00:00A huge Raw surprise for next week!
00:03WWE ecstatic over Raw's opening promo!
00:07And…
00:08I can't believe I'm going to say this.
00:12I don't really know how to say it, so I've written and prepared a heartfelt, sincere
00:19speech prepared by my PR team.
00:28Given that the gossip industry cannot resist an opportunity to speculate and invent, we
00:32wanted to convey the truth directly.
00:36After 20 long, difficult years together, John Cena and I will be consciously uncoupling
00:42and…
00:43Oh god, John Cena's broken up with me!
00:47And everyone!
00:48He did it with everyone else, especially this kid, but mostly me!
00:53I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
01:00The biggest storyline in wrestling right now might be John Cena breaking up with several
01:03million people, but there is one local hero out there who will hopefully still answer
01:08the babyface call.
01:10In the painfully long build to his World Heavyweight Championship match against Gunther at WrestleMania
01:1441, Jey Uso squashed Austin Theory, but not before squashing his own head on last night's
01:20episode of Raw.
01:21He's now beaten Theory and his tag team partner Grayson Waller in back-to-back episodes,
01:26but there's still like five weeks to go till Mania, so WWE are bleeding the stone
01:29for all it's worth.
01:31On next Monday's episode, Jey Uso will take on both men in a tag team match, but Jey will
01:36need himself a tag team partner, who's currently listed as multi-time WWE Champion Vacant.
01:42Of course he has his brother Jimmy over on SmackDown.
01:45His best mate Sami Zayn could make a far too soon return from injury, or, with it being
01:49a Raw episode filmed in Glasgow, Scotland, Jey could say his name and he appears.
01:57Because we believe in Joe Hendry.
02:18Jey hails from Scotland, and has already been featured on WWE's main roster this
02:22year, showing up in the Royal Rumble to one of the loudest pops of the night, thanks to
02:27the promotion's working relationship with TNA.
02:30And following the announcement of Jey needing a mystery partner for Raw next week, the TNA
02:34World Champion tweeted, say his name and he appears, obligatory Joe Hendry smiling photo.
02:44To which Grace and Waller replied with a gif, yeah I say gif, dies from cringe.
02:50So about that John Cena breaking up with us all, here's my review of Monday Night Raw…
02:55in about 5 minutes.
02:56Bringing the Brussels loyalty and respect, that was Laurie's joke, he texted me at
02:598pm last night just to give appropriate credit, the first ever live broadcast Raw from Belgium
03:04opened with the first ever TV appearance of the newly heel John Cena.
03:11WWE produced this perfectly.
03:13We got all the usual opening stuff to Raw, here's a person arriving, here's another
03:17person arriving, here's the commentary desk this week made up of Michael Cole and Corey
03:21Graves because I assume Pat McAvee voted leave, and here's a recap promo of Cody Rhodes
03:26from last week, where he vowed to beat Cena at WrestleMania.
03:30Then there were several beats of nothing, no ring announcing, no music, just that kind
03:36of eerie, expectant buzz from the crowd you get just before they know something huge is
03:41about to happen.
03:42And then Cena's music hit.
03:44The same music as when he was a face, and the Belgians erupted with nuclear heat.
03:50Because here was the man who would never turn heel again.
03:53But in his retirement year, he sold his soul to the final Dwayne, and now he was going
03:59to explain why.
04:00I should probably do that again for John Cena's character.
04:05Why.
04:07He stood there for minutes, gloriously soaking in the deafening Let's Go Cena Cena Sucks
04:12chants.
04:13While he was wearing the same terrible baseball cap and jorts attire, his whole demeanour
04:17had changed.
04:18The babyface energy was gone, his boxy run down to the ring gone, his giant smile gone.
04:24Underneath his new, permanently etched Judge Dredd style frown, I bet he was having the
04:28time of his life.
04:29I thought for a moment he might not say anything, that he'd do at least one fake out segment
04:34where he'd just soak in the booze and walk off without explaining his actions.
04:38But he finally spoke into the mic, and revealed what led him to where he is today.
04:43Us.
04:44He realised, for the last 15 years, he's been the victim of an abusive relationship.
04:50And that relationship was with all of us fans.
04:53He isn't a babyface or a heel, he's a human being.
04:58And every single one of us, even the ones who cheered him, ESPECIALLY YOU, SPECIFICALLY
05:03YOU, YOU DUMB KID, has taken from him.
05:06That's all we ever did.
05:08We took.
05:09And now he's turned heel, we don't get to take anymore.
05:12We don't even get to take the new heel music, the new heel ring gear that he had made back
05:18in 2012 when he was going to turn heel against The Rock.
05:21Can I get a cheap pop in the comments for Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk, where
05:25you can watch me and Luke review Cena's years-long feud with The Rock over there?
05:28No, he's going to have the same music, and the same stupid jorts he's had the last
05:34two decades, because he's not going to give us anything anymore.
05:39And this, for me, was the masterstroke of the segment.
05:43There is a very real danger that because we wanted Cena to turn heel for so long, him
05:48turning heel might counter-intuitively make us cheer him.
05:51We're wrestling fans, we're done.
05:54If Cena came out with a new presentation, dark new music, a suit, we'd likely end
06:00up cheering or appreciating it.
06:02Which is exactly what WWE don't want.
06:05The ultimate aim here is to build Cody even stronger as a babyface, and splitting the
06:09crowd will hurt that in the long run.
06:12I fully expected a new presentation for Cena.
06:15I guess I didn't realise that I really wanted a new presentation until Cena turned it around
06:20on me.
06:21This son of a bitch made me annoyed at his character that he didn't do it, and he's
06:25instead stuck with his jorts look that's been lame since the day he put them on.
