00:00A Bloodline Family Controversy, Brand New WWE Title Designs, AEW Cancelling Next Saturday's
00:07Collision and more. I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:15We kick off today's news with some light-hearted fun, as Kyle Fletcher has been speaking with
00:20the Daily Express US about his time in All Elite Wrestling, his style of wrestling and
00:24reveals that his girlfriend Sky Blue has told him he can no longer do a certain wrestling
00:30move.
00:39I did a moonsault where I landed testicles first on the guardrail. From that point on
00:54when she was like, you're never doing that moonsault again.
01:04It is hard to transition from that silly story to one that is a bit more serious, but I'll
01:09do my best. While their ranks on WWE TV appear to be growing all the time, with Heiko Leio
01:13expected to join NXT soon and WWE reportedly keeping their eyes on Zilla Fatu to potentially
01:19join the company, the Anoa'e Bloodline Family is still massive outside of WWE. Oli
01:25Davis did a full video breaking it down on just how massive it is and how it does not
01:29include Samoa Joe.
01:30And one of those family members, Journey Fatu, the brother of Jacob Fatu, has been reported
01:35missing by his tag partner Juicy Fennel. Juicy posted a missing poster for Journey on Twitter
01:41using the hashtag Where's Journey along with a hotline number. This post of course
01:46gained some traction, with several people passing on their well wishes to Journey especially
01:50given the real world situation of Hurricane Helen. But sometimes those real world things
01:55can interfere in wrestling world things. Because Journey Fatu is not missing.
02:01It turns out this was all a work, a storyline that Fennel and Fatu have been working on
02:05for some time, but decided to launch it at the worst possible time. Once it was revealed
02:10it was an angle, the QR code on the missing poster revealed it was a storyline, Chris
02:15Hero called it out on Twitter in a now deleted tweet saying,
02:18To anyone involved in this, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
02:21Deleted, apologize and never do dumb ass like this again. I'm so embarrassed to see this,
02:28especially when loved ones across the country are actually missing from a very real tragedy.
02:33Shame on anyone for sharing this in an effort to push a dumb ass storyline.
02:38While Hero did delete that tweet, he has retweeted others calling out the angle.
02:42Fennel himself has now posted on Twitter,
02:44First and foremost I want to apologize for any emotional damage and distress I have caused
02:49with the following Journey angle. We have been working on this story since early August
02:53for our home promotion. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of the situation that is currently happening
02:59in the real world. I want to apologize for my ignorance to current world events. I am
03:04sorry. To those I have offended with this, I apologize sincerely. This was only meant
03:09to be a story and it blew up. I am sorry.
03:12Fennel has deleted the post with the missing poster, hotline and QR code, but is continuing
03:17to run the angle.
03:18In an effort to lighten the mood somewhat, Oli and I recently posted our exclusive review
03:22of TNA Turning Point 2006 over at Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk, the second in our
03:29five part series looking at TNA's most successful rivalry Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle.
03:35But while that is all well and good, and Angle and Joe is great, we're mostly enjoying
03:40the Voodoo Kin Mafia. Get it? VKM. It was Road Dogg and Billy Gunn firing back at WWE
03:48for redoing DX and making it lame, and it led to this moment on the most recent show.
03:53Notes from a BG James press conference last week.
03:57What? They did a press conference?
04:00They did a press conference to address all of the things that are going down. This is
04:03coming off the back of the Million Dollar Challenge.
04:07So this is after Turning Point. Well, we haven't covered Turning Point yet.
04:13He said his 15 year old son came up with Voodoo Kin Mafia.
04:17Yeah, I can see that.
04:20Because TNA came up with VKM, and their original idea was Very Cool Men.
04:36This sounds like an absolute mess. Wait, is the press conference Sep that-
04:40Yeah, Sep was the taping.
04:42And where was it?
04:44I don't know, it just says BG James press conference.
04:46Who was there?
04:47Press.
04:51Look, we've got some more to get onto with VKM. We've got more to get onto, but apparently
04:58they've split up the team of Lance Hoyt and Ron Killings, because apparently, management
05:02has come to the conclusion that Hoyt can't dance.
05:04It's been three weeks. We just finished Genesis, and it was really good.
05:35They've lost their minds.
05:36Yeah, two hour shows in one hour chunks.
05:47That is just a snippet of a three hour, 38 minute video podcast reviewing the show in
05:52its entirety, news around it and, unfortunately, me reading my forum posts from 2006. Shoutout
06:00to The Smart Marks, let me know in the comments if you used to visit that message board back
06:03in the day. Head on over to Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk to get that episode and
06:07more exclusive and bonus content to fill up your ear and eye holes.
06:12Speaking of shiny new things, NXT had their debut on the CW last night, going on the road
06:17no less to Chicago. It was a stacked episode with two title matches and main roster appearances
06:23from Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, The Miz and CM Punk. The show opened, however, with
06:28a bit of news. Prior to the show going live, it was reported that NXT was getting a makeover,
06:33Fightful Select reporting the Performance Center set in Orlando is undergoing updates
06:38while the brand is on the road. Not only that, but the brand got a brand new logo. And with
06:43a brand new logo comes brand new belts. The show opened with Shawn Michaels revealing
06:48new belt designs for the NXT Men's and Women's World Championships. What do you think of
06:53these new belt designs? Let me know in the comments down below.
