Welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I’m Pete Quinnell.
It was a big night last night, so in today’s video, we’ll have both the regular NXT 1
Minute 1 Take recap, as well as Oli’s full regular Dynamite review.
Content!
And after such a big night with so many huge notable moments, our top story today is…CM
Punk, who was not on either show.
Makes sense to me.
But this is in fact a very big update about the CM Punk and WWE situation.
There’d been rumours flying about Punk joining WWE, and even them being in talks, compounded
with weeks of Punk-related teases on WWE programming, from Rollins calling himself the best in the
world to Michael Cole referencing a CM Punk Ring of Honor promo, to Corey Graves referencing
another of his promos and Shinsuke Nakamura hitting a GTS on Raw.
So you’d be forgiven for thinking that these are pretty overt teases of Punk joining WWE
before long.
But seemingly, not so.
As according to both Fightful Select and Haus of Wrestling, CM Punk is not in talks with
WWE about joining right now.
Select’s sources reportedly were “adamant” that the two sides were not in talks, with
a higher up mentioning that they wanted to be clear about this because they didn’t
want fans setting their expectations high for Survivor Series.
One source who is close to CM Punk reportedly also backed up that they weren’t in talks,
and that Punk was waiting to see if WWE would approach him.
Which seems to go slightly against what Dave Meltzer is saying on Wrestling Observer Radio,
as he said directly that WWE have rejected Punk:
"They turned him down.
He wanted to go there and the decision was a no…It can always change, and it was brought
up to me, there's no such thing as 'no forever' when it comes to WWE, but it's no for now…That
was the decision that was made.
It's Vince's decision.
Vince, Nick Khan, Paul Levesque, and obviously they decided that the negatives outweighed
the positives."
But what about all those teases on WWE TV?
If it’s not for a Punk return, then what’s it for?
Well according to Fightful Select, the higher up WWE source and a top WWE talent said that
they believe that these weren’t cleared beforehand, and are probably just the wrestlers
and commentators doing it themselves, with the WWE talent even mentioning that it might
be done to try and get under CM Punk’s skin.
Well it’s certainly got people talking, so there’s that I suppose.
But also if you’re not trying to set unrealistic expectations for your show in Chicago, I would
maybe not tease that something is going to happen.
Might just be me though.
Meanwhile, over on Dynamite last night, there was some controversy with MJF and Juice Robinson,
where Juice told MJF that he had a roll of quarters with his name on it, and then literally
showed a roll of quarters with Max’s name on it.
People haven’t taken too kindly to this segment online, with backlash accusing the
segment of feeding into antisemitism, which is an especially hot topic given the events
happening elsewhere in the world right now.
Fightful is reporting that MJF cleared the segment beforehand, and AEW sources noted
that it’s MJF’s story to tell and “he wants to tell the story on AEW’s fictional
television show.”
MJF spoke about this segment on X after the show, and there may have been a good reason
why this segment aired on this episode, as it potentially could be a tie-in with an appearance
Max is making later this week.
“Tonight that piece of s***, Juice Robinson decided to bring up a story from my childhood
that has left me scared.
I’m glad he did.
He brought awareness to something we’ve all gone through in one way, shape, or form
in our lives.
On behalf of anyone who’s ever been bullied for being different in any capacity.
I look forward to leaving him scared too.
I also look forward to this Thursday #StandUpToJewishHate” which was accompanied with a graphic of a
talk MJF will be doing on Thursday for Stand Up To Jewish Hate.
And now, uncomfortable segue, it’s time for my NXT 1 Minute 1 Take, where I attempt
to recount everything that happened on last night’s bananas episode of NXT in 1 minute
and in 1 take.
Cody Rhodes announced a Men’s Breakout Tournament, the return of the Dusty Classic, and that
he was the GM for one night, and was interrupted by Ilja Dragunov, Rhea Ripley and Dominik
Mysterio, not all of them together though, setting up an NXT title match of Dom Dom vs
Ilja, with LA Knight as special guest ref.
Asuka beat Roxanne Perez, the British Strong Brutes beat Gallus in a Pub Rules match, whatever
that means, John Cena was interrupted by Bron Breakker and the two fight a little.
The Family pitch a match to Cody Rhodes and- wait, wait a second, just stop the timer for
a sec, because I need to explain what’s going on here.
Tony D’Angelo and Stacks pitched to Cody Rhodes an idea for a tag team battle royal,
with 10 teams involved, over the top rope rules.
Then, when the last two teams are left, they then have a normal tag team match, and whoever
wins that tag match would face The Family at Halloween Havoc.
Cody approves the idea and calls it the Bada Bing Bada Boom Battle Royal.
I can’t stress enough how I’m not making any of this up.
Right, resume the timer.
Ilja beat Dom Dom despite Judgment Day interference, and Dijak set himself up as the next challenger,
along with Baron Corbin.
Cody made a triple threat number one contender’s match of Corbin vs Dijak vs the winner of
Hayes vs Breakker.
Paul Heyman is seen speaking to Ava, recruiting to the Bloodline perhaps, Jade Cargill arrived
and was never seen again, Lola Vice beat Dani Palmer, some stuff happened with Chase U and
Thea Hail, Brian Pillman Jr. is Lexis King now, and Carmelo Hayes beat Bron Breakker
in the main event.
Oh also The Undertaker was there and chokeslammed Breakker.
Also Solo Sikoa was there.
And of course Cena.
And Heyman.
Was a big old show this one.
