00:00A Vince McMahon spotted in the wild? More WWE releases confirmed. An AEW star arrested.
00:07And more. I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk
00:10News.
00:14Yesterday was Super Bowl 59, which I guess is like the WrestleMania for football. Yay,
00:19go football go, touchdown! And anyone who's anyone was there live in attendance. President
00:26Trump was there, Taylor Swift, workaholic star Adam Devine pictured here with an excited
00:31fan. And, as the little boys trip out for the day, The Undertaker, Shane and Vince McMahon.
00:38Stoney Saccone first posted on ex, why is my dad sitting next to Vince McMahon and The
00:42Undertaker at the Super Bowl right now lol. Many replied versions of pics or it didn't
00:47happen, and she obliged. Posting a photo of Undertaker holding presumably
00:51a little glass of Jack and Coke. Shane McMahon standing up watching the game with such good
00:55seats he's practically part of the coaching staff. And Vince McMahon himself looking weirdly
01:00dressed down walking to his seat. Vince has hardly been seen in public since
01:05he resigned from TKO over a year ago, after Janelle Grant filed a lawsuit accusing him
01:09of sexual assault and trafficking. An amended version of that suit was filed again in January,
01:15complete with new evidence. The judge is currently deciding whether the case should be heard
01:19privately in arbitration, which is in Vince and the WWE's best interests, or if it will
01:24be a public hearing like Grant's legal team wants.
01:27As for Shane, the last big photo of him was when he met AEW President Tony Khan last August,
01:33exclusively broken by us and Fightful. With Tony also in attendance at the Super Bowl,
01:38there could've been some very awkward moments in the VIP areas.
01:42AEW star Swerve Strickland and Mercedes Monet were also at the game, posting, we just came
01:46for the Kendrick Lamar concert. And Philadelphia Eagles fan Ricochet was enjoying the game
01:51from home. So Swerve, no stranger to having his house catch fire, told him to burn that
01:56jersey but keep it on when you do it. Self-immolation bantz.
02:02With the Super Bowl being such a big cultural event, it's also the perfect weekend to
02:06bury a bunch of stories about your company releasing loads of wrestlers.
02:10Last week, Fightful reported that NXT star Duke Hudson had actually been released in
02:14mid-January. Apparently, officials thought he wasn't right for the main roster, especially
02:18after the Chase Ewe faction was broken up late last year. So they made the decision
02:23to get rid of him.
02:24But then, on Friday 7th February, just before SmackDown went on air, news started to come
02:29out that WWE were releasing six other wrestlers. These were main roster stars Sonya Deville,
02:35Cedric Alexander, Blair Davenport, AOP's Aikerman Razor and their longtime manager
02:40Paul Ellering.
02:41The following day, several more names were reported amongst the cuts. Luke Gallows and
02:45Karl Anderson, Giovanni Vinci and Isla Dawn. All of these names were then moved to the
02:50alumni section of WWE.com's roster page. Which is when it's now been noticed Elektra
02:54Lopez had joined them, being the most recently confirmed release.
02:59Crazily, you can see Lopez on Friday's episode of SmackDown accompanying Santos, Escobar,
03:04Berto and Garza in a backstage segment with the Motor City Machine Guns. If all the releases
03:08had the same timeline, she would've been informed she was getting cut on the day of
03:13the show.
03:14However, that drastically changes the make-up of the main roster undercard. Not only has
03:18it lost 11 wrestlers, many of them were in factions that will have to change going forward.
03:23Deville's release makes Pure Fusion Collective a tag team rather than a trio, with Shayna
03:27Baszler and Zoey Stark remaining. AOP and Ellering break up the Final Testament faction,
03:33leaving only Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux. Isla Dawn ends her Unholy Union team with Alba
03:38Fire after the two won the tag team titles in Scotland last year. And Elektra Lopez reduces
03:43the size of Santos Escobar's Legada del Fantasma group.
03:47Cedric Alexander confirmed his release on X.
03:49Thank you for the last 8 and a half years. Being a professional wrestler has been a dream
03:53of mine since I could form memories, and I will continue to do so till the good Lord
03:58says otherwise. Hashtag see you in 90.
04:00You'd assume Cedric would join his former Hurt Business faction that's now reunited
04:04over in AEW. Blair Davenport has renamed her ex-profile to her pre-WWE name Bea Priestley,
04:10where she posted Top Gaijin, likely a reference about her returning to Japan stardom. And
04:16here's one for all you trivia freaks out there, Priestley was the first ever wrestler
04:20to make the jump from AEW to WWE. If she returns to AEW, she'll also be the first wrestler
04:27ever to go from AEW to WWE and then back again. All of them will be free to wrestle wherever
04:33they want when their 90-day non-compete clauses expire on the 11th May. Which is typically
04:38around AEW's Double or Nothing show. Fightful is reporting that the Bills case
04:42is different though. Similar to Baron Corbin's departure last year, Sonya wasn't technically
04:48released. WWE simply chose not to renew her contract. That means she'll become a free
04:52agent when her contract is up, which is apparently very soon, way before the 90 days everyone
04:57else has. Fightful has also added that WWE releasing
05:00Karl Anderson was very out of character for the company, as he's currently out injured
05:05after tearing his rotator cuff and labrum late last year. WWE usually does not release
05:10wrestlers who are injured, even under the often very cruel Vince McMahon regime. Perhaps
05:15this is a sign of a policy shift under TKO. Apparently there were recent creative plans
05:20for both Vinci and Davenport, but neither ended up happening, which meant they found
05:24themselves on the release list. For Davenport, she was pitched backstage to join Chelsea
05:28Green and Piper Niven's SmackDown act, where she would be a Secret Service style guard.
