00:00 A big WWE return leaked, Cody Rhodes on turning heel, my review of AEW and Rampage and more.
00:09 I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:19 This year, Paul Leveque has missed out on the big talent signings of Kazuchika Okada,
00:24 Mercedes Monet and Will Ospreay.
00:26 Although, if you ask me, Bullet dodged.
00:30 That Ospreay just doesn't want the grind.
00:31 Look at him, putting on the best matches you've ever seen on a weekly basis.
00:35 Lazy.
00:36 That's what he is.
00:37 Resting on his laurels.
00:39 But WWE has had some successes, recruiting Julia, Tama Tonga, the yet-to-debut Jacob
00:45 Fatu and the return of Shawn Spears down in NXT.
00:49 And now news has broken of another name coming back to the company.
00:53 Shortly after it was reported that Erick Rowan had cancelled an upcoming indie booking due
00:57 to "new contractual obligations", it has now been confirmed by PWInsider that the former
01:03 Wyatt Family member has indeed re-signed with WWE.
01:08 Rowan was released by WWE in April 2020, right at the start of the pandemic, and has since
01:14 made appearances for AEW and on the indies.
01:17 He did, in fact, feature on WWE TV last August for the Bray Wyatt tribute episode on SmackDown.
01:23 It's been heavily speculated he'll return onscreen as part of a new version of the Wyatt
01:28 Family, led by Bray's real-life brother Bo Dallas.
01:32 Speaking of spooky, spooky big men, The Undertaker recently made headlines by saying WWE's
01:38 long-term plan should be to turn Cody Rhodes… heel.
01:42 Undertaker earlier AEW fan confirmed.
01:44 But how does Cody himself feel about the idea?
01:47 Speaking to Peter Rosenberg on Cheap Heat, Cody said he would be lying if he said he
01:52 didn't think about it, but is too caught up with the connection he shares with young
01:56 fans to see it happening.
01:58 He brought up John Cena's lack of heel turn, and said that was "rightfully so".
02:02 But unlike John, Cody refused to rule out the possibility of a future turn, saying "Absolutes
02:08 are the worst thing in pro wrestling."
02:11 For me, the worst thing in pro wrestling is Canadian Destroyers on an apron to set up
02:14 an earful.
02:15 Cody also joined Triple H yesterday on X-Faces, while Levesque teased an announcement on the
02:21 date and location of WrestleMania 41 "very, very soon" and that WWE "is open for business"
02:30 about it happening anywhere around the globe.
02:33 This follows London's Mayor Sadiq Khan posting last week that he wants to bring Mania to
02:37 the city in the future if re-elected… today… on the 2nd May.
02:44 Which I need to vote.
02:45 Unfortunately for British wrestling fans, Khan does not stand a chance against Count
02:49 Binface.
02:50 Who gets my vote?
02:52 Triple H had replied to Sadiq Khan saying "let's talk."
02:56 International PLEs has been the strategy of WWE President Nick Khan, who have reportedly
03:01 put his TKO stocks up for sale.
03:03 This joined Vince McMahon, who has been selling off his shares in the company in big dumps
03:08 over the last several months, and it prompted speculation that Nick was also trying to exit
03:13 the company.
03:14 Top wrestling journalist Pat McAfee, though, has said on his YouTube channel that this
03:18 apparently isn't the case.
03:20 Citing more unnamed sources than a rap article on The Rock, McAfee claimed that despite the
03:24 stock filing state and as such, Khan isn't selling any of his TKO stock - something recently
03:30 also said by Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics.
03:33 Now it's time for my review of AEW Dynamite, with a bonus hour of Rampage… in about 5
03:40 minutes.
03:41 The show cold opened on Tony Khan live from Jacksonville, Florida, where he'll be remotely
03:47 producing AEW Dynamite, literally, this week, in Winnipeg, Shazam Fury of the Gods.
03:55 Until those dastardly Young Bucks interrupted him in the actual on-site production desk,
03:59 cutting him off, blaming technical difficulties.
04:02 The Bucks explained they had ironclad contracts, which is why they weren't fired after last
04:07 week's assault.
04:08 Contracts so ironclad, I assume it must also stop any police action being taken against
04:13 them, that they'll be running this week's show.
04:15 Cueing up new opening credits with just clips of the Elite.
04:19 This was really fun, the only thing I'd change is having Tony's part as an offscreen
04:22 phone call, because his over-the-top smiling kind of undermines the brutal injury and threat
04:27 of his company being taken from him.
04:30 Swerve Strickland opened the show proper with an in-ring promo calling what the Elite did
04:34 to Tony a bitch move.
04:35 Then why didn't you come out and help him last week?
04:38 And asking for his first title challenger.
04:41 I was all geared up for Hangman Page's music to hit, but got a returning Christian Cage
04:46 instead.
04:47 That's fine, I like Christian Cage too.
04:50 I love Christian and he'll do some great heel things, but I don't think he's the
04:54 right opponent to start Swerve's title reign.
04:57 Christian would've been significantly hotter.
04:59 Especially with that moustache.
05:00 The patriarchy beat up both Swerve and NaNa, with Christian neatly bringing up how Strickland
05:05 assaulted his son Nick Wayne last year and lost Christian their All In tag match.
05:10 Kill Switch even pulled a braid out of Swerve's head.
05:13 The House of Black played mind games with Adam Copeland, not letting him know which
05:17 member would answer this episode's cope open.
