In this WrestleTalk News, Charlotte Flair’s heat with another wrestler explained, CM Punk
responds to pleas to mend AEW relationships, Oli’s review of Dynamite and more.
2022 is almost over, and shockingly enough, the Omni-Flair has been significantly less
Omni this year, with Charlotte only wrestling in the first half of the year for WWE, her
last match being at the beginning of May at WrestleMania Backlash where she dropped the
SmackDown Women’s Title to Ronda Rousey in an I Quit Match.
Question marks have circled around her since then, with speculation from fans ranging from
her taking time off, being upset with WWE, being upset with other wrestlers, an injury,
supporting her husband Andrade El Idolo while he does…all the things he’s doing in AEW,
joining AEW and leaving WWE altogether, there’s been a lot of chatter but not much substance
regarding her absence.
And while there still isn’t much concrete evidence of anything aside from it nearly
being the time of year when people return more often than not, there’s been some talk
about her deteriorating relationships within WWE, namely with her former friend and occasional
tag partner sometimes in Becky Lynch.
It’s well known their friendship over time has eroded away somewhat, culminating in the
whole title switch segment nonsense from last year where Charlotte refused to engage and
dropped her title on the floor, but now there’s a bit more context to it.
Becky’s ex-boyfriend Jeff Dye appeared on Wrestling With Freddie and discussed Charlotte’s
jealousy regarding Lynch’s rising success in the company:
“I think it's like comedy or show business…you get competitive…Charlotte had a difficult
time that Becky was starting to become the face of the female wrestling thing.”
Dye also noted that at the time, Lynch would complain to him about Charlotte being upset
during their feuds, which confused him as he thought they must just be taking WWE storylines
a bit too seriously, but admitted that things must have been a bit more real than he initially
thought.
In yesterday’s WrestleTalk News episode, Oli spoke about Dax Harwood urging CM Punk
and The Elite to patch things up and make history, because it was all on the table for
the benefit of the wrestling industry as a whole.
Well now we’ve got a response from the man himself on what he thinks about the whole
thing, and it’s about what you’d expect.
A quote from Dax’s first episode of his podcast made its way to Instagram, where Punk
responded to Dax’s request to patch things up with The Elite with a one-word comment:
‘Duh.’
Well I’m glad they’re on the same page at least.
But it still looks increasingly unlikely that amends will ever be made.
But crazier things have happened in wrestling, and TK likes money, and is a big CM Punk fan,
so maybe, just maybe, Punk will return to AEW one day.
But probably not.
Before we get into Oli’s review of Dynamite, we’ve got some more AEW-ish news, where
WWE have seemingly signed Dragon Lee, who appeared for AEW in August this year as part
of La Faccion Ingobernable. Lee announced his signing himself at AAA’s Noche De Campeones,
immediately after dethroning FTR as AAA Tag Champions alongside Dralistico, vacating the
tag belts in the process.
If y’all ain’t seen Dragon Lee, he’s real good.
Like, real good.
I’d be very excited to see what WWE can do with them, though their track record with
Lucha Libre stars isn’t exactly great.
Then again, hopefully Triple H can do a little better than Vince did.
If you’re enjoying the content, make sure to give us a subscribe and like the video.
We’re getting back into the swing of things following Christmas, so we’ll be getting
back to daily wrestling news videos and a bunch of other fun content too.
Look forward to what’s going to happen in 2023.
Now hot tag to Oli.
It’s the last Thursday of the year, you know what that means…
my review of AEW Dynamite’s New Year’s Smash special, in about 5 minutes.
Which, like any good New Year’s Eve party, ended with people making fun of Jeff Jarrett
and some dude getting his manbun cut off.
The show opened with Bryan Danielson vs Ethan Page, where one of the best gimmicks of the
year returned: MJF in a skybox.
Unfortunately he was only shown at the very start and very end of the match, meaning I
had no idea where he was for the 15 minutes in between because they didn’t cut back
to his reaction after every move.
How am I supposed to know where MJF is, guys?!
Danielson and Page worked a very good, surprisingly competitive opener, achieving the holy grail
of pro wrestling: making both guys look better after the match than when they went in.
Danielson got a strong, hard-fought win over Page, giving him momentum for his MJF’s
feud, and Ethan probably had his best AEW match so far, only losing because he passed
out in the elbow strikes.
One of three unconscious finishes on this show.
I am not complaining, because I love knockout endings, and if Tony is actually trying to
make that a satisfying finish alongside pins I am all for it.
The crowd were also incredibly hot all night, elevating everything on the show.
Samoa Joe attacked Wardlow’s knee with a metal pipe backstage ahead of their main event.
Which not only gave Wardlow the comeback psychology story.
It also meant he couldn’t say Wardlow’s world.
The doctor told Hangman Page you will be able to exact revenge upon Jon Moxley in two weeks
time.
But as much as I can’t wait to see Page get heartbreaking revenge on Mox, I think
I just found my new favourite tag team and I want them to concentrate on doing that.
