Let's talk Monday Night Raw that aired August 11th, 2025. With just 2 weeks until Clash in Paris we saw a Main Event Tag Team match that resulted in the Main Event for the next PLE being set up, a Women's Intercontinental Title Match, Sami Zayn take on Rusev, Karrion Kross's Contract Not being renewed & more!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-wwe-podcast--2187791/support.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-wwe-podcast--2187791/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre, and you're listening to
the WWE podcast show.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The one that everybody wants me god.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Stand for sixteen. So just what your ass is my arm?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You're gonna acknowledge me.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And welcome everybody to the Monday Night Raw review for
this twelfth day of August twenty twenty five, as Clash
in Paris comes to us in two weeks came up
kind of quick. I feel like I just said it
was four weeks.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Time goes sasstro as you get older, as I'm sure
all of you know, and there's actual science behind that.
But way beyond the point, I hope everyone's enjoying their
Tuesday or their or whatever day you're listening to this
as the week rolls on here and halfway through August.
That's crazy to me as well. Football is just a
few weeks away. Baseball playoffs are just a few weeks away.
(01:14):
The as I said, the next plee of WWE Clash
in Paris comes to us August thirty first, and then
stays over there for a couple of weeks, and we
get to enjoy the last of the John Cena Tour
which is winding down, winding down quickly, with just eleven
dates left, and they're actually coming here to my hometown
of Albany. But the problem is that they are not
(01:38):
going to be here or Johnson is not going to
be here on one of those dates. So I'm a
bit discouraged to go to SmackDown. If he was coming,
it would be no doubt about it. I would go.
But WWE over the last several months and years has
just spiked their ticket sales to a point that's just
it's ridiculous. Going to a pl is means you have
(01:59):
to take a second mortgage on your home. Going to
a just a televised event means you need to use
like a firm to have a payment plan of some sort.
And maybe if you have enough cash laying around, you
can get to a non televised live event, a house show.
But I mean, it's just getting ridiculous. I haven't seen
(02:20):
the ticket sales yet for here in Albany. They go
on sale in a few days, we'll see. I might go.
It's been a few years since SmackDown has come here,
and WWA has advertised Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes and
some other big stars, but no John Cena, which is
again kind of disheartening. Is it possible that he has
another date or two. Maybe he's not going on beyond December,
(02:42):
but selfishly maybe he'll show up. So anyway, welcome to
the show. If you guys want to go ed free
and you enjoy the show, go over to patreon dot
com slash you WWE podcast get an ad free experience.
It's a perfect place to go if you want to
get rid of all those ads, those pesky ads. You
can also go over to app if you don't want
to leave your app. Most of you do listen through Apple.
(03:03):
Go to the subscribe button right there on Apple and
go add free. And if you want to go on
a yearly basis you can. It does offer a few
months for free if you do that option. Now let's
get into Monday Night Raw. That came to us, as
I said yesterday, and it was in let me get
(03:24):
the name of the building. I have it here somewhere,
the Center Videotron in Quebec City, Quebec, and we had
a recap of seth Rollins cashing in the money the
bank contract. We're going to see that for a while
and They showed footage of the Rollins at La Night
Angle and the show closing angle with Rollins and his
(03:44):
crew laying out Night Roman reigns in Sam Punk and
then Sampunk comes out and he's introduced by Alisha Taylor
and Cole said Punk held the world championship just five
minutes before Rolins successfully cashed in the money in the
bank contract that were allowed chants for Punk, and he
said the fans made it hard for him to be angry,
but then he thinks about how there should be gold
(04:05):
around his waist. He says, I have a Seth Rollins problem.
He added that Rollins is trying his best to be
seen on Punk yet failing miserably, and he recalled becoming
champion for the first time in over a dozen years,
which is actually pretty crazy, and he said that if
fans thought he was relentless in pursuit of his goals
(04:26):
and obsessed with becoming champion, he's even more possessed now
when it comes to regaining the title. He recalled saying
hate the player, not the game, and says he doesn't
hate the game because he's cashing it before, but he
still hates the player. Seth Rollins and he said Rollins
wouldn't have to pretend to be injured because he's gonna
get his hands on him and then break his leg,
(04:48):
a pretty good line. That's when Alla Knight comes out.
Ella Knight and Punk here had an extended interaction which
you know, I didn't think i'd see because of La
Knight's position in the company of Late where he scratched
the main event. But you know, he's never gonna really
be the one to win, and it's gonna be the
same thing here. Unfortunately for Clash in Paris. If you're
(05:09):
looking for La Knight to have any chance of victory,
it's not on the and not in the cards right now.
Sad to say, but you know, with Rollins just becoming
champion and they had this whole angle leading to the
fake injury that led to the cash in, there's not
a chance that they have any idea or any plan
(05:30):
to take the belt off him much. Let's give it
to La Knight. And by the way, after this, I
will talk about carrying Cross, Okay, I do have some
thoughts on that in just a moment. But finishing out
this first segment here with La Knight and Cumpunk, which
again was very surprising that they had to back and
forth interaction one of this length, particularly for La Knight,
(05:54):
who maybe this was his longest promo and it was
a hell of a test for La Knight, who's going
against one of the greatest promos in WWE pro wrestling
history and Cmpunk. It was a hell of a test,
and I think La Knight passed the test. He held
his own with Punk is he has eloquent and clever
(06:15):
and creative and witty with words as Punk is. No,
he's not, but he's more than satisfactory to feel like
he belongs. And that's what I was looking for here
with La Knight. While La Knight's not young, he's in
his forties, and he actually does have a lot of experience.
He's in the Independence before WWE. It's not just like
(06:36):
he arrived at WWE for the first time ever being
in a wrestling ring. But that's what I was still
looking for because this was his biggest test to date
on the microphone was being able to hang with with Punk,
not just in a short burst with prepared lines, but
in having to add libs some things, having to go
(06:56):
off the cuff a little bit, having to adjust on
the fly and remembering the bullet points that he had
to say, and I think l A. Knight passed and
that was a good thing. Did he blow Punk out
of the water? No, no, no, no, no no, no he didn't.
But it wasn't as if he looked nervous. He didn't
bumble too many lines. He didn't trip over his words.
(07:20):
LA Knight has done that in the past, and Punk
has done that too. I mean, see on Punk is
not immune to fumbles, bumbles, stutters. It's just a fact
of being a human being. But you know, he's not
immune either, And I just wanted to bring that point
up because I think this was a massive test for
la Knit to see how he feels with an extended
(07:40):
promo against Punk. L and Night did repeat himself a
couple more times than he probably should have, saying that
you know, he doesn't have a problem with him and
he doesn't want a problem with him. He said that
like three or four times. But it was a good
point to drive home. I mean saying that these guys
are not adversaries and they're trying not to be because
they're both babyfaces, of course, and they have a common
(08:02):
enemy in Seth Rollins so they both were trying this
while showing friction, saying hey, like I don't want to
be your enemy, you don't want to be mine, and
then reminding each other, hey, we have a common enemy,
Seth Rollins. You got a Seth Rollins problem. I got
a Seth Rowland's problem. And so that was a nice
thing to see because I don't think there's anybody who
really wants to see Seampunk versus l a night. It's
(08:24):
not it's not a match in demand. They're they're not
anywhere near in position to do that. The fans aren't
asking for it. They're both babyfaces, they have a common enemy.
It's just it makes absolutely no sense for these two
to have a one on one program. Now they will
of course fight each other in the Fatal four way,
and they did have the end of the match here
with the main event we'll talk about later. They did
(08:46):
have some you know, some explosion, but that's that's okay.
Now that there's a fatal four way, they have a
reason to be brawling with one another because it's not
just about them. It's really about Seth and trying to
take the belt off of Seth. And you have these
four opponent who are going to face each other in
just a couple of weeks. So it's okay in that context.
But this was a good segment here. Paul Haymon did
(09:08):
come out and he was out there with the bronze,
the tribal thief. That was a good line. The shoe
of Fala that was on Where did you come up
with this crap? They see chat chipting his promos. I
mean it's just crazy. I mean, who would have ever
thought of thinking of coming up with the shoe of Fala.
(09:30):
Nobody came up with that, you know, he came up
with just the mastermind of Paul Hayman and the you know,
the tribal thief. Great stuff, great stuff, And I mean
you do wonder how many pairs of shoes that bronze
Bronson Reid is going to collect before Roman reigns redeems
that you know for sure, Roman reigns after he claims
(09:53):
victory over you know, Bronson Reid and gets a spear
in a victory, He's going to take those shoes back.
And it's just a fun little side story. It's almost
like a trophy that Bronson Reed is carrying around that
makes you want to see Roman get back at him.
It's actually don't mind it. Well, I don't feel like
to me, it's not a personal sign of disrespect out
of the fact that it's just against the law. I
(10:16):
understand why people want to see Roman Reign's claim his
shoes back. It's just personal property. It's a fine little
side story, is all I'm trying to say. So Paul
Hammond did say that, you know, he mocked the French fans,
which was great, and said he, you know, saying a
few words in French and then saying that's all he knew.
(10:36):
But what did he say? He called it the garbage,
the guttural language, just totally hammering French, which, hey, if
you're a Canadian, French is it's it's a pride in
your culture. I know that it's something that you treasure,
especially when it comes to people that speak French. And
(10:58):
I know that there are certain provinces that if you
don't speak French, it's certainly frowned upon. And I understand
that and so, but as an American this made me
laugh because French here, I mean the predominant the predominant
language is English. We actually do finally have an official
language of America, which is English, and it should be
not that people can't speak other languages, but if you're
(11:18):
going to be here, you should at least be able
to speak the native tongue. Right doesn't Again, it doesn't
mean you can't speak other languages or shouldn't learn another
language for a job or be able to travel or
whatever other interests you may have. But a country should
have an official language. It just should as a shared
value for that for any country, I believe there should
be one, and it should be expected that if you're
(11:38):
going to live there, you should understand it or at
least know the basics if you're going to travel. That
not holding any other country to any standard that I
wouldn't hold the United States to. But my point is,
Hayman mocking French was funny because as somebody from the
United States that doesn't know French, like the vast majority,
vast majority of Americans that cannot speak French fluently, you
(12:00):
just don't care about French because it's not a language
you need to know or most people have an interest
in learning at all or need to know. So it's
just like, Okay, yeah, it's hilarious, Like we all know bonjour,
we know, baguette, you know, we we we know, like
the most basic, ridiculously elementary words for French. So it
(12:22):
was funny hearing Paul Hayman mock the French language. Of course,
if you're in Canada, you know you genuinely don't like it.
But that's the point. So he said that he do
whatever it took to get out of get out of
their province so he could avoid their guttural language. That
was great, just great. Haymond told Knight he should avoid
(12:43):
getting into the favor business with Punk. It's a good
reminder of remember the favor that Punk gave Hayman, and
then Hayman had to return the favorite of Punk, which
is what started the whole thing last year and ended
with Paul Haman turning out everybody in the lining with
seth rollins. Very nice reminder, very nice tie in by Hayman.
He said doing so will take years off your life
(13:04):
and cost you your tribal chief. And Punk cut off
Hayman saying someone was going to get punched in the
face tonight. And he told Breaker and Read to come
on down, and Hayman said they could make it a match,
and the predictable tag team match was set up, and
that's when Breaker wanted to head to the ring, but
Hayman talked Breaker down. Good open to the show, solid open,
(13:27):
tried and true method of setting the hook for the
main event. I know it doesn't need to happen every time,
but it makes sense. You have your big stars to
open the show that have a hook to the end
of the show to keep you watching. It makes sense.
