WWE RAW Review: New Women's Tag Team Champions, Gunther vs Miz for the IC Title, Drew Confronts Rollins, R-Truth Shines

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I'm slash WWE podcast until men, We'll see you next time. Three
sixteen sent just with your ass is mind you can acknowledge me. Welcome to
the Raw review on the WWE podcast. It is Tuesday, December nineteenth,
twenty twenty three, and we are gonna talk about Monday Night Raw. That
was a fun one, I thought on a couple of levels, a surprising
one, particularly when it comes to the misses performance. Should I be surprised
about his performance, we'll talk about that. We also saw a really interesting
altercation between Becky Lynch and Naya Jacks, one that I'm very high on actually
and even complimentary if you can believe it, towards Naya Jacks. Ivy Nile
had a lot of fun with Rhea Ripley and showed her strength to Rhea Ripley
when she's essentially half her size. We saw Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre get
real with one another in a promo that I thought also delivered very well and
so much more so. Of course, the Cody Rhods and chins Gana Kamura
program continues to burn nicely, and so we're going to talk about that,
as I said, more and we're going to get into that in a minute.
But first, welcome to the WWE podcast. We are here about six
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righty, let's talk. Let's talk about it, and guys, just so
you know, I do have a bit of a cold today, so I've
been fighting the cold for a few days. It finally came on and so
if I sound a little congested, I apologize, but let's just get into
it. Let's talk about the Miz and gunther I match that you know,
when we saw it advertised, I think a lot of us said, hey,
maybe a decent match. Gun Through obviously retains and that's that well,
gun Through did retain to absolutely nobody's surprise. But to be fair, this
may have been the business best match in years. Does it hurt that he's
working with one of the best Intercontinental champions of all time and arguably one of
the best talents in the entire company right now? No, it doesn't hell
it hurt, and Gunther continues to put on clinics in the ring, and
he feels so much different because he doesn't work like everybody else. He works
slower, he works harder, and what do you mean harder, I mean
stiffer. Not that his effort level is higher than anyone else's, but his
style is a much more stiff style. And the MIZ, after really a
couple of years of just kind of flaunting back and forth and getting his ass
kicked by celebrities and being the butt of most jokes again, probably put on
his best match in a few years, and one that I think will help
catapult the MIZ further. Now I know a lot of you, there are
some of you out there at least that I know that I think the MIZ
is a cancer to this industry, and I have not been very supportive of
the MIZ in the past either. Okay, I'm not going to sit here
and pretend I've been the Miss's biggest cheerleader. I despised his days with John
Morrison, absolutely despise them. I think his involvement with a lot of celebrities
made him and the business look look weak getting his ass kicked by some fifty
five year old rapper named Snoop Dogg. Right, I know who Snoop Dogg
is, but you get my drift. He's always the butt of the joke
at times, he's been too jokey, and I didn't think that this run
of a baby face turned for him would be this successful, but it has
been. Even though it's only been a month or two, I think it's
already overachieved. And not that I want to see them Missiness champion. Okay,
I don't need to see him as world champion, but you can't deny
that the match here with gun Through it didn't help his case to at least
from a fans' perspective. Collectively, the fans, if you listen to them,
were very behind them is and chanted. This is awesome. It was
a very good match. The skull crushing finale off the middle rope had a
lot of people believing Gunther rolls out of the ring, the power bomb,
just all of it was just well done. Gunther's saying he's going to take
a little bit of a vacation, as he should and go back to his
home country in Austria and just enjoy life for the holidays with his family,
is really what's happening. I don't know. By the way, next week
on RAW, I think it's a recap show. Given that next week Christmas
Day is Monday. There's no way they're going to have a Monday Night Raw
on Christmas Day unless they pre taped it. So Gunther is and again should
be taking a few weeks off. I would imagine he's not going to be
back until the first raw of the new year. I say this every year.
The first raw of the new year is really when things get going again.
You can toss away the next week, okay, week and a half,
no, really the next twelve days of wrestling that they're useless, But
things will get kicked into overdrive on day one, which is going to be
the first day of January twenty twenty four, where we have a stacked Monday
Night Raw. Stacked Okay, I mean, it is a it's championship matches.
