00:00More allegations in the Rey Fenix AEW story, a mess between AEW and another wrestling promotion,
00:07New Day Heat, New Day Heat and more.
00:12I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:19After months of Penta reportedly telling people backstage in AEW that he was going to WWE
00:24as soon as his contract expired, he is now officially a free agent.
00:31And everything's gone to crap.
00:32Penta's AEW contract was supposed to expire at the same time as his real-life Lucha Bro
00:37tag team partner Rey Fenix.
00:40But because Fenix had missed time due to injury, AEW have added on a reported 6-9 months to
00:47his deal, meaning the brothers couldn't leave for WWE as a tag team at the same time.
00:53Something that Fenix is not happy about.
00:56Seemingly waiting for his brother's contract to expire, Rey teased on X over the weekend
01:01that he'll speak his own truth and implied that he received inhumane treatment in AEW.
01:08But because of contractual issues, Fenix said he couldn't speak on his situation right
01:14now.
01:15Well, that lasted about 19 hours, because he then posted, I needed a doctor and you
01:19ignored me for months.
01:22This appears to be the inhumane treatment Fenix alluded to.
01:25Fenix's publicly known injuries are a gruesome elbow dislocation on the January 5th, 2022
01:30episode of AEW Dynamite, which took him out for about four months, and an undisclosed
01:35injury he took time off to recover from in October 2023.
01:39After dropping the International Championship, he had accidentally won from Jon Moxley, remember
01:44that, to Orange Cassidy.
01:45He returned in April this year, where he would then frequently wrestle on Dynamite, Collision
01:50and Rampage, but Tony Khan stopped booking him at the end of July, when rumours of them
01:55leaving for WWE started to come out.
01:58Fenix's comment isn't the only allegation that's been made about how AEW treats its
02:03wrestlers.
02:04In his April interview with Ariel Hawane, CM Punk alleged that no one from AEW talked
02:09to him for six months following All Out 2022, where he both tore his triceps in the main
02:14event and had a backstage fight with the Elite.
02:17This meant he had to research, book and pay for his own tricep surgery.
02:22Whereas if you're in WWE, WWE handle that for you.
02:26When Khan was asked about Punk's claim, he didn't have the best answer, saying,
02:30"...typically we do cover those medical expenses, so I would have to look into that,
02:34but no, I'm not sure about that, I can't say for sure."
02:38LuchaBlog, who is well connected in Mexican wrestling circles, has speculated that Fenix
02:43is teasing his backstage issues publicly as a way to get out of his AEW contract early,
02:49so he and his brother can debut together in WWE.
02:52But never mind heat with an individual wrestler, how about AEW having heat with an entire wrestling
02:59promotion?
03:00AEW and the independent wrestling company GCW have enjoyed a working relationship for
03:05several years now, sharing talent like GCW's deathmatch wrestler Nick Gage trying to slice
03:09open Chris Jericho with a pizza cutter on Dynamite TV, and big stars like Moxley and
03:14Swerve Strickland wrestling at GCW shows.
03:17But the relationship soured last month, when a GCW wrestler called Effie criticised AEW
03:23for running the Hammerstein Ballroom so close to some GCW shows there, and said that Tony
03:29Khan's dad pays him to stay away from him.
03:32AEW then decided to pull Ricky Starks from his advertised GCW appearances.
03:37Fightful Select have now reported that AEW talent Willie Mack has cancelled his GCW dates
03:42this weekend, and that Sean Ross Sapp's GCW sources believe it's again because of
03:47what Effie said about Tony Khan's father.
03:50But Sean's AEW sources claim that isn't the reason.
03:54The situation has become so opaque that Fightful have now deleted their original story, explaining
03:59Just deleting the Willie Mack post until all parties involved can find out who is keeping
04:04who from what.
04:05A very confusing situation for everyone.
04:07Especially me.
04:08I didn't even know Willie Mack was signed by AEW.
04:11But AEW and GCW, AEW and Rey Fenix, that heat is nothing compared to the scorching inferno
04:18that I have with Luke Owen.
04:21Because Moustache Night War, the brand new Patreon exclusive series of Monday Night War
04:26between me and Luke, has now begun.
04:29You can watch the draft episode for free on partsFUNknown right now, and episode 1 right
04:34after on Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk.
04:37Then we'll have weekly episodes up there for the next three months.
04:40Here's a clip.
04:41So I've noticed that, um, most people listen to, like, oh, I've got a really good Pokemon
04:51themed cover by Kenny Omega's band, or you say most people, or like, oh, I listened to
04:58Mariah Carey when I was a kid, or, oh, I'm Luke and I like scene queen, you know, any,
05:04anyone.
05:05But no one listens to toxic masculinity motivational speeches.
05:17What do you mean?
05:18Well, because I'm going to win.
05:22You see here, this is my Spotify playlist called Motivation, which I made for this.
05:29And so, do you want to read out these track names?
05:34Discipline yourself, get up and get it done, no limits, mental toughness, outwork everyone
05:40else.
05:41And who's, because that's you, I'm going to outwork you.
05:46Now it's time for my review of Monday Night Raw… in about five minutes.
05:52Gunther kicked off the main show, about to cut an in-ring promo on his World Heavyweight
05:55title opponent Finn Balor for this Saturday's Saturday Night's Main Event, when Balor
06:00and his little rascals interrupted.
06:02Gunther had a nice line about how Finn was the best in the world eight years ago when
06:06he won the inaugural Universal title, but he was just the best for one night.
06:10Gunther is the best in the world all the time right now.
06:14Unfortunately, I'm not vibing with Gunther's more babyface character.
06:18Especially when it gets sucked even deeper into the Judgment Day's mid-court vortex.
