On today’s news - Dana Brooke fires back at Corey Graves for burying her on commentary,
JBL responds to accusations of bullying, an update on the AEW backstage power shift among
the Executive Vice Presidents, and more. Make sure to subscribe here for daily wrestling
news videos as I absolutely carry this company on my back. Jam That Jampion. News presenter.
Podcast host. Every day this week as everyone else has decided to be busy. You’re welcome.
This week’s episode of Raw saw the culmination of the 2021 Draft, but one of the things people
were talking about coming out of the episode wasn’t the Draft, it was Goldberg saying
that a No Holds Barred Match gives him a license to kill. No it doesn’t Goldberg, murder
is still a very real crime. But aside from that, fans were also talking
about Corey Graves’ commentary during the quick squash match of Shayna Baszler vs Dana
Brooke, with Graves deciding to absolutely bury the latter of the two, saying things
such as he’s “all for giving people time to realize their potential, but on a long
enough timeline, you gotta cut your losses” and “you can give me a chest full of tools,
that doesn’t mean I can build you a house”. In classic WWE fashion, burying their own
talent. We know how to make stars. Funnily enough, Dana Brooke hasn’t exactly
taken these quite disparaging comments lying down, taking to an Instagram story which seems
to be firing back at Corey’s comments, calling him a clown:
“You CANNOT entertain everything regardless if its INDIRECT or DIRECT!! Let people do
what they do best . TALK!! Y’all act like y’all gone die because somebody said something
about you . IT IS NOT THAT DEEP!! You cannot stop and throw stones at every dog that barks
. ONCE you entertain a clown , you BECOME ONE [woman waving emoji] YOU THE CLOWN [clown
emoji] I’M THE QUEEN [queen emoji] I KEEP PUSHING THRO! WATCH ME WORK”
After Dana was saved by Doudrop from a post-match beatdown from Baszler, but was then involved
in a very tense staredown where everyone...just kinda stood there looking at each other, one
has to wonder what’s next for Brooke in WWE. Especially with the addition of new women’s
wrestlers from NXT such as Xia Li, as well Natalya & Tamina and Tegan Nox & Shotzi being
split up and becoming singles wrestlers again. What do you think of the Dana Brooke & Corey
Graves situation? Let me know in the comments because I’ll be replying to people FROM
OUTTA NOWHERE for the first thirty minutes after this video goes live.
To be fair all Dana Brooke needs to do is find a partner and they’ll be the automatic
number one contenders to the women’s tag team belts, because there’s only one team
in the division and it’s the champions! That Rhea Ripley main roster run sure has
been something hasn’t it? ...I’m shocked.
Current Women’s Tag Team Champion Rhea Ripley spoke on the Battleground Podcast recently,
Ripley revealed that she would love to rejoin the NXT roster. I can’t imagine why.
“I would love to, honestly. I miss NXT right now. How it’s all changed, I don’t know
if I’d really fit in, but when it was the metal scene and very grungy, I love that NXT.
Not saying that the one now is bad or anything, but it’s definitely more for like the up-and-comers
and everyone’s there trying to make a name for themselves. But saying that, I would definitely
go back in a heartbeat, especially to help my girl, Raquel Gonzalez. I don’t like when
she gets jumped. Yeah, I got her back.” It’s a shame that Rhea was once upon the
time one of the most over women in wrestling, even dethroning Shayna Baszler as NXT Women’s
Champion in the main event on the one episode of NXT that beat AEW during the Wednesday
Night Wars in the key 18-49 demographic. And now she and Nikki can’t agree on the colour
blue. This is my Blue-tality. Last week, one of the big news stories was
a report on the change in the backstage dynamic of AEW, specifically with the Executive Vice
Presidents of Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, and how their roles have
changed since Dynamite’s launch in late 2019.
The original report from Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net stated that each of their roles
with regard to creative had shrunk over time, with Rhodes still being part of creative,
but his role being much smaller in that regard, while Omega was heavily involved in AEW Games
and the production of the women’s division, Matt Jackson was responsible for merch alongside
his wife, and Nick Jackson handled Being The Elite.
This was reportedly because Tony Khan had essentially pulled back on the reins a bit
and taken over some of the roles himself, with final say in creative coming down to
him, despite wrestlers having a large amount of creative input along the way.
However, a new report from Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio has stated that this
isn’t necessarily the case, as the roles of the higher ups in AEW reportedly haven’t
changed since late 2019. He also confirmed that Tony Khan had taken more control in terms
of creative, but said that nobody else in the higher ups had lost power in that department.
