In this WrestleTalk News, Sasha Banks not returning to WWE, details on Saraya’s AEW
contract and Oli will be here reviewing last night’s Dynamite.
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Given the endless supply of attention grabbing wrestling news lately it’s understandable
that one of 2022’s other notable stories has been almost totally forgotten of late,
that being the ongoing absence and uncertain status of Sasha Banks and Naomi.
It was almost seen as a matter of time before Triple H and his new regime enticed the absentee
pair back to the company, especially given their walk out of WWE in May being a result
of creative frustrations.
Well, it turns out this may not be the case after all.
On Wednesday night eagle-eyed WWE fans took a break from piecing together WWE’s cryptic
White Rabbit QR codes to notice that Banks’ Twitter handle had been changed from @SashaBanksWWE
to her real name of @MercedesVernado.
It has been well documented that both Naomi and Sasha have been pursuing outside ventures
while on hiatus from the company, with Banks receiving more attention from outside the
wrestling world through her role as Koska Reeves on Disney’s series The Mandalorian.
This change may suggest that Banks, dissatisfied with just dipping her toes into Hollywood
waters, is ready to take the full plunge, however, it is still important to note that
Banks still has “Sasha Banks - WWE” in her Twitter bio.
Also, as previously reported as of last month WWE had re-listed both Sasha and Naomi to
their internal roster, so while seemingly unlikely given this update, a return for the
duo could still yet be on the cards.
Moving on to another notable ex-WWE absentee, Tony Khan’s
latest shiny new toy Saraya made her shocking AEW debut last week, confronting Britt Baker
and her cronies following a post-match beatdown on Toni Storm and Athena.
While it was fantastic seeing Saraya back on our screens once again, the return posed
more questions than answers given the former Paige’s near five-year absence from in-ring
action.
Thankfully however, a recent report from Fightful Select has swooped in to provide us some much
needed clarity on Saraya’s AEW contract and what it may mean for the future of her
in-ring career.
Fightful’s sources report that Saraya has signed at least a three-year contract with
the company, it also seems the monetary value of the deal is largely determined by her future
in-ring status: "the amount of money it was signed for largely implies that she'll be
wrestling in some capacity".
Saraya appeared on last night’s episode of Dynamite to proclaim that AEW was in fact
now ‘her house’ and proceeded to play matchmaker by setting up a lumberjack match
between champion Toni Storm and Serena Deeb.
The appearance seemed to temper expectations on an immediate return to the ring, however
given the teased brewing tensions between herself and Britt Baker, coupled with Fightful’s
report, an eventual in-ring blowoff cannot be ruled out in the future.
Lastly wrapping up this trifecta of uncertainty, there has perhaps been an update on the AEW
future of two-thirds of the Elite, Matt and Nick Jackson following their prolonged silence
following ‘brawl out’.
Posting several clips to his Instagram story, Matt re-emerged on social media to promote
the official Young Bucks shoe collab with Champs Sports, but also took time to thank
the fans and give us all an update we oh so desperately crave.
“Thank you so much, guys, for everything.
For the last 18 years, you guys have supported us and been so great to us, and I really can’t
wait to see you guys very soon.”
Ok, so it’s not much to go on but hey, it does hopefully confirm that both Matt and
Nick will in fact be returning to the ring and likely AEW once their suspensions are
eventually lifted.
Which is more than we can say about some other parties involved in the locker-room scrum
and bite-a-thon at All Out…
Now it’s time
for my review of ROH Dynamite… in about 5 minutes.
Excalibur declared this a New Era of AEW.
And by that, it appears he meant, it’s now Ring of Honor.
Which is probably for the best after Punk and the Elite ruined a bunch of your first
company titles.
The JAS opened the show with a typically sports entertaining cheap heat generating ROH Title
Win Celebration for Chris Jericho.
They even had Luigi Primo spinning New York style pizza dough in the background.
They managed to get local Philadelphia pizza heat.
Jericho promised he’s going to make ROH relevant, because nobody knew about it before
he became champion last week, and that it will henceforth be known as the Ring of Jericho.
…That’s his anus!
While it might be a new era for who holds the championships, the almost year long thematic
clash remains strong in AEW: the JAS’ sports entertainers vs Blackpool Combat Club’s
pro wrestlers.
Previously, that was played out in the form of people.
Like Daniel Garcia, who’s still stuck between the two.
But now, with the genius inclusion of ROH, it’s about the identity of a whole brand.
By the end of the night, Jericho will have set up one of the coolest stories of the year
around that.
But for now, the focus was on Garcia - with Bryan Danielson interrupting and saying the
choice is yours Danny.
While Jericho said he owns Garcia.
Huh.
A storyline about a sports entertainment guy feeling like he owns certain talents, trying
to pry them away from the pro wrestling guy.
Where does Tony get his ideas from?!
This turned into Danielson beating Daddy Magic, after Claudio had to come down and carry an
interfering Angelo Parker out.
