In this WrestleTalk News, AEW drops new CM Punk merch, what does this mean for his contract?!
WWE are on high alert!
Randy Orton comeback plans!
And so much more.
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AM I BEING PUNKED?!
Is this a joke?
Is it groundhog day?
Is this punxsutawney?
PUNK-SUTAWNEY!!
Because another day, another tidbit of info about the All Out Brawl and what is going
on with CM Punk in AEW, CM Punk to absolutely nothing confirmed.
And this one is a weird old twist in the tale, because ShopAEW, the company’s merchandise
website, just dropped its Holiday 2022 Ornament series and a “CM Punk 2.5 Inch Round Glass
Ornament” is one of the featured items.
Which 1: looks like a grenade and 2: why is it not called a bauble?!
Wrestling rules you’re not allowed to touch the baubles.
The listing says that 200 of the items are up for sales and they are fairly prominently
listed under the New Arrivals sections.
Now obviously these butt ugly christmas decorations aren’t interesting on their own.
But they do suggest that because AEW has dropped new licensed merch with Punk’s name on that
his AEW contract has not been bought out just yet.
So that means that it could still be bought out, as is the rumor going round, or it won’t
at all - and then we’re talking is Punk going to be returning to AEW television, potentially
after being visited by three ghosts who teach him not to be a knob backstage.
Or will he sit out the rest of his AEW contract at home?
Maybe Colt is the ghost of Punk’s AEW future, because many seem to believe his reappearance
on the brand on this week’s Dynamite was a sign that Punk’s time in the company is
done.
Fightful Select did some reporting on the news saying that “several” with AEW were
very happy to have Colt Cabana back in the fold.
They said that before Cabana’s absence from TV, which many seem to think was requested
by Punk, though that is something he vehemently denied, Colt had been said to be working producing
matches for months before he took a break.
PW Insider noted that Cabana remains on the Ring of Honor roster and that this match on
Dynamite had been planned to be a one-off appearance.
Fightful also asked if Cabana was back on a permanent basis, but had not heard back
yet at the time of publishing.
Colt himself kept his cards close to his chest in a post match celebratory tweet saying “i
returned to national tv last night on AEW.
I love wrestling!”
But in wrestling everything means something, others look to the stars or the bones scattered
across the floor to divine the future.
In wrestling we just go “oh there’s Colt Cabana, that means Punk’s fucked”
And it’s not just us fans who do that it seems, as WrestleVotes wrote of the reappearance
saying:
"Colt Cabana showing up on Dynamite last night didn’t go unnoticed in Stamford.
That’s all I’ll say on that right now…"
Fightful also noted that Colt on Dynamite was a "huge signal to WWE" that if CM Punk
was not done with AEW before, he certainly is now.
Fightful said that one source within WWE that was familiar with both Punk and Cabana said
they'd be shocked if the two could ever work together again.
A WWE source said they haven't heard anything even resembling an update on on the relationship
between Punk and WWE, and that they wouldn't feel comfortable officially reaching out to
him considering the situation.
But there was chatter that he had caught ‘the wrestling bug’ again during his time in
AEW so maybe he’d be willing to set aside his past grievances and give WWE a go.
Especially after being visited by those ghosts, after all it’s Christmas sir.
I KNOW IT’S NOVEMBER SHUT UP.
Meanwhile, AEW may be tittle tattling about a little backstage scuffle, WWE is literally
in the danger zone.
Because they have made their way over to Saudi Arabia for this weekend’s Crown Jewel event,
and the Wall Street Journal just a published a report to say that there has been an intelligence
warning of an imminent attack from Iran in the country.
Fightful Select said that company remains on ‘high alert’ amid attack concerns,
though at the time of me writing and recording this Crown Jewel is still scheduled to go
ahead and WWE are set to hold a press conference today in Riyadh for the show too.
Fightful added that WWE has been monitoring the situation since news broke of this threat
to the kingdom and has put emergency security contingencies in place.
I hope everyone stays safe this weekend!
Onto lighter news now, let’s talk about the return of Randy Orton who hasn’t been
seen on WWE programming since May.
We last saw Orton teaming with Matt Riddle as RK-Bro, and during their last match together
they lost the Raw Tag Team titles to Smackdown Tag Team Champions The Usos - making them
the Undisputed Tag Team Champions.
Orton then left to take time for a severe back injury which at the time was expected
to sideline him for the rest of the year.
According to WrestleVotes plans are already in place for Orton’s return, he is expected
to come back and “immediately” turn on Riddle, a man who has kept the RK-Bro flame
alive during Randy’s absence by mentioning him in promos and using his moveset during
matches.
The report does mention that these plans were “drawn up” when Vince was still in charge
so things are subject to change now that Triple H is leading WWE creative, but considering
that Riddle is still using Orton’s gimmicks it seems like the pair are destined for a
reunion.
