In this WrestleTalk News, Roderick Strong requested and denied his WWE release, a surprising
AEW star has his contract expire, Oli’s review of Raw and more.
Subscribe and enable notifications to always on for daily wrestling news videos because
it’s Day Two of the Randy Games.
At the end of this video, Adam is going to destroy Andy in his challenge.
[SUPPORT ANDY DATSON] Who put that support bumper there?
Get that out of here.
None of that.
NXT releases have been the talk of the town with another slew of cuts coming late last
week, but it’s someone else over in AEW that has actually departed their company now,
and it’s a very surprising name.
It was noticed by fans yesterday that The Dark Order’s Stu Grayson had been removed
from AEW’s roster page along with Joey Janela and Marko Stunt, two people whose contracts
have expired.
We hadn’t previously heard anything about Stu Grayson however.
While this was initially just speculation however, it now has seemingly been confirmed
by the Wrestling Observer, who reported that the belief is that Grayson’s contract has
indeed expired and he will be leaving AEW.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful also tweeted that he’d heard the same thing but hadn’t been
able to verify that information yet.
Grayson had been in AEW since the beginning, sticking with The Dark Order throughout his
tenure.
His final match actually aired yesterday on Dark: Elevation, where he competed Evil Uno,
Pres10 Vance, Alan Angels, Alex Reynolds and John Silver in a winning bout against Anthony
Bennett, Kori Meshaw, Mike Law, Jaden Valo, Eli Isom and Brett Waters.
This was taped prior to last week’s Dynamite.
Meanwhile, over in WWE, there’s some more releases.
Wait no, sorry, there’s requests for releases that have been denied, right after WWE released
more people because of ‘budget cuts’.
Makes perfect sense to me.
Fightful Select is reporting that Roderick Strong has requested his WWE release, but
this is not the first time, as he’s actually requested his release “multiple times”
over the past few months.
This is reportedly due to Strong having “grown frustrated” with many things over the past
year with the company, and he is now the last member of the originally pitched line-up for
his faction Diamond Mine left in the company, as the initial line-up was reported to be:
Roderick Strong, Arturto Ruas, Marina Shafir, Tyler Rust, Hideki Suzuki and Malcolm Bivens.
Shortly before that, Strong had reportedly re-signed with WWE shortly before Diamond
Mine’s debut in NXT, meaning he most likely has quite the wait on his contract.
The Fightful Select report also noted that Strong was pitched a name change, which Strong
opposed.
There are also reportedly others that were very surprised that Strong was not part of
the latest round of NXT cuts as he had seemingly made it quite clear he wanted out.
However, on WWE’s side, they reportedly say that Strong has remained professional
surrounding his creative, and confirmed that they have no plans on granting his release
as he factors into their plans.
With Mustafa Ali and now Roderick Strong being denied their releases amongst seas of cuts,
but with Ali recently being brought back to Raw, who knows what the future holds for Strong,
but fingers crossed he can get what he wants before long.
Switching back to AEW, excitement is building for next month’s Forbidden Door AEW/New
Japan crossover show, with fans already booking their dream card.
And now arguably the biggest star New Japan has, has weighed in on his views on the Forbidden
Door show.
Kazuchika Okada retained his IWGP Heavyweight Championship at NJPW Wrestling Dontaku against
Tetsuya Naito, and in a post-show press conference, mentioned to the press that he should “absolutely
be a part of it”, adding that there “wouldn’t be much point” in doing Forbidden Door if
he wasn’t there.
Fantasy bookers, there’s all the material you need.
Get booking.
And now hot tag to Oli.
Before we get on with the rest of the episode, I’d just like to say a huge thank you to
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Now it’s time for my review of the WrestleMania go home you’re injured show…
Backlash edition of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes.
After WWE hastily rebooked the main event of WrestleMania…
Backlash into a six man tag of the Bloodline vs Drew McIntyre and RKBro - yep, Roman Reigns
is definitely 100% not injured, nothing to see here - The Bloodline showed up to open
this episode of Raw.
But almost quicker than you could say Acknowledge Me North Carolin-AGRRH, RKBro awesomely RKO’d
the Usos from outta nowhere, and Roman was surrounded by Orton, Riddle and McIntyre.
Where RKBro immediately decided, well that’s our job done, we’ll just leave these two
in the ring to settle it mano-y-mano, start making our way to the back for that marijuana…
oh no, the Usos just ran back in and stopped it all.
This was an awesome start to the show, but the finish was lacking.
In that, it didn’t have one.
The two sides were just pulled apart, the show went to break, and nothing was heard
of them ever again.
At this point, WWE’s going to introduce trios titles before AEW, with the next match
being another six man tag with the Street Profits and Ezekiel vs Alpha Academy and Kevin
Owens - with the story based around Ezekiel clearly, obviously, definitely, being LA Knight.
It’s right there, sheeple.
This was a really fun match, which did the best job yet of Ezekiel, whose lack of in-ring
connection with the crowd was made up for by having five other people do it for him.
