In this WrestleTalk News, a top AEW star requests his release, another big AEW name likely gone
from the company, an update on Bryan Danielson returning from injury, the latest on Shane
McMahon’s WWE status, and more.
One of the main arguments made by AEW fans in the pointless AEW vs WWE debate is that
AEW wrestlers are, in general, much happier than WWE stars, and that since AEW was created,
there have been very few stories of wrestler unrest in Tony Khan’s company.
However, the longer time goes on, the more stories are slowly starting to be reported.
Over the past couple of weeks and months, a number of AEW names, including Alan Angels,
Joey Janela and Marko Stunt have all been released from the company after their contracts
expired, and now a big name from the AEW owned Ring of Honor has requested his release.
According to the ever-reliable Sean Ross Sapp on Fightful Select, Jonathan Gresham, who
was Ring of Honor Champion until this weekend, when he lost the belt to Claudio Castagnoli
at Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonour on Saturday, has requested his release.
Rumours of issues between Gresham and AEW started before the match even took place,
with Gresham making his entrance for the match without his usual mask and jacket.
The rumour fire was further stoked when Gresham deleted his Twitter account immediately after
losing to Castagnoli.
According to Fightful Select, Gresham had in fact requested his release before Saturday’s
match, with one of the key reasons being an alleged lack of communication between management
and Gresham.
According to the report, Gresham also felt disrespected by the lack of time the championship
was given on Saturday’s card.
The report further states that when Gresham was finally able to have a meeting with Tony
Khan to explain his frustration, the former ROH Champion “cussed out” Khan, and those
close to Gresham apparently said they believe he’s ‘done with wrestling for the foreseeable
future after this month’.
Gresham had been ROH World Champion since December 2021, when he defeated Jay Lethal
for the vacant title after Bandido was forced to relinquish the belt, having tested positive
for COVID-19.
And the bad news is far from over for AEW, as it’s been reported even more names are
unhappy with the lack of communication between management and talent.
Shortly after breaking the news of Jonathan Gresham requesting his release from AEW, Sean
Ross Sapp tweeted to say it’s far from the first time he’s heard of AEW stars being
frustrated at what they felt was poor communication from AEW higher ups.
According to Sean, names such as Brian Cage, Marko Stunt and Joey Janela have all felt
as though communication was lacking.
He tweeted: “There seems to be a lot of lack of communication
between talent relations and talent that we've heard from.
We've had stories of Gresham, Marko, Cage, Janela and others not being able to get answers
or responses.”
It really is a shame to see this, as I believe a lot of people, myself included, felt AEW
was setting much higher standards in terms of talent relations, and that in general its
stars were happier.
While this may be true in general, it’s also clearly true that some things are starting
to fall through the cracks, cracks Tony Khan will surely want to fix before any serious
problems start to occur.
Damn, if only there was a recently unemployed, high-profile former head of talent relations
with a history of being really nice when firing people lying around.
[shot of John Laurinaitis] If Jonathan Gresham is granted his release,
it appears he won’t be the only high-profile star leaving the company this month.
Tully Blanchard has been a relatively regular sight on AEW TV since he debuted for the company
as the manager of Sean Spears back in 2019, but if reports are to be believed, he won’t
be a sight at all in the very near future.
Fightful Select once again has the scoop, as its reporting talent have told them that
Blanchard is “effectively gone” from the company, and his lack of appearance at Death
Before Dishonour was seemingly due to him instead attending a Prison Ministry Group.
During Saturday’s ROH Death Before Dishonor, it was revealed that the returning Prince
Nana had purchased Tully Blanchard Enterprises and was renamed The Embassy.
The Embassy was Prince Nana’s original group in 2004.
The current Embassy includes Gates of Agony, which is Toa Liona & Kaun, Brian Cage, and
most recently, the seemingly soon to depart Jonathan Gresham.
It has not been reported why Blanchard has either decided to leave, or whether it is
AEW that has decided not to extend his deal with him, but it seems we won’t be seeing
him on our screens for the foreseeable future.
Brain Cage, who as previously mentioned was part of the original Tully Blanchard Enterprises,
and has never been one to hide his opinions on his position in AEW, has tweeted a photo
of himself wearing a Tully Blanchard Enterprises T-Shirt, with the caption “Ughhhh, well,
here today gone tomorrow.”
For many, Cage is one of the most under-utilised wrestlers in all of AEW or Ring of Honor,
but according to an interview from Tony Khan from earlier this year, there is no ill-will
towards Cage, and in fact Tony is a big fan of his.
Speaking to the media after the ROH Supercard of Honor show earlier this year, Tony said:
“I really like Brian Cage, I’ve always really liked Brian Cage.
It was funny because when I first started thinking this might be a possibility of purchasing
ROH, I hadn’t worked Brian Cage back into my plans yet.
