WWE Buying AEW Partner?! WWE Star Wants AEW Move! | WrestleTalk News Aug. 2019

MATT RIDDLE COMMENTATING ON GOLDBERG MATCH

 

And Matt Riddle might actually get the chance to see it live and in person. Sort of. Riddle has been gunning for Goldberg since Super Showdown in Saudi Arabia, where he tweeted several videos after the show calling Goldberg the worst wrestler in history and even asked to be added to the Summerslam match before it was officially announced this past Monday.

 

And while Riddle won’t be added to the match, he has been announced to be part of WWE’s Watch Along, which is a show where you can watch people watch a wrestling show. Sounds like a totally dumb idea to me.

 

Riddle will be joined by other NXT stars Shayna Baszler, Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole to commentate on the match, which means we might get some more Goldberg digs from The King of Bros.

 

 

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Which Wednesday night will you be watching this coming October? AEW or NXT? We’ve got a packed show of news for you today, including more on that WWE vs. AEW war, more changes coming to the Summerslam card, and the real reason Dolph Ziggler was chosen to face Goldberg this Sunday. Click the timestamps down below to jump to any of those stories.

And make sure you join us this weekend for all the Summerslam fun! Oli Davis and I will be livestreaming our reactions to both NXT TakeOver: Toronto on Saturday and WWE’s Summerslam on Sunday, as well as doing our usual reviews, podcasts and WrestleRambles. So enable notifications so you know exactly when we’ll be going live, and come watch us, watch wrestling. It’s more fun that it sounds, I swear.

Something I swore at last night was the utter bastard MJF. Look, me and MJF have had our differences. He once said this to me on a podcast – and do you know what, that was all fine. But now, now he’s getting personal.

Because this utter bellend posted on Twitter: “All versions of Power Rangers suck. You’re an idiot for liking it.

How very bloody dare you, sir. How dare you insult a show that I loved when I was a child even though it was a thinly veiled toy commercial with not very good acting, a series of mediocre video games, a not-very-good-movie and a bunch of spin-offs that I literally didn’t care about. How dare you insult all of that! What’s next? You gonna shoot on Transformers too? I dare you. I double dare you mother fu–. So, there you have it, MJF is now this industry’s biggest heel.

From the classless to the classy now, as Ring of Honor announced yesterday that they have signed The Prestigious One, Joe Hendry. The former Impact star and sometime collaborator with WrestleTalk – whatever happened to Grado being the general manager? – will debut with the company soon but there’s no official date as of right now. What they did release, however, was this amazing trailer video.

And if you want to see more of Joe on WrestleTalk, then head on over to our ScreenStalker movie and video game channel, where this week we had Joe Hendry on to talk about what WWE2K20 can learn from his favourite wrestling games Smackdown 2: Know Your Role, and WWF No Mercy for the N64. Which, as well know, is the single greatest wrestling game ever made… apart from WrestleMania 2000, of course. Or Royal Rumble for the Mega Drive.

This weekend not only sees NXT TakeOver: Toronto with awesome matches announced like Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano, Io Shirai vs. Candice LaRea and Undisputed Era vs. Street Profits, it will also see WWE have their biggest party of the summer, Summerfest. I mean Slam, Summerslam.

The card sees Brock Lesnar defend his Universal Championship against Seth Rollins and his massive bank account, Becky Lynch defend her Raw Women’s Championship against Natalya, Bayley defend her Smackdown Women’s Championship against Ember Moon, the in-ring debut of The Fiend, Trish Stratus return to in-ring competition to face Charlotte Flair, and Dolph Ziggler taking on the returning Goldberg.

Despite advertising that Miz would take on Dolph Ziggler at Summerslam, this was indeed a red herring as reported by Dave Meltzer last week – with Goldberg returning to Raw to sign the contract and tell Dolph that he’s next.

Dave Meltzer also reported last week that we might see more of Goldberg moving forward, with Paul Heyman wanting to emulate Bruno Sammartino at the end of his wrestling career, where he would come back for one or two shows a year for a big grudge match. And while him facing Ziggler doesn’t feel much like a grudge match, Tom Colohue of Pro Wrestling Torch and Sportskeeda is reporting that there is a reason Dolph was chosen over everyone else on the roster.

According to Colohue, Ziggler was chosen, “For his experience. Everyone looks good wrestling with Dolph. WWE loves Dolph. There’s nothing he can’t do.” Adding: “You remember the Jackhammer [at Super Showdown against The Undertaker]? I do. We all do. Dolph’s safe and he doesn’t weigh too much, really.”

One of the other planned matches for Summerslam was Aleister Black vs. Sami Zayn, but that instead took place on this week’s Smackdown instead. Interestingly it’s being reported that Black vs. Zayn wasn’t taken on the show due to timing reasons, but because of Vince McMahon tearing up the Smackdown script twice before just hours before this week’s show went live. The report from Dave Meltzer is that once Vince had taken out all of the things he hated from the show, there was an hour of time left to fill – and so the decision was made to put Black vs. Zayn on Smackdown rather than Summerslam, and would explain why the main event of New Day vs. The Planeteers went through two commercial breaks.

