I’m Pete Quinnell, welcome to the WrestleTalk News.
It’s Tuesday, you know what that means. It’s us talking about how much influence Vince McMahon may
have had over the previous night’s episode of Raw. For a little while post-WrestleMania, things
seemed to have settled into somewhat of a routine, with Vince still having the final say on creative,
and making changes to the show remotely instead of being on-hand backstage or in Gorilla position.
However, last night’s Raw took place in Hartford, Connecticut, which is very close to both WWE HQ
and where Vince lives, so as reported by both PWInsider and Fightful Select,
Vince was in fact backstage at Raw, along with a lot of WWE execs. However, the two
reports differ on what exactly Vince was doing at the show, with Fightful Select reporting that
Vince was in Gorilla and “changed a significant part of the show” a couple of hours before the
show went on air, while PWInsider reported that Vince specifically wasn’t in Gorilla,
but “re-worked” the broadcast, which included changing the order of matches and segments.
I’m sure they were all great with no weird pacing issues or breaks
in continuity. Vince is known for that. According to PWInsider, unlike the last
time Vince was backstage at Raw, “there wasn't as much resentment or anger from talents”,
with one source noting that “the band-aid has already been ripped off” in that regard. Talent
already know that Vince is in charge and it’s not a secret anymore, so it’s not unexpected
to see Vince backstage at this point. Even with Vince making some changes,
whatever those changes might have been, it seems Raw was actually pretty good this week,
so…well done Vince? Nah, that can’t be right. In other news, WWE have announced a partnership
with Twitch, which also doesn’t sound right. Are we sure about that? Because it sure seemed like
for a bit that there was specifically an edict not allowing WWE wrestlers to use platforms like
Twitch until WWE managed to make a deal where they would get some of the revenue from it, and now
they’ve just partnered with them themselves. WWE can stream on it, but the talent? Eh, only
if WWE can also make money from it. Anywho, the partnership itself between
WWE and Twitch is to broadcast live and pre-recorded content, as well as a “companion
sidecast” alongside Monday Night Raw, which is supposed to provide a backstage look at Raw as
it’s happening. Can’t wait to watch people on the phone to Vince as he yells orders
out to them, going to be some great content. Moving over to AEW, and with the impending
debut of Collision, we’ve been getting more and more details about the show, like who’s going to
be on it. It’s Punk, in case you missed it. But before we got the announcement of Punk, we were
told Collision was going to be headlined by names like Miro, Thunder Rosa and Andrade El Idolo. And
the first two of those names showed up on Dynamite to tease Collision’s impending announcement, but
the last of those names, Andrade El Idolo, didn’t. Now according to a report from Fightful Select,
that wasn’t because he wasn’t offered. Andrade was reportedly at the May 10 Dynamite tapings, and was
scheduled to record a backstage segment where he would enter Tony Khan’s office, but he reportedly
“didn’t want to do that segment”, though it’s unclear why exactly. He was at the May 17
Dynamite as well, and filmed a segment for social media, but is still yet to return on AEW TV.
Andrade has also reportedly told others that despite working out in the ring ahead of the
May 10 Dynamite, he was not physically ready to return to the ring - however he seems to be good
to go now as he’s confirmed for a show in Mexico and reportedly was in talks for a show in Puerto
Rico according to Fightful Select. And now we have a message from
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With Luke on holiday - it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes!
The show opened on World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins cutting an
in-ring promo while dressed as his own belt. He was there to promote his main event world title
defence later in the show - the first time a world title had been defended on Raw for two years. It’s
a great idea to get the new belt over while making it feel distinct from Roman’s - have Seth be a
fighting champion, defending it loads on TV, just like when he made the Intercontinental title one
of the best parts of Monday Night Rollins in 2018 - or how Orange Cassidy’s International title over
in AEW has overtaken the TNT title in prestige by being defended on an almost weekly basis.
And his first challenger is… the guy who took the pin last week, Damien Priest.
Damien and Finn Balor interrupted, where Damien said he doesn’t need Judgement Day to beat Seth,
and they won’t be at ringside. Damien’s one dimensional babyface performance aside - which
can be wholly summed up as “I’m Bad Bunny’s friend” the last time he did it - the most
interesting part here was how Balor reacted. He was annoyed at Damien saying he was going to go
it alone… and it is about time for Judgement Day’s annual kicking out a member ceremony,
perhaps replacing him with the teased new member JD McDonagh. He’s even got JD in the name.
Or maybe the Priest cockiness is a distraction. Perhaps Finn, as a leader, will be the one
thrown out, as we’ll get onto later. They could probably just replace him
with JD and see if anyone notices. Becky Lynch beat Sonya Deville in
a Money in the Bank qualifying match, overcoming both Chelsea Green interference and Trish Stratus
and Zoey Stark appearing on the ramp - super easily, barely an inconvenience.
