00:00CM Punk calls out fans, WWE changing their PLEs, AEW lie and get caught, and more.
00:07I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:14It's Monday and it's an episode of the WrestleTalk News, so you know what that means,
00:19CM Punk is a leading topic for today's episode.
00:22Remember that bit of the pipe bomb where Punk called out fans for waiting at airports for
00:25stuff to get signed which they would then flog on eBay?
00:28Well it turns out 13 years after that promo, it's still an issue.
00:32The rise of social media has seen this activity called out more and more, as wrestlers and
00:36fans alike have berated these fans who pass a bunch of items to wrestlers for signatures
00:41as they're just trying to go about their lives and they say, well that's a bad thing,
00:45don't do that.
00:46This video of Rhea Ripley being asked questions at an airport went viral recently when co-worker
00:50Kevin Owens checked to see if she was okay.
00:53And now CM Punk has once again called this behaviour out on Instagram.
00:57She posted,
00:58Hey guys!
00:59I don't know why I felt the urge to Jericho wave there.
01:02Love your but friendly reminder to respect privacy and boundaries.
01:06Airports are not a meet and greet.
01:08If I have to ask you to please stop following me multiple times, you have crossed a line.
01:13Please stop this.
01:15Thank you and stop using your child as a shield or an excuse.
01:18And you too can call these fans out in the comments down below so go and do that.
01:21They're awful.
01:22Someone who could be soon seeing a return of fans flocking to her to ask for signatures
01:26is Charlotte Flair.
01:27It was reported via Viper on PWN's Discord last month that November was the planned timetable
01:32for Flair's return to WWE after going down with an injury last December.
01:37This led to some speculation that she could be around for this year's War Games, and
01:41would be joining the Smackdown roster to be alongside her IRL husband Andrade.
01:45However, according to Fightful Select in a new update, we will not be seeing Charlotte
01:49Flair in 2024.
01:51Fightful Select writes, Charlotte Flair has been sidelined for all of 2024, and that's
01:56still the case.
01:57They add that new reports suggested she did have creative plans to be involved in the
02:01current storyline between Nia Jax and Tiffany Stratton, however WWE sources confirmed that
02:07she is not cleared yet.
02:08They add, those in WWE believe there will be some time before she returns to the ring
02:12as the injuries she sustained were severe.
02:15Those severe injuries were tears to her ACL, MCL and meniscus.
02:19Now those close to Flair have told Fightful Select that if anyone would return at a speedy
02:23timetable it would be Charlotte Flair.
02:25In February the feeling was she was ahead of schedule, and she recently posted videos
02:29of herself training online.
02:31But the key here is that she's not currently cleared by WWE to wrestle, and as Fightful
02:36Select writes, a WWE source said that until she's clear, it's unlikely creative will
02:41be put in place.
02:42Or maybe they're just telling Shawn that to keep him away from a complete surprise
02:45after all.
02:47That was their plan for Roman Reigns this past Friday.
02:49But before we get into that, here's a trailer for our latest episode of Survival Series
02:53where our hapless heroes were asked to name every WWE pay-per-view ever.
02:58Check it out.
02:59Hello and welcome to another edition of Survival Series, the show where you gotta name em all.
03:05Today I need you to name me every single WWE pay-per-view.
03:11What?
03:12Wrestlemania, Wrestlemania.
03:13What should be the big five?
03:22December to dismember.
03:23Ding.
03:24A crazy time at the Coliseum.
03:25Oh, was that, is this WWE or is this one of those other companies, you know, the wrestling?
03:33Just a song just popping out of my head just now.
03:36This is £20.
03:37It's better than Ivan Brett's fake-ass money.
03:40WWE everywhere, WWE excitement, WWE exit music, WWE...
03:48This past Friday saw the USA Network return of WWE Smackdown, or as I've just been reminded
03:53by this piece of paper that was left here by Tempest on the weekend, SmackSown.
03:57Or SmackOwn.
03:58Either way, it opened with Cody Rhodes retaining the WWE Championship inside a salad steel
04:03cage and headlined by the announcement that Cody will team up with Roman Reigns to take
04:07on the bloodline of Solo Sakoa and Jacob Fatu at Bad Blood.
04:10Man, if this was another era, this show would have been renamed to Bad Bloodline.
04:15Roman made his return to WWE this past SummerSlam, aiding Cody Rhodes against Sakoa in the main
04:19event.
04:20He has since been on Smackdown to lay out Bloodline 2.0 before being taken out by Jacob
04:24Fatu a few weeks ago.
04:25He was then advertised for the USA Network return for Smackdown, but that advertising
04:30then went quiet.
04:32And according to Fightful Select, this is because WWE wanted to keep the thing they'd
04:36already announced quiet.
04:38Fightful Select write, they decided in the last week or two to stop advertising him and
04:42to make him a surprise.
04:44Apparently Roman wasn't even listed on internal rundowns of Smackdown as they did not want
04:48word getting out that he was backstage for the show.
04:51Again, this was something that was already announced and advertised.
04:54The worst kept secret and all that.
04:56Those internal rundowns are used by WWE producers and the like to know who is booked for a show,
05:02what plans are in place for future shows and what injuries are going on.
05:05Things like that.
05:06They'll even note who is currently babyface and heel and who are top of those respective
05:10lists.
05:11According to an update from Figure Four Online, those internal listings have an interesting
05:15note ahead of Bad Bloodline.
05:17The site claims that internal listings for Bad Blood have Sami Zayn vs. Gunther for the
05:22World Heavyweight Championship for that show.
05:24Now that doesn't sound all that insane does it, but along with Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes
05:29vs. The Bloodline, Nia Jax defending against either Naomi or Bayley, Finn Balor vs. Damian
05:34Priest, Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley for the Women's World Championship and CM Punk vs.
