WWE TV - 6/9 - 6/15/2025 - Iguana Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)

[Dolfan in NYC]

 Clock strikes upon the hour, and the sun begins to fade... Still enough time to figure out, how to chase my blues away...

We have TWO new Mx. Moneys in the Bank!  (I use mx. because I do not know how Seth and Naomi self-identify!) That said, let's go to a post show moment:

Hell yeah Naomi.  Shut those idiots up.

 I've done alright up 'till now, it's the light of day that shows me how. And when the night falls, loneliness calls....

But that wasn't the biggest surprise last week.  We have a superstar who has touched the lives of all he's seen.  Dedicated himself to this craft and made himself the most entertaining person you could ever hope to watch.

That's right... Welcome to the stage....

MISTER IGUANA!  (Going from 150 cheering you to 15,000 must be quite the feeling.)

(oh yeah, and R. Truth Ron Killings is back! )

 Oh, I wanna dance with somebody! I wanna feel the heat with somebody! Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody! With somebody who loves me!

This week!  Ay.... I heard you like tournaments dawg.   Let's start the King & Queen of the Ring tourneys!  PLUS...

I'd guess they'll save Seth's cash in for SummerSlam, but we'll see. 

 

(Whit definitely dealt with her share of reptiles in her time.  RIP to the best pop singer ever.)

Enjoy the week!

[odessasteps]

Perpetual tournaments? Which company am I discussing? 
 

for a few minutes this afternoon, a wrestling watching sports announcer thought my use of the NDA name for Paul’s stable was their actual name and couldn’t believe it. I had to tell him it was just my name as this company would certainly use those initials in 2025 onscreen.

[odessasteps]

QOTR bracket spoiler 

Spoiler

Asuka vs Vaquer is going to break a certain portion of the internet.

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

Someone who said they would never go to Saudi Arabia will be on the 'Night of Champions' card. 

[stuntmanc]

I'm going to go against the grain of "hahaha, fuck this hypocrite" and say, i thought it was a pretty clever move using it as an angle from Cena on getting him to that match.  

[Casey]

My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

[Eivion]

Opening with Cena and Punk was a solid setup for their title match. Sadly, I can only give so much of a damn since I don't watch Saudi shows.

AJ/Gable was solid.

Rhea vs. Kairi vs. Liv vs. Roxanne was good. Dug the story of this one being Liv finding herself gradually working well with Roxanne until the finish with Roxy sneaking away with the win. Beyond that I thought everyone mostly looked good here. Was happy to see Roxanne get the win. She probably needed it more than the others and it worked as another move forward in her story with attempting to join Judgement Day.

Dug the Becky segment. Her trying to gaslight the crowd into thinking she was the sane one and not a complete bitch was amusing. Bayley's return was nice to see though a part of me wishes it happened after Lyra beat Becky's ass down again.

Truth coming in right after that segment was surprising. As was the hair cut. Kind of like that he is coming back as Ron Killings. Will be interesting to se him be less of a comedy character after so long.

Sami vs. Dom vs. Penta vs. Bron was good. Dug the push with Bron as a beast here. Surprised they managed to mostly keep this everyman for himself outside of one moment to put the beating on Bron. Knight coming in for the finish was a nice surprise and worked well to set up Sami to take the win.

Skipped around the Nikki Bella segment until Liv came in. Liv was nice with how fired up she was. Nikki had some decent comebacks as well when talking shit. Will be interesting to see if this leads to a 1 on 1 or a Brie return with the Bellas challenging for the tag belt at Evolution. Happy Liv is getting a big match either way though I kind of hope its the latter. Would be nice to see the titles themselves in a big spot, and the Bellas were among those who wanted tag titles for years for obvious reasons only for them to happen after both retired. It would be good to see them challenge for the titles at least once.

Jey vs. Gunther was pretty darn good, maybe their best match yet. Really dug how this was worked around Jey's busted ribs and the fact that he was overworking himself the past few weeks. All this worked to set up  pretty nice struggle for Jey throughout the match. Kind of loved the ending stretch being a battle of sleepers with a struggle happening for both guys. As well executed as all this was I have to admit I'm not actually big on Gunther retaking the belt. Feels a bit too soon considering just how well Jey's run as champ had been going with the audience. This felt like the time to give him a nice heroic win. It feels even more odd given Seth and friends current heel run. Curious to see where it all goes though right now I'm overly fond of it.

