Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I’m Luke Owen and this is Wrestling News.
Our top story today is, of course, centered around the closing moments of last night’s
Night of Champions.
In a moment that mirrored Sami Zayn’s unforgettable Royal Rumble chairshot, the catharsis felt
when Jimmy Uso finally snapped and superkicked the soul out of Roman Reigns well and truly
stole the show - to the point that I don’t think anyone remembers that Natalaya wrestled
for a title.
Not only was it long overdue - Jimmy that is, not Natalya - some actual storyline development
in the Bloodline saga since WrestleMania has provided some intrigue and excitement for
SmackDown.
Yes, the Bloodline may be close to becoming that must see TV once again, props to you
WWE you did it.
Especially as The Wise Man himself Paul Heyman put out a short clip to Twitter of him boarding
that Bloodline private jet.
However, it’s unlikely there any of those customary Bloodline celebratory seafood platters
on board this time as Heyman captioned the post with:
“Your Tribal Chief, Solo and I are jetting back home from #WWENOC
We will talk about this in detail Friday on #SmackDown”
So yes, with The Usos (or at the very least definitely Jimmy) out of the Bloodline the
natural question is what’s next?
While I’m sure Roman is going to beat the ever living tar out of Jimmy at some point,
will WWE give the less appreciated Uce a one-on-one title match or will MITB see The Usos take
on Roman and Solo in tag action?
That match was previously reported by WRKD Wrestling to be a consideration for Money
in the Bank in London, however Dave Meltzer has also noted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter
that “Reigns is expected to defend the title” at the show, noting the top contenders for
that match could be either Bobby Lashley or one of The Usos.
However, there is a potential other wrinkle to this story coming our way.
Following Jimmy’s superkick party all over Roman’s face, his own father, WWE Hall of
Famer Rikishi would post a few interesting tweets.
Rikishi posted three, short and very cryptic messages seemingly in response to his son’s
actions.
First saying “And so it shall be done”, then, “Stay in your lane” and thirdly
“enough”.
And to top it all off the big kish posted that classic blood emoji alongside a gif of
Don Corleone from the Godfather with the caption ‘I’m gonna make him an offer’.
Fans in the comments in response were running wild pleading to the WWE Hall of Famer to
return on this week's Smackdown and back up Jimmy and Jey, and I for one would love to
see that.
Not only because I’m an Attitude Era kid, but also because the idea of Roman Reigns
getting a Stinkface is somewhat hilarious.
Fightful Select have a few notes from the show itself, firstly noting that all staff
and talent were “looked after very well” on the trip, and - perhaps crucially - Vince
McMahon was not present for the show.
Whether he was putting in his input on the creative side of things is an unknown factor,
but he wasn’t there physically for Night of Champions.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select also got a message from a higher up in WWE who said:
“see?
No concerns about Rollins' schedule” following Seth winning the World Heavyweight Championship
- which seems to be a direct reference to the story that was put out a couple of weeks
ago that WWE were concerned about putting the belt on Seth after him taking a role in
Captain America: New World Order.
Also, for what it’s worth, WWE.com have put some clarification on whether or not this
new World Heavyweight Championship is in the same linage as the old WWE World Heavyweight
Championship or even the old WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
The official WWE website says that Seth is the only holder of this belt with the longest
reign so far of 17 hours.
So, yeah, it is a new world title and not a continuation of the old belt.
At least, well, according to WWE.com.
Which - remarkably - is not a reliable source of information of where WWE creative is actually
heading.
Back to Fightful and they also note that Cody’s arm break injury is - as we all presumed - a
work.
However, enough people asked SRS to check so he did and, yeah, it’s a work.
And people think kayfabe is dead.
So what does this mean for Cody and Money in the Bank?
Fightful Select are reporting that this feud between Cody and Brock will continue, but
there is no clarification on whether or not that will be at the next show, or perhaps
at Summerslam.
At this point in time, Brock is announced or promoted for Money in the Bank in London,
which would presumably put Cody in a strong position to be in the ladder match instead.
Speaking of MITB, this week has been rife with reports of potential contestants in this
year's men's match, as well as who is being touted as a potential winner.
Originally it was reported by WRKD Wrestling that LA Knight was an early frontrunner for
the briefcase, however, this week they also reported that Triple H favorite Dominik Mysterio
was a potential candidate for the mega push.
