Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I am Luke Owen and this… is wrestling news.
Our top story for today comes from last night’s AEW Dynamite, where Tony Khan
revealed his gift for Sting’s retirement. No, it wasn’t a gold watch. No, it wasn’t TNA. No,
it wasn’t the other Sting. It was instead his old rival, and the guy who put him on the map as a top
babyface in this industry, Ric Flair. A controversial signing for All Elite
Wrestling - and one that has garnered some backlash online - but there have been rumours
of Flair joining AEW for a few years now; back when Andrade El Idolo was looking for a manager
in 2021 with persistent reports it would be revealed as Flair, who is his irl father-in-law.
Those plans fell apart following the airing of a Dark Side of the Ring episode about The Plane
Ride From Hell, which made accusations of sexual harassment against Flair. Flair was dropped from
a sponsor deal he was doing at the time, and Tommy Dreamer was suspended by Impact Wrestling
for defending Flair on the episode. So why bring Flair in now?
Well, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, it’s all about those TV contracts.
As we’ve seen with WWE for the last few weeks and months, NXT has been loading up with main
roster talent in an effort to boost ratings which will, in turn, mean they will get a
better TV deal during rights negotiation season. And AEW are doing the same thing. There have been
rumours and reports of a new deal for some time now, and Meltzer explains that Flair is
another name being brought in to bump ratings in order to get a big piece of the Turner pie.
“It’s the contract year, and they’re really trying to hotshot as many stars for ratings purposes,
and using ‘name value’ and things like that.” Meltzer adds that Flair - on nostalgia
alone - could be a “short-term” benefit to the program, but isn’t sure if
he’ll be a weekly character on the show. Sean Ross Sapp on the Fightful Post-Show
for Dynamite added that he’s looking into how this will affect Flair’s relationship with WWE,
as being a part of All Elite Wrestling could sour any friendliness due to the ongoing wrestling war.
We heard from Rob Van Dam recently that he was dropped from his WrestleMania 40 bookings because
he appeared on Dynamite to face Jack Perry for the FTW Championship earlier this year.
Someone who won’t be around to see Flair in AEW, though, is the son of Flair’s Four
Horseman running buddy Arn Anderson, Brock Anderson. Though maybe that’s for the best,
as his advanced years might have meant that he’d confuse Brock for Arn backstage.
It was reported a few days ago that Brock Anderson was removed from the AEW roster page, and was
later confirmed that his contract had ended and he would be finishing up with the company.
Fightful Select are now reporting that the split was “amicable” and that “there doesn't appear to
be any bad blood” between the two. SRS adds in the report that Brock already has a lot of interest
from indie promotions looking to book him, which might also be a reason he chose to leave AEW.
We’ll have a full review of that episode of Dynamite by Oli Davis coming up shortly,
but first a word from Pete Quinnell. Now it’s time for my review of AEW
Dynamite… in about 5 minutes. The first 30 minutes of the show
were entirely devoted to easily the best thing in AEW right now: The MJF-verse. Which, thankfully,
is increasingly absorbing more and more of the whole roster, as Max weaves an intricate tapestry
of friends, foes and frenemies through a cast of: Max, Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Matt Taven,
Mike Bennett, Jay White, Juice Robinson, The Gunns, Samoa Joe, Wardlow, whoever that
Devil mask guy is, Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, Daddy Ass and now Kenny freaking Omega. That’s
16 people, most with their own distinct characters and conflicting motivations.
This has been steadily built up since MJF’s storyline began with Adam Cole several months ago,
and is now official proof of what I’m calling The Max Effect - where MJF has such a psychologically
dense three dimensional character, him interacting with another wrestler, no
matter how previously directionless or bland they might’ve been, makes them Max-imum compelling.
After a fiery cold open promo from Max on Juice Robinson, complete with a shot of the Devil
briefly flashing onscreen, MJF went straight into beating the crap out of Rock Hard for
the Diamond Ring - going so far as to set up a Curb Stomp on Juice on the steel steps. And I’m
not talking about your PG Seth Rollins Curb Stomp. I’m talking full on American History
chomping the corner of the steps X Curb Stomp. Thankfully The Gunns stopped that from happening,
but you can’t out-scumbag a scumbag, and Max won by cheating with his own Diamond Ring.
