00:00A WWE Championship about to be stripped, WWE stars are frustrated with the company backstage,
00:06an AEW star frozen out, and more.
00:09I'm Oli Davis, and this is the MustacheTalk News.
00:15Get exclusive bonus videos over at Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk.
00:20Happy Survivor Series week, everybody!
00:23May you have your next six days full of great go-home angles, Black Friday deals and Rhea
00:28Ripley occasionally very angrily shouting WARGAMES.
00:31Make sure to subscribe to us here at WrestleTalk and enable notifications to always on because
00:35we've got daily news videos building to the show, a podcast review of the go-home
00:39Raw tomorrow, and live reactions this Saturday night for Survivor Series itself.
00:45The biggest reveal for the PLE so far happened on last Friday's episode of SmackDown, where
00:50the wise man Paul Heyman returned to WWE to support his true Tribal Chief Roman Reigns
00:56against Solo Sakoa's New Blood faction.
00:58Sadly, Heyman didn't announce himself as the final member of the OG Bloodline WarGames
01:02team, instead beckoning CM Punk down to the ring to be the surprise fifth man.
01:10The segment has done incredibly well online, with the Punk reveal clip currently sitting
01:14at 2.9 million views on YouTube, and WWE has apparently told the Wrestling Observer that
01:19across all forms of social media, it's had 50 million views.
01:25Most of those are me.
01:26Punk also saw another return backstage, with Fightful Select reporting that Michael P.S.
01:30Hayes produced the segment.
01:31Hayes has been the main producer for anything involving the Bloodline over the years, but
01:35he had been on a leave of absence for the last month for personal reasons.
01:39Additionally, the show's Bloodline segments were listed as being written by Michael Kirshenbaum
01:44and Colin Clark.
01:45Punk's reveal was a great example of long-term logical storytelling.
01:49Seth Rollins ended up being a red herring because he wouldn't just team up with Roman
01:53after everything that's gone down between them.
01:55And Punk is the original Paul Heyman guy.
01:58Punk's come to get revenge for his mentor, not to help Roman in any way.
02:03But impressively, this story is actually over two decades in the making, as Punk has shared
02:09a picture of him, Roman, The Uso, Sami Zayn and Heyman together when they were all teenagers
02:14on his Instagram.
02:15What a 100% authentic shot.
02:19Wait a second.
02:21What's that on Sami's face?
02:39Ok, ok, I guess we're doing this now.
02:41Here's another moustache break for the amazing people who've supported us for Movember
02:45so far.
02:51I want to thank you, Carlos, Domjack and Michael Chung going in the comments right now.
03:15You can get your own moustache break by donating to our Movember page, and emailing proof of
03:19your donation and a picture of your moustache to support at WrestleTalk.com.
03:23Mmm, moustache.
03:24But Punk's reveal doesn't just make sense for where WWE has been, it's going to fuel
03:29where they plan on going in the future.
03:32As Worked Wrestling have reported, CM Punk joining Team OG Bloodline will be used as
03:36fuel in the Rollins-Punk feud in the future, with Punk citing that he stepped up to help
03:41when Rollins didn't.
03:43Still heading towards that Mania match.
03:45Punk vs Rollins was originally the plan for WrestleMania 40, which is why Seth did his
03:49work shoot Anger Angle at the end of last year's WarGames main event at Punk's WWE
03:54return.
03:55I just hope their families can get tickets to watch it.
03:57The last two years have seen WWE consistently beat their own business records.
04:02Be it consecutive runs of sellout TV tapings, record gates for the arena shows, or the most
04:07watched WrestleMania of all time with Mania 40, the company is a hot ticket right now.
04:13And if anyone has ever tried to get seats at the Robbie Williams Stadium Tour, you know
04:16that hot tickets mean you're going to have to take out a loan, fraudulently create a
04:20second clan or account, maybe sell a kidney.
04:23They're expensive.
04:24Seats at WWE shows have become a very valuable commodity, so the company has significantly
04:29restricted one of their long-time perks.
04:32Fightful Select is reporting that with ticket prices reaching an all-time high, WWE are
04:37not giving out as many free tickets or comp tickets to their wrestlers and staff as they
04:42used to.
04:43In recent weeks, this restriction has hit an all-time high.
04:47Talent and staff have communicated to WWE their frustrations on no longer being able
04:52to get comp tickets for friends and family.
04:55WWE higher ups say it's a product of their success of late, and chalk it up to being
04:59a hot ticket.
05:00Apparently, rather than receive comp tickets like they have done in the past, talent are
05:05now given a pre-sale link that their families and friends can use to buy their own tickets.
05:11This new change in policy hasn't been communicated to staff in writing, causing some confusion
05:16and bad feelings.
05:17And one talent even said they had their comp tickets approved months in advance, but were
05:22asked to pay for them the week of the show.
05:25Yep, that's WWE.
05:27The company that reportedly made $1.7 billion over the last year.
05:33This is speculated to be a directive not from WWE management, but from their parent company
05:38TKO.
05:40Since the merger deal was finalised last September, TKO have implemented rules and measures to
05:44squeeze as much revenue as possible from WWE.
