Massive news: a huge WWE main eventer who rose to prominence from the years 2011 to
2012 has reportedly rejoined the company!
John Laurinaitis to WWE confirmed.
Laurinaitis was the husky voiced authority figure - back when we had authority figures
- who became an onscreen character when he was name dropped during CM Punk’s Pipebomb
promo as one of Vince McMahon’s “glad-handing, nonsensical, douchebag yes-men”.
This was a shoot, as at the time he was the real-life Head of Talent Relations in WWE
- the role responsible for coordinating with talent, signing them, and ultimately, letting
them go.
Laurinaitis was removed from that role following his on-screen firing in 2012, and transitioned
to being a road agent.
But the Wrestling Observer is reporting WWE have now rehired him back into the Head of
Talent Relations role.
This apparently hasn’t gone down well backstage, as Fightful Select is reporting several wrestlers
within WWE have expressed their concern about Laurinaitis’ “insistence on embracing
the "diva" style performers over in-ring acumen”, and “that line of thinking would be reflected
in his hiring method again”.
The report also went on to say that Laurinaitis will be taking over most of the duties from
Mark Carrano, who several wrestlers within WWE said was “easy to work with on the surface,
but was hard to trust”, and that following the mass releases in April last year, they
“eroded a lot of trust within the company, after several wrestlers were let go who were
made long-term promises, and Carrano was said to be a part of that.”
What do you think about the backstage shake-up in WWE?
Let me know in the comments because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA PEOPLE POWER!
Last night’s AEW Dynamite did a great job of kayfabe explaining the botched explosion
ending to Sunday’s Revolution, but Fightful Select is now reporting the specific real
reason behind what happened.
Speaking to backstage names in AEW, Sean Ross Sapp has confirmed Kenny was upset backstage
about the finish, adding the “third party rigging crew responsible [for the botched
explosion] brushed the situation off and were not very apologetic about the way that things
happened, leading to pretty significant heat on them”, with one wrestler joking that
“they wished the rigging crew would have got that kind of heat during the main event
segment instead, and they wouldn't be in this situation.”
Over on last night’s NXT, William Regal revealed his two big announcements were as
expected: there will be a two-night NXT TakeOver called TakeOver: Stand & Deliver which will
take place on April 7th & 8th ahead of WrestleMania that weekend.
And the GM also unveiled the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships which were gifted to
the Women’s Dusty Classic winning team Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez, who then lost them
to Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart later in the show.
And on an episode of The Bump yesterday, it was revealed that WWE are bringing back the
Hall of Fame this year after the 2020 version was scrapped, with the first inductee announced
as Molly Holly.
Check out WrestleTalk.com for all the other latest wrestling news, but for now, it’s
Thursday, you know what that means… it’s my review of AEW Dynamite in about 5 minutes.
Death Triangle began their tag title feud with the Young Bucks in a singles match with
Rey Fenix vs Matt Jackson - 15 months after Fenix had one of the best Dynamite matches
in its history against Nick Jackson.
This was nowhere near as crazy athletic as that match, with Matt grounding the action
in psychology more, working over Rey’s back.
But it wasn’t enough, because Fenix is actually made of Flubber from the 1997 Robin Williams
movie Flubber and Rey just bounced back up from a Superkick party and won with a piledriver
in a great final sequence.
And as if that feud isn’t enough, we got the plate spinning with SCU watching on from
the crowd, who will eventually get a championship shot where they have to break up if they lose.
Great stories for you, great stories for you, great stories for everyone.
Even stories that spectacularly fail.
One of the most anticipated parts of this Dynamite was how AEW would explain the botched
ending to Revolution.
The answer was actually quite simple.
Just let Eddie Kingston say some stuff.
That guy could convince Piers Morgan to like Megan Markle.
TOPICAL!
Sitting next to Moxley on a couch with a random open flame in front of them - which I genuinely
buy as just a feature of Eddie’s house - Kingston emotionally explained why he passed out.
That feeling, as he lay on top of his brother, reminded him of when he was waiting for trial.
He passed out then, too.
I’ve previously said I didn’t like that idea, because Eddie’s whole gimmick is that
it’s other people who have to make him pass out, but Kingston 100% sold me on this.
I think it’s also in large part because we all recognise it was a mistake.
This wasn’t something that was intentionally designed to be bad, so once the initial disappointment
passed, there’s been a lot of goodwill for wanting AEW to recover.
Which was perfectly followed up on by having the Super Elite use that goodwill to get heat.
The Invisible Handjob Don Callis neither confirmed nor denied they were behind the dud explosion,
but said it brought them joy to take away what the fans wanted, to take away Jon’s
grand exit, and to take away Kingston’s heroic redemption.
They then made fun of the angle, by having a fake timer countdown, and Callis dry hump
Kenny on the floor while Omega yelled ‘69 me Don!’
