In this WrestleTalk News, Wardlow’s TNT Title has been stolen, AEW forced WWE to change
some booking plans, a top star may not be 100% for WrestleMania, and more.
But first, as always here on the WrestleTalk News, we lead with the most interesting and
engaging news stories we possibly can, and today we’ve got a doozy.
That’s it, that’s the whole story.
Gangrel has got a beer called The Brewed.
That’s an S-tier level pun.
Great work Gangrel.
But seriously, here’s the actual news.
After winning the TNT Title at Revolution this past weekend, Wardlow is set to face
Powerhouse Hobbs for that belt on tonight’s episode of Dynamite.
Just one issue with that though: the TNT Title has been stolen.
Wardlow posted a video to Twitter showing how someone had broken into his rental car,
and taken his gear, his boots, the TNT Title, and, as he described it, his whole life.
He vowed to still make it to Sacramento for Dynamite one way or another, and he mentioned
that to whoever did this, he’s just glad he didn’t catch them in the act because
their jaw would be as shattered as the glass on the car.
Yknow, I believe him.
Safe to say, this situation sucks, and wishing Wardlow well.
Fingers crossed his belongings can be retrieved before long.
This is also not the first time an AEW title has been stolen, as shortly after winning
the inaugural AEW World Title, Chris Jericho had the title stolen from him too.
Weird run of luck, that.
In case you missed the goings on at AEW’s Revolution PPV this past weekend, during the
main event Ironman Match, MJF jumped into the crowd and threw a drink on a child.
Tony Khan mentioned that he wouldn’t be taking this incident lightly, but while no
repercussions for MJF have been made publicly aware as of yet, it seems the ripples of this
moment have spread out across wrestling, all the way to WWE.
According to Fightful Select, there was originally a segment planned for this week’s episode
of Raw where one wrestler would throw a drink in another wrestler’s face during a match.
Though we don’t know exactly which wrestlers this would have been, there was reportedly
talk backstage through the day on Monday as backstage people heard of these plans and
thought it was a shot at AEW, or a reference to the MJF incident.
However, Fightful reports that this angle had already been planned prior to Revolution
going on the air, and the segment never ended up happening, with one WWE talent theorizing
that the segment was likely nixed due to the MJF spot from Revolution.
But there was still plenty of news coming out of Raw regardless, and not just because
of the on-screen angles that set up WrestleMania matches.
There were reports of Vince McMahon being backstage at Raw, but it wasn’t just his
presence that was the main talking point, because according to Fightful Select, Vince
McMahon rocked up with “dyed hair and a small moustache”, which was reportedly described
by talent as resembling that of Gomez Addams from the Addams Family.
Fightful also added that there have been numerous fake photos circulating around the web of
Vince and his tash, but no actual ones have been seen yet.
I don’t know what Sean’s talking about, we have this obviously very real photo of
him for our new moustache break!
While the official story for Vince’s visit to Raw was simply to say hello to John Cena
as he was booked on the show, many online have speculated that Vince has some sort of
ulterior motive, because, well you would wouldn’t you.
In Fightful Select’s report, they noted that one particular WWE higher up thought
that this was Vince’s way of “testing the waters” and gauging the reaction people
would have backstage if he showed his face again.
Now that he’s been seen backstage once more, many reportedly expect him to be seen at more
upcoming events.
Interestingly, Select reports that Vince’s presence backstage at Raw got talked about
a lot more online than it did backstage in WWE, as the reported main talking point among
talent was Vince’s shock appearance change.
Many talent expected it would be a matter of time before Vince was backstage as it is,
but Vince with a moustache is an unforeseen part of this story.
Apparently one person in WWE who has known Vince for more than 20 years mentioned to
Fightful that this appearance change was “more drastic and a shock than him getting his head
shaved”, and I know it really feels like I’m harping on this point, but I can’t
emphasize enough how much Vince has hated facial hair for his entire life.
Dude’s losing it.
While Vince was reported to be pleasant, greeting talent and such and not issuing orders, instructions
or feedback, a few talent reportedly “intentionally avoided associating with him”, despite them
also believing that they’ll likely have to deal with him again in the future.
So all in all, isn’t it funny that Vince has a moustache now.
That’s the news.
Meanwhile, in stuff that’s actually happening on screen in WWE, Jey Uso turned on Sami Zayn
on Raw and my little heart can’t take it.
This was following the Jimmy Uso vs Sami Zayn main event, which also came after the opening
bout of the night of Solo Sikoa vs Kevin Owens.
