Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk Super News - I’m Oli Davis.
We’ve got a packed show for you today, including backstage morale in WWE being at an all-time
low, more WWE wrestlers potentially defecting to All Elite Wrestling, the latest on AEW’s
historic TV deal, and make sure you stick around until the end of the show, because
WrestleTalk have also got something rather special to reveal, which we’ve been working
on for quite some time. Click the timestamps in the video description
below to jump to any of those stories right now!
And make sure to have a Super Click party and give us a subscribe, click the thumbs
up button and answer our question of the day down below:
What surprise debuts do you think we’ll see at AEW Double or Nothing? Because I’ll
be replying to people in the comments FROM OUTTA NOWHERE (CM Punk)
But first… ALL THE NEWS has happened!
Rather fittingly, today, the 16th May, marks two years since the tweet that started All
Elite Wrestling. When replying to a fan question about whether
Ring of Honor could sell over 10,000 tickets for a show back in 2017 - when the Bullet
Club faction of Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks were breaking the promotion’s
attendance records - Dave Meltzer replied: “Not any time soon.”
A challenge that Cody immediately responded to:
“I'll take that bet Dave I already gave them their biggest buyrate...put The Bucks
& I on the card & 3-months to promote CC @ringofhonor” It didn’t quite happen with Ring of Honor,
though, as Cody and the Bucks instead put on their own show All In last September, selling
out 10,000 tickets in under half an hour. It was such a success, it piqued the interest
of money man Tony KHAAAAAN, from the billionaire Khan family, to launch an entirely new wrestling
promotion off the back of it - All Elite Wrestling. Sorry, Ring of Honor...
And here we are, just two years after, and AEW have officially announced their TV deal
with TNT, the same network that once broadcast WCW two decades ago.
The press release revealing the partnership interestingly describes AEW as a “powerhouse
sporting league” - implying there will be a league structure to the promotion, and TNT
“will begin airing weekly matches later this year.” AEW will also be available from
Bleacher Report Live - part of one of the biggest websites in the world, and owned by
TNT’s parent company WarnerMedia. The announcement also promised their TV will
offer “fans less scripted, soapy drama, and more athleticism and real sports analytics,
bringing a legitimacy to wrestling that it has not previously had.” I wonder what main
industry rival that could be in response to? Driving home AEW’s repeated mission to make
wins and losses matter, the release also reveals they’ll be “introducing statistics to
wrestling for the first time ever”. Scott Steiner to AEW confirmed!
The specifics of the deal are very positive - with both John McMullen of TSN and Dave
Meltzer reporting AEW will be “treated like a sports property so production fees are there
and a ‘great’ advertising split.”. With annual TV production costs estimated to be
between $20-30 million, that is an incredible deal for a completely unproven property yet
to run its first official show. In contrast, it took WWE “nearly 20 years of producing
highly-rated television before [Vince McMahon] got a somewhat significant rights deal from
Viacom at the turn of the century”. And at least one WWE star has publicly congratulated
AEW on the deal...
NXT wrestler Matt Riddle became the first WWE contracted talent to publicly address
AEW’s TV deal, tweeting just hours after the announcement:
“The face you make when you know the greatest era of wrestling is about to begin because
of great competition! Thank You 🙏” Matt Riddle to AEW confirmed… bro.
Riddle, of course, is tied up in the NXT title picture right now, and is under contract with
WWE. So instead the AEW crew have teased one of the hottest and most magical free agents
in the world right now…
By posting a picture of them all at the WarnerMedia Upfronts event with Harry Potter himself Daniel
Radcliffe! ‘You’re a wrestler, Harry’... I love
Lord of the Rings. Potter is, of course, unfortunately under
contract to Hogwarts for the time being. But that’s not to say AEW won’t be recruiting
more talent soon...
Speaking at the Upfronts event, WrestlingNews.co asked AEW Co-Executive Vice Presidents Matt
and Nick Jackson whether there are more WWE stars looking to leave and join All Elite
Wrestling:
"Yes. I think so, we've heard the chatter a lot. We have a lot of friends that work
there so we hear it from them too. I feel like we've changed the landscape of wrestling
and it's gonna give them some competition." Since AEW officially launched in January this
year, a number of WWE stars have left the company - from underused talent like Tye Dillinger,
to huge stars Dean Ambrose, whose recent Jon Moxley relaunch video posted on Twitter is
widely suspected to be AEW-produced . And possibly teasing one of these free agents,
the Bucks said next Saturday’s Double or Nothing show could involve a shock debut.
“Take a look at our roster. Those are all the guys we've wanted. There may be a couple
that I can't talk about yet. We might be negotiating right now with some. We want surprises to
happen and we have a big show in 10 days, Double Or Nothing in Las Vegas. You never
know who you're gonna see in Las Vegas." CM Punk to AEW confirmed!
But for all the wrestlers who’ve left WWE in the last four months, there’s many more
that have reportedly tried to quit but haven’t been granted their release. And it’s unsurprisingly
led to a very bad atmosphere backstage…
The highest profile cases are currently: The Revival - who were reportedly denied their
releases in January, and the company is now on a mission to undermine them through booking
juvenile comedy segments. Sasha Banks - who reportedly tried to quit
WWE when she was told her and Bayley would be losing the Women’s Tag Championships
on the day of WrestleMania 35. She hasn’t been seen on TV since.
Lio Rush - who is rumoured to have heat with the locker room because of not following traditional
backstage etiquette. He hasn’t been seen on WWE TV since those reports emerged, being
split from his double act with Bobby Lashley. Lio has now removed all mention of WWE from
his Twitter and Instagram bios, replacing them with his booking email address for business
opportunities. And Luke Harper - who publicly asked for his
release last month, which WWE reportedly responded to by adding on the time he missed due to
injury to keep him under contract for even longer. Which is kind of the opposite of letting
someone go. And Fightful have now added the latest to
the reported Harper vs Vince McMahon backstage feud…
Fightful are reporting that McMahon “decided to hate anything [Harper] was involved in
long ago” - with some rumours suggesting it all dates back to when Vince felt Luke
couldn’t convincingly pull of a southern accent in the Wyatt Family’s early days.
The most recent incident - which happened just weeks before Harper requested his release
- involved Braun Strowman in the WrestleMania 35 Giant the Andre Royal Battle Memorial,
where the match was apparently “a disaster to put together and execute”, and Harper
was annoyed with Strowman for hitting him with a stiff kick during the bout, and “that
Braun Strowman both forgot his spot and that Ali ended up hurt in the match.”
Braun eliminated Harper while Luke had Ali in a suplex position on the apron. “In an
effort to protect Ali during his elimination, [Harper] hurt his back and/or shoulder trying
to keep him from flying out of control. Afterwards, we're told that Strowman didn't think he had
done anything wrong, which caused a little more frustration.”
Presumably all of this, and WWE’s impending trip to Saudi Arabia, have led to backstage
morale in WWE being at an all time low - with F4WOnline’s Bryan Alvarez hearing it’s
“the worst it’s ever been.”
Now it’s time for WrestleTalk’s special announcement, which is something we’ve been
working on for quite a while. We couldn’t have done this without all of your support
of the YouTube channel, listening to the podcasts, reading WrestleTalk.com and the magazine,
and, of course, our brilliant Pledgehammers on Patreon. I hope you enjoy it…
Triple H is frustrated with Vince McMahon and WWE too! Find out all the details by clicking
the video on the right! And what are the biggest Game of Thrones finale rumours! Find out by
clicking the video below that. I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.