00:00Concerns over Jimmy Uso, AEW stars jumping to WWE, my review of AEW Dynamite and more.
00:07I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:14Since he left following WrestleMania and the start of a new Bloodline line-up, fans have
00:18been clamouring for Roman Reigns to reunite his Bloodline for some good old fashioned
00:22gang warfare.
00:24The expectation is that this year's WarGames will be OG Bloodline vs. Bloodline 2000.
00:29This would mean Roman reuniting with Jey Uso and Sami Zayn over on Raw, while also bringing
00:34back Paul Heyman and Jimmy Uso, the latter of which was last seen being laid out by Bloodline
00:392.0 following WrestleMania.
00:40It's been reported that Jimmy is currently out with an injury, with some reports suggesting
00:44that he will be back soon.
00:46But some of that was thrown into question when Rikishi, Jimmy Uso's father, tweeted
00:51Dear God, for strength and health to continue, Hashtag Jimmy Uso, Hashtag WWE, Hashtag Bloodline,
00:57Hashtag Anawai, Hashtag Fatu, Stay Prayed for my boy, Hashtag Jonathan Fatu.
01:03Obviously this had alarm bells ringing among fans, leading to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp
01:07to do some digging.
01:09And thankfully according to his findings, Jimmy is in fact fine.
01:12Sean tweeted, In following up with people in WWE, they say they've spoken to Jimmy
01:17Uso who says he's fine.
01:19I don't have any further context beyond that.
01:22In a surprise to absolutely no one, Ricky Starks was not on AEW TV last night.
01:27He, in fact, has not been seen on AEW TV since March.
01:31While some of that has been explained away with injury, the reports are that Starks has
01:34been cleared for a while, there just isn't any creative for him.
01:38The rumour and scuttlebutt is that Starks has already made the decision that he'll
01:41be heading to WWE once his AEW contract expires.
01:45He was seen at WrestleMania 40 as a guest of Cody Rhodes.
01:48But as it currently stands, according to Sean Ross Sapp, that won't be any time soon.
01:51As he writes on Fightful Select that Starks is still under contract with AEW, and if there
01:56was any hope that something might be worked out between the two parties, that might also
02:00have been squashed, as Ross Sapp adds that Starks has not even been backstage as of late.
02:05There's no word or confirmation when Starks' deal expires, but we do know the timeframe
02:11of one contract.
02:12Fightful Select are reporting that Dustin Rhodes, the brother of WWE Champion Cody Rhodes,
02:16has his contract expiring in the fall, and no new deal has been made yet.
02:22Dustin is currently a double champion in Ring of Honor, which some speculated meant he was
02:26probably going to stay with the company, but that appears not to be the case.
02:30Much like Starks, Dustin has been linked to a WWE return since Cody went back.
02:35Someone who will be staying with AEW for the time being is Jey White, though according
02:39to Fightful Select, White is still out with an injury.
02:43AEW reportedly had hope that he would be ready for All In to be part of the Casino
02:47Gauntlet, and he was at TV the week before to get cleared, but unfortunately he was not
02:51cleared.
02:52Sean Ross Sapp writes his status hasn't changed since then.
02:54And before we get into the AEW review, here's a clip from yesterday's excellent edition
02:59of Gripe Bombs where Sullivan, Laurie Blake and myself debated what is the best WWE Hell
03:05in a Cell match of all time.
03:07Not only that, but we were asked by one viewer what our favourite flavour of ice cream was.
03:11Mint Choc Chip, specifically.
03:12It's become its own thing.
03:14Actually, you could even say that maybe After Eight Scenarios came about because of Mint
03:18Choc Chip, maybe.
03:19Yeah.
03:20Yeah.
03:21My favourite flavours of ice cream are difficult to come by in other places because they're
03:24mostly from this Quartherdairy ice cream in Toronto and the Greater Ontario area.
03:30I love a blueberry cheesecake from there.
03:34In general, if I'm just going and getting a tub of Ben & Jerry's or whatever, chocolate
03:38chip cookie dough has always been my classic.
03:41I also like a Raspberry Ripple.
03:43Ooh, classic.
03:44Rum and Raisin.
03:45Yeah, Rum and Raisin's good.
03:46Ooh, Rum and Raisin.
03:47And Neapolitan.
03:48Neapolitan's great.
03:49Yeah.
03:50Neapolitan's great.
03:51Underrated.
03:52Rum and Raisin?
03:53The choice of a pervert, but that's fine.
03:54And now it's time for my review of AEW Dynamite, aka the, yeah, Beast Mortis edition
04:02of AEW Dynamite, in about five minutes.
04:05The show opened with something I have very little interest in, that being Orange Cassidy
04:10vs. Chris Jericho.
04:11This feud has been fine, and I like the callback to something that happened four years ago,
04:15but the angle last week did as little for me as the damage was done to Chris Jericho's
04:20car.
04:21And the stuff at CMLL over the weekend was broadly fine.
04:24And then the bell rang.
04:25God damn it, he's done it again.
04:27Their respective factions brawled to the back early doors so the action was focused on Jericho
04:31and Cassidy, and the two had a brilliant TV match.
04:34Jericho filming himself putting the boots to Cassidy on the outside and missing each
04:37one was silly fun, and the backdrop off the barricade through the Timekeeper's area
04:41gave the match a big time vibe.
04:43But it was the back and forth stuff in the ring between the two wrestlers that really
04:46sold this for me.
04:47Cassidy's guys kept cutting off Big Bill and Brian Keith, and on the second run in,
04:51Jericho grabbed a roll of quarters, a nice touch given the angle last week, and OC stopped
04:55him and hit the Orange Punch with the quarters for the win.
04:58I might be in the minority on this one, but I thought this was so much better than it
05:02had any right to be.
