In this WrestleTalk News, Tony Khan and Ariel Helwani heat, AEW fans are freakazoids, and
Oli reviews last night's episode of AEW Dynamite.
Subscribe and enable notifications to always on for daily wrestling news videos.
It’s fair to say that AEW President Tony Khan has had a rough go of it lately, with
major backstage dramas, physical bust-ups, talent release requests and just general unrest
keeping AEW firmly in the headlines.
As a result it was no surprise that Prolific MMA and wrestling interviewer/podcaster Ariel
Helwani wanted a piece of that action by inviting TK for a chat on his October 6th edition of
his show.
However, according to Helwani himself on his MMA Hour podcast, the interview left him feeling
far from satisfied, calling it one of the “not so fun interviews in my career”.
“He didn’t want to answer anything.
You’re going to come on and promote X, Y, and Z, great.
And I’ll play that dance with you.
I did, at the beginning.
But you got to give us something, to not even tell me how you were feeling.
I’m not asking for specifics, alright fine I am, but is Punk going to wrestle for you,
is he coming back, you don’t want to get into it, fine.
But tell me how you were feeling.
Give me something.”
During the interview Khan did little to provide Helwani and his listeners any insight into
the ongoing situation regarding ‘Brawl Out’, but given there is an ongoing legal investigation
into the situation, that’s probably the right thing to do.
However to receive no update or insight whatsoever may have been frustrating for fans and Helwani
himself.
Helwani’s outspoken frustrations on the matter led to backlash from the hardcore AEW
audience on social media.
Something that Helwani himself predicted before he made the comments regarding TK.
The influx of anti-Helwani comments were compiled by Twitter user Boris ‘ToxicSZN’ Luchas
and contained jibes labeling Helwani as a “paid WWE shill” and a “phony journalist”
among many others.
This led Helwani to strike back on Twitter: “You AEW freakazoids are nuts.
You’re all mad that I said I didn’t enjoy one intv yet for the past year+ every time
I talk wrestling I have praised the product, said wwe was stale blah blah.
Said it on Simmons pod in July, my show 100 times.
Look it up.
And chill out.
Sheesh.”
The situation led Dave Meltzer to also weigh in on Twitter in defense of Helwani:
“Just saw it.
He had the right to be frustrated with the interview.
I've been as well with covering AEW of late which I talk about all the time so can't disagree.”
However, Meltzer then elaborated by saying that claims that only AEW has problems with
this form of fan tribalism as “hilarious”.
Yesterday it was reported by RingsideNews.com that there was significant backstage heat
towards a new face in WWE’s creative team.
WWE’s new Director of long-term creative Rob Fee, who previously served as a lead-writer
for numerous Disney shows prior to his WWE hiring, had reportedly rubbed many backstage
producers the wrong way, predominantly for “talking down to writers”.
Oh and he also wished Tony Khan a happy 40th birthday on Twitter, and unfortunately being
nice on wrestling Twitter it sure to get you some hate.
However, according to SRS of Fightful this is not in fact the case afterall.
“WWE officials across creative and the broader business laughed at reports that Rob Fee is
making enemies at the company.
His work and treatment of others have both been positively received.”
Which then led to Fee himself poking fun at the situation saying:
“Lol we all had a good laugh at that this morning while I was hitting the writer's assistant
with chairs.”
Fee is reportedly close friends with Bray Wyatt and despite reports originally stating
that he was receiving heat for “taking credit for Bray’s return”, it is being stated
that Fee himself was instrumental in the ‘White Rabbit’ teases that planted the seeds deliciously
for Bray’s epic return at the end of Extreme Rules.
I hope he received a good Fee for his work, or he might be feeling a bit Robbed…ha.
It’s Thursday, you know
what that’s all about… time for my review of AEW Dynamite: Toronto edition… in about
5 minutes.
Because Canadians love other people who were born in Canadia, Excalibur opened the show
introducing AEW’s newest broadcast team member: Renee Paquette!
It’s no Kevin Patrick, but I guess it’ll do.
Renee then did what all the best AEW interviewers do.
Ask two questions and then disappear.
They were to Christian Cage, another Canadian, to set up the hot opening Jungle Boy vs Luchasaurus
match.
Both men worked their blood feud great together, with a sunset flip powerbomb through a table
outside, a Luchasaurus Undertaker situp spot which deserved a far bigger pop, and some
excellent reversals.
But Cage’s presence at ringside helped Luchasaurus get the win.
I’m not sure what you do with Jack Perry now.
He’s lost this feud for now and should do something else until Christian is cleared
again.
I’m far more optimistic for Luchasaurus.
With this win and Christian in his corner, he could be booked into one of Wardlow’s
first serious TNT threats.
