00:00AEW Championships have been vacated, WWE sign a top 3 agent that AEW were interested in,
00:07an AEW debut leaked and my review of AEW Dynamite. I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk
00:12News.
00:17Before we get into our first story, this will contain spoilers for this Saturday's collision,
00:20so if you want to skip it, click ahead to the timestamp on screen or in the chapter
00:25in the video description.
00:39During the tapings of this Saturday's collision, the Gang Bang Gang beat three enhancement
00:43talents but were then stripped of their unified trios titles by Christopher Daniels as the
00:47group tried to enact the free bird rule while Jey White is out selling the injuries from
00:51The Angle last week. Daniels announced that new champions will be crowned in a match between
00:55The Bang Bang Gang and The Patriarchy at a later date.
00:58Just seven days after her Forbidden Door match with Mercedes Monet, it was reported by Record
01:02Mexico that both AEW and WWE had interest in signing Stephanie Vakur full time once
01:08her deal with CMLL was done.
01:10Well, it didn't take long for that deal to be done, as CMLL and New Japan announced
01:14one day later in a joint statement that Stephanie Vakur was leaving their promotions, vacating
01:19her belt and dropping out of her scheduled match to Fantastica Mania USA on July 13th.
01:24Vakur would then confirm the news via her own statement on social media.
01:27But little did we know at that point, Vakur had reportedly already paid WWE a visit.
01:33As reported by Fightful Select's Sean Ross Sapp, Sourced had claimed that Vakur was spotted
01:37at NXT Heatwave in Toronto with the belief that she was WWE bound.
01:42In AEW, many were already resigned to the fact that they had missed out. Fightful Select
01:46report that despite AEW holding talks with Vakur, sources in the company thought it
01:51was likely that she was going to sign with WWE, with the company registering interest
01:55in her following her bout at Forbidden Door.
01:58Then just a few hours later, it was confirmed. First by Record Mexico, then PWInsider, then
02:03finally by Shawn Michaels himself who posted on Twitter to welcome Vakur aboard NXT.
02:09Keeping in line with the breakneck pace of this story, shortly after her WWE signing,
02:13Dave Meltzer would then report that the belief in WWE is that Vakur will be first unveiled
02:17at a live event in Mexico City on July 13th, with another event in Monterey the following
02:22night. From there she will head to NXT rather than the main roster.
02:26Corey Brennan of Fightful noted on Twitter,
02:27Stephanie Vakur will begin in NXT for the same reason as Julia. She has wrestled for
02:32most of her career in one country and has not experienced the WWE and American way of
02:36life. It's nothing to do with their in-ring work.
02:39Now that she has signed with WWE, Rev Pro here in the UK have announced that she's
02:43been pulled from her scheduled matches with the promotion, one of which was set to be
02:46against Danny Luna at the Copper Box on All In weekend. This news comes just after the
02:50report that the Motor City Machine Guns might be heading to WWE when everyone thought they
02:55were AEW bound.
02:56But WWE aren't the only ones set to debut a star from a Mexican promotion, as we may
03:01now know the identity of the mysterious Masked Man who got a vignette on last week's Collision.
03:06According to Bodyslam.net, the identity of the mystery man is former AAA star Aramis.
03:11According to their report, Aramis will debut under a new name, Hologram, and is reportedly
03:15set to be given a hacker-type gimmick. LuchaBlog would second Bodyslam's report, as well
03:19as confirm that, no, it in fact was not Ricochet under the mask despite fans telling them otherwise.
03:25And before we get into the AEW Dynamite review, yesterday saw the launch of our new debate
03:29show Gripe Bombs over on PartsFUNknown, where Oli and I went head-to-head in direct competition
03:35to determine which was better, Pipe Bomb or Maths. And here's what happened.
