00:00Multiple WWE names heading to AEW, Smackdown frustrations with Fox, my review of Monday
00:07Night Raw, and more. I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:17Say it with me now, 2024 is the year of contracts.
00:20It was revealed last month that Ricochet would be leaving WWE once his contract was up and
00:25he was written off Raw in an angle with Bron Breakker. There was talk that Ricochet could
00:29come back for one more angle, but that now seems off the cards, as he was moved to WWE's
00:34alumni section ahead of his contract expiring. The timing of this had many fans holding their
00:39breath for a shock Forbidden Door debut, however Fightful Select have reported this wouldn't
00:43have been possible, as Flippy Trev's WWE deal actually expired yesterday on July 1st.
00:48Despite this, Fightful Select report those from both WWE and AEW expect Ricochet to join
00:54Tony Khan's company, but don't expect an all-in match with Will Ospreay. If he does,
00:58that reportedly is not the current plan.
01:01Despite Ricochet exiting WWE, Fightful Select did confirm that Samantha Irvin will continue
01:05with the company. Unlike Ricochet, Natalya is still with WWE, with her deal long reported
01:10to be up this summer, potentially the end of July. And in a development that is sure
01:15to get the rumour mill turning, Fightful Select revealed that Natalya was not backstage at
01:20last night's Raw. According to their report, WWE have been very quiet internally regarding
01:25Matty's contract status, however the two sides have been in talks regarding a new deal.
01:30As of yet, there is no word on how those talks are going, with it only being said that WWE
01:34are hopeful to keep the veteran. SRS noted on his Raw Review podcast that he does expect
01:39Natalya to re-sign.
01:41However, numerous talent and staff in AEW reportedly want to see the company sign Natalya,
01:46with Mercedes Monet even alluding to her wanting a certain girl in her husband to move to AEW
01:52in a recent interview, referring to Natalya and TJ Wilson.
01:56Dijak, like Ricochet, is now officially a free agent following his WWE contract expiration
02:01on June 29th. While Ricochet's AEW debut at Forbidden Door was a pipe dream, some did
02:06expect to see Dijak show up. After all, the former T-Bar showed up at a Blitzkrieg Pro
02:11event on the day his deal expired. While he didn't show up at Forbidden Door, it has
02:15now been reported by PWInsider that Dijak was backstage for the show. Something confirmed
02:20by the man himself on Twitter, replying to a Tony Khan tweet by thanking the AEW President
02:25for having him there.
02:26There's one more name who could be linked to AEW, the unlikeliest of all, Shane McMahon.
02:31Jim Ross said on his podcast recently that he'd spoken with Shane O'Mac about coming
02:35into AEW, but Tony Khan downplayed the rumours saying he's not spoken to the man.
02:40And now, according to PWInsider, Shane was seen speaking with TBS Champion Mercedes Monet
02:46at an airport in Queens, New York. While there was no confirmation as to what was being
02:50discussed, PWInsider are saying that it was AEW related. Who would you like to see show
02:55up in AEW the most? Let me know in the comments down below.
02:58While the June 28th edition of Smackdown was, yet again, another great show, it was plagued
03:03by some annoying censorship issues. With the expletive crowd chant being muted and the
03:08screen cutting to black when a child flipped off Nia Jax. Now that's heat, brother.
03:13SRS on Fightful's Backstage Report podcast noted there was, "...frustration among talent
03:17due to the censorship, with the feeling that they cannot wait for the show to begin life
03:21on the USA Network later this year, where they hope this will be a less frequent occurrence."
03:26Before we jump into the Monday Night Raw review, here's a clip from yesterday's Monday
03:30Night Raw, where, well, this happened.
04:00Now it's time for my review of Monday Night Raw, aka, I guess, the go-home edition for
04:22Money in the Bank edition of Monday Night Raw, in about 5 minutes.
04:26The show opened with Jey Uso coming out to say he'll be mon YEET in the bank this weekend.
04:31Yes, Money in the Bank is this weekend, I can't quite believe it myself. And Chad
04:34Gable came out to tell Jey that YEET isn't a word. Now, I hate to be a contrarian here,
04:39Mr. Gable, but I've checked Dictionary.com and it appears that YEET is a real word. It
04:43reads, "...an exclamation of enthusiasm, approval, triumph, pleasure, joy, etc. No
04:48wonder your academy fell apart."
04:50However, miracle is a word I didn't need to look up, and Gable said it's a miracle
04:54that he's alive and well. He said that the Wights will be coming after Jey next because
04:58he also abandoned his family and they had a brief brawl. Chad, however, found that he
05:02was surrounded by the Wights before he left through the crowd, and Abby gave a new VHS
05:06tape to Michael Cole. Disappointed it wasn't a mini-disc as Oli Davis predicted, but still
05:10cool nonetheless.
05:11Xavier Woods beat Karrion Kross in a short match, and Final Testament laid out both guys
05:14afterwards with Kross seemingly breaking Kofi's arm. Dominic Mysterio got caught in a lie
05:18when he told Damian Priest that Rhea Ripley was all cool about what was going on, because
05:23Priest revealed he's actually spoken to Rhea and she's pissed about what's going
05:27on. Uh oh. They went into the Judgment Den to find Liv hanging out with the rest of the
05:31crew and excused herself. Finn suggested to Priest that she join the group, then got into
05:35an argument about Damian's comments from last week's Raw about him not needing Judgment
05:38Day. Finn told him that since he's won that world title, you've changed, man.
