Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News - I’m Oli Davis, and I’ll be replying
to as many comments as I can for the first 15 minutes after this episode goes live.
If you subscribe to WrestleTalk and enable notifications on your YouTube app, you’ll
be notified right away when our next impromptu Q+A happens - where we can talk about things
like why does Luke Owen tuck his ears into his hat?
Where is Kevin Owens’ rematch for the Universal Title?
And who really is Byron Saxt- Huh, I just got a Twitter alert from WWE UK.
I hope it isn’t a major title change spoiler from Smackdown before the show even airs in
the United States…
*SPOILER* BREAKING NEWS: Don't miss #SDLive from Manchester tonight on @SkySports as a
@WWE Title changes hands!
AJ Styles Wins WWE Championship Before you hastily accuse wrestling of being
a predetermined sport, where WWE’s Twitter accounts know the results of matches before
they’ve taken place, WWE UK announcing the title change several hours before Smackdown
aired in the US wasn’t because of a disgruntled social media manager or timing mishap.
It was because last night’s episode was a pre-taped show from the UK.
WWE teasing results for shows that haven’t yet aired is nothing new, particularly in
the pre-live format days when Smackdown was a predominantly pre-taped show.
But WWE have been building to Jinder vs Brock Lesnar as Survivor Series’ main event for
weeks.
And AJ seemed set for a place on Team Smackdown in the men’s 5-on-5 elimination match.
So what in the blue brand hell happened?
AJ Styles & Jinder Mahal Backstage Details On last Tuesday’s Smackdown, Shane McMahon
booked Rusev vs AJ Styles for the following week, the winner getting the final place on
Team Smackdown at Survivor Series.
The very next day, a poster for the pay-per-view was leaked online, showing AJ right behind
McMahon, suggesting he would be beating Rusev and joining Team Smackdown, and also Jinder
Mahal vs Brock Lesnar with John Cena revealed as the main event’s special guest referee.
PWInsider later confirmed the poster as genuine.
But then on Thursday, McMahon tweeted that because of Jinder’s vicious beatdown of
AJ on the 31st October Smackdown, Mahal would be defending his WWE Championship against
Styles on the following week’s show, leaving AJ’s original opponent Rusev to tweet:
“I’m so good.
@AJStylesOrg already quit.
Hahahahahah.
Go team Smackdown.
#RusevDay is coming to #SurvivorSeries” Speculation suddenly began that AJ would be
winning the title from Jinder on Tuesday because of low ticket sales for Smackdown live events
and to create a more compelling main event for Survivor Series with Styles vs Brock Lesnar.
As the WWE UK Twitter account rather prematurely teased, that’s exactly what happened.
And Dave Meltzer has revealed on Wrestling Observer Radio that the title change was indeed
a very late decision: “This thing wasn’t even planned until
a week ago… the people that need to know, they only found out this week.”
As for why the late change in plans happened, Meltzer points towards the Smackdown live
attendance being “really bad”, with this week’s TV episode having a “bad advance
for the show”.
Which SWAFT Nation member Jason Wood’s photo from ringside at last night’s Smackdown
confirms, revealing the section of the crowd behind the hard cam as mostly empty.
The bad rating for the previous week’s Smackdown - which was down over half a million viewers
for the Halloween episode - could’ve also played a part in the decision, as could the
Survivor Series main event itself, which now has a lot more interest with Styles being
involved.
Meltzer reports that the original plan for Cena as the special guest referee was meant
to ”build to an excuse for Jinder losing”, but with Mahal seemingly no longer involved
in the main event, backstage “literally nobody knows what’s going on exactly right
now”.
Especially because “Jinder was absolutely supposed to be the champion when they went
to India”, where WWE have dates in early December, and what The Modern Day Maharaja’s
170 day title reign has all been building up to.
Perhaps the plan is to get the belt back on Jinder before then, or he’ll possibly win
the title back in his kayfabe home country.
Watch my review of AJ’s title win in the Smackdown...in about 4 minutes show!
And WWE apparently didn’t know about Chris Jericho’s huge New Japan announcement.
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I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.