It's a ple that just happens to be broadcast on Raw. That's what
this is. And I had a feeling they would do something like this as
a stop gap between the long break between ples. I mean, remember it
was a two month break, and then we'll be into full rumble mode with
people to just declaring that they're in the rumble and they you know, we
will of course have many mystery mystery entrants on the both both men and women's
side. I know we haven't really talked much about the Royal Rumble match itself
because there's not a whole lot of entrance, and the favorites have already shown
themselves on the men's side, specifically with Cody Rhodes I think leading the pack
given that he is slated to face Roman Reigns for the championship and beat Roman
Reigns at WrestleMania forty. That's the tentative plan from what I understand, could
absolutely be wrong. But then you throw in l A. Knight, and
that that conversation you throw in, of course see him punk into that conversation
you throw in. I don't know if Randy Orton wants to be in the
Rumble. I guess he could, even though he's a match with Roman.
So there's other guys as well, okay that you throw into this and say,
huh, what if? What if? And I don't know if there's
any favorites on the women's side though. When you look at the women's side
of the Royal Rumble, there's not a ton of women that stand out where
you go, oh, that's definitely got to be so and so. I
mean, Becky Lynch seems to be the favorite, given that many people believe
she's going to face Rea Ripley at WrestleMania, But what about Jade Cargill.
I don't think Jade Cargill, by the way, even though I do believe
she will debut in the Rumble and have a really big spot tossing out forty
seven women, right, I mean, I'm sure she's just I mean,
she's just gonna dominate the women and have a cool moment or two in the
Rumble, going face to face with Naya Jacks or you know whoever, maybe
Bianca Bellair and she'll have a big moment, but she won't win. She's
not going to immediately be injected into the women's main event for WrestleMania. I
think that would be a mistake, especially if you're trying to keep her baby
face, so you have Becky lynchho's at the forefront, and then of course
a This has seemingly been the hot rumor as of late. Mercedes Monet I
e. Sasha Banks is heavily rumored to be in talks with WWE. Now
take that with a grain of salt. I'm not reporting or pretending that she's
confirmed to come back, but she's not signing with AW and I think that
there is significant interest on her end to come back. And the reason I
think not that I of course even talking to her. That this is a
fans perspective, but when you look at all of the things WWE is doing
right now, all of the conversation that's going on, they are the hot
product right now. They're the ones there are the promotion that WWE is talking
about, or that the wrestling world is talking about. AW has kind of
fallen on hard times right now. I know they got an event coming up.
I understand that they got a pay per view coming up, but they
have really kind of fallen out of the conversation for a lot of wrestling fans
as of late, and it wasn't helped at all by the Kenny Omega Chris
Jericho promo that they did. I even I watched that. It was embarrassing
bad. It's just really bad. This is the downside of allowing talent to
not have scripted promos and go off the cuff. You're seeing the potential risks
of it right in front of you. If you want to go look at
it, just prepare, be prepared for secondhand embarrassment. It's the Chris Jericho
and Kenny Omega promo bad. But it's just kind of the cyclical nature of
things. I mean, AWW and AW kind of trade places at times with
the spotlight depending on what big things going on. But the other thing you
had to think of with the royal rumble is m j F. Those three
letters are letters that I have been talking about for nearly two years. The
bidding war of twenty twenty four is now upon us. MJF has too men
talking about this since twenty twenty two, if you remember, and we still
don't know for sure whether or not he has signed with AW. Quietly,
we don't know anybody that knows or pretends to know is just lying. I
mean, WWE would be foolish to not at least see what MJF can bring
to the table. And I think that there are probably some feelers out there
for MJF. Given his contract, you know, expires in twelve days,
it's kind of a time crunch here, but I think the WWE should consider
heavily bringing him in. Now, what are the downsides to that? Well,
some of the concerns are that WWE won't allow him to do what has
made him so successful in aw to which I would say that would be ridiculous.
