00:00Real reason Janelle Grant is not in the Vince McMahon doc, AEW wants Kevin Owens, details
00:06on an insane wrestling arrest and more. I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:16Back in January, former WWE employee Janelle Grant filed a lawsuit against Vince McMahon,
00:21John Laurinaitis and WWE, claiming she was a victim of sexual assault, harassment and
00:26sex trafficking. The case caused ripples across the wrestling landscape. Vince, who had just
00:31returned to WWE to sell the company and merge it with UFC to form TKO, was removed from
00:36the board of directors and his name has not been mentioned on WWE TV since. While he was
00:41not directly named in the lawsuit, Brock Lesnar was reported to be involved, and all of his
00:46creative plans including Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania matches were pulled.
00:52Both men were removed as playable characters in WWE 2K24. But it wasn't just WWE TV that
00:58saw changes, as Netflix's docu-series about Vince's life was also altered. The documentary
01:03was announced back in 2020 by Nick Khan as a joint venture with WWE and the filmmakers
01:08Chris Smith of Tiger King and Fire fame and 30 for 30's Bill Simmons. Over 200 hours
01:14of material was submitted for the documentary and some of the biggest names in the industry
01:17were interviewed for it, including Vince McMahon himself.
01:21But a lot changed over those four years, particularly the allegations of hush money scandals in
01:252022 and the Janelle Grant case of 2024. The documentary, reportedly, took a 180 and now
01:32looks very different. Pogues Wrestling reported that WWE were no longer involved in the final
01:37product which is released on Netflix next Wednesday. There was some trepidation from
01:41fans wanting this to be a Wharton Hall documentary, as Netflix will be the home of WWE in 2020
01:47and 2025. Those trepidations were not helped when the first trailer was released which
01:51talked about Vince's business successes, and Janelle Grant's team revealing that
01:55she was not interviewed for the documentary. Dave Meltzer, who is interviewed for the documentary,
02:00however has said,
02:01"...I can only say that the director who did it covered, with me, every single thing
02:06that I would expect someone to cover. There were no stones unturned."
02:11Those who have seen early screenings have called it a massive burial of McMahon, and
02:15Meltzer adds,
02:16"...I know that there are people who are in WWE who are not happy with it."
02:20Noting that pro-Vince people in WWE feel it's an unfair portrayal, and anti-Vince people
02:26will argue it doesn't go far enough. The coverage of the Janelle Grant case reportedly
02:29comes in the sixth and final episode. Netflix did reveal that they reached out to Grant
02:33to be interviewed for the documentary, but she declined. And now her team has revealed
02:38her reasons why in a media call.
02:40Anne Callis, Grant's representative, told the media,
02:42"...Janelle deserves the opportunity to tell her full story, not be a part of someone
02:47else's. She will get her day in court and McMahon will be held accountable. As we said,
02:52in fact, she would like to expedite all proceedings as quickly as possible, and Janelle has the
02:56right to tell her story in her own way at the right time."
03:00Callis added, even though they're not involved, that they hope the documentary does the case
03:04justice. She also wanted it known that while the documentary about Vince McMahon will cover
03:08the case, Vince McMahon is not the only person named in the lawsuit. She said, "...through
03:13our lawsuit, we seek to hold all wrongful parties accountable, Mr. McMahon, John Laurinaitis
03:18and WWE. If you have been affected by anything we've covered today and you do need to talk
03:22to someone, please visit our Support Each Other page at WrestleTalk.com, a link for
03:26which is found in the video description down below."
03:28On to lighter wrestling news topics, and say it with me folks, 2024 is the year of contracts.
03:33But in this past week, that's not been entirely accurate. While WWE have shown up
03:38a lot of their 2024 expiring deals like Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Drew McIntyre, Natalya
03:43etc., PWInsider reported that the company were aggressively going after contracts that
03:48are expiring next year in order to get talent to re-sign ahead of time. Reportedly this
03:53includes Nia Jax, Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan. And now Fightful Select have a new name for
03:58that list. Sean Ross Sapp is reporting that WWE sources tell Fightful that Kevin Owens
04:03has been approached for a new contract. SRS notes that Owens is yet to sign this deal,
04:08but communication has been made. His deal is up in January 2025.
04:13And WWE are not the only interested party in Kevin Owens. As Fightful Select reports,
04:17those that we spoke to in AEW said that the company has long had major interest in bringing
04:22Owens in when and if he's available. They're expected to make him an offer if he reaches
04:28free agency. It was reported that AEW had interest in Owens when his contract was expiring
04:32in 2019. Owens told Pete Rosenberg in 2022 that he has two more years left on this current
04:37deal and added, "...I don't see a reason why I wouldn't sign another one when it's
04:40done because I don't feel like I'm anywhere near done. But who knows what could happen."
04:45Owens is good friends with The Young Bucks dating back to their time in PWG, and is the
04:49man who introduced Cody Rhodes to them when he was fired in 2016. But if Owens does stick
04:55around he'll be there for the WWE debut of the Lucha Bros. According to WrestleVotes
05:00Radio, WWE's marketing department has been given the green light to make merchandise
05:04for the pair, which would indicate they have signed deals with the company. This includes
05:09t-shirts, promotional material and masks. And Corey Hayes of PWN is reporting that Penta,
05:14El Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix have signed multi-year deals with WWE and will be heading straight
05:21to the main roster bypassing NXT.
