In this WrestleTalk News, heat on an AEW star, Johnny Gargano debuting for AEW, WWE’s new
hiring strategy and more. Give us a subscribe and enable notifications
to always on for daily wrestling videos. And a big thank you to Lords for sponsoring this
episode, who I’ll have more on after our top stories…
…top stories which include one of the hottest topics of wrestling conversation this year:
where’s Veer Mahaan? Veer Mahaan was first announced to be coming
to Raw on the 26th October, 2021. It is now 59 days later on Christmas Eve, and there
is still no sign of him. Help us Santa, Veer Mahaan is all I want for Chris-actually that’s
not even remotely true. Because I want this Swole Pikachu more than anything.
Proving T-Bar is better than Santa, though, the former RETRIBUTION member has revealed
Veer is already here: “Don’t worry everyone, I found VEER MAHAAN.
He may be on his way to @WWE RAW, but he’s battling me on #WWEMainEvent right now on
@hulu!” Veer has actually had three matches air on
Main Event since Raw started teasing his coming. I know what will get him on TV - start an
inappropriate social media feud! Jonathan Gresham is one of the best technical
wrestlers in the world right now. He’s so good, Ring of Honor booked him to win their
vacant World Title at the hopefully not final Final Battle show two weeks ago - where it
looks like he’ll defend the belt in various promotions during ROH’s hiatus until April,
like IMPACT Wrestling announcing one against Chris Sabin at Hard to Kill next month.
As anyone who’s girlfriend suggests having a break will tell you - but how long for,
Megan, I need to know when the end date is?! - any kind of hiatus can make you worry about
your future. So AEW star Anthony Ogogo - the former boxer turned wrestler who briefly feuding
with Cody Rhodes for Double or Nothing - decided to make a joke at Gresham’s expense, tweeting
after Final Battle: “Super cute that @TheJonGresham was the
last ever ROH champ, kinda reminds me when Hornswoggle was the last ever cruiserweight
champ. Congrats kiddo.” Ogogo and Gresham, for reference, are the
same age. With Gresham not really a user of social media,
his IMPACT Wrestling powerhouse wife Jordynne Grace fired back, as one of her favourite
hobbies appears to be shaming trolls online - like this recent Instagram post of her calling
out a foot fetish guy. I apologised for that Jordynne. I just love
feet! Ogogo said he had no idea who she was, while
Grace claimed he very much did, saying he was disappointed when he heard she was married,
and that she banned him on her OnlyFans - although that part could’ve been a joke.
Ogogo continued to mock the couple, making fun of both the ROH World Title, Gresham’s
height and wearing braces for his teeth. Wow, those braces actually might be a bit too mu-nope,
wait, it’s his Cthulhu mask. Unfortunately, this was not just pro wrestlers
bantering online. Grace deactivated her Twitter, and Gresham posted:
“No it's not an angle. It is not a gimmick. We are not working on this together. It is
simply someone going into business for themselves. And legit taking shots at myself and my wife
online. But please continue to support that kind of behavior as its seems to entertain
you.” Sean Ross Sapp on Fightful Select has now
reported Ogogo’s comments “weren’t looked upon favourably” in the AEW locker room.
While they believe he was just trying to set up a storyline, “by the time Gresham made
it clear it wasn't a work, Ogogo was too far in to take his foot off the gas pedal.”
Gresham is said to be very well respected in the industry, and many believe he “should
have been given a heads up if he was going to be involved in someone else's work”.
Thankfully, the heat apparently isn’t substantial, and the belief is that it can be fixed.
Before we get on with the rest of the episode, I’d just like to say a huge thank you to
this episode’s sponsor… Lords Mobile - a game for your PC or mobile
that combines real time war strategy with role playing and world building where you’ve
got to select the right heroes, equipment and familiars - the game’s name for MONSTER
COMPANIONS (I choose you, Bron Breakker) to head up the most strategically adept troop
formation. That’s the bit I found myself enjoying the
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front line, and stacking up the long range units in the back.
To then watch them smash into each other… and lose. God dammit.
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Please do at least click on the link in the video description below to check Lords Mobile
out, as not only is it loads of fun, it really helps support us here at WrestleTalk. Lord
that Lord. AEW had a monster August and September, with
the high profile debuts of CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Ruby Roho. Dynamite was consistently
above 1 million viewers per episode, and they even beat certain demographics of Raw that
same week. But then Dynamite was bumped to Saturdays
for a month, and then TNT decided it should be live in all timezones, significantly affecting
viewership as it would start at 5pm on the West Coast, rather than in a prime time slot.
As a result, AEW’s momentum was hit, and their ratings have slumped since.
But Santa came early for Tony KHAAAAAAAAAAAN - who loves numbers so much, this Christmas
he’s asked for Excel spreadsheets - as Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite broke 1 million viewers
for the first time since the 6th October, and almost tied Monday’s episode of Raw
for the all-important 18-49 demographic, with .37 to Raw’s .38.
Arguably more impressively, this number is up 32% in overall viewership from the same
time last year. Khan celebrated, tweeting:
“Thank you everyone who watched #AEWDynamite Holiday Bash last night! It was our highest
viewership since the October time-shift & a BIG win for our whole company + the @AEW fans!
