00:00WWE uses Cody Rhodes against AEW! A WWE talent arrested! Some really sad news for a WWE star.
00:10And more. I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:20Since WWE found a forbidden door in the back of the Performance Center several weeks ago,
00:24NXT has become one of wrestling's most unique, entertaining TV shows. We've had TNA Knockouts
00:31Champion Jordan Grace fight for the NXT Women's title, former AEW star Ethan Page made his
00:37shock debut, and Shawn Michaels has been twerking. He's just a twerky boy, twerky boy. He's
00:46not your bum toy, bum toy. And now, on the Tuesday 11th June episode
00:53of NXT, WWE Champion Cody Rhodes made a special appearance to announce the brand's next
00:59big direction. He's going to the cookout, everyone. But
01:04also, he gave JCJane his old undashing mask. But also, he announced that next week's
01:12will have a 25-man battle royale to determine the No. 1 contender at Heatwave for Trick
01:18Williams' NXT Championship. Teasing some of the entrants will come from different locker
01:24rooms. Meaning it could be anyone from NXT itself, SmackDown, Raw, TNA. The crowd started
01:31cheering for Joe Hendry, yet people were saying his name and he did not appear.
01:37But also, soft ground wrestling Uganda, I guess, because Cody has tweeted he's going
01:43to buy them a wrestling ring. Time to rebrand as Bouncy Canvas Wrestling Uganda.
01:48But also, Cody did this. He shared a segment with former AEW stars Ethan Page, Shawn Spears
01:57and Lexus King, the former Brian Pillman Jr, who have all made the jump to NXT within the
02:02last year, and said, seems like you guys are… in a good place.
02:08A not-so-subtle dig at Cody's former promotion AEW, which the three men reportedly left due
02:14to creative frustration. They have since received far more consistent screen time debuting in
02:20NXT. Why can't all wrestling promotions just
02:22get along like the good old days of the Attitude Era? I know, I'll ask Luke on the wrestling
02:28ring!
02:29Cody vs AEW, though, goes far beyond a fun backstage segment of the WWE Champion telling
02:57a bunch of All Elite guys that they're now better off in NXT. The bigger story it's
03:01obscuring is how WWE are trying to damage AEW viewership rankings, while AEW is negotiating
03:08the most important TV deal in its history. Thanks to NXT's growing popularity, there
03:14were only 22,000 total viewers between last Tuesday's episode and the Wednesday 5th
03:19Dynamite number. The all-important 18-49 demographic, however, was further apart at a .22 vs AEW's
03:28.28. But tonight's Wednesday 12th Dynamite will
03:30face significant competition from Game 3 of the NBA Finals, likely meaning their rating
03:36will take a big hit. So NXT loaded up their Tuesday 11th episode with WWE's biggest
03:41star Rhodes to do everything they can to beat AEW.
03:49And while Dynamite's card has Mercedes Monet in action, and a mouthwatering match between
03:53Will Ospreay and Rey Fenix, the advertised line-up arguably doesn't have a big enough
03:58hook to pull viewers away from the NBA. One of the biggest draws for NXT, for comparison,
04:03hasn't even been a wrestler. It's been rapper Sexy Red, whose cameos on the show
04:08are speculated to have brought in a younger new audience. And she could potentially be
04:12planning on making her in-ring debut soon, as at the weekend, she was preparing by getting
04:17involved in a massive brawl at an airport. TMZ is reporting that on Saturday 8th, the
04:23day before she hosted the NXT PLA Battleground, Red was arrested after an altercation that
04:28involved multiple people at Newark Liberty International Airport. Security footage shows
04:33several people brawling by a doorway for a person in a red hat to enter the frame, which
04:38TMZ claims is Sexy Red, who's about to use one of those Q Divider stands as a foreign
04:43object by God, before she's pushed away, falls over and seemingly loses a shoe.
04:48The rumour is that the fight started when someone took an unauthorised photo of Red,
04:53but that's not confirmed. What is confirmed, though, is TMZ reporting Sexy being ultimately
04:57arrested for disorderly conduct, while a couple of others were booked on assault charges.
05:02The alleged victims went to hospital for minor injuries.
