In this WrestleTalk News, is Vince McMahon back in WWE creative? And involved with the
Bloodline story? What this has meant for WWE morale backstage and more. Subscribe
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But first, Undertaker was once injured by an arse. The Undertaker is one of the most legendary
figures within WWE, clocking up countless years in the company and headlining various shows across
various decades. Not all of them were good, we just launched a new series on WrestleTalk Podcast
looking for the worst matches of all-time and him vs. Goldberg was the first episode.
He also seldom gave out interviews, instead remaining in character for most of his career
to keep the mystic of The Undertaker. But since retiring, that all went out the window
so he could get into hot tubs with tigers. And in a recent interview with Hawk & Wolf
Podcast, Taker revealed he was injured… by someone's ass.
“Rey Mysterio, tiny guy, sweetheart of a guy, he ended up jumping off the top rope,
and his ass was supposed to hit me in the chest, but it hit me right in the face…
It was a bony ass. Bony ass, right on the bridge of my nose… I broke my nose and I was
concussed. It’s hard being injured by an anus.” Have you ever had your nose broken by someone’s
ass? Let me know in the comments down below. It’s hard for me to jump from that into
the next story… but speaking of asses? It’s Vince McMahon everybody! Wahey! And he’s
got…creative influence on The Bloodline. Don’t you do this Vince. Don’t you take this away from me.
After the divisive finish to Elimination Chamber 2023 with Sami Zayn losing to
Roman Reigns in Montreal and WWE not giving the fans what they want, according to some people,
there were rumours that Vince McMahon was obviously involved in the creative
decisions of that match because Roman Wins Lol. I personally dismissed those rumours as people
that were just upset with the match result and looking for a reason or someone to blame,
but as it turns out, there might be some truth to those rumours.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Vince does actually have some creative
input on the Bloodline story in particular. “It’s Paul Levesque (Triple H) and Vince.
Vince does have input into this one. He definitely does. But still, in theory, it’s Paul’s decision.”
In theory. Why you gotta say it like that Dave. If Vince does get enough creative
leverage over the Bloodline story heading into WrestleMania, does that mean…Roman
might just win at Mania as well? Roman Wins Lol. And that might be more prophetic than I intended,
as eagle eyed viewers have noticed that in the Hollywood-themed WrestleMania match graphics,
there are credits underneath the wrestlers as you’d see on a movie poster - and under
Roman Reigns’ poster it says: Directed by Vince McMahon. Fun easter egg to pop the
boys in the back or an omen of things to come? I’ll let you decide that one.
But this Vince return, while it’s been quiet for a while, hasn’t had the greatest effect on the fans,
with people questioning how long it’ll be before Vince gets his Grubby Little Mitts
on the creative side of the company once again, and now…I guess he has?
But it’s not just the fans, as people within WWE aren’t too pleased with his return too,
as according to PWInsider, WWE employees have once again felt like they are “walking on eggshells”
since Vince’s return. Morale reportedly isn’t as bad as it once was, but it’s not as good as it
was before Vince came back. Ha ha ha ha great.
While the plan for WrestleMania has been Cody Rhodes seemingly for a while in WWE,
until the Royal Rumble there was still fan hope or speculation that The Rock would return to set
up the long-rumoured bout of Rock vs Reigns at WrestleMania 39 in Hollywood. Obviously,
that didn’t happen, though reportedly not from lack of trying from WWE’s end.
There were rumours coming out of the Rumble that there was animosity from WWE toward The
Rock for essentially snubbing them and their WrestleMania plans, however WrestleVotes via
GiveMeSport has reported that there is seemingly no heat between Rock and WWE:
“Is there animosity towards The Rock? I would imagine not. Like with Stone Cold Steve Austin,
that door is always open. Maybe he said let’s do it next year? When those guys
say yes, WWE is going to say okay.” I mean yeah, of course they are. You
think if The Rock says he wants to do a match for WWE they’re going to say no? It’s The Rock.
And now from Rock to Brock, and many fans were a bit caught off guard with
this week’s Raw where MVP, in a backstage segment,
made the challenge to Brock Lesnar to face Omos at WrestleMania, prompting many people to say…huh?