I know that Evince was in charge, perhaps things would be more in
a tight knit, micromanaged box. But with Triple H there, obviously he
has his parent company Endeavor now that he has to answer to, so we
can't just do anything he wants. But I think that bringing an MJF and
allowing him to do what's made him successful is obviously the best way to go.
And MJF is also a smart guy. Why would he go to a
place that's going to be ultra micromanaged where he can't do the one thing that
has made him as big as he is, and that, my friends,
is being able to talk off the cuff and scathe people on the microphone.
He's good in the ring, In fact, I would say he's almost very
good in the ring. But what is really big for him and his claim
to fame is on the mic. So I don't think MJF would go to
a place that wouldn't allow him to do that. So that being said,
MJF is still up in the air for the Royal rumble. I would say
unless we hear otherwise, perhaps before the Royal Rumble, that we hear that
MGF has resigned and it's all official. If we don't hear anything in it's
radio silence, that may be a very big indication that WWE has signed him.
So take a look at keep an eye on for that, all right.
If I was to guess, I would still believe that aw probably signed
him to like a one or two year deal, that's my guess, instead
of it being a four year deal. Maybe MJF is just gonna go with
yeah, uh, simply the most money, which I think Tony Kahn would
probably offer. Because look, this is the last thing I'll say in MGF,
I promise we're getting to raw. I veered off completely I understand.
But with MJF, AW needs MJF more than WWE does. MJF is one
of the pillars of AW. If he leaves AW, that's gonna hurt them
immensely there. I mean, I'm not saying that their lights are gonna turn
off and they're gonna shut down tomorrow, but that's a huge blow, huge
blow to AW if he decides to sign with WWE in nine AEW. So
we'll see. We will see, of course what happens over the next several
weeks, but all will be answered soon. I'm a big proponent of him
in WWE. I think that the he has outgrown AEW. In my mind,
I think he's outgrown it. He knows that WWE is the hot product
right now and that WWE is the more mature company when it comes to just
being in existence. There's more opponents there. It's a bigger pond, you
know. So that to me is what I hope he's looking at. And
we will see. But certainly back to Gunther, I don't know how the
hell I got on this, but Gunther in them is I loved it,
and Gunther winning I think was the right choice, absolutely the right choice.
So there, it's no other choice right now. But I will say Gunther
is getting probably dangerously close to dropping that belt. I think they're almost ready
to promote him to that next level. Look, Gunther still could be involved
in a World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania. I know that brock Lesner is
probably gonna go face to face with Gunther, probably maybe even at the Rumble,
and they have that face to face, and that's where things are started,
and you get to Gunther brock Lesner at WrestleMania. I think that's likely.
But there's still a chance that if you take the belt off of Gunther
in the next couple of weeks, even after the Royal Rumble, you could
still insert him into the World Heavyweight Championship picture. I don't know if they're
ready for that, but I wouldn't count it out. So alrighty our truth,
Let's move on to our truth. Man. This dude is a he's
a national treasure, Okay. He has that connection with the crowd that cannot
be manufactured. It can't be drawn up in boardroom, it can't be forced.
It just happens. It just happens, and there's nothing you can do
about it. Our Truth has that organic connection with the fans that is very
rare and it's very difficult to acquire or to have, and it's one that
Danan Bryan had. It's one that I think l. A. Knight has
to some degree. And Our Truth and Our Truth here was really good on
Monday night. His shirt that he just made up himself with the Judgment Day
and he taped on and Our Truth was really funny. He even absolved the
Judgment Day of the beatdown, saying it was just the initiation, which was
funny, like he's being inducted into a fraternity or something, and that was
just the hazing portion of it that was really funny. He was able to
forgive the Judgment Day for that, thinking it was something other than it is.
