00:00WWE Replace One Of Their Champions?
00:03To Shock WWE Returns?
00:05My review of Monday Night Raw, and more.
00:08I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:14July 4th isn't just the anniversary of that time Aliens blew up the White House.
00:18That fateful day is also remembered in history by another huge cultural milestone.
00:23SmackDown is finally going back to two hours.
00:26Thank God.
00:27Goodbye, 20 minute long in-ring promo segments.
00:30You achieve nothing!
00:31Ah, who am I kidding?
00:33These are Triple H shows.
00:34Every episode is going to open with a 20 minute long in-ring promo that achieves nothing.
00:37The first episode of the two hour era, however, won't be broadcast live.
00:43In fact, it's already taken place, following last night's episode of Monday Night Raw.
00:48This is why it had the earlier start time of 6pm Eastern, as the two hour SmackDown was
00:52recorded immediately following it.
00:54And that means we already know what happened on the show.
00:57Don't look away now if you want to avoid spoilers or keep your Mexican Geoblock intact.
01:02Because we're entering the Spoiler Room brawl in 3, 2…
01:06The new Superman movie's post-credits scene has Ben Affleck as the Joker.
01:12Just kidding.
01:14Hopefully.
01:15One.
01:16Showing!
01:17Drew McIntyre made his WWE return in the opening segment, where he tried to turn Cody Rhodes
01:22and Randy Orton against each other, stoking tensions from their King of the Ring final
01:26in Saudi Arabia, but Orton laid him out instead.
01:29Later on, Drew vs Randy was made official for Saturday Night's Main Event.
01:34McIntyre has reportedly had time off to recover from some lingering injuries.
01:37He hasn't been seen on WWE TV since the last Saturday Night's Main Event on the 24th
01:42of May, where he lost to Damian Priest in a steel cage match, where Priest just walked
01:47through the door like a coward.
01:48Never changed, Jesse.
01:49But McIntyre might not be the only WWE return over the next few weeks, as WWE Hall of Famer
01:56Trish Stratus is reportedly booked for a match at Evolution on the 13th of July.
02:02WWE Insider writes that Stratus was backstage at last night's Raw in Pittsburgh, and then
02:07during the SmackDown tapings, Tiffany Stratton said how she wants to defend her women's
02:11title against Stratus at Evolution.
02:14This brought Trish out to accept.
02:16The two had previously tagged together at Elimination Chamber in Toronto back in March, where they
02:20beat Nia Jax and Candice LeRae.
02:22This might be a late change, as Liv Morgan's injury appears to have thrown out their Evolution
02:27card.
02:28But an even more shocking WWE has been formally announced.
02:32One that considered unthinkable up until now.
02:35Roman Reigns is going to make another WWE appearance in 2025!
02:41Slow down, buddy!
02:42WWE has officially announced this year's Survivor Series, which is taking place on the
02:4629th of November, and it will again feature the War Game stipulation.
02:50And Roman Reigns is featured right at the top of the poster.
02:54Wonder if The Rock had to approve all that too.
02:56On the 29th of July, Netflix will premiere their latest wrestling series, WWE Unreal.
03:02It's promoted as a documentary look behind the scenes at how WWE programming is made,
03:08and Triple H promises in the trailer to lift the curtain.
03:12So 100% scripted them.
03:14Post Wrestling has published an article with what they've heard about the series, which
03:17is compared to HBO's popular Hard Knocks docuseries for the NFL from 2001.
03:22The first episode will follow Raw's premiere on Netflix, with spotlights on CM Punk, Cody
03:27Rhodes and Rhea Ripley.
03:29Episode 2 will detail the Royal Rumble match, Cody and KO's feud, and a spotlight on Jey
03:33Uso.
03:34Episode 3 is framed around the female wrestlers, including Charlotte Flair's return and
03:38the Women's Rumble.
03:40Episode 4 covers John Cena's heel turn at Elimination Chamber and the lengths they went
03:44to keep it a secret.
03:45It also weirdly covers the New Day's heel turn, which happened late 2024.
03:49We are told this is the only episode where Nick Khan will speak, as well as appearances
03:53by Dwayne Johnson and Brian Gewirtz for the portion covering Cena's heel turn.
03:57And Episode 5 is about WrestleMania 41, which apparently has no mention of The Rock not being
04:04featured in the main event between Cody and Cena, despite that being one of the biggest
04:09real life stories around that weekend.
