In this WrestleTalk News, is a top WWE talent gone from the company? Are more WWE releases
on the way? Is someone about to undergo a major gimmick change?? And loads more.
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Despite showing up for a surprise stint on commentary at the Royal Rumble,
neither hide nor hair of Pat McAfee has been seen in WWE since.
McAfee left the desk back in October to join ESPN’s College GameDay but was said
to be returning to Smackdown’s commentary team once the college football season was
over. But as we all know, that finished on December 10th last year… according to Google.
So what has happened to McAfee? Well his replacement Wade Barrett may have
just shed some light on what’s going on. Barret told The Daily Star that his role
on Smackdown was “as permanent as you can ever be in a role in WWE”. Which certainly sounds
like he’s in it for the long haul and McAfee isn’t coming back - though this is WWE so most
roles are hanging by the thinnest thread. But Barrett did say that the commentary team
for the Blue Brand will be him and Michael Cole going forward, and this prompted a
Twitter response from Pat himself who gave a sort of mysterious ‘I’m busy actually’:
“A lot of wrestling chatter about me right now..I think about wrestling everyday.. that
dream isn’t done. My business is currently rather active and exigent…+ baby on the way…timing is
everything. I still have MASSIVE plans for my journey to the WWE HOF someday. Believe that.”
https://twitter.com/PatMcAfeeShow/status/1628516628991447040
“Baby girl on the way… what’s that mean for my future with @WWE? I LOVE it but, they’re
allegedly gonna be sold, who’s buying them? Do I want to work/make money for those people?”
Will McAfee make a surprise appearance in the headset for WrestleMania,
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
As great as the Hall-of-Fame is, WWE and everyone else’s main focus is of course on the two-night
extravaganza itself. And given the fact it’s A: WrestleMania and B:
taking place under the lights, glitz and glamor of Hollywood,
WWE would be wanting to go all out to make it the biggest Mania ever.
Well… not quite. According to PWInsiderElite, WWE is instead looking to streamline the event
from a spending perspective in order to maximize profits and present the “sleekest, strongest WWE
they can”. This will then in-turn prospectively make the company appeal more to potential WWE
buyers. As oh yeah… that whole sale of the company thing is meant to be happening in April is it not?
In order to cut costs WWE is reportedly looking to lessen the amount of staff present at Mania,
with many working remotely instead in order to minimize travel costs. This will
reportedly include many of WWE’s international commentary teams. Off to the Thunderdome with you.
Not only that but WWE are also reportedly binning off a number of events that were planned to
take place on WrestleMania weekend, however, it’s not clear as to what exactly these are.
This sleek, streamlined Mania in order to maximize profits and make a sale look appealing is all well
and good, but WWE and the words cutting costs in the same sentence gives me bad vibes man.
Over the last few years post-Mania season has also been culling season with the company making a
number of layoffs in mid-to-late April and usually citing ‘budget cuts’ as the primary reason.
With Vince reportedly back behind the scenes and ‘preparing for a sale’ could we see a similar
pattern recur within the company as it sheds some staffers in order to maximize profits?!
Considering Triple H’s recent hiring spate in order to ‘add depth’ to the
roster you have to expect that if this business decision were to be made it
would absolutely clash with the current creative direction for the company.
What do you reckon will happen? Let me know in the comments down below.
Onto the unfortunate topic of wrestler health issues and current NXT Women’s
Champion Roxanne Perez has been in the news a lot this week,
following a seemingly kayfabe post-match collapse at last week’s NXT Roadblock event.
While the whole thing seemed, as I said, like a bit of a work,
things took a concerning turn as some outlets such as the Wrestling Observer suggested that
Perez’s collapse was done in order to mask an unknown underlying issue with the 21-year-old.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio Dave Meltzer made the suggestion that
there was more than meets the eye with this story, saying:
“What I was told was it’s a vague situation,
in the sense that, hopefully there’s nothing wrong, but there might be,
She didn’t faint after the match. But that was a cover story for the
fact that something may or may not be going on.”
Bryan Alvarez would then rightly point out that Perez had just wrestled a near 20-minute match
with Meiko Satomura, suggesting Perez is surely not in ill-health, to which Meltzer replied:
“I’m sure it’s nothing wrong as far as something that would
prevent her from...if you have maybe a shoulder issue or something like that,
you can go and do your match, but you don’t know how bad the issue is. That happens all the time.
I was just told that it’s a cover story for something, and they don’t know exactly what it is,
so therefore it’s a vague story. Because the actual story is vague.”
