In this WrestleTalk News, AEW stars are pissed backstage, an upcoming clash between AEW and
WWE, Chris Jericho implying WWE want him back and more.
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The wrestling world in 2022 has somehow on-upped the insanity of the previous few years.
We’re already several pages into stuff you never thought would happen, like Cody Rhodes
jumping ship to WWE, Vince McMahon being forced to retire, or Elias having an identical twin
brother.
But even with the Vince news, which really is the biggest story ever in wrestling, I
can’t say I’m surprised about that one.
I even predicted it in our 2022 predictions show this year.
Here’s a clip to show you all how amazing my brain is.
My next tip, my cousin’s new Web3 crypto project Murphplahcoin, which is generates
value from the people you get to invest.
It’s your classic triangle structure.
Invest now, it’s a sure thing!
But what has caught my Nostradamus level foresight by surprise is how dramatically AEW and WWE’s
roles have reversed.
At the start of the year, AEW was the cool promotion, putting on a far superior product,
with talent trying to actively get out of contracts to join them.
WWE, meanwhile, was arguably as bad as ever.
But really, the mounting issues were there to see.
A head booker overstretched by launching a second weekly show, that second weekly show
steadily becoming a clearly missable B-show, and a sudden influx of talent, creating a
bloated roster.
My heart and love blinded me to those concerns.
And now following Cody Rhodes’ departure, a very public spat with MJF, and reports of
major heat issues between the promotion’s top stars like CM Punk and Hangman Page, there’s
yet another claim of unrest behind-the-scenes.
Wrestling legend Konnan has occasionally featured on AEW programming, mostly reuniting his LAX
stable from TNA with Santana and Ortiz.
He was the first one to really confirm speculation that Santana was unhappy with his position
in the company earlier this year, following Santana tweeting his contract expiration date.
And now talking on his Keepin It 100 podcast, he’s shared how the AEW locker room has
turned.
“I remember one day, and I won’t even say who the wrestler was, a very good friend
of mine, I was backstage in AEW.
This was probably a year ago and there were a lot of WWE guys coming in, a lot of new
people coming in, and it was the first time the originals were being shoved to the side.
Because you can imagine how people like Sonny Kiss and Joey Janela and all these other guys
that were there at the beginning and you don’t really see much of them anymore are feeling
when all these other people are coming in.
But that was going to happen.
When you get bigger fish, you’re going to use them.
He asked me, ‘Is this what WCW was like?’
I go, ‘This is exactly how WCW started to get’, and he was like, ‘Oh ***’.”
That would’ve likely been around All Out this time last year, with several months that
saw CM Punk, Ruby Soho, Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson join.
Before them, Andrade, Malakai Black and 2point0 had joined, and shortly after saw Bobby Fish,
Kyle O’Reilly and Jay Lethal continue to swell the midcard.
Konnan then talked about what happened the most recent time he visited AEW.
“Then the last time I was there, bro, you have no idea how many people came up to me
and they were pissed about the booking.
They weren’t happy how they were being used.
They were very, very vocal about it.”
Then in catering, someone Konnan refers to as “our boy” stood up in front of everyone
and said: “Thank God Konnan is here.
Maybe they’ll use somebody that knows how to book logically.”
Konnan said he hated that, because he didn’t want it to seem like he was angling for a
creative role in the promotion, but confirmed “yeah, people are starting to talk.”
Do you think AEW’s roster has become too big to handle?
Let me know in the comments down below.
Fighting within your own promotion isn’t Tony Khan’s only significant problem.
As he has a refreshed and motivated opponent in Triple H, likely still smarting from when
Dynamite defeated NXT in the Wednesday Night Wars.
And now because of some chance scheduling, the two shows will have the first rematch
of the new era very soon.
Due to the upcoming Major League Baseball playoffs and the American League Championship
- the usual wrestling TV schedule is expected to be pre-empted across the board in mid-October.
Dave Meltzer reports that perhaps two SmackDowns during the World Series will be moved to FS1,
and Dynamite will likely be shifted on Wednesday 26th to a prerecorded slot on Thursday night.
But the real interesting scheduling clash will be the week before, where AEW Dynamite
is expected to be moved off its regular Wednesday night timeslot on October 17th… to the day
before, Tuesday 16th - the same night as NXT, marking the first time the two shows have
gone head-to-head in over a year.
There’s nothing to suggest that Triple H’s era will be any less competitive than Vince
McMahon’s, with NXT Worlds Collide already being scheduled for the same day as All Out
at the start of September - with that show being loaded up with an NXT and NXT UK title
unification fight between Bron Breakker and Tyler Bate, announced on last night’s episode.
