00:00Last week, rumours began circulating from a now deleted Reddit post surrounding one
00:21Ricky Stark, claiming that he'd been arrested in Calgary and that there were issues backstage
00:26between he and AEW management. So Fightful Select did some digging, reaching out to multiple
00:32sources to see what they could find, and the result was, the Reddit post was partially
00:37right, sort of.
00:39According to their sources, Ricky Starks has been turning down some pictures to appear
00:42on screen, though not as frequently as the Reddit post seemed to suggest. This was described
00:47as being accurate to some degree. According to a source with direct knowledge of the situation,
00:52a pitched breakup with Big Bill and subsequent feud was the only pitch in the last few months
00:56that he refused. This was reportedly because Starks didn't see it benefiting either of
01:00them, particularly Big Bill, who AEW reportedly wanted to launch into a mega-heel off the back
01:06of this proposed feud. Reportedly, Starks didn't think Big Bill losing a feud to him would end
01:10up being beneficial to Bill, and wanted them to have an amicable split, if anything.
01:15Starks reportedly has his critics within the company, with some people saying that Starks
01:19didn't want to do business. There have been other instances of Starks being upset with
01:23his creative direction, as last year around All In was noted as a pivotal point for his
01:27career. Starks wasn't booked for All In last year, and AEW were reportedly worried
01:32about potential fan backlash to that decision, so they ran a suspension angle for him instead.
01:37Starks reportedly wasn't in favour of being part of the tag team with Big Bill, but in
01:41particular wasn't on board with the lack of follow-up from his incredible strap match
01:46against Bryan Danielson at All Out. According to those that Starks reportedly spoke to, he
01:51felt like CM Punk leaving AEW hindered his momentum drastically, as it was after his departure
01:57that Starks' booking underwent a big change.
02:00Starks is reportedly medically cleared too, in case anyone thought he'd just been off TV
02:04for injury purposes. There was also reportedly conflicting information regarding how much contact
02:09Starks and Tony Khan have, as well as conflicting chatter surrounding many other aspects of his situation,
02:14including whether or not Starks wants to leave and go to WWE.
02:18One thing that all the sources were reportedly unanimous on though, is that they hadn't heard
02:22of any situation regarding Ricky Starks and an arrest or even an incident in Canada. Any
02:27names that had been mentioned as part of this alleged incident had reportedly denied it occurred
02:31directly to Fightful Select, which doesn't mean it didn't happen, but there hasn't
02:36been anything substantial to these rumours as of yet.
02:39As Fightful said themselves in their report, this is one of the more conflicting stories they've
02:42covered based on their sources' personal stances and their information, and we certainly don't
02:47know the truth about any of this yet, so just bear that in mind going forward.
02:51Meanwhile, over in WWE, last night's episode of NXT seemingly confirmed an injury which
02:56will be keeping one star out for quite some time. Noam Dar mentioned on the show via video
03:00call that he's been out with injury, and mentioned that he tore his tendon right off
03:05the bone in his leg because of Ethan Page's attack. Which sounds pretty nasty, and like he's
03:10going to be out of action for quite a while if true, so wishing Noam Dar a speedy recovery.
03:14Meanwhile, on the main roster, the momentum continued with this week's episode of Raw,
03:18which had the follow-up to the Wyatt Six debut with that frankly awesome Bo Dallas interview.
03:22However, there was one sour point hanging over the show, which came in the form of an injury.
03:27According to WrestleVotes, Ludwig Kaiser suffered an injury on the show during his match with
03:30Brom Breaker. It's unclear at this time exactly what the injury is or how severe it is,
03:35but WrestleVotes also noted that before the injury, he was slated to be part of a Money in the
03:39Bank qualifying match next week alongside Drew McIntyre and Sheamus, but as was announced
03:45on Raw, Ilya Dragunov will be taking that spot instead, hoping for a speedy recovery for
03:49Ludwig Kaiser.
