In this WrestleTalk News, Vince McMahon wanted to bury Gunther, Steve Austin might be having
another WrestleMania match, Luke’s review of Raw and more.
Generally speaking, fans have been pretty happy with Triple H’s WWE since he’s taken
over.
With the constant drops of dopamine when someone returns to our screens we haven’t seen in
a while, mostly consistent and easy to understand stories and some actual bloody wrestling,
it’s been a marked improvement over the Vince McMahon era.
But one of the biggest changes that Triple H has made is rescuing the current Intercontinental
Champion Gunther.
Back on August 13 of this year, WrestleVotes on Twitter tweeted to say:
“Following his appearance on RAW on 7/4, those in power at the time really soured on
Gunther for whatever ridiculous reason.
To the point where a burial on TV was coming.”
And now in a recent interview with GiveMeSport, WreslteVotes has expanded upon this, noting:
“I know that Vince McMahon just didn’t like what he saw on Raw (on July 4 in a segment
with R-Truth) and was over him, like legitimately wanted to bury him, go back to NXT, that type
of stuff.”
Oh Vince, you crazy, crazy old man.
I’ll hand it over to Tempest here to describe Gunther in four words.
But luckily it seems Triple H’s view of Gunther aligns with Tempest’s, as WrestleVotes
continued to say: “Hunter likes him and he’s going to give
him a shot.
People are starting to understand what he is and the Clash at the Castle deal with Sheamus
helped.”
Would you have buried Gunther?
Let me know why you would have in the comments and I’ll tell you why you’re the most
wrong person in the world.
While you’re down there leaving a comment, if you haven’t yet consider subscribing
to the channel to keep up to date with all the latest wrestling news and like the video
too - why not?
In what was at one point in the year the most shocking thing to happen this year: Stone
Cold Steve Austin returned to our screens and had a wrestling match at WrestleMania.
It’s now about the 17th craziest thing to happen this year, but still, it was a big
deal for a little bit.
And we might revisit the craziness again, as there were rumours circling that Stone
Cold could be lined up for another match.
In an update from Dave Meltzer, it seems there’s “smoke to that fire”.
And there’s more to it from Fightful Select, as they report that “while the Vince McMahon
regime had hoped to have Austin come back to do another match, that the Triple H regime
had actually made an offer for Austin to do another match.”
However, don’t bank on it happening, as the report continues to say “initially Austin
and WWE were far apart on terms.”
But maybe they can hash that out and we can Austin back in the ring again.
And in some sad news, it’s being reported that Kevin Owens picked up a knee injury at
a live event over the weekend.
Specifically, Dave Meltzer is reporting that he suffered an MCL sprain, though the indication
could be that there’s more to it than that.
And there’s an update from Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, where he mentioned:
“I believe he (Owens) was going to be in the WarGames match.
That’s not 100% confirmed, but it is certainly the talk, and he was supposed to be in something
as a surprise, so it all adds up that it would be the WarGames match…
If that was the case, this could cost him that.”
Which would absolutely suck for him and the fans if that’s the case, as you’d think
that would kickstart the next chapter of the Bloodline story, but perhaps that’ll have
to wait.
WrestleTalk would like to wish Kevin Owens the speediest of recoveries.
Now hot tag to Luke.
And now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka the ‘oh yeah I forgot Akira
Tozawa was on this brand’ edition of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes.
The show kicked off with Seth Rollins coming out to make fun of Austin Theory being a massive
idiot who smegged up his Money in the Bank cash-in last week.
This brought out Bobby Lashley who, oddly, said what happened with Theory last week will
happen to Seth until he gets his title match.
Mate, you had one last week and you blew it by being an idiot who smegged up his chance
at the US title.
Rollins even pointed this out, until Mustafa Ali came out to challenge Bobby to a match.
This was a bad move on his part, as he got his wish and was then squashed by Lashley
in a matter of minutes.
Now, you may think this was a burial of poor Ali.
Free Ali you’ll type on Twitter hoping he goes to AEW or something, but this was a great
underdog Ali performance.
He got in a flurry of offense - brief though it was - and didn’t tap out to the Hurt
Lock; with the match ending via ref stoppage.
He was a valiant babyface in all of this… it’s just a pity that this isn’t getting
over with the live crowds.
Last week’s crowd was one thing, they didn’t react to anything, but this is now the fourth
or fifth week since we’ve started this Ali experiment and it isn’t connecting with
anyone.
He’s not getting the Bryan Danielson reaction, he’s not getting the Rey Mysterio crowd
backing.
And it’s a shame because Ali is an exceptional talent and a fabulous babyface.
This just needs… something, a little tweak.
AJ Styles challenged Finn Balor to a one-on-match at Survivor Series, which more or less guaranteed
that Mia Yim and Rhea Ripley would be in the Women’s War Games Match, and Yim then beat
Tamina in a very heatless match.
I wouldn’t expect much more, though, as this is Yim’s first proper main roster match
in front of a WWE crowd, and it was against Tamina who no one will react to - even though
no one is meaner than her.
Yim then did a spot with Rhea Ripley after the match, with this crowd way more into the
established Ripley than Mia.
Matt Riddle did some bad comedy with Alpha Academy backstage, then had a match with Chad
Gable which - and you might not believe me when I say this - saw Chad Gable win.
