January 8, 2025 • 56 mins
Originally Aired December of 2019
In this episode we are reviewing Monday Night Raw that aired December 9th, 2019 discussing Seth Rollins full heel turn aligning with the AOP and his post-turn promo, Rusev & Lana having zero logic behind it and Kevin Owens being the smartest babyface in years.
We go segment-by-segment in this FULL Raw review.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-wwe-podcast--2187791/support.
In this episode we are reviewing Monday Night Raw that aired December 9th, 2019 discussing Seth Rollins full heel turn aligning with the AOP and his post-turn promo, Rusev & Lana having zero logic behind it and Kevin Owens being the smartest babyface in years.
We go segment-by-segment in this FULL Raw review.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-wwe-podcast--2187791/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the WWE Podcast, your place for the most
passionate wrestling analysis on the web.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Just turn Roman Heel. What is WWE Waiting for another
wrestling podcast? Put you to sleep?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
You can count on the WWE Podcast to get you
engaged and asking for more.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I've been watching wrestling for over twenty years and that
was one of the best matches I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
This is unlike any other wrestling analysis. So without any
further delay, let's get the show started right now.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome to the WWE Podcast. It is Tuesday, December tenth,
twenty nineteen. Guys, Welcome to the show, and we're gonna
get to Monday Night Raw and all of the insanity
that was Monday Night Raw. Some really awesome stuff too
that there is an aresome things that you will hear
me critique and be a bit critical of, and rightfully so.
(00:58):
But there's a lot of good here, a lot of
good in a show that was it felt different. There
was something about this show that just felt different, and
it felt like a turning point for a lot of
different reasons that we're going to get to all of
those with says Official Heel Turn and aligning himself with
Raizar and ACoM the AOP and making it official a
(01:23):
very heartfelt promo. I think a lot of truth was
in that for Seth Rollins, and so that was pretty
cool to hear. And so we're going to get into
that and the just absurdity that was the Lana Roussev
angle that people seem to somehow be tuning in for
to see the train wreck. I think that it's a
(01:44):
train wreck type of viewership that are spiking this segment
and to why Vince McMahon decides to place this at
the very top of the show. Tells you that the
numbers support his decision on this, which makes me very angry.
I have not been in support of this angle. I've
said it's been tolerant at times, and Russev's performances at
times have been the saving grace for this disaster of
(02:09):
a Jerry's Springer Vince McMahon fantasy angle that he just
can't help himself with. It's right clearly from Vince's brain
and Kevin Dunn's brain of their constant struggle with and
their goal of disassociating themselves with being a wrestling company
(02:31):
by throwing out angles like this. But these are the
exact angles that drive fans crazy, fans of wrestling crazy,
and also give those who don't like wrestling a really
ammunition to fire back at fans that do. It's that
type of angle. So we're going to dive into that
(02:53):
just in a moment. So before we do that, though,
I want to invite you guys to check out the
ad free version of this show. It's on Patreon at
patreon dot com slash WWE podcast, so you can head
on over there and get yourself an ad free version
of this show. If you don't like the ads, you
feel like you're interruptive, well, easy solution, head over there
(03:14):
and get yourself on board. For just a dollar a month,
you can get the entire library, the entire library of
this show at free, and lots of other good stuff
on the way. You guys know the deal. You can
go up from there and get tons of other big
bonuses and i'd invite you to check it out. But
let's get to money and at raw. Let's just do it.
(03:36):
Let's go to the very top of the show here
where it was Jerry the King Lawler. Don't worry, but
by the way, this is the go home show to TLC,
you wouldn't know that there's a pay per view coming,
but this, this show mildly that reminded you that there's
a pay per view on Sunday, and WWE certainly sent
(03:57):
the message that this is a c pay per view.
I mean, it just is. And you know, come December,
I expect nothing less. So this is not a slight
on WWE, because, to be totally frank, the nature of
the business every December is to kind of put things
on hold, do do programs that are maybe run it
(04:19):
maybe have maybe run its course, or string out programs
longer than needed to go past December into January when
we have the royal rumble of that that really restarts
things and you get right into the WrestleMania season. So
to me, this is nothing more than kind of a
hold me over. I don't expect any major developments. And
(04:41):
this is the perfect example that you could use if
you are against once a month pay per views, where
you could say, how about we only hold a pay
per view when it's worth holding a pay per view,
and this is just well, it's kind of one of
those well it's on the calendar, we got to do it.
Rather than saying Hey, let's build to a pay per
(05:04):
view and build to a card and develop storylines in
a proper amount of time so that when the pay
per view comes around it makes sense to have it,
and you have enough build and expectation, and you have
anticipation built for the pay per view. In this case,
if anybody is actually anticipating TLC, I would ask that
you see your local medical facility, because I just don't
(05:27):
know how anyone is super excited about this, and you
know this week, you know I will cover it, of course,
I will still watch it, of course. And am I
mildly excited? I guess because it's a pay per view,
and you know we'll get tables, ladders, and chairs, and
we get to see and hear toys referred to or
excuse me, chairs and ladders and actual weapons referred to
(05:48):
as toys, even Samoa Joe making that cardinal sin reference
of saying that you know, weapons were somebody was going
to the toy box. I forget who it was. Been
the Kaboogie Warriors before they put Becky through the table.
You know, he's mentioned, oh, they're going to the toy box,
don't I don't understand how that's beneficial to or in
(06:13):
a way that makes this segment feel more important and
makes it seem like what's happening to Becky is serious.
We need to refer to toys. I don't think serious.
I know it's a cute way to refer to weapons,
but we don't say the word weapons. I mean, I
don't know what it is. I just don't understand the
logic behind referring to weapons as toys. But we'll get
(06:33):
a lot of roads references on Sunday, I'm sure, because
it's a cute way to refer to weapons. So get
ready for that at nauseum come Sunday. So anyway, we
start out with Jerry the King Lawler n raw and
of course Jerry the King Lawler is the one to
be hosting this because who else but Jerry the King
Lawler to get involved in scandals And nothing like a
(06:55):
scandal to get Vince McMahon's you know eyes perked up
and you know, paying attention at a production meeting. Nothing
like a good scandal. We don't need that wrestle and
it's all about the scandals and uh, you know, entertaining
TV or whatever the hell he thinks this is. Again,
there have been worse things in the world of w
w A, certainly, but this, this is getting just weird
(07:19):
because not only is it just in terms of logic
and in terms of continuity and in terms of common sense,
is this just littered with holes in all of those areas,
But it's kind of obnoxious to watch at times, and
unfortunately the crowd continues to support it, which is why
(07:41):
Vince goes, oh, damn it, I told you this is
this is good, you know what? Right? So anyway, let
let's let's go here. So jid King Laula comes out
and he invites Lana out, who comes out with her lawyer,
and Russev comes out next. So Lana and Russov sit
down at the table and starts cutting a probo about
how Rusav made things all about him when the fans
(08:03):
started chanting Russav Day. So let me get this straight.
Lana originally said, oh, I did this because all you
wanted was sex and then you cheated on me. Then
it's all about Russav Day, and it's all about you.
You make it all about you, I I And this
(08:25):
is this is what makes it even weirder. Right, So
Lana says that she is waving the distance clause in
her in her restraining order for tonight so that they
could get this signed, you know, but hey, you know
you can actually have these mailed in or just meet
separately with your attorneys. But hey, so she has she
(08:48):
has a waiver on the distance clause. And then later
in the promo and they're just obnoxious argument. We have
Lana say that if you step any can't take any
steps closer, you know, I'll have you go to jail
for a very long long time. So I guess you
can just arbitrarily decide when you want to activate the
(09:08):
restraining order restriction and just verbally say that you're going
to now start upholding the distance clause. Isn't that what
a restraining order is in and of itself? Though there's
not really any other provisions as far as I know,
the biggest is just you can't come within x amount
(09:29):
of feet or yards or miles of this person, right,
I don't know. So I guess you can just arbitrarily
decide when to activate it, not just by saying it.
That's a thing legally, right. So we have her coming
out and Lana continues ranting, says she's smart and intelligent
and blames the WWE universe. I still hate that term.
(09:52):
It's been invoked now for like seven eight years or something,
maybe more, And I just can't stand this corporate label
they place. They can't just say WWE fans, they can't.
They have to say universe. Why it's just they're fans.
I'm not a universe. I'm a fan of WWE. Well,
(10:15):
it's an all encompassing term for the fans. It sounds stupid.
There's no other way to put It's anybody else feel
this way? Am I the only one that just continues
to rag on about this ww universe label? And we're fans.
I'm a fan of WWWE. I guess fenn is an
antiquated term, probably according to Vince McMahon, And I don't know.
(10:37):
I'm an a Vince McMahon tirade right now. Okay, moving down,
Lana continues and that Russev tells the fans this is
what he had to deal with his entire marriage, and
points to some footage on the screen of lone and
lastly being arrested last week and a lot of freaks
out and starts ranting again he'll never find someone like her.
(10:57):
Russo says to can value standard and doesn't want to
find someone like her, and Lana says, russep chose dead
would be over her and screams and I mean, it's
it's just it's it's bizarre, and her threatening to put
him in jail for if he violates the restraining order,
which again she just activated by saying it is laughable
(11:18):
considering the last three times he violated it in the restaurant,
throwing Lashley off the stage and last week, you know,
none of that makes any bit of difference. And she
said that if he violates it every single time, he's
gonna go to jail, of which he has not done.
And I can tell you if you violate a restraining
order that blatantly you, I mean, you do go to jail.
(11:40):
So it makes no sense how Lana never invoked him
or or and forced that on him to have him arrested.
It's just empty threats and none of it ever came
to fruition. It's bizarre. So, I mean, can you tell
this this storyline was not thought out? Can you tell
it was just like a brain the Vince McMahon in
(12:01):
a boardroom meeting and production meeting saying, what if we
have Lana and Russav get a divorce and it's Lana
comes out and starts making out with Bobby Lashley, wouldn't
that be great? Sh you know what, I want to say,
the word, but it's PG. I just can hear the nonsense,
but no congruity and no structure put around it. It's
(12:26):
the most flaccid there's a word for you, loose, Just
just bizarre structure around the story that I've ever seen.
It's all over the place and it's impossible to follow,
and I don't I don't know. So let's let's move
on and put on And honestly, what makes this even
(12:48):
harder is Lana's performances on the mic are weird. I
think the only thing good about it is she's really
nice to look at. Yeah, she's a really good looking woman. Okay,
you I know that, but that's really dealing redeeming quality
at this point. She's she has weird inflections in moments
when she pauses when she shouldn't, and sometimes her emotions
(13:11):
don't feel legitimate. She's not the worst promo in the world.
I just don't think she's found her stride yet, which
also makes this kind of double bad and Russev honestly,
he's had his moments. But Russev I think is underperformed
at times where he could say lines that would be
much funnier and more time, better time than the things
(13:33):
that he said. I don't. I'm I'm just ranting, Okay,
so let's let's keep going here. They argue over the
custody of their puppy. Yeah, they actually do this and
start yelling. Lana signs the divorce papers first, and Roussev
says before he signs, he needs something from Lana. He
wants a match with her boyfriend. Lastly comes out, starts
(13:57):
talking trash and says that once he signs this paper,
he's gonna marry Lana, and Russo said that's fine, as
long as he still gets to fight. Lastly on Russov day.
