WWE Raw Let Down, Bron Breakker Loses, WWE Raw Jan. 5, 2026 Review

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Yes, you there, the one listening to this podcast. Hello, it's Luke Owen here from the WrestleTalk Podcast. Hope you're doing well. This is just a little quick plug to click the link in the podcast description because there is a survey there. are looking to build a better profile for their podcast listenership. So...

Give us a hand. Help us out a little bit. Tell us who you are. Tell us what you like. And you can do that by clicking the link and doing the little survey. It should only take a few minutes, so I've been told. And it would really help us out. Thank you. Enjoy the podcast. Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk podcast here every Tuesday and Friday, back again in 2026.

Back once again like a renegade master. I'm Oli Davis. I'm joined by Luke Owen D.A.D. And you can get your podcast, your WrestleTalk podcast, wherever you get your podcasts from. Sure can. What a great new catchphrase for this year. Get your podcasts where you get your podcasts. I like it. You can get it from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, right here on YouTube, but not... Oh, yeah, we're switching it up. Not from Signs... in the first Raw episode of the year.

Because we've had a message from Ryan who made a wonderful support WrestleTalk sign in the font and everything with a little scammy and a QR code. A QR code that seems to have a tiny dinosaur.

dinosaur in the middle of it i think that's a common thing in qr codes dinosaurs yeah i think if you like there's probably more of a common thing in raw's main event scene very good he's back like i mean first podcast back for the new year and already i'm not sure we're gonna top that joke uh i think if you use like a website to creating a qr code it probably will have like a dinosaur

or theme on it and then it will put their logo in the middle of the QR code. Well, anyway, Ryan got in touch with Luke and said, because I don't care about social media. And said, see you on Raw tonight. Here's the sign I'm going to show. And then he said, they took it already. Guess they don't like any promotions of podcasts. Yes, this is a claim from a fan. I'm just going to put it out there. It's a claim I've not heard.

You know, no one else has had this happen to them. But yeah, Ryan says that they took a sign to Raw and immediately it was confiscated by security. Yeah. Yeah. WWE fears WrestleTalk. Yeah, I mean, that'd be the next sign. Yeah, we are CMLL right now. If you're going to SmackDown in Germany this coming Friday, then take a sign with you that says WWE fears WrestleTalk.

Triple H fears WrestleTalk. German Dan is going to be like looking at all of these other signs he's got for Dexter Loomis. He's going to bring back Brian Myers. Oh no, but now the WrestleTalk boys say I should do this. Yeah, I'm going to get good at impressions this year. That's your New Year's resolution. We're going to start this episode with the main event. As much as I want to dunk on Stranger Things. What? Why? Because it's a bad show. I think it's all right.

Honestly, I think it's a show that had an amazing first series and then was broadly fine for the rest of its run. You're right, that's unfair. It's currently a painful show to watch. I am watching episodes like I pass kidney stones. It is. I'm doing it in 20 minute bits. No.

I cannot handle more of it. Oh, I think it's, I thought the last series was completely fine. What, the final series you mean? Yeah, series five. I've not finished it. I've finished it now. And I quite enjoyed the final episode of it. Great. I guess that's about two. weeks away from me on my current cadence. I've been on episode six for feels like all year. It actually has been all year. I've been watching episode six for all of 2026.

Yeah, let's just have a whole new realm. Let's have two whole new realms. I mean, you say that. They set that up in the last series. What, imaginary? Yeah, they set up The Abyss in series four. Because that's where Vecna got sent to.

The reveal that the Upside Down is not the alternative dimension. That is the bridgeway between... That's not where Vecna got sent to. He got sent to somewhere else. Then he made his way to the Upside Down. They established that in Series 4. I only know that because I re-watched Season 4.

in preparation for season five because i couldn't remember a single thing from season four because it is a broadly fine television show the uh i think it's worse than broadly uh the only abyss i want to hear about It's Chris Parks. I'm actually going to mention him later on in a theory that I have. In Unreal? No. That he's the main focus of Unreal Series 2? I mean, he should be.

It's the only good thing from series one. No, I've got a different abyss. An anecdote about abyss that I will bring up in relation to something that did not happen on this episode. Okay. But we're talking about the main event, which was Brombreaker versus CM Punk for CM Punk's World Heavyweight title. Earlier in the night, just for context, both...

Other title matches had title changes. So the Kabuki Warriors lost their belt and Maxine lost her IC title to Becky Lynch. Which is the one I did not see coming. Really? Well, I really thought we're going to do something with this Maxine Dupree icy title run. More for me. Why did I think they would do something with that? They just put the belt right back onto Becky. Like none of it actually mattered or did anything for anyone. Yeah.

Well, you know, we all believe Maxine Dupree is a shooter now, don't we? So that worked. I didn't believe that. But she won this title. Then she had this sort of like two-week montage of video packages that really should have been before she won the title because she literally... really said i'm going away to train then a week later i'm back and i've completed my training

So they should have had these before then. But I was like, oh, OK, I think they are going to do a bit of a run here. It is going to become more of a mid-card title, but that's absolutely fine. It doesn't need to be the focus. But at least we will do something with this. As it turns out, it was just to have the moment.

And allow Maxine to go on some podcasts and talk about how hard she's worked for this title and gives the illusion that we're creating new stars. But really, you're not a star. Becky Lynch and AJ Lee are stars. That's an actual match we want to do at WrestleMania.

Not you. It's January. Oh, my God. Doesn't WrestleMania come round quickly every year? Sorry, Maxine, you're dropping the title. But yeah, just the sort of episode booking. Oh, it's a brand new year. This is the first episode of Raw in 2026. Both titles have changed hands. Could this be a clean slate for many of the main belts on Raw?

We had the Usos win the tag belts, of course, before them. Yeah, glad they were on this show. Yeah, well, they had, you know, they set up something. So they go into the main event. They also had a video package earlier on. They did this throughout the night of just a couple of the key... feuds really well produced video packages really good wwe are great at this they've got to think or at least hope these episodes the first episodes of the year on netflix act as a jumping on point

Yeah. Casual fans. And it was a very hyped episode. And these video packages do a lot to explain what's going on right now. So really well done. The match itself, I don't know if it's because we just watched... Wrestle Kingdom. It's that old classic. It's tough watching WWE when you've just watched...

Any other wrestling promotions pay-per-view. Inserts any other wrestling promotion. It's hard to watch WWE after you've just been to a hustle show. So, you know, it's just like I know when everything's going to happen. I know when to not pay attention. I know that this is just the filler section. Here's where the heat comes in. And the story was they went a long time, by the way. We didn't get all of this because of ad breaks, but.

