00:00Corey Graves is upset with WWE, heat on Penta for his WWE debut, and my review of Monday
00:07Netflix Raw.
00:08I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:19After being bumped from the Netflix debut episode of Raw last week because of The Rock
00:22needing to talk about nothing for 20 minutes, former AEW star Pentagon Jr's WWE debut
00:28took place on last night's episode against Chad Gable.
00:32And it went WIBWEIN.
00:34Chad and Penta had a great back and forth 15 minute match, really getting over Penta's
00:38charisma and moveset.
00:40I mean, arsenal of offensive manoeuvres.
00:45Like the arm break and Penta driver which Penta won with.
00:48Afterwards, Penta was interviewed in the ring where he told the San Jose crowd WWE is his
00:53new home and that all of them, and him, have been waiting for this moment.
00:59He then started speaking in Spanish, which was even more fiery, thanking his family and
01:03declaring this isn't just the Netflix new era, it's the Penta new era.
01:09Again thank you Taylor Swift for making everything have to have an era these days.
01:12The whole post-match segment took about 5 minutes, but on a wrestling show, even one
01:17now with no definitive end time because they are on Netflix, every second is valuable.
01:23But according to PWInsider, we did confirm that between the 13 minute match and his post-match
01:28promo, Penta went way longer than he was initially planned to go, which led to time being trimmed
01:34from other segments later in the show.
01:36There were some talents obviously not thrilled about that, as you can imagine.
01:41At least management was reportedly pleased, as PWInsider notes WWE officials were happy
01:46with the debut, Penta's reaction in the building and the early numbers for his merch
01:51Which means, of course, we get obligatory Triple H pointing at a new signing photo.
01:56In a cool twist, he also posed with Penta's Zero Nido taunt.
02:00What did you think of Penta's debut?
02:02Let me know in the comments down below.
02:04At least those wrestlers backstage only had their main roster TV time cut.
02:08Corey Graves has had it removed altogether.
02:11Last week's NXT could make an argument for being the best WWE show that week.
02:15The New Year's Evil special saw Julia beat Roxanne Perez to become the new Women's
02:19Champion, and Oba Femi to win the main event to become the new NXT Champion.
02:24But weird rock promo aside, what's new there, there was something slightly off about the
02:29episode.
02:30Corey Graves looked like he'd rather be anywhere else, and not just because he was
02:34sitting next to announcer mode Booker T. Previously, Graves and Michael Cole were the
02:38announce team for SmackDown, which, pre-Netflix, had been WWE's A-Show.
02:43But with the 2025 shake-up, Cole moved to Raw, the new A-Show, to announce with a returning
02:48Pat McAfee, and Raw's previous commentary team, Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett, moved
02:53to SmackDown.
02:54It was assumed Graves would join them on the blue brand as a three-man booth, but instead
02:58he was moved to NXT's desk alongside Vic Joseph and Booker T.
03:03And now Graves has publicly commented his feelings on the situation shortly after Raw
03:08went off air.
03:09Imagine chasing your dream, then being told, not deciding, that you're no longer physically
03:14able to pursue your dream. Then you dedicate your life to something dream-adjacent and
03:19being pretty f***ing awesome at it. And then, when it's time to enjoy the fruits of your
03:23labour, being told you're not famous enough for your own job. Just in case you've wondered
03:29where I've been.
03:30Corey's line about not being famous enough is presumably directed at McAfee, who was
03:34the one who ended up taking Graves' main roster seat.
03:37It's your weekly alert that the brand new episode of Moustache Night War between me
03:41and Luke is up now on Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk.
04:11Now it's time for my review of Monday Night Raw in about 5 minutes. But maybe it's going
04:30to be 4 and a half minutes, or 5 minutes 52 seconds. There's no scheduled end time now!
04:35We can do whatever we want! CM Punk opened the show in San Jose, Canada
04:39by first acknowledging all the firefighters endangering their lives around the world right
04:44now. Then he went into pro wrestling mode. Now he's beaten Seth Rollins, which is definitely
04:49the last time you'll hear from that guy then. It's time he concentrated on his dream.
04:55Some always said they couldn't see those dreams, where Punk did John Cena's taunt,
04:59saying he can see his dream, and he can see John Cena. So he's declaring for the Royal
05:05Rumble match too. And then, of course, Seth's music hit.
