INDIANAPOLIS -- The WWE ushered in a new era on Saturday night with its ‘Wrestlepalooza’ premium live event in Indianapolis, the first one on ESPN after the blockbuster deal that was announced in August.
With the top-tier ESPN led marketing for this event combined with the star-studded match card, the WWE’s debut with the “Worldwide Leader in Sports’ had everything it needed to be one of the best PLE’s of the year.
However, from a viewer perspective, the event still managed to fall short.
The night kicked off with ‘The Game’ Triple H welcoming the crowd and all of the ESPN viewers who may have been watching the WWE for the first time. This was followed by Pat McAfee making his return to the commentary team, accompanied by Indiana Pacer star Tyrese Haliburton. This was by all means a strong start to the night, which would quickly be spoiled.
The Beast Squashes Cena
The WWE announced early earlier in the week that the retiring John Cena and Brock Lesnar would renew their legendary rivalry once to open Wrestlepalooza, much to the approval of fans.
The entrances to this match shined, with Lesnar looking as ‘beastly’ as ever, also being introduced by Paul Heyman which was fun, and John Cena running out of the tunnel with a bunch of kids dressed in his gear, truly a feel good moment. As a wrestling fan, this is where the night began to go downhill for me. The WWE for some reason wanted to make this match very simple, so I will do the same with my summary.
Brock Lesnar dominated Cena for the first three minutes as expected. Cena then responded and hit Lesnar with his finisher, the ‘Attitude Adjustment’ three times. This was his only offense of the match. Lesnar would kickout, then counter the five knuckle shuffle to hit a lifeless Cena with six straight F5’s, and pin him to win the match.
John Cena, who the WWE has dubbed as the greatest of all time, only had six dates in his career coming into tonight, and the WWE willingly booked one of those dates to have him destroyed by Brock Lesnar.
We’ve already seen Lesnar dismantle Cena before at Summerslam 2014, so why do it again? It’s not like 48-year-old seven-time WWE champion Brock Lesnar needed to be put over. This seems to be building toward a possible rematch between the two, which could take up at least another two of Cena’s remaining dates, something I just am not interested in.
Like the rest of Cena’s matches on this run, this could’ve been a one time fight, where even if he lost, he put forth a strong fight and pushed his opponent to the brink. Instead, he’s easily beaten, and made to look weak. Another questionable call from the creative team on his retirement tour. Cena’s next scheduled date is October 11th for WWE Crown Jewel.
Back to Back Incredible Matches
As with all WWE PLE’s, Wrestlepalooza did not come without it’s highs. The first of those came in a Women’s World Title match between Iyo Sky and Stephanie Vaquer, after Naomi recently relinquished the title due to her pregnancy.
I had a hard time deciding who I thought would win the match. Sky, who was champion recently, or Vaquer, the main roster newcomer, who has infinite star potential. One thing I factored in was Sky’s ongoing drama with Asuka, this match actually ended up being clean all the way through.
This was a technical battle between two of the best wrestlers in the WWE, who showed the ESPN audience just how capable they are. Iyo, the “empress of the sky, relied on her high flying ways, while Vaquer tried to neutralize her, attacking her leg throughout the match.
The crowd got into this match on the side of Vaquer, especially after she hit Sky with her fan-favorite ‘Devil’s Kiss’ maneuver. It was then that she would avoid Iyo’s moonsault and again attack her leg, before taking to the sky and hitting an astonishing ‘corkscrew moonsault’ of her own for the 1, 2, 3.
The crowd erupted and “La Primera” Vaquer was overcome with emotion as she celebrated winning her first WWE Women’s World Championship after just 153 days on the main roster. There are many interesting routes WWE could take next with her, but her title reign promises to be a strong one regardless.
Following up this great moment was a handicap tag-team match between World Heavyweight champion Seth Rollins and his wife, Women’s intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch, and CM Punk with his wife AJ Lee.
This match marked AJ’s first WWE action since her retirement 10 years ago, and follows her transcendent return on Smackdown on September 5th.
The feud between the couples has seen lots of back and forth talk, including both Lynch and AJ putting their hands on each others husbands. This match would feature all of that, and much more. It began with cinematic entrances from both pairs, featuring Lynch and Rolins’ purple outfits, and CM Punk’s “AJ Lee’s Husband” jacket.
