WWE has No Mercy for us – A Recap

Tonight’s PPV came to us from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.  Michele, Matt, and I had great seats to see a disappointing show.

Match-by-Match

• Elias wooed the crowd with an anti-LA song to start the kickoff.  I’m tired of Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” song anyway.  This was a good improvement.
  • He put Apollo Crews away with a Drift Away for the pinfall.  It was a good way to get the crowd going.
• The show started with The Miz w/ The Miztourage Vs. Jason Jordan.  If you were watching for the first time, it would be hard to determine that The Miz was the heel in the match.  LA was thoroughly behind Miz and did not like Jason Jordan.  Just like Roman though, Jason put on an impressive display.  He ultimately came up short.  Miz used the distraction of the Miztourage to get in a sneak attack and a Skull Crushing Finale for the win.
  • Jason had a cheesy interview afterwards saying that everyone chants “You Suck” at his Dad affectionately while they chant “You Suck” at Miz actually meaning the words.  Nevermind that they were actually chanting that at Jordan.
• Human Finn Bálor defeats Bray Wyatt in a good, but not great, match.  Bálor was wearing some new light grey tights that I’m sure The Nobodies will comment about.
• Alexa pins Bayley in the Fatal Five Way to retain the Raw Women’s Championship.  It was a decent 12 minute match.  The most memorable part was the annoying Alexa mark behind us yelling obnoxious stuff the whole time.  Oh and everyone teaming up to basically powerbomb Nia to the floor.
• I almost forget the best match on the card!  The Tag Title match between Cesaro & Sheamus and Seth & Dean  was a little bit of magic.  It was a lot of Dean eating a lot of punishment and Seth helping to save the day at the last minute.  Cesaro unfortunately got a couple of teeth jammed into his gums about midway through the match.  It’s nasty.  Anyway, don’t take my word for it.  Just watch this match.  You can skip the rest of the PPV.  Dean and Seth retain.
• We’re going to skip to the Cruiserweight Championship match.  After taking a complete beating for the entire match like he’s expecting a hot tag, Enzo suddenly kicks Neville in the dick and steals the Cruiserweight Championship.  Eh.  If you look at Twitter, none of the Cruiserweights are particularly thrilled with the outcome.
• The Cruiserweight match was a cool down match between the two main events.  Let’s get to our first: John Cena Vs. Roman Reigns.  This was very slow to get out of first gear.  Once it did, it was a fine match.  It never got to the levels of  their outings against AJ Styles, but a good match.  Roman speared Cena through the Spanish announce table and Cena hit one AA.  Neither was enough to put the other away.  And then we come to the finish, we get a couple more AAs, followed by an Avalanche AA.  Somehow that wasn’t enough to put Roman down.  You know what is?  A Superman Punch and Spear for the win.  Yeah…
  • It appears that this is at least an extended break from the WWE for Cena.  He took extra time after his loss to soak it all in.  I think he’s truly a part timer now.  I’m glad I was there for the match.  I just wish it was better.
• Remember how the Joe/Lesnar match was pretty good?  Well, prepare to be disappointed.  Braun was manhandling Brock early on, just like you would have expected he would do.  Brock eventually gets Braun in the Kimora Lock…and that’s when everything goes haywire.  Braun is clearly against the ropes or easily within rope break distance.  Yet the ref didn’t start a 5-count or demand a rope break.  And after that, it was time to go to Suplex City.  Does anyone still like this?  It’s boring.  Braun has a little more offense left but Brock hits one F5 and it’s over.  Seriously.  One F5.

Where Do We Go From Here?

After a month seeing Progress Chapter 55 and Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor, this show was a huge letdown.  On paper, the show had the potential to be the best of the three.  The conclusion that I’ve come to is that the WWE is really, really good at hyping up these matches and not really delivering on them.  At least, that is, for the B shows like this one.

The WWE stubbornness to following certain threads to the end while abandoning spontaneous storylines and matchups is directly why they can’t hit the 3 million network subscribers that they need.

If we are barreling through to Lesnar Vs. Roman, do I even need to purchase tickets to Wrestlemania?  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be in New Orleans.  I just don’t know if I need to go to Mania.

That feeling will probably pass, but it’s what I’m feeling right now.

I would ask what Roman is doing next, but Miz heavily hinted that we are getting a Shield reunion next month for TLC.

What’s next for Strowman?  Who knows.  Roman will be busy and you can’t just have him beat Big Show again.  Maybe it’s time for him to start a tag team with a little guy.  Or maybe with two guys and they can fight The Shield?

Lesnar?  What’s his matchups for Survivor Series and Royal Rumble?  I have no idea.  Maybe he can spend some time working on his cardio.  We all know he’s not going to do that, but one can hope.

We can only assume that Asuka is going to be Women’s Champion by the end of the year, probably way sooner.  I still don’t know what they’re doing with Bayley.

It’s a PPV that disappoints me as a WWE fan.  I really hope Raw gives me some hope.

It probably won’t.