Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk Super News - I’m Oli Davis.
We’ve got a packed show for you today, including what’s going to happen to NXT when it moves
to the USA Network, Dave Meltzer breaks his star ratings system twice for last weekend’s
matches, and more news of backstage heat in WWE, this time with Eric Bischoff’s running
of SmackDown! Click the timestamps in the video description
below to jump to any of those stories right now!
And answer our question of the day in the comments down below: Which NXT star should
be called up next? Because I’ll be answering comments FROM OUTTA NOWHERE… saying the
answer is Keith Lee, he’s amazing, and my favourite, and he does big flippy moves off
the top rope even though he’s the same size and weight as a fridge/freezer unit.
But first! WrestleTalk needs you!
With the changing landscape of professional wrestling happening over the next month, with
AEW launching weekly TV, NXT going to two hours on the USA Network and SmackDown moving
to Friday nights - not to mention our new aim to livestream every pay-per-view to watch
along with the SWAFT Nation - even between me, Luke, Pete and Laurie, we don’t have
enough people to put out the kind of coverage we want to, which will include full WrestleTalk
and WrestleRamble reviews of all those shows, along with now working Saturdays to cover
SmackDown. So for the first time ever, WrestleTalk is
launching a recruitment drive! We need onscreen presenters, script writers, website writers,
video editors, social media managers, YouTube comment moderators and more! And that doesn’t
just include wrestling, but also for movies and video games for our other channel ScreenStalker.
While we will look at non-UK presenters, we really need people who can come into our London
studio so we can keep this all a close-knit bunch of mates vibe.
Click the ‘i’ that’s just appeared above my head or click the link in the video description
below to find out how to apply, with a description of what we’re looking for, and what you
need to submit for each role. The chance to work with YouTuber extraordinaire
Oli Davis? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity… almost as rare… as finding a $30,000 freshly
won AEW title belt lying on the side of the road.
Segway! As a recap to the story so far, Chris Jericho
became AEW’s first ever World Champion on Saturday night at All Out. Just two days later,
he had lost the belt, alleging it had been stolen, while he dined in a steakhouse, as
his limo driver went back to the airport to collect his misplaced luggage.
The Tallahassee Police Department quickly recovered the title, where it was found ‘laying
along the side of the road’ (not suspicious at all), and AEW even turned it into a kayfabe
storyline, building on Jericho’s latest character reinvention as a high-rolling, Ric
Flair-like heel champion with a penchant for sparking white wine.
But now the man who found the AEW title, Frank Price, has told his side of the story to the
Tallahassee Democrat. Apparently Frank found the championship laying on the side of the
road after driving home from his 41st birthday. He just assumed it was a replica and listed
it on Craigslist in the Lost & Found section. Price eventually saw the many messages from
wrestling fans on Craigslist pointing out his listing is most likely the actual AEW
title, and he handed it over to police - where Mike Vaughn, the owner of the limo Jericho
had hired, later gave him a $200 reward. Frank has texts, emails, receipts, witnesses
and GPS data to show he was nowhere near the scene of the crime and really did, in fact,
just find the belt by the side of the road. So what did actually happen with the ‘stolen’
AEW title? According to Frank: “I think what happened is they just set
it on the trunk of the limo and it just fell off.”
Unfortunately that’s not the only thing falling off for AEW…
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has revealed that last Saturday’s All Out event drew
around 28,000 buys on standard TV pay-per-view in the US, down 20% from Double or Nothing’s
35,000 buys in May this year. The good news is that the B/R Live streaming
numbers had actually increased over Double or Nothing, but even factoring those in, All
Out’s estimated 100,000 combined orders is still down 10% from Double or Nothing’s
111,000. Tickets for AEW’s next pay-per-view, Full
Gear on November 9th, go on sale today, and to hopefully continue their sellout momentum,
the promotion has confirmed its likely main event.
In addition to Kenny Omega vs Jon Moxley being announced for Full Gear earlier this week
- the match that had to be cancelled just a week before All Out due to Mox getting an
MRSA infection on his elbow - AEW took the very WWE PR step of letting Sports Illustrated
first report that Chris Jericho will defend his World title (if it hasn’t fallen off
the roof of his limo again by then) against one of the best win-loss record holders in
AEW so far, Cody Rhodes. AEW President Tony KHHHHHAAAAN then confirmed
the report: “Cody’s outstanding record in singles competition has secured him the
number one contender ranking.” For all those wondering how stats and wins
and losses can be used to book a logical wrestling promotion, that’s how.
Going by Dave Meltzer’s most recent set of star ratings, however, Full Gear has got
a tough act to follow. Dave Meltzer star spectacular segway!
Last Saturday was an incredible day for wrestling, seeing New Japan’s Royal Quest show in London,
WWE’s NXT UK TakeOver show in Cardiff, and AEW’s All Out in Chicago. And hopefully
in a sign of things to come, competition is bringing out the best in everyone.
Stars for you! Kazuchika Okada vs Minoru Suzuki got 4.5 stars in New Japan’s highest rated
match of the night in London, that presumably would’ve been 5 if in the Tokyo Dome.
