In this WrestleTalk News, MJF has vanished from the wrestling scene, AEW sign a new coach
and Pete is going to be here reviewing AEW Dynamite.
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Another week, another wrestling mystery in need of solving.
This time it’s where in the world is Car-MJF San Diego?
A new post from Fightful Select says that “MJF has effectively vanished from the wrestling
scene”.
Following his bombshell post Double or Nothing promo on AEW Dynamite on June 1st he disappeared
from screens but also according to Fightful’s reporting has been essentially unreachable.
Fightful said they followed up numerous times about MJF’s whereabouts, but not a single
AEW talent or staffer has admitted to hearing from him since then.
Even people who have worked with him or a close to him say he has not communicated with
them whatsoever.
Following the promo it’s been confirmed that MJF remained in Los Angeles to take meetings
for non-wrestling related onscreen roles and there was word that he was spotted in New
Jersey last week filming with the cast of Impractical Jokers.
None of Fightful’s sources said they had heard Tony Khan speak about MJF since the
promo, and they couldn’t find anyone who says they had spoken to MJF since the promo
either Some speculation suggests that MJF could be
on his way out of AEW and be WWE bound, but it’s pretty unheard of for someone to essentially
disappear off the scene like this - I’ll hedge my bets and call it all one big work,
then I’ll look dead clever when he comes back to AEW.
And if that doesn’t happen I’ve just been enjoying wrestling, so sue me.
What do you reckon the deal is?
Let me know in the comments AEW seemingly losing talent is such a rare
story, let’s go back to the one they’re known for - hiring folks.
Because AEW announced several behind the scenes moves yesterday, mostly promotions, but also
the hiring of former Impact Knockoouts Champion and three-time Knockouts Tag Champ Madison
Rayne.
Rayne has joined to coach the AEW women’s division and potentially the ROH women too
when that starts up properly.
Madison was an active performer for Impact up until last month so this is a step away
from in-ring action for her.
Though Tony Khan made clear on Busted Open Radio that they won’t necessarily keep her
from the squared circle.
“I’m not saying she wouldn’t wrestle anymore, and obviously, we’re kinda open
to it.
We have other people in the office who do wrestle as part of their schedule, so I’m
definitely open to it.”
Let’s hop the barricade to WWE very quickly and talk Vince retiring, according to LightShed’s
Brandon Ross Vince going was a “game changer”.
Speaking with Wresltenomics’ Brandon Thurston and Jesse Collings, Ross said that Vince going
has caught the eye of investors as it changes both management and creative, though most
“analysts and investors don’t really care that much about creative”.
Ross instead thinks that investors are interested in the “big picture” and that “the number
one focus of investors since the allegations against Vince came out” has been a potential
sale.
He believes the major roadblock to a WWE sale was always the McMahon family not wanting
to, with Vince out of the way the path to that becomes a bit easier.
Crazy times.
Hot tag to Pete.
Oli is away today, so it’s time for me to review last night’s episode of AEW Dynamite
in about 5 minutes.
We began with Jay Lethal vs Orange Cassidy, building off Cassidy & Best Friends’ win
on Rampage, which was a fun bout with Lethal working over Cassidy’s leg and in the end
after Cassidy’s leg gave out while trying to do an Orange Punch, Lethal took advantage
and managed to hit the Lethal Injection for the clean win.
It’s a nice little push for Lethal, who will be facing Wardlow for the TNT Title at
Battle of the Belts III, after Wardlow came out to save Cassidy from a post-match beatdown.
He’s also still trying to get Wardlow’s World over - I think it’s supposed to be
like the acknowledge me bit.
He says the place name, and welcome to Wardlow’s world, and everyone will say it along with
him right?
Eh.
Then we got my favourite thing on the show - The Undisputed Elite were back together
in full force, with all 5 of them coming out to the ring.
Adam Cole mentioned that he still wasn’t medically cleared, but he needed to speak
about the upcoming trios tournament.