04:06Punk was telling a promo, on the biggest stage of all, to a partisan audience. Scott Steiner
04:11did this promo that was picked up later, transcended its own origins to become one of the touchstones
04:20of wrestling fandom. In a way that the Pipe Bomb probably isn't. Like, the Pipe Bomb,
04:24CM Punk's whole mix is. CM Punk might be a cultural touchstone. But this is the defining
04:29thing, like you said, for Scott Steiner. Most people don't think about what else Scott
04:34Steiner is up to, but they think Steiner Math. So my pick for the best promo is Maths.
04:53Finally we can put it to rest. I won the YouTube poll, I won the Patreon poll, I would have
04:58won the 2K24 tournament but I got screwed via a fast count, and now I've won the debate.
05:05Math is greater than Pipe Bomb. Go watch the rest of the show by clicking the link in the
05:09video description or the card above my head, where Oli, Laurie and I debate topics such
05:13as best member of The Shield, best match of 2024 so far, and who will be the breakout
05:18star of The White 6.
05:20But it's Thursday and you know what that means, it's time for my review of AEW Dynamite
05:25aka the Why Mariah Why edition of AEW Dynamite... in about 5 minutes.
05:30After a recap of MJ's turn from last week and his epic promo from Collision, Will Ospreay
05:35open this week's show to run down Max? He said that Daniel Garcia is unsure if he'll
05:40ever wrestle again, which is wrestling speak for return pop coming soon, and said that
05:45the bidding war of 2024 gimmick didn't get over for MJF because Tony Khan decided to
05:50invest in guys like Ospreay instead. He claimed that he's got more talent in his left nut
05:55than MJF does in his whole body, and that he, Will Ospreay, represents what people like
06:00and want about AEW. He called out MJF who appeared on the big screen and challenged
06:04Will to an International Championship match for next week's 250th edition of Dynamite,
06:11which Will accepted.
06:13Wrestling's most handsome man Andrew Zarian had previously reported that AEW had a huge
06:17match planned for an upcoming Dynamite, saying that it would be PPV worthy. And it looks
06:22like this is the match he was talking about. A huge match that many expected to be at All
06:26In, and that uncertainty about all of our fantasy bookings bled over into the first
06:32match of the evening.
06:33Bryan Danielson has told us that his final full year in-ring would be epic, but he stumbled
06:39at all the opportunities he had. And as such, he does not want to lose the Owen Hart Tournament
06:44as well, because what a way to end his career by main eventing All In for the World Heavyweight
06:49Championship. And on the other side of him is Hangman Adam Page, a man who is hellbent
06:55and determined to make sure that Swerve Strickland is no longer the AEW World Champion.
07:01It made the finals of this tournament feel very unpredictable, because both men were
07:05equally perfect winners. Jeff Jarrett served as the special guest enforcer for the match
07:09to ensure there were no shenanigans, because Jeff Jarrett would never be involved in any
07:13shenanigans and his involvement paid off early when he looked at the heel entrance for Hangman
07:17Adam Page, only for Hanger to walk out of the babyface tunnel. A great bit of subtle
07:22character work. He doesn't think he's a heel, it's all of us that thinks he's
07:27a heel. They then had what could best be described as, a proper well good wrestling match. Proper
07:33wrestling this was. Nigel, who filled in for commentary because Jericho had barred Taz
07:37from the building again, was a great audio foil for Bryan's hopes which elevated the
07:41match further. He also made a Steiner math joke because he clearly watched Gripe Bombs
07:45yesterday. This went through two ad breaks and was just absolutely fabulous. The final
07:50few minutes in particular really amped up the drama. Bryan hitting the Busaiko knee
07:54out of nowhere, the Piledriver on the floor, Bryan being hit into the turnbuckle, the referee
07:58getting bumped, it was utterly compelling stuff. After the referee got bumped, Jarrett
08:03revealed he was wearing a referee shirt, which led to a series of amazing nearfalls. Page
