00:00Fan anger at the Royal Rumble winners, the real reason for heat in the men's match,
00:05Drew McIntyre frustrated with his WrestleMania plans and more.
00:09I'm Oli Davis, not your Jam That Jampion, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:23On Saturday 1st February, Jey Uso and Charlotte Flair won their respective genders Royal Rumbles.
00:28Jey's dad Rikishi was, for a change, happy, posting PROUD OF MY SON.
00:34GOD DID.
00:35Jey's original Tribal Chief Roman Reigns tweeted YEET.
00:39Even the Dictionary acknowledged main event Jey, with Merriam-Webster sharing the definition
00:44of the word.
00:45Yeet.
00:46Interjection.
00:47Used to express surprise, approval or excited enthusiasm.
00:51Excited enthusiasm, title of your next indie show.
00:54Well Dictionary, let me introduce you to YouTube comments section.
00:57I don't think you've met before.
00:58Because the overwhelming sentiment on Jey winning the 2025 Royal Rumble is a majority
01:03no yeet.
01:05YouTube publicly hid the thumbs down counter on their videos back in 2021, but you can
01:10still use plugins to find out how many dislikes a channel's upload has had.
01:14And just over 24 hours after the Royal Rumble finished, the video of Jey Uso winning has
01:2037,000 thumbs down, compared to 20,000 thumbs up, meaning 65% of people disliked the video.
01:30With highly voted comments like…
01:31Don't forget that Jey Uso had the worst fight of the year at WrestleMania 40.
01:35I'm not a Jey Uso fan, but we just had Gunther vs Jey at Saturday Night's main event for
01:40the championship last week.
01:42My excitement for this year's WrestleMania just vanished.
01:46Even the video of Jey celebrating with his son got 16,000 dislikes, compared to 12,000
01:53thumbs up.
01:54For what it's worth, we ran a poll on mine and Luke's podcast review of the Rumble,
01:57and 70% voted yeet, compared to 30% no yeet.
02:02And Charlotte winning the women's match was even more disliked, getting 32,000 thumbs
02:07down compared to just 7.2k thumbs up, which means 82% disliked the video.
02:14That's YouTube Rewind 2019 levels of bad.
02:17I will say, I think the men's Rumble was one of the best ever.
02:20And after decades of Vince going for the boring, safe option, I respect Lavec for getting behind
02:25a new star.
02:26While Cena, Reigns and Punk were the big name favourites going in, this is Cena's last
02:31year.
02:32Roman is becoming increasingly part-time, and Punk is near 50.
02:35Yes, I know Jey is 39, but in WWE right now, he's a relative spring chicken.
02:40As for Charlotte, I always thought she was going to win, so I'm not surprised.
02:44I'm just disappointed.
02:46But it's not just a portion of the fanbase who are upset with the Rumble.
02:49WWE's own wrestlers are apparently screaming and cursing backstage too.
02:55Quickly following the end of the Royal Rumble PLE, PWInsider reported that Drew McIntyre,
03:00who was eliminated just after all 30 men had entered the match, had been vocally upset
03:06backstage and stormed out of the venue before the show was over.
03:10Apparently he was annoyed with another wrestler who was more concerned with getting themselves
03:14over rather than letting the focus be on other people's storylines and spots.
03:19It all sounded very similar to Survivor Series 2023, when CM Punk returned to WWE.
03:25Drew was reportedly visibly frustrated backstage then too, and left the arena early.
03:30Whether that was a work or a shoot, it ended up becoming WWE's best onscreen feud of
03:352024.
03:36They worked a shoot into a work shoot, much love HHJJ Kiss.
03:40But then the Wrestling Observer corroborated PWInsider's story, being told it wasn't
03:44just Drew who was upset with the individual who was trying to get themselves over.
03:49Other wrestlers in the match were unhappy with it too.
03:51PWInsider have now issued a follow-up report identifying the wrestler as L.A. Knight.
03:57Yeah.
03:58And that McIntyre is believed to be upset by Knight's, quote, errant movement.
04:03Errant movement, title of your next indie show.
04:05Watching the Rumble back, this seems to happen from Logan Paul's entrance at No. 30.
04:09He enters the match, hits moves on AJ Styles and Jey Uso, and starts posing for the hard
04:14canon celebration.
04:16While that's happening, Knight slowly stalks around the ring, creating modern wrestling's
04:20favourite kind of shot where we all go HE'S BEHIND YOU.
04:24But at the very moment Paul turns around to get punched by Knight, Drew runs across the
04:29ring to throw Jey Uso over the top rope.
04:31Damian Priest runs after them, but because Knight is also in the middle of the ring,
04:36they awkwardly bump into each other.
04:38Priest continues to run forward, and him and Jey throw Drew over the top rope, eliminating
04:42McIntyre while Wade Barrett is still doing L.A. Knight's catchphrase.
04:47In a match that was mostly perfectly staged, with every interaction having a lot of space
04:51to be focused on, Drew's elimination came off clunky, sudden and anticlimactic.