Though that may be a ways off as a recent report noted that there was a lot of concern
in WWE over the severity of his back injury.
Earlier this week the unfortunate news broke regarding several NXT talent being released
from their contracts.
While it was thankfully the first spat of cuts in a while, it never gets any easier
to see.
While the cuts were reportedly due to a “lack of progression” according to Wrestling Observer’s
Dave Meltzer, as has been seen before with talents such as Parker Boudreaux.
However, this was not the case for all the names.
Perhaps most surprising amongst the cuts were names such as Bodhi Hayward who had appeared
fairly prominently on NXT TV as part of the Chase University skits.
According to Meltzer, Hayward’s release was slightly different.
“​​​​​​They didn’t like the work ethic, and they didn’t like that he
was late for shows, and didn’t show up at shows or something.
The primary reason for everyone was lack of progression, but for him it was a little bit
more than that.
It had to be enough to overcome the fact that he was actually in a storyline that was a
long-term storyline, and that the crowd liked him, which is always a good sign.
You wanna keep guys that have a good look and the crowd likes.
But it was not enough in their minds for him.”
The new development program WWE now employs requires progression by the six-month mark
after signing, so these talent releases may be something we unfortunately have to get
used to.
This week also saw AEW get a brand new toy, like Tony Khan is its divorced dad who only
gets to see it once a week.
That toy came packaged with a guitar and goes by the name of Jeff Jarrett.
Arriving on Dynamite during a match with Darby Allin and Jay Lethal.
After the debut it was announced on social media that Jarrett had also joined the management
side of AEW as a Director of Business Development.
More backstage details have shed light on Jarrett’s involvement both off and on screen
- firstly PWInsider said that Jeff had been brought into Baltimore via Washington, DC
and was kept hidden until his time to appear on the show.
They also noted that there is a belief that this will all lead to Jarrett vs Sting down
the line, interfering on Darby’s match and trashing Sting on the mic certainly seem to
be suggesting that.
PWInsider also reported that the Jarrett could be helping AEW with international plans now
he is working behind the scenes as Tony Khan has already teased additional live events
in 2023.
We can’t think about 2023 yet, because 2022 isn’t done and the greatest clusterpunk
in all of wrestling hasn’t even wrapped up yet - as we’ve already spoken about at
length.
It almost has though because it feels like we are on the cusp of The Elite returning
to AEW and drawing a line under this entire thing.
Colt Cabana obviously made his return to screens at Wednesday’s Dynamite to face Christ Jericho
for the ROH World Championship, which many took as indication of where the whole brawl
thing is trending.
And now backstage news suggests that The Elite were all spotted backstage at the show too,
that’s according to PWInsider.
It’s like they’re getting ready to spring them on us at any moment - especially with
all the vignettes teasing their return.
With Punk seemingly gone and the Elite offscreen AEW TV has been lacking a bit in star power
which has in-turn seemingly had an effect on Dynamite’s TV viewership numbers.
During the Punk era Dynamite was hitting that million mark a fair bit, however, they have
been consistently under that in recent weeks.
In fairness to AEW, this dip has not been helped by a string of big sporting events
such as the MLB playoffs and this week’s World Series.
However, with such a topsy-turvy surprised-filled show, did things improve this week?
According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, this week’s Dynamite drew 911,000 viewers,
down 9% from last week’s figure of 997,000.
The show also posted a 0.29 in the 18-49 demographic, which is also down from the 0.32 of the week
prior.
Overall Dynamite finished 3rd for cable originals on Wednesday according to Showbuzz Daily.
Given the stiff competition it will not be a massive surprise to AEW officials, especially
with WWE also struggling this week.
One thing is very clear though, Americans love them some sports.
Last night’s Dynamite provided an endless supply of surprise names from within the wrestling
world such as Jeff Jarrett and Katsuyori Shibata, as well as celebrities like the Baltimore
Ravens Lamar Jackson and Hip-Hop mogul Rick Ross.
While there have been numerous AEW Hip-Hop crossovers recently with Kevin Gates, Fabolous
and the ever present Westside Gunn.
Rick Ross stole the show with his natural promo skills and unintentionally hilarious
interjections of ‘ACCUSATIONS’ and ‘8-MAN TAG’.
He clearly had a great time, so when can we get some more?
According to Will Washington of Fightful Select, there has been “no mention yet” of any
further Ross appearances.
However, Ross showing up on AEW TV had been in the works since August, despite this it
impressively only took Ross, Swerve and Keith Lee one-take to conduct the two-minute segment.
Definitely another example of celebrity appearances done right for AEW.
Seems to be a lot more of those in wrestling these days compared to years gone by… (‘shudders’
to guest host Raw era).