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Monday Night War Ep. 1! 👉 https://youtu.be/N9sIzw93DHQ
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00:00 - Coming Up...
01:00 - Huge Raw Surprise
02:52 - WWE Raw Review
WWE 'Ecstatic’ Over John Cena Heel Promo Reaction! HUGE WWE RAW SURPRISE! | WrestleTalk
#WWE #JohnCena #WrestleTalk
Buy WrestleTalk Merch here! https://wrestleshop.com/
Sources used for research:
https://wrestletalk.com/news/joe-hendry-next-wwe-match-revealed/ https://wrestletalk.com/news/wwe-backstage-reaction-john-cena-raw-heel-promo/
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.
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SportsTranscript
00:00A huge Raw surprise for next week!
00:03WWE ecstatic over Raw's opening promo!
00:07And…
00:08I can't believe I'm going to say this.
00:12I don't really know how to say it, so I've written and prepared a heartfelt, sincere
00:19speech prepared by my PR team.
00:28Given that the gossip industry cannot resist an opportunity to speculate and invent, we
00:32wanted to convey the truth directly.
00:36After 20 long, difficult years together, John Cena and I will be consciously uncoupling
00:42and…
00:43Oh god, John Cena's broken up with me!
00:47And everyone!
00:48He did it with everyone else, especially this kid, but mostly me!
00:53I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
01:00The biggest storyline in wrestling right now might be John Cena breaking up with several
01:03million people, but there is one local hero out there who will hopefully still answer
01:08the babyface call.
01:10In the painfully long build to his World Heavyweight Championship match against Gunther at WrestleMania
01:1441, Jey Uso squashed Austin Theory, but not before squashing his own head on last night's
01:20episode of Raw.
01:21He's now beaten Theory and his tag team partner Grayson Waller in back-to-back episodes,
01:26but there's still like five weeks to go till Mania, so WWE are bleeding the stone
01:29for all it's worth.
01:31On next Monday's episode, Jey Uso will take on both men in a tag team match, but Jey will
01:36need himself a tag team partner, who's currently listed as multi-time WWE Champion Vacant.
01:42Of course he has his brother Jimmy over on SmackDown.
01:45His best mate Sami Zayn could make a far too soon return from injury, or, with it being
01:49a Raw episode filmed in Glasgow, Scotland, Jey could say his name and he appears.
01:57Because we believe in Joe Hendry.
02:18Jey hails from Scotland, and has already been featured on WWE's main roster this
02:22year, showing up in the Royal Rumble to one of the loudest pops of the night, thanks to
02:27the promotion's working relationship with TNA.
02:30And following the announcement of Jey needing a mystery partner for Raw next week, the TNA
02:34World Champion tweeted, say his name and he appears, obligatory Joe Hendry smiling photo.
02:44To which Grace and Waller replied with a gif, yeah I say gif, dies from cringe.
02:50So about that John Cena breaking up with us all, here's my review of Monday Night Raw…
02:55in about 5 minutes.
02:56Bringing the Brussels loyalty and respect, that was Laurie's joke, he texted me at
02:598pm last night just to give appropriate credit, the first ever live broadcast Raw from Belgium
03:04opened with the first ever TV appearance of the newly heel John Cena.
03:11WWE produced this perfectly.
03:13We got all the usual opening stuff to Raw, here's a person arriving, here's another
03:17person arriving, here's the commentary desk this week made up of Michael Cole and Corey
03:21Graves because I assume Pat McAvee voted leave, and here's a recap promo of Cody Rhodes
03:26from last week, where he vowed to beat Cena at WrestleMania.
03:30Then there were several beats of nothing, no ring announcing, no music, just that kind
03:36of eerie, expectant buzz from the crowd you get just before they know something huge is
03:41about to happen.
03:42And then Cena's music hit.
03:44The same music as when he was a face, and the Belgians erupted with nuclear heat.
03:50Because here was the man who would never turn heel again.
03:53But in his retirement year, he sold his soul to the final Dwayne, and now he was going
03:59to explain why.
