In.

The Jail.

Nxt Champion Carmelo Hayes had his in ring raw, in ring debut on this week's episode. Is he? Wwe's Next Big Thing. Let's chat about it. I am Luke Owen, DAD, and I'm joined by the professor, the truth, Dan Leighton. Welcome to the rest of podcast review of Monday Night Raw. Please, if this is your first time here, press the subscribe button. Give us a little thumbs up to help us in the algorithm. And if you're watching this on demand, leave a comment down below or send us a tweet if you're listening to this on the audio media. If you're feeling fancy. If you're feeling fancy with your thoughts on this episode of Monday Night Raw. But if you're watching live, get in your.

Ultra net.

To wrestle. Com support. We'll read out all of them above the five US dollar amounts. Coming up later in the show, we're also going to be announcing the next two names in this year's Jam in the Jar. Tomorrow here on the Rest of our podcast channel, we will be doing the draw for who will be the representatives within the Jam in the Jar ladder matches, as well as the predictions for the LiW match. But the Jam That Championship between Pete and Tempest. Goodness, that's great. Crown an actual undisputed champion for a change.

They're going to be hanging. They're going to have to climb over each other.

It's going to be really awkward. The long arm pub and brewery. Also more on that in a little bit. But first we are going to kick things off by talking about Carmelo Hayes. Hayes and Seth Rollins had a little bit of a friendship, some might say, going back to Nxt last week because Rollins was talking about how he was defending the championship. Carmelo Hayes had his back. Rollins had Hayes's back as well. And Rollins came out for this promo segment. I think we'll do the promo segment first where he says that, hey, look, Nxt champion Carmelo Hayes is at ringside. He puts over Carmelo Hayes and there was an Nxt chart. I don't think I've.

Heard on for a long time.

I haven't heard on Raw since 2017. That was quite a delightful thing. I want to thank him for having his back and promote the Darren Corbin match that's happening tonight on NFT as part of Gold Rush Night 2. I thought it was really... Last week's NFT was a massive success for them in terms of the ratings because they had Rollins wrestling on the show and that saw a massive bump comparatively to what an NFT usually gets. I think them doing some good cross promotion here, featuring Hayes on this show, saying, Hey, if you tune into NFT tomorrow night, this is different to them running.

Adverts for an NFT. It is because half the time I skip through those efforts because I can't tell if they're for the USA Network or whatever.

But even if USA were running them, it's not the same as Seth Rollins coming out and being like, You should watch Nxt Tomorrow Night for.

X, Y, and Z. Also, there have been reports, obviously, that they are trying to hype Nxt as a third brand, not just as a developmental.

I have been hearing that since 2015.

I.

Know. Up to year 8 of this promise that it's the third brand.

I also personally don't think it should be. Whatever, we don't need that. But also it is an interesting thing. I think what's different this time is not just the idea of here's the NXT Champion, Kevin Owens as brought up as NXT Champion. It's like we have our stars defending their world title on an NFT. We have this guy here who's got a big match and I am as the world champion, I'm putting him over thing. So it's a lot more considered than in the past eight years.

Yeah, I would say so. I thought it was really good actually having a main roster star telling you why you should be watching a next season. Tomorrow Night, I think, is a really smart thing.

And last week we had Bron Break a promo, which was super interesting because, again, it's a good opportunity to without being called up and making a statement about you being called up and you live and die on this, you're able to go into it, dip your toe in and try it and then go back down.

We said on the show last week it wasn't like the greatest thing for Brian Brockles to come up and just cut this promo backstage. It was a boy of way. Huh, yeah. What was the point of that? I think this week was a much better use of Carmelo Hayes, which we'll get into when we get to the match itself. Roland then called out Balor and noted that he's not 100 % after Balor's attack last week and he won't be 100 % of money in the bank. Interesting that that was also Cody Rose's storyline going into Clash of the Champions or whatever it was called, Night of Champions. And Bala appears, he tries to sneak attack Rollins in the segment to hit him with a chair, but Rollins gets the better of him. Bala eventually takes over and starts targeting his ribs, throwing him into the stairs, throwing him into the table. And he's going to hit him with a chair again. When Carmelo Hayes stops him, grabs the chair from his hand, and it's almost like Rollins and Hayes ran.

Off Balor. They were very much teaming up.

I had your back last week. I've got your back again now. So it's some nice... They're two champions of their respective brands, showing some mutual respect to each other. And it led to Fin Bauer and Carmelo Hayes having a match on Raw. And what was interesting, I felt about this match, is that this match had two goals, really. Give Bala a win, going into the pay per view on Saturday, because wins and losses don't matter, apart from.

When they do.

I think more importantly, perhaps crucially, point B, showcasing Carmelo Hayes Because I would put money on that this was a lot of people's first time seeing Hayes wrestle. A good, maybe like 70 %, 75 % %.

I don't watch NBC weekly. I watch their star events, takeovers, battle of the ground, anything like that. But I tend not to tune into the weekly show. So as a result, I know Carmelo Hayes, but I don't know him that well. And I can imagine that I'm not alone in that. There's a few people who will be seeing him for the first time, and I think it was a.

Pretty good showing. He was great in this match. He got to do all of his big spots.

And they were great. Bauer's a really good person to put in with because he's going to be able to deliver for Carmelo. I think of the Springboard tornado DDT, which I just loved because between Cody and Osprey, we're seeing a lot of that Springboard move situation. But there's something about I'm facing the other way to you that I'm going to mention with my Springboard DDT take you over. But as a piece of logic works, which I really like, I loved the this fin is dangling over the ropes and the leg drop. There's a lot of great moves that we're seeing of his style. So in that respect, I think it was really good.

Yeah. And Bala 1, clean. There was no shenanigans here. Bala just hit the Kuda Graa and he got the win. And you are in a position where at the end of it, I was like, Huh. I think with the benefit of hindsight, I don't think I would have booked this match. Particularly because Carmelo Haynes has a championship match tonight. He's defending his title tonight against Darren Corbin. T his, I suppose, is when you come into the argument of.

Well.

He's not a real world champion because you wouldn't have done this to Seth. You wouldn't have done this to Roman. But you can do to Carmelo Haynes because he's.

Not a real world champion. Not to be... I mean, people don't like it when they do the sports metaphors. But it's like in the FA Cup when you have the person who's at the top of League 2 facing the person who's at the top of the Premier League and it's cool if they get a victory and you go, Oh, my God. They just knocked out the Giants. But you don't expect them to win. So in that sense, if NFT is considered to be the developmental brand, even their champion should be less than the challenger for the championship at the pay through. Absolutely. Makes sense. But there is a championship match tonight that you're trying.

To sell. That's what Ross was doing in his promo, was telling you to watch.

That match. So the question does become, if that's your problem and you're saying, Well, how do we deal with that problem? Well, don't book it. It's your choice to put that match together. And as much as I did enjoy the match, it wouldn't have been appropriate for Carmelo Hayes to win. But you have had a loss on the big TV show before.

His defense. You cannot be pinning Fin Bala here. Yeah. Fin Bala is going for the world title on Saturday, so you can't beat him. So then he goes, Well, I suppose we've got to beat Carmelo Hayes. But some of the people that chat here, he is a real champion. So you shouldn't be pinning your real champions. So yeah, I think it's that benefit of time type. Maybe don't book the match.

Maybe book a tag match.

Actually, you know what? Yeah. Like, set and Carmelo Hayes versus Fin.

And priest. Oh, Fin and priest, even. I was going with Ron Bricker.

Oh, actually, that would also have been really good. Or even Corbin. Yeah, because Corbin is going for the top tonight. So you could have done... Actually, the tags are really good idea. Because my other thing was like, you could have Darren Corbin interfere, cost Carmelo Hayes the match. I embarrassed you before your title match against me. You're now going as a loser. I'm a winner going into this. And you can also tie that into Fin Balor as well. It was like, Well, Bala had help to win this. But Bala's got help in Dominic Mysterio, Damion Bresht, and Ria Ripley. There's every chance that one of those three or all three of them could interfere with sets and assess that at this point. You're then telling two different narratives based around two different characters.

And I don't like a dirty finish, but sometimes it works and sometimes it's appropriate. So if you wanted to do that interference, or if you just pick a finner partner like a run breaker, say, who has already lost a set or whatever, is a bit butthurt about it, that's the person who can take the pin. This is a made up sport. You can choose.

Your FA Cup thing is almost perfect, but also not.

Because it's a.

Legitimate sport. It's a legitimate sport where wins and losses are not determined.

They also matter. They do matter on a points level.

I think the benefit of hindsight probably would say don't book this match because I don't think this helped Nxt and the title match tonight. I mean, it helped Fin and you got it. It did help him. That's the thing is you've probably got to give Fin clean finish. Every time you come up with a solution, you're like, Well, that does this. Or, Well, that does this. Well, that does this. And yeah, the ultimate answer is don't do it. Or as you suggested, do a better tag.

Match instead. Because it's not too on the cell that I thought the match was good. I really enjoyed watching it. And in fact, there was a few others on the show tonight where I was like, I like watching this wrestling. And I liked what we saw of Carmelo Hayes. And ultimately, I don't think it hurts Carmelo Hayes when he gets a main roster call up because I do think because the question that we're leading with here is, is he the next big thing? Is it him?

