Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I am Luke Owen and this is Wrestling News.
Our top story today concerns the concerning news of Bryan Danielson’s injury that he
suffered during his main event match with Kazuchika Okada at the weekends AEW/NJPW supershow
Forbidden Door.
Danielson took an elbow drop from Okada about 10 minutes before the end of the 30 minute
match, which broke his forearm.
It was the second most devastating elbow drop of the night, after Satoshi Kojima elbow dropped
CM Punk right in the cock.
Danielson finished the match, tapping out Okada with a variation on his LaBell Lock
with only one working arm.
And in the press conference following the show revealed his injury would keep him out
of action for around 6-8 weeks.
This would, presumably, cause some issues with the planned Blackpool Combat Club vs.
Elite Blood and Guts match which is rumoured to take place next month.
But 6-8 weeks isn’t the end of the world.
Unless, of course, it’s worse than thought.
And that is apparently the case according to Danielson’s wife - the former Brie Bella
- who posted a photo of the x-ray showing the break to her Instagram Stories, noting
that it is “definitely worse than we thought”.
There’s no other details on what ‘worse than we thought’ could mean, or if means
that Danielson will be out for more than 8 weeks.
If he is out for longer, that would not only cause some issues for Blood and Guts, but
it would also mean Danielson wouldn’t be available until after AEW’s massive All
In show in Wembley in August.
We here at WrestleTalk wish Bryan Danielson the speediest of recoveries because I need
to see him wrestle at Wembley.
And if he doesn’t, oh I will write an angry tweet about it.
Well, a frustrated tweet.
And then I’ll delete it because it’s not his fault.
We shift now to WWE and the constant power struggle that has been raging on since Vince
McMahon wormed his way back into WWE after being ousted last year over several sexual
misconduct claims, and has even also gotten himself back into a creative position in the
company after saying publicly that he wouldn’t ‘be in the weeds’ of all that nonsense.
Bear that in mind when I tell you the fun fact that we are just 24 days away from the
anniversary of Vince McMahon retiring from WWE.
There’s been some conflicting reports around what it is that Vince is actually doing when
it comes to creative decisions in WWE for both Raw and SmackDown.
PWInsider reported that this week’s episode had Vince’s fingerprints all over it, while
Better Wrestling Experience has said the opposite is true.
What has been relatively consistent, however, is that most reports claim that the majority
of Vince’s changes are match orders, match timings or the placement of certain angles,
which he does remotely unless WWE is doing a show that is close to the WWE offices.
Fightful have even said that they are going to stop reporting ‘Vince has made changes
to Raw, because it’s just the norm now.
Like it was when he was in charge, Vince is making changes to the show hours before it
airs.
Which means that when Fightful do report on a ‘Vince is making changes’ story, it
must be a big deal.
By the way, I just wanted to let you know if you didn’t see the announcement yesterday
- but Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful is here in London, and today will be on the in-person
QuizzleMania over on partsFUNknown.
I can’t wait to beat him off wrestling trivia.
Wait, beat him on wrestling trivia.
ON wrestling trivia.
A lot of the issues over Vince’s changes stems from the June 19th episode of Raw, where
Vince changed the first half hour of the show, removed a “pivotal storyline moment” and
canceled Seth Rollins’ open challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship, and last
Friday’s SmackDown also saw several matches changed at Vince’s request.
Dave Meltzer had said on Wrestling Observer Radio over the weekend that several in WWE
- he speculates that would include Triple H - were frustrated over the changes Vince
made to SmackDown, and there was even a reported meeting between Triple H and Nick Khan to
find out a way to stop the Vince changes interfering with their creative process.
Fightful also corroborates that “There was a ton of frustration around several changes
to last week's Raw and Smackdown episodes at almost every level of WWE.”
We’ve got more on the creative split in WWE still to come, but first it’s time to
check in with Turbo Jack for this episode’s sponsor.
I’m 80s wrestler Turbo Jack, and if didn’t know, my business has been booming!
