00:00Randy Orton's future revealed, the real reason for Jacob Fatu's injury, my review
00:05of Raw and more. I'm Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:14The Roman Reigns Revenge Tour enters its third week on Friday Smackdown with OTC looking
00:19to, as WWE put it in their commercial that aired during Raw, finish the bloodline once
00:25and for all. Which likely translates to, destroy Tonga Loa for five minutes.
00:29But one person who won't be there is Jacob Fatu. Fatu went down with an injury at Summerslam
00:34where he hurt his foot diving from the top rope through the announcer's table on the
00:38outside. He was later seen wearing a boot in social media images, but there was some
00:42scepticism on whether the injury was legit, as he had reportedly been planned to sell
00:48some form of injury to ride him out of the final angle on the show where Reigns returned.
00:53He wasn't on Smackdown this past Friday, and reportedly won't be back until later
00:58this month.
00:59So is the injury real or not? Well according to Sean Ross Sapp on Fightful Select's Q&A
01:05podcast, he noted that people I spoke to immediately said, ah, that boot isn't real. And when
01:11asked if the injury was done because Jacob Fatu has travel issues getting into Germany,
01:16SRS replied, I think you might be onto something. I'm not confirming that, I just think you
01:22might be onto something.
01:23Someone who can travel to Berlin, and in fact is because they're facing Gunther for the
01:27World Heavyweight Championship at Bash in Berlin, is Randy Orton. While 2024 has become
01:32the Year of Contracts, one name that has flown under the radar is Orton, despite signing
01:36his new five year deal back in 2019 after publicly teasing the idea that he might sign
01:42with then-upstart company AEW. And the reason he's not been part of the discussions was
01:46because he was out of action for over a year, and it was figured that that injury time would
01:51be added to his 2019 contract. However, Fightful Select is reporting that, at least internally,
01:57it is believed that Orton has signed a new deal with WWE that will keep him with the
02:02company until 2029. While nobody from WWE would confirm that Orton has re-signed, Fightful
02:08asked a WWE higher up why the company would do such a thing rather than add on the injury
02:14time. The higher up noted that the guaranteed money associated with contracts now is a drastic
02:18shift from what it was in 2019. This is due to changes to WWE's live event schedule,
02:24touring, international dates, media obligations, merchandise and social media, making it more
02:29fair to just reach a new deal with talent. Orton made his return at last year's Survivor
02:34Series, and according to Dave Meltzer, we could see a more controversial return at next
02:38year's Royal Rumble. Brock Lesnar has not been seen on WWE TV since he was implicated
02:43in the Janelle Grant lawsuit against Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis and WWE. All his
02:48planned matches were reportedly scrapped, and he was removed as a playable character
02:52in WWE 2K24. Triple H has spoken publicly about potentially bringing Lesnar back, and
02:57Meltzer has written in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter that a Royal Rumble surprise
03:02return has been discussed. However, at this time, it's not able to happen. This could
03:08change depending on how the Janelle Grant lawsuit goes, as Meltzer notes that as soon
03:12as WWE higher-ups and legal give Lesnar's return the go-ahead, it will likely happen
03:18very shortly after that point.
03:20Before we get into the Raw review, I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone
03:23who checked out the return episode of Cutscene last month, and the next episode is out this
03:28Friday where I'll chart the death of Neil Blomkamp's unmade Alien 5 and ask who really
03:34killed it. Check out my episode on how Disney lied to you about Toy Story 2.
03:40While it is true that this line of code deleted upwards of 90% of Toy Story 2, and Sussman
03:45saved it by driving her back up to the Pixar offices, this version of events misses off
03:50one crucial detail. The Toy Story 2 that code nearly deleted by accident, was deleted, just
03:57a few months later, on purpose. This is the true story of Toy Story 2's deletion, and
04:04how Disney have lied to you about it.
04:05And now it's time for my review of Monday Night Raw, aka the… didn't we already
04:10do this one episode of Monday Night Raw? In about 5 minutes.
04:14The show opened with a lengthy recap of Summerslam from two weeks ago, and then Rhea Ripley came
04:19out to… recap what happened at Summerslam two weeks ago. She said that Dom stabbed her
04:24in the back, but, and he'll have heard this a lot, it wasn't deep enough. He's got
04:28a tiny willy you see.
04:30Dom and Liv appeared in the crowd with Dom revealing that the reason he chose Liv over
04:33Rhea was because Liv treats him like a real bloke, a real man. He can have chicken nuggets
04:38whenever he wants, he can play Mega Drive whenever he wants, and crucially, she helped
04:44him beat Rey Mysterio. Liv told Rhea that she took everything from her, including her
04:48family, but Rhea revealed that Damien Priest was standing behind them. They had a brawl
04:52and Karlito attacked Priest, only for the former champ to stand tall. Priest then beat
04:57Karlito in a decent little match, and the rest of Judgment Day jumped Priest afterwards
05:00and Rhea's music hit and she made the save, and the Terror Twins once again stood tall.
