00:00Triple H was close to walking out on WWE.
00:04Another WWE talent actually quits the company.
00:06My review of Monday Night Raw and more.
00:10I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:22Triple H is everyone's favourite wrestling promoter right now.
00:25Apart from when he does post-show media conferences, trips, you really need to do some basic media
00:30training.
00:31But in wrestling booking, he's made weekly TV coherent, he's built up trust that premium
00:36live events are going to be great, and most wrestlers are now choosing not to go to AEW.
00:43Triple H has led WWE into the critically and commercially successful Renaissance era.
00:49But it was very, very nearly not this way at all.
00:53Vince McMahon was seemingly building Leveque up to one day take over WWE Creative.
00:57NXT wasn't just a developmental brand for new talent, it was developmental for Triple
01:02H to run a wrestling company.
01:04But after AEW beat NXT in the ratings, pushing NXT to Tuesday night, Leveque suffered a cardiac
01:10event in September 2021, requiring him to undergo heart surgery.
01:15At that same time, Vince completely overhauled Triple H's creative vision, rebranding NXT
01:21to NXT 2.0.
01:23It seemed Leveque was just the latest to have fallen out of Vince's favour as a potential
01:28successor.
01:29His wife Stephanie McMahon took a leave of absence shortly after, but then Vince had
01:33to retire in June 2022 following the first reports of sexual misconduct.
01:38Stephanie and Triple H ended up leading WWE with Nick Khan in Vince's absence, but then
01:43Vince forced his way back in, leading to Stephanie leaving the company again.
01:46Triple H stayed on, but according to his longtime friend and pioneer of the X Division Kevin
01:51Nash, during that time Leveque was close to quitting WWE if Vince wasn't forced out.
01:58As soon as Leveque got his hands on the controls, sh-t changed.
02:02The product became, I mean, it just was night and day.
02:05Then Vince almost tried to kibosh it, and they went through all that sh-t again.
02:09I think at that point, if it wouldn't have went the way it did, I think Paul would've
02:14walked.
02:15Steph already had.
02:16I mean, we never had the conversation, but I know Paul.
02:19I mean, I have talked to Paul about some other things.
02:22I know some other information that made me feel really good when I heard how Endeavor
02:26felt about Paul.
02:28Beloved ring announcer Samantha Irvine, however, has actually quit WWE, by posting a statement
02:33on her Instagram thanking her colleagues and fans and teasing a mystery next move.
02:38Both Fightful and WrestleVotes are reporting that while it was expected Irvine would eventually
02:43leave following her fiancé Ricochet going to AEW in the Summer, many backstage in WWE
02:48were caught by surprise by how suddenly it came.
02:51Irvine was reportedly a very positive presence at Monday Night Raw, with one person even
02:55saying she made the work day better.
02:58Unsurprisingly, considering where Ricochet forfeited to in August, Fightful notes that
03:02people in WWE and AEW expect an offer to be made for her to join AEW.
03:08Whereas Ricochet himself has posted, haha she's not coming to AEW.
03:12You can all rest easy.
03:13CRIME WITH LAUGHTER FACE EMOJI.
03:16Wrestling Observer is reporting that Irvine has been considering leaving WWE for over
03:20a year to pursue her childhood dreams of a singing career.
03:23Because everything eventually becomes about AEW vs WWE in 2020's wrestling, NXT have
03:28announced they'll be running head-to-head against AEW Dynamite on Wednesday 6th November,
03:34moving from their usual Tuesday night time slot that week so they don't clash with
03:37the big Undertaker vs Batista match, aka the US presidential election.
03:42Back on the 8th October, AEW was moved to NXT's Tuesday time slot, where they got
03:46slaughtered by NXT's 874,000 viewers to Dynamite's all-time low of 329,000.
03:55This time should be more favourable to AEW, because it's their time slot home turf,
04:00so NXT have announced the occupation of some different ground.