05:21 Instead it was Buddy Murphy, where they had an odd Slugfest style match, the main spot
05:25 having them collide with a double crossbody in the middle of the ring for Buddy to start
05:30 coughing up blood, giving him the babyface psychology of fighting through injury.
05:34 What blood based gimmick for Edge?
05:37 Could this possibly be teasing?
05:39 Copeland won, and was about to hit a concerto on Buddy when Malakai Black appeared not to
05:43 save his faction mate, but go on, hit him in the head.
05:49 And then they disappeared.
05:50 Samoa Joe got his first match since losing the world title.
05:53 You are a brave man, Isaiah Cassidy.
05:55 Joe played the babyface hits like I was watching the best of TNA Joe's squash matches, and
06:00 he won with the Muscle Buster.
06:01 Orange Cassidy then said that Chucky T will never wrestle again after his parking lot
06:05 brawl against Trent, which I'm really hoping is storyline.
06:08 Security and Chris Statlander stopped him from brawling with Trent when, weirdly, Don
06:13 Callis got in Orange's ear and they walked off together.
06:17 Jack Perry told Renee backstage that AEW is now in a 'new era'.
06:21 Wait a second, is this whole storyline a rib on another company getting recently taken
06:26 over by a historically power-mad wrestler?
06:28 Chris Jericho beat Shibata in a really fun hardcore match for the FTW title, with Shibata
06:32 no-selling kendo stick shots while in a bin, a bag full of hockey pucks - because Canada
06:37 - and the finish, Big Bill chokeslamming Shibata through a table.
06:41 I thought we were all trying to protect Shibata these days.
06:44 Amidst months of go-away heat, Jericho has somehow found a pretty good new gimmick.
06:49 I still want him to go away for a bit though.
06:51 Claudio beat Brian Cage in a decent, if predictable match, where the best bit was a 'support
06:56 WrestleTalk' sign in the crowd.
06:57 That's about us.
06:59 The worst bit was the zoom-ins and cuttings they did on Claudio's swing.
07:03 Is this a meta joke at old WWE too?
07:06 Serena Deeb used her technical skills to beat Mariah May, becoming Toni Storm's No. 1
07:10 contender at Double or Nothing.
07:11 I love watching Deeb wrestle.
07:13 Her multiple twisting backslide pin attempt was awesome.
07:16 But right now, this does feel like another filler feud for Storm.
07:19 We were pretty much in the Rampage third hour by the time Dynamite started its main event,
07:24 when OPEC's favourite wrestler, who also did something in NORTH CAROLINA, Kenny Omega.
07:31 Kenny spoke about being diagnosed with diverticulitis, that his doctor told him he was 24 hours from
07:36 death, and he replied 'cool story, can you patch me up to get back to Dynamite?'
07:40 But then the realisation of just how serious a condition this was set in.
07:44 He might have to have surgery, be sliced open down his front, wearing a colostomy bag for
07:49 the rest of his life.
07:50 As for wrestling, any sort of blunt force trauma to the stomach could kill him.
07:55 So probably not the best idea to hang out with LA Knight.
07:59 But Kenny spoke about watching Dynasty and how there were all these conversations about
08:03 who the best wrestler in the world was.
08:06 So even if there's a 1% chance, bag or no bag, he will return to the ring.
08:13 It was great to hear him talk, weaving his real-life condition with pro wrestling working
08:17 so well I couldn't see the seams.
08:20 Looking back, the blunt force trauma to the stomach could kill him line was obviously
08:23 a set up for when Jack Perry hit him with blunt force trauma to the stomach, but I was
08:28 too wrapped up in Kenny's talking to see I was being worked.
08:32 He then said talking of S-word bags.
08:35 Fantastic colostomy, Segway.
08:38 The Elite aren't the only ones with power behind the scenes.
08:42 He is an EVP too.
08:45 So obviously the Elite had to take him out.
08:48 Okada interrupted, giving the always spine-tingling visual of Okada and Omega in a wrestling ring,
08:53 for Perry to jump him from behind with a chair.
08:55 Omega fought back way more than I thought he'd be able to, even hitting a Dragon Suplex,
09:00 but Okada tripped him, letting Perry hit him in the gut with the chair.
09:04 FDR ran down for the save, and medical personnel stretched Kenny to the back as Rampage started,
09:10 for the Elite to attack him again backstage, tipping him off the stretcher onto the floor.
09:15 The rest of Rampage saw J White beat Dante Martin, Jericho officially pulled Big Bill
09:19 down into the Jericho Midcard Vortex, and Karl O'Reilly beat Rocky Romero with wrestling.
09:27 But the best match of the whole three hours was Willow Nightingale beating Sky Blue in
09:31 a Falls Count Anywhere match.
09:33 Complete with Willow hitting a cannonball off the apron onto a chair outside, Sky Blue
09:37 bleeding red and getting driven into thumbtacks off a second rope brainbuster, and the awesome
09:43 finish of Willow hitting a Dr. Bomb off the apron onto a barbed wire board through a table.
09:48 Right now, Willow's TBS title reign is being booked how swerve should be.
09:52 This week's Dynamite/Rampage combo is 78%.
09:55 Have you ever thought what are the best wrestling finishers of all time?
09:59 We've got you covered!
10:00 Click the video on the left to watch us count them down in tables, lists and chairs.
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