05:23The Lucha Bros going to WWE has been rumoured for some time now, even though Penta did his
05:28best to quieten those rumours down and it had been reported that they were set to win
05:31the trio's championships at All In before word came that they would not be re-signing
05:35with All Elite Wrestling. There's no word on which roster the Lucha Bros will be heading
05:39to, but maybe Smackdown should be their home as they're going to need as much talent
05:44as possible.
05:45Remember just one week ago when we all celebrated the news that WWE Raw was moving away from
05:51it's terrible three hours and going back to the much nicer two hours? Well, we'll
05:57have more on that in a moment, but first we now go to Turbo John for a special message
06:03about Patreon.
06:04Hi everyone, it's 80s Wrestler here Turbo John. Now you may know my brother Turbo Jake
06:10and Turbo Jack, but my dear departed Turbo Jake, he's not gone. A lot of people are
06:16saying in the press that he is gone, that he ain't never coming back and we ain't
06:20ever going to see him again, but I know the truth. The truth is Turbo Jake done gone hand
06:25gliding and he's just kept on gliding since. We ain't seen him, we don't know hide nor
06:30hair where he actually is. I know one of these days he is going to be back, but until then
06:36it means we need your support because we've set up a very special charity for Turbo Jake
06:41at Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk. You support us over there and you can get
06:46a load of extra stuff from me and my brothers and the rest of the Turbo family, including
06:51getting your name read out on this fine little WrestleTalk show right here, including the
06:56bald and brummy Brent Linforth. How could I possibly forget Big Jiggy Josh Morriton,
07:02the prettiest pirate D I am, the pinnacle of success Luke Kelly, the abominable Michael
07:11Abbott. Oh, I've done some conquesting in my time, but none more than the king of the
07:16conquest, Steven Mullenix. Oh my God. When there is a will, there is a will Campbell
07:21who don't get ahold of one of these little machine gun, Alex Anderson. Go ace the ace
07:29of spades, Adrian Santill. And lastly, hitman underscore Malcom. Every single one of y'all
07:37has been tremendous in supporting me, my family, and finding my brother Turbo Jake
07:44on his hand gliding journey. Until then, I hope that you jam that jam, and I hope that
07:50you work out.
07:52According to a new report via WrestleVotes Radio, once WWE Raw moves to Netflix in 2025,
07:58Smackdown itself will see some big changes. Last Friday Smackdown saw a few minutes overrun
08:03as USA Network don't have the same 10pm hard out that Fox have with their news, which
08:07meant the show ran just over two hours. And on January 3rd 2025, it's reportedly only
08:13going to get longer. We may have lost three hour Raws, but we're getting three hour
08:18Smackdowns instead. Not only that, but those who don't watch the show on USA Network
08:22might be able to view it somewhere else once it's finished. The other big news here is
08:26that there are rumours that once the show ends it will be available on Netflix, which
08:30we haven't heard elsewhere. Those are the internal talkings right now, is that probably
08:34the day after, Smackdown will be available on Netflix.
08:37Lastly for today's episode on AEW's Cash, Wheeler has opened up about his arrest from
08:42last year. Wheeler was involved in an alleged road rage incident on July 27th 2023, where
08:47he allegedly waved a firearm at the victim. He filed a not guilty plea on August 3rd,
08:52turned himself in to the police on August 18th, and it was all dropped in May of 2024
08:57when the prosecution opted to abandon the case ahead of trial. Should Wheeler have been
09:01found guilty, he could have served up to five years in prison.
09:05And now speaking with AEW Close-Up with Renee Paquette along with his FTR tag partner Dax
09:09Harwood, Wheeler has talked about the arrest and the toll it took upon him. Harwood reveals
09:14that Wheeler planned on retiring following the arrest as he didn't want it to affect
09:18Dax's wrestling career. Wheeler added,
09:21I told my lawyers when it happened, I would not take any sort of plea deal. I would not
09:25plead guilty to any charge whatsoever, that I was not guilty and I was not going to take
09:30any sort of plea. But, on the flip of that, that means I face the full repercussions if
09:36they do find me guilty.
09:37In a crazy revelation, Wheeler tells Paquette that the police never pulled him over, never
09:42conducted a search, didn't have another witness, nor did they have any pictures or
09:47video of the incident. As Wheeler puts it, all they had was one guy's statement and
09:52that was it.
09:54Speaking about the topic on Twitter, Sean Ross Sapp added,
09:56It was legit a guy saying he waved a gun with no other evidence. No footage, no traffic
10:02cams, nothing. It was insane it made it that far.
10:06That's all from today, but before you go please do check out this clip from our most
10:09recent episode of Cutscene where I chart the troubled history of getting Deadpool made
10:14and how Ryan Reynolds was instrumental in getting it done.
10:18Reynolds, who had been wanting to make a Deadpool movie for five years at this point, was given
10:22an ultimatum by 20th Century Fox. He recalls the conversation at the time was,
10:27If you want to play Deadpool, this is your chance to introduce him. And if you don't
10:32want to introduce him in this fashion, we'll have someone else play him.
10:36Reynolds wasn't even present for the shooting of the finale of X-Men Origins Wolverine,
10:40with Scott Adkins filling in for him to do the stunt work.
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