He's just a genuine funny dude. And his match with JD McDonough and
the Miracle on thirty fourth Streets Miracle on thirty fourth Street fight, that's ww
tradition. It was fine. It actually is more than fine considering that Our
Truth is in his fifties and he's still performing like he's in his thirties,
and he never almost never has a match on WWE television anymore. He may
have, you know, workouts. I'm sure he does on his own or
at the performance center or whatever ring they have set up before the show to
keep himself loose and ready to go. But our Truth here, excuse me,
had a really fun match with JD McDonough, who, in his own
right did a nice job, but it was Our Truth's time. He put
JD through a table. The stipulation was that the loser would leave Judgment Day,
assuming that Our Truth is in Judgment right, which is also half the
joke. JD loses, but he's not kicked out of the group, and
Our Truth is victorious here. So now, the one thing I'll say about
Our Truth I think I've said this before, is with that organic connection that
is a foundational piece to a really successful championship run, because the fans already
love you on a real level. They have this real love for you,
and he, I think is owed a championship run, or at least should
have had one a long time ago. And I don't mean with some twenty
four to seven title. I mean with the Intercontinental or hell, the world
title. I think if you ever put our Truth in that position where he
wasn't all all the time jokes, and I'm okay with that, because,
honestly, that is what makes Our Truth so endearing, is his personality and
his lightheartedness and his ignorance and you know, giving everybody a chance and being
kind of just, you know, off in the clouds a lot of times
with the things he says. That's absolutely part of it. But if you
were ever to get Our Truth in some kind of position to make him world
champion, I think the fans would buy into it. I think they would
love it. I think they would embrace it, knowing what it is,
knowing that Our Truth is probably not going to hold the belt for long,
but it's a fun moment. It's a deserving moment for Our Truth, and
I think he would hold the belt with respect. And it's just I feel
like deserved, and I just I don't know if they never considered it,
or if they always just looked at Our Truth as this comedic relief character of
which he does an excellent job of and is extremely difficult to do in an
effective way. Very few guys in the history of wrestling have been able to
do that. And it just feel like they missed the boat on this one.
And I'm not asking for a six even a six month run a hell,
I took a two month, three month run with Our Truth as champion.
I think it'd be fun. The problem is you have to have Our
Truth facing a heel that's a long standing champion, and obviously that's not in
the in the cards at all right now. So I'm not saying it's gonna
happen in the near future. And of course he's not getting any younger either,
But I think Our Truth as champion for even a couple of months would
be so much fun. And imagine the crowd. You can hear that you
deserve a chance, can you not? For Our Truth? Man, this
guy can still wrestle. That's the thing too. He doesn't, you know,
he's not exactly you know, the Creed brothers in there, but he
doesn't need to be, you know, oh who he is and what he
is, So just the thought. But this win against j D McDonough was
fun. I have no issue with it. I would imagine they're going to
continue with this art truth stuff for a little while longer, especially given that
he won the match this week, which means he thinks in his mind that
he's still in the Judgment Day even though he was never going to begin with.
So it's a lot of just kind of lightheartedness as we get into some
heavier stuff. All right, so let's talk Let's see what we get into.
So let's talk about the match of the Creed Brothers for the tag titles
against the Judgment Days Finn Balor and Damian Priest the Creed Brothers. I know
this was the main event of Raw, Okay, I understand that, but
this to me was a match that got cut short given that it was only
seven minutes long on Raw and it was they were just a victim of being
at the end of the show where other segments went long. This was probably
slated for twelve minutes, eleven, thirteen, fourteen, maybe even fifteen minutes.
Creed brother matches should not go quickly typically, and you know, not
everyone needs to be a twenty five minute match, But in the main event,
why wouldn't you want the Creed Brothers to be able to show off everything
that they're capable of to the fans, and they maximize the minutes. You
know, they had a fun match for as short as it was. They
really did, and we got character development, we got some fun character development
of who they are, what they are, what they you know, their
amateur background. That's exactly what we needed because up until that point all we
knew was, yeah, they're kind of boring in their entrance and what they
wear, but ma'am, when they go in the ring, they feel like
real athletes. So but this was exactly as far as what the match was
and how long they got, which was what Again, seven minutes long of
a match, they did exactly what they needed to do. Actually, excuse
me, it was sixteen minutes. I think the Hulu version cut it a
bit, but so everything I just said is completely wrong. That's what I
get for the Hulu version. Nonetheless, this match, regardless of the time,
still delivered. Okay, this match still delivered in a way that showed
you what the Creed Brothers are about, which is raw power, young athletic,
gifted athletes, brothers, real collegiate athletes, amateur wrestling background, in
your face, just athlete, And that to me is what they have to
live on right now and the character development stuff can continue to slowly come.
