SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
RAW TALK REPORT
JULY 12, 2021
AIRED ON PEACOCK (VIA WWE NETWORK)
REVIEW BY NICK MORGAN, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Hosts: Kevin Patrick and R-Truth
This week’s guests: Nikki A.S.H., Riddle, and Drew McIntyre
– Yet again, after saying it was an emotional night as the last night in the Thunderdome, Raw Talk spent its opening minutes on more 24/7 nonsense between Kevin Patrick and R-Truth. Patrick and Truth ran down the show starting with Xavier Woods’ win over Lashley (along with a brief mention of the show ending angle, focusing more on Lashley destroying the set than on the mission statement laid out in perhaps his best promo), followed by the Rhea Ripley-Charlotte Flair antics, continued with a major overselling of Omos’ performance versus Eric of the Viking Raiders.
– With that rather mediocre recap, Patrick teased the upcoming guests and sent us to break.
– For the break we got a Money in the Bank spot.
– And we are back with Nikki A.S.H. in full almost a superhero mode as she danced around. She banged her elbow on the table and actually responded and recovered nicely by saying, “that was why she was almost a superhero.” After saying that if she could have one superpower it would be flying, so she could fly up and grab the briefcase she ripped off Muhammad Ali by saying “Soar like a butterfly, but sting like a Nikki.”
(Morgan’s Analysis: I know that many viewers probably don’t know Ali’s famous slogan, “Float like a butterfly but sting like a bee.” Hey, they probably don’t even know who Ali is, but this was just bad.)
– Nikki continued to bounce around (she never sat in her chair) exuding joy, excitement, glorious delusion, and perhaps a bit of psychosis, until she finally danced off and Patrick sent us to another break.
(Morgan’s Analysis: I love Nikki’s pure enjoyment of performance, but if she is, in fact, in control of this character, she needs to tone it down a couple of notches. Initially, it was kind of fun, but as with all things WWE, the subtlety has been thrown out the window and I just feel bad for Nikki and really don’t want to watch her unless she is in the ring where her exuberance may not always pay off, but makes the match a good watch.)
– Again, we just got a single spot break with the spot for WWE Shop before returning with Riddle.
– Riddle came out and spent the first few moments selling his foot injury, while also touting his RK-Bro merchandise. Riddle then recapped the angle from the show with Ricochet, The Miz and Morrison. Riddle played full bore into his “Bro” act and then noted that he was concerned about Randy Orton as he has not been able to get in touch with him — even going to the extent of trying to file a missing person report but failing because he wasn’t family. They finally got around to talking about Money in the Bank and Riddle hinted as he did on the show, that if he wins, he is going to use the MITB contract on the tag team titles.
(Morgan’s Analysis: Okay, it is confirmed, Riddle is an idiot. Of course, Truth thought it was a great idea and they spent the rest of the segment egging Riddle on. It was funny, it almost seemed that based on the amount of time they spent talking about him, this segment was about Orton and not Riddle.)
– They ended the segment by screaming at each other.
– After teasing Drew McIntyre was next, we went to break for another MITB spot.
– And here comes Drew. In oblivious fashion, both Patrick and Drew noted that Drew was on every two weeks.
(Morgan’s Analysis: Way to tout the fact that you have no stars to promote on your show.)
– They showed the video and recapped the whole sword and motorcycle angle between Drew and Jinder. As Drew was talking about how the sword Jinder stole was a replica, WWE managed to yet again bring up the 24/7 title, by Patrick suggesting that R-Truth bring in a fake belt if he happens to win back the championship. Truth said a bunch of stuff that didn’t make any sense.
– Thankfully, Drew picked up the ball and started in on Jinder and how he respects Jinder for stepping up and fighting him and that as they move on, he will establish his dominance over Jinder no matter what history they have. Patrick then turned the conversation to the MITB match and Drew basically said, “I have already said what it means to me, but he feels he has to win it and that he is willing to die to win the MITB match.”
(Morgan’s Analysis: A good, impassioned statement, but rather than facing the camera, he talked to Truth and Patrick with his profile to the camera and lost a lot of impact in his statement.)
– Patrick even mentioned that the statement was a mic drop moment, but rather than ending the show, he had to ask Drew what leaving the Thunderdome meant to him. Drew gave a rather corporate answer and said that while it was great and he was happy to have performed in the Thunderdome and even won a title match there, he was excited to be back in front of the fans and win a title in front of a live audience.
– Patrick ended the show, but in some closing banter, asked why no stories tonight and Drew made illusion to hanging out with Riddle and his “incense” and then coming out and wanting to tell stories and have something to eat.
FINAL THOUGHTS: This show was only 24 minutes long and based solely on the amount of time they gave it; you can totally assume that it was a worthless and wasteful 24 minutes. Nikki came off as an escapee from Never Neverland or kindergarten, Riddle showed he could talk 100 MPH and not say a single interesting thing, and Drew came off as the guy at the bar sitting in the corner dreaming of days gone by and asking anybody who comes by, what happened and where he went wrong. Compared to Lashley’s impassioned promo that ended Raw, Drew McIntyre kept saying the same things in the same tone of voice and has reached the point of repetition that I just want off my TV screen. I don’t know where Drew’s passion went, but he is coming off as weak and as an irritant.
NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S RAW TALK REPORT: 7/5 WWE RAW TALK REPORT: The New Day being better than Bobby Lashley, Ricochet ready for MITB, more
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