Welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I’m Pete Quinnell.
In case you missed it, CM Punk returned on Collision this past weekend.
I know, it was pretty lowkey, no one really talked about it.
Especially not Brian Children, who now is no longer working with us.
Sorry Brian Children.
But shockingly, after Punk said some things on the show, it seems to have ruffled some
feathers backstage in AEW, while not ruffling others.
This is big news, and very unexpected.
Some notable things Punk mentioned as part of that promo: he’s One Bil Phil.
Tell him when he’s telling lies, and the wrestlers people like are soft.
It’s that last line in particular that some have reportedly taken umbrage with.
This comes from Fightful Select, who spoke on the backstage reaction to Punk’s return
promo as a whole.
There were reportedly some backstage who felt like Punk was just getting out what he needed
to get out, but there were others who felt it was “hypocritical to make comments about
being “soft”” after Punk was upset about his Hangman Page feud, promos and spots he
had spoken about before.
Select is also reporting that there were non-disclosures applied to the Bucks, Kenny Omega and CM Punk
with one another, but not with Hangman and Punk.
Which doesn’t necessarily bode well for TK in preventing more potential backstage
drama from spilling out in the future, as PWInsider is reporting that Punk’s Collision
promo was 100% improvised and off the cuff, and considering he has no restrictions on
not talking about Hangman, and if he is allowed to continue to not script or approve his material
beforehand, there’s every chance that something else could come tumbling out of Pepsi Phil’s
mouth With reports noting that The Elite may not
be present for this week’s episode of Dynamite, meaning that Punk may be able to be at the
show, it seems that the plans for any sort of brand split in AEW aren’t going to be
happening, and Fightful Select is reporting more on those initial plans backstage.
Plans were reportedly sent out about a month ago to the AEW roster, indicating that there
were plans for a firm brand split with two distinct rosters, plans which were reportedly
received with “mixed reactions”.
Plans were then changed to a soft brand split with talent sharing occasionally, to talent
being naturally shared across shows.
Interestingly, AEW also reportedly had plans in place for a ‘transfer portal’, which
they trademarked to be part of their brand split plans, but that idea has been shelved
for now.
Now, here comes the real question: which is worse?
Transfer Portal?
SuperStar Shake-Up?
Or Wildcard Rule?
Transfer Portal’s up there, it does sound awful.
Thankfully they did scrap those plans because hoo boy, I think it would have been derided
in much the same vein as WWE’s similar ideas.
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And now, over to Luke.
LUKE: But first, here with another Match of the Year, it’s journalist and founder member
of the Rickmansworth Ramblers, Mark Markerson.
Mark, a pleasure as always.
MARK: Thank you, Luke, are you enjoying the sunshine?
Never mind.
This week’s Match of the Year - hold your breath - comes from an American promotion!
Yes!
It’s Alex Shelley vs Steve Maclin for the Impact World Championship at Against All Odds.
LUKE: Oh, great, Impact?!
MARK: Yes, Impact, you won’t have heard of them, they’re an upstart promotion.
LUKE: No, they’re not, they’re a pretty big deal.
I’ve been watching them for years..
MARK: I don’t think you have, they only launched in 2017.
LUKE: What are you talking about?
MARK: You need to spend less time in your echo chamber.
This match was a cathartic masterpiece.
Alex Shelley is a tag team legend who has had huge success all across the world, particularly
in Japan where he’s a four time tag champ.
He’s wrestled for Ring of Honor - before they sold out, of course - and he’s always
been a reliable hand, but as a singles star, he’s struggled to take off, he’s never
won the big one.
And that was the story here.
“Could he finally do it?
Could he grab that copper ring?”
The match had a classic build - slow to start and then the action ramped up.
Shelley threw everything at Maclin, and the two traded near falls, but the champ was just
too strong.
Even locked in an excruciating figure four, Maclin found the will to drag himself over
to the ropes to break the count, pulling the turnbuckle off in the process.
And in a brilliant bit of ring psychology rarely seen in American wrestling, it was
that insecurity that became his undoing.
Maclin’s own momentum smashed him into the exposed metal, and Shelley capitalised with
a Shell Shocked for the 1-2-3.
Celebrating in the ring he was joined by his tag team partner Chris Sabin, who had also
won singles gold that, in a moment you love to see.
You’ve got to reward that, so building on last week the match was…eight stars.
LUKE: EIGHT.
Wow, they just keep on rising don’t they.
That actually does sound wonderful, I’ve always liked them, they had some wonderful
matches in TNA.
MARK: What’s TNA?
LUKE: Goodbye, Mark.
Well, now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka the ‘Where Gargano?’
edition of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes.
There was a report from various sources that Vince McMahon made quite a few changes to
this show.
None of which were major, but his biggest change was the opening to the show which was
very different.
And you can tell this was changed at the last minute, because the pacing of the first 30
or so minutes of Raw this week were all over the place.
