00:00A wrestler has a Twitter meltdown, Kenny Omega shoots on CM Punk, did Triple H know about
00:06the WWE releases and more? I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:18It is, of course, a big time for deciding. And there is one decision on the lips of everyone
00:25in the world right now. What should Mark Briscoe do about his nose hairs? The former Ring of
00:30Honor Champion tweeted, Big decision to make today. I got these white nose hairs coming
00:36in that kinda look like boogies. Do I pluck them boys? Or let them rock out with their
00:41c*** out? Let's hear it in the comments. What should Mark Briscoe do about his nose
00:46hairs? As a man who is approaching 40, I trim mine when needed. Although, perhaps they can
00:52now blend into my super sweet moustache and be hidden away. By the way, have you donated
00:57to our Movember Just Giving page to raise money for men's health? If you send in proof
01:01of your donation and a photo of your hairy upper lip, you'll be featured in a moustache
01:06break right here on the WrestleTalk News. The first one will be coming later this week.
01:10Well, I guess we should probably move onto the less serious news stories in the world
01:14of wrestling, and who remembers Brawlout? For those of you who might be new around here,
01:19Brawlout was an incident that took place following AEW's 2022 All Out PPV. CM Punk, who moments
01:25beforehand had won the AEW World Championship, cut a scathing promo on All Elite Wrestling
01:31and the company's EVPs, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, at the event's press conference.
01:36Following that, he got into a backstage fight with said EVPs along with his trainer Ace
01:40Steele and his dog Larry. Kenny Omega, Matt and Nick Jackson and CM Punk were all suspended
01:46and stripped of their titles, and Ace Steele also found himself suspended along with Christopher
01:50Daniels who was trying to break the fight up. It caused a rift in AEW and a series of
01:55events that would lead to Punk getting into another backstage scuffle the following year
02:00at All In, getting fired for that scuffle and going back to WWE, the company he'd spent
02:05the previous ten years burying. Since Brawlout, there have been several allusions to the event
02:10by all involved, including Punk, whether that be in promos, interviews or spots in the ring.
02:15And now Kenny Omega has done a new one. After making his return to New Japan Pro Wrestling
02:20at Power Struggle, Omega did an angle with Bullet Club member and former Survival Series
02:25contestant Gabe Kidd. And now speaking with Tokyo Sports, Omega has compared Kidd to…
02:31yep, you guessed it. He said, it's true that I'd gotten Gabe's name wrong in an
02:35interview before and that was my fault. But then he suddenly pushed me and took a fighting
02:40stance. I immediately remembered the incident that happened in AEW. I won't say his name,
02:45but I thought that Gabe was unfit to be a professional, just like that guy.
02:51It's quite clear that Omega's feud with Kidd is riffing off his real life heat with
02:55CM Punk, but what do you make of all of this? Let me know in the comments down below.
02:59Over to WWE now, and it was revealed last Friday that Baron Corbin, Tegan Nox and Indi
03:03Hartwell's time in the company had come to an end.
03:06It's hard to find the right terminology in this situation. On Friday's Breaking
03:10News video, where you definitely didn't see this glorious moustache before yesterday's
03:14big reveal, I said that Hartwell and Nox had been released as that was the wording
03:18used by Fightful. However, they've since added in a Fightful Select post, we were still
03:22working to find out if Tegan Nox and Indi Hartwell were released or had their contracts
03:27set to expire. Triple H has taken issue with the word release in the past, which is why
03:32Fightful have started to use the word departures.
03:35Corbin was far more cut and dry, as his contract was coming to an end and was informed that
03:39he would not be re-signed by the company. He has since replied to a comment on Instagram
03:43agreeing that WWE fumbled him. Fightful Select also reported that Corbin had filmed a promo
03:48video for Raw's debut on Netflix, a report that Corbin himself confirmed to be true.
03:53Indi Hartwell also wrestled on the episode of Smackdown that aired on the same day her
03:57time in WWE came to an end as the episode had been taped the previous week. So the question
04:03from WWE fans has been, did Triple H know that these departures were going to happen?
04:09Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select writes, I wasn't told if Triple H had a say directly,
04:14but two out of the three were people who weren't being used on TV at all. It's hard to believe
04:19that someone they had firm and big creative plans for would be let go if someone in control
04:24of creative wanted them to stay. However, SRS does add that Mustafa Ali was set to win
04:29the NXT North American Championship at No Mercy 2023, but was released nine days before
04:35that show took place.
04:36As with any set of WWE departures, there are idiots on Twitter who create fake accounts
04:40to announce more people are being released or losing their jobs. When we've done live
04:44stream news videos in the past, we've seen first hand people who think they're being
04:48funny trying to spread misinformation about other departures. But it's not just morons
04:53on Twitter, as SRS writes there have been some wrestling outlets reporting that more
04:58WWE releases will be coming soon or early next year, or there will be another round
05:03of releases. This, according to Fightful Select, is bogus. He writes, we've covered
05:08hundreds of releases, expirations and departures since 2020, and at no point was another round
05:15ever indicated.
