WWE Raw Name Misses Show, Ronda Rousey Backstage Demand, Big E Broken Neck Update – Audio News Bulletin – July 5, 2022

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A WWE Raw name was absent from last night’s show, Ronda Rousey apparently made a huge demand backstage, an update on Big E’s broken neck, and more.

It’s Tuesday morning and what better way to kick off the day than getting caught up on all the latest wrestling news – I’m Liam Winnard for WrestleTalk.com, and this is our audio news bulletin for July 5, 2022.

Listen to this morning’s round-up here:

WWE Raw Recap

We’ll start today’s round-up with a summary of what went down on last night’s Raw, and as mentioned, there was one name noticeably absent from the show.

That name was Jimmy Smith, who has been Raw’s lead announcer for over a year now. Smith was replaced by Kevin Patrick, who is usually a backstage interviewer, and they said on commentary that Smith was on vacation.

At least from what I’ve seen, Patrick was actually received pretty well by fans. Of course there were some people moaning, because people moan about everything, but considering it was his first time ever announcing Raw, the reaction seemed to be really positive, and rightly so in my opinion.

It’s worth mentioning that Patrick is actually the lead announcer for Main Event every week alongside Byron Saxton, so although it was his first time doing it on Raw, it’s not exactly something he’s brand new to.

In other happenings from Raw, it was announced that Bobby Lashley will defend the United States Championship at SummerSlam against the man he beat to win the title at Money in the Bank, Theory, so that means the very evident plan to do Theory vs John Cena has been put on hold for now.

They’re also still very heavily teasing the idea that Theory will be cashing in Money in the Bank straight after the Last Man Standing match between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar at the end of SummerSlam.

Very interestingly, during his promo, Bobby Lashley said there’s no-one in WWE or ANY promotion that can beat him. That came on the same day that a quote from Tony Khan came out saying he’d be open to doing a crossover show with WWE, a week after AEW stars appeared on Raw. So yeah, that’s interesting. Maybe.

The partnership between Ciampa and The Miz was officially confirmed. AJ Styles beat Miz but Ciampa attacked Styles post-match before shaking hands with Miz in the middle of the ring. Ciampa has actually been attacking Miz’s rivals for a number of weeks now, but this is the first time it’s actually been cemented that they’re together.

The only other notable thing really was that SmackDown’s Ludwig Kaiser and Intercontinental Champion Gunther appeared and Gunther beat R-Truth because it was the Fourth of July and they’re not American, so they beat the American because that’s what happens in wrestling. The main event saw Becky Lynch beat Asuka in a No Holds Barred match.

Ronda Rousey Backstage Demand

Someone else who appeared on Raw was Liv Morgan, who won the Money in the Bank ladder match on Saturday, and then cashed in Money in the Bank the same night to win the SmackDown Women’s Title from Ronda Rousey.

In an interesting spinoff story, Ronda Rousey’s personal photographer took to Instagram after Morgan’s win to basically say that Rousey is the reason Morgan won.

Michael Mardones, which I hope I’ve pronounced correctly, wrote:

“Respect to Ronda Rousey, who never wanted or asked to be champion… And demanded that the most passionate pro wrestler (referring to Liv Morgan) be awarded the most prestigious title in our industry… #respect”

Obviously at this point that’s just a claim from the photographer that hasn’t actually been verified by anyone else.

Reports are that WWE is planning to have Morgan defend the title against Rousey at SummerSlam.

Big E Broken Neck Update

Big E has been out of action since breaking his neck – or more specifically fracturing his C1 and C6 vertebrae – on March 11, almost four months ago now, and he took to Twitter with an update on his condition yesterday.

He wrote:

Update! My C1 isn’t ossifying (forming bone) quite yet. The current plan is to get more scans at the one year mark & see how it’s progressing. The great news is I feel tremendous & surgery is off the table.

Big E had previously provided an update mid-June, throwing his neck brace into the trash. There’s still no real timetable on when he’ll be able to return.

We send our best wishes to Big E as his recovery continues and we’ll continue to keep you all updated.

Other Stuff

In other little bits of news…

Shotzi posted an emotional statement after criticism from fans about her performance during Money in the Bank, which she capped off by saying: “I had to have a few friends wipe the tears off my face and slap some sense into me and remind me WHO THE F I AM! That being said, all my haters can SUCK MY BIG GIANT HAIRY MANGOS!”.

UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya has said he “definitely” plans to work for WWE at some point. Adesanya made his entrance as The Undertaker for his fight this past Saturday.

Chuck Taylor, whose AEW future had been called into question with all the contract rumors recently, tweeted “I didn’t get fired guys”. Taylor appeared on Dynamite for the first time in several months last week, and his tag team reunion with Trent Beretta aired on last night’s Elevation.

Ric Flair was added back to the WWE intro package before Raw. He responded by tweeting: “The Most Hurtful Moment In My ENTIRE Career Was Losing My Spot. Thank You So Much For Giving Me Back My Dignity & My Life!”.

Speaking of Ric Flair, a new match has been added to the card for the show that will host his last match – notably including AEW’s Rey Fenix who will be in a four-way against Laredo Kid, Taurus and Bandido.

One for the UK listeners – AEW set the record for its highest viewership ever on ITV4 for the Forbidden Door go-home edition of Dynamite with 188,000 viewers.

And tonight is the Great American Bash edition of NXT 2.0. The announced card is Wendy Choo vs Tiffany Stratton; Trick Williams vs Wes Lee, the Creed Brothers defending the NXT Tag Team Championship against fellow Diamond Mine members Roderick Strong and Damon Kemp; Carmelo Hayes defending the North American Championship against Grayson Waller; Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne defending the Women’s Tag Team Championship against Cora Jade and Roxanne Perez, and Bron Breakker defending the NXT Championship against Cameron Grimes.

Be sure to stay tuned to WrestleTalk.com throughout the day to keep up with all the news from the world of pro-wrestling, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning for another round-up.

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