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Hello there, everyone. It's Luke Owen here. If you enjoy this WrestleTalk audio content and you thought to yourself, hey, I really wish I could hear the WrestleTalk news in audio content. Well, now you can. If you search for the WrestleTalk network in your podcast catcher, you can hear... the daily WrestleTalk News in audio form.
And welcome to the WrestleTalk podcast here every Tuesday and Friday. And this week, also Sunday, because it's Money in the Bank week. I'm Oli Davis. I'm joined by Luke Owen, DAD. And in this episode, we're talking about... All of the cuts, the infinite cuts on Crisis Earth. There's your DC reference already. There's your DC reference for the week. We'll also be talking about AEW Dynamite this week. Dynamite and Collision, because they're the four-hour fight of f***ing.
Keep that in. No, you're not going to let me restart. No, no. The fighter. I was going to say the fighter fest block. All right. It's four hours. It's too long. We get it. No need for that potty mouth. We will be talking fighter F word later. AEW Fighter F work. I cannot believe you're not going to let me restart that. I can't wait for next week's summer cockbuster. I'm in charge of the buttons as well. I could stop this record and we could go again. That is too funny.
fully prepared to be like i know well we made a cock up it's fine we'll go to the side you were like no no we are keeping this all in well do it live But we are going to begin with more somber news. Which is the... That was your most Dave Meltzer. I was like, what do you want to talk about? But no, this is serious. Which is the cuts. The cuts from WWE. They've had a round of cuts in February. They had a round of cuts in April.
And then at the start of June, the very start of June over last weekend, we had not so much a round of cuts like is traditional where it's like. these nine people are just getting cut midway through their contract it was more these wrestlers are not having their contracts renewed. This isn't a story on WWE.com where they wish them well in all their future endeavors. It's more R-Truth, Carlito, Valhalla.
We're hearing from them directly when they make these posts on social media. Yeah. And then the reports come out from Fight for Select and everything. And it is, we should, you know, be clear. And everyone has been very clear about this. These are not releases. Our truth is to actually say I've been released by WWE.
but it wasn't. It's just, this is not like part of a round of releases. This is just three contracts all came up at the same time and they decided not to renew any of those contracts. Although I think like Fightful reported yesterday when talking about Karrion Kross, which we'll come on to another.
little bit they they're probably coming up in about a month so that they've been informed their contract is not coming up i think carlito's like two weeks away yes yeah carlito posted that his contract is up in two weeks it will not be renewed. Yeah. And you'd think that would give WWE time to go, well, okay.
Carlito, you've been a pretty big part of this Judgment Day faction for over a year now. Let's use those two weeks to write you out, to tie up that loose end, to maybe give some storyline heat to the rest of the Judgment Day. And I guess... And instead, he just Thanos-ed away with no mention. Which, you know, that's what they did with Ricochet.
They wrote Ricochet off TV. Was it Bronson Reed took him out? Was it Brom Breaker that took him out? I think it was one of the Brons for sure. I think it was Brom Breaker onto a windscreen. That's right, yeah. It was one of the Brons and they took him out onto the windscreen and that wrote him off TV.
months later he appeared at all in but you know maybe they were burned by that that they don't want to just give them that tv time you know almost like aew and just like we decided we're not going to use them anymore I would say we're not going to re-sign them, so just don't put them on TV. I don't know why they've done that. We should probably get into, like...
Why are these people being cut? And when I say cut, their contracts aren't being renewed. With people like Valhalla, no offense, she's not been around for a long time. I think she got pregnant during this, but she hasn't been used. It's not a... surprise that someone like Valhalla Sarah Logan who was released already in the past has been cut you know and it's not again it's not you are getting released midway through your contract
I think that's a pretty crappy move if there's no sort of disciplinary or attitude issues. This is a pretty standard business practice of churn where your contract has expired. We're not going to renew it.
We both agreed to the terms of the original agreement we made, and now we're going our separate ways once that has run out. It's a much better business practice. While this news always sucks because you don't like to see people lose their jobs... at least it was it wasn't like we've just cut you this is we we have done the agreed uh length
and off you go it's what aew said they were always going to do like they always said we're always going to honor contracts and then they did start releasing people because sometimes you have to do it that way but the nicer business practice is to do it the other way yeah so
Road Dog, in one of his, well, deleted the tweet when R-Truth got released. Yeah, probably he was told to. I am heartbroken. It's the nature of the beast, the part of the business no one likes but the bean counters. Yeah. And this bean counters is a sort of a...
for accountants, really, or people who really obsess over the spreadsheet. They don't care about the people, they just care about the numbers. They care about the beans. Yeah. And, yeah, Road Dogg is the head of creative over on SmackDown, so...
That went down pretty fast. Yeah, I'd imagine he probably got a phone call from someone to be like, Brian, you cannot be doing this sort of thing. Please delete that tweet. And I think I imagine it is a directive from TKO. It's like, look, here is the budget. that we've got for all of wwe on talent um or here is the number of people we think is a reasonable amount to keep on contract for the roster at any one time if you're going to bring in new people which wwe definitely are
Some people have to go. One in, one out kind of policy. And looking at the size of the roster, I don't disagree. No, and also... actually no disrespect is 53 years old he is not going to be a future wwe champion he's not going to be a future wrestlemania main event he has had his time in the sun so to speak so if you're bringing in these
people who are in their mid 20s or early 30s that could be future wwe champions could be future wrestlemania main eventers yeah you sort of want to focus on that really as opposed to just holding on to someone from the past Because a lot of people like them backstage. So if you are a bean counter and someone who is looking at this from a very business aspect, it is a...
it's probably the right thing to do in sort of their minds. Like from a human resource thing, it sucks because he was clearly very well liked backstage. Nothing's a surprise from people has come. I thought he would just transition to a different role within the company. He'd be there for life.
And once he's hung up his boots and decided he's not going to wrap anymore down to the ring, he'll just transition to the creative team, a backstage role, and he'll appear for cameos on a Raw 2000. He'll have a cameo and he'll come up and make a little jimmy.
reference or say that john cena's his favorite wrestler of all time childhood all that sort of stuff i think that's where the surprise has come from but from a actual like numbers standpoint yeah you probably want to focus on this person here who's 22 and it's got a lot of upside as opposed to this person who's 53 and isn't going to be doing this for much longer
Well, where it's interesting and, you know, we're sort of talking from recent experience here. Don't know if you know, guys, we we sort of did a version of bean counting where we're like, oh, man, the numbers for the WrestleTalk News are really low on Thursdays. they're the lowest like we can see that by the numbers like over the course of a year it's very clear and also the thumbs up thumbs down ratio
was also lowest because, unfortunately, when we cover AEW, there is just a backlash from WWE. So we made a decision based on numbers. So we were like, well, let's sort of... phase out the aw coverage on on a podcast form in the five minutes form but then understandably we got this huge reaction that was like no no no we
we'd love, like, we were just silent. We were just silently enjoying the AEW review. We're sort of focusing on the, because, like, if you would post up an AEW Dynamite review, and, like, this is, you know... actual like hard fact of what would happen whether it be on the news or on the podcast there would be immediate like it would jump from 100 thumbs up
to about sort of like 82, 85. And then it's essentially, it's just sort of working its way back up there and it sort of settles at, you know, sort of a mid-90s number, which is kind of below the sort of numbers that we like them to be at. So there really is this sort of like very vocal...
minority group of people who were just like immediately thumbs down thumbs down thumbs down and that can affect the performance of a video what we sort of didn't and we sort of overlooked is that there was all those people that started to thumbs it up You know, a thumbs up along the way. But I don't even think, like, if you just look at the numbers, you would cancel the AEW stuff. But...
