Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk “Stacked” News, my name is Chopper Pete Quinnell.
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Which current free agent would you like to see join All Elite Wrestling?
As the name of the news suggests, we’ve got a pretty stacked video for you today,
such as some major announcements from All Elite Wrestling, including a very exciting
new member of their roster, some huge controversy surrounding Lars Sullivan, and the latest
on the ongoing feud between Sasha Banks and WWE.
But first…
We’ve got a new King of the Seven Kingdoms!
It seems Seth Rollins has been taking his Kingslayer name literally as, on a recent
tour of the Game of Thrones Touring Exhibition in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Rollins can
be seen taking his rightful place upon the Iron Throne.
Aleister Black and Roman Reigns also joined Rollins on the tour, and it didn’t take
long for The Big Dog to pay Rollins back for betraying his Shield brothers all those years
ago, because Reigns quickly took Rollins’ place upon the Throne.
Thoust be within the presence of my yard now, bitch.
The reason Black, Rollins and Reigns were able to visit the exhibit in Belfast was because
WWE have just begun their European tour, including the TV episodes of Raw and SmackDown next
week being broadcast from London in the UK.
However it seems one Raw star didn’t make the long trip overseas.
Sasha Banks hasn’t been seen in WWE since WrestleMania 35, where she and former tag
team partner Bayley lost the women’s tag team championships to the IIconics.
It was reported at the time by Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet that Banks and Bayley
were upset by the news that they would be losing their titles, so upset in fact, that
they reportedly threw a tantrum, laying on the floor of the locker room and of the hotel
they were staying at, making it very publicly known they were unhappy.
It was also reported by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, that Sasha Banks had requested
her release from the company, but her request was denied.
She was then given some time away to ponder her decision, but her return to the ring doesn’t
seem any more likely, with the situation between both parties being described as a “stalemate”
by Dave Meltzer.
Now, we’ve got the latest addition to the saga, and it seems that although Banks was
listed to perform on the European tour, it’s being reported by Mike Johnson of PWInsider
that she did not travel with the rest of the roster.
While this doesn’t rule out Banks from finding her own way to Europe, it seems unlikely that
she will be taking part in the tour, with the ongoing feud between her and WWE seemingly
having no end in sight.
On top of this, Banks was also slated to film promotional material for WWE 2K20, however
it’s as of yet unconfirmed whether this happened or not.
Sasha has remained silent on the situation thus far, however her husband recently put
out a tweet, seemingly to refute the claims that Sasha and Bayley had a tantrum regarding
their WrestleMania title loss.
“FYI...no tantrum ever happened”
But that’s just what someone who’s wife did have a tantrum would say!
The issues between Banks and WWE appear to be set to continue for a while to come, however
there seems to be a pretty mouth-watering match waiting for her if she does decide to
return.
Becky Lynch recently did an interview with Sports Illustrated, where she called out Banks.
“Come fight me, Sasha.
At one time, Sasha Banks was the top dog, she was ‘The Boss,’ but Sasha’s fallen
from grace.
It seems like she can’t hack it.”
“This ain’t ‘The Lasskicker’ anymore, this is ‘The Man’.
I would love to go toe-to-toe, ‘The Man’ vs. ‘The Boss,’ to prove who is the top
dog now.”
While this seems more of a plea from Lynch to entice an old friend back to work, only
time will tell if it’s enough to bring Banks back from the brink of leaving the company.
Speaking of leaving the company, and another WWE star may have found himself in some hot
water surrounding some highly controversial statements he’s made in the past.
A Reddit user recently compiled a comprehensive list of some bodybuilding forum posts that
Lars Sullivan made in 2008.
However, they are most certainly not related to bodybuilding.
Among these posts are statements of racism, homophobia and sexism, as well as his thoughts
on the “grey area” surrounding rape, and calling people with mental illnesses “weak
minded”.
I won’t divulge the exact phrasing of the posts, as some of them are genuinely horrible
to read aloud, but it’s safe to say, this isn’t some sort of distasteful joke from
the past that got James Gunn fired as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 temporarily,
these are full blown rants against people of colour and gay people.
The purpose of the compilation was to attempt to get the wrestling community to let their
voices be heard and alert WWE of who they under contract and to do something about it.
Well it might not be Vince McMahon, but someone within WWE has definitely seen it.
After the Reddit post began to gain some traction, a fan tweeted the post at Big E, asking if
he knew about it.
Big E responded with:
“Many are aware.
If true, he has to bear the albatross of being a bigot & working in a company that is now
filled with minorities.”
As with the Hulk Hogan controversy of the past, Big E remains classy with his response
instead of responding with anger.
God I love Big E.
It’ll be interesting to see if there is any sort of response from WWE, and if this
affects the supposed monster push that Sullivan will be getting.
But now we switch from WWE to AEW, and some major announcements.
