4 YEARS AGO: WWE Raw Review - Orton RKO's Alexa Bliss, Goldberg & McIntyre Face-off & Edge Announces His Return

Reviewing Monday Night Raw that aired on January 25th, 2021

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Drew McIntyre and Goldberg come face to face for the
final time before their big title match at the Royal Rumble.
Riddle earns a United States Championship opportunity against Bobby Lashley
and Randy Orton delivers an RKO to Alexa Bliss. Let's
get it all started right now.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to the WWE Podcast, the most passionate and authentic
wrestling analysis on the web. We've got you covered with
every Raw, SmackDown, and NXT show, giving you a no
bulk opinion. We know you love wrestling. We do too,
So let's get this show underway. And that's the bottom

(00:39):
line what stone Coat sets up.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hey, guys, welcome to the WWE Podcast. It's time to
talk Monday Night Raw, the final Monday Night before the
Royal Rumble this Sunday night. And there's a lot of
news coming out right now, guys. And it's not just
from Raw, but some other things that I'll get into,
and including a possibility of John Cena at three more

(01:15):
WrestleManias and in matches, brock Lezer's apparent leaked rumored WrestleMania opponent,
and much more. But I just want to remind you
guys with the Royal Rumble this coming weekend. We have
so much to cover in terms of podcasting and you
guys getting to listen to our show. You get ready
for the Royal Rumble. And here's what the schedule is

(01:36):
going to look like from now through Sunday night. Is
that Tonight obviously is the World Review, but tomorrow is
our dual show where we have Wrestling Nostalgia and then
a separate show of The mail Bag. I believe we're
on episode ten of The mail Bag, so that'll be
coming to you Tomorrow night, and then Wednesday or Thursday
rather is the NXT Review. Friday is Rivalries with n

(02:00):
if they need to Marco, Saturday will be the Hit
His and Lows of the Week with Mimi Burris, and
then later Saturday night will be doing a of course,
a preview and prediction show for the Royal Rumble with
a co host, So that's going to be Saturday Night
with I believe Michael Gross will be joining me for
the preview and prediction of the Rumble, and then Sunday night,

(02:22):
not only can you tweet with me during the Royal
Rumble and follow me on Instagram, but I will be
doing a post show, as I always do with every
pay per view with the Botch Guy, so you guys
have heard him before on this show. He's one of
the favorites, and I don't think that this will be
any exception. Always high energy, and I'm gonna need it

(02:42):
at that hour when I do a recording of the
show that happens you know afterwards, which you know, we
don't get talking until eleven eleven thirty, so it's a
late night for me. But it's gonna be a great show.
I'm really looking forward to it. The Botch Guy is
one of my favorites on YouTube. If you haven't subscribed,
you're like, wait, who's the Just look him up on YouTube.
You'll quickly become a fan and you'll guarantee you'll subscribe.

(03:04):
So head on over the YouTube of course and subscribe
to him there. But he'll be joining me Sunday night
right here on the WWE podcast to discuss all the
fallout from the Royal Rumble, and boy do I feel
like there's gonna be a ton, a ton to talk about.
I'm very excited about this Sunday's Royal Rumble, and of

(03:25):
course we're going to get into that in just a minute.
But if you guys also didn't hear my show yesterday
talking to Quick Hits regarding the WWE selling the WWE
network to NBC Universal who owns Peacock. I cover that
in somewhat of depth and really try to put a
positive spin on it for viewers, for ww stockholders, stakeholders,
everybody involved. I really am am big on and a

(03:47):
big proponent of that deal that ww made with Peacock
slash NBC Universal. So check that out from yesterday and
also head of the website wwpodca dot com. If you'd
like to support the show and you love to shop
on Amazon, well easy way to do it. Go to
WWE podcast dot com and then click on the little

(04:08):
banner that's right in the middle of the of the
of the of the website on the homepage where it says,
you know, if you'd like Amazon, you want to support
the show, click here. All that is is a redirect
link right to Amazon. It just tells Amazon that we
sent you, and the show gets a kickback from whatever
you buy. Okay, there's nothing added to nothing hidden fees,
none of that. It's just an affiliate program, is all.
It is so easy way to help out the show

(04:29):
if you shop on Amazon like I do. So alrighty, well,
let's let's talk. Let's talk about not just raw. Let's
get into some of the kind of weird stuff going
on here. And I'm gonna give credit where credit is due,
because I don't like to name sources without actually or
or take sources information without giving that source credit, is

(04:50):
what I was trying to say. So here's what I'm
going to be given credit to. And this this is
a website called Wrestling Edge dot com. Okay, So I'm
not hiding secrets or pretending that other websites don't exist.
Of course they do. So here's the report. And again, guys,
if you don't want spoilers, if you don't want any

(05:11):
potential rumors, you might want to just skip through the
next few minutes and wait till we get to our
raw review. But I want to talk about this off
the bat here, So here we go. I've given you
a warning. Okay, you're still here, all right. So here
is apparently Brockle's Wrestlemani opponent rumor. Now, first of all,
brock Lester's not even under contract in WWE. From what

(05:32):
I understand, it seems to be a very like a
gentleman's agreement, handshake agreement. Brocklester is enjoying himself on the
farm or whatever he's doing. So here it is. Brock
Lesner versus Kevin Owens was recently rumored for WrestleMania thirty seven.
According to some dirt sheet websites I'm quoting right now,
Dave Meltzer shot down reports that this match is set

