In this WrestleTalk News, Bray Wyatt calls out WWE, Jon Moxley shoots hard, CM Punk on
a WWE return and more… Superclick the subscribe button and enable
notifications for daily wrestling news videos. Happy day after Halloween, everybody. And
congratulations for your Squid Game costume, that was a really unique outfit that nobody
else was doing this year. Our favourite professional wrestling stars
did just as well. Here’s Kayla Braxton dressed up as her fancy man Paul Heyman. Johnny Gargano
and Candice LaRae dressed up as Vision from WandaVision, and Becky Lynch’s mum in that
60s photoshoot Big E always thirst over, respectively. Have a cold shower, Big E.
And, of course, Sting going as his favourite wrestler Danhausen.
Get well soon Danhausen and Mance Warner - who both suffered leg injuries at an indie show
last night. But the best Halloween costume 2021 easily
goes to John Morrison - who went as the man wrestlers fear the most… Dave Meltzer! Complete
with press pass, way-too-tight t-shirt to flex those typewriter pounding biceps, and
gold stars. Morrison rated his own costume 5 ½ stars.
With Bray Wyatt’s non-compete clause expiring last Friday, I thought for sure we’d see
him debut somewhere over Halloween weekend, which was also the two year anniversary of
his Fiend Universal title win in Saudi Arabia. Instead all we got of the now named Windham
Rotunda was him shooting on WWE over Twitter. WWE released Wyatt on the 31st July because
of “budget cuts” - the same reason management had given to every other performer they’ve
let go over the last year and a half. But with Bray’s Fiend character selling so much
merchandise, many doubted the financial explanation. Andrew Zarian has since called the budget
cuts reason “utter bulls***”, instead pointing to Bray “being difficult” with
“some performance issues in the ring, and he had some weight issues.” PWInsider also
noted Wyatt’s “hot and cold” relationship with Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn, while others
have claimed Bray was too protective over his character.
Because screw you for caring so much. And over the weekend, Ringside News relayed
what one of their sources told them about Wyatt behind-the-scenes:
“Not being an apologist or a WWE defender, just telling you like it is. If you were running
a business, and Windham was on your payroll, you’d release him, too. Between his backstage
antics and the way he handled himself when making millions and millions while medically
flagged, he really deserved to be released.” Replying to that article being tweeted out,
Windham himself has responded: First with a Rock eye rolling gif.
Then posting: “Now that we have Johnny and Bruce’s opinion, I would like to share mine
soon.” This is just Rotunda’s latest hint that
he will be doing an interview soon, possibly suggesting he has a new wrestling deal lined
up. Cough Talk is Jericho podcast cough. The ‘Johnny and Bruce’ Windham references
are most likely WWE’s Head of Talent Relations John Laurinitus and Executive Director of
Raw and SmackDown Bruce Prichard. It appears Rotunda is implying they are the ones who
have leaked that information to Ringside News themselves, or at least someone underneath
them, just like Paul Heyman was speculated to do to ‘the dirt sheets’ in the past.
This could be a case of WWE management trying to create a narrative, rather than objective
facts. It’s also important to note that ‘Johnny
and Bruce’ are the infamous Vince McMahon Yes Men. So while Rotunda can blame the messengers,
these feelings are most likely coming from Vince himself.
And now more has come out about The Fiend’s original WWE plans…
Artist Kyle Scarborough, who did a lot of the design work for the Fiend character, has
revealed on Twitter: “Fun Fact: the WWE wanted to bring the #FireflyFunHouse
alive, but @Windham6 would only do it if he played the characters himself. Only one was
mocked up, and this would've been the concept for FFH Huskus. It was hinted, but ultimately
shelved.” Along with a terrifying concept drawing of
a Huskus version of the Fiend. Scarborough also shared his potential mask
designs for Alexa Bliss’ Fiend character that he drew at the beginning of their run
together You can hear more from Scarborough and how
he contributed to Wyatt’s gimmick in our Fiend, Explained trilogy over on partsFUNknown.