It's the audience sentiment and the just wider thing of, well, we're a wrestling channel. We should cover AEW stuff. And I think that's what might have happened here with WWE. If you look at the numbers. 53 years old, bringing on all these new talent. We can only have so many wrestlers or a pay amount on the roster. Yeah. Cutting R-Truth, who's at the tail end of his career and just a comedy figure, really. A beloved comedy figure, but just a comedy figure. That word beloved.
doesn't show up in the data. Because it's cold, hard numbers. So I think that's where they've made a mistake here. I think they're surprised at the backlash, the emotional reaction that R-Truth's cut. has caused. I was surprised. Yeah, everyone was. Even members of the roster, like Fightful's report on Patreon was, the departure was met with complete shock and disbelief, with one talent calling it total nonsense, another called this regime ruthless.
It's by far the most criticised and universally disliked departure we've covered. And that's not the fans Sean's talking about there. That's people... in the company backstage. So when the news came out, when R-Truth put out that tweet saying, you know, I'm being released, my contract's not being renewed, and then the reports came out of the news, the contract's not being renewed and such. On the WrestleTalk channel...
a lot of our videos had comments of like, where's the breaking news video about our truth? Where's the breaking news video? You should do breaking news video. And I saw those comments after it came out and my initial thought reaction was like,
well, it's only our truth. I'm not, you know, I know it's, it's, it's Sunday evening. I'm not going to do, we'll do a restaurant news video on this tomorrow. I'd had two glasses of wine and I was watching the Phoenician scheme at the cinema. So I couldn't quite make a video. I was like, but it's, it's just, it's our truth and it's kind.
like it's it's you know this is doesn't feel like it's that big of a deal until i then saw the reaction to it and this sort of like online backlash towards wwe for releasing them and i genuinely was so surprised at the reaction that these two non-renewals has got particularly from our truth i'm not so surprised i wasn't surprised at the time because when i first read it i didn't believe it you know and even
We've spoken about it before. I think the last other name we felt like that was Bray Wyatt in August 2021, I want to say. Such a shocking and isolated cut as well. in like a slew of other names that were released. But I saw it and I was just like, no, that can't be true. It wasn't a report. It was from R-Truth's Twitter account. And I was like...
That feels so raw because of the John Cena match 10 days beforehand. Very high focused on... high profile spot even though it's a comedy thing and we've been talking for a couple of months now ever since wrestlemania really about how the sentiment against wwe has begun to shift and
more in favour of AEW now. And it's things like these releases. It's the high ticket prices. It's the rappers and Netflix comedians taking up space on shows. It's the sponsorship spots. It's... It's the... the counter programming of aew and i feel like that double or nothing bit last monday or sunday was a huge turning point for wait a second, this is a bit petty, isn't it? Yeah. And that, as I said before, this is like a load of kindling and this R-Truth release is a match.
and everyone's seen this fire that's been caused by an R-Truth release, because it is like, but I thought he was part of the family. I thought he was here for life. That fire is actually built on loads and loads of other... decisions that TKO and WWE have made that have created.
the the a space for all this dissent to come out it probably has not helped either that stephanie woman opened wrestlemania night to say we're all one big family here and i treat all of you like my family and then it's you know two weeks later it's just like
We've cut a bunch of people from their contracts, and then over the next couple of days, it's, we're going to charge you more prices. We're putting on way more shows than actually we need to be putting on. You know, in a couple of weeks' time, when it gets to July 12th, WWE are putting on... Three shows in one weekend just because AEW were running one show. Yeah. It's absolutely madness. So Wrestling Observer Live, Brian Alvarez on there, has said...
I've been told there might be others as well, so this might not be the end with Valhalla being released. Valhalla was the last name to say I'm also not being renewed. And this... Since the R-Truth news came out, there's been some weird things from other wrestlers. Other wrestlers that you would also consider lifers. The Miz has removed...
mentions to WWE from his Twitter account. Gunther has removed WWE references from his Twitter account. I am not saying Gunther is leaving WWE. No, I would be so surprised there. I'm just saying like... The Miz feels like, well, he's so connected to R-Truth, but he's also not being used right now. Could he be a name on the chopping block? But then...
Put it in perspective, Gunther has also done the same thing that The Miz has done. So maybe it means nothing. And also The Miz hasn't removed... I think we put a lot of focus on this. He removed WWE from his Twitter profile. He still follows WWE. Which people said like, oh, he unfollowed them. And apparently he still follows them now. But also all Twitter, WWE references are on his Instagram account. So it's just on one social media platform. He's removed it.
I think it's just because it came so shortly after the R-Truth thing. Internet sleuths just go into this sort of spiral of like, but what does this mean? It's this and this and this. It must mean this. You put two and two together and you get five. When actually all it is is just... He just removed that from his Twitter profile, maybe because he's trying to get more into TV roles. Yeah, and he's got a new TV show coming up this summer. But at the same time, there have been plenty of examples.
over the years where people have done that. And they have then left that company. Sometimes there is no smoke without fire. We'll talk about Mariah May very shortly. Because in all of this, it doesn't look like Raw and SmackDown are going to do a draft, but AEW and WWE seem to be doing a draft. between themselves with a couple of other names moving around. Sorry, I didn't want to move on from our truth again and talk about some of these other people.
But what R-Truth is going to do next, and I was looking at the comments on yesterday's video, and there were a lot of people being like, oh man, when he goes to AEW, this is an open goal for Tony Khan to sign R-Truth and bring him in. You were sort of pitching ideas of like the...
character he could do where he still thinks he's in wwe or there's a gorilla position and they were talking about these sorts of things i don't think he's going so i don't think he'll ever go to aew i think it well i i think if i'm a betting man i think he'll do a couple of tna appearances which
is wwe and then i think by the end of the year he'll be signed to an ambassador role where he does charity work and cameo appearances for wwe i completely agree he'll be at slammiversary he'll do a couple of matches in tna and WWE will bring him back. Not to be a full-time role.
But they will bring him back into the company. And maybe in a couple of years, a Hall of Fame inductee. Yeah. You might be in the next year's Hall of Fame. Yeah, I think that would be a good move for WWE if they're looking at a PR route. But I also think that this R-Truth... Right now, it's kind of a battle of hearts and minds if we're separating ourselves from the spreadsheet and the bean counters. Tony Khan can look at this. Yeah, R-Truth isn't going to move any numbers.
I think, if he goes to Dynamite and he shows up like the second coming of Lex Luger. But it sends a very clear message of, yeah, but that guy you all loved and you're chanting for, we want truth, his contract's expiring. It's not like there's a 90-day non-compete thing. I'm making a big money offer to R-Truth for a couple of one-off appearances as a joke thing. I think you would do it as a couple of one-off. You wouldn't sign him to a five-year deal. Sign him until he's 58.
you would do like a few pay per appearance, like what they did with RVD. Yeah. Or like a Sabu and stuff. We're going to pay you per appearance and you come in and do three dates. Is that something R-Truth would want? I think that might burn a bridge. It would do. It could burn a bridge back to WWE in a more... long-term retirement plan, or it could make WWE go, oh crap.
we should get this guy back so it could go either way it could go either way it depends on what their sentiment is you know it's wwe will always be wwe it will depend on where their mood is on that week whether it's just like we hate anyone who's associated with them never again or it's like
like, actually, no, we need a good PR. Let's bring them back. They are competition this week. Next week, they're beneath us. We don't care. So just back to The Miz. Sean Ross Sapp did write, we have not been told whatsoever that The Miz... has been informed of his contract not being renewed. Yeah, it is up this year. It is up this year. And there are a couple of things like carrying crosses.
