WWE Backstage Creative Frustration! Title SCRAPPED! WWE Stars ‘DREADING’ Show! | WrestleTalk - video Dailymotion

WrestleTalk

Are you excited for WrestleMania weekend? Let us know in the comments!  WrestleTalk Patreon 👉   / wrestletalk   Monday Night War Ep.3! 👉    • WWE 2K25 MyGM Mode - Episode 3 | Mond...   More wrestling news on https://wrestletalk.com/  Unlock the secrets to working in professional wrestling, sign up to https://www.wrestlingmasterclass.com/  00:00 - Coming up...  00:16 - WrestleTalk Is Raw!  01:32 - WWE Stars Dreading Show  03:04 - WWE Creative Frustration  05:06 - Goldberg Retirement Match Plans  06:03 - TNA Title Vacated  08:07 - WWE International Plans  WWE Backstage Creative Frustration! Title SCRAPPED! WWE Stars ‘DREADING’ Show! | WrestleTalk  #WWE #TNA #WrestleTalk   Buy WrestleTalk Merch here! https://wrestleshop.com/   Sources used for research:  https://wrestletalk.com/news/wwe-tale...  https://www.cagesideseats.com/2025/3/...  https://www.cagesideseats.com/2025/3/...  https://wrestletalk.com/news/spoiler-...  https://wrestletalk.com/news/spoiler-...  https://wrestletalk.com/news/goldberg...  https://wrestletalk.com/news/heavy-pr...  https://wrestletalk.com/news/wwe-inte...   DailyMotion Channel Comments Policy  We appreciate the comments and opinions our viewers provide. Do note that all comments are subject to DailyMotion auto-moderation and manual moderation review. We encourage opinions and discussion, but harassment, hate speech, bullying and other abusive posts will not be tolerated. Decisions on comment removal are made by the Community Manager. Please email us at support@wrestletalk.com with any questions or concerns.

Transcript

00:00WWE stars are dreading a Mania weekend show, backstage creative frustration at SmackDown,

00:06a controversial wrestling championship vacated and more.

00:11I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.

00:15We've had Raw is Jericho, move aside Monday Night Rollins, you're on Friday's now

00:23the KO show.

00:24Because tonight is finally Monday Night WrestleRaw.

00:31WrestleRaw sounds weird.

00:32Luke and I are going to Monday Night Raw live in London tonight.

00:36I've only ever been to one WWE TV taping my entire life, and it was terrible.

00:42The 8th May 2017 episode where Dean Ambrose and The Miz were made co-general managers

00:47was a bad time for everyone.

00:49So I am very excited to experience a Paul Levesque era production, where I can watch

00:55the drone fly around the crowd, hopefully get in the background of an overly long Yeet

00:59entrance one shot, and, most importantly, see how off the pacing is whenever they throw

01:04to Netflix ad breaks.

01:06And there'll probably be some wrestling too, I think.

01:08If you see me and Luke, please do come over and say hi, and most importantly, buy us a

01:12drink for all the time you would've then wasted.

01:15If Luke tells me I'm not allowed to charge for photos, well then I'll guilt you into

01:18nice gestures.

01:19The show begins at 7pm here in the United Kingdom, which is broadcast live on Netflix

01:24at 2pm EST in the States.

01:27That's pretty early for Raw in its home country, but nowhere near as early as NXT

01:31on WrestleMania weekend.

01:33WrestleMania weekend has SmackDown and the Hall of Fame ceremony going partially head

01:37to head on Friday night, WrestleMania 41 Night 1 on Saturday, Mania Night 2 on Sunday, and

01:43then Raw on the Monday.

01:44It's a Jam That Jam packed weekend for the main roster, which means NXT has suffered

01:49a brutal bit of scheduling.

01:51Mania weekend also sees NXT run one of its biggest shows of the year, Stand and Deliver,

01:56which is booked for Las Vegas' T-Mobile arena on the Saturday.

02:00Because that's taking place on the same day as Night 1 of WrestleMania, Stand and

02:04Deliver has to finish much earlier in the day.

02:07In 2023, for example, Stand and Deliver started at 1pm EST.