04:57PWInsider add that WWE has been in contact with Drew since he stormed out, and that the
05:01whole situation was played down.
05:03WWE apparently understand why McIntyre was frustrated in the moment, and they believe
05:08it's something that can be fixed on the road to WrestleMania.
05:11But Drew's anticlimactic elimination might not all be L.A. Knight's fault.
05:15No, McIntyre's WrestleMania direction could be to blame too.
05:19Drew was trying to eliminate the eventual winner Jey before he was thrown out.
05:23That makes sense.
05:24Since wrapping up his excellent feud with Punk last October, McIntyre has become the
05:29Bloodline Hunter, targeting Sami Zayn and Jey Uso, in what appeared to be a really exciting
05:34build to Drew, eventually taking on the OTC Roman Reigns.
05:40Or maybe even an anti-Bloodline faction of Drew, Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins, which
05:45I have been calling Sword.
05:47Drew has a sword, Roman and Seth used to be in the Shield, it's right there.
05:51So why was McIntyre eliminated by Damian Priest, a wrestler who has just been drafted
05:57to the opposite brand SmackDown?
06:00According to British tabloid the Daily Mail of all places, it's apparently because the
06:03plan for WrestleMania 41 is to do McIntyre vs Priest, which the article's own source
06:10described as a nothing match.
06:13Nothing match, title of your next indie stipulation.
06:15The Daily Mail also corroborated the night story with the very weird sentence, his fume
06:20when he was eliminated was clear to see, but it has been learned that the fume was
06:25genuine.
06:26The Mail adds that Drew had to be calmed down backstage by his family and members of the
06:30locker room.
06:31As for his Mania direction, Drew reportedly feels as though he deserves a more prominent
06:35feud after the most successful year of his career in 2024.
06:39There is storyline context for doing Damian vs Drew, with Priest cashing in on McIntyre's
06:46freshly won title at WrestleMania 40 last year.
06:49But it does feel like a step down the card for McIntyre, who was firmly in the main event
06:54scene.
06:55And it's not just Drew who's been screwed out of the potential title programme down
06:58the line, as Luke cheated to beat me in our pay-per-view match following the Rumble, where
07:03we had to throw a paper ball into a basket from across the room where this happened.
07:54Now, I've decided to be the bigger man here, to rise above the hate, and give respect where
08:00respect is due.
08:01You cheated, Luke!
08:02You used an illegal foreign object in a shoot sporting competition!
08:07How you won that match was like a heel hitting me over the head with a title belt!
08:11You should be ashamed of yourself, Luke Owen DAD, I should've won!
08:15You are a cheater, you're a filthy cheater!
08:18Agree with me in the comments, agree with me very often, and all in caps.
08:22Luke screwed me.
08:23He got his belt out, and he screwed me on that table.
08:25I will get my rematch.
08:27Meanwhile in WWE's women's division, Alexa Bliss' WWE return, making her first appearance
08:32in almost two years, was a resounding success.
08:35Even people on YouTube liked it, with it currently being the most viewed WWE star return upload
08:40from the Royal Rumble, and having an incredibly strong 30,000 thumbs up to 46 thumbs down
08:48on, which is practically a 99.99999% like ratio.
08:53WWE, as is their way, used the great moment of Bliss returning to criticise the dirt sheets,
08:58with commentary saying BUT THE INTERNET TOLD ME THIS WOULDN'T HAPPEN.
09:02WrestleVotes did report on the 9th January that Creative was working on plans for her
09:06return, with merchandise already in development.
09:08So the Internet actually told you, Michael Cole, it was happening.
09:12But in recent weeks, reports did start to come out saying that plans for Alexa's return
09:16had fallen through.
09:18One version's timeline is that Bliss was being planned for a return, but she couldn't
09:22come to terms with WWE on a new deal.
09:24WWE didn't want to bring someone back and not have them properly under contract.
09:29Fightful even reported that in the Rumble rehearsal on Friday, Shotzi was in Alexa's
09:34No. 21 spot, which would've been her return to the main roster since last year's match.
09:38Even on Saturday, the day of the show, the other participants had no idea Alexa would
09:44be in the Rumble.
09:45Bliss' deal then came together in the last day or two before the PLE.
09:49But breaking news, pro wrestling might be a work.
09:52The Wrestling Observer smells a scheme, and speculates that WWE were actually working
09:58everyone, including a lot of their own staff, using the t-shirt that was ready to be released
10:03on the day of Bliss' return as potential evidence.
10:06However it all came together, it worked, as Bliss got the biggest pop of the night.
10:11As for what next, PWInsider writes that Alexa will join the Raw roster going forward, which
10:16likely means she won't be with the Wyatt Six faction, who were just drafted to SmackDown.
10:20As for Shotzi, while she missed out on a Rumble spot, Fightful report she is expected to return
10:25to the main roster soon.
10:26She's been wrestling on NXT since December, to get some reps in ahead of her comeback.
10:31Now go watch mine and Luke's podcast review of the Royal Rumble by clicking the video
10:34onscreen now, where Luke also cheated to beat me.
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