Rhea Ripley Fan Incident, The Rock HEAT Backstage! WWE Raw Review

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00:00 - Coming up...
00:14 - The Rock Backstage Heat
02:22 - Rhea Ripley Fan Incident
02:46 - Carmella Released By WWE
03:25 - Watch Monday Night War On Patreon.com/WrestleTalk Now!
03:54 - WWE Raw Review
Rhea Ripley Fan Incident, The Rock HEAT Backstage! WWE Raw Review | WrestleTalk
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Transcript

00:00People are upset with The Rock backstage, there's been a title change on Raw, Rhea

00:05Ripley sets fan boundaries and more.

00:08I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.

00:14On Friday's episode of SmackDown Rock, The Dwayne Johnson returned to WWE to potentially

00:20shake up the company's biggest storylines on the road to WrestleMania.

00:25He gave Cody Rhodes an offer.

00:29Become his champion, and The Rock will help him… with his digital strategy and SEO terms

00:37to get more social media followers.

00:41Goosebumps.

00:42At least, that's what I think the offer was.

00:47It was a bit rambly, and most viewers were left confused by the segment.

00:51And this is because, unsurprisingly, it was mostly made up on the fly.

00:56Fightful Select have reported that the creative team were told just a few days ahead of SmackDown,

01:01with it being a shock to many in the company.

01:03The Rock and Cody's overlong near half hour segment resulted in many other parts of the

01:08episode being scrapped, like the Liv Morgan vs Naomi match.

01:12Apparently the creative team haven't been told what the next steps for the Rock vs Cody

01:15storyline are.

01:17And without that knowledge, the Wrestling Observer is now reporting there is unhappiness

01:21with how the segment went down.

01:23I know one person there who said they thought that he really diminished Cody.

01:27One person there told me in one segment he turned more than the Big Show did in his entire

01:31career.

01:32By my count, The Rock turned heel and then face again about nine times during that segment,

01:37doing things like announcing WrestleMania 42 for New Orleans next year, then telling

01:41the crowd they all have STDs when they try to sing When the Saints Go Marching In with

01:45him.

01:46Cody then added about the backstage reaction to The Rock coming back,

01:49I know there's definitely people not happy with the way they had a game plan, and the

01:54game plan completely changed this last week.

01:57Cody had a follow-up segment on last night's episode of Raw, where Seth Rollins warned

02:01him against siding with The Rock, the man they fought at last year's WrestleMania.

02:05Cody is set to give his answer to The Rock at Saturday's Elimination Chamber.

02:09The Rock later revealed on the post-SmackDown press conference that the WrestleMania 42

02:14in New Orleans announcement was actually supposed to happen several weeks back at the

02:18Super Bowl, but we had a couple of hiccups and we couldn't make that happen.

02:22Asuka has recently shared on Twitter that she's had to contact the police about a

02:26stalker, and that WWE and TKO are taking action to protect her.

02:30Now Rhea Ripley has made a post implying she's also had an incident where a fan has shown

02:35up at her house.

02:36Shouldn't have to say this, do not ever send fan mail to my house.

02:41That is by mail OR SELF DELIVERED.

02:44That is 100% not okay.

02:47Last week, Fightful reported that Carmella's WWE contract had recently come to an end.

02:51She was moved to the alumni section of WWE's online roster page shortly after.

02:55Carmella hasn't been seen on WWE TV since March 2023, where she took time away due to

03:01pregnancy.

03:02On Instagram, she has now made her first public comment since parting ways with the company.

03:06I know there's a lot of questions and uncertainty around everything.

03:10I will be going on a podcast later this week answering some of those questions and telling

03:15my side, because I have a lot to say about the situation.

03:19So yeah, stay tuned, and I'll give you the details when I can.

03:22I can't wait to fill you guys in.

03:25Before I get into my review of Monday Night Raw, mine and Luke's full Monday Night War

03:30series of us competing in My GM Mode on WWE 2K24 is now complete!

03:37Sign up at Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk right now to watch the full 12 episode long

03:43season, where you can catch up in time for our brand new series playing the brand new

03:482K25 game from the 14th March.

