THEY ALREADY HAD THE STORY

THEY ALREADY HAD THE STORY

Smackdown Fallout, Saturday Nght's Main Event Review & SummerSlam Chaos. 🤔 WWE didn't have a bad weekend. The wrestling delivered, Madison Square Garden felt important, and several SummerSlam stories moved forward. But SmackDown and Saturday Night's Main Event both had the same problem: WWE kept adding new layers to stories that were already working. So why does WWE have such a hard time leaving a good thing the fuck alone? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ On this episode of Turnbuckle Talk Wrestling... 👑 We break down WWE creating only the second interim championship in company history, why Tiffany Stratton should be focused on establishing the Women's United States Championship, and whether the entire situation surrounding Rhea Ripley creates some very questionable optics. 🔥 Then we head to Madison Square Garden for Saturday Night's Main Event, where CM Punk and Cody Rhodes battle Gunther and Sami Zayn in one of the best television main events of the year. We discuss Nick Aldis finally snapping after weeks of Gunther pushing him too far, why Justice for Sami is absolutely deserved, and how CM Punk has already made Cody Rhodes the most interesting he's been in over a year. 🏀 Plus, Lyra Valkyria's bloody statement against Bayley, Roman Reigns and Jalen Brunson closing the show, and our biggest discussion of the night: why WWE already had the perfect Madison Square Garden story with Danhausen and the New York Knicks... and walked away from it just days before the payoff. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🛡️ Sponsored by ZARC International. Check out the full VEXOR lineup on Amazon or at Zarc.com [http://Zarc.com]. Be Prepared. Protect Yourself. Carry VEXOR. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Alexander the Great on X: @Froe87

That's More Like It!

Credit where credit's due... After a couple of weeks of wondering where the SummerSlam momentum was, WWE finally delivered a Monday Night RAW that actually felt focused from beginning to end. This week on Turnbuckle Talk Wrestling, we're breaking down Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi making Hell in a Cell feel personal, Chad Gable earning what should be his first singles championship opportunity, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins delivering one of the strongest contract signings of the year, and why this was the first RAW in weeks that genuinely felt like it was building toward SummerSlam. We also catch up on SmackDown, discuss CM Punk and Cody Rhodes officially becoming SummerSlam opponents, Baron Corbin's return, Gunther completely snapping on Nick Aldis, and why WWE may finally have its biggest stories moving in the right direction. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Also discussed: • Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi continues to heat up • Roman Reigns COOKS Seth Rollins on the 🎙️ • Chad Gable wins the Intercontinental Championship Gauntlet • Maxxine Dupri breathes new life into The Vision • Iyo Sky vs. Roxanne Perez • LA Knight's future after The Bloodline • SmackDown preview and Saturday Night's Main Event Predictions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ This episode is sponsored by Zarc International. Check out the full VEXOR lineup on Amazon or at Zarc.com [http://Zarc.com]. Be Prepared. Protect Yourself. Carry VEXOR. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Turnbuckle Talk Wrestling is your weekly source for WWE analysis, long-form discussions, wrestling philosophy, and the bigger stories shaping WWE. Follow Alexander the Great on X: @Froe87 Join the TTW Discord and keep the wrestling conversation going between episodes. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music. 00:00 Cold Open – "That's More Like It!" 02:06 Intro & SummerSlam Momentum 04:08 SmackDown Catch-Up 14:10 Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman & Oba Femi 23:45 Iyo Sky vs. Roxanne Perez 31:15 The Vision, Maxxine Dupri & Alpha Academy 39:45 Royce Keys vs. Jimmy Uso 47:05 Bayley & Lyra Valkyria 55:10 Intercontinental Championship Gauntlet Match 01:08:20 Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins Contract Signing 01:33:10 Final Thoughts & RAW Co-MVPs 01:38:20 SmackDown Preview 01:40:30 Saturday Night's Main Event Preview 01:45:30 Outro

