Slobberknocker, smark, kayfabe, ‘Vince McMahon
high on new star backstage’ - because of
its carny roots, professional wrestling has
its own language to protect its secrets from
the public.
But some are so catchy, so transcendental,
they move into the mainstream.
So congratulations Rock ‘The Dwayne’ Johnson,
because the word ‘Jabroni’ has just been
officially added to Dictionary.com.
And next to it is a picture of Luke Warm Luke
Owen.
While The Rock took credit for making ‘jabroni’
part of popular culture, he revealed it was
actually “the Iron Sheik who made it famous
in our wild wrestling locker rooms!”
Ah yes, noted wordsmith Iron Sheik.
Onto our top story today, two new reports
hint that WWE might already be as tired of
Meh-tribution invasion angles as we all are.
The vague gang of masked mischief makers first
appeared on WWE TV at the start of August,
where they’ve since committed such dastardly
acts as turning the lights on and off, making
Raw go to a commercial break, and scribbling
on walls.
They’ve terrorized both Raw and SmackDown
so far, leaving NXT and main roster pay-per-views
conveniently untouched.
And now their influence is going to become
even more restricted.
Despite doing the most damage to SmackDown
since their debut - routinely attacking its
wrestlers and once chainsawing the ropes - Post
Wrestling is reporting that “Retribution
is expected to only appear on Raw moving forward.”
Because nothing says ‘force of chaos’
like ‘brand exclusivity’.
This presumably rules out Roman Reigns as
Meh-tribution’s secret leader, with fans
speculating they’ve only attacked shows
he hasn’t been on.
But, by that reasoning, Mojo Rawley is also
Meh-tribution’s secret leader.
And going by this week’s Raw replay on Hulu,
Meh-tribution aren’t even a priority on
Monday nights either.
Every week, the streaming service Hulu airs
a 90 minute version of the show, cutting out
around 35 minutes.
And one of the segments that failed to make
the cut was Meh-tribution attacking the Street
Profits vs Angel Garza and Andrade match.
This is likely an editorial decision by WWE.
Two years ago, fans complained to Hulu that
their version of Raw didn’t include the
Woken Matt Hardy vs Bray Wyatt Final Deletion
main event, prompting Hulu to reply they “don’t
make any edits on our end” - and that they
just post the cut WWE sends to them.
In the space of a month, Meh-tribution has
gone from invading both brands every episode,
to only appearing on Raw, and being left off
the abridged version WWE sends to Hulu.
They also still don’t have a proper storyline
or any revealed characters.
What do you think WWE are doing with Meh-tribution?
Let me know in the comments down below, where
I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE
CALLING ANY OF YOU WHO SAY LUKE WARM LUKE
OWEN’S ‘CAN I GET A YES PLEASE?’
CATCH PHRASE JABRONIS, YOU’RE JABRONIS,
THE LOT OF YOU!
Hey, you watching at home!
Did you know that about 30% of you watching
right now aren’t subscribed to WrestleTalk?
I do, because I check the analytics.
So give us a subscribe right now and enable
notifications to always on for daily wrestling
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lists and… this Saturday, All Out 2 live
reactions with me, Mr Davis, vs Luke Warm
Luke Owen, to crown the inaugural WrestleTalk
Jam that Jampion.
Where if Luke doesn’t win it, he really
does lose his job!
The 
IIconics have been together in NXT since 2015,
getting called up to the main roster in 2018,
where they won the Women’s Tag Championships
at last year’s WrestleMania.
But on Monday’s Raw they were unceremoniously
broken.
Dave Meltzer has revealed why.
Apparently Vince McMahon said back in July
that he saw Bianca BelAir and Peyton Royce
as singles stars, which PWInsider later confirmed,
reporting: “I was told by several people
that Peyton Royce is earmarked for a singles
push.”
It’s a heartbreaking move to make, as the
two have been best friends since high school
in real life.
They both wrote emotional Instagram posts,
with Billie writing that having Royce taken
away from her “is extremely scary” [IG
POST], while Peyton more optimistically mourned:
“I’m so sad but I realize there is a silver
lining.
I believe everything happens as it is supposed
to” - potentially indicating WWE has plans
for one of them more than the other.
And the IIconics haven’t been the only ones
breaking up as of late, as Renee Young quit
WWE last month - and she’s now revealed
in an interview all the reasons why.
In an interview with the Sports Illustrated
Media Podcast, Young talked about a number
of issues that built up to her deciding to
leave WWE.