04:00I should probably do that again for John Cena's character.
04:05Why.
04:07He stood there for minutes, gloriously soaking in the deafening Let's Go Cena Cena Sucks
04:12chants.
04:13While he was wearing the same terrible baseball cap and jorts attire, his whole demeanour
04:17had changed.
04:18The babyface energy was gone, his boxy run down to the ring gone, his giant smile gone.
04:24Underneath his new, permanently etched Judge Dredd style frown, I bet he was having the
04:28time of his life.
04:29I thought for a moment he might not say anything, that he'd do at least one fake out segment
04:34where he'd just soak in the booze and walk off without explaining his actions.
04:38But he finally spoke into the mic, and revealed what led him to where he is today.
04:43Us.
04:44He realised, for the last 15 years, he's been the victim of an abusive relationship.
04:50And that relationship was with all of us fans.
04:53He isn't a babyface or a heel, he's a human being.
04:58And every single one of us, even the ones who cheered him, ESPECIALLY YOU, SPECIFICALLY
05:03YOU, YOU DUMB KID, has taken from him.
05:06That's all we ever did.
05:08We took.
05:09And now he's turned heel, we don't get to take anymore.
05:12We don't even get to take the new heel music, the new heel ring gear that he had made back
05:18in 2012 when he was going to turn heel against The Rock.
05:21Can I get a cheap pop in the comments for Patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk, where
05:25you can watch me and Luke review Cena's years-long feud with The Rock over there?
05:28No, he's going to have the same music, and the same stupid jorts he's had the last
05:34two decades, because he's not going to give us anything anymore.
05:39And this, for me, was the masterstroke of the segment.
05:43There is a very real danger that because we wanted Cena to turn heel for so long, him
05:48turning heel might counter-intuitively make us cheer him.
05:51We're wrestling fans, we're done.
05:54If Cena came out with a new presentation, dark new music, a suit, we'd likely end
06:00up cheering or appreciating it.
06:02Which is exactly what WWE don't want.
06:05The ultimate aim here is to build Cody even stronger as a babyface, and splitting the
06:09crowd will hurt that in the long run.
06:12I fully expected a new presentation for Cena.
06:15I guess I didn't realise that I really wanted a new presentation until Cena turned it around
06:20on me.
06:21This son of a bitch made me annoyed at his character that he didn't do it, and he's
06:25instead stuck with his jorts look that's been lame since the day he put them on.
06:29The crowd played their part perfectly too, chanting F you Cena, shut their F up, and
06:35Cena's a effing bitch.
06:36The F stands for Flemish.
06:38So loudly they often drowned him out.
06:41And then, after 20 minutes, Cody came down, said he wants to fight the real John at WrestleMania,
06:46not this whiny bitch, and walked out.
06:49With this going a full half hour, they left a lot in the tank for later on.
06:54Cena didn't bring up the Rock or Grammy Award winning musical artist Travis Scott
06:58once.
06:59I presume we'll get a promo about their faction's shared goal eventually.
07:02He didn't bring up the 17th world title.
07:04He didn't bring up the Elimination Chamber angle.
07:06And neither man got physical.
07:08They'll go face to face again on next week's Raw.
07:11Fightful selectors reported that WWE were ecstatic with the reception Cena got from
07:16the crowd.
07:17With one source telling them it was the hottest TV environment they've experienced, which
07:21strengthens the chances WWE will choose to go back to Belgium in the future.
07:25Penta beat Ludvig Kaiser in a no holds barred match for the first bit of in-ring action
07:29for the night.
07:30They had an intense fight, which ended when Kaiser had a chair on Penta's throat, screaming
07:34at him to admit he's afraid.
07:36But of course, Penta has zero Miedo.
07:39He came back with a Canadian Destroyer onto the chair, and a Penta driver to win.
07:43And then we got our first hint at Penta's WrestleMania direction.
07:46Glasses variant Cathy Kelly interviewed him on the entranceway post-win, where he said
07:51he wants the Intercontinental title, creating a neat narrative spine for this episode, which
07:56would be main evented by an IC title match.
