The Wrestling Brethren Podcast

NEWS (9/2/24–9/3/24)

· WWE Raw (9/30) Records Lowest Viewership In Show History With The Exception Of 2022 And 2023's 'Best Of' Shows

· More details on the AEW/WBD Deal

· Bad Blood Match order apparently confirmed via multiple sources. I have set our predictions to follow that order, and all will be revealed shortly.

· MVP, Shelton Benjamin, and Bobby Lashley are all ALL ELITE. MVP debuted last week, Shelton this week… and Bobby will follow suit shortly.

· Elimination Chamber 2025 to take place in the United Kingdom! The current cities leading to host the event are Manchester and Birmingham. (via WrestleVotes)

· This week, while taping content for ROH, Sammy Guevara had to be taken out on a stretcher due to injury. He was wearing a neck brace while on the stretcher.

WWE Bad Blood Predictions

PLE on October 5, 2024

NEWS (9/30-10/2)

· Cody Rhodes says in a recent interview that he is still working on getting the Winged Eagle belt restored; even if for a fleeting moment.

· Fightful Select reports that AEW is expecting Adam Cole to return sooner rather than later, and that plans are already in place for that to happen on TV.

· Killswitch/Luchasaurus hospitalized

· Ilja Dragunov suffered a torn ACL over the past weekend at a Live Event. He will miss 6-9 months; putting him at March-June 2025.

· Tony Khan was asked if he's seen the Vince McMahon documentary "Mr. McMahon." "No, I've been so busy with football and wrestling that I have not seen that documentary, I've not gotten to watch that. Mostly focused here on what we're doing in AEW. [editorial: bs] I do love watching wrestling all over the world." (Quinn & Cantara)

· Updating a previous news story we ran… NXT/WWE is not confirming a shift in content; as it relates to the first two weeks of NXT on CW being listed as TV-14.

· A new logo made its debut with Tuesday’s show in Chicago. · Update on streaming replays of WWE TV

· AEW / WBD TV Deal Announcement

WWE Smackdown (9/27/24) - Oklahoma City, OK

Top Moments:

- Michin getting the win over Piper Niven; will be interesting to see how the dumpster match plays out this Friday.

- The Andrade / Carmelo Hayes feud/series

- Bayley wins the right to face Nia Jax at Bad Blood

- Never has a tag team felt more useless than The Street Profits

- The continued tease of Kevin Owens turning - and now we finally have Randy involved – this is going to be very intricate, and again … justified.

WWE RAW (9/30/24) - Evansville, IN

Go Home Show for Bad Blood - Highlights

- Last Monster Standing Match

- Final Words from Punk and Drew

- Miz Turns Heel

- Bron Breakker apparently turns babyface

- Continued layers of the New Day Collapse

NEWS (9/28-29/24)

• Nikkita Lyons made her return to NXT on the road … hopefully she can stay healthy and return to TV soon; possibly as early as one of the first two CW shows.

• Fightful Select has learned that USA were 'seconds away' from cutting off this week's NXT overrun.

• After the last NXT on USA, the PC set was torn down. They will be working on a new set during the two weeks the show is on the road in Chicago and St. Louis.

• NXT is listed for the next two episodes as TV-14 on the CW

• Shawn Michaels spoke with Sports Illustrated’s The Takedown recently about the NXT Roster

• Powerhouse Hobbs has been medically cleared and is waiting on new Creative.

AEW Analysis

Heading towards WrestleDream on Sat. Oct 12th

Dynamite Grand Slam highlights:

* Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuiness … in 2024. Lived up to the hype.

* Roderick Strong challenged HOOK for the FTW Title. Hook wins, then retires the FTW Title and returns it to his father, Taz. They shared a nice moment. In a weird moment prior to that, Roderick Strong shook the hand of Hook and pulled him in for a hug. Weird show of respect from the heel.

* Young Bucks successfully defended the AEW Tag Team Titles against Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher. Someone at Busted Open (either J-Hood or Matt Camp) said it was the best YB match in 4 years.

