Now before I start today’s episode of the WrestleTalk News, a lot of my Tout followers
have asked me to address what happened on last night’s QuizzleMania X-Seven.
Because there’s been some doubt over whether or not I was serious.
I can in fact confirm that yes indeed...
I did raise £5,723 for the mental health charity CALM.
Thank you everyone for your support!
There’s a few other insignificant bits that happened on the show too - like me not retaining
my QuizzleMania championship.
What the jam was that all about?
But I’ll get into all that unimportant ‘Luke Owen’ stuff at the end of the show.
Because as newsworthy as QuizzleMania X-Seven was, NXT had all the things happen.
And Triple H says they don’t counter-program.
By far the biggest news coming out of Wednesday’s NXT is that Karrion Kross - the man who beat
Keith Lee for the NXT Championship at Saturday’s TakeOver XXX - has had to relinquish the belt.
Kross sold an arm injury during the championship match on Saturday, which Triple H revealed
hours afterwards wasn’t a work - confirming on the post-TakeOver media call that Kross
had separated his shoulder.
Kross seemed optimistic about the injury to ESPN on Tuesday, saying he was feeling positive
after his MRI, hoping: “From my point of view, no [I won’t be out for a significant
period time].”
WWE doctors appear to think otherwise, though, as having Kross completely vacate the NXT
Championship implies his injury will put him on the shelf for at least several months.
Karrion’s title reign was just four days.
But WWE do some of their best booking when their backs are against the wall.
And whether it was the sudden loss of Kross, along with previous NXT champion Keith Lee
being called up to the main roster on Monday night, AEW Dynamite consistently beating them
head-to-head in the ratings this year, that the TV schedules are all over the place for
the next several weeks, or perhaps the start of a new creative reign, with former head
NXT writer Joe Belcastro leaving the company several weeks ago to be replaced by a booking
team of Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Road Dogg - hence forth known as the DXT Era - WWE’s
third brand last night over delivered on ‘stuff happening’.
With next week’s episode taking place on Super Tuesday instead of the usual Wednesday
because of the NHL Playoffs on the USA Network, William Regal announced a 60 minute Iron Men
match for the Vacant NXT Championship between Johnny Gargano, Finn Balor, Adam Cole and
the just returned Tomasso Ciampa.
And this isn’t your good guy Tommy from when we last saw Ciampa.
Tomasso returned at his demented best after being off TV for two months, himself losing
to Kross at TakeOver In Your House.
Ciampa squashed Jake Atlas on the show, and then carried on with a brutal beatdown around
the ring in his old Blackheart style.
It was previously thought Ciampa could be one of the members of Meh-Tribution, which
this new direction on NXT presumably rules him out of.
But Tommaso wasn’t the only noteworthy return… because a controversially missing Raw star
appears to have been drafted back to NXT. Austin Theory hasn’t been seen on Raw since
June 8th, being removed from TV around the same time as the Performance Center’s outbreak
of COVID-19.
It was thought he was missing because of virus-related reasons, but then Dave Meltzer revealed he
was actually off Raw because he was “suspended of sorts.”
Theory’s Monday Night Messiah leader Seth Rollins contradicted this, telling Sporting
News Austin was taking time off for “personal reasons”.
But then on Monday, Meltzer reported it was actually to do with SpeakingOut accusations:
“There’s an allegation against him and then he disappeared.
It’s not an injury or anything like that.
[WWE] may go and say he had a car accident… he’ll be back so I presume that it’s a
[Velveteen Dream] type of story.”
Which is seemingly exactly what happened.
Dream was also taken off TV around the same time as allegations against him resurfaced
on Twitter, and then he returned two weeks ago on NXT being put right into the North
American Championship picture.
Triple H said Dream was only missing from TV because he was rehabbing from a car accident
injury, and added that their investigations didn’t find anything anyway.
Several of his accusers, however, claim they were never contacted about this.
In Theory’s case, after also being missing from Raw for two months, it appears he’s
now been sent back to NXT - interrupting a Bronson Reed promo, who was arguing for a
North American title shot against Damian Priest.
Going by WWE.com though, Theory is still on the Raw roster - which he was called up to
as a replacement for Andrade shortly before WrestleMania.
He was quickly moved to Seth Rollins’ Monday Night Messiah faction.
Also on last night’s packed episode of NXT, Kyle O’Reilly teased a singles split with
the Undisputed Era, not wanting to join in on Bobby Fish and Roderick Strong’s beatdown
of ...Drake Maverick.
And we’ve got new NXT Tag Team Champions where Breezegano beat Imperium's Marcel Barthel
and Fabian Aichner.
MANDATORY TRIPLE H POINTING PICTURE.
It’s Tyler Breeze and Fandango’s first ever tag team titles in the company, but Tyler’s
UpUpDownDown nemesis Xavier Woods wasn’t best pleased:
“.... none of you are in the group chat.
None of you have any idea how unbearable my life is about to be.
You only see a small percentage.
No one knows my hell....”
Wade Barrett also made his return to WWE for the first time in four years, joining the
announcer’s desk while Mauro Ranallo is away.
He’ll also be there for Super Tuesday’s show.
And now here’s everything else going on in wrestling news!
