NEWS

Monday Night Raw
Date: July 11, 2022
Location: AT&T Center, San Antonio, Texas
Commentators: Jimmy Smith, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton
We’re well on the way to Summerslam and that means the card is mostly set. I’m curious to see what that means we are going to be seeing added to the show, as that can often be more interesting than seeing things built up even more. If nothing else, Brock Lesnar is here tonight so let’s get to it.
We open with a recap from Smackdown with Roman Reigns saying things pick up when the Big Dog comes around.
Here is Brock Lesnar to get things going. Brock says God bless Texas and even takes his hat off to show some manners. Reigns talks about how Roman Reigns has been living high on the hog and at Summerslam, the hog is being slaughtered, like Lesnar does on his ranch. Violence is promised, but here is Paul Heyman to interrupt. Lesnar: “Speak of the hog.” Heyman talks about how Lesnar is a monster, but the fans say Heyman sucks. Lesnar asks if Heyman is going..

That’s a way to go. There are a lot of wrestling shows that take place on any given week. That means there are all kinds of ways to build them up, meaning the different promotions need to come up with something fresh. Sometimes these ideas are not ones that a wrestling company comes up with on their own, and that seems to be the case again this coming week.
AEW has announced that Eddie Kingston and Chris Jericho will face off this week on Dynamite. The match will be a barbed wire death match with the rest of the Jericho Appreciation Society suspended above the ring in shark cages. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, this is the result, of Discovery wanting to tie the show in to their Shark Week. This is what AEW came up with to satisfy their request.
Opinion: That’s certainly unique, but really what else was there for AEW to do? Shark Week and professional wrestling don’t have many things in common so this was about as good as they could have done. If nothing else, maybe the match..

That’s why they do it. There are all kinds of wrestling shows through the WWE’s calendar every year and some of them are more important than others. At the very top of the list is WrestleMania, which has long since been established as the biggest wrestling show of the year. It is such a big deal that cities will bid on the right to host it, and now we can see why that is the case.
WWE has announced that this year’s WrestleMania 38 brought in $206 million in revenue to the Dallas, Texas area. This is a new record for WrestleMania revenue and the first time the show has broken two hundred million dollars. The revenue brought in was the equivalent of 1,777 full time jobs in the area, as 67% of the fans were from outside the Dallas/Arlington region.
Opinion: And that right there is why it’s a big deal for a city to get to host WrestleMania: it brings in a fortune to a local economy like nothing else could possibly do. That is something that is going to work every single time and it seems..

That’s ridiculous. Wrestling is a lot of things, but ultimately it is a visual medium. The point of wrestling is for fans to watch what is going on and get invested as a result. There are a variety of ways to get fans’ attention on wrestling, many of which involve changing up a wrestler’s appearance. One modern wrestler has tried to do that multiple times, but now it might not be as easy.
Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair announced on her Instagram Stories that someone stole her Survivor Series gear. Belair warned anyone who might see it for sale online that it might be stolen. There was no word on when the gear was stolen or where it was stolen from. Belair is known to design and make her own gear, which she did earlier this year at WrestleMania 38.
Someone stole Bianca Belair’s Survivor Series gear. Let her know if you see it pop up somewhere like Ebay. pic.twitter.com/JA7iS3pAJR
— Wrestling News (@WrestlingNewsCo) July 10, 2022
Opinion: That’s just pathetic in a lot of ways, as..

That could be worse. There are all kinds of reasons for a wrestler to be away from the ring for an extended period of time. One of the most common is an injury, which can vary widely by degree. Perhaps the most annoying kind of the nagging injury though, as you don’t know how long someone is going to be on the shelf. That is the case again with a WWE star, but we might have some good news.
Kevin Owens has been missing from WWE television over the last few weeks, reportedly due to an unspecified minor injury. According to Dave Meltzer on the Sunday Night’s Main Event podcast, Owens is reportedly “fine” and should be back in a few weeks. The situation is said to not be Coronavirus related. Owens had been feuding with Ezekiel before leaving and it is not clear what he will be doing when he gets back.
Opinion: I’m getting curious about what kind of an injury this is, as a minor injury doesn’t usually keep someone out of action for the better part of a month. It’s a shame that he has to b..

It must be that time of year again because I get to talk about WWE doing something stupid that misses the point of everything they were trying to do. Believe it or not, it’s Money In The Bank season again and despite the show being held just over a week ago, one of the briefcases is already gone. Also believe it or not, WWE didn’t do things in a logical way, but this time they are hammering things into the ground so much that it is somehow becoming even worse.
As you will know if you have watched any WWE programming since Money In The Bank, Liv Morgan won the women’s Money In The Bank ladder match, cashed in on an injured Ronda Rousey a few hours later, and is now the SmackDown Women’s Champion. WWE has somehow turned this into a moment on the level of Shawn Michaels’ Boyhood Dream and at this point, I can’t even say I’m surprised.
Following the win, and even immediately following it, WWE treated Morgan’s win into something for the ages and hasn’t really stopped since then. Between p..

