In this WrestleTalk News, backstage details on Dakota Kai returning to WWE and her new
faction, an update on Johnny Gargano possibly going back to WWE, a hilarious WWE botch and
more.
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Last night’s Summerslam was the first Premium Live Event under the Daddy Trips Creative
Era - and he kicked it off with a bang.
Not only did we have my personal match of the night of Bianca Belair defeating Becky
Lynch to retain the Raw Women’s Championship and thus turning Lynch into a babyface - Trips
did what Trips does best: he books NXT talent better than Vince ever could and made them
into a new faction.
It was a show so good that it made Kat Dennings a fan!
Following the match, Bayley made her return to WWE - which had been heavily reported and
speculated in the weeks leading up to Summerslam - but she wasn’t alone.
First being flanked by a returning Dakota Kai, as well as the former Io Shirai, now
IYO SKY.
Shirai wasn’t really factored into any major plans for the new Vince McMahon and Bruce
Prichard led NXT 2.0 - especially after she picked up an injury - and the reports were
that she was just waiting for her contract to expire in the coming months and then she
would head back to Japan.
Dave Meltzer had even noted that she basically had one foot already out the door of WWE.
Sean Ross Sapp over at Fightful Select reiterated that Shirai had no creative plans in NXT following
her injury, and when he asked if she had re-signed with the company, a WWE official couldn’t
confirm the news but said, “it appears so.”
Dakota Kai was part of the most recent NXT cuts back in April, and despite working several
dark matches for both Raw and Smackdown in 2021 and 2022, SRS is reporting via Fightful
Select that Kai was told there was no creative direction for her - even though she won the
NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships just a few weeks before she was released.
Several WWE writers were “baffled” that she wasn’t included in the 2021 main roster
Draft, according to Fightful.
SRS adds that Kai was a name that many figured “Triple H would make a priority to bring
back” once he took over as head of creative, and he was clearly successful in doing so.
Since Kai left WWE, she trademarked the name King Kota and was lining up her next wrestling
gig, with SRS reporting that “multiple companies” were interested in signing her - including
All Elite Wrestling who had a short introduction.
While Fightful write that the introduction was brief, “There were some on the roster
pushing for her to join” the company - but she has instead chosen to re-sign with WWE
- presumably because Triple H is now running the show.
It ties back into a report from Fightful Select last week following the news of Triple H taking
over the creative role, where several ex-WWE names that had been either released or let
their contracts expire said that if they had zero confidence in a main roster run under
Vince McMahon, but things are now different with Daddy Trips behind the wheel.
In fact one wrestler who let their WWE contract expire so they could sign with AEW said that
if they knew they would be going up from NXT to a Triple H led WWE, they would have re-signed
with WWE instead.
One other released talent noted to Fightful that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon being
in charge has greatly increased the chances that they’ll return to WWE rather than go
to the competition.
But that’s not the only interesting note about this new group of Bayley, Dakota Kai
and IYO SKY.
When writing about the new group, Sean Ross Sapp over at Fightful Select says, “If it
wasn't obvious, this new stable is a product of the new WWE regime.”
Which would make sense - it features NXT favourite Bayley, but also other NXT favs Dakota Kai
and Io Shirai - both of whom are getting their main roster runs that they never would have
had when Vince McMahon had the book.
To further prove this point, SRS notes that this faction was actually pitched earlier
this year - before Dakota Kai was released, so before April of 2022 - and Vince McMahon
rejected the idea.
Apparently there were also versions of the faction pitched that included Raquel Gonzalez
and Kay Lee Ray, before Raquel was brought up to the main roster with a new name and
Kay Lee Ray was repackaged to Alba Fire in NXT 2.0.
But Io Shirai, Dakota Kai and Edge - oh yeah by the way Edge also returned on the show
- were not the only rumoured names to be returning at this year’s Summerslam.
Last week WWE announced that the advertised match of Seth Rollins vs. Matt Riddle was
now off the Summerslam card due an injury suffered by Riddle.
It quickly came out via several reports that this was a kayfabed injury, and the match
would likely instead just take place at Clash at the Castle in September.
