00:00WWE Raw is going back to two hours, I'm so happy!
00:04A major WWE deal expires, my review of Monday Night Raw and more.
00:09I'm Oli Davis, and this is the season premiere of the WrestleTalk News.
00:20Since the 23rd July 2012, on its 1000th episode, Monday Night Raw has been three hours long
00:28every week.
00:29Which is, objectively, an hour too long for a weekly pro wrestling show.
00:34But now, after 12 years, which actually felt like 189 years in some of those episodes'
00:39third hours, may I remind you of Raw After Dark, Raw Underground, The Cruiserweights
00:44Hour, Sami Zayn's special shooty segments…
00:47WWE announced on Monday's episode the beginning on Monday October 7th, Raw will return to
00:54a two hour duration.
00:56Yes!
00:57It's happening!
00:58It's finally happening!
01:01WWE programming is currently undergoing a game of musical chairs, with SmackDown joining
01:09Raw on the USA Network from this Friday, NXT moving from the USA to the CW next month,
01:14and Raw moving to Netflix in January.
01:17Perhaps Netflix will keep the show at two hours, with ad breaks being treated differently
01:21on the ad-supported or subscription tiers?
01:23All according to Wrestling Observer, who are reporting that on Netflix, Raw will return
01:29to three hours.
01:30Oh dear, the music just stopped, and Hulu also lost its seat.
01:35After fans noticed this week's SmackDown wasn't available on Hulu, the official Hulu
01:39support Twitter account confirmed their deal with WWE has expired.
01:44Hulu has a next day deal with Fox to air many of its shows, and with SmackDown moving from
01:48Fox to USA starting this Friday, that will no longer be the case.
01:54But wait, what's Tony Khan doing in the musical chair zone, trying to steal Triple
01:58H's seat at the last second?
02:00Last Friday, a trademark was filed for AEW's Shockwave, starting speculation that AEW is
02:07set to launch a new weekly show amidst its own TV negotiations with Warner Bros Discovery.
02:12Fightful Select has reported that the media rights deal between AEW and WBD is very close
02:18to being done, as it seemingly has been for half a year now, but that might not include
02:22whatever this new Shockwave thing is.
02:25In fact, there's a rumour going around that AEW could be bringing a show to Fox in SmackDown's
02:32absence.
02:33A source close to Fox told Fightful and Andrew Zarian that the network was keen to retain
02:37wrestling content, as there's no trouble selling commercials for it.
02:41The problem with SmackDown, though, was its hugely expensive cost, meaning Fox lost money
02:46on their deal.
02:48This follows on from Fox almost striking a deal with MLW years ago for their 2B streaming
02:52service.
02:53But that was reportedly scuppered when WWE allegedly blocked the deal, which WWE ended
02:58settling out of court with MLW for $20 million.
03:02This could be a major win for AEW, replacing WWE on such a big station, and would mark
03:08a fundamental shift to their TV rights strategy, which has previously always exclusively been
03:13on WBD channels.
03:15Now it's time for my review of Monday Night Raw in about 5 minutes, which will be so much
03:20easier when it's back to 2 hours.
03:22Do you know how hard it is to recap and analyse 3 hours of wrestling in 5 minutes?
03:27It's hard.
03:29It's really hard.
03:30The Wyatt Sixx vs American Made is a feud that's been built over several months.
03:34We got a great video package before it started, feeling more like a movie trailer than a traditional
03:39wrestling hype clip.
03:40The Wyatt's entrance always feels special, and this season premiere episode had its entire
03:45first hour commercial free, meaning there were no ad breaks.
03:49It all meant that opening the eight person Street Fight tag felt exactly like a premium
03:54live event.
03:55I did enter this though with a little bit of lingering PTSD, because the last hardcore
03:59match I saw on pay-per-view, a guy got his mouth injected with drugs.
04:03Thankfully this was much more in the WWE PG realm, with lots of kendo sticks, trash cans
04:08and tables.
04:09Uncle Howdy, interestingly, wasn't a competitor.
04:12He just watched on from his rocking chair as Sister Abigail brawled with Ivy Nile.
04:16The Creedz took out Rowan through a table and covered him with debris.
04:19And American Made strategically used the numbers advantage to take out Dexter Loomis and then
04:24Joe Gacy.
04:25But then Rowan emerged from the wreckage, kicked off the Timekeeper's barricade and
04:29used it as a battering ram.
