Official 2024 Money in the Bank Review & Reaction

This is WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the WWE podcast, the
show the one that everybody wants me God tell somebody. Step three sixteen said,
I just rep your ass is my arm. You can acknowledge me?
All right, everybody, Welcome to the Money in the Bank review show here
on the ww podcast. It is Sunday, July seventh, twenty twenty four.
A lot has happened, Oh my god, over the last twenty four
hours since we saw Money in the Bank conclude a show that I don't think
I've seen so many botches in a single show. Yet at the same time,
the matches seem to all work very well, so I don't think the
botches really hurt any of the matches. And you know, beyond that,
we had a surprise appearance from John Cena, which we'll talk about in just
a moment. That will be the very first topic that we talk about here
on the show, because it's it's headline news as it should be, with
John Cena announcing his retirement and how he's going to do it. So we'll
talk about that in a moment, but I'd like to welcome you all to
the show. And welcome you to join the ad free side of things at
patreon dot com, slash wwe podcast or on Apple podcasts. There's an ad
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free content, you want to just have the ads return. I guess it's
up to you, and that's available to anybody that wants it. If you
want to zap those ads, that's the way to do it. Now,
let's get into it. Let's get into John Cena because even though he wasn't
a part of the show, he's headline news and he took over the post
the post show, the post press conference that is increasingly becoming more fun to
watch. And Drew McIntyre even got involved in the post press conference with the
post conference crew with Biggie there and you know, Wade Barrett there and Kathy
Kelly there, and we'll get to that in a moment as well with seampunk
yet again screwing Drew McIntyre. So we'll talk about that in just a few
but these press conferences are becoming almost must watch because the hand you know that
the the muzzle is off. It feels like stars are just able to speak
freely. And John Cena even kind of ran things here and said, no,
we're answering every single question. I'm not leaving. It's your guy's fault.
You put me on first. So I watched every question ask of John
Cena, and there were more. Clearly there were more w you know,
seemingly was annoyed by it. I'm sure they were, but I don't think
the fans were. They wanted to hear what the quote unquote and very subjectively
named greatest of all time had to say about his retirement, and some good
questions came out of it, you know, because he came out earlier on
the show, as we saw with Trish Stratus introducing him in the very uncharismatic
way that Trish does. And I'm sorry, Look, I love Trisha as
a nostalgic act. I think there is still some fight left dinner too.
I think that her and Tiffany Stratton seemed to maybe have something going, but
she has never been known for being ultra charismatic and energetic on the mic.
That's never been her thing, so I can't Faulter for that. But Nonetheless,
Sina comes out and he tells us that, you know, he's here
to officially announce his retirement. But if anybody saw his shirt at home,
you know, before he made a retirement. If you read his shirt,
it said basically like his twenty twenty five retirement tour. So if you read
his shirt before you listen to his words, you're kind of like, oh,
okay, well he's going to announce his retirement, but it's going to
be a tour. It's not going to be a singular date. And yeah,
he wanted to say thank you. He's mister grateful now. But I
think that the post press conference gave us the dats as he said, which
if you're looking for the Cliffe Mills version of it, there are thirty to
forty dates that he's going to have with WWE starting in twenty twenty five.
So I don't think he's going to be involved on ww television until Raw debuts
on Netflix in January early January, so that'll be the kickoff, if you
will, of the John Cena retirement tour, and he'll go until December.
That's the plan right now. From January to December, say, he has
thirty six dates let's let's take the mid road here between thirty and low forties
is what he said, say even thirty six. Why am I picking thirty
six? Because if there's twelve months in a year, no, there are
not. If and he does three dates per month, it misses maybe one
televised show a month. That's three dates per month average. You know,
maybe he goes six weeks straight and takes two weeks off. I mean,
of course he could do that, but on average, he should be on
a televised event three times a month. I don't know if he'll do any
house shows. I don't know if that includes house shows or maybe I missed
that part of it. If it's just televised events, I would imagine televised,
but I wouldn't put it past him to do to do a house show
here and there. And everything he does next year will be the last thing
he does for that particular event, meaning it's his last Rumble, it's his
last Chamber. He'll be there too. It's his last WrestleMania, but not
his final match. I was mistaken thinking that WrestleMania would be his final match,
but no, it's just his final WrestleMania. It looks like he'll wrap
it up and call it a career in December of next year, and that's
kind of cool. It gives everybody an opportunity, man, everyone but a
large number of people an opportunity to go say thank you you have him return
in kind, appreciate every moment you have with John Cena, because he had
made it very clear also in the press conference he is not going to return
to a guest referee roll after this or turn it, you know, take
a random bump through a table after this. That he is one, one
hundred percent done after this. And I believe him, and I know this
industry is infamous for never say never, right. Sean Michael said the same
thing about his career. Stone Cold Steve Austin said the same thing about his
career. Hell Undertaker made a career out of talking about and people speculating about
him ending his career. So you know, of course this isn't never say
never. But I'll take Johnson at his word, which is also what his
character and real life persona has lived on and lived by. Is his word,
and that this is it, right, So pretend that New Year's Eve
of twenty twenty five is it, which is kind of a weird time to
retire, is it not like what are you gonna? What's the final event
in December, like Knight of Champions or something. Do you really want to
go out at Night of Champions? Yeah? Is it like in Saudi?
