In this WrestleTalk News, Alexa Bliss has shared frustrations with her position in WWE
directly to Vince McMahon, another top name leaves the company, my review of Monday Night
Raw and more.
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Alexa Bliss left WWE screens for a long period of time after losing to Charlotte Flair at
last year’s Extreme Rules in September, where the post-match angle saw Flair tear
up the Lily doll.
And then earlier this year, we started getting vignettes where Bliss was getting therapy
to overcome the trauma of losing Lily.
This led to her randomly being inserted into the Elimination Chamber match where nothing
about her character was changed, and she hasn’t been seen since.
She even seemingly tweeted frustrations about this on March 18th saying “I’ll just wait
here I guess…”
Now if you listen to that paragraph of text you’re guess as to why this all happened
was: WWE had no creative plans for Alexa Bliss; you’d be correct.
It was reported a couple of months ago that the therapy sessions filmed for Bliss were
to last up until WrestleMania, but they hadn’t filmed enough of them - which is why they
would oddly cut halfway through a scene and fade down to black as they tried to pad them
out.
But the story was then rushed to a finish to get Bliss into the Chamber match in Saudi
Arabia.
Bliss hasn’t been seen or heard from since, with no appearance from her at WrestleMania.
While many suspected this was because she was getting married shortly after the show,
Fightful Select are reporting that Bliss made WWE aware that she was willing and able to
perform at Mania, and there were even pitches from creative to add her into the Becky Lynch
and Bianca Belair program, but these was shot down.
Fightful add that the priority of booking Bliss “shifted significantly” following
the vignettes, and that Bliss “voiced her displeasure about her creative direction or
lack thereof” following Elimination Chamber.
They write, “Talent and creative were told that Bliss was very transparent about frustration
that nothing of substance had been booked after being out of action for half a year.
Talent that we heard from said that there was also discussion backstage that Bliss had
voiced that directly to Vince McMahon.”
Bliss is currently on her honeymoon and there are no “imminent plans for her return”,
however she is still apparently still listed internally as the number 2 babyface on the
Raw.
While it seems unlikely at this point that Alexa Bliss will quit WWE over her frustrations,
one name that has officially left the company is Kushida.
One of the most decorated junior heavyweights of New Japan Pro Wrestling, Kushida was brought
into WWE back in 2019 and was thought to be a huge prospect for the company.
However he ended up doing very little of note.
He won the Cruiserweight Championship when the title was supposed to be given more screen
time, but the shift to NXT 2.0 put a stop to those plans and the title was merged with
the North American Championship.
Fightful Select - who broke the news that Kushida left the company - note that they
were told there were never any plans to bring Kushida to the main roster.
Fightful are reporting that Kushida’s deal expired - which means he doesn’t have a
90-day non-compete and can show up to work anywhere he wants right now - and that, “we
haven't been given any idea as to whether or not a new [deal] was offered.”
But now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes.
Seth might try to tell you you’re watching Monday Night Rollins, but going by the show’s
focus since WrestleMania, WWE have actually been putting on Monday Night Rhodes.
He was the focus of the show opening recap, and he bookended the episode with the first
segment and main event.
It started off with Seth complaining about Cody’s unfair advantage at WrestleMania,
as Rollins didn’t know who his surprise opponent was.
He should probably subscribe to Fightful Select as we all knew.
Cody’s reply was to mostly just get cheap babyface pops from the crowd, because he’s
making up for half a year of AEW booing.
In a neat development of their feud, Seth said he’ll pick a surprise opponent for
Cody to face in the main event.
Brandi vs Cody in WWE confirmed.
After the match was pulled last week because of protocol, we got Sasha Banks and Naomi
retaining their women’s tag titles against Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan in a really good
15 minute match that ended up being a messy 5-minute one.
It was also the only women’s match on the show.
What is this, Dynamite?
As expected, Ripley turned on Morgan afterwards.
Because there are no other storylines for Rhea other than splitting up tag teams.
Sonya Deville is evil.
You can tell because she wears a suit.
Bianca Belair confronted her over the surprise attack last week, where Sonya said she’ll
beat her in Bianca’s hometown next week!
Knowing WWE…
I’m actually worried they’ll do that.
Bianca picked Sonya up for the KOD, but dropped her in case of getting fined - which Adam
Pearce later issued as one whole dollar!
[ROBOCOP ‘I’D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR’ CLIP?]
Pearce also said there will be an official investigation of Sonya’s conduct.
Because that’s the exact sort of four quadrant exciting family storylines WWE put on… corporate
HR disputes.
Even without a Mysterio in sight, Veer can’t stop coming.
He squashed enhancement talent Jeff Brooks to no reaction.
In possibly the show’s best segment, Kevin Owens had Ezekiel on the KO Show, where the
smartest man in WWE Chad Gable would be administering a lie detector test to finally uncover whether
Zeke is actually LA Knight.
