Welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I’m Pete Quinnell.
It was Full Gear this past weekend, and it’s Survivor Series this weekend, wrestling never
stop does it?
The main event of Full Gear in particular had a lot of eyes on it, with it splitting
opinion on whether it was good or bad, overbooked or not, successful or a waste of time.
MJF’s injury angle of being taken out until the main event raised eyebrows with some sections
of AEW fans, but as it turns out, there was a shoot injury in amongst all the work injury
angle stuff too.
According to WrestlePurists, MJF actually dislocated his hip during the match with Jay
White, with the elbow drop to the floor being pointed to the incident responsible.
Sean Ross Sapp also corroborated that he’d heard that MJF’s hip had been hurt in the
match.
The commentary table collapsed as White was laid upon it, but MJF did the elbow drop anyway,
straight down to the floor.
MJF’s hip reportedly had to be popped back in following the match, but that’s not all
as MJF also reportedly banged up his shoulder in the match too, with the top rope uranagi
being the move that reportedly caused it.
But good news for MJF fans as he’s reportedly not set to miss any TV time, but is expected
to be in a non-wrestling role while he heals up in the lead to World’s End in Long Island
at the end of December.
That’s not the only injury in AEW right now though, as it’s also being reported
via Fightful Select that Juice Robinson is out of action right now with a back injury
that will require surgery.
While he’s reportedly not expected to miss a ton of time away, he won’t be wrestling
for the rest of 2023 at the least.
We’d like to wish both MJF and Juice the speediest of recoveries.
Moving back to MJF now, we are rapidly approaching the end of 2023, which means it’s almost
time for that whole ‘bidding war of 2024’ storyline that MJF has been playing up for
years now.
Which hasn’t really been spoken about on AEW TV and more just in press conferences
and on MJF’s social media.
It’s still good though right, it’s still good?
Well, for anybody hoping for a dash of MJF realism in this storyline, that dash may have
been dashed, as Haus of Wrestling is reporting that WWE sources believe that MJF has quietly
re-signed with AEW until 2027, and as such, there have been “zero talks” between the
two sides.
One WWE source even reportedly mentioned that the storyline of him entering free agency
soon and playing up the bidding war was entirely “in his head”, with another saying that
they were told he was under a long-term deal which is why AEW stopped pushing the story
themselves.
Which makes sense considering MJF has been the focal point of literally all of AEW’s
top stories this year, which would be an insane choice if he were actually about to jump ship.
And speaking of jumping ship, one WWE name that had long been rumoured to be on the outs
with WWE is Drew McIntyre, who turned heel on last week’s Raw and aligned himself with
the Judgment Day.
While McIntyre’s contract is reportedly due to expire in 2024 as well, there’s now
a potential clue he may be sticking around.
WWE released their first Bash In Berlin poster, and alongside Cody Rhodes, Bianca Belair,
Gunther, Seth Rollins and Rhea Ripley is one Drew McIntyre.
Bash In Berlin is set for the end of August in 2024, well after McIntyre’s contract
is reportedly due to expire.
While this may seem like confirmation of the Scot’s presence on the show, there’s every
chance that they could ‘card subject to change’ the show and Drew could be removed
if he weren’t actually competing.
But still, it’s a clue.
Now, over to Luke!
Thank you, Pete, but now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka ‘The Randy
Orton return show, but not quite The Randy Orton return show’ edition of Monday Night
Raw… in about 5 minutes.
The show opened with our newly fully heel Drew McIntyre cutting a promo on Jey Uso,
covering a lot of the ground we’ve covered before, but with his justification as to why
he’s part of War Games.
See, Drew has not joined Judgement Day, and he’s not doing it to get back at Seth for
Crown Jewel, he’s doing this because Rhea gave him what he wanted: Jey Uso in a cage.
This brought out Jey Uso to say YEET a lot - I fear that is going to grow real old real
quick - and then everyone came down to start a big Survivor Series Gang Warz brawl, but
Adam Pearce stopped them and said they all need to pick their representatives for tonight’s
main event where the winner will get their team the advantage for War Games.
I can’t wait for the same stip for the Women’s War Games match - what’s that?
- that advantage is being decided in a fan vote in a crisps sponsorship?
Well, that’s f***ing rubbish.
The Judgement Day hung out in their Judgement
Den, and eventually picked Drew McIntyre to be their pick, while Team Cody picked Jey.
Despite telling us that she’s got a massive and impressive back every time she makes an
entrance, Raquel Rodrigeuz’s back gave out a lot during her match with Nia Jax.
She couldn’t lift her for a powerbomb, and Jax hit the Banzai Drop for the win.
This match was way better than a lot of people probably thought it would be.
Speaking of being way better than you’d think, Xia Li had an absolutely banging match
with Becky Lynch.
I mean, it’s not hard to have a bad match with Becky.
It would be like having a bad match with Gunther - pressure is on Miz!
- but Li looked amazing here.