Contract is also reportedly up in a few months, according to Fightful again. And the quote there was, WWE has not yet approached Cross about a contract extension or renewal, and we haven't heard if they've indicated interest in doing so. to say in that news story as well though that the tko method of doing things is that they won't approach someone to talk about their contract until about a month before it expires so they'll inform him a month ahead of time
We're either going to renew you or we're not going to resign you. So the fact that there's still a few months left. is not any indication that they've not made any moves. It's because at this point, a few months out, they're not going to make any moves. They'll wait until a couple of months' time, and then they'll make a move. And you'll probably think, oh yeah, but they probably do that for the likes of...
Mears and Karrion Kross. But they were doing this last year to top-level stars Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, AJ Styles and Drew McIntyre. Those negotiations went right down to the wire. Alexa Bliss. you know re-signed this year in january but she signed like pretty much the day before the rumble i think like when she made her return because there was so much going back and forth over money and stuff it's a weird business
system or like procedure to have because it does seem like that's a blanket thing across this is just how we do business in TKO because that really runs counter to Pool of X way too long term booking. Yeah. Because how is he meant to book long-term things if he knows... Oh, well, but after a month, they might be gone. Well, you don't factor them into long-term plans. Like, if you know that Gunther's contract is up in the summer, in January, you don't put him into a 10-month program.
You put him into a three-month program where you know you have got him for those three months. Seth Rollins, you can now put him into a 12-month program because you've got him for another five years. A 12-month program exclusively against CM Punk. But this is the other weird bit because I totally agree with what you just said. So why was R-Truth booked in a Saturday night's main event match against John Cena seven, eight days before he was told?
his contract wasn't being renewed. Because you had to do it. I think I said this to you. Okay, you had to do it, I agree. But if they're aware that's happening... Why not make it bigger stakes? Why not make it loser leaves town? Why not promote it and advance as a retirement thing? Because I think if the audience were allowed to give our truth a send off.
yeah then the the sentiment might be quite different so i would imagine an argument could be presented i'm not saying i completely agree with this argument because i will you know actually point out why i think this argument is wrong but it's the same argument as to why if they do do release they do them late on a friday before smackdown starts because in their sort of business mind that news is going to get drowned out by smackdown coverage if the
average joe fan just watches saturday night's main event sees that match and then never sees our truth again they're not going to ask questions of where's our truth they are they're not looking for the news of oh, his contract was not renewed and we've not brought him back. That's the sort of the sentiment of it. That's the idea of it is people, the average wrestling fan is not online.
they're not looking the news gets buried by other things it'll get buried by money in the bank coverage or get buried by world's collide uh coverage that i guess is their idea the problem with that theory is that Everyone is online. Oh, not Mexico. Oh, yeah, quite famously. They don't have access to the internet. That's why they can geoblock the news that Alberto Orbitron is not retaining the AAA Mega Championship. A fascinating little decision they made there.
The reason why that doesn't work is that when they did those releases a couple of weeks back before SmackDown aired, if you go online and look at the replies to SmackDown clips, it's people talking about the releases. They think their fans are dumb. But they're not. I
Yeah, I agree with that. But I'd also just point to the Carlito example. Valhalla, it doesn't matter. She's not been involved in anything on screen for ages. Carlito has been a really featured part of the Judgment Day. If I'm just, if I am... non-online fan which doesn't exist these days but just imagine that for the hypothetical I will notice
that Carlito is weirdly no longer in the Judgment Day. Yeah. And he's just vanished. If Chandler just stopped being on Friends, you would notice that one of them was missing. But yeah, going back to why this is happening. Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio, they're looking at the numbers and they're looking at how many do we have to cut or how much money do we have to cut? This is in relation to call-ups because we've had...
Roxanne Perez, Julia, Stephanie Vacker, you know, all those people going for our truth spot. He was taking up their roles within the Women's Men in the Bank ladder match. But Ricky Saints might be coming up soon. We all thought Mariah May might be, but it looks like she's going to NXT, at least for the time being. The report is that's why Julia Roxanne Perez and Stephanie Bracot were called up.
is because the long-term plan was for mariah may to go to nxt so those three going up creates room for mariah may and you might be asking it's like well that's three for one It also then creates two other spaces for long-term NXT names to step up into those roles for someone like a Jada Parker or a Lola Vice to fill the roles that they then took. But back to Meltzer, he said...
And those were the picks, talking about R-Truth, Carlito, Valhalla. Those were the Levesque picks. So everyone who's like, oh, TKO, they're just squeezing this company for money. Yes, I suppose, but then it is Paul Levesque who is making the decision of who to get rid of and how.
because he's looking at his creative plans and he's got his little mapped out thing of who i see is the wrestlemania direction of we're going with this is my wrestlemania main event for next year these are my wrestlemania matches if r-truth carlito and valhalla are not part of the wrestlemania plans and you just like well yeah if we want to cut them we can cut them because i've got nothing for them anyway um over on aew we spoke about mariah may uh the end of may was also a bit of a slew of
Releases slash contracts not renewing there. So Paige, she'd already said that she was going to leave AEW a couple of months beforehand, but she was finally removed from the roster, Paige. Abaddon and... You said it wrong again. Oh my God. Abaddon. Abaddon. I've just got to think like a Swedish 70s pop group dinosaur. Oh no, an Abaddon. By the way, our office is probably a 10-minute walk from the ABBA Voyage experience. Man, I want to go so bad.
I was listening to a podcast the other day that said someone went to go see it and said it was the worst thing they've ever seen in their life. And others have gone see it and said it's the best thing they've ever seen in their life. My dad went... a month or two ago because my mum's friends dropped out. They got ill last minute. My dad had to go with her and he was grumpy. He was sending me photos. How grumpy he was at the bus station waiting to go there.
He loved it. When he got in there, he's on his feet. Because it's ABBA songs. It's ABBA songs. I think Laurie's been to see it. I think he had a great time with it. But yeah, another way to remember is that it's the head of the ABBA family. the the abba dart ah yes that's good favorite abba song um what's my it's actually it's me and laurie were joking about just the other day the song i like the most but it is the creepiest song they've ever written is does your mother know that you're out
oh i don't know if i know that does your mother know that you're out it is it's a really good it's a got a brilliant little riff to it and stuff and it's super duper catchy but it is also about an older guy hitting on a younger woman who is probably a bit too young and it is just like does your mother know your outside does the police know about you it's the 70s um when it takes it all for me yeah it's a great song yeah i once got in trouble playing on a radio
thing when i was doing student radio because we did like um we did an outside broadcast at like a student union event and they did like an sort of a student's pass the parcel thing where we were giving out sort of like student union bits and pieces and stuff and i had to pick a song to put on So I thought it'd be really funny to put on, the winner takes it all. That makes sense for pass the parcel. And my student radio manager got so mad at me.
