In this WrestleTalk News, Edge may be a free agent very soon, Matt Riddle breaks his silence,
plus our review of Dynamite Holiday Bash. Subscribe and enable notifications to always
on for daily wrestling news videos. With Mania season approaching, a return for
the Rated R Superstar Edge has widely been assumed by fans and touted by news outlets,
with recent reports suggesting that Edge and Finn Balor could be set to resume their rivalry
inside Hell in a Cell at the Royal Rumble.
This would lead many to assume that Edge is gearing up for his fourth calendar year back
as an active performer. Well, unfortunately this might not be the case after all.
According to Fightful Select, when Edge returned back at Royal Rumble 2020, he signed a three-year
contract, with five matches a year and 25 appearances. However, these appearances have
been proven to be inaccurate as he competed in sixteen matches total across 2021 and 2022,
although it is possible WWE and Edge re-negotiated at some point over the last few years.
Despite this however, it is unclear whether the time on the deal has also changed over
time, as Fightful notes “if the length was correctly reported then that deal could be
up soon”. However Fightful also notes that it is possible Edge’s contract was temporarily
frozen due to his injury layoff, with the WWE Hall of Famer missing seven months of
action in 2020 due to a torn triceps.
If that isn’t the case then theoretically Edge could become a free agent very soon.
What would you like to see Edge do next? Let us know in the comments below.
Moving on to one of the past few week’s most dominant stories, that being the suspension
and current status of Raw’s Matt Riddle. Following the December 5th episode of Raw,
Riddle was reportedly handed a suspension for a second wellness policy violation and
given the rehab or fired ultimatum by WWE, in which Riddle chose the former.
Since this however, things have been far from quiet on the Riddle front, with Riddle’s
personal life drama’s revealing the concerning nature of his recent behavior. Despite reportedly
being romantically involved with adult film star Jordan Maxx, Riddle has now been pictured
with another adult film star Misha Montana, something that Maxx addressed via her Twitter.
In her post Maxx called out Riddle for cheating, while revealing that Riddle and Montana had
been “doing drugs together” after Riddle had told Maxx that he was quitting using drugs.
Concerningly, following Maxx’s post, another recent former partner of Riddle, Daniella
Petrow tweeted a video accusing Riddle of sexual abuse. Something she says she had informed
WWE of, and called on the company to fire him.
In response to the allegations and uncertainty surrounding his status and health, Riddle
posted to his Instagram the following:
“I’ve been working a lot on myself lately and have been saying no and setting boundaries
for the first time ever and certain people aren’t happy about it, but I couldn’t
be healthier or happier. Thank you for all the support”
As of yet WWE have not responded to the situation publicly. As always make sure to stay tuned
to Wrestetalk.com for any updates.
Now for an always appreciated update on AEW’s resident bench-warmer Miro. With Tony Khan
and Miro seemingly at loggerheads over the former TNT Champion’s creative direction,
Miro looks set to see the rest of the year on the outside looking in, something that
the man himself has been vocally frustrated about.
However, with Miro reportedly under contract until early 2026 according to Fightful Select,
an exit of the company may be unlikely as TK will be well aware of WWE’s likely interest.
But what of Miro himself, is he angling for a return to his former employer?
Well according to his wife, former WWE superstar CJ Perry AKA Lana, this may be the case after
all. Speaking with 92.7 WMAY’s Mike Wennmacher, Perry revealed that WWE may in fact celebrate
Rusev Day once again in the future.
"Rusev Day will never die. It's always going to be around, the kids are going to want to
sing it and I'm sure it will make a return in WWE at some point. Rusev — well, whatever
he shows [up] back in; whatever frickin name or gimmick or character he returns [as] at
some point, in WWE is going to be iconic."
Did you hear that TK? Hopefully 2023 can prove to be the year of Miro or… Rusev.
Oli’s off today, and Luke’s fam ain’t feeling too hot, so you’ve got me doing
the Dynamite review today. Rejoice. The third option is here.
Now hot tag to…me. This episode of Dynamite Holiday Bash began
with a Ricky Starks promo, and while I’m normally a big fan of starting a show with
a match, I think having Starks appear immediately to kick off the show was a good way to pick
back up his momentum after his loss to MJF last week, where he said pretty much exactly
that: his momentum is not over, there will be a rematch with MJF down the line, and he’ll
be ready when it comes, but for now he’s going to work his way back into a World Title
match. This was exactly what it needed to be, and it was perfectly acceptable. But then
the segment became great when Starks was interrupted by Chris Jericho.
Jericho put over Starks, saying he’s a million dollar talent, a future World Champion, and
that’s why he should join the JAS. Starks’ retorts here were wonderful. He of course
rejected the offer, and insulted all of JAS in line after line, where just when you thought
he was done he’d some up with a new insult. The J in JAS might as well stand for Jobbers,
he called Sammy & Daniel Garcia JASholes, he said Jericho used to be built like an air
fryer before he got himself lean, there was just so much off the cuff creativity, or at
least seemingly off the cuff, that it built spectacularly. This set up a match between
Starks & Jericho for the January 4th show, and after the rest of JAS tried to beat up
Starks, he was saved by Action Andretti, and this whole segment just left me with a big
smile on my face. And speaking of smiles on my face, next up
was the next installment of Elite vs Death Triangle, this time in a No DQ match. This
was more very fun and fast paced that we’ve come to expect from these teams, with dashes
of comedy thrown in there. Penta used a Christmas Tree as a weapon, Brandon Cutler got beaten
up and had a staredown with Alex Abrahantes, but the most important spot in this match
was Nick Jackson attempting to hit a superkick, but missing and instead kicking a chair that
was set up in the corner, injuring his ankle, something he sold for the rest of the match.
