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There's been an awful injury on last night's Raw to Zoe Stark. I'm Oli Davis. That was a weird intro. It was a weird intro. And I'm so used to doing fun puns or something like that. Yeah. And this was more serious. It's been an awful... I felt like you caught me mid-conversation.
But I'm Oli Davis. I'm joined by Luca and DAT. Welcome to the Raw Review Podcast. I was also double checking the audio levels as well. I was like, man, that's not bouncing a lot over there. And it's because you were so solemn. You were a solemn monster. I was solemn. Yeah, I was solemn. I was. I was the royal commentators after a beatdown angle. And you were just like, it's been a terrible tragedy. Sorry, let me try this again. Zoe Stark's been injured!
Of course, I don't mean it that way. If you haven't already, please press the thumbs up button, give us a subscribe, leave a comment down below and send in your chat gables to wrestletalk.com forward slash support. worry about every single one over five us dollars and make sure to subscribe wherever you get your wrestling podcasts from as well because every tuesday and thursday next week monday for double or nothing oh yeah i'm so excited about double or nothing
Not what we're here to talk about, but I'm really excited for that show. I'm excited, but I'm also... It's a long show. There is such a thing as too much wrestling. I strongly disagree. Well, not the best story to open today's Raw podcast with. There was a Women's Money in the Bank qualifier match. There were two on this show, both three ways, as was the case on SmackDown. And in the second one, Rhea Ripley took on a returning Kairi Sane.
and Zoe Stark. You could almost argue about returning Zoe Stark. I don't think she's had a match all year. A single, you know, of anything of substance. She was with Pure Fusion Collective. She's seen... Sonya Deville's contract expire. Shayna Baszler was released as the most recent part of cuts. and here she is you know probably this is probably the first time right i'm gonna
I'm back on my own again, repackaged slightly. They even post that on commentary of like, you know, because they showed us sort of warming up backstage and they were like, here she, this is a new start without saying because all of her teammates have been released. was this is a new start for Zoe Stark. She was never going to win this match. When you looked at the other three way, you were like, okay, there's two potential winners that could go in.
this one was like no no there's one winner of this match and her name is Rhea Rip But at the same time it kind of sucks because this could have been the start of maybe something. But unfortunately, it's been cut short. Yeah. Well, I'm pretty sure she was definitely taking the pin there. No way, Kairi Sane was taking the pin in her big return match back.
but just before well not before the ad break it's not like this was a planned ad break they went to ad break because of what happened she went to do a dropkick I think Sane was slightly out of position and Stark just landed on her right knee. Awkward, awkward land. and immediately something was wrong, the referee is talking to her, she rolls out the ring, medics are down there, they cut to break, and then you can see fan footage, she's being helped to the back afterwards, really limping.
The Wrestling Observer reported today that People are very worried about her because this was the knee injury, the same knee that took her out for eight months previously. Yeah, that she had that in NXT. That's why she has that big knee brace. Yeah, not good. not good unfortunately yeah it's a real shame as I said like it's particularly as well I don't think she was going to get a big push coming out of this match and I think even
very likely that she was going to be getting a lot of TV time for the remainder of this year. But this was, you know, felt like her first match in forever. And it was like, okay, let's, you know, start something new with Zoe Stark here. And yeah, it's just not going to happen. When was the Trish Stratus pairing? Was that last year? Two years ago. Oh my God, I've lost a year.
Okay, so this coming Sunday is our three counts for Money in the Bank 2025. Is that on Patreon.com? No, that one's publicly on YouTube. And on Patreon.com forward slash Ratatalk, we're doing Money in the Bank 2020 in three words or less slash viewer. And at the start of that, We played a little game where we had to try and name the Money in the Bank lineup of last year.
and you just kept talking about the London show as if that one happened last year. I think I went down a ditch, like Flight of the Navigator, and I've come back out, and it's... 2025 one year there's a one year later story like where superman batman and wonder woman were just gone for 52 weeks you're just what year is it a lot of my references are
mid-noughties DC Comics continuity based right now. Are you reading a lot of that? Yeah, but it is a detriment now because everything that happens, I'm like, that's like that thing that Green Lantern did. And I can't have normal conversations with people. Anyway, it sucks. Ripley and Sane did pretty well afterwards. You've got to adjust. the planned finish was presumably start getting pinned. Set it going a bit longer. Do a yay boo spot.
and Rhea just grabs Kyrie into a riptide. One, two, three. Ripley is going to the Women's Money in the Bank match. What do you make of Ripley qualifying for Money in the Bank? I have seen it looking at the YouTube comments on your edited review today. Doesn't appear to be a lot of love for the decision because, I mean, I don't think she's going to be getting the Becky Hogan treatment that Becky has had for the last year or so. but I had sent you since I returned.
But I am starting to see a little bit of that, like, rear again, is it? Getting pushed for the 400th millionth time. Rear again, is it? In a 6-7 person match. I think that's okay. The best ladder matches, I think, are when they're full of all the stars. Rhea Ripley is the biggest...
star in the women's division. She doesn't currently have a title. She should absolutely be in the ladder match. So that was kind of my argument as well because you may say like uh Rhea again is it and my counter that would be is like uh
one of the most over babyfaces in the match, is she? And it's not like it's a one-on-one title match. No. There were at least five other people in that match. Yeah, and I don't think Ripley's... She's not taking away a spot from most people. I don't think Ripley's going to win.
But maybe that could be the argument that some people would have against her, is that she doesn't need... It's Randy Orton being in a Money in the Bank ladder match. What is the point? He gets a title shot every other week anyway. I'm talking about when he was in the Money in the Bank ladder match.
Why is John Cena in this when he gets a world title shot every other week? And Rhea Ripley, she's already programmed, you know, they've been teasing on TV, that she is going to be Io Sky's next challenger for that belt. So is there kind of like, has she taken away a spot from someone? I'd argue, you know, potentially not because she is one of your top babyfaces, one of your top stars. She should be in the Money in the Bank ladder match. But I do get the argument that...
