What do you think of the name changes? Let us know in the comments!
WrestleTalk Patreon 👉 https://www.patreon.com/wrestletalk
Dom & Sully Split Fiction! 👉 https://youtu.be/5ynbe0RYQNQ
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...
00:19 - Sami Zayn Exposes Business
01:54 - Aleister Black WWE Return Leaked
04:05 - Andrade Frustrated With WWE?
06:08 - Shinsuke Nakamura WWE Status
07:35 - Lilian Garcia Leaving SmackDown
08:39 - New WWE Stars?
10:00 - Stone Cold Steve Austin For WrestleMania 41?
Mystery WWE RETURN! WWE Star Unhappy With Triple H? Big WWE WrestleMania 41 Plans | WrestleTalk
#WWE #WrestlingNews #WrestleTalk #WWERAW #AEW
Buy WrestleTalk Merch here! https://wrestleshop.com/
Sources used for research:
https://www.wrestlezone.com/news/1549153-sami-zayn-dines-with-kieran-culkin
https://www.wrestlezone.com/news/1549160-rumor-killer-on-shinsuke-nakamuras-wwe-status
https://www.cagesideseats.com/2025/3/17/24387440/rumor-roundup-mar-17-2025-survivor-series-location-aleister-black-wwe-return-roxanne-perez-nxt
https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1jcp2ag/andrade_on_x_waiting/
https://wrestletalk.com/news/wwe-target-loss-jeff-cobb/
https://wrestletalk.com/news/big-wwe-announcer-change-update/
https://wrestletalk.com/news/stone-cold-steve-austin-wwe-wrestlemania-41-update/
Youtube Channel Comments Policy
We appreciate the comments and opinions our viewers provide. Do note that all comments are subject to YouTube 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.
WrestleTalk Patreon 👉 https://www.patreon.com/wrestletalk
Dom & Sully Split Fiction! 👉 https://youtu.be/5ynbe0RYQNQ
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...
00:19 - Sami Zayn Exposes Business
01:54 - Aleister Black WWE Return Leaked
04:05 - Andrade Frustrated With WWE?
06:08 - Shinsuke Nakamura WWE Status
07:35 - Lilian Garcia Leaving SmackDown
08:39 - New WWE Stars?
10:00 - Stone Cold Steve Austin For WrestleMania 41?
Mystery WWE RETURN! WWE Star Unhappy With Triple H? Big WWE WrestleMania 41 Plans | WrestleTalk
#WWE #WrestlingNews #WrestleTalk #WWERAW #AEW
Buy WrestleTalk Merch here! https://wrestleshop.com/
Sources used for research:
https://www.wrestlezone.com/news/1549153-sami-zayn-dines-with-kieran-culkin
https://www.wrestlezone.com/news/1549160-rumor-killer-on-shinsuke-nakamuras-wwe-status
https://www.cagesideseats.com/2025/3/17/24387440/rumor-roundup-mar-17-2025-survivor-series-location-aleister-black-wwe-return-roxanne-perez-nxt
https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1jcp2ag/andrade_on_x_waiting/
https://wrestletalk.com/news/wwe-target-loss-jeff-cobb/
https://wrestletalk.com/news/big-wwe-announcer-change-update/
https://wrestletalk.com/news/stone-cold-steve-austin-wwe-wrestlemania-41-update/
Youtube Channel Comments Policy
We appreciate the comments and opinions our viewers provide. Do note that all comments are subject to YouTube 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.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Some big WrestleMania 41 plans have been announced, Aleister Black's WWE return leaked, Breaking
00:06News grass actually not greener, Andrade seemingly frustrated with Triple H's booking and more.
00:13I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:19Following his Dave Meltzer 5 star approved unsanctioned match at Elimination Chamber,
00:24WWE announced that Sami Zayn would be out of action indefinitely.
00:28He was already kayfabe, suffering from a neck injury from Kevin Owens' package piledriver
00:33earlier that month.
00:34And then he was further killed by two pop-up powerbombs on the ring apron.
00:38His kayfabe condition is so severe, there's a very real possibility that Sami Zayn, someone
00:44who main evented night one of WrestleMania 39, and who ended Gunther's undefeated streak
00:49for the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania 40, could miss the biggest show of the year
00:56next month.
00:57So maybe don't share how nice a time you're having with your celebrity friends on Twitter,
01:02Sami!
