In this WrestleTalk News, backstage news on John Cena and Austin Theory’s Raw exchange,
another AEW star’s contract is on the verge of expiring and Oli’s review of AEW Dynamite.
Subscribe and enable notifications to always on for daily wrestling news videos.
This week’s Raw of course saw the highly anticipated return of the ‘GOAT’ as Corey
Graves and Michael Cole love to coin him…
JOHN CENA.
Cena’s return in Boston saw Raw get a slight (but surprisingly not massive) ratings boost
to a 1.83 Million rating according to Showbuzzdaily.
However, while it didn’t send Raw’s viewership through the roof, Cena’s return did accomplish
something… completely burying US Champion Austin Theory.
Of course Theory being ‘buried’ in his segment with John is highly subjective, but
he absolutely did and I won’t hear another word about it.
This is largely due Cena’s absolute verbal annihilation of Theory, dismissing him as
unworthy of the match and his overall lack of connectivity with the crowd and lack of
confidence.
All the while the US Champ kinda just stood there without much of a decent response, apart
from lol you’re bald which, I don’t know if it’s just me, I just don’t think that’s
a good insult.
No I’m not biased, why do you ask?
While this is likely just Cena lighting a fire under Theory, with the 25-year-old likely
to get his own back later in the program, you’d hope, it was a rather tough start
for the champ.
So, the question now is… who permitted this verbal execution?
Well, interestingly Fightful Select has published the list of backstage producers behind this
week’s Raw, and would you look at that…
it looks like there wasn’t one for this segment.
While this does happen, as the excellent recent Cody and Heyman segments on Raw have had the
same treatment, it has led many to believe that Cena orchestrated the segment that some
believe went too far.
In Austin Theory, the champ would also have had input into the promo as well, however
given Cena’s experience it’s likely that he took the wheel.
So let us know what you think.
Did Cena go too far?
Or was this all fair game?
Let us know in the comments below.
Sticking with WWE, and there has been news of a popular NXT star who is reportedly finishing
up with the company very soon.
According to Tokyo Sports, NXT’s Sarray will soon be departing WWE and returning to
her native Japan when her contract expires.
This news was later confirmed by Sarray herself via Twitter, where she stated that she wanted
to make the announcement herself but unfortunately it broke before she got the chance.
In the tweet, Sarray announced she will hold a press conference on March 13th to properly
address her next moves.
However, in Tokyo Sports’ report it was stated that Sarray is set to compete in Tokyo
on May 16th, so looks like we may already have a decent idea of her next move.
And it’s not becoming an anime superhero.
Now, speaking of expiring contracts, let’s move across to AEW now and take a look at
yet another wrestler who may soon be on their way out of the company.
And this time it’s not a member of The Elite for a change.
The AEW talent in question is none other than ‘The Machine’ Brian Cage.
According to Fightful Select Cage actually should be a free agent already, with his AEW
contract reportedly up between January and February of this year, however, yet again
it seems like injury time (similarly to Omega) may be keeping him in the company for now.
The injury time reportedly refers to the very beginning of his AEW run, with Tony Khan keen
to keep Cage in the company till June at the very least.
According to the report Cage does have a contract extension offer on the table from AEW, however,
he has been hesitant to commit, which makes sense when there’s a potential WWE offer
in your future.
It was international women’s day yesterday, you know what that means…
erm, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements
of women?
Not according to Excalibur - it’s, AEW Dynamite!
Here’s my review in about 5 minutes.
The show started with a pay-per-view fallout version of the opening video: recapping the
biggest moments from AEW Revolution - a nice touch - and because this is AEW Dynamite,
you actually know what that means - Orange Cassidy opening the show defending his All
Atlantic Championship, this week against Jay Lethal.
They had a really well worked psychological edge to the match with Lethal targeting Orange’s
knee.
It not only took away Cassidy’s leaping Orange Punch, it also weakened his leg for
Lethal’s Figure Four.
But swerve!
It was Jay’s injured shoulder that ended up giving way in his Lethal Injection, letting
Orange get the roll-up win.
A low key very smart match, continuing Cassidy’s TV MVP streak.
But that will be the last time we’ll see Orange Cassidy as the All Atlantic Champion,
because next week’s show will finally see what all us wrestling fans have been fantasy
booking for the belt - getting ‘leveled up’ via branded integration with corporate
synergy.
Later on in the show, in my new favourite segment of all time, Tony Khan had his latest
huge announcement.
And because I now consider this one of the best promos ever cut in wrestling, I am going
to read the entire segment in full: “I’m here tonight because the All Atlantic
Champion Orange Cassidy has requested an open challenge match next week in Winnipeg against
Double J JEff Jarrett.
I’m honouring that request.
Next week in Winnipeg it will be Orange Cassidy vs Jeff Jarrett.
And this match represents an important milestone for our company.
I’d like to tell you about it tonight on behalf of AEW and Warner Brothers Discovery.
Next week marks the fifth and final defence of the AEW All Atlantic Championship on international
soil.
It is the only AEW championship ever to change hands on international soil.
And next week in partnership with Warner Brothers Discovery to support the release of Shazam:
Fury of the Gods next week in Winnipeg it will be Orange Cassidy vs Double J Jeff Jarrett
for the AEW International Championship.
