I wrote the below paragraph a month back in a WWE TV Week in Review, and it about sums up how I feel about this group of certifiable wrestling legends:
The Shield – all three of them – are a WWE main event act, and with that comes an entirely unique set of criticism and issues. They essentially supplanted John Cena as the top act, and they have done admirably in an insane role. They are over-exposed, put in a lot of stupid situations, wrestle a reliable but formulaic and repetitive style, and are forced to do these extra-long over-scripted promos all the time. But these boys endured. And they continue to be very good. There’s times I lose faith in them, like when Roman has a PPV main event stinker or when Rollins wrestles super light or when Ambrose does whatever the fuck he was doing the last few months. But at the end of the day, I’m not sure of many guys in wrestling who could have pulled off this role better.
It being around two and a half hours away from me, I was actually planning on going to this show, before I realized it was on Easter and that would make me A) a heathen and B) a disappointment to my 1-year-old son celebrating his second Easter on earth. Plus, his mom works early in the morning on Mondays. Can’t be stumbling home past midnight on a Dean Ambrose promo high, c’mon.
As will be said every time one of these house shows pops up on the WWE Network until the end of time – there should be more house shows on the Network.
Commentary at ringside ala Gorilla Monsoon and Lord Alfred Hayes at the Garden got me real jacked, baby.
1. WWE Intercontinental Title: Finn Balor [c] vs. Elias
This was a match worked around armbars and crowd hollers. It was pretty solid even if nothing happened and it ended with a pinfall botch. **1/4
2. Bayley & Ember Moon vs. The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott & Sarah Logan) w/ Liv Morgan
The Riott Squad dicking around with Elias on the mic was good content. The match was another “pretty solid” type of deal, the most basic of basic-ass basic matches that generally entertained the crowd. I was most struck by Cole calling Ember Moon the “so-called War Goddess” – why would you qualify that? **1/4
This was The Riott Squad’s last bit as a team too, and I wouldn’t quite compare their impact to The Shield but I really do have a similar summary: their act, the women’s division midcard heels usually thrown to the wolves, comes with it a whole lot of baggage. But they did admirably in that role and through just sticking through the growing pains of coming across as a faction picked out of a hat, all three now seem to have a pretty solid spot on this roster. Now to define that spot. Uh oh.
3. The Shield Farewell Match: The Shield vs. Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre & Bobby Lashley
I mean, this is what was advertised – The Shield’s Final Chapter. RAW basically has three Manabu Nakanishi’s as its’ top heels and that’s definitely a problem, but The Shield hit some double teams and took some heat and made one hell of a god damn comeback. I much prefer Corbin, McIntyre and Lashley doing basic bad guy tag shtick over whatever they’re usually doing to kill time on RAW too – usually some outside slam or chinlock or some bullshit. Great finish too, as if The Shield wouldn’t. I also find it kind of fun that Dean decided to throw a figure-four into his last match. ***1/4
Incredible, uplifting promo by Ambrose afterwards. What a dude. It speaks to quite a bit that this is The Shield’s Final Chapter, that I started this post with an obituary for The Shield. Dean Ambrose is the guy leaving WWE, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins will be sticking around and on my TV probably more than even they’d like. It speaks to the fact that Ambrose ended up the guy that didn’t break through The Shield as far Reigns and Rollins did, but at the same time by not quite breaking out he stood out by being his own unique persona, and he also stood out because it takes talent to feel like such a necessary component of a team. Reigns and Rollins together is good, but the magic wasn’t quite there unless Dean was.
Thank you for the entertaining, Dean.