Gable and Owens here were superb, but the best line went to Not Elias, as he asked the
crowd ‘Who Wants to Hear Zeke Speak?’
in an obvious play on Who Wants To Walk With Elias.
Zeke managed to pass the test perfectly, which led to Owens storming out and Gable had a
match with Zeke.
Which poses the far more significant question: Who wants to watch Ezekiel wrestle?
That was always the problem with his older brother Elias.
Great promo, gimmick and segments, but as soon as the bell rang, all that heat fluttered
away.
We didn’t really get a chance to see if this new character works, as Otis attacked
him at the end, causing the DQ.
Hopefully it’s building to a tag match of Alpha Academy vs Ezekiel and Elias.
Elsewhere in the tag division, the Street Profits continued their more heel personas,
using the Usos’ entrance music to distract RKBro for the win - which gives the Profits
a much needed victory in this feud, and keeps them as a threat after whatever happens post-Backlash.
But if they are being more heel now, what was all that babyface stuff with Gable Steveson
at WrestleMania?
But the bigger question is: what did happen with Damien Priest last week?
Damien Priest opened the House of Purple’s promo saying: a lot of you are probably asking
what happened last week?
Yeah, yeah we are.
Because the match never finished.
The commentary team are now playing up the idea Priest vanished, even though, ironically,
we didn’t see that.
Edge, though, is such a good promo, he makes you think this is all part of some grand epic
continuity.
He brought up how he used to be in the Brood and Ministry of Darkness, and now he’s going
back to those gothic spooky spooky times.
It was a great promo even with the Mountain of Omnipotence line.
We’re really sticking with that, huh?
They then attacked AJ Styles mid-interview in the locker room, using spooky spooky strobe
lighting.
Raw may feel like Cody Rhodes is the new Buzz Lightyear round here, but it’s quite clear
that Vince only has eyes for his other favourite toy, Austin Theory.
In just the last month, he’s got a new entrance theme, had a major WrestleMania angle, been
pushed as McMahon’s handpicked star, lost a first name, got a video package about how
great he is just before this match and, now, is the United States Championship.
It was a really good TV match, even with the depressing undertone of how Finn Balor is
beaten over and over again.
But, at the same time, it’s incredibly refreshing to see WWE actually get behind a young star
for longer than three weeks.
This is the culmination of a six month push, stretching back to the Survivor Series EGG,
and it’s seen Theory become the youngest US Champion ever in WWE, and the youngest
midcard champion since Vince’s previous hand-picked young guy Drew McIntyre won the
Intercontinental title back in 2009.
And Drew would eventually go onto be a WWE Champion and top star.
So does that mean Theory is getting released and he’s going to win the WCPW title before
that happens?
The undercard heel locker room then emptied to celebrate with him - gargantuan names like
Apollo Crews, T-Bar, Commander Azeez and Cedric Alexander (...I don’t think this is having
the momentous effect you think it is, WWE).
But that was all forgotten when Mr McMahon himself came onstage to endorse the new champ.
While The KO Show was a very fun segment because it was done by very funny people, the 24/7
commitment ceremony was special in its own way, as it was so Team BAD it was good.
The crowd gave everything the what treatment, as R-Truth and everyone else scrambled to
speak over the hijacking crowd.
Tamina objected to her own wedding, and kept moving the partners around until it was her
and Dana Brooke that were getting married.
Uh oh, Paul Heyman’s booked another wedding segment.
Then everyone pinned each other after the ‘You May Kiss the Bride’ spot - which
ended up with Dana winning it back, and escaping on Truth’s back, despite the fact he also
wants to win the title and didn’t even try.
This was dumb fun, and is at least something in the comedy division.
Bobby Lashley will face Omos in an arm wrestling challenge next week, which is Vince’s favourite
category on Pornhub.
It’s time to start running the Vince McMahon coming soon graphics.
And the main event saw Seth Rollins unveil his surprise opponent for Cody Rhodes…
no, not the Miz again.
Not MJF.
Not Cody Rhodes.
But Kevin Owens, as they’re still best mates, appearently.
They had a great match together, and told a good story of Seth shouting at Owens to
beat Cody, with both heels getting increasingly frustrated at each other.
KO eventually stormed out when Rollins called him fat, letting Cody win via countout.
It was a lame finish to a very good main event, designed to make sure no one loses - but ends
up with no one getting over.
What did you think of Raw?
Let me know in the comments.
This was the latest episode that was more Raw After Mania than Raw After Mania itself.
The US title change and McMahon cameo, the Ripley/Morgan split, two very fun in-ring
segments and some decent wrestling.
It was a very solid 3/5, or as Oli Davis has informed me, is also 69%.
Nice.
Now watch me battle Pete in our 2K22 MyGM series
on partsFUNknown…