Adam and Phil go over WWE's next moves after an eventful (and controversial) WrestleMania 39 weekend!
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00:00 Hi guys, I'm Adam Wilborn from WhatCulture, joined by Phil Chambers from WhatCulture on Sunset Boulevard here in Los Angeles.
00:07 And we thought before we flew home, we'd bring you some new directions for WWE following the Raw after WrestleMania 39.
00:13 Phil, an obvious place to start appears to be Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesnar.
00:17 Brock betraying Cody in the main event of Raw last night.
00:20 It feels like they are destined to face each other, whether it be in Saudi or at Backlash.
00:25 And I suppose this is part of Cody's redemption arc, isn't it?
00:28 Yeah, I suppose so. It's going to be an odd one.
00:31 I don't think anyone had this on their kind of coming out of WrestleMania bingo card.
00:35 But obviously, judging by Raw, it's going to happen somewhere where that is is yet to be seen.
00:39 But I guess the bigger question mark in this, I mean, you've got to well, you've got to hope that Cody Rhodes is going to actually win this and then go on to carry on the Roman Reigns stuff at some point.
00:48 Yeah, but the bigger question mark, I think, lies in the Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman connection.
00:53 Obviously, Paul Heyman has done something here to get Brock Lesnar to turn on Cody, like set the trap with setting that tag team match on Raw.
01:01 But then how is that going to fit in with the bloodline? How's Roman Reigns going to like this?
01:04 Probably not, judging by the rest of the history with Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar and how it's going to factor within the bloodline.
01:11 Because obviously Roman Reigns has some business to handle with the Usos.
01:14 But now he seemingly may also have some business to handle with Paul Heyman as well.
01:18 Yeah, it should be interesting.
01:20 Yeah, I'm not sure what's going to go on with the Usos.
01:22 We sort of haven't even really included them in this.
01:24 We just we think, I suppose, that maybe they get put through the ringer by Roman on SmackDown and maybe it's ultimatum time for them.
01:31 Beat Kevin and Sammonee for the tag titles at Backlash or you're out of the bloodline.
01:35 But that's not one of our new directions because, well, there's lots of directions they could go in.
01:40 And let's talk about Rey Mysterio.
01:42 Hey, yeah. So Rey, this is an obvious one. It happened on more.
01:45 Rey Mysterio and Bad Bunny versus Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio, obviously with everything happening at Raw last night with Damian Priest attacking Bad Bunny and all of that kind of stuff.
01:56 This is obviously going to be happening at Black Clash in Puerto Rico.
02:00 And it makes a hell of a lot of sense.
02:01 This I really like this as a match, to be honest.
02:03 We've got to keep this Rey Mysterio and Dominik connection going a little bit further because it's just too good not to.
02:09 Yeah, I love me some ex-con Dom.
02:11 And I have to say, I can't get over this relationship that we have got with Bad Bunny, who is the most successful artist right now ever or whatever it is.
02:19 It was on Raw.
02:20 Ridiculous. But yeah, it makes sense.
02:22 Like you say, Backlash hosted by Bunny in Puerto Rico.
02:26 It makes sense that he tags with with Rey against Dom and Damian Priest.
02:31 And yeah, just keep replaying that chokeslap through the table because it looked absolutely brutal.
02:36 Moving on, we know we are going to get at least a tag title match on next week's Monday Night Raw after Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez beat Damage Cuttaro to become the number one contenders.
02:46 Despite the fact they lost the showcase match at WrestleMania.
02:48 We'll move on.
02:49 They are going to face Becky Lynch and Lita.
02:53 I think they're going to lose.
02:54 And I think Raquel Rodriguez is finally going to turn on Liv Morgan, which is, I think, a week removed from when Liv got turned on by Rhea on the Raw after WrestleMania last year, if I'm not mistaken.
03:04 Tradition.
03:05 Let's start a new one.
03:07 Yeah, I think this makes a lot of sense.
