In this WrestleTalk News, there’s some major developments backstage in WWE with Stephanie
McMahon, Warner Bros are seemingly anti-MJF, Luke’s review of Raw and more.
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It’s just been just over two weeks since Stephanie McMahon announced that she was taking
a leave of absence from her role in WWE, with many speculating and reporting that this was
overdue from when Triple H suffered his cardiac event last year, and she was taking time off
to spend time with her family.
Now though, it seems there might be a bit more to the story.
A report from Business Insider claims that Stephanie’s leave of absence was orchestrated,
at least in part, by Vince McMahon himself as part of a behind-the-scenes shakeup.
According to a source in WWE, high level executives were questioning Stephanie’s performance,
saying “Family or not family, we’ve got to get the right people in place”.
The report also states that one of the reasons for this shakeup is that WWE were underperforming
in revenue.
Didn’t they just have record revenue for 2022?
WWE were reportedly looking to make $100 million annually in ad sales and brand partnerships,
which seemingly they weren’t hitting.
The report also notes this quote from Vince McMahon on his appearance on the Pat McAfee
show back in March: “I’ve probably expected more from my family
members than of other employees,” Vince told McAfee.
“You have to do the right thing for the business.
If this person isn’t working out, they shouldn’t be part of the company.”
Andrew Zarian on a We’re Live Pal podcast episode also noted from what he’d heard
that “there was doubt put on Steph [and] her abilities as an executive”, also mentioning
ad sales and sponsorship as underperforming areas.
You mean like the seamless Pizza Hut and Red Notice integration for Survivor Series last
year?
Or the zombies at Backlash?
Or the water thing at SummerSlam?
However, Dave Meltzer has refuted the fact it was orchestrated by Vince, but also provided
more shocking details: “Her leaving was 100% her choice.
She had been talking about it to close friends from when Paul (Triple H) had his heart issues.
That said, key people in the company once she was gone did want to bury her on the way
out.
That shocked a lot of people including me and those close to her.
When I noted to someone very high in the food chain about the burial starting, they told
me that if they did that publicly it would be career suicide, only to find out they had
already started and the burial was going to come from the top.”
Meltzer went on to tease that there was “a much bigger story here”, saying that the
company’s 180 on her and public burial backstage was something they didn’t even do for Michelle
Wilson and George Barrios, the former co-Presidents of WWE.
In an extra tidbit of news, WWE had recently re-hired Jeff Jarrett to an executive role,
and have now hired another new executive, Catherine Newman, who will be their new Executive
Vice President and Head of Marketing, which I don’t know about you, sounds like there
might be some crossover with Stephanie McMahon’s role there.
It’s a very interesting situation for sure.
Also I need to quickly talk about MJF, because that’s also a thing that’s still happening.
Calm down wrestling news, not so fast.
The work-shoot-not-a-work-not-a-shoot-shoot that’s got the wrestling world talking has
now added its latest layer - with a report from PWInsider noting that Warner Bros Discovery
have issued an edict to AEW that MJF be removed from all promotional material to do with AEW.
What a work.
Or a shoot.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select is also reporting that MJF missing the meet and greet,
that kicked off this whole saga, was definitely not a work.
Whether it developed into a work is still up in the air, but there were people that
had “genuine concern” over MJF’s safety and wellbeing after the no-show, and also
noting that MJF missing the meet and greet would have cost AEW about $10,000.
There is so much more to this story that I don’t have time for right now, calm down
wrestling news, not so fast, so check out wrestletalk.com for more details and for the
latest in the goings on in wrestling.
And now hot tag to Luke!
And now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka HOLY CRAP CODY IS INJURED
AND WE HAVE NO OTHER TOP BABYFACES QUICKLY BOOK ANY OLD RANDOM STUFF - in about 5 minutes.
The reason for all this panic booking - Cody Rhodes - opened the show to address his injuries
after several video packages and recaps, meaning that nearly 10 minutes had passed before anything
actually happened on the show.
Good job, WWE.
He did his usual cry face promo, and hinted that he might still be in Money in the Bank
- are you gonna win it like Brock did that one time? - and Seth Rollins came down to
shake his hand and draw a line under that feud… and then attacked on the ramp so this
feud must continue.
Which means that Cody’s first match back will be… against the man he’s beaten three
PPVs in a row.
It was an effective angle for sure, but man am I ready to see Cody do anything else in
WWE.
