Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News - I’m Oli Davis.
Subscribe To The WrestleRamble Podcast And as a Christmas gift to all of you, we’re
giving away our first ever WrestleRamble Extra episode - a two and a half hour in depth review
of Money in the Bank 2011 (considered to be one of WWE’s greatest ever pay-per-views)
- for absolutely free!
Usually, WrestleRamble Extra is only available to $5 backers on Patreon, but if you subscribe
to WrestleRamble on iTunes, Podbean, wherever you get your podcasts, you’ll get the episode
delivered straight to your generic listening device over the Christmas period.
And for Patreon backers, this month’s WrestleRamble Extra will be up for you soon - which is me
and Luke reviewing the excellent Armageddon 2000, with a six-man Hell in a Cell main event
between Stone Cold, Undertaker, Kurt Angle, The Rock, Triple H and Rikishi.
And we’re not the only ones spreading festive cheer…
Raw & Smackdown Ad-Free For Xmas WWE have announced the first hours of Raw
and Smackdown next week will be commercial-free.
Which means we might actually get to see a US title match in full!
Hopefully losing that sweet, sweet Christmas day ad revenue isn’t something WWE end up
regretting.
Because this time next year, they might having to deal with the XFL failing all over again.
Vince McMahon Sells WWE Shares News broke late last week that Vince McMahon
was looking to revive the XFL - his most costly failed business venture from 2001, which only
ran one season before being cancelled and reportedly lost WWE almost $70 million.
McMahon’s new company Alpha Entertainment has now filed five trademarks to ‘XFL’,
pretty much confirming Vince will be attempting to break into football yet again.
And going by his recent stock cash-in, he’s pretty serious about the move.
It’s being reported that McMahon has personally sold 3.4 million shares of his WWE stock,
which is roughly worth $105 million - and it’s speculated this could be to fund the
new venture.
And Vince isn’t the only one looking to rectify past mistakes.
Batista ‘Serious’ About WWE Return Batista’s last run with WWE wasn’t the
overwhelming success it should’ve been, returning in 2014 by winning the Royal Rumble
match - when the crowd just wanted to shout ‘Yes’ for Daniel Bryan.
Batista was miscast as a babyface, and after a significant course correct (WrestleMania
30’s original plan was him vs Randy Orton in the main event, later changed to a triple
threat including Bryan), he only got to play heel for a few months.
Big Dave recently revealed that he’s been speaking to Vince McMahon about a WWE return,
and that he wants it to culminate with a feud against his former Evolution buddy Triple
H. And now the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has revealed Batista is “very serious about
going back for a relatively lengthy (six months to a year) final full-time run.”
Where this differs from Goldberg and Brock Lesnar’s part-time deals, where they only
appeared at select television and house show dates, Batista apparently wants a full-time
schedule return, as he enjoys working house shows much more than TV.
One problem Dave Meltzer foresees is that if Batista signs with WWE, that would likely
give WWE control over any Hollywood movie offers that come in for him.
Apparently Batista was talked about as a headliner for the 2018 Hall of Fame, “but the feeling
is if he’s coming back, that would be delayed.”
Which implies a return is very possible, as the currently reported headliner is Goldberg.
Vince McMahon has banned a WWE chant!
And Stephanie’s Raw shoot has been revealed!
Click the videos to the left to learn more.
I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.