(05:53):
to take place, along with a couple of other matches.
So Dan demand posted seeing these in a few places,
Let's see how many of them become remotely true. So
here's some from rumored matches that Dave Meltzer all shot down.
So if you've heard these, apparently they've all been shot
down by the god of Dave Meltzer. I say that

(06:15):
in very air quotes and very sarcastically Roman reigns and
shins kyan Na Kamara, Kevin Owens versus brock Lesner, and
Big E versus Cesorrow versus Daniel Bryan. He says. Meltzer
says these are all false as of Saturday. So last Saturday, this,
you know, I don't know what brock Leser would want

(06:36):
to do. I don't know if I even want Brocklesner
at WrestleMania at this point. You know, it would certainly
be a big payday for him, But let me know
what you guys think. So there's lots of rumors floating around.
It seems the strongest one, although the one that has
still been shot down is Kevin Owens versus brock Lesner.
So take that for what it's worth. Even if he's
there at all, he may not be there at all.
I mean it's very possible too. Another news, John Cena also,

(07:00):
according to Wrestling Edge dot Com, agrees to three big
WWE matches. Now, I honestly I have problems with this,
but okay, so let me quote this and I promise guys,
we're getting to the raw reviews, so so much to
talk about, but John Cena is getting back in the ring.
On the latest episode of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Show

(07:23):
on Russo's brand dot com, the host and former ww
writer discussed how Johnsen has apparently agreed to work the
next three years worth of WrestleMania events. A big name
just challenged John Cena to WrestleMania match. So do I
think John Cena is going to be here for the
next three years of a WrestleMania Maybe I don't see

(07:46):
his opponents anywhere listed here and take you know, Vince
Russo with a grain of salt. I've seen him, you know,
kind of waffle back and forth at times, and his
sources and aren't always up to snuff. So again, those
are rumors right now floating out there. I don't know
whether they will be they have any validity to them.
We got to all be very careful of the wrestling

(08:07):
dirt sheets out there. And you know, as I continue
here that this is just absurd. I mean, the rumors
are floating all over the place here, guys, I'm going
to continue with these rumors with with the Rock here,
and The Rock is reportedly locked in for the next
WWE match. This is also according to Russo's brand dot com.

(08:29):
So here's here's what it is. He Vince Russo believes
that The Rock will be headlining WrestleMania thirty nine, which
is going to take place in La at Sofi Stadium.
You know, I I don't know about that, right, Like,
how can you possibly book something two years out? It's
too many unknowns, there's too many unknowns. But what I

(08:52):
will say is that The Rock has revealed to c
NBC that in essence is what the Rock said. In essence,
it's meditating, but it's really just quiet time. Regarding meditation
and just having a moment where I realized just shut
my brain off, and he said, my gym time. And
this sounds crazy because music is so loud, because it's sweaty,

(09:12):
it's intense, but I'm alone, it becomes a meditative process
for me. So again, he didn't really talk about his
wrestling match with CNBC, if it possible, if a possibility
of a return is even in the cards. But guys,
you know, reading all through this and giving you the rumors, man,
you talk about Brock, brock Leaser, you talk about The Rock,
you talk about John Cena. With the upcoming WrestleMania season,

(09:34):
does anybody want to see any of them really at
this point? I mean, when it comes to ability in
the ring, all three of them are certainly still able
to go. I don't think that anybody would question brock
Leasure's ability to get in shape or probably still is
in shape. John Cena with his his aim ring ability,
which you know hasn't exactly been the most chain wrestling

(09:57):
impressive style in w W history, but he's always been good,
a good storyteller in the ring and super super super strong.
I don't tell John Cena able to get back into
ring shape if need be, and of course the Rock
is just habitually in ring shape it seems like, so
I have no problem with them getting back in the
ring from a safety standpoint, even But I just, I mean,

(10:20):
are you guys even interested in this? Would you even
want to see? Regarding these rumors with John Cena over
the next three Wrestlemani's and the Rock apparently as his
next match set, which I don't know if I buy Russo.
I think here's what I think is happening. A lot
of these, all of this, almost all of the what
I just told you came from Vince Russo. Now look,

(10:40):
I have nothing personal against Vince Russo, none at all.
I have nothing bad to say about the guy at all.
But what I will say is, maybe this is just
clickbait for him, you know, trying to stir up some
news because everyone knows, or most people know, that he
was a writer during the Attitude era. You know, he
went to other promotion and wasn't as successful. People know

(11:02):
Vince Russo's name, so he probably knows that when he
says something that it gets reverberated more than it would
the normal average fan podcast or somebody that may not
be well known as himself, and he knows that maybe
it's driving traffic to his site by saying just ridiculous
things and things that maybe people want to hear. John
Seen is returning, Rock's returning, brock Lesner's returning, right, So

(11:26):
this could be clickbait. It could be a lot of
just I mean really just traffic driving announcements with no
substance behind them. It's certainly possible that Vince Russo just
is doing this for attention. You know it's again, But
I have nothing against the guy. I just have that
feeling with certain things he's done in the past. So anyway,

(11:46):
moving on, let's get to Monday Night Raw, because that's
why we're freaking here right Monday and Night Raw boy.
I will say, a much better show this time around.
I think it was a really good way, as good
of a way to get into in the final Raw,
to get into the Royal Rumble that they probably could
have done. I think that's not without its sins and

