So I wasn’t really planning on watching this show, but an acquaintance of mine did attend the show with some friends – somehow putting up with the frigid temperatures that would kill any human – and told me that it was a genuinely good show worth checking out on the Youtube feed… and that person is someone whom whenever they say a WWE show is actually good, I can generally take their word for it because we have similar tastes.
So I gave the show a watch and… while it’s not selling me on whatever WWE is doing right now, it was a delightful one-night distraction from everything else… and the best part of it all? Not a single lick of Logan Paul anywhere in sight.
The show opens with Cody Rhodes and Jacob Fatu having brawl outside before continuing their brawl in the concessions and then eventually they get back to the ringside area, only to be both killed by new WWE Champion Drew McIntyre… and thus whatever match that was supposed to happen between the two never happened because nobody bothered to ring the bell… but apparently, the old rule of just ring the bell when both guys are in the ring – a thing they used to do all too often back in the day – was ditched in favor of “Let’s calm everyone down and THEN we ring bell, yes?” Are you fucking shitting me?
Hey, let me say something nice here. I liked the Cody/Fatu brawl; I thought it was a fun piece of business and any time you hazz dee fightz in the concessions is always a fun time. That said, it has to suck for the Bell Centre crowd who came to watch this hyped up match and most of it happens in the back where you have to start at a giant screen to see the happenings, which must suck even more for the (not so) cheap seats. But in thinking about the story a little… who am I supposed to be rooting for? Cody because he wants to get his hands on Fatu for costing him the title against Drew on Smackdown (even though he has some blame in the matter… don’t ask) or Jacob because he’s angry at Cody for… reasons? Even with the recaps, this doesn’t seem like a well told story.
Women’s Tag Team Champions Rhea Ripley & Iyo Sky defeated Roxanne Perez & Liv Morgan to retain the titles. I realize there’s some sort of feud between the two sides, but this felt like a thing that happened. Not a bad match or anything; it was fast-paced action from bell to bell, but it just felt like… eh, maybe if I were watching the product, I’d care more, but even then, this would’ve been just a “that was fine, I’ll forget about it tomorrow” kind of tag match. Not exactly “greatest women’s wrestling evar” as I’ve heard some people proclaim this to be, but perfectly watchable.
AJ Styles defeated Shinsuke Nakamura in an highly enjoyable match up between two guys who have worked each other many times and decided that they were going to go for balls to the walls wrestling clinic… as opposed to their early WWE matches where it was all about who can kick the other’s balls the hardest. I heard some people compare this to their New Japan efforts and I can’t imagine that not being a factor in this. Most of all, the crowd seemed really into it, because Montreal fans do enjoy their wrestling when it’s high-caliber stuff and this certainly qualified. If this was going to be their last outing together, AJ and Nakamura certainly made it memorable… or at the very least, washed the bitter taste of their earlier WWE rivalry involving… well, you know…
And in the main event, hometown favorite Sami Zayn defeated Damien Priest, Randy Orton, and that guy who used to be on NXT and even won the TNA title whose name I don’t recall to become the no. 1 contender to the WWE title… which, of course, draws out Drew for the ambush, but since he’s the hometown favorite and we’re trying to get people to care about this Rumble show from the benevolent and progressive kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sami is NOT a fucking moron, dodges the blow, sends Drew sailing, and then the show ends… which means Sami doesn’t get to cut a promo in French on TV because even Youtube has its limits. It’s a four-way match and these things are like, eh, whatever to me on a good day… but there were some entertaining spots and seeing Sami win in Montreal to wide crowd approval is nice to see… because Montreal fans do enjoy watching their hometown favorites win big matches once in a while. You don’t have to bury them at home. Sami ain’t winning in Saudi; let’s be clear on that, but they gave him this big moment and he gets to enjoy it while it lasts. That makes it worthwhile in my book.
All in all, I thought this was a fairly entertaining little sports entertainment program. Went by fairly quickly – skipping over commercials helped tremendously with the slider – and the matches themselves ranged from good to great. No complaints here; for a one-off show, this tickled my fancy. Enough to watch the Rumble next weekend?
Jury’s still out on that one.
dtm666 