PWInsider are reporting more updates in the ongoing trial of Sonya Deville after a man
broke into her home and was arrested on August 16.
The Hillsborough County Court has denied a motion from local Florida media that evidence
in the trial, including Instagram messages, video footage from that night, and photos
of her home, be released to the public, stating they wouldn’t release evidence prior to
a hearing.
The stalker, named Phillip Thomas, has been denied bail out of concern for Deville’s
safety, and the safety of her family members.
It’s also come out since the incident that Deville has received even more threatening
messages from other unknown individuals like “I'll finish the job that Phillip started”
and “My knife is sharper than Phillp's”.
Thomas remains incarcerated in the Hillsborough County Jail under the following charges: Aggravated
Stalking, Armed Burglary of a Dwelling, Armed Kidnapping for Ransom or Reward or Hostage,
and Criminal Mischief for less than $200.
In an interview with Gorilla Position and Alex McCarthy, Dominik Mysterio has revealed
the creative mind behind his SummerSlam match against Seth Rollins: backstage agent Jamie
Noble.
McCarthy tweeted: “Noble works with Rollins A LOT (did the Eye for an Eye match, too).
Given how great Rollins' stuff almost always is, says a lot about what a great mind Noble
has.”
J&J security for for for for for for life.
Showing what a wonderful place the Internet can be, WWE’s new Thunderdome concept went
from fans streaming their Pikachu cuddly toys to Chris Benoit images and footage of KKK
rallies in just three shows.
According to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live, WWE are swiftly putting in procedures
to stop this happening again - by putting fans “they can trust who have done this
before” without incident in the first few rows, while first-timers are going to be placed
in the upper bowl of the stands.
And finally today, new Universal Champion, though probably not for long, Bray Wyatt has
sent a message to the man who originally beat him for the belt, Goldberg, on Twitter.
“Dearest @Goldberg Don’t worry old friend we fixed it.
Don’t listen to what they say, you and I know they’re wrong.
I forgive you!
But please, if you see the red walk away from it.”
Considering Goldberg has revealed he still has four more matches on his WWE contract,
perhaps this could be teasing a future encounter between the two.
Where Bray Wyatt wins this time.
Hopefully.
So that’s it.
That’s today’s news.
Go and watch Louis Dangoor’s interview with Ric Flair that just went up yesterday.
Or our WrestleTalk Payback predictions by clicking the links in the video description
below.
I give you so much content, and content is good.
But if you want to stick around and hear little old me talk for a bit about the genuinely
very trivial events of last night’s trivia show QuizzleMania, be my guest.
It’s been a weird year, hasn’t it?
Generation-defining worldwide news stories, like Adam Blampied joining this channel back
in February, meaning I might not be the biggest name here anymore.
What a great addition he’s been to the team.
I knew what you wanted then.
The launch of partsFUNknown, where we’re making some of the best produced wrestling
videos on YouTube, led by El Fakidor Laurie Blake, who still hasn’t made my WrestleTalk
Underground idea.
I knew what you wanted then too.
And making Chopper dance for your enjoyment, to build his character, so when he finally
stood up to me and made me dance cosplay as AJ Lee in public... that was what you wanted
again.
And all that hard work, all that dedication and not sleeping and tearing up scripts last
minute paid off.
Not only did I defeat FTF from becoming this channel’s official slogan at SummerSlam’s
live reactions - Jam that Jam - I also won the QuizzleMania Championship at QuizzleMania
2000 all by myself.
That was what you wanted.
And you wanted me to stay champion.
But that rogue, that reprobate, that good-for-nothing bastard Luke Owen, who I called my best friend,
stopped that from happening.
He stopped you from getting what you want…
I’ve been thinking recently, about how much I’ve grown.
I’ve lost so much.
So much QuizzleManias.
And it got me to thinking about the greatest loss I’ve ever suffered, almost exactly
two years ago to when I speak these words now.
My sexy jacket.
Two years I’ve read your comments.
Bring back the jacket Oli.
You’re my favourite presenter, Oli.
Who threw the pie in Kevin Owens’ face, Oli?
And while I can’t bring back my sexy jacket, I lost that.
I can give you a different jacket.
A jacket you never even knew you wanted.
Last night’s QuizzleMania X-Seven started a new era of WrestleTalk.
An era without unprincipled people like Luke Owen, yes he really is fired.
It’s now the era of Mr Davis.
It’s said that when Alexander the Great saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for
there were no more worlds to conquer.
Don’t worry.
The only tears in my eyes are ones of joy.
To see the wrestling empire I alone have created.
WrestleTalk, partsFUNknown, WrestleTalk Interviews and WrestleTalk Clips.
Give them all a subscribe.
In fact, I’ll start with WrestleTalk Clips right now, let me enjoy what I said about
Raw again in an easily digestible clipped out upload… what’s this?
Why’s the banner changed?
Why’s it called WrestleLuke?
I fired you!
Don’t click this video on the right.
It seems like some kind of shoot video of Luke Owen’s.
This is against his contract.
Don’t go over to WrestleLuke.
This isn’t allowed.
It isn’t what you want.
You want me.
I’ve been Mr Davis.
And Jam that Jam.