Jima Jam, Jinnah, jenna Jam, Chinna Jam.

Finn Balor and Seth Rollins had a promo segment on Raw, but I couldn't really hear it much because the crowd decided to hijack the segment themselves for a little sing along. Yes, when we will get into that very shortly. I am Lugo in D-A-D. This is the Professor Dan Layton. The truth, Dan Layton. And this is the thought podcast review of Monday Night Raw. Please do press the subscribe button. If this is your first time here, please give us a little thumbs up as well and tell us what you thought of this episode in the comments down below. If you're watching this on demand, but if you're joining us live, get in your Ultra Nats. Your ultra nats. I believe they are naps since been.

Welcome back off holiday. What happened was you left me alone with Ollie and I got carried away. And now we have ultra Nats.

The ultra nats.

We need our own one.

I watched back how you came to this conclusion. It was democratic. It was like when you were like Natty Chess, I was like, I feel like we're reaching here. But as soon as you said Ultra Nats, I was like, yeah, okay.

Because it's got that beautiful, like, ultra Nazi. You're free, do what you want to do. And they were free to choose and.

They chose Ultra Nat democratically. It was chosen to be ultra nat. So we will be referring to them as Ultra Nats from here on in. Also, Natty had quite the appearance on this show. She certainly did.

And I popped for it purely because of Ultra Nats. But we'll talk about it.

So restock.com support. Get in your ultra nats. And we'll read out all of them above the five US dollar amounts. None of your Canadian dollars. Got no time for them. US only.

And Australians.

Australians, that's sort of a real currency.

Basically Monopoly money at this stage.

So get us those in and we will read them out before the end of the show. But we begin with this segment. So this is setting up the world heavyweight championship match for money in the bank. It is going to be Seth Rollins defending that world heavyweight championship against Finn Balor. Okay, so actual content of the segment I thought was really good because I really liked Balor's promo of like I've been waiting for this for seven years. Because seven years ago, I was first round draft pick for Monday Night Raw. Seven years ago, in my first week, I beat Roman Reigns. Seven years ago, I won the Universal Championship. And seven years ago on that same night, you took everything from me. And you've gone on off this career and you have taken that and you've left me with nothing. And you got everything and I got nothing. There was a really good and really personal and a really good motivation for Ballard to be going after rollins and going after this world title. And then I really liked Rollins reply to that, which is just like, look, that moment set us on two different paths.

I went on to be a better person, you went on to be a bitter person. Some really nice bits and bobs in there, but that's not what people are talking about. What people are talking about is the fact that the crowd sang Seth Rollins song during his entrance and after the entrance. And then kept singing it. And then kept singing it. And then kept singing it. Yeah, and then kept singing.

If I'd have been clever before we started the show, I would have gone and just been singing it around the room while you did the intro. And it would have been a very funny bit and we'd all have laughed and said how clever I was, but I wasn't clever enough. So I apologize for that. But, yeah, it's almost like you're right. You do have to separate this segment into two halves, don't you? There's the content of the segment and then there's the way the segment went.

Down, and then you can sort of look at them as a whole to look out whether or not it worked or not. Because I want this promo to work, like I want this segment to work. And I don't quite know where I kind of sit with at the moment, because the singing, aside from the fact that they were not listening to what Finn was saying, and they were not invested in the story that Finn was trying to get across, nor were they really interested in the replies that Rollins had, either. They were just interested in singing Seth's song and it meant that I think the meat of this story is now, I mean, we sort of know because we can sit here and talk about it, but I think those people in the audience didn't really get it. And I think, as well, the singing delayed the segment because Balor was waiting for them to stop singing to do his bit, and he'd start to start saying, be like seven years, and it would just start back up again and Rollins would have to try and calm them down, trying to get Finn to get going.

And the segment then became quite fragmented because the crowd became a much bigger part of the segment than they were at the start.

It's a really interesting thing because I feel like I have, as you've been talking, thought a few more aspects to this segment than I'd taken from initially. We read these crowds to Phil's for not making any noise, right. Generally speaking, week to week, and including in this show, there were moments of the crowd not being there for it. Not necessarily because what they were being offered was the peak. I don't blame them for being a bit quiet in the, for instance, Raquel versus Shayna match. Yeah. However, there are other moments, including, like, Priest Riddle, where they just were quiet as well. And the past few weeks, we talked about how these crowds are quite quiet.

Then came alive for that main event.

Well, exactly. But this is what's interesting, is because when the crowd does make noise, it almost feels cheerlished for us then to sit here and say, well, the noise kind of ruined it.

Absolutely.

However, in this context, it did create a weird dissonance, which is that and I have two sort of feelings about it. One of them is, you know how Steve Austin kind of regrets the what situation. Because 20 years on, 22 years on now, it still is. The chant people go to happened to.

Zoe Stark on this show.

Literally happened to Zoe Stark on this show. And it can derail you. So that's one side of it where it's the crowd going into business for themselves. They don't allow the segment to get over. There's a world where this kind of heat, like, think about Dominic, right? Because the crowd just inherently incessantly. Booing Dominic as loud as possible. Trying to beat last week's crowd really has added to the mystique of Dominic mysterio. No. And there's a world where that kind of crowd involvement elevates a segment where it's Seth being like, Come at me. I've got this. I am the maestro of this crowd, and you are bitter. Like, there's a world where it lifts it, but here it didn't. And I can't help but place the blame for that a little bit. Fin balor.

Because it rattled him.

It rattled him. He's visibly rattled. That's a very nation joke. If anyone here gets the visibly rattled, I will love you. But it did rattle him. And a great star, a great orator someone with this level of fury in the character is able to take that and build off it. What he should be doing is, like, responding to that crowd, making them listen. Because there were dips in there. There were moments where they kind of wanted to hear him, but he never quite picked it back up again. He never pounced on the moment, which opened enough gaps for the crowd to go back into business for themselves. And it did very much feel like the crowd entertaining themselves rather than engaging with the segment. Yeah, I do a little bit feel that what Finn was saying is like, yeah, it's two ways. On the one hand, it's not fully the truth, is it? Finn, like, you and Seth have wrestled each other often since, including for championships.

IC title and things like that.

I mean, one of the best WrestleMania openers ever.

Also, they were the finals of their brackets. It was really funny. They did advertise like, it's a match seven years in the making. I was like, this match happened three.

Weeks ago, so that's a weird thing to say. On the other hand, it is true that Finn lost a whole lost all his momentum. Well, that's about losing his momentum. Came back and had to rebuild it. And part of that is because of the higher ups, and part of that is because of just the way the show had gone and the way characters had gone. It's why people wrestle through injuries. It's why people push through moments where perhaps they shouldn't. It's because people are afraid of losing their spot because momentum can be killed like that. But he went away, went to NXT, redeveloped his character, rebuilt, almost started again. Use that in the character. And yet double down on this story. If you want to say losing to you the other day, the other week in that match, reignited this fire, the way you keep laughing about it, you don't realize this actually was pretty bad for me. Use that. Use that momentum. So I a little bit feel like, Finn, you could have done better in that moment that said, am I going to watch the ever living f out of this match at Money in the bank?

All you best believe, because they much like Rollins and AJ at Night of Champions, are going to go out there. I think Seth, the feeling I get from Rollins's promos and the way that Rollins has talked about this belt is that this is the workhorse belt. He wants to go out there and have the best match on TV with this belt and make it feel like the most important championship. He's got a hell of an uphill battle on here.

Oh, my God. Big time.

He's got such it. But if there's one man who can do it, I think Rollins can. I think Rollins believes in this belt so much that he can make this feel like it's never going to feel as tippy top as Romans belt. Right? It's never going to, but you can make it feel like a very solid second place, and it will always be a very solid second place. But I think he's going to do his damnedest to make it feel like that. So him and Balor, they're going to go out of Money in the bank with that idea of let's steal the show on a show that's got two ladder matches on it to put it.

Back in the context of sports. Right? And this is a television show about a wrestling show. It's a sports show. Like, it's sports entertainment. The Champions League doesn't devalue the Premier League. Right. So let's just say, for instance, Romans belt, the Champions League, and what Seth's doing with the Premier League is still valuable. You can turn it into something that, let's call it a prize. And I do believe that Seth is one to do it. And the way you do build that, as you say, is just put on banger after banger. Yeah, matches where you feel like, I can't wait to see who wins this.

It's also the booking of it as well. I talked about this in my edited review when they introduced Ria's new belt.

Right.

The whole point of these redesigns that they've done with the Askers now looks like the undisputed World Championship, but with a white strap. And RIAs, as the Women's World Champion, is supposed to look like Seth's Belt, but with a white strap is according to Fight Force leg. And this was the same mindset they had with the Roaring SmackDown titles as well, was that they should look the same as the men's titles. So the perception of that from a visual standpoint is they are on the same level.

