00:00An ex-AEW star shoots on Britt Baker, AEW's ticket struggle, the truth behind a WWE change
00:07and my review of AEW Dynamite.
00:11I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:20Britt Baker, the first breakout women's wrestler in AEW, hasn't had the smoothest
00:24return from injury.
00:25After being out for over nine months, she came back at June's Forbidden Door pay-per-view
00:30setting up a match for Mercedes Monet's TBS title at AEW's biggest show of the year,
00:35All In, and got legitimately suspended several weeks later for a reported backstage altercation
00:40with MJF and his girlfriend Alicia Attounds.
00:43While MJF has said the situation was massively overblown in the wrestling news media, the
00:48fact remains AEW's disciplinary panel saw it fit to suspend Baker for a week.
00:54On Sunday's All In show, Baker and Monet's match was the weakest on the card.
00:59A lot of this was due to the placement, coming four hours into the wrestling and after the
01:03crowd had tied themselves out with the MJF-Osprey match and the Casino Gauntlet.
01:08But former AEW star Mark Henry, whose contract with them expired back in May, has blamed
01:12the match on Baker during an appearance on Busted Open Radio.
01:16I'm used to seeing Mercedes work a certain way, and she didn't work like that, and
01:21I don't think that was because of her.
01:23Also, there were times they did a couple of things over again because it didn't get
01:27done right the first time, and a lot of that was the fact that the position Britt was in
01:31was wrong.
01:32Henry also accused Baker of sandbagging, where you block an opponent's move by deadweighting
01:36them when you're not meant to during the backbreaker off the rope spot.
01:40Baker had previously accused Thunder Rosa of sandbagging her.
01:43It would take for both people to be on the same page and work together for the greater
01:47good of the match, not the greater good of the individual.
01:50I don't want this person to shine over me.
01:52I don't want them to look good at my expense.
01:54I'm a pillar.
01:55That's a work.
01:57You're just the first woman hired.
01:59Get your ass out there and work for the person like your life depended on it.
02:03In her newsletter, Mercedes declined to criticise Baker, but did admit to not being happy with
02:07the match, acknowledging the mixed reactions and how she sensed some audience fatigue due
02:12to the placement on the card.
02:14She noted how she would've done a lot of things differently, though, and that she should've
02:17listened to her instincts.
02:19Following the huge success of selling 50,000 tickets for England's All In, though, AEW
02:25has come crashing down to the reality of domestic ticket sales.
02:29WrestleTix is reporting that before the show, last night's episode of Dynamite was set
02:33to host fewer than 2,000 fans in Illinois' State Farm Center that can hold 16,500 people.
02:41They add that next week's Dynamite only has 3,000 tickets sold, and next Friday's
02:45collision has shifted under 2,000 tickets.
02:48So far, just over 6,000 tickets have been distributed for September 7th's All Out
02:53pay-per-view, which is only 10 days away, a 30% drop on the 9,000 plus figures sold
02:59in 2022 and 2023.
03:01WWE have now confirmed their commentary teams will be changing from September, with Michael
03:06Cole and Corey Graves hosting SmackDown from its debut on the USA Network on the 13th,
03:11and Wade Barrett being joined by new play-by-play lead Joe Tessitore on Raw from the 2nd.
03:16This means Corey, who moved into the lead commentator role on SmackDown back in February,
03:21is being moved back to a colour commentary position.
03:24PWTorch is reporting this isn't anything to do with Corey's performance, but that
03:28WWE's new head of production Lee Fitting is a longtime friend and big proponent of
03:33Tessitore, and has been working to get him hired for play-by-play since he joined the
03:37company at the start of this year.
03:39Now here's a message from everyone's favourite 80s wrestler, Turbo Jack…
04:07Thank you, The Magic Man, Barry Blayne, The Boarding Brommie, Brad Linforth, Big Jiggy,
04:18Josh Martin, The Pin, A Girl of Success, Luke Kelly, Abominable, Wakuwaka, King of the Conquest,
04:25Stephen Bollnax, The Machine Gun, Alex Anderson, The Roller Coaster, Robert Acosta, and Hitman
04:36Now it's time for my review of AEW Dynamite… in about 5 minutes.
04:47The show started with a bang, because as soon as Excalibur was done running down the card,
04:51we got the surprise return of PAC.
04:54I'm really confused about who's in the Blackpool Combat Club right now.
04:57Jon Moxley entered through the crowd and spoke to Tony Schiavone in the ring where… he
05:02was weird.
05:03He said he's been doing a lot of thinking in the last two months since we last saw him,
05:07called out Darby Allin, and then told Schiavone that this isn't his company anymore.
05:13Wrong Tony, Jon.
05:14Also Shane McMahon buying AEW storyline confirmed.
05:18Later on, Marina Shafir beat up a few production hands backstage for Moxley, putting them together
05:22as an act.
05:23This was all very strange.
05:24Our first match, though, saw Hangman Page and Tomohiro Ishii do what they do best.
05:29Beat the ever-loving piss out of people.
05:31This was almost like a non-stop forearm strike exchange, the only respite being both men
05:35getting dropped on their necks.
05:37Like B-Boy Ishii busting out his new breakdance move on the apron off a DBT, and Page landing
05:42horribly on his shoulder off an Ishii Deadeye.
05:45Hangman hit a Deadeye of his own, though, followed up by a Buckshot to win.
05:49But we've only got ten days until the next pay-per-view, so we better get these angles
05:52going.
