By the way, before I begin, I posted a little video for No Mercy. Hope y’all can catch it, and subscribe to my channel, TheRichStaple, if you haven’t yet!
As a request, I’m going back to my old format of reviewing the matches after the show instead of reviewing it live. I think it may be a change for the better, because the newer format I tried was unnecessarily long, so let’s get started!
The Miz (C) def. Jason Jordan – Intercontinental Championship
The booking of Jason Jordan is the product of the overbooking WWE often does with talents. Jason Jordan has the in-ring ability, but he needs to be allowed to develop everything else on his own. Having the nepotism of being Kurt Angle’s son in the background needlessly adds another dynamic to his character that will only limit him. Despite that, however, this match was rock solid. The chants of “Who’s your daddy” was greatly entertaining to hear as well. Jordan had some solid bouts against Reigns and Cena in the past couple of weeks, and I think The Miz complimented his style well here. It wasn’t anything special or noteworthy, but they worked a basic formula, and it worked. Hell, the crowd even graced them with “This is Awesome” chants, which showed that they had a great pace and energy as well. The Miz allowed Jason to show off his athleticism, and The Miz played the numbers game with the Miztourage once again, and it led to him getting the underhanded victory. Short, sweet and simple. Just how I like my matches But it must be said. Jason Jordan is one deplorable speaker. I mean, does saying The Miz suck go for an insult? Like, was that supposed to hurt his feelings? ***1/4
Finn Balor def. Bray Wyatt
So Finn Balor in gray makes him sort of look like a power ranger. Ah, well. Anyways, I thought WWE was going to continue their overbooking of this feud with Bray attacking Finn before the match. Fortunately, we got an actual match. This was probably the best match of their horrible feud, and I have to say these two brought out the best of each other in here. Finn did a solid job selling the injured mid-section throughout the entire match and Bray made sure to keep on the attack. See, now if there were actual stakes in the match, like say a title or a title shot, then I might have been on the edge of my seat. Unfortunately, the quaint nature of this feud took some of the force out of this feud. Despite that, there were some believable near-falls and some good reversals down the stretch that complimented the rest of the match. A part of me believed it went a little long for my taste, as I thought they could have gotten to the point and maintain the quality of the match with less time, but they went out there and did their stuff, and in what I hope to be the final match in their feud, it was a solid way to go out. Now let’s just pray that we never see these two in a feud again. ***1/2
Seth Rollins (C) and Dean Ambrose (C) vs. Sheamus and Cesaro – RAW Tag Team Championship
This match had dull build-up, but boy was it worth it. All four of these men have proved themselves to be some of the more consistent performers on WWE’s roster, and their match at Summerslam was very good. However, they took it to another level. I loved the beginning portion with the heel psychology from Cesaro and Sheamus. That was actually the same tactics that they used in their match against the Hardy Boyz at Great Balls of Fire. This was basically the RAW equivalent of The Usos and New Day at Summerslam. Cesaro is definitely the real MVP here. I haven’t seen anyone lose teeth off a slingshot to the turnbuckle before, making me think that it was reinforced with cinderblocks or something. Continuing on for 10 minutes like that, with blood coming profusely from his mouth ought to be commended. Rollins and Ambrose serve as solid foils to Cesaro and Sheamus, both as characters and in the ring, and I believed they showcased all of that chemistry here. By the way, Cesaro powerbombing Rollins from the top turnbuckle onto Ambrose and Ambrose kicking out was one of the best sequences in WWE I have ever seen. Definitely would watch again if I have 15 minutes to burn. ****1/4
Alexa Bliss (C) def. Bayley, Sasha Banks, Emma and Nia Jax – RAW Women’s Championship (Fatal Five Way)
My biggest fear coming into this match was that it would be the formula were two competitors work at a time while the others stay out for extended periods. While it had some of that, I believe all five members were active and Alexa Bliss especially worked her ass off. Nia Jax looked incredible dominant, dropping multiple competitors at a time, and needing multiple women just to take her down. Alexa Bliss was sly and cunning, trying to gain an advantage in any way that she could. Bayley and Sasha traded shots and both tried to steal pinfalls. Emma also tried to make the most of her opportunity and I believe this was a much-needed showing from her. I believe Alexa retaining here was the right choice, because I couldn’t see much of a case for anyone else at this point. You’re definitely not putting it on Sasha. Bayley just came back from injury and has already been a champion. Nia Jax’s victory should probably come in a singles match to put a stamp on her victory. If there’s one woman I could understand winning tonight it would have been Emma as a dark horse, but despite that, the exposure was the most important part for her tonight, and she got just that. Overall, I believe the women showed an extra edge tonight, wasn’t afraid to be physical and had a sense of urgency. ***1/4
Roman Reigns def. John Cena
Ugh. Just….what? Look, I’m not gonna lie to any of you. I didn’t like this. Why? Well, where do we begin? First off, there was far too many rest spots and fluff early on. Cena began by retreating out the ring and having Roman come in and give him a couple of punches, but that was about most of the action for most of the first 10 minutes. Second, this match suffered from the same issue that Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho’s match at WrestleMania suffered from. The body language of the match didn’t match the intensity of the feud. I mean, Cena took fun at Roman’s failed drug test. Roman took shots at Cena’s part-time status and called him a b*tch at every turn. This shouldn’t have been a series of rest holds. I needed to see some physical back and forth. But no, all we got was something resembling them rehearsing a match. Then, they just got to the segment where it was finisher, kick out, rinse, repeat. But boy, oh boy, Roman kicking out of four AA’s, including one Avalanche and two in succession? Get outta here with that bullcrap. I don’t know what WWE was trying to accomplish with Roman with that finish.
