In this WrestleTalk News, WWE fire back at AEW, CM Punk to New Japan…‘s most recent
show confirmed, Jay White’s potential WWE future, Elimination Chamber backstage notes
and more.
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Huh, just had another nice tweet from Steve from Going in Raw.
What a nice guy.
I didn’t say contract tampering, you did!
As one would imagine, the wrestling world is talking about one thing and one thing alone
at this moment in time - this Sasuke Special Canadian Destroyer to the floor!
But if they’re not talking about that, they’re talking about Sami Zayn failing to capture
the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship from Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber from
Montreal.
You can watch Oli Davis’ full review of that show right now on this channel, and we
reviewed it in a longer form type situation over on the WrestleTalk Podcast.
One man who probably wasn’t watching Elimination Chamber is AEW president Tony Khan.
- and I’m only presuming he wasn’t because he hasn’t tweeted about what we’re going
to talk about here.
And you know he probably would.
Friday’s SmackDown saw an appearance from MMA and pro wrestling journalist Ariel Helwani
to build up the Zayn/Reigns match for the PPV.
Tony Khan seemed less than thrilled by this, fueled by Tony and Helwani’s run in on the
MMA Hour Podcast last October where Khan refused to answer questions about an on-going legal
matter following Brawl Out.
Yeah, Tony, how dare you not answer those sorts of questions?!
It further highlighted how just prior to that, Helwani had done an interview with Triple
H that was basically just a fluff piece to promote WWE, where he didn’t ask any questions
or enquire about their on-going legal matters regarding Vince McMahon and his stepping down
from WWE.
Khan tweeted of Helwani being on Smackdown, "You're a fraud [Ariel Helwani].
You're as legitimate of a reporter as [Tony Schiavone]."
It seems to be all in jest.
Especially when Helwani responded, "Thanks for watching, old friend!
Can't wait for our next chat.
(Also, don't listen to the snowman, Schiavone.
You're a legend in my books.)"
But then Khan ended the conversation with, “Good luck with the Unbiased Journalism”
It all seemed rather unnecessary, and is another example of TK blowing up on Twitter and his
detractors ridiculing him for it.
I don’t know if he thought it would get people on his side, but as Trevor Dame so
eloquently put it on the blue bird app, “If you like Tony, this makes you like him more,
if you dislike him, it makes you dislike him more.
I don't see it changing minds.”
And it certainly didn’t change the minds of those in WWE.
Helwani was also on Elimination Chamber last night - both in the crowd with GSP and on
the pre-show - and WWE used these moments to take some shots at AEW’s head honcho.
Cole quipped when Helwani was shown in the crowd, “The unbiased journalist Ariel Helwani
... who asks all the important questions, whether you want to answer them or not."
And Peter Rosenberg who introduced Helwani to the kick off show panel saying he is, “a
man who is respected by anyone with any intelligence.”
Because if there is one man who knows a lot about integrity, it’s Pete Rosenberg.
Usually WWE’s shots at AEW are kept behind the scenes.
They put on shows head-to-head, they allegedly contacted advertisers to get them to pull
their slots following the Nick Gage/Chris Jericho match, they reportedly leaked fast
nationals to make AEW Rampage’s ratings look bad, etc.
This is the first time in a long while where they have knowingly acknowledged something
from the competition on screen.
So, expect at least 30 mentions of this from Excalibur and Tony Schivone on Dynamite this
Wednesday.
I mean you probably won’t see CM Punk on that show.
But you could have seen him last night if you were at a New Japan show…
CM Punk has found himself back in the news as of late, as his injury rehab is nearly
over and there are rumblings of him returning to All Elite Wrestling.
Although Dave Meltzer has said that fences need to be mended between Punk and The Elite
after what happened following All Out, and a new precedent appears to have been set backstage
as Thunder Rosa apologized to the AEW locker room for her actions last year during her
title run.
And now Phil has been spotted in the crowd for New Japan’s Battle of the Valley, apparently
also not nursing his injured arm.
He of course wasn’t the only person in attendance, as local boy Dave Meltzer was there, along
with Impact Wrestling’s Scott D’Amore and former QuizzleMania no-shower No Way Jose.
Fightful Select report that Punk had enquired about attending the show, “about a month
ago.”
CM Punk attending New Japan shows confirmed.
Also at the show was fellow local lady Bayley, who was there to see the former Sasha Banks,
now Mercedes Mone, win the IWGP Women’s Championship from Kairi.
Grapsody’s Righteous Reg tweeted that Bayley was originally hidden in the crowd via a lucha
mask but got far too into the match so had to take it off.
Several in attendance spotted her, including Talking Simpson’s Henry Gilbert, with this
Twitter user saying she was acting like a proud mum during the bout, even being caught
on camera starting a Mone chant.
