Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk STACKED News, I am Chopper Pete Quinnell. Myself and
Laurie will be covering the news today, as both Luke and Oli are coming into the office
later today to do a live reaction stream of AEW’s debut TV show, Dynamite. So make sure
to check back here later for that!
On top of that, Laurie and I will be doing our live reactions to SmackDown’s debut
on Fox on Friday night, Oli and Luke will be doing their live show in Nottingham sandwiched
between a Frontline show and a WrestleGate Show, and Laurie and I are back on Sunday
night bringing you our live reactions to Hell in a Cell! This is, genuinely, one of the
busiest weeks in the history of wrestling, and in the history of WrestleTalk.
But now on with the content, and with Raw having its season premiere on Monday night,
and AEW starting up, NXT moving to USA and SmackDown moving to Fox, the wrestling world
has its eye on the future. And one name we might need to be getting very, very familiar
with, has just been namedropped by none other than Stephanie McMahon...because it’s her
daughter.
While doing the media rounds to promote SmackDown’s move to Fox, Stephanie McMahon mentioned that
her eldest daughter was already in training for an in-ring career at some point. Aurora
Rose Levesque is currently 13 years old, so give it a few years and The Authority will
make a grand return, but this time flanked by Aurora McMahon, who will go on to win more
championships than Charlotte Flair in a shorter time period and will reinvent women’s wrestling,
just like her mother invented it. I can’t wait.
Speaking of the future, and a lot of eyes are eagerly anticipating AEW Dynamite’s
debut show tonight, however the build has already begun for AEW’s first PPV after
their TV show begins, which is Full Gear on November 9. As is now tradition, there will
a Starrcast event taking place over the Full Gear weekend, and a pretty big name has been
announced for the event.
WWE Hall of Famer Ron Simmons, AKA Farooq, AKA that one guy who turns up and says damn
at random backstage segments, has been confirmed for the event, with the announcement hyping
up the fact that Simmons was the first African-American world champion. Of course he became that world
champion in WCW, and now he returns for a weekend surrounding a PPV of a TV show on
the same network. What goes around, comes around. If only there were four letters that
could sum up this situation...oh yeah of course it’s OHHH MYYYYY!
Speaking of OH MY and WCW, and after WWE bought out their top rival, they of course then owned
the rights to certain things like Starrcade, the WCW footage library and War Games. The
latter of those three has been used to great effect, becoming a staple of NXT, with the
latest Takeover War Games coming in November.
The match type itself was created by ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes, but his son,
who just so happens to be Executive Vice President of AEW, has shown interest in buying the rights
off WWE. Speaking on a media call, he said:
“Well, you mentioned War Games and I'm kind of sitting here thinking to myself, I'd really
love to just buy it back and I wonder if they'd be willing to let me just buy it back, because
Dusty came up with the match concept, on a napkin in the parking lot. Arn Anderson was
there, I've got a witness. The one they do now isn't truly loyal to the old school rules
of it. Maybe I can get it back.”
AEW War Games confirmed! In all fairness, WWE’s version of it may not be faithful
to the original, but at least they’ve been really, really good. It’s not like they’ve
tarnished the name, which is what they’ve done with Starrcade.
Time will only tell if Cody can get the rights to host a War Games match, but one thing that
for sure is happening is Dyamite’s debut on TNT tonight. However, it’s now not only
just on TNT, as it’s been officially announced that AEW have a Canadian TV deal as well!
It’s a bit late, but it’s something I guess!
It was announced that AEW will be broadcast live on TSN in Canada at 8pm EST every Wednesday
night. This is a lovely lovely deal for AEW, who continue to expand their global reach.
I’m sure in time, we’ll hear about more and more TV deals in more and more countries
across the globe. That is of course, if Dynamite is a success.
And there’s one more thing that’s been announced that might help with that success,
because Chris Jericho’s mystery tag team partners to take on The Elite on tonight’s
show have been revealed as none other than Santana and Ortiz, formerly LAX.
The six men will do battle at tonight’s Dynamite debut show, after the duo made their
debut at All Out, attacking The Young Bucks and The Lucha Bros after their hellacious
Ladder Match. Wait, sorry, it wasn’t a ladder match, it was an Escalera De La Muerte match.
Rolls right off the tongue.
And now with the collective breath of the wrestling world bated and everyone excited
for AEW’s debut TV show tonight, let’s switch over to Laurie to talk about WWE. See
ya!
Alright, welcome to the trustworthy section of this news.
Deville & Rose Pitched LGBTQ Storyline
And over on the WWE side of the fence it’s a very busy week, big Raw Premiere, NXT’s
first full two hour show on USA, Smackdown on Friday, Hell in a Cell, oh yeah and Total
Divas next Tuesday too. Wow the fall from those oh so high highs was more brutal than
a Shane McMahon off a Cell.
