Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk MECHA NEWS, I am Luke Owen. Coming up we’ve got
the latest on Braun Strowman’s return to WWE, a possibly huge NXT call-up, and a shocking
update to the James Ellsworth story from a couple of weeks ago
.
But first, with Braun Strowman out with an injury and Roman Reigns battling Leukemia,
Raw has lost both of the guys it has been building the show around for the last couple
of years. As such, Raw is now being built around Baron Corbin and his merry band of
generic heel goons. Someone who felt the wrath of that this week was Finn Balor - who lost
to Baron Corbin and Drew McIntyre in a handicap match. And Balor has had some fun on Twitter
this week about Corbin and his squad by posting parody posters of popular movies - including
The Wolf of Wall Street, renamed The Goof of Wall Street, super-imposing Bobby Lashley
and his hype man Lio Rush into the comedy classic Little Man - I’m using the term
“classic” loosley there - and putting Drew and Corin into actual comedy classic
Dumb & Dumber
Someone else who felt the wrath of Dumb, Dumber and Dumberer was Elias - who lost to Bobby
Lashley after Corbin changed the rules of the match. But it turns out Elias had bigger
plans in place just a few months ago.
It has been heavily reported that the unexpected announcement of Roman’s Leukemia threw out
a lot of WWE’s plans. According to several sources, Survivor Series wasn’t going to
be based around Raw vs. Smackdown this year as Vince McMahon did not want to book Roman
Reigns vs. AJ Styles in a Champion vs. Champion match. In fact the original Survivor Series
Men’s 5-on-5 was set to be Team Corbin vs. Team Angle with the winner getting the General
Manager role on Raw, and several places have claimed the announcement brought forward the
Dean Ambrose heel turn.
And now WrestleVotes - who have a great track record of scoops - have reported that the
original plan for the heel turn was to see Ambrose cost Seth Rollins the Intercontinental
Championship - which he would have lost to a still heel Elias.
And with Raw losing its top stars over the last couple of weeks and months, many have
noted that its exposed just how lacking the Red Brand is in genuine top stars. Thankfully
for them we’re heading into WrestleMania season in January, so speculation on who is
getting the main roster call-up from NXT can begin. Although, I’m sure it won’t be
positive speculation given how poorly WWE have booked the 2018 NXT call-ups. We already
know that Lars Sullivan is coming up to the main roster - but we don’t know which brand
just yet - and Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio has revealed another name that could
get the main roster call-up soon.
Meltzer said on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio that he “keeps hearing” that former
NXT Champion Aleister Black is set for the main roster. Sadly no other details were given,
but it should be noted that Black has been doing main roster house shows for WWE - most
notably back in May on their European tour - which is usually a sign that WWE are considering
bringing them up from NXT.
And that was your Impact Slam of the Week, which saw the debuting tag team of The Rascalz
of Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz beating Mike Sydal and Chris Bey in a fun match with
some inventive offense. But once again, this was not the episode where Raven returned to
Impact Wrestling - which meant I spent the episode like this again
It was reported a couple of weeks ago that former WWE star and Impact’s Bound for Glory
cameo James Ellsworth had been accused over allegedly sending nude images of himself to
a minor. The Twitter user - who uses the name Kenzie - posted several tweets about Ellsworth
sending her images on Snapchat, and claimed she’s had several other female wrestlers
come forward and say they’ve also felt uncomfortable about Ellsworth’s unwanted advances, posting
that, “Multiple people have hit me up including wrestlers saying how he tries to get with
fans and wrestlers 24/7.” Aside from a statement from his legal team, Ellsworth had stayed
silent on the accusations.
However he has now broken that silence, posting a statement on Twitter saying, “Recently,
allegations of misconduct have been lodged against me which I categorically deny. I never
have, nor will I ever engage in any activity that could be deemed as inappropriate or disrespectful...
[my legal team] have uncovered concrete evidence that supports my innocence and proves that
without a shadow of a doubt the social media accounts alleged to be mine are fake and the
messages from the account were fraudulently created without my knowledge or consent.”
Further adding that the allegations were made as a, “social media stunt devised to end
my professional wrestling career.”
But while Ellsworth has denied all the allegations, Rajah are reporting something entirely different.
The site report that, “Ellsworth's statements are a cover-up to try and salvage what may
be left of his pro wrestling career. On the night that this story broke almost two weeks
ago, the source adds that Ellsworth contacted someone on the East Coast and offered this
person "a few thousand dollars" to find out where the 16-year old girl lived and to steal
her cell phone and destroy it. As per the source, Ellsworth wanted this done so that
she would not be able to take any of the evidence on the phone and present it to police.”