I’ve been selling tons of Turbomans where you can listen to multiple cassettes at the
same time, it’s a genius invention.
I’ve even got a call very soon with the famed Hundred Thousand Dollar Man because
he wants to talk business.
And the other reason the Turboman has been taking off is because I’ve been using Shopify!
Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform designed to help kickstart and grow your business.
If you’ve got a business idea, Shopify is what you need to get it off the ground.
WrestleTalk use Shopify for their store, WrestleShop, so they can say with confidence that they
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Now excuse me, I’ve got to take this call.
Hello?
Hundred Thousand Dollar Man?
Yes, business.
Yes I would like for you to buy the Turboman business.
…how many zeros?
You got yourself a deal.
Alright, love you, bye.
Turbo Jack is rich!
Now it’s time to hit the casino, Turbo Jack loves roulette.
I definitely won’t lose all this money, thanks to Shopify for making me rich!
- Thanks, Turbo Jack.
You look so familiar, but I can’t quite place where I’ve seen those nipples before.
Back to the news, and WWE’s big plan to deal with the Vince’s interference - Vinceterference,
if you will - is to - and I’m not kidding here - “Vince Proof” Raw and SmackDown.
That is how one source put it to Fightful.
WWE are trying to “Vince Proof” WWE.
Also, Vince Proof, name of your create-a-wrestler on AEW Fight Forever.
And the way they’re doing this, and this is also quite unbelievable, is to announce
matches ahead of time.
Now, I know what you’re thinking?
Didn’t WWE used to promote matches ahead of time either on TV or social media and they’d
be changed anyway?
And you’d be right.
But according to Fightful, “McMahon generally likes to make good on the advertised matches
if possible, even if they weren’t his idea.”
So by announcing matches three weeks ahead of time - like they did for Charlotte Flair
vs. Asuka - it’s an attempt to make sure Vince doesn’t change or cancel that match
when it comes to showtime.
Money in the Bank this weekend is another loaded card for the company, with the two
ladder line-ups, Rollins vs. Finn Balor and - what will likely be the main event - The
Bloodline Civil War Tag Match of Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa vs. The Usos.
I think more people are talking about the LIW Civil War this weekend, but WWE can take
comfort in being a close second.
What they can’t take comfort in, however, is the finish of the tag match.
We’ve heard a lot about the split in creative when it comes to Trips and Vince - just a
couple of weeks ago Trips put back in a segment that Vince had cut out - but there’s a Civil
War in the creative team over the Bloodline tag, according to WrestleVotes on Twitter.
WrestleVotes posted, “Hearing WWE has two very drastic finishes in play for the Bloodline
matchup on Saturday.
Creative seems split on the decision.”
Our predictions for Money in the Bank will go live in a couple of hours over on the WrestleTalk
Podcast channel, so make sure you subscribe to hear our different thoughts on what could
happen at the end of that match - and let me know what you think will happen in the
Bloodline Civil War tag match in the comments down below.
That might not be the biggest bit of news coming out of Money in the Bank, however,
as WRKD Wrestling on Twitter is also reporting that we could see a big return this weekend.
Matt Riddle is set to challenge Gunther for the International Championship, and it sparked
some speculation online that this could lead to the return of Randy Orton, who has been
out of action with a back injury since May of last year.
WRKD Wrestling have looked into this, and are now reporting that Orton is close to returning
to WWE - and could even make his return this Saturday at Money in the Bank.
PAUSE, as we announced yesterday, this Friday the good folks at THQ Nordic are sponsoring
us to host the PFK World Cup to Determine the Best in the World at AEW Fight Forever,
a return to old school arcade style wrestling games, which launches this week.
But who will go for the gold?
Well, we have two more names to join the fray as the face of No Rolls Barred, can’t keep
his hair the same colour after a photoshoot, Adam Blampied tries his luck.
And what’s better than one member of No Rolls Barred but TWO members of No Rolls Barred
as Holly Musgrave bangs her gavel on all our heads, I don’t think there’s a sledgehammer
in the game so we might be okay.
