• 11 months ago
What did you think of Raw? Let us know in the comments!
PREDICTING WWE Royal Rumble 2024…In 3 Words Or Less | The 3-Count https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qfk44HUGOc
More wrestling news on https://wrestletalk.com/
0:00 - Seth Rollins Injury?
1:29 - Roman Reigns WWE Schedule
2:25 - Huge WWE Return
2:56 - Real Reason Matt Riddle Fired?
5:27 - WWE RAW Review
REAL REASON WWE Star FIRED?! HUGE WWE RETURN! WWE Raw Review | WrestleTalk
#WWE #Raw #WrestleTalk

Subscribe to WrestleTalk Podcasts https://bit.ly/3pEAEIu
Subscribe to partsFUNknown for lists, fantasy booking & more https://bit.ly/32JJsCv
Subscribe to NoRollsBarred https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5UQPZe-8v4_UP1uxi4Mv6A
Subscribe to WrestleTalk https://bit.ly/3gKdNK3
SUBSCRIBE TO THEM ALL! Make sure to enable ALL push notifications!

Watch the latest wrestling news: https://shorturl.at/pAIV3
Buy WrestleTalk Merch here! https://wrestleshop.com/

Follow WrestleTalk:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/_WrestleTalk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WrestleTalk.Official
Patreon: https://goo.gl/2yuJpo
WrestleTalk Podcast on iTunes: https://goo.gl/7advjX
WrestleTalk Podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3uKx6HD

Written by: Oli Davis & Luke Owen
Presented by: Oli Davis & Luke Owen
Thumbnail by: Brandon Syres
Image Sourcing by: Brandon Syres

About WrestleTalk:
Welcome to the official WrestleTalk YouTube channel! WrestleTalk covers the sport of professional wrestling - including WWE TV shows (both WWE Raw & WWE SmackDown LIVE), PPVs (such as Royal Rumble, WrestleMania & SummerSlam), AEW All Elite Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, ROH, New Japan, and more. Subscribe and enable ALL notifications for the latest wrestling WWE reviews and wrestling news.

Sources used for research:
https://wrestletalk.com/news/released-star-matt-riddle-claims-1-million-per-year-on-wwe-deal/
https://wrestletalk.com/news/roman-reigns-miss-another-wwe-backlash/
https://wrestletalk.com/news/wwe-return-very-soon-brock-lesnar/

Youtube Channel Comments Policy
We appreciate the comments and opinions our viewers provide. Do note that all comments are subject to YouTube auto-moderation and manual moderation review. We encourage opinions and discussion, but harassment, hate speech, bullying and other abusive posts will not be tolerated. Decisions on comment removal are made by the Community Manager. Please email us at support@wrestletalk.com with any questions or concerns.

