Brock Lesnar vs. Omos (w/MVP)
Omos is a limited wrestler but this was set out in a way that worked for him. Every move Omos did was to Brock’s ribs. An elbow strike, bearhugs, power slams. Not exactly varied. Omos isn’t Kenta Kobashi. But the story of the match was told largely well until the finish where Brock Lesnar made a quick and underwhelming comeback. It felt too easy of a comeback for me. Decent opener to get Brock on the card, though. **1/4
Fatal Four Way Tag Team Match: Natalya & Shotzi vs. Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville vs. Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler
This wasn’t very good. Not awful but listless in many ways except for an extremely funny finish where Ronda came in, after doing basically nothing the whole match. *
WWE Intercontinental Title Triple Threat Match: Gunther (c) vs. Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre
That was a pretty awesome match. Three wrestlers entirely focused on knocking ten bells out of each other and that was the match. Not exactly the most varied match but I thought it was wickedly awesome and never really lost its momentum despite not doing much outside of punches, chops and kicks. It built and built into an awesome finish. ****
WWE RAW Women's Title Match: Bianca Belair (c) vs. Asuka
One of those matches where the wrestling is decent but it left me cold. A tad sloppy in parts but I thought that the overall match was fine enough. ***1/4
Hell In A Cell Match: Edge vs. Finn Balor
On the one hand, this was a bit better than I thought it was going to be. It was wrestled with some urgency, for one. But there were some distracting elements. More than I can list. I was immediately taken out of the match thanks to the colour coordinated chairs and the table. Those were just absurd additions to the match.Plus Balor’s snarling. I can’t take him seriously when he’s doing that. And Edge’s facial expressions were through the roof. If he’d tone it down a little, it wouldn't be so bad. The match was solidly worked though. A little too much for my personal tastes but I can’t say it was terrible. ***
WWE Title / WWE Universal Title Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Cody Rhodes
A good WWE main event with all the trimmings that you expect. Basically think of the typical Roman Reigns main events - mid match promos, table/barricade bumps (interchangeable), plenty of nearfalls. And add in a terrific selling performance by Cody and a solidly built main event built around Cody’s brief moments of hope and you get this match. The interference seemed like a necessary component of the match but it did feel like a footnote which interference shouldn’t be, if used at all. Solo Sikoa’s role in the match was enough for me. Both early in the match and in the finish. Another main point of contention for me was the result. I don’t see any reason not to put Cody over in this match given everything was pointing to him. The crowd was still pro-Cody when Sami Zayn didn’t win, there is the bullshit story about how Dusty never won the WWE title when he won the NWA Title when it was the title in wrestling, there was the linking factor that he won the Rumble after returning from injury. The stars aligned. And yet, the result was Roman winning with the spear. Odd. Truly. The only next step is Jey Uso beating Roman to bring the Bloodline full circle or they would be retreading on old ground. ***3/4
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