00:00 3, 2, 1...
00:07 Are you serious?!
00:14 Of course!
00:18 Name me a promo that hasn't only defined a wrestler, defined an era of wrestling, defined
00:26 an entire promotion.
00:29 This promo transcends wrestling.
00:33 This promo...
00:34 If you've said to someone "TNA", this would be one of the first things they think of.
00:38 It's Steinermaths.
00:39 It's Steinermaths.
00:40 Steinermaths?!
00:41 Steinermaths?!
00:42 That's... it's... it's not better than the pipe bomb.
00:53 How could anyone ever even think that?
00:56 I need to prove it.
01:00 CM Punk makes an emotional post, a major wrestling star officially finished with their promotion,
01:06 The Rock vs Roman Reigns' WWE plans and more.
01:10 I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
01:20 Despite real-life pirates delaying WWE shipping the Elimination Chamber structure to Australia,
01:25 Paul Burchell will have his revenge!
01:28 The Premium Live event played out exactly as planned.
01:32 Exactly as planned being a relative term there, as a month before, it was almost a totally
01:37 different card.
01:38 The show was reportedly once meant to have Seth Rollins vs Australia's own Bronson Reed,
01:43 which had to be pulled when Seth got injured, Brock Lesnar vs Dominik Mysterio, which had
01:48 to be pulled when Lesnar was referenced in Janelle Grant's lawsuit against Vince McMahon,
01:52 and, at various points, Jade Cargill was reportedly set to compete in the Women's Chamber.
01:58 But the most noteworthy change for the show was the men's Chamber match, which was supposed
02:02 to be won by CM Punk.
02:05 Punk lasted to the final two in the previous month's Royal Rumble, to be thrown out by
02:09 the eventual winner The Rock.
02:11 Wait, sorry, I mean Cody Rhodes.
02:13 WWE have confused me.
02:16 Unfortunately, Punk tore his triceps when taking a Future Shock DDT from Drew McIntyre
02:21 in the match, which is expected to take him out until later this year, missing the Chamber
02:26 match he was supposed to win, and facing Seth Rollins at WrestleMania XL for his World Heavyweight
02:32 Championship that he was very likely supposed to win too.
02:35 Which led to Punk posting on his Instagram story as Elimination Chamber was hours away
02:41 - "Had a rough day mentally today.
02:43 My heart and spirit are in Perth.
02:45 Just a hard day staying positive and nobody wishes I was there performing for the fans
02:50 more than me.
02:51 Enjoy the show.
02:52 Appreciate you all."
02:54 This is Punk's third significant injury to disrupt world title plans for him in the
02:58 last two years, with Punk having to relinquish his AEW Championship in June 2022 after suffering
03:04 a broken foot, and again with a torn triceps in September that year.
03:09 Although that was also because of brawler-NO DREW THIS IS SERIOUS.
03:12 Don't be mean to him.
03:14 Drew's totally going to show up on Raw tonight with Punk's post on a t-shirt.
03:17 In some good CM Punk news, though, he might be able to finish his story… in a video
03:24 game.
03:25 The full roster has been released for WWE 2K24, with two notable exceptions.
03:30 Lesnar will not be available as a playable character, likely due to the aforementioned
03:34 lawsuit reference.
03:36 And also, there is no CM Punk listed, despite him returning to the company in November.
03:41 Punk hasn't been in a WWE game since 2K15, but it's been reported he might make it
03:47 in a late DLC.
03:48 As I mentioned earlier, Fightful Select have revealed that Rollins was originally supposed
03:52 to defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Bronson Reed at Elimination Chamber,
03:58 because Bronson Reed is Australian.
04:00 Reed's push was hinted at on TV earlier this year, when he started to cut promos about
04:05 coming for a champion who didn't know they were being targeted.
