In this WrestleTalk News, John Laurinaitis has been replaced backstage in WWE while investigations
continue, Chris Jericho shoots on MJF, Luke’s review of Raw and more.
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The focus of the wrestling world right now is on the ongoing investigation in WWE of
Vince McMahon & John Laurinaitis surrounding alleged behaviour of a covered up sexual relationship
between the two executives and a former paralegal in the company.
While Vince McMahon has seemingly wanted to appear as the centre of attention - appearing
not just on SmackDown after mere hours of the announcement that he was stepping down
as CEO and Chairman while the investigation was underway, but also doubling down and appearing
on last night’s Raw because he just can’t help himself after such a positive reaction
from his SmackDown appearance - the opposite can be said for John Laurinaitis.
The Head of Talent Relations was reportedly not backstage at SmackDown last week, and
now he seemingly won’t be around for the foreseeable, as Fightful is reporting that
Laurinaitis has been placed on administrative leave, and his role has been taken up by none
other than Bruce Prichard.
This is not the first time Prichard has held the role, with him going on record in the
past on his Something To Wrestle podcast saying that he really didn’t like it and prefers
being a creative guy.
I’m sure he’s thrilled about this.
It’s been pretty well reported in the past than Johnny Ace wasn’t very popular among
the wrestlers backstage in WWE, and Fightful Select have reaffirmed this with the reactions
from those wrestlers to this news.
“The unanimous belief among those in the company we spoke to was that Johnny was as
good as gone, with several going as far as to celebrate his impending departure.”
Several wrestlers were reportedly under the impression they’ll “never have to do business
with him again”.
However some were not exactly thrilled with Prichard taking the role instead, with one
talent joking that “Vince only knows three people”, with another source who works backstage
receiving “multiple texts from talent stating that there is concern about Bruce handling
both roles”, as if they want time off, they have to ask the person who is effectively
the filter between creative and Vince McMahon.
See Vince, someone going on administrative leave and not being around while the investigation
about them is carried out is how it should actually go down.
Not appearing on TV.
You numpty.
Speaking of not appearing on TV, someone we’ve not seen since his work-shoot-not-a-work-not-a-shoot-work-shoot
promo is MJF, and his former best pal in the world Chris Jericho has weighed in on the
situation, and he’s not exactly complimentary of him.
Speaking with talkSPORT, Jericho said: “MJF is [26].
He has a lot to learn.
He’s not as good as he thinks he is and like I said, it really is nothing to do with
me but I’m sure he’ll be back.
18 months is a long time to stay at home and that’s Tony Khan’s prerogative.
You’re under contract, you want to stay at home?
You can stay at home and not get paid and that’s what happens…We see it happen in
other companies and that’s just how it goes.
If you didn’t expect that, then why did you sign your contract in the first place?”
Jericho also mentioned that he’s got a year and a half left on his own AEW contract, and
it’s not certain that he’ll re-sign when it comes to expiration time, he’s just going
to see how it goes.
And now hot tag to Luke!
It’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka oh no, another injury?!
- … in about 5 minutes.
The show opened with the announcement of the latest injury to plague this summer of wrestling,
as Rhea Ripley of Judgement Day is on the shelf and out of her Money in the Bank match
against Bianca Belair.
It’s a shame because it was a match I was really looking forward to, and felt like a
big time match-up, one that was much needed for Belair following feuding with Becky Lynch
for so long.
Belair was the one to make the announcement, and also announced a fatal 5-way between Alexa
Bliss, Liv Morgan, Asuka, Becky Lynch and Carmella - 2 of which are already in Money
in the Bank, and two others were scheduled to face off for a spot in the Money in the
Bank match, and the other is Carmella who hasn’t had a match since April.
And because it was a fatal 5-way announced in an opening segment, it’s time for knock,
knock.
Who’s there?
Interrupting promo.
Interrupting promo wh-I’m going to win the match tonight.
Everyone got to come out and say their scripted lines, and it was about as predictable as
you’d imagine.
And the winner was kinda predictable too.
As mentioned earlier, everyone else in the match is already busy with something else.
So Mella was the only viable option to win here.
But predictability isn’t the issue here - I’ve got no issue with predictable winners
in wrestling, in the same way I don’t have issues with predictable things happening in
movies and TV shows - the bigger issue is that Carmella vs. Belair is such a step down
from Bianca vs. Ripley.
And not just even a bit of a step down, it’s a major step down.
This has gone from Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar to Roman Reigns vs. Akira Tozawa.