So all right, yeah, I'm gonna move on from this
segment because it's I'm interested to see what the numbers
were for this segment, in particular, if it was something
(14:19):
that Vince McMahon's envisioning the numbers for or and hopefully
does not validate his incessant need to have these entertainment
And I put that in air quotes these entertainment segments
over valuable wrestling. I understand this needs to be sprinkled in,
(14:39):
but it was just a just kind of I just
feel like it was just loosely talked about and someone said, well,
it's just put us together, make it makes sense, and
it just hasn't. It just hasn't all the way through.
There's no follow through on Russov actually being arrested for
violent restraining orders. There's no still no explanation and follow
up to the cheating if Russev was actually or of
(15:02):
Lana actually believed he cheated, and why did Lana believe
Bobby Lashley cheated? Or I'm sorry, why did Lana believe
Bobby Lashley that Russev cheated? And not just ask Russev.
I mean that's because that was the first time you
heard about it. There's so many things, so many things.
It's just it's bizarre. Okay, moving on the line here.
Kevin Owens is backstage. He says. Owen says that Rollins
(15:23):
is the one who told aop to attack him, that
attacked him last week, and he thinks it's because he's
the only one who stood up to Rollins during his
little speech and he goes on a hunt for aop
and runs into Mysterio, who then lends him his his
lead pipe. So this was a nice hook throughout the show.
(15:44):
I like when there's a hook or a storyline main
storyline woven throughout the show. It has worked in the past.
It's a tried and true formula, and I like when
they do this because it keeps you wondering what's the payoff.
It keeps you wondering how is this going to end?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Right?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And I think they did a nice job with this.
And credit to Kevin Owens for being the smart baby face.
He's been, you know, extremely intelligent throughout this whole storyline,
which I like. It's he's consistently smart and not believing
anything that seth Rollins says, so, all right, we had
Drew McIntire versus Matt Hardy as well, and Drew McIntyre
(16:30):
one as he should. I understand Matt Hardy as Matt Hardy,
but Drew McIntyre is the future. I mean, let's let's
face it. Drew hit with his hit, his hit, his
finish the claymore and just that's the way it was.
It was a matter of fact win against a significant star,
and I think this is hopefully I keep saying this.
(16:52):
I hope it's the rebuild of Drew McIntyre and and
A and an actual attempt to to build a foundation
for a true push for Drew. I will sing his
praises until he gets what he deserves, and that is
a long championship run, like six to twelve months being champion.
(17:15):
I think he could do it. I think he has
the ability. He has the athleticism, he has the promo ability,
he has the believability as the presence all of the above.
He has everything you need, every box you could check
he has. I love it. He's got the stature, everything.
(17:35):
So again, I hope this win is not just a well,
we got to get Drew mctarre on the show, and
Matt Hardy's still around and he's credible, so let's have
Drew beat Matt. I hope there's a plan here. I
hope there's a meaning behind this win because Matt Hardy
is not your local performer. Matt Hardy is Matt Hardy.
(17:56):
I mean, think about the legacy he's left in pro wrestling,
not just in WWE, but even in TNA. You know,
broken Matt Hardy. Remember that we all remember that it
became woke in Matt Hardy or whatever it was in WW.
They couldn't get the rights to it and just became
woke Matt Hardy, which is in ironic considering the political
(18:17):
environment we're in now, right for those that follow politics
and know what I'm talking about, But I think that
Matt Hardy, having Drew beat Matt the way he did
and in the timeframe he did, should mean something. I
don't need it to be just another win Matt Hardy. Again.
We need to realize who Matt Hardy was and is
(18:39):
and represents. So I just don't want it to be
a nothing win. Okay. We go backstage where Charlotte approaches Becky.
They talk about their issues and Charlotte offers to form
an alliance with Becky to take out the Kabooki Warriors,
which Becky declines and says she's going to take them
two on one. So we then get backstage, and by
(19:02):
the way, I will say about Becky and Charlotte, I
like this more than I thought I would. I you know,
once Becky and Charlotte ended their felt like years of
a program, which again they're very good in the ring together,
no doubt, which is why they kept them together for
so long as opponents. And I said, I didn't want
to have these two in any kind of segment together
(19:25):
for years, right, I don't need to see them in
the same segment for any reason ever. Again, I mean,
but seeing them try to, I guess hesitantly form an
alliance is a good strategy. And I like how Becky
is dismissive of Charlotte at first. They acknowledge they don't
(19:46):
like each other. I like it. That's smart. It makes
sense after months and months and months and years of
fighting each other and dissing each other and at each
other's throats, to have them acknowledge that, hey, we don't
like each other, but we have a common enemy. And
Becky's still kind of a bit hesitant. There should be
(20:06):
that hesitancy, and that's smart. So praise to the b
on this storyline. In terms of congruity and in terms
of logic, this makes so, this makes a lot of sense.
So and obviously we get more of a a development
in this story down the line here. So, okay, Olwen
sees Mojo Rawleigh backstage. Now, this is something I really
(20:32):
enjoyed from Kevin Owens perspective, which I think he had
a really good night, a banner knight. I enjoyed Kevin
Owens from top to bottom here and having him run
into Mojo who's being an obnoxious you know what talking
about how, yeah, I saw iop go this way, Wait,
I saw go that way, and then it's basically saying,
you know, I saw him go both directions, trying to
(20:53):
be an obnoxious a hole, and I like how Kevin
Owens slapped him in the face. That to me, I
mean because Mojo deserved it. I loved it, Mojo. I mean,
I guess it's from home personal experience, like whenever you're
in a dire situation and you have a like somebody
make a joke out about something you really need and
(21:17):
they're saying, oh, I have that, and then they really
don't have it and they're just being an a hole
and you but you're like, no, I really need to know.
But apparently they're thirst for trying to make a joke
at your expense when you're actually needing something is at
a higher premium than Yeah, they needed to be punched
right in the face. So I enjoy that from Kevin
Owens that was a solid segment for again, a solid night,
(21:39):
very solid night for Kevin Owens. Okay, then we get
a video package announcing Batista's introduction, introduction, induction into the
w W Hall of Fame for the class of twenty twenty.
Really enjoyed that as well as far as Batista deserving
of that, of course he is. And yes, the nWo,
the nWo, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hogan and Xbox Sean
(22:03):
Waltman are going to be inducted into the w W
Hall of Fame. And many people are saying, oh my god,
Hogan's being inducted twice. Anybody who likes him or you know,
supports him, f M F you olah blah blah blah. Okay,
let's take a step back here. I just want to
comment on this. If you don't recognize the contributions that
and again I'm speaking specifically about Hulk Hogan because that
(22:24):
seems to be the focal point of everybody who it
just you know, will not let go of the racist
comments he made years and years and years and years ago,
of which he has publicly apologized for. He has he
was fired from WWW for many a year, three years
or four years and now he's back. So how long
are we supposed to punish somebody, you know, for making
comments that again I don't I do not support I
(22:46):
think they were awful of course all of that. But again,
you know, you you do the crime, you do the time.
Are we just supposed to just you know, basically just
you know, blackball him forever? Consider the country putians he's made,
Consider the contributions that Hulk Hogan has made in his
career to the sport of professional wrestling. And when you
(23:08):
talk about the nWo, how can that group not be inducted?
Are you gonna just cut off your nose despite your
face and say, well, well, the nWo is gonna be inducted,
but f Hogan's He's not gonna be there. You can't
do that. Hulk Hogan was the face of the nWo.
So you're just gonna again, you're gonna sacrifice the whole
group's induction because people are saying F Hogan grow up. Seriously,
(23:32):
I mean, if everyone the whole thing is, the world
is run by how people feel. Everybody's feelings. Everyone's got feelings. Everyone,
Oh well that's not that doesn't make me feel good
or you that that's that's offensive. Everyone hides behind their
their identity there there, you know, it's I'm getting all political.
But the fact of the matter is the contributions that
(23:53):
Hulk Hogan has made is undeniable and should absolutely be
recognized in the professional wrestling world. The comments that he
made years ago that were being recorded at his not
of his knowledge, Okay, we all know that, and there's
no disputing any of that. We know that. But to
(24:17):
negate everything he's contributed to the wrestling world for those
the silly comments he made, of which he's apologized for
and been punished for, I think is a little bit
it's a little bit of overkill to really destroy everything
he's done because of that. I mean, so anyway, I
think I've made my point. But the nWo absolutely are deserving.
(24:41):
I don't care if Hogan's in twice. I don't give
a damn right. Think about this. What about Degeneration X, Yeah,
inducted you're saying they shouldn't be inducted twice Shawn Michaels
of his own career and the degeneration X character or
degeneration X group. I mean, you can make how many
examples just because someone should have be inducted twice. Get
(25:05):
over yourself, seriously, all right, comments on Twitter. Sometimes these
comments on Twitter just and I'm not gonna name who
it is or anything like that, but people are just
some people. Just yeah, all right, moving on to the
Viking Raiders and Street Profits. We got the Street Profits
here and not just this segment, but by the way,
(25:25):
they lost this relatively quickly, and I like that the
Viking Raiders, though, I are at least getting a little
bit of a shine. I don't. You can't say they're
truly heels. I mean, they had good they all four
men had you know, good sportsmanship at the end. Even
though that they beat, the Viking Riders beat the Street
(25:46):
Profits straight up, there was some mutual respect there which
says that hey, we're not heels. We're all baby faces here,
and so I guests are still defined as faces. And
that's fine. But I feel like the Viking Raiders never
capitalized on their initial win, their initial victory, that the
crowd scene behind. I remember the pop they had, that
(26:06):
they had a lot of momentum behind them after winging
the belts, and then it just got dropped. And that
seems to be the theme a lot of times w
W E booking where you have somebody make a turn,
win a championship, and then there's like, what are we
doing after that to keep the momentum going. Well, I
don't know, I don't know. It'll just kind of just
kind of be a a self fanning flame and you'll
(26:30):
just keep going. That's not how it works, and it
seems like a lot of times those are big decisions
made and no follow through, big mistake. But the Viking
Raiders are trying to revive whatever momentum they had, and
uh so, okay, uh So after the match, we got
Seth Rollins coming out to the ring and takes the
(26:52):
spotlight and gets on the mic and calls out a LP.
They have unfinished business. And then we have Kevin Owens come.
Owen says, you get to the ring in exchanges words.
Owen says if the AOP was here to that, he
would have found them already and trashes Rollins and ends up.
Rollins ends up leaving THEOP appear on screen and speaking
some foreign language again, which they need to do something
(27:14):
about that. I mean, maybe that's their gimmick and maybe
it'll work. I doubt it. I'm not a fan of
not understanding what wrestlers are saying. I don't mind it
here and there if they have a second language of
which they feel superior whenever they use that language to
belittle the fans that don't understand their language of their
home country or whatever. But if they are ninety nine
(27:37):
percent of the time speaking in their native language, it's
not a good way to communicate to fans that ninety
nine point nine percent do not understand what the f
you're saying outside of the first ward he said, which
was Kevin, and then he went into like you know,
gibber jabber, I mean, I have no f and clue
what he said, and same goes for the Kabuki Warriors.
(27:59):
But we'll get there, so he again, Owens tells him
to bring it, but instead Sammy's zaying and Mojo Raleigh
comes out, and Sammy says he's not just a manager,
he's a liberator and what Owens did to Mojo backstage
was out of line and says it was wrong and
he wants Owens to do the right thing and apologize.
