WWE Roadblock: End of the Line Review 12/19/2016

Hello Misfits! It’s the Wrestling Classic here with my Roadblock: End of the Line review. This was Raw’s third exclusive PPV since the brand extension and the final PPV of 2016. 2016 has been one of the most shocking and exciting years where A LOT happened. There have been a lot of memorable PPV’s  and PPV moments this year but thus far Raw’s PPV’s as a brand alone has had one memorable PPV and one very forgettable one. This PPV was named End of the Line as it was supposed to be the end of many of Raw’s current storylines and roboot going into the New Year. I wasn’t too hyped going into this PPV. I’m not too sure if it was the build up or that I just wasn’t invested in Raw overall the past few weeks. Regardless of any of that, here is my Roadblock review. Oh yeah, I was 3-4 in my predictions. I kind of want to say I was 3-3 with my predictions because I didn’t really get the concept of the Sami Zayn and Braun Strowman match, but more on that later.

WWE TLC comes to us from the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

– The show opened a video package hyping up tonights show.

Tag Team Championship
Cesaro & Sheamus def. The New Day (C)
in 10:10 by pinfall
I predicted going into this match that since The New Day had finally beat Demolition record that their was finally a higher chance that they would not retain the tag titles at Roadblock. I was right. Although, I think The Club needed this victory more than Cesaro and Sheamus, Cesaro and Sheamus would have no other logical direction to go in their storyline other than win the tag team titles. The match started off pretty basic to every other tag match and wasn’t very interesting for the first little bit. As per usual though the match broke down, went into a higher gear and never slowed down. Cesaro and Sheamus survived The New Day’s attempt of using their 3-on-1 advantage that lead them to victory so many times not only once but twice. The way Cesaro and Sheamus picked up the victory was in a fashion that I don’t recall ever seeing before. Sheamus went in for a tag but Cesaro didn’t tag it but pretended like he did. The fake out worked because Kofi went after Cesaro who he believed was the new legal man only to be caught Sheamus who technically still was the legal man, and The New Day’s historic reign came to an end. These teams have great chemistry and it all came together here. A team that wasn’t ever expected to be a team was finally crafty enough to beat New Day, who gracefully handed the titles to Cesaro and embraced, while Sheamus snatched them and celebrated. I just find it interesting that recently WWE has had this obsession with tag teams that are odd pairing and initially weren’t a tag team have been wining the tag team titles. On Raw we have the random pairing of Cesaro and Sheamus and Smackdown Live’s last first two reigning tag team champions were the odd pairings of Heath Slater and Rhyno and now the “New Wyatt Family.” Regardless, the match might have started off slow, but went it got going it never stopped and it had me on the edge of my seat. I’m glad Raw will start off 2017 with brand new tag team champions.
Rating – ***1/2

Ten Minute Time Limit
Sami Zayn def. Braun Strowman
in 10:00 via lasting the ten minutes
I’m a Sami Zayn fan, I truly am. I know this storyline has gotten people emotionally behind him but thats not the case for me. I’m already behind Sami Zayn. Ive always behind Zayn and I wanted to see Zayn succeed. It’s why for months I’ve been begging for Sami to get traded or show up on Smackdown because I believe he would be a major key player over there. They havent really used him on Raw much storyline wise up until this past month in this struggle to get match with Braun Strowman, where General Manager showed a lack of faith in Zayn being able to take on the monstrous Strowman. There was even a moment where it seemed like Foley was going to trade Zayn to Smackdown only to let us know it was all just a plan to light a fire under Zayn’s ass. The first half of this match was good, but nothing to noteworthy. It was in the second half of the match that things picked up. Mick Foley came out and teased throwing in the towel in the same town where Undertaker nearly killed him back in 1998. Foley’s interactions with both Strowman and Zayn were great. Sami’s final stand in the closing minutes was the highlight. Braun did the overdone broken guardrail spot and just as time expired, Sami hit the Helluva Kick. The best Braun performance to date. I think they have something better in them because Braun is improving and is a good monster while Sami is the best underdog babyface around. I think we could have done without Foley in this match since it technically only had ten minutes. At least 2 of those minutes involved Zayn telling Foley to go away. However, I get it from a storytelling point of view. I also wasn’t aware Zayn just had to last ten minutes to get the victory. I was expecting him to actually have to beat Strowman by pinfall, submission or count out or something to win. Therefore, my prediction for this match was totally off for this match. If I paid attention well enough to know that was the stipulation, I would have totally gone with my boy, Sami Zayn.
Rating – **3/4

