WWE The Rock's secrets revealed

WWE FACE-OFF

10/12/2024

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00:00WWE Banner Fan! The Rock's WrestleMania plans revealed! Just who owns AEW and more?

00:07I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.

00:17Wrestling fans are curious creatures. Viciously loyal, difficultly tribalistic and, going

00:23by Twitter in the last year, super horny. Yeah baby, yeah. But some of the worst ones

00:29have problems with respecting space. We've seen wrestlers recently call out fans for

00:33harassing them at airports for signatures and selfies, but I think this is a new one.

00:39PWInsider are reporting, following Tuesday night's NXT, we are told that a male fan

00:43was allegedly caught trying to take photos of the feet of female talent as they made

00:48their way through the hotel and was ejected not once, but twice from the location.

00:54Look, I'm not here to kinkshame. Whatever floats your boat as long as you're not sinking

00:58anyone else's ship. But it's always the feet guys, right? It's the twice bit that

01:03gets me. I know I got kicked out for taking photos of people's feet without their consent,

01:08but gosh darn I'm so super horny I'd better get back in there and give it another try.

01:13Boy, I hope that doesn't get clipped out of context. I'd better move on to super

01:17serious actual wrestling news.

01:26The Rock made his return to WWE back in January of 2024 doing, hands up who remembers this,

01:32an in-ring segment with Jinder Mahal about how much he loves America. Ripple effect stuff,

01:38but that segment led to Jinder Mahal getting a world title match, which Seth Rollins got

01:41injured in, and nearly ruined all WrestleMania plans which were already in flux because The

01:46Rock had come back. And also, Tony Khan got really upset about it on Twitter.

01:50His bigger impact, The Rock that is, was in the lead-up to WrestleMania. When he became

01:54part of the TKO Board of Directors, he wanted to insert himself into the WrestleMania main

01:59event against Roman Reigns for the WWE Championship, where, reports said at the time, Rock was

02:04pushing to win the title. He had Cody step aside for him on an episode of Smackdown which

02:09prompted the now fabled We Want Cody movement, and that got him back his WrestleMania main

02:13event and, crucially, turned The Rock heel and into the excellent final boss character.

02:20Rock left WWE following WrestleMania, but reports said he would be back in the latter

02:24part of the year in the lead-up to Survivor Series, and, true enough, The Rock made his

02:29return at Bad Blood to stare down Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns.

02:33Reports say that the WrestleMania 41 main event isn't set in stone yet, with some

02:36saying it could be Cody vs. Roman in a rematch for the WWE Championship, their third Mania

02:42main event in as many years, or a Cody vs. Rock match for both Cody's WWE title and

02:48The Rock's People's Championship. Or, have both.

02:52Near the end of Bad Blood, The Rock held up three fingers before doing the throat slit

02:56taunt from a WWE video game, and our own Oli Davis, who also called The Rock's return

03:00at Bad Blood before reports of it happening surfaced, has only gone and done it again

03:05by predicting that this could have meant a triple threat at WrestleMania. And according

03:09to WrestleVotes, that could be the plan. They said on their backstage past Q&A show,

03:15Rock vs. Roman vs. Cody at WrestleMania 41 is on the table. It's just not the head

03:20of it yet. They add, I doubt it's been finalised, but the idea has been floated,

03:25and I think it makes the most sense for the company to get those three guys in the ring.

03:31What would you like to see as the main event of WrestleMania 41? Let me know in the comments

03:34down below.

03:35We are one week removed from the massive news that AEW secured a huge TV deal from Warner

03:42Bros. Discovery, which means the company will be with us for the next few years at the very

03:46least and has become the second most profitable wrestling company in history. An incredible

03:53feat for a company that is only 5 years old. That deal, which is now more or less confirmed

03:58as $185 million per year, Variety updated their article to back that up and AEW's

04:03Chris Jericho used that number on Busted Open Radio, did potentially come with a caveat.

04:08In their report of the news, Sports Business Journal wrote, WBD also keeps its equity stake

04:14in AEW but the size of it was not disclosed, i.e. WBD own a portion of AEW. This has been

04:21a long-standing rumour that when AEW signed a deal with Warner back in 2019, they also

04:26got a stake in the company, but nothing has ever been confirmed.

04:30The topic of who really owns AEW has been a big one amongst the company's bigger detractors.

04:35Eric Bischoff recently got fooled by a fake report claiming to be from WrestleNomics that

04:40the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer owned a portion of the company. For what it's

04:44worth, Fightful Select reported in response to Sports Business Journal's claim, neither

04:48AEW nor WBD have confirmed this. Beyond that, PR contacts at both companies even noted,

04:55they've never heard of that aspect of WBD having equity in AEW. And Fightful's Sean

05:01Ross Sapp followed up on this during the WrestleDream media call with Tony Khan. Khan replied,

05:06And I will not get into our ownership structure beyond saying, I have 100% of the voting stock

05:12in this company and have since the beginning and hold the vast majority of shares. He added,

05:18I am the controlling owner with 100% voting control of the business.

