Welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I’m Pete Quinnell.
We start today’s News episode with a factoid that will make you say ‘huh, that’s neat’.
On Twitter, Trinity revealed that she and Brian Myers both featured on Raw 1000, SmackDown
1000 and Impact 1000, the latter of which was taped this past Saturday.
Huh, that’s neat.
Anyway, today’s top story revolves around LA Knight, yeah, as reports and rumours recently
painted the picture of Knight re-signing with WWE for a big ol’ contract extension of
five years, presumably for a lot more money.
However, there’s been some pushback to those claims courtesy of Fightful Select.
They report that while, yes, Knight and WWE have been in contract negotiations, and while,
yes, Knight was offered a five-year contract extension, it has not been signed yet, and
as of the time of reporting, Knight and WWE were reportedly “far apart on money”,
with no deal being imminent.
Another angle to the contract negotiation reports and rumours in the past week is that
Knight’s long-awaited push within WWE was being held off until Knight had re-signed
that contract, however Fightful Select’s WWE sources have pushed back on this too,
saying that a “significant number” of wrestlers on the roster have deals coming
up next year and are receiving pushes, and Knight’s contract isn’t due to expire
until “well into 2025”.
So really, Knight hasn’t been pushed as high as people want because they’re waiting
for the right time still, so they say.
I wonder when that will be.
Granted, he’s been more featured, but he is still in a feud with The Miz, so y’know,
how much of a push is that really.
Last night’s Raw was quite the historic one, as the Endeavour-UFC-WWE deal is set
to be finalized today, meaning yesterday’s episode was the last one where Vince McMahon
would have ultimate power over WWE.
Granted, he still will be mostly in control, perhaps more so than he has been in the last
year, but that final say over everything in the company doesn’t actually come from him
anymore, as of today.
So to commemorate the occasion, Raw had a bunch of last-minute changes and re-writes.
This comes from Fightful Select, who say that plans for Raw and Main Event tapings were
changed “several times over”.
Specifically, at one point Cody Rhodes was lined up to open the show, but instead that
was changed to Jey Uso.
Zoey Stark vs Natalya was reportedly lined up for Main Event, but that was pulled and
The Viking Raiders vs Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander was moved to Main Event instead
of being on Raw.
There quite possibly could have been more, especially with plans changing ‘several
times over’, but that’s all we know of right now.
And of course, Raw ended with a shock return, which Luke will be reviewing here shortly,
but if you don’t want to be spoiled, it’s time to click away in 3, 2, - CM PUNK RETURNED
TO WWE - just kidding, 1…
Nia Jax returned in the closing moments of Raw, attacking both Rhea Ripley and Raquel
Rodriguez.
Everyone’s really pleased to see her.
Fightful Select is reporting that Jax had been re-signed to WWE for over a month, and
while there was speculation that the WWE-Endeavour-UFC deal had a part to play, that has been denied.
Several in the company reportedly thought that Jax would return sooner than she did.
Kairi Sane is on her way back and suddenly Nia Jax returns?
Ruh roh Raggy.
Now over to Luke.
LUKE: But first it’s time for a Match of the Year candidate from everybody’s favourite
Wrexpert…it’s Mark Markerson.
MARK: Hi Luke, happy Tuesday!
LUKEL Wrexpert?
MARK: Just trying it on for size.
This week’s match of the year candidate comes from Stardom’s 5Star Grand Prix.
I’m barely offline, so I’ve seen a lot of the discourse around women’s wrestling
in the American shows, and let me tell you - if you want to see women’s wrestling done
well, look at Japan.
Eric Bischoff actually had such a reverence for Japanese Women’s Wrestling that he decided
it wasn’t even worth trying a women’s division in WCW.
Now that’s respect.
The Joshi scene features some of the very best athletic competition in the world, and
Stardom’s 5Star Grand Prix is their answer to the fabled G1.
This year’s field is stacked.
AZM.
Mariah May.
Mayu Iwatani.
I could go on, but my match pick this week is actually from the non-Grand Prix card,
a tag match between the team of Mei Seira and Suzu Suzuki, against the champions the
Cosmic Angels.
Now with that line up, you could expect the match to be good.
And certainly the first half delivered, with fast paced action that was essentially an
amuse bouche for what was to come.
It was a full on high-speed showcase.
Each woman proved why they deserve their spot in this series - but for me, I want to highlight
Suzuki for particular praise.
Every time she stepped in, she made her presence known.
She’s only 20 years old and already she has this real superstar air about her.
They call her the Violent Prodigy and she backs it up.
But on this night, with a flurry of offence and some incredibly creative pinning combinations,
it was the Cosmic Angels who were able to get the job done.
It was a fantastic advert for Joshi and I am ecstatic to award this match 18 stars.
LUKE: 18 stars??
You’re getting out of hand here, surely..
MARK: Wow.
The misogyny is unreal.
It’s not what I meant and you know that.
But it’s now time for my review of Monday Night Raw aka the ‘Return of the Jax’
episode of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes.
As Pete talked about earlier in this broadcast, there were a lot of changes made to this week’s
Raw - and one of those changes was Jey Uso opening the show before he was quickly interrupted
by Kevin Owens who told him - like Sami alluded to last week - that he doesn’t want him
there and he doesn’t trust him.
