00:00Women in WWE frustrated at the lack of direction, AEW ignoring its talent, highlights from AEW
00:07and NXT's head-to-head shows. I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:18This past Monday's Raw was the first episode in over a decade that wasn't three hours
00:23long as Raw returns to its former two hour format for the next few months. The show received
00:28mixed reviews. For the first time in the Triple H era, our WrestleTalk Podcast feedback was
00:34that this episode was a thumbs-in-the-middle show, with lots of complaints levied against
00:39its pacing and commercial breaks taking up match time. Fightful Select report that there
00:43were growing pains with the switch back to two hours, but ad-formatting Raw wasn't
00:48difficult as the company has been running two hour Smackdowns for the last 25 years.
00:53That could not be said for the women's division however which came under the most fire from
00:58fans. In a callback to a pre-Give Divas a Chance era Divas division, all the Raw women
01:03had a 10-woman tag. And a meaningless one at that. And Fightful Select are reporting
01:07there was some frustration internally with the booking of the women's match, the perceived
01:11lack of direction for the talent involved and a commercial consuming much of the match.
01:17For my money this is nothing new as I've been saying this on the WrestleTalk Podcast
01:21and on this very show for months that WWE have dropped the ball with their women's
01:26division since Becky Lynch took time off. But what do you think? Let me know in the
01:31comments down below.
01:32And speaking of backstage frustrations, there appears to be some within AEW as well. While
01:37her husband Mike Bennett has been getting semi-regular TV time on Dynamite and Collision,
01:42the same cannot be said for Maria Kanellis. She has been on Ring of Honor managing the
01:47team of Griff Garrison and Cole Carter, but many fans have called for her talent to be
01:50used more across AEW's TV as well as backstage creative.
01:55However, it looks like Maria's time in All Elite Wrestling is coming to an end. In an
02:01update on Instagram, Kanellis posted a video announcing that she was awaiting surgery and
02:05an ultrasound on her thyroid and added,
02:07My contract with AEW is coming up on October 31st. I've reached out to them to find out
02:12whether or not they are resigning me, but I haven't really heard anything yet.
02:17She put out a separate post on Twitter saying, for those asking, I will be accepting interviews
02:21about my time and treatment in AEW after October 31st. Wishing the best for Mike and Maria
02:28on the ultrasound result and surgery.
02:31Last night NXT took place in St. Louis, Missouri in its second episode on The CW and loaded
02:37it up with title matches, debuts and main roster talent. And that's because it wasn't
02:41just the second outing of the black and silver era, but it was also going head-to-head with
02:47AEW Dynamite on TBS which was pre-empted due to the hockey coverage tonight, touchdowns
02:53and such.
02:54The show kicked off with new NXT Champion Trick Williams calling himself Tricky two
02:57times and seemingly found his first challenger for that title when Wes Lee interrupted and
03:02told Williams that he doesn't think that he's it. Continuing the interrupting train,
03:06Tutu'd Raw's Jey Uso came out and he and Williams did dueling chants of Whoop That
03:11Trick and Yeet. The crowd in the building had a good time with it.
03:15There will be Lee vs. Ethan Page in a number one contenders match next week.
03:18Kehlani Jordan teamed with Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair to beat Fatal Influence in a
03:22fun trios match, Fallon Henley in particular was great, and Randy Orton had a conversation
03:27backstage with Nathan Frazier and Axiom about just how fast Javon Evans was. They told him,
03:32he was very fast. Oh, he'll find that out soon enough.
03:36They teased that Julia had a new friend to back her up against Roxanne Perez and Cora
03:39Jade, and it didn't take long to find out who that was. As Perez and Jade came out for
03:43a promo segment bragging about the title retention last week, Julia came out onto the stage to
03:47bring out her old friend, which turned out to be the debuting Stephanie Vakur, who brawled
03:54with the heels and sent them fleeing. A cool debut for Vakur, and slots her right into
03:59the main event scene straight away which is excellent. Still think she could have done
04:02those Rev Pro dates she was booked for, but I get that this is a wrestling war.
