The Ariel Helwani Show - The Uncrowned Wrestling Show | Roman Reigns tagged as overrated, Brock Lesnar retires, more

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Solomonster discusses Brock Lesnar announcing his retirement from wrestling on The Pat McAfee Show, people within WWE not believing he’s done, and two of his very best matches (02:08). Thoughts on the start of the tournament to crown a challenger for Roman Reigns in Mexico City, the burial of Dominik Mysterio on WWE television, and the comments that may have triggered it (06:08). Addressing recent comments by Conrad Thompson calling Roman Reigns “probably the most overrated main eventer in WWE history,” and why it’s a complicated argument to make (12:52). Thoughts on the first confrontation between CM Punk and Kevin Owens and the date of their championship match being revealed, plus Rhea Ripley goes under the knife, Chelsea Green is injured, the debut of Tatum Paxley and why the women’s division is something of a mess right now (24:55). AEW Grand Slam Mexico thoughts, including the return of MJF, Adam Copeland crossing an item off his bucket list, and updates on the Continental Cup (40:09). Finally, what Kevin Nash says is missing from pro wrestling today, Gable Steveson’s brother struck by lightning, and Ric Flair’s latest social media storm (46:33).

Welcome to the Uncrown Wrestling Show. Solomaster here for Tuesday, August 11th, 2006. False Finish is reporting that UFC star Michael Chandler was spotted at the WWE Performance Center on Monday. For what? That wasn't made clear. He has expressed an interest, though, in doing something with WWE in the past. Last year, he said he was talking to Triple H about a WWE contract, how to make that happen. He was on Raw two years ago. If you remember, he called out Connor McGregor for a fight.

That was very random. My guy is still waiting for that Connor fight two years later. At this rate, if it ever happens, it may be in WWE. Also, best wishes to the Hall of Famer Jim Ross. He is undergoing brain surgery tomorrow to install a shunt, which is to drain excess fluid from his brain into other parts of his body. He's only supposed to be hospitalized for a day, and then they'll send him home, barring any complications.

But he thinks this should help with the memory of balance issues that he's been experiencing because over the last several years, and he's talked about this on his podcast, he's fallen a whole bunch of times. And there are sometimes where he's been on the road in his hotel room where he'll fall, his phone is not near him, and he's just laying on the floor for hours. And, I mean, that's not good for anyone. When you're someone who is, you know, older and you've had health challenges, I mean, that could be fatal.

And so he's also been having memory issues, and with any hope, this will help hopefully, you know, correct some of that stuff. Now, he had said previously after the month that he spent in the hospital recently, that he was being tested for dementia and Alzheimer's. And he hasn't said anything about that since. So I'm hoping that this means those tests didn't find any evidence of that, and maybe this can do the trick. Here's hoping all goes well. J.R. is the best to ever do it. Let's get into the news here. This broke just after I finished recording last week's episode,

so I didn't get a chance to talk about it. But after his loss to Obafemi at SummerSlam, inside Hell and a Cell, Brock Lesner went on the Pat McAfee show last Tuesday, and he announced his retirement from pro wrestling and, quote, everything else. And reportedly, there are people within WWE who don't believe that Brock is really done. I don't necessarily believe that either. I believe he thinks he's really done right now, but you've also got AJ Stiles out there being very non-committal about his retirement

and talking about wanting to come back to maybe do a tag team match with his son, maybe some other stuff, nothing independently, but maybe other stuff. Brock is retired for now, but this is wrestling. And I don't believe that we've seen the last of him for good in the ring. But it is the first time that I've heard him use that word retire, like publicly and actually say the word. Corey Graves would always refer to him on commentary as the most decorated combat sports athlete of all time. You can make the case, you know, given his NCAA credentials, his pro wrestling achievements, his MMA success.

He certainly made himself into one of the biggest combat sports stars of all time. Once he hit UFC, Brock was box office. And he always was pretty much right up until his final match. He sat at home for two years. he got paid to do nothing after the Janelle Grant lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE dropped like a nuclear bomb. He wasn't named outright in the initial suit. He was only hinted at his name was eventually mentioned when she amended her lawsuit.

Not of anything illegal, but it wasn't good. It was disgusting, actually. So they had him on ice for two years before they brought him back at last year's SummerSlam, and the main thing of note that he did was work with Obafemi, who they have clearly tabbed to be their next big star. He's going to be the guy to take the world title off of Roman Reigns. They use Brock's name value and the legitimacy that he brings to what he does to help get Oba over as the next big thing,

as Brock was the next big thing when he arrived in 2002. There won't ever be another like Brock Lesnar. There was an authenticity to him that nobody else on that roster has, or any roster, really. Nobody else has what he had. nothing manufactured about him, right? There is no gimmick. What you see is what you get. There was just a different vibe when he was out there being introduced by Paul Heyman. And as far as his career is concerned, if you want to see his best match, I'll give you two.

All right, one from his first run and one from his second. His match with Eddie Guerrero at No Way Out in 2004, where Eddie won the WWE Championship. That is a classic. And his match with CM Punk at Summer Slam in 2013. The best. against the beast. Can't go wrong with either one of those matches. The man who ended the Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania. I still hate it to this day, but I'm glad I was in the building that night to see it live

because I have never seen a crowd so stunned and so confused in my life. We all thought the referee botched the count when he counted three. We just could not fathom them giving the streak up to Brock, who was a part-time guy who didn't need it. But then they threw up the 21-1 graphic on the Tron and everybody just gasped. One of the most surreal things I've ever been a part of. So we'll see him in the Hall of Fame one day. Haman is the only man to induct him.

