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Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson revived their Talkin' Shop podcast last night to unveil they had signed a two year deal with Impact Wrestling and that their deal would allow them to also work with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Impact has long wanted to regain their NJPW working agreement, so they aren't going to prevent talent from working there.
During the podcast, the duo discussed the end of their WWE run. They noted during their 2019 negotiations with the company (which saw them turn down numerous offers), they had decided to go to AEW and that AEW had creative plans for their first year, including debuting on the first Dynamite episode. They toured Japan for WWE, where they had a sit-down with Triple H, who they claimed said that WWE would always be there while who knows what would happen with AEW. Anderson stated that Triple H specifically told him, "When I look at you, I see your kids" and promised to make sure they were set for life. At that point, they ended up signing what was the biggest money contract for either in their lives but were released six months later. They admitted there was heat with AEW because they made it clear they were coming in but instead signed with WWE.
They also noted at the time, New Japan was also going to bring them in, so the original plan was AEW and New Japan but WWE offered too much money to turn down.
On the long-discussed Paul Heyman-AJ Styles heat, Anderson and Gallows placed the blame on their release on Heyman specifically. They stated that they were not originally going to be cut but were because of Heyman. They stated that AJ Styles went to Heyman, who stated that he had nothing to do with their releases. Styles then went to Vince McMahon, who told him Gallows and Anderson were not on his list to be cut and it was a Heyman call. It should be noted that ALL decisions on that level come down to Vince McMahon, no one else. Styles at that point refused to work with Heyman and demanded to be moved to Smackdown. Gallows noted that Heyman once told him that if he felt Heyman lied to him, bury him on social media, which certainly, they did. They also believed that when their most recent contracts were signed, they believe there was some resentment over how much money they received from producers and officials, which likely worked against them.
Gallows and Anderson were also not happy with re-signing and then immediately getting wiped out by Ricochet and said they should have suspected something was up when they were booked to both be pinned by Drew McIntyre. Anderson claimed that the week after that happened on Raw, he approached Heyman who told him the loss would not hurt them in the long term scheme of things.
The pair also discussed the Saudi Arabia plane situation. While noting that no one is ever going to admit this really happened, they were told by someone they trusted who worked on production that at one point Vince McMahon called for the broadcast to be cut and there were a lot of conspiracy theories about them being held among the wrestlers. They joked that the mid-carders were all being left to "be killed" but then joked that no one was going to kill the "rich guys" like Randy Orton, Goldberg and The Undertaker. They said that while there were armed guards at the airport, nothing threatening ever happened and the guards never even really seemed to pay attention. They said that the plane problems were obviously not something WWE saw coming because they were driven in circles in Saudi Arabia while WWE tried to find hotels for 120 people. They said they were treated nice and joked about a great seafood buffet but were glad to be out of there once they were finally able to leave the next day.
WWE has stated a mechanical problem with the plane, requiring a part to be flown in from another city, was the cause of the issue - as well as the flight crew timing out and not being legally allowed to fly.
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