THE SUMMER OF PUNK II

C.M Punk Is WWE Champion, But Was Sami Zayn's Reign Cut Too Short? CM Punk is WWE Champion again... But the biggest conversation coming out of RAW wasn't actually about CM Punk. We sat down expecting our Main Event Discussion to turn into a heated debate over CM Punk ending Sami Zayn's nine-day WWE Championship reign. Instead, something unexpected happened. About halfway through the discussion, we both stopped arguing because we realized we'd been debating the wrong thing. The more we talked about it, the more we came to the same conclusion: This is still bad booking. We don't believe Triple H had some brilliant six-month master plan. In fact, we wouldn't be surprised if the decision to put the WWE Championship on Sami Zayn happened at the last possible minute simply because he deserved his flowers before WWE got back to the match that always felt inevitable—CM Punk vs. Cody Rhodes. It's messy. It's inconsistent. It doesn't make much sense... ...but somehow it also gave WWE the spark it desperately needed heading into SummerSlam. That's where the conversation went, and it ended up being one of our favorite Main Event Discussions we've ever had. ━━━━━━━━━━━━ On this week's Turnbuckle Talk Wrestling: 🔥 CM Punk shocks Chicago and wins the WWE Championship 🔥 Why Sami Zayn's nine-day reign still mattered 🔥 Cody Rhodes' unfinished business after Gunther's attack 🔥 The Vision wins World Tag Team gold 🔥 Gunther's master plan continues to unfold 🔥 Is LA Knight right? 🔥 Oba Femi, Paul Heyman & Brock Lesnar head toward Hell in a Cell 🔥 Sol Ruca challenges Raquel Rodriguez for the Women's Intercontinental Championship Plus RAW MVP, Final Thoughts, and a Main Event Discussion that ended up somewhere neither of us expected. ━━━━━━━━━━━━ This week's episode is brought to you by Zarc International. With the weekend finally here, a lot of people are packing up for camping trips, heading out on hiking trails, spending the day on the lake, or taking the RV out for a few days. Most people assume nothing's going to happen... Until they're walking back to the campsite after dark. Or they hear something outside the tent. Or they realize they're a lot farther away from help than they thought. Those are the moments where being prepared suddenly matters. This week we're featuring the VEXOR Outdoorsman. It's built for exactly those kinds of situations, with a powerful 25–30 foot range, a heavy-duty belt clip that attaches easily to your backpack or gear, and maximum-strength protection designed for the outdoors. Check out the full VEXOR lineup on Amazon or at Zarc.com [http://Zarc.com]. Be Prepared. Protect Yourself. Carry VEXOR. ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Turnbuckle Talk Wrestling is your weekly source for WWE analysis, long-form discussions, wrestling philosophy, and the bigger stories shaping WWE. Follow Alexander the Great on X: @Froe87 (fro like afro... add the E... 87). Join the TTW Discord and keep the wrestling conversation going between episodes. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

NOW DON'T BLOW IT!

Happy Fourth of July weekend! 🇺🇸 WWE finally stopped playing it safe... now don't ruin it. This week we're breaking down one of the biggest episodes of RAW on the road to SummerSlam. King Oba Femi chooses Brock Lesnar over his guaranteed championship opportunity. Did WWE just weaken the entire point of King of the Ring? Alexander the Great discusses why the reported long-term plan may make sense for Oba Femi... but not for the tournament itself. He also dive into Seth Rollins' incredible promo opposite Roman Reigns, why it instantly made SummerSlam feel bigger, and why it reminded us just how special their rivalry really is. Plus: • Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi inside Hell in a Cell • Sami Zayn's WWE Championship reign already feels in danger • CM Punk SummerSlam speculation • Chad Gable continues building momentum • Gunther vs. Nick Aldis? • Liv Morgan, Iyo Sky & Judgment Day • Rhea Ripley's SummerSlam uncertainty • LA Knight, The Bloodline • Cody Rhodes becomes No. 1 Contender (SmackDown Spoilers) & much more We also cover the biggest SmackDown spoilers from the July 3 taped episode, what they mean for SummerSlam, and why WWE's next few weeks could determine whether this year's SummerSlam becomes an all-time classic... or another missed opportunity. This week's episode is brought to you by Zarc International. Whether you're celebrating the Fourth of July at a parade, barbecue, fireworks show, on the lake, or traveling for the holiday weekend, it's always better to have protection and never need it than NEED protection it and not have it. Check out the full line of VEXOR® pepper spray and personal safety products at Zarc.com [http://Zarc.com] or on Amazon. Be Prepared. Protect Yourself. Carry VEXOR. 🎧 Listen on: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Amazon Music 📲 Follow Alexander the Great everywhere: @Froe87 (Froe = "Fro" like afro... add the E...87.) 💬 Join the TTW Discord and keep the wrestling conversation going all week long with fellow wrestling fans talking RAW, SmackDown, SummerSlam, fantasy booking, news, rumors, and everything in between. 00:00 The Pointlessness of King of the Ring 06:09 Oba Femi, Brock Lesnar & WWE's SummerSlam Plan 12:03 Can WWE Avoid Screwing Sami Zayn? 18:03 RAW Midcard Roundup: Rey, Hendry, Iyo & Gable 24:08 Joe Hendry, Austin Theory & The Vision 29:46 LA Knight, The Bloodline & Gunther's Next Rival 38:52 The Judgment Day, Danhausen & Chad Gable's Momentum 45:14 The Alpha Academy Story Continues 54:06 Seth Rollins Delivers a FANTASTIC promo 01:06:56 SmackDown Spoilers, Rhea Ripley News & SummerSlam Roadmap

