In this WrestleTalk News, an AEW star has seemingly left the company, Cody Rhodes’ contract
has expired and he’s now a free agent, what, news on Bryan Danielson & Britt Baker in AEW and more.
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It’s AEW-heavy news today, and we’re kicking it off with some good ol’ contract expiration.
Last week, Fightful Select reported that several AEW contracts were due to expire soon as it had
been 3 years since their initial signings when AEW first launched. I don’t think anyone quite
thought that would include Executive Vice President of AEW, current TNT Champion and
everyone’s favourite wrestler Cody Rhodes though. And yet, Fightful Select reported last night that
Cody’s contract has indeed expired and he is now currently a free agent. This isn’t just
his wrestling contract either, as they updated the report to confirm that they haven’t heard of any
other specific contract for his EVP duties, and that he has “no contract with AEW at the moment”.
So Cody Rhodes to WWE confirmed? Is he going to replicate the trash can segment
from WCW but with the TNT title? Probably not. Dave Meltzer commented on this report, noting
on the Wrestling Observer boards that his AEW sources were avoiding him about the Cody story,
“so either it’s true and they are all mad it’s out or it’s a work and they don’t want to lie to me”.
If this is all a work, it’s wonderful stuff on AEW’s part. And if you’re thinking that there’s
no way Cody could leave AEW, Bryan Danielson and Johnny Gargano both left WWE last year,
and they seemed like sure-fire WWE lifers, so anything can happen in wrestling. You never know.
One of the names mentioned in Fightful’s initial report about AEW contracts expiring
was Peter Avalon, who has taken to Twitter to announce that he’s open for indie bookings,
seemingly indicating that he’s left AEW. However, according to Leva Bates in the
replies to that tweet, he actually hasn’t left AEW and is just adding indie bookings on top.
But Avalon isn’t the only one wanting to wrestle in other promotions,
as on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that Bryan Danielson is
very interested in working in a specific indie promotion. While that promotion was unnamed,
Meltzer noted that it’s in a market AEW haven’t run yet, and they want Danielson to wrestle in
that market for AEW first before he appears in other companies in the same market. Danielson has
also recently shown interest in working with former Ring of Honor star Jonathan Gresham,
noting in an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated that he didn’t realise Bandido
had been pulled from Ring of Honor’s Final Battle main event against Gresham, saying it would have
been perfect for him to fill in. Jay Lethal faced Gresham instead, but can you imagine
Danielson showing up unannounced? Hot damn. In other news, WWE has seemingly shown interest
in signing current AEW Women’s Champion Britt Baker DMD. Baker confirmed as much herself but
noted that it would be highly unlikely she would be tempted across, saying “you
can’t trust anything with that company”. But with all this talk of people leaving
AEW and working in other promotions, there’s the lurking presence of WrestleVotes’ report that WWE
have a surprising ‘forbidden door’ entrant for the Royal Rumble match - so could it be
Cody Rhodes? Adam Cole? No-one from AEW at all? Yeah it’s probably that one.
According to a new report from Wrestling Observer, “There will be no AEW
involvement at the Royal Rumble.” Well that seems pretty conclusive.
Cody Rhodes to WWE confirmed. Quickly as well, we’d like to
extend our well wishes to Eddie Kingston, who will reportedly miss
a few weeks of wrestling due a fractured orbital bone he suffered on the latest tapings
of AEW Dark. This means he will unfortunately miss GCW’s show at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Before we get into Oli’s review of last night’s Raw, here’s a quick word from today’s sponsor.
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Jam that jam, and noodle that Noodle. Now it’s time for my review of
last night’s Raw… in about 5 minutes. Raw opened with the commentary team running
down the night’s big attractions, which I’m going to translate for you in real speak right here:
A career retrospective of Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar. Brock Lesnar isn’t here today.
Bobby Lashley vs Seth Rollins in our main event. A screwy DQ finish to end the show.
Snarkiness aside, though, I actually really enjoyed how sports entertainmenty this episode
felt. There was a zany graduation ceremony, Vince McMahon threatened to text Austin Theory’s mum
AND OH MY GOD MAYRSE MURDERED BETH WITH A BRICK. But before all that, the bad stuff. Aka,
Raw’s women’s division. The show opened on Big Time
Becks cutting a promo - she makes stars, then beats them, which is a good line - which was
interrupted by Doudrop, Bianca Belair and Liv Morgan, with the latter two declaring for the
Royal Rumble, which then became a tag match. But how will title opponents Becky and
Doudrop possibly function healthily while on the same team? Coexist.
Shock, they didn’t. Becky Man Slammed Liv after several minutes,
Doudrop took out her own partner Lynch and went for the pin herself like it was a Fatal Fourway,
forgetting she wasn’t legal. Awkwardly tagged herself in and hit a running splash for the win.