In real time, I think it went near half an hour. They had 28 minutes of the broadcast left by the time that the bell rang. And it was Breaker dominating early on. His power really... beat out punk they're going back and forth it's just it's just stuff like decent stuff nothing to write home about then uh we get a horrible botch off the frankensteiner which i really feel for bromford because he leapt up

beautifully for this yeah there's like the standing leap run up to the the top rope where punk already is hands up to the audience like he does not need anything to help him balance but he might need his opponent to help him out. Yeah, a little bit. Because what appears to have happened is Punk's legs are in the wrong position. No, you want them to be outside the ropes rather than in the ropes to take this kind of move.

I don't know. I would have thought being inside would help you springboard off a little bit easier. Well, they were in the wrong... Oh, actually, no, if you're inside, then Bronson will be able to jump up and get his feet beside you. Also, you can't jump your legs over and do a flip bump.

So Breaker just collapses to the floor and takes quite a nasty bump on his neck, which I guess is one of his spots. Well, I'm sure William Regal will tweet about this. I miss this. I miss this over the Christmas break. Yeah, I bet him and Trips had a good old laugh posting that. But Punk, yeah, just stays up there and, you know, tried to turn it into, oh no, I counted it because I held onto the ropes. He didn't. I think they could have played into this more.

Because the story of the match was, like you said, it's bronze power, it's bronze speed, it's bronze youth against Punk's oldness. And like that is kind of the story they were telling. But with Punk's oldness comes experience. You've got a lot to learn, kid. It's not just going to be spear one, two, three. Crucially, they didn't hit the spear in the match. So kind of to protect that move.

So you could have played into that here. Like, Bron's doing this brash over, you know, arrogance and stuff, but Punk held onto the ropes and that allowed him to hit the elbow drop and start his comeback. But no, they just repeated the spots, which only highlights more. that it was a botch but after that uh and the crowd gave him some grief they went into the interference and when this started i was like oh okay the match is starting now so did the new york crowds yeah because the new york crowd

Are we sure this was in New York? Yeah. Because they were quiet. It was in Hawkins. Hawkins, Indiana. They were quiet all night long. This did not feel like a New York. brooklyn wwe crowd they did not give one solitary f about wrestling on this show until all the interference happened and then they all like The match has started. Right, now we can start cheering for things. Because that's what WWE have trained their audience to get excited for. By the New York audience?

Traditionally, like the smarter audience. I guess they were just there to see Y2J. Yes. Which is what they were chanting for during all the women's matches. Which we'll come on to. Yeah, so then Heyman gets on the apron, Logan Paul and Bronson Reed and Austin Theory. They've all run down. There's a little spot where there's a ref bump and Fury hits the stomp on Punk, just like at War Games. Breaker goes for the pin, but Punk kicks out this time, unlike War Games.

The luchadors come down because we need three guys to feud with these three guys. Yeah, until L.A. Knight comes back. Yeah. And the Vision now, one of the Vision's missions, they've been clear about this from the start, is they hate it. Mexicans. I know, when Rey Mysterio was like, they've got a mission statement to ruin the legacy of Lucha Libre, and I was like, have they? When? I know I missed a week of TV because I was having a break for Christmas.

But was there like a huge angle that they did? It's on AAA, I presume. You've got to watch all the stuff, guys. So they fired off and they go into the crowd. So it comes back down to Breaker and Punk. And when it just goes back to them two, because we've moved on from the inevitable interference spot.

Then it got great. This was a really good match. So much fun. And the crowd came alive for it because they knew we were getting into the ending sequence. And it was just loads of things. Punk hit this pile driver, which is, you know.

A pile driver from Punk on Raw just always signals back to that Cena match. And sadly, it wasn't a great pile driver, which I don't think helped the spot. Like, it didn't get over as much as it should do. And they were putting over this idea that he'd hit the GTS and...

breaker had kicked out so punk started to panic cory graves even said punk's panicking he doesn't know what to do now he's kicked out of the gts so he was resorts to hitting the pile driver it was like a really cool sadly wasn't a great pile driver yeah uh Well, I think we don't need to do anything more to Breaker's neck in this match. Breaker goes for a GTS, but Punk reversed that into an STF for John Cena. But then Heyman gets on the apron.

Then Breaker sort of spills outside. Punk goes for a dive and Breaker punches him, you know, to counter it. And Punk goes straight into the earth. He landed face first into the mat. As bad as the Frankensteiner botch was. This wasn't a botch, but it was a bad landing. I'm sure William Riggle will tweet about it. So Breaker, usually, you know, he does that great spot where he leaps off the apron and clotheslines someone on the announce desk. This time he's like...

No, I'm going up to the top rope. This is the biggest match of my life. So he goes up to the top rope and he hits it and he throws Punk in the ring. He's running for the spear, but knee up from Punk to counter it and one GTS to retain. Well, it's second, I suppose. But to a point, yes, he just hit one GTS after. In that moment. In that moment. When he had just gone through a table.

And had fallen face first into the grounds. But amazingly, the referee's about to count three, but he can't. And the hand starts going back up. And it cuts to the ringside and there is 11 with a nosebleed. It's like, what's happening? Oh, my God. It's the best payoff to this Stranger Things themed episode. Yeah.

We've wanted the goofiness back for a while. And now, yeah, Brombreaker won the championship and Vecna raised his arm. No, Punk just hit the GTS and he retained. And I've written in my notes here, boo. Yeah, because everything... has to take ages. Yeah. Never just do the good stuff now. And you can't even do the bad stuff. The bad stuff. There was no hokey stranger.

All the Stranger Things stuff was really good. Wasn't this a lot like that Survivor Series celebration of The Rock that The Rock was not at? This was a celebration of Stranger Things with none of the Stranger Things cast. You could have had a show-long storyline. in search for the golden ego. And they did none of that sort of thing. I said on my news yesterday, I'm surprised David Harbour wasn't there, given the company's track record on shady people. I was like, okay.

harbour's not gonna be there controversial figure he's not gonna be on the show millie bobby brown too big of a star lives on netflix she's not gonna be on this show they probably can't even get Finn Wolfhard, but they could probably, they could get Dustin or Joe Keery or Uma Thurman's kids. They could have easily got those people. And they can run around backstage with Otis. Well, I wasn't expecting that.

in the crowd holding up a WWE title they had someone else on there from another Netflix show holding up a WWE title that was covered in like the upside down vines and stuff which makes it more noticeable that the Stranger Things cast down there. Yeah, here's Emily in Paris. Wait, what were in Hawkins? But anyway, sorry, we'll talk more about Stranger Things.