However, all that talk may be for naught as we could instead be all discussing a different
member of Judgment Day.
Once again according to WRKD Wrestling, Damian Priest is planned for the ladder match and
is being viewed backstage as a “potential main eventer” ever since his impressive
performance against Bad Bunny at Backlash last month.
But that’s not all as they would also reveal that a more surprising name may also be set
to make the cut for MITB as Chad Gable is also on WWE’s list of potential candidates
for the match.
So for those keeping track that’s a MITB line-up of LA Knight, ex-con Dom, Damian Priest
and Chad Gable with potentially some Cody/Brock action sprinkled on top.
Who have you got?
Let us know who gets that MITB push down in the comments below.
Another name that would usually be a prime candidate for the MITB would be the Scottish
Cyclepath Drew McIntyre, however, ever since WrestleMania he’s gone completely dark.
Literally on his social media and everything, we have nary heard a peep from master Drew.
And that has mostly applied from WWE as well, obviously he did get drafted to Raw a few
weeks back, however, nobody has actually addressed where the heck he’s ran off to.
But perhaps that may be about to change as Drew was both name-dropped on last night’s
show in the match between Gunther and Mustafa Ali as well as shown off in a video package
after the show went off the air.
But, it is important to note that this was one of those typical video pieces that air
on the Network in place of Peacock ads.
If you’re outside of the States you’ll know which ones we mean.
That Liv Morgan one, you know the one.
McIntyre has been in the news as of late with reports that his contract with WWE is set
to expire in the not-too-distant future, and there’s reports of his unhappiness within
the company and could potentially look to work elsewhere.
Somewhere like AEW?
And speaking of AEW.
There’s more wrestling tonight!
Oh dear, there’s more wrestling tonight.
AEW’s Double or Nothing is coming to you from Las Vegas and we’ll be doing live reactions
to the show over on the WrestleTalk Podcast channel - so make sure you subscribe and enable
notifications to always on to know when it does go live.
There’s also NXT Battleground but… well let’s be honest no one seems to care about
that show.
Anyway, despite Double or Nothing being a few hours away it turns out there is still
time for some last minute changes, as it has been revealed that a few participants in the
blackjack battle royal for Orange Cassidy’s International Championship have dropped out
of the match.
In a rather peculiar turn of events, QTV’s Harley Cameron announced via the QTV Twitter
account that Powerhouse Hobbs would not be competing in the match for.. some reason and
as a result QT Marshall and Aaron Solo would also be withdrawing “in solidarity”.
Solidarity for what exactly?
I have no idea.
But seen as though Powerhouse Hobbes has been part of the advertising for Collosion’s
debut in June, perhaps it could have something to do with that.
It’s a question of how much of a last minute change this was, as all three men were announced
for that match on Friday’s Rampage that all three men were announced for the match,
yet they were all missing from the official graphic shortly thereafter.
Sticking with uncertainties for tonight's show, and AEW Women’s Champion Jamie Hayter’s
status for the event has been very much in the air this week as reports of he current
injury status were revealed.
Both Dave Meltzer and Sean Ross Sapp are reporting that Hayter is legit injured, with SRS saying
that she’s been dealing with the issues for “the better part of a month”.
However, as of right now, she is still surprisingly expected to defend her championship against
Toni Storm tonight.
This was alluded to by Tony Khan during his media call on Thursday, however, he did also
confirm that Hayter was not cleared to compete.
While allowing Hayter to compete while hurt may seem rather silly on the surface, expect
this to perhaps play a part in a story of some kind, which makes the likelihood we crown
a new champion in Vegas that much more likely.
SRS had said on a previous Fightful podcast that the women’s scene in AEW would change
dramatically over the next few days.
Regardless, we at WrestleTalk want to wish Hayter the best in dealing with her injury
issues and hopefully she can get the recovery time it sounds like she needs.
And please, please, please be okay for All In.
If I don’t get to see Jamie Hayter wrestle at All In I am going to be so mad that I may
even tweet something about my anger, then delete it because it’s not really her or
AEW’s fault and then feel bad that I made it sound that way.
Anyway here’s how our live crowd reacted to Jimmy Uso turning on Roman Reigns.