To your point there, it's not like he's going to come up to the main roster in a year's time. People are like, Oh, it's that loser.

That guy.

Who lost to Fin Bala. Because no one looks at Walter and says, He's the guy that lost in 13 seconds at survivor series that one year. It doesn't mean you should have.

Done it.

But there are some people who can overcome these sorts of hurdles. Like, Karrion Kross could not overcome the hurdle of being beaten on his debut by Jeff Harding.

That just massively hurt all of his momentum coming up. Then he got the bad gimmick and then that just really killed him off before he got released, before he got brought back. But there are some people like a Walter because he's a special talent that don't get hurt by this. And I don't think Carmelo Hayes will be hurt by this. I think it hurts the title match tonight in the short term, but in the long term, doesn't really hurt him as a.

Performer or as.

A character within Wwe. And yeah, to our talking point of hand, is he the next big thing? Is he really him? I think there's so much upside to him. I know a lot of people have been singing his praises for the last year or so since the big Nxt 2.0 rebrand. I think his partnership with Rick Williams is very cool and it's very different within Wwe. But he has got a real special aura about him. When he made his entrance, it was one of those you're a ready made guy. You could be brought to the main roster next week and you would fit right in. You don't need another year of developmental to be able to do this.

There's something about the visual presentation of him. Even Sat in ringsides, he's got his glasses on. He's a sharp looking guy. He's a handsome guy. He's got the belt. It's really helpful when someone's got a belt to imagine them with the belt. You know what I mean? That sounds like a silly thing to say, but sometimes it's like, Could I imagine, for instance, Eddie Guerrero being the world champion, and then he puts the belt on and you go, Yeah, I can see it. Do you know what I mean? It's not a doubting of the person's quality. It's about you can't be what you can't see, that thing. Seeing him in this presentation puts him over. And then when you then get a match with him later on and the moves are that crisp, that delicious, that really nice wrestling, yeah, it works. I think he's a big star. What's really interesting, though, it's also there's a little bit of me that can't help but see Nxt is like, when you're in sixth form, when you're basically in the UK, you have primary school, then you have secondary school till year 11, then you can leave school if you want to, or you can do optional couple more years.

And those two years, you have the year 12 and the year 13s. When you get into year 13, sixth form, sixth form. When you get into year 13, the year 12s who have come and joined you in sixth form, I always look down and I'm like, Yeah, you are on our level. And there's a little part of me that sees him as like, He's a year 12.

Do you know what I mean? Did you have a common room in your school? Was your common room almost divided in half. Not deliberately so, but the year 12s go into one side and the year 13s go into another side. But then when you become the year 13s, you stay on your side because the year 12s are.

Coming in. No.

See, what we.

Had was was tables and chairs for one side and comfy chairs on the other. And the year 13 get the comfy chairs. And if you're a year 12 and you sat on a comfy chair, get.

The couch. We'll be tied, those year 12 trolls. Well, we took over a corner of our common room and we just plastered it with posters of bands or movies that we were into at the time. I basically just ran ink printers, just like printing off posters of the Evil Dead. No, we wouldn't have done anything like Jordan. I probably would have got in trouble for that. But I remember because I am old, you see, folks, using South Park character generators and stuff and making all of my friends into South Park characters. We'd print all those off and we had our corner of the room. It was dead cool. And then when we graduated year 13, the year 12s, who were then going up into year 13.

Tore it all down. Of course, they did.

No respect. And some of the teachers were really upset about it because they felt that should have stayed there and.

Remained there. Yeah, it was erasing you. Yeah, I don't like that. But my tangent for that point was that I do see Carmelo Hayes as the next thing.

He's a.

Current year 12. He's a year 12. I'm excited to see him enter the big... In the same way that I think Bro n Breakers. You look at it as like, Oh, the future is in good hands thing, but just not yet.

Just not yet. When I watch an XT, there's only a handful of people that I would say, You're going straight to the main event scene, or You really do belong in the main event scene. And that is people like, Yeah, I do think Bro n Breaker Carmelo Hayes is another one. Obviously, there's people like dragon Lee because he's got the experience like Tyler Bates, I think should be because he's got the worldwide experience and things like that. But there are loads of people that would be like, I would instantly bring you up and put you into a main event program. Carmelo Hayes is that guy, though. I would 100 % bring Carmelo Hayes up and be like, Let's make an instant main event out of this guy because I think he does have it. He has got that intangible it factor that cannot be described or cannot be like, I don't know, but I think he has got whatever.

It is. My only issue with that, because I think he has got it, I think it is him. I think it's not just a branding exercise. It is legit. When you come in and you go into the main event, there's no room for growth, right? And I feel like it's a problem, small p problem of the current generation of wrestlers who have exceedingly long careers is that, say you do your main event programme and you win the world title and then you lose the world title, where do go? Do you fall.

Back down? Sorry, it's not going to main event. I'm thinking of my best example I would bring up for this, bringing them in as main event is the Shield. Because they brought the Shield in and they just said, These are top guys. They are fighting the top guys. It's not like they brought them in and we're just like, And now they're going to be feuding with the prime time players. They're not really just feuding with these lower level guys. They're facing Brian Danielson, they're facing R yback, they're facing Kane, they're facing John Cener, they're facing the Bichs, they're facing Randy Orton. So you immediately set them up as the. We are told. We are told as a viewer, these are main event players. And that's what I can see you could do it. And they're already doing.

That at the moment. I was going to say, you're right. They are.

Doing that. Putting him in the ring with Fin Bala, associating him with Seth Rollins. He's a guy you can bring in straight out of a main event level.

That's a good point. That's a good point. Especially because I've also talked about, and I will talk about later on in the show, because I actually was quite bored during the set stuff. The main event here is currently the tag team and then someone who's wrestling Dominion Mysterio. So the main event in actually quite a broad thing.

Yeah, absolutely. I would say so. Because I was going up and down the Nxt call ups that they've done since the draft and it was like Odyssey Jones where? Whatever happened to that? Yeah. Von Wagner. J. D. Mcdonner. J. D. Mcdonner. He's had one match. Cate and Carter and the other one. They've had that. Katana Chance. Sorry, Katana Chance and the other one. They've had that maybe one.

Or two matches. Well, they were at a party.

But I feel like we've had quite a few Nxt call ups that have amounted to... And it's not like, Oh, give them time. It's been a couple of months and they're already doing anything with them.

That's true. I mean, yeah, this is.

The only thing for us to think do we do more with Hayes and he's only on the main roster.

Yeah, it is tricky.

But let's see what you have to say about this episode of Monday Night Raw when we get into your ultra chat documents. Like you, I cannot... Where's the... There it is. I've got it now. It's okay, folks, I've got the questions. Matt Hennessy kicks us off here to said, PW decided to say that Vince's fingerprints were all over the show. However, Better Resting Experience have also have a good track record for breaking, said the opposite. Honestly, watching the show, 85 % felt like a trip show with 15 having Vince Mcm an's fingerprints. Better Resting Experience also mentioned before Raw Ed that Hayes would be fighting a top name on Raw and that Champa Ms. Feud would be the catalyst for a Johnny Gargant a DIY return. Worked Resting also have a good track record and did report K. O. And Samy Zane will feud with DIY. A lot of those have been on the plans for quite some time. Worked Resting have been on that. Pw Insider, it's a funny one because there's the PW Insider report that Vince's fingerprints were all over the show and I think you can feel them a lot over this show.

But there was also the other reports that they're having meetings, Triple H and nick Khan are having meetings to try and.

Figure out how to stop it.

Figure out how to stop the Vince appearance because it's probably not needed right now.

The reports, when I read them, I'm like, This is such a toxic environment. This is such a toxic person who can't, Triple H, can't tell him no for fear of getting fired. How is any lowly writer supposed to push back? But I think the thing is, fightful in their reporting have said, We're basically not going to cover whether or not Vince was involved, because at this point, Vince is back.

He's just making changes.

He's involved. Now, when you see something like the roar after mania or smackdown last week where programs had been put in place, things had been set up in advance, Vince comes in, tears it all up, and then we get, as a result, a less good show, that's like, Oh, Vince is doing heavy interference here. An average show like this, and I do think this was an average show, or last week, which was a perfectly fine show, Vince is going to be interfering. That's just standard. I think looking for Vince's fingerprints is a pointless exercise because they're going to be there.

Triple H has learned under Vince. Even if something feels like it's a Triple H, or that feels like a Vince thing, it could just very well be a Triple thing because you pick up bad habits along the way.

You're so right. We were talking about this earlier about Triple H's booking being planned or whatever. I think.

A lot of the... I made quite bold proclamation in the office. I do think Triple H is the blandest booker in professional wrestling. I think he just books very standard shows.

I think he's up and down. I think I've seen some really good stuff. I think I've seen some absolutely fine stuff. I think the majority, I would say, were absolutely fine. Not to go over the top. I think the big thing for me that Triple H changed were the.

Presentation elements of it. Which are much better.

Trying to make championships mean a little more, giving people their first names back. Stuff that insult our intelligence. I felt like our intelligence was insulted a lot less.

Or giving people back their Nxt name. So you no longer do drop your Piper Niven. You're no longer Nikki A SH. You're back.