You could have used this to elevate someone new into this match. Put Akari Sane in. for example. Someone new. Someone who has not been given the same chances at these sorts of shots that Rhea Ripley has afforded. Bear in mind that she has had about seven WrestleMania matches and they've all been for Titans. Алло, здрасти, бабо. Здрасти, миличък. Добави ли си картата виза в телефона, както те посъветвах? Бабо, нямах време. Отнема секунди. Ай, що ме аз успях? Е...
Well, let's see what you'll think on the chat gables. Kevin writes best wishes to Zoe and happy to see Kyrie back. Although her entrance reminded me of Mr. Burns throwing coins to people instead of dollar bills. Really? I can't remember the entrance. No, I can't remember the entrance either. Good show with an amazing crowd. Greenville, South Carolina.
What a great audience. Such a fun, like, it was a good episode of Raw, elevated by a really good crowd. I was like, that tag match was really good, we'll talk about it. But it was also... every WWE tag match with screen interference at the end you've ever seen. It felt like a pay-per-view because of that crowd. Question. Is Cena vs. Truth a non-title match? I think I heard Cole say that. Let me go to WWE.com. The graphic. had the WWE Championship next to Cena's face. I don't know if that denotes
It's a championship match, or he is the champion. Let's have a look. R-Truth will take on his childhood hero John Cena at Saturday night's main event in what is sure to be an emotional matchup for True. Huh. It doesn't actually say, it just says Undisputed WWE Champion John Cena versus R-Truth. It doesn't say for the title. How does it phrase? There's really no reason for the title to be on the line, is there?
Has anyone said that? It doesn't... Oh, okay, so the J is the one that I say with the title on the line. it must be non-title like what's truth done to to get a shot Beatrice. exactly so the argument is I thought it was a title match but you know it It makes sense for it not to be one. We've had a couple of chats from Aziz. Actually, while we're on the topic, should we see what people think in the chat about Rhea Ripley?
Oh, yeah, okay. So let's do a thumbs up, thumbs down. So Modmother, if you can hear me, can we have a thumbs up, thumbs down poll for Rhea Ripley being in Money in the Bank, please? Aziz writes, Hey gents, I went to a recent ROW, that's Reality of Wrestling show in Houston, and I overheard Booker T. Well, okay, right. This is a... Put a big allegedly on this. Uh... Well, it's about...
It's about, obviously Travis Scott is training to be a wrestler and Booker T is training for a match. He's training for a match where he will be. Reportedly is going to be tagging with John Cena at Money in the Bank. and Booker T was the guy training him. That's already been reported. Aziz, I won't read out what you've said, just because, you know, that would just be... We believe you. Bye.
We also don't know you. So we don't want to be putting rumours out into the world. But we will say this one from Aziz also. I was a big fan. I was a big fan. of your beautiful disaster piece of an episode on Pinkerton. Will you guys ever get drunk and talk about other albums like Chocolate Starfish or other albums from your adolescence? Maybe put in a write-up poll. A writing poll. Anyways, keep jamming that jam.
If we were going to do a Limp Bizkit album in the style of Drinkerton, it would not be Chocolate Starfish, because that is not an album of my adolescence, because Significant Other is a far superior album to Chocolate Starfish. But Chocolate Starfish is the only one I know. In which case then, that is the one we would do. And it's the one with the Undertaker's best theme tune-up.
I had the CD single of Roland and it had the music video on and I used to watch it on my computer. You have to put it in as a CD-ROM. Yeah, and it's got the Mission Impossible song on there. My Way, of course, is on there as well. I just think... personally. Significant Other is a far superior album. There's a reason why Chocolate Starfish is like the last of the albums that they did before they fell off. And chocolate starfish is a butthole. Yeah.
Geek of Arabia and Power Packers have got Manberg ships. Do you want to explain the Menberg situation we have right now, please? Can do indeed, because we've made the transition from the WrestleTalk podcast YouTube channel back to WrestleTalk. We are moving our Menbergship here as well and becoming a member gives you exclusive emotes to use in the chat as well as some other stuff too so become a member today
Right, well, can you get it in your chat to wrestletalk.com forward slash support? We'll read out every single one. Over five US dollars before the end of the show. Let's get in with the main card, which was opening with your boy Logan Paul, because he's got a match at Saturday night's main event. Everyone's saying $3 bill. That's the hit.
Is that a Linduskin album? It's their first album, which is why everyone's going to... That's the best one. I mean, it has got faith on it and Pollution and Counterfeit, which are like three of the best songs they've ever done. But I do think it is the hipster choice to say the $3 bill is the best album when Significant Other is the... legit it's banger after banger on that album it is the most it's not the most mainstream chocolate starfish
Is that the second album you're talking about? That's their second album, yeah. And Chocolate Starfish is, again, a butthole. It's a butthole. And then its results may vary, which is Toilet. And then they have, they go away. And then they have another comeback album with Gold Cobra, which is divisive, but I think it's actually pretty good. And then they had Still Sucks a couple of years ago, which is superb. Oh, it's awesome.
Logan Paul opened this episode, of course. He is fighting for Jey Uso's World Heavyweight title at Saturday night's main event. in but five days time. Have you got a prediction for that? Jey Uso. Logan Paul said he got annoyed by the yeeting and then who would interrupt him? But Gunther. Yeah. I thought this was a nice bit of business as some people would say in the podcast world because it is
I think most people are assuming it's going to be Jey Uso winning at Saturday Night's main event, which will lead to Jey Uso versus Gunther on that June 9th episode of Monday Night Raw. And I did see last week, There was some criticism online about that segment because the idea was like,
Why bother watching the Saturday Night's main event thing? It's clearly Jay versus Gunther for the Raw episode. Why promote a match that you're doing after the match you're trying to also promote at the same time? So doing this segment here was to be like, but it could also be this match. It could be Logan Paul versus Gunther for the wild title. So I think it was a very smart thing to do.