The only other women’s segment on the show was Rhea Ripley and Nikki Almost A Superhero
having a match after they broke up last week, which never happened because Nikki beat up Rhea
too much before the bell rang. Which was lame. I suppose you could also add MAYRSE F******
MURDERING BETH PHOENIX in with the women’s division stuff,
even though it’s more gender fluid than that. After sincerely congratulating Dana Brooke
backstage for being the 24/7 champion. Am I going mad here? Is this a rib on women’s equality? It’s
a joke belt based around Tamina having cheese thrown on her face. Beth Phoenix confronted Maryse
in the ring. Miz jumped Edge outside, distracting Beth long enough for Maryse to hit her in the back
of the head with a brick. I don’t know why Maryse needed a distraction to hit someone with a brick,
but it’s hard to ask too many questions when you’re witnessing kayfabe attempted murder.
It’s a hard gear change for a fun intergender feud between a wedding last month, and a
birthday celebration skit announced for next week. I was worried with Seth Rollins being hotshotted
into a Roman Reigns match meant the end of his blossoming bromance with Kevin Owens.
Thankfully, after KO missing last week’s show, they were back together on the Kevin Owens Show,
where KO declared for the Rumble, meaning he can face Seth at WrestleMania for the Universal
title he’ll win from Reigns. They’re continued will they/won’t they turn
on each other dynamic is one of the best things in WWE right now.
But that could soon be replaced by a mouthwatering feud: Owens vs Damien
Priest for the United States title. They had a terrific non-title match,
which KO won by faking a knee injury - a very rare clean singles loss for Priest
(not Damien). I am very into Owens winning the US title belt off the back of this.
Now it’s time for our brand new segment… Where’s Veer?
This week on Veer’s journey to Raw, he’s stopped off at a beach.
Can you find him? Comment down below and I’ll reveal where’s Veer in tomorrow’s News!
Despite their shock win last week coming from outta nowhere in a lacklustre way,
Alpha Academy were thoroughly sports entertaining in their version of a
title celebration, the Graduation Ceremony. Chad Gable got to channel the brilliance of
goofy early Kurt Angle. Otis’ natural zaniness almost broke through his anti-charisma gimmick.
Riddle was at his stoner comedy best. And Randy Orton hit an RKO on Chad from
outta nowhere and posed in a graduation gown. They’ll have an Academic Challenge next week,
which I genuinely can’t wait for. Vince McMahon threatened Austin Theory
backstage that if he didn’t beat Finn Balor, Vince was going to beat up Theory so much,
he’d bleed snot, where he’d take a selfie and send it to Austin’s mum. Candice LaRae?
Thankfully for Austin, Finn Balor is not a priority right now, and Theory beat him clean
in minutes. I’m glad Austin has broken through the 3 week push barrier. It’s just a shame it’s
come at Finn’s expense. Omos squashed Reggie.
So Omos is the 24/7 champion? The Mysterios and Street Profits beat the Dirty
Dawgs, Apollo Crews and Commander Aziz in an 8 man tag that had no right to be as fun as it was.
The Profits posed in victory afterwards, but their Mysterio partners threw them over the top rope as
a Rumble tease. And then Rey threw his own son Dominic out, and the Street Profits were like,
ah you got us, good one guys. And Dom was like ‘dad why don’t you love me?’
While the career retrospective video package of Lesnar and Lashley was just a way to cover
for Brock being too expensive to appear on every show, this was an incredibly well done vignette.
WWE do promo editing better than anyone, and they should definitely do these kinds of packages more
as they’re way more coherent than anything that actually takes place.
Alexa Bliss got her second therapy session, revealing she didn’t kill
her psychiatrist last week. She got annoyed again when he implied Lily was imaginary.
And the main event was Bobby vs Seth in a how can we not beat the challengers
for our top two titles in the company 10 days before the pay-per-view match.
The answer was, as usual with Bobby, random Hurt Business interference.
They had a very good fast-paced back and forth match, but it was hard to invest when a screwy
finish was so predictable. Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander attacked Bobby for the DQ.
Lashley destroyed them both, while The Usos ran through the crowd and took out Seth.
The booking was lame, but The Usos appearance was cool, and it sets up some exciting prospects.
Does Seth bring KO with him to SmackDown on Friday for revenge? And could we see
Brock and Roman clash via Lashley and Rollins on the go-home shows next week?
What did you think of Raw? Let me know in the comments. 75% of you voted for
MARYSE HIT BETH WITH A FREAKIN' BRICK in our poll on a pole match on the community tab.
Women’s division booking aside, I found myself really enjoying the zaniness of
this episode. Alpha Academy really stepped up, KO vs Priest and the main event were very good,
and Maryse hit Beth in the back of a head with a brick. This week’s Raw is four out of five.
Now watch Adam’s 10 best one-off Royal Rumble entrants ever…