Hello all, it is I, Chopper Pete.
Oli has requested a day off today, and being the benevolent son of a gun that I am, I’m
here to do the news for you.
So you’ve got me today and tomorrow.
You lucky, lucky people.
Now Dance, Oli.
Following AJ Styles being buried at WrestleMania 36 by The Undertaker in the Boneryard Match,
he was unceremoniously brought back to Raw just a few weeks later, even taking part in
the Climb The Corporate Ladder Money in the Bank match.
It wasn’t long afterwards that Styles was moved over to SmackDown to compete in the
Intercontinental Championship Tournament - which he ended up winning.
Reports from the time suggested that Styles and then-Raw Executive Director Paul Heyman
did not get along.
Perhaps Heyman suggested that the world was round.
Styles was reportedly angry over the firings of his OC buddies, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson
as part of WWEs Black Wednesday in April, despite them featuring during the aforementioned
Boneryard Match at WrestleMania 36.
Styles reportedly felt that, although it was Vince McMahon’s decision to have them released,
Paul Heyman could have fought for them to stay more, and didn’t.
On a recent Mixer stream... is Mixer still a thing?
AJ spoke to his fans - also known as The AJ Community - on these rumors, and pretty much
confirmed he didn’t like Heyman, but denied his move to SmackDown was over Gallows and
Anderson’s firings.
“When it came to the rumor about Paul Heyman and me being upset with him because he didn’t
take up for Gallows and Anderson before they got released, that’s not what it was at
all.
Not even close.
I’ll give you a snippet of what me, Gallows and Anderson already know.
He’s a liar, now you know.
I’m sure you’ve heard that before if you go back to his ECW days, you’ll hear that.
He’s a bold-faced liar.”
Styles also teased that a lot more about the situation would come out on Gallows & Anderson’s
Talk N’ Shop podcast once they were legally able to talk about it once their 90-day no-compete
clauses were up, which is in less than a week’s time.
Talk N’ Shop is about to become the new Talk Is Jericho.
Gallows and Anderson’s 90-day no-compete clauses expire on July 15th, and are heavily
rumored to be appearing at Impact’s Slammiversary show on July 18th, so expect a shoot heavy
podcast episode to be coming out before long.
To steal a Michael Cole-ism, changing gears now, it seems the plans for this year’s
SummerSlam have been all over the place - taking place in Boston, taking place in September
- SeptemberFest! - but the reports are that it will now be taking place on Sunday August
23rd and it’ll be at the Performance Center.
Glad we finally got the sorted.
...Unless!
PWUnlimited are reporting that “WWE is passing around two different ideas to run a WWE Network
special the week after SummerSlam on August 30th”.
These two ideas would either be a second night of SummerSlam - separating the show out over
two weeks meaning a Raw and SmackDown would be in the middle of SummerSlam - or the return
of the all-women’s PPV, Evolution.
The report goes on to say that the pushes of Sasha Banks, Bayley, Asuka and the like
are no coincidence, as they’re all building towards Evolution 2.
Yes, that’s what it is.
Nothing to do with Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch all being gone from
the roster.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful chimed in to say that he had also heard of plans for a show
on August 30th, but hadn’t been told any details beyond that.
The first Evolution took place in October 2018, and featured Ronda Rousey, Charlotte
Flair, and Becky Lynch in very prominent roles.
With all three of them not being available for the show, it seems unlikely that WWE would
consider running the event at all.
However, another report from wrestlingnews.co is stating that former Impact World Champion
Tessa Blanchard may have signed with WWE, and would make her surprise debut at the show,
with one source telling them that if she did sign with WWE, “her signing would likely
be kept quiet to avoid spoiling the surprise”.
But while the main roster may be gaining a new star, they may be missing out on four
major NXT ones.
At this week’s definitely not counter-programmed NXT Great American Bash night two main event
extravaganza major global event from Jeddah Saudi Arabia, okay maybe not that last part,
Keith Lee dethroned NXT Champion Adam Cole after his 403 day reign as the brand’s top
champion.
Rumor has been rampant for a while that once Cole dropped his NXT Title, that would be
the telltale sign he was on his way to the main roster, with or without his Undisputed
Era buddies.
However, there may be some complications with that, as Tom Colohue of Sportskeeda reports.
According to Colohue, “Adam Cole and the entire Undisputed Era have been offered a
place on either RAW or SmackDown”, with many believing they’ve done all they can
on the NXT brand.
The plan would be for them to be brought up “around SummerSlam time”.
But it may not be as simple as that, because “not every member of the group is eager
to have that happen due to an urge to stay in NXT”.
The current plan from WWE officials is to reportedly move up the faction as a whole
unit, however there is apparently “still some convincing to do”.
It’s possible that one or more members would be “left behind” on NXT, due to “a concern
that the move from Full Sail to the Performance Center taping schedule might create an increased
risk of COVID-19”.
The Undisputed Era have been top stars on NXT from the moment they arrived on the brand,
and while they would no doubt be missed on the gold brand, it could perhaps open the
roster a little and allow some other stars to shine.
