In this WrestleTalk News, a WWE star leaves for AEW, more details on the ‘complete chaos’
at the Royal Rumble, boss’ son trying to win world championship and more.
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Do you hear that?
It’s the sound of freedom.
Because, today, every extra subscription to WrestleTalk means a wrestler gets their wings.
Atta boy, Keith.
Atta boy!
Happy free agent day everybody!
Because today, the 2nd February, means that everyone released by WWE as part of the November
4th batch of firings is now free to work wherever they like.
It’s also Groundhog Day.
While those released from NXT contracts in November were only subject to 30 day non-compete
clauses, and have been able to work elsewhere since early December - like Franky Money and
Scarlett Bordeaux - the main roster releases have only just had their 90 day term expire.
Meaning the free agent world just got Karrion Kross, Ember Moon, Davey Boy Smith Jr, Oney
Lorcan, Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado, Eva Maria, Nia Jax and the power couple of Keith Lee
and Mia Yim - making them available to join AEW, IMPACT, New Japan or to bankrupt your
local indie fed imminently.
It’s also Groundhog Day.
Nia Jax released her first post-WWE shoot interview in an hour long podcast with Renee
Paquette yesterday to mark the occasion, which you can find all about in Luke’s bonus news
video - including Jax claiming to have only injured two people, that she was fired by
WWE for not being vaccinated, and that she very angrily turned them down when they wanted
her for last Saturday’s Women’s Rumble match.
But she also reiterated that she feels done with wrestling.
So expect her in AEW by the end of the month.
Keith Lee, meanwhile, filed to trademark his Limitless slogan last month, implying he will
be returning to wrestling.
And it just so happens to be AEW Dynamite tonight.
It’s also Groundhog Day.
Karrion Kross, who has reverted to his much cooler pre-WWE name Killer Kross, has directly
teased their next move, posting on Instagram: “Much on my mind as of late as I come to
a close on this final period.
In short; Man- this was an incredible chapter of my life.
Nothing but gratitude for every second.
Thank you to everyone who came for the ride- and thank you for letting me take you on one
as well.
2020 to now has been a challenging period in human history.
I hope I was able to cast some relief for people during these times.
You all brought me to life everyday and motivated me to find the best version of myself for
YOU.
As for the future…
What you see next may disturb you, As I will not return in peace.
#StayTuned⏳🕳📺 #TickTock” - with a black and white picture of him and his real
life partner Bordeaux and a little heart emoji in the corner, somewhat softening the menacing
‘disturb you’ threat.
He followed that up with a short film posted to YouTube entitled midnight, which reveals
a huge wrestling return.
A full head of hair on his head.
If you train hard enough, Killer Kross and I are proof - you can suddenly achieve immaculate
hairlines.
I remember the days when wrestlers would leave WWE, shoot a short film about escaping from
prison, and then show up in AEW later that week.
But since Malakai Black, that hasn’t come to pass - with Buddy Murphy also putting out
a promo video after he became a free agent, but he’s still yet to turn up for another
major promotion.
Who do you think we’ll see turn up on TV first out of the released batch of wrestlers?
Let me know in the comments down below.
Where I’ll use my incredible wrestling brain, a mind honed by years of in depth coverage
of this industry, to predict…
Brian Kendrick will wrestle Jon Moxley on AEW Dynamite tonight.
Oh my god, what.
That’s been announced.
I totally didn’t know that already, I’m a proper Nostradamus me, you should totally
subscribe.
It was reported last month that Brian Kendrick had privately requested his release from WWE
in December, and was still waiting on the company’s response.
This news came out via Fightful just days after another former 205 Live wrestler Mustafa
Ali had publicly requested his WWE release on Twitter.
Since the pandemic, Kendrick had transitioned into a producer/coach role for NXT and 205
Live, but presumably saw the mutli-coloured writing on the wall with Vince McMahon’s
2.0 rebrand.
Fellow NXT coach Scotty 2 Hotty quit shortly after the tonal shift, and WWE released a
bunch of Triple H’s carefully built backstage NXT team anyway - including the once-thought
untouchable William Regal.
Kendrick did start a potential feud with Harland in mid December, shooting an angle where he
was thrown down a stairwell and even announcing a match for the NXT episode on the 28th, but
the bout never happened.
At the time we all just dismissed that as a consequence of covid, but it now appears
to have been because of Kendrick’s release request behind-the-scenes.
Almost two months after he reportedly asked to be let go, Fightful Select gave an update
last night that Kendrick had indeed now been granted his request and he was no longer under
contract.
But before you could even say Spanky to AEW confirmed, AEW themselves tweeted:
“In his #AEW debut, @mrbriankendrick will face the toughest of tests tomorrow night
on #AEWDynamiteLIVE…
when he goes one-on-one with former AEW World Champion @JonMoxley!
