In this WrestleTalk News, backstage updates and what happened with Kenny Omega after Dynamite
went off the air, more unrecorded payments by Vince McMahon found by the Wall Street
Journal and a full review of AEW Dynamite by Tempest.
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So yeah, spoiler for the worst kept secret, Kenny Omega returned on AEW Dynamite last
night teaming up with the Young Bucks to take on La Faccion Ingobernable in the Trios World
Championship tournament.
More on that in the review.
After Dynamite went off the air Kenny took to the microphone to thank the crowd but asked
them to give him time to get back to the level he was before going out injured: “Certainly,
it’s gonna take me a while to catch up to these guys.
It might be a while before I’m able to challenge for a singles title again.
But this very much is a work in progress, and I’m very glad that all of you are joining
me on this journey.”
Omega also told the crowd that he has to have “three, sometimes four sessions of physical
rehab every single day” and then in a deft heel move laid the blame for that at their
feet saying: “Maybe I should hate each and every one of you because I come back out here
for you guys.” and calling them a “little kitty cat” that “pees and poops all over
the house” and he has to clean up after.
Is this the origin of the nickname?!
Either way it shows he hasn’t got out much.
And funnily enough Fightful Select said as much in a recent report about Omega’s road
to return saying that Omega “consciously avoided the public eye” during his time
off, offering updates to select outlets as to his recovery progress.
The report also said that Omega had briefly returned to the road before but felt as if
it was hindering his recuperation and rehabilitation so went home again and that his original plan
was to be back by Forbidden Door but “that didn’t end up working out.”
Hopping the barricade now to talk WWE expenses, or personal expenses, or WWE expenses depending
on who you ask.
As you know by now Vince McMahon retired while under investigation into undisclosed payments
he made during his tenure as CEO.
Last week we spoke about another casual $5 million the Wall Street Journal had dug up,
which Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics suggested were ones made to the Trump Foundation in
2007-9 when Trump was appearing on WWE programming.
A new report by the WSJ confirms this saying: “An attorney for WWE said the payments to
Mr. Trump should have been booked as business expenses because Mr. McMahon was a principal
shareholder and the payments benefited the company.
He declined to say why the payments benefited WWE.”
You do the math though.
In 2009 Trump was paid $100,000 as an appearance fee and WWE attorney said that “at the same
time” Vince and Linda McMahon made a $1 million donation to the Trump Foundation.
Which obviously gets taxed much less than the appearance fee.
And Trump also called that a “bonus” due to the success of the event, which WWE’s
lawyer had to dispute, lest the house of cards come a crumbling I assume.
WWE has said recently that the investigation into McMahon is “substantially complete”.
In a continuation of the absolutely mad news from this era, the Battle of the Billionaires
which saw proxies Umaga and Bobby Lashley square off with the loser’s rich boy getting
their bonce shaved had Trump quite concerned.
According to the Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Trump had his associates review the contract
to ensure that under no circumstances would Mr. McMahon be allowed to shave his head,
even if Mr. Trump’s wrestler dropped dead in the ring."
Which is funny in hindsight because Trump’s hair has been trying to leave of its own accord
for years now.
I can say that as a bald man, I have no skin in the game.
Or maybe I have all skin in the game not sure.
Hot tag to Tempest.
CM Punk opens the door to the House of the Dragon and he may as well have been a dragon
himself cause he was spitting fire right out the gate.
He challenged Hangman Page to a rematch that Page didn’t respond to, which according
to Dave Meltzer wasn’t planned at all, and then he turned his attention to Jon Moxley
with lots of shooty shooty booty booty comments.
He said Mox was the third best member of his group and that was a theme throughout his
career.
Oooooooh.
He said Eddie Kingston was the third best Eddie he’s been in the ring with and the
second best Kingston he’s shared a locker room with.
Hi Kofi.
And that he’s gonna beat Mox for the title in Chicago and he won’t even be the best
Jon he’s done that to.
Mox responded as Punk made snow angels that Punk was only there because he ran out of
money and that his belt doesn’t mean anything until he beats Punk.
They cut each other off a lot but didn’t talk over each other and finished with a pull
apart brawl.
This is the sort of energy Dynamite has really been missing of late and was a great way to
build interest in All Out.
