Coming up in the WrestleTalk News, a top star leaving WWE, Roman Reigns turning babyface,
Tempest’s review of NXT In Your House and more.
Give us a subscribe for daily wrestling news!
But before we get onto any of those main stories - breaking news:
Seth Rollins just bought some lemonade.
Adam Ernst has shared a photo of his daughter’s lemonade stand on Facebook, which she’s
using to save up money for an iPhone, and noted WWE heel Seth Rollins showed up and
bought a glass!
Awww, you’re exposing the business, Seth Rollins.
This ain’t my first wrestling, Seth.
He totally put her through the tablet afterwards.
When life gives you lemons!
The remaining members of the Shield in WWE are currently heels.
But according to a new report, that won’t be the case for long.
Dave Meltzer has explained on the most recent Wrestling Observer Radio that both AEW and
WWE’s top heel champions in Kenny Omega and Roman Reigns are planned to follow the
same character arc trajectory.
Right now, they’re being presented as completely dominating bad guys at the top of the card.
But potentially as early as next year, both are expected to start transitioning into the
companies’ top babyfaces.
“Roman Reigns and Kenny Omega are essentially the same character in the sense that they
are heels who are being groomed to be the top babyface star down the line of the promotion.”
WrestlingNews.co have added to this with their report from last September, where they wrote
the long-term WWE plan was to turn Reigns into the top babyface in the company.
Similar to his previous babyface run, WWE plans to put heel Roman over pretty much everyone
“so he can be seen as someone who is on the same level as someone like John Cena,
Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, and Bruno Sammartino.”
And it looks like he’ll do that by beating one of them, John Cena, at this August’s
SummerSlam.
Unlike AEW’s booking of Omega, though, where he is often gotten the better of, and has
to use heel interference to retain, in an attempt to build those around him, WrestlingNews.co
reports “Vince McMahon doesn’t want to portray Roman as a cowardly heel who gets
his ass kicked 50 percent of the time.
He’s the guy who will carry the company for the next few years and Vince sees him
as his top priority.
Protect Roman at all costs.”
Which is likely why SmackDown has become such a repetitive show these last few months, with
Reigns beating down everyone, and turning the rest of the roster into his midcard.
Do you think Roman is being booked too strong?
And when do you think he should turn babyface?
Let me know in the comments down below because I’ll be replying to as many people as I
can for the first 30 minutes after this video goes live FROM OUTTA NOWHERE.
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 Raid: Shadow Legends - which you can download using my links below
now to your mobile phone or PC.
Raid is a dark fantasy RPG that lets you take on bosses, dungeon runs, campaign battles
and PvP Arena matches - all while tweaking your perfect band of champions.
In fact, Raid has so many unique champions, there’s enough for me to do a Top 5 Raid
Champions That Could Be Professional Wrestlers List.
Because that’s what wrestling YouTube does, right?
We make lists.
In at number 5, we’ve got the Banner Lord Valerie, who could be Becky Lynch because
she’s got ginger hair.
No. 4 has Cupidus as Angel Garza, because he’s all about the ladies.
He’s even got a little heart thing on his belt.
No. 3 is Sir Nicholas as the old version of former Raw tag team champion Nicholas, sent
back from the future to stop bad wrestling booking.
Number 2 has Cardiel as the Golden Lover Kota Ibushi, to end Kenny Omega’s belt collecting
reign of doom with a two winged angel.
Which is actually pretty cool.
And number 1 is Mordecai… as just Mordacai from WWE.
For me, it’s the amazing detail in these champions that really sets Raid apart from
everything else.
As a bit of a collector nerd, I just want to catch em all.
And there’s never been a better time to start playing, as Raid has a JAM-THAT-JAM-PACKED
schedule of events to kick off the Summer - with brand new champions coming out, who
all look absolutely badass, and a new rotation of the DOooooom Tower.
So if you want to get a huge headstart in the game, hit the link in the description
or scan my QR code and you’ll get the epic champion Chonoru (who is amazing in the Doom
Tower, 200k Silver, 1 xp boost, 1 energy refill and 1 Ancient Shard!
All this treasure will be waiting for new players here for the next 30 days.
Raid have been huge supporters of us for years, so please do at least click the link and check
them out.
Support WrestleTalk, and Raid that Raid.
