In this WrestleTalk News, there is apparently more to a WWE release, there are major concerns
over WWE Crown Jewel this weekend, the latest on CM Punk and more.
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It feels like it’s been forever since we talked about WWE releasing talent, with the
WrestleTalk News headlines over the last few months instead being dominated by AEW releases
or at the very least reported releases.
In fact you have to go back to April of this year to find the last example of the ‘budget
cut’ releases, and that was the time when Vince McMahon was still in charge.
But even under the Triple H era, it looks like there will be cuts.
And it was announced yesterday that WWE had released Bodhi Hayward, Sloane Jacobs, Erica
Yan, Damaris Griffin and Ru Feng from NXT.
Both Yan and Feng were recruits from China who joined the performance center in 2021
and had appeared on 205 Live and NXT Level Up, as had Damaris Griffin who joined the
company last August.
Sloane Jacobs was a participant in this year’s NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament at just
19, and had only signed with the company in March.
When it comes to these releases, Sean Ross Sapp noted on his Fightful Backstage Report
podcast on Patreon that, “you’re going to see a lot more of this type of thing, unfortunately…
you’re going to see a lot more of this if [wrestlers] don’t end up seeing something
immediate or something major from these talents from a creative aspect.
They’re probably going to end up letting more of them go as opposed to doing the mass
releases of 20 people.
I think you’re probably going to see smaller, more regular releases.
I don’t know what the regularity is, I’ve just been told the evaluation period was different
now.”
SRS notes that he hasn’t been told that more releases are coming soon.
And all of this makes Bodhi Hayward the most surprising release of the bunch, as he was
the most featured on TV as part of Chase U with Andre Chase.
Speaking on his release, Chase tweeted: “ just want to publicly thank @bodhihaywardWWE for
his dedication to #ChaseU.
I will always appreciate him being my first scholarship athlete, but more importantly
I will always appreciate his friendship.
Keep going.”
The release was also referenced on last night’s NXT, as Andre Chase and Thea Hail looking
solomonly at a flag with no carrier, and Duke Hudson popped up to offer his services instead.
Booker T on commentary even noted, “I see the other kid got his scholarship yanked.”
But it was Haywood’s comments on the release that caught some attention.
Posting a video on TikTok, Haywood said: “I was just released from the WWE.
I’m hurt, I’m embarrassed, and I’m just down bad.
For the last 18 months, Andre Chase University and wrestling has been my whole life.
But I am no stranger to adversity.
Adversity is something that has come up my whole life and I’ve always found a way to
get on top.
I will do it again.
I’m Brady Brooker and I’m here to stay.”
Haywood also reposted the video on Twitter with the hashtag “30 days”, which would
be in reference to his non-compete clause.
Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer and Figure Four Online was the first to report that there
would be NXT cuts, and interestingly noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that there is
more to this story - which shines some light on Haywoods words of being embarrassed and
hurt.
Alvarez said, “I guess the easiest way to describe it is apparently Bodhi was a handful…
There was more to Bodhi’s story.
That’s really all I can say because I don’t know what the ‘more’ is.
But you know, you got a bunch of guys and whatever, and they’re in Florida, and there’s
a loop, and god only knows what can happen.”
In some rather sad news from last night’s NXT, it looks like R-Truth picked up an injury
during his match with Grayson Waller.
Truth did a dive to the outside to lead into the commercial break, but viewers noted that
the picture-in-picture was scrapped part way through as Truth was being attended to by
medical personnel.
The match was officially called off as Truth was then helped to the back.
We here at WrestleTalk wish R-Truth a very speedy recovery.
But there’s also some big news ahead of this Saturday’s WWE Crown Jewel - and whether
it will actually go ahead.
This Saturday sees WWE return to the beautiful, progressive, etc, city of Riyadh with Crown
Jewel, which will see Roman Reigns defend the Undisputed Championship against Logan
Paul, Bobby Lashley clash with Brock Lesnar, Bianca Belair and Bayley square off in a last
woman standing match, Drew McIntyre and Karrion Kross locked inside a steel cage, and the
newly crowned Women’s Tag Team Champions Alexa Bliss and Asuka defend their titles
against Damage CTRL in an antiqued automatic rematch clause match.
But… that’s all if it does go ahead.
Yesterday The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia had shared intelligence
with the US that there were warnings of an “imminent attack from Iran on targets in
the Kingdom”.
Saudi officials, according to the Wall Street Journal, said the attacks were “an effort
to distract attention from domestic protests that have roiled the country since September.”
The report adds, “In response to the warning, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and several other neighboring
states have raised the level of alert for their military forces.”
White House National Security Council have said they are “concerned” about these
warnings.
Now I know what you’re thinking.
This all seems a bit serious and a bit ‘real world’ for the WrestleTalk News on a Wednesday
morning, so tell me about how it affects the silly wrestling where big man Omos takes on
big man Braun Strowman to see who really is the biggest man.