Yeah. Well, they did that on NXT as well. Remember when they and they even removed the idea of the women's champion, it was just this is the women's champ, for instance. It's not that way now, but the way they had it for a little bit was that, like, Tiffany Stratton would be the NXT champion. You just know that that means that in the women's division, like Wimbledon women's champion, I guess it is the lady I shouldn't that's a bad example. Ignore me, but putting it on an even keel is the same thing. But it's how you book it.

It's how you book it. And the point I made in my edited review earlier is that it can be a plate of chickpeas, but as long as you book it so that people want to win that plate of chickpeas and you can then make that plate of chickpeas feel like the top prize in a division.

Yeah. I will say it's one of those things where sometimes we say, like, booking isn't hard, and I will say sometimes keep it simple. Stupid is the way to do it. Right. It can be difficult sometimes to book wrestling. It's not the easiest thing in the world and I do give them a lot of patience, but it's tricky. I don't know.

But to kind of cycle back to the topic that we've got at hand here, I think the fact that this does not feel like the top title probably sort of informs this crowd to not react to this. A world title segment should not feel like it is. The crowd are just entertaining themselves. And look, I'm a British wrestling fan, I have attended British wrestling shows. I am in no position to criticize an audience for entertaining themselves. We are because we're bloody awful for it. We're also brilliant.

Oh, makes an incredible crowd. But we are really bad at going into business.

We're very bad at going into business for ourselves and finding chants that we find funny and just going with them and just entertaining ourselves. But we also know when to pay attention.

That's the thing. It creates an atmosphere. It's almost like the raw aftermania crowd, but want to pay attention.

Exactly. Yeah. So I am not here to say this crowd were bad for doing this, because, again, as I said in my edited review, it's their prerogative. They can do whatever they want. They've paid their money, they've got their tickets, they can spend their time however they want. But when I finish watching this segment, I just felt bad for Balor.

Yeah.

Because I felt like this was that promo for him.

Yes, it was.

It was the promo that we've been sort of waiting for Balor to be able to cut. The one that is like, oh, yeah, you can be main event Finn Balor again, in a way, almost the promo we've been waiting for him to cut for seven years. Because even in Judgment Day, a lot of his promo work has been yuck, yuck, we're the baddies with the heels. But this was actual which has worked. It has worked. But on the main roster, this was very like, and I am told main roster Balor here, not NXT Balor. Main roster balor. This was like, this is the promo that we want to make him feel like that main event guy again. A guy that could be the top title holder on this brand. But this crowd did not see him that way.

No.

And they didn't give him the chance to be that way and just did not care for him in that way. So I just sort of felt bad for him.

Yeah. I didn't.

You're right. The match is going to slap. Next week is going to be a very different story.

Yeah.

Unless next week's audience go in there and be like, did you see what they did? They go to Cleveland next week. Did you see what they did in I don't know where they were this wichita.

Wichita.

See what they did in Wichita last week? Let's just sing Seth song over and over again.

That's where I do feel a little sympathy for Finn Balor, but I actually put some of the blame on him as well. Because could you imagine, for instance, not to beat this person in the wrestling community, but back in the Attitude era, can you imagine The Rock not handling that? Can you imagine Steve Austin not handling that? Can you imagine John Cena handling that in this scenario?

Now imagine Roman Reigns not doing it. If this was like Seth going after Roman, if this was Seth going after Roman's Belt and that crowd sang Seth's theme song the entire way through it, roman would have handled that.

I wonder if early Roman wouldn't have.

Oh, early Roman would have completely been rattled by right. But like this Roman now, that's why.

It'S not worth writing off ballad.

Yeah, I think it is unfortunate that Ballad did get rattled by it.

Yeah, it's on. Euphin respond next week, I suppose. Call out.

It brings up the question, really, and it's the one that we've got on the thumbnail for this episode. Did the fans ruin this segment?

I don't think they did, because the other thought that I had was that this raw was a good raw, right? I enjoyed this raw a lot. Me, too. I felt like we're one of the.

Few people that did.

Yeah. Well, here's my qualifier for that. If this was a two hour show and we're back to this old favorite, this would have been a humper, to use a particular online phrase, but because it was a longer show, it felt baggier. When you shorten things down, you streamline things, you make things tick along, rattle along just nicely. This segment, with a result of this crowd noise in the way Finn wasn't able to capitalize on it, wasn't able to use it to build it felt limp.

And it's supposed to be your main.

It'S supposed to be your main world title frame. Exactly. It's supposed to be the one that could you imagine the intensity on his.

Face, yelling, the crowd, you people give.

It some of that. You're laughing at this.

This is my life.

Like giving some intensity. Respond to it. Instead, he was rattled and it sort of stop, start, stop, start looking at it. At one point, I thought Seth was annoyed, so that's where it started to fall apart. Do I blame the fans for that? No, because if you give the fans an inch, they will take a mile. You as the wrestler, you as the person holding the microphone, have it in you have it in your power to bring them back on side.

Yeah. I don't think the fans did ruin this segment, but they sort of did. They sort of did. But I don't fully blame the crowd, I think is the point I was going to make there, because they did ruin this segment for me, but I don't blame them. Part of it's, the world title part of it. It's been mid card balor for seven years, and now you're like, oh, yeah, by the way, he's going for the top title. So there's lots of things that are sort of working against you in a lot of ways, but I don't blame the fans in doing what they did because it is their prerogatives to do whatever they want. I just felt bad for Finn.

It made what should have been a fire segment quite awkward. It did, yeah.

And I think then, because you're right, rollins also looked kind of annoyed that the segment was not going to plan, because I think he probably wants this segment to be good because he's trying to make this world title feel important. But secondly, because of Seth's character, he has to laugh. And because he then laughed at everything that was happening, just made Ball look so low rent.

And that's it. They are sort of guided to do this. They are guided to respond this way. And when you put up drummer, the European tour, they put upload the videos about Paris singing it for eight minutes and so and so sing it for eight minutes. It's like well, I don't blame them. It's a weird thing of, like, the crowd are doing what they're told, right. And yet it's also taking away from what you're trying to sell. So it's this lack of clear vision.

Yeah.

Right.

And you don't have as much in.

The palm of your hand as you wish you did. If this was Seth just he came out on the Roar after Mania Just didn't do anything, but they sang and then he went away. And it's like you're asking them to do this.

Yeah. I mean, I'm sort of looking at the chat here and people like, yeah, they did. Of course they did. Someone said that you got to be like, MJF, I've got the sticks. You shut up. Like, I think if the Miz is actually one of those people that's really good at that, of being like, the Miz is very good at knowing how to control a crowd reaction. And I think that's something that ballad was missing. In this segment.

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But let's get into what you thought in our Ultra net.

Ultra Net.

Please do get them in restaurant.com forward slash support. We'll read out all of them above the $5. Interestingly. Here we're going to be kicking things off with Mod Mother.

A rare insert.

It is a rare insert and one.

We love to see.

It one I'm very, very pleased to see here, which is Modmother saying, just dropping my two cent. We need to remember there are two crowds here, the in person and the at home crowd. The in person has no idea how intense they affect the at home experience. I say this as one who attended that Iron Man match with my family. That Iron Man match being the Seth Rollins dolph Ziggler One where the crowd completely hijacked it.

And do you know, I do not remember it.

No. So the crowd stopped watching the match and we're just counting down with the clock. And then it was like one after every, like 10 seconds or so, like, at the end of every minute. And then to the point where they took the timer off screen. So people in the building just got the network up on their phone.

Oh, my God. They're probably timing app. They were delayed there anyway.

Exactly. Yeah. And it is a crowd that really derailed that match. It was a really good match, but no one ever talks about anything that happened in it. They just talk about the crowd. Crowd Modern Mother Continues but we had so much fun in that crowd. I need to find out afterwards the fact that how loud we were and what it did to the match, did it affect the promo this time? Absolutely. But can we fully blame the in person crowd? No. They did what they were trained to do and they had fun doing it.

That is the point I was just making. Also, what's interesting there, I think, in that example with that Iron Man match is there's almost a crowd, like mob mentality almost to it, where you're so hyped up in the moment and you all just like, this is fun. And sometimes you get carried away and you don't realize that's just life. Like, we all do that. Do you remember the beach ball? And Cesaro ultimately takes matters in his own hands in one of he shut the finest moments.

Shut down that beach ball action as quickly as you can.

And I don't think that when you're in the crowd, I think you do realize what it feels like for the crowd at home. A quiet crowd can also make it difficult for you to get into something. I was watching for my good friend Mark Marcus, and I was watching the impact against a lot of the main event, and the crowd were completely silent, which made it a confusing experience for me, watching what was objectively very good wrestling to a dead crowd. It was a very weird experience. The same is true of the opposite. If they're distracted by something else that's getting you distracted by what's going on elsewhere. Yeah, it's an interesting thing, and it's a very good point from it's a.

