In this WrestleTalk News, WWE staff thought Vince wrestling again was a terrible idea,
Sasha Banks considers leaving WWE for Hollywood, and Charlotte Flair disappointed with her
championship run, plus so much more.
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[SUPPORT WRESTLETALK] One of the weirder moments, but larger nostalgia
pops of WrestleMania weekend was Vince McMahon returning to the black vested Mr McMahon for
a match with Pat McAfee and clumsy confrontation with Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Including the world’s worst stunner sell.
Like every bone in his body had magically disappeared.
Like Senator Kelly from X-Men 1.
Fightful Select have been talking to those backstage and dug up some interesting info
- they’re reporting that Vince made the decision to to wrestle on the show months
ago, and numerous people close to him and on the creative team vocally expressed that
they thought it was a terrible idea.
As Vince said in his Pat McAfee interview - he surrounds himself with very clever people…
and then ignores them.
They were proved right, because it was not good, funny and nostalgia inducing, but not
good.
The folks Fightful spoke to said plenty of laughs were had by the team and Vince himself
following the event and the line was given that McMahon realised it was a terrible performance,
especially the stunner sell, but said that "as long as people were laughing and entertained,
it's okay."
Fightful were also told that Vince laid out the entire post-match angle, including Austin
Theory’s music hitting before Stone Cold’s theme came in, which Vince reacted to like
it was Stone Cold’s which also gave everyone a good laugh backstage.
So long as they’re having fun eh folks.
TBF I think we all had fun with that stunner, it’s replaced pictures of nice dogs for
me as a great little pick me up.
The life of a WWE superstar is hectic, hours traveling, training and performing with very
little downtime - so trying to cram any other endeavors into that must be madness.
Which is exactly what Sasha Banks went through when she joined the cast of the Mandalorian
as she told Logan Paul during an Impaulsive interview:
“It’s kind of really hard to do with the WWE schedule.
I mean, when I shot The Mandalorian last year, it went from doing TV, doing live events,
and then just getting on a plane going to [Los Angeles], shooting all week, getting
on a red-eye, going back to TV, putting my hair in, taking my hair out, for three months.
And it was just...wow.”
Paul had asked Banks if she was intending to take over the world on the scale of Dwayne
Johnson, transitioning from wrestling to top Hollywood star, which prompted Banks to say
she would have a very difficult decision to make in that case:
“So if I’m going to take over the world, it’s like, I got to choose one or the other”
“I really have to sit back and think what’s next, you know?
Is it full time Hollywood?
Is it full time doing something else that I have passions about?
Or is it still being here and making more history and changing the game, and leaving
a legacy that’s forever cemented?”
Adding wistfully: “I feel like I’m already a Hall of Famer…
what is that last legacy piece that I can leave here?
I’m still searching for it.”
Someone else having a bit of an existential WWE crisis is Smackdown Women’s Champion
Charlotte Flair - who is less than impressed with her current run with the belt.
The whole thing kicked off last October when she swapped the Raw Women’s Championship
with Becky Lynch in a segment that went seriously off the rails.
Chaz has been reflecting in an interview with Ariel Helwani for BT Sports saying she isn’t
thrilled with her reign thus far.
“I can’t say that this title reign has been one of my favorites.
Because I haven’t had an opportunity, due to unfortunate events, to defend the title
as many times as I would like...”
Adding that the feud with Toni Storm was one of the low points for her:
“Well, like Toni Storm, in the middle of our storyline, she left.
And then there hasn’t really been anyone on SmackDown.
I had the opportunity to face Naomi in a title match on SmackDown, and I’ve been wanting
to wrestle her for five years.
So I would have liked to be more of a fighting champion, I think.”
The interview was conducted before Flair handed Ronda Rousey her first singles loss at WrestleMania
so her perspective has potentially changed since then.
Somebody else whose perspective has changed recently is Cody Rhodes - he can now see the
crowd during his entrance He also has returned to WWE, have you heard?
It’s been a whole thing.
So far we’ve seen the American Nightmare at WrestleMania Night One and at Raw where
he addressed the crowd - but he is also apparently on the road.
