I’m Laurie Blake, welcome to the WrestleTalk News, on Fridays we wear pink.
It’s Money in the Bank this weekend, in my old backyard of Laaandaaan town, not just
London town, the O2 is in south London where I’m from.
That’s how you say south in the south.
Saaaaaath.
Of course in my day we called it the Millenium Dome, and it was there as a bright symbol
of the future, showing exhibitions of what the world of tomorrow would be like.
Which is also what has been happening in wrestling as people are looking past MITB to SummerSlam
- you thought this was a pointless tangent, but it actually turned into a segway.
You wily fox Faki.
WRKD are reporting that Brock Lesnar is “expected to appear at Money in the Bank to set up a
third, gimmick match with Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam”
Tractors, tractors, tractors.
Don’t care how it works, just want it.
Meanwhile, BWE are reporting that Austin Theory vs Sheamus could be the post Money in the
Bank plans leading all the way into SummerSlam.
But that’s not the only thing Sheamus has been penciled in for heading up to SummerSlam
- everyone once a piece of that big white meat… that came out more sexual than I was
intending it to when I wrote it.
Those of you watching with subtitles, know that’s a lie and I’d written that whole
bit into the script, just like I’d written this bit.
And this bit.
Anyway, Fightful Select have posted that they’ve heard rumblings that the Brawling Brutes and
Logan Paul could be going into a program after Money in the Bank.
Which might be a bit strange considering Logan Paul is likely one of the frontrunners to
win the Money in the Bank briefcase - though you can definitely see how an angle with the
Brutes spins out considering Butch is also in the ladder match.
But Paul isn’t the only famous face from outside the world of professional wrestling
that WWE have on their books, they also have Gold Medal winning Olympian Gable Steveson…
who ummm… hasn’t been seen for a while.
But apparently that could be set to change soon as Steveson is working in the Performance
Centre and according to Dave Meltzer has been “picking things up” pretty easily, with
Meltz noting that he’s “gonna be better than a lot of people originally thought”.
And considering many people thought he could be a new Kurt Angle, that’s high praise.
Before we get on with the rest of the news just a
quick reminder that over on partsFUNknown we are hosting the PFK World Cup to determine
the best in the world at AEW Fight Forever.
THQ Nordic, the game’s publishers have sponsored us to host this tournament, so massive thanks
to those guys for letting us play video games during office hours.
Mad respect from me.
And if you’re watching this news ep as it came out the tournie is live right now, so
head on over to see Oli, Pete, Adam, Dan Layton, Holly Musgrave and Jaymes Mansfield, of QuizzleMania
fame, and being an internationally recognised drag superstar vie for the coveted World Cup.
And if you’re watching later, head on over to PFK anyhow and catch up!!!
Speaking of rising WWE stars with legit wrestling backgrounds, NXT’s The Creed Brothers have
long been touted as future major players in WWE.
In early 2022 the pair were even noted by Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter
to be potential WrestleMania headliners one day.
And it’s hard not to see why WWE feels that way, much like your Brock Lesnar’s and Kurt
Angle’s they have that air of legitimacy about them.
Yet, similarly to those two legends the pair have also proven to adapt quickly to the pro-wrestling
world as well.
However, while both are high on WWE’s future star list there may be one that slightly stands
above the other.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE are “very, very high” on Julius
Creed in particular.
Meltzer notes that they feel the same about Brutus, “to a degree, but Julius very much
so”.
Now now WWE, it's not very nice to play favorites.
Now a quick spoiler warning for next week’s NXT ahead… ready.
Ok.
But WWE’s big plans for the Creed’s could be coming sooner rather than later as according
to PWInsider at the NXT taping for next week the Dyad defeated the Creed’s in a loser
leaves NXT match.
Rather shocking considering all the Dyad AKA the Grizzled Young Veteranshave wanted to
do recently is leave WWE.
So yeah, look out for the Creed’s on Raw or Snackdown soon and expect some big things
in young Julius’ future especially.
Now, while it's hard to say we as wrestling fans are starved for weekly content right
now with… let's see only the SEVEN weekly shows between WWE and AEW alone, there may
be an internal push on the WWE side for yet another addition.
Now as much as I’d love to moan I think we’ll let this one slide as WWE’s Liv
Morgan and Michin recently sat down Nick Hausman on Haus of Wrestling and expressed their desire
for a all-womens TV show.
When asked what the next step was for WWE’s women's division Morgan said:
“There’s nothing that the men have done that we have not done, and so I just hope
that we just keep getting more opportunity more time.
Maybe an all-female show, who knows?”