05:48Which has included cutting so-called B and C level town live events, increasing the amount
05:53of taped TV episodes, mass layoffs of back office staff as UFC and WWE's teams were
05:59merged, and now even not giving out as many free tickets to their performers, friends
06:05and family.
06:06Endeavor, the parent company of WWE's parent company Keep Up, implemented this practice
06:10on the UFC after they first bought the MMA organisation.
06:13I know, I know, shock breaking news, billion dollar corporation only cares about money.
06:19However, that does have to come with a balance of how they treat their performers.
06:23As those performers are currently the ones behind making all that money.
06:28On last Friday's episode of SmackDown, Jade Cargill was taken out backstage while her
06:32tag team champion partner Bianca Belair was wrestling Chelsea Green and Blair Davenport
06:37in the Women's US title tournament.
06:39We never got to see who the attacker was.
06:41WWE then announced an almost comical amount of kayfabe injuries, with a diagnosis that
06:46sounded like a Law & Order autopsy report.
06:49Deep lumbar paraspinal muscle contusions, a bruised kidney, a sprained MCL in her right
06:54knee, a tibial plateau bone bruise of her right knee, and facial lacerations.
07:01According to the Wrestling Observer, the reason WWE piled on the kayfabe injuries to Cargill
07:06is because they expect her to be out for a minimum of three months, maybe longer.
07:11And this is a cover for a legitimate injury she's sustained.
07:14As this Friday's episode of SmackDown was actually taped after last Friday's show,
07:18we already know Jade has been replaced in her US title tournament triple threat match
07:23by Lash Legend.
07:24A smart decision considering their hoss fight interactions over the women's tag belts
07:28at Crown Jewel, and that Bayley will be taking Jade's place on the babyface women's wargames
07:33team for Survivor Series.
07:35It's speculated that, with Cargill expected to be out for so long, her and Belair will
07:39have to relinquish their women's tag team championships.
07:43Which probably means, get your tissues ready wrestling fans, it's your favourite thing.
07:50It's another tournament.
07:55With the US title tournament, that means… it's a double tournament.
08:00Oh yeah.
08:01Oh my god, what's happening?
08:03No, could it be?
08:05No.
08:06That's potentially too much.
08:07OOOOOOOOH, TRIPLE TOURNAMENT.
08:10AEW have announced the brackets for their second annual Continental Classic tournament,
08:15which has two groups of round robin tables, so everyone faces everyone from their group,
08:19with the winners of each group fighting for the Continental Championship in the final,
08:23a belt currently held by Kazuchika Okada.
08:25Which automatically goes on the line for this tournament, but can be defended in normal
08:29singles matches throughout the rest of the year.
08:31Whack whack bat.
08:32Just make it for the No. 1 contender shot for the World title at Revolution.
08:35Your brackets are…
08:37In the blue, Dabadiba Dadai side, reigning champion Kazuchika Okada, Kyle Fletcher, The
08:42Beast Mortos, Mark Briscoe, Shelton Benjamin and, interestingly, the new TNT Champion Daniel
08:48Garcia.
08:49Maybe he can win and merge the belts.
08:51Hopefully.
08:52Please.
08:53And in the GOOOOOOOAL bracket, there's Will Ospreay, Juice Robinson, Brodie King, Ricochet,
09:01Claudio Castagnoli and Darby Allin.
09:04The tournament starts on this Wednesday's Dynamite, and will conclude at the Wellesend
09:08pay-per-view on the 28th December.
09:10You might've been hoping AEW's Ricky Starks could've made his return to the promotion
09:15in that tournament.
09:16After last August, he was one of the company's brightest rising stars.
09:20an excellent last minute change strap match against Bryan Danielson at All Out, and winning
09:25the tag team titles with Big Bill.
09:27But Starks hasn't been featured on AEW TV since April, amidst rumours WWE want to sign
09:33him and reports that he turned down creative for Big Bill to turn heel on him.
09:37And now, in the latest development, on the same night that AEW was hosting Full Gear
09:42in New Jersey on Saturday, Starks appeared at a GCW show down the road to cut this in-ring
09:49promo.
09:50According to backstage reports, however, this could be a good old fashioned Worky McWorkface.
10:13Fightful Select is reporting Starks was backstage at Full Gear later that evening, where he
10:18was warmly greeted behind the scenes.
10:20Additionally, AEW talent have to get any indie show appearances signed off on by management,
10:27so it's likely Tony Khan himself approved of Starks going to GCW and saying what he
10:32did.
10:33In a very similar way to Jack Perry tearing up his AEW contract on a New Japan Strong
10:38Show earlier this year before his AEW return, our brand new WrestleTalk Original documentary
10:43went up at the weekend.
10:45You can watch Who Really Killed TNA right now by clicking the link in the video description
10:49below.
10:50Here's a clip.
10:51Now, I know what you're saying to yourself.
10:54Luke, you handsome and knowledgeable buffoon, what are you talking about?
10:59TNA is still in business.
11:01And you're right, it is.
11:04And isn't that actually quite stunning?
11:07Pretty much since the company's start, commentators and pundits have predicted TNA's downfall.
11:13It'll only be around for two years, they'd say.
11:17There's no way they'll be around in another year's time, others would add.
11:22Even when the company started to make waves and got a big TV deal, there was still a lot
11:26of talk about how TNA would be dead pretty much very soon.
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