It can't be anybody else. Man, but yeah, I was thinking about this. All of these big names, all of these legends, they're going away. Sting, John Sina, A.J. Stiles, Eroshi, Tanoashi, Brock Lesner. sucks to get old. Last night was Monday Night Raw, and last week, the show had an interesting little cliffhanger ending, where Roman Raines came to the back and he was confronted by Ray Mysterio, who was the general manager of AAA.

And Ray wanted to talk business. He said he had a proposal for Roman. Off they went. And a few days later, we got the announcement from Ray Mysterio that Roman is going to be defending the World Heavyweight Championship in Mexico City when Raw comes to Arena CDMX on September 14th, which is where Night 2 of Triple Mania is taking place the night before, and a tournament would be held to decide on a challenger for that night

consisting of the best luchadors from Raw Smackdown and AAA. Now on Raw last night, which was not nearly as good as last week's show, last week's show I thought was one of the best Rawls of the year, that definitely wasn't the show I watched last night. But Penta wrestled Laredo Kid in the opening round of the tournament, Penta won. And he now faces the winner of the match between Leparka and Psycho Clown, which is going to be held on AAA television this coming Saturday. Then on the August 17th episode of Raw, which is next week,

Dragon Lee, who is currently wrestling with a torn ligament in his thumb, he takes on Eli Hodel del Dr. Wagner Jr., and Ray Phoenix will wrestle El Fiscal. The winner of that match will meet the winner of the Dragonly Wagner match, which means, if you look at the brackets, we could be setting up for brother versus brother in the finals with Ray Phoenix and Penta. Or they could do a final of Penta against Dragonly.

There really is no bad option there, but the end result is going to be the same, I think, which is that Penta wins. I mean, this really can't go or shouldn't go any other way. And we get Penta challenging Roman reigns in Mexico City. Now, this could very easily tie back into an idea that I had last week and I spoke about on my end, which was before I knew about what the match was going to be, the whole tournament idea, and the Mexico City show on the 14th, I was talking about, like, maybe the idea is to tie this into Worlds Collide,

because they have a World's Collide show, WWE and AAA, and there's going to be a lot of inter-promotional matches. that show is on September 26th. And they announced that for Chicago, on the very same day, that AEW is running its all-out pay-per-view in the Chicago area. And I have no doubt that CM Punk will either wrestle or make some kind of appearance

on that show. I'm certain of that. But I was thinking, well, you know, maybe this is tied into worlds collide in some way in how maybe it's not a Roman Rains match necessarily. Maybe Ray Mysterio wanted to talk to Roman. Roman's going to have his cousin. working the show, but Worlds Collide would be a great time to set up for a big, like, tag team

dream match, first time ever between the Uso's and the Lucha Bros. The Lucha Bros have yet to team up in WWE. What better time to do it than that night in Chicago. Then we got the announcement of this tournament, but I'm looking at this and I'm saying, you know, if we get Roman Reigns against Penta or really Ray Phoenix, they could easily shoot an angle coming out of the match that will lead to a tag team match a few weeks later a Worlds Collide, right? Because it's still bloodline connected. So that's my hope anyway. You know, whatever

the outcome is here, whether it's Penta or Ray Phoenix, obviously Roman's going to win in the finals, but a couple weeks later you got that World's Collide show and I can't think of a bigger attraction, first time ever attraction that you can have on that show than the Uso's and the Lutra Bros.

I'm sure that would sell some tickets. One person who is not in the tournament is the AAA mega champion, their top champion, Dominic Mysterio, who pissed in someone's cornflakes because this guy has been buried six feet under for months now. Ever since he beat John Sina last year at Survivor Series, they have done nothing with him. But they have AAA's most prestigious championship on the guy. And he can't win a match on WWE television to save his life. I'm sure The Undertaker must be thrilled as he prepares to book.

his champion at Triplemania next month. They had him lose to Danhausen at SummerSlam. Then he took the pin in the tag team match the very next night on Raw, and then last night he lost to Dragon Lee, who prior to last night had not won a match on Raw in one full year. You would have to go back to August of 2025

to find the last time Dragon Lee won a singles match on that show. you're going to tell me that this isn't some sort of punishment? You know, there was a false finish report recently about Dominic being frustrated with his booking and wishing that they would book him more seriously because in AAA, he's their champion. But I wasn't actually aware of him making any public comments about his booking. I said, well, you know, that's an online report, but that doesn't mean that Dom himself actually said anything. So I don't really know what's going on here. But it was brought to my attention that,

In an interview with, I guess it was essay magazine, back around the time of Clash in Italy, he said this, which definitely reads like it's at least partially in character. But you're only in character so much when you openly talk about storylines and you use the word storyline, right? Like, are you really in character if you're talking about storylines? This is what he said. I don't think they know what to do with me. I'm too cool. They've got lightning in a bottle and have no idea what to do with it, so they're just letting it sit. I'm like you. I'm just waiting it. I can have all the storylines, but they don't know what to do with me. I'm too good.

They're holding me back. I'd beaten John Sina, AJ Stiles, Ray Mysterio, and Damien Priest. I don't know what they're waiting for. I'm 29 years old, still young, and you've got all these old fossils still working. I don't know what they're waiting for. That was in May, which just so happens to be the last time he won a match on TV. That would be an awfully big coincidence if you were. The two weren't connected.

