On today’s news, WWE fires back at comments made by Keith Lee, CM Punk burying Eddie Kingston
was a shoot, brother, my review of SmackDown, Tempest’s review of Rampage, and more.
Subscribe here for more daily wrestling news videos, and good golly gosh it’s Full Gear
tonight isn’t it.
I can’t wait.
It has been little more than a week since WWE released 18 wrestlers from their roster.
Again.
Perhaps the biggest name sent packing was the most likeable man ever, Keith Lee.
Lee had been off television for most of 2021 while dealing with a heart condition before
making his return to Raw in July.
Shortly after his release, Keith Lee posted a statement to Twitter on November 8.
Among other things he said that he paid for all of his medical expenses.
He said: “Greetings and salutations.
This day is my birthday!
It is not a happy birthday, but is is one I am most grateful for.
Several months ago, it was not a guarantee I would make it to this day, so there is a
positivity in that.
I paid all my medical bills from the many offices and machines I frequented.
There is positivity in that.
And, I do find it amusing that people believe anyone but me paid for my medical expenses.”
This was apparently a statement that WWE did not like as they release their own statement
on the matter, claiming that they did pay for his medical bills.
The statement said: “Keith Lee’s recent comments implying
WWE failed to pay his medical bills are erroneous.
WWE has an extensive healthcare program for the medical care of its in-ring performers
and Mr. Lee was part of this program while with the company.
Should Mr. Lee have any concerns over the payment of medical bills, he is welcome to
address them with WWE.”
There have been several reports this week that Keith Lee had “attitude problems”
backstage which sounds like code for “our creative is terrible and he didn’t like
it”, and now with this new statement it certainly appears that Keith Lee’s departure
was not an amicable one.
We, of course, love Keith Lee here at WrestleTalk because well why wouldn’t you and can’t
wait to see what he does next.
One of the most memorable promo segments of the year came last week on AEW Rampage when
CM Punk and Eddie Kingston verbally teed off on one another.
Kingston came prepared with lots of verbal ammunition, referring to times Punk buried
him while on the independents.
Well it turns out this was more real than not as an unnamed wrestler told Dave Meltzer
the story of when Punk buried Kingston while working in IWA Mid South.
The wrestler said via the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that:
“I can fully vouch for Eddie’s promo on Punk the other night.
I was sitting right there in an IWA Mid South locker room when Punk called Eddie and his
partner at the time, Blackjack Marciano, fat, lazy and unsafe.
Marciano had just accidentally injured Delirious in a previous match and Punk was hot about
it, so just buried them nonstop.
I could see why Eddie hung onto that hate and anger for so long.”
There have been no reports of any genuine heat between the two men but their program
is clearly being built on real life experiences.
As long as this doesn’t end up in a shoot fight, keep it up because the content is impeccable.
Tonight is the night of AEW’s Full Gear pay-per-view and it could possibly be the
night of Hangman Page’s coronation as AEW World Champion.
However, a major spoiler for Page’s entrance at the event may have been leaked on Reddit
Friday evening.
Posted to the Squared Circle Reddit was a picture of Hangman Page on horseback in the
middle of the street.
It is unclear about whether this is for his entrance or perhaps for filming a video package
but if Full Gear is going to be Hangman’s big moment, a big entrance would make a lot
of sense.
Page had rode a horse to the ring before at All Out 2019 for his AEW World Championship
match against Chris Jericho, one of the biggest matches of his career and one of the biggest
moments in the ongoing Hangman Page storyline.
Also a reminder that the horse was named Hunter Horse Helmsley, which will never not be funny.
Page will face Kenny Omega in the main event of Full Gear tonight on pay-per-view so keep
an eye out for some real cowboy s-word.
And now it’s time for my review of last night’s episode
of SmackDown, in about 5 minutes.
Alright, let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way to start with: this was not
a good episode.
I’m going to really try and not be too negative, because I understand people don’t want to
hear that all the time, but don’t be surprised if I end up being negative anyway, because
Jesus Christ, this show was awful.
It started with all the SmackDown women standing in a row, where Sonya Deville introduced all
of the women’s Survivor Series members, but Sasha Banks wasn’t looking to co-exist,
getting in Shotzi’s face immediately, and then Naomi came out, who got in Sonya’s
face, and then everyone started brawling.
But I know you’re asking: how will they co-exist.
Good question: but here’s a great answer.
Make a six-women tag.
That’s sure to get them on the same page.
This was a fun little match, which got a decent amount of time, and had a nice finish, with
Natalya locking in the Sharpshooter on Aliyah, but Naomi roped Natalya’s head, allowing
Aliyah to get the rollup win.
Aliyah gets a win in her debut match on the main roster, that’s nice.
So nice in fact, that she threw up in excitement before she left the ring.
Whoops.
Aliyah’s on cloud nine, nothing can bring her down, apart from Sonya Deville backstage
telling her that she’s no longer on the women’s Survivor Series team.
She just won.
She just won her match.
And now she’s off the team.
Most likely the reason is because Naomi got involved in the finish, but Aliyah just won.
Great booking guys.
Great booking.
Sami Zayn then did a promo on himself in the mirror and Jeff Hardy said it sucked.
