In this WrestleTalk News Roman Reigns buries the entire WWE roster, news on WWE getting
more frequent talent shake-ups and much more.
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So with Roman Reigns being the Chief Dog at the Table these days and easily the most compelling
thing on Smackdown the question of course becomes: who in the blue hell is going to
be the one to beat him for that Universal Title.
Roman’s guillotine chokehold on the Smackdown main event scene has seen him topple everyone
from Daniel Bryan, Edge, Jey Uso, Cesaro and Kevin Owens without losing a single match
in 2021.
And that all adds to his final boss mystique, but means that there is no one looking strong
enough to be the man to beat him.
A fact Roman himself covered on Peter Rosenberg’s Cheap Heat when asked who he could pass the
torch to in WWE “Ain’t nobody.
I can say my favorite number two, Drew [McIntyre].
There are a bunch of number twos, threes, whatever you want to call them.
We can rank them, but they are under me.
How far under?
Who knows, who cares.
How strong of a number two do you want to be?
At this point, my favorite is Drew McIntyre.
In a perfect world, if there is an opportunity to pass the torch to him, he’s the one guy
that has captivated my attention in that manner, but he ain’t there.
It’s only because I’m still here and so solid within my stronghold.
The flag is fully planted in and I can’t even think about [who is next].
John [Cena] needed someone to come in so he could move on and try new things.
I will eventually need that, but there is nobody at this point.”
It feels like Roman is walking a line with this quote between his character and his real
opinions on the matter, but it’s a bit of a burial of the WWE roster - not one single
person is ready to be Universal Champ, not even the guy who was WWE Champion for all
of last year Drew McIntyre, not even Edge, not even..
Actually…
I’m looking at the roster and seeing a lot of names but he might be right.
Though considering the rumoured WWE Draft is reportedly scheduled for late August/early
September we could be seeing Drew McIntyre coming after Roman right after the conclusion
of SummerSlam, then we’ll really see who is ready.
But the rumoured Draft could be the start of a fresh approach to talent shake-ups within
WWE - as the usually annual event where the US title and Intercontinental title change
brands along with the New Day could be a more frequent occurrence.
Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men podcast, he of much of the WWE news of the moment, took to
Twitter to reveal that he had heard from a source that:
“WWE talent and staff shakeups are something I was told would be more common heading into
this new era for the company.
When I pressed this person as to why their response was ‘To be honest it’s needed…'”
Yeah, if one entire year of Drew McIntyre vs Randy Orton has taught us anything it’s
that WWE needs people switching brands, it’s the only way to stop them booking the same
match every single week.
Shinsuke vs Corbin is it.
Of course it is.
Continuing where we left off with the more frequent shake-ups to come, this isn’t news
this is me wondering aloud, but this could also be a way for the networks to get in on
having the bigger talent appear on their shows - USA must be desperate for Roman Reigns to
make an appearance on Raw and considering WWE moved his match off of Hell in a Cell
to Smackdown because Fox reportedly were annoyed I think they’ve got more sway in this than
you might imagine.
Also also, more frequent shake-ups is another way to plug the holes left by more frequent
releases.
PW Insider reported that they were told that a “few” employees from WWE headquarters
were let go yesterday with the marketing department affected.
That’s on top of all the other staff and talent who have been let go since the start
of this year.
Streamlining the corporate structure might actually make WWE a more efficient business,
but ditching a whole bunch of talent, who you weren’t using well through all the fault
of your own, isn’t going to help that staleness factor everyone keeps banging on about.
So with rod for its own back created WWE needs to find a way to remedy the solution, and
same as ever its mine NXT for fresh talent for the main roster and the whole process
begins anew.
WWE is the Dark Souls of talent management.
Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer mentioned that within WWE there is a movement to bring
in “younger and bigger guys”.
Which could be why we saw Bronson Reed drop the North American title on Tuesday’s NXT
as he has also reportedly been backstage for main roster tapings and had a match on Main
Event, so his call up could be imminent.
Same goes for Karrion Kross who it seems will likely drop the NXT Championship soon.
So with all this going on Vince McMahon was scheduled to visit the Performance Center
this week, a fact which reportedly had a lot of WWE and NXT workers privately concerned
- considering the ruthless nature of the recent cuts and all.
