I’m Oli Davis, this is the WrestleTalk News.
Wrestling has been full of debuts recently.
Adam ‘Edge’ Copeland jumped ship to AEW.
Jade Cargill jumped over to WWE.
And Ex-AEW star Brian Pillman Jr. wrestled his first WWE match on the Tuesday 24th episode
of NXT.
But the biggest wrestling debut has actually gone down in France: White Rock.
The Grevin Museum in Paris unveiled their interpretation of Rock ‘The Dwayne’ Johnson
announcing him as: “1.96 m tall and weighs 119 kg”
And also caucasian.
The museum’s website admitted “Dwayne Johnson presented many challenges:”
“The eyes of Dwayne Johnson’s waxwork had to be redone 3 times to avoid too dark
a tint making the star's face too hard and erasing its warm aspect.”
Yep, you certainly avoided making him too dark a tint.
The Dwayne himself has shared James Jefferson’s roast of the waxwork, who observes:
“It looks like The Rock ain’t never seen the sun a day in his life … It looks like
The Rock is part of the royal family.”
Johnson added: “For the record, I’m going to have my
team reach out to our friends at Grevin Museum, in Paris France 🇫🇷 so we can work at
“updating” my wax figure here with some important details and improvements- starting
with my skin color 🤣✊🏾💪🏾
And next time I’m in Paris, I’ll stop in and have a drink with myself 🥃 😉”
Am I the only one thinking all Johnson statutes should be carved out of rock?
It’s right there!
White Rock will have to wait and see about his next WWE contract, though, as the company
is set for a very interesting year…
All Elite Wrestling officially announced it was actually a thing in January 2019, with
an initial roster that included then-very big names Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, the Young
Bucks and Chris Jericho.
As the year went on, with the promotion’s first pay-per-view Double Or Nothing adding
Jon Moxley in May, and a weekly network TV deal secured for October, WWE initiated a
strategic response: signing up as much wrestling talent as possible to ridiculously long deals.
This included locking down as many wrestlers as they could, paying much higher rates to
everyone from AJ Styles to Jinder Mahal.
The Good Brothers of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson reportedly signed contracts worth
more than half a million dollars a year, in deals PWInsider described as “ridiculously
amazing”.
This was likely to stop AJ, Gallows and Anderson debuting for AEW on the first ever episode
of Dynamite as planned, so we got Jake Hager instead.
We’ve got an AJ Styles at home.
Not that contracts with Vince McMahon are worth anything though.
Because he released Gallows and Anderson practically as soon as the pandemic hit.
They returned to WWE under Triple H two years later.
But these lucrative big money deals did come with a catch: their multi-year durations.
Often between 3 to 5 years.
For the first time in two decades, WWE had a competitor in AEW that could rival their
own deep pockets for talent.
And with each round of negotiations likely ramping up wrestler’s prices even more,
they wanted to lock them into the same pay for as long as possible.
But WWE’s strategy first laid out in 2019 could only last so long.
And it’s set to run out imminently.
With the longest reported contract lengths at 5 years - with a mixture of some 5 year
deals from the outset, while others had 3 year + a 2 year extension - a number of huge
WWE names are potentially up for grabs in 2024.
Based on wrestlers talking about their own contracts in interviews, these are thought
to include: AJ Styles, Seth Rollins, Rey Mysterio, Alexa
Bliss, Drew McIntyre, Becky Lynch, Ricochet, the whole New Day, The Usos, Wade Barrett,
Sheamus, The Street Profits, Randy Orton, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.
If we look at the AEW roster, however, there are far fewer contracts set to expire in the
next year - with the only reported names being Tony Schiavone, Andrade, Bryan Danielson and
Dustin Rhodes.
This is because AEW were able to sign new deals with their biggest stars months ago
- securing Kenny Omega, The Bucks and Hangman Page through to at least 2027, and, this is
be taking a very educated guess, agreeing new terms with MJF ages ago, despite him saying
his contract runs out in 2024.