* Prince Nana gave an update on Swerve Strickland, saying mentally he is one of the most dangerous men in AEW. But physically he is not cleared to compete just yet. Interrupted by the debuting Montel Vontavious Porter… MVP. He offers Nana his business card … when Swerve is ready to ascend to the mountain top where he belongs… please give him my business card… and let him know I’ll be ready to talk… BUSINESS.

* “The Glamour” Mariah May def. Yuka Sakazaki in a pretty good match. After the match, Mariah goes to attack Yuka, but Willow Nightingale makes the save; only to be interrupted by the returning Mina Shirakawa.

* Jon Moxley d. Darby Allin to win Darby’s Title Shot at WrestleDream. Post-match Bryan Danielson sneaks up behind Mox and chokes him with a necktie… while Justin Roberts was at ringside. Bryan says to Mox as he scatters… “You want a war? I DECLARE WAR!”

NEWS: 9/25-9/26

· Announced that SummerSlam 2025 will in fact be a 2-night event; emanating from MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

· AJ Styles’ Wrestling Future is Uncertain

· Saraya has signed a one-year extension with AEW that will run until September 2025.

· Cassie Lee may not be done with wrestling just yet…

· Roxanne Perez vs. Giulia will kick off NXT on Tuesday for the CW Debut

· MJF has been cast as one of Adam Sandler’s sons in Happy Gilmore 2.

· Update: Lucha Bros. still under contract to AEW – AND – now have had injury time tacked on by TK.

Prime Cut - Wrestlers Who Never Won the WWE (or Women's) Title -- but should have.

NEWS (9/20-9/24)

· Happy Birthday to Stephanie McMahon - who turns 48 today.

· Update on previous news item: According to Fightful Select via WWE Sources, Lucha Bros. have NOT YET signed with WWE.

· Fightful Select has learned Miro has requested his release from AEW. Fightful has confirmed his contract runs through Spring 2026.

· Daniel Garcia - despite showing up at All In and his feud with MJF - still has not signed a new deal with AEW (as of All Out [9/7]). Apparently WWE is HOT to sign him.

· There will be a lot less Live Events in 2025 in WWE.

· GCW posted on 9/20 that “Zilla Fatu will not be appearing on tonite's GCW event in Philadelphia, or any GCW shows for the foreseeable future. We tried our best to avoid this situation, but we have reached an impasse. We wish him the best.” Fightful has since added that this was a disagreement over an appearance rate. It is uncertain if they will work together in the future.

· AEW have announced that Britt Baker, DMD will be in action on the 5th Anniversary show of Dynamite

· Tony Khan was asked about AEW on Max (WFAN Daily)

· Re: Running a Show at the Las Vegas Sphere: The cost of running The Sphere in Las Vegas is “insanely expensive.” The LED ball cost $450,000 a day, and running the actual venue could be $1 million+. There has been no word about WWE reaching out about it, but AEW have reached out/inquired about it. (Fightful Select)

· Cody Rhodes has hit the top 5 on Fanatics for merchandise sales across all athletes and personalities, Fightful Select has learned. Fightful has also learned there are no other wrestlers in that Top 5.

· According to @PWInsidercom, Hikuleo has been added to the NXT roster internally.

· FightFul Select has updated the current plan for the Bad Blood main event slot.

But later reports say it’s still “open to discussion”

WWE Smackdown (9/20/24) - Sacramento, CA

Top Moments:

- Chelsea Green continuing to SHINE on SD; now in vignette form

- The Andrade / Carmelo Hayes feud/series

- Did Creative Make a Mistake not sending Bayley to RAW?

- The story arc for Kevin Owens and Randy Orton.

- The “Georgia Tech Promo”

WWE RAW (9/23/24) - Ontario, California

Top Moments:

- Rhea / Liv segment to kick off the show

- Building long-standing feuds and not just 50/50 booking + Long-term storytelling

Stories: New Day breakup, Dunne/Sheamus, GUNTHER/Sami, Judgment Day

- New Vignette + New QR Code

- The vignettes for Pure Fusion Collective and Damien Priest

- Jey / IC Title Match

Bonus Point: Joe Tessitore + Wade Barrett

NEWS (9/19/24)

• Per WrestleVotes, USA Network will give Smackdown 3 hours after RAW moves to Netflix in January

Six hours+ potentially of WWE main programming

• The Lucha Bros have signed a multi-year deal with WWE and are headed to the main-roster.