Yeah, the Brom Breaker stuff, we all thought... How many times has it been now that we're like, now's the time to pull the trigger? Yeah, well, this is probably our... Well, it's our second. Yeah, because it should have happened when Seth vacated the title. Yeah. And then it should have happened here. It's the second time it should have happened. We all thought, okay, well, they put the title on Punk. It's a safer option. And then Punk...

might lose the title to Bronn, particularly with that War Games finish. And we're all like, well, let's fantasy book this out. Punk can lose the title. He loses Royal Rumble as well, but he wins the chamber. In Chicago. That's how he gets the title match against Breaker. And maybe he beats Breaker at Mania. Big moment. Or Bron just retains it and Bron beats him again. Yeah. And we establish a new top guy rather than...

a lad who is 46 years old. But the philosophy of WWE right now and Paul Levesque is, no, I'm going to slowly build this star. And it's like, I can't argue with that. philosophy, because I think that's generally what you should do. You should put time and investment into building new characters, getting them over with the audience, and crucially, letting them get comfortable in a main event position. However... Not all the time. And WWE...

particularly in 2025 with John Cena and CM Punk and just old guys. We need an injection of youth. We need an injection of something unpredictable. We need something big to happen outside of mania. and that's it i think that's the only time big storylines can happen now yeah i know a lot of people are kind of fancy booking this idea that drew's gonna win the title this coming friday

I just, I don't think it's going to happen because we've already set up that it's Cody Roman at WrestleMania. We set that up at war games. So yeah, I think we're just going to beat Drew again. Now that I might have massive egg on my face, you know, come Friday. I just don't think that Cody Rhodes is losing the title on a random episode of SmackDown, even if it is the first of the year, in a three stages of hell match. Because where are you going with Cody from then on? Cody is on a path.

And that path is to WrestleMania, where he's going to face Roman Reigns. That's what I presume. And Roman wants to face someone who's undefeated. Yeah, it's like when people are like, Obafemi should beat Cody Rhodes. What? Are you high? Cody Rhodes is going to be in the main event of WrestleMania. He's not losing to Obafemi.

on a saturday night's main events that's like that's just not going to happen like they are quite protective of those things but it does mean that you sort of move at this kind of glacial pace and it sets up this idea None of it actually matters until you get to those big shows. It's like a microcosm of that is this main event. The match doesn't actually matter.

until the interference has happened. So the audience sit on their hands. And that's what's going to happen with the ratings. People are just going to... lose interest. Cena isn't around to artificially bump those numbers. There will be a road to WrestleMania bump, but I doubt it will be as intense as last year when you had the Rock and the Cena heel turn stuff. Is Breaker more over now?

than when he turned on Rollins. Is he going to be more overcome WrestleMania than he is now? He's probably not. There is a thing called momentum. And I think the momentum he had... from that Seth injury and the turn on Seth. that has actually really started to slow down. And there's a really funny thing Cole said on the commentary during Breaker's beatdown of Punk, where he said, there's only two guys I can think of that have taken to this sport.

as quickly as Brom Breaker has. Corey's like, who are those? He said, Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar. And I was like, well, the difference there, Michael Cole, is both of those guys won world titles in their first year. And that was a big part of their character as they came in, took the company by storm, and won the WWE Championship.

within their first year breaker has been here now for what five years four five years been on the main roster for two years at this point it's not the same comparison piece he's a two-time icy champion yeah Yeah, it's frustrating. And I think it's the wrong move. I think so. And this is the wrong move after a previous wrong move. If Breaker won the belt last night, would we be sitting here being like...

WWE's back. Probably not, because I thought this was quite a lackluster show in general. At least they would have done something, but I'm not going to sit here and go, yes, come on, let's... The 2026 is off to a huge start because I feel like the breaker momentum was three months ago. I completely agree with you there. I do think had Breaker won...

there would have been more of a positive sentiment around this show. And Jericho returns. I also think it would have made the lack of Jericho not as much of a bitter pill to swallow. A lot of people were expecting Jericho to be on the show. I was expecting Jericho to.

be on this show and that's not just because of like you know reports and things i just thought he would be here on this on this episode adam pierce sort of said he was going to be here on this show we'll go on to that a bit later i guess but i do think that if you'd have had breaker win here it would have been a

wow, we are on a path now towards WrestleMania. As opposed to, we're in the exact same place we were last week. We're in the exact same place we were three months ago. And we're not moving. We're in... I was stuck in traffic on the M4 for three hours to get to my in-law's house, driving from Curfilly to Reading. That is where we're at.

I am currently sat at a standstill with my child in the background being like, I need a wee. And my wife being like, what are we going to do? And I was like, you're just going to have to take her to the side of the motorway. I don't think we're going to move. I think we'll be okay. She was like.

do not drive off without us. If your traffic moves, just stay where you are. Yeah. If only, yeah, if any break was the champion and then that situation wouldn't have happened. Did you ever turn to your wife and go, God, this won't be happening. If. if they pushed over Femi, if they called him up at SummerSlam. What I would say is if Breaker had won, and I'm using my M4 analogy at Christmas, it would have felt like people hadn't turned their engines off. People had still kept their engines on.

Because there is some hope that we are going to be moving soon. Do you know, I think back to October as well. And obviously I don't want anyone to get injured. But if Seth Rollins hadn't got injured...

Can you imagine where we'd be instead? No, Seth would have beaten him here. He'd have beaten Brombreaker here. No, Seth, no. Oh, no, you're right, actually. He wouldn't have done a turn. Nothing would have happened. It would just be the same promos and there being six-man tags against the luchadors. It probably would have been Seth versus Punk. Yeah.

episode of raw and seth would have retained the title of a punk yeah yeah because that that would have been one year after yeah yeah uh well should we talk about jericho before we get into the show because we won't cover him in the actual episode recap Because he wasn't on it. Now, you mentioned the Pierce thing. Yes. So the news that's come out is on Sunday, the show wasn't selling well.

You know, it was selling okay, but for a big hype show, anniversary on Netflix, Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, you expect a sellout crowd considering what WWE has been doing. Sellout is, I think, around 13,000. They had 9,000 tickets sold as of Sunday morning. Adam Pearce does his little video.

where he's like, we've got this match coming, this match. He does this every week. He's usually out of breath, walking or doing a, he's just finished a run or something, filming onto his phone. And in that, he says, who can break the walls down? and win the gold. Yeah. And that was dog whistling to everyone going, and you better turn up because you never know who will return. Yeah. Jericho's going to be here.

It was a bit like before Punk came into AEW and everyone all of a sudden started being like, I'm the best in the world. I'm a Second City Saint. So it wasn't as full on as that, but it's in the same direction. That is, WWE, a company, hinting, buy a ticket because something's going to happen. And that is what transpired. 3,000 tickets shifted after that announcement.

It's like when Shane McMahon got announced for that WrestleMania and all of a sudden like a bunch of tickets got sold because I now know something is going to be happening at this show. I mean, Captain Nick, one of our over at patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk, we asked your thoughts and comments, did say, I'm surprised people actually took... peer seriously in that post. He's one of the most terminally online members of the roster, especially on Twitter.

