00:00 The WrestleMania 40 main event is confirmed! Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins talk WWE contracts,
00:06 Sting didn't want to win the AEW Tag Titles. I am Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:11 Before we get into everything I just wanted to apologize. Many of you voiced your displeasure
00:22 over yesterday's WrestleTalk News and for that I am sorry. I misjudged how interested you'd be in
00:26 that story which I thought was a fun, well fun is the key word, a fun and interesting story. But I
00:31 know that you expect better of us so I am sorry and we will strive to do better. Yesterday WWE
00:37 were in Las Vegas for their WWE kickoff press conference extravaganza. And while yes Triple H
00:43 talked about the new era of WWE and Bianca Belair talked about her journey to WrestleMania blah blah
00:48 blah get to the Cody stuff already. Amazingly the Cody bit was less of a press conference and more
00:54 of just a segment from Raw or Smackdown. So I will treat it as such. So here's my review of Cody's
01:00 choice for WrestleMania in about two minutes. Seth Rollins was out on the stage making jokes
01:05 about getting pops and he wanted to bring out Cody Rhodes. Instead Roman Reigns came out to an
01:10 actual pop Seth. Rollins made jokes about Roman actually coming to work, Roman replied making fun
01:15 of Seth's shoes and said that Cody couldn't make a choice for WrestleMania so he'll make it for him
01:22 and he picks The Rock. Out came The Rock who got let's say a mixed response. It was kind of
01:30 fascinating because he got booed but then the people who want to see Roman vs The Rock took
01:35 over and cheered him. But then the people who wanted to boo him just booed louder. There were
01:40 even dueling chants of "We want Cody" and "Rocky sucks" and Rock cut a babyface promo saying he
01:47 likes the passion of the fans but then introduced the members of the press to the Cody Crybabies.
01:54 Heel turn! He says no matter what you think you will respect what Rocky was about to show. And
02:00 he brought up a powerpoint presentation of the Bloodline Family Tree which is timely as Oli
02:04 Davis will be covering that whole thing tomorrow here on WrestleTalk. And he told the fans there
02:09 if you don't think Roman vs Rock is a big deal then it doesn't matter what you think. This will be
02:16 the biggest main event and he shook hands with Roman Reigns. This brought out Cody Rhodes who
02:23 said all of this was BS. He actually said bulls*** but because I don't want to get a censor in here
02:27 he said BS. No wait I just said bulls***. He won the Royal Rumble and it's his choice. In the main
02:33 event of WrestleMania 40 I choose Roman Reigns. Roman told Cody that he should really go over and
02:39 join the "losers bracket" with Seth because he's irrelevant just like his dad. Cody said you can't
02:44 be head of the table when neither he nor The Rock have been cooking for the past two years.
02:50 Both of your grandfathers would be ashamed of them. A very annoyed and pissed off Rock stepped
02:55 in and said when Cody disrespects Roman he disrespects him and his whole family. So now
03:02 we have a problem and he slapped Cody Rhodes. All four men, yes Seth was still out there this whole
03:07 time, got into an argument and that was that. But backstage Triple H was being interviewed by Jackie
03:13 and in a very WCW like moment said that some people went into business for themselves and
03:19 there's a lot of egos running wild. Rock and Roman walked past him and The Rock swore a bunch at
03:26 Triple H telling him to fix this or he and Roman will. He swore a bunch more even dropping an F
03:34 bomb and walked away. Social media posted a video of Rock and Roman leaving the building together
03:41 as a unit. The top comments of the video upload of this on YouTube said this wasn't a press conference,
03:47 this was cinema. And while I wouldn't go that far it was very good and I was very,
03:53 very sports entertained. It made Seth look like a massive dork but the stuff between Cody,
03:59 Roman and Rock was really interesting and very, very well performed. Rock turning heel and joining
04:04 forces with Roman is a twist that I didn't think would happen but overall it's just nice to see
04:11 that WWE have pivoted away from a bad decision into a good one and just did the simplest thing
04:18 possible. Over the last week we've had a lot of messages on the WrestleTalk podcast booking
04:22 themselves into pretzel loops just to try and get to Roman vs. Cody. It's a night one thing,
04:29 it's a night two thing, it's a money in the bank thing, it's a SummerSlam thing, you do something
04:33 in Elimination Chamber etc. etc. But the best answer was Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes
04:40 just picks top champion Roman Reigns. It's one match and there's no need to over egg the pudding.
04:47 And that's what WWE have done. It does mean that this Smackdown segment now makes
04:52 no sense but that's by the by. This week's press conference was 4 out of 5, I was thoroughly
04:58 sports entertained. So what comes next? It feels like we're working towards a tag match of Cody
05:04 Rhodes and Seth Rollins vs. The Rock and Roman Reigns, which some fans speculated could happen
05:09 at Elimination Chamber. However Dave Meltzer noted on Twitter, and this has been the case for
05:13 quite a while, neither Rock nor Roman will be in Australia for the Elimination Chamber show. Not to
05:19 mention Seth Rollins is still injured. Which means it could be the main event of night one of
05:25 WrestleMania. Meltzer added on Twitter that nobody said that tag match would happen but expected it
05:30 to be the case. I guess the alternative for Seth Rollins is to face the winner of the Chamber on
05:34 night one with Roman and Cody on night two, though that scenario means that The Rock doesn't wrestle
05:39 at all. There was a report earlier in the week from Meltzer that said all of this has been a
05:43 work from the very start, but Sean Ross Sapp on Twitter continued to note, "This was not the
05:48 original story." The other teased match from the press conference for WrestleMania was Becky Lynch
05:53 vs. Rhea Ripley who had a stare down over the Women's World Heavyweight Championship. So I
05:57 think everyone can relax now on who's winning that Chamber match. Sorry Liv. But this, at the
06:03 end of the day, was a press conference where the press got to ask wrestlers questions, so there's
06:08 actually some backstage news coming out of it as well. And speaking of Becky Lynch, both she and
06:12 Seth Rollins were asked about their contracts. "2024 is a big year for wrestling deals, especially
06:19 in WWE. As we discussed yesterday, Cody Rhodes reportedly has not signed a new deal with WWE.
