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DOUBLE OR NOTHING SOON!
Will you be getting All Elite Wrestling’s Double or Nothing on PPV on May 25th?
We’ve got a packed show of news for you today, including the latest on AEW’s US
TV deal, WWE cancelling a match featuring All Elite talent, and Lars Sullivan’s comments
on the scandal he’s found himself in.
But first.
BIG E IS BIG ON BECKY LYNCH’S MOTHER
Becky Lynch is currently embroiled in a feud with Lacey Evans over on Monday Night Raw
for the red version of her Women’s Championships.
And it would appear that Becky’s mum was at at a recent event, with The Man tweeting
a picture of her with her ma.
Lacey retweeted this photo saying that she wishes she could have met her, with pudding
and hat emojis, the most serious of all the emojis, but Becky responded by saying that
they have met and her ma wasn’t impressed.
So, you’d think that would be the end of this bit of the news - but it was not the
end for Big Horn-E.
Due to being out with an injury, which could take him out for a lot of 2019, Big E has
a lot of time and his hands, and he’s choosing to use that time by getting the Pot Noodle
Horn over Mama Lynch.
“Mama Lynch is hella foxy.”
"I would pay a small fortune for a photoshoot featuring Mama Lynch in a sundress."
"I would take my jacket off and toss it onto a puddle so Mama Lynch could walk across it…
Scratch that.
I would lay my whole body in the puddle so Mama Lynch could walk across me."
"I would learn to become a cycling class instructor & offer Mama Lynch free classes just in hopes
of seeing her post-workout glisten."
He even posted his own parody of the Wolverine meme, holding a picture of Mama Lynch while
wearing marigolds.
This isn’t the first time that Big E has horned over Mama Lynch, calling her a “full
meal” on a Mother’s Day photo that Lynch posted on Instagram, and The Man has responded
to all of this saying: “I’m just telling you I better not end up being Beck E Langston
out of all of this.”
WRESTLETALK LIVE IN LONDON
And speaking of big fans, we wanted to thank each and every one of you who came down for
WrestleTalk Live in London at the Prince Charles Cinema this past Tuesday.
We screened the cinematic classic Ready To Rumble, and then recorded a live podcast after
the movie discussing the wrestling career of David Arquette.
The podcast is available now for Patreon backers, and will go live in the free feed next week.
Here’s what you can expect from the show:
LARS SULLIVAN UPDATE
Speaking of awkward, and things are certainly tense around Lars Sullivan and WWE at the
moment, after a series of racist, homophobic and sexist comments Sullivan made on a bodybuilding
forum in 2008 have resurfaced.
Mama Lynch fan Big E has made reference to them, and now so has Kalisto has weight in
by tweeting: “He just needs to get out of my way.”
Sullivan is currently on WWE’s European tour, with WrestleVotes tweeting: “Source
states WWE is aware of what’s making the rounds online.
His exact words: ‘they are hoping it stays low and disappears’”, and Sullivan himself
has now released a statement to Wrestling Inc saying: “There is no excuse for the
inappropriate remarks that I made years ago.
They do not reflect my personal beliefs nor who I am today, and I apologize to anyone
I offended.”
So it would seem that Lars Sullivan will be sticking around in WWE, and someone else will
be too for the foreseeable future.
LATEST ON LUKE HARPER AND WWE
Shortly after this year’s WrestleMania, Luke Harper requested his release from WWE
via Twitter.
This request was sadly turned down, with Dave Meltzer reporting last week that there where
conversations about which brand he’ll be on in the somehow still on-going Superstar
Shake-Up, but that was shut down by Vince McMahon who said that Harper can’t do a
southern accent - something he’s held against Harper since his days in the Wyatt Family.
It was then reported that because of Harper’s injury last year, his contract that was set
to end in November 2019 was extended to April 2020.
Dave Meltzer has added to this story in the latest Wrestling Observer, writing that Harper
met with Vince McMahon to ask again about his release, but “McMahon told him to take
it up with [Triple H], who then didn’t respond to him.”
McMahon telling Harper to speak to Triple H about this situation is interesting.
Back in March, Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that Goldust would soon be a free agent, which
was later confirmed when he was announced as his brother Cody’s opponent for All Elite
Wrestling’s Double or Nothing later this month.
Why this is interesting is that it was reported that it was Triple H who convinced Vince McMahon
to release Goldust from his contract so he could leave for AEW.
As to why Triple H would convince McMahon to let one of their talents leave for the
competition is an intriguing one, and could possibly play into the theories that The Game
is playing some the game of backstage politics - including the recently reported like of
a tweet criticizing Vince McMahon’s booking of the company.
As for Luke Harper though, Dave Meltzer is reporting that “Harper has been given no
future bookings, but also won’t be let out of his contract.”
Which might still be better than what The Revival are doing on Raw.
RHYNO TALKS WWE OFFER
Someone who was able to get out of their WWE contract was former Smackdown Tag Team Champion
Rhyno, who was announced recently to be returning to independent scene when his contract expires
on July 17th.
In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Rhyno noted that WWE offered him double what he
was currently earning in order to stay with the company - which he turned down as he would
rather work on the indie scene and help younger guys grow.