So having the Creed Brothers Lewis here was also the right move though, because
the Creed Brothers losing or winning would have been I think too much too soon.
The crowd's are not ready as much as they're starting to get on board
with the Creed Brothers. If the Creed Brothers have had won this match for
the tag titles, I think that you would have had the crowd go cool.
But I don't know if I'm ready for this yet. You know,
we like them, but we were not dying to see them champions yet,
so I think it would have been too much too soon. Plus again,
the lack of character development for the Creed Brothers right now, which will come
with time, would have been a mistake if you gave them the belts.
So this was the right move. Although they had me believing at times with
the cannon ball, you know, that was very convincing. It was all
a lot of fun. And the brutus ball, I'm sorry, not the
cannon ball, the brutus ball. All right. We then got the match
of jay Uso versus Ludwig Kaiser. This was ten minutes and believe it or
not, did not did not make the Hulu cut of raw. Jay Uso,
who as hot as he is, did not make the Hulu cut of
raw. It's not I don't think that's a referendum on Jay. This match
is just really I don't think that consequential, which is what they looked at
here. But this was just a match to help put over Jay and continue
the dissension and the disintegration of the Imperium group, and Jay Uso sparing Kaiser
and then hitting him with the top rope splash for the win was a the
right move and we did get Kobe Kingston. However, who was that rings
I took out Vinci with Trouble in Paradise. That's when, of course Jay
hit the spear on Kaiser and hit it with the splash for the victory.
So that was fine. The only issue I have, and you guys know
what I'm probably gonna say, is a covey dresses Santa Claus. You know,
it really kind of fits him, the goofy, nothing bothers me,
everything's cool, just goof That kind of fits Kofe, all right, And
so that he's kind of the perfect candidate to play Santa Claus. I have
to say, Gophy Kingston is he's good in the ring, good family man,
seems like a genuine human being, but his honor character is uh it
battles, COVID battles Cody Roads in my mind for insufferableness. But I'll just
leave it there. I don't want to get too down on COVID a Santa
Claus even though it's just yeah anyway, all right. So we got also
I'm going a bit reverse here McIntyre coming out to interrupt seth Rollins after he
said, wait till you see what he does in twenty twenty four, he's
going to defend his title against Drew McIntyre at the Day one event. So
again a pl disguise does raw. We got McIntyre coming out and mcatyre said
that there are people in the back or are turning a blind eye and kissing
arse. When it comes to seem punk, Why does would you actire always
have to say urs? Is he not capable of saying ass? Or does
he have to always throw in like the Scottish accent on purpose? It's weird
when he does that. It's like he's PG ing himself on purpose when the
word ass is more than a compliant with PG standards today. So when he
says are so, I'm like, who were you worried about? Who are
are you worried? About cussing that someone you know is watching that you don't
want to cuss, or you just sticking with the Scottish accent of that's how
they say ass in Scotland. Not sure, but he does this all the
time, all the time. It's just like kind of soft. Just say
ask dude, okay uh, he said. Rollins said what needed to be
said to punk and that makes him a real leader. He talked about to
his trip home that made him feel guilt, and he questioned whether his sacrifices
to his family have been all worth it and said that his mother's passing and
sacrificing Harry spoke about it and said he needs the title to show what the
sacrifices he made were worth and he'll do whatever it takes to take the title
from Seth. At day one, Rollinds was a big inflicted here, saying
he doesn't know whether to believe him or call him out on his crap.
And Rollin said McIntyre told him he would find a way back to the top,
and he's done that, but what makes McIntyre think the outcome will be
any different than they met when they met the last time? And Rollins said
he looked at a man in the eye last week and told him that he
hates him. Rolin said he'd meant that, but he doesn't hate McIntyre.