04:04The 6th November NXT will take place from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, aka the ECW
04:11Arena.
04:12While the 2300 Arena, confusingly, only has a 1,300 person capacity, it has the history
04:17and intense atmosphere that might surpass AEW running a larger, but emptier, building.
04:23It's Monday, you know what that means… yep, the Raw revi-it's Tuesday.
04:29It's Tuesday, you know what that means… not the Raw review, I'll get into that in
04:36a bit.
04:37There's a brand new episode of Luke vs Pete in Monday Night War The Last Chance, which
04:42is up now exclusively for Patreons.
04:44Go to Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk to watch episode 7, with a special appearance
04:49from reigning champion Dan Layton, along with the rest of the series now.
05:06You can watch the whole series right now on Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk.
05:31But now here's my review of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes.
05:36Also from Philadelphia, just the Canadian one, the episode began with its usual cold
05:40open shots of people arriving.
05:41There's Braun Breaker ahead of his title match main event.
05:44There's the Saudi Arabian Crown Jewel Championship belt being carried in like it's Baron Harkonnen
05:48from June.
05:49And there's Bronson Re-OH MY GOD HE'S BEING ATTACKED BY SETH ROLLINS.
05:52Continuing the chaos of Bronson vs Braun to open the show, Seth is firmly in the Kaiju
05:57division calling out Reed to the ring.
05:59Starring a big pull apart brawl that included Bronson F5 throwing a dude onto a load of
06:03security guards and missing a Tsunami through the announcer's table.
06:07Every time Adam Pearce was then asked backstage later on how he planned to restore order,
06:11Seth and Reed would suddenly appear to start attacking each other again.
06:15No, I have no idea how someone the size and shape of Bronson Reed can suddenly appear
06:19either.
06:20Pearce eventually folded, furthering his drinking problem, and gave them their match together
06:24for Crown Jewel.
06:25Near the end of last year, a lot of articles were published about how AEW runs too many
06:29tournaments.
06:30Well, last year, WWE have run nine tournaments, so about one a month, with two of them going
06:36on right now.
06:37One for the Raw and one for the SmackDown tag team titles.
06:40For the Raw side, New Day beat AOP, despite AOP having four managers at ringside.
06:45The match changed when The Miz joined Karrion Kross, wearing all black and sunglasses in
06:49case he missed that he's a heel now, when R-Truth attacked him, causing a distraction
06:53that let a Kofi roll up get the win.
06:55The Final Testament went to beat up Truth afterwards.
06:58Kofi wanted to make the save, but Woods stopped him shouting that it wasn't their fight,
07:02neatly furthering one of Raw's best stories of the year.
07:04So instead, we finally got the next appearance from the Wyatt Six, who had a fun monster
07:09brawl with AOP through the crowd, and Uncle Howdy trying to jump The Miz from behind,
07:14but getting Paul Ellerin instead.
07:15The other qualifiers saw LWO beat American Made in the night's second best match.
07:20It was your classic MyGM Cruiserweight vs Giant matchup, which the crowd loves to see.
07:24With Dragon Lee's dive outside being so fast, he somehow totally cleared Brutus and
07:28hit Julius midway up the ramp, and the Creed's just being awesome with deadlift suplexes.
07:33Zelina Vega stopped Chad Gable and Ivy Nile interfering, though, so the LWO got the win,
07:38making it them vs New Day vs The War Raiders in a No. 1 CONTAINERS triple threat next week.
07:44There were three great teams, but I feel American Made should've gone over here as they need
07:48some credible wins.
07:50Speaking of credible wins… nope, Liv Morgan still won't get one.
07:53We'll just do a DQ in the tag match again.
07:55After a run in backstage, Damage Control got a match booked against Liv and Raquel Rodriguez.
