00:00Is the WWE brand split over?
00:02WWE talent sent home?
00:04My review of NXT and AEW Dynamite and more.
00:08I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:17The most recent version of the WWE brand split came in 2016 when Stephanie McMahon and Mick
00:22Foley took over Raw, while Shane McMahon and Bryan Danielson ran Smackdown.
00:26That was only 8 years ago, but somehow feels like a totally different universe.
00:31Since then the company has mostly stuck to the brand split, however over the last month
00:35or so it feels like they've not been that bothered by it.
00:38Nia Jax and Tiffany Stratton had a match on Raw, The Judgement Day and Rhea Ripley were
00:42on Smackdown, Jey Uso and Gunther went to the blue brand and Jimmy went to the red one.
00:47All while Jakara Jackson and The Lash Legend were on both shows and on NXT at the same
00:51time.
00:52Granted, the argument against all of that would be, well it was Crown Jewel and that
00:58was built around into promotional matches.
01:00Another argument is that both shows are, for the time being, on the same network, so there
01:05aren't channel heads demanding other guys and girls to show up on their stations.
01:08But that will change when WWE moves to Netflix in 2025, which, and I hate to be the one who
01:14makes the passage of time feel ever decreasing, is only 8 or so weeks away.
01:19Off the back of a report that Netflix have requested certain names to be on their show, Fightful
01:23Sleg report that with Smackdown being on USA Network and Raw being on Netflix, each platform
01:28will need unique talent.
01:31Netflix requesting certain names means that they understand that there will be some parity
01:35there.
01:36SRS also adds that talent do not know which shows they will be on yet.
01:40Interestingly, in answer to the question, is the brand split dead, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful
01:45Select replied, it's not 100% dead.
01:49Which could mean that while there will be a brand split in 2025, there will be more crossovers
01:54of talent across both shows.
01:56In other backstage news, Dave Meltzer is reporting that Bruce Prichard and Michael Hayes are both
02:00on temporary leave of WWE.
02:03This report has since been backed up by several other outlets.
02:06Some fans felt that something was amiss with Michael Hayes following Crown Jewel, as it
02:10was reported that Jamie Noble was the producer of the Bloodline six-man tag at that show.
02:15Usually this role is reserved for Michael Hayes, as he's the producer of all Roman Reigns
02:19matches and segments, as he goes back with the Anawaii families of the 1970s.
02:23Meltzer writes that Hayes' absence is due to personal issues.
02:27As for Bruce Prichard, Meltzer was told that it was due to a family emergency.
02:30He adds both are expected back, although the time frame was said to be indefinite.
02:34Though both men going on leave at the same time could cause some to get some red string
02:38and a cork board Meltzer write that the two are not connected, and this is not WWE getting
02:43rid of the old guard.
02:45Viper Select add in their report, neither one of these absences are Vince McMahon related
02:50for conspiracy theorists.
02:51And speaking of the old guard, last night's NXT took place in the old ECW arena and WWE
02:58went full ECW on this ECW tribute show.
03:02Jada Parker beat Lola Vice in a hardcore match with ECW's Dawn Marie as the special guest
03:06referee.
03:07I'm a poet and I didn't even know I was rhyming those words, but it happened.
03:11Wes Lee attacked ECW's Rob Van Damme, who was trying to give advice to Kalani Jordan,
03:15and ECW's Lil Guido and Tony Mameluke of the Full-Blooded Italians met with Tony D'Angelo
03:20and his family in a fun segment.
03:22Javon Evans beat Wes Lee with some distractions from ECW's Rob Van Damme, and Robert Stone interrupted
03:27Ava's announcement of Deadline, but was gored out of his boots by ECW's Rhino.
03:31ECW's Bubba Ray Dudley teamed with Trick Williams and the latter of which got pinned
03:35by Rich Holland following a knee strike.
03:37Bubba and Williams then did the Wazzup spot, which was more of a WWE spot than an ECW spot,
03:42and ECW's Devon Dudley came down with a table and put Ethan Page through it.
03:47Tony D'Angelo defeated ECW's Lil Guido, and William Regal had a segment backstage with
03:51his IRL son, Charlie Dempsey.
03:53ECW's Francine was shown at ringside as the show was main evented by an awesome 10-woman
03:59tag, as TNA's Jordan Grace teamed with Stephanie Bakker, Julia Kalani Jordan and Zaria to beat
04:05Fallon Henley, Jason Jane, Jasmine, Cora Jade and Roxanne Perez.