And you know what? He said nothing wrong. They don't know what to do with him. He is languishing. There's nothing inaccurate about what he said there. I wish more people would call these things out. Because at this rate, by the time he drops that belt to El Grande Americano at Triplemania, it won't be worth more than a tank of gas.

But I mentioned that tournament. And so on the subject of Roman reigns, he was in the news last week. for another reason, and I finally get the chance to address this here. On a recent episode of Eric Bischoff's 83 Weeks podcast, his co-host, Conrad Thompson, he ruffled some feathers when he called Roman Raines probably the most overrated main eventer in WWE history, which is a sentiment that Bischoff agreed with him on. Now, this is coming off Roman SummerSlam main event with Seth Rollins. That was the best thing on either night of that show.

they had an excellent match, as Roman did with CM Punk at WrestleMania this year. That match was even better than the summer slum match. But this was the quote, I'm going to give you a hot take that's going to annoy you. I know this isn't a wrestling term, it's a music term, but Roman Raines is what music would call an industry plant. I don't think if Roman Raines disappears tomorrow that WWE's fortune changes at all. They push Roman down our throats forever.

when people talk about their favorite match ever, how many people list a Roman Rain's match? How many people list their favorite promo as a Roman Raines promo? He just flies in, takes 12 minutes to get to the ring, wrestles kind of the same match, does it really, really slow, gets his hand raised, and he moves on. He's Goldberg if Goldberg worked more than 10 minutes. After which, Bischoff, who has called the bloodline the best story in wrestling,

that wrestling has ever produced, he agreed with him. So to me, this is not black or white, right? Like, yes, he's right or no, he's wrong. That's not really what this is. He's right in some ways. He's wrong in other ways. Roman Reins was forced down our throats for years.

Vince McMahon was looking for the next John Cena. Roman had the right look. Vince, he fell in love with the guy. Right? You would just look at Rome. and he had that cool factor about him. All of a sudden, Roman, when he split away from the shield, you'll notice he was wearing these, like, blue contact lenses

because he wanted him to have blue eyes. And like Vince had this image of what he wanted this man to be. This was going to be his new top baby face. And the problem is, by 2015, the fans were rejecting Roman in that spot because they wanted somebody else in that spot. That's someone being Daniel Bryan. That's why Roman got booed out of the building,

at the Royal Rumble that year even after they sent the rock out there to endorse him and raise his arm. That was the second straight year that they fucked the fans over on a Royal Rumble finish and they were fed up with it. And when Roman was in the shield, he was cool. When Vince went hands-on with him as his personal pet project and he started writing his promos for him, word for word, verbatim, it all went to shit because he wasn't cool anymore. He was the antithesis of cool. I believe, that this is me, I believe that to become a great baby face, you need to first be a great heel. Now, you may find examples of that not being the case. I think it helps a lot. Get the people

to hate you so then they can love you. Or be the good guy who breaks bad or, you know, for whatever reason, and then you've got the redemption arc, right, for later. The worst thing that Vince McMahon ever did for Roman Reigns was refuse to turn him heel all those years ago. It's the same shit that he did with Sina. Right? You know, just stay the course, or we sell a lot of merch, or whatever his rationale was. You know, I know better than they do.

And, and hey, sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. But because of that, it led to a shitty Royal Rumble. It led to a shitty WrestleMania main event in 2016, and again in 2017, and again in 2018. And when Roman came back after

COVID started, he insisted on being a heel, right? Now, depending on who you believe, he might have even refused to come back at all if Vince didn't let him come back as a heel with Paul Heyman as his manager. It's the best thing that ever happened to his career. If you wanted to call Roman overrated as a main eventor up until that point or overpush, the most overpushed of all time, some would say Sina, but if you wanted to make that argument, you get no argument out of me. The crux of Conrad's argument in looking at some of the back and forth that he had after this

on social media defending his position because he was tweeting and quote tweeting back to a lot of people. Was that Roman had Paul Heyman with him. Unlike so many other of these legendary main event guys who didn't have a manager at their peak, Roman had Paul Heyman at his side

when he came back in 2020. And you can attribute a lot of his success to Paul Heyman. He's giving Heyman a lot of the credit for that success, right? The wise man to his tribal chief. This is a flawed argument. Although I will say, there is something to be said for Roman coming in as the tribal chief during a period where there were

no fans at attendance because of COVID, it's hard for the crowds to rebel against you when there are no crowds and when you can control the narrative and you can control the cheers and the booze from your production truck. So who knows? Maybe the crowds would have continued crapping all over him like they were before he left, but he was also a heel now. And a heel is what a lot of fans wanted him to be in the first place. The idea that no one has a Roman Raines match on their list of favorite matches or as their all-time favorite match. Roman had a killer match of WrestleMania just this year. Is it going to go down as people's favorite match of all time?

Maybe not, but it's a bit much to suggest that no one has a Roman Reigns match as their favorite match. You don't, because you're an older fan. A lot of us are on the older side of our fandom. So your perspective, my perspective, is going to be very different than that of a fan who's been watching the product for three years, five years, eight years. Roman is all they've known. Not even John Cena. Not Austin, not Rock, not Hogan. The WrestleMania 40 main event in Philadelphia a few years ago, of which Roman was a major part. That is legitimately in the

conversation for one of the greatest WrestleMania main events of all time. That is absolutely going to be on some people's lists as their all-time favorite match. Now again, Conrad's been on social media, bringing it back to Paul Heyman. The only reason people started caring about Roman is because Heyman was sitting next to him. Well, isn't it just as likely that they would have started caring more about him once he turned heel? And he wasn't doing the big dog stuff anymore, right, regardless of Hayman being with him. Fans weren't clamoring for Roman Raines to become a Paul Heyman guy.