We reached out to Ellsworth’s now former podcast co-host Dennis Farrell - who also
hosts the Wrestling Perspective Podcast with Impact Wrestling producer Petey Williams - who
said, “Petey Williams and myself sat down to discuss our future with James , whether
the allegations are true or not we are disappointed he put himself into any kind of situation
that could become a issue. Without question deleting every episode and erasing him from
The Wrestling Perspective become a priority.”
And now it’s time for an awkward gear change as we talk about Wrestlers You Know In Films
You Probably Don’t Know!
And to celebrate another week without Raven returning to Impact Wrestling, let’s look
at the man’s filmography - in particular his performance in the 2012 direct-to-DVD
movie Death Racers. Nope, not the Paul W.S. Anderson directed remake of Death Race 2000,
this is The Asylum’s Death Racers. If you’ve not heard of The Asylum, they release what
they call Mockbusters, low-budget versions of Hollywood blockbusters on home entertainment
the same week of its bigger budget counterpart’s release. Previous attempts to fool grandparents
into buying the wrong film for their grandkid’s birthdays including Atlantic Rim, Transmorphers,
Triassic World, Tomb Invader and more. They're also the people behind the Sharknado movies
and cinematic classics such as Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, 6-Headed Shark Attack and
Titanic 2.
But we’re here to talk about Death Racers - which also stars rap duo and Fred Durst
dropkick missers Insane Clown Posse. The film sees Raven play a terrorist named Reaper who
is going to poison the water supply of America from inside an Escape From New York style
prison state. In an effort to stop this, the governor stages a televised death race between
four groups of criminals in the prison with the goal of killing Reaper and getting their
freedom. Totally makes sense. Also one of the groups is called Vaginamyte. Creative.
Hilariously, Asylum’s plan to release Death Racers on the same week as Death Race was
scuppered when the bigger budget film was released a month earlier than planned. In
an event, Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J called the film, “a terribly s****y movie.”
Braun Strowman was written off TV the night after Survivor Series following Baron Corbin
and his goon squad beating him down, revealing this week on Raw that he was sidelined with
an injury. WWE.com still claims his match with Baron Corbin at TLC is happening, despite
reports that Braun’s elbow surgery could keep him on the shelf until Royal Rumble next
year.
It’s since been reported that WWE do have back-up plans in place if Strowman isn’t
back in the ring for TLC, including a Bray Wyatt return and a possible multi-man match
involving Baron Corbin, but now PWInsider have revealed that Braun Strowman is set to
return to Raw this coming Monday and his match with Corbin at TLC is still set to take place.
However PWInsider note that they have not heard if Braun has been cleared to wrestle,
so he could just make an appearance on Raw in an effort to battle the falling ratings.
Someone who likely won’t be returning to WWE anytime soon is Cody Rhodes, who has been
in the news a lot over the last week or so with the teases of All Elite Wrestling - a
new promotion spearheaded by The Elite which is reportedly being funded by the son of the
Jacksonville Jaguars. Cody told a meet and greet in Australia to, “wait for January
as an announcement will be made”, which he said would be “bigger than anyone thinks.”
The Young Bucks also featured on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast this week and said, “It's
going to be an interesting 2019.”
And while this has got many hardcore wrestling fans excited, one person unlikely to watch
it is JBL - who appeared to go on a Twitter rant against Cody while watching the Dallas
Cowboys last night. He posted “Ok, not wanting a comeback - but I could beat Cody any day
in a match just like I could have beaten his daddy. It's simple math.” Oh so now he’s
also stealing Scott Steiner’s gimmick as well?! “I'd kill Cody... Cody couldn't beat
me if he tied me to a tree. Neither could his dad.” And thanks to Brian Zane of Wrestling
With Wregret for capturing this since deleted tweet where he said, “hey dumbass, your
dad can’t save you now. Dips**t.”
Cody simply responded to all of this by saying, “I’m thinking JBL had a few drinks tonight…”
and retweeting a fan saying, “Old people shouldn’t have twitter.”
And if you’re one of our UK viewers, you’ll have your chance to see Cody in person next
week when Fight Forever starts its string of dates in Birmingham, Bristol and my home
away from home Liverpool - as well as London’s famous York Hall next Friday. And if you are
going to that show, do keep an eye out for myself, Oli, El Fakidor and even Andy Datson
- as we’ll be there to see Grizzled Young Veterans take on Travis Banks & Flash Morgan
Webster, Mark Haskins vs. Flip Gordon, Kay Lee Ray vs. Brandi Rhodes and more - as well
as The Godfather’s after party and a live episode of Something to Wrestle with Bruce
Prichard!
Which major Raw star is heading to Smackdown Live? Click the video on screen right now
to find out in Oli Davis’ SUPER NEWS. I’ve been Luke Owen and that was wrestling!