To Nikki Cross. Exactly. Or even like, Okay, so this isn't working. We're going to put you guys together because I remember this. We're going to get Champa back when he's ready or things like that.

Rather than just putting it back with the Meares, which could be a bit of a Vince.

Thing to do. It would have been a Vince thing to do. We're in this weird hybrid zone since I can't get over enough how gross this hostile takeover was. Being forced out for some really disgusting alleged activities, having to use company money to allegedly hush up these company activities. Then you're given quite a polite retirement and then toxic masculinity takes over and you force your way back on by hostile take everything and removing people from the board and putting yourself in there like you're in an episode of succession but you wish you were Logan Roy, come on. It's just all ick. It's hard then to then watch the show and think about, all of the fingerprints as a Triple H. I t's just bleh. I try and just not think about it in that context and just watch the show because unfortunately, he's there. And until something catastrophic happens, which I don't wish for on any person, he's going to be there for.

A while. Absolutely, yeah. But I think you can clearly tell by these shows, Triple H has still got the final say on things, at least in the most part. From what Feitful have said, a lot of the changes are just structural changes to the show, moving some segments around, like, Okay, well, let's grab... We'll rip up this first half hour and we'll rework this, but then the rest of it stays the same. When I say that I think Triple H is a bland booker, I just don't think he does a lot of things that are inspiring on shows. This week had really good wrestling up and down the card. You had Shinsuke Nekomura and Rico Shea. You had Waltzer and Samy Zane, and you had Carmelo Hayes and Fin Bala. You had the main event of Cody Rose and Damion P riest. That's the easy bit.

When you say that's the easy bit, that bears fruit in Triple H pay per views, which are generally very good. And all you need to do there is.

Put matches together. That's where he excels. He's a very good match maker. But I don't think that he puts together compelling... He doesn't put compelling television, but he's an excellent match maker because I think you'd be hard pressed to book Zane and Walter in a match and it's bad.

I think you can then also look back and see, Okay, so the women's Royal Rumble that he had a big heavy hand in the first one, I mean, was very well. I think the shows themselves, the big shows, you get some great moments. A ctually, when he says, I'm going to put you in a program with this person, actually, a good example of something recently and something from this show that I've actually really enjoyed is Cody and Dominic. I don't think this was part of his plan, but I think he's taken lemons and made lemonade in this particular program. It's a very simple program, executed well in the build, and we'll get to it later on. But to bring it back to the point, what we're really talking about here, which is the haze of call up, I actually think I don't see this haze call up spotlight happening under Vince. I see that as more of a Triple H thing.

Triple H and Sean, certainly. That I can certainly see. I mean, Hayes losing feels like that would have been the... I mean, the fact that I think they did that when Charlotte had like, I think she was on before she got called up and she was still in the next day and she had an Nxt title match that was coming up and she got beat by Natalia on TV on the Monday before the Wednesday Nxt match. And I remember the time being like.

Why would you do that? Why would you do it? Why have you brought her in for that purpose?

So that feels like a very thing. But the actual putting Carmelo Hayes on TV, that feels like a very much triple H thing to do. Last one we'll do from here for now, which is from Tyler Marcus, who said, I'm so excited for Saturday. I will be there live with you guys for both the watch party and Quizzle Mania. And I will sing the correct song for my landsman, Walter, when he chops the crap out of Matt Reddle.

Very excited, by the way, for this weekend.

I know a lot of people here's blood lines has been compelling. That is booked by Roman Reign.

This is it. Have I think the bloodline is compelling, but it's almost like it exists separately because damage control hasn't been.

Yeah, exactly.

He is. Isn't that much? A lot of it is Paul Hayman as well. Let's be clear, Triple H is not not involved in the Bloodline storyline. He's got final sign up. He's not signing off on it. And in fact, this is where my firm, hard belief that the plan was to put the belt on Cody Roads exists because the plotting out to have like, Okay, so what we want you do in this story lines is we want you to get to Kevin at the Rumble, S ammy at Chamber, tag the match for Samy and Kevin at the Rumble. Did that or did that not happen? That all happened. I would believe that structure was in place from Triple H thing. That was his grand idea. Go off and book it.

I trust you with it. I think that's what a great promoter does, which is allow talent to come to you and pitch ideas and say, here's something we could do and here's how you could map it out on Week to Week. And then you as the promoter slash the booker to be like, okay, well, we could do this on this, we do this. Maybe we change this and we do this here. And you work then with the talent to create a good story line. And that's what they've done with the Blood Manor. And that's why it is being incredible television and continues to be incredible television across WHO. So we are going to get into the main show in just a moment. But as Tyler has just pointed out there or Tyrell, how would you have said that?

Tyrell? Tyrolla.

Tyrolla Marcus? I do apologise. I'm bad at reading. We are doing a live watch along for Money in the Bank, which I'm very excited for. This Saturday live at the Long arm, maybe I'll get the little video playing.

Hello. We can do a little commentary over it like David Attenbury.

Which video is it? Is it this video? It is this video. Yeah, you nailed it. So we will be live here at the Long arm pub and brewery in Shortage doing a live watch along of Money in the Bank with 150 wrestle talk fans. Rabbit wrestle talk fans. And attendance who will be watching the show with us, reacting, joining us for live reactions and having some fun drinks, buy some cool merchandise if you don't mind. And we'll be doing live Quizzile Mania live too, which fun story, everyone. 15 extra tickets went on sale for that today and sold out in less than an hour. Oh, my God. Okay, brilliant. We've sold this show out twice and we've managed to sell out Quizzlemania for a second time as well.

Amazing. And I'm thrilled about it, clearly.

So I'm going to stop that video promo for a moment now because we have made the announcement that it is going to be Pete Q'Anel versus Tempest for the Jam That's.

Jam Kinship. L IW for Life until there's.

Gold on the line. Absolutely. And we announced yesterday the first two entrance into this year's Jam in the Jar, which was Sullivan and Oliver Davis. The next two entrance into Jam in the Jar are yours truly.

Oh, my God. Why do this every time. The first time I was like, You put my nude on.

When I asked you for the Rumble.

Yeah, I was nude in that one. I've got my full chest out in that one.

Look at that. This is how we're going to get the clicks.

It is. It is. Look, you're all welcome.

It's myself and Dan Leighton entering into Gem in the Job. My third Gem in the J ar entry looking to make it a three piece. The final two entries will be unveiled tomorrow here on the Restore podcast channel during the prediction stream, or the predictions video rather, where we will also be assigning wrestlers. Do you have any hopes of who you would like to get?

Yeah. And also EO Sky. I would like EO Sky. I would like Beckie. Although Beckie's touched the briefcase now, so maybe she's not going to win. If I could get EO, I'd be quite pleased about that. And then in the men's, I think it's got to be a lifehack. You got to be bigger than that. Or I wouldn't say no to a Logan Paul. But yeah, I need this. I need this because I had a challenge. I had a go at it, put the championship event at the Championship, and I was beaten by one solitary point by a person who isn't even the champion. So I need another go.

So as a little bit of fun that we're going to do here on the live reactions, I had an email from someone who was attending the event to say, I just want to let you know that I'm unable to attend because I've been surprised with a ticket to Money in the Bank as a graduation gift.

Amazing.

Congrats on graduating.

That's very fun. They were very kind to say, don't, I'm not looking for a refund on this, but if someone wants to have my ticket across... Forge it, we can't work it out that way. So we do have to just refund you your ticket. So I hope you enjoy that. But it does mean that live on this very show, there will be one ticket available for Money in the Bank. Our Money in the Bank party at the Long arm Pub & Brewery in Shoreditch. One solitary ticket. I will let you know when that ticket is available.

Also, if you're hearing that and go, I'd go with a friend, but I'm nervous about going, come on your own, because we keep saying this, you walk in, that's a very welcoming room. You'll have a lot of fun. So you're telling me that there's a possibility here of either selling this show out for a third time, or taking two sellouts and ending up with one spare ticket and ultimately not selling it out.

There is a chance that could happen.

That's.

So funny. I'm just quickly double checking. I'm not refunding the wrong person. That is right. You see that person's name there? Yeah. That is... Yeah.

Yeah.

That looks about right to me. That looks about right to me. Okay.

If you get a refund that isn't you.

Please let me know and I'll figure you out and I'll sort it out. But that means that issue has now been refunded. If I go to the dashboard, one ticket is currently available for the show. Our moderators will be spamming the link, so you go into that. So if you haven't got your ticket yet to come and see our live watch party at Money in the Bank or for Money in the Bank this weekend at Long arm Pub and Brewery.

You're right? Yeah, I'll tell you in a second. Karine. Karine. You sure? Yeah, my mother just said something. I need to confirm that. You do show, I'll check.

Oh, no, I saw someone mention this in the chat. Well, we'll come up to this very, very shortly. So yes, just to quickly to have a refresh. The ticket has not been sold yet. So you still got time, everyone. Right, Dan, do you want to just break the news now? I'm not going to believe it until I see it. It was reported by Variety. She's toot it.

Kathy Kelly has been moved to smack down. Oh, no.

I'm afraid.

I got too thirsty. I thirsted too close to the sun. Variety?

The rumors are true. Apparently someone in the chat said, Variety have reported that Kathy Kelly has been moved moved to smackdown and will no longer be part of the Monday Night.