(12:09):
errors and maybe a ranch or two in the show,
but overall, I was generally happy with the show. I
thought it was concise enough that you knew where they
were going, and that they, you know, maybe trying to
misdirect you to where who could win at At the

(12:30):
Royal Rumble, they had a big announcement from Edge, which
I have very conflicting feelings about, and I'll get to that.
Randy Orton rkoing Alexa Bliss and a Goldberg and McIntyre
facing off and then just dispatching Miss and Morrison who
seemed to be on my television screen way way too much,
even in a wrestling capacity, and then Seamus of course

(12:53):
in it felt like he was on my screen for
like forty minutes on Monday Night. But at least it's wrestling.
At least it's wrestling, which is what we watched a
wrestling for anyway, right, Like that's what you watch to
watch a wrestling show for, is wrestling. I don't know
about you, but so what I want to talk about though,
first of all, which is seems to be a habit
with me, is the last thing that we saw, which

(13:16):
was Randy Orton rkoing Alexa Bliss during the main event
that featured Alexa Bliss versus Osca for the Raw Women's Championship. Now,
when they announced this, I was pissed. I was really

(13:36):
pissed about this because this is a potential WrestleMania made event.
People may laugh, I'm not laughing. I think as of
last week my pick for the Women's Royal Rumble winner
was Alexa Bliss. This may put a little bit of
a damper on that, but we didn't get a clean finish.

(13:59):
So before where we get to the Randy Yorton spot.
I really didn't approve of them putting a Raw Women's
championship on the line on free TV with no explanation
other than oh, she just beat the champion last week.
Why does that always automatically give you an opportunity? Nothing
was explained, at least to my knowledge. How did she
earn this opportunity? Was it stated last week that if

(14:23):
she beat Oscar she would earn the number one contendership
for the Raw Women's Championship and then also have to
or be awarded that match the following week on Raw.
The answer is no. The answer is a resounding no.
I mean, it's really absurd that you get this lack
of logic that we're all supposed to overlook. We're all

(14:46):
supposed to overlook the fact that WWE creative just refuses.
They simply refuse to fill in the plot holes of
how do you get to A to B? Instead they
just go A to D. That's what they do. And look,
I have no problem with Alexiblist getting a Women's championship opportunity.

(15:08):
In fact, I want her to win the wrong Women's championship.
I'm a proponent of that, but I don't want it
in this method, through this fashion, through this creative process
that they have laid before us. It makes no sense.
And you may say, well, she beat the champion, so
in what world does that automatically make you the number

(15:28):
one contender? Well, I mean it doesn't. I guess just
we're all supposed to fill in the gaps in our
mind of oh, okay, she beat the champion last week,
so she's awarded an opportunity. And not only is she
awarded an opportunity, but it's gonna be next week. It
just continues to fulfill the WWE corporate thought process that

(15:52):
championship matches on free TV draw ratings. It just continues
to it's a self affe only prophecies. What it feels
like for WWE, they just feel that they need to
have a championship match on every single, every single Roller SmackDown.
I cannot recall the last Rollers SmackDown. We didn't have

(16:12):
a championship match, whether it be IC, United States, Kel
WWE Championship. The only one, no no, no, I was gonna say,
the only one that wasn't defended on free TV was Universal.
But Christmas Day we got the unexplained WWE Universal Championship
in a steel cage between Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns.
So no championship has been I guess immune from this logic,

(16:39):
this flawed logic of having a championship match on every
single damn show. And some of you, some look some
of you are probably out there like you, Why are
you spending so much time on this just talk about
Randy Norton. I'm gonna talk about Randy Gorton, but I
also want to make it clear, like I mean, is
anybody out there. I'm being serious, I'm not being facetious

(17:00):
or trying to set a trap for somebody. I really
want to know, and I want you to call the show,
so you can leave a voicemail. Why why if you
enjoy championship matches, do you enjoy seeing championship matches on
every single Monday night Raw or SmackDown? Do you want
a championship match? Does that interest you more? Or or

(17:22):
or are maybe on you? Are you on the side
of that makes it feel less valuable because every single
show has one, right, I don't know, So please call
the show. I'm begging somebody to call the show, and
I really want to hear a serious reason why you
believe that having championship matches on every single show everyone

(17:49):
is it makes it more exciting for you? I'm being
for real, Uh call us five one eight nine five
two zero two four seven, So that'll be tomorrow. And
you guys are pummeling me with emails and voicemail, so
it's gonna be quite a long mail bag tomorrow night. So,
but beyond that silliness, and yeah, Alexa Bliss's Playground is

(18:09):
getting more and more production. It seemed funding just kind
of injected into it every week. I mean, we got
the little playground set, then we eventually got some fake grass,
and then we got like a I don't know now
we've got video boards up that show like she's in
the middle of a park or something. I mean, it
seems as if they're increasing the Alexa Bliss playground budget

(18:31):
every week, which is fine. I'm not gonna ranting or
complaining about it. It's fine. Alexa Bliss is doing a
brilliant job, and they recap the last two weeks of
what she's done, and she pretends to also, you know,
talk to the fiend who apparently is supposed to be
in spirit next to her on the swing. I have
no problem with that. She's doing, again a brilliant job
in her role, and she talks about what she did