04:31Nikki gave Chad a German suplex, saving Gacy and an ankle lock, and Loomis splashed Gable
04:36to win.
04:37While Howdy finally decided to get involved, hitting a Sister Abigail on one of the Creedz.
04:41Which somehow felt like a babyface move, despite the heels being outnumbered.
04:45This was an awesome pay-per-view feel-opener, and a very neat way to hopefully wrap up this
04:50feud.
04:51I'm very curious about who the Wyatt Six will target next.
04:53Finn Balor cut an in-ring promo about how Damian Priest screwed the Judgment Day by
04:57holding Finn down.
04:59Priest made a fiery interruption, saying he'll let him talk because he wants to hear what
05:02he's got to say, but then he's going to drop his ass.
05:05They agreed to have a match at Bad Blood, where Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan will also
05:09fight over the women's title.
05:10It was a faction numbers game again, though, as the Judgment Day jumped Priest targeting
05:15his ribs, attacked Ripley, focusing on her injured angle, but oh no, Jey Uso is here.
05:21We've only got a 5-on-1 advantage, everybody run away.
05:26In more Judgment Day capers, Dominik Mysterio beat Dragon Lee after the two lost in last
05:30week's Triple Threat IC qualifier, but only because Liv Morgan took out Lee behind the
05:34referee's back.
05:35Rey Mysterio's LWO and Dom's Judgment Day tension boiled over as a result, also
05:39setting up Rey vs Finn Balor later in the night.
05:43Which was a decent back and forth match, until Finn blocked a 619 and turned it into a single
05:48leg crab in the ropes and didn't let go, forcing the referee to DQ him.
05:52While it's a technical loss, sometimes it's the vibes that count.
05:56And this did get over Finn as a vicious heel, even in defeat, as someone who doesn't care
06:01about the rules.
06:02The whole Judgment Day got a mean backstage promo too, WWE are doing a lot to make them
06:07feel like a credible threat again after the Terror Twins have beaten them so much.
06:11It might be too little, too late though, as Priest and Ripley feel too overpowered.
06:16Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair then defended their women's tag team titles against Alba
06:20Fire and Isla Dawn in their deciding third match of their feud.
06:23Although technically Fire and Dawn have never actually beaten Cargill and Belair, as they
06:27pinned Baszler and Stark in the first three way.
06:29So while this is a rubber match, it's a rubber with a hole in.
06:32I.e. ineffective.
06:34Jade and Belair beat them clean, Io Sky and Kairi Sane stared down the belts backstage
06:38afterwards, placing them as the next challengers.
06:41Bret Hart's music hit next in Calgary, Canada, but unfortunately it wasn't Shawn Michaels
06:45who came out.
06:46Bret spoke about how he's the best there was, best there is, and best there ever will
06:50be, and that he never ducked a challenge, which brought out the World Heavyweight Champion
06:54and current challenge ducker Gunther, who praised Bret for being his second favourite
06:59wrestler as a kid.
07:00I thought he was going to say Shawn was his first, as that's been WWE's go-to heat
07:04for coming up to three decades now.
07:06But he somehow said something even worse.
07:10Bill freaking Goldberg.
07:12The man who ended Bret's career, whom Bret has been a bit salty about in recent interviews.
07:18Sami Zayn then came down wearing a Johnny Goudreau jersey.
07:20WWE also did a very nice tribute to the tragically passed hockey player later on, to challenge
07:25Gunther again for a title shot.
07:27Gunther declined, went to go for Hart, and him and Sami brawled.
07:31This was a very good use of Bret.
07:33The Pure Fusion Collective then took on Zelina Vega, Lyra Valkyria and their surprise tag
07:41team partner, a returning Natalya.
07:46She's there.
07:51The crowd popped for the opening guitar shred on her music, and then went right back to
07:55normal.
07:56Drew McIntyre beat Canada Not to be confused with Brombreaker, Joe Tessitore
08:01called Drew McIntyre the Bracelet Breaker next.
08:04It's only his second week on the job, he'll get better.
08:06For Drew to cut a promo about how Punk screwed him out of the title three times, Drew beat
08:10him at SummerSlam, but just because Punk touched four corners of the ring, he thinks it's
08:15over?
08:16Yeah, Drew, spit that truth and bury that strap match stipulation.
08:20Before Drew could fully turn on his long-term buddy Wade for trying to stop his Punk assault
08:24Last week though, maybe setting up a Drew vs Wade match down the line, Adam Pearce
08:27revealed it'll be Drew vs Punk at Bad Blood in Hell in a Cell.