05:06With Rhea nearly hitting Dom with the Riptide.
05:08They announced later in the show that Rhea and Priest will team together to take on Dom
05:12and Liv in an intergender tag match at Bash in Berlin. A smart match as it gives you what
05:16you want to see, Rhea beating up Dom, whilst also saving the two bigger singles matches
05:21in the Rhea vs. Liv rematch and Priest vs. Balor. This took up the opening 30 minutes
05:26of Raw and will likely do crazy good numbers on YouTube again. It was more or less the
05:30same segment we got last week, but the match announcement was really cool. Bones Alice
05:34said the spirit of Bray Wyatt was with them following their win last week, and Odyssey
05:38Jones beat Vincent Winnie from NXT with a Boss Man Slam. Final Testament came out and
05:44Karrion Kross told Woods that Kofi wasn't trying to replace Big E with Jones, he was
05:48trying to replace Woods. Woods wanted to challenge Final Testament to a tag match, but Kofi took
05:52the mic and suggested a six man instead. Kross accepted, and Woods continued to be nonplussed
05:57about Kingston's actions. American Made beat Alpha Academy in a Texas Tornado after
06:02Ivy Nile turned heel on Maxine Dupree at ringside, and this distraction allowed the Queens to
06:06take advantage and roll up to Zaur. It was a fun match. Chad Gable cut a promo from France
06:10where he said he had unfinished business with the Wyatts, and before the match Otis had
06:14a staredown with NXT's Oba Femi and would later accept his open challenge for the North
06:18American Championship on NXT, Where's The Story, etc.
06:22Jackie interviewed Pete Dunne who told her not to bring up the name Butch and said that
06:25Sheamus was holding him down with that silly nickname. If Sheamus really cared about The
06:30Boyz so much, where's Ridge Holland? Michael called Pete Dunne bitter, but Pete Dunne is
06:35absolutely 100% right. He attacked Sheamus later in the night.
06:39Sonya and crew unveiled their new name of Pure Fusion Collective, which also sounds
06:44like a sponsor for WWE, and they took on Damage Control for the number one contendership to
06:48Unholy Union's tag titles, who remarkably are still the tag champions. Wait, can you
06:53smell that? Can you smell that in the air? Smells like they're planning a triple threat
06:59for next week's Raw. You know what that means! A bulls*** DQ finish! Pure Fusion Collective
07:04may have a new name, but they cannot win for Toffees as they were about to lose again before
07:08Unholy Union dove in to cause the DQ. It will be a triple threat on next week's Raw.
07:12And that was your only women's match on the card, less than 9 minutes of women's
07:15wrestling on this three hour broadcast. The match only went two minutes longer than the
07:19Bronson Reed Squash match we got later in the show. Randy Orton came out for a promo
07:23and said that he won his first world title 20 years ago, don't ask him who he beat
07:27for it, and said that when he wins his 15th world title, he'll officially move to Raw.
07:32Out came Gunther who said that Randy was one of the greatest of all time, but he should
07:35be the greatest of all time. He's had so many chances and opportunities, but he screwed
07:41them all up. Like his grandfather, and like his father, Randy Orton is a screw up and
07:47oh so predictable. Drew McIntyre came out and Gunther, in a rare lapse of judgement,
07:51took his eye off the ball and Randy hit him with an unpredictable RKO. Drew then brawled
07:56with CM Punk who supposedly had travel issues but turns out he was fibbing, and Punk whipped
08:00Drew to seemingly set up a strap match between the two of them at the PPV. The Randy Gunther
08:04stuff was really good, and the strap match is a great second step for Punk and Drew.
08:08R-Truth tried to cheer up Miz by booking him in a match with Braun Breaker, but it
08:11turned out he got him a match against Bronson Reed, who beat him with the Tsunami in a match
08:15that went way longer than you'd imagine. Reed then laid out Truth with more Tsunamis
08:18while Adam P screamed at him to stop. They also confirmed Dave Meltzer's report that
08:22Seth is taking some time off, and last week's angle was to write him off TV.
08:26Jey Uso hyped up Sami Zayn who then took on Braun Breaker in a 2 out of 3 falls match
08:30for the IC title. Sami got the first fall when his veteran instincts caught Braun off
08:34guard with a Halufa Kick, and then Braun fired back and Lawndarded him over the Time
08:37Keeper's area in a fantastic spot. He got the second fall after two spears, and after
08:42a series of good near falls and rackdolling by Sami, Braun hit another spear on a leaping
08:46Sami for the win and the retention. A very good main event, and it was a good episode
08:50of Raw. Nothing special or spectacular, and nothing you need to go out of your way to
08:54watch, but it was alright. Now go and watch that episode of Cutscene right now where I
08:58talk about how Disney lied to you about Toy Story 2.
