00:00The real reason WWE stars left the company is their heat on Undertaker for his Donald
00:06Trump podcast, both AEW and WWE in controversy and more. I'm Luke Owen and this is the
00:13WrestleTalk News.
00:21This week's Raw was probably the best of the new two hour era, which saw Braun Breaker
00:25regain his Intercontinental Championship, New Day and LWO advance in the tag tournament
00:31and Rhea Ripley once again very easily beat up Liv Morgan. But if you were to go by Twitter,
00:37none of that were the big talking points coming out of the show. During a backstage segment
00:42with Adam Pearce and Damage Control, Kalito quipped upon Io Sky and Kairi Sane leaving
00:46the scene, I gotta learn Chinese. For anyone confused, Io Sky and Kairi Sane are Japanese.
00:53This also isn't the first time it's happened to Sky, as she was heckled in NXT years back
00:57by a fan asking her to go back to China. The line was edited out of social and YouTube
01:03clips and was called out online, but also appears to have split opinions. The live chat
01:08on our WrestleTalk podcast was seemingly split between those who found it offensive and those
01:12who argued it was a heel character saying something heelish. And it wasn't just fans
01:20upset as Ring the Bell's DS called the line out on Twitter, as did professional wrestler
01:25Kevin Koo. And it's not just fans, critics and wrestlers, as Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful
01:30Select is reporting that internally, there were a number in the company that weren't
01:35happy it happened. SRS adds, the claim internally from at least one staff member was that the
01:41line was not scripted, and that those they spoke to were in disbelief that it was said.
01:47However according to Fightful Select, there is no word on action being taken against Carlito
01:52for the reported ad-lib, and there is currently no heat on him. For what it's worth, Bryan
01:57Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live said that he'd heard the same thing, that this was
02:00an ad-lib by Carlito, and that Io and Kairi did not have a problem with it and saw him
02:06playing as an idiot. What did you make of the line, and do you think there should be
02:09any actions taken against Carlito? Let me know in the comments down below.
02:14Not to be outdone, AEW's Max Caster also found himself in some Twitter controversy.
02:19At Beyond Wrestling over the weekend, Drew Gulak, after being defeated by TNA's Masha
02:23Slamovich, cut a promo making reference to his release from WWE and the allegations made
02:29against him by Ronda Rousey, asking Slamovich if he'd ever made her feel uncomfortable
02:34in the locker room. When she responded, no, he told her, well you should have, and then
02:40he attacked her. Gulak had been accused by Rousey of grabbing the drawstring of her sweatpants
02:44backstage at a WWE event. The accusations led to Gulak quietly being removed from NXT
02:50TV, his contract not being renewed, and directives to not mention his name on commentary. He'd
02:56also been accused of bullying in WWE locker rooms. Gulak has said the Rousey interaction
03:01was a misunderstanding and an accident.
03:04So where does Max Caster fit into all of this? The angle was posted onto Twitter with the
03:09caption, Drew Gulak turned his sexual assault allegations into an angle which was reposted
03:15by Max Caster with, love this. It would appear that Caster praising the angle drew some backlash
03:20as he has deleted the tweet.
03:22Now this is far from the first time that Caster has found himself in Twitter controversy,
03:27for both shoot and work reasons, as recently he put out a tweet saying he doesn't want
03:31Shelton Benjamin in AEW. Well it turns out, Tony Khan did. Shelton Benjamin made his debut
03:37in AEW following the Grand Slam debut of MVP who entered into a feud with former AEW World
03:43Champion Swerve Strickland. Fightful Psych reported that both Benjamin and MVP had signed
03:47deals with All Elite Wrestling, and Bobby Lashley would be joining them soon as the
03:52new group, The Hurt Syndicate, the next evolution of the Hurt Business in WWE.
03:57It's hard to say if The Hurt Business were over as an act as they were a group during
04:02a period of time when there were no fans in WWE buildings, but going by the reactions
04:07we saw online and what we saw in our own comments section and live chats on the WrestleTalk
04:11Podcast, the group were very popular. There were lots of calls online for them to reform
04:16once Triple H took over creative, but MVP remained paired with The Moss and Bobby Lashley
04:21instead formed The Pride with Street Profits and BFAB. MVP has since said in Instagram
04:26comments that he also wanted to get the band back together, but Triple H was not interested
04:31and instead gave a lot of their ideas to The Bloodline instead.