02:12Turns out that was quite the squeeze between the two events, because last year it was shifted

02:16forward to 12pm.

02:17But Mania 41 is set to start at 3.30pm, including the pre-show, to give enough time for fans

02:23and some talent to make the half hour walk down the road to the Allegiant Stadium, where

02:27Mania is taking place.

02:29This year's Stand and Deliver start time was initially listed as 11.30am, then got

02:34changed to the really quite early 10.30am.

02:37But it has now been scheduled publicly for 9.30am.

02:42Fans are going to be eating what they've nicked from the hotel breakfast in the stands.

02:45Fightful has reported that talent are dreading the call time for that show.

02:50Currently no matches are announced for the event, but it's expected to feature a three

02:53way for the NXT Championship of Obafemi defending against Trick Williams and Javon Evans.

02:59But that's not the only piece of WWE timing that's getting heat backstage.

03:04When Raw moved to Netflix at the start of this year, the USA Network had a problem.

03:09They had been broadcasting Raw since 2005, and the show's shift from two to three hours

03:14long in 2012 helped maintain their network's average viewership.

03:18This was vital in the decade that followed, as traditional TV viewership steadily declined.

03:23Without Raw, specifically at three hours long, USA Network would see their entire channel

03:29slide down the TV rankings.

03:32So in the broadcast rights game of musical chairs late last year, with Raw moving to

03:35Netflix and NXT going to the CW, USA got Fox's cast off SmackDown.

03:41USA had just lost five weekly hours of WWE programming, though, and gained two in SmackDown.

03:48That's a three hour deficit, which significantly impacted their TV rankings.

03:53So to mitigate that as best they could, they agreed with WWE that SmackDown, from the start

03:58of 2025, would go to three hours.

04:02And it's been rubbish.

04:04Fans and backstage talent alike have complained over the show's length.

04:08Initially it was hoped that the longer runtime could elevate underutilised talent.

04:12That hasn't happened, and it's instead overexposed the product and stretched its

04:16roster and ideas too thin.

04:18If only there was some historical comparison we could have used to have foreseen this.

04:24According to WrestleVotes Radio, WWE's production and creative teams consider the three hour

04:28SmackDowns a major misstep.

04:31It's led to bad pacing, a lot of filler to pad out the show, and creative fatigue.

04:36This comes during the same time that Road Dogg was made co-head writer of SmackDown

04:40with John Switaker.

04:41Road Dogg had previously been a lead writer on SmackDown back in 2017, which was a bad

04:46creative period for the show.

04:48Thankfully, SmackDown is expected to go back to a two hour runtime in June.

04:52But that does mean three more months of badly paced episodes, and an increasingly frustrated

04:57roster and backstage team.

04:59We need something fresh.

05:01We need something new.

05:02We need…

05:0358 year old wrestler Bill Goldberg.

05:06Goldberg announced last year that, like everyone else he grew up loving, he will be having

05:10his final ever match at some point in 2025.

05:15Around that time, he seemed to be building a feud with the World Heavyweight Champion

05:18Gunther, including an in-ring angle together at Bad Blood in October.

05:22A WrestleMania Gunther vs Goldberg match is obviously not on the cards, though, but Goldberg

05:27has now posted on Instagram announcing he's begun training for his retirement match, with

05:33a photo of him and his training partners and the caption, and the grind begins.

05:39Assembling my in-ring crew, including… wait, is that his son Gage?

05:43That's what his son looks like now.

05:46But yesterday, he looked like this at Survivor Series.

05:49Goldberg recently told Ariel Hawane that he's recently undergone stem cell treatment, and

05:53he's hoping to be cleared soon.

05:55He also said he wants to go out better than his last match, which was him losing to Roman

05:59Reigns at Elimination Chamber Toronto in 2022.

06:03Just days after TNA announced they were making significant backstage cuts, controversially

06:08firing longtime member Gail Kim and the promotion's effective head of creative Ariel Schnerner,

06:13the promotion has just filmed a pair of TV tapings to build to their next big show Rebellion

06:18on the 27th April.