Very, very good point from our Bodmother. Jesse here says, WWE, there's not enough crowd noise. Quick, start pumping in the booze. Crowd oh, you want noise? We'll give you noise. WWE no, not like that.

I think they do. I just put the blame on Finn. I really do. And I'm sorry to Finn Balor, and I hope that he doesn't hate me.

As a result of this gaz. Here's hoping. WWE's promo package people put the ballar promo back together for money in the bank. That they absolutely can do.

I mean, the hardest working people in the industry. Same with AW anywhere. Like if you look at the video packages beforehand, these things make if you didn't watch any of the weekly shows and I'm so glad that you joined us to review the weekly shows, but if you didn't and you just watched the pay per views it's like when I watched NXT NXT Takeovers without watching a lot of the NXT shows. I'm like, this is I should be watching this week in, week out. I'll go back and watch Old Raws and think, I'll skip through these and I'll watch the packages and go, oh, now I should go and watch how that played out because they're so good.

Dylan said I've got to push back on the World Heavyweight Championship, always being second fiddle to the WWE Championship. If jay USO takes it off Roman and has a mehrain. Plus raw roster, puts on consistent bangers with the belt. The perception will change.

But then that's your point.

That's always been my point. It's booking because your point there isn't that the world title will be considered on equal level because of the consistent bangers. It's only on a level because the other ones having bad.

But also, the thing about Roman with these belts is the fact that there's a mystique built around them because of the one belt. Now, it is just the one belt, isn't it? Well, I haven't seen him hold it until he walks out with just the one belt. There are three belts that's as far as that, I want to see the one belt be the one one belt. But until he walks out with it on Friday, I'll believe it when I see it because Vince can do anything.

So I mean, I've not done a show since the reveal of that belt.

Yeah, you haven't.

Hideous.

Well, let's talk about it when we get into Rios, because I have I have opinions on belts.

Hideous belts. They somehow took an already bad WWE belt design and made it worse.

I saw something online that someone did where they just changed the red swoosh to a black swoosh, and it did make it look better, but it still didn't make it look good.

It's a hideous belt. Christian here says, I was there in the crowd. I enjoyed the first couple of minutes of singing, but it would have been good to hear Finn speak.

Yeah.

Kevin O'Hare says, I now want to play a chickpeas. We'll get into the rest of Kevin's chat in a little bit. Also, I just wanted to say thank you to every single person who has bought their tickets for our money in the bank watch along party because it's sold out.

It's sold out. It sold out while we were on air last week. It did.

But then we had some refunds come through.

Hello.

And it sold out again.

The hottest ticket in town.

We've actually now sold this thing out three times over, so it is officially sold out. Once again, there is talk of something, some other stuff, but I can't say too much.

Do I know?

I just don't know if you do know yet. But just keep your eyes peeled. Keep an eye on our socials and things like that. So there'll be some things happening or possibly happening. I want to say possibly. I will say it's not more tickets for the event, right? Because we have a capacity of 150 people and we cannot put any more butts in those seats. But maybe it's an inquisitor mania related hello. Who knows?

Reigning quizzlemania champion.

But thank you very much to everyone who did buy their tickets, and I cannot wait to see you all there. I am one Honda P going into that crowd again for the.

World. Oh, my God. I loved watching the so we had in our livestream. We were doing commentary as well, which was arguably the most fun I've had in my whole life. But behind us, for the main event, I loved it. And I don't, like, know me, I don't take compliments well, and I don't like to actually, in real life, like, to promote myself. But on this occasion, I was like, this is my moment and I'm taking it. I'm living my fantasy.

A lot of the comments, I loved it. We're saying, like, I think Dan's a natural. Does Dan do commentary? Because he's a natural at this.

If you're an indie promoter out there and you want some do commentary, give me a shout. Or if you're like, Sean, I know you're watching NXT Europe right here.

Ross SAP. No.

Sean Michaels.

Famous. Not our friend Sean. No.

Sean. Well, I mean, he is our other friend Sean. But you being in the crowd in the background of that shot, you had the energy of it. What was that like?

So good.

Come on.

I said on the review we did afterwards, I was like, I think everyone needs to be in a woe.

Yeah.

At one point, I think that is a proper bucket listing for people to be in a crowd to do for a whoa moment.

We did that in the pub. Yeah.

The energy there, being there for Mania would have been like but, yeah, that's my one thing, is that I am going to be in that crowd again. Even if I'm doing the live stream bits, I'm going to take my headset down, put my headset down, so I can just go in with my people and do a whoa. Then I'll go back and do my job. But anyway, this episode of Raw kicked off with Adam Pierce unveiling the new Women's World Championship, the same as the men's.

Should we do our belt bit now?

World Championship? Yes, we'll do the belt bit now. But it's got a white strap.

I appreciated very much that they just did this and got on with it because I think the second they pulled out Aska's new Women's Championship, we knew what it was going to look like. So the fact that Raw kicked off without even well, now, here's the thing. White straps make everything better because I think this Women's World title looks quite good.

And I think yeah, it looks nice.

I think the women's title on Asker's side also looks quite good. I hate with a Fire of 1000 Sons that it says Women's Undisputed Championship, because that doesn't make no kind of sense. But the belt itself, I think, actually looks quite nice, especially compared to Romans belt, which does look like someone dropped some mustard.

It's the shade of gold. The problem.

It's ugly. Buggly.

It is ugly gold.

Yeah, the ugly shade of yellow.

Because it doesn't look gold.

No. I do appreciate and I will give them credit for trying to streamline this. At least it wasn't a belt swap.

Well, absolutely. I said this in my review earlier. Yeah, look, I don't think it is the prettiest belt in the world, although I actually prefer it almost to the men's one, because you're right in the white strap actually elevates things. But it does mean that we don't have to be making jokes anymore about the SmackDown Women's Championship be defended on Raw by Raw star. Yeah, I get that. And that's grand. We can just draw a line under this and we can move on.

We were all nervous from day one that it was going to be a handover situation. Thank God they didn't go down that road. I do like that we're going to get in the unification of the women's tag titles. We have clarity on the undisputed Championship.

They would like to give the men's tank as well.

I can't wait for that moment. I just hope it's not what they do. You know the graphic they do where it's half blue and half red. Don't give us that in real life. That's awful. But even just Kevin holding the red one and Sammy holding the blue one, that would have been fine. But anyway, I'm digressing at this point. Point being, I can't wait for when Roman has won. We just get new belts again. When Romans lost it? Rather.

With that said, when Aska was given her new world title, she then got a big time match set up.

Oh, she certainly did.

It's actually the the Friday before, the day before. Money in the bank.

London, England.

In London, England, it's going to be Aska versus Charlotte flair for that world title. That's a big thing. So not only did the belt unveiling feel like a big deal, ask her then got to celebrate with this new title to make it feel like a big deal. And then we got Charlotte making her return, making it feel like an even bigger deal. Charlotte's like, I want this world title and a match is set up.

And on top of that, you had Bianca backstage getting mad because she'd been promised a match. So already we've got a lot of people vying for this piece of gold.

Absolutely. We're putting lots of chess pieces on the board and making it feel like a very exciting division. What did RIA Ripley get in this segment?

Dom got the belt before she did.

Well, that's it, isn't it? Like this segment was not about RIA Ripley. It was about Dominic and Cody Rhodes.

I will say across the board, this show was a yikes for the women's division. And I'm putting that squarely on the people in the back with pens in their hands and notebooks. This is bad form.

I can't fathom we put the belt on RIA Ripley in WrestleMania and our big plan after that was nothing, because.

She'S still the she's. There was a mummy chan so over.

She's so incredibly over. But all she's done is squash Selena Vega and then she squashed Natalia, and that is it. And now we're looking to go hang into Money in the bank and she's not going to be having a title match. There she is, just a second to Dominic Mysterio.

They could last minute put her against Brandy Rose. Well, that's it.

Or last minute just put her against Dana Brooke. What does it matter at this point? And I just find that to be I mean, what they'll probably end up doing will probably be someone like Tegan Knox because, well, she's local town hero from Wales.

I thought you were going to call a local talent and I was like, Ouch, Tegan, your trademark now.

No local town hero from Wales here in London or Piper Niven or Nicki Cross or whatever, just so you can have, like, going up against someone, but you've not built those three up in.

The way you did. They at least did that with Elena.

They did it with Selena, did not do it with Natty.

No. Well, Natty's? Not necessarily. I suppose she is Daddy hometown. They love her over there.

I felt. This does rear, and even if it is Tegan or Nikki or Piper, it does hunt nothing. Why haven't we had a Rear story, a rear angle, a Rear feud, since she's won this belt? It was a while ago that she won.

And this is why I get crossed on behalf of the women's division, because it's not like they ain't stacked.

No, absolutely not. Especially since the draft.

Yeah.

Roar's got a great depth of women's talent that you could make feel like big deals.

