00:00Several top WWE stars get their names changed, rumours about Shinsuke Nakamura's WWE status,
00:06was John Cena meant to be a babyface right now?
00:10And more.
00:11I'm Big Frickin' Dirty Oli Davis, and this is the Big Frickin' Dirty WrestleTalk
00:15News.
00:18Today marks 410 days since Vince McMahon resigned from WWE, but who's counting?
00:23In the year plus since, Triple H has thankfully dropped almost all of the ridiculous Vince-based
00:28creative ideas from his 40 year reign of terror.
00:31Characters and stories now make long term sense because scripts aren't frequently
00:34rewritten hours before the show goes on air.
00:37The camera no longer zooms in and out and shakes it all about whenever someone's hitting
00:41their opponent with a chair.
00:43And Chad Gable has now broken away from his Shorty G gimmick by becoming a serious wrestling
00:48machine.
00:52But there has been another hangover from the Vince era.
00:56And a few people still have silly names.
00:59Seth Rollins, for instance, was listed on WWE's official roster page as Seth Frickin'
01:04Rollins.
01:05Arguably a fine nickname for someone to give you on your entrance or in a catchphrase,
01:10but to put it in the official name feels outdated now WWE has a more realistic, sports-based
01:15presentation.
01:16But it seems Roman Reigns beat up Seth so hard following Raw's main event steel cage
01:20match, he beat the frickin' out of him.
01:23After this week's Raw aired, it's been noticed that WWE has dropped the Frickin'
01:27from Seth Rollins' name on their roster page, which you can see in this picture where
01:31Seth is posing as the Fonzie Bear in his official render.
01:38This follows the Frickin' nickname not appearing on Seth's name bar graphic on Raw over the
01:43last several weeks.
01:44And he's not the only one, as Big Bronson Reed and Dirty Dominik Mysterio have also
01:51both had their nicknames dropped on WWE.com.
01:55So they're now only listed as regular sized Bronson Reed and relatively clean Dominik
01:59Mysterio.
02:00If you look through the whole roster page, Shinsuke Nakamura is still listed on there,
02:05despite some rumours saying he's leaving the company.
02:08Nakamura was barely seen on WWE TV last year.
02:12Despite wrestling regularly in dark matches or at live events, he wrestled six matches
02:16on Raw in the first few months of 2024, but then wouldn't be seen again on TV until
02:22November on SmackDown.
02:25There he debuted his new Wayward Samurai gimmick, and shockingly beat LA Knight for the US title
02:29at Survivor Series the following week.
02:32He's only had four matches since, one of which was last Friday's episode of SmackDown,
02:37where he lost the US title back to LA Knight.
02:40It was an unceremonious end to Nakamura's pretty nothing title reign.
02:45After that weekend, rumours began to spread on social media that PW Tortured said Nakamura
02:50was set to leave WWE in the near future.
02:53But the source of that report, Wade Keller, then revealed that's not what he said, and
02:58that he'd been misquoted in a social media post.
03:00Fightful backed Keller up, reporting that they hadn't heard anything about Nakamura
03:05leaving WWE.
03:06But then the Wrestling Observer entered the chat.
03:08When the rumours started going around, the Wrestling Observer reached out to WWE for
03:12comment.
03:13When the story first broke, I immediately asked WWE, and they immediately got back to
03:18me.
03:19What they said was false was that Nakamura was leaving.
03:21But the Wrestling Observer noted there was still some uncertainty around the situation.
03:26He tried to clarify if Nakamura's title loss on Friday was his final appearance for
03:31WWE.
03:32But WWE didn't respond to that question, even though they did answer the Nakamura leaving
03:38one.
03:39The speculation here, so get those pinches of salt ready, is that Nakamura wants to return
03:43to Japan, maybe to take part in his former rival Hiroshi Tanahashi's retirement year.
03:48Despite being under contract with WWE, Nakamura has been allowed to wrestle in Japan twice
03:53over the last two years.
03:55Which even under the Triple H regime is still pretty rare for a main roster guy.
04:00Nakamura wrestled for pro wrestling Noah on their New Year's Day shows in January this
04:03year and back in 2023, where he took part in the Great Muta's retirement tour.
04:09Noah reportedly has a working relationship with WWE, though, which saw NXT stars Josh
04:14Briggs and Tavion Heights wrestle in their N1 tournament last year.
04:18If Nakamura was part of Tanahashi's retirement tour, that would be with New Japan Pro Wrestling,
04:23who are affiliated with AEW.
04:26But while WWE might be blocking Nakamura from wrestling elsewhere, their new ID scheme wants
04:31indie promotions to start booking their developmental talent right away.
04:35Please, anyone, we need you to book these wrestlers!
04:39Last October, WWE announced their new ID system, which would support indie wrestlers with training,
04:45mentorship and money, providing a more clear pathway from learning to be a wrestler all
04:50the way through to getting signed with WWE.
04:54WWE partnered with several wrestling schools as part of this, which included Cody Rhodes',
04:59Seth Rollins' and Booker T's.