(18:56):
Randy Orton and that on tonight's in tonight's match with Osca,
that she's she's not going to play nice and she
wants to, you know, inflict pain, so instead of heal
or hurt, it's pain, I think, is what she has
on her knuckles or whatever. So she's not gonna play
nice tonight with Alexa Bliss or with the OSCA. And

(19:17):
of course during the main event, we've got the Osca
who wasn't scared until alexablad the transformation to the pre
Alexa Bliss that you know pre pre uh, what is
it pre what's the word I'm looking for? Possessed Alexa
Bliss where she was in her original wrestling outfit, and

(19:39):
she was she almost looked like she was freed, as
the announcers put it. And I don't know if I'm
reading into this a little too much, but perhaps that
really was Alexa Bliss. Of course we're talking kfabe here,
as if her spirit was trapped and let free for
a moment, And that's the real Alexa Bliss that's inside

(19:59):
these layers of darkness, trapped by the Fiend's power, right,
I mean, I could be totally wrong, but that's what
it felt like, that that that version of Alexa Bliss
is still there, that innocent version, but it's being just
completely suffocated by the Fiend's powers and darkness, and it

(20:20):
was let out for just a moment. Just the thought,
just the thoughts. And if you remember from a month
or two ago, when Alexa Bliss had I might have
been on her. Not a moment of Bliss, but Alexa's Playground,
one of the first episodes where she had a little
doll in a cage, as if she's keeping the innocent
part the demon is keeping the innocent part of her

(20:43):
trapped just a thought, just a thought. But then she
instantly turns into the dark version of herself, you know,
Alexa or Alexa. I don't why I keep saying Osca.
Osca gets immediately frightened, as if she has truly seen
a ghost in the very cart unish way that only
oscar ken. And she tries to fight back, which is good.

(21:04):
She doesn't just you know, wet her pants and leave,
but she tries ultimately to get the mandible claw, which
I thought was gonna end it there, and if they had,
if they had awarded her the women's championship there, actually
would have been a little bit angry too, because I
care about how it happens. And then we get Randy
Orton with a burn face as good of a makeup

(21:25):
burn face as you can have, and I mean that
as a compliment, and I'm glad he didn't have that
weird mask on from last week. It was just it
wasn't even creepy. It was just it took the emotion
out of it because you couldn't see anything, right. But okay,
so he delivers the RKO justified Randy Orton's for some
reason seems to be the only one exempt from the

(21:47):
men can never retaliate against women rule law in WWE.
And you saw this past week with the Sasha Banks
match and we had who's Who's Carmela's little minion there.
I can't remember his name. I mean, he wouldn't even

(22:10):
he wasn't even able to get a single offensive move
in there. And men are often subjected to slaps, kicks,
even you know, below the belt contact, and they can't retaliate.
It's absurd And I've been a huge non proponent of
that for a long time, even in the PG era.
Why does it make it okay for the women to

(22:30):
beat on the men, but the men can't beat on
the women in retaliation? It makes no sense. And I
know there's people out there who are probably thinking, like
I've said many times, you're advocating for women's violence, domestic violence.
What kind of you know, masculine pigger you. I mean,
I'm sure there's somebody out there think of that, to

(22:51):
which I would say, you realize you're watching a fantasy environment, right, Well,
what if a kid is subjected to this? You know,
young minds are very very impressionable. You know, maybe they
get the idea that they can do this, And well,
maybe if you're so concerned about that, you should be
concerned about If you're worried about what your kids are watching,
don't let them watch it. Number one, number two, maybe

(23:14):
they should realize that this is fantasy and you see
it in movies all the time. But anyway, I'm gonna
go on a huge tangent on this crap because I
just know I don't understand it. But Randy Orton, Praise
the Lord is immune to this, just complete block of
WWE ever allowing men to retaliate, and Randy Orton gets
an RKO. I was satisfied by that. Actually, it may

(23:37):
be very satisfied. I don't think Randy Orton is playing
the heel in this. In fact, I don't even know
who's the heel in this, and I don't want to
hear that. Oh well, it's ambiguity. Who cares, it's just stars,
it's just star power. No, it's good versus evil. It
will always boil down to good versus evil, as it should.
It's an old formula, but it works and it doesn't

(23:57):
get tired. There's always good and there's always evil, and
you always want to see the good prevail. But I
don't know who's good in this scenario. You could make
a case, so we could probably have a whole entire
show for two hours dedicated to just this story of
who's the healing babyface. So I will just leave it
to your minds to decide who you like and who

(24:19):
you don't. I will just say I really enjoyed the
RKO on Alexa Blist, not that I dis like Alexa Blist,
but it was warranted. It was nice to see retaliation.
We saw Randy Orton RKO Beth Phoenix last year, obviously
Lexa Bliss. Last night we saw Randy Orton RKO Nya
Jackson a royal rumble, which still gives me just the
biggest smile on my face. I mean, my dog could

(24:42):
die tomorrow, but then I watch, you know, Nia Jacks
get RKO, and I just go, you know what it's
gonna be? Okay, man, I mean that's how I feel
was seeing Nia jack get archaot. It made me so happy.
But that was a few years ago. Anyway, back to
this story, I think that this is going to bring
back the Piende in a big way. This is probably
the last straw Alexibliss seems to be somehow tied to

