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00:00On today's wrestling news, we've got the real reason behind the latest WWE releases or more releases on the main roster coming soon.
00:07We've got a top WWE star who is ready to return and more.
00:12Are you ready? Are you ready for the news time?
00:15Yes, my name is Phil Chambers and I'm joined by no one because Gareth has bloody taken the day off.
00:20But before we get into it, make sure you like the video, comment down below what you think of all of today's stories.
00:24Links to each story are in the description below as well.
00:26So click the timestamps and off you go.
00:27But first up, we've got the real reason behind the latest WWE releases and guess what it is?
00:35Drumroll, please. It's budget cuts. Of course it is.
00:39So this is coming from Fightful Select.
00:41They reported that John Laurinaitis was at it again.
00:44He was the one who was making the cuts and he sent an email to all WWE personnel confirming them just saying that due to budgetary cuts and with immediate effect as of today,
00:52we have come to the terms of the release of the following.
00:55Then he went on to list eight wrestlers, a manager and a referee who are Dakota Kai, Malcolm Bivens, Paige Prinzabali, Sanjana George, Draco Anthony, Harland, Persia Parata, Raylan Devine, Mila Malani and Dexter Loomis.
01:11So we've got a bit of an update on a bunch of these.
01:16So first off, we'll go with Malcolm Bivens.
01:18He rejected to sign a new contract back in February.
01:23He just signed a short term extension because of the diamond mine stuff.
01:28So no word on whether that short term extension has just run out, in which case he'd be free to go wherever he wants right now,
01:34or whether the short time extension was for like six months and they just cut it down or something like that.
01:39So we'll have to wait and see on that one.
01:40But he was a guy who wanted his release.
01:43And so this is good.
01:45He's off.
01:45He can go do other things wherever he wants.
01:48Dakota Kai is in a kind of similar position.
01:50She just informed them that she would not be re-signing when her contract expired.
01:55And again, no word yet on if this is the end of the contract or whether they've just cut it short recently.
02:01So we'll have to wait and see where she goes.
02:04But surely, surely, surely Dakota Kai gets snapped up by a certain company very, very quickly,
02:10as she is a very talented person and can do well wherever she goes.
02:15Haaland is another interesting one.
02:16He was being put over massively as the sort of next Brock Lesnar kind of thing,
02:22which probably ended up hurting him in the long run since he'd never actually wrestled before and was completely green.
02:28And this has led to people within the company believing that his in-ring abilities have not progressed fast enough with his time in NXT.
02:38And that has led to him being released, which is mad because he's really not been doing this for very long.
02:44You've got to give these people a bit of time to actually learn how to wrestle.
02:48Otherwise, what is the point?
02:49So Fight4 went on to say that an NXT official has also shown frustration at several current on-screen angles
03:00and storylines being impacted with absolutely zero notice because of this.
03:04Because a bunch of those, along with Dexter Loomis, obviously, and Draco Anthony and Persia Pirata,
03:09they're all regulars on NXT TV.
03:12And some right in the middle of storylines that have just completely been cut.
03:17And now they're just going to have to move on without them, I guess.
03:21And Meltzer also chimed in on this, saying reasons for some of the other releases was that Vince just didn't see a fit for them on the main roster.
03:30So, yeah, like we say, a little bit of different stories depending on the people.
03:34Dakota Kai, again, she'd had dark matches on SmackDown.
03:39She'd had a match on main event.
03:41She, like, seemingly was ready to move on to the main roster sooner rather than later.
03:47She's got all the skills you could possibly want, but absolutely nothing.
03:52And, yeah, we're just going to have to wait and see what happens with all of these.
03:56It's a shame, obviously, whenever this happens.
03:59It's just sad news.
04:01It's just WWE doing what WWE does these days.
04:04And it is a possibility of this happening more in the future.
04:08Because Meltzer went on to say on the Wrestling Observer Radio that there is a possibility of some main roster cuts coming soon.
04:18He said that he had heard that WWE are not done with these budget cuts, as they call them.
04:24He specifically said that there is people in the company who think that that's not it.
04:29I've heard rumblings about more.
04:31I guess the idea is to do it before the investors call.
04:34I don't know.
04:35That seems like the idea.
04:36So, he did talk about typically how they do these cuts just before the big investor calls to show that they're moving forward and changing up the budget, making, yeah, making changes.
04:48And that, yeah, this could be just the start of another big round.
04:53And there's a lot of people on the main roster, obviously, who aren't really doing a lot recently that you could possibly see this happening to.
05:02And the investor calls in a couple of weeks, I think.
05:04So, watch this space within the next few weeks.
05:08There could be a lot more of this happening just on the main roster as well.
05:12But, moving on to some a little bit better news, I guess.
05:17There is a WWE star, a top WWE star, who is ready to return at a moment's notice.
05:23Alexa Bliss has said that she is just waiting on a call from WWE.
05:28She's been ready to return after not being seen on TV since February this year.