Raw broadcast team. She tweeted, see you on Fox. Oh, no. We're getting Jackie Redmond, all the respect to Jackie, but you are my Kathy. Kathy will now move to smackdown. I mean, at least you'll be with Dakota Khai.

I thought this was a... Okay, Dan's going, everyone. Everyone, please press F for respects in a chat. Fine. Anyway. I gave the show through out five s poilers when we get to the end of this, but I gave this a minus five stars because it took 90 minutes for Kathy to be on.

And.

There was no Alpha Academy match either.

If she's going to be on smackdown as of this Friday.

You're going to smackdown.

This Friday. I believe I'm going to.

Smackdown this Friday. Your dream of taking her out to all bar one and not being able to get a seat.

It could.

Still happen, lads. I'm telling you, Nandos is the way forward. They're seating upstairs, so you could probably get a table at Nandos.

You could. Yeah.

I mean, you could take it to five.

Guys, I guess. You could sit down at Nandos.

Yeah, you can sit down at five guys.

It's not nice, isn't it?

Nandos is nice. Nandos has.

That dim light thing to hide my pores.

Okay. No, yes. I think Nandos is your.

Best place. Oh, God. That's gutting.

This episode of Raw kicked off with Dominic and Ria in the ring. Dominic getting that local heat because he wasn't even able to speak over the booze that he was getting for this. Ria spoke for him. This brought out Cody.

And then Ria got booed. That's when you know you're doing well as a heel because Ria gets cheered because she's announced as Ria Ripley and everyone's excited. When your heat bleeds over into your other person who's also supposed to, by the way, be a heel. It works. Good for them.

Cody Rose came out and they had a bit of a tat art tat. There was some Cody referenced Cat in the hat, which I found delightful. I thought that was.

Really fun. Not only did Ria get booed more because of Dom, Cody got cheered more because of Dom as well. And then Cody references the cat and the hat. The quote in question is, Those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter. I'm referencing the cat and the hat, and I'm referencing the cat and the hat because you're a child. Scared little boy. Scared little boy. And I wrote down how I said, Cody quotes Cat and the Hat, and I'm like, what the F? And then somehow he makes it work. Why is he like this? How is he able to.

Do this? He's one of the most affable people on the planet because it was beautifully delivered because he said the quote and he said, do you know who said that? The Cat.

In the hat. The cat in the hat. How are you making this work?

Because there was 13,000 people in this building that were going like, where.

Do I recognize that from? And me at home going.

Like, I heard that. Oh, it's the cat in the hat. Mike Myers. Actually, him calling him a scared little boy genuinely seemed to get to Dom. Dom does not allow a lot of things to get to him because he's dumb dumb. He's prison Dom and all this stuff. But he was genuinely quite rattled and annoyed by the comment of you're a scared little boy. And so even to the point where Cody was like, Look, I'm offering up a free shot here. You keep taking your free pops at me, but I'm literally offering up a chance to come and hit me face to face. And Dom doesn't take it. Dom just walks to the back.

In fact, I think a lot of the, like I said earlier on, I think the Cody and Dom stuff all just really worked here. It's a really simple story, which is that Dom is in over his head and Cody is like, I'm really irritated by you and I'm going to swat you like a fly. But come on, have a go. I'm going to deal with these things. Do I think Cody should be in a bigger profile match at Money in the Bank? Yes. I think he should be defending his championship, but that's not what's happening. So what we're getting, I think, is a really solid little programme here. And later on, we have even more stuff from Dom, which I'll talk about when we get there, and from Cody, where I'm like, I'm really enjoying this one little storyline. You're all delivering it really well because Dom is playing that cocky but deeply insecure heel. Cody can see him, sees right through him. But as the big old baby face that he is, I am back down from this fight just because I think you're less than me, whatever. It's all going for me. It's all working.

And they're across this show as well. There's a lot of Dom, a lot of Rheal, a lot of Cody on this episode of Raw. Our first bit of action was Shintake Nakemora versus Rico Shea. I've mentioned a few times I've been really enjoying this triple threat feud with Bronson. Bronson was at Ringside and he didn't really get involved, but both men were essentially taking him out and then he eventually tried to step up and got ejected from ringside.

And I won't say anything about him getting ejected from ringside because I'll.

Get in trouble. Don't worry, I did it in the edited review. I've literally written here, can't wait for him to just come out again.

But.

This was a very fun action, slightly ruined for me by Kevin Patrick's innate commentary, which is at one point he went, Is this the matrix we're seeing?

Jerry Lawler made matrix references with the chick kick back in 2003, and even that was too late.

Is this the matrix we're seeing?

This was exactly the TV match that I want to see from these two. It did really well. There was a double kick on the apron that I quite liked. There were some great sequences between them. In fact, on the Double or Nothing... No, fight forever. No, the Ridden Door stream, it was late and I was tired. Someone asked us in the ultra chats what the ideal match up is. And for me, I'm like, I love a strong style striker versus someone with aerial action. And this is exactly the thing that I like to watch. And yeah, I like them all. They're all setting, except for once and read is not in it. But they're setting things up for the match on Saturday. I liked it. And that sliced bread, by the way, using only the momentum of Rico Shea's 96 abs was quite something.

And Rico Shea got the win with the shooting star press. I was genuinely surprised by that. I thought if they were going to do it finish it, it'd have been Nacko Maura getting the win. Yeah, I did too. Because I think he's getting quite a big bit.

Of a push. Win and losses don't matter. It's fine. I suppose you're right. The shooting star press is the prettiest move in all of wrestling. So it's interesting to me that Rico, who can do anything you want, his look was a bit stilted. I was like, That was wild. But yeah, a lot of fun, a lot of fun, a lot of match.

We had a clip from earlier in the day of Matt Riddell challenging Gunther, and then he got interviewed where he challenged Gunther. And I was like, Well, you could have done this in one second, I suppose.

There was no need for that.

Imperial attacked Riddal and accepted his challenge. We got a recap of the bloodline from smackdown. And then Dom and Ria backstage spoke with Adam pierce with Dom asking for a match tonight to show Cody Rose that he's not a scared little boy and to show that he wants to fight someone who's on the same level of quality as him and he's got someone in mind. More on that later.

Have you done the little Money in the Bank by the numbers promo.

I've written here when it comes to Money in the Bank, it's all about the numbers.

Because I found it really funny that at one point they were like, Only three superstars have successfully cashed in twice. One of them was the Ms. Another one of them was Edge. Let's move on before we have to acknowledge it, CM P unk exists.

The third one was...

Somewhere else. Anyway.

It's a bit of a running gag in the office. I referenced this in the edited review as well. We have a bit of a running thing in the office of the, for 20 long years, the war, Lord, held the record. I think the Money in the bank, a.

Lot of it... The Royal Rumble numbers.

The Royal Rumble numbers. It all stems from Brian and Vini's reviews of the Rumbles with Brent, and he used to go mad. I hated the numbers video. So there's all these, that's 25 big shows. Nonsense, right? But I got a bit of a kick out of it because this was a Royal Rumble. It's all about the numbers, but it was about money in the Bank. It was like, for the women, it's a 100 %.

Success rate. We finally got a gimmick who's got enough history and enough statistics to make another numbers thing work. And I actually, the other thing about this segment was that the Money in the Bank briefcase has taken a bit of a battering in the past year or so with women's just being cashed in immediately and the theory nonsense. So they need to hype it up a little bit more. So I was like, yeah, do it. Remind us of it.

Actually meaning I'm super hyper for the lineup this year's Money in the Bank. In both matches as well. I agree completely. For the men's is the one that I'm most excited for. I'm really excited for Dane East, LA Knight, Butch in his home country.

Santos Escobar.

Is going to show up. Santos Escobar is going to be there. Rico Shea is there to be the Shelton Benjamin of the match and do the cool flips and climb up the ladder spots and whatnot. And Logan Paul, I think he's going to be.

A hell of a lot of fun in there. I just want Logan Paul and Rico Shea to do something off the ladder and hang in the air for about five seconds.

I think it's going to be great. What was it? Ronda Rousey took on Raquel Rodriguez. They announced that there will be a tag title match at Money in the Bank. And then Ronda just very quickly rolled up Raquel and won.

Yeah. Do you remember when Ronda Rousey felt special?

Yeah. It was 2019.

Yeah. I think there was that huge... 2018. The wrestle mania 34 match was amazing. Then the run was cool. It was on a Rousey. It felt legitimate. She felt like a bad ass. I felt like she was really helping this division by being there. There was a lot going on. It then led us to that amazing Beccy Lynch stare down of her in the ring. Then now she's in the middle of a match to fill some time.

This is the only women's match on the card as well. That feels that that's events. I was going to say that's Triple H. Do you think? But have you seen the women's division since Trips.

Took over? I'm not saying it's booked well, but it gives them more opportunities.

I don't know, dude. I think Trips is way worse. Do you think? I mean, he was great in Nxt, but I think his main roster stuff has been pretty dull. I think the booking has been... I think the booking has been a desolate little wasteland for the last year.

I think the booking has been bad, but I think there have been matches is.

Well, I cannot.

Deny.

That. There have.

Been matches.

But yeah, this was the only women's match in the card and it was no good.