But that's not an Adam... Adam Pearce didn't go on his own personal tour and be like, I'm going to make a video that teases Chris Jericho. Those are WWE produced videos that Adam Pearce then releases onto his Twitter account. Well, this was WWE's account. I was on WWE's account. It's his video. and it's on WWE's Twitter account. So it is WWE directly teasing the idea. And Meltzer and Alvarez, when they were talking about the wrestling games already, were like, well, he's got to be there.

Otherwise, you're just going to have people expecting he's going to be there and chanting for Jericho, and then he's not going to show up. And Alvarez, it was either Alvarez or Meltzer went, well, maybe that's what they want. Maybe they just want the speculation that Jericho's going to be there to make people buy tickets and tune into the show to bump things up expecting something.

And then you don't deliver on that. And then people could be like, well, they didn't officially tease it. They didn't officially announce it. It's on me that I thought that was going to happen. Yeah. Well, you can say all that you want, but there's going to be 3000 pissed off people.

You bought a ticket to go to that. And next time WWE are in town and they're struggling for ticket sales, those people aren't going to come along because they won't believe what you've, like the card you're teasing or hinting towards. Yeah. So now we come to the reports side of this, which is that Fightful Select, who have never said, they have never said,

Jericho's contract is up and he is going to... I think it was actually Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer newsletter that said his contract is up on this date. He's expected to go to WWE. Sean Ross Abbott said, I've not heard him brought up in creative conversation with WWE. Not brought up in conversation. so she's in AEW either.

But there were some people whose contracts did come up in AEW. Was it Mercedes Martinez, Matt Tavenen, Alex Abrahantes? Abrahantes, yeah. Poor Alex. Alex Abrahantes. Their contracts did expire. An internal memo was sent to AEW staff members to say... These people are no longer with the company and their pages were removed from the roster page on AEW.com or whatever. Like immediately. On the day the contracts expired. And Jericho...

is still on the roster page. Which brings me to my abyss anecdote. Oh, here's where it is. So... back in that i can't remember exactly which wrestlemania it was i want to say it's 22 but i might be wrong on that one it might be it's around that sort of like early 20s period of wrestlemania um There were reports that Undertaker was going to have a big WrestleMania opponent, and that WrestleMania opponent was going to be...

His contract had expired with TNA. He was negotiating with WWE. He was going to come in, get this huge program, go into a program with The Undertaker for WrestleMania. Undertaker beats him at WrestleMania. But we've established a new monster. into the monster abyss it turned out this was actually just one big ruse by abyss and tna to create this speculation

because he was always intending to re-sign with TNA. Then he re-signs with TNA, he returns, and he's this all-conquering returning hero. That actually didn't really happen. Abyss just returned, and I was like, oh, we went back to TNA. He probably should have signed with WWE, really. That probably would have been a better career trajectory for him. What if this is what's happening with Jericho? They have spent all of 2025, Tony and Chris,

He's planting these seeds with Meltzer. There's contracts up on this date. I'm expecting him to be in WWE. We're not bringing him up in any creative meetings because on tomorrow's episode of Dynamite. judas hits jericho opens the show he's not leaving aew and he is staying here what a move that would be and then i think i think if that happens jericho

Because there's a reason Jericho's not been on AEW TV. It's because everyone's bored of him and his act. And I think if Jericho comes back, there'll be the initial, oh my God, it's Jericho, but then...

oh, he's still here. Now what? Just like what you said with the whole abyss thing. Like, oh, actually, I think he should have gone. Yeah, it would have been better for him. To WWE. Because even if Jericho comes back, I think we would then go, I mean...

Good swerve, I guess. Or maybe they'll do AEW Unreal and they can talk about how they worked us all. Well, they would have worked us all. Good swerve, but I actually... genuinely believe you should have gone back to WWE if Jericho comes back though on that episode and says because I want to retire in AEW and this is my retirement year And then, you know, you put that up front and then it almost gets past the fan resentment over last.

two years that jericho's always here we can never get rid of him because it's like no i am leaving i've told you exactly when i'm leaving let's all just enjoy my last period here yeah i think the aw fans Would get on board with that. I think you do need to, if you were going to get down the road, I mean, pure speculation. Oh, I like it, though. It's spicy, isn't it? Yeah, it is a bit spicy. I was just trying to think, I was like, why is he not here? Or they're just saving him for the rumble.

There's the Rumble in Saudi on the 24th as a Saturday night's main event in Canada, where he could also turn up. But who knows? Who knows? But he wasn't on this show, and WWE probably... hinted that he was to sell some tickets to a show that was underselling because they're starting to realise they haven't booked a good enough product outside of the John Cena appeal to last through 2026. But can fall back on.

We never said he was coming in. Yeah. That's on you for reading into what Adam Pearce said. We didn't falsely advertise him at all. You bought into that. Did you hear what they said about the break the walls down? It's a Stranger Things reference. F*** off. No, it's not.

Yeah, yeah. You said, when did that come out? That's what they said, apparently. No, it's not. It's because, you know, the demogorgons, they're always coming in through the walls. No one has ever. I've watched that show. I don't think anyone has ever said, man, they already broke the walls.

down i think dustin says it several times you know in between the endless exposition You know, because you get the endless exposition and then usually Robin has to pick up something annoying to explain a concept that I would have got. The first time of explaining. The way she held those records was giving me panic attacks. So you have, you know, the NSX position and then you get the scene where someone just has an emotionally overdone...

which is just set up in that scene. So something else can happen a couple of scenes later. And then Dustin says, oh yeah, they broke the walls down. And then you're back into the endless exposition. Yep, that sounds like a Stranger Things run through. I am freaking done with Stranger Things, but I have to finish it. You've got a two-hour episode at the end of it as well. It's going to take you all year. I feel like I'm caught in the upside down.

Which, as we now know, is not actually really this alternate dimension that they had found. Great! It's a wormhole! It's a wormhole. The second they did that, my wife turned to me and was like, I'm out. I'm kind of done with this. And I was like, yeah, it's... fairly it's pretty lame i was like this is sort of set up in series four but yeah it's not what i'm into i hate the little girl oh what straight up hater

Holly the Heroic. Yep, Holly the Heroic. No time for her. No time for this nonsense. Vecna's Dreamland. I like the Dreamland. Memory Palace. Yeah. I don't mind that stuff. I mean, the other kids. the the um that was sucked by fat one kid he can do one I'm kind of done with him. I was like, I don't need you to add more people. I don't need more characters to this ludicrously large roster of good guys that you have. Why aren't people dying?

like the whole reason to introduce characters in stranger things is to kill them i don't know you see this is the stranger things um pattern of behavior from season two onwards is you introduce a likable character that is not going to last until the next series it was um Samwise Ganji. Samwise Ganji in series two. It was the nice Russian guy. It was Ginger Girl.

the first ginger oh yeah i suppose yeah there's barb there's barb in series one then it's sound wise then you've got um uh the nice russian guy from season three you have billy but he's not a nice guy well no but he was a baddie and then it was eddie in season four Spoilers for Stranger Things here. But like these are characters. So that way you can say, much like WWE in a way, you can say we did kill off a main character, but it was a character you introduced specifically in that series.

just to kill them off at the end. Therefore, don't have to touch any of the other ones. Yeah, well, and that's fine. But there's a lot that haven't died that have been introduced. There's a video I was watching of someone talking like critiquing season, uh, stranger things. And they were like, why is Jonathan still here?

