00:00WWE makes some changes, the wrestling world mourns the passing of Sid, my review of Raw
00:13and Uncle Howdy's debut, and more.
00:15I'm Luke Owen, I still haven't really got my voice back from All In, and this is
00:19the WrestleTalk News.
00:23Last night's terrific episode of Monday Night Raw saw the in-ring debut of Uncle Howdy
00:27and two men qualify for the Intercontinental Championship number one contender's Fatal
00:314-Way, but the thing that really caught my eye was the angle between Bronson Reed and
00:37Braun Strowman.
00:38We'll cover it in the Raw review in full, but here's the headline.
00:40BRONSON REED DID A TSUNAMI ONTO A CAR ROOF AND THE WINDOWS EXPLODED AND IT WAS AWESOME.
00:45WrestleVotes posted on Twitter prior to the show that there was a spot planned for Raw
00:48which had a lot of buzz backstage, and added sources say they were back and forth on the
00:54details of the angle.
00:56WrestleVotes would later post a clip of that spot confirming that that was the angle they'd
00:59heard about.
01:00But that wasn't the only change being made to Raw last night.
01:04With Pat McAfee taking some time off due to obligations to ESPN's College Game Day,
01:08Corey Graves made his return to the colour commentary position on Raw alongside Michael
01:12Cole.
01:13They later confirmed in the show that that duo will become the commentary team for Smackdown
01:17when it makes its return to USA Network in September.
01:20This will set up the debut of Joe Tessitore, who will take over as the lead commentator
01:25for Monday Night Raw.
01:26Although unconfirmed, it is believed that Wade Barrett will be his broadcast partner.
01:30So Raw will have Tessitore and presumably Barrett, while Smackdown will have Graves
01:34and Cole.
01:35That is until the Netflix move in 2025, as Raw will once again have Cole and McAfee,
01:41while Tessitore, Graves and Barrett will take over Smackdown.
01:43Are we all clear on that?
01:45But sadly we must end this news portion of this video with the passing of Sid Eudy, better
01:50known as Sid Vicious.
01:52His son Gunner posted the news on his Facebook page, noting that his father lost his battle
01:56with cancer at the age of 63.
01:58Sean Ross Sapp noted on Fightful that Sid kept this very private.
02:01Gunner wrote, he was a man of strength, kindness and love and his presence will be greatly
02:05missed.
02:06Sid was a true giant of the industry, both literally and figuratively, working the scenes
02:11in the late 80s before signing with WCW in 1991 where he became part of the Four Horsemen.
02:16He would later jump to the WWF to feud with Hulk Hogan for WrestleMania as Sid Justice,
02:21and then head back to WCW for a brief stint, before going back to the WWF to win the World
02:26Championship twice, headlining WrestleMania against The Undertaker.
02:30He had a brief run in ECW but left due to the company's struggling money issues, and
02:34again returned to WCW where he won their World Championship in 2000.
02:39Sadly due to injury, Sid retired in 2001, an injury so gruesome I think it's been used
02:44on a thousand different YouTube thumbnails, but he did some work with the WWA in Australia
02:49and Juggalo Championship Wrestling in the US.
02:52Miraculously, Sid did wrestle a fair amount following that injury in the late 2000s, facing
02:57the likes of Jerry Lawler, Jim Duggan, Too Cold Scorpio, X-Park and Eddie Kingston in
03:02a 5 second match.
03:03He even returned to WWE in 2012 where he beat Heath Slater in the build to Raw 1000 and
03:09had his final wrestling match in 2017.
03:12And of course, he was a big softball player and fan.
03:16Ric Flair, Sting, Eric Bischoff, PCO, Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Booker T and many more
03:21have paid their tributes to Sid on social media, while Xavier Woods wore a black armband
03:26with Sid's name on it on last night's Raw.
03:28We'd like to invite you to leave your comments down below with your favourite Sid moments.
03:32Thank you big man, you will be missed.
03:34And before we get into the Raw review, please do check out this clip from our most recent
03:37parts of unknown list where Tempest looks at wrestling moves so dangerous they were
03:41banned.
03:42The Stomp In addition to being a solid 65 base power
03:46100 accuracy move with a chance to make the opponent flinch, the Stomp was one of the
03:50moves that bit the dust as a result of WWE's family-friendly presentation.
03:54The Curb Stomp has been used by many a wrestler, but its most famous and beloved variant was
03:59the one used by Seth Rollins to win many a match, including the main event of WrestleMania
04:0431.
04:05The only problem was that Vince McMahon, in his infinite wisdom, thought the move looked
04:09too violent, and there was some worry that children would try and copy the move, despite
04:14the very clear instructions provided by WWE to never try this at home that we definitely
04:19all listen to.
04:20And now it's time for my review of Monday Night Raw, aka Bronson Reed Rules edition
04:25of Monday Night Raw, in about 5 minutes.
04:27The New Judgment Day opened the show to recap the beating they gave to the Terror Twins
04:31last week, and noted that they deserve it for stabbing their group in the back.
04:35Dom also announced that he's entering into the IC title tournament, and he's going
04:39to win the whole thing.
04:40Rey Mysterio and the rest of the LWO came out with Mr. Mysterio saying that his son
04:44has zero balls, is a jackass, and he's going to slap the moustache off his face.
05:09This led to an 8-man tag following a brawl, which got really fun in the final stretch,
05:17and the crowd was super into it.
05:19LWO doing the Criss Cross dive was superb.
05:21Criss Cross will make you dive, dive.
05:25Liv Morgan saved Dominik Mysterio from being hit by a splash after the 619, and he rolled
05:29up Rey for the win.
05:30Liv Morgan has now helped Dominik Mysterio pin his dad twice, furthering his reasons
05:35to pick Liv over Rhea.
