Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk Super News - I’m Oli Davis.
We’ve got a packed show for you today, including a WrestleMania return potentially being leaked,
another match gets bumped to the Mania pre-show and a bunch of contract updates on WWE and
AEW signings! Click the timestamps in the video description
below to jump to any of those stories right now!
And for a Super News, let’s have a Super Click party! Click the thumbs up button, the
share button and give us a subscribe because we’re just a few thousand away from 700,000
subscribers! Also, answer our Question of the Day down
below: Which WWE stars do you want to go to AEW and why? Because I’ll be replying to
people in the comments FROM OUTTA NOWHERE! Speaking ‘from outta nowhere’...
This is Mustafa Ali. He was destined for big things just two months ago, but an injury
caused him to be replaced by Kofi Kingston just five days out from Elimination Chamber
Kofi got hot, and Mustafa Ali not only lost a potential WWE Championship match against
Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania… but also his first name.
Ali posted a video on Instagram struggling with the events of the last two months, writing:
“I've been battling the "What if?" question ever since my injury took me out of the @wwe
title picture. I finaly had the chance to answer that question face-to-face with @thetruekofi.”
With a video of him talking to Kofi saying he knows exactly how it feels:
“I keep telling everybody, it was so unfortunate. I was mad that you got injured, but it really
meant a lot for me. I had to perform for you! ...A big part of just performing was in your
honour. The stuff you’ve been doing has been amazing to watch.”
Ali and Kofi cleared the air. Ali and Kofi thought they were safe. But they didn’t
see The Viper Randy Orton lurking in the comments - the man who halted Kofi’s push almost
a decade ago - who posted from outta nowhere! “What a f****** guy. All bs aside. Congrats
Kofi. And I am truly happy for you. Kill it Sunday bro. #StupidStupidStupid KISSING FACE
EMOJI” Huh… that was a nice thing. Orton wasn’t
a dick for a change. Which is more than I can say for Dean Ambrose,
breaking all of our hearts.
News broke that Ambrose wouldn’t be re-signing his WWE contract over Royal Rumble weekend,
where just a few days later, the promotion took the unprecedented step of announcing
Dean’s status on their website. This, of course, led to many fans speculating
Ambrose leaving was all a work because, you know, pro wrestling.
But now, just weeks away from his contract officially expiring, his other Shield brother
Seth Rollins has spoken about Dean leaving, where he acknowledges the promotion can be
a pretty frustrating place: “It breaks my heart. I get it, you know.
I understand. This place can be frustrating and he’s a guy who ’s been doing it nonstop
for, shoot, 15, 16, 17 years now… it’s gonna be weird to come into a locker room
and he’s not there and knowing he’s not coming back anytime soon. So it certainly
tugs on my heartstrings a little bit, but I support him in whatever decision he’s
gonna make.” I’m going to miss you too, Dean. But what
about Roman’s actual blood relatives The Usos’ WWE futures?
Current SmackDown tag team champions The Usos also reportedly had their WWE contracts due
this month, and as of just a few weeks ago still hadn’t re-signed with the promotion
- which is one of the speculated backstage reasons WWE made them tag team champions,
similar to how The Revival won the Raw tag titles after reportedly requesting their release.
Wrestling talent has become a highly sought-after resource in 2019, with the formation of new
promotion All Elite Wrestling providing a realistic WWE-alternative for many performers.
This has reportedly caused WWE officials to re-sign any contracts that will be expiring
soon, as Vince McMahon doesn’t want the public perception of his company to be that
people want to leave it. Well, they appear to have had success with
The Usos, as PWInsider is reporting WWE came to terms with Jimmy and Jey on a new deal
several weeks back. In what I’m sure is totally unconnected, they also now have a
WrestleMania match, with them defending their titles against The Bar, established, well-known
tag team Aleister Black and Ricochet and Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura.
Raw tag team champions The Revival, however, who still frequently reference AEW, aren’t
currently booked on the card. Read into that what you will.
But that’s not to say All Elite Wrestling are currently empty-handed with WWE talent
whose contracts would expire this month.
As legendary announcer Jim Ross has just officially signed with the promotion.
JR has been rumoured to go to AEW before AEW was even a thing, with SEScoops reporting
all the way back in October that Chris Jericho, Jim Ross, the Being the Elite crew and the
Khan family were all working on creating a new wrestling promotion.
