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In this episode, we discuss Andrade's AEW Return, is TNA for Sale, CMLL and Tessa Blanchard news, and the rest of the day's rumors.
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02:31Hello everybody.
02:32Welcome to this episode of the Fro Wrestling Podcast.
02:34If you've got questions, comments.
02:35Something you want me to touch on in a future episode.
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02:42And we will get to those in a future episode.
02:44Lots to talk about tonight.
02:45Let's get started right away.
02:46The big conversation of the week so far has been Andrade El Idiolo returning to AEW on Dynamite.
02:53Attacking Kenny Omega and aligning himself with the Don Callis family.
02:56One more out of the 9 million people in the Don Callis family.
02:59Now first off, I don't have a problem with him being with the Don Callis family.
03:02I think the bigger concern here was how so fast, so quick, just released by WWE.
03:07But what it boils down to is he was such a concern, apparently he failed another drug test.
03:13Some kind of controlled substance test.
03:15Now we don't know if he actually failed a test or failed to provide a sample for a test.
03:20Now in distant years past, back, you know, things happened with Randy Orton, with Rey Mysterio, different talents.
03:26When they would fail a drug test for some reason, some performance enhancing drug, then there was always like a blur put on WWE.com.
03:33You always found out about it.
03:34These days, apparently that is not the case.
03:36And apparently this is not the first time that Andrade had been busted for some kind of performance enhancing situation.
03:43This time, there was no playing around about it, whether it was a failed test or a refusal to take a test or a failure to provide the sample for the test.
03:52He wasn't just let go of his contract.
03:55He was fired immediately.
03:56No 90 day, no compete clause, just straight up terminated.
04:00That's very different from what we've seen in the past where they future endeavor you and you get 90 days to sit at home, collect a paycheck until you can pursue your next option.
04:08This was done right away, and apparently AEW has been working on his return for a couple weeks now since his release from WWE.
04:16And this, apparently Tony Khan and his perspective on Andrade has been very positive since he left the company.
04:23His contract ran out with AEW at Worlds Collide back in 2023, went back to WWE January 2024.
04:30No Bad Blood was able to return to the company last night.
04:32And look, I understand putting him in a feud with Kenny Omega, but this is a feud that he can't possibly win.
04:37Omega cannot keep taking losses when he's been bragging about the fact that he doesn't have a ton of matches left under his belt.
04:43So, the reality is, Andrade coming in and attacking Omega, in my opinion, great.
04:47It gets Andrade into almost a main event level status match, but what does it do long term for Andrade?
04:53Because at the end of the day, he's going to have to lose the feud to Kenny Omega, because I believe all of us are expecting Omega and Okada to face off one more time, this time in the Continental Classic at the end of the year.
05:04And this is a roadblock to that if you put Andrade over.
05:07I don't think you can do that.
05:08And at this point, let's be honest, why would anybody look at Andrade as a main event level talent to begin with?
05:14When you go to WWE at first, comes out of NXT, he was pushed really strong in NXT by Triple H, got to the main roster, and just didn't go anywhere of substance.
05:24They release him, he goes to AEW, and again, could not get over to a level where he became a main eventer.
05:30Leaves, go back to WWE, again, stuck in the mid-card, doing almost nothing, holding a speed championship in a makeshift tag team with Ray Phoenix, and then released.
05:40Now back to AEW, and you're the first guy to bounce back and forth this many times, and now you're instantly in a program with Kenny Omega.
05:47I'm not loving the booking because I don't see the long term fruit of this labor.
05:52I just don't.
05:53I don't see this ever leading to Andrade being taken seriously as a top flight contender or a top level draw.
05:59He does not draw on anybody's views.
06:02The issue is Andrade, in a lot of ways, it seems as though, and again, I'm not inside his head and I've never had a conversation with the guy, but it seems as though he believes more in his talents, skills, and what he brings to the table than other people do.
06:15I'm not dumping on that.
06:17Every wrestler probably feels that way.
06:19But the reality is, the ticket sales are what are going to determine who is the top flight talent.
06:24And look at AEW right now.
06:25Like, you have such a stacked amount of talent.
06:28Like, you've got...
06:29I was listening to Jim Cornette the other day, because I try to listen to as many programs as I can, and he was talking about people like Britt Baker and Chris Jericho and Keith Lee and all these people who are basically sitting on the bench at home collecting a huge, massive paycheck from Tony Khan.
06:43Here's another guy coming into the company, and that just muddies the water even more.
06:47What is the payroll like for AEW with all the guys who don't make it to television, people who you're paying week after week after week, and then they don't contribute anything or bring anything to the show?
06:58If you can't use everybody, why would you pay those salaries just to keep them from WWE?
