In this WrestleTalk News, Malakai Black is in fact not released from AEW, next week’s
Dynamite may be undergoing some major changes, and Luke’s review of Raw.
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Just a few days ago, it had been reported that amongst the backstage chaos in AEW right
now, Malakai Black had requested his release from AEW, and that a conditional release had
been granted.
Moreover, on just yesterday’s WrestleTalk News video, we spoke about reports stating
that Buddy Matthews may be done in AEW for a while, with some believing that the Grand
Slam Rampage match was his last in AEW.
But as it turns out, both of them might be staying in AEW after all.
Malakai Black took to Instagram yesterday to speak on all the reports surrounding him,
and mentioned as part of it that “Everything is fine.
You’ll see me right back with AEW pretty soon.
I’m just gonna take some time.
That’s it.”
Black ran down the fake rumours and speculation, particularly when it came to his mental health
and private life, and revealed that he had even received death threats over this.
It goes without saying, if you’re giving someone death threats over potentially leaving
a wrestling promotion you like, please take some time and get yourself some help.
Behaviour like that is never ok.
In a report from Fightful Select, they indicated that AEW sources believed the situation with
Black had been resolved prior to All Out, and one source noted that they believed we’d
be seeing Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews “back in the AEW within a few months”,
and that AEW had no intent of releasing Black for him to re-join WWE.
Over the weekend, Matthews spoke at a live show and revealed he would be taking some
time away from the ring, with Fightful Select noting that there was “dissatisfaction”
regarding his situation in AEW.
Dave Meltzer had noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that Matthews, much like Malakai Black
“obviously” wanted to return to WWE, but had several years on his contract left.
But with Malakai and Matthews reportedly sticking around in AEW, maybe it isn’t so ‘obvious’
after all.
On the subject of AEW talent leaving the company though, last week a rumour/report emerged
of Bobby Fish attempting to convince Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly to leave AEW and
rejoin him in WWE, however that has now been refuted by Fightful Select, who say that AEW
sources have “vehemently denied” these reports, and WWE sources say there haven’t
been conversations between WWE and Bobby Fish either.
This coming week’s AEW Dynamite episode may be looking quite different from the one
that was planned as Hurricane Ian has been threatening to wreak havoc across Florida.
Tony Khan tweeted out to say: “For everyone in @AEW, in case you missed
our email, anyone worried about Hurricane Ian affecting your travel or home or your
family life, it’s voluntary to come to tv this week.
Anyone affected by the hurricane can take care of business at home, & we hope to see
you all next week”.
So the card we may see on Wednesday might be quite different from the one that was advertised
depending on who can make it to the show and who can’t - where we were originally supposed
to be seeing Jon Moxley vs Juice Robinson, hearing from Saraya, and a Ring of Honor World
Championship match between Chris Jericho
and Bandido.
And now it’s time for my review of Monday Night
Raw - aka can we do all wrestling shows in Canada from now on edition of Monday Night
Raw… in about five minutes.
The show opened with Bianca Belair and friends coming down to the ring to cut a promo on
Damage CTRL, which brought out the big ol’ heels to retort.
Sadly this wasn’t all that great, and was scripted like a bad high school argument rather
than adult humans having an adult human conversation.
It ended up with Bayley challenging Belair to a ladder match at Extreme Rules - yes please
- and Belair challenging Iyo Sky to a match right now - even more yes please.
Good job Iyo was in her gear, eh?
They had a very good match that was given a lot of time, which will be a running theme
tonight.
And while the crowd weren’t immediately hot for the action, they did pick up by the
end and busted out a THIS IS AWESOME chant, though that felt more like a formality than
an actual emotional response, but it was very welcome to me as a home viewer.
Because this was pretty awesome, and Belair won with the KOD.
More simple and effective booking for this feud; Belair beating Bayley’s goons before
getting to the final boss at the PPV.
This is the strength of factions.
Rey Mysterio told Kevin backstage that he won’t fight his son, and then he took on
Seth Rollins in another very good match.
It was a match so good it served as an excellent reminder that these two worked their socks
off to get past their terrible Eye for an Eye match two years ago.
Rollins cut a promo before the match saying that he’s not scared of the Fight Pit with
Matt Riddle and I wouldn’t be either, mate, Riddle’s not won one yet - it’s Timothy
Thatcher you want to be scared of!
There was another QR Code dealio during the entrances of this match, which teases the
idea that The White Rabbit - whoever it might be but is probably Bray Wyatt - will debut
at Extreme Rules.
And speaking of Extreme, Dominik Mysterio - who this week was dressed as your cousin’s
emo band’s bass player who swears a big time talent scout will be at their next gig
- again asked for his dad to hit him with an unprotected chair shot - he’s hardcore,
he’s hardcore - and Rhea Ripley knocked Rey into the post; allowing Seth to hit the
Curb Stomp.
