Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes is set to defend his title against GUNTHER at Clash in Italy, and there are many fans who believe the “Career Killer” needs to score a big win to keep his momentum going. One of those people is Bully Ray, who explained on “Busted Open Radio” he believes the “Rocky” movies could inspire the match, giving GUNTHER the win in Turin to set up a bigger story.

The WWE Hall of Famer explained that he wants GUNTHER to take all hope, as well as the title, away from Rhodes, a la “Rocky.” He said that the character’s loss made you want to see the second film, because he fought so hard, that you believed in him.

“Even when he thought he couldn’t, we get that moment in time that makes every man in the world want to go out and fight,” he explained. “It’s when Adrian looks at him and says, ‘There’s only one I thing I want you to do for me. Win.’ …Hope has been restored. Now we want to pay money to watch ‘Rocky II’ to see Rocky win. I want all of the hope to be taken away from Cody… I want to see Brandi tell him ‘win.’ Or I want to see someone tell him ‘win.'”

Bully Ray said he wants to see Rhodes choked out on the remaining episodes of “SmackDown,” as well as in Italy, to see the hope leave his eyes and make Rhodes question himself. He said the loss won’t impact Rhodes, because his fans will rally behind him, but if GUNTHER fails to win the title, he loses some of his luster.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s live coverage for “WWE Raw” on May 18, 2026, coming to you live from the First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina!

Coming off their non-title victory against Giulia and Kiana James on this past Friday’s episode of “WWE SmackDown”, Paige and Brie Bella will be back in action as they put their Women’s Tag Team Championship on the line against Judgment Day’s Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez. Not only will this mark Paige and Brie’s first time putting their title on the line since retaining against The Irresistible Forces’ Lash Legend and Nia Jax on the May 1 episode of “SmackDown”, but the four women in tonight’s match came face-to-face in a verbal confrontation that ended in Perez, Rodriguez, and their stablemate Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan standing over Paige and Brie when they blindsided them with an attack on last Monday’s edition of “Raw”.

The Oba Femi Open Challenge has seen Oba Femi score very quick victories against the likes of Otis on the May 4 episode of “Raw” and Los Garza in a 2-On-1 Handicap Match during last Monday’s show. Tonight, the Oba Femi Open Challenge is set to continue with anyone welcome to answer the call and test themselves against Femi.

El Grande Americano and OG El Grande Americano will be squaring off against one another at AAA Noche De Los Grandes on May 30 following weeks of tensions between the two men on Raw. Before they do, they will be meeting one another in the ring tonight when Grande joins forces with his Los Americanos stablemates Rayo Americano and Bravo Americano to take on OG Grande and his allies Los Americanos Hermanos’ Julio and Bruno in a Six Man Tornado Tag Team Match. Additionally, World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns will be making an appearance on tonight’s show after he found himself in a brawl with Jacob Fatu and was ultimately left laid out by him in the closing moments of last Monday’s show.

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After all of the celebrity involvement at WWE WrestleMania 42, from former commentator and ESPN personality Pat McAfee, to country music artist Jelly Roll, one star who has remained after the “Showcase of the Immortals” is rapper Lil Yachty. Yachty has taken the place most weeks as United States Champion Trick Williams’ manager, despite Williams not really needing a mouth piece. The pair work well together on “WWE SmackDown,” and on a recent episode of the “Battleground Podcast,” Williams talked about working with the rapper, who he said loves the business, which gets him fired up.

“We sit here and we brainstorm for hours at a time about how we’re going to do this, and how we’re going to do that. No ego involved,” Williams explained. “We’re going to put out the best work possible, and we’re going to put out diss tracks. We’re going to be doing different things like that. We put out a fire track and I can see how the gingerbread diss track, though it was a throwaway line that became something much bigger than what I would have ever anticipated it being. Hopefully I didn’t lose to much of my ginger audience, because I have nothing against gingers, it’s just all to poke fun at Sami Zayn.”

Yachty has been by Williams’ side through the majority of his feud with former US Champion Zayn. The pair released their diss track in the days leading up to the WrestleMania match, and the gingerbread man storyline got so big on “SmackDown,” after Zayn beat down the costume in anger, Williams even hosted a funeral for it, with Yachty in the costume to further beat down Zayn.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Battleground Podcast” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

For the second time in the last year, changes to the Nielsen ratings system has left wrestling promotions scratching their heads and wondering what went wrong. The only difference is that TNA is now getting the brunt of these changes alongside AEW and WWE, with the May 7th episode of “Impact” drawing its lowest numbers since airing on AMC, a combination of the ratings changes and competition from the NBA and NHL Playoffs.

Things were slightly better for May 14, though they were still numbers TNA would like to forget. Wrestlenomics and Programming Insider report that “Impact” drew 196K total viewers, and 0.03 in the coveted 18-49 demographic. After the record low from the week before, there was nowhere to go but up for both categories, with total viewership rising 20% from 164K, while 18-49 was up 50% from 0.02.

Perhaps the biggest sign that “Impact’s” viewership has been hit hard by the Nielsen changes and sports competition are May 14’s numbers against the four week average. While total viewership was up, it was only up 3% from an average of 190K viewers, a total well short of the numbers “Impact” was drawing during its first few months on AMC. Meanwhile, 18-49 remained level at 0.03.

“Impact’s” top story of the week first seemed to be the main event, which saw Cedric Alexander defeat Leon Slater in a two out of three falls match to become TNA X-Division Champion, ending Slater’s reign at just under 300 days. The headlines were quickly stolen from Alexander just minutes later when Fabian Aichner, aka former WWE star Giovanni Vinci, made his TNA debut, confronting Alexander and setting himself up as a potential X-Division challenger.

That mentality, however, may be the downfall of the champion, according to Bully Ray. During his match against Sammy Guevara on Saturday’s “AEW Collision,” Allin passed out in sheer exhaustion while applying the Scorpion Deathlock. Bully Ray said that it seemed like a seed was planted going into the Double or Nothing match that could benefit Allin in defeat.

“If you see a guy like Darby Allin who’s willing to bring it every single week to the level that Darby is bringing it and he happens to lose against MJF, you as a fan know, ‘This guy has given his all…,'” he said. “[If] MJF were to walk away with the championship and then Darby slowly gets to his feet, people are going to give Darby a standing ovation and start chanting ‘Thank you, Darby,’ because you’re thanking Darby for everything that he has given of himself.”

Bully Ray said that he rather be over emotionally with the fans than have a championship, and “being over trumps everything. It’s a way to get the title back on MJF, but to get Allin to the next level in the eyes of the fans. He however questioned if anyone else’s stock has really gone up after facing Allin.

“Nobody is a bigger draw because of these matches,” Bully Ray said. “I’m going to use Sammy as my best example. You believe that this match against Sammy on ‘Collision’ reminded everybody of how great Sammy once was in AEW and how great Sammy can be again? The only way I will agree with you is if this Wednesday night on AEW if they follow up with Sammy.”

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.