Because he was like, what is this song? Why are we not putting on a song that's a bit more high tempo? Like, this is not a fun song. Oh yeah, it is quite a... It's quite a slow... Emotionally wrought. Yeah, and I was like, yeah, but it's called The Winner Takes It All. And we're doing a thing about where a winner is going to take... the home priority he got so mad he was like no just play something that's current i don't get high tempo things i sometimes work out to robbie williams balance
I don't need... I thrive on the raw emotion rather than the... Anyway, quite the tangent there. Abba are great. So Abaddon and Bear Bronson, their contracts just came to an end. So that's, you know, that's not surprising, really. They've not been featured. Abaddon gets a sort of...
twice a year Halloween spot. But she didn't even get that last year. She didn't even have the Halloween stuff, the spooky season stuff. You've got to tackle him now. Bear Bronson, I think he did put up on Twitter being like, they only ever saw as an enhancement act. Like we would say, you know...
give them ideas and they were like, no, we don't really see you much past this level. So I don't think that Bear Bronson is too upset that this has come to an end because maybe you don't want to just be at that lower level for the rest of your career. Also, his tag partner was...
with some controversy. And then Mariah Mays' contract appears like it's expired. I don't think it's... come out what happened so so what sean ross app said is that her contract came to the came to an end at the start of june
And then just two days later, she was in NXT. So that's why we put up the WrestleTalk News the other day with like shock WWE debut. And a lot of the comments were like, why are you saying this is a shock? You've been reporting for months that she's going there. And the shock for me came from, I didn't expect it this soon. Like literally.
days after her contract ended and also she has been going on twitter and stuff being like i'm not missing from aw i'm just on vacation yeah vacation moving house to florida and this is why you can't trust anything the wrestlers
Edge told people directly, I'm not going to be in the Royal Rumble in 2020. Mike Johnston is wrong. With Mariah May, it's an interesting one because... i think wrestlemaniac uh mechs over wrestlemaniac put it brilliantly was like this is the most hit and run deal i've ever seen in my life because she signed a two-year deal with aew a when everyone else signs a five-year deal she signed a
two-year deal with the company came in immediately was aligned with the top star in the promotion won the owen hart tournament won the Women's World title at the biggest show of the year, feuded with nobody for that title until... The top star came back, had one of the best women's matches in AEW company history in the women's division that should have closed out the pay-per-view and then bounced and went straight to WWE.
An incredible smart business decision because Mariah May would have been offered some money to go to NXT three years ago. But now she's got herself. a brilliantly massive deal out of this and that was always her goal Meltzer and Alvarez have been saying for ages her main goal her goal and her drive has always been I want to go to WWE
Matt, that's a higher pro with a higher profile as well. Exactly. So she used AEW very smartly as a stepping stone to a much bigger deal. And when those five years are up.
and she can decide if she wants to stay with WWE or go back to AEW, because she didn't leave on bad terms with AEW, according to the reports. She can get an even bigger deal out of it, because WWE may want to keep her, which means they can offer her more money. AEW might... really want her back so they'll offer even more money which means WWE might have to
match that offer and she has made a brilliant deal for herself and from actually from what i'd gathered she didn't exactly have a lot of friends in in aew what i'd been told is that she kind of just had a very small circle of friends it was just really her tony storm
Harley Cameron and that was it like she wasn't really like one of the like you know big people big personalities in the locker room she just kind of kept herself to herself incredibly smart move like you know in terms of like working the companies against each other And she's 26. Yeah. So in five years' time... She's probably got two more of those in a really big prime way to play the companies off each other. Yeah, in a world where it seems like wrestlers are making decisions based.
on their heart which is also admirable it is there's a nice throwback isn't it to the more kevin nash school of thinking Don't be a mark. Yeah, don't be a mark for yourself. Make the money. It's the wrestling business. I'm going to come into this company. I'm only going to work with the top star of the promotion. I'm only going to win the tournament and win the world title. And then because my plan is I'm going to go and get a better deal elsewhere. Just, you know, hell of a move.
Let us know your thoughts on all the releases and just how you think that factors into the perception of WWE right now and what they can do to maybe massage that down.
have over on our patreon patreon.com forward slash wrestle talkers this month's special bonus podcast episode me and luke going through the career of our truth aka ron the truth killings aka k quick aka cake rush yeah we chart uh how he got into wrestling his this is a weird story his early run in wwf with uh road dog and getting rowdy and then of course we go into the tna run which is the best bit of his
career as we all know three live crew well the proper serious part of his career then we cover his when he goes back to wwe in 2008 but then he has this year in 2011 where it feels like they're positioning him to be a genuine, serious heel. The top heel of the company. One of the top heels of the company, which isn't crazy because he was one of the top stars in the early days of NWATNA as well. Everyone saw him as the future. He had The Rocks in-ring return match in 2011. And then...
things went wrong there, and he became a comedy figure for the next 14 years. Which arguably, people can say, was the biggest benefit that he ever got, because it's probably what kept him around longer. like being that comedy character probably did his career longevity better than trying to be the serious top heel in 2011 but yeah we go into all of that over on patreon.com it is an hour and 15 minutes that podcast so uh well worth
Go and check that out. Here's a clip. So with Road Dogg's release, Kayquick... R-Truth became a singles guy. And that's why this is the weirdest thing I still feel like is a time traveler. If you go back and watch the 2001 Royal Rumble, which is a great Royal Rumble. Best Royal Rumble ever. There is R-Truth. Yeah.
Looking exactly how he looks now. But not even just looking exactly like he looks now. The incredible thing about R-Truth is, say a guy like AJ Styles is a good example, or Will Ospreay is another good example. Guys who, if you watch their matches when they're in their... 20s then compare that to the matches they have in their 30s they're very different wrestlers because they become heavier they're older AJ Styles is not doing those springboard 450s he's not doing those spiral taps
that he was doing during his TNAX division times. Will Ospreay is not doing the matches now that he was doing in his 20s. They adapt their style. Ron Killings is doing all of the spots he was doing in his 20s in his 50s. And it doesn't look like... anything has ever changed about him i guess he's mostly now doing sub five minute matches yeah and he just has to do a couple of cool
spinning leg kick but that's it but he does his spinning leg he does his it moves exactly the same he does like you know that little tornado like head move that he does when you he spins them off the ropes they're like a twisting elbow thing it's the same moves he was doing in 2000 And it's in 2025. But it's not like, oh, man, he doesn't hit that as well as he did 25 years ago. No, it looks exactly the same. Well, I think he's actually more geniusly just adopted the moveset of the safest. Yeah.
wrestling wrestler there is with John Cena on the side of the game. ACAST recommends. Do you know who Lynn Conway is? Without her, you wouldn't be able to listen to this podcast, text your mum, or even email your boss. Like Alan Turing, her legacy in computer science, pioneering the microchip...
changed the world. So why is she barely known? Well, she also happens to be trans. This Pride Month, cut through the noise and misleading headlines about the Trans Plus community with the history lesson you never had on the Queer AF podcast. If you want to change the future, start living as if you're already there. ACAST is the home of podcasting, including such shows as The Logbooks, The High Performance Podcast, and The One You're Listening To Right Now.
There's loads of other stuff over on the Patreon. You get TLC's exclusive episodes, our WrestleTalk Extra series, where we're currently doing the rise and fall of the Nexus. But also, if you pledge at the $30 tier, you get a shout-out.
on this very show, you beauties. Thank you. We couldn't do this without your support. Genuinely, YouTube just, we don't make much money at all from it anymore. So it's all funded really by the Patreon. Thank you. He can last Sean for longer than you in the ring. Starbucks, Steve. I'm so glad I never have to do that one. You can look, but you can't touch, Bella Pearson. I'm afraid he's got some bad news. It's bad news. Bob the Ninja Goldfish. Chris.