They SAVED SummerSlam!

For weeks we've been sitting here saying the same thing... WWE has been playing it safe. Predictable champions. Predictable booking. A SummerSlam build that desperately needed something to wake it up. Then Night of Champions happened. Sami Zayn shocked the wrestling world by pinning Cody Rhodes CLEAN to become the NEW Undisputed WWE Champion, Oba Femi was crowned King of the Ring, Iyo Sky became Queen of the Ring, and suddenly the road to SummerSlam feels exciting because—for the first time in a while—we genuinely don't know what's coming next. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔥 IN THIS EPISODE 🏆 Sami Zayn defeats Cody Rhodes & GUNTHER to become the NEW Undisputed WWE Champion 👑 King Oba is officially crowned 👑 Queen Iyo earns another shot at Liv Morgan 🤔 Why WWE finally stopped playing it safe 💥 Why Bron Breakker should have won 💥 Why Jade Cargill should have won 🔥 How one night completely changed the SummerSlam landscape 👀 RAW Preview featuring Roman Reigns' return and the fallout from Night of Champions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💥 ALSO DISCUSSED • Cody Rhodes finally passing the torch to Sami Zayn • Why unpredictability is back • Oba Femi's dominant rise • The future of Brock Lesnar • SummerSlam championship scenarios • Ricky Saints' continued momentum • WWE finally taking creative risks • Why not knowing what's next is the best thing that could have happened heading into SummerSlam ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🛡️ This episode is sponsored by Zarc International. You insure your home. You insure your vehicle. You insure your health. Why not protect yourself, too? Check out VEXOR Pepper Spray from Zarc International—the family business that's been manufacturing personal safety products since 1982. Be Prepared. Protect Yourself. Carry Vexor. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Turnbuckle Talk Wrestling is your home for weekly RAW, SmackDown, Premium Live Event coverage, WWE news, fantasy booking, long-term storytelling discussions, wrestling philosophy, and everything happening on the road to SummerSlam. Follow the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. ⭐ If we earned your listen, we'd truly appreciate a 5-star rating and review! Follow Alexander the Great on X & TikTok: @Froe87 Join the Turnbuckle Talk Wrestling Discord and keep the conversation going all week with fellow wrestling fans discussing RAW, SmackDown, Premium Live Events, fantasy booking, predictions, and everything happening across WWE. 00:00 WWE Finally Stopped Playing It Safe 03:12 Night of Champions Overall Thoughts 05:59 King Oba Is Crowned 10:58 Queen Iyo Is Crowned 18:10 Rollins vs. Breakker - Wrong Winner? 25:06 Why Bron Needed This More 31:09 Seth Wins... But Should He Have? 36:36 Trick Williams vs. Ricky Saints 42:32 Tiffany Stratton vs. Jade Cargill 55:12 Sami Zayn Shocks WWE 01:04:26 NEW WWE Champion! 01:11:01 What's Next for Sami? 01:15:58 Sami's 20-Year Journey 01:20:04 They Saved SummerSlam 01:23:56 Night of Champions Final Grades 01:27:00 RAW Preview | Roman Returns