The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle.
Liv Morgan ending “Monday Night Raw” by planting a big old kiss on Dominik Mysterio runs deeper than waiting to see how Rhea Ripley will respond when she returns from injury.
(Some fans in the U.S. missed it live as the USA Network broadcast ended before the kiss, but WWE quickly posted the clip to social media.)
That is because sitting in the ring was an emotional Becky Lynch after losing her championship cage match to Morgan.
Her WWE contract is reportedly set to run out on Saturday, and The Man looks ready for a long hiatus, likely to focus on being a mom after two-plus years of in-ring work and building young talent that will impact the company for years to come. She posted a picture of her walking out of the building with the caption, “To be continued.”
(No, I don’t see her showing up on Collision on Saturday or jumping to AEW.)
The juxtaposition of the two events was intriguing, though likely not related.
But at this point in her career, Lynch is a member of the old guard — the Four Horsewomen of Wrestling — who did everything they could to push the women’s division away from the type of love-triangle, teen-soap-opera angle WWE is about to run with Morgan, Ripley and Mysterio.
It’s something Lynch, Flair, Bayley and Sasha Banks (now Mercedes Mone in AEW) stayed away from — likely worrying that any little slippage would open the door for what they helped build to roll even the slightest backward to the Divas and Attitude Era. Lynch, in interviews before WrestleMania 40, feared WWE promoting Ripley doing a Stink Face with her ass out at a live event was an example of just that.
Lynch awkwardly tried to do the real-life couple angle with then-boyfriend Seth Rollins in 2019, but outside of that, those four have never sniffed anything close to being at the center of a romantic angle in WWE.
The only things I can remember that were similar during the Women’s Evolution Era were the 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.
Now we are about to have a Ripley-Morgan-Mysterio soap opera at the top of the card with the Women’s World championship at stake.
WWE is playing the right angle given how Ripley has changed how women can be portrayed in the company as she is the clear leader of the men in The Judgment Day faction when she is around.
Morgan — given that Ripley injured her in storyline — would want to wreck her relationship with Mysterio. Mysterio appeared to try to cost Morgan the championship at King and Queen of the Ring and Raw, only to see those attempts backfire both times.
Still, seeing the kiss was jarring because it feels like ages since the main-event women’s talent have had that type of sexual interaction with a male talent in WWE.
You didn’t need the kiss for the angle and the intrigue to work, but it felt like something Vince Russo and Vince McMahon would have insisted on in the late 90s. And that was quite possibly the point.
Remember, creative boss Triple H as a wrestler got to show a bent-over Trish Stratus some holds backstage only to have Stephanie McMahon flip out in anger when she walked in as part of a storyline in 2000. Later that year, he was in the famous love-triangle story with his now wife and Kurt Angle.
It will be interesting to see how far the Morgan-Ripley-Mysterio angle goes. Mysterio and Ripley, who are not a real-life couple, have never kissed on screen — only teasing a sensual relationship.
Is this one-off based on the unique story circumstance, or the opening of 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 a move to Netflix coming?
Hopefully, it’s the former.
If it’s not, Lynch could find herself returning to a different creative landscape if and when she decides to come back.
Doubling up
The announcement that SummerSlam will be a two-day event in Minneapolis in 2026 likely means a few things. One, WWE is probably making up for choosing Las Vegas over Minneapolis for WrestleMania next year. Two, WWE is looking to continue to squeeze every last cent out of its PLEs and the potential government subsidies for them.
Less certain would be whether having a second two-night event makes it easier to move SummerSlam or WrestleMania or the Royal Rumble outside the U.S. in the coming years. TKO President Mark Shapiro said last week the WWE is looking to expand its relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the next six to 12 months. The company hosted its first SmackDown there this past weekend. Think about the site fee for the first non-U.S. WrestleMania. Anything feels possible now.
The 10 Count
Shayna Baszler has been booked in NXT — even to this current week — better than she was at any point on the main roster. Her being against Lola Vice’s dance — which reminds me of AEW’s Daniel Garcia dance angle — makes perfect sense. Baszler in an NXT Underground match is exactly where she belongs.
I thought Swerve Strickland chasing Christian Cage into parking and Prince Nana returning to block his escape was very well done on Dynamite. My one tweak would have been trying to get a more fluid camera shot of Swerve chasing Cage through the back before they cut away. Also, Darby Allin went way too quickly from being let out of the car by Tony Khan to inside the arena — he must have taken the skateboard.
The King and Queen of the Ring tournaments teased three outstanding matches and gave us none of them for now: Jade Cargill vs. Bianca Belair, Gunther vs. Ilja Dragunov and Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton at SummerSlam.
Recommend following or checking in on @brunoradke6 on X for deep dives and explanations of all of the Uncle Howdy return QR Codes. It appears we finally have a date teased — the June 17 Raw — for Taylor Rotunda to put the mask and hat back on and potentially debut a new Wyatt Family that is rumored to contain Alexa Bliss, Erick Rowan, Joe Gacey and Dexter Lumis.
Roxanne Perez’s transition from uber-babyface prodigy to cocky heel has been absolutely flawless, and now she is defending her NXT Women’s championship against TNA Knockouts champion Jordynne Grace at Battleground in a historic crossover.
Would love to see Trick Williams or Oba Femi be the one to go over TNA for a crossover next.
AEW packed a ton of stuff into Double or Nothing, so much so that the show ran more than four hours.
The two things I would have saved for Dynamite was the extended portion of MJF’s promo because people will tune in to hear him speak.
The other was Kris Statlander turning on Willow Nightingale because I think it took the focus away from Mercedes Mone’s championship win.
Loved Iyo Sky flipping out in the Damage CTRL locker room after Kairi Sane’s loss to Lyra Valkyria on Raw. Damage CTRL feels like a shell of itself, and it’s good to see someone in the group is upset about it.
WWE made the right call allowing a little more time before Otis and Alpha Academy split from Chad Gable because it needs to be a PLE match. But what it is going to take for him to finally snap when Gable taking his belt out to spank Otis wasn’t enough? Gable is giving Christian Cage a run for Father of the Year.
With the Owen Hart Cup winners getting world championship matches at Wembley Stadium at All Out, the early favorites have to be Will Ospreay and a returning Jamie Hayter, don’t they?
Former AEW star Ethan Page got quite the debut in NXT, attacking Trick Williams to close the show. Hopefully, NXT gives him a chance to be more than just a heel of the month for their champion.
Extra: Getting AEW championship belts on “Inside The NBA” feels 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 during its five-year run. Darby Allin etched his name on that list. The former TNT champion had been dealing with a broken foot suffered in March, then broke his nose after being hit by a NYC bus in April. But there he was filling in for the injured Eddie Kingston for Anarchy in the Arena.
He was a huge focal point of the match with a bus spot with Jack Perry, putting his flame thrower permit to entertaining use then letting himself get hog-tied and hung upside down above the ring.
Social Media Posts of the Week
Match to Watch
MLW 40-man Battle Riott, Saturday, 9 p.m., YouTube
This MLW’s street-fight twist on the Royal Rumble as participants are eliminated by pinfall, submission or being thrown over the top rope. The winner gets 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 surprises likely on tap.
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