00:00 For real reason a WWE star was fired.
00:03 A beast level WWE return imminent.
00:06 And Luke's review of Monday Night Raw.
00:08 I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News - where, in place of our usual opening
00:13 sting, we wanted to pay tribute to a very, very special man instead.
00:42 Jinder Mahal did not finish his story to become a two-time world champion in WWE on the 15th
00:47 January episode of Raw, and unfortunately that's not the only bad news coming out
00:52 of that match.
00:53 As PWTorch is reporting, Seth Rollins suffered a legitimate injury to his left leg late in
00:59 his Raw main event.
01:01 Multiple sources apparently told the site that Seth was helped to the back and will
01:04 be evaluated further to determine how severe the injury is.
01:08 In a promising sign, Rollins was eventually able to walk on his own, but with a definite
01:13 limp.
01:14 Wrestling Observer Radio add that he's set to undergo an MRI to determine how serious
01:18 it is.
01:19 Being a fighting champion is a risky strategy.
01:21 Which is why Roman Reigns has the smartest title defence approach.
01:30 Reigns will defend his YUU Championship against Randy Orton, LA Knight and AJ Styles at the
01:34 Royal Rumble Premium Live event.
01:37 And you better make the most of it, because he's not going to be around much afterwards.
01:41 It's already been reported Roman won't be at February's Elimination Chamber show
01:45 in Australia, scuppering rumours that Rock vs Reigns would take place on that event instead
01:50 of WrestleMania.
01:51 And now Wrestling Observer Radio claims the Tribal Chief won't be at May's Backlash
01:55 in France either.
01:57 Instead, Roman's upcoming PLE schedule is the Rumble, WrestleMania, a Summer Saudi
02:02 Arabia show and SummerSlam - meaning four pay-per-views in the next eight months.
02:08 Usually I'd say that's a heavy indicator Cody Rhodes is beating Reigns for the title
02:12 at WrestleMania, but that's not how it went last year.
02:18 But sometimes when you've got enough part-timers, it can almost make one full wrestler.
02:25 In a very tantalising one-sentence report in F4WOnline's Daily Update, Dave Meltzer
02:30 has written "Brock Lesnar will be back on WWE television soon."
02:35 This would be Lesnar's first WWE appearance since putting over Cody at August's SummerSlam.
02:40 Given the time of year, it's very likely Brock will be setting up a match for WrestleMania.
02:45 Maybe this is totally not connected, but let a guy dream.
02:48 Gunther declared for the Royal Rumble match on last night's Raw.
02:51 Make my three count prediction come true, Puppetrips.
02:54 They both eliminate each other to start their feud.
02:56 Now it's time for our hottest new segment!
02:59 Sometimes Matt Riddle didn't win stuff, according to Matt Riddle.
03:05 After claiming he was supposed to win the 2022 Royal Rumble until Brock Lesnar refused
03:10 to do business backstage, Riddle has appeared on the Kurt Angle Show and has singled out
03:15 UFC President Dana White as a definite reason he was released by WWE.
03:20 I think that the UFC/WWE merger didn't really help things.
03:24 He and Dana White don't have the greatest relationship, and I know he's a big part
03:29 of that.
03:30 It definitely played a part.
03:32 Riddle announced his departure from WWE on the 22nd December, just one week after the
03:37 WWE and UFC merged into the new supercompany TKO.
03:42 Riddle had previously worked for White as an MMA fighter, before he became a pro wrestler,
03:47 where, despite his charisma and win record, he was released in 2013 after failing two
03:52 drug tests.
03:53 At the time, White said in an interview it's because Riddle was a "f***ing moron".
03:58 Riddle went on to tell Angle that he suspected other reasons for his WWE release too, like
04:03 the $1 million he was going to make that year, being an easy target for budget cuts, and
04:08 how his own behaviour didn't help - like getting into an altercation with police at
04:12 JFK Airport that same month.
