In this WrestleTalk News, an AEW star leaving for WWE?
Heat with NXT and the USA Network, my review of Raw and more!
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Ringside News reported last week that Max Caster had been suspended from AEW for two
months to undergo sensitivity training without pay, following a controversial rap from the
100th episode of AEW Dark on the 3rd August - which included making fun of Simone Biles’
mental health, a sexual assault case from the mid-00s, the accuracy of Covid tests and
Julia Hart’s lady parts.
That last bit rhymed.
Maybe I, as a white guy, really should embrace my true calling of becoming a rapper.
Meanwhile, Fightful said they hadn’t heard about a suspension, but did note Caster’s
AEW appearances were “on ice” ice, baby, for now.
Voices of Wrestling, however, called Ringside News’ report “total fiction”.
But during all this, Caster was pulled from an indie appearance, edited out the following
week’s episode of Dark and has removed any references to AEW from his Twitter.
And now he’s gone even further - posting an eBay listing for his AEW ring gear, with
the description: “Need some extra $ this month and I don’t think I’ll be needing
this stuff anymore…
Get it off my hands!”
Caster has also now unfollowed a large number of AEW wrestlers, and then liked numerous
WWE and NXT tweets.
Additionally, his Acclaimed tag team partner Anthony Bowens debuted a new theme song on
AEW Dark: Elevation last night - hinting he has been split from Caster.
Caster has since deleted the ebay post and is still on the AEW roster page, though, meaning
this could be trolling.
But if it is, poking fun of the company likely sending you on sensitivity training doesn’t
give off the best reforming image.
What do you think is going on with Max Caster?
Let me know in the comments because I’ll be replying to people for the first thirty
minutes after this video goes live FROM OUTTA NOWHERE.
Following NXT being sent back to developmental, with Vince McMahon and WWE officials overhauling
the third brand to refocus on young, big guys who can one day main event WrestleMania, the
format change will reportedly include going back to the pretaped episodes before the moved
to the USA Network in 2019.
Which, unsurprisingly, the USA Network aren’t that happy with.
Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Podcast is reporting that a network source told him “A taped
show is not what we paid for”.
He then clarified that this is not confirmation that NXT will return to a pre-taped format,
but that USA probably wouldn’t be too happy if they did.
However, PWInsider is reporting that following TakeOver 36 this Sunday, NXT will be pre-taping
3 weeks of NXT shows, and will then return to a live format on September 14.
No ex-WWE stars have teased going to AEW for like three days.
I’m bored.
Yay, Kurt Angle to AEW confirmed!
Kurt tweeted a picture of him and AEW’s TNT champion Miro saying: “If I didn't already
have a room full of world titles and championships...I'd take that one too.
SMIRKING FACE EMOJI!
IT’S…DAMN….TRUE” Angle recently said he’d return to wrestling
if he was paid $10million and it was against Kenny Omega.
So you’re telling me there’s a chance.
Also CM Punk posted some numbers on his Instagram story which might be the years of the summers
of Punk in 05, 11, and 21.
CM Punk to-HOLD THE FIST, Davis.
Not until it’s official.
And now it’s time for my review of last night’s Raw, in about 5 minutes.
The
show opened on Randy Orton’s facial hair confirming that, actually, no he doesn’t
like Matt Riddle.
That RKO at the end of last week’s episode was for realsies, and we’re back where we
started.
WWE knows soap operas are meant to progress each week and now reset right?
Riddle’s music perfectly interrupted Randy saying R...K…
Bro to keep trying to be friends, which eventually turned into AJ Styles vs Riddle via the same
promos we had last week, where Orton left his bro, not bro all alone, so Riddle lost
in five minutes because Omos was being too tall at ringside.
Didn’t interfere or anything or get physical.
Riddle just lost because Omos’ height has its own gravitational pull.
As we know, height is an important thing in WWE.
There’s a pecking order.
So a special mention to backstage interviewer Kevin Patrick’s crab walk into shot to talk
to Riddle after the match to ensure he’s not taller than him.
Excuse me, Riddle!
Riddle seemingly left the arena, heartbroken by Randy not helping him.
And Kevin Patrick walked off to interview someone else.
After last week’s double DQ, we got Rhea Ripley vs Almost a Superhero Nikki Almost
A Superhero again, but this time with AAA’s Charlotte Flair on commentary.
