In this WrestleTalk News, a former WWE wrestler corroborates allegations of sexual assault
against Vince McMahon, backstage details on Claudio Castagnoli and AEW, Luke’s review
of Raw and more.
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A trigger warning for this section: we will be discussing sexual assault.
Skip ahead using the timestamps below if needed.
In case you’d forgotten with all the excitement of the Forbidden Door this past weekend, Vince
McMahon and WWE are still under heavy investigation from several law firms and their own internal
investigation team currently.
However one allegation from Vince McMahon’s past that he resurfaced with all these investigations
going on is that former WWF referee Rita Chatterton was raped by Vince McMahon in 1986.
This was first made public in 1992 on Geraldo Rivera’s talk show.
Chatterton was interviewed for the first time in decades by New York Magazine, and as part
of that article, for the first time ever a former WWF wrestler has corroborated this
sexual assault allegation.
Mario Mancini, real name Leonard Inzitari, spoke on this allegation, with the excerpt
from the article reading: “Inzitari doesn’t use the word rape while
talking about what happened.
But he describes something that sounds like the conventional definition of that term.
“Was she taken advantage of?
Absolutely,” Inzitari says.
“Was she scared to death?
Absolutely.
Did she wanna do that?
Probably not.”
None of Vince McMahon, WWE nor Jerry McDevitt, both Vince McMahon’s and WWE’s resident
lawyer, have commented on this new corroboration, and Dave Meltzer speculates that this is because
mainstream media haven’t picked up on the story yet, meaning it “doesn’t appear
harmful to McMahon’s position right now”.
Stay tuned to wrestletalk.com for the latest on this.
Dramatic toneshift incoming, as we switch over to Claudio Castagnoli’s AEW debut from
Forbidden Door at the weekend.
Speculation was rampant about when Claudio was approached to come to the company, with
his debut seemingly perfectly fitting the stipulation of Bryan Danielson’s replacement
as well as the opponent of Zack Sabre Jr - it’s almost too perfect.
Tony Khan spoke on his debut on the post-Forbidden Door media scrum, noting that he first approached
Claudio on “...the day after the [Los Angeles KIA] Forum, so it would have been June 2 I
called”.
Khan then revealed he had a different idea in mind for his debut originally:
“I wasn’t sure if he would be coming in here or Death Before Dishonor,” he revealed,
using the question as an opportunity to announce the next Ring of Honor event.
“If Bryan made it back, [there was] a good chance that probably he would have started
at Death Before Dishonor” And interestingly, once it was clear that
Danielson wouldn’t be medically ok to compete at Forbidden Door, he said to TK about Claudio
being his replacement, to which Khan told him “That’s funny cause I have Claudio
under contract!”
The Forbidden Door was indeed cursed with injuries though, and there’s been an update
regarding a couple of them.
Dax Harwood had to be led out of his match after being checked on by a doctor, but managed
to come back out later on and finish the match, leading many to think it was in fact an angle
rather than a shoot.
However, Dax revealed on Twitter that he has a separated shoulder, which is also what he’d
say if this whole thing was a work too.
Goddamit Dax, stop being so good at your job and get better soon if it’s real.
There was also cause for concern for fans of interim AEW World Champion Jon Moxley,
as he seemingly offhandedly mentioned on the media scrum after Forbidden Door that he might
have been concussed in his match with Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Luckily though, Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio mentioned that “it was just
something he said but he’s fine.”
Well that’s good.
Otherwise we’d have needed the interim interim champion.
And now hot tag to Luke!
Now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka bloody hell ain’t that John Cena
swell - in about 5 minutes.
The show opened with John Cena walking into the building, being welcomed by faces and
heels alike, and it really is weird when WWE do things like this - why is The Miz happy
to see John Cena?
And this is why Becky Lynch is the best, because she used this as an opportunity to further
her character, looking dejected and sad because she still isn’t closer to getting her title
back.
And we’ve seen in the past that she doesn’t respect Cena.
So that was awesome.
Cena wasn’t an entrant in the last chance battle royale however, which saw Riddle win
and qualify himself for Money in the Bank, even though two weeks ago we established that
Riddle cannot challenge Roman Reigns for the championships.
I got an email from a viewer last week saying that - maybe - they’ll do a story where
Riddle wins but cannot cash in on Roman, so it becomes a countdown clock of Riddle waiting
for his chance to cash in Money in the Bank before it expires.
That is a great storyline, and if that’s what they do it would be really cool, but
I think the more likely reality is they’ve either forgot they set up that stipulation,
or they simply don’t care.
This was a fun battle royale, and featured a fabulous ending sequence with Miz and Riddle,
which really made the crowd think Miz was winning before Riddle hit an RKO on the apron
to eliminate him.
Also, despite turning babyface a couple of weeks ago, Dolph Ziggler was heel again here
teaming with The Miz in parts of this match.