This ties into previous reports that WWE were concerned about the rise of All Elite Wrestling
and their talent asking for their releases, both publicly like Luke Harper, and reportedly
behind closed doors like Sasha Banks.
AEW’s Jim Ross noted that he suggested bringing someone into All Elite Wrestling from WWE,
but was told they’d just signed a new half a million dollar a year contract despite the
company never putting them on TV.
The Revival reportedly recently turned down that same offer, and Lio Rush turned down
a similar offer according to PWInsider.
Rhyno adds in his interview that while he doesn’t know if WWE are concerned or scared
about the rise of competition in North America, he does say that companies like Impact, Ring
of Honor, New Japan and All Elite Wrestling are doing more and more shows in bigger and
bigger venues on what had previously been solely Vince McMahon’s soil for the last
twenty years, saying, “I think that's why they're offering a lot of money.”
JORDYNNE GRACE ON WOMEN’S WRESTLING
Someone who might not be looking to make the jump to AEW on the other hand is current PROGRESS
Women’s Champion Jordynne Grace, who recently retained her title at Super Strong Style 16
against Millie McKenzie, Nina Samuels and Session Moth.
WrestleTalk.com’s Louis Dangoor sat down with Grace over Super Strong Style 16 weekend,
where she had this to say about sticking with Impact Wrestling for the time being, saying
they’re the company that best uses their female talent.
That full interview is available now, along with interviews from
NXT UK’s Walter and Trent Seven, Mark and Vicky Haskins and AEW’s Jimmy Havoc and
Darby Allin in the WrestleRamble podcast feed.
And WWE’s concerns over AEW might again be coming to light, as they’ve pulled reportedly
pulled a women’s match in Japan.
WWE CANCEL WOMEN’S MATCH WITH AEW TALENT
All Elite Wrestling’s Bea Priestly recently captured the World of Stardom Championship,
and there were plans in place to build towards a championship match between Priestly and
NXT UK’s Toni Storm.
However, Stardom recently tweeted that “due to circumstances beyond our control”, the
match had been cancelled.
And I think we can all guess what those circumstances were.
Dave Meltzer confirmed on Wrestling Observer Radio that it was indeed WWE’s decision
to pull the plug on the match, as Bea Priestly would likely have to win and they didn’t
want their NXT UK Women’s Champion taking a loss against someone signed with All Elite
Wrestling.
Just remember that the next time someone from WWE tells you that wins and loses don’t
matter in modern wrestling.
Meltzer adds that WWE didn’t even offer Stardom the opportunity to change the finish
of the match - like changing it to a draw so that neither woman wins or loses - similar
to the finish of Will Ospreay vs. PAC at Revolution Pro Wrestling where both men were champions
in New Japan and Dragon Gate and they went to a time limit draw.
Instead they just demanded that the match be cancelled, with Stardom instead announcing
that Priestly will defend her title against Hazuki, while Storm will face former champion
Kagetsu.
This is another in a long line of examples of WWE pulling talent from shows due to All
Elite Wrestling - pulling Undertaker from Starrcast II and the speaking portion of his
speaking tour of the UK with Inside The Ropes [38], Kurt Angle from Starrcast and WrestleCade
and now putting the kibosh on an advertised match between Bea Priestly and Toni Storm.
And that’s to mention moving Money in the Bank to compete against Double or Nothing
the following week.
And that could be because All Elite Wrestling is about to announce their major TV deal in
the United States.
MAJOR UPDATE ON AEW’S TV DEAL
Since the company’s announcement in January, there has been a lot of talk about All Elite
Wrestling getting a TV deal in the US.
Both Jim Ross and Chris Jericho both teased a big announcement was coming soon, with many
speculating that AEW could end up on the former home of WCW Monday Nitro in the late 90s,
TNT.
Both The Wrap and the Wrestling Observer then reported that these rumours were indeed true,
with The Wrap first reporting that AEW’s TV deal could be announced at the media upfronts
on May 15th.
And that ‘could’ is no longer just a possibility according to a follow-up report from The Wrap,
who say that someone with close knowledge of the situation is saying the deal is “virtually
done” and will be announced at the media upfronts next week - ironically from WWE’s
spiritual home Madison Square Garden.
Cody, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Tony KHAAAAAAN [42-screen] will reportedly be in
attendance for the announcement, which will likely give us the juicy details on a launch
date, time slot and channel.
This comes off the back of AEW’s announcement this week that they have partnered with ITV
in the United Kingdom, where they will be showing Double or Nothing on ITV Box Office
as well as it’s pre-show Buy In on ITV4, with the Casino Battle Royal for a future
AEW Championship shot, and Kip Sabian vs. Sammy Guevara.
While this would understandably lead many to believe that AEW’s weekly TV show will
air on ITV4 when it launches, Dave Meltzer notes in the Observer that, “Right now such
a deal is not signed, but it is reasonable speculation.”
As of now, the reported start date is in October, and the possible airing days are Tuesday and
Wednesday at 8-10pm Eastern, with the show also airing live in the UK.
Thank you for watching, and a special thank you to our Pledge Hammers on Patreon!
You can watch Laurie Blake and I give our thoughts on the first trailer for IT Chapter
Two by watching the videos over there.
I’ve been Luke Owen, and that was wrestling.