00:00WWE is pissed about NXT, WWE stars want Def Rebel gone, two AEW shows taken off air, and
00:10more.
00:11I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:23Do you have 3-5 years in the music, media or entertainment industries?
00:29Do you have a deep understanding of and experience in the media and entertainment industry?
00:36And most importantly, do you like really generic wrestling entrance themes that all
00:40sound the same?
00:41Because you could become WWE's new Director of Music Strategy and Operations.
00:47WWE have got many things right in the last few years, creating top stars, signing Netflix
00:53deals and doing record gates.
00:55But one widely agreed upon negative has been that all the entrance music kind of sucks.
01:03Because of a bad record label contract from 2016, WWE started to phase out all of their
01:08really good CFO money produced music, switching to tracks from the music production company
01:13BJBTP, more commonly known as the pseudonym Def Rebel, whom they don't have to pay as
01:19many royalties to.
01:21And now, following a rumour that WWE won't be continuing to use Def Rebel music once
01:25their contract expires, the company has listed the job posting for a new Director of Music.
01:31Don't fire up your iPod minis just yet, though, as it's been pointed out that the
01:35job is more of a strategic and administrative role, rather than a composer one like Def
01:39Rebel, CFO Money or Jim Johnson had.
01:42Although whoever gets this new job might be in charge of finding Def Rebel's replacement,
01:47and potentially start using mainstream music for more wrestler themes, as has been reported.
01:52Fightful claims that there's been a lot of frustration behind the scenes from WWE
01:56wrestlers at the Def Rebel themes, with many being negative on their current entrance music.
02:01One joked that all the members of Judgment Day, Damage Control and Seth Rollins all had
02:05very similar sound and music over a several year period.
02:09Which would be very witty, if Judgment Day's theme wasn't produced by another band called
02:12Alter Bridge.
02:14Apparently many wrestlers were never explicitly told why their themes were changed from their
02:18usually much better CFO Money ones, even though they had asked.
02:23Talent claim to have never actually had any direct contact with Def Rebel, which is very
02:27different to the more collaborative approach Johnson had or Mikey Ruckus in AEW, who work
02:32with the wrestler to come up with a theme that fits their character.
02:35Which is pretty important when WWE has been sometimes focusing more on entrances than
02:41matches.
02:42Many people on the WWE production team are unhappy with Def Rebel's output, telling
02:46Fightful they want a more motivated and personalised approach.
02:51And the NXT roster is annoyed too, this time with their TV broadcaster rather than a music
02:56producer.
02:57Since NXT moved to the CW station earlier this month, they haven't had the luxury
03:02of an overrun.
03:03Their broadcast feed will get cut off bang on 10pm Eastern for the evening news.
03:08NXT have managed to hit the timings over the last few weeks, even if it's occasionally
03:12been a struggle, like CM Punk having to rush through the final moments of the Trick Williams
03:16vs Ethan Page NXT Championship match on the debut episode.
03:20Tuesday 22nd's show closed on the Australian indie wrestler Delta making her debut in NXT
03:26under the new name Zaria.
03:27You might not know that, though, as the feed was cut off in some parts of the US before
03:31she turned up.
03:33Fightful Select is reporting that while WWE officials had previously confirmed with their
03:37satellite providers that NXT would stay on air until 10pm exactly, there was actually
03:43a 20 second delay in some markets, meaning that places like Orlando, the very home of
03:49NXT, had the show cut off before Zaria's debut.
03:53Apparently people backstage were very upset, everyone who runs or has a say in the show
03:58was pissed.
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05:23Wow, that's amazing.
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05:27Now, pie up, little man.
05:29Wait, is that a banana?
05:31It sure is.
05:32And it's loaded.
05:33We'd better do something.
05:34We need to get out of here.
05:35Uh, okay.
05:36Look, a new Ghostbusters film.
05:37Oh, I love the Ghostbusters.
05:38Yeah, me too.
05:39Where is it?
05:40No, no, come with me, Luke.
05:41Come on.
05:42Where are we going?
05:43Where are we going to the Ghostbusters?
05:44Where is it?
05:45Oh, God.
05:46Oh, maybe he's mistaken.
05:47Oh.
05:48Damn.
05:49That paint done fooled me again.
06:00Endeavor, WWE's parent's parent company, so their grandparent, was a bit of a hodgepodge
06:07of ideas.
06:08It's a talent agency, a media rights owner, a film and production company, they put on
06:13live events, a talent agency, they're a ticket seller, it's an ad agency, it's a hospitality
06:18company and a talent agency.
06:20It does so many things, you probably didn't realise I'd put talent agency in there three
06:24times.
06:25But with TKO, the spun-off company that contains the UFC and WWE, they created something focused.
06:32We do combat sports, sometimes legitimate, sometimes predetermined, and the stock market
06:37valued their well-defined mission highly.
06:39But it's been about a year, so let's chuck in a load more IP.
06:42TKO have announced they've acquired On Location, a sport events company, IMG, a sports content
06:47services firm that does everything from selling media rights to making your digital content,
06:52and most excitingly of all, the world's premier ballriding league.
06:57Professional ballriders.
06:58Which, coincidentally, is where your mum competes.
07:02So TKO will no longer be Endeavor's combat sports-focused division, as its name implies,
07:07but potentially a place for all of Endeavor's sports IP and services.
