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Hello and welcome to the Wrestling Talk MECHALING NEWS!
I am Luke Owen...ling.
Thank you to Swaft Nation member Ivan Gatica - who you can follow on Instagram @ivnartistico
- for recording Spanish God Sammy Gueverra telling you support Wrestling Talk.
So close.
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leaving a comment down below.
And Sammy’s father figure Chris Jericho was on Keeping It 100 this week, where he
had some harsh words to say about All Elite Wrestling’s tag team matches, and one team
in particular.
Ever since the very first episode of Dynamite - where Kenny Omega was taken out of a six-man
tag due to Jon Moxley interference that didn’t result in a DQ - there has been a lot criticism
leveled against AEW and its lack of rules.
Just this week’s episode saw Joey Janela attack Shawn Spears on the ramp during his
tag match against Omega and Hangman Page, but that wasn’t a DQ either.
However for Jericho, his biggest complaint was about a lack of tags and in-ring psychology,
highlighting The Lucha Bros of Fenix and Pentagon Jr as the biggest culprits.
He told Keeping It 100, “I called a team meeting - the lack of tags and normal tag
team wrestling psychology drove me nuts, to be the point where that was one of the big
knocks against our company in about week three or four.
It's sort of making excuses for the Lucha Brothers because tagging in and out, they're
lazy, they don't care.
They walk in and out whenever they want and it's not right.
They would make excuses where they would say, 'Oh it's Lucha Libre style.'
Huh, that's funny, I worked in Mexico for two years and guess how you make a tag in
a Lucha Libre match?
You stand in the corner and you wait for a guy touch you and you walk in.
That's Lucha Libre rules aka tag team rules.”
He continued: “I called a meeting with the whole crew and said, 'You're burying the ref,
if you don't have any rules, you don't get any heat.
And it's killing our show because our honeymoon period is over and now people are watching
us and they're being confused by the lack of rules.'”
Now being the World Champion of the promotion, Jericho was quick to praise the work ethic
of Fenix and Pentagon, and suggested that maybe they hadn’t been made aware of these
rules.
He said on the podcast, “once we had a couple of talks with them, guess what they started
doing?
They started tagging.
Maybe it was a habit or maybe nobody told them.
You have a whole locker room of guys that have just worked Indies their whole career
and they don't know little things.
I've told guys, 'Change your gear, your gear looks bush league' and they come back with
new gear.
Once we told the guys to concentrate more on tagging in and out, they've been doing
it.
Everyone is working together about what we're looking for in the company.”
Perhaps AEW’s latest signees will take on this advice, as Dave Meltzer is reporting
via the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Alex Reynolds and John Silver have signed
deals with the company.
Known as The Beaver Boys on the independent scene, Reynolds and Silver lost to Proud N
Powerful on episode 3 of Dynamite, lost to Best Friends on an episode of Dark, and Jon
Moxley beat Reynolds in 14 seconds on this week’s episode - which has now set them
on a potential path to join The Dark Order.
But how did all of this affect the ratings war?
After picking up the win last week, following the fallout of NXT’s involvement in Survivor
Series, AEW couldn’t make it two weeks in a row against the black and gold brand.
However it wasn’t a win for Triple H either, as both shows pulled in the exact same rating
of 778,000 viewers.
AEW can however once again claim the coveted 18-49 demo, winning the night with .28 against
NXT’s .24.
However it’s not all good news, as that .28 for Dynamite is down 17% from last week.
Business, business, business.
One of the most interesting things about the ratings this week is how AEW actually took
most of the night, winning the first six quarters head-to-head, often in dominating fashion,
but really lost out in the main event - where NXT overwhelmingly won with 756,000 viewers
for the triple threat between Keith Lee, Finn Balor and Tommaso Ciampa, against AEW’s
street fight between The Young Bucks and Proud N Powerful, which drew 685,000.
The NXT overrun only grew to 881,000, which is lower than usual, which suggest that Dynamite
viewers switched over early to watch all of the NXT main event.
Speaking of the AEW vs. WWE war, and one of the early casualties was Seth Rollins - who
earned his “not cool” monicker by doing interviews saying saying that Jon Moxley left
WWE because he couldn’t hack the rigorous schedule, and that he was stealing food off
his table.
And while in London for a Gorilla Position live show, Rollins addressed his comments
about Moxley, telling the crowd, “There was never any beef with him or him leaving
at all, at no point.
I think some of the comments I made after that were misconstrued.