They wanted him to be a fucking heel. They wanted something other than the big dog And Baron Corbyn smothering dog food all over him And him looking into the hard camera And winking after what they thought was a sick line in a promo When really all it did was give people douche chills Suffering fuckatash Remember that? You know who says that? An 80-year-old cartoon cat

Not your top baby face But that's what happens when you have a septuagenarian emboss writing your promos for you. You know what a lot of those old school main event guys would have done if they got handed something like that on a piece of paper? They would have crumpled it up into a ball and tossed it into the fucking trash where it belongs. That is not what people wanted to see.

But he wanted to come back with Haman, and so Haman he got. And Paul Haman is great. He absolutely enhanced the presentation. As Haman did for Brock Lesner, as Paul Baer did for The Undertaker. The Undertaker doesn't hit the same without Paul Baer holding that urn up in the air so he can rise from the dead. He also cut most of Undertaker's promos for him for years, as Hayman did for Lesnar. I wouldn't say Hayman did it for Roman quite as much. Roman could cut his own promos, but I don't see how this is any different.

Would he be saying the same thing for those guys? That without Paul Heyman, Brock is nothing. He's overrated. That without Paul Bear, the Undertaker is overrated as the top guy. To say that nobody cared until Haman joined him, nobody cared until they turned him. That was the change that got him on the right path. Do I rank Roman Rains in the top 10 of all time? No, I don't.

But he'll be more comparable to someone like John Cena than he will be to Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin or even the Rock. Conrad is sort of right in one regard. If Roman goes away, I can't say the WWE's fortunes don't change at all. they would take at least a small hit. They probably don't move as many tickets to some of these upcoming shows that they're advertising him for, but it's nothing that they wouldn't be able to survive or just brush off before plugging the next guy in that spot. Now, compare that with someone like Hogan. If you take away Hogan, when he got hot, they're dead in the water.

Same with Austin. He got hot at just the right time. You take him away, that company may not survive bankruptcy. You take Roman Rains away now or years ago when he was. a baby face, the machine rolls on. They get a gash on their arm, they put a band-aid on it, and they go on with their day. And a week later, it's all healed up. That I do agree with.

And I think that, more than anything, has to do with how WWE is in a very different place now than they were when Hogan was on top, or when Austin was on top, or Rock, or even Sina, to a lesser extent. They're too big to fail. They're too big to fail. If you were watching WWE television in 2018 and 2019, okay, you know what I'm talking about. If that didn't kill them, nothing well. But they're too big to fail. They've got so much guaranteed money coming in for their media rights and from all of their sponsors, which are everywhere now.

Chad Gable can't even finish celebrating his big title win at SummerSlam before being mugged by the root beer mascot. Today, there is no one wrestler who's bigger than WWE. And it wasn't always like that, but it is now, and that's on purpose. They do that on purpose. That's how they want it. Because they don't want someone to get too big for their britches, right? Or to get so big that if they choose to go off to Hollywood or do something else,

the company is all of a sudden in real trouble. Because the company is so heavily reliable on this one person, business can't be sustained without them. They've made sure that that never happens again. That's why there will never be another Hogan. There will never be another Austin. So even just having this argument, it's not really a fair argument to be having because we're talking about a very different business

than the one that existed 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago. The wrestling business is different. Television is different. The company is not as reliant on selling tickets as they're bread and butter as it used to be. Selling pay-per-views. That's not even a thing anymore in WWE.

Television ratings. They're not counted the same way anymore. Raw isn't even on television anymore. It's a streaming property. now. The star isn't Roman Reigns. The star isn't C.M. Punk or Cody Rhodes or Obafemi or Ria Ripley. The star is WWE. There is no more name on the marquee. Those days are dead and gone. Is Roman the most overrated main eventor in history? It all depends on who you're comparing him to. The older names, probably. Although I would put Triple H ahead of Roman Reins on that list.

but I think it's disingenuous to not point out all of those other facts or put a little star next to Roman's name. You start comparing all of these main event names with one another. It's not really an apples to apples thing. That's my two cents on that. Then we had Smackdown on Friday night, which was the Smackdown coming out of SummerSlam. We knew coming out of SummerSlam that Kevin Owens was the number one contender for the WWE championship.

We just didn't know when he would be getting that shot, but we did go. get our first face-to-face in-ring interaction since Summer's line between these two. I've been waiting for this match for a long time for them to do this match. We have not seen it ever. And Punk has been back now for a few years. The two guys on the roster maybe more than any other who you look at them. And they really stand out in wrestling today because it's just so many things and so many people on TV, you know, they have their character, they have their part that they're playing or just in some cases feels very manufactured or forced. You don't get that with punk.

What you see is what you get. There's an authenticity to him. Same thing with Kevin Owens. And obviously two of the best promo guys as well, right? Forget their in ring. So I've been looking forward to this for a while. So we got them in the ring together. Basically, Owens straight up called him an arrogant sociopath.

And punk talks about, you know, I'm the best in the world and all of this stuff. but he says, you know, I back it up. And when I came into the company, there were people calling me skinny fat, which is true. That was one of the criticisms of him. And he asked Owens, you know, do you really think the WWE was waiting around, holding their breath to sign Kevin Owens at that time? He goes, I blazed the trail for you. You should be thanking me. You should be showing your appreciation for me.