And you're like, well, it's Gunther, he's a heel. How do you possibly do that? Well, Gunther is also quite a unique heel in that he has a moral code. And that means when there's someone who's worse than him, he does kind of appear, not like a baby face, but he has principles. And those principles make him feel more honourable and thus a face.
in the dynamic to whoever the heel is. And Logan Paul, he's... he's a dickhead and that's essentially what Gunther said for you this is just business for me this is personal I thought he was going to say for you this is business For me, this is my craft, which I would have preferred rather than the business personal line. But then I'll eat you alive if you're the Witches Olympus. Is it really? It's a good one as well.
If he's the champion by June 9th. Yeah. And then Jey Uso appeared after Gunther left and superkicked Logan. for the final image of this segment. Yeah, a very functional segment, but a good one nonetheless. It's slightly undermined by Pat McAfee sat at ringside who has just decided he's not going to sell anything from that Gunther match apart from
Got the bruise, bro. That doesn't sell it to me, mate. He does nothing but sell. When Gunther's in the ring, it cuts to him and he's like... Hopping in there. Wow. Let me tell you, got a bruise on my collarbone. And you're like, wow, you were in there last year with him? No, no, no, it was two weeks ago. Two weeks ago. Not even two weeks ago. Yeah. Well you should be dead. You literally danced your way to the commentary desk last week after some people had made their entrances for a match.
we get a clip of what happened last week where Roxanne Perez and Julia broke up after their loss to EO Sky and Rhea Ripley. Julia's been drafted to SmackDown. Roxanne Perez is drafted to Raw. Moving on. Okay. I don't know, man. I just thought she was already on the Raw roster. She's been around an awful long time. Because she's been around for ages. But she's not really been on TV, I guess. And she was never officially drafted.
But yeah, I was when they were like, and now you're on the raw roster. There was a part where I was like, weren't you already? Refresh my memory, was she ever- Billed as NXT's Roxanne Perez? Yeah, probably. I feel like she was just Roxanne. Here's Roxanne Perez. She's making a name for herself. They were calling them the NXT startups.
last week. And like internal rosters, she has always been on the NXT thing reportedly. I guess it's just from a viewer's perspective, I just thought she was on the Raw brand. Yeah, so I really... This little short-lived we're an axe We're going to prove to everyone why we should be here. And then they get beat and they immediately split up. And so like at the first.
First bit of adversity. We're going our other ways. I'm actually going to a completely different brand. They made a name for themselves. what do you think has happened? Because Julia dropped the belt to Stephanie Bacur and then came back way earlier than anyone thought because of the...
speculation that she was injured or that there was visa issues. So she comes back and then she gets called up to the main roster. Yeah. Why did she ever go back to NXT in that four-week period? Yeah, so do the Mania show. There it is. I mean, I've got nothing else for you. But I do think it's a great addition for SmackDown. Oh, yeah. And I think she will be in Money in the Bank. And I've got her down to be my winner.
There are reports that there'll be a draft at the end of this month, which is like next week. Yeah, but if Julia gets drafted to Raw... But just save it for them. Yeah, I guess what you're saying. It's like, I'm not saying the draft happens this Friday, but just delay her qualifier match to the draft. Who's going to come out next? Oh, it's SmackDown's newest signee.
Julia! I'm pretty sure this had actually happened with Bron Breaker is that he got called up pre-draft to SmackDown and then about a month later got drafted to Raw. Yeah, well Baron Corbin just sat out his contract. and had nothing to do. Jey Uso's walking backstage after that opening segment and Paul Heyman is there to run him through the facts, which is whoever the World Heavyweight Champion is right now, you, Logan Paul, Gunther, the long-term plan...
It's Seth Rollins. Love them using that term, the long-term plan. Yeah. Paul Levek, he's maybe doing a meta commentary on how we all... Talk how great his long-term booking is. Yeah, the long-term plan is that Seth's going to win. I think that's really nice. I think it's a great way to use backstage vernacular. in an on-screen context. Yeah, like a kayfabe way. Penta and AJ Styles then teamed together in matching red gear against Finn Balor and JD McDonough.
This was a really fun match to watch. This was a terrific match. And I'm glad that it was because I hate the finish. You know what? Salty Ollie is going to come in. Because I wrote in my notes, I was like, this is such a good match. This is terrific. And I was like, wait a sec.
This is the same tag match I always see. Well, not only is it the same match or the same lineup of lads that we've had for the last three weeks, it's got the same bloody finish that we've had for the last three weeks as well. I don't want to cause tribalism, but a terrific match is the tag match that opened last week's AEW Dynamite. Oh, you want your AEW stuff back? Well, it's here. And it's going to cause a big old controversy.
That was a terrific... I thought, well, if I use terrific match for that, I can't say this is a terrific match. So I downgraded it to very good. I do think this was a terrific match with a terrifically, well, I can't say it's a terrifically bad finish, but it is a predictable finish and a very overused finish.
Before that though, there was a really good character-based spot where JD McDonough went to splash Finn in a figure four, I think he was in. So he didn't go to splash Finn, he went to splash AJ off the top rope. AJ moves. and he hits Finn, which is very similar to how Dom won the IC title when he pinned Finn Balor yeah that was pretty nice and from that moment on the crowd who were already very good were just going ballistic for this match and they got a lot of time and that you
My problem with Raw recently has been that they just don't give the matches time. And when they do, there's no heat for them. This was a great marriage of both. going through two ad breaks and the crowd were there for every moment. But I don't want to be like the negative Nancy in the room. That was... two weeks ago. It was Dom versus Penta and there was Judgment Day interference and dumb pinned penta so penta took on a member of the judgment day then Penta took on
Chad Gable and The Judgment Day interfered and Penta won. And this week, Penta takes on The Judgment Day and Chad Gable, sorry, El Grande Americano interferes and it leads to... It's like, this is 50-50 booking this is the stuff we used to have a go at this company for was doing repetitive 50-50 booking And I went into this match being like, okay, well, El Grande Americano interferes and Judgment Day pick up the win because they haven't won, you know, because Penta won last.
