This is another WWE PLE and for me I really don’t care for the concept. I think it’s a stupid gimmick that’s more for the writers and the gimmick match itself is stupid because ladder matches have become commonplace. Even if the WWE only allows for a single dedicated event per year for a clusterfuck ladder style match, it still feels like it’s too much because no one does it well. Worse yet the presentation of the WWE is so dreadfully boring that I feel as though only the main four PPVs are worth watching. But I was eating dinner and trying to get through my apple late night snack so here we are.
Let me start off and admit that the reason I hate ladder matches in general is due to the time Joey Mercury got smacked in the face with a dumb ladder spot and was left a bloody mess. From there I simply anticipate something horrible going wrong with the level of danger in these matches. I can’t imagine how the wrestlers must feel after this type of match especially with certain bumps. More than that I can’t generally recall anything spectacular in terms of something that I see which impresses me. Mostly, these matches are too coordinated, require way too much setup and look like they’re painful when someone falls on a ladder or some mishap happens. As someone once said, the ladder is the only real winner in these matches.
Women’s MinB Ladder Match Alexa Bliss vs Roxanne Perez vs Rhea Ripley vs Giulia vs Naomi vs Stephanie Vaquer
Le sigh. It took 18 minutes before the first match on this show actually started. There’s some very talented people in this match and two that I don’t care for. I think the most interesting moments occurred when Rhea Ripley and Giulia confronted one another. That’s a singles match and feud that needs to happen. Sadly, Giulia’s English isn’t good so she’s going to stumble over her words and her promos are going to suck. But I have a feeling she’ll be picking up the US title very soon (hopefully). I love watching Roxanne Perez because she’s still not injured, young and is one of the best all around female stars right now. Besides height, she hasn’t cut a killer promo to set her over the top but she’s got the basic talent to go far.
Stephanie Vaquer I kept my eye on for this match. Truthfully, I don’t see anything that’s really special about her. She’s managed to get herself super over but what she does isn’t impressive. I’m still convinced that Roxanne is far the best between Giulia, Stephanie and Roxanne as the latest moves but Roxanne has been put into the worst position. They really should have moved up these three separately and slower in succession. But obviously they want to plan a longer term feud between them. I will say that these three are the best in the division who are not upper echelon veterans in the WWE.
Rhea is probably the best women’s wrestler around right now. She’s great and can do everything. Not to mention the most over. Also, going back to Rhea and Giulia, Giulia took a lot of bumps for Rhea here. None were really offensive (meaning scary and stupid) so I liked what I saw there. The ladder burial spot was inventive but silly. It did explain why Rhea was out for a good section of the match though but again I prefer having them all just do 1 vs 1 matches to remove the stupidity from what we see.
Alexa Bliss didn’t feel like she belonged here. The teaser moments with her and Mommy were okay I guess but I doubt anyone gave credence to Bliss winning this one. But she is rebuilding herself up in the division which is why she got the spot.
Then there’s Naomi…I actually don’t get why she won. If it’s for her recent “character” work, bleh. I think this is more of a consolation prize deal for being around this long and sticking it out. I’m glad Stephanie didn’t win because she’s highly protected but also highly overrated for what she can bring to the table compared to Roxanne at this point. Nonetheless, I just can’t see Naomi as the WWE women’s champion. She’s just not good. She might have the character part working for her now but the wrestling is what is wretched.
Dominik Mysterio vs Octagon Jr
This was a “bonus” match setup earlier in the AAA/WWE Worlds Collide PPV. I didn’t pay attention to it and it was fast. Unfortunately, Liv Morgan was playing support here and would have been better in the previous match to add more star power to that match rather than Alexa Bliss and having someone who at this stage could viably win the WWE women’s championship.
Lyra Valkyria vs Becky Lynch
This was a match I did not want to see but had a morbid curiosity. I just am not a fan of Lyra. She’s very cringe to me. I don’t like her work inside the ring either and Becky is far too generous. The whole match was Becky taking moves from Lyra. Lyra has no idea how to order her moves and only does fancy moves so nothing registers. Her selling is dogshit, her expressions look like she’s smelling a stinky fart (maybe her own) and she doesn’t really inspire anyone. Once in a while, the crowd will pick up on her but Becky was clearly the wrong choice to feud with Lyra and put her over. Becky still is extremely popular, a real top star and no one wants to see her in this position.
The ending wasn’t expected as I did not expect Becky to win. But given the stipulations (which was stupid) the real “payoff” of Lyra throttling Becky in some fashion was. So I’m hoping for both their sakes, this is the last match between them for a while. They really need to have Becky feud with someone with real potential. I vote Roxanne because Roxanne has star potential, a great personality but has been on a losing streak. She would be excellent picking up the IC title from Becky even though Becky is a heel while Roxanne is in the judgment day playing a saucy character to Dominick. Honestly, Lyra would be better moving to Smackdown and facing Tiffany because they’re about at the same level. Maybe Naomi will snatch the belt from Tiffany so Lyra and Tiffany can have a midcard feud where they belong.
