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00:00 On today's wrestling news, Candice LeRae has left WWE.
00:03 Big E's broken neck is not healing optimally.
00:07 Got an update on the AEW trio's titles.
00:10 And Samoa Joe calls for the ridiculous
00:12 AEW versus WWE arguments to end.
00:15 Are you ready?
00:16 Are you ready for the news time?
00:18 Yes, my name is Bill Chambers
00:19 and I'm joined by Jareth Morgan
00:21 to talk all things wrestling news.
00:22 But before we get into it, make sure you like the video,
00:24 comment down below what you think about today's stories,
00:26 subscribe to the channel,
00:27 and links to each story is in the description,
00:28 so click them and off you go.
00:30 But first up, Candice LeRae,
00:33 her contract with WWE has expired
00:35 and she has left the company.
00:37 Now she kind of got moved to the alumni section
00:39 of wwe.com kind of quietly.
00:41 And then Sean Rossoff of fightful.com,
00:44 of course, has confirmed it since.
00:46 And she has gone to join her husband,
00:48 Johnny Gargano, in the free agent space.
00:51 So Johnny's contract ran out in September
00:55 and he's been gone ever since,
00:57 although he extended it a little bit up to December.
01:00 And then he left then.
01:01 So he's been gone since December.
01:03 But Candice LeRae has been off TV since August,
01:07 obviously due to her pregnancy.
01:09 So they've been off TV for quite a while.
01:12 The child was born in February.
01:14 They are very much enjoying parenthood at the minute.
01:16 You actually have a interview with Johnny Gargano
01:20 that you can watch on the channel.
01:21 I will put a link to it somewhere in one of these things.
01:24 So go watch that, he was a very lovely man
01:26 and I was very happy to meet him
01:27 'cause I'm a huge Johnny Gargano fan.
01:30 And he was lovely.
01:32 So he talks about what's next for him.
01:34 And he's definitely talked about having unfinished business
01:37 in WWE, but all of this with Candice LeRae now leaving
01:40 just very much leaves it up in the air
01:42 as to what is next for the both of them.
01:45 You kind of gotta assume wherever they go,
01:47 they're probably gonna go as a couple.
01:49 So the contract ran out, so there's no non-compete,
01:52 but she has just given birth,
01:54 so I wouldn't exactly expect her to be back in the ring
01:56 anytime soon, but the speculation there of where they go.
02:00 Personally, I would like them to go to AEW
02:03 because as much as, obviously, Johnny's a huge WWE fan
02:07 and that's his main goal in life was to get to WWE,
02:11 I think he's probably too small for Vince McMahon
02:14 to realize what he's got with Johnny Gargano
02:17 'cause he's an incredible wrestler
02:19 and I don't see the best for him there.
02:22 And also Candice LeRae has a lot of history
02:24 with people like The Young Bucks and things
02:26 from back in the PWG days within AEW
02:30 and sort of reigniting something like that
02:32 and just her as a presence on that women's roster
02:35 would be huge.
02:37 So they've got a lot of friends in AEW,
02:39 I think they could do a lot of really, really fun things
02:41 and if you haven't watched any of Candice LeRae's PWG stuff,
02:44 I highly, highly recommend you go back and watch it.
02:47 It's incredible.
02:48 - Yeah, so I'm a huge fan of Candice LeRae.
02:50 She's just been incredible all the way through NXT run,
02:52 even towards these latter stages
02:54 where she was just involved with The Way.
02:55 I thought like her and Johnny both made absolute lemonade
02:59 out of the frequent lemons they were handed
03:01 and I listened to the Renee Paquette podcast recently
03:03 with Johnny Gargano and he was just talking about
03:06 how she's been getting back in shape,
03:08 getting back in shape like after giving birth,
03:11 which is insanity.
03:12 I know we've seen Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch both do it,
03:14 but the fact that she's now getting ready
03:16 to come back into the ring
03:17 and do probably some of the insane stuff,
03:19 maybe not quite as insane as what she did pre-WWE
03:21 because we don't wanna see her getting completely destroyed
03:23 by loads of men in the middle of a ring.
