So, wait, you’re telling me that Philadelphia, PA and Hershey, PA are two different places?
Are you sure?
Well, I don’t know about that.
I’m Luke Owen of the WrestleTalk News and… well I don’t make mistakes.
So maybe you’re wrong, Pete.
Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I’m Luke Owen and this is Wrestling News.
Let me tell you the story of Cody Rhodes.
He was pegged to be a big star in WWE, but saddled with lame gimmick after lame gimmick,
and was eventually released by the company.
So he bet on himself and made an even bigger name for himself on the independent scene,
and then took a bet with Dave Meltzer to sell out a show with 10,000 seats - a feat that
hadn’t been done since WCW was in competition.
He, along with The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, made this a reality with All In, and it became
All Elite Wrestling - the first viable competition to WWE since the fall of WCW in 2001.
Sorry, TNA.
It brought about actual change in the wrestling industry.
And then Cody left his position as one of the executive vice presidents of AEW to re-join
WWE.
He beat Seth Rollins on three straight PPVs and tore his tit in the process, made his
return to win the Royal Rumble and was all set to Finish The Story at WrestleMania and
face the all conquering Roman Reigns to win the WWE Championship; a title that had eluded
him and his father for all those years.
And then he lost.
Lol.
But it’s okay, because as Triple H explained in the Mania post-show press conference where
no muffins were consumed, stories don’t end in WWE.
Apart from all those times they have.
And Steve Austin said that he thinks it would have been cliche to crown Cody as World Champion
at WrestleMania, unlike all those times they crowned Austin as World Champion at WrestleMania.
Consummate thick thing spouter Road Dogg felt that Cody hadn’t gone through enough adversity,
apart from all that adversity I spelled out at the top of this news episode.
And then Cody and Roman were drafted to different shows, with a new world title being introduced
that would be exclusive to Raw.
It left a lot of questions - the main one being, are we going to finish the story?
Well, the rumor was that yes we would.
There has been fan speculation that Cody could win Money in the Bank and challenge Roman
for a rematch at Summerslam, but the persistent rumored plan was that Cody and Roman would
have their rematch where they would actually Finish The Story at WrestleMania 40 next year
in Philadelphia, PA.
Now, that is actually Philadelphia, right?
Not Hershey?
You’re sure about that.
But now according to WRKD Wrestling, that might have changed.
According to the Twitter account, “discussions have taken place for #WWERaw’s main event
for WrestleMania 40 to potentially be Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther.”
They add that both men have expressed an interest in working together but also note that these
are early discussions.
So what does this mean for Roman vs. Cody?
Well if Cody vs. Gunther is Raw’s Main Event for Mania 40, that would mean that one of
those men would walk into the show as the World Heavyweight Champion, the world title
that is exclusive to Raw.
Unless Cody is going to beat Roman at some point this year and the Universal Championship
will switch brands, which would mean the brand new Raw exclusive belt would have to also
switch brands?
Or it could just be that Cody vs. Gunther will be one of the five main events on the
show, like how this Saturday sees three main events.
You know there’s only seven matches on the card?
Almost half of the matches are main events.
Sounds silly when you spell it like that isn’t it?
What do you think of Cody vs. Gunther at Mania - other than that sounds like an awesome match
which it really does - but what do you think it means for Cody finishing his story?
Let me know in the comments.
But the Cody vs. Roman rematch being potentially scrapped might not be the only major changes
coming to WWE.
Over the last few years, Nick Khan has become one of the most powerful men in all of professional
wrestling.
He’s been credited for several of WWE’s biggest deals in the last couple of years,
and is cited as the man behind the idea of changing WWE’s PPV days from Sundays to
Saturdays, which has been a huge win for them.
And speaking with JP Morgan Global Technology, Media & Communications Conference which, well,
is a conference for media business suit people who say lots of business, business business
things - I’m sure business cards were handed out - Khan had a lot to say about the state
of WWE’s TV deals.
He said that while Raw won’t be leaving it’s three-hour format (because it’s far
too valuable to the company), they are open to moving it from Monday nights when it comes
to negotiating their new TV deal.
Not only that, but they are open to the idea of adding a third hour onto SmackDown to make
that a more appealing format to potential bidders.
Now, the interesting note from this is that Khan has said that SmackDown is out the exclusivity
window for Fox bidding on renewing the rights to the show - which might spell an end to
the WWE/Fox partnership which has been so fruitful for them since 2019.
If Fox were keen on keeping the show, they likely would have secured their renewal during
that exclusive window rather than letting other networks bid on the show.
Khan adds that they are still in the window for NBCU for Monday Night Raw, but there was
an interesting alternative that Khan brought up as a new home for Raw and SmackDown: Amazon
Prime.
He said at the conference that Amazon are currently looking to progam specific nights
of the week for certain shows, and that is why he’s open to the idea of moving Raw
and SmackDown off their Monday and Friday nights.