I never had a problem with him leaving or anything like that.
I thought some of the stuff he said on the Jericho podcast was a little unnecessary.
I thought it was one of those things where he couldn’t handle the pressure.
It’s not for everybody at that point, and that’s all I was commenting on.
I was commenting on him leaving, not like ‘oh you betrayed us and left’.
Absolutely not.
I sent him a text on his birthday, which was a few days ago, and wished him well.
I hope that he’s good.
He seems to be doing great at AEW and New Japan, so I wish nothing but the best for
him and his lovely wife.”
My cousin actually went to the Gorilla Position live show and said it was great, but did text
me afterwards to say that Seth Rollins really isn’t cool, and at one point claimed that
WWE do have long term plans, but they change all the time because of fan reaction and not
Vince McMahon, who isn’t to blame for any of the problems in WWE.
Seth Rollins isn’t cool.
She also said he has zero chemistry with Becky Lynch.
And going by all that Extreme Rules build earlier this year, that sounds about right.
Something far more successful creatively speaking for WWE this year was the involvement of NXT
in Survivor Series.
The series of angles - and NXT picking up the win on the night overall - has seen a
big jump in viewers for the black and gold brand on the USA Network, and according to
WrestleVotes on Twitter, it won’t just be Survivor Series that will see NXT appearances.
The very reliable scooperstars tweeted: “Heard from a well placed source, as of now, NXT
will have a role at WrestleMania.
Not talking about TakeOver, but on the actual Mania card.
No details as to who or what, but an NXT presence will be felt.”
And according to another report, it’s not just Mania that will have the NXT guys and
girls.
According to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live, we could see more NXT involvement in
this year’s Royal Rumble than we have previously.
Alvarez reports that the current plan being discussed would be to have 10 wrestlers from
Raw, 10 from Smackdown, and the final 10 from NXT
to make up the 30 entrants.
This would be different from other years, where NXT wrestlers have been broadly cameos,
with last year’s Rumbles featuring 6 NXT stars in the women’s match and 3 in the
men’s.
If this report is correct, it would also mean no legend surprises.
WWE will have plenty of NXT guys and girls to choose from too, as the night before will
see NXT take on NXT UK in Worlds Collide, which means both rosters will be available
for the Rumble.
If you had to pick 10 men and women from the NXT and NXT UK rosters to be in the Rumbles,
who would you pick?
Let us know in the comments down below because I’ll be answering them for the first 30
minutes of this video going live FROM MY DESK WHERE I WORK.
And according a new report, we might now know who the winners of the 2020 Royal Rumbles
are going to be.
The latest odds for the Rumble have Roman Reigns leading the way as the winner of the
men’s match, which has been the reported plan for some time - likely leading to him
being the first man to pin The Fiend and capture the Blue-niversal Championship at WrestleMania.
Which I’m sure it going to go down really well on social media the following day.
Other potential favourites include Finn Balor, Kevin Owens and CM Punk, but that last one
might just be Oli Davis placing so many bets that its skewed all the data.
On the women’s rumble side of things its very interesting, with Shayna Baszler as the
current second favourite to win, followed by Kairi Sane, Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley.
Baszler picked up the win at Survivor Series when she tapped out Smackdown Women’s Champion
Bayley, but it was made very clear that her feud with Becky Lynch was not over when The
Man put her through a table to end the show - and it has been reported that Becky Lynch
vs. Shayna Baszler has been discussed as a major program for next year.
The odds on favourite to win the Royal Rumble currently, however, is a returning Ronda Rousey,
who we’ve not seen or heard from since she lost the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania.
Dave Meltzer reported back in January that Rousey was set to take time off from WWE following
Mania to start a family, which has since been confirmed.
But before we all jump on the train and roll right on into speculation station, Rousey
recently said while promoting the final episode of Total Divas, “I think I need to figure
out a different way of doing it.
To be able to not have to choose career over family or family over career and kind of find
that happy medium.
Right now, I think my family needs my undivided attention.
I’m happy to give them that.
But I’m trying to figure out a way or a system or somehow that I could give both my
family and WWE the best of me and not be half ass in both.”
Did
a WWE star jump over to AEW?
Find out in the WrestleTalk News which also has our reviews of NXT and Dynamite!
Thank you for watching and a special thank you to our Patreon Pledge Hammers, some of
which you can see scrolling their way into my stomach.
I’ve been Luke Owen and that was wrestling.