(28:20):
He asked Mojo to apologize, and Mojo gets on Owen's
face and Sammy tells him to calm down, and Mojo says,
anybody can be a tough guy with a pipe in
their hand. Owens throws them the pipe, then gives them
a stunner. Samy retreats and Owen's nails Mojo with the pipe.
Good stuff here, A little bit stone cold here. I'm
(28:40):
fine with that. I don't want him to be a
I don't want him to be a direct reflection of Austin,
but the stunner is synonymous with stone cold. This was
a kind of a stone cold moment. I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed Raleigh. Mojo Raleigh for the first time getting
the spotlight in a way that might have been the
most in his entire career. I mean, yeah, he got
laid out on his back, but he showed a little
(29:01):
bit of something here. I feel like he can be
a much better heel than he can be a babyface.
There's something here. There's something here with Rally, and I
know it was brief, but Mojo Raley has something that
maybe they can build on. And I love how Sammy's aying,
at least explain how the hell he's here, that he's
got a managerial license, which I don't even know if
(29:22):
that's the thing, but apparently it is, and that since
he has that license, it allows him just to go
between shows. I like it, Thank you for explaining. At
the same time, I knew wwe could not could not
help themselves but violate the draft sooner rather than later.
So there's that too, But I at least like that
they explained it. Back from commercial break, we see Kevin
(29:45):
Owens walking through the halls of the arena looking for
aop and then we get Alistair Black versus a Carrots,
of which guess who wins Alistair Black, Right, no surprise there.
Alistair Black continues to just win against these lower mid
card guys, and it's as almost as if he's kind
(30:07):
of a pot simmering and they're just continuing to stack
up wins for him, establish him as a big threat,
so that when he gets to a competitor that is
a little bit tougher, a little bit harder, a little
bit more legitimate, how is he going to stack up
against them? So I'm fine with this. I'm fine with us.
Eventually they're going to move him up. Nothing wrong with us.
Umberto Careo versus Andrade some good offense at the beginning
(30:30):
from Umberto several kicks standing rolling moon salt for a
two count, Andreda set up in Berto for the running
knee strike in the corner, but Umberto dodged it, hits
a drop kick than an as tech press for a
two count, Andrede came back with his running knee strike,
but Umberto fired back with a running kick. Then Zelena
(30:51):
gets on the apron and Andrede ends up accidentally running
into her and knocking her to the floor. Umberto hops
up on Andrada's shoulder and pins him with a vigor
role for the three count. The only thing coming out
of this I mean, first of all, Imberto Korea winning
is I think needed for Romberto, who continued to put
(31:11):
up a good fight or as Michael Cole would say,
a very game m Berto Carreo. That seems to be well,
it's not even Michael Cole, it's just the announcers in general.
Are you know, what's the word of the day. What
do we say? Are they? Are they very game right?
Or would somebody take them to the limit. I don't
know whoever the phraseology of the day is, but Umberto
needed this win more I think than Andrade did. I
(31:33):
think the end The development here for Andrade is that
he and Zelena for the first time, had a misque.
Can they survive it? Is this trend we'll see. That's
the story here, not that Andrade lost, but how he
lost with Zelena is Andrade's story. And the bigger story
for Romberto is hey getting a win. He needed a win,
(31:54):
he needed one, Okay, but after the Manchellin Andrada get
into a shouting match, so again, take that for what
it's worth. It could be just temporary and maybe there
resolve it next week. But could the two be on
a split? I hope not. I like Selena Androde. I
think she adds a hell of a lot to his character.
I really really do. I think she adds more than
(32:14):
the average manager does. Okay, Remisterio's backstage for a promo.
He gets says the US title means everything to him,
and cuts a promo on AJ and then that's pretty
much it. We get a promo for Austin interviewing Goldberg
on the ww Network, which I can't wait to check out.
Very interested on that. I love the Broken Skull session
so far. I know it's only one episode in with Taker,
(32:36):
but I like the format all right, let's see here.
Kevin Owens is shown backstage walking around again with the
metal pipe, finds the truck that AOP arrived in and
it looks like there's somebody sitting in there. After he
just basically trashes the van with smashing the windows, putting
(32:57):
the scratches in the car, busting up handles. He gets
into the van in the back and looks like someone
sitting there with his back turned. AOP attack owns from
behind and beat him down. They slam Owns head into
the van of the door, and then Seth gets out,
revealing the hoodie he has on and an evil look
on his face and gives a curb stomp to Owens
(33:20):
on the arena floor, and then Seth walks off with
the AOP. So here's where the full turn happened. I mean, yes,
the turn happened at that moment, but here's Seth's explanation.
And I'm surprised that they actually went this far to
explain it. You know, on the same show, it felt
like it was what would happen the next time Raw
(33:42):
Kim on the air next Monday. I think it was
done because we have a pay per view Sunday and
they wanted to firmly establish Seth Seth as a heel,
and they wanted to get this group together to do
some damage at TLC. I think that's where they were going.
So that's why they had to kind of put this
two segments into one show type of deal. But Seth
comes out and says, what do you want from me?
(34:05):
And says that he used to get along with the
ww fans insert your own stupid corporate word there, but
something went wrong and they don't like him anymore, and
they can't he can't figure out why. Seth says he
doesn't take nights off. He fights through injuries. He puts
it all the line in the ring for each and
every one of us. And as Seth says, he sticks
his neck out for fans in the ring and in
(34:27):
the media, and in return he gets spin on and disrespected.
And he told everyone last week he had nothing to
do with AOP. That was the truth, but that wasn't
good enough. Since fans jumped Owens, jumped on the Owens
bandwagon and they wanted to push him, it's time for
him to push back. He says that the fans, the fans,
and Owens drove him to stand side by side with
(34:49):
two men who understand the AOP. The AOP come out
to the ring and stand next to Rollins, so it's
symbolically it's now official. They all leave together and as
Owens is being loaded into an amb which I would
not want those EMTs working on me, they could not
get that stretcher into the ambulance. I'll just say that.
I mean that was that was funny. Out of all
(35:10):
the ambulance segments we've had in professional wrestling over the
last twenty five years, I have never seen any of
the EMTs have issue with the stretcher getting into the ambulance.
That was kind of funny actually. But so he also
mentioned in this promo about how he beat brock Leser
and brought not once but twice and beat brought the
(35:31):
Universal Championship back for us. But I don't think I
think Seth is so caught up. And here's here's I'll
take a step back. I think what Seth said was
one hundred percent from his guts. I really believe that.
I think the lot of this had to do with
(35:51):
Seth feeling truly frustrated with the fans and not understanding
why they were turning on him, and it's not a
deal of of, well, well, you either die a hero
or live long enough to become the villain. I don't
see as as kay as the case. I mean, that
wouldn't have been the case with Stone Cold Steve Austin.
(36:13):
The fans were never gonna boo him even during his
heel turn. He wasn't truly booed. Fans reluctantly were like
I mean, Austin's heel turn is largely viewed as unsuccessful,
at least from the standard that Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Williams set for it when he did it at
WrestleMania seventeen and turned on the fans and aligned himself
(36:34):
with the Vince McMahon. So I don't really buy that Moniker,
that cop out that excuse of oh, you either die
a hero or live long enough to see yourself become
the villain. Very batmanish. I think that was that from
The Dark Knight of The Dark Knight Rises one of them, right, God,
those are such good movies. But it was from one
(36:54):
of them, and I think that's what Seth was alluding to.
A you know, he made the reference not on this promo,
but I was in WWE backstage that you look at
Tom Brady, you know, people just want to see somebody
knock him off his perch. I don't think Seth is
seeing the forest through the trees here. I think Seth
(37:14):
is a little bit delusional in drinking too much of
the kool aid that WWE management has been forcing him
to drink. I don't think it's a fact of well,
you got to the mountaintop, now we want to see
you fall. I don't think he was ever that great
of a baby face to begin with. And he I mean,
here's some of the things as to why the fans
I think turned on him. I've been watching this long
(37:37):
enough to feel it. I felt it. He never truly
connected as a face. He felt a bit inauthentic. He
was saying and doing all the right things, as he said.
That's the problem. He seemed a little bit too good
or all of his speeches and his pro of the
(38:01):
we did it stuff, all of that was a little
bit too clean. It wasn't real, that's your problem. It
was too polished. So that was one again, one problem.
And then you look at the fact of Becky Lynch
and Seth Rollins when they teamed together against Lacy Evans
and Baron Corbin. They had terrible on air chemistry, obnoxious
(38:28):
on screen chemistry of which Becky has rebounded and Seth didn't.
That was awful, awful Seth never, I mean, he was
just kind of there at times. He didn't have a
whole lot of depth as a babyface. You know, there
were times where you all this is He would say
that this is all, this is his life, this is everything,
(38:49):
and we're supposed to just get behind him and relate.
He doesn't, I think, have the knack to relate as
a babyface. He just he doesn't. He has done so
many things, turning on the Shield, being responsible for the
Shields destruction, joining the authority, only to be dumped by
the authority, and then he was forced to leave the authority,
(39:10):
not leaving of his own accord. And then just the
way he speaks his promos, his voice tone in inflection,
his natural voice screams, heel, you put all this together,
and it's just a recipe for you're boring us, Seth.
You got to the mountaintop. You know. We could say
that we were tired of Brock being champion and we
(39:32):
wanted to see someone take Brock down, but just only
because brock Lisner held it forever and he wasn't there.
It wasn't so much that we wanted to see Seth
as champion. We just wanted to see someone who was
believable enough to take it away from him so that
we could have a championship that is actually on TV
at least semi regularly. And that's what I think it was.
(39:53):
And Seth was the only believable guy that could do
it and was really good in the ring. And it's
not about Seth.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
I put it all on the line for you guys. Yeah. Well,
here's the thing. Here's the thing that I think a
lot of people are missing in today's twenty nineteen professional
wrestling ideology. It's not about always having five star matches.
I am not of the belief that having five star
matches consistently will make you a huge star. I don't
(40:22):
believe that. And when I say five star matches, I'm
talking about the standard that is set by twenty nineteen
and soon to be twenty twenty, where we have to
do kickouts of finishers and crazy moves and crazy reversals
and seven twenty splashes and fourteen suicide dives. That is
what twenty nineteen, twenty twenty wrestling has become of. What
(40:45):
the definition of this is awesome chance are deserving of.
And I'm not of that belief. I'm not in that crowd.
I'm of the belief of having an awesome story, awesome story.
Put it on damn creative. Put it on creative to
come up with these stories. That's their damn job. And yes,
(41:05):
execution is the other piece of which you have to
have agents help the performers, excuse me, help the wrestlers
do what they need to do to execute it. Of
the executed in the way the vision was laid out,
and there are so Yes, there are two players in
this in the success of a storyline coming together in
(41:27):
the match being great. I don't always need a five
star match. It's not always about having a five star match,
at least in the standard of today's five star match standard.
I don't need that. I need a great story, intriguing characters,
over the top, characters that are believable, promos that don't
(41:48):
feel mechanical. Everybody doesn't need to have a zinger line
at the end of every promo. Everybody's too polished. I don't.