05:01And last week, WWE debuted their latest wrestling brand Evolve.
05:06This was run by Gabe Sapowski, one of the minds behind the ID system, which would feature
05:11Performance Center trainees and those signed to ID contracts.
05:16Triple H even announced two new championships for the brand, a men and women's ID titles,
05:22which could also be defended in indie promotions around the country.
05:26Some see this as an exciting new pathway from grassroots wrestling into the top of
05:31the profession.
05:32Others, however, see it as WWE's latest way to control every aspect of the wrestling
05:36industry and muscle in on indie promotions, just like how Vince did when he was killing
05:40the territory system.
05:41Especially if WWE will start to exercise creative control on their ID wrestlers having to win,
05:47and booking their title in other people's promotion.
05:50But what I don't think anyone banked on was how desperate the WWE ID Twitter would
05:56get.
05:57On the 9th March, it posted a reminder to all independent wrestling promoters, you can
06:01book all WWE ID talent in your promotion.
06:05This includes all WWE ID talent who are getting exposure on WWE Evolve.
06:11Contact talent individually for booking info.
06:13And then, two days later, it posted again, with all the energy of me texting Megan, just
06:17checking you saw my last message because it's been 3 hours.
06:20I can see the blue ticks.
06:21In fact, I actually saw you start typing at one point, but you still haven't replied.
06:25Hey independent wrestling promoters, the fans have spoken.
06:29They want WWE ID prospects on your indie shows.
06:33Look at the likes.
06:34Flame emoji.
06:35Look, point down, please, look at the likes emoji.
06:38Then they posted GCW and FSW, the names of two indie wrestling promotions, without actually
06:43tagging them.
06:44Or they just started typing random letters and hit publish.
06:47What do you think is going on with WWE's ID system?
06:50Let me know in the comments down below.
06:53Speaking of desperate attempts at promotion, have you checked out Patreon.com forward slash
06:57WrestleTalk?
06:58Please?
06:59If you sign up, you can watch an exclusive episode of Tables, Lists and Chairs, where
07:04Luke Sullivan and Tempest count down the 10 best WrestleMania stages of all time, which
07:09went live over the weekend.
07:11And also, if you sign up now, you'll be able to watch the first episode of the brand
07:15new WWE 2K25 series of Monday Night War on Early Access this Friday.
07:22John Cena shockingly turned heel, like me and JBL have been saying he has for like 20
07:29years now, at WWE's Elimination Chamber PLE.
07:32Some, like The Rock's head writer Brian Gowitz, claim this has been the plan all along.
07:37Others, like the Wrestling Observer, have reported the original plan was for Cena to
07:41turn heel in the main event of WrestleMania.
07:44Siding then with The Rock to beat Cody and win his record-breaking 17th World title.
07:49We'll likely never know the full truth, mostly because The Rock will flood us with
07:53PR documentaries about how he knew everything in advance and he's a genius.
07:57But WWE's latest Cena merchandise release might provide an interesting clue.
08:02Because it all seems to be based around him being a babyface.
08:07Ahead of Heel John's first TV appearance on next week's Raw in Belgium, WWE have
08:11released the John Cena Farewell Tour Brussels collection.
08:16Which still kind of presents him as a noble babyface, with his slogan Never Give Up on
08:20some socks.
08:22Even if the product description does mention buying one doesn't require selling your
08:26soul to The Rock.
08:27It implies Cena's heel turn could've been moved forward, and the merchandise strategy
08:31around his European tour dates were based on him being a good guy.
08:36From good-slash-bad guys to Paul Heyman guys.
08:39Triple H has told the Hollywood Reporter that Heyman has a new mentor-y.
08:44Braun Breaker is a young guy, incredibly athletic, great character, he's a sponge.
08:49I have Heyman spend a lot of time with him to help develop him with his promos, to help
08:53develop his character, to help push him in a direction.
08:57Then Paul talks to me and talks to the writers about where do we want to take that, and then
09:01he's the conduit for where we want to go to that talent.
09:05Breaker has previously discussed working with Heyman onscreen in the future, saying it could
09:09happen at some point down the line.
09:11The next next big things, however, are wrestling in NXT.
09:15And last night's ROBLOX special from Madison Square Garden saw one of the most impactful
09:20booking decisions of recent times.
09:23A TNA act actually won on NXT TV.
09:26Yes, the Hardys beat Fraxium to retain their TNA tag titles, likely building a rematch
09:31for Fraxium's NXT tag titles, but the biggest news really happened in the main event.
09:36The winner takes all match of the NXT Women's Champion Julia vs Women's North American
09:41Champion Stephanie Viqueux, where the care won, making her the first woman to be a double
09:46singles champion in NXT history.
09:49The reported real reason behind this is because Julia is working through an injury, and she
09:53needs to take time off.
09:54Now go watch us count down the 10 best WrestleMania matches of all time in the brand new episode
10:00of Tables, Lists and Chairs by clicking the video onscreen now!
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