Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I am Luke Owen.
Yesterday we weren’t just breaking All Elite Wrestling tour date news, we also sat down
on the phone with former World Heavyweight Champion Christian to talk about his new show
Knight Fight and his wrestling career. As well as talking about scrapped plans for when
he returned to WWE in 2009 - which would have included a feud with CM Punk - and thoughts
on his retirement, Christian opened up about scrapped tag team plans for him and Edge in
2011 - which would have happened if it wasn’t
for Edge’s untimely retirement after WrestleMania 27.
You can hear the full interview by subscribing to WrestleTalk’s WrestleRamble Podcast for
free which also contains exclusive rambling intros and outros to the Raw, Smackdown and
NXT reviews.
Christian also spoke to us about his thoughts on All Elite Wrestling and whether or not
he’d consider working for them in an offer came up - and it was good news for AEW yesterday
as they sold out all of their pre-sale tickets for May’s Double or Nothing event in around
25 minutes. The show - which will feature Chris Jericho vs. Kenny Omega II, The Young
Bucks vs. The Lucha Bros., Hangman Page vs. PAC and more - will likely sell out when tickets
go on general sale tomorrow. Matt Jackson of the Young Bucks tweeted, “I think we
need to try one in a bigger building” which his brother Nick corrected in a reply - noting
they should try a stadium next time.
And in news that will surprise no one, Chris Jericho has announced that he will be partnering
with All Elite Wrestling for his second cruise - titled Chris Jericho’s Rock N Wrestling
Rager At Sea Part Deux: The Second Wave. Jericho made the announcement of the cruise - which
will set sail in January 2020 - with a video on Twitter. While obviously there is time
for this all to change, there was no mention of Ring of Honor in this video announcement,
who were the official partner of the first Jericho cruise - which might tell us a lot
about the potential relationship between AEW, ROH and crucially New Japan.
And New Japan crowned a new IWGP Heavyweight Champion at their New Beginning show yesterday
- when Switchblade Jay White pinned Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the title for the first time.
White has had his critics during his rise to the top of New Japan since his push started
at Wrestle Kingdom 12 last year, but NJPW clearly have a lot of faith in him - as he
will also headline the G1 Supercard show at Madison Square Garden over WrestleMania weekend
against the winner of the New Japan Cup which kicks off on March 9th.
Someone who won’t be headlining this Sunday’s Elimination Chamber if reports are to be believed
is Mustafa Ali. Ali was set to be part of the Elimination Chamber match for Daniel Bryan’s
Hempyweight Championship against AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy - but
a new report from Fightful has put that in doubt.
According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com, Ali has suffered numerous bumps and bruises
recently - including a tailbone injury he’s been working through since the Royal Rumble,
a swollen eye via Randy Orton on last week’s Smackdown, and another injury at a live event
over the weekend - which Mike Johnson of PWInsider is claiming was a concussion. Sapp claims
that “[Ali’s] mounting injuries have proven too much and WWE is pulling him [from Elimination
Chamber]”, while PWInsider are conversely reporting “WWE is currently working on a
potential replacement for Ali in the Elimination Chamber this Sunday should Ali not be cleared,
but no decision will be made until at least tomorrow”. Johnson adds in his report Ali
will be evaluated by WWE’s medical team ahead of Smackdown tonight - where he is currently
planned to be part of a gauntlet match with the other members of Sunday’s Chamber.
And perhaps this can play into PWInsider’s other report - which says that Luke Harper
is set to return to Smackdown for tonight’s show. Harper hasn’t been on TV since August
last year when he was part of the Bludgeon Brothers - losing their titles to New Day
following Summerslam. It was revealed that both Harper and Rowan were out with injuries,
with Rowan returning at Royal Rumble last month to help Daniel Bryan retain his WWE
Championship, while there have been a lot of reports that Harper has been at the WWE
Performance Centre training for his return.
And before we get out of here we wanted to quickly remind you that WrestleLeague Season
One is still in effect for this Sunday’s Elimination Chamber - where you can compete
against, Oli, Laurie and myself in prediction war! Who knows the most? I mean it probably
won’t be us as we’re so average at predictions. So you can at least guarantee you’ll be
better than us.
There was a big title change on Monday Night’s Raw! And Oli Davis has got all the thoughts
you need to hear in his review which you can watch by clicking the video on screen right
now. And become one of our Pledge Hammers on Patreon by clicking the link. I’ve been
Luke Owen and that was wrestling.