The Rock Attacks Cody Rhodes Reactions, WWE Ratings Fail, WWE Raw Review | WrestleTalk

The Rock makes Cody Rhodes bleed on Raw WWE SmackDown struggled against other sports My review of Raw and more I’m Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News. I’ll have my full review of Raw in a bit, but I think we need to talk about that closing segment to kick off todays’ WrestleTalk News. Earlier in the show, The Rock - who made an unannounced appearance on the show - came out to whisper something into Cody Rhodes’ ear, which Sean Ross Sapp confirmed was “I’m going to make you bleed.” Cody l

ater told Jackie that Rock made a promise that he couldn’t keep, but he was very wrong. As following Jey Uso’s win over Shinsuke Nakamura, Cody brawled with The Bloodline of Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa backstage, and The Rock blindsided Cody to batter him from pillar to post. He took him outside into the pouring rain, and cut a promo on him while beating him up some more - busting him open and making Cody Rhodes bleed his own blood. Rocky referenced his own ‘you’re welcome’ promo by covering his we

ight belt in Cody’s blood, saying that at WrestleMania it will also have Cody’s mama’s tears. He even added, “This is what happens when you F- with The Final Boss.” It was a killer angle to close off what was already a tremendous show, and it’s one that many are calling one of the greatest closings to Raw in the history of the show. It also promoted some thoughts from The Rhodes family, with Cody’s older sister tweeting: “the Rhodes are the blood and bones of American pro wrestling. Rock just ma

de his worst mistake” Cody’s wife Brandi didn’t ask if it was open mic night, bitch, and instead tweeted: “He better keep his security detail tight at Mania. That’s all.” And Cody’s brother - AEW star Dustin Rhodes - simply tweeted: “You son of a bitch” I presume this was in reference to Raw and he wasn’t just watching Predator and tweeting his favourite line from the movie. Sadly the chances of Dustin being a part of WrestleMania 40 are slim, as Sean Ross Sapp reiterated on the Fightful Raw rev

iew that he’s under contract with AEW until much later this year. What did you make of the segment? Let me know in the comments down below. For me, it was another step on what has been a great road to WrestleMania in a period of time that hasn’t felt hotter for the company. Which has been reflected in ticket sales - Raw this week was another sell-out with just under 15k sold according to WrestleTix - as well as the ratings. While Raw is down year-on-year, that is more attributed to cable cutting

and people watching their wrestling content through different means. SmackDown has seen a big jump in their ratings this year, thanks in large part to the constant presence of The Rock on TV screens. This week’s SmackDown was the first in three weeks to not feature The Rock - but did feature Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes - which might be why the show drawing it’s lowest rating since December last year can be seen as a bit of a fail. It was still a solid number of 2.2 million viewers, but it’s th

e lowest overall viewership - and the lowest all-important 18-49 demo - since the December 29th, 2023 episode. However, before anyone cries that WWE is in the mud - or whatever it is YouTube comments say about bad ratings - the show went head-to-head with the NCAA basketball March Madness, and coverage of both games pulled in 4.9 million viewers according to Programming Insider. But now I think it’s time that we look at the rest of Monday Night Raw - but before that, here’s a clip from our most

recent Monday Night War over on partsFUNknown, where we’re playing through the new MyGM Mode on WWE2K24. And now it’s time for my review of Monday Night Raw - aka ‘More Like Monday Night Rad’ edition of Monday Night Raw… in about 5 minutes. Although this may be a long one so it will probably go over 5 minutes, just pretend it’s a Steiner Math 5 minutes. The show opened with Cody Rhodes cutting a promo asking everyone to have his back at Mania, and got them all to point at the WrestleMania sign t

ogether, and also apologised to The Rock and Roman Reigns for stopping them having their - and this is a direct quote - ‘wankfest’ at WrestleMania. Attitude Era back lol. This is when The Rock made his unannounced appearance on the show, slowly walking to the ring, not saying a word out loud, and just whispering in Cody’s ear before leaving. It’s one of those segments where less was more, just a big star being across the ring from another big star and letting the crowd reactions tell the story.

The Rock told Jackie that if she wants to know what he said, she can ask Cody. She did that later in the show, but Cody wouldn’t repeat it. Oh, but you’re happy to say wankfest on TV? The Judgement Day hung out in their Judgement Den and told JD McDonaugh to do McBetter against Ricochet, and he failed to do when he lost to Ricochet in a match that was a good advert for why you should feature Ricochet on TV more. You get a 66 ⅔ %s chance of the wrestling being better. Neither men got much in the

way of reactions during their entrances, but their action got everyone into it by the time the final bell rang - as Ricochet hit a top rope poison rana, springboard 450s, Canadian Destroyers from outtanowhere, and a Shooting Star Press to a standing McDonaugh for the win. It wasn’t exactly 6 stars as Pat MacAfee decreed on commentary, but it was really bloody great. Let’s just hope WWE can keep this Ricochet momentum up. But enough of that wrestling lark, let’s get CM Punk out for a 20 minute ta

