Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I am Luke Owen, and this is wrestling news.
Our top story focuses on tonight’s WWE Raw, which will be the first edition of the show
since the recent WWE Draft fully kicks in.
It’s not exactly a ‘season premiere’, as WWE often call them, but it is lining up
to be a big show, especially with Raw half of the tournament kicking off to win the Raw
exclusive World Heavyweight Championship that also includes SmackDown stars.
Try not to think about it too much.
But while it’s not a season premiere, it might have a new look.
Eagle eyed wrestling fans noticed that yesterday WWE posted to their YouTube channel full matches
of Raquel Rodriguez vs Damage CTRL and Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre from 2019, but rather
than feature the Raw logo that has been in use for the last couple of years, there was
a new design in the bottom corner of the thumbnail [FULL SCREEN], which looks to be the new logo
for Monday Night Raw.
With a new line-up of stars and a new logo, it looks like there will be a big new feel
to tonight’s edition of the show.
So much so that Sean Ross Sapp over at Fightful Select has posted his report on what is planned
for Raw almost 24 hours before the show has taken place.
Folks, they’ve planned things in advance.
Like, really far in advance!
SRS notes that the “tentative plans” for tonight’s Raw will include ‘missing posters’
for Becky Lynch to further the feud between herself and Trish Stratus, and there will
be an angle with Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green petitioning members of the Raw roster
to rebel against Adam Pearce and the rest of management.
This is to continue an angle that Green has been running on her social media.
SRS also notes that Green and Deville are set to continue as a tag team on TV, which
would make sense as they were drafted as a pair to the red brand.
There’s also a note in the report that says “a new and immediate infusion of talent
is expected to take shape starting Monday to do with the draft and callups.”
That would include Braun Strowman and Ricochet, The Viking Raiders, and NXT call-ups like
Jinder Mahal and Indus Sher, Odyssey Jones, JD McDonaugh and former NXT Women’s Champion
Indi Hartwell.
Hartwell is an interesting one as that could tie into a report from WRKD Wrestling on Twitter
a few days ago who claims that there are preliminary plans to reunite NXT faction The Way on the
main roster.
This will likely be in backstage segments for the time being, as both Gargano and Hartwell
are out with injuries.
The Fightful Select report also says that a significant portion of tonight’s episode
will be dedicated to the tournament for the new World Heavyweight Championship, which
will conclude at Night of Champions later this month.
By the way we’re hosting a viewing party for Night of Champions at The Long Arm Brewery
in Shoreditch.
There’s a link in the video description for you to get your tickets and come watch
wrestling with all of us.
From the Raw side we have Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Damian Priest, The Miz, Shinsuke Nakamura
and Cody Rhodes, while SmackDown will be represented by AJ Styles, Bobby Lashley, Rey Mysterio,
Edge and Sheamus.
There are a couple of interesting things to note in that line-up, the first of which is
the exclusion of Drew McIntyre, one of the highest draft picks for Raw and a former WWE
Champion, which ties into the reports of his unhappiness with his creative in WWE while
currently negotiating a new deal.
He is also, though, ‘banged up and hurting’ according to several reports, so it could
just be him taking some time off.
The other name of note, is Cody Rhodes.
There’s been a few questions about Rhodes being or not being in the tournament for the
new title.
It’s a bit of a lose-lose situation for WWE.
He either competes for the belt which undermines his ‘finish the story’ story with Roman
Reigns and the Blueniversal Championship, which also undermines the importance of the
World Heavyweight Championship, or he doesn’t go for the belt which would also heighten
the feeling that the new championship is a consolation prize for those who can’t beat
Roman.
Like I say, it’s a lose-lose situation.
But perhaps WWE have gotten themselves The Best of Both Worlds.
WRKD Wrestling are reporting via Twitter that “Cody Rhodes feud with Brock Lesnar is far
from over” and that Brock will make his intentions known while Cody is in the tournament
- hinting that perhaps Brock would be on tonight’s Raw and attack Rhodes to keep him from progressing.
This would tie into the finish of their Backlash match, where Rhodes pinned Brock - but didn’t
beat him decisively.
Speaking of that main event of Backlash - which I’ll repeat one more time should not have
been the main event and Bad Bunny should have gone on last - there were some questions around
the blood in the match.
