people in 2022. Don’t send abusive messages to wrestlers online. Just stop it.
Last month it was announced that Ring of Honor would going on hiatus for the time being,
before coming back in April next year with a new business model. As part of this, ROH released
all of its talent from their contracts, making every single one of them a free agent. This has
already led to Jay Lethal signing with All Elite Wrestling, and there are reports that Brody King
was signed almost immediately after the news, and a new claim from Bleacher Report is that it’s
expected that ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoe Brothers will also be signing with the promotion.
The Briscoes defeated OGK for the titles at Final Battle, and on that same show, Rok-C retained the
ROH Women’s Championship over Willow Nightingale, and afterwards was confronted by Impact
Wrestling’s Deonna Purazzo who said she wanted her title - challenging Rok-C to a Winner Takes All
Match for the ROH title and Purazzo’s AAA Reina de Reinas Championship at a future Impact Wrestling
show. It could also include the Impact Knockouts Championship, as Purazzo challenges Mickie James
for the title at Hard to Kill next month. Rok-C accepted the challenge, and it was figured that
she was set to sign with the company. That was until this past weekend.
WWE held tryouts at the Performance Centre last week, and a WWE.com gallery of images from the
event shows that Rok-C was part of the tryout class. Several indie wrestlers who have appeared
for All Elite Wrestling were also at the tryouts, including Cole Carter and The Renegade Twins,
who are also the Mission Pro tag champs. But I know what you’re saying or thinking:
wasn’t the whole point of NXT 2.0 to move away from signing indie names and instead focus on
other athletes that they can train from the ground up? Which is why NXT released
multiple names from their roster this year who all came from an indie background.
Well, according to Dave Meltzer, it’s a case of different standards.
Male wrestlers who come from an indie background might have a chance in WWE,
so long as “they’re bigger”. He explains, “if someone is really super on the indies,
it’s not like WWE won’t hire them, but they’re not looking at the 5’9” guys or the 5’7” guys
anymore. That’s the difference. If you come from the indies and you’re 6’3”, they’ll look at you.”
As for women, it’s not about your size or your indie experience,
it’s about your age and how you look. Taya Valkyrie revealed after she was released
that one of the reasons she was let go was because she was 38, and Lady Frost told Sean
Ross Sapp on Fightful that she was turned down from a WWE tryout this year because
she was in her early 30s and was told she was too old. In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter,
Meltzer revealed that Cora Jade - despite being “nowhere near ready for TV” - is being pushed
because “the idea [is] she will appeal to younger guys because she looks like a cool teenager.”
Rok-C might stand a chance to sign with WWE then, as she’s only 20 years old.
Where would you like to see Rok-C go, let me know in the comments down below.
But if she does sign with WWE, it looks like she’ll have to pick that side.
When All Elite Wrestling launched in 2019, one of the things that took me by surprise was the
instant tribalism that came from fans. I suppose it shouldn’t have, because I’ve
seen it with WWF and WCW, and even WWE and TNA - not to mention the decades long Marvel vs. DC
forum wars - but this was another level. Fans had picked their side. You were either Team WWE
and hate everything AEW did and their fans, or Team AEW and hated everything WWE did
and their fans. We here at WrestleTalk often got accused of “AEW bias” because we liked
the show, despite regularly criticizing it. Hilariously, AEW fans often accused us of WWE bias
when we criticized AEW shows and praised WWE shows. It’s almost as if you can like both.
But according to Andrew Zarian, this doesn’t just extend to wrestling fans. He posted on Twitter:
“there seems to be a divide happening between talent in both companies. Spoke to multiple
sources yesterday & they feel like many would not go to the other side if there was an opportunity.
‘Either you're team WWE or team AEW for many.’” Apparently this all spun off from the news that
the Jacksonville Jaguars - owned by Tony Khan’s father Shahid Khan - fired their head coach Urban
Meyer and weren’t going to pay him for the years left on his contract. Back when WWE released a
bunch of their talent, Tony Khan criticized the company on Busted Open Radio and said that “anyone
who signs [with WWE] these days is not signing a real contract. It’s a temporary arrangement.”
This reportedly was now seen as hypocrisy by some in WWE. Zarian said: “The decision to not pay
Urban Meyer with years left on his deal is a heavy discussion topic among WWE talent in Illinois
today. I’m told lots of confusion and discussion around the definition of 'real contracts' in AEW.”
Zarian deleted the tweet, and explained on Wrestling Observer Live that it was
something he’d heard and was told, but he didn’t provide the necessary links to back up his points.
“I put out a tweet trying to break down something I heard over the weekend within WWE. Those
two articles that came out - and I should have referenced them - there was the Fox News article
that came out that Tony Khan really responded aggressively towards - rightfully so - and there
was another one from Sportico that essentially blamed AEW for the bad NHL ratings on TNT.
That was a big topic of discussion on Friday and Saturday within [WWE] talent.”
He added that tribalism has been there in a “loud minority of fans”,
but “talent is now becoming that kind of way”. This is my last WrestleTalk News video for 2021,
as I’ll be off from this Thursday. I’m on the Raw review over on WrestleTalk Podcast,
though, so please go and subscribe there. That would be a nice Christmas gift to me.
I hope you all have a great holiday season, and I’ll see you next year. Jam That Jam.