03:08 Raquel Rodriguez has been sort of flatlining, I guess, on the main roster.
03:13 It's just been an odd character decision for someone like Raquel Rodriguez to just, hey, just go out there and be the smiley person.
03:19 It's never worked in the history of wrestling.
03:21 So why they thought it would work here, I have no idea.
03:23 But this leads us on to our other new direction that will follow on from this.
03:27 And it's a heel Raquel Rodriguez going up against Bianca Belair.
03:32 Yeah, I really like this because obviously Bianca Belair's thing is that she is freakishly strong.
03:37 Look at what she did to Asuka to win the match at WrestleMania.
03:40 But Raquel Rodriguez has got a big old back and she is just dominating.
03:45 Like you say, when she is a heel, when she was in NXT and she was that team with Dakota Kai and she was basically the Diesel to Kai's Shawn Michaels.
03:52 And then they, in Michael Hambler's words, they did exactly what they did to Diesel of like, right, we're going to split you and now you're the big smiling baby face.
03:58 It just doesn't work for me as Raquel Rodriguez's character, at least for now.
04:02 And I think she could really, I think we all agree that Bianca Belair holds this title going forward for the next few months.
04:08 I don't think Raquel's the person to take the title off her.
04:10 But as a threat to Bianca's title, you know, it's kind of a bit thin on the ground in terms of female challenges because of how poorly that women's division has been booked.
04:20 I will give Triple H all the credit in the world for what he's done in the interim.
04:23 And we'll get to the future of that in due course. But yeah, the women's division is not one of his strong points.
04:28 I want to give a nod to Simon Miller for our next new direction because he was the one who pointed this out whilst we were watching the Raw after WrestleMania.
04:35 Trish Stratus, he's not happy just being a third wheel in this tag team.
04:38 So I sense maybe not during the tag title match on Raw next week.
04:43 But I don't know, the issues between Lita and Trish are never really settled, if we're perfectly honest.
04:50 And Trish turning heel and us running back Lita versus Trish after all these years or Trish and Becky, it's so intriguing that.
04:58 Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely an interesting direction for it.
05:01 But it's been long rumoured, this sort of Trish heel turn with this.
05:04 And they're definitely planting seeds for it, especially the bit on Raw when Lita and Becky were doing their thing.
05:10 And then Trish was like, oh, you're kind of leaving me out of this.
05:13 So, yeah, definitely feel like this is the way they're going to go, whether this is going to be a Saudi thing.
05:16 They want a Trish versus Lita at a Saudi show, maybe that seems like a Saudi thing to do or whether it be a backlash.
05:24 And it definitely feels like this is the way that they're going.
05:26 But sliding over to a different side of the women's division, Rhea Ripley is obviously looking for new challengers with the weird segment that was on Raw with her sort of challenging Bianca Belair.
05:38 Or Bianca Belair challenging her and turning them down and then delivering something that you're never going to deliver to the crowd.
05:43 And then they're both going to be on different brands.
05:45 It's all a bit weird.
05:46 We might get a WrestleMania 40 if we're lucky.
05:49 But if you look over to NXT, the big thing that was missing wildly from the Raw after WrestleMania was call ups from NXT.
05:58 And there is a certain Roxanne Perez who may have just lost a women's championship that would be a perfect first contender for Rhea Ripley.
06:05 And I'm going to give a nod to our cameraman, Adam Nicholas, who remembered the fact that Roxanne Perez faced Rhea Ripley as part of that pick your poison stuff going on in NXT.
06:15 With Perez and Cora Jade, I think they work really well together.
06:19 I think perfect first foil as a defense for Rhea Ripley.
06:23 Look, we all know Rhea Ripley is not dropping that title for many, many months, probably.
06:27 And it's just going to solidify potentially her kind of taking over the flipping judgment day because she's the only one who seems to be able to win matches in that group.
06:36 But yeah, Roxanne Perez is more than ready for the main roster.
06:40 They found a way for her to drop the title without looking too weak in NXT.
