Perth, Australia
BRONSON REED vs. ROMAN REIGNS "AUSTRALIAN STREET FIGHT" (21:05): Perth, Australia must be paying these wrestling companies to come there, because AEW had a show in this building in February. You'd think AEW and WWE would go to Sydney or Melbourne, not the smaller city Perth. I'd be pissed off if I lived in Perth and my taxes were going to pro-wrestling. I'm sure the city has homeless people and people on welfare. I'd rather see money going to helping people instead of boosting tourism which ends up helping the rich, like hotel owners. It's kind of sad that this is the world we live in. I did think that this show was an improvement on their last PPV. WWE definitely listened to the critics, because all of a sudden, wrestlers were doing big, wild top rope moves and the in-ring was more exciting. This match also had a good finish, as Bronson Reed pinned Roman Reigns. They've finally learned that you gotta give the new guys some wins to build them up. This was a hardcore match so they used a Singapore cane and broke a table. It also had no rules, so Bron Breakker showed up out of the crowd to spear Roman. The Uso's ran out to make the save but Jey inadvertently speared Roman through a table, leading to the loss. Now Roman is mad at the Jey Uso. The Bloodline turmoil never ends! Get a new fucking story. Jesus. Match was at least entertaining. The Perth crowd was hot which helped. **1/2
STEPHANIE VAQUER vs. TIFFANY STRATTON (10:06): The one gigantic problem on this show was that no titles were defended. That made matches like this feel less dramatic than they should've been. These are the two women's champs, and it was for the Crown Jewel title. I'm still not sure why they called this show Crown Jewel, since all the other Crown Jewel's were in Saudi Arabia, where gay people, porn, alcohol, and negative government coverage is outlawed. Saudi Arabia actually just killed a journalist in June for making a comedic, anti-government Twitter page. So the Crown Jewel name is tarnished as hell. I'm sure Perth doesn't cut the head off of journalists with a sword for criticizing them. This match was good but kind of too short to turn into anything fantastic. They're really pushing the hell out of Stephanie Vaquer, but, honestly, the last good match I've seen her in was against Mercedes Mone in AEW. **1/2
JOHN CENA vs. AJ STYLES (27:12): Considering this is John Cena's retirement year and the crowds at all these shows are cheering for him the loudest...maybe they should start making his matches the main event? Half of the arena was wearing his yellow retirement shirt. The gimmick in this match was that they both kept doing other wrestler's finishing moves. I'm thinking this is going to start a trend, because the crowd popped like crazy for all of these moves. Cena did an RKO, Bray Wyatt's Sister Abigail, The Undertaker's tombstone piledriver, among others. AJ did a Scorpion Death Lock, although the announcers didn't mention it was Sting's move. AJ also did 'Hangman' Adam Page's Dead Eye, which the announcers didn't acknowledge. It was fun and the crowd was going crazy...but it went on a bit too long. I'm still baffled at why they had Cena destroyed and lose to Lesnar last month...especially when it was revealed that Cena's final opponent will be Gunther and not Lesnar. **1/2
IYO SKY & RHEA RIPLEY vs. THE KABUKI WARRIORS (ASUKA & KAIRI SANE) (19:57): This was the weak match on the show. Rhea is from Australia, so she got a lot of cheers. Iyo did a cool moonsault off the top rope down onto Asuka and Kairi at ringside. This was just kind of a by-the-numbers match. *1/2
SETH ROLLINS vs. CODY RHODES (29:43): This was a well wrestled match with some big moves. Seth did a bell-to-bell head butt dive. They did a Spanish Fly off the top rope. Cody gave Seth a top rope Crossroads. The in-ring was a lot more dynamic than usual for WWE, which is why I figure someone was reading all the criticism Wrestlepalooza got for being dull. Both of these men are champions, but this match wasn't for either title, so there was no drama. Who cares who wins? It was for the Crown Jewel title. Seth wrapped a watch around his knuckles and hit Cody with it when the ref wasn't looking. This led to him pinning Cody. This was definitely one of the better matches the WWE has had this year. If it was for a title we would've cared about it more and the drama would've been heightened. Oh, well. It's October and I guess we're not getting a Hell in a Cell match this year? That's a shame. CM Punk is facing Seth for the title at the next big show, Saturday Night's Main Event on November 1st. **1/2
