hello there everyone it's luke owen here if you enjoy this wrestle talk audio content and you've thought to yourself hey i really wish i could hear the wrestle talk news in audio content well now you can if you search for the wrestle talk network In your podcast catcher, you can hear the daily WrestleTalk news in audio form. Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk Podcast. It's the new look, new episode style WrestleTalk Podcast. I'm Oli Davis. I'm joined by Luke Owen D.A.D.
We're doing a sort of trial of this format on Thursdays. So that means every Tuesday, every Thursday, you can guarantee a WrestleTalk podcast will be with you. Raw reviews, of course, on Tuesday. And Thursdays, this show, where we go through three of the biggest news stories. Dives into those. Because even though we are kind of a WrestleTalk news channel,
Me and you actually never talk on a podcast about the news. And we found that's actually what people like and we like. We like as well, yeah. Because we haven't had a chance. to crap on WWE for releasing loads of people. Also, I want to give a quick shout-out, if I may, to Luke from Kerrang! magazine. because we internally were calling this the rest
is wrestling. Rest being W-R-E-S-T which we thought was pretty funny. We're pretty funny people because the inspo for this is the rest is entertainment and the rest is football but most specifically the rest is entertainment. And then Luke from Crang Magazine texted me yesterday with a much better name, which is The Rest is Sports Entertainment. So shout out to him for being much better. smarter and clever than we are. If you can think of a third pun to now put in that title, that working title,
then have at it in the comments. So today we're going to talk about those releases. We're going to do a big deep dive into all of them, where they're going to go, and just sort of that. ethics of what WWE I think WWE had a chance to conduct themselves differently with the departure of Vince McMahon and it looks like they're not and in some ways being worse about
I think there's a... This is going to be my hot take. This is going to get clipped out of context. I think Vince McMahon was a bit better. That one thing doesn't endorse anything else he's done. We are coming in hot on this first episode. Don't use this as the thumbnail. Don't use that as a quote. Big smiling face, Vince was better. Photo, chat GPT, my arm round Vince. Doing the Vince point, the Triple H point.
No, no, we'll get into that. But first off, we're going to talk about the Backlash predictions because Backlash is on Saturday. Yeah, it comes about really quickly. Yeah. Just three weeks after WrestleMania 41. Someone asked me, why didn't you do a three count for this episode? I was like, because you never had one week of TV and then you had to come up with a whole... I had to go through the whole people's WWE roster and try and think three words for Adam Pearce after one week of television.
Yeah, and it would be wildly wrong. We sort of need at least two or three weeks of TV to do those three count episodes. Because if you're on one, like, we'll be talking about that Logan Paul Jey Uso match on the pay-per-view. Yeah. And also, you know, I had to go on holiday. So that actually just wasn't.
so backlash predictions of course you can get your predictions in as well over on WrestleLeague which the link should be in the video description below that's our big fantasy league thing where everyone I think there's like 7,000 people we all try and predict and you can have Joker picks to get double points.
And we partake as well, and we often do bang mid-table. I did pretty well. I think I came overall seventh in the last season. Shout out to Dan Fry, the admin guy in the office, because he smashed it. Yeah? Yeah, he won the office standings. Well done, Dan Fry the Admin guy. But you know...
It's quite close to a lot of the admin back end. Oh, interesting. I don't want to cast suspicions. I'm going to put a bit of a call into Mod Mother Janna. Can you check this out? Can you do a deep dive into this? I think she's on the payroll. I think this Dan conspiracy is so deep. This Dan-spiracy. Right, so there's only five matches, so this won't take long. On a Triple H card? There's only five very predictable matches. Do you think we're going to differ on Annie? No.
