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Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk MECHA NEWS! I am Luke Owen. Have yourself a Superclick
Party, give us a subscribe, press the thumbs up, and leave a comment down below to answer
our question of the day:
With Paramount changing the design of Sonic the Hedgehog for the new movie due to fan
backlash, what would you like Vince McMahon to change about WWE?
We’ve got a packed show of news for you today, including the return of Daniel Bryan,
a top AEW star possibly being injured ahead of Double or Nothing, and the real reason
Goldberg returned to WWE. But first.
We want to send out a big thank you to “The Hardcore Legend” Mick Foley for his great
intro to today’s news episode, which is a solid reminder for you to get your tickets
to see WrestleTalk Live next Tuesday on May 7th at the Prince Charles Cinema in London,
where we’ll be screening the classic 2000 WCW movie Ready To Rumble starring David Arquette,
Scott Caan, Rose McGowan as well as Goldberg, Sting, Diamond Dallas Page and John Cena.
No, I did not misspeak with that last one. We’ll also be recording a live podcast after
the show talking the wrestling career of David Arquette, and we can’t wait to meet you
all before the film starts. Tickets are available now in the video description below.
2019 won’t just be known as the year WrestleTalk screened Ready To Rumble on May 7th at the
Prince Charles Cinema in London tickets are available now, it will also be the year that
many top name WWE wrestlers asked for their releases.
Both Tye Dillinger and KENTA asked for their releases and were granted them, rumours ran
wild earlier this year that The Revival and The Kannelisi both asked for the releases
but were denied them - with new rumours that Revival have turned down massive half a million
dollar deals from the company - Dean Ambrose decided to leave once his contract expired
recently, and there’s the case of Sasha Banks reportedly trying to quit WWE following
WrestleMania over unhappiness of dropping her tag titles to The IIconics, which has
led to a stalemate between both parties. And of course there’s Luke Harper, who prior
to WrestleMania posted a lengthy statement that detailed how unhappy he was in the company,
and then publicly asked for his release a couple of weeks ago. Sadly for Harper, his
request was turned down, and worse still WWE have reportedly added an extra six months
to his contract due to his injury last year.
It’s now being reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Harper was originally
planned for a feud with Sami Zayn following WrestleMania, but those plans were scrapped
when Vince McMahon saw him in the Andre The Giant Battle Royal, where Braun Strowman forgot
some of their spots. The irony of this is that Harper wasn’t originally lined up to
be in the Battle Royal at all, but was added at the last minute when Vince reportedly “out
of the blue” asked why he wasn’t in it. With his Zayn feud scrapped, Harper was sent
home after WrestleMania - but then called back for the Smackdown taping so he could
record a dark match segment where they tested pairing EC3 with Drake Maverick as his manager.
The oddest part about this report is that one of the reasons Vince is currently down
on Harper and doesn’t want to use him is that he was asked to do a southern accent
which he struggled with. The reason this is an odd reason to currently not use someone,
is that Harper was asked to do this accent four years ago when he was part of the Wyatt
Family, and Vince has held it against him ever since. According to Dave Meltzer, “when
it was asked about which brand Harper would be on, Vince [talked about] how the guy can’t
even do a Southern accent, said the match with EC3 was bad, so they didn’t put him
with either brand and that’s when he asked for his release.”
Someone who could be returning soon, however, is Daniel Bryan. And we’ll have more about
that after this short plug for our awesome magazine. Take it away Oli!
Daniel Bryan hasn’t been seen on TV since he lost the WWE Championship at WrestleMania
to Kofi Kingston. Since then there have been a lot of reports about Bryan being injured,
and worryingly PWInsider reported that it was a “closely guarded secret” within
WWE.
In some positive news however, it’s now being reported that Bryan has been medically
cleared and could return to TV as soon as next week. It was reported last week that
Bryan was originally set to face Kofi Kingston in an antiquated rematch at Money in the Bank,
but those plans fell through when Bryan suffered his mystery injury, and the decision was made
to turn Kevin Owens heel so he could feud with Kofi instead.
And one of the wrestlers Kofi listed as influential to him is former Impact World Heavyweight
Champion Johnny Impact. Which is a nice and not-at-all-forced segue into plugging our
audio interview we conducted with the man himself! The podcast is now live on the WrestleRamble
feed, where we talk about the Austin Aries situation at Bound for Glory last year, his
thoughts on All Elite Wrestling, and the ultimate question: would he rather face 100 chicken
sized Brock Lesnars, or one Brock Lesnar sized chicken? Here’s a clip.
Johnny also said that he would like to have a series of matches with current X Division
Champion Rich Swann down the line, and he may get that chance as PWInsider have reported
that Swann has signed a new 2-year deal with the company. Swann himself said of the deal,
“Seeing how the company is growing, there’s no reason to think that it can’t become
a relationship that lasts even longer. I’m treated very well and I’m very happy there.
It’s one of the most packed rosters right now.”
At the most recent set of Impact TV tapings however, there was some potentially bad news
coming out of it for one of the biggest matches being advertised for All Elite Wrestling’s
Double or Nothing later this month.
