Coming on today’s news, Roman Reigns takes some shots at CM Punk & Jon Moxley, WWE are
open to selling off the company, news from WWE tryouts in Las Vegas, and more.
I know Oli has been doing some sort of crab dance for subscribers lately - and if you
think I’m going to be doing the same you’re out of your mind.
In fact I’m going to- Happy CM Punkmas everybody!
Possibly one of the most eagerly anticipated shows of wrestling in forever takes place
tonight - I’m of course talking about the go-home show of SmackDown.
And also AEW Rampage.
But before we potentially maybe definitely see the return of CM Punk to wrestling for
the first time in seven years, Roman Reigns decided now would be a good time to take some
shots at him in an interview.
Ariel Helwani spoke with Roman on BT Sport’s YouTube channel, and during it he spoke on
CM Punk’s frustration with part-timers coming into WWE and taking main event spots, and
that being one of the primary reasons he left WWE in the first place, and how Roman then
felt about John Cena coming in to face him for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam.
To which Roman responded: “...man those statements are coming from
bitter people, who possibly thought they were better than they really were.
When it comes down to it, CM Punk was not as good or as over as a John Cena.
Wasn’t as good or as over and moved the needle like The Rock...I’m a full-time performer,
but I’ve done everything that needs to be done to stay in this position...to continue
to make the opportunity for myself, to be in a main event at SummerSlam against a John
Cena.”
Hmm.
Yes Roman, you have done everything that needs to be done to stay in the main event position.
This year.
How about all the other ones where you were gifted main events early in your career when
you weren’t ready for it?
Also, bit of a stretch to say he’s not as over as he thinks he is when Roman also hasn’t
moved the needle or been as over as Rock & Cena either.
And considering that Punk was still very over in a time when WWE had more than double the
average viewers they’re getting these days - I dunno if this was a smart move on Roman’s
part.
But it wasn’t just Punk Roman had some things to say about - as he also somehow managed
to take some shots at Jon Moxley too.
During his promo segment with Reigns on SmackDown, Cena mentioned that Roman had ‘run Dean
Ambrose out of WWE’, which...no, but sure whatever, and Roman spoke on it during the
same Ariel Helwani interview: “Dean [Moxley], obviously, is doing what
Dean is doing.
I think he's happy over there at AEW.
If he could have been the man here (in WWE), he would have been the man here, but he couldn't
be the man because I'm the man.”
Yes, he couldn’t be the man, despite being incredibly over, because there was a Roman-sized
wall in his way stopping from getting to the main event because it always had to be Roman
in the main events.
And also his terrible booking and comedy shenanigans he was always forced to do.
Also that.
Again, I dunno if this was the smartest thing to say Roman.
But it’s fine, I’m sure tonight people will be talking about what Roman did on SmackDown
and not anything else happening in the wrestling world.
Guys, it’s happening tonight.
Right?
Like, it’s gotta be.
Right?
God.
I can’t wait.
And adding more fuel to the CM Punk to AEW fire is AEW star Matt Hardy, and President
Tony Khan.
Hardy tweeted out a tag match from the WWECW days of Hardy & Punk vs Miz & Morrison - can
you imagine if Punk debuted to join Hardy’s faction, I don’t think people would be very
happy - and Tony Khan put out a very hype-inducing tweet that says:
“I’m betting that excitement from the most anticipated announcement in @AEW history
at #AEWRampage The First Dance will build up through All Out on PPV.
We’ll make new fans + we’ll welcome dormant wrestling households worldwide back into the
fold; a new era in #AEW begins tomorrow” CM Punk to-...CM-...I can’t.
I can’t say it.
Not til I see it happen.
Just a few more hours.
Hopefully Punk’s inevitable debut will get the eyes on the screens for AEW - as the viewership
for this week’s episode of Dynamite has been revealed, and for the second week in
a row, Dynamite came in at an average of just shy of 1 million viewers.
975,000 to be exact, which is a very slight drop of 4,000 viewers from last week.
This week saw Sting’s much anticipated first match on TNT in 20 years, and the fifth labour
of Jericho, but it wasn’t quite enough to get it over the 1 mil mark again.
But after CM Punk to A-...nope, don’t do it.
Don’t do it.
But now moving from one Khan to another, and WWE President Nick Khan recently spoke on
the likelihood of WWE selling off to another company in the near future, which was a speculated
reason why WWE had made so many drastic changes in the past year such as releasing over 100
wrestlers and countless more employees, and consolidating and streamlining departments.
Speaking to Recode Media, Khan said: “We're open for business on anything and
everything.
Even some of the business plans that we've announced recently are different and unique
to what the company has traditionally done.
We're open for business.
If somebody called, we'll listen, but we're not active or out on the marketplace trying
to change that structure.”
Which means they’re totally active and out on the marketplace trying to change that structure,
right?
Sorry I just automatically do not trust a single word this man says.
He also said in the same call that Vince McMahon could still be running the company in 50 years,
because he’s only 75.
You want him to be 125 and still running the company?
Jesus Christ.
Please no.
Do you think WWE are looking to sell?
Let me know in the comments because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE for
the first thirty minutes after this video goes live!
But the continuous cycle of talent being brought into WWE and then released must carry on - which
is why WWE held talent tryouts yesterday in Las Vegas ahead of SummerSlam weekend.
Our best friend and one half of Team DeNuke, Denise Salcedo, was present at the tryouts,
where after the conclusion, Triple H spoke to the media, where he revealed roughly how
many of them were signed during these tryouts.
“We had thirty eight talent here today, we had one drop out from yesterday to today.
We had an injury and then we had another, not dropout, but we cut training short today.
And I’d say somewhere, in the ballpark, of thirteen and sixteen I’d say.”
That’s actually an insanely high success rate for the tryouts at around a third or
more being signed, as Lance Storm accurately responded on Twitter with an exploding head
emoji.
But while they might have had success with the tryouts, their celebrity appearances lined
up for SummerSlam haven’t gone so well…
Months back, reports came out of WWE looking to try and secure an appearance from Cardi
B for the Biggest Party Of The Summer, however that seemingly fell through.
But it’s fine, after being pictured with Bianca Belair, how about Megan Thee Stallion?
According to Fightful Select, that has also fallen through, with a planned spot of the
the rapper joining forces with the SmackDown Women’s Champion.
According to the report, WWE were under the impression it was a “done deal”, but they
were told last weekend it was no longer happening.
They’ve also had similar luck trying to procure the services of Mike Tyson, who PWInsider
are reporting was planned to do some voiceover work for opening video package for the show,
however these plans never came to fruition either.
So this just means they won’t be having any celebrity appearances at all and will
make the show shorter...right?
A nice, short show.
Yep, cool.
Someone who most likely won’t be seen at SummerSlam is Scarlett, who hasn’t been
seen accompanying Karrion Kross lately on NXT, and obviously not on the main roster
where the act have already been separated.
This led to some “where’s Scarlett” chants from this week’s NXT episode, and
you may be thinking that NXT had made the decision to separate them to mirror what was
happening on the main roster, but apparently not.
According to PWInsider, Scarlett is not away for a creative reason, but because she needed
time off, and is currently not cleared.
The reason for this is as of yet unknown, so fingers crossed she’s ok.
Hey you - do you want to compete in predictions against all of us at WrestleTalk and all our
other Pledgehammers on Patreon?
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