I honestly do not think. I think it's three weeks after WrestleMania. Backlash is usually a fairly predictable show anyway.
but it's always a really fun show you think of the last two years of backlashes it was backlash in puerto rica was so much fun and then backlash france last year was such a fun show i wonder if the saint louis crowd will still have that same um non-north american crowds um you know that sort of like france crowd of the puerto rican crowd i think it will be a hot crowd and i'm hoping that will add to the the fun elements of this but it is a very predictable
arguably missable show unless of course you're very nostalgic for John Cena vs Randy Orte and then you want to see them have one last match. Which I am not, but I don't think it's just that nostalgic thing. I am fascinated. by this Elseworlds timeline that we are in right now where John Cena is a heel. It just fascinates me. I want to see how he wrestles. Even if it's bad, I'm interested in it. I want to see them just flip reverse it and it's Cena doing all of the chin locks. Yeah, with...
Just like a whole head of space between the head and his arm. You can get two heads. Right, so actually in the spirit of do you just want to do one word predictions and then we'll do like just to show just to show how potentially predictable this is Gunther vs. Pat McAfee. Gunther. Gunther. Jacob vs. LA Knight vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Damien Priest for the US title. Jacob. Jacob. Becky Lynch vs. Lyra of Valkyria for the Intercontinental title. Becky. Becky.
Dom vs. Penta for the Intercontinental title. Dom. Dom. Cena vs. Autumn for the WWE Championship. Cena. Cena. Right, yeah. So we're all pretty much... Usually, though, when that is the case... something where it's going I also should add as well, I don't think predictability is a bad thing. when watching wrestling shows.
I think you want some unpredictable. Yeah, of course you do. You want to have some elements of like, oh, it could be this person or it could be this person. Particularly in that Fatal 4 way, you might want to be like, oh, maybe it could be Yellow Knight winning the title back. But I think it's pretty much nailed on that Jacob Fatu is going to retain the title.
like it is every result is nailed on what comes from it for me is the match is being really good i think becky versus lyra is going to be a really good match that fatal four-way should be really fun as well i'm kind of fascinated what they're going to do with gunther and pat
because the two schools of thought are do you want to have Gunther just dominate Pat and just beat him quickly or do you really want to watch Pat McAbee have a competitive match with Gunther? You can do that match without making it competitive like Gunther could just chop him down chop him down but then Gunther oh he pulls his shoulder up for the three so it's like Gunther is being arrogant
And really, that's what lets Pat have the comeback. Very much in the sort of good version of Shane McMahon matches back in the day. Where Shane would use weapons Is there a step to this? No it's just a straight up wrestling match All of these are just straight up wrestling matches How weird. I feel like you should get one step on the pay-per-view. That might make it feel a bit more...
special as well. I don't know. I mean, the specialness of this is Cena and Orton. You know, it's Cena and Orton one last time. Arguably his most iconic rival. I think he's probably between... Well, I was going to say it was between him, Ajahn Khan. are Cena's most iconic rivals. I wouldn't put The Rock in that conversation if they're two matches. I think Orton and Edge are Cena's most iconic B-level opponent.
I strongly disagree I suppose that actually that was a pretty bad storyline you've got to look at it from WWE's perspective which is Cyril Lawton are the two guys like that is the most A star A-level, top-tier feud they could possibly ever do. If anything ever went wrong, it was always back to Cena and Orton because those are the two reliable guys you can put on there and some people will get a bit of a kick out of it.
Edge, I think, goes into that iconic status because they had some really good matches together. And the cash. And the cash. Oh, yeah, yeah. And, you know, things like that. And then punk is good for Money in the Bank 2011. And so that's where... And Cena's best matches. And Cena's best matches where it comes to iconic status. But I think for actual, like, star power, it's punk and all.
Have I enjoyed any of the matches? No. There was that one. There was that one. There's that one they showed clips of. It was the I Quit match, and I think some people have said they've had one other good match. Out of the 40,000 that they had, there are two good ones.
I think it's going to be a really fun match. I think Orton is in quite a fun place in his career and I think the hometown crowd are gonna love him I think there's gonna be singing of his theme tune I think the match is gonna be incredibly heated even though it'll be worked at a sort of .4 pace? Glacial. Glacial. I was going to say, I'm going to disagree. I think this is going to be a dreadful match. Because I watched the main event of WrestleMania 41.
