00:00Woo!
00:01There's been a new shot in the Charlotte vs Tiffany Stratom War.
00:04Chris Jericho considering going back to WWE.
00:07My review of Monday Night Raw.
00:10And more.
00:11I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:16We've had John Cena win the Elimination Chamber and turn heel to face Cody Rhodes
00:20in the main event of WrestleMania.
00:22We've had CM Punk, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins fight over who Paul Heyman wants as
00:27their boyfriend.
00:28And Legendary Luchador will now face Legendary Luchador, as Rey Mysterio is taking on El
00:34Glande Americano.
00:36But after last Friday's segment on SmackDown, the best built WrestleMania match, is Charlotte
00:41Flair vs Tiffany Stratom.
00:43Because they think they actually hate each other.
00:45Several weeks ago it was speculated that Charlotte went off script on a promo with Stratom, and
00:50Fightful reported that some backstage felt it made Tiffany look bad.
00:54So maybe with that in mind, when Charlotte reportedly went off script again on last Friday's
00:59episode, Tiffany had some replies locked and loaded already in the chamber.
01:03Referencing Flair's recent divorce from WWE star Andrade with the line, when it's
01:08all said and done, you're going to be just like you are outside of the ring, alone.
01:13What is that record?
01:14Like, zero and three?
01:16The segment became increasingly messy, as Charlotte tried to talk over Tiffany and the Chicago
01:21crowd to get her own shot in.
01:23WrestleVotes, Fightful, PWInsider and The Wrestling Observer have all reported it all
01:27went off script.
01:28The backstage officials see neither in the right, but that Flair is taking most of the heat.
01:34To close the segment, feeling more like a Married at First Sight Australia dinner party than Friday
01:38night's Smackdown, Charlotte told Tiffany, you can go ahead and have the last word,
01:43before then getting the last word, saying as Stratom walked off, hey Tiffany, is that
01:48why Kaiser's in my DMs?
01:50This is a reference to Tiffany's real life boyfriend Ludwig Kaiser, who has now himself
01:55responded on Twitter, posting a clip of Shawn Michaels telling the British Bulldogs wife
02:00back in 1996, please do not flatter yourself.
02:04And then, in one of the Netflix ad break interview segments on last night's Raw, Kaiser teased
02:08how everyone wanted him to address the elephant in the room after last week.
02:14To then talk about how he hasn't got a match at WrestleMania.
02:17We know what you're doing, Kaiser.
02:19But soon, Charlotte might not be the only attention grabbing veteran blonde in WWE, as
02:24AEW star Chris Jericho has said he would consider going back to the company.
02:29In the past, Jericho has explicitly said he wouldn't go back.
02:33As recently as 2023, he told the Daily Star, I have zero interest in ever going back to
02:39WWE.
02:40But that was before Vince McMahon was fully forced out of the company at the start of 2024.
02:46And probably more crucially for Jericho, before it became cool again.
02:49A video clip has surfaced of Jericho at the Horror Rock and WrestleFest last month in the
02:54UK where he said, of course I would consider going back to WWE.
02:57I would consider not going back there too, it just depends on what the situation is and
03:03what's kind of going on with me.
03:05But we'll see.
03:06Never say.
03:07It's not even never say never, it's consider all your options and choose wisely.
03:12This is a definite switch from having zero interest two years ago.
03:16Jericho lost his Ring of Honor well-titled to Bandido at Sunday's AEW Dynasty event, which
03:21I'm told is currently about halfway through the card and will be finishing sometime Friday
03:25afternoon.
03:26It's a long show.
03:27Now it's time for my review of Monday Netflix Raw… in about 5 minutes.
03:32With WrestleMania just 12 days away, WWE had to start making those matches they've been
03:36teasing for weeks official for the two night card.
03:40But not with really cool angles, really cool angles are for suckers.
03:44They instead did it with rather pedestrian match announcements.
03:48Yeah, rather pedestrian match announcements, that's where it's at.
03:51Rey Mysterio got a WrestleMania match against El Grande Americano by just asking Adam Pearce
03:57for it in a 30-second backstage segment.
03:59The four-way Intercontinental Championship match of Brom Breaker defending against Penta,
04:04Dominic Mysterio and Finn Balor was made official in a tweet earlier in the day.
04:09And after over a month of asking, how will Rhea Ripley find her way into the Women's Championship
04:15match at WrestleMania, Adam Pearce answered with, I'm just gonna say she's in it now.
04:21This was Raw's opening segment.
04:22Pearce invited Io Sky, Bianca Belair and, partying like it's 2023, introducing Rhea as
04:28representing judgement day to the ring.
04:32He called them all unprofessional for combusting last week in a match he booked that was obviously
04:37combustible.
04:38And then he just added that Ripley is officially in the Mania match, making it a three-way.
04:44This is one of the least interesting ways to finally establish this match.
04:48We've all known this was the destination since Sky won the belt back at the start of
04:52March.
04:53So either book it much earlier, with Io demanding Ripley get added because it was Ripley who
04:58granted Io a title shot out of fairness, which gives Sky some much needed agency in this
05:03whole storyline.
05:04We all have the match announcement come from yet another huge exciting brawl, showing that
05:08the only way to settle this is to have them all in the ring at the same time.
05:13Instead, Pearce just made the announcement.
05:15Rhea and Belair pie-faced Io again, so Sky dropkicked them all to stand tall.
05:20A very repetitive scenario to the three other in-ring promo segments they've already had.
05:26In keeping with the tradition of the Women's Intercontinental Championship history, that if
05:30you lose a number one contender's match for it, you will be granted a shot anyway within
05:33the month.
05:34Bayley took on Lyra Valkyria in Raw's first match.