05:35She was speaking to Adam Glynn of Adam's Apple.
05:39And when asked when she would return, she just said, hopefully soon.
05:42I'm just waiting on the call.
05:43I've been ready to go since before Saudi Arabia.
05:47Now, when the Elimination Chamber thing happened, she obviously had all the vignettes about Alexa Bliss making her return to Raw.
05:54And then she came back on Raw.
05:55And then they had the Elimination Chamber match.
05:57And then nothing.
05:58And that was that for Alexa Bliss.
06:00And she did voice a bit of displeasure about WWE not having proper creative plans in place for her after the Elimination Chamber.
06:07But here she is.
06:08She is ready to return whenever WWE give her the call.
06:12Whenever they get their creative ideas for what they're going to do with her, I guess.
06:16Obviously, you saw Asuka return recently.
06:18Alexa Bliss is ready and waiting there.
06:19Bayley is surely going to be coming back sometime soon.
06:23There's a lot of stars waiting for their opportunities to come back.
06:26I'm just waiting on the right creative, but we're just going to have to wait and see how long that takes.
06:31But we've got a few other things as well, since I'm on my own.
06:34I just thought I'd go through some quickfire news things I've seen this morning.
06:38So, first off, we've got the WWE show in Cardiff.
06:41It has a name now.
06:43It's called Clash at the Castle.
06:45Because Wales and castles and things, I guess.
06:48It's going to happen on September 3rd at Principality Stadium.
06:51There's talk of Tyson Fury doing something, being involved.
06:54Tickets are on sale on May the 20th.
06:57But more importantly than the name, keep an eye out.
07:00Because we are trying to set up a special little something surrounding this event.
07:03Obviously, it's in the UK.
07:05We're all very excited about it.
07:06We're all going to be going down to take the trip down to Cardiff to watch this show.
07:09But we're going to try and set up some kind of live show around this.
07:13Hopefully, on Saturday afternoon, somewhere close to the stadium, just before the event.
07:19So, keep an eye on the channel.
07:21We will let you know.
07:22But hopefully, we'll be doing some kind of live show again.
07:24Because the last one in New York was absolutely fantastic.
07:27And we absolutely loved it.
07:29And it seems like a really good opportunity to do it again.
07:31So, keep watching this space.
07:33Hopefully, we'll have a bit of a live show and a bit of news within the next few weeks.
07:36But more news.
07:37WWE splitting up another tag team.
07:39Because, of course, they are.
07:40Because they hate tag teams.
07:42This time, it is the turn of Jinder Mahal and Shanky to be the latest WWE tag team that they split up.
07:49Shanky was wrestling Ricochet on SmackDown last night.
07:53He lost to Ricochet, obviously.
07:55Even after a bit of help from Jinder.
07:56And then Jinder was mad at Shanky.
07:58Yelled at him for losing at the end of it.
08:00Pat McAfee was saying, oh, he's done with him.
08:02As Shanky walked off to the back, leaving Jinder Mahal behind.
08:06So, I guess that's it for Jinder Mahal and Shanky.
08:09Whether they turn Shanky face or what they're going to do from this.
08:12I have absolutely no idea.
08:13Obviously, they teased breaking up Los Lotharios last week as well.
08:18But they weren't even on the show or anything.
08:20So, God knows what's happening with that.
08:22The biggest takeaway, just WWE hates tag teams, doesn't he?
08:25And we've got a little bit more on that.
08:27Because they have some really odd news coming out of SmackDown.
08:30There was obviously supposed to be this big tag team unification match at WrestleMania.
08:35Backlash.
08:36The RK Bro taking on the Usos to unify the tag team titles.
08:42But that's not happening anymore.
08:43For some reason.
08:45There was going to be a contract signing on SmackDown.
08:48And it obviously ended in a big ball.
08:50Because, of course, they do all these things always do.
08:53And then Roman Reigns came out to kind of help the Usos.
08:56And then Drew McIntyre came out to even the odds.
08:58And they all had a big fight.
08:59But then later on, Paul Heyman went to Adam Pearce backstage and got the match changed.
09:06So, it's not going to be a tag team unification match of the Usos versus RK Bro.
09:09It's going to be a six-man tag of Drew McIntyre and RK Bro taking on the Usos and Roman Reigns with no titles on the line.
09:17So, absolutely no idea if this is just a random swerve on the road to WrestleMania Backlash.
09:23But I doubt it.
09:23No idea whether they're going to do the unification match at a show after this.
09:27Or whether that's just scrapping those plans entirely.
09:30It's all a little bit of an odd one, this one.
09:32I don't understand where they're going with it.
09:34Why they're doing this.
09:35Or what they expect to happen.
09:37So, we'll have to wait and see, I guess.
09:39But last but not least, we've got the announcement that Cody Rhodes is going to be on the next Broken Skull Sessions with Stone Cold Steve Austin on May the 6th.