03:51That's Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk.

03:54Now here's my review of Monday Netflix Raw… in about 5 minutes.

03:58Turns out Logan Paul is from the state of Ohio, which surprised me as I thought he hailed

04:03from Pricksville Knobheadland.

04:04But it worked perfectly for him to open this episode of Raw, getting hometown heat from

04:08his own people.

04:09He called them peasants.

04:11He made a derogatory local sports team reference.

04:13But saying he was going to win the Elimination Chamber was a step too far.

04:17Because that's when out came CM Punk.

04:19Wearing a Chicago Teachers Union sweater, that was unfortunately the most shootiest

04:24we got from Punk here.

04:26Despite Logan having so many real life controversies you could bring up in a back and forth promo,

04:31Punk just spoke in vagaries or kayfabe.

04:33Logan has no substance, Logan's just trying to get attention.

04:37And Punk will eliminate him in the Chamber as a receipt for Logan throwing him out of

04:41the Rumble.

04:42Logan then slapped Punk and ran away, which he won't be able to do in the Chamber come

04:45this Saturday.

04:46The segment did the bare matchbuilding basics, but considering this is a go-home segment

04:51with Logan Paul and CM Punk holding live mics in the middle of a ring, this was underwhelming.

04:58Talk about the hat, Punk.

05:01Reference the hat.

05:02After Penta has beaten both Pete Dunne and Ludwig Kaiser clean twice over the last month,

05:06and Kaiser accidentally cost Dunne the match last week, they all had a triple threat match

05:11here.

05:12This was really good action.

05:13Of course it was, look at the three names in this match.

05:16But the finish was Kaiser stealing Penta's win by pinning Dunne.

05:19While Penta didn't get pinned, he did technically lose a match here, ending his proper unbeaten

05:24streak.

05:25I think that could've been built up for longer.

05:27Rhea Ripley talked up her women's title defence against Io Sky for next Monday, bringing

05:31up how she's never beaten Io, but they haven't wrestled for five years now, and she's grown

05:35a lot since then.

05:36The camera then pulled back, and Io was awkwardly standing right there.

05:40The New Day beat the LWO to not much heat, because Kofi and Woods haven't been credibly

05:44booked, and the LWO are barely a threat either.

05:48The New Day beat Dragon Lee up afterwards too, meaning they did get to stand tall for

05:52a change.

05:53But for me, it's too little, too late.

05:55The WWE-TNA crossover is strong, because Raw then showed Adam Pac-Man Jones in the crowd.

06:03Yes, he's more famous as a very controversial NFL player, but he's also a former TNA tag

06:09team champion, where, in one of the most TNA things TNA ever did, he somehow both won and

06:15lost the belt without ever being touched.

06:18Because the Tennessee Titans he played for at the time wouldn't let him wrestle.

06:22In a really good segment, Gunther revealed he will actually be wrestling a match tonight

06:26against a hand-picked opponent to warm up for Jey Uso at WrestleMania.

06:31And that opponent is Akira Tozawa.

06:35It was neatly set up from the very start of the show, where Gunther gave a dancing Alpha

06:39Academy a look of disgust when he entered the building.

06:42The idea is that Tozawa, like Jey, is a goofball, that the fans enjoy him as a clown, not as

06:48a serious wrestler like Gunther.

06:50This set up a perfect squash match story.

06:53Akira showed great fire, the crowd was super into his brief flurries of offence against

06:57Gunther, but ultimately Gunther killed him dead.

07:00He beat up Otis afterwards too, leading to a Jey Uso save.

07:04It was really effective, but, if I'm being critical, which is kind of my job, it also

07:09feels really midcard.

07:10This doesn't feel like a feud over a world title.

07:13Jey checked on Akira backstage afterwards, and ended up superkicking Grace and Waller

07:17for reading Reddit comments about how they don't think Jey will win.

07:20Pat McAfee gave us a breakdown analysis of Michael Cole's stretched out buttons on

07:23his implausive podcast appearance.

07:25It's Lyra Valkyria taking on Dakota Kai for the IC title in a rematch of their January

07:31tournament final.