04:34And in a new interview with K&S WrestleFest, Bobby Lashley himself has spoken out about
04:39The Hurt Business' treatment in WWE, insinuating it was the reason he decided not to re-sign
04:44with WWE. He said he felt the group being overlooked was a spit in the face and that,
04:51they just didn't want us. He added, different people like different things. When the regime
04:56changed, the regime wasn't too high on me at all and we're definitely not high
05:01on MVP and Shelton Benjamin. Do you agree with Bobby Lashley? Let me know
05:05in the comments down below.
05:06I gotta be honest with you guys, it was really weird last week when Oli Davis and I were
05:10putting together the packaging for a WrestleTalk News episode and had to check what sort of
05:14terms people were searching for when it came to Donald Trump appearing on The Undertaker's
05:19podcast. Look, I know Trump did an angle with WWE back in 2007 but, and I hate to say this
05:25because I feel like I will turn to dust after I've done so, that was nearly 20 years ago.
05:29So it's weird to be talking about Donald Trump again in a wrestling news capacity.
05:33Trump was a guest on Taker's podcast ahead of the 2024 presidential election, reportedly
05:38as he was looking for the bro vote. Insert Vince Russo joke here. While the podcast appearance
05:43caught the ire of Jim Cornette, it would appear there isn't any flak from within WWE. Sean
05:49Ross Sapp noted on his Backstage Report podcast on Fightful Select that there are a lot of
05:53people that disagreed with the podcast, but that's the nature of politics. He was asked
05:57specifically by a listener if there was any heat on Undertaker in WWE for the podcast
06:02and SRS replied, I haven't heard of anyone in WWE that's mad at him for it.
06:08Ever since Adam Cole told his Twitch viewers that he was moving back to his home state
06:12of Pennsylvania, there's been a lot of online speculation about the status of his relationship
06:16with Britt Baker. The pair had once been put together on screen as a power couple of AEW,
06:21they both won the inaugural Owen Hart tournament and were the focal point of AEW All Access.
06:27Speaking on the online rumours, Cole revealed to Sports Illustrated that, "...we are no
06:31longer a couple." He added that they both still love each other and are friends, saying,
06:36I don't want anyone to ever think that me and Britt dislike each other. The last thing
06:40I would want is fans to pick sides or anything like that.
06:45Speaking of fans picking sides, the drama of the Lucha Bros leaving AEW for WWE is still
06:51ongoing and will be ongoing for a while to come. To catch you up if you've not been
06:55watching closely, the Lucha Bros were reportedly being very vocal backstage in AEW that they
07:01were not going to re-sign their contracts and were heading to WWE. Reports came out
07:05that WWE's merchandising department had been given the go-ahead to start making Lucha
07:10Bros merchandise and creative plans were put in place for their debut. The problem was,
07:16both of them were still under contract with All Elite Wrestling. In fact, they're still
07:20under contract.
07:22It has since been speculated that the Motor City Machine Guns debut on Smackdown was in
07:26part to the Lucha Bros not being able to go to WWE, as Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin were
07:32reportedly heading to NXT to be part of the CW era of that show. There's also been some
07:37online speculation that Dragon Lee's recent push on Raw is due to them no longer getting
07:42Penta or Rey Fenix. According to Dave Meltzer, it's going to be a while before we see the
07:46Lucha Bros together again. Not only that, but it may be a while before we see Fenix
07:51as a singles guy. He noted that Penta's deal has not been extended and he is a free
07:55agent, but Fenix will remain under contract with AEW as they extended his time due to
08:00injury and said, my impression is, if guys are going to go to WWE, Tony's not going
08:06to use them. They're going to be frozen for a while.
08:09Speaking of being frozen, and Sean Ross Sapp was asked on his backstage podcast about the
08:13status of Scorpio Sky in All Elite Wrestling. Sky's last match in AEW was over a year
08:19ago in September 2023 in a losing effort to Andrade El Idolo on Collision, and he had
08:24a few Ring of Honor matches until his last one in October last year. Sky had been out
08:29with another injury, but is currently back in action wrestling for GCW last Friday. When
08:34asked about plans being dropped for Sky, SRS replied that AEW repeatedly dropped plans
08:39for him. While not outright saying that Sky was done with AEW, he added the fact he's
08:44taking indie dates now is telling. You can check out yesterday's WrestleTalk News where
08:48Oli Davis looked at a surprising exit from WWE, and why Triple H could have walked out
08:53of the company.
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