In this WrestleTalk News, WWE stars upset with Raw’s firing promos, an AEW star leaves,
a crazy AEW conspiracy theory and more. Subscribe and enable notifications to always
on for daily wrestling news videos. The latest battle in the AEW vs WWE war took
place on Vince McMahon’s home turf, with Monday’s Raw running the new UBS Arena in
Long Island, New York, which sold a disappointing 5,887 tickets, with sections of the venue
having many empty seats. This is despite WWE adding Roman Reigns to the dark match, announcing
Edge’s return in advance and, in some cases, even doing buy 1 for the price of 3 offers.
AEW’s Dynamite show next Wednesday in the same arena, however, has sold 8,658 tickets
with a week to go. What could be the reason for this? WWE running
New York too soon after holding Survivor Series there, effectively burning out the market?
No, the Egg is infallible. Is WWE a stale product that’s lost connection
with it’s audience? Of course not, may I present to you again,
Exhibit Egg. Is it because wrestling, ultimately, is a
business that operates on star power, not brand power, and when you push the brand over
everything else, it’s harder for fans to find emotional resonanc-
The Egg grows tired of your nonsense excuses. The correct answer is, of course, AEW is buying
their own seats. Bryan Alvarez has posted on the Wrestling
Observer forum board: “You will be surely stunned to learn that
there are a few people in WWE who believe Tony [Khan] must be buying up tickets for
the AEW show.” Wake up, sheeple. Tony Khan is buying unsold
seats at shows, and 18-49 years olds to watch Dynamite on TV, and YouTubers to say nice
things about him. But there’s one person Tony has decided
not to buy up, as one of AEW’s longest running wrestlers has left the promotion.
Big Swole announced on Twitter: “Over the past couple of months my life
has taken on the mantra grow, learn, change. Dealing with shadow work took strength I didn’t
know I had. I thank God for my loving family because they got me through some of the roughest
months of my life. But I realized the real test is application. So I took my leap and
after speaking with TK and AEW higher officials we’ve decided not to renew my contract with
All Elite Wrestling. This was a hard decision but a needed one. I am grateful for their
understanding and that we could mutually come to this agreement. I’ve enjoyed my time
with AEW and wish them all the best. I appreciate their love and welcoming me into the family.
Today is my last day and as bittersweet as it is, I am proud to say that I’ve lived
my dreams while making a difference. That is Swole Mentality” [TWEET]
Swole made her AEW debut on the company’s second ever pay-per-view, All Out 2019, in
the 21 woman Battle Royal, and she signed with the company later that year in December.
Her highest profile feud was the lockdown rivalry with Britt Baker through last Summer,
which culminated in the cinematic Tooth and Nail match, taped at Baker’s real dental
practice, for All Out 2020, where Swole won. She seemed set to be one of AEW’s top female,
but a flare up of her Crohn’s disease meant that some days she could barely walk, let
alone wrestle. She hasn’t featured on Dynamite or Rampage at all this year, only wrestling
on Dark and Dark: Elevation. Unfortunately, with AEW bringing in other female talent in
that time, Swole found herself fall down the pecking order at a time when the promotion’s
roster has arguably become bloated. As it appears she was initially signed for a two
year deal, this contract has simply expired. Her husband, Raw star Cedric Alexander, retweeted
Swole’s post with the message ‘I love you’.
Before anyone jumps on this and goes, see AEW fire people too, how dare they. And they’re
buying up all the Dynamite tickets! There’s a difference. AEW saw someone’s contract
through to the end. WWE break those promises through cutting people whenever they like.
And then use those firings as storyline fodder. Monday’s episode of Raw saw not just one,
but two promo references to WWE’s mass firings over the last year, with Liv Morgan first
saying to Becky Lynch: “Your big, fat, greedy contract is the reason
why my friends are gone.” - a reference to Liv’s former Riott Squad buddies Sarah
Logan and Ruby Riott. It’s always important to note here that
WWE is the most profitable it’s ever been. And Edge told The Miz later on: “You use
[wrestling] to get notoriety for your next endeavor, for your next reality show, for
your next dance competition while you leave your partners high and dry to get fired.”