Michin stated in response, “Like a weekly show.”
To which Morgan continued:
“Yeah, a weekly all-females show.
We have the talent and the roster to do it.
But I think just think at this time, we just appreciate being equal and not less than.”
WWE have of course done one, just one all-female event in the past that being the very well
received Evolution PPV from October 2018.
Now considering the plaudits for the show at the time it's incredibly baffling WWE never
followed it up even once afterwards.
So whether it's a weekly show or another one-off event as Morgan says that roster is certainly
deep enough with top stars to handle it.
Speaking of new shows, AEW’s newest addition to their weekly TV platter is of course Saturday
night Collision.
AKA Saturday night Phil.
Yes, while Collision certainly has more to offer than just CM Punk, there was a bit of
confusion going into this week’s edition due to a lack of advertisement for Mr Brooks
ahead of the taping from Hamilton, Ontario.
Tapings which by the way happened yesterday, and if you fancy skipping out on Collision
this week due to y’know Money in the Bank and all that, you can check out spoilers on
Wrestletalk.com right now.
While I won’t run down the whole show, one thing I can say if you decide to give it a
watch is despite not being advertised, CM Punk will in fact be there.
With Tony Khan announcing that Punk will be providing color commentary for the first round
Owen Hart Tournament match between Samoa Joe and Roderick Strong.
The winner of which will advance to a semi-final match with Punk on the following week’s
Collision.
So there you go, next Saturday nights have that ‘one bil Phil’ guarantee of satisfaction.
Yay.
Sticking with AEW, and we have a bit of an insight into the creative plans… or I should
say complete lack of creative plans for two currently injured AEW stars.
The two men in question are none other than Parker Boudreaux and Trench of Swerve Strickland’s
Mogul Affiliates faction.
Yes, while you may have already forgotten that these two large, very inked up laddies
even joined that group and appeared on AEW TV at all, they are in fact still around,
however, they unfortunately saw their legs cut from under them due to respective injuries.
As for the extent of these injuries we’re not sure, however, Fightful Select confirmed
earlier this month that that was the reason for their disappearance.
Unfortunately though, it seems that now Strickland has moved on to form The Mogul Embassy along
with the more established Brian Cage and Gates of Agony the need for that muscle may not
be required.
According to a new update from Fightful Select, AEW “Sources indicate there are now no longer
immediate creative plans” for both Trench and Boudreaux, so even if they are now fit
or soon to be fit, they may have to remain on the sidelines a bit longer.
Sticking with what seems to be this episode's theme of creative plans and a new report,
also from Fightful Select has detailed what may have been in store for ‘The American
Dragon’ Bryan Danielson had he not suffered his broken arm at Forbidden Door.
According to the report, Danielson’s injury caused “several adjustments” to AEW’s
creative plans, with plans for him to wrestle more on weekly TV following Forbidden Door
as well as participating in this year’s Blood & Guts match, presumably as The Elite
take on the BCC.
While it's currently unclear how AEW will work around this, Danielson may at least be
able to remain at work in his new creative role on Collision.
According to Fightful Select, Danielson is being “lauded” for his work in creative
thus far, detailing that in particular he has been “very valuable in speaking with
talent about how they want their creative handled and the ways to communicate things
between creative and talent”.
However the report does give credit to AEW’s original booking mastermind Tony Khan for
the recent championship Friday edition of Rampage earlier this month, something that
was originally being attributed to Bryan.
Unfortunately for Tony though, he may need all of the help he can get on the creative
front as AEW have seen yet another hit to their weekly viewership for this week’s
Dynamite.
Despite being a post-PPV show and last week’s Dynamite performing well, this week saw a
pretty sharp decline, particularly in the key 18-49 demo as according to ShowBuzzDaily
and Wrestlenomics the figure dropped to its lowest since the June 24, 2020 Dynamite.
A show that was headlined by the blockbuster main event of Matt Hardy vs Santana…
The 18-49 demo was approximately 316,000 for a 0.24 rating, down 28% from the week prior's
0.33, with an overall viewership of 809,000 which is down from last week’s 902,000.
Despite this the show still managed to finish in third place on cable so it's not all bad.
Interestingly according to Wrestlenomics the episode started off fairly strong however,
dropped off as it went on, particularly from the third quarter.
So I guess this proves one thing once and for all.
Nobody cares about The Painmaker Chris…
I’m sorry but it’s really not that cool.
Happy Friday folks.
Enjoy Money in the Bank, looking forward to seeing those of you who are coming to party
with us tomorrow night.
And head on over to watch the PFK World Cup right now!