I mean, I mean no, because Crown Jewels in November. So but
I'm trying to think, like why December you can't just kick it a few
months to December, you know, to WrestleMania forty two. I don't know
anyway, Taking everything at his word, he'll end it and wrap it up
in December of next year, just in time to end or really just in
time before WrestleMania forty two season kicks off, and there were some fun questions
asked, you know, will you turn heel? Is this an opportunity for
you to turn heel? And seeing us in so many words, said no.
He speaks very much like a politician where he dodges questions in a way
that he's dodging it by answering another question that wasn't asked, you know,
like for example, when the Vince McMahon thingk was asked, He's like,
you know, well, focusing on the now. It's a bit but it's
like, Okay, you know, got it. You're not answering the question.
And so it's a very tried and true traditional way to dodge a question
you don't want to ask answer without saying I'm not going to answer that,
and you just answer a question that wasn't asked. And so obviously didn't talk
about the Vince McMahon stuff only when he was asked. But again the heel
stuff, he said, I don't know if there be a purpose to it
or if there be a you know, that it would be people would see
through it, I think, is what he said, which is kind of
disappointing that we won't get it, seemingly anyway, get a heel Johnson in
what that looks like. But I mean, not the end of the world.
It's just kind of disappointing we're not going to get it at you know,
any point. But hey, we still have mister all smiles all the
time in Cody Rhodes that he'll eventually I think turn heel and hopefully in his
career and he doesn't make a career out of just being a baby face.
But staying on topic here, John Cena does have a plethora of talent to
work with. And while we all speculate of who his final opponent's going to
be, and I think it will be maybe somebody that we've seen before,
and people are already talking about his retirement match being against Randy Orton. I
would love that. I think Randy and John Cena will have time to work
together. Maybe it's at this year's WrestleMania. But to me, Randy Orton
should be his final opponent and not at WrestleMania. The reason is not that
it's not worthy of it, but WrestleMania is a time to help put over
new talent. It's usually not a time usually not a time for just kind
of one offs between legends that are not the future of the business. You
know, you want to help build that next generation. So I think that
Randy should be his final opponent, but his final opponent it's not going to
be at WrestleMania. But you look at the roster, there's so many guys
he hasn't worked with. On top of the fact that, and I still
this is outside the but how about if Mjf's contract, which we don't know
the details of, I know he's in under aw in contract with AW I
understand that confirmed he is, but we don't know the length of it.
What if what if MJF didn't sign a long term deal to AW was just
a year, maybe eighteen months, even that gives him enough time to opt
out coming to WWE. I just wanted MJF John Cena promo in the worst
way. I probably won't get it, but it is certainly as it's a
fantasy of mine in wrestling context, to be able to see those two on
the mic, even in the ring, would be fun. But in the
current roster, on the current roster, you know he's probably gonna work with
several new talent. He could easily work with anybody, including Stampunk. We
saw that being teased Punk even teasing at the press conference that I'll be the
one to bring him back out of retirement, which I don't think will happen.
But I think Punk and Sena is a match. Punkin Orton is a
match. I don't want Orton or I'm sorry, I don't want Sena and
Roman. I don't want that. You could even see and someone asked him
this Sena Rock, How about Sena and Rock? Somebody asked that he dodged
it a bit, that was a very political answer. It was a whole
bunch of nothing, is what it was. It was basically saying stay tuned.
It was like, you know, ten paragraphs that really boiled down to
I don't know, stay tuned. So there's a lot of cool matchups and
it's just gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun to see John Cena.
If he's in your town and WWE is coming through, and you know it's
either raw or smacked out. I don't think he'll be tied to a specific
brand, then I would recommend you go see him because I believe him when
he says that he is not going to return in any capacity. Maybe obviously
for Hall of Fame he would, So I think for Hall of Fame you
could have him come out on stage obviously, or when he takes the stage
at WrestleMania. That would probably be the extent of it. You're not going
to see him in a guest referee role. You're not going to see him
as a general manager role. You know that that's probably off the table.
So I'd highly recommend that if you're able to. From January of twenty twenty
five until December of twenty twenty five, able to see John Cena. It
is probably your last chance from a wrestling standpoint to see him, and I'd
highly recommend that you do so. The only thing that's going to be very
interesting, and I thought about this is kind of a morbid situation. What
if John Cena gets hurt? Like, what if John Cena gets hurt next
year and he's on for six months. I'm not trying to put the out
in the universe, but I guess I just did. I mean, what
then? I mean, the guy hasn't He's forty seven years old. He
hasn't run in anywhere near full time schedule for a long time. I know
he did his run last year with SmackDown, had several dates and it was
fun. But like, what if he tears his tricep like Punk did?
