As Jeddah, Saudi Arabia plays host to WWE Night of Champions, who will leave victorious from a triple main event? At the top of the card, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens defend their WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championships against the team of Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa of the bloodline. These four have been at each others’ throats for months now, and with the cracks forming between The Usos and Reigns and Solo, the Tribal Cheif has never been more determined, or vulnerable. Meanwhile, the brand new and first ever WWE World Heavyweight Champion will be crowned as Seth Rollins and AJ Styles do battle for the first time in four years with winner becoming the inaugural champion. Rounding out the main event trifecta, Brock Lesnar and Cody Rhodes will do battle one more time in what each man is determined to make into nothing more than a good old-fashioned fight. Also on the card, a Wrestlemania rematch between Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair and Asuka will take place, in arguably the toughest match of Belair’s career, against a newly aggressive Asuka. GUNTHER will also be in action as he looks to continue his historic Intercontinental Championship run against Mustafa Ali, and Rhea Ripley looks to make short work of the veteran Natalya with the SmackDown Women Championship on the line. Finally, Trish Stratus and Becky Lynch will meet one on one for the first time ever, following Stratus’ attack on both Lita and Lynch.
+ Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens (c) vs The Bloodline (Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa) (WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championships): as far as in-ring matches go this was good but never really great. The reason this gets a pass in that regard is because it was clearly far more about the story they were telling with Roman and his 1,000-day reign, and his past history with Sami and Kevin etc., and the rest of the competitors were just bit parts in that story. And I loved what they did, so I guess they suckered me in to giving it a positive mark
+ Bianca Belair (c) vs Asuka (WWE Raw Women’s Championship): this was another good match between these two, and easily one of my favourites on the show. Asuka has an aura about her that not many, if any, others have in the company right now, and that translated across even with her wildly different ring gear — Asuka’s ring gear is one of the things that makes her so unique, I mean, and she was able to overcome the archaic clothing laws these wrestlers had to work with
+ GUNTHER (c) vs Mustafa Ali (WWE Intercontinental Championship): GUNTHER could wrestle a broom and I would probably love it, and adding someone as skilled as Mustafa Ali makes this a no-brainer. The crowd loved Ali as you’d expect, and GUNTHER was still my personal favourite on the show. I am absolutely thrilled he is in this spot in his career
+ Becky Lynch vs Trish Stratus: overall this was really good, Trish is a fantastic bad guy which is especially surprising considering she is essentially the returning legend that usually couldn’t get booed for the life of them. That must be a testament to how much people like Becky, and this crowd was no different
+ Seth Rollins vs AJ Styles (WWE World Heavyweight Championship): this was freakin’ phenomenal. Anyone could tell you that this match was going to be great, and I think it surpassed all expectations. The crowd was surprisingly quiet throughout, but at the big moments and finish they went nuts. Usually that would be a negative, but I almost think it was because the crowd was so invested in the match
– Cody Rhodes vs Brock Lesnar: this didn’t do it for me at all. I really wanted to like this, especially because from an outside perspective it really seems Lesnar likes working with Cody Rhodes. I have never been the biggest fan of Rhodes, but I know for a fact I like him more when he’s not playing the injured underdog
– Rhea Ripley (c) (w/ Dominik Mysterio) vs Natalya (WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship): this was a nothing happening waste of time, and probably not worth it. No reason not to just have Dominik come out and talk some shit, because that’s clearly all they wanted
Should you watch this event: I don’t know if I am just going soft, but I thought that overall this was a really good show. As always, I skip through all the between-the-matches garbage, and watch from the beginning of entrances until the end of the post-match each time, so I got through this in no time at all. Maybe that’s the secret to a happy viewing experience, but all I know is everything except Rhea/Natalya was worth watching.
MoshFish Reviews 