WWE Raw Review: Punk Retains World Championship, Iyo & Rhea Win Tag Team Titles, Becky Lynch 2x IC Champ

<v Speaker 1>Time to talk Monday Night Raw that came to us
<v Speaker 1>from Brooklyn at the Barclay Center last night, after what
<v Speaker 1>was an interesting Monday Night Raw, one that did not
<v Speaker 1>see the anticipated, much anticipated return of Chris Jericho. Seems
<v Speaker 1>like they're saving that for the Royal Rumble if he
<v Speaker 1>comes back at all, but it seems like all signs
<v Speaker 1>are pointing to him returning to WWE. They just didn't
<v Speaker 1>do it last night, but I think it's coming. So
<v Speaker 1>if you were in attendance at the Barclay Center expecting
<v Speaker 1>that Chris Jericho y t J would make an appearance,
<v Speaker 1>well you didn't get your money's worth, but got some
<v Speaker 1>good wrestling. A bit of a botched main event from
<v Speaker 1>bron Breaker and Cmpunk that had a lot of people
<v Speaker 1>angry that Sampunk retained and bron Bricker was just outright
<v Speaker 1>cleanly beat. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about the
<v Speaker 1>women's tag team champions that are now rear Ripley and
<v Speaker 1>El Sky. We'll talk about the new two time Interconinental champion,
<v Speaker 1>Becky Lynch, who ends up beating Maxine Dupre in a
<v Speaker 1>controversial fashion, which makes it all the more fun. I
<v Speaker 1>think I know a lot of people are not excited
<v Speaker 1>about this. I don't have a problem with it, believe
<v Speaker 1>it or not, even if it is a bit of
<v Speaker 1>Becky Belt fatigue going on. And we'll talk about all that,
<v Speaker 1>but first a couple things. Number One, if you want
<v Speaker 1>to join US AD free Patreon dot com, slash wwe
<v Speaker 1>podcast good place to go. Not the only place, because
<v Speaker 1>you can also go to Apple. You can also go
<v Speaker 1>to Spotify and join US AD free. Just search for
<v Speaker 1>the ad free feed. So other thing. And this is
<v Speaker 1>just totally off the cuff and free promotion for Chris
<v Speaker 1>Van Vliet's show No Affiliation. I mean, I haven't discussed
<v Speaker 1>anything with them, but I'm just letting you know if
<v Speaker 1>you haven't seen the Stone Cold podcast that he's just released,
<v Speaker 1>I think it was today. He recorded it about a
<v Speaker 1>month ago but ended up posting it today. I believe
<v Speaker 1>I watched it in its entirety with Austin in the
<v Speaker 1>most recent interview that I think is available for Stone
<v Speaker 1>Cold if you're interested in it. As he is now
<v Speaker 1>sixty sixty one years old, it's crazy and he goes
<v Speaker 1>oh a lot of topics. Chris did a nice job
<v Speaker 1>as he went out to Nevada, and interviewed Austin for
<v Speaker 1>about an hour and twenty some minutes, and a lot
<v Speaker 1>of interesting little tidbits came out of that. Number one,
<v Speaker 1>his podcast might come back. Austin's podcast ended in twenty twenty.
<v Speaker 1>He said he is really considering bringing it back, which
<v Speaker 1>would be awesome if you have missed the Stone Cold
<v Speaker 1>podcast or Unleashed. Really fun show, and it still continues
<v Speaker 1>to top the charts even though it hasn't produced an
<v Speaker 1>episode in about five years, so that's an interesting tidbit.
<v Speaker 1>He was asked if you know he could go, he
<v Speaker 1>could still go, and Austin said he feels like he could,
<v Speaker 1>but he's not trying to put anything up. He's not
<v Speaker 1>trying to promote anything. But still he feels like he could,
<v Speaker 1>but he says probably not, which tells me, Hey, I
<v Speaker 1>think Saudi Arabia is going to open its wallet and
<v Speaker 1>open it wide and deep for Stone Cold at WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>forty three next year. At the very least, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>we could see Austin this year, but more than likely,
<v Speaker 1>if you're going to be a betting man, Saudi Arabia
<v Speaker 1>might be the place to do it because it's going
<v Speaker 1>to be a incredible payday for anyone that performs at
<v Speaker 1>that show next year at WrestleMania forty three. Of course,
<v Speaker 1>that's just my speculation. He didn't talk about that at all.
<v Speaker 1>That's just my best guess going forward if you're going
<v Speaker 1>to look for an Austin match. He was asked about
<v Speaker 1>Seam Punkin, why he never wrestled him, or if there
<v Speaker 1>was and were plans for him to appear at WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>forty He talked about why there was never a Goldberg
<v Speaker 1>versus Austin matchup towards the end of the show, a
<v Speaker 1>lot of interesting tidbits and some good advice from Austin,
<v Speaker 1>and he said. One thing that I want to briefly
<v Speaker 1>touch on here before we get going on the Monday
<v Speaker 1>Night Raw review is that he said, Austin said that
<v Speaker 1>Today's product without really saying it. You have to read
<v Speaker 1>between the lines because he's trying to maintain a good
<v Speaker 1>relationship with WWE, and you can tell the struggle of
<v Speaker 1>words that he's having in his mind that he's not
<v Speaker 1>a fan of today product at all and he's struggling
<v Speaker 1>with what to say and where to draw the line
<v Speaker 1>of criticism. You can feel the struggle. You can see
<v Speaker 1>it on his face because he still is in the
<v Speaker 1>pocket of WWE and if he wants to have another match,
<v Speaker 1>he doesn't want to be on the on the naughty
<v Speaker 1>list of WWE. You can see that. I mean, it's
<v Speaker 1>very clear, which I understand. I'm not a faulting Austin whatsoever.
<v Speaker 1>But he did say that today's product it feels too
<v Speaker 1>slip sleek, too perfect, and there's not enough flaws. That
<v Speaker 1>is an awesome way to put it. I have said
<v Speaker 1>to that it feels too produced today, it's too predictable,
<v Speaker 1>it's too structured, too formatted, But to say that it's
<v Speaker 1>too sleek, too sleek, is a great way to say it.
