This is the WrestleTalk News, and I’m Oli Davis - back from my three week trip around
Japan.
Where, I’m not kidding, I was recognised at literally the first place I went.
We got to Tokyo, checked into our Akihabara hotel room, very weird place, and went for
dinner in a ramen bar.
I walk in, order, and a voice goes - oh my god, are you Oli Davis.
YouTube’s very own, I replied, expecting this to set up a whole three weeks of adoring
Japanese fans telling me how great I am.
For it to not happen a single other time.
Apart from at a DDT show I went to, which, again not kidding, two of the six matches
on the card were won by gooch.
Yuki Iino of the sexy tag team Pheromones submitted two different men by reversing the
under part of his ball sack over their faces.
Six stars, it literally in Japan.
So what do you want to talk about?
I’ve been trying to keep up with wrestling news as best I could while I was away, but
I’m sure the top story is: Oli Davis winning his first ever Survival Series.
Yes, SPOILER - but you should’ve watched it already, it’s been up for like three
days on partsFUNknown - you are looking at your new Survival Series briefcase holder.
I can’t see any other wrestling news being bigger than th-
WWE released 24 different wrestlers, including Matt Riddle, Dolph Ziggler and at least one
version of Dana Brooke.
Former AEW champion Jade Cargill showed up at WWE Fastlane.
NXT is better than AEW now.
And CM Punk WWE return confirmed.
But the top story in this episode is rumours WWE are still planning for the recently passed
Windham Rotunda’s Wyatt6 faction to debut on TV.
Today, October 9th, marks exactly one year and a day since Bray Wyatt returned to WWE
in the closing angle of 2022’s Extreme Rules premium live event.
A return so good, I deliriously gave the entire show a 95% score, even though nothing else
really happened on it.
Riddle vs Rollins in a Fight Pit match was the main event nobody remembers.
But I do, because I’m Survival Series champion.
Bray’s return brought with him the latest characters in his vast, interconnecting lore
- that can be traced through his Fiend and Wyatt Family history.
This time, he supposedly came back as the real person Bray.
But he was haunted by the seeming manifestation of his insecurities Uncle Howdy, who was eventually
played by his real life brother Bo Dallas.
The reported plan was for Wyatt and Howdy to be joined by a new, larger Wyatt Family
faction called the Wyatt6, which would include Alexa Bliss - who had already began teasing
her turn in early 2023 - and former Sanity leader Eric Young, who ended up asking for
his release in April when Vince McMahon returned to the company.
These plans were put on indefinite hold in February, though, as Bray was fighting a real-life
illness.
There was optimism Wyatt would be able to return after the Summer, but on August 24th,
somehow only a month and a half ago, news tragically broke that Windham Rotunda had
died unexpectedly aged 36.
Wyatt was a creative genius, and while not every idea worked in a wrestling ring, the
mythology and characters he created around them were fascinating.
According to Ringside News and BWE, so do take this as a rumour with a pinch of salt
rather than a report, Triple H has been listening backstage to creative pitches to reintroduce
Bray’s Wyatt6 faction - noting the “idea of the funhouse and Wyatt6 are still on the
table” and that Uncle Howdy would be the one taking over.
What do you think about Bo Dallas returning to WWE to continue on his brother’s legacy?
Let me know in the comments down below.
At this point, it’ll probably happen on NXT.
As we are one day out from the one-night-only special Tuesday Night War event of AEW vs
NXT.
Due to a bunch of baseball on AEW Dynamite’s usual Wednesday timeslot on TNT, the show
is being moved a day forward to Tuesday - putting it head to head with NXT, which had itself
moved from Wednesday nights back two and a half years ago, after Dynamite had consistently
beat it during their Wednesday Night War counter scheduling.
But the NXT of October 2023 is very different from the multicoloured midlife crisis of a
brand AEW had chased off before.
Over the last year, under the booking of Shawn Michaels, NXT has perfected the balance between
getting over homegrown athletes like Bron Breakker and Tiffany Stratton, utilizing great
indie talent like Nathan Frazer and now NXT Champion Ilja Druganov, while also mixing
in main roster star power like Becky Lynch and Dominic Mysterio, having them win championships,
elevating the developmental wrestlers rather than undermining them.
It’s a winning formula that not only seriously dented AEW Collision’s viewership on the
30th September, going against NXT’s terrific No Mercy premium live event, but also saw
the October 3rd edition of NXT TV beat the October 4th episode of AEW Dynamite in total
viewership, with 857,000 over 800,000 - the first time that’s happened for three years.