And it's one of those things where we've talked about it and I suppose there's an argument of inconsistency where it's like nobody thought that Zillion was going to take the belt off her. Nobody thought Natty was going to but at least they were programmed, right? Nobody believes, let's say, that Tegan Knox is going to take the belt off RIA or Piper Niven, but you could at least put, like, Piper's Bam. Imagine RIA versus Piper, the idea of it salivating, and then you just have the match and it's a humpur and they go home.

Yeah, you build someone up and then you have a great match, even if it is a foregone conclusion. A foregone conclusion doesn't matter as long as you've told a really good story to get to that point, it's fine. So I thought this was very disappointing for Rear because really the focus of this segment was dominic Mysterio came out and he put the strap on, and then, you're a father. And then Cody came out, and Cody and Dom had a bit of exchange of words, and Cody challenged Dom to a match at Money in the bank, which Rear accepted. But they sort of missed that acceptance because the Miz slid in the ring. And that set up Cody Rhodes beating the Miz in a fine little match.

It was fine. That match happened on television.

Yeah, it was better than the last time Cody and Miz had a match.

It was because the Miz is improving with every passive already was great and.

After 20 years it's the least you can ask. Well, Hammond, you know what, it took Mark Henry a while to get great as well. He ended up being awesome. You know what I think is the.

Mizz is going to become one of aw's MVPs at some point could do.

You never know. So I felt bad for I in all of this but Cody versus Dom, I have got I'm sort of in two minds in this because Cody is going to be over as a baby face. That's undeniable. Yeah, it's Dom. That's my question mark.

Oh, I think we're going to have.

Fun because Dom is either going to be the biggest heat heel heel heat magnet or he gets bizarro world bigger cheers than because we like to ruin things.

We do like to ruin things however.

We like to say we like to have fun. We like the Lucha house party.

We like to have fun like cadence and gaining car and guitar chance. We just like to party.

My favorite things about that was someone said Michael Cole.

You say Lucha House party.

They like to have fun. It's like who doesn't like to have fun?

I think the crowd will boo because I think the most fun you can possibly have is booing the ever living tar out of domination. Personally, I think it's one of those few occasions where we will actually play ball.

That's what I mean. It's going to go one of two ways.

I'm concerned we're going to boo Cody.

I don't think we'll boot Cody. I think Cody's too much of a baby face.

You better not let me down.

Owen Zayn and lynch were having a chat backstage and then Becky passed the best thing on Raw alpha Academy. More on that in a bit.

Oh, my God. It's the best thing. It's easily you can keep your bloodline. Alpha Academy of my cinema.

Yes, you can keep the bloodline. This is way better.

But we'll get to that when it's time.

We'll get to that in a minute. Becky lynch came out for a promo ahead of her match with Chelsea Green and she pointed out that she has never won money in the bank. But she's got a good feeling about this year because they say that the number one person in the company is the champion. But when you think about it, it's actually the person with the briefcase. Because you have the power to make the champ scared and you have the power that means you are the top person in this industry.

I appreciate that logic. This promo was a shame.

She tripped over her words a lot. Rare for becky. Rare for Becky, but she did incorporate that into her promo, being like, I'm so excited, I'm getting tongue tied over it. I appreciate that somewhat. It fell down slightly when Zoe Stark came out.

Yeah. And it's a shame because I think what I like about this, and I will say there's positive to take from this, because you don't learn to talk on a live mic in front of 7000, 8000 people every day. It's not something that you just can do. It's a nerve wracking thing going out there and doing it on her own without trish there. And in a segment with Becky, with the crowd, with her, with Becky having fumbled it's good experience. And she's at the start of her career, and I'm willing to let her off. And maybe that thinking it's not on my part, but I thought it was. She was given it some she was being passionate. I'm very lenient with Zoe's Dark because I'm a bit of a stand. Yeah. If I carry on much this way, I will be open to criticism, so I'll step back. But was a fumble.

Yes. Stark did get the what? Treatment into this. The crowd were not buying into her whatsoever. Becky wanted to have a fight, but Chelsea Green and Sonya de Ville came out and had a bit of back and forth, and that led into Becky Lynch beating Chelsea Green. A lot of this just took place during the commercial break. Came back for some rest holds and then Becky ragdolling Chelsea into the barricade, which I thought was real fun.

Yeah, she did that last week. And it was a lot of fun then as well.

Not a lot of heat, but it was decent.

Yeah. That's the thing. I think, for me, Becky has seemed, for a little while now, probably since coming back at war games, like, she's kind of not she's kind of going through the motions. I don't know if this is just me perceiving and I'm wrong. Very possible. But it just seems a little bit like she's not really got anything to sink her teeth into. So when she does have these moments of intensity in the matches, I'm like, oh, yeah, give me that fire. Bring back. Big time back. She was well fun. She got a lot on a plate. I don't know. I don't know. It was a fine segment.

Judgment Day were walking backstage, but Finn seems distracted because they were all because they were all like, yucking it up with Judgment Day. Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck up. But Finn had something else on his mind. And then Damien Priest took on Matt Riddle and a money in the bank qualifier and became the 6th person to qualify for money in the bank. He is the 6th and final person to qualify for the men's money in the bank. Which means let me check our lineup going in the bank.

La Knight.

La Knight.

Because I've tried to remember this like five times and I keep forgetting people. La Knight, Santos Escobar, Ricochet Nakamura, Damien Priest and someone else from SmackDown.

It's Butch. It is, it is local town hero.

Local talent, butch from from Birmingham.

Pete Dunn is the is the 6th man in that strong lineup for money.

And yet I did quickly looked at the ultra chat from Kevin. So I don't want to step on this point, but it was what I thought in the moment, which is when the graphic popped up, I was like, that's a very mid card money in the bank for me. There are two people in this match where I'm like, I want to see you elevated to the main event scene, too, and I would like one of them to win it.

La Knight.

La Knight is mine.

And who's your other one?

Priest.

Priest?

Yeah. Will it be a good yes.

I think Dunn's going to get a lot of showing in this because he's the Brit in this match.

Ricochet is going to bump his ass off.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So Ricochet is there to do what Ricochet does in these matches, which is flips and take mad bumps. I think Dunn's going to get an amazing reaction in all of this because he will be like, bruise await back.

Home on his own.

On his own, without any of the brawling brutes and stuff. So I think it's going to be like I think it's going to be a fun match. I actually do not mind it feeling mid card because I feel like what I like for Money in the bank is when it elevates someone. And when we did the Survival series of Money in the bank winners, I'd forgotten that Randy Orton had won Money in the bank.

Right.

Because in my head, I'm like, what is the point of Randy Orton? And it was almost transported back to that time when Randy Orton had won it. And the conversations amongst wrestling fans at the time was like, what is the point of Randy Orton having what's the point of John Cena having money in the bank? Because they get title matches every other week anyway, so what is the point of giving them? You should use this gimmick to try and push someone up into the main event.

I agree.

So I actually don't mind that it feels like a mid card Money in The Bank, because we can try and elevate someone into the main event. That said, I think is probably likely going to be someone like Priest than it is La Knight. And my reasoning for that is I think it is more likely someone cashes in on Seth than it is someone cashes in on Rome.

I just think what would have been interesting, especially now that they're pushing this whole idea of like, you can go for any championship if they had a little bit of spice in there to it. Like say someone from NXT got in there or say Seamus got in there and he's like, I'm going to cash in Alan Gunther because I won that icy title and I've been denied these things. So I want it a little bit like when OSHA said he was going to use it to cash in on the tag titles in the dark days. But since you're going for it, why not add a little bit of spice in that way? But that said, you are right, it is meant to elevate. And I think this is a return to that idea.

Yeah. I would say if you have got the perception of this as a mid card money in the bank and then the person wins it and cash it in the mid card title, that does not help that perception whatsoever. I think you want to have someone like Damien Priest win this, then cash it in on Seth.

Yes, I think it will be Seth.

Or La Knight wins it and then cashes it in on Seth and jumps across to Roll instead. That's the kind of thing I'm hoping for. We get out of this. But I thought this was a very good match. It was given lots of time. Priest hit the razor's edge for the win. Any thoughts on the match?

It took a minute to get going for me, and I don't know, again, whether that's the match itself or the crowd or the fact that it was split over two segments. I think if this was a one segment match and a two hour show, it would have been an absolute banger. But when it did get going, I was like, yeah. I mean, I like this. I remember this is why I like you guys so much. And then we had the little beat down afterwards.

We did, yes, because Imperium came out with no Giovanni Vinci because he was taken out last week by Matt Riddle and Priest and gunned out this little stare down thing. You're like, well, this is interesting. And then Priest basically says, like, Pick the bones, pick the bones. And so imperium, ran down and beat up Matt Riddle. And Matt Riddle's friends, Kevin Owens and Sammy Zade cared so much they did not come out to help.

