00:00Is the WWE brand split over? WWE talent sent home! My review of NXT and AEW Dynamite and
00:07more. I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:17The most recent version of the WWE brand split came in 2016 when Stephanie McMahon and Mick
00:22Foley took over Raw, while Shane McMahon and Bryan Danielson ran Smackdown. That was only
00:26eight years ago, but somehow feels like a totally different universe. Since then the
00:31company has mostly stuck to the brand split, however over the last month or so it feels
00:36like they've not been bothered by it. Nia Jax and Tiffany Stratton had a match on Raw,
00:40The Judgment Day and Rhea Ripley were on Smackdown, Jey Uso and Gunther went to the blue brand
00:45and Jimmy went to the red one. All while Jakara Jax and Lash Legend were on both shows and
00:50on NXT at the same time. Now granted, the argument against all of that would be, well
00:56it was Crown Jewel wasn't it and that was built around into promotional matches. Another
01:00argument is that both shows are, for the time being, on the same network, so there aren't
01:05channel heads demanding other guys and girls to show up on their stations. But that will
01:09change when WWE moves to Netflix in 2025, which, and I hate to be the one who makes
01:14the passage of time feel ever decreasing, is only eight or so weeks away.
01:19Off the back of a report that Netflix have requested certain names to be on their show,
01:22Fightful Select report that with Smackdown being on USA Network and Raw being on Netflix,
01:27each platform will need unique talent. Netflix requesting certain names means that they understand
01:34that there will be some parity there. SRS also adds that talent do not know which shows
01:39they will be on yet. Interestingly, in answer to the question, is the brand split dead,
01:44Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select replied, it's not 100% dead. Which could mean that
01:49while there will be a brand split in 2025, there will be more crossovers of talent across
01:55both shows. In other backstage news, Dave Meltzer is reporting that Bruce Prichard and
01:59Michael Hayes are both on temporary leave of WWE. This report has since been backed
02:04up by several other outlets. Some fans felt that something was amiss with Michael Hayes
02:09following Crown Jewel, as it was reported that Jamie Noble was the producer of the Bloodline
02:13six-man tag at that show. Usually this role is reserved for Michael Hayes, as he's the
02:17producer of all Roman Reigns matches and segments as he goes back with the Anawayi families
02:22of the 1970s. Meltzer writes that Hayes' absence is due to personal issues. As for
02:27Bruce Prichard, Meltzer was told that it was due to a family emergency. He adds both are
02:31expected back, although the timeframe was said to be indefinite. Though both men going
02:35on leave at the same time could cause some to get some red string and a cork board, Meltzer
02:39writes that the two are not connected, and this is not WWE getting rid of The Old Guard.
02:45Fightful Select add in their report, neither one of these absences are Vince McMahon related
02:50for conspiracy theorists.
02:51And speaking of The Old Guard, last night's NXT took place in the old ECW arena and WWE
02:58went full ECW on this ECW tribute show. Jada Parker beat Lola Weiss in a hardcore match
03:04with ECW's Dawn Marie as the special guest referee. I'm a poet and I didn't even
03:09know I was rhyming those words. Wesley attacked ECW's Rob Van Dam who was trying to give
03:14advice to Kalani Jordan, and ECW's Little Guido and Tony Mamma Luke of the Full Blooded
03:18Italians met with Tony D'Angelo and his family in a fun segment. Javon Evans beat
03:23Wesley with some distractions from ECW's Rob Van Dam, and Robert Stone interrupted
03:27Ava's announcement of Deadline but was gored out of his boots by ECW's Rhyno. ECW's
03:32Bubba Ray Dudley teamed with Trick Williams and the latter of which got pinned by Ridge
03:35Holland following a knee strike. Bubba and Williams then did the Was Up spot, which was
03:40more of a WWE spot than an ECW spot, and ECW's Devon Dudley came down with a table and put
03:46Ethan Page through it. Tony D'Angelo defeated ECW's Little Guido, and William Regal had
03:50a segment backstage with his IRL son Charlie Dempsey. ECW's Francine was shown at ringside