06:20These are for episodes of IMPACT that haven't yet aired, so please skip to the timestamp

06:24onscreen now if you don't want to have them spoiled.

06:26Because we're entering the Spoiler Room Brawl in 3, 2, 1…

06:30Bruce Willis was a ghost all along.

06:32WRONG SPOILER.

06:33NXT's Ethan Page, a former two-time World Tag Team Champion in TNA, made a shock appearance,

06:41challenging Joe Hendry for a shot at the world title.

06:43This is just the latest in a string of high profile NXT and TNA crossovers since their

06:48working relationship was made official in January, like Moose and the Hardy Boys appearing

06:53at NXT's Roadblock show earlier in March.

06:56Also at the tapings, TNA's Director of Authority Santino Marella made the decision to strip

07:00Steph Delanda of the Digital Media Championship, and then effectively get rid of that belt.

07:08First introduced in 2021, the Intergender Belt's inaugural champion was Jordan Grace.

07:12Matt Cardona and Joe Hendry also had runs with the belt, until its controversial end

07:18with PCO.

07:19Having won the title in July last year, PCO destroyed it with a sledgehammer at a GCW

07:24event back in January.

07:26This was a shoot, as he claims TNA had gone back on a verbal agreement they had with him

07:32about a contract renewal.

07:33But TNA tried to retcon that Inter storyline by giving his kayfabe wife Delanda the title

07:38on her return to TV two weeks later.

07:41But because, apparently, you can't have too many titles in wrestling right now, TNA

07:45announced they'll be replacing it right away, kicking off a tournament to crown the

07:50inaugural TNA International Champion.

07:53As a sign of the times, Fightful is reporting TNA's streaming service TNA Plus has had

07:58its subscriber count double over the last year, which is partly due to efforts from

08:02members of the marketing team.

08:04The same marketing team members who were fired last week.

08:08With WWE doing their European tour right now, they've used it as an opportunity to announce

08:12their international plans.

08:14Firstly is the talent tryouts they held at the UK Performance Center.

08:18Which is weirdly, legitimately a 20 minute drive from my house on the 29th March.

08:23According to Fightful, UK indie talent Rio, Golden Boy Santos, Zozia, Man Like Darius,

08:28Progress Champion Luke Jacobs, Bionic from the UK Gladiators reboot, who looks like if

08:32Zack Sabre Jr ate Zack Sabre Jr, Nathan Angel, Hustle Champion Rain Leverkusen, Danny Jones,

08:38Adam Mackstead and Footballer Diego Rivera.

08:41Apparently, Man Like Darius particularly impressed WWE officials, with him receiving heavy praise.

08:47Before the tryouts, several talent in WWE have been reportedly pushing them to sign

08:51Darius as well as Rio.

08:53But it's not just Europe WWE wants to conquer, there's also that long-running market they've

08:58been trying to properly monetise… India.

09:01WWE President Nick Khan has told the Hindustan Times that they're aiming to host a flagship

09:06event in India in 2026 or 2027.

09:10WWE's audience in the country is enormous, with some estimates having Raw and SmackDown's

09:15weekly viewership at 50 million people on the SPN channel.

09:19Which is 10 times more than the US.

09:22But now WWE has moved to Netflix internationally, their reach in that country is more limited,

09:28and at risk of AEW swooping in to take those TV deals.

09:32But interestingly, Netflix seem aware of this too, as Khan said.

09:37Without asking, Netflix handed us a list of their priority countries.

09:41At the top of that list was India.

09:44And knowing that the race would come into play on April 1st in India, if it's important

09:48to Netflix, assume it's important to us.

09:51The question over how do you monetise such a large audience is now no longer WWE's

09:56issue.

09:57It's the Netflix problem now.

09:58And as their strategy relies on rapid subscriber growth rather than actual profit, they can

10:03fund expansions into markets like this.

10:06Now click the video onscreen now to watch the brand new episode of me and Luke playing

10:10WWE 2K25's My GM Mode in Monday Night War.

WWE Backstage Creative Frustration! Title SCRAPPED! WWE Stars ‘DREADING’ Show! | WrestleTalk

Category

Transcript

Recommended