Solo Sikoa vs LA Knight vs Penta vs Seth Rollins vs Andrade vs El Grande Americano
There were only two people in this match who stood any chance of winning. The other four were randos because they’re either coming up or just because someone likes them. But I view matches like this one with multi-person situations as an “opportunity” for a bored superstar like Seth to work with other people who are lower on the card. I mean, I think Seth wants to work with Penta because there were a lot of teases. And while Penta is trying to get over on his own, he’s still far away from where he needs to be since Seth is the top player right now in the WWE. How do I know that? Paul Heyman is outside. Heyman came out for this match despite the chaos involved. But that also meant he probably had a huge hand in the construction of this match.
Penta probably was the guy doing most of the work in this match to be fair. But I’ve seen so many of these stupid types of matches that nothing registers for me and I’m mostly waiting for something tragic to happen. Luckily, nothing looked really out of place in terms of someone really hurting themselves badly. There were painful spots for sure but nothing I would consider too egregious. If Penta was the best “worker” for this match, Solo to me was the most entertaining. Lately, he’s more of a goof that portrays himself seriously. Oddly, that really works because he shows personality in these matches. I liked what he was doing more than anything else in this match because he’s very good at communicating with the crowd with his facials and gestures. His actual wrestling might not be great and bland but I like how he shows personality. With Penta and Andrade you get nothing. LA Knight is good but he’s not at the top, which sucks for him because he’s very close. Seth is as over as one can be there. And El Grande is a bad gimmick that somehow works just because they’re consistent with it.
Of course, where the real memorable parts come in for this “match” is the ending which was typical Heyman overbooking. Bron and Bronson come in to help Seth and the announcers have to remind people that this is a no DQ match, which is dumb ECW style. Then the reinforcement from Solo’s group comes down with JC Mateo (yeesh what a name…) and the 2nd biggest pop of the night, Jacob Fatu. It’s obvious that Jacob Fatu is the next real top guy because he gets those Austin type of reactions when he shows up. Maybe not AS big as Austin but the sentiment of the business just picked up. Fatu helps Solo out and tells him “I love you Solo!” and even gets Solo into the ring which makes it seem Solo might have a brief chance here. Then Solo is telling Jacob to be his grunt worker and find a good ladder for him to climb and set it up. When Solo goes to climb the ladder, suddenly Jacob grabs Solo’s foot (where Solo makes a goofy expression on his face like “I’m almost there…wait what?”) and looks down for Jacob to tell Solo, “I hate you!” So the turn is official, Jacob got a massive pop for that as well as a complimentary moonsault to send the kids home happy before walking off into the sunset.
With everyone laid out, Seth grabs the ladder and wins. The announcers call Seth the architect so we’ll see what happens now that he’s got the briefcase.
Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso vs John Cena and Logan Paul
This was an absolute dreadful match that lasted too long and makes me want Cena to retire much sooner. Then 5 minute sprint with R-Truth was the best thing Cena has done since his announcement and probably is the maximum length of a match he should be given at this stage. His punches again looked like crap while Logan Paul was the obvious designated worker for his side. There was a small scuffle with Cena and Paul at one point where Cena tells Logan “I’m trying to teach you!” and Logan retorts, “Well teach me!” Someone mentioned that it might be Logan who turns Cena back but I really hope that’s not the case. Logan is a cameo appearance who can do moves and generate heat but I hate that they’ve given him this type of spot. Jey’s role here mostly was to sell. Despite being champion, Jey did little except give Logan a spear onto the table so that both would remain on the floor while Cena did his stupid title belt shot on Cody.
Then the biggest pop of the night came: the return of R-Truth. I have to admit that I’m not a fan of R-Truth because I don’t care for comedy. But considering what happened recently I applauded this. R-Truth deserved another chance given the backlash and the company brought him back at the right moment with enough time in the right situation. So good on you Ron.
So that allowed Cody to win for the pin on Cena. I still feel Jey is treated like a midcarder while Cody is what everyone was waiting for to return.
Final Thoughts
I think the most interesting part on this PPV story-wise was Jacob Fatu’s turn on Solo. That is obviously designed to get him away from the old Bloodline and have him do his own thing or at least have a one PLE type of match/feud with Solo and possibly JC Mateo. JC Mateo already got pinned so he doesn’t mean much in the scheme of things at this stage except as a flunky for Solo. I have no idea what they intend with Solo and I really hope the old Bloodline story is shot dead at this stage, meaning no Roman Reigns. But supposedly he’s getting his contract slashed potentially so we’ll see how that affects a Bloodline reunion. And no one has seen the brother tag team since both are on the shelf. The only thing for Solo to go after (besides Jacob) is Jimmy Uso, who is in limbo. He got a win on Smackdown but he looks broken down, slow and old.