But it did open with probably the best thing on Raw this week, as Finn Balor canceled Seth
Rollins’ open challenge by kicking the crap out of him - hitting 3 coup de grace off the
stairs and off the announcer’s table.
He continued beating him up backstage, which was a great beatdown.
At least I think it was, it was filmed horribly and I couldn’t quite see what was going
on.
All of a sudden The Miz was in the ring and laid out an open challenge of his own, which
was answered by a returning Tomasso Ciampa, who won the match with no trouble whatsoever.
Fun fact: The Miz hasn’t won a match since December 19th, 2022.
Speaking of fun facts.
The Miz also got some local Cleveland heat, as did Logan Paul later on.
Do you know who else is from Cleveland?
Johnny Gargano.
Do you know who was backstage at Raw this week?
Johnny Gargano.
Do you know who wasn’t on this show despite it being in Cleveland and is from Cleveland?
Johnny freakin’ Gargano.
I don’t wanna hear none of you tell me AEW is doing bad with Jay White because this s**t
is unacceptable.
Anyway, Corey Graves was dressed like someone I’d avoid at my local Weatherspoons.
And after a recap of SmackDown, Sami Zayn made a deal with Kevin Owens to not lose his
temper on this week’s show because he thinks he has anger issues.
Dr. Shelby return confirmed.
This became a show-long storyline… of sorts… and most of it was quite funny.
Judgement Day cut a promo on the stage challenging Cody Rhodes to a trios match later tonight,
and Kayden Carter and Katana Chance beat Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville in a short heatless
match.
Cathy then interviewed Cody Rhodes on the stage who just accepted the Judgement Day
challenge.
Okay then.
Got to fill 3 hours somehow, I guess.
Also the graphic for the match was done like a WrestleTalk News thumbnail.
Oh I better click that video.
Indus Sher continued to not get over and quickly beat Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander
in another heatless match, and Logan Paul came out to announce he was just in the Money
in the Bank match.
So… what were all those qualifiers for then?
Why are those chumps competing for this when you can just announce you’re in the match?
Doesn’t this make all your guys look like.. .well, chumps?
You’re essentially telling your audience: these guys who wrestle every week are not
stars, but this guy is an actual star because he’s on TikTok or some s**t I don’t know
what Logan Paul does is it TikTok?
This brought out all the other Money in the Bank Chumps - minus Damian Priest - who cut
generic promos - apart from LA Knight who completely stole the show.
A brawl broke out and Logan Paul - the actual star here - stood tall.
I don’t think this did anything for the PPV, the match, or anyone in it.
Particularly because both Shinsuke Nakamura and Damian Priest are pinned later in this
show.
But, you know, Road Dogg tells me that wins and losses don’t matter.
And we should all listen to the sage-like wisdom of…
Road Dogg.
Matt Riddle beat Ludwig Kaiser and got beaten down by Imperium after the match, and they
set Imperium as potential contenders for Owens and Zayn despite Owens and Zayn beating them
on multiple occasions.
This week Chad Gable taught Maxxine how to do a suplex, and she hit one on Valhalla during
Alpha Academy’s tag match with The Viking Raiders, but it distracted them this time
into losing.
Corey Graves made a reference to Rhea Ripley’s Instagram Stories when she made her entrance
for a match with Natalya and if you don’t know what he’s talking about… don’t
investigate any further.
Wait, hold on, Natalya?
Really?
Nattie?
I mean the match didn’t happen because Ripley just beat her up and the match didn’t start
but still…
Nattie?
This achieved nothing.
That’s not fair, as it was used to set up Raquel “my personality is I have a back”
Rodriguez as a contender for the belt, but then she had a pretty bad match with Trish
Stratus and it was mostly her fault so I don’t really want to see her challenge for the belt.
It was a weird finish too, as Becky Lynch ran down to attack Zoey Stark and then - blinded
by rage - attacked Trish to get her DQ’d so she’s qualified for Money in the Bank.
This was done to protect Raquel in taking a loss - because wins and losses don’t matter
until they do matter, of course - but it just made Becky look a bit silly.
She later said she was now fighting against the odds in the ladder match, but she would
go down in a blaze of glory.
Cody found tag partners in Owens and Zayn, Bron Breakker cut a promo on Seth Rollins
to hype their NXT match tomorrow night, and Bronson Reed beat Nakamura after he collided
with Ricochet on the apron.
Seth Rollins said he’ll be at NXT tomorrow, which sort of undoes the brutal beatdown from
earlier, and then Cody Rhodes pinned Money in the Bank contender Damian Priest in a trios
match that was a helluva lot of fun with awesome crowd reactions.
I know it sounds like I was down on this episode of Raw, but honestly it was totally fine.
Didn’t really build Money in the Bank, but the Balor beatdown was very good.
Plus, Chad Gable wrestled and Maxxine hit a suplex so it wasn’t all bad.
It was, in fact, 3 out of 5.