03:55as the show was main evented by an awesome ten woman tag, as TNA's Jordan Grace teamed
04:01with Stephanie Bakker, Julia Kalani Jordan and Zaria to beat Fallon Henley, Jason Jayne,
04:06Jasmine, Cora Jade and Roxanne Perez. This was so much fun, and a great way to cap off
04:12what was a fun episode of NXT that was more of a tribute show to a company that died 23
04:19years ago. I'm all for ECW tributes, don't get me wrong, but of all the ECW tribute shows
04:23I've seen, and boy howdy have I seen a lot, this was on the lower end. WrestleVotes are
04:29reporting that the CW expects this episode of NXT to get the highest rating the show
04:34has ever done, which I can't see being the case. It's not on its usual night, it didn't
04:39have a main roster star like CM Punk or Randy Orton, and it's going up against AEW and
04:44election coverage. The AEW is probably the least important factor in all of that, but
04:49it is still a factor. And speaking of AEW Dynamites, the show opened with Tony Schiavone
04:54bringing out the Hurt Syndicate, with MVP introducing each of their members and letting
04:58the AEW roster know if you accept a business card, things can be great. But if not, you'll
05:04end up like Swerve Strickland. Swerve came out and laid out a challenge for Bobby Lashley
05:08at Full Gear, which MVP accepted. A huge first match for Bobby Lashley in All Elite Wrestling,
05:15and a great debut for the Hurt Syndicate. The newly named Death Riders of Pac and Claudio
05:20Castagnoli took on Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin in a tremendously fun match with four
05:25awesome guys that the crowd was super into. They went nuts for both Allin and Cassidy's
05:30hot tags, but the match broke down when Wheelie Yuta got involved, Marina Shafir blew to the
05:34ref and Jon Moxley choked out Orange Cassidy. Can't have a DQ if the match gets thrown
05:39out. But you can't fool me Tony Khan, I see what you're doing here. This is still
05:44a DQ, you've just rebadged it you fool. I hated this finish, but the post-match was
05:50cool as Cassidy and Darby got laid out by the Death Riders before the conglomeration
05:54ran down for the save. Death Riders cut a promo later with Mox saying that he is disappointed
05:58in Darby Allin. This led to Tomohiro Ishii, Mark Brisco and Kylo Reilly taking on The
06:02Learning Tree in a hardcore trios match. It's funny because Tony Khan and I are roughly
06:08the same age, he's like a few years older than me, which means he and I grew up with
06:12the same style of wrestling TV show and this is just what that used to include. Just look
06:17at last night's NXT show. Random hardcore matches where dudes hit other dudes with random
06:22things and none of it really means anything and then a finish happens. But you pop and
06:27you whoop and you ooh and you ahh for the table breaks and ladder breaks but, like using
06:31French words to describe things, it does feel a bit passé.
06:35With that said, I did enjoy this a lot. Big Bill in particular was great. Mark had the
06:41match won with the J-Driller and the Froggy Bow from the top of a ladder through a table
06:44but he's not facing Jericho next for the ROH Championship so Brian Keith broke it up
06:48and Ishii hit Jericho with a Brain Buster and Sliding Elbow for the win.
06:51Which brings us to Adam Cole vs. Malakai Black, and the reports that the latter might be done
06:58with AEW. Last week when Cole took on Buddy Matthews, the crowd seemingly turned on Adam
07:03Cole and booed him in favour of Buddy Matthews. I thought it was a one-off, a one-time crowd
07:08having a bit of fun, but in this match, Malakai Black hit the Black Mass and Cole kicked out
07:14and the crowd booed again. Cole then hit the Panama Sunrise and Black sat cross-legged
07:18asking him to finish the match, which he did by dropping the Boom and getting the win.
07:22Afterwards they hugged and Cole cut a promo saying that Malakai Black is one of the best
07:26he's ever been in the ring with. This led to some online speculation that this was the
07:31Tommy End for Malakai Black in All Elite Wrestling. A rare singles match, a rare pinfall loss
07:37and an almost goodbye tribute from one of the company's top stars. Fightful Select
07:41report that this might not have been a send-off, but write that those in AEW do believe that
07:46he is done with the company as soon as the end of this year or perhaps early next year.