Also, if I could do one single thing, just one thing, if I could banish the word undisputed from the... Because at the very least, this one, it is undisputed.

These are undisputed and the tank tiles are.

Actually undisputed. I just don't need to hear the words anymore. They've got.

Four different undisputed titles because there's the women's tag, the men's.

Tag, the.

Undisputed world championship, which apparently now is.

Three belts.

And the women's, women's is undisputed.

And only two of them are undisputed. And even you could make the argument case that the men's undisputed tag team titles aren't undisputed because we have Nxt tag team titles. So sod off.

So here's a bit of an interesting thing from me. So we talked about the rolling's promo already. We had a video promo from Fin Bala. This was awesome. This was so great. I think they had a really good... Because it was Bala cutting this promo, being like, Oh, Seth, you wanted that guy from seven years ago. Well, he's gone. But what's left is much worse. And he talks about the whole thing of like, You got bitter and I got better. And Balaston, I was like, Yeah, I use that to make myself this unstoppable thing. And they used really good recap video footage from 2016 when Balor got the injury. But more to this, and I wonder if that they'd forgotten this had happened because this is the first time they brought it up that Rollins passes Balor after he vacates the title, laughing at him. Yes, I forgot about that. Because Rollins was a healer at that point and Balor was the baby face. And it's so interesting because the laughing is such a part of Rollins's gimmick now. And really what he was doing there was just walking past going like, I'm a heel.

You just got injured and you've had to vacate the title. But it feels like it's so tied into the character he's doing now.

That's really perspective.

They've almost brilliantly retrofitted those two of his character. And now you've got the flipped reverse because Fint now the heel and Ron is now the baby face. I thought Balor delivered the promo so good. I think this added so much to their feud and their feud of the match and the story.

That's a really positive point, actually, because I think my and it's not mine, it's everyone's really is that this is seven years or too late. It's like, you're bringing this up. You've wrestled each other since. There's a lot going on. They had an IT title feud. I hadn't really thought of the laughter being so related to this iteration of Seth Rollins. I was like, That's really fascinating. Almost the idea, as you were saying that was in my head, almost the idea that he's been triggered by that in particular. It's not the fact that he's a champion. It's the fact that he's walking around laughing everything. Actually, I've worked really hard to get... I had my LCT Championship run. I've come back. We've had all this success with the judgment day. I need to take this from you now. That's the thing that sparked him off. I don't know that that's what they intended to do, but that's a really interesting thought. Well done, you.

Thank you very much. Thank you, kindly. And with the thing that interested me is that I thought that video promo was so great. And then Rollins made his entrance and I was like, I want Fin to be the champ. I do too. Maybe this is a particularly hot take. And I know it's not that much of a hot take because Olly feels way more passionately about this than I do. This is not my favourite version of Seth Rollins. I'm not as into this character of Seth Rollins as I know other people are. That's just a personal thing for me. I don't hate it. Olly just flat out.

Hates this character.

I don't hate it. He actively cannot stand this version of Seth Rollins. It's just not for me. But I was like, man, Fin's cool. Fint's a really rad dude and that was a really rad promo. Then Rollins comes out and I'm like, I don't think you're cool.

I like this character. I like the drip. I like the big red boots. I liked the... He did like the stompy boots. I loved the big stompy boots. I loved the wrestle mania. He was wearing a sleeping bag. I loved that. I do like the character, but I wonder if it is because this, weirdly, this promo made me sympathetic in a way towards Fin Bala. That made me go, I do find you quite boring, S teth. There's something about the...

The songs fun.

The songs fun, I guess, if you're live but sitting at home, I'm like, this is.

A long show. Well, that's it. Because I think of the Night of Champions party that we did when everyone in the Long arm was singing it then. And I was like, oh, that's what this is all about. And I think it'll be fun when you're there in the O2 this coming Saturday and the long arm with us. But I don't find him engaging as.

A character. It's so weird because I did. Yeah, I did. I did it for a really long time. Actually, I like that Beth won that belt. I think it was a good thing. And I think Beth had a point to prove against. I actually technically never lost to Roman Reign thing. Yeah, I don't know. But there is something about this particular promo, this one where it came out where I was just like, I want to skip past this segment and you're the world champ. And that felt weird.

But I prefer, if I say I prefer, I don't dislike this version of as much as I disliked 2019 set.

Yeah, I agree with that. There is a spark to him.

We got a recap of Champ is return last week, and then he cut a promo about he was injured for nine months and the miss never called me. I feel like that is the template.

They've done.

That a couple of times. It's for anyone who's returning. This tag partner never called me, or this person never.

Texted me. Terry Reynolds did it. That's how she turn on the Harding Boyz in 1999. She said, The Dudley boys put me through a table. 2000. Excuse me, 2000 is the peak of wrestling.

There's no way out 2000, in fact, when she turned.

On the Harding. There was no way out because I have watched everything. But she basically was like, yeah, I was at the hospital and you never called one time. This is a tale of the oldest time.

You expect the Harding boys to go, Terry, no. And it's from Royal Rumble 2000. Anyway, so he did.

Oh, yeah. I thought.

You were singing. No, it's from the attitude.

Terry, no. There's not a.

Place for you. Exactly. Because it's like, I'm going to go out there with your table smashed. And James goes.

Terry, no.

It's funny because we have a dad and we say it around the office. Terry, no. Anyway, so Tommy points out, why is Tommasso Chamber playing second fiddle to the Mizz? We were then supposed to get Tommasso Chamber versus the Miz. However, the Miz attacked Chamber before the Bell and hit the Skullcrush Finale on the ramp and the match did.

Not take place. Mizz, Cod Vortex strikes again.

Imperial were chatting backstage, and this time, Xane and Owens walked up.

To them. Sorry, I will just say, because we've been hearing about the idea of Gagana and Jampo tag teaming again. Gargana has previous with the Miz, so this is your way of bringing them back together, I think.

That's where that's going to go. Who does the Miz tag with, though?

Dextal Lumes, who has turned. I don't know.

I don't know. I was about to say. Odyssey Jones. Anyway, Xane and Owens walked up to Imperial. I quite like this from Owens where he walked up and he wasn't quite sure why they were mad.

At.

Imperial. And then Sam and Xehan was like, Because they attacked Matt Riddel and Matt Riddel is our friend. Do I care about that, do I? Yeah. And he's like, Do I care about that? I was like, Yeah, Matt Riddel is our friend. He's like, Yeah, you're right. I am mad about that. I I think we should beat you guys up. And it set up Zane versus Gunther for a match tonight. Thumbs up from me. Thank you. Dominique Mysterio versus Akira Tezawa was the revelation of who Dominic handpicked as the person who was on his level. This would have been so great with a better commentator.

Okay. Can I say why I liked it? And then you can talk about the commentary that ruined it. Because for me, this was really like... I probably tuned out the commentary at this point, but it's this idea that they heal asks for a tune up match to show off against the opponent. And then Dom is reminded that actually... And Dom has this hubris because he's been getting shots in on Cody roads or whatever, and then finds out, Oh, actually, I'm quite rubbish. And I care to sell it's actually quite good. So he got some decks in and then steal the win. And I was like, that's great. Another part of the storyline that I've really enjoyed, which is that they're playing these characters. It's a very simple story. Dominic thinks he's better than he is. And he's just got a reminder. And hopefully at the pay per view, he'll get an even bigger one. So what was so bad about the commentary?

Imagine Jim Ross's reaction to this. Oh, come on. Or like a Tony Schifani, baby face Tony Schifani, like.

Acknowledging what he's.

Doing, acknowledging the Luda Christian thought. Because Corey Graves is being there as the heel, being like, this is a very smart choice by Dominic because of Kirit Zawa. Look how many 24 7 title range that he is. 20 or 30 at least. And he's listing off accomplishments for Kirit Zawar and playing up in the same way that Jerry the King Lawler would have done, or Bobby the Brain Heanion would have done as a heel to be like, Oh, you're yucking it up with the heel. And so Corey Graves does this. And Kevin Patrick instead says, Go to connerscure. Com to find out more information about Conners Q. I'm like, Play this up. I get that you've got to do these plugs, but maybe don't do it now because you, as the baby face commentator, should really be putting over how ludicrous all of this is. This should be played up as a real big joke and that you are supposed to be indignant about this. I don't feel any indignation from Kevin Patrick, who is a wet flannel, just sat at a commentary desk, just saying what he's being told to say.

That's it, because that thing, you are fed that by the production team. They're like, and they're queuing up and play. Now, Kevin say this thing and so he has got to say it. But also then we have the match and during the match, no.

He says a couple of things here and there. But as I said, when I think of Jim doing this or Tony doing this or Mike Teney doing this would have really been selling how ludicrous this is. But he was just like, Huh, well, I think you probably could have picked someone better.

Yeah, I agree.

Viking Raiders got a promo on Alpha Academy. And then we got all...

Oh, I love Game of Thrones, sorry. The gods of spoken to me, work. I'm into that stuff. The gods haven't spoken to me in weeks. Yeah, because you keep getting hit by Max Dean Dupree. I love this.

Sorry, just doing a quick refresh. We've sold out for a third time, everyone. Sold out. Give a shout out to A. J.

Gardner. Yes, A.

