00:00A backstage clash over Bad Blood, AEW dropping their games developer, my review of Monster,
00:07Night Raw and more.
00:10I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:17Get exclusive videos over on our Patreon.
00:20Do you really hate Dominik Mysterio?
00:22Is piped in crowd heat not enough for your burning rage against him?
00:26Well now you can use Dominik Mysterio to WIPE YOUR ASS.
00:31Dirty Dominik Mysterio toilet paper is now available on WWE Shop, which Liv Morgan has
00:36promoted by posting.
00:37Enjoy, because this is the closest thing you losers will get to having Daddy Dom between
00:43your legs.
00:46And you might need Dirty Dom toilet paper when you s*** your pants at how expensive
00:50front row tickets are for WrestleMania 41.
00:53WrestleMania tickets are set to go on pre-sale on the 23rd October, which include the Elite
00:58Package.
00:59Kenny Omega to WWE confirmed.
01:01Also What I Call My Penis to WWE confirmed.
01:04That'll get you front row seats right in the middle of the hard cam, presumably, next
01:08to Green Shirt Guy for the go-home episode of SmackDown, WrestleMania Nights 1 and 2,
01:13and the following night's Ram… which is Raw After Mania.
01:18And it's yours now for the cheap price of just $50,000.
01:25Before then, though, is this Saturday's Bad Blood Premium live event, and a neatly
01:29minimalist five matches on the card.
01:32Liv Morgan vs Rhea Ripley, Damian Priest vs Finn Balor, Nia Jax vs Bayley, CM Punk vs
01:38Drew McIntyre and New Blood vs Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns.
01:43According to PWInsider, WWE's original plan was to have Punk and Drew headline with
01:48their Big Hell in a Cell blowoff stipulation, with Bad Blood referencing the first ever
01:53Hell in a Cell match with Shawn Michaels against The Undertaker at the same event 27 years
01:58ago.
01:59But the Wrestling Observer has been reporting that some backstage in WWE were pushing for
02:03Roman and Cody to main event the show, which has been successful, which was then booked
02:09to close the event.
02:10But now everything is up in the air again.
02:13Following the release of AEW's first ever video game, In Development Forever, sorry
02:17I mean Fight Forever, in June last year, Insider Gaming are now reporting that the promotion
02:22is strongly considering finding a new partner after numerous issues with the company Yukes,
02:28who used to work with 2K on their WWE releases.
02:31The site alleges the game was over budget, and AEW felt it underdelivered when it came
02:36out with various bugs and a lack of depth.
02:39Kenny Omega reportedly hated working with Yukes, and some felt they took advantage of
02:44him.
02:45No one was really happy when the game came out.
02:47Apparently the contract between AEW and Yukes was for one year of post-launch updates, which
02:53has now presumably expired.
02:54According to the report, everything is on the table for negotiations, and AEW have sent
02:59feelers out to larger developers in the space.
03:02AEW have had another deal end, with them parting ways with their streaming partner Bleacher
03:08Report.
03:09The company that bought an AEW pay-per-view through Bleacher Report has recently received
03:12a message saying that their deal has ended and all purchased past events will be moved
03:17to Triller TV within the next 14 days.
03:20This could be because AEW is set to move all their pay-per-views to Warner Bros Discovery's
03:25Max service in the US as part of their new deal, which is expected to be announced imminently.
03:31Before I get into my review of Monster Night Raw, what about Monster Night… War?
03:37The fourth episode of Monday Night Raw, the last chance between Luke and Pete, is up now
03:41exclusively on our Patreon.
03:43Sign up to Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk to watch the whole series so far, and to help
03:48support us making everything we do, here's a clip.
04:04Now it's time for my review of hopefully the last ever 3 hour Raw in about 5 minutes.
04:34Fresh off his Intercontinental Championship win last Monday, Yeet, Jey Uso opened this
04:38episode Bret Hart style wearing pink shades and being surrounded by kids, including his
04:43own son, in Evansville, Canada.
04:46Yeet.
