The Night Brock Broke The Timeline

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

One Night. Two Crowns.

One night. Two crowns. Two SummerSlam decisions. Night of Champions isn't just about who wins King and Queen of the Ring... it's about who takes control heading into SummerSlam. Are WWE's tournament winners the right choices? Will new stars be created? Or is WWE about to play it safe when they should be building the future? This week, we make our official Night of Champions predictions while opening the TTW Vault for two of our biggest countdowns yet. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔥 IN THIS EPISODE 👑 TTW Vault: Top 5 Greatest King of the Ring Winners of All Time 🏰 TTW Vault: Top 5 Greatest King of the Ring Moments of All Time 👑 Official Queen of the Ring Finals Predictions 🤴 Official King of the Ring Finals Predictions 🔒 Seth Rollins vs. Bron Breakker – Steel Cage Match 🏆 Championship Match Predictions 🎯 Which winners create the most compelling SummerSlam matchups? 🤔 Who SHOULD win... and who WILL win? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💥 ALSO DISCUSSED • Stone Cold's legendary Austin 3:16 promo • Undertaker vs. Mankind: Hell in a Cell • King Booker • Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon • Xavier Woods finally becoming King • Bret Hart, Brock Lesnar, Owen Hart & Triple H • Why King & Queen of the Ring matter more than the crowns themselves ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🛡️ This episode is sponsored by Zarc International. You insure your house. You insure your car. You insure your health. Why not insure yourself? Check out VEXOR Pepper Spray from Zarc International and carry with confidence every day. 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 across WWE on the road to the next major event. Follow the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. ⭐ If we earned your listen, leave us 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 WWE. 00:00 – One Night. Two Crowns. Why Night of Champions Matters 04:14 – TTW Vault: Top 5 King of the Ring Winners 13:03 – Bret Hart vs. Brock Lesnar: Who Deserves the Higher Ranking? 19:04 – Brock Lesnar's King of the Ring Legacy 25:36 – Triple H, The King of Kings & The Curtain Call 29:31 – Owen Hart vs. Kurt Angle: Two All-Time Great Winners 33:30 – Owen Hart: The King of Harts 37:44 – Kurt Angle's Meteoric Rise to the Top 45:30 – Why Stone Cold Is the Greatest King of the Ring Winner Ever 54:02 – TTW Vault: Top 5 King of the Ring Moments 01:01:53 – King Booker & Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon 01:07:34 – Austin 3:16: The Promo That Changed Wrestling 01:08:41 – Undertaker vs. Mankind: The Greatest King of the Ring Moment 01:14:32 – Official Night of Champions Predictions 01:22:23 – Final Thoughts & SummerSlam Outlook

Nobody Asked For This

The road to Night of Champions is almost over, but did WWE lose the unpredictability that made the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments so much fun? This week on Turnbuckle Talk Wrestling, we catch everyone up after missing our normal SmackDown Fallout episode before diving into a very unusual go-home edition of RAW. We discuss why SmackDown massively underdelivered despite an incredible card on paper, why the semifinal rounds may have taken all the excitement out of the tournaments, and whether WWE is struggling to stick the landing heading into Night of Champions. We also break down: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 👑 Oba Femi vs. Jey Uso and why there's only one right outcome. 👑 Iyo Sky vs. Liv Morgan and why we're firmly on Team "Queen Iyo." 🔥 Roman Reigns, Jacob Fatu and the continuing Bloodline civil war. 🏆 The Street Profits become four-time WWE World Tag Team Champions. 🙏 Chad Gable's apology tour finally hits its first real roadblock. 😈 Lyra Valkyria's shocking heel turn. 💥 Ethan Page vs. Dragon Lee. 🤣 Danhausen continues stealing every backstage segment. ⚠️ Plus, we discuss the biggest spoiler developments from the taped Go Home SmackDown in London, including the future of Solo Sikoa's MFTs, Blake Monroe's first major storyline, Ricky Starks' continued rise, and the final build to Night of Champions. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Sponsored by Zarc International Protecting people since 1982. Be Prepared. Protect Yourself. Carry VEXOR. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 Follow Turnbuckle Talk Wrestling on Apple Podcasts, Spotify & Amazon Music. ⭐ If we earned your listen, we'd truly appreciate a five-star review. 💬 Join the Turnbuckle Talk Wrestling Discord and keep the conversation going all week long. Follow Alexander the Great on X & TikTok: @Froe87 00:00 - WWE's Unpredictability & The Road to Night of Champions 02:49 - SmackDown Catch-Up: The Good, The Bad & The Disappointing 06:11 - Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther: What Went Wrong? 09:07 - Jey Uso's Push & The Tournament Problem 11:49 - Liv Morgan, Charlotte Flair & WWE's Injury Angle Problem 14:48 - Why Nobody Wants Jey vs. Oba 17:59 - Oba Femi Is Still the Future 21:02 - SummerSlam Implications & Creative Concerns 23:51 - Final Thoughts on SmackDown 41:17 - Roman Reigns, Jacob Fatu & RAW Begins 45:15 - Women's Tag Team Championship & Lyra Valkyria's Heel Turn 50:48 - Chad Gable's Apology Tour Hits a Roadblock 57:12 - Dragon Lee vs. Ethan Page 01:06:45 - Rusev's Old-School Heel Promo 01:07:18 - Iyo Sky vs. Liv Morgan: Queen Iyo or We Riot 01:12:44 - Danhausen Strikes Again 01:15:03 - LA Knight vs. Jimmy Uso 01:21:45 - Judgment Day Friction & Roxanne Perez 01:24:47 - Backstage Notes & Next Week's RAW 01:26:08 - World Tag Team Championship: New Champions Crowned 01:36:04 - Final Thoughts on RAW 01:41:11 - Go Home SmackDown Spoilers from London 01:55:02 - Night of Champions Preview