I also thought this particular beat down was a bit limp.

Yeah.

And I was like, it was basically.

There to service what happens in the main event.

Which then leads me to another thought I have later on in the show.

Lovely Kathy interviewed Cody backstage and thank you. Cut a very good fired up promo.

He did. Cut. Very good. I like this kind of promo more than I like them standing in the ring with a microphone sometimes. Because it does feel like if you can do what you do down to 20 seconds and again, I'm sorry for being this person, but think of the Rock backstage with Kevin Kelly or Coach, like, holding his mic up and The.

Rock is just doing this and he's.

Going off about 20 seconds and then he runs away. I like these segments. They can do a lot more to build the matchup than the in ring segments do. If they keep lingering on these shots of Kathy Kelly staring at Cody Rhodes as he walks away, I'm going to be getting in trouble for writing some fan fiction, I have to tell you. She's going to be in London.

She is. That's a good point. Yeah. I mean, if we get my moment, if we get that press accreditation, who knows? Who knows, Dan?

It's my time. It's our time. Mine and Kathy's time.

Funny enough. Actually, I was thinking about the rock.

There's a good Nandos at the O two. So I can take it.

There is.

On my card.

There is a good Nandos.

Bargain city.

You got a few options.

Yeah.

There's a wasabi.

There is, there is, there is. But, like, you know, you can't sit in a wasabi. I'll take us to the All Bar One afterwards. Have a quick snog.

Dan, Dan, let's be honest, we need to be real about this. Yeah. You're never getting a table in all bar one. It's going to be packed out, mate. Absolutely no cat and health chance. Are you getting a seat and a table at All Bar One after the show?

The o two during the show.

She doesn't need to work, but what if she needs to interview someone backstage, puts a pint down and just runs off? Or does it from all bar one? I was thinking about the rock. And not just all the elves he's taken recently, but someone shared a video of him when he was in the nation as the IC Champ and Faruk's cutting a promo. But the rock's just stealing the show. And he's there just, like, reacting to it. And it's where that gift comes from. And the big eye Roll gift comes from. And I was watching it, I just kept my eyes on The Rock and I thought, no one does this in promos anymore.

No.

If you've got a faction, like doing a promo, no one's looking at the camera and getting themselves over. It's just someone standing and talking to another person and just saying some words and then they leave.

I disagree with you slightly. There are two people who manage to do this. One of them is RIA Ripley, the other one is Solascoa. I think both of them are able to get themselves over whenever people are talking.

I'll give you those. Actually, Byron, this is one of my favorite things in the show. Our mascot, kenny, your ultronats. Because Byron interviewed Natalia. I've not been the same since Night Of Champions, and maybe that's a good thing, because being myself hasn't worked out for me, so maybe I need to be someone else. And Byron essentially goes like, yeah, whatever. Sammy's saying, Kevin.

Bantering her off. Like nobody's business on on two continents at this point.

Byron almost forgot he was interviewing Italy at one point it was like, yeah, whatever mate.

I'll just get Paul laugh.

Look, here comes the champs. So he quickly moves on to Sammy and Owens, and Owens to about how he nearly won the match last week with Gunther and then imperium walk up and they challenge Owens name for the tag titles, which Owens wants to make official. Adam Pierce makes it official later on.

Yeah, he does again, though, with the shouty nonsense from Kevin Owens, which I actually quite enjoy. I call him Scrappy do Kevin Owens, but I quite like it because it was almost working as kind of like a fact totem for us. It is a lot of stuff that.

We think, but it's also clearly setting up character work because there's a segment later on where Zayn is talking to Kevin and being like, look dude, you are losing your temper, you're blowing up a lot. Are you okay? I'm fine, look at me, of course I'm fine.

And adding that level of volatility to a character does create that moment where in the main event I'm like, oh, if you aren't paying attention, could you lose?

That's what I mean. It feels like we are on that path of the story of the potential breakup of Owens and Zayn or maybe they overcome this sort of thing.

What happens is, speaking of crowds hijacking things and going into business, crowds chanted fight forever at Sammy Zane and Cavan Owens once and they decided that they would take it literally because they are just doomed to be friends and break up and friends and break up forever. Do I want to see it? Kind of.

I've been doing it for like ten plus years now.

It works.

We're going to recap from SmackDown of the entire bloodline stuff. The second best story in WWE. We'll get on to that in a minute. And then Ginger cut a promo for indishur challenging Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin.

I was well disappointed last week because I thought that we were finally going to get a match and then we didn't. So I don't believe that we're going to get a match next week either.

Yeah, I don't think either of them are actually on Raw. I think they're free agents.

I thought they were signed. Well, that was what Cedric and yeah, Shelton. I don't know about them.

Yeah, indisha a match that, I mean, I was quite hyped going in for, but I came out more hyped off the back of it. Ricochet versus Bronson Reed. They showed a recap of last week where Ricochet and Nakamura had a match and Bronson Reed ran in and caused the DQ, which is built on from Bronson Reed losing out on the chance to be in money in the bank because he lost to Nakamura and is annoyed that Ricochet is in the match instead. And they're having this match. Nakamura comes out early and they're doing some David and Goliath stuff. And it's really, really good fun. Ricochet is just bumping around all over the place, then starts to get all of his hope spots in. Bronze Reed shuts him down again. Bronze Reed's so good at this. And then all of a sudden does essentially a reverse bracer's edge and just launched him into Nakamura, who sat at commentary.

Yeah.

Reed has gone up to the hit the tsunami, but Nakamura runs in and attacks. Reed causes the DQ. Now, you might be like, oh, it's two matches in two weeks. Two DQS. You tell me that Vince isn't back, but this is serving a story here. And I'm really digging this because Ricochet is then annoyed at Nakamura. And he's like, what are you doing? I'm having a match here. This is my fight. And so him and Nakamura have a bit of war of words. Reed then knocks both of them out. He's going to hit the tsunami on Nakamura. But Ricochet jumps up and he attacks Bronsorid. Then they work together to give Bronson.

Reed the double superplex, which gets an organic holy f jan. Yeah.

Which unfortunately was heavily censored so much. They covered up commentary as well. But they have this sort of like, still that look in their eyes of being like, no, you still mess with my match. Like, I know we work together now, but I'm still really annoyed at you. Then backstage, Ricochet goes up to Adam Pierce to ask for a rematch with Bronson Reed next week. And Pierce is like, I'm sorry, I've already booked Reed for another match. Ricochet is against who? He's like, guess that guy. It's Nakamura and Ricochet, dude, this is my fight. This is none of your business. Let me handle my business. I don't need you getting involved. And Nakamura is like, I've got my own business to deal with him. And I'll tell you what, you can have whatever's left over from him once I'm finished. Honestly, by the end of all of this, I was like, I love this as a little mid card fuse.

Yeah. What I like about it is Triple H talked about when he took over that the reason we don't have like, for instance, helen as hell as a pay per view anymore is because why have just a match with whereas an elimination chamber or a money in the bank is less organic. To have feuds that build to an elimination chamber or feud that build to a money in the bank. So what's fun is he's done the opposite, which is to have these big matches and then within the matches have little feuds going in. So we're going to have, like, for instance, Zoe Stark and Becky Lynch. In this one, we've got Nakamura and Ricochet, who are having a little bit of beef. And then a third party who's not in the match who might might have. Some form of impact. I kind of like that. I'm street by that, and I like to read a lot. So I love the match potential. That said, I would like for the match to just go I want them to just go at it and let it be. And I'm not wild about I'd almost prefer a triple threat match next week on Raw.

Well, that's what we're building to, I think, with this, is to build because we've got Nakamura and Bronson Reed next week, and then we'll kind of see how Ricochet plays into that, and then presumably the week after that, it's Ricochet versus Bronson Reed and how Nakamura plays into that, building to that eventual triple threat between them. What I really like about this, it's not just that it is a triple threat story which doesn't get told a lot. And I really dig it. It's not for a belt, right? This is just a feud. This is just three people who have issues with each other, who are fighting each other. I've always had this thing in my bit of a bee in my bonnet about this. People are like, oh, you need to have more titles on the show because you need to have people fighting everything. It's like you don't need to. Like Zoe Stark and Becky Lynch. Currently, Becky Lynch and Trish are just feuding over a personal issue. They don't need a belt in order to make this story feel important. They make it feel important because of that. And I really dig that this is not for a belt, but what it's doing is raising people's stocks.

So if then Ricochet goes for Gunther's Icy title, or Brunson Reid does, or Nakamura does, they now feel like they are bigger stars because they have had a lot of TV time and they feel like they're important to the show.

Yeah, I agree.

We then got that Owens and Zane segment we talked about before, and actually, then the ballast stuff and that Ricochet stuff that we just talked about.

We're just rattling through, aren't we?

Ricardo Rigas took on Shayna Basler, which happened. Yeah, basler won with the assistance of Rhonda, and it had zero heat.