04:11Which brings us to the modern phenomenon of documentaries made by the subjects of those
04:18documentaries.
04:19Back when I was a film student in the noughties, where documentaries were much more of a niche
04:22movie genre, the authenticity of the filmmaker was held very highly.
04:26From Michael Moore to Errol Morris, whether you agreed with them or not, you could respect
04:30that they were trying to reveal what they believed to be a form of truth.
04:34But over the last several years, many celebrities and companies have realised they can co-opt the
04:39docu-series form and pass off their version of events as authentic, even when they omit
04:44large, controversial parts of their stories.
04:47Like the David Beckham produced docu-series, about David Beckham for Netflix, and how they
04:52showed doctored newspaper headlines to suggest he didn't have an affair.
04:57When he did.
04:58At best, it's a PR exercise.
05:00At worst, it's trying to control the narrative and distort the truth.
05:04So while I'm very excited to watch WWE's Unreal, the clue is in the name.
05:09It's likely just as not real as the predetermined wrestling matches in the ring.
05:13And Post Wrestling's report has a very interesting line to support that.
05:17We were informed that The Rock's team did provide notes regarding the episodes in which
05:22he appears.
05:23Which means that just like the WrestleMania 40 documentary, which was heavily delayed reportedly
05:27because The Rock didn't like the way he came across, the subjects are getting to
05:32choose how they are presented.
05:33Post adds that Unreal will mostly follow the wrestlers and matches rather than the writers'
05:37meetings, and it started filming at last year's WrestleMania.
05:41Another five episodes are planned to be released in early 2026, which are being filmed right
05:45now.
05:46Before I get into my review of Monday Night Raw, here's a clip of our video game channel
05:49from Control Freaks, which you can watch right after.
05:54Stay calm.
05:55It's just a pool.
05:56Remember, if you go in the water, you don't die.
05:58It's not how pools work.
06:00You just get back out again.
06:02Well, you accidentally inhale a load of water at Center Parks, and the lifeguard is stood
06:06right next to you.
06:07And they put the wave machine on, and you're definitely drowning, but they don't care.
06:11They just smile down at you because they think you're having fun.
06:14You're a grown man.
06:15You're like 35 at this time.
06:18I'm going to drown.
06:21And you grab hold of the rope, but it just comes away.
06:23This wasn't a nightmare.
06:24This was real.
06:26It's my own fault for getting too excited about the wave machine.
06:38It's true.
06:40They didn't give a shit.
06:53Oh, no!
06:56While everyone tries to pull themselves together, I'm going to finish this level.
07:01Come on!
07:14It tickled everyone, didn't it?
07:16And I've done it!
07:23I finished pool game!
07:26Yes!
07:27I've finally won the victory over the swimming pool.
07:35It's 1-1, Center Parks.
07:381-1.
07:39In a fitting end to his run on Cultaholic, Adam Pacitti was featured in the opening video
07:45package recapping a Saudi Arabia show.
07:47It's what he would've wanted.
07:48Best of luck in whatever you do next, Pacitti.
07:50Wrestling YouTube won't be the same without you.
07:53Rhea Ripley opened the actual show, where she said that her beating Raquel Rodriguez is
07:56the end of that Judgement Day feud, super easy, barely an inconvenience, which activated
08:01Rhea's Women's Championship storyline.
08:03As WWE remembered, they've gotten Io Sky who they haven't booked in a match since
08:08the 12th of May.
08:09That match saw her team with Rhea to beat Roxanne Perez and Julia in the main event of
08:13Raw, after which Ripley glared at Io's Women's title.
08:16You would've thought that was the story, but instead Sky just chose Ripley as her Evolution
08:21opponent.
08:22This was a very lacklustre way to pick their feud back up, but at least Io's on TV.
08:26Dominic Mysterio showed AJ Styles his Doctor's note that said he can't touch him.
08:30The medical community!
08:31Then we got Dom's Judgement Day buddies Finn Balor and JD McDonagh challenging for the New
08:36Day's tag team titles.
08:38At first, I scoffed.
08:39A tag title match after Lil' Build just starting 20 minutes into the show not as a main event,
08:44with the New Day not even getting an entrance in the edited version, and the dynamic being
08:48the historically ineffective heel vs heel.
