PWP Nation’s Bruce Hart talks about WWE Roadblock and the road to WrestleMania 32.
Greetings, everyone.
Like many of you, I took in the “Roadblock” show on the weekend and came away with decidedly mixed perspectives. While I certainly could have done without much of the preliminary card filler – particularly New Day’s boring and lame attempts at comic relief, I found some of the other things on the card were pretty good.
Giving credit where credit is due, Dean Ambrose and Triple H’s match exceeded my expectations. I thought they had a pretty good old school style match, albeit with a few too many false finishes and not enough wrestling to fill the gaps. Overall though, I’d give them both high marks for effort and for keeping it hard fought, real and devoid of artificial additives.
While it was pretty evident at times that Hunter was suffering from ring rust, which was probably why he was having this match in the first place, to prep for his showdown with Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania, I thought he eventually got it together and showed us why he’s called “The Game.” As for Ambrose, he needs to do more actual wrestling and should tighten up some elements of his work, but his stock continues to rise.
The Divas title match between champion, Charlotte, and my niece, Natalya, was, frankly, better than I was expecting. They seemed to have pretty good chemistry, sustained a decent pace and their improvised wrestling was a refreshing change from much of the sterile, over choreographed high spot fests, which most of the so called Divas all too often engage in these days.
Charlotte, much like her father Ric Flair back in the day, seems to be a lot better while wearing the belt than without it and she’s improved by leaps and bounds since they switched her to heel and put the strap on her. Judging by what I’ve seen, it might not be a bad idea to leave the belt on her for a while, especially if Paige’s status is reportedly up in the air.
As for Natalya, while she unfortunately seems to have been reduced, in recent months to undercard status, she put in a solid, inspiring performance. Hopefully, that might result in her stock rising, although, all things considered, I, wouldn’t count on it.
I was originally expecting to see Bray Wyatt take on Brock Lesnar, but, instead, it was changed to a so-called handicap match with Luke Harper and Bray against Brock. Bray didn’t do anything but stay on the tag rope, which brought to mind that old Dire Straits song – “Money for Nothing.” Harper, on the other hand, who’s probably the most underrated guy on the WWE roster these days (with the possible exception of Dolph Ziggler) busted his ass to get Brock over and succeeded in doing that.
While Harper deserves full marks for doing his part, for whatever reason, I didn’t find that the match did much to whet my appetite for Brock’s supposedly highly anticipated showdown at WrestleMania against Dean Ambrose.
I’m, frankly, not sure what the rationale of that whole illogical charade is, but I don’t find it all that entertaining or compelling to envision Brock giving Ambrose twenty or thirty duplexes and probably not even go for a damned pin, while Paul Heyman engages in his usual mundane monologue. Hopefully, for Ambrose’s sake, that (yawn) showdown will exceed my expectations, but at this stage, since the property value in Suplex City seems to be on a steep decline, I wouldn’t really count on it.
Taking into consideration that the ostensible objective of the “Roadblock” show was to have helped set the stage for Wrestlemania 32, and given that one of the major, if not THE major story lines revolves around Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Shane McMahon as well as the Undertaker.
It’s surprising and hard to fathom that none of them were anywhere to be found, nor was there even any reference made during the broadcast to any of them. I have no idea what the ostensible rationale to that might be, but would it not have made sense to have had any or all of them put in an appearance or at least do something to hype that storyline, rather than be wasting our time with frivolous and pointless crap, like Xavier Woods blowing his trombone or other ill-conceived filler?
As you know, I’ve already expressed my skepticism about the thus far illogical and implausible charade with Shane, the Authority, “Taker and whatnot.” Even so, there’s still a lot of intrigue and interest by the fans as to what might transpire with Shane O’Mac, Vince and the others.
By that token, I would have expected them to endeavor to maximize the inherent potential. None of that transpired however and as far as I’m concerned, “Roadblock”, unfortunately, proved to be just as the name implies – not much more than an impediment on the “Road To WrestleMania,” go figure.
Hopefully, the powers that be in the WWE will get their so-called shit together and come up come up with something better in the next week or so than what they’ve already come up with for the big show in Dallas. On that somewhat sardonic note, I’ll call it a wrap for this week, but will look forward to catching up with you next week for more Hart murmurs.
Until then, thanks for reading.
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