00:00WWE stars upset over the breakup of the Judgment Day, a new AEW TV show, Vince McMahon denied
00:07in the Janelle Grant lawsuit and more. I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:17Last Saturday's SummerSlam saw a hell of a lot of things go down, four title changes
00:21and the return of Roman Reigns to say the least, but also the implosion of the Judgment
00:26which saw Dominik Mysterio choose Liv Morgan over Rhea Ripley and Finn Balor screw Damian
00:30Priest out of the World Heavyweight Championship. And according to Dave Shoemaker on The Ringer,
00:35the breakup of the team brought about some real feels in the locker room. He said on
00:39their SummerSlam review, there were some legitimate tears going on backstage, not because of anybody
00:44stealing someone else's boyfriend, but because this family is done. Shoemaker doesn't say
00:50which member of the group was crying, but my money is on R-Truth. While all of the members
00:54of the group both old and new will still be on Raw, it means that they can no longer
00:58travel together, and Shoemaker explained this is what brought the tears to the surface.
01:03And the hype from SummerSlam coupled with a particularly hot streak for WWE saw huge
01:08success for Raw in the ratings this week. The show drew an impressive 1.7 million viewers
01:14for this week's show, a good number on any week, but a very good number considering that
01:18Raw was moved to a different network which usually hurts TV ratings, and it was competing
01:23against Olympics coverage. As we saw last week, Raw, Smackdown and AEW were all hurt
01:28by the Olympics coverage, all losing around 20% of their audience. So Raw pulling back
01:33that 20% it lost last week means, as Dave Meltzer writes for Figure Four Online, this
01:37show would likely have topped 2 million viewers on USA and without Olympic competition.
01:43And it wasn't just on TV that Raw was drawing good numbers. The YouTube clips for this week's
01:47show have been massive, with Finn Balor and Liv Morgan revealing the New Judgment Day,
01:52the Damien Priest match with J.D. McDonough and the Terra Twins interview all doing over
01:561 million views each. CM Punk and Seth Rollins' segment also drew nearly 1 million views at
02:00the time of this writing, and the White 6 debut match is pushing 900,000 views.
02:05But over on the socials, the big draw has been the surprise debut of Odyssey Jones.
02:11Jones was drafted to Raw in last year's draft, and then never made it onto TV. He
02:16last had a TV match in NXT in April of last year, and has not wrestled for WWE since
02:21March of this year where he was losing to Omos on house shows. He was then, hilariously,
02:27drafted to Raw again in the 2024 draft, despite there being, apparently, no creative plans
02:32for him.
02:33And it would appear this lack of TV time has turned Odyssey Jones somewhat into a meme,
02:37and that has helped his social media numbers. Across the various social media platforms,
02:41Jones' debut and joining New Day has pushed into millions of views. According to PWInsider,
02:48WWE were thrilled with this social media response. But before we get into the rest
03:48of the show, here are a few highlights from last month's show.
04:07Great Bombs makes its return to partsFUNknown today, you all seemed to enjoy our debate
04:11show we did last month where we debated who was the best member of the Shield, and today
04:15Myself, Oli Davis and Dan Layton will be debating topics like best and worst Summerslams and
04:20the best WWE returns. Head over to partsFUNknown right now or click the video in the description
04:24to watch us debate live.
04:26While WWE are having great success with their TV shows and their increased rights fees with
04:31their new TV deals, we're still waiting on an announcement from All Elite Wrestling
04:35about their television future. Tony Khan tweeted that he had a great meeting with Warner Bros.
04:39Discovery's David Zaslov at the Olympics and noted that it was an exciting time and
04:43the future was bright for the company. And perhaps that could be because, reportedly,
04:47the relationship between AEW and WBD is really strong, and the two groups have been meeting
04:52a lot about crossovers. And one of those crossovers was announced yesterday. TNT announced a new
04:58show Overdrive which will see clips of car crashes, chases and extreme sports, so think
05:03of it like this. The key to us here on this wrestling news program is that Overdrive will
05:17feature AEW stars, who will give, what TNT describes on their website as, exclusive stories.
05:23The show will air immediately after Collision.
05:25AEW will also find themselves going head to head with NXT again this coming October when
05:29Dynamite is moved to Tuesday night for one week. As we've seen in the past when NXT
05:34and AEW run head to head in direct competition, both companies load up their shows. NXT even
05:40had Undertaker, John Cena and Cody Rhodes appear on an episode of NXT to best AEW in
05:45the ratings. But remember, there will be some comments in this video that will tell you
05:49that WWE do not see All Elite Wrestling as competition.