It's been a formula that WWE has used, other protions
have used since the dawn of time, and it just works.
(13:50):
No need to break something that's not broken or fix
something that's not broken, and I think that this is
something I'd like to I'd like to see this more often.
Sometimes it's we don't know what the main event is
going to be. It just kind of happens in the
middle of the show. So all right. We then had
Finn Baaler speaking with Rock cal Rodriguez, Roxanne Perez, and
j D McDonough inside the Judgment Day clubhouse. Dominicque Sterio
(14:13):
shows up with Little Grande Americano, which is the Ludwig
Kaiser version, and the others wondered why dom brought Americano
with him. Balor pulled aside Dom and said he's good
at reading the room and the others don't want el
grande there. Dom spoke about using Americano at Triple A Triplemania,
Baalor said it would be great if Americano could help
Dom bring the Triple A Mega Championship to the clubhouse.
(14:37):
Domin Americano headed out, and Ballor suggested that Rodriguez and
Perez go speak with Pierce about the WWE Women's tag
team titles. So good, I mean a little tension there's
I don't really have much to say about it other
than the fact that I can't believe that Judgment Day
is still existing. It's still a thing. Maybe perhaps to
just wait until Live Morgan comes back. I'm not sure
(14:59):
what the this is really doing anymore for anyone. The
Judgment Day has cooled off to a point of if
they disbanded, you would just throw flowers at their feet
and say, you know, job well done, very good storyline,
help build new stars, reear Ripley, Damian Priest. I wouldn't
say it helped Finn Balor really in any respect. In fact,
Finn Baler is probably the one guy from this entire
(15:23):
Judgment Day story that's been going on for a few
years now that has not come out worse or better.
He just was there. I know that's not a talking
point for a lot of people about the Judgment Day
and what the benefits of the Judgment Day were, or
even the fact that Judgment Day should not even exist
at this point. But the stars that it has helped
(15:45):
create live Morgan. It's helping rak HeLa Rodriguez right now
find something to do. Roxanne Perez is getting some notoriety
in that group, So I guess it has a bit
of a purpose still, but it's fading, fading fast. But
when it comes to Finn Balor, he's maybe the only
talent that didn't get hurt or helped by this because
(16:06):
he was never the focal point. You never saw him
break out as the true leader of the group. It
always was by de facto Rhea or Rhea and or
Damian Priest rather or some combination of those two. It
helped Dominic Mysterio get put on the map as far
(16:29):
as one of the biggest heels in the company's history.
It produced a great storyline with Riha and dom and
the chemistry there and the betrayal Live Morgan had a
place to land and used the Judgment Day as a
as something that she could steal from Ria Ripley and
then take it over. The Judgment Day has been a
nice platform. It has more than run its course, So
(16:53):
I guess it has been overall absolutely a net positive.
I guess if you were going to go into a
micro vision of this or a micro analysis, you would
say that Finn is the only one that you go, eh,
j D McDonough, even j D McDonough who had some
kind of platform also to learn and to grow and
to gain some notoriety and respect with fans, great place
(17:19):
for him to start. So yeah, I don't know. I
didn't think I'd go into a diet tribe about the
Judgment Day and its current status and its legacy, but
I did anyway. So aj Styles then makes his entrance
for a tag team match with Dragon Lee versus Dom
and Americano heading into the break, and then Graves hyped
(17:40):
Triple A and Triple A Triple Mania with YouTube, and
then Cole hyped l El Hijo Hi Ho no God
Della Ving Kingo versus. I shouldn't even pronounce these names.
It's an embarrassment. Can you tell I watched Triple A regularly?
(18:00):
Pretty obvious, isn't it. So anyway, there's gonna be a
Triple Mania main event that includes El Americano and Dominic
and Dragon Lee. I can say those names there. Dom
then comes out wearing a mask he removed as he
walked to the ring, and Americana was waiting at ringside.
Cole said Graves and JBL will deliver the English commentary
(18:22):
for Triple Mania, and AJ Styles and Dragonly then took
on Dom and El Grande. The match went sixteen minutes
and forty seconds. Quite a lengthy match, longer than I
thought it would be. And the match ended with Dom
putting out his mask and putting the metal piece inside
of the of the mask right where his forehead was,
(18:45):
and Styles rolled up Americano, who kicked out and then
Dom headbutted Styles from the apron and Americano rolled up
Styles and got the free count. So Dominic and Elgrande
beat AJ and Dragonly, which you know, if they're going
to continue to use this head piece metal pieces, I
guess it's fine. It's it is becoming much of an
(19:08):
Eddie Guerrero type of personality for Dom, not that El
Grande hasn't used the metal plate. He has, but it's
been a trend now for Dominic Masterial to continue to
find a way to cheat to win. And the fans
are still kind of mildly booing Dom, but hesitantly. I
think we're all booed out. We've gotten it all out
(19:28):
of our systems. I've said that since WrestleMania when they
cheered Dom for winning the Intercontinental title. It's time for
Dom to go babyface if it's an if they can
put it in the cards, if they have other plans,
of course you can. You can just you know, coast
with Dom as a heel. But there is some success
on the other side of the coin for Dom as
a babyface if he adopts the Ady Guerrero version of
(19:51):
wrestling when it comes to match finishes and not every
match he needs to cheat to win. But it would
be funny if he's able to replicate that in a
way that's in dear and a tributary to Eddie Guerrero.
I you know, that would be uh, that would be
I think the best path when they decide to go
babyface with Tom, which, by the way, I think I
mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again. Eddie Guerrero.
(20:14):
This year, it'll be twenty years. Twenty years now. Let
me get the date. I forget it was. It was
September October. When did Eddie Guerrero die? Oh no, I'm sorry,
it was November. I thought it was oct October. I
guess I'm wrong. So it was November thirteenth, two thousand
and five.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
So twenty years this year for Eddie Guerrero, which is
just mind blowing. And I've gone over that so many times.
No death in pro wrestling has hit me personally harder.
And I say personally in kind of a a distant
personal way, because I'm not DELUSI delusional enough to think
that I had some personal connection with Eddie. I didn't.
(21:01):
Ninety nine point nine percent of us listening didn't. You
may have seen him perform, I saw him perform. I
saw him perform many times. Uh WrestleMania twenty and the
most memorable when he became champion. But something about that
death has not gone away. Two decades later. It still
(21:22):
is one of the most devastating and for some reason,
for some reason, it feels personal, even though I know
logically it wasn't never talked to him in my life.
He's not related to me, not my family. He's not
a friend, not an extended friend. He's not a not
a coworker, he's not an acquaintance. He's just a wrestler
(21:44):
that I used to watch, and yet somehow he's the
one that feels like a personal loss. I can't explain it,
but I think it's a feeling that a lot of
people share because they keep coming back to Eddie Guerrero
with the moves that they use in the ring, and
(22:06):
Sasha Banks when she was here, and Eddie Garre or
a dominic was story using Eddie's maneuvers. Now and you
still hear the Eddie chance, there's something about it. And
I don't know how to dig any deeper than that
without going into some kind of psychoanalysis, which I won't
bore you with here, but twenty years, twenty years, it's
(22:28):
just crazy. So maybe we'll do a big special on
that in November, And i'd love to know your guys,
memories of Eddie and if you were alive, I know
some of you weren't even alive when this happened, or
you were infants or very small children. For me, I
was a twenty year old as a most junior in
(22:52):
college in Coastal Carolina University down at Myrtle Beach. That's
where I was in my apartment that he had set
up down there, and I remember sitting there and yeah, anyway,
I won't go into it. Give me your guys, you
know your your memories of Eddie and where you were
when it happened. So then we had all right, where
(23:16):
am I here? Oh, a footage airing of earlier in
the day of Sammy asking Adam Piers for a chance
to win the World Championship. Pierce said he couldn't make
any promises. He said Zayne had a match with Russev
tonight and they could talk. After Seamus showed up and
said Pierce wanted to see him. Pierce told Seamus that
he couldn't have a repeat of what happened to him
(23:38):
in Russev last week, and Zaane told Seamus the match
meant a lot to him and asked him not to
get involved. Seamus gave his word that he wouldn't interfere
in the match. Then we had EO Sky expressing disappointment
to Adam Pierce about her match with Naomi being postponed
because Naomi wasn't cleared. By the way, Naomi was not
(23:59):
cleared too, you compete, and Pierce said she would let
Skuy know more once he heard something, and Raquel Rodriguez
and Roxan Perez showed up and mocked Sky before asking
Pierce about opportunities, and Sky said she came for a
fight and she could find a partner, and Pierce booked
the match, and yeah, so then we get Russ versus Sammy.
(24:21):
Now this matchup went what was the ten minutes and
thirty seconds? Okay, yeah, it's you know, somewhat of a
short match. But the match went to a no contest
because we had Matteo and Loa pull Zane too the
floor and rough him up while Solo barked orders and
they took try to control Solo's crew. That's when Sam well,
(24:46):
Sammy did go for a halluva kick, but he was
stopped by Solo and Talatanga and Jace, Matteo and Togaloa,
so it was a no contest. And that's when Seamus
showed up on the other side of the ring and
attacked Russev. He got the better of Russev and ran
him into the crowd, and Zane was still down being
looked at by producers. So Solo, Soca and his group
(25:08):
that have no business being on Raw that we're all
supposed to forget again, I will be the lone voice
screaming into the void that they are not Raw stars,
They're not champions, well at least champions of any real
consequence that could cross over. Right, Solo is a champion,
(25:29):
but we don't have a reason for him to be there. Okay,
makes no sense, but nonetheless, this matchup again was it
was fine for what it was. I mean, Sammy Zane
in front of the Quebec. While he's from Montreal, he's still,
you know, a fellow Canadian, so he gets that Canadian
hometown hero type of welcome and having it is an
(25:52):
opportunity to get heat, really is what it is. I
know that a lot of people when they go to
these events and have their hometown guys, like when Kevin
Owens was there, or sammy's Ain's there or of course
Brett Hart when he was wrestling, it's an opportunity for
the crowd to love them. But it's also a great
opportunity you could argue it even better opportunity for heat
(26:13):
because you could get that visceral reaction from the hometown
boy or boys getting their ass kicked in front of
their hometown, so you'll get kind of an amplified response there.
And that's what they did here, all right. So Pearson
security led Solo's crew out of the building and used
(26:33):
his phone to reach out to SmackDown general manager Nick
all this, but he ended the call when a referee
arrived and informed him that they had separated Rusav and
Seamus and Pierce's question whether it was true after last week,
and set the referee out. So, okay, fine, you mean
he took him out of the building with security. How
they even get in, How they get to the point
of actually, you know, going through security somehow, going you know,
(26:58):
sneaking by all those men, sneaking by the crack security
team there. It's a little bit implausible. The problem is
this would be more shocking, even slightly believable, if it
didn't happen every single week with people crossing over. But
it does, so, all right. Kovie Kingkson, Xavier Woods, and
Grayson Waller then approached Pierce, and Woods was upset because
(27:21):
Penta ruined his twelve thousand dollars hat, and Pierce said
Woods could take it up with Penta in a match
on next week's show. So pent versus Woods is scheduled
for next week. Small program, but nice to see when
matches are scheduled a week in advance. We then at
a Bronson Reid promo video air and he said he
became a big star because he attacked Seth Rollins. Reid
(27:43):
said he earned Rollins respect and was invited into the Vision, which,
by the way, shout out to my listener of the
Wahse and I believe he's in Indianapolis, Indiana. I'm pretty
sure that's where he's from. He pointed out that last
week Seth called his group of the Vision, and then
I missed it. It is officially called the Vision. I
(28:04):
like it short suite to the point it aligns with
Seth's previous missions and these previous kind of catch phrases.
