00:00A shock WWE return is possible, WWE cancelling shows, my review of AEW Dynamite and more.
00:07I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:14In just over one week's time, it'll be the one year anniversary of WWE's September
00:192023 releases, the company's biggest spasm of releases of the Triple H creative regime
00:24where 25 names were given their pink slips.
00:27Arguably the most shocking of those releases in some ways, but not others, was Matt Riddle.
00:32There had been several incidents with Riddle leading up to his release, but the proverbial
00:36straw was an incident at JFK International Airport where he accused an officer of sexual
00:40assault, and video obtained by TMZ showed that he was intoxicated at the time.
00:45Riddle has since gone on to do shows with New Japan, where he won the Television Championship
00:48from Hiroshi Tanahashi, as well as MLW and AAA where he recently won the Cruiserweight
00:53Championship.
00:54But speaking with Sports Illustrated, Matt Riddle believes that he could return to WWE
00:59one day.
01:00He said, "...the chances of me going back, I think, they're extremely high."
01:04High.
01:06Get it?
01:09Weed.
01:11He cited CM Punk as the reason he could return, noting that Punk filed lawsuits against WWE,
01:15dragged their name through the mud and literally went to the direct competition, but walked
01:20back into WWE and all was forgiven.
01:22He added, "...I know I wasn't the easiest to work with at times, and I think the door
01:26is always open."
01:27Would you like to see Matt Riddle return?
01:29Let me know in the comments below.
01:31Another notable event of September 2023 was the birth of TKO, the merged company of UFC
01:36and WWE.
01:37With brand new leadership teams at the very top comes changes, and one of those changes
01:41has been making the rounds lately.
01:43That being WWE significantly scaling back on its live event schedule.
01:48This has been on the cards for some time, as TKO president Mark Shapiro has said in
01:52the past that these events cost money, and they don't really make a lot of money back.
01:56WWE have already scaled back on doing house shows in smaller towns.
02:00And speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia and Technology Conference, Cor I bet you that
02:04place is a right laugh, Shapiro revealed that they're scaling back even more shows, going
02:09from 300 events in 2023 to 250 in 2024 to 200 in 2025.
02:17Running from the grind, eh?
02:18The real reasoning, according to Shapiro, is that Vince McMahon ran these shows when
02:22he was growing the company, but now they don't need to grow the company anymore because it's
02:27already grown.
02:28Shapiro has also talked about scaling back TV shows because he doesn't see the value
02:32in driving production trucks all across the country.
02:35A lot has been said about the NXTNA partnership with comparisons to AEW's relationship with
02:40Impact during the pandemic, but one thing is for sure, something is working.
02:45Case in point, PWInsider are reporting that this Friday's TNA Victory Road is one of
02:49the highest sold ticket totals for any TNA live event in the United States this year.
02:55Not only that, but NXT was down just 0.5% from last week's rating, despite going against
03:01the presidential debate.
03:03Even more surprising, the 18-49 demo was up by nearly 12% from the previous week.
03:11Lastly for the news portion of this video, and on August 29th it was reported by TMZ
03:15that the husband of former WWE star Nikki Bella had been arrested on domestic violence
03:20charges.
03:21Just two weeks after this incident, according to online records, Nikki has filed for divorce
03:25from her husband, of which she shares a four-year-old son, Mateo.
03:28Shortly after the incident, Nikki Bella was spotted without her wedding ring while hosting
03:31Netflix's hot dog eating contest just days later, and according to TMZ, Nikki's search
03:36for divorce lawyers began shortly after the arrest.
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05:00And now it's time for my review of AEW Dynamite, aka the All Change Edition of AEW
05:10Dynamite, in about 5 minutes.
05:13The show opened with a cool video package slash promo from Jon Moxley about his and
05:17his Blackpool Combat Club cohort's actions at All Out, with Moxley proclaiming that he
05:21is the one true king of these lands.
05:23This was followed by Darby Allin arriving at the building setting up their interaction
05:26for later in the night, and then Tony Schiavone was in the ring for an interview with Christian
05:31Cage.
05:32Cage had been informed by his son Nick Wayne that the word on the street is, Christian
05:34Cage has infinite aura.
05:36Slay, Queen.
05:38He noted that Killswitch was the most complete big man in the business and he belonged to
05:42him, and you are looking at the next AEW World Champion.
05:45He also got a jab in at Bryan CTE.
05:47We cut backstage with Don Callis and his family asking Will Ospreay to be Carl Fletcher's
05:51tag partner in the Casino Gauntlet main event.
05:53Ospreay didn't want to get involved with the family again, but Callis reminded Ospreay
05:57that he owed him a favour, and this was that favour.
06:00Takeshi looked annoyed about all this.
06:01Now you might be thinking, boy that's a lot of talking to start the show, but remarkably
06:05that was all done in the opening 11 minutes of Dynamite and did not feel rushed.
06:10It meant that we got some wrestling in the first quarter of the show, when Jack Perry
06:13defended the TNT Championship against Lio Rush.
06:16No joke, I saw this graphic yesterday and it was only on the second time that I realised
06:20that Perry was not defending the title against Roosh.
06:22They had a decent match and Perry used Snapdragons the same way Kenny Omega would, which commentary
06:27brought up.
06:28Don't you give me hope you bastards.
06:29Perry hit a knee stroke for the win.
06:30Alex Mervez tried to interview him afterwards, but he didn't have much to say and drove
06:34off in his van for a round of WWE Crush Hour.