(25:06):
the Fiend's emotions if he has any, as we were
teased that that is. His weakness is Alexa Bliss, and
Randy Orton putting his hands on Alexa is probably the
last straw. I'm very interested to see how the Fiend
returns in the Royal Rumble. You would assume he's in
the Rumble, or maybe a distraction of the Rumble, or
maybe an attack. I don't know. Somehow, some way, the

(25:28):
Fiend will come out and attack Randy Orton at the
Royal Rumble and probably cost him that match. And he
should look different. He should not just visually look different,
but his music should be a little bit different. Being
burned completely, you gotta have something different, man, you got it.
So on a related note, though, I can't not talk

(25:50):
about Randy Orton without not talking about Edge. So number one,
I didn't even know Edge was going to be a
part of the show. Was pre advertised, which not everything does.
But you would have thought that, hey, Edge is going
to deliver a message. Let's promote the hell out of
this over the next few days week and get some
eyeballs on the product. Nope, they just popped it unraw

(26:13):
as kind of a casual Oh yeah. By the way,
Edge is going to be delivering his first statement in
seven months after the triceps injury from the Greatest Wrestling
Match at Backlash. So I will say this, Edge just
knows how to cut a promo. He's just a freaking
genius on the mic. And he's such a breath of

(26:35):
fresh air from all the scripted, cute little promos and
one liners that everyone else seems to have. He is
what a promo should be. If anybody wants to know
what a professional wrestling promot a promo should look like, Hell,
watch Edge. He is an absolute master with facial It's
not just what he says, it's how he says it,

(26:57):
the tempo he says it, the emotion, the genuine motion
that feels like it's in it. His eyes. My god,
he's got like he's like Louke Carper, Brodie Lee, John Huber,
however you want to refer to him. He's got that
level of being able to tell you a story with
just his eyes. He's brilliant. So he you know, he

(27:18):
basically he declares himself unto the world rumble. He talks
about how you know ten years ago I was World
Heavyway champion and then it went to bed and a
week later, you know, that was taken from me. And
I'm on a path through retribution of you know, reclaiming
what was mine. And I never lost. He's so he's

(27:39):
going on the I didn't lose the match. I had
to give it up. But it's ten years later at
WrestleMania twenty seven. I think he said it was against
Albert oldale Rio. If I'm not mistaken winning the World
heavyweight championship having to relinquish it, and now we're at
WrestleMania thirty seven, and it's a nice even ten now.
I will say that lot to say here about Edge. Here,

(28:03):
Edge is probably blessed that he hasn't had to deal
with no fans for seven months. There is no better
time now that I want to see Edge injured. But
if I was him, I would not be in any
rush to get back, because that's seven months less that
I have to make a return where there are no
fans in an arena to just draw that pure energy

(28:25):
off of. If you have a return that man of
that magnitude of Edge with no fans, it's just blows right.
It simply sucks. There's no other way to put it.
You don't want to see it, you just don't. So
Edge is probably not said that he missed seven months
with no fans. Yes, the Thunderdome is there, and yes,
WWE is planning on having WrestleMania with fans, probably at

(28:49):
a twenty to thirty thousand at the very most capacity
in Raymond James Stadium that holds eighty or so and
depends on the percentage. Of course. The percentage of capacity
is what's going to drive this and the super Bowl
will be a nice test case for WWE to see
how it goes, what works, what doesn't is triple eh
said on Michael K Show last week. So Edge again

(29:14):
cut a nice promo. I like where he does it.
I like how it's in the corner of the ring
with just like a single spotlight. It's a very nice
ambiance that he has going. I only have a little
bit of concern on this. Number one, he's not really
talking about Randy Orton. He talked about how he was
injured from Randy, but his focus wasn't on Randy. His
focus was actually the championship, which I understand and I don't.

(29:38):
The reason I do understand it is Randy Orton's currently
in a program with the Fiend. It's not as if
Randy Orton is floating out there in obscurity and he
needs someone to really work with, and he is entrenched
in a program with the Fiend, and I think it
would muddy the waters. I Edge got involved right now,
so I understand that completely. You can't just jump back

(29:59):
in if somebody's in program that has not yet been
wrapped up. So I get that. At the same time,
Edge left swearing that he would be back as the
Rate at Our Superstar, and You've brought something out of me, Randy,
that I can't put back. I'm no longer Adam Copeland.
I am going to be come back as the Rate

(30:19):
at Our Superstar. Go back and watch the promo from
what was it June when we had the greatest wrestling
match ever. I put that in air quotes. So he
comes back, he isn't focusing on what he said he
would focus on when he came back. So it's kind
of a disappointment, but I also get it. I also

(30:41):
understand that you can't just jump into this program with
the Fiend in Randy Orton. That has to be wrapped
up before you can get to edge in Orton. So
I'm a little bit conflicted. I'm disappointed, but I'm understanding.
So it's just interesting that his focus of the promo
wasn't Randy, it was retribution. It was his mother telling
him to say, just go go do it, which, I mean,

(31:02):
i'll be honest, kind of a weak thing for your
parents to say. I mean, if those if that's what
your parents told you, that's all you needed for motivation.
I mean, I don't think that says anything about your parents.
I think that says something about you in being able
to just self motivate. Because if someone just said to me,
you know, or I told somebody, hey, by the end