So if Cena's style is going to be working at this glacial pace, with Randy Orton?
I think this is going to be... I will say, and I'm hoping that I'm completely wrong, but I'm going into this match with very, very low expectations. And that is really not based on Cena and Orton's history. It's based on the main event of WrestleMania 41. I'm going in with... exceedingly low I think yes for the in ring work but this is a fresh crowd this isn't the end of Wrestlemania weekend this isn't a crowd waiting for The Rock to come out I think this will be
A solid two and a half star match. However, I think the crowd will elevate this. by a star and three quarters. Wow. And we are going to get a four and three quarters. What? Are you all right? I think a gorilla would win. A four and a quarter star match. I think you are out of your mind. But I do think the crowd is going to be very, very hot for this. Predictions for the finish?
Because I think there are... belt shot i think there's two finishes to this one of which is nut shot belt shot gets the win i think seen as i think orton's family is going to be involved i think he's going to get in the face of bob orton at ringside Because a lot of this has been about the Orton legacy and the Orton family. So I think that, and it's in St. Louis, that's going to be a part of this. The other finish I can see them doing is nut shot in front of the referee.
you want a better one. If you smell what the is cooking it hits and then he doesn't come out and Cena has played it as a distraction And then he hits an AA on Randy Orton to win. Or a belt. I think it's good that Cena doesn't win with finishing.
I think he just wins with the belt shot. I also think it's important to get that over as the finish. These belt shot finishes because surely the end point of this Cena run is Cody hitting him with the belt shot that he couldn't do when he couldn't pull the trigger at 41. And that is how he wins the title battle. Yeah. So I think you need to get that over as soon as it finishes the belt. Should we have a quick break?
And that break is brought to you by us at patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk because you can go over there right now and get a special bonus episode of this podcast where me and Luke do a big dive. into the rock speaking of the rock from earlier uh he yeah what the hell's going on with that guy but the sort of history of his star persona in hollywood and in wrestling how he's used wrestling to reinvent himself but then how now he might be leaving russian up behind again
And he's transitioning into a new part of his Hollywood career. Yeah, it's about 50 minutes. Actually, I think it's over 50 minutes we went on this episode. And here is a little clip of it. Last year, in 2024, Rock needed wrestling. Rock needed WWE. In 2025, WWE needs The Rock, and he doesn't actually need WWE anymore because he's got the Smashing Machine, he's got the Scorsese movie, he's rebuilt his Hollywood career.
I guess the other thing to talk about this week is the releases from WWE because on Thursday... They did some backstage cuts. They cut someone who was working within the creative department. Christine Lebrun, I believe her name is. She was working with Bruce Prichard. Those two reported directly to Triple H. Raw, SmackDown and NXT would give their creative to them, they would then give it to Triple H and then they would all work together on it.
so she got fired and a few other people got fired as well and that sort of that was the the silver surfer of the uh the release galactus that might appear and and and i i did say on the the the friday rust talk news If they're going to do this, they're going to do it late on a Friday because that is how they operate on releases now, which is you do it late on a Friday before SmackDown airs because that way it gets buried under SmackDown coverage and, more importantly, the weekend news coverage.
This is an old PR trick. Back in the noughties, the Labour government would release bad news right at the end of a Friday. Because all the newspapers have already gone to print. Exactly, yeah. So it's a very old school tactic to do. And that is what they ended up doing. And I actually checked before I went to bed on Friday night. Oh no, no releases. Maybe I was completely wrong on that one.
then i woke up on saturday and yeah there were releases and they did do them just before smack which i think is like an interesting tactic for them because the idea is it gets lost under smackdown But if you look at the social media posts they were doing about SmackDown, say like, oh, wow, look, Aleister Black is back and he's facing off against The Miz.
All the comments are just like, what about the releases? What about the releases? What about the releases? So it's not really hiding it the way that they think it's being hidden. I think if they wanted that to be an effective strategy, they need to do something better on SmackDown.
