The Post’s Joseph Staszewski takes you inside the world of professional wrestling in his weekly column, Post Match Angle.
Liv Morgan ends “Monday Night Raw” planting a big old kiss on Dominik Mysterio is deeper than waiting to see how Rhea Ripley reacts to her return from injury.
(Some fans in the United States missed it live because the USA Network broadcast ended before, but WWE quickly posted the kiss on social media.)
Indeed, sitting in the ring, Becky Lynch was emotional, after losing her championship cage match against Morgan.
His contract with WWE is set to expire on Saturday and The Man appears set for a long break likely to focus on being a mom after more than two years of working in the ring and developing young talent that will make an impact on the business for years to come. . She posted a photo of herself leaving the building with the caption “To be continued.”
(No, I don’t see her appearing on Collision Saturday or moving to AEW.)
The juxtaposition of the two events was intriguing, although probably unrelated.
But at this point in her career, Lynch is a member of the old guard – the Four Horsewomen of Wrestling – whose group has done everything it can to steer the women’s division away from the love triangle, soap opera angle type for teenagers. is about to race with Morgan, Ripley and Mysterio.
It’s something that Lynch, Flair, Bayley and Sasha Banks (now Mercedes Mone in AEW) have stayed away from – likely fearing that any small slip-up would open the door for what they helped build to come back the slightest step back towards the era of Divas and Attitude. Lynch in interviews before WrestleMania 40 was concerned that WWE promoting Ripley doing a Stink Face with her ass during a live event was an example of this.
Lynch awkwardly tried to do the real-life couple angle with then-boyfriend Seth Rollins in 2019, but other than that, these four never sniffed anything close to be the center of a romantic angle in WWE.
The only things I remember that were similar to the Women’s Evolution era were Mandy Rose and Otis’ storyline, Braun Strowman’s innocent admiration for Alexa Bliss as a Mixed Match Challenge team, and the Bobby Lashley-Rusev-Lana wife stealing angle with Lana being more manager than in-ring performer.
We’re now about to have a Ripley-Morgan-Mysterio soap opera topping the bill with the Women’s World Championship on the line.
WWE is playing the right angle given how Ripley has changed the way women can be portrayed in the company, as she is the undisputed leader of the men in The Judgment Day faction when she is around.
Morgan – given that Ripley hurt her in the storyline – would like to destroy her relationship with Mysterio. Mysterio at King and Queen of the Ring and Raw appeared to try to cost Morgan the championship, only to see those attempts backfire every time.
Still, seeing the kiss was shocking because it had been a long time since female main event talent had this type of sexual interaction with a male WWE talent.
You didn’t need the kiss for the angle and plot to work, but it felt like something Vince Ruso and Vince McMahon would have insisted on in the late 90s. And that was most likely the point .
Remember, creative boss Triple H, as a wrestler, had to show a fondness for Trish Stratus behind the scenes, but Stephanie McMahon got angry when she walked in as part of a storyline in 2000 and later that year, she was in the famous love-triangle story with her current wife and Kurt Angle.
It will be interesting to see how far the Morgan-Ripley-Mysterio angle goes since Mysterio and Ripley, who are not a real-life couple, have never kissed on screen – only teasing a sensual relationship.
Is this based on unique story circumstances or opening the door for WWE to normalize stories based on love, lust and on-screen couples, even at the top of their women’s division – especially with the move to Netflix coming?
Let’s hope it’s the first.
Otherwise, Lynch might find herself returning to a different creative landscape if and when she decides to return.
Double
The announcement that SummerSlam will be a two-day event in Minneapolis in 2026 likely means a few things. First, WWE is likely compensating for choosing Las Vegas over Minneapolis for next year’s WrestleMania. Second, WWE is looking to continue to make the most of its PLEs and the potential government subsidies given to them.