Dynamite (+21% 18-49, +8% overall) & #AEWRampage (+29% 18-49, +14% overall) both way up thanks
to YOU” WWE’s ratings this week, meanwhile, are
the usual near record lows that happen so often, it doesn’t really feel like news
anymore. Raw pulled in 1.55 million, its fourth lowest audience in history, and NXT 2.0 slightly
increased to 591,000. Which is a good sign, right? Wrong, because as I’m going to tell
everyone I’ve had to get presents for this year, it’s about quality, not quantity.
And the Swole Pikachu I’ve gotten every single person is hand painted.
While NXT’s overall number increased, the key 18-49 audience fell so significantly,
it meant the age of the average viewer was 64 years old. Glad to see that hot, edgy product
with the booooooobs is pulling in the youth audience.
To put that age in perspective, 64 years old would give you 2.7 Bron Brekkers. That one’s
for you, Tony, numbers joke. But AEW doesn’t just have the younger, more
advertising friendly viewers. Very soon, he might have a Johnny Gargano too.
Gargano’s NXT contract expired on the 10th December, meaning as of right now, he can
show up for any wrestling promotion he likes. But given how sweetly NXT sent him off, getting
to cut a goodbye promo and then being embraced by Tommaso Ciampa and Shawn Michaels when
the show went off-air, there’s a chance he could just return to the promotion next
year. His pregnant wife Candice LeRae is still under contract there, and he was reportedly
offered a good deal, acting as a coach for the new NXT 2.0 direction.
But speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer believes he’s bound for AEW
- specifically the 22nd January episode of Dynamite, which is in his hometown of Cleveland.
While Meltzer said he doesn’t know 100%, he knows Gargano is “heavily considering”
becoming All Elite. In addition to comments he’s made publicly on his Twitch channel,
like Kenny Omega being his dream opponent, Meltzer points to what he’s heard him say
privately too. Maybe he can be the latest person trying to
win Adam Cole. Wednesday’s Dynamite saw the AEW debut of
another former NXT star who let their contract expire, Kyle O’Reilly, reforming the original
Undisputed Era line-up alongside Adam Cole and Bobby Fish.
But this caused a bit of tension with his SuperKliq buddies the Young Bucks, who have
now updated their bio to read: “Ain’t no side chick”.
And the best way to show your ex that you’re fine now, you’re having fun, everything’s
definitely ok with me this Christmas Megan - you post a hot pic with your boys. Or, in
this case, your boy, singular, with the Bucks tweeting a photo of them with Brandon Walker
- on which Cole has commented: “Lookin’ great fellas! Merry Christmas
and hope to talk soon!” For those who don’t speak Megan, I mean,
for those who don’t speak fake, this translates to ‘I no longer care for you, I’ve moved
on, I will never make an effort to see you.’ As anyone with half a brain can tell you,
Johnny Gargano, Kyle O’Reilly and ADAM COLE BAB-BAY have no charisma whatsoever. WWE is
better off without them. In an effort to recruit the charismatic stars
of tomorrow, WWE have turned their scouting sights to collegiate sports, announcing 15
college athletes signing onto their Next In Line, or NIL, program. So it’s the NIL Charisma
strategy. WWE appear to be somewhere Moneyballing this
approach, however, with Dave Meltzer reporting several in the Next in Line class were signed
because of their large social media followings. Basketball players the Cavinder sisters, for
instance, have almost 700,000 followers on Instagram between them.
It’s a smart strategy. Charisma is an elusive attribute that’s hard to put down on paper.
It’s called ‘Having It’ because people can’t actually define what ‘It’ is.
By focusing on young athletes who have already proven to connect with audiences on social
media, that could be a clearer indication than the old school gut feeling.
Interestingly, the Moneyball approach in wrestling is more typically associated with Tony Khan,
who obsesses over TV viewership figures. His job at the Jacksonville Jaguars is Senior
Vice President of Football Technology and Analytics, and he also owns TruMedia Networks,
which specialises in sports analytics. But when it comes to signing talent, Khan
appears to prefer a more gut-based instinct, bringing in wrestlers based on their ability
rather than whether they’ve moved numbers elsewhere.
WWE these last two years could be seen to have made the opposite approach to talent,
cutting scores of wrestlers for how it affects their bottom line.
What do you think is a better way to run a wrestling promotion - with your gut, or based
on the numbers? Let me know in the comments down below because I’ll be replying to people
FROM OUTTA NOWHERE saying I genuinely don’t know I think probably a mix of the two is
best. And that does it for me for the year! Don’t
worry, we’ll still have the WrestleTalk News every day apart from Christmas Day - where
you can head over to our WrestleTalk Podcast channel for our very drunk Christmas special
- but I won’t be hosting again until my review of Day One.
I’ll still be on pre-recorded WrestleTalk Podcast episodes and there’s also me vs
Adam Blampied in Fantasy Booking Warfare: Twice in a Lifetime next Thursday, so go over
and subscribe to partsFUNknown for that, loads of lists and the best of QuizzleMania 2021,
but for now, thank you to anyone who gave our channels a subscribe this year, our videos
a thumbs up or a comment, who tuned into a livestream and sent in an Ultra Chat, who
made a donation that helped us raise over £50,000 for charity, who became a Pledgehammer
on Patreon, who downloaded a podcast, who read an article on our website, and who bought
a t-shirt or magazine from our shop. You all make this the best job in the world,
which has let me assemble the nicest group of people I’ve ever worked with and Pete.
Happy Holidays, I hope you all get the Swole Pikachu you deserve.