(31:24):
of the year, I want to be able to bench
press five hundred pounds, and you know, my my mom
says to me, then just go do it, I'd be like, gee, thanks, Yeah,
that's what I'm trying to do. You have any other
words of wisdom besides the most obvious, non attentive response

(31:44):
that you could give me. I mean, you know what
I'm saying. Did anybody get what I'm saying here? Like
you're telling me that's what motivated him, and you can
dive deeper. Somebody's gonna say, well, there's a lot of
parents that aren't supportive of that, and you know that
it's not not all parents are that easygoing or are

(32:05):
that supportive for somebody to go into a profession that
is often criticized. But you should support your kids going
into whatever they want to do. I mean, it's just
general good parenting. So again, when he said that, I'm like, oh,
his mom probably had some great, great words of wisdom
or something. No, she just sad, just go do it

(32:26):
at him. I'm like, that's lame, man, that is super lame.
There's got to be some more to the story. I mean,
come on, Adam or Edge, however you want to be
referred to. There has to be something better than that.
It was just like that's all she said. I'm waiting
for like a singer or something that I'm like, give
me chills that she said, or I'm just He's like, no,

(32:48):
I just took that and that's what made me come.
You know, put the effort in to come back for
the next you know, put the effort in over nine
years to get back what I never lost. And I'm
thinking to myself. So not only did that, you know,
help you get to the WWE, those words, win the
championship injured, and then come back and put nine years
of effort in imagine if she actually gave you a

(33:09):
motivated speech, my god, you'd be the owner of the
WWE by now, Adam. She it's just ridiculous. I laughed
at it because I'm like, this isn't this is ridiculous.
You know, If that's how the conversation actually went, it's
not a credit to his parents, it's a credit to Adam,
who is just doesn't need any motivation. Clearly, you could
just say the lamest thing ever and he's like, you

(33:29):
know what, Yeah, I'm gonna damn it, I'm gonna go
do it. Well, yeah, it's okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna
go off the deep und here. I'm not ranting. It's
just it's ridiculous that that's all she said. If it's true,
come on, all right. But overall, I am a little
bit surprised that Edge barely mentioned Rin Jorton. He did

(33:50):
kind of in passing, But I also understand he's entrenched
in the storyline. So okay, moving down the line, Matt
Riddle earns a United States Championship opportunity against the big
Man of Lashly after he ran the gauntlet of MVP
and Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander who Cedric and Shelton

(34:13):
just cannot get along for whatever, just lame reason that
they can't get along, because we're all supposed to care,
which I've ranted on this, I'm not gonna ran on
it again, but we're all supposed to care. I don't.
I want to see them actually succeed and be a
unit before any dissension happens. But I will say MVP

(34:34):
is still truly the MVP of that group. I mean,
there's no question about it. And I liked how they
also prior to that, had their segment with I don't
know if it's like a lame version of the MVP
Lounge or whatever it was, but the three men got
together and gave MVP a necklace that was twenty four

(34:55):
care gold that had THHB her business, and I loved
how our truth, our Truth got. I mean, this man
is just born for comedy, but also a genuinely good
guy from what I've seen in documentaries and things, and
I really wish more could have happened for him in

(35:16):
his career, but he's still getting regular airtime every week,
so that that's a positive. And we got you know,
Our Truth interrupting this, and he said that the necklace
was made out of twenty four carrots. He said, wear
them twenty four shiny carrots at or something like as
if they're actual vegetables that are shiny. I mean, it

(35:37):
was just and Our Truth delivers it so well. And
he talks about how the necklace actually stood for a
happy birthday truth or something like that, and it was
hilarious before the single file crew who comes out and
does roll ups for the twenty four seven championship, because
it's the only way you can win a twenty four
seven championship, by the way, and it's the only way
legally that it can change hands is by a roll up,

(36:00):
which is just I don't even have to say about
the twenty four to seven title anymore. I just I'm
to say I'm over. It would be the understatement of
the years, So okay, I want to move on from
that nonsense. But Riddle does earn an opportunity, but then
gets beat down by Lashly after he runs the gauntlet
and earns an opportunity, so Lashly does get a little

(36:21):
bit of heat on himself after the victory from Riddle,
which I will say, I hope that Bobby Lashley retains
that United States Championship. There should be no reason to
take it off him. Right now. The Heart business are
firing on all cylinders, minus the silly dissension that doesn't
need to be there. It feels like they're just doing
it to do it, just to add another layer. But
I think it's actually distracting and not needed and takes

(36:42):
away from the hurt business. You want to feel. You
want to feel like they're like an unbreakable, well oiled machine.
You don't want to see dissension this early. This is
way way too early to see any kind of dissension
or tension within the group. The key is to build
a group that feels unstoppable, unbreakable, and unpenetrable. About that

(37:07):
for a word, and then start to tease dissension. Not
just tease dissension in the middle of them building that foundation.
It's just ridiculous. Leave it alone. They're doing great, Okay,
So moving on to something else here, we got Charlotte
Flair and Rick Flair backstage. Charlotte Flair interrupts. I guess

(37:32):
it was like a hold lesson, a wrestling lesson from
Rick to Lacy Evans. It reminded me of you of
the Triple H and Triple H and Trish back in
the Attitude era, of him teaching Trish some holds and
she happened to be bent over while she he had
her in a wristlock and Stephanie McMahon walks in and

