00:00The reason behind a major wrestling firing revealed, a WWE star fined, backstage concern
00:06over the Bloodline and more.
00:08I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:14Get exclusive videos over on our Patreon.
00:17Luke and I went to some wrestling at the weekend, Sunday's RevPro show in the very hot and
00:21sweaty York Hall.
00:23We watched the insane athleticism of Leon Slater vs Jack Cartwheel, marvelled at the
00:28size difference between Robbie X and Donovan Dijak, and fully decided Luke Jacobs is our
00:33joint favourite wrestler right now when he beat Trevor Lee.
00:36But I'm afraid, in the main event, good old fashioned wrestling fun got very, very
00:42real.
00:43AEW International slash American Champion MJF defended his belt against Michael Oku.
00:48They had a fantastic match, starting out funny with Max doing all of Hulk Hogan's real
00:52American spots, went super dramatic with Oku having the half crab cinched in tight, and
00:57ended in shock after 27 minutes when Jacobs knocked both men out, Max got the win, hit
01:03a Tiger Driver on Oku in the post-match, and was about to do the same to Oku's girlfriend
01:08Amira when Will Ospreay made the surprise save for Michael, his former enemy.
01:15It was all a terrific build to their match at All In in two weeks' time.
01:19If only I could've enjoyed it.
01:22But MJF's stupid entrance got confetti all in my beer.
01:26I tried to pick it out, but as I picked it out, it just dissolved more and more.
01:31My beer.
01:32My dear, dear beer.
01:36Everyone kicked off last year when MJF poured a drink over a kid, and now he's ruined
01:40another beverage.
01:44It's wrestlers taking heel heat too far.
01:49I'm not advocating for MJF to get fired for that, just like how Scott Demure was let
01:54go by TNA earlier this year.
01:56There was a couple of week period near the start of 2024 that was unprecedented in wrestling
02:01history.
02:02Vince McMahon had resigned from the WWE following Janelle Grant's lawsuit, Stardom terminated
02:07the contract of its founder Rossy Agawa because of suspicions over him poaching talent to
02:12start his own new promotion, and Scott Demure, the longtime president of TNA, was fired.
02:19In just several weeks, the heads of three major international wrestling companies have
02:24been removed.
02:25And now Demure has gone into more detail over what went down.
02:29Talking to Busted Open Radio, Scott revealed that he found out on the 11th January, two
02:33days before their Hard to Kill show, where they re-rebranded the promotion back to TNA.
02:39It was a big critical and commercial hit, doing the company's best buy rate since
02:43the Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle record at TNA Genesis 2006.
02:49The CEO of Anthem Sports and Entertainment, Len Asper, Anthem is TNA's parent company,
02:54was the one to call Demure.
02:55The had-been reports that there was a difference in vision between what Demure thought TNA
02:59could achieve, where he reportedly made big money plays for both CM Punk and Will Ospreay
03:04at the end of 2023, and what Anthem wanted, which was dependable, stable programming for
03:09their sports network.
03:11Scott allegedly even tried to buy the promotion, but he has now said,
03:15"...any of the BS that I tried to buy the company and that's what led to me leaving
03:19was not the case.
03:21It boiled down to a difference of opinions on how things should be."
03:25There was no F-you, no F-you.
03:27I spoke with Len Asper since then.
03:29We talked about it the day of the announcement.
03:31I hope there is no hard feelings.
03:33I can't say there are no hard feelings, but there are no personal feelings.
03:37I don't take seven years of great work with people I enjoyed working with and thread
03:41in a dumpster because it took a pivot that I wasn't looking for.
03:44I'm very proud of the work we did there.
03:46Demure is now relaunching Maple Leaf Wrestling.
03:49A difference of opinion led to Demure getting fired.
03:52Meanwhile, Bronson Reed damn near kills a guy and he just gets fined.
03:55In an update over Saturday Morning Coffee, WWE Raw's Christopher Daniels, aka Adam
04:00Pearce, announced that Seth Rollins had suffered cracked ribs and internal bruising following
04:05Reed's awesome Six Tsunami attack on last Monday's episode, and Rollins will be out
04:09of action for an unspecified amount of time.
04:12This is reportedly to cover Seth taking time off, after his injury issues have become chronic.
04:17Rollins had torn his MCL back in January.
04:20As a result, Pearce has fined Reed a massive, yet undisclosed sum, title of your next indie
04:26wrestling show, and Bronson rather brashly replied, worth it, stooge.
04:31So Pearce increased the fine.
04:32Run your mouth more, big boy.
04:34Make it double.
04:35FOUR BAGS OF MONEY EMOJI.
04:38Now it's double massive.
04:40Before Raw, though, we had last Friday's SmackDown, which saw the return of Roman Reigns
04:43to wipe out the bloodlone of Solo, Sakoa, Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa.
04:48Bloodlone.
04:49So-Solo.
04:50Solo's like… one thing in the bloodlone.
04:54But there was one notable bloodline name missing from the show.
05:14Jacob Fatou.
05:15Fatou was selling a leg injury after diving off the top rope onto Cody Rhodes through
05:20the commentary desk at SummerSlam.