05:42After a wonderful tribute video to Sika, we got Zelina Vega vs. Liv Morgan for the Women's
05:46World Championship, which got pretty good by the end, and the crowd got super into the
05:49closing few minutes. Especially with all the sports entertainment nonsense of Dom and Rey
05:53Mysterio coming down to the ring and getting involved for the finish. They did such a good
05:56job of this that it did look like Vega might win the title at one point, but Liv used an
06:00accidental Dom distraction to hit Oblivion for the win. Better than expected, but that
06:04does not excuse WWE's lack of build for challengers in their women's division.
06:08After that two minute preview for the WrestleMania 40 documentary that airs tomorrow, Seth Rollins
06:12came out for a promo where he said he needed to win that title back. Priest didn't come
06:16out, and instead Balor came out to attack Seth. However Priest did come out and said
06:20that wasn't their plan. After some brief miscommunication, Priest laid out Seth with
06:23the South of Heaven and helped Balor to the back. He later told him to not get involved
06:27in his match this weekend. Ludwig Heiser cut a promo revealing that he's broken his ribs
06:31but will be back soon, and Zoey Stark beat Ivy Nile and Dakota Kai in a triple threat
06:35to qualify for Money in the Bank. Now I would imagine that the internet was a little bit
06:39upset about this, especially after Kai had that emotional plea on Twitch to just be given
06:44a chance. But I think that this does work for the breakdown of Damage Control storyline
06:48that they've been playing up for the last few weeks. Granted, I don't think Zoey Stark
06:52is an inspired choice for the ladder match, but that's more on WWE's lack of building
06:56for credible world champion contenders than the talent themselves. Now look, I also tried
07:01to find a way to crowbar in a Limp Bizkit lyric when talking about Damage Control, but
07:04I just couldn't do it this week. I'd have had to re-arrange the order of the words.
07:12So there's Wyatt, huh? We got the second Wyatt VHS, which is a lot like the one from
07:16last week, and so Bo said that this is a real family, and the reason they've targeted
07:20Chad is because he's abandoned his. After some front camera trickery, Bo fully became
07:24Uncle Howdy once again, the voice and embodiment of The Reckoning. This again was really cool,
07:30and I want to put over the editing in particular because it's spectacular. Chad approached
07:34Otis in the Enjoys Nice Catering section, and said that the Wyatts would come after
07:37him next, and if they do, he will have their backs. Because Otis is his number one guy.
07:43I thought this was a great wrinkle to the story and characters of the academy.
07:46Rey beat Dom after the inverse of the world title match as it was Liv and Vega that came
07:50down for the distractions and interference. Liv saved Dom from the 619, but Rey dropkicked
07:54his son to land on top of Liv in the missionary position and she wouldn't let him off. Dom
07:57eventually got crotched on the top rope, and Rey hit an innovative 619 and dropped the
08:01dime for the win. Good stuff, I was sports entertained.
08:04Sami Zayn cut a promo on Brom Breaker, and Brim Brockle said that while everyone else
08:08is scared of him, Sami actually had the guts to challenge him to a fight. Sami said that
08:12many have tried to break him, but he always gets back up, and maybe Brom isn't as good
08:16as he thought. Brom went to leave, but quickly turned into a spear. And in what was the best
08:21thing on Raw in probably a decade, he then ran around the ring for another one, but Sami
08:25leapfrogged over him and they continued to brawl. It was awesome. He then tried for a
08:29Helluva Kick, but Breaker speared him once again and held the title above his head. Of
08:32all the segments on Raw, this was the best build for the PPV this weekend.
08:37Damage Control got into a brawl with Lara Valkyrie and the Party Girls, they'll have
08:40a match next week, and the main event saw Drew McIntyre qualify for Money in the Bank
08:44by beating Ilja Dragunov and Sheamus in a great match. Much like My Sex Life, the action
08:47was hard, fast, physical, and did not disappoint. Drew hit the Claymore for the win, and cut
08:52a promo saying that he would leave Money in the Bank as World Champion.
08:55Last week I suggested that maybe Punk could screw Drew in the ladder match, but I really
08:59liked an Ultra Chat we got on the WrestleTalk Podcast that said, it would be better if Drew
09:03won and Punk screwed the cash in. Because then it would be the third world title that
09:09he screwed him out of. And I like that so much more. Plus, of all the guys in the match,
09:14Drew feels like the only one who could actually feel like a credible world title challenger
09:18right now. It capped off a fine edition of Monday Night Raw, which is your usual Triple
09:22H uninspired go-home show, which means it'll be a banger of a PPV this Saturday. I'm
09:27not usually one for clock watching, but around 50 minutes of wrestling just isn't enough
09:31for me. Under an hour of grabs on a three hour show is not the one, this week's Raw
09:36is three out of five. Now click the link on screen to watch this season of Monday Night
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