00:00Is Nia Jax frustrated with WWE creative? No, but there are some who aren't keen on WWE's
00:06Monopoly attempt, the finish Vince McMahon changed at WrestleMania 39 revealed and more.
00:11I am Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:16Following his excellent interview with Chris Van Vliet last week, Chris Bay was in attendance
00:21for FSW's benefit show. The show was filled with stars from WWE, TNA and AEW such as Karrion
00:27Kross, Swerve Strickland, Ace Austin, Alec Zane, Lio Rush and Zachary Wentz. Swerve revealed
00:33on the show that he was supposed to wrestle but isn't currently cleared. Bay suffered
00:37a horrific injury during a TNA taping last year that left him temporarily paralysed,
00:43and his GoFundMe currently has over $111,000 with major donations coming from some of this
00:49great sport's top names like Adam Copeland, Cody Rhodes, Will Ospreay and Jordan Grace.
00:54The outpouring of support for Bay has been wonderful to see, and last night saw one of
00:59its most emotional moments as Bay walked to the ring following the match between Karrion
01:03Kross and Hammerstone and stepped through the ropes into the ring to thank the fans,
01:09and calling out his tag partner Ace Austin to share the moment with him. You can check
01:12out the replay for the show on Triller and we've linked Bay's GoFundMe in the video
01:16description down below. He told CBB last week, never say never when it comes to a potential
01:22in-ring return, you've got this Chris.
01:24Over in the land of WWE now, and the build to WrestleMania has got a lot of fans asking,
01:29yeah, but what about this person when it comes to the WrestleMania card?
01:34Currently WrestleMania 41 from Las Vegas has Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship,
01:39Jey Uso vs. Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship, CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns vs.
01:44Seth Rollins, Charlotte Flair vs. Tiffany Stratton for the WWE Women's Championship,
01:48and Bianca Belair vs. Io Sky for the Women's World Championship, though it is expected
01:52that will become a three-way with Rhea Ripley.
01:55With Penta vs. Braun Breaker for the Intercontinental Championship announced for tonight's Raw,
01:59it's expected that will end in DQ to build a multi-man match for the title at WrestleMania,
02:05and there's speculation we'll have a multi-team match for the WWE Tag Team Championships over
02:09on the Smackdown side of things, and there's been reports of pitches for the Women's
02:13Tag Team Championships involving a few teams.
02:16Look, it's hard to get everyone on the WrestleMania card, even for a show that is across two nights.
02:22We've even made a joke about this on Three Count that some people just have to enjoy
02:27nice catering.
02:28And looking at that Women's Tag Title situation, Fightful Select have noted in two separate
02:32reports that there have been pitches for Alexa Bliss and Asuka to be involved in that title
02:37match, and perhaps that could be the destination for Nia Jax.
02:41But Jax hasn't had a match since her Elimination Chamber tag loss to Tiffany Stratton and Trish
02:45Stratus, and it's led fans online to question why there isn't more creative in place for
02:51the former WWE Women's Champion.
02:54And responding to someone on Twitter when asked where they were, Jax simply replied,
02:58catering.
02:59Catering is a bit of a loaded term.
03:01The reason why we have it as a joke in Three Count is it has become a bit of a catch-all
03:05term for, creative has nothing for you.
03:09She was also making jokes about the feud between Charlotte and Stratton, retweeting someone's
03:12comment that Flair buried Tiffany in their much-criticised sit-down interview segment.
03:17This led to some speculation that Jax was frustrated with her lack of WrestleMania direction,
03:22or she was being punished for the botched Annihilator in the Chamber build-up.
03:25But if you scroll back just one more reply than the catering one, you'll find Jax telling
03:30a different fan asking where she is, just living life baby, family time and real life
03:35leaner time.
03:36It's a blessing to be loved, face with hearts emojis, smiling with hearts emojis, I got
03:42a water, my home life too.
03:44Which I would say squashes all ideas that she's annoyed or being punished, but what
03:48do you think?
03:49Let me know in the comments down below.
03:51But while this is just likely Nia being Nia on Twitter, there is apparently some frustration
03:57elsewhere.
03:58On last Friday's WrestleTalk News, I went over the reports that WWE were trying to screw
04:02with All Elite Wrestling by running shows against them in either the same state, or
04:07on TV.
04:08AEW's Double or Nothing will run head-to-head with NXT Battleground, and WWE moved a June
04:13episode of Smackdown in Texas to just six days after AEW's All In Texas.
04:19Not only that, but Saturday night's main event will run head-to-head with All In, which
04:23will hurt the PPV buy rate, and there's some speculation WWE could do that show from
04:28Texas to affect All In ticket sales.
04:31WWE also announced a new European tour with dates that counter-program AEW's Forbidden
04:36Door in London.
