September 30, 2025 • 45 mins
In this episode we review WWE Monday Night Raw that aired September 29th, 2025. One that saw Dom defend his IC title against Rusev, The Usos take on Reed & Breakker in a Tornado Tag Team Match, Ripley and Iyo brawl with Asuka and Sane and much more.
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Episode Transcript
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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 godet for sixteen. So
just with your ass is my arm, you can acknowledge me.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
All right, Let's get into the Monday Night Raw review
here on this Tuesday, September thirtieth, twenty twenty five, with
a very eventful, very ventful Raw one. Nay, I don't
think a lot of us expected with the return of
Roman Reigns. Big story there, Seth and Cody also have
a face to face, with Cody mentioning he's there to
have fun. Does it get any worse than that? Oh yeah,
(00:56):
I have some things to say as well as the
women who had a big, you know, something big to
say on the show here with Oska spraying Eosky in
the face of the mist and Ria Ripley getting involved
and Kyrie and the battle lines have been drawn. An
Intercontinental Championship match that saw perhaps the official turn of
(01:18):
Dominic Stereo to a babyface. Really enjoyed that as he's
bringing out the inner Eddie Guerrero and doing it in
a very charming way against Russev. So I think we
might have seen the complete turn there, along with a
lot of other stuff. I mean aj styles by the way,
if you didn't know, is going to be facing John
Cena Crown Jewels, So that's going to be a thing.
(01:40):
We have certainly a lot to talk about there once
Crown Jewel comes to us in just a couple of weeks,
less than a couple weeks now, But here we go.
If you haven't joined us, by the way, head on
over to Patreon and get yourself everything ad free Patreon
dot com. Slash WWE podcast. Now let's talk first here,
let's start at the top of the show. I've got
(02:00):
some things that I'm guessing you probably if you've joined
me before, know what I'm going to say. But we
have Riya Ripley come out, huge ovation for her as expected,
and she said she always knew it would come to
this with Osca, and she said she hoped that they
could settle things in the ring like the warrior that
she thought Oscar was. And Ripley said that what Oscar
(02:21):
did to Eo crossed the line. Ripley said that they
would settle things in the ring and then called out
to the Kabuki warriors to come get her EO. Sky
came out looking sad with her head down, and Ripley
joined Ripley in the ring, and Sky said it broke
her heart to say that Ripley was right about Oscar
(02:42):
and Kyrie, but they are her family, and Sky said
she still loves them. The fans booed and Ripley tried
to console EO. That's when Oscar and Kyrie appear and
subtitles were used. While Osca said she taught Sky everything
she knows and now acts like none of it matters.
(03:02):
She accused s Guy of forgetting about her once once
she won the Women's World Championship, and Osca told Sky
to apologize to her. Then she could be like Sane
and they would remain her students Sayin said they could
be a family again. Ripley said Osca could go to hell,
and she told Sky she had to trust her. Oscar
(03:24):
and Sane attack Ripley from behind, and Sky turned to
the ring apron to stop them, and Oscar stood behind
Sane and sprayed missed at EO and Oscar. Insane then
beat down Ripley and Oscar then put Ripley in a
submission hold and then hit Sane with Ripley hit then
Sane hit Ripley with an insane elbow, and that's when
(03:46):
referees and producers came out to sky heading to the
first break. Now, I will say I didn't think this
would be the program to open the show, but it
did a nice job effective. As I said, the battle
lines have been we know where EO stands, we know
where Kyrie stands, we know her loyalties, we know where
Oscar is, we know where Ripley is. And it's also
again nice to see Ripley not in the world title
(04:08):
picture because she seemed like she was there for years.
So it's been a nice change for all of the women.
And I can't say really anything bad about this. I
really can't say anything bad other than one massive botch
again and the women are not having a good streak here,
and Osca is the latest to be complying compliant in
(04:31):
this just embarrassing botch streak for the women. Where she
just I mean the kick she gave Rhea to the
back of the head was it was like two feet away.
I don't know what's going on. It's almost like it's
part of the program where they're like, all right, who's
up this week. Who's going to have a just a
horrific botch this week for the women. Again, I'm not
(04:51):
concerned for the women's vision and I'm all for them
trying to compete the best they can with the men
for TV time, as they should. But this is this
has been a pattern now and in OSCA here just
it was a horrific kick. I mean, it was so
far away that Ripley didn't even know if she should
sell her or not. She kind of half did. And
(05:12):
then the announcers, you know, try to cover for and
they even I think by mistake, caught a picture of
it on w dot com when they have their photographers
there on their live events and taking pictures and then
they upload and so the sign afterwards like there were
official pictures. There's a picture of the kick, and the
kick is as bad as you'd imagine. You'd think that
(05:34):
they would have gotten rid of it, but they haven't,
and again maybe they're not too concerned about it. So
again the botches continue for the women. But the storyline's good,
really good, and it's fun to see where this is
going to end. It could end with the EO actually
double downing on the you know, her her well continued
(05:54):
babyface run, or it could end up with her truly
seeing the darkness as they say, and having her join
Eoon and Kyrie I'm sorry, join Oscar and Kyrie. Could
be either way. Everybody's playing their role very nicely, and
EO showing some love for Oscar and for Kyrie makes
sense that she didn't just turn on them, that she
(06:15):
says she still loves them. This is all. It's just
well done, well done by all the women, and it's
nice when when something's not about a championship. How often
do you see that in WWE, where especially for the
women with the limited time that they seemingly get compared
to the men, which again I don't think it should
be fifty to fifty. I think you earn your spots
(06:36):
no matter what your sex is. But it's nice to
see the women not actually talking about a championship. It's
actually just personal grudges, personal feuds. I know that the
Women's World title is brought into conversation, but that's not
the focal point here. The focal point is the breakup
of the Kaboogie Warriors and the battle lines being drawn
(06:57):
where you're likely going to see a tag team match
at Crown Jewel of Ree Ripley and Eosky versus Oscar
and Kyrie, Sain and Man. How can you not see
that match as a potential match with the night candidate.
Think about the talent involved in that. There's a very
high likelihood that's one of the best matches of the night.
(07:18):
As long as they're not given four minutes, you know that.
I think they need at least twelve thirteen and they
could have a just a kick ass match. So looking
for a good pure wrestling match that's not about titles,
there you go for Crown Jewel potentially. Of course, nothing's
official as of this moment, I believe. Let's continue. We
had Dominic, Mysterio and Russa for the Intercontinental Championship. This
(07:41):
ended with Dom beating Russev for the Intercontinental Championship after
a really fun, a fun match up here that I
think was the final transformation from Dom heel Dom to
beloved Dirty Dom. Dirty Dom played its you know, played
(08:01):
that heel role extremely well for the time that it
had because people genuinely hated him. The wouldn't let him talk, remember,
wouldn't let it talk for years on the microphone, which
inadvertently hindered. I think his actual ability to cut promos
because the crowd wouldn't let him talk. But you put
that aside, and the fans have had enough time to
(08:23):
hate him that it's now time to love him. The
things that he used to do, that used to hate
are now the things you love. He's like this lovable
little scoundrel. Now, how is he going to get out
of it tonight? It becomes like a little game. And yes,
the homage to Eddie Gurero certainly doesn't hurt, given you
know the storyline with him and Eddie and that whole.
(08:46):
You know, remember the custody battle from twenty years ago,
so there, you know, there is some precedent here for
Eddie Guerrero to be involved or to be reflected through Dom.
And I think he's doing it well with the you know,
the fake hits and the low blow with the leg
behind the referees back and all of that. Plus Roussev
(09:07):
isn't exactly a lovable character right now, so that doesn't
hurt either. And people pop big when Dom retained, so
you are seeing the complete transformation now of Dom. I
hope they don't mess around. Let him be a babyface.
For God's sakes, I don't care about the Judgment Day.
I don't care what role they're in. The Judgment Day
has been completely dead. I think to rights for a
(09:28):
while now because they're just so boring and dominic mysterial.
Right now is the life of that group, if there
is one, And having him as Intercontinental champion again, I
think it makes sense. So Russev will continue to probably
chase him. I don't think that's the last you've seen
a Russev, especially considering how Russev lost. He'll go to
(09:50):
you know, the general manager, Adam Pearson, complain and try
to you know, politic for another match. He might get
it at Crown Jewel. I just hope they don't drop
the belt from Dom. I really do, because he's This
could be a little something for Dom here. For all
the hatred that the fans have given him over the
last like four years, you could now have him in
a position to be a big babyface, a beloved babyface.
(10:14):
So we'll see, all right, let's see here we have
footage air earlier in the day of La Knight Tennant
telling Adam Pierce that he wants a title shot, and
Pierce said Knight isn't the only one. Cofein Exavier showed
up and claimed Pierce owed them a World Tag title match,
and Pierce told the New Day Duo to earn it,
(10:35):
and Knight took offense to being interrupted and called for
a match with Kingston and Pierce agreed to it. And
we had Cody Rhoads and Seth Rollins video package air
about their match at Crown Jewel in Australia, and Cody
Rhodes were called returning to w W to face Rollins
of WrestleMania and I won't go through the whole video
(10:56):
package here, but and then we had footag jair of
Bailey's personality issues with Lyra Valkyria and backstage, Bailey wanted
Valkyia to join her ringside, but she was still too
upset about Bailey shoving her last week. I mean, this
is getting embarrassing. Valkaria told Bailey she was on her own,
and then Bailey made her entrance alone and hugged fans. Okay,
(11:19):
this is not the only thing I have to say
about Lyra, but this one I will continue. This is
part one for me of Lyra is what happened to her?
