Hello, I’m Adam from WrestleTalk. I like board games, and I have hair. Uhh. Alright
so Adam was unable to do the voiceover for the list this week, so instead you get me,
Chopper Pete, your favourite presenter. Let’s round up some news from the week
shall we? Because these are some of the news bits that might not have made their way
into your news brains, here’s the news stories from this week you might have missed.
And while we’re here, getting to know each other on a deep and meaningful level, why not
go ahead and hit that subscribe button and enable notifications so we can do this again sometime.
Kyle O’Reilly Contract Update Poor Kyle. Earlier this year
it was completely feasible and even likely that he would be breaking out as the next
top babyface in NXT, and now...he’s in a team with Von Wagner. Which I think
is the logical progression we all saw coming. Unsurprisingly, since former stablemates Adam
Cole and Bobby Fish have both joined AEW and sort of reunited over there, and are in an
interesting storyline and yknow, not teaming with Von Wagner, fans were wondering if Cool Kyle would
be following suit after his contract expired. Well we now have an update courtesy of the
wonderful Fightful Select, who are reporting that not only does Kyle’s contract expire
before the end of this month, but that WWE are very interested in keeping him in the company.
Something that’s very juicy though, is that Kyle also reportedly passed on signing a new
contract that was offered to him in late 2019, meaning he never actually re-signed.
On top of this, the report also says that Kyle was actually surprised his contract was up so soon,
as so many WWE contracts have time added to them because of injury or other reasons. However,
unlike with Adam Cole, WWE were not caught off guard by this revelation,
as they started paying a lot more attention to contracts following the whole Adam Cole’s
contract expiring and him heading over to AEW two weeks after his contract expired thing.
I for one wouldn’t complain about seeing an Undisputed reunion in AEW.
That would be what I would call extremely neato. And speaking of NXT contracts.
Johnny Gargano Contract Update Another contract coming up soon is Johnny Gargano,
who isn’t teaming with Von Wagner right now, so good for him I guess. Gargano reportedly signed
a contract extension which would allow him to wrestle at NXT War Games, much like Adam Cole
signed an extension allowing him to wrestle at TakeOver 36 earlier this year. And it had been
previously reported that he was ‘exploring all options’ before deciding what he wanted to do.
And once again Fightful Select has an update for us, saying that talks between Gargano and
WWE about re-signing a contract began in October. According to the report, WWE really want to keep
Gargano around, praising his work with The Way, and pointing out that he has helped progress
a number of prospects during his time in NXT, regardless of if he stays or leaves.
Fightful also reports that Gargano’s wife Candice LeRae is set to stick around in NXT for a bit,
as her contract is not due to expire imminently. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter,
her current deal ends in May 2022, but time is expected to be added to that due to her pregnancy.
Karen Q-uestion Mark Sticking with NXT, this
is apparently a heavy NXT list episode for some reason, whatever happened to Mei Ying after she
did the fusion dance with BOA and became part of him or something? That causes him pain? I think?
And then sometimes he has facepaint and sometimes he doesn’t. I don’t understand, nor do I care to.
Well the former Mei Ying is Karen Q, who actually was on this week’s episode of
NXT 2.0. And if you didn’t spot her, well you must have been sleeping on the job.
Because she was sleeping on a couch. For...reasons? Why doesn’t 2.0 ever
explain anything? In a backstage segment with Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta, there she was,
on a couch in the background. She was not acknowledged, she was just...there.
Sleeping. Can’t wait to find out why. It was previously reported she had the
new name of Wendy Choo, but that hasn’t been seen on NXT yet, because why would
they say the name of the person featured in a backstage segment? Like that one time
Von Wagner was on SmackDown. Never forget about it, it’s the funniest WWE segment of the year.
WALTERrifying WALTER. We know him, we love him. He’s awesome.
And terrifying. You want to know what’s even more terrifying than, as Tempest calls him, a perfect
wrestler. A perfect wrestler in even better shape. A photo recently surfaced of WALTER post-workout
in Austria, and jesus christ. The man could already chop a hole in someone’s chest,
and now he could chop the hole to make a second hole. The man is a beast.
This is amidst rumours of his WWE status, as it was previously noted that he didn’t want to move
away from Europe and his wife and kids. Having now seemingly separated from his wife and begun dating
NXT UK’s Jinny, there are rumours he doesn’t have that same desire to stay in Europe anymore,
and WWE have reportedly been very keen to get him across the pond to America.
Whatever WALTER chooses to do, we’ll hear it before we see it. Those chops are delightful.
Seth Rollins’ Fan Attack Apparently Shouldn’t Be Scary
After last week’s episode of Raw, where Seth Rollins was attacked on the ramp by
a fan, f*** that fan in particular by the way, Seth described the incident as “terrifying”,
though luckily the situation was dealt with swiftly by security and the man was escorted away.
Man who has opinions Ric Flair has weighed in, not on the fan attack, but about Seth calling it
terrifying. Because apparently that’s a bad thing. Speaking on his WOOOOO Nation Uncensored Podcast,
get a better name Ric, he said: “My problem with Seth is that if
you’re a top guy in this business and you know anything about the psychology of what the fans
think and feel, which they really do, you never, ever, ever get off an airplane in LA
and say, ‘I was terrified’ – terrified of what? Terrifying, Seth, is being in an airplane crash.”
