Thanks for your amazing support on Patreon Let's Have a Drink Christopher Travis Merryman!
Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk MECHA NEWS, I am Luke Owen. Have yourself a Superclick
Party by giving us a subscribe and pressing the thumbs up, and leave a comment down below
to answer our question of the day:
Which wrestler would you cast in a superhero movie? We’ve got a packed show of news for
you today - including AEW’s interest in Dean Ambrose, surprising news about their
possible TV deal, and the original plans for Enzo and Cass in Ring of Honor and how they’ve
shaken up the backstage scene. But first!
There are some really big movies coming out in 2019 - from Avengers: Endgame to Godzilla:
King of Monsters to Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker. And the trailer for one of the most hotly-anticipated
films was released yesterday - the Orion remake of Child’s Play. The trailer not only shows
off the new origin story for Chucky, but also Mark Hamill’s voice of the iconic character
and and… wait, what? Oh, right. You meant the other big trailer from yesterday. The
one with the wrestler in it
The new trailer for Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbes & Shaw was released yesterday, which
showed Hollywood powerhouse The Rock team with Jason Statham to take on Idris Elba in
a battle to save the world - weren’t these films originally about street racing? But
more importantly this trailer gave us our first look at Roman Reigns in the film. The
newest Smackdown Live signee will play the brother of The Rock in Hobbes and Shaw, and
looks to be getting heavily involved in the film’s climax.
And Roman Reigns wasn’t the only wrestler in the movie news this week, with Variety
reporting that John Cena is in line to star in James Gunn’s sequel/reboot The Suicide
Squad - which will see Margot Robbie and Jai Courtney return to play Harley Quinn and Boomerang
respectivly, with Idris Elba joining the cast in an unknown role. Interestingly, Variety’s
Justin Kroll added on Twitter that the role Cena is up for was originally lined up for
Dave Bautista, but he pulled out due to scheduling conflicts. So we’re going to have to wait
for that Cena and Batista team-up movie. It’s got to happen one day, right?
And despite still being classed as a “free agent”, John Cena was not drafted to either
Raw or Smackdown in the 2019 Superstar Shake-Up, which saw Roman Reigns jump to Smackdown,
AJ Styles join Raw, Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor head to the Blue Brand and - more
ground-breakingly - Eric Young was waaaaay in the back of this Raw graphic. Look, there
he is. Hi Eric!
One name that had been heavily speculated to be joining the main roster was Pete Dunne,
particularly after this year’s draft was originally called the International Superstar
Shake-Up, and after Dunne lost his United Kingdom Championship to WALTER at NXT TakeOver:
New York. Triple H has even said in the past that Dunne is a future WWE Champion, saying
there aren’t many “with a future brighter than him.” And according to Dave Meltzer
in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the reason Dunne and former United Kingdom Champion
Tyler Bate were not called up to the main roster was because WWE felt they were more
valuable in establishing the NXT UK brand, with Meltzer speculating that Vince wouldn’t
have pushed them anyway due to their size and promo skills.
Speaking of wrestlers on the British wrestling scene - segue - and PROGRESS announced yesterday
that Jimmy Havoc will have his final match for the promotion on Day 3 of Super Strong
Style 16, calling it the end of an era. Havoc was announced last month to be joining All
Elite Wrestling, and he tweeted of the PROGRESS match, “Not gonna lie, getting a bit emotional
about this one.”
And if you’re not going to be around for Strong Style 16, you might be able to bid
farewell to the man himself in person - if you come to WrestleTalk’s screening of Ready
to Rumble at the Prince Charles Cinema on May 7th - with the PCC inviting Havoc to celebrate
his run in PROGRESS by coming to the screening. And not only will we be showing Ready to Rumble,
but we’ll also be recording a live WrestleRamble podcast afterwards discussing David Arquette’s
wrestling career in WCW, WWE and his resurgence on the indies in the last year. We’ve got
some other surprises lined up, so get your tickets to see WrestleTalk live by clicking
the link in the video description below.
And Havoc’s newest employees All Elite Wrestling had some interesting news about their TV deal.
Since the promotion’s announcement in January this year, there has been a lot of talk of
a TV deal in the works. In the last couple of weeks it’s come to light that All Elite
Wrestling is likely heading to Turner, to either air on TBS or TNT - the former home
of WCW Monday Nitro back in the 1990s.
This came from a report by The Wrap, who said that Turner would be presenting All Elite
Wrestling to media advertisers next month on May 15th, but added that nothing was official
and no deal had been signed as of yet. Dave Meltzer and The Fight Oracle also backed up
this report, with Meltzer adding the show would be a two-hour live broadcast in a prime
time position starting in October, but refuted The Wrap’s report that AEW could have an
off-season.
Tony Maglio of The Wrap recently featured on 411Mania’s Wrestling Interviews series
to discuss AEW where he revealed a very interesting new tidbit about the deal. According to Maglio,
“My understanding based on the people I've spoken to is that it would be more AEW paying
for its time on TNT than Turner paying AEW for its show... The truth is, when you're
talking to Turner, [they're] a very well-established, very well-off company inside of gigantic parent
company... [AEW is] not the UFC. It's not WWE, it's not MLB... And I think currently,
AEW has way more to prove than Turner has in terms of trying to get them to come to
their networks. I think AEW needs this deal more than Turner does.”
