Burgundy LaRue

As I understand it, everyone has been announced: KUSHIDA, Grimes, O'Reilly, Thatcher and Reed. They may add someone else though, who's to say.

Who's 31 years old. I could see if Murphy were a few years younger, but 12-year difference? No good.

Logged on just to say. . . EWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Big E didn't touch Corbin and only got a punch or two on Sheamus. He went in on that security guard, though. As for the match, they made sure to have Corbin/Sheamus double team Roman a lot, so them having the upper hand made sense. Whenever it was one-on-one, Roman was handling them. The bigger point was to show how territorial Roman has become and how Jey has crossed the line in Roman's mind. That death glare to Jey and nod to Heyman was some of the best foreshadowing WWE has done in a while.

I remember some complaining how Roman and Sasha got the Pizza Hunt commercial on Super Bowl Sunday. Both are showing why that happened. They're the biggest stars on SmackDown and have the most mainstream potential. Good for them.

It shouldn't be controversial. Robert Downey Jr can do Cameo if he wants. But he can't do it while playing Iron Man. This is the same thing. If Vince is trying to cut off their outside income altogether, then that's a problem.

According to Meltzer, the straw that broke the camel's back was Lana advertising Bang energy drinks on IG. Her IG is named thelanawwe. So if the point is wrestlers not using their WWE personas to promote non-WWE sanctioned stuff, that makes legal sense. Lana is WWE IP. Now if they try to stop CJ Perry from doing what she wants as herself, that's a major problem. She and others can quit WWE and make more money as social media influencers, if I had to guess.

The chances of anything coming of it are slim at best. Most will wonder why Yang is wasting his time with outlaw wrestling. Then something wacky will happen on RAW. Then this will be forgotten by next Wednesday.

The bigger names who are looking to pursue Hollywood careers likely had their agents work out something with Vince/WWE already when it comes to name usage. It's the lower to mid-card talent who are going to get shafted.

AOP being released is frustrating, but not surprising. Between visa issues and constant injuries, they couldn't get a footing on RAW. They were put with Rollins, who's one of the company's biggest stars, like him or not. So someone saw their potential. But if they're off TV all the time, there's not much WWE can do with them. They're young and talented, they should land somewhere pretty quickly. As for the third-party thing: WWE is treading on choppy water there. If this is true, they're probably cracking down because a lot of their top talent started doing Cameo and several of them--Roman, Alexa, Charlotte, Sasha--are making serious money that WWE can't hold claim to. WWE did their first-ever virtual meet and greets recently, so I'm wagering this decision is impacted by that. They'll claim conflict of interest. Which is hot garbage, but I can see that being the card played. There's no way WWE can claim ownership of someone's actual name. I know there was something about Cena and Orton at one time because they use their actual names as wrestlers, but I forget out that goes. Part of me wonders if this has at least a little to do with the two recent stars they've had--Roman and Becky--obviously heading out the door. Becky may be already gone, depends on what she wants to do after her baby arrives. Roman is clearly on the Hollywood track. He's one good role away from part-timing it. So is Becky, for that matter. And the rumor that Vince was anxious to get him back on TV makes me suspect Roman put some demands on him. It's why the brand overrides the star-making system. If no one gets too popular, they're more inclined to stay where they know they have a pretty good check coming in regularly. Roman and Becky having strong options beyond WWE is the exception. And shouldn't have happened, really. They're slipping through the last cracks before WWE closes them for good. It's madness. They're not doing house shows for obvious reasons, and that's taking money out of wrestlers' wallets already. Top-tier guys/girls will be OK, they can likely shake down Vince for something else. But a lot of these wrestlers need the extra income and WWE possibly messing with it reeks of sour grapes.

So many wanted Roman to 'turn' for years. We'll get a tweener Roman with him being able to cut more off-the-cuff promos. And now those same folks will cheer him like a conquering hero. Gotta love it. Bray can't be a face. Dude's a literal murder clown who abused Alexa Bliss in an effort to manipulate Braun. Even now, she's all kinds of messed up from dealing with him. Though the point about Kane is well-taken.

I have no issue with the vest and don't see it being like the Shield gear. It's basically a structured tank top and isn't paramilitary/tactical at all. A t-shirt is likely to rip mid-match and be a distraction. And I honestly can't think of what Roman would wrestle in besides his current gear at this point. But that's my take.

I see him keeping the vest for a number of reasons: merchandising, cover his hernia belt (if he still wears it), he's physically self-conscious. But they didn't play any music for him to close Summer Slam, which was interesting.