03:25 Sounds weird now I've said that.
03:27 - Yeah, we don't need to see her get super kicked
03:29 with a shoe polish on purpose again.
03:32 - And we don't need lumbar checks or all that.
03:34 No, none of that.
03:35 But I think whatever the future holds,
03:36 this family, this Gargano clan are gonna do great stuff.
03:40 So all the best for them going forward.
03:42 And speaking of, well, all the best going forward,
03:45 this is not the greatest news in the world
03:48 because he's a friend of the channel,
03:50 one of the best humans in all of wrestling.
03:52 He's going through a bit of a rough time right now.
03:54 We're talking of course of Big E with his broken neck.
03:57 He's taken to Twitter recently to give us a bit of an update
04:00 as to what's going down with his neck.
04:03 And it's not looking great to be honest.
04:06 So he's obviously fractured his C1 vertebrae.
04:09 He did that on the 11th of March in a match with,
04:12 I think it was involving Ridge Holland.
04:15 And obviously he did a belly to belly.
04:16 - Ridge Holland, yeah.
04:17 - Landed on his head.
04:18 It was just horrible, horrible to watch.
04:20 But he's taken to Twitter
04:22 and he said that he's going to spend the next 46 weeks
04:24 wearing a neck brace
04:25 in the hope that he'll be able to avoid a fusion surgery.
04:28 He said, "For those desirous," desirous?
04:31 Desirous?
04:32 I don't know how to say that.
04:33 "Desirous of an update.
04:34 "My C1 apparently isn't healing optimally.
04:36 "I'll spend another 46 weeks in a brace
04:38 "in hopes that I can avoid a fusion, but don't you fret.
04:41 "I've got a tremendous support system
04:43 "and what should be, should be."
04:44 And everyone's taken to Twitter
04:46 to show their support to Big E because he's amazing.
04:49 He's just an awesome dude.
04:50 And we want the best for him.
04:52 He's fractured his C1 and his C6.
04:55 And then insanely, he put a video like a week later
04:58 of him walking around with a neck brace on.
05:00 We were like, "Big E, just lie down, chill.
05:02 "Like you need to rest up."
05:03 But he's the absolute beacon of positivity and...
05:08 (Big E barks)
05:10 Salty doesn't think so.
05:11 Okay, that's a few that I didn't see coming.
05:13 Yeah, Salty versus Big E.
05:14 That's, yeah, very, very interesting.
05:16 Compelling nonetheless.
05:18 But yeah, it's, yeah, I don't know what more to add to this.
05:22 It's quite a depressing update,
05:25 but if anyone's gonna get through this
05:28 and show positivity and find some light
05:30 in this kind of darkness, it's Big E.
05:32 So we're just sending him all the best day from WhatCulture.
05:35 - Yeah, absolutely.
05:36 The sort of few interactions we've had with him,
05:38 he's such, such a lovely, lovely man.
05:41 And the sort of positivity that he's attacked
05:43 this whole situation with is inspiring, to say the least.
05:47 So yeah, send your love to Big E.
05:49 I really hope he gets well soon.
05:50 It's just a really crappy situation.
05:53 But hopefully, hopefully, hopefully he gets better
05:57 and fully recovers from this.
05:58 But it's, yeah, just a sad update.
06:00 Get well soon, Big E.
06:02 But moving over to AEW and their trios titles
06:06 that have been rumored for such a long time now.
06:10 Dave Meltzer has an update for it on the Wrestling Observer.
06:13 AEW have apparently had physical versions of the belts made
06:18 and they are ready to go.
06:20 And it's only a matter of time
06:22 before they unleash them on the world
06:25 and debut them within AEW.
06:27 But no word on when exactly that might be.
06:30 But they have them, they're physical, they're there.
06:32 Now, talks of this has been going on for ages,
06:34 pretty much since AEW started, like back in 2019.
06:37 They, like, they created a bunch of little mini stables.