03:50Kaiser missing out on his Money in the Bank qualifying match due to injury is yet another
03:54instance of the Money in the Bank match being cursed. But do you know just how cursed it
03:58is? Over its history it's had its ups, but it's really had its downs. This Saturday
04:03we're releasing the next WrestleTalk original, looking at the entire cursed history of Money
04:09in the Bank. Here's a look.
04:10But those literal highs can distract you from the gimmick's cursed history. The gimmick's
04:16famed unpredictability had become 50% more predictable. This coincided with a bit of good fortune for
04:24Edge and terrible fortune for Matt Hardy. The only thing that could derail him would be
04:29if his behaviour got him heat backstage. RVD beat him and then got arrested. WWE quickly struggled
04:36booking two good cash-in storylines a year, and the briefcase was becoming a crutch.
04:42Kennedy got injured from a Batista clothesline on a health show. The problem was, Kennedy wasn't
04:48actually injured. Big E would later say his run did little for him. And almost in a meta-commentary
04:54on women's achievement, the first one was won by a man.
05:06Despite the sour note of Ludwig Kaiser's injury, it was a pretty great episode of Raw
05:11on Monday, and the viewership reflected that, with the show pulling an average of 1.184 million
05:16viewers, up from the previous week's 1.747 million. They also did well in the 18-49 demo,
05:22scoring a 0.61 rating, also up from last week's 0.55. These are great numbers for Raw, the
05:28largest viewership and demo number since the post-WrestleMania episode of Raw in April.
05:33Despite a bit of a lull following Mania 40, the show seemed to be picking back up in time
05:37for Money in the Bank and SummerSlam soon. Also on this episode of Raw, Pat McAfee was
05:41notably absent, with The Miz transitioning into commentary for the night instead. Some may have
05:46assumed that this was playing off the Wyatt Six angle that happened on the Pat McAfee show,
05:50with the show being cut off before its conclusion. However, this was not the case, as Pat has
05:54now revealed that his father-in-law passed away and he missed the show to be with his
05:58family. Pat mentioned on the latest episode of his show that his father-in-law had been
06:01suffering from an infection of some sort and looked to be on the mend with an expected release
06:05from hospital. However, things took a turn for the worse and he passed away. Sending best
06:10wishes and condolences to Pat and his family.
06:12Transitioning back now to regular wrestling news, WWE this year has been all over the
06:17crossovers. Working with TNA during the Royal Rumble and again with NXT, with Joe Hendry appearing
06:22on the show and Tatum Paxley going over to TNA, AJ Styles heading over to Noah, Julia working
06:26with Marigold. There's a lot of people appearing in other companies right now. And that trend
06:31is set to continue, this time with GCW as Shayna Baszler has been confirmed for Josh Barnett's
06:36Bloodsport 11, taking place on July 28th, a week before SummerSlam. She'd previously
06:41appeared at Bloodsport 10, beating Masha Slamovich. And you know who else was on that show? Minoru
06:46Suzuki. In unrelated news, Shayna's previously said that her dream opponent would be Minoru
06:51Suzuki. So you know what to do, Shayna Baszler versus Minoru Suzuki, book it!
06:56There might be another wrestler appearing in WWE before long though, but this time permanently
07:01after they leave AEW. Rumours and reports have circulated for years and years about
07:06WWE having an interest in signing Penta El Cerro Miedo. And Penta himself recently addressed
07:12these rumours, also noting an interesting fact about his AEW contract.
07:16This interview was conducted in Spanish, so the translation may be a little off, but this
07:20is the gist of what he said. Penta was interviewed by Lalo Elieferreras on his YouTube channel,
07:24where Penta mentioned that he's known about these WWE rumours for years since Lucha Underground
07:29finished, but doesn't know exactly where they came from or what caused them. However, he
07:32said that he never got a tangible offer from WWE and his career path took him to AEW. However,
07:38he also said that his AEW contract is due to expire on August 31st, and while he's happy
07:43in AEW right now, if there are other offers on the table, he'll consider them all. If
07:48a contract negotiation arises then he'll do his best to make the right choice.
