Chris Jericho has had a very interesting relationship with WWE over the last several years.
Up until 2017, he was considered a WWE lifer, a wrestler who would return to the promotion
every few years after various stints being a TV presenter, or Dancing with the Stars
competitor, or rock band front man, or author, or cruise line operator, or kind of actor?
Even after he returned to New Japan for his industry-changing WrestleKingdom 12 match
with Kenny Omega, Jericho still maintained in interviews that he wouldn’t wrestle for
another promotion on North American soil.
He has tremendous respect for Vince McMahon, and the United States is WWE’s home turf.
Not even a year later, Jericho was the biggest roster announcement for definitely US-based
All Elite Wrestling.
Since becoming its inaugural champion, Jericho has become not just one of AEW’s top stars
and ratings draws, but also one of the leading voices poking the WWE bear - like how he congratulated
Sasha Banks last month, while simultaneously pointing out AEW beat them in the “all important
p18-49 demo (which is what advertisers care about the most) 367k to 264k!” ratings
And now, following Rey Mysterio challenging Seth Rollins to an Eye vs Eye match at the
Horror Show at Extreme Rules at aol.com, Jericho has tweeted that WWE stole that idea from
him and AEW: “Eye for an eye match?
You’re welcome....
#AEWDynamite 2/12/20” - with a graphic of the Jon Moxley vs Santana Solid Snake cosplay
match.
And his increasingly shade-throwing happy boss Tony KHAAAAAAN joined in, replying with
the Spider-Man gif of Normon Osbourne saying “you know, I’m something of a scientist
myself.”
At least WWE has somewhat tried to alter the stipulation - with WWE.com now explaining
how the match actually works: where “a winner can only be determined by extracting the opponent’s
eye.”
While this all seems in good fun, the AEW vs WWE feud has intensified in recent weeks
- especially following MJF being the first person from either promotion to now acknowledge
they are really in a ratings war.
This comes to a head tonight with Fyter Fest Night Two vs Great American Bash Night Two.
But Triple H is still arguing NXT’s two week TV special event - which was so hastily
thrown together you can still see the old WWE logo underneath the NXT one slapped on
top - that just so happens to run across the exact same two weeks as AEW’s long planned
Fyter Fest, is purely coincidental - as he explained to Sports Illustrated.
“Almost all of these [NXT] storylines were headed where they are now.
There was a gap, timing wise, between In Your House and what will become the SummerSlam
TakeOver, and you need a halfway point and a build.
This is that halfway point.
So it doesn’t change our decision-making process.
I don’t counter-book, I book what’s right for NXT.”
And it seems that booking what’s right for NXT just kind of seems to mirror exactly what
AEW are doing, just a few hours later - as was seen last night with Tony Khan’s announcement,
that in lieu of Brian Cage fighting Moxley for the AEW Championship, his manager Taz
will instead make “an announcement that [Tony Khan] guarantees will send shockwaves
through the world of professional wrestling!”
Shockwaves…
I mean I know Cody loves WCW, but surely not- Which NXT had a definitely not counter-booking
response to just over an hour later...
On top of the huge Keith Lee vs Adam Cole WINNER TAKES IT ALLLLL main event, Robert
Stone teased a new signing on Twitter shortly after Khan’s own announcement:
“My secretary Harriet just sent the paperwork over for my HUGE new signing I’ll be revealing
tomorrow on @WWENXT baby.
Can ya feel it???
The #RobertStoneBrand is on the rise.
I know it.
@WWE_Aliyah knows it.
The @USA_Network knows it.”
Shockwave-inducing announcement vs huge new signing announcement.
Who wins?
Easy answer: Evil Uno - who has tweeted the next stage in cinematic wrestling:
“There are enough cars in @AEWrestling canon to make a Wacky Races game.
Evil Uno wants an AEW Wacky Races game.”
But Jericho and Khan aren’t the only two AEW personnel who’ve been throwing shade
at the E, Co-Executive Vice President Kenny Omega has also criticised the backstage atmosphere
in the company.
An old story about top New Japan star Kota Ibushi started doing the rounds again on Twitter
yesterday after being shared by Sir Lariato, which described how Ibushi conducted himself
backstage in WWE when he was wrestling in the Cruiserweight Classic:
“the former NJPW star apparently went backstage sometime during the show.
When Ibushi first went back there, he gave a 'high-five' to a 'big man'.
Out of all the people in the building, that 'big man' turned out to be Vince McMahon,
owner of WWE.
Ibushi had no idea who he was, which made the staff 'really upset'."”
Dave Meltzer reposted the tweet, confirming the “story is true by the way” - which
prompted Ibushi’s best friend and Golden Lover Kenny Omega himself to reply:
“Hard to believe, but yeah, some of the most talented wrestlers in the world aren’t
constantly walking on eggshells and scared s****** of their boss.”