I help knock those doors down to people like you to be able to sign with WWE, which, by the way, is 100% true. The two people that had maybe the greatest influence on that company in the 2010s, mainly the 2010s, were CM Punk and Brian Danielson, them getting over in the way that they did, right? Two smaller, more so Danielson in terms of, like, physically smaller, indie darlings, getting over in front of a WWE audience, absolutely opened the doors for people like Kevin Owen,

to be signed and Sammy Zane to be signed and Finn Baller and a bunch of other people. These are the people that populated NXT black and gold and made black and gold so great, you know, in the middle, in the middle and latter part of that decade. It was the best wrestling that WWE was producing that anybody for a period of time was producing. And it was based around a core group of guys just like that, you know, experienced guys from the independence scene. That doesn't happen. If punk and Brian don't have the success and the fan following that they have. So I like that they brought that up in the promo because I think there's a lot of truth to that. But the disdain that these two men had for each other was very evident.

It came across well. I'm not sure that that's completely unrealistic either, but they certainly played it perfectly. I thought there was a little shove at the end by Owens and then they had to be separated. But Owens told Nick all this later in the show, I want to be. want my title. I know when I want my title match. I want my title match on August 21st, Smackdown in Toronto. And Toronto is also the place where we last saw Kevin Owens wrestle against Sammy Zane at Elimination Chamber last year at the Rogers Center. So we have a championship match set now for the 21st. Sammy Zane has been looped into this. There was an interaction with him and Owens. Obviously

Sammy has been friends and enemies with Owens, but he's not happy with how Owens came back. He said, you got to admit, you screwed me over, the way that you came back, I just want an apology. And Owens gave him a half-hearted apology, and Sammy made it very clear to him that just because there's something that you want, and that's your goal, that's your dream, doesn't mean that it's not mine either. So it was almost like a warning shot to Kevin Owens. And so now we have this title match, and Owens, somebody pointed this out to me, because every single time Kevin Owens' challenge for the WWE Championship, He has been unsuccessful. The only title he's ever held, world, quote unquote, world title

was actually the universal title. That was 10 years ago. And every time he has challenged for the WWE championship, he has fallen short. His record is something like 0 for 11. He would be 0 for 12 if he goes in there and doesn't win.

I would love nothing more than to see him get that dub on the 21st. Honestly, get that win, give him a run with it. Because, first of all, How many times can this guy lose? Number one, and he just came back. And number two, I just think it's going to make television a lot more interesting

if you put the belt on Owens and you have Punk now has to get it back from him. Sammy's involved. Cody and Randy are off doing their own thing right now, but, you know, they'll be looped into this whole title picture soon enough. And all of a sudden, the championship picture on Smackdown becomes a hell of a lot more interesting going into a period of the year where I think typically there's not a whole lot going on. You know, when you get into the fall in the winter,

in the end part of the year, and the holidays and everything, it's almost like a dead period in a way. And this would be a great way, I think, to spice things up a little bit. But whatever happens, I fully expect Sammy Zane is going to play some kind of role in the finish of that match. Who knows? Maybe he gets involved in things backfire, and Owens actually wins the belt. But that's going to be taking place not this coming Friday,

but the following Friday in Toronto. So, gee, I wonder who the fan favorite will be going. into that match. Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, they're doing their own thing non-title right now. They had a promo exchange. Cody, yeah, I saw some people saying, oh, Heel Cody. We saw Heel Cody coming out in the promo. It wasn't Heel Cody. I mean, Cody had a line in there where he said, I'm not bound by the standards of the WWE Championship anymore. He goes, I don't have to be the good guy anymore. And so good. If it means some sort of an attitude adjustment, an attitude shift for him, not necessarily a full-on heel turn.

Great. I think a lot of people are just clamoring for something different with Cody. They're tired. Like, Cody fatigue is a real thing. And also, you know, look, a lot of people are going to be cheering Randy Orton, regardless of what they do. It's the same issue that they were, you know, having going into WrestleMania this year. Now they'll have the chance to work together.

There's no more Pat McAfee. There's no more TKO sticking their nose where it really shouldn't belong. Let these two guys carry on their feud. and we don't need the outside distractions. We don't need celebrities. We don't need all the Gaga and the BS. Let them do their thing and then coming out of it, whoever it is, whether it's Orton or Cody,

we'll probably get that next shot at the championship. I wouldn't even bother putting the belt on Cody or think about putting the belt back on Cody, you know, anytime soon. And certainly not before WrestleMania next year. Keep it on punk or some combination of punk and Owens, you know, heading into next year. I think that's the way to go. Ria Ripley.

She has been out of action since the end of May, beginning of June, with a knee injury, and she was hoping to rehab the knee injury naturally and then make a comeback at some point very, very soon, which is why they came up with this whole interim champion nonsense instead of just stripping her of the championship, which is what they should have done from the very beginning.

Well, her rehab was not going so well, and so she ended up going under the knife to repair her torn meniscus. She posted on Thursday, life update. After just under 14 years in wrestling and doing sports my entire life, it's caught up to me. Surgery was never a first option for me, but it got to the point that it was needed. First one down, hopefully no more. I've survived. Now it's time to start thriving again so I can get back to what I love to do.

See you all down the road. and the hope is that she might be back in time for the Royal Rumble. And if she is, there's your Royal Rumble winner for 2007. So they have this latter match at Summer Slam last weekend, and Chelsea Green emerges as the new interim WWE women's champion. So she came out on Friday night. This is after Ria had already made her announcement. She comes out on Friday night for her championship celebration.

