WWE RAW Review: Drew McIntyre vs Jey Uso, Cody Rhodes vs Dirty Dom, Shinsuke vs Ricochet, Cody's Awful Comments

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is w BB superstar Drew McIntyre and you're listening to the w w E podcast.
Stop the show, the one that everybody wants me. Radio Step for
the sixteenth said, just clift your ass is moder You're gonna acknowledge me.
Hey, everybody, welcome to the w w E Podcast. It's time for
the Monday Night Rob Review. Here on Tuesday September nineteenth, twenty twenty three,
as Monday night. Ron took place last night. Boy do I have
a lot to say on this show that I will get into momentarily, but
before we get to the criticism and uh yeah, rant is coming. So
if you if you're not privy to the the rants that I sometimes go on
or we go on here on the show, you know you may want to
you wanna sit this one out, Sit on the sidelines, head to the
bullpen because it's going to get ugly quickly. But before that, again,
we have some some good news to let you guys know about, and that's
new patrons of the show. And brand new patron that joined us over the
last couple of days is Anthony d Anthony, Welcome to the show. We've
also got a new trial member and that is Smoke d z A. I'm
not sure I'm gonna assume your name is not actually Smoke, but if it
is, cool name, this isn't Smoke like a Mortal Kombat character. So
actually that's like the only Smoke that I know isn't like isn't it from like
old school Mortal Kombat? You guys know I'm talking about right, I don't
know anyway, So guys, you want to join the patrons. The reason
is you get shout out. It's just like you heard here. You get
to go join everything and get everything ad for. You get a Discord service
that I know many of you love, and join and talk to the other
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you get video and other perks as well. He can even come on the
show if you go high enough in the tears. So all right, I'm
done with this. I am done with this now. I told you then.
I have been off the train for a while on Cody Roads, and
I've been off the train for a while. I gave it a shot.
I gave it a real shot. He started to win me over a little
bit. There was some progress made. You know his entrances. It's very
produced, it's very it is I guess I catching if that's accurate, if
that makes sense. His music is wonderful. It is very fun to sing
along too, and in person, I did I did it right. When
they came to Albany in New York, I was a participant in the sing
along song right, I mean the whole whoe thing, right, It's fun
in person, and that's after that time, it kind of I soured on
Cody little by little, and then I was pushed off the ledge. And
now I'm so far off the ledge I think I'm just gonna go splat onto
the ground for the Cody Roods baby face character. Now, before any of
you starts coming at me, I want to make it very clear. Cody
Rhodes is a hell of a talent. Cody Rhodes deserved the main event last
year, and he performed at an extremely high level. I think he did
an amazing job. The promos weren't always spot on. I think he leaned
a little bit too much into WrestleMania, into his dad and finishing the story,
but generally I thought they did a nice job. I thought it was
fun and the main event delivered and there were times where I believed Cody was
gonna win. Yeah, and I applaud them for that. I have got
nothing negative to say on that front. And he's a good promo if you
like the very goody two shoes promo that he delivers. I would never advocate
for him being fired. I think he is. I actually do believe he's
a good guy in real life. I get the vibe even though he loves
himself, I still believe he is genuinely a good dude, even if he
does seemingly do it a lot for the cameras. Either way, I would
I'm not advocating for him to ever be fired. He is a true asset,
a big asset to the w W. E. Now, that's kind
of where things stopped for me, because I want you to instead, in
a bit of a change of pace here instead of me describing what part of
Mondonette Raw really really set me off in a way that I have not and
I tweeted this out. I have not been this turned off by a baby
face in all of my years of watching wrestling. That includes the chain gang
pandering crap that I saw from John Cena. This includes even the current John
Cina that tries to be funny with his bow ties and a dressing up like
Pee Wee Herman, and the promos that he used to cut off hope we
entertained you tonight, all of that nonsense. This even supersedes suffering suck Atash
and all the stuff that Roman Reigns did that was just cringe worthy during his
forced baby face run that proceeded, of course, his magical run as a
heel. And let me just let me just play it for you and we'll
come back together. Jeff. I've had a lot of roles. I've had
a lot of tasks. I've had a lot of duties. But my job
is to make these people happy. Ryan. Wait wait wait, wait,
wait wait what what what's that? Cody? Your your job is your job
is to do what to make me happy. My happiness is dependent on you.
This this on so many levels, and we're going to break down on
a net raw and there's some good things to talk about, some some really
good things. And I even have some positive things to say about Nya Jack's
believe it or not, I do. And I think WWE is being smart
about something that they're doing with Naya. We'll get to that. So there's
there's some positive on the back end of this. But this is getting worse
and worse by the week. It's almost like they're trying to sabotage Cody it
or that they're so so not aware or not self aware. Cody's not maybe
of just how ouyushi and gooey and soft and not even TVPG. This is
like TV why, like you know what I'm talking about, Like the young
audience, like those under six, this is just be this is this makes
Hulk Hogan when he was talking about saying your person and taking your vitamins,
it makes him look like an edgy badass. When is the last time anyone
who heard a baby face say that he just wants to make us happy?