It's fine and it's cool, so no objections from me there,
and it's nice they have a name, Reid said. If
he doesn't want or Reid said he doesn't want romans respect.
(28:25):
He said he punked out Rains twice and The only
reason it hasn't happened a third time is because Rains
hasn't stepped up, and Reid said it would keep happening
until Roman acknowledges his tribal chief. So there you go.
There's your match for clash in Paris, Roman versus Bronson Reid.
I mean it's there, it's right there. I thought it
(28:46):
was official or tentative, but it's got to be right.
Eo Sky was shown walking backstage when she encountered the
Kabooki Warriors. Kyrie Sayin said that they were sorry about
Sky's tuttle match, and Oscar said they could be in
Sky's corner, and EO said that she beat Roxanne Perez
before and could handle her again, and that's when we
(29:08):
get Roxanne versus Eo Sky. This match went fifteen minutes
and forty seconds, with Roxanne beating EO. The finish was
Osca and EO running out to hell hold Perez against
the ropes. EO tried to take advantage, but Perez broke free,
and that's when Sky stopped short of hitting her, hitting
(29:31):
both of her allies there, and we then had Perez
shoved Sky into Osca insane and knocked them off the
apron and then we got to roll up and held
her tights to get the three counts. So Roxanne does
beat EO in fifteen minutes and forty seconds, which was fine.
Roxanne needs to get some momentum too. She's the newer
(29:55):
girl on the block. EO is a respected champion, respected
former champion, one of the biggest stars in the women's
division last year and into this year, and she's not
gonna be hurt by this loss at all. Roxanne Perez,
even though she beat EO, did it in a way
that you could say is a little underhanded with the
roll up and pulling of the tights and all the rest.
(30:17):
So a fine win for Roxanne. EO's not hurt in
the least and that's it. I mean, I don't know
if this, by the way, is going to lead to
any tension with EO and Osca and Kyrie because of
the fact that EO knocked into Kyrie and Osca off
the ropes. I doubt it based on how it happened,
(30:40):
but it eventually could perhaps as Oscar and Kyrie remain
babyfaces for the moment, but that can change on a
weekly basis with those two, so you never know. So
Jackie Redman interviewed by the way, before I continue, I
did not forget about carrying Cross. All right, I'm gathering
my thoughts as i'm doing this this review, and I'm
(31:01):
looking at some things he said and making sure I
have all the info. So I said, I'm gonna talk
about carry and I am. Just give me a moment here,
so let's continue though with Raw, and Jackie interviewed Jay
Usso and mentioned that he missed Raw last week. I
honestly didn't even know he did. That was not even
at the forefront when she said that, I go, really
(31:23):
that's yeah, I go, I didn't even know you were gone.
I don't mean that to be an insult to just
calling a spade a spade. I didn't even know he
was gone. Jay said it hurt him to miss last
week's Raw. Again, most people didn't notice, I don't think,
but he had to handle family business. Jay said receipts
are coming, and he put Bronson read and seth Rollins unnotice.
(31:43):
And La Knight interrupted the interview and said a lot
of people felt Jay was conspicuous. I think that's what
this words I'm reading is supposed to be by his absence.
Knight said, some of those people were saying Jay must
really want to get out of Roman Reigns's shadow because
he didn't show up. Knight said he didn't believe it,
and Knight said, everybody wants to the World Heavyweight Championship,
(32:06):
but the line starts behind him and Jay welcome Knight
to Raw and gave him a yet again Jay not
getting to say a whole lot, But they have learned
WWE has learned quickly that you should not give Jay
a whole lot to say because that's not Jay's strong
suit at all. In fact, that I bet you one
(32:29):
of the major sticking points with WWE management's position on
removing the belt from jus so so damn quickly after WrestleMania,
they learned that he is simply not I'm really not
trying to insult JA, but he's not championship material, not
World Heavyweight Championship material at this point. Doesn't mean he
(32:50):
can't get there. But I've gone over this many times,
so I won't rehash it other than to say he
didn't have a championship feel his promos were not good.
He has yet he has a connection with the fans,
which was very important and very admirable, but he didn't
have the complete package to feel like a true champion,
and w clearly felt the same way. You wouldn't have
changed course so damn quickly after WrestleMania. All right, so
(33:13):
let's move on. We had then Women's Intercamiental champion and
her challenger, Max Sine Dupree, who was accompanied by a
character Zawa in Italia. Yes, both of them still work
for the company. I was as surprised as you. Cole
hyped WWE's podcast schedule, including Jelly Roll, Who's going to
(33:33):
be on Cody Rhodes's show. EO Sky bickered with Oscar
while Kyrie Saane tried to play peacemaker. Oscar shoved Sky
and stormed away, and that left Sky in Sane both
looking shocked. Syne turned around and then ran off in
Oscar's direction. So, as I just mentioned this, I must
have missed this part because my speculation about potentially having
(33:56):
the Kabookie Warriors turn heel may be founded or founded,
depending on if they want to keep the Kabuki Warriors
together or or of Oscar just go plain heel. Oscar's
turned so many times I really don't know what to
think about it. I mean, she's like the big show
of the women's division. Osca has turned so many times,
and she works fine in both roles. I would actually
(34:17):
argue she works equally as good in both roles. She's
not better as a heel than she has a face,
and vice versa. I think she is equally distant from
the destination of success when it comes to being a
healer of face. She can do both. She's an excellent
and ring worker again, really good at being a heel,
really good at being a babyface and fans except both, Yeah,
(34:39):
she doesn't. I personally don't think she's one. One is
better than the other. So who knows what Oscar's gonna do.
It may change on a weekly basis, and I'll just
go for the ride with her because I have no
real strong feeling on where she should go. If I
was to make a decision, I think Osca should probably
stay with Kyrie for a couple of reasons. One, Kyrie
(35:00):
needs something to do, so that's very important because without Oscar,
Kyrie is a lost puppy in terms of character. She
just doesn't seem to know where to go. And number two,
the women's tag team division needs depth, just always and forever,
and it would really, I think bolster the division if
you have two legitimate stars that are a legitimate threat
(35:23):
to the women's tag titles at any time, and especially
if you're not gonna have Charlotte and Charlotte and Alexa
Bliss or they call him or her Lexi now her
real name. They're not gonna have Lexi and Charlotte. Why
don't we just call her Ashley. We're gonna do. Let's
just do with that, right, So, if Lexi and Ashley
are not gonna hold the belts for long, the Kabuki
(35:45):
Warriors are certainly real contenders to hold the belts and
take them off of them. All right, Well, let's continue.
We have then Maxine dupri versus Becky Lynch for the
women's in her Continental title. As expected, the match didn't
last long, and it didn't last long simply because Maxine
(36:06):
is she's not ready for a lengthy match. Went five
minutes and thirty five seconds after Becky Lynch wins by dismission.
A dismission. Here's what I did. Here's what my brain did.
It mixed the word disarmour and submission bit. You never
heard that word before. But she did lock in the disarmour,
which caused a submission, and Maxine loses as she should have.
(36:28):
I mean, the fans didn't really get too much into this.
There wasn't a whole lot of high for this. If any,
Maxine has been largely off of the scene. She was
a bit on the warm side when she was with
the abuse of Chad Gable where he was berating her
on TV along with Otis for several months and you're
thinking Maxine's finally gonna snap. Ever since then, she's not
(36:52):
really done a whole lot of the women's side of things.
But the fact she got a women's in her continental
title match, does she deserve it? Debatable? But she had
a decent match for as long as it was going
on anyway, for five minutes, and Becky Lynch wins as
she should have. I mean, that's that's not even in question.
But afterward, Natalia and Tazala check on Duprex, and then
(37:13):
Lynch hilariously threw a cheap shot kick at Natalia, which
is fine. I mean, this better not lead to Natalia
versus Becky Lynch for the Intercontinental title at Clash in Paris.
They always can use Natalia as a kind of in
house nostalgic act that has absolutely zero chance of winning
(37:36):
any match she's actually in that has any meaning, which
they've done with her for a long time. A veteran respected,
she has a famous uncle. I can't remember who it is.
I don't know, some dude, but she being facetious, so
she has all that, she has the name, but she's
not going anywhere in the company. She's had her day,
(37:58):
and they could certainly plug her in as a Bechu
lunch opponent if they really want to to give the
women a little bit more representation on the show. But
if you're a women's division supporter then and most of
us are, there shouldn't be situations where we have to
have pity matches where we have to just plug in
people to check a box that we have. Oh, we
(38:22):
need the women's in our continental title match, we need
more women on the show. Let's just kind of pull
theally in. It's like, no, that that's what you used
to do when the women's wrestling didn't mean much, right,
You just pull these women that can actually wrestle to
have a decent match. From a technical perspective, a sound
wrestling perspective to have a decent match. That shouldn't be
(38:43):
a thing anymore. Now I'm not saying it is, but
I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm just saying
it looks like it could be a possibility. Okay, So
then we have a Bailey promo video airing. She said
she didn't know how good she got or she didn't
know how she got to where she is. She said
she's been doing this for almost thirteen years and has
never felt the way she does. She wants more but
(39:05):
feels less. She said she wants more and feels nothing,
and said the role model name meant something before she
used it, and said she was treated like one before
she saw herself as one, but she eventually realized she
could make a change and be an asset to the business.
She said, now she's by herself. She said she felt
(39:26):
everything that led up to where she has now got
her nowhere, and she had no championship and couldn't remember
the last time she felt proud of herself. She said
it's her fault. The camera got blurry and then cut
to black after she took a deep breath, and then
there was a maniacal sound effect that played interesting. So
(39:49):
are we getting a warped turn by Bailey? I mean,
are we going full Nikki Cross here? I don't know,
She's heading down some kind of path. I'm down for it.
Bailey needs a bit of a kick in the ass,
of course, not a little one, a proverbial kick in
(40:10):
the ass certainly, So we'll see where that goes. I
don't know if it's a bit of a bray Wyatt influence,
or you know, if her and Lexi and Nikki are
gonna have some I mean, I don't know they want
to go demented with Bailey. That's interesting, But they're saying
she feels alone and she you know, she's depressed and down.
(40:34):
Is she spiraling into darkness? I mean again, I feel
like we've seen dark women's characters before and we kind
of know what that looks like, but Bailey has yet
to ever explore that. I mean, she went from you know,
having love affairs with Bailey Buddies and the you know,
the little side ponytail loving aw Shuck's kind of character
(40:59):
to slaughtering the Bailey Buddies live on air to what
I think was the peak of her career up until
that point with Sasha Banks, of all people that I
just despise on every level, despise Mercedes like as a person,
despise her. But at that point I can objectively say
(41:20):
her and Sasha when they won almost all the women's championships,
when they were running the women's division, when her and
Sasha before the breakup happened, I mean, that was just fantastic.