He pities him. And he said, Merry Christmas. I'll see you in
a couple weeks. And Rollins tried to leave the ring, and then mctyre
grabbed Rollins. They brawled for a while and McIntyre eventually got the upper hand
and shoved Rollins's head into the barricade and McIntyre performed a Alabama slam onto the
ring steps and Rollins came up clutching his left elbow. So this seems to
be the babyface heel dynamic right now that the w is following is get the
heel to injure a baby face body part. That's what this is, and
then that way they can work that during the match and tell the story of
the baby face trying to overcome their injury while the heel targets a body part
that's injured. You're seeing with Kevin Owens right now too, right with the
injured hand quote unquote, he saw it with Sammy's ain with his knee.
Obviously, Sammy's out for a little while. I think There's also happened in
the women's division two, so you're seeing it over and over here and it's
still effective. Though just because it's being done several times doesn't mean it's the
wrong thing to do. But Rollins is going to clearly have to overcome this
quote unquote elbow injury that McIntyre inflicted on him. And I think there's a
real chance, a real one, that dramacintyre wins at day one, not
saying it's garrettee and we still could have some kind of a triple threat at
the were a rumble event for the world title, but this is out of
all all the title of defenses. And I said this the last time that
Drew and Seth faced one another, but this time isn't even elevated. It's
even more elevated that Drew could win this because I think Drew is a heel
champion. Lends itself to as I talked about last night with Anthony DeMarco and
La Night, Drew McIntyre world title match, that to me is a probably
where they're going. But either way, this is a great way to put
real heat on McIntyre. I think that this continues to be a successful run
for McIntyre. There's just no two ways about it. All right, where
are we going? We've got Ivar versus Akira Taza. Ivar took out Akira
in four minutes, in five seconds. The finish was Ivar throwing a spin
kick at Tazowa and then went up top, but Tizau was able to cut
him off, and he threw a leaping in ziguri at Ivar and then joined
him the ropes. Ivar stuff to Hurricane Rana attempt and ended up power slamming
him from the middle rope before penning him. So Ivar defeats Akira Tazawa in
four minutes. So Ivar, I think he didn't he lose last week to
was it Bronson Reid? So this kind of re establishes Ivar a little bit
in his winning ways. Beating a Karatzau isn't exactly something I'd put on my
resume, but Ivar is a force to be reckoned with, and I think
he's really good as a singles act, honestly, maybe even more entertaining than
he was with Eric when they were the Viking Raiders. So but something tells
me they will probably revive that tag team when he comes back alrighty, we
have then Chelsea Green and Piper Niven versus Kayden Carter and Katana Chance for the
beloved women's tag team titles. Now, the match itself was entertaining, Okay,
it was still at okay match. This was a match that lasted almost
eleven minutes, so probably the longest women's tag team match in many months,
okay, but it was for the women's tag belts. And we saw new
champions, new champions Crowd, Cayden Carter and Katana Chance. And they did
also a little bit of character development here, just as they did with the
Creed Brothers, followed the same formula, got a little bit of a background
on these two, not in terms of their past, but they did get
some kind of pre taped promo that I don't think was as effective as the
Creed Brothers at all, but gave them a little bit of Mike time.
That it's better than none, I guess. But the crowd wasn't really super
into this. They popped for the title change, but they popped for the
title change for the sake of the title change. I don't think that if
you brought I could take Caden Carter, Katana Chance out next week that they're
going to have really any significant variation in crowd support. I mean, the
crowd only popped for that because they're in attendance for a title change. It's
still a big deal, So they're kind of popping for the circumstance, but
not really in you know, out of happiness for Caden Carter, Katana Chance,
if that makes sense. So I hate to say it, this this
title until unproven otherwise, And I hope, I am. This didn't mean
anything to me. I mean, it's sorry, it didn't. This is
a These titles, these women's tag titles, are an albatross. They are
a burden to carry. They're not an asset until i'mproven otherwise. And maybe
we have, you know, somebody break the hecks that is on these championships,
because they has brought nothing but doom and gloom for the team that holds
them anywhere from injuries to being off TV, which is probably the most significant
symptom of being a women's tag team champion is you will be off TV for
several weeks if you win the belts. And also WWE doesn't seem to take
them seriously with how infrequent that they they put them even in untelevised Having even
the women who are tag teams talk about them on TV isn't even happening.