Like, why is Jonathan still alive? Which one's Jonathan? He's the brother of, he's the older one. He was the stoner in season four. Like, he did nothing in season four. Get rid of him. And they were like, why is he still here? Get rid of Natalie.

i don't get dustin her name's nancy and i think her real name is natalia i don't know my two favorite characters are steve and dustin yeah and white they get no focus and all the focus like robin is having scene after scene well everyone likes robin no they don't not my wife my wife really doesn't like robin she's so annoying i don't know maybe i like maya hawk so maybe it's just like and

She just looks like a mum. So I'm like, I think she's nice. I warm a little bit to Robin. I don't mind her so much. Okay, sorry. It's just that it's just it's it's really irritating me at home. I haven't had Luke to talk to. If I can break the walls down a little bit as well and peel back the curtain.

Ollie said to me, because I was late to the party on season five because I was trying to catch up on season four, which took me much longer to do because my wife just could not bear watching more episodes of it. But we had to because neither of us could remember anything that happened in that series to get us into series five. And I'm not watching one of those YouTube recap videos because they're all 20 minutes long and are full of too much speculation.

You said to me, you watched and you're like, it's back. I really like the first episode. The first episode is great. It is back. The show is back on form. Everyone's back together. I love all the characters. I love that they're all hanging out. one place it's all in one place i think this is going to be a great series did i say i think it's going to be a great series hard cut now

It was just one good episode, turns out. You said there was a really good bit at the end of the first part of season five. And I watched it and I was like, is there like a copyright logo post-cred scene? And then Ciampa turned on Gargano at the end of it. No, there wasn't.

But you can tell me afterwards because that might be a spoiler. We've not spoiled anything for season five other than it's absolutely... The reason I'm pausing it, I'm not saying it, is because I can't remember what it was. Yeah. Well, I had a joke in my news today where I said, you know, I did all the news bits and I said, well, now it's time to get into the Raw review. Badly written, anticlimactic, an aging roster. It's Stranger Things.

Because they do have an aging roster. It is hilarious that Holly the Heroic is supposed to be nine years old. and there's a bit when her dad just like i i know the mom said you don't even know how old our child is i was like in fairness she could be anywhere from nine to 18 that's what all children look like Don't care. These supposedly 15-year-olds look about the same age as me. Yeah. I mean, I watch Grease so much as a kid. My age is distorted.

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Visit growtherapy.com start now today to get started. That's growtherapy.com start now. growtherapy.com slash start now availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan Right, all of that out of the way, the graphical integration of Stranger Things and the set for Stranger Things on Raw were top draw. It was fun.

This was so good. They had all the tentacles over the stage. They had, like, the old pizza delivery van. They had the... Just from season four. Well, but that's fine. Just have more season five stuff. That's the most recent series. Ahead of... I only saw like chapter... two, three, five. I only missed chapter one. I've got all the other ones. But they would do the proper Stranger Things title sequence. I thought they knocked it out the park.

From a visual graphics and a set design perspective. So for all those people who are like, where are your fancy sets? Get a sponsorship. They can do it. but they have to have a sponsorship to justify the expenditure of doing something creative. Yeah, because they're quite cash-strapped at the moment, aren't they, TKO? Well, they didn't sell very much tickets for this show. There'll be no pyro soon enough.

But the good sets are a draw. No, they're not really. Do you think Michael Cole's ever seen Stranger Things? That was the first thing I said when I got into the office today. because Dave Bradshaw thought the Stranger Things integration was stupid and me and editor Kieran thought it was quite fun I enjoyed it and I was like but you can clearly tell

Michael Cole has no idea what Stranger Things is. Hasn't the first clue. So they come out, Corey and Michael Cole. Open the broadcast by getting out of the delivery van. It wasn't the delivery van. It was the radio station truck. Oh, okay. For the squawk. Well, people can correct me on that in my other video. And Michael Cole says...

This show is all about nostalgia. I feel like I'm back in my childhood in the 80s. Yep. Later on, Corey Graves did just randomly go like, she's hotter than Phoebe Cates. Not even in Stranger Things. Michael Cole saying that gave me flashbacks of all the awkward dated pop culture references WWE used to do. Yeah. At least he didn't make any. Yeah. But it was... Whatever. Corey was in a Hellfire Club t-shirt. Yeah, Corey then promised us a night of wizards, demogorgons, a bunch of other stuff.

There was nothing. No. Yeah, he said, expect dungeons, dragons, and I got no dungeons. I got no dragons. I got no demogorgons. I got none of that. I got the little demogorgon in the corner, like. Finn Balor posted, I think it was some... fan art maybe if it wasn't you know it'd be weird for WWE to release it but it was him and underground underneath him was the demon Finn like if there was ever a like one-off

bottle thing to do yeah it should be demon finn balor coming out for the strange things championship yes yes they even had it in the crowd i know and all that to one side I know Phoebe Cates was in Gremlins for the record. It's a film from the 80s. I get that. So Stranger Things, weird integration. It's just for Netflix, whatever. I thought the anniversary episode of Raw on Netflix. should have raw as the focus

I feel it's weird that Stranger... Much like the first episode of Raw on Netflix was mostly The Rock saying, thank you to all our corporate partners now. It was very much a Netflix-serving thing. So was this. I didn't feel like this was, wow, it's the big hot episode to start the year for WWE. I know no feuds coming out of this.

