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Hello there everyone, it's Luke Owen here. If you enjoy this WrestleTalk audio content and you've thought to yourself, hey, I really wish I could hear the WrestleTalk news in audio content, well now you can! If you search for the WrestleTalk network in your podcast catcher, you can hear... the daily WrestleTalk News in audio form. The Ron has set truth free. I'm Oli Davis. I'm joined by Lugo and DAD in...
Probably the fourth consecutive podcast that leads with something to do with our truth. If you haven't already, please press the thumbs up button. Give us a subscribe. Leave a comment down below with what you thought of this episode and sending your... Jack Gables to WrestleTalk.com forward slash support before you say it. Yes, we are aware we're both wearing white shirts and we kind of look like.
we've joined the cult. Yeah, or that, or maybe you and I are members of a band that has got a more charismatic front man. So, you and I... Laurie. and it's laurie of course sorry so we are in the background playing the instruments doing all of the work but laurie the more charismatic front man is getting all of the accolades and admiration from the fans Or we're big fans of The Bear, the FX show The Bear. Yep.
Where they wear white t-shirts a lot. We've come in our Bryan Danielson cosplay. Yeah, we've got the official Bryan Danielson AEW debut merch. Yeah, I'm slightly ruined because I've got a pocket. I don't often just... You bought me this shirt as well. very nice. I love this shirt. I often don't just wear white shirts like this. I usually have an over shirt over it. I was like, you know what? I really, problem with my over shirt look.
is that I don't get to show off my lovely pocket tees. Like, I got my boss man one, but no one knows because no one can see my embroidered boss man on it. Well, this is the Raw podcast. Yeah, we're also nearly 10 minutes late going live as well. It says eight minutes past it. That's why I said nearly 10.
And it was a packed episode of Raw. Sure was. So there could have been three different leads to this podcast review of Raw. I made three different thumbnails for this episode. And somehow, the World Heavyweight Championship. Yeah, of course, that's one. It's Mr. Iguana. The World Heavyweight Championship, changing hands, Jey Uso's seven, eight-week reign.
was the third most important thing we decided. So we were going to lead with Gunther winning the world title because that was the main event of the show. It's what closed out the show. And it's pretty big news. That's a world title change. The first title change on Raw since like Big E won the WWE Championship.
championship but what about the ria ripley sky i'm talking about just the men the men's side of things yeah so like you know it's a big old title change on raw and we then went on to wwe's youtube channel And there it is, you know, the world title change, about 580,000 viewers.
that's pretty good that's pretty impressive you scroll down R-Truth 1.4 million John Cena challenge CM Punk challenging John Cena 1.5 million you know like actually it was the other way around it was Truth was 1.5 Cena and Punk was 1.4 and you're like
Oh, right, yeah, the world title change really was low on people's talking points coming out of this show. It was a great match, though. Very good. I think this is one of the best episodes Raw has had since the Netflix move. Agreed. Very packed, very newsworthy.
And yeah, Ron Killings, Ron the Truth Killings, after he made his return at Money in the Bank. And everyone wanted him to return because he's such a beloved comedy figure in WWE. He returned as a serious... guy he is yeah this is the new serious character this was um the reports from i think well fight for select's report was that he's long been wanting to if i'm going to close out my career i would like to have one last run as a serious character
rather than being the comedy sideshow. So this was off the back of the Becky Lynch, Lyra Valkyria segment, which was in-ring, just an in-ring promo, and Bayley returned, took out Lynch. Another big thing on this show was Bayley returning. Aska's returning. coming back next week nikki bella's here so i feel like this is a triple h way right because he used to do this in nxt like you know for about eight weeks or so there'd be nothing happening on nxt just like
good shows a fine one hour's worth of television and then there would just be one week where it's like and here's seven big things that happen on this one episode and then it's a big takeover and then you go back to eight weeks where it's a fine show yeah i don't know whether this was always the plan
where he's like, well, WrestleMania happened. We're going to hit a lull. And let's kick things back up for Money in the Bank into SummerSlam. This is now the road to SummerSlam. And this was always meant to be a big show. Well, or... There have been consistently low viewing figures for Netflix, reportedly, with Raw. I mean, reportedly, Netflix literally released their numbers, and they are lower than they have been previously. Yes, yeah, but it's very opaque.
It's a lot of trying to figure out things based on other numbers and reverse engineering. But even the numbers that they put out are lower each time they put them out. So even though they put out the amount of hours watched...
It was lower than the amount of hours that were watched the previous week, and that was lower than the hours that were watched the previous week. There hasn't been a report, though, like we used to get in the Fox or USA Network days, where Netflix are unhappy. Oh, yeah, which is why I don't think this is a panic.
move to low Netflix numbers. I think this was always the plan. This had been advertised for weeks to be a big show. Yeah, with the Gunther J match. Wild title match. John Cena was advertised for this show weeks and weeks and weeks in advance. Nikki Bella was obviously... over the weekend i think this has always planned to be a big show you heard it here uh luke says our truth coming back was always the long-term plan it was always the it was a work brother it's it's all just part of the story
So poor old Bailey. She gets in. She makes her return. Wow, that was good. Before you can even react to that, R-Truth is stepping up onto the commentary desk. He's got a mic and he cuts a promo. Yeah. He says, don't let anyone tell you. Your voice doesn't matter. He's back because you all wanted it. R-Truth is back for you, but back for him too. Because while we all love R-Truth, he can be too funny.
Yeah, he can be too nice. He can be too forgiving. To anybody who thinks he's a sideshow actor or a gimmick, he got out some scissors and he cut off the dreadlocks off his hair. And he said, the truth has set me free. I am wrong killings. Now put some truth on my name. Yeah, I am the truth, the whole troop, and nothing but the truth, so put some respect on my name. Great promo. It was such a good promo. It'd be interesting to see, and please do chat in.
A lot of people don't know he used to be serious. But we first really experienced him as a TNA guy. Yeah. And he was a very serious guy. Obviously getting rowdy first. Getting rowdy with our truth. Was it Road Dogg, not R-Truth? Yes. It wasn't R-Truth and Kate Quick. The whole gang. Kate Crush is in there as well. Wrong killings. Sorry. But the... Yeah, he was a serious guy in the NWA TNA days.
He was being positioned for the main event. He's a two-time NWA world champion. His first set of promos were those serious, angry promos, and they were about... ironically, WWE releasing him. Yes, and he sort of added a more racial tone to those things, like saying he was being held back because he's black. But here... It's more like, no, I am. I'm not a joke.
I'm going to be a serious guy. Yeah. Again, you know, is it a work? Has this been part of the plan all along? You can tell, again, that it's not a work and it's not all part of the plan because he's not in a feud with John Cena, CM Punk is. Yeah. Yeah, that would have been the logical next step. So I suppose that was a very good delivery. But what next? That was going to be my question because it's not Cena.