It would be less certain whether a second two-night event would make it easier to move SummerSlam, WrestleMania or Royal Rumble outside the United States in future years. TKO President Mark Shapiro said last week that WWE was looking to expand its relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the next six to 12 months as the company held its first SmackDown there last weekend . Consider the venue fees for the first non-American WrestleMania. Everything seems possible now.
The count of 10
Shayna Baszler has been booked in NXT – even this current week – better than she was at any time on the main roster. His opposition to Lola Vice’s dance – which reminds me of Daniel Garcia’s dance angle from AEW – makes perfect sense. Baszler in an NXT Underground match is exactly where he belongs.
I thought Swerve Strickland chasing Christian Cage through a parking lot and Prince Nana coming back to block his escape was very well done on Dynamite. My only adjustment would have been to try and get a smoother shot of Swerve chasing Cage across the back before cutting. Additionally, Darby Allin went from being pulled out of the car by Tony Khan into the arena way too quickly – he must have gotten on the skateboard.
The King and Queen of the Ring tournaments teased three exceptional matches and gave us none yet. Jade Cargill vs. Bianca Belair, Gunther vs. Ilja Dragunov and Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton at SummerSlam.
We recommend following or checking in at @brunoradke6 on It looks like we finally have a date announced – June 17 on Raw – for Taylor Rotunda to don the mask and hat again and potentially start a new Wyatt Family which is rumored to contain Alexa Bliss, Erik Rowan, Joe Gacey and Dexter Lumis.
Roxanne Perez’s transition from uber-babyface prodigy to cocky heel has been absolutely perfect and she is now defending her NXT Women’s Championship against TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace at Battleground in a historic crossover.
I would love to see Trick Williams or Oba Femi be the ones to come to TNA for a crossover next.
AEW packed a ton of stuff into Double or Nothing, so much so that the show lasted over four hours.
The two things I would have saved for Dynamite were the extended part of MJF’s promo because people would tune in to hear him speak.
The other was Kris Statlander turning on Willow Nightingale because I think it distracted from Mercedes Mone’s championship win.
I loved Iyo Sky turning around in the Damage CTRL locker room after Kairi Sane lost to Lyra Valkyria on Raw. Damage CTRL feels like a typo in itself and it’s good to see that someone in the group is upset about it.
WWE did the right thing by allowing a little more time before Otis and Alpha Academy part ways with Chad Gable, as this needs to be a PLE match. But what it takes for him to finally break down when Gable removes his belt to spank Otis isn’t enough. Gable gives Christian Cage a run for Father of the Year.
With the Owen Hart Cup winners playing world championship matches at Wembley Stadium at All Out, the early favorites have to be Will Ospreay and the returning Jamie Hayter, right?
Former AEW star Ethan Page made his NXT debut, attacking Trick Williams to close out the show. Hopefully NXT gives him a chance to be more than just a heel of the month for their champion.
Extra: Getting the AEW Championship belts on “Inside The NBA” seems long overdue and just in time with the show and AEW’s future with Warner Bros. Discovery still uncertain.
Wrestler of the week
Darby Allin, AEW
AEW has had a number of true MVPs in its five years of existence and Darby Allin has etched his name on that list. The former TNT champion was suffering from a broken foot suffered in March, then suffered a broken nose after being hit by a New York bus in April. But there, he was replacing the injured Eddie Kingston for Anarchy in the Arena.
He was a huge focal point of the match with a bus seat with Jack Perry, putting his flamethrower license on for entertainment purposes then allowing himself to be tied up and hung upside down above the ring.
Social media posts of the week
Match to watch
Riott 40-man MLW Battle, Saturday, 9 p.m., YouTube
This street fight from MLW on the Royal Rumble, in which participants are eliminated by pinfall, submission or thrown over the top rope. The winner earns an MLW World Championship match.
There are plenty of intriguing names announced in Matt Riddle, Sami Callihan, Paul Walter Houser, Bobby Fish, Mistico and Ernest “The Cat” Miller, along with plenty of likely surprises.
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