Hellfire Brimstone. The Blade Bearer, Christopher Sordillo. And lastly, for this Hall of Fame class, on Friday, the 6th of June, 2025, hey now, you're an all-star, Chuck Turner. So I got up at 4am to watch Dynamite. There was someone who left a comment being like, when did you get up at 4am to watch the show?
Because if I didn't, then you wouldn't have got your review at 1pm. I have to get a train, write my review, get into London, record a video so the rest of the news can get out at 1pm. So I had to get up at 4am to watch this. four hour fighter fest block which was really like it was called aew fighter fest but what it was was an episode of dynamite
and an episode collision directly after it, because there is no collision this coming weekend, presumably because of sports. Yeah, it's the NBA playoffs finals and stuff. And the same thing is happening next week as well. Again, presumably sports is moving. collision from Saturday to Wednesday after Dynamite. So next week is also a four-hour block of AEW. This, I thought everything on this was good to very good. I really love some of the matches.
I've never watched four hours of wrestling TV. I've watched plenty of four-hour wrestling pay-per-views, but four hours of wrestling TV is a terrible idea. Yeah. Because they're not... It makes sense on a pay-per-view because everything feels really built up and special. But when it's four hours of TV, you've got this... It just feels like one match after another. And honestly, by the...
By the third hour, I had wrestling blindness. And I was like, have I watched this match already? It's another trios. It's a tag match. What made... the thing that stuck out to me the most what i found was startling about watching this show was just how much it felt like you watched an episode of dynamite and then an episode of collision not just one big long episode of dynamite or aew fighter fest this was there was like literally a point
where it stopped being Dynamite and it became Collision. And they are two very different shows. Dynamite has usually got way more angles on it, way more in-ring promo segments, whereas Collision is just the wrestling show. It's just... matches.
And the collision half of it was the one I struggled with the most because I just watched the two-hour dynamite that came before it. And when I am just watching the Don Callis family versus Lost Out Runners and Bandido, I'm like, yeah, this is really good, but... fairly inconsequential and then the main event the donkast family versus paragon i'm like great like it's good and the work is is very good and all but I feel nothing while I'm watching this. Yeah, it's even... So at the sort of...
Dynamite was main evented by the four-way for Kenny Omega's international title. And then he wins and the broadcast literally dips. Like it goes to black and it comes right back up a second later, which is like if you're watching a TNA pay-per-view. on TNA's streaming service from the mid-noughties because they've lost all the original masters and they're just a TV rips and that's an ad break. But after that, that's when Okada comes out and that starts Collision. I've actually got the...
So the Dynamite section of AEW Dynamite got 655,000 viewers and a 0.18 rating in the 18 to 49, which is... slightly from last week, which was 636,000 viewers and a 0.16. So decent viewership for Dynamite, I'd say. These don't include Max News as well. Yeah, it's actually the best rating.
in that demo since march so good news for dynamite that's really good news but then collisions numbers dropped off huge from that so it went from 655 on average to 380 and a 0.10 in the key demo because it's like 11 p.m when it starts but also what are they i think the thing that surprises me about this and i really surprised me when i've watched it is that it wasn't building to anything like collision they didn't
use dynamite to be like and stick around because there's going to be this huge match on collision that's going to main event no the main event was the don callis family versus paragon like
great you have the osprey leo rush match but that's that's osprey and leo rush and also that opens the collision part of things so you could have built towards a will osprey main event next week is a bit different because they've advertised will osprey and swerve strickland i don't know if that's going to open dynamite or
is going to close collision if it if i was the one in charge i'd have that close out the show because you want people to kind of stick around and watch that but it also is going to draw the worst rating of the lot because it's going to end at like 1 a.m or whatever it is so it's kind of like it's a tricky balance but also
So it felt like Collision was never building to anything. It just started hot and then was just slowly just trickling off. So that rating comes really as no surprise to me. But actually, Collision, if you compare it to when it's usually on Saturdays, pretty much the same. Yeah.
So if it's pretty much the same, I wouldn't do it because I think if you have too many of these four hour shows, which, you know, the two shows back to back, it will massively harm you in the long run. Be curious to see what happens next week if people still have the appetite.
Yeah, that would be curious as well, because I know people will say they did build something because they made the announcement. They're going to make a huge match announcement before the main event, which ended up being Omega versus Okada 5. But I think that doesn't come as much of a surprise because people kind of figured that was coming.
I thought it was already announced. So I was like, oh, that's the announcement? What? Yeah, I told you that yesterday. He was like, apparently that was a big announcement. I was like, yeah, it was a Carter Omega 5. And you're like, oh.
I thought that had already been announced. I thought that's what Kenny won the four-way for. Oh, no, he also has a title. So let's try and go through this. We've got to cram a four-hour show. I feel like Tony Khan has been like, oh, WrestleTalk, they brought back the AEW. views are sneaking collision.
I'll make them cover collision as well. There was a comment on yesterday's video. It was like, haha, Russell Tucker covering collision again. So, yep, this was in Denver. Tekla was in the opening credits. I don't know if you noticed that. So she's in there now. They did the people arriving.
in the building stuff that wwe does to make i guess make it feel like a big show but i i would prefer aw not to borrow too much from the Lee fitting style yeah there's a we were talking about the releases earlier and you know people were like how can AEW counter not counter program this but take advantage of this and the way to take advantage of this as the competition is to just put on a great show is to put on
Double or Nothing has really done great favors in swinging that pendulum back towards AEW's favor because it was a kick-ass show. where every match ruled and every match rocked. That's what you've got to do. Not lean into the, let's just copy one. Let's not just control C, control V, what the other people are doing, which is kind of where Fandom's getting stuck in 2023. So will I spray open the show with Tony?
shivani he said uh they showed the swerve stricken and altercation after last wednesday's dynamite so good and will said look if mox hates what aw has become go away uh it's because of will hangman swerve storm Omega that AEW has that momentum back, but maybe Swerve is just a bigger threat to AEW as the Death Riders because he's going to derail Hangman. So, Will has to stop Swerve. They set up...
Osprey Swerve 2 next week. I love that. I imagine Will's going to win that because Swerve won the first one. Or... sweet sweet dq no death riders come in and they cause the dq and hangman page who has got will osprey's back is going to come down to make the save that's pretty good actually but that is you know We have a pop of DQs on WWE. And that is only because if you do a DQ every single week, it's a booking crutch then. But DQs can be effective.
if used right interference can be effective if you use it sparingly same with dqs so and it's the same with them can they coexist can they coexist is a good effective storyline If you use it sparingly. So he's interrupted by the crew. They say, well, Ospreay is the worst thing about AEW. And Ospreay is like, whoa, bruv.
Let's overmatch them. So that was Leo Rush and Ospreay set up for the second half of Collision. Then we got Jon Moxley versus Mark Briscoe. This was set up because Briscoe... passed out and didn't tap in the match last week to Moxley so a rare non-title singles match it was more for Mark to get his pride back
And yeah, it was a good match. Of course there's Briscoe's busted open before the break. Yuta interferes behind the referee's back. Mox kicks out of a J-driller, which is the first time anyone's kicked out of that in AEW. But ultimately, Mox chokes Mark out again with a bulldog. Yeah, he gets in one. Mark survives the first one in the Bret Hart turnbuckle spot, but not enough for a second. And he passed out again. Yeah, so...