<v Speaker 1>There's no flaws, everything is very produced. Everything does feel
<v Speaker 1>And despite the fact that Vince McMahon's been gone and
<v Speaker 1>a lot of us have vilified Vince that he was
<v Speaker 1>the cause and root caused and the only cause of
<v Speaker 1>wa UIZ issues and all of the all the things
<v Speaker 1>you don't like about wrestling is Vince's fault. Well, not
<v Speaker 1>much has changed, and in fact has actually gone down
<v Speaker 1>the Vince McMahon road even further. Without Vince of the
<v Speaker 1>production and the promos and now we have sponsorships everything else.
<v Speaker 1>So sleek is a perfect word. It's too polished. It
<v Speaker 1>is too polished. It doesn't feel raw, it doesn't feel spontaneous.
<v Speaker 1>He even touched on and you guys can go listen
<v Speaker 1>to the interview. I highly recommend it. There's your free promotion. Chris,
<v Speaker 1>great guy, by the way, I've interviewed him on the
<v Speaker 1>show a number of years ago. So there's your free promo.
<v Speaker 1>But it feels there, and nobody feels dangerous. Nobody feels
<v Speaker 1>authentically dangerous. There are I mean, there are a few
<v Speaker 1>guys approaching out, like Drew McIntyre who has shown it
<v Speaker 1>at times. He talked about brock Lesner, But nobody feels dangerous.
<v Speaker 1>I mean some of these points that are just so
<v Speaker 1>self evident that we've never really thought about. Steve brought
<v Speaker 1>the light that I was like, wow, well yeah, it's
<v Speaker 1>really at the fundamental level of problem with the product today.
<v Speaker 1>But as he said, too, everybody feels like their generation
<v Speaker 1>is the best generation. And I mean I still believe
<v Speaker 1>that today's generation is not the best generation. If you're
<v Speaker 1>looking for athleticism, I think it is if athleticism and
<v Speaker 1>very polished production of the presentation of for wrestling is
<v Speaker 1>your thing, then yes, today's product I think is your
<v Speaker 1>your cup of tea. But if in my mind, if
<v Speaker 1>you're looking for over the top characters that feel authentic
<v Speaker 1>that still protected the product to the best of their ability,
<v Speaker 1>that yeah, I had some silly entertainment garbage even in
<v Speaker 1>the Attitude era that to me was the best era
<v Speaker 1>in the numbers panted out too, obviously, with the ratings
<v Speaker 1>that were the highest they've ever been in the history
<v Speaker 1>of professional wrestling since its existence and still to this
<v Speaker 1>day remain the highest ratings and just culturally relevant and
<v Speaker 1>it was actually cool to be a wrestling fan that
<v Speaker 1>kind of thing. But Austin had some really good points.
<v Speaker 1>So just a free promotion there is wanted to talk
<v Speaker 1>about a couple of the things Austin did before I
<v Speaker 1>get going here on RAW because I knew I'd forget
<v Speaker 1>it if I didn't do it now. So back to
<v Speaker 1>Monday Night Raw that came to us from the Barclay Center.
<v Speaker 1>So let's start with the top of the show as
<v Speaker 1>we do. So the stranger things you kind of cross
<v Speaker 1>over whatever you want to call it, collab with the
<v Speaker 1>camera shot turning upside down. That was a cool effect.
<v Speaker 1>And the intro over the intro video of the Barclay
<v Speaker 1>Center being intertwined in the upside down with the vines
<v Speaker 1>and everything else was cool. If you don't watch Stranger Things,
<v Speaker 1>you're probably like, what the F is this? But I
<v Speaker 1>think most people least know what it is, so it
<v Speaker 1>was actually a cool intro. I don't understand really the
<v Speaker 1>still the reason for it, how it helped raw other
<v Speaker 1>than just say hey, we're we have their finger on
<v Speaker 1>the pulse of what the culture is talking about right now.
<v Speaker 1>See see we're cool, We're hip. I guess that's the
<v Speaker 1>reason some people they have a contract with ESPN or whatever, Like,
<v Speaker 1>what does that have to do with anything? What does
<v Speaker 1>the contract with the ESPN have to do with anything?
<v Speaker 1>That's outside of the purview of W's and the collaboration
<v Speaker 1>with Stranger Things. But nonetheless we have let's see Cole
<v Speaker 1>and Graves come out from a surfer boy pizza cart
<v Speaker 1>from Stranger Things, and Cole talked about the shots of
<v Speaker 1>the vision and see I'm Punk and the judgment day
<v Speaker 1>and Lyra and Maxine and Becky Lynch. Graves was wearing
<v Speaker 1>a hell Fire Club T shirt and said they weren't
<v Speaker 1>in Hawkins anymore, and they visited and welcomed us to Raw.
<v Speaker 1>Really nice intro again, very produced, very sleek, as Austin
<v Speaker 1>would say, not organic, very much rehearsed whatever, right, like whatever.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, you could say that about every single segment
<v Speaker 1>in today's version of wrestling. But it was a nice intro,
<v Speaker 1>well done, and you're thinking, okay, cool, this feels like
<v Speaker 1>a different version of Raw. And then we have the
<v Speaker 1>shown the vines of the upside down on the barricade
<v Speaker 1>and else wherevers was pretty cool. I really enjoyed actually
<v Speaker 1>a look of that. And then we got the Kabuoki
<v Speaker 1>Warriors and Kyrie Sayeh who I'm sorry. Osca and Kyrie
<v Speaker 1>Saye are the Kookie Warriors taking on Reea Ripley and
<v Speaker 1>Neeo Sky for the Women's Tag Team Championship, and the
<v Speaker 1>match went I'm trying to find the damn oh, sixteen
<v Speaker 1>minutes and thirty seconds. That was the time stamp for
<v Speaker 1>this match that saw Rehea, Ripley and Eo win the
<v Speaker 1>Women's Tag Team Championships after Osca ends up taking the loss.