And it's just as bad. Yeah. Finn got the pin. That's the most surprising part. Well, I was talking about J.D., Have you seen Balor over the last couple of years? He never gets pins. But yeah what happened was Carlito made a distraction but then it was El Grande Americano with the loaded mask on Penta which allowed Finn to roll in and take the pin. So yeah, I think that's a really good point on 50-50 booking. They've actually disguised that quite well. I hadn't considered it.
The thing I was sort of left as a bit of a sour aftertaste after what was a very enjoyable match was when Penta debuted, he was going up and up and up. I felt for those first six weeks. It was like, oh God, are we building a streak here? Are we going for the IC title already? And now I feel like the peak was quite a long time ago, and he's gone back down into the lower mid-card.
And he's just in, he's just waning down there now. See, I don't think he's down. I think it's plateaued. I think it is just, he has got to a level and he is just at. that level and there he probably will remain for a little while until he reunites with Phoenix and then we may because then he's in the tag division and no one like in particular WWE don't particularly care about so that's when maybe it will will dip down a little bit but credit to him he's had a better start than Rey
Because Phoenix's run in WWE thus far has just been taking losses. You're getting called up to AAA. I guess you're right. Sometimes plateaus do feel like declines. because you're just used to a rapid rise. Glasses variant Kathy Kelly interviewed EOSky backstage but Becky Lynch came over and said I could beat you and then she came out for her match But then we got a backstage segment where Seth Rollins... It's really difficult to have Seth and Logan Paul next to each other in your notes.
Because I want to read it as Seth Logan. Like the American film actor and comedian Seth Rogen. Seth goes up to Logan Paul And I thought this was Seth at his manipulative best. Yeah, yeah, pretty good. He said to Logan, look, if you can get past Jay and Gunther and you're still the heavyweight champion, how about we run our Mania match back? and maybe if you beat Jay that's because Bron what he does to him in the main event tonight and just remember who made that happen long term plans
Yeah, Becky's still in the ring. It's been about 10 minutes since we last saw her go out there. And she takes on Roxanne Perez and Natalia. Fresh off first. Ha ha ha ha. To one end is that for. I got headlines. You know, she got a WrestleTalk News headline off the back of that. And that's why you do these sorts of angles, is to get a name for yourself. Like, Natalia, she's kind of a fascinating person within WWE. Because when her contract was coming up, going to fight
WWE were like, we have to keep Natalya. So they went out of their way and Hannah was like, I must keep Prosper. And they signed her to a multi-year deal and then have done nothing with her. And really, I would read that as, this is not what the report is, I would read that as.
We have to keep her because we don't want her going anywhere else. Or doing the Owen Hart Memorial Cup Tournament. We don't want her going to AEW and doing the Owen Hart Tournament. We cannot have Natalia pose with the widow of Owen Hart, Martha. Yeah, that's... It's not going to be a great... So we've got to keep hold of...
But they are allowing her to go off and do, you know, she did Bloodsport over Mania weekend. She did the Crockett Cup, the NWA show where she challenged for the Women's Championship. So I think for Natalia, it's just like, yeah, do these sorts of angles. We're kind of getting a bit of a vision of what Natalia could have happened to Nati Neidhart if she had left. if she did not re-sign last year.
And I think it's what Karrion Kross is doing. Karrion Kross is doing that shoot promo, shoot in air quotes, doing the YouTube video that he put up. doing a video on Twitter where he's being like, hey, I'm going to bring The Righteous into WWE. It is just generating headlines for yourself because that keeps you in the conversation and it almost has to force WWE. to put you on TV because people are talking.
In this match, I thought most of the work, the best stuff was Becky and Perez. That stuff made me really excited for the future when they'll have a match. But then Natalya... she's still got a sharpshooter string to her bow because she teases it she doesn't get it in she teases it again the crowd aren't really reacting even though they're they've been really hot all night but my god when she goes for the double sharpshooter
I really enjoyed this match. It was good. It's also fascinating to look at as a visual aspect because Natalia is of the Divas era. Becky Lynch is of that women's revolution era. And Roxanne Perez is that person who's come up who has benefited from the work that Becky did down in NXT and unfortunately is like... looking at Natalia who never got the chance to have that work during the Divas era. Did I make a point of that on commentary?
I don't know. I tend to tune out. That's really good, isn't it? You could have built this match around three eras of women's wrestling. But yeah, Roxanne was... put in a babyface position against Beckett. Because Becky is so outwardly healed.
And Perez, I don't think the crowd know what her character is. I certainly don't. She's making a name for herself. That's her character. No, but that ended last week. And now she's happy. Oh, I'm so happy I'm signed, Adam Pearce. She's got a t-shirt that says, name made. Yeah. So yeah, now she's a face? I didn't get babyface vibes from her in this match, if I'm being honest.
Well, she didn't do anything overtly, like, rah, rah, come on, cheer for me. But she didn't do any cheating. No, no, she didn't go, she wasn't that out of the heel. I guess in a match where Becky is the outward heel and Natalia is the outward babyface, then maybe she was just that one in the middle. They go back and forth. It was really good stuff. And Becky hits a manhandle slam. Got it right this week. On Natty. And I thought, I was like, well, that's it. Or Perez is going to make the save.
