00:00The Rock buries his year-long Cody Rhodes feud… on Netflix.
00:04Hulk Hogan gets booed… on Netflix.
00:08And the debut episode of Monday Night Raw… on Netflix was… well, kind of a house show
00:15I guess.
00:16Like, it was definitely a spectacle.
00:18But um… an empty spectacle… on Netflix.
00:24I'm Oli Davis, no longer your always defending Jam that Jampion, and this is the WrestleTalk
00:29News Special on the WWE Raw debut… on Netflix.
00:35Remember to superkick that subscribe button if you're not already, as we have daily
00:38wrestling news and reviews to keep you up to date on the road to WrestleMania.
00:46Get exclusive bonus videos over at Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk.
00:51The show started with the excellent cold open video package WWE had actually uploaded to
00:56YouTube earlier in the day.
00:58A montage not just of the history of WWE, but of professional wrestling itself, stretching
01:03back to its carnival roots, with a visual metaphor that turned the ring canvas into
01:09a literal canvas, where the sport's biggest stars would paint their stories, and sponsors
01:15would put their logo.
01:17But in acknowledging where wrestling has come from, and the nature of its art, they arguably
01:21did the one thing its legacy always swore to protect.
01:25The opening video package told you that wrestling was scripted.
01:31Literally.
01:32It started with someone literally typing a script next to the ring.
01:36The Netflix era, as Triple H called it later on, which I think is the fourth era so far
01:40this year, has started by being upfront with their new audience about wrestling's biggest
01:45trick.
01:46That all the fighting and feuding you see in WWE is a fiction.
01:50It's an enormously significant evolution of the wrestling industry.
01:54One of the most frustrating barriers to normal people getting into wrestling is every fan's
02:00most hated question, wasn't that fake?
02:03By answering that right at the start of the Netflix era, WWE are hoping to disarm these
02:08normies' prejudices to show them that, hey, you can enjoy this like all the other fake
02:13things you consume, like Marvel movies, Game of Thrones and Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson.
02:19In my opinion, it's a beautifully subtle way to usher kayfabe into the modern streaming
02:24world.
02:25So it was a bit disappointing when it was all loudly undermined by The Rock.
02:29After Triple H welcomed us in the ring to the Netflix era, the show properly got underway
02:33with a huge pop for the Final Boss' entrance.
02:36I say the Final Boss, but it could also be The Rock, or Dwayne Johnson, or the Star of
02:42Redone, or TKO Board Director.
02:45Because The Rock seemingly just shows up and does what he feels like doing on that
02:49given week.
02:50Not my speculation, but the actual words of a recent interview with Triple H, and it can
02:54create a fair bit of character inconsistency.
02:56And I would say people don't want character inconsistency, they very specifically much
03:01want The Rock's Final Boss character from WrestleMania 40.
03:04Instead we got Corporate Rock.
03:07A not-fun Attitude Era Corporate Rock, but Netflix-thanking, multiple vertical satisfying
03:11TKO Board Director Corporate Rock.
03:14He came out with his rather lame custom belt, which is going to be confusing to a new viewer
03:18anyway.
03:19Wait, he beat Muhammad Ali's Widow for the title?
03:20And started by saying FINALLY THE WWE HAS COME BACK TO NETFLIX.
03:26Which the crowd were a bit confused by, seeing that the last time WWE were on Netflix was
03:30for that Mr McMahon docuseries that exposed all the sexual misconduct from its founder.
03:34I'm guessing he meant to say The Rock has come back to Netflix, after his Christmas
03:38defection to Amazon Prime with his multiple vertical hit Redone.
03:42But then he carried on with a heavily babyface promo that came off as cynically promoting
03:46WWE's new corporate partnership, rather than what people actually wanted, which was
03:51his foul-mouthed Megastar Final Boss character.
03:53But I get it, it's a new era.
03:55Have The Rock come out and do the big babyface promo to welcome everyone in.
03:59Where it became problematic, and for me, threw off the whole vibe of the rest of the show,
04:04was when he thanked Cody Rhodes and joked about him saying hi to Mama Rhodes, while
04:09Cody was 10 feet away from him standing in the audience.
04:12The biggest feud in WWE right now is actually Cody Rhodes vs The Rock.
04:17It's what set the company alight in the build to last year's WrestleMania, where
04:21The Rock was very, very mean about Mama Rhodes.
04:25What they directly set up when The Rock gave something to Cody before he left in April,
04:29and what they picked up again with The Rock's throat slit gesture to Cody and Roman Reigns
04:34at the end of October's Bad Blood.
