00:00 Ooh, ah, Roman Reigns booking WWE! Issues with WrestleMania! Vince McMahon cooperating
00:07 with authorities! And my review of AEW Dynamite. I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk
00:15 News.
00:22 Last night saw Cody Rhodes make his first ever undisputed WWE title defence, fighting
00:28 Shinsuke Nakamura at a house show. Which, yes, it's still weird saying that the champion
00:33 is someone other than Roman Reigns. But Roman isn't just no longer a champion
00:38 in WWE, he's no longer on WWE either, with WrestleVotes posting he's set to be offscreen
00:45 for an "indefinite period of time". Indefinite period of time, title of your next
00:50 AEW pay-per-view. Because, just like Rock 'The Dwayne' Johnson, he's shooting
00:54 a movie. Being pictured on the set of Good Fortune, a comedy film directed by Aziz Ansari
01:00 and starring Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer. It was Palmer who posted the
01:04 photo on her Instagram, where Joe Anoa'i is surrounded by women, one with a championship
01:10 belt and loads of gold. Roman's next advertised TV appearance is
01:16 the August 2nd episode of SmackDown, which is the go-home show for SummerSlam.
01:22 But while Roman is offscreen for the next four months, behind the scenes, he'll reportedly
01:26 still be contributing as WrestleVotes continues. Roman will still have substantial creative
01:31 input in the evolving Bloodline storyline over the course of the next few months.
01:37 Roman and Paul Heyman have reportedly had a lot of influence over the direction of the
01:41 Bloodline since 2020, which appears set to continue in this new era of the storyline.
01:47 Which Heyman calls the top of the fourth, two batters in and one strike.
01:50 And it is, of course, all building to new Blood vs. OG Bloodline at WrestleMania 41.
01:58 A mania that'll hopefully be a lot warmer. WrestleMania 40 - aka Philadelphia's rolling
02:04 April weather coverage - is set to directly influence where Mania 41 takes place, which
02:09 is why next year's location hasn't yet been announced like it usually is.
02:14 The cold Philadelphia weather on night one both forced the commentary team to wear hats
02:18 and gloves to keep warm, and also cooled off the crowd heat, who were far less audible
02:22 on the Saturday because of the chill. WWE President Nick Khan has told the Sports
02:27 Business Journal's World Congress of Sports Conference Business Business Business that
02:32 next year's show likely won't take place on the East Coast.
02:35 A specific location wasn't given, but Khan said Las Vegas was under consideration. This
02:41 might rule out the previously reported Minneapolis, which is too cold.
02:45 2025 will be Khan's first year fully deciding where WrestleMania will take place, as up
02:50 until now, the locations have been booked back in 2020.
02:54 That was back when Vince McMahon was running the show, and now there's been an update
02:58 on whether he'll be running another one. Dave Meltzer reported earlier this week that
03:03 some believe McMahon might start up a new wrestling promotion.
03:08 NBC has now reported an update on what Vince is up to these days. Very much staying busy,
03:14 getting bi-weekly haircuts, working out with his personal trainer and, quote, "enjoying
03:20 life". The report describes McMahon as not being
03:23 worried about the lawsuit Janelle Grant has filed against him, and he is continuing to
03:27 cooperate with authorities in their investigation, believing it will be settled before it reaches
03:33 trial. Interestingly, it's also reported that McMahon
03:36 has remained in contact with two top WWE stars since his departure - John Cena and The Rock.
03:43 According to Brandon Thurston, Grant's spokesperson called Cena and Johnson's association with
03:47 McMahon "shameful", saying behind the scenes support is "louder than any public
03:52 statement ever could be." Now it's time for my review of AEW Dynamite
03:57 in about 5 minutes, the go-home show for Dynasty. Which means it's the brand new season of
04:03 WrestleLeague! Sign up to our Wrestling Predictions League
04:07 using the link in the video description below to compete against me, Luke, Pete, everyone
04:11 in the WrestleTalk office - where you could also win prizes up to $250.
04:17 The show started with New Japan's new IWGP Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley coming through
04:23 the crowd - as if AEW weren't content with Will Ospreay and Okada. They've gone to
04:27 take New Japan's main belt too. For Moxley, this was the culmination of a
04:31 five year mission. He fired up about believing in yourself and what's in your gut. That's
04:36 what AEW is all about. That's the perfect way to put over AEW - align
04:41 within a promo, building a larger story. As opposed to entire segments directly responding
04:48 to things WWE people said in interviews. Mox then focused on the Don Callis family
04:53 after what they did to Bryan Danielson on Collision, and challenged Will Hobbs to a
04:57 match for next week's Dynamite - implying that the Blackpool Combat Club and Don Callis
05:01 family feud will continue post-Dynasty. Mercedes Monet put the entire women's division
05:07 on notice next after she was attacked in the dark last week - a threat that would be more
05:11 intimidating if she actually wrestled. This led into another mysterious attack from
05:16 Krista- and, I mean, it could be anyone - taking out Willow Nightingale ahead of her mixed
05:21 gender tag match with Adam Copeland. It left Edge out there all by himself against the
05:26 House of Black's Brodie King and Julia Hart, really getting the crowd into Copeland being
05:30 worked over in what had become a mixed gender handicap match. The crowd was grey all night.