It didn’t stop WWE offering Ibushi a contract soon after, which he turned down - forcing
the company to rebook the winner of the tournament.
But while management might’ve been shocked at Ibushi’s behaviour, McMahon is reportedly
‘high’ on one new main roster star…
‘High’, because it’s Matt Riddle.
Who appears to be perpetually Robert Stoned.
Last Friday’s episode of SmackDown opened with Riddle explaining why he wrestles barefoot
- not because of his MMA past, but because he got frostbite on his foot as a kid, and
he still can’t wear boots because it hurts.
Which kind of sounds like a really lame superhero origin story.
WrestlingNews.co is reporting that Vince “loved the story so much” when he heard it backstage,
he booked it as the opening segment on SmackDown.
And that “Riddle is allowed to give more input for his promos than most” - which
is quite something when you consider how he’s only just debuted on the main roster last
month, and before that, it was rumoured he had various degrees of backstage heat with
McMahon and Brock Lesnar for calling The Beast Incarnate and Goldberg out so much on Twitter.
As suspected, I think reports of Riddle having ‘heat’ in the past are actually planted
stories by Paul Heyman as a way to build future matches off.
WrestlingNews.co also points out McMahon has had his eye on Riddle, along with Keith Lee,
since last November’s NXT invasion storyline, where he even specifically compared him to
a “young Shawn Michales” with “that rebel mentality.”
Apparently since moving to the main roster, Riddle has been great to work with and there’s
been no issues of backstage heat.
Perhaps he’ll soon win one of the many new title designs WWE are apparently set to debut
soon…
After a new United States Championship was unveiled this week on Raw - which finally
cleared up the confusion over who actually is the champion, by just writing CHAMPION
in big letters across the front - BeltFanDan on Twitter claims WWE have more new designs
they’re yet to use.
BeltFanDan actually revealed the new US title design all the way back in December, implying
he knows his belts, and he’s teased there are also new designs for the SmackDown Tag
Team Championships potentially incoming, along with a new, larger version of the NXT Championship
- which could come following the Winner Takes It Allll match between Lee and Cole tonight.
Something else that’s yet to be decided on is Kairi Sane’s future with WWE.
After it was reported last week she would be moving back to Japan to be with her husband
following her contract shortly expiring, Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT now claims that is “far
from set in stone”, with the company “intent on taking care of Sane” as her last concussion
from Nia Jax on Raw has left her “shaken”.
WWE will apparently “offer her better money than she could get anywhere else in an attempt
to keep her involved with the company, and it’s believed she could be swayed.”
Whether that will involve a more backstage role as an ambassador for the potential NXT
Japan, or continuing to wrestle, is unknown.
WWE will now have to run those kinds of big money past their new CFO, with former Etsy
CEO Kristina Salen being announced for the job yesterday.
Salen took Etsy from $895 million in gross sales to $3 billion in 4 years, and she’ll
be replacing Frank Riddick, who was the interim CFO after Michelle Wilson and George Barrios
were released from WWE at the beginning of this year.
Or in lockdown time, seventeen thousand centuries ago.
This makes her one of the most powerful people behind-the-scenes in the company.
But she’ll enter a wrestling business not just with competition against AEW, but also
a new fledgling promotion TV show, talk show kind of thing…
I’ve got no idea what Talk N’ Shop A-Mania is, but I’m excited - as SportsKeeda is
reporting the Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson project will debut on August 1st with the
recently released from WWE, and recently JACKED, Heath Slater.
Gallows & Anderson have signed lucrative deals with Impact Wrestling, that will also allow
them to wrestle for New Japan.
Considering that Slater will be on their inaugural Talk N’Shop AMania show - which Pro Wrestling
Sheet claims is also part of their deal with IMPACT - that’s the biggest tease yet that
Slater will also be turning up on July 18th’s Slammiversary.
Gallows himself has teased his IMPACT move on Twitter, posting a photo of him wearing
the promotion’s merch while looking also JACKED!
Because some people use their time in lockdown to work out and get in shape… not just play
Super Mario Odyssey and eat carrot cake.
But I did finally beat the Darker Side challenge last night, to who’s winning really?
And finally, Roman Reigns has tweeted: he “might be the most important Royal Rumble
competitor of all time.
Before you start complaining, just think about the last 5 years....”
What do you think about Roman’s claim?
Let me know in the comments down below because I’ll be replying OOOOOH AHHHH FROM OUTTA
NOWHERE!
Several top WWE stars have given Vince McMahon an ultimatum!
Click the video on the right to find out what happened.
And should WWE bring Heath Slater back?
Click the video beneath that to watch me and Luke review this week’s Raw.
If you like what we’re doing, you can follow us on Twitter @WrestleTalk_TV and me @OliDavis.
That was wrestling.