Jon Moxley vs Brian Kendrick tomorrow night LIVE on Wednesday Night Dynamite!”
Presumably this will tie into Moxley’s burgeoning feud with Bryan Danielson, who started his
career with Kendrick.
There’s no word on if Kendrick is officially #AllElite with a contract in place, or if
this is a one off appearance.
Along with Kendrick, Ariya Daivari also appeared for the promotion on last night’s episode
of Dark.
He had previous wrestled on Rampage back in November.
205 Live to AEW confirmed.
It’s crazy, because according to rumours, both Kendrick and Daivari were, at one point,
scheduled to win the men’s Royal Rumble match, along with Shane McMahon, Seth Rollins,
Riddle, Brock Lesnar, that guy in the green shirt who always sits in the front row, Corey
Graves, Tamina and Randy Orton.
Maybe in an attempt to make up for how boring and predictable the actual men’s Rumble
match was, numerous wrestling sites are reporting a bunch of conflicting plans over who was
meant to win.
Both WrestleVotes and PWInsider claimed Riddle was the frontrunner to win the match, but
St Louis hometown boy Randy Orton was also considered, but this was changed to Lesnar.
This has now been refuted, with Fightful Select reporting Brock was penciled in as the winner
at least two weeks before the show, and Ringside News add that the Lashley vs Lesnar finish
- where Roman Reigns cost Brock the match - was designed with Lesnar later winning the
Rumble in mind.
Apparently there were “many” finished considered for the men’s Rumble, but they
all involved Lesnar winning.
Because Roman vs Brock is inevitable.
Apparently Riddle ever being considered to win “is not true”, but Fightful did say
they’d heard another name was going to win the match at one point who wasn’t Brock.
Probably Roman.
At least the women’s Rumble was really fun.
Or was it?
It’s been reported that one reason the men’s Rumble felt so lackluster was because Triple
H, who usually oversees the fun, creative spots, was not around to book the match - as
he’s still recovering from his serious cardiac event last August.
Instead, Shane McMahon was given a much larger role in the booking, with his main idea reportedly
being: include more Shane McMahon.
Fightful Select is reporting the women’s match suffered from a similar situation behind-the-scenes.
Tyson Kidd is usually the head agent for WWE’s women’s division, acting as the producer
for many of its great matches since the promotion decided equality was a thing they liked now.
But Kidd has reportedly not been producing matches in WWE for several weeks now, and
Fit Finlay was brought in to oversee the women’s Rumble instead.
We don’t know why Tyson has not been backstage as of late.
But his absence was reportedly felt behind the scenes, as the wrestlers who actually
wrestled in the match called it “complete chaos” and a “mess” with low morale
after they rehearsed it the night before.
Apparently at least one star passed on wrestling in the match when they found out Kidd wasn’t
producing Apparently both Alexa Bliss and Asuka were
meant to make their returns in the women’s match too, but they were both scrapped.
No reason has come out for why Bliss didn’t enter, but Fightful write WWE didn’t feel
Asuka was physically ready to return.
Aksana and Jillian Hall were also backstage as possible alternates in case anyone couldn’t
compete on the day.
And the men’s Rumble could’ve been even more mid, as their big backup stars were reportedly
Apollo Crews, Shelton Benjamin, Cedric Alexander and R-Truth.
Which is extra painful, as it’s rumoured they were all also scheduled to win the match
at one point or another.
It should’ve been Shane McMahon, says Shane McMahon.
As hot off the heels of reports he has significant backstage heat because he tried to book the
Rumble match around building a match between him and Seth Rollins, a new report has come
out that he’s scrambling to get himself another big match for WrestleMania 38.
Ringside News claims McMahon vs Bobby Lashley “was an idea floated around before Day 1”
but “the idea was switched to something else.”
Shane was also meant to be at this week’s Raw, where he would’ve become one of the
entrants into the Elimination Chamber - but Vince McMahon himself replaced Shane with
his new favourite son, Austin Theory.
There’s no word why Shane wasn’t at the show, or why the plans changed, but his behaviour
was described as “argumentative” backstage at the Rumble show.
Lashley vs Shane to decide the Wettest Wrestler in the Woooooorld has unfortunately been dropped,
though, and WWE is now working on something else for both men.
Just because we never properly announced the winner of me vs Adam Blampied in our Twice
in a Lifetime Fantasy Booking Warfare special…
Adam won with 64% of the vote, despite not actually booking The Rock vs John Cena.
I hope you lose at WrestleJamia, Adam.
Here’s Tempest with his review of last night’s NXT… in
about 5 minutes.