But Seth didn’t pin Rey, he instead locked in a submission to make Mysterio pass out.
A brilliant finish that does a lot to hype the Fight Pit match at Extreme Rules.
And speaking of brilliant things, Kevin Owens teamed with Johnny Gargano to take on Alpha
Academy which was more about the crowd reactions than the in-ring action - but the in-ring
action itself was also fantastic.
These four men put on a superb NXT TakeOver midcard tag match and did a great job in making
Alpha Academy look like a legit threat to the tag division which doesn’t happen often.
And even though Owens was the big home country star in this match, it was Gargano who got
the pin - overcoming distractions and interference by Austin Theory to hit the Slingshot DDT
for the win.
Great match and a great finish.
But while this did a lot to build up Alpha Academy, the following segment undermined
a lot of that - as Austin Theory got a phone call from Braun Strowman saying that he’ll
have a match with Chad Gable next week on Raw.
A match that will do nothing for Gable, and little for Braun who’s already beaten Chad
in a 2-on-1 handicap match.
I’m hoping next week they do something that surprises me, because this is not inspiring
me to tune in next week.
I mean I will because it’s my job, but you know what I mean.
Last week the BT Sport feed cut out and I missed Omos beating a couple of local lads.
I deduced in my review that I suspected it would be boring and I didn’t actually miss
anything.
So it was good to see my suspicions were correct when Omos beat two local lads in a boring
match that I totally could have missed.
The only little wrinkle to this that might actually be building to something is that
MVP compared Omos to Braun Strowman - setting up a potential match between the two down
the line, which sounds absolutely horrible.
Earlier in the night, Miz had introduced us to his latest method of not being stalked
and attacked by the babyface psychopath Dexter Lumis: MIZFORCE - an idea so lame not even
Cannon Films would have financed the movie about them.
But Dexter is Mizforce type Pokemon so they were not effective, and he killed them all
and laid them out across the arena for other wrestlers to find.
Eventually Miz found the dead bodies - they didn’t have name tags so they didn’t even
stand a chance - and was then choked out by Dexter who was hiding by wearing Kevin Smith
merchandise.
It was your usual Dexter/Miz segment, which I’m very ready to move onto the next chapter.
And I was really ready for them to move on when they recapped the whole segment following
the ad-break.
I was just about to pick up the remote and press fast forward to get to the next thing
when all of a sudden Candice LaRea made her return to WWE and beat Nikki ASH in a quick
match!
Great to see Candice back, and she inserted herself into the Damage CTRL and Bianca Belair
and Friends storyline in a backstage segment later on, but more interestingly for me was
Nikki’s reaction to all of this, removing her mask and crying in the corner following
another loss for her.
This could, finally, be the end of that character.
The best storyline in WWE right now Sami Zayn then took on AJ Styles, who was again approached
by Finn Balor to join Judgement Day - and this led commentary to make an excellent storyline
throughout this great match.
Sami had backup in Solo Sikoa and has found great success as part of the Bloodline, and
perhaps AJ needs someone to have his back to find his feet again on Raw.
It was wonderful colour to this already wonderful match, which went out of its way to remind
us all that Sami Zayn is one of the best wrestlers on the entire planet.
And it played into the finish, as Solo Sikoa took out AJ with a urinaghi on the apron and
Sami hit the Helluva Kick for the win.
After the match Judgement Day came out and again suggested that AJ join their group.
AJ teased giving Balor the TOO SWEET, but then gave him the finger in a great visual.
Judgement Day then beat AJ down and went to break his neck with a chair, but Balor stopped
himself short and said that he wouldn’t do it because he’s AJ’s friends, and that’s
not what friends do.
This is quickly becoming one of the best storylines on Raw and I am here for all of it.
And if that wasn’t enough, we had a main event of Damien Priest vs. Matt Riddle who
beat the ever loving tar out of each other.
There were some more distraction and interference spots - perhaps too many for one show - but
Riddle overcame them to get a roll-up win on Priest.
The right winner as he needs the momentum going into Fight Pit, but another sad loss
for The Judgement Day.
Not helped when they continued their beatdown on Riddle who was then saved by a returning
Edge - who challenged Balor to an I Quit match at Extreme Rules.
Which, let’s be honest, Edge will win because Judgement Day cannot buy a win over The Rated
R Superstar.
This was an excellent edition of Raw, which unlike last week, actually moved some stories
forward.
I took some heat in the comments last week for not liking last week’s show, but a lot
of the small criticisms I had against that show - which I’d like to remind you I did
say was good - were addressed here.
This had great wrestling, great stories, and two big returns.
Sadly three hours is still too long, but this was a high 4 out of 5 show for me.
Not an all-time great, but a cracking wrestling program.