A major WWE star returns with his massive dong! AJ Styles and Ricochet had a great TV
main event! And we got an unprecedented five WWE title changes in one night… and they
were all for the same belt! And what is the real reason behind Undertaker
making his shock return to WWE? Click the timestamps in the video description
below to go straight to any of those stories.
I’m Oli Davis - give us a subscribe, press the thumbs up button, and answer our question
of the day in the comments: How do you think WWE will book The Undertaker’s return from
here? Because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE! And click the ‘i’
above my head to give your rating of the show - where you can choose from: RawSome, Cor,
AVRAWGE, Poor and RawFul - as I review the 24th June episode of Monday Night Raw!
Becky Lynch’s boyfriend Seth Rollins opened the show with an in-ring promo to be quickly
joined by Seth Rollins’ girlfriend Becky Lynch! Wait a second… are they dating or
something? Where Seth called Becky the best back-up anyone can have.
Dude, Roman Reigns is like, on Raw all the time..
Baron and Lacey Evans’ Midcard of Evil then jumped Seth and Becky from behind, and as
we all feared, they booked a mixed tag team match for Extreme Rules with both titles on
the line. At least if Corbin and Evans lose, they’ll supposedly get no more chances.
Because that’s a stipulation WWE never go back on.
Next up was an 8 man tag with Daniel Bryan, Rowan and The Revival against The Usos and
New Day. And because WWE has gone pin crazy, it’s an elimination match! Because that’ll
fix the falling ratings - more pins! Pins everywhere!
Bryan Alvarez has reported this sudden production change is actually because Vince McMahon doesn’t
want matches to continue through adbreaks anymore, as other sports don’t do that,
and the pins provide breaks for them to throw to commercial.
I agree the ad placement in WWE TV matches has been frustrating for a while now, but
this is like treating a headache with trepanning, the ancient practice of drilling a hole into
someone’s head to fix it. Having so many eliminations and 2-out-of-3 falls stipulations
means you have to book even more wrestlers to lose.
Like Daniel Bryan, who just like the night before at Stomping Grounds, was awesomely
over in his home state of Washington. So, naturally, he got eliminated first when you
could’ve just pinned Rowan, with Woods following shortly after.
The Usos won overall with a very cool finish, countering superplexes into splashes.
Next up saw R-Truth and Carmella on MizTV after Truth regained his 24/7 Championship.
...Drake Maverick came down to reveal his wife wants a divorce, so he wants to win back
the love of his life… the 24/7 title. This turned into a very short match between
the two, with Truth winning in seconds and the undercard chasing him through the crowd
afterwards. Mean Charly Caruso asked Maverick why he was so stupid and dumb, but he just
walked off in tears.
In a rare match without a pin - because these are actually top guys WWE cares about - Shane
McMahon and Drew McIntyre just beat up Roman Reigns in their 2-on-1 match, with steel stair
spots, multiple Claymores and Shane hitting Roman’s spear. But just as McMahon was about
to hit the Coast-to-Coast, the lights cut out and the heels got hit with Undertaker’s
massive dong! The Deadman caught Shane’s dive with a chokeslam,
cleared house to save Reigns, the man who retired him… kind of… and then later in
the show, Taker and Roman vs Shane and Drew was booked for Extreme Rules.
I’m sure this was planned for ages and was in no way a rushed panic move to increase
TV ratings! It’s just another example of WWE looking
to the past for solutions rather than building for the future. Speaking of ideas from the
past…
Hot off their arm wrestling contest a few weeks ago, Braun Strowman beat Bobby Lashley...
in a tug of war. Next up, pose off. It went about a minute before breaking down
into a brawl between them, where Bobby blinded Braun with the rope and stood tall. Strowman
is floundering yet again, and deserves a proper feud rather than another program with Lashley,
which I thought finished a few weeks ago.