The Firm revealed they’ve bought Private Party’s contracts backstage, which led to
Matt Hardy getting his contract put on the line in a match against Ethan Page to win
them back.
Because putting contracts in match stipulations worked so well last week.
This was all very, what’s the kindest way to say this…
Dark Elevation.
And speaking of Dark: Elevation - it’s QT Marshall!
QT and Nick Comoroto got squashed by TNT Champion Wardlow and ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe.
It can get confusing to keep track of all these belts in AEW, so I’m going to keep
these handy tracker onscreen throughout.
The Embassy came out afterwards, even though Wardlow already beat Brian Cage last week,
which brought out FTR - who said they had the perfect man to even the odds: a returning
Shawn Spears.
That meant four members of the Pinnacle were back together.
I knew they were good people all along, it was just their toxic leader that poisoned
their minds.
Yeah I’m talking about you Tully Blanchard.
Somehow looking twenty years younger than the DX reunion from Monday night, Daddy Ass
took on Swerve Strickland in a fun match, which Swerve cheated to win - furthering that
heel persona.
Keith Lee’s absence feels rather disjointed, though, and the segment closed with Mark Sterling
revealing he’d trademarked scissoring away from The Acclaimed.
It was kind of fun, but I’d prefer something better for the tag team champions.
I thought MJF’s slight babyface turn tease last week wouldn’t be picked up on again
for a while, but it was actually immediately addressed in a backstage interview.
First Max dressed down Stokely Hathaway for interfering when not asked last week, which
Stokely is likely planning his revenge for, and then MJF added a new layer of compassion
for his character, saying that he has to be the bad guy.
That he doesn’t like himself either.
But this is what it takes to be the best.
The self-awareness, the lack of cheap hometown heat in Canada of all place, felt like a further
conscious step towards turning face.
But most intriguing was his tease that he and William Regal share a dark history - which
will surely come out soon.
Ahead of his title defence against Hangman Page next week, Jon Moxley cut an in-ring
promo with a checkered shirt wrapped around his waist under a leather jacket.
That’s so Raven.
Hangman came out to say he respects Mox as a wrestler, as a person, as a father, but
he disagrees with Mox calling him a ‘kid’.
He went onto cut an intense, emotional promo about how he’s depressed, the medicine isn’t
working, but he keeps coming back.
It was a powerful message on resilience, which he supported by punching himself in the head
so hard, it immediately raised in a red bump.
He even made a very slight Elite reference, saying his friends have disappeared.
Typical Hangman, going into business for himself.
You’re such a cold, calculating politicker, Hangman.
MJF watched this all on from the rafters.
Because that’s the main part of his gimmick now.
After a great video package with ROH archive footage of Bryan Danielson as its world champion,
Chris Jericho defended that belt against the American Dragon.
In what was a fun slight mirror image, both men played up Hulk Hogan poses, leaning into
the Hogan vs Rock WrestleMania 18 match from the same Toronto location.
They didn’t go quite full on double turn, but Jericho, the heel, was getting cheered
because he’s from Canada, while Danielson was getting booed.
They had another very good match in their series, but the finish booking left me cold.
The referee got taken out, so Jericho goes to use the title belt as a weapon.
Daniel Garcia runs down to stop him, but then takes out Danielson anyway to help Jericho
retain.
I feel like this is repeating a step in the story, similar to the ineffective two heel
turns for Luchaurus in the Jungle Boy/Christian feud.
And if it’s all revealed as a rouse, I don’t think that will be narratively satisfying
either.
It’s the lady quarter hour now!
Nyla Rose is claiming to be the TBS Champion, so Anna J.A.S.
set up a match for it.
Building a whole story on how Jade Cargill’s reign is a bit boring now, and yet another
god damn title.
Then we had Jamie Hayter and Britt Baker lose to Hikaru Shida and Toni Storm.
Shida, just in case we lose count, came out with two of her own titles from other promotions.
Shida got the pin on Baker, which sets up a filler title shot against Storm.
This felt very inconsequential, and a step back to before Saraya’s debut.
And the main event saw PAC lose his All-Atlantic Championship to Orange Cassidy in a match
full of great spots.
After cheating to win with the hammer for weeks, Danhausen and the ref stopped PAC,
which led to Cassidy hitting two Orange Punches to win his first ever title in AEW.
Which is super meaningful with 14 other championships also on this episode.
What did you think of Dynamite?
Let me know in the comments.
As always, I can’t fault the in-ring wrestling.
It’s consistently fantastic.
The promo work is also largely very good.
My problem with this episode is the booking.
The Garcia turn, the ROH midcard schmoz, and a promotion flooded with championship belts.
Having all these titles literally onscreen is annoying, isn’t it?
It’s no different in the actual product.
This week’s Dynamite is 72%.
But for a change, an ROH faction might be on their way to WWE instead.
Watch on to find out more…