On today’s news, a potential botch in last night’s Raw main event, WrestleMania return
plans for Stone Cold Steve Austin, why Mustafa Ali has continued to be off TV, Oli’s review
of Raw - including Vince McMahon joking about firings - and more.
Don’t worry everyone, I’m back now after my week off, so you can go ahead and hit that
subscribe button and enable notifications now that I’m here to rescue WrestleTalk.
On last night’s episode of Raw, which Oli will be reviewing here in a couple of minutes,
the main event was a tag match of Big E & Bobby Lashley vs Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens, the
four competitors in the Fatal 4-Way at Day 1. However, things may have gotten a little
confusing over the finish of the match. After Lashley accidentally took out Big E
with a Spear in the match, how will they co-exist, Lashley then Speared Owens too and got the
pinfall victory. However, less than a second after the three count was called, Rollins
had stomped Lashley as he was pinning Owens, so it’s very unclear as to whether Rollins
was supposed to break up the pin or not. There did seem to be some confusion from Rollins
and Owens immediately after the three count was called, but they quickly then continued
with a post-match beatdown where they laid out Lashley with a stomp on the steps.
Do you think this was a botch, or was this the planned finish all along? Let us know
in the comments, because I genuinely am not quite sure. If it was the planned finish,
I think I actually kinda like it, but who knows.
With it nearly being the new year, it’s almost time for the Road To WrestleMania to
kick up once again, where we’ll be building towards WrestleMania 38 in Dallas, Texas.
With there being various reports about different potential main events on the show, with Roman
Reigns vs Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns vs The Rock being two potential ideas reported
at different points in the past, WrestleVotes on Twitter has waded in to report something
else that seems likely to happen on the show. “Talked to a few different source this weekend
& heard the same thing, WWE is very interested in having Steve Austin as a part of WrestleMania
this year in Dallas. Not in a wrestling role, but a meaningful part of the event outside
of just appearing. Up to creative at this point.”
Maybe he can be the special guest referee in a Brock Lesnar match. It worked so well
before. Austin has previously made various cameos
at WrestleManias, including at WrestleMania 30 alongside The Rock and Hulk Hogan, and
at WrestleMania 32, you know, the bad one, with Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley, though
those were more appearances, and WrestleVotes’ tweet seems to indicate a more meaningful
role for him at next year’s show. And speaking of meaningful roles - Mustafa
Ali…still doesn’t have one. Ali was taken off TV in recent weeks due to being on paternity
leave, and many assumed he was just still away on that leave which is why he hasn’t
been on SmackDown after he started a feud? I think? With Ricochet.
Well it appears that’s not the case, as Fightful Select is reporting that the reason
Ali missed last week’s SmackDown, which took place in his hometown of Chicago, is
because “it appears that there just wasn't anything planned for him for the Chicago shows”.
Ali’s time off for paternity leave has been and gone, but he’s now not back at shows
because creative have nothing for him. Talk about a guy who has possibly been the
most misused wrestler in modern WWE. Pinning WWE Champion Daniel Bryan, injured and taken
out of the gauntlet match that led to KofiMania, almost winning Money in the Bank before Lesnar
came back, Retribution, teaming with Mansoor - Ali has been this close to having something
meaningful in WWE, and it’s always been stripped away from him.
And now it’s time for Oli’s review of last night’s episode of Raw, in about 5
minutes. After WWE booked every single member of their
main event triple threat to be beaten in the same night by the same guy, that guy Bobby
Lashley will now be this feud’s main babyface whether you want that or not.
Big E interrupted MVP’s promo to say Lashley is strong, he’s confident, he’s got a
lot of sisters - such beautiful sisters - so then why did he cheat to win last week? Lashley
then weirdly tormented his own manager, trying to make MVP face Big E one-on-one to zero
crowd reaction because everyone apart from Vince McMahon wants to see the Hurt Business
together. Bobby was jumped by Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins,
so Lashley and Big E teamed up to fight them off.
Sensing the hint of a possible tag match, Sonya Deville and Adam Pearce skipped along
backstage and booked just that. Bobby and Big E together, but how will they
co-exist? This is exactly the kind of lazy booking Luke
and I said would happen last week when Bobby was awkwardly added to this feud. At least
Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins are really entertaining as a goofy heel act.
This was an actual shot in the trailer for this week’s NXT 2.0. We might not have your
favourite indie wrestlers any more, but we do have boooooooobs.
Setting reminder for NXT 2.0 tonight. Doudrop and Bianca Belair had their third
match in as many weeks. A series in which Doudrop has lost via countout and lost totally
clean. But how will Bianca defeat the totally beatable Doudrop this week?
Both women are so good, though, their in-ring wrestling made you forget the ineffective
booking, and the crowd popped huge when Belair finally hit the KOD on Doudrop for the first
time. Austin Theory said backstage he thinks Vince
McMahon sees him as a future WWE Champion, which could be true going by the amount Kevin
Dunn was hammering the artificial crowd boo sound effects during his entrance.
He took on Finn Balor in a match that has been built for several weeks, and it was really
solid. Theory’s offence popped, but trying to take a selfie while he was making the pin
was a cockyness too far - letting Balor get the win.
