In this WrestleTalk News, Stone Cold Steve Austin outta WWE after WrestleMania, another
AEW star has been let go and Paul Heyman teases working with MJF?
Plus Oli will be reviewing last night’s Dynamite so stick around.
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By hook or by crook WWE have managed to drag Stone Cold Steve Austin onto the road to WrestleMania
building to a stupendous KO show at Mania 38.
The hype is such that while Austin isn’t set to wrestle a match it will be close enough
and could be a show stealing moment as Owens demands the torch be passed.
With Austin back for Mania that leads many to speculate whether he will continue in WWE
post event - does he have any more cans of whoop ass.
Which Word tried to correct to whooping cough when I was typing this.
Ringside News reported that a “tenured member of the creative team” told them that while
Vince McMahon is gunning to have Austin back in WWE more often, Stone Cold’s WrestleMania
segment is a “one time deal.
As of now”.
Stone Cole not doing what the boss wants?
Sounds about right.
Over the fence in AEW a critical point has been reached, three year contracts for a lot
of the first signees to the company are coming to an end and difficult decisions are having
to be made about who will stay and who is being let go.
Fightfu Select are reporting that head of AEW talent relations Christopher Daniels has
been speaking with Marko Stunt and told him that his contract would not be renewed.
It was claimed that Daniels cited the larger roster that Tony Khan has put together, especially
in the last six months eh, and he borrowed a classic from John Laurinaitis claiming that
“budget cuts” were also driving the decision.
Which feels a bit icky when people are constantly coming in.
Though in Stunt’s case he hasn’t appeared on any AEW programming in six months, and
Daniels was said to have mentioned that plans had changed for Jurassic Express.
Stunt also sustained a concussion in October, but was not booked or given a reason why he
was being left off TV even after he recovered.
It’s said he did make an attempt to reach out and get booked to prove himself for a
contract renewal.
Is this some of that famed ‘radio silence’ that Joey Janela was talking about in action?
Somebody who seems perfectly willing for his AEW contract to come up is MJF, who has been
teasing or I guess threatening to sign with WWE when his deal comes up in 2024.
He’s talked openly about going where the money is good and even spoken multiple times
about working with WWE talent, most recently Paul Heyman who he said would be a “major”
pairing for him.
What is he, one of our thumbnails?
Heyman responded though teasing working with MJF somewhere in the future, telling Ariel
Helwani on MMA Hour: “We’ll see what the future holds for him.
I’m sure, at some point in this life, we’re gonna bump into each other.”
Heyman even called MJF’s decision to talk openly about his contract status “pretty
smart”.
What do you reckon?
You like the pairing of Paul and MJF, let me know in the comments.
Now hot tag to Oli.
It’s Thursday, you know what that means…
time for my review of AEW Dynamite in about 5 minutes.
CM Punk opened the show to a monster pop - he’s still here, he hasn’t left us again, I’m
so scared he’ll go away and never come back, I’m like a freaking dog when its owner leaves
the house - where he beat Max Caster in a solid opening bout, complete with The Acclaimed’s
entrance rap with obligatory Will Smith at the Oscars reference, and then the more Punk
specific line: “I’ll have you crapping your pants like you’re a Z-pac” and “you’re
the voice of the moistless”.
Hey, I’m moist.
Just like Dax Harwood the previous week, Punk is using this time between feuds to make his
opponents look great.
He could easily just play the hits, but he busted out a few rare b-sides instead, winning
with a top rope hurricanrana, piledriver and Anaconda Vice.
Just in case you didn’t quite get his meaning last week when he motioned around his waist
clearly indicating he wants the world title, Tony Schiavone asked him to explain: where
Punk promised in a great babyface promo he will be World Champion before his time in
AEW is over.
As much as I love Punk, the best thing in all of wrestling right now is the Blackpool
Combat Club.
And after three weeks of arousingly stiff tag team wins, the faction doubled their time
on the show by having two singles bouts.
First up was Jon Moxley beating Jay Lethal in my match of the night, built around two
great former champions from ROH and AEW.
The difference in culture between the two promotions neatly bookended the action, with
Moxley not having time for Lethal’s handshake crap at the start, instead extending his hand
at the end of the match once Jay had earned it.
It’s the Combat Club’s own, far more violent code of honor.
This marks back-to-back standout matches for Lethal these last two weeks, after doing pretty
much nothing since his signing in December.
