Hiya!

I believe it’s about time the WWE think about changing their naming of their yearly European pay-per-view excursions. There was some good alliteration when it was called Clash at the Castle. Sure, they weren’t held in castles but it was still a fun naming convention. This year, the event was done in France and, forgive me but my geography skills are really poor, the WWE figured out there aren’t any castles in the country. So, they just named it Clash in Paris. I’m sorry but that’s just a lame name! Maybe call it Fight in France as that would be alliteration as well?

Anyway, let’s go check out what happened during *ugh* Clash in Paris.

The 1st match of the night saw Roman Reigns take on Bronson Reed. I had really high hopes for this match as, although he has been featured very prominently even since aligning himself with Seth Rollins, Bronson Reen hasn’t really been featured in a big match. If this is the match the WWE thought was going to make him the next big thing, they got it wrong. Functionally, there wasn’t really anything wrong with the match. Reed did look strong as he dominated the majority of the match. The problem is it felt plodding, with some short bursts of good action but not enough to make the waiting between spots worth it.

Speaking of spots, some of the good ones were Reed ducking under Reigns’ superman punch and turning it into a gorgeous looking death valley driver, Bronson no-selling Roman’s spear and connecting with a Batista Bomb for a 2-count and Reigns performing an avalanche samoan drop on Reed.

The finish of the match came after Reigns hit the aforementioned avalanche samoan drop. The OTC hit his spear finisher to get the pinfall victory. Things didn’t end there, however. Reigns celebrated by standing on the announcer’s table and Paul Heyman, who came in with Bronson Reed, tried to console his cohort. Reigns then noticed this and started to taunt Heyman. Heyman then returned the shoes Bronson Reed took from Reigns (long story) but that wasn’t enough to appease Roman. Roman locked in a guillotine on Heyman, knocking out his former advocate.

Things still weren’t over! Reigns started to celebrate even more but Bron Breakker, who is also allied with Bronson Reed and Seth Rollins, came out of the crowd and speared Roman through the announcer’s table! Breakker and Reed then beat down on Reigns but Jey Uso rushed out to try to save his cousin. This was all for naught as the numbers game caught up with Jey and Bron and Bronson also beat down on him and even hurting him badly enough so that he might not be able to participate later on in his match. By the end of it all, Reigns had to be taken out on a stretcher… but Bronson Reed hit one more Tsunami splash before Reigns was finally stretchered out.

The entire segment, from the entrances to Reigns getting carried out took around 50 minutes! That’s just too long! I guess the match did showcase Bronson Reed’s capabilities but there were too many moments where they just did nothing but taunt the crowd, gravely slowing down what should have been a much more high octane match between two behemoths. Then they had that overly long segment after the match? It just felt like the WWE didn’t know when to just end things and, ultimately, making me dislike how much time this ate up.

The 2nd match of the night saw Wyatt Sicks members Joe Gacy and Dexter Lumis defending their Smackdown Tag Team Championships against Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford, the Street Profits. I understand the WWE wants those advertising dollars but having the Street Profits come out in masks from the Borderlands games doesn’t suit them! It just made them look like sellouts. Anyway, some of the memorable moments saw Gacy and Lumis hitting consecutive legdrops and elbow drops after connecting with an almost Hart Attack type of double team move on Ford, Montez getting the hot tag after he hit a suplex on Joe onto the ring apron (the hardest part of the ring!), Dawkins leaping over the top rope with a spinning splash onto the Wyatt Sicks team, Gacy doing a back suplex to Dawkins and sending him to Lumis who hit Angelo with a neckbreaker and Dawkins hitting an electric chair and blockbuster combo on Gacy.

The finish came after Montez Ford tried to hit a big splash to Joe Gacy but Gacy rolled out of the way. Gacy then grabbed his partner and tossed Lumis onto a prone Ford. Lumis went for the pin but Angelo Dawkins used a northern light suplex to toss Gacy into Lumis, breaking up the pin. Gacy missed a springboard moonsault as Dawkins rolled to the outside. Dawkins then tackled Gacy into the ring barricade but then came face-to-face with Erick Rowan, which distracted Dawkins long enough for Lumis to blindside him. Ford retaliated by catapulting himself over the ring post and into Rowan and Lumis! Ford tossed Lumis into the ring but, as he tried to climb back in himself, Nikki Cross, who hid under the ring, grabbed Ford’s foot, stopping him. This allowed Uncle Howdy to hit his Sister Abigail on Ford while Lumis distracted the official. The Wyatt Sicks then got the pinfall victory by hitting their Plague finisher, which had Lumis suplex Ford into Gacy and transitioned it into a sitout powerbomb. The Wyatt Sicks are still your Smackdown Tag Team Champions.

