00:00I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk Moustache.
00:21Brock Lesnar hasn't been seen in WWE since losing to Cody Rhodes at last year's SummerSlam.
00:26He was planned to make his return at the Royal Rumble to set up one of the biggest matches
00:29the company could do, a singles match against Dominik Mysterio.
00:33But just days before the show, Janelle Grant filed her lawsuit against Vince McMahon, which
00:38also mentioned a world famous athlete and former UFC Heavyweight Champion.
00:43With Cain Velasquez long gone from WWE, reporters quickly identified this individual as Lesnar.
00:49He was dropped from the Rumble and Rhodes' WrestleMania plans, where he was intending
00:52to face Gunther, was edited out of video packages and, at great expense, totally removed from
00:59that year's 2K video game.
01:01But now, ten months on, a rare photo of the very private beast has emerged.
01:06And he's looking pretty jacked.
01:08Country singer-songwriter Ward Davis posted a photo following a concert last Friday in
01:13Canada of him and Lesnar backstage, and the caption, dude, I get to meet some cool ass
01:18people.
01:19Guess he hasn't read all of the allegations this year.
01:23Brock Lesnar came out to the show last night.
01:25He broke four of my ribs when he put his arm around me for this picture.
01:28Usually, when you see a big name wrestler currently on hiatus looking that jacked several
01:32months out from the Royal Rumble, you go, that big name WWE superstar return confirmed.
01:38And WWE did oddly make reference to Brock on an episode of Raw last month, when both
01:42Cody and Seth Rollins separately mentioned slaying a beast.
01:47Fightful reported there were no plans for him to return to WWE, though, and there haven't
01:51been any talks between them for months, perhaps.
01:54And this is my speculation here, Lesnar could make a comeback to WWE's partner company,
01:59the UFC, which has slightly looser moral guidelines, as a side door return to TKO.
02:05As the Wrestling Observer has always speculated, it's often just a matter of time with these
02:09things.
02:10Historically, the big names, no matter how controversial or difficult to deal with backstage,
02:15tend to go back to WWE if there's enough money to be made.
02:19We should expect Brock to return if the lawsuit goes away.
02:22And Vince has arguably never been in as good a position to do just that.
02:27Unsurprisingly, the ramifications of the US presidential election for professional wrestling
02:31go beyond NXT being moved to Wednesday last week.
02:34Because the country's President-elect is a WWE Hall of Famer, and once close personal
02:40friend of Vince McMahon.
02:42Grant's lawsuit against Vince is currently on pause while the Justice Department conducts
02:46a federal investigation into the allegations of sexual assault and trafficking against
02:51him.
02:52Accusations which he denies.
02:53This has so far included a federal search warrant last July, where they searched McMahon's
02:58phone.
02:59As of right now, McMahon hasn't been formally charged or accused of a crime by the federal
03:03prosecutors.
03:04The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has pointed out that Donald Trump winning the election
03:08has to be considered great news for Vince McMahon, a Trump administration is now going
03:13to be hot on the idea of a Justice Department investigation of McMahon given the connection
03:18between him and the family.
03:21While Vince's marriage to his wife Linda is a unique situation, let's say, they are
03:27still married.
03:28And after Linda being the head of the Small Business Administration in Trump's first
03:31term, she was a key person in his re-election campaign.
03:35She has donated over $10 million to the Trump campaign in 2024 alone.
03:40Any favourable treatment will only affect the federal investigation, though, as the
03:44Janelle Grant and Ring Boy lawsuits are civil cases.
03:48So Cody Rhodes is on his own too.
03:50At the start of September, Wesley Isolde, the lead singer of Boston hardcore punk band
03:55American Nightmare, sued Cody Rhodes over his use of the American Nightmare band name
04:00in clothing and other merchandise.
04:03But unlike a lot of copyright chances, Wesley has a pretty good case.
04:07Because he's talked to Cody in the past, who legally agreed he wouldn't do certain
04:12things.
04:13Because it turned out that entertainment has more than one American Nightmare.
04:17Isolde registered the trademark back in 2016 for music, clothing and apparel and entertainment
04:23services, mainly live music performances.
04:26Cody filed for the same American Nightmare trademark in 2019 for wrestling-related activities,
04:31which started a legal back and forth between him and the band.
04:35They eventually settled the dispute in March 2021, while Cody was still under contract
04:40with AEW, where they agreed Cody would make a one-off payment of $30,000 and he could
04:46use American Nightmare on his merchandise under the condition that such items prominently
04:51used Rhodes' name, likeness or wrestling-related imagery, in a size at least 75% larger than
04:58the American Nightmare text.
05:00This was so it was clear that the American Nightmare merchandise was for Cody Rhodes
05:04the wrestler, not American Nightmare the band.
05:09But recently, Wesley alleges Cody and Fanatics, WWE's merch partner, has been selling t-shirts
05:14that breaches the agreed 75% rule.
05:18Which has meant some of American Nightmare the band's fans have bought American Nightmare
05:22the Cody's merch by mistake.
05:25The lawsuit alleges that on information and belief, WWE and Fanatics intentionally caused
05:30Runnels to breach the settlement agreement.
05:33Previously, the band were seeking damages of at least $150,000, as well as treble damages
05:39of up to $300,000 related to federal trademark infringement.
05:44But now the Boston Herald is reporting Wesley is asking a federal judge to award him at
05:49least $900,000 for the alleged breach of the agreement according to court documents.
05:55Apparently neither WWE, Cody or Fanatics have responded to the lawsuit.
05:59They have until the 15th November to submit an answer.
06:02It all created pitch here from me.
06:04The American Nightmare band should play Kevin Owens down to the ring next time he's on
06:08SmackDown.