05:53After Hangman's distraction in the All In main event, Swerve Strickland came down to
05:57get in his face, where he said he felt sorry for Page, that his obsession with Strickland
06:01is costing him everything, and Swerve's now obligatory reference to your opponent's
06:05wife and child.
06:06Hangman screamed at him for breaking into his home, fair, and that Swerve had needed
06:10help to beat him every time.
06:12He's never beaten Hangman clean.
06:15So Strickland offered a stipulation that always definitively stops interference.
06:19A steel cage match at All Out.
06:22Rather than a bloody brawl like they usually do, Hangman just stormed off instead.
06:27Jamie Hayter then squashed Harley Cameron in her return match, all while staring a hole
06:30in Sarea.
06:31She looked great.
06:32MJF came down now just in a grey suit and black shirt and scarf, the monochromatic opposite
06:36of the over-the-top colours of his Mr America gimmick, but it was the strips of physiotape
06:41just visibly above the scarf around his neck that were most telling.
06:44He has been seriously injured by Will Ospreay's Tiger Driver finish.
06:48Max renounced his American citizenship because they didn't help him, and he says Will cheated
06:53by having Daniel Garcia interfere.
06:56Which prompted a surprise attack from PAC.
06:59I mean Jon Moxley.
07:01I mean Daniel Garcia.
07:03Garcia is no moral babyface, though.
07:05He went for a Piledriver off the second rope to fully break Max's injured neck.
07:09Security stopped him just in time.
07:11It was announced they'll fight at All Out, and Garcia invented a new kind of mic drop,
07:15the Mic Throw, where he logged it up the ramp from the ring, hitting Max in the shoulder.
07:19With Max's neck injury, this is perfectly built for Garcia to get a huge win over him.
07:24I might not have gone on my six-man fun this week, but I'll settle for 8-man mania instead,
07:29especially when Tony Khan told me to trust him that it's gonna rock.
07:33And when has Tony ever abused my trust by overpromising before?
07:58It saw Hook and the conglomeration take on Roderick Strong and the Learning Tree.
08:02Just when I thought Hook was out of the Jericho Vortex, they pulled him back in.
08:07Big Bill got a hot tag on the heel side, but the crowd was pretty bad all night and didn't
08:10really react.
08:11And then the finish was Hook making Strong tap in the red rum, but Strong's tiny boot
08:16was clearly on the ropes.
08:17The Undisputed Kingdom then beat up Hook after, seemingly setting up a feud for that joke
08:21of an FTW belt.
08:23This finish was bad.
08:24Sadie's Monet presumably dusted off a backstage segment idea from 2019 WWE, where she had
08:30an awkward, lifeless title celebration where there was no music or background chatter.
08:34Private Party tried to hit on her, so Okada taught her how to say bye bitch in Japanese.
08:38You know how it's the job of the agents to make sure wrestlers aren't using the
08:42same important spots on the same card?
08:44The next segment was also a women's title celebration.
08:47Rai Mei told Tony Schiavone, however, that her one will be postponed because your local
08:51town sucks.
08:52It built to her revealing her revealing outfit underneath her robe while wearing the women's
08:57belt.
08:58Then there was a backstage clip from All In, where the Grizzled Young Veterans told the
09:01Young Bucks they're coming for the tag titles.
09:04And then there was a second promo, filmed today, that sounded exactly the same, setting
09:08up their match against the Outrunners on Rampage, meaning, James Drake said, grits your teeth
09:13twice in about 30 seconds.
09:15There was a recap package of Tekesha in the G1, he'll be returning on Rampage too.
09:19Then Ricochet got his Dynamite debut, taking on Carl Fletcher.
09:23Ricochet hit some fun spots, like a springboard off the barricade into a roll-through Suck
09:27It taunt at the camera.
09:28But I must admit, I was more into Fletcher here.
09:31Ricochet won with his old finisher, the Vertigo.
09:33I thought the post-match angle, however, was awesome.
09:36Will Ospreay walked out onto the stage, teasing the two wrestlers who made each other's
09:40names interacting.
09:41But PAC hit a Poison Rana from outta nowhere on Ospreay and started screaming don't forget
09:46about the bastard as they've got a match at All Out and that Ricochet can get to the
09:51back of the line.
09:52And the final segment saw Bryan Danielson address his future after winning the world
09:56title and not retiring.
09:58He called all in his career favourite moment, even choking up a bit, but acknowledged he
10:02needs neck surgery soon and he's got to go home.
10:06But not yet!
10:08Screw you, Birdie.
10:09He'll be a fighting champion.
10:11But when he loses the title, his full-time career will be over, setting up a super dramatic
10:17every match is a retirement match run.
10:19He issued an open challenge for All Out, which was answered by the TNT Champion Jack Perry
10:24on the Tron.
10:25But it was all a trap, because that was actually a pre-recorded message for an impromptu open
10:32challenge.
10:33I think Jack Perry might be Batman if he planned for that, as Perry attacked Danielson from
10:38behind.
10:39Pre-recorded video message aside, it all makes sense.
10:41As Perry beat Darby Allin strong on Sunday, Perry will get loads of heat at the pay-per-view
10:46in Chicago.
10:47I imagine Swer vs Hangman will be the main event.
10:49And it is only a ten day build.
10:51However, it's not a match I'm particularly excited by.
10:54This week's episode of Dynamite is 74%.
10:57Now go watch us play Tricky Towers over on our video game channel Control Freaks.
11:01Here's a clip.
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