Welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I’m Pete Quinnell, back from my week off.
I missed you too.
John Cena hasn’t wrestled in WWE since WrestleMania 39 when he faced Austin Theory for the United
States Title.
A programme that definitely really helped both people involved.
What a great match that was.
Since then he made a shock return at Money in the Bank to try and convince London to
pay for a WrestleMania in the future, great stuff.
People have been speculating about when we could see Cena come back to WWE ever since,
and what he could be doing when he does come back.
Who would he be putting over next?
Would it be Gunther, after he posted about him on Instagram perhaps?
That sounds neat.
As it turns out, no, not that.
Cena himself and WWE announced that he would be returning on September 1st on SmackDown
in Pennsylvania, and then the following week would be appearing in India at the Superstar
Spectacle show.
So most likely something equally as meaningless as his feud with Austin Theory.
Once again, great stuff John.
But still if you could wrestle Gunther instead on like a big PPV or something, I think that
would be pretty good.
As has been the story on Raw for quite a while now, there’s dissension in the Judgment
Day, with Damian Priest and Finn Balor not quite getting along.
With the re-inclusion of JD McDonagh into the story now, it seems that the potential
split/people leaving story might be kicking into gear, which could be spelling the end
for JD, as had been reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter last week with their report
that Damian Priest would be leaving the group.
However, according to BWE on Twitter, there are reportedly no plans for anyone to leave
the group “for the time being”.
What this means for JD, McDonagh that is, not Judgment Day is unclear, but there’s
every chance he could be added to the group, perhaps furthering that wedge and divide between
Priest and the others before the eventual split down the road.
Someone else that could be added to the mix on the main roster is Matt Cardona - who quite
overtly, and it should be said somewhat jokingly, said he’s going to be going back to WWE.
Following his loss alongside Steph De Lander at GCW Homecoming on August 19th, hey that’s
my birthday, my real one, Cardona posted a video to X, where he drove past WWE HQ in
Stamford, Connecticut and said: “I’m coming home, Vince.
No more of this indie bullsh*t.
No more being disrespected in GCW.
Vince, I’m coming home!
Chelsea I’m coming, wait for me!”
Which is also a factor worth mentioning because Cardona’s wife Chelsea Green is of course
now in WWE too, so if he wished to join her, WWE would be the place to go.
This all is most likely just one big joke and work and troll though coming from Matt
Cardona, a serial troller, so take it all with
a pinch of salt.
So now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka ‘It’s Quebec-Day, you
know what that means’ edition of Monday Night Raw - in about five minutes.
Yes, this week’s Raw was from Quebec in…
Canada?
Never heard of it… and you better believe that this Quebecian crowd sure loved them
some Sami Zayn opening the show.
He soaked in the incredible crowd reaction, and did some of his promo in his native tongue,
before The Judgement Day came out to run Monday Night Raw and such.
But Sami didn’t come alone today, as Kevin Owens made his return and ran off Judgement
Day with a Stunner to Damian Priest.
He challenged any two members of the group to a match later on, which became somewhat
of a running storyline as - you won’t believe this - but Judgement Day aren’t on the same
page… again.
Despite, you know, being on the same page literally in the closing moments of last Monday’s
Raw.
In the worlds of one of this generation’s great wordsmiths, Randall Graves, it’s time
to s**t or get off the pot.
You clearly don’t want to break this group up because they’re stronger together and
apart - and you need a hot heel act in WWE since splitting up The Bloodline and you keep
teasing splitting up Imperium - so maybe we could just have a month or so of them being
together and singing from the same hymn sheet, rather than Ross and Rachel’ing them each
and every week.
With that said, boy was it great to see KO back.
I’ve really missed him on Raw.
KO’s return also signaled a return of a tag division, as Drew McIntyre and Matt Riddle
teamed up to take on New Day in a match that told a simple story: Drew is awesome and Matt
Riddle sucks.
The only time McRiddle - as New Day later dubbed them - got any offense in was when
Drew was in the ring.
The rest was New Day working over Riddle to build to the Drew hot tag, but The Viking
Raiders pulled McIntyre from the apron.
And Riddle then just got pinned.
Viking Raiders brawled with New Day and Riddle, until Drew got in the ring and cleared house.
Because, you see, he’s an actual star here and the rest of them are just geeks.
This really reeked of someone like Cena or Trips being in the tag division where they
just beat everyone up and make them look quite rubbish.
Riddle and Drew agreed to have one more match together, and my heel turn alarm is starting
to ring.
Chad Gable took Gunther to his limit just a few weeks back, and then earned a shot at
the IC title for this show - just a couple of weeks out from Gunther beating Honky Tonk
Man’s record-setting reign.
That fact did make the eventual result - Gunther keeping the belt - a foregone conclusion.
But it’s all about making you believe, and Chad Gable made me believe.
The finish was an odd one, in a way.
The two brawled out the ring, and Chad German Suplexed Gunther over the barricade, before
diving back into the ring to beat the count.
He celebrated like he won, which he technically did, but he didn’t win the title because
that’s not how titles change hands.
It made Chad’s massive celebration seem a bit…
much?
Like, who’s the real winner here?
It’s Gunther, he still has the belt.
But you can work this into a rematch where the title could change hands on a countout
and that will create some awesome drama.
Cody Rhodes cut a promo asking for Quebec to be in the corner of Sami and KO, and called
JD McDonaugh a Funko Pop.
Shinsuke Nakamura cut a video promo revealing the thing he whispered to Seth last week was:
‘I know about your back’.
A broken back that is crippling under the pressure of being champ.
It was the best Nakamura has looked in forever, and Seth cut a return promo later on asking
for a face-to-face next week.
Rhea Ripley quickly squashed Candice LaRae and then brawled with Raquel Rodriguez who
revealed she is now cleared - and set a match for Payback.
Tomasso Ciampa did a promo saying that if you want change, you’ll need to Do It Yourself.
Authors of Pain return confirmed.
The Miz revealed who his tune up match would be against, and it was - quite predictably
- Akira Tozawa.
LA Knight came out for commentary for a match that went way too long for what it was trying
to achieve.
The comedy here is that Miz picked a loser in Tozawa, but then gets distracted by Knight
and shockingly pinned.
What happened was Miz picked a loser in Tozawa, then had a competitive match with him that
went through a commercial break, then got distracted by Knight and pinned.
The commentators put it over a shock, but Tozawa got in quite a bit of offense during
the match so it can’t be that much of a shock.
Good idea on paper, badly executed.
Becky, Trish and Zoey Stark had a promo segment to set up their cage match for Payback, and
Piper Niven and Chelsea Green squashed the Party Girls.
That women’s tag division is thriving.
And then the main event saw Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn get a DQ loss over a Judgement Day
team of Balor and Priest, but Cody Rhodes ran down for a brawl and Adam Pearce made
a trios match which was a lot of fun and the good guys won.
This was a totally fine edition of Monday Night Raw.
Your typical Triple H ‘building’ show.
Nothing too much to write home about, but the majority of the segments were effective
in what they were designed to do.
Plus, the return of KO was a lot of fun.
This week’s show is 3 out 5.