I’m sure it will be a fine match, but it now feels a bit throwaway.
Thankfully the match was awesome, and easily the best thing on the show.
Becky had the match won on a couple of occasions but had her pins broken up, brilliantly continuing
her downward spiral of not getting her 1-1 rematch for the title.
And because of that, Adam Pearce announced that she’d face Asuka in the main event
for the originally scheduled Money in the Bank qualifier.
And - from outanowhere - Vince McMahon came out.
Yeah, he did it again.
After being branded ‘tone deaf’ and ‘embarrassing’ by his own employees for appearing on SmackDown
the day he stepped down from his position as CEO because he’s being investigated by
his own board for misconduct just to pop a rating, Vince did it again here - but this
time without being advertised.
So we can’t even say this was a ratings ploy anymore, this is just ego stroking.
But it’s working.
Because - once again - this crowd in Nebraska applauded him, cheered him, sang his song,
and was happy to see him.
Last night I made an appearance on the Law & Crime Network podcast to talk about this
situation - check out the link for that in the video description - and you would be amazed
at how the outside world sees wrestling.
While we look at this and say it’s Vince being Vince, everyone else thinks its insane.
And they’re correct.
This is insane.
And worse still, he didn’t do anything.
He just announced that John Cena was coming back next week, something we already knew
and something that was advertised earlier in this broadcast.
But the commentators - who were grossly fawning over Vince coming out - had to act like they’d
never heard the news before.
I hated all of this.
It’s gross, disgusting, stupid, insulting, and makes me feel really icky.
And bloody hell, we’ve not even finished covering the first hour of
this show.
Thankfully there isn’t much else to talk about.
Riddle came out to talk about losing to Roman Reigns last Friday - so he’s not allowed
to challenge for the title anymore - and announced he’s in a Money in the Bank qualifier where
if he wins he can face Roman for the title again.
Huh But like most storylines in WWE, it didn’t
matter anyway, as Omos beat him quickly.
So Omos is in Money in the Bank, which still sounds like a horrible idea.
Seth Rollins attacked him after the match.
Vince enjoyed wanking to the posedown segment last week that he got Theory to do it again
this week, only this time it was Lashley who stood tall.
Theory then booked him for a gauntlet match, where Lashley beat Chad Gable, Otis and then
Theory to earn a US title match for Money in the Bank.
This was mostly fine.
Angelo Dawkins beat Jey Uso - I’ve got nothing to add there - and then we got the return
of Elias.
I’ve been pretty down on the Elias/Ezekiel/Kevin Owens storyline for the last few weeks.
Mostly because the story feels like it's going nowhere.
But this was the first time, probably since the early weeks of the feud, where it felt
like something progressed.
First of all, we got to see Elias and Zeke in the same shot together thanks to some really
good camera trickery, and then Elias did a concert in the ring with Zeke on screen to
show Owens that they really are brothers.
This was mad fun, and Owens’ freakout was fabulous.
He challenge Elias or Ezekiel, or their other brother Elrod, to a match next week.
I still don’t know where this is going or what the end goal is, but I enjoyed this segment.
Miz continued his crusade to make everyone feel like a midcarder by dragging down AJ
Styles to his level, which ended up with Ciampa attacking Styles.
What are you, Ciampa.
You’d assume he’s an associate of The Miz, who spent the match between AJ and Ciampa
saying he’s never had a conversation with the former NXT Champion in his life.
I guess we’ll get some big reveal that Ciampa is a hired gun for Miz, which is a decent
enough character for him, but we need to get the point of this quickly.
Veer cut a promo on the stage and said….
Well, not much.
And then Becky Lynch and Asuka had another great match.
I know it’s a great match, because I’ve seen them wrestle each other six times in
the last seven weeks - one of which was earlier in this show.
They’re so good together in ring, but having them wrestle again and again makes it feel
less special.
Asuka won and qualified for Money in the Bank, which is the right call as it’s good for
Becky’s character.
So that was this week’s Raw, and boy does this show really feel like the B-show to SmackDown.
Remember back in the early, mid and late 2000s - And, well, actually a lot of the early 2010s
too - when SmackDown felt like such a secondary show to Raw?
Well that’s what Raw feels like now.
Only it doesn’t even have a world title for people to work towards.
They kept showing the video of Brock Lesnar coming back to face Roman, but neither of
them are on this show - making it feel so less important.
And when your show is three hours long, it makes it drag so much more than usual.
This week’s Raw is 2 out 5.