So until WWE takes it seriously, I can't take this title change seriously.
Sorry. Ww has been down this road before. They've done this a dozen
times where they try to use the women's tag belts to help make a tag
team and wrong formula. The belt doesn't make the team, the team makes
the belt. But given that the belt has such a little equity and value
in it, I mean, Caden Connor and Katana Chance may add value because
there's so little to begin with anyway, and I hate saying that, but
w W until they prove me otherwise with consistent quality stories surrounding the Women's Tag
Team Tag Team Championships, can't take this seriously. And honestly, I just
I just don't care about this title change. Again. I'm truly hoping this
changes as many of you I'm sure are hoping the same thing too. But
Chelsea Green continues to be very entertaining. She is the star of this of
this program, no doubt. Alrighty we got gunther or, I'm not gun
through. I'm sorry, shins K who's reading from a story book, and
he spoke about his few with Cody to the rhythm of Twins the Night Before
Christmas, which was really good. It just can we make it like an
official thing? Can Can we take that the Shinskanakamura version of Twas the Night
Before Christmas and make that like a national change, a sweeping change across the
board and replace it with the reel Twas the Night before Christmas? Can we
do that? That was I loved it. I love this story that he
created. Once he was done, though, he was attacked by Cody Rhodes
backstage and they brawled. Knakamura rolled over the barricade they Cody fought off security.
He was about to hit the crossroads on Shinsky on the announced table,
but security pulled Nakamura away and then Knakamura was entering. He entered the ring
and smiled and I let them fight, chant broke out. This was effective.
You get another really good promo from Shinske, another really good animation promo
from the the team production team at WWE where they're doing those anime things for
Shinsky which are brilliant, and you also get uh, you know, an
enraged Cody. You finally get to see them at least have some kind of
altercation where Cody isn't just laying at his back and he gets a little bit
of revenge on Shinzk. Shins Key smiling after the attack was a nice touch
to keep the heat on him. You didn't get to see Cody hit his
finish on schinz Key. That's a nice touch. So there's more than there's
There's a lot left to be desired, but that's a good thing. I
may not like Cody Rhodes his babyface character, but I can say objectively that
this is working. These two are working well together. Just as it surprised
us with the Seth Rollins and shins Key program that I think many of us
were pleasantly surprised and it over delivered on a lot of levels there. So
Cody and Shinzky is going to be a lot of fun and I believe they're
going to face each other at Day one as well. So alrighty we uh,
I think have covered it. We already went through the icy title.
Yeah. So oh Lynch, Becky Lynch, she said that she's the moneymaker
that whole thing with Naya Jacks because she'll fight anyone any time, anywhere.
It's just I don't want to get on a diatribe about it, but it's
just it's written somewhere Ine's contract with all talent that they must if they're a
babyface declared that they'll fight anyone, anywhere, anytime, especially if they're champion,
and also welcoming us to miney net Raw. It's ridiculous they keep doing
it. I'm gonna keep saying it's ridiculous. Why is it ridiculous Because the
talent shouldn't care about and welcoming you to the show. They should care about
the stories that are going on with their own careers. And here's the thing.
I wouldn't mind it if it happened like once in a while of a
few months. But when you know the first thing out of anyone's mouth,
matter who is coming out and what storyline is going on, that saying the
words welcome to my net raw supersedes any and all things going on. It
infuriates me because it tells you that the company is mandating this for some odd
self fulfilling reason. It can't be the talent doing this on their own.
