[2017-09-24-WWE-No Mercy] Roman Reigns vs John Cena

[GOTNW]

This was a weird match. The beginning was worth like they were building a proper match with a narrative and proper control segments, with Reigns just dominating Cena, working at a slower pace while Cena was too focused on playing to the crowd and got cut off over and over again. Eventually it just turned into a WWE workrate wankfest, as predictable as ever. If you’ve seen Cena matches like this before you could basically call half the spots, the Diving Legdrop into the Powerbomb, the Five Knuckle Shuffle cut-off followed by a proper one later in the match where Cena does a Fist Drop straight away instead of running the ropes and a billion finishers. To met these Cena matches are in the same vein as the Omega/Okada matches that have been getting a bunch of buzz-I don’t really think the *wrestling* in them is very good, but they do offer something in the flash, big spots and buzz they generate. I did like the executions of many of the spots like the Shoulder Tackle>Punch counter and Reigns was really good at convincing you he was gonna hit a Clothesline, punch or whatever and was not just setting up for an AA or whatever. And I loved the finish, Reigns just hitting a quick 1-2 combo was masterful. Still, for a workrate match like this to be anything more than an itsy bitsy fun watch while you grab a snack you’d want it to not just be spamming big moves and sequences in predictable fashion (is there anyone who didn’t see Reigns hitting a Spear once Cena cleared both tables? or the AA counter to the Spear? or the last ten matches where the same “Big Match” structure has been beaten to death so much), that’s sub-1998 All Japan guys sleepwalking through a Korauken 6 man tag effort. ***

[ShittyLittleBoots]

A BIG MATCH JOHN epic w/ a bunch of AA kickouts & all. I enjoyed it. Thought it was good & that it worked better vs. Reigns than it has worked vs. many other people. ***

[Kadaveri]

It was alright but pretty forgettable. I'm really not a fan of the WWE style of opening straight into long heel heat segments as has been discussed elsewhere the babyface getting no shine leaves you not that invested in his comeback. Things were competently executed so I'll give them that, but layout of the match turned quickly into rushed and meaningless finisher-spam. I found it quite egregious that Roman kicked out of the rolling double AA in his first meeting with Cena, considering Cena only invented the move last January as a new super-weapon to finally beat AJ Styles and nobody's kicked out of it since so it had an aura to it. That's a move that shouldn't be kicked out of until it's really earned. **1/2