Stars for you! Meltzer gave NXT UK’s Tyler Bate vs WALTER main event a system breaking
5.25 stars! And stars for you! Which AEW’s All Out matched
with the Lucha Bros vs Young Bucks’ ladder match also being awarded 5.25 stars.
Stars for you, stars for you, stars for everyone! Before WWE’s main roster can start thinking
about breaking Meltzer’s ratings system, though, they’re going to have to sort out
SmackDown’s significant creative issues backstage first.
F4WOnline reported that after months of Vince McMahon being unhappy with SmackDown’s creative
direction, frequently ripping up scripts and completely rewriting them just hours before
the show is due to go live, WWE have ‘inevitably’ shaken up their backstage writing staff ahead
of SmackDown moving to Fox on October 4th. The former head writer of 205 Live Jonathan
Baeckstrom has fully moved to be the lead writer of Raw under Paul Heyman, while the
former head writer of Raw, Ed Koskey - WWE’s Vice President of Creative Writing and a company
man for over 18 years - will take over SmackDown, working with the show’s recently installed
Executive Director Eric Bischoff; leaving the former head writer of SmackDown Ryan Ward
out in the cold. As SmackDown moving to Fox as part of a $1
billion deal is a rather big story, more and more mainstream news sites are beginning to
show interest in the behind-the-scenes workings of WWE. And now The Wrap has published an
article about the backstage creative shake-up, confirming Pro Wrestling Sheet’s report
that Ward will be taking a “short-term leave of absence”, and “should he return…
[he] will likely join the ‘home team’ — or the company’s non-traveling group
of writers. That would be considered a major step down for Ward, who reassumed his position
as SmackDown head writer earlier this year.” And The Wrap is reporting even more issues
backstage, but this time with Eric Bischoff himself...
Even though Squared Circle Sirens have reported Ward’s ‘short-term leave of absence’
could be time off for recently getting married, it still doesn’t explain away the mounting
evidence of SmackDown being a shambles behind-the-scenes. Since WrestleMania, backstage producer Road
Dogg Jesse James stepped down from his role at SmackDown, reportedly due to immense frustration
over McMahon “tearing apart” his work, and then blaming James for “product continuity
issues”; and co-lead writer Steve Guerrieri being fired several months ago.
This was all before WWE announced their latest creative-saving plan that’ll turn everything
around - after the Superstar Shake-Up, Wildcard rule and making the third hour of Raw slightly
underlit didn’t quite work out - making Paul Heyman the Executive Director of Monday
nights, and Eric Bischoff the same behind-the-scenes on SmackDown.
While Heyman’s creative fingerprints are now all over Raw, with the show’s quality
improving dramatically since he took over, the Wrestling Observer has reported that Bischoff
has never really had any creative input on SmackDown, with him more acting as a go-between
figurehead for WWE and Fox, in a front-facing TV producer role.
But according to The Wrap, Bischoff is receiving “growing questions about [his] leadership
of the show” - with the article noting his “decision to hire Stevie Long, a former
“Sons of Anarchy” writer who was found asleep in the writers room by longtime producer
Michael P.S. Hayes on his first day on the road with WWE.” Long is a classic Bischoff
hire, well-known for his obsession with motorbike culture through WCW’s Hog Wild pay-per-views,
and TNA’s biker gang-themed Aces and Eights faction.
And apparently, it’s Bischoff and his SmackDown team who have been blamed for the ridiculous
Roman Reigns attacker mystery, that while it really helped build names for Buddy Murphy
and Erick Rowan, made no sense anywhere else, with an insider calling it “botched so bad,
explaining to anyone what it was supposed to be wouldn’t make any sense at all.”
And that’s not the only thing WWE have to sort out in the next month…
...as NXT move to the USA Network from the 18th September! And, in true recent NXT call-up
style, they’re still going to half be in developmental.
PWInsider have confirmed with their WWE sources that the first two episodes of NXT on USA
will only be one hour long, airing from 8-9pm Eastern, with the second hours of the shows
airing on the WWE Network. From Wednesday 2nd October - coincidentally the same night
AEW debuts its two hour weekly show live on TNT, which I’m sure isn’t connected at
all - NXT will go a full two hours on the USA Network every week.
But while there are reports of the main roster Raw and SmackDown shows becoming less scripted
with their wrestler promos, Dave Meltzer is reporting the weekly two-hour NXT is set to
be a heavily-scripted program. But having a heavily scripted show is no good when your
top stars can just be called up when Vince suddenly decides he wants fresh talent the
Friday before. Not hyperbole, but exactly what happened earlier this year with Aleister
Black, Ricochet, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa.
Meltzer has also said that the upcoming WWE draft, reportedly scheduled for the 11th and
14th October episodes of SmackDown and Raw, “may include some NXT people.” Implying
NXT’s wrestlers and patiently told storylines could be about to be gutted all over again.
IT CHAPTER TWO is out in cinemas now, so watch my review of it by clicking the video on the
right! Which also includes a scare reaction montage of Chopper Pete watching the CHAPTER
ONE movie for the first time. And there’s been a backstage fight in AEW! Click the video
on the right to find out more! I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.