01:03Zayn has posted a gallery of images captioned Fine Company, Fine Food, with photos of him
01:09and his wife double dating with Oscar winning actor Kieran Culkin.
01:13You're exposing the business, Elgin- I mean Sami Zayn!
01:17Kieran and his brother Macaulay Culkin are lifelong wrestling fans.
01:20In fact, in one moment during A Real Pain, the movie Kieran won his best supporting Oscar
01:26he starts doing the Bushwhackers walk.
01:28Macaulay has been shown in the audience of Raw twice this year already.
01:31Maybe they'll want to do a Culkin boys trip to this year's Sam, the SmackDown after
01:35WrestleMania because, apparently, WWE are planning a big return.
01:54Aleister Black WWE return confirmed!
01:57Black's five year run in WWE came to an end in 2021, where he was released just weeks
02:02into his new Dark Father character, and a feud with Big E. But because someone in WWE
02:07reportedly never updated the non-compete clause in Black's contract to a main roster one,
02:12he was able to shockingly show up in AEW just a month later, rather than the standard 90
02:18days.
02:19He went straight into a feud with Cody Rhodes, beating him twice, in the crazy rise of AEW
02:24when CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole joined soon after.
02:28It seemed as though this guy we all loved in NXT, but who was never booked right on
02:33the main roster, could finally be about to break through as a proper top main eventer.
02:39Then he hardly did anything for the next few years.
02:42Rather than be booked as the singles competitor I think most of us wanted him to be, Malakai
02:46mostly featured in trios matches with his House of Black faction.
02:50He admitted to asking for his release from AEW in August 2022, the same month as the
02:55backstage brawl out with CM Punk, and shortly after Triple H, who had booked him very well
03:00in NXT, got control of the WWE main roster.
03:04There were also reports that Malakai would turn down creative if AEW had booked him to
03:09lose.
03:10His contract finally expired last month, making him a free agent.
03:14Then, on Friday's episode of SmackDown, a new vignette played of Smoke on a black
03:18background, with the number 4 appearing on the screen.
03:22According to PWNexus, this is directly teasing Black's WWE return, which is expected to
03:28happen on the SmackDown following WrestleMania on the 25th April.
03:33Interestingly, on the 27th January, Black's real-life wife Selina Vega was weirdly removed
03:38from her LWO faction on Raw and moved to SmackDown.
03:42Just under two weeks later was when Black became a free agent.
03:45Perhaps WWE were already working towards Black's return in January by drafting Vega to the
03:50same brand that he'd be on.
03:52How do you think the number 4 ties into Aleister Black's WWE return?
03:56Let me know in the comments down below.
03:58Mysterious.
03:59Maybe the 4 stands for Forgotten, as that seems to be how Andrade's feeling right
04:04now.
04:05Stop me if you've heard this one before.
04:07Andrade's six year run in WWE came to an end in 2021, where he was granted his release
04:12on the 21st March.
04:13He debuted in AEW three months later in June, where his first feud of note was against Cody
04:18Rhodes later that year.
04:20But this time he had three separate managers, Jose the Assistant, Vickie Guerrero, and,
04:25very briefly, Chavo Guerrero.
04:27Then he hardly did anything for the next few years.
04:30Andrade flipped between being a face and a heel.
04:33He was weirdly managed by CJ Perry, the former Lana and a feud against Miro for a few months.
04:38He reunited, and then quietly left the faction igno-blahblahblah.
04:42Around the same time Malakai was requesting his release from AEW in 2022, Andrade, who
04:48also might've wanted to go back to WWE too with Triple H now in charge, reportedly
04:53went up to Sammy Guevara backstage and got in a fight.
04:56Andrade was suspended, and didn't appear on TV again until June the next year on the
05:01debut episode of Collision, which is where, at the time, Tony Khan put all his difficult
05:05toys.
05:06Andrade's AEW contract expired at the end of 2023, and he made his return to WWE in
05:12the following month's Royal Rumble.
05:14Andrade had what he'd seemingly wanted for the last year and a half.
05:17He was in WWE again, where his then-wife Charlotte Flair also worked, with Triple H
05:22booking him on SmackDown.
05:25By June, he was wrestling on WWE Speed.
05:27Outside of a fun series of matches with Carmelo Hayes on SmackDown, Andrade hasn't done
05:33anything of note since his WWE return.
05:35And this might be making him annoyed.