What if you know, he blows his shoulder out, blows a knee out
now, and then he's out for six to eight months. I would imagine
he'll tack that on to whatever his return date is and still trying to manage
a full year out of his career. I don't know, but I'm sure
there's got to be some kind of contingency plan for him to be able to
you know, really make a full year out of his fire Farewell tour.
So it's something I thought about, like, Okay, yeah, this is
your plan, but you know, life has a way of of kind of
have having its own plans for you at times. So I'm not hoping that
happens by any means. I hope that doesn't. That's and I mean that
I really don't want that to happen, but just thinking ahead, like,
Okay, he has this whole thing, he has this big idea, and
then he blows his acl out right, he pulls an Aaron Rodgers and you
know, first night out, just tears his achilles and he's out for like,
you know, the whole year. I mean, it's possible, right,
the dude has not taken that many bumps in this many years. And
I also want victories for John Cena. There's even a seventeenth Somebody asked,
can you see yourself winning a seventeenth title world title, which would break the
record Rick Flair's record, and he said, oh, well, you know,
I got to earn it, being very modest, knowing damn well,
if you gave him truth serum, he would say, I don't need to
earn it. By birthright of being John Cena. I earn it right.
But he said the politically correct thing, and rather the corporately correct thing,
that I got to earn it, and that he's been on a losing streak,
which he has because every time he comes back, he's in the give
back mode of his career where he's there to help put over a new talent.
And I respect that, but at some point, you got to give
John Cena some victories here, and I think upon his return, you're going
to see John Cena rack up victories and maybe he'll chase the title. Maybe
he'll chase the title, maybe he'll go against Cody Rhodes. I mean,
there's really they should look at this as, I mean, an opportunity to
use one of the best stars for the last time while he can still go
and make massive moments while helping build the next generation. I don't think I
need to tell them that that would be preaching to the choir. But that's
how if I was presented with this opportunity and I had full reign of creative,
that's how I would look at it. As fans, I think we
should understand that. So and again, the move to Netflix in January is
a massive deal, and you do wonder what the ratings are going to be
like given that there are how many millions, hundreds of millions of people subscribed
to Netflix and how many how much that will improve their ratings going off of
cable tv. That's just wild to think about. How crazy is it that
Monday Night Raw that we all knew on at least from again. I'm Jena,
I'm the I'm the millennial here. I started watching in ninety seven and
it was on USA. Then it went to TNN. Remember that again,
this is Raw, not SmackDown. I know SmackDown was on upn uh and
other some other networks, but it went from USA to TNN uh and then
I think back to USA, and now it's going to go to Netflix,
which is just crazy because it's just taking that risk of going off with I
don't even know if it's a risk anymore, but going off of cable TV
to a streaming service. It's very twenty twenty four ish, but it's something
that I think is really a safe move. Also, side note, before
I forget, Bad Blood is coming back October fifth in Atlanta, Georgia,
and Corey Graves and Michael Cole had a nice reminders. Gave her a nice
reminder to us that it's the first time in twenty seven years that the Bad
Blood Event is returning to WWE, and it's a return to the exact date
of the original. Where as we all know, Undertaker and Sean Michaels had
their first hell had the very first Helen of Cell match and what I believe
is arguably the best Hell in a Cell match that has ever been presented,
and there were the debut of Cain and all that. I mean, it's
special to me because it was the first real storyline I remember getting into was
Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. And I've documented that more times than I can count
here on the show, so I won't bore you, but it's cool that
they're bringing that back the Bad Blood Event. Which are they really going to
have blood on the Bad Blood Event? How can they not gotta be right?
How can they not have it? And you think about some of the
storylines that could go into that Bad Blood Event. I mean, there's seth
rollins in CM Punk that was teased on the show. We'll get into that,
but I know, again, I've spent nearly twenty minutes talking about John
Cena here. But it's I think deserving of time here because of how big
of a star he is, what he's meant to wrestling. He's the face
of the PG era, and he gets to call his own shot of how
he leaves, and I think that was brought up to and that's a big
deal in triple h that's a big deal, and it's it's pretty damn cool
he gets to do this, barring injury of course, that he gets to
just have fun work with creative on who he wants to work with, which
he says he doesn't have any say in that. That's a much a nonsense.
Of course he does. You know, I don't think he doesn't have
full creative control, but he has, he has significant input. I mean,
it's of course right, he's John Cena. So who he works with
is going to be interesting. We can now speculate starting in January, who
does he work with? Does he win the rumble? Does John Cena win
the Royal Rumble this year? Very possible, unlikely but possible. What about
this stone cold versus John Cena. I mean, I'm throwing stuff out there
that sounds insane. It sounds wishful thinking. It sounds very yah it's a
video game match, but like not really. I mean, you've already got
half the equation there. We've never seen it. We've never seen John Cena
versus Austin and John Sene is going to be available for a full year.