Moxley tagged with Claudio Castignoli as the Blackpool Combat Club in a fantastic straight
tag match against Top Flight, following them being the final two in the most confusing
battle royal not booked by Vince Russo.
Their styles clashed wonderfully, mostly with Claudio’s elbow into Darius’ skull.
The finish was fantastic as Claudio knocked him out and got the pin, while Mox spiked
Dante on the outside with a Paradigm Shift.
Again, both teams came out looking better than they were going in.
AEW’s trios division has ransacked their tag division.
But if they’re grooming Claudio and Mox as a team, I’m all for it.
Especially for that match with FTR they’ll tease forever and then just do on a throwaway
episode of Dynamite.
Hook continued his momentum of returning to TV two weeks ago with a squash match victory
over Baylum Lynx.
He was then confronted by wrestling’s worst faction The Firm, but that did provide Hook’s
latest cool thing - him totally no selling the size of The Firm’s Big Willy.
Jungle Boy ran down for the save with a 2x4.
Match Six of the Elite vs Death Triangle’s Best of Seven Trios Championship series started
mid-brawl backstage, yet again finding a unique way to stage the action.
This has just been a string of near five star matches, six when Kenny has jeans on.
Which he did.
This was more like the series’ first two matches, where story gave way to just an insane
series of impossible highspots.
There wasn’t even a hammer.
It was just move move move move move move move move move, all incredibly innovative,
all perfectly executed.
The finish was very creative, as PAC had Matt Jackson trapped in the Brutaliser, but the
Young Buck needed to hold from tapping as he could see Kenny Omega about to hit a One
Winged Angel on Rey Fenix off the stage.
Matt didn’t tap, Kenny got the pin, and the two teams are drawn level going into the
final ladder match in two weeks’ time, because next week, Kenny is facing Will Ospreay at
WrestleKingdom.
With Omega having spent the majority of 2022 on the shelf, I wouldn’t be surprised if
he has two six star matches to start off the new year.
The Acclaimed played their best diss track video yet, in my opinion.
It helps when you’ve got a subject as rich in carny tactics as Jeff Jarrett to riff on.
Lines included that Jarrett is the worst Jeffrey since Dahmer, and the controversial line that
he’s stealing money like it’s Kurt Angle’s wife - a reference to Jeff’s wife Karen
Jarrett, who used to be married to Kurt.
Which brought a response from Karen herself, tweeting:
“Hey @TonyKhan your little boy @PlatinumMax thought he was cute and went somewhere he
should have NEVER EVER gone.
You and him have NO IDEA what you’ve gotten started…..”
Which actually means ‘Jeff and I are trying to work me into a program so she can appear
on TV too.’
My favourite line, however, was when Caster said he’s scheming like he’s Global Force
Gold.
A wonderful deep cut on when Jarrett tried to sell Goooooooooold.
It’s lady time!
Willow Nightingale continued her organic rise through sheer charisma, being the best thing
in a feud that doesn’t actually really involve her.
Anna Jay and Tay Melo beat Willow and Ruby Soho in a decent match with a fun chair cheating
finish.
And IT’S HOSS TIME for our main event as Samoa Joe defended his TNT title against Wardlow.
Wardlow fought through his injured knee and medics trying to stop him to wreak revenge
on Joe, hitting a Swanton Bomb, a bunch of Germans and a very impressive moonsault off
the turnbuckle.
But his knee buckled after a powerbomb, letting Joe chopblock him and make him pass out in
a submission.
This was an awesomely structured match, positioning Joe as a calculated bastard, letting Wardlow
regain some of that babyface momentum he’s lost throughout the year.
I’m glad Joe retained too, as otherwise it would’ve felt like he was just holding
the belt to reheat Wardlow.
But he wasn’t done there!
Joe took out Wardlow with both belts after the match, knocked out the referee and then
cut Wardlow’s ponytail off with scissors.
Joe!
That’s not what scissor me daddy ass means!
Being the hardcore daredevil babyface he is, Darby Allin carefully waited until Joe had
put the scissors down before making the save.
Dude, you couldn’t have come out just 30 seconds before to save Wardlow’s hair?
This accomplished a lot.
Joe came off incredibly strong, Wardlow has the opportunity to repackage himself with
a new look, and we’re likely getting Darby vs Joe, which was an excellent match earlier
this month.
Joe did decisively win that bout though, so we’ll presumably get a big stip for the
rematch.
And because it’s Darby, that means it’s a coffin.
What did you think of AEW Dynamite?
Let me know in the comments.
This was a terrific episode.
All the matches ranged from great to sublime.
The angles progressed stories.
And almost everyone featured on this show felt more over afterwards.
This is in my Top 10 wrestling TV episodes of the whole year at 90%.
But what about next year?
Watch on to hear mine and Luke’s predictions for every member of the AEW roster in 3 words
or less…