Whether it was to have him garner more sympathy or simply have more visceral hatred aimed his way, WWE didn’t do him any favors in that regard. Roman needed the win much more than Cena did, but I am so sick and tired of finishers getting spammed and losing it’s effectiveness. 5-10 years ago, no one is kicking out of the Avalanche AA. Now, it’s becoming a common occurrence. I get that Cena is getting older, but four finisher kick outs? Maybe if you’re Brock Lesnar, but Roman Reigns? Aw…HELLLLL NO. I’m not going to justify this match with a high rating just because there were many kick outs. Just because you kick out of a finisher two or three times doesn’t make it a great match. Some may call this a passing of the torch from Roman to Cena, but I certainly hope that wasn’t the case, because of it was, that torch flamed out. The match, technically speaking was it what it was, but boy was this disappointing, topped off with a finish that only Vince could love. The post-match sympathy scene was just cheesy too. Again, nothing horrible, but far too lazy and uninspired. This wasn’t the star-making match I’m sure WWE wanted for Reigns. **1/2
Enzo Amore def. Neville (C) – Cruiserweight Championship
Whatever. I thought this was gonna be Neville squashing Enzo within a minute, but instead, we get a boring match that wasn’t even remotely competitive and a cheap finish. Enzo Amore is no Eddie Guererro, and if this is how WWE plans on shaping the Cruiserweight Division, they’ve shot themselves in the foot. Bad all around. DUD.
Brock Lesnar (C) def. Braun Strowman – Universal Championship
Give me a freaking break. This was literally a mirror image of Lesnar’s match with Samoa Joe. I don’t know how much you gotta pay Lesnar to get competitive singles matches more than 10 minutes out of him, but you can’t book Strowman like this. You just can’t do it. I said the biggest thing going into this match is finding a way to keep the title on Lesnar without having Strowman look like a joke, because, you know, eh’s been running through everyone and all that. Strowman laid out Lesnar. Like, LAID HIM OUT before No Mercy. No Mercy comes and what happens? Strowman dominates again, Lesnar gets a Kimura Lock, a fluke F-5, and that’s your finish. Strowman put Lesnar through through tables and has kicked out of countless finishers over the months, and all it takes is one F-5 to do him in now? What is this foolishness? Now, we likely won’t see Lesnar until January, and this is what he left us with. It wasn’t downright horrible, but you’re telling me you couldn’t make it more competitive than that? Not only did it only take one F-5 to get Strowman down, but Lesnar also kicked out of three of Strowman’s finishers. What a joke of a main event. **
Conclusion:
As has been the case far too often this year, the PPV looked promising, but it fell flat on its face. The first half of the show brought great energy, urgency and got “THIS IS AWESOME” chants from the crowd often. But once we got to Cena/Reigns, we fell off a cliff rather fast. That final tail end of the show was just bad. Cena/Reigns was just a finisher palooza, Enzo/Neville was a damn joke and Strowman/Lesnar was far too short and disappointing of a main event. It’s just a damn shame that WWE can’t keep a string of momentum for extended periods of time these days and once again WWE had a chance to knock a PPV out of the park, and I was once left again saying, “meh”. So now Cena will presumably be on hiatus as well as Lesnar, and now it looks like Roman will go back to being the top dog for the time being. How fun. Thumbs in the middle for an uneven show.
