In this WrestleTalk News, is MJF considering making the jump from wrestling to Hollywood?
Was Dark Side of the Ring Canceled by WWE?
And Oli will be here reviewing AEW Dynamite from last night.
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Now there’s been a lot of drama around a certain Mr MJF who has been very vocal about
his contract within AEW, no-showed a meet and greet ahead of double or nothing and then
blurred the lines between kayfabe and reality with a pipebomb promo on Tony Khan.
It is one of the most interesting/confusing stories/realities in wrestling for a good
long while and the latest news from a report from Fightful Select doesn’t do loads to
clean it up.
In their report they say that Tony Khan and mJF met at the Rampage in Las Vegas the night
before he no-showed the meet and greet, but have no word on what they talked about or
how it went…
considering the no-show potentially not well.
They also noted that MFJ stayed in Los Angeles after his Dynamite promo last week, but didn’t
attend AEW’s party with Warner Discovery execs.
MJF aslo didn’t fly up to Ontario for Rampage following the show either, instead he remained
in LA.
Which people reckon is pertinent because he has previous said he wants to explore options
in Hollywood and Fightful heard he had meetings la the last week to talk about potential acting
opportunities, he already is said to have recorded a voice role for an upcoming animated
project.
As we know from WWE’s troubles with getting The Rock back for just one more show, Hollywood
acting and wrestling are sometimes at odds in the contract departments, so it comes down
whether MJF can balance the two or has to put wrestling on hold while pursuing these
opportunities potentially.
Speaking of things on hold, Vice’s wrestling documentary series Dark Side of the Ring has
been having some production woes.
SEScoops.com reporting that production of the fourth series has ground to a halt and
the series is currently on hold.
The show drew great ratings from the network, but apparently some contributors have now
backed out after the Plane Ride From Hell episode aired and they grew concerned over
their portrayal in the series.
It was noted that several wrestling legends were contacted and passed on participating,
for instance Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone have both publicly said on their podcast that they
would not be participating in future shows.
Enter WWE who are now said to be partnering with series creators Evan Husney and Jason
Eisener on a new project for Vice TV which is said to have a ‘much softer, sanitized
tone’ than the Dark Side of the Ring.
One source quoted for the article said the new show would be ‘campfire talks’ about
the old days of wrestling which sound similar to the ‘WWE Legends Roundtable’ shows
that used to air on WWE 24/7.
The creators have been given access to WWE’s archives and personalities with Stone Cold
Steve Austin already said to have filmed for the project.
What’s interesting here is that WWE already have a working relationship with Vice TV parent
station A&E and have been co-producing shows with them for a while now, with even more
to come.
Dark Side of the Ring was one of the few mainstream shows that heavily criticized wrestling’s
past with access to and acknowledgement from the people who were there .
That show being on hold and WWE suddenly stepping in to create something ‘sanitized’ reeks
of them trying to control the narrative about wrestling history and perhaps show the company
and its legacy in a more favorable light.
Hot tag to Oli!
Now it’s time for my review of All New Honor Japan Ring
of Wrestling Dynamite… in about 5 minutes.
The show opened hot on the casino battle royal to crown a Number one contender.
To Jon Moxley.
To face Hisoshi Tanahashi.
To become an interim AEW World Champion.
To eventually face CM Punk to become the undisputed AEW World Champion.
The first five saw Tony Nese, Lance Archer and Daniel Garcia already in the ring - ladies
and gentlemen, your Rumble filler participants - who were then joined by Darby Allin and
Eddie Kingston, who true to character, totally ignored the chance to become AEW World Champion,
and just tried to murder Danny Garcia.
Side bar: I would love Eddie to win, setting up matches against Moxley, Tanahashi and then
Punk.
The second group of five saw the super cool team of Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee enter.
Who arguably had the most shocking spot in the match: they saved each other early on,
rather than ‘but it’s every man for hi-OH GOD DAMMIT SWERVE YOU ELIMINATED LEE.
This is one of my most hated spots in wrestling.
Yes I am still annoyed about that Roman and Seth.
It’s a terrible Rumble strategy if you truly want to win.
Only turn on your partner near the end, not midway through.
Swerve not winning proves that right, and undermines the momentum of his heel turn.
At least it seemed to set up a mouthwatering Lee vs Swerve feud.
Swerve also betrayed Allin later on.
It also felt like the only spot of note.
The remaining eleven entrants - the Ass Boys, John Silver, Dante Martin - were sorely lacking
in star power.