One of the other rumoured matches for Summerslam was Daniel Bryan vs. Roman Reigns, but that has since been scrapped as Vince McMahon reportedly felt the storyline needed more time to develop and he didn’t want to rush into the match. WrestleVotes are reporting that it could be Roman vs. Buddy Murphy, but they are also unsure if that match will go ahead. Dave Meltzer has added that there could be an angle that takes place on the show between Reigns, Bryan and Rowan – but it’s unconfirmed at this point.

And the same can be said Drew McIntyre vs. Cedric Alexander – which has been building for several weeks now. According to Meltzer, Drew vs. Cedric is currently on the running order for the show as of Thursday, but it could be removed come the day of the show.

Something that isn’t going anywhere or being removed and changed, is the WrestleLeague Season Two Punishment Music Video. It’s a tight race to the bottom of the table between myself Pete, and Laurie – where you could hear us sing [use rushes from yesterday]. Vote in the poll above my head and we’ll collate all the numbers together to announce a winner in our Summerslam review on Monday. 

And don’t forget that Summerslam isn’t just the end of WrestleLeague Season Two, it’s also the start of Season Three which will then run until Survivor Series in November. Like WrestleMania 25, this Sunday will be where WrestleLeague begins… again.

Someone who isn’t on the Summerslam card this year is Rey Mysterio, who in the last couple of weeks has lost twice to Andrade in what is being reported as the start of a push for the former “Cien” Almas. However, I’ve heard that story before so I’ll believe it when I see it.

It’s now being reported that Rey is transitioning into an enhancement talent – essentially there to put over the younger guys and try and help turn them into stars. Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that, “The mentality is that Rey is 44 years old so because he’s 44 years old, his basic thing is to get new guys over”.

However Meltz notes that might not be the same mentality for Mysterio himself, and speculates that he could just run out his contract which ends next October, saying that he would jump to AEW “in a heartbeat”. Mysterio wrestled for the prototype of All Elite Wrestling last year at All In – teaming with Bandido and Rey Fenix against The Golden Elite of Kota Ibushi and The Young Bucks, and Meltzer adds that those in charge of AEW “love” Rey Mysterio and “wouldn’t abuse him” like WWE currently are.

And it’s just another element to the on-going WWE vs. AEW war, which is only going to get hotter when All Elite Wrestling debuts on TNT on October 2nd. Along with reports that WWE are set to have NXT going head-to-head with AEW when they move to Fox, it’s also being reported that WWE are in talks to buy wrestling streaming platform FITE TV. 

Fite TV currently plays host to several wrestling companies such as Ring of Honor, MLW, Impact Wrestling and – crucially – All Elite Wrestling. Dave Meltzer is reporting in the Observer that WWE are so far in the discussion phase with FITE, that meetings between the two parties are set for next week. Should WWE buy FITE, this would remove one of AEW’s big streaming partners – but as Meltzer notes, All Elite Wrestling also have B/R Live, and there’s always a chance they could air their shows on one of Turner’s streaming services. But it’s yet another example of WWE doing everything they can to squash AEW before they even get going on TNT.

And come October, we could end up seeing the long-rumoured Wednesday Night War – as it’s now being reported that FS1 are set to air NXT on Wednesday nights. But it won’t be the current one-hour taped format – and will instead air from 8 to 10pm – directly competing against All Elite Wrestling’s new weekly show on TNT.

As of now nothing is official, but the reported internal feeling is that a taped show won’t work against AEW’s live two-hour format, so it will have to become a live show itself but there has been no decision made on whether the show would stay at Full Sail University or become a touring brand like Raw and Smackdown. If the show does move to FS1, that would likely take it off the WWE Network, but will feature more main roster stars appearing on the show in an effort to boost the ratings. While TNT is available in more homes than FS1, the feeling is that WWE is the more recognisable brand to wrestling fans. And as been previously noted, WWE don’t need to beat AEW in the ratings, they just need to make a dent in them.

This has been a long-standing rumour, and Meltzer notes in the Observer that WWE were waiting to see a date and timeslot for AEW on TNT before making any final decisions.

On a conference call to promote this Saturday’s NXT TakeOver: Toronto, Triple H addressed the possibility of NXT being on FS1 and said, “We have content all over the place, and if people want to talk about counter-programming and bring that up in the conversation – like, Wednesday has been the home of NXT forever. Right? That’s where it’s sat; it’s been on our network on a Wednesday’s time slot now forever. And when other people announce [their show] on Wednesday, you don’t hear talk about counter-programming. You just hear, ‘the announcement’. For us, everything is ‘counter-programming’… We plan things long in advance.”

Want to see me suck at a 30-year old CastleVania game? Well, click the video that’s just appeared on screen to head on over to ScreenStalker – here’s a clip.

5 years ago by Andy Datson

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