If I'm not mistaken. It was during the pandemic era
of all things too. And despite the fact that I
hate everything that Mercedes is and does and says as
(41:41):
a person, again, as a person, that's how deep this is,
I can still objectively say her and Bailey worked very
well together and that to me was the peak. And
then after that she had some she had damage control,
which was just sadly the beginning of the end for
Bailey's current character. A number of years ago at SummerSlam,
when she, I believe, was interrupted Bianca bell Air and
(42:06):
from there she brought back Kyrie Sane and it was
just not a good look. From there on out, she
was hidden in the group barely ever, the focal point
the group was there, not there. We didn't know whether
we were going, and then Dakota Kai and her had
an eventual breakdown, and Dakota Kai actually before she got released,
(42:28):
was had a really nice breakout performance that year when
she turned So it's been a weird and then obviously
this year she's left off wrestlemedia. It's been a weird
run for Bailey, who has been largely ignored over the
last year and a half to two years. So to
see what they're doing with Bailey here is encouraging that
they have some sort of plan. Whether or not the
(42:50):
plan actually works, of course, we'll find out sometimes execution
and real life will slap you in the face from
what's just created in a board room or in a
zoom discussion with the creative team. We'll see what we'll
see if it comes with this, But I'm down for it.
All right, let's continue. We then had CM punk Sorry,
(43:13):
let's talk about real quickly, and then we'll get to
Sampunk and Bronson read and all that.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Real.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Ripley or I'm sorry EO was shown back walking backstage.
She was approached by Stephanie Vacor, who told her she
wasn't the only one who was promised the title match.
Ria Ripley showed up and told Eo that she was
sorry for her She was looking forward to facing Sky.
Sky facing Naomi, and Sky said Perez shouldn't have beaten her.
(43:39):
Ripley agreed and questioned if Sky can trust Oscar and
sane Oscar is rather Sky said she knew what Ripley
was saying and didn't appreciate it. So tension all around.
That's a moral of the story, all right. Seampunk and
l A Night take on bron Breaker and Bronson Reid
with Paul him and of course the ring side. The
match went sixteen minutes and five seconds with CM Punk
(44:02):
and l A. Knight beating bron Breaker and Bronson read
by disqualification. So kind of a funky night for finishes
as a theme, a lot of roll up DQ no contest,
type of cheap finished nights. But Punk took a hot tag,
he got Breaker down, hit him with the top rope elbow.
Punk removed his T shirt and signaled for his GTS finish.
(44:24):
Seth Rollins comes in and attacks Punk for the DQ finish.
The trio then beat down the Baby Faces. Jays comes
on the stage with a chair. Breaker met Jay in
the entrance aisle and was put down with some chair shots.
He comes in the ring and Reid punched the chair
out of Jay's hands, and you know, Jay worked over
(44:48):
Reid with punches, picked up the chair, cleared him from
the ring. Adam Pierce comes out and makes the fatal
four way match for Clash in Paris, which will be
Seth Rollins taking on jus So in l a Knight
forre I thought they took the word fatal out of it.
I'm surprised because it's not like a deadly fatal four way.
It is kind of funny that they say fatal. I mean,
(45:10):
maybe it's just like a sudden death. Maybe that's the implication,
one fall to a finish. Maybe that's again I'm guessing
that's the implication, because to say it's a fatal four
way or fatal five way or whatever the case, maybe
it's kind of a strong term to use, imp implying
that someone's going to die, Like that's the only context
(45:33):
in which the word fatal is usually used. But I'm
guessing it's just a way to say sudden death. Right,
one fall to a finish. Okay, so fine, no Roman reigns.
We did get Breaker and Reid holding punk on the
mat while Rollins told him he would never hold the
world championship. Though Rollin's left Punk laying with a stomp,
(45:54):
Rollins held up his title while the credits were being shown,
and you know, Breaker went to ringside, speared Night Reid
hit a death valley driver on Jay. So all the
heels ended up standing tall even after the announcement. So
because punkin La Knight came to blows and that's what
(46:14):
allowed the trio to come in and do their damage.
According to this analysis, this person says quote another crappy,
although stronger language finished to a WW television main event.
It seemed like such an obvious swerve when Rollins claimed
he was leaving the building that I thought they might
(46:35):
go a different direction. Unfortunately, they took the usual approach
to avoid a clean finish by going with a blatant
outside interference for a throwaway DQ. They make it tough
to be excited about the four way match announced for
clash in Paris. Why would anyone think that I won't
feature a bunch of outside interference before Rollins retained, given
there are notice qualifications in before a matches. Oh yeah,
(46:56):
I mean again, the fact that way matches or multiperson
matches are no DQ by default is stupid and I've
made that case many times. But yeah, that's the finish.
I know that this person feels that it's a crappy finish.
Is predictable, Yeah, well, no kidding. I mean sometimes you
can see a finish coming a mile away and you
(47:17):
just have to accept it. And instead of looking and
focusing on the finish of the match, which is all
but you know, a foregone conclusion, you have to look
for the other side effect, the byproducts of this, meaning
the quality of the match. Can they convince you at
any point in the match that, oh, crap, seth Rollins
(47:39):
may actually lose here. You look for that kind of stuff.
You look for any potential steps moving forward of who
could Rowins could face moving forward or maybe without Rolins
is Punk and La N'm gonna go on some kind
of run, which I hope they don't, is jay Uso.
And you know Punk gonna go on something, you know,
some kind of one on one Probably not, but you
(48:01):
look for those kinds of things. So yeah, it's predictable.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
So what.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Yes, there's gonna be a bunch of outside interference because
multiperson matches by default, don't have DQ. That's we're all
gonna have to live with sometimes the outcomes being incredibly obvious.
It's part of pro wrestling. Okay. Now, there are a
lot of people commenting about carrying Cross, and there was
(48:31):
a lot of there wasn't a lot. There was one
we want Cross sign that I saw at the beginning
of the show that I'm surprised wasn't taken, and there
are reports of w WE confiscating we want Cross signs.
There was no. By the way, this is discouraging if
you are carrying CROSS. I did not hear any we
(48:52):
want Cross chants during the show. That's discouraging. That tells
me perhaps the fans aren't super sad that he's gone.
They could change their minds, and if they do, it'll
be manifesting itself online and in person. That's when it
might get WWE's attention. Now, this is all assuming before
(49:14):
I get into Cross, his comments and all the rest.
This is all assuming that this is not a work
because we all know that WWE is trying to go
They're trying to deep fake us. They try to deep
fake us with Seth Rollins's injury, although they missed some
very key points that it would have been more convincing
that I've gone over before. With the fact that they
didn't come up with the timeline for his injury or
(49:35):
any kind of diagnosis, they could easily lied to us, big, big,
big holes there that led me to believe it was
a work at the very end before the match, before SummerSlam.
But if they're going to go deep fake now with
people being released in contracts and things, this could be
another deep fake for WWE. This could be another one
of those Yeah, okay, we're gonna fake you with an injury. Now,
(49:57):
we're gonna fake you with the contract signing. Now with
with our truth Ron Killings that was real. But this
has the feelings potentially of a work, or they could
be seeing if they want to make this look like
a work based on the crowd response or backlash. So
(50:21):
you know, I don't I don't have a conclusion yet.
But there were no we want Cross chants, which is
again a bit of a discouragement. So Carrying Cross did
comment on his departure and he did say on ex
(50:43):
hey life is fighting right now, accepting bookings and he
has his listing here of business at Killercross dot com.
See you all again soon. So again, I'm sure a
lot of podcasters are reaching out right now and they're
trying to get him booked because it'll be great for
(51:05):
ratings and hear what he has to say and all
the rest. Which, hey, if you get the interview, you
do the interview. Here, I mean, like, yes, absolutely, now
we want Cross was trending for a little while in
number one of the United States for a hot minute
on X That is encouraging. But again it didn't translate
into in person, which if your WWE is key to
(51:28):
whether or not you're going to take action to re
sign Carrying Cross. You also probably wouldn't confiscate signs if
it was not real. So I'm leaning to this not
being a work, but now that there is a potential
that it is. And this is also from and I'll
(51:48):
give it a credit here. Imbd says Carrying Cross has
officially been released by a WWE. He took to his
YouTube channel sharing his side of the story, and with
the future holds that was not all because the video
contained his sentiments about the quote uncertainty that each new
day brought. However, he shared his philosophy on life and
expected his expressed his desire to stay with WWE. Cross
(52:12):
discussed that in life there is no quote real certainty
and that things can turn dark sooner or later, and
he expressed his ideal desire of how he would want
things to go from here on here onwards, and he said,
tomorrow's not guaranteed. So whatever's going to happen is going
to happen what I would like to happen. I would
love to stay with WWE. I'd love to really finish
(52:33):
my career there. I would I don't know what's going
to happen though, so yeah, I mean again, he was
let go or let his contract was rather he wasn't
let go as much as they didn't renew his contract,
they didn't offer from a new one. Okay, that's the difference.
Big difference, right, huge difference is that they did not
(52:55):
offer him a new contract, saying that, you know, we'd
just don't have plans for you. So, if you're a
carrying Cross fan and this is real, and it I'm
leaning in the direction of this being real, it is
a bit disheartening. But if the fans' voices want a
you know, want to be able to pull a miracle
and do what they did with our truth. They need
(53:16):
to be This needs to be a sustained movement, not
just online. It needs to manifest itself consistently in the arenas,
with chants, with fans trying to hijack the show with signs,
and it doesn't seem like any of that's happening outside
of just people typing on their phones. No, we miss Cross,
(53:37):
give Cross a chance. We want Cross. And then you
get to the arena and you don't hear anything. That's
a massive disconnect. That's not what you want if you
want Carrying Cross to come back. So you know, we'll
see what happens there. Carrying Cross, you know, does have
a desire to stay. We'll see. I don't think this
(53:57):
is his last time ever in WWE. Maybe if he
doesn't get resigned right away, he probably will find his
way back at some point. But if fans want to
jump on this, they got to jump jump on a
quick because this is the best time to bring Cross
back is when it's hot and fresh and in people's minds.
And we all know how quickly the news cycle comes
(54:18):
in and out of our heads, no matter how big
or how tragic something is. I mean, doesn't Hulk Hogan's
death feel like four years ago already. It's not even
in the forefront of most of our minds. Yet we
lost the biggest star in wrestling history. So it's just
incredible how quickly we all move on and go to
the next thing, and what's the next news. It's the
world we live in, So if fans are going to
make something happen, it's got to be now. It's got
(54:39):
to be now while people are half paying attention. If
it doesn't happen in the next couple weeks, Carrying Cross
is probably going to go on and do his thing
and take independent bookings or maybe if he aw is interested,
but most likely maybe stay in the independence or make appearents,
special appearances, do signings again, interviews, that kind of thing.
So that I'll do it here for the ww podcast
(55:01):
on this Tuesday, August twelfth. I appreciate everybody staying up
late if you are. I know some of you do
listen to me later. Some of you fall asleep while
I'm talking. I guess I'll take that as a compliment,
so I appreciate it. I'll be back on Friday with
your mail bag. I do want to hear from you
on your thoughts on carrying Cross on the card that's
(55:21):
shaping up for Clash in Paris in a couple of weeks,
as well as the seth Rollins story and everything else
going on and as we head into the end of
summer here, it's not going to be long. So if
you want to go add free though throughout the summer,
the rest of the summer and into the fall and
ramping up for Survivors Series season in just a few months,
you can do that. Patreon dot com Slash WWE podcast
(55:45):
one dollar a month gets you in the door. You
also have a free trial if you want to do that,
or Apple podcasts as well. Hit that subscribe button and
go add free there. Okay, everybody appreciate it. I hope
everyone enjoys the rest of their week. We'll talk in
a few days. See you then.
