In this WrestleTalk News, Jon Moxley pulled from AEW, Vince McMahon not liking Bray Wyatt,
our review of NXT and more.
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Jon Moxley was scheduled to take on Orange Cassidy on tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite,
where he was expected to win, advancing to the World Title Eliminator tournament final
at next week’s Full Gear to face Bryan Danielson.
But real life has understandably scuppered those plans.
AEW president has posted on Twitter: “Jon Moxley has allowed me to share with
you that he is entering an inpatient alcohol treatment program.
Jon is a beloved member of the AEW family.
We all stand with him and Renee, and all of his family and friends, as he shifts his focus
to recovery.”
“Jon is making a very brave choice to get help, and we’re embracing his choice and
supporting him however we can.”
“I’m proud to call Jon a friend, and like many of you, I’m also a fan of Mox and look
forward to a time in the future when he is eventually ready to return to the ring.
Until then, thank you for supporting Jon and respecting his privacy at this time.”
“If you or a loved one need help, please reach out to SAMHSA’s National Helpline:
1-800-662-HELP (4357).”
Many fans and wrestlers alike have tweeted their support of Mox.
Cash Wheeler posted: “More respect than ever for Jon.”
Lio Rush tweeted: “MOX is a good dude.
One of the real ones.
Pulling for him and @ReneePaquette during this challenging time.”
And Joey Janela shared: “I consider Jon a good friend of mine, generally a wonderful
dude!
Some of the stuff he’s done for others on the low is the stuff of legend and I hope
to see him again soon!
All the love to him and his family” Picking up on Moxley’s behind-the-scenes
awesomeness, David Bixenspan tweeted: “I won’t share any non-public "Jon Moxley
is a mensch" stories because he’s usually somewhat private about it.
So I’ll remind you that when he donated $5K to Don Wright’s family after their fire,
he scrambled to retroactively make it anonymous so nobody'd think he did it for PR.”
Jon has had quite the 2021.
He and his wife Renee had their first child in June.
When the independent wrestling world opened back up, he made it his mission to help smaller
promotions and wrestlers by taking multiple bookings in often hardcore, bloody brawls.
- which saw him become the GCW world champion in September, and him wrestling as recently
as last weekend for Wrestling Revolver against Jimmy Jacobs.
His recent matches on AEW have been some of the most intense of his career.
And as if that all wasn’t enough, he released his autobiography yesterday, Tuesday 2nd November,
in what many people are already calling one of the best wrestling books ever written.
He won’t see it, because he’s famously allergic to all things social media, but start
a Thank You Mox chant in the comments.
At the very least, it’ll help us all cope with that weird feeling of seeing someone
you respect and admire go through something tough.
And if it moves you to do something more, if you or someone you know is experiencing
similar issues, there’s the number Tony Khan mentioned to contact, and you can visit
our Support Each Other page at WrestleTalk.com for mental health resources in your area.
It’s time to awkwardly transition from Real Life into goofy wrestling stories now.
There’s no easy way to do it so, um…
Subscriber Crab.
Pay attention to the subscriber crab and forget about the worl-
On Monday’s episode of Raw, Big E told Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins that WWE wasn’t Mount
Rushmore, there’s only room for one face of the red brand.
And Owens replied saying he gives every match his all, whether he’s got 3 months left
or 3 years.
This is widely seen as a reference to KO’s rumoured AEW move early next year.
His WWE contract reportedly expires in January, and backstage officials apparently don’t
expect him to re-sign.
Meanwhile, the Mount Rushmore name that keeps coming up was the name of KO’s faction with
AEW stars the Young Bucks and Adam Cole.
Is there anyone those guys haven’t been in a faction with?
Now The Bucks themselves appear to have responded to KO’s reference on Raw, briefly updating
their bio to read “MROW”.
No, not the noise Bearcat Lee makes when he’s excited.
But the acronym for Mount Rushmore of Wrestling.
Many have also pointed to a photo Adam Cole posted in 2016 of the Bucks, Owens (then called
Steen) and himself together before he started in NXT - with the caption: “A bond that
can't be broken.
