A theory over what The Rock gave Cody Rhodes. A secret WWE debut. My review of Monday Night Raw and more. I’m Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk
News. It’s a new day. Yes it is. You could even say, it’s a new era. Has anyone thought to say that on TV yet? But in fairness to WWE, they sort of had to
establish this. Because although Triple H has been in charge
of running creative for two years, that isn’t entirely accurate. Did we all forget that Omos vs. Elias opened
last year’s Raw after Mani
a? Doesn’t sound very Trips to me. That’s because up until January of this
year, Vince McMahon was always there, lurking in the creative shadows. Making changes either remotely, or in the
case of last year’s Raw After Mania, in person - where he tore up the plans that Triple
H had made and did new ones instead. While the TKO merger diminished McMahon’s
involvement, it wasn’t until the Janal Grant lawsuit that accused Vince McMahon of sexual
assault and sex trafficking that saw his permanent remo
val. Fightful Select report that there has been
a “concentrated effort from WWE to disassociate with him as best possible.” But while Vince McMahon’s name is a banned
term, WWE are moving away from some of his odd rules and banned terms that he had in
place. We saw this at WrestleMania 40 when it opened
with the National Anthem - something Vince hated so always did America The Beautiful
instead - and Ibou of WrestlePurists noted via Twitter that WWE are moving away from
the term ‘sports entertai
nment’, something Vince introduced decades ago to replace the
word ‘wrestling’ as he didn’t want WWEv to be associated with the world of wrestling. Fightful have confirmed Ibou’s Twitter post
and added, "Pro wrestling is no longer a dirty word. There are very few dirty words anymore. And the dirty words that do exist, people
just seem to say even though we got memos telling us not to." And that’s not all, as Sports Illustrated
are reporting that Nick Khan - WWE’s President - is open to “engineer
ing collaborations
with other wrestling promotions”. We saw this with TNA’s Jordyne Grace appearing
in this year’s Royal Rumble, and Shayna Baszler and Charlie Dempsey working GCW’s
Bloodsport over WrestleMania weekend. The erasure of Vince McMahon may be in full
swing, but that’s certainly not the case for his daughter Stephanie, who returned to
WWE TV to open WrestleMania Night Two. This was a bit of a surprise given Stephanie
being named “Corporate Officer Number 3” in the Janel Grant lawsuit
against WWE, and
Fightful Select report that many in WWE have not yet heard how/if Steph has addressed the
allegations that she knew of Vince’s behavior. However, another source noted how Steph appearing
at Mania was her “firmly” and “publicly” picking her side between her father and WWE. TKO sources are reportedly backing Steph in
the situation, with Fightful’s report stating that Steph was “welcomed with open arms”
backstage, and is well liked by many. Interestingly however, her promo at Mani
a
was kept a surprise, with it being internally listed as a Triple H promo beforehand in the
show rundown. It’s still not clear whether Steph is in
fact back in WWE in an official full-time capacity just yet, however, but Fightful noted
that half a dozen sources they spoke with feel she would be welcomed. PWInsider also report that Linda McMahon was
seen at the talent hotel during WrestleMania 40. Lastly for this news portion, we finish with
something that you may have missed from Raw last night
. During Bronson Reed’s promo backstage on
the show, static took over the TV feed for a brief moment, with the message “hello”
being seen in the bottom corner. As well as this, ahead of the Raw taping,
the lights went down and music was played in the arena. Now, if these sorts of cryptic clues sound
familiar, then you get a biscuit. As according to Fightful Select these were
in fact done for the impending return of Bo Dallas, who recently had a return tease at
the end of the Bray Wyatt documenta
ry on Peacock. Before we get into the review of Monday Night
Raw, here’s a word from this episode’s sponsor. And now it’s time for my review of Monday
Night Raw - aka the ‘Did You Know It’s The Triple H Era Of Monday Night Raw’ edition
of Monday Night Raw After WrestleMania… in about 5 minutes. The show opened with Triple H out to remind
us, for the third straight show, that this was a new era of WWE, calling WrestleMania
40 the greatest WrestleMania of all-time. He brought out the man who will
lead this
new era, Cody Rhodes, and the pair watched a video package of Cody’s journey - which
didn’t have any pictures of AEW, but did feature some photos from his time in TNA - on
the big screen. However, because this Raw was PACKED OUT with
over 20,000 people, they didn’t have the big screen. So instead they watched it on a monitor. Like the best man at a wedding who planned
a big powerpoint presentation for his wedding speech, only to find out the venue doesn’t
have a TV so you have to show
it on a laptop. For the record, I loved how the stage looked. If I had my way - my way or the highway - I’d
have this set up for Raw and SmackDown every week. Cody cut a promo and got Samantha Irvin to
introduce him again, and said that he’s on top of the mountain and he’s gone from
being undesirable, to undeniable, to now being undisputed. This brought out The Rock who tried to cut
a promo, but kept getting cut off by the fans with boos. He eventually said that Cody did it, and that
his mama wa
s proud and he knows Dusty would be proud too. He said that he’s held a lot of belts over
the years, but he’s never held this new one, so asked Cody if he could. Cody said he could, but only if he could hold
his People’s Champion belt too. They exchanged belts to ‘This Is Awkward’
chants, and The Rock announced that he was going away for a bit, but when he comes back
he wants a shot at Cody’s title. Cody said that Rock may be his boss, but I’m
the champion - so that also makes me your champion.