Join us on Friday over on partsFUNknown for a live-streamed celebration to mark the launch
of AEW Fight Forever and crown the best in the world at a very specific wrestling video
game.
Back to the news and it’s not like WWE need big names like Randy Orton, as this week’s
episode of Raw drew an absolutely incredible viewership number of 1.973 million viewers.
Nearly 2 million people tuned in to watch the go-home edition of Raw.
That’s their best number since the Raw After Mania 39, which always draws a big number.
The first two hours, in fact, did draw over 2 million viewers each, with a slight dip
to 1.8 million in the third hour.
The all-important 18-49 demo was also the highest since Raw After Mania with a 0.61.
As Dave Meltzer writes on FigureFour, “Raw last night did gigantic numbers with no real
obvious reason since nothing major was advertised for the night.”
It wasn’t quite as good news for AEW, however, as the second episode of Collision dropped
by around 27% from its debut last week to draw 595,000 viewers.
Looking for those all-important silver linings, this is about the same drop Dynamite saw from
its first to its second episode.
But, in actual good news if you're a TV Network head, is that the .21 Collision got in the
all-important 18-49 demo is over double what TNT would usually get in that same timeslot,
which was around a 0.09.
So, at least for now, the show is working for TNT.
Before we jump into the NXT 1 minute 1 take, there was an incident a few months ago where
Rick Steiner - father of NXT’s Bron Breakker - made transphobic comments towards Impact
star Gisele Shaw.
Shaw’s story was backed up by several other wrestlers at the convention, and Breakker
himself has addressed that his father’s comments do not reflect on him in an interview
he did with USA Today.
And Fightful Select have reported that while the incident will mean Rick Steiner isn’t
brought back to WWE for “quite some time”, there is no heat on Breakker himself.
Why don’t you use the free time you’ve got on this toilet break from work to leave
a comment below to tell Gisele Shaw how awesome she is.
But, yes, now it’s time for my NXT 1 Minute 1 Take.
A format that I have nailed every single time I’ve done it.
Tiffany Stratton defeated Thea Hail to retain her women’s title with a roll-up.
Hail got a visual tap out, but the ref was distracted by Charlie Dempsey and Drew Gulak.
They then turned on Duke Hudson, but he was saved by a returning Andre Chase.
There was a cool video package for Ilja Dragunov - why isn’t he on the main roster - and
there was a meeting between Kalani Jordan and Dana Brooke, and then Gallus retained
their tag titles over Malik Blade and Edris Enofe after interference by Stacks Lorenzo.
Schism had a family meeting in the ring, and it set up a loser leaves NXT match for next
week between The Dyad and The Creeds, which might mean that Grizzled Young Veterans might
be finally getting their releases from WWE which they asked for a couple of months back.
Seth Rollins popped the rating so much last week that they sent Rhea Ripley to NXT this
week for a cameo, warning Carmelo Hayes of getting in Judgement Day business.
I wouldn’t worry to much, Rhea, Balor beat him clean on Raw.
Nathan Frazier defeated Dragon Lee to retain the Heritage Cup in a great match, and we
got a video package hyping the return of Raw Underground lol.
Gable Steveson was also there.
They set up Mustafa Ali vs. Tyler Bate for next week and we could see a split of Von
Wagner and Mr. Stone.
Gigi Dolan beat Kiana James, Joe Coffey visited Tony D’Angelo in prison, and it will be
Roxanne Perez vs Blair Davenport next week.
Lyra Valkryia attacked Jacy Jane backstage, and Carmelo Hayes retained the title over
Baron Corbin in a decent match.
Closing of the show saw Bron Breakker storming out of Shawn Michaels’ office.
That’s all from me.
I’m gonna now stare and study some wrestler nipples, as I prepare for today’s QuizzleMania
- which will feature an in-person appearance of none other than Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.
Make sure you subscribe to partsFUNknown to see that madness later on today.