She's become this incredibly sensitive, easily offended schoolgirl. She's reverted
back to eleven years old or younger. It's embarrassing you
(11:43):
were that hurt from a shove from Bailey. I mean,
what story are we telling here? Is it just all
about Bailey's multiple personality disorder? Is it about Bailey's identity crisis?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (11:59):
What is this? How does this benefit Lyra? We know
how this benefits Bailey. She's getting more TV time, and
you're trying to see where they're going with it. I
don't believe they know where they're going with it, but
they're doing something significant with Bailey for the first time
in a couple of years. But for more importantly, Lyra,
the younger star that needs help. How does it help
(12:19):
her to make her look like she is this fragile
piece of china that you you know, you can't you
can't touch too too roughly or you'll break it. You know,
you have to hold it with care, handle with care.
That's not how I want Lyra and Valcuriria to be.
(12:39):
I don't want anyone to be. That's not just Lira,
but Lyra's been the focal point of it. I don't
want any of the men, especially the men, any of
the women to be acting like small children, like someone
stole their cookie at lunchtime, like you know, one of
their friends wouldn't play with them at recess. That's how
it feels for Lyra, and that that's an embarrassing feeling.
(13:03):
For all the progress she made with Becky Lynch, despite
the fact that program went on too long, and it did.
They had good matches for the most part, and she
was able to find her identity. Even the announcers were saying,
this is the best version of Lira we've seen. It
felt like she found her footing and now they've regressed
four steps to the point where she feels like, you know,
(13:27):
she has her homecoming dance this week. It's so embarrassing.
But it gets worse. Don't worry, it gets worse. I'll
let you know how in a minute. So we get
Bailey and Raquel here, and the finish was Raquel showing
frustration over not getting a three count from a near fall,
(13:47):
and there was a botch spot near the ropes that
they made a quick recovery from again continuing the botch.
For the women, I don't know what they have, some
kind of curse on them, some kind of voodoo. I
don't know what's going on for the women, but they
are not. It's everybody. It's not just this small segment
of the same women. It's like everybody's been bit by
(14:09):
this botch bug. So I don't know what's going on.
But Bailey then applied a figure four while Barrett noted
that they were in Rick Flair country. Perez raked the
eyes of Bailey while the ref couldn't see it, and
Rodriguez hit it to hotted bomb and pinned Bailey. So
Raquel beats Bailey here, and after the match, Barrett noted
(14:31):
that Bailey could have used Lyra in her corner, and
that's when Raquel and Perez ends up beating Bailey. Valkyria
comes out and the Heels teamed up on Valkyria and
put her down, and then Bailey's demeanor changed. She got
up and cleared the Heels from the ring, and Bailey
(14:52):
turned and loot looked at Lyra, who was down on
the mat and kind of leery, and Bailey laughed and
said Valkyria got them, and Bailey pulled Vacuate to her feet,
eventually got a high five from her, so the match itself.
Let me before I talk about Lyra. The match of
stuff I thought was fine beyond the botch, it's fine.
(15:12):
But then you have the story here of Lyra, and
I just told you the things that I don't like
about her personality that we're learning how fragile she is
and the other thing is. And here's where you guys,
some of you are just gonna, you know, be very
somehow pretend defended or whatever. But I'm just calling it
like it is. I don't care if truth offends anybody.
(15:35):
It's just truth. Truth is just what it is. And
if you are offended, then that's your business. Lyra's outfit
when she came out, okay, And here's where the other women, Oh,
your body's shame you. Oh, then don't look Oh my god.
I'm just calling it like it is. And Lyra's outfit
it looked like she came out of or was about
(15:57):
to go to the local nightclub with the little mini skirt.
I mean, is this nineteen ninety nine. Why would Lyra
come out looking like that, or at least wearing that attire.
If you're going to compete in a wrestling ring, what
the hell is going on that was a bad choice
(16:19):
of attire. I don't want to hear that. No, no,
it doesn't matter. Yeah it does. Also, suddenly appearance in
a company that is all about appearances doesn't matter. I'm
not allowed to comment on something that I'm seeing, just
observing with my own eyes that she wore an outfit
that objectively is a horrible outfit for wrestling, and not
(16:41):
only for wrestling. And it was awkward because her outfit
was more distracting because you're like, oh my god, does
she realize, like, hey, you take a bump on your
back and you know it's right there. Bruh, you know
what I mean? Like, and sure it's not like she
was as underneath, but you know, I shouldn't be and
(17:04):
the audience shouldn't be thinking that it should be about
what's going on in the ring. It should be about
the wrestlers in the ring. The story and her outfit
was insanely distracting, and I just I thought it was
a bad choice. And it just brought me back to
also the late nineties early two thousands, when how you know,
how the women were treated by the company, and again voluntarily,
the women were voluntarily doing those things, you know, the
(17:28):
women can complain about how they were treated, but again,
you are voluntarily employed by a company. No one's chaining
your ass to a company. And the women were paid
very nicely as well. It's not like, you know, they
weren't in slave labor. Okay, So there's there is that.
But from a fans point of view, the women in
the nineties and early two thousands, while they were you know,
(17:51):
recognizable and they were a part of the show because
of the demographic that was watching wrestling, they were really
relegated to nothing more than glorified sex. And it felt
very much like I was, you know, that outfit that
Lira War was. Again, it looked very much kind of
like that. And and I'm a man, so I don't
(18:11):
I don't mind. Like I'm looking at that going okay,
it's nice to look at, but you know, that's that's
that's a distraction that I don't think should be there
when I'm watching women's wrestling anymore. And someone I can
hear it already. Oh, that sounds like a you problem. Okay.
If you're a dude, and you're a straight dude, you
are lying to yourself or you're trying to be You're
pretending to be offended on behalf of somebody else, or
(18:32):
you know, you are just trying to virtue signal or
whatever you're trying to do, you're simply lying. Like biologies
biology men or men and the court devil that watch.
Wrestling is still men. And my point is I want
the women to continue to move forward with wrestling. Okay,
wrestling there. I'll end it there. But some of you,
I'm sure, because every time I talk about something like this,
(18:55):
it's by some some you know, the minority, it seems
like are not happy with it. But I mean, I
don't know what to tell you, do you know deep
down I'm right. The way to move women's wrestling ahead
is to focus on the wrestling. Okay, and not that
Lira's in some kind of inappropriate storyline, but you know,
she just I don't think was a was thinking when
(19:18):
she put her outfit on, like hey this is yeah,
I'll get attention, but it may not be the attention
you want for the reasons you want. Like men are
still men even if you don't want them to be. Okay,
that's the way it goes. And if you again, you
are lying, if you think otherwise, or you are denying
the truth. So not that my opinions are truth, but
(19:42):
the way that men are wired. We all know what
that is. And when you're watching wrestling, I don't look
at wrestling for that. That's not how I want, you know,
my wrestling product to be. So Okay, now that I've
pissed off a portion of the audience, I'm interested to
hear from you on the mail. That'll be fun. But
let's go. We have backstage Jimmy and Jay talking about
(20:06):
walking off or I'm sorry. Backstage, Jimmy asked Jay about
walking off when he and La Knight needed his help,
and Jay said helping Knight gets them nowhere and made
them lose at Russell Palooza. Jay asked Jimmy why he
helped him, and Jimmy said he helped him and would
help Jay, who cut him off and said, I said
(20:27):
no help, And Jay recalled putting Night down and said
he might be world heavyweight champion if he did more
of that, and Jay told Jimmy that's something he wouldn't
get and Jay told Jimmy he loved him and walked away.
So kind of building a little tension here. You know,
you're still kind of wondering if Jay's going to turn heel.
(20:47):
Obviously we get our answer at the end of the
night here, but all right, we have EO Sky being
treated by the trainers when Kyrie came in and Sane
told Sky that they could still be a family, Saying
pleaded with Sky to apologize to Oscar, and Sky yelled
at Saying to leave her alone. So yeah, I mean,
it's not gonna happen. I hope still could have happened.
(21:10):
I mean, Eo still could be the you know, the
foil here. She could be the one that you end
up being like, oh my god, she's actually gonna team
with EO, or rather with Kyrie and Oscar. Could still happen.
I'm not putting it past WW to have her turn
on Rhea at the potential match for Crown Jewel in Australia.
(21:31):
All right, Elleen Knight versus KOFE Kingston. This match saw
Ellie Knight beat Kobe Kingston after a BFT Night ducked
Trouble in Paradise and put kinkson away with BFT and
that that was kind of it, and you know that's it.