Well according to PWInisider, everything with Crown Jewel will go ahead as planned.
Mike Johnson writes, “In speaking to several at WWE, we are told that the show is set to
still go forward and that the company already has security protocols and emergency contingencies
in place for any issues.
They are hopeful all will be fine.”
‘Being hopeful’ doesn’t fill me with enormous confidence, I’ve got to be honest.
And it would seem that Johnson’s report was on the money, as Rhea Ripley tweeted that
she was flying out to Saudi Arabia to be in the corner for Judgment Day when they take
on The OC of AJ Styles and The Good Brothers.
Switching gears massively to potentially avoid the minefield of the comments section, and
Sean Ross Sapp on Fightful Select noted that there was a big scrapped segment from this
week’s Raw, which was the Halloween special.
However, outside of the Trick or Street Fight between Matt Riddle and Otis, there wasn’t
anything really ooky-spooky about the show.
But there could have been, as SRS notes that, “There were heavy elements prepared for
a Halloween Party segment that were not used.
A food fight with pumpkin pies was also pitched, as is tradition.”
He also notes that, “There were also a ton of extras that were planned for that who ended
up going unused.”
This isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened since Triple H has taken over.
SRS reported at Extreme Rules that a Triple H office set was designed but ended up not
being on-screen.
Elaborating more on this on the Backstage Report podcast on Patreon, SRS said, “The
majority of the shows are being written well before Raw or SmackDown, but there are some
minor things that are being adjusted and changed and tweaked.
They’ll bring stuff to the show and they won’t end up using [it].”
Not that I think a Halloween party would have helped with the ratings, as WWE Raw drew its
fourth lowest rating in history on Monday night going up against the stiff competition
of the NFL and Halloween itself.
The show drew in 1.5 million viewers, and drew a 0.36 in the 18-49 demographic which
is the second lowest in the show’s history.
The third hour, which drew 1.36 million viewers, is the second lowest number ever.
And it could have been worse.
As noted by Figure Four Online, the World Series game was rained off which meant that
WWE didn’t have to compete against it.
Had that match gone ahead, this could have been the lowest rated Raw of all-time.
Maybe this company does need to bring in CM Punk!
But the likelihood of that seems to be diminishing.
It’s hard to believe but we are only around 13 months since CM Punk had his triumphant
return to wrestling after a 7-year hiatus to be one of the top stars of All Elite Wrestling,
which all came crashing down recently after the events of Brawl All following the press
conference at AEW’s All Out in September.
It would appear the AEW’s investigation into what happened at Brawl Out has now concluded,
and it’s being reported that we can infer what the outcome of that was as The Elite
were shown on Dynamite last week and Punk’s friend Ace Steel was released.
The future of CM Punk is still unknown, although it was reported last week that AEW were negotiating
a deal to buy him out of the rest of his contract, with some reports saying that WWE would have
interest in bringing Punk back into the company even though Triple H is not the biggest fan
of him.
But he may not even get the chance to have the conversation.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Nick Hausman of WrestlingInc noted that, “Cash
does not seem to be an issue for this guy.
He’s got in-roads in Hollywood going on right now.
I have a lot of people that have known Punk that say to me ‘This guy’s never gonna
wrestle again’” Hausman specifically noted that Stephan Amell
was very pleased with Punk’s performance in his Starz series Heels, which is hopeful
to get a second season.
It would certainly appear that Punk is done with AEW, as it was reported that Chris Jericho
had approached him after the All Out scrum and called him a cancer in the All Elite Wrestling
locker room, which Punk was none too happy about.
According to Sean Ross Sapp on the Fightful Backstage Report Podcast on Patreon, though,
“Jericho has had a lot of positive reception” for his comments about CM Punk.
And speaking of people getting positive feedback, it was announced yesterday that GCW would
be added to FiteTV’s Fite+ service, which ends the rumors of a working relationship
between GCW and WWE.
Brett Lauderdale confirmed the news with Fightful Select, who also confirmed that there would
be no partnership between them and WWE.
But what about the partnership with AEW?
There were rumblings that it was on rocky ground following the announcement that Jon
Moxley had signed a new deal with AEW that would allow him to exclusively wrestle for
them and their international partners like New Japan but didn’t mention companies like
GCW or Black Label Pro.
It was also reported that GCW weren’t made aware that Moxley had re-signed with All Elite
Wrestling ahead of the announcement made by the company.
Fightful noted that, “word of AEW wrestlers not being able to work for GCW hasn't been
passed down to [Lauderdale] and he's hopeful that if it's true, eventually it changes.”
Laurderdale spoke very highly of AEW to Fightful and said they have a good relationship with
a lot of the talent in the company, and expects that we will see former champ Jon Moxley back
in a GCW ring again eventually.