04:08 Unfortunately Seth's knee injury meant that match was pulled, but it worked out well for
04:12 Bronson in the end, because despite being more than willing to travel to Perth for Elimination
04:18 Chamber around the same time his wife was due to give birth, he stayed in America, where
04:23 he himself posted "Full disclosure, originally I was set to be at the Elimination Chamber.
04:28 It would have been an incredible moment.
04:30 Unfortunately, plans changed.
04:32 But everything happens for a reason.
04:34 My wife and I have had our baby early.
04:36 I was supposed to miss the PLE to make sure I'm here for my family.
04:40 Thank you for all your support to all my friends and family who have reached out to Triple
04:44 H for guiding me.
04:45 Now I'm not just big, I am Big Poppa."
04:50 Congratulations to Bronson Reed there.
04:52 Wait a second, Big Poppa?
04:54 Not you too, Bronson!
04:56 The pipe bomb's better.
04:58 It was a busy Saturday for wrestling, not just with Elimination Chamber, AEW Collision
05:03 and Bronson's baby.
05:04 It was also New Japan Pro Wrestling's new beginning in Sapporo - which probably should've
05:09 been renamed 'Final Ending in Sapporo' because it marked the final appearance of
05:14 Kazuchika Okada.
05:15 New Japan announced last month that Okada would not be renewing his contract after 14
05:20 years with the promotion, but he would stay on through most of February to complete the
05:24 new beginning shows he'd already been advertised for - where he put zero people over.
05:30 He beat Will Ospreay in Ospreay's last New Japan match, he vacated the never-openweight
05:34 six-man belts rather than drop them, and he beat his long-time rival and New Japan President
05:39 Hiroshi Tanahashi in what was billed as their last ever match.
05:44 It was an odd, rather unceremonious end to one of the greatest top star reigns in wrestling
05:49 history.
05:50 Looking wisdom usually has wrestlers putting over the next generation of stars when they
05:53 leave a promotion, but Okada beat everyone, and also said in an interview, "I can tell
05:59 you one thing about the future of New Japan.
06:02 It's not a chance.
06:03 It's a crisis.
06:04 The next generation can't just think, 'Oh, this is our chance.'
06:07 They have to step up and save the company."
06:11 And in his final New Japan match, going out with a relative whimper to the bang you would
06:15 have thought for Okada leaving the promotion, he won the second match on the card.
06:20 A ten-man tag of him teaming with his Chaos faction mates Hiroki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii,
06:25 Toriyano and Yoshi Hashi, beating Francesco Akira, Great O Khan, Jeff Cobb, Matt Riddle
06:30 and Callum Newman.
06:32 Okada pinned Newman, a former WrestleTalk Scholarship winner who has all the ability
06:36 to grow into the next Will Ospreay.
06:38 Okada's final New Japan moment happened later in the night, though.
06:42 After successfully defending his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Tsunada,
06:47 Naito invited Okada to the ring, said "until we meet again", did his signature taunt
06:53 at him, got the better of a brief wrestling sequence of reversals, and rolled into his
06:57 Tranquillo pose again.
06:59 Okada smiled, and just walked out the ring, and through the crowd, and out of the promotion.
07:08 Likely to America.
07:09 Oh, but I get it now.
07:11 Okada's probably going to AEW, which means they're building a forbidden door match
07:16 of him vs Naito, where Okada is finally going to put someone over, and thus the whole promotion
07:22 of New Japan.
07:24 Still not what I would've done, but at least New Japan gets something out of all of this.
07:29 Yeah, can't wait for that show.
07:32 But just one more thing.
07:35 Okada then did an interview with Tokyo Sports where he said "I'm already looking ahead
07:39 to what's next, and I'm leaving with the intention of never coming back to New Japan."
07:44 I'm a little sorry about that, but I don't think so.
07:48 What do you think of Okada's last run in New Japan?
07:50 Let me know in the comments.
07:52 And also go join our WrestleTalk and PFK Patreon right now, as Episode 2 of mine and Luke's
07:57 deep dive into the break-up of the Shield will be released there soon.