J. Well done, you. We've sold out our show for a record third time. Then we had all the money in the bank women standing in a row with Corey Graves. The smackdown side of this, Bayly, EO Sky, and Zalina Vegas were just shouting over each other and shouting until Trish said to him, Guys, you're acting like children.

And she was like, And I'm not.

A child. And I'm not a child, so I'm not going to get involved in this. But then she started cutting her own back, which I thought was a very funny thing to do. Then Becci goes to say something to the microphone, throws it down. A braw breaks out. Everyone runs wild on this, but it's Becci that stands tall. Becca climbers ladder. She takes the briefcase down. Now, internet law would say that's a guarantee she is not winning money in the bank this weekend because no one in the history of Wwe who's been filmed on TV before the payview climbing the ladder and hundreds in the briefcase has won money in.

The bank. They do buy the numbers now, so they need one for next year, so maybe it will be.

Oh, Becker Lynch is the only person. The only person who was filmed on TV before she won it. So I don't know how true... It's internet law, of course. Oh, yeah, this is the other bit of bad Kevin Patrick commentary. I know quite a few of those tonight because this broad breaks out and Kevin was surprised that a fight had broken out.

You watched the show? Do you know which company you work for? Come on, dude.

So, yeah, I thought EO interestingly, very much a baby face promo in this because Bayly was just like, You're all idiot. And anyone who's in this building is an idiot, apart from me. I'm not an idiot and EO Sky is not an idiot either. I'm going to win Money in the Bank. But actually EO has probably got a really good chance of winning Money in the Bank together because we're going to work together. But EO Sky cuts a promo that was made the best woman win.

Which is like that cocky arrogance confidence, but not heelish confidence. I really like this segment too. I'm assuming you like the tegment. Oh, yeah, very much so. I like the tegment. I first of all, I love that Becchi was dressed as Sporty Spice. That's what it was. It was an amazing look. She came out.

With this outfit and I was like, Where did I recognise this from? Oh, it's 1996.

Let me tell you, that bitch is snatched for the gods. She's looking great. She's very good. She looked fantastic. And she was giving it the source fag. I like that everyone had an opportunity to say something. I think it was... We remember we talked last week about how Becchi ran down. She's like, I've got so many enemies in this match. And Lena, I don't even really know her. What's the context? Actually, that is almost the way that we as an audience feel about that, which is in so far as like, Okay, so it's Trish Stratus, Beckie Lynch, Bayly and EO, we know we're seeing damage control a lot, Zoe Stark, who is a brand new up and comer, but she's already made a statement in this Beckie Feud.

That's a good ending, so you call up.

Exactly. A very good ending.

Good example. What I mean of like, insert themselves straight into a main event.

Into a program with a big star. Yeah, you're right. That's a very good shout. And then Delina Vegas, who, yeah, had an incredible moment in Puerto Rico, but really, it feels like the outlier in this. So to have the opportunity to say something and to answer that challenge or that charge from Becker was interesting. I liked that a lot.

She's holding up what we would call in the UK a flip flop. She's holding that up and it's like, this is my character now. This got really over in Puerto Rico.

Because they knew what it was. Yeah.

But this is now all I'm ever going to do.

And then also the other thing that was then really nice is that, yes, Trish is giving this promo in the very Trish style because Zalina was right. Trish has never had a ladder match. She never had a ladder match. You might think that makes you nervous, but not Trish Stratus because she's Trish Stratus and she's a woman and she's like, not a girl, she's a woman. Not yet a woman. They're all going to say, Thank you, Trish. And then we've all had a turn to say some things. And Becker's been walking around chatting away to herself. She's going to zigger, zigger. And then she pulls one back and just launches one of the perfect placement of the microphone to catch Becchi's forum and make it sound like an absolute thund. It just was a really good.

Little segment. I thought this was a great segment. This was when our first Kathy Kelly appearance, 90 minutes into the show. Come on, you guys. It was our last Kathy Kelly appearance on Raw as well. No, we had one more. Oh, you're right. We had one more.

What a segment it was, but we'll.

Get there. We actually interviewed Carmelo Hayes, who got a very good promo. And then this was quite a fun little segment. Backstaged, Becchi and Ria Ripley.

Crossed paths. Yes, this was fun.

With Becchi saying that you should be the man around here, but you're just a main event side piece. And then had this killer line, which is that I don't need the title. The title needs me. That was a much...

Tell her what you said in life.

And then I had this thing, I was like, Imagine Beckie with the briefcase and the tormenting she would do to Ria Ripley. I think having Beckie here, the Raquel thing last week, not the Raqel going to write show in this week, but the Raqel thing last week. So first time I'm like, some actual challenges for Ria Ripley, but instead she's having a match with Natalia next week.

We've talked about this a bit about Ria not being a fighting champion and stuff has really filtered out that, in fact, she's got knee issues and they may be taking a flair up. And so as a result, she's mitigating them and recovering from them, which I think is a good thing. And it's not like she hasn't had presence because I do think main event site is sure, but she elevates. And the other reports that the higher ups are very happy with the judgment day in no small part because everyone is playing their part. And Ria, rather than worrying about her own creative, recognizes I've got to take a little time to recover, so I'm not going to worry about that. Instead, I'm going to keep myself as a star by helping get other people over.

Use my heat to.

Help others. Exactly. Which for me is the sign of a true champion. That's someone who you want to put the belt on. But he said the quiet part out loud, which is that you ain't defending that, right? So don't come here giving me all of this because when I was the champion, I was in the main event every single week. I made that title or not that title. I made the title mean something thing. And I was just like, Oh, what a spicy little together. And I thought Ria sold it really well as well. There was a flicker of like, Oh, damn, you're right.

About that. She's going to murderise Natalia next week.

Oh, my God. You had to take it out on Natalia. Like you, I love that we're seeing... I do want to see Raqqqel and Beckie, and I do want to see Ria and Raqqqel, and I do want to see Ria and Beckie. What a great little triangle of potential future matches we've got there. Beckie looming with the briefcase. That's what I mean by giving the briefcase something.

Absolutely.

You've got the choices either in the men's match, give it to someone who is about to become a main eventer, and the women's match, you could give it to EOS Guy, who is a potential main eventer, or you can give it to someone who is a main eventer and really legitimise that thing. This was a really interesting segment.

Gunther took on Samy Zane. As you would expect, this was awesome. Giovana Vinci made his return coming out on crutches. This was just an excellent professional TV wrestling match. Samy kept kicking out. Samy kept surviving. No matter what Gunther threw at him, Samy kept kicking out until Owen got from the commentary to draw with Kaisa at ringside. Gunther took out Owens and then Zane did a flip dive to take out Gunther. And Vinci hit Zane with the crutch behind the referee's back into a Gunther powerbomb for the win. They really put over there. Zane took the champ to his limits there. And perhaps if it wasn't for Vinci, we might have seen Xaine pick up a win over the IC champ.

First of all, I loved this match. It was a great match. I want to say that right at the beginning because what I will say is I'd rather not have 50-50 booking. There is a tag team championship match on Friday, so I want to be consistent here and ding them for having the champs lose or one of the champs lose.

At least it was a singles.

Match rather than a tag match. I'd rather not see my champs taking pins. I'd rather not have 50-50 booking. But the reality is and Kevin Ow can take it without suffering. And after a while, I suppose that does build up. But when those losses come in the way that they did, like you say, with the interference, but also after a match like that, where I'm like, I want to watch that on television.

I want to.

Watch it on pay per view. With Kevin Owens.

Kevin Owens' commentary was great. I want to see this as a full on pay per view match. And this is like, I remember a few weeks back when I was talking about Night of Champions and they were building Gunther and Matt Riddel. T hat was me. That's actually our story. But also there's this R Lee thing that we were supposed to be doing. They were not really... They were spitting plays, but making a lot of them drop, but focusing on other ones instead. This is one of those ones where it's like, They did a really good job here. They are telling you, This is the exciting match this weekend. It's Gunther versus Matt Riddel. Here's why you should be excited about this. Matt Riddel making his presence felt at the end of this by running down to make the save from Imperial. But planting a seed to me, you'd be like, T here's another story we could do after that match with Samy Zane.

Or indeed with Kevin Owens. Or indeed with Kevin Owens. Because also it's potential Imperial tank teams. You've got to eventually coming back now. They could say in tag team matches, and in singles, Imperial as a collective have got the better of Samy Zane and Kevin Owens. So they could make an argument, a challenge for the belt. Also, Riddel already looks more naked by wearing trunks rather than boxes. It's not being helped by the fact that he's got a little sock on now as well. Also, by the way, it took them long enough, but they finally confirmed that this match is happening in the pay per view on.

This show. Yes. We've all known it was. Because Matt Riddel laid out the challenge and couldn't accept it.

Finally, and they are going to batter each other and I'm into it.

We will come back to some of these bits individually, but I do want to just run down the pacing of what happened here.

I did some maths on it. Yeah, please. Two hours and seven minutes into the.

Show, we got a video promo for Carmelo Hayes. Then Fin Bala made his entrance for the Carmelo Hayes match. We then got an ad break. We then cut back to Bala in the ring. We then got Alpha Academy cutting a promo on Viking Raiders, who challenged them to a match next week with them doing bits and bobs. We then cut back to Fin Balor in the ring. We then cut to a recap of Ria Ripley beating up Natalia a couple of weeks ago. We then cut to Natalia doing a backstage promo to set up a match with Ria Ripley next week. Then we got a short promo for Rollins versus Fin Balor at the pay. Then Carmelo Hayes made his entrance for the.