04:07Ren Sinclair of No Quarter Catch Crew looks to be Vakur's first NXT match, but in perhaps
04:11the most shocking moment of the night, Tony D'Angelo pinned Oba Femi to win the NXT
04:17North American Championship. Gabba Ghoul more like Gabba Bull, am I right? The match was
04:24very good, the finish was excellent, and the title switch pop was superb. A win all round.
04:31Lash Legend and Ja'Kara Jackson will face Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill for the Women's
04:35Tag Titles on this Friday's Smackdown no less, and Nikita Lyons made her return to
04:39NXT to set up a match with Lola Vice for next week. Traxion beat Smackdown's Grayson
04:43Waller and Austin Theory to retain their tag titles in a good match, and Ridge Holland
04:46had a pull apart brawl with Riley Osborn backstage. Ethan Page seemingly turned babyface when
04:50he stopped a Sexy Red musical performance, and set up a feud with Javon Evans, who then
04:55had his main event match with Smackdown's Randy Orton.
04:58The match was good, but it will only be remembered for the oh-so-nearly-awesome RKO reversal.
05:05Evans attempted a corkscrew dive into the RKO, but it was all mistimed and they both
05:10just fell down. It was a real shame as it was so close to being perfect. In another
05:15era of WWE this would have been the most talked about thing on Reddit and mocked, but with
05:21so much goodwill towards the company right now it is being treated as it should. An unfortunate
05:27mistake.
05:28Another good edition of NXT that was heavy on the wrestling, which I like, and set up
05:31some good stuff for next week. In a stark contrast, AEW didn't feel like a go-home
05:37show for WrestleDream, and it didn't feel like a show that was coming off the back of
05:40a huge TV deal, but more importantly, it did not feel like a show that was trying to compete
05:47and counter-program against NXT. It felt like a show that knew it wasn't going to win
05:52the ratings war, so just did a standard show. Case in point, the first 15 minutes of this
06:01show were multiple talking segments. It opened with Jon Moxley cutting a promo on Bryan Danielson
06:07saying this Saturday, he is walking into war and one day Bryan will understand why it has
06:11to be this way. It was a great promo for Mox with more illusions of bigger implications
06:16for AEW, and with reports saying it's not Shane McMahon, perhaps it will be the AEW
06:22debut of Sami Callihan. Danielson cut a return promo saying that tonight he is going to kick
06:27Claudio Castagnoli's head in, and then Darby Allin came out for a promo with Brodie
06:31King to hype their match for WrestleDream. Talking about their times on the indies together
06:35and how King wanted to come to All Elite Wrestling but was under contract with Ring of Honor
06:40in a pre-TK purchased world. Darby says that King wants to take his spot as the face of
06:45the company, and King agreed because he believes Darby is taking advantage of that honor. Darby
06:52wanted to climb Mount Everest, but what happens when he doesn't come back and the company
06:56no longer has a face? They had a brawl, and Darby cracked King in the face with a Rock.
07:01The talking continued as we cut backstage to find out that Don Callis has struck a deal
07:06with Jake Roberts for Lance Archer, as Jake will have a new group to represent. This probably
07:11could have meant more if we'd seen Jake and Archer on screen together recently.
07:16And then Daniel Garcia did some more talking, announcing he'll be doing more talking later
07:22on. This also should have felt like a bigger deal, but by this point I was so sick of people
07:27f***ing talking. This isn't how you counter-program. Do a f***ing wrestle.
07:32Thankfully, Hologram took on Commander in a brilliant little match that featured all
07:36the lucha. Man, all those people who pretended to be mad about Will Ospreay and Ricochet
07:40last week are going to have a field day with this one. There was a mad spot where Commander
07:45did his rope walk gimmick, but Hologram tried to counter with a springboard on the other
07:49side of the ring, so Commander walk-roped a little more and then powerbombed him out
07:53of the sky. Eventually Hologram hit his Airplane Spin Powerbomb for the win, though he didn't
07:58get time to celebrate as the new LFI of Roos, Drillistico and Beast Mortis attacked, revealing
08:03that Jake Roberts is their new manager. Again, this might have meant more if we'd seen
08:08Roos and Don Callis on screen together recently.