This? Now, that actually is the intent of baby faces in professional wrestling,
is they actually do try to elictit happiness from fans, among other emotions,
but primarily when you see a baby face, you you emote the ideally
the emotion of happiness. But here, that's not the problem. He actually
said the quiet part out loud. That's the problem. He just he didn't
just break down the fourth wall. He put dynamite on it and lit it
up. And it's like, hey, why in the world would he feel
like that's a good line to say. The fans cheered, but kind of
uncomfortably didn't They like, thanks dude. Yeah, happiness is a byproduct of
doing a good job as a baby face. And right now, I really
I don't know if this is some kind of larger ploy to turn Cody heel.
I almost want to believe that of just how sickeningly soft, transparent and
just I mean, you know, the all world politician that he's become.
It's almost like they're trying to do that without people noticing, because he's coming
out, He's shaking everyone's hand, He's got his crest white striped smile all
the time, his bleached blonde Harry's in a suit. He's always dressed up.
You know, He's very produced and very very calculated in the way he
speaks, the ways he moves in his entrance. He feels extremely manufactured.
And I said, we said the same thing about Roman two different cats here
though, And he comes out now and he's giving people not just these promos
that are just it makes me want to vomit on my microphone right now,
but also he is now having to give his stamp of approval for everyone where
he gets sticks his nose in everyone's business. Has to be the guy that
comes out to help the other baby faces. You saw it on Raw again
this week and he had he does not beat with the judgment day. I
understand that he beats one of the hottest heals in professional wrestling in two minutes.
That's a bad idea, just flat out bad. We'll get to that
too. He then, I don't know if you guys saw this. I
had an Instagram follower send me this. After Chad Gable's match on Raw.
Cody Rhodes is in the ring and he holds up the hand of Chad Gable
as if he has to give his stamp of approval to Chad Gable. He's
trying to get the rub to Chad Gable. Go watch it. It's probably
out there floating. I don't think this was on Raw. It's sickening.
I don't know where they have just decided arb trarily when it happened exactly to
annoint Cody Rhodes as a quasi general manager spokesperson also kind of like a preacher
of sorts giving us the good news all the time. But also this professional
wrestler, it's he's a very weird you know, weird spot and you wouldn't
know it based on the reaction. And I know him in the minority.
Have people come at me all the time about how well you said, Cody
Rhodes is this and this, but what about the Hey, if he's not
my flavor. It's not my flavor. This I really don't know how he's
anyone's flavor right now. I really don't understand anymore. And he is he
speaks like a politician, he walks like a politician, his mannerisms, he's
always smiling with that stupid ass smile, mentioning the name of a city,
asking a question that you know, he's trying to make a catchphrase that you
can't answer as a collective crowd and any kind of meaning full way other than
just yeah, he said the name of our city. And I don't know
how to answer the next part because you can't. This is this is just
insane now. And then you have Kevin Owens asking Cody why he did what
he did, given that Juso caused so much havoc as part of the bloodline,
he's made a lot of enemies. And Kevin asked the question too,
and that's what you heard here, of course, on on Cody's end of
why he did what he did, And in that second part of it,
Cody answered, well, let's give people second chances. Second chances. Is
he suddenly also wearing the hat of the moral compass? Is here? Is
he are guiding star for all things good? Is he going to decide who
gets second chances and who doesn't? Now and what political chips does he have
to cash in with? Who triple h with the the bond there you'd I
mean, if you're trying to stretch it, I guess sure, But the
dude's been back for a little over a year, injured for half of it,
and main events WrestleMania loses, but in a very in a losing effort,
he probably would have won if it wasn't for Solos A Cohen on others
in the match. He consistently puts on good matches, and I just I
don't understand this version I've never seen in all of my years of watching wrestling,
which I know twenty five years to some of you is like, well,
I've been watching for thirty, I've been watching for forty. Well great,
okay. The idea is that many of you have been watching as long
or longer. Some of you may be much newer, but I'm sure some
of you would try to outrank me by the number of years that your opinion
suddenly means more, which fine, I just know I'm going to get a
lot of backlash for this, and it's fine. I have no issues with
that. But my point is, in a quarter of a century of watching
wrestling, I have never ever seen them crank out a version of a baby
face that is so soft but also oozes that he loves himself, is in
in everyone's business, trying to pretend that he is the one that's giving the
stamp of approval to guys that have been there five times as long as he
has have won many more championships that he has. He also is suddenly playing
the part time role of GM. How the hell that's happened, and then
tells us that he's there to make us happy. How can anyone cheer this
guy? Take the music away and tell me you would cheer for this dude?
And why there cannot be a logical explanation unless you like this ooeye,
guey, soft mush, she just pandering and tell me you love me and
you're here to serve me. If you're that kind of person, you probably
love this. But I can't imagine there's a whole lot of a whole lot
of people out there that are like that that listen to wrestling podcasts anyway,
unless you love the acknowledge me and I don't mean in the Roman reignsway,
but acknowledge me as a fan that you're here. You're here to serve me,
like you have to have that kind of personality to see what Cody's doing
and take a positive from it and go, that's what I love. Yeah,
I'm gonna cheer for him because he's he's saying how much he loves me.
