Coming up... Top free agents might be choosing WWE over AEW
A controversial WWE return Joe Hendry returns to NXT and more.
I’m Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News. Motor City Machine Guns Heading To WWE? Back in January, Impact Wrestling successfully
rebranded itself back to its TNA name, and although went through a tumultuous
few weeks of bad news following the firing of Scott D’Amore - the man credited with
much of TNA’s successful rebranding - it now feels like the company is as hot as it was
in 2007-2010 due to its partnership with NXT. But it wasn’t just D’Amore that left shortly
into the rebrand, as it was reported that long-time TNA tag team The Motor City Machine
Guns were finishing up with the promotion. Both Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin were also former
TNA World Heavyweight Champions, and thought to be cornerstones of the promotion, having been
there since those early hot days in the mid-2000s. The two have also been credited for changing
the tag team game. Many of the world’s best tag teams currently have taken cues from
the work that Shelley and Sabin did in TNA, ROH and various indie promotions around the
world. Fun fact about me, they were among the first bits of wrestling merch I ever bought,
here’s a pic of me wearing my Machine Guns t-shirt at a TNA house show in 2008. And if
we zoom out a bit you can see I’m holding the TNA Tag Team Championships, and if you zoom
out a bit further there’s me with former TNA president Dixie Carter. I was a big TNA mark.
Back in April, Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam reported that Shelley and Sabin,
now that they were free agents, were finalising a deal with All Elite Wrestling.
The pair had a long-standing on-screen rivalry with The Young Bucks - dating back to TNA -
and they’d even featured on AEW’s All Out 2022, teaming with Jay Lethal in a losing effort to The
Pinnacle of FTR and Wardlow. We all remember that, of course, because there’s nothing else about
All Out 2022 that overshadowed the wrestling. Haynes wrote in April, “I can now confirm that
the Motor City Machine Guns are headed to AEW. Sources have told me that AEW and The Motor
City Machine Guns are working on finalizing a deal. It was noted that the deal is not
going to be finalized for a bit. However, the decision has been made and
a deal will be worked out.” Well, it’s now July. And there hasn’t been
any Motor City Machine Guns debut in AEW, nor any other news about them coming in.
Which is why PWN’s recent report that the pair might instead be heading
to WWE all the more interesting. PWN - who recently reported the news of the
women’s midcard titles in WWE - posted on Twitter on July 6th that Shelley and Sabin had
been in talks with WWE. Fightful Select have since reported, “While we can't confirm
that Motor City Machine Guns have signed anywhere, we have heard that there had been
conversations between them and major companies.” While Sabin has never wrestled with WWE,
Shelley had a brief cameo with NXT reuniting his TimeSplitters tag team with Kushida
in the 2020 Dusty Classic, losing in the first round to the Grizzled Young Veterans.
Alex Shelley has also posted on Instagram that he is seemingly done with his indie dates,
which has led to speculation that the pair are indeed signing with WWE over All Elite Wrestling.
However, PNW noted on Twitter: “Whether they end up in WWE or AEW is still up in the air, there
has been nothing further told to us yet… This seems to be the end of their Indie run though.”
What do you think, would you like to see The Motor City Machine Guns end up in AEW or
WWE, where if they go to NXT they would hilariously be working with TNA again.
And speaking of that NXTNA partnership. Rascalz Reunite on NXT The last few months of NXT have seen various TNA
crossovers, with Frankie Kazarian featuring in the battle royale, Jordynne Grace challenging for
the NXT Women’s Championship at Battleground, and of course - say his name and
he appears - Joe Hendry [CLAP]. And one of the cameos that many
expected took place last night. Last month Wes Lee was attacked backstage by
Gallus, meaning he would need some back-up. This led to a lot of fan speculation that this would
be how his former Rascalz teammates of Zachary Wentz and Trey Miguel would make their steps
through the NXT prohibitive portal. However, NXT announced that Lee would be teaming with New Catch
Republic, and the reports from the time said this was done to squash the Rascalz reunion rumours.
But on last night’s NXT, we got just that. After opening up about his loss to
Oba Femi at Heatwave, Lee teased the idea of leaving NXT entirely, until he was
interrupted by his former Rascalz teammates, and Wentz and Miguel came out to reunite their
group. They later had a segment with Gallus to set up a six-man tag for next week’s show.
When it was first rumoured that the Rascalz might cameo in NXT, many pointed out that the
likelihood was low, given how Zachary Wentz was the former Nash Carter in WWE, and was
released under controversial circumstances. Carter and Lee were the tag team MSK in NXT in
2020, even winning the NXT Tag Team Championships twice, but that second title reign were
shortened in 2022 when Carter’s ex-wife, Kimber Lee, posted allegations of domestic
abuse, and posted a photo of him dressing up as Adolf Hitler with Nazi imagery.