05:22He was helped out of the stadium, and he was later spotted wearing a recovery boot.
05:26Cody even made it part of kayfabe during his SmackDown promo, where he said it was the
05:29fault of Solo's leadership that Fatou got hurt.
05:33Now PWInsider is reporting Fatou wasn't even backstage at SmackDown, and it has led
05:38to growing concern that he's dealing with a more significant injury.
05:42Fatou had become the most credible threat within Solo's bloodline faction, and their
05:46feud with Roman, as we saw Reigns easily dispatch all of them on Friday, will suffer without
05:52him.
05:53Which is why, in my personal opinion, it's all a working McWorkface.
05:57Everyone is also reporting that the SummerSlam injury spot for Fatou was planned, so WWE
06:02could tease out the first interaction between Jacob, the new Bloodlines breakout star, and
06:07the original Tribal Chief Roman.
06:09The concern is that the planned spot led to a real injury.
06:12But looking at this from a storyline perspective, you don't want Fatou around for the next
06:16few weeks so Roman can look strong, continuing his babyface momentum, and then you bring
06:21in Jacob for the inevitable clash.
06:24But in another tick in the It's A Shoot, Brother Much Love HH Kiss column, Tonga Loa
06:29raised the WWE Tag Team Championship in the Bloodline segment on Friday's SmackDown,
06:34when it was Tama Tonga and Fatou who had won the belts the previous week.
06:38You're even botching not being champion, Tonga Loa!
06:41This could mean that Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa are the new tag team champions, or WWE
06:46has instigated Freebird rules for the Bloodline tag team champions, where any of them can
06:51defend the belts if Fatou is really injured.
06:53DIY and the Street Profits will face off this Friday to determine their No. 1 contenders,
06:58so we'll see which combination of the Bloodline they'll feud with.
07:01Do you think Fatou's injury is a work?
07:03Let me know in the comments, where I'll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE SAYING
07:07OOOOOOOOH.
07:11Cody Rhodes, meanwhile, has told Sports Illustrated that he's working on his own Bloodline-style
07:15faction with his nephews Wayne and Wyatt Rhodes, who recently became the Rhodes Wrestling Academy's
07:20tag team champions at Dustin's school in Texas.
07:23Long term booking.
07:24Dustin is an interesting wrestler right now, as his AEW contract reportedly expires in
07:29September.
07:30Cody told Sports Illustrated that Dustin isn't done, which would imply to me he needs to
07:35go elsewhere to get that next chapter.
07:37So here's my pitch from our Predicting SummerSlam 2025 Way Too Far In Advance video.
07:43After reuniting at WrestleMania, it's Cody Rhodes and Dustin Rhodes on their quest to
07:57win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships together from other reformed real-life brother act
08:04the Usos.
08:19You can watch that video right after this one by clicking the link in the video description
08:23below.
08:24Jacob Fatou might not be the only very important wrestling star injured right now, though,
08:28as continuing his really weird world title build for All In, where he either says he
08:32doesn't want to win the title, or he's too injured to do anything with it, Bryan
08:36Danielson sat down with JR on Collision to reveal he'll probably need neck surgery
08:41relatively soon and before the end of the year.
08:45Again, this could be a Worky McWork face.
08:47Many outlets are reporting Danielson is indeed banged up, and Danielson himself has said
08:52this will be his last full-time year in wrestling, with the All In stipulation being title vs
08:57career.
08:58AEW is also looking forward to the future with All In, as they look to cement their
09:02own Royal Rumble style match stipulation.
09:05As Sean Ross Sapp has posted, the AEW is planning on loading up the Casino Gauntlet at AEW All
09:12In with interesting names and see it as their signature match in a lot of senses.
09:17AEW have been trying to make Casino happen more than Gretchen Wiener and the word fetch.
09:21We've had Casino Battle Royales, Casino Ladder matches, but it was the Casino Gauntlet
09:26match on the 24th April episode of Dynamite that really caught on.
09:30Wrestlers come out at random intervals, where the winner is the first person to get a pinfall
09:34or submission.
09:35It's kind of a reverse Royal Rumble in that you want to be the first person out to get
09:39the advantage, not a reverse Royal Rumble in the TNA way, which is terrible.
09:43Expect the Casino Gauntlet at All In to have all the biggest roster names without a match
09:47booked for the show.
09:49Which to me looks like PAC and Hangman Page returning ones like Jon Moxley, debuting names
09:54like Ricochet and Bobby Lashley.
09:56And hopefully fun cameos like Grado complete with Madonna's Like a Prayer entrance theme.
10:01But maybe not Daniel Garcia, who was last seen getting written off TV by MJF's heel
10:06turn beatdown.
10:08Garcia's contract is reportedly up in October, and while previous reports have been optimistic
10:12that he'll re-sign, or might've even already re-signed, Fightful Select is now reporting
10:17that he still hasn't agreed a new contract as of last week.
10:22WWE is reportedly interested in Garcia, and AEW reportedly wrote him off TV just in case
10:28he decided to leave.
10:29Now go watch me, Luke and Pete try to predict Summerslam 2025 way too far in advance.
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