In this WrestleTalk News, Sasha Banks appearing at Wrestle Kingdom?
Courting interest from AEW?
William Regal WWE start date revealed!
And so much more.
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It’s Friday, you know what that means, probably something about Punk leaving AEW and going
to WWE… you what?!
It’s not?
Have we broken the curse, holy shhhhhhhh….
Although we are talking about basically the reverse, somebody having walked out of WWE
and now potentially turning up in AEW.
The person in question is Sasha Banks who walked out of Raw on May 16th and hasn’t
been seen in a wrestling ring since, some speculate at this point that she might not
even return to the world of wrestling what with her acting career and modeling side hustles
taking off.
There was also the suggestion that Banks’ management had said she would not be taking
any wrestling related bookings for the rest of 2022, instead focussing on these other
aspects of her career.
Some months ago it was reported that it was a “matter of when, not if” Banks and Naomi
would return to WWE following the regime shift but there were also reports of “hang-ups”
in negotiations between the parties.
Afterwards Banks filed to trademark the names ‘Mercedes Mone’ ‘Mone Talks’, ‘Bank
Mone’ and “Statement Maker” alongside her real name for use in pro wrestling - seemingly
suggesting she was looking outside WWE for work.
And yesterday we got that confirmed as PWInsider dropped a report saying Banks would be appearing
at NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4th, not as a fan, not as a spectator, but
NJPW were bringing her to the event, likely to wrestle.
On top of that Fightful Select noted that Banks appearing for NJPW has opened up a lot
of other scenarios, namely her working with AEW which many in the company are reportedly
“excited” about the possibility of.
And said she could be an “anchor” talent to cement the women’s division.
An anonymous source told Fightful that Banks could be the answer to AEW's TV ratings dilemma:
"One [AEW] source quickly agreed they thought that having Sasha Banks on their show weekly
is another "anchor" for their women's division, something that could kick start interest in
it, and feel would significantly help viewership,"
Following up on yesterday’s story regarding William Regal leaving AEW for WWE but being
unable to appear on the TV product for the foreseeable future as a reported condition
of his release there have been a few updates.
One Willy Reegs posted to his Twitter bidding farewell to the Blackpool Combat Club with
his favourite song by his favourite band - Far Far Away by Slade.
Then in an updated PWInsider are not reporting that Regal will be starting his behind-the-scenes
position at WWE in the “first week of 2023”.
The real man’s man already had a trip back to the UK planned for the end of the year
, which is why his last Dynamite appearance this week was pre-taped ahead of time.
It was also noted that Regal will be ending his ‘Gentleman Villain’ podcast ahead
of his WWE return, lest the secrets of the business get out there.
Oh no, I thought we’d dodged it.
As we all know, rumors have been constantly rife surrounding the future of two-time AEW
World Champ CM Punk.
Heck, even the man himself has been getting in on the fun, dropping potential cryptic
clues such as yesterday’s bizarre WWE-era throwback picture of him during his WWE days
(although he may have just been giving his boy Luke ‘Festus’ Gallows a weird shoutout
with that one).
So with news outlets hoovering up every last breadcrumb Phil is dropping, the question
is whether those within the company that he is rumored to be potentially heading to (WWE)
are as excited as we are?
Well according to current NXT star Apollo Crews…
nah not really.
Speaking with Nick Hausman of WrestlingInc.
Crews responded to a question on a Punk return by stating his feelings of indifference to
the whole idea.
"It's not that I wouldn't be happy or I wouldn't be upset — I don't know if I'd really feel
any kind of way, honestly,"
"It's nothing against him personally or anything, but I don't know...I think I'd just kind of
be neutral with it.
But again, extremely talented individual, and only time will tell, right?"
Sounds like Crews is about as fatigued as well are with the whole situation.
Moving on to a potentially upset current WWE talent now, and Smackdown’s Sonya Deville
is seemingly not best pleased with the way she has been utilized, or rather under-utilized
lately.
Deville posted a short and to the point message on her Twitter to WWE’s creative stating:
“I Want to Wrestle!”
Despite being quite a prominent figure on WWE TV during her time as an authority figure
alongside Adam Pearce for much of 2021, ever-since being booted from the role she has not seen
nearly as much screen-time.
Deville’s last appearance on TV came on the November 11th edition of Smackdown where
she was used to make up the numbers in a number-one contender Smackdown Women’s Championship
battle royal.
Prior to that she engaged in a short-lived feud with Liv Morgan (see what I did there?),
as well as making a seemingly promising move to NXT to assist Mandy Rose in her match with
Alba Fyre.
However, unfortunately nothing really came of that (aside from a singles match with Fyre)
and it all seems a bit random in retrospect.
