00:00An injury forced WWE to change plans, a wrestler claims they've been blocked, a WCW reunion
00:07in NXT scrapped and more. I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:19It's been about half a week since WWE's Survivor Series from this past Saturday, which
00:23saw Roman Reigns and his OG Bloodline beat Bloodline 2000 and Bronson Reed. The match
00:28was built around Roman pinning Solo Sokoa after Solo pinned him at Crown Jewel, which
00:33will likely lead to a concluding singles match between the two with The Oolafalla on the
00:37line. But coming out of the match, not many people were talking about Roman vs. Solo.
00:42Two weeks before Survivor Series, Paul Heyman made the surprise announcement that CM Punk
00:47would be the fifth man on Roman's team and now Heyman owes Punk a favour. And in easily
00:53the most viral moment of the match, Roman blocked Punk from entering third for his team
00:58and sending Sami out instead.
01:01On this past Monday's Raw, WWE touted the incredible success this moment got, particularly
01:07on social media. Within 24 hours, the clip had been viewed around 204 million times.
01:13At the time of this writing, the Instagram reel has 115 million views alone, which WWE
01:19say is their most watched reel of 2024. And as I learned from watching The Apprentice
01:24here in the UK, if something is selling, buy more of it and sell it more. And WWE are clearly
01:30doing that, loading yet another video of Roman and Punk in the cage at WarGames. At the time
01:36of writing, it has eclipsed all clips from NXT, including Eric Bischoff and X-Pac's
01:44appearances, and several moments from Raw. So what could this mean?
01:48Eboo of WrestlePurist, that is his full name, said on the Fightful Raw post show that Roman
01:53was telling people that when he came back from his post-WrestleMania break, he wanted
01:56to help Jacob Fatu and get him over. For what it's worth, that's also what I've heard.
02:02That same person told me that Punk really wants to work Roman at Mania, but Roman is
02:06more interested in working with Jacob Fatu. But I will, that is just one person that told
02:10me that, I'm not claiming it's an official report.
02:13Triple H said in an interview last month about pivoting on creative plans, it is in no way
02:17shape or form about what I want. It's about what they want, they being the fans. If it
02:23becomes about what I want, then the show will die. It is about what they want and that overall
02:28big picture. And the social media numbers at the very least are telling WWE that Punk
02:33vs. Roman is a match that people are interested in. So what would you like to see Roman do
02:38at WrestleMania? Face Punk? Face Jacob? Face The Rock? Let me know in the comments down
02:42below.
02:43We've got more on WWE pivoting plans, but before that we had an old chat on yesterday's
02:48WrestleTalk Podcast saying that we don't plug cutscene enough. That's their words,
02:52not mine. And with that in mind, here's a clip from our most recent episode of Survival
02:56Series where we had to name as many Disney animated movies as possible.
03:44In Raw, attacking Sami Zayn and while not confirmed, the fan speculation is that he
03:48is also the guy that laid out Jey Uso backstage before the main event between Sami and Seth
03:53Rollins. Drew hasn't been on WWE TV since his loss to CM Punk inside Hell in a Cell
03:58at Bad Blood, with some speculation that he would not be back until the Royal Rumble.
04:03And according to Fightful Select, while there were discussions last week about bringing
04:07Drew back, those plans were accelerated after Bronson Reed's injury in the WarGames match.
04:13Reed picked up his injury from the tsunami from the top of the cage, and Fightful Select
04:16are reporting that he was getting scans done on his ankles this past Monday. Fingers crossed
04:21for a speedy recovery.
04:23Speaking of injuries at Survivor Series, which also included Jimmy Uso and reportedly also
04:27Jacob Fatu, it was announced on Raw that Sheamus had cracked his ribs in a three-way with Ludvig
04:33Kaiser and Braun Breaker. It felt like WWE were heading in the direction of finally giving
04:37Sheamus his Intercontinental Championship win from Breaker, so this injury could be
04:42a blow to those plans. However, it could also be a Worky McWorkface, as Dave Meltzer
04:47noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that when he asked if the injury was a storyline, no
04:53one could say either way. This interestingly comes off the back of the Jade Cargill injury
04:58angle where there are a lot of conflicting reports about how long she'll be out for,
05:03or if she's even injured at all.
05:05Also at Survivor Series, Gunther picked up a win over Damian Priest to retain his World
05:09Heavyweight Championship, and after beating Dominik Mysterio on Raw, it was announced
05:13that he'll face Finn Balor for the title at Saturday Night's main event. And Fightful
05:17Select are reporting that Gunther will likely be around for the next few years, as WWE are
05:23close to signing a new deal with the Ring General. Sean Ross Sapp writes, sources in
05:28the company expect it to be done this year, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
05:33Like all WWE re-signees this year, this would be a multi-year deal between Gunther and WWE,
05:40and WWE are reportedly thrilled with Gunther's ring work and his attitude to media obligations.