 

Even with my complaints I thought this was a good show. The storytelling and wrestling delivered here with plenty of interesting things being set up and every match being generally good. Still felt one or two matches short, but we at least got a great main event out of it in Jey/Gunther.

Edited June 10 by Eivion

[odessasteps]

serious heel Ron Killings would fit nicely with heel New Day. 

[hammerva]

5 hours ago, stuntmanc said:

I'm going to go against the grain of "hahaha, fuck this hypocrite" and say, i thought it was a pretty clever move using it as an angle from Cena on getting him to that match.  

I am not sure what is going to be worse.   Punk actually going to Riyad to have a match against Cena or what is probably going to happen which is Bron and Bronson beat the hell out of Punk and the match doesn't happen.  Which knowing the WWE probably won't happen until the week of the show

I didn't watch the show but when I saw the video of Jey entering the building with his son I knew he was fucked in some way.   So is it safe to say that Jey Uso's title reign was much worse than Kofi Kingston?  I mean we remember how terrible it ended but at least Kofi got 2 or 3 title defenses on a major show.  Jey only had one title defense against Logan Paul of all people.   That depends if you consider Saturday Night Main Event a major show.  

Edited June 10 by hammerva

[Eivion]

He defended against Logan and Seth. As for whether its worse than Kofi's. Kofi's reign was a bit boring with no noteworthy matches. Jey actually defended against the biggest heels, been in the biggest stories, main evented a ple/ppv with Cena, and fought through hell and injury only losing do being essentially knocked out. Kofi's reign ended in less than a minute to Lesnar. Honestly Jey probably had the better reign despite it being short. He grew in way that had the crowd completely into him as a main eventer. Its only been the smarks that haven't cared for it, and much of that was because he beat a favorite in Gunther.

Edited June 10 by Eivion

[Casey]

1 hour ago, hammerva said:

Or what is probably going to happen which is Bron and Bronson beat the hell out of Punk and the match doesn't happen.  Which knowing the WWE probably won't happen until the week of the show

Don’t do that. Don’t give me hope.

[just drew]

Hangman Page was right.

[The Natural]

Glad Gunther is World Heavyweight Champion again. I knew Jey Uso would have a short reign. Didn't think it would be two months.

Sucks John Cena vs. CM Punk is in Saudi Arabia. Anywhere else, I'd have watched. Only Saudi thing I've ever seen was Titus Worldslide.

[stuntmanc]

3 minutes ago, The Natural said:

Glad Gunther is World Heavyweight Champion again. I knew Jey Uso would have a short reign. Didn't think it would be two months.

Sucks John Cena vs. CM Punk is in Saudi Arabia. Anywhere else, I'd have watched. Only Saudi thing I've ever seen was Titus Worldslide.

My feelings on Punk aside, i legitimately wanted to see one last Punk/Cena match.  I won't be watching it if its Saudi.

I saw somewhere that Uso might be hurt?  I haven't seen ir corrorborated much, so i wasn't sure if it was true.  I thought Uso proved a lot of people wrong in that he was never out of place in the title scene despite people saying he was.  I'm always more of an in-ring guy than character and catch phrase, but Uso was easily the most over person on either Smackdown or Raw and i think he deserved better than losing to Gunther on a Raw.  

I'm hoping(and insert fantasy booking here), that this means Sami wins KOTR and we get a Sami run, even if it's extremely short.  I don't think anyone deserve a title run, short or not, more than Sami(unless you're counting Ron Killings).

I am ALL in on Ron Killings and I'm all in on Bayley murdering Becky.

There was a lot to like about Raw so i don't even have to grab that low hanging fruit, even if i want to.  I was very down on Money in the Bank, but this Raw was definitely a step in the right direction for me.

[Swift]

I'd seen a rumour before the show that they were gonna switch the title back to Gunther to build for his program with Goldberg. Apparently one of the SNME shows is in Atlanta. Not sure you need the title for that, unless they're actually thinking of putting the title on Goldberg for a final run.

