In this WrestleTalk News, WWE says Vince McMahon’s retirement could negatively affect the company
going forward, Kenny Omega’s AEW return seems all but confirmed, and my review of
Raw!
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We are entering week four of the post-Vince McMahon era of WWE and all things considered,
the ship has continued sailing.
Reports say morale is high backstage, the stock price went up, there is a renewed interest
in the WWE product as the shows have been more enjoyable under Triple H, all is good
right?
Wrong!
Well, maybe, as WWE has said in their latest statement on the matter that they believe
the departure of Vince McMahon and the company’s investigation into McMahon’s alledged hush
money settlements could adversely affect their financial performance.
On one hand that is not totally unreasonable to think that as the investigation reveals
what it has revealed that WWE could lose money from sponsors or the stock price decreasing.
But then they drop this juicy little nugget in saying:
“The resignation of Vincent K. McMahon could adversely affect our ability to create popular
characters and creative storylines or could otherwise adversely affect our operating results.”
Pardon me for one moment but um…
WHAT?!
Perhaps WWE’s copywriter hasn’t watched the product for the last, I dunno, five years.
There is undoubtedly a lot of uncertainty about the future of WWE at the moment considering
we are heading into very uncharted waters, but I think WWE can exhale if they are of
the belief that Vince McMahon was the driving force behind the creation of new stars and
creative storylines.
All those stars like Roman Reigns and…
Roman Reigns!
All signs appear to be pointing to the return of the cleaner bout angel Kenny Omega at House
of the Dragon this week on Dynamite.
Aside from the obvious fact that the Young Bucks’ current options for a partner are
Kenny Omega and checks notes, Brandon Cutler, the odds would have to be in Omega’s favour
but now we are getting more and more teases that this is the case.
This week’s episode of Being The Elite saw Matt Jackson donne a Backstreet Boys shirt,
a normal happening for anyone who can’t let the 90s go, but this was also the shirt
from this iconic photo of The Elite from year’s past.
Bullet Club Back ALRIGHT!
Being The Elite has been teasing the return of Kenny Omega for a long time now with much
of the build towards Adam Cole’s betrayal of the Bucks happening on the show.
Sean Ross Sapp has also added to this, retweeting his report from July 19 that stated that Kenny
Omega was nearing a return with tentative plans at the time that would have seen Omega
entered into a six-man program for All Out.
As if you needed more confirmation of Sean’s great work, that report appears to be all
but confirmed.
The Young Bucks and a totally mysterious not at all confirmed to be Kenny Omega third partner
will take on Andrade El Idolo, Rush and Dragon Lee in the first round of the AEW Trios Championship
tournament this week on Dynamite.
Now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes.
If you believe Freud, people’s sexual kinks apparently subconsciously find their way into
their work.
Completely unrelated, here’s a picture of Judy Hops from the movie Zootopia.
Also completely unrelated, Triple H opened Raw with Rhea Ripley saying she’s Dominic’s
pappy now, for this week’s installment of Let’s Dom Dom.
Likely building to Dominic’s second Who Is Your Daddy match in his life, this time
with Rey vs Rhea and, I don’t know, a ballgag hanging from the top of the ring.
This was the opening Judgement Day promo, where Damien Priest overcame the audience’s
‘what’ chants to cut a fiery promo on how he’s going to retire Edge next week
in Toronto.
A whole consistent two week build for a TV match.
Triple H you’re spoiling us with this basic wrestling booking.
Rey Mysterio attacked them, but the numbers won out and Balor hit a Coup de Grace onto
a steel chair onto him.
Alexa Bliss and Asuka beat Nikki A.S.H. and Doudrop in a really good match to advance
in the women’s tag team tournament.
Asuka’s work was particularly great.
My only problem isn’t with this match.
It’s with last week’s, that was somehow just as competitive as this one.
The better story would have been Kai and Sky squashing Brooke and Tamina for the easier
route.
They’ll clash against each other next week in the semis.
In the last few weeks, we’ve had the United States title getting built up, the whole women’s
division being reset, several character revamps.