05:35 Willow finally made it down for a hot tag sequence, but Julia knocked her out with a
05:39 chain on one, building their TBS title match for Sunday. Monet chased off Hart with a chair,
05:44 looked tensely at Willow, and shook Edge's hand.
05:47 The Jacksons then meta-interrupted their own hype video package for them vs FTR because
05:52 they didn't like it, and got Tony Khan to queue up their entrance music. I'm starting
05:55 to feel like in the Elite, Tony Khan has replaced Michael Nakazawa. This turned into a super-duper
06:00 6 man tag of The Elite vs PAC, Penta and Daniel Garcia.
06:04 This was a terrific match, doing enough to tease Okada vs PAC for Dynasty, but also really
06:09 getting over Garcia, who got several comeback sequences - the best when Matthew Jackson
06:14 screamed at him on the microphone to prove himself. So Garcia gave him a suplex, while
06:19 Matthew was asking 'can you put me down please'. If I was a booking man, I'd say
06:23 Garcia will continue to be part of this storyline where he can feud with a returning scapegoat.
06:28 Okada pinned Garcia for the win, but PAC chased the Elite off with a hammer before they could
06:32 do more damage with a ladder. It took Garcia over a year to escape the pull
06:36 of the Chris Jericho Vortex, and now the Ocho is trying to consume another rising star.
06:43 Taz mediated an in-ring conversation between Jericho and Hook. Jericho used the Vortex
06:47 name that he recently filed to trademark - which I believe is actually a joke we started way
06:51 back when with the Baron Corbin midcard Vortex - saying everyone he works with has ended
06:57 up better. Not mentioning Action Andretti. Already Kingston.
07:02 Hook refused, Jericho shoved Taz in frustration, and it set up their match at Dynasty. Ah yes,
07:08 the classic Jericho feud template. The babyface has already beaten him clean, so look forward
07:13 to six months of matches where Jericho wins. He'll get a new faction too.
07:17 Deonna Purrazzo then beat Mariah May in a match to position the Women's Championship
07:21 No. 1 contender coming out of Dynasty. The crowd got into the action a lot more than
07:24 me, and that helped both wrestlers feed off the energy.
07:27 Toni Storm jumped Purrazzo as soon as she won, so Thunder Rosa made the save. But just
07:32 like Rosa rejected Deonna's help last week, Deonna rejected hers here. So Rosa just beat
07:37 up Toni instead, smearing lipstick over Storm's face, similar to how Toni had smudged Thunder's
07:42 face paint last week. Might've been nice to have some follow-up
07:45 to Mina Shirakawa snogging May last week, but I guess that's my fault for not watching
07:49 the other 15 hours of weekly interpromotional content to understand this division.
07:53 Next stage with Renee Paquette. The Bang Bang Gang and The Acclaimed then set up their months
07:57 long build. Blood feud. Double belt. Winner takes all grudge match pay off.
08:07 For the pre-show. This feud really has not clicked.
08:11 Orange Cassidy beat Shane Taylor, not just in a story of power vs speed, but of having
08:15 mates vs having no mates. I really, really like Taylor. I always have
08:20 done. This was as good a match as you can get with what they went out to do, but Cassidy
08:24 overcame the promotion's interference to win. Commentary said Shane Taylor Promotions
08:29 is becoming a force to be reckoned with on Dynamite. Well, then I wish they'd won more
08:33 than one match on AEW TV all year. That dastardly Trent then stopped random
08:38 babyfaces Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal saving Cassidy from the post-match beatdown.
08:43 I'm really into Trent's intensity as a heel.
08:46 We got a recap of Roderick Strong turning on Karl O'Reilly. I love Strong, but this
08:51 TNT title has massively dropped in significance since he won it.
08:54 And then we got Match of the Night. A pay-per-view calibre clash between Will Ospreay and Claudio
09:02 Castagnoli. This is how you reply to competition and criticism. You show, don't tell that
09:08 AEW is where the best wrestle. Claudio was the perfect base for Ospreay, launching him
09:14 around the ring, every single move and exchange slick, fast-paced and incredible. Claudio's
09:19 uppercuts in the corner with the speed and volume of Masao chops. Ospreay's kip up
09:24 rebound off the mat into an enziguri of another uppercut. Ospreay crunching up on Claudio's
09:30 swing to hit a DDT, a Phoenix Splash into a nearfall, and then the Hidden Blade to win
09:35 in an excellent final sequence. The Don Callis family beat down Claudio afterwards,
09:40 which Ospreay seemed upset by, sowing those seeds of dissension, but Moxley made the save.
09:45 Out of their usually scheduled time, AEW had one more segment.
09:49 After separate backstage sit-down interviews, Swerve Strickland called out Samoa Joe to
09:53 explain how he's going to beat him for his world title. Aside from a superhero-like stomp
09:58 off the top rope outside on like eight security guys, how does that even work?
10:03 For me, Swerve and Joe had more intense brawls in previous weeks. Nevertheless, I honestly
10:08 cannot wait for them to fight a dynasty. This week's AEW is 75%. But what about WrestleMania
10:15 41? It's only a year away. Go watch me, Luke and Pete predict that show… way too
10:21 far in advance.
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