00:00 "Could Vince McMahon make a return to professional wrestling? WWE's contract emergencies and
00:06 my review of Monday Night Raw. I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News."
00:11 WWE are now in Chex Watch, it's night day of the Paul "Triple H" Leveque era, and
00:24 I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that we are all on board. For starters, the penny
00:29 belts are gone, thanks Trips! But one can't begin a new era without totally making sure
00:35 that the old era - aka the Vince McMahon era - is no more. And he is. He unequivocally
00:42 is. Dot dot dot. In WWE at the very least. And Vince seems to be doing his best to remove
00:49 all investment he has in the company, listing his remaining 4.7% of TKO stocks for sale
00:55 according to a new SEC filing. If he sells them, that would be the last remaining thread
01:01 of connection between Vince, TKO and WWE. And should he sell them, that would leave
01:07 him with a reported $2.2 billion. He could buy 444,444,444 Pokemon cards going by my
01:17 rather rudimentary math, or maybe he could start up his own wrestling company. Dave Meltzer
01:23 of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that if Vince did want to start his own promotion,
01:27 he'd have to wait until January of next year due to a non-compete he has with TKO.
01:33 And when that is up, there is a belief from one of the most powerful players behind the
01:37 scenes that there is a good chance McMahon would start up a new company - if he legally
01:44 could. This unnamed source goes on to add that much of the success of the Triple H era
01:48 - namely, The Bloodline and Cody Rhodes - were actually Vince's ideas. Not only was he
01:54 in charge of creative when The Bloodline was formed during the pandemic, he also brought
01:58 Cody Rhodes back to WWE and is credited as the one who made the call for him not to dethrone
02:04 Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 - which, it could be argued, led to the biggest WrestleMania
02:10 of all time in WrestleMania 40. And with $2.2 billion in the bank, he would have a purse
02:17 that could persuade some talent with contracts set to expire. But is it likely to happen?
02:23 Meltzer notes that he would be a formidable rival, but "the vast majority of the prominent
02:29 people in wrestling that he spoke with felt that a combination of Vince's age, reputation
02:34 and lack of openings would hold back any potential startup."
02:38 Speaking of talent that could be up for grabs soon, WWE have a bit of a situation going
02:43 on with two of their biggest stars who could be free to walk from WWE in - let me just
02:49 check my watch here - the next two months. Two months is not a lot of time. As has been
02:56 reported for some time now, Drew McIntyre's contract with WWE is coming to an end, and
03:02 he was unhappy with his creative during most of 2022 and 2023. However, he is now positioned
03:08 in a top feud with CM Punk, and is most likely headlining a PPV in his home country of Scotland.
03:13 But that does not mean he has re-signed, with PWInsider reporting that he has just "five
03:21 to six weeks" left on his WWE deal. And he's not alone, as PWInsider also report
03:28 that Becky Lynch has just "eight weeks" left on her deal. They add that WWE are hoping
03:33 to tie these both up before those dates arrive, and will put in a new strategy so that this
03:38 sort of situation doesn't happen again. PWInsider's report notes that one of the
03:42 reasons WWE made changes in its talent relations department last week - and in Chris Legentil
03:48 and Matthew Altman into the division - was because they have forged past relationships
03:52 with talent in order to create a stronger signing process. Sean Ross Sapp on the Fightful
03:57 Review of Raw noted that, if given the opportunity, Tony Khan could make a play to sign both Becky
04:03 Lynch and Drew McIntyre, and he would offer a lot more money than WWE could.
04:10 But before we get into the Raw review, I just wanted to extend a huge thank you to everyone
04:14 who has checked out our latest season of the Monday Night Raw over on PartsFarKnown, where
04:19 Dan, Pete and I are battling week by week on WWE 2K24's My GM Mode. It's led to
04:25 us reaching record Patreon numbers, and if you're not caught up yet, here's what
04:30 you've been missing.
04:54 There's
05:22 a link in the description for a playlist for all of Season 4 of the Monday Night Raw,
05:26 so go give that a watch today. And once you're all caught up, you can get one week's early
05:31 access and our bonus booking podcast over on the Patreon page, patreon.com/wrestletalk.
05:35 And now it's time for my review of Monday Night Raw, aka the "you know Roman didn't
05:41 develop his belt for ages, right?" edition of Monday Night Raw, in about 5 minutes.
05:46 The show opened with the sad news that Rhea Ripley is in fact injured, and will be vacating
05:51 her Women's World Championship. She hugged Judgement Day backstage and then rode off
05:56 into the injured sunset, presumably not to be seen again until she returns from injury.
06:01 Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Radio noted that she could be out of action for
06:05 three months.
06:06 This is one of those moments when reviewing the show where I don't have anything funny
06:10 to say - not that that's uncommon - or anything witty or any particularly good insight. It's
06:16 just a situation that sucks. But sometimes you have to take chicken poop and turn it
06:21 into chicken pudding. As it led to Liv Morgan coming out after Rhea threatened she would
06:26 kill her if she saw her, with Morgan cackling while being held back by security. She later
06:31 said that this was "karma" for Rhea Ripley after she injured her last year, and this
06:36 is not the end of her revenge tour. This ends when she becomes the new World Champion. And
06:43 most likely one would think she will be the next champion to set up a Rhea return match.