Meltzer then went into slightly more detail, saying that as the main booker, he decides
things such as the winners of matches, but the content of matches and angles is more
up to the performers to “fill in the details”. Using the Bryan Danielson vs Nick Jackson
match from Rampage as an example, Meltzer said that the two of them were essentially
free to do what they liked in the match. Awkward transition into something much more
serious segue! Prior to Mauro Ranallo leaving WWE in 2017,
accusations came out about JBL bullying Ranallo during his time commentating on the main roster.
Ranallo himself stated that his departure from the company had nothing to do with JBL,
however the accusations of bullying have remained. Speaking on Hannibal TV, JBL said about the
accusations: “Maybe I could have deserved [the accusations].
I don’t know, you know, we were younger, we broke balls. I’m a loud guy from the
south and a lot of people, I think, took that wrong. I can tell you, with Mauro, there was
never any malicious intent ever toward anything I said toward Mauro. Anything I said on camera,
that was all in character. You know, some of it could be deserved. I’m not trying
to re-write my history. I wasn’t a saint; we drank a lot back then, we ran the roads,
and we would always love to crack on each other. It was just part of what we did and
I think a lot of people took that wrong, and some of it could have gone too far. I’m
not trying to excuse anything I’ve done.” Awkward transition back to something not as
serious segue! Since his debut in AEW, Adam Cole spoke to
Renee Paquette on her Oral Sessions podcast and said that WWE had interest in bringing
in Britt Baker. There were reportedly no formal talks between the two parties, but NXT had
asked Cole about her availability. Now, on Speaking Out with Renee Paquette and
Meisha Tate, Britt herself has confirmed that there was interest from WWE in bringing her
in: “It’s no secret, (Adam) has already said
it, that cat is out of the bag and I’m not going to get in trouble. WWE was definitely
poking the bear a little bit through him recently, when I was still with AEW. ‘Hey, we’re
interested in her,’ without teetering the line of contract tampering, they definitely
let me know that they had interest in me, but it wasn’t a mutual thing. I’m very
happy with AEW and thankful for the opportunities and this is where I want to stay.”
Britt Baker to AEW confirmed. And speaking of AEW, after it was revealed
that Vince McMahon ‘doesn’t see AEW as competition’, sure, I believe you Vince,
former WWE referee Mike Chioda, also known as the man who forgot what a Money in the
Bank briefcase was for a few minutes, has stated that he doesn’t buy it, and thinks
Vince McMahon is actually ‘very concerned’ about AEW.
On an episode of Monday Mailbag on AdFreeShows.com, Chioda said:
“He always wants to be on top. I have seen him demolish and step on a lot of territories
around the country and around the world. He wants to be #1...I definitely think he’s
very concerned right now because they’re picking up some good talent. I know Vince.
Vince is concerned.” But Mike, WWE makes movies. They’re in the
entertainment industry. AEW is in the wrestling industry. Two totally different things.
Which is why WWE aren’t doing anything at all to try and up their ratings in a drastic
fashion, like booking a Steel Cage Match on Raw, or having huge matches like The Bloodline
vs The New Day, which then changed into a Triple Threat of Big E vs Roman Reigns vs
Bobby Lashley, or using naughty words now, like Seth Rollins saying s*** on Raw, or Bobby
Lashley saying chicken s*** at Extreme Rules, or Goldberg threatening to murder someone.
Like, actually kill them. Break their neck. Leave their lifeless body gasping for air.
Which wouldn’t happen if they’re lifeless, but y’know.
But there are limits to how much saucy content WWE can put out, as Ringside News is reporting,
so take with a pinch of salt, that while both NXT and Raw will “definitely” see an increase
in more colourful language, the same can’t be said for SmackDown.
This is because FOX reportedly has “standards and practices” which prohibits WWE from
going overboard with the profanity. But little risque comments like Roman Reigns’ missionary
position line during his feud with John Cena before SummerSlam are supposedly fine.
Guys, the Attitude Era is basically back. They can say the s word now! WWE is fixed!
And luckily for new NXT call up Austin Theory, he can also say the word s*** as he was drafted
to Raw! As part of his re-debut, he attacked Jeff Hardy and took a selfie with his unconscious
body, which was actually pretty funny. According to Ringside News once again, so
another handful of salt required, WWE reportedly has big plans for Austin Theory as a heel
on the red brand. His attack on Hardy was seemingly the first way to try and get him
over, as Hardy is about to depart for the blue brand where he’s teased a new ego.
Austin Theory three week pushed confirmed. Also Austin Theory to AEW confirmed.
There’s no NXT 2.0 review today as Tempest’s footage after he recorded became corrupted
and unusable, so instead you’ll have to tune in to the WrestleTalk Podcast channel
later today to get our full thoughts. For a quick summary though, Tempest said, and
I quote, ‘the show was rubbish but Dexter Lumis reportedly has
a huge knob”. And that’s all you need.