05:45SRS adds one WWE higher-up referred to Gunther as among the most professional talent they
05:50had ever worked with.
05:52Last night's NXT saw Ren Sinclair and Eddie Thorpe qualify for the Iron Survivor Challenges
05:56this weekend, and no quarter catch crew earned a shot at the tag team titles. But the big
06:02advertising points heading into this week's NXT were the appearances of Eric Bischoff
06:07and X-Park. X-Park had a backstage segment with Javon Evans where he noted that he was
06:11his age when he beat Razor Ramon and two-sweeted him on the way out, and Bischoff had an in-ring
06:17segment to hold a face-to-face between Trick Williams and Ridge Holland ahead of their
06:21NXT Championship match at Deadline. They also did a stretcher job angle where Holland spiked
06:26Trick with a DDT on the announce table, but it was later confirmed that the PPV match
06:30will still take place.
06:32And according to Corey Brennan, X-Park and Bischoff were not the only nostalgia appearances
06:37planned for this week. Brennan reports for Fightful Select that another name discussed
06:41for the episode was X-Park and Bischoff's NWO stablemate Kevin Nash. However the report
06:48states that plans fell through. With the huge success NXT got from their ECW tribute show
06:53a couple of weeks ago, it's a very smart plan to lean into WCW nostalgia.
06:58And Drew McIntyre, Bischoff and X-Park were not the only ones returning to WWE this week.
07:04There has been a lot of speculation about Becky Lynch since her contract expired earlier
07:09this year, shortly after she dropped the Women's World Championship to Liv Morgan at King and
07:14Queen of the Ring. The general consensus was that Lynch would return to WWE and was just
07:19taking time away from wrestling to spend more of it with her family. There was some light
07:23speculation about a potential jump to All Elite Wrestling, but that was more fan fantasy
07:28booking than anything else. There have been some reports that Lynch could be returning
07:33to WWE for the Raw debut on Netflix on January 6th, 2025, and those reports might now have
07:41been confirmed. Both Fightful and PWInsider are reporting that Netflix held a WWE event
07:46on December 3rd, which had in attendance Triple H and Nick Khan along with Seth Rollins, Liv
07:51Morgan, Bianca Belair, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes and… The Miz. One of those things is not
07:56like the other. But the most interesting name in the bunch was Becky Lynch. Also interestingly,
08:01it was reported that Lynch was there but might not have appeared, meaning that she might
08:06have just been there because Seth Rollins, her IRL husband, was making an appearance.
08:11Even more interestingly, at least for me, is that this Netflix event tells you how the
08:16streaming platform might see WWE moving forward. As PWInsider writes, we are told that it is
08:23mostly the Hollywood industry media assembled, so expect lots of articles in the weeks to
08:28come on Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and other similar outlets. I.e. no wrestling journalists
08:34that cover this stuff all the time. Presumably the idea being that by having non-wrestling
08:39outlets cover this event, you can attract new eyes to this product either that are fabled,
08:45lapsed fans or have never seen a wrestling match in their lives. January is going to
08:50be an interesting shift for WWE.
08:53Speaking of shifts, and it's being reported that Juice Robinson has picked up an injury
08:57and has been taken out of this year's Continental Classic in AEW. Robinson was scheduled to
09:02be part of the Gold League but has been replaced by Commander. Fightful Select report that
09:06Robinson didn't get x-rays until WrestleCade weekend with the hope that it was just a bad
09:11sprain. However, we're told that the break is in his fibula, not his foot. We wish Juice
09:17a speedy recovery.
09:18And lastly for the WrestleTalk News today, and this one is not the usual sort of wrestling
09:22news. A wrestler by the name of Nadia White has called out wrestling promoters on Twitter
09:27for booking her, then cancelling her appearances after they found out what her shoot job is.
09:32Her shoot job is that she's an adult film star. White posted to Twitter, it's no secret
09:37what my shoot job is. I use the same name for a reason. I'm not ashamed of anything,
09:42but it would be nice if promotions would stop booking me only to be told later what I do
09:47and kick me off shows. The same goes for venues. She adds in another post, support all women
09:52or STFU. I am professional, polite and less vulgar than most of the locker room. Most
09:57wrestlers have OnlyFans and how many of your favourite divas were in Playboy? Wrestling
10:02is carnie af. This shouldn't be an issue.
10:05Now go and watch that Survival Series episode where we had to name as many Disney animated
10:10movies as possible and watch me DESTROY the competition. Sort of. Not really.
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