06:56Also on the show, Roxanne Perez retained her newly designed NXT Women's Championship
07:00against Julia as Cora Jade returned from injury to attack the challenger. Jade has
07:04been injured since January of this year with a torn ACL. When the injury happened, it was
07:09reported that she could be out for up to a year. Perez even did an interview with the
07:13Ring of Wrestling show yesterday where she worked as all, noting that Jade could be back
07:18in a month's time. Well played, Perez.
07:21Also on the show, Wes Lee defeated TNA's Zachary Wentz in a Street Fight. The Miz hosted
07:26a talk show segment with Tony D'Angelo and Oba Femi for their title match next week,
07:30and Fatal Influence beat Jada Parker and Lola Vice. Kalani Jordan was then backed up by
07:34Belair and Cargill to take out Fatal Influence. We got a video package for the upcoming debut
07:39of Delta, and the main event saw Trick Williams win back the NXT Championship from Ethan Page
07:45with CM Punk as the special guest referee. Punk gave Page the GTS as Trick was celebrating
07:50his title win.
07:51Unlike Smackdown, there was no overrun for NXT on the CW, and Corey Bennett of Fightful
07:56Select reported overruns are not expected on CW. He also reported, we're told that
08:01scenes backstage have been very busy throughout the day, and that there were revised rundowns
08:06handed out close to showtime.
08:08In a separate report, Brennan also cleared up some potential misconceptions about NXT's
08:13move to the CW. Over the weekend, fans noticed that CW's listing for NXT had it as TV-14
08:19while it was previously listed as PG while on USA Network. This ties into reports that
08:24WWE could be moving to a more edgier product when Raw heads to Netflix in 2025, though
08:31Fightful Select reported that WWE do still want to remain a PG product.
08:36And on the subject of NXT potentially being TV-14, Brennan asked several people in both
08:41production and on a talent level, and writes, no one was told of an impending shift in presentation
08:46related to the age rating change, nor has anyone been told that the show will be TV-14.
08:52Now, why would WWE want to stay PG when you could be TV-14? And it's the usual answer,
08:59money.
09:00Hello, I like money.
09:02Brennan writes, those we spoke to were all sceptical of the possibility of change as
09:07it would cause issues with advertisers on the brand. While the show will remain the
09:11same as it always is, one source from production noted to Brennan that perhaps the TV-14 listing
09:16was a way for WWE to not have to censor the crowd or talent swearing. That same source
09:22also told Brennan that it would be weird for NXT to be TV-14 while Raw and Smackdown are
09:27still PG.
09:28One viewer got in touch with us to let us know that prior to the show airing, NXT was
09:32listed as a PG show on The CW. Shout out to Christopher Holson for getting in touch.
09:37Dave Milton noted of NXT on CW, whatever the number NXT gets tonight, CW has only had 9
09:44shows top .10 this year and the highest is .15. So it would be a shock if it's not
09:51the Network's top rated show all year. It being the debut show, with appearances
09:55from main roster talents coupled with how hot NXT has been as of late, the rating is
09:59expected to be a good one.
10:01And the same can be said for Monday Night Raw. Although it wasn't at first, as Nielsen
10:07originally published that the show did 1.27 million viewers. While this made sense given
10:12the strong football competition, it would be the lowest figure for a regular episode
10:16of Raw in the show's history. However it was revealed about an hour later that this
10:21number was just the live viewership and did not take DVR numbers into consideration. Which
10:26means this week's Raw actually did 1.52 million viewers, which is a very strong number
10:32given the very strong competition.
10:35WrestleNomics report that CM Punk and Drew McIntyre's Hell in a Cell segment was the
10:38highest point, pulling in 1.75 million viewers. The main events of Braun Strowman and Bronson
10:43Reed did around 1.45 million viewers and was all kinds of awesome, but did come with
10:49a cost. Ryan Alvarez reported via Wrestling Observer Live that Strowman was injured during
10:54the match, potentially tearing his groin following a Samoan Drop from Reed. Should have listened
10:59to Sky Blue. It was just before Strowman knocked Reed off the apron through some chairs, where
11:03it looks like he can barely walk let alone run. Alvarez notes, he knocks Reed off the
11:07apron, and there was a long period where he was just kind of laid in the corner and there
11:12were wrists furiously communicating to the back.
11:14Lastly for today, and though speculation is running wild on social media that AEW's
11:19new TV deal with WBD will be announced today or on tonight's Dynamite, there is also
11:24a question mark over next week's Collision.
11:27Next Saturday is WrestleDream, and it's unlikely AEW would counter-program their PPV
11:32with… themselves. Dave Meltzer noted that there was still no confirmed answer on what
11:37will happen to that episode of Collision. He notes that next Tuesday, when AEW is moved
11:42from Wednesday nights because of baseball and will go head-to-head with NXT, they are
11:46set to tape Dynamite and Rampage as per usual, with no current plans to tape Collision matches.
11:52Meltzer speculates that perhaps Collision could be part of a three hour block with Rampage
11:56which it did on the weekend of All Out, but that would require them to tape some matches.
12:01However he reports, sources in the company have said that most likely at this point,
12:05there will be no Collision show on Saturday the 12th.
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