I think every year, this is like clockwork. There is, unfortunately, the sort of spring clean of talent in WWE. And, you know, that is a natural part of a business cycle where some talent are just not going to be used. the way or maybe like they're underperforming so better to cut some people and then bring some new people
Whether, you know, the whole contracts, honouring contracts, releasing people mid-contract, we'll get into that shortly because I do think that's problematic. But the... If they know every year, oh, it's too... WrestleMania it's a Friday we're gonna release a bunch of people because we've done this every year for the last five years it feels like then have a huge angle planned for that Smackdown episode and everyone's gonna not everyone's gonna be talking about that
but it will split the dialogue. Yeah, that's true. Well, you'll have some people talking about the releases, but then everyone else is going to be like, oh my God, Alexa Bliss came back. Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. So the names are Braun Strowman, Shayna Baszler, Dakota Kai, Caden Carter, Katana Chance, Cora J, Gigi Dolan, Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey, Wolfgang, Riley Osborne, Auro Mensah, Jakara Jackson, Javier Barnell, Eddie Thorpe,
Danny Palmer and Shotzi. Shotzi's the outlier in this in that she was not released. She was just informed that her contract was not going to be renewed and had gone to 5-4 Select. She kind of thought this was coming, so she'd already prepared a video that she'd put up on social media, ahead of the news even coming out, that she was going on to do different things.
so yeah the five or six quote was that uh we're pretty we're told she pretty well saw the writing on the wall and prepared the promo that aired last week she said to be excited for her future and optimistic about I, you know, that's sort of the Baron Corbin thing that happened last year. Baron Corbin was not cut. His contract simply expired. Actually, should I talk about this now? Because I think that is okay.
Yeah, if your contracts come to an end and you have no intention of using them and you don't really see a future for them, why sign them to another five-year deal just to stop them going to AEW? So a contract is an agreement. parties and the idea is both parties honour that agreement and one of those things is the term of the contract. But then you'll have bits in there where, you know, it is up to, we can terminate this at any notice. I imagine that's what's in there because that's what WWE do.
That's a bad contract if you're a performer. But it's because WWE aren't a Monopoly now, but that's the way they operate. No, they're not a Monopoly now. No, the MLW are there. so the performers aren't really in a position unless they're unionized to say no you if if you do you cut either you can't cut me in our contract unless i've done something gross misconduct wise. Or, if you do cut me, You have to pay me a severance fee.
Yeah, and technically they sort of do because what they have is their 90-day non-compete, which is that they are paid for those 90 days And the way the wrestlers, the discussions we've been, they use those 90 days to just get their ducks in a row. They're quite grateful for the 90 days because it means that they can get things in place.
ready for their big relaunch yeah and obviously I'm an employer so I have and there are differences we're a much smaller company we're based in the UK which gives workers a lot more protection than the US But the three months thing, it's all about where the relationships are. So Braun Strowman, for instance. Braun Strowman, three months of his pay, like that 90-day period.
You know, that's quite standard. People generally have a month or two months notice or three months notice. So you'll have that anyway as an employee, of course. The WWE wrestlers are not employees. They're independent contractors. And that is a huge problem with this. And that's why WWE can treat them this badly and just cut them willy-nilly. but uh yeah if you're braun strowman then you've got leverage. If you've got two years left on your contract, you can say, well,
I'm not going to leave. We've made a deal. I committed to you because my value to you a year ago when I signed was X much. I could have gone to AEW. You have taken me off the playing field. for three years. Both sides should honour that. Not now you cut me because you don't feel like I'm a threat going to AEW anymore or anything like that. So then Braun Strowman is in a position to say, well, here are the terms. to agree my departure. Yeah. Which is requesting your release.
