Saturday night saw the WWE hold another Network-special, with a house show in Toronto being turned into their first-ever “Roadblock” event. With WrestleMania three weeks away, it was intended to be nothing more than a distraction, but there was some hope going in that this would reshape WrestleMania. In the end, it was just another house show, with a pretty good main event.
Starting out as all WWE TV programs do, we had a promo to open things off with, as the New Day spent ten minutes promoting their imaginary cereal, before taunting the League of Nations – minus Rusev.
Kofi Kingston & Big E vs. Sheamus & Wade Barrett
Not a bad match, but there were a few down spots – namely Barrett being stomped repeatedly in the corner as the New Day repeatedly tagged in and out, only for Barrett to be relatively fine moments later. Sheamus came off the top a few times, giving him a danger of staining his skin with a nosebleed, but in the end the champions retained when Big E laid out Barrett with the Big Ending.
Chris Jericho vs. Jack Swagger
A house show match if I ever saw one, and a weird choice of opponent for Jericho in Canada. Of course, the pro-US Swagger didn’t get over as a babyface, so this match was a little off. Jericho took the win with the Walls of Jericho.
Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady vs. Dash & Dawson
A rematch from NXT Takeover: London here – with the same results. You could tell that this wasn’t an NXT crowd, as the cameras struggled to find many people singing along to Enzo and Cass’ pre-match spiel. There had been talk of a title change, or at the very least, a disputed finish, to lead to a three-way match at Takeover: Dallas, but it was not to be. This feud that had been going on for five months rolled on with a surprisingly clean finish, with a Shatter Machine on Enzo ensuring that the Revival retained.
Charlotte vs. Natalya
Natalya lives! And she talked her way into a title shot here, and in turn, put on a great performance. Charlotte had the better of the early going, grounding Natalya with bodyscissors before they teased their submission finishers. Natalya busted out a step-up curb stomp of sorts to a seated Charlotte, but that was the end of Natalya’s early advantage.
Charlotte got back into things with some rolling grounded headscissors on Natalya that got a near fall, and it was pretty much no turning back from there, with Charlotte locking on the figure four, before rolling out of the ring with the hold still on, to do a ringpost figure four without a ringpost.
Natalya got a near fall with a powerbomb after catching Charlotte up top for a moonsault attempt, before locking in the Sharpshooter. Charlotte almost made the ropes – albeit with the help of Ric Flair – and that gave Natalya a distraction that allowed Charlotte to get the pin with a roll-up with her feet on the ropes. Not a bad match, but definitely a reason to use Natalya more in the WWE Diva’s division.
Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper vs. Brock Lesnar
A change to the advertised match, with Luke Harper joining Bray Wyatt as this became a 2-on-1 handicap match. I guess they still want to do Wyatt vs. Lesnar on a bigger show down the road.
This was fairly short, almost to the point of a glorified squash match, with no involvement from Wyatt at all. What a fall from grace, given that the selling point of the prior two Network specials was “Brock’s wrestling”… and we’re going from that to a Card Subject to Change special. Brock ragdolled Harper early on, but Harper connected with a tope as Lesnar was distracted by Wyatt, before getting a few near falls in. Lesnar eventually powered back up, firing back with a variety of suplexes before ending Harper with the F5..
Sami Zayn vs. Stardust
An interesting choice of a semi-final here, with Sami Zayn taking on Stardust – presumably as Kevin Owens is on the “other tour” (which also explains the reduced roster, compared to say, an episode of Raw). Michael Cole shouts out the International Wrestling Syndicate promotion in the early going, along with a reference to how the “Ole” chants were because of Sami’s old persona… both of which must have been fed to him while Kevin Dunn wasn’t listening.
I miss Zayn’s old tights – the ones with all of the flags and the like. Perfectly acceptable wrestling, even if it went a little on the long side. Michael Cole on commentary seemed to get bored, referring to previous WrestleMania’s in Toronto… unfortunately both of them included persona non grata Hulk Hogan – a name that Cole eventually uttered through gritted teeth.
Zayn sold a lot during the early going, including a reverse Boston Crab, and a Side Effect that got Stardust four separate near falls. Stardust eventually connected with a superplex, but that spared a comeback, with a series of clotheslines getting Zayn back into the match, at around the same time a couple of people in the crowd paraded a TRUMP/McMAHON sign.
Zayn takes out Stardust on the floor with a tope con hilo, then quickly returns to the ring for a Blue Thunder Bomb. A Disaster-kick gets Stardust a near fall, but Zayn countered with an Exploder suplex into the corner followed by a Helluva kick for the win.
Triple H vs. Dean Ambrose
A rare house show appearance by Hunter (alright, this is a Network special…), and it’s a match that a lot of people were waiting for with intent. Would WWE use this as a way to shake up WrestleMania and have Dean Ambrose get the title? If you’ve followed WWE for any period of time, this paragraph will give you all you need to know to figure out an answer…
Ambrose just about edged the early going, including a nice little spot where he grabbed Hunter’s nose to avoid being whipped off the ropes. At least that shut down the “CM Punk” chants. Ambrose continued to target Hunter’s left knee, ramming it into the ringpost. Once they spilled onto the floor though, Ambrose’s advantage came to an end, when his efforts at blocking a Pedigree saw him shoved into the ring steps.
Back in the ring, Ambrose withstood a Crossface and a Rings of Saturn submission, but Ambrose got back into things,with a near fall from a lariat after blocking another Pedigree attempt. A third attempt at a Pedigree sees Ambrose dump him to the floor with a back body drop, but Ambrose’s attempt at a suicide dive sees him eat nothing but Hunter’s fists.
Hunter goes to dismantle the announce table, only for Ambrose to cut him off and take him back to the ring (to the sound of boos), and Ambrose counters yet another Pedigree, locking in a Figure Four. Ambrose then flips out of a back suplex attempt and locks in a Sharpshooter on Hunter, but the champion eventually makes the ropes.
Ambrose pulled Hunter in for the Dirty Deeds and got the three-count, only for the referee to wave it off because Ambrose had pulled Hunter so far across, that Ambrose’s feet were under the ropes. That woke up the Toronto crowd, and they made even more noise when Hunter only got a two-count when he rolled up Ambrose whilst having his feet on the ropes. Ambrose finally connected with a suicide dive, along with an elbow to Hunter off the top rope.
They teased the announce table spot, and sure enough, Ambrose draped Hunter onto the table, before going off the security barrier with an elbow drop, only for Hunter to roll off the table at the last minute. Hunter made a beeline for the ring, and Ambrose beat the ten count, only to walk into a Pedigree as Hunter retained.
Three weeks out, this was the only result they could have had for WrestleMania – and seriously, they weren’t going to change the WWE title on a glorified house show. This main event was worth going out of your way to see, but the rest of the show was eminently missable.