They never mentioned the word interim. From the moment she walked out on commentary by Chelsea herself, I don't think they uttered the word interim a single time. They identified her as the new WWE Women's Champion, which is what she should be. Now, they still have her listed as the interim champion on www.com. Sometimes they don't update those things so quickly, so I don't know.

It would be nice to get some clarity on exactly what she is. She comes out to the ring and she invites her friend Tiffany Stratton, the U.S. champion, out to the ring. And Tiffany's about to ask, I have something I have to tell you. But then fatal influence interrupts. J.C. Jane, Lainey Reed, Fallon Henley. And Jacey said, look, if it wasn't for Tiffany, I would have been in that latter match at SummerSlim. And I would be the champion right now.

So I'm going to take something from you, and that is your U.S. title. And Stratton said, look, I'll give you a shot at the belt if Fatal Influence gives the two of us a shot at their women's tag team titles. And that led to a tag team match on Friday. where the new women's champion, Chelsea Green, was teaming up with Tiffany Stratton, and the new champion was pinned by Fallon Henley. Not only was she pinned and took the loss in that match, but she was injured on the finish. They have their fatal flaw finish.

She got injured on the finish. And Chelsea confirmed on her Instagram that she suffered a broken orbital bone. She said, I did get injured last night. Stuff happens. It's live television. It's wrestling. it's an occupational hazard. I ended up in the emergency room and I have a broken orbital bone. It looks amazing, all things considered. It feels awful, but it looks pretty amazing. I have no idea what

that means for me. You know, usually you guys have seen me play into every single injury, but this feels different. This feels very different. It feels frustrating. I'm upset. I feel like if I didn't have bad luck, I would have no luck at all. So I just need to take a little bit more time to process and kind of heal from the head trauma that is going on right now. And then we'll see what happens. We're just going to take it day by day. So world domination continues. We've just had a minor blip.

Depending on the severity of things or if she needs surgery, she could potentially be looking at significant time on the shelf. It all comes down to the severity of this. If it's not so severe, if she's lucky, she could probably come back with a protective mask, which she has worn before for her nose. She's broken her nose five times already. And it would actually kind of fit her gimmick perfectly

to come back with some bedazzled, you know, protective mask on her face. But now here we are, until we have more clarity on this, we are left again with the women's championship as we have since June in limbo on this show after they just crowned an interim champion,

who may not be interim anymore. again, we don't know because they haven't clarified for us. I just think about Jade Cargill. I think about Liv Morgan in the Women's World Title. They both went over 100 days without even defending their belts. So if Chelsea doesn't need surgery, it shouldn't be a problem. There's no need to take the belt off of her. But it's not a good start to her reign when she wins the world title in the very next show.

They have Charlotte Flair and Jade Cargill wrestling in the main event. And the champion is, stuck at a tag team match in the middle of the card, and they have her take the losing pin. What? What are we doing here? What is going on here? We did have Jade and Charlotte in the main event for the first time,

and actually there was something else that happened on Smackdown, which is we had a new face from NXT making her debut. Tatum Paxley, and she is aligned with Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. Here's my question. Look, I'm very happy for Tatum. She's got a lot of fans who I'm sure are very happy to see her on the main roster. And hopefully now she's making main roster money. Why debut new women on this show when they have others that are not even being used?

This is my question. You have Blake Monroe, who's fucking awesome. If you saw Mariah Mae and AEW and I don't just mean like her matches, but like her character work and everything, she's fantastic. and she spent many, many, many months in NXT, and they finally, they start putting these vignettes on Smackdown, Blake Monroe is coming. This has been going on for months, by the way. And we've technically seen her debut on the show

because she attacked Julia in the ring, which feels like a lifetime ago at this point. Julia, I don't even think Julie ever acknowledged it. But that was supposed to be her debut. She still hasn't even wrestled a match on the show. Someone on Twitter said they have her doing everything but wrestling. And Blake wrote back, as she quote tweeted it, and she said, Why wrestle when I could get paid to eat donuts with a fork?

Yeah. Julia. Keanu James. Dead in the water. Jordan Grace. Don't even get me started. Former TNA knockouts champion. Russell votes did a Q&A recently, and they said with Jordan, it's a numbers game.

She's not in any storylines. It's just a numbers game, and you've got to pick and choose. I guess because Smackdown is only two hours now and not three. So that makes it worse and there's a lot of women who are not going to be featured. Here's the thing about that, okay? She wasn't wrestling when SmackDown was three hours. The show went back to two hours last month. She hasn't worked a match on Smackdown since April.

What about the first six or seven months of the year? You can make it a four-hour show. God forbid. But you can make it a four-hour show. They would still have her wrestling on main event. before Smackdown goes on the air. If it's a numbers game, I don't understand the logic behind calling up even more women

on a show where they already have women in that division wasting away. That's what I don't understand. They need to do a better job with this women's division. It's not fair to them. If they're just sitting around doing nothing and collecting dust, I don't see how that benefits the company. I don't see how that benefits them. It gives them depth when you have injuries.

If people go down with injuries, okay, well, now we can plug this person in here. year, but is this why they've called them up because they fear if someone might get hurt, right? That's not why they called them up. Why did they call them up? What is the logic that goes into, hey, you know what? I think now's a good time to call up so and so. And then you do it and you don't have a plan for them.