Nothing really, like it doesn't further anything really. It was just... a match here to tie up to follow on from a character beat last week uh mr co got a video package again he's coming to summer cockbuster next week he certainly is because that'll be there to set up the arena mexico show in two weeks time uh tony storm and mina
Shurikawa took on Sky Blue and Julia Hart. This was a fun match, I thought. Mercedes Monet was on commentary, but actually not on commentary. She was on steak-eating duty. Yeah, and the biggest heel move that she could do is that steak was well done. done yeah that was huge stakes are different in the united states no it was may have been huge but it was just like so it was clearly stone cold and it had been resting for far too long
And it had been on that pan for far too long as well. That was as tough as old boots. I think it's working steak. I don't think it's a shoot steak that you would eat. Well, Toni Storm ate it later. She ate a bit of Monet's meat. But she's sipping on the wine. More women's tag stuff. You know, you've seen it up and down the card. I think you are right. They are gearing towards some tag belts.
Time Menor made her return later in the show. I enjoyed the action. I enjoyed Monet at ringside. However... Monet does sometimes have the more irritating parts of sports entertainment with her presentation. And I felt like the camera was just nonstop. What's Monet doing? Oh, she's taking a selfie. Oh, she's sipping a glass. of wine i'm like i would like to watch that i quite like sky blue and julia hart yeah i'd like to see them you don't want money to be poochy
But yeah, Tony and Mina worked really well in the comeback. They're stopped from kissing and they get the win. And Tony eats a bit of Monet steak. Yeah, she tapped out Sky with a chicken wing, which was good.
MJF interrupted Will Ospreay's promo backstage, and he said that... don't get swerve and hangman on side he's sort of saying like i need to be the one to beat john moxley isn't yeah uh and because he now has the backing of the hurt syndicate behind him and that's then shown in this segment here because will gets in mjs face and all of a sudden shelton benjamin mvp and bobby lashley sort of surrounded and will's like oh okay
I'm not going to do anything more now because I don't want to get beaten up four on one. Ospreay sold that perfectly, I thought, because he didn't feel like a coward. No. He was a smart babyface picking his battles there. The Hurt Syndicate then come down with MJF.
Should I say with MJF? The Hurt Syndicate came out. That includes him now. Bobby got chance because he used to live in Denver, apparently. Shelton got chance. And then MVP pointed to MJF and everyone booed him. So good. I hope they do. that every week that's fun and then they brought back the thumbs up thumbs down gimmick when mvp was like hey you used to live in denver bobby now you live in texas why did you move from denver what do you think and he teased doing the thumbs up
And then he went to thumbs down. Yeah, I don't know, because it felt like they were moving more into a babyface direction for the Hurt Syndicate. I don't think I would do... If that is your plan, I wouldn't do things like this to make the crowd boo you. Well, also, I feel like AEW has... A very fun tag division, but a fundamentally flawed one. In that MVP then goes on to say...
This is supposed to be where the best wrestle? Well, there's no one to beat the tag team of Sheldon Benjamin and Bobby Lashley. They're the dominating AEW tag team champions. And later on, Stokely Hathaway says of FTR, no one can beat FTR. They're undefeated for however many matches. They're the most winningest team in wrestling. You're like, well, you two should be fighting each other or the Bucks should be fighting you. But...
They're all heel teams. Well, maybe that is where that's the all-in match. FTR versus the Hurt Syndicate with the tag titles. If you're setting up two dominating teams to eventually collide, because that is what you're doing, is you eventually, one of these two unstoppable forces is going to collide together. Yeah, I just...
It feels clunky right now because why aren't they going for the Hurt Syndicate? It makes all the Hurt Syndicate matches feel like filler. And they have done. They have done, yeah. MJF gets the... Hold on, are you trying to tell me the Sons of Texas didn't stand a chance of winning the tag titles at the pay-per-view? With those Dustin Rhodes promos? What did he say again? It was an unforgettable night that no one will ever, everyone will always remember.
MJ have sort of called out Mystico. They'll probably have a match at Grand Slam, it sounds. Put over Happy Gilmore 2. He says that proves he's a megastar. And then Kevin Knight. Speedball Mike Bailey and Commander came out, I said... They're the box of fun toys, assorted action figures from different franchises that I've made into a team in my bedroom. Or if you go on holiday to Spain, you might find them in shops where it's just like the Avengers and it'll be...
Iron Man, Superman, Lightning McQueen from Cars. So they come out and they say, we're ready to take you on for the tag belts. And MVP's like, no, you haven't earned it. And then he walked past them and he's like, you have to earn it. I love MVP on the mic. God, he's a bit clunky sometimes. Yeah. We said this, I think, last week's episode. It's just because they're not scripted and it just means you can talk on the mic wherever you want. He loves to chat.
And he was just like, I'm just going to have a chat now. I'm just going to say something because I can and I will. There was a bit of Max's promo where he just took a pause for dramatic effect and MVP's like, I can talk now.
and mjf had to be like yeah yeah yeah yeah you're right um back to my promo yeah well you know maybe he comes from a radio background where if you just pause for like five seconds the emergency broadcast system kicks in he's like well we don't want that happening on tbs so knights be born commander
prove themselves by having a... I really enjoyed this match against Lost Faction Ignorable, which was Rouge, Drillistica and Beast Mortals. Yeah, new look for Beast Mortals as well. Divisive. A few people are not into the new masks and other people... love the new design of it. I thought he looked good. I thought he looked more heelish as part of this faction. And yeah, who won? Kevin Knight got the win on Mortos.
I'd like to make an apology at this point as well to some of our audience members from yesterday's WrestleTalk News because I actually made a reference to Karrion Kross looking like Zardoz. And I said that's a nice reference for our Boomer.
elder millennial viewers and i and then during this match as well i uh ian riccobani made a vanilla ice reference to teenage man ninja tells two secrets of the use and i was like yeah me and riccobani we're the same age so shout out to you bud uh and in that and a few people did point this out i did forget gen x so gen x will have also got the zardoz reference
that have also got that vanilla ice reference as well. Gen X are the forgotten generation. Everyone talks about the boomers and us millennials. Gen Xers, who were a much cooler generation than either of the two that I named, always get forgotten. They have Fight Club. So, sorry, Gen X. Yeah. And we all now need to unite against Gen Z. We can team up together. So, yeah, the assorted...
Guys won and they'll get to wrestle Bobby Sheldon and MJF in a trios match next week. There was a little brawl afterwards and the Hurt Syndicate kind of sold for them. They flew out the ring and then they stood right back up. Well, it's because... shelton and bobby ran down for the ball but mjf didn't join in he didn't run down with them he then ran down afterwards and there's he got beaten up three on one so they kind of got a little bit embarrassed and so they didn't get taken out
They got embarrassed by the babyfaces. And the reason for that was MJF is not really a team player in the Hurt Syndicates. Paragon and Daniel Garcia are backstage. They set up the Don Callis. Family main event somehow for this whole thing. They set up a Don Callis family match.
but not the other Don Callis family match, which featured Carl Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita, who cut a promo later about the Paragon match, but they were talking about another match they're doing as well. That's collision for you. Christian got a patriarchy promo. He said, Nick Wayne's...
back from the best of the Super Juniors tournament. He did well, but he didn't win. He won't have any time off. He'll be defending his ROH TV title tonight in a four-way. I get the sense Christian is trying to make Nick Wayne lose the belt. well i don't think he is because this is kind of making christian a champion christian holds that title you know he is currently a title holder he is trying to he is making his son approve like
He's making his son work for Christian's approval. Max Caster got his act. Max Caster, you're the best wrestler of life. I love these segments. Also, I love just... every single time he does it it gets more and more over because it's such a clunky chance on purpose but now people are getting into it so now everyone in the crowd is going max castor you're the best wrestler alive it's a wonderful subversion of the how do you build
up a monster wrestler you have him beat different enhancement talent every week you're somehow getting over a heel enhancement wrestler by having a different monster beat him up every week it was powerhouse Hobbs here and he just spine busted him on one instant almost instantly like 20 seconds into the five-minute timer. Yeah, they pointed out that Max is 0-10 in these five-minute challenges, so now he is 0-11.