07:59But with Samantha gone, we had Lillian Garcia making her return to ring announcing with
08:04all the gusto of a pre-recorded 2K19 audio clip and her signature botches, calling the
08:09No. 1 Contenders matches No. 1 Containers matches, and that Liv was being accompanied
08:13by Dominik Mysterio when he wasn't.
08:16Damage Control and, in particular, Io are so good, they got the crowd into the match
08:20by the end, with Sky hitting a missile dropkick onto Liv on the barricade.
08:24But seemingly free agents La'Kara Jackson and Lash Legend, who are just on every show
08:28now, got into a brawl with Io for the DQ, building their NXT tag match.
08:32Rhea Ripley then attacked Liv and Raquel, getting Morgan into the Prism Trap.
08:36Which, fun fact, I genuinely thought was called the Prison Trap all these years until this
08:41morning.
08:42Like a prism with bars, not a prism like a Pink Floyd album cover.
08:46Dom saved her, Rhea briefly got the Prism Trap on him too, but Liv and Raquel pulled
08:50him to safety.
08:51Connecting all these various dots was Carlito making a Chinese joke backstage.
08:56Because Triple H doesn't see nationality.
08:58In the Little Rascals Clubhouse, the Judgment Day went through their various storylines.
09:02Finn can handle the tag team titles, he's more concerned about stopping Damien getting
09:06a world title shot, Dom says maybe he could beat Gunther.
09:09Which made Carlito laugh.
09:11No one else thought that was a joke, though.
09:13And Raquel asked, Carlito, what do you even do around here?
09:16To which Carlito replied, he brings the cool factor, and that he's also the fixer.
09:21In fact, he's going to fix Dom and match against Gunther right now.
09:25So he walks in at the end of Pearce talking to Damage Control and says I gotta learn Chinese.
09:30To quote Io Sky herself when she was heckled to go back to China in NXT, she's Japanese,
09:35bitch.
09:36Pearce didn't grant the world title shot.
09:37Instead, Dom will get to prove himself against a former world champion next week.
09:41It's totally the Rock.
09:42It's been reported that WWE are looking to break Carlito away from the Judgment Day
09:46faction, so this will probably cause the tension required to do so.
09:50Damien Priest told Gunther backstage that once Crown Jewel is over, they've got a
09:54World Heavyweight title problem to deal with.
09:56And the main event was Jey Uso vs Brom Breaker for the Intercontinental Championship.
10:01Do you like ring entrances?
10:0230 seconds of action, then a 4 minute ad break, then several more minutes of action in one
10:06continuous camera shot, then another 4 minute ad break, then 7 minutes for the finish.
10:11Then boy have I got the wrestling TV main event format for you.
10:14I'm being very cynical there, but, as usual, the final third was brilliantly booked.
10:19Solo, Sakoa, Jacob Thatu and the Tongans all turned up in the front row, having bought
10:24tickets, pretending to be there to support Jey.
10:27But Jey superkicked out both Tongans, and Bron accidentally speared Solo, leading to
10:32by far the coolest moment of the night.
10:35Bron and Jacob going face to face outside.
10:38It was just a tantalising tease, though, as Jey hit a dive on them both, and a splash
10:43in the ring on Bron for a great near fall.
10:45But the Tongans distracted the referee, and Fatu intercepted Jey's spear with a superkick
10:49and Samoan Drop on the announce table.
10:52Bron heelishly took advantage and hit his supercharged spear to win back the IC title.
10:57Yes, Jey's reign was too short for his first singles championship.
11:01Yes, it does make Bron's initial loss and subsequent dropped face turn seem pointless.
11:06But son of a bitch, the Bloodline have done it again, adding a fascinating element to
11:09the family psychodrama.
11:11If Jey focused on his title rather than getting involved at last Friday's SmackDown, he'll
11:16still be the champion.
11:17This week's Raw was the best paced two hour show so far, at 70%.
11:21A group of former WWE writers have shot on what it was like working under Vince McMahon.
11:26Watch the video onscreen now to learn about the alleged toxic workplace.
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