04:15 After Luke reviews Monday Night Raw, here's a special message from Turbo Jack.
04:42 "The Roller Coaster, Robert Coaster, The Black Plague, Butch Rossin, Champion Zero
05:02 Fear, Hitman Soul, The Cleaner, Ken Isher, The British Bulldog, Phillip Boy J. Smith
05:09 Jr., he can last shown for longer than you and the ring, Starbucks, Steven Costa, and
05:17 the Shield Maiden, Azornis.
05:19 Remember, Patreon.com/WrestleTalk, please, please don't leave me."
05:26 Now it's time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka that Jinder match was way better
05:31 than anyone expected - edition of Monday Night Raw in about 5 or so minutes.
05:36 The show opened with Cody Rhodes talking about that old story he wants to finish, and out
05:40 came Drew McIntyre to talk about a story of his own.
05:43 You see, he and Cody are the same.
05:46 They were both fired from WWE, they both made themselves bigger stars outside of WWE, and
05:51 then WWE came crawling back to them.
05:54 They were even tag champs together in WWE.
05:57 Not only that, but Drew's last match before he went back to WWE was against Cody Rhodes.
06:03 Cody, however, feels like he and Drew aren't as alike as Drew thinks.
06:08 While Cody relishes his second chances, Drew complains about his.
06:13 This line turned Drew back into that different Drew, that bitter Drew who is pissed off about
06:19 Jey Uso and Damian Priest and CM Punk, and he even noted that Cody worked with Punk recently
06:26 and knows how toxic he is.
06:28 "There's Drew again," Cody replied, blaming others rather than himself.
06:34 Guess what?
06:35 That last match between Drew and Cody before Drew went back to WWE?
06:39 Guess who won?
06:40 It wasn't Drew.
06:42 This was a great opening promo segment to build the Rumble and point out that this year's
06:46 match has a lot of potential winners.
06:48 The closer we get, the less likely it feels that Cody is going to win and finish his story,
06:53 and instead maybe he'll face Drew.
06:55 Before we can look at last, we can say that it will be Cody and the Mania match will be
06:59 Punk vs. Drew.
07:00 It's really fun to book the possibilities, which is what the Rumble should be about.
07:05 DIY beat the Judgment Day B-Team of JD McDonough and Tom Mysterio - still no sign of that Nick
07:10 Mysterio, maybe he's at the Performance Center with Jade Cargill.
07:13 It was a match that was broadly fine until the final third which really picked up.
07:16 It was also a good example of Triple H's booking philosophy.
07:19 If you put people on TV enough and give them credible wins, the crowds will eventually
07:23 get behind them.
07:24 Maybe those winter losses do mean something after all.
07:27 Speaking of which, The Way beat Chelsea Green and Piper Diven in a short match to set them
07:31 up as potential contenders to the Women's Tag Title.
07:33 They even got a video package to put them over.
07:36 Nia Jax got a similar video package to build her Rumble chances.
07:39 Gunther came out to announce himself for the Royal Rumble, and Xavier Woods challenged
07:43 Ludwig Kaiser to a match to avenge Kofi Kingston for last week.
07:46 It was a pretty heated match in-ring, and ended in a DQ when Woods hit Kaiser with the
07:51 same chair that Ludwig used last week on Kofi.
07:55 Kaiser tried to beat up Woods the same way he did Kingston last week, but a bloody mouth
07:58 Woods stood tall and sent Ludwig running scared.
08:01 This was very good.
08:03 Later, Kaiser attacked Woods backstage, and he was saved by Jey Uso.
08:07 Bronson Reed cut a promo seemingly on Gunther for that icy title, and we got Akira Tozawa
08:12 taking on Ivar.
08:13 This was a very entertaining comedy match where Ivar dominated, but then Maxine distracted
08:18 him by being sexy.
08:20 And Tozawa used said distraction to hit a Sunset Flip Powerbomb for the shock win.