(37:54):
flips out, one of the most I mean iconic moments
from that that program anyway, during the Attitude and it
reminded me of that, and it was kind of like that,
except not as not as provocative, I guess. So Charlotte
just happens to walk in. She seems disgusted, but she
doesn't flip out. But Rick Flair also kind of told

(38:17):
her like, oh, you think you're a big star. Now
I'm Rick Flair. You know I can do what I want.
And I just I don't see the heat for any
of this. I don't see the need this is taking
away from Charlotte. At the beginning, you can see where
these two might have a program, but there's no payoff here.
There won't be a payoff because Rick can't get in

(38:38):
a match. There's nothing that can happen. He can't even
take a single bump. And I don't want him to
take a single bump. He is too old, to too
high risk, with everything that he's been through. There's just
no need for this at all. And it's maybe somebody
else feels differently. I have nothing but respect, nothing but

(38:59):
respect for Rick Flair none. I mean, he is certainly
one of the best of all time, but at this
point his career. Man, leave your daughter alone, leave him,
leave her alone. He just okay, I've said my piece.
All right, Well, I haven't really talked about Drew mctyre
and Goldberg yet, and I do want to touch on that.

(39:21):
I mean, it opened the show as mctyre came back
and talked about how everyone sent him well wishes and
everything else. And you know, I don't why anyone sending
him well wishes considering he said he had no symptoms,
So I mean, I don't. I don't get well wishes
for a no symptom virus. Just he said he lost
his sense of smell. I mean, that's very common. It's
just funny, he said, you know, the last week. The

(39:43):
two weeks ago when he first got diagnosed, he said,
I luckily I have no symptoms. And then he comes
out this week and says, everyone's you know, I appreciate
all the well wishes. I'm like the guy said he
had no symptoms. So basically he feels healthy. Oh, I
hope you get get well soon. All right, Well, anyway,
virus can be very a very very testy subject for people.

(40:06):
So I'm going to move on from that. But he
talks about Goldberg and his match at the World Rumble
and says that he's not going to take Goldberg lightly.
That's smart in the baby faces part, and that he
knows what Goldberg is, he knows how intense he can
be in the one hundred and seventy three and oh
streak that took place in WCW. He's aware of all that.

(40:26):
He shows you that he's done his homework. He shows
you that he's not going to be underestimating Bill Goldberg.
That's a smart move, of course, and so we'll have
to see where things land. But Goldberg or I'm sorry
the miss immediately comes out and god, I mean it's
like Stephane McMahon's music hitting back in the what was
it the authority era? I mean it was just it

(40:48):
gives me just the you talk about taking the air
out of the room, the miss music just takes the
air out of the room. If I hear him say
the word correct one more time again, I'm not going
to repeat myself on this. I will just say a
channel changing heat, not real heal heat. And if you
want to debate me on what the difference is and
why they're actually different ones good and ones bad, I
would be glad to have you on the show, seriously,

(41:10):
because I've really wasted so much breath explaining this where
people think it's the same thing. You know, you really
you really hate them, So that's what they're doing their job. No, no, no, no, no,
not when you want to not watch the product. Okay,
So we got them coming out doing their just in
secondhand embarrassing crap that they do with whatever whoever they

(41:32):
think they're entertaining in the back events or Kevin Dunn.
I have no idea, but they come out and they're
I guess supposed to be obnoxious to draw heat. And
then Goldberg comes back out or he comes out and
he goes face to face with McIntyre and Miss and
Morrison egdem On trying to get them to fight. They're
on the apron and then Miss and Morrison get dragged

(41:53):
into the ring by or tossed into the ring by
both Bill Goldberg and Drew McIntyre. They hit their respective finishers.
Morrison takes the claymore Mis takes the spear, which actually
made me a little bit happy to see. I'm, you
know in I guess when you put two devils together,
I guess I'm gonna go with Goldberg beating on Miss

(42:14):
if you had made me choose. I mean, I don't
like either, but you know, it's hard. But they get
their finishers hit and then they stare down. As you know,
McIntyre holds up the championship in front of Goldberg's face
and that's the end of that. So it really hasn't
much to say about it. It was just Bill Goldberg telling
McIntyre's next. Okay, Bill, we've heard this many many times.

(42:38):
Thanks for your A plus promo, and you can go
back to your your cubby and come out a rumble
and God help me if he wins, oh boy, I
feel like I still feel like he will, but I
don't know, we'll see. Okay, That's really all that was
in terms of there. But then we got a match
between Seamus and Morrison, and uh, you know this is

(43:03):
the match was good. I have no problem with them
in the ring. I don't have Again, as much as
I despised Morrison's character, he's good in the ring. Really
good it was. It was a long match, good match, entertaining, physical,
no problems, no complaints, no rants here. Uh And actually
what I liked was Morrison or I'm sorry, Seamus hit

(43:24):
white Noise and it finished the match. Could they be
redefining the finish for Seamus or adding another finish? I
like it, and I think White Noise is fairly deserving
of it. It has never ever to my knowledge, ended
a match before, and I'm glad to see that it
did here. I think it's It's fine. It adds a

(43:44):
little bit more of a more depth to Seamus's finish maneuvers,
so I had no problem with that. And then miss
and Morrison or MS challenges Seamus to a handicap match,
and Shamus accepts, but Seamus drop you know, gets gets
the pinfall er loses the match after Mis hits the

