00:00Multiple WWE stars released, Cody Rhodes' WrestleMania 40 anger, Major CM Punk plans
00:06leaked and my review of Monday Night Raw.
00:09That's right, it's a Superstar Shake-Up.
00:12I'm going to be reviewing Raw here and on the podcast from now on, and Luke and Tempest
00:17will be covering AEW on Thursdays.
00:19Being introduced as the new main host of a show at the start of September 2024, just
00:24call me Oli Tessitore, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:29Two WWE wrestlers have been removed from the official roster page.
00:35First is Trish Stratus, who returned to WWE's active roster in 2023 during a storyline with
00:40Becky Lynch.
00:41She has now been moved from the active roster to WWE's Hall of Fame page almost a year
00:46since her last in-ring match at Payback 2023.
00:49This also happened recently to Beth Phoenix when her WWE contract expired, who is speculated
00:54to join her husband Adam Edge Copeland in AEW.
00:58But while Trish's removal makes sense, the other name is far more mysterious.
01:03Odyssey Jones.
01:06If this was a few months ago, Jones' removal sadly may have been expected, as he was called
01:10up from NXT in May 2023 to never actually be seen on the main roster.
01:15A similar situation happened with Dijak this year, where he was released soon after.
01:20But then Jones kicked out at two, and finally made his Raw debut last month when Kofi Kingston
01:25brought him into the New Day, much to the chagrin of Xavier Woods.
01:29This seemed to be building to a New Day split and Woods' heel turn, but after missing
01:33Raw last week, Jones was completely removed from the official WWE roster page.
01:38Unlike Trish's profile, he hasn't been moved to the alumni page, he's been removed
01:43from the entire site.
01:45Sean Ross Sapp has reported talent have been surprised by him being off the roster page,
01:49and the Wrestling Observer have added they're relatively certain he's done, and that they've
01:54heard a lot of rumours around why, which they expect to come out soon.
01:58In addition to those talent releases, the Wrestling Observer have also reported WWE's
02:02Director of Production Travel Michelle Carlucci has been let go by the company last Friday
02:07after being with WWE since 2019.
02:11Speaking of backstage unease, remember the build to WrestleMania 40?
02:15Which always went 100% completely to plan.
02:18The originally reported plan was for The Rock to take Cody's Mania main event spot to
02:22face Roman Reigns, but the fans hated it so much, WWE wisely course corrected to Rock
02:27joining the Bloodline as a heel.
02:29Now, with Rhodes almost 150 days deep into his WWE title reign, he has hinted to what
02:34the original plan was for him to Inside the Ropes.
02:38If people knew the real plan for me, they'd be even more angry.
02:41While Cody didn't specify, the Wrestling Observer reported back in late February that
02:46WWE planned to write Cody off from WrestleMania 40 with a kayfabe injury, allowing Rock to
02:52face Reigns in the main event and potentially even win the belt.
02:56CM Punk's Mania plans also had to be changed when he suffered a legit injury at the Royal
03:01Rumble, but on the anniversary of his WWE return, he'll reportedly be getting a push
03:06to the top of the Raw title picture.
03:08After beating Drew McIntyre at Bash in Berlin, CM Punk called out Gunther for a World Heavyweight
03:13title shot on Raw.
03:14But Drew wasn't finished with him, attacked Punk, meaning they'll likely have a third
03:19rubber match in their feud.
03:21According to PWInsider, this could be because internal discussions have taken place that
03:25Punk will face Gunther at Survivor Series on the 30th November.
03:30Now it's time for my review of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes.
03:37Do not adjust your set when you see Wade Barrett.
03:39This is neither Friday Night SmackDown or ESPN's Top Rank Boxing.
03:43Wade was in the ring as a cold open introduction to the new school year of WWE programming.
03:48He and new lead play-by-play commentator Joe Tessitore will be announcing Raw, with Michael
03:52Cole and Corey Graves on SmackDown as it moves to the USA Network.
03:56Pat McAfee, meanwhile, has returned to his home planet.
03:59I thought Tessitore did a great job on his first night.
04:01He's definitely more Mauro Ranallo than Adnan Virk, adding even more to producer Lee
04:06Fitting's sports-leaning broadcast style.
04:08Damn Joe, your voice is so deep, WWE could bury the entire Judgment Day in it.
04:14But they decided to do that in the ring instead.
04:16After beating Liv Morgan and Dominic Mysterio at Bash in Berlin, Rhea Ripley cut an in-ring
04:20promo about how it was her who pinned the Women's World Champion.
04:23Dom came out instead of Liv and said the reason they lost was because they didn't get any
04:27sleep the night before because of jet lag.
04:29And also, sex.
04:32Liv jumped Rhea from behind doing a mini injury angle by attacking her left ankle hung up
04:36on the bottom rope, and Damian Priest made the save.
04:39This started the show-long storyline of Rhea being treated backstage, while Priest was
04:43trying to find a tag partner to join him against Judgment Day's Finn Balor and JD McDonough
04:47in the main event.
04:49After an abusive pep talk from Chad Gable, American Made beat American Alpha in a fun
04:53six person intergender tag, where Maxine slapped Chad off the apron, leading to her
04:57getting choked out in Ivy Nile's Dragon Sleeper for the finish.
05:00Afterwards, Gable challenged the Wyatt Six to a hardcore eight person tag next week,
05:05heelishly accusing outside interference as to why he lost against Bo Dallas on the last
05:09episode.
05:10Chad is such a good heel, in fact, he got the US crowd booing his version of the US.