Everything's so squeaky clean and and cute with the lines
that are delivered that it doesn't feel authentic because it's
done too well. It's a really, really weird dynamic. I
(42:09):
don't need promos feeling so cute and so well thought
out that it's not believable, and they sacrifice authenticity and
believability for well, it's gonna be a great line, or
it'll be a great comeback, it'll be funny.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
No.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I would rather have a guy or galgo out there
and give me what's in their brains, know which direction
they're going, tell me how to get there, and I'll
get you there, and have intriguing characters that can go
out and can put on a good match, but tell
a good story in the ring at a pace that
a story is supposed to be told, and that's chapter
by chapter. I don't. It's almost as if in today's
(42:50):
world of wrestling, and even again in WW specifically too,
you have almost a speed reader who is controlling thea
or the wrestling world. In other words, I have somebody
who's just going flip flip, flip, flip flip the page,
flip flip flip, flip flip, flip flip, instead of someone
who's dissecting and digesting what the reading and understanding the
(43:13):
story going on, and having a commentator talk about what's
going on the ring and not just speeding through talking
about other crap. Let's get to the next thing. Let's
say I feel like the matches go too quick and
I don't Okay, so I'm ranting, but anyway, I don't
even have the hell I got here. Let's get back
to Moneyette raw because I'm going off, way off. But
(43:36):
the whole Seth thing is how I got here. I
was like getting my notes. That's all we got here
with the whole Seth deal. I will praise this for
the fact that it felt real. I am one hundred
percent behind Seth Rollins and AOP. I think that's a
hell of an intriguing group. You have Seth and two heaters,
two heavies that can do his bidding, do his dirty work.
And if he's blaming the fans because we're the ones
(43:58):
that turned on him and now our negativity has forced
him to do this, I love that. Not taking any
responsibility for anything. That's a that's a completely just a
completely heinous trait to have. It's a unlikable trait to have,
and that is a great heel in the making. So
I'm very interested to see what the Seth the heel
two point zero can do. Very interested. So I'm loving
(44:21):
this pairing. I like his promo, but I think the
that Seth's thinking is faulty as to why the fans
quote turned on him. You know, you have to look
no further than creative. Creative sometimes your execution you have
a natural inkling to be heel. Anyway, WW fed up
(44:42):
your return at extreme rules. When he returned and I
forget what year was, twenty and twelve and no, no, no, no, no,
two thousand and fifteen, what extreme rules? The fans were
ready to embrace them, they didn't WW turned him heel
And that was a completely it was a massive misstep.
So many different things, guys, just just just a litany
(45:02):
of things. So what do you want from me, Seth?
I want you to be authentic. I want you to do,
to do and think and tell me what you're thinking
without actually trying to remember what you just read backstage.
That's what I want from you. I want a heel
Seth Rollins because I think that's your You're better suited
(45:24):
as you were very bland as a baby face. That's
what I want from you, So you want your answer
there it is okay, Becky Lynch versus Oscar and Kyrie
saying I like this match. I thought it was very
good having Becky not lose, but just have Oscar pull out.
Pulls Kyrie out to ringside as she was being put
(45:46):
in the disarmor, and then Becky follows him outside. Oscar
hits Becky with a steel chair and the ref calls
for the belt. So, yeah, Becky won, but it was
by disqualification, so it doesn't really count. I guess. Oscar
and Kyrie set up tables at ringside. They lay Becky
on it and Kyrie goes up to the top and
gives Becky the flying elbow drop through the table onto
the floor. Becky is backstage getting iced. Charlotte comes in,
(46:10):
then leaves, and Kyrie and Oscar attack Charlotte. They beat
down Charlotte in the hallway and leave, so that leads
to an interview backstage where they challenge Charlotte and Becky
to a tag team match and they'll put their women's
tag team titles on the line. This is where things
kind of go off the rails for me. As much
(46:30):
as I'm enjoying Kyrie and Osca as a team and
becoming relevant and badass and legitimate and kicking women's asses,
which like I'm one hundred percent behind, I think that's
a great strategy. They feel more relevant. They have new
entrance music, although their attire and their struts to the
ring don't really fit their new music. This particularly Kyrie's
(46:51):
saying who's still twirling her umbrella around? I would like
to see them be more of a cohesive unit and
conform to the great music that they now have to
get there. Just their their movements and their entrance isn't
sinking yet they have the music now, kind of you know,
modify your your movements and your you know, your outfits.
I think your tire would would would help so And
(47:15):
also I don't understand the fact that their heels offering
up their tag team championships to Becky and Charlotte. I mean,
I just that doesn't make sense either. It's it's a
little bit backwards, but I'll roll with it because I
don't feel like I got another rant. So we have
Eric Rowan and An enhancement talent Eric Rowan destroys this individual.
(47:38):
I didn't get his name after he grabbed the cage
that's carrying something and try to take it. But yeah,
I guess Eric Rohan caught up to him and gave
him the iron claw like four times something like that.
The ref call for the bell, so I don't even
know what to make of it. He yells at this
(48:02):
individual and goes up through the cage and says that
everything's okay now, and he called it somebody so or
someone rather if it's so. If it was so, you know,
precious to him, wouldn't he have as he's in the
before the match instead of having it, you know, sixty
feet away at the top of the ramp, brought it
back to the ramp so he could keep an eye
(48:23):
on it if it meant that much to him. I
don't know. Okay, poking holes in logic, that's just what
this show does, poking holes in logic. Maybe I'll maybe
just rename the show. Okay, So back from the break,
Becky and Charlotte are shown in the trainer's office office
and they seem to agree to challenge Oscar and Kyrie
for the tag titles at TLC again, still reluctantly Becky
(48:45):
more so makes sense. I'm fine with this, and do
I expect them to win? That's another discussion that's intriguing.
Having Becky two belts again, which I still don't like
that nickname, but having Becky and Charlotte is TAC team
Champions couldn't happen very much. So again, tune in Saturday
(49:05):
for your TLC predictions, and tomorrow for Wrestling Nostalgia, and
then Thursday again and Thursday and Friday for your awn
NXT reviews, so lots of show is coming up this week.
We then get a Angela Forden or Forden Dawkins from
The Street Profits. They started an SNL Weekend Update theme skit.
(49:29):
They talk about some matches for the TLC card and
then crack some jokes for about the competitors. I don't know.
I think Vince McMahon looks at these guys as in comedy,
kind of looking like he looks at heavy machinery as comedy,
particularly otis. I don't know if I didn't hate it.
I went into this when it first came up, I said, oh,
(49:50):
this is going to be terrible, and then I came
away saying they didn't they didn't kill it, right. I mean,
if they're using them as just props to promote the
pay per view and give people all line up, fine,
And I don't know if this is going to be
something consistent, but okay, Remisterio versus AJ Styles from the
United States Championship was next year. Good match. I really
(50:14):
enjoyed this match. I think would have been about eleven
twelve minutes a great match except for the end, right,
I mean, they botched the end. I'm not going to
get a get on them for that because that was
a tricky move to do a Hurricane Rana into a
Styles clash. You know, two professionals out there, you're gonna
have a you know, a clunker of a moment every
(50:36):
now and then. It's just gonna happen. Unfortunately, it had
to be the final, the final move set of the match,
so it's what people think of. But outside of this,
I think they worked well together. I enjoyed it, and
having Raymisterio pin AJ Styles I think was the right move.
AJ Styles is clearly in a program with Randy Orton.
(50:58):
It wouldn't make sense for AJ Styles to the Championship
when the United States Championship only to get into a
program with Randy Orton, who then challenged for it doesn't
make sense. You need to keep this on ray. I'm
not a fan of though. The only thing I would say,
I don't know if I'm a big fan of. You know,
you battle this, you know, you have a you have
this match, and you're you know, you're doing power moves
and crazy stuff and the next thing you know, you're
(51:18):
you lose by a roll up. I mean, we see that.
I think a little bit too much where you know,
guys beat the hell out of each other, do all
this crazy stuff and they lose with a roll up.
I mean, I yeah, okay, But outside of that, I'm
fine with it. Randy Orton showed up and looked like
he was going to deliver an RKO and just did
nothing and walked away. Randy Orton is the most intriguing
(51:42):
he's been in a while. I actually forgot about it.
I didn't think he was going to show up, and
seeing him in the ring thinking he's going to deliver
an RKO, winks doesn't rolls out and leaves. Imagine that, man,
You travel, you work out, you get to the arena,
you know, you're you're sleepless, and they're like, what we're
gonna have you do, Randy, We're gonna have you just
(52:04):
kind of rolling the ring wink and you're gonna leave
all right. I'm sure Randy didn't oppose mister longevity, and
he's all about longevity and rightfully so probably like hell yeah, guys,
sign me up, right, sign me up. But just interesting.
I'm sure in the dark segment, maybe after the camera
went off, they probably had him hit a couple of
(52:26):
rkos that the live crowd was going sent home happy.
So on a final notes about Raw, I will say
WWE's continual nonsensical just knows in the air about where
they are and announcing where they are now. They were
in Fayeteville, South Carolina, and I just I'm sorry Greenville,
(52:52):
South Carolina, and they didn't mention where they were. And
when they were in North Carolina. They when we had
Big E come out on SmackDown last week, they said,
he said, oh, North Carolina. He didn't even want to
say the town. This week. It was just quick banner
at the beginning of Raw and of where they were.
(53:14):
That's it. It's just it just shows you what WWE
what their image there, how they viewed their image when
portraying where they are. That it affects how people view
what this company is. Maybe I said that wrong. They
(53:36):
are so concerned about what people will think and their
sponsors will think, and their stakeholders and stockholders will think
if they announce where they are, and if it's not
a football NFL city, if it's not Chicago or LA
or New York or Miami or wherever, Dallas, that they're gonna,
you know, think that they this company is small town
(54:00):
and that this is one of those wrestling companies that
goes where the territories used to go. It's such it's
such small thinking. It's just so stupid, and it's so
noticeable when they do this. What is the problem announcing
where you are? I understand anytime they're in Chicago or LA,
(54:21):
New York, Dallas, Miami, you name it, Sacramento, even San Francisco, Philadelphia,
name an NFL city and they will say that name
minimum of ten times during the show, fifteen twenty times.
Maybe you come to Greenville, South Carolina, You'll be lucky
if they mentioned the state you're in. They won't. It's
(54:43):
so small of them, and it just shows you what
their values are and what they value. It's just stupid.
It's embarrassing. So they're about that. Wwe you, I mean, like, seriously,
just take pride to the fact that you were a
tour ring in selling out arenas across the country. You're
(55:04):
not gonna always be in a big market. But no, well, no, no,
that's not the case. Well we're we're just in South Carolina.
We're just an all encompassing Uh, we're in an all
encompassing raw. The entire state of South Carolina's here. We're
not in one particular place. Vince McMahon and his uh,
his values are so screwed up. Sometimes they did didn't
(55:26):
mean seriously, but anyway, all right, well, guys, I hope
you enjoyed the show today. It was a blast. I
really enjoyed talking about Money Net Raw, which I think
was overall very good. Yes, of course I had some
had some had some qualms about Lana and Russev that
whole thing, and Bobby Lashley of course, and then Seth
Rollins' explanation of why he did what he did, blaming
(55:48):
it on us. I think that was good, but it's
a faulty thinking because I believe it's his true thinking
and the lines of ALP loved it. So very interesting
to see what they do with follow up on this
and how things play out at TLC. Again, the TLC
preview prediction show that Ashley will be done on Saturday,
where you guys can hear our thoughts and of course
(56:09):
the aw NXT review and your wrestling nostalgia comes to
you tomorrow as I am traveling, but I'll bring all
of my podcast equipment with me so you'll be able
to get your wrestling nostalgia fixed tomorrow night. All right, guys,
thank you so much for listening. As always, i'll talk
to you next time.
