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Monday Night Raw
Date: July 25, 2022
Location: Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York
Commentators: Jimmy Smith, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves
We’re officially in an all new era as Vince McMahon is completely gone and HHH is now in charge of creative. That may sound very interesting on paper but I would give it another week before you see any major changes. There might be some surprises here and there this week though as it’s the go home show for Summerslam. Let’s get to it.
We open with Miz and Logan Paul mid-brawl in the ring with referees having to break it up.
With that out of the way, here is the Bloodline for a chat. Roman Reigns gets to the point by having the Garden acknowledge him before handing it off to Paul Heyman. After the mic goes out (Heyman: “We have a sound guy that must be from New Jersey or something. We want your name written down. You’re the next one out the door.”), we hear about everything Brock Lesnar has done over the years.
Lesnar has ruined a lot of..

WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion Liv Morgan was recently interviewed by Bleacher Report where she discussed a number of topics. Among them were winning the championship, the turning point in her career, and her future goals, including being in the main event of WrestleMania.
Below are some highlights from the interview:
On winning the Smackdown Women’s Championship:
“That whole day was make or break for me,” she said. “I felt professionally in that moment that if I don’t do this for my fans, I dropped the ball. That’s how I was feeling, so I took it very seriously and felt I had no choice but to win. Heading into the match, I was thinking, ‘OK,’ but as soon as I walked through and heard the crowd, it struck a chord with me for some reason and thought, ‘They want me to win this so bad.’
“It made me emotional. In that moment, I said, ‘I’m doing it. There’s no way I’m leaving this match without that briefcase in my hands.’ It was a very overwhelming feeling where I was trying to compose..

That isn’t good. The biggest wrestling story of the year has been Vince McMahon leaving WWE as he announced his retirement from the company last week. This comes amid an internal investigation into McMahon allegedly paying women to stay silent about relationships with him, with millions of dollars being spent. Now things might be getting even worse as a new detail has emerged.
WWE has made a new 8K filing with the SEC, announcing that $14.6 million in payments from Vince McMahon were not recorded as company expenses. According to PWInsider.com, if this means that McMahon used company money to pay the women, which could lead to legal actions against him from shareholders in the company. In addition, WWE is planning to release revised financial statements from 2006- 2022, the years the payments were made, by August 9.
Opinion: The more you look at something like this, the more clear it is that this was a lot more than McMahon retiring. It is hard to imagine that he would have been allo..

A new game will be played. WWE issued a press release this morning, announcing several changes to leadership within WWE. Amongst them was that Triple H will now be overseeing all creative duties within the company.
You can see the full press release below:
STAMFORD, Conn., July 25, 2022 – WWE® (NYSE: WWE) and its Board of Directors today announced the appointment of Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan as co-Chief Executive Officers. Ms. McMahon has also been appointed Chairwoman of the Board, and Mr. Khan will continue to serve as a member of the Board. These appointments follow Vince McMahon’s retirement announcement on Friday, July 22.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to lead WWE together with our unmatched management team,” said Ms. McMahon and Mr. Khan. “We recognize this is a tremendous opportunity and responsibility, and we look forward to serving the WWE Universe.”
Additionally, WWE executive Paul Levesque will assume all responsibilities related to WWE’s creative, in additi..

So I had a column set up about the upcoming Summerslam title matches and how WWE doesn’t have much of a choice but to do a series of rematches. Odds are you’ll see that one in the future, but the wrestling world being turned upside down. After forty plus years of being in charge, Vince McMahon officially retired from WWE and has handed control over to his daughter Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan. Yeah I think that might be a bit more important than anything happening at Summerslam with its big package of rematches (more on that later)
This is the kind of thing that you always knew was going to happen at some point but it’s hard to actually believe it went down. Vince has been the force in WWE and the idea of anyone being in charge of the company is almost impossible to fathom. There is no way to put together Vince’s legacy into anything shorter than a rather long book so this week we’re going to look at some of the high points of his career and what this change might mean for modern W..

NXT LVL Up
Date: July 22, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Sudu Shah, Nigel McGuinness
This show has started to change a little bit in recent weeks and that is a good thing. There have been some original interviews and even a tease of some storylines. It shouldn’t be that hard to do SOMETHING with this show but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be WWE’s idea. Maybe they have a different idea this week though so let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Thea Hail vs. Brooklyn Barlow Chase U is here with Hail. They fight over wrist control to start before trading some rollups for two each. A headlock takeover puts Hail down and we hit the armbar as commentary talks about how much Chase U appreciates Hail. Something like a seated abdominal stretch brings Hail back to life for a side slam. A standing moonsault into Hail Yeah finishes Barlow at 5:37.
Result: Thea Hail b. Brooklyn Barlow – Hail Yeah (5:37)
Hank Walker isn’t going to let Duke Hudson disre..

