A theory over what The Rock gave Cody Rhodes.
A secret WWE debut.
My review of Monday Night Raw and more.
I’m Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
It’s a new day.
Yes it is.
You could even say, it’s a new era.
Has anyone thought to say that on TV yet?
But in fairness to WWE, they sort of had to establish this.
Because although Triple H has been in charge of running creative for two years, that isn’t
entirely accurate.
Did we all forget that Omos vs. Elias opened last year’s Raw after Mania?
Doesn’t sound very Trips to me.
That’s because up until January of this year, Vince McMahon was always there, lurking
in the creative shadows.
Making changes either remotely, or in the case of last year’s Raw After Mania, in
person - where he tore up the plans that Triple H had made and did new ones instead.
While the TKO merger diminished McMahon’s involvement, it wasn’t until the Janal Grant
lawsuit that accused Vince McMahon of sexual assault and sex trafficking that saw his permanent
removal.
Fightful Select report that there has been a “concentrated effort from WWE to disassociate
with him as best possible.”
But while Vince McMahon’s name is a banned term, WWE are moving away from some of his
odd rules and banned terms that he had in place.
We saw this at WrestleMania 40 when it opened with the National Anthem - something Vince
hated so always did America The Beautiful instead - and Ibou of WrestlePurists noted
via Twitter that WWE are moving away from the term ‘sports entertainment’, something
Vince introduced decades ago to replace the word ‘wrestling’ as he didn’t want WWEv
to be associated with the world of wrestling.
Fightful have confirmed Ibou’s Twitter post and added, "Pro wrestling is no longer a dirty
word.
There are very few dirty words anymore.
And the dirty words that do exist, people just seem to say even though we got memos
telling us not to."
And that’s not all, as Sports Illustrated are reporting that Nick Khan - WWE’s President
- is open to “engineering collaborations with other wrestling promotions”.
We saw this with TNA’s Jordyne Grace appearing in this year’s Royal Rumble, and Shayna
Baszler and Charlie Dempsey working GCW’s Bloodsport over WrestleMania weekend.
The erasure of Vince McMahon may be in full swing, but that’s certainly not the case
for his daughter Stephanie, who returned to WWE TV to open WrestleMania Night Two.
This was a bit of a surprise given Stephanie being named “Corporate Officer Number 3”
in the Janel Grant lawsuit against WWE, and Fightful Select report that many in WWE have
not yet heard how/if Steph has addressed the allegations that she knew of Vince’s behavior.
However, another source noted how Steph appearing at Mania was her “firmly” and “publicly”
picking her side between her father and WWE.
TKO sources are reportedly backing Steph in the situation, with Fightful’s report stating
that Steph was “welcomed with open arms” backstage, and is well liked by many.
Interestingly however, her promo at Mania was kept a surprise, with it being internally
listed as a Triple H promo beforehand in the show rundown.
It’s still not clear whether Steph is in fact back in WWE in an official full-time
capacity just yet, however, but Fightful noted that half a dozen sources they spoke with
feel she would be welcomed.
PWInsider also report that Linda McMahon was seen at the talent hotel during WrestleMania
40.
Lastly for this news portion, we finish with something that you may have missed from Raw
last night.
During Bronson Reed’s promo backstage on the show, static took over the TV feed for
a brief moment, with the message “hello” being seen in the bottom corner.
As well as this, ahead of the Raw taping, the lights went down and music was played
in the arena.
Now, if these sorts of cryptic clues sound familiar, then you get a biscuit.
As according to Fightful Select these were in fact done for the impending return of Bo
Dallas, who recently had a return tease at the end of the Bray Wyatt documentary on Peacock.
Before we get into the review of Monday Night Raw, here’s a word from this episode’s
sponsor.
And now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka the ‘Did You Know It’s
The Triple H Era Of Monday Night Raw’ edition of Monday Night Raw After WrestleMania…
in about 5 minutes.
The show opened with Triple H out to remind us, for the third straight show, that this
was a new era of WWE, calling WrestleMania 40 the greatest WrestleMania of all-time.
He brought out the man who will lead this new era, Cody Rhodes, and the pair watched
a video package of Cody’s journey - which didn’t have any pictures of AEW, but did
feature some photos from his time in TNA - on the big screen.
However, because this Raw was PACKED OUT with over 20,000 people, they didn’t have the
big screen.
So instead they watched it on a monitor.
Like the best man at a wedding who planned a big powerpoint presentation for his wedding
speech, only to find out the venue doesn’t have a TV so you have to show it on a laptop.
For the record, I loved how the stage looked.
If I had my way - my way or the highway - I’d have this set up for Raw and SmackDown every
week.
Cody cut a promo and got Samantha Irvin to introduce him again, and said that he’s
on top of the mountain and he’s gone from being undesirable, to undeniable, to now being
undisputed.
This brought out The Rock who tried to cut a promo, but kept getting cut off by the fans
with boos.
He eventually said that Cody did it, and that his mama was proud and he knows Dusty would
be proud too.
He said that he’s held a lot of belts over the years, but he’s never held this new
one, so asked Cody if he could.
Cody said he could, but only if he could hold his People’s Champion belt too.