Backstage, Mean Charly Caruso asked AJ Styles about being medically cleared, and then cut
him off mid-answer to say how she doesn’t want to hear about that, you stupid dumb person,
just talk about the upcoming match with Ricochet. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson interrupted
by partying with No Way Jose’s sex conga, leading AJ to berate them for not taking themselves
seriously again. This led to Galanderson to prove themselves
against the Viking DON’T MENTION THE WAR EXPERIENCE! Raiders, which just like last
week’s quick loss against The Usos, they started strong but lost when they got cocky.
Oh my God, Mojojo Rawley is finally getting an actual match on TV for his new Taserface
gimmic-oh no, it’s just another 24/7 title shmoz, where Heath Slater won the belt, for
R-Truth to win it back, which Cedric Alexander then captured, for EC3 to win his first title
on the main roster... for R-Truth to regain it to become a 9 time champ.
Next up, Kofi Kingston sold his gruelling steel cage match against Dolph Ziggler from
the previous night, by dancing down to the ring throwing out pancakes. Just before Mean
Charly Caruso could be nasty to him, though, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn interrupted for
an impromptu Sami and KO Show - which turned into a really good Kofi vs Sami match, that
Kingston ultimately won with a roll-up. KO then challenged Kofi to another match right
now to show what a great champion he is, which Kingston accepted, and then won via countout
after an exciting few minutes with a nasty looking SOS on the steel ramp. WWE have done
a terrific job of booking Kingston strong, but they have treated Owens and Zayn absolutely
abysmally. Then while Kingston celebrated, Samoa Joe
attacked him from behind on the ramp - choking him out to presumably start Kofi’s next
title feud. Which is really cool because we love Samoa Joe… but it falls apart when
you think about it. Samoa Joe is a Raw star. Samoa Joe has lost practically everything
in 2019. Samoa Joe just lost the United States title on Sunday. If you were building someone
up to feud for one of your top belts, why would you have them lose clean the previous
night. Ultimately, it devalues the WWE Championship and Kofi’s reign, as while WWE is booking
him strong, they’re doing so against Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, Samoa Joe - i.e. wrestlers
they don’t portray as credible threats.
Because most of the women’s division feuds can only be based around who’s friends with
who, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross continued their terrible storyline. Natalya and Naomi
tried to warn Cross that Alexa is just using her, which led to Bliss beating Naomi in a
few minutes and then Natalya in the ensuing tag match.
The main event, however, was a dream match encounter between AJ Styles and Ricochet.
One man back from injury, the other fresh of his first title win on the main roster.
And putting the US title in the main event slot, and having AJ endorse Ricochet in the
post-match, really helped put over both the championship and its holder as a future top
star. A sentiment rather undone by having Ricochet lose the day after he won the US
title. The match-up really should’ve been saved
for a pay-per-view to give both guys wins going in. Elsewhere, AJ sent Gallows and Anderson
to the back when they tried to interfere. Because AJ don’t want none… of their cheating
heel tactics.
This was an enjoyable episode, but only on a superficial level, with practically every
segment lacking substance or wrestling logic. And the final number of 16 finishes for 9
matches is ridiculous. Also, where was Bray Wyatt’s Firefly Fun House this week? This
week’s Raw is a low AvRAWge.
Yes folks, I’m back once again like a renegade master, with the ill behaviour.
Despite all the bad news surrounding the show - with poor ticket sales meaning WWE tapped
off a huge portion of the building to hide the disappointing attendance - the feedback
to WWE Stomping Grounds 2019 was actually quite good. One person who really liked the
show was Universal Champion Seth Rollins, who tweeted to say that WWE had the best wrestling
on the planet, period. Monty Brown to WWE, confirmed!
