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Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk STACKED News, my name is Chopper Pete Quinnell.
Today is the day of Super Arabia, and Oli and Luke will be livestreaming the whole event,
the poor bastards. You can join in with them here on WrestleTalk’s YouTube channel, starting
with the pre-show at 6pm UK time, or 1pm Eastern.
As such, I’ve stepped in to do the STACKED News in their place while they try to mentally
prepare for the seventeen hour long match between Triple H and Randy Orton.
We’ve got a...Stacked show for you today, including the 24/7 championship changing hands
again, and then again, Goldberg’s SmackDown promo reportedly not being scripted, new NXT
signees being offered five year contracts,, AEW’s Double or Nothing PPV buyrates, and
the latest on a possible women’s match taking place in Saudi Arabia later today.
Click the timestamps in the description to be taken to any of those stories right now!
But before we get into it, make sure to have yourself a superclick party by pressing the
thumbs up, subscribing and enabling notifications, and leave us a comment answering the question
of the day, which today is:
Who do you think should be in the first ever WWE Women’s match in Saudi Arabia?
But first…
We’ve got another 24/7 championship title change...again. Which was also won back...again.
After their rather funny scuffle on a golf course, which saw Jinder Mahal appear in his
wrestling gear for some reason, R-Truth and Jinder Mahal went back and forth again, as
Mahal rolled up Truth on the tarmac before them boarding the plane to Saudi Arabia. Mahal
would run off with the title, and in a separate video later in the day, Truth would win the
title back by pinning Mahal while he was napping. Although I’m not sure if he’s pinning
him or trying to suffocate him.
Truth then celebrated winning the title back by yelling loudly and waking up all the other
wrestlers on the plane, smort, who then chased Truth into the aeroplane toilet. I guess Truth
is just going to...stay there for the rest of the flight. Godspeed to every other wrestlers’
bladders.
Let’s hope Goldberg wasn’t on the flight with him and was desperate to get to the toilet,
because Goldberg and doors don’t get along too well, after the one time he headbutted
one before a promo and busted himself open.
Speaking of Goldberg promos…
The WWE Hall of Famer appeared on this week’s episode of SmackDown Live in order to build
to his match with The Undertaker at Super Arabia, and he cut one of the best promos
of the year. Goldberg was believable, genuine and felt a lot more real than...I don’t
know, let’s say some promo where a guy talks about hummingbirds and doesn’t make any
sense and rambles for five minutes, oh yeah that promo was on the same show.
The reason for this being the case, is because according to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling
Observer Newsletter, Goldberg’s promo wasn’t scripted. Goldberg reportedly has a similar
deal to Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman and Daniel Bryan in that he’s given the freedom to
say whatever he likes.
Why is being able to talk freely a perk? Shouldn’t it be the norm, and then if someone is particularly
struggling with promos, you can give them a writer to help assist with it? WWE is topsy-turvy.
The promo in question was rather excellent, and it did more to build to their match at
Super Arabia than literally any other segment for any other match on the card. Shocking,
letting people talk in their own character voice leads to good promos. Who could have
foreseen that?
Well, Jon Moxley, for one. Moxley’s departure and subsequent appearances and interviews
are being felt throughout the wrestling industry. The Moxley effect, if you will. That’s a
term I’m coining by the way, so anyone using it, send me royalties. The Moxley Effect is
very much still being felt within the WWE, and one of Moxley’s primary complaints about
the company was its over-produced, over-written promos.
So maybe, just maybe, seeing Goldberg cut a very good one on SmackDown, when he wasn’t
scripted, might just start to change Vince McMahon’s mind. But probably not, don’t
hold your breath.
In fact, definitely not. Definitely don’t hold your breath. You will suffocate and die.
Because Vince McMahon doesn’t change his mind. Ever. That’s kind of his thing.
Another factor of the Moxley Effect has seemingly taken hold of the Performance Center and NXT,
as further expanded upon in Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE have a pretty sketchy history when it comes to contracts and signing talent. Whether
it be their stance on their wrestlers being “contracted talent” and not employees
to avoid having to provide benefits, yet still demanding exclusivity and retaining the ability
to refuse releases, or denying release requests and extending contract lengths due to time
being injured, reportedly, WWE sure aren’t short of controversy surrounding their contracts.
Moxley’s departure from the company has seemingly awoken something inside one Vince
McMahon. As Moxley departed at the end of his contract, so there were no legal ramifications,
and refused all other offers, it seems WWE have now taken this information, and ramped
it up to 11.