Now that’s all done, Triple H can finally get to his true passion.
No, not that S&M thing.
Tag team wrestling!
Only one problem.
There’s only two of them on Raw right now.
And there’s only one short term fix for that: frankenteams!
Miz and Ciampa continued their act together in a good match against the new team of Mustafa
Ali and Cedric Alexander, aka Retribution Business.
All three men wrestled really well together, and the Miz, and Ciampa won with a great spot
catching Ali’s 450 splash with his knee.
As much as I hate to admit it, there’s something that works quite well about Ciampa and Miz
together.
We got a shot of Ezekiel surrounding by his family in hospital, who were also all played
by Elias Eddie Murphy style.
That was very funny.
Totally undermines Kevin Owen’s far more serious character reset.
But still very funny.
Speaking of…
Drew McIntyre came out on Raw to confirm his back is injured, because he’s been carrying
the weight of 20 men on his back for three years.
Sexy.
You wouldn’t know he was hurt, though, because he then had probably the best Raw TV match
of Triple H’s reign so far.
Kevin Owens interrupted McIntyre, saying he hasn’t had a title for five years, so it’s
time to bring back the Prizefighter.
He’s going for every single championship in the company, US, Intercontinental, tag
team belt (Sami Zayn, yes please), and Universal.
KO on a belt collecting redemption arc is an awesome idea.
Drew cut a just-as-intense promo back, which turned into an incredible match.
KO has just had a serious character reset.
Drew’s fighting for the title in a matter of weeks.
You can’t beat either guy.
How are you going to book a satisfying clean finish?
Easy, you don’t, it’s a DQ.
I didn’t actually mind it though because of one genius character detail at the end.
After a brilliant 20 minute back and forth fight, The Usos ran in to attack McIntyre
for the DQ.
KO hit a Stunner on Drew, and then told the Usos off mic, ‘tell Roman he owes me one.’
The DQ finish is then no longer the company’s lazy way to get out of a booking problem.
It’s a character-driven angle, with Owens’ gimmick now focused on titles and paydays,
not normal matches.
Riddle’s big interview announcement wasn’t just that he’s medically cleared, it was
also that he’s here in Washington DC right now - prompting a fun brawl with Seth Rollins,
chasing him out the arena.
It’s nice for babyfaces to be smart again.
Riddle then challenged Rollins for Clash at the Castle.
Veer is coming again, and he squashed a jobber called Beaux Keller.
In what was somehow a first ever meeting, Bobby Lashley retained against AJ Styles in
yet another terrific US Title TV match.
While it never played into the actual match, Dexter Lumis again tried to hop the barricade,
but was tackled to the ground by security.
The show presented it perfectly, Miz looking confused, the show just cutting to black and
a commercial break.
Unfortunately, Jimmy Smith welcomed us back saying ‘well that was Dexter Lumis trying
to make his presence felt’ - making it feel like any other fake wrestling angle.
Dakota Kai got an enhancement win over Dana Brooke, begging the question, why not have
her and Sky squash Brooke and Tamina last week.
And the main event saw a returning Theory vs Dolph Ziggler, after the two clashed backstage.
Theory won the decent match, with both guys wrestling well, but this was not show closer
calibre.
The crowd weren’t that invested, nothing was on the line, and not a single ex WWE guy
showed up.
Weirdly, it seems the improved quality of Raw has exposed how terrible a three hour
duration is all over again.
This was a great two hour episode of Raw, even being structured that way, with the US
title match main eventing hour two.
The third hour is always the least watched, so it seems like WWE are intentionally phoning
it in, giving the structure an unsatisfying middle peak energy.
What did you think of Raw?
Let me know in the comments.
In a way, this was the best Triple H Raw yet, with two fantastic matches and great promos.
Although there was no big return or debut, the show is settling nicely into its average
quality.
The third hour is leaving a heavy dampener on the enjoyment though.
This week’s Raw is 70%.
Who are 10 WWE Stars Triple H could push to
the moon?
Watch on to find out…