Welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I’m Pete Quinnell.
If you’d have watched NXT this week or seen yesterday’s WrestleTalk News episode, you’ll
know that this week’s episode went off the air with a pretty crazy angle - where Bron
Breakker I think murdered Von Wagner.
As he went to crush his head with the stairs, the camera cut to black, leading to a worked
shoot kind of angle.
But as it turns out, the worked part of that might have been a little less work than they
were hoping for.
Sources reportedly told Bodyslam.net that while the cut to black injury angle was always
the plan on NXT, Breakker actually made more contact with Wagner’s head than originally
intended.
Wagner was busted open, and there were those backstage who were reportedly “exceptionally
worried” about him.
However the site could not confirm what his status is, or whether the injury is more severe
than being cut open or not.
Needless to say, if something did go wrong and Wagner was injured from this spot, then
we’d like to wish him well in his recovery.
Meanwhile in WWE, it’s almost time for their Superstar Spectacle show in India, which seems
to be a big part of the reason why John Cena’s back on our screens for a while.
While they clearly had some big plans for the show featuring some top names, there’s
one that’ll be missing out.
Becky Lynch posted on X that she wouldn’t be able to perform at the show anymore, because
“there was a tiny tear” in her passport, so she wasn’t able to board her flight,
with her tagging Qatar Airlines.
While to some this could have come across as a worked reason to cover up something else
happening, Haus of Wrestling confirmed with a WWE rep that this is actually what happened,
and Lynch was unable to board her flight to India.
It’s been a couple of minutes in this news video today, and we haven’t mentioned CM
Punk yet.
Should probably change that.
On AEW Collision last week, Tony Khan announced on the show that CM Punk had been fired.
The news of course had broken on social media prior to the show, but a confirmation of it
came on Collision.
It seems there might have been a few people hoping to see old Pepsi Phil show up on the
show though, as according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, 89,000 people turned off
the show after TK’s announcement to open the broadcast.
Which meant the viewership dropped from 472,000 to 383,000 - which is not a good rating for
Collision at all.
There were of course some other factors at play here, including WWE’s Payback, and
college football, but still, not a good rating.
It’ll be curious to see how Dynamite and Collision fare going forward, if we can see
empirical evidence as to how much of a draw CM Punk is, or whether AEW in the eyes of
the larger audience are going to be just fine without him.
Now it’s time for my review of the first post-CM Punk AEW Dynamite since his firing…
it’s not like he was ever really on it recently though… in about 5 minutes.
All Out closed on Orange Cassidy receiving a standing ovation for the end of his epic
International Championship reign.
So fittingly, he opened this episode of Dynamite - just like he’s done with great matches
for so many weeks this year - with an in-ring promo.
The medical team told him to stay home.
He said nah.
Championship or no championship, he’ll be here every week, because he’s Freshly Squeezed
Orange Cassidy, and he does not have a catchphrase.
That’s it.
With wrestling shows every week having 20 minute long in-ring promo segments, this was
just another example of Cassidy standing out because he goes against the grain.
But it’s also far more in line with best practice for character exposition: show, don’t
tell.
And from just a few lines, you get that Cassidy is laid back, sure, but he’s driven by an
internal duty, a work ethic, that challenges anyone else in the company.
Awesomely, Jon Moxley, the man who beat him several days prior for his title, made his
entrance as Cassidy was leaving up the ramp.
AEW had a great dual shot to show Cassidy just standing there on the ramp, listening
to Mox’s music - letting you project whatever emotions you’re feeling on OC’s deadpan
Buster Keaton face.
Mox was out for a quick title defence against AR Fox.
I thought Mox might squash him, given his new title win and Fox’s reported backstage
heat, but they went back and forth for over five minutes.
Darby Allin helped Fox in the ring following his defeat, but that left someone with a sadly
passed father all alone backstage!
Christian Cage offered to mentor Nick Wayne backstage, which both played into Christian’s
feud with Darby over Luchasaurus’ TNT title, but also the Grand Slam tournament main event,
where Darby was taking on Wayne to advance - sowing potential seeds of dissent.
And that was the real crowning achievement of this whole episode: it felt like an actual
coherent TV show, with characters and segments and stories all overlapping seamlessly.
I guess it might’ve been hard to do that before, when you had to split the roster because
of personnel issues.
But now those are gone, everything sang from the same hymn sheet beautifully.
Emi Sakura answered Kris Statlander’s open TBS title challenge.
There was no Freddie Mercury babyface gimmick here, though, with Stat beating Sakura in
a hard-hitting match.
In what might’ve been match of the night, Le Sex Gods beat Aussie Open.
Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara were super over as a babyface act, the crowd going mad
for their double delayed suplex.
It’s like Jericho saw Better Than You BayBay and thought, I’m gonna do that too.
Unfortunately they weren’t able to coexist.
Jericho accidentally hit Sammy twice, so even when Chris got the win off a Judas Effect
- following a series of great near falls - Guevara stormed off through the crowd.
Great match, but I’m still not into the Jericho/Sammy stuff.
Don Callis was on commentary, so perhaps Guevara might eventually join him.
Aussie Open, by the way, were awesome.
Speaking of Don, he and Takeshita will reveal who their next target is next week.
Ricky Starks got an incredibly fiery promo on Bryan Danielson, saying he never tapped
out.
And then came one of two promo segments of the night!
Samoa Joe interrupted MJF in the ring to go back and forth on the mic.
They started with hurtful ribbing - Max making fun of Joe’s weight and penis size, Joe
calling Max a bitch and… also making fun of his penis size.
But the exchange kept coming back to Joe’s provoking question: What’s the problem,
kid?
It finally broke Max into telling the story about when he was a kid, 19 years old to be
precise, where he got a tryout at WWE.
Cue William Regal and NXT namedrops.
And how he got the opportunity to accompany Joe down to the ring, but Joe shoved him into
a wall.
Joe promised to win the Grand Slam tournament - giving us at least two legit potential winners,
with both him and Roderick Strong currently in MJF feuds - and then attacked Max anyway.
He was about to hit the Muscle Buster on Max’s injured neck, but Adam Cole made the save.
Everyone’s performances in this were on point.
Joe as the bully heel (OOOOH MAXWELL!), Cole’s concern with the doctors, and Max’s insecurity
potentially getting the better of him again, while selling his neck so much - he was even
doing it on the corner promo graphics!
AEW weaved the other part of this tapestry in right away, with Roddy coming down for
his tournament match - where his entrance music now seems to be him screaming into the
microphone ‘ADAAAAAAAM’.
He confronted Cole on the ramp, asking why he wasn’t as concerned about his neck injury.
Probably because you’re massively exaggerating it, Rod.
Strong removed his neck brace, wrestled a great TV match beating Trent Berreta, and
then put his neck brace back on at the end.
This was complimented by a somehow heelish video package earlier, where Strong described
his very difficult family upbringing, while the Empire sycophantically sat behind him.
Toni Storm told Renee Paquette she couldn’t remember interfering in Ruby Soho’s All
Out match.
I wish I could forget that finish too.
She then debuted AEW’s next big catchphrase, which is going to confuse a lot of non-wrestling
fans when guys start wearing them on t-shirts: Chin up, tits out, and watch for the shoe.
Hangman Page was discussing American education system funding to Tony Schiavone - I love
that’s a babyface thing you can do on a wrestling show - when he was interrupted by
a brilliant promo from Swerve Strickland.
Swerve was utterly compelling here, a broken man after spending two weeks in a coffin following
All In.
But it’s only made him more dangerous, more vicious.
And while he was in that coffin, he’s been thinking about how Page has been given everything
by this company - but now he’s doing charity work?
He’s barely wrestled singles matches, he hasn’t had new merch for a year, he’s
coasting and letting the Elite do the driving.
If Swerve had had the same opportunities, he’d be the first black AEW World Champion
by now.
So he wants Hangman’s spot.
Brian Cage then jumped Page, to set up the third of their trilogy of matches next week
- where they were also the final two in the All Out battle royal.
AEW’s booking feels very satisfyingly intricate and neat all of a sudden.
The main event saw Darby vs Wayne, which had had multiple segments earlier on laying the
storyline foundations.
Darby is Wayne’s mentor, and both were conflicted about hurting each other, while also both
wanting to advance in the tournament.
Wayne was concerned when Darby Bullet Dived his face into the barricade.
Allin couldn’t bring himself to hit a Coffin Drop.
Darby got on the mic at one point to fire Wayne up, telling him to hit him like he wanted
to win this thing.
Ultimately, the veteran unlocked the darker side of himself to advance, kneeing Wayne
in the head until he submitted.
Allin will face Roddy next week, setting up injured neck vs injured back, all while Christian
lurked on commentary.
This was an incredibly solid episode, laying the foundations for the next three weeks in
a way I haven’t felt in a long time.
This week’s Dynamite is… 84%.
There’s just…
there’s something missing though.
Not from AEW.
From me…
I need…
I need to find him again…
I just don’t know who I am without him… watch yesterday’s News video to find out
about a WWE return of…
I can’t even say it!