Real Reason For WWE Move, AEW Struggling, Britt Baker Criticism | WrestleTalk

Coming Up... An ex AEW star shoots on Britt Baker. AEW’s ticket struggle.  The truth behind a WWE change,  and my review of AEW Dynamite.   I’m Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News. Britt Baker, the first breakout women’s   Ex AEW Star Shoots On Britt Baker wrestler in AEW, hasn’t had the  smoothest return from injury.  After being out for over nine months, she came  back at June’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view,   setting up a match for Mercedes Mone’s TBS title  at AEW’s biggest show of the year All In… and got   legitimately suspended several weeks later for a  reported backstage altercation with MJF and his   girlfriend Alicia Atout. While MJF has said the  situation was massively overblown in the wrestling   news media, the fact remains AEW’s disciplinary  panel saw it fit to suspend Baker for a week.  Then, on Sunday’s All In show, Baker and Mone’s  match was the weakest on the card. A lot of   this was due to the placement - coming four hours  into the wrestling, and after the crowd had tired   themselves out with the MJF/Ospreay match, and the  Casino Gauntlet. But former AEW star Mark Henry,   who’s contract with them expired back  in May, has blamed the match on Baker   during an appearance on Busted Open Radio: “I'm used to seeing Mercedes work a certain   way and she didn't work like that, and I  don't think that was because of her. Also,   there were times they did a couple of things  over again, because it didn't get done right   the first time, and a lot of that was the fact  that the position that Britt was in was wrong."  Henry also accused Baker of sandbagging - where  you block an opponent’s move by deadweighting them   when you’re not meant to - during the backbreaker  off the ropes spot. Baker had previously accused   Thunder Rosa of sandbagging her. "It would take for both people to be   on the same page, and work together for the  greater good of the match — not the greater   good of the individual. 'I don't want this  person to shine over me. I don't want them   to look good at my expense. I'm a pillar!'  That's a work. You're just the first woman   hired. Get your ass out there and work for  that person like your life depended on it."  In her newsletter, Mercedes declined to criticise  Baker, but did admit to not being happy with the   match, acknowledging the mixed reactions, and  how she sensed some audience fatigue due to the   placement on the card. She noted how she would  have done a lot of things differently, and that   she should have listened to her instincts. Following the huge success of selling   AEW Tickets Struggle 50,000 tickets for England’s All  In, AEW has come crashing down   to their reality of domestic ticket sales. WrestleTix is reporting that before the show,   last night’s episode of Dynamite was set to  host fewer than 2,000 fans, in Illinois’ State   Farm Center that can hold 16,500 people. [TWEET] They add that next week’s Dynamite only has 3,000   tickets sold, and next Friday’s Collision  has shifted under 2,000 tickets. So far,   just over 6,000 tickets have been distributed  for September 7th’s All Out pay-per-view,   which is only 10 days away, a 30% drop on  the 9,000+ figures sold in 2022 and 2023.   Truth Behind WWE Change WWE have now confirmed their commentary teams  will be changing from September, with Michael   Cole and Corey Graves hosting SmackDown from  its debut on the USA Network on the 13th,   and Wade Barrett being joined by new play-by-play  lead Joe Tessitore on Raw from the 2nd.  This means Corey, who moved into the lead  commentator role on SmackDown back in February, is   being moved back to a colour commentary position. PWTorch is reporting this isn’t anything to do   with Corey’s performance, but that WWE’s new head  of production Lee Fitting is a long time friend   and big proponent of Tessitore, and has been  working to get him hired for play-by-play since   he joined the company at the start of this year. Now here’s a message from Turbo Jack…   AEW Dynamite Review Now it’s time for my review of  AEW Dynamite… in about 5 minutes.   The show started with a bang, because as soon  as Excalibur was done running down the card,   we got the surprise return of PAC! I’m really confused about who’s   in the Blackpool Combat Club right now. Jon Moxley entered through the crowd and spoke to   Tony Schiavone in the ring, where… he was weird.  He said he’s been doing a lot of thinking in the   two months since we last saw him, called out  Darby Allin, and then told Schiavone that this   isn’t his company anymore. Wrong Tony, Jon.  Also, Shane McMahon buying  AEW storyline confirmed.  Later on, Marina Shafir beat up a few production  hands backstage for Moxley, putting them together   as an act. This was all very strange. Our first match saw Hangman Page and   Tomohiro Ishii do what they do best - beat  the ever loving piss out of each other.  This was almost like a non-stop forearm  strike exchange, the only respite being   men getting dropped on their necks - like  B-Boy Ishii busting out his new breakdance   move on the apron off a DDT, and Page landing  horribly on his shoulder off an Ishii Deadeye.  Hangman hit a Deadeye of his own though,  followed up by a Buckshot, to win.  