Early on in the match we saw Rollins dominate Punk, with Lynch chipping in multiple times, trying to avoid having to actually fight AJ. Eventually AJ would get the hot tag, and go to work on Becky.
From this point on, this match can simply be described as a lot of fun. we would see a reverse of what happened before, with this time both Punk and Rollins putting their hands on each other’s wives, including Punk reversing Lynch’s figure four into one of his own on her.
The couples hit devastating tandem moves on each other, AJ hit Seth with a stomp, everything adding to the beautiful chaos that this match was. In the end, after Lynch threw AJ into Rollins into Punk, collapsing an accounce table, it came down to her and AJ in the ring. AJ would end up locking in the Black Widow submission, and tapping out the women’s Intercontinental champion.
Becky and AJ could potentially go into a program for her title, now that AJ has a victory over her. Regardless of what is next though, what people said was a stagnant, boring, neverending feud between Rollins and Punk turned into a historic return from AJ and a great handicap tag match. Well done on this one WWE, for bringing AJ home and adding a new layer to this feud.
Moments of Mediocrity
The remaining two matches for Wrestlepalooza included a tag-team match between the reunited Usos and ‘The Vision’ Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker with LA Knight as special guest referee, and of course the main event between WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre.
The tag-team match of course featured a ‘YEET’ filled entrance from the Usos. The match itself was fun, and had its moments that let all four participants shine. Early on, the referee, Knight, pretended not to look as Jimmy Uso hit Breakker with a steel chair, which set the tone for a grueling match.
After nonstop action, the match came to a quick end, as Jey uso seemed to accidentally cut himself with a steel chair, and bust himself open. He began leaking blood from his forehead, and was visibly stumbling. A quick audible was called, and Breakker hit both Uso’s with a spear through a table, before a ‘Tsunami’ from Reed would force LA Knight to count to three.
This was not a bad match by any means, it just fell flat with the crowd after the entrance, and of course came to an abrupt ending after Jey’s accidental cut. Certainly though, it is good to have the Uso’s back in tag team action.
Now in the main event of the evening, nothing crazy or unexpected happened. As many guessed, Cody Rhodes, who recently returned after being absent for a few weeks due to an attack from McIntyre,(he was really filming his parts for the ‘Street Fighter’ movie) once again successfully defended his title, this time against a game Mcintyre.
This match, as with every match featuring these two, was good. It was back and forth, hard hitting, and featured a compelling story. The reason Cody was out for a few weeks was because Drew hit his ‘Claymore’ kick while Rhodes’ head was against the announce table.
After both had exchanged finishers, Drew seemed to have the upper hand, but decided to try the maneuver again. Rhodes ended up moving, causing Drew to kick his leg through the table, injuring himself. Cody then capitalized, and hit the ‘Cross Rhodes’ to win.
As with Cody Rhodes first stint with the WWE Title, this second reign already seems to be extremely predictable. He faces great opponents, all of which could benefit from winning the title, even if only for a short period of time, but wins every time.
Triple H loves to throw shocking moments at the end of his PLE’s, why not have Drew win here, and “help” Cody Rhodes as he said he would do? Even if Cody would win it back, why not start off the ESPN era with a surprise title change? But no, it was yet another good, yet predictable title defense from Cody.
Wrestlepalooza Review
Wrestlepalooza had its moments, but outside of those few moments, this event did not feel worthy of being the first one on ESPN. The one that many fans watched for the very first time.
After John Cena lost in the fashion that he did, I was already thrown off for the remainder of the night, as I’m sure was the case for many other fans. The WWE broadcast showed kids crying after this match, and I can't say I felt much different than them.
The WWE still did a great job of promoting this event. Superstars had done appearances on ESPN shows before, but with the new deal, the WWE was being showcased everywhere you looked on ESPN social media and programming. However, marketing and money related things are never the issue when it comes to this company in the last few years.
Not every crowd can do what the France faithful did for last month’s Clash in Paris PLE, and the Indiana crowd did pop in flashes, but felt uninterested for much of the night. On top of that, questionable creative decisions and run of the mill matches made a potentially special night feel underwhelming. Nonetheless, the ESPN era is underway for the WWE.