00:00 Is another AEW talent gone from the company? Bianca Belair suffers racist abuse online.
00:06 How much AEW is paying Okada? And more. I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:19 Before we get into this video's top story, as it makes you lose a bit of faith in humanity,
00:23 let's open with the lovely, heartwarming news that WWE star Dominic Mysterio has gotten
00:30 married to his childhood sweetheart of 10 years. Please join me in congratulating the
00:36 newlyweds. Boo! Boo! I hate you Dominic Mysterio, you f***ing
00:44 suck! A well wish that isn't inappropriate, because…
00:48 Wrestling! Here's footage from Don's actual speech from his own wedding.
00:55 Gay fate lives. And not just in heel heat, but also in Dirty
01:10 Don's choice of groomsmen. Which included his Judgment Day buddy Damian Priest and other
01:15 WWE star Austin Theory, entering the wedding like ya boys at the prom.
01:22 To know whether Dom's mammy Rhea Ripley was the one to give him away.
01:25 Unfortunately we're now going to talk about the ugliest side of the Internet, as WWE star
01:30 Bianca Belair has suffered racism online, which has led to numerous top stars posting
01:35 in her support. While Cody Rhodes is the cover star of the
01:38 WWE 2K24 video game, which is released fully today, Belair and Rhea Ripley are on the cover
01:44 of the Deluxe Edition. To promote the game being out this week, the
01:48 WWE Games Instagram account posted some photos of the trio of cover wrestlers.
01:53 But rather than celebrate how good wrestling is right now, some commented that Belair didn't
01:58 belong in the line-up. Some because they feel she's overpushed, and others for more racially
02:03 charged reasons. While Belair doesn't currently have a clear
02:07 WrestleMania 40 direction like Cody and Rhea, with the strongest rumour being a match against
02:11 Jade Cargill, she was very recently WWE's longest reigning women's champion of the
02:16 modern era, ending her 420 day reign in May last year. She's also on the Deluxe Edition
02:23 as a co-feature, rather than the main Cody release. And if you look back at previous
02:28 year's stars, they're not really featured for their then-current storylines either.
02:32 With that in mind, the negativity to her inclusion feels disproportionate.
02:37 Also in support of Belair, numerous WWE stars have posted online. Big E tweeted "The black
02:42 women in this industry face a regular barrage of racism and misogyny from "fans" and
02:49 have for far too long. You cannot diminish their light. You cannot erase their contributions
02:54 to this industry." Becky Lynch posted "One of the B.S.T. like
02:58 EST flag bearers we have in WWE. This woman barely sleeps because of her dedication to
03:04 her craft, her work ethic is top tier and her personality and heart goes beyond that
03:09 somehow. Bianca Belair is truly one of one." And her Deluxe Edition co-star Ripley noted
03:15 "EST ain't just a nickname. Bianca Belair is a history maker, a trailblazer, and one
03:22 of the nicest humans that you would have the privilege to ever meet."
03:26 Y'all just mad that she's better than you. Rather than add to the negativity, try
03:30 posting something positive about Belair. I'll start. Belair is really, really strong, and
03:37 I like her hair whip thing. Oh. Oh no. What's this on social media? No, Kevin Kelly. NOOOOOO.
03:48 Kevin Kelly, not to be confused with Kelly Kelly, is legit one of my favourite commentators
03:54 of all time. For a 10 year stretch, he was my favourite commentator. When I was at a
03:59 New Japan show in England pre-pandemic, I was fine walking up to Murder Grandpa Minoru
04:04 Suzuki, but I got so starstruck by Kelly, I couldn't even introduce myself. His partnerships
04:10 with Steve Corino and Nigel McGuinness in the 2010s Ring of Honor, and his New Japan
04:14 teaming with Don Callis are, in my opinion, the best wrestling announcing of the modern
04:20 era. So I was pretty excited when he was announced as the lead play-by-play guy on Collision,
04:26 reuniting with McGuinness. The first episode wasn't great, but I'm
04:30 sure he'd settle in. It's a weird time with all the CM Punk stuff. But then he took
04:34 a long break going over to cover the New Japan G1 Climax tournament, and his replacement
04:39 Ian Riccoboni was actually really good. But then Kelly did return to the Collision desk
04:45 to not really get much better. Until now. Because he just might not be there anymore.
04:54 On the 7th March, it was noticed Kelly's profile had been removed from AEW's roster
04:59 page. It's 50/50 on whether that actually means anything. Mike Santana was removed from
05:03 the roster page ahead of him leaving the promotion last week, but Yuka Sakazaki also disappeared
05:08 recently, which was just a website glitch. She was added back in shortly after.