According to Roman himself, his doctors said he wasn't at any more risk for COVID because of the medication he takes for his leukemia. He left because his wife had just gave birth and didn't feel his co-workers were taking the same precautions as him to stay safe. That leaves a lot of wiggle room, TBF. Does having leukemia at all make him more at-risk? He hasn't said. Does he think others in WWE are doing better with safety measures? We don't know. But when you factor in WWE testing everyone now, Roman probably feels a lot better about the situation. And I would guess they will give him every accommodation possible to make him feel comfortable (separate dressing room/private tour bus, limit who has access to him, etc). Being in Amway helps a lot, too. Bigger space, not breathing in the same recycled air as everyone else in the cramped PC. Speaking of ThunderDome, the rumor floating around is it was designed with the idea of bringing Roman back. If that's true, it's not hard to imagine Vince had to put some nice perks on the table for Roman to return beyond that. More money, more flexibility to pursue outside projects, could be anything. Roman comes across as one of the more level-headed big wrestling stars in recent memory, but we do have to remember he grew up in a wrestling family. He's got the carny gene by natural inheritance. So him using the situation and WWE's possible desperation to get him back on TV to his advantage wouldn't be a shock. That's all speculation of course, but not far-fetched.

To be fair, that boat of virtue sailed for Drew when Heath Slater railed on him a few weeks ago. Slater tells him what a rotten friend he is, not seeing if Slater was OK after getting fired, and Drew just took it without trying to defend himself. Way to go, world champ babyface.

Spoiled for size. That tweet is pretty much where I am with Seth. Even when I see what he's trying to say, he does such a poor job of expressing himself and he comes off so bad as a result.

SmackDown tends to move their stories forward better, IMO. I've mentioned my issues with Braun seemingly not caring about Alexa, but Braun also mentioned becoming the monster Bray didn't expect, so that's progress. Bayley-Sasha continue their march toward a breakup. They've reestablished Mandy-Sonya. Riddle-Corbin-Gable-Sheamus will lead to some good matches. Lucha House Party are mixing it up with Cesaro-Nakamura. Heavy Machinery will likely feud with Miz & Morrison. Big E getting a solo push. It's not perfect, but it goes from point to point pretty well. In a vacuum, a number of RAW episodes are fine. The problem comes when you try to connect several episodes to see where the stories are going, and realize little or nothing has progressed.

The babyface world champion, who has an established relationship with the woman in distress, who he saw in a hallucination as he dreamed about being with her--and he now he doesn't care if The Fiend abuses her? WTF!!! That's such bad character building. Even while hating Vince, Austin saved Stephanie from her dark wedding to Taker. Because it was the right thing to do. They've established Braun as cold and callused. And I get that it's supposed to tie in with Bray warping his mind in the swamp fight. But there was a better way of establishing that than have him tell Alexa to buzz off. Terrible, simply terrible.

@KawadaSmilegot it right: last night's angle was good in getting McAfee over as an obnoxious heel, but having a part-time wrestling commentator call your longest-reigning NXT champion an elf makes Cole look even goofier than he usually does. He came across as having a tantrum. To say nothing of the toxic fans McAfee will bring with him. O'Reilly wrestling again surprised me, and not in a good way.

A lot of people loved McIntyre's promo tonight, but I thought it came across as whiny in spots. He was right about Orton deserving to be fired for all the garbage he did years ago. But Orton was also right about being seen as valuable and a younger McIntyre wasn't. Because if he had been, they would have put up with his baggage, too. And with the money he's made, Orton could be long gone by now if he wanted, so another point in his favor by saying he actually wants to be there. Drew lost me with the 'I dreamed about being in WWE since I was a child while you got handed everything because of your dad' tripe. They use that on nearly ever second and third-generation wrestler. It's worn out.

Having had some time to process Raw Underground--I think it could work. The main fighters involved have legit wrestling/MMA backgrounds and it's a cool way to do action-based backstage angles for anyone not in a feud. The Hurt Business becoming the final bosses is excellent use of them, especially Lashley. The production needs work, way too many camera cuts. But there's potential. The big question is whether Vince sticks with it or gets bored and throws it out in a month?

I'm sitting here in complete awe. What did I just see?

Must be a way to put a belt on Lesnar that will only have him do 2 PPVs a year.

All of this furthers my belief that we're about a month away from Vince doing money drops over Saskatchewan and Tampa.

This isn't on the level of what Rollins has said in the past. He even alludes to the ending not being the most ideal, so he's showing some awareness here. I can't imagine he or Rey were thrilled about it. But he's not going to get a pass, because of how poorly he's handled previous interviews. The Eye for an Eye stipulation was awful. A decent match otherwise was overwhelmed by the ending being too weird, even for wrestling.