What a reunion.
#MROW” But while KO’s potential case is him intentionally
choosing to leave WWE and go elsewhere, in Bray Wyatt’s situation… he was pushed.
And now even more details have come out on the reasons why.
Despite being one of the top merchandise sellers in the company, WWE released Bray Wyatt on
31st July citing “budget cuts”.
And since Wyatt’s - now going by Windham Rotunda on social media - non-compete clause
expired last Friday, a large number of conflicting reports have come out claiming to be the real
reason he was let go.
Andrew Zarian first reported that the “budget cuts” reason was “utter bulls***”, instead
citing Bray “being difficult” with “some performance issues in the ring, and he had
some weight issues.”
Ringside News’ source then added: “Between [Bray’s] backstage antics and the way he
handled himself when making millions and millions while medically flagged, he really deserved
to be released.”
Ringside News’ source has now listed more reasons Bray was fired, claiming he was “difficult
to get along with”, he was “hard to find when needed”, and “when he had time off
due to medical, there was always an issue with his appointment.
That led to even more frustration.”
The article also denied Bray was making money for the company at the time of his release,
because he wasn’t part of WWE’s return to live events.
“So, he was a money maker based solely on his merch?
Not at his contract level!”
Apparently “the problems grew larger and larger” and he was eventually let go - surprising
the many ongoing third party partners who were including him in their projects.
But how much should we rely on Ringside News’ source?
Luke and I were talking about the Bray situation and reports yesterday, and he pointed out
how familiar this story appeared to be.
WWE release a top level wrestler, not much is heard about them for about 85 days, and
then, funnily enough, on the week their non-compete clause expires and they’re free to debut
for another promotion, reports and rumours start to emerge about said released wrestler
being difficult to work with or never having made any money.
Windham himself has hinted as much on Twitter, replying to that very article saying: “Now
that we have Johnny and Bruce’s opinion, I would like to share mine soon.”
- a reference to John Laurinitus and Bruce Prichard in WWE Management, aka Vince McMahon’s
Yes Men.
Suggesting behind-the-scenes WWE figures are intentionally burying Bray to harm his prospects
elsewhere.
Fightful Select, an incredibly trustworthy source, has given more of a well-rounded report
on what went on backstage.
Which pretty much amounts to: Vince McMahon ended up just not liking the guy.
Apparently Bray had always been “outspoken when he thought creative was bad,” and this
intensified during his final storyline in the company with Randy Orton.
There was said to be significant frustration from both Bray and Orton that their six month
feud never actually had “a true creative endgame” at WrestleMania.
The finish was actually changed to Randy winning two days before the show.
In fact, other WWE superstars approached Orton and Wyatt afterwards saying how bad they felt
about the match change.
Leading up to that, Bray also had “major frustration around the ‘burned Fiend’
angle, specifically the size, weight and movement of the suit.
Though Wyatt hasn't confirmed this himself, the creative team was told that he believed
it was too heavy, was going to look bad and it would be difficult to move inside it, so
it was scrapped.”
But despite all that, the creative team were told around July time that Wyatt had been
cleared to return to the ring soon, but was then released.
Hardly anybody behind the scenes believes the budget cut reason, and Bray’s firing
made other top talent scared for their jobs.
“There were numerous people backstage who said that Wyatt was outspoken when he thought
creative was bad, and by the end, some felt Vince McMahon just didn't like him due to
that.”
Rotunda is as of right now a free agent, but don’t expect to see him at your local armoury
hall indie show anytime soon, as GCW owner Brett Lauderdale had told Wrestling Inc his
“understanding is that I don’t know that our world is very appealing to Bray Wyatt.”
- which translates to Windham don’t wanna do the indies, and he’s saving himself for
a bigger wrestling company.
AEW’s Tony Khan has said he’s interested in him but denies having had any talks.
Windham Rotunda to New Focus Wrestling confirmed.
Now here’s Tempest’s review of last night’s NXT 2.0 in
about 5 minutes.