Hopefully Sonya’s cry for more grapps gets heard and we see her in a more prominent spot
soon.
Sticking with absentee WWE stars and there has been an update on the statuses of two
of WWE’s biggest names from Raw and Smackdown, that being Matt Riddle and Drew McIntyre.
First with Riddle, who was the victim of a vicious attack from Solo Sikoa on Raw, with
the ‘Original Bro’ being carted off on a stretcher.
A move such as this is usually done to write someone off for a bit and it appears that
is in fact the case as PWInsider has reported that Riddle has now been pulled from this
weekend’s live events.
It is currently unclear why this is the case, as it has not been reported that Riddle is
legit injured or anything so we’ll have to wait and see for more details on his status
going forward.
As for Drew, it looks like he is dealing with a currently unknown injury of sorts as also
according to PWInsider, he will no longer be appearing at tonight’s Smackdown or the
weekend’s live events.
According to the report, McIntyre’s absence is said to be legit and due to being medically
disqualified from competing.
A shame really, given he was set to team with Sheamus for a tag-team title match against
the Uso’s, however now, Butch will reportedly take McIntyre’s place in the match.
We at Wrestletalk would like to wish both Drew and Riddle the best and hope to see them
return soon.
Another recently injured star is of course ‘The Man’ Becky Lynch, who made her long-awaited
return at Survivor Series: War Games following a four month absence with a separated shoulder.
Well, it turns out despite returning and competing at War Games, as well as this week’s Raw,
Lynch has realised that she isn’t quite 100% just yet.
Speaking with Alternative Sport’s Matthew Connell, Lynch spoke on the War Games match
injury and how her injured shoulder is feeling.
“Truth be told, my shoulder still isn’t feeling right.
So to say I was nervous is probably a bit of an understatement.
But once you get out there, once you get in front of the crowd and you feel that energy,
then you forget everything else.
There’s not another feeling like it.”
Adrenaline is a hell of a drug, we just hope that Lynch is back feeling in tip-top shape
soon.
Just take it a bit easier Becks c’mon, no jumping off cages for at least a few weeks.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on the recent goings on in NXT lately you would notice a
LOT more main roster crossovers as of late, something that is clearly a key part of Trips’
strategy for the third brand.
However one recent set of appearances has certainly been catching the eye more than
usual and that is that of The New Day’s Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods.
The 11-time former tag-team champions made a splash by challenging the current NXT champs
Pretty Deadly, to a match for the titles at tomorrow night’s NXT Deadline event in an
attempt to become only the second triple-crown tag champs in WWE history.
While it has been cool to see Woods and Kingston mix it up on Tuesdays and get a nice change
of scenery I think many would assume that it’s just a short-time deal right?
Well… perhaps not necessarily, that is if NXT boss Shawn Michaels gets his way anyway.
Speaking at the NXT Deadline media call, Michaels spoke on The New Day’s time in NXT thus
far and their future on the brand.
“We never go into it asking for long-term, we kind of take everybody’s temperature
when they come here and hope that it does.
“They really had a great time and we are going to try and do everything we can to keep
them here as long as we can.
I asked them if we could broach those conversations and they were certainly open to it.
I’m really hoping it’s certainly more than a one-time thing.
It just becomes a question of how long.”
Finishing up with some Impact news for a change and current top-guy in the company Impact
World Champion Josh Alexander, has provided an interesting tidbit of information in a
new interview with Chris Van Vliet.
Despite seemingly being at Impact for a while now, Alexander revealed that there was in
fact a brief period in February this year that he was a free agent, theoretically opening
the door for discussions with companies outside of Impact.
And according to Alexander one of the options on the table was in fact Tony Khan’s AEW.
Speaking of the interest Alexander blamed concerns of his booking in AEW as the main
reason for the snub.
“It was definitely on the table, and it was definitely a thought...but I wouldn’t
say it was too close.”
“For me as a pro wrestler, my fulfillment of what I do is to go out there and wrestle,
and show what I can do.
I think my benefit is bell-to-bell.
That is where I will gain notoriety.
That is where I will show my worth in the pro wrestling scene.
And at the time watching AEW, it didn’t look like a lot of people were getting opportunities
to do that stuff outside of like the top 20 people that were on the roster.
You’d see people shuffle in and out, and shuffle in and out.
They would get their runs for a few weeks, and they’d go back to shorter matches on
AEW Dark.”
Alexander’s criticisms of a bloated roster size and lack of opportunities have been a
source of frustration for fans and talent alike as stars such as Miro vanish in thin
air for months on end.
So yeah, given his Impact success he may have made the right call there
for now.