Category

🥇
Sports
Transcript
00:00 For real reason a WWE star was fired.
00:03 A beast level WWE return imminent.
00:06 And Luke's review of Monday Night Raw.
00:08 I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News - where, in place of our usual opening
00:13 sting, we wanted to pay tribute to a very, very special man instead.
00:42 Jinder Mahal did not finish his story to become a two-time world champion in WWE on the 15th
00:47 January episode of Raw, and unfortunately that's not the only bad news coming out
00:52 of that match.
00:53 As PWTorch is reporting, Seth Rollins suffered a legitimate injury to his left leg late in
00:59 his Raw main event.
01:01 Multiple sources apparently told the site that Seth was helped to the back and will
01:04 be evaluated further to determine how severe the injury is.
01:08 In a promising sign, Rollins was eventually able to walk on his own, but with a definite
01:13 limp.
01:14 Wrestling Observer Radio add that he's set to undergo an MRI to determine how serious
01:18 it is.
01:19 Being a fighting champion is a risky strategy.
01:21 Which is why Roman Reigns has the smartest title defence approach.
01:30 Reigns will defend his YUU Championship against Randy Orton, LA Knight and AJ Styles at the
01:34 Royal Rumble Premium Live event.
01:37 And you better make the most of it, because he's not going to be around much afterwards.
01:41 It's already been reported Roman won't be at February's Elimination Chamber show
01:45 in Australia, scuppering rumours that Rock vs Reigns would take place on that event instead
01:50 of WrestleMania.
01:51 And now Wrestling Observer Radio claims the Tribal Chief won't be at May's Backlash
01:55 in France either.
01:57 Instead, Roman's upcoming PLE schedule is the Rumble, WrestleMania, a Summer Saudi
02:02 Arabia show and SummerSlam - meaning four pay-per-views in the next eight months.
02:08 Usually I'd say that's a heavy indicator Cody Rhodes is beating Reigns for the title
02:12 at WrestleMania, but that's not how it went last year.
02:18 But sometimes when you've got enough part-timers, it can almost make one full wrestler.
02:25 In a very tantalising one-sentence report in F4WOnline's Daily Update, Dave Meltzer
02:30 has written "Brock Lesnar will be back on WWE television soon."
02:35 This would be Lesnar's first WWE appearance since putting over Cody at August's SummerSlam.
02:40 Given the time of year, it's very likely Brock will be setting up a match for WrestleMania.
02:45 Maybe this is totally not connected, but let a guy dream.
02:48 Gunther declared for the Royal Rumble match on last night's Raw.
02:51 Make my three count prediction come true, Puppetrips.
02:54 They both eliminate each other to start their feud.
02:56 Now it's time for our hottest new segment!
02:59 Sometimes Matt Riddle didn't win stuff, according to Matt Riddle.
03:05 After claiming he was supposed to win the 2022 Royal Rumble until Brock Lesnar refused
03:10 to do business backstage, Riddle has appeared on the Kurt Angle Show and has singled out
03:15 UFC President Dana White as a definite reason he was released by WWE.
03:20 I think that the UFC/WWE merger didn't really help things.
03:24 He and Dana White don't have the greatest relationship, and I know he's a big part
03:29 of that.
03:30 It definitely played a part.
03:32 Riddle announced his departure from WWE on the 22nd December, just one week after the
03:37 WWE and UFC merged into the new supercompany TKO.
03:42 Riddle had previously worked for White as an MMA fighter, before he became a pro wrestler,
03:47 where, despite his charisma and win record, he was released in 2013 after failing two
03:52 drug tests.
03:53 At the time, White said in an interview it's because Riddle was a "f***ing moron".
03:58 Riddle went on to tell Angle that he suspected other reasons for his WWE release too, like
04:03 the $1 million he was going to make that year, being an easy target for budget cuts, and
04:08 how his own behaviour didn't help - like getting into an altercation with police at
04:12 JFK Airport that same month.
04:15 After Luke reviews Monday Night Raw, here's a special message from Turbo Jack.
04:42 "The Roller Coaster, Robert Coaster, The Black Plague, Butch Rossin, Champion Zero
05:02 Fear, Hitman Soul, The Cleaner, Ken Isher, The British Bulldog, Phillip Boy J. Smith
05:09 Jr., he can last shown for longer than you and the ring, Starbucks, Steven Costa, and
05:17 the Shield Maiden, Azornis.
05:19 Remember, Patreon.com/WrestleTalk, please, please don't leave me."
05:26 Now it's time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka that Jinder match was way better
05:31 than anyone expected - edition of Monday Night Raw in about 5 or so minutes.
05:36 The show opened with Cody Rhodes talking about that old story he wants to finish, and out
05:40 came Drew McIntyre to talk about a story of his own.
05:43 You see, he and Cody are the same.
05:46 They were both fired from WWE, they both made themselves bigger stars outside of WWE, and
05:51 then WWE came crawling back to them.
05:54 They were even tag champs together in WWE.
05:57 Not only that, but Drew's last match before he went back to WWE was against Cody Rhodes.
06:03 Cody, however, feels like he and Drew aren't as alike as Drew thinks.
06:08 While Cody relishes his second chances, Drew complains about his.
06:13 This line turned Drew back into that different Drew, that bitter Drew who is pissed off about
06:19 Jey Uso and Damian Priest and CM Punk, and he even noted that Cody worked with Punk recently
06:26 and knows how toxic he is.
06:28 "There's Drew again," Cody replied, blaming others rather than himself.
06:34 Guess what?
06:35 That last match between Drew and Cody before Drew went back to WWE?
06:39 Guess who won?
06:40 It wasn't Drew.
06:42 This was a great opening promo segment to build the Rumble and point out that this year's
06:46 match has a lot of potential winners.
06:48 The closer we get, the less likely it feels that Cody is going to win and finish his story,