08:01 And also you can get a shoutout from wrestling legend Turbo Jack!
08:06 Ahahahahaha!
08:07 Oh hi there!
08:09 I'm AEW's wrestler Turbo Jack, and I was just enjoying WrestleTalk's Patreon exclusive
08:16 videos on my phone!
08:19 Go to Patreon.com/wrestletalk now to sign up, become a Pledgehammer and enjoy Survival
08:25 Series Thunderdome Edition and the all-new WrestleTalk Extra, where Oli Davis and Luke
08:31 Owen go through the whole of the break-up of the Shield.
08:34 And the crunkiest amongst you can get a shoutout on this very show!
08:39 So thank you to the cleaner Kenny Shaw, the British Bulldog Philip Boy J Smith Jr, he
08:45 can last Shawn for longer than you and the ring.
08:49 No pictures please, Shagga works, Starbucks, Steven Caster, Shield Maiden, The Zord-Lees
08:56 and The Pin.
08:57 A call of success.
08:58 Luke Kelly.
08:59 Go to Patreon.com/wrestletalk.
09:00 Back to New Japan, in the last year, the promotion has lost three of their top stars - Jay White,
09:11 Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada.
09:13 In an odd reversal of traffic, though, their immediate future instead seems to be based
09:18 around wrestlers who were released by WWE - the former Dolph Ziggler, now called Nick
09:23 Nemeth and Matt Riddle.
09:25 After both men debuted in New Japan last month, Nemeth won the IWGP Global Championship from
09:31 David Finlay at the New Beginnings show.
09:33 Nemeth tweeted in both Japanese and English "THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING, LET'S F-ING
09:39 GO"
09:40 And he wasn't kidding, as Nemeth would later appear via video on Sunday's TNA taping,
09:45 where he revealed he'll be defending that newly won belt against Steve McClin at TNA
09:50 Sacrifice on the 8th March - where Samoa Joe apparently has a 33-NO, NO SCOTT STEINER MATHS.
09:57 Riddle also captured gold at the New Beginnings shows, beating New Japan legend Tanahashi
10:02 to win the TV title - making the most of hashtags in a post afterwards.
10:06 The King of Bros is back on top, and your new television champion!
10:10 Thank you everyone for supporting me and showing me love.
10:13 Longitudinal emoji #NJPW #NJPWWorld #Bro #Stallion #TVChampion #RudeDude #Sapporo
10:21 The most recent Wrestling Observer Newsletter has summarised who knew what and when in the
10:26 Cody Roman Rock fiasco.
10:28 Apparently Cody was first told he'd be facing Roman at WrestleMania last Fall, but wasn't
10:33 told until the day he won the Royal Rumble that they had changed their minds to The Rock
10:38 - which was confirmed behind the scenes as part of Rock's deal to join the TKO board
10:43 on the 3rd January, and had been heavily negotiated as far back as December.
10:47 Cody, of course, then went on to win the Rumble.
10:50 But would the working idea that would be to build a match against Roman further down the
10:55 line?
10:56 Which isn't what Rumbles are made for!
10:58 It was the social media backlash for Cody bringing out The Rock that prompted WWE to
11:03 change their plans.
11:04 Rock didn't want to be booed as a babyface, so he decided to go heel.
11:09 It was then hidden from almost everyone that WWE would be reverting back to Roman vs Cody
11:14 until the press conference, as The Rock wanted that to be a surprise.
11:18 But The Rock vs Roman is still the plan long term, as the Wrestling Observer notes how
11:23 Johnson is still throwing in the occasional tease of a match between them.
11:27 So the idea from a company standpoint is that match will happen.
11:32 Just won't be at WrestleMania XL.
11:34 Now go watch me, Luke and Pete count down the 10 best wrestling promos ever in the controversial
11:40 brand new episode of Tables, Lists and Shares.
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