5/5 Powerhouse Hobbs says Ricky Starks was okay
with losing but he isn’t and for two years Ricky hid behind Hobbs.
Love to see Will getting his big break.
Bryan Danielson and Daniel Garcia come out of the gate exchanging holds and strikes with
Bryan dropping Garcia with a palm strike.
Garcia disrespected Bryan with little kicks and Bryan responded with a flurry of offense
before Garcia won the first fall with a sickening piledriver and the Dragon Sleeper.
I loved the touch that Bryce Remsburg immediately started counting Bryan out for the second
fall, made this feel like a real sporting contest which complemented this match very
well.
Danielson scored a flash pin after Garcia DDT’d him on the floor.
To this point, Garcia was being a heel by being disrespectful but he was outwrestling
Bryan as he immediately stayed on the attack.
Bryan and Garcia were both bleeding as they sat opposite one another and Bryan welcomed
shots and doing sit ups between each one.
These two were portrayed as very evenly matched before Bryan finally put him out with the
LeBell Lock.
This was a work of technical wrestling art by two masters who told a perfect story.
Jericho attacked Bryan after the match and Garcia pulled him off as the crowd chanted
“you’re a wrestler”.
Brilliance. 5/5 Tony Nese was walking his happy ass down the
ramp before Jon Moxley killed him, flashback to Mox doing this to The Librarian in 2019.
Mox says he’s waited too long for this and CM Punk needs to get his ass out there right
then.
They continue their brawl from the start of the show and it was good to see a story run
throughout a show rather than just a one and done segment.
3/5 Jericho is gonna hear from Garcia next week
and then Ricky Steamboat chopped Angelo Parker.
He also said Jericho was exactly the same as he was in 2009 which is simply not true.
The Ass Boys squashed the Varsity Blonds in 10 seconds and then turned on Ass Sr. in favour
of Stokely as The Acclaimed made the save and then scissored Daddy Ass.
I hated that sentence.
This match got no reaction but at least it didn’t waste any time.
3/5 PAC says he’s looking forward to facing
Will Ospreay in their trios match next week, and it isn’t news but this Trios division
is going to be so f***ing lit.
Jungle Boy says he isn’t allowed to wear his Christian Cage is a Pussy shirt ever again
which got boos.
He says he will chase Christian forever unless Christian faces him at All Out.
Christian says they both said some things they don’t mean and that Jungle Boy is like
a son to him and he loves him.
Christian goes for a hug but Jungle Boy gives him a double leg and they have a great brawl
around ringside.
I have to imagine that Moxley and Punk having a match officially scheduled makes the officials
want to break up their brawl faster because Jungle Boy stomped Christian on the stairs
before being broken up.
Another really fun segment that continues to make the show feel like it is focused on
building to the pay per view.
4/5 Wardlow and FTR challenged the Jay Lethal
crew to a trios match and then Tony Storm beat KiLynn King.
KiLynn got a decent amount of offense in before Toni hit her hip attack which is apparently
called Sweet Cheeks Music, which is goddamn hilarious, because butts.
Toni hit the Storm Zero for the win.
This was good stuff but among the less heated things on the show.
3/5 It is announced that CM Punk and Jon Moxley
aren’t waiting for All Out and are unifying the titles next week.
Shocked Pikachu face.
They must have something bigger set for All Out, but for the life of me I cannot imagine
what would feel bigger than this match right now.
Maybe they have Tanahashi coming in but I dunno this feels like a really odd choice.
And then we had the main event featuring the return of a not 100% Kenny Omega.
He wrestled in a shirt and a shoulder brace which is slightly concerning.
Omega made his first moves against Dragon Lee, a dream match in its own right, and Omega
heavily played up the ring rust in his game.
Considering how well Kenny Omega adapted his style with his injuries, I cannot believe
anything other than this being 100% intentional and a great touch to the match.
Los Ingobernables got the heat and I’d be happy to see any combination of these six
dudes.
Kenny hit very apt dragon suplexes before Dragon Lee hit another of the best suicide
dives in the business into the front row.
Kenny got the win with the One Winged Angel as Kenny and Dragon Lee thanked each other
after the match.
Andrade DDT’d Dragon Lee as the show went off the air and I would have liked that to
have had a chance to breathe a bit more but overall this was a great main event capping
off a very noteworthy show.
5/5 on the match and 5/5 on the show as well.