05:16Uncle Howdy came out with the Wyatt Six to accept.
05:18The Pure Fusion Collective used the numbers advantage to beat Zelina Vega next, where
05:25Shayna Baszler pinned Vega after just a kick to the gut as she was re-entering the ring.
05:29They continued the beatdown of her and Laird Valkyria afterwards, and Sonya Deville cut
05:33a promo about how no one can stand up to them.
05:36Backstage later on, Lyra and Vega resolved to find a tag partner to even the odds.
05:41CM Punk said that now he's beaten Drew McIntyre definitively, he's moving on to the proper
05:46business, going for Gunther's World Heavyweight Championship.
05:49At least, I think that's what he said, I was too busy being distracted by the math
05:55greater than pipe bomb sign in the crowd.
06:02But just when Punk thought he was out, Drew pulled him back in, attacking him with multiple
06:07Claymores and snapping the bracelet in two.
06:10Which isn't just a great escalation of Bat McGuffin, it also means we no longer have
06:14to have 80 shots of it a match on someone's wrist.
06:17This was the most effective angle on the show, with Wade trying to talk sense into Drew,
06:21Punk getting stretched out, and McIntyre attacking him again by the ambulance, busting open his
06:26mouth.
06:27With the reports that Gunther vs Punk is in the works for Survivor Series, the heavy speculation
06:30is on Punk vs McIntyre at Bad Blood… in Hell in a Cell.
06:37Which means one of them is going to HELL.
06:52Dominik Mysterio was chased off by Priest in the third three-way qualifier for the Fatal
06:56Four Way No. 1 contenders match for the IC title Whack Bat, leaving just Dragon Lee vs
07:00Dragon Nov in a battle of the guys who have dragon names.
07:04This was really entertaining stuff, with Elia winning with a Torpedo Moscow off the
07:08ropes who then raised Lee's arm in respect.
07:10The fourth and final three-way qualifier for the Fatal Four Way No. 1 contenders match
07:14for the IC title Whack Bat, however, needed to replace Bronson Reed, who had been attacked
07:19backstage by Covid.
07:20Instead, despite being Tsunami'd through a car last week, Braun Strowman took his place.
07:25He did a good job selling his midsection, and thanks to Pete Dunne knocking out Sheamus
07:28with a Shillelagh, Braun the Replacement pinned Ludwig Kaiser to advance, presumably setting
07:33up the next chapter in the Bronson vs Braun feud, as Reed or Phil Strowman stole his place.
07:39Dunne gave Jackie Redmond a message for Sheamus backstage afterwards, which Jackie asked if
07:43she should say was from Butch.
07:45Lady, what the hell?
07:47He clearly doesn't like being called that.
07:49The new women's tag team champions Bianca Belair and Jey Cargill had two gooder seats
07:53at ringside for the No. 1 contenders match between the Unholy Union and Damage Control.
07:57Xyla Dawn pulled Belair in the way of a Kairi Sane dive outside that not only wiped out Bianca,
08:02but also horribly busted open Kairi's face.
08:05She reportedly received stitches after the show.
08:08This allowed Unholy Union to get the win, but the real feud seems to be between Belair,
08:12Jade and Damage Control, who all got in each other's faces afterwards, busted though
08:16they might be.
08:17In the second best angle of the show, we got the likely next challenger for Gunther's
08:21World Heavyweight title, Sami Zayn.
08:24Sami interrupted Gunther's Win in Berlin celebration promo to talk about the prestige
08:28of the Intercontinental title.
08:30How the best champions like Macho Man, Stone Cold, Bret Hart and even Gunther have used
08:36that belt as a stepping stone to win a world title.
08:39So he is coming for Gunther's belt, and Gunther replied with 9.
08:44But as Gunther arrogantly walked away, Sami brought up the perfect reason for them to
08:48have a match.
08:49In Gunther's entire WWE run, Zayn is the only person to have beaten him, meaning he
08:56is due a shot at the world title.
08:58Rhea eventually got Jey Uso as Damian's tag partner for the main event, where Jey
09:02told Priest he knows exactly how he feels.
09:05He too was betrayed by his own family.
09:07It's small, but really significant character insights like this that really elevated WWE
09:12stories.
09:13Another driver is how most wrestlers have multiple quests at the same time.
09:17Jey is flirting with Rhea, flirty quest.
09:19Now he's helping with Damian, friendship quest.
09:21He's got the whole Bloodline thing looming over him, family quest.
09:25But he's also going for a championship title quest.
09:29Brom Breaker interrupted Jey's interview to give him one chance to step out of the
09:33IC Fatal 4-Way match, to go focus on Dom's sloppy seconds instead.
09:37But this only fired up Jey, saying he's going to win the title and beat his ass.
09:42But before then, he's going to beat Judgment Day's ass easily instead.
09:47Because despite Finn Balor and JD McDonough being the tag team champions, and Priest and
09:51Jey not being an established tag act, and Liv interfering to help the Judgment Day,
09:55and Rhea's ankle being injured earlier in the night, and Priest and Ripley beating Liv
09:59and Dom at Bash in Berlin two days prior…
10:04Judgment Day lost again.
10:05The main event was fun, the Terra triplets look super strong, and I expect this to build
10:09to a six person intergender tag now of Rhea, Damian and Jey vs Liv, Finn and JD.
10:14But I'm struggling to fully invest because of how weak Judgment Day have been booked.
10:18This week's Raw is 70% Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, there I've said it.
10:27Now you have to go watch Luke and Dan run down the biggest movie releases in September
10:31by clicking the video on the left.
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