In this WrestleTalk News, a Royal Rumble winner had been changed last minute, Vince McMahon
is sued…again, and Oli’s review of Dynamite.
Hulk Hogan started off this week’s special Raw 30 show with botching his lines and technical
difficulties, and it seems his week hasn’t gotten better since then.
For he has taken to Twitter in a now deleted tweet to say: “Help”, which at first is
legitimately concerning.
But he then immediately followed it up with: “I ran out of toilet paper brother,help!!!!!!!!”
Which I think might be his best tweet of all time.
Much love brother, HH.
We’ve all been there, hope you got it sorted and the Hulkamaniacs came to your aid.
Moving on though, it’s the Rumble this weekend, where the winners, particularly of the Men’s
Rumble, aren’t set in stone just yet in the eyes of the fans, and while we know of
last minute changes to booking plans was part and parcel of the Vince booking era, there’s
been another that’s just come to light about another Rumble.
Former WWE Writer Chris Dunn recently spoke on the Public Enemies Podcast, where he spoke
about Bianca Belair’s meteoric rise through WWE, specifically noting that her win in the
2021 Women’s Rumble wasn’t the plan until the night before.
Dunn mentioned that Vince’s original choice was, of course, Charlotte Flair, but was convinced
otherwise: “Charlotte was gonna go over, and they rehearsed
Charlotte going over.
Bianca was gonna get eliminated midway through the match, and it got changed to Bianca going
over…From my understanding, [fellow WWE Writer Ryan Ward] kind of said to Vince something
to the effect, ‘Vince, if you look at the Royal Rumble tomorrow, we have Edge winning
and Charlotte winning.
We’re not not making any new stars.’
I think that really resonates, and Bianca was on such a roll where it kind of made sense.”
I think it’s safe to say that Drew McIntyre’s win in 2020 and Bianca’s win in 2021 have
been two recent and huge catapults to help build those stars into mainstay main eventers,
and it seems strange to think of a world where Charlotte would have won back to back Rumbles
and Bianca wouldn’t be where she is today, namely set to defend her Raw Women’s Title
at the Rumble after holding onto the belt for nearly a year.
Thank god Vince was convinced then I guess.
Kinda crazy how elevating wrestlers makes them into stars.
Weird concept, they should try it more.
And on the subject of Vince, well, he’s been sued again.
There are two lawsuits currently ongoing against Vince McMahon from shareholders surrounding
the way he returned to the company, essentially strongarming his way in despite the Board
of Directors unanimously voting against his return.
However this new lawsuit deals with the behaviour that led to him leaving the company in the
first place.
Bloomberg is reporting on a third lawsuit, and while the details of the suit are not
publicly available as of yet, Bloomberg notes that the suit brings “broader claims directly
involving the sexual harassment accusations” and that the plaintiffs are “suing over
McMahon’s alleged history of paying to cover up sexual harassment accusations”.
With McMahon having recently settled the lawsuit from Rita Chatterton, and recent reports noting
that Vince is looking to clear up any ongoing legal action that might hinder a sale of WWE,
this very well may be the floodgates opening with multiple suits now in play given the
increased likelihood of Vince simply settling for a fee to end the legal process quickly
rather than having to go through the arduous process of court.
But of course, there will be a ton more news coming from this and all the news surrounding
the Rumble this weekend too, so subscribe here for daily wrestling news videos and enable
notifications too while you’re at it.
Now hot tag to Oli.
Now it’s time for my review of AEW Dynamite: The One Where TNT Found Its Heart… in about
5 minutes.
The show opened with Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevarra and Daniel Garcia still trying to
get over their new entrance where they rip their pants off to reveal more pants underneath.
Jericho tries a lot of gimmicks, and not all of it sticks.
He’s like Thomas Edison filing patents.
But he has to throw a lot of stuff at the wall to get the gold.
The list, the jacket, the scarf, a little bit of the bubbly.
With that said, I’m eager to see what he comes up with once he’s dropped the pants
spot.
Speaking of things I’m done with - declining momentum segway - Jericho and the JAS vs Ricky
Starks and Action Andretti feels like it’s lost its spark.
Entering 2023, Andretti had come off that massive upset win, Starks had gotten incredibly
over in his MJF promo, and then by beating Jericho.
And Jericho himself was fresh from arguably the best run of his whole career with his
ROH title run, and potentially about to go on a fun losing streak.
But in hindsight, that overlong promo segment from two weeks ago might have been one of
those moments where you just fall out of love with something, and you can’t get it back.
The action was good and fun, with Garcia interfering leading to Guvera pinning Andretti - crucially
meaning Jericho is still without a pinfall win - but like so many other JAS feuds from
last year, there was only really four weeks in this, but it could be stretched out for
3 to 4 months.
To show how emotionally disengaged I’d become from the story, this was when I started to
become obsessed with the hard cam’s positioning.
Compare this shot from two weeks ago in Danielson vs Takeshita.
The near top rope is aligned with the far middle rope.
In this week’s episode though, the near top rope is almost fully aligned with the
far bottom rope, creating a higher angle looking down.
Perhaps it was just the way the venue was set up, perhaps it’s the latest production
change.
Hmm, interesting.
AEW then played a beautiful, incredibly touching video package honouring the late Jay Brisco.
I have a lot of respect for WBD for changing their position and doing the right thing.
