- 18 hours ago
Andy is back with another solo DIY wrestling news video, covering all things WWE and AEW...
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00:00Hello there my very good friends, Andy here for WhatCultureWrestling and another public holiday in the UK means I'm the only person in the Bloomin' office, which means you are being treated to another low-rent, scruffy, rough-round-the-edges news video here on a Monday.
00:15But listen, the stories to go over, I know you want to hear them, so let's run through them.
00:19Today we're going to talk all about the latest on Vince McMahon and his meddling in WWE.
00:24We are going to go over a report on an apparent WWE hiring freeze, after that we will talk about one of AEW's missing wrestlers who's been gone for the best part of a year,
00:35and then we're going to talk about the return of Tessa Blanchard, because we haven't spoken about her in about a year, so might as well do it again, I guess.
00:42Anyway, I'm Andy, I think I've already said that, this is the news, this is my last solo video, pretty happy about that.
00:49But anyway, we're going to kick things off by talking about Vince McMahon. Obviously, it was a big week for him.
00:56He showed up to Raw, tore the thing to pieces, rewrote batches of it, he was there in person, there were changes ongoing while he was on the air,
01:04there was morale dipping, and everything was falling apart, and it felt like the wrestling world was imploding.
01:10Well, things were a little bit more normal at SmackDown this week, which is good to hear.
01:14A report coming through here from Fightful Select, stating that Vince McMahon was not at SmackDown in person,
01:21it was in Portland, I believe, he was back on the East Coast, and that morale was significantly better as a result of this,
01:30understandably, but a bunch of people in WWE are still taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to Vince,
01:37who, in the wake of all his Raw meddling, that's definitely the right word for it,
01:42was reported to pretty much be back in his old role, despite previously stating that he wouldn't be getting in the weeds creatively.
01:50Now, PW Insider and Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, what on earth,
01:56had reported prior to SmackDown that Vince wasn't going to be there,
02:00but Meltzer stated that he did call in with some minor creative changes,
02:06clearly not ripping the whole thing up like he did with Raw, however.
02:10So, I think that's quite interesting to consider,
02:12and you know, if Vince has only made minor changes to SmackDown, and he made major changes to Raw,
02:17that might explain why Raw was a pile of trash, and SmackDown was actually pretty decent.
02:22So, it all adds up when you put it together.
02:24But yeah, it's been a turbulent week for WWE in general,
02:28with the way WrestleMania second night ended, and all of that stuff,
02:33and then Raw was not well received by the wider fanbase, despite 17 billion people watching it,
02:40and then all the Vince stuff coming out.
02:42So, obviously, you hope going forward, because the WWE product is immeasurably better without this man involved,
02:49you hope that maybe last week was just a one-off,
02:52but the way it was reported afterwards by Meltzer, by Fightful, by every outlet you can think of, pretty much,
02:58suggests that that won't be the case.
03:00So, we'll see what happens next with this dude.
03:04Raw was always Vince's baby, show-wise,
03:06so it does stand to reason that he'd maybe show a bit more interest in that show,
03:11and tweak a few more things, and be there in person than for SmackDown.
03:16But hey, I guess we'll have more stuff to cover on Tuesday morning.
03:20Oh yeah, that's tomorrow morning. These holiday weekends screw with my brain,
03:24which isn't very good in the first place.
03:25But hey, there he is, old Paul.
03:28Let's talk about WWE going on an apparent hiring freeze now.
03:32This is quite interesting. It's another report here from Fightful Select.
03:35Obviously, Triple H, when he came in as head of creative and chief content officer last July,
03:41hired a bunch of people, brought back a load of folk that had been fired under the previous regime,
03:46and others. People like Bray Wyatt, Karrion Kross, loads and loads of folk came in.
03:50You know that. That was one of the talking points of summer last year.
03:53Now, however, talent within WWE have indicated there's some kind of hiring freeze going on in the company.
03:59Nobody has been explicitly told that, it is stated here,
04:02but it is a term that has constantly been brought up recently in the company.
04:07Now, Vince McMahon's return and the company's sale have been speculated as potential reasons for this.
04:13And Nick Aldis has been mentioned as somebody that Triple H was high on,
04:17and therefore presumably maybe kind of wanted to bring in.
04:20But then the company, he was left out in the cold.
04:23He was one of many people who was left out in the cold when Vince returned.
04:27Vince full-on returned this last week, of course,
04:31but prior to that, he returned to the board of directors as executive chairman in January.
04:37So, there you go.
04:38And a bunch of talent, however, have claimed that they've been contacted by WWE in 2023.
04:43So, there's interesting things going on here for sure.
04:46Now, WWE has not hired anyone for the main roster at all this year.
04:50None in 2023.
04:52Some talent have been told that it's hard to make things happen
04:55because of the impending sale of the company.
04:57Well, that impending sale of the company went through,
05:00it was confirmed last week, Endeavor, of course, buying the company, all of that stuff,
05:03but it had been hanging in the balance for several months,
05:06pretty much since Vince came back.
05:07And some talent who were previously on WWE's radar have had no content with the company
05:12after showing initial interest.
05:14So, all of that would add up.
05:16Yeah, I mean, it'll be very interesting to see Endeavor's approach to this, I think.
05:20Obviously, you don't want people to lose their jobs,
05:24but this is sometimes a thing that happens with company takeovers,
05:27in particular Endeavor.
05:28When they took over the UFC, they let go of some legacy talents like Randy Couture
05:32and other people who, they showed a bit of a lack of sentimentality there
05:37and decided, hey, we don't want or need you, so off you go.
05:40You worry that they might do the same thing here.
05:42From what I've read, Endeavor is a lot more business-like even than WWE
05:46and a lot more focused on the bottom line,
05:48which is quite mental to think about when you consider WWE over the past few years.