I didn't see Lyra Valkyria coming. She pulls Becky out of this pin. Huge pop, really good spot. And then I quite liked the way Becky reacted, which was to just scuffle. and then try and run back in and win the match. And Lyra's like, no, come back. And she pulled her out again and they brought up the ramp. Yeah, no DQ, so it completely makes sense. I thought this was really effective. And actually, I think it shows.
just what good work Becky has done in the feuds that they had leading up to Backlash and the match itself. The feud in that build, no good. That match has made it all work, I think. Yeah, I mean, maybe I'm looking back on it with generous hindsight, but certainly the matchup backlash has made Lyra feel... much bigger and more important figure on TV than she had done when she was just with the belt and just having matches with Ivy Nile.
So yeah, I thought this was really, really great and a testament to work that Becky and WWE's creative have done to kind of get her into this position. And I was kind of surprised a little bit because I really thought after Becky's promo last week, she was going to go into Money in the Bank with the gimmick of, I'm going to hold all the women down. And you can have that visual of her on the ladder.
literally kicking the women down as they're trying to stop her. But Perez got the win. She hit the pop rocks on Natalia as Becky brought up the ramp with Valkyria. So then in her first year, She was the runner-up and Iron Woman performer in the Royal Rumble. She was the runner-up in the Elimination Chamber. Do you think she wins the briefcase? You've got Julia. I think I've got Julia down to win. If Julia qualifies, which we don't know for certain. I don't think she's qualified.
No, it's Charlotte Flair, Julia, and someone else in the match on SmackDown this week. Yeah, I think Julia goes in. I think that actually is the more sensible option to put into the match. I'd put the briefcase on Julia. But yeah, maybe that's what Roxanne will be. And maybe that's part of this babyface thing, is she is the Cinderella story. Well, we'll get more onto Perez, because this isn't the last we see of her.
Sami Zayn visits Jay in his locker room. He says, I'll be in your corner against Bron. Jay, I'm liking this performance from Jay now. I feel like the weight of the title is starting to hang heavy on him. We got a recap of 2012 Raw where heel Michael Cole got stripped by John Cena. with barbecue sauce poured all over him. Yeah, this was actually part of the worst year of Cena's life after he lost at WrestleMania. It's just that...
He wins a handicap match against Cole and Otunga. We went through the percentile win that John Cena had. in his worst year of his professional career. And he won like 90 odd percent of his matches. Including Money in the Bank and the Royal Rumble. Exactly. The worst year of his life!
Adam Pearce booked Akira Dezauer against Rusev next week. Good job getting this over. Are you sure you want to do this? And Dezauer said, I want it. So I'm looking forward to that next week. Hold on. Akira Dezauer's in a backstage segment. Who's that? Oh, it's Chad Gable, of course. It's like a magnet. He's in a backstage segment. There's a camera near him. This little drawer. And Chad Gable's trying to eat Caleb. He's like, oh, I'm being dragged.
Chad wanted a Money in the Bank qualifying match because he doesn't have one yet. And then the New Day walk in because they say, well, it's them versus the Creed next week for the Raw tag team titles. And the War Raiders. And the War Raiders. Yeah, and a triple threat. So they're trying to form someone like... Seamus then took on Grayson Waller, and I got all cynical at the start of this.
Sheamus facing Grayson Waller the week after facing Austin Theory. They really got me into this match. There's a spot coming out of the ab back into front from the ab break. where Grayson Waller just punches Seamus in the corner. Seamus does not move. His hair on his chin moves. And he looks at him and goes, come on. Yes! I could not agree with you more. Because when Sheamus came out, and you go, and I was like, oh, man. I'm not into watching him versus Grayson Waller.
This was a hell of a lot of fun. It's the magic of Sheamus, I guess. On commentary before this match, Michael Cole says, and Sheamus has promised us another banger. I just, you can't promise the bangers. But, god damn, did he bang. Yeah, he did. He banged Grayson Wallace something fierce here. Sheamus banged Wallace so down under. The crowd started to chant Frost in theory. That's how hard Seamus banged. I thought...
they were in Europe for a second. Yeah! Because that is a very European crowd to do is to chant for the guy that stood at ringside. We accidentally got Big Cass over in AEW! So yeah, the crowd are chanting for Austin Theory for the first time in feels like forever. felt like a relevant star and that this is a storyline that's working. I don't think there's ever been a chant for Austin Theory. Never in the history of WWE. And they have tried. Maybe go away, Austin Theory.
We don't want you in this position, Austin Theory. Why do you keep getting pushed, Austin? Why do you keep getting pushed? It's like the Max Caster shot. But I think Polavac, you have been given a gift here. pay off this story next week. Come on, let's pull this trigger. No one has been into this. It's been like 15 months. All of a sudden, this crowd decided they are into it. If you pull the trigger next week you can pretend it was all a success.
But that's also going to rely on next week's crowd being into this, and there's every chance that they are not. But it's a very fun finish, though, because the story of last week's one was that Grayson Waller didn't want the match with Sheamus, so he gave it to Theo. And then he was like, oh, Magost in theory is not doing so good in this match and he's not helped. So whilst in theory it was kind of punishing him in this match a little bit.
by not letting him leave. Grayson Waller tries to leave during the match and Austin Theory stands in his way. And it was very smartly set up because Grayson Waller tried to do the beats of the Bowery and then Sheamus reversed it, but he slipped out of that and was like, well, I'm not going in. And then Theory blocks him from leaving. And in the process of doing that, Seamus drags him up to do the 10 beats of the Bowery. So it was really good because the crowd wanted to see that spot.
And Theory didn't, like, stop him. He was like, no, no, you can get in there, beat him. But he had the facials of, no, I want you to get your ass kicked. I thought, yeah, Theory's facials at ringside were perfect. They were spot on. Maybe face Austin Theory. So, is there anything Sheamus can't do? Yes. Win the Intercontinental title. After that, we got some sports. There's a thing called the NBA in America. I think people have heard about it. Touchdown. Tyrese Halliburton.