07:52He did also concede that hearing Fero Miedo chants at WrestleMania would be pretty sweet,
07:58and noted that he's not as young as he used to be, and this next contract could be his
08:01last big one. But it's not just about the wrestling too, as Penta mentioned that he
08:04has a lot of people that depend on him, not just his family, but businesses. He has a
08:09restaurant, a merchandise team, a gym, a school, and he promotes shows himself too.
08:13Sticking with masked luchadors, Rey Mysterio recently revealed a pitch he made to WWE that
08:19was rejected, which he's now actually quite thankful for. It might seem hard to think of
08:23it now if you're a new fan of WWE, but Dominik Mysterio used to be a babyface. I know, isn't
08:28it weird? He held the tag titles with his father, Rey, but they split at Clash of the
08:31Castle 2022, with Dom turning heel. However, this might not have been how it all played
08:36out in an alternate timeline. Speaking with Chris VanBleet, Rey revealed that he actually
08:40pitched to be the one to turn heel on Dominik at one point.
08:43I brought it up to Vince and it was brief, like, maybe I turn on Dom and we continue with
08:47something along the way, but getting feedback from some of my colleagues, like, no, you're
08:51the babyface that could never be heel. You're Ricky Steamboat, you know? Nobody can ever see
08:55you as a heel. I don't think they would buy into it. And I'm kind of glad that I listened
08:59and that they didn't listen to me, because the best thing that could have happened is
09:02for Dom to become the heel and be the evil one. Still, it's fun to think about though,
09:06isn't it? Rey Mysterio is a heel working over babyface Dom? Maybe it would have worked,
09:11but more likely it wouldn't. Smart call.
09:14Transitioning now into some sad news, and it was announced last night that Seika Anawaii
09:18one half of the Wild Samoans, WWE Hall of Famer and Father of Roman Reigns, passed away
09:23at age 79. The Wild Samoans were three-time WWF Tag Team Champions, also wrestling in
09:28Georgia Championship Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Mid-South Wrestling. They were
09:32instrumental in helping foster future generations of the Samoan Wrestling Dynasty, training the
09:37vast majority of them. Roman Reigns commented on his father's passing, saying,
09:40My family and I thank everyone for the outpouring of support in the name of my father, Polievo
09:45Liati Sika Anawaii, who will forever be remembered as one half of the Wild Samoans Tag Team. My
09:50father had a profound impact on my entire family, and we are forever grateful for the foundation
09:54he built for us. There's no way to fill the void left by his passing, but my sisters
09:58and I will do our best to represent him and his legacy. Rest in power, Dad. We love you."
10:03On a personal note, I was quite ignorant to wrestling history, but when the Bloodline story began,
10:08I did research into Samoan culture and the history of their family, and it was genuinely
10:12amazing learning about this era of wrestling, the impact Sika had upon it, and how their
10:17legacy lived on through future generations. If you don't know why the Wild Samoans were
10:20such an important tag team, I'd really recommend doing your own research. It's genuinely fascinating.
10:25And a lot of that research went into our Bloodline Family Tree Explained video that we made a
10:29while back, and it's still one of my favourite videos we've ever made. Rest in peace, Sika
10:32Anawaii, sending best wishes and condolences to the Anawaii family at this time.
10:37But while there's sadness over losing a loved one, the wrestling life cycle continues and
10:41new generations continue to step up where their ancestors laid the path. For the Samoan
10:46dynasty, that's all of the wrestlers we see on our screens right now. And in recent
10:50news in another family, Kevin Owens on NHL Now has shared that his son Owen, the namesake
10:55of KO's WWE name, has stepped into a wrestling ring for the first time at age 16, and I just
11:01think that's neat.
11:03Now go hug a loved one, tell him you love them, and after you've done that, watch our Samoan
11:06dynasty family tree video. Seriously, learn about it. It's fascinating.
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