05:52But, yeah, one to watch for sure.
05:55And it does add up, this one,
05:57because they haven't brought anyone in for the main roster in a while.
06:01So, there you go.
06:02Right, let's talk about the...
06:03Well, is there any point in even teasing it?
06:05It's Santana.
06:06You want an update on Santana?
06:08Yeah, let's talk about him.
06:10He's been gone from AEW for the best part of a year now,
06:12and Fightful Select note that he is still with AEW, however,
06:15and he's been paid through his current injury, which is obviously good.
06:19His contract expiry date has not been clarified with Fightful.
06:23However, he has intimated, Santana has, that it's in September.
06:27Obviously, because he's been injured,
06:28AEW could...
06:30They have the power to add time on due to that injury.
06:33So, that is something that may well emerge.
06:36Now, Santana's had a turbulent year.
06:39Fell out, reportedly, with his long-term tag team partner and friend, of course, Ortiz.
06:44Which was really sad, because they've been teaming together for the longest time.
06:49They were a great tag team, hadn't accomplished everything, perhaps their talents warranted in AEW.
06:56And then there were...
06:57There's all these reports of them, like, not getting on anymore.
06:59And it's a shame.
07:00When, like, a personal situation arises like that and a relationship dissolves,
07:04it's always a shame.
07:05And these things are deep-rooted.
07:07They're complex.
07:07We're not privy to them.
07:08We're not in that room.
07:09We don't know what happened.
07:11Obviously, it would be nice if whatever occurred between them could be resolved
07:15and they could, you know, they could team again or whatever.
07:18But, who knows?
07:19We don't know how deep these things go.
07:20So, just wishing all the best for both men, really.
07:23And, of course, Santana, shortly after those reports came out,
07:25he tore his bloody ACL, didn't he?
07:28In blood and guts last June.
07:29So, that's a long-term injury.
07:31He's been out ever since.
07:32We're coming up on 10 months now, the poor guy.
07:34Anyway, very talented man.
07:36Hope he's back in a wrestling ring soon, whether it's with AEW or anywhere else.
07:40Whatever makes him happy.
07:41That'd be nice.
07:43Tessa Blanchard.
07:45Okay, sure.
07:47She's kind of making a bit of a wrestling return here.
07:51So, Tessa was in Los Angeles over WrestleMania weekend at WrestleCon.
07:56She actually settled her differences, and this is according to PW Insider,
08:00with La Rosa Negra, who is, if you recall, the wrestler that she was accused of using racial slurs against
08:07during a tour of Japan, and it was multiple people who came forward with these accounts,
08:13the likes of Alison Kay and others.
08:15That was in January 2020.
08:17It feels like, it feels really recent, but it was over three years ago that these allegations
08:23and, you know, talk of Tessa's, you know, ill-suited, racist behavior, bullying, all of that stuff.
08:31All those allegations came out.
08:34Now, she's being advertised for several weeks' worth of wrestling dates,
08:38and this is from PW Insider again, in Canada this May.
08:42So, Tessa was actually let go within a few months of the allegations coming out.
08:49Impact, she was Impact World Champion, of course, at the time,
08:52and they feared she was going to no-show an event during the global pandemic
08:56while she was self-isolating in Mexico.
08:59The fear was that she wasn't going to come to a show.
09:02She was as world champion, and she hadn't submitted some tapes,
09:06some pre-recorded, requested videos that Impact had requested.
09:10These were the reports at the time, of course, surrounding this incident.
09:13Now, Tessa's only 27 years old, which is wild.
09:17She's been in wrestling for ages and ages.
09:18Her last, she's wrestled a bunch of indie days last year, nothing major, like smaller-scale events,
09:25but her last major show would have been an Impact taping in March 2020.
09:29The company did push forward, despite the allegations that arose and, you know, the slurs,
09:34they did push forward and make her world champion.
09:36Like, a day after that or whatever it was, it was very close.
09:39Now, obviously, it's not for me to sit here and go,
09:43hey, she is forbidden.
09:44Not forbidden, forgiven or whatever,
09:46because I'm not the person who could be harmed or dehumanised
09:49by the awful terms that she is alleged to have used.
09:52So I can't sit here and go, yes, she should be allowed back.
09:55That's nonsense.
09:56That's not for me.
09:57But I am glad to hear that her and La Rosa Negra have at least had a conversation
10:02and seemingly come to some kind of understanding or whatever.
10:05Obviously, it doesn't erase what happened.
10:08And, you know, that so many people came forward with this talk.
10:12Gives extra credence to it.
10:14It's not just one person or whatever.
10:16It was like a dozen folk across social media within the wrestling business.
10:20So, complicated case, Tessa Blanchard.
10:23She's going to be a complicated case until the day she leaves wrestling, really.
10:28Not really been active over the past few years.
10:30Seems to be doing this Canadian tour.
10:32Goodness knows where that's going to end up.
10:34But, hey, that's our last story of the day.
10:36And, yeah.
10:38Okay, sure.
10:40Anyway.
10:41Yeah, thanks for joining me again for this run of solo videos.
10:45Turns out when you send people to the US,
10:48they can't record in the studio here in the UK.
10:50It's wild.
10:51But, yeah, it's been a hell of a run this past week.
10:54We've covered some major stories.
10:55Thank you for giving me your time.
10:57Thank you for tuning in.
10:58And thank you for like, sharing and subscribing
11:00and ringing the bell for notifications.
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11:03So, if you could do that, that would be sensational.
11:05You can also follow us on Twitter at WhatCultureWWE.
11:09And you can follow me on Twitter at AndyHMurray.
11:12The H stands for Hoop53.
11:15Hoop Ladin.
11:16Okay, bye.
11:18Bye.
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