Seth Rollins def. Chris Jericho
in 17:05 by pinball
Seth Rollins has been filling time until his feud with Triple H officially takes off starting in the New Year, and after months of fighting Kevin Owens for the Universal Title to fill that time, it was only logical for him to face the guy who was screwing him out of those matches before he officially moves on to Triple H. I mentioned in my predictions that these two are both in the conversation when talking about the best wrestler in the WWE today, so there was potential for them to have the best on the card or simply just basic good match. They went with the second option. The match was what you expected it to be. Rollins hit his high spots and pulled out some of his moves he only uses in big matches. Jericho used his heel tactics such as raking the eyes and using the referee as a human shield. Jericho’s current run has been magnificent in terms of character work but his matches mostly leave something to be desired. It might be that he’s getting older, I mean that same sentence could be used for Randy Savage of 1997-98. Character was still on point but he lost a step from his younger days. Anyway, the match came to a finish when Owen’s came out to support Jericho, whom he has been having issues with the past couple of weeks. I think this should be a good time to mention Owens’ tried giving Jericho a Christmas scarf in a backstage segment earlier in the show which Jericho declined. Therefore, theres some real heat between these Canadian best friends. Now back on topic, Jericho sent Owens’ away screaming that he didnt need his help. Rollins countered the Codebreaker into the Pedigree to win. It felt like a first or second hour main event on Raw rather than a PPV match. Its a recurring feeling throughout this entire PPV.
Rating – ***

Triple Threat
Cruiserweight Championship
Rich Swann (C) def. Brian Kendrick & TJ Perkins
in 06:00 via pinfall
I actually do enjoy all three of the guys involved in this match. TJ Perkins is a great wrestler regardless if I think his character is pretty lame. Rich Swann is just a ball of fucking energy, his entrance makes you want to dance and its hard to not want to root for the guy. I’m not a fan of the whole calling him “outlandish” now, but thats WWE for ya. Everyone needs a stupid nickname, that they can live up to 24/7. Brian Kendrick…well he’s just Brian fucking Kendrick. Kendrick is the man, and how can you no respect the guy. Character wise he’s intriguing and unique and in real life, I’ve met him before and he’s just a super cool dude. Austin Aries replaced Byron Saxton on commentary for this which was cool since he his the voice of 205 Live. He dissed Cole early on which made him likeable right off the bat. This suffered from the same issues that other Cruiserweight Title matches have. The action isn’t bad but the crowd doesn’t care and something was just missing. They tried hard and had some cool spots that involved all three men set up. There were a few slip ups throughout that didn’t help either. Swann retained after a kick and I came away disappointed.
It was what took place after the match that really had everyones attention. “The Man that Gravity Forgot” Adrian Neville made his TV return after months of working live shows a rarely being seen on TV. It looked like he would congratulate Swann but instead attacked him. Perkins tried to make the save but also got his ass kicked. The fans chanted “thank you Neville”. A heel Neville is an interesting change, but just adding him to the division is great. Two interesting things I noticed was Neville never touched Kendrick, which make sense since they’re both heel. Also, why has WWE tried to make every Cruiserweight Title feud they’ve had thus far including this one about friendship. TJ Perkins and Kendrick were friends and drove to shows together. Swann and Perkins were friends. Now Kendrick and Swann were friends. It’s like everyone in the division used to be friends before coming to the WWE and Kendrick and Neville were the only two people with cars. I’m not complaining, its just an interesting fact.
Rating – **