06:44 And Roxanne Perez coming up and losing to Rhea Ripley, it's not burying her in my opinion.
06:50 I think she's someone who, yeah, that can be part of her story of, look, she wasn't ready just yet, but she is going to grow into that role on the main roster.
07:00 And I think Perez is someone really to watch out for throughout this year.
07:04 Now we saw after the banger Intercontinental Championship match between Gunther, Sheamus and Drew, a nice photo of Sheamus and Drew off to share pints to celebrate.
07:15 A job well done, despite the fact that neither of them lasted as IC champion.
07:20 But I don't know what's going on with Drew McIntyre's contract situation.
07:23 I'm not going to speculate too much on that, but I have been crying out for a Drew McIntyre heel turn for quite some time.
07:29 And I think the journey for Sheamus is eventually possibly being the guy to take that IC title off Gunther, maybe even when they come to the UK for money in the bank, of course.
07:37 It'd be Sheamus's backyard, again, sort of just like Wales is Drew's backyard.
07:42 So I think a heel turn from Drew McIntyre of, because there was times in that match where both of them had the match won, but the other one stopped the other person pinning Gunther, basically.
07:51 So I like the idea of Drew turning heel.
07:54 I think it's a character refresh that's needed for a while, and we know these two just love kicking the crap out of each other.
08:00 Yeah, absolutely. We can definitely move this on so long as there is a change in the sort of dynamic of the characters behind it, because obviously we've seen it before, but we've not seen it with Drew as the big heel going up against Sheamus.
08:11 And that match itself would be a perfect stopgap for the next match we're going to get to, which is Gunther versus Matt Riddle.
08:18 Obviously Matt Riddle returned on Raw last night, and he would be an incredible opponent for Gunther.
08:24 It's sort of as a stopgap feud to get to, eventually, Sheamus versus Gunther, probably, hopefully, at Money in the Bank, where Sheamus finally dethrones Gunther, and then Gunther moves up to the next echelon of WWE, like up to the main roster slightly.
08:38 Yeah, exactly.
08:40 The main title picture.
08:42 Yeah, exactly.
08:43 I think you can easily see, I mean, we were booking before WrestleMania, because we assumed Cody was going to become world champion.
08:48 It was going to be Gunther versus Cody at SummerSlam.
08:51 I suppose, again, everything's up in the air right now.
08:53 We'll get to that in a second.
08:55 I suppose Gunther versus world champion Cody at WrestleMania 40.
09:00 We can but dream.
09:01 That's all we can do right now.
09:04 And yeah, keeps Matt Riddle busy until, hopefully, Randy Orton returns, because I like the reports that he appears to be coming back.
09:11 Obviously, we would never suggest that people should come back unless they are absolutely ready.
09:16 Let's talk about US champion, though, from the IC champion to the US champion, Austin Theory.
09:21 I really like what's happened with Austin Theory recently.
09:23 I'm not saying that his match with John Cena was anything to write home about at WrestleMania, but he got the victory shenanigans, but he got the victory nonetheless.
09:30 And then on the Raw after WrestleMania, he beat Rey Mysterio, again, via shenanigans with Dominik on this occasion.
09:36 And I thought he caught a really confident promo, one of the best promos he's caught with fans in the arena, because I did like the one he did the empty arena before WrestleMania.
09:45 And I like him taking on some sort of legend killer gimmick, actually, of taking on the likes of Cena and Rey and maybe even Edge, because we were all googling frantically before we filmed this video.
09:57 Edge's history with the US championship.
09:59 Technically, he has held it.
10:00 I think it was the WCW US title, which was then sort of merged as part of the invasion with the IC title.
10:06 He fought Test and basically left as intercontinental champion.
10:10 Edge is coming towards the end of his career, of course, but yeah, a decent challenger for Austin Theory.
10:18 And yeah, the legend killer gimmick, whether you want to include Randy Orton in that as well, I don't know.
10:23 But big things this year, regardless of who's in charge for Austin Theory.