But Bray isn’t the only one who’s been calling out WWE’s power figures behind the
scenes… In an interview with Josh Martinez, CM Punk
has explained why he chose AEW over making a return to WWE:
“If I went back to WWE, what would I do? There’s a formula. There’s a track record
and a formula. This is what they do. Batista comes back, he wins the Royal Rumble, he main
events WrestleMania. Edge comes back. He’s in the Royal Rumble. I think he was in it
twice. There’s a formula and I was bored of that s*** 10 years ago, so I’m bored
of it now.” Instead, Punk wanted to tell a different kind
of story, where he’s slowly rekindling his character’s love of professional wrestling
while helping elevate younger talent. But the harshest words for WWE management
were reserved by Jon Moxley in his autobiography MOX. Where, in typical Moxley style, it’s
written like a series of brutally honest, captivating promos. Including one on WWE’s
long time Executive Producer Kevin Dunn, widely seen as one of the most powerful people in
the company: Apparently, Moxley had apologised to Dunn
for something, which Dunn accepted. But then Kevin Dunn went behind Moxley’s back and
started to say the apology wasn’t “sufficient” - tarnishing Moxley’s reputation without
him knowing. Leading Moxley to call him, amongst other things “The Magical King Wizard who
lives in the truck and controls the universe” and, slightly more colourfully, a “dickless
motherf-er” and a “little c-word rat”. Mox expanded on how Dunn, who’s been in
his position since the early 80s, plays a Littlefinger-style game of politics in the
company: “The reality in a place like WWE is that
one comment, one little seed planted by a guy in Kevin Dunn’s position can be extremely
detrimental to someone’s future there. That’s a lot of power, and that power breeds ego.
Connecticut… old, rich boys’ club ego. I’ve heard all kinds of stories about that
guy messing with people’s careers, but this isn’t that kind of book. Suffice to say
that dude is a f***bag. Maybe this is that kind of book… no! No! … but for real,
don’t EVEN get me started on… no… this is not that kind of book. F*** Kevin Dunn.”
Sometimes I wish Mox would stop being so cryptic and just say what he means!
Mox’s autobiography is out now, and it comes highly recommended. He mentioned in his Wrestling
Observer interview last Friday that he’ll be doing the audiobook version too, which
will be awesome. But WWE isn’t all bad.
Bryan Danielson reportedly left the company on such good terms, the door is open for him
to come back. Fightful Select has reported Danielson was
praised backstage in WWE in his final months in the company. He was added to the Universal
title match at WrestleMania 37 in a “last-minute call”, and went above and beyond to make
his last match with Roman Reigns, the Universal Championship/loser leaves town SmackDown match
on April 30th, “as good as possible.” According to Fightful’s source, WWE “couldn’t
have asked for more” from Bryan, and he “handled things so well that a lot of people
didn’t think he was actually leaving or taking any time off.” Despite Danielson
then leaving for AEW, his relationship with WWE is said to be “on very good terms”.
It’s a day of the week, you know what that means.
A new story about Charlotte Flair having heat backstage.
Back in August, a Charlotte vs Nia Jax on Raw broke down into a bit of an actual fight,
with the two momentarily pausing in the ring, refusing to sell moves, and slapping each
other. Now Dave Meltzer is reporting the women talent
in the locker room were “solidly behind Jax for standing up to Flair and showing her
she can’t bully her around.” [QUOTE] - even though it was Jax’s unprofessional in-ring
work that appeared to have made Charlotte get so frustrated in the first place.
Charlotte is also rumoured to have been the one to throw the pie at Kevin Owens, caused
the demise of WCW, and booked The Fiend vs Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell 2019.
Charlotte has seemingly responded to the now 10 days of heat reports on her, tweeting a
Saturday Night Live gif captioned “I heard a rumor! I heard a rumor!” [TWEET]
Speaking of rumors, according to the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE is trying
to recruit shorter referees to make their wrestlers look even bigger. Here’s tip to
Kevin Dunn for free. Referees, backstage interviews - just make them stand really, really far
away, like Gandalf did with the Hobbits when filming Lord of the Rings.
One of the most exciting wrestlers I’ve seen live in the last few years Speedball
Mike Bailey has just signed with IMPACT Wrestling, following his match against Josh Alexander
at last night’s Destiny Wrestling event. Bailey is a legit Taekwondo Black Belt, and
has been wrestling for over a decade. Just when he seemed set to break through in the
indie explosion of 2016, though, he was banned from entering the United States for five years
because of a visa issue - Bailey is Canadian. Thankfully that has now expired.
And after losing the last season of our fantasy predictions WrestleLeague - for the second
time in a row - you have all voted for me to do a music video punishment of… R-Truth’s
What’s Up. Ah crap.