Having something on the line really gave substance to these
matches beyond the overarching blood feuds. Kevin Owens and Gunther had a great TV match after
arguing backstage, with Gunther dominating KO for the majority. Hell, I feel like even Mustafa Ali
got more offence in at Night of Champions. Sami Zayn’s facials at ringside, and the
persistent threat of Imperium, really elevated the drama alongside the action,
and them all brawling led to the finish. Ludwig Kaiser got in ring - which the referee was just
totally cool with - KO stunnered him, but then got rolled up by Gunther for the win.
The best version of this would’ve been to build it up as a bigger singles match, but given this is
the way WWE went, the screwy finish was acceptable to keep the feud going. Although I would’ve had a
big brawl DQ so neither man had to take the pin. Riddle was angry about the result backstage and
beat up Kaiser and Vinci afterwards. The new women’s tag team champions and
baddest team on the plant Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler then took on former NXT women’s tag team
champions and bluest team on the planet, the debuting Katana Chance and Kayden Carter.
I fully expected this to be a show of dominance by the new champs. Look, some NXT call ups. Let’s
immediately squash them. But that’s the mindset of another era. An era that really didn’t like NXT.
Instead, Ronda and Shayna let Carter and Chance shine with their plucky athletic high spots.
They even got a near fall the crowd reacted to, after Katana hit a 450 off the top rope on Ronda.
Shayna eventually won choking out Kayden. Hopefully this is a sign that Ronda and
Shayna want to establish a fully fleshed out division, rather than just looking dominant.
Johnny Gargano got a video package saying his story is just getting started. Well strap in,
because WWE is the place where they never end. Even when they’re supposed to.
Already qualified for Money in the Bank, Ricochet and Shinsuke Nakamura wrestled a basic match - as
it was always obvious a jealous, not qualified for Money in the Bank Bronson Reed would cause
the DQ finish. A lazy way to protect both men, but at least the Tsunami is getting increasingly over.
Alpha Academy had a fun skit backstage where they’re going to start training Maxine for
the Viking Raiders and Valhalla feud. MizTV hosted Adrenaline in my soul,
Something something Cody Rhodes - where he had a surprise guest in store while the Beast
was in his - quote - annual hibernation phase: someone else who’s had the pressures of being
from a wrestling dynasty… Dominic Mysteiro. Putting the most hated heel in the company
in the ring with the top babyface was a great idea, fuelling Dom’s mega heat even
more when he called Cody a bad father. Cody had his own great lines, saying Dom
got a worse prison tattoo than him, and that he’s Rey’s terrible mistake. Dom slapped Cody,
then ran away to hide behind Rhea, so Cody knocked out Miz with his titanium wanking arm instead.
With reports it’s going to be Cody vs Brock at SummerSlam,
let’s make it Cody vs Dom at Money in the Ba- -oh dear god, no. It’s going to be Rhea and Dom
vs Cody and Brandi. She’s already tweeted! “Papa wont hit Mami... but Mommy will.”
She’s Canadian, she’s keen, she’s here to take the pin - it’s Natalya.
Trish helped Zoey Stark beat Natalya to qualify for Money in the Bank - smartly
getting Zoey and Becky in that match. Paul Heyman cut a promo directly to
the camera inviting us to SmackDown to watch Jey Uso finally make his choice and stand by
his brother… Solo. To acknowledge his Tribal Chief. This storyline is so incredibly good.
Indus Scher destroyed Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin before the match even began,
so the referee called it off. Hurt Business reunion, yay…?
Rhea Ripley was announced as WWE’s most followed TikTok star. I know they call them followers on
TikTok. But for Rhea, I think it’s more appropriate to call them subs. Thank you,
thank you. I’m here all week. In the fetish club. And the main event saw Priest take on Rollins for
the World ConsolationWeight Belt - a very good match that would’ve been improved dramatically
if Damien wasn’t pinned by Seth last week! The action was really good, getting a this
is awesome chant from the crowd, but it’s the final sequence that turned
this from just a very good TV main event to a potentially epic years long overarching story.
Seth hit a barricade bomb on Damien, injuring Priest’s shoulder, eventually costing him the win.
The exact same move Rollins hit Balor with in 2016 that meant Balor had to relinquish his inaugural
Universal Championship just over 24 hours later. So it’s no coincidence that was the very moment
a wild Balor appeared, trying to help Priest, but getting superkicked by Seth instead. Rollins
got in the ring, but the delay let Priest hit him with a chokeslam for a near fall.
His shoulder hurting though, and confused as to why Balor was out there when he told him
not to be, Rollins was able to hit the Stomp for the win. Balor then
squared off against Seth to close the show. And maybe there’s our fantasy booking. We’ve
all been so distracted by Seth’s predictable title win, we missed the longer term story
from his tournament clash against Rollins last month, and Finn’s win over him in 2016
for another newly created championship. They’re now one apiece… so could Balor be
the one to dethrone Rollins? And in the process, could Priest’s visible dissent make Judgement Day
turn on Finn like they turned on their other former leader Edge almost exactly a year ago?
This was a very good episode with great wrestling and furthering storylines. This week’s Raw is 79%.
Now go watch Luke and I review every WWE World Champion in 3 words or fewer!