08:51It's proof that WWE doesn't really care about Raw's tag division, which is infuriating
08:56given how brilliant New Day's heel turn was back in December.
08:59But then the match was really really good.
09:01Finn and JD worked as the babyfaces incredibly well.
09:04And the near falls escalated the drama more and more.
09:07Coup de Gras, kick out, Midnight Hour, kick out.
09:09Woods using the title belt behind the referee's back, kick out.
09:13And ultimately, in a satisfying non-interference finish, JD's Moonsault and Balor's Coup
09:18de Gras on Woods made them the new tag team champions.
09:22It was a great match, and hopefully it means Raw might care about their tag division now.
09:27But this does have a sour note.
09:29Yes, I dare be sour, because the New Day's 2025 heel run has been possibly the biggest
09:35creative fumble of the year.
09:37And this was a limp end to an absolutely nothing reign.
09:41Later on backstage, Finn convinced Adam Pearce and Nick Aldis to let Raquel Rodriguez keep
09:45her women's tag titles with Roxanne Perez, even though they lost at Night of Champions.
09:50Then the Authority bros agreed to replace Liv Morgan, on the condition they'll defend
09:54them at Evolution against a team from SmackDown, Raw and NXT.
09:59Then Finn got a reluctant Raquel to vote in Roxanne as an official member of the Judgement
10:03Day, again replacing Liv Morgan for now.
10:06What?
10:07Is there anyone else we need to replace on the Judgement Day?
10:09Anyone?
10:10No?
10:11No, that's it.
10:12There's nobody else who recently went missing from the Judgement Day we need to replace.
10:16Chad Gable also needs replacing, as he's unfortunately also been written off with a very real injury.
10:21But to American Maid's surprise, after he left, El Grande Americano walked in, who seemed
10:28to have been on that fish oil, because he was a totally different body shape and height.
10:32This could be a really great comedy storyline.
10:34Hopefully they make it actually good with developments every week, as I'm starting to think Triple
10:38H can't book comedy wrestling outside of the same interference week after week after
10:44week.
10:45Sheamus and Rusev had a good big man match, which Rusev cheated to win, poking Sheamus in
10:49the eye and then yanking Sheamus' sternum into the exposed turnbuckle.
10:53They'll surely have another match.
10:54The Orfora Bros then announced that Evolution will have a battle royale, where the winner gets
10:58a title shot at Clash in Paris.
11:00Gunther said he could beat Goldberg in 3 minutes, but he's going to stretch it out and embarrass
11:04and bully him.
11:05But who is next for Gunther after Goldberg?
11:08This brought out Seth Rollins, who said he never wanted to cash in against John Cena.
11:12He only flew to Saudi Arabia to stop CM Punk from winning.
11:15This brought out Punk for a brawl, where Punk pushed Gunther to the ground too.
11:19And LA Knight awesomely jumped Seth when he was escaping through the stands.
11:23It'll be Knight vs Rollins at Saturday night's main event, and Knight told Punk to get to
11:27the back of the line.
11:28Yeah.
11:29Kairi Sane got a video package for WrestleMania 36.
11:32Piers booked Bayley vs Lyra Valkyria when they argued backstage earlier on to crown the
11:36number one contender for Becky Lynch's IC title.
11:39With it feeling like they'd been building a three way for the last month, it was unsurprising
11:43when they drew with a double pin.
11:44They continued to brawl into the crowd afterwards, and the main event was Sami Zayn and Penta vs
11:49The Big Brom Boys after Sami had been jumped by Karrion Kross earlier in the show.
11:53They had a really fun main event tag, with Sami perfectly playing the worked over underdog
11:58babyface.
11:59And The Bronze got over their reckless inexperience, which Paul Heyman might be starting to fear.
12:05As Breaker didn't care about Seth's plan B when they were talking backstage before the
12:09match.
12:10Sami got one plan, smash everything.
12:23It worked for him here, as he eventually caught Sami's injured midsection with a spear to
12:27win.
12:28Jey So then made the save to stop them flattening Zayn even further.
12:30I really appreciated the wrestling on this episode, and the lack of interference finishes.
12:35That's the bar.
12:36This week's Raw is 75%.
12:38Now go watch Sullivan and Dom play the worst video games out there in Control Freaks' Bargain
12:43Bin.
12:44Click the video on screen now.
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