And to really build up Nikki, Ripley beat her clean in five minutes, barely an inconvenience.
Nikki and Ripley beat up Flair afterwards, which didn’t really mean anything, because
Charlotte pinned Ripley easily, barely an inconvenience, in a few minutes in a tag match
later on.
Raw’s women’s division is one of the worst things in the company right now, and it’s
painfully obvious they never had a single idea for Nikki once she won the title.
Kevin Patrick spoke to MVP backstage.
Excuse me, MVP!
Drew McIntyre beat Veer and/or Shanky in a handicap match, barely an inconvenience, so
they’ll be barred from ringside in McInytre’s SummerSlam match against Jinder Mahal.
Got it, Great Khali’s returning again.
Drew cut a fun audience participation pantomime promo afterwards to cover for not one single
person buying this feud.
We then had the debut of John Morrison’s version of MizTV…
MoistTV.
Which, actually, wasn’t that bad.
There’s something incredibly likely about Morrison sometimes, and his performance here
was perfect: the hard done by stooge starting to realise that hey, maybe his heel friend
is using him.
Miz accidentally revealed to Damien Priest (because of course Damien Priest was somehow
in this segment) that he’d been medically cleared weeks ago, meaning Morrison had been
pushing him around for no reason.
Priest then squashed Miz with a Brogue Kick and shouted at Sheamus.
The Miz got Morrison back on his side afterwards backstage, where The New Day funnily tried
to promote their new shirt in the background, but I feel like Miz is going to fully turn
on John soon.
Mansoor pinned Mace thanks to Ali assisting from the outside in some pretty obvious interference
right in the referee’s eyeline.
Whatever fun innocence this storyline had has been pummeled into the ground.
Then came the big match of the night: Omos vs Randy Orton.
A very tall man who hasn’t taken a single bump vs the just returned legend.
I hope WWE have got a great finish planned to make sure neither guy’s momentum is undermin-
It was an AJ Styles punch on Orton for the DQ.
This would’ve been far more effective if Omos just entered beast mode and got himself
DQ’d for beating up Orton so much.
I know that’s no good either, but it’s far more interesting than AJ just decks Randy
in a match Randy is already being beaten in.
But RKBro is so over as an act, I feel like people aren’t realising how off the boil
their storyline has become.
The steadily told, well-paced, detail-oriented relationship from before Orton went on his
7 week hiatus has been replaced with a repetitive, contrived rush job.
Orton said Riddle has finally earned his respect, announced RKBro is back, and they’ll challenge
AJ and Omos for the tag titles at SummerSlam.
Karrion Kross tapped out Jeff Hardy in seconds after jumping him before their match.
This isn’t doing anything for anyone.
Eva Marie commanded DouDrop to steal Lily from Alexa Bliss backstage, but DouDrop got
too scared looking into its eyes.
Oh Lily, stop it you minx.
Eva had to slap her twice afterwards.
I guess DouDrop was hypnotised or something I don’t care.
Reggie had a pre-tape where he talked about learning to flip in this very park as a kid,
when he was jumped by R-Truth and Akira Tozawa in disguise.
Reggie flipped away all cockily and drove off.
I think he’d be a better character if he was nervous all the time.
We got another Elias promo, this time laying his own gravestone.
AJ Styles cut a promo on Riddle to Kevin Patrick.
Excuse me, AJ Styles!
And the main event, our big SummerSlam go home angle, was a face-to-face segment with
Bobby Lashley and Goldberg that we’ve seen already.
There was an interesting new wrinkle, though, Goldberg revealing his new gimmick: little
league coach to a bunch of misfit but ultimately charming kids trying to win regionals and
maybe, just maybe, learn a little bit about themselves along the way.
Lashley said the word ‘Almighty’.
Goldberg said the ‘bulls-word’, speared him, and then walked off with Sonberg in one
of the lamer go-home angles in recent memory.
What did you think of Raw?
Let me know in the comments.
63% of you went for RKBro-gether again.
Which certainly leans positive.
I’m not though.
I thought this was a rubbish episode.
Repetitive, uninspired, no decent matches you can sink your teeth into.
And with it being the go-home, it utterly failed to make me excited for Saturday.
This week’s Raw is 1 out of 5.