Like you’re one to talk, Jeff.
Jeff Promo Machine Hardy.
Elsewhere, it’s Reigns vs Woods tonight, and Reigns made the stipulation that he’ll
have to bend the knee if he loses and Woods will have to bend the knee if he loses.
If that stipulation sounds familiar it’s because it’s the exact same stipulation
as last week, but with Reigns instead of Jimmy Uso.
Awesome.
Up next Shinsuke Nakamura & Rick Boogs came out for a match against Los Lotharios, but
before the match starts we cut backstage to Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss talking, and
then it goes to a recap of Moss’ s***** joke from last week, and then it goes back
to them backstage and Moss does another not funny joke about vikings, and they laugh about
it, and then we go back to the ring for the match.
Pacing.
Nonexistent in this company.
And after Tempest and I complained that the champion was pinned in the main event of NXT
2.0 this week, the champion took the pin here - oh yeah Nakamura is the Intercontinental
Champion by the way, in case you forgot that, because I did! - as Los Lotharios put him
away with a new tag finish.
I really like Los Lotharios, now without their surnames, but there’s a Boogs right there
to be pinned.
Now we get to my favourite part of the show: backstage is Adam Pearce, Sonya Deville, and
a debuting Von Wagner from NXT.
Look everyone, it’s Von Wagner, your favourite NXT wrestler!
Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville talk about removing people from their teams, and then Sami Zayn
comes in and demands that Jeff Hardy be taken off the men’s team.
Adam Pearce then says it’ll be Hardy vs Zayn, loser gets taken off the team.
And then Sami walks out, and that’s the segment.
Guys, Von Wagner was there!
Is no one going to talk about the Von Wagner in the room?
He wasn’t even acknowledged, looked at, nothing, he was just there, standing, as if
he was completely invisible.
The only thing that happened was that Sami looked at him briefly before he walked off.
There was no nameplate for him, so non-NXT 2.0 fans would know who he was.
He was just there.
What is this company?
They can’t do basic storytelling!
This was my favourite thing on the show.
Absolute pure comedy.
I love it.
The tagline for WrestleMania 38 was revealed to be “The Most Stupendous Two-Night WrestleMania
In History”.
Catchy that.
I changed my mind, that might be my favourite thing on the show.
Charlotte Flair then did a really obnoxious promo saying Becky was going to need a new
name after Survivor Series, Becky Uh-Oh.
And then she said Uh Oh a lot and got the crowd to say it with her.
I got a physical, primal reaction to this promo where I just wanted to turn the show
off.
Oh and hey look, it’s Toni Storm!
They finally remembered about her.
She came out and said she wanted a SmackDown Women’s Championship match, why, in kayfabe,
would she be even close to the front of the queue, she lost in first round of the Queen
of the Ring tournament.
And Charlotte said no, as she should, really.
And that was that.
Aliyah backstage was about to be manipulated by Mustafa Ali, but Ricochet came in and hyped
her up and led her away from the mean man.
Jeff Hardy vs Sami Zayn came next, and they’ve f****** changed Sami’s music?
This.
F******.
Company.
You know I can tolerate nonsensical debuts and terrible taglines for PPVs, but I draw
the line at changing Sami Zayn’s incredible theme song.
This was a fun, if somewhat formulaic Sami Zayn match, where he attempted to cheat with
an illegal pin, was caught doing so, so he argued with the ref, Twist of Fate, Swanton,
Sami loses.
Sami, no longer on the Survivor Series team.
Just gonna remind you by the way that Survivor Series is next week.
Crazy that.
Hit Row do another promo, I wonder when they’re actually going to do something.
And then, oh no, and then...Jinder Mahal and Shanky to a promo back to them, and they rap
it.
And it’s awful.
I can’t tell if this was hilarious or just...terrible.
But it was definitely one of them, and I s*** you not, Jinder Mahal finished off by saying:
“Hit Row?
More like Cringe Row”.
Who are you, Andy Datson?
I feel so sorry for Jinder, it’s not his fault, it’s the material he’s been given
but my god, who is coming up with this stuff?
This show, is so bad.
Xia Li is coming soon, Ridge Holland does another promo about Sheamus, and he says he’ll
be a better tag partner to Sheamus than Cesaro was.
And then it was the main event, and it ended in DQ because of course it did.
I think this show is breaking me.
We got a long entrance from Reigns, and then a recap of WrestleMania 32, you know, the
bad one.
Woods looked good in this match though, but as it looked like he might have the match
won, The Usos caused the DQ, beat him up, and then Reigns bent the knee, by kneeling
in the ring while Woods was on the outside, and then they took Woods’ crown and put
it on Reigns head, and he looks, pretty stupid.
And that was the show.
On the poll on a pole match on our Community Tab, 63% of you voted for King Reigns?
Boy.
This was not good.
This failed to build Survivor Series properly, had some completely nonsensical segments and
booking, and the matches were...fine.
As something to laugh at, this is clean 5/5.
As an actual wrestling show?
I’m genuinely torn between
a 1 and a 2.
Let’s go 1.5.
Screw you I can do half votes.
And now let’s go to Tempest for the review of Rampage.
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