Like they're not going into the Cena program because Cena is going into a program with CM Punk. And then that will likely lead to Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam because Cody pinned him at Money in the Bank. So then this hard truth thing is not... going towards a pay-per-view unless it's another saturday night's main event deal you do that on the uh the show that's kind of going after all in
or you do it on the nxt show to compete against uh all indirectly so yeah i don't know what you do next with our truth also we don't really know what like the the deal that he's got looks like so it's hello
Ben. So we don't know what this deal looks like. The report from Body Slam that said it's not a usual active... contracts that he has signed the deal is likely to be as a short-term thing five will say we don't know what the length of the deal is so this could just be you know like a handful of months just one final run but i don't know what that would entail it could be
Hey, AJ Styles didn't mention the IC title on this show. It could be another dropped IC title thread for AJ so that Ron Killings can pick it up instead. I think that's where it is. Yeah, it's the IC title. It's a mid-card title.
thing i don't see him teaming with the miz to go after the tag belts we had that already i think and this is a solo single story for our truth yeah and i don't killings and i don't think it's gunther either because because i can because i can i can see where the the gunther direction is um like i can in my mind i can see where they're heading with that the other potential could be maybe he's the fourth guy for the uh money the bank qualify money money the bank the king of the ring first round
Yeah, but you know who I've got. I mean, same Zs. Ilya Dragunov. Oh, no, apparently he's had a bit of a setback with his recovery and like it's... Yeah, Sean Ross Sapp was saying it's very unlikely to be because it would be a hell of a recovery from the injury that he got.
That was a year ago. Yeah, and he got a really bad injury. A year should be long enough, Eddie Kingston. I miss you. Did you see the video he posted? Yeah, it looks rough. Oh, man, it's awful. It's like me at the gym when I have to do my weights. but you were gonna say on wrong killings well yeah maybe he's the fourth guy for the king of the ring first round because they it's bronson reed
Seamus Rusev and a blank space. I mean, it's Mr. Iguana. Now we're talking. That was my immediate thought. It's Mr. Iguana. Oh my god, Mr. Iguana in the ring with Bronson Reed. Seamus and Rusev. Seamus and Rusev. Perfect. But it is what he got a video package on this show. Can I make a bet with you? Yeah. It's Mr. Iguana next week. And if it is, he wins the whole thing. No. OK, we'll figure out this out. If it is.
I will do next week's podcast as Mr. Iguana. And I'll do the whole face paint gimmick. Whoa. This has escalated quickly. I was thinking about it on the way in. I'm bald. So it's quite easy. I can do the whole like over the head thing. I mean, there's no risk for me to taking this pair. Well, it depends on how much you want it to be because we've got to decide whether if it is, I'll do it. If it isn't, I'll do it. Well, if it...
Either way, you should do it. You obviously want to. Well, I think it would be funny. I think it would be very funny. Yeah. The problem is, the thing with the Mr. Iguana thing coming in, meme wrestlers have a shelf life. You know, Huck Tua had a shelf life.
What are you talking about? She got a cryptocurrency. She had a shelf life. What's to say? I mean, I saw some comments in yesterday's WrestleTalk news video that were just like, oh, enough with the iguana already. It's been two videos. Well, I know. That's what I'm saying. If you're getting that reaction. two days afterwards what's a whole week gonna do to pull this back to killings yes um yeah i think
The only way this can go is a singles mid-card title run and then a retirement. The report is that maybe he's using this run to establish the wrong killings name so he can better transition. into the indies this isn't a long-term thing it seems it's not like killings has come back to be our truth the comedy person we all love for the next 10 years i don't
You know, I'm happy that he's getting to do this. And I've got a lot of respect for him for saying, oh, well, you got rid of me. If I come back, it's all on my terms. I want my name. I want to be serious. I want to have... you know a fair amount of control over how i'm portrayed but i don't know if coming back as the serious r-truth
works in 2025. Well, it might do. It's just we don't know if it's... It could do. We just don't know at this point, and I don't know, if it's what the audience wants. Yes, that's sort of what I meant. That's sort of what you were getting at, because... You could argue a large majority of the WWE audience only know him as comedy sidekick.
you know what cena was saying in that opening promo you know calling him a sideshow act if that is all you've known him as all of a sudden it'd be like if santino came back and all of a sudden he's like and now i'm a serious mma fighter gimmick
Is that what people want from a Santino return? Or do they just want you to just play the hits and do the comedy routine? It's going to be interesting because I think there will be people who will love this, but I think there will be people who are excited these back and then be like, ah.
but actually what I wanted was just you doing more comedy with the Judgment Day. And I'm also, that's not to say they can't do the Cena thing. It's just that we're not doing the Cena thing straight away, which would be the natural direction one would head and considering he came in and cost Cena the match at Money in the Bank.
But quite clearly, that is not the direction we're going in in the immediate. So he's on Raw, it seems, because that's where he showed up. Dominic Mysterio is the mid-card champion. Sure is. And there is... There is history between R-Truth and The Judgment Day. Judgment, that's a good shout. Tom and Nick Mysterio. But it's also comedy history. But maybe that could be part of it. There's wrong return with like the, well, now I'm serious about it all.
You can incorporate that into the character. When you last knew me and I was in your group, you made fun of me. You made me do these sorts of things. But now I'm not that guy anymore. I'm Ron Killings. I mean, it'd be interesting to see. I honestly, I don't know. but i'm i'm i'm excited to see next week's show to see what the next chat i mean i say next week's show it'll be you know three weeks show from now we'll get the the next chapter of this
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Let's see what you'll think on the chat gables. WrestleTalk.com forward slash support. We'll read out every single one over five US dollars. Kuzu writes, Killeen's promo was amazing. I'm glad he can finally speak as himself and not as a character tour. But that promo...
was very reminiscent of his old tna promo when he was a heel so i have to wonder how much the audience will appreciate this version of him that's what i mean i'm curious to see what the reaction is going to be as we move forward with this I'm not optimistic. Really? I am. No, I don't think that the crowd will respond well to Sirius. I think they'll be respectful and go like, oh, yeah, but I don't think it will move them in the same way that comedy truth. Would have. I think him getting...
Having his contract not renewed and coming back, I think will give him a lot of... It's like the Wyatt Six. The Wyatt Six was always going to succeed because of the tragic passing of Bray Wyatt. Fans wanted this gimmick to work. I think it would be the same with Ron Killings.
people will want this gimmick to work. RB Harning says, Hey guys, this episode just proves to me that Gunther's booking has been so bad. WWE has clearly tried to make Gunther a baby face for a while, but the crowd isn't cheering. So now the inevitable Seth Gunther... Gunther feud will get Seth more cheered, which isn't good. So I don't think it will be a Seth-Gunther feud. You don't think? Well, of course, it's going to be Gunther versus Jay.
No, I don't think it's going to be that either. They're going to run it back, baby. Bad time. Yeah, I don't think it'll be that either. Oh, well, we'll come on to that later. Bojosh Horseman writes, I feel like the need for viral WrestleMania moments completely ruined Gunther's booking long term. The mania build up was dragged out for months. Then his reign was basically just interrupted.
could have the moment of jay winning at mania i think i will disagree slightly on that only because jay should have been the world champion he was the most over guy If you have a guy that's that over, it's the LA Knight argument. He's so over. Why aren't you doing more? Why isn't he in more of a top title picture? So Jay winning the world title of WrestleMania.
I think was actually completely the right move. What doesn't work is what they did with Jay afterwards. Also, Bo, Josh Horseman, you say completely ruined Gunther's booking long term. Nope. It was already ruined about nine months beforehand because they booked his world title run terribly. Yeah, it's true. Mayor of Painesville, Dan. Hello, white shirt guys. Hope your gig with Wright said Fred is still coming. Hmm.