06:53 and instead maybe he'll face Drew.
06:55 Before we can look at last, we can say that it will be Cody and the Mania match will be
06:59 Punk vs. Drew.
07:00 It's really fun to book the possibilities, which is what the Rumble should be about.
07:05 DIY beat the Judgment Day B-Team of JD McDonough and Tom Mysterio - still no sign of that Nick
07:10 Mysterio, maybe he's at the Performance Center with Jade Cargill.
07:13 It was a match that was broadly fine until the final third which really picked up.
07:16 It was also a good example of Triple H's booking philosophy.
07:19 If you put people on TV enough and give them credible wins, the crowds will eventually
07:23 get behind them.
07:24 Maybe those winter losses do mean something after all.
07:27 Speaking of which, The Way beat Chelsea Green and Piper Diven in a short match to set them
07:31 up as potential contenders to the Women's Tag Title.
07:33 They even got a video package to put them over.
07:36 Nia Jax got a similar video package to build her Rumble chances.
07:39 Gunther came out to announce himself for the Royal Rumble, and Xavier Woods challenged
07:43 Ludwig Kaiser to a match to avenge Kofi Kingston for last week.
07:46 It was a pretty heated match in-ring, and ended in a DQ when Woods hit Kaiser with the
07:51 same chair that Ludwig used last week on Kofi.
07:55 Kaiser tried to beat up Woods the same way he did Kingston last week, but a bloody mouth
07:58 Woods stood tall and sent Ludwig running scared.
08:01 This was very good.
08:03 Later, Kaiser attacked Woods backstage, and he was saved by Jey Uso.
08:07 Bronson Reed cut a promo seemingly on Gunther for that icy title, and we got Akira Tozawa
08:12 taking on Ivar.
08:13 This was a very entertaining comedy match where Ivar dominated, but then Maxine distracted
08:18 him by being sexy.
08:20 And Tozawa used said distraction to hit a Sunset Flip Powerbomb for the shock win.
08:24 Ivar and Valhalla then killed them with Headbutts and Doom Sauce.
08:28 So who's the real winner?
08:30 It's Tozawa.
08:32 Tozawa is the winner.
08:33 He won the match.
08:34 Ivie Nile will face Valhalla next week, and Chad Gable will take on Ivar.
08:38 They've been pushing hard that Nia Jax is next in line for a title match with Rhea
08:42 Ripley which certainly sets her up for a Rumble win, but there's also a lot of chatter on
08:46 the blue side of things that Bayley could get the win for Smackdown.
08:50 But let's also not forget there's the possibility of Becky two times.
08:55 Rhea came out for a promo on Jax, but Lynch was the one to interrupt instead.
08:59 She noted that she and Rhea are the best to do this in WWE, but she's got this niggling
09:05 worry in the back of her mind that Rhea Ripley is better than her.
09:10 So the way to disprove these worries is to win the Rumble, choose Rhea for Mania, and
09:15 then beat Rhea at Mania.
09:17 And Rhea was quite excited about this notion and hoped it would happen.
09:21 Like the Cody and Drew segment earlier in the night, this highlights just how good Trips
09:25 has been in creating multiple avenues of winners for this year's Rumble.
09:29 I honestly can't wait.
09:30 The Judgment Day of Finn Balor and Damian Priest beat The Awesome Truth in a pretty
09:34 entertaining match.
09:35 Throughout the night, Truth was putting himself over with how much money he's making for
09:38 the Judgment Day with his new bit of merchandise, and even came out with them for the match
09:42 despite the fact he was on the other team.
09:44 He then kept hitting Finn with moves and felt bad about it, and Priest seemed reluctant
09:48 to take Truth out as he finds his comedy shtick endearing.
09:53 Until he didn't and hit him with South of Heaven for the win.
09:55 This was all good stuff.
09:56 Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark quickly beat Tegan Nox and Natalya, and then we got our
10:01 main event as Jinder looked to get unhindered by taking on World Champion Seth Rollins.
10:07 I think it's fair to say there was a lot of chatter about this match in the week, whether
10:12 it was Tony Khan's Twitter meltdown or just the overall question of "why is Jinder getting
10:17 a shot at the world title when he hasn't won anything in ages?"
10:20 Which is basically the subject of Khan's Twitter meltdown.
10:23 I had my own reservations.
10:25 I noted on last week's WrestleTalk News that this isn't really a feud for Seth Rollins,
10:30 more just something for him to do because all the other main event stars are in Rumble
10:35 Build mode.
10:36 And while I do think this match would have benefited from heating Jinder up a little
10:40 bit - giving him some wins on TV to build crowd heat of the possibility of him actually
10:46 winning the world title - I do think overall this worked.
10:50 At least the final third worked.
10:52 The first two thirds of this 13 minute match were exceptionally boring and all the worst
10:56 parts of Jinder's time as WWE Champion seven years ago, and the lack of crowd reaction
11:00 for Jinder's offence reflected that.
11:03 But once all the shenanigans began, business picked up.
11:06 Indus Sher attacked Seth behind the referee's back for a near fall.
11:09 The referee was distracted by Drew McIntyre brawling with Damian Priest at ringside, who
11:14 himself teased a cash-in.
11:15 And there was a superb near fall as Indus Sher hit Seth with the Money in the Bank briefcase,
11:21 and Jinder hit the Colossus for a 2.9 kick out.
11:25 Seth then hit the stomp for the win, and this accomplished what it set out to do.
11:29 70% of it may have been dull, but that final 30% did make up for it.
11:33 And it capped off a really good edition of Monday Night Raw which made me super excited
11:36 for the Royal Rumble.
11:37 This week's Raw is 4 out of 5.
11:40 Speaking of the Rumble, Oli Davis and myself gave predictions for the WWE roster in this
11:45 year's Royal Rumble in three words or less/fewer.

Recommended