WWE Clash In Italy Review

It doesn’t happen often, but Clash In Italy is a wrestling pay-per-view that I had to set an alarm for so that I could wake up in time to see it happen live. That’s the kind of thing I could really get used to.

WWE continues to make attempts at total world domination, and today’s show comes to us from the Inalpi Arena in Turin, Italy. This arena was built for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, and was used to host the ice hockey events at those games. The last update I saw said that the show will be completely sold out, and although I haven’t seen numbers for a seating setup, the arena has a full capacity of nearly 17,000 people, so let’s fully expect a rowdy, raucous crowd like the international pay-per-view crowds always are for the company.

It’s time for an early show. Let’s have some fun.

Cody Rhodes vs Gunther – Undisputed WWE Title Match

Sure enough, this crowd is already rocking and rolling. They were even going nuts for the usual “here’s a shot of so-and-so entering the venue earlier today” video package that WWE loves airing on their shows. This could be fun.

Gunther is getting some very good reactions here. His home country of Austria shares a border with Italy, and the work he did on the European independent wrestling scene is fondly remembered by many fans. Loud “let’s go, Gunther” chants to start the match, but Cody is definitely loved, as well. As soon as I type that, we get the singsongy “Codyyyy, Cody Rhoooodesssss” chant.

Facing off with Gunther seems like a terrifying thing. He hits you with some of the stiffest, most violent strikes you’ll ever experience, and then he just casually stalks you around the ring while you writhe around in pain, just so he can hit you again. Then, if you let him get close enough, he’s going to try and choke you out and put you to sleep. There’s no rush. No panic. He’s just looking to hurt you.

Cody already has a handprint on his chest from the aforementioned violent strikes from Gunther. Ouch.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait… Cody just pinned Gunther after Cross Rhodes, but Gunther had his foot under the bottom rope when the count began. By rule, that means the count never should’ve started. It was clearly part of the match, and not a botch by anyone, but it caught everyone off-guard, and I didn’t like it. Even though it was a Cross Rhodes, I don’t think many people expected the match to end right then and there, especially with Gunther right there at the ropes.

The match was fun, even though it didn’t last as long as I expected it to. They were just building up some good momentum, and then we got the silly ending that was surely designed to continue the feud, perhaps at Night Of Champions from Saudi Arabia four weeks from now. I’ve seen some wonder if the rematch is at SummerSlam, but that’s two months away, and it’s asking a lot for WWE to stretch things out that far. I just think there were other ways to reach yet another rematch if that was the plan. Like I said, things were building nicely, and then went flat at the end. It’s not an exact time, but based on occasional glances at my clock, that match went about 10-12 minutes. You can’t give Cody and Gunther that kind of window on pay-per-view. Come on. I’ll still give it 3.5 Stars, though.

Rhea Ripley vs Jade Cargill – WWE Women’s Title Match

I have to admit… I think Rhea’s character has lost of a lot of her on-screen edge. She’s still super over, and she continues to have lots of entertaining matches, but fans didn’t fall in love with her in the first place because she loves everyone and wants to hug them. I don’t think she needs a heel turn, but it would be nice if she returned to the ass-kicking character that she once was.

Jade is controlling the pace in the early stages of the match, and that means things have slowed down a ton. Not a complaint, mind you. The crowd continues chanting for Rhea, waiting for her to make her comeback from this one-sided beating so far, but Jade’s game plan hasn’t changed.

After that slow start, things have really picked up nicely. Jade is working a really good match so far. She seems to have done her homework on her opponent, as she continues to counter and reverse a lot of Rhea’s offense. Rhea just went for a Riptide, but Jade reversed it into a beautiful DDT. The challenger is working her ass off.

LOL @ B-Fab messing up her spot. She and Michin made their way to ringside, and B-Fab was set to grab Jade’s leg to put it on the bottom rope and break up a Rhea pin attempt. Unfortunately, B-Fab failed to grab Jade’s leg on multiple occasions, and the Referee was forced to basically stare at her until she got it right. After all that, he didn’t even kick her out. Charlotte Flair then shows up to fight off B-Fab and Michin, and Charlotte puts Rhea’s foot on the bottom rope to break up a Jade pin attempt.

After all that, Rhea gets another Riptide and gets the pin and the win to retain her title. Really good performance from Jade in what was easily one of the best singles matches of her career. It might have been the longest singles match of her career, too, coming close to the 20-minute mark. She was able to use her power game in the beginning, but once the pace picked up, she didn’t fall behind in the slightest. B-Fab being B-Drab aside, that was very enjoyable from beginning to end. Am I crazy for saying this was 4 Stars?

Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar

Well… here we go. Brock’s surprise retirement at WrestleMania led to Brock’s surprise return a few weeks later, but what was it for? Did he return to lose to Oba for a second straight time, or did he return to hand Oba his first loss on the main roster? Many felt that Oba would be undefeated for a long, long time after being called up from NXT, and it sure looked like things were being set up that way, so for Oba to lose here, even to someone like Brock Lesnar, is going to anger a lot of those people.

The crowd is going wild for Brock, “singing” along with his entrance music. They’re excited to see him. This is, after all, the first time Brock has ever wrestled in Italy, and it’s the first time he has wrestled in Europe, period, since a house show in Germany back in 2003.

Brock starts the match with four consecutive F5 bombs, but Oba kicks out. Wow.

After putting on a Kimura, Oba powers out of it, but Brock hits a fifth F5, and Oba kicks out of that, too. Sheesh. Brock is frustrated.

A sixth F5 puts Oba through the announce table at ringside. Brock gets in the ring and begins to celebrate what he feels will be a countout victory, but Oba stands up like a cyborg and gets back in the ring to break the ten-count. Brock has a look of shock on his face.