One comment I do have is that on Smackdown, the new Bloodline had a confrontation with Seth and Seth pointed out to Jacob who wore sunglasses like his own henchmen. So my theory is that Seth “acquires” Jacob which has mixed feelings for me. Jacob is so much better as a solo player and he’s made such a high impact in a short period. The crowd reaction for this PPV should indicate that he’s the next big player. The teases between Jacob and Bron are the main event match for Wrestlemania 43 where both guys are the top stars. But Jacob is just about there. If he joins Seth’s group, it might hurt his momentum, even though the story makes sense. So that’s a very cautious line the WWE must cross. Given the recent reduxes like Rock vs Roman cancellation for Cody or bringing R-Truth back, I feel the WWE has not made great decisions on story direction. They’ve got their internal plans but the fans may not buy everything (cf. Becky vs Lyra)
If Jacob joins Seth’s group, it would make no sense character-wise because of how he turned on Solo on this PPV. The whole point is that he hates being controlled. He would buff up Seth’s group but I think Gunther would have been a better choice. However, I think Seth is trying to create the silent follower type of cult group but it kinda doesn’t make sense. And Jacob suddenly losing this giant personality makes no sense if all they want to do is tease him going crazy and turning on the group in the future (which is what I would think him joining would mean) This is where the WWE thinks it booked smart but really put themselves into a trap.
That said, Jacob is mostly a Smackdown guy whereas Seth has focused on Raw. It only made sense for this crossover due to the match stipulations and Seth’s involvement in his match for this PLE. So hopefully, that crossover was a one time thing for now because Jacob is the biggest star on Smackdown.
Next, let’s talk R-Truth’s return. This obviously was to recover for their PR disaster after R-Truth commented he was “released” (which technically was incorrect because his contract wasn’t renewed). I’ve read various things about this guy or that person saying and that. Here’s what I figured so far: Ron was a Vince guy. It was said Vince kept Ron around for so long because he enjoyed Ron’s humor. TKO has been cutting cost across the board and with Ron’s age and how much they use him, it probably made sense for them not to renew. My gut feeling is that HHH wants his own people and Ron simply might’ve been protected for a long time by Vince. Supposedly, after the show during the press conference when HHH was asked about R-Truth, HHH replied, “Enjoying the show?” (or something along those lines) My interpretation of the word “show” is more like the backstage circus going on that we can’t directly see. HHH isn’t one to really mince words and if he doesn’t like something, he’ll hint at it or take a knife cut at it. Now, you can’t completely fault HHH because he’s got a huge roster to manage and probably was asked about his opinions. I just don’t think anyone inside suspected just how popular Ron was and that the match with Ron vs Cena was Ron’s unofficial send off.
Oddly, Carlito, who’s contract also was not renewed earlier, did not receive the same level of response nor Sarah Logan. But in those cases it’s more of a case where people are older, not used, broken down or one less person to deal with in terms of coming up with creative. Carlito use was over and he was good enough for when he was there. I suppose they can write him out of the Judgment Day since he’s got two weeks left I believe. But it won’t be against say Cena. So I don’t think HHH is being unreasonable in general. Ron was more of an anomaly, kinda like that friendly old office worker that you talk to once in a while but no more than 5 minutes per day if that when he surfaces by the water cooler or break room.
And Cody Rhodes…no matter what he just doesn’t work for me. The ending got him where he needs to be but I think Jey was a side quest at this stage. I don’t know how that match helped anyone except Cody and maybe Logan Paul. Jey was the biggest casualty for that match. Usually, in a situation like that, the guy they want to get over gets to really shine. And this is where I said Jey was going to start to fumble being put on the top spot. He’s over as a personality but so was the Junkyard Dog. The main difference is that the mid 80s style of wrestling didn’t demand wrestlers to put on 20+ matches for the WWF with all the fancy moves. JYD was over because of his personality and not given a title because he didn’t need one. However, these main event matches with Jey aren’t good. He can’t carry a match on his own and even if he’s well liked by the fans and people backstage, the problem is that these matches are hurting. I don’t mind that he’s got Punk and Sami with him because it makes sense. But as the title holder it merely reinforces my opinion that it’s a consolation prize for loyalty and the fact that his t-shirts sell. I just can’t see him being in that top spot for much longer no matter how much shine they try with him.
But that’s the WWE’s problem right now. They’re doing what they normally do: push people they think should be on top and build the next generation. It’s a good general philosophy but their picks are terrible at the moment. That’s why people don’t care. Tiffany Stratton, Lyra Valkyria, Jey Uso, Logan Paul, Cody Rhodes, Stefanie Vaquer, Iyo Sky, the general tag team division, etc. They need to really take a deep look at these people and see who really has talent and focus on them. Cody Rhodes has talent but I think it’s misused. I mean it’s clear that they want him on top but frankly he’s too white for me. He’s whiter than Cena at this point because at least Cena is on his way out and a legend.
On a side note, I tried to watch NXT clips but it’s painful as hell. There’s no one that interest me on that show and everything looks awful. The one bright spot is Ricky Saints but he just got injured. Ugh. That makes me lose hope because he’s got almost everything but every time he seems to build momentum, he’s gone or something happens.
Either way, I was more interested in the storylines but the only person beside Seth’s group that intrigues me is Jacob Fatu. I have no idea what they’ll do with Solo after this. I think he has something but I don’t know if it’s being a wrestler.
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