Welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I’m Pete Quinnell, and we went one whole day on this
channel without talking about CM Punk. Check the tapes, I didn’t mention his name even
once in yesterday’s news episode. So it’s about time we talk about him again.
Chatter in the last week was talking about the possibility of CM Punk facing KENTA at
AEW’s upcoming crossover show with New Japan, Forbidden Door. There had been some verbal
barbs from KENTA online, primarily with him saying that the match definitely isn’t happening,
which many fans took to mean that the match definitely is happening, because wrestling.
However, as we saw on Dynamite last night, Punk has got a new opponent in Satoshi Kojima,
and shortly before the show, there was a report from Fightful Select that said Punk’s match
with KENTA had been scrapped. This was reportedly because “KENTA expressed to NJPW and AEW
that he isn’t facing CM Punk”, and as of this past weekend, AEW were questioning
whether Punk would even be wrestling at Forbidden Door at all.
This also reportedly led to some major changes on Dynamite, as there were reportedly “big
AEW programming plans” for KENTA to set up that match with Punk.
On the subject of Punk finally returning to AEW, sorry for what happened to you Brian
Children, Dave Meltzer had some insight to share when he appeared on the POST x Wrestlenomics
Podcast, where he said: “...one of the top guys was just like, ‘We
were told that we would not have to deal with Punk except for on pay-per-views, but here
he is week one…There’s a lot of divisiveness…It’s worse now than it’s been.”
CM Punk’s presence being controversial? In other news, water is still wet. But it
did do well for the ratings for Collision’s debut episode, as it drew an average of 816,000
viewers, almost the same as the same week’s Dynamite episode which drew an average of
832,000 viewers. But there’s not been just one big match
that’s been scrapped in AEW lately, as there’s another one that was rejected after it was
pitched. Chris Jericho revealed on Talk Is Jericho, that for the Dynamite taping IN WINNIPEG,
you know the one, he had pitched to Tony Khan that he should face Kenny Omega in singles
action. Because they were both born IN WINNIPEG. What ended up happening was a Trios Trios
match of The Elite vs JAS vs House of Black, and this was seemingly the reason the pitch
was rejected as Khan’s response was “No singles match, ‘Kenny is in a trio.’ What
are you talking about? This is Kenny Omega.” Sheamus Frustrated With WWE Again
Over in WWE, there’s also unrest a-brewing, because there’s one Irish man who’s been
a bit more vocal lately about his frustration with the company. Sheamus has recently said
how he would be incredibly frustrated if WWE left him off the Money in the Bank show, with
it being in London and all, and the UK scene was how he made his name etc.
He’s now mentioned when speaking with Metro that he feels frustrated with WWE’s usage
of the Brawling Brutes, specifically saying: “I just don’t think they’ve really capitalized
on the group, I don’t think they’ve really let us show what we can do.” He went on
to say that the group has been very stop/start, and they haven’t had the opportunities to
do some good character work and storylines that other groups have.
There’s a lot more news today including stuff like Mercedes Moné being lined up for
a role in a Marvel project, Shad & Tony Khan potentially being interested in buying Bellator,
and more, so check out wrestletalk.com for the latest.
And now, as Oli is off on holiday, I think recovering from the trauma of having to fire
Brian Children, over to Tempest for his review of Dynamite.
We light the fuse and bring the boom with our opening match as we got the Hardys taking
on the Gunns. This was a pretty standard tag match with loads of cheating from the Gunns,
putting their partner’s foot on the ropes, holding their arm so they would get hit with
a Twist of Fate, and finally taking a distraction from Bullet Club Gold and hitting 310 to Uma
for the win. The Gunns beating the Hardys that’s heat with me Tony.
After the match BCG all continued the beatdown until the odds were gradually evened with
Ricky Starks, FTR and CM Punk coming to make the save. I never thought I would see the
day that CM Punk would come to the aid of Jeff Hardy. They were never on screen together
but its all I could think about. They set up an 8 man tag match for Collision and went
on their way.
We then made history with AEW’s first ever Concession Stand brawl as Mark Briscoe pinned
Jeff Jarrett. They started out by a Chicago hot dog stand and if its not Hot Dougs I don’t
want it! They got ketchup and mustard sprayed on them as Karen Jarrett interfered, Sonjay
Dutt pushed Mark off a ladder through a table as the members of Jarrett’s crew one by
one came out to overwhelm poor Mark. They made their way through the crowd and Jay Lethal
joined the fight, before they got to the ring, where all the best concession stand brawls
take place, and Mark finally got some back up as Papa Briscoe chokeslammed Lethal through
the ringside table. Papa briscoe ran wild which is my new favourite combination of four
words, until Karen gave him a low blow. Satnam Singh sauntered down to the ring and finally
the ROH contingent of Best Friends, Christopher Daniels and the Lucha Bros took out Singh
and superkicked Jarrett to Mark could roll him up for the pin. This was incredibly goofy
fun but I think I am ready for this Briscoe/Jarrett feud to be done now which means it still has
another 6 weeks in it.
The BCC challenged The Elite to a 5 on 5 match at Forbidden Door. SHOCK. The numbers. Oh
my god. And Bryan Danielson called Kazuchika Okada a coward and an amateur. That’s pretty
much what I call Pete anytime he can’t give me assistance with a list I’m stuck on.
Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara and Minoru Suzuki beat Action Andretti, Darius Martin and AR
Fox in the best match of the night. Just a crazy fun trios match with three young guys
that can fly and three crazy good workers. The craziest thing is, even in a match this
filled with action, as in things happening not as in Andretti, the moments that got the
biggest reactions were Minoru Suzuki hitting the Sex Gods pose with Jericho and Suzuki
staring down Darius Martin after breaking up a sleeper hold. Suzuki commanded respect
from this Chicago crowd. Jericho won with the Liontamer and afterwards said Sting was
a selfish whore who only went to the highest bidder and challenged Sting, Darby and a partner
to a trios match at Forbidden Door. Sting ans Darby came out and accepted the challenge
but said we would find out their partner on Collision. It didn’t seem like they were
setting up for Shingo to be their partner but who could it be? My money is on Tetsuya
Naito.
The Elite accept the BCC’s challenge for Forbidden Door but point out Kenny’s match
with Will Ospreay and bring in Eddie Kingston who says he hates The Elite but he hates Claudio
more and has his own partner in mind.
Tony Schiavone and former QuizzleMania Tag Team Champion RJ City drew the first two names
in the Blind Deadly Draw tournament but didn’t reveal them, well, not until the next segment.
Adam Cole prepared a story for storytime and welcomed MJF down to the ring as MJF said
he wouldn’t accept a rematch out of concern for Cole’s health and for the fact that
he had Cole beat last week. Cole threatened to beat MJF’s ass right now and Schiavone
stood up and MJF and Cole told him to shut up before Tony Schiavony revealed that the
first two partners in the tournament will be Adam Cole and MJF. They took this really
really really really well. Sorry don’t have time to correct myself. Hiroshi Tanahashi
then appeared on the screen saying he would show MJF the strength of New Japan and Cole
asked if he thinks Tanahashi is better than him and MJF accepted the match. Cole wishes
MJF luck and I am really really into this angle. Usually the can they coexist shtick
is wildly overplayed in wrestling these days but this has much more in common with the
Angle & Benoit team from 2002 that ruled than say Sasha and Bianca in 2021. This angle is
hot, the people are into it, and it is very exciting to see someone meet MJF at his level
on the mic like Cole can after the Four Pillars feud. Also Tanahashi yay.
They announced the entire bracket for the Owen Hart Cup, including CM Punk’s match
at Forbidden Door which will be against Satoshi Kojima who is great but talk about an inauspicious
way to announce a CM Punk match for Forbidden Door.
We then got Orange Cassidy and Katsuyori Shibata taking on Zack Sabre Jr and Daniel Garcia.
Seeing Shibata and ZSJ wrestling in a Dynamite ring just warms my cold shriveled heart. This
was another very good very fun match that ended in catastrophe as Orange missed an Orange
Punch and accidentally hit Shibata allowing Garcia to get the pin. Then it was confirmed
that we would be getting a four-way match for the International title at Forbidden Door
between these four men as everyone held onto the title until Orange ripped it away. I would
have rather seen a singles match between Sabre and Cassidy personally but this just seems
to be the Forbidden Door way of doing things. You can almost guarantee that Daniel Garcia
is taking the pin in that match and you can guarantee that it will be fantastic.
Will Ospreay is backstage and he is greeted by Don Callis who says the people in Toronto
are horrible and now Don you have gone too far! He gives Ospreay access to his security
so there can be a fair fight.
They officially announce Toni Storm vs. NJPW Women’s World Champion Willow Nightengale
for the AEW Women’s title at Forbidden Door and then we got Taya Valkyrie vs. Kris Statlander
for the TBS Championship.
It is so refreshing to have a back and forth, competitive match for the TBS Championship
like this. I’m a big fan of Jade Cargill but I don’t think it is unfair to say that
people had gotten tired of her title run and this is such a breath of fresh air. Taya hit
the Wing Clipper and the sliding german suplex but none of it could put KrisStat down as
Kris finally hit the Big Bang Theory for the win. I think AEW fans see enough of the Big
Bang Theory thank you very much.
Then the main event segment came together as Eddie Kingston came out and said he hates
Claudio Castagnoli. Jon Moxley came out alone and said that Eddie teaming up with the Young
Bucks draws a line and Eddie says Moxley drew the line when he aligned himself with Claudio.
They get heated and Eddie revealed the fifth member of their team is Tomohiro Ishii. Ishii
came out and the BCC brawled with Eddie and Ishii until Bryan got on the mic and said
if Okada didn’t face him he’ll kick Ishii’s face in. Sure enough Okada’s music hit and
he came face to face with Danielson for the first time ever. Wheeler Yuta ruined the moment,
attacking Okada from behind, but Danielson accidentally hit Wheeler with the knee and
Okada hit the rainmaker to end the show.
So overall a very good episode of Dynamite with a lot of great stuff on it, some fun
reveals, a few great matches, I probably would have preferred a few more singles matches
for Forbidden Door but I’m getting the main event of the year on this one so I can’t
complain. This episode of Dynamite gets a ⅘ or, wait a minute, I’m Oli, this Dynamite
gets an 80%!
And that just about wraps things up from me make sure that you check out the newest episode
of No Holds Board over on partsFUNknown where we play Wits & Wagers but all about wrestling!
Here’s a clip of that now!