You know, Austin who came off a very good performance a couple of years
ago at WrestleMania thirty eight. Give him enough time, could get in ring
shape. Why the hell not? Why the hell not? So again,
unlikely but possible. So all right, I'll get off the John Cena to
train here. We've kind of exhausted at I think. But it's something fun
to really think about as WWE goes from hot to blazing hot, I think
white hot starting late this year. As I mean, guys, we just
got through. If you've been watching wrestling since WrestleMania forty and posts WrestleMania forty
and you know the last three months, then you have seen the worst at
WWE has to offer for the next probably five years, because we have massive
returns on the way that have listed number of times. Roman Reigns is coming
back very soon. The Rock is coming back very soon. Charlotte Flair is
coming back, probably at SummerSlam. I would imagine we have the return of
John Cena for a full year, a full year. Think of all the
potential matchups. We've got the Wyatt six now, you know, paying tribute
to Bray Wyatt. Hey, guys, and I've only touched the surface of
what's going on when they go to Netflix and it's no, it's not PG
anymore officially, and they can kind of do whatever they want uncensored. We
don't have to hear things being blanked out, and there can be blood and
swearing when needed. I mean, that's going to open up creative. It
won't turn everything around, but it's going to be fun to see what they
do with that newfound freedom. So you add that to the hype of John
Cena. On top of the fact that at that point it's WrestleMania season.
People are talking about the rumble, who could come in, who could debut,
who could return, you know, Rock and Cody likely a matchup.
Guys, this is gonna be wild. It's gonna be wild. If you
aren't getting excited, then I don't know what you're doing. So all right,
let's talk about money in the Bank a little bit more, and I
want to talk about Seth Rollins and Damian Priest. Let me talk about that
because it leads into Drew, which, by the way, you know what,
let me back up, because if I'm gonna start this correctly, let's
talk about the men's ladder match for the Money in the Bank briefcase, which
I have to say, I think the women outdid the men on this.
And we'll talk about the women's matches, even though as clunky as it was,
I think it did out do the men's. So we'll talk about that
in a minute for the women anyway, but let's talk about the men's Money
in the Bank ladder match. And this obviously saw Dremacicatare come out on top
as many of us had predicted. But this was a car crash match and
it was a lot of moments where Knight could win. And then of course
you had Uso Jay Uso, you know who could had his moments where you
thought he could win. Andrade was there to just be a body to be
thrown around. I mean, just call it like I see it. You
know, Andrade has been a very flat and that's being generous return. But
outside of that, you know, we had Carmelo Hayes have some cool moments.
He had a moment where you think, oh my god, maybe he
could and Drew ultimately did come out on top and he ends up getting you
know, the briefcase where you thought, hey, okay, he he's probably
cashing in, but then you're thinking, well, the announcers are talking about
it, so it probably isn't gonna happen. So they did a little bit
of reverse psychology there where it actually did happen even though they said it would
happen, which makes me think it's not going to happen, but it did.
I don't know if that was the the thinking. I don't know if
it was that deep, but that's how I thought about it. And this
match went sixteen and a half minutes, by the way, and the finish
was McIntyre knocking Jay out of the ring with the Claymore climbed the ladder,
got the victory, Jay did spear Gable. Gable was a standout here.
Gable was the star of the show. He seemingly is a heel still and
I think he still is, but I you know, just you're seeing how
good he is and how good he how much better he is than we all
thought he was, and that's saying something. He continues to impress. He
is a dynamic, deep character that is far, in a way, the
standout in this match, more than anyone, more than Carmelo, more than
jay Uso, who's got one word right now to his name and it's successful
and it's fun and it's marketable. But jay Uso, I think needs a
little bit of a creative shove. I think he's been a little bit of
a one dimensional guy for a while. Uh in the whole yea yeat?
Everything's he eat, everything's the eat, right. I When you think about
the words too, it's so funny. The simplest words have been the most
marketable, right Daniel Bryan with yes, yes, Austin continues with what and
the but grudgingly just awful, terrible? What chance the yeat movement? Jay
Uso, the movement with l A Knight So yeat? Yeah? What?
Yes? I mean, just simple stuff, simple words. But anyway,
I just kind of thought about that too during the match. So he had
McIntyre win, and then that bled into the match between Priest and Seth,
which I thought was really good. I mean, I I enjoyed this very
much, despite the fact that there were there were a couple of f ups,
like Priest not kicking out when he should have. He's looking over to
see where Drew is. It was off? Was it off the falcon arrow
that he screwed up and he didn't kick out and the referee just didn't count
the three? Yeah, that was a screw up, But you know,
I like so what. It didn't bother me other than to feel bad for
him. But he wasn't the only one that screwed this thing up here.