10:27 Yeah, absolutely.
10:28 I really like this as an idea.
10:29 Sort of have a few few big matches for him to go through, win quite a few as he goes along, maybe bring in some old names just for like one off appearances with him.
10:37 And fully go on board with this sort of legend killer idea as a gimmick, possibly even leading to whenever Randy Orton is ready to come back.
10:44 That finally being the big payoff and be like, oh, you're going to be the legend killer, are you?
10:48 And then he kills Austin Theory and probably takes his belt.
10:50 Let's face it.
10:51 Yeah, let's be perfectly honest.
10:52 Before we get to our final new direction here, Phil, Bobby Lashley, please do something with him in the next few days, weeks, months.
11:00 I know he squashed Ali, but he just came out and held up the trophy on WrestleMania.
11:06 And there was plans for having to have him something with with LA Knight at WrestleMania, which was inexplicably pulled at the last minute.
11:13 Big things for him and for LA Knight, I suppose, in the coming months.
11:16 Yeah, absolutely.
11:17 They need to do something with this.
11:18 It's like LA Knight as well as SmackDown. He was so over here.
11:22 And it feels like that might be a situation of, oh, you're too over because you got over kind of without us.
11:28 And then they never like that happening, do they?
11:30 So I really hope they have something planned for both these guys going forward.
11:34 A lot of question marks still in the new directions coming out of WrestleMania and the Raw after WrestleMania.
11:40 But the biggest question mark of them all, I will say, is Vince McMahon.
11:45 By all accounts, he is back. He is in creative in some fashion.
11:49 He is backstage in Raw. The Raw got changed like three times, I think, not just before the show, but also during the show.
11:56 As you might have seen footage of Seth Rollins when he was in the ring, like he originally came out.
12:01 He had a microphone in his hand.
12:03 It seemed like he was ready to cut a promo. And then someone was frantically yelling at him from ringside, ended up getting rid of the microphone and just doing that weird thing where he just kind of stood in the ring while people chanted his song for a little bit.
12:14 That along with there was a bunch of planned things for Raw, like there was a women's triple threat number one contenders match.
12:20 The Cody mystery partner thing was supposed to be like a show long story arc kind of thing leading into the main event.
12:27 A bunch of things.
12:28 Bayley.
12:29 Bayley, of course. Yeah. Big question mark about Bayley.
12:31 Lots of things being changed. Very much feeling like WWE of old.
12:36 The Raw itself very much felt like a Vince McMahon show.
12:40 And this has got to be the biggest question mark leading into any kind of new directions is can they keep up the quality that people have come to expect over this sort of last six months?
12:50 And judging by the Raw last night, doesn't seem like it.
12:53 Yeah, we haven't got Simon Miller with us anymore.
12:55 He's he's flown home and it feels like the positivity has gone with him.
12:59 I'm so deflated following that Raw after WrestleMania.
13:04 You know, there was still some good stuff in there.
13:05 I don't necessarily subscribe to the idea that was the worst Raw ever or the worst Raw after WrestleMania ever.
13:11 We had a great tag match with Kevin and Sammy versus the Street Profits.
13:15 We got the return of Riddle.
13:16 We got Brock teasing at least working on Raw for the first time in 20 years.
13:21 And this new direction with Cody is intriguing if they do the right thing here.
13:25 But yeah, let's be honest. All of these new directions we're pitching to you now could be changed by the time this video goes out,
13:31 basically because Vince just changes things on a whim and well, we're all a little bit anxious going into the next few months.
13:40 But let us know your thoughts on new directions for WWE after the Raw after WrestleMania in the comments or on Twitter at whatculturewwe.
13:49 Well, you can find both of us. You can follow Phil Chambers at PhilMyChambers and you can follow Adam at Adam Wilborn.
13:54 Follow us all at whatculturewwe as I said.
13:57 But for now, my thanks to Phil Chambers.
13:59 Thank you for joining us and we will see you soon.
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