04:09This was so much fun, and a great way to cap off what was a fun episode of NXT that was more
04:15of a tribute show to a company that died 23 years ago.
04:19I'm all for ECW tributes, don't get me wrong, but of all the ECW tribute shows I've
04:24seen, and boy howdy have I seen a lot, this was on the lower end.
04:28Resident Evil Votes are reporting that The CW expects this episode of NXT to get the highest
04:33rating the show has ever done, which personally I can't see being the case.
04:38It's not on its usual night, it didn't have a main roster star like CM Punk or Randy Orton,
04:42and it's going up against AEW and election coverage.
04:45The AEW is probably the least important factor in all of that, but it is still a factor.
04:51And speaking of AEW Dynamite, the show opened with Tony Schiavone bringing out the Hurt Syndicate,
04:56with MVP introducing each of their members and letting the AEW roster know if you accept
05:00a business card, things can be great, but if not, you'll end up like Swerve Strickland.
05:06Swerve came out and laid out a challenge for Bobby Lashley at Full Gear, which MVP accepted.
05:10A huge first match for Bobby Lashley in All Elite Wrestling, and a great debut for the
05:17Hurt Syndicate.
05:18The newly named Death Riders of Pac and Claudio Castagnoli took on Orange Cassidy and Darby
05:22Allen in a tremendously fun match with four awesome guys that the crowd was super into.
05:28They went nuts for both Allen and Cassidy's hot tags, but the match broke down when Wheelie
05:32Yuta got involved, Marina Shafir booted the ref, and Jon Moxley choked out Orange Cassidy.
05:36Can't have a DQ if the match gets thrown out, but you can't fool me Tony Khan, I see
05:42what you're doing here, this is still a DQ, you've just rebadged it you fool!
05:47I hated this finish, but the post-match was cool, as Cassidy and Darby got laid out by
05:52the Death Riders before the conglomeration ran down for the save.
05:55Death Riders cut a promo later with Mox saying that he is disappointed in Darby Allen.
05:59This led to Tomohiro, Ishii, Mark Briscoe and Kyle O'Reilly taking on The Learning Tree
06:03in a Hardcore Trios match.
06:05It's funny, because Tony Khan and I are roughly the same age, he's like a few years older
06:10than me, which means that he and I grew up with the same style of wrestling TV show.
06:14And this is just what that used to include.
06:17Just look at last night's NXT show.
06:19Random hardcore matches where dudes hit other dudes with random things, and none of it really
06:24means anything, and then a finish happens.
06:26I think you pop and you whoop and you ooh and you ah for the table breaks and ladder breaks,
06:30but like using French words to describe things, it does feel a bit passe.
06:35With that said, I did enjoy this a whole hell of a lot.
06:38Big Bill in particular was great.
06:40Mark had the match won with the J Driller and the froggy bow from the top of a ladder through
06:44a table, but he's not facing Jericho next for the ROH Championship, so Brian Keith broke
06:48it up and Ishii hit Jericho with a Brain Buster and Sliding Elbow for the win.
06:51Which brings us to Adam Cole vs Malakai Black, and the reports that the latter might be done
06:58with AEW.
06:59Last week, when Cole took on Buddy Matthews, the crowd seemingly turned on Adam Cole and
07:03booed him in favour of Buddy Matthews.
07:06I thought it was a one-off, a one-time crowd having a bit of fun, but in this match, Malakai
07:11Black hit the Black Mass, and Cole kicked out, and the crowd booed again.
07:16Cole then hit the Panama Sunrise, and Black sat cross-legged asking him to finish the match,
07:20which he did by dropping the boom and getting the win.
07:22Afterwards, they hugged, and Cole cut a promo saying that Malakai Black is one of the best
07:26he's ever been in the ring with.
07:28This led to some online speculation that this was the Tommy end for Malakai Black in All Elite
07:33Wrestling.
07:34A rare singles match, a rare pinfall loss, and an almost goodbye tribute from one of the
07:39company's top stars.
07:40Fightful Select report this might not have been a send-off, but write that those in AEW do
07:45believe that he is done with the company as soon as the end of this year, or perhaps
07:49early next year.
07:51You might recall Tony Khan saying in a media call that Black was with AEW for at least
07:55five years back in 2022, and it would appear that is technically true if AEW exercised options
08:02that extend his deal.