08:24 Ivar and Valhalla then killed them with Headbutts and Doom Sauce.
08:28 So who's the real winner?
08:30 It's Tozawa.
08:32 Tozawa is the winner.
08:33 He won the match.
08:34 Ivie Nile will face Valhalla next week, and Chad Gable will take on Ivar.
08:38 They've been pushing hard that Nia Jax is next in line for a title match with Rhea
08:42 Ripley which certainly sets her up for a Rumble win, but there's also a lot of chatter on
08:46 the blue side of things that Bayley could get the win for Smackdown.
08:50 But let's also not forget there's the possibility of Becky two times.
08:55 Rhea came out for a promo on Jax, but Lynch was the one to interrupt instead.
08:59 She noted that she and Rhea are the best to do this in WWE, but she's got this niggling
09:05 worry in the back of her mind that Rhea Ripley is better than her.
09:10 So the way to disprove these worries is to win the Rumble, choose Rhea for Mania, and
09:15 then beat Rhea at Mania.
09:17 And Rhea was quite excited about this notion and hoped it would happen.
09:21 Like the Cody and Drew segment earlier in the night, this highlights just how good Trips
09:25 has been in creating multiple avenues of winners for this year's Rumble.
09:29 I honestly can't wait.
09:30 The Judgment Day of Finn Balor and Damian Priest beat The Awesome Truth in a pretty
09:34 entertaining match.
09:35 Throughout the night, Truth was putting himself over with how much money he's making for
09:38 the Judgment Day with his new bit of merchandise, and even came out with them for the match
09:42 despite the fact he was on the other team.
09:44 He then kept hitting Finn with moves and felt bad about it, and Priest seemed reluctant
09:48 to take Truth out as he finds his comedy shtick endearing.
09:53 Until he didn't and hit him with South of Heaven for the win.
09:55 This was all good stuff.
09:56 Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark quickly beat Tegan Nox and Natalya, and then we got our
10:01 main event as Jinder looked to get unhindered by taking on World Champion Seth Rollins.
10:07 I think it's fair to say there was a lot of chatter about this match in the week, whether
10:12 it was Tony Khan's Twitter meltdown or just the overall question of "why is Jinder getting
10:17 a shot at the world title when he hasn't won anything in ages?"
10:20 Which is basically the subject of Khan's Twitter meltdown.
10:23 I had my own reservations.
10:25 I noted on last week's WrestleTalk News that this isn't really a feud for Seth Rollins,
10:30 more just something for him to do because all the other main event stars are in Rumble
10:35 Build mode.
10:36 And while I do think this match would have benefited from heating Jinder up a little
10:40 bit - giving him some wins on TV to build crowd heat of the possibility of him actually
10:46 winning the world title - I do think overall this worked.
10:50 At least the final third worked.
10:52 The first two thirds of this 13 minute match were exceptionally boring and all the worst
10:56 parts of Jinder's time as WWE Champion seven years ago, and the lack of crowd reaction
11:00 for Jinder's offence reflected that.
11:03 But once all the shenanigans began, business picked up.
11:06 Indus Sher attacked Seth behind the referee's back for a near fall.
11:09 The referee was distracted by Drew McIntyre brawling with Damian Priest at ringside, who
11:14 himself teased a cash-in.
11:15 And there was a superb near fall as Indus Sher hit Seth with the Money in the Bank briefcase,
11:21 and Jinder hit the Colossus for a 2.9 kick out.
11:25 Seth then hit the stomp for the win, and this accomplished what it set out to do.
11:29 70% of it may have been dull, but that final 30% did make up for it.
11:33 And it capped off a really good edition of Monday Night Raw which made me super excited
11:36 for the Royal Rumble.
11:37 This week's Raw is 4 out of 5.
11:40 Speaking of the Rumble, Oli Davis and myself gave predictions for the WWE roster in this
11:45 year's Royal Rumble in three words or less/fewer.
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