Or like, I want a bigger pal. I want a year's salary because you've signed me for two years. If anything, you're getting a better deal from me. Or I want to be able to, I'll take a lower amount, but I can... show up somewhere tomorrow and there's no non-compete clause it's just and that's the problem i think
Vince McMahon, this is a long-running thing with WWE, they just cut people whenever. And that feels like it's a Vince McMahon thought process, where he agrees contracts with people all the time. If they break the contract, they're the worst people in the world. But if he breaks the contract, it's just business. It's okay. It was in the best interest of everything. He justifies it to himself.
When Vince went and the TKO thing happened and Paul Levesque took over and you're like, well, this is going to be a much nicer environment for the wrestlers, which it seems to be in so many ways. Not here Because they're still having this thing where anyone can get cut at any time. Shotzi, she's like, well, my contract is expiring in a couple of months. Close to WrestleMania and I'm not being used on TV. I'm probably going to get...
So I will start to think about my next steps, right? And it sounds like she's done that and she's been able to emotionally prepare. but then you stoke this This culture of fear. that anyone can be cut at any time
No matter how well you're doing. Braun Strowman was having big feuds on TV. Had the Bronson feud. Bronson-Reed feud last year. Jacob Fassu. Jacob Fassu. He just won the US title. He beat him in January on Saturday night's main event. Didn't he? Was that his count out or was that good? Oh, I can't remember. But like Braun Strowman, that's a shock to him. And I bet he's like, that's just happened out of nowhere. I know I've got 90 days now, but.
I'd imagine if you're like a Gigi Dolan or a Cora Jade. Cora Jade in particular, that was the one that really surprised me. NXT contracts have 30 days. But Cora Jade was someone I was like, that she is. She is here. She is going to be part of this WWE machine. They have put a lot of stock into her. She is clearly going for bigger and big things up on the main roster.
So she was the one, I would say her and Dakota Kai just because she had so much fan pop like fan swell support behind her but clearly it was not enough to get on tv and she was like being like hey i'm not hurt they're just not putting me on tv so it shouldn't really come as a surprise but like a cora jade i think is a genuine surprise
And she's only 24, so I expect she'll be back in WWE in a few years' time. I think she can go cut her teeth on the independents. Did you see Punk's post about? Because they've got a very tight friendship. And he put up a picture of them being like, hey, just keep your head up. Don't speak to TK. But I think you can have a really, really good time. And I'll see you down the road. But he was very suspicious. Like, don't get anywhere near TK.
which is tony khan which is you know that is that's petty and hopefully just a sarcastic joke he doesn't care about well look this because everything i was just saying about the honoring contracts AEW by and large do, and that is one thing they have stuck to from the start.
They don't tend to cut people. It's very rare. The few examples I can think of are when there has been a reason for it. It's changed a bit in recent times. Particularly over the weekend because NJ Nduka was cut from his contract. Was it cut? Yeah he was cut from his
Oh, it didn't just expire? No, no, he was released. And, you know, Ricky Starks was released from his contract. I would say those are different because they requested their releases. That was a different situation. I think Miro requested his releases. All of those. Phoenix, Starks and Mero, I would say.
those are people who request their release Ryan Nemeth's another one because I think he's stop disproving my point Luke well what I would say is that the idea with AEW was when they launched we're not going to cut contracts we're going to honor all of our contracts and then As the business has grown, probably more exponentially than they expected it to in the first five years, some of their business practices have to change and they have cut talents over the years.
It's just they don't do it as a big spring clean. black friday thing that the way the wwe do it but they do they do release talent from their contracts but by and large they try to honor the contracts as much as possible the dickish thing that they have done I think over the last year was adding time on Ricky Starks asked them, don't take on the extra year option because I don't want to work here anymore and you're not using me on TV. And then they put the year option on you.
Ray Phoenix clearly wanted to go so they added a bunch of time onto his contract without ever having any plans to use and then sent a pen I think some of that is quite dickish and petty because clearly that talent doesn't want to be there. That is what WWE used to do. They did it to Brodie Lee. They did it to FTR. They don't want to be there. I don't think you should just add time on and then not use them on TV. Yeah. You're wasting years at Prime.