05:38While Lyra's IC title defences against Dakota Kai or Ivy Nile have been good, they've
05:42also felt overly choreographed, which might have stopped the crowd getting fully emotionally
05:47invested.
05:48Bayley was totally different, putting on easily Lyra's best match of her reign so far, making
05:53this feel like an actual fight rather than an elongated nice series of moves.
05:58Bayley almost had it won with the Lion Tamer, but Lyra got a technical pin to just win again.
06:03Bayley slapped Lyra's handshake away afterwards, but then hugged her instead.
06:07She's a hugger.
06:08They're teaming together in the gauntlet on this Friday's SmackDown.
06:12Either Bayley turns on Lyra there to set up an IC title match for WrestleMania, or they
06:17win, go for the tag titles at Mania, and start a long-running breakup story that'll probably
06:21pay off in late 2029.
06:23Did you know Netflix has comedy specials?
06:26Because here's comedian Burt Kreishner to promote his comedy special by ripping off his
06:30shirt with Otis.
06:31AJ Styles set up a match with Karrion Kross next week to hopefully finally shut him up,
06:36but it seemed as though that's exactly what Karrion wanted.
06:38In my favourite match and segment of the night, American Maid and the legendary El Grande Americano
06:44then took on the LWO.
06:46Reminding us that they're not just Rey Mysterio's cheerleaders, the LWO were fantastic here.
06:52Doing multi-man running sequences, dive sequences, getting a very impressive doomsday machine
06:57reversed into a power slam, and American Maid was standout too, with Julius Creed hitting
07:02a shooting star press.
07:04But the biggest praise must go to the crowd, who at one point did the dueling Let's Go
07:08Gable.
07:09No, he's not.
07:10Ivy Niles slipped El Grande Americano a piece of metal, making use of good, tariff-free
07:15American metal, not your country's exploitative pussy ass metal.
07:19Which he used to headbutt Rey off the apron, and hit a flying headbutt to win.
07:23Because as we all know, wrestling logic dictates, the metal only hurts your opponent, not your
07:29head.
07:30Following last week's bloody angle, where Gunther beat up Jimmy Uso, Jay interrupted Gunther's
07:34in-ring promo… by not yeeting.
07:37For a change, he was serious, and didn't take up the next 10 minutes waving his arms up
07:42and down.
07:43Which helpfully meant he actually had enough breath to cut a decent promo.
07:46He confessed he had to tell his mum he didn't protect Jimmy because he was afraid of Gunther.
07:51I thought he didn't protect Jimmy because he was cable tied to the ropes.
07:54But now he isn't afraid of him anymore.
07:58So he's going to say a prayer asking for forgiveness for the man he's about to become.
08:03And at WrestleMania, he's going to beat Gunther not just for the title, but for his family.
08:09Although probably, presumably not Solo Sokoa.
08:12Did you know Netflix has more comedy specials?
08:15Because here's Tony Hinchcliffe to talk about his Roast of WrestleMania and New Kill
08:19Tony series.
08:21Showing how much WWE cares about the New Day and the World Tag Team titles, most of the
08:25tag team title match of New Day vs the War Raiders was taken up with shots of the commentary
08:31desk where Hinchcliffe was a special guest commentator.
08:34The Raiders took most of the match, but lost via DQ when Ivar used a chair that Xavier Woods
08:39had brought into the ring.
08:40The New Day beat them down afterwards, targeting their surgically repaired necks.
08:45This could be really good if it was treated more prominently.
08:48In lieu of any Cody Rhodes or John Cena this week, we got a video package on Cody's story.
08:52Hopefully we have both of them for the Go Home show next week.
08:55Don't prove the rumours Finn spoke about backstage beforehand that he didn't have the
08:59killer instinct to win.
09:00Despite a fun Canadian Destroyer in the 619 sequence, Penta beat him super easily.
09:06But then, to build the icy 4-way, Bron Breaker then appeared on the ramp and hit one of the
09:12fastest spears humanly possible on Carlito.
09:16Because he was at the top of the ramp, he already had gravity working in his favour, and because
09:20he wasn't running round the ring, he could just go straight.
09:23It only made him faster, I'm surprised Carlito isn't dead.
09:26He then speared both Dom and Penta in the ring, but Finn attacked him from behind to stand
09:30tall.
09:31The 15 minute main event segment had Paul Heyman announce he will always be loyal to
09:35Roman Reigns, and he'll always, also, be loyal to CM Punk, making us all even more
09:41aware that those two things likely cannot coexist for much longer.
09:45Unless they form a Super Faction.
09:47Or, in a new potential twist, he ditches both for Seth Rollins.
09:53Seth interrupted him, and brought up that Roman abandoned Paul after Mania last year.
09:57That's when Solo and his goons beat him up.
09:59Then he pointed out how Punk walked out on everyone ten years ago, including Heyman.
10:04Punk doesn't care about anyone but himself.
10:06The best thing for Paul to do would be to remove himself completely from the situation.
10:11And Seth would be more than happy to assist with that.
10:14It was a really good performance from Rollins, leaning more into the manipulative architect side
10:19of his character, rather than the part that dresses like a twat and laughs a lot.
10:23He started shoving Paul around when CM Punk ran down for the save.
10:27They brawled, but Seth hit a stomp on him.
10:29He was about to stomp on Heyman as well, but just missed him.
10:33Saying now Paul owes him a favour too.
10:36I'm not sure that's how favours work.
10:38But it was an intriguing point, adding in the idea that all three men are now in a Heyman
10:43on a pool match.
10:44That's good.
10:45I said pool rather than pole.
10:47This week's Raw is 70%.
10:49Right now, though, we're also on the road to worst All-Mania, where we're watching
10:54the worst WrestleMania matches of all time.
10:58Click the video onscreen now if you dare to watch us endure Michael Cole vs Jerry Lawler.
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