What would turn out to be the best and worst moments from the WWE Roadblock pay-per-view?
On Sunday night, the WWE Roadblock pay-per-view would take place. This saw Raw’s final exclusive show of the year go down, as well as this being WWE’s last live special of 2016. Thre are still two weeks of Raw and SmackDown left, though, before we get to 2017.
Four championships would be on the line at Roadblock. One title even changed hands, which ended a historic record that recently got broken. A 30-minute Iron Man match would also go down in the second half of the show. Would Sasha Banks be able to continue her third Raw Women’s Championship reign?
Plenty would go down at Roadblock, but some moments outweighed the others. What were the best and worst parts of the show?
WWE.com
Worst Moment: Roadblock’s Opening Match
Big Cass and Rusev opened WWE Roadblock with confusing goals, at least to the audience. The Realest Guy in the Room had to defend his sleazy friend (Enzo Amore) going to Lana’s hotel room for extra-curricular activities. This is with Rusev being married to the Ravishing Russian, all of which Amore had been aware of. So, the Bulgarian Brute looked to fight for his wife’s honor on Sunday night. Please, tell us who the real heel and face is in this feud.
This match only lasted about five minutes and was a complete dud. The action quickly went into the crowd, but after Lana distracted Enzo and Cass, Rusev got back into the ring to win via countout. The PPG Paints Arena got confused with the result and booed as the foreign couple celebrated in the ring.
Starting a pay-per-view like this, especially for the highly-criticized Raw brand, was about the worst thing WWE could do here. They were better off not even having this match and saving it for Monday night if this was the plan all along.
Not the best way to start WWE Roadblock, so did the show get better from here?
WWE.com
Best Moment: Cesaro and Sheamus Break New Day’s Record
After over 480 days, New Day’stag title reign has ended. They went through plenty of title defenses and even went through two triple threat matches on Raw just to solidify their spot in history. However, when it came to WWE Roadblock, they weren’t able to get past Cesaro and Sheamus, who walked out with the tag titles.
It seemed like the Celtic Warrior accidentally cost his team the win. He inadvertently took out Cesaro and almost got pinned, but it was broken up in one of many near-falls in this match. This had been a reason for this bout succeeding as the opener of the show in Pittsburgh.
If you hadn’t known before either, the Swiss Superman is ridiculously strong. He used his power on both Kofi Kingston and Big E to take them out and eventually help win tag team gold. Even his unselfishness came into play to help Sheamus and him win the belts. It finished off a very fun match that even say Big E, Kingston, and Xavier Woods heel it up, which ended up being an early hint of them losing.
So, the New Day’s tag title reign is officially over and we’re in for Cesaro and Sheamus running the tag division on Monday nights. What will happen next?
WWE.com
Best Moment: Zayn Survives
Sami Zayn got his chance to survive 10 minutes in the ring with Braun Strowman. Past attempts led to him only being able to stay in the ring for just 2-3 minutes, but at WWE Roadblock, the former NXT Champion’s fortunes changed.
Sure, Zayn didn’t actually win this match, but he technically did by simply staying in the match with Strowman for 10 minutes. This is despite about 45 seconds being spent outside the ring with Mick Foley ready to end the match. Zayn had nearly been down and out when the Raw General Manager came down to ringside.
Well, after throwing Foley’s white towel into the crowd, Zayn went after Strowman, found some momentum, and ended up beating the 10-minute mark. It keeps both Superstars protected as the Underdog from the Underground can somewhat say that he “won” while Strowman didn’t suffer a pinfall or submission defeat.
WWE.com
Best Moment: Neville Returns and Turns Heel
Scratch everything about what you saw in that WWE Cruiserweight Championship match, because while Rich Swann, Brian Kendrick, and TJ Perkins are talented, there hasn’t been anything done to make fans care about them. The Pittsburgh, PA crowd even showed this after a certain WWE star returned.
After being off WWE TV for most of the brand split, Neville made his return. He seemed to be coming out to congratulate the Swann on retaining the belt. Instead, the Man That Gravity Forgot went right after the champion and viciously attacked him. He went after Perkins as well, laying these Superstars all over ringside as the fans chanted, “Thank you, Neville.” The crowd had been quiet during the title match and seemed to feel they were saved by someone who they knew. It’s kind of difficult to blame them because WWE did an awful job at introducing the cruiserweight division in September.
@FanSidedDDT Good, any investment in the division is good
— Clayton Sauertieg (@CSauertiegPSU) December 19, 2016
Neville quickly became the most interesting wrestler in the crusierweight division, and it’s kind of not close. His explosive heel persona has never been seen in his time in WWE, so it’s the most refreshing version of the British star we’ve seen. That looked to be the case at Roadblock, so we’ll see what’s in store on Raw.
WWE.com
Worst Moment: Charlotte Wins, Sasha Banks Looks Weak in Defeat
WWE billed Sasha Banks and Charlotte’s 30-minute Iron Man match as the real “End of the Line” for these two. They noted how there would be no “rematch clause” for this match’s contract, so this really would be the last time we saw these two wrestle for the Raw Women’s Championship. Or is that actually going to be the case?
For the fourth time, Charlotte won the title. For the third time, Banks lost the belt to the Nature Girl. Each of her reigns have lasted for 27 days or less, a rare occurrence for any WWE Superstar. She has gotten the chance to win it back every time, though. Then WWE pulls the switch and gives the championship back to her longtime rival. It’s a game of hot potato, one that looked worse than ever on Sunday night.
Throughout the match, Charlotte got made to look strong and dominant. Her falls seemed to come due to her overwhelming Banks, while the latter seemed to only go ahead in fluky ways. This is except for the Bank Statement.
The turning point was when Charlotte had Banks in the Figure Eight for minutes. She only had to hang on for just two more seconds, but after looking at the clock, the Boss tapped out. It’s very questionable booking to see Banks not being able to hold on for two more seconds, especially after endearing it for so long. This made her look incredibly weak heading into sudden death, and caused her third title reign to end in shambles.
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