Those are very good points, but I don't want it to sound like AEW and WWE are equally bad here. I really strongly believe WWE are significantly bad at that. And the extra thing here, which is the story of... Riley Osborne. Yeah, that's the interesting one, right? Riley Osborne. Well, there's a few things there, which is...
They said there was a report that he didn't want to go to Evolve. It was a bit difficult to work with over that. It's a non-wrestling reason. It's not like because he's not talented. He is. But that's not the bit I wanted to talk about. It's that he was cut while he was recovering from surgery. Yeah, he got the surgery in March. And this comes after February's release of Karl Anderson, who was cut.
while recovering from surgery. And here's the bit, folks, where Vince McMahon weirdly had better morals than the current TKO regime. Because that never happened. Well, it probably did happen, but that was very rare. People would not be cutting. You're like, why is that? I've just seen all these people get cut. Why is this person not cut? Because they're out injured. And cutting someone, if you add time to someone's contract for them being injured, it's hypocritical to then...
cut someone while they're injured. Yeah. And the point I was going to jump on to that you made earlier, which is this idea that we're in a new era, it's TKO, Vince has now gone from the company, Trouble H has taken over Creative. I've said this a few times on the show. uh across the shows that we have done this is a new era of wwe but they are still wwe and a lot of the business practice it's not a completely brand company lot of the business practices that they have done
They still do. They shut down on some of our shows. You know, we're doing live shows and stuff. They were trying to shut them down because they are still WWE because they don't want to... The relationship with TNA... There's still WWE. And beat Joe Hendricks. Exactly. It's a relationship that only really benefits WWE and rarely benefits TNA.
They've acquired AAA. That benefits WWE. It doesn't really benefit AAA in any way. In the long term. In the long term. It gives them a huge amount of money now, but it does not help them in the long run. So yeah, it is a new era, but they are still WWE. So I am unsurprised by the releases and these business practices because of course they're going to do them. That's the way they've always done this. Yeah, I just, with Vince McMahon, you know,
Awful, alleged awful human being. But it's, no, very few people have, are all terrible. And one thing that people always said about Vince is he's got this weirdly kind streak. And one of those moral things he wouldn't shift on was releasing people when they're her. And, Not putting advertising on the ring map. Those were like the two things, the two best things about that.
And the advertisers are bringing back, as we've now seen, isn't actually that. It doesn't matter much. But also, I think what kind of sucks for talent, and I think what kind of puts a bit of this sort of... dark cloud over WWE and the public appearance of WWE from a fan perspective. Stephanie McMahon's promo at WrestleMania 41 was We're just one big happy family. Each one of us, you are all part of my family. I was like, well, what about Cora J?
yeah what about Gigi Dolan is she part of your family do you just I mean Braun Strowman like Shayna Baszler's been that she's a Triple H girl Shayna Baszler's one of the the more surprised I thought she'd be there. Even though she was never pushed beyond a certain level. I think that's what I mean, right? Some of these names are surprising because they...
Braun Strowman surprised me because they brought him back. Shayna Baszler surprised me. But also they weren't on TV. Shayna Baszler hasn't had a big push on the main roster since she came up in 2020. She's just been... And I ate some people.
she's just being she's just jumped from tag team partner to tag team partner remember she was with nia jacks for a long period of time then she was with um ronda rousey then she was with perfect fried chicken like she's just jumped from tag team to tag team poor old zoe stark is now on her own she's lost both of her stable mates and the so the coffee is like you know mark coffee joe coffee wolfgang that scottish contingent from nxt uk who now with nxt
Like, they're a big part of training The Rock for his comeback. And sometimes, like, well, they're going to be employed for a long time if they've got a friend in that higher place. But no, not there either. And that's, like, a lot of people... And Triple H is very smart at this, even though he's clearly got say in this and these decisions have to go through him.