This was a really good match with some really interesting spots. It’s also great to see The Wyatt Sicks be fully utilized to show how they’re a threat, not because they’re spooky, but because they work well together. They once again hinted at the Street Profits breaking up and I just wish they would either pull the trigger or show them get an epiphany and start working well again because this is getting old.

The next match had Becky Lynch defending the Women’s Intercontinental Championship against the returning Nikki Bella. I haven’t made it a secret regarding how much I dislike Nikki Bella in the past and, after all these years, nothing has changed. In fact, it’s slightly elevated because I cannot fathom why she is getting a title shot at all when there are so many others like who deserve a push like Candace LeRae, Nikki Cross and Kairi Sane, just to name a few. Even so, I will give credit where credit is due as Nikki Bella took some hard hits, such as a superplex. Still, she did some really dumb spots like going for a springboard enziguri without checking if Becky was even close to the move and where she slammed Becky’s head into alternating announcer’s tables. It didn’t look as cool as you would think it should! To be fair, there were actual cool spots, like the aforementioned superplex spot, Nikki hitting an electric chair to Becky and Lynch’s face getting slammed into the steel steps with a facebuster from Bella.

The finish came after Lynch blocked Bella’s Rack Attack finisher only to eat her own finisher the Manhandle Slam, which Nikki co-opted for a 2-count. Nikki then tried to lock Becky’s own Dis-Arm-Her submission finisher but Lynch managed to roll her opponent on her back to get the 3-count and retain her Women’s Intercontinental Championship.

Despite me giving some praise to Nikki Bella, this was still a rather boring match. The spots I mentioned were okay but nothing I’m going to remember in the future. This also seemed like a downgrade from Becky Lynch’s more recent matches as there just wasn’t any bite. Oh, I also believe the WWE fully expected for the live crowd to cheer on the returning Nikki Bella. Well, it looks like the French crowd was on the right side of history as they fully backed Becky Lynch here! Nice to know I’m not the only one who dislikes Nikki Bella as there’s a whole country of wrestling fans who feel the same way!

The next match of the night had Sheamus go against Rusev in a Good Ol’ Fashioned Donnybrook match. Usually, I would complain how the WWE is going out of its way to try to not call this match a No DQ match. This is different as calling it a Good Ol’ Fashioned Donnybrook does allow the ludicrous idea of having things like a bar and barrels surrounding the ringside, which both came into play, by the way. This was a really hard-hitting match with some impressive hits, with or without the props. Some of the bigger spots had Rusev hitting Sheamus with the Celtic Warrior’s own Ten Beat of the Bodhran, Sheamus getting kicked while kneeling and asking for more, the Bulgarian Brute slamming Sheamus through the aforementioned bar and, of course, Sheamus performing White Noise to Rusev after climbing some barrels and sending him through tables!

The finish came after Sheamus clocked Rusev with a Brogue Kick while the Bulgarian Brute tried to hit him with his own shillelagh. He only got a 2-count, surprisingly. Sheamus went for another Brogue Kick but Rusev ducked it and connected with his Matcha Kick in the throat, stunning Sheamus. Rusev then took the shillelagh and stuck Sheamus in the back so hard, it broke! Rusev then locked on a modified version of his Accolade finisher by using the broken shillelagh as a grip on Sheamus’ mouth and wrenching back much harder than normal. This actually led to Sheamus tapping out, giving the victory to Rusev.

This was a fun match to watch! While I know a lot of the attention will go to the gimmicky spots, it was actually the in-ring storytelling that made it work for me. These weren’t two guys fighting for a title. No, they just hated each other’s guts and wanted to beat the snot out of each other! This makes the overall brutality much more substantial that just being brutal for brutality’s sake.