Judgement Day came out to tell Jey that they want him there, and they trust him.
They said they were supposed to have a match with Owens and Sami this week - because it
wouldn’t be an episode of Raw in 2023 without Judgement Day taking Sami and KO - but Zayn
wasn’t here this week.
So Jey stepped up to be KO’s partner, and I get the feeling we’re going to see a lot
of Jey teaming with Sami and KO to take on Judgement Day for the next few weeks and months.
As it turns out, KO and Jey could not co-exist, and Jey accidentally superkicked Owens, leading
to Finn hitting the Coup de Grace for the win.
Trust takes months to earn, and it can be lost in seconds.
Later in the show, a match was made for Drew McIntyre vs. Jey Uso because he doesn’t
like Jey either, and Finn tried to further recruit Jey into the Judgement Day fold by
telling him that he’s a fan, Dom is a fan, Priest is a fan… and Rhea is a fan.
That last one seemed to pique Jey’s interest.
I can’t imagine idea why.
The Miz took on Akira Toazawa next and… sorry?
Yes, I know I was in the vast minority last week that didn’t like The Miz vs. Invincible
John Cena.
Oh I saw the comments, and I get it.
Yes I saw the downvotes.
Well, it’s just that comedy is subjective…
you want me to stay neutral on Miz segments from now on?
Okay.
The Miz beat Akira Tozawa in a squash match and will face LA Knight on SmackDown.
Was that okay?
Byron Saxton’s facial hair interviewed Raquel Rodriguez about her title match, and she said
that she’s not like most people.
Foreshadowing.
Imperium aren’t just the best thing on Raw by a country mile, they’re the best thing
in WWE as a whole.
And that includes NXT.
And Chad Gable and the rest of Alpha Academy is just as good if not better.
So how do you follow up last week’s incredible main event?
Well, you have an just as good, if not better, in-ring segment to set-up a rematch and a
banging trios match later in the show.
A rematch between Gable and Gunther is a great idea because the two are awesome together,
but the next time they meet there will be genuine jeopardy.
No one really believed that Gunther was losing last week because of the record and all that,
but that’s now passed.
He’s gotten the record.
So, now, Chad beating him is entirely possible.
Chad and Gunther cut awesome promos, and brawled with Otis and Tomasso Ciampa evening the odds.
Wait, Ciampa?
What happened to the DIY stuff?
Drew McIntyre beat Xavier Woods in a very good match, which was set up earlier in the
day when Woods suggested that Drew got angry with Kofi last week because Drew won his WWE
Championship in front of no fans, while Kofi did his in front of 82,000 people.
Gee, I wonder why they said that number.
This match was so damn good, and it really made Woods feel like he was on the same level
as Drew.
Cody was supposed to cut a promo, but he was interrupted by Dominik Mysterio and JD McDoanugh,
and Cody beat up both of them with ease.
It’s been nearly 40 days since Cody ended his long feud with Brock Lesnar.
Well over a month.
An entire PPV cycle.
And despite being the top merch seller at Payback - a show that he wasn’t booked for
a match on, but still outsold a returning John Cena - despite that, WWE have nothing
for him.
Is it because he’s going to SmackDown as part of the Jey trade, or is it - more likely
- because they had no plans for him once they decided to not put the title on him at Mania?
Either way, just putting Cody back into a program with Dom is really terrible and lazy
booking.
Do better, WWE.
Piper Niven is back, but wasn’t enough to help Chelsea Green beat Shayna Baszler who
killed poor Chelsea with the Piper’s Pit.
Zoey Stark backed Baszler up after the match to set up your next women’s tag title feud.
If this partner doesn’t work out Shayna, I know someone who you worked with rather
well.
Shinsuke Nakamura cut another video promo about Seth being a liar and manipulator, and
Seth responded by agreeing with him.
He again wanted to have their world title match right now, but Nakamura decided not
to and instead beat up Ricochet again.
Becky Lynch and Tiffany Straton signed a contract for their NXT match tonight, and we got that
trios match of Imperium and Alpha Academy and Ciampa which was so bloody good.
If you want to watch one thing from Raw this week, make sure it’s this.
The crowd were super hot for it, which only highlighted how mild they were for the main
event of Raquel Rodruiguez vs. Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship.
Maybe it’s because no one buys into Raquel beating Rhea, or maybe it’s because we saw
these two have a pretty lousy match two weeks ago on PPV.
Either way, they weren’t all that into the action, which, in fairness, was befitting
the lack of reaction.
They did come alive for the final few moments, but Nia Jax made her return to WWE by taking
out Raquel to allow Rhea to get the win, and then she beat up Ripley afterwards too.
Nia Jax is back, and is already in the title picture.
And you thought he was gone now the Endeavour deal is done.
And that was the show, another totally fine addition of Raw carried by Imperium and Alpha
Academy.
It just feels like so much of this show is spinning its wheels, with numerous repeated
programs, and an incredible lack of direction for Cody.
It’s like it’s on RAWpeat.
The Jey stuff continues to be interesting, and of course Imperium are awesome.
But that’s about it.
This week’s Raw is another 3 out of 5.