Written by Matthew Widdis
This was a tough call. While Chris Jericho vs. Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12 was momentous, the real impact was the reveal of Jericho wrestling outside of WWE for the first time since the Monday Night Wars. Charlotte defending the Smackdown Women’s Championship against Asuka’s undefeated streak not only stole the show at Wrestlemania, it also made people wonder if women could main event a Wrestlemania and if Charlotte, a gal, could/should/would be “The Guy.”
But, if I’m being honest, it was the pre-Elimination Chamber gauntlet match on Monday Night RAW that made me happiest to be a wrestling fan.
Monday Night RAW, often seen as the “three-hour chore” by some fans, broke its own mold and went wrestling heavy with a two hour match to start the show. Reportedly booked by Vince McMahon himself, It gave fans exactly what they wanted and, through the ratings, proved that wrestling fans actually do care about wrestling. Perhaps to pay lip service to the cacophony of boos that accompanied both men at the time, Roman Reigns and John Cena were the first eliminated and it was done so in a showcase for Seth Rollins.
Mr. Monday Night has great chemistry with the Big Dog who, despite some opinions, is a damn fine worker in his own right and put his pal over in a good match. Cena did the same, at one point allowing himself to be thrown up onto Rollins’ shoulders in a display of strength and AA’d before taking a recently un-banned curb stomp. These first two matches displayed Seth Rollins athleticism, versatility, and strength, and did so under extreme conditions as The Architect went 65 minutes. This means that Seth Rollins ran over half of the longest match in WWE history and went over both the chosen son and the golden idol while doing so.
The rest of the match gave us promising upstart Elias sending Seth off to take a breather, the never-beaten WWE Universal Champion Finn Balor pinning The Drifter, The Miz (perhaps the greatest heel of this generation) using his Miztourage to get over on Finn, and ending the marathon by getting monsterhandled by Braun Strowman to send the fans into hour #3. Vincent Kennedy McMahon had booked a match for RAW in 2018 with Roman Reigns and John Cena getting a half hour of ring time each… and we all loved it. It’s wrestling where the only thing for sure is that nothing is for certain.