They had just done a DQ finish at Elimination Chamber with Lesnar taking the cheap way out
because he couldn’t escape from the Hurt Lock, which obviously sets up a rematch between the two,
potentially in a triple threat with Bray Wyatt too. Well apparently not.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, the actual, real,
100% genuine plans for WrestleMania are Bobby Lashley vs Bray Wyatt and Brock Lesnar vs Omos.
I don’t have much to say to that except…huh? That seems…odd. I would have thought the Omos
angle was to set up the rematch with Lesnar and Lashley but…maybe they really are doing Omos vs
Lesnar and Lesnar will suplex and F5 a tall man and we’ll all love it anyway. Maybe they’re right.
Before the Royal Rumble earlier this year, there were reports circulating that the plan for the
show was Edge vs Finn Balor inside Hell in a Cell. Obviously none of that happened,
with the direction seemingly being Edge vs Balor at WrestleMania, with the pair already facing
off at Elimination Chamber in a Mixed Tag match with Beth Phoenix and Rhea Ripley respectively.
However, a report from Ringside News, so take this with a big ol’ pinch of salt,
Hell in a Cell was never planned for the Royal Rumble show and was instead always pencilled
in for WrestleMania. There were reportedly considerations to move the match to the Rumble,
but with Edge’s prior acting commitments, it wasn’t possible, presumably as he couldn’t be
around for the build to the show. Which means we’re still definitely getting Edge vs Balor
inside Hell in a Cell at WrestleMania, I suppose. But there’s more to the story too, as Fightful
Select has weighed in to say that actually, it was scheduled to be Edge vs Balor at the
Rumble inside Hell in a Cell, but also Balor was supposed to be Demon Finn Balor instead.
Some that Fightful spoke to about this situation mentioned that the Demon persona “didn't fit” in
this version of Finn Balor with the Judgment Day and were against bringing it back,
while others thought the match could use the extra buzz the Demon brings with it.
Triple H seems to have cooled his jets slightly when it comes to bringing people back to WWE,
after the slew of what seemed like a new return every week when he first took over in 2022,
but that doesn’t mean all the returns are over. Fightful Select is reporting that WWE are in
discussion with Akam and Rezar, also known as the Authors of Pain or AOP about a return to
the company. The report goes on to say that AOP have an “incredible amount of loyalty” to Paul
Ellering, and he would be heading up negotiations for them, which is cool to see as their former
manager. I just think it’s nice when on-screen pairings mirror those in real life. So can’t
wait for them to return and then for Ellering to get replaced with Drake Maverick immediately.
However that first report came out 3 days ago, and a more recent report that came out last night
indicated that outside of Ellering leading the talks for AOP, things have been “quiet on that
front”. That’s not necessarily to say that talks have fizzled out or won’t be proceeding, but that
there’s essentially no update to that situation as of yet, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Over the weekend, Tony Khan and Ariel Helwani got into a little bit of drama as Helwani was
heavily involved in WWE’s promotion of Sami Zayn vs Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber,
providing voiceover for a video package, as well as being featured on the SmackDown
go-home show and the Premium Live Event itself. TK didn’t like that, and called Helwani a fraud
and wished him luck on the unbiased journalism. WWE then referenced this themselves on the
Elimination Chamber show itself, with Michael Cole calling Helwani an unbiased journalist,
and wouldn’t you know it, they’re at it again, as on last night’s NXT,
Booker T used the same line once more, asking co-commentator Vic Joseph if he was trying to
prove himself an unbiased journalist by asking tough questions, which is pretty much verbatim
what Cole said about Helwani on the Chamber show. But don’t worry guys, there’s no animosity between
WWE and AEW, they’re all good. It’s not a war, and don’t listen to anyone who says it is,
right Cody? There’s no war is there Cody? Meanwhile in AEW, we haven’t seen Andrade
on our screens in quite a while, with some backstage drama being the last notable mention
of him. In what was seemingly an attempt to get himself fired, Andrade has been absent since.
Fightful Select has an update on Andrade, saying: “For those that are asking, Andrade is still
recovering from surgery. He had suffered a torn pectoral injury during a match last fall,
and had surgery in late November. He's not expected to be ready until the Spring at least.”
Regardless of what you may or may not think of Andrade,
we would like to wish him well on his recovery. There were some pretty major plans scrapped last
minute on Raw, keep watching to find out what they were!