WWE DAY 1

 

Atlanta

SHEAMUS & RIDGE HOLLAND vs. RICOCHET & CESARO (9:45): This is the WWE's latest experiment, having a PPV on New Year's Day. Supposedly, December's PPV. which has usually been TLC, was always they're lowest watched PPV of the year. Because of that, they didn't have a December PPV this year but they will have two in January because of Day 1. When it was first announced I wondered who was the idiot that came up with this genius idea. After all, they'd be going against college football bowl games, which always get huge ratings, especially the Rose Bowl, which they went against for the first hour of the show. Japan always has a ton of big wrestling shows around the New Year, so maybe they just got the idea from them. The problem with this show wasn't really their fault, though. Because of the Omicron variant that's spreading around the globe, half the world's population seems to have Covid. Roman Reigns got it and the main event of this show, Brock Lesnar vs. Roman for the title, was off and only announced to be off hours before the show. They threw Brock Lesnar into the 4 man RAW title match instead. The show was fairly entertaining and had some great matches, which, usually, you never say about a WWE PPV. It also tells you a lot about the WWE when two of their best in-ring wrestlers, Cesaro and Ricochet, are in a forgettable, meaningless, pre-show match. It still surprises me that Kevin Owens resigned with this company. I guess at least he's still in main events, though. The hot Atlanta crowd chanted for Ricochet early, which baffled me. Huh? They actually know who he is after being fucking buried in WWE for four years? Early in this match, Ricochet landed his boot right on Ridge Holland's nose and it started pouring blood everywhere. The WWE quickly took the camera off him and he rolled out of the ring and went to the back and you never saw him again. I don't even know who Ridge Holland is, though, so that didn't really matter to me that he disappeared. **

THE USO'S vs. THE NEW DAY (17:05): This was a great match. It was exciting with a ton of near falls (perhaps too many) and a hot crowd that cheered and fell with every two count. Since the Lesnar/Reigns match was off the show, it did seem that a few of these matches were given more time which they didn't use wisely. This was a great match but perhaps five minutes too long. The Uso's retained their titles. ***

DREW McINTYRE vs. MADCAP MOSS (9:45): I'm guessing that, like Happy Corbin, Vince McMahon probably finds Madcap Moss hilarious. His character is a bad standup comedian. No, I'm not joking. And the WWE wonders why their ratings, attendance, and popularity have plummeted to new depths. Or maybe they don't, who knows? I guess it'd be one thing if Madcap Moss was a great wrestler or something but he's not. 1/2*

RK-BRO vs. THE STREET PROFITS (11:15): Matt Riddle, or just Riddle as he's now known in the WWE for no good reason, is a fantastic wrestler. You wouldn't really know that, though, if you only ever watched him wrestle in the WWE and not in, say, PWG or something. The RK-Bro tag team is a fan favorite...but, man, I really want to see a 30 minute, classic Matt Riddle match, not some lame tag team shit where Randy Orton gets the spotlight. The one Street Profit did do a cool dive over the corner out of the ring and down onto everyone. Other than that, this match was mostly boring. *1/2

EDGE vs. THE MIZ (20:00): Fuck...a 20 minute Miz match? Serious? What hellish purgatory have you sent us to? It was bad enough that the WWE brought back Edge out of retirement to feud with the worst of the worst, The Miz...but then to add insult to injury they forced him into a 20 minute match with a guy that is about as plain and as dull as any wrestler has ever been in eternity? Ugh. At the end, after Maryse interfered multiple times, Edge's wife, Beth Phoenix, came out to chase Maryse away. This caused The Miz to look at Beth Phoenix and thus turn around to get speared and lose. And alas, mercifully it ended. 1/2*

BECKY LYNCH vs. LIV MORGAN (17:00): They definitely gave Liv Morgan a lot of offense and close calls in this. At one point, I thought that maybe she'd actually win. Silly, boy. The WWE doesn't promote the B-stars. Toni Storm figured this out. She just lost a title match to Charlotte on Smackdown two weeks ago and last week she abruptly quit the company. Lynch was supposed to put her feet on the ropes to win at the end but she was a bit too far from the ropes and so it didn't really work. Liv worked hard but she's not exactly a super exciting wrestler or anything. She definitely got this far with her looks not her wrestling ability, although that's not really her fault. **

BROCK LESNAR vs. BIG E vs. SETH ROLLINS vs. KEVIN OWENS vs. BOBBY LASHLEY (8:25): Man, this match was fucking awesome. In just the first couple minutes I was thinking, damn, this is the best WWE match in years. Then it ended quickly at 8 minutes and it left me scratching my head. That's it? Lesnar wins the title even though he wasn't even in this match yesterday? Kind of lame, honestly. And considering the Reigns/Lesnar match was scratched...you'd think they'd make this match at least a bit longer than 8 frigging minutes since we got cheated out of a title match on this show. It was all big moves, though, so it was exciting while it lasted. Lesnar gave everyone multiple suplexex and multiple F5's. Lashley speared Lesnar through the barricade at ringside. Owens and Rollins teamed up on everyone. Lesnar pinned Big E. I wonder if this means that Lesnar was scheduled to beat Roman Reigns for the title in the main event. Or maybe they just didn't want Lesnar to lose. This kind of seems superfluous because I doubt Lesnar is going to be on RAW every week. So, what? RAW, a 3 hour show, is going to go on every week with the champion not there? The match's result seems to not have been thought through. Still, awesome match while it lasted. ***1/2