In contrast to this, Fightful Select have also released an update on Perez, however, they are
adamant that Perez’s collapse is all a part of a storyline, with no underlying issues at hand.
A match for Perez’s NXT Women’s Championship has been set without the champion herself in
the event she isn’t ‘cleared’ to compete, so far seeing Zoey Stark
and Gigi Dolin qualify for a ladder match in two weeks time at Stand and Deliver.
While HBK handles NXT affairs these days it was of course once upon a time Triple H’s baby,
with his black and gold roots being evident throughout the current WWE main roster.
One of Triple H’s many former NXT favs is the former ‘Bruiserweight’ Butch.
While Trips has certainly had his hands full since taking over WWE’s creative,
many had assumed that one of Hunter’s first objectives would be swiftly reversing the
name change that should have never, ever happened and returning him to Pete Dunne.
Yet, here we are nearly eight months into Triple H’s WWE era and Pete is still Butch.
Although… he has at the very least ditched the suspenders and flat cap… that’s good.
But fear not, it seems as if Trips hasn’t forgotten about Mr. Dunne after all, as according
to Wrestlevotes via GiveMeSport, Butch will be transformed back into Pete Dunne in the near
future, with the Brawling Brutes’ popularity being the primary reason why it had not yet happened.
“Absolutely, I was told that it’s in the works. When Hunter came back,
I was told that Pete Dunne was due to become Pete Dunne, but somebody said,
to wait because The Brawling Brutes were catching on. When Pete Dunne returns,
it won’t be as a member of the Brawling Brutes. I’m sure he’ll be back by the end of this year.”
Great news, I mean Dunne has made the character work but realistically it’s
highly unlikely you’re ever becoming world champion with a name like… Butch.
Moving onto Triple H and WWE’s primary focus right now, which is of course the ‘Show of Shows’,
‘The Granddaddy of the All’, ‘The Showcase of the Immortals’... it’s WrestleMania… Yeah.
And what comes just before the event itself? Well it’s the Hall-of-Fame ceremony of course, and
while it took WWE a while to get rolling they’ve made up for lost time by swiftly announcing the
inductions of Rey Mysterio, The Great Muta and the not yet confirmed but highly likely Stacy Keibler.
But if you drag your minds back to the year we all wish to forget 2020,
there was a certain ‘Animal’ that was locked in for a first ballot spot in the Hall, however,
due to the pandemic this never came to be.
While some reports suggested that this would be the year that Batitsa would get his flowers,
which would have been fitting given it’s in Hollywood and all that,
it looks like another year is going to pass without big Dave’s induction.
And now we may have the answer as to why, as according to PWInsiderElite, Batista is
going to be in South Africa filming his upcoming movie ‘My Spy’ during WrestleMania week. So alas,
it’s not to be. Hopefully WWE can tie him down for next year eh?
But what of the card itself? As long as WWE pumps all of its resources into the
actual wrestling then everything will be fine and dandy right?
I think it’s safe to say that the Mania card is looking rather tasty indeed, yes I know it’s not
perfect (cough Lesnar Omos cough), but overall not too shabby. But with Mania being a two-night
event and all the rather curious question that arises now is what matches will take place when?
While we may not have our answer to that completely as of yet,
we may know where at least some of them end up at least.
As per WRKD Wrestling, so take this with a grain of salt, Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins
vs Logan Paul and Bianca Belair vs Asuka will both take place on night one of Mania while the
Smackdown Women’s Title match between Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley will be on night two.
If true, this begs the question as to what the main event of night one will in fact be,
as Charlotte vs Rhea would have perhaps been a potential frontrunner for that spot.
Interestingly WRKD had also tweeted a report late last month that suggested Sami Zayn and
Kevin Owens vs The Usos may get the nod to close night one, which I would be very much ok with.
However, again this cannot be confirmed. What do you want to see close night one? Let
us know in the comments below.
With WrestleMania just around the corner it’s also sadly a time when injuries can strike at the
worst possible time, and unfortunately that has been the case with The New Day’s Kofi Kingston.
Following an ankle injury sustained at the March 3rd episode of Smackdown, during a brawl that
was to set up a five-way IC Title number one contenders match Kingston would unfortunately
have to be pulled from said match, being replaced by his New Day partner Xavier Woods.
While it was feared that Kingston would be unable to make it to Mania as a result of the injury,
it seems that will unfortunately be the case as Kingston has confirmed
that he is set to undergo surgery on his ankle today on March 17th.
Kingston took to social media yesterday confirming the news,
however, it is unclear for just how long he will be out of action.
We at Wrestletalk would like to extend our well wishes to
Kofi and are hoping for a swift and safe recovery.