Iron Women Match
Women’s Championship
Charlotte Flair def. Sasha Banks (C)
in 34:45 in OT with the final score of 3-2
The final battle between Sasha Banks and Charlotte. When I wrote my predictions I totally forgot the fact that Charlotte had this PPV winning streak going on. I completely forgot about that and never took it into consideration. When they mentioned it during her entrance, it immediatley clicked in my head that my pick Salsa Banks (I’m gonna sneak the nickname I made for her on the site now too, so it gets stuck in all your heads) was doomed. The commentators confirmed that this is going to be the final match and there were no rematch clause’s in the contract for this match. Therefore, if Sasha Banks loses, Charlotte doesn’t owe her shit. If Sasha wins, Charlotte has to fuck off for a while. I think this made everyone happy since they’ve been playing hot potato with the title for the last 7 months. It also dawned on me that we haven’t seen Sasha wrestle anyone else besides Charlotte or Dana Brooke in the past 6-7 months. Im not including the Women’s Survivor Series match. Therefore what will truly go down as a historic feud with many first time ever milestone and historic statistics will finally come to an end for now. I know right now it feels like the feud that would never end was ridiculous but 5-10 years from now it’ll be more appreciated. Anyway, Ironman matches can be hard to properly complete. Sasha and Bayley nailed it last year having a top three Ironman match ever in my opinion. I credit a lot of that to the fact that Sasha Banks is just simply better and more in her element as a heel. This match couldn’t compare to that. I don’t even really remember what happened in the first 5-10 minutes of this match. I’m sure it was perfectly fine quality wrestling, but thats just that. Maybe I was expecting more drama and more falls. Maybe Charlotte sacrificing a fall by using a chair to crush Sasha’s knee or something, I don’t know. It wasn’t until around eleven minutes left, that Charlotte got the first fall and Sasha tied it shortly after. Sasha took a 2-1 lead but Charlotte sent it into OT after making Sasha tap with two seconds left.
Two fucking seconds. I mean c’mon. I know Lance Storm tried to justify on Twitter saying if he put us in a hold we’d tap out or in the UFC many guys can’t make it to the end of the round, but it doesn’t justify someone unable to last two more seconds. TWO FUCKING SECONDS. My analogy is this. If someone was like hey, I know you got a busted up knee but we’re gonna put you in a leg lock for, I don’t know a minute or 30 seconds and if you last you get $10,000 or anything else you ever DREAMED OF, what would you do? I know I would just go through the pain because the worst thing that could happen is I would have to get surgery again but at least I could pay for it with the money I got or I can live my dream once I’m better. The most ridiculous part was that she was in the lead. If Sasha waited three seconds to tap, she still would have won and she wouldn’t have to wrestle overtime with a knee that was supposedly so hurt she had to tap with only two seconds left on the clock. I didn’t lose sleep over it because it’s pre determined show, and their plan was to have Charlotte go over regardless but I just found that to be the only flaw in the story. Whoever laid this scenario out is an idiot though. The rivalries babyface should be the one to overcome the odds and make the comeback. Even if she’s going to lose in the end, if she blows the lead by tapping at the buzzer and then loses the match, she looks like a total chump. Charlotte, the hated heel, not only made the big comeback, but then won in OT. The rest of the story was great. I enjoyed the whole overtime aspect, Sasha showing colour when she started bleeding near the end from the mouth and just the overall story of the match. Also, Sasha took some really nasty bumps, including the one where she got tripped off the apron, landing face first on the steel steps. It was REALLY good match, but just not amazing. Falling under the same feeling I’ve had about this entire feud, the matches have been great but he booking decisions have been questionable therefore leading to you feeling different about the match. I’d definitely watch this again though. I’m a fan of both ladies and they always deliver but its time to move on because the Raw’s Women’s division is joke beyond these two.
Rating – ***3/4