<v Speaker 1>Here how it happened was Sky getting the hot tag
<v Speaker 1>Osca caught her in an inside cradle backslide and kind
<v Speaker 1>of back and forth here, and then Ripley tagged in
<v Speaker 1>and put Osca down with riptide. Sky followed up with
<v Speaker 1>an over the moon salt, and then Sky hit Sane
<v Speaker 1>with a suicide dive while Ripley covered Oscar for the
<v Speaker 1>win and felt like a big deal. I mean, I
<v Speaker 1>continue to say that the Women's Tag Team Championships, for
<v Speaker 1>the first time since they've been created, have felt the
<v Speaker 1>most relevant they've ever felt. Why because you have big
<v Speaker 1>stars chasing them, and it's not just been a week
<v Speaker 1>or a month, it's been several months. You have Rihea Ripley,
<v Speaker 1>who was front and center for every single Women's Championship
<v Speaker 1>match or discussion for months and months and months and
<v Speaker 1>months now in the tag team division, teaming with Eo Ski,
<v Speaker 1>another former women's champion that had an awesome run in
<v Speaker 1>as Women's champion. You have now on the other side
<v Speaker 1>of things on SmackDown, Charlotte Flair, who, as we all
<v Speaker 1>know since she was born, essentially in the championship picture.
<v Speaker 1>Now teaming with a very likable Alexa Bliss that I
<v Speaker 1>have gone over many times has really helped out Charlotte
<v Speaker 1>and Alexa. Let's be honest. I mean it's helped Alexa
<v Speaker 1>as well get a lot more airtime than she otherwise
<v Speaker 1>might have gotten if she wasn't with Charlotte. And now
<v Speaker 1>so you have big names teaming up that have really
<v Speaker 1>found some chemistry together over the last several months, chasing
<v Speaker 1>a tag team championship that has otherwise just been forgotten
<v Speaker 1>at times there has been no challengers for the Tag
<v Speaker 1>Team Championships. How many times have you seen the Women's
<v Speaker 1>Tag Team Championships you basically forget they exist or the
<v Speaker 1>team holding the championship just disappears. Maybe the curse has
<v Speaker 1>finally been lifted on the Women's Tag Team Championship. Do
<v Speaker 1>we dare say that we bold enough to make that declaration?
<v Speaker 1>We're getting close. If not, we're there. I'm still a
<v Speaker 1>little gun shy because of how long they treated these
<v Speaker 1>titles like garbage or that they didn't exist. And now
<v Speaker 1>I think we're finally at the point where they feel
<v Speaker 1>like a as big of a deal as Tag Team
<v Speaker 1>Champion and Chips can feel. That's not gonna last forever.
<v Speaker 1>Things go in cycles, everything does, but for the time being,
<v Speaker 1>it's fun. So new Tag Team Champions, and backstage, Adam
<v Speaker 1>Pierce congratulated Rhea and EO, and there was a demagorgan
<v Speaker 1>model and Gunther showed up and he made his entrance
<v Speaker 1>and showed off a T shirt that showed him with
<v Speaker 1>the John Cena in the sleeper hold along with the
<v Speaker 1>words tap like a yep, and then Cole piped the
<v Speaker 1>ww podcast schedule not mine, but theirs. You would think
<v Speaker 1>that they'd come after me for the name and like
<v Speaker 1>try to pay me for the name. But I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not using the official I always say it's the
<v Speaker 1>unofficial because that's true. But at least, you know, you
<v Speaker 1>think that they would try to sweeten the pot with
<v Speaker 1>my domain. I mean, WWE podcast dot com is a
<v Speaker 1>you would think a highly sought after domain name by WWE.
<v Speaker 1>You'd think, I don't know, all right, so let's continue.
<v Speaker 1>We then have the Stranger Things themeplay as they show
<v Speaker 1>off items from the show on stage and a graphic
<v Speaker 1>has shown and in the show style is that Chapter two?
<v Speaker 1>He who Remains and Gunther was in the ring and
<v Speaker 1>with a mic and he was booed and he said
<v Speaker 1>he was asked by management to show a little bit
<v Speaker 1>of respect. You tapped out and chant broke out. But
<v Speaker 1>what about some respect for me? He said? He talked
<v Speaker 1>about how he made Sina do the one thing he
<v Speaker 1>said he would never do, the man who made John
<v Speaker 1>Cena tap out like a little And that's when Aj
<v Speaker 1>Styles comes out and the fans chanted for him, and
<v Speaker 1>he's he made he once again and said he made
<v Speaker 1>Seina tap out like a little yep, And then he said,
<v Speaker 1>what is little aj gonna do about it? And tawning,
<v Speaker 1>Aj Styles slapped Gunther. They went head to head. He said,
<v Speaker 1>you ain't gonna do nothing, and that's what I thought,
<v Speaker 1>and the Styles dropped the mic and exited again. Now,
<v Speaker 1>according to Pro Wrestling Net, shout out to them, they
<v Speaker 1>do a great recap every week. They said, quote simple
<v Speaker 1>but yet effective segment. I got to kick out of
<v Speaker 1>the live crowd, remembering that Gunther tapped out at Wrestle
<v Speaker 1>Manya forty one. Well, yeah again, the crowd's trying to
<v Speaker 1>do anything they can to throw it back in Gunther's face.
<v Speaker 1>But I think the tap out of John Cena all
<v Speaker 1>butt of races. I think the tap out to Jay
<v Speaker 1>us so that it was an abomination. You can go
<v Speaker 1>back and listen at the time almost a year ago. Now,
<v Speaker 1>it was just a horrible decision, and it played out
<v Speaker 1>to be so, as they stripped Jay Uso of the
<v Speaker 1>championship just a couple months later. But you know, I
<v Speaker 1>I didn't actually like this segment. I'm a massive fan
<v Speaker 1>of Gunther. I like AJ styles, but this one didn't
<v Speaker 1>hit with me. Demeaning AJ styles as a little AJ styles,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, that does fit, I guess with what Gunther
<v Speaker 1>is doing right now, belittling people, talking down to people,
<v Speaker 1>so that one, okay is okay with me. I mean
<v Speaker 1>usually you do that to younger guys, not a grizzled,
<v Speaker 1>twenty plus year vet that has shown time and again
<v Speaker 1>that he can you know, he can still go. He's timeless,
<v Speaker 1>he's been world champion, he's put on five Star Classics,
<v Speaker 1>he's been in nearly every promotion, worked with almost everyone.