And while technically Solo lost that match, it was only via DQ after Jimmy interfered,
meaning Solo still hasn’t been pinned or submitted since his main roster call up, and
that seems to be by design, outside of the basic reason of making The Bloodline look
good.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer mentioned that WWE have been protecting Solo
Sikoa for a very particular reason: “When he [Sami Zayn] wrestled Corbin, if
they saw him as a top guy like they saw Cody Rhodes…
Cody Rhodes ran through Corbin like it was nothing.
Sami sold the whole match and then got his win.
With Solo [vs Kevin Owens], they ended on a double countout because they’re not going
to beat Solo.
Because they’re saving Solo for Roman whenever that day comes.
But with Sami (vs Sikoa), Samoan Spike and he pins him.”
Out of all the hypothesized directions the Bloodline story could go in the lead up to
and after WrestleMania, I don’t think many people have thought about a Solo Sikoa vs
Roman Reigns match, but now it’s been mentioned, sounds pretty fun to me.
Would he beat Reigns?
Would he be the guy that loses to Reigns so Reigns regains some momentum after he loses
his belts?
Who knows, but I’m interested regardless.
Another match that has picked up some intrigue after this week’s Raw is the six-woman tag
match of Becky Lynch, Lita and Trish Stratus vs Damage CTRL, because superficially, it
sounds like a fun match anyway, but also, there’s supposed ‘twists and turns’
yet to come in this story, and there’s a Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler floating around
waiting for a potential tag title shot to come their way too.
Rousey was originally pencilled in to be defending her SmackDown Women’s Championship at the
Show of Shows, but after Charlotte Flair came back and beat her for the belt at the end
of December last year, those plans had obviously changed.
The reports from the time and in recent months noted that they shifted the Mania plans as
Rousey had vocalized wanting to pursue the Women’s Tag Team Championships with Shayna
Baszler - something that according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio is still
the plan, despite many other things potentially being an obstacle.
So not only are the Women’s Tag Champs currently a bit preoccupied with their six-woman tag
match at Mania, but Rousey is also reportedly dealing with a legitimate arm injury, which
may end up ruling her out of WrestleMania as a whole.
However, according to Meltzer, the plans are still in place:
“They still have a tag title match.
There’s gonna be two matches coming out of this program.
Whoever are the champions will wrestle Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler, but they’re also
doing the six-woman tag.”
Considering there’s two nights of WrestleMania, it makes sense to have the six-woman match
on Night 1 and have the tag title match on Night 2, to give the belts a chance to potentially
swap hands during that match maybe?
Regardless, what about Ronda’s injury?
Dave has more on that as well: “I don’t know if Dakota and SKY are going
to win the belts back or if it will be Lita and Becky Lynch, but Rousey and Baszler are
still getting the tag team title shot as has been planned all along and likely winning
them.
Unless Rousey’s injury doesn’t heal.
Which they are, right now, of the impression that she’s not gonna be 100% healed, but
the impression is that she would be ready to do the match.”
There’s a bunch more news from today including stuff about Jay White not being 100% confirmed
to be heading to WWE, Fox being unlikely to renew their SmackDown deal, and a new amendment
in the ongoing MLW lawsuit against WWE, so check that all out at wrestletalk.com, but
to end today’s video, let’s talk about NXT, because a lot happened.
It was NXT Roadblock last night, and there were several notable appearances and moments,
including Dragon Lee’s debut in the promotion, with him sitting in the crowd like the TakeOvers
of old.
Bron Breakker vs Carmelo Hayes for the NXT Championship was confirmed for Stand & Deliver,
which sounds mighty exciting, especially with the potential of this being Melo’s final
match in NXT before his main roster callup as he’s been having dark matches as of late,
and he was featured in a photo alongside the Street Profits, MVP and Omos backstage, and
that…that sounds like fun.
Following Roxanne Perez’s successful title defense against Meiko Satomura, Shawn Michaels
booked Shawn Michaels again and Perez passed out after the match, much like Michaels did
during his match with Owen Hart in 1995.
It’s a fun angle, but it does mark the second time in recent weeks that Michaels has just
been booking his career highlights, with the implosion of Toxic Attraction being reminiscent
of one Barber Shop Window incident.
And speaking of HBK, he was on the show to confront Grayson Waller, where the latter
challenged the former to a match.
HBK maintained his retirement from WrestleMania 26 though, a retirement he has never broken
since, no, he hasn’t, and rejected the match against Waller.
Instead he announced the return of Johnny Gargano to NXT, who will face Waller at Stand
& Deliver in his place, which is a nice way to wrap up the story of Waller being the one
to write off Johnny when he left WWE in late 2021.
So it seems like Stand & Deliver is shaping up to be quite the show indeed.
Laurie’s Go Home Show series is back - this time he’s taking an in depth look at Elimination
Chamber from Montreal, which, I still don’t know if I’ve fully recovered from.
Here’s a clip!