I mean, we had McIntire come out and make this thing a triple threat.
I don't know why we have to wait for Samantha Irvin to announce it
it's a triple threat. I thought they could just ring the bell. But
anyway, very very small, small complaint, but Drew did make it a
triple threat. He cashed it in and we ended up getting a terrible Claymore
to a priest, which it wasn't. I don't think it was Priest's fault.
That was clearly on McIntyre who botched that Claymore kick, which you almost
never see. I don't know if that's ever happened, but then you knew
that Punk wasn't going to be far behind, and he wasn't. We then
even had Cole ask quote, what are you doing? What the hell are
you doing here? Phil? So I don't know why Cole had has been
the one to use Phil's name to make it more serious and real. I
guess, not a complaint, just kind of it's a bit off the typical
narrative that WW uses, which is just you know, the announcers never used
the wrestler's real names unless they refer to themselves as that to begin with.
First weird, It's just weird, but I understand why they did it.
I guess. However, this was Drew getting screwed by Punk again, because
after Punk hitch McIntyre with several chair shots, he ends up getting South of
Heaven by Priest and Priest retains. And not only did Punk screw McIntyre again,
he inadvertently or maybe a little bit of purposefully screwed Seth because now Seth
can't challenge for the world title as long as Drew of sorry, as long
as Priest is still champion. And you saw the frustration as Seth stared down
Punk after the match, teasing a future matchup with those two that was supposed
to happen at this year's WrestleMania, and maybe it does happen at next year's
so that I don't think it'll happen immediately, but it is something that they
can use as a platform to spring into their program whenever it does happen.
So fun kind of dual screwjob by punk one, intentional one not so much.
And McIntyre lost it on the show on the post show, and it's
going to be fun to see what he does. He can't quit this time,
right, he has to go into full blown destruction mode. This is
clearly leading to a match between these two wrest at SummerSlam, and we'll have
to see what happens there and maybe it leads into bad blood. Very apropos
for this matchup, no doubt about it. It's just to me like there're
going with Gunther and Priest right now, and I was very adamant that they're
not going to do that because it's not an exciting matchup and it's not and
it still isn't, and I don't think it ever will be with Gunther versus
Priests. No disrespect to either man, I know you're trying to build for
the future. But here's here's one big, massive problem. Those are two
heels. Now, sure, you could have Priest get kicked out, which
I think he's an inch away from with the whole Judgment Day beating him down.
Finn Balor could turn on him. I think he's very close to doing
that anyway, and you could get some sympathy on Priest, yes, you
could. Or you could wait for them to screw Priest until SummerSlam and have
them intentionally screw Priest. But then wouldn't that kind of soften the victory Gunther's
first world title victory by having the Judgment Day essentially inadvertently help him or purposely
help him. You gonta run that risk too. So either way, I
don't know what scenario you're gonna run me or try to sell me on that
Priest versus Gunther is exciting. It's really not. Sorry, it's not.
I mean, i'd watch it. I wouldn't lose my mind over it.
You just look at it and go hmmm, yeah, I mean, I
could see that match on Raw. But if someone said to you, that's
gonna be the Summer Slam main event, you'd say to yourself, what how
Why? So they've got some work to do over the next four weeks to
get anyone excited about this matchup if they're sticking with it and if it's one
on one and they don't add somebody to make it a triple thread. But
it's just a weird combination as currently constituted. Right again, things could change
Radom a night. Things could change, absolutely, But if this is the
match you're going with, I'm a bit perplexed. Doesn't excite a whole lot
of people. So anyway, let's get to the Intercontinental title match, which
was the broad Breaker Sammy's Ain match, and you know, my hats off
to both men, love me first and foremost. Breaker continues to show you
he's not a one trick pony with the spear. He's got a arsenal pretty
deep. Sammy z Ain never has a bad match almost ever. I don't
even know if I've seen a bad sammy'se Ain match, I don't think I
can name it. But uh, the finish here that well, this match
lasted thirteen minutes and here's the finish. Breaker slam Zay to the mat went
for a spear, but Zaane caught him with a kick. Zaane waited for
a Breaker to stand up and then hit him with the halluva kick and got
the victory. So Sane wins, and Sane win's clean. A lot of
people are perplexed by that, thinking it's gonna hurt Breaker. It's not okay,
bron Breaker tomorrow Night on Raw could do what Drew McIntyre is likely gonna
do and destroy everything in sight, send more people to the hospital, and
then you're back to heat on Breaker. You forgot all about his loss to
Sammy, Right, It's gonna be very easy to repair Breaker. I think
that is he a little bit early in his career to win that title.