Weirdly, the anger doesn't feel to be directed at him. It's more at these corporate overlords TKO. The line from Sean Ross Sapp was, if Triple H wanted these people to be here, they'd be here. you know and sean michaels is the same way in nxt the witch akara jackson's release is that They probably knew that she was going to be cut because they did an angle on the NXT before she was cut where they split up her tag team with Lash Legends. So they knew that her cut was coming.
So they are not innocent parties in all of this. It's not like Triple H showed up for work on Smackdown and was like, Hey, I was going to book Gigi Donald. Whoa, whoa, whoa. She's not available now. This is massive news to me. The Rock fired her too. God, The Rock's terrible, isn't he? With the NXT cuts, and this has been the report ever since they were doing NXT cuts for the last few years, is that the talent that they cut are the ones who are, we just don't really see a future for.
that we've had them for a couple of years you've got to progress to a certain level and we just don't think you're progressing to that level therefore Sorry. Yeah. Sorry. K thanks. Bye. It's a strategy of placing a lot of small bets for a few bets to come off big. And that means you'll have a lot of bets that don't work out. Yeah. And a lot of this is obviously too... I was talking about this on the WrestleTalk News. You know, the other reason is
You save money because you've just cut a lot of contracts. You're going to save yourself millions of dollars. It's one of the reasons Braun Strowman was apparently cut is because his salary was massively high for the amount they were using him, which ironically is the reason why he was cut the first time. But I'm going to tell you my fun fact that I discovered.
that Braun Strowman was released the same day as Aleister Black the first time around. And Braun Strowman was released the second time around on the day that Aleister Black made his return match. It's like the J.D. Vance thing. Don't meet that guy. You will die. You're saving yourself millions of dollars.
They've brought in a bunch of talent over the last year, probably from AEW as well, like Ricky Saint and Ethan Page, Miro, Alistair Blackpenter, Ray Phoenix. A bunch of these guys have all jumped over from AEW to WWE. So you do have to offset those costs. Mariah May reportedly is going to be coming into WWE so you need to offset the cost of bringing in people
Because if you just keep bringing in people and don't get rid of people, you get the bloated roster. And they've got a bloated roster. And that is amazingly what's happened with both companies. is that AEW had a small roster, WWE released a bunch of people, AEW signed all of them, then had a bloated roster. So they signed a bunch of people, then WWE have signed them all, now have a bloated roster. It'll probably end up being that AEW will have a bloated roster again.
But it is a natural churn of talent. It's always going to be a thing. I just wish they would honour the contracts that they set out. Don't sign people to five-year deals. I think the better way to do it you know if you were to do this as a fair business is to sign everyone to one year date And they always expire on January 1st. It works great for New Japan. New Japan Pro Wrestling have got the model. I think we should all follow that. It's never backfired on them ever in the history of time.
but the idea of you know if you just run the time people to five-year deals then one year and be like It actually isn't gonna work out.
It depends. Sometimes you want to lock down people for three, five years. Someone like a Roman Reigns, a Seth Rollins, a Becky Lynch, absolutely. But some of these these NXT talents do you want to sign them in for long term five year deals sign them in for one year and just sort of see how it goes it gives some of the power to the wrestlers though and I don't think WWE won that dynamic it's a very good point yeah
Should we get into some recommendations? Yeah, I suppose. Do you have any final thoughts on the releases or whatever you got? Got it all out of your system? I think so, yeah. Let's get into recommendations then. And the reason why I know you're keen to get into recommendations
is because when I got back from my week's break and you got back from your break, one of the first things you said to me was, I've got a recommendation for you, but I'm going to save it for when we do the WrestleTalk podcast and we get into the recommendations section. and you're just going to have to wait until we get on camera before I give you my recommendation. So what have you got? Batman. Never heard of him. Yep. Right, so late last year, the DC Universe launched, comics this is,
launched absolute Batman. Absolute Batman. Absolute classic, vintage Batman. That sounded the way Alan Partridge would. That is absolute Batman. Stop making it lame. It's an absolute Batman.