I don't understand that. AEW had its Grand Slam Mexico show on Wednesday last week. Hot crowd. One of their best shows all year, honestly, at Arena, Mexico. They had eight matches. They had nothing in the way of backstage segments. It was like a pay-per-view in that regard. If you're into great wrestling matches and, again, a hot crowd,

this was maybe the best wrestling TV all year. There just wasn't much else to it. The big takeaway from the show, though, was the return of MJF. We have not seen MJF since he lost his world championship at Beach Break early last month to Kenny Omega. Kenny Omega was not at Arena Mexico on Wednesday. I'm not sure why. That was surprising. But MJF came out to attack Andrade L. Edelow and bloody him up after Andrade's match.

Andrade won the right to enter the casino gauntlet at all in in the number one spot. That's the spot you want to be in. Because in those gauntlet matches, the earlier you enter, the match is one fall to a finish. So the gauntlet does not have to be terribly long and it could be all over. So you want to be in the number one or two spot. So he's going to be in the number one spot. MJF now coming up on dynamite tomorrow night is going to have the opportunity to compete for the number two spot

and that's going to be against, I believe it's against Speedball and Nick Wayne, I believe. So, yeah, we all know who number two is going to be in the gauntlet match it all in. But he got his Dynamite Diamond ring back because Andrade stole it at some point. He's been walking around with MJF's ring for weeks. So he took it back off of his finger.

He hit him in the head with it. That's what busted him open. Interestingly, MJF also had his old championship with him, the Triple B, which is his version of the world title. Obviously, he's not the champion anymore, but now he's going around calling himself the true champion. So I don't know if that's going to be a case where he's going to be defending his belt as if he is the champion or just carrying it around with him. But, you know, MJF has already won one of these gauntlet matches before it all in. He used that contract to actually win the world title last year at World's End. And he's going to be trying to win his second, I guess, second straight one this year.

So it's good to have him back. You know, he's, he's the best. I mean, honestly, it's him and Kenny, Osprey's great, MJF. I mean, that's Mr. AEW right there. And when he's not around and he's not on these shows, you feel it. So it's good to have him back. Adam Copeland, he had never worked Arena, Mexico before last week. He was finally able to cross that off his bucket list.

He wrote on Instagram the next day, what a night. Finally, after 34 years, I was privileged to step into the wrestling cathedral, Arena, Mexico, and man, Mexico, you did not disappoint. I felt the vibrations in my bones when I came out. It's been 18 years since I last performed in Mexico and to finally do it in those hallowed halls. A perfect way to cap off my love affair with Lucha Libre in Mexico. I'll take last night to the grave with me, Gracias, Mexico. and he's going to be defending those tag team titles with Christian against the Young Bucks at Wembley Stadium. That'll be another check on his list. He's never wrestled at Wembley before.

He has wanted to wrestle at the Maple Leaf Gardens, which is not the Maple Leaf Gardens anymore. It's got a different name. Maple Leaf Garden sounds a lot cooler. He'll be able to cross that one off his list in October. He's going to be coming in for Scott DeMore's Maple Leaf Pro for a pay-per-view, I think it's a match against Steve Macklin. and then the only arena building on his list left to work before he calls it a day is Tokyo. Tokyo Dome. Maybe he'll be on the Russell Kingdom card next year. Against who?

Who would we put Adam Copeland against at the Tokyo Dome? I don't know. It's an interesting question there. Eddie Kingston, I wanted to mention him. They have this Continental Cup that they've started. and there's going to be a match. The finals will take place it all in at Wembley. The winner gets the Continental Cup, which is brand new,

and I guess we'll also get the Continental Championship, which is not new. Eddie Kingston was the winner of the very first Continental Classic a few years ago. He has not been used much on AW television. Really, he hasn't been used at all, maybe twice all year. Last time I think we saw him wrestle on Dynamite was March, right? February or March. mostly he's been doing some indie matches and he's been in Ring of Honor.

He's been doing stuff in R-O-H. We actually had him in for the main event of our House of Glory show on Friday night. And he had a 3 a.m. flight out of New York to head to Colorado Springs because he was scheduled to wrestle Jake Doyle of the Don Callis family in the Continental Cup first round,

which he did and he won. So he is moving on in the tournament. I still think it comes down to John Moxley and Jay White in the finals. if they wanted to run back for old time's sake. Moxley and Eddie Kingston, obviously there's a lot of history there. They've been friends. They've been at each other's throats occasionally.

That would be cool. It's just weird. Eddie, again, has not been around on AEW television and for him to be in the tournament and go all the way to the finals. Yeah, I don't know about that. I'd rather it be John Moxley and Jay White. But the first three men have advanced in the tournament. Eddie being one, Claudio, Castagnoli being the other, and Orange Cassidy being the third.

Tomorrow Night Dynamite is in Las Vegas. I believe they're at the Palms. Great venue. Jay White wrestles David Finley, John Moxley wrestles Jack Perry. And then Saturday on Collision, also in Vegas. Roderick Strong takes on Kyle O'Reilly. They are partners in the conglomeration group. Hetchacero takes on Brian Cage. and Nigel McGinn. Actually, is Brian, Brian Cage is still part of the Callis family? That's two Callis family members. And Nigel McGinnis,

leaving the commentary desk for one night to take on Katsiori Shabbata. After Saturday, the remaining eight men will be entered into a blind draw to decide the next round. The semifinals will take place on dynamite from Glasgow, Scotland, and the finals will then take place at all in London on August 30th. So that is how things are all set up for the Continental Cup. Now, a few other news and notes here. WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash on his Click This podcast with co-host Sean Oliver

was talking about how much wrestlers used to learn from the volume of matches and the time spent on the road together. This is after a conversation they were having about a much harder style in the ring. Oliver brought up Samoa Joe and Necro Butcher after their recent Dark Side of the Ring episode was brought up. And, you know, you can't work that kind of style 300 days a year. Nash then said, I think that's one of the things that's missing. I was watching on YouTube the other day, or it might have been on Instagram. What looked like a TV taping, but it was a while back, it was Tully Blanchard against Sam Houston, probably about a four-minute clip, and it looked like they were having a fight.