08:03Fightful add, when there were rumours that Malakai wanted to go back to WWE in 2022, we're
08:08told AEW wasn't interested in letting people out of their deals to go back to WWE, whether
08:14it be him or someone else.
08:16While not similar as he wasn't there previously, we saw recently that AEW added time to Ray
08:21Phoenix's contract due to injuries, which prevented him and his Lucha brother Pentagon
08:25Jr. jumping ship to WWE.
08:27Interestingly, and this is a bit of fun, Justin Wang tweeted, was just chilling with him last
08:32week, he's not injured, leaving or retiring.
08:34Gotta say, it's a pop from me getting to quote Justin Wang on this show, it's like
08:38being able to report what Grand Pooh Bear might have said about Adam Cole on Twitter.
08:42Following Cole's match, he revealed that if he and Roderick Strong can win one more match
08:45each, it will be a triple threat at full gear between him, Roddy and MJF.
08:49Max made a phone call to someone from home, later revealed to be a big dude who offered
08:53Don Callis lots of money to take out Adam Cole.
08:56Rene tried to interview Jay White, who instead got attacked by Adam Page, and the two had
08:59a brilliant brawl and saw Juice Robinson make the save.
09:03This was great and I love Adam Page.
09:06Chris Statlander will face Mercedes-Monnais at full gear, and Camille tried to do it for
09:09the Monet and run Statlander over, but missed.
09:13Christian Cage cut a promo on ECW and said that Kip Sabian was a fatherless loser looking
09:21for some guidance, so he brought him into the fold, and is less of a disappointment than
09:25his other sons.
09:26He called out Hook and revealed that he did attack Taz because he wants another son in
09:30his ranks, and Hook ran down to attack them, but they bailed, so he killed the security
09:35instead.
09:36Oh yeah.
09:37Women.
09:38Penelope Ford took on Jamie Hayter in a match where Ford looked really great, and Hayter
09:40got the win with a desperation haterade.
09:43It's only Ford's second match in two years, but it didn't feel like it, and it was great
09:46presentation, but less than five minutes is unforgivable.
09:50It didn't even go two segments with an ad break, it was just entrances, a sprint of a
09:55match and a finish.
09:56Do better.
09:57It's a broken record at this point, but since Mariah May's winner all-in, the AEW women's
10:01division has been ice cold and seemingly just on hold until Toni Storm comes back.
10:07So thankfully, maybe things can move into a better direction as Mina Shirakawa was announced
10:13to be on Dynamite next week.
10:14Speaking of a change of pace and with the Young Bucks off TB until next year, Kazuchika Okada
10:19can get back to being Kazuchika Okada.
10:21He had a video promo putting over the return of the Continental Classic, and now he wants to
10:25become the best tournament performer of all time.
10:28This was great, and it got me so hyped for the return of the C2, I really hope that Shelton
10:33Benjamin is in it this year.
10:34And the main event saw the Don Callis family take on Ricochet and a mystery partner.
10:38Yeah, I know who this is, I said to myself while writing my notes this morning, the mystery
10:44partner will be Will Ospreay.
10:46I even wrote that down.
10:48So I was rather surprised when it was actually a returning powerhouse Hobbs, who was no longer
10:52under contract with Don Callis.
10:54This match was so damn fun and featured some awesome pairings, like the meatiness of Hobbs
10:58and Takeshita, and the speediness of Ricochet and Fletcher.
11:01Ricochet backflipping out of Takeshita's wheelbarrow German suplex genuinely took my breath away.
11:07And the surprises continued as not only did this match have a clean finish, Ricochet pinned
11:12Takeshita.
11:13Fletcher attacked Ricochet after the match, but Mark Davis ran down to get into a shoving
11:16match with his Aussie Open partner, and got attacked by Lance Archer and Brian Cage.
11:21The local selector reported that Davis is now officially cleared to wrestle again, which
11:25is great news.
11:26Adam Cole had a brawl with Takeshita as they're having a match next week, and Will Ospreay
11:30ran down to make the save for Davis in an awesome closing angle.
11:33This was a great way to cap off what was a very fun addition of AEW Dynamite.
11:38But did you know that a wrestler had a bit of a Twitter meltdown and accused Tony Khan
11:43of being a communist?
11:44Check out yesterday's WrestleTalk News for more information.
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