05:52And yesterday NXT announced that the October 8th show, which will go head to head with
05:55Dynamite, will see Randy Orton make a special appearance. However this time it's not directly
06:01related to AEW Dynamite being moved to Tuesday. That October 8th episode will be the second
06:07NXT to air on their new home of The CW, and Shawn Michaels announced that the first two
06:11episodes of NXT on CW will be on the road. The first episode taking place at the All
06:17State Arena in Chicago, and the second airing live from St. Louis, which is Orton's hometown.
06:22And as one would expect with a wrestling show in Chicago, CM Punk has been announced
06:26to appear on the CW debut of NXT. And they won't be alone, as Corey Brennan of Fightful
06:31Select reports that those we spoke to expect the both the October 1st and 8th live NXTs
06:36to feature more main roster talent than just Randy Orton and CM Punk.
06:40NXT running two big buildings is a huge move for the brand, but Dave Meltzer has written
06:45in the Figure 4 Subscriber Update that this does not mean it will become a major arena
06:50show every week. The report says that NXT will continue to be taped from Orlando unless
06:55they decide a show is big enough to run in a bigger building. The ticket sales and demand
07:00for these two live shows in Chicago and St. Louis will play a big factor into future NXT
07:05touring plans. Fightful Select add in their report, there was a general sense of excitement
07:09for NXT returning to the road, but it is unknown as of this writing if it will be a permanent
07:15change.
07:16Speaking of NXT, last night saw I Believe in Joe Hendry defeat Joe Coffey in his first
07:20singles match in WWE. Hendry is of course a TNA wrestler, and this is part of the NXTNA
07:26crossover. Reports have said that WWE have been very impressed with how over Hendry has
07:30gotten and, particularly, his social media numbers and ability to go viral. Hendry himself
07:35revealed that WWE and TNA have come to an unprecedented deal where Hendry can appear
07:40on both shows and have access to WWE's Performance Center. However Corey Brennan reported on
07:45Fightful Select ahead of last night's NXT, Joe Hendry is set for a promo tonight and
07:50is expected to be a goodbye promo. Brennan noted that the promo segment was not rehearsed
07:55and they hadn't heard any concrete details that he was done with his time in NXT. And
07:59it would appear that this was somewhat of a swerve, as Hendry said after his match last
08:03night, I like it here and I might just stay for a little longer. Fightful Select add in
08:08their report that Hendry recently scaled back his work with his own promotion, Discovery
08:12Wrestling.
08:13We'll end off today's WrestleTalk News with the latest on the ongoing lawsuit filed
08:17by Janelle Grant against Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis and WWE. Grant filed the lawsuit
08:21earlier this year which accuses McMahon of sexual misconduct and trafficking. The lawsuit
08:26was paused by Judge Jeffrey A. Mayer per a request from the Department of Justice, who
08:30are conducting a federal investigation into Vince McMahon. The case will not be resumed
08:34until around this October. Last month, Grant filed a petition to obtain the medical records
08:38related to her treatment by Dr. Karlyn Kolker from Peak Wellness, which she alleges were
08:44by Vince McMahon. Vince's lawyers filed this petition and violated the pause on the
08:48case, arguing that it was a one-sided discovery for her own benefit. McMahon's lawyers argue
08:53that Grant should be prevented from gaining the medical records and she should be subject
08:57to contempt and financial sanctions. However the argument from Grant's lawyers was that
09:01this petition was filed in a state court and Dr. Kolker nor Peak Wellness are named in
09:07the lawsuit, and Judge Mayer has agreed with Grant's lawyers. The court does not interpret
09:11its entry of the state order to apply to state court proceedings that are outside the
09:15scope of discovery prescribed by the federal rules of civil procedure governing the conduct
09:19of discovery in federal court litigation. The court denies Defendant McMahon's motion
09:24to enforce the court's state order for failure to show that there has been a violation of
09:29the court's state order. It is so ordered.
09:32Now to lighten the mood, why not check out the latest episode of Worst Match Ever over
09:36on partsFUNknown where we take in the delight of Ken The Box vs. Mecha Mummy. Wrestling
09:41is dumb and I love it.
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