[2018-04-27-WWE-Greatest Rumble] Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns

[KawadaSmile]

This was so, so much better than the Wrestlemania match and still had some big flaws.

 

The moves actually MEANT something here, even though that they did resort to finishers right out the gate - 4 German Suplexes and 1 F-5, to be precise. Brock bumping for the Superman Punch was indeed good, and so was Heyman actually interfering in the match when Reigns seemed to have things done. The steel chair beatdown was also cool, and for the first time in this whole feud, Roman FINALLY looked like a contender. It's a shame they made that nearly meaningless.

 

However, things like Roman being the first one trying to escape is some baffling booking. It's not really hard to book him as the guy who would keep things in the ring and would not escape until way later into the match. The cherry on the top was the finish, though. While this whole event felt like a house-show, which meant it was going to be inconsequential, this one match was the one that actually mattered, according to the build WWE made after Wrestlemania.

 

And then... it didn't matter. It was a fuck finish that one would expect in a house show, indeed, but it did not have to be. Roman fails yet again even though his feet touched the floor first. He's done at the moment.

 

 

Overall, an actually good house show match hurt by its own build. Maybe we were expecting a more "legit" treatment, and were therefore setting our expectations too high. Maybe they did build it as legit and failed to book it as such.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

The weakest of their 3 matches, but still a good, fun bombfest. ***

[shodate]

i agree with yaffa here soild three stars id not like the ending though nit made roman the face look dumb ohate the idea of the dumb babyface

[Tetsujin]

Is Reigns gonna get the big underdog treatment... Once again? 'Cause they tried in 2015 and it didn't work, and now that Bryan is back it's going to be even worse.

[cactus]

While this was lacking the blood of their last two encounters, this was still certainly worth a watch. Clocking in at a mere 9 minutes, they get straight into it as both guys throw their biggest bombs at each other.

 

They're never going to capture the magic of their 2015 match, but it's always fun seeing these guys face off, even with the poorly executed cop out finish.

 

★★★¼

[Superstar Sleeze]

I watched this twice once with a friend and once with my brother. I enjoyed this as a bombfest. Efficient lean match. Good progression. I liked the finish a lot as is. Better than envisioned finish with Brock actually landing with his feet first because there is more controversy and Roman has more protection, but still I don't understand the booking of Roman at all. Very good match better than Mania 34 not as good as Mania 31. ***1/2

[Boss Rock]

This wasn't terrible, but barely an improvement over the Mania match. Not as much finisher overkill, but a very paint-by-numbers of a paint-by-numbers Brock match with some cage escape spots. And even if they toned down the finishers a tad, would it kill them to do more than Germans, superman punches, spears, and F-5's? I don't believe a match needs a ton of moves to be good, but this still seemed lazy. And while spearing Brock out of the cage was a cool visual, the finish and explanation was laughable.

 

The booking of Reigns, as draining as it's been, has been one of the greatest unintended comedies in recent memory.

[gordi]

Good progression.

Wait. What?!

 

The match started out with: German Suplex, German Suplex, German Suplex, German Suplex, F5. How do you progress from that? The whole thing was pure dumb big move spamming and chair shots. "Progression" was a clear and obvious weakness of this match. It's the last thing I'd choose to praise about it.