07:59Speaking of, the challenger in that match Finn Balor then arrived at the Judgment Day
08:02Clubhouse backstage, where, in Brussels, every centimetre is covered in cool graffiti.
08:07He was initially happy.
08:09But when Dominic Mysterio suggested Penta as their faction's new member, the same
08:12guy who just said he wants the championship belt Balor is going for later, Balor understandably
08:18stormed off.
08:19And Carlito said you should watch the show, dude.
08:22Dakota Kai beat Ivy Nile, kinda because Chad Gable was a distraction at ringside, getting
08:26chased off by the LWO for interfering.
08:29Bianca Belair and Io Sky signed the women's title match contract for WrestleMania, but
08:33Rhea Ripley interrupted, determined to make it a three way.
08:36She headbutted Bianca onto the table, powerbombed Io onto her, and then signed her name on the
08:40contract too.
08:41I don't know if that's legally binding.
08:43Adam Pearce tried to explain contract law to her backstage afterwards, when the brawls
08:47started up again with Bianca and Io attacking her, and then each other.
08:51I expect Io will demand Ripley to be added to the match, just how Rhea granted Sky the
08:55original title match because she had caused Io to lose.
08:59This is where Jey Uso beat Austin Theory in about 30 seconds, where, arguably more impressively,
09:03he managed to botch two moves himself.
09:06Gunther had an altercation both before and after the match with him, where Jey stood
09:10tall with the belt.
09:11This was the first time Gunther looked rattled, but this is unfortunately still an incredibly
09:14weak build for the World Heavyweight Championship and the winner of the Royal Rumble.
09:19Following the Ivy Nile match angle earlier, we got LWO beating American Made here.
09:23It was mostly to set up another masked luchador attack, who most definitely is not Chad Gable.
09:28With no Roman Reigns or CM Punk on this show, Seth Rollins was put in the impossible position
09:33of trying to fill in.
09:35The crowd enjoyed singing his annoying song for way too long, and then Seth promised them
09:39all to turn up on SmackDown to confront Punk and Reigns.
09:43The thing is, SmackDown is in Italy on Friday, not in Belgium right now.
09:49So the crowd just kind of went quiet, being reminded that they don't get to see that
09:53live.
09:54Rollins awkwardly tried to fire up the crowd again by getting them to sing his song and
09:58hyping them for the main event title match like it was a warm-up act, rather than one
10:02of the company's top stars.
10:04This would've been far more effective as a backstage or pre-filmed promo, where you
10:07don't have to take the audience reaction into account.
10:10Karrion Kross tried to manipulate AJ Styles in his Logan Paul feud again.
10:14And then it was time for the main event, where, of course, Finn Balor is going to lose via
10:19Dick Blast on St Patrick's Day.
10:22Carlito distracted the referee for the finish while Don pushed Braun off the top rope, but
10:26in so doing, Balor slipped and crutched himself on the turnbuckle.
10:30Breaker hit a Frankensteiner and a Spear to win, in a shock example of a title actually
10:34being retained on TV at the moment.
10:36WWE did a very effective job of building multiple stories for Mania here.
10:41Finn is even more annoyed with Dom, Penta ran down for the post-match save, getting
10:45a stare down between him and Breaker, and, most importantly, Dominik briefly holding
10:50the IC title in a shot-for-shot replica down to the haircut and the Tino Heat shirt of
10:57his real-life dad Eddie Guerrero doing the same.
11:00With reports about a potential six-way IC title match for Mania, and fantasy booking
11:04Braun vs Penta vs AJ vs Logan vs Finn vs Dominik.
11:11With Dirty Dom winning.
11:13I genuinely think he'd be a great heel champion.
11:16Give me chaos.
11:17This week's Raw is 85%.
11:20But move aside, Paul Leveque, because Luke and I can book WWE way better!
11:25The first episode of Monday Night War of me vs Luke in WWE 2K25's My GM mode is live!
11:32Click the video onscreen to watch it now!