05:38As just like his semi-frustrated tweets back in AEW, he's now posted, WAITING, THREE
05:44EXCLAMATION MARKS, with a black and white poster of him sitting on some steps.
05:48The replies were either fans asking Triple H to book him more on TV, or for him to return
05:53to go back to AEW.
05:54That's Twitter for you.
05:56Not including the Royal Rumble match, Andrade has only been booked three times this year,
06:02beating The Miz once, but losing to Jacob Fatu and Shinsuke Nakamura as well.
06:06Speaking of Nakamura…
06:08Following his shock US title loss on the 15th March episode of SmackDown, because every
06:13TV episode now has a title change on, a rumour started to spread online that Nakamura was
06:19leaving WWE.
06:20Came out this was falsely attributed to a report from PWTorch, who never said anything
06:25about Nakamura leaving the company.
06:27WWE themselves then confirmed to the Wrestling Observer that story wasn't true.
06:32But they didn't answer whether Nakamura had had his last match in the company.
06:37Turns out they didn't have to clarify that last point, as Nakamura wrestled on last Friday's
06:41SmackDown, losing to Damian Priest.
06:43And he then went on to lose to LA Knight on both of WWE's live tour dates in Germany
06:48over the weekend.
06:49Before I get into the rest of the news, our brand new video game series Dom & Sully Play
06:54is now live!
06:55Here's a clip of them trying to beat Split Fiction.
07:24Watch that immediately after this news by clicking the video in the description below.
07:35While Nakamura apparently isn't leaving WWE, Lillian Garcia is leaving SmackDown,
07:41as she shared on Instagram.
07:43Just finished announcing SmackDown in Barcelona, Spain, and it was absolutely incredible.
07:51It's Spanish for heart.
07:54And now I have some news that this will be my last show as the full-time SmackDown announcer.
07:58A new era is upon us, but I will still be with the company, as I will be announcing
08:03for all WWE Saturday night's main event shows on NBC and Peacock, singing at certain
08:08special events, and currently working on other show ideas with WWE.
08:14Winky face emoji.
08:15WWE is my home, so stay tuned as a new chapter begins.
08:19I invite all of you to continue this journey with me as we share it together.
08:24Bottom line, thank you and I love you dearly.
08:27Lillian took over following Samantha Irvine leaving WWE last October.
08:31Garcia was always likely a temporary replacement.
08:34WWE's main ring announcers are currently Alicia Taylor on Raw and Mike Rome on NXT.
08:40Even though we kinda just had a roster refresh with the Netflix move in January and the ensuing
08:44transfer portal, PWInsider is reporting a full draft following WrestleMania 41, along
08:50with Aleister Black's WWE return reportedly happening on the SmackDown aftermania, and
08:55Rey Fenix potentially debuting to form the Lucha Bros on Raw with Penta before them.
09:00There is also heavy speculation on New Japan wrestler Jeff Cobb.
09:04Fightful reported that WWE had interest in Cobb, who is currently a free agent, late
09:08last week.
09:09It was then said that Cobb has even been listed on WWE's internal roster, but Fightful
09:15couldn't confirm that.
09:16On the day those reports came out, Cobb was set to face Naito in the New Japan Cup.
09:21So when Cobb beat Naito, a former heavyweight champion, a bit of doubt was cast on those
09:27WWE debut reports.
09:29The following night, though, Cobb lost a show to Umino.
09:32In his post-match interview, he interestingly made a reference to WWE's Roman Reigns.
09:37I'm going to be a good boy and finish this tournament tour, and whoever walks out the
09:41New Japan Cup champion, I will come knock, knock, knocking.
09:45And whoever it is I have to fight, you will acknowledge me.
09:49But the biggest appearance he could've had in all of wrestling over the last year was
09:54Stone Cold Steve Austin instead of The Undertaker in the WrestleMania 40 main event.
09:59Better late than never, I guess.
10:00Because Stone Cold has been confirmed for an appearance at the WrestleMania 41 weekend,
10:05where he's set to appear at WWE World in Las Vegas.
10:08The announcement was fittingly made yesterday, the 16th March, aka Stone Cold Day 316.
10:14Austin didn't get to have one last stare down with The Rock last year.
10:18Perhaps he saw how much fun it all was, and is going to get in on the action this time
10:22round.
10:23Click the video onscreen now to go watch Dom and Sullivan play Split Fiction.