[Curt McGirt]

Night Two of me paying cursory attention to Raw on Netflix on a separate tab on my computer while I do other stuff: 

- First I see there's a four way, then I turn back and there's ANOTHER four way. Said no thank you to both. 

- Caught RON KILLINGS hack his hair off to where there was, like, this dread-horn sticking out of the side of his head  I really hope they don't try and crowbar this into a heel turn, just to fuck with people. "You want him back? Okay, but only how we want". It's WVWD (you know what that stands for). 

- Bayley, oofta... I will refrain from comment.

- GUNTHER/Jey was fine I guess for a simple match with good psychology but man, Jey is just the most unconvincing pro wrestler to me. Big bright babyface with no offense at all/actual offense that is light as a feather, popular off a stupid one-word catchphrase, tag team wrestler who should have stayed that way, somehow a world champion. It sucks. Especially when Gunther is right there as his opponent who is pretty much everything I want to see in a champion. At least he won it back after THE WORLD'S LONGEST SLEEPER SEGMENT. Not spot, but segment, because that fucker went on forever. 

- Punk Proves He's A Wanker Part 37598087590 amuses me but I'm not gonna carry it like a heavy load or anything.

[stuntmanc]

5 hours ago, just drew said:

Hangman Page was right.

It legitimately cracks me up how people will still hang the whole Punk debacle on him, when he's acted like a complete adult the entire time while every other party in that whole fiasco(minus Omega) has acted like petulant children.  Punk/Bucks were ridiculous children while Hangman/Omega were the adults "in the room"

[Curt McGirt]

Maffew Botchamania made a video where he closed in on Ron's dread-horn, slowly faded in the Prodigy logo and started playing "Firestarter" on the audio 

[Hamhock]

I truly mean this without any pointed criticism toward anyone specific at all:

Could we all please, for efficiency's sake, just stipulate/agree that Punk was a hypocrite to return to WWE, and every subsequent individual moment/decision/statement/whatever that he's done/decided/said/whatever is contained within that folder? Even if we don't think that? And then we could all move on with our lives as wrestling fans without another thing bringing forth a "YOU SEE? YOU SEE? IT'S LIKE I SAID ALL ALONG!" Like, I get it; I do. Really.

Or do whatever - disregard my opinion; it's worth no more or less than anyone's.

Edited June 10 by Hamhock

[Curt McGirt]

I mean it really doesn't get worse than "went back to company who would have let him literally die from serious infection". You can't top that; anything he will do will be a minor form of self-sabotage/hypocrisy/double-standard-having/hubris/whatever. So why even bring it up. 

Edited June 10 by Curt McGirt

[odessasteps]

We should have just had/kept a Phil Dumpster Fire thread here for the last 20 years. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

We don't have to do the whole "SEE??!?!"  thing but Punk makes it easy when he does things like go on random podcasts and bash Tony Khan who by all accounts is a very nice man. 

[Kevin Wilson]

Mariah May's new name has leaked, word it is:

Spoiler

Blake Monroe

My reaction:

Spoiler

I don't know if I can be unbiased as the name "Blake" will be forever ruined by Key & Peele in the same way "Todd" was ruined by George Carlin.

 

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

2 hours ago, Hamhock said:

I truly mean this without any pointed criticism toward anyone specific at all:

Could we all please, for efficiency's sake, just stipulate/agree that Punk was a hypocrite to return to WWE, and every subsequent individual moment/decision/statement/whatever that he's done/decided/said/whatever is contained within that folder? Even if we don't think that? And then we could all move on with our lives as wrestling fans without another thing bringing forth a "YOU SEE? YOU SEE? IT'S LIKE I SAID ALL ALONG!" Like, I get it; I do. Really.

Or do whatever - disregard my opinion; it's worth no more or less than anyone's.

Co-sign. It's not an enjoyable conversation to constantly relitigate the last however many years.

[username]

Making Ron Killings drop having a comedy gimmick to go be serious at age 53 is certainly a way to make sure that the next time they let him go there won't be an outcry.