06:29The crowd played their part perfectly too, chanting F you Cena, shut their F up, and
06:35Cena's a effing bitch.
06:36The F stands for Flemish.
06:38So loudly they often drowned him out.
06:41And then, after 20 minutes, Cody came down, said he wants to fight the real John at WrestleMania,
06:46not this whiny bitch, and walked out.
06:49With this going a full half hour, they left a lot in the tank for later on.
06:54Cena didn't bring up the Rock or Grammy Award winning musical artist Travis Scott
06:58once.
06:59I presume we'll get a promo about their faction's shared goal eventually.
07:02He didn't bring up the 17th world title.
07:04He didn't bring up the Elimination Chamber angle.
07:06And neither man got physical.
07:08They'll go face to face again on next week's Raw.
07:11Fightful selectors reported that WWE were ecstatic with the reception Cena got from
07:16the crowd.
07:17With one source telling them it was the hottest TV environment they've experienced, which
07:21strengthens the chances WWE will choose to go back to Belgium in the future.
07:25Penta beat Ludvig Kaiser in a no holds barred match for the first bit of in-ring action
07:29for the night.
07:30They had an intense fight, which ended when Kaiser had a chair on Penta's throat, screaming
07:34at him to admit he's afraid.
07:36But of course, Penta has zero Miedo.
07:39He came back with a Canadian Destroyer onto the chair, and a Penta driver to win.
07:43And then we got our first hint at Penta's WrestleMania direction.
07:46Glasses variant Cathy Kelly interviewed him on the entranceway post-win, where he said
07:51he wants the Intercontinental title, creating a neat narrative spine for this episode, which
07:56would be main evented by an IC title match.
07:59Speaking of, the challenger in that match Finn Balor then arrived at the Judgment Day
08:02Clubhouse backstage, where, in Brussels, every centimetre is covered in cool graffiti.
08:07He was initially happy.
08:09But when Dominic Mysterio suggested Penta as their faction's new member, the same
08:12guy who just said he wants the championship belt Balor is going for later, Balor understandably
08:18stormed off.
08:19And Carlito said you should watch the show, dude.
08:22Dakota Kai beat Ivy Nile, kinda because Chad Gable was a distraction at ringside, getting
08:26chased off by the LWO for interfering.
08:29Bianca Belair and Io Sky signed the women's title match contract for WrestleMania, but
08:33Rhea Ripley interrupted, determined to make it a three way.
08:36She headbutted Bianca onto the table, powerbombed Io onto her, and then signed her name on the
08:40contract too.
08:41I don't know if that's legally binding.
08:43Adam Pearce tried to explain contract law to her backstage afterwards, when the brawls
08:47started up again with Bianca and Io attacking her, and then each other.
08:51I expect Io will demand Ripley to be added to the match, just how Rhea granted Sky the
08:55original title match because she had caused Io to lose.
08:59This is where Jey Uso beat Austin Theory in about 30 seconds, where, arguably more impressively,
09:03he managed to botch two moves himself.
09:06Gunther had an altercation both before and after the match with him, where Jey stood
09:10tall with the belt.
09:11This was the first time Gunther looked rattled, but this is unfortunately still an incredibly
09:14weak build for the World Heavyweight Championship and the winner of the Royal Rumble.
09:19Following the Ivy Nile match angle earlier, we got LWO beating American Made here.
09:23It was mostly to set up another masked luchador attack, who most definitely is not Chad Gable.
09:28With no Roman Reigns or CM Punk on this show, Seth Rollins was put in the impossible position
09:33of trying to fill in.
09:35The crowd enjoyed singing his annoying song for way too long, and then Seth promised them
09:39all to turn up on SmackDown to confront Punk and Reigns.
09:43The thing is, SmackDown is in Italy on Friday, not in Belgium right now.
09:49So the crowd just kind of went quiet, being reminded that they don't get to see that
09:53live.
09:54Rollins awkwardly tried to fire up the crowd again by getting them to sing his song and
09:58hyping them for the main event title match like it was a warm-up act, rather than one
10:02of the company's top stars.
10:04This would've been far more effective as a backstage or pre-filmed promo, where you
10:07don't have to take the audience reaction into account.
10:10Karrion Kross tried to manipulate AJ Styles in his Logan Paul feud again.
10:14And then it was time for the main event, where, of course, Finn Balor is going to lose via
10:19Dick Blast on St Patrick's Day.
10:22Carlito distracted the referee for the finish while Don pushed Braun off the top rope, but
10:26in so doing, Balor slipped and crutched himself on the turnbuckle.
10:30Breaker hit a Frankensteiner and a Spear to win, in a shock example of a title actually
10:34being retained on TV at the moment.
10:36WWE did a very effective job of building multiple stories for Mania here.
10:41Finn is even more annoyed with Dom, Penta ran down for the post-match save, getting
10:45a stare down between him and Breaker, and, most importantly, Dominik briefly holding
10:50the IC title in a shot-for-shot replica down to the haircut and the Tino Heat shirt of
10:57his real-life dad Eddie Guerrero doing the same.
11:00With reports about a potential six-way IC title match for Mania, and fantasy booking
11:04Braun vs Penta vs AJ vs Logan vs Finn vs Dominik.
11:11With Dirty Dom winning.
11:13I genuinely think he'd be a great heel champion.
11:16Give me chaos.
11:17This week's Raw is 85%.
11:20But move aside, Paul Leveque, because Luke and I can book WWE way better!
11:25The first episode of Monday Night War of me vs Luke in WWE 2K25's My GM mode is live!
11:32Click the video onscreen to watch it now!
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