00:00Dude, you gotta check out the Sabu documentary, so do it, it's available now at patreon.com slash WrestleTalk.
00:09While you're there, go ahead and sign up, check out the director's commentary with Joe Clark,
00:14a shoot interview with Luke and Ali, and the whole damn show, me, RVD.
00:22Was a John Cena title win blocked?
00:25WWE announced a big change to an upcoming PLE, my review of AEW Dynamite, and more.
00:32I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:382025 has been a lot of things, but above all else has been the retirement year of John Cena.
00:44While he spent a large portion of it in a heel turn that turned out to be not a very good idea,
00:48his matches with Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam, Logan Paul at Clash in Paris, and AJ Styles at Crown Jewel
00:54have been highly praised by fans.
00:55We all appear to have largely ignored WrestlePalooza.
00:58He also won his 17th world title, breaking the fictional record held by Ric Flair.
01:03Cena is a former United States champion, a Royal Rumble winner, a Money in the Bank holder.
01:07He's even been a tag team champion four times with four different partners,
01:13The Miz, Shawn Michaels, Batista, and LOL David Otunga.
01:16But there could have been a fifth win in there with a fifth partner.
01:20When Cena first came to the main roster and started doing his word life gimmick as a heel,
01:24he was given a bodyguard heater in the form of Bol Buchanan, aka B-Squared.
01:29Buchanan was a holdover from the Attitude Era, having formally teamed with the Big Boss Man,
01:33and was part of the criminally underrated Right to Center faction.
01:37Tagging with Cena would be the last thing Buchanan did in WWE before being released in 2003.
01:42His son Brooks Jensen is currently in NXT.
01:44When Cena and B-Squared were a team, they had a small tag feud with Eddie and Charvo Guerrero,
01:49who were the tag team champions at the time.
01:51And perhaps it was all early online speculation, but their word was that the pair were set to
01:55win the tag team titles.
01:57However, the story goes is that Eddie Guerrero nixed those plans because he didn't want to
02:01put Buchanan over.
02:03This was back in a time when wrestlers were far more protective about wins and losses and
02:07who they put over.
02:09Wrestling used to be very different.
02:10And speaking about those rumours on 99.9 Punk World Radio FM's Elite Wrestle Talk,
02:16Buchanan said,
02:17I heard there was some talk of maybe putting the tag belts on us, but it was because we
02:20were working a programme with Charvo and Eddie.
02:22So, if you're working a programme with somebody, there's always speculation.
02:26When asked if the rumour about Eddie Guerrero nixing the plan was true, Buchanan said that
02:30it probably wasn't.
02:32Eddie never had crosswords or anything like that.
02:34We were always pretty cool.
02:35So, somebody might know more than I do, but as far as I know, no.
02:40Well, there you go.
02:41That one's all wrapped up.
02:42Hey, wait a second.
02:43What was the name of that radio show again?
02:45Where's my lawyer?
02:46Cena is hanging up his boots at the end of the year, which means he won't be part of
02:49next year's Money in the Bank ladder match, which has now had an official change.
02:53The show had already had one change, as it was moved from its usual June-July time frame
02:57to August, and now it's been pushed back one week to September 6th.
03:02The rumble in February, mania late in April, Money in the Bank in September, when will the
03:07madness end?
03:07It's also moved locations within New Orleans to the Smoothie King Center, which is a daft
03:12name for a sports venue.
03:13What's interesting about the move is less the location and more the date, because September
03:176th is a Sunday.
03:19For the last few years, WWE has moved away from Sunday pay-per-views and PLEs to Saturdays,
03:25which raises some questions about why this one was moved.
03:28Money in the Bank in New Orleans also wasn't the original plan, as they were supposed to
03:31get WrestleMania 42, announced by The Rock on SmackDown back in February, but reportedly
03:36Las Vegas offered WWE more money after the announcement, so the decision was made to move
03:40Mania 42 back to Vegas.
03:42Money in the Bank in New Orleans was a make-do by TKO.
03:44Over in the world of the indies now, and GCW's Brett Lauderdale has announced that Nick Gage
03:48is currently in treatment without much further detail.
03:52Speculation has been running wild for a few days on the status of Gage, which prompted Lauderdale
03:55to post to Twitter, was going to hold off on any kind of public update, but I've seen
03:59people speculating, so I'll give a brief update.
04:01Nick Gage will not be attending any shows for the foreseeable future.
04:04He is currently in treatment, and has been for several weeks, and plans to stay indefinitely.
04:09Lauderdale says in a follow-up tweet that anyone who has booked Gage for appearances would be
04:12made right.
04:13He adds that Gage himself will make a statement when the time is right.
04:16Speaking of making returns to wrestling, Fightful Select have some positive news about
04:19one of AEW's top stars in Swerve Strickland making his return to All Elite Wrestling.
04:24Fightful had previously reported that Swerve would be taking some time off to get surgery
04:28on his meniscus, which had been bothering him since his time in WWE.
04:32They added that the time off had been planned for a while.
04:34He was taken out at Forbidden Door by a returning Wardlow, who, if I'm not mistaken, hasn't
04:39been on TV since.
04:40Sean Ross Sapp on Fightful Select is now reporting, the optimistic hope was that Swerve Strickland
04:44could be ready for a winter return to AEW action.
04:47This of course is barring any setbacks, and by winter SRS means this likely will be December,
04:52which would keep Swerve out of this year's C2.
04:55But it's Thursday, you know what that means, it's time for my review of AEW Dynamite, an
04:59episode that was promoting AEW's crossover with DC, which meant this episode was a lot
05:04like having a conversation with Oli Davis.
05:06What did you think of this wrestling match?