Kind of yeah, I mean so, I think I'm just blinded so much
by and bored so much by the Sammy's Aye title run. And I have
not done a turnabout face here where I've said, oh, I can't wait
for Sammy to beat gun Through at WrestleMania. No, I've been steadfast that
I don't think he was the right guy. Fans remember, we're very upset
that it wasn't Gable versus gun Through at WrestleMania. I still think it should
have been. I've been very unenthusiastic about the sami's Ain victory against Gunther and
even having the match to begin with it WrestleMania. I just don't think it
was the right matchup. That's not to say they don't have good matches,
but just because you can have a good match doesn't mean it's the right match.
So I think I've been a little bit blinded so much by and bored
by samy's Ain's run that I'm thinking, well, Breaker could win it.
He should win it. Sam, He's been boring. But also you look
at it and go, is Breaker ready for that? Though? Is he
the right guy right now? I don't, you know. That's up for
debate, But either way, I was very surprised. I did think Breaker
was gonna win here and continue his momentum. But they're clearly trying to make
the sami's Ain victory over Gunther stick here give him a little credibility, and
they did that here. I mean having him beat Breaker was a surprise to
many, and I think Breaker is going to be just fine. People are
saying, oh, that damaged him so much. Not really. No,
Again, Breaker is early in his career. You're more vulnerable to doing damage
early in your career with how the way fans view you. But Breaker can
easily get that back. I mean, I'm raw you'll forget all about it
when he starts spearing people through concrete walls, you know, and tipping over
stuff and sending people to the hospital. So just weird. And I'm still
bored by Sammy's Aine's run. Sorry, I mean, I just I'm it's
a snoozefest, almost as unimpressive as Bailey's run. And this again, it's
no slight on the talent themselves. They're doing what they can with what they're
given. But for both, especially Bailey, I know she wasn't on the
show at all. They have done her dirty and Sammy's aint, it's just
been boring. He screams every promo. He's the underdog in every single match,
which is kind of fascinating. He's got some fun babyface music. He's
just he's a little boring right now, and he's been a little boring for
a while. Despite how loud he wants to scream about everything he talks about
all the time in every promo. That's I feel, that's all excellent.
Entring wrestler character needs a kind of a rejuvenation, and I think he needs
to drop the belt. That's just how I feel. Okay, let's so.
Yeah, we got trist Stratus stuff, and the John Cena stuff happened
after that. We already went over in deep detail for twenty five minutes.
We got the women's ladder match. Boy, that's a car wreck. And
then you know, there was some bad spots early and often in this matchup.
Even Naomi split legged DDT was nearly a disaster. Some of the botches,
like Zoe Stark doing the I don't know, she's trying to do some
kind of sent on on someone on the ladder, very close to the ropes,
and she totally missed and nearly broke her neck. That was scary.
You know. Some of the botches onto the ladder were scary, very scary.
Was a Lyra of Valkyria who took the bump from EO off the ladder
was at her Okay I think it was, or is it Naomi? I
can't remember, but it was a disaster. But I mean that in a
way that's almost that is complimentary because somehow the women trudged through the botches and
the scary moments. Man I spent and even Corey Graves kind of caught on
to what the fans were doing when they were being so quiet, that they
were so concerned. They were more concerned about the health and well being of
the wrestlers. Even said that, which is true because the people were like,
whoa oo. I mean, it was uncomfortable and some of the spots
were scary. I'm not trying to throw shade at the women, but and
it's not a match to easily navigable, I get it, you know,
but it was scary early on, and the women still put like pulled through
and pulled through very well. The dynamic with Chelsea Green being from Canada West
Vancouver, which is the other end of the damn country, and the crowds
still were enamored with her. There were moments I thought they were actually going
to pull the trigger on Chelsea Green winning. She is a fun character to
watch. She's kind of the lovable loser that you don't really hate, but
she's so kind of oblivious in her own world. It's almost charming. I
can't describe her character. It's just she's got something there and I know Canada.
Being in Canada does help her reaction, given she's from Canada. I
get that, but even in the States, she's been supported and supported well,
and I think that this could have been a moment for her, but
makes more sense, as I said, with Tiffany winning here as many people
predicted, because what are you going to do. Okay, you get to
victory, the crowd goes crazy for Chelsea, but then what are you going
to have her cash in and be the first one to fail? Are you
going to really waste the wunn in the bank? Cashion on a joke,
on a cashing you know it is not going to be successful, just to
you know, just to really I don't know if waste it's the right word,
but to utilize it, there's a more professional way to say it,
right, to utilize it in that manner, to just be have Chelsea Green
lose and then once she lost, you would have said, Okay, well
she cashed in and she lost, Well, that was kind of a waste.
I wish they gave it to someone that could actually cash in and win
instead of making it a big joke. So I think that that would have
been the backlash, and Tiffany won, and I think that there is there
is something to be said for that because you could now take a heel,
which again in these matches, when you look at who wins Mcatyre Heel Money,
the mag winner, Tiffany Stradden heel Money, the Magladder match winner.