line so you've got absolute superman absolute superman absolute wonder woman absolute green lantern and it's all from this sort of in Marvel you would call it Ultimates so it's not the traditional universe it's a new universe with these same characters with slight tweaks and it's set up in quite a very cool way sort of this new universe this absolute universe is created from bits of dark side and that means everyone has a little bit missing from
Superman was raised on Krypton until he was about 15 years old. And then Wonder Woman was brought up in hell, not in Themyscira. I think that's how you say it. And Batman grew up poor. What a twist! That takes away his superpower. As being rich. As always the meme that people have of Batman, his superpower is. He's got money. And I'm not kidding. Scott Snyder wrote it. It is the thickest Batman design. Shall I show you a picture? Okay, when you say thickest,
Is this like... He's a chunky man. What was your man that did Deadpool and he drew that version of Captain America where it's chess is massive. What is that artist's name? Everyone makes before we just have to wait till the comments come in captain oh come on Captain America massive chests Yeah, but Rob Liefeld. Yeah, that's it. Rob Liefeld got there in the end. What? How's that just appeared on my...
Because we're logged in on the same thing. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay, let me, don't Google anything else because that's definitely what I've got. Look how chunky this chunky ba- Wow, that is a chunky Batman. I like the Bat logo as well. It's very Frank Miller. The chunky logo, there's more than meets the eye. It's a weapon. It's a very cool weapon. Yeah, I cannot recommend that enough. The first seven issues are out now.
on shops and stuff. But yeah, it's brilliant. Absolutely. Scott Snyder wrote it. You read yours online, right? So what do you use? I use DC Universe, which is sort of the Marvel Unlimited app. Okay. What's your recommendation? We did the test episode for this and I'm reading the same book that I was still reading because I haven't finished it because I have a toddler and it takes me a little while to finish.
But, you know, I will recommend the Genius Game on ITV. If you use Surfshark VPN, if you're outside of the UK, you can get hold of ITVX. because Ken from No Rolls Barred on that show he's a genius he's a genius and a comedian it's a very fun the first episode when everyone's talking about like why they're genius
and he was like, I'm a botanist, I'm a biologist, I'm all this sort of stuff. And he was like, Ken, what about you? And he goes, I'm a stand-up comedian. It's very, very good. Ken's very, very good in the show. And it's also quite hilariously... hosted by David Tennant? I've seen a bit of this, as in he sent in a few DVDs. Yeah, so David Tennant is only ever on the screen talking to the contestants.
And my wife and I, the fun game we have is, we're actually doing a little bit of ADR hunting, is with all of this recorded before, or most likely afterwards, and the people there had never, never saw David Tennant on screen.
And the direction was, just look up to the screen. And then some other lad walks into the room and is like, okay, so here's how the game works. Well, the whole series was shot with Colin Firth hosting. LAUGHTER And it's just David's gonna be like, and I'm afraid that Henry has got to be put in jail. It's like playing old Smackdown games like The Undertaker!
With a great move. So yeah, the genius game of the new series of Taskmaster, which has got Jason Manzoukas on it and Rosie Ramsey. And my wife is... furious at me because for the next it's every thursday uh for the next three thursdays i am out Because you watch that Friday. You and I are out tonight. Next week it's Hustle. So you and I are out again. And then it's my board game night. So I'm going to be out for the next three Thursdays. And my wife is... Well, your Thursdays, and now this show.
So please subscribe if you listen on podcasts. Subscribe to wherever you get your podcasts. tuesdays thursdays and this week sunday because luke and i are here to review backlash so make sure you subscribe for that if you've made it this far in the episode What's a nice little thing for people to put in the comments? What's a fun word? Chunky Batman? bat chunks yeah trying to get bat chunks into your comments or yeah or a variation on chunky batman but it has to be that exact word
a variation of that within your comments and let them know you got this far. Yeah, and we'll try and read some out next week. But for now, I've been Oli Davis. This has been Luke Kane, DAD. Go over to patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk right now because you can get that whole bonus episode of this on The Rock's career trajectory and film slash wrestling. But for now, jam the jam.