But we’ve only got ten days until the next  pay-per-view, so we better get these angles going.  After Hangman’s distraction in the All In main  event, Swerve Strickland came down to get in   his face, where he said he felt sorry for Page,  that his obsession with Strickland is costing   him everything, and Swerve’s now obligatory  reference to your opponent’s wife and child.  Hangman screamed at him for breaking into his  home, fair, and that Swerve had needed help to   beat him every time. He’s never beaten him clean. So Strickland offered a stipulation that always   definitively stops interference  - a steel cage match at All Out.  Rather than a bloody brawl like they  usually do, Hangman stormed off instead.  Jamie Hayter then squashed Harley Cameron  in her return match, all while staring   a hole in Saraya. She looked great. MJF came down now just in a grey suit   and black shirt and scarf, the monochromatic  opposite to the over the top colours of his Mr   America gimmick. But it was the strips of physio  tape just visibly above the scarf around his neck   that were most telling. He has been seriously  injured by Will Ospreay’s Tiger Driver finish.  Max renounced his American citizenship because  they didn’t help him for his All In defence,   and he says Will cheated by  having Daniel Garcia interfere.  Which prompted a surprise attack from PAC.  I mean Jon Moxley. I mean Daniel Garcia.  Garcia is no moral babyface, though. He went for  a piledriver off the second rope to fully break   Max’s injured neck. Security stopped him just  in time, it was announced they’ll fight at All   Out and Garcia invented a new kind of mic drop  - the mic throw, where he lobbed it up the ramp   from the ring, hitting Max in the shoulder. With Max’s neck injury, this is perfectly   built for Garcia to get a huge win over him. I might not have gotten my six man fun this   week. But I’ll settle for 8 man mania  instead. Especially when Tony Khan told   me to trust him it’s going rock And when has Tony ever abused my   trust by overpromising before?! It saw Hook and the Conglomeration   take on Roderick Strong and The Learning  Tree. Just when I thought Hook was out of   the Jericho Vortex, they pulled him back in. Big Bill got a hot tag on the heel side, but   the crowd was pretty bad and didn’t really react.  And then the finish was Hook making Strong tap in   the Redrum, but Strong’s tiny boot was clearly  on the ropes. The Undisputed Kingdom then beat   up Hook after, seemingly setting up a feud for  that joke of an FTW belt. This finish was bad.  Mercedes Mone presumably dusted off a backstage  segment idea from 2019 WWE, where she had   an awkward, lifeless title celebration party  where there was no music or background chatter.   Private Party tried to hit on her, so Okada  taught her how to say bye bitch in Japanese.  You know how it’s the job of agents to make sure  wrestlers aren’t using the same on important   spots on the same card? The next segment  was also a women’s title celebration.  Mariah May told Tony, however, that her one will  be postponed because your local town sucks. It   built to her revealing her outfit underneath  her robe, while wearing the women’s belt.  We then got a backstage clip from All In, where  the Grizzled Young Veterans told the Young Bucks   they’re coming for the titles. And then there  was a second promo filmed today that sounded   exactly the same, setting up their match against  the Outrunners on Rampage, meaning James Drake   said ‘Grit Your Teeth’ twice in about 30 seconds. There was a recap package of Takeshita in the G1.   He’ll be returning on Rampage too. Then Ricochet got his Dynamite   debut taking on Kyle Fletcher. Ricochet hit some fun spots,   like a springboard off the barricade, into  a roll through suck it taunt at the camera,   but I must admit I was more into Fletcher.  Ricochet won with his old finisher, the Vertigo.  I thought the post-match angle, however, was  awesome. Will Ospreay walked out onto the stage,   teasing the two wrestlers who made each  other’s names interacting, but PAC hit a   poisonrana from outta nowhere on Ospreay and  started screaming don’t forget about him,   as they’ve got a match at All Out, and that  Ricochet can get to the back of the line.  And the final segment saw Bryan  Danielson address his future   after winning the world title and not retiring. He called All In his career favourite moment, even   choking up a bit, but acknowledged he needs neck  surgery, and he’s got to go home. But not yet!  He’ll be a fighting champion, but when he  loses the title, his full time career will   be over - setting up a super dramatic  every match is a retirement match run.  He issued an open challenge for All Out, which  was answered by the TNT Champion Jack Perry on   the tron. But it was all a trap, because that was  actually a prerecorded message… for an impromptu   open challenge… I think Jack Perry might be  Batman… as Perry attacked Danielson from behind.  It all makes sense, as Perry beat Darby Allin  strong on Sunday, he’ll get loads of heat   at the pay-per-view in Chicago, I imagine  Swerve vs Hangman will be the main event,   and it is only a ten day build. However, it’s not a match   I’m particularly excited by. This week’s episode of Dynamite is 74%.  Now go watch us play Tricky Towers over on our  video game channel CTRL Freaks. Here’s a clip.