05:33Daven had an outfit made for the new character, but nothing came of it. As for poor old Vinci,
05:39he was moved to SmackDown with a new Playboy gimmick last year, where he even got a bunch
05:43of vignettes teasing his re-debut. Apparently officials felt his new character didn't
05:47get over with the fanbase, which is why he was let go. Losing to Apollo Crews in three
05:52seconds in his first match back was probably a sign WWE didn't like his new act.
05:57Fightful is reporting that the belief within NXT is that the mass releases were to make
06:01room for a number of call-ups of new talent to the main roster. The first of these is
06:06likely Roxanne Perez, who's already been featured on Raw the last couple of weeks,
06:09and who has also been spotted in town for tonight's episode, and has been announced
06:13for an Elimination Chamber qualifying match against Raquel Rodriguez for next week's
06:17Raw. Perez was both the runner-up and the Iron Woman at the Royal Rumble, so WWE obviously
06:23have big plans for her. Not all the releases were onscreen, though.
06:26It seems back-office cuts were also made, with Controller Summer Vibes' verified post
06:31on Reddit saying, "...Up until Wednesday, I was a video editor
06:34for their social medias. Out of nowhere, they called me about some budget cuts and terminated
06:39my contract early. I'm heartbroken." There has also been a release over in AEW,
06:44albeit under significantly different circumstances. Fightful have reported Bear Boulder of the
06:49tag team the Iron Savages, whose real name is Thomas Wansaw, was arrested on the 13th
06:54January and charged with battery by strangulation. The victim was identified in the arrest affidavit
06:59as his fiancé. Upon learning of the arrest, AEW fired Boulder
07:03from the company. The Iron Savages last wrestled for AEW on the 11th January, and it seems
07:08Boulder's arrest and release wasn't just a shock to the public, it was also a shock
07:12to his tag team partner Bear Bronson, who was posted on social media.
07:17"...Hey guys, this is one of the hardest weeks of my life. I'm heartbroken at the
07:21news about my former tag partner. To say I feel blindsided by the horrific details
07:26of the incident is an understatement. This is someone I travelled the world with as a
07:30team for 8 years, full of matches and memories I held close to me. Someone I trusted around
07:35my family. It was a groomsman at my wedding this past October with his fiancé. The arrest
07:40report provided by the police has made me sick, depressed and angry. As of now, I have
07:45been advised to fully step back from the entire situation and can only pray nothing worse
07:50happens. Only professionals can help the situation any further and I am not one. The only thing
07:56I can do now is move on and focus on my life."
07:59There's no easy way to segue out of that, so here's a bunch of WWE news that's also
08:04happened. According to Dr Chris Featherstone, WWE did
08:07originally plan to have Charlotte Flair return and win the Royal Rumble… as a babyface…
08:14and remain a babyface on the road to WrestleMania, where she'd face Tiffany Stratton for the
08:19WWE Women's Championship… also as a babyface. Multiple outs along the way there.
08:25Obviously the crowd had other ideas, where they booed her relentlessly on Monday's
08:28episode of Raw and were more mixed on SmackDown. Off the back of that reaction, WWE are thankfully
08:34now planning on booking Flair more as a heel in her feud with Stratton.
08:38The main backstage piece of Royal Rumble news, however, was Drew McIntyre's heat with LA
08:43Knight. Yes, apparently Drew was frustrated with Knight seemingly trying to get himself
08:48over, which caused some timing issues and led to McIntyre's elimination spot getting
08:52lost in the shuffle. The two shared an in-ring segment on Friday's SmackDown where Knight
08:56explicitly referenced those reports, joking that he had to get his stuff in at the end
09:01of his promo before doing his catchphrase. They then had a three-way Elimination Chamber
09:06qualifying match with Jimmy Uso, which McIntyre won.
09:09According to Fightful, both men were said to be fine working together. Things did get
09:13a little rough in the ring, maybe a bit of receipt giving, but both men came out ok and
09:17there were no issues following the match. In fact, all were happy to play off the backstage
09:21heat reports and work it into the story. The men's Chamber match currently has John Cena,
09:26CM Punk and McIntyre confirmed for the line-up. But what's the best Elimination Chamber
09:31match of all time? Watch our brand new episode of Tables, Lists and Chairs by clicking the
09:35video onscreen now.
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