<v Speaker 1>So it's not like that really resonated with me, the
<v Speaker 1>little AJ stuff. But the problem I had with this
<v Speaker 1>even more is on Gunther's side, where AJ slapped him
<v Speaker 1>and he just took it. Gun Through just took it. Why.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I guess that's the cowardly quote unquote heel.
<v Speaker 1>But Gunther is and does not have to fit into
<v Speaker 1>the typical stereotypical mold of being a cowardly heel. Not
<v Speaker 1>all heels need to be cowardly that it's possible. Not
<v Speaker 1>all heels need to cheat to win. You've heard me
<v Speaker 1>say that I don't need Gunther falling into that mold.
<v Speaker 1>Gunther is a special kind of talent. Gunther is a
<v Speaker 1>guy that should be a killer, that people don't want
<v Speaker 1>to mess with, that they try to avoid. And AJ
<v Speaker 1>slaps him and he just, you know, he just Gunner
<v Speaker 1>gives him the mean face. So, yeah, we're setting up
<v Speaker 1>for a Gunther AJ match. It'll still see Gunther come
<v Speaker 1>out on top. I hope, despite the fact that this
<v Speaker 1>could be AJ's last year in a wrestling ring, I
<v Speaker 1>don't need another one year goodbye tour. Never want to
<v Speaker 1>see that again. I don't care who it is. Never
<v Speaker 1>ever want to see it again. Oh, by the way,
<v Speaker 1>that reminds me. In the Stone Cold podcast, Austin all
<v Speaker 1>But said that the John Cena heel turns sucked. So,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, how can you really love the John Cena
<v Speaker 1>heel turn? It could have been so much more if
<v Speaker 1>they had more time and it was done earlier. In
<v Speaker 1>his career. But even with the little time that they had,
<v Speaker 1>as we all know, because of the massive record setting,
<v Speaker 1>incredibly embarrassing fumble that they had at WrestleMania forty one
<v Speaker 1>with the Travis and the Rock and the follow up
<v Speaker 1>and all the rest of the change. Like we all
<v Speaker 1>know the story, Austin without saying it, you could read
<v Speaker 1>it on his face, was just like, yeah, it was horrible.
<v Speaker 1>So again, go go watch the show. It's very well
<v Speaker 1>done and fun to hear Austin and see what he's
<v Speaker 1>up to. As we enter twenty twenty six. Okay, so
<v Speaker 1>a video package of Maxine and Becky Lynch back backstage,
<v Speaker 1>Ivy Nile was upset. Pierce told her they needed to
<v Speaker 1>go through, get through tonight and see who would be
<v Speaker 1>the Women's Icy Champion and they would figure things out.
<v Speaker 1>And so Nile's trying to chase the next champion and
<v Speaker 1>then get chapter three. It's not just her saying it.
<v Speaker 1>So we're doing chapters here. If you didn't catch it
<v Speaker 1>on Smack or on Raw, if you just watch the
<v Speaker 1>highlights of Raw and not the actual show, they did
<v Speaker 1>the chapters for each segment, which it's cool to see
<v Speaker 1>the integration but this I am stuck in my ways.
<v Speaker 1>This stuff is just like Okay, Act three guys, Act
<v Speaker 1>three and action. That's to me what this says. I
<v Speaker 1>hate it. I just I will not budge on this,
<v Speaker 1>but it's for some reason an integration with stranger things.
<v Speaker 1>And Maxine dupri and Becky Lynch then clashed for the
<v Speaker 1>women's Intercontinental title. The match went eleven and a half minutes,
<v Speaker 1>with Becky Lynch winning. She won the Intercontinental Championship after
<v Speaker 1>Becky Lynch leaned back and held the bottom rope while
<v Speaker 1>she shielded the ref from the vision of her holding
<v Speaker 1>onto the rope or for the sight of that, and
<v Speaker 1>she got the three counts. And so she did the
<v Speaker 1>very thing that she's been complaining for months about with
<v Speaker 1>Maxine du Pre stealing the championship. She in typical heel
<v Speaker 1>hypocritical fashion, literally stole the championship in a heel fashion
<v Speaker 1>against Maxine. I think this is the correct finish one.
<v Speaker 1>I do wonder if the Maxine experiment is over or
<v Speaker 1>if the fans are going to still rally behind her,
<v Speaker 1>because if the fans support of her is truly deep
<v Speaker 1>and it wasn't a one time thing, the fans are
<v Speaker 1>going to get behind her and want her to see
<v Speaker 1>her recapture the belt from Becky. They're going to want
<v Speaker 1>to see her get revenge. If they don't, the crowd
<v Speaker 1>reaction is going to tell the story in the next
<v Speaker 1>couple of weeks where it's just kind of back to
<v Speaker 1>the way it was like, oh, hi, good to see you.
<v Speaker 1>Can we get somebody reel in here to take the
<v Speaker 1>belt from Becky. We've seen this, you know. So the
<v Speaker 1>crowd support of the next couple weeks is critical for
<v Speaker 1>scene dupre and her. I think her success moving forward
<v Speaker 1>over the next several months and what she does, so
<v Speaker 1>I enjoyed this great finish. You have Becky do the
<v Speaker 1>very thing she was accusing Maxine of doing in a
<v Speaker 1>very slimy way, and she's gonna, you know, coach, of course,
<v Speaker 1>gloat about it and talk about how you know she's
<v Speaker 1>being targeted again and this is just more slander and
<v Speaker 1>this is you know, all the rest is I have
<v Speaker 1>no problem with this. Is it, as I said at
<v Speaker 1>the top of the show, a bit of a Becky
<v Speaker 1>belt fatigue? Yes, there is. And no matter how much
<v Speaker 1>time she takes away from a championship or she's not
<v Speaker 1>champion for it. We're so used to seeing and hearing
<v Speaker 1>about Becky with a championship, kind of like Charlotte. She
<v Speaker 1>could take the next two, three, four five years off
<v Speaker 1>and not win a championship until the last couple months
<v Speaker 1>of her career and people will be like, oh my god,
<v Speaker 1>it's Charlotte Rover with the championship again. That's just the
<v Speaker 1>way it's going to go. Some talent have been champion
<v Speaker 1>for so long or been in a championship picture and
<v Speaker 1>discussed for so long that they almost become a part
<v Speaker 1>of the championship. They're synonymous. They've like melted together. You
<v Speaker 1>cannot detach them no matter how much time goes by.