Now over to Oli for Dynamite!
It’s Wednesday, you know what that means.
Well, the day after NXT usually.
But not today because sports.
So this Wednesday, you know what that means - my review of AEW Dynamite Title Tuesday
special in about 5 minutes.
My new father and yours Christian opened the show in the production truck, running down
tonight’s card - and giving us the gift of the first 30 minutes commercial free.
Thank you Christian.
Please enjoy our mothers.
That meant we got to see all of the excellent opening match between Swerve Strickland and
Bryan Danielson.
It’s a shame Swerve lost, as you could’ve had him go on a winning streak after beating
Hangman to build him for MJF, but they protected him in defeat with Hangman Page taking The
Crown, and Danielson vs Christian makes far more sense.
Even with Bryan’s predictable win, as Christian vs Swerve on Saturday would be heel vs heel,
the match was so enjoyable.
Strickland’s offence is uniquely innovative, Danielson’s selling was sublime, and the
pace was frenetic.
Hopefully Swerve gets the rub here and continues to rise up the card.
Samoa Joe announced he’s coming for the AEW Championship again in a vignette.
Powerhouse Hobbs absolutely dominated Chris Jericho, hitting six spinebusters and two
worlds Strongest Slams to win almost casually with a knee across Jericho’s face.
No offence, QTV, but this is how Hobbs should’ve been booked when he won the TNT title earlier
this year.
Jericho was later taken to kayfabe hospital because of his injuries, and Daddy Magic got
annoyed with Daniel Garcia for showing concern.
Of course, this episode wasn’t just Title Tuesday.
It was actually part of AEW’s larger ‘let’s get the belts off reportedly injured champions’
week too.
Orange Cassidy replaced a still not medically cleared Jon Moxley to face Rey Fenix for the
International Championship - which he neatly won back almost exactly a year to the day
after he first won it.
While this was a lot more back and forth than FTR’s 5 minute tag title loss on Collision,
there was that same sense of oddness you can’t really escape when you’re forced into booking
yet another title change.
Rey wasn’t meant to win it in the first place, and now he’s likely had to drop it
because of his own injuries.
Hopefully Cassidy can restore some much needed consistency back to this belt.
Toni Storm debuted her two part black and white silent film Lover’s Lament - which
saw her solo mime act a story about trying to get to her lover, I think.
The placement of a silent film in a picture-in-picture adbreak is very smart.
But doing an actual silent film, with other actors, more than just one static shot and
title cards would’ve made this much better.
It’s like the people involved in making this have heard that silent films used to
be a thing, but never actually watched one to understand which tropes to use.
Wardlow sees your Jericho squash match, Hobbs, and does it quicker - beating Matt Sydal with
a bunch of powerbombs.
Hangman Page had a really good match against Jay White - really cementing that group of
main event wrestlers vying for the No. 1 contendership position.
Page sold his knee very well throughout the match, but it was Prince Nana getting revenge
from the Swerve match earlier - hitting him with The Crown - that allowed White to get
the win.
MJF then came out at level 10 intensity, and then somehow increased several more notches
by the end of the segment.
He demanded his Triple B back from White, and talked about how he’s trying to be a
better person - neatly using the same ‘looking in the mirror to ask myself if I’m the bad
guy’ line he had in his CM Punk feud.
CM Punk AEW return confirmed.
Jay said MJF can have the belt back if he can find three other friends to face the Bang
Bang Gang in an 8 man tag - which Max Caster volunteered the Acclaimed for later on.
Expertly listing the matches we can expect from this feud, Juice Robinson then said he’s
coming for Max’s beloved Diamond Ring in the annual battle royal next week - and that
he’s got a roll of quarters with Friedman’s name on.
In a really well performed outburst, this touched a nerve for MJF.
He’s spoken twice in an AEW ring about his experience of anti-semetic bullying at school,
where coins were thrown at him.
Combine that with Juice’s fistfull of quarters being his weapon of choice creates a very
emotionally charged angle.
Max’s storylines continue to be the best thing on Dynamite, not just making everyone
around him infinitely more interesting, but also being so three-dimensional, you can reference
anti-semtism in one segment, and have Adam Cole goofily mowing Rockerick Strong’s lawn
the next.
Max was becoming increasingly frustrated, unable to reach Cole on the phone.
Shida is the new AEW Women’s Champion again!
She beat Saraya after Toni Storm chased off Ruby Soho, and several very good near falls.
Hopefully this time it’s an actual reign, and not just another transitional run.
And the main event had Adam Copeland beating Luchasaurus in his in-ring AEW debut, which
was followed by all the brawling!
But before then, Christian cut a pre-match promo, both referencing how lame Edge’s
Judgement Day was, and telling Copeland’s wife Beth Phoenix to put clean sheets on the
bed, because he’s going to be Edge’s daughters new father.
Motherf- Copeland’s match layout was typically superb,
getting jumped before the bell for a prolonged build to his comeback.
The finish was excellently done, too - where Copeland stopped Christian using the belt
on him, hit Luchasaurus over the back of the head with it, then threw it back to Christian
- making Luchasaurus thinking it was his mentor who struck him.
That let Copeland hit the spear to win.
Then half the roster came down to brawl, with the show going off air on Christian wildly
tapping to Danielson’s LaBell Lock - a great visual sell for their TNT title match this
Saturday.
This week’s Dynamite was hugely enjoyable at 80%.
Now go watch Luke and Dan talking spooky, spooky Halloween movies!