06:36Renee interviewed Hangman Page, who said that if Swerve had 1,000 childhood homes he would
06:40burn down 1,000 childhood homes.
06:42He warned anyone that tried to get in his way of getting to Swerve Strickland would
06:45now be taken out.
06:46Top Flight and Dark Order looked disgusted at this new version of Hangman, with his former
06:49friends noting that they don't even recognise him anymore, and then he ran into Jeff Jarrett
06:52and the two brawled.
06:53I know I was a day one Bree Woo apologist, but I am stunned that AEW have managed to
06:58turn Jeff Jarrett babyface in 2024 and it's working.
07:02Private Party and Commander were supposed to have the weekly fun trios match, but Moxley
07:05and the Blackpool Combat Club killed them all instead.
07:07Look, I know they choked out Danielson with a bag, but that is taking things too far.
07:11Pat cut a promo saying that last Saturday was inevitable and this company is now theirs,
07:15whatever that means.
07:16The Learning Tree set up Chekov's car for later in the show, and Ricochet beat Sammy
07:19Guevara in a really good match that gave Sammy a lot more than you'd imagine.
07:23Ricochet got the win with Vertigo, but it felt like 80% of the match was taken by Guevara
07:27who, I don't know, he's still good, but so few people care about Sammy at this point
07:33and I think we're past the point of no return with him.
07:36We got a video recap of Will O'Nightingale vs. Chris Statlander nearly stealing the show
07:39from All Out, and Renee interviewed Okada who set up a singles match with Takeshita
07:42down the line.
07:43Darby came out for a promo to call out Moxley, who came to the ring letting him know that
07:47he was not coming armed.
07:48Darby told him, they're not superstars who've had things handed to them.
07:51They were guys who fought to get all of this.
07:54People keep telling Darby to slow down because he won't be wrestling in his 40, but Darby
07:57cannot slow down because he doesn't know when this ride will end.
08:01And Moxley's the type of guy who will wrestle in high school gyms because he loves this
08:05sport, and in fact the first time they met was at a high school gym indie show.
08:09But what he did to Bryan Danielson, what was that?
08:11What do you want?
08:13Moxley told Darby that he was supposed to have a title match at Grand Slam, but that
08:17isn't happening anymore.
08:18And it's because Darby isn't ready.
08:20So instead, Moxley challenged Darby to a match at Grand Slam for that world title match.
08:25Darby accepted, and added if Mox wants to burn AEW to the ground, he will drag him into
08:29the fire.
08:30Now this is pretty bold to change up the world title match for Grand Slam when ticket sales
08:35are struggling, but it's being done presumably so Danielson can sell the effects of the All
08:39Out Angle.
08:40It does mean that we are doing a big Arthur Ashe show with no world champion and no Bryan
08:44Danielson.
08:45Because Danielson can't be wrestling, right?
08:47That's why the change was made, right?
08:49Oh.
08:50I'm confused.
08:51To skip ahead a few segments, Nigel McGuinness came out to announce that Danielson may now
08:57be on an iron lung, but he cannot run from Nigel forever.
09:00So in two weeks, Tony Khan has signed Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness for Grand Slam.
09:05This was a great promo from Nigel and a match I'm super excited about you all should have
09:09seen us lose our collective minds when McGuinness came out at All In, but why did the world
09:14title match change?
09:15Who changed it?
09:17Is Danielson okay?
09:18And if he is, why is he facing Nigel and not getting revenge on Moxley?
09:22Don't get me wrong, I'm stoked this match is happening.
09:25I just have questions.
09:27Mariah May beat Queen Almenada in a good match that gave Almenada a lot of shine, this was
09:30your only women's match on the show, and The Learning Tree quickly beat The Iron Savages
09:34and Orange Cassidy dumped a load of coins on Jericho's new car.
09:36I seriously could not give less of a s***.
09:39We got a video promo for Serea vs. Jamie Hayter, Hook cut a promo on Roderick Strong, and that
09:43left us with a good 30 minutes for the tag team casino gauntlet.
09:46Look, the casino gauntlet should be used sparingly, but doing a tag team version of it is a really
09:50good idea and hopefully opens it up to the women's division down the line.
09:55But this match did show two things.
09:57Number one, AEW has lots of good tag teams, and number two, very few of them are over.
10:02It started with FTR and Fletch Spray which was awesome, and then The Righteous came out
10:06to zero reaction.
10:09Same for The Kingdom.
10:10The Acclaimed got a decent pop, as did MXM who set up a feud with The Acclaimed, and
10:14Top Flight came out to an okay reaction.
10:17Lack of reactions was exposed when The Outrunners came out to an enormous pop, and we had a
10:21great spot when Turbo Floyd suplexed someone onto everyone else on the floor.
10:25Cruiserweight Young Vets didn't get to enter the match as FTR brawled with them up the
10:28ramp and backstage, and Ospreay hit the hidden plate on Dante Martin and Fletcher Pindem
10:32for a Fletch Spray win.
10:33Very cool ending, but again exposes that none of the established tag teams in AEW are over
10:38to the degree that they can challenge for the world tag team titles.
10:42Something needs to be done.
10:44But it was a decent episode of Dynamite.
10:46Perhaps not the hottest show following a very hot PPV, but I had a good time.
10:49Plus I get to see Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness in two weeks, even if it doesn't
10:53make a lot of sense.
10:54Now go and watch Pete Quinnell's goodbye livestream from us here on the WrestleTalk
10:58Podcast.
10:59You will be missed, Pete.
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