07:03WWE doesn't have room for them either, and obviously they didn't want Andrade because they just let him go.
07:08Maybe they felt like he wasn't bringing enough to the table to counter his salary combined with the drama of the performance enhancing violations.
07:14But whatever it is, their wellness policy is what it is, and that was what led to his release, and now his return to AEW Dynamite.
07:20Shocking, I guess.
07:22Does it wow the crowd in the suddenly buying into the mystique of AEW?
07:27I don't think it does anything to move the needle for AEW.
07:29The match might be fantastic.
07:31Andrade can go.
07:32He's a phenomenal performer.
07:34He just...
07:35He doesn't have the personality.
07:36He doesn't have the mic skills to put the whole package together.
07:39Now, maybe Don Callis can do the speaking part for him, but at the end of the day, I just don't see him on Kenny Omega's level.
07:45And I don't...
07:46I can't see us spending...
07:48It's almost like the John Cena retirement tour.
07:49I can't see us spending valuable time of Kenny Omega's career working with a guy that has no chance to win the feud.
07:54And if he does, it's an insult, really, to past booking.
07:59He should have no business in there for this.
08:02So, whatever.
08:03It is what it is.
08:04Gonna have to keep our eye and see how that plays out.
08:06Moving on to New Japan Pro Wrestling.
08:08If anybody hasn't noticed, in 2025, New Japan Pro Wrestling in previous years had been making a lot of excursions to the United States.
08:15Really pushing their New Japan Strong version of their brand.
08:18And in 2025, it's been very, very light.
08:21When COVID-19 pandemic hit back in 2020, it made it difficult for wrestlers to go country to country.
08:26Some New Japan people moved to the United States to keep active.
08:31That's when they launched Strong.
08:33Strong had a good initial following.
08:35But now, it's a little different.
08:37New Japan bringing the number of events much more condensed.
08:41They've only made three offerings in the United States this year.
08:45Versus the six that they had in 2024.
08:47And eight in 2023.
08:49And that's not counting promotions or events that they've co-hosted with other people.
08:55But Fightful Select talks about two main issues being behind the slowdown in the presentation of New Japan Pro Wrestling in the United States.
09:03First being the fact that ticket sales in America have been dropping.
09:05And the second being that some New Japan Pro Wrestling talent don't want to come to the United States for events.
09:11When you think about it, you know, AEW essentially is an Americanized version of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
09:17New Japan Pro Wrestling was making so much strides.
09:19They were really pushing to be the number two organization in the world.
09:21They were doing great stuff.
09:23The Okada, Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Evil, Sonata.
09:27All these incredible talents they had.
09:29But their product has dipped significantly in the last five years.
09:32And now, with AEW coming out for the last six years, AEW has cultivated such an audience.
09:37And the show's presentation and match style is so similar, there's no need to seek out New Japan Pro Wrestling programming if you're an American audience member.
09:46And, you know, that's why they've kind of shifted their focus back to Japan itself.
09:50In Japan, it's almost like they're going through a renaissance of their brand because they've had a lot of people leave.
09:55The Nakamura's going to WWE.
09:57When you have people like Kazushika Okada going to AEW.
10:01You have Tetsuya Naito leaving the company and now he's doing his own thing.
10:05You have a lot of those guys.
10:07And Tanahashi on his retirement tour.
10:09All the guys who were the backbone of your organization for the last 15 years are either gone or soon will be.
10:15And it's like, well, what's going to be the new identity of New Japan Pro Wrestling?
10:19Is it Shota Umino, who's an incredible talent but doesn't have that world-known reputation for being just a killer in the ring?
10:26Is it going to be somebody like Sho and Yo and all these people?
10:29I don't know.
10:30You've got to start cultivating it.
10:31Hiroki Goto is getting up there in age.
10:33Shingo Takagi.
10:35There's a lot of guys, but none of them are on the level of a Kazuchika Okada, a Taroshi Tanahashi, a Shinsuke Nakamura like they were in years past.
10:43So New Japan really needs to do some soul searching.
10:46But in the meantime, their wrestling product in the United States is going to tank for a little while.
10:53And we're not going to see anywhere near the amount of shows that we've seen in previous years.
10:59Moving on to TNA Wrestling, the president of TNA Wrestling was doing a conversation recently where they were talking about what the prospects of the company going forward were.
11:09The guy who runs TNA Wrestling for Anthem spoke about what is the plan for TNA, especially now that they've got this partnership with WWE.
11:17And Silva was very clear.
11:19They want to continue to build up TNA, eventually potentially leading to a sale.
11:24It would not surprise anybody, I don't think, to think that WWE could be that company that wants to move in and purchase TNA Wrestling.
11:32I would not be surprised if that actually takes place in the next 12 months.