It's really unbelievable. I don't I'm just gonna stop there. I'm gonna
stop there for now and let me know what you guys think of the mailbag
and if you guys want to want to rebut me or at least tell me
why you support Cody. This version of the baby face again not the character
or the person Cody Rhodes, but this version of him is it's it's insufferable.
It's reached. I thought Roman Reigns as a baby face was bad,
and it was back in the day as the Big Dog. It was awful
the majority of the time and made me also sick to my stomach at times.
This is on another level. It makes Roman Reigns look like stone cold
Steve Austin. I mean, I don't know. Again, I'll stop because
I'll repeat myself over and over here, but let me know what you guys
think of the mail bag. I'm very interested to hear what your thoughts are
on the whole deal with Cody and why you even like this version of this
just I mean, I really, I'm at the point now where I almost
just want to mute anything that he's on. I want to skip through,
like hit that, you know, the skip ahead button every time I see
him again. His matches are high quality in ring, no problem. I
almost despise them more him as you know, an individual, more than like
the New Day. I don't know, I'll leave it there. Of course,
wrestling is very subjective. Everybody has their own flavor. I just don't
know the type of human being that you have to be to enjoy this and
to cheer him, cheer this character that he's portraying. It is just just
it's the drizzling you know what for me. So you talk about being on
off the train of Cody Rhodes, Hell, I'm not even I'm not even
your railroad anymore. God Almighty. I mean, I could have gone on
with that promo, but for copyright reasons, I can't, all right,
But in the match he had with Dom two minutes and it was a little
clunky to start. But that's not even my biggest issue. My biggest issue
is that he beats Dom clean and almost a squash match in two minutes.
You're telling me you're gonna take the biggest heal on raw and you're gonna have
him be beat in two minutes clean. Why not? Only is that a
very bad way to manage your heel, because that's what everybody wants to see
is him get his ass kicked. But it's not just that you want to
see Dom get beat and beat clean, because he has a very good heal,
he's naturally annoying, he's got and these are all good things. It's
just that you don't come across this kind of heat very often. This heat
for Dom is a rarity. I don't know the last time, if ever,
I've heard the consistent reaction for Dom that I'm hearing out a week to
week basis, it's it's magical and you're telling me you're gonna have Cody beat
him in two minutes, as if he's some kind of local talent that you're
using to give the guy a push. It's it's really just bizarre. Again,
it almost leads me to believe that they are trying to turn Cody heel
inadvertently or as some kind of master plan. I just don't know how they're
not this self aware. I mean, with Dom, I don't I want
to see him get his ass kicked. But it's not just that he lost
clean and lost decisively, it's how quickly he lost. Are you kidding?
All right? I mean, let's let's move on. I want to talk
about nai Jacks, which actually is a positive thing, and the reason is
that we were told that both Roquell Rodriguez and Ria Ripley were not there because
Nia Jacks injured them. Now, I, as many of you probably did,
googled it to look at the websites you know, PW inside are all
the you know, the sites that are usually more hit than miss right,
and just to make sure that it wasn't a legit injury. And when I
found out it wasn't, I said to myself, ooh, this is smart
because the narrative around Nia Jacks, as we all know, she has a
reputation, fairly or unfairly you could argue, as a reputation of being involved
in injuries, whether she invertently caused it, or it was actually the fault
of her opponent. She has a disproportionate amount of injuries that happened in her
matches, and that reputation has followed her and will, for better words,
follow her probably for the rest of her career. And so I actually think
it's a good idea. Instead of running from it, make that a part
of her character, Make that a part of her that she's out to actually
injure people. Shana Baslor did this a little bit when she was snapping arms,
which I loved, But this is a real life scenario that she has
gained a reputation of, and I'm sure she is bothered by it. But
if you're going to be bothered by it, why don't you turn it back
on the fans and use it to your advantage as part of your character that
you know what, you guys say that you know that I'm always injuring people.
You're damn right, I'm doing it on purpose. I'm not here to
just win. I'm here to injure people. You know that, I think
is a positive. And if that's the narrative they take instead of trying to
run from this and all that I like it. I would That's what I
would do. I double and triple down on it. I'd have Nayah come
out and blend reality and fiction. It's the best part. That's the best
kind of storytelling is when you're not sure what's real what's not. And that's
what I would do. So if you're gonna bring me Niah Jack's the the
the ass kicker, that's just going to start injuring people, and of course
in wrestling storyline, not not in real life. But that's a great way
to lean into it because fans gender like have that that that kind of image
of her, that's that's her. Her vibe is so someone's getting injured tonight.
But what if Nya lean's into it. I think it'd be a great
thing, and hopefully they continue with that. Now she can't injure everyone she
comes in contact with, but that should be her goal during matches, and
that should be her promos. That should be in her promos. I think
that they could really make something out of that. If they don't, I
think it's a missed opportunity. But one other thing I want to say about
Cody. I know, I know, I know we're gonna get off this
in a second. Is that when he said that, of course it was
egregious about him just there too. You know, he's there to make us
happy. How about Cody, You're there to win matches, win championships.