Oba takes the offense to Brock, but Brock catches him and hits a seventh F5, which is finally enough for Brock to get the win.

Look… I understand that people are going to be upset about Oba taking a loss here. Ideally, Oba would continue his winning ways, but if… if… you’re going to have Oba lose, that is the perfect way to do it. It took a superhuman effort from a superhuman opponent to topple him. He doesn’t look bad AT ALL in taking a loss here, despite what some of the internet hot takes are going to say.

Now, one has to assume we’re getting the “rubber match” between them, especially with Brock mentioning both men having a victory after the match. Again, Night Of Champions in a mere four weeks away, and SummerSlam is in Brock’s adopted home state of Minnesota, so both shows make sense. While this wasn’t the same type of match as the Rhea vs Jade bout before it, I’m giving it the same 4 Stars rating, because it was a great showcase for what both men are all about, and it was entertaining. Isn’t that what matters? More meat on the bone, so to speak, than their match at WrestleMania, which is why I gave it a higher grade.

Becky Lynch vs Sol Ruca – WWE Women’s Intercontinental Title Match

Jessika Carr is the Referee for this one. Even in the world of kayfabe, what sense does that make? It seems like every time Jessika is the Referee for a Becky match, something crazy happens, so it would be bordering on pure incompetence for Adam Pearce to keep putting those two together.

The crowd is still making a decent enough amount of noise, but nowhere near what they’ve been making for anything else that has happened on the show. There’s only one match left on the card, so they’re saving themselves for the main event.

I don’t know if it’s nerves, but there are still times when it appears Sol is in her own head during her main roster matches. We’ve seen some wonky Sol Snatcher attempts, but she also has some weird transitions from spot-to-spot, almost as if she’s trying to remember what Spot #23 and Spot #24 are, while thinking about Spot #25 and Spot #26 as she’s doing them.

With Sol on the top rope, Becky grabs Jessika Carr’s arm to try and pull her in front as a shield. They have a tug-of-war for a bit, but Jessika pulls away… hitting the top rope and knocking Sol over in the process. Whoops. The crowd has been booing Jessika on multiple occasions during this match, and that isn’t going to help.

Becky goes to attempt a Sol Snatcher of her own, but Sol counters it and hits a Manhandle Slam of her own for a near fall. Fun.

Sol Snatcher! We have a brand new Women’s Intercontinental Champion. I don’t know if that’s a surprise, as the story has been leading to this for a minute, but it’s still wild to see Sol holding a title at such an early stage in her main roster career. The crowd chants “you deserve it” as Sol heads up the aisle and celebrates. She has truly arrived.

While it didn’t reach “great” status, I still think that was a fun match. Sol got to show off her crazy athleticism, and the crowd really appreciated it. 3.5 Stars

Roman Reigns vs Jacob Fatu – Tribal Combat for the WWE World Heavyweight Title

Main event time. There have been a lot of rumors swirling around about Jacob suffering an injury at a house show the other day that put this match in jeopardy, but it appears that things will be proceeding as planned.

The opening bell rings out at the 2:17 mark of the show. Unless this match goes way longer than anyone expects, this appears to be another relatively short WWE pay-per-view effort.

Roman is definitely the favorite here when it comes to crowd reactions, but Jacob is getting some loud chants, as well, early on.

It didn’t take long for these two to take the fight out into the crowd. If you have the Tribal Combat stipulation attached, you might as well take advantage of it. No need for this to end up being a Pure Rules match.

Some people are questioning whether or not Jacob is a heel, but I think we just got the definitive answer. With the crowd chanting that they want tables, Jacob lifts the ring skirt up and goes to grab something from under the ring, but then says “no” and pulls the skirt back down. Not exactly something a face would do, eh?

Roman with the Drive-By Kick, and the back of Jacob’s head bounces off of the ring post with a loud thud. To be fair, though, I think they’ve mic’ed the ring posts differently for this show. Whenever someone hits the posts or the turnbuckles, it sounds like a building imploded.

Jacob likes to use the Tongan Death Grip now, so Roman decides to bash Jacob’s Grip hand with a tool box multiple times. Seems like pretty brilliant strategy to me.

To the surprise of precisely zero people, this isn’t a fast-paced match at all. We all know the Roman formula by now, whether you love it or you hate it… there’s going to be big spots, but there’s also going to be a lot of walking around and trash-talking. Live crowds certainly don’t seem to mind. Roman still gets bigger and greater reactions than anyone else.

Back-to-back Superman Punches, but Jacob no-sells both of them by doing the Boogeyman taunt. This guy is a monster.

Roman hits a Spear that puts Jacob through a table that was set up in the corner, causing the table to explode in a million pieces, but Jacob gets back to his feet first. It’s just the setup for Roman to hit another Spear, though, and this time, it’s enough to get the win. Roman is still the World Heavyweight Champion, and he’s still the Tribal Chief.

Another fun match between these two. It was similar to their match at Backlash, where Roman hit Jacob with everything he had, but Jacob kept coming back time and time again until he could no longer take it. I’m not sure where Jacob goes from here, but it would be pretty easy for the company to make him a World Champion in the future. 4 Stars.

After the match, Roman and The Usos are making their way to the back when they spot Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga, and Talla Tonga in the crowd. Roman says that those guys are “next.” Please, God, no. Nobody wants that.

We go off the air with Roman talking trash in the aisle way as The Usos try to get Jacob to walk away with the group.

When 3.5 Stars is the “worst” match grade, I’d say it’s a pretty good show. I’m not sure it’s something that you’re going to remember and talk about years from now, but it was a good way to spend a three-hour chunk on a Sunday afternoon.