Welcome to the WWE Podcast, your place for the most
passionate wrestling analysis on the web.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Just turn Roman Heel. What is WWE Waiting for another
wrestling podcast? Put you to sleep?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
You can count on the WWE Podcast to get you
engaged and asking for more.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I've been watching wrestling for over twenty years and that
was one of the best matches I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
This is unlike any other wrestling analysis. So without any
further delay, let's get the show started right now.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome to the WWE Podcast. It is Tuesday, December tenth,
twenty nineteen. Guys, Welcome to the show, and we're gonna
get to Monday Night Raw and all of the insanity
that was Monday Night Raw. Some really awesome stuff too
that there is an aresome things that you will hear
me critique and be a bit critical of, and rightfully so.
(00:58):
But there's a lot of good here, a lot of
good in a show that was it felt different. There
was something about this show that just felt different, and
it felt like a turning point for a lot of
different reasons that we're going to get to all of
those with says Official Heel Turn and aligning himself with
Raizar and ACoM the AOP and making it official a
(01:23):
very heartfelt promo. I think a lot of truth was
in that for Seth Rollins, and so that was pretty
cool to hear. And so we're going to get into
that and the just absurdity that was the Lana Roussev
angle that people seem to somehow be tuning in for
to see the train wreck. I think that it's a
(01:44):
train wreck type of viewership that are spiking this segment
and to why Vince McMahon decides to place this at
the very top of the show. Tells you that the
numbers support his decision on this, which makes me very angry.
I have not been in support of this angle. I've
said it's been tolerant at times, and Russev's performances at
times have been the saving grace for this disaster of
(02:09):
a Jerry's Springer Vince McMahon fantasy angle that he just
can't help himself with. It's right clearly from Vince's brain
and Kevin Dunn's brain of their constant struggle with and
their goal of disassociating themselves with being a wrestling company
(02:31):
by throwing out angles like this. But these are the
exact angles that drive fans crazy, fans of wrestling crazy,
and also give those who don't like wrestling a really
ammunition to fire back at fans that do. It's that
type of angle. So we're going to dive into that
(02:53):
just in a moment. So before we do that, though,
I want to invite you guys to check out the
ad free version of this show. It's on Patreon at
patreon dot com slash WWE podcast, so you can head
on over there and get yourself an ad free version
of this show. If you don't like the ads, you
feel like you're interruptive, well, easy solution, head over there
(03:14):
and get yourself on board. For just a dollar a month,
you can get the entire library, the entire library of
this show at free, and lots of other good stuff
on the way. You guys know the deal. You can
go up from there and get tons of other big
bonuses and i'd invite you to check it out. But
let's get to money and at raw. Let's just do it.
(03:36):
Let's go to the very top of the show here
where it was Jerry the King Lawler. Don't worry, but
by the way, this is the go home show to TLC,
you wouldn't know that there's a pay per view coming,
but this, this show mildly that reminded you that there's
a pay per view on Sunday, and WWE certainly sent
(03:57):
the message that this is a c pay per view.
I mean, it just is. And you know, come December,
I expect nothing less. So this is not a slight
on WWE, because, to be totally frank, the nature of
the business every December is to kind of put things
on hold, do do programs that are maybe run it
(04:19):
maybe have maybe run its course, or string out programs
longer than needed to go past December into January when
we have the royal rumble of that that really restarts
things and you get right into the WrestleMania season. So
to me, this is nothing more than kind of a
hold me over. I don't expect any major developments. And
(04:41):
this is the perfect example that you could use if
you are against once a month pay per views, where
you could say, how about we only hold a pay
per view when it's worth holding a pay per view,
and this is just well, it's kind of one of
those well it's on the calendar, we got to do it.
Rather than saying Hey, let's build to a pay per
(05:04):
view and build to a card and develop storylines in
a proper amount of time so that when the pay
per view comes around it makes sense to have it,
and you have enough build and expectation, and you have
anticipation built for the pay per view. In this case,
if anybody is actually anticipating TLC, I would ask that
you see your local medical facility, because I just don't
(05:27):
know how anyone is super excited about this, and you
know this week, you know I will cover it, of course,
I will still watch it, of course. And am I
mildly excited? I guess because it's a pay per view,
and you know we'll get tables, ladders, and chairs, and
we get to see and hear toys referred to or
excuse me, chairs and ladders and actual weapons referred to
(05:48):
as toys, even Samoa Joe making that cardinal sin reference
of saying that you know, weapons were somebody was going
to the toy box. I forget who it was. Been
the Kaboogie Warriors before they put Becky through the table.
You know, he's mentioned, oh, they're going to the toy box,
don't I don't understand how that's beneficial to or in
(06:13):
a way that makes this segment feel more important and
makes it seem like what's happening to Becky is serious.
We need to refer to toys. I don't think serious.
I know it's a cute way to refer to weapons,
but we don't say the word weapons. I mean, I
don't know what it is. I just don't understand the
logic behind referring to weapons as toys. But we'll get
(06:33):
a lot of roads references on Sunday, I'm sure, because
it's a cute way to refer to weapons. So get
ready for that at nauseum come Sunday. So anyway, we
start out with Jerry the King Lawler n raw and
of course Jerry the King Lawler is the one to
be hosting this because who else but Jerry the King
Lawler to get involved in scandals And nothing like a
(06:55):
scandal to get Vince McMahon's you know eyes perked up
and you know, paying attention at a production meeting. Nothing
like a good scandal. We don't need that wrestle and
it's all about the scandals and uh, you know, entertaining
TV or whatever the hell he thinks this is. Again,
there have been worse things in the world of w
w A, certainly, but this, this is getting just weird
(07:19):
because not only is it just in terms of logic
and in terms of continuity and in terms of common sense,
is this just littered with holes in all of those areas,
But it's kind of obnoxious to watch at times, and
unfortunately the crowd continues to support it, which is why
(07:41):
Vince goes, oh, damn it, I told you this is
this is good, you know what? Right? So anyway, let
let's let's go here. So jid King Laula comes out
and he invites Lana out, who comes out with her lawyer,
and Russev comes out next. So Lana and Russov sit
down at the table and starts cutting a probo about
how Rusav made things all about him when the fans
(08:03):
started chanting Russav Day. So let me get this straight.
Lana originally said, oh, I did this because all you
wanted was sex and then you cheated on me. Then
it's all about Russav Day, and it's all about you.
You make it all about you, I I And this
(08:25):
is this is what makes it even weirder. Right, So
Lana says that she is waving the distance clause in
her in her restraining order for tonight so that they
could get this signed, you know, but hey, you know
you can actually have these mailed in or just meet
separately with your attorneys. But hey, so she has she
(08:48):
has a waiver on the distance clause. And then later
in the promo and they're just obnoxious argument. We have
Lana say that if you step any can't take any
steps closer, you know, I'll have you go to jail
for a very long long time. So I guess you
can just arbitrarily decide when you want to activate the
(09:08):
restraining order restriction and just verbally say that you're going
to now start upholding the distance clause. Isn't that what
a restraining order is in and of itself? Though there's
not really any other provisions as far as I know,
the biggest is just you can't come within x amount
(09:29):
of feet or yards or miles of this person, right,
I don't know. So I guess you can just arbitrarily
decide when to activate it, not just by saying it.
That's a thing legally, right. So we have her coming
out and Lana continues ranting, says she's smart and intelligent
and blames the WWE universe. I still hate that term.
(09:52):
It's been invoked now for like seven eight years or something,
maybe more, And I just can't stand this corporate label
they place. They can't just say WWE fans, they can't.
They have to say universe. Why it's just they're fans.
I'm not a universe. I'm a fan of WWE. Well,
(10:15):
it's an all encompassing term for the fans. It sounds stupid.
There's no other way to put It's anybody else feel
this way? Am I the only one that just continues
to rag on about this ww universe label? And we're fans.
I'm a fan of WWWE. I guess fenn is an
antiquated term, probably according to Vince McMahon, And I don't know.
(10:37):
I'm an a Vince McMahon tirade right now. Okay, moving down,
Lana continues and that Russev tells the fans this is
what he had to deal with his entire marriage, and
points to some footage on the screen of lone and
lastly being arrested last week and a lot of freaks
out and starts ranting again he'll never find someone like her.
(10:57):
Russo says to can value standard and doesn't want to
find someone like her, and Lana says, russep chose dead
would be over her and screams and I mean, it's
it's just it's it's bizarre, and her threatening to put
him in jail for if he violates the restraining order,
which again she just activated by saying it is laughable
(11:18):
considering the last three times he violated it in the restaurant,
throwing Lashley off the stage and last week, you know,
none of that makes any bit of difference. And she
said that if he violates it every single time, he's
gonna go to jail, of which he has not done.
And I can tell you if you violate a restraining
order that blatantly you, I mean, you do go to jail.
(11:40):
So it makes no sense how Lana never invoked him
or or and forced that on him to have him arrested.
It's just empty threats and none of it ever came
to fruition. It's bizarre. So, I mean, can you tell
this this storyline was not thought out? Can you tell
it was just like a brain the Vince McMahon in
(12:01):
a boardroom meeting and production meeting saying, what if we
have Lana and Russav get a divorce and it's Lana
comes out and starts making out with Bobby Lashley, wouldn't
that be great? Sh you know what, I want to say,
the word, but it's PG. I just can hear the nonsense,
but no congruity and no structure put around it. It's
(12:26):
the most flaccid there's a word for you, loose, Just
just bizarre structure around the story that I've ever seen.
It's all over the place and it's impossible to follow,
and I don't I don't know. So let's let's move
on and put on And honestly, what makes this even
(12:48):
harder is Lana's performances on the mic are weird. I
think the only thing good about it is she's really
nice to look at. Yeah, she's a really good looking woman. Okay,
you I know that, but that's really dealing redeeming quality
at this point. She's she has weird inflections in moments
when she pauses when she shouldn't, and sometimes her emotions
(13:11):
don't feel legitimate. She's not the worst promo in the world.
I just don't think she's found her stride yet, which
also makes this kind of double bad and Russev honestly,
he's had his moments. But Russev I think is underperformed
at times where he could say lines that would be
much funnier and more time, better time than the things
(13:33):
that he said. I don't. I'm I'm just ranting, Okay,
so let's let's keep going here. They argue over the
custody of their puppy. Yeah, they actually do this and
start yelling. Lana signs the divorce papers first, and Roussev
says before he signs, he needs something from Lana. He
wants a match with her boyfriend. Lastly comes out, starts
(13:57):
talking trash and says that once he signs this paper,
he's gonna marry Lana, and Russo said that's fine, as
long as he still gets to fight. Lastly on Russov day.
So all right, yeah, I'm gonna move on from this
segment because it's I'm interested to see what the numbers
were for this segment, in particular, if it was something
(14:19):
that Vince McMahon's envisioning the numbers for or and hopefully
does not validate his incessant need to have these entertainment
And I put that in air quotes these entertainment segments
over valuable wrestling. I understand this needs to be sprinkled in,
(14:39):
but it was just a just kind of I just
feel like it was just loosely talked about and someone said, well,
it's just put us together, make it makes sense, and
it just hasn't. It just hasn't all the way through.
