00:00An insane WWE deal has been revealed, a lawsuit has been filed against AEW, Adam Page burns
00:07down a house on Dynamite and my full review of the show. I'm Luke Owen and this is the
00:11WrestleTalk News.
00:16Back before they had the nice relationships with the likes of TNA, GCW and NOAH, the old
00:21regime of WWE formed business deals with European promotions like Progress, ICW and WXW as well
00:28as US-based Evolved, procuring their footage to be used on the WWE Network. The deals with
00:33UK-based promotions were part of WWE's expansion into the market for NXT UK, which decimated
00:38the Britwrest scene, a problem that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and speaking out.
00:43A scene that is now back on its feet, with Rev Pro running the Copper Box arena annually.
00:48And that promotion's founder, Andy Quildon, has detailed WWE approaching them to be part
00:53of the WWE Network deal, revealing a little caveat that was inserted into the deal. He
00:58told Figure Four Online,
00:59"...it's a loan deal. I forget how it was termed, like, loan your footage for X
01:03amount of time for the WWE Network and at the end of the term of the contract they had
01:07the option to buy. And it's like, option to buy the footage? No, the whole promotion."
01:13While it is unknown if this caveat was in all of the deals offered, WWE did buy Evolve
01:19in 2020.
01:20When AEW Collision launched, Oli Davis was very excited to learn that Kevin Kelly would
01:24be doing commentary for the show because he was such a big fan of his work. But it was
01:28a relationship that would not last long, as Kevin Kelly was removed from the commentary
01:32desk and replaced with Tony Schiavone and was let go by the company in March of 2024.
01:37He has since spoken out against his treatment by AEW while appearing on Eric Bischoff's
01:41podcast, noting that he had a falling out with fellow commentator Ian Riccoboni over
01:45Kelly's support for the film Sound of Freedom. Kelly has now teamed with the Tate Twins,
01:50who worked with AEW as The Boys, to file a lawsuit against All Elite Wrestling, Riccoboni
01:55and Tony Khan. For the Tate, they feel that Khan's comments that they, no show defence
02:00were false and defamatory, claiming that they missed shows due to AEW's poor travel arrangements.
02:05They missed one show due to AEW arranging their flights out of Nashville instead of
02:09Knoxville, a 180 mile drive, and they missed a show in Canada because they found out too
02:14late that they were needed for the show. They claim that this has led to embarrassment,
02:18humiliation, and it's affected their personal and professional relationships. They also
02:22argue that wrestlers are allowed to take bookings outside of AEW, but only if AEW sign off on
02:28them.
02:29Kelly's issues stem from his relationship with Riccoboni. He filed an official complaint
02:32against Riccoboni over the Sound of Freedom comment, and AEW told Kelly that they had
02:36looked into the matter and Riccoboni was disciplined for it, but Kelly claims that he was not told
02:40what disciplinary action took place. He claims that this incident affected his mental health
02:45and caused marital issues. He claims that the incident has prevented him from getting
02:49work elsewhere.
02:50The aim of the lawsuit, however, is to make it a class action lawsuit against AEW for
02:54misclassifying its talent as independent contractors rather than employees. There's an arbitration
03:00clause in the contracts they signed when joining AEW which prevents such a class action suit,
03:05which they want to avoid, which would then allow other wrestlers to join the suit. AEW
03:09said in a statement, AEW does not comment on pending litigation.
03:13Jim Ross said on his podcast that plaintiffs will run out of money before Tony Khan does.
03:17I don't hold out much hope that they're going to get any kind of settlement whatsoever,
03:20but maybe I'm wrong. He also said the case was frivolous, saying that they knew that
03:24they were signing up to be independent contractors when they signed their AEW deals.
03:29The case did get some ridicule online, with some fans noting that one of Kevin Kelly's
03:33complaints was that he did not get to do commentary for Sting's final match. Some also pointed
03:38out that one of the lawyers for Kelly and the Tate, Steven A. New, is the sponsor and
03:42lawyer of Jim Cornette's podcast. Corey Brennan of Fightful posted on Twitter,
03:46the lawsuit against AEW is so baseless it's insane. Kelly himself referenced this while
03:52posting on Twitter, lots of comments on our lawsuit and we will see what happens. I had
03:56hoped to settle this fairly and quietly with AEW but they left us no choice. And to my
04:00friend JR, this is not frivolous in the least. We look forward to what comes next. Thank
04:05you all very much.
04:06But now it's time for my review of AEW Dynamite, aka the nice childhood home you have there.
04:11Sure would be a shame if someone burned it down. Edition of AEW Dynamite in about 5 minutes.
04:17The show opened with Daniel Garcia coming out for a promo and his fetish for breaking
04:21Max's neck has got him all hard and raring to go because he wants to break it right now.
04:27Max was in the stands and he said that he would have to wait until the PPV to get his
04:31hands on him. Garcia called Max fake. He has a fake tan, fake make-up to hide his acne
04:36and fake hair from a Turkish hair transplant. Has Max had a hair transplant? It's hard
04:40to tell. I've never met anyone that's had one so I can't really see it. He also
04:44said that his love for AEW was fake. Max tried to interject but Garcia cut him off telling
04:49him that he wants MJF to suffer and he wants his family to see him suffer and he wants
04:55any potential future kids to ask, didn't you used to be a wrestler and Max will have
04:59to say that he was until Garcia ended his career. MJF calmly responded that he did Danny
05:04a favour by nearly breaking his neck because these fans used to love Max until they turned
05:09their backs on him. And they will turn their backs on you too. So he'll protect him at
05:14the PPV by putting him in a wheelchair. He then went full Max mode and made fun of his
05:18mum, leading to Garcia charging up the stairs to fight him. He was dragged back by security
05:22but broke free and Max knocked him out with a bottle of wine. He told Garcia that he'd
05:26woken up something dangerous inside of him and gave him a big old smoochy kiss on his
05:29bloody head. A very good final angle for the PPV match.
