WWE Day 1 2022 Post Examination

WWE Day 1 2022

Atlanta, Georgia—State Farm Arena

January 1, 2022

The Usos Def. The New Day

Was anyone clamoring for this match AGAIN?  These guys are all great as teams and on individual level, so their evergreen pairings can only make a fan apathetic to seeing another goddamn outing.  The agenting of WWE matches are such an acquired taste—why have Woods do the ol’ sleeping off camera bit in his hometown, and if that wasn’t bad enough, he loses on top of it and never comes to the rescue?!  ★★

RKO Bro Def. Street Profits 

I laughed when Riddle seemed so genuinely fucking psyched that Randy helped him with an assisted backflip onto whatshisface.  ★★

Drew McIntyre Def. Madcap Moss

Admittedly, I haven’t caught an episode of Smackdown in months so this was my first time encountering Madcap, so the dad jokes didn’t muster the turn-the-channel heat like it would for some hardcores.  So why would a guy who is written (through no fault of his own) like someone that could be released in a heap with 18 others after Mania get ten minutes with a protected guy like Drew?  ★

Edge Def. The Miz

Why did Edge have two entrances songs?  These guys can do the simplistic so easy that the crowd bought the false finish of Edge missing the spear and eating a loaded purse.  The Miz is stupid, so he waited for 90 seconds for Edge to recover whilst having amnesia about the consequences of avoiding a distraction-from-music finish like he’s used to his advantage hundreds of times before to lose.  ★★

Becky Lynch Def. Liv Morgan

TV match that landed too long as opposed to epic.  Liv had a strong false-finish with the sunset-flip powerbomb.  Becky’s overacting to two counts as if this match was on the scale of Triple H/Taker end of an era was unearned.  ★★

Brock Lesnar Def. Big E, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and Bobby Lashley 

Forget the documentary about superfan Vladimir, do one about Brock’s front row of teeth!  This whole match was bonkers, feeling like an elongated go-home stretch of a multi-man match.  The shocked reaction of the crowd and announcers from Lashley spearing Lesnar through the barricade was irksome, as if that spot hadn’t been done to Brock as much as Andre had been tied up in the ropes, but there was a nice callback to it in a false finish with Lashley spearing Brock after Lesnar had F5’d the rest of the crew.  Brock goes over, completely throwing for a loop whatever plans they had for WrestleMania out the window.  ★★★

Post Examination: 

We’re going to WrestleMania this year so we all will be following the product more closely than we had these past few years and I came into this show with a blank slate and tried to erase Survivor Series from my memory.  That being said, I don’t see how this show in the future could be considered a premier event on the scale of yesteryears Big 5 PPVs.  Roman’s diagnosis of Covid undoubtedly changed creative plans—and we obviously wish him well with no-long-term effects—but the rest of the card was filler like New Year’s Revolution, Roadblock, Fastlane, No Way Out, Elimination Chamber and all the other PPVs between the Rumble and Mania.  

There are fresh matchups with Brock on the Raw side of the roster.  A Mania night one main event of Brock vs. Big E would have worked perfectly fine if Big E didn’t lose as champ constantly.  So it's the dream match from 2007 instead, Brock vs. Lashley?  Or do they do title for title in Brock vs. Roman?  We’ll be watching!  

All photos courtesy of WWE.com