00:00A secret Bloodline debut at Summerslam, ex-WWE star's shoot on Triple H's creative, an
00:06update on AEW's TV rights negotiations and more. I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk
00:11News.
00:12Right, so we're all agreed that I won, right? We're all in agreement that I won the math
00:20greater than pipe bomb war. I won the YouTube poll, I won the Patreon poll, I was screwed
00:26in the WWE 2K24 tournament due to a crooked referee, and then I won again at gripe bombs.
00:32So that's it. We're all done. No more chat about Steiner math. So I've seen the
00:37comments and I agree, it's time to move on.
00:40So what's the first story for today?
00:44Jordan Grace has posted a photo of herself with Scott Steiner asking what her chances
00:47of bumping into him at an airport are.
00:51God damn it Big Mama Pump.
00:52No, I'm not rising to the bait. I'm not going to do it. It's not worth the comments.
00:56The chances of me doing this bid are 33 and a third percent chance of winning at Sacrifice
01:01Day.
01:02God damn it.
01:03This coming Saturday sees WWE Summerslam, which we'll be doing live reactions for
01:06here on WrestleTalk from Shoreditch in partnership with Hooked on Wrestling, and is likely going
01:11to be headlined by Cody Rose defending his WWE Championship against Solo Sokoa.
01:15There is plenty of speculation that this is where we could see the return of Jimmy Uso,
01:20Paul Heyman and even Roman Reigns, but there's also plenty of rumours of more names being
01:25added to Sokoa's growing bloodline stable.
01:28Since WrestleMania, Solo has added Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, Jacob Fatu and Tonga Loa blowing
01:34spot, with reports that Hikaleo, the brother of Gorillaz of Destiny, has also signed with
01:39WWE.
01:40But another name that has been speculated to be joining the ranks of the bloodline is
01:43Zilla Fatu, the son of the late Umaga, who trained at Booker T's Reality of Wrestling.
01:48He told Joey Franchise in May that his ultimate goal is to end up in WWE with the rest of
01:53his family.
01:54And as if to add fuel to this speculation fire, Zilla has posted a photo of himself
01:59on Instagram in Cleveland, a city that is most famous for being the location of the
02:03Howard the Duck movie, but also happens to be the location for this weekend's Summerslam.
02:07However before you get too excited with fist bumps and Zilla Fatu WWE debut confirmed,
02:13he also happens to be booked for GCW's Now and Forever Tonight August 2nd, which
02:18is also in Cleveland.
02:19He's also booked for GCW's Can I Trust You, which takes place the day after Summerslam
02:24in New Jersey.
02:25The bloodline has been one of WWE's hottest stories in years, in arguably the hottest
02:30period of time creatively the company has had since the year 2000.
02:34But not everyone would agree with that sentiment, and we'll get into that in a moment, but
02:39first, it's time to thank this episode's sponsor… you!
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02:43Well, here's Oli Davis to explain.
02:46Hi there, I'm Oli Davis.
02:48You probably know me already because I've been on WrestleTalk for the last 7 years.
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03:16Unfortunately though, YouTube ain't what it used to be.
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03:31At the same time, our costs have massively increased due to inflation, and all the essential
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03:39Like Dan, the admin man, our production coordinator Ben, our production assistant Courtney and
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05:11We've grown so much over the years, and it's thanks to this amazing community.
05:15So in chronological order of all the people you've made it possible to work here, I've
05:20been Oli Davis, I've been Luke Owen, I've been Laurie Blake, I've been Pete Quinnell,
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05:42Manager Alex, I've been Dan the Admin Man, I've been Production Assistant Courtney, and
05:46I've been News Editor Wes.
05:54Twitter account WrestleFeatures put up a post yesterday asking fans to give their opinion
05:58on who's booking has been worse since Triple H took over creative.
06:01A lot of names came up, most commonly Bianca Belair, Bobby Lashley who is likely leaving
06:06WWE when his contract ends, Austin Theory and The Street Prophet, but one of the names
06:10stood out more than the others, because former WWE star Dana Brooke replied with, Dana Brooke.
06:16Ash by Elegant, as she now wrestles as, currently works with TNA and has appeared on NXT as
06:21part of their partnership.
06:22She was released from WWE in September 2023, but even before that was vocal about Triple
06:27H literally binning off the 24-7 championship after she was booked to lose it against Nikki
06:32Cross who then tried to drop it in the trash and missed, and she is not alone in her complaints
06:38of her booking under the new regime.
06:41Speaking with Aleister George for Metro here in the UK, former WWE star Elias, who now
06:45wrestles as Elijah, has said that he grew to be frustrated with the company over the
06:50six months leading to his release in September 2023.