That's why you're there again, that's what he should say that, that's what
we believe, that's what we want to believe. That's why we want to
believe. Everyone's there, men and women. You're there to win championships and
win the big one. Not too well, I'm here just as a This
is my job. I gotta make you guys happy. Uneffing believable. You
talk about killing the moment, pulling back the curtain and being a total pandering
jerk, and I'm being I'm censoring myself here a lot. All Right,
done with Cody for now. Okay, I'm gonna take a break. Let's
talk to our sponsor of today's episode, and then we'll be right back.
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Let's talk a little bit more about Monday and at rob I'm goa try to
find some high spots here or some some some bright spots. Rather, there
were a lot of high spots, but bright spots. So let's see.
I would say, you know, Kofi Kingston and Ivar that I think actually
was a surprisingly good match, and they got thirteen minutes here. It was
more fun than I ever expected it to be. So the finish was I've
are set up for a move from the middle row. Valhalla twirled her finger
around, Ivar took her que and then went up to the top and executed
a moon Salt, but it led to only another near fall. Valhallas screamed
in frustration, and then Ivar placed Kingston on the top turnbuckle and set up
for a move, but Kingston fought back and executed a sunset bomb. Kingston
followed up with the Trouble in Paradise and got the victory. This was again,
very, very surprisingly good a match that I had no I went in
kind of yawn. I gotta admit, I went in and it's just like,
let's go, you know, and it got me invested, you know,
more than I ever expected. And that's a that's a positive. So
now what does this mean for Kofe? Nothing? Nothing other than hey,
he can still put on a good match. He's still very good inside the
ring. I can never I can never take that from him. As awful
as his character is, I cannot take that from him. He is a
absolute professional in the ring. Never had an issue with that. And you
know what, Ivar showed that he can have a singles match and and and
excel not it doesn't hurt that he's in the ring with a you know,
a veteran like Kofi doesn't hurt at all. But still I think it was
it was a match that I say to myself, I wouldn't mind seeing that
again, you know. Now moving on here to Shin's gay versus Ricochet.
Now, this was a match that ended in thirteen minutes, and we know
what happened here. We had Ricochet hit he hit a step up in siguri.
Nakamura tried to hit Ricochet with a chair, but Ricochet avoided it and
ended up with the chair in his hands. Ricochet then actually decided to use
it on Nakamura that caused a DQ and then after the match, Ricochet was
arguing with the ref that allowed Knakamura to recover and hit Ricochet from behind and
then hit him with the Kinshassa and Nakamura pulled Ricochet into the corner and slammed
his left knee into the ring post and hit the chair on Ricochet's leg three
times. Seth Rollins finally hopped a barricade and broke through security and attack Knackamura.
Rollins now ended a rolled Knackamer inside the ring and then tried to pedigree
him on the chair, but Knakamura backdropped Rowlins onto the chair, and then
in security intervened and Rollins old Nakamura to ring side, but he ended up
dumping Seth back first on top of the broadcast table, and Knackamara grabbed a
big Rollin's head, cut a cut out from the fan and held it in
front of his face. This was this was really well done. Now it's
weird that Ricochet didn't lose clean to Knakamura. I don't understand why they are
such fear They're so fearful of having Knackamara beat Ricochet clean given that Knackamara is
going to be in a title match, presumably at fast Lane with Rollins again,
and many you know, believe that it's possible. Now it's it's in
the realm of discussion to be possible for Knakamer to win the belt, and
he can't yet he can't beat Knakamura or he can't beat Ricochet clean. It's
it's a little weird given the pecking order of where Ricochet is right now in
the in the power ranking, so to speak. It's not like they're anywhere
near him one another right now. So at the same time, I else
kind of understand what they're doing. They're trying to protect Ricochet and show a
little bit of an edge on him, you know, show that he can
be fiery, he can be about you know, sacrificing a victory for the
greater good of punishing a heel Like that's that's fine. You can do that
once in a while as a baby face, be intentionally disqualified. There's nothing
wrong with that. So there again, there's two schools of thought here.
I don't think either man was hurt by this. I think it was well
done. And Rollins not getting the better of Nakamura again and Ricochet, or
rather Nakamura targeting the back of Rollins, has been the story all along and
it should continue to be because it's an actual injury that Seth is dealing with
and has dealt with for years, that we're learning about. And it would
would make no sense if if Nakamara didn't target that piece of his anatomy in
order to gain an advantage and eventually capture his belt. Right, So this
is all well done, it's all I'm really no complaints here, if all
the complain any idea about Cody for twenty minutes at the beginning of the show.