He said to the Bucks that as he’s not cleared, and nor is Kyle, they had to pick Bobby Fish
as their partner, as they’d been considering joining forces with someone else, or they’re
not allowed to be in the tournament.
And then he revealed that he misspoke, he meant that they wouldn’t be physically able.
reDRagon then beat up The Young Bucks, kicking them out of the Undisputed Elite, and before
Adam Cole could put them on the shelf, who should come out for the save but Hangman Adam
Page.
Hangman came with lead pipe in hand and cleared the Undisputed Era out of the ring, and very
slowly turned to face The Young Bucks.
He helped Matt Jackson get to his feet, which was accepted by Matt, before turning away
from them and walking away.
This was a beautiful segment, a great furthering of what’s to come, and I don’t know if
Cole and O’Reilly will be medically cleared in time, but if we can get the Bucks & Hangman
vs Undisputed Era in the finals of the Trios tournament, I’m all in.
Or All Out I suppose.
It’s this level of subtle storytelling and subtext that I absolutely love.
I love the small moments of body language, the shared looks, the unspoken bonds, that’s
my brand of storytelling, and this ticked all those boxes.
Very much looking forward to seeing where this goes from here.
Jon Moxley cut a promo saying he didn’t care who won between Wheeler Yuta and Chris
Jericho later, as whenever he wrestles he wants to cut them open and leave their blood
and teeth in the ring.
Alrighty then Mox, that’s lovely.
He also said once Blackpool Combat Club are done, they’ll make the Hart Dungeon look
like a daycare, which is a very good line.
We had Britt Baker & Jamie Hayter vs Thunder Rosa & Toni Storm next, which I think might
have been my match of the night?
A tie between this and the main event - but it was a great bout regardless.
A really physical bout, both teams going back and forth, some great nearfalls, including
one after a stomp from Baker on Storm that I thought sealed the deal, but Rosa saved
it with a senton that came out of nowhere thanks to some great camerawork.
In the end though, Storm did a series of hip attacks and in a miscommunication did one
to Rosa, which allowed Hayter to take advantage with a ripcord clothesline and get the pinfall
victory.
Hayter will be facing Rosa for the AEW Women’s Title at Battle of the Belts III, and I think
that’ll be a lot of fun.
Big fan of everything in this match, big thumbs up.
Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti are getting married, and Eddie Kingston doesn’t care.
Classic Eddie.
After a recap of Powerhouse Hobbs turning on Ricky Starks, Taz announced on commentary
that Team Taz is dead and over, which makes a lot of sense.
Hook hasn’t felt like part of their faction for a long time, it was just the tag team
keeping them going, and now the tag team have split.
It also saves Taz from having to be involved in the story and pick a side, and now he can
just talk about how great everyone is on commentary, which works for me.
Hobbs then squashed Ren Jones, and has some great new entrance music, which is a remix
of his old theme, and a new presentation too.
Starks came out after the match and had a quick brawl, but due to the referee getting
in the way, Hobbs hit the spinebuster and stood tall.
Some nice intensity, keeps the feud ticking, still waiting to hear why exactly Hobbs turned
on Ricky, but I’m hopeful we’ll get that in the next couple of weeks.
Miro and Darby Allin get respective promos on their respective feuds with the members
of the House of Black - including Darby tattooing his hand.
Alrighty.
Christian Cage vs Matt Hardy came next, which was a fine match, nothing super special here.
It was nice to see these two veterans with so much history face off, and Cage eventually
won after Matt crashed through a table from a failed elbow drop and he hit the Killswitch
for the win.
Luchasaurus then came out, seemingly to stop Christian Cage hitting a ConChairTo on Hardy,
but before he could reach the ring, Jungle Boy had come out from behind and scared Christian
off.
I’m really not sure what’s happening with Luchasaurus and where he stands honestly - as
he let Jungle Boy pass before, but has never really stood alongside him yet.