08:12Mark Briscoe cut a great promo out on Chris Jericho, but it's still not enough to make
08:15the J-Line from last week feel like anything more than cheap heat. Oh cool, more talking.
08:21But this one does really mean something, and was about the only part of this week's Dynamite
08:26that felt like a show that was trying to counter-program NXT.
08:30Daniel Garcia came out for a promo to figuratively talk about how he's been sat at home figuring
08:35out what he's going to do with his AEW contract coming up, and report that WWE were chomping
08:42at the bit to sign him. And he wanted to give his answer in front of the fans, because
08:46that's what they deserve.
08:48And his answer is that he is one of the best wrestlers in the world, so he's staying
08:52with the best wrestle. He is staying with AEW. This is a new Garcia and one that wants
08:59gold around his waist.
09:01A good promo, a good segment and a great win for AEW. Now it's time to follow up on that.
09:08He set up a potential TNT title match against Katsuyori Shibata so long as he beats Jack
09:12Perry for the TNT Championship at WrestleDream, and Perry had a promo against Shibata later
09:16in the show.
09:17We got a video package announcing Swerve Strickland returns to AEW at WrestleDream, MVP and Shelton
09:21Benjamin watch from backstage, and then, more talking, as Mercedes Monet cut a promo on
09:27Emi Sakura. We were supposed to get Willow Nightingale vs. Britt Baker in a number one
09:30contenders match for WrestleDream, but Tony Khan announced before the show via something
09:34called TikTok that Baker was unwell. So instead, he booked a four-way cluster of Nightingale
09:41taking on three former women's champions in Serea, Jamie Hayter and Nyla Rose. Neat
09:45on paper, clunky in execution. This whole women's division has been on cooldown since
09:50All In. Which is mad, because Jamie Hayter is right there. She brawled with Serea and
09:56Harley Cameron a lot during the match, and eventually brawled to the back with Penelope
09:59Ford, shoutout to the five of you who get that reference, and Willow pinned Serea after
10:03a Death Valley Driver threw a table. She later pounced Mariah May backstage and cut a great
10:07promo about beating former champions and will make May one next.
10:11Jey White squashed Cody Chun and set up a match with Hangman Page for WrestleDream,
10:14Hook had a few words with Christian Cage backstage, and Mercedes Monet beat Emi Sakura to retain
10:19both her TBS and New Japan Strong Women's Championships.
10:22You know, for a show that was called Title Tuesday, this was the only title match. NXT
10:29had more. But this was, shock, a second women's match on the show, and both of those matches
10:35were given time to get over. But even in that there's frustrations, as Chris Statlander
10:40is just the babyface now, and she's just not with Stokely Hathaway now, and she sent
10:45Camille packing. Why get invested in characters when creative just changes with the wind?
10:51Will Ospreay called out Don Callis to get him to admit that he sent out Kanesuke Takeshita
10:55to attack him last week, and after doing some Boris-like dodging of the question, he finally
10:59admitted that he did it. Will said that he is done with the family, wasn't he already,
11:05and brawled with Takeshita. Carl Fletcher was torn and refused to hit Will with the
11:09screwdriver, and eventually Ricochet ran down for the save. This was the most story-driven
11:13thing on the show, and by far the best build for WrestleDream.
11:17Top Flight are having issues in their group, Private Party turned down the services of
11:20Stokely Hathaway, and the main event saw Bryan Danielson and Wheelie Yuta beat the Blackpool
11:24Combat Club of Claudio and Pact in a great tag team match. Danielson brawled with Mox
11:30afterwards and the rest of the heels beat up poor Wheelie Yuta with a hammer. Danielson
11:34ran back down and stood tall as the show went off the air. Another odd episode of Dynamite.
11:40Getting the TV deal was huge, but they need some solid creative direction if they want
11:45to turn around attendance numbers and interest in the product. And part of that I would think
11:50is starting to announce matches for next week's show ahead of time. Now go and watch
11:55Oli's review of Monday Night Raw, which is back to two hours but was filled with commercials.
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