Welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I’m Pete Quinnell.
Some people, not naming names here, couldn’t be me, have been talking about The Bloodline
saga as potentially one of the greatest stories WWE has ever told - and while there were some
definite down periods where it didn’t seem like anybody but Reigns was getting over,
there have been some people who have looked significantly better after being involved
with The Bloodline.
Namely, Solo Sikoa, The Usos and Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens.
And while Jey is lined up to face Roman at SummerSlam this weekend, Solo being involved
in that story too, Zayn & KO are the Undisputed Tag Champs, and seem to be having quite the
run.
But how long will it last, because we might not be seeing Kevin Owens wrestle at all for
too much longer.
It had been reported back in late 2021 that KO had signed a 3-year deal with WWE, meaning
his contract expires in…2024.
Let’s add that to the list of wrestlers who are having their contracts expiring that
year.
It’s so many.
But it seems when late 2024 rolls around, we won’t be talking about KO potentially
leaving to go to AEW, but more about whether he’s actually sticking around with WWE and
crucially, in what capacity.
Because KO spoke to The Toronto Sun in an interview recently, where he said:
“I really don’t know [what’s left for me to accomplish in WWE].
I used to say I don’t see myself not being in the ring for another five to 10 years.
And if I said it right now…I don’t know if that’s true anymore…
I know I want to be involved in the WWE and I know I have a place here.
I just don’t know where it is exactly.
Maybe it’s still in the ring, maybe it’s not.
I don’t know.”
He went on to say that he doesn’t know right now, but he’s just doing to enjoy the year
and a half he’s got left on his contract and see how he feels.
I for one would very much miss KO in the ring if he did decide to hang up his boots, but
Kevin Owens as a coach or a producer?
Now that sounds like a massive boon for WWE.
Meanwhile, over in AEW, there’s been quite a lot of chatter about the AEW Women’s Division
as of late.
What with criticism mounting over their booking, LuFisto speaking on someone backstage with
too much power causing her to not do more with the company, and now, there’s this.
After confirming that Britt Baker was not the person LuFisto was talking about via Fightful
Select, on a Q&A podcast with Sean Ross Sapp, he mentioned that he “constantly” hears
about “trash talking” in the AEW women’s locker room.
SRS also noted that LuFisto was supposed to do more with AEW, but because of a “not-so-good
situation” that he believes “emerged from a ton of miscommunication”, contributed
to those plans not happening.
There have been reports in the past of heat between Thunder Rosa and Britt Baker among
others, so yeah, it’s not looking too great in AEW on the women’s side of things right
now.
And the same could be said for WWE’s women’s division too - as on last night’s Raw, we
seemingly got confirmation that two women’s matches are being pulled from SummerSlam.
Becky Lynch vs Trish Stratus instead took place on the show last night and then a rematch
was scheduled for two weeks’ time for their Winnipeg show on Raw - Luke will have more
details on that shortly in his Raw review - and Rhea Ripley vs Raquel Rodriguez which
had reportedly been pencilled in for the show was seemingly scrapped when Raquel was injured
by Rhea on the show too.
There’s a chance that match could still happen, but it seems highly unlikely all things
considered.
There had been reports that SummerSlam was ‘full’ with their 9 matches, so now it
looks like there’s some more space for other things to take those spots.
I wonder what they’ll be.
Probably John Cena appearing again to give Detroit a WrestleMania.
Now over to Luke.
And now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka the ‘hot damn those Shayna/Ronda
promos were great’ edition of Monday Night Raw… in about five minutes.
The show opened with Logan Paul cutting a promo on Ricochet to really, really great
heat from the crowd.
He kept putting over that he was going to make this match ‘go viral’, which was
fitting for his character but slightly undermined when the commentators also said it would be
a very viral match because it sounds more like the company think this will be a viral
match, and Ricochet came out to - amazingly - shake Logan Paul’s hand because he knows
they’re going to put on a viral-worthy match.
Paul then went against this by saying Ricochet’s finance - ring announcer Samantha Irvin - would
do the unthinkable when Logan Paul wins: she’ll do her job and announce him as the winner.
GASP.
This was clearly too much for Mr. Chet who brawled with Paul and got knocked out by the
One Lucky Punch.
The lame Samantha line aside, this was a decent opening segment.
Not Cathy interviewed Imperium, which set up a match between Ludvig Kaiser and Matt
Riddle where - seemingly - Kaiser’s position in Imperium would be on the line if he lost.
Thankfully, because this group rules, he in fact did not lose - beating Matt Riddle in
a hard hitting affair that the crowd lapped up.
They announced that Cody Rhodes has joined TikTok so you should all go and follow him.
