WWE Backstage Creative Frustration! Title SCRAPPED! WWE Stars ‘DREADING’ Show!

10 months ago
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00:00 - Coming up...
00:16 - WrestleTalk Is Raw!
01:32 - WWE Stars Dreading Show
03:04 - WWE Creative Frustration
05:06 - Goldberg Retirement Match Plans
06:03 - TNA Title Vacated
08:07 - WWE International Plans
WWE Backstage Creative Frustration! Title SCRAPPED! WWE Stars ‘DREADING’ Show! | WrestleTalk
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https://wrestletalk.com/news/spoiler-...
https://wrestletalk.com/news/spoiler-...
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https://wrestletalk.com/news/heavy-pr...
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Transcript

00:00WWE stars are dreading a Mania weekend show, backstage creative frustration at SmackDown,

00:06a controversial wrestling championship vacated and more.

00:11I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.

00:15We've had Raw is Jericho, move aside Monday Night Rollins, you're on Friday's now

00:23the KO show.

00:24Because tonight is finally Monday Night WrestleRaw.

00:31WrestleRaw sounds weird.

00:32Luke and I are going to Monday Night Raw live in London tonight.

00:36I've only ever been to one WWE TV taping my entire life, and it was terrible.

00:42The 8th May 2017 episode where Dean Ambrose and The Miz were made co-general managers

00:47was a bad time for everyone.

00:49So I am very excited to experience a Paul Levesque era production, where I can watch

00:55the drone fly around the crowd, hopefully get in the background of an overly long Yeet

00:59entrance one shot, and, most importantly, see how off the pacing is whenever they throw

01:04to Netflix ad breaks.

01:06And there'll probably be some wrestling too, I think.

01:08If you see me and Luke, please do come over and say hi, and most importantly, buy us a

01:12drink for all the time you would've then wasted.

01:15If Luke tells me I'm not allowed to charge for photos, well then I'll guilt you into

01:18nice gestures.

01:19The show begins at 7pm here in the United Kingdom, which is broadcast live on Netflix

01:24at 2pm EST in the States.

01:27That's pretty early for Raw in its home country, but nowhere near as early as NXT

01:31on WrestleMania weekend.

01:33WrestleMania weekend has SmackDown and the Hall of Fame ceremony going partially head

01:37to head on Friday night, WrestleMania 41 Night 1 on Saturday, Mania Night 2 on Sunday, and

01:43then Raw on the Monday.

01:44It's a Jam That Jam packed weekend for the main roster, which means NXT has suffered

01:49a brutal bit of scheduling.

01:51Mania weekend also sees NXT run one of its biggest shows of the year, Stand and Deliver,

01:56which is booked for Las Vegas' T-Mobile arena on the Saturday.

02:00Because that's taking place on the same day as Night 1 of WrestleMania, Stand and

02:04Deliver has to finish much earlier in the day.

02:07In 2023, for example, Stand and Deliver started at 1pm EST.

02:12Turns out that was quite the squeeze between the two events, because last year it was shifted

02:16forward to 12pm.

02:17But Mania 41 is set to start at 3.30pm, including the pre-show, to give enough time for fans

02:23and some talent to make the half hour walk down the road to the Allegiant Stadium, where

02:27Mania is taking place.

02:29This year's Stand and Deliver start time was initially listed as 11.30am, then got

02:34changed to the really quite early 10.30am.

02:37But it has now been scheduled publicly for 9.30am.

02:42Fans are going to be eating what they've nicked from the hotel breakfast in the stands.

02:45Fightful has reported that talent are dreading the call time for that show.

02:50Currently no matches are announced for the event, but it's expected to feature a three

02:53way for the NXT Championship of Obafemi defending against Trick Williams and Javon Evans.

02:59But that's not the only piece of WWE timing that's getting heat backstage.

03:04When Raw moved to Netflix at the start of this year, the USA Network had a problem.

03:09They had been broadcasting Raw since 2005, and the show's shift from two to three hours

03:14long in 2012 helped maintain their network's average viewership.

03:18This was vital in the decade that followed, as traditional TV viewership steadily declined.

03:23Without Raw, specifically at three hours long, USA Network would see their entire channel

03:29slide down the TV rankings.

03:32So in the broadcast rights game of musical chairs late last year, with Raw moving to

03:35Netflix and NXT going to the CW, USA got Fox's cast off SmackDown.

03:41USA had just lost five weekly hours of WWE programming, though, and gained two in SmackDown.

03:48That's a three hour deficit, which significantly impacted their TV rankings.

03:53So to mitigate that as best they could, they agreed with WWE that SmackDown, from the start

03:58of 2025, would go to three hours.

04:02And it's been rubbish.

04:04Fans and backstage talent alike have complained over the show's length.

04:08Initially it was hoped that the longer runtime could elevate underutilised talent.

04:12That hasn't happened, and it's instead overexposed the product and stretched its

04:16roster and ideas too thin.

04:18If only there was some historical comparison we could have used to have foreseen this.

04:24According to WrestleVotes Radio, WWE's production and creative teams consider the three hour

04:28SmackDowns a major misstep.

04:31It's led to bad pacing, a lot of filler to pad out the show, and creative fatigue.

04:36This comes during the same time that Road Dogg was made co-head writer of SmackDown

04:40with John Switaker.

04:41Road Dogg had previously been a lead writer on SmackDown back in 2017, which was a bad

04:46creative period for the show.

04:48Thankfully, SmackDown is expected to go back to a two hour runtime in June.