06:26 There are conflicting reports on whether or not Drew McIntyre has put pen to paper on his new
06:31 contract. And there's question marks over Sheamus, AJ Styles and Dijak Danon NXT as it was revealed
06:37 earlier this week that his deal is up this summer. As I mentioned on yesterday's WrestleTalk News,
06:41 I fully expect Cody Rhodes to sign a new deal with WWE and given just how he's been presented on Raw
06:47 as of late, I'd expect McIntyre to do the same. Two other names that I would expect to re-sign
06:52 but this is the wacky world of professional wrestling so nothing is for sure are Becky
06:57 Lynch and Seth Rollins. It had been reported late last year that both of their deals were coming up
07:01 in 2024 and they confirmed this news as correct when speaking at the press conference to Sean
07:07 Ross Sapp. According to the Fightful Select write-up of the interviews, Becky had few words
07:12 about her contract outside of confirming that it was up this year and Sean Ross Sapp writes that
07:16 Lynch told him that she wanted to look at what the best set of circumstances were for her talks
07:21 with WWE. Rollins noted that he believes a deal will get done, adding that while he has ended
07:27 a WrestleMania as champion, he has a goal of being an advertised main event for WrestleMania.
07:33 Lest we forget, Seth nearly got one of those as the reported plan leading into WrestleMania
07:37 was him defending his world title against CM Punk. However, Punk got injured during the Rumble and
07:43 that match was off the table. Punk was there for the press conference in Las Vegas however to
07:48 represent the company but, in true Punk fashion, he did share some issues he had. Many fans noted
07:54 that it was weird that in all of the WrestleMania posters and at the press conference itself,
07:59 there was a real lack of Bayley. You know, the winner of the 2024 Royal Rumble and one of the
08:04 few confirmed actual matches for WrestleMania? Punk jokingly shared a mock-up of the Mania
08:10 poster which had Bayley replacing all of the other wrestlers on it on his Instagram stories,
08:14 and later on posted a video saying, "I really wanted to talk about Bayley and how she won the
08:18 Royal Rumble and she wasn't represented on the poster for WrestleMania. I got caught up talking
08:23 about The Rock and Reigns and Cody and Seth but very much in that main event mix is Bayley. She
08:29 won the Royal Rumble. Don't you forget it. Put some respect on her name." You heard the man
08:35 comments, put some respect on Bayley's name in the comments down below. That goes for you too, 2K.
08:40 The other bit of news coming out of the press conference is a new WWE show which will air
08:45 exclusively on Twitter. WWE Speed, or as it will be known internationally, WWE The Bus That
08:51 Couldn't Slow Down, will be a series of short matches with five minute time limits. Winners
08:56 will receive a point for a win and be docked a point for a loss, with time limit draws earning
09:00 zero points. The Hollywood Reporter notes that this will air for 52 weeks on Twitter and will
09:05 feature wrestlers from Raw, Smackdown and NXT. Back in December, WWE taped the first two matches
09:10 for WWE Speed, which saw Bronson Reed take on Nathan Fraser, while Axiom face Cedric Alexander.
09:16 The show will begin to air in the Spring. Maybe a return of a C2 type format could help All Elite
09:25 Wrestling, as despite having a loaded episode this week, including Swerve vs. Hangman 3,
09:30 Tony Khan's big announcement and Sting going for the tag titles, the show was marginally down
09:35 from last week. The show drew around 805,000 viewers, down by around 2% from the previous
09:41 week, and about 10% down year on year. Dave Meltzer noted on Twitter that the number was
09:46 a disappointment considering how loaded the card was. However, it's not all doom and gloom, as the
09:51 18-49 demo was up 7.7% from last week and is the third strongest number in that category in 2024.
09:58 Speaking of Sting, and the man they called Sting was the man who won gold as he and Darby Allin
10:02 won the AEW Tag Team Championships from Ricky Starrs and Big Bill in a tremendously fun main
10:08 event. However, according to Fightful Select, it nearly didn't happen. Fightful Select report that
10:14 not only was Sting adamantly and long against winning the AEW Tag Team titles, for a long time
10:20 he was against even competing for them. Apparently Sting was convinced to win the tag titles after it
10:26 was explained to him that they were an "undefeated tag team" and, in the context of a TV show,
10:32 they should be fighting for the tag titles. Fightful Select add that Sting went along with
10:37 it and was all smiles after the match backstage. Sting was instrumental in picking his final
10:41 opponents at AEW, which will be The Young Bucks at Revolution. It was revealed yesterday that due
10:46 to incredibly strong ticket sales, AEW have released more seats for Revolution at the
10:51 Greensboro Coliseum. But now go and check out the latest episode of Survival Series where we
10:56 had to name every TNA World Champion. Yes, I had a good time with this one.
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