Charly Caruso Leaving WWE? | WrestleTalk News

Charly Caruso Leaving WWE? | WrestleTalk News

Ow, that explosion really hurt. I don’t know if I’ll be able to compete for the Jampionship at our Fastlane live reactions this Sunday now. I might have to put the most prestigious title in all of Jameterainment to one side right now though while I find the coward who tried to blow me up.

CARUSO ALERT! 

Over the last several weeks, you might’ve noticed that sound has been missing from my Monday Night Raw reviews – because backstage interviewer No. 1 Mean Charly Caruso hasn’t been seen on TV since declaring she loves DP on Raw Talk. Which stands for Damien Priest. Not anything else I can think of. Where she’s been replaced by new interviewer Kevin Patrick. 

While it’s not uncommon for talent to suddenly disappear from TV at the moment because of, you know, reasons, her absence hasn’t really been that talked about. After all, she is WWE’s most senior backstage correspondent. But according to a new report from Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, there’s far more to her not being around.

Apparently Caruso “gained heat backstage after consistently being late to conduct interviews meant for Raw,” specifically “with Randy Orton and Sheamus that led to WWE taking her off television for the time being after word got back to higher ups.”

The higher ups in question went as high as Vince McMahon himself, who, upon receiving word of Caruso’s frequent lateness, “took exception to the situation”. This could be spelling the end for Caruso in WWE, as “the belief among the talent roster (though unconfirmed by Fightful) is that her WWE contract expires soon, but there’s no word on her future with the company.”

If she does leave, she’d follow in the footsteps of the previous senior backstage interviewers Dasha Fuentes, who now works for AEW, and Renee Young.

One source within WWE pointed to the recent Kevin Patrick hiring and his position as Raw Talk host “as a direct replacement to her”.

One of Caruso’s other main roles within WWE was hosting Kickoff panels before PPV events, so we’ll have to see if she’s present during this Sunday’s Fastlane Kickoff, or makes the trip to the Raymond James Stadium for WrestleMania.

What would you want to see Charly Caruso do next? Let me know in the comments down below because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA CARUSO ALERT.

Speaking of things potentially pulled from Fastlane… please make this one be true segue…

Match Pulled From Fastlane?

Braun Strowman vs Shane McMahon, which was officially announced for this Sunday’s pay-per-view on Monday’s go-home Raw, has been pulled from wwe.com. There’s no word on whether the match will still go ahead, but the expectation is that they’ll still fight at WrestleMania. Likely with green slime in a Get Your Own Back match.

Which you can buy tickets for… eventually, I think.

WrestleMania Attendance Update

Despite also announcing tickets would go on sale this week, with reported plans to host 45,000 people – making it the biggest attendended event since the pandemic began – the Tampa Bay Times is now reporting this has been scaled back to 25,000, or around 36% of the Raymond James stadium’s capacity – which Stephanie McMahon herself later confirmed on Sportico’s “Return To The Stands”.

NXT Roundup

Last night’s episode of NXT was also hit by last minute changes because of the reported Covid outbreak at the Performance Center. They still managed to confirm Finn Balor will defend his NXT Title against Karrion Kross at the two night Stand and Deliver, while Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar will defend his title against Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin in a title unification match. Elsewhere, NXT UK Champion WALTER made his return to NXT, destroying Tomasso Ciampa – hopefully also setting up a TakeOver match.

But it is Thursday, you know what that means – my review of last night’s episode of AEW Dynamite’s St Patrick’s Day Slam special in about 5 minutes!

AEW Dynamite Review

Following neither guy winning the giant Face of the Revolution cheerio, Pentagon started their match right away, doing a senton dive up the stage while Cody was making his entrance.

Dude, you can insult the man’s unborn daughter. But not his entrance!

This was an excellent back and forth match based around Cody’s whitemeat babyface appeal and, far more importantly, Penta debuting his St Patricks Day action figure variant.

Penta kicked out of big move after big move, and then did the arm break spot on Cody’s injured shoulder. That should’ve sealed his win for me, but instead Rhodes immediately rolled Penta up to get the win when he probably should’ve taken the loss. The arm injury was more than enough to protect him in defeat, and it really devalues the arm break spo-

Oh my God Penta’s got a different new hat. What was I saying?

The Nightmare Family chased off Penta from his post-match beatdown, which QT Marshall was really late for – neatly furthering his heel turn.

After looking really good in her debut match tagging with Shaq, Jade Cargill squashed Dani Jordyn in barely a minute, then stared down Red Velvet at ringside.

