In this WrestleTalk News, AEW stars spoken to backstage after a stiff match, another
AEW backstage altercation, news on CM Punk and The Elite’s potential return to AEW
and more.
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The latest bit of online wrestling discourse has come as a result of a particularly stiff
match on AEW Dark.
The match in question between AEW star Athena and Toronto independent star Jody Threat took
place last week in Toronto and aired Monday, catching the eye of many fans in the process.
Now Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select has reported that both women were spoken to backstage
after the match.
The report states that Fightful was told that Threat slipped on her comeback and ended up
a bit lost, needing to ask Athena where they were going to go next in the match.
The match then devolved into more physicality from Athena, who appeared to unload a number
of very stiff strikes on Threat.
The report states that those close to the situation are confident that Threat would
not take issue with the increased physicality but still felt like it shouldn’t have happened
anyway and could have been avoided with clearer communication.
The report also goes on to say that both women were approached after the match to make sure
everything was okay, with one source close to the situation saying they believed this
was an opportunity to lead by example rather than letting the match devolve.
There was reportedly no confrontation between Athena and Threat afterward and Threat hasn’t
complained about how things went, not speaking on the match at all as of yet.
It was noted that Threat doesn’t like to involve herself in the political aspects of
wrestling, keeping her head down in moments like these.
It remains to be seen if anything more will come of this match beyond the two women receiving
a talking to but we will keep you updated if the story changes.
It had been reported earlier in the year that AEW stars and longtime tag partners Santana
and Ortiz were not on speaking terms after a falling out.
Now, Konnan has confirmed that this is still the case.
On his Keeping It 100 podcast, Konnan stated “they ain’t talking to each other” before
adding that it breaks his heart to see.
Konnan also added some insight into where the rift between Proud and Powerful comes
from.
Konnan said that Santana and Ortiz both believe that AEW hasn’t been doing anything with
them but while Ortiz is happy to be paid and taken care of by AEW, Santana wants more than
that.
Konnan also noted that Ortiz is more chill and laid back while Santana is more of a hothead,
and said he could see Santana leaving AEW when his contract is up.
PnP have notably not won the AEW World Tag Titles since their debut at All Out 2019,
despite being positioned as a top team upon their arrival.
Another noteworthy thing that was mentioned on the podcast was that there was seemingly
almost another backstage fight over this situation between Santana and Eddie Kingston, with Konnan
saying: “I heard it almost got physical with Santana
and Kingston over this.
It’s not a good look.”
Santana is currently recovering from a torn ACL which he suffered during this year’s
Blood and Guts match.
As reported yesterday, Ace Steel has been released by AEW following his involvement
in the post All Out Brawl.
This is the first domino to fall in the Brawl Out investigation, as it had been radio silent
on that front since it occurred.
This week’s Dynamite also featured the first footage of CM Punk as part of the ROH World
Championship video package, as well as the first mention of The Elite in regards to the
Trios titles since All Out, leading many fans to believe that we could be moving closer
to the end of this saga.
Now there’s news on the backstage reaction to the release of Ace Steel, and news on potential
returns for CM Punk and The Elite soon.
The
word on the backstage reaction to Steel’s dismissal is reported by Fightful Select,
who say the unanimous consensus backstage was that this was to be expected and if there
weren’t legal complications, this would have happened the week of All Out.
Among the reactions from Fightful’s sources were one talent who was on good terms with
Steel saying that the writing was on the wall when the bitemarks on Kenny Omega’s arm
were still visible.
Omega could be seen with the marks during his trip to Japan soon after.
Another source called Steel’s firing a no-brainer, and said that bringing him back into the locker
room would have caused a lot of frustration.
One source said there hadn’t been much discussion backstage about Brawl Out after the talent
meeting led by Bryan Danielson, Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley, and another source merely
stated that “biting people bad” when asked for comment.
Fightful was not able to confirm whether or not any sort of return would be imminent,
but they did note that the suspended parties had been more in contact with AEW than they
had been as of late.
We also have an update on Hangman Page following the scary ending to his match with Jon Moxley
on this week’s Dynamite.
It had been announced by AEW in a statement that Page had been diagnosed with a concussion,
and now we have heard the first public statement from Page himself since the injury.
Page took to Twitter to say, “hey thanks everyone for being so nice,
im doing alright and feeling good today.
had a nice panini for lunch.
thanks to paul, medical, mox, brandon, bj, etc, (insert introspective yet merciless quote
about unfinished business here)” It goes without saying that everyone here
at WrestleTalk wishes Hangman all the best and we all hope he can make a speedy and full
recovery.
And also what sort of panini was it, I need to know.
Another wrestler who’s been sidelined with an injury is Kris Statlander, who revealed
she had a completely torn ACL and lateral meniscus.