<v Speaker 1>And I think Becky Lynch falls kind of into that category.
<v Speaker 1>Now it's with the Intercontinental Championship, now with the Women's Championship,
<v Speaker 1>so she is taking a bit of a mid card
<v Speaker 1>belt and I think elevating it to a very nice level.
<v Speaker 1>But I have no issue with this, I really don't.
<v Speaker 1>I know a lot of people are not happy with it.
<v Speaker 1>I didn't have an issue. Obafemi had a video package air.
<v Speaker 1>That's nice. He's getting a little bit of shine every
<v Speaker 1>week despite not actually being on the show. We have
<v Speaker 1>let's see here the Unreal season two trailer air. It's
<v Speaker 1>gonna be premiere on January twentieth. You guys know what
<v Speaker 1>to think about that. We have chapter four to Kiss
<v Speaker 1>a Devil and Jackie Redmond stood in the ring while
<v Speaker 1>introducing the women's World champions Stephanie Vicaerr, who walks slowly
<v Speaker 1>while wearing a walking boot, and Cole said she had
<v Speaker 1>an ankle injury. Vicaire spoke about how great twenty twenty
<v Speaker 1>five was. She spoke in Spanish, which I think is stupid.
<v Speaker 1>It's stupid, She addressed her injury, saying it would not
<v Speaker 1>stop her. Why do I think it's stupid because you're
<v Speaker 1>in America, all right. I'm not saying Spanish is a
<v Speaker 1>bad language, but you want to talk to the audience
<v Speaker 1>that understands the language that is primarily used, right. I
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't go over to I wouldn't go to Canada and
<v Speaker 1>go into the outskirts of Quebec or wherever and be like, hey, guys, guys, guys, guys, listen.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know what you're saying, but you need to
<v Speaker 1>learn how to how to speak English. Okay? Is whatever
<v Speaker 1>you gout like, take the French, throw it out the window.
<v Speaker 1>You guys need to learn how to speak my language. No,
<v Speaker 1>of course she wouldn't do that. You get your ass
<v Speaker 1>kicked and then probably number one and laughed at and
<v Speaker 1>booted out of wherever you are, go into any country, right,
<v Speaker 1>I don't go to Brazil and tell them to speak English,
<v Speaker 1>Spain and tell them to speak the American version of English. Right, No,
<v Speaker 1>of course not. I don't go to Sudan, Sudan or wherever.
<v Speaker 1>You get my point. I know this is a bit
<v Speaker 1>over the top, and here it goes again, but I
<v Speaker 1>don't like when anybody does this. Honestly, this doesn't just
<v Speaker 1>go to Stephanie. She's getting the heat because this is
<v Speaker 1>just a general issue I have and she's a babyface,
<v Speaker 1>so she's not doing it to get heat, right, She's
<v Speaker 1>not doing it to get heat. Where you guys don't
<v Speaker 1>speak my language. She starts yelling at her own language.
<v Speaker 1>We've seen heals do that, and that gets heat because
<v Speaker 1>it's annoying. But when they do it as a babyface,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's annoying, but we have to suppress our dislike
<v Speaker 1>of it because they're a babyface, so it wasn't being
<v Speaker 1>done for heat. And we've seen people do this port
<v Speaker 1>like Damian Priest has done it before. Right again, you
<v Speaker 1>are speaking to a still primarily English speaking audience. Speak English.
<v Speaker 1>It's your job to communicate with us. You are representing
<v Speaker 1>the company and you are the women's champion. You need
<v Speaker 1>to speak to us in the language we understand. It's
<v Speaker 1>not our job to translate and do subtitles like no,
<v Speaker 1>that's not how this works. Okay, that could go off
<v Speaker 1>on another tangent, but it's about wrestling anyway. Vicare address
<v Speaker 1>her injury, saying it would not stop her. Ra Cal
<v Speaker 1>Rodriguez entered the ring and attacked Vicaire from behind, and
<v Speaker 1>Vicaerre slammed the bad ankle against the matt a few
<v Speaker 1>times and put her down with it to hota bomb.
<v Speaker 1>Rodriguez went to ringside return with a chair and uh
<v Speaker 1>Vicaire stomped or Rodriguez stomped for Care's ankle a couple
<v Speaker 1>of times and then started to wrap the chair around it.
<v Speaker 1>And that's when things were stopped by Adam Pierce, of course,
<v Speaker 1>and Sean Davari and Shane Helms and that crew took
<v Speaker 1>the chair away she's limped. She's limping backstage, and that's
<v Speaker 1>when work Hell again attacks her, threatens to find Adam
<v Speaker 1>Pierce throw shows up and threatens to find Rodriguez. Now,
<v Speaker 1>is that so Rodriguez got some nice heat here? Stephanie
<v Speaker 1>Vicaire gets the sympathy card. But she gets of course,
<v Speaker 1>even despite the fact she's speaking Spanish, which you've already
<v Speaker 1>talked about, which is stupid, she still is only getting
<v Speaker 1>like four words to say in a as women's champion.
<v Speaker 1>Why I don't want to hear she's over? Is she
<v Speaker 1>really over? Do people even know what over means anymore?
<v Speaker 1>What does over mean? Like I've heard this, I've had
<v Speaker 1>people on X and other places talk about how you
<v Speaker 1>know she's over? She doesn't need to? Okay, Well, explain
<v Speaker 1>to me what you think over means. Does it mean
<v Speaker 1>they just get a reaction at all from the crowd,
<v Speaker 1>because based on your use of the word over kind
<v Speaker 1>of tells me that that is your definition and that's
<v Speaker 1>not what over is. Over is your ratings draw people
<v Speaker 1>buy tickets to come see you, not solely maybe right,
<v Speaker 1>but in part come to see you. They think of
<v Speaker 1>you when they are preached pressing that purchasing button when
<v Speaker 1>they click by, they're thinking of seeing you in part
<v Speaker 1>at least, right, you elicit some kind of legitimate emotion
<v Speaker 1>from the fans, not this kind of sympathetic cheer that, oh,
<v Speaker 1>well you seem like a nice girl and you perform, well,
<v Speaker 1>we're gonna cheer you. There's a difference, and you can
<v Speaker 1>feel it. I know that stephanievit Care is truly over
<v Speaker 1>on the mainstream version and mainstream roster of WWE's product.