04:37I asked you what you made of this in the comments of last Friday's video, and War Eagle replied,
04:41to anyone who thinks that WWE booking shows around AEW isn't on purpose, I have an ocean
04:46front property in Nebraska to sell you.
04:48Of course it's on purpose, it's also strategic.
04:51While Jeremy Gott said running a WWE show against an AEW PPV shouldn't hurt AEW.
04:57The PPV should crush the house show, but imagine if the house show actually managed
05:01to outsell the PPV.
05:02The most upvoted comment went to J-Boy who said if WWE were to die and wrestling went
05:07back to what it was ten years ago, everyone would learn why having two companies is a
05:12must.
05:13A few of you also noticed that this felt like while we are in a new era of WWE, they will
05:18always be WWE, and WWE would much prefer to have a monopoly on wrestling rather than competition.
05:25But maybe not everyone in WWE.
05:27Because speaking about this on his Fightful Select Q&A, Sean Ross Sapp noted WWE wants
05:32a monopoly so bad.
05:34They got a lot of wonderful people who work at WWE, and even they eye roll a lot of this
05:39stuff.
05:40We'll have some more news coming up for you in a bit, but first here is a clip from
05:43the first episode of a four week run where Sullivan Tempest and I watched through some
05:48of the worst WrestleMania matches of all time to find the worst WrestleMania match ever.
05:54And we kick things off with the main event of WrestleMania 32, Triple H vs. Roman Reigns.
06:24Speaking of WrestleMania main events, and there's been a lot of speculation about
06:49the finish to WrestleMania 39 where Roman Reigns beat Cody Rhodes to retain the WWE
06:55Undisputed Championship.
06:56Most people, certainly me, felt that it was a pretty obvious choice for Cody to win the
07:01belt.
07:02And, it of course, led to the wonderful Pete Deathstare moment from our live reactions.
07:06Miss you Pete.
07:07The reason why there's been so much speculation over the finish is because WrestleMania 39
07:11also saw the return of Vince McMahon to the creative fold after he worked his way back
07:15into the company following his 2022 retirement.
07:19He also reportedly made a lot of major changes to the Raw after Mania that followed, which
07:22is called one of the worst of all time.
07:25However, in a new report from Fightful Select, it wasn't Cody vs. Roman's finish that
07:29was changed.
07:30As Sean Ross Sapp writes, while Vince McMahon was in favour of the decision, we're told
07:34that it had been the plan pretty well all the way through.
07:37Instead, it was the finish to Edge vs. Finn Balor inside Hell in a Cell.
07:43The match was not only the culmination of Edge vs. The Judgment Day feud, but it was
07:46also the return of the Demon version of Finn Balor the first time under the creative watch
07:51of Triple H.
07:52Despite the awesomeness of Edge coming out to Slayer, it was surprising that he won and
07:57didn't put over the younger star.
08:00Younger being a relative term as Finn Balor is a couple of years older than me, and I'm
08:04not exactly a spring chicken.
08:06According to Ross Sapp, creative and industry sources have claimed that Balor was originally
08:11scheduled to win, but McMahon pushed for the change.
08:14He adds that Edge was pushing to put over Finn Balor.
08:18Now I'm sure this will raise a few eyebrows in the comments, as the online feedback to
08:23Edge, who now wrestles in AEW as Cope, is that he is unwilling to put over people or
08:28will do whatever he can to get out of taking a pin.
08:30It was pointed out on Twitter recently that since his return in 2020, Cope has only been
08:35pinned eight times.
08:37And as expected when this Fightful Select story came out, SRS was flooded with people
08:41claiming that this came from Cope's camp to give him some positive PR online.
08:46However Sean Ross Sapp says that this did not come from Adam Copeland or people close
08:50to him.
08:51Cope recently lost the chance to win the AEW World Championship in a street fight against
08:55Jon Moxley on Dynamite.
08:56The match was far better than the heavily criticised Revolution Main Event, but it became
09:00a source of online conversation due to the spot where Mox was suplexed by Cope onto a
09:05bat with nails in it, which got stuck in Mox's back.
09:09The spot split opinions in the comments section here on the WrestleTalk News and over on the
09:13WrestleTalk Podcast, and there were questions from fans about how Warner Bros. Discovery
09:17reacted to the goriness on their TBS channel.
09:21According to Sean Ross Sapp on his Fightful Q&A podcast, there was no heat between AEW
09:25and WBD.
09:26He noted that AEW and WBD have production meetings every Monday to go over anything
09:31that could be seen as controversial, and WBD had no issues with the spot.
09:36SRS notes that it went exactly as planned.
09:39Now go and watch the episode of Worst Match Ever where Sullivan Tempest and I struggle
09:44to get through Roman Reigns vs. Triple H from WrestleMania 32.
09:47It's absolutely dog ass rubbish.
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