It’s a show without a theme. WWE has a long history on pay per view, with some of their shows dating back well over thirty years. While there are several regular pay per views, WWE has a group of shows known as the Big Four which run every year. We are coming up on another of them, and that means WWE is going to do what they do best: look back at some history.
On July 30, the 35th annual Summerslam will be held at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. As a result, WWE has released a video highlighting the Top 20 Greatest Summerslam Moments of all time. The list includes moments and matches from the first edition of the show up to modern editions. Summerslam debuted in 1988 and has been held annually since.
This is quite the list. Check out the Top 20:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: This is one of those lists where there will always be debate to be had over who gets what spot. There are so many moments in the show’s history, which makes things more interesting..

They’re making this a habit. AEW has a lot of wrestlers but a rather limited amount of television time. The company only had three hours a week between Dynamite and Rampage, which doesn’t leave much time for everyone to get out there. It can be smart to mix it up a little bit and take things outside of the arena for some flavor, and that is what some wrestlers have been doing.
Earlier this month, AEW ran an angle at an autograph signing where Brodie King attacked Darby Allin. They ran a similar angle this weekend, where the entire House Of Black attacked Allin during a panel at the San Diego Comic Con. King and Aleister Black both jumped Allin and laid him on a table. This comes after the two sides, with Sting backing Allin up, have faced off on recent editions of AEW TV.
It was a different way to go. Check out the House of Black’s latest assault on Allin:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Opinion: I could go for more of something like this, as Allin has been decimated mult..

What a twosome. With so many wrestlers around WWE, both on the main roster and in NXT, it can be difficult to find something for everyone to do. There are a lot of people who have nothing to do and are waiting on the sidelines for whatever opening they can have. That is the case with a former main roster star, who might have found something new to do in NXT.
Over the last few weeks, Cora Jade has turned on former partner and friend Roxanne Perez, turning heel in the process. This includes Jade vacating her half of the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles, leaving Perez as a sole champion. NXT held a live event over the weekend in Cocoa, Florida with Jade appearing next to Commander Azeez, seemingly as her new bodyguard. Azeez has not been seen on NXT TV since he was sent down to the roster along with Apollo Crews. There is no word on if this will be a permanent move or just a tryout at a live event.
Cora & Commander Azeez?!#NXTCocoa @CoraJadeWWE @CommanderAzeez pic.twitter.com/UhSZdPNVGY
— D..

He seems to be a fan. There are certain wrestlers who catch your attention no matter what they do. It might be something as simple as they way they move or the way they speak, but sometimes you can see it in their eyes. That is the case with a certain former WWE Champion, and now he has done something that might get some people wondering what he is doing next.
Former WWE Champion Bray Wyatt has updated his Twitter biography to include a quote from Vince McMahon. The quote says “Begin again kid, it’s what you do.” There is nothing to indicate what Wyatt means, though the quote was included the day before McMahon officially retired from WWE. Wyatt has been out of wrestling since being released from WWE on July 31, 2021.
Windham Rotunda (the former Bray Wyatt)'s latest Twitter bio is a Vince McMahon quote. pic.twitter.com/VMMklulHnU
— 411 Wrestling (@411wrestling) July 21, 2022
Opinion: That is one of those things that is going to have some people asking what Wyatt is going to do..

That doesn’t sound good. There are all kinds of ways for a wrestler to get hurt and some of them can be rather serious. Some of the injuries are things that take place instantly during the course of a match while others are things that build up over time. Then there are the fluke injuries when a wrestler isn’t even active in the ring. One of the top stars in wrestling today is dealing with a combination of both and it was a little more serious than we thought.
According to PWInsider.com, AEW World Champion CM Punk appeared at the AEW panel at the San Diego Comic Con and addressed his current foot injury. Punk revealed that his foot was “shattered” on June 2 and he is having to learn how to walk again. Punk was also said to be icing his foot and wearing a walking boot at the convention. It is not clear when he will be allowed to return to the ring.
Opinion: That makes things all the worse and hopefully things get better for Punk in a hurry. It could be a long time before Punk is able ..

The champ may be out. According to a report from Fightful Select, former ROH Heavyweight Champion Jonathan Gresham has requested his release from ROH & AEW.
The report states that Gresham asked for his release Saturday ahead of the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view. He defended the ROH World Heavyweight Championship against Claudio Castagnoli and dropped the title to him in the opening match fo the show.
“A lack of communication between the company and Gresham leading up to the weekend” led him to feel “disrespected.” The lack of time given to the World Title match during last night’s show was also a noted “tipping point.” Gresham reportedly met with Tony Khan before the show began and got heated enough to the point that he was “cussing out” the boss.
The former champion has since responded to inquiries about the ordeal and is said to be “done with wrestling for the foreseeable future after this month.”
We will continue to monitor this story and provide updates as they become avai..