He then doubled down on this tweet with a follow up saying, “Find anyone else alive
who does what I do as well as I do it as often as I do it. Ya can’t.” Later replying
to Cage Side Seats making fun of Rollins saying, “Sure do dorks. And after that PPV I stand
by it even more. The crew brought it tonight. From top to bottom all out effort from every
person in the ring and out” adding to a fan who told him to dial it down, “Nah dawg,
let me dial it up. I’ve sat back and watched idiots with no clue talk poorly about the
place I dedicate my life to EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY. The level I perform at on constant
is untouchable. Time to let em know.” Can’t imagine what idiots with no clue he’s talking
about. But it wasn’t just Cage Side Seats who made
fun of Rollins, with Tama Tonga calling New Japan the best wrestling in the galaxy, and
All Elite Wrestling’s Chris Jericho reposting with a devastating laughing emoji.
One person who really got involved with this conversation is current IWGP Junior Heavyweight
Champion Will Ospreay, who replied to Rollins tweet with “I’m alive.” For the record,
Will Opsreay has a 2019 average match star rating of 4.5 stars- which includes a 5.75
star match against Shingo Takagi on Day 15 of the Best of the Super Juniors.
Rollins didn’t respond to Jericho or Tama Tonga, but did reply to Ospreay by saying,
“Ahhhh I’m sorry little guy. We already have a better version of you here and he just
won his first US Title tonight (Congrats @KingRicochet). Keep working hard though buddy!” Ospreay
responded by posting a gif of David Brent saying “ooh, you’re hard”, and later
added that he’s wrestled more matches in 2019 than Rollins. The Beast Slayer then took
a trip to the Kevin Nash school of thought, by replying: “I mean if you wanna talk numbers
we can compare bank accounts too.” Rather than get into a debate about bank accounts,
Ospreay went back to the original point: “the original question was “Find anyone else
alive who does what I do as well as I do it as often as I do it”. No talk of money.
No talk of Ricochet. You said anyone. Here I am.” In an interview with ESPN, Ospreay
added: “I love Rollins. Rollins is the absolute don. He's the man, you know what I mean? He's
one of the best wrestlers ever - period. But you asked the question. You asked, find me
someone alive. As far as I'm concerned, I'm breathing. There's oxygen in my lungs. I think
the last time I heard about an amazing Seth Rollins match was his one against AJ Styles,
and if you can't get a good match out of AJ Styles, then I think you should leave the
planet.” Ospreay wanted to make sure this was not an
Us vs. Them argument as many fans thought it was, by posting a picture of him posing
with his girlfriend and World of Stardom Champion Bea Priestly and NXT UK Women’s Champion
Toni Storm adding, “3 Different Champions. 3 Different Companies. 3 Different Contracts.
All busted our butts on the Indies. Just be happy for one another & have a drink.”
But not even Will Ospreay can avoid the pull of Baron Corbin Midcard Vortex, with the Lone
Wolf tweeting: “More important fact Baron Corbin has wrestled more matches in 2019 THAN
Will Ospreay.” To which Will responded: “No wonder Raw sucks.”
Corbin announced last night on Raw that he would team with Lacey Evans to take on Rollins
and Becky Lynch in a Winner Takes All Mixed Tag Match, but that wasn’t the only match
announced for Extreme Rules - with The Undertaker making a surprise appearance to help Roman
Reigns against Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon - with WWE announcing the four will clash
in a tag match. But why would WWE dig back up The Undertaker
once again, especially after the disastrous match he had with Goldberg at Super Showdow...
oh yeah the ratings are bad and tickets sales are struggling.
Yes it should come as no surprise, but Cage Side Seats are reporting that WWE have brought
Taker back to help with falling ratings and boost ticket sales in the lead up to Extreme
Rules. Dave Meltzer has backed this up on Wrestling Observer Radio, calling it a “desperate”
move. Thank you for watching, and a special thank
you to our Pledge Hammers on Patreon, some of which you can see scrolling their way into
my stomach. Bioware’s CEO has totally slammed Bioware’s Anthem video game for being a
big pile of rubbish. Click the ScreenStalker video to find out more about that! I’ve
been Luke Owen, and that was wrestling.