Although it’s important to note AEW still won in the most important metric, the 18-45
demographic viewership.
Yes, NXT was coming hot off its No Mercy show.
But AEW was coming off its also excellent pay-per-view WrestleDream - which had what
some argue as one of the best matches of all time, the five and a half star Dave Meltzer
approved Bryan Danielson vs Zack Sabre Jr, and the huge debut of Adam Copeland, the former
Edge in WWE.
The October 4th Dynamite was heavily promoted around Copeland momentum, as was the 7th’s
episode of Collision.
But surprisingly…
it didn’t really change much at all.
Dave Meltzer has reported Collision’s fast national numbers - the immediate TV ratings
that do admittedly tend to trend upwards with the final confirmed number - did 333,000 viewers
and a 0.08 18-45 demo rating.
These are similar numbers to how Collision performed the previous week against No Mercy
- so that’s an interesting stat in itself.
Right now, NXT and main roster WWE premium live events appear to pull away the same portion
of AEW viewers.
That’s either a sign of NXT’s momentum right now, or just that there’s a section
of wrestling fans who will always prioritise a WWE-branded show over AEW, main roster or
developmental.
But Meltzer described AEW’s numbers as “pretty bad”, calling them “cold” right now,
and that Copeland’s starpower isn’t translating into either increased TV viewership or live
event ticket sales - the best indicators of a wrestling promotion’s popularity - with
both Dynamite and Collision’s ratings actually down overall the week of his debut, and his
name not selling a lot of tickets like AEW saw with CM Punk’s return earlier this year.
Collision at Salt Lake City only had 2,500 people in the end, with Copeland not moving
numbers at the end.
And the Tuesday 10th’s head to head could increase NXT’s lead even further.
In a totally unconnected coincidence, these were always the plans before we ever knew
about AEW going head-to-head with us, this week’s NXT will see preannounced appearances
from main roster super star power: John Cena, Becky Lynch, Cody Rhodes, Paul Heyman and
even a teased showing from the Undertaker.
But NXT is different from the main roster.
Specifically, the total unsafe work environment of the car park, parking lot for American
viewers.
Thankfully Carmelo Hayes has extended his protection:
“Heads up, when you get to the NXT parking lot call me.
I’ll come out and walk you in OG 👌🏾 just to be safe.”
But who’s he saying that to?
I can’t see anyone in the original post?
But not everyone is being moved to NXT.
Someone just got officially called-up to the main roster!
NXT’s Dragon Lee is now listed as a SmackDown talent on WWE’s official website.
This comes after he appeared on every single WWE show in the last week of September - losing
to Dominic Mysterio on Raw, competing on NXT the next night, showing up in the crowd at
SmackDown, then special guest refereeing Dom’s match at No Mercy.
He scuffled with Austin Theory on the following Friday’s SmackDown.
After a short stint with AEW last year, Lee opted to sign with WWE in controversial fashion
- immediately after beating AEW stars FTR for the AAA World Tag Team Championships on
a AAA show.
He made his NXT debut in March, and seems set for one of the shorter NXT runs in history
- potentially moving to the main roster now just six months later.
And we all know what that means.
CM Punk to NXT tomorrow night also confirmed.
CM Punk has posted a comic book panel on his Instagram, with Iron Man and Doctor Doom agreeing
to a 24 hour truce, where neither will be aggressive to each other either personally
or indirectly.
Ah yes, both Iron Man and Doctor Doom, Marvel characters famed for thinking they’re doing
the right thing, when in fact it’s incredibly destructive overall.
But it’s also that psychological justified character that makes for such sympathetic
and engrossing psyches.
I’m wearing Doctor Doom trainers on my feet right now, and, still somehow through all
this, CM Punk loyalty in my heart.
While this post in isolation isn’t clear in what he’s teasing, we can probably assume
he’s not talking about a truce with Jungle Boy.
In last Friday’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Meltzer reported it is Punk’s “intention
to return [to WWE] and the two sides are in talks.”
November 25th’s Survivor Series is taking place in Punk’s hometown of Chicago, so
the obvious speculation is it could happen there.
Although Punk was only fired from AEW on the 2nd September, and it’s unknown if there’s
a non-compete period attached to that.
Is CM Punk one of the greatest WWE Champions of all time?
Find out in our brand new format Tables, Lists and Chairs by watching on!