Yeah. I will say again, I'm not mad about I like the unification angle, and I'm not I kind of like Rhonda and Basil's stick. There was something they said last week that I saw a bit online. People got annoyed. They were like, We've been manifesting this. We've wanted this for ten years, or whatever. And some people, like, ten years ago, you were in UFC, and it's like, well, no, they can be in UFC going, how wouldn't it be great if we were like, tag champs together?

They're wrestling fans. Yeah.

And like, what Shayna Bazaar had said about, like, in real life seeming so.

Ronda said she's a wrestling fan, but she doesn't act like one.

No, I would argue she acts exactly like a wrestling fan, but she's very demanding. I like them just insisting on this and then they're being bamps and whatever, I don't know. But it's just not heatifying in the.

Way I want it to know what.

To do about that.

I don't either. I think Rhonda seemingly lack of caring, I think certainly hurts this. And I think Shane's got a bit of an uphill struggle herself to try and make this team feel like it.

I empathize a little bit with Ronald. I think she took the crowd turning on her incredibly personally. And I do get it's not nice when people say things about you, but also, I don't know, use it in a different way.

Yeah, it wasn't really much of a match either. We then got a video for the Iron Chic, which was very good. Following his passing. He's going to go and break some backs and make people humble.

He's literally calling St. Peter Gibroni as we talk.

Absolutely. Then we got the best thing on the show.

Oh, yeah. Let's get into the cinema.

This was so, so good. It was like a five minute segment. Yeah, if that. And everything about this was perfect. So earlier in the night, when Becky Lynch and Kevin Owens, the same as Abraham in their chat, becky walks past Alpha Academy and I'm just going to call them out. I'm not going to say with Maxine, no, she's part of their Alpha Academy. Chad Gable is in like a coach's polo.

Oh, my God. He's got coaches, you know, shorts and a whistle. I loved it.

And he is training Maxine. Him and Otis are training Maxine. I saw a video that they did on social media, which was all around the arm drag. It was otis was showing how really?

I hadn't seen that.

And it was Otis trying to show how to doing an arm drag and stuff. And then Chad walks in me like, no, that's not how you do it. This is how you do it. And shows how to do an arm drag. And then she executes this perfect arm drag stuff. And then she has this oh, my.

God, I did it.

And there's a brilliant reaction in this match. It's Chad Gable versus Eric of the Viking Raiders, who they are feuding with again. I love this. It's just a little mini feud. It's not over tag tiles or anything. It's just people who have got issues with each other. And Gable does an arm drag to Eric and holds onto the arm, and he looks at Maxine and says, look, this is what I was talking about. Valhalla, on the other side of the ring, walks around and starts to chase towards Maxine. And what does Maxine do? Executes a perfect arm drag.

The noise of the pop I made for this arm drag.

Me too.

I was on my feet because I.

Was just fully expecting her to run away. And Valhalla's a chase after or a kick or something like that because we've seen the Val Haller chase her off. But this is the story progression. Previously, she has run off when Valhalla has come afterwards. Now she is armed, right?

She's learn to move.

She has learned to move. And her reaction was incredible. She was so excited. Chad Gable was so proud. Otis was so happy. And then Chad Gable got a technical roll up on Eric little bit of wrestling, got the win. The heels were all like and the baby faces got out. We're like whoa. We were he was like he was.

Given I'm the best coach in the world shoes, like and she's doing the same thing. And they you know, when he kiss Otis on the face, the only thing that would have made this even more spicy for me is if he'd have turned and go like because I am convinced that's where this is going. I want to see it. This is cinema. I love every second of this.

It was so, so good. I loved this so much. I had a great time with it. I was laughing, I was clapping, I was cheering.

Just imagine you sat there in front.

Of her eye, but like, very good. It was the arm drag. I was like, arm drag, very good.

It's because it's so clever and simple and I love it.

And I'm really into these characters and it almost feels like we are heading towards a bit of a high school musical drama, like love triangle type thing.

Give it to me.

I was talking to Ollie about this earlier and we were sort of joking about like, it's going to lead to a love triangle. And I was like, yeah, I think it is. And I think we might have an osis jealousy thing. And I was like, no, here's the better idea, is that Chad and Maxine start this relationship, but think that Otis will be jealous because Maxine was brought into this because of Otis. She was the one who saw the beauty in Otis and wanted to bring in his Maximum Male. We'll come on to them in a little bit, actually. And so they're trying to keep it secret from him and then he finds out, but find out that he is always known. And it's just super supportive of them being in a relationship. And then they're just this unit because I twice.

Twice now I want this group to break up. Both you and Ollie with the idea of Chad turning on Otis. Both of you acted in the exact same way. So that's actually well, nicer.

Such a nicer idea. I love it so, so much. I thought this segment was awesome.

Yeah.

I feel bad for Maximum Male models, though, because as it turns out, the Kunta Report from five four Slate, they're getting repackaged. So that feud is done.

It's one of those things where, again, you have to roll with the punches when you're writing wrestling some people might get injured. Something's changed, something takes off when you weren't expecting it to. And I think this has clicked in such a way that it's like, well, maximum male models would complicate this and spoil this a little bit and then it's actually a better story.

We've moved on from it just being like, oh, look, the big guy is doing a model thing now.

I liked that gimmick a lot and I like both of the people in it. So let's see what the repackage looked like.

We said you can go back and watch the tapes. I think this will be a really fun little lower mid card story. I'm way more into this one, though. I think this is really good. Maxine coming out in Alpha Academy gear was such a wonderful thing.

She's been wearing the shoes. The first time she wore the shoes, I was on my feet. I have loved this. So I do feel sorry for maximum models, but also next.

Yeah, next. I'm way more into this. This was the best thing on the show. I can't say enough good things about it. We got a video package for RIA Ripley. And then Balor was chatting with JD Moduna, talking about the wrestling industry. It's not always about having friends. Sometimes you don't need friends, you can just sort of go out there on your own. And Damien Priest walks up behind Balor and JD excused himself and was like, thanks for the advice, but maybe you need to listen to some of it yourself. And then Damien Priest and Balor had this sort of uneasiness between them following on from last week, which is about like Ballard even says, when you win money in the bank, you wouldn't cash in on me, would you? Yeah, but come money in the bank, you need to win that belt.

This segment was really interesting to me because on the one hand, the laying out in that blunt terms of like, you wouldn't cash it, I mean, is a bit like bit on the nose, like it's a bit whatever. I always much prefer a little bit more subtlety, a little bit more nuance, but that's just me. I did get that, though, in JD McDonough saying, you might want to take it yourself sometimes, and then leaving off. Because Ollie's big pitch last week was for, I think you might have said as well, it's for JD Madonna to kick up in Balor. Yeah. Because imagine at the end of money in the bank, you've got RIA and Dom. Like Dom's lost to Cody Rhodes. Sure, I would hope. But you got RIA with the belt, you got Damien with the money briefcase.

Yeah.

And Finn's lost the title match. We don't need you anymore. Off you go. Let's bring in someone who actually deserves to be part of Judgment Day, JD McDonough. And the idea being that you thought I was being your friends. Take your own advice and have you.

Your friends could be Avenue.

I thought that was kind of an interesting idea, but yeah, I don't want to see the judgment day go away because I like them as a unit.

I like them as a unit.

But I do a little bit sometimes feel that Finn Balla may have grown out of it or may need something fresh in the way that the others don't.

Yeah, maybe the group needs to do a little bit a new coat of paint, perhaps purple. Rollins cut a promo saying he's going an open challenge next week in Cleveland, which is interesting as well because he's going to NXT tonight to go to a different open challenge from Brim breakout.

I kind of get it though. It's like assuming you're going to win. It makes sense to me.

But I think it's next week is to see if he's going to accept the challenge. I don't know whether it was a match. Is the match taking place tonight?

I think the match is tonight.

Okay.

I might be wrong because there were a few promos on the show for it and I think I think it was like Seth Rollins will be on NXT to answer the challenge.

Oh, see, my understanding of that was he's going to accept the challenge and then we'll book it for a different I mean, now also makes sense. I might be wrong, but in Cleveland, Gargano.

Oh, a nice way to reintroduce Gargano.

Maybe I'm just willing for Gargano to be on this.

Well, I thought my answer for who it's going to be is the next piece I've just spotted on notes there.

Which is that Logan Paul is on the show next week.

One of two things. Either he's answering Rollins open challenge or they're adding a seven to the money in the bank. There's a seven or it's Cleveland is in Ohio. Right. This is his hometown as well, probably I'm 90%.

Isn't that where Mrs. From?

Mrs. From Hollywood, California.

Because I think him and Logan Paul are from the same place. That's why they group them.

Okay, well, in that case, yeah. So maybe the Miz, but I think Logan Paul is either if he's there.

Not have it be the miz.