I guess you've got AJ and Gunther. The Lucha Libres, Mysterios versus The Vision. But like, Punk Beatbreaker, that's... finished dude that's happening that's going on till wrestlemania well yeah usos didn't set up a challenger it's just aj lee didn't come out there was no big angles on this show aj and gunther

That's not a big angle. That's been going on for a month. That is an angle. Anyway, so yeah. You said then that the first episode of Raw was WWE paying tribute to their... broadcast partner on netflix and so was this so maybe that is actually that's very much in keeping with the first episode of the year on netflix it's wwe fellating their broadcast partner

Rhea Ripley and Eosuke then took on the Kabuki Warriors in the opening match. Really good match. The crowd were hot for some of this. They were really hot for Rhea Ripley whenever she got in the ring. I laughed my little tits off, though. Because Rhea Ripley's entrance...

come out to Rhea Ripley's music both Ripley and Sky and she does her big like stomp and then the camera zooms in on her that's her entrance but she's now in a tag team so it just zooms past her tag team partners be like you don't matter EO Sky we only care about Rhea Ripley And I was like, isn't that really indicative of EOSky's run within this company is you're not the main focus. The person you're with is. It was a good match, though. EO hit a sling blade and Corey Graves said.

That's in honour of Hiroshi Tanahashi. Are you happy now, Nakamura? We said it. Asuka was really good, although she was a bit... missed a few things early. And there was a riptide on the... Rhea hit a Riptide. I think it was on Aski. It was on Aski, yeah. And Io hit a Moonsault. Io dives under Kairi to take her out on the outside. Ripley gets the pin. Yeah, fun little match. So, yeah. Pretty expected win. Yeah, predictable. We guessed this was going to happen.

And hopefully this means the great women's tag title scene will continue through the next three, four months. Michael Cole said, I told you you'd see some strange things tonight. Not that strange, mate. What a title change. Do you know what the... Have you seen anything to do with the show? Speaking of which, I don't think Adam Pearce has either. Because...

Sky and Ripley were celebrating and then he was like, congratulations on your win. And they were by some Stranger Things stuff. Pierce turned around and said, what's this? I don't think he knows what the show is either. He's bad at his job. In kayfabe. We got that video package of Punk and Breaker. Great way to set up those two guys to new viewers. Then Pia says to Gunther backstage after that, yo.

Ripley interaction. Now you show some respect. A little bit of respect will go a long way around here. So what you're saying is that storyline also hasn't moved. since the middle of December when he beat John Cena. Yeah, Gunther gets the...

tracking shots through gorilla position, which is also done up like the upside down. I think they only use it for that one shot. It looked a bit like when the Wyatt Six first debuted. It was cool. Yeah, but when they took around the Netflix broadcast partners, they were like, look what we've done.

Yeah, for the tour. Yeah, you're right. Gunther holds up a T-shirt with a black and white Cena tapping out and it says tap like A. Well, at least that got to meet because Gunther doesn't. And then Gunther keeps on like teeing up. Cena tapped out like a little, but AJ's music interrupts and then Gunther finishes off like a little bitch. And then AJ says, what are you going to do about it? And Gunther does the, you can't see me. And AJ slaps him.

and says, that's what I thought, and he leaves. And then Pierce books a match between them for Raw, which is in Germany next week. Gunther has become an 80s cartoon villain, and this is not... great. This is not a great look for him. It's for Stranger Things. It's an 80s themed episode. Do you know what? Now that you've said that, I take it all back. This is an excellent Derek. I'd said on when it happened, I don't think this...

This Cena tapping out thing has transferred any heat to Gunther. I think he's getting the same amount of heat he was getting pre-tapping out John Cena. He's still getting you tapped out, Chance. Yeah, for the first roar afterwards, it was definitely heated on him. But now this feels...

like it didn't happen exactly so like two two and a bit weeks later which is it's just back to regular gunther heat like there is this people kept telling me about this nuclear heat he's gonna get and there was the nuclear heat was for triple h and wwe it was not for gunther

Then we got Becky Lynch versus Maxine Dupree. This was for the women's intercontinental title. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't bury the lead here. Ivy Nile was backstage saying, I don't want to go to the back of the line after I just lost my shot to the IC championship. I want a shot at the IC Championship. What is this? Yeah.

This had the best of the chapters, I would say. It was chapter three. It's not just her saying it. Everything about Becky is great right now, apart from maybe this match. Because Maxine took most of it. well it's not that training yeah yeah all that all that shoot MMA style training that makes her do cartwheels well Cole and Graves keep telling me

that all of her training has really changed up her style. Then she did a really wacky sit-out move, and Michael Cole said, I'm not sure what that was. Yeah, it doesn't work. that Maxine Dupree's appeal is in the underdog babyface who does kind of gymnastic style spots. trying to position her as a dominant force in a match against someone like Becky, particularly with this, the commentators telling you, wow, MMA. It doesn't ring true. So this match...

Well, I love their series, like three matches they had, didn't they? The Becky and Dupree feud, which culminated in Becky dropping the title to Dupree. But this is like post... Infinity Saga. Yeah. This has gone off the rails. And all it tells you is that the only reason Maxine won is because AJ Lee caused a distraction. Because the second that Becky gets another shot at the belt and there is no AJ Lee here, she just wins the title back. Well, Maxine...

took honestly like 80, 90% of the match here. Becky only wins by doing, she'd sort of bridge back into a pin and grab the ropes. When that happened, I thought, oh, the referee can see it. That's going to be the spot.

that leads into the dramatic final few minutes. No, that was just the finish. Or it could have been, because you're right, you could have had that where Becky wins and then the referee counts the three, realizes what the mistake, restarts the match, Maxime retains. Then Becky goes like... i won yeah stop the count i'd already i'd won the match i've been screwed yet again by bad officiating or becky wins the restart as well uh but also through cheating this time better disguised from the referee

But yeah, Becky just won. And it's really funny as well because the finish to it was Maxine got into a hold and then Becky... took advantage of that Holden Pinder. So thankfully, Maxine did all of those training sessions with Natalia to do MMA and it backfired on her. What a pointless endeavor this all was. Yeah, yeah. I thought you'd enjoy it though because Becky was in Star Trek here.

Is that what it was? Yeah. Of course, because she's filmed something for Brave New Worlds, I think. Whichever Star Trek shows. It's the sort of throwback one, which is the only good one. Obafemi got a video package. He's getting called up. He got one on SmackDown as well. He's still the NXT champion. Well, he's got a match tonight, yeah, on NXT New Year's Evil. But he only just won the belt.

yeah well i mean that's fine like they are they need some fresh blood particularly you know smackdown we saw jordan grace get called up and trick williams get called up and matt cardona get brought back because they need to fill that third hour i wouldn't be surprised if obafemi went over there as well so they can try and fill that third hour with people um and it kind of freshens up the the nxt slot as well yeah it was that a new main event scene

And I do like the story that Leon beats over for the NXT title when Javon never did. Yeah. But Javon has been called up. Javon has been called, yes. So you can't be doing that. On this show. Which I missed. Which everyone missed because it was in the commercial break. Well, that's more or less for paying for a pricier Netflix. No, because we... I'm pretty sure the only people who saw this...

were international people watching it live. Yes. Because if you're not paying for it internationally, you get the ad breaks. If you're paying for it internationally, they've edited the whole ad break section out.

which is the one we watched. Yeah, but this is not uncommon. This has been happening since they went last year. We were on a run of people like, where's the New Day? Why aren't New Day on the show? And people kept telling us they were in the ad break. They did an interview with Jackie Redmond. I'm not complaining about that. That's old news.