05:05On getting out of jail, Red posted on social media asking the people that were in the altercation
05:10to DM her so she can replace their phones. Fightful is reporting that WWE does not expect
05:15this arrest to prevent them from using her in the future, and, as of Sunday night, there
05:20were more plans for her to appear on the brand. Although they were surprised by the
05:24arrest news, as they didn't know about it ahead of the Battleground show she was hosting.
05:29In even more NXT news, seriously, I don't think I've ever had this much different
05:33NXT news in an episode, Fightful again is reporting that the TNA working relationship
05:38is set to continue, with the next names to cross over, interestingly, being ones that
05:42have been released from WWE. One is Mustafa Ali, who was released last
05:47September, even though Shawn Michaels had plans for him to win NXT's North American
05:52title. He is currently TNA's ex-Division Champion, but is not signed to a contract
05:56with TNA. Another name mentioned was Zachary Wentz,
06:00who wrestled as Nash Carter in NXT. But he was released in April 2022 while being NXT
06:05Tag Team Champion following allegations from his ex-wife Kimberley and a leaked picture
06:10of him imitating Adolf Hitler. Fightful notes NXT's stance has softened
06:15on Wentz, and there's a good chance he could cross over if the right creative came
06:19up. The final name is Moose, who WWE have been
06:22long interested in. Moose himself has said he wants to be part of the crossover.
06:27But it wasn't just TNA and ex-AEW wrestlers at NXT, a current AEW wrestler was there too.
06:33Fightful is reporting AEW's Rebel was backstage at the show because of a personal connection
06:38to someone who works at NXT. Rebel hasn't appeared on AEW TV since 2022,
06:44but there was another angle for Brooks Jensen, who interrupted the taping during the commercial
06:48break. Like last week, he started to shout at commentators Booker T and Vic Joseph from
06:52ringside before being removed by security. This time, though, you could just make him
06:56out on the TV episode. Wrestling often presents invasion angles
07:01by constantly replaying footage of the invading wrestler or wrestlers, which isn't really
07:06what a company that's being legitimately threatened would do. So I applaud NXT for
07:10booking this angle so realistically. Jensen was also spotted at an indie show
07:14over the weekend, it's real-life dad Bull Buchanan's bullpen professional wrestling
07:19promotion. But it's not just NXT that's having all
07:21the Forbidden Door fun. The main roster has got in on the crossovers too, as at the conclusion
07:26of Marigold's Corrican Hall show on the 11th June, Io Sky appeared via video form
07:30to challenge… now, SB3 has text me phonetically how to say this…
07:36Yutami Hiyashita for their Summer Destiny show on the 13th July.
07:41Marigold is the new all-women's promotion from Stardom founder Rossi Agawa, who was
07:45fired by Bushi Road in February after allegations he was poaching talent to start a new promotion.
07:51It was also reported he was blocking parts of the AEW-Stardom working relationship, and
07:56he recently credited Triple H for giving him the confidence to break away.
08:00And according to Agawa talking to Tokyo Sport, his relationship with Levesque goes even further.
08:05Agawa had been in talks with WWE back in March for Sky to wrestle on a Marigold show, which
08:10sped up when he visited the US on WrestleMania weekend. He speculated the reason they let
08:14him book Sky was likely because they wanted to sign Julia, who he is very close to.
08:19This Saturday will see Clash at the Castle take place in Glasgow, which will have the
08:22Scots of Drew McIntyre fighting for the World Heavyweight Championship, and the Unholy Union
08:27of Alba Fire and Isla Dawn challenging for the women's tag belts. Even though they
08:31lost in two minutes on the go-home Raw. The experience will be bittersweet for Fire,
08:36though, as, tragically, the Daily Record is reporting her mother was killed while visiting
08:41her on holiday in Florida. 51-year-old Bridgene Mitchell was hit by
08:45a car when crossing the street in Orlando on the 17th May, and pronounced dead at the
08:49scene. The local police say the driver cooperated at the scene, and no charges are expected.
08:54Alba, real name Kylie Rae, was quoted saying, "...words cannot describe how devastated
08:59we all are. She was the most caring, fun-loving person, the life of every party, and the biggest
09:05wee legend we all knew. She was greatly loved and will be deeply missed."
09:10A GoFundMe has been set up to support the family, which you can donate to using the
09:14link in the video description below. There's no easy way to transition from that into our
09:18end card plug, so here goes. You can watch our list of the worst pay-per-view from every
09:22year of the 2010s by clicking the video on the left.
Comments