No Mercy 2017

[Superstar Sleeze]

No I agree with you brutha, Brock is the best wrestler not named AJ in WWE. His command of psychology is second to none. He is by far the best big man seller and bumper. He goes out of his way to make people look great in that department. If people are sick of Suplex City that's fine, but to call out Brock's performance in regards to shining Braun up smacks as silly and overly critical. I loved how Brock went for his usual bull-rush, double leg and Braun just STUFFED him and the way Brock sold it was great. Brock kept going to things that usually work and they didn't. The Kimura is something in his back pocket that he busted out of desperation. I was not keen on the pop-up F-5. I would have liked to seen Braun make a mistake then Brock capitalize. Rather than Brock taking a big move from Braun and then hitting F-5. A very good match (~***1/2), but not a great match.

 

I agree Cena/Reigns was disappointingly boring. But it was a boring in a much different way than how Cena matches have been boring recently (spot-spot-spot-no consequence). Cena started selling way too early into the match; the whole build and even the beginning pointed him to being the heel and then he just sold and sold anyways, way too much downtime in between spots. It was boring more in a late 2000s NOAH match way of being boring. More recent Cena stuff is really exposing him and say this as a pretty huge Cena fan. I was shocked at how boring the match was and pretty disappointed. Thought Reigns was great on top for the most part, just to end positively.

[Childs]

I thought Brock gave a fine selling/bumping performance, but he's gotten so lazy on offense that he's lost a lot of the aura he had when he first came back. The Cena and Reigns matches were great (in part) because even the basic strikes he threw were terrifying. But now it's one run of suplex city, maybe a kimura, one F5 and he's out. Joe pushed him into a more rugged, brawling style, but that's not really Braun's bag. I'm shocked anyone thought the Braun match was great. There was genuine excitement for a battle of the titans going in, but they lost that vibe after the first few moments. And the ending was a total wet fart that left both the casuals and the hardcores deflated.

[Microstatistics]

I'll agree the finish was weak but the match had a clear structure/narrative (early Braun domination to the corner arm bump/kimura as the equalizer transition to injured Braun vs. depleted Lesnar back and forth).