(via @Cory_Hays407 / @PWNReports)

• Kevin Owens has been approached by WWE for a contract extension.

It has currently not been agreed upon or signed as of today.

AEW Analysis

* Ricochet / Ospreay and Ricochet’s future in AEW

* BCC + Bryan Danielson

* Bryan Danielson / Nigel McGuinness

* Hangman / Jeff Jarrett

* The Learning Tree (Jericho + Big Bill)

* Ricochet’s AEW Future

* AEW TV Deal still lingering

* Planting seeds for Konosuke Takeshita’s face turn away from DCF

NEWS (Recent Headlines)

· Speculation of MCMG heading to NXT and making their debut as soon as the CW premier on October 1 in Chicago.

· Thunder Rosa is out of action again; this time dealing with a concussion.

· Armando Alejandro Estrada has signed a Legends/Nostalgia 5-yr contract with WWE

· Moose plans on retiring when his current TNA contract comes to an end… in 5 years.

· WWE is trying to re-sign Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, and Nia Jax to new deals, even with time remaining on their current deals.

· Oba Femi is 16 days away from becoming the longest reigning North American champion of all time in NXT. (260 = Wes Lee)

· Sheamus has re-signed with WWE for another 5 years

· SNME confirmed for 12/14 in Long Island, NY

· It is being reported that AEW Rampage is not part of the new Media deal. AEW Shockwave will likely become the third show, and is being shopped to FOX and others.

WWE Storylines and Moments

- Triple H’s Smackdown promo

- Cody / Roman / Solo / Jacob

- Michin / Chelsea / Piper

- Nia / Tiffany / Bayley / Naomi

- Carmelo / Andrade / L.A. Knight

- CM Punk Promo on RAW

- Sheamus / Pete Dunne

- Planting seeds for Miz heel turn

- Pure Fusion Collective / Natalya

- Jey Uso / Bron Breakker

- Judgment Day / New Day / planting more seeds for Xavier’s heel turn

- Bronson / Braun

- Sami / Ludwig / GUNTHER

- Terror Twins / Judgment Day

NEWS (9/7/24–9/11/24)

· Cody Rhodes tops the 34th Annual PWI 500 List

10. Mistico, 9. GUNTHER, 8. Jon Moxley, 7. MJF, 6. Damian Priest, 5. Tetsuya Naito, 4. Seth Rollins, 3. Will Ospreay, 2. Swerve Strickland, 1. Cody Rhodes

· WWE filed to trademark “Saturday Night’s Main Event” - plans for a December airing are in the works; including rumor of Jesse Ventura being involved.

· AEW files to trademark “AEW: Shockwave”

· Kiana James Updates (from Monday)

· RAW switching to 2 hours from 10/7 - 12/30 (USA call, back to 3 on Netflix)

WWE Thoughts

- SD era on FOX is officially over (2019-2024)

- Main Event for SD debut on USA (Cody vs Solo / steel cage) - kicks off the show

- NXT ramping up for CW debut

- Bad Blood matches thus far

AEW Thoughts

- TK and the TV Deal; more announcements that it’s close than actually announcing a deal

- All Out Fall Out

- Still rushing some things; but more long-term storytelling

News

* Odyssey Jones has been quietly fired by WWE after 2 years of mostly being "stuck in catering".

* Victoria has signed a legends/nostalgia deal with WWE

AEW All In Recap

WWE Bash in Berlin Recap

Bash in Berlin Predictions

Undisputed WWE Title Match

Cody Rhodes [c] vs. Kevin Owens [+5 points]

Mixed Tag Team Match

The Terror Twins vs. The Judgment Day [+2 points]

Strap Match - Four Corners variety

CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre [+2 points]

Women’s Tag Team Title Match

Unholy Union [c] vs. Jade Cargill + Bianca Belair [+3 points]

WWE World Title Match

GUNTHER [c] vs. Randy Orton [+5 points]