04:36So to see The Rock thank Cody here, like they've somehow patched up the biggest story
04:41in the company offscreen over Christmas, while watching redone on Amazon Prime.
04:45To the extent where he can just joke about Mama Rhodes, and Cody with his poor kayfabe
04:50breaking heart just has to stand there and smile back.
04:54It brings back a lot of the bad memories from when The Rock tried to breeze past WWE's
04:59Cody plans from last January.
05:01Because I'm starting to believe he's just going to try and do him vs Reigns again.
05:05Or maybe not.
05:06Maybe he's not doing anything.
05:07I don't know anymore.
05:08Because the first match of the show was Roman Reigns taking on Solo Sakoa in tribal combat.
05:13Not just for the Ooloo fella, but also for Paul Heyman.
05:16It followed the usual Bloodline match template with more weapon spots because anything goes.
05:19There were chairs, kendo sticks and Roman putting Solo through a table.
05:23That's when New Blood started to interfere, which brought down Jey Uso and Sami Zayn to
05:27fight them off.
05:28The best interference spot was then Kevin Owens, who hit a stunner for a great solo
05:32nearfall.
05:33Cody ran down with his music to fight KO off, even though I thought he was by the ringside
05:37just now.
05:38Roman hit two spears to win for Optimum Sports Entertainment.
05:41Yep, in hindsight, I have no idea why I predicted WWE would beat Reigns on their Netflix debut.
05:47I have lost my beloved championship belt, and Luke is your new Jam That Jampion.
05:54The Rock then came down to the ring to present Roman with the Ooloo Fella.
05:57This was the moment to do something interesting, where The Rock would suddenly hit him with
06:01a Rock Bottom and reveal that weird opening promo was all a ruse.
06:05But instead, they hugged.
06:11And that was it.
06:12For actual kayfabe keeping conflict, go to Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk now,
06:17where you can watch the whole exclusive Mustache Night War series of me vs Luke.
06:22As episode 5 has just gone live.
06:25That's Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk, here's a clip of me being excellent at the
06:29in-game.
06:30So three-way specialist, Rude and Dragunov.
06:34Did I promise Dragunov two weeks off?
06:41Was that in your emails?
06:42Yeah.
06:43I just kind of thought he'd be greyed out.
06:46I just, I had to remember that today.
06:47Yeah, you do have to remember that.
06:49I have fallen foul of that before as well.
06:53Oh no.
06:54And he won.
06:56And nothing furthered.
07:00Keeping the good PR going, WWE then announced the 2026 Royal Rumble will take place in Saudi
07:05Arabia, and then they showed Ashton Kutcher in the crowd.
07:0822 year old Oli is going to hate me for saying this, but thank God for a John Cena promo.
07:13He kind of cut the same promo as The Rock, overlong, look how many people there are,
07:17thank you Netflix, fans are the best, goosebumps, goosebumps, goosebumps.
07:22But where he was crucially better is that he actually said something of substance that
07:25set up a future direction, which is a fundamental part of a weekly wrestling show, and somehow
07:30the only segment on this three hour episode that did it.
07:34He ran through names he could face in his retirement year, like Drew McIntyre, CM Punk,
07:39Logan Paul, Gunther and Cody Rhodes, but that he doesn't see that record-breaking 17th
07:44world title win happening.
07:46To do something like that would require a miracle, like winning the Elimination Chamber,
07:51holding the Money in the Bank briefcase, or winning the Royal Rumble.
07:56In his typical goofy fashion, which I hated 10 years ago, but now it's somehow aged
08:00into nostalgia, he promised that's what he'll do.
08:03Which will be a great storyline for the Rumble match.
08:05I hope he gets eliminated immediately.
08:07The biggest pop of the night came next, though, for Macaulay Culkin sitting in the crowd.
08:11And just behind it was Rhea Ripley beating Liv Morgan for the Women's World Championship.
08:16They wrestled a good match, with Liv kicking out of the Riptide, Rhea kicking out of the
08:20Oblivion.
08:21Wasn't a good night for finishers, but Ripley blocked a second Oblivion to hit two consecutive
08:25Riptides to win.
08:26Dom got in the ring to try hug the new champion afterwards, but Ripley kicked him in the balls
08:30and hit a Riptide on him instead.
08:31And if you thought the Undertaker cameo at WrestleMania 40 was out of place, Netflix
08:35wants you to hold its red cup.
08:37Because the American Badass then entered, rode around the ring on his motorbike, and
08:41did the Brothers of Destruction pose by the entrance with Ripley to end the segment.
08:44Reportedly WWE decided to do this rather than what they originally had planned, which was
08:49the return of Becky Lynch.