He's going to be in 2K25 and he is going to wrestle a basketball match in... The Mates Stadium. Yep. I'm glad you took notes because I saw this like a Jey Uso entrance. Just pressing that little right arrow there so I can skip forward a little bit. So yesterday, when I was going home,
Left the office, got the tube across to the station. All my trains were cancelled. Oh, no. Because there were trespassers on the line. There was going to be a police incident. And it was just like, delayed, delayed, cancelled.
and i was like so i called my wife and i was like i don't think i'm like i don't think they're going to solve this until like half past nine that's what they were saying and so my wife said well text your brother and just see if you can stay at his instead And I was like, wow. i haven't got um i haven't got like a change of clothes i haven't got a toothbrush
Your brother's basically at the same height and size as you. You can probably borrow. So I'm actually wearing my brother's shirt. Oh, you actually stayed there last night? I stayed there last night. You didn't tell me this. Did you save it for the podcast? I saved it for the podcast. And it's only just coming to me now because it actually ties in quite nicely.
because I texted my brother and I was like, is it alright if I stay at yours tonight? I was like, yeah, I'm not in at the moment though. Come meet me at this pub near Liverpool Street. I'm playing a blood bowl game. Actually, he's part of a league. So I went and I watched my brother play a Blood Bowl League game and it was way more exciting than this NBA chat here which got so much screen time. Yeah, it was a Zoom call. Michael Cole and Pat McAfee interviewed.
Tyrese Halliburts. This had hype packages for it because they were like, hey, this guy's been on. We predicted that he was going to have a showdown with Doodledoo from the New York something or others and now they're going to do a touchdown. And then they had the Zoom call with him. I'm sure all respect for you if you enjoy baseball. We don't know what's happening. Kathy Kelly is interviewing Gunther backstage, but before he can answer, Seth Rollins walks in and Kathy, Kathy Kelly did this.
She just goes and steps sideways out of shot. Yeah, you know, her home pilot needed her. It's awkward staging. But Seth starts his manipulative gimmick and he's like, oh, can, you know... I can't remember what he said. And Gunther said, look, you're not the long-term plan around here. I am. And Seth says, all right, I'll drop my respect for that. And he's like who he really is inside. He says, if you become champion, you're going to make yourself a target. And Gunther said, I can't wait.
Second badass Gunther spot of the night. We can rebuild him. And we need... But yeah, I quite enjoyed this. I also like that Gunther and Seth have got the same gimmick in a way, which is calling it my world title. So it's a battle of whose world title is it really? That was it. Seth congratulated Gunther on everything he did with his world title. Yeah. Which was good.
Not accurate, but good. Then we got the Ripley-Sane-Stark match where Zoe Stark got injured. We got a Rusev video package on Tozawa. Tozawa's gonna get snapped in two, I think. Then came... A Good Judgment Day segment. Come on. This was intriguing.
Come on, man. There was a new development. No, it's not. It's the same development. No, it's a different development. It's the same development. She's a woman. It's bringing Liv into the group. It's the same development. It's not Liv. Liv's not there. It's controls and controls.
It's the same s*** with this group. Munch and month out. She brought him some chicken nuggets. Yeah. And that's it. That's your development right there. Liv brought them a PlayStation. They're different things. I get that it's mirroring. But man, am I just done with this! Like, we need to move on!
Well, I unironically liked it. I'm not just saying this to annoy you. Judgment Day is celebrating because, oh my god, Finn Balor just won a match. And Finn Balor's like, oh, by the way, everyone, I've got a new member. It's Roxanne Perez. And if you've been paying attention to the stuff that happens in the back of shots recently, Perez and Finn have been seen talking to each other over the last month or so.
and i just thought character wise this is really ingenious of finn because he was always saying no we don't need another member when jd mcdonald was out injured but as soon as liv's gone He's had a change of heart, and he's like, actually, we do need another member. Here's Roxanne. He does this just after he's won, so he's got a bit of credence. And... Clearwater Revival.
Dominic can't say anything because he was also pitching for a new member to join. But his argument was like, I think we should just wait until Liv comes back. He doesn't want to do it. He doesn't know what to do. I don't know what to do until his wife comes home to tell him what to do. But Roxanne got everyone presents. She gave chicken nuggets, not tendies. I don't really know what the tendies are. Are they longer? Yeah, we don't have tendies here in the UK because we're adults.
And we call food by proper names. Yeah. Not children's names. Mutton. Mutton and lard. Over here in Britain. Suet. That is what we have here. But yeah, so she got chicken nuggets for Don. and some apples for Carlito but nothing for JD and nothing for Raquel so maybe we'll get those maybe that'll be the next story progression in this segment is that they'll get a different presence next week and we can just keep
Turn in this Judgment Day wheel. Raquel was suspicious and angry at this development. Sorry, sorry. A Judgment Day member being suspicious and angry at another Judgment Day member for a decision they've made about the Judgment Day. Brez hasn't been officially accepted. She's not officially a member. They're going to think about it. I'm great. Extend it out. That's just what it needs. And I am on the edge of my seat.
I think Brom Breaker made his entrance about half an hour ago by this point for the main event. It's coming up next. I was like, there's 31 minutes left of this show. By the time they had done the entrances and plugs for next week, there were 19 minutes left. That's an entire WrestleTalk News episode in the gap between. I got excited because I thought, Bron's going to have a half-hour main event segment. This is great because usually he has like 10, 15-minute matches.
But yeah, you're right. Jay Yeated, he got a kid in the crowd again. I guess that's part of the Yeating now. And this was a rematch of their IC title feud from last year. So it's only been like seven, eight months since they last encountered each other. And I thought they showed that pretty neatly at the start when they have a little interaction and Jay gets the better of Bronn and Bronn's like... Are you powerful?
