In this WrestleTalk News, top WWE stars threaten to leave with Vince McMahon back in power,
many more details on Vince’s Raw and the last minute changes made, and more.
[SUPPORT WRESTLETALK] The most abrupt changeup in WWE’s company
structure took place over the weekend and on Monday, with WWE announcing their merger
with Endeavour, Vince McMahon becoming Executive Chairman of this new company, saying he had
‘moved on’ from the ‘mistakes’ he made, claiming he wouldn’t be getting involved
creatively ‘in the weeds’ with WWE, Triple H then claiming that nothing would be changing
and Vince wouldn’t be in control in a talent meeting, then Triple H claiming that nothing
would be changing and Vince wouldn’t be in control on screen on Raw, and then everything
changed because Vince was in control.
We touched on some of the details in yesterday’s WrestleTalk News episode, but there’s a
ton more to dive into here, including the fallout from some WWE talent who aren’t
best pleased and may be on their way out soon.
It had previously been reported by Fightful Select that Vince had made some last minute
changes to Raw, and now we have more details on exactly what was cut, also from Fightful
Select.
There were originally two women’s triple threat matches reportedly scheduled for Raw
that would serve as a mini-tournament to crown a new number one contender to the Raw Women’s
Championship.
Those matches were pencilled in to be Piper Niven vs Dakota Kai vs Liv Morgan while the
second was to be Raquel Rodriguez vs Iyo Sky vs Candice LeRae.
Those matches were reportedly cut about an hour before the show began.
The first of those two matches was replaced with Omos vs Elias, where Omos originally
didn’t have his gear on him and they scrambled to make sure he had something to wrestle in
as he was just in catering.
Instead of these women’s triple threats, there was a women’s tag match with Damage
CTRL taking on Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez, and originally for that segment Bayley was
reportedly planned to accompany them out to ringside, but this was scrapped at the last
minute for unknown reasons.
Remember that one for later.
This is on top of other changes over the weekend, which may or may not be Vince related, like
a reportedly scrapped plan of LA Knight having a WrestleMania segment with Bobby Lashley
according to WRKD Wrestling, which was corroborated by Fightful Select.
Also reported by Fightful Select was the fact that Shotzi was supposed to use her tank for
her WrestleMania entrance originally, with the tank even being on site, but that was
scrapped too.
There was also reportedly a segment with the lWo cut from Raw which likely would have included
Bad Bunny.
And funnily enough, the one video clip that’s been going viral lately of Seth Rollins seemingly
being told about his segment being changed after he’d made his entrance during a commercial
break was actually reported by Fightful Select to be false, as the segment was always scripted
that way.
And in a shock turn that nobody could have seen coming, some of the WWE wrestlers aren’t
happy about this.
The last minute changes, Vince being back, the whole shebang.
And it might actually lead to top stars leaving the company soon.
In what Fightful Select described as a “huge hit” to morale backstage, many WWE wrestlers
were upset about this development of Vince taking over creatively once more.
Some wrestlers were described as “frustrated” after being told that Vince wouldn’t be
in control, only for him to absolutely then be in control.
It wasn’t even the quality of the creative changes that were necessarily the problem,
it’s that it was the “entire dishonesty of the situation” that reportedly upset
people, especially considering many of them had been fired by Vince McMahon in the last
few years.
With regard to the cut women’s matches, there were reportedly many women’s wrestlers
who were “very disappointed”, including many who weren’t at the show.
One higher up in the company reportedly said that this Friday will be a big tell of Vince’s
intentions going forward.
He was already in LA for WrestleMania, so he was on hand for Raw.
But if he travels all the way to Portland for SmackDown, they think that means he’s
here to stay.
And with all this morale being shattered backstage, which was described as “the lowest point
of morale in totality since pre-WrestleMania in 2022 when it reached all-time lows”,
lovely stuff, nice place to work, Fightful Select is also reporting that at least two
WWE talent, including one near the top of the card, said they’ll “likely request
their releases if this is a trend moving forward”, with another saying they’ll just ride out
their remaining contract.