05:32I made fun of Kyle Fletcher challenging Kazuchika Okada for the Continental Championship because
05:36he lost on last week's Dynamite. And he's lost a bunch of other times before that. But
05:40a few people did correct me and you're absolutely right. He did beat Tomohiro Ishii on Collision.
05:45That is factually one win. Can't complain about rankings if you don't have them anymore.
05:49Doesn't matter anyway because this match was awesome, nearly going the full 20 minutes
05:52and giving a lot of shine to Kyle. He avoided the Rainmaker a few times despite Okada's
05:56firm wrist control, but with one minute remaining Okada hid behind the referee low blowed Fletcher
06:01and hit the Rainmaker for the win. Takeshita came down after the match and stared off against
06:05Okada which set him up to win his spot in the Fatal 4-Way for the Continental Championship
06:09on Collision.
06:10It's an interesting setup as when Takeshita was making a name for himself in DDT ten years
06:13ago he was called a Young Okada by the press. Let's hope this leads to a proper one-on-one
06:19match or them being on either side of the C2 bracket to meet in the final.
06:23Swerve Strickland had a lovely video about how now that he's signed a lucrative AEW
06:26deal he's been able to buy his childhood home. That's so sweet and lovely. I sure
06:31hope nothing bad happens to that house.
06:33Jamie Hayser beat Roman Renegade in a match that went longer than you'd think. Sarraya
06:36and Harley Cameron watched backstage like it was WWE in 2019. Roderick Strong will get
06:41a shot at Hook's FTW Championship, why is that belt still around, and Roddy said he
06:44would wait to call his shot.
06:46Jon Moxley and Marina Shafir beat up people backstage and Mox told Jack Perry that he
06:50was a sweet kid before going to the ring to call out Darby Allin again. While this will
06:54lead to a match, it felt like Mox actually wanted to recruit Darby into his Fight Club.
06:58Not the hottest of follow-ups to last week, but the inclusion of The Elite was interesting.
07:02Chris Jericho continued his feud with Orange Casterly and Mariah May beat Nyla Rose in
07:05a fine little match. May not having a challenger for her title following the big win at All
07:09In is insane to me. You know, Deonna Purrazzo is right there, give her some wins.
07:13She got a promo saying that she will make some new art following her Bull Rope match
07:16loss. Mercedes Monet came out for a promo ahead of her match with Hikaru Shida, saying
07:20that Shida can't be the ace when Monet is the face. Shida appeared on the screen
07:24and Not Adam Pearce revealed that Camille will be banned from ringside at All Out. Didn't
07:28make a difference for Britt Baker.
07:29The Elite got a promo saying they will do whatever it takes to get the World Championship
07:32into their group, and then we got our main event with 40 minutes of the show still to
07:36go. Can't imagine that Childhood House is going to play into anything.
07:39Bryan Danielson joined commentary for the main event Trio's Fun as Orange Casterly
07:42and Kyle O'Reilly teamed with Will Ospreay to face Blackpool Compact Club. Anyone else
07:46think it's weird that the BCC don't seem to be bothered about Moxley? I don't know
07:50if it's intentional or not, but Danielson was asked about it on commentary, but he just
07:54talked about PAC instead.
07:55This was your weekly Trio's Fun, and it was awesome fun. Like one of those rare matches
08:00where it's actually worth watching the picture in picture because they didn't just do rest
08:03holds.
08:04Ospreay and PAC brawled up the ramp and Will avoided the Poison Rana and hit a dive off
08:08the stage. The champs got the win when they pinned Kyle following the Giant Swing and
08:12a kick from Wheelie Yuta.
08:13The Elite brawled with BCC after the match, and Claudio challenged The Bucks to the tag
08:17titles at All Out. Danielson told Jack Perry that he will get his effing head kicked in
08:21and I truly believe him.
08:22And then the actual main event of the show was a contract signing between Hangman Page
08:26and Swerve Strickland. Swerve came out first, but Page didn't show up. Instead he appeared
08:30on the screen to reveal that Swerve made a mistake. He told Page where he once lived.
08:35So Page went to whose house? Swerve's childhood house.
08:39He cut a fantastic promo on Swerve and his family, and started pouring gasoline around
08:43the house. He went outside, told Swerve that he would burn his world to the ground, and
08:47then cool as all hell, sat in a chair, drank whiskey, and set Swerve's house on fire.
08:53This was so flipping cool. They announced to the crowd after the show that the Cage
08:57match at All Out will now be a Lights Out match.
08:59It ended off a really good episode of Dynamite, a solid go-home where they built the matches
09:03for the PPV, with only two weeks before All In and All Out is probably the best you can
09:07do. Maybe don't do that next year.
09:09Now go and watch me struggle on Nidhogg 2 as I battle Laurie, Blake, Blair and Dom on
09:13the latest episode of Control Freaks.
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