This Knackamer angle with Seth has been nothing but a damn pleasant surprise,
one that I'm really looking forward to, presumably at fast Lane than the rematch,
and Knackamer is getting some really good heat and I'm very interesting to see
how this plays out. It's also interesting to me that Rollins is going through
an actual back injury, and you know, you have Knakamura targeting the back,
punishing the back. You would think, well, yeah, this is
a cafe scenario, this is where it's produced. But you've got to be
careful of not actually unintentionally in real life furthering the injury of Seth. I
mean, there's no way it can be good for his back if he has
an injury to be slammed on an announced table. It just can't be,
you know. So it's it's it's a fine line of playing into the story
of the back injury, but also in real life not trying to and tag
a eyes or inflate the back injury. It's it's it's kind of a weird,
weird story here, but I love it, So no no issues here.
And Rollins was then shown limping backstage telling a referee. He was fine,
but he collapsed to the ground. It's just really just great stuff.
So Byron Saxon then interviewed Green and Piper Niven backstage and asked them about their
about Base Learn Stark. Green said, Base Learn Stark are not even a
real team. Green said the key to being a team is friendship. That's
an interesting analysis given that to Piper Niven and Chelsea Green pretty much came out
of the woodwork too, so I guess that's the point. But anyway we
got Green said the saying the key to being a team his friendship, and
Green said that she and Niven are best friends, and Niven agreed or disagreed,
and asked Green if she even knew what country she's from, and Green
guest Florida. Niven walked off, and Saxon told Green that Niven is from
Scotland. Green called him Brian and stormed away. So, you know,
I have to say, the Chelsea Green character we all know is based on
the quote unquote Karen stereotype of women of white women and middle aged white women
specifically, we understand that now she's kind of morphing into this or branching off
into this kind of, for lack of a better term, stupid character.
And I don't mean it's a bad character. I mean it as a like
low intelligence character that you don't even know what country you're in and you answer
a state instead of a country, and then you say the wrong name for
somebody. I'm gonna say the jury is still out on this. It's not
my favorite version of Green, but I don't know whether it's a good or
bad thing right now. It's a bit of a turn off right now,
but maybe it blossoms into something better. And actually I could see this turning
into a baby face character, you know, somebody that's is so oblivious they
give ridiculous answers to things. All right, We got the women's tag team
champions, Chelsea Green and Piper Niven versus SHANEA Basler and Zoe Stark non title,
and a couple of minutes into the match, nim And executed a shoulder
break around Stark, but eventually the Finnish was Stark putting Green down and Niven
broke it up. Basilor ran in and sent Nivin into the floor. Nivin
came back and slammed Basilers to the floor, and then Nia Jack's attacked Niven
and ran her into the ring post for the no finish, no contest finish,
So another non finish and a non title match, which was weird,
But it looks like we might get a little bit of Naia Jackson Piper Niven.
I guess that's a fantasy matchup in some circles of the wrestling world,
mainly because of their similar body types. I would imagine that's the only appeal
here. But Nai Jack's just kind of indiscriminately attacking people, and she's just
that's the narrative that WB put out too, is Ni Jacks is just here
to attack everyone. Not the soundest of strategies, if that's the narrative,
if that's the mission statement, or rather the strategic plan of Nia Jacks is
to attack everyone. She doesn't need a partner, doesn't need a friend.
Doesn't it You're gonna make a lot of enemies very quick and the numbers game
is not going to be in your favor. It's a very poor decision strategically
for Nia Jacks as a character, But I understand the narrative. She's she's
kind of a lone wolf. She's just attacking any and everyone. She doesn't
need any kind of companionship. Fine, you know, but but eventually,
I mean, that can only run so far. We'll see. So after
the match, Jack's entered the ring and as I said, put Stark down
with the Samoan drop, and Jack's ran the ropes and hit a sent on
splash on Stark, and Green got to her feet and tried to run when
she spotted Jacks, who stopped her and tossed her into the corner and then
performed a hip attack on Green and then splash Basiler in the opposite corner.
So basically she left everyone laying and said the division is on notice. That's
that's original. Ah. Yeah, so that's the message, the divisions on
notice as we all gang up and then realize, hey, we all have
a common enemy, all toid of us. Yeah. Not again, not
a sound strategy by Jack's, but very very short lived, very very near
sighted anyway. All right, so let's continue on here. We did get
Chad Gable making his entrance along with Otis and Maxim. Jay was interviewed backstage
by Jackie Redmond though, and Jay spoke about how he knows he has eyes
on him and he has a story or history Withdrew and said they would get
physical, and Damian Priest showed up and try to woo Jimmy into coming into
the group, and Priest said that if Jay's willing, the judgment day would
be their family, that Jay's been looking for his whole life, and Priest
asked Jay not to make him look bad in front of his family and asked
Jay to give him an answer by the end of the night. Okay,
But Chad Gable, as I mentioned, was in the ring and he faced
Bronson Reid and this ended with Bronson Reid beating Chad Gable in six minutes and
forty seconds. Now, the finish of this was that Reid went for a
running centime, but Gabel put his knees up Gable and tried to suplex him
and sold the pain read got Gable on his back and fell backward, and
then Reid hit his tsunami splash for the victory. So I'm very confused about
this. If you're having Gable face Gunther again for the title, which is
what we were told last week during the Icy title celebration with Imperium, why
are you having him lose to a guy that's not even on the Hulu cut
version of Raw almost ever, nothing against Bronson read, but in the again,
in the pecking order of things right now, Bronson Read's kind of at
the bottom of the food chain and or towards the bottom. Not that the
guy isn't going to be a star, it's just currently today. Chad Gable,
on the other hand, many people believed could actually beat Gunther, and
all of a sudden he's losing to read. Very perplexing. And maybe maybe
they're they're back burnering Chad Gable and and Gunther for now and saving that for
another time. I'm not sure, but this was very very surprising outcome for
me. Not a complaint, just kind of like, wait, what it
seems maybe the icy title with Gunther Part four is being sidelined for the for
the time being anyway. All right, So then we got a video package
recapping Becky Lynch beating Tiffany Stratton for the NXT Women's Championship, and then Lynch
was backstage and uh, Lynch or Cole said it was a star making performance
for Stratton, but Lynch is the Grand slam Man. Uh yeah, So
I don't know how it can be. I know what Cole's trying to do.
