– According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Gunther is scheduled to undergo nose surgery following his brutal main event title defense. Dave Meltzer revealed that the injury angle during the match was completely intentional and meant to write him off television temporarily. Before the match even went down, Meltzer said he had already been informed that the surgery was coming.
– During Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer broke down Cargill’s loss to Stratton in under seven minutes, calling attention to how the company’s booking of her has changed drastically in just a few months.
Even up to, I would say, two months, three months ago… I remember just having some messaging with someone very high up in WWE and talking about the top people in the future. One of the names that was on it was Jade. From the day Jade came in, Jade was not brought in to be a 50/50 wrestler. Jade was not brought in to be a mid-card wrestler. You could see the way she was brought in — she was brought in to be a superstar. And, you know, like when I was told the women’s future of the company, it was Rhea Ripley and Jade Cargill. So she lost tonight. She lost with a moonsault. Someone like that… it’s not the loss and it’s not the end of the world for her or anything like that. But the person who I was told about two months ago is not losing in whatever it was, seven minutes to a moonsault to Tiffany Stratton.
You can tell — and everyone will deny this — but by how they booked it… I don’t think anyone is talking about her in the same light as Rhea Ripley today. And they were. When I saw that finish… they don’t see her as The Ultimate Warrior anymore, put it that way. And they did at first.
AEW thought the same thing about Cargill. She certainly has the look of a top star, and to be fair she’s vastly improved from when she debuted, almost to the point where she could be a top star, and she could very well get there. But I keep going back to thinking that some time in NXT would have been a huge help to her in getting there rather than rushing her into a top spot just like AEW did.