Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News.
I am Luke Owen and this is Wrestling News.
Our top story today surrounds Monday’s episode of Raw, or more specifically, after the show
went off the air.
The main event of the show saw Team Championship of Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
take on The Judgement Day, where the good guys failed to pick up the win after Finn
Balor and Damian Priest became friends again.
While not a blow-away six man tag, it still had good action, though fans did notice that
Balor and Rollins struggled to get on the same page in a couple of moments, with a botched
Slingblade attempt by Balor being the most obvious.
And according to PWInsider, this spilled over into the backstage area after the match.
Mike Johnson reports that there “was an argument backstage” following the match
between the six wrestlers.
The problems stem from several spots in the match not going as planned, with one quoted
as saying that match was “clunky”.
Johnson claims that two people he spoke to say that there were frustrations over the
match as elements of it were changed “at the last literal second”.
In fact one of those sources put the blame squarely at the feet of one individual, but
wouldn’t name them so as to, “not make the Internet go insane.”
But that’s what we do!
How can we possibly thrive if you won’t let us go insane, unnamed source?
If anything, not telling us is making us go a different kind of insane.
You wanna get nuts?
Come on, let's get nuts.
Johnson adds that the argument, “was never in danger of getting physical”, adding:
“The situation finally petered out but we are told that many involved weren't happy
with the situation.”
Insert out-dated Jersey Shore reference from the mid-2000s here.
Johnson concludes his report saying, “It was seen as ‘one of those nights’ where
things just didn't click and since there were so many people involved who care about their
job and performances, emotions ran high because of those frustrations.”
Many fans online jumped to the - perhaps - obvious comparison to AEW’s Brawl Out that occurred
after the conclusion of their All Out show last year, but Johnson’s report suggests
the two events were nothing alike.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful posted on Twitter shortly after PWInsider’s story: “Those
we spoke to regarding last night's WWE RAW main event say it was more of a talk and a
difference of opinion than an argument.”
He added to this in a Fightful Select report that those he spoke with were really playing
down the incident, even noting that Kevin Owens had left the building “almost immediately”
as the match was over because he had a prior engagement to attend.
He notes that Seth Rollins, “got cracked pretty hard during the match”, but it was
nothing out of the ordinary.
As SRS puts it, “Boys will be boys.”
One notable thing missing from Sean’s update on the story is the claim from PWInsider that
there were some ‘literal last minute changes’ that made the match feel out of place.
There have not been any reports of major changes to Raw like we’ve seen in recent weeks since
the era of Vince McMahon’s remote meddling, and there weren’t reports that he was at
the show either.
We’ll have more wrestling news in just a moment, but first we need to head on over
to Turbo Jake for more information about today’s sponsor.
Thank you for that Turbo Jake, it was an excellent ad read but it wasn’t as sexy as Turbo Jack’s.
Classy, not sexy.
It wasn’t as classy as Turbo Jack’s.
Ahem.
Raw may or may have not had a disagreement between its talent, but it sure had a good
night in the ratings.
After facing stiff competition from American Pride last week as the show aired the day
before July 4th, Raw bounced back this week like Alan Partridge with 1.81 million viewers.
Now, that overall number is down from last week, but the 18-49 was a 0.56, which is up
15%.
What those boring numbers mean to cool people like you and I is that while the overall number
wasn’t as high as last week, more younger people were watching this episode of Raw.
And that is a good thing.
The peak of that 18-49 came, perhaps predictably, during the Logan Paul segment.
It was also good news for AEW, as the fourth episode of Collision saw a rise in ratings
as the show drew 580,000 viewers, which is up nearly 30% from the previous week.
More impressively, the 18-49 was up 61.5% from last week, peaking for the Samoa Joe
vs. CM Punk main event.
Fightful Select are reporting that Warner Bros Discovery are “very happy” with the
numbers for AEW’s programming - particularly Dynamite being the number one show on cable
last week - and adds that WWE were also quite pleased with the monster number The Bloodline
pulled in last Friday’s SmackDown.
And Warner Bros being happy with AEW might explain why they are looking to throw more
money at them.