05:03Backstage, Pac and Claudio Castignoli called Wheelie Uta to show up for work next week
05:07as they are defending the trio's titles at Grand Slam, and Moxley told Uta that he
05:11needs to do this for the greater good.
05:13Shut it!
05:14Marvez then caught up with Uta who was so distracted by his teammate's actions against
05:19Bryan Danielson that he didn't even know what show it was next week, and he'd even
05:22forgotten his trio's title.
05:24Uta has been tremendous in this angle so far.
05:26Hook quickly beat J.D. Ink and will be defending the FTW Championship next week against Roderick
05:31Strong and Christian Cage cut a promo setting up Nick Wayne for a singles run so they can
05:34both be champions.
05:35He then accosted Kip Sabian.
05:37In a throwback to 2019-2023 AEW, we had a throwaway women's match that meant nothing.
05:43Mariah May teamed up with Serena Deeb to take on Yuka Sakazaki and Queen Amanata to follow
05:47up on angles done on Collision, and May hit Yuka with the belt for a DQ.
05:50Boo.
05:51Lame.
05:52For all the good that AEW has done with their women's division in 2024, and it has been
05:56so much better than it has been previously, this felt like such a step backwards.
06:01One match, no Grand Slam match announcement that came later on social media, and a challenger
06:06that hasn't been built enough to feel credible.
06:09It feels like the main roster women's scene is just treading water until Mina Shirakawa
06:13shows up, which she announced later on she will, or when Toni Storm returns.
06:18Do better, AEW.
06:20Now look, we got such a good video package for the feud between Nigel McGuinness and
06:23Bryan Danielson, that I thought, words can't do this justice.
06:26So I made this…
06:27So I thought I'd make a video to try and re-create it, can we play that?
06:34Oh.
06:35Sorry, I'm technically…
06:36Right.
06:37Right.
06:38I think it's now ready to watch.
06:39Nope.
06:40Nope.
06:41It's still…
06:42No, we still appear to be having some technical…
06:43Fine, do you know what, I'll just recap it myself.
06:52This was an awesome video package, I just wish we could get a deal to interview Generico
06:57Steen and Punk to do a full Ring of Honor documentary like this.
07:00I also wish the announcement for this match last week wasn't so clunky.
07:03Moxley, Claudia and Marina Shafir came out for a promo but were jumped by Private Party
07:07and Commander after they were jumped last week, and it did not go well for them.
07:11Moxley told Isaiah Cassidy that they are in the same position they were five years ago
07:15and smashed his hand with a hammer.
07:17Darby ran in for the save and told Mox that he will run right through him at Grand Slam
07:20and then have his title shot against Bryan Danielson at WrestleDream.
07:24This was a good angle and it got over this new Blackpool Combat Club very effectively.
07:29Bringing up Private Party's lack of push is an interesting direction, and I loved the
07:32visual of Marina Shafir holding back Claudio so Mox could handle his own business with
07:37Darby.
07:38I'm really excited for that match next week, despite its clunky setup.
07:41Jack Perry got a cool video package that played fine, and then came Ricochet vs. Beast Mortis.
07:46We've talked a lot about how maybe this Ricochet and AEW thing hasn't got off to
07:49the hottest start.
07:51It's been good, but I think some of us expected more, given Ricochet told us to expect more.
07:56His match with Kyle Fletcher was good, his match with Sammy Guevara was good, though
08:01Sammy took too much of it for my liking, so I was hoping that this Beast Mortis match
08:05would be the one.
08:07And it was.
08:09This match ruled.
08:11Beast Mortis is so awesome and it showed off the Ricochet we've been wanting to see in
08:16AEW.
08:17He did all of his cool stuff, he did all of his cool flips, he had great sequences with
08:20The Larger Man, sold great, and won with the Vertigo.
08:23This was superb.
08:24He later had a backstage segment with Will Ospreay to set up an international championship
08:28match at the 5th Anniversary show in two weeks time.
08:31This was all excellent, and doing Will vs. Ric now and on a big TV episode is such a
08:36smart move.
08:37Give the fans what they want.
08:39Tony Schiavone was a human mic stand for a Hangman Page promo, who noted that he ran
08:43swerve out of the company, but there were still a lot of people cheering for him while
08:46he was gone.
08:47There were some of the boys in the back, these fans, but there was one voice that was
08:50louder than the others.
08:51And it was you, Tony Schiavone.
08:53Uh oh, Tony.
08:55Run!
08:56Jarrett ran down for the save saying The Last Outlaw will get his hands on Page soon.
08:59This was awesome.
09:00And the main event saw Will Ospreay, Karl Fletcher and Konosuke Tekeshita take on The
09:03Elite in a fabulous trios match.
09:05A great reminder of why The Bucks are great, why Okada is great, why Tekeshita is great,
09:10and put over how good Ospreay and Fletcher work together.
09:14This was so much fun, and did a fabulous job in making me want to see United Empire
09:19vs. The Bucks next week, and Tekeshita vs. Okada down the line.
09:23Man, him reversing The Rainmaker into the Blue Thunder Bomb ruled.
09:27Ospreay hit the Hidden Blade out of nowhere, and Fletcher hit Corollas for the win.
09:31A fantastic match and a fantastic main event.
09:34It planted the seed for a United Empire faction reunion, which Ricochet also brought up earlier
09:39in the show.
09:40And that match sort of sums up this episode of Dynamite.
09:42Not a big story driven episode, just great wrestling.
09:46The women's match notwithstanding, this was a brilliant night for pro wrestling.
09:50Now go and watch our new debate show Gripe Bombs where myself, Laurie and Sullivan put
09:53our cases forward for what is the best Hell in a Cell match of all time.
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