07:32They worked quick and hard, rushing through as many spots as they could fit in, but the

07:35match ended quite abruptly when Lyra hit her broken wing to win.

07:39It was all really to set up the post-match angle where Ivy Nile took out both Dakota

07:43and Lyra in her mission to win the IC belt.

07:46Which begs the question, why not just have Ivy win the No. 1 contenders match last week

07:51and build her up strong?

07:52Sami Zayn had a great sitdown interview with Jackie Redmond, where following Kevin Owens

07:56sitting outside his family home on SmackDown, Sami confessed he went to see KO's mum.

08:01He didn't beat her up or anything, but he also didn't know what he was doing.

08:05He doesn't recognise himself anymore.

08:08It brilliantly got over how fragile Sami's body is right now, his neck isn't where

08:12he'd want it to be, but it also made him an unsanctioned level threat, as KO has put

08:17him in a place where he doesn't know what he'll do to Owens.

08:21Then following on from The Rock's SmackDown segment, Cody Rhodes came out on Raw to give

08:25his thoughts on… whatever it was that The Rock wanted him to do.

08:30Get more Instagram likes, I'm still confused.

08:32Cody said how the decision he's going to make doesn't just affect him, it affects

08:35his family, his training school, the memory of his father.

08:40But Cody forgot the one guy who claims he'll feel it the most.

08:43Meryl Streep in the S&M version of Devil Wears Prada, aka Seth Rollins.

08:47Somehow this is the first time Cody and Seth have been in the same ring together since

08:51Rollins helped Rhodes win at WrestleMania 40.

08:54It's a testament to WWE's slow burn character arcs that it feels like they've changed

08:59so much since, but you can't quite put your finger on exactly when.

09:03Seth said he sacrificed himself for Cody to win that belt against The Rock.

09:07How could he even be entertaining the idea of doing a collaboration on Snapchat?

09:12I'm not quite sure what it is.

09:14Cody reminded Seth that he's not exactly a moral puritan here, cough the authority

09:18cough.

09:19But Seth replied asking, almost pleading, Cody to not make him hate him like he does

09:25CM Punk.

09:26Seth says at WrestleMania, he's not coming for his soul, he's coming for his title.

09:31Finn Balor was blaming everyone but himself again, mostly Dom, for the Judgement Day being

09:35lame.

09:36But Liv and Raquel stormed into the clubhouse and said everyone needs to focus on them winning

09:40the tag titles tonight.

09:41Which brings us to the perfect utility heel Dominik Mysterio.

09:47Dom isn't the big heat magnet star of 2023 and 2024, but what he has become is arguably

09:53more impressive.

09:54He uses his character and reactions to get other people over more than himself.

09:58Firstly, there was his match against Bronn Breaker, where he, Carlito and Balor made

10:02Breaker look indestructible, bumping around for him and letting Bronn overcome the numbers

10:07disadvantage.

10:08It ended in DQ, but Breaker still stood tall scaring off Balor, potentially adding Finn

10:13to Breaker's Bullet Club leader IC feuds.

10:15Secondly, in the terrific main event, Dom timed his interference spots perfectly to

10:20get the match maximum heat, but never once distracting from the women in the ring.

10:24That's not to detract from Bianca, Naomi, Liv and Raquel's work, though.

10:28They had one of the best and most heated WWE TV matches of the year so far, with multiple

10:33believable false finishes.

10:35Ultimately, Raquel did all the kayfabe work.

10:38She took out Bianca on the outside, whacked Naomi's head onto the ring post, letting

10:42Liv pin her to win and become the new tag team champions.

10:46Which ingeniously doubles up as a great-go-home angle for the Women's Elimination Chamber,

10:51where both Naomi and Bianca will target an isolated Liv.

10:55This week's Raw is 77%.

10:58But enough of all this good wrestling, what about the bad wrestling?

11:02Click the video onscreen now to watch Luke Sullivan and Tempest watch the infamously

11:06bad Intercontinental Title Elimination Chamber in Worst Match Ever.

Rhea Ripley Fan Incident, The Rock HEAT Backstage! WWE Raw Review | WrestleTalk

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