Ah yes Ric, being terrified is reserved exclusively for just being in an airplane
crash and can’t be used to describe any other experiences, you’re right. He continued:
“You were terrified or horrified by a wrestling fan? Come on, man. What I would have done if I was
Seth, which everybody should learn from this, is that even though the referees had the guy,
I would’ve jumped back on him, even if I never got a shot in. I know your answer is going to be,
‘Well there’s lawsuits and all that’ – WWE would have covered the lawsuit,
Seth would have never got to them.” Mhmm, great idea Ric, jump on the man who’s been
restrained, because kayfabe or something, brother. “But, if you are a heel, you never admit defeat.
You just don’t do it. Do you think I ever beat anybody? No, but in the minds of most people,
I didn’t lose because I kept lying about it even though it was a work.
You never admit you got your ass kicked, much less being horrified or terrified.”
It’s still real to him dammit. Apart from when this actually is real, like a fan attacking a
wrestler, and I feel that might supercede the kayfabe element of it. Maybe that’s just me.
Taya Valkyrie Thinks WWE Will Sell Soon Can’t get through a news video in 2021
without talking about at least one wrestler who’s been released by WWE this year. There’s so many
of them. Taya Valkyrie, formerly going by Franky Monet, has been outspoken following her release
from WWE in November, who was followed by her husband John Morrison the week after.
Of course the reason given for all the releases was “budget cuts”, but the common fan speculation
is that WWE is getting ready to sell up soon, what with them consolidating their entire company,
shutting down various divisions and releasing a whole bunch of people to cut down costs.
So when the Fite account tweeted “Where do you see WWE in 5 years?”, it was actually
quite funny, and also accurate, that Taya Valkyrie responded with a simple: “Sold”.
And despite that both Valkyrie and Morrison were released recently,
many fans leapt onto this response, calling her “bitter” and “salty”, because the wrestling
community is filled with really nice people. Valkyrie stood her ground, calling out these
responses, and said that yes, she did dream of getting signed by WWE, and her time there
was disappointing, and that she’s going to continue to stand up for herself.
Good for you Taya. For what it’s worth, I think she’s right. WWE will totally be sold soon.
Disappointing Ticket Sales For AEW & WWE And speaking of not selling, there’s been
some disappointing ticket sales for AEW & WWE shows in the New Year. This comes after
there was some competition between WWE and AEW in the New York area for ticket sales,
with WWE struggling to shift seats. Now the struggle has is on both companies,
because, as of Monday 29th November, WWE had sold 2040 tickets for the January 3rd episode of Raw
in Greenville, South Carolina, and 2167 tickets for the Raw episode on January 17th in Tulsa,
Oklahoma. Meanwhile in AEW, they have sold 821 tickets in a pre-sale for the December 29th
episode of Dynamite and Rampage taping, 2680 tickets in a pre-sale for the Battle of the
Belts episode in Charlotte, North Carolina, and 2441 tickets for the Dynamite & Rampage
taping episode on February 2 in Chicago, Illinois. Dave Meltzer commented that it was very surprising
that the Battle of the Belts was outselling the show in Chicago, as it’s Chicago, and has sold
out incredibly fast in the past. It was also noted that these sales numbers were more of an issue for
AEW than they were WWE, as AEW tends to sell more on pre-sales and early buys, whereas WWE drums up
numbers closer to the time with local advertising. They’re Called Championships, Pal
It’s been a long-known fact that Vince McMahon doesn’t like championship titles
to be called belts. It’s just a fact of life, like death and taxes. But why?
Well according to R-Truth, who has had more championship reigns than anyone else in WWE
history, thanks 24/7 title, Vince McMahon thinks that a belt is something you use to keep your
pants up. Or if you’re Captain Holt, it’s Plain White Tees
If you’ve been paying attention to Bryan Danielson’s AEW run so far,
you’ll have noticed that he doesn’t really have merch, which I would very much want to buy. He
just wears his plain white t-shirts, because he’s a fashion icon you see.
Speaking on the Casual Conversations with the Classics podcast, Danielson revealed it’s
because he really loves the planet, the selfish so-and-so. I just want a Danielson t-shirt okay.
“So AEW came up with a very nice ‘The American Dragon Is Back’ t-shirt. I think one of the things
that has confused their merchandising people, and also confused the WWE merchandising people,
is that I don’t wanna sell people things. So it’s a choice. It also makes my life simpler
in the sense of I don’t have to worry about what I’m going to wear to tv right now...part
of my service is this idea of how do we benefit the planet and all that kind of stuff...so it’s
like when you say consume less it’s like ‘what about the people in the forest countries of the
world? What about the bottom one billion?’ I’m not telling them to consume less. But I also
don’t want to be pushing people to consume more. I don’t want to say ‘hey, buy my shirt!’ unless
purchasing the shirt does more good than harm.” How dare you be so nice Danielson, caring about
the environment and everything. What a heel. Red Notice Is The Most Watched Netflix Movie Ever
Yep. You heard that right. That Rock movie, which had flawless integration in the form of Vince
McMahon’s golden egg at Survivor Series, is now the most watched movie in the history of Netflix.
The movie reportedly had 328.8 million viewing hours in 18 hours after launch, compared to
the previous record which was Bird Box, which had 282 million hours, which took four weeks.
And you know what, I bet it was the egg that did it. That 7 figure deal to promote the movie,
with an egg on Survivor Series. Christ. Wrestling is so stupid isn’t it.
And that’s the list, thank you for checking it out everyone, really appreciate it. Press
the videos for more listy content and obviously, subscribe here and like,
and do the YouTube things. Comment. You know the deal. Jam That Jam. Etc. Bye.