08:09hit the dead eye for another nearfall, locked in the crossface and it looked like Danielson
08:12had passed out, but his arm did not drop and he reversed it into a pinfall and won
08:17the match, won the tournament and won the chance to face Swerve Strickland for the AEW
08:23World Championship at All In. Look, I thought it was going to be Hangman. I kind of wanted
08:28it to be Hangman. But damn if I did not punch the air when Danielson won. It was so dramatic
08:35and it's going to lead to a very dramatic main event at Wembley and I cannot wait. Swerve
08:42came out for a promo to confirm the match and also announced himself for Blood & Guts
08:45on Team AEW, looking to do two things that Danielson couldn't do. He's already beaten
08:50Ospreay and now he's going to lead Team AEW to victory. And he also set up a match
08:55with Kazuchika Okada for next week's 250th episode. A bonkers first hour to the show
09:00this was. The Acclaimed did a rap about the Bucks, I don't care, and Samoa Joe took
09:04on Chris Jericho in a Stampede Street Fight. Senor Joe won jeans because he understood
09:08the assignment, and Jericho continued his trend of fun Attitude Era style brawls as
09:13they ended up backstage and the rest of the Learning Tree beat up Joe. Big Bill chokeslammed
09:17Joe onto a pallet and a forklift, and Jericho drove that forklift through a wall. It was
09:22awesome and very reminiscent of that hardcore triple threat at WrestleMania X-7, aka the
09:27best WrestleMania match of all time. Look, I don't like this Jericho thing either,
09:31but sometimes it works. Claudio Castagnoli, Pac, Kyle Fletcher and Tomohiro Ishii had
09:36around 11 minutes for their Fatal 4-Way match to determine a new number one contender to
09:40either Ospreay or MJF for the International Championship. So they did what they needed
09:45to do. ALL OF THE MOVES. This was a pure sprint and a brilliant one at that. Pac got the win
09:51when he hit the Black Arrow and Brutalizer on Fletcher, he said he will be at All In.
09:55Hangman Page blew off Renee Pickett as she tried to interview him, and told the Elite
09:59that he will be on their team for blood and guts, only so he can get his hands on Swerve
10:04Strickland. Mercedes MonĂĄe tried for a third time to celebrate that she is a double champion,
10:09and was once again cut off by Britt Baker who awesomely beat up the extra security and
10:14left MonĂĄe running scared. This Mercedes MonĂĄe is so much better than the one we had
10:18when she first debuted, and she sold all of this brilliantly.
10:22Brandon Cutler was attacked backstage by a returning Darby Allin who challenged Jack
10:25Perry to a match next week, and the main event was the finals of the Women's Owen Hart
10:29Tournament between Mariah May and last year's winner Willow Nightingale.
10:33Toni Storm cheered on from ringside, this was her idea after all, and she watched as
10:37May mounted her comeback against the stronger Nightingale. She countered the pounce with
10:41her headbutt of all things, Stokely Hathaway and Chris Statlander interfered for some great
10:45nearfalls and May rolled up a powerbomb attempt for the win. A very good main event, but it's
10:51the post-match that everyone will remember.
10:54May and Storm celebrated and danced up the ramp together, and May took the Owen Hart
10:58Cup belt and clocked Storm right in the face. She battered her with it, kicked Luthor in
11:04the nut and sent him off the stage to throw a table, busted Storm open some more, attacked
11:09her with a shoe and kissed her bloody face. It's a chance of you sick.
11:14Two weeks and two epic heel turns, both of which were executed perfectly. You can make
11:20the argument that doing both in a fortnight is overkill, and I think to a degree I agree
11:25with that. But this was also so unexpected that it did not cross my mind until after
11:30the fact. May's turn was always going to come, that's what this story has been building
11:34to for the last nine months, but I didn't think it would be here. This is one of the
11:38best heel turn angles that AEW have ever done, and a brilliant next chapter in this long
11:43running story. The stakes for their title match are all in have grown, and AEW's hot
11:47streak continues. Now go and watch Gripe Bombs in full by clicking the video on screen.
Comments