- referencing John Morrison, who was released last month.
Both of these promos were negatively received by fans, who felt uncomfortable that WWE was
using their own ruthless firings as storyline material, and then kayfabe putting the blame
on the characters of Becky and Miz. And it turns out it wasn’t just us that didn’t
like it. The wrestlers hated it too. Sean Ross Sapp said in his post-Raw review
show: “I had former WWE wrestlers, former WWE producers, and a current WWE wrestler,
that were all telling me how bad a taste they thought that was.”
And thanks to PWInsider, we know that Liv’s line blaming Becky’s big money contract
was not one she came up with herself, as some have theorised it was a genuine shoot moment.
It was in fact given to her by Vince McMahon and the creative team.
Do you think using the releases as a storyline was too far? Let me know in the comments because
I’ll be replying to people for the first 30 minutes after this video goes live FROM
OUTTA NOWHERE. Edge, meanwhile, apparently came up with his
stuff by himself. According to PWInsider, Edge has creative
freedom in his promos, so his heavy referencing of the AEW segment between CM Punk and The
Miz, I mean MJF, from the previous week was likely his own material.
Which might be why they didn’t time out the show properly, as both the Edge-Miz segment
and the Becky-Liv contract signing overran, meaning bits later on in the show had their
time cut. But despite that, officials backstage were
reportedly thrilled with the ten woman tag on the episode, with PWInsider signalling
out Dana Brooke, who turned 33 on the day, for a big bump off the top rope outside, and
Doudrop receiving particular praise. The match was given a lot of time, running through two
commercial breaks, and the backstage feeling was that everyone rose to the occasion to
help get over the Liv and Becky feud ahead of their title match next week.
After the heavily reported behind-the-scenes toxicity from Charlotte Flair, it’s nice
to see the women’s division working so well together. I can’t wait for that to be torn
to shreds by Nia Jax’s upcoming shoot interview! Jax, who is now going by her real name Lina
Fanene, has promised on Twitter: “Lol don’t worry, I’ll be chatting (spilling
gossip) with @ReneePaquette eventually 😜😘🥰” “Girl, it’s gonna be strictly gossip and
hot tea I have on everyone!!! 😈 🔥MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!” There are many backstage rumours about Jax,
like her reported argument with Roman Reigns last year about who gets to do a table spot,
accusations of unsafe work, and, of course, her shoot slap fight with Charlotte back in
August. What’s Lina Fanene doing in the AEW zone?
Hopefully helping their ratings. Friday’s Rampage pulled in just 431,000
viewers, making it the show’s lowest rating ever, and down over a fifth from the previous
week. A low rating was to be expected, with it being the Thanksgiving holidays, but Dynamite
only suffered a 9% drop from its previous week, and SmackDown, on the same Friday night,
actually saw an increase of 4% following Survivor Series.
As great as a show Rampage is, the downward trend seems inescapable with the the dual
problems of AEW product saturation and a terrible timeslot.
Before we get into the NXT review, there’s been an update on the brand’s daddy, Triple
H - who suffered “a cardiac event” back in September, where he “underwent a successful
procedure… [and he] is expected to make a full recovery.”
Hunter himself tweeted out later that month his thanks for all the well-wishes, and he
was also spotted touring WWE’s new headquarters in November. But according to Dave Meltzer
on Sunday Night’s Main Event podcast, the event was in fact “very, very, very serious”
and he doesn’t expect Triple H to ever wrestle again. He hasn’t yet returned to his behind-the-scenes
role yet. Which is probably for the best, as they’ve
changed your baby, Hunter. Here’s Tempest with
a review of
last night’s NXT… in
about 5 minutes.