In this WrestleTalk News, NWA labeled a ‘toxic brand’, the real reason for the botch on
SmackDown, what’s going on with Charlotte Flair and more…
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It’s the truth.
We begin with the most shocking news from the weekend.
The unthinkable, the undoable might have just happened: Sammy Guevarra turned face?
Because Pro Wrestling in 2022 has spent most of the year off its face, saying former AEW
star Bobby Fish made his boxing debut on a show headlined by Floyd Mayweather with Sammy
Guevarra doing the occasional announcing is a relatively normal sentence.
Fish won his pro debut match against Boateng Prempeh in the second round via TKO - which
is very impressive for having your first ever pro fight at the age of 46.
But the best part of his victory came in Sammy Guevarra’s reaction.
Sammy’s in depth analysis here was likely a deep cut of him making fun of Fish.
I’m now going to do what all the best jokes require.
Explain it for the next 45 seconds.
Bobby Fish left AEW at the end of August when his contract expired.
He initially said it was because both sides couldn’t come to terms on money, but then
started trashing the company and its then top star CM Punk on social media - which probably
got him some heat.
His next move was to show up at IMPACT Wrestling, where he cut a promo that got so little a
reaction, even Cole Carter’s there going, ooof, that was rough.
A very niche reference that Sammy used immediately
following Bobby’s pro boxing debut victory to subtly bury him.
This kid’s alright.
But Bobby Fish isn’t the only person with wrestling heat.
Nick Aldis and NWA are currently having a very public breakup.
The weekend also saw the NWA pay-per-view Hard Times 3, where Tyrus, aka the Funkasaurus
Brodus Clay, beat Trevor Murdoch to become the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion.
But sadly most of the attention was yet again taken by the promotion’s suspended top star
Aldis.
Aldis’ relationship with the NWA has been publicly deteriorating since July.
NWA owner Billy Corgan said he was tired with Aldis’ backstage politicking, and subsequently
pulled him from a world championship match on pay-per-view, even though Aldis had won
a #1 contenders tournament.
Then last week, in the build up to NWA’s Hard Times 3 show, Nick ‘accidentally’
posted a subscribers only message publicly on Instagram, where he called the NWA so embarrassing,
he couldn’t be part of it any longer.
The NWA subsequently pulled Aldis from the pay-per-view and suspended him, as his contract
expires on December 31st.
But then rather than quietly accept his departure, he’s buried the promotion again immediately
following Tyrus’ championship win.
In another message to his Instagram subscribers, Aldis said:
"I hope now you see why it was important to me to let you know that I had given my notice
to the NWA BEFORE this PPV.
What was once a promising endeavor that I turned down bigger opportunities to take the
lead on, has become the most toxic brand in pro wrestling.
Thank you all for the support."
PWInsider has confirmed with NWA COO Joe Galli that this isn’t a storyline, and Aldis really
is suspended from the promotion.
Appearing on Sam Roberts’ NotSam podcast over the weekend, Aldis went into more depth
about why he’s leaving the NWA - which can mainly be summarised as the classic ‘creative
differences’, saying the promotion “moved away from what I had wanted it to be.”
At its most successful in the last five years, the NWA defined itself in a cluttered wrestling
landscape as a nostalgic throwback to the era of 80s studio-set wrestling shows.
It was almost universally praised.
But the rise of AEW as the main alternative, and the pandemic, hampered this growth.
Aldis was disappointed that NWA had diluted itself from its southern ‘rasslin product
into yet another indie brand with high spots and sports entertainment.
In what might be a calculated ploy, Aldis said the inspiration for him leaving the NWA
just so happened to be the guy to please right now: Triple H.
Aldis compared how he felt about the NWA to a Triple H interview when he was sad about
NXT’s 2.0 direction under Vince McMahon - no doubt trying to get on WWE’s radar
for when he’s a full free agent at the start of 2023.
Unfortunately, the way he’s gone about it hasn’t shown Aldis in the best light, as
NWA President Billy Corgan has told Busted Open Radio:
“I think he's gonna have a tough time.
Not as a wrestling talent, but the way he's dealing with this publicly, I can't imagine
any company is looking at this and saying it's a good way to do business.
He was tied to me for five years.
We did business together for five years.
I paid him a lot of money.
Take your money, shake your hands, and go.
Why the big ruckus?"
Corgan then blamed Aldis’ behaviour to “insecurity” and said he was warned about his attitude
issues before they started to work together.
He went onto say he was very disappointed how Aldis has essentially buried the locker
room on the week of the show, and he believes it to be yet another political play:
“Is what Nick's doing right now strictly about business?
Not at all.
That's so obvious to me.
Nick's a talented professional wrestler, he's working the crowd, he's working the marks,
he's working the dirt sheets.
Have at it.
When this dust settles —and it will eventually settle — we will get to see if Nick Aldis
is as good as he thinks he is."
Friday’s episode of SmackDown saw Shotzi Blackheart become the new number 1 contender
to Ronda Rousey’s Women’s Championship.
But most people ended up talking about the new biggest star in WWE’s women’s division:
the table!
It is the table.
During the 6-pack challenge, Raquel Gonzalez had Sonya Deville set up on the steel steps
with a table behind them, when Liv Morgan dove off the barricade and kinda just collapsed
in a heap on the floor.
The crowd did not get tables, as they so crave, and instead let out an audible groan at the
botched spot.
But according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, this wasn’t actually Liv’s
fault.
It was the agent producers backstage.
Apparently there was a “miscommunication” where the move got changed at the last second,
and not everyone in the match was aware of it.
So last minute, in fact, that it was changed as the women were making their way to the
ring, “and maybe Liv didn't hear about the change so that was the result.”
Originally it was a different spot, which meant Liv wasn’t supposed to leap as far
as the table.
Shotzi is most likely a filler feud for Ronda.
Because surely Rousey’s title reign is really leading to WWE’s favourite piece of booking:
here’s Charlotte Flair pushed right to the top of the division!
Flair hasn’t been seen since WrestleMania Backlash back in May, where Rousey ‘broke’
her arm during an I Quit match.
This was really to give Charlotte time off over the summer to marry former WWE star Andrade,
and presumably plot all the ways he can get fired from AEW.
Charlotte was meant to make her first public appearance for WWE at one of their partner
companies Fiterman Sports on Saturday, but she pulled out of the show on Twitter - reminding
fans that they can go see her hubby Andrade.
The sudden cancellation had fans speculating as to whether there’s something else keeping
Charlotte from returning to WWE - which her father Ric and brother-in-law Conrad has denied
on his podcast.
Conrad said: “You and I know that physically, she's fine.
Emotionally, she's fine.
It's her business to share.
But I guess what I wanted to sort of set the record straight on [is] there's nothing wrong
with Charlotte Flair.
She's just fine."
Andrade has mentioned that Charlotte “had some personal stuff that she was working on”
recently.
Also, Andrade has made his first public appearance since his backstage altercation with Sammy
Guevarra, where he was subsequently sent home by AEW.
Were you surprised by Austin Theory’s Money in the Bank cash-in fail?
So was one WWE star.
Watch on to find out more…