Geektified's WWE Roadblock Review 12.19.16

Geektified's WWE Roadblock Review 12.19.16

By Anton Ware

Official Results

-WWE Roadblock is LIVE from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

-Michael Cole, Bryan Saxton, and Corey Graves are your hosts.

Pre Show Match: Big Cass vs. Rusev: This match is the result of Enzo Amore trying to steal Lana away from Rusev in a hotel room after the villainous lovebirds had an argument only for it to be a trap which led to an assault on Enzo. Big Cass stood up for his friend which led to this match. The ending saw Big Cass and Rusev brawl into the crowd with the ref counting. When they made their way back to the ring, Lana distracted Enzo which led to Rusev attacking Enzo. This distracted Big Cass long enough to get counted out. It was a short and uneventful match.

WWE RAW Tag Team Championship Match: The New Day(c) vs. Cesaro and Sheamus: Over the past couple of months, the unlikely duo of Cesaro and Sheamus have been attempting to dethrone the New Day of their now historic tag title reign (New Day recently broke the record for the longest tag title reign in WWE history) only to come up short. On the 14th Annual Tribute to the Troops show, Cesaro and Sheamus won a Fatal 4 Way Tag match to become the number one contenders for the titles and the match was set. Decent little match between both teams. It started off hot with the European Connection dominating Kofi Kingston early on with a flurry of offense. Once Kofi made the hot tag to Big E, things tilted back to The New Day’s favor only for the Europeans to regain control with a White Noise/Middle Rope DDT combo. Xavier Woods got involved twice during the match, but it wasn’t enough to put away the challengers. The clever ending saw Sheamus go for a tag to Cesaro, but their hands never connected. Cesaro comes in the match as “the legal man” and gets hit with Kofi’s Trouble in Paradise. Immediately after the move, Sheamus rolls up Kingston for the win and titles! The New Day’s 400+ tag title reign is over. After the match, The New Day handed over the titles to the winners in a show a good sportsmanship only for Sheamus to take both belts so he could celebrate by himself.

-Interview time with Kevin Owens. He is asked about tonight’s match with Reigns and his relationship status with Jericho. He is noticeably annoyed with the interviewer's questions and is only concerned about keeping his title and friendship with Jericho intact. Y2J comes in and Owens apologizes for accidentally hitting him last Monday. He tries to make it up to Jericho by giving him a Christmas scarf, but Jericho rejected his gift and apology.

- WWE Royal Rumble, January 29th on the WWE Network.

Sami Zayn vs. Braun Strowman (Zayn must last 10 minutes with Strowman): On the RAW after Survivor Series, Sami Zayn was put in a match with Braun Strowman as punishment for not defeating The Miz in order to bring the Intercontinental Title to RAW. During the match, Zayn looked like he couldn’t continue which led to RAW General Manager Mick Foley coming down to the ring to call off the match. For the next couple of weeks, a furious Sami Zayn would demand another opportunity to face Strowman only for Foley to deny his request in fear for his health and safety. Fed up, Zayn wanted to be traded to Smackdown for better opportunities and Foley granted his request...only if he got traded for Smackdown star Eva Marie. This news enraged Zayn so much that he showed enough fire to convince Foley to finally give him the match against Strowman. Foley lied about the Eva Marie trade as it was only a motivating tool for Zayn. The story here was Zayn surviving Strowman’s offense. Sami would go for chops and a hurricanrana early in the match, but Strowman’s power eventually wore Zayn down. Around the 6:00 mark, the ref asked Zayn if he could continue. He does so and every time he got back up, Strowman pummeled him with offense. The beating was getting so devastating that Mick Foley comes out with a towel in his hand as if he’s about to stop the match. When both competitors get to the outside, Strowman tells Foley to end the match while Zayn tells Foley to NOT end the match. The match does continue and Zayn finally gets a glimmer of hope with Strowman crashing through the barricade after a failed Spear attempt. Zayn would then get in a cross body and running boot in the corner which was enough to last the entire 10 minutes with the big man.

-WWE announces a two night tournament to crown the 1st United Kingdom Champion. The tournament will take place January 14th and 15th on the WWE Network. The purpose of this tournament is to eventually have a show exclusively in the UK showcasing UK talent.

Seth Rollins vs. Chris Jericho: Over the past few months, Chris Jericho has cost Seth Rollins the Universal Championship on numerous occasions. During a segment on RAW, Rollins proclaimed that if he is to defeat Kevin Owens, he must defeat and take out Chris Jericho. Similar to the Jericho vs. Zayn match a couple of months ago on PPV, this told the same story of the Jericho’s veteran instincts vs. Rollins’ aerial assault. Jericho locked Rollins in the Walls of Jericho on a few occasions while Rollins laid out Jericho with a Suicide Dive, Blockbuster, and Frogsplash. Owens came out and interfered on Jericho’s behalf, but Jericho was none too pleased and told Owens to stay out of his business. Rollins capitalized on the distraction by nailing Jericho with the Pedigree for the win.

-WWE Network Promo. $9.99 People!

-Michael Cole announced that it’ll be Big Cass vs. Rusev in a rematch on tonight’s RAW.