He's trying to sell Tiffany Stratton, even in a loss, and that
that's what he should do. But it's always kind of weird when they say
it out loud instead of you know, it's still he it was a star
making performance. No, that that's what you That's that you don't say those
words right, like, we know you're trying to make a star, but
you don't say it's a star making performance. Again, it's like everyone's saying
the quiet part are out loud here. It's it's so transparent. It's weird
and I'm not I'm not bringing this back to Cody, but it's similar in
the way that you know where Cody said, we're I'm here to make you
or tou to to entertain you or to to make you happy. Again,
that should be a byproduct of your performance. Cole then saying about Stratton that
it's a star making performance. I hate the word performance, by the way,
makes it feel very community theater or like a magician, doesn't it.
I hate it. But we have Cole saying what they want to do with
Stratton, but you don't say that. It's almost he might as well have
said, yeah, well you know Stratton and her loss to Becky Lynch did
get a nice rub. We hope to be able to push her in the
future to the top of the roster, and eventually we'll we'll, we'll,
we'll plan to have her beat the women's world champion. I mean, he
might as well have just said that, that's essentially what he said. This
is weird. It's it's weird to hear that stuff. Anyway, all right,
we got again Lynch. Doesn't know who are next opponent's going to be,
but I like Lynch on an next change. Bass then also kind of
puts her in a holding, holding pattern until they get to rear Ripley and
Becky Lynch, which you'd imagine is if it's not WrestleMania, maybe it's earlier,
but that is a match that they have in their back pocket, along
with Bianca bel Air versus really Ripley that I can't believe hasn't happened yet,
at least on the main roster. It's really perplexing. But I know Bianca's
on a different show. I understand that. But WW doesn't care about the
draft. So now Kevin and Sammy were arguing about Jay backstage. This is
in the third hour, we're gonna We're almost on here, guys, and
Jay showed up and told Owens if he had something to say, he should
say to his face, and then Owen's assumed that Jay would be joining the
judgment day. He doesn't trust Jay either way and told him to go ahead
and join the faction and Owens said that they don't have a match and he
was leaving, and Zane told Jay it seemed like Jay had a big decision
to make and wished him good luck. So Lynch did come out, though
she did come out and said that winning the title wasn't her on her Bingo
card this year, but she's learned that you have to take opportunities when you
can. She talked about being a Grand Slam champion and said NXT is the
future of the business and it represents hope, hunger, passion and progress.
Boy, that sounds like such a I feel like that's on a banner in
the performance center, is it not. I feel like that's what you'd see
when you first walk in in the performance center. It's some kind of like
corporately created mission statement. This is what an XT stands for. Hope,
hunger, passion, and progress. Who the hell speaks like that in real
life? This is a This is a weird show, guys, This is
weird. But anyway, Lynch said she wants to face the very best NXT
has to offer and that she'll be on an XT Tuesday and issued an open
challenge. Natalia came out. Good on Natalia. She came out and told
Lynch name another woman who has worked their ass off more than she did for
the opportunity, for an opportunity, and she recalled pushing Rhea to her limit
and said she'd been waiting backstage since then. And Italia accepted the challenge.
Kind of a disappointing challenge. I gotta say, this is disappointing. Not
that Italia isn't respected. We all know what she's viewed as kind of the
gatekeeper, a veteran, a ring general, all that stuff, and all
that's true, But you know, Natalia is not the right person here.
It should be somebody that's on the NXT roster, somebody that you can work
with to help build that talent. Tiffany Stratton is an example. Right now.
They may have their rematch down the line, but in the meantime,
if you're if you're issuing an open challenge. Don't make it like somebody that
is on a different show. Make it somebody that is exclusive to NXT,
because otherwise it feels just kind of like a leftover raw match. It doesn't
do anything for Natalia or Becky. These two have worked so many times together,
and no matter, no matter the outcome, which is of course Becky
and winning, it doesn't benefit anyone unless it's a setup for somebody from the
NXT women's roster and interfere in which that point you could answered Becky Lynch into
that. But this should not be somebody from the raw roster immediately calling Dibbs.
