At least we have some new faces on a PPV with Riddle and Lee

Hoping goofy Dominik turns on Rey

Will be interested to see how they turn Fiend face (and has Alexa with him)

Heel Roman is a thing

Have tuned in some. Good to see they’re on a trajectory to maybe launch Big E to the moon.

FYP

Really liked what they did with Keith Lee. I was settled in expecting a typical 15-20 minute Orton match and instead Keith pinned him clean out of nowhere in like six minutes. Made him look amazing.

Enjoyed the Shayna Bazler double-submission/tapout

I love the idea of pairing Heyman with Roman. If they play it right, it could eventually lead to that Roman/Brock WM match we've all been waiting to see.

I hope they're not going full blown Harley/Joker abusive relationship with Alexa/Fiend.

They're really going full heel with Roman.

Who did Stroman piss off to get him pinned twice in a week?

I like the finish, though I would maybe feel differently if I had any investment in Fiend or Strowman. Roman coming out and winning as easily as possible was definitely a Heyman tactic that we've seen with Lesnar before, so it made sense.

Really nice PPV in general, short length and nothing was bad.

I thought this was as good a PPV as could be given it came a week after Summerslam. I was super impressed. I don't think there was a match that wasn't good storytelling, a good match, or both.

-Lashley>Crews. Solidly fought match. Def felt like Lashley should have won.

-Big E>Seamus. Another entertaining match where the right guy won. Also Big E's postmatch antics make it seem like they're finally maybe setting him up for a solo run?

-Riddle>Corbin. Good match, good for Riddle to win. Corbin is one of those guys who can lose these matches because his heel shtick can carry him.

-Shayna/Nia>Bayley/Sasha. Match of the night probably. It was obvious what they were gonna do (continue to have Bayley/Sasha unravel) but they did it an unexpected way. That Shayna finish was awesome. IDK what Nia was doing after the match but I laughed.

-Keith Lee>Orton. Orton is just an awesome wrestler. He sold the whole match and I thought it was a lock to be the Keith Lee loses but looks strong doing so, but then he went over. Awesome stuff. And a good call by Phillips after.

-Mysterio's>Rollins/Murphy. I thought this was an entertaining match but this was probably the most conflicted with an outcome I was. I thought Rollins shoulda just pinned Rey, Rollins/Murphy could keep up their cocky heel act, and that coulda set Dom on his own path. Now what? Clearly Rollins is gonna make Buddy "answer" for his sin or whatever, but what about the other 2? In a weird way I feel like winning the match hurts them long-term.

-Roman>Fiend & Braun. Like the Shayna/Nia v Bayley/Sasha match, what made this awesome to me was that the result was sort of obvious, but they executed it in a way that made me unsure the finish I thought was coming was actually coming. When Braun jumped Bray and a few minutes of carnage went on, I thought maybe they'd have Roman just not show up and have Heyman cut a promo Friday, or have Roman show up after the match and once again wreck havoc. And still, even though they went with the predicatable outcome (Roman winning), I'm glad they had him win this way, rather than in a typical Roman clean dominance way. This was a good heel move.

This PPV wasn't all-time by any means but it was solid and destroyed my expectations, I think it's worth your time if you have a few hours. Hell it's not even that long, only 2.5 hours or so.

Pretty good PPV. Anything that's short like this and doesn't outwardly offend me I think is a good job for WWE these days.

One thing I'll add. It's time to just cut bait totally and end the Retribution angle. It really pissed me off that they just were nowhere to be found or mentioned at Summerslam, and the same thing happened again last night.

They had a chance to make a compelling storyline, but in typical WWE fashion they likely started the angle on TV without actually having the creative story in tact. Now it's just stalling because they don't know what to do with it. I've lost interest, and I assume everyone else has too.


On SD/talking smack the last few weeks they've been setting up Big E for his solo run. Both New Day guys are real life injured, so it was natural. Nothing for him to do but wrestle solo now. He's been cutting these really loud/preachy/full of energy without making it feel obnoxious because he's Big E and he can get away with it promos.

Big E/Roman program down the line would be fun.

I know everyone feels this is the big heel turn for Roman, but while it's certainly an attitude change, I'm not sure it makes him a heel.

He hasn't really done anything heelish or even attacked a babyface. He's with Heyman, sure, but that might get him cheered even more. Ironic that they pull this move when there are no fans around to boo him.

Actually, I'm having trouble figuring out who the top faces on SD or NXT are at this point. I think they're all heelish types.

The way he mopped up that main event last night was heelish as ****. I think he’s a heel now.

Whether he would actually get booed by live crowds is another story.

I feel like everything he has done have been (kayfabe) heel acts? To recap:

-attacks Braun/Fiend post-match at Summerslam. Now, in and of itself this certainly isn't a heel act, as it would be totally normal for a babyface making his return to do so in such a fashion, especially when Braun/Fiend are both heels themselves (or neutral at best in Braun's case). But it was the manner he did it in. He didn't use his traditional moveset, he used a chair and taunted each verbally.

-Smackdown when offered a contract into the main event for the title at Payback was evasive and dodgy, needing to "read the fine print". Babyface Roman obviously snap signs, he don't back down from no one regardless what it says in a contract. And then to cap it off he delivers Heyman's spoiler line which he overwhelmingly used when Brock was a heel fighting face opponents.

-Payback he shows up late when his opponents are beaten down and, once again, does not use his typical face offense to finish his opponents off. I think no superman punches is incredibly significant to what they're going for. AND a beaten down Fiend is still able to get the jump on him and Roman has to resort to a low blow to regain the upper hand.

These aren't just character changes, because they've tried a number of times (even changing the freakin color of his eyes) to make subtle character changes to get him over while not turning him heel. "I'm not a good guy I'm not a bad guy I'm THE guy" etc. These are, imo, heel acts.

"Reading the fine print" was the biggest heel giveaway to me. No babyface in WWE would ever do that.

Well, then I guess he was a heel when he poisoned Stephanie McMahon's drink the week after the Shield broke up. Poisoning someone is definitely a heel move.

My argument is though, none of the things he's done, nor his new association with Heyman are going to get him booed (or I guess hated) more by fans. I think they may end up cheering/liking him more.

And he's probably gonna have to attack someone like Bryan or Otis to get people to actually hate this guy more than the previous version of Reigns.

But you're basically arguing that dumbass smarky crowds have been ruining wrestling which is...true? Was The Miz not a heel a few years back when he was getting cheered? KO? Of course they were. It's just the crowds are filled with idiots breaking the fourth wall and forgetting it's a television show. The fact that people are happy Roman finally has turned heel and are therefore more likely to cheer doesn't change what WWE is clearly trying to do.