I mean, it had a really gritty feel to it, and I think that's one of the things that is missing today. And when Sean suggested that the product might simply have evolved, Nash said, well, the blueprint of the match is somebody's got to make a comeback and somebody's got to give it at the end of the night. So basically the basic fundamentals of wrestling haven't changed. My two cents here, as a fan, I agree with Nash. I miss that gritty feeling that he's talking about. But come on. Like we don't need to pretend that every wrestling match from the 70s or the 80s

look like a real fight. like Buzz Sawyer, he would sell the shit out of a punch and he would go flying out of the ring in like the most over the top ridiculous way. It was great, but it was over the top. Kurt Hennig. I love Kurt Hennig. I love Mr. Perfect. He would oversell a simple ram into the turnbuckle by taking a backflit bump out of the corner. Right? Right. Like needing three clotheslines to take the big guy down because one wasn't enough and he just kind of staggers backwards until he finally goes down. you know, shooting someone into the ropes with an Irish whip. Like, you're not going to see that in a real fight. I mean, you could try it, but you're going to get your ass kicked.

Those things all existed back then, and they can be very entertaining. If you've never seen Rick Rood sell an atomic drop, are you even a real wrestling fan? Now, that being said, one aspect of wrestling today that I don't like is how it feels more like a performance, where you would see a panel of judge. at ringside holding up scorecards, you know, to rate the moves, rather than it feeling like these two people are actually trying to win a wrestling match.

That is one of my pet peeves. Former NXT star Damon Kemp, real name Bobby Stevenson, the older brother of UFC and Real American Freestyle star Gable Steven, posted a photo from his hospital bed on Friday after being struck by lightning. Survived my first and hopefully last lightning strike. said. Holy shit. He'd have to be struck by lightning one more time if he wants to catch up to Rick Flair, who claims to have been the victim of not one but two lightning strikes in his life. The first time it bounced off his umbrella and it hit the guy five feet behind him in the

eye and killed him. He's told that story a lot over the years, although I've never been able to find any news reports verifying it. You would think that something like that would have at least gotten like a newspaper blurb or something. It's a great story, though. Maybe not so much for the guy behind him. But speaking of the nature boy, he was drunk tweeting again, or as it's called when Flair does it,

tweeting, he posted a photo. It may have been an old one of him and his, I can't say ex-wife because I don't think they were ever officially married. But Wendy Barlow, who played Fifi the maid for Flair in WCW back in the early 90s. I think they had reconnected years and years later. They got engaged in, I think, 2016, and they had a ceremony later on, but they were never legally married.

Anyway, they separated a while back, and on Sunday, he posted a photo of the two of them with this message. He actually wrote this, okay, with the first letter of every word capitalized, of course. That's how you know it came from Flair's phone. Says, I told you, it was only a matter of time until you came running back. At least I know I am in good hands. hands because you have always taken the best care of me out of anyone in the whole world. She finally figured out there was only one Rick Flair and one James Bond. And currently Rick Flair is available for any kind of action.

Let's see if Wendy still has it. LFG. My God. Yes, he cut a promo on his girlfriend. And a classy one at that. By Monday, of course he was dragged for this on social media. By Monday, he was walking it back and he tweeted. He said, Wendy and I are not renewing a relationship. We are renewing a 34-year friendship.

She has her own residence and I have mine. She's coming to Tampa primarily to take care of her parents who are both in their 80s and not in good health. Wendy will continue to do what she does best, travel the world and help people who are struggling in other countries. I'll resume what I do and love, most of which is attending public events and signing autographs and meet and greets. please don't turn something positive into something negative. There he goes again. Plain victim. If that's all you have to do, find something better to do.

The one part I am sure of, which she reminds me of whenever we speak, is that she will always be there for me if I get sick again, and I was sick for two years. Her whole family took care of me. Find someone else to hate on. Wendy and I are good. So there you go, ladies. Rick Flair is available for any kind of action.

You know, the way he talks about these women, he's lucky he doesn't get hit with a class action. And I'll end with this. TNA has entered into what they are calling an innovative partnership with dude wipes. The partnership was announced in a press release on Thursday, which notes that the dude wipes mascot, Deuce. Yes, really. Will be incorporated into a custom TNA storyline. Deuce, a large pack of dudewis, a large pack of dudewis, with sunglasses, arms, and legs

will appear in backstage segments, match walkouts, at ringside, and in digital content. TNA's lockdown pay-per-view on August 23rd will feature an appearance by Deuce with the full partnership beginning at TNA's TV taping in San Antonio on September 25th. A custom TNA storyline gives new meaning to the term

shitty storyline. Anyway, if you have questions, comments, You can email me the Solomaster at gmail.com, or you can tweet me on X. At Solomaster is my handle. Make sure that you are subscribed. Whichever feed you are using, the dedicated feed or the Ariel Helwani show feed is where you can listen to the Uncrowned Wrestling show every single week. Tell your friends. Spread the word.

We've been getting a lot of good feedback. I appreciate it. And I'll be back with you next Tuesday for a brand new installment. So until then, I'm Jason Solomon. And when it comes to the news, if you didn't know, now you know. I'll see you next time. for more uncrowned. Take care, guys.