Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News. I am Luke Owen, and this is Wrestling News.
To paraphrase the late and great Sinead O’Conner, it’s been several hours and 439 days RIP,
since Randy Orton last wrestled in a WWE ring. It was reported by several outlets at the time
that Orton had suffered a legit back injury and would be out for the rest of the year.
Well, we’re now - if you can believe it - 8 months into the new year and there is still
no sign of an Orton return, despite rumours to the contrary. There was huge speculation ahead
of Money in the Bank that Orton would return, with WRKD Wrestling on Twitter saying that WWE
were expecting him back very soon. Matt Riddle even noted on The Bump that he wanted to form
a new alliance with Edge when Orton came back as Rated RK-Bro when Randy returns.
But Orton was not at Money in the Bank, and a new team has not been formed. Instead Riddle
just found a replacement Randy in Elias, and when that storyline went nowhere and they were
drafted to different brands, he found a new Elias in Drew McIntyre as he feuds with Gunther. And in
a new report from Fightful, we shouldn’t expect to see Riddle teaming with Orton any time soon,
as Randy might not be back for a while yet. Sean Ross Sapp reports that Orton’s back
injury is quite a unique one in the world of wrestling, writing,
“lower back fusion isn’t typical among pro wrestlers and is uncharted territory for many”.
So uncharted is this territory that doctors have advised Orton to not wrestle again,
saying that it “isn’t a good idea”. However, Orton “still plans on it”
and “is planning to make a return to the ring”. Orton isn’t cleared to wrestle, but he has been
training. Not wrestling training as he can’t take bumps, but has been lifting weights. According to
Fightful Select, he is now “huge” as a result. Back to those rumours and reports that he could
be returning soon, and Fightful say their sources have told them, “Randy Orton had not been factored
into WWE creative plans whatsoever.” Adding, “those we’ve spoken to say that there hasn’t
been an extensive conversation about what the plans will be for Orton.”
When asking about a Summerslam appearance, Fightful were told: “to not count on it”.
We here at WrestleTalk continue to wish the speediest of recoveries to Randy Orton.
But sticking with his bromance partner for a moment,
and there seems to be some heat on Matt Riddle.
Riddle has had a string of controversies in the last couple of years, having a
sexual assault case filled against him - which was later dropped - as well as
a drugs test failure that delayed his scheduled Clash at the Castle match against Seth Rollins,
and a second failure that sent him to rehab late last year. Riddle himself said on Twitter that,
“certain people aren’t happy” about his relationship with adult film star Misha Montana.
But Riddle has been steadily featured on television since his return - getting involved
with the tag team champions Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in their quest against The Bloodline,
and recently challenging Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship at Money in
the Bank. Which is why his clean loss to professional coat twirler Ludvig Kaiser on
this week’s Raw took a few people by surprise. And speaking about that result, Dave Meltzer
on Wrestling Observer Radio noted there could be some internal heat on Riddle.
Meltzer said, “They decided long ago, for whatever reason - and there are good reasons,
Riddle seems to get in trouble too often - [they decided] he’s not the guy they’re going
to build around or anything. But they’ve kept him stronger than losing clean to Kaiser. But he did
here. When I saw that I was, like, ‘man, he’s lower than I thought he was in their minds’.”
Now this isn’t an official ‘report’ that Matt Riddle has heat, more of Meltzer
speculating based upon information that he’s heard. But if you listen to the tape,
go back and to the left, you will hear him do that ‘pause because I’m about to say something
I’m not supposed to’ thing he so often does. So for the official score on this one, let’s head
over to our own Heat Magnet and Weather Reporter Helen Temperature to check the Heat Scale:
H: As I often ask at a restaurant, table for 1 please! There isn’t
much at all on the heat scale today. L: Do you often eat at restaurants alone Helen?
H: Yes, I’m a very loud eater, I scream between every bite.
L: It must be tough for you on the dating scene Helen.
H:I don’t need dates, I only need my three person sharing platter and a pint
of Horlicks to get me to sleep. L: Thank you for that, Helen.