This started a brawl between the Super Elite and Kingston and Mox, setting up a tag match
against the Good Brothers next week, and because Kenny’s promo was actually an interruption
of Christian Cage’s Dynamite debut, out came AEW’s latest signing to chase of Omega
and hold the belt - hinting that’s Christian’s first feud.
Which I’m ok with.
I thought I’d be down on the idea of ex-WWE veteran goes for the top title right away,
but if it’s in the confines of a six man feud, teaming with Mox and Kingston, this
could be really great.
Cody Rhodes made enhancement talent Seth Gargis tap in the Figure 4 in barely a minute, and
then set up a match with Pentagon for next week - who interrupted the post-match interview
from the Spanish announcer’s table.
Wait a god damn second.
How has no-one gone through that table yet?
The Best Friends challenged Miro and Kip Sabian to yet another match, this time with arcade
machines surrounding the ring, where if they lose, Chuckie would be Miro’s butler forever.
Sting cut a really cool promo shouting STING GETS A WIN!
Showing how fun he is when he doesn’t get interrupted all the t-
OH GOD DAMMIT STING INTERRUPTIONS.
Although it was Lance Archer and Jake the Snake, which sounds all kind of awesome.
Ethan Page beat Lee Johnson, furthering Johnson’s trainer QT Marshall’s heel turn, where he
walked out during Page’s post-match beatdown.
Page is fantastic, but he didn’t really get to show that full extent in his debut
here.
Hangman took all the Dark Order to get ice cream on the lawnmower he bought with his
Big Money winnings.
Apart from 5.
Because there’s a weight limit.
The six woman tag of Shida, Mizunami and Rosa vs Nyla Rose, Britt Baker and my pro wrestler
twin Maki Itoh - kawaii! - was exactly what AEW should be doing with their women’s division:
getting over personalities and action in multi person matches to build the serious blood
feud singles payoffs with actual storylines - like Rosa vs Baker in an unsanctioned match
for next week’s main event.
Baker won here, but was beaten down afterwards by the heels.
Matt Hardy recruited the Butcher, the Blade and the Bunny to his Big Money faction.
It’s a shame how they’re just tossed around as supporting players from storyline to storyline
with little regard of how awesome Butcher is.
Oh Butcher.
After going through the Sonic gold ring at Revolution, Scorpio Sky entered the TNT title
special zone to fight Darby Allin.
They had a really solid match, with some fantastic meta selling from Darby - where he made me
believe in an actual unplanned real injury, not just a pro wrestling spot, which is a
whole other layer of psychology - and two beautiful counters from Sky: a tope into a
cutter, and a Coffin Drop into a powerbomb.
Darby retained with a small package, though, prompting Sky to turn heel afterwards.
And the main event saw the Inner Circle War Council segment.
There were so many twists and turns.
Sammy Guevarra returned.
Hager, Santana and Ortiz turned on Jericho, but then turned back on MJF.
Jericho fired MJF from the Inner Circle, while MJF pleaded, saying he wasn’t trying to
take over the faction… because he was too busy building one of this own.
Wait, what?
In an incredible final twist, the lights cut out, and came back on with Wardlow standing
behind the Inner Circle with Tully Blanchard, FTR and Shawn Spears - the Six Horsemen.
They proceeded to totally annihilate the Inner Circle.
But…. but MJF, you sang and ate meat together?
Somehow in a group of heels, MJF still managed to turn heel.
And it’s all exactly what he said from the start.
MJF wanted to learn how to work in a faction.
So he used the Inner Circle to see how they function, and built his own.
Exactly like how he used Cody.
This was a masterpiece of booking.
For character, for drama, for future feuds.
For making Shawn Spears relevant again.
And for AEW’s repeated trick of zigging when you expect them to zag.
They led you so far down the path of a Four Horsemen over here and an MJF led Inner Circle
there, no-one ever put the two together.
This was a stunning reveal, and a great new series starter for the post-pay-per-view show.
What did you think of Dynamite?
Let me know in the comments, and vote in our Poll on a Pole in the community tab, where
69% of you - nice - agree with me that if Eddie Kingston told me the earth was flat,
I’d believe it.
The Flat Earth Community?
This was a tough episode to get right following Revolution, and they couldn’t have done
it better.
Fantastic angles, promos, wrestling, and MJF’s super faction.
Five out of five.
I’m serious.
I don’t care who has a go at me.
AEW is one of the best things in my life.
Subscribe to the WrestleTalk Podcast channel for mine and Luke’s full podcast review
today.
What are we talking Luke?
Click the video onscreen now to watch that!
And find out which WWE wrestler might be available to go to AEW very soon by clicking the video
below that.
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I’ve been Mr Davis, Kawaii that Kawaii.