Some of that is the injury scourge afflicting wrestling right now.
But a lot of it is also intentional on the booker’s part.
There was no MJF, no Chris Jericho, no Wardlow, no Hangman Page.
Some of those were given lameduck reasons later on, but it unfortunately sends the message
that AEW’s active top stars don’t care that much about getting a shot at its top
interim top title.
This felt like a midcarder battle royal.
But it all depends what you want to achieve.
Maybe you want to elevate a midcard star to a main event spot.
And with the final four of Rey Fenix, the Joker Andrade, Wheeler Yuta and Kyle O’Reilly,
there was a lot of potential for someone to break out.
It would’ve been better if they’d also gone through the top stars to do that, but
let’s work with what we’ve got.
For me, the best moves would have been Yuta, to set up a Blackpool Combat Club rematch
against Mox, further cementing him at the top.
Or Andrade, probably Mox’s most credible opponent other than Kingston, which could
be used as a way to establish his new faction with Rush.
Instead, O’Reilly won.
A guy with a lot of winning momentum, but probably the least believable in the slot,
unfortunately making the main event very predictable.
By my count, AEW regularly feature nine title belts on their shows.
So it’s about time we got another one, as they announced the All Atlantic Championship.
The inaugural champ will be crowned in yet another tournament between AEW’s international
talent: which began with Britain's PAC vs Australia’s Buddy in a match so awesomely
thigh slappy, it fittingly could probably be heard in both those countries - PAC won.
Trent and FTR started to talk about wanting an ROH tag title rematch, when freaking Will
Ospreay walked out on stage, a distraction for his United Empire faction to jump the
AEW stars ahead of Forbidden Door.
This was awesome, and went down huge with the crowd, but you only get to debut Ospreay
in AEW once, and I’m not sure I would’ve done it in an ROH tag title feud.
Hangman Page beat David Finlay in his first appearance since losing the world title.
A world title that meant so much to him, he wasn’t in the 21 man battle royal to get
another shot, and he sipped a fan’s beer at ringside.
This is actually photographic proof that Hangman can melt women.
Hangman cut a promo afterwards, saying he wasn’t booked for the battle royal - which
just makes AEW look incompetent - so he’s going for Okada’s IWGP championship.
Great.
That’s enough right there.
There doesn’t need to be any complications added to that story.
Oh, but it’s all about the boom.
Adam Cole said it should be him getting the match instead, seemingly building yet another
Cole vs Hangman match.
Then it was Wardlow’s turn to explain why he wasn’t in the Battle Royal.
It’s because he only wants to beat the real champion CM Punk.
Alright, well that sure craps over the whole interim title idea.
Instead, he wants Scorpio Sky’s TNT title.
But first he’ll have to resolve his comedy feud with Mark Sterling - and a handicap match
of him vs 20 security guards was booked for next week.
A fun visual, but this is nowhere near as over as he was before Double or Nothing.
Another tag title feud, another case of Jurassic Express being the third wheel for their own
championships.
This time they’re the background players in the Young Bucks vs The Hardys in a three
way ladder match for next week.
First, please don’t die Jeff.
Second, just put the belts on the Bucks already because that’s the only time AEW books their
tag champions well.
Thunder Rosa beat Marina Shafir with a roll up in five minutes, and then set up a feud
with Toni Storm.
Then the Baddies got a promo.
This was a big step right back to where the women’s division was after last week’s
awesome tag match.
And the main event saw O’Reilly getting the babyface spot, already having wrestled
in the opener, go against Moxley.
Only NXT 1.0 kids will know why the commentary and preceding interview was so special.
William Regal wished O’Reilly luck against Moxley later tonight.
Their blend of stiff strikes, submissions and brawling created a fantastic match, but
I’m not sure anyone ever bought O’Reilly winning.
After a really strong style back and forth finish, Mox won with one Paradigm Shift, and
the show went off air.
What did you think of Dynamite?
Let me know in the comments.
I really enjoyed the show, but I also felt like there was a lot of missed potential.
The battle royal was really fun, but lacked star power.
Will Ospreay debuted, but in an ROH tag title feud.
We’re getting a new championship, in a promotion already full of them.
It’s difficult to criticise too much because Punk’s injury has obviously derailed so
many plans.
But the promotion has played its reaction safe.
I believe AEW is better than that, and could’ve turned this into something far better.
Also, absolutely no mention of MJF!
This week’s Dynamite was 78%.
There’s reports that a new batch of WWE releases is coming.
Watch more to find out…