05:16There's been a lot of chat this year about WWE introducing more titles to their roster
05:21of belts. The Saudi Arabia Crown Duel Championship ended up not really being a title, and there
05:27have been reports that The Rock wants to defend his People's Championship at next year's
05:31WrestleMania. Those are just one-off titles, but there have been reports that WWE are interested
05:37in bringing in a mid-card title for the women's division, much like they have done in NXT
05:42with the Women's North American Championship. But if you ask Damian Priest, he wants a different
05:47title in WWE. Priest, who won a number one contenders match to face Gunther on this past
05:52Monday's Raw, spoke with Conversations with the Wrestling Classic about his idea that
05:57he would win the WWE Tag Team Championships with his Terra Twin partner Rhea Ripley. Saying,
06:03for Rhea and me to win titles together, that would be huge, very meaningful, we've talked
06:09about it. Look, they didn't even book the really easy match of Rhea vs. Dom. I don't
06:13think we'll be seeing Rhea Ripley win the WWE Tag Team Championships anytime soon, even
06:18after she returns. But thankfully for Priest, WWE does have a track record of mixed tag
06:23tournaments. Remember Mixed Match Challenge? Priest certainly does, as he added in the
06:28interview that at the very least they should bring back Mixed Match Challenge and create
06:32a title for it. If you're going to have more intergender tag teams, you'll need
06:36more intergender groups, and it would appear that the main roster had recently got one
06:40called up. We just didn't know it.
06:42Lash Legend and Ja'Kara Jackson have been featured on both Raw and Smackdown over the
06:46last few weeks, getting involved with the Women's Tag Team Championships, the Power
06:50Girl, Buff Girls, Damage Control and Chelsea Green and Piper Niven. They even competed
06:54for the Women's Tag Titles on a main roster pay-per-view. When talking about Legend and
06:58Jackson, wrestling media have been calling them NXT's Legend and Jackson, and it would
07:03appear that is incorrect as they have been, reportedly, officially called up. And they've
07:09not been called up alone. Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Radio said,
07:13It's not official, but I know people there who believe that all of Meta 4 have been called
07:19up. This would mean that both Noam Dar and Aura Mensah have also been called up to the
07:24main roster, but have yet to be featured on TV. Now personally, I would take this one
07:30with a pinch of salt.
07:31What you don't need a pinch of salt for, however, is a follow-up to a story that Oli
07:34Davis covered on yesterday's WrestleTalk News. Allegedly, Jacob Fatu, shortly before
07:39making his WWE debut, couldn't attend a charity wrestling show and didn't pay back
07:44his appearance fee and travel costs of around $2,600. A Reddit user first brought this news
07:49back to light, and the charity themselves told Sports Illustrated that while Fatu did
07:53apologise for not attending the show, he had not paid back the $2,600.
08:00And now in a new update from Fightful Select, this has all been sorted out. And actually,
08:05it turns out, it was sorted out months ago. They write, Fightful spoke to sources familiar
08:09with the situation that claimed that Fatu had rectified the issue months ago. When we
08:14reached out to Jake's Network of Hope, they confirmed that he actually made a full payment
08:19in June 2024 that they had overlooked. Overlooked. Title of your next WWE developmental system.
08:26Speaking of WWE's developmental system, and it was revealed last week that WWE's
08:31NXT was set to get its own developmental system. No, not TNA, but WWE ID, a program that would
08:38tag independent wrestlers and put them on a path that would eventually lead them to
08:42WWE. The program was praised by some, but criticised by others who likened it to WWE's
08:48systematic takeover of the British independent wrestling scene in 2017-2019. WWE ID has partnered
08:56with several wrestling schools, including Booker T's Reality of Wrestling, and their
08:59Twitter account has been teasing that the first ID would be revealed this weekend. Reposting
09:05a Reality of Wrestling event poster with the caption, someone's been ID'd, be there
09:10this Sunday to find out who. So who could it be? Well, the person in question may have
09:17let the cat out of the bag as Zilla Fatu replied to the tweet with an emoji of putting pen
09:22to paper, which he then deleted. Fatu. Where have I heard that name before? Ah yes, the
09:30previous story we just discussed. Zilla Fatu is the real-life brother of Jacob Fatu, which
09:35means he is part of the Bloodline. There have been strong rumours and reports that WWE have
09:41had interest in bringing Zilla Fatu into the company. Or maybe it could be Jake Hager.
09:46The former Jack Swagger signed with AEW in 2019, becoming part of Chris Jericho's Inner
09:51Circle and the Jericho Appreciation Society groups. It was reported that his contract
09:57was coming to an end in 2024, and Bodyslam reported when it came up that AEW and Hager
10:02mutually agreed to part ways. But perhaps the mutual agreement has come to an end, as
10:08Hager has taken to Twitter to post, do you want proof that Tony Khan is a communist and
10:12threatened me to be silent or else? A lot of people then made fun of Jake Hager for
10:17alleging that billionaire Tony Khan could be a communist. To which he then went on
10:22a bit of a Twitter meltdown, posting, wrestling fans die believe s*** they're told is real
10:27lmao. And if that wasn't confusing enough, he then posted, I love all the pro wrestling
10:32fans that think they're educated. Yes, he did use the wrong there in a tweet saying
10:37that wrestling fans are uneducated.
10:39Lastly, Hager's former manager in WWE Dutch Mantell has a GoFundMe page set up in his
10:44name to help him with his health costs. The page writes that Mantell, who featured in
10:48Wrestling Masterclass as a teacher, is currently at home recovering from a month-long stay
10:52in hospital, adding that he'd previously beaten sepsis twice and nearly died on both
10:56occasions. There's a link for his GoFundMe page which can be found in the video description
11:00down below. And while you're in the process of clicking links, why not check out our latest
11:04wrestling list where Tempest looks at wrestlers that WWE tried to erase from their history
11:10books.
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