I couldn’t tell Brian Cage about ROH, especially when it’s confidential.
Based on where we were going with him I thought Team Taz are in a really strong position right
now and with Swerve and Keith Lee coming in, it didn’t make any sense having Brian fighting
with Ricky and Will.
“For Brian, I didn’t think it made sense for him around Taz and those guys anymore.
I also thought him and Tully here could be a good situation, especially when FTR and
Tully were done.
It’s funny because with the situation of confidentiality and stuff, I couldn’t tell
Brian I wanted to buy ROH and debut you and repackage you here until about a month ago.”
In better news for AEW however, it seems several injured stars are starting to make their way
back to the ring.
There had been a lot of concern that Bryan Danielson, who had been out for nearly two
months with a concussion, may not be returning to action for some time.
Given his history, and the fact he was forced into an early retirement due to head injuries,
there were certainly some people who were scared we may have once again seen the last
of him in a wrestling capacity.
Thankfully, it appears our fears were unfounded, as during an appearance at San Diego Comic
Con over the weekend, Danielson made the wonderful announcement that he has now been cleared
to return, and not only that, but he’ll be facing Daniel Garcia on this week’s episode
of AEW Dynamite, where he will, apparently, “kick his f***ing head in”, which seems
like a nice way to celebrate your return.
Danielson hasn’t wrestled since the end of May 2022, when he took part in the Anarchy
in the Arena match at AEW Double or Nothing.
It isn’t clear whether or not he sustained the concussion during this match, but the
timing would appear to line up.
Someone who is not returning, at least for the time being, is CM Punk, who has given
further insight into the injury that’s kept him out of the ring since the beginning of
June.
During an appearance at San Diego Comic Con, Punk explained to fans that he had not only
broken his foot, but he actually “shattered it”.
I’m not a doctor, and maybe there’s no difference between breaking and shattering
a bone, but shattering always seems more serious and painful.
According to Mike Roe who was at the event, Punk told fans there is currently no timeline
for his return, and that he’s actually been re-learning to walk, so serious was the foot
injury he sustained.
Tony Khan also spoke in San Diego about Punk’s injury, and he claimed Punk is doing well,
and his recovery is going to plan.
He said: “So, he’s doing well.
He’s not behind in his recovery.
He’s going into the San Diego Comic-Con Panel, he’s doing well and on track, and
we look forward to a great unification match when he’s back, whoever the Interim champion
is.
I can’t rule [labor day] out but I also can’t promise because I don’t want to
say anything when it comes to somebody’s recovery from a real, serious injury.”
During a recent Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said he believed Punk would likely
be back at either All Out or Full Gear, so realistically we shouldn’t expect to see
him until September at the earliest.
And it’s good news for a former manager of Punk, who may now be in line for a big
promotion.
I don’t know if you saw the small news story on Friday evening last week, you know, the
one about the guy.
I think his name was Vince, and I think it was something about him leaving WWE.
Sorry, my memory is terrible for these little stories.
Anyway, in the aftermath of Vince McMahon retiring from WWE, there are going to be quite
a few more jobs that need doing around WWE, and while it appears most of them have gone
to either Stephanie McMahon or Bruce Prichard, they cannot unfortunately do all of them.
While it’s been reported Prichard was in charge of creative at last week’s episode
of SmackDown, Paul Heyman has reportedly emerged as a candidate to take over the role on a
permanent basis.
According to Wade Keller of PWTorch, Heyman and CEO Stephanie McMahon have a “very positive”
relationship these days.
He said: “As I’ve talked about in recent months,
it seems like to people that have seen them that Heyman and Stephanie get along.
You know like, genuinely, there’s a chemistry and a dynamic between them that’s very positive.
And that’s very different than you know, 15-20 years ago.
So, Heyman is someone to watch.
He’s really, really smart.
And he is a wrestling guy.
Keller believes that Heyman’s close relationship with the likes of Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar
and Ronda Rousey is another reason WWE may decide to give him such a high profile job.
Keller added “Paul is somebody to watch.He’s so smart
and he’s so connected to big names, such as Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey and Roman Reigns.
So depending on how things shake out, Triple H and Stephanie may be leaning on Paul, and
he could be in their inner circle.
And that would be quite a powerful trio of people who could take WWE into the next era
on the wrestling side, Nick Khan on the business side, and then Stephanie, Paul and Paul…So
that’s something to watch.”
However it seems there won’t be room for everyone, and anyone hoping to see the return
of a certain sweaty son may have to wait for some time.
In addition to his report on Paul Heyman, Wade Keller has also noted Shane McMahon is
unlikely to re-enter the WWE picture.
He noted Stephanie and Shane are not on good terms at the moment, and therefore a big family
reunion isn’t currently on
the cards.