05:38Drew McIntyre inside Hell in a Cell, that would make Bad Blood…
05:43SIX MATCHES LONG!
05:49Since Triple H has taken over the creative direction for WWE, the number of matches for
05:53pay-per-views has moved from a lot-slash-too-many to five, which some argue is too few.
05:59Shows like SummerSlam and WrestleMania have more, but those are exceptions rather than
06:02the rule.
06:03Sami and Gunther's old NXT TakeOver days would have five match cards, that is definitely
06:07his style.
06:08So perhaps Bad Blood is a step in a direction for more matches to be added to WWE pay-per-views,
06:14which is, let's be fair, something the fans have been asking for.
06:17While Sami and Gunther's match has not been confirmed, we do have one official announcement
06:21regarding WWE's Bad Blood.
06:23It's starting an hour earlier.
06:25The show will start at 6pm Eastern and 3pm Pacific.
06:28For us here in the UK, that means Bad Blood will start at 11pm?
06:33Which feels really weird.
06:35And some speculation online suggests that the earlier start time means the show will
06:38run an hour longer, which will allow for a sixth match to be added to the card, as it
06:43will have time for the match itself, entrances, sponsorship plugs and Peacock ad breaks.
06:48What do you make of these pay-per-view changes?
06:50Let me know in the comments down below.
06:51Now look, I've heard of wrestling promotions making changes to pay-per-views, I've heard
06:55about them not paying wrestlers, I've heard about them inflating attendance numbers for
07:00entertainment purposes, but I have never heard of a wrestling promotion telling lies.
07:05So it feels incredibly unheard of that AEW went and did just that.
07:10On Friday night, CMLL had their 91st anniversary event which saw a lot of AEW present.
07:15As Chris Jericho main-evented the show against Mystico, along with Willow Nightingale losing
07:19her CMLL Women's Championship to Zooksis.
07:24As Chris Jericho main-evented the show against Mystico, along with Willow Nightingale losing
07:28her CMLL Women's Championship to Zooksis.
07:32And Orange Cassidy teaming with Rocky Romero and New Japan's Satoshi Kojima losing Evert
07:36to Atlantis Jr, Volador Jr and Ultimo Guerrero.
07:39Now the Jericho match and the Trios match are key to this story, as they were both two
07:43out of three full bouts.
07:45Because Cassidy and Jericho both lost their matches, but they did score pinfalls.
07:50Which might be why AEW put out some highlights from the show on social media, and outright
07:55lied that they were victorious in those matches.
07:58As fans pointed out, that is rather, well, untrue.
08:02AEW put out a new version of the tweet 16 minutes later to say that they were competing
08:07rather than being victorious.
08:09Well that looks like it was just a small social media blunder.
08:12No biggie.
08:13Perhaps the person running AEW's Twitter account got sent the video to a post and hadn't
08:16seen the matches and just assumed that Jericho won because Jericho wins, an honest mistake
08:22you might say.
08:23But that's not the case.
08:24Because Tony Schiavone repeated the lie on Collision.
08:27He said over video highlights, the main event, Chris Jericho met the legendary Mystico.
08:31Back and forth they went in a two out of three falls match, but in the end, with the Walls
08:35of Jericho in the third fall, Chris Jericho gets the win over Mystico.
08:39But that's not what happened, did it Tony Schiavone?
08:42Jericho won the first fall with the Walls, but then was pinned following a Frog Splash
08:46and tapped out to an armbar for a Mystico win.
08:48For shame Tony Schiavone, for shame.
08:51AEW have since put out tweets with the correct information.
08:53What's your favourite wrestling lie?
08:55Let me know in the comments down below.
08:56And also, do have fun with this story because it is very funny.
09:00Let's not take this all too seriously and make me regret putting this in the WrestleTalk
09:04News.
09:05Speaking of Mexico, Matt Riddle recently won the AAA Cruiserweight Championship in Mexico.
09:09Lovely segue there, didn't notice it at all.
09:10He also told Sports Illustrated last week that he thinks one day he could return to
09:14WWE.
09:15He cited CM Punk as someone who said a lot of bad stuff about WWE and even sued them
09:19but was welcomed back with open arms, don't tell them about demolition.
09:23He also said in that interview that he's had conversations with AEW's Tony Khan,
09:27but it was one that didn't go very well, even saying, I don't know if he likes me.
09:32Riddle explained that he tried to do some banter with Tony Khan about his match with
09:35Zack Sabre Jr. and it didn't go down well.
09:38And according to Fightful Select, AEW have little interest in bringing Matt Riddle into
09:43the promotion.
09:44According to Crossout Even Ads, it was also noted to us that AEW talent almost never works
09:49with Matt Riddle on the indies, and when they do, it's in Mexico.
09:53And speaking of not being interested, let's round off this Monday episode of the WrestleTalk
09:57News with some good news from the world of wrestling.
09:59WWE might be getting rid of Def Rebel.
10:02If you don't know the name Def Rebel, that's because they make music no one notices or
10:05even listens to.
10:06They've been derided by fans over the last few years for their rather bland WWE entrance
10:11themes and it would seem, like Frasier Crane, WWE are listening.
10:15PWNexus are reporting that WWE will not be renewing their contract with Def Rebel once
10:20it expires, instead moving to using mainstream artists going forward for themes.
10:24Megan Thee Stallion for example provided a new theme for Smackdown, which Twitter tells
10:28me went down very well.
10:29Lol JK, Twitter is a dumpster fire.
10:32Now go and watch the latest episode of Survival Series where we had to name as many WWE PPV
10:36names as we possibly could.
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