Reports are that new NXT signees are being offered five year contracts, as opposed to
the standard three. Three years is still a long time in and of itself, but asking new
signees, some of which won’t be very experienced with wrestling at all, to commit to five years
with essentially no exit route, with the potential of that length being extended if you get injured,
that’s bonkers. That’s crazy.
This is just the latest attempt by WWE to lockdown talent and avoid another Moxley Effect
from taking place when they leave the company.
Moxley’s appearance at AEW’s debut show, Double or Nothing, was a long time in the
making, and it was just one part of a very successful show, including Chris Jericho vs
Kenny Omega and The Lucha Bros vs The Young Bucks just to name a couple.
Now there’s been an update on the PPV buyrate for Double or Nothing.
Last week it was reported on the Wrestling Observer that Double or Nothing was estimated
to have drawn around 98,000 PPV buys, which includes both TV and digital purchases, with
an almost exact 50/50 split between the two. That split was actually somewhere in the region
of 75/25 in the UK, because the majority of the marketing surrounding the show in the
UK revolved around ITV Box Office.
That 98,000 buy number has now been further clarified, and AEW’s first show is estimated
to have drawn somewhere in the region of “98,500 to 113,000” PPV buys. For a bit of context,
All In drew around 55,000 PPV buys, and December to Dismember, which was WWE’s lowest bought
PPV ever before the WWE Network came in, drew around 90,000 buys. They’ve already managed
to outdraw ECW. Well, the bad one, but still!
This is some great stuff for a promotion that hasn’t started weekly TV yet, and their
entire promotional work was pretty much exclusively done online. These buys numbers for future
shows are expected to increase over time, especially once weekly TV kicks in in October
on TNT.
AEW have of course still got a ways to go to reach the heights of what a regular WWE
PPV would draw before the network days, but this is a very promising start for the promotion.
Something else that could actually be promising, is the potential of having a WWE women’s
match take place in Saudi Arabia at Super Arabia. Now it seems that match may actually
be taking place.
It was previously reported by PWInsider that both Alexa Bliss and Natalya have travelled
to Saudi Arabia, potentially for a first-ever WWE women’s match in the Kingdom.
This was compounded by the reliable Wrestlevotes, who stated that the original plan for the
match was Nia Jax vs Natalya, but with Jax being injured, it seems Bliss has been swapped
in in her place.
Now there is further evidence to suggest that the women’s match may be taking place, as
on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that WWE have technically been able
to hold a women’s match for a while now, due to recent changes within the country.
Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud has vowed
that the country will be ruled by “moderate Islam” which has allowed females to begin
working in other entertainment mediums in the country.
As it stands currently very few people know whether this match will be happening or not.
Alexa Bliss and Natalya, the people who may be performing the match, are not two of them.
However, Meltzer suggests that high ranking officials within WWE will know whether this
is the case or not. If the match has been given the green light (gimme the green light),
then the most likely reason why there hasn’t been an announcement is to prevent some backlash
from within the Saudi Kingdom itself.
A women’s match has reportedly been in the works in Saudi Arabia for a long time, with
WWE and Saudi officials just waiting for the right time to pull the trigger.
If the match doesn’t end up happening at Super Arabia itself, then the likelihood is
that Alexa and/or Natalya will appear to announce the women’s match that will take place when
they return to Saudi Arabia later this year on November 1st for an unnamed show as of
yet. Saudi Arabia 4.0.
“The forefront of change” has been a line WWE have been pushing for quite some time
now regarding their Saudi Arabia shows, and while this has most certainly been a slow
burner, and in no way excuses the other controversy surrounding the shows, having a women’s
match in Saudi Arabia is an actual form of change.
It’s just a shame then, that this change has to be marred under the Saudi Arabia banner
and all the controversy that comes with that. Regardless, if a women’s match does take
place at the show, it’s a tiny little silver lining on what will hopefully be an increased
female presence within the Kingdom. I think they’ve missed a trick here though. Should
have brought Becky Lynch with you. She’s The Man after all.
Has the Pokemon fandom gone too far with creating sexual content around its characters? Click
the video to my right to be taken to Laurie and I discussing the subject. And make sure
to check back here to watchalong with Oli and Luke when Super Arabia goes live! Press
the thumbs up, subscribe and enable notifications, leave us a comment answering the question
of the day too! A special thank you to our pledgehammers on Patreon, some of whom you
can see scrolling below me right now! I’ve been Chopper Pete Quinnell, and that, was
wrestling.