I mean, I don't know what this was supposed to
be outside of just giving both of these men airtime
(21:54):
and a match, because I don't know what this means
for a night. More importantly, La Knight, who has gone
from just a consistent main eventor for months now to
mid card random match with KOFE, I wouldn't sound the alarms.
(22:14):
You can't have the same people on top all the time.
It's not good, even if they are ultra talented. You
can't have on top all the time for every show.
But it does make you wonder do they have anything
in mind for La Night or is this just kind
of a placeholder match you week after week that we're
going to see. I don't want La Knight back in
a US title picture, but that's on SmackDown, so he
(22:39):
and I don't think he's going to chase the intercontinental title,
so they should continue to just kind of I think
after Crown Jewel put him back in the world title picture.
I hope they do, because yes, right now it's all
about Cody and Seth and their match at Crown Jewel
for a meaningless, made up championship, but you should put
(23:01):
Ellen Knight back in after and if I'm okay with
and I think you guys should take note of this.
This is just my two cents as this whole show
is that if Ellie Knight does essentially nothing the next
couple weeks leading into the Crown Jewel event, don't be
too worried. I mean, we have world champions left off
(23:22):
of ples all the time, major stars lef off of
ples all the time, and this would give Ellie Knight
a little bit of a back seat for a couple
of weeks, just kind of putts it around, having random matches,
winning matches, and then he'll be jolted back into the
world title picture after Crown Jewel kind of seems or
I think they're probably gonna go all right. We then
(23:46):
get some of curates is aw Maxine stuff. I'm sorry,
I don't care that much. Let's see here, we had
Becky Lynch approach her husband and Seth obviously, who asked
if she was feeling better and she said a little.
Lynch asked Rollins how he was feeling, and he said,
we'll see, and she asked if he wanted her or
(24:07):
Hayman to join him, but he said he had to
do it on his own. And that's when Seth comes
out and otc chance broke out, Rollins acknowledged he's zero
and three against Cody. He said it doesn't matter. He said,
the winner of their match at Crown Jewel wouldn't just
win the Crown Jewel Championship, but the winner might decide
the future of the industry for the next ten to
twenty years. Okay, a couple good and bad things here
(24:30):
on that first first opening monologue from Seth number one.
I like the fact that they're acknowledging that these three
or these two have had three previous matches in which
Rollins is a zero and three against Cody. I like
when they bring those things up because it should matter,
and it does, and I'm glad they brought it up.
(24:52):
So kudos on that line. I know it's a small thing,
but it's important that history matters and outcomes shouldn't matter.
That's good. Now, the next part is just I think
it's not my favorite. I don't like it, but it's
Rollin's just doing his due diligence to sell the match.
That's his job, and I cannot faulting him for it.
(25:14):
But for him to say he wouldn't just win the
Crowndeal Championship, WHI again, it means less than nothing. He
said it, you know, this match might decide the future
of the industry for the next ten to twenty years. Really,
how it's an exhibition match with an invented championship on
the line that no one cares about at all, no one.
(25:36):
It has no meaning, there's nothing on the line. And
I know that Crown Jewel is supposed to be the
event that WW you know treats like WrestleMania because of
how much money is online and they have a business
to run. But come on, I mean, this is really
how does this match decide the future of the industry
(25:58):
in what way? What effect does this have on the
entire industry for the next two decades? Seth. I'm not hammering, Seth.
He's trying to sell the match. I'm just being a jerk.
But you know, you sometimes you look at these promos
when they're written down, You're like, what because it sounds good.
When you're trying to sell the match, you're like, okay,
follow it up. When you read it like I just did,
(26:20):
It's like, what are you talking about? But let's continue.
So Rollin said, there are actually some people who want
Cody to win. He said, there will be He said,
he will be the person to lead the company into
the future. And he's done right by staying with the
company and pushing it into the golden age. He said,
he took bron Breaker and Bronson Reid under his wing
(26:41):
so we could give them knowledge. And he said he
sacrificed everything by trying to rid the company of cancers
such as Rains and Punk. Yet they say the fans
still chant for Cody, and that's when Cody comes out
and he recalled the Rollins on the nonsense of claiming
they were fighting for the future of the industry. I'll
(27:02):
give Cody credit on this. I mean, he said, it
seems a bit much. He said, the fans have all
the control. Yeah, the just stomach turning pandering that Cody does.
It gets worse. But I give Cody credit there. Whoever
came up with that line was good too. It is
a bit much. You think that this match, that is
an exhibition match again with an invented championship, is somehow
(27:24):
going to affect the future of the industry. I can
guarantee you after this match that they just go their
separate ways and don't even interact for the next like
twelve months, all Right, so that was a good one.
But Cody mentioned that bron Breaker and Bronson Reid showed
up on SmackDown and wondered if that was Rollins or
a Paul Hayman call. Rollins said every decision runs through him,
(27:47):
and Cody asked if it was Seth's call to have
Hayman introduced brock Lesner at Russell Palooza. Rollins repeated that
everything runs through him, and Cody said he thought that
Rollins was his friend after they teamed up a WrestleMania forty.
Rollins told him to shut up, and he said he
never was his friend and said that that they had,
(28:09):
what they had was a means to an end, and
he said Cody was the lesser of two evils. That
was good. He said everything that happened between them was dead.
He could write a new future at Crown Jewel and
he is the only person who will lead his division,
and Rollins exited the ring. Okay, good stuff here from
(28:33):
from Cody. Now, I will say the line that's not
mentioned in this review that I have particular issue with
is Cody telling Rollins that they're that, you know, to
basically calm down and that we're here the fans, and
I are here to have fun. I mean, you gotta
(28:53):
be you gotta be shitting me. You're telling me that
the WWE undisputed champion is coming to Raw to have fun.
Oh is that why you're here? You get you're gonna,
You're gonna, you know, go down the slide and and
uh maybe hit some monkey bars and uh, you know,
(29:17):
jump into a big pit of balls. Is that is
that why you're here? Cody? I mean, John Cena has
done this before too, and I've called him out on it,
and this isn't just a Cody thing, although because of him,
I hate it more. I've heard this before from babyfaces.
Oh we're here to have fun. Let's have fun. Uh No,
(29:41):
In fact, the reason you not that everything needs to
be one hundred percent dead serious all the time. But
you can't come to Raw with a champion versus champion match.
One side declared that this match could defend could determine
the future of the industry, which of course is preposterous,
and it was called out and the other side said,
they're there, they just have fun. I mean, you talk
(30:01):
about polar opposites, and I despise it. I despise when
you have any champion or non champions of Babyface talk
about just there to have fun of me, then what
are you doing here? You could have fun and a
lot of other professions don't come into pro wrestling and
(30:23):
talk about just having fun. The fans are there to
have fun, but it's something you just don't talk about.
And are the wrestlers actually having fun? Yes, as human
beings on a real level, of course they are. The
wise they wouldn't be doing it. I'm sure they're loving it,
having a ball, you know, back and forth, tit for
Tat wrestling, you have to love it and have fun
or you wouldn't be there. But you don't say that.
(30:46):
It's one of those fourth wall things. It's just like, dude,
shut up, No, it's one of those byproducts. It's like
when wrestlers talk about making history, we're going to tear
the house down again, you don't talk about byproduct. Those
are the effects of a match or promo or your
presence there. Those are the things that happen that you
(31:07):
don't speak about that we all know are there, but
if you bring them up overtly, it ruins the moment
and actually undermines what the sport is all about I
hate that shit. And yes, I've made this show a
little bit more TV fourteen if you haven't noticed, so sorry.
If you have kids, my bad. Maybe from here on out,
(31:28):
here's what I'd recommend, all right, because lately I've just
I gotta there's some four letter words, and that not
the F word. I'll reserve that for after dark. Just
like sometimes it's it's the only way it can come out.
Sometimes it's the only way it can come out. Otherwise
I'm not doing it as service, so real mature of me,
(31:50):
I know. So let's continue. We have backstage EO, Rea,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Rea.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Ripley approached EO and asked if she was okay. Sky
said no, then told Ripley she was right about Oscar,
and she said that she and Ripley would team to
face the Kabuki Warriors Acron Jewel again till this is official.
I must have missed this segment. I'm reading it now
because earlier in the night I said, oh it's not official,
it is, okay, Well that makes sense. I missed this somehow,
But all right. Aj Styles made her and made his
(32:22):
entrance for the tag team match here with himself and
Dragonly taking on Los Americanos, Bravo and Reo with El
Grande Americano. The match ended with AJ and dragonly beating
Los Americanos with Styles hitting Bravo with a Styles clash
got the victory. That makes sense. You can't have Aj
(32:42):
Styles on the losing side of anything. He's going into
a match with John Cena, one of Johnsena's final matches,
and it is confirmed as we all know that December thirteenth,
at Saturday Night's Main Event in Washington, DC, is John
Cena's final match. Of course, we all want to know
who it is. We don't know, We don't know. It
could be Brocklusner. I hope it's not Brockleusner. I hope
(33:04):
it's not anybody. He's already faced. I hope it's not
Randy Orton. We've been there, done that. You know my pick,
you know my pick. It better be edge somehow. But anyway, yeah,
with this, I mean, this match was good short you
kind of knew what you're gonna get. But AJ Styles
should win here as he's going into a major match
in just a couple of weeks. All right, So next
(33:27):
week we had tested tour remind us that Roles in Dallas.