(44:05):
skull crushing finale. He comes up just a little bit short.
He did hit the bro kick on Morrison, but the
Miz hit the skull crushing finale and got the victory.
So really, I don't know what to make of this
other than the goals were to put a little bit
more hit heat on the miss because he won the match,
and he was the loud mouth and only you know,

(44:26):
runs his mouth when it's two on one, just typical
heel stuff. And then you get Seamus who apparently is
full on babyface, just taking on all comers and not
you know, getting a yellow stripe down his back and
you know, high tailing it out of there. He took
the he accepted a two on one handicap match after
a hard fought one on one match, So apparently that's
supposed to be admirable and you'll fight anybody that's that's

(44:48):
very Vince McMahon babyfacesh So, I guess Seamus is a
defined babyface right now. Be careful. I still don't trust him, Okay.
Shanda Basler Charlotte Flair lo or I'm sorry. Charlotte Flair
defeated Shane Basler via disqualification after interference by Nia Jacks
and Jack's basically dropped a leg on Charlotte after she

(45:12):
got the Shane into the figure four. That brought up
Many Rose and Dana Brook to make the say before
Lacy Evans ran in as well, and then that just ended,
just ended. I mean there was no there was no
ending or how this ended. Who got the last laugh?
It just faded black. I mean the screen faded to
black and we didn't get an explanation. It was weird. Okay,

(45:35):
let's see Xavier Woods defeated Slapjack that was not on
the Hulu version. Okay, so i'll he announced he would
be in the rumble. That's why I got out of that.
Moving on here, AJ Styles defeated our Truth via submission,
as he should. I don't know what to say about this.
I'm sorry, I just don't it. AJ Styles should win.

(46:00):
I mean, he just should. AJ Styles I think is
a dark horse to win the match on Sunday, and
I mean that in a small chance way. I don't
think I would say he's a long shot, but he's
not impossible. So AJ Styles is on the the in
my list of contenders. I still have not made an
official decision on my role Rumble winner for the men

(46:22):
and women. But he's on the list, He's in my brain.
I will say that. But one last thing I'll say
about Alexa Bliss and her transformations. I want to see
wwe do this in front of a live audience. I
want to see them pull their magic tricks with Alexa
Bliss in front of the live audience. Boy, See, this
is the production stuff that they can do with no
fans there. Just have her change outfits on the blink

(46:44):
of a die, or on the blink of an eye,
or on a dime. I combine those two euphemisms, and
I'd love to see how they do and pull that off.
It's cool, but I'm thinking to myself, how, yeah, how
does that translate into a live audience. The answer is
it doesn't. The answer is she comes out, picks one
out fit and sticks with it the whole match. Yeah.
I mean, just this is no other way. So I

(47:06):
think I'm trying to make sure I covered everything. Guys,
I feel like there's stuff I missed. If I did,
I apologize, but that is my role review overall. Guys,
I did like it. I'd give it a you know,
a B minus. If I was gonna grate it and
give it a report card. I think it did its
job heading into the Royal Rumble. I'm glad that they
limited Goldberg and McIntyre and hopefully we just get past this.

(47:27):
And best case scenario is, like, you know, McIntyre just
goes into or beats Goldberg and Goldberg goes back into
just obscurity and just goes back into his little cave
or wherever he sits and just you know, moves on
with his life. I mean, that's the best case scenario.
But we all know that's not true. We all know
that's not what's gonna happen. We all know that Goldberg
is here through WrestleMania. So we better strap in, folks,

(47:49):
because Goldberg's here for the next few months and for
better words, and maybe you love them, and if you do, great,
really I mean it, if you do, that's awesome. I
just don't think that there was from a thirty five
year old man's perspective of watching wrestling since nineteen ninety seven,
I just it's it's the nostalgia is no longer there

(48:10):
for that. So alrighty well, guys, thank you, thank you
so much for listening to the Raw Review. Tomorrow again
we have the NXT or NXT we have a dual show,
two shows tomorrow. Shouldn't they dual show. It's not the
same one. It's two different shows of the Nostalgia and
of course the Mailbag. But Thursday's Zack Smith will be

(48:30):
doing the NXT review and we have a new intro coming,
so the show will sounds a little bit different soon.
I wanted to change things up. In the next day
or two, we should have a new intro to the
regular shows, the Nostalgia Show. I've decided to keep that
intro the same, but for all the Raw and SmackDown

(48:51):
and weekend review shows, those will be a brand new
jingle coming in the coming weeks. I decided to kind
of freshen things up, put new code of paint on
the show, just as they did with my logo last year,
and invested a little bit of money in that same
thing here. I think it's good to keep things fresh.
Maybe I'll start adding sound effects and stuff too. It's
a matter of production and time. It's always time, right,

(49:14):
never have time to do stuff. But alrighty guys, well,
thanks as always for helping out the show. Again. If
you want to support us, head on over to the
ww podcast website, click on the Amazon banner that's right
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Just gives it a little bit back to us, or
you can give us a five star rating and review
on Apple Podcasts. That's also a really, really good way

(49:35):
to support the show, probably one of the best ways.
It doesn't take much time at all. So anyway, guys,
thank you so much for listening. And yes, I do
have a potential big interview coming next week, but more
on that in the coming days and weeks or days
because I said it's next week. Jeez. Okay, I'm tired.

(49:55):
I'm heading out. Guys, thank you so much, and as always,
i'll talk to you next time.