06:48 They announced later in the show that a new Women's World Champion will be crowned on
06:52 next week's Raw, but didn't give any other details of who is fighting for that belt or
06:56 in what capacity they'll be fighting for it. If only you had a tournament coming up
07:01 soon or something like that. I think this could be a great thing for Liv Morgan, because
07:06 I do feel that there's a certain ceiling to her as a babyface, but there is an open
07:11 sky for her as an unhinged heel. And it will only make Rhea's babyface return all the
07:17 better. So yeah, this situation sucks, but perhaps there's a silver lining. And speaking
07:23 of returns, TOO MANY LAMBS! TOO MANY LAMBS! HOOOOOOO! It's not a shameful thing you lobsterhead,
07:33 as Sheamus returned to WWE after 8 months off and brought back his old theme with him.
07:39 I just hope someone clues in Pat McAfee that his Fight Night gimmick is in the past now.
07:43 He beat Ivar in a decent level match. Sheamus, that's not Pat.
07:47 On yesterday's WrestleTalk Podcast review of Smackdown and AEW Collision, I was whinging
07:52 about the WWE Tag Team Championship designs because I think, quite frankly, they're f***ing
07:57 hideous. It's not just on that podcast either, it's something I've been whinging about
08:00 for a while now. We've had this design in both the penny and silver versions for something
08:05 silly like 15 years. I was in my 20s when these belts were introduced, and I didn't
08:11 like them then much either. So I was very pleased to see Triple H come down to the ring
08:16 to announce that we're in a new era that needs new tag belts. The awesome truth will now
08:21 be known as the WWE World Tag Team Champions. Which is something that I did predict would
08:27 be the case on our Predicting WrestleMania 41 Way Too Far In Advance video. Click the
08:32 link to watch that after this. Just focus on the tag belt thing I got right. Don't
08:37 listen to the bit where I said Tamatongo wouldn't be involved in the Bloodline story. Just look
08:40 at the tag bit.
08:41 So what are these new belts like then? Well, they look like mini versions of the Men's
08:46 and Women's World Championship designs, so at least they're in keeping with the
08:49 show's theme. But with no red strap, how will I know what brand they're supposed
08:52 to be on? They sort of look like $10 kid toy versions of the $500 full scale replicas,
08:59 but they are a massive improvement over the old designs.
09:03 And Awesome Truth will defend those belts against their new number one contenders in
09:07 DIY, who beat New Day and Creed Brothers in a fun triple threat tag match that was contested
09:12 under actual triple threat rules. A Regeneration X feud makes sense here, and I'm hopeful
09:16 that DIY pick up the belt soon and actually lead this tag division into a new era.
09:21 We also got a new QR code tease for the return of Bo Dallas during New Day's entrance,
09:25 and it's interesting that former AEW star Matt Hardy has been sharing this on Twitter
09:30 given his history with Bray Wyatt. Drew McIntyre kicked over a TV that showed a recap of CM
09:35 Punk screwing him last week, presumably causing real glass to shatter on the floor, crimier
09:40 ever. And The Way beat Ivy Nile and Maxine Dupree in a couple of minutes when Indi cheated
09:44 on Candice's behalf.
09:45 Andrade beat Dominik Mysterio in a good match that featured Dom hitting a Canadian Destroyer
09:49 on the apron to set up a near fall. Outlaw Mud Show, amirite? JD McDonough jumped Andrade
09:55 after the match, and Ricochet made the save.
09:57 Cathy Kelly interviewed Jey Uso about his brother getting jumped by Tama Tonga on Smackdown,
10:01 and felt remorseful that Jimmy didn't follow him like he wanted.
10:04 And Chelsea Green and Piper Niven beat The Party Girls in a couple of minutes. The entire
10:08 run time of women's wrestling on this three hour broadcast was just over five minutes.
10:15 Do better, WWE.
10:16 Cody Rhodes came out for a promo to announce that he's technically a Smackdown guy now,
10:21 and continued his feud with The Rock. He also brought out Jey Uso, who then beat Finn Balor
10:25 in another decent match.
10:27 Damian Priest - who will be defending his world title against Jey Uso at Backlash - came
10:31 out and looked disappointed that the rest of the Judgment Day jumped Jey after the match.
10:36 And he should be bloody disappointed, because despite having a 3-on-1 advantage, Jey escaped!
10:41 And he walked through the concourse - hilariously pushing this fan out of the way who tried
10:44 to take a selfie with him - and spoke to Sami Zayn, who was excited to wrestle in this building
10:48 as a singles champion.
10:50 Sami then did the same route that Jey just did through the concourse to enter the building
10:55 for his entrance for the main event, this time not pushing a fan over. It was an awesome,
11:01 awesome one-shot deal, another huge improvement for WWE's production, and an entrance that
11:07 some are saying is one of the best that Raw has ever had.
11:11 And that main event saw Sami Zayn retain his Intercontinental Championship against Chad
11:15 Gable in a very hard hitting match that saw some gnarly German suplexes right onto people's
11:20 noggins. This got nearly 20 minutes to get over, and boy howdy did it get over. Sami
11:26 won when he hit the Halufa Kick, and then Chad Gable turned heel by attacking Sami in
11:32 front of his family.
11:33 I am sure heel Chad Gable in full TNA Kurt Angle mode - Perk Angle I believe is what
11:38 the kids call him - will be awesome. And it will be awesome, I'm pretty sure of that.
11:45 But I am gutted that we didn't get anything from that organic babyface momentum that we
11:51 had last year from the Chad Gable/Gunther feud. I really truly believe there was so
11:57 much more mileage that could have been gotten out of that. But as I said, I am sure this
12:02 heel Chad Gable will be awesome.
12:04 And it capped off another good edition of Monday Night Raw. The wrestling was pretty
12:07 standard for the most part, but that main event slapped. This week's show is 3 out
12:11 of 5. Now go and watch Monday Night Raw over on partsFUN, we've linked a whole playlist
12:16 of this new series, and here's episode 1 to get you started.
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