Kenny Omega, Brodie King, Claudio and Masca Dorada then all had a four-way for the international championship in that tournament. final. This was awesome. It was a great match and it was sort of the main event of Dynamite. Kenny got the big pyro entrance. All the faces went for Claudio right away because of Deathriders stuff. Dorada got loads of chances to shine. And in the end, can he pin Dorada?
to retain. Very good match. Really, really enjoyed this. Superb match. And then, but the big thing was afterwards, out comes Okada. This is sort of the start of the collision now. Gets in the ring with Kenny, they go face to face, shoving the title. at each other. They start trading blows. They both get out of each other's finishes.
because they always said about the gimmick of their first four matches was that Kenny could always kick out of the Rainmaker, but Okada never kicked out of the One-Winged Angel. So they've now spent the last year... putting over the Rainmaker again, and it only takes one to put you down. So we're kind of back to square one again. So it's still about who is going to be the first person to hit that finish. If you hit the Rainmaker to the tummy...
Kenny's dead. He's done for. You just flick that guy's tummy. The diverticulitis! Will Ospreay then took on Leo Rush. They've even changed commentary teams by this point. It's Nigel McGuinness and Tony Schiavone on the announce desk. And this was a fun match. Will gave Leo a lot, but obviously Will beat... leo rush in the end despite some andrade interference but then the crew beat him up afterwards hangman makes the save because he has osprey's back i thought this was a really smart
bit of uh as they say a smart bit of business because will gets like carried to the back so then hangman cuts his promo on the death riders where he has this brilliant line where he was like i will and never will accept help from swerve strickland i made a promise to all of you that i will win this title i'm gonna make another promise now
never going to accept his help and that's you know when you make a promise as a baby face you usually have to stick to it but i think it's going to be that conflicting moral code that that hangman page is going to have to deal with here in this quest to dethrone john moxley at all in
I absolutely love this. And then Moxley appears in the ring and the Deathriders surround it. And you're like, oh man, Will can't come out to help because he was just carried to the back. But Will, because he loves AEW so much and he really wants to hang around, limps back down. hobbles back down holding a chair and the death riders make the tactical retreat decision they could have beaten them up here now is not the time now is not let's do this another time
Yeah. This is sort of the, it's the most interesting thing in AEW. So any little segment is great. Yeah. And then it was just wrestling. Yeah, so FTR beat Atlantis Jr. and Temparillo, I think is how you say it. Templario. Templario. This had the finish where there's a suplex from... Templario. And Dax is meant to grab his feet, trip him, and hold them down while Cash falls on top of him for the pin. But he didn't grab hold of the feet. So that was the...
the bit there, and that's when they cut the promo afterwards about how they're the most winningest team in AEW, which just feels weird alongside the Hurt Syndicate. Tekla got a video package. Hechicero, Takeshita, and Carl Fletcher took on Bandido and the Outrunners. This was great. I really enjoyed this. Kester and Fletcher are awesome. I particularly enjoyed Bandido and Fletcher working together. They were great. And they won with double Brain Busters.
Then Megan Bain and Penelope Ford attacked Anna Jay backstage after, you know, they've had a feud running the last couple of weeks. They bring her on stage. But Tay Mello makes her return to make the save. Yeah. Again, it's that tag team division. Sean Rossat was even saying that he really likes the Harley, Cameron, Anna Jay thing. But he's like, Tay Mello and Anna Jay kind of got an established tag team partnership going previously. So now you can reunite.
May and, sorry, yeah, Jay and Melo again. Bowens, that was sort of just cut away from quite quickly, though. Well, of course it was. It was a women's segment. Bowens and Gunner backstage, and Bowens said, this month is the Pride of Pro Wrestling Month, so he set up a match against Fletcher next week. I think he wins. That's my pick. In Pride Month.
He sort of hasn't had a win as a singles star yet. He hasn't had a big win. But Fletcher, I think they're going to do Fletcher-Cole for the TNT Championship at All In. So you kind of don't want Kyle Fletcher getting beaten right now. AR Fox, Sammy Guevara, Nick Wayne and Lee Johnson fought over Nick Wayne's ROH TV title. This is when I started going wrestling blind. So thank God for AR Fox. For the last couple of weeks, any match he's in is the best thing in it.
So great. So he took the pin. Nick beat him after Fox ran wild and took out everyone else on the outside. Yeah, Ricochet was on commentary because he was scouting talents for the group that he's going to put together. Christian put the belt on Nick afterwards. No angle there.
Seems to be bubbling. Tecla then got her debut match against Lady Frost and just killed her early. It was a squash match. It was a proper squash match. Some people took issue with me because I was talking about the women's TV time.
And I said that there was one proper women's match and one squash match. And that's just like not enough. Like you're only going to have like one proper match each week. And so we were like, well, there were two matches on this show. Not really. There was one proper match and a squash match. And in a four-hour block of wrestling, 12 minutes dedicated to two women's matches, really it's just one women's match and one squash match, is not enough. This is, I'd say, probably the worst form.
that the AEW have had in terms of treating women's wrestling the same as the men's I think this is extremely poor form by AEW Queen Amanada chased Tekla off afterwards and got a promo backstage where she set up a match against her next week. Then we got the big announcement from Tony. From Tony. Tony Schiavone spoke on Tony Khan's behalf. And yeah, the All-In match will have a contract signing next week with Omega and Okada. It's happening.
as i was listening to a podcast on the way in it's not my recommendation for the week but i was listening to the pod cast reviewing rage against the machines battle of los angeles which is like the last studio album that they put they did together which is all original songs because renegades the album that came afterwards as a covers album and that was like you know in 1999 i think that that album comes out and they were talking about would you like rage to come back and do another album
And they were like, yeah, you know, absolutely. But one of the hosts was like, I would be worried though, because there's a lot of pressure. for them to come back after you know 16 years or actually 26 years to put out another album together and like will it live up to the hype of those three incredible albums and i've got the same thing with akata omega 5 here yeah
A lot of hype about this, but it has got some lofty expectations. It is not 2017 anymore. It's 2025. They're very different. They're seven years older, eight years older than they were then. I just hope that it at least is... The best matchup. Well, that's it. But it kind of has to be, right? Like that's almost the base level it has to be is really, really excellent. Because if it is bang average...
it is going to feel like one of the worst matches of the year because it's got so much hype, pyro, and ballyhoo going into it. Yeah, it is a bit nerve-wracking. But I trust in those guys, and I think Okada's just been phoning it in for a year. So he's lowered the expectations, just like the Rainmaker, and then boom, he pulls it all out. I've got so much faith in both of them, but man, I...
I really hope that it delivers because if it doesn't, there's going to be so much discourse about it not living up to expectations. All good faith discourse as well. Yeah, completely. And the final match, who cares at this point? Well, yeah, it was the Don Callis family of Josh Alexander, Lance Archer, Roppongi Vice versus Paragon and Daniel Garcia. And it was, you know...
10 minutes with an overrun. Did we need an overrun on this four-hour broadcast, Tony? It's not even the A-team of the Don Callis family. There's no Fletcher and Takeshita in there. No offense for a Pongy 3K. No.