It's a small thing, but it takes you out of the moment. Instantly,
when you know, the very first thing anyone's gonna say, baby face
comes out, heal comes out. It's the first thing why they're not out
there to be spokespersons for the company. They're out there to win championships,
get revenge, whatever the case may be. And the first thing out of
their mouths, the first thing on their minds is making sure that we are
welcomed to the show that we already know we're watching. Sorry, it's just
angering stupid, and it's to take me out of the moment moment. Okay,
one that was not a take me out of the moment moment was a
Lynch and I, Becky Lynch and I had Jack's segment here as I went
alluded to a little bit here. Lynch said that Jackson is the one who's
afraid of what will happen and said Jack's entire existence in w W has been
on the back of someone else's name. And she said, first it was
Jackson's cousin, Jackson's cousin's name, and now it's hers. Lynch said she'll
go down as the greatest ever to do it. While Jackson's claimed to fame
is that she broke the nose of the greatest to ever do it and challenge
Jackson. The best thing to me about this promo before I get to the
physical part of it, was that after Nia jacksonnounced she's going to be entering
the women's whar I rubble Lynch said that, yeah, no one here cares.
It's like, yeah, it's true, like no one cares, like
literally no one. We don't care. We don't care. So that was
very, very funny and very true, so that was good. We also
got again Jack's pretending that she was duped into a match, telling the referee
to get out there. Referee does show up, and then in true heel
fashioned Nia Jack's backs down at the last second and says, we're gonna do
this on my time, which is you guessed it the Day one event.
They didn't call it the Day one edition of mind net Raw. They just
called it Day one, so it's been upgraded. It's not a pl E,
it's still in raw, but they're not mentioning it being a raw.
So I don't know, but this is really good. Now. After this,
we after Jack said, see how badly you want this, you're not
gonna get it, And Jack said Lynch's daughter is gonna cry and ask her
why she's uglier than usual after she breaks her nose again in San Diego in
two weeks and Jack started to walk to the back, and Lynch left the
ring and hopped on the back of Jack's from behind, and then Lynch had
security pullar away, and then Jack's punched Lynch from behind, and interestingly,
Michael Cole called that a cheap shot. Yet when Lynch attacked Jack's from behind
five seconds earlier, there's no mention of it being a cheap shot. It's
just the dichotomy of who's the babyface and heel matters based on the announcers framing
them how they want them to be framed of Oh it's a cheap shot,
or oh they're just taking advantage. Right. When it's a babyface, the
babyface is just being taking advantage of the situation. When it's a heel doing
it, it's a cheap shot. So see how things work here. I'm
not crapping on it. That's how they should present it. It's just things
that you notice as you watch the product more and more. Now Jack started
to walk to the back while gloating Lynch left the ring, and hopped on
the back of Jackson security as I said, pulled Jacks away or pulled Becky
away, and Jax put her down with like one punch. And this is
gonna be a fun match. It's not gonna exactly be match of the night.
You know Jackx's limitations. She's not gonna flip flop and fly all right,
you already know what she is, and so it still can be fun
though, because Becky Lynch can work with anyone. This is a match that
you look at and go, well, Becky should win this, because the
idea is to move her on to the Roora Rumble and presumably WrestleMania with Rhea
Ripley. But what if NYA wins this? I mean, there's it's possible.
We'll see. But this program to me is also over delivering, and
one that is new for Becky, new for Naya Jacks. Naia Jackx is
so unlikable genuinely as a person. You can feel she's unlikable that it comes
She's cast perfectly and it comes through on the screen. So I have no
issue with this. Ni Jaxson's a heel makes total sense, and I have
at least some interest in this program, so credit to both women. So
alrighty, that might do it. I don't know if there's any little thing,
probably a little nuggets here and there I've missed, but that generally is
it for money at raw. I'll be back tomorrow with the mail bag.
If you want to send in your questions, you can do that at mailbag
at wwepodcast dot com. If you're a patron, put in the subject of
the email that you're a patron, so I know to prioritize your questions.
Keep it brief, please, you know again, three minutes or less.
If you read it out loud to yourself and it's more than three minutes,
cut it down. We have to rock it through them as quickly as we
can to make sure everyone gets an opportunity to be heard on the show.
And I'll be back tomorrow, as I said again, Plus my voice is
going as you can hear. I'm battling a lot of upper respiratory stuff right
now. So I hope that you guys enjoy the rest of your day and
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go add free everything lots of perks and fun stuff as you go up into
yours, so that'll do it for me. Thank you so much, everybody,
take care, I'll talk to you next time. Thanks for listening to
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