Starts at eight o'clock Central time, and we have for
next week see him Punk returning. We have Intercontinental champion
Becky Lynch taking on Maxine Dupree and Lyra versus Rock
San Perez. If you know, of course, Lyra is mentally
and emotionally available to do so, and she's not a
(33:50):
broken shell of herself, you know, crying in the in
the corner of a locker room somewhere backstage. Alrighty, yes,
I'm being a jerk because it's deserving. It's deserving. Not
that Livers actually like that as a person, but the
presentation of her character is horrific right now, I think.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
So.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Backstage, we had a world champion, Stephanie a women's world champion,
Stephanie Vvicaire, who said she respects the women's champion Tipoty Stratton,
but she'll beat her at Crown Jewel. And then Stratton
showed up and in her extremely just unlikable style, said
it's gonna remain tiffy time and Vicor Vicaire told her
that her time is over, and Stratton said the Primera
(34:35):
will have to get used to coming in second. Not
much of a promo here kind of your standard I'm
gonna beat you. No, you're I'm gonna beat you. You
know you're not gonna beat me. I'm gonna beat you.
That's all this was. It's fine. There's not much to
really build here. There's nothing on the line once again,
absolutely nothing. I actually don't like that they do this
(34:57):
just as a concept. Put champion versus champion. That should
be something reserved for WrestleMania. But we've all come to
just accept the fact that Crown Jewel now is this
is this event that a lot of large checks will
be written for people that shouldn't come out of retirement
(35:18):
to appear for matchups that shouldn't happen for people that
nearly you know, kill themselves. Goldberg and Undertaker is the
one I'm thinking of there. And having champion versus champion why,
I don't know that Again, I don't think people realize
how big that could be if you had champion versus champion.
(35:41):
But it's just something that just haphazardly happens because it's
on the calendar, and the calendar dictates what happens. The
calendar should never dictate what the matches are ever, not
to say, well, rumbles of course in January, we know
the match, but it should never dictate in a singles
capacity who faces who ever? Never because or a match
(36:04):
type specifically a match type is probably a better way
to put it, because WrestleMania is always going to be
the World Rumble winner versus the champion, So the match
type should never be dictated by the calendar. And how
many times we see that happen? Hell in a cell
you know, elimination chamber, Although we most people do love
the chamber. I don't think match type should ever be
(36:25):
dictated by the pl E. But what do I know? Okay,
we have a match up here where oh, Jimmy US
and Jay US would take on bron Breaker and Bronson
Reid in a Tornado tag team match. And match was good,
(36:45):
kind of long with Jimmy and Jay beating bron Breaker
and Bronson Reid. And let's see here we had. I
was trying to find the point where Rowan Rains came in. Okay,
so Jay was fighting both here heels coming out of
the break breaker and Reid got the better of the
USOS and he stacked the USOS. Breaker stacked the USO
(37:08):
so Reid could hit hit both of them with a tsunami.
And that's when Roman Rain's entrance music hits. He's got
a chair in hand, he clears breaker, he clears reed.
He hit everybody with like forty chair shots, and boy
I missed. I will continue to say, is I miss
chair shots to the head from a sick, disgusting, selfish position.
(37:34):
I missed chair shots to the head. I'll continue to say,
if there was a safe way, If there was, and
I know it's kind of it's a conflict of possibility.
I mean, you can't unless you have a worked chair
that's not made out of steel. If you somehow had
a material that the chair can be man out of
that felt like and looked like and sounded like steel,
(37:55):
but it was totally safe to hit somebody in the
head with if that material existed on Earth, if that
was an element on the periodic table, I would suggest
that those chairs be made out of it. But I
don't think it does. And therefore, of course I'm not
advocating for people to get concussions at my own entertainment.
But what I am advocating for is just from a
(38:17):
just a purely visual perspective, I miss chair shots to
the head. You know you do too. Yes, I'm telling
you what you miss because you know that it's a
timeless tradition in pro wrestling. Or it used to be
chair shots to the head when deserving, and now you know,
when someone comes out with a chair, half of the
excitements taken away because you know exactly where they're going
(38:39):
to hit them. That's it, there's no other place. It
just it takes a lot of the fun out of
what a chair shot to the head used to mean.
It used to mean like sometimes color blood. It used
to mean knocking somebody out instantly. Now it's you have
(39:01):
to hit them in the back sixty four times for
them to go down. And yeah, I just miss it.
I miss it so much that I wish we could
bring them back in a safe way anyway. So we
had Breaker hit Rains. He fought them off quickly. The
(39:22):
fans chanted for Roman and in the ring, Jimmy Superkickbreaker
and then Jay speared Breaker and the Usos went up
top in opposite corners and hit a double USO splash.
Jay covered Breaker and got the three count, and after
the match, Rains entered the ring and hit Breaker with
a chair and Breaker went out to the ring outside
the ring, and everybody shook hands. Jay shook hands the
(39:44):
reins and that was that. But Jimmy did watch and
didn't look pleased. So I mean, I don't need I
don't know why this is even a thing. There should
be no more conflict, no more civil war, no more
(40:05):
intra family conflict with the USOS and Rains. There should
stop it. It's not interesting. It died years ago. Jimmy
and Jay fighting was one of the worst WrestleMania matches
I've seen. It was horrible, and that's weird to say
about two guys who have just contributed so much to
the business, particularly in the in the tag team division,
but working against each other, even as brothers. It was horrific.
(40:31):
And we've seen all combinations of Rains and Jimmy and Roman,
and Rains and Roman and Jimmy and Sammy when he
was there. We've seen it all. We don't need any
anybody turning, no one, no one should be dissatisfied with anything.
Just stop it. That is not an interesting storyline anymore
at all. So if Jimmy turns on somebody, you talk
(40:53):
about a snoozefest, and that should not happen, because Jimmy
is the one that came out the you know, in
terms of the totem pole of stardom, came out at
the bottom of the wrung from the OG storyline. I mean,
he he had if he had his moments, especially early
on Big Gym and all that, but generally, I mean,
(41:15):
it's kind of just fact to say that Jimmy Uso
was the least beneficial coming out of that whole story
I mean, especially compared to his brother of course, and
Sammy and hell even even the storyline going on now
with the spin off of a spinoff of a spin
off of the OG of the bloodline with Solo so
(41:37):
CoA and his group and Toma Tongo Tangaloa all the rest,
you know, j C. Matteo. Still, I think Jimmy Uso
is the kind of he's like the red headed step child.
He's kind of the forgotten one. So Jimmy turning on
anybody would do no favors for him at all. He
does not need to be alienated, singled out. Unless there's
some megastoryline that I'm not privy to, which is very possible,
(42:00):
Jimmy Usso should just stick with the damn group. I
don't need anybody making faces and not satisfied and not pleased.
Stop it. Just keep them together. It's fine, they'll fight
off the vision. So I don't want anybody turning on
anybody at Crown Jewel, Jimmy, you know, laying Roman out
(42:20):
and standing there. No no no, no, no, no, no no please.
So if that's where they're going, count me out. I
want out. If that's not where they're going, I still
don't want to see Jimmy making faces and that he's
displeased at this alrighty, So a lot of complaining tonight, guys,
A lot of complaining, although I did have a lot
(42:41):
of good stuff to say too, I really did. And
because there's some good stuff going on, we've got some
big matches coming up for the next ple at Crown
Jewel in under two weeks, and I hope you'll join
me over the WW podcast on Patreon to go ad
free at patreon dot com slash WW podcast, as I mentioned,
good place to go if you want everything add free,
same as Apple Podcasts as a subscribe button. It's right
(43:04):
in the app if you want to go add free.
Both offer one week for free if you just want
to try. I don't know. Check it out. Go listen
to what ad free is like. It's beautiful. It's a
beautiful thing, all right, everybody that'll do it for me?
I gotta go watch. I think the Yankees are losing
to the Red Sox, which is, you know, not surprising,
because the Yankees cannot beat good teams. I said that
(43:25):
yesterday if you follow any kind of you know, any
kind of commentary I do on anything outside of wrestling
with sports and Yankees fan. But the Red Sox, as
it speaks, right as I speak, right now, the Red
Sox are up three to one, bottom of the ninth,
both bases loaded, one out, jazz Chisholm at the plate.
(43:49):
Oh my, oh god. So I chose to tune in
at quite the interesting time here. A base hit would
tie the game, but also a base a ground bow
could end the game. And right now he's of course,
by the time you're listening to this, we all know
the outcome. Jazzism is down two. He's down, oh two
(44:11):
in the count, two strikes, no balls, bases loaded one
on or I'm sorry, I'm one out. Good lord, Okay,
I can't watch. I can't watch. That'll do it for me, everybody.
I didn't mean to turn this into a baseball commentary,
but it is the playoffs, so there is that. All right,
Thanks everybody, We'll talk next time.