After the ring bell hammer has been such a crucial part of this feud thus far, and in
this match it was allowed, they paid that aspect off brilliantly with Omega kicking
out of a shot from Fenix, and after some more brilliant spots, do you really need me to
list them, The Elite got the win - but at a cost. Nick Jackson has that ankle injury
that he could barely walk on, and after the match Death Triangle attacked and busted open
The Elite, with Fenix desperately trying to stop them. This match was for Elite to continue
the series, but paint them as the serious underdogs for the final two matches.
MJF cut a promo calling Bryan Danielson a gutless coward for running him out of the
arena last week, and after Action Andretti got fireballed in the face backstage, Bryan
Danielson came out to the ring to respond. Danielson spoke on his relationship with William
Regal, and while he might understand that Moxley, Claudio and Yuta might not have the
same relationship to Regal that he does, he has to be by his side, and he fires up, telling
MJF that there are consequences to his actions, and he will make him pay for what he’s done.
So naturally, Ethan Page came out to interrupt. He said he got to the finals of the AEW World
Title Eliminator Tournament, he made it to the final 2 of the Diamond Ring Battle Royale,
Danielson didn’t do either of those things, so he doesn’t get to jump the queue, and
after some weird back and forths about Danielson being a vegetable and Stokely Hathaway being
bald, it set up a match between the two next week.
Samoa Joe cut a nice promo against Wardlow, warning him that the Christmas cheer ends
when it gets to the match with him. HOOK squashed Exodus Prime, which is a hell
of a ring name, and on the tron The Firm are beating up Jungle Boy so Hook walks off.
Jon Moxley had cut a promo earlier in the show about his opponent tonight Darius Martin
being injury prone and how that mirrored another certain injury prone cowboy, which was a nice
way to keep that plate spinning. Moxley then beat Martin pretty decisively.
Sonjay Dutt did a rap about The Acclaimed, and Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal and Satnam Singh
were there. I thought it was fine, but I have a message from Luke here:
‘THE SONJAY DUTT RAP WAS INCREDIBLE AND THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE ENTIRE BROADCAST.’
All in caps, by the way. I disagree. Powerhouse Hobbs gets another wonderful chapter
in his Book of Hobbs. I like this a lot. The Gunns then faced FTR. My first note for
this match is ‘I swear to god if the Gunns win’. The Gunns won. The story of the match
was fine, FTR were still recovering from their Final Battle match against The Briscoes, and
The Gunns took advantage of that, meaning at a crucial point Dax couldn’t hit a piledriver,
allowing Austin? Colten? One of them, to get the rollup win, while cheating with the other
Gunn holding their arm for extra leverage. Unlike what seems like a fair amount of people,
I don’t hate The Gunns, I just think they’re sports entertainers in a wrestling company.
They don’t fit. They’re perfectly passable at their role, comedy goofs to get beaten
up a lot, but their role should not be beating FTR.
Rick Ross was then here, so this is a 10/10 show. He called Keith Lee a big motherf*****.
10/10 show. Keith and Rick Ross called out Swerve, and Swerve eventually arrived, and
told Lee he was going to do things on his own time now, and he should have eyes in the
back of his head. Enter Parker Boudreaux and some other lad.
They beat up Keith Lee, and while the end spot of them laying Lee onto the steps and
holding a cinder block on his chest that Swerve stomped on from the top rope was very cool,
this felt like a massive dud of a debuting new faction. For starters, Swerve doesn’t
need these guys to feel like a threat, and they all feel incredibly mismatched and like
they dont fit together. This didn’t feel like the debut of an important tag team that
are now aligned with Swerve to make us say ‘wow, what a threatening trio’, this is
a heel having a couple of goons to get beaten up instead of Swerve and to lose matches in
his place. I don’t think this worked at all.
But hey guess what - we then had my favourite thing on the show which just so happened to
be the main event. Jamie Hayter vs Hikaru Shida was an absolute banger. I’m very glad
the women were given this chance to prove they can be the main event and boy howdy did
they deliver. The match started real physical with both of them exchanging strikes incredibly
aggressively, and only escalated from there. Suplex from the apron to the floor, a whole
bunch of nearfalls from a knee strike plus Falcon Arrow combo, a sliding lariat, and
even interference from Baker & Rebel didn’t end the match, with Shida dispatching of Baker
with the kendo stick, which then led into another wonderful nearfall from a rolling
powerbomb. Shida tried to hit the Katana but Hayter passed out the first time to dodge
it and then intentionally dodged it the second time to hit her short-arm lariat to retain,
but man, the pace of this match was impeccable. The crowd built and built and built with every
spot and every nearfall, there was never a dull moment and the action peaked right as
the match finished. This was a perfectly structured match, and you couldn’t have asked for more
from Hayter vs Shida. There was a post-match brawl between Hayter,
Rebel, Baker and Shida, Saraya and a returning Toni Storm, which was fine, probably could
have done without it, but it didn’t take away from the match at all, and it was a fantastic
end to the show. The two most important bits of the show, the
start and end, they nailed. There was also Elite vs Death Triangle fun, some good promos,
and some other stuff I wasn’t as huge of a fan of, but when you have a main event of
that caliber, it really boosts the show up. This was an easy ⅘ show, that was almost
a 5, if not for Gunns vs FTR and Swerve’s lads.
We’ve got our next chapter of our end of year content over on the WrestleTalk Podcast
channel, where we have our Top 10 Matches
of 2022 - give it a watch now!