Looking great all wearing suits, we then got MJF and Tully Blanchard cut a masterful explanation promo of their evil, almost year long plan to not takeover the Inner Circle, but destroy them while building a far stronger faction, which they’re now calling The Pinnacle.

MJF was incredible here, saying I guess I’m the Judas here, bodyshaming Jericho’s hairline and separated pectorals, and putting over each one of the group. Wardlow’s the best big guy in wrestling. FTR are the only grand slam team in history. Shawn Spears is a wrestler’s wrestler – he even made me care about Spears! – and MJF is only 24. Isn’t that incredible? The guy is only 24, yet fully formed as one of the best talkers and characters in the business. Every shred of goofy, Dinner Debonaire comedy was gone here. It was all a rouse, a trick, a joke to sucker you in. This was utterly serious and, far more importantly with wrestling, credible. They took over the Inner Circle’s locker room later on.

Hardy’s Heroes of him, Private Party and the Butcher and the Blade took on Bear Country and Jurassic Express next in an all over the place ten man tag, but in a fun way. The babyface factions started to infight, meaning Hardy could glory hog a win over Marko Stunt, despite Private Party doing all the work.

A Hall of Fame worthy talent then actually got to cut a promo without being interrupted for a change! Christian told Dasha backstage why he’s in AEW. It’s to cement his legacy, to prove that he’s not just a workhorse, he’s the workhorse. So he’s going to prove himself all over again, get the wins, and, one day, go for Kenny Omega’s AEW title. It’s quite obvious AEW aren’t going to push Christian right to the top Goldberg style as some feared, and I think this is a great use of him.

And we’ll have to see how he factors into the multi-layered storytelling tapestry that is all things Super Elite…

After another great Moxley and Kingston promo where Jon was annoyed for wasting money on TalkNShop-Amania, and debating whether it was legal to say Bullet Club, they both took on the Good Brothers in a highly anticipated tag match.

Gallows and Anderson beat up Jon Moxley before the bell, wiping him out with a MagiKiller, letting them work over Kingston for the majority. But despite that, and Moxley being heavily taped up from the Deathmatch, he still eeked out a win rolling up Karl Anderson. I get you want to protect Moxley, but I think holding off on that victory revenge is more important right now – and you could’ve built a lot more heat by restaining Jon while beating up Kingston and eventually pinning him.

Oh but wait Penta’s got a hat on, ah, it’s all good.

Kenny Omega came down for a Super Elite beatdown where they pilmanised Eddie’s ankle and where about to do the same to Mox, when the Young Bucks stopped them! They refused to Too Sweet the boss, and walked off in the biggest Elite split so far.

Darby Allin and Sting did a promo where, of course, they were interrupted. First by Lance Archer, who wants more time, then by Brian Cage, who defied Team Taz by calling Sting an Icon. Darby did get to neatly set up more TNT title defences, as he’s only done three since winning it, and wants to start by paying tribute to the greatest TNT champ of all time… Brodie Lee. He’ll face John Silver next week.

Scorpio Sky is a heel now.

Fenix beat Angelico in a really cool clash of lucha libre styles, 

Miro warned Kip Sabian never to have your wife at ringside, continuing their dissension

And the main event was one of the best matches in Dynamite history.

Which is great as it was historical significant too. This was the first women’s TV main event in AEW. It’s been a long time coming, but hopefully Thunder Rosa vs Britt Baker’s unsanctioned match really does mark a watershed in this promotion’s booking of their women’s division.

It was levels of brutal you never see in North American women’s matches, with both Rosa and Baker bleeding absolute gushers all over the canvas, and multiple insane spots like a superplex onto a chair pile, a Death Valley Driver onto a ladder, a powerbomb onto thumbtacks and a driver off the apron through a table to eventually win. Take that all the dentists that yanked my teeth out as a 14 year old. Sometimes you get out what you put into a match.

This really was equality, letting the women go out there and be just as violent and featured as the men, all while fleshing out the rest of the division, showing Shida and Cargill watching on. 

What did you think of AEW Dynamite? Let me know in the comments down below, and vote in our Poll on a Pole match on the community tab, where 74% voted for Thank you Thunder Rosa for getting revenge for my teenage braces.

While that main event was five out of five, the rest of the show was rather average for AEW, with the Cody and Moxley finishes being a rare slight misstep for the overall booking – levelling out this week’s Dynamite to four out of five.

What are your thoughts on the above story? Let us know in the comments on Twitter or Facebook.

3 years ago by Oli Davis

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