So why is AEW is a far more secure roster position over WWE right now?
The answer goes to the very top.
No, more to the top.
No, even more than that.
No, that was a storyline.
It’s the bossyest of bosses, WWE’s new parent company Endeavour.
Fightful Select is reporting that while many top WWE stars have their contracts expiring
next year, they haven’t been approached with discussions to renew their deals.
The only negotiations that have taken place - which you’d assume are the Drew McIntyre
and LA Knight discussions already reported - only happened because the talent approached
management directly, not the other way around.
Very interestingly, both McIntyre and Knight are reportedly ‘very far apart on money’
- a concerning sign if talent is expecting similar raises on their current deals, in
line with WWE’s consistently high annual revenue.
Dave Meltzer described McIntyre’s negotiations, for instance, as “just a numbers game.
He wants a certain number and they did not offer that certain number.”
But although his contract is up in April because of time added due to injury, he’s not “a
guy who’s looking to leave.”
It seems, for a change under Triple H, WWE’s top talent are far more satisfied creatively,
and backstage morale is the highest it’s been for ages.
But with the new owners Endeavour, many wrestlers’ future might come down to whether their new
corporate overlords see higher money deals as a good business investment.
Fightful adds many wrestlers believe they haven’t been approached about negotiations
because WWE was waiting for their merger with the UFC into TKO Holdings to complete.
But that concluded over a month ago on September 14th.
Several talent are reportedly waiting to find out what offers will look like under the new
company - which could be higher, lower, or on par with what they’re currently making.
You’d expect that if it’s the on par or lower figures, they’d at least entertain
discussions with AEW.
If Endeavour’s ownership of the UFC is anything to go by, it doesn’t look optimistic.
Fighter pay has been an ongoing criticism of the MMA promotion for over a decade, with
critics claiming the UFC only shares 16% of its revenue with its fighters (a number UFC
disputes) - whereas many fighters believe it should be half, which is more in line with
other large sports organisations like the NFL.
This is as the UFC is also having increasingly higher earning years, just like WWE.
Who in WWE do you think is most likely to entertain offers from AEW?
Give me some Jinder Mahal is All Elite graphics in the comments below.
NXT’s Halloween Havoc Night 1 saw two huge title changes, with Chase U finally beating
the Family to become the new NXT Tag team champions, and Becky Lynch shockingly dropping
the NXT Women’s Championship in the main event.
Becky Lynch to AEW confirmed.
Lyra Valkyria dethroned The Man, instantly dating mine and Luke’s Becky’s ongoing
NXT predictions for our Crown Jewel 3 Count that comes out on Friday.
I’M SO HAPPY FOR YOU, LYRA.
But here’s the whole show’s happenings in 1 minute, 1 take.
Shotzi provided instant nightmare fuel dressed as pinhead to open the Halloween themed show.
Roxanne Perez beat Kiana James in a hardcore Devil’s Playground match, including a picket
fence as a weapon.
A more heelish Carmelo says he’s got to go through Trick Williams to get another title
shot.
AEW’s Brian Pillman Jr made his in-ring debut as Lexis King, beating Dante Chen.
Lola Vice beat Karmen Petrovic and Kelani Jordan beat Arianna Grace in the breakout
semifinals.
Wagner and Mr Stone are friends again!
Usually means someone’s turning heel.
Chase U beat Tony D’Angelo and Stacks to win the tag titles, after Chase refused to
cheat.
Nathan Frazer said he’s going to take Dom Dom’s North American title.
Blair Davenport beat Gigi Dolin with more weapons.
Tiffany Stratton and Fallon Henley brawled.
The women of Chase U set up a women’s tag team title shot.
Akira Tozawa has stolen Noam Dar’s Heritage Cup.
And Valkyria beat Lynch in a great main event, as Jade Cargill watched from the main event
on a platform with two security guards.
What are the 10 greatest midcard championship reigns ever?
Watch on to find out…