Fin Balor match. And the bell rang at two hours and 17 minutes. Fin Balor, from entrance to Bell ring, was standing there doing nothing for 10 minutes.

Non that. That's Vince.

That is unreal.

That's pure Vince because that's what used to happen back in the Vince days. That nonsense did not happen on Triple H's watch because he's very good at tightening up the production. Again, structure. It's about structure. Triple H is very good at making shows not feel like their three hours, whereas Vince often makes them feel like they're three hours because of nonsense book and nonsense plotting out like this. But yeah, on the Natalia thing, but actually, Alpha Academy, we're doing Alpha Academy this match. Minus five, guys. But I thought their promo was fun. I thought that the Max Dean Dupree was excellent in this. I love Chad Gable and his little Polo shirt thing and his.

Little hat. And he just cycling away.

Exactly. And he just said, What's our plan for next week? And he just goes, pure carnage, Coach.

I love it. I have no notes. This is all so good. I think it's a similar thing with the Cody and dom thing where it's so simple. It's just such a simple little storyline and it's doing so nicely for me.

And Natalia is having a match with Ria Ripley next week.

Because wins and losses don't matter. You can lose, be demolished, and then challenge for the belt.

Cool. Then we have the Fin Bala Carmelo Hayes match. Then we got our final Kathy Kelly appearance on Raw.

It was one for the record books.

She interviewed Cody.

Cody. I got Kathy and Cody one more time.

With the dog. With Pharaoh. They interviewed Cody and they interviewed the dog. The door is wide open and it.

Turned out it was a doggy door the whole time.

Cody said that he was tired of talking about the judgment day, but he said Dom's not going to have Fin or Damion at ringside with him this weekend. And then he walked off and presumably because she won't be on TV next week, the dog ate Kathy. Well, if I tune into Raw next week and she's not there, I don't know what I'm supposed to think. That's the only conclusion I could jump to. I'm going to roll out my jump to conclusions, Matt, and I'm going to land right on it.

She waived goodbye to Farah, but it turned out she was waving goodbye to all of us. Kathy. I'm only going to show up on Saturdays now. It's going to be me, Tempest, and Sat. And I'm just going to be like, Kathy was there and leaves.

We got a video promo for the Bloodline Civil War. And then our main event was Cody Roads versus Damion Priest. Crikey. Cody Roads sure had some adversity thrown at him this week and he overcame all of it. All of it. Because Dom and Ria came out early. They interfered loads. He overcame that. Damion Priest hit his finish. Cody overcame that. He overcame some more interference from Dominique Mysterio, and then he won.

I just love him and I just wanted to batter Dominique Mysterio. I want it to be a squash match. Or I want there to be some silly sports entertainment nonsense. And Brandy's made the trip over to knock out Mami and then off we go. But I don't know. I like it. It's done well. It's done the job. Cody in the main event, makes me happy. They had a good match. Damion Priest, unfortunately, had to eat.

A loss. Well, so here's my big, bold claim to make. We'll go into more of this on the Money in the Bank predictions tomorrow. I think Damion Priest is winning Money.

In the Bank. You've settled on.

That one. I've settled on that one. And the reason why is because he's done nothing but take the Ls since wrestle mania. It feels like he's beaten on TV almost every week. He lost a back clash to Bad Bunny, and he's lost a couple of times on TV since. And a classic bit of Wwe booking is to beat someone like a drum, then give them money in the bank. Because the idea is that, well, it doesn't matter that we beat them loads because now they've got the briefcase and that's a reset button and now all of those losses are stricken from the record. Interesting. The fact he has lost so much really makes me think he's winning.

That is an interesting thought. I'm still sticking with LA Night, but you've made a very compelling argument there.

It's not like he's racking up loads of.

Wins either. Well, that's it.

That was your episode of Monday Night Raw this week. I gave it, yeah, 3 out of 5. I thought it was a totally fine episode, but as a go home show... But I made this point in the edited review as well, that's clearly something, much like the brand split, that I just need to let go off. Because one does go home shows anymore. Aew don't really do go home shows. They don't book them like their go home shows. Triple H has never booked TV like their go home shows. I just don't think it's a.

Thing anymore. It's a thing we know. And also I think it's a thing that's interesting with the... Because Triple H is famously booked the last episode before it paid for you to be quite bad. This one was not quite bad. So as a result, I was pleasantly surprised. I was like, Well done, you. You've done all right there. It did set up some of the big matches. And also we have two go home shows because we.

Have.

Smackdown as well. But yeah.

This is the go home show for the Raw Show. For the Raw Brand. Yeah, for the Raw Brand. But it just felt like a, I call this a paint by numbers episode with very good resting up and down the card. But broadly speaking, just paint by numbers, totally fine, bland stories, I would. But all right, let's see if we've got any people to shout on in this fine episode. We, in fact, do have some people to share the shout out because if you head on over to www.patreon. Com wrestletalk, you can join our pledge hammers on patriarch where you get exclusive content behind the scenes. We've got loads of podcasts that are going up. In fact, tomorrow is going to be myself and Oliver Davis reviewing Slamm erversary 2009 for wrestle Talk Extra, as well as uncut episodes of No Holds Bored. We have got early access to Adam Booking videos. We have got the behind the scenes podcast, After Dark podcast, the Mailbag podcast. There's loads of all the Monday Night War stuff is going up on there as well. So yeah, go and check that out. P atri. Com for Rest Talk. And if you're one of our 25 dollar and above pledge Amazon Patron, you get your name read out on this show like these fine folks, the commentator of the Century, Vince Phillips.

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And a shout out to our wonderful moderators.

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As well. Yeah, Big Weekend. And then we.

Got another one coming up. Exactly. During the Forbidden Door coverage and the Forbidden Door review as well. And Collision, the week before that. And yeah, you're right. It's our third weekend in a row where we've got doing these overnight reaction things or big night reactions. So please give our moderators a shout out because they are awesome. Let's get into the rest of your Ultra Nats. Restore. Com, 4 S life Support, ding ding ding. This is your last call. Kid Cuddy kicks it off, said, I was in the crowd last night for my first live roar. Dom and Rio got booed out of the building. Cody and prees match was fun. Got to see Gunther and Samy beat each other up, and Melo and Fin had a great match. Great stuff, and Melo looked like he belonged.

Yeah, the crowd was great this week. To the point where I'm like, Oh, wow. They're piping in these boos quite a lot. And then you look at the crowd and you see people are actually booing. Oh, they just turned the volume up. Okay, great. Thank you to that crowd.

Okay, this is very much a small sample size thing, but something I thought is quite an interesting note that I've picked up over the last few months or so. There was a period of time when AEW was massively hot. And every time that me and Oli did dynamite reviews, we would get like five ultra chats from people being like, I was at the building when I was at the building. It was so much fun. I was at the building and I had a great time. And it was every single episode. And we made the point of like, can we never get those on WW shows? No one ever sends us in chats. I was at the show and here's what I thought. We now don't get those AEW ones as much as we used to do. But we're getting more and more of the WWE ones. And I think that ties into Sean has written a report in on this quite a bit that WWE internal memesos are. Every show they're doing is like the best selling show they've done in that area in forever of all time. It's an incredibly.

Hot product at the moment. It is an incredible. The converse to that is that whether it's because they're playing a lot of similar arenas or there's been a level of uncertainty in the company, A EW shows aren't selling out as much as they used to. So that might fit into it as well.

But I think that's what I mean. Not being a hot product at the moment, these things.

Will happen. And there's a lot in the WWE shows for the crowds to be active part of, not just cheering. I wonder, not that he's like the C&P return in A EW, the Canadian crowd, God, they brought that match life as well. I mean, it was a great.

Match anyway.

With the Kajima match. But the crowd really turned it into something else entirely. So I wonder as collision continues to grow, whether or not... Because my best thing in the world is both being hot as anything.

Kevin said, As for Ron, really happy to see Melo having a good showing and Gunther and Samy was good. But it's another meh go home show. It seems like W W isn't using TV to get you hyped for the pay view, but rely on the card itself. Don't know if it's a good or a bad thing. I just think that's the way the Triple H.

Book shows. I think I find personally anyway, a lot of the time I don't watch weekly TV, like Nxt, for instance. I didn't watch weekly Nxt, but whenever there was a takeover, I make a point of.

Watching it. Nxt was not one. I always watched weekly TV and I just made a habit of it. Every Thursday I'd go on when I was working at my previous job and every Thursday I would go on my lunch break, I take my iPad with me and I would watch Nxt. It's a tight one hour show. It's a tight one hour show and it was just three or four wrestling matches and maybe a handful, like two angles. And it was very simple paint by numbers, but I actually quite enjoyed it. As an hour, that was great. Three hours, it's a bit much. Charles Burks said, Here's a question that I'm wondering. Who wins in a match between Cut Gunther and Dick Walter? Also a quick praise for Dan Leighton. Mark Marxson is the highlight of a review. Anyone else who puts in the line, the master baiting the student is a winner to me.

I don't know what you're talking about. Cut Gunther, I think, because he's still got the striking power, but he's also quick and light.