<v Speaker 1>Yet over is used so so loosely today that it's
<v Speaker 1>basically defined as anybody that gets any kind of significant
<v Speaker 1>reaction is over. I would say no. I mean having
<v Speaker 1>a reaction is important, and it doesn't have to be
<v Speaker 1>blowing the roof off the place to be considered over
<v Speaker 1>in my mind, but it has to be consistently, you know,
<v Speaker 1>positive or negative, and loud consistently positive or negative. That's
<v Speaker 1>when you're over. And you know, the minute by minute
<v Speaker 1>ratings can show that, and all the rest of the
<v Speaker 1>metrics are there to be able to, you know, determine
<v Speaker 1>whether or not people are tuning in or tuning out
<v Speaker 1>when they see you. But I just wanted to bring
<v Speaker 1>that up because that's been some people's arguments about Stephanovic.
<v Speaker 1>Care who I am high on in the ring? Who isn't?
<v Speaker 1>But can you tell me about her personality? Why you
<v Speaker 1>care she wins or loses? What is she here for?
<v Speaker 1>You know? Like again, I think her language barrier is
<v Speaker 1>a massive negative, not just because I think it's dumb
<v Speaker 1>when people speak foreign languages in an English speaking country,
<v Speaker 1>or at least they especially she was in Brooklyn, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>she wasn't overseas. She wasn't in Germany. She wasn't she
<v Speaker 1>was in America. And also, primarily your viewing audience is
<v Speaker 1>still English speaking. It is still primarily, of course not all.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, the global reach is expanding, but for the
<v Speaker 1>time being, their global foundational audience is still North America
<v Speaker 1>that speaks primarily English. Again, I'll get off that horse.
<v Speaker 1>Let's move on. So let's see it. Chapter five. We
<v Speaker 1>get to hell Fire's Collide. That's chapter five for the night,
<v Speaker 1>which didn't really sync up with the third match of
<v Speaker 1>the night, so things are kind of off. But Live
<v Speaker 1>Morgan takes on Lyra Valkyria. The match went nine minutes,
<v Speaker 1>with Live winning as she should with Oblivion really nice,
<v Speaker 1>by the way, A nice oblivion taken by Valcaria. She
<v Speaker 1>spiked her having anytime they do the spike ddts or
<v Speaker 1>it's a it's intentional or not always scares the hell
<v Speaker 1>out of me because you're just looking for the X
<v Speaker 1>to go up, or you're looking to see did their
<v Speaker 1>head actually hit the mat? Like those are scary moves
<v Speaker 1>and they look awesome, but damn, like, you know, fractions
<v Speaker 1>of an inch can mean you're a quadriplegic, or it
<v Speaker 1>could mean that looked great and it didn't hurt at all.
<v Speaker 1>So but the match ended with Perez hitting Bailey with
<v Speaker 1>a cheap shot and dumping her into the timekeepers area.
<v Speaker 1>Bailey grabbed a chair chase Perez to the back. And
<v Speaker 1>that's as I mentioned earlier where Morgan hit oblivion on
<v Speaker 1>a distracted Valkyria. So yeah, good, nice to see it, Lyra,
<v Speaker 1>you know, getting some more one on one time live
<v Speaker 1>morganings and one on one time in the ring. Both
<v Speaker 1>women benefited despite the fact yes, Lyra loss, but who cares?
<v Speaker 1>I mean Live needed to win that, so see him.
<v Speaker 1>Punk was interviewed backstage by Jackie Redmond. He said everybody
<v Speaker 1>has an opinion and they'd rather talk about him than
<v Speaker 1>themselves because nobody would pay attention. And Punk said, if
<v Speaker 1>he's the underdog, then people are underestimating him, and that means, gts,
<v Speaker 1>you're going for a nap, So quick to the point interview. Fine,
<v Speaker 1>no issues there. We then have Graves hyping styles or
<v Speaker 1>Gunther that's gonna take place next week, Yes, next week,
<v Speaker 1>and it's gonna take place next Monday night, or should
<v Speaker 1>I say, if you're Eastern time or Central Time in
<v Speaker 1>the United States, one Central to Eastern from Germany next Monday.
<v Speaker 1>So it's gonna be one of those they're back overseas,
<v Speaker 1>and boy, they're doing a lot of overseas. You guys
<v Speaker 1>must love it over there. But to me, I actually
<v Speaker 1>don't mind it because then you can kind of watch
<v Speaker 1>it and get it done and over with. You're not
<v Speaker 1>up late if you watch the three hours, it's kind
<v Speaker 1>of It's kind of nice, even despite the fact that
<v Speaker 1>most of us here in the United States will be
<v Speaker 1>at work. He also hyped Cody Roads versus Drew McIntyre
<v Speaker 1>at three stages of hell Match for the Championship on SmackDown,
<v Speaker 1>So big, big matches coming next Monday and Friday. So
<v Speaker 1>then we got Cmpunk taking on braun Breaker for the
<v Speaker 1>World Heavyweight Championship. The match it lasted twenty six minutes
<v Speaker 1>and forty seconds. That may be the longest championship match
<v Speaker 1>we've had in a long time. I mean, not by
<v Speaker 1>a wide margin, but just truly. I mean, it may be.