PW Insider’s Mike Johnson said that Cody is scheduled to be at tonight’s Smackdown
taping.
It’s unknown whether Cody will be on TV, but wrestlers from different brands have been
working dark matches recently.
Also worth bearing in mind that Cody’s goal is to win the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
so a confrontation with Reigns who is set to address the Smackdown crowd tonight could
be on the cards.
One to look out for.
Someone noticeably absent from WrestleMania was Alexa Bliss, who hasn’t been seen since
Elimination Chamber and the therapy session skits she had in the run up to the event.
A recent report revealed that despite their being an Alexa’s Playground set at WrestleMania
Axxess, Bliss was not in Dallas for the show last weekend.
PWInsider has reported that Bliss’ adsense is due to her upcoming wedding to Ryan Cabrera,
the couple are set to be wed in Palm Springs this weekend, it's crunch time basically.
A toss up between show of shows and making one hundred wedding favors.Those sugared almonds
aren’t going to get in the tiny glass jars themselves.
Also absent from WrestleMania this year was Metalingus, Edge’s famous theme song as
he transitioned to using a new, broodier one by the band Alter Bridge instead.
Which puts the dream of seeing the theme played live on the grandest stage of all to bed for
a bit.
A fan on Facebook told the band that they were disappointed that they didn’t get to
see Alter Bridge play Edge to the ring live at Mania and the band’s manager Tim Tournier
revealed that back at Mania 36 that was something in the works.
Saying: “We actually booked this in 2020, it was all set – everyone was getting ready
to fly in but it got canceled due to COVID.
WWE and Edge have been great to us over the years, we love them and would jump at any
opportunity to work with them.”
Matt Hardy is back in the t-shirts two sizes too small as he teams with his brother Jeff
in AEW now in a revamp of team extreme style Hardys.
But Matt is always looking to some of his other creations for inspiration and one that
was incredibly successful for him previously was the Broken Matt Hardy gimmick.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy he said he would love to bring the gimmick
back to AEW and start a web series with the characters.
“I want to bring back the Broken Universe at some point, even when I’m not wrestling
in the ring full time, and make it a small series and try to put it on a platform somewhere
because it was just so much fun.
I would love to sit back and hook up with JB, Jeremy Borash, and Jimmy Long and do this
and make it into an entertaining series.”
The Broken gimmick started out in Impact and pioneered cinematic wrestling matches pre-pandemic
era - Matt also debuted as Broken Matt for AEW but seemingly was hamstrung by the lack
of crowds during that time and the character was eventually dropped.
One of the more shocking bits of news this week were the allegations of emotional and
physical abuse leveled at NXT Nash Carter which reportedly led to WWE firing him.
Carter’s wife Kimber Lee tweeted the allegations along with pictures, including one of Carter
sporting a toothbrush moustache and making a nazi salute.
During Wrestling Observer Live Bryan Alvarez spoke about the firing, saying that it was
the Hitler photo that got Carter released as Alvarez said people in WWE did not believe
Lee’s allegations.
“What I was told is that the reason that they won the Tag Team Titles this weekend,
even though the allegations were out there.
The reason that happened was because it was not believed that Kimber Lee was reliable.
That was what I was told.
They did not believe her story.
NXT, I don’t know what kind of investigations they do.
I don’t know what happened.
Whatever happened, they determined that she was not credible.
That’s why they put the Tag Team Titles on MSK.”
Dave Meltzer later added that his understanding of WWE’s position was:
“Vince McMahon had allegations against him multiple times over the years.
So, if he is to believe that [Carter] is innocent, then he has to presume that other people that
claim’s are made [about] may be innocent.
So he’s not a guy who is gonna fire everybody the minute somebody says something.
I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, I’m just saying that’s the situation.”
Meltzer also added that: “In NXT, they are very sympathetic towards him.
Gigi, of course she is because she is the girlfriend.”
Toxic Attraction’s Gigi Dolin posted the following on Twitter after the firing: “This
world makes me sick”