You look at the people who have won over the years. And I continue
to say this, it's a match designed for heels to win because the manner
in which you cash in your prize is in alignment with the morals of the
heel. Morals and values of the heel. Opportunistic, hitting people when they're
down, trying to steal the prize, you know, you know, not
really earning it per se, but taking advantage of the situation to get what
you want. All values that heels have. It's in alignment with how you
utilize the briefcase. And again you don't have to Somebody out there may say,
well that's how you that's how most people do it, but you don't
have to like John Cena who announces in in advance. The baby face is
announced it in advance that they're going to cash in. Well, then that
kind of that. Then the argument against that is, well, you're just
stupid. It makes you look stupid because now you're you're not utilizing the prize
to its full potential, Like, if you really want to win the belt
so bad, why would you announce it ahead of time instead of using the
element of surprise. So it's it's again. It all boils down to a
very heel heavy prize that I think we should kind of just understand moving forward.
Now. It's not to say a baby face can't win it, but
statistically, I don't have the numbers in front of me. I'm just taking
you at face value here that the heels generally win that. Now back to
Tiffany. Now you have a money to bank briefcase holder that you can take
seriously, and I think that Tiffany will hold on to that for a month
or two. They typically don't have the women hold it too much, they
just can't help themselves. But I think Tiffany may hold it for a little
longer than we realize, and that way they can kind of figure out what
they want to do with her heading into you know, SummerSlam and of course
end of the year rumble Mania. Do they want to have her cash in?
They want what do they want to do with her? You know,
maybe she goes into the side program with Trish for a while, but Tiffany
Stratton was over too with the crowd. I mean you heard her reaction.
She was very pleasantly surprised. You could even see it in her face with
the reaction she got. So the Canadian crowd always delivered, you know,
they did in this instance too, and they even you know, they said,
you know, this is awesome through nearly every match. But the women
I think still despite these botches, despite these scary moments, from an emotional
standpoint, and really from just an effort, yes, I mean it felt
like effort. Why is even the I think the women won here. If
you're to put the men's in women's liner matches side by side, hey,
I'd give the nod to the women. But uh, all right, then
we got again. I'm not going through every spot we can. If you
guys want to talk about specific spots, you can email me at the mailbag
at ww podcast dot com. But uh, let's see here. We then
get the bloodline versus Cody, Randy and Ko. This match, let's see
here, did twenty four minutes and forty seconds, and yes we got another
ref bump. This ref by the way down for like forty minutes. It
felt like and as a company that prides itself on being professional and you know,
top of the line and they're the cream of the crop, doesn't know
how to fix these situations if this was truly supposed to be a competitive a
competitive sport. I mean, this is a one of the most common situations
in a match. A referee gets knocked down, chaos then ensues. Yet
they don't know how to solve this problem timely or at all. Are there
not a multitude of referees back there ready to just take his place, or
they just wait for the referee to wake up. I mean, it's just
it's kind of funny that one of the most common problems in pro wrestling,
you know, they just didn't know how to solve it. Just I don't
know, just leave him there, right, leave the referee for dead.
Not a complaint, just a funny observation. But there was a ref bump,
as nearly every Bloodline match does, twenty five minutes. I mean,
this is this was a long match, but good good ring psychology. Ko,
who had a rough week obviously from a personal standpoint, his mother being
in the hospital. Yeah, even said it after the match, had some
nice spots here getting beat down, but coming out with the absolute fist in
fury, going after the bloodline and hitting a stunner on the outside of the
ring was was interesting. Solo getting hit with a stunner or no, he
got hit with a crossroads, which du I mean you okay, let me
see. And this is a serious question to those of you that love Cody
Rhodes. You're a Cody apologist. He can do no wrong. He's you
know, just he's the best thing. Ever. When you look at his
finish, look me in the eyes with a straight face and tell me his
finish is a great finish maneuver. Tell me it's awesome. Please, somebody,
anybody bueller, because almost every time, almost about ninety eight percent of
the time, when I see his finish, it's it looks terrible. And
it's not on Cody. It's not on the guy he's working with. It's
on the maneuver itself, because it's nearly impossible to make it look good unless
you do it perfectly, which I think one of the security guys that Cody
gave it to the other day did and he nearly broke his neck. But
it looked great, you know. But the way Cody delivers it, and
the way the maneuver is just actually delivered the best way you can. Cody's
the one taking the bump. It doesn't devastating for his opponent at all.
And then the fact that he has to deliver it multiple times a match further
cements how crappy that move is. I understand all he holds on and just
uh, he just hits three of them. Well, then if you have
to hit a maneuver multiple times, I would stop calling it your finish.
I would stop using that move and move on. So anyway, it looked
horrible on Solo, horrible, but but the right team got the victory here.