I don't know. They had that documentary out a couple of years back, right? I don't know. They said I'm too sexy. Yeah, I know. And they dressed in white shirts and one was shaved bald. I think they became massive right-wing guys. Yeah, what's the... What's the problem? It's right there, right set of friends. It was there in front of us this entire time. I think Deeply Dippy was a great song. Anyway, always bank on 2000s, guys. Truth shows it. Those guys can still go in their 50s.
thousands people on top give me chris masters next dan's gonna be that one guy being like Carlito as well while you're at it. And finally for now, Heiko writes, our truth needed to become wrong killings to make room for Mr. Iguana, obviously. That is a passing of the torch. They should bump into each other. in like backstage just as like a sort of arnie and the rock welcome to the jungle passing of the torch that's a good way to put it but yeah now that the
There's a space open for Mr. Iguana to be the comedy guy of WWE. Please keep sending in your chats to WrestleTalk.com. com forward slash support we let every single one over five us dollars and also go over to our patreon patreon.com forward slash wrestle talk where this Saturday, we'll have episodes three and four of The Rise and Fall. It's mostly The Fall. yeah we've already covered the rise of the nexus we covered the rise in episode one and it's been the fall ever since then
But yeah, so this coming Saturday, it's our review of SummerSlam 2010 going live here on Rustalk's YouTube channel. And over on Patreon will be our review of Night of Champions 2010. Timely, because Night of Champions is the next pay-per-view in sort of...
real life terms yeah we recorded the summer slam review last week yeah had a great time uh covering it uh i really enjoyed doing that review and we're doing night of champions tomorrow i've got to finish what i haven't watched the main event yet yeah i've not watched the main event the what's Six-pack challenge. Let me try and get them all. Wade Barrett. Correct. Who's the champion? Sheamus is the champion. Cena, Orton, Jericho, Edge. Yeah.
And then Wade Barrett is cashing in his NXT Season 1 title shot. That gives you your six. What a time. You've also got Kane versus The Undertaker. Which isn't bad. It's not bad, you know. I was ready to be bored in that match. But they, like, Taker had his working boots on. Yeah, well, he had his selling boots on. Yes. Because it's mostly Kane dominating that match. And it's fat as well. Go to patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk to help support us and get loads of exclusive content.
Right, so this episode of Raw opened with John Cena. No, it didn't. It opened with Becky Lynch wearing a Mrs. Rebecca t-shirt. Sure. A Mrs. Rachel t-shirt even. Yeah. Do you want me to cover every single person they show walking backstage before the main segment? I'm just saying, the Mrs. Rachel t-shirt. People love it. Yes. Yeah. So Sean said on his post show that him posting that image got more engagement than anything else he posted across the night.
explain to me she teaches kids how to talk is this yeah she's a children's uh presenter uh we have only had her in the house once but i know like sat has said like our man mrs rachel is on the house all the time but we've only
at her once and i think the kid by the time she saw mrs rachel was a bit too old for mrs rachel so she didn't really get on board with it um she was just like let's watch ball patrol mrs rachel does sound like a good wrestler name she could come in with uh mr iguana mrs rachel and mr iguana yeah
I just want to make sure that we're going to cover everything on Raw. A very newsworthy episode of Raw. We cover all of the newsworthy bits and one of those was Rebecca Quinn wearing a Mrs. Rachel t-shirt. And the other bit was Paul Levesque being able to call us all fickle and entitled. Through John Cena. So Cena comes out and he starts his promo by saying that truth is a lie, that we wasted our energy as fans chanting for a joke to come back. Truth is a gimmick you'll get bored of in a year.
and i was like okay maybe they're building cena versus trees then they'll just have one little match to tie that up nope just a way for paul of ec i reckon to yeah vent his frustrations. So you think this was the me and my friend Mark are going to stop watching? A little bit, yeah. And you know what? I don't disagree. I do think...
I think there is a very real possibility that in a month's time, everyone has totally moved on from this serious Ron Killings character, and they're all just talking about Mr. Iguana all the time. Oh, they will have moved on from Mr. Iguana. If we move...
People have moved on from Ron Killings in a month's time. They'll have moved on from Mr. Iguana as well. I mean, I did enjoy the line. He's a sideshow comedian whose greatest achievement was pretending to be me. Some really good stuff from Cena here. He said that he's got 19 dates left. He counted them down. Was this the first Cena appearance on Raw since the post-Mania one? Yeah. Yeah, so quite significant. Well, he is now a Raw champion.
because he's facing CM Punk. He says, don't waste our voices to send him clowns. Send out actual competition. And, you know, the voice of the voiceless then quite poetically makes his entrance. It's CM Punk. I'm sure you loved the opening. line of this promo oh what well i haven't written it down he said
I hope you're comfortable, John. Oh, I didn't pick up on that. Because I've got some things to get off my chest. Oh, the pipe bomb line. Yeah. Very first line. Well, I was too busy writing, ha, ha, ha. They literally waited to the day after Money in the... to do Punk Cena. When we looked at the WWE calendar post-WrestleMania, well, okay, Backlash is in St. Louis for Orton. That's his hometown. Well, it's not going to be Saudi Arabia, and there's money in the bank right there.
Just like the famous Punk Cena 2011 Money in the Bank match. They had better plans. No. Tag team match player. So Punk frames this around you are the corporate champ, Cena. You kiss the final boss's ass. You're here to ruin wrestling. But I'm not here for TKO. I'm here for the people, not the billionaires.
isn't what he said when he first came back to the company he said he's here to make money yeah not make friends well you know i don't think he's ever said i'm not here for the fans i guess that's true i think what sort of hurts this what undermines this promo ever so slightly is being like i'm not doing things that the billionaires want me to do but i will be wrestling in saudi arabia yeah so
Just to speed through the rest of the content, which was very good, but a bit too kayfabe for my liking. It was a lot of punk saying... What you're doing right now is wrong. That title can turn you into a bad guy. That happened to me in 2012. That's why I've stayed away from it. I don't want to be corrupted again. That's why you try to win the Royal Rumble and the Elimination Chamber?
right seemingly yeah and then he but now he realizes he has to win it from cena to save it again for you people it's the baby face you people promo And then he makes the challenge to Cena. You can choose when I'll face you out of those 18 remaining dates. And Cena says, okay. And he's got this knowing look in his eye.
Let's do it at Night of Champions. You're going to follow me to Saudi Arabia. Yeah. And that's all they did. Punk never said, I will never go to Saudi Arabia. But they never will do that. The commentators never said it, but they did as much as they could to lean into the idea that punk going to Saudi Arabia is a thing he doesn't want to do and Cena has goaded him into it.