Speaker 3 (56:03):
Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to
subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss
a show, or head to wwepodcast dot com and for
all of these shows add free head over to Patreon
dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll see you
(56:24):
next time.
This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre, and you're listening to
the WWE podcast show.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The one that everybody wants me god.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Stand for sixteen. So just what your ass is my arm?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You're gonna acknowledge me.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And welcome everybody to the Monday Night Raw review for
this twelfth day of August twenty twenty five, as Clash
in Paris comes to us in two weeks came up
kind of quick. I feel like I just said it
was four weeks.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Time goes sasstro as you get older, as I'm sure
all of you know, and there's actual science behind that.
But way beyond the point, I hope everyone's enjoying their
Tuesday or their or whatever day you're listening to this
as the week rolls on here and halfway through August.
That's crazy to me as well. Football is just a
few weeks away. Baseball playoffs are just a few weeks away.
(01:14):
The as I said, the next plee of WWE Clash
in Paris comes to us August thirty first, and then
stays over there for a couple of weeks, and we
get to enjoy the last of the John Cena Tour
which is winding down, winding down quickly, with just eleven
dates left, and they're actually coming here to my hometown
of Albany. But the problem is that they are not
(01:38):
going to be here or Johnson is not going to
be here on one of those dates. So I'm a
bit discouraged to go to SmackDown. If he was coming,
it would be no doubt about it. I would go.
But WWE over the last several months and years has
just spiked their ticket sales to a point that's just
it's ridiculous. Going to a pl is means you have
(01:59):
to take a second mortgage on your home. Going to
a just a televised event means you need to use
like a firm to have a payment plan of some sort.
And maybe if you have enough cash laying around, you
can get to a non televised live event, a house show.
But I mean, it's just getting ridiculous. I haven't seen
(02:20):
the ticket sales yet for here in Albany. They go
on sale in a few days, we'll see. I might go.
It's been a few years since SmackDown has come here,
and WWA has advertised Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes and
some other big stars, but no John Cena, which is
again kind of disheartening. Is it possible that he has
another date or two. Maybe he's not going on beyond December,
(02:42):
but selfishly maybe he'll show up. So anyway, welcome to
the show. If you guys want to go ed free
and you enjoy the show, go over to patreon dot
com slash you WWE podcast get an ad free experience.
It's a perfect place to go if you want to
get rid of all those ads, those pesky ads. You
can also go over to app if you don't want
to leave your app. Most of you do listen through Apple.
(03:03):
Go to the subscribe button right there on Apple and
go add free. And if you want to go on
a yearly basis you can. It does offer a few
months for free if you do that option. Now let's
get into Monday Night Raw. That came to us, as
I said yesterday, and it was in let me get
(03:24):
the name of the building. I have it here somewhere,
the Center Videotron in Quebec City, Quebec, and we had
a recap of seth Rollins cashing in the money the
bank contract. We're going to see that for a while
and They showed footage of the Rollins at La Night
Angle and the show closing angle with Rollins and his
(03:44):
crew laying out Night Roman reigns in Sam Punk and
then Sampunk comes out and he's introduced by Alisha Taylor
and Cole said Punk held the world championship just five
minutes before Rolins successfully cashed in the money in the
bank contract that were allowed chants for Punk, and he
said the fans made it hard for him to be angry,
but then he thinks about how there should be gold
(04:05):
around his waist. He says, I have a Seth Rollins problem.
He added that Rollins is trying his best to be
seen on Punk yet failing miserably, and he recalled becoming
champion for the first time in over a dozen years,
which is actually pretty crazy, and he said that if
fans thought he was relentless in pursuit of his goals
(04:26):
and obsessed with becoming champion, he's even more possessed now
when it comes to regaining the title. He recalled saying
hate the player, not the game, and says he doesn't
hate the game because he's cashing it before, but he
still hates the player. Seth Rollins and he said Rollins
wouldn't have to pretend to be injured because he's gonna
get his hands on him and then break his leg,
(04:48):
a pretty good line. That's when Alla Knight comes out.
Ella Knight and Punk here had an extended interaction which
you know, I didn't think i'd see because of La
Knight's position in the company of Late where he scratched
the main event. But you know, he's never gonna really
be the one to win, and it's gonna be the
same thing here. Unfortunately for Clash in Paris. If you're
(05:09):
looking for La Knight to have any chance of victory,
it's not on the and not in the cards right now.
Sad to say, but you know, with Rollins just becoming
champion and they had this whole angle leading to the
fake injury that led to the cash in, there's not
a chance that they have any idea or any plan
(05:30):
to take the belt off him much. Let's give it
to La Knight. And by the way, after this, I
will talk about carrying Cross, Okay, I do have some
thoughts on that in just a moment. But finishing out
this first segment here with La Knight and Cumpunk, which
again was very surprising that they had to back and
forth interaction one of this length, particularly for La Knight,
(05:54):
who maybe this was his longest promo and it was
a hell of a test for La Knight, who's going
against one of the greatest promos in WWE pro wrestling
history and Cmpunk. It was a hell of a test,
and I think La Knight passed the test. He held
his own with Punk is he has eloquent and clever
(06:15):
and creative and witty with words as Punk is. No,
he's not, but he's more than satisfactory to feel like
he belongs. And that's what I was looking for here
with La Knight. While La Knight's not young, he's in
his forties, and he actually does have a lot of experience.
He's in the Independence before WWE. It's not just like
(06:36):
he arrived at WWE for the first time ever being
in a wrestling ring. But that's what I was still
looking for because this was his biggest test to date
on the microphone was being able to hang with with Punk,
not just in a short burst with prepared lines, but
in having to add libs some things, having to go
(06:56):
off the cuff a little bit, having to adjust on
the fly and remembering the bullet points that he had
to say, and I think l A. Knight passed and
that was a good thing. Did he blow Punk out
of the water? No, no, no, no, no no, no he didn't.
But it wasn't as if he looked nervous. He didn't
bumble too many lines. He didn't trip over his words.
(07:20):
LA Knight has done that in the past, and Punk
has done that too. I mean, see on Punk is
not immune to fumbles, bumbles, stutters. It's just a fact
of being a human being. But you know, he's not
immune either, And I just wanted to bring that point
up because I think this was a massive test for
la Knit to see how he feels with an extended
(07:40):
promo against Punk. L and Night did repeat himself a
couple more times than he probably should have, saying that
you know, he doesn't have a problem with him and
he doesn't want a problem with him. He said that
like three or four times. But it was a good
point to drive home. I mean saying that these guys
are not adversaries and they're trying not to be because
they're both babyfaces, of course, and they have a common
(08:02):
enemy in Seth Rollins so they both were trying this
while showing friction, saying hey, like I don't want to
be your enemy, you don't want to be mine, and
then reminding each other, hey, we have a common enemy,
Seth Rollins. You got a Seth Rollins problem. I got
a Seth Rowland's problem. And so that was a nice
thing to see because I don't think there's anybody who
really wants to see Seampunk versus l a night. It's
(08:24):
not it's not a match in demand. They're they're not
anywhere near in position to do that. The fans aren't
asking for it. They're both babyfaces, they have a common enemy.
It's just it makes absolutely no sense for these two
to have a one on one program. Now they will
of course fight each other in the Fatal four way,
and they did have the end of the match here
with the main event we'll talk about later. They did
(08:46):
have some you know, some explosion, but that's that's okay.
Now that there's a fatal four way, they have a
reason to be brawling with one another because it's not
just about them. It's really about Seth and trying to
take the belt off of Seth. And you have these
four opponent who are going to face each other in
just a couple of weeks. So it's okay in that context.
But this was a good segment here. Paul Haymon did
(09:08):
come out and he was out there with the bronze,
the tribal thief. That was a good line. The shoe
of Fala that was on Where did you come up
with this crap? They see chat chipting his promos. I
mean it's just crazy. I mean, who would have ever
thought of thinking of coming up with the shoe of Fala.
(09:30):
Nobody came up with that, you know, he came up
with just the mastermind of Paul Hayman and the you know,
the tribal thief. Great stuff, great stuff, And I mean
you do wonder how many pairs of shoes that bronze
Bronson Reid is going to collect before Roman reigns redeems
that you know for sure, Roman reigns after he claims
(09:53):
victory over you know, Bronson Reid and gets a spear
in a victory, He's going to take those shoes back.
And it's just a fun little side story. It's almost
like a trophy that Bronson Reed is carrying around that
makes you want to see Roman get back at him.
It's actually don't mind it. Well, I don't feel like
to me, it's not a personal sign of disrespect out
of the fact that it's just against the law. I
(10:16):
understand why people want to see Roman Reign's claim his
shoes back. It's just personal property. It's a fine little
side story, is all I'm trying to say. So Paul
Hammond did say that, you know, he mocked the French fans,
which was great, and said he, you know, saying a
few words in French and then saying that's all he knew.
(10:36):
But what did he say? He called it the garbage,
the guttural language, just totally hammering French, which, hey, if
you're a Canadian, French is it's it's a pride in
your culture. I know that it's something that you treasure,
especially when it comes to people that speak French. And
(10:58):
I know that there are certain provinces that if you
don't speak French, it's certainly frowned upon. And I understand
that and so, but as an American this made me
laugh because French here, I mean the predominant the predominant
language is English. We actually do finally have an official
language of America, which is English, and it should be
not that people can't speak other languages, but if you're
(11:18):
going to be here, you should at least be able
to speak the native tongue. Right doesn't Again, it doesn't
mean you can't speak other languages or shouldn't learn another
language for a job or be able to travel or
whatever other interests you may have. But a country should
have an official language. It just should as a shared
value for that for any country, I believe there should
be one, and it should be expected that if you're
(11:38):
going to live there, you should understand it or at
least know the basics if you're going to travel. That
not holding any other country to any standard that I
wouldn't hold the United States to. But my point is,
Hayman mocking French was funny because as somebody from the
United States that doesn't know French, like the vast majority,
vast majority of Americans that cannot speak French fluently, you
(12:00):
just don't care about French because it's not a language
you need to know or most people have an interest
in learning at all or need to know. So it's
just like, Okay, yeah, it's hilarious, Like we all know bonjour,
we know, baguette, you know, we we we know, like
the most basic, ridiculously elementary words for French. So it
(12:22):
was funny hearing Paul Hayman mock the French language. Of course,
if you're in Canada, you know you genuinely don't like it.
But that's the point. So he said that he do
whatever it took to get out of get out of
their province so he could avoid their guttural language. That
was great, just great. Haymond told Knight he should avoid
(12:43):
getting into the favor business with Punk. It's a good
reminder of remember the favor that Punk gave Hayman, and
then Hayman had to return the favorite of Punk, which
is what started the whole thing last year and ended
with Paul Haman turning out everybody in the lining with
seth rollins. Very nice reminder, very nice tie in by Hayman.
He said doing so will take years off your life
(13:04):
and cost you your tribal chief. And Punk cut off
Hayman saying someone was going to get punched in the
face tonight. And he told Breaker and Read to come
on down, and Hayman said they could make it a match,
and the predictable tag team match was set up, and
that's when Breaker wanted to head to the ring, but
Hayman talked Breaker down. Good open to the show, solid open,
(13:27):
tried and true method of setting the hook for the
main event. I know it doesn't need to happen every time,
but it makes sense. You have your big stars to
open the show that have a hook to the end
of the show to keep you watching. It makes sense.
It's been a formula that WWE has used, other protions
have used since the dawn of time, and it just works.
