Top Five Takeaways from WWE No Mercy

Top Five Takeaways from WWE No Mercy

By Anton Ware

9/25/17

Hello Geektified family! It's time for another monthly review as we cover the latest RAW brand offering, No Mercy. The Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA played home to the event and is the 13th edition of the show. Smackdown headlined the event last year (with Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt as the main event) and now with RAW taking its place for 2017, Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar closes out the show with much anticipation. Also on this show is the dream match of this era, as its John Cena vs. Roman Reigns in a battle of old guard vs. new guard. Who rises to the top you ask? Well let’s get into it!

#5: Where does Bray Wyatt go from here?

The Eater of Worlds, Bray Wyatt faced off against The Demon King, Finn Balor in a rematch from their Summerslam encounter last month. This time, it was billed as Man vs. Man without demons, special effects, or tricks. It was just two men looking to settle a score. Before the match started, Wyatt attacked Balor and taunted him as he was being attended to by backstage officials. Enraged, Balor returned to the ring to officially start the match. In the end, it was Balor who scored the victory with the Coup de Gráce Double Stomp for the win which gave Balor back-to-back PPV victories for the first time since his debut last year. With this feud seemingly over, what’s next for WWE’s resident predator? Possible IC Title feud with The Miz? Team up/take issue with his old protégé Braun Strowman? That all remains to be seen, but the consistent story is Wyatt’s string of bad luck in 2017. At the beginning of the year, he was on top of the world as WWE Champion, but since his title loss at WrestleMania, he’s been floating along with no real agenda. I hope he has a big surprise in store for the WWE Universe instead of picking a random fight with (insert wrestler here). He still has boatloads of potential to stir up intrigue, but the fear is that the Bray Wyatt ship may have already sailed.

#4: The Cruiserweight Division Has A New King

If you were to have asked who would be the first to hold gold after the Enzo-Big Cass breakup, many would have said Big Cass, but sometimes life throws you curve balls. That’s what happened last night when Enzo Amore upset Neville to win his first championship in WWE. The match was all Neville throughout, which is not surprising because Enzo is known for his trash-talking rather than his in-ring ability. The ending saw Enzo outsmarting Neville by grabbing the Cruiserweight Title and threatening to hit Neville with it. He would eventually give it up to the referee and while doing so, delivered a low blow to Neville behind the referee’s back. Enzo rolled up Neville for the three and the win. Enzo becomes the sixth man to hold the Cruiserweight Title since its reincarnation and by doing so, makes him an even bigger target. He’s viewed as the underdog of the division and with this title win, future challengers will be jockeying for a piece of the Realest Guy in the Room.

#3: The Ghost of Beach Ball’s Past Gets Revenge on Cesaro

In a SummerSlam rematch, the team of Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose defended their RAW Tag Titles against Sheamus and Cesaro. The match was what you’d expect: Four world-class athletes putting on a damn fine exhibition in front of a hot crowd. Rollins and Ambrose would retain, but the highlight (if you want to call it that) of the match was Cesaro being the center of attention again. During the match, Dean Ambrose would catapult Cesaro into the turnbuckle which caused Cesaro to overshoot the spot and hit his mouth on the turn post, thus knocking out his two front teeth. After the collision, Cesaro managed to tag out to Sheamus to regroup near the announce table, but would continue on minutes later. Cesaro’s teeth injury had to play a factor in their loss because his teeth getting knocked out definitely threw him off his game despite delivering a gutsy performance. Hopefully, The King of Swing knows a good dentist.

#2: The Beast Conquers The Monster

In Part 1 of our double main event, the ending matchup of Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman will be discussed first. This was your typical bruiser vs bruiser matchup.  Lots of power moves, with Strowman getting the upper hand on Lesnar during the first half of the contest. Strowman was overwhelmed by Lesnar’s power as he got worn down by suplexes and submission maneuvers. Opposed to three running powerslams from Strowman, it took one F5 from Lesnar to finish Strowman off for the win. Lesnar has now knocked off Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman in singles competition since winning the Universal title from Goldberg at WrestleMania.  With Strowman being conquered by The Beast, who’s next in line for a championship opportunity? Roman Reigns?  A Hardy Boy? Finn Balor? We shall see in due time.

#1: The Torch Has Been Passed:

In Part 2 of our WrestleMania worthy dream matches, it’s arguably the last mega main event match left in professional wrestling, as John Cena faced off against Roman Reigns. After weeks of bickering, insider references, and verbal jabs towards each other, these two finally locked horns. It was a fun contest as Cena dropped Reigns with four Attitude Adjustments only for the Big Dog to kick out each time. Roman nailed Cena with two Spears: One through an announce table and one to finish off Cena in the ring for the win! After the match, Cena congratulated Reigns on his victory and stayed in the ring to embrace the crowd to a shower of applause and “Thank You Cena” chants. It seems as if Cena will be taking a leave of absence for the time being. Will he be back for the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania? If so, who will be his next challenger? Who knows, but one thing is for certain, Cena’s dominance on top has come to an end and Roman Reigns’ time is now

-So what did you guys think of the show? Hit or miss? Let me know in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

-Anton