In this WrestleTalk News, was the AEW Tag Team Title win on Wednesday invalid, WWE Raw
is becoming TV-14 rated again and loads more.
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Wednesday’s Fyter Fest saw brand new AEW Tag Team champions crowned as Swerve in our
Glory came out victorious in a three way tag match against the Young Bucks and Team Taz’s
Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs.
However, some controversy has risen online about who exactly were the legal men during
the closing moments of the match which might invalidate the win.
Wrestling Inc decided to do a timecode dive into the home stretch of the contest noting
that towards the end of the match Swerve Strickland and Matt Jackson tag into the match, which
referee Rick Knox acknowledged as the two are the legal men by counting two pin attempts.
Then Powerhouse Hobbs tags Ricky Stars into the match about a minute later after a multiman
spot, this is despite the fact that Hobbs is not one of the legal men, commentary even
call out the fact that Jackson is still the legal man at this point.
The finish sees Swerve pin Starks to pick up the victory and the tag team titles.
In the grand scheme of things not that big of a deal, but wrestling is a pedantic crowd,
which caused Tony Khan to have to step in.
TK noted on Twitter that the “speculation’s BS!”
“As always in @AEW + per generally accepted pro wrestling practices: the referee’s decision
is FINAL!
Congratulations to the new World Tag Team Champions @swerveconfident & @RealKeithLee!”
Obviously part of the obsession with moments like this comes from years of being burned
by WWE pulling the old switcheroo as favored babyfaces get cheated out of their title wins.
While TK has said the victory stands it definitely could be used to set up a rematch with the
Young Bucks or Starks and Hobbs down the line.
As you may have seen on our breaking news episode yesterday, WWE programming is moving
back to a TV-14 rating from next week.
Mat Men’s Andrew Zarian said Raw would be back at a TV-14 from July 18th.
Which would mark the first time since July 2008 that WWE has operated with a non-PG rating.
According to Wrestlevotes on Twitter the move wasn’t taken lightly as the decision has
been discussed “for years”.
Though they were not sure if that would actually change much at all about the week to week
product: “Credit to the good brother @AndrewZarian
for dropping the TV-14 bomb.
Raw exits the PG Era starting this Monday night.
This was a discussion for years, and looks to have finally been approved.
Now we’ll see if it changes anything.”
WrestleVotes previously pointed out that WWE officials had been keen to adopt a TV-14 rating
for NXT 2.0, and noted that USA Netwrok executives were completely unopposed to the idea, leaving
the ball in WWE’s court as to when they make that change,
If there was one man who you just knew would welcome a TV-14 rating it would be prolific
bleeder Cody Rhodes.
Who I hear blades when he shaves his beard.
Cody reacted to the news with a winky face emoji.
So expect plenty of blood and guts stuff when he gets back to the ring next year.
Despite the news
that WWE Raw is changing its television rating to a much more mature TV-14, there is still
some confusion over when exactly that is happening because Andrew Zarian followed up from his
initial story regarding the July 18th switchover to state:
“This is a wild situation.
There’s a lot happening behind the scenes” “WWE Raw won’t be going to TV-14 on July
18th but still in consideration for a later date.”
“A lot more to this story.
There’s some hesitation regarding if this is the right move.”
“There was a memo within USA Network that went out this morning regarding WWE Raw changing
to TV-14 on July 18th.
Apparently that was sent out prematurely and the day was not finalized.”
I think the excitement seen online shows you that it’s probably the right move for the
regular wrestling fan, but with an army of younger watchers any move that potentially
cuts them out and all of the wonderful opportunities to merchandise that come with it does have
to be taken into careful consideration.
Yesterday we chatted about Sasha Banks getting booked for the C2E2 convention and having
multiple calls from wrestling promoters looking to book her for events.
The current line was that Banks would not be taking any wrestling related bookings until
January 2023.