But according to WrestlingInc their sources in attendance said that Vince’s visit was
a “breath of fresh air” - I mean Vince paying attention to NXT is definitely something
new.
And importantly the mass cut that people seemed to be dreading when the visit was announced
did not happen.
McMahon was there along with WWE President Nick Khan, Bruce Pritchard and John Laurinaitis
according to PWInsder, and so were a bunch of main roster talent who had been told to
report to the PC in order to prep for the return to live events.
But the visit was also supposedly part of a major scouting initiative across the company
to replenish Raw and Smackdown’s rosters.
Another way to replenish those rosters and shake-up the onscreen action is not to have
people disappear from screens for weeks at a time.
Like The Fiend who hasn’t been seen since just after WrestleMania and his loss to Randy
Orton, which I am still cross about.
It’s previously been reported that Bray is been kept off TV for a reason and there
is absolutely no heat with the company - likely why there is this good news for Fiend fans.
Bray’s masked alter-ego has been advertised for the August 9th episode of Raw.
Classic demon from hell, announcing their return with a sustained marketing push.
Recently released WWE star Lana appeared on the Talk is Jericho podcast.
In it, she revealed the pressure of the pandemic era of WWE, where in the bulk batch taping
days at the Performance Center, she once did a 19 hour day to film a 60 second backstage
segment where Chelsea Green would debut alongside Mickie James.
When she got home, Vince McMahon decided to cut the whole thing and drop Green’s debut,
meaning Lana had to go back in and reshoot.
That wasn’t the only changed plan, as she discussed her 9 weeks of going through tables
in a feud with Nia Jax in September and October.
It was meant to build to a big table spot in the women’s elimination match at Survivor
Series, but apparently a “Samoan rivalry” between Roman Reigns and Jax erupted backstage,
where Reigns pushed back on them doing it because he had a table spot in his match on
the card, meaning the two month long payoff was dropped for Lana.
She also spoke about the infamous engagement picture of her and Miro that came out when
they were supposed to be feuding on WWE.
Lana revealed she was “personally” blamed for it, even though she never posted it online.
She only ever sent it to her friends “and then I guess someone leaked it” to TMZ.
“I got in trouble for that.
I wasn’t on television for three months…
I was made to feel it was all my fault.
I had to take the blame.”
As for her WWE release, she said it came as a complete shock.
“We were promised to have gone in a program with Nattie and Tamina for the titles.
Me and Naomi.
We were supposed to be possibly champions.”
So where next?
She teased she’s had “different things in wrestling also offered to me” and that
she wants to stay in the business.
She also revealed she’s “a big part of [Miro’s] success behind closed doors, in
AEW” as she seemingly helped him clear up his character this year.
If you tuned into WWE Dynamite on Saturday you would have seen the return of Konnan to
AEW, continuing his long term partnership with Santana and Ortiz, and facing off in
a battle of words with Tully Blanchard which turned into an ambush and spike piledriver
at the hands of FTR.
Following the show Konnan opened up about his appearance on his Keepin’ It 100 podcast
revealing that not only did he almost miss the show due to flight delays, arriving only
“45 minutes before the segment, not knowing anything I was going to say or do”.
But also that the promo had a surprising producer with Chris Jericho himself putting the whole
thing together.
This continues Jericho’s guided hand when it comes to the storyline surrounding the
Inner Circle as Sammy Guevara revealed a few weeks back on Busted Open Radio that Chris
was a “mastermind” as a producer.
This week’s Dynamite, which was back on Wednesday finally, was notable for a few reasons.
One it was the final episode from Daily’s Place, the pandemic home of the product and
two some major talent was absent from the taping.
According to Fightful Select Jon Moxley wasn’t backstage at the show as he is on paternity
leave following the birth of his daughter last month.
And neither Dax Harwood or Cash Wheeler of FTR were at the show - admittedly with the
weird schedule at the minute they had worked a Dynamite in the preceding five days.
The return to Wednesday was good for AEDUBYADUBYAEEE as it brought back a lot of viewers to the
show.
The shunt around the schedule saw a dip in viewership for Dynamite, which had been on
the up after NXT hightailed it to Tuesdays, but Wednesday’s episode was a return to
strong form with the show garnering 883,000 viewers.
Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics reported that 452,000 of those viewers were in the
all important 18-49 demo.