Seth put out a tweet that he was sad to not be on the Summerslam card, with Triple H retweeting
him to say that he hears his complaints.
It led to rampant speculation from fans that Rollins would get a different match on the
PPV instead - with the number one candidate being Johnny Gargano.
Gargano was in the same town as Summerslam as he was there for Starrcast, where he was
part of the What NEXT panel hosted by Inside The Ropes’ Kenny McIntosh, and has been
a Triple H favourite for many years - being the face of the NXT brand while Trips was
running the show.
However this looks like it was just a case of fans getting ahead of themselves, as PWInsider
reported ahead of Summerslam that Gargano was not backstage at the show and, “at no
point was he scheduled to be there.”
But there is always still a chance he will return.
When speaking with WrestlingInc, his friend and long-time tag partner and rival Tomasso
Ciampa said, “I think the chances of him returning were always really good … Maybe
they’re better now” Johnny Gargano WWE return confirmed.
Gargano recently appeared on Impact Wrestling speaking about Alex Shelly, but Fightful are
reporting that this was done as a favour to a friend and Johnny Wrestling was not in talks
to join Impact.
Going by the Fast Nationals - which aren’t always the most reliable source of information
for ratings - this past Friday’s SmackDown pulled in slightly less viewers than last
week with an estimated 2.07 million viewers.
Last week’s show was always going to be rated higher, of course, as it came off the
news of Vince McMahon retiring.
The show kicked off with a barn burner match between Drew McIntyre and Sheamus, where Drew
pinned the Celtic Warrior to become the number one contender to the Universal Championship
at Clash at the Castle in September.
The match was advertised as a Good Old Fashioned Donnybrook Match; which featured lots of pub
things like barrels, a bar, and flags of both Ireland and Scotland to represent the two
nationalities of the guys in the match.
Only, they weren’t flags for Ireland and Scotland.
While the Scottish flag was correct, it was pointed out by many watching the show that
the Ireland flag was in fact not the Ireland flag and instead the flag for The Ivory Coast.
Look, you can see how they made the error.
They do look very similar.
As you would expect, this botch was pointed out by Maffew of Botchamania on his Twitter
account, which Sheamus himself responded to by saying he was a dual citizen of both Ireland
and the Ivory Coast so it’s not a botch - and then leant into the error by posting
an image of him with a pint of Guinness saying he did the match for the Ivory Coast.
I bloody love Sheamus.
Speaking of people I love, and Bryan Danielson did a special episode of The Sessions with
Renee Paquette at Starrcast yesterday, where he talked about his famed time on Talking
Smack during the period of his career where he wasn’t allowed to wrestle by WWE due
to his history of concussions.
The era of Talking Smack when Danielson and Renee hosted is much revered by fans - after
all it was the setting of that brilliant Miz promo - but also because they would often
push the boundaries of what WWE felt was acceptable for their programming.
And it turns out - according to Danielson - the show was “a little bit of a nightmare”
for him and he only enjoyed his time when he was “trying to get fired” by doing
things like talking about fisting and the size of James Elsworth’s dick.
He added that WWE asked him to stop talking about this but he kept doing it because, “I
was so frustrated at not being cleared to wrestle that I was ready to go.”
And you should be ready to go - go to our viewing party for WWE Clash at the Castle.
Segue.
WWE are heading back to the UK for a PPV for the first time in nearly 3 decades but not
everyone could get tickets for the show.
That includes us here at WrestleTalk.
So rather than just sit at home and watch the show alone, we decided to put on a party
to watch Clash at the Castle together at The Joiner on Worship in London!
The venue is right by Liverpool Street so it’s got great access to the tube lines
and national rail services, and we’re going to have an after party where you can have
a drink and chat with the guys and girls from WrestleTalk, No Rolls Barred and partsFUNknown
- Andy Datson is going to be there!
Tickets are on sale right now for just £12.50, and the link for them are in the video description
down below.
We look forward to seeing you all there and we can Jam That Jam together while watching
Drew McIntyre beat Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship.
It’s going to happen, right?