Okay.
They then told us that the previously announced match between Ezekiel and Kevin Owens for
the final spot in Money in the Bank would take place another time.
I hope that other time is this Friday as Money in the Bank is the following day and I think
it will be too late to do it next week.
It also means there’s still one more spot in the match.
WWE were so happy to have John Cena back that they bought him a bunch of Cameos, including
Shawn Michaels, Trish Stratus, Booker T, Triple H, AEW’s Paul Wight and AEW’s Bryan Danielson.
Yeah, you heard some of those names right.
I cannot believe they managed to get Booker T either.
And he didn’t say something extremely stupid.
Montez Ford beat Jey Uso in a quick match ahead of their tag title match this weekend
- which is another loss for the Undisputed Tag Team Champions.
The Judgement Day continued their spiral to the bottom of the card by setting up a feud
with The Mysterions - I’m sure Damien Priest doesn’t regret his decision to side with
Balor - and we got a video package for John Cena, which was then followed by another video
package for John Cena.
The Miz was a guest on Kevin Patrick TV next, where he announced he’ll be teaming again
with Logan Paul at Summerslam.
Now I know what you’re thinking: didn’t Miz turn on Logan Paul at WrestleMania?
He sure did.
And I think that’s the story here; Miz thinks he’s in a tag team with Logan Paul, but
then it will be Miz vs. Paul at Summerslam.
At least I hope that’s the storyline and we don’t just get them tagging again.
Miz then had a match with AJ Styles, which he lost via a lame countout.
AJ and Miz were also in the battle royale earlier, which begs the question: where is
the rest of the WWE roster?
Oh, yeah.
WWE got more cameos for Cena, including Kurt Angle, Randy Orton, JBL, Stephanie McMahon,
Steve Austin and AEW’s Chris Jericho.
Yes you heard one of those names right.
I cannot believe they got WWE CEO Stephanie McMahon either.
She really is the CEO of the company right now wink.
Bianca Belair and Carmella shared a few words ahead of their match this Saturday, and Liv
Morgan got a shock win over Alexa Bliss in a match I wish had been given more time.
It was decent action, but hadn’t quite found its next gear.
Hopefully they’ll get a chance to do this again, and the reaction to Liv winning by
Bliss was top tier.
Mr. McMahon came out to introduce Cena - because of course he did the big weirdo, stop appearing
on TV - and Big Match John did a You People promo, but a positive one because he likes
them.
He didn’t announce his next match, but did seemingly set one up with a backstage segment
with Austin Theory earlier in the night.
This was really quite lovely, and shows just how far we’ve come in 20 years of Cena.
I was in my 20s when Cena was the top guy in the company in the mid-2000s, so I was
that angry guy on message boards - shoutout to The Smart Marks forums - who hated Cena
because he had the audacity to not be Steve Austin or The Rock who were guys I liked in
my teen years.
I didn’t really go to WWE shows - I actually don’t think I’ve ever seen Cena wrestle
live - but if I did, I would have been part of that loud angry portion of the fanbase
chanting Cena sucks, rather than chanting Let’s Go Cena like those stupid kids who
can’t see that he clearly sucks.
But like John himself, I’m now older.
All of those angry 20 year olds on the forums are.
And we’ve now either grown up and realised our forum posts and chants were quite silly
and pointless, or we’ve stopped watching the product all together.
Which means all that’s left are those who now appreciate Cena, and the kids who grew
up watching and liking him now being adults with kids of their own.
So, now, everyone likes him.
And even after all these years, there are kids in the building wearing his merch and
chanting his name.
This was all, really quite wonderful.
John Cena really is one of the best to ever do it.
Bobby Lashley beat Alpha Academy in a 2-on-1 handicap match with Austin Theory as a guest
enforcer, which didn’t play into anything.
They beat him down afterwards.
Cody Rhodes cut a promo putting over Money in the Bank and saying he’ll feud with Seth
Rollins when he’s back.
He’s gonna be the final man in the match isnt he?
And the main event saw Becky Lynch vs. Doudrop vs. Nikki ASH vs. Tamina vs. Xia Li vs. Shayna
Baszler in an elimination match for the final spot in Money in the Bank.
This only got 10 minutes so a lot of the eliminations happened quickly, but it was a really decent
match.
Becky eliminated Xia Li and Nikki, while Doudrop took out Baszler and Tamina.
Which nicely brought those two together, and Becky won with the Manhandle Slam from the
second rope.
I really thought they might explore the Becky spiral a bit more by not having her on the
card - and it would have been awesome for Doudrop to be in Money in the Bank - but having
Becky on the PPV is probably more important.
This was the go home edition of Raw for Money in the Bank, but it felt like the Cena thing
was the more pressing thing on the show.
But it was still a really good edition of Raw, and all the Cena stuff was nice.
This week’s Raw is 3 out of 5, maybe even a 4.