Days 10 and 11 2022

 

Day 10

Last Man Standing Undisputed WWE Title Match

Roman Reigns (c) vs. Brock Lesnar

WWE SummerSlam 2022

Batman and Joker. G.I. Joe and Cobra. Mario and Bowser. This is the level WWE put this feud on. Whenever Roman or Brock are champion it’s a guarantee that the other will eventually come knocking. Roman is built as the one true Beast Slayer while Brock is built as the only one that dan knock Reigns down and keep him there. They’ve fought numerous times, in numerous different stipulations, I’m pretty sure this was actually built as the absolute last match between these two but it’s wrestling so that sure as hell won’t stick anyway. 

Things are a little different this time. Usually, Reigns comes in as the Mario and Brock plays the Bowser role. This time however Brock was the face and Roman was heel and steamrolled over everyone up to this point. Things are also different because Brock drives a fucking front loaded tractor to the ring like peak Stone Cold. Then, just for shits he jumps off the Damn thing to start the match. Lunacy. 

Over the past few years Last Man Standing and hardcore matches in WWE have become somewhat bland and repetitive, not here though. This is wild and woolly from the jump and it doesn’t slow for anything. Suplexs all over the place? Check. Table bumps? Check. Roman getting dumped out of the tractor loader? Brock nearly flipping the goddamn ring with the tractor? Check and fucking check. In the chaos the Usos, Austin Theory, and Paul Heyman end up as near causalities.  

Brock and Roman throw just about everything at each other (literally at one point) and neither will stay down. It’s a clash of monsters straight out of a Godzilla flick and it’s awesome! This is like the tenth match between these two and this one manages to stand on its own and stick out from the crowd. Excellent work from both men and the commentators. 

Day 11

Singles Match

Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe 

TNA Genesis 2006

Fun fact, this is the first time I’ve ever watched this match. 

Kurt had debuted for TNA only about a month or so before this PPV while Joe had been spending the past 17 months annihilating anyone and everyone. Kurt immediately gunned for Joe which is just insane looking back. Like he doesn’t start with like LAX or Team Canada, nah right to Jacksonville’s resident human murder machine and one of TNAs stalwarts. No pressure.

To my surprise however this match was mostly Joe being Joe. Olympic gold doesn’t mean shit when you’re being knocked around by a 300 pound Samoan. Joe disregards Kurt’s Olympic glory, and wrestling acumen and basically treats him like one of his X Division sacrifices. Angle, through bloodshed and all, takes everything Joe has including a Muscle Buster and just keeps fighting. 

This is classic, simple pro wrestling and it works wonders. Joe and Kurt are both all time talent and deliver one of TNAs most famous matches. Kurt looked great in his first TNA match while Joe still looked like the killer he had been booked as for the past 17 months and the crowd was in to all of it. Great match.