00:00A shock WWE return is possible, WWE cancelling shows, my review of AEW Dynamite and more.
00:07I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:14In just over one week's time it'll be the one year anniversary of WWE's September
00:192023 releases, the company's biggest spats of releases of the Triple H creative regime
00:24where 25 names were given their pink slips.
00:27Arguably the most shocking of those releases in some ways, but not others, was Matt Riddle.
00:32There had been several incidents with Riddle leading up to his release, but the proverbial
00:36straw was an incident at JFK International Airport where he accused an officer of sexual assault,
00:41and video obtained by TMZ showed that he was intoxicated at the time.
00:45Riddle has since gone on to do shows with New Japan, where he won the Television Championship
00:48from Hiroshi Tanahashi, as well as MLW and AAA where he recently won the Cruiserweight Championship.
00:54But speaking with Sports Illustrated, Matt Riddle believes that he could return to WWE one
00:59day.
01:00He said, the chances of me going back, I think they're extremely high.
01:05High.
01:06Get it?
01:08Weed.
01:11He cited CM Punk as the reason he could return, noting that Punk filed lawsuits against WWE,
01:15dragged their name through the mud and literally went to the direct competition, but walked back
01:20into WWE and all was forgiven.
01:22He added, I know I wasn't the easiest to work with at times, and I think the door is
01:27always open.
01:28Would you like to see Matt Riddle return?
01:29Let me know in the comments down below.
01:31Another notable event of September 2023 was the birth of TKO, the merged company of UFC
01:36and WWE.
01:37With brand new leadership teams at the very top comes changes, and one of those changes has
01:42been making the rounds lately.
01:43That being WWE significantly scaling back on its live event schedule.
01:48This has been on the cards for some time.
01:50TKO President Mark Shapiro has said in the past that these events cost money, and they
01:54don't really make a lot of money back.
01:56WWE have already scaled back on doing house shows in smaller towns.
02:00And speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia and Technology Conference, I bet you that place
02:05is a right laugh, Shapiro revealed that they're scaling back even more shows.
02:09Running from 300 events in 2023 to 250 in 2024 to 200 in 2025.
02:17Running from the grind, eh?
02:18The real reasoning, according to Shapiro, is that Vince McMahon ran these shows when he
02:22was growing the company, but now they don't need to grow the company anymore, because it
02:27already grew.
02:28Shapiro has also talked about scaling back TV shows because he doesn't see the value
02:32in driving production trucks all across the country.
02:35A lot has been said about the NXT TNA partnership with comparisons to AEW's relationship with
02:40Impact during the pandemic, but one thing is for sure.
02:44Something is working.
02:45Case in point, PWInsider are reporting that this Friday's TNA Victory Road is one of
02:49the highest sold ticket totals for any TNA live event in the United States this year.
02:55Not only that, but NXT was down just 0.5% from last week's rating, despite going against
03:01the presidential debate.
03:03Even more surprising, the 18-49 demo was up by nearly 12% from the previous week.
03:11Lastly for the news portion of this video, and on August 29th it was reported by TMZ that
03:15the husband of former WWE star Nikki Bella had been arrested on domestic violence charges.
03:20But two weeks after this incident, according to online records, Nikki has filed for divorce
03:25from her husband, of which she shares a 4-year-old son, Mateo.
03:28Shortly after the incident, Nikki Bella was spotted without her wedding ring while hosting
03:31Netflix's hot dog eating contest just days later, and according to TMZ, Nikki's search
03:36for divorce lawyers began shortly after the arrest.
03:39Before the AEW Dynamite review, here's a word from today's sponsor.
03:44Hacking.
03:45Yes.
03:46I'm going to hack into the mainframe.
03:48Damn.
03:49What's this?
03:50Some kind of firewall.
03:51That's why I'll hack my way through.
03:54And wait.
03:55It's not working.
03:56No.
03:57Stupid sexy Luke.
03:59Always getting in my way.
04:01Hey Luke.
04:02What's up?
04:03Oh, I'm just trying to hack into the Rust Talk YouTube channel.
04:05I've forgotten my password.
