I’m Laurie Blake, welcome to the WrestleTalk News. On Fridays we wear pink.
Our top story today is a follow up on the sign that rocked the foundations of
the wrestling world… ‘Mario > Sonic’… oh wait… that’s not right. The other one… Ok, what did
it say? Oh yeah ‘book the women’s division better’. That’s the one.
Yes, while this is far from an outlandish thing to see a fan hold up above their heads,
the focus that AEW’s production gave to it, whether intentional or not,
was extremely pertinent. Oh you’ll look at this but you’re shying
away from all the stuff about which Final Fantasy is the best cowards.
See we once again had another short, unfortunately meaningless, token women’s match in the second
hour on Dynamite this week, one that’s reasoning for happening was Taya Valkyrie
saying effectively ‘hey, Britt Baker, you won on Dynamite, I just won on Collision… let’s fight.’
Excellent creative.
Now, the match itself wasn’t a showstopper, with Taya and Baker struggling to gel
unfortunately, however, what it represents is of course much bigger. The lack of care
and attention put into AEW’s women’s division is evident every single week,
every week you don’t see story development, lengthier matches and heck even your AEW Women’s
Champion. Where is Toni Storm? What has happened to the whole Outcasts vs originals storyline?
Well, the lack of regard seems to have irked one prominent member of the locker room, and
one directly involved in said story. As Saraya, curiously left a like on a rather scathing tweet,
criticizing the disregard of AEW’s booking and use of women in prominent spots.
The tweet read:
“Kinda feels like the Outcasts story was a big waste of time. Obviously there’s no controlling
the Hayter injury but we didn’t get Blood and Guts out of it, the whole surrounding division paused
and it feels like very little was accomplished broadly in the first half of the year.”
All very good points, that feud WOULD have been perfect for Blood & Guts.
Interestingly, whether intended or not, an important player in WWE may have taken the
opportunity to have a slight pop at the competition as well. Speaking on the NXT
Great American Bash media call, Shawn Michaels was asked about the potential introduction of
a mid-card championship for the women’s division, in which he replied saying:
"Whether you have one, two or 10 championships, you are going to
see our women littered throughout our show because it's such a deep, deep division."
Littered through the show ey? Not just once per show. Take notes TK.
While Tony hopefully will have his hands full booking the women’s division very soon,
he better also better get to announcing some matches for All In too. He knows
it’s a month away now right? It comes BEFORE All Out, not after.
While TK has already booked his first All Out match with Darby Allin
looking set to take on TNT Champion Luchasaurus or Christian I guess,
we may now have our first marquee bout for Wembley. AND even better it involves
a hometown boy… Will Ospreay. You see where I’m going. It's of course NOT Ospreay vs Omega III.
No, no of course not. Who would want that? Instead it seems,
according to Fightful Select, that we’ll be getting Ospreay vs Chris Jericho.
This seems to tie into the whole Don Callis/Chris Jericho angle
that’s been playing out on TV lately, with Callis obviously aligning himself
with Ospreay recently at Forbidden Door. So, perhaps this allegiance will collapse
and lead to Jericho vs Ospreay, or something else will go down.
Either way I, like many others, am sad. It seemed Omega Ospreay III was a nailed on
main event for All In for months. As much as Jericho and Ospreay will also surely put on
a great clash of generations, the news is an extremely damp squib I must say.
Guess all we can do is tune in and hope for something just as good as
Omega and Ospreay… if that exists.
It’s Friday you know what that means, we wear pink and I remind you that can head
over to partsFUNknown to watch myself, Luke and Pete playing through AEW Fight
Forever’s Road To Elite mode . The finale is going to go live
tomorrow so you can watch our penultimate episode which went out last Saturday and
catch up on the entire series by clicking the link in the description down below.
Now, ever since Vince McMahon returned to loom over WWE creative there seems to have been
certain talent that have just disappeared or had future plans seemingly cut from underneath them.
JD McDonagh’s Judgment Day arrival seems dead,
Cameron Grimes has wrestled one TV match in two months and perhaps most notably
an entire faction The Way have had their reunion sadly cut short before it began.
While plans seemed to suggest The Way, that being Johnny Gargano,
Candice LeRae, Indi Hartwell and Dexter Lumis were set for…
something on the main roster, there’s been radio silence for a long while.
Following Indi Hartwell’s drafting to Raw we got a single backstage segment on May 8,
that seemed to also tease the return of Tomasso Ciampa to get involved with the fun as well. And
then nothing… until Hartwell and LeRae appeared for like two minutes in that tag team gauntlet
match on July 3’s Raw. Bet Indi’s really glad she gave up that NXT Women’s Championship eh?
While Gargano’s injury status may have initially affected plans,
Mr Wrestling has reportedly been healthy for a while now. So what gives?
Well, a new report from Fightful Select may give us some indication
as they report that one member of the crew, Dexter Lumis, is absent,
not for any health related reasons, but instead due to “waiting on creative” from the company.