It also promoted a Bayley chant from the crowd when Mone hit the Bayley-to-Belly for a neafall.
Though it seems unlikely that Bayley wouldn’t jump ship to New Japan if and when her WWE
contract does expire - although that didn’t stop any of the news in 2022 - but there is
a New Japan man she could be interacting with in WWE soon.
Last week Jay White lost to Hikuleo at The Beginning in Osaka in a Loser Leaves Japan
match.
It was thought that would be his final time in New Japan Pro Wrestling, after all, he
must now leave Japan.
But it clearly wasn’t final enough, as last night at Battle of the Valley he lost to AEW’s
Eddie Kingston in a Loser Leaves New Japan.
I’m starting to think New Japan doesn’t want you anymore, Jay.
So where does that leave Switchblade now?
As mentioned earlier, Scott D’Amore of Impact Wrestling was at the show, which White has
appeared for in the last year or so, and he had a couple of shots with AEW in 2022 - beating
Trent on an episode of Rampage and defending his the title at Forbidden Door when he was
IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
But what about WWE?
Fightful Select reported last week that, “WWE felt confident that they could land him, but
we're told that is hardly guaranteed at this point.”
He added, “WWE sources have repeatedly confirmed that they have long had interest in Jay White,
but that everything related to the possibility of him coming into the company is being kept
very quiet.”
On the Elimination Chamber post show, Sean Ross Sapp reiterated that he didn’t know
where White would end up, but that WWE were still very interested in him.
Which is interesting as WrestlingNews.co reported that WWE were more interested in signing Kenny
Omega, whose AEW contract expires than they were Jay White.
Jumping back to WWE’s Elimination Chamber, and Sean Ross Sapp is reporting via Fightful
Select that the finish of Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar was done because the storyline
is going to continue, but “wasn’t ‘locked in’ for WrestleMania”.
Bray Wyatt had challenged the winner of that match on SmackDown, but was not at Elimination
Chamber in any capacity.
SRS also notes that, “Brock Lesnar's ref spot this time was planned.
He was not punished for the unplanned one at Royal Rumble.”
Speaking of planned spots, and Montez Ford’s injury in the United States Championship Chamber
Match was a work, as it was done to allow Logan Paul entry into the Chamber to attack
Seth Rollins.
Montez Ford is not injured.
Sami Zayn Says Bloodline Story Isn’t Done
The main event took up the final hour of the show, and speaking of the match at the post
show press conference, Zayn spoke of the magic the Bloodline saga has provided.
A storyline that has left fans hanging off of every word, analyzing every facial expression,
and now looking back, Zayn has spoken of how difficult doing such a thing is in this day
and age, and would even hint that there is more to come.
He said, "The harder thing to do in the age of content is to do something memorable, something
that people are going to remember — never mind in a week or two, that's hard enough
sometimes on its own — but now I think with this Bloodline thing, I think we've walked
away from this story — and it's not even done — with so many memorable segments.
TV segments that people will remember 5, 10 years down the road.”
Dave Meltzer had reported late last year that the Bloodline storyline plans were for Roman
to face Kevin Owens at the Rumble, then face Zayn at the Chamber, and for KO and Sami to
tag together against The Usos at WrestleMania, while Reigns will go on to face Cody Rhodes
for the Undisputed Championship.
That would seemingly still be the direction going by last night’s show, as Kevin Owens
saved Zayn from a beatdown from Jimmy Uso and Roman Reigns.
While Sami didn’t enjoy the best homecoming, the same cannot be said for his fellow Canadian
Edge.
Wrestling for the first time in Montreal in 17 years, Edge teamed with his wife Beth Phoenix
to beat Finn Balor and Rhea Ripley.
Edge beating Judgement Day, eh?
There’s a shocker.
But there’s a question mark hanging over the apparent retirement plans Edge might have
for himself.
Last August he told the Toronto crowd at a Raw event that “next August” they would
“say goodbye to each other that night.”
He also told The Nation Network in October that he does want to retire in Toronto.
And at the Elimination Chamber press conference, he reiterated again that he wants to hang
up his boots on home country soil.
He said, “I’m not really thinking about what I’m having for breakfast tomorrow,
let alone what I’m going to do five, six, seven, eight months from now.
I will say, I would like it to be in Canada."
Edge also set up a United States Championship match against Austin Theory at Raw tomorrow
night.
It’s also worth noting that it’s been reported he’d signed a three-year deal with
WWE when he returned at the Royal Rumble in 2020, which would expire this year.
And AEW’s Dax Harwood noted on his podcast recently that the idea of FTR vs. Edge & Christian
is actually more of a possibility than people believe, despite three-quarters of that line-up
working for the other team.
Edge is very good friends with Dax and Cash of FTR, even using their finish during the
tag match last night.