04:06Why don't you just click, forgot my password?
04:09You would say that.
04:10You always say that.
04:11Only a baby would say that.
04:13I'm not a baby.
04:14Why do people keep saying that I'm a baby?
04:16Then why are you holding a baby phone, baby?
04:18I knew this wasn't my phone.
04:21See?
04:22Told you, ya big baby.
04:23You're the real baby.
04:24You haven't even realised it.
04:25The reason you can't hack in is because we use Surfshark.
04:27Surfshark?
04:28Yes, Surfshark.
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04:45Link in the description.
04:46Wow.
04:47Thanks Pete.
04:48Yep, just click, forgot your password, you're not going to get anywhere with hacking, and
04:52then you can go on the rest of the internet worry free.
04:54Ah, don't worry.
04:55I'm going to continue hacking.
04:56I'm going to see how far I can get.
04:58And now it's time for my review of AEW Dynamite, aka the all change edition of AEW Dynamite,
05:11in about 5 minutes.
05:12The show opened with a cool video package slash promo from Jon Moxley about his and his Blackpool
05:17Combat Club cohort actions at All Out, with Moxley proclaiming that he is the one true
05:22king of these lands.
05:23This was followed by Darby Allin arriving at the building, setting up their interaction
05:26for later in the night, and then Tony Schiavone was in the ring for an interview with Christian
05:30Cage.
05:31Cage had been informed by his son Nick Wayne that the word on the street is, Christian
05:34Cage has infinite aura.
05:36Slay Queen.
05:37He noted that Killswitch was the most complete big man in the business and he belonged to
05:42him, and you are looking at the next AEW World Champion.
05:45He also got a jab in at Bryan CTE.
05:47We cut backstage with Don Callis and his family asking Will Ospreay to be Carl Fletcher's
05:51tag partner in the Casino Gaunt at main event.
05:53Ospreay didn't want to get involved with the family again, but Callis reminded Ospreay
05:57that he owed him a favour, and this was that favour.
06:00Takeshita looked annoyed about all this.
06:02You might be thinking, boy that's a lot of talking to start the show, but remarkably that
06:05was all done in the opening 11 minutes of Dynamite and did not feel rushed.
06:10It meant that we got some wrestling in the first quarter of the show, when Jack Perry
06:13defended the TNT Championship against Lio Rush.
06:16No joke, I saw this graphic yesterday and it was only on the second time did I realise
06:20that Perry was not defending the title against Roosh.
06:22They had a decent match and Perry used snapdragons the same way Kenny Omega would, which commentary
06:27brought up, don't you give me hope you bastards.
06:29Perry hit a knee strike for the win.
06:30Alex Mervez tried to interview him afterwards, but he didn't have much to say and drove off
06:34in his van for a round of WWE Crush Hour.
06:36Rey interviewed Hangman Page, who said that if Swerve had 1000 childhood homes he would
06:40burn down 1000 childhood homes.
06:42He warned anyone that tried to get in his way of getting to Swerve Strickland would
06:45now be taken out.
06:46Top Flight and Dark Order looked disgusting in this new version of Hangman, with his former
06:49friends noting that they don't even recognise him anymore.
06:51And then he ran into Jeff Jarrett and the two brawled.
06:53I know I was a day one brie woo apologist, but I am stunned that AEW have managed to turn
06:59Jeff Jarrett babyface in 2024 and it's working.
07:02Private Party and Commander were supposed to have the weekly fun trios match, but Moxley
07:05and the Blackpool Combat Club killed them all instead.
07:08Oh, they choked out Danielson with a bag, but that is taking things too far.
07:11Pat cut a promo saying that last Saturday was inevitable and this company is now theirs,
07:15whatever that means.
07:16The Learning Tree set up Chekhov's car for later in the show, and Ricochet beat Sammy
07:19Guevara in a really good match that gave Sammy a lot more than you'd imagine.
07:23Ricochet got the win with Vertigo, but it felt like 80% of the match was taken by Guevara,
07:27who I don't know man, he's still good, but so few people actually care about Sammy at
07:33this point.