While we’re on that subject, I just joined Instagram - it’s thisisluke.owen - so go
and follow me and feed my needy ego with a sense of self worth in the form of a decent
follower number.
The best thing in WWE - you heard me, Bloodline - got its next chapter when Maxxine Dupre
took on Valhalla in Maxxine’s first single’s match and Sarah Logan’s first WWE singles
match in around three years.
This was a relatively sloppy affair, but that’s also part of its charm as the story is Maxxine
is learning how to wrestle.
Remarkably, though, most of the sloppiness came from the more trained wrestler Valhalla.
Maxxine hit some arm drags, Otis’ Caterpillar, and Manami Toyota's Japanese Ocean Cyclone
Suplex into a very nice bridge for the win.
I’m gutted these six aren’t getting something bigger on Summerslam outside of Chad being
in the battle royale, but this angle continues to be tremendous fun.
Judgement Day cut a promo that covered a lot of the usual ground they go over, and this
brought out Raquel Rodriguez for a brawl with Rhea Ripley that was all kinds of great until
it came to Backquel selling.
She… bless her, she is not a great actor.
But this segment did have a Petey Williams spotting so it gets five out of five.
Backquel’s acting was way worse in a backstage segment with Adam Pearce, who said she can
get a shot at Rhea when she is medically cleared.
We got two video packages for the Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler feud which…
man, these were so great.
They covered their history in the MMA world, including their mentor/mentee relationship
on Ultimate Fighter, and quite brilliantly painted both women as the babyface and heels
of this story.
Ronda was certainly sympathetic in putting over Shayna, and Baszler was certainly a heel
because she said she was going to murder Ronda’s daughter’s mother… which is Ronda.
But Ronda was also painted as the baddie as they highlighted how the WWE crowd do not
like her, and Shayna is the babyface by pointing out this correct statement of fact.
These were remarkable, and easily the best promo work Ronda has done in her entire WWE
run.
And for a feud that wasn’t that heated going in, it’s become - in my estimation - one
of the bigger matches at Summerslam.
They’ll be fighting under MMA Rules which sounds overly-gimmicky, but I am now pretty
stoked for this.
Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomasso Ciampa continue to toil away in a midcard vortex of getting
no reactions and short matches with little heat.
Nakamura won with a handful of tights and Bronson Reed watched on from backstage.
This was not as good as it should have been.
Brock Lesnar cut a promo on Cody Rhodes, which brought out the newest star of TikTok - have
you followed me on Instagram yet? - and he shook Brock’s hand.
For what reason?
I don’t know.
Nor do I particularly care at this point.
But it was weird to do effectively the same segment as the opening one of this show where
the rivals shake hands only to brawl.
Because you’ll never guess what Cody and Brock did next - they only went and bloody
brawled.
Who could have possibly seen that coming?
There was also no Petey Williams sighting, so zero out of five.
But next was - for my money - the best in-ring thing on the show, as Chad Gable took on Gunther
in a five minute challenge.
Credit to the commentary as well as the wrestlers on this one, as they got over the desperation
of Gunther as he realised he’d under-estimated Gable and time was ticking away from what
he thought would be an easy win.
He locked in the sleeper with 40 seconds to go, but Gable wasn’t tapping.
So he beat him up and went for the Powerbomb, but Gable reversed and sent him to the outside.
The time expired, and Gable was announced as the winner…
…Until Gunther stopped that announcement and asked for more time.
Which means we got more great wrestling and a superb pissed off Gunther finish where he
chopped the soul out of Gable’s body, then chopped that soul back in so he could chop
it out again and powerbomb him into the earth for the win.
This was all superb, and should set up Gable for an IC program after Drew’s match at
Summerslam.
Becky Lynch and Trish Stratus are not wrestling at Summerslam, and they actually set up to
do it now, but Zoey Stark jumped in to cause the DQ.
Trish and Zoey left Bex laying and then told Adam Pearce that the rematch has now taken
place.
Pearce instead told her it would happen in a couple of weeks when WWE is in Canada.
And the main event saw Sami Zayn and Seth Rollins beat Judgement Day in a fun tag match.
The finish saw Priest hit the Razor’s Edge on Rollins, and then realise he could do the
cash in.
Balor handed him the briefcase - but with a slight moment of hesitation - and that was
enough for Rollins to recover and hit the Stomp for the win.
A very creative finish that further teases the issues within Judgement Day.
Go Home Shows have not been the strongest bow in the Triple H booking arsenal, but this
was a pretty good one.
It hyped up the key matches for Summerslam and - in some cases - added more heat than
what was there before.
So this is a big thumbs up show from me - and I give it 4 out of 5.
That’s all from me, but why not go and check out myself and the other WrestleTalk lads
on Board Game Club last week over on No Rolls Barred.
Here’s a clip.