06:23Damian Priest attacked the Judgment Day from behind, Gunther attacked Priest, and then
06:27the numbers game won out, with Finn hitting Trois Coups de Grace on Damian to pose with
06:31both his tag team title and Gunther's world title.
06:34Adam Pearce announced that it will now be a three-way at this Saturday's Saturday
06:38Night's Main Event, thankfully meaning Priest will be in there from the start, rather than
06:42us all just waiting for when he inevitably interferes.
06:44Pearce also said that Balor and JD will have to defend their tag titles again next Monday
06:48against the War Raiders, with the rest of Judgment Day banned from ringside.
06:52Despite a neatly built story over the last month, Karrion Kross and The Wyatt Six unfortunately
06:57have a Venn Diagram crossover in the Cool Axe that don't always translate to great
07:02in-ring matches.
07:03A 4-on-4 match quickly broke down, Scarlett Bordeaux tripped Uncle Howdy, which led to
07:08Nikki Kross spookily appearing behind her.
07:10But then extra interference from a returning Paul Ellering, who chucked a fistful of powder,
07:15let the Final Testament get the win, with Uncle Howdy taking the pin.
07:19This is the Wyatt Six's first loss, that had to happen at some point, but by doing
07:23it here in this standard TV way takes away a lot of the Axe magic.
07:28Liv Morgan then won a tune-up match against Dakota Kai ahead of her EO Sky title match
07:32on Saturday's Saturday Night's Main Event, finding an interference finish that is somehow
07:36worse than the Judgment Day.
07:38Pure Fusion Collective.
07:40Sonya Deville distracted Kai on the apron, letting Liv get another weak win.
07:44What a title reign.
07:45Perfect Fried Chicken then beat up Kai afterwards, leading to damage control to make the save,
07:50and Liv to stand tall by laying out EO from behind.
07:53The interconnected drama of CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Sami Zayn, Drew McIntyre and Jey
07:57Uso had another effectively built chapter this week.
08:00First we had a pre-recorded sit-down interview between Jackie Redman and Punk, where he refused
08:04to talk about the favour he has from Paul Heyman, expertly keeping that plot point alive.
08:09Instead talking about how he's confused about this heat from Seth.
08:13If anything, he helped Seth.
08:15He trained him.
08:16He shielded him on the main roster.
08:19Apparently Seth did a good job filling in for him, but now Punk's returned.
08:23The second string needs to sit back down.
08:26This brought out Seth for a live in-ring promo, dressed like someone I used to know from school
08:30but would actively unfriend on Facebook because of what they look like now, and what they
08:34look like now is a twat, where he explained his side of the story.
08:39Everything Punk said is true.
08:41Punk helped him get into WWE.
08:43But when Punk left, Seth reached out to him and got ghosted.
08:47Because if you didn't quit your dream job for Team Punk, you're evil.
08:51Which sounds like a bit of a shoot being worked into the storyline.
08:53Much love, brother.
08:54HHKiss.
08:55Seth continued saying the only reason Punk is here is because he burned all his other
08:59bridges and the money was right.
09:02Both guys are doing great work building this feud, I just hope they don't stretch it
09:05out for five months until WrestleMania.
09:08This was interrupted by Sami Zayn, where they patched things up from last week, and Sami
09:11announced that he'll fight Drew McIntyre at Saturday's Saturday Night's main event.
09:16Drew had cut a pre-filmed promo earlier, confirming it was him who took out Jey backstage
09:20last week, and he blindsided Sami again in this segment.
09:23It's great to have Drew back.
09:24Zelina Vega only got half an entrance, and Ivy Nair was already in the ring.
09:28Gee, I wonder who's going to win this match.
09:31Lyra Valkyria, of course, who got a full entrance.
09:33She won the very choreographed match that was about 85% near falls to advance to the
09:37Women's Intercontinental title tournament semifinals.
09:40The segment of the show, though, for the last three weeks in a row, goes to the New
09:45Day.
09:46Earlier in the episode, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were shown arriving backstage,
09:50where production guys walked away from them, and Alpha Academy refused to shake their hands.
09:55WWE's moral conscience himself Cody Rhodes even told them to be ashamed of themselves
10:00when they ran into each other backstage.
10:02Interestingly, with Rhodes walking out of Adam Pearce's office, hinting Cody could
10:06be going to Raw in the Superstar Shake-Up.
10:08Like Luke and I predicted in our fantasy draft, go watch that.
10:12Cathy Kelly started to interview the New Day backstage, but they didn't like the biased
10:16way they were asked about Big E. So Woods grabbed a camera for himself as they want
10:20to show their own truth and march down to the ring.
10:23But they weren't able to talk there either, as the crowd gave them incredible heat, chanting
10:28We want Big E, New Day sucks.
10:31You could barely hear Kofi, and Woods had to stop speaking whenever he tried to talk.
10:36The only thing they got to say was that they gave us 10 years of positivity, and the crowd
10:40turned on them after just one day.
10:44They ultimately threw their mics down and left.
10:46I'm so happy for them.
10:47Sometimes audiences cheer wrestlers who've just turned heel.
10:50But this was genuine hate for their characters over what they did to Big E last week.
10:55It's so weird seeing Kofi as a heel, but it works.
10:59And the main event saw Rhea Ripley vs Raquel Rodriguez in an Anything Goes match, complete
11:03with crowd brawling, chairs and a riptide through a table for Rhea to win.
11:07Liv interfered and hit her finisher on Ripley at one point.
11:10It wasn't very effective, but Io took Morgan out.
11:13Ripley was super over, and the closing image of Rhea and Io holding the women's title
11:17between them gave me hope that we're moving on from Liv's tired title reign soon.
11:21This Raw is 70%.
11:24Now go watch the Draft Day episode of Moustache Night War right now over on partsFUNnow.
11:28Here's a clip.
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