06:41 There's loads and loads of three-man groups
06:43 that they've had throughout the years,
06:44 especially in like 2020, they were kind of ramping that up
06:46 and then the pandemic hit and that seemed to sort of
06:50 scupper plans and things for that a bit.
06:53 So when is this actually gonna happen?
06:55 Like, who knows?
06:55 Right now, there are loads and loads of three-man groups
06:58 available to them to do something within this division.
07:01 Obviously, Black Hole Combat Club, House of Black.
07:03 You could put Christian with Jurassic Express
07:05 and do something with them.
07:06 Santana and Ortiz and Eddie Kingston,
07:08 you could do something with.
07:09 But it's my bet for what they're waiting for to do this
07:14 is Adam Cole and Red Dragon going up against the Young Bucks
07:19 and a returning Kenny Omega,
07:21 'cause that would be absolutely incredible.
07:24 And to have that as your first big match
07:26 for the trio's titles would be a hell of a way
07:29 to kick this off.
07:30 But obviously, no update onto when exactly
07:33 Kenny Omega will be ready for a return.
07:35 So who knows when that will happen?
07:36 But they have the physical belts, they exist,
07:38 they're there, just waiting on when it's gonna happen.
07:41 - And it's a real testament to AEW's foresight
07:44 that they've just managed to line up this many teams.
07:46 Like you said, it's very similar
07:48 to maybe the CM Punk situation,
07:49 where it was looking like they were gonna line him up
07:51 to maybe come into the company in early 2020,
07:54 that kind of time, but then the pandemic hit,
07:56 and it's, ah.
07:57 But now they've just, that time has been a blessing
08:00 in disguise 'cause they've been able to establish
08:02 so many teams and make you invest in so many teams.
08:04 And I've got, like you said, the Black Hole Combat Club,
08:06 they've just come in there.
08:07 And the Elite Red Dragon thing,
08:09 it's just, it's allowed this potential trios division
08:12 to really flourish and just become something
08:15 where when they do have these belts, it's there.
08:17 You're ready to go.
08:18 It's not like the WWE thing of,
08:19 oh, let's have women's tag belts
08:21 and then just throw loads of random people together
08:23 and hope for the best.
08:24 It's nothing like that.
08:25 It's a well-thought-out plan.
08:27 And you can see the smile on my face.
08:29 I'm so excited for this.
08:30 It's gonna be great.
08:31 So, ah, we'll see when it happens.
08:33 Maybe it'll happen at Double or Nothing,
08:34 like Kenny will come back and just drop these belts
08:37 in front of everyone and go,
08:37 "That's what we're gonna wrestle over."
08:38 I don't know.
08:39 We don't know what's gonna happen,
08:40 but I wanna see what the design looks like
08:42 and I wanna see what the actual, the match looks like.
08:44 Maybe we have another tournament.
08:45 Keep giving us tournaments, AEW.
08:47 I love tournaments.
08:48 So, yeah, this is intriguing to say the least.
08:52 But speaking of maybe AEW versus WWE comparisons,
08:55 things like this, Samoa Joe's had enough of all that.
08:57 So I'm probably not in his good books right now.
08:59 'Cause he took to the AEW Unrestricted Podcast
09:02 and he kind of buried the fact
09:04 that we all get a bit riled up sometimes
09:06 about AEW versus WWE.
09:07 And, well, he went into a lot of detail
09:09 about a few different things.
09:10 So he talks about the forbidden door at first
09:12 and he kind of laughed off that straight away.
09:14 Samoa Joe is taking no prisoners.
09:15 I don't know whether he's doing this in character,
09:18 which would line up with the Samoa Joe character
09:20 we're seeing right now in AEW,
09:21 just being a no-nonsense son of a gun,
09:23 or it's his sincere thoughts.
09:25 Either way, he said,
09:25 "Maybe my definition of forbidden door
09:27 and yours is different,
09:28 but mine was always WWE,
09:30 who that door is still not open."
09:31 If you're talking about co-promoting
09:33 with the likes of New Japan,
09:34 or the promotions of Ring of Honor, that's fine.
09:36 But to me, that's never been considered a forbidden door.