But time is not the only obstacle for promoters looking to book Banks for their show, as Fightful
Select have reported that Sasha is looking for $30,000 per appearance as her fee for
meet and greets and signings, not for wrestling a match.
One promoter Fightful spoke to said that the steep asking price was “exactly as expected”,
adding that her asking price was always going to be high as she is expected to be in demand
post-WWE release - if that has actually happened…
The report from Fifghtful does note that Banks’ asking price is is the highest a “just off
TV” talent has ever commanded, and is a rate comparable to that of Sting.
Only Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair and Goldberg ask for higher rates per appearance
- though promoters spoken to by Fifghtfukl noted that they were “more than happy”
with the rate as they were confident they could recover their money.
Worth noting that in convention terms Banks also has the Mandalorian on her CV and actors
from cult shows who run the convention circuit seemingly charge a similar amount.
I’ve seen it range from lower than $30,000 to in excess of $40,000 even for smaller roles.
Meanwhile back at Banks’ old stomping ground they are setting high bars for themselves.
This time regarding their Undisputed Universal Champion Roman Reigns who has skipped the
last few PPVs and Premium Live events.
Reigns missed out on both Hell in a Cell and Money in the Bank, and though he did appear
on WrestleMania Backlash the Universal title was not on the line.
Which means that when he missed MITB it marked the first time since 2014 that the company
had gone three straight PPVs without a World Championship match.
Though reportedly on a contract that demands fewer dates from him, Reigns is expected to
appear at SummerSlam though current rumors reckon that he will be disappearing again
after that as he’s not current;y featured on the poster for October’s Extreme Rules.
AEW fans might have noticed a switch up in the commentary table in recent weeks as Good
Ol’ JR has moved to commentating Rampage on a Friday as well as only doing the second
hour of Dynamite on a Wednesday.
Previously Ross would call all of the Dynamite and was not featured on Rampage’s broadcast.
JR revealed what happened on his Grilling JR podcast saying it was Tony Khan’s decision:
“I was coming out before the show and I was doing all of Dynamite and the reception
was humbling.
Fans are glad to see me and they express themselves and the reception has been really good.
So, he thought the show in the middle of the show, speaking of Dynamite, needed a boost
so JR became the booster.
So, I come out in the middle of the show, still going to call the main event or main
events.”
That’s the deal there, just keeping me fresh and ‘special’ and trying to give Rampage
a little boost commentary-wise, selling-wise.
So, we need to obviously get the ratings up which I think we are and that’s the reason
for that.”
With all this other shake-up going on it can distract from the fact that WWE’s top brass
are embroiled in a scandal and subject to an investigation by the board into allegations
made against Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis.
After the Wall Street Journal broke the news that Vibce was under investigation for alleged
payments to cover up an affair, attention turned back to older allegations made against
Vince.
Former WWE referee Rita Chatterton accused McMahon of trying to force her into a sexual
encounter and then raping her when she refused back in 1986.
A new article by New York Magazines Intelligencer featured new comments from Chatterton and
corroboration of her story from former wrestler Leonard Inzitari,
Chatterton also appeared on the Cheap Heat Productions podcast to talk about how the
article came about, her previous interview 30 years ago with Now It Can Be Told and her
feelings about the case now: “at this point, I am not quite sure what
I’m doing.
So I’m going to sit back, take my time, think about it and figure it out.
If anyone wants to see it, they’re more than welcome to read the article, it’s New
York Magazine, or if they want to know the rest of the story, I reported the rest of
the story 30 years ago with Geraldo Rivera on ‘Now It Can Be Told’, and that’s
on YouTube.
So they’re more than welcome to see it there.
But as far as I’m concerned, at this point in my life, I’m not going there again.
It still hurts, the whole thing still bothers me.
So I would rather not go there.”
She was also asked whether she was shocked to see these stories regarding McMahon and
the others that have emerged in the interim, saying:
“No not at all, “I’m surprised it’s taken this long, to be honest with you.
But none of it surprises me.”