And I guess they're saying Punk values the people so much that he will go to Saudi Arabia in kayfabe. He's only going there in kayfabe to win the belt. If you're trying to kayfabe this non-kayfabe character point of punk. that he won't go to Saudi Arabia. That is a shoot tweet that he made five years ago, by the way, if you don't know. He told The Miz to go suck a blood money covered dick in Saudi Arabia. You effing dork, which is my favorite bit.
of that you effing dork and you know he's never said anything about saudi arabia in interviews no but that tweet is pretty pretty full on yeah and you can based on what else punk likes to talk about politically you can join the dots and probably well he probably doesn't like all the human rights abuses by the saudi arabian regime true but also it could just be a case of um i've got my morals and if you don't like them i have others well that's exactly what it is
uh i we i can't say that for sure i don't know the man personally but it is a hell of it it's quite a direction to go from that that tweet to the miz which by the way by reportedly he made up with the miz on when he you know when he showed up at raw yes uh before he got kicked out apparently he made amends with the miz over that tweet then so it's quite a swing to go from there to i will wrestle in saudi arabia and i will like my paycheck thank you very much uh may i have another so
I mean, but along the way, I think in the last seven years that you and I have been doing this show and in the last seven years, eight years now since the Saudi Arabia deal has come, I feel like the perception of the Saudi shows has changed and they are no longer...
longer it's no longer goldberg versus the undertaker it's no longer brother destruction versus dx they're just regular shows now women are on these shows and you can make the argument that he's going to go there yeah i can't be a force for change unless i'm part of the change itself
which is what WWE have always said about the reason why they're doing shows in Saudi Arabia and it's what the defenders of the decision to go out there is. So maybe it's just that position. John Cena said he would never go back and then he did.
you know sammy zane wasn't allowed to go and kevin owens wasn't go either but they now wrestle on those shows that's because sammy's now allowed to and kevin's going in support of him so maybe it's a case of like i say i said that eight years ago i said it five years ago but times have changed and i can see that the regime has changed and i don't i now don't agree with that punk from five years ago could be a defense that he has that that
Is probably the most generous version of the reasons, yes. But sports washing works, is the sad truth of all this. Yeah, back in 2018, 2019, post the immediate aftermath of the murder of... Jamal Khashoggi. Yeah, everyone was like, whoa, don't go over there. But time's the great healer. It's five, six years since then. They haven't grounded a plane for many years now.
They keep giving people money. They keep giving boxing money. They keep giving movie stars money. They keep giving golf money. They keep giving WWE money. Things money is to improve their reputation abroad and to cover up the human rights abuses that are against the regime. I completely agree with you. That's why it is. And CM Punk. is framing it like he's doing it for us here in this kayfabe promo. It is kayfabe. But it is quite transparently a cynical way.
to retcon the reason why he is going there and saying that he's doing it for the benefit of us as opposed to what it really is your favorite rock band totally utterly selling out yeah and i'm you know it is what it is i i don't
feel any ill will towards him but it is absolutely a hypocritical thing to do yeah it's it's a wild position for us to find ourselves in and actually this is going to be the thing that he was always going to come up against since he returned to WWE it's the first one of the first things we talked about when it came And Bagel's like, man, what are they going to do about the Saudi Arabia show is because...
And then when they wrote him off TV, or rather he wrote himself off TV before the last, so we were like, oh, that's pretty funny. That's why he's taking a month off so that he's not around storyline-wise for it. But we're now doing a program between Cena and... where punk's real life thoughts about the kingdom of Saudi Arabia can't be referenced because there's no way that WWE are going to go on TV and be like, this man thinks that they've got bad human rights violations.
But they are, for you and I, and people watching this at home who know, going to try and lean into that ever so slightly, but never saying it. So I said earlier, this wasn't the full... Cena Punk promotes my tastes. It was very kayfabe, character-led, which is fine. It's a story. But we've got a few weeks now to build tonight at Champions and... They will absolutely do the full-on shoot promo battle, just like we got from between Cena and Cody.
at the Raw, which we were lucky enough to be in person for in London, they're going to have the shoot promo exchange. That's going to be better than the actual match. But what is... Okay, what is there left to say? Well, I think Punk will call out The Rock a lot. Yeah, but he's not part of this story. Really? He brought it up here. He brought up the final boss. He brought it up. But he's not coming back. Well, I think they'll use that as a smokescreen to cover up.
Not cover-up, but to distract from why they're not talking about Saudi Arabia. Oh, that's interesting. Okay, fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. But then that's not a shoot promo, then, is it? That's still within the world of kayfabe. Well, it's a work shoot promo. Yeah, okay, but I don't think that's leaning into the shoot. Punk will talk about how desperate The Rock is in real life. Yeah, exactly. I fully expect I will do Mr. Iguana if that happens.
like the rocks at hollywood career was tanking so he came back to wrestling then once his career took back off he left us again i think he will say something i don't think he will to his boss or about his boss no His boss is boss. Unlikely. But yeah, I think we are going to get the shoot promo, the work shoot promo between Cena and Punk. And mate, we'll... They've already leant into it here with a sort of wink wink.
do they i don't know i don't know how you do it i don't know but yeah i'm glad that we're finally doing um cena and punk in saudi arabia i think money the bank was the better opportunity to do this match oddly the tag match feels way more like a saudi arabia match yeah than than Cena and Punk does I think they booked so many shows recently they got the date oh smeg that was my oh I thought that was not a champion damn it
They've also booked a load of men's matches for Evolution 2. Did we put it on that day in the end? Which of the three shows are that weekend is this on? So then Seth and his faction walked out and held the briefcase. I was already like, here we go. 20 minutes Seth promo. Never said a word.
I thought this was a red herring because he was cashing in at the end of the night. And I was like, genius bit of red herring work that. It was just a herring. It was just a herring in the end. Straight up normally colored herring. I mean, I still do think it's a red herring. I'll get into that in a little bit.
Then we got Chad Gable versus AJ Styles. AJ Styles beat him. That's all there is to say. It was very quick. Yeah, you know, interference and distractions. So just to let you know, just keep you up to date with where those are. Then we got the... I foolishly wrote this in my news, and hopefully Wes cut it out. I haven't watched the video yet, but I could not say this. The first... Wait.
The first one of four of round one. One of four of the round one fatal four ways. Yeah, we got the first of round one. No, sorry, what was it? So the first of... Four? The first of one of four of first round Fatal Fourways.
So this is for the men and the women. This is Queen of the Ring. One started here. It was Roxanne Perez, Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan and Kairi Sane. Gotta give us Triple H, you know. Smart guy. Because you know what the brilliance of Fatal 4 Ways is? It's no DQ. And you don't have the pin.
a rip you can just put people in to get pinned that you don't really mind getting pinned and you can just do loads of interference spots and no one will mind because michael cole be like there's no dq yeah uh roxanne asked live backstage earlier should we team up in the match? And Liv's like, no. But then in the actual match, they worked together and it was working really well. I really enjoyed that. But then it was Raquel who broke up, saved the pin when Rhea hit a riptide on Liv. But...
Roxanne waited, and they showed a replay of this afterwards because you didn't see it in the moment. She waited for Kairi Sane to hit the insane elbow, then ran in, broke up the pin on Liv, but in so doing, pinned Kairi and won it herself.
Really good finish. I loved so much of this. A, the match was great. You know, I made my fun earlier of like the fatal four-way stipulation being for no DQs. But it also means that you get really fun matches because you just do, I mean, it's not Steve Austin's favorite. thing because uh steve austin hates triple threats but what you can just do is moves
And they just went out there and they did moves. But they also told a really good story within all of these moves as well. And one of my favorite things about this was Liv Morgan slowly realizing through the match that Roxanne's pitch was actually a really good idea. Because Roxanne... was always saving her. Like in the early moments of the match, it was always Roxanne cutting people off from attacking Liv Morgan. So as she goes on, Liv Morgan looks at her and be like, oh, actually, yeah.
We should. And then they didn't have that moment where, and then they turn on each other. Didn't have that moment. Instead, they do it even better in that finish. Because Roxanne has got so much, like... good credibility for her argument that i wasn't doing it to take advantage of you getting hit by the move i was saving you from that pin and actually i've got a win for the judgment day and surely that's more important that the judgment day
have a win, because we don't have leaders. So it didn't really matter which one of us won. We got a recap of Worlds Collide with no Mr. Iguana in, but he got his own video package later. Becky Lynch is walking backstage, and in the background, Austin Theory and Grayson Waller are having an argument. Yeah, just keeping that place winning.