09:39 I co-promoted with Ring of Honor
09:40 and New Japan years ago.
09:41 Didn't turn out well.
09:43 It wasn't a good collaboration from that experience.
09:45 That's what I base my experiences on.
09:47 So Samoa Joe's sat there thinking,
09:48 "Well, this forbidden door stuff's just absolute bullcrap
09:52 because I've been doing it for years
09:53 and it didn't necessarily go great."
09:55 But I originated it.
09:56 Samoa Joe's the forbidden door king.
09:57 He's the master who holds the keys to the kingdom.
09:59 And now, going forward into this whole AEW/WWE debate,
10:04 obviously this kicked off with the Wednesday Night Wars
10:06 when Samoa Joe was still a part of WWE.
10:09 I think he was on Raw at the time, though,
10:10 a commentator maybe coming into that time,
10:12 but he still was part of it.
10:14 And he was very much aware of what was gonna happen
10:17 when he said these comments,
10:18 'cause the first thing he said is,
10:19 "I know this may blow up the narrative,
10:20 but like, that's how I understood it.
10:22 I'm not on the internet every day
10:24 catching on all the buzzwords
10:25 and getting with the revolution stuff.
10:27 I think the arguing between the AEW and the WWE fans
10:30 is ridiculous.
10:31 Watch pro wrestling.
10:32 You don't need to dunk on this.
10:34 It's you taking your ego
10:35 and taking something you have nothing involved with
10:38 and trying to start a conflict.
10:39 I mean, watch what you watch.
10:41 Enjoy what you wanna enjoy,
10:43 but hey, I'm always gonna be pro value for wrestlers
10:45 no matter what."
10:46 It's a tough one to unpack this
10:47 because a lot of the things Joe said there,
10:50 I 100% agree with,
10:51 and I think a lot of people would,
10:52 that just watch what you wanna watch.
10:53 There's no need to dunk on everything.
10:54 If you don't like something, just don't watch it.
10:57 That's how people understand, like, in the wrestling world.
10:59 If you don't like what they're putting out there,
11:00 don't watch it.
11:01 They'll probably not, like, keep putting it out
11:02 if people don't watch.
11:03 That's the way it is.
11:04 But to say that you're not involved with it at all,
11:07 like the discourse, the debate,
11:09 like having an interest in it,
11:10 I don't think that's 100% correct
11:12 'cause if you're not listening to the fans
11:15 and what they want and what they wanna see,
11:17 then you're going into WWE territory,
11:19 and that's not great.
11:20 So I don't know.
11:22 Conflicting opinion there for me personally.
11:25 - Yeah, absolutely. Me too.
11:27 It's like, I think,
11:29 like, you look at, like, sports and things,
11:31 like you get invested in the team that you like,
11:34 and then that sort of creates the, like, rivalries
11:38 within the system and things like that.
11:39 You're gonna get that with this as well
11:40 'cause it's the exact same thing.
11:41 You've got a fandom.
11:42 Like, if you're an AEW fan,
11:44 they're always gonna kind of take that side
11:47 over anything in any debate.
11:49 Like, it's a kind of natural thing to do.
11:50 I think a lot of it goes a little bit too toxic
11:52 and a little bit too negative.
11:54 But, like, it's just a natural thing
11:56 to pick something that you like
11:59 and support that side of it.
12:00 Like, so yeah, I think there's a middle ground
12:03 in there somewhere.
12:04 - Yeah.
12:05 - But yes, finishing off today with your Twitter questions.
12:10 The first one from Luca, who says,
12:14 "What is next?"
12:15 We got a lot of questions about Roman Reigns
12:16 and what's going on with him right now.
12:18 So he says, "What is next for Roman
12:19 after WrestleMania backlash?
12:21 Do they begin the Drew feud to finish at Clash of Castle
12:24 with Drew standing tall?"
12:25 - Ooh.
12:26 I'm conflicted on this, I'll be honest,
12:29 because I've said conflict a lot
12:31 in the last, like, two minutes.