No, I think it would be fun for welcome Back and then you could have Champa answer it on another occasion. You remember that Cena open challenge run.

That was the US open challenge thing?

Yeah. Give me some of that. Give me some of that spice. Yeah.

Logan Paul is on the show next week. There's sort of three options there. You write to either answer the open challenge from Seth. You could also do him being entered into money in the bank, which I really would not be against. I think that'd be a really smart move.

Great use of him.

Or it's there to kind of get.

KSI as well in London or it's.

To set him up as Seth's SummerSlam opponent because, like, is it WrestleMania rematch this time? It's for a title. Rollins versus Paul too.

Now that's interesting. Yeah. Okay. It's certainly not for a hometown pop, I'll give you that much.

We have confirmation that Ms is from Cleveland.

There you go. Look, it doesn't matter where you're from. It's why you end up. And he's ended up in Hollywood.

And speaking of that the only thing that anyone knows about Cleveland, it's where Howard the Duck landed in the big screen brilliant adaptation of the comic book series of the same name.

There you go. Also, there's a sitcom set there called Hot in Cleveland.

As I said, what people really remember, cleveland is the location for Howard the Duck. A movie that tanked so badly that Spielberg, Ernest Spielberg, Lucas Sold, Pixar Aaron, Kevin Owens and Sammy Sane were in the main event defending their tag tiles against imperium. The crowd went nuts for this.

Yeah. Why?

Because this match was great. This match was real.

So good.

It's really good near falls for imperium, even.

So good that it even got me out of my thing where I was like, I don't want to do 50 50 booking and I don't like imperium losing this match. And I don't like disqualification or dirty finishes in a title. Like, sort me out of those at a great time because there were some really great moments here where it was like Sammy Zane's nifles were like proper they were really good nipples. I thought imperium looked strong. I thought the ending was kind of interesting with riddle coming out because they did come a point where what if imperium win the tag titles here? I thought, because Owens is out the back and Sammy Zane can't kick out that again and again.

That's why I thought the near force set up for and it was proper, like baby face Sammy Zane kicking out. How can he possibly kick out of more moves?

If you put good wrestlers in a title match in the main event, they will deliver. And then you also have Riddle coming out. We get the screwy finish. But I kind of don't mind it because I now have in my head Gunther being even crosser because you just cost him a title there. He didn't take the pin good. And Blue Thunderbomb getting a pin. That was quite fun. You have Gunther looking cross as they head to the back. If you want to, you can run back this oh, hang on, the tag title. There are tag stuff happening, in fact.

That's right. Yeah.

You can run back Imperium and Sammy Zen and Kevin O in a SummerSlam if you want a big match with Giovanni Vinci.

But I think they can struggle with I've seen them beat that set up lineup of imperium quite a few times now.

But that's why I wouldn't have them do that. But that's beside the point. But I now want to see Gunther absolutely flatten Riddle next week. I want to see him flatten.

Well, me and only again, we're talking about this earlier. It's going to be on the three count video that's going to be going up there this Friday on the Rust Talk news Channel. Riddle versus Walter in London is so weird to me because that is a match I used to see a lot in Rev Pro.

Right. Well, I guess there's an element of.

The crowd, and that's why I think that's why you book this match for London.

Yeah.

Because that is a British wrestling staple match, is doing Walter versus Matt Riddle.

Yeah.

So I'm all for it. Let's have it. Okay, here is my pitch. If you are going to money in the bank, if you are there in the two, sing Walter's proper theme.

Oh, you're encouraging the fans to hijack the segment in London.

I'm encouraging British fans to do what British fans do best, which is so but you're smart fans.

Nobody knows like we know. Yeah, no, I and I love the main event, and I think what else I loved about the main event, just to finish before we get into the Ultronats, so do send yours in. I loved High Key. That Sammy Zane's music is playing. They're having a cuddle in the ring. They've won that. The thing is panning out. The crowd are on their feet. What a good feeling. What a great go home thing. Sammy Zayn and Kevin Owens. I think a lot of us wondered when they won the belts at WrestleMania, were they going to go into sort of like, tag whatever them was? Their star power going to fade. And I think those fears were a little bit compounded when they carried on in the Bloodline storyline and then lost. And then lost. But I think what we're seeing in segments like this and what we saw last week with Gunther and Ko as well, is that if you have them in a match like this, if you give them good opponents, if you give them space and time to do matches, they're fine. They're fine. And we love to see it.

So I'm excited, and I hope they do actually have a relatively decent run and their belt next.

So here on Friday, it is a five way gauntlet match for the number one contendership to the tag titles, which is three prophets. Pretty deadly rolling Brutes. LWO LWO another team in there as well? I'll find out either way. Here's my pitch. Do you want to just find out who it is before I tell you.

What I've already got?

No, I've got WWE.com.

I've just typed it. I've just typed it.

And I'm going to scroll down. WWE.com is a terrible website. Why is WWE.com such a bad website?

I win. I win the adrenaline. Oh, my God.

Here's my big pitch. You find a way. So that pretty deadly win. But also the Brawling Brutes win local.

Talent across the board.

And you can do Seamus, you can do a three way tag match. Kevin and Samuel saying defending against Pretty Deadly, defending against the brawling brutes at Money in the bank, because, yeah, you're right. You've got like, local homeboys for Pretty Deadly from Essex, like actual close, actual local town talent in Pretty Deadly. Or you got the other local town boy from Islands, Seamus.

And then where's, Rich? Holland. From east.

From the Midlands. Isn't he? Is he a Northern boy?

I just figured out how to put the Internet.

Like, guys, just google it.

I did Google it. It just took ages to type out on a tiny iPad.

So, yeah, that's my pitch either. That always from Yorkshire.

There you go. It was a good cup of tea and a pudding.

So Pretty Deadly, I think it got to be the ones.

I would like it to be local. And I know this sounds a little bit pandery to be like we had Sammy Zayn in Montreal, but there's a reason it works. And the WWE love to have their people lose in the hometowns. But there's something quite fun about the near fall of Seamus, I think, especially British fans, even though, I mean, Princess and Ireland, we're geographically close together and politics aside, we actually can't like each other. We'd be hoping for them to get a win. And the Bizarro World element of supporting Pretty Deadly, this new talent that we're actually quite into because they're quite entertaining.

This is what Ollie was saying to us earlier. I can fully see Kevin Owens playing up to it. Oh, yeah.

I don't understand you Europeans. Yeah.

Kevin Owens almost working.

Heel.

I'd love it. With pretty deadly. I think it'd be really fun. Yeah. But anyway, that was the episode of Raw. As I said at the start of the show, I had some people quite down on this episode, but I had quite a good time with it. And I don't know if that's just because I really like the triple threat mid card stuff that we've got with Ricochet Nakamura and Bronson Reed. And I just love this Alpha Academy stuff and with the Viking raid, so most of them have been into the Viking Raiders in forever. So I kind of came away from this episode being like, yeah, that's a thumbs up from me.

Yeah, I'm giving it three and a half. I think it's one of those things where it's like like I say, if you if you shorten it down, which is not going to happen because a three hour show and we just have to live with it, it would be a really tight, really entertaining show. I just think it was a bit baggy for me. But I had a good time. I think there's a lot of promise and I think I'm looking forward to the next two weeks. Well, the next week, because then the week after that is go home never good.

The poll is now live. Let us know what you thought by clicking the thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle. We'll read out the results before the end of the show. We've also got other poll results to read out shortly as well about whether or not the crowd did ruin that segment, which we'll get to shortly. Before we do that, though, we've got to shout out some very special people. Those are our $25 and above Patreon pledgehammers over@patreon.com WrestleTalk. Got some great stuff coming up this week. It is going to be wrestler behind the scenes next week's, last release tomorrow. In fact, the week after that will be wrestle talk after dark and then the week after that, myself and Ollie Davis. Oh, yeah, we did TNA sacrifice 2009.

Last month, the time of your life.

And what are we reviewing this month? The follow on show TNA slamiversary 2009. That's right. You find folks over there, it beat king of the ring 2001 by 1%.

Oh, it was a popular, popular choice.

I mean, going through the comments on Patreon, it really was two camps of people being like, I want them to talk about Kurt Angle versus Shane McMahon, and the other camp being like, TNA 2009, let's go. So that'll be in a couple of weeks time, so please head on over to Patreon.com resttalk. But if you are one of our $25 and above Patreon play champions, you get your name read out on this very podcast. Like these fine folk the mayor of Painsville, dan Daniel, sweet Mexican chocolate Ibara, the tall, handsome guy who has goals in life, dalantar Blaine, dr. Hook Nolan, evan all ego ethan Wiley, send me.

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That is your hall of fame class for the 13 June 2023. Thank you all so much for your generous, generous backing. Let's get into the rest of your ultra chats here. First up, let's read out the results of the poll. Did the fans ruin the promo segment? 73% voted yes.