Adam Cole has already been seen on the main roster during NXT’s invasion last year for
Survivor Series, where he pinned Daniel Bryan clean, and there was a double DQ against Seth
Rollins, but we don’t need to talk about that.
Would you like to see The Undisputed Era on the main roster?
Let me know in the comments because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA KYLE O’
REILLY’S AIR GUITAR!
One of the draws for the definitely not counter-programmed NXT Great American Bash night two extravaganza
tag team turmoil match to determine the best tag team in the world, okay maybe not that
last part, was the fact that there would be limited ad breaks throughout the broadcast.
As seen on the show, there were far fewer ad breaks as a whole, and much more picture-in-picture
style breaks when there were ads.
The main event of Keith Lee vs Adam Cole didn’t have any ad breaks at all.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, USA Network officials made the call
for limited ad breaks, not WWE.
As NXT was going up against AEW’s Fyter Fest night two, USA reportedly made the call
in an attempt to usurp AEW’s program on TNT.
It was noted on the Observer episode that it was very clear that this week’s edition
of NXT was all about winning the ratings, and not about making money from advertisers.
But it’s not a war guys.
They’re just doing their own thing.
They don’t counter book.
Don’t know what you’re talking about.
So did the limited ads work?
Yes.
Kind of.
For the third straight week in a row NXT won the Wednesday Night Ratings War - beating
AEW with their second night of the definitely not counter-programmed Great American Bash
to determine the world cup greatest royal rumble horror show at extreme rules stomping
grounds time to kick ass and take names, okay maybe not all of that, with 759,000 viewers,
while AEW brought in 715,000.
Both shows are down from last week, and the demographic story was the same as it’s been
since the start of the War; AEW won every demo bar one, including the all-important
18-49, while NXT won the over 50 category, and the overall viewership.
But it was one of the AEW tag teams that competed at Fyter Fest night two that have found themselves
in some hot water.
There are perhaps two less controversial words in the wrestling language than Jim and Cornette;
from his rather childish Twitter feud with Dave Meltzer, his thoughts on popular AEW
wrestlers like The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Sonny Kiss and Joey Janela to name a few,
or being fired from NWA for making racist remarks - needless to say, he’s not the
most popular person within the industry.
Which apparently is a sentiment shared by many in the lockerroom of AEW, as revealed
by their latest signees Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler of FTR.
The pair did an interview on Cornette’s podcast recently, and speaking with Kenny
McIntosh of Inside The Ropes, it got them some awkward looks backstage.
When Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler left WWE, they revealed their new wrestler names along
with a video calling themselves The Revolt, which got them into some legal issues with
current independent team which has been using the same name for many years.
Wheeler and Harwood have seemingly dropped all references to The Revolt going by their
AEW run so far, where they are only going as FTR.
And according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE have also stuck their
legal oar in, sending the pair legal letters that prevent them from naming their finishing
move The Shatter Machine.
FTR had tried to trademark Shatter Machine back in February, but we’re clearly unsuccessful,
as they have been calling it The Goodnight Express - a reference to popular tag team
The Midnight Express - since joining AEW.
Though the Goodnight Express does sound like someone who’s really struggling to remember
the name of the Midnight Express while intoxicated.
Oh you know, that tag team, the er...The Goodnight Express.
FTR were also unsuccessful on Night Two of AEW’s Fyter Fest, where they teamed with
The Young Bucks in a losing effort to The Lucha Bros and Butcher & Blade.
Also on that show, Taz brought back the FTW Championship and handed it to Brian Cage,
who from this point forward will be known as FTW Champion.
Which is really hard for me who wasn’t familiar with the FTW Championship in ECW, and thought
Taz had just made Brian Cage the ‘For The Win’ champion.
Curse you millennial language.
This brought up a lot of questions from fans on how AEW were allowed to do something that
originated in ECW back in 1998, seen as though WWE bought the ECW name and everything that
went with it back in 2001.
PWInsider have since revealed that’s because ECW and Paul Heyman never owned the copyright
on FTW, as the whole thing was Taz’s idea for a storyline when Shane Douglas refused
to defend the ECW Championship against him.
Taz holds the copyright on the name, and the design of the belt, and it's been in his possession
since the title was retired at Living Dangerously 1999.
And before we get out of here, we wanted to send our love and support to the McMahon family
today, as Stephanie McMahon has revealed her grandmother Evelyn Edwards passed away at
the age of 93.
Evelyn was the mother of Linda McMahon, and Stephanie posted on Twitter: “Last week
my 93 yr old grandmother passed peacefully, surrounded by people who love her.
One of the last things she said to me was, “Let there be love”.
Love is what heals us all.
To anyone who is hurting or struggling, I send my love to you.
#RIPMima Thank you for everything.”
You can watch Luke and Oli’s review of AEW Fyter Fest Night Two - with that awesome 8-man
tag - by clicking the video on screen right now.
And Laurie Blake and Adam Blampied review NXT Great American Bash Night Two in the other
video on screen.
Please click both of them!
I’ve been Pete Quinnell, you can follow me @petequinnell, and that was wrestling.