There's no follow through on Russov actually being arrested for
violent restraining orders. There's no still no explanation and follow
up to the cheating if Russev was actually or of
(15:02):
Lana actually believed he cheated, and why did Lana believe
Bobby Lashley cheated? Or I'm sorry, why did Lana believe
Bobby Lashley that Russev cheated? And not just ask Russev.
I mean that's because that was the first time you
heard about it. There's so many things, so many things.
It's just it's bizarre. Okay, moving on the line here.
Kevin Owens is backstage. He says. Owen says that Rollins
(15:23):
is the one who told aop to attack him, that
attacked him last week, and he thinks it's because he's
the only one who stood up to Rollins during his
little speech and he goes on a hunt for aop
and runs into Mysterio, who then lends him his his
lead pipe. So this was a nice hook throughout the show.
(15:44):
I like when there's a hook or a storyline main
storyline woven throughout the show. It has worked in the past.
It's a tried and true formula, and I like when
they do this because it keeps you wondering what's the payoff.
It keeps you wondering how is this going to end?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Right?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And I think they did a nice job with this.
And credit to Kevin Owens for being the smart baby face.
He's been, you know, extremely intelligent throughout this whole storyline,
which I like. It's he's consistently smart and not believing
anything that seth Rollins says, so, all right, we had
Drew McIntire versus Matt Hardy as well, and Drew McIntyre
(16:30):
one as he should. I understand Matt Hardy as Matt Hardy,
but Drew McIntyre is the future. I mean, let's let's
face it. Drew hit with his hit, his hit, his
finish the claymore and just that's the way it was.
It was a matter of fact win against a significant star,
and I think this is hopefully I keep saying this.
(16:52):
I hope it's the rebuild of Drew McIntyre and and
A and an actual attempt to to build a foundation
for a true push for Drew. I will sing his
praises until he gets what he deserves, and that is
a long championship run, like six to twelve months being champion.
(17:15):
I think he could do it. I think he has
the ability. He has the athleticism, he has the promo ability,
he has the believability as the presence all of the above.
He has everything you need, every box you could check
he has. I love it. He's got the stature, everything.
(17:35):
So again, I hope this win is not just a well,
we got to get Drew mctarre on the show, and
Matt Hardy's still around and he's credible, so let's have
Drew beat Matt. I hope there's a plan here. I
hope there's a meaning behind this win because Matt Hardy
is not your local performer. Matt Hardy is Matt Hardy.
(17:56):
I mean, think about the legacy he's left in pro wrestling,
not just in WWE, but even in TNA. You know,
broken Matt Hardy. Remember that we all remember that it
became woke in Matt Hardy or whatever it was in WW.
They couldn't get the rights to it and just became
woke Matt Hardy, which is in ironic considering the political
(18:17):
environment we're in now, right for those that follow politics
and know what I'm talking about, But I think that
Matt Hardy, having Drew beat Matt the way he did
and in the timeframe he did, should mean something. I
don't need it to be just another win Matt Hardy. Again.
We need to realize who Matt Hardy was and is
(18:39):
and represents. So I just don't want it to be
a nothing win. Okay. We go backstage where Charlotte approaches Becky.
They talk about their issues and Charlotte offers to form
an alliance with Becky to take out the Kabooki Warriors,
which Becky declines and says she's going to take them
two on one. So we then get backstage, and by
(19:02):
the way, I will say about Becky and Charlotte, I
like this more than I thought I would. I you know,
once Becky and Charlotte ended their felt like years of
a program, which again they're very good in the ring together,
no doubt, which is why they kept them together for
so long as opponents. And I said, I didn't want
to have these two in any kind of segment together
(19:25):
for years, right, I don't need to see them in
the same segment for any reason ever. Again, I mean,
but seeing them try to, I guess hesitantly form an
alliance is a good strategy. And I like how Becky
is dismissive of Charlotte at first. They acknowledge they don't
(19:46):
like each other. I like it. That's smart. It makes
sense after months and months and months and years of
fighting each other and dissing each other and at each
other's throats, to have them acknowledge that, hey, we don't
like each other, but we have a common enemy. And
Becky's still kind of a bit hesitant. There should be
(20:06):
that hesitancy, and that's smart. So praise to the b
on this storyline. In terms of congruity and in terms
of logic, this makes so, this makes a lot of sense.
So and obviously we get more of a a development
in this story down the line here. So, okay, Olwen
sees Mojo Rawleigh backstage. Now, this is something I really
(20:32):
enjoyed from Kevin Owens perspective, which I think he had
a really good night, a banner knight. I enjoyed Kevin
Owens from top to bottom here and having him run
into Mojo who's being an obnoxious you know what talking
about how, yeah, I saw iop go this way, Wait,
I saw go that way, and then it's basically saying,
you know, I saw him go both directions, trying to
(20:53):
be an obnoxious a hole, and I like how Kevin
Owens slapped him in the face. That to me, I
mean because Mojo deserved it. I loved it, Mojo. I mean,
I guess it's from home personal experience, like whenever you're
in a dire situation and you have a like somebody
make a joke out about something you really need and
(21:17):
they're saying, oh, I have that, and then they really
don't have it and they're just being an a hole
and you but you're like, no, I really need to know.
But apparently they're thirst for trying to make a joke
at your expense when you're actually needing something is at
a higher premium than Yeah, they needed to be punched
right in the face. So I enjoy that from Kevin
Owens that was a solid segment for again, a solid night,
(21:39):
very solid night for Kevin Owens. Okay, then we get
a video package announcing Batista's introduction, introduction, induction into the
w W Hall of Fame for the class of twenty twenty.
Really enjoyed that as well as far as Batista deserving
of that, of course he is. And yes, the nWo,
the nWo, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hogan and Xbox Sean
(22:03):
Waltman are going to be inducted into the w W
Hall of Fame. And many people are saying, oh my god,
Hogan's being inducted twice. Anybody who likes him or you know,
supports him, f M F you olah blah blah blah. Okay,
let's take a step back here. I just want to
comment on this. If you don't recognize the contributions that
and again I'm speaking specifically about Hulk Hogan because that
(22:24):
seems to be the focal point of everybody who it
just you know, will not let go of the racist
comments he made years and years and years and years ago,
of which he has publicly apologized for. He has he
was fired from WWW for many a year, three years
or four years and now he's back. So how long
are we supposed to punish somebody, you know, for making
comments that again I don't I do not support I
(22:46):
think they were awful of course all of that. But again,
you know, you you do the crime, you do the time.
Are we just supposed to just you know, basically just
you know, blackball him forever? Consider the country putians he's made,
Consider the contributions that Hulk Hogan has made in his
career to the sport of professional wrestling. And when you
(23:08):
talk about the nWo, how can that group not be inducted?
Are you gonna just cut off your nose despite your
face and say, well, well, the nWo is gonna be inducted,
but f Hogan's He's not gonna be there. You can't
do that. Hulk Hogan was the face of the nWo.
So you're just gonna again, you're gonna sacrifice the whole
group's induction because people are saying F Hogan grow up. Seriously,
(23:32):
I mean, if everyone the whole thing is, the world
is run by how people feel. Everybody's feelings. Everyone's got feelings. Everyone,
Oh well that's not that doesn't make me feel good
or you that that's that's offensive. Everyone hides behind their
their identity there there, you know, it's I'm getting all political.
But the fact of the matter is the contributions that
(23:53):
Hulk Hogan has made is undeniable and should absolutely be
recognized in the professional wrestling world. The comments that he
made years ago that were being recorded at his not
of his knowledge, Okay, we all know that, and there's
no disputing any of that. We know that. But to
(24:17):
negate everything he's contributed to the wrestling world for those
the silly comments he made, of which he's apologized for
and been punished for, I think is a little bit
it's a little bit of overkill to really destroy everything
he's done because of that. I mean, so anyway, I
think I've made my point. But the nWo absolutely are deserving.
(24:41):
I don't care if Hogan's in twice. I don't give
a damn right. Think about this. What about Degeneration X, Yeah,
inducted you're saying they shouldn't be inducted twice Shawn Michaels
of his own career and the degeneration X character or
degeneration X group. I mean, you can make how many
examples just because someone should have be inducted twice. Get
(25:05):
over yourself, seriously, all right, comments on Twitter. Sometimes these
comments on Twitter just and I'm not gonna name who
it is or anything like that, but people are just
some people. Just yeah, all right, moving on to the
Viking Raiders and Street Profits. We got the Street Profits
here and not just this segment, but by the way,
(25:25):
they lost this relatively quickly, and I like that the
Viking Raiders, though, I are at least getting a little
bit of a shine. I don't. You can't say they're
truly heels. I mean, they had good they all four
men had you know, good sportsmanship at the end. Even
though that they beat, the Viking Riders beat the Street
(25:46):
Profits straight up, there was some mutual respect there which
says that hey, we're not heels. We're all baby faces here,
and so I guests are still defined as faces. And
that's fine. But I feel like the Viking Raiders never
capitalized on their initial win, their initial victory, that the
crowd scene behind. I remember the pop they had, that
(26:06):
they had a lot of momentum behind them after winging
the belts, and then it just got dropped. And that
seems to be the theme a lot of times w
W E booking where you have somebody make a turn,
win a championship, and then there's like, what are we
doing after that to keep the momentum going. Well, I
don't know, I don't know. It'll just kind of just
kind of be a a self fanning flame and you'll
(26:30):
just keep going. That's not how it works, and it
seems like a lot of times those are big decisions
made and no follow through, big mistake. But the Viking
Raiders are trying to revive whatever momentum they had, and
uh so, okay, uh So after the match, we got
Seth Rollins coming out to the ring and takes the
(26:52):
spotlight and gets on the mic and calls out a LP.
They have unfinished business. And then we have Kevin Owens come.
Owen says, you get to the ring in exchanges words.
Owen says if the AOP was here to that, he
would have found them already and trashes Rollins and ends up.
Rollins ends up leaving THEOP appear on screen and speaking
some foreign language again, which they need to do something
(27:14):
about that. I mean, maybe that's their gimmick and maybe
it'll work. I doubt it. I'm not a fan of
not understanding what wrestlers are saying. I don't mind it
here and there if they have a second language of
which they feel superior whenever they use that language to
belittle the fans that don't understand their language of their
home country or whatever. But if they are ninety nine
(27:37):
percent of the time speaking in their native language, it's
not a good way to communicate to fans that ninety
nine point nine percent do not understand what the f
you're saying outside of the first ward he said, which
was Kevin, and then he went into like you know,
gibber jabber, I mean, I have no f and clue
what he said, and same goes for the Kabuki Warriors.
(27:59):
But we'll get there, so he again, Owens tells him
to bring it, but instead Sammy's zaying and Mojo Raleigh
comes out, and Sammy says he's not just a manager,
he's a liberator and what Owens did to Mojo backstage
was out of line and says it was wrong and
he wants Owens to do the right thing and apologize.
(28:20):
He asked Mojo to apologize, and Mojo gets on Owen's
face and Sammy tells him to calm down, and Mojo says,
anybody can be a tough guy with a pipe in
their hand. Owens throws them the pipe, then gives them
a stunner. Samy retreats and Owen's nails Mojo with the pipe.