Now there has been some questions around AEW’s deal with Warner Bros Discovery - and I’m
not talking about the questions being thrown around by podcast morons - but more around
the Warner Upfronts that happened a few months ago, which was where they announced the launch
of AEW Collision.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported that AEW’s new deal with WBD would be in
the region of $1 billion and that deal would be announced at the Upfronts.
No such deal was announced, but on the first episode of Collision, CM Punk referred to
himself as “1 Bill Phil”, alluding to the big money deal Collision and Punk got
for the company.
In a new update on the situation, Fightful Select report that AEW and WBD have been in
long conversations together about extending their TV rights.
SRS adds, “conversations have been ongoing for months and they personally believe an
announcement could be made this Summer or Fall of a deal reached.”
Fightful's contacts at WBD reiterate that they are very happy with AEW right now.
Not just the viewing figures it pulls in, but also their flexibility around being moved
about the schedules to accommodate for other sportsball shows as well as brand integration
like leveling up in Winnipeg for Shazam: Fury of the Gods.
This also extends to WBD’s request that all AEW programming be exclusive to Warner
Bros Discovery, which is why Dark and Dark Elevation were pulled from YouTube.
But the finger thing means taxes, so what does this mean for the cash?
Well, SRS’s sources tell him that a “huge money increase for AEW” is coming for the
company.
Interestingly there isn’t any update on the airing of All In, or if it will even air
at all.
Fightful Select add that this has been part of the talks currently ongoing, so there is
still hope that AEW’s biggest show ever will be seen by more than the 75,000 people
in attendance.
But there will be one person not there to see it, as there’s been another AEW departure.
Following the news that AEW contracts of Trench and Fuego Del Sol expiring and not being renewed,
PWInsider reported that Brian Pillman Jr of the Varsity Blondes has also not had his contract
extended and he is officially gone from the company.
This has since been all but confirmed, as Pillman is no longer part of AEW’s roster
page.
Pillman last wrestled on AEW Dynamite nearly a full year ago, and last appeared on Rampage
in February.
The opposite of departure now, as we turn our attention to the recent return of Drew
McIntyre, who teamed with Matt Riddle on this past Monday’s Raw in his first WWE match
since WrestleMania.
However he also announced that he’ll be missing next week’s show, which will see
Riddle take on Gunther one-on-one.
And the reason for that has now been revealed, as he’ll be filming a spot for the movie
The Killer’s Game, which stars Soufia Boutella, Ben Kingsley, Pom Klementieff, Scott Adkins,
Ice Cube and former WWE star Dave Bautista.
Obviously, this is exciting news for Drew.
But it should also be exciting news for us because check out this synopsis:
“The film follows veteran assassin Joe Flood (Bautista), who is diagnosed with a life-threatening
illness and authorizes a kill on himself to avoid the pain that is destined to follow.
After ordering the kill, he finds out that he was misdiagnosed and must then fend off
the army of former colleagues trying to kill him.”
Yeah, that sounds rad.
But now it’s time for my NXT 1 Minute 1 Take and I know everyone loves it when I do
it.
Judgment Day kicked off the show to say they run this place, and Carmelo Hayes and Trick
Williams came out to set up a tag match between the two teams.
Tony D’Angelo did a Skype promo from prison - this is a real wrestling show - and Gigi
Dolan cut a promo on Kiana James.
Chase U beat Drew Gulak and Charlie Dempsey, and Bron Brekker and Ilya Draganouv cut promos
to hype their match later in the show.
Cora Jade beat Kelani Jordan, despite the sage-like wisdom from Dana Brooke.
We got highlights of Raw Underground last week, and Draganov beat Bron Breakker in a
stiff match to earn a title shot at Melo for The Great American Bash.
Dirty Dom challenged Wes Lee to a North American Championship match for next week, and Baron
Corbin got a video package about his lack of gimmicks.
Tiffany Straton beat Ivy Nile and The Schism tried to hire her - Nile that is - Blair Davenport
cut a promo on Roxanne Perez, and Stacks beat Joe Coffey so now D’Angelo can be released
from prison.
Los Lotharios set up a tag match against Nathan Frazoer and Dragon Lee for next week, and
The Judgement Day beat Melo and Trick after help from Dragunov backfired
for the champ - who has now been pinned twice by Balor.