Speaker 4 (44:31):
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 WWE podcast dot com and
for all of these shows add free head over to
Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll see
(44:51):
you 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 godet for sixteen. So
just with your ass is my arm, you can acknowledge me.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
All right, Let's get into the Monday Night Raw review
here on this Tuesday, September thirtieth, twenty twenty five, with
a very eventful, very ventful Raw one. Nay, I don't
think a lot of us expected with the return of
Roman Reigns. Big story there, Seth and Cody also have
a face to face, with Cody mentioning he's there to
have fun. Does it get any worse than that? Oh yeah,
(00:56):
I have some things to say as well as the
women who had a big, you know, something big to
say on the show here with Oska spraying Eosky in
the face of the mist and Ria Ripley getting involved
and Kyrie and the battle lines have been drawn. An
Intercontinental Championship match that saw perhaps the official turn of
(01:18):
Dominic Stereo to a babyface. Really enjoyed that as he's
bringing out the inner Eddie Guerrero and doing it in
a very charming way against Russev. So I think we
might have seen the complete turn there, along with a
lot of other stuff. I mean aj styles by the way,
if you didn't know, is going to be facing John
Cena Crown Jewels, So that's going to be a thing.
(01:40):
We have certainly a lot to talk about there once
Crown Jewel comes to us in just a couple of weeks,
less than a couple weeks now, But here we go.
If you haven't joined us, by the way, head on
over to Patreon and get yourself everything ad free Patreon
dot com. Slash WWE podcast. Now let's talk first here,
let's start at the top of the show. I've got
(02:00):
some things that I'm guessing you probably if you've joined
me before, know what I'm going to say. But we
have Riya Ripley come out, huge ovation for her as expected,
and she said she always knew it would come to
this with Osca, and she said she hoped that they
could settle things in the ring like the warrior that
she thought Oscar was. And Ripley said that what Oscar
(02:21):
did to Eo crossed the line. Ripley said that they
would settle things in the ring and then called out
to the Kabuki warriors to come get her EO. Sky
came out looking sad with her head down, and Ripley
joined Ripley in the ring, and Sky said it broke
her heart to say that Ripley was right about Oscar
(02:42):
and Kyrie, but they are her family, and Sky said
she still loves them. The fans booed and Ripley tried
to console EO. That's when Oscar and Kyrie appear and
subtitles were used. While Osca said she taught Sky everything
she knows and now acts like none of it matters.
(03:02):
She accused s Guy of forgetting about her once once
she won the Women's World Championship, and Osca told Sky
to apologize to her. Then she could be like Sane
and they would remain her students Sayin said they could
be a family again. Ripley said Osca could go to hell,
and she told Sky she had to trust her. Oscar
(03:24):
and Sane attack Ripley from behind, and Sky turned to
the ring apron to stop them, and Oscar stood behind
Sane and sprayed missed at EO and Oscar. Insane then
beat down Ripley and Oscar then put Ripley in a
submission hold and then hit Sane with Ripley hit then
Sane hit Ripley with an insane elbow, and that's when
(03:46):
referees and producers came out to sky heading to the
first break. Now, I will say I didn't think this
would be the program to open the show, but it
did a nice job effective. As I said, the battle
lines have been we know where EO stands, we know
where Kyrie stands, we know her loyalties, we know where
Oscar is, we know where Ripley is. And it's also
again nice to see Ripley not in the world title
(04:08):
picture because she seemed like she was there for years.
So it's been a nice change for all of the women.
And I can't say really anything bad about this. I
really can't say anything bad other than one massive botch
again and the women are not having a good streak here,
and Osca is the latest to be complying compliant in
(04:31):
this just embarrassing botch streak for the women. Where she
just I mean the kick she gave Rhea to the
back of the head was it was like two feet away.
I don't know what's going on. It's almost like it's
part of the program where they're like, all right, who's
up this week. Who's going to have a just a
horrific botch this week for the women. Again, I'm not
(04:51):
concerned for the women's vision and I'm all for them
trying to compete the best they can with the men
for TV time, as they should. But this is this
has been a pattern now and in OSCA here just
it was a horrific kick. I mean, it was so
far away that Ripley didn't even know if she should
sell her or not. She kind of half did. And
(05:12):
then the announcers, you know, try to cover for and
they even I think by mistake, caught a picture of
it on w dot com when they have their photographers
there on their live events and taking pictures and then
they upload and so the sign afterwards like there were
official pictures. There's a picture of the kick, and the
kick is as bad as you'd imagine. You'd think that
(05:34):
they would have gotten rid of it, but they haven't,
and again maybe they're not too concerned about it. So
again the botches continue for the women. But the storyline's good,
really good, and it's fun to see where this is
going to end. It could end with the EO actually
double downing on the you know, her her well continued
(05:54):
babyface run, or it could end up with her truly
seeing the darkness as they say, and having her join
Eoon and Kyrie I'm sorry, join Oscar and Kyrie. Could
be either way. Everybody's playing their role very nicely, and
EO showing some love for Oscar and for Kyrie makes
sense that she didn't just turn on them, that she
(06:15):
says she still loves them. This is all. It's just
well done, well done by all the women, and it's
nice when when something's not about a championship. How often
do you see that in WWE, where especially for the
women with the limited time that they seemingly get compared
to the men, which again I don't think it should
be fifty to fifty. I think you earn your spots
(06:36):
no matter what your sex is. But it's nice to
see the women not actually talking about a championship. It's
actually just personal grudges, personal feuds. I know that the
Women's World title is brought into conversation, but that's not
the focal point here. The focal point is the breakup
of the Kaboogie Warriors and the battle lines being drawn
(06:57):
where you're likely going to see a tag team match
at Crown Jewel of Ree Ripley and Eosky versus Oscar
and Kyrie, Sain and Man. How can you not see
that match as a potential match with the night candidate.
Think about the talent involved in that. There's a very
high likelihood that's one of the best matches of the night.
(07:18):
As long as they're not given four minutes, you know that.
I think they need at least twelve thirteen and they
could have a just a kick ass match. So looking
for a good pure wrestling match that's not about titles,
there you go for Crown Jewel potentially. Of course, nothing's
official as of this moment, I believe. Let's continue. We
had Dominic, Mysterio and Russa for the Intercontinental Championship. This
(07:41):
ended with Dom beating Russev for the Intercontinental Championship after
a really fun, a fun match up here that I
think was the final transformation from Dom heel Dom to
beloved Dirty Dom. Dirty Dom played its you know, played
(08:01):
that heel role extremely well for the time that it
had because people genuinely hated him. The wouldn't let him talk, remember,
wouldn't let it talk for years on the microphone, which
inadvertently hindered. I think his actual ability to cut promos
because the crowd wouldn't let him talk. But you put
that aside, and the fans have had enough time to
(08:23):
hate him that it's now time to love him. The
things that he used to do, that used to hate
are now the things you love. He's like this lovable
little scoundrel. Now, how is he going to get out
of it tonight? It becomes like a little game. And yes,
the homage to Eddie Gurero certainly doesn't hurt, given you
know the storyline with him and Eddie and that whole.
(08:46):
You know, remember the custody battle from twenty years ago,
so there, you know, there is some precedent here for
Eddie Guerrero to be involved or to be reflected through Dom.
And I think he's doing it well with the you know,
the fake hits and the low blow with the leg
behind the referees back and all of that. Plus Roussev
(09:07):
isn't exactly a lovable character right now, so that doesn't
hurt either. And people pop big when Dom retained, so
you are seeing the complete transformation now of Dom. I
hope they don't mess around. Let him be a babyface.
For God's sakes, I don't care about the Judgment Day.
I don't care what role they're in. The Judgment Day
has been completely dead. I think to rights for a
(09:28):
while now because they're just so boring and dominic mysterial.
Right now is the life of that group, if there
is one, And having him as Intercontinental champion again, I
think it makes sense. So Russev will continue to probably
chase him. I don't think that's the last you've seen
a Russev, especially considering how Russev lost. He'll go to
(09:50):
you know, the general manager, Adam Pearson, complain and try
to you know, politic for another match. He might get
it at Crown Jewel. I just hope they don't drop
the belt from Dom. I really do, because he's This
could be a little something for Dom here. For all
the hatred that the fans have given him over the
last like four years, you could now have him in
a position to be a big babyface, a beloved babyface.
(10:14):
So we'll see, all right, let's see here we have
footage air earlier in the day of La Knight Tennant
telling Adam Pierce that he wants a title shot, and
Pierce said Knight isn't the only one. Cofein Exavier showed
up and claimed Pierce owed them a World Tag title match,
and Pierce told the New Day Duo to earn it,
(10:35):
and Knight took offense to being interrupted and called for
a match with Kingston and Pierce agreed to it. And
we had Cody Rhoads and Seth Rollins video package air
about their match at Crown Jewel in Australia, and Cody
Rhodes were called returning to w W to face Rollins
of WrestleMania and I won't go through the whole video
(10:56):
package here, but and then we had footag jair of
Bailey's personality issues with Lyra Valkyria and backstage, Bailey wanted
Valkyia to join her ringside, but she was still too
upset about Bailey shoving her last week. I mean, this
is getting embarrassing. Valkaria told Bailey she was on her own,
and then Bailey made her entrance alone and hugged fans. Okay,
(11:19):
this is not the only thing I have to say
about Lyra, but this one I will continue. This is
part one for me of Lyra is what happened to her?