It’s now 16 days until All Elite Wrestling’s debut show, Double or Nothing, which takes
place in Las Vegas on May 25th, but the ever-increasing roster does not seem to be slowing down at
all.
AEW announced that they have signed Jerry Lynn as a coach yesterday on Twitter.
For those of a younger persuasion who may not be aware of who Lynn is, he is a 30+ year
veteran of the industry who has performed in the likes of WWE, WCW, ECW, TNA and ROH,
being a former ECW champion in the process.
With other backstage names including Billy Gunn, Christopher Daniels, Keith Mitchell
and BJ Whitmer, AEW are setting themselves up to have a very solid foundation from which
to build their company.
But the signings didn’t stop there!
Because according to Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet, AEW have also reportedly signed exciting
independent wrestler and former Lucha Underground star, Angelico.
There was some competition for Angelico, with WWE reportedly offering Angelico an offer
to join NXT before he signed for Lucha Underground in 2014, a claim Angelico made himself.
In more recent times, WWE were still interested in him, however according to the same report,
WWE did not want to get into a bidding war with AEW.
Angelico will be joining the likes of Chris Jericho, PAC, Kenny Omega, and Cody Rhodes
on the AEW roster, and picturing a match with any of those names just mentioned is an exciting
prospect.
Whether Angelico will be appearing at Double or Nothing remains to be seen, but regardless,
it’s set to be a stacked show.
But the AEW announcements don’t stop there, let’s keep this train moving.
AEW’s TV deal has been a big talking point surrounding the company for quite some time
now, with rumoured deals placing them alongside Ted Turner’s TNT and TBS, and now AEW have
announced a huge TV deal...sort of.
For those UK fans who were wondering how they could watch Double or Nothing, well now there’s
a new way!
On TV!
Mental!
Yesterday, ITV announced they would be hosting double or nothing on their pay-per-view system,
ITV Box Office.
For those not from the UK, ITV is one of the largest channels in the country, with pretty
much every home in the UK having access to it.
This is a major get for AEW, as their bargaining power for a US TV deal increases as time goes
on.
On top of this, the pre-show for Double or Nothing will be airing on ITV4 for free in
the UK, which, granted, isn’t the main ITV channel, but still, these are big plays from
a company that hasn’t hosted a single event yet.
Whether this means that AEW will be forming a partnership with ITV moving forwards to
October when they begin weekly programming remains to be seen, but if so, this could
be major for AEW in forming an overseas fanbase.
ITV have now set up an ‘ITV Wrestling’ Twitter account leading to much speculation
online that AEW, which will target an older demographic, could easily work hand in hand
with the more family friendly WOS Wrestling brand.
A brand which is owned by ITV itself.
It’s clear that ITV are now firmly in the wrestling game, which is s aomething that
WWE reportedly only set up NXTUK to try and prevent, snapping up around half of WOS’s
original roster just to try and stop their first 10 part series from happening.
The announcement of AEW now on ITV as well is likely Vince’s idea of British broadcast
hell.
Especially as, unlike WWE, AEW appears to be creating solid inter-promotional partnerships.
Most of them with companies who have an understandable axe to grind with WWE.
Don’t you just love karma!
Those close to WOS are reporting that there will be some major announcements over the
next month regarding the brand’s next steps but at present we’re unable to confirm what
they are.
Many are speculating the announcement of a second season of the show after successful
overseas TV deals in India, Africa and Poland so far.
WOS also launches on American channel Stadium this weekend too.
So while it’s been fairly silent on the UK TV front over the last 6 months, the WOS
brand has steadily been growing a respectable overseas television audience.
It’s new US home also happens to be the very channel that CM Punk is currently working
on as a guest host.
CM Punk to AEW and WOS confirmed!
During the aforementioned pre-show, the Over Budget Battle Royal will be taking place which
will feature the likes of Joey Janela, MJF and Trent Baretta.
But now the announcements keep on coming, because that battle royal has now had some
stipulations added to it!
No longer shall we be calling it the Over Budget Battle Royal, for now it has been renamed
the Casino Battle Royal, because, you know, gambling.
But the major of the two changes is that the winner of the battle royal will be receiving
an AEW World Championship match.
Hopefully this isn’t like the WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal, where Naomi’s “future
title shot” never actually happens and this is actually followed-up on.
But from the looks of the storytelling so far, it seems like it will be.
And if you didn’t get enough of Oli, Luke and Laurie livestreams over WrestleMania weekend,
prepare yourself for more because we’ll be doing livestream reactions for Double or
Nothing on May 25th including the pre-show, right here on WrestleTalk’s YouTube channel.
Join us so you can watch us watch the show, including PAC vs Hangman Page to crown the
first ever AEW World Champion, Chris Jericho vs Kenny Omega, Cody vs Dustin Rhodes, and
The Young Bucks vs The Lucha Bros for the AAA Tag Titles.
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answering the question of the day.
I’ve been Pete Quinnell, and that was wrestling.