With the closure - sorry, I mean, definite rebranding of NXT UK to NXT Europe.
A project that’s even more than a sure thing than Murphplahcoin, following WWE releasing
the vast majority of its European talent.
Worlds Collide is expected to have a number of title unifications, with UK Women’s Champion
Meiko Satomura also turning up on last night’s NXT in a segment with Mandy Rose and Blair
Davenport.
It’s Triple H seemingly trying to move his baby on from its weird multi-colour 2.0 year,
while, at the same time, he makes the main roster NXT from four years ago.
Johnny Gargano’s unannounced WWE return on Monday’s episode of Raw appears to have
made an actual tangible difference in the all important numbers.
The show itself pulled in a fantastic rating of a smidgen over 2 million viewers, slightly
up from last week’s 1.98 million - likely down to the several week build for Edge vs
Damien Priest, and the announcement of Trish Stratus making a cameo appearance.
You’d hope for a similar ratings boost next week with Kurt Angle announced for his hometown
of Pittsburgh, along with it being the go-home show for Clash at the Castle.
But what was even more interesting was Brandon Thruston’s deep dive into each segment’s
individual performance.
“The quarter-hour with Johnny Gargano's return to WWE (10:15pm) slightly grew the
P18-49 audience in a quarter that usually loses.
10pm (usually the lowest hour) averaged 0.55 in P18-49, which is higher than 8pm's 0.53.”
Meaning, at least in week one, Gargano did provably move the needle, even if it was only
slightly.
The most viewed clip of his return on WWE’s official YouTube channel pulled in 642,000
views, which makes it the second most-watched clip behind Beth Phoenix defending Edge at
1.1 million.
As Pete covered in yesterday’s news, only a handful of individuals knew about Gargano’s
return ahead of time, which is why it was such a well-kept secret.
PWInsider has now added that Gargano has officially been added to the internal Raw roster as a
babyface, obviously, and that he was flown into Toronto on the corporate jet so he wouldn’t
be spotted by fans.
He was then hidden from everyone all day, and not mentioned on any run sheets, so most
didn’t knew he was in the arena until he was literally in gorilla position.
In a post-show WWE Digital Exclusive, Gargano himself said:
“To stand there and watch my name come up on the tron and see people go nuts, I’m
like man, it’s really a relief.
I feel like a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders now because people remember who
I am, and now it’s time to get to work.”
It also being a relief, because he’s allowed to use his actual name.
Back in April, it was reported that Vince McMahon didn’t want wrestlers using their
real names, or names they’d used prior to signing with WWE.
That’s why the main roster Wikipedia page partied like it’s 2008’s crap developmental
period all over again, with Pete Dunne becoming Butch and Raquel Gonzalez becoming Raquel
Rodriguez.
But Johnny most definitely came out as Johnny Gargano, yet another sign that Vince McMahon
and his peculiar quirks really are gone.
Hopefully now Doudrop can change her name too, to literally anything else.
Finally, with all these new debuts and call ups, you’d think maybe WWE doesn’t actually
need the Draft that had been reported for after Clash at the Castle.
And turns out, WWE seem to agree.
Fightful Select report that a post-Clash Draft “doesn’t seem to be anywhere near a slam
dunk anymore” [QUOTE] noting that Raw stars booked for that week’s episode of SmackDown
have now been unbooked.
Sources at the USA Network have also told WWE talent the draft isn’t happening in
the immediate future - with no date listed in its internal calendar - and following next
year’s WrestleMania is “much likelier.”
And who better to bring back then than hot young star Chris Jericho?
Jericho replied to a fan on Twitter saying he agreed that WWE squandered his and Kevin
Owens’ match potential at WrestleMania 33.
This prompted someone to fantasy book a Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and Chris Jericho faction
in WWE - to which Jericho himself replied: “Hmmm…well Some higher ups want that to
happen sooner than later!
#tampering” Implying WWE has sent out feelers about wanting
him to return to the promotion.
This follows a Fightful report last week that “a notable AEW talent” was contacted by
WWE.
This talent referred the call to their representation, as they are very happy working at AEW.
Jericho first signed with AEW in January 2019.
He told Alex McCarthy back in June that he has a year and a half left, meaning it expires
at the end of 2023 - where “we’ll have some negotiations to discuss and that’s
how it goes.”
He’ll be 53 years old at that point.
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