<v Speaker 1>And it then did as we all know, was cmpunk
<v Speaker 1>winning and he won clean after the GTS. Yes, there
<v Speaker 1>were some terrible botches the Frankensteiner. He nearly killed himself
<v Speaker 1>on a suicide dive bron Breaker. You know, I'm not
<v Speaker 1>faulting for it. First of all, I'm just glad number
<v Speaker 1>one that he's not dead or paralyzed or hurt. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>he's still a beast of a guy. I'm not worried
<v Speaker 1>about his in ring performances moving forward. He's going to
<v Speaker 1>learn from this. It is. It wasn't a disaster of
<v Speaker 1>a performance. It was glaring that he was over hyped,
<v Speaker 1>perhaps that his nerves got to him. He's trying to
<v Speaker 1>do too much. He needed to slow down all the
<v Speaker 1>stuff that just being a human being in that position
<v Speaker 1>for the first time would probably bring upon any of us. So, yes,
<v Speaker 1>there were some botches that looked horrible. I'm sure he
<v Speaker 1>might have gotten an earful from Ceampunk after the match,
<v Speaker 1>and he should because that's called learning. This is called
<v Speaker 1>learning pains, growing pains, that's which you get with a
<v Speaker 1>talent the caliber of bron Breaker that we know is
<v Speaker 1>eventually going to be champion, that we know right now
<v Speaker 1>could be champion, and you know still put on the
<v Speaker 1>performance that he did, which I think was overall, outside
<v Speaker 1>of the botches, was still very good. And it did
<v Speaker 1>see bron Breaker loose and a lot of people seemingly
<v Speaker 1>are disappointed. And when you heard the reaction from the
<v Speaker 1>in person crowd at the Barclay Center, it wasn't overwhelmingly
<v Speaker 1>like a relief that people are like, oh my god,
<v Speaker 1>thank god bron Breaker didn't win. We don't like him.
<v Speaker 1>There was not that reaction. There wasn't people booing like
<v Speaker 1>Punk wasn't getting bowed. But it was a much more
<v Speaker 1>subdued reaction that you'd expect after nearly thirty minutes of
<v Speaker 1>defending his championship than otherwise I think it would have
<v Speaker 1>been hadn't been any other opponent. The crowd can sense
<v Speaker 1>what broun Breaker is and is going to be. The
<v Speaker 1>crowd and the and the at home audience can sense
<v Speaker 1>when somebody is going to be a big deal, and
<v Speaker 1>they like to get on the train early to feel
<v Speaker 1>like they're the ones selecting that particular person for to
<v Speaker 1>be anointed as the next big thing, right. Daniel Bryan
<v Speaker 1>is just one example that comes to mind, among many others.
<v Speaker 1>Obviously willing Cody Rhodes into the main event of WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>forty instead of Rock Versus Roman. We all know that.
<v Speaker 1>So fans like to feel they're in control, and when
<v Speaker 1>they feel like a guy like bron Breaker, which the
<v Speaker 1>company seemingly is in lockstep with the with the audience,
<v Speaker 1>that doesn't always happen right. A lot of times there's
<v Speaker 1>an oppose or an opposition naturally between creative and the
<v Speaker 1>casual viewer. There's just like we're natural enemies. Even though
<v Speaker 1>we want the same thing of just a great product,
<v Speaker 1>our ideas a lot of times will clash and how
<v Speaker 1>we feel it should be done. Obviously we don't have
<v Speaker 1>any true say they do, and then we react and
<v Speaker 1>they adjust accordingly. So it's a bit of a juxtaposition there.
<v Speaker 1>But in this case, I think everyone agrees that bron
<v Speaker 1>Breaker is going to be a big deal, So it's
<v Speaker 1>hard to be a guy that has also shown over
<v Speaker 1>the last several weeks that he is pretty damn good
<v Speaker 1>on the mic. Not as good as Punk, but that's
<v Speaker 1>a crazy high bar. But he's incredible in the ring.
<v Speaker 1>We know what he's going to be. Seampunk beating him
<v Speaker 1>clean is another issue that a lot of people have.
<v Speaker 1>I is it surprising based on w w we's booking
<v Speaker 1>a little bit because I was expecting maybe a Chris
<v Speaker 1>Jericho or you know, you're you're thinking like that, You're
<v Speaker 1>thinking wacky stuff. You're thinking interview interference from Logan Paul
<v Speaker 1>or Bronson Reed or Paul Hayman or Austin theory, and
<v Speaker 1>we didn't really get any of that. Punk won clean,
<v Speaker 1>and they won He won clean Againste's top prospect that
<v Speaker 1>they have anointed. I mean outwardly, not internally, not the
<v Speaker 1>dirt Sheet reports, outwardly on the mic many times, this
<v Speaker 1>is your future multi WrestleMania main event guy, and Punk
<v Speaker 1>still beats him clean. I understand people's concerned about that,
<v Speaker 1>but you know what, I actually agree with this decision.
<v Speaker 1>It's here's the thing. Fans today have a shorter attention
<v Speaker 1>span than they ever have in the history of humanity. Right,
<v Speaker 1>our news cycle. Look at the news cycle, no matter
<v Speaker 1>how tragic, no matter how horrible, whatever scale of the
<v Speaker 1>tragedy is right, hundreds of thousands of people could die
<v Speaker 1>in a tsunami, and they have in the past. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I was alive in two thousand and four when the
<v Speaker 1>tsunami wiped out hundreds of thousands of people. How many
<v Speaker 1>mass shootings have we seen is unfortunately a lot in
<v Speaker 1>the United States and elsewhere. Obviously Australia has had a
<v Speaker 1>pretty rough year too. We've seen political craziness. I'll leave
<v Speaker 1>it there, and no matter what the story, it lasts
<v Speaker 1>a day, two days, if things are really crazy, five days,
<v Speaker 1>maybe a week, and then it's gone and people move
<v Speaker 1>on and move on with their life and move on
<v Speaker 1>with their life. Same thing applies here. A lot of it,
<v Speaker 1>I think has to do with the fact that we're
<v Speaker 1>carrying a glowing screen out our pockets and we just
<v Speaker 1>doom scroll our lives away. So our attention span is
<v Speaker 1>extremely short because everything all the time is demanding our attention,
<v Speaker 1>is trying to grab your attention. So with that being said,
<v Speaker 1>I kind of went way out there to bring the
<v Speaker 1>point back home bron breaker and this loss is not
<v Speaker 1>overall going to hurt him. He was put in the
<v Speaker 1>main event of a big money net Raw, in a
<v Speaker 1>championship match with one of the biggest stars in professional wrestling,
<v Speaker 1>and he lost after twenty six minutes. There's nothing to
<v Speaker 1>be ashamed about there. He's still extremely young. He does
<v Speaker 1>have some learning to do, especially when it comes to
<v Speaker 1>now he knows he has some experience in the big
<v Speaker 1>match situation with a big time opponent, a future Hall
<v Speaker 1>of Famer, in a big spot for the belt. He
<v Speaker 1>has that experience now, not that it's going to cure everything,
<v Speaker 1>but you learn and continue to learn and continue to learn,
<v Speaker 1>and you're gonna f up. You're gonna have botches, no
<v Speaker 1>matter even I mean, you could be a twenty five
<v Speaker 1>year vetin make botch. It happens. Nobody is perfect in
<v Speaker 1>the ring, nobody, no matter how many years. But the
<v Speaker 1>mistakes go away. You learn how to adapt and try
<v Speaker 1>to overcome those mistakes and make changes. As w W
<v Speaker 1>always says, pivot right you do. So I'm not worried
<v Speaker 1>about this punk one clean on the CM punk side
<v Speaker 1>of things. I think this is fine for him and
<v Speaker 1>needed for him to move into the Royal Rumble slash
<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania season. Seems to me that now Punk is going
<v Speaker 1>to be championed as we go into WrestleMania. I don't
<v Speaker 1>think they'll change it'll change hands before then. They certainly could,
<v Speaker 1>But you got to look at who's on the horizon
<v Speaker 1>and why they did this right? Why did they decide
<v Speaker 1>to have Punk beat one of their biggest prospects, Clean Clean?
