00:00A match finish botched at Bad Blood?
00:02Rock the Dwayne Johnson's huge secret WWE plans?
00:06Triple H still isn't good at media conferences?
00:10And more.
00:11I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:22Last week, it was reported AEW and Warner Bros Discovery had agreed a new TV deal worth
00:27$185 million per year, making AEW the second most profitable North American wrestling company
00:35of all time.
00:36Yet, despite all that money, one of their top performers is still having to supplement
00:40their income with outside work.
00:43Let me introduce you to Darby Allin Children's Entertainer, who's posted, pulled up at
00:48a random birthday party, and taught everyone the Coffin Drop lol.
00:52homie in background mid-Coffin Drop, with video included.
01:14He was reposting the birthday boy's dad's message, thanking Darby for making the day
01:18so memorable.
01:19Next year, kid, we'll use real glass.
01:22And when you're all grown up, you can bleed everywhere in a cage.
01:25WWE's Bad Blood took place on Saturday, which was opened, not main evented by, CM
01:30Punk vs Drew McIntyre in Hell in a Cell.
01:33PWInsider is reporting that WWE were very pleased with the match, feeling that it restored
01:38the stipulation to its sense of danger and violence that it's lost in recent years.
01:43This is mission accomplished for Punk, who publicly said in an interview that WWE had
01:48diluted the Hell in a Cell stipulation by having a pay-per-view named after it.
01:53Meaning you had a Hell in a Cell that needed matches, rather than the storyline driven
01:57way round of matches needing a Hell in a Cell.
02:01The PLE also saw several returns, the first one of which immediately screwed up the finish
02:06of a major match.
02:08After two lengthy periods away from the ring because of her Mast Cell Activation Syndrome,
02:12Raquel Rodriguez slash Gonzalez returned in the Liv Morgan vs Rhea Ripley Women's World
02:17title match.
02:18While Raquel was a babyface the last time we saw her back in February's Elimination
02:22Chamber, she is a former two-time women's tag team champion with Morgan, so her teaming
02:27with the heel Liv made sense.
02:29Unfortunately, what didn't make sense was the finish of the match she returned in.
02:34Through an unexplained series of lockpickings and ankle chainings, Dominik Mysterio had
02:38found himself hanging upside down from his shark cage over the entrance ramp.
02:42Ripley couldn't resist the pinata fun to be had, so she got out the ring, ignoring
02:46her opponent, and started wailing on him with a kendo stick.
02:50This is when Gonzalez made her return, beat up Ripley, threw her in the ring and put Morgan
02:54on top of her for the cover, but the referee called for a disqualification instead of counting
03:00the pin.
03:01I said in my review video that Rhea had more than enough reasons to lose, getting distracted
03:05by Dom having Raquel attack her, that they should've just had Liv beat her via cheating
03:10rather than a rubbish DQ victory to Ripley to try and protect her without giving her
03:14the title.
03:15And it turns out, that's exactly what WWE intended, I'm a genius.
03:19Fightful Select is reporting that all the interference was supposed to be done behind
03:23the referee's back, but he ended up seeing absolutely everything.
03:28He felt like he had to call for a DQ rather than the planned finish of Liv getting a pinfall
03:33win.
03:34PWInsider writes that Raquel is back full time, and she'll be part of the Judgment
03:38Day faction moving forward.
03:40The other returns, because there's so many of them, were Bloodline related, with Jimmy
03:44Yuso and Rock the Dwayne Johnson appearing at the end of the show.
03:47Jimmy was written off TV back in April, when he was attacked by the debuting Tamatonga
03:52as Solo Sokoa took control of the Bloodline faction.
03:55This was so Jimmy could take time off to recover from an undisclosed injury.
03:59PWInsider is now reporting Jimmy is fully healed and is also back full time.
04:04But while Jimmy immediately aligned with his Tribal Chief Roman Reigns against Solo's
04:08new blood, The Rock's return was far more cryptic.
04:12Jimmy just walked out on the entrance ramp, counted 1, 2, 3, which has been speculated
04:18to mean everything from queuing up his theme tune to teasing a Rock Cody Roman WrestleMania
04:22triple threat, and then made a slitting his throat gesture.
04:26He posted a video of him immediately following his return on Instagram, walking off backstage,
04:31telling a security guard he'd introduce him to his sister if he had one, telling a
04:34picture of John Cena to eat some fruity pebbles, and momentarily got lost spinal tap style between
04:39all of WWE's production trucks.
04:41Rambling over long Rock promos on social media.
04:44We are so back.
04:45He mostly kept his return reasoning and any other plot points to himself, teasing that
04:50The Rock will tell us his feelings when The Rock is ready.
04:53The only tangible morsel was him saying there's been a bunch of bulls*** that's been going
04:57on in the past six months.
04:59So Solo Sokoa has revealed everything to us instead.
05:02It was Rocky all along.
05:06Because doing shock angles after the copyright logo is so last Survivor Series, Triple H
05:10has now started doing major angles after the show has completely gone off air.