11:35I think the big thing is going to be, can TNA Wrestling secure a media rights deal that will secure some market that WWE's current three major shows doesn't secure and push AEW further down the pecking order?
11:47Can they grow that brand and then WWE can move in?
11:50And if for no other reason, just the tape library alone has so much potential there that AEW, or I apologize, TNA hasn't capitalized on, that WWE could absolutely market that like you wouldn't believe.
12:02There's not as much, you know, physical, hard media anymore.
12:06It would all be streaming type options, but that's one of the few libraries they don't have access to.
12:10I'm actually surprised when Ring of Honor was up for sale, or it was even close to being able to be sold, that WWE didn't swoop in and snag that with all the talent that they have, like the Seth Rollins and people like that, who were in Ring of Honor at one point.
12:22I would have thought they would have tried to grab that.
12:24They missed out on that.
12:25TNA would be a huge get for them, and it would leave it so pretty much all of the wrestling from the beginnings through now would reside within two major companies.
12:35AEW having the AEW and Ring of Honor libraries, and WWE having pretty much everything else.
12:40But in terms of this, Anthem clearly has a potential sale in their mind for the future, and that's something to monitor closely because we have to wonder, what is that going to mean for WWE?
12:49What is that going to mean for brand splits and cross-promotion and things like that?
12:52Is WWE still going to look at possibly doing something more stuff with Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan?
12:57All Japan Pro Wrestling has had a pre-existing relationship back in the 90s.
13:00That's a conversation some people brought up about All Japan's business.
13:03Could WWE swoop in there?
13:05Does New Japan start talking to WWE if they can't rebound their business the way they want to?
13:10And if they deal with AEW, which so far, all the partnerships with AEW seem to be very AEW-leaning in terms of who gets pushed stronger.
13:18Maybe they get tired of that and move on.
13:20I don't know.
13:21We'll have to wait and see.
13:22Back to AEW, Jack Perry recently returning, reforming the Jurassic Express with Luchasaurus.
13:29He was doing an interview, having a conversation about the appearance at All Out 2025 and bringing back the Jungle Boy persona after being the scapegoat.
13:40Now feuding with the Young Bucks.
13:43And it's interesting to see how he feels after essentially being labeled such a bad guy after the scapegoat thing.
13:51He had his falling out with CM Punk.
13:53Some people sided with Punk.
13:55Like Perry was just an inexperienced, spoiled performer or whatever.
13:59You can have whatever opinion you want.
14:01But like the whole Cry Me a River thing, referencing the issue with Punk at All In London 2023.
14:06There's some people who he felt like were really into him.
14:10Some people he thought really rejected that.
14:12But a lot of people were still cheering for him, singing, dancing and all that.
14:16And it was obvious at some point they were going to have to take this route.
14:19They really weren't doing anything with the Kill Switch character.
14:21Moving him back to being Luchasaurus and then feuding with the Bucks I think is a great idea.
14:24And it was a great way to bring Perry back to the company.
14:27They don't need him in the Elite anymore.
14:29He needed to do something with more substance when he came back.
14:31This is a great role.
14:32So it's interesting to see how he feels about the scapegoat run.
14:35How I don't think he feels like he was very successful at all.
14:39And now coming back, doing what he's doing now, I think it's going to lead to a much better situation for him going forward.
14:45Jumping to CMLL, big news this week.
14:48The TNA superstar, Tessa Blanchard, former CMLL Women's Tag Team Champion, is returning to CMLL at Arena Mexico.
14:56She's going to be going in.
14:57They're doing a CMLL Women's Grand Prix featuring talents from AEW, Stardom, other international promotions.
15:03And what's interesting is, is Tessa Blanchard being under contract to TNA.
15:07And make no mistake about it, she is still under contract to TNA.
15:10Tessa Blanchard, who is in a working relationship with WWE, working at a CMLL show, while WWE owns their rival AAA, while CMLL is working with AEW.
15:20You see how convoluted this gets.
15:22And they're working with Stardom, while WWE works with Marigold.
15:25There's a lot going on here.
15:27And of course, that's aside from the fact that the reason Tessa Blanchard is so polarizing is because of her potentially racist comments.
15:35And I wasn't there.
15:36I say potentially because I wasn't in the room.
15:37There are allegations that she made racist comments towards a wrestler named Rosa Negra while she was in Japan years ago.
15:43But since then, she disappeared for a long, long, long time, going to CMLL in 2024, winning the Women's Tag Team Championship.
15:51Once she signed with TNA, she vacated those championships.
15:54And this will be, she has been going down there.
15:56She has her partner in life.
15:58I don't even know how to pronounce the guy's name.
16:00E-S-F-I-N-G-E-S-Finge, I don't know, is apparently her partner who's a CMLL luchador.
