– Mojo Rawley did not appear live on this week’s WWE RAW broadcast but he did continue his new gimmick with a dark promo that took place before the live crowd at the US Bank Arena in Cincinnati, during a commercial break. You can see the promo below.
“Y’all thought you knew who Mojo Rawley was,” Mojo said. “But as always, y’all were wrong. You see, I spent a lot of time recently reflecting upon the shattered man that I saw looking back at me in the mirror, holding myself accountable for all of my shortcomings and all of my weaknesses. And that takes power, that takes more power than any of you possess. Any of you would go home late at night and you look at yourself in the mirror and you see failure. You see failure and you do nothing about it. Well, that ain’t me! That ain’t Mojo Rawley, and now I’m here, I’m finally here, ready to show the world what I’ve salvaged.”
– WWE NXT Champion Johnny Gargano recently wrote a review for the “Avengers: Endgame” movie on the Sports Illustrated website. You can read the review at this link.
“When I was asked to review Marvel’s latest mega blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, I honestly had no idea where to begin. There’s just so much ground to cover. It’s literally 11 years and 21 prior movies worth of emotional investment all rolled into an action-packed three hours,” Gargano wrote to begin the article. “First things first, I’m going to break the ONE rule of the movie—#DontSpoilTheEndGame—and I’m going to #SpoilTheEndGame. I’m not going to go into full details breaking down every scene and its reasoning. This will be more about my experience with the film, and a therapy session for those that have already seen it. We need to move on!”
– As noted, last night’s RAW saw Vince McMahon announce a Wild Card Rule that will allow RAW Superstars to appear on SmackDown each week, and SmackDown Superstars to appear on RAW.
It was originally believed that the new rule would allow 3 Superstars to appear on the other show each Monday and Tuesday night, but that was later changed in the show to allow 4 Superstars. The show started out with SmackDown Superstars Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan and WWE Champion Kofi Kingston appearing on RAW this week, but it was later bumped up to 4 Superstars when Lars Sullivan appeared. WWE actually had 5 SmackDown Superstars appear on RAW this week as Elias appeared, but Vince stated in a backstage segment that Elias’ appearance did not count towards the Wild Card Rule.
There’s no word yet on which RAW Superstars will be appearing on tonight’s SmackDown, but there should be 4 red brand Superstars appearing on tonight’s blue brand episode. AJ Styles teased on RAW that he may bring some of his friends to SmackDown tonight, but Vince interrupted him and said the Wild Card Rule is not set up ahead of time.
Below is WWE’s updated announcement on the Wild Card Rule and a few shots of the related segments that took place on last night’s show. WWE describes the Wild Card Rule as the “first officially-sanctioned blurring of the lines between Team Red and Team Blue Superstars.” It was also noted that unauthorized jumps to RAW or SmackDown each week could be “penalized by fines or even potential firing.”
Mr. McMahon’s new “Wild Card Rule” explained
The latest wrinkle in the ongoing Superstar Shake-up emerged this Monday on Raw when Mr. McMahon announced a new “Wild Card Rule” in which a limited number of Superstars from Raw or SmackDown would be invited to cross brand lines for one-night-only appearances, with unauthorized jumps to be penalized by fines or even potential firing. The number of crossover Superstars was initially capped at three — WWE Champion Kofi Kingston, Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns started things off by appearing on Raw this Monday — though Lars Sullivan evidently persuaded The Chairman to expand the limit to four.
Superstars crossing between Raw and SmackDown LIVE has, of course, occurred on rare occasion since the 2016 Brand Extension, but the “Wild Card Rule” is the first officially-sanctioned blurring of the lines between Team Red and Team Blue Superstars. (The exceptions before tonight had been Becky Lynch, who holds both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Titles, and The IIconics, who are eligible to appear on all brands as the free-floating WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions). And although this isn’t to say we’re about to go back to the days of Raw SuperShows or do away with the Brand Extension, there are some staggering implications to the rule depending on who decides to take advantage of it: The main event of the Wild Card’s maiden voyage was Raw’s first true WWE Championship Match since 2016, and AJ Styles has already openly speculated about getting some friends from SmackDown LIVE to back him up against Universal Champion Seth Rollins.
As always, it will take a while before the true impact of the “Wild Card Rule” is realized, but it’s sure to make things very, very interesting going forward. See which new matchups will be made possible by the “Wild Card Rule” by tuning in to Raw and SmackDown LIVE, Monday and Tuesday nights at 8/7 C on USA Network.