Ryan Sings says, Afternoon, guys. I would love to see Drew return as a heel at Money in the Bank and attack Seth after the match. But do you guys see the UK crowd booing Drew if he returned as a heel? Either way, hopefully we get Drew versus Seth at SummerSlam and Drew wins the belt one more thing. Watching the video on Sunday made me realise how much Canada hate the heel doing a sharp shooter. That being said, a fun little question for you both. What do you think a wrestler could do or say to make a British crowd boo at Money in the Bank? Oh, because.

The thing about Brits is that we like self flagellating. We enjoy taking the piss out of ourselves.

I think it's really funny. Back in the day, watching W WE come over to the UK and try and do the local sports sport, which does not work in the UK.

Half the time, we've got two teams in the same city.

Well, that's it. I remember then doing a show in Manchester and they had the good guys coming out of Manchester United T shirts and they're like, boo. Exactly. Yeah. And because they're City fans or Manchester United fans live in London, so it's fine.

You live in London? Yeah, but the rest of my family go.

I always think...

I'm going to get the map out.

Or I remember back in the day during the attitude here and stuff, when the Tiger Rally scene come out, being like, Well, I'm Indian, I guess, so boo me because you've got your immigration. I'm a taxi driver and all this stuff. And they never get it right.

What would you boo do, what would you say or do to make Brits boo you?

I almost feel like tea base services is a pile of crap. I almost feel like, Oh.

Boo that. Or you could sit in the middle of the ring and put your jam on your scone first, rather than put in the.

Cream on.

But there.

Are places in the UK where that is the done thing.

We like to take the piss out ourselves. It's just, I don't know.

Yeah. Even if you went in there, we're like, Oh, fish and chips are crap. There'll be people like.

I don't like them. I don't even think of a bad sausage. But there are some people who... I don't know. I'm trying to even think of a celebrities' word, generally speaking. If you came out and on Mary Mary, I think a few people would be quite cross about that. That's our grandma.

Yeah. I'm trying to think who are our national treasures? Claudia Winkham, obviously.

Carol.

Vorderman. Carol Vorderman, yeah. I mean, there are some after that don't.

Like Vords. But the people who don't like Vords because of her politics like Vords because she wears tight leather trousers. Maybe there is that. There's a cross over. They got very conflicted. They're having a very conflicted time at the moment.

It's a tricky wank, but they get through it. Some suggestions here. Cricket sucks. I didn't ask.

No, cricket.

Is well boring. Cricket is well boring. No one berate Greg's.

You could that, most people like a Greg's.

Oh, do you know what? Bring Boris out.

Or that would get nuclear hate at the moment. Are you joking? Yeah.

Maybe that is the answer.

The only thing to get. People like.

Oh, dog on the royal family? No, it's a very split thing here in the UK as well.

I don't mind them, but I know a lot of people who do.

I've got no issue with the royal family, but I don't love them either. I know there are some who are massive royalists, but I know there's a lot of people who are anti royalist. We as a country, we're just not like America.

We are like that because the flag doesn't do anything for us either. To get actual real visceral heat, what you would have to do is go on Love Island, be in a couple for three weeks and then dump them and then you'll get nuclear heat. But even this series is rubbish.

But even then, there are people that hate Love Islands. Actually, do you know what? Because they hate Love Island, they would just hate them regardless because they were on Love Island. Full stop. Because they were on Love Island, full stop.

Maybe that's it.

Maybe that's the way you find something that you either find to show that some people love, but you can be a bad guy, but also people absolutely hate. That's the only way forward. Because even like, modern mother's suggestion today, say that Harry and Megan did nothing wrong. Trust me, there are people in this country that hate.

Either hate Harry and Meggan. Hate the suggestion of Harry and Mega or hate the suggestion that Harry and Megan are anything but perfect. Yeah, exactly. We're all split. We're a divided nation. We're a scissor dial.

Okay, here's the answer. James Corden.

He's American now anyway.

It doesn't really matter. Well, that's what I mean. James Gordon coming out to be like, I'm from Essex. Who'd be like, Get out of the ring. Get out of the building. We hate you.

You're rubbish. That's so funny.

So yeah, that's what you could do. If you want to get heat with me, have a pop at pie and chip, and I'll probably have a boo with you. Where do we get to? This was a missed one from our Forbidden Door review that said, Canadian Pete here said, When Osprey licked the blood off his arm, all the women in our section got disgusted. My girlfriend said, I hope that's catch up.

That's really funny.

Kevin here said, Couldn't be here yesterday because of work, so I watched the pay for you last night. Move away Triple H versus TakeRetail R ustmanion 28. Kenny and Will has become my favourite match ever. Even with the callous run in those lads put on a performance that made me go nuts. The video overall was a banging show with four of my favourite matches of the year, the Fatal 4Way, the 10 Man Tag and a card of Brian. Everything else was either good or fantastic. Like I expected, the AEW New Japan crossover continues to deliver. Kevin here also adds here, Finally, I want to thank you guys, Pete, for your coverage of Forbidden Door. I know it's easy to say, Block the noise, but I think most people appreciate your work. Let's support each other and be better humans. Gem that germ. Much love, HH. Wait. We got this one here. That's a good point, everyone.

Let's all love each other. Just like things.

And be nice to each other. Support each other. Matt Hennessy said, Also, guys, I'm going to be attending smackdown this Friday and Money in the Bank on Saturday. Also going to be attending all in this year, making trips from Ireland to the UK, not once but twice. An exciting time to be in a wrestling fan. Some great stuff on. You're going.

To smackdown? Yeah. Wait, I'm holding my breath in case it hasn't been confirmed, but I might have just snuck into smackdown at the last minute, literally as we were walking to the podcast studio. My friend was texting me. So there might be a chance I'm going to go to smackdown. And in that case, I'll see a tag team match with Pree deadly and Savi Zanekevinowicz and Charlotte Oscar. And then I've got tickets to all in.

Yes, you have as well.

And we've got money in the bank.

It's a.

Great time. The children are being fed.

We have an unknown user here. It's a StreamL ab issue. Please do let our moderators know who said it's time for a women's only Nxt style show. The Becker Trish story writing has been awesome.

I agree, it has been. My only hesitancy with the idea of a women's only show or a women's only hour where evolution was something that was a big statement, and actually I quite enjoyed that. Is it the thing where you were separating and separate but equally be more inclined to not watch that hour if you didn't want to watch the women's wrestling rather than seeing it? I don't know. For me, even like a cruiser waits hour. When you provide a soul hour that exists separately to everything else, is it encouraging you to watch it or is it giving you an excuse to not watch it? It's a very difficult thing to walk. I think the solution, honestly, is take your order down to two hours and just make those two hours tight. I think that's literally the only way to do it. Or fill your three hours with some great stuff, just space it out and structure better because Triple H is good at structuring.

Michael here, I don't know quite how to answer to your first question, which is about what happens to Vince's shares once he passes? No idea. That'd be a question for their board of Directors. They add here, I teach nine graders and just realised that their middle school years were quarantine wrestling years while ours were Original Dx. That sucks. Since I teach, I watch 12 hours later. I'll just stop watching Raw, sucked. Then Grace us with Dan. Luke breaks our hearts by saying it's Dan the last day and replace him with chopper. Chop did two weeks and now Dan's back. Also, what happened with the box? What have I missed? Well, the box that got revealed a month and a bit ago. It's the support wrestle.

Talk bumper.

Which was good. Which was in the box and Dan's back. Because we love Dan. Thanks.

I love being in this chair.

And that is all of our Ultra chat. So I'm going to quickly end the poll and see what people thought of this episode of Monday Night Raw, which only got 7 % thumbs down, 37 % thumbs in the middle, 54 %.

Thumbs up. I think it's hard to hate it. I think there was not a lot in their way that was objectively bad. I can understand people finding it mid, but yeah, I didn't dislike any of it. I didn't like it as much as I did last week, but I did like it.

Make fun of how you say aluminium.

What you mean. Correctly, you spell it wrong. Aluminium. Aluminium. Get out.

Come on, grow up. Right, that's all we got time for on this edition of the show. Thank you all so much for joining us. Please do press the subscribe button if this is your first time here. You made it this far. Give us a little thumbs up. How was the algorithm? Leave a comment down below to let us know what you thought of Monday Night Raw. We will see you tomorrow. It's a busy week here. Join us tomorrow. It's Money in the Bank predictions. Then on Thursday, it will be eight PW Dynamite, possibly EVE with a little bit of extra fight forever gameplay in there as well, because maybe we'll just do the review and then we'll play fight forever for a little bit. Then on Friday, something money in the bank related should also be dropping here on this very channel. Then on Saturday, it is our live coverage of Money in the Bank live from the Long arm Pub and Brewery in Shoreditch. Then on Sunday, it will be our Money in the Bank review. Then on Monday, you and Laurie Blake will be reviewing AEW Collision. There you go. How about that?

Then on Tuesday, it's Raw again. Yeah, and we're back.

We're back. Back to the full week.

No days off, ever. No days off. It's a busy old time here. There are videos going up every single day, so please do subscribe and we will see you for all of them because I have been the current DAD. That has been the professor, Dan Leighton. Jam Not Jam. Candle That Jam. Candle That Jam. You.