16:07So she goes down to support her partner.
16:09But outside of that, it hasn't appeared as a wrestler.
16:12This will be the first time in quite a while.
16:13And with all that convoluted mess I just spit out there about the different companies, really interesting that they would even pull this off.
16:18I don't know how they're making that come together and how the two major companies feel about that.
16:22Jumping to Dave Meltzer, because what is an episode without making fun of Dave Meltzer?
16:27I love the fact that so much of what he talks about is just utter nonsense lately.
16:31But he was talking about AEW and Tony Khan, his most ill-spent money of his entire time in AEW.
16:38And he was referencing the money he spent to sign Rusev.
16:41Making him Miro, making him the Redeemer character.
16:44Miro never wanting to job to certain people.
16:47Now he speculates that he didn't want a job to anybody because he wanted to raise his value to go back to WWE.
16:54Which is absolutely ludicrous if you ask me.
16:56Because he wasn't signing like a one-year deal with AEW and then going back to WWE.
17:00And anybody going into any professional wrestling company thinking they're never going to lose in a four or five-year contract is insane.
17:05So I don't even think that's remotely accurate.
17:08If it is, then he never should have been signed in the first place.
17:11And maybe that's accurate to say that Tony Khan would have to send money.
17:14But if that's the case, that just makes Tony Khan an insanely ridiculous financial planner when it comes to his company making bad business decisions.
17:20When you look at everything else AEW has done, I don't buy that.
17:23I think there was a mutual agreement that certain things were going to happen.
17:26And as the shows unfolded, dictated, and panned out, for one reason or another, things didn't come together.
17:31If you're Miro and you show up in AEW and the first thing they had to be doing is being a lackey for somebody's wedding, I'd be frustrated too.
17:38He came and he could have been a main event or night one like Andrade O'Iliolo will be.
17:43And they didn't do that.
17:45Now, he did get runs with the TNT Championship, which is fine.
17:48He did a very nice job with that.
17:50But that's really all he did in AEW.
17:52Didn't really do anything of substance.
17:53It was a missed opportunity.
17:54So in that respect, maybe some wasted money.
17:55But at the end of the day, his Redeemer character in that TNT Championship run was fruitful.
18:00So I don't think it's a waste of money.
18:01It just didn't pan out the way he wanted.
18:03Meltzer over-emphasizing things sometimes absolutely drives me crazy.
18:07Because this is a guy who's made his entire career off doing the same thing I do.
18:10I'm a fan.
18:11He's a fan.
18:12He has no more credentials to critique and talk about professional wrestling than I do.
18:15The only difference between me and him is he has connections within the business because he's been doing it so long.
18:19He's met everybody and anybody and everybody.
18:21And in the early part of his career, who the heck knows how he made those connections.
18:24It certainly wasn't because he was the most savvy news reporter in the world.
18:29He got his way in there, made some conversations with people, was able to get some inside scoops.
18:33And that somehow gave him the clout to start making star ratings and weekly reports.
18:37And look, more power to him.
18:38I'm not crapping on him.
18:39That's what I do.
18:40I'm just a fan, just like you guys are.
18:42But when we start giving too much credence to what he says, that's where it gets to go off the rails just a little bit for me.
18:48Last thing of the night, BJ Ray from LFG WWE Seasons 1, Season 2 announced that he had surgery just recently to deal with his shoulder injuries.
18:56Apparently he suffered at the beginning of, and if you watch the episodes that happened at the beginning of LFG, this guy gets on my last nerve.
19:02I don't even want to see him anymore.
19:04LFG Season 1, he was competing with a torn rotator cuff and a labrum.
19:08It has never been fixed.
19:09Now he's finally getting it fixed.
19:10He says he'll be back.
19:11And he's still claiming that the ratings and everything are all about him.
19:15I know that's him just working a character.
19:18I hope the guy's not as arrogant a jerk in real life as he seems to be.
19:21Everything I've seen.
19:22If you haven't watched LFG, you're missing out.
19:24It's actually a very good show.
19:25It is certainly not tough enough.
19:27A lot of people thought it was just going to be tough enough.
19:28It's not.
19:29It's significantly better than that, but definitely could use some improvement if this is the guy you're leaning on.
19:35That's all the time we have for this episode.
19:36Check back with us next episode of rundown the latest wrestling news and rumors.
19:39Special thanks, as always, out to Suno for creating the music and sound effects on our show.
19:42Today's show is sponsored in part by Beezle Games.
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20:07I'm Fred Froelich, better known as Dr. Fro.
20:09I want to thank you for taking a few moments with us today.
20:11Until next time, take care, everybody.
20:12Have a great night.
20:37We'll see you next time.
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