05:23Interestingly, this topic was brought to light in the lawsuit filed by Kevin Kelly, Brandon

05:28and Brendan Tate a few months ago. In AEW's disclosure filing, it noted that no publicly

05:32held corporation owns 10% or more of its stock. WBD are a publicly traded company.

05:39And Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics, usually the smartest man in any room he walks into,

05:43said speaking on the subject, whatever minority stake WBD owns, if they do, would be less

05:50than 10%. He did add, it makes sense for WBD to have a stake in the business so interests

05:55are aligned.

05:56In sadder news for All Elite Wrestling, there has been an update on Luchasaurus following

06:00the news late last month that he had been admitted to hospital when his fiancée found

06:04him collapsed at home. It was reported that his oxygen levels were below 80% and that

06:09he had contracted pneumonia. The bright news was that he should be back training within

06:12a month, but according to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live, there have been some

06:17setbacks. Alvarez said he is not back in the gym and will not be back in the gym for a

06:22while and he's not going to be back wrestling, probably, for a while. Alvarez added, however,

06:28that there was hope that he would be able to train again at some point. Alvarez noted

06:32that there were some complications and Luchasaurus might have had a compromised immune system.

06:37He said, apparently, he's at high risk for relapse is what I was told. The big concern

06:41is that after all of this, they've been running test after test and apparently there

06:45may be permanent damage. Alvarez noted that while Luchasaurus is at home, he still has

06:49to use an oxygen tank after normal daily routines which leave him out of breath. Alvarez sadly

06:54added, I don't want to say it's a career-ending issue, but it could be a career-ending issue.

07:01Our best wishes go out to Luchasaurus and his loved ones at this time. Please send your

07:04well wishes in the comments and directly to him on social media.

07:08But hang on, it's a Thursday episode of the WrestleTalk News and I'm not reviewing

07:11Dynamite. Well, that's because this week's show was pre-empted by sports balls on TBS.

07:16It meant that AEW Dynamite was not on its usual day and was in a slightly different

07:21time slot. The show was also hit by the news that Britt Baker, who was scheduled to face

07:24Willow Nightingale in a number one contender's match for WrestleDream, fell ill and couldn't

07:29make the show. Nightingale instead faced Soraya, Nyla Rose and Jamie Hayter in a four-way which

07:34she won. And Fightful Select are reporting it wasn't just the illness that affected

07:38the show's plans. They report, we're told, AEW and Tony Khan had been working around

07:43the clock for the last couple of weeks across various shows due to the implications and

07:47travel changes from the hurricanes that drastically affected their plans. They add, we're told,

07:53there were many talent missing shows and last minute changes that the company needed to

07:57work around over the last two weeks. And that might explain why I thought the show was just

08:01broadly fine this week, although Fightful Select report that AEW were very happy with

08:06this week's episode. I can't imagine they were happy with the rating however.

08:10Going up against Big Sports and a stacked NXT with main roster stars, title changes

08:15and debuts, AEW drew its lowest viewership in history with just 329,000 viewers. It also

08:23had its lowest 18-49 demo number with just a .10. While it could be argued it was on

08:29a different night and in a one hour different time slot, last year's title Tuesday edition

08:33of Dynamite, which also went up against a stacked NXT with main roster stars, did 609,000

08:40viewers with a .26. In writing about the figures on Twitter, Dave Meltzer noted, it's very

08:44clear at this point AEW's audience, unlike two years ago, is choosing WWE and they have

08:50less of an exclusive audience than before. NXT held steady on their new home of The CW.

08:56The show which featured Randy Orton, Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, Jey Uso, Grayson Waller

09:00and Austin Theory, as well as title changes and the debut of Stephanie Baccourt, drew

09:04874,000 viewers, only 2.4% down from their debut episode. Orton wrestled in the main

09:11event of the show, which featured an unfortunate mistiming of an RKO reversal, which was supposed

09:16to see Randy catch Javon Evans corkscrew out of nowhere. Both men just sort of fell down,

09:21and the closing of the show saw Randy Orton pick Evans back up and say, it's alright because

09:25you could see that Evans was apologising for the spot. This is a very different Orton to

09:30the stupid, stupid, stupid era. Fightful Select report Javon Evans and Randy Orton rehearsed

09:34their spot extensively prior to the show and add, there is no heat on Evans for mistiming

09:41the spot. You can check out my reviews of both NXT and AEW Dynamite on yesterday's

09:45WrestleTalk News, they both went down very well in the comments, with a report there's

09:48also some frustrations over the booking of women on Monday Night Raw.

WWE The Rock's secrets revealed

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