00:00A big title change possibly leaked, WWE's emergency plan for if a legend passed away,
00:06The Rock denies reports, and more.
00:08I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News!
00:19It's now been over two months since Mercedes-Monnaie debuted for AEW, where she still hasn't
00:24wrestled a match.
00:25Instead, she's been cutting nothing promos, getting attacked in the dark.
00:29What happened to that storyline?
00:30And doing this a lot?
00:38Pretty uncanny.
00:40Thankfully as we approach her debut AEW match, fighting for Willow Nightingale's TBS Championship
00:45at May 26th's Double or Nothing, her character has started to come together.
00:50AEW appeared to have pivoted her into a more heelish persona, and she even took a big bump
00:55going through a table on this week's Dynamite.
00:58It's very unlikely she'll lose her first match in the promotion, so she's the massive
01:02favourite to be the new TBS champion by the end of the month.
01:06And thanks to some clunky forbidden door booking, we pretty much now know that for certain.
01:11Tomorrow at Stardom's flashing champion, Nightingale will defend her TBS title against
01:20Tam Nakano.
01:21The match was announced on last week's Collision, and is the latest example of AEW and Stardom
01:26working much more closely together now that Stardom's previous boss Rossi Ogawa, who
01:30was allegedly blocking the relationship, has been fired.
01:34Stardom's new president, Taro Okada, revealed at a press conference how this match came about.
01:39I was wondering if there was a way to make this happen, so I contacted AEW and they contacted
01:44me and said, when shall we do it?
01:46We were talking about whether it would be okay to do it after the PPV, but they said, let's
01:51do it right away.
01:53Wrestling Observer Radio, however, have revealed a bit more on how that conversation went.
01:58The match had been talked about, and Stardom didn't want the match this soon.
02:02They wanted to promote it longer, and basically Tony Khan told them, or AEW, I don't know
02:08if it was Tony directly, AEW told them, you gotta do it this week, it's got to be this
02:15week.
02:16Which makes it all about the implication.
02:18It's heavily speculated that Stardom had to have their TBS title match before Double
02:23or Nothing because Willow is dropping the belt to Mercedes at the PPV.
02:28Unless everyone gets injured, that is.
02:30The same forbidden door relationship sounds great in theory, but in practice they can give
02:34away future creative plans and also put your roster at a higher risk of injury.
02:39Like Eddie Kingston, fresh off being announced as part of Team AEW for Double or Nothing's
02:44biggest match to reportedly break his leg, four days later at a New Japan show.
02:50Wrestling Observer Radio believes Kingston has indeed broken his leg, but nothing has been
02:54confirmed to them yet.
02:55Eddie seemingly backed that up, posting a picture of himself on Instagram with his leg in
03:00a large cast, sitting in a wheelchair, smoking a suspicious looking cigarette.
03:09He quoted Dan Gable in the caption which read, once you've wrestled, everything else in
03:13life is easy.
03:14But don't worry, I'm sure his Team AEW replacement will be just fa- possibly suffered
03:19a concussion.
03:20Derby made his surprising return to save Team AEW in his home state of Washington on Wednesday
03:25night, surprisingly because he'd only recently broken his foot and had just been literally
03:30hit by a bus.
03:31But in a promo to the live crowd once the show went off air, he admitted,
03:35I'm not 100%, but Jesus, when Dax just did that suplex in here, I was sitting crisscross
03:40applesauce and a f***ing beam hit me in the head.
03:43I thought I got knocked out.
03:44I was like, there goes my return, Jesus.
03:47Derby had been hiding under the ring during the main event match of Dax Harwood vs Okada.
03:52He then left the show and went to the hospital.
03:54But injuries aren't AEW's only problem.
03:57Wednesday's Dynamite continued its concerning trend of decreasing viewership both year on
04:01year and week on week, drawing one of its lowest numbers ever at 672,000 total viewers
04:08and a 0.23 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is the audience advertisers value most.
04:15Up until the last several months, that figure was averaging in the 0.3 range, which means
04:19this is a drop of almost 25%.
04:22And it's even worse in the more specific, even more valuable 18-34 group.
04:28Wrestling Observer Radio has pointed out that viewers aged 35-49 have remained steady throughout
04:33this period, as we are creatures of habit, too old to get up and change the channel on
04:38the box.
04:39Viewers aged 18-34, however, who are typically more fickle with all their youth and TikTok
04:44dance trends and, I don't know, Subutio have dropped significantly.
04:49AEW need to find a way to re-engage that audience, particularly when they're in crunch time
04:54for TV negotiations.
04:55Or you could be WWE and tailor one entire episode around a 67 year old.
05:00Back in August 2017, Ric Flair was hospitalised due to several health issues and placed in
05:05a medically induced coma.