WWE Cruiserweight Title Match: Rich Swann(c) vs. Brian Kendrick vs. TJ Perkins: On the premiere episode of 205 Live, Rich Swann defeated The Brian Kendrick to win the Cruiserweight Championship. After the rematch between the two, Kendrick attacked former pupil and rival TJ Perkins while he was on commentary, which lead to a three-way brawl. The match was set on the last RAW before Roadblock. This was a fast paced, triple threat bout. It was not as “flashy” as previous cruiserweight matches due to Kendrick and Perkins working a mat-based style offense with both men using their submission finishers throughout the contest .The ending saw Swann and Perkins trade punches with each other only for both men to hit a double superkick on Kendrick followed by Swann nailing Perkins with a Superkick for the win. After the match, Neville made a surprise return. It appeared that he was about to praise Swann on his title defense, but he attacked Swann to the shock and delight of the crowd. Perkins came to Swann’s aid only to get attacked by the Man that Gravity Forgot as well. Neville laid out both men in the ring.

-WWE Crash Cage playset promo video.

-Tapout Clothing promo video.

-Owens goes to Jericho’s locker room and tries to apologize again. He even told Jericho to put him on The List if it would save their friendship. Jericho doesn’t answer Owens’ plea (It was neither confirmed nor denied that Jericho was in the locker room). Owens walked away believing that their friendship was over.

WWE RAW Women’s Championship 30 Minute Iron Man Match: Sasha Banks(c) vs. Charlotte: Ever since late July, Banks and Charlotte have traded the RAW Women’s Title over a series of PPV and RAW main event matches. The latest title change occurred on the November 28th edition of RAW where Banks defeated Charlotte in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Charlotte invoked her rematch clause as Banks upped the ante to make their final encounter an Iron Man match. For the first 18 minutes, the story was about illustrating the familiarly between the two as they’ve faced off numerous times over the past few months. No one would get a pin until the 12 minute mark when Charlotte hit Sasha with Natural Selection from the middle rope. Sasha tied things up with a rollup pin and later took the lead by making Charlotte tap out to the Bank Statement. Sasha was in control, but things went downhill for The Boss as Charlotte saw an opening and injured Banks’ knee. Charlotte attacked the knee and applied the Figure Four on Banks for almost two minutes. With just three seconds left on the clock, Banks couldn’t take the pain and tapped out which sent the match into overtime. Due to the pain, Banks’ offense was limited and could only rollup Charlotte for a couple of near falls.  She locked tried to put Charlotte in the Bank Statement, but her knees gave out which allowed Charlotte to counter with the Figure Eight. Banks eventually tapped out and we have a new RAW Women’s Champion. This is Charlotte's fourth title reign and she is still undefeated in PPV matches. Sasha Banks is 0-3 when defending her title on PPV. Despite that sad stat, this was a great match to cap off their feud. 

WWE Universal Championship Match: Kevin Owens(c) vs. Roman Reigns: A perfectly decent main event. This match was Owens using his ground attack style against Reigns. Owens hit a senton off the steel steps on Reigns onto the floor followed by his patented top rope Modified Superplex and a Frogsplash off the barricade onto Reigns through the announce table. Reigns would be no slouch either as the Superman Punch, Driveby Dropkick, and Samoan Drop all were used to bring Owens down. The ending saw Chris Jericho delivering a Codebreaker to Kevin Owens signifying that their friendship was over. The ref called for the bell and announced that Reigns has been disqualified due to Jericho’s interference and that Owens was still the WWE Universal Champion. Jericho had a smirk on his face and helped Owens up to celebrate! Their friendship is alive and well as their breakup was a setup all along. As The Canadian Brothers made their way up the ramp, Seth Rollins appeared while Owens and Jericho backtracked. Owens got hit with a Spear by Reigns, Jericho succumbed to a Double Shield Powerbomb through the Spanish announce table, and Owens suffered the same fate by getting laid out with the same move through the main announce table. Rollins and Reigns stood tall as the PPV went off the air. 

PPV Thoughts: WWE Roadblock was not one of RAW’s best efforts. Honestly, this was a one match show with the Iron Man Match between Banks and Charlotte. Every other match was just...there. You had The New Day’s historic tag reign end and the return of Neville, but that still wasn’t enough to give the show a strong recommendation. It's something about RAW that it doesn’t have the same charm as Smackdown does.  RAW has more stars and the Cruiserweight Division, but the show as a whole still comes off as uninspired whereas the boys (and girls) in blue come off as fresh as they live up to their Land of Opportunity mantra. With the Road to WrestleMania upon us, RAW should kick things into high gear next month. Overall, the final PPV of the year left a lot to be desired.

Personal Enjoyment: 

• Rich Swann’s theme song.
• Cesaro just being Cesaro.
• Seth Rollins’ beautiful frogsplash.
• The New Day showing some class after the match (Even though they cheated throughout their championship bout).
• Sasha Banks just existing.

-So what did you guys think about the show? Hit or miss? Thumbs up or thumbs down? Let me know in the comment section. Thanks for reading!

-Anton