There are also reportedly “multiple wrestlers” exploring what their options would be if Vince
were to remain in control.
And one of those people looking to get out while they can could be Bayley.
Reminder that she was cut from Raw, for currently reasons unknown, while it seems she took to
Twitter prior to WrestleMania Night 2 to say: “And sometimes the most romantic love story
comes to an end.
Bye” While of course this isn’t confirmation
of anything in particular, it’s just worth noting for now, especially since Dakota Kai
then tweeted to say: “I love you @itsBayleyWWE”.
Another wrestler who appears to be upset with the company is Dana Brooke, after a fan sign
on Raw was confiscated.
The sign in question said ‘give Dana Brooke a chance’, and after the fan tweeted Dana
to let her know it was confiscated, Dana tweeted to say:
“Omg they didn’t let you show ur sign!?”
with a follow up tweet that said “I am so sorry ! This is so wrong and will be addressed”
And it’s not just wrestlers that are upset either!
I don’t know if you’ve seen social media since Vince came back, fans aren’t too thrilled
with having him back either.
This has even made its way to WWE TV, as on last night’s episode of NXT, there were
allegedly chants of ‘Fire Vince’ that broke out.
This primarily came from a tweet from user @WrestlingCovers who said “There was a "FIRE
VINCE" chant on NXT!”, which isn’t evidence enough in itself, but there has been other
tweets alleging that they were in attendance and can confirm it, such as @TheVillainGG
who said “I can confirm it… because my section was the one who started the chants.”
I personally always find it super reassuring when fans want the boss of the company fired.
It’s a nice feeling, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.
But I guess there’s some other things to talk about aside from Vince.
WWE stars requesting their release!
Oh good.
It was reported recently by Fightful that Rip Fowler and & Jagger Reid, the former Grizzled
Young Veterans had requested their release from WWE.
F4WOnline later confirmed that they had been granted their release from the company, however
Sean Ross Sapp later clarified that he only reported that they had requested their releases,
not been granted them.
The duo were then seen at a taping of NXT LVL Up, so…probably not released then yet.
Someone else who may be heading out of WWE, albeit temporarily is Charlotte Flair, as
according to PWInsider Elite, she’ll be having a hiatus from the company.
She reportedly told WWE of her plans after she had been planned to drop the SmackDown
Women’s Title to Rhea Ripley.
She is reportedly taking the hiatus so she can go travelling with her husband, AEW’s
Andrade El Idolo.
Though he may not be AEW’s Andrade El Idolo for long, as according to Andrade himself
in an interview with Lucha Libre Online, he said that his AEW contract will be expiring
“very soon”.
But what about people coming into the company instead of heading out?
Reports from before WrestleMania indicated that Jay White was 50/50 about signing with
WWE or AEW, so there was every chance we could have seen White on the Raw after Mania.
That didn’t happen though did it?
Now, according to PWInsider, there was “absolutely no discussion” of Jay White in WWE across
WrestleMania weekend, and conversations they’ve reportedly had with WWE officials and wrestlers
indicated he wouldn’t be signing with the company.
Which is a shame, I think it would have been cool to see White in WWE.
There may still be some hope that we get to see some cool matches in WWE before long though,
as one of the fantasy booked matches for WrestleMania this year by fans with an Intercontinental
Championship bout between Gunther and Brock Lesnar.
Of course we got the awesome Triple Threat instead, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t
see Gunther vs Lesnar at some point.
Lesnar spoke on this himself in an interview with Daniel Cormier, where Cormier asked if
a match with Gunther is something Lesnar would want, to which he simply responded “I do”,
before elaborating to say “I don’t make the calls around here”.
He said he liked the idea of a Gunther match, but also was excited by the idea of the Omos
match too.
Well, that was a rapid fire dose of news.
Now, I need to get on with some more work
in
the office.
Sure hope nothing weird happens.