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Sunday, October 16, 2016

The Rundown Slam: WWE No Mercy

10/15/2016 02:19:24 AM



It's kinda strange to see the order of how things took place at Sacramento, California, during the staging of the WWE's second Smackdown Live-exclusive pay-per-view event called WWE No Mercy. They kicked off with a main event and end the night with a supposedly-main event show but seemingly not enough to be tagged as one.

Yes, it all started with the WWE World Championship triple threat match between AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose and John Cena. And while everyone has paid their dues well in the match, it either sent a message to RAW to set the pace higher or just degraded the quality of this championship.

Perhaps, it's more of the competition angle; to think that SD Live has been running wild since Battleground.


And funny how Styles retorted to a chair to finish the event; says a lot storytelling-wise. Plus the segment where both Cena and Ambrose made Styles tapped but wasn't declared a finish might say there is more to this feud after the evening.

Nikki Bella defeated Carmella in what has been a sweet revenge for the former since returning to the WWE after SummerSlam. I think this us what a fitting comeback should've ever been. The problem is that she was also one of the hopefuls for the women's championship so that return-with-a-bang story was pushed a bit off-and-later.


But at least she stayed fearless and with a better finisher – the rack attack 2.0! (Earlier before the screenshot above, though.)

Heath Slater and Rhyno still being the tag team champions means they might build The Usos as the show's perennial heels in the tag team division. At least, they are taking the beauty and the man-beast very seriously. But you have to wonder: what's next for them – especially for Heath?


Not a bad match at all.

Once again, Baron Corbin was on top of the game in this duel with Jack Swagger. And it's no surprise at all, with the former's submission loss to the latter during that Smackdown Live episode. He is poised to be the bigger threat in this show soon, though Swag still has it.

Dolph Ziggler is an obvious handpicked winner in this career versus title match against then-Intercontinental Champion The Miz. No way he's gonna retire soon no matter how many social media “farewell” posts to hype everything up.


Still, these two has made everything in the script as believable as it gets. They should've been put in the main event spot. With the back-and-forth action, counter-after-counter, outside-the-squared circle shenanigans that eventually led to ejections, man, is there anything that displayed beautiful storytelling than Dolph Ziggler and The Miz?

No question: Match of the evening; and more importantly – at the honor roll for 2016!

And perhaps, more of the Daniel Bryan-Miz feud coming. This is just the first wave no matter how many you have seen them argue in months. Heck, it may be a new star or just Zig as champ as the second unit.

While Becky Lynch was declared out-of-action for the evening, I had a strange feeling that Alexa Bliss has been taken a step back (if not buried) by Naomi in their impromptu match. Hey, I thought she was supposed to be the top contender for the woman's division? And are we seeing Naomi doing the foil just weeks after her formal face turn?


That seems confusing to me. And the ample time given them to wrestle made them literally a bathroom break match by length. You're lucky if you hadn't go to the loo that time to see how Alexa Bliss could be a foil to Lynch once their title match takes place. But again, while she exhibits her strength, the loss was a shocker yet bummer.

Bray Wyatt defeated Rany Orton is a somewhat short-but-supposedly-swift storytelling match in the main event. Their mind games speaks for the the PPV name itself. The problem is it felt lacking at some point no matter how many counter they try to take.


And I think the RKO attempt-into-a-Luke Harper appearance just salvaged the match at its entirety.

No Mercy was a solid good show. But I guess experimentation on booking hasn't really done totally good on this. They pre-hyped everything with a world title match, injected the much main event deserving contest midway, and a main event that made me felt off for a while – mostly.

May be unconventional conpated to the typical McMahonish (as Romeo Moran of Smark Henry describes it) but has taken another inch (just a thin one) higher than Clash of Champions.

The Verdict: 7.1

Author: slickmaster | © 2016 september twenty-eight productions

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