Carter was released from WWE, and went back to TNA under his Zachary Wentz
name. He was scheduled to be DLC for WWE2K22, but that was removed following his release.
Since then, Kimber Lee has spoken out about her struggles during this period of time, speaking
with Piers Austin that she was struggling with alcoholism, her bipolar disorder, and the
death of her friend Daffney. She also showed some regret for getting Wentz fired saying, “Were
the consequences he had to face because of some of the stuff I did pretty sh**ty? Yeah. Again,
like I said, I should have behaved differently, I fully admit that.” AEW’s MJF also
called out Kimber Lee for her actions. And this might be why, when reporting that The
Rascalz were coming in for last night’s NXT show, Fightful Select reported, “WWE's stance on Wentz
appearing had softened well over a year ago.” Wentz is also dating NXT’s Gigi Dolan, who
posted an emoji on Twitter about his NXT return. But Wentz and Miguel were not the only
NXT cameos from TNA on last night’s show. Joe Hendry Returns To NXT After going viral for his brief cameo in
the NXT battle royale a few weeks ago, it had been reported that WWE were interested in
bringing Joe Hendry back for more appearances. Fightful Select reported recently that
the plan was to feature Hendry “heavily” on NXT shows over the next weeks and months.
And on last night’s NXT, Joe Hendry was the surprise tag partner for Trick Williams to take
on Team Ex-AEW of Ethan Page and Shawn Spears. Hendry picked up the win over Spears after Page
bailed when he was chased off by Meta Four. Hendry will also be part of a six-way match for
the TNA World Championship at Slammiversary, with Moose, Frankie Kazarian, Nic
Nemeth, Steve Maclin and Josh Alexander. Rhea Ripley Update Joe Hendry wasn’t the only one to return
to WWE this week, as Rhea Ripley made her long-awaited return to WWE following
her injury just after WrestleMania. The clip of Ripley’s return has now
passed 2 million views on YouTube. And what will be a surprise to basically
no one, PWInsider are reporting that Ripley is now officially listed as a
babyface on WWE’s internal reports, which was not the case leading into WrestleMania.
Speaking of Judgement Day, Fightful Select report that Carlito is officially not part
of the group, as he’s not listed on WWE’s internal documents with the faction.
Lastly from notes from this past Raw, and Pat Pat McAfee Heat McAfee returned to commentary this week after
taking a few weeks off to be with his family. And it didn’t take long for Pat to do Pat things,
as during the broadcast he called Bron Breakker “a brick s**t house”, fully swearing on commentary
which needed to be censored by USA Network. While many thought this would get him
in trouble, Fightful Select report, “There wasn't any heat on Pat McAfee for the
"Brick s**t house" line about Bron Breakker.” Fightful also noted that not only did the line
get a chuckle from the Gorilla Position, but there was even a joke that they ‘can’t wait to go to
Netflix’. Man, Pat’s lips will be loose once they move to Netflix and there’s less restrictions.
And speaking of the commentary team for WWE, WWE’s New Commentator and The New York Post reported yesterday that
veteran ESPN voice Joe Tessitore was set to join WWE. Hilariously, the Post didn’t know which
brand of Raw and SmackDown he’d be joining, just that he’ll be leading a three-man booth with
Corey Graves and Wade Barrett. So, SmackDown then. The New York Post also noted that this
was something of a full circle moment, as Tessitore was a former media client
of current WWE president Nick Khan. He also reportedly has a great relationship with
Triple H, and is a life-long wrestling fan. WWE later confirmed the news, and confirmed that
he would be taking over as the lead commentator for a three-man booth with Graves and Barrett.
Graves had previously stepped up to the lead commentator role following the departure of
Kevin Patrick, and fans were quick to praise how well he transitioned from colour commentary
to lead announcer, which is not an easy task. WWE also confirmed in their press release that
Michael Cole and Pat McAfee will remain a team. And while I made the joke about SmackDown
earlier, WWE’s own press release doesn’t specifically state that the three-man booth
will be on SmackDown or Raw, or if Cole and McAfee will move back to the blue brand.
And today is the day! Today is the day where I Gripebombs! finally prove once and for all that Steiner Maths
is a better promo than the CM Punk Pipebomb on our new debate show over on partsFUNknown. We’re doing
this live, so click the link below to either get ready for it or watch it unfold live depending
on when you watch this video. I am going to do a huge debate all over Oli. Massive. A mass
debate, if you will, and I will handily win.