Then Nikki Bella gets a video promo and then it cuts to her backstage and she's talking to Maxine Dupree and Natalia, your compulsory Maxine Dupree and Natalia backstage segment there. And then she walks around the corner. And there's Eosky waiting to be activated into a cut scene. And Nikki Bella's like, hey, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And Eosky goes, oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, yeah, what she said was. Thank you so much for paving the way that you did.
We are doing a nice little bit of rewriting history with the Bella Twins, which, you know, the Bella Twins are responsible for a great amount within WWE that cannot be denied. Well, they appealed to an audience that weren't watching wrestling. Oh, yeah. Total Divas and Total Bellas. Total Divas and Total Bellas.
really got out to an audience that were not watching wrestling and in some cases brought them into watching wrestling. Nikki Bella has more mainstream appeal than a large majority of the women's division. Actually, I'd say a large majority than the men's division.
as well in terms of mainstream crossover appeal. She has done a hell of a lot for WWE, but she was also part of an era that WWE really wants you to forget. They don't want you to remember the Divas era. That's why they went through the whole... women's evolution women's revolution all this stuff previously was absolute balderdash and we're sorry that we did it now we're starting again from scratch stephanie mcmahon has created women
and now they've got to try and strike this balance where it's that's the moment that we decided we're now going to treat women's wrestling seriously but we don't want to diminish what Nikki Bella did with the Bella Twins. So we have to say that she paved the way for those women to really make a change within WWE. It's complete doublespeak and it's absolute nonsense. But she did do a lot for women's wrestling in WWE.
in the sense of she brought in an audience that wasn't really watching wrestling what that completely undermines though is that Eosky debuted in wrestling before Nikki Bella did so so eos guy has been wrestling longer than nikki bella has so it's really then weird for her to be like you pave the way for for women's wrestlers like me when i've been wrestling longer than you have what i found more annoying was that
what's yo sky done since wrestlemania i could not believe this when i saw this in your review has she not defended the title since mania no she's staggering she's the only champion not to have done so from when i looked on cage match she had that stephanie vicar non-title match. We should have a finish. Nope, no contest. Then it was the tag match with Rhea. There might have been another match in there somewhere. And then there's been nothing for a month.
Okay, so I think I said to you on a three-count episode, I think you're not giving WWE enough credits, and I think they actually, maybe they do like Io Skaya, and we've always just been thinking that they treat her like a transitional champion.
And I jumped to WWE's defense a little bit on there, but maybe you're right, because I can't believe it's never occurred to me that she's never defended the belt since she defended it at WrestleMania. Nor has she had a storyline since then. Whereas Rhea Ripley... not the champion has been featured quite a lot and has had storylines. And Liv. And Liv. And Becky Lynch, who came out next. She asked where are her You Deserve It chance for winning the IC title. So good. She's really, really good.
said that after the match, she should have been celebrating, but Lyra tried to kill her because she's a crazy bird lady. She came out and was like, oh, on her shoulder. And I was like, I remember her working over the shoulder during the match, but she's like, oh, my shoulder. It's like...
Did you see what happened after that match? She raised my hand so aggressively, I heard something pop. My shoulder's been bothering me ever since. So I gave her the common courtesy because I now can't actually put the belt around me because she's hurt my arm so much. And then she tried to kill me. It's really good. Becky's been great in this character as of late. And she...
Makes Lyra come out. Lyra comes out. She looks really mean. And the crowd give her a nice pop. But it's Bailey making her return, dressed all in white, like a baby face. And us. And us. Yeah, she's one of the boys. Luke Olley and Bailey. White shirt gang. And yeah, tagged her from behind and sent Becky running. Boo! She didn't join their faction. No!
The vets. Come on, man. It was right there. I've written in my notes here. No. could still happen it's not i'm over it now but i thought this was very cool i didn't see it coming uh and i'm it leads to probably a three-way at night of champions there may be bailey becky at um evolution
Then we got the R-Truth segment. Then Finn and JD went to see Dominic Mysterio backstage. No Carly though, lol. And Finn's obviously annoyed that Dom is in the King of the Ring tournament. But he was like, don't worry, at least... roxanne one compliment roxanne dom and dom's like ah good luck well done on your match and that's when what do we say good
So Liv tells Roxanne off in a sort of two-faced way and storms off and Finn is again way too happy at everyone else having a bad time. Well, that's because Finn then said, oh, Dom, you need to go sort this problem out. And then Dom's like, oh, yeah, I would, but I've got a match now. So see you later. Okay, bye. And off he ran. We got a Mr. Iguana video recap. The whole video was devoted to him. Surely he is the fourth man next week. Surely. The pop of the monster match would be great.
Seth is backstage with the gang and he's hyping up Brombreaker because the next match is the first of four round one fatal four ways in the King of the Ring tournament. It was Penta versus Brombreaker versus Sam. Sami Zayn versus Dominic Mysterio. Well, you never guess what happened at the end here. Oh, was there a bit of interference? There was only some bloody interference here. But it was weird interference. It was LA Knight. Yeah. He's a SmackDown guy.
Well, yeah, so did PW Insider or is it Body Slam that said that this is going to be a little short-term feud for Seth, probably for Night of Champions, to keep him busy until next month? So this is following on from the SmackDown angle. LA Knight taking out Braun.
Yeah, this was a really good match. Really good. I thought the women's was better, but this was very good. Breaker is just incredible. I just want to see him hit moves. It's all I want to see him do. But everyone else ganged up on him and took him out. And then, yeah, at the end we got... LA Knight taking out Breaker on the outside, which meant that Sammy got the pin on Dom.
Yeah, we I think we talked about this on the Money in the Bank review post show that we did over for our hangout on Patreon. I think was it there when we asked about like, when do we get the Lucha Bros reuniting? And I said, I think soon, because I feel like Penta's.
singles run has run out of steam he's taken the wwe universe by storm i yeah i feel like we have got to the end of this singles run for penta in wwe nothing to do with the lad himself just feels like they have They've run out of creative steam on what to do with him as a singles guy.
Dom was booked a bit more aggressively again, I thought. A bit more credible. Backstage, Cathy is interviewing AJ Styles. He talks about Chad Gable and Paul Heyman, but nothing about any Intercontinental title feuds. And then Kathy Kelly hears the end of a New Day thing where Grace and Waller is having a heated discussion with them.
Maybe he's asking them about, how do you turn on tag partners? Because I'm really struggling on how to do it. And you guys did it quite effectively last year. Yeah, with a great follow-up. Then Paul of X on top of a stadium. Yeah. He's saying WrestleMania's in Vegas. Come here, you marks.
Then we got a video package for Asuka's return next week, which is great news. She'll be in a four-way against Foucault, Raquel Rodriguez, and who's taking the pin? Ivy Nile. Ivy Nile. I saw Ivy Nile on that graphic. I was like, there she is, taking the pin.