That's not how this works. No, no, no, you have
to go to the show and then whoever I guess shows up first gets the
opportunity. So I did not like this, but Lynch said it was intended
for someone new and who hasn't had opportunities, and Italia accused Lynch of stepping
all over the women in NXT who are waiting patiently for their chance, and
Italia called who are a hypocritical ginger witch, and that apparently was enough to
have Lynch except the challenge. All you gotta do is name. Call like
you know, a schoolgirl, and you know you get your opportunity. Basically,
if you act like a horrible human being, you get your opportunity.
Attack the champion from behind, call them name, and you get the challenge.
Now, one could argue that Natalia is skipping the line. You don't
just have a lifetime pass for an opportunity at the title. In fact,
you had what three opportunities against rha Ripley for the women's world title, and
you're complaining about Lynch who you're accusing Lynch of hopping over the other talent.
I mean what, So she's saying that Lynch is stepping all over the women
in NXT. Yet the exact opposite purpose of Becky Bench being there is to
help the women there bring star power, create new opportunities, build new stars.
And issuing an open challenge is stepping all over the women. That's a
funny way of saying that she's stepping all over the women when she's allowing anyone
in NXT to have it accept the challenge, Except Natalia takes the very opportunity
that she was complaining Lynch didn't give the people, the women in NXT.
I mean, this was just it was a parody of itself. But my
whole point about this is Natalia should not be the woman accepting the challenge point
blank. Sorry Natty. Sorry. Maybe there's some cat photos you can go
take or where your cattiers or I don't know, whatever else you do.
All right, I'm feeling a little fisy today. Okay, So Becky and
Italia for the NXC Women's Championship happened on rob and Becky as expected, beat
in Italian eight minutes. And this happened where the I'm reading the description here,
Lynch rolled rolled up Natalia for a two count. Natalia rolled on top
over her, but then Lynch pulled her over and got the three counts.
So it's kind of like a I don't want to say a fluke victory,
but it protects Italia a little bit. It wasn't a clean hit, my
finish and you're out type of victory, which doesn't make sense to me.
It's it's like there wasn't a whole lot of just clean outright victories other than
dom And and Cody, which is the one match I would argue it should
not have been. All right, So let's see backstage, An and Pierce
talking with Dragon Lee, and then Dom entered the room and said he lost
to Cody because Rhea wasn't by his side, and Dom said Pierce wasn't doing
his job and let Ripley get hurt, and Lee spoke of taking the title
from Dom when they meet next week. So Dragon Lee and Dom are having
a NXT North American Championship match next week. So all right. Then we
got Tomassel Champa versus Giovanni Vinci and this lasted three and three minutes, three
and a half minutes, and the finish was Champa applying the Sicilian stretch and
got the submission victory. So Giovanni Vinci continues his losing ways, and after
Kaiser scolded Vinci at ringside for losing the match. No appearance by Gunther,
I don't believe on Raw, which was weird. So they must have decided
to totally switch gears. What they're doing with Gunther, given that he wasn't
on Raw at least to my recollection, and the fact that we had Gable
loose to loose to Bronson read very strange, but let's see. Rollins was
interviewed backstage and Rollins said he was he was tired and losing his mind and
said he would do anything to got Nakamara in the ring and said he's going
to Rollin said maybe he's been going about things wrong and it was time to
take his hands off the wheel. Rollins told Nakamara to name the place,
time, and even the stipulation and said their destinies are intertwined at this point
and asked Nakamura if if he asked if Nakamaro will define his legacy or will
it be me? So clearly it's going to be fast Lane. I don't
know what the stipulation is going to be, but we'll see, all right.
So next week on rob before we get to the main event, was
or is going to be Damien and Priest and Finn Balor versus Ko and Sammy
for the undisputed tag team titles, Otis versus Bronson Reid and Shinskan. Nakamaro
is going to respond to Seth's challenge, So, you know, semi interesting
we're on next week. But ju So versus Drew McIntyre was the main event,
and the big hook here is does Jay join the judgment day? That
was the whole hook. This very solid match here and I don't think Drew
mcatyar gets enough credit for how damn good he is in the ring and saying
for Jay. But very rarely does Drew ever have a bad match. I
don't even know if he's ever, I don't know if he's capable. But
a couple of interesting things happen in this match. Now, Jay did superkick
all three members of the Judgment Day and rejected their proposal outright. That though
in his after his superkick barrage to all three members of the Judgment Day,
we got Macatyre taking advantage of that and hitting a claymore to get the victory
on Jay. And the crowd didn't know kind of what to do with this.
They cheered, but at a level lower than what we just heard from
Jay super kicking the Judgment Day. After that, we got the Judgment Day
after Drew left beating down Jay. As Drew had a moral dilemma of whether
or not to help Jay, and he didn't. He ended up, you
know, walking out, and that's when Cody Rhodes the savior. Oh Cody,
thank god you're here. He came out and ran past mcatyre and entered
the ring and took out priest in balor and then hit down with the Crossroads
and that's when he pulled Jay to his feet. The the hero, Oh
our our White Knight save the day. And you know we had Cody Rhodes
make the All Importance save and again it's it's uh, I'm at, I
don't. I don't have anything bad to say about this segment. It's it's
it's a kind of the design of this is one that we've seen many times.
