Here’s some news that will shock you. AJ Styles is a really good wrestler. There, I
said it, and I don’t regret it. He is one of the greatest wrestlers on this flat earth,
but according to his former OC stablemates, he’s also one of the angriest.
During a livestream of their Talk n Shop Podcast, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson talked about
so many things. They mentioned that Styles was “so mad” when he heard that WrestleMania
36 would be behind closed doors due to the global pandemic. According to the former WWE
stars, AJ was keen on sending the Undertaker out the right way, and that AJ wasn’t sure
he’d be able to do that without fans. Thankfully, the Boneryard Match was actually pretty great.
So good job everyone. Styles wasn’t ‘Taker’s only obstacle
in the Boneryard however, as Gallows and Anderson also tried to get one over on the deadman,
but little did they know that their time in WWE was soon to be at an end.
The former OC stablemates were two of the more high profile stars released by WWE on
the Infamous Black Wednesday in April 2020. Many assumed upon their release they would
simply join their old Bullet Club pals over at AEW, or rejoin the Bullet Club in New Japan
- where they originally made their names. Anderson even teased the duo reuniting with
the Japanese promotion on Twitter. But, as was rumored beforehand, they have now confirmed
that they have signed with a different company. Following the end of their 90-day non-compete
clause, Gallows and Anderson confirmed that they have now signed with IMPACT Wrestling,
and that they will be appearing at tonight’s Slammiversary PPV. We don’t yet know whether
they’ll be wrestling at the show, but The Rascals have issued an open challenge to any
tag team in the locker room, so perhaps the Good Brothers will be tempted.
We had known for around a month that the tag team had likely signed for IMPACT, with Gary
Cassidy of Sportskeeda the first to report the news.
Do you think IMPACT was the right choice for Gallows and Anderson? Let me know in the comments
below, because I’ll be replying from outta the IMPACT ZONE. What’s Guke Lallows and
Aarl Kanderson doing in the Impact Zone? The duo confirmed the news during the previously
mentioned livestream of the Talk n Shop Podcast, where they also shot on one of WWE’s top
executives...wait I thought that was only allowed during Talk is Jericho podcasts…
One of the more discussed topics was that of former Raw Executive director Paul Heyman,
who AJ Styles recently called “a bold-faced liar”, and teased that Gallows & Anderson
would reveal more when they could. And now they can. Anderson mentioned that he would
often have great conversations with Heyman, who would make it sound as though he was a
huge fan of the tag team, but according to Gallows, Heyman is “100% full of bulls***”
and a “lying motherf*****”. Shortly before they were released, the tag
team was called to Raw to face WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. According to Anderson, Heyman
wanted McIntyre to pin both of them at the same time, and assured them that it wouldn’t
affect them in the long run. They even went as far as claiming that Heyman
was the whole reason they were part of the releases in April. According to Anderson,
he had heard a rumour that they weren’t on Vince McMahon’s original list of people
to be released, and that Heyman was the one who put their names on it. They allegedly
asked AJ Styles to ask around to see if this was the case, and according to Anderson, AJ
confirmed it to be the case after speaking with Vince McMahon himself.
Gallows went on to say that he was sad about their departure, and that he felt bad about
not being able to work with Heyman, and said that they regretted not joining AEW when they
had the chance. If only they had stayed a bit longer in WWE, because now Bruce Prichard
runs everything! There’s tons more stuff that come out on
that podcast episode, so make sure to check out wrestletalk.com for the full details.
But enough about Raw… it’s time for a review of last night’s episode of SmackDown
in about 5 minutes. The show started off with everyone that was
going to feature on the show cutting a quick promo, montage style. Except for Lacey Evans
and Naomi. You don’t get a promo segment. I actually quite liked this opening, as it
gave everyone a chance to talk without overstaying their welcome, and it felt fresh and different.
This led straight into Big E vs Cesaro, with the winner picking the stipulation of their
Tag Team Title match at The Horror Show At Extreme Rules At Aol.com between a tables
match and a steel cage match. This was a fun match with both competitors being allowed
to shine a little. Cesaro’s diving corkscrew uppercut remains
one of my favourite moves of all time - it’s just so pretty! And the finish worked pretty
well, with Big E getting up Cesaro for the Big Ending before the ref had to duck out
of the way of Cesaro’s swinging legs. Shinsuke Nakamura on the outside immediately jumped
into action, nailing Big E with a kick to the side of the head, which allowed Cesaro
to hit the Neutralizer for the win. Winning with a finisher? On SmackDown? Unheard of.
Cesaro and Nakamura then tried to repeat the table spot from last week before being chased
off. All the while the commentary team was saying “iS It gOinG To bE A tAbLeS MaTch
oR a sTeeL CAge mAtCH?!” In the swerve of the night though, in a backstage
promo, Cesaro and Nakamura actually ended up choosing a tables match because that’s
what the whole feud has been built around. Of course they chose tables.