04:47Jey was so over with the crowd, he arguably got too big a pop.
04:52He seemed overwhelmed by the response, and momentarily forgot his words.
04:55So he mostly kept coming back to how much he loves everyone and the word Yeet.
05:00Brom Breaker came out to reveal he's not here to spoil the party because he's a baby
05:04face now, and he shook Jey's hand without a single cheeky tug.
05:09Xavier Woods, meanwhile, is spinning in the other direction of moral alignment, because
05:13that man's turning heel.
05:15After snapping at Rey Mysterio last week, they wrestled a match here.
05:18It brilliantly ended as Rey's mask slipped off his face, which Woods took advantage of
05:23rolling him up for a pin.
05:24He didn't technically cheat, but he sure did exhibit gamesmanship.
05:29Xavier tensely denied he did it intentionally to Kofi backstage, so Kingston revealed he'd
05:34got Woods a shot at the Intercontinental Championship next week.
05:37Suddenly Woods was back to his happy self.
05:40Until later on, where maybe, or maybe not, he cheated again.
05:45American Made were interfering in the Chad Gable vs Kofi Kingston match, so Woods thought
05:49he'd even the odds by tripping Gable behind the referee's back.
05:53But that ruined Kofi's potentially match-winning Trouble in Paradise move, and let Chad hit
05:58the Chaos Theory to win.
06:00Woods looked distraught that it cost his friend the victory, particularly as Kofi had just
06:04given him his icy title match.
06:06This is an excellent slow burn character drama.
06:09Unfortunately, WWE used up all the character depth on the New Day because the random women's
06:14division feuds are utterly shallow.
06:16The Pure Fusion Collective, God it's such a terrible name, interfered to help Zoey Stark
06:22beat Lyra Valkyria.
06:23Katana Chance and Kayden Carter returned to make the post-match beatdown save, meaning
06:27even when the PFC win, they still don't stand tall.
06:31And Katana and Kayden shouted at the Unholy Union over wanting the tag titles afterwards
06:36in the least threatening way possible.
06:39Credit to Adam Pearce.
06:40He might not be able to protect people in the front row of a monster match, but he sure
06:43did keep his promise of not having CM Punk and Drew McIntyre brawl ahead of their Hell
06:48in a Cell match this Saturday.
06:50Both men stood across the ring from each other in the steel structure, separated by Pearce
06:54and a line of security.
06:56Drew wore all black out of respect for Punk's wife, who'll have to feed him through a
07:00tube from now on.
07:02In contrast, Punk wore the good guy all white.
07:05As the third match in their feud, they fascinatingly seemed resigned to their fate.
07:10They both hate the men they've made each other become.
07:13Punk has been living in a hotel for the past four weeks to not subject his wife to the
07:17man Drew's turned him into, and they just want it over with in this feud ending stipulation.
07:23Drew wants his hate to die with Punk this Saturday.
07:27He wants to be released from this obsession.
07:29This was a very effective downbeat final angle for their final match.
07:34Every goddamn time I get worked by the simplest trick in the book.
07:37Three weeks in a row now, WWE have told me someone isn't at the show, and they've
07:42ended up doing a surprise interference spot, and I'm there like ooooh.
07:47This week it was supposedly having travel issues Finn Balor, when he appeared to push
07:51Wacken Wild off the top rope, letting Judgment Day beat the LWO in a six man tag.
07:55Finn cut a promo on Priest afterwards saying it was always Damian who needed the Judgment
07:59Day, not the other way around.
08:01Liv Morgan was about to have her turn on the mic when Rhea Ripley interrupted, and Priest
08:05attacked the faction from behind.
08:07Rhea and Liv brawled off after Don was smashed into the shark cage, but the three on one
08:10numbers game was too much for Priest, and Judgment Day stood tall.
08:14Unlike the Punk vs McIntyre feud, where I'm ready for their final match, I feel like the
08:18Judgment Day story peaked last month, and it's overdue for all involved to move on.