And I have even more for Tony Khan for fighting for the love of professional wrestling.
Darby Allin then took on Buddy Matthews for the TNT title, with very helpful context provided
by production - playing clips of Darby vs the House of Black from last summer, and Darby
wrestling at NOAH over the weekend for Great Muta’s retirement match.
It’s subtle stuff, but AEW’s presentation has improved significantly since last December.
Darby and Buddy wrestled a match full of other people’s finishers - including a Seth Rollins
tribute from his former disciple Buddy with a buckle bomb into a stomp.
NOW GOUGE OUT HIS EYE, BUDDY!
House of Black were stopped from interfering by an angry Ortiz, continuing their feud.
And Darby won with a Coffin Drop.
Afterwards, Samoa Joe interrupted Darby’s fourth successful title defence celebration,
challenging him to a No Holds Barred championship match next week.
Joe is going to kill Allin.
Darby’s… also going to kill Allin.
Adam Cole got an effective video package teasing his eventual in-ring return, looking at a
banner for Revolution - another smart piece of production formatting.
Ethan Page and Stokely Hathaway bickered with Isaiah Cassidy over who was the bigger star,
Page or Matt Hardy, ahead of their tag match against Hook Boy.
Stop trying to make The Firm happen.
The Firm have descended from serious main event faction to cheap heat comedy act almost
as fast as the Awesome Truth in 2011.
Hook Boy beat them relatively easily, with commentary getting over the idea Jungle Boy
and Hook are working together really well as a team - potentially fleshing out AEW’s
weakened tag division, with most of the major acts focusing on the trios titles.
The Family Therapy segment with The Acclaimed and the Ass Boys never reached the potential
it could’ve had.
There were a few good lines, like the Gunns saying all their personality faults are because
of Daddy Ass’ failings as a father - as he was on the road all the time when they
were kids.
But this was neither as funny or serious as they could’ve taken it.
Most odd of all, I found myself feeling sympathy for the Gunns.
And they’re assholes.
Hangman Page set up a rubber match against Jon Moxley next week, but not before Moxley’s
Blackpool Combat Club buddy Wheeler Yuta on Rampage.
The Blackpool Combat Club, you remember them?
Remember when they said they’re back and better than ever?
Yeah?
Yuta has Moxley’s back for life, along with the other members of… erm…
Moxley, Yuta.
Was Eddie Kingston in it?
No, he just teamed with them.
Claudio Castingoli!
He’s one.
Lord He Who Shall Not Be Named.
And…
Oh yeah, Bryan Danielson!
I know they’re not on the best of terms, but it’d probably be smart to get his faction
mates’ help with MJF resorting to evil heel tactics.
Oh, no one helped him.
They just let Max and Brian Cage break his arm until Takeshita made the save.
Was he in the Blackpool Combat Club?
While BrianBowl was really fun, with Cage providing a different kind of opponent than
Danielson’s recent fare, the match was more to set up an angle than be the PREMIUM LIVE
EVENT standard of those against Page, Takeshita and Bandido.
Danielson got a roll-up win near the end, but it was never about winning or losing,
it was about injuring him, so Cage continued to work over his arm with MJF in the post-match,
for Takeshita to make the save.
After the break, Doc Sampson hinted that Danielson wasn’t fit to compete, but Danielson cut
an impassioned promo about how no-one will stop him exposing Max as a fraud.
It was a great promo, continuing the serious escalation to this title feud, which MJF answered
later on announcing Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Timothy Thatcher as Bryan’s next challenge.
The lowkey best part of this whole story is how they’re secretly using it to elevate
Takeshita.
While I’m happy the women’s division actually has a story of substance, the bar is very
low, and the character work and storytelling is old WWE levels of lazy.
Toni Storm’s one-dimensional heel turn took her against Ruby Soho here, a battle of the
ex-WWE wrestlers, which fittingly ended with Britt Baker’s music causing the distraction
for Toni to lose.
AEW is so much better than entrance theme distraction finishes, and beating Toni just
a week after her character refresh immediately undermines most of her threat.
The main event, however, was so good.
So emotional.
Such a touching tribute to Jay Brisco, that this will go down as one of the most memorable
episodes of Dynamite in its history.
In one of the only times I’m ok with ROH completely taking over AEW TV, Jay Lethal
took on a debut Mark Brisco to wrestle a tribute match to the tragically departed Jay Brisco.
The occasion couldn’t have been treated any better, with Lethal somehow professionally
wrestling through his visibly raw emotions, and Ian Riccobani excelling on comment with
calls that teetered on the edge of poetry.
Mark hit a Froggy Bow off the top rope through the timekeeper’s table outside, and won
with the Jay Driller finisher of his brother to win.
The locker room emptied to pay tribute as Mark told the camera he loves Jay.
Just like Brodie Lee’s passing, AEW treated professional wrestling with class, respect,
and, most importantly, love.
NOW STAY TUNED FOR POWERSLAP RIGHT AFTER THE BREAK ON TNT!
What did you think of AEW Dynamite?
Let me know in the comments.
This was a significant drop from the run of all-time great in-ring wrestling episodes
of the year so far.
And the women’s division follow-up was groan-inducing.
But the Jay Brisco tributes were so well done, this week’s Dynamite is 86%.
It’s WWE’s Royal Rumble this weekend!
Watch mine and Luke’s predictions for the show in 3 words or less on the 3-Count now…