Even after Solo got at RKO and got demolished. Jacob Fatu is a
standout. He's the He's the werewolf, whatever they call him. They continue
to push the bloodline and build heat and build heat. There were there were
we want Roman chants that happened many times throughout the match, before the match,
after the match, and the crowd was waiting for it. I said
that this is the earliest it could happen. But I knew once you saw
John Cena, you're not gonna have two big returns in a night. Usually.
I know that Punk and Orton did it at Survivor Series last year,
but it's rare because then one kind of steps on the other and overshadows the
other. It's not you usually don't want to do it. Also, it
gives a little more heat to Solo and his group. And now now we
have Summer Slam on the horizon, there's no more in between b pay per
view stops. It is Summer Slam full throttle. Now we can start looking
at ooh okay, SmackDown. Could Roman return at SmackDown? Very possible?
Could Roman return just before Summer Slam? Very possible? Is he going to
return at SummerSlam? Very possible, if not probable. So I think within
four weeks time we will have a returned Roman reigns and I think Paul Hammond's
going to be in tow. The usos are going to be in toe,
and we're gonna have a build to the og bloodline versus the Rogue blood line,
and it's going to be off to the races a lot of fun.
I just can't imagine a scenario in which Roman is not backed by SummerSlam.
It's possible if they want to build to the end of the year, but
I mean people are ready so but yeah, I think the right team won
here. And I thought the show overall was was a lot of fun.
It was a lot of fun, and johnsona made it fun. Yes,
but the matches despite the botches, and usually sometimes botches can ruin moments and
take you out of the moment, or when the fans say, oh you
fed up, you fed up, that kind of stuff, It's like,
okay to me. I know fans can come to the shows and chant what
they want within reason. And I'm not saying fans can't chant this or I'm
not trying to censor speech. But I'm also saying to myself, if I
hear that, like, it's a bit disrespectful. Of course they screwed up.
That's not how they wanted to execute the maneuver. Some of these maneuvers
are very difficult to perform, even if you're a trained professional, Like,
they are very difficult and the margin for error is very like razor thin between
you know, being a paraplegic and walking after the match. And again,
the Canadian crowd didn't do that. I'm just saying, sometimes you hear that
when a maneuver is not performed the way it should be. So coming back,
those botches really didn't hurt to me. The outcomes of the matches.
Now, it was weird when Priest didn't kick out and he was supposed to
and the referee had to essentially stop his count. That's never a fun botch.
That's kind of a yikes botch. Drew McIntyre's sloppy Claymore which never happens.
And you know what, again, I'm not knocking Drew. I'm not
knocking Priest. This stuff happens, all right, This stuff is you know,
I'm not knocking anybody, because at the end of the day, you
just still want to see Punk and Drew. You know, you still want
to see that match. And for the women who had a botchfest to start
the match with the money in the bank ladder match, it wasn't fun to
watch. It was uncomfortable to watch, but they trudged through and they kicked
ass. They just did so overall, I think it was an awesome,
well that's a awesome, very good event. If I was rated on a
scale of zero to ten, I give the show an eight, you know,
seven zo point five to eight. It was it was good to very
good, and I think it delivered. It delivered, and I'm ready for
SummerSlam. We can now officially put our mode into SummerSlam mode. You know,
we could look forward to August third. Indianapolis is in Indianapolis. No
comp's are Cleveland Cleveland. I'm saying Indianapolis because it feels like the next like,
you know, three big events are at Indianapolis, but that's because we
have Royal Rumble WrestleMania there. So if you're in in Indianapolis, you got
a lot of great wrestling coming your way, a lot of massive shows.
I'm jealous. But no, this is in Cleveland, so we have some
again tentatively, if I was to lay out some matches that are already penciled
in for w B, I would say it's probably a returning Charlotte Flair,
but it's Bailey versus Naya. We have a Gunther versus Priest. We have
Roman potentially versus Solo, but more likely he returns at SummerSlam or right after
the show's over and then spears solo or helps Cody retain after the blood line
is seemingly you know, trying to help him some along those lines. Punk
versus Drew. Absolutely, Seth is a mystery right now. I don't know
what they're gonna do with Seth, so he's kind of a conundrum at the
moment. So there's a lot and returning. Don't forget about Rhea Ripley,
my god, Mommy is coming back and as she put it several months ago,
looking for blood, as Dom is being pursued by Live, and as
Live has taken nearly everything from Rhea, her championship, her spot, and
soon her ma and my god, look out when she returns. So there's
so much to look forward to. Very very kind of, you know,
very vague. Look at SummerSlam here, but it's gonna be fun. It's
gonna be a lot of fun over the next several months and leading it to
next year. Obviously we know it's gonna be the John Cen of retirement to
her. So all right, that'll do it for me. Thanks for listening,
everybody, and I'll be back Tuesday night with your Monday Night Raw review
and then of course in between lots of other stuff, lots of goodies coming
out this week. Your regular reviews are also on the table an xt the
mail bags on Fridays, we have an interview that we did with Raven that
I'm gonna be posting shortly the next day or two, so look out for
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