And then we had Nikki Bella come out and you can look, but you can't touch. I almost got PTSD. Oh. not a not a bella's i'm not a divas era wrestling fan at all no wouldn't i neither am i no no because this is like the theme tune to that era yeah yeah it is and and hello like it's like those are the two if i hear them i'm just transported back to two minute matches with three minutes worth of moves that go wrong to a crowd that no one's that doesn't care
and have left to go to the toilet because the main event is coming up next but you know there were some people who were children during that period of time so they are now adults and have got nostalgia for those periods of time and will tell you that actually no alicia fox is one of the greatest of all time when she came out
The crowd didn't pop like they normally would. At first I wrote like, oh wow, this is like a dead crowd for Nikki Bella coming out. She got that nice big return pop in the Rumble this year. Lol. But then... About 10 seconds afterwards, everyone was like, oh but it is nikki bella and they just went quiet here i thought there was no pop and i was like no no there is noise but it's on a frequency like just about here it was all it was like every dude in the arena was just like nope
I'm not going to cheer. I don't care. But all the high-pitched noises, which you used to get for Sina, which is generally women and children, they're screaming. There you go. Because she appeals to that audience. That is different from the usual wrestling fan. That's the appeal of Nikki Bella.
She cut a promo about Evolution 2 in a sort of scripted way. Liv stormed out in a totally unscripted way. Sorry, okay, we can't overlook this. Oh, the Vecquid? Nikki Bella was running down the great women here and she called her... Stephanie Vaquere. Vaquere. Like, get her some cue cards that spell that phonetically here. Like, this is Jerry the King Lawler levels of, I don't watch the product, but now I've got to go out and talk about the product. And I am amazed that she's not.
getting dragged more. for getting that name wrong. I think no one cares, is the truth. Liv said, you know, she's disrespected, she feels. So she said if she was around in the Divas era, she would have beaten Nikki Bella. She's got everything Nikki doesn't have, a title and a man. Right. Nikki's like, I think Roxanne has your man. Oh.
So. You don't like this? No. That was a good line. No. She's going through quite a messy divorce at the moment. Oh, I forgot about that. This is... I don't know. Obviously.
anything that they go through this she's going to be signing off on yeah she's going to be like bringing this in so it is pretty raw to be going to this uh this while we're still pretty fresh in this stuff right pretty monday night raw But more to that, the thing I hated the most is that they started off about titles and accomplishments and it just boiled down to...
I've got a boyfriend. You don't have a boyfriend. And the other person going like, well, your boyfriend has actually got his ass and another girlfriend. And the other woman being like, my man is better than no man. It's all. This fails the Bechdel test. Oh, I don't mind that. This is garbage. This is Diva's era. No, it isn't. This is Diva's era sh**.
promo you get like any seth rollins promo has something about becky lynch yeah better than him and that's not and that's not great either but this is all relationships are things yeah but it's like so these are women who are just arguing about whether one of them has a man
Because Liv Morgan is a heel character. She's like, I've got a man. It's Dominic Mysterio as the man. But Nikki's doing the same thing. So she's on the same level as her. So they're both as vacuous as the other. Brilliant. Who am I supposed to cheer?
to the point what's even worse than this is that if you're going to lean into this idea that she's going through this pretty messy divorce and that's part of this character that's not the thing that got nikki bella angry the thing that got nikki bella angry was live morgan saying like you're a diva And she turned around and tried to hit her and then got laid out. This was honestly f***ing appalling. I think this was garbage and I did not like this.
at all i think it fails on multiple multiple levels i don't think this makes anyone look good i think it makes the company look bad i think it is creatively bankrupt and pretty garbage but it will lead to a tag match at evolution 2 with pre-mode so we will get pre-mode and all will be forgiven
What is Bree's status? Because, yeah, first of all, I was like, oh, God, Dream Match, Liv versus Nikki in Evolution 2. And I was like, they're the tag champions. Nikki is most famous for having a twin sister. It's the only thing she's famous for. Yeah. But, like, Bree's with... brian danielson yeah but she's in the 2022 women's royal rumble that was years ago i don't know i just got the sense that she's not interested anymore but it'll be one
big thing back with her sister. And then we're on to the main event, which was Jey Uso versus Gunther. They did a recap of all the punishment Jey's taken over the last week. All that stuff that Gunther was saying to him, you shouldn't do this. You should focus on me.
Because I'm just focusing on you. You're helping Cody or you're trying to help Sammy and CM Punk. It's the Seth Rollins story from last year with Drew McIntyre. Yes, and it's a good story. It's a good story. And if it works, just do it again. But the problem... is, for me, is Jey Uso, they have to have him do the same ye entrance. Surely this movement, doing that, hurts your midsection. Yeah, it hurts the tummy. Because you're pivoting from there.
And the whole idea is it's his midsection that's injured, particularly off the Bronson-Reed tsunami from last week. And the SIU means help. Yes, and he doesn't sell it at all. throughout the whole entrance no and then gunther does one move to it and that's when he starts to sell the midsection i think good for them like you know he could smell blood in the water and i think that's some really good stuff right and like you know it's all the the protective tape off and stuff
Really great. Then completely falls apart because Jey Uso hits a splash and does not sell it. Like, surely this is basic, right? If your whole thing is you're selling your midsection, if you do a move...
that is based around your midsection, surely you would sell that when you hit the move. And also, I thought Wade did a great job here. Because when he started targeting, Wade Barrett was like, well, this is going to be a real problem for Jey Uso. Because what was two moves? The spear and the splash.
And that is going to be involving a lot of his midsection. This is going to be disastrous for him. So then he hits the splash and immediately goes in for the pin. And I'm like, surely... the better more dramatic spot is you hit the splash then you sell your tummy because you've hurt your midsection and you crawl into the pin not only is that more drama is more dramatic it protects your finish as well it's right there
for the taking. It's what Rob Van Dam always used to do. Yeah. Off the five star frog splash. Even when he didn't have an injured tummy. Oh, he's going to sell his own tummy. Because it's selling. You raise a good point there, and that is Wade Barrett was on commentary for this whole show, and Pat McAfee wasn't. It was so much better. Isn't it so much nicer?
so much better than anyone else in wwe at color commentary he really added a lot to this match i thought uh particularly like gunther's strategy like you said jay's injury supposedly anyway I actually thought this match was really, really good. Really good. And it gets to all the finisher stuff at the end. Even Gunther hits a spear. Yeah, but way better than Jays. When he hit that, I thought, this is going to lead to Gunther losing.
because he's actually become unfocused. He's trying to humiliate Jay by beating Jay with Jay's move, just like Jay beat him with the sleeper at Mania. It's nice. But it... It didn't go that way. Gunther got the sleeper in, held it in for ages. It was super engaging and dramatic. Like, you know, Jay's trying to get out. They go down. He reverses it, but Gunther puts it back in. And ultimately, he just passes out.
I, for a while, I was like, if Jay wins this match, this is disastrous for Gunther Sleeper Hold because it's been in for so long. And we have been going around in circles about like what you could do with this match with the cash in. Does Jay retain? And actually they just went with route one and it was the much more effective way to go about this. Gunther just beat him.
Gunther was just the better wrestler on the day. Jay's distractions of focusing on helping his friends, helping Cody Rhodes cost him his world title. And, you know, the red herring of his coming out with his kid as well. He's like, well, surely that'll be a, you know, a fun, you know, a lovely thing for him to celebrate with his child after he wins the belt. No, Gunther just beat him. I thought this was really, really good. Really, really well done. And now, Oli.
the vision is clear for me so join me on this journey sammy's winning king of the ring it's sammy gunther at summerslam heist of the century cash in seth pins sammy zayn wins the world title sammy wins the royal rumble and it's sammy versus seth at wrestlemania for the world heavyweight championship i like that you could also do uh a version where sammy does briefly win it But that does, you know, like Sammy just beats Gunther. Sammy has Gunther's number.