06:53He said that he felt he was relegated to backstage segments, and added, it was so frustrating
06:58that I was like, you know what, maybe I'm done with wrestling.
07:01Maybe I'm just, you know, I'm just over it.
07:04He told George that his creative frustrations beat that fun thing you have as a kid when
07:08you want to wrestle and you want to be in WWE.
07:11And someone like me, I didn't just want to sit by and collect the paycheck, I wanted
07:15to be in the mix.
07:16Elijah recently claimed in an interview that one of his pitches, the Monday Night Messiah,
07:20was given to Seth Rollins instead.
07:22What do you make of Dana Brooke and Elias' comments?
07:24Do you think their booking got worse under Triple H?
07:27Let me know in the comments down below.
07:29WWE also had a lot of big news towards the end of last year and the start of this year
07:33when it comes to their TV rights fees, with Smackdown moving to USA, NXT moving to CW
07:38and Raw moving to Netflix, all with big revenue increases.
07:41It means that there has been a hyper-focus on AEW and their relationship with Warner
07:46Brothers Discovery.
07:47AEW has been on Warner Networks since 2019, and their deal expires this year.
07:52While reports suggest that the two sides will come to terms on an extension, nothing official
07:56has been announced yet.
07:58And Fightful Select are now reporting that sources from WBD are telling them that the
08:02exclusivity negotiation period between the two parties is now over.
08:06Which means that if they wanted, AEW could negotiate with another network.
08:10Shaw Ross Sapp writes in his report,
08:12We have not learned if a new deal has been reached between the two sides, but that conversation
08:16was ongoing over the weekend.
08:18He also adds that the two parties are talking weekly about synergy, cross-promotion and
08:23upcoming plans.
08:24AEW's Tony Khan and WBD's David Zaslav are set to meet this weekend in Paris, which
08:28is the home of the Olympics.
08:30The Olympics also reportedly heard AEW Dynamite's ratings this week, pulling in just 609,000
08:36viewers.
08:37That's about 20% down compared to last week, but it seems that all TV shows are down about
08:4120% due to the Olympics coverage.
08:43Both Raw and Smackdown were also down 20% this week.
08:46And speaking of the Olympics.
08:48The 2024 Olympics are in full swing currently, and I know this because Laurie Blake, Dave
08:52Bradshaw and Dan Layton keep watching it in the office, so I'm sort of hearing about
08:56it through osmosis.
08:57And now one of its controversies has crossed over into WWE.
09:01United States Champion Logan Paul, who is set to defend his title in his home state
09:05of Ohio this weekend at Summerslam, has called female Algerian boxer Iman Khalif a man after
09:11she beat Italy's Angela Carini, where Carini forfeited after just 46 seconds because she
09:16could not take the pain of Khalif's punches.
09:18Khalif had been disqualified at the previous year's IBA World Championships due to failing
09:22a gender eligibility test, but that decision was later criticised for being done without
09:27due process.
09:28The International Olympic Committee had cleared her to compete at the Paris 2024 Games.
09:32She also competed at the 2020 Olympic Games.
09:35In response to online criticism of his first post, Paul defended his position, referencing
09:39the IBA's gender test result, and tweeting that although some sources say Iman Khalif
09:44was born a biological woman, I stand by my sentiment.
09:48With Logan Paul being a focal point of Summerslam, with his energy drink Prime being a match
09:52sponsor, WWE likely didn't want his name to trend on Twitter in the way it did.
09:57Which might be why they reportedly reached out to him.
10:00According to Eboo of WrestlePurist, WWE's PR team contacted Logan Paul and he started
10:04kicking and screaming.
10:06I reached out to Eboo for some clarifications and was told that Paul did not want to back
10:10down from his views.
10:11And while it cannot be confirmed that WWE asked him to delete the original tweet, he
10:15has deleted it.
10:17Logan Paul responded to Eboo's tweet saying that this was all a lie.
10:20Eboo offered to discuss the situation with Logan Paul for further clarification, but
10:24Paul has not responded at the time of writing.
10:26And to end off this news, Mark Henry's son Jacob announced at the Remix Rumble that
10:30he has signed with WWE.
10:32The 18-year-old is currently committed to the University of Oklahoma's wrestling team,
10:35and his father recently finished up with All Elite Wrestling.
10:38Now go and get ready for this weekend by watching some terrible wrestling along with us.
10:43Myself Tempest and Sullivan watch Ken The Box vs. Mecha Mummy in the latest episode
10:48of Worst Match Ever.
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