The baby faces out and numbered by a heel group and then there's somebody
big to come out and make the save. Find it's Cody whatever, right,
Like I just as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, tired
of his character, just outright that said, the more interesting story to me
is Drew McIntyre, the facials he was giving and the way he won the
match and the the lemma ultimately to lead to just turning his back on Jay.
All our evidence for a potential he'll turn and Drew. Now the argument
against it is, well, Jay did screw Drew out of a lot of
matches. You know, he ran rough shot over with the Bloodline. He
made a lot of enemies, so it's not like they're friends. So there
is that he had plausible deniability of why he didn't help Jay makes sense,
But there is evidence now there. It's starting to trickle in. If you're
noticing with Drew and I'm here for it. I want to see a heal
Drew. What does that look like. I think it's coming. I think
we can now say we're on the path, not a complete it hasn't turned
fully yet, but week by week, I think you'll start to see that
evidence mount and eventually leading to a Seth Drew match for the world title.
So overall again, I you know, I thought Raw was good. I
really did, despite all my complaints about Cody, I thought it was a
well paced show. I will say that Hulu took forever to upload Raw,
so I had to wait till like the very last minute to watch. I
don't know what the issue was with who uploading Raw usually the right on top
of it, so that was a pain in the neck. But the last
thing I'll say this is actually something that was asked about Ria Ripley, and
you know she was interviewed. I I don't know what what show it was,
but well, actually, you know, instead of me describing it,
just take a listen to what she said about the men not being able to
retaliate against her when she gets physical. So take a listen in the men's
businesses, Rio Ripley keeps hidding the men they gotta hit her back, they
can hit me that they just choose it up to you know why, because
they know their place, they know they're all and they know Mommy's always on
top. Okay, that's a bunch of like a bunch of WHOEI in a
very PG way. This is uh, this is nonsense. And I got
this from an account called SmackDown Mall. Okay, I got about sixty thousand
followers, and it was sent to me by a listener who got this to
me on Instagram. So re Ripley directly responds to the criticism that the men
can't hit her back. Oh, because they can hit me back, you
know, they just choose not to because they know their place. Oh oh
do they hm? Or maybe this is just a shot in the dark.
Maybe they can't retaliate because WWE is a publicly traded company, of which we're
in a very different culture right now in the United States, a very different
world where if WWE was to suddenly decide, hey, you know what the
men can do whenever they want to the women. It's fair game. You
know, if if re Ripley attacks you, you know what, just you
know, cracker back, hit her in the head with a chair, hit
it, hit a stunn or hit you know whatever. Do you know what
would happen at WW in this culture that we're living in, You know,
you would have people who would especially sponsors. I think they're the most fearful
of the sponsors that they have, because that's that's the lot of the revenue.
Sponsorships, not just us the crowd, the customer, the paying fans,
but the sponsorships actually supersede us in terms of how much money WW gets.
So their first and foremost going to to serve the sponsors. And I
think they're fearful that the sponsors would look and perceive this as well, ww's
promoting or promoting domestic violence, which, by the way, domestic violence can
go both ways. But I know most people think about domestic violence as men
hitting women, but for the sake of argument, they oh, well,
WW, look at look at all the men hitting the women. This is
abuse, right it. I think Ria and I could be totally wrong.
I think that has a small part in it. I'm pretty sure that the
men, Uh, it's not about knowing their place, it's the fact that
they can't because you're a woman. And sponsors and probably some portion of the
audience would be, you know, standing at ww's headquarters with pitchforks that they're
they're promoting, you know, intergender violence against women. It's a it's a
climate guys that were in that is not where we were in the ruthless aggressionaires.
Certainly not where we were in the attitude era. Things have changed.
It's also a PG company and I have beat this drum until it can't be
beat anymore. I mean, it's easy for me, as a fantas sit
here and say, who gives a damn? This is stupid, and it
is that Ria can't be touched because he's a woman. I's two thousand percent
stand by what I've said over the last several months. At this point,
I'm not backing down or changing my opinion on that. But it's easy for
me as a fantas sit here and say, ask, screw it, that's
so dumb. Just let the men retaliate When my money's not on the line.
It's potentiallywe's you know, revenue, that is, it's not my money,
so it's easy for me to say, but it's preposterous. If Rea
Ripley the person actually believes that she's in another universe, you know that that
is, Jed is just nonsense. I think she was speaking in character.
I think that was mostly in character. And if he's in character there,
I'll let it slide, okay, But so there, I'll stop that all
right. Where we're past an hour here, guys, which I think I'll
say goodbye now, but don't forget guys. If you enjoyed the show,
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All right, that'll do it for me tonight, guys. I really appreciate
it, and as always, I'll talk to you next time. All Right,
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