Towards the finish, Brock went into an exposed turnbuckle and began bleeding all over the
place.
It was theorised that this was a botch, and Brock hit the turnbuckle so hard that he busted
himself open hardway.
However according to Sean Ross Sapp on Fightful Select, this was a planned spot , noting that
“blood was planned for the match”, and WWE sources claimed to him that “things
went the way they were supposed to.”
SRS also refutes a previous report that stated Brock was set to squash Cody Rhodes, saying
that was never scheduled to be the case.
I don’t think he’s referring to our 3-Count Video that predicted that would be happen?
But it could be, we are pretty smart.
There were also rumours that WWE had a planned spot with a stretcher and ambulance, but Fightful
Select claim this wasn’t true either.
Fightful were able to look at the plans for the weekend’s shows which would also include
props that have to be signed off by Triple H - props like ambulances and stretchers - and
they were never listed.
SRS also notes that being in Puerto Rico might have also required additional clearances for
those sorts of things.
Fightful also noted that the producer of the Bad Bunny and Damian Priest match was Jamie
Noble, while PWInsider claimed that he was actually the co-producer of the match which
he did alongside former WWE star Brian Kendrick.
Kendrick is a contentious name in the wrestling sphere.
He was working as a producer for WWE up until 2022 when he asked for his release, despite
announcing that he’d re-signed with the company to have a match with then-WWE star
Harland in NXT 2.0.
On the same day he was granted his release from WWE, he was announced for a match on
AEW Dynamite against Jon Moxley.
However due to social media backlash over controversial comments Kendrick has made in
the past about 9/11, the Sandy Hook massacre and the Holocaust, Tony Khan pulled his appearance.
He did, however, produce Ronda Rousey’s match at Survivor Series last November at
the request of Rousey.
In his report on Fightful Select, SRS notes that Kendrick was not listed internally as
a producer on the street fight at Backlash, but confirms that Kedrick helped Damian Priest
train Bad Bunny for the match.
SRS also notes that the original plan for the street fight was a tag match, but this
was changed to a singles match because WWE were confident in Bad Bunny’s abilities.
As we said on yesterday’s WrestleTalk News, WWE were reportedly ecstatic with how the
match played out and that “the spot ‘paid for itself in publicity.’”
And speaking of good reactions, Carlito made his WWE return at Backlash to help Rey Mysterio
clean house of Judgement Day during the San Juan Street Fight between Bad Bunny and Damian
Prist.
As you can see from this video, the crowd rather enjoyed it.
Carlito’s former tag partner and rival in WWE, Chris Masters, also shared how pleased
he was for his friend on Twitter writing, “I’ve literally watched @Litocolon279
comeback from last night about 50 times.
So happy he had that moment considering his comeback at the Rumble had no live crowd.
Honestly, I didn’t even realize how fired up I’d be about another man’s return”
Fightful Select are reporting that WWE were also very happy with how the return went down
and even noted that his pop was “even better than expected”.
Which could probably be said on the social media numbers.
At the time of writing, the video of Carlito’s return has topped 8.1 Million views on Twitter,
and the return itself has been viewed more on YouTube than clips of the match itself.
Which brings us to the question of: is this the last we’ll see of Carlito in WWE?
Fightful report that there have been several pitches over the years to bring Carlito back
for a one-off appearance or a full-time return, but nothing has ever come of them.
And as of this weekend, Backlash was just one of those one-off appearances.
However, Fightful also add their sources told them “that could always change”.
One thing that might help his cause, outside of the great social media numbers, is that
those backstage at Backlash praised Carlito’s more matured attitude since his original run.
But if you really enjoyed the fun fan reactions of Backlash in Puerto Rico, you may be waiting
a long time to see them again.
Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics first reported that WWE were paid $1.5 million dollars by
the Puerto Rican tourism board to do the show, and Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio
noted that WWE would want to be paid that again before considering returning.
“The thing is, they’re only going to come if they get paid to come.
So, that’s up to how much the tourism board wants to pay… if the tourism board brings
you in, they’re not going to bring you in every year.
They’re going to use their money to bring in another act.”
Well, let’s just hope the tourism board don’t wait 18 years like they did last time.
And you can check out yesterday’s news video for more information about that heat between
WWE and Drew McIntyre.