Dave Meltzer has since refuted this claim on the Wrestling Observer message boards,
writing, “Time buy is false. It's the exact opposite. Look at sports rights, Bellator,
Matchroom, UFC on ESPN, people are offering tons of money both for weekly live programming
and also to get their streaming services starting. For what it’s worth, Voices of Wrestling
are also reporting that AEW are not paying to get on Turner.
WrestleTalk.com revealed last week that the Turner deal is the most likely, but there
is still a decision to be made about which channel it will air on, saying “it all hinges
on the roster of talent they can get” adding it comes down to if “they can get a big
enough roster of wrestlers and enough recognisable ones.”
Which is interesting when it comes to a tweet from former Impact World Champion Austin Aries,
who posted what looks to be a contract with the caption, “Signed, sealed, delivered.
Vegas just hit the jackpot…”
The reason this is interesting as Las Vegas will be the home of All Elite Wrestling’s
first official show Double or Nothing, which takes place on May 25th from the MGM Grand
Arena [30]. The show will also see The Young Bucks defend their AAA Tag Team Championships
against The Lucha Brothers, Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho, Dr. Britt Baker vs. Nyla Rose
vs. Kylie Rae, and Adam Page vs. PAC. And last week AEW announced Fyter Festival for
June, which will see Omega team with The Young Bucks to take on PAC and The Lucha Brothers,
as well as Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin.
And following that will be AEW’s Jacksonville show Fight for the Fallen, with a portion
of the proceeds going to victims of gun violence. And the promotion announced two matches for
the show this week, with Brandi Rhodes taking on former Impact Knockout Champion Allie,
and Kenny Omega facing CIMA.
But could there be another big name joining the All Elite Wrestling ranks?
Following the 2019 Royal Rumble, Pro Wrestling Torch reported that Dean Ambrose had decided
to not re-sign his WWE contract and would be leaving when it expires at the end of April.
While many thought this was some sort of worked storyline, it appears to be very, very real.
With WWE advertising Ambrose’s final match on the Raw After Mania, Ambrose saying his
final farewell to the crowd at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, and the final chapter
of The Shield airing this Sunday on the WWE Network as they’re broadcasting a house
show match of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Ambrose teaming one last time to take on the
formidable and unbreakable BARON CORBIN MIDCARD OF EVIL.
As mentioned earlier in this news episode, one of the reported reasons that the All Elite
Wrestling deal with Turner has not been finalised yet is because AEW need more recognisable
names on their roster than they already do. Along with Austin Aries teasing a signing,
there has been some speculation about Dean Ambrose jumping over to All Elite Wrestling
once his WWE contract comes to an end.
However Dave Meltzer has noted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that although All Elite
Wrestling “would like him”, he writes: “we’ve heard nothing in that direction.”
Names that won’t likely be joining the All Elite Wrestling ranks however are Enzo and
Big Cass, who are now going by the names nZo and CaZXL.
The duo made an appearance at Ring of Honor and New Japan’s joint G1 Supercard from
Madison Square Garden over WrestleMania weekend in an angle that was supposed to appear like
a shoot.
The G1 Supercard seems to have had quite an impact on Ring of Honor backstage. The show
was received well by fans - though our superchat was just filled with people talking about
the WWE Hall of Fame - and had great matches like Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White, Zack Sabre
Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight
Championship three way that all got rave reviews. However, those matches all came from the New
Japan portion of the show - with all of the Ring of Honor segments like Mega Ran, the
six-man street fight, Dalton Castle turning heel, the debut of The Beautiful People - who
rebranded themselves as Allure with Mandy Leon - and the nZo and CaZXL segments not
being overly praised.
Fightful are now reporting that there has been a shift in power in the backstage creative
for Ring of Honor, with Sean Ross Sapp writing that Joey Mercury has gained a lot of influence
along with Bully Ray, while longtime creative lead Delirious’ input has decreased. Sapp
reports, “Those that we spoke to expected this to accelerate as time moves on,” adding
that the changes can be seen with nZo, CazXL and the Beautiful People being brought in.
And despite no one from the New Japan side of the G1 Supercard event reportedly knowing
about the nZo and CazXL spot taking place ahead of time, it did gain some social media
traction. However, neither man were at the most recent Ring of Honor TV tapings, and
Dave Meltzer has now reported that they’ve not being booked for anything else moving
forward. Meltzer reports, “There were key people very upset with [the G1] segment internally
and [there was] internal divisiveness whether to do it”, adding, “right now there are
no plans to bring them back, but there are also different people with different viewpoints
involved with creative and it’s not clear how the wind will blow.”
Meltzer reports that the original plan for the angle was just to see nZo grab Mark Briscoe,
and for Mark to push him off - playing off when nZo legit tried to hijack Survivor Series
last year [55]. Security would then cart him away and make it look very real. The idea
being, if there was some buzz about it then they could follow up with another angle, but
if it was received negatively they could just sweep it under the rug as they didn’t film
any of it. Instead a larger brawl broke out, and that may have led to nZo and CazXL not
being booked by the promotion again due to how poorly the angle was received by fans.
Thank you for watching and a special thank you to our Patreon Pledge Hammers, some of
which you can see scrolling their way into our stomach. Watch myself and other WrestleTalkers
play Smash Bros Ultimate with Joker by clicking the video over there, and get your tickets
to see WrestleTalk live in May by clicking the little image. I’ve been Luke Owen and
that was Mecha News.