The next match of the night had John Cena take on Logan Paul. I’m really glad John Cena has reverted back to a face because the WWE wasn’t really handling his heel run all that well. This is one of the reasons why I was looking forward to this match. Another reason is, despite what you may think of Logan Paul, he is able to put on a really good wrestling match. Pairing him with John Cena just seems like a stroke of genius and it definitely showed here. Some of the highlights of the match saw John Cena uncharacteristically doing a monkey flip but Logan Paul landed on his feet, Paul performing a delayed vertical suplex to Cena, Cena reversing Logan’s buckshot lariat and turning it into an End of Days like move, Paul connecting with a Cesaro-styled pop-up european uppercut, Logan trying to do Cena’s own Five Knuckle Shuffle but Cena popped up and his an Attitude Adjustment for a 2-count and Cena hitting, of all things, a hurracarana and a code red to Paul!

The finish came after The Maverick actually hit Cena’s Five Knuckle Shuffle on his opponent and he went for an Attitude Adjustment. Cena managed to counter and reversed it into a Styles Clash for a 2-count! Cena hoisted Paul onto the turnbuckles and set up for an avalanche version of an Attitude Adjustment. Logan pushed Cena off and attempted a crossbody but Cena rolled through the move and picked Paul up into an Attitude Adjustment. Just to make sure, he tried another but Logan got out of the move and hit Cena with his “titanium” fist. Cena, however, bounced off the ropes, ducked under another “titanium” fist and connecting with another Attitude Adjustment to finally get the pinfall victory!

This was a brilliant match! I will say I do think Logan Paul was in control for too long but I get it because you do want to showcase all the stuff the guy can do in the ring. Seeing John Cena doing other moves from the wrestlers he’s faced throughout his years wasn’t something I would see here. The finish was a little bit simplistic but it worked because of the overall level of intensity was high.

The final match of the night was a Fatal-Four Way for the grandest prize on the RAW brand: the World Heavyweight Championship. This saw Seth Rollins trying to fend off CM Punk, the battered Jey Uso and LA Knight. This did feel like your more standard WWE Fatal-Four Way with the participants generally rotating in and out of the ring. They did have all 4 participants come in and do stuff at the same time later on but, because of all the subbing in, this felt a little bit slower than it should have been. There were some fun spots, like Jey and Knight hitting dual punches on Rollins with all the prerequisite “yeet” and “yeah” chants, Jey paying back CM Punk with a superkick from the start of the match when they were teaming up to smash Rollins through a table, the entire brawl in the outside with Knight and Punk seemingly popping out from nowhere to beat on Seth Rollins, that entire run with LA Knight wrecking havoc on the other competitors, the Tower of Doom spot with CM Punk, LA Knight, Jey Uso and Punk gently cracking the table when he got nudged by LA Knight and LA Knight sending himself through the announce table to try a big elbow to Rollins, to name a few.

The finish after Punk hit his GTS finisher to Jey but Rollins broke up the pinning attempt with a Curb Stomp. Seth went for the pin on Punk but the Second City Savior kicked out. Rollins then went ballistic and hit a Curb Stomp on Jey Uso and LA Knight on the outside, leaving him alone to face CM Punk. The Visionary set up Punk’s head onto a chair and went for a Curb Stomp but Punk avoided the move. This led to Rollins jamming his foot on the chair and stunning him enough for Punk to hit his GTS finisher.

Rollins reeled back, bounced off the ropes and his unconscious body draped himself over CM Punk’s shoulders, perfectly in the position for another GTS. Just as CM Punk went for the 2nd GTS to end the match, a hooded figure rushed from the crowd and lowblowed Punk. The hooded figure then took off the mask and it was Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins’ wife! Punk then crawled towards Lynch but this put him in the perfect position for Seth Rollins to hit his Curb Stomp finisher, which he did. Seth gets the pinfall victory and retaining RAW’s biggest prize as he celebrated with his wife by his side.

This was an above average match for me. It started out kind of slow for my taste as it took them a while to really get the ball moving with getting everyone involved at the same time. I do like the finish as adding Becky Lynch to the mix opens the door for CM Punk to call on his own wife, AJ Lee, for backup. I pray to god this is true because AJ Lee is one of my favorite women’s wrestlers of all time and I was rather upset when she left. I would just love to see her in a WWE ring one more time!

Overall, despite the dumb name, I do think Clash at Paris was a general success. Match of the night definitely goes to John Cena vs. Logan Paul for some surprisingly creative moves on Cena’s part. Besides the one involving Nikki Bella, all of the matches had something going for it.

Byee!

What did you think of Clash at Paris? Should the WWE go back to booking their European pay-per-views in countries with castles again? Let me know in the comments section below!