12:32 But this is, it's what the alternative is.
12:36 Because I'd love to see Drew against Roman
12:38 and Drew win the big one in the UK,
12:40 because I don't think there's a bigger reaction
12:43 you can get in the world right now.
12:44 I know I'm biased, but I don't think there is.
12:46 But then on the other side of the coin,
12:48 Titan Fury called out Drew McIntyre
12:50 after he defended his genuine
12:52 boxing World Heavyweight Championship.
12:54 I want that as well.
12:56 I don't know.
12:57 - Maybe we have Roman against Drew
12:59 and like, Titan's the special enforcer or the referee.
13:03 Like that, you don't get a bigger match than that, really.
13:05 Or maybe a triple threat.
13:06 Maybe a triple threat.
13:07 And Titan Fury wins the Universal Undisputed Championship.
13:10 And Titan Fury then goes on a year-long reign
13:12 and beats everyone and then loses the belt
13:15 to Drew at WrestleMania 39.
13:17 And then Drew beats The Rock on the same night.
13:19 And Drew is the best ever.
13:21 I got carried away there, Phil, sorry.
13:23 - Yeah, there's a lot surrounding this,
13:25 'cause it's, I mean, obviously,
13:27 Roman's run after Mania has been really weird
13:29 and they've just shoehorned him into this tag team thing
13:31 'cause they had nothing better to do, I guess.
13:34 But like, you've got the Drew thing
13:36 and you've got Clash of Castles.
13:37 I know you need something for that,
13:39 but I think that's gonna sell out,
13:40 regardless of whether Drew versus Roman is the main event.
13:42 And you've got Cody in the background there as well,
13:46 which you need to be pushing as a top star
13:49 like sooner rather than later.
13:51 Like I pitched this on WrestleCulture that they do.
13:53 Cody versus Seth at Backlash.
13:55 He wins that, that's two nil for Cody.
13:57 It goes to Hell in a Cell.
13:58 It's inside the cell.
14:00 Cody wins that as well,
14:01 'cause you know how much Cody loves a good stipulation match.
14:04 And that's three nil for Cody.
14:06 And then it goes into Money in the Bank.
14:07 Maybe he wins Money in the Bank,
14:08 but then he calls his shot against Roman.
14:10 And like having whoever the person is
14:13 that's gonna eventually dethrone Roman,
14:14 that's a huge spot.
14:16 That's a huge gain for that person.
14:18 I don't necessarily think that needs to be Drew.
14:20 I think Cody would get a lot more from that
14:22 than Drew ever would.
14:24 So like you say, maybe do the Drew versus Tyson Fury thing.
14:27 I'd be down with that.
14:28 And then Cody versus Roman at SummerSlam
14:31 or something maybe, whatever.
14:33 But there's a lot of other things surrounding this
14:36 that I think we need to think of.
14:38 - And just watching the Cody podcast last night
14:40 with Stone Cold, the Broken Scores thing,
14:42 the amount of times he referenced
14:44 the Winged Eagle title over his shoulder,
14:47 he knows what he wants, all right?
14:48 And I don't think many of us are gonna disagree with it.
14:50 If Cody can somehow get his hands on a WWE title
14:53 and just maybe switch it up again,
14:55 give us that Winged Eagle.
14:56 It's a pipe dream, but I don't know.
14:58 I'm an old school guy.
15:00 I want it, I want it.
15:01 Give it to me.
15:01 - And the next question comes from Mark Salad
15:04 who says, "Morning guys, but pups say hi."
15:06 And he's got pictures of the dogs, obviously.
15:08 So he's got two questions, one for you, one for me.
15:11 Your question is, "What UFC fighter would you pick
15:14 "to tag with you versus the Creed brothers?"
15:16 - Ooh, I know who I wouldn't pick right now
15:17 because last night he didn't make weight
15:19 and he got stripped of his title.
15:21 First ever UFC fighter to get stripped of his title
15:23 for not making weight, that is Charles Oliveira
15:26 for the lightweight title.
15:27 That was a big topical thing for you, Phil,
15:29 if you're not aware.