Good stuff here, A little bit stone cold here. I'm
(28:40):
fine with that. I don't want him to be a
I don't want him to be a direct reflection of Austin,
but the stunner is synonymous with stone cold. This was
a kind of a stone cold moment. I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed Raleigh. Mojo Raleigh for the first time getting
the spotlight in a way that might have been the
most in his entire career. I mean, yeah, he got
laid out on his back, but he showed a little
(29:01):
bit of something here. I feel like he can be
a much better heel than he can be a babyface.
There's something here. There's something here with Rally, and I
know it was brief, but Mojo Raley has something that
maybe they can build on. And I love how Sammy's aying,
at least explain how the hell he's here, that he's
got a managerial license, which I don't even know if
(29:22):
that's the thing, but apparently it is, and that since
he has that license, it allows him just to go
between shows. I like it, Thank you for explaining. At
the same time, I knew wwe could not could not
help themselves but violate the draft sooner rather than later.
So there's that too, But I at least like that
they explained it. Back from commercial break, we see Kevin
(29:45):
Owens walking through the halls of the arena looking for
aop and then we get Alistair Black versus a Carrots,
of which guess who wins Alistair Black, Right, no surprise there.
Alistair Black continues to just win against these lower mid
card guys, and it's as almost as if he's kind
(30:07):
of a pot simmering and they're just continuing to stack
up wins for him, establish him as a big threat,
so that when he gets to a competitor that is
a little bit tougher, a little bit harder, a little
bit more legitimate, how is he going to stack up
against them? So I'm fine with this. I'm fine with us.
Eventually they're going to move him up. Nothing wrong with us.
Umberto Careo versus Andrade some good offense at the beginning
(30:30):
from Umberto several kicks standing rolling moon salt for a
two count, Andreda set up in Berto for the running
knee strike in the corner, but Umberto dodged it, hits
a drop kick than an as tech press for a
two count, Andrede came back with his running knee strike,
but Umberto fired back with a running kick. Then Zelena
(30:51):
gets on the apron and Andrede ends up accidentally running
into her and knocking her to the floor. Umberto hops
up on Andrada's shoulder and pins him with a vigor
role for the three count. The only thing coming out
of this I mean, first of all, Imberto Korea winning
is I think needed for Romberto, who continued to put
(31:11):
up a good fight or as Michael Cole would say,
a very game m Berto Carreo. That seems to be well,
it's not even Michael Cole, it's just the announcers in general.
Are you know, what's the word of the day. What
do we say? Are they? Are they very game right?
Or would somebody take them to the limit. I don't
know whoever the phraseology of the day is, but Umberto
needed this win more I think than Andrade did. I
(31:33):
think the end The development here for Andrade is that
he and Zelena for the first time, had a misque.
Can they survive it? Is this trend we'll see. That's
the story here, not that Andrade lost, but how he
lost with Zelena is Andrade's story. And the bigger story
for Romberto is hey getting a win. He needed a win,
(31:54):
he needed one, Okay, but after the Manchellin Andrada get
into a shouting match, so again, take that for what
it's worth. It could be just temporary and maybe there
resolve it next week. But could the two be on
a split? I hope not. I like Selena Androde. I
think she adds a hell of a lot to his character.
I really really do. I think she adds more than
(32:14):
the average manager does. Okay, Remisterio's backstage for a promo.
He gets says the US title means everything to him,
and cuts a promo on AJ and then that's pretty
much it. We get a promo for Austin interviewing Goldberg
on the ww Network, which I can't wait to check out.
Very interested on that. I love the Broken Skull session
so far. I know it's only one episode in with Taker,
(32:36):
but I like the format all right, let's see here.
Kevin Owens is shown backstage walking around again with the
metal pipe, finds the truck that AOP arrived in and
it looks like there's somebody sitting in there. After he
just basically trashes the van with smashing the windows, putting
(32:57):
the scratches in the car, busting up handles. He gets
into the van in the back and looks like someone
sitting there with his back turned. AOP attack owns from
behind and beat him down. They slam Owns head into
the van of the door, and then Seth gets out,
revealing the hoodie he has on and an evil look
on his face and gives a curb stomp to Owens
(33:20):
on the arena floor, and then Seth walks off with
the AOP. So here's where the full turn happened. I mean, yes,
the turn happened at that moment, but here's Seth's explanation.
And I'm surprised that they actually went this far to
explain it. You know, on the same show, it felt
like it was what would happen the next time Raw
(33:42):
Kim on the air next Monday. I think it was
done because we have a pay per view Sunday and
they wanted to firmly establish Seth Seth as a heel,
and they wanted to get this group together to do
some damage at TLC. I think that's where they were going.
So that's why they had to kind of put this
two segments into one show type of deal. But Seth
comes out and says, what do you want from me?
(34:05):
And says that he used to get along with the
ww fans insert your own stupid corporate word there, but
something went wrong and they don't like him anymore, and
they can't he can't figure out why. Seth says he
doesn't take nights off. He fights through injuries. He puts
it all the line in the ring for each and
every one of us. And as Seth says, he sticks
his neck out for fans in the ring and in
(34:27):
the media, and in return he gets spin on and disrespected.
And he told everyone last week he had nothing to
do with AOP. That was the truth, but that wasn't
good enough. Since fans jumped Owens, jumped on the Owens
bandwagon and they wanted to push him, it's time for
him to push back. He says that the fans, the fans,
and Owens drove him to stand side by side with
(34:49):
two men who understand the AOP. The AOP come out
to the ring and stand next to Rollins, so it's
symbolically it's now official. They all leave together and as
Owens is being loaded into an amb which I would
not want those EMTs working on me, they could not
get that stretcher into the ambulance. I'll just say that.
I mean that was that was funny. Out of all
(35:10):
the ambulance segments we've had in professional wrestling over the
last twenty five years, I have never seen any of
the EMTs have issue with the stretcher getting into the ambulance.
That was kind of funny actually. But so he also
mentioned in this promo about how he beat brock Leser
and brought not once but twice and beat brought the
(35:31):
Universal Championship back for us. But I don't think I
think Seth is so caught up. And here's here's I'll
take a step back. I think what Seth said was
one hundred percent from his guts. I really believe that.
I think the lot of this had to do with
(35:51):
Seth feeling truly frustrated with the fans and not understanding
why they were turning on him, and it's not a
deal of of, well, well, you either die a hero
or live long enough to become the villain. I don't
see as as kay as the case. I mean, that
wouldn't have been the case with Stone Cold Steve Austin.
(36:13):
The fans were never gonna boo him even during his
heel turn. He wasn't truly booed. Fans reluctantly were like
I mean, Austin's heel turn is largely viewed as unsuccessful,
at least from the standard that Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Williams set for it when he did it at
WrestleMania seventeen and turned on the fans and aligned himself
(36:34):
with the Vince McMahon. So I don't really buy that Moniker,
that cop out that excuse of oh, you either die
a hero or live long enough to see yourself become
the villain. Very batmanish. I think that was that from
The Dark Knight of The Dark Knight Rises one of them, right, God,
those are such good movies. But it was from one
(36:54):
of them, and I think that's what Seth was alluding to.
A you know, he made the reference not on this promo,
but I was in WWE backstage that you look at
Tom Brady, you know, people just want to see somebody
knock him off his perch. I don't think Seth is
seeing the forest through the trees here. I think Seth
(37:14):
is a little bit delusional in drinking too much of
the kool aid that WWE management has been forcing him
to drink. I don't think it's a fact of well,
you got to the mountaintop, now we want to see
you fall. I don't think he was ever that great
of a baby face to begin with. And he I mean,
here's some of the things as to why the fans
I think turned on him. I've been watching this long
(37:37):
enough to feel it. I felt it. He never truly
connected as a face. He felt a bit inauthentic. He
was saying and doing all the right things, as he said.
That's the problem. He seemed a little bit too good
or all of his speeches and his pro of the
(38:01):
we did it stuff, all of that was a little
bit too clean. It wasn't real, that's your problem. It
was too polished. So that was one again, one problem.
And then you look at the fact of Becky Lynch
and Seth Rollins when they teamed together against Lacy Evans
and Baron Corbin. They had terrible on air chemistry, obnoxious
(38:28):
on screen chemistry of which Becky has rebounded and Seth didn't.
That was awful, awful Seth never, I mean, he was
just kind of there at times. He didn't have a
whole lot of depth as a babyface. You know, there
were times where you all this is He would say
that this is all, this is his life, this is everything,
(38:49):
and we're supposed to just get behind him and relate.
He doesn't, I think, have the knack to relate as
a babyface. He just he doesn't. He has done so
many things, turning on the Shield, being responsible for the
Shields destruction, joining the authority, only to be dumped by
the authority, and then he was forced to leave the authority,
(39:10):
not leaving of his own accord. And then just the
way he speaks his promos, his voice tone in inflection,
his natural voice screams, heel, you put all this together,
and it's just a recipe for you're boring us, Seth.
You got to the mountaintop. You know. We could say
that we were tired of Brock being champion and we
(39:32):
wanted to see someone take Brock down, but just only
because brock Lisner held it forever and he wasn't there.
It wasn't so much that we wanted to see Seth
as champion. We just wanted to see someone who was
believable enough to take it away from him so that
we could have a championship that is actually on TV
at least semi regularly. And that's what I think it was.
(39:53):
And Seth was the only believable guy that could do
it and was really good in the ring. And it's
not about Seth.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
I put it all on the line for you guys. Yeah. Well,
here's the thing. Here's the thing that I think a
lot of people are missing in today's twenty nineteen professional
wrestling ideology. It's not about always having five star matches.
I am not of the belief that having five star
matches consistently will make you a huge star. I don't
(40:22):
believe that. And when I say five star matches, I'm
talking about the standard that is set by twenty nineteen
and soon to be twenty twenty, where we have to
do kickouts of finishers and crazy moves and crazy reversals
and seven twenty splashes and fourteen suicide dives. That is
what twenty nineteen, twenty twenty wrestling has become of. What
(40:45):
the definition of this is awesome chance are deserving of.
And I'm not of that belief. I'm not in that crowd.
I'm of the belief of having an awesome story, awesome story.
Put it on damn creative. Put it on creative to
come up with these stories. That's their damn job. And yes,
(41:05):
execution is the other piece of which you have to
have agents help the performers, excuse me, help the wrestlers
do what they need to do to execute it. Of
the executed in the way the vision was laid out,
and there are so Yes, there are two players in
this in the success of a storyline coming together in
(41:27):
the match being great. I don't always need a five
star match. It's not always about having a five star match,
at least in the standard of today's five star match standard.
I don't need that. I need a great story, intriguing characters,
over the top, characters that are believable, promos that don't
(41:48):
feel mechanical. Everybody doesn't need to have a zinger line
at the end of every promo. Everybody's too polished. I don't.