Yeah, you heard that right, Chad Gable - in a singles match on TV - won.
He got Riddle’s shoulders to the mat, and pinned them one, two, three.
Sure Otis was holding down his feet on the ropes to give him leverage, but Gable won
on TV.
Chad Gable hasn’t won a singles match on TV since July.
Vince McMahon was in charge of this place in July.
Boris Johnson was our British Prime Minister in July that’s how long ago it was.
I was delighted to see Gable pick up the win here, but boy howdy without Randy Orton around
Matt Riddle really has fallen down the card hasn’t he?
He won the Seth Rollins feud, but he’s off in the main event angles and Riddle is just…
well, he’s playing bongos in bad comedy and losing to a man who last won a singles
match when the Queen was alive.
The Miz came out wearing a cardigan that I imagine myself and Dan Layton will have a
lot to talk about on the Raw review on the WrestleTalk Podcast later on, and admitted
again that he paid Dexter Lumis to stalk him months and months ago.
Johnny Gargano came out and revealed that - sigh - in two weeks we’ll see Dexter Lumis
vs. The Miz where if Lumis wins he’ll get a job in WWE.
You know, the same stipulation we had literally a month ago.
Liz Truss was our Prime Minister, that's how long ago it was!
This storyline started on the 8th of August.
There have been FOURTEEN episodes of Monday Night Raw since that date.
It will be the sixteenth edition of Monday Night Raw by the time this storyline might
come to an end.
And before you type in the comments that this is long-term storytelling.
This isn’t long-term storytelling.
Long term storytelling moves things forward week by week.
There is a difference between long-term storytelling, and a story that takes a long time to tell.
And this is the latter, not the former.
Shelton Benjamin had another match on Raw!
He lost, but it’s still nice to see Shelton do a wrestle.
He had a decent 5 minute match with Dominic Mysterio, who this week was dressed like me
in 2002.
Dom won with the Frog Splash.
Iyo Sky defeated Dana Brooke in a short match, and then Mia Yim - after being offered a place
on Bayley’s team for War Games earlier in the night - announced she was to be the new
And Friend by joining Bianca And Friends.
Rhea Ripley unceremoniously announced she’ll join Bayley’s team in a backstage segment
later on.
I think I’d have rather seen The OC vs. Judgement Day in a traditional Survivor Series
match rather than Yim and Ripley being in War Games and AJ and Balor having a straight
singles match - which you could hold off on doing for a later show.
It’s a bit lazy on WWE’s part.
And with WWE randomly recapping Rhea Ripley killing Beth Phoenix at Extreme Rules, could
she be the fifth member for Belair and Friends?
It would be awesome if she is, but it would suck a bit for Candice LaRea as they’d set
her up to join the team last month.
Akira Tozawa beat JBL and Baron Corbin in a poker game backstage, and then lost to Corbz
in a match where Tozawa got way more offense than you’d think.
The only thing missing from this was JBL on commentary freaking out because his guy came
close a few times to losing.
This was all a lot of fun.
But by far the best thing on the show, and the big talking point if you ask me, is the
follow up to Austin Theory failing with Money in the Bank last week.
For starters, they did a good job of explaining why Theory cashed in on Seth.
Theory explained that Roman isn’t around all the time, and when he is he’s surrounded
by The Bloodline.
Plus, he tried to cash in on Roman but was stopped once by Brock Lesnar and again by
Tyson Fury.
But even without them there, he would have been stopped by The Bloodline.
So he cashed in on Seth instead.
That’s all well and good, but the problem with this was that they did it on the same
night that Seth had TWO OPEN CHALLENGES, and this very show featured Rollins defending
the belt against Finn Balor.
But, I give them credit for trying to make it make sense.
Theory’s promo was interrupted by Dolph Ziggler who called it the worst cash-in ever,
and it set up a match between the two.
You know, the same match and basic set-up we saw back in August.
But here is where I am wrong.
Because this, my wonderful friends, was character development.
Theory came out without his mobile phone taking selfies.
He was a more serious Austin Theory.
There was no goofiness or smug heel shenanigans.
And when Ziggler got two very big nearfalls on Theory - which massively popped the crowd
- Theory snapped.
He hit his finish on Ziggler but wouldn’t go for the pin.
So he did it again, and again didn’t go for the pin.
He then destroyed Ziggler around ringside as the referee called for the DQ.
It was a great performance by Theory, and a great sell job by Ziggler.
It was progression and movement from their first encounter in August.
In just two matches and a couple of segments, this had more steps forward than all fourteen
weeks of The Miz and Dexter Lumis.
And it also played into the main event of Rollins vs. Finn Balor for the US Championship.
The two had a very good match with lots of back and forth action with plenty of crisp
reversals, and saw OC brawl with Judgement Day and AJ push Balor off the top rope for
Seth to hit the Stomp and pick up the win.
But the pissed off, angry, and frustrated Austin Theory then laid out Rollins with his
finish and a belt shot to stand tall.
A perfect character reset for a man who became very stale, very quickly with the Briefcase.
It was a perfect follow up to last week’s nonsense.
And it was a really good close to what was a pretty good show.
Outside of the Theory stuff there was nothing spectacular or earth-shattering.
It was your typical middle show in the build to the next PPV.
It would be a 3 out of 5 show, but the Theory stuff was so great I’m going to bump it
up to 4 out of 5.