First was her publicly revealing she had tested
positive for CoVid in June, which she said
“was NOT well received” by WWE - who apparently
wanted to be given a heads up as it was bad
PR.
It was reported at the time that while individual
wrestlers and talent reached out privately
to see if Renee was ok, the company itself
didn’t, which Young confirmed, admitting
she felt “a little slighted…
I didn’t really feel like anyone was all
that concerned that I got sick.
That bothered me for sure.”
She added that she was shocked when WWE decided
to keep producing shows during the full lockdown
months of March and April.
Apparently it was the coronavirus situation
and WWE Backstage getting cancelled that finally
made up her mind to leave, though, realising
of the company: “I’m not really doing
anything anymore and my skillset of being
a host … there’s just nowhere for me to
do it anymore.”
Initially she was planning on reprising her
role as the returning Talking Smack’s host,
but without her original co-presenter Daniel
Bryan, or the also recently departed Vice
President of TV Production Mike Mansury, she
felt it was “taking steps backward”.
Renee also admitted to finding WWE’s handling
of her husband Jon Moxley “a little bit
difficult” too, which involved “almost
pretending he didn’t exist.”
She said don’t expect her in AEW when her
90 day non-compete expires, but praised “Everything
that they’re doing there is great.”
Renee Young wins the IMPACT World Championship
confirmed!
Oh, no right, Eric Young.
I was meant to say ‘Eric Young’ there.
Well that happened last night!
After making his IMPACT return at July’s
Slammiversary, super heel EY beat Eddie Edwards
to win the IMPACT World Championship.
It’s a great turnaround for the former SANITY
leader in NXT, who was barely used on TV following
his main roster call-up in WWE.
Tenille Dashwood, the former Emma in WWE,
also returned to IMPACT last night, setting
up a Knockouts championship feud with Donna
Purrazzo.
That’s Kylie Rae, Purrazzo and now Dashwood
who have all decided to join IMPACT instead
of AEW.
EY’s was the only major championship change
last night though, because in a rare successful
title defence, Vacant emerged from NXT’s
Fourway 60 minute Ironmen match with Adam
Cole and Finn Balor tied on pins.
They’ll fight each other next week to decide
the new champion.
Laurie Blake and Adam Blampied will have a
livestream podcast review of that huge NXT
episode today - which includes the original
scrapped plans for the finish - so subscribe
and enable notifications to always on to know
when that goes live!
Now here’s everything else happening in
wrestling...
Brock Lesnar’s WWE contract expired recently,
meaning he is currently a free agent.
And in a series of stories that I’m sure
is in no way to leverage WWE for more money,
people are talking about a potential return
to MMA for him.
Bellator President Scott Coker wants to book
Lesnar against Fedor, and former UFC Light
Heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who is going
to be upping his weight class, has also called
out Brock.
Gary Cassidy of Sportskeeda has reported that
Keith Lee is “very well-liked” backstage
in WWE, and his rise to the top is planned
to be “big, but steady” like your mum.
The company is expected to “tweak” his
ring attire and music after everyone said
it’s currently rubbish.
Keith and the Thunderdome refresh seem to
be behind turning WWE’s disastrous ratings
around.
Monday’s episode drew 1.9 million viewers,
which was down from SummerSlam’s post-show,
but up massively on the Performance Center
era.
And lastly today, a reminder that despite
the world ending right now, wrestling is actually
awesome.
Following a tornado hitting his home on August
18, NXT fan Matthew Beane called upon his
friends-turned-family to help with the cleanup.
He was part of NXT superfan group, NXT United,
who attended NXT shows every week prior to
lockdown.
The group, who hadn’t seen each other since
lockdown began, jumped to his aid and pitched
in.
But it wasn’t just the fans helping.
As Jon Alba reported, WWE themselves provided
“food, water, gloves, and other resources
to help the cleanup effort”.
AEW then caught wind of this story, and invited
the members of NXT United to a Dynamite show
“to honor their work and allow them to watch
wrestling together again.”
For all the tribalism every Wednesday night,
it’s good to remember that sometimes things
are more important than wrestling.
BUT NOT LUKE WARM LUKE OWEN, I HATE HIM.
A shock WWE roster member has quit!
Press the video to the right to find out who
and why, and set your reminder for Laurie
and Adam’s NXT review by pressing the video
below that.
Subscribe here for daily wrestling news videos
- I’m watching you 30%!
I’ve been Mr. Davis, Jam That Jam.