Universal Championship
Kevin Owens (C) def. Roman Reigns
in 23:20 by DQ
“If you’re such a tough guy, why isn’t your championship title on the line too” (or something like that) said Kevin Owens to Roman Reigns midway through the match when he was beating him down, and I couldn’t agree more. I hate when they pit champion vs champion on PPV events because that usually means the mid card is getting screwed out of wrestling for their championship. Plus, I don’t hate Roman Reigns, to be honest I sort of like him and I’ve said this a thousand times but if walked out of Roadblock with two titles, everyone would have lost their shit. I know the IGWC on instagram would have turned into war zone. Kevin Owens could be a great World Champion on any show, but his reign as Universal Champion on Raw has felt lacklustre. It started off great but as time goes on it’s become an afterthought that he’s even champion. The friendship he has with Chris Jericho seems to be more important than the belt. Also, they have him losing matches on weekly TV that he shouldn’t be losing or even involved in.  Anyway, I think I was drained by the time we got to this match because I just couldn’t get into it. The crowd seemed to be drained too because they were dead through this match as well. Although, they might have just been a shitty crowd all night, I didn’t seem to pay attention to that until this match. There are times when a match goes for a while and it feels like they’re just killing time. That was this. It was a twenty minute match that felt like a forty minute one. Sure, there were some cool spots like the splash on to the table which Owen’s had to do twice just to make the table break, but other than that and Owen’s trash talking the match was just alright. I predicted multiple times that Chris Jericho had to get involved. It was almost obvious so there was no suspense before that. Once he did show up, he hit Owens with the Codebreaker, resulting in the DQ. Bland stuff here.
Jericho then handed the title to Owens and they embraced. It was all a set up. An elaborate plan. Better known as a swerve, bro. Seth Rollins ran out because the heels aren’t allowed to ever look strong or come out on top unless it’s in the Women’s division. He and Reigns Shield power bombed both Owens and Jericho through the announce tables. Its not a reunion unless all three members of the Shield are there but it was still cool, I guess. Roman and Rollins are homies again. Rollins still cares about Owens and Jericho even though  you know his focus should be on the guy that screwed him in the first place, Triple H.
Rating – **3/4

Final Thoughts
The show had its moments but definitely felt like a special three hour edition of Raw, ignoring the fact that Raw is already three hours every week. In that case, it just felt like another episode of Raw but a special one. This had to be the worst PPV of the year. Raw since the brand extension has put on one solid PPV and that was Hell in a Cell. However, if you take the cell gimmick away from that show, I’m sure it would have been just as mediocre as Clash of Champions and this event. The Raw brand just hasn’t figured out a way to first make every PPV event feel important and two make them enjoyable to watch live. Once again, repeating myself like usual, Raw is STACKED with a lot of the greatest talent the wrestling world has to offer today yet the writing and booking is hurting them. The tag match was awesome and the highlight of the show for me. Especially the fact that we crowned new tag team champions. Zayn/Strowman really wasn’t a wrestling match rather than being more of a contest which Zayn won. Jericho/Rollins was a Raw match. The Cruiserweight Triple Threat was a Raw match. The Ironman match will be remembered and was a good match but I think people are so drained by the Sasha/Charlotte feud that they just weren’t be able to get into it. Plus it took way too long to get going and the booking decisions were questionable. The main event also felt like a Raw main event with a few more big spots but once again nothing too special. I think my official show rating may even be generous. Not the best way to end the year of 2016 but it doesn’t take way the fact that this has been a tremendous year overall.
Final Rating – 5/10

What were your final thoughts on Roadblock: End of the Line? What final grade would you give the event? Where would you rate it on a scale of ten? Do you agree with my review? Leave your comments, opinions and thoughts below in the comments section.