Seth cashes in right after. But then you do give away the actual title run. Yes, exactly. Whereas I think you want to have Sami never hold that title and have it stolen away from him. He's the guy that can beat Gunther. I did it at WrestleMania. I'm going to do it again at SummerSlam. I like it.
And they definitely are building Sammy's title campaign. And he had that little flirtive look at Jay's belt the night after Mania. I thought that was foreshadowing a heel turn down the line, but maybe it's just... Man, I want that belt. It's just letting you know that's what the WrestleMania direction is for the following year. But the question is, what do you do with Jay next? I think it takes some time off.
Yeah? Yeah. With that hot t-shirt selling and the yeeting and whatnot? I think take some time off. Come back closer to SummerSlam. Start a new feud. Probably with Gunther.
yeah i don't know what you do with jay next and i'm i'm actually not like um disappointed that wd did this like flash change of the title i think to change the title world changing a world title on monday night raw as that air of unpredictability about the show which is i think is a nice touch and this run was underwhelming the title winner was underwhelming and this run has been underwhelming so
I'm not all that sad that it's over. If you told us 10 years ago, someone's only going to have the belt for two months, you'd be like, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Standard. Crikey, why'd they have it for that long?
Overall, yeah, I thought this was one of the better episodes of Raw of the year. I gave it 87%. Yeah, I thought this was a great, great episode of Raw. Super duper newsworthy. Like, you always want to sort of... go grab triple h by the lapels and be like you know you can spread this out right you could do this across the next few weeks uh
You can get your vote in. There should be a vote on the live chat now to see what you thought of the show. And in my fantasy pitch as well, Gunther beats Goldberg at Saturday night's main event for the world title. Nice. Yes. Yes, it should be Goldberg going for the World Heavyweight Championship in Atlanta. In Atlanta. That's good.
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WrestleTalk.com forward slash support. Geek of Arabia writes, I wasn't going to bother with driving to Riyadh for Night of Champions. I live in Bahrain, a six hour drive. But Punk versus Cena has changed my mind. But I think tickets are sold out now. Opportunity missed. Guess I'll wait for the rumble. Jam that jam. That's on you, man, isn't it? You waited. Wait for a card to be announced. I'm surprised it's sold out already. But it's a good...
It's a hot ticket right now, WWE. Kevin, a very good Raw. Excited for what will happen with Truth. Praying Ilya returns next week and a very good main event between Jay and Gunther. Cena saying, you'll have to follow me in Saudi made me believe Punk would be... He sure did. Yeah, he won that fatal four-way. Anonymous writes...
Corporately manufactured punk declares that we're all spokes on a wheel and reveals him for the sad old nihilist that he's become. When you're a multimillionaire, non-participation in. participating in Saudi Arabia shows is in fact an option. Time to do better. Well, you know, he said a few months back, he's like, hey, we're not a political company. You know, we don't really talk about politics here. Dutch girls are cool, right? Four letters, one word, uh-uh, lost.
Very good. By the way, you guys had a feeling that they are making punk work in Saudi as one of those mafioso loyalty tests. I did write this in my review. It is a bit like that. It's sort of all like... those shady conspiracy corporations or organizations like the Bilderberg Group or anything on the Epstein list, the stories there. It's like, you've got to do something that morally compromises you to get into the group.
everyone's got dirt on each other sort of this yeah for a brotherhood forged through uh complicity i just want to clarify as well you didn't say build a bear The Build-A-Bear group. I'm just saying, that's not what you said. No, yeah, the Build-A-Bear group. Is it Build-A-Bear? No, no, Build-A-Bear group. The Build-A-Bear group. But yeah, I used to work at the Build-A-Bear. Yeah.
I wish stuffed some things, all right. Gold Dukat. I've been a huge fan of Punk for his entire career, no matter which company he's wrestling in, but I'm having real issues with him wrestling in Saudi. After decades of my unqualified support, this feels like he's let me down. Gotta be a company man sometimes. And like I said earlier, these are my morals. If you don't like them, I have others. A couple of years ago, I realized that...
You can't hold any celebrity or figure that you admire in fully, oh, you must be great in all versions of you. Punk went back. Exactly, yeah. It was around then. It was in November 2023. Aiden, hey guys, with Bayley back, it looks like we're getting the triple threat, Becky versus Bayley and or Becky versus Lyra 3. Option, question is, which would you guys, qualified GMs of Raw and Smash? Book, in which order, and who would you have as a champ, Joran?
each so i think i would do the triple threat at night of champions then i would do becky bailey at evolution i think that's the best way yeah yeah and then you can do bailey sorry becky lyra three At SummerSlam. With a stip? Yeah, with a stip. Kett writes, any stip? I mean, there was a lot about raising the arm. Yeah.
I think you want to do like a last woman standing or something. A definitive winner. You can't hook the tights and cheat your way to victory. Yeah. We can have a definitive winner here, last woman standing. Ket, hearing Io say Nikki Bella paved the way for women's wrestling is the funniest thing ever. Nikki, one of many below average wrestlers during the Divas era, Bella.
If you search the word BS in the dictionary, this segment should be front and centre. Rafael Garcia, I'm reminded of a Righteous Reg quote on a podcast when watching this Raw. This is what wrestling is all about. Disappointment. Halfway through, I realized we never got Minnie Monet versus La Yesga in that partnership. Tony Khan doesn't like fun. Come on, Yesga, Cobra. So, yeah, I wonder if this is...
AEW never capitalized on the Monet puppets, which they probably should have done. Whereas WWE are now like... fast forwarding plans to get the iguanas. I'm first in line. EpicGamer2109 writes, I was 11 watching WWE in 2016 and loved hitting the Wyatt family. I loved Hating the Wyatt Family. Hating the Wyatt Family. I stopped watching in like 18. I got back at the Rumble 2024. I don't understand why people thought the Fiend would work the no-sell...
Horror, it just seems bad and cringe like 2020 WWE. Well, yeah, people didn't like it at the time. When it was on, people watched those matches. We were all excited for that Hell in a Cell match, especially after that SummerSlam match with Balor. And there was that Hell in a Cell match. There's one match later where we're like, oh, I don't think this is going to work at all. And it didn't.
Steven Costa writes, Joe Hendry should be in there next week. He wants to fight Cena and he made it to WrestleMania. This is a great opportunity. Love the Monday Night War, lads. Enjoyed last night's Raw. Asuka's back and first match has Stephanie. Oh no, who should that? Fatal 4-Way. Fatal 4-Way. Hashtag, I believe in Joe Hendry. I mean, Stephen's got a point. Someone does need to take the pin next week.
So Joe Hendry would be the perfect person to put in this match. Yeah, look at all that great stuff the WrestleMania spot did for him. Thank you for loving Monday night. Will Campbell. Hi, guys. Really good main event and probably more what the Mania match should have been, though Jay still wins. That's a good point. I thought it was way better. Way better. Than the Mania match. Also, Triple H is clearly saying Gable is staying in the midcard. An all-timer with the Kingo.
on saturday and then loses in barely six minutes to aj yeah are we surprised like there's yeah i mean i yeah i i had to you know sip that a little while back that gable is at a level and he's never getting past that level Maybe you could kayfabe explain it that Chad might have wrestled two matches on Saturday.
