In this WrestleTalk News, Gunther’s WWE push nearly came to an end recently, the latest
on Sasha Banks and Naomi’s return to WWE, the real reason Hit Row returned to WWE and
more.
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Maki Itoh is available for weddings now.
Maki Itoh is bloody brilliant and can do it all.
Not only is she a J-pop superstar, not only is she a former 6 x Ironman Heavymetalweight
Champion, not only has she wrestled for AEW, Tokyo Joshi Pro and more, not only has she
been cosplayed by Oli Davis - she’s also great fun at wrestling weddings.
Last night’s GCW Homecoming Part 2 saw The Cardonas of Matt and Chelsea Green renew their
wedding vows in the main event segment - which didn’t just have Undertaker Royal Rumble
eliminator Maven officiate the event, but also featured Maki Itoh singing L-O-V-E by
Nat King Cole - and I’ve now decided that I made an error with my own wedding by not
booking Maki Itoh to sing L-O-V-E bu Nat King Cole to me.
Stupid 2017 Luke.
As former QuizzleMania contestant Sam Roberts put it on Twitter, this is peak pro wrestling.
Speaking of pro wrestling, and the pro wrestling era of WWE has now been in effect for the
last few weeks since Triple H took over as head of creative for the company.
It’s been reported that Papa H is looking to move more away from ‘sports entertainment’
and put more emphasis on the actual wrestling side of World Wrestling Entertainment.
This has been seen on Raw as well as Summerslam, but was very evident on this past Friday’s
SmackDown where Gunther defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to retain his Intercontinental Championship.
It was a hard hitting affair; and while not the highs of previous Nakamura highs - this
was not exactly New Japan Nakamura after all - it was the most Walter-like Gunther has
felt on the main roster since his call up back in April.
Gunther won the IC belt on the June 10th episode of SmackDown and it looked like he was heading
for quite a big push.
He was very well protected, he was very well presented, and he was given a championship.
Plus he’d gotten himself in what Oli Davis and I used to call “main roster shape”;
i.e. a body type that Vince McMahon would actually like and not just want to put a t-shirt
on him cough Baron Corbin cough.
However, according to the very reliable WrestleVotes, this Gunther push was set to come crashing
down and hurt inside following the July 4th edition of Monday Night Raw.
That July 4th episode saw a very bizarre segment where R-Truth came out dressed as Uncle Sam
who was then beaten up by SmackDown’s Gunther in an unadvertised cross-brand dealio.
Must be part of that quarterly brand invitational type situation that was very clearly laid
out for fans to understand.
The segment didn’t really get over with the live crowd - despite being a foriegn invading
force going against a man who is dressed as America - and it might be part of the reasons
that WrestleVotes is alluding to when they tweeted: “those in power at the time really
soured on Gunther for whatever ridiculous reason.
To the point where a burial on TV was coming.”
What, like, losing in under 3 minutes at Survivor Series or losing both of your Raw matches
when you’re in the UK?
That kind of Vince burial?
As many have pointed out in the replies to this tweet, it seems weird that WWE - read:
Vince McMahon - were planning on ‘burying’ Gunther when they still had him hold the IC
belt and get wins on TV.
But it’s worth reminding folks that the IC title didn’t really mean a lot under
the watch of Vince - and wins and losses didn’t really matter either.
Fightful Select also reported after he stepped down from creative, that Vince would often
sour on things very quickly and get bored of pushes which is why we got so many stop-start-stop
ones over the last decade or so.
The final portion of that report - that things are quite different for Gunther now - is just
another example of how the landscape of WWE has changed since one man stepped down and
another man took over.
Gunther - when he was Walter - was brought into NXT UK by Daddy H, and is clearly a guy
that he sees massive potential in.
Kinda like how the entire wrestling world saw massive potential in him when he was the
biggest star on the independent scene for years having the best matches on a consistent
basis.
Yeah, that Trips sure is good at finding those unfound diamonds in the rough.
To paraphrase the great Sinaed O’Conner, it’s been several hours and 91 days - yes
I will keep doing this joke - since Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out on WWE over creative
differences.
Being that these disagreements came with Vince McMahon and John Laurienitis - two of the
most powerful men in the company - it seemed like the pair would never return to WWE.
With several reports coming out over the last few months about the varying lengths of their
WWE contracts, and Banks proving that she was a megastar at C2E2 by charging the event
a reported $30,000 for her non-wrestling appearance, which proved dividends for them when there
was a huge queue to meet her and Naomi.
But, please Twitter, tell me more about how you think she overpriced herself.
If you can charge that amount for a simple signing appearance, why would you be rushing
back to Vince and Johnny Ace begging for your job back?