Following their altercation on a previous episode of Raw, Becky Lynch took on Dana Brooke
- who won the 24/7 title in the middle of the match - so Lynch challenged her to that
belt.
Oh, no.
Asuka distracted Becky during what is probably the most competitive 24/7 Championship match
in history, and Dana Brooke pinned Lynch with some assistace.
If you’d predicted Becky Lynch would be pinned by Dana Brooke to retain the 24/7 Championship,
you’d have won our Wacky 2022 Predictions contest over on the WrestleTalk Podcast.
And speaking of stepping down the card, Riddle got involved in a MizTV segment.
Right, I’m going to recap this in order.
Miz and Maryse plugged Miz & Mrs - it’s the same promo you see every time there’s
a new season of that show - Riddle came out to challenge Roman Reigns to a Universal Championship
match, they talked about Miz’s balls, Maryse suggested a match, Miz said no, Ciampa attacked
Riddle then Thanos’d away, Miz then accepted and wrestled the match in his tuxedo, which
he then lost because Riddle pulled down his trousers and hit an RKO.
Well, that sure was wacky.
And really quite undermined the importance of Riddle challenging Roman Reigns to the
company’s top title.
Made even weirder when The Usos were in the very next segment, facing Street Profits in
a Championship Contender’s Match.
This was a really fun match, but predictably featured a lame countout finish - meaning
Street Profits will face The Usos for the unified titles at some point down the line.
I’m all for The Usos wrestling someone other than Riddle.
Bobby Lashley had a segment with Austin Theory where he made it clear that when he lifted
the replica WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell, he meant he would be going after Theory’s
United States Championship.
Yep.
Sure that was always the plan.
And then Rey Mysterio caused a DQ in a match between Domonic Mysterio and Veer Mahan.
But then came the oddest and most panic booked thing of
the night.
So, let’s recap the story of Judgement Day and what happened here.
Edge turned heel and feuded with AJ Styles, who he beat at WrestleMania thanks to his
new recruit Damien Priest.
He then beat AJ again at Backlash because of his newer recruit Rhea Ripley.
So to battle this numbers game, AJ sided with Liv Morgan and Finn Balor to face Judgement
Day in a fair fight, and Judgement Day still won because they’re a stronger unit - and
Edge has improved the careers of Ripley and Priest.
Despondent about all this, Balor then joined Judgement Day on this episode of Raw - because
I don’t think he’s won a match on PPV since coming back to the main roster, and
hasn’t been in a prominent story in WWE since last summer - and so Rhea Ripley and
Priest looked at this guy, and turned on Edge to crown Balor their new leader.
What?
The beatdown of Edge was great, and the swerve of Balor being the new leader of the group
to turn Edge babyface was certainly surprising.
But it was surprising in a way that means the story no longer makes sense.
This felt like a panicked move because Cody went out injured and they needed another top
babyface on the show.
So rather than do the easy thing - push AJ and Finn as babyfaces - they took the convoluted
path of doing a double turn and breaking up Edge’s group that has only been a full force
for a few weeks.
WWE are often at their best when their backs are against the wall and they need to make
rash decisions - but this is not a good example of that.
Speaking of random and panicked babyface turns, Omos beat Cedric Alexander in a match that
was the length of a gif, then started a feud with Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode who are
now good guys because… well because Cody is injured I guess.
Ezekiel quickly beat Otis then challenged Kevin Owens to a rematch next week, and got
Owens to accept by lying that he’s really Elias.
I’m ready for this story to reach its conclusion.
And we got an awesome main event to cap off the show, as Rhea Ripley beat Doudrop, Alexa
Bliss and Liv Morgan in a fatal four-way - so she’ll face Bianca Belair for the Raw Women’s
Championship at Money in the Bank.
Ripley - by the way - came out with Edge’s graphic on her namebar, because none of this
was thought through.
Still, the match was ace - and Rhea going after Belair with the backing of Judgement
Day 2000 should be a lot of fun.
It was a wacky episode of Raw, that’s for sure, but not everything stuck the landing.
Going by some of the feedback I’ve seen online I may be in the minority here, but
I thought this was a pretty lousy episode of Raw that either carried on what came before
it, started something less good, or just dropped storylines randomly in favour of new ones.
However, a lot of the wrestling was great.
This week’s Raw is 3 out of 5.