After that was A Moment of Bliss featuring Alexa Bliss and “her enthusiastic best friend
Nikki Cross”. I’m not joking, that’s how they actually introduced her. Number one
contender to the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Enthusiastic Nikki Cross.
After teasing on social media and at the start of the show that she had a special guest on
the show, Bayley and Sasha Banks interrupted and did their usual heel shenanigans, saying
they’re going to hold all the gold after Extreme Rules, and you know what, I hope they’re
right. But then Alexa Bliss said she didn’t finish
getting to introduce their special guest - ooh who could it be? The person who according
to social media would “have SmackDown abuzz”? It was Asuka. Which is fine. She’s good.
Just a bit anticlimactic after people had speculated something like Stephanie McMahon
to announce Evolution 2. It’s fine, honestly. This led into everyone brawling, which then
led into Asuka & Nikki Cross taking on Bayley & Banks in a tag match with Alexa at ringside.
I’m normally all for these tag matches where the two champions and challengers face each
other before their PPV match - but it feels like we’ve seen Nikki face Bayley & Banks
non-stop for months now, and it’s starting to wear a little thin.
The match itself was fine, with a good finish. Bayley managed to sneak out a win once again,
using the ropes to pin Nikki Cross. This led into some fantastic character work
from Cross backstage, who questioned whether she could even beat Bayley, and lamented the
fact that she was disappointing everyone back home in Scotland. This was her one and only
shot at the title, and she couldn’t let it go to waste, but now she just doesn’t
know whether she can do it. It was awesome babyface work from Cross, and made me more
invested in her title match against Bayley tomorrow.
Bray Wyatt cut a typically awesome Bray promo from the swamp, saying he needed to destroy
the monster he created. Interestingly, almost all of the footage overlaid in this video
package featured Bray, Braun and Erick Rowan. There was next to no footage of Harper, but
Rowan was specifically included. Don’t be surprised to see him show up in the Swamp
Fight. Strowman responded to this in the most babyface
way possible - by murdering John Morrison. He squashed Morrison in a matter of minutes,
but the whole time, he was laughing maniacally, and even busted out his old Black Sheep chokehold
submission thing at one point. Once again, pretty interesting character work, and the
brief promo after the match where Braun said he was going home has again, made me invested
in the show tomorrow. After a recap of the Karaoke Showdown from
last week - GET IF OFF MY SCREEN YOU HEATHENS - we had a very quick match between Lacey
Evans and Naomi. These are two great athletes, reduced to feuding over a singing contest,
and yes, it seems Lacey Evans really did turn heel because of it. In a pretty clever spot,
Lacey tied Naomi’s hair around the ring rope, forcing Naomi to untie it, before turning
immediately into a Woman’s Right for Lacey to pick up the win.
A backstage promo from Jeff Hardy came next, where he compared fighting Sheamus to fighting
addiction, before Sheamus came outta nowhere to Brogue Kick him to hell. Weirdly though,
it seems Sheamus and Hardy’s Bar Fight is going to be on SmackDown next week and not
at Extreme Rules. And finally it was AJ Styles vs Matt Riddle
for the Intercontinental Championship in the main event, and this felt like a big deal,
much more so than Styles vs Gulak did. Riddle reminded everyone that he is in fact
really, really good, and then Styles said actually, I’m also really really good. This
was a great match, and had some really nice sequences in it, ending with a Calf Crusher
being countered into the Bromission, only for Styles to squeeze out into a rollup for
the win. After a handshake between the two, King Corbin
then came out and attacked Riddle, while Styles walked away. This was a pretty lame way to
finish off the go-home for Extreme Rules when, as of the time of recording, that isn’t
a match on the card. But at least Corbin didn’t get involved in the match itself. Take the
wins when you can. So that was SmackDown in about 5 minutes.
Overall, this was a fine show, which is a massive step up from last week. The matches
were solid, but nothing was amazing. Some of the angles really did get me invested in
Extreme Rules tomorrow, which is what a go-home show should do, but it lacked that big killer
angle you like to see, so this SmackDown gets a Smack Bang in the Middle.
Thanks to the wonderful people at WrestleCrate, if you go to WrestleCrate.co.uk and use the
promo code WrestleTalk, you’ll get three photographed portraits inside your first box
when you take out a subscription - including one from Oli and Luke! WrestleCrate is a monthly
mystery box full of loads of wrestling goodies, which has items from the biggest promotions
in wrestling. Adam Blampied has rebooked Dean Ambrose’s
infamous heel turn - press the video to the right to watch it, and ahead of Slammiversary
tonight, make sure to check out Louis Dangoor’s interview with EC3, where he talks about his
WWE release, his time on the main roster and more! Check the links in the description for
WrestleCrate and follow us on Twitter @PeteQuinnell and @WrestleTalk_TV. That was wrestling.