That is one step forward. You see wrestlers get injured on a regular basis, but there are times where you do not know what that is going to mean. If a wrestler breaks a bone or something a bit more simple like that, you might have an idea of how long they are going to be out of action. There are other kinds of injuries that are a bit more complicated though, and now we know a bit more about the status of one of the biggest stars in the world.
Back at AEW Double Or Nothing, Bryan Danielson suffered a concussion during the Anarchy In The Arena match and has not wrestled since. When Danielson did make an appearance on Dynamite, he said that he was fine mentally but needed to be medically cleared. According to Dave Meltzer on the Sunday Night’s Main Event podcast, Danielson has recovered from his concussion, but AEW President Tony Khan is not allowing him to return yet in an effort to allow Danielson more time to heal. It is not clear when Danielson will be wrestling again.
Opinion: That..

Put it in the trophy case. There are a lot of very talented wrestlers in the world, as getting in the ring and having a match is quite the impressive feat. It takes a lot of skills to make something like that work and you can see some of the best in the world do it every week on AEW TV. This time though, one of AEW’s top stars has accomplished something impressive of his own, and it has nothing to do with wrestling.
AEW’s Chris Jericho has announced that his band Fozzy’s Judas has earned a gold record, meaning that it has sold five hundred thousand copies. Jericho made the announcement in a tweet and thanked everyone who helped the record reach the milestone. Judas has served as Jericho’s theme music in AEW since his debut and the live audience sings along with it during Jericho’s entrance.
For 22 years I’ve heard all the cutdowns & insults about @FOZZYROCK. Well now, WE can all stand behind what our band and hundreds of thousands of our fans worldwide have always known… FOZZY ROCKS!..

There’s the new generation. There are a lot of ways for a wrestler to get into the industry, but one of the things that can offer some instant credibility is being a second generation star. A wrestler with family in the business feels like a bigger deal because they have a connection to the sport and have probably learned more than the average newcomer. That was the case again this weekend, as the daughter of an all time legend took her first step into a much larger world.
Dwayne Johnson’s daughter Simone, under the name of Ava Raine, cut her first promo at an NXT live event in Orlando, Florida over the weekend. Raine called herself the Final Girl and talked down about the rest of the NXT women’s division, including Cora Jade. There is currently no word on when Raine will either have her first match or make her television debut.
Tonight was reportedly Simone Johnson's first promo in front of fans #WWENXT #nxtorlando @AvaRaineWWE https://t.co/oDWvtJmx95
— Jay Reddick (@runninjay..

Welcome back. Throughout history, there have been more wrestlers than can be reasonably counted. With so many names out there, it takes a lot to become a true star, but the names who are legends are at that level for a reason. You know a legend when you see one, and over the weekend, one of the legends of the modern era made his return to the ring for the first time in over two years.
WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T. returned to the ring at the Summer Of Champions VIII event for his Reality Of Wrestling promotion. The match saw Booker T. team with the Mysterious Q, Bryan Keith, Blake Cortez and Gaspar Hernandez to face Team Sharmell. This was his first match since February 2020 when he wrestled in an eight man tag as GI Bro. There is no word on when his next match will take place.
Got to step back in the ring last night at Reality of Wrestling and it felt GOODT! pic.twitter.com/43VmeFdOjz
— Booker T. Huffman (@BookerT5x) July 10, 2022
Opinion: This is one of those things that is always ..

He’s still the boss. There have been a lot of changes backstage in WWE in recent months and a lot of them have been centered around Vince McMahon. The company’s owner is facing serious allegations of sexual misconduct amid an internal investigation into his affairs with various women. The latest batch came out this week, and now we know a bit more about their immediate impact.
According to PWInsider.com, McMahon was present at this week’s SmackDown and in charge of the entire show. McMahon held full creative control of the show and the night was described as “The Vince McMahon Show”. McMahon was said to not bring any attention to the allegations against him. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon were not backstage for the show.
Opinion: Is this really a surprise? Vince is going to be in charge of pretty much anything WWE related for as long as he is allowed to and that has been the case for as long as anyone can remember. While he is under investigation, he is still going to be the boss no ..

It can happen anywhere. There are a lot of ways to present a wrestling show but at the end of the day, almost all of the action takes place in the ring, or at least the arena. It can be nice to break out of the same place every now and then, as you can find some different ways to present a story. That was the case this weekend, as a fight broke out in a surprising place.
Over the weekend, AEW ran an angle at an autograph signing featuring Brody King attacking Darby Allin. King appeared at Allin’s signing in Seattle and powerbombed him through a table before leaving. This comes after the two had another angle following this week’s edition of AEW Dynamite. There has not been a match announced between them yet.
It was a big deal. Check out what happened at the signing:
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Opinion: This is the kind of thing that I like to see for a change. Instead of just doing the same old stuff over and over again, AEW threw a little twist out there and that is ..