AEW made the announcement in yesterday’s episode of their Road To Double or Nothing
YouTube series, revealing JR will join the broadcast team alongside Sirius XM’s Alex
Marvez and PWG and All In commentator Excalibur. But as great as JR is on announcing, it’s
his decades and decades of experience behind-the-scenes, particularly as WWE’s head of talent relations,
that’ll be invaluable to a promotion effectively run by relative newcomers. And that’s something
he seems keen to contribute:
And
JR wasn’t the only former WWE name AEW added, as Justin Roberts was also revealed as the
promotion’s ring announcer! Roberts was released by WWE in 2014, and subsequently
wrote in his book, Best Seat in the House, about the backstage bullying culture in the
company. He’s another great addition for AEW, thanks to his experience in live event
producing. Hopefully one of the lesson’s he’s learned
is: DON’T MAKE WRESTLING SHOWS SO DAMN LONG. Because yet another match has been bumped
to the WrestleMania pre-show.
Joining both the men’s Giant the Memorial Andre Royal Battle and the Women’s Battle
Royal, WWE have announced the Cruiserweight title match between Buddy Murphy and Tony
Nese will also take place on the pre-show. It’ll likely be one of the best in-ring
matches of the night, which you can see mine, Luke and Laurie’s reactions to live - because
we’ll be live-streaming us watching all of WrestleMania 35 on Sunday.
In fact, we’re not only live-streaming WrestleMania 35, we’ll also be doing both the Raw and
SmackDown after Mania, the New Japan and Ring of Honor G1 Supercard show AND NXT TakeOver:
New York tomorrow night so make sure to tune in live right here on WrestleTalk for all
that. Which I really hope you do, because that’s so much wrestling, and I don’t
know if we can do it alone. We’ll also be livestreaming us playing WWE
2K19 on ScreenStalker before the streams go live, so head over there and give us a subscribe!
Where you might get to see us react live to such big surprises as...
...Eve Torres turning up in the Women’s Battle Royal!
Along with PWInsider reporting that both Bray Wyatt and Kane are being brought in by WWE
to New York for the weekend’s WrestleMania 35 festivities, Wrestling Inc claim former
Divas Champion - don’t mention the Divas! - Torres will also be featuring, prompting
speculation she’ll be a surprise entrant in the Women’s Battle Royal at WrestleMania.
Torres left WWE in 2012 and has served in an ambassador role for the company ever since.
She featured on last October’s all-women pay-per-view Evolution on the pre-show panel.
[35]
The latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter is also reporting that Lars Sullivan’s return
to WWE is “imminent”, and that while there is no scheduled timetable for his return,
it’ll be “sooner than later.” Promos for Sullivan started lurking on WWE
all the way back in November, when Vince McMahon decided to air the first vignette for his
main roster debut at Survivor Series. Sullivan was then part of the ‘On Their Way To WWE’
class of New Era NXT call-ups, but as each person limply debuted, Lars was nowhere to
be seen. This is reportedly because Sullivan suffered
an anxiety attack on the January 14th episode of Raw, where he was meant to debut, beat
up John Cena - writing Cena out of that weekend’s Royal Rumble match - for a WrestleMania feud
to start building between the two. But the angle being scrapped meant the promos
advertising Lars’ debut were dropped and Cena was left with no storyline heading into
the biggest show of the year. Oddly, though, Cena is still very much planned
for WrestleMania despite no TV build or him being featured in advertisements. His segment
is being kept under wraps, but it is reportedly nothing to do with Kurt Angle vs Baron Corbin
- it’s all your fault, Baron Corbin. Perhaps Lars could debut at WrestleMania taking out
Cena, in a rerun of the originally planned Raw segment.
Triple H gave an update on Lars during the NXT TakeOver: New York conference call earlier
this week: “It’s one of those situations where you
just have to wait and see. There’s much more to come.”
Remember, you can wait and see with us here at WrestleTalk by joining in with all our
WrestleMania weekend livestreams. And Sunday will see WrestleLeague Season 1 come to a
head, with the loser out of me, Luke and Laurie having to do a savage music video punishment.,
it’s such a savage punishment. But what song should we cover?
Thanks to WrestleTalk’s Pledgehammers on Patreon, you can vote on the shortlisted songs
by clicking the ‘i’ above my head. Where you can choose from:
-Abba’s The Winner Takes It All -Kelly Kelly’s entrance music Holla
-Aleister Black’s entrance music Root of all Evil
-WrestleMania 34 theme song Timber by Pitbull and Ke$ha
-and Shawn Michaels’ entrance music Sexy Boy
Compete against me, Luke and Laurie in NXT, New Japan and WrestleMania predictions this
Sunday by clicking the link on the right and becoming a Pledgehammer today! And watch Luke,
Laurie and Pete react to the amazing new trailer for Joker by clicking the video down there.
I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.