To make up for disappointing daddy, Theory then attacked Balor backstage - which Vince
told him he liked seeing Austin beat the chocolate pudding out of Finn. Is that a thing people
say? I tell you what definitely is - Vince McMahon
firing people. As he said, and I quote “Maybe I should fire you? I enjoy firing people.
I especially enjoy firing people just before the holidays.”
We’ve actually got a live picture of Bully Ray upon hearing that line.
Oh the heel heat, give me some more of that heel heat.
This is where kayfabe character and shoot real life uncomfortably overlap. Vince actually
has fired a lot of wrestlers this year. Over 80. But he has also fired a lot of wrestlers
in his career in storyline. This totally makes sense for the McMahon character to say, even
if you know nothing about the mass releases in the pandemic. But it also feels exploitative
given WWE’s real life recent actions. But when Liv Morgan brought up Becky getting
her friends fired last month, that reportedly upset several wrestlers backstage, who felt
it was distasteful to use that in a storyline. Did you think that was in poor taste? Let
me know in the comments down below because I’ll be replying to as many people as I
can for the first 30 minutes after this video goes live FROM OUTTA NOWHERE.
Vince finished the segment saying he’s investing in Theory, so he’ll give him a rematch against
Balor next week. And then he revealed what the eraser on the pencil was for - to rub
out what he’d written on some paper, to then blow it over Austin like snow, and then
go ho ho ho like Santa. What? Following the last few months of random tag
team pairings, WWE is entering the next natural cycle of breaking up loads of acts. Miz hosted
AJ Styles and Omos on MizTV, where Omos threw his chair out. A great touch to make sure
he’s always being tall. He looks even taller when people shorter than him are sitting down.
This went right into AJ and Omos vs the Mysterios for the RKBronoment final. You remember the
RKBronoment? That fun concept from two weeks ago with custom graphics and Riddle and Orton
on commentary? Yeah, there was none of that, just two minutes of Omos refusing to tag in,
the Mysterios beating Styles, and then AJ and Omos breaking up - setting up a match
for Day One. Randy Orton came down bro-less to face Chad
Gable, who got the better of Orton early with wrestling! So Randy hit an RKO from outta
nowhere for a win in a few minutes. Otis chased him off, probably setting up a match next
week. Dana Brooke and Reggie avoided R-Truth, Akira
Tozawa and Tamina in hipster Santa’s grotto. Damien Priest worked over the ass, Dolph,
the ass in their match next. It was decent action with a crappy finish.
Bobby Roode interfered, which brought out the demon inside Damien. A demon which seemingly
doesn’t care about being counted out and losing.
Edge hosted Maryse in his Cutting Edge segment, the second wrestler-led interview gimmick
on this episode, where Maryse pretended to be upset so her husband the Miz could surprise
attack him, but Edge saw completely through it, but got surprise attacked by the Miz anyway.
Veer Mahaan is coming to Raw. He’s actually already arrived on Main Event, beating T-Bar
on last night’s taping. Which as we all know is the first step to main eventing WrestleMania.
Rhea Ripley beat Queen Zelina in minutes, showing that Nikki A.S.H. really is a weight
around her neck, presumably breaking up that team soon too.
Liv Morgan robotically recited an awkwardly scripted promo and then played an even more
awkwardly staged cinematic angle, where Liv went to Becky’s training camp over the weekend
to attack Becky from behind with a kendo stick, while all the dudes around the ring are going
‘ooh, no, noooo’ rather than actually warning anyone. Because it was all a ruse.
Liv attacked a fake Becky! The real Becky was right behind her. They brawled and Liv
got the better of her, and the short film ended, providing no answer to the question:
but how did Morgan get out of that building surrounded by Lynch and all her students?
I’m glad Liv has such a groundswell of support, but I think this segment really exposed her
limitations on the mic. And in the 139th edition of ‘how will they
co-exist’ this year, the main event saw Big E and Bobby Lashley team against Kevin
Owens and Seth Rollins. Do you remember that neat storyline from November
where KO was psychologically ruining himself, and Big E had enemies everywhere? Not any
more. The story now is: Bobby Lashley is Raw’s top babyface, cheer him.
WWE piled on the good guy tropes, teasing a split with his bad guy manager MVP - ironically
something that would make him a better babyface if they kept them together right - giving
him impressive strength spots like the delayed standing supex, getting the hot tag and victory
- after accidentally spearing Big E. The ending appeared botched, as Pete said,
but they continued to give Lashley a major babyface angle by having Seth and Owens beat
him up with a powerbomb on the apron and Stomp on the steel steps in the post-match. All
while Big E is selling a spear from five minutes ago, probably realising his WWE title run
is just a transition reign from Bobby Lashley back to Bobby Lashley.
At least KO and Seth’s relationship is fun, it being two people who are famous for turning
on all their partners working together. They both teased turning on each other here before
hugging to close the show. They can coexist, apart from successfully pulling off the finish.
What did you think of Raw? Let me know in the comments. 74% of you voted for But how
will they co-exist in our poll on a pole match on the community tab.
The can they co-exist booking felt lazy, Liv’s promo was bad, the show felt repetitive, and
I fundamentally disagree with Bobby’s booking, particularly how it’s making Big E an afterthought.
This week’s Raw is 2 out of 5. Do you like board games? Then go subscribe
to our board game YouTube channel No Rolls Barred, where Adam Blampied has just put up
his 20 best games of the year.