15:30 That was a thing that happened last night.
15:32 - Ah, UFC's fake.
15:33 - Every time, I walk straight into it, every time.
15:37 I think currently I'd have Kamaru Usman,
15:39 pound for pound, probably the most baddest person
15:42 within UFC, I'd have him and we'd take on the Creed brothers
15:46 and I wouldn't even need to get in the ring,
15:48 which would be great.
15:49 I could just sit and watch Usman just kill people,
15:51 which yeah, that's who I'd go for, why not?
15:54 - Fair.
15:56 And the question he had for me is,
15:57 if you could create a promo package for any match,
15:59 which wrestlers would you pick?
16:01 And all the best promo packages are based upon
16:04 the best promo guys, really.
16:05 You look at like Rock Austin at WrestleMania 17,
16:08 it's the bits of promos that make that package
16:11 the absolute best that it can possibly be.
16:13 So, why not just go for two of the best promo guys ever
16:17 and go MJF versus The Rock?
16:19 Ooh, put that together.
16:21 You could make a hell of a video package out of this,
16:23 barbs that they would throw at each other.
16:25 I would be down with that.
16:26 - Just a bit of cheeky promotion here
16:28 for a WhatCulture man.
16:30 I believe Adam Nicholas did a very cool
16:32 CM Punk, MJF promo video package.
16:35 - He did, yes.
16:36 - Go and check that out if you've not already,
16:37 'cause that's up there for me.
16:39 I know we're biased, but that's pretty damn good.
16:42 Go and check that out.
16:44 - It is good.
16:45 And the last question of the day comes from AJ David,
16:47 who says, okay, so this is a situation.
16:50 So, Scrooge McDuck dies and you inherit all of his money.
16:54 What do you do?
16:56 Do you A, buy WWE, and if so,
17:00 what is the one thing that you would change?
17:02 Do you B, resurrect WCPW,
17:05 and if so, who is your first signing?
17:07 And C, buy a booker's slot for a Forbidden Door,
17:11 and if so, which match do you book?
17:14 - I mean, not to throw our own brand under the bus,
17:18 but I'd probably go for the biggest fish there,
17:20 which is maybe buying WWE.
17:22 - Boring.
17:23 - And then I'd not be a dick to all the other promotions,
17:26 and we'd have everyone under the same banner.
17:28 Do you know what I mean?
17:29 I think that's the one thing I'd change.
17:31 I'd open those Forbidden Doors for WWE,
17:33 and then you get your cake and you can eat it too.
17:36 So that's what I do as a wise man.
17:38 - Fair enough.
17:41 Yeah, get WCPW back.
17:43 Why the hell not?
17:44 - We could have it as a separate brand in WWE, Phil.
17:47 We could do it.
17:48 - No, bring it back.
17:50 As a first match, I'm gonna book,
17:52 I'm gonna somehow pay Cody out of his WWE contract,
17:55 and I'm gonna get him back,
17:56 and I'm gonna put him against Martin Kirby,
17:58 because why the hell not?
17:59 You've gotta have an original in it.
18:01 - Why not?
18:01 Why not?
18:02 That'd be fun.
18:03 - And that is the news for today.
18:05 Thank you very much for joining us.
18:07 If you want, you can follow us over on Twitter.
18:08 You can follow me @PhilMyChambers,
18:10 and you can follow Gary.
18:11 - @GMorgan04.
18:11 - And you can follow all of us @WhatCultureWWE.
18:16 While you're at it, just watch loads of videos.
18:18 That's what you do on YouTube.
18:20 It's what YouTube really likes.
18:21 Like I say, we've got the interview with Johnny Gargano
18:23 that was really good.
18:24 Really humble guy, really nice.
18:26 So go watch that, and watch everything else that we do,
18:29 because why not?
18:30 It's all good.
18:31 And subscribe to the channel.
18:33 Like the video too.
18:34 Comment down below.
18:35 Let us know what you think of all of today's news stories,
18:37 but most importantly, have yourselves a bloody good day.
18:41 - Waff.