He needs to start getting actual wins now.
The second Combat Club match was almost just as good, with Bryan Danielson beating Wheeler
Yuta.
The match was perfectly designed to get Yuta over huge, and the crowd - who were fantastic
all night - genuinely wanted to see him beat Danielson by the end.
A knee, steppies to the face and then a Gotch Piledriver gave a harder fought win than he
seemingly expected.
Crucially, though, it wasn’t hard fought enough.
Danielson did not extend his hand after the match like Mox did for Lethal.
Yuta’s hasn’t proved himself just yet.
I love this story.
Make the whole show about the Combat Club.
I want Raw Underground, but it’s all in Blackpool.
FTR were also all over this episode, getting three segments.
First they told MJF they don’t want to get in the middle of him and Wardlow.
Then they beat the Ass Boys, wrestling as total babyfaces with the Gunn Club clearly
the heels, and then they called out the Young Bucks to settle who is the best tag team in
AEW… that isn’t the champions, nor feuding for the championships…
MJF was out on commentary for the FTR tag match, which he hopefully cleared with PR,
which led to a fun Wardlow invasion spot!
After being banned from the show, a conveniently positioned camera crew caught him appearing
backstage during the match, where - quick, security, attack him slowly and one-by-one.
Enough security piled on in the crowd to stop him getting to Max, but it caused friction
between FTR and MJF after the win.
The Jericho Appreciation Society did their goofy ‘let’s jokingly check all the curtains
behind us to see if LAX are here’ again, which had the payoff of - yeah, they’re
totally right there.
It’s just a shame Jake Hager’s arms are so big, robbing us of the perfect memeable
shot.
Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz had a great brawl down to the ring, with Kingston even
fist bumping a kid in the crowd as he was beating up Jericho, but the numbers - and
an awesome spinebuster from Hager - overcame them, letting the heels stand tall.
The Undisputed Era held a title celebration for all the championships they took - not
stole, took - declaring AEW needed a new group to run the place.
Further foreshadowing a full implosion with the Elite.
Hangman Page arrived in his horny car, Jurassic Express joined in and the faces stood tall
with their belts back.
Then it’s the women’s quarter hour!
Fit it all into the same 15 minutes and people might not even realise how bored AEW is of
their own division!
Jade Cargill opted to face the tougher Marina Shafir over Levi Bates for her next TBS title
defence.
Thunder Rosa got a second go at her promo after last week, where she challenged Nyla
Rose - who accepted later - and said she wants to be the face of all women’s wrestling.
Why not wrestling in general?
And then we got AEW’s newest signing, ex WWE star Toni Storm!
She beat The Bunny to be the first qualifier for the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament.
I can’t wait to see her next wrestle in a month’s time on Dark!
I’m not down on Toni Storm.
I love Toni Storm.
I think she could be one of the top stars in any company’s division.
I’m yet again down on AEW’s packaging of this stuff.
Her debut just happened as the commentators were mid-sentence.
There was no in-ring interview with her afterwards.
No video package introducing her to unfamiliar fans.
There was nothing here to make me trust that AEW won’t Ruby Soho her.
This wasn’t bad, but it was by far the weakest thing on the entire episode, when it should’ve
been presented as its main highlight.
And the main event was an excellent grudge match between Andrade and Darby Allin, by
far the most interesting part of the whole Family Office story.
The brawl started off outside the ring, with Andrade easily throwing Darby around, and
continued with a fiery strike exchange into a great double down.
The AFHO came down for the distraction, Darby chose to save Sting with a Coffin Drop on
all the heels outside - a distraction Andrade used to steal a much needed win.
The Hardys ran down afterwards for the save, where sweet Michael Hayes, Jeff landed all
of himself on Isiah Cassidy with a Swanton Bomb.
What did you think of Dynamite?
Let me know in the comments down below.
This was a solid filler show.
Stories were neatly progressed, the in-ring action was typically great, and there was
a newsworthy debut.
I wouldn’t say anything was must-see, though, and AEW are in a transitionary position right
now where their hottest wrestlers - Punk, Moxley, Danielson, MJF - aren’t involved
in title pictures.
It makes the championships feel secondary.
This week’s Dynamite is 70%.
Now go watch our WrestleMania 38 predictions show, with Adam Blampied, Luke Owen, Pete
and Andy!