I’ve been down on Xia Li’s character as the dumbest wrestler in wrestling - and her
in-ring work has a real feel of ‘not quite main roster ready’ - but she dialled it
up here, Cole.
The two went back and forth, Li escaped the DisarmHER, they both beat the 10-count, and
Lynch ducked the concussion kick to hit a Manhandle Slam for the win.
Lynch gave Li everything here, and it worked.
The crowd were super into it.
But, if I may pop on my cynical hat for a moment, why not do this match next week?
Why beat Xia Li 24 hours before she’s facing Lyra Valkyria for the NXT Women’s Championship?
You also don’t want to beat Becky because she’s on the PPV this weekend, so just move
the match to next week when neither of those things are an issue.
The Gang Warz continued as Damage CTRL hit the ring to attack Becky and Team Flair joined
the fray.
I am way more stoked for that match than I am the men’s one.
And you can see me be excited for this match live and in person this Saturday at the Long
Arm Pub & Brewery - but don’t just take it from me.
Take it from me.
Tickets are available in the link in the video description down below, so get yours today
and we’ll see you this Saturday!
We’ll also be doing our live reactions to the show here on the WrestleTalk News channel!
We got a video promo for Zoey Stark - who also cut a promo on Rhea in the Judgement
Den - and then Johnny Gargano beat Ludvig Kaiser when Giovanni Vinci - who had been
told backstage by Kaiser to not come out - caused a distraction.
I’m glad that Gargano Gargan-got a win - and to hear a crowd actually be behind him for
a change - but I am running tired of this distraction/interference formula in this DIY/Imperium
feud.
Gunther shouted at Kaiser backstage and put Vinci in charge AND STOP TRYING TO BREAK UP
THIS TEAM.
There was a chart posted by Brandon Thurston a few weeks ago that highlighted how Raw and
SmackDown actually have the same amount of women’s matches on their shows as AEW’s
Collision and Dynamite.
Which is hugely surprising as…
well AEW’s women’s division is quite the afterthought.
And it’s almost as if Triple H saw this chart, and unlike Tony Khan, realised that
sucks and wanted to make a change for the better.
Of the first four matches on this show, 3 of them were based around the women’s division;
the third of those three matches being a fatal four-way between The Party Girls, Maxxine
& Ivy Nile, Tegan Nox & Natalya and The Way for the number one contendership to the women’s
tag titles.
The match was a bit sloppy in places, but overall good fun, with Maxxine and Nile being
the true stand outs.
Tegan rolled up Maxxine to get the win.
Chelsea Green and Piper Niven were also very entertaining on commentary, with Green pulling
out the ol’ Chris Jericho gag of calling the lead announcer by the wrong name.
Canadians stick together.
Adam Pearce announced the same match but for the lads as ALL THE TAG DIVISION STOOD IN
A ROW, and then we got The Miz’s face-to-face with Gunther.
Gunther’s initial deal with The Miz was that he’s not a serious wrestler, which
in fairness he isn’t, but Miz turned that around into a positive.
Yeah he’s a character, but so was Macho Man.
So was Mr. Perfect.
So was Shawn Michaels.
And he idolised them.
And they were all IC champs, which is why he respects that title.
Like the Constructacons once told Soundwave, Miz thinks Gunther is an uncharismatic bore.
Gunther shut Miz down by telling him he’s a weirdo fan who thinks he can be a wrestler
when he isn’t - and he doesn’t belong in this ring, he belongs behind the guardrail
with the other weirdo fans.
That right there, that is my champion.
He then talked about how Miz - who he kept calling Mike in a brilliant little detail
- was bullied as a child and then bullied by the legends he idolised.
Maybe he needs to be bullied more.
He piefaced him and booted him down, but Miz kicked him low and hit a Skull Crushing Finale.
This was a fantastic segment.
Shinsuke Nakamura beat Chad Gable in an ‘I’m not facing CM Punk at Survivor Series’ match,
and Ivar and Bronson Reed set up a match for next week.
And the main event saw Drew McIntyre beat Jey Uso to get the baddies the advantage in
War Games.
The usual brawl followed, and Cody announced that their fifth man is someone he has a legacy
with.
He’s an apex predator, he hears voices in his head, and he’s not here tonight.
Yeah this was… well it was a bit of a letdown.
You can see why WWE did it.
Twitter has itself in a frenzy that Punk is at Survivor Series so they had to announce
Randy for Survivor Series, but Randy wasn’t there.
They didn’t even say his name, just let the crowd chant for him.
This had a real ‘Kota Ibushi is in Blood & Guts’ vibe.
But it wasn’t enough to sour the episode, which was a great edition of Raw, and a go-home
show that actually felt like a go-home show for a change.
It’s 4 out of 5!
The second semi-final of Fantasy Booking Warfare saw Tempest and Laurie book the end of Auska’s
streak - so find out who will join Oli Davis in the finals this weekend!