She's become this incredibly sensitive, easily offended schoolgirl. She's reverted
back to eleven years old or younger. It's embarrassing you
(11:43):
were that hurt from a shove from Bailey. I mean,
what story are we telling here? Is it just all
about Bailey's multiple personality disorder? Is it about Bailey's identity crisis?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (11:59):
What is this? How does this benefit Lyra? We know
how this benefits Bailey. She's getting more TV time, and
you're trying to see where they're going with it. I
don't believe they know where they're going with it, but
they're doing something significant with Bailey for the first time
in a couple of years. But for more importantly, Lyra,
the younger star that needs help. How does it help
(12:19):
her to make her look like she is this fragile
piece of china that you you know, you can't you
can't touch too too roughly or you'll break it. You know,
you have to hold it with care, handle with care.
That's not how I want Lyra and Valcuriria to be.
(12:39):
I don't want anyone to be. That's not just Lira,
but Lyra's been the focal point of it. I don't
want any of the men, especially the men, any of
the women to be acting like small children, like someone
stole their cookie at lunchtime, like you know, one of
their friends wouldn't play with them at recess. That's how
it feels for Lyra, and that that's an embarrassing feeling.
(13:03):
For all the progress she made with Becky Lynch, despite
the fact that program went on too long, and it did.
They had good matches for the most part, and she
was able to find her identity. Even the announcers were saying,
this is the best version of Lira we've seen. It
felt like she found her footing and now they've regressed
four steps to the point where she feels like, you know,
(13:27):
she has her homecoming dance this week. It's so embarrassing.
But it gets worse. Don't worry, it gets worse. I'll
let you know how in a minute. So we get
Bailey and Raquel here, and the finish was Raquel showing
frustration over not getting a three count from a near fall,
(13:47):
and there was a botch spot near the ropes that
they made a quick recovery from again continuing the botch.
For the women, I don't know what they have, some
kind of curse on them, some kind of voodoo. I
don't know what's going on for the women, but they
are not. It's everybody. It's not just this small segment
of the same women. It's like everybody's been bit by
(14:09):
this botch bug. So I don't know what's going on.
But Bailey then applied a figure four while Barrett noted
that they were in Rick Flair country. Perez raked the
eyes of Bailey while the ref couldn't see it, and
Rodriguez hit it to hotted bomb and pinned Bailey. So
Raquel beats Bailey here, and after the match, Barrett noted
(14:31):
that Bailey could have used Lyra in her corner, and
that's when Raquel and Perez ends up beating Bailey. Valkyria
comes out and the Heels teamed up on Valkyria and
put her down, and then Bailey's demeanor changed. She got
up and cleared the Heels from the ring, and Bailey
(14:52):
turned and loot looked at Lyra, who was down on
the mat and kind of leery, and Bailey laughed and
said Valkyria got them, and Bailey pulled Vacuate to her feet,
eventually got a high five from her, so the match itself.
Let me before I talk about Lyra. The match of
stuff I thought was fine beyond the botch, it's fine.
(15:12):
But then you have the story here of Lyra, and
I just told you the things that I don't like
about her personality that we're learning how fragile she is
and the other thing is. And here's where you guys,
some of you are just gonna, you know, be very
somehow pretend defended or whatever. But I'm just calling it
like it is. I don't care if truth offends anybody.
(15:35):
It's just truth. Truth is just what it is. And
if you are offended, then that's your business. Lyra's outfit
when she came out, okay, And here's where the other women, Oh,
your body's shame you. Oh, then don't look Oh my god.
I'm just calling it like it is. And Lyra's outfit
it looked like she came out of or was about
(15:57):
to go to the local nightclub with the little mini skirt.
I mean, is this nineteen ninety nine. Why would Lyra
come out looking like that, or at least wearing that attire.
If you're going to compete in a wrestling ring, what
the hell is going on that was a bad choice
(16:19):
of attire. I don't want to hear that. No, no,
it doesn't matter. Yeah it does. Also, suddenly appearance in
a company that is all about appearances doesn't matter. I'm
not allowed to comment on something that I'm seeing, just
observing with my own eyes that she wore an outfit
that objectively is a horrible outfit for wrestling, and not
(16:41):
only for wrestling. And it was awkward because her outfit
was more distracting because you're like, oh my god, does
she realize, like, hey, you take a bump on your
back and you know it's right there. Bruh, you know
what I mean? Like, and sure it's not like she
was as underneath, but you know, I shouldn't be and
(17:04):
the audience shouldn't be thinking that it should be about
what's going on in the ring. It should be about
the wrestlers in the ring. The story and her outfit
was insanely distracting, and I just I thought it was
a bad choice. And it just brought me back to
also the late nineties early two thousands, when how you know,
how the women were treated by the company, and again voluntarily,
the women were voluntarily doing those things, you know, the
(17:28):
women can complain about how they were treated, but again,
you are voluntarily employed by a company. No one's chaining
your ass to a company. And the women were paid
very nicely as well. It's not like, you know, they
weren't in slave labor. Okay, So there's there is that.
But from a fans point of view, the women in
the nineties and early two thousands, while they were you know,
(17:51):
recognizable and they were a part of the show because
of the demographic that was watching wrestling, they were really
relegated to nothing more than glorified sex. And it felt
very much like I was, you know, that outfit that
Lira War was. Again, it looked very much kind of
like that. And and I'm a man, so I don't
(18:11):
I don't mind. Like I'm looking at that going okay,
it's nice to look at, but you know, that's that's
that's a distraction that I don't think should be there
when I'm watching women's wrestling anymore. And someone I can
hear it already. Oh, that sounds like a you problem. Okay.
If you're a dude, and you're a straight dude, you
are lying to yourself or you're trying to be You're
pretending to be offended on behalf of somebody else, or
(18:32):
you know, you are just trying to virtue signal or
whatever you're trying to do, you're simply lying. Like biologies
biology men or men and the court devil that watch.
Wrestling is still men. And my point is I want
the women to continue to move forward with wrestling. Okay,
wrestling there. I'll end it there. But some of you,
I'm sure, because every time I talk about something like this,
(18:55):
it's by some some you know, the minority, it seems
like are not happy with it. But I mean, I
don't know what to tell you, do you know deep
down I'm right. The way to move women's wrestling ahead
is to focus on the wrestling. Okay, and not that
Lira's in some kind of inappropriate storyline, but you know,
she just I don't think was a was thinking when
(19:18):
she put her outfit on, like hey this is yeah,
I'll get attention, but it may not be the attention
you want for the reasons you want. Like men are
still men even if you don't want them to be. Okay,
that's the way it goes. And if you again, you
are lying, if you think otherwise, or you are denying
the truth. So not that my opinions are truth, but
(19:42):
the way that men are wired. We all know what
that is. And when you're watching wrestling, I don't look
at wrestling for that. That's not how I want, you know,
my wrestling product to be. So Okay, now that I've
pissed off a portion of the audience, I'm interested to
hear from you on the mail. That'll be fun. But
let's go. We have backstage Jimmy and Jay talking about
(20:06):
walking off or I'm sorry. Backstage, Jimmy asked Jay about
walking off when he and La Knight needed his help,
and Jay said helping Knight gets them nowhere and made
them lose at Russell Palooza. Jay asked Jimmy why he
helped him, and Jimmy said he helped him and would
help Jay, who cut him off and said, I said
(20:27):
no help, And Jay recalled putting Night down and said
he might be world heavyweight champion if he did more
of that, and Jay told Jimmy that's something he wouldn't
get and Jay told Jimmy he loved him and walked away.
So kind of building a little tension here. You know,
you're still kind of wondering if Jay's going to turn heel.
(20:47):
Obviously we get our answer at the end of the
night here, but all right, we have EO Sky being
treated by the trainers when Kyrie came in and Sane
told Sky that they could still be a family, Saying
pleaded with Sky to apologize to Oscar, and Sky yelled
at Saying to leave her alone. So yeah, I mean,
it's not gonna happen. I hope still could have happened.
(21:10):
I mean, Eo still could be the you know, the
foil here. She could be the one that you end
up being like, oh my god, she's actually gonna team
with EO, or rather with Kyrie and Oscar. Could still happen.
I'm not putting it past WW to have her turn
on Rhea at the potential match for Crown Jewel in Australia.
(21:31):
All right, Elleen Knight versus KOFE Kingston. This match saw
Ellie Knight beat Kobe Kingston after a BFT Night ducked
Trouble in Paradise and put kinkson away with BFT and
that that was kind of it, and you know that's it.
I mean, I don't know what this was supposed to
be outside of just giving both of these men airtime
(21:54):
and a match, because I don't know what this means
for a night. More importantly, La Knight, who has gone
from just a consistent main eventor for months now to
mid card random match with KOFE, I wouldn't sound the alarms.