08:51I don't really care about the gratuitous Deadman cameo.
08:54It's a house show pop for what weirdly feels like the biggest house show of all time.
08:57What I'd more mind is Dominik trying to hug Ripley.
09:02For me, that should've been Dom trying to lay a trap.
09:04He goes to hug Ripley for Raquel to jump her from behind.
09:08But Rhea's too smart and beats up both Raquel and Dom anyway.
09:11But because it was just Dom trying to hug Rhea, that implies he's leaving Liv.
09:16And really just wants whoever is the Women's Champion.
09:18That's a good story too, as it's a serious receipt for both Mysterio and Morgan.
09:23But we didn't get a scene of Liv and Dom falling out over it, because we needed to
09:27get to the Undertaker spot.
09:28In isolation it's fine, but on a show that didn't really set up any future storylines,
09:33and often put WWE's great recent character work secondary to superficial legend cameos,
09:38it took the heart out of Raw.
09:40Bayley seemed to agree to come to Monday night's backstage with Adam Pearce, and Chad Gable
09:44demanded a match against the best luchador in the world for next week.
09:49It should always be Penta.
09:50The Rock was seen babyface mugging even harder backstage, saying hi to Travis Scott, hugging
09:54Cody, taking a swig of tequila and driving a car, and then saying he'll see us tomorrow
10:00on NXT.
10:01Continuing the illegal behaviour, a spliff-smoking Travis Scott then came out for Jey Uso's
10:06entrance against Drew McIntyre.
10:07The yeeting was off the charts, which might've exhausted the crowd, as they weren't as
10:12into the match, barely popping when Jey kicked out of a Claymore, one of the most protected
10:16finishers in the company.
10:17Jey collapsed before Drew could hit a second Claymore, but that allowed him to roll up
10:21McIntyre and get a surprise win.
10:23But instead of letting us see the aftermath, the feed quickly cut to a Gunther video package
10:28throwing the pace off a bit.
10:29The New Day had refused to wrestle in front of LA, so they'll have their match next
10:33week.
10:34Roman and Heyman were shown walking backstage where a 2K25 reveal was teased for the 26th
10:38of January.
10:39Then arguably came the funniest thing on the show.
10:42Hulk Hogan trying to cut a babyface promo in front of a crowd that mostly hated him.
10:47It was an odd move for WWE to bring in Hogan for the show, as just a few weeks ago they
10:51removed every reference from him in their Saturday night's main event video packages.
10:56Which was quite the task, considering he's in all of the main events.
11:00But I guess that real American beer money talks.
11:02So Hogan, the guy who was getting cancelled before cancelling was cool, talked about how
11:07great the fans are and how they've stuck with him through thick and thin.
11:11While the crowd said BOOOOOO.
11:18He tried to get cheered by saying the names of wrestlers fans like, like his former partners
11:22the Macho Man and Andre the Giant, but then he finished saying the greatest partner of
11:26all is Netflix.
11:28Which got Netflix booed.
11:30This was a hilarious failure.
11:32But WWE can bring back all the problematic people they want if it means I get to keep
11:36their new, stunning movie match graphics.
11:39Oh my god, this was the best thing on the show, those are the best match graphics I've
11:44ever seen.
11:45Stephanie McMahon was shown in the crowd, and then it was time for the main event.
11:49CM Punk and Seth Rollins had a really good big time match, with Seth's arrogance arguing
11:54with the referee, using Punk's own moves against him, arguably causing his downfall.
11:59Seth hit a GTS, then Punk hit a stomp, Seth hit another GTS, where maybe he should've
12:04been going for his own finisher, then he hit two pedigrees for another Punk kickout.
12:09Both men were on their knees slapping each other in the face.
12:12Seth busted out the buckle bomb and his first stomp, which Punk excellently just got his
12:16foot on the ropes for.
12:18Punk then reversed a Falcon Arrow into two GTSs for the win for a great finish.
12:22And off air, he declared himself for the Royal Rumble.
12:26And that was it.
12:27With no big cliffhanger angled to end the show.
12:29No Drew and Owens attacking Punk starting a new heel faction.
12:33No Punk calling out his favour.
12:34No Roman staredown.
12:36The Netflix debut on Raw, which I feel should've been the start of the road to WrestleMania
12:40with lots of exciting angles, actually acted as a very safe show, booking the wrap-ups
12:45for the major feuds still running from last year.
12:48This week's Raw is 68%.
12:50Who are the ten best Royal Rumble winners of all time?
12:54Watch the brand new episode of Tables, Lists and Chairs to find out now.
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