Several hours before last night’s episode of Raw, WWE announced current WWE Champion
Drew McIntyre has tested positive for Covid-19.
This is WWE’s first public acknowledgement of Covid within their company, despite two
separate outbreaks in 2020 - where talent like Kayla Braxton, Renee Young and AJ Styles
personally confirmed they had tested positive at some point during the year.
In a video that aired on Raw last night, McIntyre revealed more about his situation:
“I am one of the fortunate ones with no symptoms, but I assure you, COVID should not
be taken lightly.
Don’t think you can’t catch it because you can.
If it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody and the only way we’re going to be able
to stop this thing is by working together so, please, wear your mask, follow social
distancing guidelines.”
Drew’s such a good promo, I now want to see him beat Covid in a match.
But it’s not just McIntyre that’s been affected, as according to Fightful Select,
the WWE champion is only one of several wrestlers that have tested positive, spanning across
“almost all nationally televised brands” - with WWE, AEW and IMPACT Wrestling being
affected by this outbreak.
Luckily for AEW, Wednesday’s New Year’s Smash Night 2 was taped in advance last week,
so the show shouldn’t have to undergo any further changes.
Although the planned Thunder Rosa vs Britt Baker match had already been replaced with
Baker’s Waiting Room segment, after Rosa came into contact with a positive case.
IMPACT, however, could be significantly altered.
While tonight’s TV episode was pre-taped, this Saturday’s big Hard to Kill pay-per-view
will be live, and could see multiple matches changed based on who’s not available.
Ringside News and the Wrestling Observer have also reported that a SmackDown star, who is
currently involved in a storyline, has also tested positive for the virus.
It’s interesting to note how WWE have acknowledged Drew’s positive result, but not any others.
Kofi Kingston was also missing on last night’s episode of Raw, which WWE specifically mentioned
was because he’d broken his jaw - which Kingston himself has confirmed isn’t just
a cover for a potential positive Covid result.
“I’m dealing with a jaw injury right now.
My mouth is only closing on one side and if I sound kind of funny, that’s why.”
Unsurprisingly with Covid diagnoses affecting the show, Raw was once again massively behind
on finalising its script.
PWInsider reported that as of 7:02pm EST last night, less than an hour before the show airs,
the first hour was “still not completed”, while there were only “rough outlines”
for hours two and three.
So here’s a review of last night’s hastily written episode of Raw, in about 5 minutes.
It’s hard to properly critique this episode of Raw as the positive Covid cases demanded
so many last minute changes.
But, then again, this is Raw.
And rewriting the script just hours before the show is actually the general workflow
now.
And what do you do when your back’s against the wall?
You distract people with a big shiny legend.
Triple H opened the show, where I’m pretty sure the ThunderDome found a new volume level
to pop specifically for the Game, where he set up a main event with Randy Orton.
Orton was originally meant to face Drew, but both men awkwardly tiptoed around actually
saying ‘Covid’.
Triple H said he was proud of Randy for killing a man, but he went too far by saying hurtful
things to the poor legends.
Orton used the ‘Hunter’s balls are in Stephanie’s purse’ line - it’s super
effective - prompting Trips to punch him, and later agreeing to a fight, promising to
do it for all the Legends.
Which is Goldberg’s schtick.
We then got a brilliantly sincere promo from McIntyre admitting he had testing positive
for covid - which would’ve been a much better cold open for the show.
Triple H might feel disrespected on Ric Flair’s behalf.
But Flair just feels horny.
Charlotte reportedly said she’d make her return when there’s a good enough story.
And that story is: her dad sleeping with Lacey Evans.
Because after Charlotte seemingly turned heel on Ric last week.
It’s actually Ric who turned on (in more ways than one) Flair - helping Evans win.
Which is a fine story.
It’s just a shame it’s seemingly coming at the expense of the Women’s Champion Asuka
having something to do.
And the small matter of having 71 year old immune compromised Ric Flair working in a
company that just had a COVID outbreak.
Reprising the rivalry no one wanted, Jeff Hardy is now feuding with Elias again.
Just when I thought I was out.
Jaxson Ryker beat Hardy in seconds.
The perfect way, it seems, to build to Hardy vs Elias right after.
Which Hardy won, setting up the idea Elias isn’t as good as Ryker.
But also that Hardy isn’t as good as Ryker.
So why should we care.
Sheamus and Keith Lee’s burgeoning friendship, however, was much better.
They’ve had some tension over who’s the better friend to McIntyre for months, but
Lee apparently earned Sheamus’ respect in last week’s main event - organically getting
them together as a team against a very obnoxious Miz and Morrison.