Jay has progressed. There was a nice way to show sort of character growth I completely agree and I very much enjoyed this match I thought the work between the two was very very good but there was a little bit at arm's length because as you and I said on last week's show this had DQ written all over
Jay's not going to take a loss five days before his world title match with Logan Paul. And Brom Brake is not going to take a loss now that he's in this new character. So this really was just, this was a formality to get to the post-match angle. Yeah, it is a bit fatiguing when it all happens like that. It's like, you know, I'm really grateful that Jay's now getting presented alongside all these other main eventers and it's the main event story and matches on Raw.
But then if he doesn't win anything, again, it's like this, it's this stealthy way of fooling us. Because he has had, what, two matches since he's won the world title and has not won either of them because he had the match with Seth. Via DQ. Okay, he's not pinned anyone then. Is that right? Has he not pinned anyone since he's won the belt?
So what happens here is Heyman grabs Jay's foot, Jay kicks out and then he starts squaring up to Paul. Seth Rollins attacks him from behind and they start beating down Jey Uso. At this point, the match has cooled off. And then Sami Zayn comes down, gets this enormous pop, and then CM Punk comes down, gets an even bigger pop, and the whole crowd sing the first three or four lines of Cult of Personality. It felt so hot! Yeah, it felt like a European crowd.
And this was a crowd that were rabid to see these four guys brawl. It was kind of awesome. Yeah. If it wasn't for that crowd, I'd have been pretty miffed with this uninspiring schmoz finish. But the crowd, they saved us. So good. Shout out to that crowd. Can confirm, by the way, he has had two matches since WrestleMania and has actually only won one of them because Seth Rollins won via DQ. And then Jay won by DQ.
Oh, I see. So no clean anythings. No clean anythings. But he will get a clean win this coming weekend when he pins Logan Paul. He's not even done house shows. Well, who does anymore? And then when they're all brawling, they brawl through the crowd. It's pretty hot. Jay's in the ring. He's picking up his title. Boom. Logan Paul punch.
knocks him out. Yeah, four weeks in a row I think they've been saying that. It's the fourth week in a row that he's knocked him out, which is a nice little bit of story. It's a good build for What is, you know, a quite enticing looking Saturday Night's main event compared to the previous one? Yeah, I mean, it's got that punk... Seth Rollins' tag match, you've got Cena Truth, you've got the cage match with Priest and McIntyre. Yeah. And then, generally, four matches. Very, very good.
I'm actually quite excited for the Saturday Saturday night's main events yeah we'll do our predictions on the Thursday WrestleTalk podcast so make sure you're subscribed wherever you get your podcasts for that I gave this 80%. I thought it was a really decent episode. Great crowd, really good in-ring matches, and some good angles. Yeah, I think the crowd very much helped this show.
Because there are some finishes that I am fatigued by. Judgment Day, obviously, that has a template. The main event was clearly going to be a DQ finish, but the two men in the bank qualifiers I thought were really, really good. That first one I thought was great. The second one because they recovered what had happened from the terrible injury. And Sheamus vs Grayson Waller was surprisingly really fun.
Let's say a big thank you to our wonderful Pledgehammers on Patreon. Without you guys, we couldn't do this. Der Tham General, Roman Dietrich. Ross Pooper Scooper Cooper. Rue the day, Rory O'Brien Kelly. The man with the scoops, Sean. The Big Boss Man. Security James. Hear me roar, Sirutu Lion. The Torrential Tribute. Spencer Von Hagen. The Pharaoh, Steven Mazzaferro. The Incredible Tarzo. The People's Broker, Ash Ages. Keep rolling, the Rick Pe-
So many Olympus get things in this episode. And commentator of the century, Vince Phillips. That is your Hall of Fame class for Tuesday the 20th of May 2025. You'll want to go over there because not only do you have episode two of our brand new The Rise and Fall of the Nexus series that went live. on saturday so we've got um the raw debut that's live on the main restaurant channel but then the next episode is behind the payroll and we'll remain there exclusively on patreon
which is us reviewing Money in the Bank 2010. Sure is, yeah. The very first Money in the Bank pay-per-view concept as its own show. While we talk about TNA for most of the time. The first hour of the show.
is TNA chat and that is big and it's not because you know when these big TNA marks though we are It's because it was the really fascinating period of time where Dixie Carter realised that this Hogan Bischoff thing isn't working six months in, so she's pulling a different lever and wants to ring in Paul Heyman. who was out of WWE and out of wrestling and had been for a while, had been out of wrestling since December 2006.
And it's all about the different backstage negotiations and tactics that Heyman has in order to come into TNA and what Dick sees. walls are that she's putting up to stop a lot of what Paul Heyman wants to do. It's a fascinating thing and also creates this really interesting timeline of what... could have happened if Dixie had just been a little bit smarter and trusted Paul Heyman over Vince Russo and Jeff Jackson.
And Hogan and Bischoff. And on the other end of the scale, this weekend, we have Money in the Bank 2025 predictions three count on the channel, but then on Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk, us reviewing Money in the Bank. 2020, a.k.a. Oli's favourite money to bank battle match. It's the best one! It's the most fun! It's the squeakiest one. It's the least like a wrestling match and the most like a movie.
go the best and also make sure you subscribe to WrestleTalk here on YouTube because we have debuting this weekend Brain Busters hosted by SoCal Val where it's a wrestling trivia game show yeah what a great title that is it is a good title yeah Brain Busters Because it's the name of a wrestling move and the very famous wrestling tactic. Right, last call for all of your...
Chat Gables, get them in. We'll read out every single one. Over five US dollars. Homer Star writes, I love Rhea, but she doesn't need to be in Money in the Bank. They're already setting up her versus Io, so why does she need to be in the match? I think I'm just fed up of the Kyrie disrespect. A spot of money in the bank would have helped her a lot. Hashtag justice for Kyrie. We have the results of that poll, by the way. 62% thumbs up for Rhea Ripley going in. So, you know, it's over half.