<v Speaker 1>I think it's because they're looking down the line at
<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania and who do they have lined up? Well, it
<v Speaker 1>could be brock Lesner, it could be Seth Rollins. Seth
<v Speaker 1>Rollins I don't think is too far away from returning.
<v Speaker 1>Is it going to be at the Rumble? No, but
<v Speaker 1>I think he could be at best maybe a couple
<v Speaker 1>months away perhaps, which means he be chasing Punk. But
<v Speaker 1>if he's going to do that, how is he going
<v Speaker 1>to align himself with the guy that he always swore
<v Speaker 1>as long as he's champion, will he was going to
<v Speaker 1>do everything in his power to make sure he doesn't
<v Speaker 1>hold a belt, and if he does, he's going to
<v Speaker 1>do everything in his power to try to take it
<v Speaker 1>from him, make his life a living hell. See Seth
<v Speaker 1>Rollins can't come back and align himself with Punk. That
<v Speaker 1>would undermine everything that Seth Rollins has ever said. And
<v Speaker 1>you have to look at how Seth left if we
<v Speaker 1>remember bron Breaker and Bronson Reid put him down. So
<v Speaker 1>how do Punk and Seth co exist if they're both babyface.
<v Speaker 1>It's an interesting dynamic one that we'll have to Maybe
<v Speaker 1>it'll be like strange Bedfellows right, maybe see him. Punk
<v Speaker 1>and Seth Rollins have to are forced to tag up
<v Speaker 1>against Bronson, Reid and bron Breaker at the Chamber or
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, set main event or hell a month
<v Speaker 1>of net raw. Maybe they are temporary tag team partners,
<v Speaker 1>not friends, reluctant partners. There's a lot of anger and angst,
<v Speaker 1>but the primary targets are Bronson, Reid and bron Breaker.
<v Speaker 1>So upon Seth's return, I think that's probably the direction
<v Speaker 1>we'll go. We'll see if I'm right, and it all
<v Speaker 1>again all depends on Seth's rehab. I'm not his doctor.
<v Speaker 1>I'm certainly not in contact with Seth obviously, it's just
<v Speaker 1>my guess. He's probably a couple months away. We're looking
<v Speaker 1>at early March, late February at the best. You know,
<v Speaker 1>maybe Chamber would be the earliest he could possibly come back.
<v Speaker 1>But if you're optimistic, I the Chamber. If you're ultra
<v Speaker 1>optimistic living in a fantasy world, I the Royal Rumble.
<v Speaker 1>But I doubt it. But all signs point to WrestleMania
<v Speaker 1>for sure, with seth Rollins at least competing. So that's
<v Speaker 1>my analysis of Bronson Reid and the outrage and the
<v Speaker 1>disappointment surrounding see them punk and Bronson Reid losing clean
<v Speaker 1>and all the rest. You know, just remember our attention
<v Speaker 1>spends are just embarrassingly short today, no matter what the
<v Speaker 1>case is or what the news story is. And it's
<v Speaker 1>I mean, you look back right, you could just pull
<v Speaker 1>up the news stories like top stories of twenty twenty five,
<v Speaker 1>and no matter what the death, the tragedy, the natural disaster,
<v Speaker 1>geopolitical issues, war, you'd be like, oh, yeah, that's right,
<v Speaker 1>that happened. That, Oh that's right, that happened. That happened.
<v Speaker 1>I can guarantee you about eighty five percent of it
<v Speaker 1>you just forgot about. So with that logic in mind,
<v Speaker 1>with that mindset of today's culture in mind, you apply
<v Speaker 1>that to wrestling. It's why wouldn't it apply to wrestling.
<v Speaker 1>That's gonna go away quick. It's gonna go away real quick.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, John Cena retired and all, all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 1>everybody's like, oh yeah, John Cena retired. That felt like
<v Speaker 1>a while ago, right, And John Cena knew this on
<v Speaker 1>his way out, he goes three weeks going to care. Well,
<v Speaker 1>we're approaching three weeks, and it's not that nobody cares,
<v Speaker 1>it's just that we move on. That's just what we
<v Speaker 1>do as humans. That's what we do. So that is
<v Speaker 1>my mona net Raw review. If you want more, and
<v Speaker 1>you want more without the ads, Patreon dot com slash
<v Speaker 1>WWE podcast of course is where you should go, or
<v Speaker 1>just go to Apple and subscribe there. So thank you everybody.
<v Speaker 1>I'll be back in a few days with your well
<v Speaker 1>mail bag. That's right, mail bag. But of course we
<v Speaker 1>have a big week. I said this last week about
<v Speaker 1>the Jereuary fifth edition of Raw, which turned out to
<v Speaker 1>be not a nothing burger, but it maybe over hyped
<v Speaker 1>in my mind about what could happen. But next week
<v Speaker 1>Championship matches three Stages of Hell. Big week in Germany,
<v Speaker 1>So if you're in Germany, yeah, buckle up. Thanks everybody,
<v Speaker 1>we'll talk soon.
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for listening to the WWE Podcast. Don't forget to
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