(13:50):
No need to break something that's not broken or fix
something that's not broken, and I think that this is
something I'd like to I'd like to see this more often.
Sometimes it's we don't know what the main event is
going to be. It just kind of happens in the
middle of the show. So all right. We then had
Finn Baaler speaking with Rock cal Rodriguez, Roxanne Perez, and
j D McDonough inside the Judgment Day clubhouse. Dominicque Sterio
(14:13):
shows up with Little Grande Americano, which is the Ludwig
Kaiser version, and the others wondered why dom brought Americano
with him. Balor pulled aside Dom and said he's good
at reading the room and the others don't want el
grande there. Dom spoke about using Americano at Triple A Triplemania,
Baalor said it would be great if Americano could help
Dom bring the Triple A Mega Championship to the clubhouse.
(14:37):
Domin Americano headed out, and Ballor suggested that Rodriguez and
Perez go speak with Pierce about the WWE Women's tag
team titles. So good, I mean a little tension there's
I don't really have much to say about it other
than the fact that I can't believe that Judgment Day
is still existing. It's still a thing. Maybe perhaps to
just wait until Live Morgan comes back. I'm not sure
(14:59):
what the this is really doing anymore for anyone. The
Judgment Day has cooled off to a point of if
they disbanded, you would just throw flowers at their feet
and say, you know, job well done, very good storyline,
help build new stars, reear Ripley, Damian Priest. I wouldn't
say it helped Finn Balor really in any respect. In fact,
Finn Baler is probably the one guy from this entire
(15:23):
Judgment Day story that's been going on for a few
years now that has not come out worse or better.
He just was there. I know that's not a talking
point for a lot of people about the Judgment Day
and what the benefits of the Judgment Day were, or
even the fact that Judgment Day should not even exist
at this point. But the stars that it has helped
(15:45):
create live Morgan. It's helping rak HeLa Rodriguez right now
find something to do. Roxanne Perez is getting some notoriety
in that group, So I guess it has a bit
of a purpose still, but it's fading, fading fast. But
when it comes to Finn Balor, he's maybe the only
talent that didn't get hurt or helped by this because
(16:06):
he was never the focal point. You never saw him
break out as the true leader of the group. It
always was by de facto Rhea or Rhea and or
Damian Priest rather or some combination of those two. It
helped Dominic Mysterio get put on the map as far
(16:29):
as one of the biggest heels in the company's history.
It produced a great storyline with Riha and dom and
the chemistry there and the betrayal Live Morgan had a
place to land and used the Judgment Day as a
as something that she could steal from Ria Ripley and
then take it over. The Judgment Day has been a
nice platform. It has more than run its course, So
(16:53):
I guess it has been overall absolutely a net positive.
I guess if you were going to go into a
micro vision of this or a micro analysis, you would
say that Finn is the only one that you go, eh,
j D McDonough, even j D McDonough who had some
kind of platform also to learn and to grow and
to gain some notoriety and respect with fans, great place
(17:19):
for him to start. So yeah, I don't know. I
didn't think I'd go into a diet tribe about the
Judgment Day and its current status and its legacy, but
I did anyway. So aj Styles then makes his entrance
for a tag team match with Dragon Lee versus Dom
and Americano heading into the break, and then Graves hyped
(17:40):
Triple A and Triple A Triple Mania with YouTube, and
then Cole hyped l El Hijo Hi Ho no God
Della Ving Kingo versus. I shouldn't even pronounce these names.
It's an embarrassment. Can you tell I watched Triple A regularly?
(18:00):
Pretty obvious, isn't it. So anyway, there's gonna be a
Triple Mania main event that includes El Americano and Dominic
and Dragon Lee. I can say those names there. Dom
then comes out wearing a mask he removed as he
walked to the ring, and Americana was waiting at ringside.
Cole said Graves and JBL will deliver the English commentary
(18:22):
for Triple Mania, and AJ Styles and Dragonly then took
on Dom and El Grande. The match went sixteen minutes
and forty seconds. Quite a lengthy match, longer than I
thought it would be. And the match ended with Dom
putting out his mask and putting the metal piece inside
of the of the mask right where his forehead was,
(18:45):
and Styles rolled up Americano, who kicked out and then
Dom headbutted Styles from the apron and Americano rolled up
Styles and got the free count. So Dominic and Elgrande
beat AJ and Dragonly, which you know, if they're going
to continue to use this head piece metal pieces, I
guess it's fine. It's it is becoming much of an
(19:08):
Eddie Guerrero type of personality for Dom, not that El
Grande hasn't used the metal plate. He has, but it's
been a trend now for Dominic Masterial to continue to
find a way to cheat to win. And the fans
are still kind of mildly booing Dom, but hesitantly. I
think we're all booed out. We've gotten it all out
(19:28):
of our systems. I've said that since WrestleMania when they
cheered Dom for winning the Intercontinental title. It's time for
Dom to go babyface if it's an if they can
put it in the cards, if they have other plans,
of course you can. You can just you know, coast
with Dom as a heel. But there is some success
on the other side of the coin for Dom as
a babyface if he adopts the Ady Guerrero version of
(19:51):
wrestling when it comes to match finishes and not every
match he needs to cheat to win. But it would
be funny if he's able to replicate that in a
way that's in dear and a tributary to Eddie Guerrero.
I you know, that would be uh, that would be
I think the best path when they decide to go
babyface with Tom, which, by the way, I think I
mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again. Eddie Guerrero.
(20:14):
This year, it'll be twenty years. Twenty years now. Let
me get the date. I forget it was. It was
September October. When did Eddie Guerrero die? Oh no, I'm sorry,
it was November. I thought it was oct October. I
guess I'm wrong. So it was November thirteenth, two thousand
and five.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
So twenty years this year for Eddie Guerrero, which is
just mind blowing. And I've gone over that so many times.
No death in pro wrestling has hit me personally harder.
And I say personally in kind of a a distant
personal way, because I'm not DELUSI delusional enough to think
that I had some personal connection with Eddie. I didn't.
(21:01):
Ninety nine point nine percent of us listening didn't. You
may have seen him perform, I saw him perform. I
saw him perform many times. Uh WrestleMania twenty and the
most memorable when he became champion. But something about that
death has not gone away. Two decades later. It still
(21:22):
is one of the most devastating and for some reason,
for some reason, it feels personal, even though I know
logically it wasn't never talked to him in my life.
He's not related to me, not my family. He's not
a friend, not an extended friend. He's not a not
a coworker, he's not an acquaintance. He's just a wrestler
(21:44):
that I used to watch, and yet somehow he's the
one that feels like a personal loss. I can't explain it,
but I think it's a feeling that a lot of
people share because they keep coming back to Eddie Guerrero
with the moves that they use in the ring, and
(22:06):
Sasha Banks when she was here, and Eddie Garre or
a dominic was story using Eddie's maneuvers. Now and you
still hear the Eddie chance, there's something about it. And
I don't know how to dig any deeper than that
without going into some kind of psychoanalysis, which I won't
bore you with here, but twenty years, twenty years, it's
(22:28):
just crazy. So maybe we'll do a big special on
that in November, And i'd love to know your guys,
memories of Eddie and if you were alive, I know
some of you weren't even alive when this happened, or
you were infants or very small children. For me, I
was a twenty year old as a most junior in
(22:52):
college in Coastal Carolina University down at Myrtle Beach. That's
where I was in my apartment that he had set
up down there, and I remember sitting there and yeah, anyway,
I won't go into it. Give me your guys, you
know your your memories of Eddie and where you were
when it happened. So then we had all right, where
(23:16):
am I here? Oh, a footage airing of earlier in
the day of Sammy asking Adam Piers for a chance
to win the World Championship. Pierce said he couldn't make
any promises. He said Zayne had a match with Russev
tonight and they could talk. After Seamus showed up and
said Pierce wanted to see him. Pierce told Seamus that
he couldn't have a repeat of what happened to him
(23:38):
in Russev last week, and Zaane told Seamus the match
meant a lot to him and asked him not to
get involved. Seamus gave his word that he wouldn't interfere
in the match. Then we had EO Sky expressing disappointment
to Adam Pierce about her match with Naomi being postponed
because Naomi wasn't cleared. By the way, Naomi was not
(23:59):
cleared too, you compete, and Pierce said she would let
Skuy know more once he heard something, and Raquel Rodriguez
and Roxan Perez showed up and mocked Sky before asking
Pierce about opportunities, and Sky said she came for a
fight and she could find a partner, and Pierce booked
the match, and yeah, so then we get Russ versus Sammy.
(24:21):
Now this matchup went what was the ten minutes and
thirty seconds? Okay, yeah, it's you know, somewhat of a
short match. But the match went to a no contest
because we had Matteo and Loa pull Zane too the
floor and rough him up while Solo barked orders and
they took try to control Solo's crew. That's when Sam well,
(24:46):
Sammy did go for a halluva kick, but he was
stopped by Solo and Talatanga and Jace, Matteo and Togaloa,
so it was a no contest. And that's when Seamus
showed up on the other side of the ring and
attacked Russev. He got the better of Russev and ran
him into the crowd, and Zane was still down being
looked at by producers. So Solo, Soca and his group
(25:08):
that have no business being on Raw that we're all
supposed to forget again, I will be the lone voice
screaming into the void that they are not Raw stars,
They're not champions, well at least champions of any real
consequence that could cross over. Right, Solo is a champion,
(25:29):
but we don't have a reason for him to be there. Okay,
makes no sense, but nonetheless, this matchup again was it
was fine for what it was. I mean, Sammy Zane
in front of the Quebec. While he's from Montreal, he's still,
you know, a fellow Canadian, so he gets that Canadian
hometown hero type of welcome and having it is an
(25:52):
opportunity to get heat, really is what it is. I
know that a lot of people when they go to
these events and have their hometown guys, like when Kevin
Owens was there, or sammy's Ain's there or of course
Brett Hart when he was wrestling, it's an opportunity for
the crowd to love them. But it's also a great
opportunity you could argue it even better opportunity for heat
(26:13):
because you could get that visceral reaction from the hometown
boy or boys getting their ass kicked in front of
their hometown, so you'll get kind of an amplified response there.
And that's what they did here, all right. So Pearson
security led Solo's crew out of the building and used
(26:33):
his phone to reach out to SmackDown general manager Nick
all this, but he ended the call when a referee
arrived and informed him that they had separated Rusav and
Seamus and Pierce's question whether it was true after last week,
and set the referee out. So, okay, fine, you mean
he took him out of the building with security. How
they even get in, How they get to the point
of actually, you know, going through security somehow, going you know,
(26:58):
sneaking by all those men, sneaking by the crack security
team there. It's a little bit implausible. The problem is
this would be more shocking, even slightly believable, if it
didn't happen every single week with people crossing over. But
it does, so, all right. Kovie Kingkson, Xavier Woods, and
Grayson Waller then approached Pierce, and Woods was upset because
(27:21):
Penta ruined his twelve thousand dollars hat, and Pierce said
Woods could take it up with Penta in a match
on next week's show. So pent versus Woods is scheduled
for next week. Small program, but nice to see when
matches are scheduled a week in advance. We then at
a Bronson Reid promo video air and he said he
became a big star because he attacked Seth Rollins. Reid
(27:43):
said he earned Rollins respect and was invited into the Vision, which,
by the way, shout out to my listener of the
Wahse and I believe he's in Indianapolis, Indiana. I'm pretty
sure that's where he's from. He pointed out that last
week Seth called his group of the Vision, and then
I missed it. It is officially called the Vision. I
(28:04):
like it short suite to the point it aligns with
Seth's previous missions and these previous kind of catch phrases.