So I assume he’ll turn on him officially and go full heel with his new presentation,
but it does feel like the steps of the story have been a bit muddled.
Daniel Garcia called himself the Dragon Slayer for beating Bryan Danielson.
Oooh DragonSlayer - sorry, I know, I can’t do it.
Oli’s not here.
Ethan Page was in the ring and cut a great, fiery promo about why he wasn’t on TV every
week, voicing similar frustrations that CM Punk did in his pipebomb, about why the fans
were cheering, they were the ones buying a CM Punk figure and not an Ethan Page one.
Stokely Hathaway then came out and gave Page a business card, which Page accepted and walked
alongside him.
So now we’ve got Hathaway with The Baddies & Jade Cargill, Lee Moriarty and Ethan Page.
An eclectic mix to say the least, but I’m curious to see how this pans out.
Also Page is a great promo, please give him more mic time.
The Acclaimed faced The Ass Boys in a Dumpster match, which was a bit of goofy fun - started
off with The Acclaimed beating up The Ass Boys, and then doing their rap which was nice
- where Caster said he was going to make The Ass Boys retire like Vince McMahon.
The Acclaimed are really good babyfaces by the way, and while I don’t think they should
be in the main event scene or anything, I think they’re a perfect, really good upper
mid-card act.
It’s this level of depth of over characters that really helped times like The Attitude
Era, where you have a deep roster of wrestlers that people care about, and I think The Acclaimed
are perfect for what they’re doing right now.
I’d like to see them challenging for the AEW Tag Titles at some point, but they don’t
have to win them necessarily.
The Acclaimed won this match after a big Mic Drop off the stage through a table, and then
pushing the closed dumpster containing the Ass Boys off the stage.
The main event was Wheeler Yuta vs Chris Jericho, where if Yuta won, he’d get the title shot
against Moxley instead.
The stakes definitely added a layer to this match, and the very basic and very effective
story of veteran vs up-and-comer is tried and tested by by god it works.
Regal on commentary was working overtime, making sure to clarify and add the impact
of every little move and movement in this match, putting over Jericho and Yuta in equal
measure.
After some fiery comebacks from Yuta and a pretty fast paced affair, Jericho cheated
with a lowblow behind the referee’s back and a Liontamer for the submission win.
I like the touch of winning with the Liontamer as Moxley has been wanting the Hart Dungeon
Chris Jericho, the Lionheart, for their title match.
Also on a side note, I love the interconnectivity of the Blackpool Combat Club now.
It’s like a cycle, as you now have Claudio Castagnoli backing up Wheeler Yuta, Yuta obviously
has his history with Moxley, Moxley and Danielson as a duo, and Danielson & Claudio’s history
with Danielson bringing him into AEW.
I really like that dynamic, and there’s still slight divisions between Claudio and
Moxley and Yuta and Danielson, and that’s stuff that can be explored down the line,
and when they do it’ll make Blackpool Combat Club feel like it’s evolving, without the
need to add other people.
But they could also add other people and I’d be cool with that too.
Overall, this Dynamite was pretty good.
A great angle with Undisputed Elite, some very good to great wrestling, more stories
being set up and explored, not much to complain about with this one.
This show gets a high 4 out of 5.
Very quickly, I’d just like to address yesterday’s second news video, regarding Triple H’s
comments on his appearance on the Impaulsive podcast.
As a lot of you quite fairly pointed out, it’s difficult to take a few lines of dialogue
from a one hour plus podcast and make a discussion out of it, to an extent even taking it out
of context.
Some of you also pointed out the headline using ‘controversy’ as misleading, and
I personally would like to apologise for that - there was some social media chatter I’d
seen about it and I extrapolated that out to be ‘controversy’, but I will do my
best to be more cognizant of overzealous headlines in the future.
Now check out Laurie’s news from yesterday about WWE’s success with Triple H
in charge.