05:13 But in Kelly's case, fans are reporting he also didn't appear on that same day's
05:17 taping of AEW Collision - the show he's supposed to commentate on - with the booth
05:22 instead only consisting of Tony Schiavone and Nigel McGuinness. And, also, Kelly went
05:29 on a strange social media tirade the previous weekend.
05:34 On March 2nd, a fan made a post appreciating how Kelly gives history and background to
05:39 wrestling matches, which Kelly replied "I do the same thing in AEW because it's critical
05:45 to explain the why." And then he probably should've put his phone
05:49 down and been happy about the nice message someone sent him. But he followed it up to
05:55 accuse his commentary colleague Rick Abane. "But the idea of what I bring to the table
06:00 is lost there because Ian libeled me. So I sit on the bench, valued by my peers, waiting
06:05 to get my number called. I keep asking why, but get pushed aside. It's okay because
06:10 there is no one better than me, ask the ones that know and they'll tell you. It's a
06:15 personal thing against me. It has to be. Defies logic. No actions have been taken in spite
06:20 of my good name and reputation being dragged through the mud."
06:24 He then continued talking about raising awareness of the global horrors of child trafficking
06:29 and how it's not the same as some fringe conspiracy theory that everyone knows is bulls***.
06:34 He claims Ian refused to try to clear the air between them.
06:37 Wrestling's so good right now, why are these the stories in the news?
06:40 I promise a good old fashioned 'contract detail' story is coming right up after this
06:46 clip.
06:47 Let's watch the clip and find out, shall we?
06:48 I don't even remember ever owning that shirt. I don't know where that came from.
06:57 5 star wrestling publicly offering CM Punk 1 million dollars.
07:03 Stop it immediately. Oh, just can you stop it?
07:10 This is clip one, Ollie. Got a lot to go, mate.
07:13 I think, I would hope, that I improve. I thought this would be more of 'let's laugh at CM
07:21 Punk' not 'let's watch back, Ollie. Green as grass'. Or should I say 'green as grass'.
07:31 That's right, tomorrow on this channel WrestleTalk, I'll be reacting to a load of my CM Punk
07:37 coverage from the last 7 years. Which ranges from really fun and heartwarming and 'yay
07:44 CM Punk's back' to 'oh my god what did I used to sound like'.
07:50 Subscribe to WrestleTalk right now and enable notifications to know when that goes live
07:53 first.
07:54 The 6th March episode of AEW Dynamite didn't just debut a new logo, set, opening entrance
07:59 theme and colour scheme. It also had Kazuchika Okada to AEW confirmed.
08:04 Which we all figured was coming, we just didn't know the how.
08:08 Corporate Okada replacing Kenny Omega in The Elite, which broke Tempest's little New
08:14 Japan mark heart. And now, according to Tokyo Sports, we know
08:25 exactly how many coins were used in that drop - 4.5 million dollars per year for a three
08:32 year deal. Wrestling Observer Radio has reported that
08:35 Tony Khan, The Bucks and Okada have been planning the heel term for months, and Fightful Select
08:40 adds he will be working a full-time schedule and relocating to the United States.
08:46 An interesting move, considering many thought Okada would choose AEW over WWE because he
08:51 could still live in Japan. Instead, Fightful Select is reporting that
08:55 actually WWE were cool, they were never actually interested in Okada, they never even reached
09:00 out. In fact, it was Okada who reached out to them, by, y'know, contacting members
09:07 of the WWE roster to weigh up his options. That's my sass, by the way, not Fightful
09:12 Select's. Okada joining The Elite is widely expected
09:15 to set up Okada vs Omega 5 in the future. Unfortunately, Omega is out recovering from
09:21 a serious bout of diverticulitis right now, with there being no timetable for his return.
09:26 And a promising sign, though, he has made his return to Twitch streaming, where he gave
09:30 an update on his health saying.
10:00 He explained that he's only ever been kept out by physical injuries before, not illnesses,
10:12 so he's unfamiliar with knowing if his body is good to go again. He's working on training
10:16 and educating himself with doctors so he can return at his own very high bar as soon as
10:22 he can. Unfortunately, despite putting on one of the
10:24 best pay-per-views of all time with Sunday's Revolution, getting all the positive coverage
10:29 of Sting's retirement, and an all-time great episode of Dynamite that was also a season
10:34 premiere, the Wednesday episode drew its lowest rating since October, pulling 779,000 viewers
10:41 compared to last week's 822. The 18-49 demographic also fell from a .29 to a .27, the show's
10:49 lowest demo rating since January 24th. Now go watch the brand new episode of Survival
10:54 Series where we try to name every Undertaker's streak match in reverse chronological order.
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