lking segment. And what a 20 minute talking segment it was. Punk said that while he was not medically cleared, he will be at WrestleMania, and his mouth works totally fine because he performs cunnilingus on his wife. No for real that is basically what Punk said. Attitude Era back lol. He put over Jim Cornette’s podcasts, teased matches with Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and The Rock - referencing back to his ‘arms too short to box with god’ promo from 2013 - and then claimed he doesn’t sit permanen

tly on the internet. Lol, sure Jan. This brought out Drew McIntyre, who said that Punk was in danger of getting cancelled because he said that McIntyre was wearing a skit, and said that for someone who doesn’t drink or do drugs he sure spends a lot of time in rehab nursing injuries. He then referenced his original WWE gimmick of ‘The Chosen One’, and Punk dared Drew to name the person who gave him that nickname - which of course he didn’t do because that man is Vince McMahon. Drew suggested that

Punk be the guest commentator for their title match, and this brought out Seth Rollins who said only he can make decisions about his world title match, and said that Punk can’t be the guest referee because he’s injured. Punk proved him wrong by dropping to the mat and doing a three count, but said he couldn’t be impartial with - and I quote - “these two dips**ts”. Drew told him to keep it PG, and Rollins told him to stay out of his way. They confirmed that Punk would do commentary at Mania and

he’ll do what he always does - make Rollins and Drew interesting. Tell him when he’s telling lies. Drew demanded that Punk not get the final word, but in doing so took his eye off Rollins, allowing Seth to superkick him and lay him out with a Stomp. Drew just did the thing he’s been accusing Seth of doing, which is a neat little touch. I’ve seen some people on Reddit call this a trainwreck because everyone was talking over each other to get their own lines in, but that’s what made it so captivat

ing. This wasn’t a WWE promo segment. This had more in common with AEW than it did WWE, as it just felt like all three guys went out there to improv and adlib around each other. After last week’s rather lame segment between Seth and Drew, this was much needed for this feud. And, like he said, CM Punk has made this feud interesting, and that spells disaster for Seth and Drew. Candice LaRae beat Ivy Nile in a couple of minutes in the only women’s match on the whole show, and New Day vs. DIY ended

in DQ when Judgement Day attacked everyone. They also laid out The Miz, and while Truth was able to fight back a bit, was taken out by Damian Priest. Even though they’ve added a whopping 12 extra people into this story, the focus is still on Awesome Truth vs. Judgement Day when it comes to these tag titles. Andrade beat Giovanni Vinci after it was announced that Ivar wasn’t medically cleared, and Rhea Ripley had a big promo segment with Becky Lynch. Rhea said that she doesn’t need to wrestle on

this show because she can just post a picture of her butt and the crowd lap it up - mate, I know the feeling because I think the same thing about me - and called Becky a cockroach. But then crossed a line saying that Becky’s kid would be calling her Mami after Mania. Becky - with tears in her eyes - said that she gets one when it comes to talking about her kid, and while that may be a joke to Rhea, this title is not a joke to Becky. She punched Dom and the two brawled. After weeks of Becky getti

ng distracted with Nia Jax and Liv Morgan, this segment was needed to heat up this feud. Cathay Kelley cosplaying as Elektra interviewed Gunther who firmly believes that Sami cannot beat him, and he cannot beat Bronson Reed tonight either. And he was right. Gunther stood on the stage, to watch Sami distract himself and get wiped out with the Tsunami. I’m not usually a fan of beating your big challenger ahead of their big title match before the big show, but this was done to further the coach sto

ryline with Chad Gable. Gable offered his services to Sami Zayn, saying that he needs to beat Gunther mentally if he’s going to win. I wish this story had been given more time to develop, as we’ve only got one more show to dive into this. And the main event saw Jey Uso beat Shinsuke Nakamura - which saw brawling with Cody, Seth, Drew, Jimmy and Solo - and the closing angle with The Rock. The Attitude Era is so well remembered by wrestling fans for its big moments and its big angles, but the thin

g that helped it stand head and shoulders over Ruthless Aggression, Reality and PG eras was the star power. Big names doing big name things. And this episode of Raw felt like that. The closing angle was the biggest heel against the biggest babyface, with other massive faces and heels brawling around them. Punk, Drew and Seth felt big time because they feel like big stars. Rhea and Becky felt big because they’re big stars. And, like the Attitude Era, wrestling played a backseat to those big stars

and big moments. But hot damn if it didn’t work. This week’s Raw is a perfect 5 out of 5. Maybe even more than that, 6 out of 5. Maybe even more than that, 6 out of 5. Add an extra 75% chance. 141 2/3s out of 5. ENTER OLI. Now go and watch me take Monday Night Raw to the top spot in the Monday Night War over on partsFUNknown.