Everything's so squeaky clean and and cute with the lines
that are delivered that it doesn't feel authentic because it's
done too well. It's a really, really weird dynamic. I
(42:09):
don't need promos feeling so cute and so well thought
out that it's not believable, and they sacrifice authenticity and
believability for well, it's gonna be a great line, or
it'll be a great comeback, it'll be funny.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
No.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I would rather have a guy or galgo out there
and give me what's in their brains, know which direction
they're going, tell me how to get there, and I'll
get you there, and have intriguing characters that can go
out and can put on a good match, but tell
a good story in the ring at a pace that
a story is supposed to be told, and that's chapter
by chapter. I don't. It's almost as if in today's
(42:50):
world of wrestling, and even again in WW specifically too,
you have almost a speed reader who is controlling thea
or the wrestling world. In other words, I have somebody
who's just going flip flip, flip, flip flip the page,
flip flip flip, flip flip, flip flip, instead of someone
who's dissecting and digesting what the reading and understanding the
(43:13):
story going on, and having a commentator talk about what's
going on the ring and not just speeding through talking
about other crap. Let's get to the next thing. Let's
say I feel like the matches go too quick and
I don't Okay, so I'm ranting, but anyway, I don't
even have the hell I got here. Let's get back
to Moneyette raw because I'm going off, way off. But
(43:36):
the whole Seth thing is how I got here. I
was like getting my notes. That's all we got here
with the whole Seth deal. I will praise this for
the fact that it felt real. I am one hundred
percent behind Seth Rollins and AOP. I think that's a
hell of an intriguing group. You have Seth and two heaters,
two heavies that can do his bidding, do his dirty work.
And if he's blaming the fans because we're the ones
(43:58):
that turned on him and now our negativity has forced
him to do this, I love that. Not taking any
responsibility for anything. That's a that's a completely just a
completely heinous trait to have. It's a unlikable trait to have,
and that is a great heel in the making. So
I'm very interested to see what the Seth the heel
two point zero can do. Very interested. So I'm loving
(44:21):
this pairing. I like his promo, but I think the
that Seth's thinking is faulty as to why the fans
quote turned on him. You know, you have to look
no further than creative. Creative sometimes your execution you have
a natural inkling to be heel. Anyway, WW fed up
(44:42):
your return at extreme rules. When he returned and I
forget what year was, twenty and twelve and no, no, no, no, no,
two thousand and fifteen, what extreme rules? The fans were
ready to embrace them, they didn't WW turned him heel
And that was a completely it was a massive misstep.
So many different things, guys, just just just a litany
(45:02):
of things. So what do you want from me, Seth?
I want you to be authentic. I want you to do,
to do and think and tell me what you're thinking
without actually trying to remember what you just read backstage.
That's what I want from you. I want a heel
Seth Rollins because I think that's your You're better suited
(45:24):
as you were very bland as a baby face. That's
what I want from you, So you want your answer
there it is okay, Becky Lynch versus Oscar and Kyrie
saying I like this match. I thought it was very
good having Becky not lose, but just have Oscar pull out.
Pulls Kyrie out to ringside as she was being put
(45:46):
in the disarmor, and then Becky follows him outside. Oscar
hits Becky with a steel chair and the ref calls
for the belt. So, yeah, Becky won, but it was
by disqualification, so it doesn't really count. I guess. Oscar
and Kyrie set up tables at ringside. They lay Becky
on it and Kyrie goes up to the top and
gives Becky the flying elbow drop through the table onto
the floor. Becky is backstage getting iced. Charlotte comes in,
(46:10):
then leaves, and Kyrie and Oscar attack Charlotte. They beat
down Charlotte in the hallway and leave, so that leads
to an interview backstage where they challenge Charlotte and Becky
to a tag team match and they'll put their women's
tag team titles on the line. This is where things
kind of go off the rails for me. As much
(46:30):
as I'm enjoying Kyrie and Osca as a team and
becoming relevant and badass and legitimate and kicking women's asses,
which like I'm one hundred percent behind, I think that's
a great strategy. They feel more relevant. They have new
entrance music, although their attire and their struts to the
ring don't really fit their new music. This particularly Kyrie's
(46:51):
saying who's still twirling her umbrella around? I would like
to see them be more of a cohesive unit and
conform to the great music that they now have to
get there. Just their their movements and their entrance isn't
sinking yet they have the music now, kind of you know,
modify your your movements and your you know, your outfits.
I think your tire would would would help so And
(47:15):
also I don't understand the fact that their heels offering
up their tag team championships to Becky and Charlotte. I mean,
I just that doesn't make sense either. It's it's a
little bit backwards, but I'll roll with it because I
don't feel like I got another rant. So we have
Eric Rowan and An enhancement talent Eric Rowan destroys this individual.
(47:38):
I didn't get his name after he grabbed the cage
that's carrying something and try to take it. But yeah,
I guess Eric Rohan caught up to him and gave
him the iron claw like four times something like that.
The ref call for the bell, so I don't even
know what to make of it. He yells at this
(48:02):
individual and goes up through the cage and says that
everything's okay now, and he called it somebody so or
someone rather if it's so. If it was so, you know,
precious to him, wouldn't he have as he's in the
before the match instead of having it, you know, sixty
feet away at the top of the ramp, brought it
back to the ramp so he could keep an eye
(48:23):
on it if it meant that much to him. I
don't know. Okay, poking holes in logic, that's just what
this show does, poking holes in logic. Maybe I'll maybe
just rename the show. Okay, So back from the break,
Becky and Charlotte are shown in the trainer's office office
and they seem to agree to challenge Oscar and Kyrie
for the tag titles at TLC again, still reluctantly Becky
(48:45):
more so makes sense. I'm fine with this, and do
I expect them to win? That's another discussion that's intriguing.
Having Becky two belts again, which I still don't like
that nickname, but having Becky and Charlotte is TAC team
Champions couldn't happen very much. So again, tune in Saturday
(49:05):
for your TLC predictions, and tomorrow for Wrestling Nostalgia, and
then Thursday again and Thursday and Friday for your awn
NXT reviews, so lots of show is coming up this week.
We then get a Angela Forden or Forden Dawkins from
The Street Profits. They started an SNL Weekend Update theme skit.
(49:29):
They talk about some matches for the TLC card and
then crack some jokes for about the competitors. I don't know.
I think Vince McMahon looks at these guys as in comedy,
kind of looking like he looks at heavy machinery as comedy,
particularly otis. I don't know if I didn't hate it.
I went into this when it first came up, I said, oh,
(49:50):
this is going to be terrible, and then I came
away saying they didn't they didn't kill it, right. I mean,
if they're using them as just props to promote the
pay per view and give people all line up, fine,
And I don't know if this is going to be
something consistent, but okay, Remisterio versus AJ Styles from the
United States Championship was next year. Good match. I really
(50:14):
enjoyed this match. I think would have been about eleven
twelve minutes a great match except for the end, right,
I mean, they botched the end. I'm not going to
get a get on them for that because that was
a tricky move to do a Hurricane Rana into a
Styles clash. You know, two professionals out there, you're gonna
have a you know, a clunker of a moment every
(50:36):
now and then. It's just gonna happen. Unfortunately, it had
to be the final, the final move set of the match,
so it's what people think of. But outside of this,
I think they worked well together. I enjoyed it, and
having Raymisterio pin AJ Styles I think was the right move.
AJ Styles is clearly in a program with Randy Orton.
(50:58):
It wouldn't make sense for AJ Styles to the Championship
when the United States Championship only to get into a
program with Randy Orton, who then challenged for it doesn't
make sense. You need to keep this on ray. I'm
not a fan of though. The only thing I would say,
I don't know if I'm a big fan of. You know,
you battle this, you know, you have a you have
this match, and you're you know, you're doing power moves
and crazy stuff and the next thing you know, you're
(51:18):
you lose by a roll up. I mean, we see that.
I think a little bit too much where you know,
guys beat the hell out of each other, do all
this crazy stuff and they lose with a roll up.
I mean, I yeah, okay, But outside of that, I'm
fine with it. Randy Orton showed up and looked like
he was going to deliver an RKO and just did
nothing and walked away. Randy Orton is the most intriguing
(51:42):
he's been in a while. I actually forgot about it.
I didn't think he was going to show up, and
seeing him in the ring thinking he's going to deliver
an RKO, winks doesn't rolls out and leaves. Imagine that, man,
You travel, you work out, you get to the arena,
you know, you're you're sleepless, and they're like, what we're
gonna have you do, Randy, We're gonna have you just
(52:04):
kind of rolling the ring wink and you're gonna leave
all right. I'm sure Randy didn't oppose mister longevity, and
he's all about longevity and rightfully so probably like hell yeah, guys,
sign me up, right, sign me up. But just interesting.
I'm sure in the dark segment, maybe after the camera
went off, they probably had him hit a couple of
(52:26):
rkos that the live crowd was going sent home happy.
So on a final notes about Raw, I will say
WWE's continual nonsensical just knows in the air about where
they are and announcing where they are now. They were
in Fayeteville, South Carolina, and I just I'm sorry Greenville,
(52:52):
South Carolina, and they didn't mention where they were. And
when they were in North Carolina. They when we had
Big E come out on SmackDown last week, they said,
he said, oh, North Carolina. He didn't even want to
say the town. This week. It was just quick banner
at the beginning of Raw and of where they were.
(53:14):
That's it. It's just it just shows you what WWE
what their image there, how they viewed their image when
portraying where they are. That it affects how people view
what this company is. Maybe I said that wrong. They
(53:36):
are so concerned about what people will think and their
sponsors will think, and their stakeholders and stockholders will think
if they announce where they are, and if it's not
a football NFL city, if it's not Chicago or LA
or New York or Miami or wherever, Dallas, that they're gonna,
you know, think that they this company is small town
(54:00):
and that this is one of those wrestling companies that
goes where the territories used to go. It's such it's
such small thinking. It's just so stupid, and it's so
noticeable when they do this. What is the problem announcing
where you are? I understand anytime they're in Chicago or LA,
(54:21):
New York, Dallas, Miami, you name it, Sacramento, even San Francisco, Philadelphia,
name an NFL city and they will say that name
minimum of ten times during the show, fifteen twenty times.
Maybe you come to Greenville, South Carolina, You'll be lucky
if they mentioned the state you're in. They won't. It's
(54:43):
so small of them, and it just shows you what
their values are and what they value. It's just stupid.
It's embarrassing. So they're about that. Wwe you, I mean, like, seriously,
just take pride to the fact that you were a
tour ring in selling out arenas across the country. You're
(55:04):
not gonna always be in a big market. But no, well, no, no,
that's not the case. Well we're we're just in South Carolina.
We're just an all encompassing Uh, we're in an all
encompassing raw. The entire state of South Carolina's here. We're
not in one particular place. Vince McMahon and his uh,
his values are so screwed up. Sometimes they did didn't
(55:26):
mean seriously, but anyway, all right, well, guys, I hope
you enjoyed the show today. It was a blast. I
really enjoyed talking about Money Net Raw, which I think
was overall very good. Yes, of course I had some
had some had some qualms about Lana and Russev that
whole thing, and Bobby Lashley of course, and then Seth
Rollins' explanation of why he did what he did, blaming
(55:48):
it on us. I think that was good, but it's
a faulty thinking because I believe it's his true thinking
and the lines of ALP loved it. So very interesting
to see what they do with follow up on this
and how things play out at TLC. Again, the TLC
preview prediction show that Ashley will be done on Saturday,
where you guys can hear our thoughts and of course
(56:09):
the aw NXT review and your wrestling nostalgia comes to
you tomorrow as I am traveling, but I'll bring all
of my podcast equipment with me so you'll be able
to get your wrestling nostalgia fixed tomorrow night. All right, guys,
thank you so much for listening. As always, i'll talk
to you next time.
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