Last night saw NXT TakeOver: In Your House.
Tempest will be reviewing the whole show very shortly, but there is one potentially major
news story coming out of the pay-per-view.
William Regal has teased stepping down as the NXT General Manager.
But who’s going to say War Games once a year now?
Following the chaotic main event for the NXT title, a teary-eyed Regal told McKenzie Mitchell
in his best Colonel Kurtz impression: “It's been seven years since I became the
GM of NXT and I've never seen so much bedlam.
It's complete madness.
I think it's time for a change.”
And, in case you missed that last line, the camera then panned back to Mitchell who echoed
‘time for a change’.
Time for a change Triple H and Shawn Michaels were asked about
the cliffhanger ending on the post-TakeOver media call, where Hunter said “He’ll be
a part of this until the day that he tells me he doesn’t want to be a part of it anymore,”
and, also, it’s all the fans fault.
But HBK added that might not be as an on-air character.
William Regal to AEW confirmed.
Regal has been the General Manager of NXT since July 2014, where he took over from JBL.
Yes, I forgot JBL was the GM of NXT too.
He’s been one of the best wrestling authority figures in recent times, showing that they
can still work in today’s age without having to be a heel with the last name McMahon.
Do you think it’s time for Regal to step away?
And what do you think this’ll mean for NXT without him?
Tell me it’s time for Shane McMahon’s NXT Underground in the comments!
One reason why WWE might be looking for a change is because, right now, they need a
bit of a shot in the arm.
And not just one with a vaccination in.
The promotion will start touring again in just over a month’s time, with the 16th
July episode of SmackDown in Houston, Texas - which has Edge advertised and a John Cena
return rumoured - ahead of that Sunday’s Money in the Bank.
But while WWE ticket sales started promising, with Money in the Bank set to sell out its
10,000 plus seats, later dates in their 25 city tour have stagnated.
While dates in Chicago, Pittsburgh and San Antonio are said to be selling very well,
many of the other shows have only sold under 2,000 tickets so far, with some markets being
described as “scary bad” for WWE.
So bad, that AEW is reportedly outselling WWE in terms of tickets sold per show.
Additionally, AEW’s ticket sales have returned to their pre-pandemic levels, while WWE’s
is significantly down.
In the first quarter of last year, WWE averaged 6,300 fans per show, and they’re currently
under half that.
WWE have ignored their steadily declining TV ratings for years, preferring to focus
on how many YouTube views they get.
But now live event sales, the historic lifeblood of pro wrestling, are also down so dramatically,
maybe this will finally be what forces them to book something other than Baron Corbin
vs Shinsuke Nakamura on SmackDown.
And at this rate, they won’t even have a Braun Strowman to get people to watch.
While the talent released by WWE at the start of June can’t legally talk to other companies
during their 90 day non-compete clause, Mark Henry has told TMZ Sports there is “interest
on both sides” for bringing Strowman into AEW.
Henry is said to be close with Braun, having helped mentor him as a big guy in WWE.
Until then, we’ll have to make do with Strowman’s squash matches of fans on Twitter.
Replying to a comment that Braun’s pecs were bigger than Raquel Gonzalez’, Strowman
said: “And her dicks bigger than yours pussy.”
The ‘fan’ then deleted their original message, but don’t worry - Braun had his
saved.
Tweeting out a screenshot with the caption: “Don’t come on my page trying to throw
shade then delete your post like a like baby back bitch!!!!
#BabyDickBoy” You know what, maybe I do want R Rated Braun
in AEW.
I don’t know if you’re aware, but football started last Friday.
Football!
I, of course, love the footy kick game as much as my fellow working class man.
So I have gifted you all with WrestleTournament!
Over the next week, we are running a WWE vs AEW tournament on the WrestleTalk community
tab called Forbidden Schmoor!
The 1st half of round one has seen you all vote for Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre advance
for WWE, and Jon Moxley and Miro for AEW.
Subscribe and enable notifications for the 2nd half of round one, which will see Edge
vs Big E and The Fiend vs Bobby Lashley for WWE, and Kenny Omega vs Cody Rhodes and MJF
vs Hangman Page for AEW.I’ll announce the quarter finals tomorrow!
But now it’s time for Tempest’s review of NXT TakeOver In Your House… in about
5 minutes.
I hate you Tempest!