06:09KO is currently in a work shoot style blood feud against Cody and Randy Orton, pushing
06:13the WWE's onscreen kayfabe world into a heightened realm of realism.
06:18The latest angle on Friday's SmackDown saw Owens hit Orton with a piledriver, which Michael
06:23Cole referred to as a banned move on commentary, and Randy was stretched out.
06:28WWE have since posted a kayfabe medical update.
06:31You can tell it's kayfabe, because that piledriver was the safest piledriver you've
06:35ever seen.
06:36Breaking!
06:37After last night's brutal attack by Kevin Owens on SmackDown, Randy Orton has been diagnosed
06:42with a surgical cord neu-neuropra-neuropraxia.
06:49There is no timetable for his return.
06:51This is playing off Randy's previous injury, where he had 18 months recovering from double
06:55spinal fusion surgery, while hopefully also building the return of KO's finisher from
07:00Ring of Honor.
07:01The awesome packaged piledriver.
07:03We'll have to see if Orton is back for Survivor Series at the end of this month for the match,
07:07Royal Rumble in February, or maybe…
07:10The Retro Looks Saturday Night's Main Event in Mid-December!
07:14Because according to PWInsider, WWE will feature a retro presentation for the special show,
07:20with the original Saturday Night's Main Event arena seating.
07:23Also on Friday's episode of SmackDown, months after the concept was first reported on, WWE
07:28finally debuted a midcard ladies' championship, the women's United States title.
07:34Come on Chelsea Green, this is made for you!
07:36Nick Aldis only announced the belt itself, and that the inaugural champion would have
07:39to earn the belt, they wouldn't be given it.
07:42Charlotte Flair.
07:44Fightful is reporting that the announcement was kept quiet in the company, and the talent
07:48they spoke to did not know about it until the day of the show, although they expected
07:52something to be announced in either December or January.
07:54They also don't know if a midcard women's belt will be introduced for Raw, like a women's
07:59Intercontinental title, nor how the inaugural champion would be decided.
08:03If the last year of Pool of X booking is anything to go by, it's a tournament.
08:07It will definitely be decided in a tournament.
08:09But there's barely enough time for one Bloodline segment on SmackDown.
08:13How are WWE going to accommodate a whole extra division?
08:16While PWInsider is reporting that three hours for both Raw and SmackDown in 2025 are back
08:23on the table.
08:24Both shows are currently two hours long, which, although is far more digestible, it means
08:28Raw's larger roster is being underserved with TV time.
08:32Hopefully some NXT wrestlers will be added to the main roster at the start of the year
08:36to bolster the rosters even more.
08:38Seth Rollins has advised WWE to prioritise new big heels there, as he's told the Pivot
08:43Podcast.
08:44We're sort of in this era of babyfaces, if you will.
08:47I mean, you've got guys like myself and Cody and Randy Orton and Sami Zayn, and now
08:52Roman's back as a babyface.
08:53And so you've got this era where everything is just clicking and people are loving so
08:57much of what's going on.
08:59I'm looking around and I'm kind of thinking, oh man, we're missing some good heels around
09:04here, you know.
09:05We're missing some good ones.
09:06Gunther, Kevin Owens and the New Blood faction are arguably WWE's only male main event
09:11heels right now, with Brom Breaker and Bronson Reed rising up the midcard.
09:15Perhaps WWE's next big bad guy is from your local high school hall indie show.
09:20WWE's ID program, where they sign indie wrestlers to pre-NXT developmental contracts,
09:26has had several more names announced.
09:28Bryce Donovan, Marcus Mathers, Sam Holloway, Jack Summit, Zara Zaka and It's Gal.
09:34William Regal was shown offering Mathers and Holloway their contracts in a video backstage
09:38at Friday's SmackDown.
09:39Interestingly, Fightful Select is reporting former NXT star Timothy Thatcher has also
09:44joined the ID program.
09:46Just not as a young trainee, he's a 41 year old with 19 years experience in the business,
09:51but as a trainer.
09:52Thatcher had been released back in 2021, shortly before NXT was rebranded as NXT 2.0.
09:59WrestleNomics and Post Wrestling have reported that WWE's ID program had been in development
10:03for quite some time, but that it was unlikely to have actually been implemented if Vince
10:08McMahon was still in charge.
10:10While AEW did get some good news over the weekend with the return of Julia Hart on Saturday's
10:15collision, the post-mortem on the 1st November episode of Rampage was dire.
10:21That show drew a record low audience of just 172,000 viewers and a .05 rating in the 18-49
10:28demographic.
10:29For context, Rampage had been doing under 300,000 viewers, which was already considered
10:34low.
10:35The Wrestling Observer writes that the large drop was almost inexplicable, as there was
10:38no stiff competition going against them at the same time.
10:42This might be symptomatic of AEW losing interest in Rampage's quality, as the show isn't
10:47expected to continue into 2025.
10:50The 1st November episode had LFI beat the Butcher, Beef and JV Drake, and Lio Rush beating
10:55Commander.
10:56Fun matches, but evidently not enough draws to get people to watch them.
11:00AEW arguably have to start marketing more for the Strawbs.
11:04What does Strawbs mean?
11:06Find out right now in my brand new video essay explaining some well-known and very obscure
11:11wrestling terms.
11:12Here's a clip.
11:14Do you ever get confused when people use pro wrestling language?
11:18Like kayfabe?
11:19And heat?
11:20Are you concerned you might be a queen?
11:23Or a strawb?
11:25Does this Hulk Hogan tweet melt your brain?
11:27Goodnight Hulkamaniacs and Jabroni Marks without a life that don't know where to work when
11:32you work a work and work yourself into a shoot, Marks!
11:35Then you need to learn how to speak wrestling with me, Oli Davis.
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