07:34We've got a video recap of Willow Nightingale vs Chris Atlander nearly stealing the show
07:39from All Out, and Renee interviewed Okada who set up a singles match with Takeshita down
07:43the line.
07:44Darby came out for a promo to call out Moxley, who came to the ring letting him know that
07:47he was not coming armed.
07:48Darby told him they're not superstars who have had things handed to them, they were
07:51guys who fought to get all of this.
07:54People keep telling Darby to slow down because he won't be wrestling in his 40, but Darby cannot
07:58slow down because he doesn't know when this ride will end.
08:01Moxley is the type of guy who will wrestle in high school gyms because he loves this
08:04sport, and in fact the first time they met was at a high school gym indie show.
08:09But what he did to Bryan Danielson?
08:11What was that?
08:12What do you want?
08:13Moxley told Darby that he was supposed to have a title match at Grand Slam, but that isn't
08:17happening anymore.
08:18And it's because Darby isn't ready.
08:20So instead, Moxley challenged Darby to a match at Grand Slam for that world title match.
08:25Darby accepted and added if Moxley wants to burn AEW to the ground, he will drag him into
08:29the fire.
08:30Now, this is pretty bold to change up the world title match for Grand Slam when ticket sales
08:35are struggling, but it's being done presumably so Danielson can sell the effects of the all-out
08:39angle.
08:40It does mean that we are doing a big Arthur Ashe show with no world champion and no Bryan Danielson,
08:45because Danielson can't be wrestling right, that's why the change was made, right?
08:50I'm confused.
08:51To skip ahead a few segments, Nigel McGuinness came out to announce that Danielson may now
08:57be on an iron lung, but he cannot run from Nigel forever.
09:01So in two weeks, Tony Khan has signed Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness for Grand Slam.
09:05This was a great promo from Nigel, and a match I'm super excited about.
09:09Who all should have seen us lose our collective minds when McGuinness came out at All In, but
09:14why did the world title match change?
09:17Is Danielson okay?
09:19And if he is, why is he facing Nigel and not getting revenge on Moxley?
09:22Don't get me wrong, I'm stoked this match is happening, I just have questions.
09:27Mariah May beat Queen Almanada in a good match that gave Almanada a lot of shine, this was
09:30your only women's match on the show, and The Learning Tree quickly beat the Iron Savages
09:34and Orange Cassidy dumped a load of coins on Jericho's new car.
09:37We got a video promo for Soraya vs Jamie Hayter, Hook cut a promo on Roderick Strong, and that
09:43left us with a good 30 minutes for the tag team casino gauntlet.
09:46Look, the casino gauntlet should be used sparingly, but doing a tag team version of it is a really
09:50good idea and hopefully opens it up to the women's division down the line.
09:55But this match did show two things.
09:571.
09:58AEW has lots of good tag teams, and 2.
10:01Very few of them are actually over.
10:03It started with FTR and Fletch Spray, which was awesome, and then The Righteous came out
10:06to…
10:070 reaction.
10:08Same for the Kingdom.
10:09The Acclaimed got a decent pop, as did MXM, who set up a feud with the Acclaimed, and Top
10:14Flight came out to an ok reaction.
10:16The lack of reactions was exposed when the OutRunners came out to an enormous pop, and
10:21we had a great spot when Turbo Floyd suplexed someone onto everyone else on the floor.
10:25Grussell Young vets didn't get to enter the match as FTR brawled with them up the ramp
10:28and backstage, and Ospreay hit the hit and played on Dante Martin and Fletcher pinned him
10:32for a Fletch Spray win.
10:33Very cool ending, but again exposes that none of the established tag teams in AEW are over
10:38to the degree that they can challenge for the World Tag Team titles.
10:42Something needs to be done.
10:44But it was a decent episode of Dynamite.
10:46Perhaps not the hottest show following a very hot pay-per-view, but I had a good time.
10:50Plus I get to see Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness in two weeks, even if it doesn't make
10:53a hell of a lot of sense.
10:55If you want to watch Pete Quinnell's Goodbye live stream from us here on the WrestleTalk
10:58podcast, you'll be missed Pete.
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