Next week in Winnipeg we will level up the championship.
It will be a huge match, a huge milestone for AEW.
And all of us are so excited about the release of Shazam: Fury of the Gods.
And we can’t wait for Wednesday Night Dynamite in Winnipeg.
Orange Cassidy vs Jeff Jarrett for the AEW International Championship as we level up
the championship in AEW.”
I’ve made a Word cloud to see if we can make sense of what Tony’s saying here.
I think he’s trying to tell us Shazam is coming out in Winnipeg to level up the Warner
Bros Discovery Shazampionship.
This is what happens when you get ChatGPT to write your scripts!
They then played the Shazam trailer with a few clips of Cassidy and Jarrett spliced in.
Move aside Mountain Dew!
We’ve got a new King of Branded Wrestling Integrations!
Because I spent so much time on what was only a one minute backstage announcement there,
I’m going to have to speed through the rest of my review.
Ricky Starks came out to say he doesn’t know what’s next for him… when the Bullet
Club entrance music hit for everyone’s favourite well-known Bullet Club free agent right now…
Juice Robinson.
As great as Juice is, he’s never been credibly presented in AEW, and this feels like a step
down for Starks.
Also, bad idea to tease Bullet Club debuts when Jay White is currently unsigned.
Ruby Soho cut a great ‘you people’ promo, showing far more character than her babyface
run, getting to call the fans fat, neckbeards.
She dominated Sky Blue afterwards, and beat her and Willow Nightingale down in the post-match
with Toni and Saraya.
We got incredible promos from MJF and Bryan Danielson recorded right after their 67 minute
Ironman match from Revolution.
Max was brilliantly insufferable, calling his win the reign of terror, referencing Triple
H. While Danielson was devastated, crying, that what Max said about him putting wrestling
ahead of his family was right, and it made him ashamed.
That’s why he tapped out.
Four days removed from their match, and details like this make it even better.
Danielson finished saying it’s time for him to go home, presumably writing him off
TV for a while.
Which wasn’t the case for Jon Moxley!
He tagged with Claudio Castignoli to beat the Dark Order’s John Silver and Alex Reynolds.
I would’ve preferred Mox actually take some time off after their brutal Texas Death Match
to sell the finale of his and Hangman’s feud… but it seems like it’s just continuing.
The Blackpool Combat Club were almost full blown heels, beating down Silver, Reynolds
and Evil Uno, until Hangman came out, where they beat him up too - despite Page saying
he was done with Mox.
This just feels like an inferior repeat of their Revolution build.
I’m ready for them to move onto something else.
FTR cut a great babyface return promo, promising to go for the tag titles, as now is the time
for Retribution.
Slapjack to AEW confirmed.
Jade Cargill called out Canada’s best for her 54th win next week.
Tempest?
Tony Khan and Danielson’s promosaside, my favourite thing on this show was the J.A.S.
having a fun trios win over Top Flight & AR Fox - complete with multiple sports entertaining
pose spots - to then announce themselves the trios titles’ No. 1 contenders.
The lights cut out, making you think House of Black were about to go full emo, but it
was for the Elite’s entrance instead!
Don Callis cut a promo on Jericho, making me nostalgic for the Omega vs Alpha feud of
yore, which Kenny appeared slightly miffed by, for the House of Black themselves to appear
in the middle of the ramp between the two trios teams, setting up a trio trios match
for next week in Winnipeg.
This gives the trios division the story and character conflict it’s been lacking.
The Acclaimed set up a Rampage match with 2.0.
I hope they don’t get lost in the tag division shuffle now.
And the main event saw Wardlow defend his freshly won TNT Championship against Powerhouse
Hobbs.
AEW neatly leaned into Wardlow’s real life car break in, rebooking the match as a jeans
count anywhere stipulation - as Wardlow’s gear was stolen, he had to wrestle in denim.
They started the brawl backstage with Hobbs’ ass going through a car windscreen.
What part are you going to work over, Wardlow?
The ass, Will.
The ass.
And continued into the ring and up the ramp.
It was all set for Wardlow to retain with a powerbomb off the stage, but a wild QT Marshall
appeared, hit Wardlow with a chair and a low blow, helped Hobbs powerbomb him off the stage,
and to become the new TNT champion.
It’s not what I would’ve done.
It’s a shame this has come at the expense of Wardlow, but I wasn’t excited for another
TNT title run for him.
I think the right idea is to put the belt on Hobbs.
It’s the way they went about it that was subpar.
This would’ve been far better if Samoa Joe just retained at Revolution.
Hobbs beating a dominant Joe would make Powerhouse look stronger.
And the decision to put him with QT is less than the sum of their parts.
I like QT, but really only as a kick off show comedy opponent.
We’ll see how the partnership goes, but it feels like Marshall bring Hobbs down.
What did you think of AEW Dynamite?
Let me know in the comments.
I really loved a lot of this show.
It felt a lot like the Dynamites of old.
The match quality wasn’t as high as in January and February, but it was fun.
It felt fresh.
Unfortunately the continuation of Mox and Hangman, and the finish of the TNT title match
ended things on a low.
This week’s Dynamite is 77%.
What is the worst match ever?
Join Luke, Pete and Tempest on their quest to find out with the brand new episode - TNA’s
infamous Jenna vs Sharmell match…