04:52But that does mean three more months of badly paced episodes, and an increasingly frustrated

04:57roster and backstage team.

04:59We need something fresh.

05:01We need something new.

05:02We need…

05:0358 year old wrestler Bill Goldberg.

05:06Goldberg announced last year that, like everyone else he grew up loving, he will be having

05:10his final ever match at some point in 2025.

05:15Around that time, he seemed to be building a feud with the World Heavyweight Champion

05:18Gunther, including an in-ring angle together at Bad Blood in October.

05:22A WrestleMania Gunther vs Goldberg match is obviously not on the cards, though, but Goldberg

05:27has now posted on Instagram announcing he's begun training for his retirement match, with

05:33a photo of him and his training partners and the caption, and the grind begins.

05:39Assembling my in-ring crew, including… wait, is that his son Gage?

05:43That's what his son looks like now.

05:46But yesterday, he looked like this at Survivor Series.

05:49Goldberg recently told Ariel Hawane that he's recently undergone stem cell treatment, and

05:53he's hoping to be cleared soon.

05:55He also said he wants to go out better than his last match, which was him losing to Roman

05:59Reigns at Elimination Chamber Toronto in 2022.

06:03Just days after TNA announced they were making significant backstage cuts, controversially

06:08firing longtime member Gail Kim and the promotion's effective head of creative Ariel Schnerner,

06:13the promotion has just filmed a pair of TV tapings to build to their next big show Rebellion

06:18on the 27th April.

06:20These are for episodes of IMPACT that haven't yet aired, so please skip to the timestamp

06:24onscreen now if you don't want to have them spoiled.

06:26Because we're entering the Spoiler Room Brawl in 3, 2, 1…

06:30Bruce Willis was a ghost all along.

06:32WRONG SPOILER.

06:33NXT's Ethan Page, a former two-time World Tag Team Champion in TNA, made a shock appearance,

06:41challenging Joe Hendry for a shot at the world title.

06:43This is just the latest in a string of high profile NXT and TNA crossovers since their

06:48working relationship was made official in January, like Moose and the Hardy Boys appearing

06:53at NXT's Roadblock show earlier in March.

06:56Also at the tapings, TNA's Director of Authority Santino Marella made the decision to strip

07:00Steph Delanda of the Digital Media Championship, and then effectively get rid of that belt.

07:08First introduced in 2021, the Intergender Belt's inaugural champion was Jordan Grace.

07:12Matt Cardona and Joe Hendry also had runs with the belt, until its controversial end

07:18with PCO.

07:19Having won the title in July last year, PCO destroyed it with a sledgehammer at a GCW

07:24event back in January.

07:26This was a shoot, as he claims TNA had gone back on a verbal agreement they had with him

07:32about a contract renewal.

07:33But TNA tried to retcon that Inter storyline by giving his kayfabe wife Delanda the title

07:38on her return to TV two weeks later.

07:41But because, apparently, you can't have too many titles in wrestling right now, TNA

07:45announced they'll be replacing it right away, kicking off a tournament to crown the

07:50inaugural TNA International Champion.

07:53As a sign of the times, Fightful is reporting TNA's streaming service TNA Plus has had

07:58its subscriber count double over the last year, which is partly due to efforts from

08:02members of the marketing team.

08:04The same marketing team members who were fired last week.

08:08With WWE doing their European tour right now, they've used it as an opportunity to announce

08:12their international plans.

08:14Firstly is the talent tryouts they held at the UK Performance Center.

08:18Which is weirdly, legitimately a 20 minute drive from my house on the 29th March.

08:23According to Fightful, UK indie talent Rio, Golden Boy Santos, Zozia, Man Like Darius,

08:28Progress Champion Luke Jacobs, Bionic from the UK Gladiators reboot, who looks like if

08:32Zack Sabre Jr ate Zack Sabre Jr, Nathan Angel, Hustle Champion Rain Leverkusen, Danny Jones,

08:38Adam Mackstead and Footballer Diego Rivera.

08:41Apparently, Man Like Darius particularly impressed WWE officials, with him receiving heavy praise.

08:47Before the tryouts, several talent in WWE have been reportedly pushing them to sign

08:51Darius as well as Rio.

08:53But it's not just Europe WWE wants to conquer, there's also that long-running market they've

08:58been trying to properly monetise… India.

09:01WWE President Nick Khan has told the Hindustan Times that they're aiming to host a flagship

09:06event in India in 2026 or 2027.

09:10WWE's audience in the country is enormous, with some estimates having Raw and SmackDown's

09:15weekly viewership at 50 million people on the SPN channel.

09:19Which is 10 times more than the US.

09:22But now WWE has moved to Netflix internationally, their reach in that country is more limited,

09:28and at risk of AEW swooping in to take those TV deals.

09:32But interestingly, Netflix seem aware of this too, as Khan said.

09:37Without asking, Netflix handed us a list of their priority countries.

09:41At the top of that list was India.

09:44And knowing that the race would come into play on April 1st in India, if it's important

09:48to Netflix, assume it's important to us.

09:51The question over how do you monetise such a large audience is now no longer WWE's

09:56issue.

09:57It's the Netflix problem now.

09:58And as their strategy relies on rapid subscriber growth rather than actual profit, they can

10:03fund expansions into markets like this.

10:06Now click the video onscreen now to watch the brand new episode of me and Luke playing

10:10WWE 2K25's My GM Mode in Monday Night War.

WWE Backstage Creative Frustration! Title SCRAPPED! WWE Stars ‘DREADING’ Show! | WrestleTalk

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