00:00 Can fan outrage change Becky Lynch's WrestleMania match?
00:10 More WrestleMania changes, my review of last night's Monday Night Raw and more.
00:14 I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News, which is 66 and 2/3 chance better than
00:20 the Pipe Bomb.
00:23 We'll come on to the Liv Morgan stuff when we get to the Raw review itself, so you can
00:30 click the timestamps down below if you want to just jump ahead to that story.
00:34 So for now, we'll look at some of the other reported changes to the WrestleMania 40 card.
00:40 We've seen a lot of things reportedly change in front of our eyes since the Royal Rumble.
00:44 The original plan was supposed to be Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins vs.
00:49 CM Punk, but Punk's injury during the Rumble match itself shifted things to Cody vs. Rollins
00:54 while Roman would instead face The Rock.
00:57 However due to fan backlash, Cody was moved back to Roman, Seth is getting a match with
01:01 Drew McIntyre and there's still a question mark over what Dwayne is doing - either a
01:06 tag match with Roman against Cody and Seth, or a singles match with Cody which is currently
01:11 being teased on TV.
01:13 Basically if this was that Domino Rally meme, the small Domino is Jack Perry wanting to
01:17 use real glass.
01:19 But it's not just the main event scene that is seeing reported changes.
01:23 Dave Meltzer writes in the Wrestling Observer Daily Update that following the Elimination
01:27 Chamber in Perth, he was told that LA Knight will take on AJ Styles while Logan Paul will
01:44 face Randy Orton for the United States Championship.
01:47 Meltzer writes that both are right now listed for Mania.
01:51 This is a change in the reported plan of Logan Paul defending his United States Championship
01:56 against LA Knight - a match that was set up and teased on TV.
02:01 What do you make of these reported changes?
02:03 Let me know in the comments down below.
02:05 If those two matches do get added - and those are if Stave's not been on a great run of
02:10 form as of late - they will join Cody vs. Roman, Seth vs. Drew, Rhea Ripley vs. Becky
02:15 Lynch - more on that in a bit - and Io Sky vs. Bayley.
02:19 At least I think Bayley is still on the show.
02:23 She wasn't on the WrestleMania press conference and has been left off another poster for the
02:28 show despite winning the Royal Rumble - with Bianca Belair instead taking her place on
02:33 the poster.
02:34 Put some respect on Bayley's name, WWE.
02:37 Transitioning now into more serious news as the
02:44 new lawsuit from Janelle Grant against WWE, Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis has opened
02:49 up more stories from around the wrestling world - with more people coming forward.
02:54 One of those people is Nick Kaniski, who wrestled in WWF in late 1986 and early 1987.
03:00 In an interview with Post Wrestling, Nick has now alleged that then-WWE VP of Operations
03:05 Terry Garvin propositioned him for sex on multiple occasions, including once at his
03:10 hotel room.
03:11 Kaniski notes that he spoke to Vince McMahon about this harassment and wished for it to
03:16 stop - with Vince allegedly saying that he would sort it out, but nothing changed.
03:21 This allegedly resulted in Kaniski's push being halted and, in an alleged confrontation
03:26 with Vince in person, Kaniski told Vince that it wasn't fair that he was being punished
03:31 for Garvin's actions, and said he'd finish his bookings but wouldn't be coming back.
03:36 But Vince allegedly said, "No, you're done now."
03:40 If this story has affected you in any way, please go to our Support WrestleTalk Support
03:44 Each Other page.
03:45 It's linked to in the video description down below.
03:48 And in some sad news, it was announced that wrestling legend Olay Anderson has passed
03:52 away at the age of 81.
03:54 Anderson was a key figure in the territory days, making his name in Jim Crockett promotions,
03:58 Georgia Championship Wrestling and of course World Championship Wrestling.
04:02 He was part of the line-up of the original Four Horsemen alongside Ric Flair, Arn Anderson,
04:06 Tully Blanchard and manager JJ Dillon.
04:09 Olay Anderson was also part of the booking committee for WCW among other roles from 1990
04:13 to 1995, retiring in 1996.
04:16 WrestleTalk would like to send our condolences to the friends and family of Olay Anderson.
04:21 So if you're in the need for a pick me up - and I will pick this up to remind everyone
04:25 - why not check out our most recent parts of unknown list where Tempest goes over 5
04:30 great Elimination Chamber matches that led to horrible WrestleMania matches and vice
04:35 versa.
04:36 Here's a clip.
04:57 And now it's time for my review of Monday Night Raw, aka the Bloodline Hunter edition
05:01 of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes.
05:04 And we'll use this to jump into that Liv Morgan stuff that we teased at the top of
05:08 this video.
05:09 Because this episode of Raw opened with Mami on top of the broadcast, as Rhea Ripley cut
05:13 a promo about retaining her title against Nia Jax and having a brief tête-à -tête
05:17 with Becky Lynch who won the Elimination Chamber.
05:20 Both women said they would win at WrestleMania, and then Nia Jax attacked Becky Lynch at the
05:24 end of the segment to set up a match between the two for next week.
05:28 At this point in the show, it felt less that we were booking Jax to be inserted into the
05:33 title match at Mania, and more a way for Becky to get her win back on her road to Mania after
05:38 losing to Jax in January as she was on her road to the Elimination Chamber.
05:42 That all makes complete sense to me.
05:44 But there's something that happened later in the show that might change some of that.
05:49 Later in the show, Nia Jax and Liv Morgan were having a match, which was pretty good
05:52 as Morgan ragdolled around for Nia, but it ended in DQ when Lynch attacked Nia Jax, getting
05:58 her revenge for earlier in the broadcast.