05:38The Terror Twins ran down to beat them all up, with Finn, Dom and Liv escaping, leaving
05:41J.D., McDumbass and Carlito to take the bumps.
05:43Terror Twins later cut a promo saying they were the villains of the story, and Judgement
05:47Day will now have to face their devils.
05:49Damage Control took on Pure Fusion Collective in your Didn't We Already See This match
05:52of the week, and they won rather easily again.
05:55And here is your obligatory This Is Your Only Women's Match on the show, and unlike last
05:59week where I was wrong to say that on a technicality because this wasn't really a match it was
06:04more of an angle, this was, for sure, the only women's match of the week.
06:09Actually, let me double check that, where's my phone, I've got my notes, yeah, Xavier
06:18Woods, yeah, no I was right, yep, that's right, the only women's match of the show, I was
06:22right this time.
06:25Maybe I'll say there was two just in case.
06:27Drew McIntyre came out for a promo where he made fun of CM Punk's promo style, noting
06:31that he is rather predictable.
06:33He said that Punk keeps talking about the company being hot right now, but he was sat
06:36on his arse at home while everyone else did the hard work to get it this hot and now he's
06:39trying to take credit for it.
06:40And the problem is you the fans.
06:43You keep chanting his name and it feeds Punk's ego and makes his head get bigger and bigger.
06:47You fans are enablers.
06:49Punk attacked Drew from behind and they had a good brawl, with security breaking it up,
06:53Punk beat up some of them and stared Drew down.
06:55This was a very good go-home angle, and one that was needed for Bash in Berlin.
06:59It hasn't felt like the heat has been there for this second match like there was for the
07:03first one, which is kind of to be expected I guess.
07:06And a few people defended the idea of a strap match in the comments of last week's video
07:10as I was quite down on it, but I've not heard a better descriptor of the match than from
07:14our very own Tempest, who noted that a strap match where you have to touch all four corners
07:19has taken this blood feud and turned it into a Mario Party mini-game.
07:23So credit to WWE for trying to hype this up as beating your opponents so bad they can't
07:28even stand anymore and you can touch the corners.
07:31I still think it's a lame gimmick, but I do appreciate the effort.
07:34Jey Uso took on Kofi Kingston and Karrion Kross in a fun triple threat where the winner
07:38would advance to a fatal four way for the IC title number one contendership, and it
07:42was cool seeing Jey and Kofi work together on Kross given their history, and in the end
07:45Jey picked up the win with the splash.
07:47They did have a backstage segment earlier in the show with Kofi and Woods and their
07:50uneasiness, which I thought might play more into this tournament, but spoilers, both men
07:55get eliminated.
07:56I get that we want to push Jey Uso, otherwise Rikishi will have more harsh words to say
08:01about WWE on a podcast or something, and really Jey Uso is the right choice, but I
08:07am more into this Woods and Kofi thing at the moment.
08:10Gunther got a promo on Instagram from Europe, and Randy Orton came out for a promo to hype
08:14their match at Bash in Berlin.
08:15With no Gunther there in the building there wasn't much more they could do, so Randy
08:19just covered a lot of the ground we've already covered and said that he'll win this Saturday.
08:23I did like that Orton noted that he was the youngest man to win the World Heavyweight
08:26Championship and he was the man to retire the belt, so he wants to etch his name into
08:30this new title's lineage.
08:33The best thing on the show by far though was Bronson Reed vs. Braun Strowman.
08:38The match wasn't much of anything apart from Reed's big dive because they just walked
08:41out of the building with no finish to continue brawling.
08:44Reed took a chokeslam on a car and got pounced onto another one and then hit a tsunami onto
08:49Strowman on top of the car which made all the windows explode and it was awesome.
08:56Proper sports entertaining this was.
08:58The car effect was great and Strowman sold it brilliantly afterwards.
09:02They later said that Reed somehow walked away with no medical attention, but no one really
09:07knows what condition he's in, so that will likely play into the triple threat he's
09:11got next week for the IC title shot.
09:13Give him the win though, I don't care if it annoys Rikishi, I want to see Reed vs.
09:16Breaker at this point.
09:18But more likely I think this will give Reed the out for not winning next week or qualifying
09:22then not winning the Fatal 4-Way because Braun Breaker cut a promo where he was really focused
09:26on Jey Uso which sort of sets him up to win the whole thing.
09:29Pete Dunne also qualified for the Fatal 4-Way by beating Xavier Woods and The Miz in a very
09:34fun three-way match.
09:35This was probably the best match of the night.
09:37We got a lovely video tribute to Sid and then Chad Gable took on Uncle Howdy in the character's
09:42debut, Bo Dallas' first match in nearly five years and almost one year to the day
09:47that his brother passed away.
09:49The emotions were there for this and the crowd was super behind Uncle Howdy, popping for
09:53all his references and tributes to both Bray Wyatt and Brodie Lee and were really behind
09:57his comeback.
09:58Gable gave him an angle slam on the announcer's table with Howdy just getting back in at nine
10:02and American Made interfered following a ref bump and the rest of the Wyatts brawled with
10:06The Creed and Ivy Nile as Howdy gave Gable the Sister Abigail in the middle of the ring
10:10for the win.
10:11Gable once again sold the move like a psychopath.
10:13Much like the trios match a few weeks ago, this was basically a perfect debut match.
10:18He gave you everything you needed, some great drama and that feel good win.
10:22You couldn't ask for much more.
10:23As a go-home show for Bash in Berlin, this wasn't a particularly good episode of Monday
10:26Night Raw as it didn't sell me on the pay-per-view, but as a general episode of television, this
10:31was great.
10:32Now go check out Tempest's latest list on partsFUNknown where he looks at wrestling
10:35moves that were once banned.
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