It brought the best part of the show, where Lee charged Morrison in the corner so hard,
the top rope pinged off.
That could’ve been a cool match ending moment, but it was slightly wasted just used as an
adbreak throw.
Sheamus blind tagged himself in to win, him and Lee hugged, and then they were fighting
again - in another example of wrestlers pulling double duty, likely because of people out
due to Covid.
Sheamus worked over Lee’s arm, but Keith fought through it to win with a Spirit Bomb.
And then they hugged again.
I actually thought this worked quite well, and established both men’s brawling, passionate
relationship.
Drew cut promo on Goldberg from outta quarantine, saying he’ll give Bill a lesson in respect,
as Goldberg’s next.
Xavier Woods was in rare singles action, with Kingston out with a broken jaw, to take on
Retribution’s T-Bar.
It’s a treat to watch Woods wrestle alone.
I really think he could and should be a solid midcard champion.
Soooo he got beaten by T-Bar.
Matt Riddle told Lucha House Party that beating Bobby Lashley will be like eating a really
tasty pizza, and then got confused about the expression ‘watch your back’.
Because he can’t physically see his own back.
Matt Riddle, you see, has a stoner gimmick.
Lucha House Party hinted they’d be in Riddle’s corner for his US Championship match.
And weren’t.
Instead the psychology was wildly off for this feud.
Because babyface Riddle effectively cheated last week to win, covering up his tapout,
he got a title shot against heel champion Bobby Lashley here.
Do you ever think Bobby’s intimidating face also makes it look like he’s going to cry?
Lashley jumped Riddle before the bell, just like Riddle did last week - i.e. the babyface
revenge spot, but for a heel - busting open Riddle’s mouth.
They had a really cool, clumsy few minutes, but then Riddle tapped out in the Lashley
Lock - completely undermining this dream MMA feud.
In another example of double duty, Riddle then called out MVP for a match, who wrestled
in his suit for a few minutes, before Lashley speared Riddle for a pointless DQ.
This story is all over the place.
Adam Pearce spoke about his Universal championship shot - an actual thing that’s actually happening
- and then booked a Royal Rumble qualifying match.
But he’s definitely not an authority figure.
It saw AJ Styles vs Drew Gulak in a fun, short match, which Styles thanks to the presence
of that huge guy.
Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler were back together again to take on Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke,
who both declared for the Royal Rumble match, where they said they’ll toss people over
the top rope harder than Kim Kardashian tossed Kanye West to the curb - SHOEHORNED POP CULTURE
REFERENCE Shayna tagged herself in to tap Mandy out,
building tension with Jax.
And the main event saw Randy Orton vs Triple H. A pretty decent last-minute draw with mainstream
star power.
So they had Hunter disappear a minute into the match never to be seen again.
If we did that on a thumbnail, it’d be clickbait.
Similarly to Orton vs Christian last year, this was an angle more than a match.
Triple H simply dropped Orton on the announcer’s table, got a sledgehammer from under the ring,
which mysteriously caught fire as the lights cut out Fiend style - hey, I thought the Burning
Hammer was banned in WWE (credit to TrooperCasts on Reddit for that joke) - and he then got
transported to whatever pocket dimension people go to when the Fiend plays with the lighting
desk.
Then, standing behind Orton, was Alexa Bliss, who blew a fireball in his face.
HADOUKEN!
Which Orton sold like Peter Griffin in Family Guy.
Bliss then explained this as an eye for an eye on her Instagram.
No, that’s Rey Mysterio vs Seth Rollins.
This is ‘you play with fire, you get burned’.
If supernatural silliness and someone shooting fireballs out their hand is your idea of ironic
fun, then all the power to you.
It’s not for me, though, and, I would argue, it’s the exact kind of goofiness that gives
pro wrestling a bad name.
And it is fair to heavily critique this angle, because it was seemingly the original ending
they had pre recorded ahead of Drew’s diagnosis.
What did you think of Raw?
Let me know in the comments down below, and follow us @WrestleTalk_TV to vote in our Poll
on a Poll match!
38.2% of you went for Good, but it was definitely negatively weighted.
I can’t be too hard on this episode because of extenuating circumstances, but it still
wasn’t a good TV show.
The Riddle title shot storyline is likely now beyond repair, the women’s division
has stalled, and I’m over seeing supernatural Orton.
This week’s Raw is 2 out of 4.
Find out the other reason why Drew McIntyre vs Goldberg is off to a bad start backstage
by clicking the video on the right!
And catch up with the latest WrestleTalk News by clicking the video below that.
And remember to superkick that subscribe button and enable notifications to always on to never
miss a video.
I’ve been Mr Davis, Jam that Jam.