Over to AEW now and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jeff Jarrett in London this
past Monday to talk about the upcoming Wembley show All In, which is around 3,000 tickets off
breaking the all-time attendance record for a wrestling event - not counting Collision
in Korea for obvious reasons. The full interview will be released this coming
Friday on the WrestleTalk Podcast channel, so make sure you go and subscribe there,
but I got to ask him about his theme song and the very odd line:
“He ain’t dead, he is Jeff”. Well, here’s what Jeff had to say:
And he’s not the only one seemingly talking about entrance theme songs,
as CM Punk took to Instagram last night to tease the return of an old favourite.
Did I mention I’m now on Instagram? I don’t follow Punk, but I think you should follow me.
Punk has been using Living Colour’s ‘Cult of Personality’ since his WWE return in 2011.
It was a song that was synonymous with him before his time in WWE, and become his anthem once again
when he joined AEW in 2021. But in his first run with WWE, he used ‘This Fire Burns’ by Killswitch
Engage which - fun fact - was originally slated for Randy Orton to use before being given to Punk.
Fans have been asking for Punk to bring this theme back because it’s nostalgic for them, and
nostalgia is a helluva drug, which is ironic given the subject matter, and Punk has now potentially
teased the return of the song by posting an image of him making his entrance on Collision
with ‘This Fire Burns’ as the tagged song. Now, of course, this doesn’t mean much of
anything. But like all things with Punk, you never can tell.
What you can tell is the ratings for Collision this week were a vast improvement on what has come
before it, as the show drew 739,000 viewers - the highest number since the show’s debut. The episode
was headlined by MJF and Adam Cole challenging FTR for the tag titles, and Dave Meltzer has said on
Twitter that he attributes that match to much of Collision’s ratings success. He originally
said it was Rampage, but then corrected himself. Heh. What sort of an idiot makes a mistake online?
Not only is that overall viewing figure up by nearly 20% from last week, the all-important
18-49 demo was up by over 50%. In fact, the Male 18-34 demo was up by - get this - 180%.
It wasn’t terrible news for Monday Night Raw either, as although the overall viewership was
down from the previous week, it drew an average of 1.76 million viewers. The show peaked in its
second hour for the Brock Lesnar and Cody Rhodes angle, and in an odd change of pace,
the third hour - headlined by Seth Rollins & Sami Zayn taking on The Judgement Day - drew
more viewers than the first hour with Logan Paul opening the broadcast.
But it’s Wednesday, you know what that means, it’s time for my NXT 1 Minute 1
Take. Now I’ve not done this for two weeks, so I may be a bit rusty. As we all know, I
used to nail this before my two-week break. The show opened with a video recap of Great
American Bash, and Gallus attacked The Family in the - shock - NXT parking lot,
which set up a six man tag for later. Jacy Jane promised to beat Lyra Valkyria and then
didn’t when she lost to Lyra Valkyria. Trick Williams wants to go alone from Carmelo Hayes.
Dominik Mysterio set up a title match with Dragon Lee for next week, with Lee revealing that Rey
Mysterio will be in his corner, because all this main roster integration has been great ratings,
and there was a backstage segment that set up a tag match of Hayes and Wes Lee taking
on Noam Dar and Oro Mensah. Another backstage segment with Baron Corbin and Chase U set up
a match between Corbs and Andre Chase for later. Dijak beat Eddie Thorpe and Elektra Lopez & Lola
Vice beat Yulisa Leon and Valentia Feroz. Both matches felt designed to start new Grivalries.
Dar and Mensah beat Lee and Hayes, which came about because Lee accidentally hit
his finish on Hayes. Looks like he’s the next challenger for the title.
Bron Breakker cut a promo on Von Wagner, and another backstage segment with Dom and
Rhea set up a match between Axiom and Mustafa Ali. Corbin pinned Andre Chase after the End
of Days, and we got a video package for Roxanne Perez. They also set up a match for the Heritage
Cup between Doar and Tyler Bate. There was a silly comedy segment
with Schism and The Creed Brothers that went way longer than you’d think, Cora Jade
said she was leaving NXT, and the main roster integration continues as Santos Escobar teamed
with The Family to beat Gallus in the main event. Go and check out yesterday’s WrestleTalk News,
while I check my Instagram follower number and feel better about myself.