That's why he was so fatigued going against AJ. Well, it's what Michael Cole was saying on commentary, but Wade Barrett was like, no, not at all. He only wrestled one match. What are you talking about? And, you know, what Chad gave a war now is he's going to win the...
triple a mega championship from vikingo so he has won a world title italian josh hi lads never been a truth fan but that was my favorite promo of the year the way he talked how the crowd responded it weirdly felt like a making of a super star moment but with a 53 year old dude lol or so funny to see people say poor jay now face emoji face palm emoji lots of love yeah
I've not seen Rikishi post anything yet. His podcast is going to do some big numbers this week. Matthew Ruck. I never seen Gunther winning the title back. I would have put money on Seth trying to cash in. Roman... would return to stop him. Gunther would try to cheat to win, but Goldberg would return to stop him. What a waste of a rain, lol. Where do we go from here? Honestly, I don't know with Jay. I really don't.
Probably back to the bloodline. Roach Senpai, am I the only one who thinks WWE just doesn't even care about half of the titles? We might get a Bella Morgan feud, make it for the title to give it some kind of relevance. I almost forgot who's the current women's champion and when she laughs. defended it? WrestleMania. When she won it. Yeah. So she's never defended it. No, no, no. She didn't win it at WrestleMania. She defended it at WrestleMania.
Good point. She went on Raw. Yes. Kevin, Oli's point about Io not being booked to defend her title since WrestleMania made me realize WWE are booking challengers, contenders, and queen of the ring, but no actual matches, as if they're booking for... part-time champions like Brock Lesnar, but Io is actually here. Yeah, if you only do four to five matches a week, per show rather.
Yeah, ESG is not going to have a match every single week. And weirdly, right now, even though everyone criticizes AEW for doing too many tournaments... We're in tournament season in WWE. You had the qualifiers for Money in the Bank, and then it's Money in the Bank. Now it's the qualifiers for the King of the Ring tournament, Queen of the Ring tournament. But much like when...
Damien Priest was world champion in the... I know it wasn't Damien Priest. Whoever it was, when Gunth had the IC belt, I was like, that's the most important belt on Monday Night Raw. I would say in the women's division, the women's intercontinental championship feels like such a bigger deal than the women's world championship.
Some guy. I have a pitch for the Rollins cash in. SummerSlam. Cody hits the three crossroads. Cody is about to win. When bang, Rollins comes in, hits Cody with the briefcase for the DQ, cashes in and steals Cody's redemption. So doing the one on Cena instead. Yeah. I think the world title suits Seth more.
Kazoo writes, Sami Zayn versus Cody Rhodes is the King of the Ring finals and will be drama filled just like Hangman and Osprey. But whoever wins that final will be cashed in by Seth since he has a history with Sami and Cody. Is Cody King of the Ring? Yes, I think he is. Is he really? Can you check that, please? Yeah, because I remember looking at it and thinking, oh, well, Cody's probably my winner then to face Cena at SummerSlam.
Oh, yeah. I mean, if that's the case, then my Sammy thing is going to really fall apart. But I didn't think that Cody was on the men's side of it. Yeah, it is. It's Rhodes, Priest, Andrade, and Nakamura. is the Fatal 4-Way. Andrade. No, he's not in the other one either. Oh, sorry, Andrade is there, actually. I forgot that he was in that match. No, I just said he was in there. Should we try to do a sweepstakes of who's taking the pin in each one? Andrade and one. Oh, no, no, Nakamura's there.
I'm going Andrade. I'm going Nakamura to get pinned in that one. And then the other match is Autumn, Night, Black and Hayes. Hayes? It's Hayes. Yeah, 100%. It's Carmelo Hayes. And then the other one, probably... Mr. O'Grana. Brian Doyle. Hi, guys. I hope you're having a great day. I have two questions. One, would you want to see Ron Killins dethrone Cena instead of Cody Rhodes?
Sorry, say it again? Would you want to see Ron Killins dethrone Cena instead of Cody Rhodes? No. No. And two, do you think if Cody were to do it, he'd be booed out the building, given the slow sentiment shift against him? no because i don't think there is much of a slow sentiment shift against him in the buildings yeah i agree uh
BagelGazGuez writes, Hi fellas, first time chatter here. I really like this episode, but I wanted your thoughts on the King of the Ring qualifiers, switching to four ways instead of the traditional one-on-one matches. I appreciate all the work that you gentlemen do. So thank you. Thank you. It's a way to do interference and without having to worry about DQs and stuff or, you know, distracting the referees and making them look incompetent. And more so you can put someone in to get pinned.
And protected top guys. It protects people better. Anonymous. Hi, guys. Spoke outside of the O2 about deciding whether to go to either Clash in Paris or Forbidden Door and decided to go... To both. Wow. Raw was excellent. Sammy for King of the Ring. Lose at SummerSlam via cash-in and then win the Rumble. Beat Seth at Mania. This guy gets it. This guy gets it. A hot tag to you.
Uh, Jorge here, or Jorge, says, Hey guys, I have a message for all who are on the fence about joining the Patreon. I joined two weeks ago, and let me tell you, I am loving it. So much extra content, hundreds of hours worth, in fact, taken from a fellow fan, support RESTalk on Patreon. Well... Thank you very much. It's really good. Cheers.
Thanks, Mum, for messaging him. They're also completely right. Real Double J here said, looks like Luke and Ollie are in a white shirt battle to see who can be the workhorse mech white Dolores charismatic Jack White. Any thoughts on the King of the Ring winner? I hope Sammy gets it. a lot to him slash crowd to win it in Saudi and run it back with Gunther at SummerSlam. He is my pick.
Yeah, I think it's Cody, but I think a Cody-Sammy final will be fantastic. That's what I think you go with. And, you know, Cody gets the title match with Cena anyway. And Dan here. So tuning in live today to the video podcast after listening on Spotify for the last few weeks and months.
My word, someone's been eating their oats recently. Loving the content, guys. Keep up the great work. Who could that be? It's both of us. Well, I mean, both of us are eating our oats at the moment. White shirts with oats. I think it's probably more directed to you because I think you're... The fruits of your labor, I think, are more visually evident than mine currently are. I have to do a little bit of, like, actual flexing of the muscle to be- for people to notice that I-
have been trying to be better. I go to the gym a lot and I finally realized it's not making any aesthetic difference. So as of February... I was like, I'm going to eat so much more food, which is difficult to me. I've got a very small appetite. And yeah, it's been tough. But eating's worse than the workouts. But it has fueled games. You are now doing, what, a thousand calories? breakfast. Yes.
So full. They said I should be at like 2,200 calories a day. Like you're doing like half of what I'm doing. And it's all mostly, I'm trying to up my protein, 25% of it being protein. Man, you're like... Getting it right now with those calories. And you do look good for it. Thanks, Dan.
And Golden Knight here says, Hey, Luke and Ollie. Love the new format to the podcast. Keep it up. Holy yes, what? I've been sitting here listening to Luke do his diva voice crying laughing because he sounds like Terrence and Philip. That's who it sounded. I was thinking, this voice sounds familiar. Why do you have such a nice guy, fella?
Well, thank you very much for sending in your chats. Remember, you can go to patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk to get even more Luke and Ollie and WrestleTalk content. What is the result of our poll? I'm going to be honest, lower than I was expecting. 76% thumbs up. It's still pretty decently high, though. We used to have, like, 90s for way more mid-episodes than this was. I think the, yeah, the sentiment is definitely not with WWE as much as it was in the past, because this was...
really good really good episode show but thank you very much for joining us we'll be back on Friday with the WrestleTalk podcast so make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from and share it around do all that stuff on patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk I've been Oli Davis It's been Luca in DAD. Jam that jam.
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