06:01 Backstage Adam Pearce announced Lynch vs. Nia Jax for next week, and Morgan walked up
06:05 and shouted at Becky that not everything is about her.
06:10 This felt like WWE were leaning into the groundswell of support that Morgan's fans showed on
06:16 social media over the weekend following Lynch's win - and therefore Liv's loss - at Elimination
06:21 Chamber.
06:22 The general consensus among Liv's fans, as far as I can tell, is that Becky is overpushed
06:28 or that she never puts anyone over and Liv should be the one getting the title shot instead
06:33 of her.
06:34 A sort of "how dare The Rock steal this moment from Cody Rhodes" sort of thing,
06:38 only not quite as loud.
06:39 I get that some people really like Liv, I also think she's great, but for me this
06:45 is Becky's story right now.
06:47 They've been building to this match with Rhea and Becky for close to a year at this
06:51 point, and it's probably the biggest money match you could do with Rhea Ripley as champion.
06:57 The interaction with Morgan backstage with Becky makes me think that Liv's going to
07:01 get involved in the Jax match next week and cause another DQ.
07:05 The current speculation and desires from Morgan's fans is that Liv gets inserted into the Becky
07:11 vs. Rhea match and make it a three way.
07:14 What do you think of the fan backlash and the potential of Morgan being put into the
07:17 title match?
07:18 Let me know in the comments down below.
07:20 Speaking of people, some fans want to see inserted into world title matches, and Sami
07:24 Zayn beat Shinsuke Nakamura to start some momentum heading into WrestleMania.
07:28 I had a big discussion with Sad about this on the Elimination Chamber review, but I don't
07:33 get the feeling that Sami is being pushed to be put in the Drew vs. Seth match, and
07:38 instead will be going for a secondary belt.
07:41 And it looks like I might be right, once again, as Zayn later had a stare down with Gunther
07:46 which feels like that is his more likely Mania direction.
07:50 Raquel Rodriguez beat Chelsea Green in just over a minute, Green got good local heat from
07:53 the crowd before the match started, and Gunther came out for a promo to find his next challenger
07:58 for the Intercontinental Championship, and was interrupted by the Judgment Day.
08:03 Damien Priest said that in order to fully control Raw, they need his title.
08:08 Gunther scoffed at this and said, Priest isn't going to cash in on him, it's not going
08:13 to be Finn Balor or that lad with the big head over there.
08:16 And this is where Dominik Mysterio stepped up.
08:20 Dominik vs. Gunther for the IC title sounds like a tremendous idea to me, but it was more
08:27 of a backdrop for the bigger feud of Priest vs. Gunther.
08:31 Is that an Intercontinental Championship feud, or is it a set up for once Priest has cashed
08:37 in and is World Champion and Gunther needs someone to face for the World Title when it
08:41 comes to Bash at Berlin?
08:43 And given that WWE spent a lot of this Raw setting up other contenders for the IC title
08:47 - Sami Zayn, Chad Gable who had a meeting backstage with Adam Pearce saying it's personal
08:52 for him, and Dominik here who also had a conversation with Andrade "Not El" Idolo backstage
08:57 - are we heading towards a big multi-man, potential ladder match for Gunther's IC
09:02 title?
09:03 You could also add Priest, Truth, Balor and Miz into that as well, Gunther did name drop
09:08 Awesome Truth in his promo, but I feel like that's the tag match at Mania instead.
09:12 Speaking of tag teams, and Imperium beat New Day in an excellent street fight.
09:17 Priest went through two commercial breaks, was absolute carnage and was absolutely awesome.
09:22 Speaking of other tag teams, and Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark quickly beat The Way in a heatless
09:26 match, DIY and The Miz formed a stable with Truth called Regeneration X, and Drew McIntyre
09:31 had a big promo segment with Seth Rollins.
09:34 Drew's point was quite simple, after making fun of CM Punk that is.
09:38 He wants Seth to stop going after The Bloodline, because if he keeps up with this, they will
09:44 just get involved in their World Title match at Mania and he doesn't want that.
09:48 If he's going to win, he wants to do it himself.
09:52 Great thing about all of that is that, as we literally saw last week, he will gladly
09:57 take the advantage if it's given to him.
09:59 Seth said that he needs to destroy The Bloodline before Mania, because if he doesn't, they'll
10:04 come for the World Title next.
10:05 Lol, Roman literally said it's a trash belt that no one cares about.
10:09 I thought Drew was great here, as was Seth, and I'm excited to see what they do next
10:13 in the story.
10:14 And the main event saw Cody Rhodes quickly beat Grayson Waller, brand split, lol, but
10:18 the real main event came after the match.
10:20 Paul Heyman came out, flanked by security, to speak with Cody and ask him - nay, beg
10:26 him - to withdraw his challenge to The Rock for a singles match.
10:29 Cody cut a fiery babyface promo about being sick of playing the nice guy against The Rock,
10:34 but not anymore.
10:35 "It is not the Bloodline that are hunting me.
10:37 I am hunting The Bloodline."
10:40 It was a great line, and a killer way to end off what was, elsewhere, a pretty pedestrian
10:45 episode of Raw.
10:46 The Street Fight was awesome, but really is the only match you need to go out of your
10:50 way to see.
10:51 So once again, the show was about the promos, and good promos they were, this week's Raw
10:55 is 3 out of 5.
10:56 Now go and check out that partsFUN known list about best Chamber matches that led to bad
11:00 Mania matches and vice versa.
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