08:35Which means one of them will be going to Hell.
08:40Again, that's an in-joke on our Patreon shows, so go check out our Patreon to understand
08:45that.
08:46Punk was advertised for next week's Raw.
08:47Karrion Kross was being the Devil on The Miz's shoulder backstage, Kofi Kingston and Xavier
08:51Woods spoke about getting a tag title shot, with absolutely no mention of their recent
08:56partner Odyssey Jones, who was legitimately fired last week.
08:59And the main event was another pay-per-view calibre match, expertly built throughout the
09:03night with Braun just walking into the participants' interviews and crapping on them.
09:08Despite Braun Strowman still selling his ribs from the Tsunami through a car, his brute
09:13strength kept dominating the early part of this match.
09:16Even when Jey Uso, Ilja Dragunov and Pete Dunne ganged up to take him out, he was only
09:20down for a few minutes.
09:22Because to slay a monster, sometimes you need a shorter, but much thicker monster.
09:28While Braun was preparing the commentary desk, Bronson Reed exploded from out of nowhere,
09:33somehow hitting a Tsunami on a standing Strowman through the table, in an awesome spot furthering
09:39their feud.
09:40This let Jey, Ilja and Dunne have a fantastically worked series of triple threat spots.
09:44Ilja hit an A-bomb, but Jey stopped the pin and hit a splash on Dunne to win.
09:48It's Jey vs Braun for the Intercontinental title of Bad Blood, but I honestly wouldn't
09:53have minded any of these four guys, which is the sign of a very strong midcard.
09:58This week's Raw is 80%.
10:01With Raw's season premiere, a season has changed here at WrestleTalk too, is a very
10:06special message from our beloved Pete Quinell.
10:33I just want to clarify, this isn't a storyline, this isn't a bit, I am actually leaving
10:52to go to another job, but if you still want videos from me, I'll still be making content
10:55on my own personal YouTube channel, Pete Repeat, it'll be infrequent but I make video essays,
11:00they're fun, you can subscribe to it using the link in the description as well.
11:04And tomorrow, Wednesday the 11th of September, we're going to be going live here on WrestleTalk
11:08to talk about the good times, and to wish me farewell, so if you've got any closing
11:12thoughts, things you want me to hear, memories you want to share or anything else, then come
11:15on by and let me know them.
11:17For everyone who's watched anything I've been a part of or responsible for, for all
11:21of the news episodes, the podcasts, the live reactions, the watch parties, the survival
11:25series, the originals, the TLCs, the three counts in every season of the Monday Night
11:28War, I want to thank you, it's been a genuine dream working here, and I'll forever be grateful
11:34for every person who works here and every one of you who's supported me.
11:37Your support over the years from 2019 to now has been immeasurably important to me, but
11:42sometimes good things have to come to an end, so to commemorate my time here, we've put
11:47together a little video package edited by the wonderful Adam Whitney, I hope you enjoy
11:51it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
12:21Yay!
12:25Welcome aboard Pete!
12:27That didn't start a rivalry!
12:29What is going on?
12:31Why can't I play this game?
12:33After all that, you don't.
12:35Oh!
12:37Alright Triple H!
12:39Can I go back to normal now? I don't want to be cool anymore.
12:41Chop the carrots!
12:43I have!
12:45It's right there!
12:47It's chopped!
12:49Oh!
12:57Pete, his name is Slapjack!
12:59That's his name!
13:05Because I prefer to have Broad and Joe copy your actual stars!
13:09Do you get my point, Luke?
13:11I don't want to play now!
13:13No!
13:15F***!
13:17In wrong era!
13:19Yay! Yes, we got it!
13:21Still wrong era!
13:23I'm your survival series champion!
13:25I mean, that barely counts.
13:27What? What? What?
13:29Oh my god!
13:31It's here!
13:33It's happening!
13:47So, yeah, we're just saying how great you've been over the weekend.
13:51So we'd just like to, you know, say thanks for that.
13:53Oh, well, no worries.
13:55And was wondering if you wanted to come on full time.
14:11Well, I mean, you didn't beat me.
14:13No, I know I didn't.
14:15I know I didn't win.
14:17No. Dan won.
14:19Yes, Dan won.
14:21But I didn't come second.
14:23You didn't come second. You came third.
14:25You actually came third again.
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