The Gang Bang Gang beat him down in the post-match, but you know what they say: friends
are like buses. You wait ages for one, and then so many come along at the same time it’s
overwhelming and you don’t know which ones going to turn on you first.
Taven and Bennett tried to make a half-assed save, so The Acclaimed chased off Bullet Club
Gold instead. Max then not only accepted a solo ROH tag title defence against the
Gunns at Full Gear, he also said next week will be an 8 man tag of the Gang Bang Gang
vs MJF and three partners of his choosing. But despite having two three man factions
right there in the Kingdom and Acclaimed, he chose neither,
further delaying him scissoring Max Caster. Because I think they could both be red
herrings - as Kenny freaking Omega then came out, and Max granted his request to
defend his title reign record. It’ll be MJF vs Omega for the world title this Saturday on
Collision. I’m so excited I can’t even complain about there only being three days of build!
Maybe Bullet Club Gold interfere somehow in that match, setting up another Max vs Omega encounter
down the line, and giving the Elite motivation to be MJF’s partners in next week’s 8 man tag.
Also, Wardlow promised to take everything from Max. And Samoa Joe said he’ll be MJF’s partner…
but only if he gets a title rematch. This was excellent, Game of Thrones
level of interconnected storylines. And I mean good Game of Thrones.
RVD just doesn’t age, winning a fun tag with Hook against John Silver and Alex Reynolds.
Chris Jericho teased getting some of his own big friends to take on Powerhouse Hobbs. I don’t
know why, but my mind just went to Goldberg. AEW announced a new Pay-per-view Worlds End
for December 30th - furthering speculation they’ll expand to monthly shows in 2024.
Tony Schiavone did his best to stop Sting going over time on the mic to announce Tony Khan’s
surprise gift. After Saturday’s ‘dream match surprise’ being Andrade, it’s probably something
like a new car-HOLY FUCK IT’S RIC FLAIR. Does that mean Sting owns Ric Flair now?
Flair effectively announced he’s All Elite, saying he’ll ride out with Sting. But Ric Flair is,
of course, the father of Charlotte Flair. Meaning he’s a dad. Yep,
you’ve guessed where this is going, Christian came out to be mean about Ric being dead.
Sting and Darby Allin accepted Christian’s six man tag challenge for Full Gear. Sting was pretty
pushy with Adam Copeland backstage after, wanting him to be their partner - but Copeland is still
reluctant about fighting Christian. Oh yeah, the Hung Bucks are the ROH
6 Man Tag Champs. They retained against the Hardys and Brother Ze.
It was just a fun setup for what was actually my favourite thing on the whole show - Swerve
Strickland cementing himself as AEW’s best heel, by cutting a promo on Hangman’s baby after having
broken into his house and standing over its crib. How do you get more evil after this?
Swerve’s performance, his steady delivery, how he cut the promo just him, the baby and
a camera in a room, Prince Nana obviously being uncomfortable with it all. This was awesome.
Shida’s title defence against Ruby Soho was unfortunately a bit sloppy early on,
then overbooked at the end - with multiple cheating spots.
Toni Storm, who got her latest silent movie earlier, introducing Luthor as her butler,
came out to pose afterwards - meaning Shida had to look on weirdly at a world in black and white.
The main event saw wrestling’s weirdest faction Chaos put out Okada and Orange Cassidy, against
wrestling’s most badass one, represented by Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castignoli.
This was predictably incredible, with an excellent middle section of just Danielson vs Okada. Cassidy
and Claudio were just as exciting - at one point hitting a counter into a counter into
a counter into a counter. And a brilliant spot where Okada did his Rainmaker pose,
which Cassidy walked into with a Best Friends hug. Claudio beat Cassidy with a pop up uppercut,
potentially setting up an International title match, but the post-match focus was on Danielson
writhing in pain following Okada’s Rainmaker. It’s most likely a kayfabe injury, as Okada gloated,
building a WrestleKingdom rematch between them. But with the respective factions
coming down into the ring, the otherwise fantastic episode ended a bit awkwardly.
This week’s Dynamite is top 5 shows of the year for me at 90%. What are
the 10 worst WWE pay-per-views ever? Watch on to find out.