I'm complaining about calling Javon Evans up in that kind of segment. Why isn't it in the ring? Why isn't Adam Pearce going, really exciting news, everyone. I've signed one of the hottest free agents in wrestling.

Just like how They got Jordan Grace over on SmackDown. It's Siobhan Evans, and he's going to have a match right now. Showcase match wins really impressively in a couple of minutes. But he got a fifth match on this show. Are you mad? Putting on a quick match. Like, that's not the way that this show operates. going to do a 30 second match here to showcase someone impromptu i agree

That is what they should have done. But that is not the modus operandi of WWE in the Paul Levesque era. That's not how they structure their shows. He will get a push in nine months time. What are you complaining? That's what this says to me. Yeah, it is.

They've got no plans for him. This is, this is Penta. They're going to say, they're going to tell me for three months. Oh my God. Like he is just really taking raw by storm. All everyone is talking about is Javon Evans on raw. They will tell me that that is what is happening.

He'll have an escape spot in the Royal Rumble, and they'll play that clip over and over again, and they'll tell me like it means something, but actually it's just a thing that they're showing me, and he's nowhere near better off here. Just like when you see someone like Siobhan, who was getting TV time last year in relatively high profile positions. And then this is how they call him up.

Why is this? You've got something. You've got a really good bit of material to fill TV time. Why don't you use it? I don't know, man. Also, I don't think Leon Slade's going to win the title tonight.

They're not going to put... I mean, I know they're caught... They're basically already signed Neon Slater. They're waiting for him to run out his TNA contract. But I don't think he's going to... The TNA guy is going to be winning the X Division Championship tonight. I could be wrong on that one completely.

Yeah, look, it's cool that we've been calling for Siobhan to get called up. So it has happened now, but much like the monkey's paw, but much like we have been saying about NXT call-ups since 2016. Do not call someone up unless you have a six-month plan for them. We got a trailer for Unreal Season 2. It's exactly as you predicted. They're going to keep telling us. We worked everyone with that Seth Rollins injury. It's out on the 20th of January. But they did also cover a bit of the R-Truth.

release yeah which yeah would be interesting yeah i'm really looking forward to the wwe version of events of how that went down but i think that's going to be one of the more interesting episodes they also teasing as well naomi talking about her and sasha banks walking out i'm so curious to see how they cover that aspect of it if they are going to talk about she walked out alongside sasha banks uh the usos came down

halfway through the crowd, presumably because they got tired. But going by Jey Uso's promo, yeah, he did. Yeah, because then they say last week, and then Jimmy corrected him last year, which they're both correct, but I don't... know if that was what the setup was to say, well, now it's a new year. Now it's a new week. This was a dreadful promo from both of them. Jay was worse than Jimmy, but this was...

They came down, said, well, take on all challenges, but nothing was set up. And then they left. It was just so they could do the entrance, which is it's Jay. It's just his music says it's just me. He's a.

He's won half of the tag team champions with his brother and their theme they come out to says, it's just me, Oose. What a fun hard cut to go from the Royal Rumble win. last year to this. Stephanie Vaquer was shown walking backstage with her foot in a boot because she got an injury.

An ankle injury, supposedly, the previous week. And then Jackie introduces her into the ring, as is the Stephanie Becker promo segment way, copy and paste. But she introduces her as having been champion for 108 days. So they're gearing up. Oh, is Stephanie going to vacate the title here? Is there an injury? Has Jay Cargill injured someone else that we didn't know about? She just looked at that boot. And...

Stephanie says 2025 was amazing for me. I was in the Royal Rumble. Then cut a promo in Spanish. And then she said the injury won't stop me.

So she's not vacating because it turns out it's all an angle. I got slightly worked. I enjoyed this, yeah. Raquel Rodriguez jumps her, rips off the boot, tries to pulmonise the ankle, but Pierce stopped her and then also attacks her backstage. Yeah.

I mean, I'm repeating kind of what I was saying last year when talking about how good the women's tag title scene is, which is very, very good. But it has come at the expense of Stephanie Bakker's Women's World Championship because she's beaten Raquel. We literally saw this like last week and she's just the challenger again because there's no one else to challenge for that belt. So it's just back to Raquel once again. And we did Nikki Bella and then it was just back.

Back to Nikki Bella again. We've done Raquel and back to Raquel again. After that, we got the Luchadors saying how they must defend the honor and respect of Lucha Libre against the Vision. Who? Yeah, again. Penta, you respect Lucha Libre, but these Vision guys, they want to destroy the legacy of Lucha Libre. Penta just want to says his thing. Zero, Miedo, whatever.

Lyra Valkyria then had Liv Morgan's first return match. This is Liv Morgan getting into the ring for the first time since her injury, and the crowd did not care one bit. Not at all. This was the biggest Y2J chant moment. There wasn't much heat previous. It was only really the tag match and the last 10 minutes of the main event, really. But this was the bottoming out of the crowd reaction.

I mean, I don't think it's going to derail Morgan. No, not at all. I suspect it will be her and Stephanie at WrestleMania. Yeah. Liv wins the chamber. So... she is on a course to be in that world title picture which thankfully will give that world title scene what it does need which is like a top challenger uh but yeah this crowd had like this had the least heat of anything on the show

Lyra, I really like Lyra's wrestling style. She hit a fisherman suplex in this, which was beautiful. But Roxanne dipped the rope, meaning Lyra spilled outside. Bailey and Roxanne brawled because of that. Bayley snaps, chases Roxanne through the ring, and that distraction lets Liv hit the oblivion to get the win. Yeah, I thought the match was fine. Going by our Patreon feedback, it was the best match on the show.

Oh, no, I think Punk and Breaker was. Well, I agree. Yeah, it was a fine match. It wasn't a bad match. It suffered from crowd heat. A lot of our Patreon feedbacks thought it was the match of the night. What? yeah i don't know man i thought it was i thought it was totally fine it's the third it's it's behind the tack the tack match was way better than this yeah i'd probably say so yeah i really don't know where that's coming from um but yeah

Hopefully Liv can get some crowd reactions back. Maybe she needs Dominic to be out there with her. I think she will do. I think this is just a weird New York crowd that didn't feel like they were actually there. If this was a New York crowd that felt they were there to see Jericho. Well, apparently a quarter of them literally were. I guess so. 3000 out of 12,000.