It's fine and it's cool, so no objections from me there,
and it's nice they have a name, Reid said. If
he doesn't want or Reid said he doesn't want romans respect.
(28:25):
He said he punked out Rains twice and The only
reason it hasn't happened a third time is because Rains
hasn't stepped up, and Reid said it would keep happening
until Roman acknowledges his tribal chief. So there you go.
There's your match for clash in Paris, Roman versus Bronson Reid.
I mean it's there, it's right there. I thought it
(28:46):
was official or tentative, but it's got to be right.
Eo Sky was shown walking backstage when she encountered the
Kabooki Warriors. Kyrie Sayin said that they were sorry about
Sky's tuttle match, and Oscar said they could be in
Sky's corner, and EO said that she beat Roxanne Perez
before and could handle her again, and that's when we
(29:08):
get Roxanne versus Eo Sky. This match went fifteen minutes
and forty seconds, with Roxanne beating EO. The finish was
Osca and EO running out to hell hold Perez against
the ropes. EO tried to take advantage, but Perez broke free,
and that's when Sky stopped short of hitting her, hitting
(29:31):
both of her allies there, and we then had Perez
shoved Sky into Osca insane and knocked them off the
apron and then we got to roll up and held
her tights to get the three counts. So Roxanne does
beat EO in fifteen minutes and forty seconds, which was fine.
Roxanne needs to get some momentum too. She's the newer
(29:55):
girl on the block. EO is a respected champion, respected
former champion, one of the biggest stars in the women's
division last year and into this year, and she's not
gonna be hurt by this loss at all. Roxanne Perez,
even though she beat EO, did it in a way
that you could say is a little underhanded with the
roll up and pulling of the tights and all the rest.
(30:17):
So a fine win for Roxanne. EO's not hurt in
the least and that's it. I mean, I don't know
if this, by the way, is going to lead to
any tension with EO and Osca and Kyrie because of
the fact that EO knocked into Kyrie and Osca off
the ropes. I doubt it based on how it happened,
(30:40):
but it eventually could perhaps as Oscar and Kyrie remain
babyfaces for the moment, but that can change on a
weekly basis with those two, so you never know. So
Jackie Redman interviewed by the way, before I continue, I
did not forget about carrying Cross. All right, I'm gathering
my thoughts as i'm doing this this review, and I'm
(31:01):
looking at some things he said and making sure I
have all the info. So I said, I'm gonna talk
about carry and I am. Just give me a moment here,
so let's continue though with Raw, and Jackie interviewed Jay
Usso and mentioned that he missed Raw last week. I
honestly didn't even know he did. That was not even
at the forefront when she said that, I go, really
(31:23):
that's yeah, I go, I didn't even know you were gone.
I don't mean that to be an insult to just
calling a spade a spade. I didn't even know he
was gone. Jay said it hurt him to miss last
week's Raw. Again, most people didn't notice, I don't think,
but he had to handle family business. Jay said receipts
are coming, and he put Bronson read and seth Rollins unnotice.
(31:43):
And La Knight interrupted the interview and said a lot
of people felt Jay was conspicuous. I think that's what
this words I'm reading is supposed to be by his absence.
Knight said, some of those people were saying Jay must
really want to get out of Roman Reigns's shadow because
he didn't show up. Knight said he didn't believe it,
and Knight said, everybody wants to the World Heavyweight Championship,
(32:06):
but the line starts behind him and Jay welcome Knight
to Raw and gave him a yet again Jay not
getting to say a whole lot, But they have learned
WWE has learned quickly that you should not give Jay
a whole lot to say because that's not Jay's strong
suit at all. In fact, that I bet you one
(32:29):
of the major sticking points with WWE management's position on
removing the belt from jus so so damn quickly after WrestleMania,
they learned that he is simply not I'm really not
trying to insult JA, but he's not championship material, not
World Heavyweight Championship material at this point. Doesn't mean he
(32:50):
can't get there. But I've gone over this many times,
so I won't rehash it other than to say he
didn't have a championship feel his promos were not good.
He has yet he has a connection with the fans,
which was very important and very admirable, but he didn't
have the complete package to feel like a true champion,
and w clearly felt the same way. You wouldn't have
changed course so damn quickly after WrestleMania. All right, so
(33:13):
let's move on. We had then Women's Intercamiental champion and
her challenger, Max Sine Dupree, who was accompanied by a
character Zawa in Italia. Yes, both of them still work
for the company. I was as surprised as you. Cole
hyped WWE's podcast schedule, including Jelly Roll, Who's going to
(33:33):
be on Cody Rhodes's show. EO Sky bickered with Oscar
while Kyrie Saane tried to play peacemaker. Oscar shoved Sky
and stormed away, and that left Sky in Sane both
looking shocked. Syne turned around and then ran off in
Oscar's direction. So, as I just mentioned this, I must
have missed this part because my speculation about potentially having
(33:56):
the Kabookie Warriors turn heel may be founded or founded,
depending on if they want to keep the Kabuki Warriors
together or or of Oscar just go plain heel. Oscar's
turned so many times I really don't know what to
think about it. I mean, she's like the big show
of the women's division. Osca has turned so many times,
and she works fine in both roles. I would actually
(34:17):
argue she works equally as good in both roles. She's
not better as a heel than she has a face,
and vice versa. I think she is equally distant from
the destination of success when it comes to being a
healer of face. She can do both. She's an excellent
and ring worker again, really good at being a heel,
really good at being a babyface and fans except both, Yeah,
(34:39):
she doesn't. I personally don't think she's one. One is
better than the other. So who knows what Oscar's gonna do.
It may change on a weekly basis, and I'll just
go for the ride with her because I have no
real strong feeling on where she should go. If I
was to make a decision, I think Osca should probably
stay with Kyrie for a couple of reasons. One, Kyrie
(35:00):
needs something to do, so that's very important because without Oscar,
Kyrie is a lost puppy in terms of character. She
just doesn't seem to know where to go. And number two,
the women's tag team division needs depth, just always and forever,
and it would really, I think bolster the division if
you have two legitimate stars that are a legitimate threat
(35:23):
to the women's tag titles at any time, and especially
if you're not gonna have Charlotte and Charlotte and Alexa
Bliss or they call him or her Lexi now her
real name. They're not gonna have Lexi and Charlotte. Why
don't we just call her Ashley. We're gonna do. Let's
just do with that, right, So, if Lexi and Ashley
are not gonna hold the belts for long, the Kabuki
(35:45):
Warriors are certainly real contenders to hold the belts and
take them off of them. All right, Well, let's continue.
We have then Maxine dupri versus Becky Lynch for the
women's in her Continental title. As expected, the match didn't
last long, and it didn't last long simply because Maxine
(36:06):
is she's not ready for a lengthy match. Went five
minutes and thirty five seconds after Becky Lynch wins by dismission.
A dismission. Here's what I did. Here's what my brain did.
It mixed the word disarmour and submission bit. You never
heard that word before. But she did lock in the disarmour,
which caused a submission, and Maxine loses as she should have.
(36:28):
I mean, the fans didn't really get too much into this.
There wasn't a whole lot of high for this. If any,
Maxine has been largely off of the scene. She was
a bit on the warm side when she was with
the abuse of Chad Gable where he was berating her
on TV along with Otis for several months and you're
thinking Maxine's finally gonna snap. Ever since then, she's not
(36:52):
really done a whole lot of the women's side of things.
But the fact she got a women's in her continental
title match, does she deserve it? Debatable? But she had
a decent match for as long as it was going
on anyway, for five minutes, and Becky Lynch wins as
she should have. I mean, that's that's not even in question.
But afterward, Natalia and Tazala check on Duprex, and then
(37:13):
Lynch hilariously threw a cheap shot kick at Natalia, which
is fine. I mean, this better not lead to Natalia
versus Becky Lynch for the Intercontinental title at Clash in Paris.
They always can use Natalia as a kind of in
house nostalgic act that has absolutely zero chance of winning
(37:36):
any match she's actually in that has any meaning, which
they've done with her for a long time. A veteran respected,
she has a famous uncle. I can't remember who it is.
I don't know, some dude, but she being facetious, so
she has all that, she has the name, but she's
not going anywhere in the company. She's had her day,
(37:58):
and they could certainly plug her in as a Bechu
lunch opponent if they really want to to give the
women a little bit more representation on the show. But
if you're a women's division supporter then and most of
us are, there shouldn't be situations where we have to
have pity matches where we have to just plug in
people to check a box that we have. Oh, we
(38:22):
need the women's in our continental title match, we need
more women on the show. Let's just kind of pull
theally in. It's like, no, that that's what you used
to do when the women's wrestling didn't mean much, right,
You just pull these women that can actually wrestle to
have a decent match. From a technical perspective, a sound
wrestling perspective to have a decent match. That shouldn't be
(38:43):
a thing anymore. Now I'm not saying it is, but
I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm just saying
it looks like it could be a possibility. Okay, So
then we have a Bailey promo video airing. She said
she didn't know how good she got or she didn't
know how she got to where she is. She said
she's been doing this for almost thirteen years and has
never felt the way she does. She wants more but
(39:05):
feels less. She said she wants more and feels nothing,
and said the role model name meant something before she
used it, and said she was treated like one before
she saw herself as one, but she eventually realized she
could make a change and be an asset to the business.
She said, now she's by herself. She said she felt
(39:26):
everything that led up to where she has now got
her nowhere, and she had no championship and couldn't remember
the last time she felt proud of herself. She said
it's her fault. The camera got blurry and then cut
to black after she took a deep breath, and then
there was a maniacal sound effect that played interesting. So
(39:49):
are we getting a warped turn by Bailey? I mean,
are we going full Nikki Cross here? I don't know,
She's heading down some kind of path. I'm down for it.
Bailey needs a bit of a kick in the ass,
of course, not a little one, a proverbial kick in
(40:10):
the ass certainly, So we'll see where that goes. I
don't know if it's a bit of a bray Wyatt influence,
or you know, if her and Lexi and Nikki are
gonna have some I mean, I don't know they want
to go demented with Bailey. That's interesting, But they're saying
she feels alone and she you know, she's depressed and down.
(40:34):
Is she spiraling into darkness? I mean again, I feel
like we've seen dark women's characters before and we kind
of know what that looks like, but Bailey has yet
to ever explore that. I mean, she went from you know,
having love affairs with Bailey Buddies and the you know,
the little side ponytail loving aw Shuck's kind of character
(40:59):
to slaughtering the Bailey Buddies live on air to what
I think was the peak of her career up until
that point with Sasha Banks, of all people that I
just despise on every level, despise Mercedes like as a person,
despise her. But at that point I can objectively say
(41:20):
her and Sasha when they won almost all the women's championships,
when they were running the women's division, when her and
Sasha before the breakup happened, I mean, that was just fantastic.
