7/2 WWE RAW TALK REPORT: The New Day being better than Bobby Lashley, Ricochet ready for MITB, more

RAW TALK REPORT
JULY 5, 2021
AIRED ON PEACOCK (VIA WWE NETWORK)
REVIEW BY NICK MORGAN, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Hosts: Kevin Patrick and R-Truth

This week’s guests: Rhea Ripley, Ricochet and Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston

– Once again as the show starts, we get more 24/7 garbage with R-Truth continuing to blame Kevin Patrick for his failure to regain the 24/7 title. Patrick and Truth ran down the “important” aspects of the show, concentrating on the main story lines, mostly the upcoming Bobby Lashley vs. Kofi Kingston match at Money in the Bank and the Riddle/Viking Raiders angle to help pump up the matches coming up between the Raiders and A.J. Styles and Omos. They also recapped the Jinder Mahal stealing Drew McIntyre’s sword angle as well.

– After teasing the upcoming guests, we go to break for a Summerslam spot and a Money in the Bank promo. Interestingly, while the Summerslam spot featured “tickets still available,” the MITB spot didn’t talk tickets or venue at all — just that it will be airing on the Peacock network.

– Back from break we are graced with the presence of Rhea Ripley, who continues to come off as a bit of a punk and continues to show little character development except she that doesn’t like Charlotte and that she thinks she is “living in Charlotte’s head.” Bravely, Patrick mentioned that Rhea has never beaten Charlotte, which caused R-Truth to yell at him and Rhea to start talking down to him.

(Morgan’s Analysis: I guess their thought here is to have Patrick tout Charlotte so that Rhea can perhaps come across more babyface by firing back at him. That’s a good idea, blame the media.)

– Rhea of course undermined this effort by threatening to slap Patrick and even insulted him when he tried to wish her luck.

(Morgan’s Analysis: Ugh, they have so messed up Rhea. All she comes across as is a little spoiled brat who is too small for the spotlight she’s in.)

– Off to break we go for a Smackdown promo featuring Edge and Jimmy Uso (bad timing there) and the vaccine PSA.

– And we are back with the riveting Ricochet. As seems to be the angle tonight, Ricochet also shot some shade at Kevin Patrick before complaining about Miz’s interference (rolling his wheelchair in front of Ricochet). Even when Patrick asked Ricochet about his MITB opportunity, Ricochet missed the opportunity to put out his mission statement to win the MITB briefcase and pivoted to his upcoming falls count anywhere match vs. John Morrison next week.

(Morgan’s Analysis: Ricochet is trying. He kept a smile on his face and tried to be animated, but there is just something lacking in his delivery that makes him a bore to listen to. If I had a suggestion, it would be to find him a babyface manager to do his talking for him and let his amazing talent in the ring be his calling card.)

– As they were going to break, New Day came out, obviously to give Ricochet a bit of a rub and made lots of New Day-ish noise as we went to break for a Back on the Road/WWE is Coming Home promo and an NXT Great American Bash spot.

– And we are back with Patrick saying, “New Day Rocks”. As you would expect, Kofi bragged about beating Bobby Lashley and MVP and as was the norm this week, called Patrick a rookie and made jokes at his sake. Kofi went on to say that Lashley was slipping and soon instead of the All Mighty Bobby Lashley soon he will be just Bob. They then went on a tirade about how they are the greatest tag team and hence since they beat Lashley and MVP, Kofi is better than Lashley. When Patrick pointed out that at MITB, Xavier Woods would not be in the ring with Kofi, Kofi immediately said, that would not be the case, Woods is always with him, just like Big E is still with the New Day.

– Woods and Kingston talked a mile a minute doing their best to build excitement for the Lashley/Kingston match and then when asked by Patrick about the fans coming back, they spent a couple of minutes carrying on about how great it will be to have the fans back and how much it means to them.

(Morgan’s Analysis: I was hopeful that based on some of Kofi’s recent promos on Raw, we would get a more toned-down New Day and an impassioned Kofi Kingston looking to win the title again. Instead, we got vintage New Day, just speaking over each other and yelling to0 much for it to be informative, enticing, or enjoyable. I really want to see these guys break up and move on from this act, as it has gotten way too old. Woods is already a heel with that Trombone and they could get a good three to four months of big matches between these two if there was a split with a heel Xavier Woods.)

– While the New Day ranted on, Kevin Patrick shrugged his shoulders and quietly said good night as the show ended.

FINAL THOUGHTS: At 26 minutes this show was 25 minutes too long. There was only about a single minute when Kofi got a little bit serious and spoke about Bobby Lashley and the WWE Championship where the show was compelling or made any sense. If you are a fan of full-on, no holds barred New Day, then you will appreciate the last seven or eight minutes of the show with the New Day doing their standard shtick. If you are like me and are tired of the act then the whole show was terrible. Rhea Ripley continues to be an unfocused and ill-defined character, Ricochet remains bland when he is not in the ring, and the New Day are just tiresome. One point I would really like to make here is how bad Kevin Patrick is being treated on both the main show when everyone seems to yell at him and abuse him to this show where R-Truth continues to blame him about his loss of the 24/7 title The talent berate him also. What works on Talking Smack whether Paul Heyman is there or not, is that Kayla Braxton has earned a good reputation with the fans and the producers of the show. The goal is to keep her believable as a “reporter” and just not another prop, which is what Kevin Patrick is becoming — a prop for the wrestlers to use and abuse. Personally, I think it would be better if he was viewed by the wrestlers and the production as a useful helper for the wrestlers, who could help over the tough spots and help them get across their characters. It is possible that Patrick just doesn’t have that ability, but the way they use him, he never will. If you haven’t guessed, unless you just love the New Day, you can easily skip this show. Nothing happened of any importance.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S RAW TALK REPORT: 6/28 WWE RAW TALK REPORT: Drew McIntyre discusses winning MITB, Ryker talks split with Elias, more