He also teased the idea of a new show for WWE once all the TV rights deals are sorted,
which might be targeted more towards their adult audience.
He also said that the third hour of Raw could become more adult-oriented in the future.
A lot of Khan’s movements are based on leverage.
He said at the conference that the reason WWE are doing more overseas PPVs is not because
fans want them, but because they want to match up media rights negoatiations with those territories,
and they get a big payout for doing them.
Which might be why Money in the Bank is being held in London next month, as the UK rights
deal with BT Sport is one of the next media rights cycles for WWE to tackle, with Khan
saying both BT Sport and Sky are interested.
And speaking of changes, it’s being reported by Fightful Select that there were several
made to this week’s episode of Raw, noting, “There were new rundowns brought out shortly
before the show.”
One of those changes was Paul Heyman’s role on the show, which was originally just him
sitting in the front row with a Vistor’s Pass rather than cutting a promo.
WRKD Wrestling has previously reported that Shinsuke Nakamura was set to team with Sami
Zayn and Kevin Owens in the main event, and that JD McDonaugh was supposed to have his
in-ring debut for Raw, but both were changed at the last minute.
Fightful also note that several of the recently drafted NXT call-ups were not brought in for
the TV taping.
Take this for what it’s worth, but Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful writes, “We're told
there were changes and one talent speculated it was due to Vince McMahon” but they were
unable to confirm that.
Not that it particularly helped the show, which was killed by sports.
This week’s edition of Raw drew 1.64 million viewers, which is not only down from last
week but also the lowest rating for the show since XXX.
But there shouldn’t be any sign of concern, as the sports game between the Lakers and
Nuggets drew 8.21 million viewers.
Sorry, wait, Nuggets?
Like chicken nuggets?
And as Dave Meltzer writes on Figure 4, “to show the change in the audience to much younger
viewers, even though total audience was down, 18-49 was up 31 percent from one year ago
and 18-34 was up 38 percent.
And factoring in homes lost to USA Network, the real percentage changes were viewers basically
even....”
Which means I should probably once again nail this NXT 1 Minute 1 Take like I did last week,
so here we go.
Lyra Valkyria beat Cora Jade to advance to the finals for the vacant NXT Women’s Championship.
Jade attacked Lyra after the match with a kendo stick which will likely play into the
finals this Saturday.
Dijak was attacked by Ilja Dragunov backstage, and Yabba Dabba Kato beat Axiom because he’s
big.
I’m sure that’ll get over.
Reggie made the save after the match.
Tony D’Angelo was integrated by the police and was later arrested, and Brim Bruckles
cut a video promo saying that he was going to beat Carmello Hayes this weekend.
Hayes also got a video promo of being in Boston.
Gallus had a brawl with Stacks and the Creed Brothers, and Tyler Bate had a chat with Wes
Lee backstage.
There was a lot of chatting tonight.
Finally we got some wrestling, but it wasn’t very long, as Tyler Bate beat Eddy Thorpe.
And because everyone else was doing it, Joe Gacy attacked Bate after the match and Wes
Lee ran down for the save.
Nathan Frazer beat Noam Dar, and Dijak and Dragunov continued their brawling backstage.
Hank Walker beat Tank Ledger in a battle of the made up wrestler names, and Brom Brumble
attacked them both after the match.
Sadly no one made the save for them.
Gigi Dolan and Jacy Jane had an in-ring segment to set up a weaponized cage match for next
week, and Luca Crufisto, a new lawyer gimmick, came out to the People’s Court theme and
beat Von Wagner via DQ because he was kicking too much ass.
Wagner powerbombed Crucifino through a table.
And the main event saw Tiffany Stratton beat Roxanne Perez to advance to the finals.
But never mind that s**t, Perez was attacked by the mystery lady and Dijak and Dragunov
brawled some more.
And just to round things off, there’s a quick update on the CM Punk and AEW situation.
It was reported last week by Dave Meltzer that AEW had Daily’s Place as a back-up
option for the first episode of Collision next month in case they couldn’t get CM
Punk on the show.
The original building was reportedly going to be the United Centre in Chicago, and it
may still be if Punk is there, but that won’t be confirmed until tonight.
Well, Righteous Reg of Grapsody has said that the Daily’s Place rumor is totally false,
saying, “I went myself in search for the answer to this, and there was nothing to that
rumor.
That’s just some random person online getting to Dave Meltzer, and kind of getting this
rumor started up.
That’s a nothing rumor.”
This has been backed up by Sean Ross Sapp on Fightful Select who says Daily’s Place
is not a back-up option, but they were told that several other locations were being considered
if there is a lack of Punk.
He also adds that Punk and AEW have had productive conversations, and that the legal letters
Raj Giri reported earlier in the week where to stop him saying disparaging things about
the company.