05:08It reminded me of Geoff Johns' run on Green Lantern in the mid 2000s, so let me also talk
05:12to you about Grant Morrison.
05:13The show opened with Hangman Page cutting a promo from WrestleDream where he called out
05:16Samoa Joe and said he's going to ruin his effing life, though that life ruining did not
05:20include the trio's championship defense against the Hurt Syndicate as the Ops retain the titles
05:24in a fun match.
05:25I said in my WrestleDream review that I wasn't sure if this Joe heel turn would land because
05:29the Ops are too darn cool and fans just want to cheer Samoa Joe.
05:34Oli did make a great point on the WrestleTalk podcast though that perhaps because it was
05:38done to Page, who is beloved by AEW fans, Joe will get booed.
05:42That did not come to pass though, as this crowd were really into chanting for Joe, only giving
05:46him some mild heat when he stopped the meaty showdown between Powerhouse Hobbs and Bobby
05:50Lashley.
05:51Where I was wrong though was that the Ops kept the titles.
05:54I had predicted the Hangman Page might get involved in the finish, but he was nowhere
05:57to be seen.
05:58Instead Ricochet was the one to distract MVP, allowing Joe to lock in the Kikina Clutch.
06:03The demand continuing their feud with the Hurt Syndicate is a slightly disappointing follow-up
06:06to WrestleDream where it felt like that had all ended.
06:09Chris Dattlander cut a promo on Mercedes-Monnaie accepting her challenge for the Women's World
06:13Championship at full gear, and Darby Allin cut a very quick and very brief promo in the
06:17ring saying that he's not done with Jon Moxley and the Death Riders.
06:21Then what the f**k was WrestleDream all about then?
06:23Jurassic Express have their eyes set on the tag team titles, and speaking of tag titles,
06:27we had a four-way women's tag match with a wacky stipulation where the winners got to
06:32pick who they would face in the first round of the tournament to crown inaugural champions.
06:37Jamie Hayter and Queen Amenada got the win over personality forward and Megan Bain, the
06:40sisters of Sin and Harley Cameron and Willow Nightingale, which had good action.
06:43And Hayter and Amenada's headbutt Hayter Raid combo is a rad finish.
06:48They picked the sisters of Sin and later on in the night they announced the rest of the
06:51brackets for the tournament, which will see Alex Windsor and Riho vs Tony Storm and Mina
06:55Shirakawa, Bain and Ford vs Teiji, and Willow and Harley vs Mercedes-Monnaie and Athena.
07:01That final partnership there came from a title celebration for Mercedes-Monnaie where she
07:05was made fun of by Harley Cameron and the Monet puppet, and Statlander dropped her into
07:09a load of cake.
07:10This is some sports entertainment I can't get on board with, it's 2025 and we're still
07:15doing cake spots.
07:17Later in the show Athena spoke to Mercedes-Monnaie and they formed a team together.
07:20The Bucks convinced Tony Khan to get them another match for money, and he's partnering
07:23them with FTR on collision against Jurassic Express in Jet Speed, and unlike that cake spot,
07:29that sounds tasty to me.
07:30Jon Moxley cut this really bizarre promo about his loss to Derby Allen, and then had a brilliant
07:35match with Kyle O'Reilly that featured lots of ground-based wrestling and a great kick-based
07:38comeback by Kyle O'Reilly.
07:39They traded submissions, but it was clear that while the underdog, Kyle, had the upper
07:44hand over a rattled Moxley.
07:46The loss to Derby was clearly playing on his mind.
07:49There was this great spot where Kyle quite easily got to the ropes of the Bulldog choke.
07:54And Danielson on commentary pointed out that Moxley would never usually let that sort of
07:58thing happen because he'd have much better ring positioning.
08:01In the end, Kyle got another ankle lock and it looked like Moxley was going to tap for
08:05the second time in a few days, but he instead chose the cowards way out and decked the referee.
08:10The match was called off, and I loved, loved this finish.
08:13It also led right into the conglomeration beating the Death Riders in your Pani match
08:16of the week.
08:17Everyone brawled afterwards, and Derby ran down to make the save.
08:20While I loved the direction for Moxley, doing another Derby match isn't doing it for me.
08:24The WrestleDream match really felt like that should have been the end of that particular
08:29feud.
08:30As many of things continuing, Mark Briscoe asked Carl Fletcher for one more match for
08:33the TNT Championship, which Don Callis turned down.
08:36And the main event saw Bandido challenge Kazuchika Okada for the Unified Championship after pinning
08:40him at WrestleDream, and this was, as one might expect, bloody brilliant.
08:45Bandido is so damn good, and Okada just knows when is the right time to turn it on.
08:50This was a main event match right here, and Bandido sold the single armed offense so well.
08:55He again managed to hit that 21 plex with the bad arm, but the hurtwing meant he was late
08:59for the pin.
09:00He was actually on top for the final stretch of the match, but his second 21 plex attempt
09:05was countered by Okada, who put him away with one Rainmaker.
09:09The story being that no matter what you throw at Okada, it only takes that singular Rainmaker
09:13to end things.
09:15The rest of the Don Callis family ran down, minus Andrade obviously and Wardlow oddly,
09:19and there are still tensions between Okada and Konosuke Takeshita.
09:22There's a fairly mixed bag episode of Dynamite overall.
09:24While the in-ring action was superb, the continuation of some of the feuds leaves a lot to be desired,
09:31and I really did not vibe with that cake spot.
09:34This is lesser than last week's episode.
09:36But what about business?
09:37Well, Oli Davis posted a brilliant video yesterday about WWE's ticket price rises, and the
09:42and shitification of the company as a whole.
09:45Check it out by clicking the video on screen.
