On the latest “After The Bell” podcast, Corey Graves talked about the controversial ending to the match this past Monday on RAW that saw Raquel Rodriguez and Aliyah win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship:
“Full disclosure for everybody listening. We are recording this Tuesday morning because I have to travel to Wales. I will be in the U.K.by the time this drops, so forgive me if there’s been new developments or new information that’s come out in the wake of the controversy surrounding the WWE Women’s tag team titles. But Aliyah and Raquel Rodriguez shocked everybody. The response from the live crowd was almost odd because people had their jaws on the floor. Nobody knew it was coming, nobody expected it, and this is really, really wild.”
“But in the immediate wake Monday night, I got back home and I’m scrolling through Twitter, and it’s still going on today this morning, everybody’s talking about the controversy at the end of that matchup. I started to say something on the air, because like you guys at home who are watching on television, I watch a monitor in front of me. We do this so we can best describe what the fans at home are seeing rather than what we can see in the arena, even though we have the best seats in the house five feet from the ring. I saw the same things you guys did. I was as confused as anybody in the arena or watching at home when Aliyah scored that final pinfall.”
“What got me was the camera cut to Dakota Kai, who appeared to be saying, and I’m not a master lip reader but I’m pretty good at it, said, ‘I wasn’t legal.’ She was adamant, Dakota was, that she was not legal, in which case, the match should continue. The match should not end. The illegal competitor was pinned. That does not end the match under normal circumstances. I don’t know, however, because I was watching just like everybody at home, all of the action. There were bodies flying everywhere. There were moves happening. There were tags in and out and competitors getting in the ring and thrown out. There was pure chaos. So it’s easy to believe that something got lost in the shuffle. Dakota said she wasn’t legal. I almost called it out on Raw. I started to say it and then I went, you know what? I’m not sure. I’m not 100% certain that what I saw was accurate, so I’d rather not say anything, and I don’t want to spoil the moment for Raquel and Aliyah who just had the biggest victory of their careers. So I understand why a lot of people are confused. Again, this is Tuesday morning. There’s not a lot of clarity regarding the actual outcome other than we do know that officially, Raquel and Aliyah are the Women’s Tag Team Champions.”
Graves welcomed Drew McIntyre as his guest to talk about the upcoming title match at Clash at the Castle. McIntyre was asked if he felt short changed during his WWE Championship run because it occurred during the pandemic era and if felt he never got the credibility as WWE Champion because of it:
“Yeah, I mean, if you look at it from that perspective, what makes a top level superstar in our industry is those moments and racking up as many big moments as possible, so obviously, I missed out on a huge moment in a stadium beating Brock in five minutes and raising the title with the fans going crazy. I had such momentum at the time. So yeah, I absolutely did lose out on that, and you need those moments to be a true top, top level superstar in WWE.”
“But as I’ve talked about often, the times we were living in, I’m very proud of what WWE did and what Drew McIntyre did during that time because everywhere was shut down. There was no escape. We got WrestleMania over two days for the first time ever. I had the feel good story going in, and if I beat Brock, it would make a lot of people smile. We’re always seeing the company put smiles on faces. It’s not just the silly company line. It’s true, and I’ve seen it firsthand in our community area of the company.”
“In times like WrestleMania and after WrestleMania, the feedback was unbelievable. We’re up chatter on social 60% from the year prior. I’ve spoken to people and met people since then that told me that period of WWE literally saved their lives. So I am very proud of what we did. But for Drew McIntyre, the superstar, like yeah, I’m still searching for those big moments like that to get to where I want to get to and Clash is a perfect opportunity to get there.”
McIntyre talking about the Sheamus-Gunther match that will be taking place at Clash at the Castle:
“I’m excited about that match and Sheamus likes to joke about following it. Him and I talked privately about it. I was like, ‘Man, if there wasn’t such a momentum, the build, the titles weren’t on the line, and that Roman and I were in the positions we were in, from an atmosphere perspective, I’d be a little worried because you guys are going to steal it from an in-ring perspective. I can’t wait to sit down in the hotel with him and watch the show back, hopefully with a couple of titles beside us, which is interesting. This one’s an interesting one. It will probably turn into a clip. In 2009 at TLC, I beat John Morrison and became Intercontinental Champion on the same show that Sheamus beat John Cena and became World Champion and we sat in the hotel after with our titles. Now the roles are flipped around. It would be cool all those years later, we could do the same thing.”
Click below to listen to the entire podcast.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit After The Bell with Corey Graves with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