05:09While he was dressed for a Las Vegas Magician's Funeral, Rollins was thankfully in serious
05:14promo mode, where he said this fantastic line. I would rather be the worst version of myself
05:20than be any version of you. Which likely sets up the reasoning for Seth's heel turn over
05:25the next few months. He couldn't beat Punk last week, so he'll ruin his dreams by eliminating
05:30him from the Rumble instead. But then, schwing, Drew McIntyre's music
05:35hit. While he started off seeming like he was trashing his arch-nemesis Punk, he revealed
05:40he was actually talking about Rollins. Rollins didn't do his part to stop Roman Reigns
05:45from winning last week, so Drew declared for the Rumble too.
05:49This was a decent opening segment, full of tasty hate. And later, Seth revealed he'll
05:54be facing Drew next week. Which is a weird direction to go in, with my they all make
05:58an anti-Roman faction called Sword Idea. And Seth also made Sami Zayn feel bad for
06:03helping Roman again last week. Chet Gable came down to the ring next, where
06:07he asked for the best luchador Adam Pearce could find. The Tempest's in the office.
06:12His opponent was revealed as Penta, while Michael Cole screamed it was the worst kept
06:15secret in the business. I don't know if it's a secret if WWE literally played a
06:19promo vignette that said Penta last week. WWE's version of secrets must be different
06:25Initially, it was weird to see Penta in a WWE ring. It was like I'd just created him
06:30in 2K24 and was playing a match with him. That feeling quickly went away though, as
06:34he and Chad actually had a really decent back and forth match over 15 minutes. It made Gable
06:39look just as impressive, but Penta rightfully won with a Penta driver.
06:42Jackie Redmond interviewed Penta in the ring afterwards, where even though I have no idea
06:46what he said, he sounded awesome talking in Spanish.
06:48Sheamus got his revenge by beating Ludwig Kaiser next, which was a really good follow-up
06:52to that great Survivor Series three-way in November where Kaiser had cost Sheamus the
06:57win. Sheamus and Brom Breaker got into it at ringside afterwards, which set up an icy
07:01title defence at Saturday night's main event.
07:04Speaking of midcard title defences at Saturday night's main event, WWE also announced Gunther
07:08vs Jey Uso. Oh, wait, apparently the World Heavyweight Championship is a main event belt.
07:18And you can tell that because both the show and Jey Uso are called main event, which is
07:23in no way overcompensating for lacklustre booking. Gunther had some good lines, telling
07:27Jey that he's just a really talented tag team wrestler, and main event for him is just
07:32a nickname. But ultimately, this is a very poor presentation
07:35of Raw's top champions so far in 2025. Gunther and his belt feel like total afterthoughts.
07:42And the midcard belt part of Raw just got a bit more cluttered, as Lyra Valkyria beat
07:46Dakota Kai to become the inaugural Women's Intercontinental Champion.
07:50They had a fun match based around big moves, like an almost immediate Brainbuster style
07:55suplex off the apron, and Lyra rolling out the ring off Dakota's finisher later. But
07:59under 10 minutes, it just didn't feel substantial enough to really get drawn into the story.
08:04The New Day got another backstage chat with Cathy Kelly, where they complained about not
08:08having a locker room to change in, and feel like WWE are very overdue for some actual
08:12follow up on their Great Heel turn angle six weeks ago now.
08:16Sami Zayn quickly beat The Miz with a Blue Thunder Bomb. Not even his finisher, the Halluva
08:21Kick, because they had gotten in each other's faces backstage earlier. Karrion Kross was
08:25noticeable by his absence. The new Women's Champion Rhea Ripley was
08:28quickly interrupted by Nia Jax, who might be moving to Raw in the transfer window, where
08:33even though she was kind of a face against Tiffany Stratton, Nia was fully a heel here,
08:38crashing San Jose and calling out hometown girl Bayley who was in the crowd. Jax declared
08:43herself for the Rumble, and Rhea and Bayley sent her packing.
08:46The main event was Damian Priest finally beating Finn Balor. Somehow these two have only had
08:51two singles matches in their feud, and I could've sworn it was no fewer than 177. At least this
08:56was a really fun way to hopefully end their rivalry.
09:00The Street Fight stipulation was chaos from the start, with an awesome Broken Arrow off
09:04the Stanza's entrance, and then Priest running Balor down the entrance ramp on a stretcher.
09:08JD and Carlito interfered, but they got chased off by the Viking Raiders. Priest hit a Razor's
09:13Edge through the table outside and then a South of Heaven in it to win. Finn will have
09:17to deal with Liv Morgan now, as their tension was building backstage earlier in the show.
09:22At a weird two and a half hours long, this week's Raw is 75%.
09:27Now go watch the 10 worst Royal Rumble winners ever, here's a clip.
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