So of course Ezekiel picked up his first pinfall loss, being tripped by Owens into a technical
pin by Gable.
After Veer cervically clutched the Mysterious out of existence, WWE have leaned into him
squashing a local enhancement talent every week by reviving the best part of Braun Strowman’s
initial main roster run five years ago: the jobber interview!
Byron Saxton interviewed local wrestler Bert Hanson, who put over North Carolina, he put
over Greensborough, he even put over Stevie’s BBQ down the road.
All for Veer to annihilate his cervix too.
Such a gross order of words.
The Judgment Day vs AJ Styles storyline is getting better every week, and their go-home
segment had a match between Styles and Damien Priest, where if AJ won, Priest would be banned
from ringside at WrestleMania…
Backlash.
Which are really good stakes.
Ohhhhh, oh my god, I’m so sorry.
I didn’t mean to be so insensitive.
You can’t say stakes around former vampire guys.
I’m so sorry.
Edge really fired up the crowd with an all the local hometown heat pre-match promo, and
Priest worked over Styles’ shoulder, that Judgment Day had previously targeted (an awesome
detail, with it being the same bodypart Edge injured in 2020).
This week, though, a former Bullet Club leader did not get distracted by Edge just standing
up.
And using Edge’s distraction attempt, AJ rolled up Priest to win!
Judgment Day then went to give Styles another Conchairto, but Finn Balor ran down for the
save and gave AJ a Bullet Club Too Sweet.
This feud has gone from strength to strength, with everyone looking better than when they
started, and in wrestling, that’s the best measure of storyline success.
And with Priest now banned from ringside at WrestleMania…
Backlash, it could set up the addition of Judgment Day’s reported next member Ciampa.
Happy 50th birthday Rock The Dwayne Johnson!
Fifty years old is actually relatively pretty young when you think of him in terms of his
fellow geological minerals… or part-timers set to main event WrestleMania.
Miz hosted Mustafa Ali on MizTV, where Ali was hazed with his music cutting out early,
or his microphone not working.
Miz leaned into Ali trying to quit WWE in real life, telling him to just go to Twitter
to complain.
Theory then came out and revealed his mentor… why not just say Mr McMahon?
…had booked Ali in a championship contenders’ match against both Theory and the Miz.
Which, thankfully for Ali, he lost really decisively, surely guaranteeing him a US title
shot at the pay-per-view.
Theory and Miz are really good together, and Ciampa attacked Ali with no explanation in
the post-match.
Nikki A.S.H.
both won and lost the 24/7 title from and to Dana Brooke, after which Dana demanded
a divorce from Reggie.
The best thing here, though, was a potentially reunion - where Doudrop seemingly set up a
team with Nikki backstage afterwards.
Hopefully for a serious women’s tag team title run, and not just more numbers to get
the 24/7 title back.
It was then time for Seth Rollins Appreciation Night, ahead of his WrestleMania match against
Cody Rhodes…
Backlash.
The crowd chanted for Cody, which Seth leaned into perfectly, so he came out in his own
suit, seemingly borrowed from John Cena, in a battle of jacket patterns.
The money go-home line was Seth calling Dusty Rhodes a narcissist, that he wasn’t good
enough to win the WWE Championship.
And Cody isn’t good enough either.
They brawled, and Cody threw Seth’s jacket into the crowd.
Navy Check jacket reigns supreme!
Just when you thought WWE were done kicking the withered corpse of the Hurt Business,
here’s Cedric Alexander trying to get in with MVP again by taking on Bobby Lashley.
Lashley squashed hometown boy Alexander as Omos and MVP watched on.
This is a feud that would’ve had mass appeal thirty years ago, but now it’s just for
for an audience of one man’s kink - including new slow pan up Bobby’s body in his entrance.
And the main event saw a huge six woman tag of Becky Lynch, Rhea Ripley and Sonya Deville
vs Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan and Asuka - in the Empress of Tomorrow’s first match in
nine months.
That’s three separate women’s feuds interweaving here, which is a sign of really good booking
of the division.
Everyone worked really well here, but I was particularly into Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan,
with the latter effectively getting over their rivalry’s intensity, and Ripley feeling
rejuvenated as a heel, showing a fire that had been neutered by her babyface non-characters.
Asuka and Lynch were smartly kept apart, and Belair prevented Sonya from cheating to win
- another great booking point, with Deville’s story being about rewriting company rules
- letting Morgan get the win.
A really fun match, although not a super hot go-home cliffhanger for the pay-per-view.
What did you think of Raw?
Let me know in the comments.
I’ve said this every week for the past three weeks, I think this was the best RAW of the
year so far.
It’s momentum, it’s the storylines clicking, but most importantly, I think, it’s WWE
actually paying attention to detail.
It feels like there’s actual logical progression from week to week, which has added a level
of coherence missing from Monday nights.
This week’s Raw is 74%.
Of course, WWE right now is all about WrestleMania…
Backlash.
But the biggest thing in wrestling is actually the Randy Games.
Which continues now!!!!