But things are different now - particularly that those two men - Vince and Laurintis - are
now longer in positions of power.
Vince McMahon has officially retired from WWE, and Johnny Ace was relieved of his duties
with the company following his involvement in the allegations made against Vince that
were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
With Triple H and Stephanie McMahon now running the show, there have been several reports
that Banks and Naomi will be heading back to WWE after all.
But as they were not announced for the Women’s Tag Team Tournament brackets, nor was there
a blank space for surprise appearances, the question wasn’t a case of ‘if’ they’ll
return, but more ‘when’.
Dave Meltzer on Sunday Night’s Main Event podcast was asked this question and he replied:
“I'm guessing that it's gonna be the finals of the tournament or right after the finals
that they show up.
That's kind of how I'm reading it now.”
Meltzer continued by saying that Trips is looking to stagger his big returns - which
we’ve seen recently include Dakota Kai at Summerslam, Karrion Kross on SmackDown, Dexter
Lumis on Raw and Hit Row on this past Friday’s SmackDown - and when it comes to Banks and
Naomi, they’re, “obviously the biggest ones they can bring in, so you don't need
to do it in week one.”
There have been several reports since he took over that Triple H is being aggressive in
re-signing some of the talent released under the previous people in charge - which included
Hit Row just a few days ago.
Hit Row debuted as a faction in NXT back in May 2021 and were quickly called up to the
main roster in October with the team having their first match later that month.
Just one week later, and it was reported that B-Fab had been released, then a couple of
weeks after that saw the releases of the rest of the group of Top Dolla, Ashante Thee Adonis
and Isiah Swerve Scott.
Although without Swerve - who signed with AEW in March of this year - the group did
a few indie appearances under the new name of HitMakerZ for companies like GCW.
This past Friday, it was reported by PWInsider that WWE were keen on bringing back Top Dolla,
Adonis and B-Fab, and did so quickly by having them re-debut on SmackDown as a trio.
And now we know why.
In an interview with Busted Open Radio, Top Dolla revealed that even after he was released
by WWE, he was in constant contact with Triple H - even sending him videos of the indie appearances
they were doing for the likes of GCW and ACW as a tag team - and crucially as a team without
Swerve who would be unavailable to also return with the group on account of him being on
half of the AEW World Tag Team Champions.
Top Dolla also revealed that Hit Row was one of Triple H’s “top priorities” to bring
back, and the deal to get them on TV was done in just over a week.
In fact, according to Dolla, we might have even seen them return on last Friday’s SmackDown
as Trips wanted them back as fast as he could.
He added, “there are a million people Hunter could run back.
The list is hundreds of people long that are talented performers that were released in
the last five years that are still young and able to do these things.
A million people he could bring back, but he called us.”
It’s worth remembering that Top Dolla had rumoured heat on him backstage when he was
on the main roster for rubbing people the wrong way, even having to delete a diss track
he made for their feud with Jinder Mahal and Shanky because he received so much backlash
for it from fans.
He’d also rubbed The Young Bucks the wrong way on social media which was a reported reason
why only Serve Strickland was signed by AEW rather than the whole group.
In an interesting side note to this, Dolla revealed that Swerve being added to Hit Row
was a Triple H decision, as Dolla saw them as a tag act of him and Adonis with B-Fab
as their manager - which might be why they referred to themselves as the OG3 in their
SmackDown promo.
Dolla coming back into WWE is yet another example of the winds of change in the company,
and speaking with Alex McCarthy of Inside the Ropes, Doudrop also revealed that there
could be some changes for her as well.
She told McCarthy that she’d had a meeting recently with Triple H where the question
of what she saw for her character was discussed - including ditching the name Doudrop and
possibly going back to her previous WWE name of Piper Niven.
Interestingly she also noted that she wasn’t the only one who’s been having meetings
with Triple H about changing up what they’re doing now that he’s in control.
She said, “he was receptive to all ideas.
I’m very much aware that there is probably, like, lots of other people that are looking
for changes.”
In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Meltzer noted that, “Some of the weird name
quirks may be changing”, noting it’s believed that Humberto will be getting his surname
of Carrillo back, which could also be the case for his cousin and tag partner Angel
Garza.
While there are no confirmed reports, this could also mean we’ll get back forenames
for Austin Theory, Tomasso Ciampa and Matt Riddle.
And I want to round things off by reminding you of our WWE Clash at the Castle watch a
long party on September 3rd at the Joiner on Worship in London!
Tickets are going fast with over 75% of them now sold - so if you’re waiting on getting
one I’d suggest clicking the link and ordering as soon as possible.
The WrestleTalk and No Rolls Barred crew will be there in full force, and there will be
an after party with drinks and games once the show has finished - we genuinely cannot
wait to see you all there!