(22:14):
You can't have the same people on top all the time.
It's not good, even if they are ultra talented. You
can't have on top all the time for every show.
But it does make you wonder do they have anything
in mind for La Night or is this just kind
of a placeholder match you week after week that we're
going to see. I don't want La Knight back in
a US title picture, but that's on SmackDown, so he
(22:39):
and I don't think he's going to chase the intercontinental title,
so they should continue to just kind of I think
after Crown Jewel put him back in the world title picture.
I hope they do, because yes, right now it's all
about Cody and Seth and their match at Crown Jewel
for a meaningless, made up championship, but you should put
(23:01):
Ellen Knight back in after and if I'm okay with
and I think you guys should take note of this.
This is just my two cents as this whole show
is that if Ellie Knight does essentially nothing the next
couple weeks leading into the Crown Jewel event, don't be
too worried. I mean, we have world champions left off
(23:22):
of ples all the time, major stars lef off of
ples all the time, and this would give Ellie Knight
a little bit of a back seat for a couple
of weeks, just kind of putts it around, having random matches,
winning matches, and then he'll be jolted back into the
world title picture after Crown Jewel kind of seems or
I think they're probably gonna go all right. We then
(23:46):
get some of curates is aw Maxine stuff. I'm sorry,
I don't care that much. Let's see here, we had
Becky Lynch approach her husband and Seth obviously, who asked
if she was feeling better and she said a little.
Lynch asked Rollins how he was feeling, and he said,
we'll see, and she asked if he wanted her or
(24:07):
Hayman to join him, but he said he had to
do it on his own. And that's when Seth comes
out and otc chance broke out, Rollins acknowledged he's zero
and three against Cody. He said it doesn't matter. He said,
the winner of their match at Crown Jewel wouldn't just
win the Crown Jewel Championship, but the winner might decide
the future of the industry for the next ten to
twenty years. Okay, a couple good and bad things here
(24:30):
on that first first opening monologue from Seth number one.
I like the fact that they're acknowledging that these three
or these two have had three previous matches in which
Rollins is a zero and three against Cody. I like
when they bring those things up because it should matter,
and it does, and I'm glad they brought it up.
(24:52):
So kudos on that line. I know it's a small thing,
but it's important that history matters and outcomes shouldn't matter.
That's good. Now, the next part is just I think
it's not my favorite. I don't like it, but it's
Rollin's just doing his due diligence to sell the match.
That's his job, and I cannot faulting him for it.
(25:14):
But for him to say he wouldn't just win the
Crowndeal Championship, WHI again, it means less than nothing. He
said it, you know, this match might decide the future
of the industry for the next ten to twenty years. Really,
how it's an exhibition match with an invented championship on
the line that no one cares about at all, no one.
(25:36):
It has no meaning, there's nothing on the line. And
I know that Crown Jewel is supposed to be the
event that WW you know treats like WrestleMania because of
how much money is online and they have a business
to run. But come on, I mean, this is really
how does this match decide the future of the industry
(25:58):
in what way? What effect does this have on the
entire industry for the next two decades? Seth. I'm not hammering, Seth.
He's trying to sell the match. I'm just being a jerk.
But you know, you sometimes you look at these promos
when they're written down, You're like, what because it sounds good.
When you're trying to sell the match, you're like, okay,
follow it up. When you read it like I just did,
(26:20):
It's like, what are you talking about? But let's continue.
So Rollin said, there are actually some people who want
Cody to win. He said, there will be He said,
he will be the person to lead the company into
the future. And he's done right by staying with the
company and pushing it into the golden age. He said,
he took bron Breaker and Bronson Reid under his wing
(26:41):
so we could give them knowledge. And he said he
sacrificed everything by trying to rid the company of cancers
such as Rains and Punk. Yet they say the fans
still chant for Cody, and that's when Cody comes out
and he recalled the Rollins on the nonsense of claiming
they were fighting for the future of the industry. I'll
(27:02):
give Cody credit on this. I mean, he said, it
seems a bit much. He said, the fans have all
the control. Yeah, the just stomach turning pandering that Cody does.
It gets worse. But I give Cody credit there. Whoever
came up with that line was good too. It is
a bit much. You think that this match, that is
an exhibition match again with an invented championship, is somehow
(27:24):
going to affect the future of the industry. I can
guarantee you after this match that they just go their
separate ways and don't even interact for the next like
twelve months, all Right, so that was a good one.
But Cody mentioned that bron Breaker and Bronson Reid showed
up on SmackDown and wondered if that was Rollins or
a Paul Hayman call. Rollins said every decision runs through him,
(27:47):
and Cody asked if it was Seth's call to have
Hayman introduced brock Lesner at Russell Palooza. Rollins repeated that
everything runs through him, and Cody said he thought that
Rollins was his friend after they teamed up a WrestleMania forty.
Rollins told him to shut up, and he said he
never was his friend and said that that they had,
(28:09):
what they had was a means to an end, and
he said Cody was the lesser of two evils. That
was good. He said everything that happened between them was dead.
He could write a new future at Crown Jewel and
he is the only person who will lead his division,
and Rollins exited the ring. Okay, good stuff here from
(28:33):
from Cody. Now, I will say the line that's not
mentioned in this review that I have particular issue with
is Cody telling Rollins that they're that, you know, to
basically calm down and that we're here the fans, and
I are here to have fun. I mean, you gotta
(28:53):
be you gotta be shitting me. You're telling me that
the WWE undisputed champion is coming to Raw to have fun.
Oh is that why you're here? You get you're gonna,
You're gonna, you know, go down the slide and and
uh maybe hit some monkey bars and uh, you know,
(29:17):
jump into a big pit of balls. Is that is
that why you're here? Cody? I mean, John Cena has
done this before too, and I've called him out on it,
and this isn't just a Cody thing, although because of him,
I hate it more. I've heard this before from babyfaces.
Oh we're here to have fun. Let's have fun. Uh No,
(29:41):
In fact, the reason you not that everything needs to
be one hundred percent dead serious all the time. But
you can't come to Raw with a champion versus champion match.
One side declared that this match could defend could determine
the future of the industry, which of course is preposterous,
and it was called out and the other side said,
they're there, they just have fun. I mean, you talk
(30:01):
about polar opposites, and I despise it. I despise when
you have any champion or non champions of Babyface talk
about just there to have fun of me, then what
are you doing here? You could have fun and a
lot of other professions don't come into pro wrestling and
(30:23):
talk about just having fun. The fans are there to
have fun, but it's something you just don't talk about.
And are the wrestlers actually having fun? Yes, as human
beings on a real level, of course they are. The
wise they wouldn't be doing it. I'm sure they're loving it,
having a ball, you know, back and forth, tit for
Tat wrestling, you have to love it and have fun
or you wouldn't be there. But you don't say that.
(30:46):
It's one of those fourth wall things. It's just like, dude,
shut up, No, it's one of those byproducts. It's like
when wrestlers talk about making history, we're going to tear
the house down again, you don't talk about byproduct. Those
are the effects of a match or promo or your
presence there. Those are the things that happen that you
(31:07):
don't speak about that we all know are there, but
if you bring them up overtly, it ruins the moment
and actually undermines what the sport is all about I
hate that shit. And yes, I've made this show a
little bit more TV fourteen if you haven't noticed, so sorry.
If you have kids, my bad. Maybe from here on out,
(31:28):
here's what I'd recommend, all right, because lately I've just
I gotta there's some four letter words, and that not
the F word. I'll reserve that for after dark. Just
like sometimes it's it's the only way it can come out.
Sometimes it's the only way it can come out. Otherwise
I'm not doing it as service, so real mature of me,
(31:50):
I know. So let's continue. We have backstage EO, Rea,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Rea.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Ripley approached EO and asked if she was okay. Sky
said no, then told Ripley she was right about Oscar,
and she said that she and Ripley would team to
face the Kabuki Warriors Acron Jewel again till this is official.
I must have missed this segment. I'm reading it now
because earlier in the night I said, oh it's not official,
it is, okay, Well that makes sense. I missed this somehow,
But all right. Aj Styles made her and made his
(32:22):
entrance for the tag team match here with himself and
Dragonly taking on Los Americanos, Bravo and Reo with El
Grande Americano. The match ended with AJ and dragonly beating
Los Americanos with Styles hitting Bravo with a Styles clash
got the victory. That makes sense. You can't have Aj
(32:42):
Styles on the losing side of anything. He's going into
a match with John Cena, one of Johnsena's final matches,
and it is confirmed as we all know that December thirteenth,
at Saturday Night's Main Event in Washington, DC, is John
Cena's final match. Of course, we all want to know
who it is. We don't know, We don't know. It
could be Brocklusner. I hope it's not Brockleusner. I hope
(33:04):
it's not anybody. He's already faced. I hope it's not
Randy Orton. We've been there, done that. You know my pick,
you know my pick. It better be edge somehow. But anyway, yeah,
with this, I mean, this match was good short you
kind of knew what you're gonna get. But AJ Styles
should win here as he's going into a major match
in just a couple of weeks. All right, So next
(33:27):
week we had tested tour remind us that Roles in Dallas.