07:51You might recall Tony Khan saying in a media call that Black was with AEW for at least
07:55five years back in 2022, and it would appear that is technically true if AEW exercise options
08:02that extend his deal. Fightful add, when there were rumours that Malakai wanted to go back
08:06to WWE in 2022, we're told AEW wasn't interested in letting people out of their
08:12deals to go back to WWE whether it be him or someone else.
08:16While not similar as he wasn't there previously, we saw recently that AEW added time to Rey
08:21Phoenix's contract due to injuries, which prevented him and his Lucha brother Pentagon
08:25Jr. jumping ship to WWE. Interestingly, and this is a bit of fun, Justin Wang tweeted,
08:30was just chilling with him last week, he's not injured, leaving or retiring. Gotta say
08:35it's a pop for me getting to quote Justin Wang on this show, it's like being able
08:38to report what Grand Pooh Bear might have said about Adam Cole on Twitter.
08:41Following Cole's match, he revealed that if he and Roderick Strong can win one more
08:45match each, it will be a triple threat at Full Gear between him, Roddy and MJF. Max
08:49made a phone call to someone from home, later revealed to be a big dude who offered Don
08:53Callis lots of money to take out Adam Cole.
08:55Renee tried to interview Jay White, who instead got attacked by Adam Page, and the two had
08:59a brilliant brawl and saw Juice Robinson make the save. This was great and I love Adam
09:05Page.
09:06Chris Statlander will face Mercedes Monet at Full Gear, and Camille tried to do it for
09:09the Monet and run Statlander over, but missed. Statlander laid out both of them.
09:14Christian Cage cut a promo on ECW, can't imagine why, and said that Kip Sabian was
09:19a fatherless loser looking for guidance so he brought him into the fold, and is less
09:24of a disappointment than his other sons. He called out Hook and revealed that he did attack
09:28Taz because he wants another son in his ranks, and Hook ran down to attack them but they
09:33bailed, so he killed the security instead.
09:35Oh yeah, women! Penelope Ford took on Jamie Hayter in a match where Ford looked really
09:40great and Hayter got the win with a Desperation Hayterade. It's only Ford's second match
09:44in two years but it didn't feel like it and it was a great presentation, but less
09:48than five minutes is unforgivable. It didn't even go two segments with an ad break, it
09:53was just entrances, a sprint of a match and a finish. Do better. I'm a broken record
09:58at this point, but since Mariah May's win at All In, the AEW women's division has
10:02been ice cold and seemingly on hold until Toni Storm comes back. So, thankfully, maybe
10:08things can move in a better direction as Mina Shurikawa was announced to be on Dynamite
10:13next week.
10:14Speaking of a change of pace and with the young Bucks off TV until next year, Kazuchika
10:18Okada can get back to being Kazuchika Okada. He had a video promo putting over the return
10:23of the Continental Classic and how he wants to become the best tournament performer of
10:27all time. This was great and it got me so hyped for the return of the C2. I really hope
10:32that Shelton Benjamin is in it this year.
10:34And the main event saw the Don Callis family take on Ricochet and a mystery partner. Yeah,
10:39I know who this is. I said to myself while writing my notes this morning, the mystery
10:44partner will be Will Ospreay. I even wrote that down. So I was rather surprised when
10:49it was actually a returning Powerhouse Hobbs who is no longer under contract with Don Callis.
10:54This match was so damn fun and featured some awesome pairings like the meatiness of Hobbs
10:58and Tekeshta and the speediness of Ricochet and Fletcher. Ricochet backflipping out of
11:03Tekeshta's Wheelbarrow German Suplex genuinely took my breath away. And the surprises continued
11:08as not only did this match have a clean finish, Ricochet pinned Tekeshta.
11:13Fletcher attacked Ricochet after the match, but Mark Davis ran down to get into a shoving
11:16match with his Aussie open partner and got attacked by Lance, Archer and Brian Cage.
11:20Fightful Select are reporting that Davis is now officially cleared to wrestle again,
11:24which is great news. Adam Cole had a brawl with Tekeshta as they're having a match
11:28next week, and Will Ospreay ran down to make the save for Davis in an awesome closing angle.
11:33This was a great way to cap off what was a very fun edition of AEW Dynamite. But did
11:38you know that a wrestler had a bit of a Twitter meltdown and accused Tony Khan of being a
11:43communist? Check out yesterday's WrestleTalk News for more information.
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