If I'm not mistaken. It was during the pandemic era
of all things too. And despite the fact that I
hate everything that Mercedes is and does and says as
(41:41):
a person, again, as a person, that's how deep this is,
I can still objectively say her and Bailey worked very
well together and that to me was the peak. And
then after that she had some she had damage control,
which was just sadly the beginning of the end for
Bailey's current character. A number of years ago at SummerSlam,
when she, I believe, was interrupted Bianca bell Air and
(42:06):
from there she brought back Kyrie Sane and it was
just not a good look. From there on out, she
was hidden in the group barely ever, the focal point
the group was there, not there. We didn't know whether
we were going, and then Dakota Kai and her had
an eventual breakdown, and Dakota Kai actually before she got released,
(42:28):
was had a really nice breakout performance that year when
she turned So it's been a weird and then obviously
this year she's left off wrestlemedia. It's been a weird
run for Bailey, who has been largely ignored over the
last year and a half to two years. So to
see what they're doing with Bailey here is encouraging that
they have some sort of plan. Whether or not the
(42:50):
plan actually works, of course, we'll find out sometimes execution
and real life will slap you in the face from
what's just created in a board room or in a
zoom discussion with the creative team. We'll see what we'll
see if it comes with this, But I'm down for it.
All right, let's continue. We then had CM punk Sorry,
(43:13):
let's talk about real quickly, and then we'll get to
Sampunk and Bronson read and all that.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Real.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Ripley or I'm sorry EO was shown back walking backstage.
She was approached by Stephanie Vacor, who told her she
wasn't the only one who was promised the title match.
Ria Ripley showed up and told Eo that she was
sorry for her She was looking forward to facing Sky.
Sky facing Naomi, and Sky said Perez shouldn't have beaten her.
(43:39):
Ripley agreed and questioned if Sky can trust Oscar and
sane Oscar is rather Sky said she knew what Ripley
was saying and didn't appreciate it. So tension all around.
That's a moral of the story, all right. Seampunk and
l A Night take on bron Breaker and Bronson Reid
with Paul him and of course the ring side. The
match went sixteen minutes and five seconds with CM Punk
(44:02):
and l A. Knight beating bron Breaker and Bronson read
by disqualification. So kind of a funky night for finishes
as a theme, a lot of roll up DQ no contest,
type of cheap finished nights. But Punk took a hot tag,
he got Breaker down, hit him with the top rope elbow.
Punk removed his T shirt and signaled for his GTS finish.
(44:24):
Seth Rollins comes in and attacks Punk for the DQ finish.
The trio then beat down the Baby Faces. Jays comes
on the stage with a chair. Breaker met Jay in
the entrance aisle and was put down with some chair shots.
He comes in the ring and Reid punched the chair
out of Jay's hands, and you know, Jay worked over
(44:48):
Reid with punches, picked up the chair, cleared him from
the ring. Adam Pierce comes out and makes the fatal
four way match for Clash in Paris, which will be
Seth Rollins taking on jus So in l a Knight
forre I thought they took the word fatal out of it.
I'm surprised because it's not like a deadly fatal four way.
It is kind of funny that they say fatal. I mean,
(45:10):
maybe it's just like a sudden death. Maybe that's the implication,
one fall to a finish. Maybe that's again I'm guessing
that's the implication, because to say it's a fatal four
way or fatal five way or whatever the case, maybe
it's kind of a strong term to use, imp implying
that someone's going to die, Like that's the only context
(45:33):
in which the word fatal is usually used. But I'm
guessing it's just a way to say sudden death. Right,
one fall to a finish. Okay, so fine, no Roman reigns.
We did get Breaker and Reid holding punk on the
mat while Rollins told him he would never hold the
world championship. Though Rollin's left Punk laying with a stomp,
(45:54):
Rollins held up his title while the credits were being shown,
and you know, Breaker went to ringside, speared Night Reid
hit a death valley driver on Jay. So all the
heels ended up standing tall even after the announcement. So
because punkin La Knight came to blows and that's what
(46:14):
allowed the trio to come in and do their damage.
According to this analysis, this person says quote another crappy,
although stronger language finished to a WW television main event.
It seemed like such an obvious swerve when Rollins claimed
he was leaving the building that I thought they might
(46:35):
go a different direction. Unfortunately, they took the usual approach
to avoid a clean finish by going with a blatant
outside interference for a throwaway DQ. They make it tough
to be excited about the four way match announced for
clash in Paris. Why would anyone think that I won't
feature a bunch of outside interference before Rollins retained, given
there are notice qualifications in before a matches. Oh yeah,
(46:56):
I mean again, the fact that way matches or multiperson
matches are no DQ by default is stupid and I've
made that case many times. But yeah, that's the finish.
I know that this person feels that it's a crappy finish.
Is predictable, Yeah, well, no kidding. I mean sometimes you
can see a finish coming a mile away and you
(47:17):
just have to accept it. And instead of looking and
focusing on the finish of the match, which is all
but you know, a foregone conclusion, you have to look
for the other side effect, the byproducts of this, meaning
the quality of the match. Can they convince you at
any point in the match that, oh, crap, seth Rollins
(47:39):
may actually lose here. You look for that kind of stuff.
You look for any potential steps moving forward of who
could Rowins could face moving forward or maybe without Rolins
is Punk and La N'm gonna go on some kind
of run, which I hope they don't, is jay Uso.
And you know Punk gonna go on something, you know,
some kind of one on one Probably not, but you
(48:01):
look for those kinds of things. So yeah, it's predictable.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
So what.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Yes, there's gonna be a bunch of outside interference because
multiperson matches by default, don't have DQ. That's we're all
gonna have to live with sometimes the outcomes being incredibly obvious.
It's part of pro wrestling. Okay. Now, there are a
lot of people commenting about carrying Cross, and there was
(48:31):
a lot of there wasn't a lot. There was one
we want Cross sign that I saw at the beginning
of the show that I'm surprised wasn't taken, and there
are reports of w WE confiscating we want Cross signs.
There was no. By the way, this is discouraging if
you are carrying CROSS. I did not hear any we
(48:52):
want Cross chants during the show. That's discouraging. That tells
me perhaps the fans aren't super sad that he's gone.
They could change their minds, and if they do, it'll
be manifesting itself online and in person. That's when it
might get WWE's attention. Now, this is all assuming before
(49:14):
I get into Cross, his comments and all the rest.
This is all assuming that this is not a work
because we all know that WWE is trying to go
They're trying to deep fake us. They try to deep
fake us with Seth Rollins's injury, although they missed some
very key points that it would have been more convincing
that I've gone over before. With the fact that they
didn't come up with the timeline for his injury or
(49:35):
any kind of diagnosis, they could easily lied to us, big, big,
big holes there that led me to believe it was
a work at the very end before the match, before SummerSlam.
But if they're going to go deep fake now with
people being released in contracts and things, this could be
another deep fake for WWE. This could be another one
of those Yeah, okay, we're gonna fake you with an injury. Now,
(49:57):
we're gonna fake you with the contract signing. Now with
with our truth Ron Killings that was real. But this
has the feelings potentially of a work, or they could
be seeing if they want to make this look like
a work based on the crowd response or backlash. So
(50:21):
you know, I don't I don't have a conclusion yet.
But there were no we want Cross chants, which is
again a bit of a discouragement. So Carrying Cross did
comment on his departure and he did say on ex
(50:43):
hey life is fighting right now, accepting bookings and he
has his listing here of business at Killercross dot com.
See you all again soon. So again, I'm sure a
lot of podcasters are reaching out right now and they're
trying to get him booked because it'll be great for
(51:05):
ratings and hear what he has to say and all
the rest. Which, hey, if you get the interview, you
do the interview. Here, I mean, like, yes, absolutely, now
we want Cross was trending for a little while in
number one of the United States for a hot minute
on X That is encouraging. But again it didn't translate
into in person, which if your WWE is key to
(51:28):
whether or not you're going to take action to re
sign Carrying Cross. You also probably wouldn't confiscate signs if
it was not real. So I'm leaning to this not
being a work, but now that there is a potential
that it is. And this is also from and I'll
(51:48):
give it a credit here. Imbd says Carrying Cross has
officially been released by a WWE. He took to his
YouTube channel sharing his side of the story, and with
the future holds that was not all because the video
contained his sentiments about the quote uncertainty that each new
day brought. However, he shared his philosophy on life and
expected his expressed his desire to stay with WWE. Cross
(52:12):
discussed that in life there is no quote real certainty
and that things can turn dark sooner or later, and
he expressed his ideal desire of how he would want
things to go from here on here onwards, and he said,
tomorrow's not guaranteed. So whatever's going to happen is going
to happen what I would like to happen. I would
love to stay with WWE. I'd love to really finish
(52:33):
my career there. I would I don't know what's going
to happen though, so yeah, I mean again, he was
let go or let his contract was rather he wasn't
let go as much as they didn't renew his contract,
they didn't offer from a new one. Okay, that's the difference.
Big difference, right, huge difference is that they did not
(52:55):
offer him a new contract, saying that, you know, we'd
just don't have plans for you. So, if you're a
carrying Cross fan and this is real, and it I'm
leaning in the direction of this being real, it is
a bit disheartening. But if the fans' voices want a
you know, want to be able to pull a miracle
and do what they did with our truth. They need
(53:16):
to be This needs to be a sustained movement, not
just online. It needs to manifest itself consistently in the arenas,
with chants, with fans trying to hijack the show with signs,
and it doesn't seem like any of that's happening outside
of just people typing on their phones. No, we miss Cross,
(53:37):
give Cross a chance. We want Cross. And then you
get to the arena and you don't hear anything. That's
a massive disconnect. That's not what you want if you
want Carrying Cross to come back. So you know, we'll
see what happens there. Carrying Cross, you know, does have
a desire to stay. We'll see. I don't think this
(53:57):
is his last time ever in WWE. Maybe if he
doesn't get resigned right away, he probably will find his
way back at some point. But if fans want to
jump on this, they got to jump jump on a
quick because this is the best time to bring Cross
back is when it's hot and fresh and in people's minds.
And we all know how quickly the news cycle comes
(54:18):
in and out of our heads, no matter how big
or how tragic something is. I mean, doesn't Hulk Hogan's
death feel like four years ago already. It's not even
in the forefront of most of our minds. Yet we
lost the biggest star in wrestling history. So it's just
incredible how quickly we all move on and go to
the next thing, and what's the next news. It's the
world we live in, So if fans are going to
make something happen, it's got to be now. It's got
(54:39):
to be now while people are half paying attention. If
it doesn't happen in the next couple weeks, Carrying Cross
is probably going to go on and do his thing
and take independent bookings or maybe if he aw is interested,
but most likely maybe stay in the independence or make appearents,
special appearances, do signings again, interviews, that kind of thing.
So that I'll do it here for the ww podcast
(55:01):
on this Tuesday, August twelfth. I appreciate everybody staying up
late if you are. I know some of you do
listen to me later. Some of you fall asleep while
I'm talking. I guess I'll take that as a compliment,
so I appreciate it. I'll be back on Friday with
your mail bag. I do want to hear from you
on your thoughts on carrying Cross on the card that's
(55:21):
shaping up for Clash in Paris in a couple of weeks,
as well as the seth Rollins story and everything else
going on and as we head into the end of
summer here, it's not going to be long. So if
you want to go add free though throughout the summer,
the rest of the summer and into the fall and
ramping up for Survivors Series season in just a few months,
you can do that. Patreon dot com Slash WWE podcast
(55:45):
one dollar a month gets you in the door. You
also have a free trial if you want to do that,
or Apple podcasts as well. Hit that subscribe button and
go add free there. Okay, everybody appreciate it. I hope
everyone enjoys the rest of their week. We'll talk in
a few days. See you then.
Speaker 3 (56:03):
Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to
subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss
a show, or head to wwepodcast dot com and for
all of these shows add free head over to Patreon
dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll see you
(56:24):
next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a thought-provoking, opinionated, and topic-driven journey through the top sports stories of the day.