So much for those enhanced referee powers from Rampage then.
Whether it was planned, a consequence of the Fall Out brawl or this week’s Hurricane
Ian, AEW had an engagingly tight focus which, for me, made it far more enjoyable to watch.
Taking the baton from the JAS vs Combat Club opening segment, we got the Combat Club’s
Wheeler Yuta cutting a promo on MJF, who in turn is feuding with other Combat Club World
Champion Jon Moxley.
In response, MJF somehow managed to say Philly was where you live if you can’t afford to
live in New York, called Tony Schiavone a fat prick, but still massively put over Yuta
as one of the best wrestlers he’s ever faced.
Get the crowd to hate you, while putting over you and your opponent - that is every major
promo checkbox ticked.
Yuta showed great fire in his home town, but the Firm’s Ass Boys stopped him getting
physical with Max… for now!
Mox retained against Juice Robinson in not a bad match, far from it, but I’ve seen
them have much better encounters in New Japan.
Taz mentioned Juice is a free agent right now, so perhaps this was his audition - particularly
with his wife being Women’s Champion Toni Storm.
The main problem with this match, though, was that they didn’t cut to MJF watching
from the skybox after every other move.
He was up there though, to cut a promo when Hangman Page, who has a title shot in line,
got in Moxley’s face - when Yuta appeared behind him for a great spot of dramatic irony,
which led to a brawl in the stands.
Paige here.
And this, in AEW, this is her house.
But what does that mean?
It means it’s my house.
I’m the revolution.
You gonna wrestle or something?
It seems like a weird thing to not directly address right out the gat-
I will create change in this division.
Are you like a general manager?
Lumberjack match!
So Saraya cut that promo, got all the ladyfaces down to the ring, including champion Toni
Storm, to be interrupted by the ladyheels.
Saraya then made the ensuing Serena Deeb vs Toni Storm title match a lumberjack match.
I mean lumberjill.
I mean lumberperson!
Which Storm retained in.
This was, in my opinion, a mess.
It felt like one of those WWE segments from years ago when they’d attempt a soft reset
in the most awkward way possible.
Apart from Britt Baker, who is consistently excellent, it made every other wrestler - including
your champion Storm - look very minor league, that Saraya can just walk in and tell everyone
what to do.
But I get it.
Perhaps this is a necessary step backwards to actually elevating the women’s division
in the future.
My main gripe isn’t so much that the segment was super clunky.
It’s AEW’s persistent vagueness around their performer’s in-ring statuses.
The main question everyone has, the white elephant at ringside, is will Saraya be wrestling?
So everything playing out now feels incredibly strange without that clarification.
I’m not saying give us every single private medical detail of your performers.
I’m saying invent some fictional kayfabe reasons for whatever behind-the-scenes hold
ups there might be.
The Acclaimed said it’s national scissoring day next week, and Keith Lee said he’s upset
Daddy Ass cheated to help them win.
It’s a shame they didn’t get something in front of the live crowd.
The Andrade vs Matt Hardy faction war will not die no matter how long it disappears from
our screens.
Matt appears to be getting back with Private Party.
Ricky Starks squashed ex-ROH guy Eli Isom for some momentum.
And the main event saw a terrific clash between Chris Jericho and Bandido.
This excelled on so many levels.
From an in-ring wrestling level, where Jericho, at 51 years old, is stealing the show week
after week on TV.
Where Bandido attempted insane move after insane move and executed every single one
of them to perfection.
If Tony hasn’t already signed Bandido, he better do it now because Triple H will steal
him.
In fact, even if Tony has already signed Bandido, Triple H will still likely try to steal him.
He should’ve been part of the original roster after his All In buzz.
But it was the storyline Jericho set up in the post-match, after retaining with a Liontamer,
that provided the cliffhanger.
Continuing that sports entertainment vs pro wrestler feud of ideologies, Jericho promised
to destroy Ring of Honor.
He’s going to beat up every commentator, he’s going to beat every former champion.
I can’t wait for CM Punk!
Oh.
Or Seth Rollins!
Oh.
Or Austin Aries.
Oh.
Or Low Ki.
Oh.
Or Kevin Owens!
Oh.
Or Michael Elgin.
Oh.
Or Cody Rhodes!
Oh.
I’m being glib.
There’s more than enough in AEW.
Daniels, Danielson, Cole, Joe, Lethal, O’Reilly, RUSH.
Having Jericho run through them is a fantastic fresh storyline direction for the JAS vs Combat
Club feud.
He then even laid out ROH ring announcer Bobby Cruz with a Judas Effect.
What did you think of ROH Dynamite?
Let me know in the comments.
I much preferred this level of focus on AEW’s top and developing guys, and the Ring of Jericho
[snigger] story is one of the more exciting wrestling prospects of the year.
That said, this very much felt like a filler, set up show.
Nothing wrong with that.
Those are needed every now and again.
But that’s why I’m giving this episode 79%.
New belts are coming to WWE!
Find out more by watching on…