It was the end of That Cody’s Story, and
the start of a new story for Cody. This opening segment, from Triple H all the
way through to the end, took 45 minutes of the show, and was captivating throughout. But that’s not all people were talking about. Just what did The Rock hand to Cody Rhodes? When he handed it over, Rocky said that he
wanted assurance from Cody that he wouldn’t have to break his heart again, and that he
didn’t need to open his hand to know what it is. Which is where this theory
from Reddit user
Subpitch comes in. Their theory is that Rock handed Cody a bead
from Roman’s Ula Fala necklace, with the following four reasons. Number one is that it’s a unique shape - so
you wouldn’t have to open your hand to see what it is - secondly by asking for Cody not
to break his heart again it’s something that broke his heart to give away. Thirdly they argue Cody won under Bloodline
Rules, so you could make the case that Cody is the Tribal Chief now and lastly Point D,
“The overall s
omberness of the handoff and respect displayed by the Rock. It clearly upset him in kayfabe, but he still
treated Cody as an equal, even letting him hold the peoples championship.” What do you think of the theory? What do you think he handed over? Let me know in the comments down below. Or, if you don’t know, give me the wrong
answer. I’ll feature some of my favourites in the
WrestleTalk News tomorrow. Shinsuke Nakamura took on NXT Champion Ilja
Dragunov in a fun little match, which saw Dragunov
win with the H-Bomb and Torpedo Moscow. WWE used this match to announce that the WWE
Draft will take place on April 26th and 29th - only three weeks away - and that NXT will
be involved. There, you had your 4 minutes of wrestling
- no, really that match was just four minutes - it’s now time for more talking! The Judgement Day came out for a promo to
put over Rhea Ripley retaining her title, and Damien Priest winning his - complete with
new entrance music for Priest - and this set up a trios mat
ch between Judgement Day against
Awesome Truth and a partner no one can see. Some of the comedy here was great, and the
match had a brilliant payoff. Because the man you couldn’t see ended up
being Truth’s childhood hero John Cena, who ran down for the hot tag towards the end
of the match. He, Truth and Miz all hit 5 Knuckle Shuffles
and AAs for the win. This was a lot of fun. Bronson Reed cut a promo - which is where
we got our tease for Bo Dallas - and Dom set up a match with Andrade for next
week. Rhea Ripley got attacked by Liv Morgan, and
that led into Indi Hartwell losing to NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez. Candice tried to cheat on Indi’s behalf,
but Hartwell didn’t like that, and Roxxane raked the eyes and hit Pop Rox for the win. The presentation of NXT was great on this
show. Roxxane also had an interaction with Natalya
backstage to promote their match on NXT tomorrow. Sami Zayn celebrated his IC title win with
Jey Uso backstage, then came out for a promo to talk about his
win over Gunther. He put over the big man, and this brought
out Imperium, which set up a tag match where Sami teamed with Chad Gable to beat them. Sami later told Chad that he will give him
the favour he asked for, and set up an IC title match for next week in Montreal. We got a video promo for the return of Sheamus,
and Jey Uso cut a promo saying in the Fatal Four Way it would just be him, uce. You silly goose, there are three other people. Chelsea Green complained to Adam Pearce, Nick
Aldis a
nd Ava that she didn’t get a WrestleMania moment, so Pearce and Aldis booked her in
a big interpromotional match, which saw her lose to Jade Cargill in under a minute. Good stuff. And the main event saw Drew McIntyre, Bronson
Reed, Ricochet and Jey Uso battle to determine a fatal four way for the number one contendership
to the World Heavyweight Championship. Drew cut a promo saying that WrestleMania
was BS as he was only champion for 5 minutes, and all because he was screwed by that prick
CM Pu
nk, and the Money in the Bank Briefcase. My big pitch now is that Drew wins Money in
the Bank and cash it in to continue his hypocritical ways. This was a great match that was all over the
place, and saw a truly insane springboard 450 by Ricochet to put Bronson Reed through
the Spanish Announcer’s Table. Yes, the broadcast table on the outside. Utter insanity. Back in the ring, Drew had the match won when
he set up for the Claymore, but CM Punk appeared from nowhere to grab his leg and Jey hit t
he
Spear and Splash for the win. He’ll be the next man to face Priest for
the title, presumably at Backlash. This was a tremendous Raw After Mania which
set up some new stories, gave you some surprises with Dragunov and Perez, a superb main event,
and a big angle to set up this year’s next biggest match: Cody vs. The Rock. This week’s show is 5 out of 5. Before we leave, I just want to apologise
to the Steiner Mathletes out there. Though I did have the deck stacked against
me in my match against
Oli Davis, I came up short. And as such, I have been informed that I am
no longer allowed to talk about Steiner Math, or promote the t-shirt that you can buy from
WrestleShop.com. I’ve also been informed that I must announce
that I lost the match against Oli Davis in the partsFUNknown 40 Years of WrestleMania
Tournament ‘fair and square’. Speaking of partsFUNknown, check out this
list that talks about the best WWE returns and surprises on Raw After Mania!
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