While this is just Lumis specifically,
we can likely factor the rest of The Way into this as well, especially given that Ciampa
is already back on TV mixing it up with ‘BIG’ Bronson Reed and Shinsuke Nakamura.
So clearly, if you’re not Austin Theory, there’s no WAY
Vince is going to book you… right? Get it? Theory was in The Way…
Anyway, hopefully this all changes and we get all involved on TV again soon,
maybe even that DIY reunion as well ey?
When Triple H took over creative reigns a WHOLE YEAR AGO (where does the time go),
one of his reported mission statements was to revamp the company’s Premium Live
Events. AKA get rid of all the crap gimmick ones.
While Trips has thus far achieved a lot of that with no more Hell in a Cell,
TLC and Extreme Rules on our PLE platter, I think many of us might have hoped for the
return of some old school beloved PPV names like Armageddon, Unforgiven, Judgment Day… oh
wait… guess that one’s understandable. But yeah instead we’ve got Fast Lane,
Payback etc etc. Which is a lot better but not quite scratching that nostalgia itch.
Well, it turns out if you want that itch scratched all you have to do is
tune into NXT on Tuesday nights, as we’ve seen the return of Vengeance
(Day) Battleground and the upcoming Great American Bash this Sunday.
However, they may be set to be joined by yet another staple of the 2000’s very soon,
as soon as September even, that being No Mercy.
According to Fightful Select, local advertisements have been spotted in
Bakersfield, California for No Mercy, with the event looking set for September
30. Which… let me check… no AEW PPVs set for then. You’re all good HBK.
While I’d love to see events such as these appear on the main roster, It’s great to see another old
fav get a return. What other retired WWE PPV’s would you like to see return? Let us know in the
comments below. And no, Great Balls of Fire and Fatal 4 Way are not valid suggestions.
Speaking of NXT, that brand sure has been seeing a ton of crossover
lately hasn’t it? Loads of main roster faces have been popping up on Tuesday’s,
adding even more confusion as to who’s meant to be where. Judgment Day on Raw,
Judgment Day on NXT, Judgment Day on Smackdown, who actually knows anymore right?
While the brand split is shown about the same respect as ‘Dirty’ Dom shows
his dead-beat dad, there may in fact be change afoot for one Raw star very soon.
That star being Odyssey Jones, who you’d be forgiven for not knowing he even left NXT at this
point as he’s not been seen a single time on Raw since being drafted in May.
Yes, it seems as if WWE may have drafted Jones without much thought, as according to BWE,
he is set to re-debut on Smackdown soon. Now Jones did in fact work a dark match on
the July 14 Smackdown, losing to Cameron Grimes, so this may be likely to happen.
Just get the poor guy on TV will you, I know Dom’s a draw but does he need to be on every show?
Sticking with stars who haven’t been on TV, the Street Profits
have surprisingly featured very little since being drafted to Smackdown in May.
While that meeting with Bobby Lashley in his swanky limo may be set to change that,
perhaps a change in character could also be on the way too?
Speaking to Adam Silverstein on the Getting Over podcast both Angelo Dawkins and Montez
Ford expressed their desire for a change. A change that includes a whole lot more edge,
not Edge-Edge like edginess…acting mean and that.
Ford said that there is “huge room for a demeanor change” citing the
duos major losses such as at last year’s Summerslam to The Usos leading
to a feeling of frustration, upset and a need for a change.
Dawkins then continued, echoing Ford’s feeling of frustration with their defeats saying:
“It’s just like, alright now, look I’m sick and tired of waiting. I’m sick and tired of
having to go through all these hoops to get to where the goal is to be the champions...”
While fans perhaps expected a split for the Profits for a while,
the pair don’t seem too keen on the idea. So, a heel turn would
likely be the best scenario for all and provide them a nice, well-needed refresh.
Perhaps this new Lashley Hurt Business 2.0 may be the answer, however, thus far, he’s only
been seen chatting babyfaces like the Profits and Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams… So who knows.
Just don’t forget about your boys Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander now Lashley, that ain’t cool.
Speaking of being cool… A certain attitude era star was spotted backstage in AEW this weekend and
some would say this individual is almost too cool… Yes, in a surprising turn of events it seems as
if old favorite Scotty 2 Hotty was in fact backstage in AEW, reportedly on
trial for a role as a producer/coach on a trial basis according to Fightful Select.
The former two-time WWE tag champion has remained very active on the independent
scene in recent years, undergoing a career resurgence after many years of inactivity.
While it’s unclear whether Scotty will in fact be kept on in the role,
there is recent precedent for this, as Fightful Select also confirmed that Chris Hero, formerly
Kassius Ohno on NXT has been officially hired by AEW in a producer role now.
It had been previously reported that Hero was too on trial with the company,
but now it seems he has officially joined on a full-time basis. Now we
just need to wait and see if Tony Khan can convince him to return to
the ring… heck we’re getting Jerry Lynn vs Jack Perry, why not Chris Hero next.