And then Jackie interviewed CM Punk, who cut a really low-energy promo, I thought. Yeah, because I'll survive the spear, probably. And then I'll hit the GTS, maybe on him, maybe on you. And I'll win. I know you can't compare people to The Rock, but in the Attitude Era... The Rock would have this promo slot all the time before his main event and he would take everyone from nothing to, oh my God, I'm going to come. And look, Punk is a very good promo.

And he has a lot of that same charisma and ability to really take you on a journey. Is he not into this feud? Or maybe he thinks he should lose. Or he knows.

Well, this is the WrestleMania main event that I'm heading towards. I'm just going to do this again for the next three months. I just thought this was very 1-2-3 spear. No, it's going to be 1-2-3 GTS. Punk, you're better than this. And then, yeah, we got the main event, which... was, was a very good final five, 10 minutes, but yeah, just in the grand scheme of things, very uninspiring decision.

I will say they look like they were having fun at the Netflix house in Philadelphia. That looks cool. For the watch party with Damien Priest and BFAB. Yeah. They're allowed to do watch parties there. But overall, I mean, I ended up giving this a 66%. which is really low for what I've been giving stuff recently. But I've kind of like, I'm not going to go back and retroactively change all my ratings. But this is kind of, this is the...

This is 66%. This was not an enticed, this was not an engaging show, really. Yeah, I thought it was like a three out of five show. It's funny as well because you said to me, I think that's the third time I've said it's funny, which I probably should try and amend as I go throughout 2026. But you said to me just before we started recording, what a lackluster episode of Raw. And I said, isn't that wild to say?

when there were two title changes on this show. Yeah. And an NXT call-up. Granted, we didn't get to see that. A tease of Obafemi. There was things that happened on this show, but I came out of it being like... This show is in the exact same position it was. This didn't feel like the fresh start that it needed to be for the first episode of the year.

Well, let's see what you all thought on Patreon. Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk. That's where you can get your thoughts in. Frank Botello says, I guess Breaker has so much to learn. God damn it, that promo. Bob says, awesome episode. If it wasn't hyped up so much, I do think that's right. Our expectations for this. WWE.

set them quite high main event was great though but had the wrong winner as long as breaker wins before the inevitable new japan crossover show so he can lose to aaron wolf in a champ versus champ year of the wolf pack Wolfpack, let yourself be hurt within the comments. The wolf versus the dog. Yeah. Volt Tech Dormammu. Everyone's acting like Jericho didn't show up when he clearly did. He was with Rey and Dragon Lee as they went to chase away the vision.

that would have been great if he took off a lucha mask. What a reveal! I thought you were going to make that joke. Because that's what he did at All In. He came out as dressed as Penta. I think that would have been perfect. And it makes sense why the luchadors are suddenly in this feud. Carl Chikawa, All In, All In All.

was a good episode of Raw, but should have just bitten the bullet and made Braun champion. At this point, the loss doesn't ruin his momentum, but does undermine it. Denny Dorco. I wish I was surprised, but the show itself really didn't feel like it would be Breaker's coronation. Unfortunately...

Now it looks like they are repeating the Gunther Uso story, the challenger losing to then overcome the odds to win a WrestleMania title shot from a year ago, now with Punk and Breaker. Because that sure helped Jay seem like a credible champ when he won. Yeah, Sticky Matt, in my opinion, this was the time to pull the trigger on Bronn. He was genuinely the only momentum the Vision had. Yeah. Well, it's also the Gunther Russo storyline.

i can see the basis for it because jay is the baby face yeah break is the heel that doesn't that that story doesn't work here xvg dylan i think wwe's reluctance to push young and new guys is going to reach a boiling point soon and tom shucksmith it was similar now that vince mcmahon's storylines are finished hunter is struggling to come up with anything original and never really bought into jericho's return

night probably because i was at an inkling they were tied to the royal rumble and the jericho countdown clocks together yeah that is sort of an open goal of booking isn't it What Vectron says, Triple H's worst trait as a booker seems to be that he can't realize that momentum doesn't last. I think he feels vindicated by the WrestleMania 39 Roman Cody decision to say that Cody can win next year, but he doesn't realize that that could have been pretty tepid.

if it wasn't for The Rock's final boss getting involved. I think it's a really excellent point. Yeah. Just like how Daniel Bryan getting over taught WWE the wrong lesson. Yes. Maybe maybe oh long term is right for everything akito for the most of the show is distracted by hiroshi tanahashi riding his cart around the background of the shot all night seems he's doing a tour of america in that cart as well um

And lastly, we'll do James Markin. Punk just winning five seconds after that table spot is a choice. Very much Cena versus Nexus SummerSlam vibes. I wonder if there was a bit of an injury off that taupe and they were like, let's go. Let's go to the finish. And we've also got our wonderful pledge hammers to shout out. If you go to patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk, not only can you help support us here, not only do you get loads of exclusive videos, like loads of stuff that went...

over the Christmas period, end of year lists, John Cena retirement things. And this month we start our Invasion series. We sure do. WrestleTalk Extra is back in 2026 with our biggest... series yet 16 episodes in total we'll be doing for this series across eight months as we cover the invasion because i don't want to make anyone feel old in the comments It's 25 years this year since the close of WCW, Vince McMahon buying his competition.

and then driving that competition into the ground over the course of a few months with the invasion. The first two episodes will be out very soon. We are covering the episode of Raw, where Vince... the final episode of nitro alongside that the simulcast that episode is five hours long

Yeah, that's not this weekend, that's next weekend that's coming out. And then we'll also be covering King of the Ring 2001, which happens a few months later because they then spend the next few months trying to figure out what to do with this WCW that they've now purchased. And then at King of the Ring 2001, we'll be like...

We're going to do something else now. And Diamond Dallas Page is the stalker. Booker T is here as the WCW champion. He's trying to attack Steve Austin, who's the WWF champion, even though he's the heel. And that is the official... start of the invasion. And you'll also get a shout out on this very show like Big Jiggy Josh Martin. What's best for Business Company Network.

Born to do it, Evan Shibley. John's better, beefier brother, James Morrison. Abominable, Michael Abbott. The ring rust warrior, Rustage. He's a sexy man. Sexy man. Not an Andrew Gross man. Gross man. The balding Brummie, Brett Linforth. Go ace! The Ace of Spades, Adrian Santill. They put the Mo in Movember. The British Bulldog, Philip Boy J. Smith Jr. And yo, Adrian! Rocky! Thank you very much, everyone. Now remember, that's patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk and also go...

over to the, well, you're on WrestleTalk's YouTube channel. There's also a news episode today that you can go and watch. But for now, I've been Oli Davis. This has been Luke Owen, DAD. Jam that jam. Jam that jam. Not every sale happens at the register. Before AT&T Business Wireless, checking out customers on our mobile POS systems took too long. Basically a staring contest where everyone loses. It's crazy what people will say during an awkward silence.

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