07:11Although… also not.
07:13As Endeavor still has their basketball and esports IPs EuroLeague and ELeague.
07:19But does it really matter if we get a WrestleMania crossover match of Brom Breaker trying to
07:23spear an actual ball from the ballriders thing?
07:26First, he'll probably take on Jacob Fatu, after their brief confrontation on Monday's
07:31episode of Raw, which got arguably the loudest reaction of the show.
07:34According to WrestleVotes Radio, there was heavy, heavy internal praise on how well this
07:39came off, especially reaction from the live crowd in Philadelphia.
07:44We were told that numerous people backstage enjoyed it, and were almost stunned by how
07:48big of a reaction these two men got.
07:51We can say that there is nothing in the short-term plan between the two right now, but the feeling
07:55is creative that they certainly stumbled onto something big.
07:59There is a bigger match WWE could do in the meantime.
08:02Controversially though, it involves intergender wrestling.
08:05Bar a few exceptions, like Baron Corbin hitting the end of days on Becky Lynch in 2019, a
08:10spot that Corbin said got him sent death threats.
08:13WWE have stayed away from any man-on-woman simulated violence.
08:17Women on men spots, however, are fine.
08:19Like Ripley beating up Dominik Mysterio.
08:21But the best conclusion to that storyline is an actual Rhea vs Dominik match, where
08:26Dom can hit Ripley back.
08:29Which is why some are pitching it backstage in WWE.
08:32According to WrestleVotes, there is a real desire on some level of creative to do this
08:36match before the angle fizzles out.
08:38But others backstage are resistant to the idea, as WWE could receive a backlash for
08:43portraying a man laying his hands on a woman.
08:46Do you think WWE should do a Dominik vs Rhea singles match?
08:49Let me know in the comments down below because I'll be replying to people FROM OUTTA THIS
08:53INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE BOTCH.
08:55Gunther and Cody Rhodes will fight in a champion vs champion match at Crown Jewel to win the
09:00gaudiest of belts.
09:01And according to WWE's own recently released match graphic, the champion vs champion is
09:06actually Undisputed WWE Champion Cody vs Intercontinental Champion Gunther.
09:13While Gunther did hold the IC belt for a very long time, he is the World Heavyweight Champion
09:17now.
09:18So WWE's graphics department probably wants to update that render file.
09:21But when you're hot, you can make mistakes like that, and it not even matter.
09:25For AEW right now, who have severely cooled over the course of this year, Will Ospreay
09:29could have match of the century with a 2160 Balcony dive flip finish and it not shift
09:33out of the low 600s.
09:34WrestleNomics is reporting that Wednesday's episode of Dynamite drew 637,000 viewers and
09:40a .19 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
09:44This is slightly up from last week's 633,000 viewers, but also slightly down from last
09:49week's .20 rating.
09:50This is the fourth consecutive week that NXT has beat Dynamite.
09:54NXT's move to the CW, at least initially, has increased viewership massively for the
09:59month of October, thanks to help from main roster stars, and AEW taking a big hit being
10:04moved from its usual slot to Tuesday 8th.
10:07While there's a story behind this or that, in cold hard numbers, NXT has drawn 831,000
10:13more viewers than AEW's total this month.
10:16NXT has performed 36% better than AEW in October.
10:22This has led to low ticket sales for AEW's live events, with this Saturday's Collision
10:27Show in Cedar Rapids, Iowa reportedly doing atrocious ticket sales according to the Wrestling
10:32Observer.
10:33Looking at WrestleTix's status post for the event, the show has only shifted 1,253
10:39tickets, with 458 still available, meaning over a quarter of seats are still empty despite
10:45this being a very scaled back capacity.
10:47At full capacity, the venue can fit in 9,000.
10:51While this is a Collision show, for comparison, at the start of the year, the Wrestling Observer
10:55laid out the warning figures for live event attendance for Dynamite.
10:594,000 is fine, under 3,000 is pretty bad.
11:03Under 2,000, however, is WCW 2,000 attendance levels of bad.
11:08So it's no surprise that two long running AEW TV shows are expected to be cancelled
11:13soon.
11:14According to Fightful Select, while Dynamite and Collision have been renewed with WBD for
11:18the very profitable three year deal, AEW is not planning to film Rampage or Battle
11:23of the Belts in 2025.
11:26Which kind of makes sense, when the last Battle of the Belts episode last Saturday was main
11:30evented without a belt on the line.
11:32But this could be a good thing.
11:34One problem since AEW launch Collision and up the amount of pay-per-views every year
11:37is an oversaturation of content.
11:40Scaling back on TV could really focus Tony Khan into making Dynamite and Collision the
11:45best it can be.
11:46Oh yeah, we're back baby.
11:53Just one more thing.
11:54Apparently AEW are instead going to focus on exploring other possibilities with additional
12:00content.
12:01Which is said to be their new idea of Shockwave.
12:03Swerve Strickland recently let slip that this new program, Shockwave, being on Fox, was
12:08pretty much in the bag when he didn't know he was being recorded.
12:11Although Fox does reportedly have interest in wrestling content now they no longer have
12:15SmackDown, this deal is not yet done.
12:18Who will win the Gordiest of Belts in Saudi Arabia?
12:21Watch mine and Luke's crown jewel predictions now in three words or less… slash fewer.
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