Vancouver
BAYLEY, BIANCA BeLAIR, IYO SKY, NAOMI & RHEA RIPLEY vs. CANDICE LeRAE, LIV MORGAN, NIA JAX, RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ & TIFFANY STRATTON "WAR GAMES" (38:11): They mentioned on commentary that the last time a WWE PPV was held in Vancouver was in December 1998. I looked up the card for that show and the main event was a Buried Alive match between The Undertaker and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. The second-to-last match was The Rock vs. Mankind. I kind of wish I had watched that show instead. Granted, there were, like, ten other matches on that show that looked horrible on paper. But this far and away from the Attitude WWF era. This is the new TKO/HHH slick, glossy, perfectly packaged, conglomerate WWE. It's also kind of stale and boring. What it doesn't have is that edge that the WWF had back in the late 90's. It also doesn't help that AEW does a War Games every summer now on Dynamite and those have that edge; also, blood, barbed wire, glass, and, two years ago, a bed of nails. There was no blood on this show, although they had tables, chairs, trash cans, and Singapore canes. Everybody online that reviewed this show seemed to not like this match or at least say it was the inferior War Games match on the show. I actually thought it was better than the men's War Games match because the crowd was actually alive and into this. By the time the main event went on the crowd was sitting on their hands. This match didn't really have two teams. It was just random heels vs. random babyfaces. They did two top rope jumps in this, both at the same time. Tiffany Stratton did a Swanton Bomb onto everyone and Iyo Sky put a trashcan over her body and jumped down onto everyone. Nia Jax was probably the star in this as she did the most of anything. Eventually Rhea Ripley put Liv through a table to win. Match wasn't great or anything but it was entertaining. **1/2
SHINSUKE NAKAMURA vs. LA KNIGHT (9:43): The announcers noted that Nakamura has been out for 7 months. They didn't mention why. Well they're giving him a push, as they had him beat LA Knight and win the U.S. title. A year ago, LA Knight was in the main event in Saudi Arabia losing to Roman Reigns. I guess the WWE doesn't care that he, like, could've been a big star if they actually pushed him. The crowds still seem to like him. Oh, well. This match was short and really boring. Nakamura won clean with the Shin kasha knee. 1/2*
BRON BREAKER vs. SHEAMUS vs. LUDWIG KAISER (14:24): This was the best match on the show. It was action packed with some good near falls and the crowd got super into it. Ludwig pulling the ref out of the ring when Sheamus was about to pin Bron Breaker was a fantastic spot. Bron Breaker retained the IC title. ***
GUNTHER vs. DAMIAN PRIEST (19:18): Yawn. What happened to those great Walter matches? It's been a while. Gunther retained the title after Finn gave Damian a stomp outside the ring when the ref wasn't looking. What is Gunther's title called? Cody has the real title, the WWE championship. I don't know what the hell this is called. Cody, one of, if not the, biggest stars in the WWE wasn't even on this show. That's weird considering he actually has a feud going with Kevin Owens. Maybe they're doing that match at NBC's Saturday Night Main Event which is in a few weeks. This match wasn't good at all. *
CM PUNK, ROMAN REIGNS, JEY USO, JIMMY USO & SAMI ZAYN vs. BRONSON REED, JACOB FATU, SOLO SIKOA, TAMA TONGA & TONGA LOA "WAR GAMES" (41:55): At least this War Games had two teams. The Original Bloodline plus CM Punk vs. The Bloodline. Bronson Reed kind of isn't in The Bloodline, though, or maybe he's a new member. I was sick of The Bloodline before and now they have two of them. Great! The big storyline was that CM Punk and Roman were kind of hesitantly put together. Could they work together? Bronson Reed put Roman on a table and went up on the cage and did a splash but CM Punk pulled Roman off the table at the last second to save him. That was a cool spot because it literally was at the last second and made a cool visual. After Roman's team won the match, Roman and CM Punk shook hands. So much for that feud! There's two matches the WWE hasn't done yet that could be gigantic: CM Punk vs. Roman and CM Punk vs. Cody. Why they started planting seeds for a CM Punk/Roman match just to make them instant friends right away makes no sense. The match suffered because the crowd was silent for most of it. They did wake up towards the end to chant, "This is awesome." It wasn't. Jacob Fatu slipped off the ropes at one point and then obviously kept hobbling and holding his leg. Usually that means it's a storyline thing but no story ever came out of it so maybe he really was hurt. One of the Usos jumped off the top of the cage to go through a table. It was a decent match, though nothing to go out of your way to see. These WWE PPV's have been really weak lately, haven't they? These big crowds at all the WWE shows aren't helping because all the crowds care about is entrances and table spots. They seem to not care about watching the actual wrestling. They will care if the wrestling is good, like the 3-way, but the WWE rarely has great matches anymore. What happened? They've lost their way. **1/2
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