But there has been some interesting info coming out of the promo work for WWE’s Bella-less
reality show.
One interesting tidbit was Sony Deville and Mandy Rose aka Fire and Desire pitching a
little fire on fire desire.
By which I mean a preview clip from the series that shows the two meeting with WWE producers
to “pitch the first-ever LGBTQ storyline in the WWE.”
Seemingly WWE didn’t go with it, though there were hints of tension between the two
back in June and speculation that WWE was brewing a romance angle.
Obviously the fact that they haven’t pursued it yet doesn’t mean they won’t nor does
it mean that WWE aren’t down for inclusivity. The bigger issue holding it back is that Fire
& Desire are a women’s tag team and do they want to do anything with those? Do they f***.
Raw Season Premiere Sees Big Ratings Bump/
They’d much rather use their ladyfolk in awkward romantic angles with Bobby Lashley.
Ain’t that right Lana? Who has joined Maria Kanellis on the let’s make a mockery of
our actual husbands on national television train. Or as I like to call it now: a clustercuck.
But while that end segment to Raw was more than a little weird, it got some eyes on the
product, as this season premiere episode pulled in the best numbers since football season
started.
Raw earned itself an average 2.57 million viewers which is up from 2.21 million last
week.
It took some doing though with Bobby Lashley’s lip lock with Lana, Brock Lesnar mincing two
Mysterios, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair shilling Saudi blood money and the Fiend attacking
Seth Rollins.
What will they do next week to continue the upwards momentum? Shawn Michaels sucking face
with Sasha Banks while Kid Mikaze sews himself into a cuck-oon.
Michael Cole To Be Replaced On Commentary?
Speaking of Sasha Banks, Boss Time might have just ran out.
Not only because frequent purveyor of the terrible catchphrase Michael Cole has moved
to Smackdown, but because if rumours are to be believed that job may not even be permanent
anyway.
Cagesideseats are reporting that Tom Phillips may be in line to step into the shoes of WWE’s
lead play-by-play commentator.
For now it’s thought that Phillips will work backstage while Cole hosts Smackdown
bug eventually move back behind the desk at some undetermined point in the future.
The reports don’t say what Michael Cole will be moved onto in the company, or whether
he’ll retire? Get an allotment, take up gardening, you know, enjoy his boss time off.
Maybe get a Big Dog.
The Rock Returning To SmackDown Boosts Ticket Sales
But before he steps away we all need to brace ourselves for some VINTAGE Michael Cole on
Smackdown. Catchphrases for all. And speaking of catchphrases there is nobody
with a better roster than Rock The Dwayne Johnson.
Who this week confirmed that he will be returning to WWE to layeth the Smacketh Down in front
of the millions and millions of Fox viewers on Friday.
You would have thought that the Rock would be a surprise WWE would want to keep up their
sleeve for a big pop on the debut show.
But then you realise why they didn’t, after Rocky’s tweet hit the net ticket sales for
the Smackdown show went through the roof.
According to TickPick, the “get-in” prices for Friday’s big Smackdown show have increased
a staggering 87% following the announcement.
The average ticket price also shot up to $116, compared to $62 before the Rock electrified
the card.
Almost as if WWE hasn’t built any big stars like the Rock or Stone Cold since the Attitude
Era.
CM Punk vs The Rock On WWE SmackDown?!
Well, not quite, there is one man, one name whispered on the wind who has the cultural
cache among fans to put bums in seats: CM Punk.
And as you’d imagine for somebody who spends his whole life being asked about wrestling
whether he wants to talk about it or not, he found out that Rocky is returning for the
Smackdown show on Friday.
Punk guested on The Kevin and Bean Show on KROQ yesterday and got onto the topic of the
People’s Champ saying:
“Remember the last time The Rock was in the Staples Center? Let’s do it again. When
is this show, next Friday? Dwayne, call me Friday.”
This is reference to when the Rock appeared in front of the WWE crowd during shooting
for Fighting With My Family.
He was running the crowd through some fun chants when they took over and started chanting
CM Punk… kel surprise…
In one masterful bit of crowd management Rocky gave Punk a call right there in the centre
of a WWE ring. It went to voicemail, but it was a fun moment.
Don’t just call him this time though Rock, call him out!!
It’s unlikely to happen but just adds fuel to the fire that was stoked earlier this week
when it was reported by PWInsider that Punk had tried out for a hosting spot on FS1’s
new talk show WWE Backstage.
CM Punk to AEW confirmed. Sorry old habits. CM Punk back to WWE. Doesn’t have the same
ring to it.
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Thank you for watching and thank you to all of the names scrolling away beneath me for
being our awesome pledgehammers on Patreon. Remember to come back later and hang out with
Oli and Luke to watch the first ever AEW Dynamite and see if this bold new era of wrestling
gets off to a flying start. I’ve been El Fakidor and that was lucha.