On an upcoming episode of Impact, Johnny Impact will face new signee Michael Elgin and Pentagon
Jr of the Lucha Brothers in a number one contender’s match for Brian Cage - and during a spot where
Pentagon Jr. was hurricanrana’d by Impact, he landed awkwardly on his leg and spent the
rest of the match on the outside. Reports from the building say that he was helped to
the back and couldn’t apply pressure to his leg, but Dave Meltzer has since reported
that Penta is feeling much better now he’s rested it. However there isn’t official
confirmation that he’ll be cleared for his AAA Tag Team Championship match against The
Young Bucks at AEW’s Double or Nothing later this month.
One week before Double or Nothing is WWE’s Money in the Bank, but one Raw star likely
won’t be on the show - and probably won’t be on any shows moving forward.
Last week it was reported by Fightful, PWInsider and the Wrestling Observer that there was
some backstage heat on Lio Rush, with the reports saying that he rubbed people the wrong
way in the locker room, and felt that he should be pushed as a much bigger star and not just
a mouth piece for Bobby Lashley.
In a refreshing change of pace however, Lio himself approached Fightful to go public with
his feelings on these rumours, saying that there is someone backstage in WWE that also
worked with him in Ring of Honor that doesn’t like him and is spreading a false narrative
about his heat in order to get him fired. He adds that he’s upset that he wasn’t
on meet and greets with Bobby Lashley, nor was he paid merchandise revenue for catchphrases
he helped popularise. More damning of the company however was Rush saying, “I have
been sent to live shows and TVs and forced to pay for my own rental for 5 days as well
as hotel while not making enough money to do so,” and that he is, “Walking around
broke in the biggest sports entertainment industry that there is while having two kids
and a wife to support.”
PWInsider add in their report that Rush has gotten heat from the WWE locker room because
he brings groups of friends and his wife to TV tapings without getting the right credentials,
and even lets his wife change in the female talent locker room without asking for their
permission. According to PWInsider, a WWE vetran approached Rush to talk about these
issues, and he blew them off saying that he works for Vince and not them.
And we can now presume this veteran was Mark Henry, who told Busted Open Radio that he
pulled Rush aside to have a word with him, and claims Lio told him, “a blatant lie
to my face.” Henry also adds in the interview: “If you can’t pay for a rental car, you
can’t pay for a hotel with the money that you’re making every week then you need to
change the way you’re spending. You can’t blame that on the office. If you spent everything
before you got it, that’s your problem.”
PWInsider are also reporting that Rush’s claims of being unable to afford his travel
are odd, seen as though he was recently offered a new $300,000 a year contract which he reportedly
turned down, instead asking for double that amount.
Someone who could easily ask for double that amount is former Universal Champion Goldberg,
who was quietly announced to be returning to WWE when they head to the beautiful and
totally progressive city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The as-yet-be-named show will take
place on June 7th on the WWE Network, and will also see the in-ring returns of Brock
Lesnar since WrestleMania and The Undertaker since the Raw After WrestleMania.
Goldberg wrestling at the controversial Saudi Arabia shows should come as no surprise, given
that the Crown Prince - who has major influence on who appears on the shows - is a fan of
wrestling from the 1980s and 90s - reportedly asking for both The Ultimate Warrior and Yokozuna
to appear at last year’s Greatest Royal Rumble despite both of them being dead.
But there is another reason that Goldberg has been snapped up by WWE for this show,
and it’s the same reason Vince McMahon had Undertaker pulled from Starrcast II and his
Inside The Ropes speaking tour, as well as Kurt Angle’s appearance for Starrcast and
WrestleCon later this year. And that reason is All Elite Wrestling.
Dave Meltzer is reporting in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE approached Goldberg
for the show because, “he was the one guy left who could go to AEW and perhaps bring
back lapsed fans.” Meltzer adds that Vince now has the power of hindsight, and doesn’t
want to repeat the mistake of letting WCW easily snap up the likes of Hulk Hogan, Randy
Savage and Roddy Piper in the 1990s, who all helped bring back fans who had grown tired
of WWF’s product at the time. Along with their homegrown talent and a few other WWF
names jumping ship, WCW became a powerhouse that would have taken down WWE had it not
been for one too many poor booking choices and creative directions. There will be more
on that subject at our screening of Ready To Rumble next Tuesday.
Someone who seems very pleased about this return on the other hand is Randy Orton, who
after tweeting that WWE wasted $2 million on the projected bugs in his WrestleMania
33 match with Bray Wyatt, responded to Rusev’s faux-excitement that Goldberg was returning
to WWE by saying: “There goes another 2 million.”
Thank you for watching and a special thank you to all our Pledge Hammers, some of which
you can see scrolling their way into my stomach. Make sure you’ve got your tickets to see
WrestleTalk Live in London next Tuesday, and find out the latest on Epic buying up the
team behind Rocket League by watching ScreenStalker. I’ve been Luke Owen and that was wrestling.