They exchanged belts to ‘This Is Awkward’ chants, and The Rock announced that he was
going away for a bit, but when he comes back he wants a shot at Cody’s title.
Cody said that Rock may be his boss, but I’m the champion - so that also makes me your
champion.
It was the end of That Cody’s Story, and the start of a new story for Cody.
This opening segment, from Triple H all the way through to the end, took 45 minutes of
the show, and was captivating throughout.
But that’s not all people were talking about.
Just what did The Rock hand to Cody Rhodes?
When he handed it over, Rocky said that he wanted assurance from Cody that he wouldn’t
have to break his heart again, and that he didn’t need to open his hand to know what
it is.
Which is where this theory from Reddit user Subpitch comes in.
Their theory is that Rock handed Cody a bead from Roman’s Ula Fala necklace, with the
following four reasons.
Number one is that it’s a unique shape - so you wouldn’t have to open your hand to see
what it is - secondly by asking for Cody not to break his heart again it’s something
that broke his heart to give away.
Thirdly they argue Cody won under Bloodline Rules, so you could make the case that Cody
is the Tribal Chief now and lastly Point D, “The overall somberness of the handoff and
respect displayed by the Rock.
It clearly upset him in kayfabe, but he still treated Cody as an equal, even letting him
hold the peoples championship.”
What do you think of the theory?
What do you think he handed over?
Let me know in the comments down below.
Or, if you don’t know, give me the wrong answer.
I’ll feature some of my favourites in the WrestleTalk News tomorrow.
Shinsuke Nakamura took on NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov in a fun little match, which saw
Dragunov win with the H-Bomb and Torpedo Moscow.
WWE used this match to announce that the WWE Draft will take place on April 26th and 29th
- only three weeks away - and that NXT will be involved.
There, you had your 4 minutes of wrestling - no, really that match was just four minutes
- it’s now time for more talking!
The Judgement Day came out for a promo to put over Rhea Ripley retaining her title,
and Damien Priest winning his - complete with new entrance music for Priest - and this set
up a trios match between Judgement Day against Awesome Truth and a partner no one can see.
Some of the comedy here was great, and the match had a brilliant payoff.
Because the man you couldn’t see ended up being Truth’s childhood hero John Cena,
who ran down for the hot tag towards the end of the match.
He, Truth and Miz all hit 5 Knuckle Shuffles and AAs for the win.
This was a lot of fun.
Bronson Reed cut a promo - which is where we got our tease for Bo Dallas - and Dom set
up a match with Andrade for next week.
Rhea Ripley got attacked by Liv Morgan, and that led into Indi Hartwell losing to NXT
Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez.
Candice tried to cheat on Indi’s behalf, but Hartwell didn’t like that, and Roxxane
raked the eyes and hit Pop Rox for the win.
The presentation of NXT was great on this show.
Roxxane also had an interaction with Natalya backstage to promote their match on NXT tomorrow.
Sami Zayn celebrated his IC title win with Jey Uso backstage, then came out for a promo
to talk about his win over Gunther.
He put over the big man, and this brought out Imperium, which set up a tag match where
Sami teamed with Chad Gable to beat them.
Sami later told Chad that he will give him the favour he asked for, and set up an IC
title match for next week in Montreal.
We got a video promo for the return of Sheamus, and Jey Uso cut a promo saying in the Fatal
Four Way it would just be him, uce.
You silly goose, there are three other people.
Chelsea Green complained to Adam Pearce, Nick Aldis and Ava that she didn’t get a WrestleMania
moment, so Pearce and Aldis booked her in a big interpromotional match, which saw her
lose to Jade Cargill in under a minute.
Good stuff.
And the main event saw Drew McIntyre, Bronson Reed, Ricochet and Jey Uso battle to determine
a fatal four way for the number one contendership to the World Heavyweight Championship.
Drew cut a promo saying that WrestleMania was BS as he was only champion for 5 minutes,
and all because he was screwed by that prick CM Punk, and the Money in the Bank Briefcase.
My big pitch now is that Drew wins Money in the Bank and cash it in to continue his hypocritical
ways.
This was a great match that was all over the place, and saw a truly insane springboard
450 by Ricochet to put Bronson Reed through the Spanish Announcer’s Table.
Yes, the broadcast table on the outside.
Utter insanity.
Back in the ring, Drew had the match won when he set up for the Claymore, but CM Punk appeared
from nowhere to grab his leg and Jey hit the Spear and Splash for the win.
He’ll be the next man to face Priest for the title, presumably at Backlash.
This was a tremendous Raw After Mania which set up some new stories, gave you some surprises
with Dragunov and Perez, a superb main event, and a big angle to set up this year’s next
biggest match: Cody vs. The Rock.
This week’s show is 5 out of 5.
Before we leave, I just want to apologise to the Steiner Mathletes out there.
Though I did have the deck stacked against me in my match against Oli Davis, I came up
short.
And as such, I have been informed that I am no longer allowed to talk about Steiner Math,
or promote the t-shirt that you can buy from WrestleShop.com.
I’ve also been informed that I must announce that I lost the match against Oli Davis in
the partsFUNknown 40 Years of WrestleMania Tournament ‘fair and square’.
Speaking of partsFUNknown, check out this list that talks about the best WWE returns
and surprises on Raw After Mania!