I'm sorry, it being slow.

It's just there.

Thank you very much.

73% by the internet, yes.

73% voted yes. Interesting.

Yeah, I mean, that is a, you know, three quarters saying that they thought it did ruin the segment. Yeah, interesting. Charles Berg said, here's my opinion while at first you may feel bad for Finn, there is a totally acceptable response. The fact is, he dropped the ball, he got flustered. It's unfortunate, but ultimately a pro on the mic wouldn't have got so shook up. It is not the crowd's fault.

I think the crucial thing, and I know I've said it a few times now, but I think the thing for me is it's not so much they wouldn't have got shook up if they would have used it to their advantage. And I think that's where he fell down, not getting shaken up because it is raffled here. Use it to your advantage, then balla.

An unknown use name here. It's a streamlabs issue. We're very sorry about that, but please do let our moderators know because we can correct that issue. Said you can't compare how Balor reacted to guys like Rock, Austin, Cena and Roman who have had more freedom if Finn was told to not acknowledge the crowd and make the promo personal. We cannot blame him for doing that.

It's so tricky because on the one hand, I want to be like, call an audible and do it anyway. Because once you're out there and you're doing it, are you going to get in that much trouble? But then also the mustache will come for you.

Yeah.

Good.

Be Kevin here said that he does want a plate of chickpeas now. And the men's money in the batch is so mid card, but I love it. Triple H using the big stips like Money in the bank and elimination chamber to elevate his mid card hand is such a good thing. Hoping the booking of these guys will be good after the pay per view, not raw related. But am I the only one who'd prefer Roman versus Jimmy at Money in the bank in a singles match rather than the rumor tag? I think it would be way better to test Jay's loyalty so we can build up to Jay turning on Roman and them having their match.

Yeah, I mean, I think there's something about Jay still being involved in some way and the torn to lead up to SummerSlam, which is where I see the big the big thing going down personally, because sorry, guys, it's a bigger show, but yeah.

Is there an all bar one close by to wherever SummerSlam is? Detroit. Is there an all bar one in Detroit?

Well, at that point, Kathy's going to want to take me out so she can pick the venue.

Oh, I see.

Maybe we'll make some TikToks together. Those are popular.

I have no doubt. In a few years time. I'm 40 years old. I have no idea. But, yeah, like I said earlier, Kevin, I agree with you about Money in the bank. However, I think the point you've made there, which is I'm hoping the booking of those guys will be good after the pay per view is more apt. Because I said this at elimination chamber and people said that I was being a bit of a Debbie Downer. But that match did not elevate anyone who won it. The United States won where they had, like, Johnny Gargano in there and Bronson Reed hotel. Yeah, it was the United States title, wasn't it? He's probably right.

That's sad, isn't it?

Yeah. Like Montez Ford had his singles. Yeah, it was a match that didn't elevate anyone.

No.

It was cool to see them all get that. Spot.

Bronson Reed I thought got, but that's because Bronson Reid was brand new and got a push out of that. At least it oomphed him into me wanting to see what Bronson Reed was doing. There's no one in this match where I'm like, oh, I want to see what you're going to do next because I'm not sure about you. What I want to see is La Knight be given something to talk about because you want to talk about promos. He gives me Steve Austin energy. Like he's got that kind of same cadence and just taking things and running with it.

So funny as well, because when he was Eli Drake in TNA, the people who were still, like hardcore TNA fans at that time were just like, that guy's the next rock, right? Because he was like a charisma promo guy. And he was like, he is the next rock. And a lot of people made fun of TNA fans at that point because, well, no one was watching TNA. He's just some guy. Some guy who's quite good at talking. But here he is now on the biggest stage in wrestling and is crushing it. And he's getting incredible reactions and is like, yeah, no, he probably could be the next top guy.

I think it would do a lot for him to have that kind of prop and to have that kind of thing back him up.

Next up, we have got let me just quickly refresh this page. Dark here saying, hey, lads, hope you well. I pretty much enjoyed Raw for the most part, but the most important part of Monday was the announcement of Apollo Justice Ace Attorney trilogy. I cannot understate how excited they am to be able to play the Ace Attorney series again. Dark 73.

You and me both. I have no idea what you're talking about, Dan.

The Ace Attorney series. I mean, I think it's a series of games you'd actually love.

Okay. Games.

They're games. Yes. Sat down the GBA and then we're on the DS. Love that. Mostly in Japan. Then they became big on the DS Western because they got like Western localizations and you're a lawyer and you're solving crimes and stuff. And then you go to court and you're presenting evidence and stuff. It's a text adventure game, but with some very nice animation and stuff. I've played through that Ace Attorney trilogy so many times over. I was obsessed with it. When I was at university, I got the soundtrack, the orchestral soundtrack that they did. They got an orchestra in to do it. I got the jazz group soundtrack that they did for the third game because Godot is like is a bit of a jazz guy. So I had that. I've got all the game soundtracks on CD and the double disc, One for One and Two. I've got all the mangas on for it. I got the live action movie, all the anime stuff that didn't it. I was obsessed with Phoenix. Right. I didn't love Apollo Justice as much, but I was still really excited to carry on that story. So actually, that's the thing I'm looking forward to with Apollo Justice, the opportunity I want to revisit these games because I had tried to revisit they did an iOS port and I did sort of play it for a little bit on that.

But I think I burnt myself out because what I did was just play the original trilogy again, right? And then start apologizing. I burnt myself out somewhat. So I'm looking forward to going into.

These fresh re energized.

I'm so excited. Also, it's just lovely that I get to finally talk about Ace Attorneys. Some good games at Last and Duct Tape 702 heads us. First time ever sending in one of these ding it to watch Raw. But I do have a question for Dan. Having discovered you have an acting theater background like me, have you found that wrestling has influenced your work in any way? Because it certainly has for me.

Yeah. I mean, so I've been acting since I was about seven or eight, and I did dance as well. A surprise. And musical theater and things like that. For me, wrestling is about like it's the improv element of it. It's also, when I was doing wrestling training, it's holding your body and carrying away combat in a way. But that kind of live response to the crowd and stuff like that is a very useful bit for actors. In fact, when I was training at London School of Lucia Libre, there were a few actors that were at Lambda, I think they were, but they were also just doing wrestling training because it was something that they loved. But they also liked what the strings it added to the boat. Because it's all about performance. It's all about in a way, it's mine, because this one I'm talking about when I talk about Finn Ballad doing his promo is that thing of being able to react in the live moments. But also when you're responding to the crowd in in the moment you're telling a story through, you should be able to tell a story when the bells go between the bells.

Like the physical. The physical. This hurts like this. Or the peril element to it. There's a thing in Lita's VHS that she always talked about, which was that in Mexico, they like the mystique of the mask. They like not knowing. In America, they want to see the facial expressions to be able to tell the story and communicate that. So, yeah, it's a massive help. It's a great wrestling, as far as I'm concerned, is like Broadway with body slams.

Do you want to hear how wrestling got me in trouble with some of my cast members? Please. When I was at school doing drama at GCSE a level, in fact, because I'm old. During the old SmackDown games, if you get knocked down, you have got one elevation.

Again, you're never going to get you're down.

But if you are like knocked down and knocked out, you go into the starfish position and so the player spreads out even further. And that is an indication for you as a player. They're very weak now, and now it's probably a good time to pin them and stuff. We were doing dance theater and we were doing this routine in which there were lots of different bits happening. So like, two people would come on, they would do a dance routine about a battle, and then you'd both fall down and be taken out. And then two more people would come in, they would do it, and it would be around, like the bodies and things like that. I used to do the starfish thing, the SmackDown, two animation of being like, I am proper to Chaode and stuff. My other cast member was like, you're taking up far too much space.

Use your body. Right?

That's it. And I was like I was like, but this is how you convey how.

Are the audience supposed to know I'm ready to be pinned anyway?

That's my wrestling connection to my dance theater that I did do. So I got to end this poll, find out what you thought of this show and it's a positive outcome for this one. Thumbs up, 60% mid 35 with only 9% giving it a thumbs down. Sorry, it's 59 35. Five.

Two good thumbs up in a row.

Two good thumbs up episodes in a row.

So take that.

Well done. Raw. Thank you all so much for watching big Week here at WrestleTalk HQ. Because on Thursday it'll be the AEW Dynamites review, and then on Saturday it will be the SmackDown review. But then Saturday night, we will be doing live Reactions to AEW's Collision debut, and then afterwards a podcast review directly following the show Spice. So it's a very, very busy week, so please do make sure you subscribe to get notifications to know when those go live because we'll be doing live reactions to Collision when it debuts this coming Saturday. Thank you all so much for watching this episode. How we're for. We'll see you next time openly. Coming D-A-D that has been the Professor Dan Layton. Jam. That jam.

Jamaica jam. Jim jam. JAMA. Jam. Jim jam.