It's the NWOB team going out there. So I just, this washed over my eyeballs. I tapped out. Colpin, Trent, Garcia danced at Don Callis, and... garcia raised cole's hand at the end despite their previous issues and that's the there wasn't even an angle and i was like oh my god can't wait to do that next week well here's what it was it was collision i like collision right i think collision is a fine show
but it is not must go out of your way to see TV. Dynamite feels like that is so much the A show of AEW. That is where you do all of your big things. And Collision is just a nice bit of Saturday night wrestling. And that was what we got here. A nice bit of Saturday night wrestling, but it was on a Wednesday night after I'd watched a different two-hour show.
And I was so done by the end of this fourth hour. And I'm someone as well who likes the length and girth of AEW pay-per-views. You sicko. I absolutely love how long AEW pay-per-views are because I get so... I feel like I really get my money's worth with them. Four hours of TV is very different. Well, should we go into last week's comments? I've got a few comments from last week's podcast on YouTube and Spotify. BT Welling.
writes. You guys have been helping me through a really tough time lately, and the Extra Weekly podcast has only made it better. You two talking about Double or Nothing also got me and a few of my wrestling buddies to all watch Our first AEW show. Just wanted to let you know it was a great time, even if it was a bit too long.
Thank you for all you do, Oli, Luke, and the whole WrestleTalk team. Hands, yellow, heart, and red. That must have been an emoji. Also, to answer your question, the obvious Mount Rushmore of King of the Wind winners, Stone Cold, Brock Lesnar, Booker T, and the very first King himself, Athelstan. Jan that Jan. Athelstan, of course, being the Anglo-Saxon king of early, early England. That.
is a deep cut i love the ones that start sincere and then undercut all of them but by the way i've had a few people reach out to me since double or nothing and just go Just off the back of that Double or Nothing review you did, I watched AEW for the first time. These are WWE fans as lifers. Well, to that I say, you're welcome, Tony Khan.
But yeah, I just thought it was interesting because we're having all these chats about how people do feel a bit stagnant with WWE, maybe a bit disillusioned. And just anecdotally, we're hearing people. are trying out aw an alternative looking for the first time
Milk Sword says, love the discussion about the fan perception shifts between WWE and AEW. Reminds me of the great shift of momentum WWF had in the 90s, with such iconic King of the Ring winners as Steve Austin, Triple H, Ken Shamrock, and Bart. Yes, that's a good one. That's the sort of slight mistake.
you want to have in a perfect comment like that brilliant choice and af87 writes king of the wings used to be my absolute favorite match tournament of the year i was so happy when kurt angle won i was also huge fans of edge and brock lesnar their pushes but by far my favorite had to be diesel these are good that's a good one uh what should the secret word this week be abba
Oh, just get some ABBA puns. Yes! Yes! That's good. So ABBA song titles. Mamma Mia. Mamma Mia references. Get those into wrestling comments. See if you can somehow get Pierce Brosnan. within your comments or bronholm uh before we get out of here we got any recommendations for the folks um yeah the most recent episode of guys a podcast about guys had an all-timer episode this week on milk guys
And it is an episode that genuinely made me laugh out loud multiple times on the train home the other day. Milk, guys. Guys, it is a show where the host, Brian Quimby, just looks at a subsect of guys online.
and who are just like that is their personality so niche fandom niche fandom so he recently did music festival guys uh or like real ale guys um and trainer guys and this sort of that but his most recent one was milk guys people whose whole personality is milk and different kinds of milk and people who are like so into nesquik
And the changes in recipe of Nesquik and their campaign to get them to change the recipe back to how it used to be. People who import Nesquik from different countries because they like the way that those ones taste. And then for the last 15 minutes... is people who are turned on by breast milk and comments that people leave on Reddit posts about that.
Honestly, I laughed out loud multiple times on the train ride home. It's my favorite weekly podcast. Other than that. That's non-wrestling related. So yeah, guys, a podcast about guys. Milk, guys, is a brilliant episode. That's very good. My recommendation is... DC Comics. Hair fibers. all right i'll bite what are hair fibers how's my hair look hair looks pretty good right uh i don't know if you know this recently the hair transplant that you know i had but
The baldness still continues behind the hair transplant. I'm still losing my hair. The front line is solid, but the logistics are running out in World War I trench warfare. So there's this thing called fibers. which is like a powder, and you sort of puff it over your hair. And it just settles in there. It's like there's dust. And I'm not kidding. But the main thing is particularly here or like overhead lights in the bathroom, they're quite punishing.
and they expose the scalp even if your hair is quite full. This is used in TV all the time, and it's now becoming more of a consumer product that you can just buy over the counter, usually in hairdressers. And my barber bought me some. He was like, I thought of you because... there was a specific gray one. And I had my hair cut last week. He's like, you should try it. And I tried it and it fricking works. So what does it do? It just cut like, so my hair right now, if I didn't have it on.
you'll probably be able to see a little bit of red scalp through, I don't know, some bit over here. Right, okay. And this just, for whatever reason, confuses light. And the light can't penetrate through this dust. Amazing. So yeah, there's my, I think the brand I've got is called Bunnies. B-U-M-E-E. But yeah, I think, you know, speaking of guys, got a lot of guys listening to this podcast.
Other guys over the age of 30. Other guys probably terrified about their hair loss. What would it do with me, though? I think that ship might have sailed. What would it look like for me? Because I cut my hair down within an inch of its life. I literally have a scalp shaver because it's gone. I lost that battle a long time ago.
But what would it look like for me? It wouldn't make it look like I've got a... a field of hair i don't know i think it will probably more look like you've drawn on some hair should we test it i think it you want me to bring it should we test it on my on sunday we were doing the money the bank review you can spray it on air we'll do it on the page
Patreon show. Okay, yes, that's a nice plug. Good segue. We're back on Sunday with our Money in the Bank review. But also after that, we're going over to Patreon where you can watch us. and, you know, partake in a Q&A for about an hour. Yeah, we're going to hang out for a bit. And yeah, don't worry, you don't have to be signed up monetarily to Patreon.
to watch it it's sort of like a member thing there's a tier there the way you can do it yeah there's like so patreon i don't know how many people know this because i only learned this you know fairly recently within the last year or so there's like a free membership you can have on patreon where you just follow pages but you don't get any of the You just find out that they posted content so you can sign up to patreon
for free and it is for free but you don't get any of the stuff that actually is on patreon but if you are if you go there and sign up and become one of those free guys then you get to join us on this patreon hangout that we're doing yeah we'll see what happens um but yeah so please do
subscribe leave a comment it really helps if you share the video around as well funny if you're watching we will accept sponsorships yeah iTunes Spotify leave comments and reviews there as well we do look at all of them and it does help us out and if you really want to help support us do over to patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk where we have that R-Truth career retrospective bonus episode available.
Right now. You can go watch that right now. It's just gone up. But for now, I've been Oli Davis. This has been Luke Owen, DAD. Jammer Jam. ACAST recommends. Do you know who Lynn Conway is? Without her, you wouldn't be able to listen to this podcast, text your mum, or even email your boss. Like Alan Turing, her legacy in computer science, pioneering the microchip...
changed the world. So why is she barely known? Well, she also happens to be trans. This Pride Month cut through the noise and misleading headlines about the Trans Plus community with the history lesson you never had on the Queer AF podcast. If you want to change the future, start living as if you're already there. ACAST is the home of podcasting, including such shows as Vlogbooks, The High Performance Podcast, and the one you're listening to right now.