Speaking to Hollywood Life, Statlander gave an update on her recovery, saying recovery
was pretty all she had on tap for the rest of 2022:
“Mostly just recovering from my knee surgery.
Getting stronger and getting myself ready to get back in the ring.
It’s unfortunately the only thing I can really focus on right now, and I just want
to heal as best as I can.”
And someone else who’s been out of action is Jeff Hardy, who was arrested for a DUI
in June.
His trial for his charges has already been pushed back once, and has now been pushed
back again, which may ultimately lead to Hardy not facing trial at all.
The reason given for the delay was Hardy’s attorney filing a motion that mentioned that
“the parties require additional time to negotiate a potential pre-trial resolution”.
Fans’ eyes were a bit more inclined to check out the viewership figures for this week’s
TV as NXT and Dynamite went up against each other on Tuesday night, and Triple H had added
fuel to the fire beforehand as reports mentioned that Triple H was keen to make sure NXT beat
Dynamite in the ratings this week.
Well, that didn’t happen, as Dynamite scored an average of 752,000, which is obviously
way down from its usual week to week numbers, but it was on a different timeslot and day,
while NXT pulled in some great numbers, with an average of 676,000 viewers, which wasn’t
quite enough to best AEW.
Sorry Trips.
This Tuesday’s NXT was made to feel like a ‘big deal’, with heavy advertisement
and crossover appearances from stars such as: Roxanne Perez, Cora Jade and Cameron Grimes
during the past week’s episodes of Smackdown and Raw.
While main roster stars such as: The OC, Judgment Day, Kevin Owens made the jump to Tuesday’s
for one night.
This was likely an attempt to spike the ratings ahead of Saturday’s Halloween Havoc, oh
and also for Triple H to get some sweet revenge on Tony Khan.
However, for one returning name there may be more to it than a one and done.
Former two-time NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura made his first appearance on NXT in years
and his first WWE TV appearance since August in a winning effort against Channing ‘Stacks’
Lorenzo.
And according to PWInsider he is reportedly set for additional appearances on Tuesday
nights going forward.
It’s unclear how long for and what his intentions are on NXT but nevertheless it’s cool to
see Shinsky Naks back where had his best WWE tenure once again.
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, NXT has been squarely rooted at the PC in Florida,
with no touring or large arena shows (bar Stand and Deliver in April 2020).
However, according to NXT head-honcho Shawn Michaels this could be about to change.
Speaking on TV Insider with Scott Fishman, HBK said:
“We’ve briefly discussed getting out for our premium live events.
We have every intention of doing that.
We’re actually having talks on how we want to go about executing that.
This will go beyond shows in the state of Florida for certainly premium live events
but regular live events.
As you know, that is part of the developmental process.
They have to get out there and perform on the main roster all around the world.
They might as well get their feet wet in NXT.”
That might not be the only new changes coming to the black and gold (and I guess white now),
with a recent new trademark being filed by WWE this week for perhaps suggesting a new
NXT show is on the horizon?
The trademark is for NXT Deadline, and was filed under ‘entertainment services’ so
yeah it’s likely a new show, but as of this moment in time further details are not available.
If it is another regular program, it would become the third under the NXT umbrella with
NXT and NXT Level Up (which replaced 205 Live) currently scheduled each week.
Keep tuned to WrestleTalk.com for updates on what this mystery ‘Deadline’ entails.
Lastly, the WWE return of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows on last week’s Raw caused quite
a stir and a lot of interesting questions from fans, largely given the fact that the
Good Brothers still had some unfinished business in NJPW to say the least.
Not only were Gallows and Anderson both booked for numerous events leading up to and including
Wrestle Kingdom on January 4th 2023, but more glaringly was the fact that Karl Anderson
is the company’s current NEVER Openweight Champion.
While it was initially being reported that WWE were going to allow the pair to fulfill
their scheduled New Japan dates with Anderson initially set to defend his title on November
5th’s NJPW Battle Autumn show against Hikuleo.
Slight problem however, OC are now booked to be in Saudi Arabia that night for their
match against Judgment Day.
Addressing the situation, the Good Brothers posted a video on Anderson’s Twitter comically
stating that the NEVER Openweight bout was never signed off by Gallows and therefore
will not be happening due to them being “double-booked”.
It’s unclear how clued up New Japan were on this change and whether it’s a case of
WWE throwing their weight around or whether this was already agreed upon.
A potential relationship between NJPW and WWE could have been a possibility with Anderson’s
current title reign surprisingly being mentioned on NXT this week, as well as NJPW’s Twitter
retweeting a clip of Gallows and Anderson’s WWE return.
But now, who knows?
We could’ve had an exciting Forbidden Door 2.0 prospect there WWE, why you gotta be like
that?
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