Starts at eight o'clock Central time, and we have for
next week see him Punk returning. We have Intercontinental champion
Becky Lynch taking on Maxine Dupree and Lyra versus Rock
San Perez. If you know, of course, Lyra is mentally
and emotionally available to do so, and she's not a
(33:50):
broken shell of herself, you know, crying in the in
the corner of a locker room somewhere backstage. Alrighty, yes,
I'm being a jerk because it's deserving. It's deserving. Not
that Livers actually like that as a person, but the
presentation of her character is horrific right now, I think.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
So.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Backstage, we had a world champion, Stephanie a women's world champion,
Stephanie Vvicaire, who said she respects the women's champion Tipoty Stratton,
but she'll beat her at Crown Jewel. And then Stratton
showed up and in her extremely just unlikable style, said
it's gonna remain tiffy time and Vicor Vicaire told her
that her time is over, and Stratton said the Primera
(34:35):
will have to get used to coming in second. Not
much of a promo here kind of your standard I'm
gonna beat you. No, you're I'm gonna beat you. You
know you're not gonna beat me. I'm gonna beat you.
That's all this was. It's fine. There's not much to
really build here. There's nothing on the line once again,
absolutely nothing. I actually don't like that they do this
(34:57):
just as a concept. Put champion versus champion. That should
be something reserved for WrestleMania. But we've all come to
just accept the fact that Crown Jewel now is this
is this event that a lot of large checks will
be written for people that shouldn't come out of retirement
(35:18):
to appear for matchups that shouldn't happen for people that
nearly you know, kill themselves. Goldberg and Undertaker is the
one I'm thinking of there. And having champion versus champion why,
I don't know that Again, I don't think people realize
how big that could be if you had champion versus champion.
(35:41):
But it's just something that just haphazardly happens because it's
on the calendar, and the calendar dictates what happens. The
calendar should never dictate what the matches are ever, not
to say, well, rumbles of course in January, we know
the match, but it should never dictate in a singles
capacity who faces who ever? Never because or a match
(36:04):
type specifically a match type is probably a better way
to put it, because WrestleMania is always going to be
the World Rumble winner versus the champion, So the match
type should never be dictated by the calendar. And how
many times we see that happen? Hell in a cell
you know, elimination chamber, Although we most people do love
the chamber. I don't think match type should ever be
(36:25):
dictated by the pl E. But what do I know? Okay,
we have a match up here where oh, Jimmy US
and Jay US would take on bron Breaker and Bronson
Reid in a Tornado tag team match. And match was good,
(36:45):
kind of long with Jimmy and Jay beating bron Breaker
and Bronson Reid. And let's see here we had. I
was trying to find the point where Rowan Rains came in. Okay,
so Jay was fighting both here heels coming out of
the break breaker and Reid got the better of the
USOS and he stacked the USOS. Breaker stacked the USO
(37:08):
so Reid could hit hit both of them with a tsunami.
And that's when Roman Rain's entrance music hits. He's got
a chair in hand, he clears breaker, he clears reed.
He hit everybody with like forty chair shots, and boy
I missed. I will continue to say, is I miss
chair shots to the head from a sick, disgusting, selfish position.
(37:34):
I missed chair shots to the head. I'll continue to say,
if there was a safe way, If there was, and
I know it's kind of it's a conflict of possibility.
I mean, you can't unless you have a worked chair
that's not made out of steel. If you somehow had
a material that the chair can be man out of
that felt like and looked like and sounded like steel,
(37:55):
but it was totally safe to hit somebody in the
head with if that material existed on Earth, if that
was an element on the periodic table, I would suggest
that those chairs be made out of it. But I
don't think it does. And therefore, of course I'm not
advocating for people to get concussions at my own entertainment.
But what I am advocating for is just from a
(38:17):
just a purely visual perspective, I miss chair shots to
the head. You know you do too. Yes, I'm telling
you what you miss because you know that it's a
timeless tradition in pro wrestling. Or it used to be
chair shots to the head when deserving, and now you know,
when someone comes out with a chair, half of the
excitements taken away because you know exactly where they're going
(38:39):
to hit them. That's it, there's no other place. It
just it takes a lot of the fun out of
what a chair shot to the head used to mean.
It used to mean like sometimes color blood. It used
to mean knocking somebody out instantly. Now it's you have
(39:01):
to hit them in the back sixty four times for
them to go down. And yeah, I just miss it.
I miss it so much that I wish we could
bring them back in a safe way anyway. So we
had Breaker hit Rains. He fought them off quickly. The
(39:22):
fans chanted for Roman and in the ring, Jimmy Superkickbreaker
and then Jay speared Breaker and the Usos went up
top in opposite corners and hit a double USO splash.
Jay covered Breaker and got the three count, and after
the match, Rains entered the ring and hit Breaker with
a chair and Breaker went out to the ring outside
the ring, and everybody shook hands. Jay shook hands the
(39:44):
reins and that was that. But Jimmy did watch and
didn't look pleased. So I mean, I don't need I
don't know why this is even a thing. There should
be no more conflict, no more civil war, no more
(40:05):
intra family conflict with the USOS and Rains. There should
stop it. It's not interesting. It died years ago. Jimmy
and Jay fighting was one of the worst WrestleMania matches
I've seen. It was horrible, and that's weird to say
about two guys who have just contributed so much to
the business, particularly in the in the tag team division,
but working against each other, even as brothers. It was horrific.
(40:31):
And we've seen all combinations of Rains and Jimmy and Roman,
and Rains and Roman and Jimmy and Sammy when he
was there. We've seen it all. We don't need any
anybody turning, no one, no one should be dissatisfied with anything.
Just stop it. That is not an interesting storyline anymore
at all. So if Jimmy turns on somebody, you talk
(40:53):
about a snoozefest, and that should not happen, because Jimmy
is the one that came out the you know, in
terms of the totem pole of stardom, came out at
the bottom of the wrung from the OG storyline. I mean,
he he had if he had his moments, especially early
on Big Gym and all that, but generally, I mean,
(41:15):
it's kind of just fact to say that Jimmy Uso
was the least beneficial coming out of that whole story
I mean, especially compared to his brother of course, and
Sammy and hell even even the storyline going on now
with the spin off of a spinoff of a spin
off of the OG of the bloodline with Solo so
(41:37):
CoA and his group and Toma Tongo Tangaloa all the rest,
you know, j C. Matteo. Still, I think Jimmy Uso
is the kind of he's like the red headed step child.
He's kind of the forgotten one. So Jimmy turning on
anybody would do no favors for him at all. He
does not need to be alienated, singled out. Unless there's
some megastoryline that I'm not privy to, which is very possible,
(42:00):
Jimmy Usso should just stick with the damn group. I
don't need anybody making faces and not satisfied and not pleased.
Stop it. Just keep them together. It's fine, they'll fight
off the vision. So I don't want anybody turning on
anybody at Crown Jewel, Jimmy, you know, laying Roman out
(42:20):
and standing there. No no no, no, no, no, no no please.
So if that's where they're going, count me out. I
want out. If that's not where they're going, I still
don't want to see Jimmy making faces and that he's
displeased at this alrighty, So a lot of complaining tonight, guys,
A lot of complaining, although I did have a lot
(42:41):
of good stuff to say too, I really did. And
because there's some good stuff going on, we've got some
big matches coming up for the next ple at Crown
Jewel in under two weeks, and I hope you'll join
me over the WW podcast on Patreon to go ad
free at patreon dot com slash WW podcast, as I mentioned,
good place to go if you want everything add free,
same as Apple Podcasts as a subscribe button. It's right
(43:04):
in the app if you want to go add free.
Both offer one week for free if you just want
to try. I don't know. Check it out. Go listen
to what ad free is like. It's beautiful. It's a
beautiful thing, all right, everybody that'll do it for me?
I gotta go watch. I think the Yankees are losing
to the Red Sox, which is, you know, not surprising,
because the Yankees cannot beat good teams. I said that
(43:25):
yesterday if you follow any kind of you know, any
kind of commentary I do on anything outside of wrestling
with sports and Yankees fan. But the Red Sox, as
it speaks, right as I speak, right now, the Red
Sox are up three to one, bottom of the ninth,
both bases loaded, one out, jazz Chisholm at the plate.
(43:49):
Oh my, oh god. So I chose to tune in
at quite the interesting time here. A base hit would
tie the game, but also a base a ground bow
could end the game. And right now he's of course,
by the time you're listening to this, we all know
the outcome. Jazzism is down two. He's down, oh two
(44:11):
in the count, two strikes, no balls, bases loaded one
on or I'm sorry, I'm one out. Good lord, Okay,
I can't watch. I can't watch. That'll do it for me, everybody.
I didn't mean to turn this into a baseball commentary,
but it is the playoffs, so there is that. All right,
Thanks everybody, We'll talk next time.
Speaker 4 (44:31):
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 WWE podcast dot com and
for all of these shows add free head over to
Patreon dot com slash WWE podcast. Until then, we'll see
(44:51):
you next time.
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