05:06There was a very real risk one of the biggest Racine stars of all time was about to pass away.
05:13But jobbing to death didn't work for the Nature Boy, so he kicked out at 2.99, got colon surgery,
05:19and had another match five years later.
05:21Sure, he suffered a heart attack in that match, but he still did it.
05:26He shouldn't have done, but he did.
05:28Flair's closest brush with Death, where they were apparently preparing to give him
05:31his last rites, happened on Monday 14th August, the same day an episode of Raw would air.
05:38Now AEW head of global production Mike Mansory, who worked high up in WWE production at the
05:43time, has recalled that show as one of the most nerve-wracking he ever experienced.
05:48Speaking on Talk Is Jericho, Mansory revealed WWE had three different versions of that Monday
05:53Night Raw set to play out that night, depending on what happened with Flair's health.
05:59As they all thought, he was going to die.
06:02These were the versions that were actually broadcast, a version if Flair passed away before
06:07the show, and one if he passed away Jorin.
06:10That time I can more understand last minute changes to Raw.
06:13Speaking of production changes…
06:15Going to piss on a bowl segue…
06:25Shortly after WrestleMania 40, WWE announced a backstage documentary detailing how one of
06:31the craziest and most successful storylines of recent times came together.
06:36The Rock's infamous character pivot from, I take Cody's Rumble win because I am a babyface
06:41to F*** your dog and f*** your mum you little b****.
06:44After months of various reports over what really happened, there was a lot of excitement about
06:48hearing WWE's definitely 100% truthful version of events, but its advertised premiere date
06:53was now over a month ago and we haven't heard anything.
06:57PWInsider first claimed it was simply because the documentary wasn't finished.
07:01So much footage was shot, they're still putting it together.
07:04But then, as the video still wasn't released, PWInsider wrote some in WWE believed it was
07:09because they were waiting on The Rock for final approval.
07:13That's not like The Rock to hold up a production.
07:16The Rock's long-time writer Brian Gawitz has now denied that speculation to The Masked
07:20Man Show.
07:21The Rock isn't holding hostage until he has approval of every frame.
07:25I think there was an error in terms of promoting it so soon because it wasn't ready to come
07:29out.
07:30That was an error that was made.
07:31This is a doc that went from 11 minutes to 45 minutes, and now it's over an hour.
07:37It's pretty awesome.
07:38It will be coming out in some form pretty soon, is my understanding.
07:41A Bloodline-focused video production taking way longer than you thought it would?
07:45I wonder what that feels like.
07:46Oh yeah, I know exactly what that feels like.
07:49Because tomorrow we'll see us release the biggest video us here at WrestleTalk have ever
07:54done.
07:55A near two hour documentary on Roman Reigns' WWE title reign from start to finish.
08:02Here's a look.
08:03Spanning nearly four years, Roman Reigns has been ruling as the head of the table.
08:07Fans were just so sick of being force-fed, what they were supposed to like.
08:12Family, tradition, legacy, the responsibility of being champion.
08:16Those are the pillars of Reigns' new character.
08:19I think it might be the best storyline WWE have ever done.
08:23And if you compare how they handled Jay joining, and how they handled Jimmy, one feels significantly
08:29more anticlimactic than the other.
08:30I think there was a time where we all thought Sammy was the person.
08:35Cody brought in The Rock as a replacement for himself.
08:39Wh-who wrote that?
08:41Join me as I take a look at Roman Reigns' world champion and the bloodline from start
08:46to finish.
08:50Please subscribe and enable notifications to always on so you know first when that goes
08:54live.
08:55We'll end this news episode on a bit of eye candy for the lats.
08:58It's Friday boys, so let's loosen those collars, undo those ties, crack open a cold
09:04one, and feast your eyes on those championship belts!
09:14These are the first title designs unveiled from Rossi Ogawa's new wrestling promotion, the
09:18snappily named Dreamstar Fighting Marigold.
09:21The white belt strap is the United National Championship, which is intended as a homage
09:25to the title first worn by Antonio Inoki, and the World Championship will have a red strap
09:30with a very winged eagle looking design.
09:33The red and white colour scheme is a reference to all Japan women's pro wrestling.
09:37Marigold will also have the Twinstar Championships for the tag division, and the Superfly Belt for
09:42wrestlers under 55kg.
09:44Their inaugural show Forever Fields will take place on Monday, with WWE signee Julia and
09:49a host of former Stardom wrestlers who defected with Ogawa.
09:52It's reported that WWE will send talent like Io Sky and Kairi Sane there in the future to
09:57help grow the promotion.
09:59Now go watch Luke, Pete and I try to predict every entrant in the men's 2025 Royal Rumble
10:05way too far in advance.
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