Reviews

WWE Network Reviews: WWE Raw Talk for 06-07-21 by John Canton

By John Canton • Published 8th June 2021

Hey yo. It’s time for another edition WWE Raw Talk. Raw Talk airs on Peacock/WWE Network on Monday night about five minutes after Raw finished and is available on demand.

Raw Talk is hosted by the usual team of Kevin Patrick and R-Truth. They had some banter about the end of Raw when Shayna Baszler had a rough night dealing with Lilly the evil doll. Patrick said he’s excited to see how it plays out. Sure he is. They talked about Kofi Kingston beating Riddle with Truth saying both guys are his “dog” meaning friend and they spoke about Kofi hitting the Trouble in Paradise kick on Riddle to get the win. They also spoke about Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre in a Hell in a Cell Match for the WWE Championship at the Hell in a Cell PPV. They did a rundown of the guests on this week’s show.

There was a commercial about WWE going back on the road in July and WWE Takeover In Your House this Sunday.

The Viking Raiders duo of Erik and Ivar were the first guests. Erik said there is no secret to them working together, they know what they are thinking and they know how to be a team. Erik said it’s hard for others to compete against them when they aren’t a regular team. Ivar said it’s been a long, hard road to get back into the Raw Tag Team Championship picture. When asked about AJ Styles & Omos, they showed the backstage segment between the two teams earlier on Raw.

Erik spoke about how AJ Styles is one of the greatest competitors of their generation and he has a literal giant by his side. Erik said that if they were not worried about the Viking Raiders then AJ/Omos wouldn’t try to play mind games with them. Erik said that they know when somebody is scared. Erik said that AJ/Omos want to try to take their opportunity away, but Erik said that they will take it to them when it counts. Ivar said that you don’t mess with a man’s food and Ivar’s turkey leg. Truth did his rambling about skin on chicken nuggets, Ivar wondered what he said and Patrick just moved on.

TJR Thoughts: Good job by the Viking Raiders there with Erik doing most of the talking. Erik made good points about how AJ/Omos are just trying to get the mental edge, but the Viking Raiders are an experienced team and they are ready for their title opportunity.

A commercial aired for Hell in a Cell promoting the Bianca Belair/Bayley match. They also had a commercial for this Friday’s Smackdown.

The next guest was Raw Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley. Patrick said that he can tell Ripley is frustrated with Charlotte Flair or maybe it’s Nikki Cross. Ripley said that Charlotte claims that she was professional in all of this, but Charlotte wasn’t professional at all. Ripley said she tried to win the match, yet Charlotte had to try to prove her point. Ripley said she knew she couldn’t trust Charlotte. Ripley said that Nikki and Asuka were trying to win the match and there’s nothing wrong with that. Ripley respected them. Ripley said that she knows Charlotte is trying to get under her skin and Ripley knows she lives rent free in Charlotte’s head. Ripley said she’s been in the ring with Charlotte many times and it was her own slip up that she wasn’t watching Charlotte the entire time. Ripley said Hell in a Cell sounds like her playground. Truth was asked if he’s picking Rhea or Charlotte, so Truth said whoever wants it the most. Truth didn’t pick a winner. They wished Ripley the best of luck in her title match. That was it.

TJR Thoughts: A basic interview with Ripley here with Rhea talking about how they lost the tag team title match because she took her focus off Flair and was trying to win the match. Ripley could drop the title to Flair at Hell in a Cell although I hope not. Ripley beating Flair in a singles title match will be big for Rhea’s career.

A commercial aired for SummerSlam on Saturday, August 21 in Las Vegas. A commercial aired for NXT this Tuesday night.

The final guests this week were the All Mighty WWE Champion Bobby Lashley, MVP and the lovely ladies that they were joined by on Raw. MPV was talking about how they were going to continue to celebrate after the show. One of the girls asked Truth to go to a party, but Truth said he doesn’t go to parties. MVP said that Drew McIntyre keeps running into destruction. MVP wondered how many times does Drew have to keep finding himself in the Hurt Lock by Lashley and he keeps begging to get his ass kicked again? Lashley laughed about how Drew had to smash the table with a sword. Patrick mentioned that Lashley hasn’t had a match inside Hell in a Cell while Drew has. Lashley said that he’ll beat Drew in the cage like he always beats him. Lashley said that he put Drew to sleep at WrestleMania. MVP said when Drew said “I’ll see you in hell” and Lashley said “I’ll beat you there too.” Lashley said that they have to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Truth said Lashley was blowing his money and he needs to be saving his money. MVP said that Truth’s money and Lashley’s money are different. Truth said he is saving his money. Lashley said he had an endless supply of money. Lashley told Patrick he wasn’t invited to hang out with them. MVP pointed out Patrick had a ring on his finger and MVP wondered if Patrick’s wife would approve of Patrick hanging out with them. Patrick laughed about it saying he’s not going anywhere. They all shared a good laugh. The show ended there.

TJR Thoughts: MVP was terrific as usual as the manager/mouthpiece for Lashley and talking about how they are tired of Drew McIntyre continuing to challenge Lashley for the WWE Title. Lashley didn’t say that much, but he did a nice job of being a confident champion that is ready for his first Hell in a Cell match.

Raw Talk isn’t that interesting to me because Raw is a bit of a struggle. I do like that superstars get a chance to do interviews to further their stories. I thought the Viking Raiders did a really nice job here. I like Talking Smack more mainly because of the presence of Paul Heyman and how entertaining he is.

This episode had a runtime of 24:33 on WWE Network.

That’s all from me. Thanks for reading.

John Canton

Email: mrjohncanton@gmail.com

Twitter: @johnreport