WWE Roadblock Review

This WWE Network special, from Toronto, began with the New Day defending their Titles. Since they're New Day, they were given the time to cut a promo and introduced an actual box of Booty-O's. It was pretty hilarious. They faced King Barrett and Sheamus. It was interesting to see New Day keep the same gimmick but work as faces. It came off perfectly and the teams managed to put on a very solid match. Well, they were faces outside of the distraction that Xavier Woods caused in the end. I liked that the crowd was excited for this, even though most of the build was done off of television. Big E hit Barrett with the Big Ending to retain their Tag Team Titles. Fine opening contest. ***1/4

After a video package recapping the Chris Jericho/AJ Styles rivalry, Jericho came out and badmouthed Styles, Canada and Toronto. He called Styles a "flash in the pan", which reminded him of Jack Swagger, who beat him for the World Title in 2010. It led into a match between Jericho and Swagger. Unless you watch Main Event and Superstars weekly, you haven't seen Swagger in a long time. They worked a solid match that featured some close calls and counter wrestling.To survive the ankle lock. Jericho grabbed the referee's leg and pulled himself to the ropes. He does those little things to help solidify himself as a heel and it's great. Jericho then made Swagger tap out to the Walls. This was a pretty good match where the right guy won and Swagger looked better than he has in months. **3/4

A video package aired to help promote the current NXT Tag Team Champions, the Revival. That was smart since they aren't the most known tandem. However, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady, the challengers, were insanely over. So much for only being popular with the NXT audience. These two teams faced off at TakeOver: London in a match that was much better than expected. We got more of the same here. Though I expected the Revival to win, I bought into the false finishes for Enzo and Cass. Alas, the Revival retained as Enzo and Cass continued to come up short in title matches. Still, this was possibly even better than their TakeOver match and worked as a great showcase for NXT on this big show. The tag division in NXT continue to shine and be vastly improved. ***1/2

Charlotte was supposed to face Natalya in a non-title match. A promo from earlier in the day though, saw Natalya goad Charlotte into putting the title on the line. Both girls are good in the ring but their characters are basically "our dads used to be wrestlers". Literally. Find me another aspect to their gimmicks. Anyway, the match turned out to be very good but not quite on the level of their TakeOver match two years ago. They were given the most time outside of the main event and mostly made it work. The finish was dumb though. Natalya had Charlotte in the Sharpshooter and Charlotte reached to grab Ric. Nattie pulled her to the middle of the ring but let go to argue with Ric. Charlotte rolled her up and retained with her feet on the ropes. Fine match, but really stupid ending that made Natalya look like a buffoon. ***1/4

Originally, we were set to see Brock Lesnar vs. Bray Wyatt but it became a handicap match. They never explained why it was changed but we ended up basically getting Brock vs. Luke Harper. Bray Wyatt stayed outside of the ring and watched as Brock suplexed Harper around the ring. It was a fun little interaction between Harper and Lesnar but I'm not sure where it's going. Are they saving Bray/Brock for something? It can't be for WrestleMania can it? Anyway, Brock won in just over four minutes. I wish Harper got a lengthier outing against Brock since he's the best member of the Wyatt Family but what we got was alright. **1/2

Next up, home country boy Sami Zayn made his WWE live special debut. He took on Stardust in a match featuring two of my five favorite wrestlers on the planet right now. Unfortunately, something happened to this crowd that killed a lot of this match. They chanted for "CM Punk" among other things. It was a damn shame considering the talent involved. The contest itself was pretty good but man, that crowd sucked. Zayn won with the Helluva Kick. I'd like to see them have a better match somewhere down the line. **1/2

The main event was next and the crowd was back to being alright during the course of it. They were surprisingly split in the early goings but Dean Ambrose turned him pretty much fully towards him as the match went on. While I thought their early back and forth was good, it didn't quite fit in with the brawling nature of this program. Ambrose targeted the leg and commentary even brought up his quad injury. Bravo. Dean hit Dirty Deeds and seemed to win but his foot was under the bottom rope. The fans ate this entire thing up. He then made a crucial mistake because he's a madman. He missed an elbow through the announce table and, though he beat the countout, ate a Pedigree and lost. It was a great battle that played the fans like a fiddle. Poor Dean Ambrose has quickly become the Hirooki Goto of the WWE. ****

The first thing I want to commend is the look and feel of the show. Too many WWE shows feel like a copy of a copy but this was different, like the other live Network specials and that's great. The show itself was good too. Nothing on it was what I would consider bad at all. We got two really strong tag team matches, a really good Divas Title match and a great main event. 7/10