Yeah, I disagree, Homestar. I think she's a big... She should be in the match. It would be weird if she wasn't in there or doing anything else. I think the only reason to not have her in that match is if you're doing Rio versus Io for the title at the show. The username has been lost here, so please do tell the mod Streamlabs does occasionally have a bug.
Rusev with another great promo but no one is talking about his uncanny ability to film edit and splice together footage within 30 minutes of Pierce signing off on the match. Come to think of it, no one has seen Adam Whitney and Rusev in the same room together. That's our editor, Adam Whitney. Oh my god. Do you think that's what's going on here? I mean, they look wildly different. Very different in my way.
But similar skills of editing quickness. Yeah, I guess so. He is very quick at turning things around, is old Adam Whitney. Very talented, that. Heiko writes, how many wrestlers didn't get entrances? So many folks feeling unimportant. So weird to me. Well, no hard end on Netflix. What? So weird to me. Will no hard end on Netflix? I mean, I've had a few hard ends in my time, but I'm not sure what that means. What could that be a typo for? Will no hard end?
Oh, I wonder if they're saying there is no hard end on Netflix, as in they don't have a hard out. Oh, so just play all of the entrances. You can play the entrances. I know what you mean, but it's not bugging me a great deal. I didn't need to see Zoe Stark's entrance. And hear those death rabble themes. Aziz Wright, who was the person who wrote in earlier about the, um,
The Travis Scott thing. Totally understand why you didn't talk about my reality-errassing comment. Don't hold it against you. Thank you very much. Thanks for being understanding. But I have another question regarding celebs and TKO. At the rate we are going... Do you think that WWE will sell out and only have celebs headline a WrestleMania for the sake of money? They won't headline WrestleMania, but I could imagine them doing a celebrity versus celebrity match.
I kind of do push back on this idea. Because it's not like the first WrestleMania wasn't built around celebrity interactions. The first AEW show at All In, if we count that as one, had Stephen Amell doing a match. Yeah. It's the first AEW Dynamite had Giant Silent Bob at ringside. Rosario Dawson was a member of the Nightmare Factory. Yeah, I uh... Look, celebs are a big part of the...
Fun freak show of wrestling promotion, I believe, and I wouldn't want to cut them out. And I think WrestleMania is absolutely the time to do bonkers celebrity matches.
It wouldn't feel like a WrestleMania without one now, I think. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, at the expense of doing Punk and Cena at Money in the Bank and having Cena and Travis Scott do a tag match, that I'm less on board with. Having said that, I totally get... why you do it like it just makes business sense to have Tyrese what's his face up here on the show and do a Skype call about an upcoming thing game of something Makes sense.
Brett J. Rasmussen, I know this is a WWE Raw review, but I wanted your live opinions on something AEW. What do you guys think, especially Luke, of AEW Dynamite's new theme of You Wanted War by Sum 41? Also, just some quick opinions on AEW overall currency.
you can check out the last Thursday's Wrestle Podcast where we talked about AEW and thoughts on the product as of like actually we go into a bit of discussion about why we think the product has really turned around in 2025 and it's become like a really really good weekly show i very much enjoy dynamite and collision as for the theme itself
Like, I like In Too Deep and the other single that they had. Fat lip. That's it, fat lip, thank you. But I can't say that I, you know, listened to that album a lot. But, you know, I was there in the summer of 2001, so I did see those music videos a lot on the other music channels. That one where they're in a pool. That's in too deep. Great music videos. Very good music videos. I'll give it a stronger listen next time. There's something about wrestling themes.
for shows that just wash over me now. Yeah. I've got a bit of tin ear when it comes to the opening themes of entrances, unless it's Elton John. In which case I sit bold upright and go, yes! Going by AEW themes, it'll be changed within two weeks. I'm so excited not that long ago. Well, keeping in the musical theme for...
To close us off, we have Mayor of Painesville, Dan. Hello, Luke. Hello, Ollie. Hope you're doing well. The crowd was hot. Almost as hot as the Eurovision crowd. Speaking of Eurovision, what are your thoughts? I haven't seen it, haven't heard any of the songs. Give me... three to listen to and I will try and do it before Thursday's WrestleTalk podcast.
While Austria's pretty good, they won. Estonia's is very funny. You should watch the video with that because it's a song about macchiatos and coffee and espresso, Italian culture in general. But he does a fun arm wiggly dance. People like Sweden, they were the favorite guy in them, but they didn't win. That's a song all about saunas. I personally thought it was overrated, Dan. And... Marina was saying about that song on Wrestling Entertainment. She liked it. Yeah.
But then I thought our song was pretty good. Remember Monday? The hell just happened. so i will listen then uh for thursday's rust talk podcast i will listen to just say austria No, you should probably listen to the weird ones now we're talking about it. So, Austria winner. Austria, Estonia. Estonia is the song about coffee. Sweden's the song about saunas. And then the, I think it's called Ikkama.
It come? If it's German, it'd be a comma. A comma. And she rides a giant microphone like it's a penis. Oh, Eurovision. I think that's Finland. But yes, thank you very much. Get in your Eurovision thoughts for the Thursday podcast. Leave a comment down below with your thoughts on Eurovision and maybe we'll read some of them out on Thursday's show. And we can have a very nice time.
As everyone did have a very rice time in the comments on Thursday's show. What are the results of the poll? I'm just getting that right now. 58% thumbs up. 34% in the middle. Yeah, bit of a just normal show, really. But a very competent at forwarding certain things and some good in-ring matches. But for now, I've been Oli Davis. This has been Nuka and DAD. Jam that jam. See you on Thursday. See you on Thursday.