08:24Sheamus challenged Butch to a good old fashioned Donnybrook match.
08:28WWE paid their respects to the sadly past Pete Rose, who genuinely had one of the best
08:32WrestleMania rivalries of all time with Kane.
08:36Io Sky and Kairi Sane challenged Bianca Belair and Jey Cargill to a tag title match, which
08:40feels like they've been doing for weeks.
08:41There was a Wyatt Sixx video with the usual spooky, spooky cryptic cryptic stuff.
08:46But it was sadly announced that Ilja Dragunov potentially tore his ACL in a house show match
08:51with Gunther over the weekend, putting him out for 6-9 months.
08:56Which sucks.
08:57I'm surprised they didn't lean into that more in Gunther's in-ring promo next, where
09:01he could gloat about injuring Dragunov, building the match for when he returns.
09:05Instead, Gunther focused on being annoyed by Sami Zayn continuously asking for a title
09:10shot.
09:11This brought out Sami, who said all the usual stuff, that he's the only one who's beaten
09:14Gunther, that Gunther's afraid of him.
09:17So it was Gunther who added the new wrinkle to their story.
09:20He's got VARTA issues.
09:22Gunther's family were also at ringside at WrestleMania, and his dad asked him afterwards
09:27why he lost to that bum Sami.
09:29It was craving his father's approval that seems to have been driving Gunther ducking
09:34Sami, but it snapped here.
09:35He laid out Zayn with a powerbomb, and a match was made for next week's Raw.
09:40Which I actually really like.
09:42Rather than cram bad blood, it gives Raw its third major TV main event in three weeks.
09:47I'm currently not sure about Gunther's character development, though.
09:50He's the sort of archetype that doesn't really need his deeper set psychological issues
09:55explained.
09:56Hopefully we get just a simple hoss fight story post-Sami, as it was Brom Breaker who
09:59walked into a Gunther backstage interview later on to stare at the world title.
10:05His Intercontinental Championship reign might not have been all that long, but it might
10:08not matter if it was just a slingshot to the main event.
10:12R-Truth returned in a backstage skit to reunite the awesome Truth with Miz, and he's got
10:16them a match against AOP, which Miz thanked him by turning on Truth as soon as he got
10:24the hot tag.
10:25It didn't feel that impactful, but the story has been well told, and I'm curious to see
10:29how Miz now works with the Devil's Advocate Karrion Kross.
10:32And now it's time for our main event.
10:36Putting the ROAR into Monday Night Raw, Braun Strowman vs Bronson Reed in a Last Monster
10:43Standing match.
10:45One minute in, Braun chokeslammed Reed through the commentary table, then Reed got pushed
10:49off the apron through a load of chairs.
10:50Braun hit a Death Valley Driver off some production crates through a table in the crowd.
10:55Braun charged Strowman through two barricades, the second one wiping out a bunch of hopefully
11:00planted fans.
11:01Security and Pearce rushed down to help the audience, but it was merely kindling for this
11:05match's fire, as Strowman delivered on last week's set-up, doing a top rope anti-air
11:10crossbody to the outside, falling with style, but Reed had a delivery all of his own.
11:16The always awesome Monster Superplex spot, which broke the ring.
11:21And just as Reed was about to stand up and win, a returning Seth Rollins ran in and hit
11:26the stomp on him, letting Braun be the winner.
11:30If you asked me who's winning this feud, every time I would've said Reed.
11:34He's the guy you're pushing, he's got momentum, he needs it more.
11:38Yet WWE right now is Phase One Marvel.
11:41They're a babyface promotion, and generally the good guys win the feuds.
11:46Strowman got the win because another babyface helped him.
11:49The genius is that it still massively elevates Reed's in defeat, now setting up a much
11:54bigger program with Rollins.
11:57This was a very good go-home show, it just missed some more quality in-ring wrestling
12:01for me.
12:02This week's Raw is 73%.
12:04Joker 2 is out this Friday.
12:07Watch Luke and Laurie go through Batman season by clicking the video onscreen now.
Comments