05:15With Kevin Owens turning heel on Cody Rhodes in the parking lot, which fans shared their
05:18own footage of on social media.
05:20But that wasn't the only off-air plot point.
05:23The New Blood faction was chased off through the crowd by the super friends of Roman, Cody
05:27and Jimmy at the end of the show.
05:29Solo and Jacob Fatu had to watch The Rock's return up in the stands, where a fan standing
05:34right next to them captured this footage.
05:41Solo tells Fatu that The Rock coming back was part of the plan, supporting the theory
05:47that Sokoa isn't actually the Tribal Chief at all.
05:51He's been following orders from the final boss Dwayne Johnson to steal the Bloodline
05:55faction from Roman after he had lost his titles at WrestleMania 40.
05:59That means it was The Rock who recruited the Tongans.
06:02Which makes sense, as he considers their father Haku an uncle, and The Rock who told them
06:06to beat up Jimmy Uso and Paul Heyman.
06:10In other majorly eventful things that happened after Bad Blood went off air, Cody Rhodes
06:14teased something even bigger for Atlanta, which has started speculation WWE is bringing
06:19WrestleMania to the city, like every other city WWE has run for the last two years.
06:24And Triple H has posted an update on KO's post-show heel turn.
06:28We are aware of the incident outside of the arena last night between Cody Rhodes and Kevin
06:32Owens.
06:33The matter will be dealt with internally.
06:36Something else Triple H should consider dealing with internally is basic media training.
06:41While Paul Ovec's booking of WWE's premium live event has been incredibly strong since
06:45he took over, his performance in the post-show media conferences have often caused controversy.
06:51Like following January's Royal Rumble, where he was seemingly unprepared for any questions
06:55about the Vince McMahon lawsuit and resignation that happened just days before.
06:59And after May's Backlash show, where he said sites like Fightful weren't credible,
07:03prompting him to send Sean Ross Sapp a cheeseboard to apologise.
07:07Following Bad Blood, Triple H was asked about the lack of diversity on WWE PLEs, specifically
07:13the lack of black male wrestlers.
07:15Lovec responded, I don't see the difference in anybody.
07:18I don't see the colour.
07:19I don't see the nationality.
07:21I don't see any of it.
07:23I just see talent.
07:25This received criticism on social media, as the phrase I don't see colour has fallen
07:29out of favour.
07:30It implies you don't see the experience someone has had to go through.
07:34Triple H's old champion Cody Rhodes could've told him that, as he famously spoke about
07:38deciding never to use that phrase in a 2019 post-AEW show.
07:42I told Brandi one time that I don't see colour, and she said, well, then you don't
07:47see my experience.
07:49Tony Khan, meanwhile, doesn't see heels and faces.
07:52After a lengthy babyface run with the best friends, and then a partnership with Willow
07:56Nightingale, AEW's Chris Statlander finally turned heel on Willow back in May's Double
08:01or Nothing, siding with manager Stokely Hathaway.
08:04Statlander exceeded expectations in her new role, almost stealing the show at All Out
08:09when she beat Nightingale in a fantastic street fight.
08:12But on Saturday's episode of Collision, Statlander was randomly a babyface again,
08:17getting beaten up by Camille in a feud with Mercedes Monet.
08:20There was no explanation on commentary, no backstage angle, and no Hathaway, who had
08:26been managing her for over a year.
08:28This received a lot of criticism from AEW's own audience, with many self-professed fans
08:33saying even they are frustrated by the lack of storytelling here.
08:37And the backstage explanation from Fightful Select won't help that, as they've simply
08:41reported Statlander and Hathaway's partnership was dropped because there wasn't an option
08:46to continue that story.
08:48Goldberg was rumoured to be in talks with AEW last year, but that seems far less likely
08:52after Bad Blood, when he appeared in a segment with Gunther and Triple H raised his hand,
08:57despite Goldberg saying some very critical things about Leveque as recently as March.
09:01Goldberg said you're next during the segment, implying a match against Gunther, and Triple
09:06H said after the show, I saw Bill earlier in the day and it was great, and I saw Bill
09:11later in the day and there was a different look on his face with a spark in his eye so
09:15I would say never say never.
09:18Goldberg being in Gunther for the World Heavyweight title at the next Saudi show confirmed.
09:21Goldberg will potentially join another WCW alumni Diamond Dallas Page, who was shown
09:27in the crowd at Bad Blood, and posted on X that when he got home, the whole experience
09:31convinced him to sign a Legends deal with WWE.
09:34A brief bit of fantasy booking, if you'll indulge me.
09:37DDP is established onscreen as a close friend of Cody's, which he is in real life.
09:41Cody enters a feud with Randy Orton.
09:43Randy Orton Legend Kills DDP with DDP's own move, the Diamond Cutter, aka the RKO.
09:50Now go watch my full review of WWE Bad Blood by clicking the video onscreen now.
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