09:50Apparently, he's going to be talking about everything, including leaving the WWE in the first place and his reasons behind that.
09:56Obviously, he's running AEW and everything that happened there.
09:59And then leaving AEW to make his big return at WrestleMania to WWE.
10:04This is going to be really interesting, isn't it?
10:07Obviously, Cody Rhodes speaking with Stone Cold Steve Austin.
10:11These latest Broken Skull things have been absolutely brilliant.
10:14It's going to be really interesting to see how in-depth into the AEW stuff they go.
10:19Obviously, he's had Chris Jericho on the show before.
10:21So, they're not shying away from talking about AEW stuff.
10:25But it's going to be very interesting to see what Cody says specifically about his running AEW and Tony Khan and how things ended there.
10:32So, some exciting stuff coming for WWE on that front.
10:36But let's finish up with some Twitter questions.
10:40The first one comes from Blackheart185th to the demo or something like that who says,
10:47Hey, Phil.
10:48First time I actually thought to ask a question.
10:49You think the stuff with Drew Gulak is leading anywhere since they keep using him over the usual nameless indie or performance center guy?
10:57And he's got a picture of his dog because I always pick the pictures of the dogs.
11:01Good dog.
11:02And I goddamn hope it's leading somewhere.
11:05Honestly.
11:06It's been a bit of a weird one, this Drew Gulak one.
11:08I think at least he's on TV, I guess, which is a good thing.
11:11But he's already been beaten up by Charlotte twice now, if you include the one last night.
11:17Because Charlotte got angry that she couldn't beat, I can't even remember who it was, in time.
11:23Because they were doing a beat the clock challenge with an I quit thing.
11:27And Ronda beat Shotzi in like one and a half minutes or whatever it was.
11:30Because that's how you push new stars.
11:33Yay.
11:34So, yeah, Drew Gulak was the timekeeper, is the point of this.
11:38So, yeah, he's had a bunch of different jobs.
11:40I really hope it's going somewhere.
11:42I've genuinely no idea where it goes.
11:43Whether he takes over Sonya Deville's position, if she's moving back into wrestling.
11:48And I guess that worked out for Sonya Deville in the long run.
11:51It got her on TV for a long time and now she's finally getting back into the ring.
11:54Whether they just do the similar thing, but with Drew Gulak, absolutely no idea.
11:59I don't know what the point of this is.
12:00It's very, very strange.
12:01I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for now because at least he's back on TV and actually doing something.
12:06Which is better than he was a few weeks ago.
12:09The next question comes from Dinkleberg's neighbour who says,
12:11Good morning.
12:12Do you think AEW will ever introduce trios titles?
12:15And if so, who would you want to be the inaugural champions?
12:19I goddamn hope they do because I've been teasing this for a long ass time now.
12:24Originally, I always wanted this to be death triangle.
12:26But now that Penta's gone a little bit weird, I'd probably say get Pac away from them as quickly as possible and let him do his own stuff.
12:34Because he's absolutely incredible and you need to do a lot more with Pac.
12:37And give this to the Blackpool Combat Club.
12:40Obviously, Daniel Bryan and Jon Moxley and Willy Uta.
12:44Give it to them and let them beat everybody up forevermore.
12:47And I would be happy with that.
12:50And finally, Ryan Schramm says,
12:52Do you think there's a danger of some fans turning on Hangman if he beats Punk?
12:57I don't think so.
12:58I think Punk will do this in a fashion.
13:02I think he's really good at doing these kind of babyface battles.
13:05I think he'll make it personal.
13:06He'll make it interesting.
13:07He'll make it worthwhile.
13:10And make it like they actually want to kill each other.
13:12But at the end of the day, he will congratulate Hangman Page.
13:16He'll hold his hand up.
13:17He'll shake his hand.
13:17He'll hug.
13:18And he'll make it worthwhile.
13:20And that'll just be one hell of a sort of notch on Hangman Page title run to cement him as a top guy within AEW forevermore, hopefully.
13:30So I think Punk is very, very talented at this.
13:32I think he'll find a way of making no one turn against Hangman.
13:36And he'd probably even maybe turn himself heel a little bit before he turns Hangman Page heel.
13:42Because he's not here for himself.
13:43He's here to put over everyone else.
13:44That is the point of this run.
13:46So I think he'll find a way.
13:48But that is the wrestling news for today.
13:51Thank you very much for joining me and my solo ramblings.
13:55If you want, you can follow me over on Twitter.
13:56You can follow me at PhilMyChambers.
13:58You can follow all of us at WhatCultureWWE.
14:00Make sure you subscribe to the channel.
14:02Like I say, like the video.
14:03Comment down below because it's all stuff that makes YouTube like us.
14:07Let us know what you think of all of today's news stories.
14:10Including who you want to win the trio's titles.
14:12And what you think of CM Punk versus Hangman Page.
14:14Let me know.
14:16But most importantly, have yourselves a bloody good day.
14:20Goodbye.
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